OBJECTIVE
To assess the prevalence of HLA-B27 and its subtypes in both the normal population and in patients with Ankylosing Spondylitis (AS) in Galicia, Northwest Spain.

METHODS
The prevalence of HLA-B27 in the normal population was determined by checking the number of HLA-B27 positive samples in 308 subjects from different areas of Galicia who had donated organs over a period of 4 years. A total of 106 patients with the diagnosis of AS, according to the modified New York clinical criteria for definitive ankylosing spondylitis, were collected from three very representative areas of Galicia. HLA-B27 was determined by PCR using the primers E91s and E136as, while 11 subtypes of HLA-B27 were analyzed using a commercial kit.

RESULTS
The prevalence of HLA-B27 in organ donors was 9.34%. HLA-B27 was present in 94.3% of patients with AS. Subtypes B*2701, B*2709 and B*2710 were not found. The subtypes found in the normal population were; B*2705 (79.5%), B*2702 (18%) and B*2708 (2.5%). The subtypes associated with AS were B*2705 (88%) and B*2702 (12%).

CONCLUSION
The prevalence of HLA-B27 in Galicia was 9.34%, which is higher than previously published in Spain. The frequency of the subtypes associated with AS was similar to that reported for other Spanish regions.


Levosimendan is a new vasodilator agent with properties which improve cardiac contractility by calcium sensitization. Its dose-related efficacy and prolonged action have been documented in several major studies both against placebo and dobutamine. Out of 997 patients, 837 (84%) had acute or stable heart failure due to coronary heart disease. Therefore, it would be most interesting to analyze the efficacy and safety of levosimendan in heart failure due to ischemic heart disease. The dose-finding study included 98 patients who were given intravenous levosimendan at different doses and 20 patients treated with dobutamine. All patients had heart failure due to coronary heart disease. The other major trial included 500 acute myocardial infarction patients with heart failure and was placebo-controlled. In other levosimendan vs placebo or dobutamine comparative trials 50-60% of patients had ischemic heart disease and severe heart failure. Levosimendan significantly improves the cardiac index by 30-39% at bolus doses of 6-24 micrograms/kg/min followed by infusion doses of 0.05-0.2 microgram/kg/min and reduces the wedge pressure by 20-25% to optimal levels (from 15-20 mmHg). There is a lesser blood pressure reduction and some heart rate increase. However in patients with an acute myocardial infarction the rate of ischemia or hypotension were similar in levosimendan- and placebo-treated patients and in the dobutamine controlled trials no major adverse effects were seen or they were more frequent in dobutamine patients. There is no increase in mortality either compared to placebo or to dobutamine. Rather, the opposite seems to be true. No increase in arrhythmias is seen. The hemodynamic effects of levosimendan are dose-dependent and the current recommended doses are safe. No increase in mortality or any life-threatening arrhythmias have been observed.


Code retrieval techniques and tools have been playing a key role in facilitating software developers to retrieve existing code fragments from available open-source repositories given a user query (e.g., a short natural language text describing the functionality for retrieving a particular code snippet). Despite the existing efforts in improving the effectiveness of code retrieval, there are still two main issues hindering them from being used to accurately retrieve satisfiable code fragments from large-scale repositories when answering complicated queries. First, the existing approaches only consider shallow features of source code such as method names and code tokens, but ignoring structured features such as abstract syntax trees (ASTs) and control-flow graphs (CFGs) of source code, which contains rich and well-defined semantics of source code. Second, although the deep learning-based approach performs well on the representation of source code, it lacks the explainability, making it hard to interpret the retrieval results and almost impossible to understand which features of source code contribute more to the final results. To tackle the two aforementioned issues, this paper proposes MMAN, a novel Multi-Modal Attention Network for semantic source code retrieval. A comprehensive multi-modal representation is developed for representing unstructured and structured features of source code, with one LSTM for the sequential tokens of code, a Tree-LSTM for the AST of code and a GGNN (Gated Graph Neural Network) for the CFG of code. Furthermore, a multi-modal attention fusion layer is applied to assign weights to different parts of each modality of source code and then integrate them into a single hybrid representation. Comprehensive experiments and analysis on a large-scale real-world dataset show that our proposed model can accurately retrieve code snippets and outperforms the state-of-the-art methods.


The present study was conducted to estimate relative heterosis, heterobeltiosis and standard
heterosis of cross components in rice genotypes under sodicity. All three types of heterosis were
worked out through diallel analysis of 30 hybrids developed by crossing six parents to know the
genetic architecture of 14 physio-morphological traits viz., days to 50 percent flowering, plant
height, number of productive tillers per plant, panicle length, number of filled grains per panicle,
spikelet fertility percentage, 100 grain weight, single plant yield, dry root weight, dry shoot weight,
root: shoot ratio, Na+: K+ ratio, chlorophyll content and proline content under sodic environment.
On perusal of data for hybrids based on per se, sca effects and standard heterosis, five hybrids
viz., FL 478 / IW Ponni, IW Ponni / IR 64, IW Ponni / BPT 5204, BPT 5204 / FL 478, IW Ponni / FL
478 were found to be suitable for heterosis breeding under sodicity. As there was dominance
gene action involved, inter se mating followed by recombination breeding might be advocated
for improvement of yield, its components and physiological traits under sodicity


Transparent and flexible UV sensors have attracted considerable attention for use in portable/wearable optoelectronic systems. Although UV sensors based on photoactive nanomaterials have been reported for such applications, achieving full transparency and flexibility remains a challenge because they still rely on opaque or brittle electrodes. Here, a fully transparent, flexible, and highly sensitive UV sensor based on 1D carbon nanotubes (CNTs)–2D graphene hybrid is demonstrated. Under UV illumination, oxygen molecules on the CNT surfaces are desorbed by photoinduced plasmon energy, leading to a significant decrease in hole concentration, and correspondingly an increase in the electrical resistance of CNT. The combination of CNT and graphene minimizes the effect of contact resistance and facilitates effective charge transfer between them without potential barrier, resulting in a high photoresponse, which is 30 times as high as that of Au‐electrode‐based CNT sensor. Simultaneously, CNT–graphene UV sensor shows remarkable transparency (over 80% at 550 nm) and outstanding mechanical flexibility without any significant change in electrical resistance for 500 cycles at a bending radius of 5.5 mm. The integration of CNT–graphene hybrid onto flexible substrates through scalable microfabrication is expected to provide exciting opportunities for the development of high performance, optically and mechanically invisible optoelectronic devices.


This study aims at investigating print news discourses on a relatively recent act of violence perpetrated on women in India, which evoked a nation-wide non-violent protest, popularly known as "The Pink Chaddi" Campaign, 2009. We considered some of the top English national and local daily newspapers (online editions) for analyses; using advanced computer-assisted qualitative data analysis software (CAQDAS) called Leximancer v3.5. We aimed to explore the frames in the news discourse through intra-media analyses, and perform comparative inter-media analyses between nationaland local newspaper corpora. The "concept maps" produced by Leximancer v3.5, in the unsupervised-mode, threw light on the nature of the news discourse on the Campaign. We found slight evidence that some of the newspapers tried to downplay the VAW and took a detour towards political blame-game. These results somewhat reflected the results of Caputi et al. (1992), O"Connor (2002) and Wetschanow (2003).


Virtual enterprises (VEs) enable the deployment of distributed business processes among different partners to support shortened development and manufacturing cycles, reduced time to market, increased customer satisfaction and global operation and reach. Dynamic VEs are an emerging category of VEs, where the different partners are selected dynamically during business process execution based on market-driven criteria and negotiation. In this paper, we discuss concepts and technologies that are considered to satisfy key requirements of dynamic virtual enterprises, and propose DIVE (Dynamic Intelligent Virtual Enterprises), a framework for the specification, execution and management of shared business processes in dynamic VEs.


The present paper provides information on the chemical composition and role of the main clay minerals and inorganic substances in the pharmaceutical industry. Clay minerals have become an important type of pharmaceutical raw materials, due to their various uses, ranging from use as miraculous soils with anti-inflammatory, analgesic and revitalizing effects to the use as drug carriers. Zeolite clays are currently regarded as being high technology materials with multiple biomedical applications. The research on silicate zeolites brings more and more unexpected results which are of great interest for the development of modified release drug-delivery systems. Therefore, zeolite clays should be considered materials that could shape the future.


The objective of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of cutting balloon angioplasty (CBA) for the treatment of in‐stent restenosis prior to intracoronary brachytherapy (ICB). Cutting balloon angioplasty may reduce the incidence of uncontrolled dissection requiring adjunctive stenting and may limit "melon seeding" and geographic miss in patients with in‐stent restenosis who are subsequently treated with ICB. We performed a retrospective case‐control analysis of 134 consecutive patients with in‐stent restenosis who were treated with ICB preceded by either CBA or conventional balloon angioplasty. We identified 44 patients who underwent CBA and ICB, and 90 control patients who underwent conventional percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) and ICB for the treatment of in‐stent restenosis. Adjunctive coronary stenting was performed in 13 patients (29.5%) in the CBA/ICB group and 41 patients (45.6%; P < 0.001) in the PTCA/ICB group. There was no difference in the injury length or active treatment (ICB) length. The procedural and angiographic success rates were similar in both groups. There were no statistically significant differences in the incidence of death, myocardial infarction, recurrent angina pectoris, subsequent target lumen revascularization, or the composite endpoint of all four clinical outcomes (P > 0.05). Despite sound theoretical reasons why CBA may be better than conventional balloon angioplasty for treatment of in‐stent restenosis with ICB, and despite a reduction in the need for adjunctive coronary stenting, we were unable to identify differences in clinical outcome. Catheter Cardiovasc Interv 2004;63:152–157. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


"Many persons have such a horror of being taken in," wrote P. T. Barnum, "that they believe themselves to be a sham and are continually humbugging themselves." Mark Twain enjoyed trading on that horror, as the many confidence men, assumed identities, and disguised characters in his fiction attest. In Dark Twins, Susan Gillman challenges the widely held assumption that Twain's concern with identity is purely biographical and argues that what has been regarded as a problem of individual psychology must be located instead within American society around the turn of the century. Drawing on Twain's whole writing career, but focusing on the controversial late period of social "pessimism" and literary "incoherence," Gillman situates Twain and his work in historical context, demonstrating the complex interplay between his most intimate personal and authorial identity and the public attitudes toward race, gender, and science. Gillman shows that laws regulating race classification, paternity, and rape cases underwrite Twain's critical exploration of racial and sexual difference in the writings of the 1890s and after, most strikingly in the little-known manuscripts that Gillman calls the "tales of transvestism." The "pseudoscience" of spiritualism and the "science" of psychology provide the cultural vocabularies essential to Twain's fantasy and science fiction writings of his last two decades. Twain stands forth finally as a representative man, not only a child of his culture, but also as one implicated in a continuing American anxiety about freedom, race, and identity.


Purpose – Professional ethics is explored with three main foci: a critique of codes of conduct and the value of creating a global code for information and communication technology (ICT); a critique of ICT professional certification; and the debate over whether ICT is really a profession. Design/methodology/approach – This is a conceptual reflection on the current state of the ICT industry internationally, informed by the literature. Findings – Compared to a mature profession, such as health, ICT is a young profession. This is evidenced in the disparity of domains of practice, the lack of agreement on universal values governing the industry and the ongoing difficulties in creating international certification. Originality/value – Until now, there has been little recognition of the corporatisation of ICT professionals and the effect that has on their ability to engage in appropriate professional ethics. More research is needed to explore appropriate ways in which ethical behaviour can be encouraged in the corporate workplace, including how professional development can be strengthened through building learning organisations.


The global demand for renewable energy in the recent years is increasing in the context of increasing demand for power as well as the energy security in future. Most renewable energy comes either directly or indirectly from the sun. Sunlight, or solar energy, is a form of clean energy and can be used directly for generating electricity for a variety of commercial and industrial uses. It is the best form of energy from an environmental perspective. The sun's heat also drives the winds, whose energy, is captured with wind turbines and converted in electrical power. The annual growth of power consumption in KSA is estimated to be at 7.5 %. To meet this increasing demands, Saudi Arabia has already started extracting renewable energy from the sun, wind, nuclear and geothermal sources .In this study, we intend to review the possibilities of solar and wind energy sources applicable to Saudi Arabia, specific to the Tabuk region based on its topography and climatic conditions. Solar and wind data for 6 regions in the Tabuk province for a period of 12 months is used in this study. The solar and wind data used is recorded by the Solar and Wind Resource Monitoring Stations of the King Abdullah City for Atomic and Renewable Energy (KACARE) program and the Presidency of Meteorology and Environment, Saudi Arabi. The seasonal variations in the wind and solar parameters were studied. The wind energy potential for the 6 stations were also calculated. The analysis shows that out of the 6 stations, the coastal station of Haql has got the highest wind potential whereas the inland stations of Tabuk and Timaa has the highest solar power potential.


The recent increase in drug-resistance bacteria has become a very serious threat to the treatment of infectious diseases. Over recent decades, a growing numbers of literatures have validated the application of bacteriophages for therapy against antibiotic-resistance bacteria. With rapid dissemination of these resistant bacteria pathogens, the interest in alternative remedies to antibiotics using bacteriophages therapy is gaining new ground. Based on the recent studies of bacteriophage applications against bacterial infections in countries where this alternative therapy has been approved, many scientists and companies believed that phages have the ability to treat and prevent diseases caused by bacteria. Malaysia, being well known as one of the mega diverse countries could promise the potential new phages that could be applied in phage therapy. The overall objectives of this research including isolation and purification of potentially new phages from environments, characterization of the isolated phages based on morphological study, physicochemical attributes, genomic and proteomic analysis. Lastly, the isolated phages would be developed into phage therapy against bacterial infection through in vitro and in vivo test. Preliminary results presented here, show a total of four phages were successfully isolated from human waste. Two of the phages were successfully isolated infecting Proteus mirabilis that caused urinary tract infection in human whereas another two phages infecting Escherichia coli 0157:H7 (caused food-borne diseases) and Escherichia coli ATCC 13706, respectively.


We use the cluster method in order to enumerate permutations avoiding consecutive patterns. We reprove and generalize in a unified way several known results and obtain new ones, including some patterns of length 4 and 5, as well as some infinite families of patterns of a given shape. Our main tool is the cluster method of Goulden and Jackson. We also prove some that, for a large class of patterns, the inverse of the exponential generating function counting occurrences is an entire function, but we conjecture that it is not D-finite in general.


Donald Trump embodies populism - a political phenomenon often reduced to a contingent pathology of Western politics. This paper, instead, conceives of populism as a communicative device especially suitable for a mediatised politics. Here such a device is identified on the basis of five indices, allowing to qualify it as more or less populist: 1) direct appeal to people, 2) anti-pluralism, 3) personalization of leadership, 4) mediatisation, 5) communicative simplification. Populism and trumpism represent a challenge to constitutionalism: rule of law, new constitutionalism and neocostitutionalism, separately and jointly. A challenge announcing an entropic State, with the form of a Constitutional government and the substance of a Security and a Neoliberal State.


While the COVID-19 pandemic has been raging across the continents, performing arts educators have unlearned and adjusted their pedagogies in course delivery to surmount the challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Subject to the COVID-19 pandemic situation easing in Hong Kong and around the world, the whole education sector seems to be bouncing back to normal gradually. Meanwhile, there are effective lessons and insights to be learned from the hybrid pedagogy during the pandemic, which could further benefit the new normal period (post-pandemic) of performing arts education. To examine the current practice of digital learning among students and faculty (attitudes towards hybrid, online, and face-to-face learning and preferences about learning mode for professional development/training workshops), this empirical study looks at 408 students and 17 faculty members at a leading performing arts institute in Hong Kong. This study locates the key issues for performing arts educators regarding online/hybrid teaching and learning. It presents lessons and insights for quality insurance and improvement. Findings can inform the future development of digital teaching and learning for the performing arts as well as for other practice-based subjects.


VANWYK, J.A. 1999. A comparison of the infectivity of cryopreserved versus unfrozen infective larvae of Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Trichostrongylus axei: Results of the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute from 1977 to the present. Onderstepoort Journal of Veterinary Research , 66:285289 The infectivity for sheep of cryopreserved infective larvae (L3) of various strains of Haemonchus contortus, Trichostrongylus colubriformis and Trichostrongylus axei is compared using previously published results of trials conducted at the Onderstepoort Veterinary Institute laboratories, and of collaborators. The means and ranges of development were similar for both frozen and unfrozen larvae of two of the three worm species reviewed. A mean of 33,4 % (range, 12,7-63,0 %) of cryopreserved H. contortus L3 developed, compared to a mean of 43,7 % (range 2,4-78,7 %) of unfrozen L3 of this worm species. The corresponding values for T. colubriformis were 33,0% (range 1 0,3-62,7 %), and 33,5% (range 8,3-52 ,2 %), respectively. In the case of T. axei, the development of the cryopreserved L3 (tested in only three trials) was markedly lower than that of unfrozen L3 in the single trial in which the latter was evaluated. It is concluded that development of cryopreserved L3 is probably similar to that of unfrozen L3 and that, for several reasons , maintaining nematode larvae in the frozen state in liquid nitrogen is a much superior method to that of one which entails cycling worm strains continually in their fina l hosts.


Ghrelin has been found to be associated with anti-inflammatory effects, inhibition of atherosclerotic plaque formation, and plaque stability in the cardiovascular system. We investigated whether ghrelin affected atherosclerotic plaque and inflammation found in atherosclerosis. We crossed ghrelin receptor knock out mice (growth hormone secretagogue receptor (GHSR)-/-) and low-density lipoprotein receptor-null (low-density lipoprotein receptor (LDLR)-/-) mice. In this model, atherosclerotic lesions were promoted by administering a high-fat, high-cholesterol, Western-type diet for 18 weeks. Serum lipid levels, atherosclerotic plaque on the aortic arches, and expression of intercellular cell adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and vascular cell adhesion molecule 1 (VCAM-1), T cells, macrophages, and smooth muscle cells of atherosclerotic plaque were observed. Although serum lipid levels and atherosclerotic plaque in aortic arches were not significantly different between GHSR+/+/LDLR-/- and GHSR -/-LDLR-/- mice, ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 protein expression in atherosclerotic plaques were increased in GHSR -/-LDLR-/- mice compared with GHSR+/+/LDLR-/- mice. T cells and macrophages were increased, while smooth muscle cells of atherosclerotic plaques were less in GHSR -/-LDLR-/- mice than that in GHSR+/+/LDLR-/- mice. In conclusion, ghrelin receptor deficiency aggravates atherosclerotic plaque instability and vascular inflammation but not the surface area of atherosclerotic plaque. This information will provide novel avenues for the treatment of patients with atherosclerosis.


Fabry disease is an X‐linked disease caused by a defective lysosomal enzyme, α‐galactosidase A, and characterized by skin lesions and multiorgan involvement, including kidney, heart, and the central nervous system. Currently more than 200 genotypes have been identified, including several aberrant splicing. However, most of the mutation analyses were performed using genomic sequencing only, and therefore some of the splicing mutations were misclassified as missense mutations. In order to predict the splicing event caused by each mutation, we conducted a literature search for all published mutations located near the splice sites, including exonic point mutations, and performed a splice‐site score (SSS) analysis. The literature search identified 13 donor‐site mutations, including four exonic mutations (S65T, D183S, K213N, and M267I), located at the end of exons 1, 3, 4, and 5, respectively, six acceptor‐site mutations, and one new exon creation. All mutated splice sites, except for the one associated with the new exon creation, had a lower SSS than their respective natural sites. Cryptic or newly created sites were identified with SSS from 0.09 to 1.0. The predictions, based on SSS analysis, are in agreement with all six mutations with known cDNA sequence from the literature, including five mutations with exon skipping and one mutation with creation of a new acceptor site. For the S65T genotype, we performed reverse transcription–polymerase chain reaction (RT–PCR) analysis using RNA isolated from the whole‐blood sample. We verified that a weak cryptic site (SSS = 0.09) 14 nucleotides downstream was activated and resulted in an insertion of 14 bp and a frameshift stop at codon 106. This change is more consistent with the clinical presentation of the patient, the classical Fabry disease, than the amino acid substitution (S65T), which does not affect the enzyme function. In conclusion, the SSS analysis is very useful for predicting splicing events and genotype/phenotype correlation in Fabry disease. As different mechanisms may be involved in pre‐mRNA splicing, it is important to obtain cDNA sequencing for molecular diagnosis.


Using the Braak staging for neurofibrillary changes as an objective indicator of the progression of Alzheimer's disease, we have performed a systematic search for global gene expression changes in the prefrontal cortex during the course of Alzheimer's disease. In the prefrontal cortex, senile plaques and neurofibrillary changes start to appear around Braak stage III, allowing for the detection of changes in gene expression before, during and after the onset of Alzheimer's disease neuropathology. Two distinct patterns of tightly co-regulated groups of genes were observed: (i) an increase in expression in early Braak stages, followed by a decline in expression in later stages (the UPDOWN clusters; containing 865 genes) and (ii) a decrease in expression in early Braak stages, followed by an increase in expression in later stages (the DOWNUP clusters; containing 983 genes). The most profound changes in gene expression were detected between Braak stages II and III, just before or at the onset of plaque pathology and neurofibrillary changes in the prefrontal cortex. We also observed an increase in intracellular beta amyloid staining from Braak stages I to III and a clear decrease in Braak stages IV to VI. These data suggest a link between specific gene expression clusters and Alzheimer's disease-associated neuropathology in the prefrontal cortex. Gene ontology over-representation and functional gene network analyses indicate an increase in synaptic activity and changes in plasticity during the very early pre-symptomatic stage of the disease. In later Braak stages, the decreased expression of these genes suggests a reduction in synaptic activity that coincides with the appearance of plaque pathology and neurofibrillary changes and the clinical diagnosis of mild cognitive impairment. The interaction of the ApoE genotype with the expression levels of the genes in the UPDOWN and DOWNUP clusters demonstrates that the accelerating role of ApoE-ε4 in the progression of Alzheimer's disease is reflected in the temporal changes in gene expression presented here. Since the UPDOWN cluster contains several genes involved in amyloid precursor protein processing and beta amyloid clearance that increase in expression in parallel with increased intracellular beta amyloid load, just before the onset of plaque pathology in the prefrontal cortex, we hypothesize that the temporally orchestrated increase in genes involved in synaptic activity represents a coping mechanism against increased soluble beta amyloid levels. As these gene expression changes occur before the appearance of Alzheimer's disease-associated neuropathology, they provide an excellent starting point for the identification of new targets for the development of therapeutic strategies aimed at the prevention of Alzheimer's disease.


Context. Radiation controls the dynamics and energetics of many astrophysical environments. To capture the coupling between the radiation and matter, however, is often a physically complex and computationally expensive endeavor. Aims. We sought to develop a numerical tool to perform radiation-hydrodynamics simulations in various configurations at an affordable cost. Methods. We built upon the finite volume code MPI-AMRVAC to solve the equations of hydrodynamics on multi-dimensional adaptive meshes and introduce a new module to handle the coupling with radiation. A non-equilibrium, flux-limiting diffusion approximation was used to close the radiation momentum and energy equations. The time-dependent radiation energy equation was then solved within a flexible framework, fully accounting for radiation forces and work terms and further allowing the user to adopt a variety of descriptions for the radiation-matter interaction terms ("opacities"). Results. We validated the radiation module on a set of standard test cases for which different terms of the radiative energy equation predominate. As a preliminary application to a scientific case, we calculated spherically symmetric models of the radiation-driven and optically thick supersonic outflows from massive Wolf-Rayet stars. This also demonstrates our code's flexibility, as the illustrated simulation combines opacities typically used in static stellar structure models with a parametrized form for the enhanced line-opacity expected in supersonic flows. Conclusions. This new module provides a convenient and versatile tool for performing multi-dimensional and high-resolution radiative-hydrodynamics simulations in optically thick environments with the MPI-AMRVAC code. The code is ready to be used for a variety of astrophysical applications, where our first target is set to be multi-dimensional simulations of stellar outflows from WolfRayet stars.


High-throughput sequencing and single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping can be used to infer complex population structures. Fine-scale population structure analysis tracing individual ancestry remains one of the major challenges. Based on network theory and recent advances in SNP chip technology, we investigated an unsupervised network clustering method called Super Paramagnetic Clustering (Spc). When applied to whole-genome marker data it identifies the natural divisions of groups of individuals into population clusters without use of prior ancestry information. Furthermore, we optimised an analysis pipeline called NetView, a high-definition network visualization, starting with computation of genetic distance, followed clustering using Spc and finally visualization of clusters with Cytoscape. We compared NetView against commonly used methodologies including Principal Component Analyses (PCA) and a model-based algorithm, Admixture, on whole-genome-wide SNP data derived from three previously described data sets: simulated (2.5 million SNPs, 5 populations), human (1.4 million SNPs, 11 populations) and cattle (32,653 SNPs, 19 populations). We demonstrate that individuals can be effectively allocated to their correct population whilst simultaneously revealing fine-scale structure within the populations. Analyzing the human HapMap populations, we identified unexpected genetic relatedness among individuals, and population stratification within the Indian, African and Mexican samples. In the cattle data set, we correctly assigned all individuals to their respective breeds and detected fine-scale population sub-structures reflecting different sample origins and phenotypes. The NetView pipeline is computationally extremely efficient and can be easily applied on large-scale genome-wide data sets to assign individuals to particular populations and to reproduce fine-scale population structures without prior knowledge of individual ancestry. NetView can be used on any data from which a genetic relationship/distance between individuals can be calculated.


Address event representation (AER) image sensors represent the visual information as a sequence of events that denotes the luminance changes of the scene. In this paper, we introduce a feature extraction method for AER image sensors based on the probability theory, namely, bag of events (BOE). The proposed approach represents each object as the joint probability distribution of the concurrent events, and each event corresponds to a unique activated pixel of the AER sensor. The advantages of BOE include: 1) it is a statistical learning method and has a good interpretability in mathematics; 2) BOE can significantly reduce the effort to tune parameters for different data sets, because it only has one hyperparameter and is robust to the value of the parameter; 3) BOE is an online learning algorithm, which does not require the training data to be collected in advance; 4) BOE can achieve competitive results in real time for feature extraction (>275 frames/s and >120 000 events/s); and 5) the implementation complexity of BOE only involves some basic operations, e.g., addition and multiplication. This guarantees the hardware friendliness of our method. The experimental results on three popular AER databases (i.e., MNIST-dynamic vision sensor, Poker Card, and Posture) show that our method is remarkably faster than two recently proposed AER categorization systems while preserving a good classification accuracy.


Body movement has received increasing attention in music technology research during the last years. Some new musical interfaces make use of gestures to control music in a meaningful and intuitive way. A typical approach is to use the orchestra conducting paradigm, in which the computer that generates the music would be a \textit{virtual orchestra} conducted by the user. However, although conductors' gestures are complex and their meaning can vary depending on the musical context, this context-dependency is still to explore. We propose a method to study context-dependency of body and facial gestures of conductors in orchestral classical music based on temporal clustering of gestures into actions, followed by an analysis of the evolution of audio features after action occurrences. For this, multi-modal data (audio, video, motion capture) will be recorded in real live concerts and rehearsals situations using unobtrusive techniques.


Objective: To describe the rationale, timeline, study design, and protocol overview of the Therapeutic Hypothermia after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest trials. Design: Multicenter randomized controlled trials. Setting: Pediatric intensive care and cardiac ICUs in the United States and Canada. Patients: Children from 48 hours to 18 years old, who have return of circulation after cardiac arrest, who meet trial eligibility criteria, and whose guardians provide written consent. Interventions: Therapeutic hypothermia or therapeutic normothermia. Measurements and Main Results: From concept inception in 2002 until trial initiation in 2009, 7 years were required to plan and operationalize the Therapeutic Hypothermia after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest trials. Two National Institute of Child Health and Human Development clinical trial planning grants (R21 and R34) supported feasibility assessment and protocol development. Two clinical research networks, Pediatric Emergency Care Applied Research Network and Collaborative Pediatric Critical Care Research Network, provided infrastructure resources. Two National Heart Lung Blood Institute U01 awards provided funding to conduct separate trials of in-hospital and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest. A pilot vanguard phase that included half the clinical sites began on March 9, 2009, and this was followed by full trial funding through 2015. Conclusions: Over a decade will have been required to plan, design, operationalize, and conduct the Therapeutic Hypothermia after Pediatric Cardiac Arrest trials. Details described in this report, such as participation of clinical research networks and clinical trial planning grants utilization, may be of utility for individuals who are planning investigator-initiated, federally supported clinical trials.


We discuss a new phenomenon of turbulent thermal diffusion associated with turbulent transport of aerosols in the atmosphere and in laboratory experiments. The essence of this phenomenon is the appearance of a nondif-fusive mean flux of particles in the direction of the mean heat flux, which results in the formation of large-scale in-homogeneities in the spatial distribution of aerosols that accumulate in regions of minimum mean temperature of the surrounding fluid. This effect of turbulent thermal diffusion was detected experimentally. In experiments turbulence was generated by two oscillating grids in two directions of the imposed vertical mean temperature gradient. We used Particle Image Velocimetry to determine the turbulent velocity field, and an Image Processing Technique based on an analysis of the intensity of Mie scattering to determine the spatial distribution of aerosols. Analysis of the intensity of laser light Mie scattering by aerosols showed that aerosols accumulate in the vicinity of the minimum mean temperature due to the effect of turbulent thermal diffusion.


I estimate the elasticity of GDP with respect to aggregate capital and labor using industry-specific cost structures and without assuming an aggregate production function exists. Different assumptions about industry capital costs provide upper and lower bounds for the elasticities. In the U.S. from 1948-1995 the capital elasticity bounds were 0.18-0.33, and rose to 0.21-0.39 in 1995-2018. Excluding housing and government or de-capitalizing intellectual property lowers the capital elasticity bounds. Elasticities are similar in other OECD countries from 2005-2015. Based on these boundaries for the capital elasticity, common estimates of total factor productivity growth represent a lower bound. JEL Codes: E01, E23, E25, E22, E13, N12, O4


In this paper, new formulations to calculate equivalent damping ratios used in equivalent linear analysis of seismic-isolated structures, specifically isolated with lead-rubber bearings (LRBs), are proposed. These formulations are capable of incorporating the variation in LRB hysteretic behavior due to reduced bearing strength as a function of lead core heating. To quantify the accuracy of the proposed equations in predicting the maximum isolator displacements (MIDs), MIDs obtained from an extensive number of nonlinear time history analyses (NTHAs) were compared with predicted ones. NTHAs were conducted with two sets of near-field ground motions recorded at different soil conditions. It was found that different formulations are needed to calculate the equivalent LRB damping ratios for the two considered ground motion sets. It was also found that the proposed equations result in highly accurate MID estimations, regardless of isolator characteristics, soil properties, or seismicity levels.


Character evidence has long been a subject of hearty debate. It is common sense to seek information about a person's past behavior and about others' impressions of a person about whom we are trying to make a decision. Jurors in criminal cases feel the same way, and in close cases, common sense tells them to consider the defendant's prior behavior, and the opinions and impressions of those who know the defendant outside of court. The English Common Law and the codification of evidence law into United Kingdom and United States statutes have long sought to protect us from ourselves by prohibiting jurors from hearing character evidence to prove conduct in conformity with that character. Legislators recognize that while past conduct and impressions are useful information for decision-makers, presenting the evidence can be unfair to those on trial because the jurors may convict a person based on his past behavior, rather than on his current conduct. For this reason, the rules of evidence in many jurisdictions prevent jurors from using this information to help them decide the crucial issue of guilt or innocence. In 2003, the United Kingdom took the bold step of abolishing the common law rules on bad character evidence and started anew with sections 98 through 111 of the 2003 Criminal Justice Act (CJA). The 2003 CJA makes the 180-degree shift from a general exclusion of character evidence to prove propensity to a more inclusionary alternative - one that provides numerous paths for admitting bad character evidence. These paths are called "gateways," and the gateways are quite wide - they provide prosecutors the opportunity to offer bad character evidence about the defendant in criminal trials and permit broad latitude in the jurors' consideration of bad character evidence. This article begins with a brief historical primer on the character evidence rules that apply to criminal defendants in the United States and the United Kingdom. Part One summarizes the evolution of the rules limiting the use of bad character evidence about criminal defendants at trial. Part Two of this article explains the specific requirements of each gateway of the UK's 2003 CJA, and uses recent case authorities to illustrate the application of each gateway. Next, Part Three compares and contrasts the admissibility of character evidence through each gateway with its admissibility under the corresponding Federal Rule(s) of Evidence. Part Four analyzes and evaluates four major distinctions between the 2003 CJA in the United Kingdom and the FRE in the United States and makes recommendations for reform.


Glucose transporter 1 (GLUT1) is the primary glucose transport protein of the cardiovascular system and astroglia. A recent study proposes that caffeine uncompetitive inhibition of GLUT1 results from interactions at an exofacial GLUT1 site. Intracellular ATP is also an uncompetitive GLUT1 inhibitor and shares structural similarities with caffeine, suggesting that caffeine acts at the previously characterized endofacial GLUT1 nucleotide-binding site. We tested this by confirming that caffeine uncompetitively inhibits GLUT1-mediated 3-O-methylglucose uptake in human erythrocytes [Vmax and Km for transport are reduced fourfold; Ki(app) = 3.5 mM caffeine]. ATP and AMP antagonize caffeine inhibition of 3-O-methylglucose uptake in erythrocyte ghosts by increasing Ki(app) for caffeine inhibition of transport from 0.9 ± 0.3 mM in the absence of intracellular nucleotides to 2.6 ± 0.6 and 2.4 ± 0.5 mM in the presence of 5 mM intracellular ATP or AMP, respectively. Extracellular ATP has no effect on sugar uptake or its inhibition by caffeine. Caffeine and ATP displace the fluorescent ATP derivative, trinitrophenyl-ATP, from the GLUT1 nucleotide-binding site, but d-glucose and the transport inhibitor cytochalasin B do not. Caffeine, but not ATP, inhibits cytochalasin B binding to GLUT1. Like ATP, caffeine renders the GLUT1 carboxy-terminus less accessible to peptide-directed antibodies, but cytochalasin B and d-glucose do not. These results suggest that the caffeine-binding site bridges two nonoverlapping GLUT1 endofacial sites-the regulatory, nucleotide-binding site and the cytochalasin B-binding site. Caffeine binding to GLUT1 mimics the action of ATP but not cytochalasin B on sugar transport. Molecular docking studies support this hypothesis.


There is a gradual shift from representing a species' genome by a single reference genome sequence to a pan-genome representation. Pan-genomes are the abstract representations of the genomes of all the strains that are present in the population or species. In this study, we employed a pan-genomic approach to analyze the intraspecific mitochondrial genome diversity of Fusarium graminearum. We present an improved reference mitochondrial genome for F. graminearum with an intron-exon annotation that was verified using RNA-seq data. Each of the 24 studied isolates had a distinct mitochondrial sequence. Length variation in the F. graminearum mitogenome was found to be largely due to variation of intron regions (99.98%). The "intronless" mitogenome length was found to be quite stable and could be informative when comparing species. The coding regions showed high conservation, while the variability of intergenic regions was highest. However, the most important variable parts are the intron regions, because they contain approximately half of the variable sites, make up more than half of the mitogenome, and show presence/absence variation. Furthermore, our analyses show that the mitogenome of F. graminearum is recombining, as was previously shown in F. oxysporum, indicating that mitogenome recombination is a common phenomenon in Fusarium. The majority of mitochondrial introns in F. graminearum belongs to group I introns, which are associated with homing endonuclease genes (HEGs). Mitochondrial introns containing HE genes may spread within populations through homing, where the endonuclease recognizes and cleaves the recognition site in the target gene. After cleavage of the "host" gene, it is replaced by the gene copy containing the intron with HEG. We propose to use introns unique to a population for tracking the spread of the given population, because introns can spread through vertical inheritance, recombination as well as via horizontal transfer. We demonstrate how pooled sequencing of strains can be used for mining mitogenome data. The usage of pooled sequencing offers a scalable solution for population analysis and for species level comparisons studies. This study may serve as a basis for future mitochondrial genome variability studies and representations.


Wave Energy Converters (WECs) are devices used to extract energy from the waves. The particular
WEC considered in this thesis is a three-body hinge-barge WEC, which is an articulated
floating structure composed of 3 rectangular bodies interconnected by hinges, and it operates longitudinally
to the direction to the incoming wave. The relative motion between each pair of bodies
drives a Power Take-Off (PTO) system, which extracts the energy from the waves. The objective
of this thesis is to increase the energy that can be extracted by a three-body hinge-barge WEC
using an optimal control strategy, which computes the optimal loads applied by the PTOs driven
by the relative motion between the bodies. The optimal control is formulated in the time domain,
and computes the PTO loads in a coordinated way, so that the total energy extracted by the device
is maximized. The optimal control strategy is formulated for a three-body hinge-barge WEC that
is equipped with either passive or active PTOs.
In this thesis, an optimal control strategy, for the maximization of the energy extracted by a
three-body hinge-barge WEC, is derived with Pseudo-Spectral (PS) methods, which are a subset
of the class of techniques used for the discretisation of integral and partial differential equations
known as mean weighted residuals. In particular, PS methods based on Fourier basis functions,
are used to derive an optimal control strategy, for a finite time horizon. Therefore, an optimal
control strategy, with PS methods based on Fourier basis functions, cannot be applied for realtime
control of the WEC, as Fourier basis functions can only represent the steady-state response
of the WEC. However, PS methods based on Fourier basis functions provide a useful framework
for the evaluation of the achievable power absorption performance of the WEC, with both active
and passive PTOs. The Receding Horizon (RH) real-time optimal control of a three-body hingebarge
WEC is derived with PS methods based on Half-Range Chebyshev-Fourier (HRCF) basis
functions. The RH optimal real-time controller, with PS methods based on HRCF basis functions,
maximizes the energy extracted by the WEC at each time step over a moving control horizon. In
contrast to Fourier basis functions, HRCF basis functions are well suited for the approximation of
non-periodic signals, allowing the representation of both the transient and steady-state response of
the WEC.
The optimal control strategy, with PS methods based on either Fourier or HRCF basis functions,
is based on a dynamic model of the device, which is derived with two different modeling
methodologies, that can be also applied to other types of multiple body WECs. The modeling
methodologies are validated against wave-tank tests carried out on a 1/7th scale two-body hingebarge
device, and a 1/25th and 1/20th scale three-body hinge-barge device.


Thus far, little attention has been paid by Foucauldian scholars to the role of laughter in our subjectivation and normalization, nor to the possible roles of laughter practices in political resistance. Yet, there is a body of references to laughter in both Foucault's own work and that of his contemporary commentators, subtly indicating that it might be a tool for challenging normalization through transgression. I seek to negotiate the different functions (both transgressive and disciplinary) that our laughter practices can have, proposing that laughter is a worthy site of exploration for Foucauldian feminists in particular. Examining the differential norms, requirements, and sanctions around laughter shows that we are shaped as gendered subjects through the regulation of laughter's timing and its bodily presentation. I argue that the contemporary state of laughter practices works to uphold docile femininity, using tools such as compulsory happiness and labelling feminists as killjoys. In brief, this article interrogates the ways in which cultivating different laughter practices can function as a path for Foucauldian-feminist political resistance.


A social network is a collection of social entities and the relations among them. Collection and sharing of such network data for analysis raise significant privacy concerns for the involved individuals, especially when human users are involved. To address such privacy concerns, several techniques, such as k-anonymity based approaches, have been proposed in the literature. However, such approaches introduce a large amount of distortion to the original social network graphs, thus raising serious questions about their utility for useful social network analysis. Consequently, these techniques may never be applied in practice. In this paper, we emphasize the use of network structural semantics in the social network analysis theory to address this problem. We propose an approach for enhancing anonymization techniques that preserves the structural semantics of the original social network by using the notion of roles and positions. We present experimental results that demonstrate that our approach can significantly help in preserving graph and social network theoretic properties of the original social networks, and hence improve utility of the anonymized data.


Ten patients with prior spinal cord trauma were examined preoperatively by metrizamide computed tomography (CT) and were studied subsequently by intraoperative spinal sonography. On comparing intraoperative sonography with metrizamide CT, it was found that metrizamide CT tends to overestimate the size and number of posttraumatic cysts, that areas of myelomalacia on metrizamide CT correspond to areas of abnormal echogenicity on intraoperative sonography, and that intracyst septations are seen only on intraoperative sonography. By monitoring the position of the shunting catheter during surgery, intraoperative sonography can assure its proper intramedullary placement and demonstrate the successful decompression of the cyst. If no cyst is found with intraoperative sonography, further surgery is obviated. Intraoperative sonography is recommended for all cases where decompression of cord cysts is planned.


Non-abelian gauge theories in the context of generalized complex geometry are discussed. The generalized connection naturally contains standard gauge and scalar fields, unified in a purely geometric way. We define the corresponding Yang-Mills theory on particular subbundles of a Courant algebroid, known as Dirac structures, where the generalized curvature is a tensor. Different Dirac structures correspond to different known theories, such as the bosonic sector of maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills in ten and four dimensions and reduced matrix models. Furthermore, we revisit the non-abelian world volume effective action of D-branes in this formalism, where the gauge field on the brane and the transverse scalars are unified, while the action does not contain pullbacks of fields and its consistency with T-duality is verified at face value.


The machine learning community has become increasingly interested in the energy efficiency of neural networks. The Spiking Neural Network (SNN) is a promising approach to energy-efficient computing, since its activation levels are quantized into temporally sparse, one-bit values (i.e., "spike" events), which additionally converts the sum over weight-activity products into a simple addition of weights (one weight for each spike). However, the goal of maintaining state-of-the-art (SotA) accuracy when converting a non-spiking network into an SNN has remained an elusive challenge, primarily due to spikes having only a single bit of precision. Adopting tools from signal processing, we cast neural activation functions as quantizers with temporally-diffused error, and then train networks while smoothly interpolating between the non-spiking and spiking regimes. We apply this technique to the Legendre Memory Unit (LMU) to obtain the first known example of a hybrid SNN outperforming SotA recurrent architectures---including the LSTM, GRU, and NRU---in accuracy, while reducing activities to at most 3.74 bits on average with 1.26 significant bits multiplying each weight. We discuss how these methods can significantly improve the energy efficiency of neural networks.


The turbulence which characterized the 1980s created uncertainty as to the role and purpose of planning in liberal democracies. Instrumental rationality is no longer defensible as a guiding doctrine and major questions arise concerning the relationship of planning to the market economy and the political process. The realization that the problems confronting planners are not amenable to technocratic solutions has led to recognition of the political and therefore essentially ethical nature of the planning activity. However, whilst there is widespread recognition that fundamental ethical dilemmas underpin both planning practice and theory, little explicit consideration has been given to the nature of the normative frameworks available. The purpose of this paper is to critically review the ethical frames of reference implied in the most influential theories within planning and to evaluate their relevance to practice. The paper highlights the extent to which debate has been, and continues to be, dominated by procedural questions, the rejection of universalism in favour of relativity and subjectivity, and a focus on individual interests rather than more general concern with the common good. Reluctance to engage with debates of a more foundational nature concerning ends and values is questioned and planning theorists are urged to reconnect with the fundamental issue of planning's contribution to the creation of desirable futures. Copyright Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishers Ltd 1999.


Tuberculosis is still one of the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries1. Patients with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) tuberculosis infection can infect unusual sites and can have unusual presentations. Though tuberculosis can involve any part of the gastrointestinal tract, duodenal involvement is uncommon2. Tuberculous lymphadenitis leading to a fistulous communication with duodenum is sparsely reported in literature. We here report a case of tubercular lymphadenitis eroding into the duodenal wall causing lymphadeno-duodenal fistula.


This paper presents key lessons learned from hundreds of field missions for assessing the condition of HRSGs at sites around the world. These involved field inspections, root cause of failure analyses and performance assessments on HRSGs of nearly every design, fuel type and operating mode. Statistics on degradation and failure risk areas are presented. Analysis techniques used in both preparing for field work and in assessing field examination results are also discussed. Trends in the evolution of the principal damage mechanisms over the years are examined, and predictions of future problem areas are considered with a view to guiding asset management actions. The impact on HRSG integrity of changes in unit designs, such as the move to flexible operation in response to the increasing contribution from renewables, is also assessed, and likely future trends are outlined. The use of qualitative and quantitative risk-based methods is also discussed and compared to the use of condition-based inspection methods as a basis for a fleet wide management strategy. A case study including a large IPP with several generating assets in its portfolio is presented and the most cost-effective method with respect to current corporate strategy is discussed. Recommendations for fleet management strategies are made.


The spectral and dynamic properties of cone-driven horizontal cells in carp retina were evaluated with silent substitution stimuli and/or saturating background illumination. The aim of this study was to describe the wiring underlying the spectral sensitivity of these cells. We will present electrophysiological data that indicate that all cone- driven horizontal cell types receive input from all spectral cone types, and we will present evidence that all cone-driven horizontal cell types feedback to all spectral cone types. These two findings are the basis for a model for the spectral and dynamic behavior of all cone- driven horizontal cells in carp retina. The model can account for the spectral as well as the dynamic behavior of the horizontal cells. It will be shown that the strength of the feedforward and feedback pathways between a horizontal cell and a particular spectral cone type are roughly proportional. This model is in sharp contrast to the Stell model, where the spectral behavior of the three horizontal cell types is explained by a cascade of feedforward and feedback pathways between cones and horizontal cells. The Stell model accounts for the spectral but not for the dynamic behavior of the horizontal cells.


An automatic and objective system for measuring ocular refractive errors (myopia, hyperopia and astigmatism) was developed. The system consists of projecting a light target (a ring), using a diode laser , at the fundus of the patient's eye. The light beams scattered from the retina are submitted to an optical system and are analysed with regard to their vergence by a CCD detector (matrix). This system uses the same basic principle for the projection of beams into the tested eye as some commercial refractors, but it is innovative regarding the ring-shaped measuring target for the projection system and the detection system where a matrix detector provides a wider range of measurement and a less complex system for the optical alignment. Also a dedicated electronic circuit was not necessary for treating the electronic signals from the detector (as the usual refractors do); instead a commercial frame grabber was used and software based on the heuristic search technique was developed. All the guiding equations that describe the system as well as the image processing procedure are presented in detail. Measurements in model eyes and in human eyes are in good agreement with retinoscopic measurements and they are also as precise as these kinds of measurements require (0.125D and ).


This article presents a mathematical model to describe High-Rate Algal Ponds (HRAPs). The hydrodynamic behavior of the reactor is described as completely mixed tanks in series with recirculation. The hydrodynamic pattern is combined with a subset of River Water Quality Model 1 (RWQM1), including the main processes in liquid phase. Our aim is to develop models for WSPs and aerated lagoons, too, but we focused on HRAPs first for several reasons: Sediments are usually less abundant in HRAP and can be neglected, Stratification is not observed and state variables are constant in a reactor cross section, Due to the system's geometry, the reactor is quite similar to a plugflow type reactor with recirculation, with a simple advection term. The model is based on mass balances and includes the following processes: *Phytoplankton growth with NO3-, NO2- and death, *Aerobic growth of heterotrophs with NO3-, NH4+ and respiration, *Anoxic growth of heterotrophs with NO3-, NO2- and anoxic respiration, *Growth of nitrifiers (two stages) and respiration. The differences with regard to RWQM1 are that we included a limiting term associated with inorganic carbon on the growth rate of algae and nitrifiers, gas transfers are taken into account by the familiar Adeney equation, and a subroutine calculates light intensity at the water surface. This article presents our first simulations.


Contagious agalactiae (CA), caused by Mycoplasma agalactiae , is among the most significant diseases affecting small ruminants. CA is described as an endemic disease in the Mediterranean region, where it causes significant economic impact due to reduced milk production and increased lamb mortality rates (Nicholas 1995, Bergonier and others 1997).

Killed M agalactiae vaccine is used for the control of CA, but the level of acquired immunity is relatively low (Leon and others 1995). Immunotherapy as an adjunct to vaccine application may improve the resulting immune response. Various immunostimulant drugs, such as recombinant growth factors, cytokines, levamisole and beta - glucan, have been tested and used in veterinary and human medicine (Suzuki and others 1990, Qureshi and others 2000, Senturk and others 2003).

Levamisole has been used for the treatment of many nematode infections in animals. The immunostimulating activity of levamisole has been well documented in several experimental and clinical studies (Neveu 1970, Symoens and Rosenthal 1977, Sharma and others 1990, Obminska and Calkosinski 1994, Senturk and others 2003, Senturk and others 2009). It is hypothesised that levamisole restores cell-mediated immune function in peripheral T lymphocytes, and stimulates phagocytosis by monocytes (Barragy 1994). Sharma and others (1990) reported that haemorrhagic septicemia vaccination combined with the administration of levamisole hydrochloride resulted in higher serum antibody titres and longer-lasting immunity (Sharma and others 1990). One mode of action of levamisole is the promotion of T-cell activity and restoration of the activities of T-helper and T-suppressor cells (Gonsette and others 1982). Some studies have also indicated that the mode of action of levamisole as an immunomodulator is achieved by boosting cell-mediated immunity via the induction of type 1 cytokines (Szeto and others 2000). Additionally, Olusi and others (1979) reported that levamisole significantly restored the cell-mediated immune response in malnourished rats. Various animal and …


With the rapid development of information and communication technology, enterprises feel a need for a constant search of optimal solutions and for modernization of information technology (IT), which in today's world is crucial for the smooth operation of the enterprise. This thesis presents an issue with which modern companies are facing at IT renovation. There are many different renovation options on the market, which is a major problem for most companies that operate in a dynamic business environment. Rapidly evolving field of cloud computing provides cheap solutions of services in the cloud that bring competitive advantage to the company. The first part of the thesis presents two of the possible on-premise IT renovation solutions. Next, the technology of cloud computing, with all its main features, advantages and disadvantages, is introduced. The following describes a practical example of the transition to the cloud, which begins with the definition of the existing system state and architecture of the discussed company. The possibility of on-premise system renovation is presented together with its weaknesses. Finally, the whole procedure of transition of the company's office and postal services from on-premise environment to the cloud is described.


The laser assisted tape winding (LATW) is an automated process for manufacturing fibre-reinforced thermoplastic tubular products, such as pipes and pressure vessels. This process consists of several simultaneous physical phenomena including kinematic, optical and thermal behavior. Among these, the in-situ temperature-dependent consolidation of the tapes plays a vital role in the overall quality of the final product. Currently, a new model-based global approach is under development for industrialized production as a part of EU funded Horizon2020 ambliFibre project. There is a need for a highly efficient thermal model to capture the temperature distributions during the process. Therefore, in this study, the capabilities of the various thermal models are evaluated. The actual laser heat flux distribution is estimated from a comprehensive optical model and then subsequently coupled with the thermal model in order to obtain precise temperature distribution. The transient one-dimensional (1D) and 2D models are developed in a Lagrangian framework. The surface boundary conditions are moving with winding velocity and the mesh remains stationary. The transient approach is used by conventional finite volume (FV) method. The hoop winding process is quantified for various winding speeds using coupled optical-thermal models which have never been done up to now. Since the real LATW process includes many considerations that disturb the spatial temperature field, e.g., various winding angle and non-uniform laser heat influx, a 2D transient model is, therefore, convenient for the LATW process simulation. However, for hoop winding the 1D model is almost as accurate as the 2D model and less computationally expensive. The history of nip point temperature for 10 layers of the continues hoop winding is predicted. Also, the peak in the nip point temperature history which is a physical phenomenon taking place during the LATW process is explained.


The flutter corresponds to an aerodynamic loading of the structure which amplifies the natural blade vibration. In this paper, a modern design of a high pressure compressor is investigated using a time-linearized RANS solver on 2D blade to blade channel. Two operating points at part speed have been selected, the first with only small supersonic pockets and the second with the interblade channel blocked. Two vibration modes are investigated, the first torsion mode (with a nodal diameter at 2) and the first flexion mode (with a nodal diameter at 2, 4 and 6). Two different two equations turbulence models, k-l and k-ω have been used to resolve the steady state. The unsteady resolution is based on the previous steady state field. Turbulent variables are calculated over time based on a k-ω turbulence model. It was found that for some mode shapes, but not for all, the work exchange between the flow and the blade presents a large disparity depending on the turbulence model used primarily in the steady calculation. This paper proposes a parametric study in terms of rotor velocities, nodal diameters and vibration mode shapes to determine which flow phenomena are sensitive to the turbulence modelling. Main results point to the effect of the shockwave motion, and its interaction with the boundary layer and its separation.


ABSTRACT No previous research has directly examined the relationship between attending a public or private school as a child and people's attitudes toward Jews when they become adults. This article sheds new light on this issue by using a large, nationally representative survey of over 1,500 adults in the United States to see how childhood schooling is related to adult anti-Semitism. It finds that even after controlling for a variety of background characteristics, people who attended private schools exhibit more positive attitudes toward Jews than those who attended public schools.


Premise Putatively single‐copy nuclear (SCN) loci, which are identified using genomic resources of closely related species, are ideal for phylogenomic inference. However, suitable genomic resources are not available for many clades, including Melastomataceae. We introduce a versatile approach to identify SCN loci for clades with few genomic resources and use it to develop probes for target enrichment in the distantly related Memecylon and Tibouchina (Melastomataceae). Methods We present a two‐tiered pipeline. First, we identified putatively SCN loci using MarkerMiner and transcriptomes from distantly related species in Melastomataceae. Published loci and genes of functional significance were then added (384 total loci). Second, using HybPiper, we retrieved 689 homologous template sequences for these loci using genome‐skimming data from within the focal clades. Results We sequenced 193 loci common to Memecylon and Tibouchina. Probes designed from 56 template sequences successfully targeted sequences in both clades. Probes designed from genome‐skimming data within a focal clade were more successful than probes designed from other sources. Discussion Our pipeline successfully identified and targeted SCN loci in Memecylon and Tibouchina, enabling phylogenomic studies in both clades and potentially across Melastomataceae. This pipeline could be easily applied to other clades with few genomic resources.


ABSTRACT Pilot briefings, in their traditional form, drown pilots in a sea of information. Rather than unfocused swathes of air traffic management (ATM) information, pilots require only the information for their specific flight, preferably with an emphasis on the most important information. In this paper, we introduce the notion of ATM information cubes – in analogy to the well-established concept of Online analytical processing (OLAP) cubes in data warehousing. We propose a framework with merge and abstraction operations for the combination and summarization of the information in ATM information cubes to obtain management summaries of relevant information. To this end, we adopt the concept of semantic data container – a package of data items with a semantic description of the contents. The semantic descriptions then serve to hierarchically organise semantic containers along the dimensions of an ATM information cube. Leveraging this hierarchical organisation, a merge operation combines ATM information from individual semantic containers and collects the data items into composite containers. An abstraction operation summarises the data items within a semantic container, replacing individual data items with more abstract data items with summary information.


Over the past decade, bioorthogonal chemistry has emerged as powerful tools used for tracking biomolecules within living systems. Despite the vast number of organic transformations in the literature, only select few reactions meet the stringent requirements of bioorthogonality. There is increasing demands to develop biocompatible reactions that display high specificity and exquisitely fast kinetics under physiological conditions. With the goal of increasing reaction rates as a means for reducing the concentrations of labelling reagents used for bioconjugation, we have developed metal-catalyzed and metal-free alkynenitrone cycloadditions as alternatives to azide-alkyne cycloadditions and demonstrate their applications for imaging cell surface proteins. The copper(I)-catalyzed alkyne-nitrone cycloaddition, also known as the Kinugasa reaction, is typically conducted with a Cu(I) catalyst in the absence of air. We have developed highly efficient micelle promoted multicomponent Kinugasa reactions in aqueous media to make the reaction faster and more efficient. Despite good product yields, the slow kinetics, limited substrate scope and competing side-reaction pathways precludes its practical applicability for biological labelling. We have designed and synthesized β-lactam alkyne probes obtained from these reactions for activity-based protein profiling of the activities of membrane proteins. Additionally, we report that alkyne tethered β-lactams serve as surface enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) reporters bound to silver nanoparticles, and demonstrated that alkyne bound silver nanoparticles can be used for SERS imaging cell surface proteins. The strain-promoted alkyne-nitrone cycloaddition (SPANC) was also explored as a rapid alternative bioorthogonal reaction. We found that the reaction proceeded in high yield within aqueous media, and displayed rate enhancements that were 1-2 orders of magnitude faster than analogous reactions involving azides. The scope and kinetics of SPANC was evaluated in model reactions of various nitrones (acyclic and cyclic) with cyclooctynes, with the purpose of identifying stable nitrones that displayed intrinsically faster kinetics than azides in strain-promoted cycloadditions with cyclooctynes. Cyclic nitrones displayed good stability and exceptionally fast reactivity in these reactions. The SPANC reaction exhibited high selectivity in the presence of biological nucleophilic amino acid side chains and the presence of biological media did not adversely affect the reaction. We have utilized SPANC for highly specific labelling of proteins in vitro and for imaging ligand-receptor interactions on the surfaces of live cancer cells. The high selectivity, fast reaction rate, and aqueous compatibility of SPANC makes the reaction suitable for a variety of in vivo biological imaging applications.


Cellulose-graft-poly(methylmethacrylate) (cellulose-g-PMMA) copolymers were prepared by homogeneous atom transfer radical polymerization (ATRP) under mild conditions, in an attempt to develop an efficient way to modify the surface of cellulose. A cellulose macro-initiator was successfully synthesized by direct homogeneous acylation of cellulose with 2-bromopropionyl bromide in a room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL), 1-allyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([AMIM]Cl). Copolymers were obtained via ATRP of methyl methacrylate (MMA) with CuBr/penta-methyldiethylenetriamine (PMDETA) as catalyst and N,N-dimethyl-formamide (DMF) as solvent without homopolymer byproduct. The grafting copolymers were characterized by 1H-NMR, 13C-NMR, and FTIR. The grafted PMMA chain was obtained by the hydrolysis of the cellulose backbone and analyzed by GPC and TGA measurements. In addition, the assemblies or aggregates formed by cellulose-g-PMMA copolymers were studied by means of TEM and AFM. The results indicated that the graft polymerization occurred from the cellulose backbone and the obtained copolymers had grafted polymer chains with well-controlled molecular weight and polydispersity; the cellulose graft copolymer in solution could aggregate and self-assemble into sphere-like structures.


The nature of technical progress in the industrial sector of a country has implications on formulating its industrial policy, which should fine-tune the direction of its dynamic comparative advantage. In view of this, this paper examines, using econometric models whether the technical progress in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector is capital or labour saving. The outcome of the study shows that the production technology in the Ethiopian manufacturing sector is capital consuming and labour saving, contrary to the theory of initial factor endowments of the country. It also indicates that technological choice was inappropriate and technological capability acquisition was not built-in in the Ethiopian manufacturing enterprises. According to the findings of this paper, for Ethiopia to industrialize, manufacturing firms in the country have to build the necessary technological capabilities through experience in production and investment on education. They should also make deliberate efforts to adapt and improve technologies to fit the prevailing Ethiopian conditions. The government is also required to help firms develop their technological capabilities. Towards this end, it has to create an enabling environment, develop mechanisms to protect selected manufacturing enterprises and subsidies firm-level research and development.


This study investigated whether the combined use of rice hull and carbonized rice hull (CRH) can offset the negative aspects of each other, and can deliver an optimum indoor environment performance. To achieve this goal, the CO2 emissions of rice hull and the economic feasibility of CRH were considered simultaneously to deliver a mix ratio, and the fundamental properties of the material were analyzed to verify its performance. Full-scale mockups were constructed, and the effect on the indoor environment was verified through monitoring and a comparative analysis. Analysis showed that the heat capacity of the experimental mockup was larger than that of the control, and therefore it was effective in controlling indoor temperature in winter. The application of complex insulation material is also effective in controlling indoor humidity in winter and spring, and a humidity control plan that follows either a moisture-proof plan or ventilation is required to control humidity in summer and autumn. The CO2 level of the experimental mockup was high due to the anaerobic fermentation of the rice hull in the complex material. Therefore, a moisture prevention plan using water-proof and moisture-proof materials and a ventilation plan need to be considered in advance.


Recently interest in packet communications has stimulated an interest in constellations of low altitude satellites. Such a configuration would have less propagation delay and be cheaper to launch than satellites at higher or geosynchronous altitude. However, many more satellites are necessary at low altitude to achieve reasonable coverage of the earth and insure availability of the resource. Further, the geometry of such a constellation would be dynamic with communication links of short duration as the satellites speed past each other or a ground site. The most difficult design issue in these systems is a stable method of routing messages that will sustain a reasonable level of traffic. This paper explores the problems of routing and switching messages through a constellation of low altitude satellites and examines some of the related demands on technology. The dynamic nature of crosslinks, uplinks, and downlinks requires a very agile antenna system, and the volume of information for routing of traffic is overwhelming. Use of some type of facetted phased array antenna is advocated to solve the former problem, but the latter problem is more subtle. Since the volume of ephemeris and constellation data as well as the rate of update is unmanageable, schemes relying on some form of broadcast or random access may be considered. It is concluded that none of the known or examined approaches to routing and switching is completely satisfactory.


Due to the cultural diversity, there might be cross-cultural differences in self-regulation of health and illness. People might represent illness threat, and the strategies they adopt to cope with an existing or potential illness threat differently. However, very limited attention has been given to this aspect in health psychology research. Thus, this thesis comprised of four exploratory studies that were designed to introduce this neglected cross-cultural perspective. The first study explored whether Pakistan and the UK differ on range of psychological constructs and could be characterized as collectivistic and individualistic cultures. The second study focused on exploring how people from Pakistan and the UK represent their illness. The third study was designed to provide an experimental test of the proposition that cultural factors were accounting towards the cross-cultural differences in coping with an existing illness. The final study explored a further aspect of self-regulation of health and illness that concerns the self-regulation of a potential future health threat.
Findings provided good evidence that there are cultural differences between Pakistanis and the Britons and both cultures could be characterized as collectivistic and individualistic, respectively. It also provides good evidence that both cultures differ in self-regulation of health and illness. For example, Pakistani were more concerned with the relational implications of the illness while Britons were more concerned with the adoption of life style changes because of illness. In addition, Britons reported using problem-focussed coping skills in relation to diabetes self-management while Pakistanis reported more emotion-focussed skills. The findings also confirmed that culture may account for the use of coping strategies. Finally, findings suggest cross-cultural differences in coping with the future illness threat. In sum, the research presented in this thesis suggested that there are cultural differences the way people represent health and illness threat.


Albugo is a genus of biotrophic plant pathogens that can infect an extensive range of hosts including many Brassicaceae crop species. Little is known about the molecular mechanisms by which Albugo species can suppress host immunity and the mechanisms by which plants can resist Albugo infection.
Albugo laibachii (Al) is a specialized pathogen of Arabidopsis thaliana (At). It can colonize ~90% of At accessions and suppress effector-triggered-immunity to other pathogens. It is postulated that Al secretes effector proteins. Analysis of the A. laibachii genome by Kemen et al, (2011, PLoS Biology) revealed a potential class of effectors with a 'CHXC' motif in their N-terminus that can mediate translocation into host cells. However, there are only ~35 CHXC effectors in A. laibachii, suggesting that they might not represent its entire effector complement.
I took a traditional method to identify Al effectors: clone "avirulence (Avr) genes". These typically encode effectors that are recognized and trigger a strong response by the immune system of some host accessions. I identified and sequenced four Al isolates from field samples. Using differential phenotype information to guide a genome-‐ ide analysis, and my expectations of the allelic diversity of Avr genes, I identified two novel recognized effectors. These effectors, short secreted proteins named "SSP16" and "SSP18", are recognized by the Arabidopsis accessions HR-5 and Ksk-1 respectively.
I used classical and Illumina-‐based genetic mapping to identify the locus conferring SSP16 recognition in HR-5, Resistance to A. laibachii 4 (RAL4). This locus contains three putative CC-NB-LRR class Resistance protein-encoding genes with similarity to Resistance to Peronospora parasitica 7 (RPP7).
I demonstrated the utility of combined genomics approaches to identify recognized effectors without known motifs. The identification of the first Avr-Resistance gene pair will pave the way for further dissection of the molecular interactions in this pathosystem.


BackgroundAs more surgeons use Twitter, it is vital to understand how to engage users. Surgeons need timely education on multidrug-resistant organisms to prescribe effective antibiotics. We evaluated Twitter as a tool to engage and educate surgeons in emerging infectious disease (ID) topics on antibiotic resistance and antimicrobial stewardship. MethodsThis was a 3-month prospective cohort study with surgeons who volunteered after attending Twitter Grand Rounds presentation and workshop. Pharmacists tweeted ID topics relevant to surgeons, and each tweet's reach, impressions, and engagement were calculated. ResultsA total of 5117 tweets were sent: 4089 by 21 surgeons and 1028 by study pharmacists. Pharmacists sent 451 ID tweets, and surgeons engaged in 72 ID tweets: 31 retweeted, 29 replied, and 12 "liked" for a potential reach of 5101, potential impressions of 38 784, and actual impressions of 15,895. The top ID tweet topics by actual impressions were antibiotic resistance (3005), global antibiotic stewardship (2257), "superbugs" (2121), and Clostridium difficile (1181). Of the 31 ID retweets by surgeons, 81% had links to articles versus 19% without links (P = 0.54). Grand Rounds evaluations identified that 81% rated the presentation topic as excellent and 77% felt Twitter was relevant to their practice. The conference hashtag #TwitterGrandRounds engaged surgeons tweeting from other institutions and generated an additional 217,317 potential impressions. ConclusionsTwitter engaged surgeons in ID and antimicrobial stewardship topics and provided real-time education around antimicrobial resistance. Future studies should evaluate whether engagement and education via tweets impact actual antimicrobial use and the rates of antimicrobial resistance.


The modern software development landscape has seen a shift in focus toward mobile applications as tablets and smartphones near ubiquitous adoption. Due to this trend, the complexity of these "apps" has been increasing, making development and maintenance challenging. Additionally, current bug tracking systems are not able to effectively support construction of reports with actionable information that directly lead to a bug's resolution. To address the need for an improved reporting system, we introduce a novel solution, called FUSION, that helps users auto-complete reproduction steps in bug reports for mobile apps. FUSION links user-provided information to program artifacts extracted through static and dynamic analysis performed before testing or release. The approach that FUSION employs is generalizable to other current mobile software platforms, and constitutes a new method by which off-device bug reporting can be conducted for mobile software projects. In a study involving 28 participants we applied FUSION to support the maintenance tasks of reporting and reproducing defects from 15 real-world bugs found in 14 open source Android apps while qualitatively and qualitatively measuring the user experience of the system. Our results demonstrate that FUSION both effectively facilitates reporting and allows for more reliable reproduction of bugs from reports compared to traditional issue tracking systems by presenting more detailed contextual app information.


Description: Neuroscience, with its astounding new technologies, is uncovering the workings of the brain and with this perhaps the mind. The 'neuro' prefix spills out into every area of life, from neuroaesthetics to neuroeconomics, neurogastronomy and neuroeducation. With its promise to cure physical and social ills, government sees neuroscience as a tool to increase the 'mental capital' of the children of the deprived and workless. It sets aside intensifying poverty and inequality, instead claiming that basing children's rearing and education on brain science will transform both the child's and the nation's health and wealth. Leading critic of such neuropretensions, neuroscientist Steven Rose and sociologist of science Hilary Rose take a sceptical look at these claims and the science underlying them, sifting out the sensible from the snake oil. Examining the ways in which science is shaped by and shapes the political economy of neoliberalism, they argue that neuroscience on its own is not able to bear the weight of these hopes.


Digital forensics is becoming an important feature for many embedded devices. In automotive systems, digital forensics involves multiple electronic control units (ECUs) used to support the connected and intelligent vehicle's technology. Digital evidence from these ECUs can be used in forensics investigation and analysis. Such a mechanism can potentially facilitate crash investigation, insurance claims and crime investigation. Issues related to forensics include the authenticity, integrity and privacy of the data. In this paper, the security of the forensic process and data in automotive systems is analysed. We propose an efficient, secure, privacy-preserving and reliable mechanism to provide a forensics data collection and storage process. A diagnostic application for smart phones, DiaLOG, is incorporated in the proposed process that uses a secure protocol to communicate the collected forensic data to a secure cloud storage. The proposed protocol for communicating forensic data is implemented to measure performance results and formally analysed using Scyther and CasperFDR with no known attack found.


This thesis is a study of anti-hegemonic, youth counterculture. It uses a retro-sampling of four aspects of the 1960s hippie counterculture, namely the Beats, Hippies, the Diggers and the Yippies. These are used as a case-study of a culture of resistance that are reapplied as signifiers of cultural and commercial distinction, fashioning a notion and ideal of youth. The thesis uses the theory of Bakhtinian carnivalesque to interpret the performance of dissident youth culture. It examines one fragment of subversive counterculture best described as performative. The performance of counterculture, its street happenings, Acid-Tests, Be-Ins, rock concerts and media pranks, are shown to be assimilated and transformed into commercial entities which are used to frame what it is loosely defined as a 'post-modern' cultural subjectivity. This study provides a reminder of the paradoxes of cultural endeavour, such as the local and global, commercial and cultural, and how anti-hegemonic counterculture is an explicit portrayal of this. The performance of the hippie counterculture is shown as a process of constant reinvention and bricolage enriching and challenging social perceptions and ways of living. The carnival of the American counterculture is a case-study of cultural antagonisms, which demonstrates how performance is infinitely adaptable and replicable for different user groups. Its music, which forms a central part of the thesis, is its legacy, a cultural landmark and recurrent means of expression channelling the voice of carnival, youth and the potential of an inverted world.


The term "Moor"and its variants have long been used throughout Europe as synonyms for Nigri or Negro and to denote various black-skinned and nearly black peoples. In the last century or so, it has been presumed that ancient "Moorish" Muslims in the Iberian peninsula were erroneously thought of as black by medieval Europeans. It has also been presupposed that the term "Moro" in the Iberian peninsula originally denoted Saracens and Berber-speakers that were distinct from modern "blacks" of Africa in phenotype and origin. It has been concluded that early "Berber" populations in North Africa were descendants of ancient "Caucasoids" who have absorbed different black African populations in recent times. Similarly it is believed that the Arab populations of North Africa a thousand years ago were mainly "Caucasoid" groups affiliated with present populations of the Levant.

Historical documents, physical anthropology, archeology and traditional record in Muslim Africa and Asia, however, support the view that early "Berber" clans entering Europe were not only "blacks" and "near blacks" in the literal sense, but affiliated with early and current populations of the Fezzan, Mzab, Syrtica, the Moroccan Riff, Sudan, Sahara and Sahel designated Garawa, Jarawa or Wangara, and Zaghawa, Zaghai or Songhai. The Tuareg, as well, before intermingling with non-African populations, were undoubtedly representative of ancient populations called Mauri or Mezikes, Pharusii and Levathes in Tripolitania, the Pentapolis, Kabylia and the Aures and Fezzan stretching to Nubia and east of the Nile. Both of these groups, along with the early Fulani or Peul and black "vassal" groups among the Tuareg (Anbat, Inrad, Imghad, Haratin, Ikaradan, Karduwan, Kret, or Izaggaren) undoubtedly contributed to the "Moorish" or black element in Spain and southern Europe and were the bulk of the groups traditionally classified as "Berber" i.e., Sanhaja, Goddala, Masmuda, Zenata, and Hawara, or Luwata.

Anthropological "race" theories of dark or black "Caucasoid" types ("hamite," "Eurafrican" and "Mediterranean race"), colonial conceptions of "the Negro" and modern political constructs of "blackness" in Europe and of the "abid" or slave in the Near East, play a significant role in ethnohistoric interpretations of the origins of early North African Berber and Arabic-speakers. The neglect in contemporary historiography of the biological impact of documented movements of various northern groups over the last several centuries into North Africa and the same latitudes in Asia (including the 'white slave trade") has had deleterious influence on early African historical study. It is a second primary factor contributing to current theoretical constructs that dismiss the predominant role of populations of "black African" and Afro-Arabian affiliation in the ethnic groups first designated "Mauri," Berber and Arab.


School effectiveness is defined in the way it is used in school effectiveness research. Basically this means that between school differences in students' performance are attributed to malleable school variables, after adjustments have been made for student background conditions. Research is guided by conceptual models in which school conditions are often defined at the level of the school context, the school as an organization, and the classroom. A brief summary will be given of the most important results from empirical school effectiveness research. Next the paper will look at conceptual and theory related interpretations that can be given to these results. The ambition of school effectiveness research is to establish malleable factors that are robust and generalizable across different contexts. Examples are: time, opportunity to learn and a structured approach to teaching that includes frequent monitoring of students' progress as classroom level conditions, and supportive ''educational" leadership at school level. The theoretical basis for these factors will be analyzed by looking at more general theories as well as a few "middle range" theories and models. The balance on the appropriateness and usefulness of the school effectiveness research approach will be made up by addressing a few critical issues, such as: the alleged narrowness of the most frequently used effectiveness criteria and the usefulness for educational practice and policy.


OBJECTIVES
The purpose of the study was to (1) determine the prevalence of significant abnormalities in routine chest x-rays used to screen for pulmonary tuberculosis in intravenous drug users and (2) evaluate the ability of the purified protein derivative skin test to identify persons with such abnormalities.

METHODS
We conducted a cross-sectional screening study on 1314 persons admitted to an opiate detoxification unit in an urban jail. Purified protein derivative tuberculin reactivity and the prevalence of abnormalities consistent with tuberculosis on screening chest x-rays were evaluated. The chest x-ray was obtained independent of the skin test.

RESULTS
The chest x-rays of 73 of the inmates (5.6%) showed abnormalities consistent with tuberculosis. Tuberculin skin testing missed 17 of 26 chest x-rays (65%) with significant infiltrates.

CONCLUSIONS
Purified protein derivative screening is insensitive to chest x-ray abnormalities that require additional diagnostic evaluation for tuberculosis. Routine chest studies should be performed on all intravenous drug users admitted to congregate housing settings.


Preliminary results of a cancer incidence survey among Alaskan Natives, 1974-78, indicated that patterns continue to differ from those of U.S. whites. Significantly high risks were found for cancers of the nasopharynx and liver in men, and cancers of the nasopharynx, gallbladder, cervix, and kidney in women. In men, significantly low risks were found for cancers of the prostate and bladder, leukemia, and lymphoma, and in women for cancers of the breast and uterus (excluding cervix), and lymphoma. Results are also given separately for Eskimo-Aleuts and Indians. Compared with Indians, Eskimo-Aleuts had higher risks for nasopharyngeal and liver cancers and lower risks for prostate and breast cancers.


SUMMARY The upregulation of gill Na+/K+-ATPase activity is considered critical for the successful acclimation of salmonid fishes to seawater. The present study examines the mRNA expression of two recently discovered α-subunit isoforms of Na+/K+-ATPase (α1a and α1b) in gill during the seawater acclimation of three species of anadromous salmonids, which vary in their salinity tolerance. Levels of these Na+/K+-ATPase isoforms were compared with Na+/K+-ATPase activity and protein abundance and related to the seawater tolerance of each species. Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) quickly regulated plasma Na+, Cl– and osmolality levels within 10 days of seawater exposure, whereas rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) and Arctic char (Salvelinus alpinus) struggled to ionoregulate, and experienced greater perturbations in plasma ion levels for a longer period of time. In all three species, mRNA levels for theα 1a isoform quickly decreased following seawater exposure whereasα 1b levels increased significantly. All three species displayed similar increases in gill Na+/K+-ATPase activity during seawater acclimation, with levels rising after 10 and 30 days. Freshwater Atlantic salmon gill Na+/K+-ATPase activity and protein content was threefold higher than those of Arctic char and rainbow trout, which may explain their superior seawater tolerance. The role of the α1b isoform may be of particular importance during seawater acclimation of salmonid fishes. The reciprocal expression of Na+/K+-ATPase isoforms α1a and α1b during seawater acclimation suggests they may have different roles in the gills of freshwater and marine fishes; ion uptake in freshwater fish and ion secretion in marine fishes.