Abstract This study describes summer phytoplankton communities in 27 lakes in the Suwałki Landscape Park (SLP) using in situ fluorescence methods. Low chlorophyll-a concentrations were noted in most of the studied lakes, particularly in the deepest lakes with highest surface area. Green algae, diatoms and cryptophyta were dominant components of lake phytoplankton. Higher chlorophyll-a concentrations in the shallow or more eutrophicated lakes were connected with an increase of cyanobacteria and cryptophyta concentrations as well as with a decrease in the share of diatoms inphytoplankton structure. Vertical distribution of phytoplankton in stratified lakes revealed the presence of deep chlorophyll layers just below the thermocline where the maximum concentrations of phytoplankton were up to 15 times higher than in the epilimnion zone. The deepest maximum concentration of phytoplankton was noted at a depth of 16.5 metres in Lake Jeglówek. In some lakes two or three significant increases of phytoplankton concentration in the vertical profile were observed, caused by intensive development of different algae groups.


PURPOSE
Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is capable of providing valuable real-time feedback during medical procedures, partly due to the excellent soft-tissue contrast available. Several technical hurdles still exist to seamless integration of medical devices with MRI due to incompatibility of most conventional devices with this imaging modality. In this study, the effect of local perturbations in the magnetic field caused by the magnetization of medical devices was examined using finite element analysis modeling. As an example, the influence of the geometric and material characteristics of a transurethral high-intensity ultrasound applicator on temperature measurements using proton resonance frequency (PRF)-shift thermometry was investigated.

METHODS
The effect of local perturbations in the magnetic field, caused by the magnetization of medical device components, was examined using finite element analysis modeling. The thermometry artifact generated by a transurethral ultrasound applicator was simulated, and these results were validated against analytic models and scans of an applicator in a phantom. Several parameters were then varied to identify which most strongly impacted the level of simulated thermometry artifact, which varies as the applicator moves over the course of an ablative high-intensity ultrasound treatment.

RESULTS
Key design parameters identified as having a strong influence on the magnitude of thermometry artifact included the susceptibility of materials and their volume. The location of components was also important, particularly when positioned to maximize symmetry of the device. Finally, the location of component edges and the inclination of the device relative to the magnetic field were also found to be important factors.

CONCLUSIONS
Previous design strategies to minimize thermometry artifact were validated, and novel design strategies were identified that substantially reduce PRF-shift thermometry artifacts for a variety of device orientations. These new strategies are being incorporated into the next generation of applicators. The general strategy described in this study can be applied to the design of other interventional devices intended for use with MRI.


Aims: The state old-age pension in Denmark increases to keep pace with the projected increase in average life expectancy (LE) without any regard to the social gap in LE and expected lifetime in good health. The purpose of this study was to compare changes in LE and disability-free life expectancy (DFLE) between groups of Danes with high, medium and low levels of education. Methods: Nationwide register data on education and mortality were combined with data from the Surveys of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) surveys in 2006–2007, 2010–2011 and 2013–2014 and the DFLE by educational level was estimated by Sullivan's method for each of these three time points. Results: Between 2006–2007 and 2013–2014, LE among 65-year-old men and women with a low educational level increased by 1.3 and 1.0 years, respectively, and by 1.4 and 1.3 years for highly educated men and women. The gap in LE between people with high and low levels of education remained more than 2 years. In 2006–2007, 65-year-old men with a high level of education could expect 3.2 more years without disability than men of the same age with a low level of education. In 2013–2014, the difference was 2.9 years. For women, the results were 3.7 and 3.4 years, respectively. Conclusions: With the persistent social inequality in LE of more than 2 years and the continuous gap between high and low educational groups in DFLE of about 3 years, a differential pension age is recommended.


The adamalysins (ADAMs) are transmembrane glycoproteins involved in cell adhesion and proteolytic ectodomain processing of cytokines and adhesion molecules. Many ADAM cytoplasmic domains are proline-rich and have potential phosphorylation sites. We show here that the cytoplasmic domain of ADAM15, metargidin, can interact specifically with Src family protein-tyrosine kinases (PTKs) and the adaptor protein Grb2 in hematopoietic cells (Jurkat, THP-1, U937, and K562 cell lines). Src homology 3 domains from several Src family PTKs including Lck, Fyn, Abl, and Src associate with ADAM15in vitro. Dephosphorylation of cell extracts resulted in decreased association of ADAM15 with Src family PTK SH3 domains, indicating that phosphorylation influences ADAM15 interactions with its binding partners. This was confirmed in vitro for Hck, Lck, and Grb2, which showed enhanced association with tyrosine-phosphorylated glutathione S-transferase-ADAM15 cytoplasmic domain compared with unphosphorylated protein. In contrast, binding of MAD2 to ADAM15 was slightly reduced by phosphorylation of the ADAM. Immunoprecipitation of ADAM15 from Jurkat cells confirmed the association with Lck in vivo, and upon PMA stimulation, the phosphorylation level of ADAM15 was increased. Cotransfection of ADAM15 and Hck showed Hck-dependent phosphorylation of ADAM15in vivo. Hck, and to a lesser extent Lck, phosphorylated the ADAM15 cytoplasmic domain in vitro in immune complex kinase assays. Binding of ADAM15 cytoplasmic domain to Hck and Lck was also shown by Far Western analysis. In contrast to Hck, Lck activity was not required for binding to ADAM15, as shown by treatment of cells with PP1. Deletion and point mutation analysis of the ADAM15 cytoplasmic domain confirmed the importance of the proline-rich motifs for Grb2 and Lck binding and indicated the regulatory nature of Tyr715 and Tyr735. These data demonstrate selective, phosphorylation-dependent interactions of ADAM15 with Src family PTKs and Grb2, which highlight the potential for integration of ADAM functions and cellular signaling.


ABSTRACT
In today's world the focus on environment and climate is higher than ever. Especially the
change in rivers and coastal areas has crucial impact on peoples lives all over the world.
The world saw in 2004 the devastating effect of a tsunami killing over 230,000 people in
fourteen countries bordering the Indian Ocean. The tsunami had waves up to 30 meters high
and the world donated more than $14 billion U.S. dollars in humanitarian aid. Having
efficient tools to try and predict such events has potential to save hundreds of thousands of
lives and billions of dollars. It is therefore essential in today's modern society.
DHI have developed a 2D free-surface flow numerical engine called MIKE 21 HD
(hydrodynamic module) in order to simulate water movements. This application can simulate
water movement in lakes, estuaries, bays, coastal areas and seas, based on rain, tidal
variation, wind etc, but also including prediction of tidal hydraulics, wind and wave generated
currents, storm surges, waves in harbours, dam-breaks and tsunamis. MIKE 21 HD uses a
set of hyperbolic partial differential equations that describe the flow below a pressured
surface in a fluid. These equations are solved numerically on a rectangular grid, using a
finite difference method (FDM). The solution scheme that is used is the Alternating Direction
Implicit (ADI) method. The simulation speed of the program is very important because it
determines how big and how many problems can be solved in a given amount of time.
Sometimes in order to get accurate understanding of the changes in a given area, hundreds
of simulations have to be run. Therefore improving the computing speed has the potential to
increase the kind and size of optimization problems where MIKE 21 HD is applicable and
thereby open new market segments for DHI. This means that the project is both very
relevant and that a satisfying result with certainty will be applied by DHI.
For this reason the focus of the project is on improving the simulation speed while
maintaining the accuracy of the program. This will be done by implementing the program to
run on a graphics processing unit (GPU) to exploit the massively parallelism of the
architecture. In order to do this a parallel solution scheme must be developed and different
parallel algorithms must be developed and tested in order to utilize the potential of the GPU.
The technology for doing this is relatively new. In 2006 NVIDIA published CUDA to run on
NVIDIA's CUDA-enabled GPUs as the world's first solution for general-computing on GPUs.
This means that very little research has been done in this domain and the project is
therefore highly innovative.
Throughout the project it has become clear that there are two different approaches that
are beneficial according to the size of the grid. This is because for small grids there are less
"work" to be performed by the hardware and therefore it is important to utilize the fast
internal memory of the GPU to improve performance speed. This also means that in order to
solve the tri-diagonal systems for each line in the grid, a new algorithm has to be used. We
found a modified version of parallel cyclic reduction to be beneficial for small grids and a
modified version of the more common Thomas algorithm for larger grids.
The different approaches resulted in approximately 25x speedup when using the GPU
compared to the CPU, independently of the problem size. This means that a simulation that
before took a day now can be performed in less than an hour!
This is a very significant improvement and a very satisfying result. Future work now
involves implementing the developed solution schemes in MIKE 21 HD so the performance
gain will be utilized in real life.


The particle proteins of tobraviruses and tobamoviruses share six sequence motifs, two of which are also present in furoviruses and hordeiviruses. Analyses of four different polyclonal antisera to tobacco rattle tobravirus by Pepscan revealed that the C-terminal region of the particle protein was immunodominant. The N-terminal region and a central region (residues 110-121) were more weakly immunogenic. These results suggest that these regions are exposed externally on the assembled virus particle. Papain digestion showed that the C terminus can be removed without apparent structural damage to the particle. The external location of the C-terminal region along the sides of the particle could explain some transmission properties of the rod-shaped viruses.


To investigate the effect of air flow in an pneumatic splicer on splicing performance, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model has been developed to simulate the air flow characteristics in an splicing chamber. Three-dimensional numerical simulation is conducted and standard K-ε turbulence model is used. Velocity distributions in the chamber are presented and analyzed. The computational results show that the velocities in the chamber are transonic. The air flows in the chamber are two swirling flows with opposite directions. This work also shows that CFD technique can provide a better understanding of the behavior of the high speed air flow in the air splicing chamber.


The existence of a dose‐response relationship between indoor allergen exposure and sensitization has been widely described, but the effect of allergen exposure on asthma activity (symptoms, bronchial hyperresponsiveness [BHR], and inflammation) is not clear. Our aim was to determine the existence of an association among current exposure to mite allergens and symptoms, BHR, and airway inflammation assessed in blood and sputum from asthmatic patients sensitized to Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus. We selected 31 mild and recently diagnosed (12–24 months) asthma patients sensitized to D. pteronyssinus. Allergenic exposure (Der p 1, Der 2) was assessed by a commercial assay based on monoclonal antibodies (mAb), carried out on the dust samples collected from patients' beds in a standardized way. Patients completed an asthma symptom questionnaire and underwent skin tests, methacholine bronchial challenge, and sputum induction. Sputum cell profile was analyzed and eosinophil cationic protein (ECP), tryptase, albumin, and interleukin(IL)‐5 levels were quantified in sputum supernatant. Total eosinophil numbers and ECP levels were measured in blood samples. Most patients were exposed to Der p 1 levels under 2 μg/g of dust. Der p 1 exposure was higher among the subjects with positive sputum tryptase detection (P=0.020). Der p 1 levels showed a trend toward correlation with asthma symptoms (P=0.066, r=0.36) and correlated with sputum tryptase levels (P=0.032, r=0.42). No relationship between BHR, eosinophilic inflammation, and allergenic exposure was found. Our results suggest that asthma symptoms and lung mast‐cell activation are at least partially dependent on current allergen exposure. The lack of correlation between mite exposure, eosinophilic inflammation, and BHR supports the role of other factors that enhance the immunologic response initiated by allergen, increasing the activity of asthma.


Fatigue crack propagation of aluminium alloy 7049-OA has been studied by non-linear finite element business-oriented software ABAQUS, and elastic-plastic finite element models of static fatigue crack and dynamic fatigue crack of center crack panel (CCP) specimens are also built. Based on the finite element computation results, the differences of stress and crack opening displacement around crack tip of static crack model have been compared with those of dynamic crack model. The compared results showed that the finite element computation results of dynamic crack model can be replaced by the results calculated by the static crack model. Fatigue crack tip parameters of aluminium alloy CCP specimens can be calculated by elastic-plastic finite element model of static crack. This is an effective method to cut down the computation expense and promote the computational efficiency.


Background: Metformin has been associated with a significant reduction in cancer incidence and mortality in diabetic patients relative to other antidiabetic drugs, including positive results specifically in breast cancer. In a recent window-of-opportunity trial in 200 non-diabetic women with breast cancer, we showed a heterogeneous effect of metformin on breast cancer proliferation (Ki-67 labeling index) depending on insulin resistance, with a trend to a decreased proliferation in women with insulin resistance (HOMA>2.8) and an opposite trend in women with normal insulin sensitivity (Bonanni et al. JCO 30:2593, 2012). Here we performed an exploratory study to determine whether metformin has antiproliferative effects on adjacent lobular or ductal intraepithelial neoplasia (LIN or DIN) and on distant ductal hyperplasia and whether these effects are different according to specific host and tumor characteristics. Previous studies showed that Ki-67 LI in atypical lesions predicts subsequent breast cancer risk. Methods: Baseline core biopsies of tumor tissue and blood samples were obtained at study entry and before surgery for pre/post-treatment comparisons. Patients were randomly assigned to metformin, 850 mg or placebo once daily on day 1-3 followed by two 850 mg tablets from day 4 to 28. At the time of surgical removal of the tumor, three to five specimens of adjacent (≥1 cm from the tumor) and distant (>1 cm from the tumor) grossly normal tissue (i.e., the surgical margins of quadrantectomy or lumpectomy, or the grossly free quadrants from mastectomy specimens) were obtained to assess systematically the prevalence of LIN or DIN and ductal hyperplasia. Results: Overall, the prevalence of LIN, DIN and ductal hyperplasia was 4.5% (9/200), 66.5% (133/200) and 35% (69/200), respectively. The Ki-67 LI was positively associated with DIN grade (p-trend<0.001). The median (and IQ range) Ki-67 LI distribution of LIN+DIN was 12% (8-20) and 10% (6-22) on metformin and placebo, respectively (p=0.6), nor was there a significant difference of Ki-67 LI in any subgroup between treatment arms. However, compared with placebo, metformin exhibited different effects on Ki-67 according to DIN grade (delta=+4.4% in DIN1 vs -27.9% in DIN3, p-interaction=0.09), cancer HER2 status (median 12% vs. 10% in HER2-ve and 28% vs. 35% in HER2+ve, p-interaction=0.03), abdominal circumference (p=0.08), and BMI (p=0.17). Conclusions: Our findings illustrate the notion that the window of opportunity pre-surgical model provides insight into a drug's preventive potential by targeting tumor adjacent dysplastic (or intraepithelial neoplastic) cells and distant ductal hyperplastic cells. The model unravels the existence of the field cancerization effect in apparently normal breast tissue. Similar to our results on breast cancer tissue, metformin had no overall significant effect on breast preneoplasia proliferation but exhibited heterogeneous effects depending upon specific host and preneoplasia characteristics. Further studies are necessary to better understand the clinical implications of these findings. (Supported by the Italian Association for Cancer Research and Italian Ministry of Health 2009-RF-1532226). Citation Format: Andrea DeCensi, Valentina Aristarco, Matteo Lazzeroni, Clara Varricchio, Bernardo Bonanni, Matteo Puntoni, Giancarlo Pruneri, Massimiliano Cazzaniga, Andrea Vingiani, Davide Serrano, Aliana Guerrieri-Gonzaga, Oreste Gentilini, Harriet Johansson. Metformin effects on breast preneoplasia. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr SS-01.


AIM: To investigate the cellular effects of hybrid polar compound hexamethylene bisacetamide (HMBA) on the growth and apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma cells and to provide the molecular mechanism for potential application of HMBA in the treatment of liver cancer. METHODS: Effects of HMBA on the growth of human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells were assayed by MTT chronometry. Apoptosis induced by HMBA was detected by phase-contrast microscopy, flow cytometry, propidium iodide staining and immunocytochemical analysis. RESULTS: The growth of SMMC-7721 cells was significantly inhibited by HMBA, and the growth inhibitory rate was 51.1%, 62.6%, 68.7% and 73.9% respectively after treatment with 5.0, 7.5, 10.0 and 12.5 mmol/L of HMBA. In the cells treated with 10 mmol/L of HMBA for 72 h, the population of cells at sub-G1 phase significantly increased, and the apoptotic bodies and condensed nuclei were detected. Moreover, treatment of SMMC-7721 cells with 10 mmol/L of HMBA down-regulated the expression of Bcl2 anti-apoptotic protein, while slightly up-regulated the level of pro-apoptotic protein Bax. CONCLUSION: Treatment with 10.0 mmol/L of HMBA can significantly inhibit the growth and induce apoptosis of human hepatocellular carcinoma SMMC-7721 cells by decreasing the ratio of Bcl-2 to Bax.


Abstract This study aims to utilise thyme oil (TO) as a natural growth promoter in comparison to mannanoligosaccharides (MOS) for broilers raised under hot climates from 1 to 28 days of age. Thus, a total of 180, day-old broilers chicks were divided into five groups (36 broilers/group in 6 replicates of 6 broilers/replicate). The chickens were fed the same corn-soybean meal basal diet and were submitted to one of the following five dietary treatments: (a) positive control group, fed the basal diet supplemented with MOS at 1g/kg feed; (b) negative control group, fed the basal diet without supplementation; (c) thyme oil 1.0 (TO_1.0) group fed TO at 1.0 g/kg feed, (d) thyme oil 1.5 (TO_1.5) group fed TO at 1.5 g/kg feed and (e) thyme oil 2.0 (TO_2.0) group fed TO at 2.0 g/kg feed. The TO_1.0 displayed a better feed conversion ratio (FCR) than did the other treatments (p < .01). The MOS, TO_1.5 and TO_2.0 groups had higher (p < .01) plasma total protein than the control, and TO_1.5 also increased plasma globulin (p < .01) compared to the control, but decreased plasma albumin/globulin ratio. Moreover, the TO groups significantly decreased the plasma AST. Groups on the MOS and TO_1.0 diets showed higher (p < .01) white blood cells (WBCs) than the other groups. In addition, the MOS and TO_2.0 groups exhibited a greater (p < .01) antibody titre to infectious bursa disease (IBD) than the control group. In conclusion, TO at 1.0 g/kg diet may be used as a potential growth enhancer for broilers in hot region during 1–28 days.


Variable selection is a very helpful procedure for improving computational speed and prediction accuracy by identifying the most important variables that related to the response variable. Regression modeling has received much attention in several science fields. Firefly algorithm is one of the recently efficient proposed nature-inspired algorithms that can efficiently be employed for variable selection. In this work, chaotic firefly algorithm is proposed to perform variable selection for gamma regression model.  A real data application related to the chemometrics is conducted to evaluate the performance of the proposed method in terms of prediction accuracy and variable selection criteria. Further, its performance is compared with other methods. The results proved the efficiency of our proposed methods and it outperforms other popular methods.


A cDNA microarray is a complex biochemical-optical system whose purpose is the simultaneous measurement of gene expression for thousands of genes. In this paper we propose a general statistical approach to finding associations between the expression patterns of genes via the coefficient of determination. This coefficient measures the degree to which the transcriptional levels of an observed gene set can be used to improve the prediction of the transcriptional state of a target gene relative to the best possible prediction in the absence of observations. The method allows incorporation of knowledge of other conditions relevant to the prediction, such as the application of particular stimuli or the presence of inactivating gene mutations, as predictive elements affecting the expression level of a given gene. Various aspects of the method are discussed: prediction quantification, unconstrained prediction, constrained prediction using ternary perceptrons, and design of predictors given small numbers of replicated microarrays. The method is applied to a set of genes undergoing genotoxic stress for validation according to the manner in which it points toward previously known and unknown relationships. The entire procedure is supported by software that can be applied to large gene sets, has a number of facilities to simplify data analysis, and provides graphics for visualizing experimental data, multiple gene interaction, and prediction logic.


In this article, the polyaniline(PANI) spherical nanoparticles were synthesized by the way of emulsion polymerization. The effects of emulsifier concentration on the morphology and electrical properties were systematic studied. The structure of PANI prepared by this method was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), transmission electron microscope (TEM). The electrochemical and capacitive behavior of PANI prepared by this way was systematically studied by cyclic voltammetry(CV) and electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) tests. The results showed that we obtained PANI spherical nanoparticles with diameter about 100nm and it had good electrochemical performance.


Abstract This paper explores some of the aspects of embedded retaining wall design, in particular the interrelationship between system uncertainty and the use of factors of safety in the various design procedures. System uncertainty reflects the mismatch between idealised retaining wall behaviour and what is observed in practice. This feature is modelled using the concept of fuzzy sets where the degree of support for the lateral stress state at failure is considered and related to current limit equilibrium design methods, measured lateral pressures and the results of finite element analyses. The proposed model is shown to have some advantages over current design practice.


Purpose This study investigates the impact of incorporating observer-reported workload into workplace-based assessment (WBA) scores on (1) psychometric characteristics of WBA scores and (2) measuring changes in performance over time using workload-unadjusted versus workload-adjusted scores. Method Structured clinical observations and multisource feedback instruments were used to collect WBA data from first-year pediatrics residents at 10 residency programs between July 2016 and June 2017. Observers completed items in 8 subcompetencies associated with Pediatrics Milestones. Faculty and resident observers assessed workload using a sliding scale ranging from low to high; all item scores were rescaled to a 1–5 scale to facilitate analysis and interpretation. Workload-adjusted WBA scores were calculated at the item level using three different approaches, and aggregated for analysis at the competency level. Mixed-effects regression models were used to estimate variance components. Longitudinal growth curve analyses examined patterns of developmental score change over time. Results On average, participating residents (n = 252) were assessed 5.32 times (standard deviation = 3.79) by different raters during the data collection period. Adjusting for workload yielded better discrimination of learner performance, and higher reliability, reducing measurement error by 28%. Projections in reliability indicated needing up to twice the number of raters when workload-unadjusted scores were used. Longitudinal analysis showed an increase in scores over time, with significant interaction between workload and time; workload also increased significantly over time. Conclusions Incorporating a measure of observer-reported workload could improve the measurement properties and the ability to interpret WBA scores.


Domestic abuse is an increasing public health concern, and the relationship between such abuse and poor health is now recognised. Guidance produced in 2012 by Co-ordinated Action Against Domestic Abuse, the Identification and Referral to Improve Safety programme, and the Royal College of General Practitioners encourages general practices to establish a domestic abuse care pathway, so that the correct processes for identifying and responding to domestic abuse are followed. A care pathway is necessary because there is evidence that healthcare professionals' responses to domestic abuse are not always helpful. This guidance has the potential to improve the way that healthcare professionals in primary care respond to domestic abuse. While supporting the guidance, suggestions are made for nurses to develop the care pathway further.


In this work, the design and testing of a new LCF double notch specimen geometry is presented. The deterministic CMB model and a probabilistic model for LCF which considers size effects are simultaneously applied as shape optimization functional. In order to demonstrate the potential of the statistical size effect consideration, the probability of crack initiation is maximized in the milder notch while the deterministic LCF life is minimized in the sharp notch. This also increases the likeliness of an experimental validation success considering the issues of high scatter in material properties and limited test resources (test plan optimization). Specimens of a high-chromium forged steel for elevated application temperatures have been manufactured according to this specimen design and a systematic and advanced experimental testing campaign is conducted to prove the hypothesis. In-situ time-resolved alternating current potential drop measurements in combination with load-triggered digital image acquisition at both notches are applied in order to enable determination and quantification of crack initiation and growth at superior accuracy during LCF cycling. These experimental and further post-experimental analyses confirm that cracking in the mild notch always occurred in the first place which has been expected for most test outcomes according to the probabilistic model predictions. Crack initiation in the sharp notches on the other hand, which has been expected to occur first on the basis of conventional deterministic predictions, could not be detected at all.


Conventional organic and inorganic drug nanocarriers suffer from serious drawbacks such as low drug-storage capacity and uncontrolled release. Moreover, multidrug resistance (MDR) has been one of the primary causes leading to chemotherapy failure for cancers. The main reason for MDR is the overexpressed active efflux transporters such as P-glycoprotein. Here, zeolitic imidazolate framework ZIF-8, as one of the biocompatible metal organic frameworks (MOFs), is reported for the first time as the multidrug carrier to realizing the efficient codelivery of verapamil hydrochloride (VER) as the P-glycoprotein inhibitor as well as doxorubicin hydrochloride (DOX) as an anticancer drug to overcome the MDR in addition to realize the active targeted ability for an efficient anticancer effect. Uniform ZIF-8 nanoparticles encapsulating DOX and VER are achieved by a facile one-pot process, in which the VER is used to overcome the multidrug resistance. Furthermore, methoxy poly(ethylene glycol)-folate (PEG-FA) is used to stabilize the (DOX+VER)@ZIF-8 to realize prolonged circulations and an active targeting drug delivery. In particular, the ZIF-8 exhibits high drug loading content up to ∼40.9% with a pH-triggered release behavior. Importantly, the PEG-FA/(DOX+VER)@ZIF-8 shows enhanced therapeutic efficiencies with much safety compared with the direct administration of free DOX both in vitro and in vivo. Near infrared fluorescent (NIRF) imaging indicates that the PEG-FA/(DOX+VER)@ZIF-8 can increase the drug accumulations in tumors for targeted cancer therapy. Therefore, the PEG-FA/(DOX+VER)@ZIF-8 multidrug delivery system can be used as a promising efficient formulation in reversing the multidrug resistance for targeted cancer therapy.


Mastitis occurs after bacteria successfully traverse the teat orifice and cause an intramammary infection. Anatomical characteristics of the teat are potential risk factors for infection. The objective of this study was to identify potential associations between anatomical characteristics of teats and quarter-level somatic cell count (QSCC) from cows on larger dairy farms in Wisconsin. Teat dimensions (length and diameter at the teat barrel and apex) were measured, and hyperkeratosis scores were assessed for 3,713 quarters of 959 cows on 9 dairy farms. The SCC of quarter milk samples obtained from those teats was determined. Multivariate models were used to determine associations of teat anatomical characteristics with QSCC. Subclinical mastitis was defined as a quarter milk sample with SCC of >150,000 cells/mL. Teat dimensions and milk components varied among farms. In the group of farms enrolled in this study, prevalence of subclinical mastitis in mammary gland quarters ranged from 13.6 to 28.9%. An interaction of teat apex diameter and quarter position (front or rear) was identified for QSCC. For both front and rear quarters, a tendency existed for narrower teat barrels to be associated with increased QSCC. However, for front quarters only, greater diameter of the teat apex was associated with increased QSCC. Teat shape (square or triangular teats) was not associated with QSCC. Milk samples obtained from teats with hyperkeratosis scores of very rough had greater QSCC compared with milk samples obtained from teats with hyperkeratosis scores of normal, smooth ring, or rough ring.


This report provides nationwide and state-specific estimates of U.S. health care administration spending and potential savings in 2003 were the United States to institute a Canadian-style national health insurance system. The United States wastes more on health care bureaucracy than it would cost to provide health care to all its uninsured. Administrative expenses will consume at least $399.4 billion of a total health expenditure of $1,660.5 billion in 2003. Streamlining administrative overhead to Canadian levels would save approximately $286.0 billion in 2003, $6,940 for each of the 41.2 million Americans who were uninsured as of 2001. This is substantially more than would be needed to provide full insurance coverage. The cost of excess health bureaucracy in individual states is equally striking. For example, Massachusetts, with 560,000 uninsured state residents, could save about $8,556 million in 2003 ($16,453 per uninsured resident of that state) if it streamlined administration to Canadian levels. New Mexico, with 373,000 uninsured, could save $1,500 million on health bureaucracy ($4,022 per uninsured resident). Only a single-payer national health insurance system could garner these massive administrative savings, allowing universal coverage without any increase in total health spending. Because incremental reforms necessarily preserve the current fragmented and duplicative payment structure, they cannot achieve significant bureaucratic savings.


Background and aims A through knowledge of the root canal morphology is required for successful endodontic ther-apy. The aim of this study was to investigate the root and canal morphology of mandibular third molars in Kerman, a prov-ince in southeast of Iran. Materials and methods One-hundred-fifty extracted mandibular third molars were collected randomly from different dental clinics in Kerman. The root canal anatomy and morphology of each tooth was carefully studied using a clearing tech-nique. Root number and morphology, number of canals per root, root canal configuration according to Vertucci classifica-tion, and incidence of dilacerated roots and C-shaped canals in mandibular third molars were evaluated under stereomicro-scope with ×2 to ×3 magnifications. Results From the total of 150 mandibular third molars studied, 21% had one root. The majority of teeth (73%) had two roots. 5.5% of the teeth had three roots. The incidence of C-shaped canal was 3.5% in this study and 8% of the teeth had at least one dilacerated root. Conclusion Although root canal anatomy and morphology of mandibular third molars is very variable having two roots seems to be the normal anatomy for these teeth.


Abstract Long-range temporal choices are built into contemporary policy-making, with policy decisions having consequences that play out across generations. Decisions are made on behalf of the public who are assumed to give much greater weight to their welfare than to the welfare of future generations. The paper investigates this assumption. It briefly discusses evidence from sociological and economic studies before reporting the findings of a British survey of people's intergenerational time preferences based on a representative sample of nearly 10,000 respondents. Questions focused on two sets of policies: (i) health policies to save lives and (ii) environmental policies to protect against floods that would severely damage homes, businesses and other infrastructure. For both sets of policies, participants were offered a choice of three policy options, each bringing greater or lesser benefits to their, their children's and their grandchildren's generations. For both saving lives and protecting against floods, only a minority selected the policy that most benefited their generation; the majority selected policies bringing equal or greater benefits to future generations. Our study raises questions about a core assumption of standard economic evaluation, pointing instead to concern for future generations as a value that many people hold in common.


CASE REPORTS Case 1: We present a 5 year-old female patient with ligament laxity who started on August 1992 at 4 years of age when doing voluntary medial rotation and adduction of the hip, she presents with a posterior dislocation of the hip joint and voluntary reduction, with no more clinical data. Later on she realizes voluntary dislocation of the hip from three to five times a week, without pain or any clinical findings. She was evaluated by the Genetics Department who isn't able to integrate a syndrome. X-ray findings on the AP view show a right hip with a posterior dislocation, and a normal left hip. Case 2: We present a 7 year-old male patient who started on August 2001 when he suffered a fall from his own height over his right side, and presented an asymptomatic anterior dislocation of the right hip. From this moment on he presented multiple events of involuntary dislocation of the right hip. X-ray findings on the AP view show an anterior dislocation of the right hip. A Ponseti cast was used over night and the patients were educated to not dislocate the hip. They received yearly follow up until August 2004, with no more dislocations of the hip joint. The conservative treatment plan was effective as a definite treatment.


This paper discusses the results of 649 rhinoseptoplastic and 139 rhinoconchoplastic operations performed according to modified methods of Killian and Cottle. The surgical intervention led to the following complications: 1) deformation of the nasal septum in the vestibule area (11 patients); 2) perforation of the nasal septum of atrophic origin (15 patients); 3) saddle-like deformation of external nose (7 patients); 4) vibration of the nasal septum which occurred in most patients after total resection of the cartilage and vomer. The author elaborated methods of plastic operations of: the vestibule of the nose in order to prevent its postoperative deformation, the vomerine zone in order to preserve intraosseous vessels in the foramen incisivum area, the ridge of the nose in order to avoid the saddle-like nose, and implantation of the zigzag cartilage graft in order to prevent vibration of the nasal septum. Analysis of the rhinoconchoplastic operations allowed the author to propose medial positioning of the nasal concha in the case of hypotrophic rhinitis and implantation of autocartilage into the nasal concha in order to enlarge it in the case of hypotrophy.


Epilepsy is one of the most common serious neurological disorders leading to significant consequences for the affected. Despite the wealth of epidemiological data, there are still many unanswered questions. The major challenges in epidemiological research relate to the fact that epilepsy is a heterogeneous condition which hampers the evaluation of subgroups of e.g. different seizure/epilepsy types and age groups. The overall objective of the present research was to describe the incidence and some selected risk factors for unprovoked seizures/epilepsy in a large representative population based cohort. Four studies were carried out, using the Stockholm Incidence Registry of Epilepsy (SIRE), a large cohort of incident cases with unprovoked seizures and epilepsy. We first analysed the ageand sex-specific incidence of unprovoked seizures/epilepsy in Stockholm, Sweden. The age-adjusted incidence for unprovoked seizures/epilepsy was 40.4 for males, and 30.7 for females, and in the lower range of the incidence rates reported from Europe and the US. Although our incidence rates suggest a possible under-ascertainment in particular among the elderly, the distribution of cases by gender, seizure type and aetiology indicate that there is no major selection bias. We then performed three separate case-control studies with cases from SIRE, the controls taken from the Population and Housing Census, and exposure defined as a hospital discharge diagnosis using ICD codes from the Swedish Hospital Discharge Registry. Case-control data were linked to the hospital discharge registry to identify a history of in-hospital care for the diagnoses chosen, from 1980 up to the year of the index seizure and also after the index seizure. When analysing the risk of developing unprovoked seizures/epilepsy after hospitalization for stroke, diabetes and myocardial infarction, we could confirm, previously known increased risks of developing unprovoked seizures after intracerebral haemorrhage, odds ratio (OR) 7.2 (95% confidence interval (CI) 3.9-13.6) and cerebral infarction, OR 9.4 (95% CI 6.7-13.1), and a less pronounced risk increase after hospitalization for acute myocardial infarction, OR 1.7 (95% CI 1.4-2.8). The risk of developing unprovoked seizures/epilepsy was substantial even more than 7 years after the stroke. Socioeconomic belonging was also studied as a potential risk factor for development of unprovoked seizures/epilepsy, and we did not find an association between socioeconomic class and risk of unprovoked seizures. Psychiatric disorders as risk factors for seizures/epilepsy was analysed, and increased rates were observed both predating, (OR 2.5 (95% CI 1.7-3.7) for depression, OR 2.7 (95% CI 1.4-5.3) for bipolar disorder, OR 2.3 (95%CI 1.5-3.5) for psychosis, and OR 2.6 (95% CI 1.7-4.1) for suicide attempt), as well as succeeding seizure onset. We further analysed the risk, (OR, 95%CI), of developing unprovoked seizures/epilepsy after hospitalization for multiple sclerosis (MS), systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The risk of unprovoked seizures was increased in patients with a hospital discharge diagnosis of MS, OR 3.5 (95% CI 1.5-8.1) and even more so for patients with SLE, OR 8.0 (95% CI 2.2-30.0), whereas RA was not associated with an increased risk, OR 1.2 (95% CI 0.5-2.9). We also found a comparatively high age and advanced disability at seizure onset as well as a long lag time from diagnosis of MS and SLE until seizure onset.


Current understanding of the oxygen reduction and proton translocation processes in cytochrome c oxidase is largely derived from the data obtained by a nonphysiological method for initiating the catalytic reaction: photolyzing carbon monoxide (CO) from the CO-inhibited enzyme in the presence of oxygen (O2). However, considerable evidence suggests that the use of CO introduces artifacts into the reaction mechanism. We have therefore developed a rapid solution mixer with a mixing time of 20 μs to study the catalytic reaction by directly mixing the enzyme with O2without using CO. Unexpectedly, the resonance Raman scattering detected for the first 120 μs after the mixing show that the CO influences neither the structure of the primary oxy-intermediate, its rate of decay, nor the rate of oxidation of cytochrome a. This implies that CO has an effect on the later stages of the catalytic process, which may involve the proton translocation steps, and calls for the re-examination of the catalytic process by using the direct mixing method. In addition, these results demonstrate the feasibility of using the rapid mixing device for the study of biological reactions in the microsecond time domain.


We report here a hepatoma-targeting multi-responsive biodegradable crosslinked nanogel, poly(6-O-vinyladipoyl-D-galactose-ss-N-vinylcaprolactam-ss-methacrylic acid) P(ODGal-VCL-MAA), using a combination of enzymatic transesterification and emulsion copolymerization for intracellular drug delivery. The nanogel exhibited redox, pH and temperature-responsive properties, which can be adjusted by varying the monomer feeding ratio. Furthermore, the volume phase transition temperature (VPTT) of the nanogels was close to body temperature and can result in rapid thermal gelation at 37 °C. Scanning electron microscopy also revealed that the P(ODGal-VCL-MAA) nanogel showed uniform spherical monodispersion. With pyrene as a probe, the fluorescence excitation spectra demonstrated nanogel degradation in response to glutathione (GSH). X-ray diffraction (XRD) showed an amorphous property of DOX within the nanogel, which was used in this study as a model anti-cancer drug. Drug-releasing characteristics of the nanogel were examined in vitro. The results showed multi-responsiveness of DOX release by the variation of environmental pH values, temperature or the availability of GSH, a biological reductase. An in vitro cytotoxicity assay showed a higher anti-tumor activity of the galactose-functionalized DOX-loaded nanogels against human hepatoma HepG2 cells, which was, at least in part, due to specific binding between the galactose segments and the asialoglycoprotein receptors (ASGP-Rs) in hepatic cells. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and flow cytometric profiles further confirmed elevated cellular uptake of DOX by the galactose-functionalised nanogels. Thus, we report here a multi-responsive P(ODGal-VCL-MAA) nanogel with a hepatoma-specific targeting ability for anti-cancer drug delivery.


: Influence of water solutions of chemically pure adaptogens--a synthetic analog of Rhodiola rosea extract phenol combination (SAR) and Dibazol on the functional activity of mice hemopoietic cells in vitro was studied. A clear periodical character of drugs effects manifestation with a tendency to the stimulating activity domination was revealed. A reliable stimulation of clonogenic activity was in correlation with 4 x 10(-11) and 4 x 10(-15) adaptogens molecules in SAR and Dibazol solutions per 1 blood marrow cell. This phenomenon is suggested to be connected with the solvent (water) molecules changes and the formation of structures, keeping the information of adaptogenes with possible translation of the latter during the process of consistent dissolution of the solvent.


In order to study the role of CD34+ cells in hematological recovery following bone marrow transplantation (BMT), bone marrow cells stained with HPCA‐1 (CD34) and MY‐9 (CD33) monoclonal antibodies were analyzed by using a fluorescence‐activated cell sorter on or about days 14 and 28, as well as at later times, following BMT in 6 recipients. Single cell cultures of CD34+ cells were also performed to evaluate their in vitro hematopoietic function. CD34+ cells were detectable in bone marrow cells on day 14. More than 80% of CD34+ cells co‐expressed the CD33 antigen, and macrophage (Mac) colony‐forming cells predominated among total colony‐forming cells of CD34+ cells. In normal bone marrow cells, CD34+, CD33+ cells amounted to about 40% of CD34+ cells, and the incidences of erythroid bursts, granulocyte/macrophage (GM) colonies, and Mac colonies were similar to each other. After more than 10 weeks, CD34+, CD33− cells gradually recovered, as erythroid burst colony‐forming cells increased following GM colony‐forming cells. This phenomenon was well‐correlated with the time course of peripheral blood cell recovery. CD34+, CD33+ cells as committed progenitors and CD34+, CD33− cells as multipotent stem cells have distinctive biological behaviors in BMT.


ABSTRACT This article investigates how political ambitions are translated into military practice in the small Norwegian contribution to the International Coalition against ISIL in Iraq from 2017 to 2019. The most important Norwegian political aims do not correspond clearly to a military objective, and thus military practice must take on a symbolic function. Understanding the processes of translation that this requires and the social complexity of operating with such aims with partners and Coalition forces is not straight-forward. The analysis of my interviews with commanders and seconds-in-command concludes by suggesting that such missions may require small-state militaries like the Norwegian to reconceive what constitutes core military practices, and that practice theory or the wider disciplines of sociology and anthropology may inform such a reconception.


As the TFT-LCDs are getting more attention for the next generation display device, specifications of the mechanical functionalities of the device is to be more tighter as well as the electrical user specifications. Due to its brittle characteristics of TFT-LCD panels, maintaining mechanical integrity under an impact loading situation is the one of the key design concerns. Furthermore, as the TFT-LCDs are popularly adopted for various mobile equipments such as cellular phones and digital cameras, shock failure of the display should be prohibitive for the design engineers. A major incident being monitored during the shock loading is of course the local material failure of the TFT-LCD panel that might happen at its maximum deformation. The present work delivers a systematic approach for the shockproof design of mobile TFT-LCD. A specially designed shock test setup evaluated by a set of rigorous FEM analyses is shown and comments for the shockproof method is to be also delineated.


A set of vectors (or signals) are jointly sparse if all their nonzero entries are found on a small number of rows (or columns). Consider a network of agents {i} that collaboratively recover a set of jointly sparse vectors {x(i)} from their linear measurements {y(i)}. Assume that every agent i collects its own measurement y(i) and aims to recover its own vector x(i) taking advantages of the joint sparsity structure. This paper proposes novel decentralized algorithms to recover these vectors in a way that every agent runs a recovery algorithm and exchanges with its neighbors only the estimated joint support of the vectors. The agents will obtain their solutions through collaboration while keeping their vectors' values and measurements private. As such, the proposed approach finds applications in distributed human action recognition, cooperative spectrum sensing, decentralized event detection, as well as collaborative data mining. We use a non-convex minimization model and propose algorithms that alternate between support consensus and vector update. The latter step is based on reweighted ℓq iterations, where q can be 1 or 2. We numerically compare the proposed decentralized algorithms with existing centralized and decentralized algorithms. Simulation results demonstrate that the proposed decentralized approaches have strong recovery performance and converge reasonably fast.


Background: Developing strength and motor control is crucial for long-term athletic development and reducing injury risk in maturing youth athletes. Moderate load eccentric duration-accentuated resistance training (ECC) may show additional benefits to physical qualities and overall athleticism, relative to traditional dynamic resistance training (TRAD). There is currently a lack of research utilising eccentric training in youth athletes, particularly when considering maturity status.

Methods: Using a mixed longitudinal and parallel groups design, the effect of TRAD versus ECC on physical performance was investigated in adolescent male athletes, accounting for maturity status. In block 1, twenty-nine (11-15 y) male soccer players completed eight weeks of TRAD (repetition eccentric:concentric tempo, 2:1). Subsequently, participants were grouped according to maturity status (age to/from peak height velocity) and back squat strength, for block 2. Twenty-four participants then further undertook TRAD or ECC (tempo range, 3:1-6:1) for 12 weeks (Block 2). Physical performance was tested repeatedly (wk 0-21) and assessed lower body strength, power, speed, change of direction, flexibility, movement competency, mood status and muscle soreness.

Results: In Block 1, TRAD led to substantial improvements in 3RM back squat strength (mean effect-size (ES) change; ±90%CL: ES 1.5; ±0.5), 505 change of direction test (ES 0.7; ±0.3), right (ES 1.0; ±0.9) and left (ES 0.8; ±0.3) straight leg raise and back squat movement competency (ES -0.6; ±0.2). In Block 2, both training groups showed large improvements in 3RM back squat strength at pre- (mean percent (%) change; TRAD = 45; ±18%; ECC = 38; ±12%), circa- (TRAD = 39; ±10%; ECC = 31; ±9%) and post-PHV (TRAD = 34; ±14%; ECC = 28; ±13%). Similarly, both groups showed moderate improvements in IMTP (isometric mid- thigh pull) at pre- (TRAD = 24; ±25%; ECC =17; ±16%), circa- (TRAD = 21; ±14%; ECC =16; ±11%) and post-PHV (TRAD = 18; ±20%; ECC =15; ±20%). Only pre-PHV TRAD showed small improvements in squat jump peak ground reaction force (SJ GRF; 8.5; ±8.5%). There was a decrement in 20-m sprint performance with either training modality pre-PHV (TRAD = 4.6; ±2%; ECC = 3; ±1.3%) and circa-PHV (TRAD = 2.2; ±1.2%; ECC = 2.1; ±1%). Pre-PHV, ECC showed less impairment in 5-m (-16; ±4.7%), 10-m (-7.7; ±3.8%), and 15-m (-4.7; ±3.8%) sprint performance, relative to TRAD. Circa-PHV, ECC was less detrimental to only 5-m sprint, (ECC–TRAD = -6.9; ±3.1%), compared to TRAD. When comparing training modalities, TRAD showed greater improvements for improving straight leg raise pre-PHV (ECC-TRAD = right, - 6.3; ±6.6%; left, -6.6; ±7.6%) while ECC showed post-PHV (left = 6.4; ±7.6%).

Conclusions: The initial adaptations associated with eight weeks of TRAD showed substantial improvements in lower body strength, 505 change of direction test, unilateral flexibility and movement competency. Subsequently, 12 weeks of TRAD further benefitted 3RM back squat strength, IMTP, SJ GRF and unilateral flexibility, while ECC led to substantial improvements in 3RM back squat strength and IMTP. Comparing the two training modalities, TRAD was more beneficial than ECC for strength and unilateral flexibility pre-PHV. On the other hand, ECC was less detrimental than TRAD for some sprint splits and beneficial for lower-limb flexibility post- PHV. Hence, moderate-load eccentrics may be a useful lower-load resistance training variation to traditional dynamic training around peak growth in youth soccer players. Practitioners should consider using ECC or TRAD training modalities with youth athletes based on individual athlete PHV and specific training/season goals.


Aim: To evaluate the effectiveness of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI) prophylaxis retrospectively, using calcium channel blockers (CCB) before and after contrast exposure and comparing them with patients using angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEI), which has not been explored by many studies.
Methods: The study was performed in Afyon Kocatepe University, Faculty of Medicine Research Hospital, Cardiology Department between January 2014 and June 2016. Eighty patients using dihydropyridine (amlodipine 10 mg), non-dihydropyridine (diltiazem 60 mg) CCB or ACEI in the form of monotherapy before coronary angiography were included.
Results: In the CCB and ACEI group, CI-AKI development rates were 15.7% (n=8) and 24.1% (n=7), respectively (p = 0.383; Fisher's exact test). When the CCB group was evaluated as dihydropyridine and non-dihydropyridine subsets, CI-AKI development rates were found to be similar as well (p = 0.445; Fisher's exact test) in each subset.
Conclusion: In our study, we evaluated one of today's important dilemma; the methods related to the prophylaxis of CI-AKI. Our study shows that there is no difference in the development of CI-AKI between patients using the calcium channel blocker group drugs and ACEI as monotherapy. However, in our study, the mean age of patients using CCB was significantly higher than the group using ACEI.


Long-term selection response could slow down from a decline in genetic variance or in selection differential or both. A model of conflict between truncation and stabilizing selection in infinite population size is analysed in terms of the reduction in selection differential. Under the assumption of a normal phenotypic distribution, the limit to selection is found to be a function of kappa, the intensity of truncation selection, omega 2, a measure of the intensity of stabilizing selection, and sigma 2, the phenotypic variance of the character. The maintenance of genetic variation at this limit is also analyzed in terms of mutation-selection balance by the use of the "House-of-cards" approximation. It is found that truncation selection can substantially reduce the equilibrium genetic variance below that when only stabilizing selection is acting, and the proportional reduction in variance is greatest when the selection is very weak. When truncation selection is strong, any further increase in the strength of selection has little further influence on the variance. It appears that this mutation-selection balance is insufficient to account for the high levels of genetic variation observed in many long-term selection experiments.


Abstract We sampled extant (and extinct) populations of Euphydryas aurinia to examine the phylogeography of the species in the UK. We were interested in whether the genetic structuring of populations reflects anything other than a single recent post-glacial colonization event. Four hundred base pairs of the mitochondrial Cytochrome b gene were sequenced from individuals from populations throughout the UK, as well as populations in France and Portugal and seven polymorphic allozyme loci resolved. The mean number of allozyme alleles per locus was 4 and isolation by distance was shown not to be a factor in the geographic structuring of genetic diversity either with or without the inclusion of the French data (Mantel statistic Z=0.015 and 0.112 respectively, P >0.5). Cytochrome b nucleotide diversity (average number of nucleotide differences per site between two sequences) was low overall (0.003, n =63) but mean cytochrome b gene diversity over all populations was 0.77. The presence of the Portuguese and French haplotype in Scottish populations indicates that the Iberian peninsula was likely to be one glacial refugium for E. aurinia populations. The pattern of mitochondrial DNA found in the UK could be interpreted in one of two ways: (1) two separate colonization events or (2) a single slow colonization event. Allele frequency distributions followed a similar geographical pattern as mitochondrial DNA haplotypes. An AMOVA assigned just 2.68% of allozyme genetic variation to the grouping tested, providing more support for the single colonization event theory.


The purpose of this study was to assay the effect of two months exercise and two months silent on the levels of interleukin-17 (IL-17), melatonin and cortisol in serum, whole blood (WB) and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) cultures. Thirteen male non-athletic health volunteers participated in a two months moderate exercise program (running %50-%65 VO2 max). The blood samples were collected in three stages, 24 hours before to start exercise, 48 hours and two months after the last session of the training. WB and PBMCs were cultured with mitogens phytohemagglutinin and lipopolysaccharides for 48 hours. The serum and supernatants of WB and PBMCs were analyzed for IL-17, melatonin and cortisol by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Red blood cells (RBC) variables were also measured. IL-17 secretion by PBMCs in the post-exercise stage (51.14±5.43 pg/ml) compared with pre-exercise (36.74±6.98 pg/ml) was increased. But, the amount of melatonin produced by PBMCs in the post- exercise (7.94±0.35 pg/ml,) and 2-month silent (6.05±0.27 pg/ml) stages compared with pre-exercise (9.16±0.19 pg/ml) were decreased. Regardless of the effect of the exercise, PBMcs had more ability to produce IL- 17 than WB. As well as, level of cortisol in WB was higher than in serum and PBMCs culture. Mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration RBCs were also increased in post- exercise stage. The other measured parameters were not changed during exercise and recovery. Moderate exercise caused to higher in vitro production of IL-17 and lower production of melatonin by PBMCs.


Many factors influence situation on Latvian labour market. Employment is one of the core subject to explorer observing changes of labour market supply, demand and forecasts. Focusing on organisational problems concerning labour issues the microenvironment of the organisations ought to be study. The authors would like to compare Latvian labour market forecasts and the real situation for the period starting from the economic crises year 2009 in Latvia to 2015. Reaching the objective of the study additionally, the data on labour market structure is observed focusing on young participants of the employment process (new enterprises and young employees, job seekers). Describing the forecasts fulfilment and current situation on the labour market in Latvia, some risks were defined connected with future employment situation in Latvia. In addition, some tools of labour market development implemented in Latvia were evaluated defining their advantages and disadvantages. The main assessed tools are lifelong education, youth guarantee, new enterprises support programs. They are implemented along the European Commission initiative and European Union funds. This research has an exploratory and descriptive design. The authors develop tentative hypotheses for the future researches. The primary methods used are literature review on employability and labour market topics; statistical data interpretation, statistical data comparison, synthesis, contextual analysis (SWOT). The forecasts about Latvian Labour market done by Ministry of Economics of the Republic of Latvia mainly were wrong. The last tendencies shows that there is a demand for specialists in such areas as trade, agriculture, construction and building, education. The demand of labour for this field is in the top ten rating. However, the forecast was correct about construction field; the demand of the specialists of this field has been decreasing slowly for the last five years. In addition, demand for the specialists of transportation, logistics field is high as it was forecasted as well as demand of medical specialists. The general tendencies of the employment on Labour market are positive. The unemployment rate has been deceased for last five years and is about 10% during last two years. However, youth unemployment rates decrease does not show positive results as it is still high and is about 20 % during last two years. The main risk that can be urgent for the next five years are: economically inactive citizens, higher education institutions non-cooperation with Latvian government, lack of specialists in engineering fields, medicine, Information Technologies, and some other, surplus of humanitarian and social sciences specialists, young specialist emigration, economy dependence on small, medium and microenterprises business. The authors propose public administration work more with their stakeholders especially scientists and younger representatives of the society (pupils). Evaluating unemployment data general and youth some factors needs to be taken in to account before the data interpretation. Before propose any eco171 European Integration Studies 2015/9 Introduction nomically inactive citizens engagement and stimulation activities, it is beneficial to identify and take into account reasons of their inactivity. The authors propose especially public organisations and governmental institutions to work more on youngest generation awareness about new trend on labour market and public organisations' employer brand development. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.9.12805


Bug fixing is generally a manually-intensive task. However, recent work has proposed the idea of automated program repair, which aims to repair (at least a subset of) bugs in different ways such as code mutation, etc. Following in the same line of work as automated bug repair, in this paper we aim to leverage past fixes to propose fixes of current/future bugs. Specifically, we propose Ratchet, a corrective patch generation system using neural machine translation. By learning corresponding pre-correction and post-correction code in past fixes with a neural sequence-to-sequence model, Ratchet is able to generate a fix code for a given bug-prone code query. We perform an empirical study with five open source projects, namely Ambari, Camel, Hadoop, Jetty and Wicket, to evaluate the effectiveness of Ratchet. Our findings show that Ratchet can generate syntactically valid statements 98.7% of the time, and achieve an F1-measure between 0.41-0.83 with respect to the actual fixes adopted in the code base. In addition, we perform a qualitative validation using 20 participants to see whether the generated statements can be helpful in correcting bugs. Our survey showed that Ratchet's output was considered to be helpful in fixing the bugs on many occasions, even if fix was not 100% correct.


Sharks, skates and rays all have Ampullae of Lorenzini. Nowadays these ampullae are generally accepted as being electroreceptors, with which the animals can sense the (bio)electric fields in their environment. Much biophysical research has been carried out on these electroreceptors, but most of the experiments were conducted under biologically invalid 'in vitro' situations and the properties of the ampullae were therefore greatly influenced. It is important to reevaluate the data obtained to date under biologically more adequate and 'in vivo' conditions.
In this report the results of 'in vivo 'experiments on live, anaesthetized thornback rays are described. One of the goals was to perform the experiments on fully submerged animals. The only difficulty we had to overcome was that by submerging the animal, the canal would no longer be insulated and the nerve signals would no longer be measurable. At the present time no solution has been found for this problem. The decision was therefore made to temperarely record the nerve spikes (as a measurement of the activity of the ampulla) without submerging the animal yet. The activity of the nerves to different porepositive, hyperpolarizing stimuli was recorded.
With the current set-up we were able to conduct experiments on the animal up to several days, this in contrast to other workers who were only able to make stable recordings up to several hours. We found some differences with the results of previous workers, which could be a result of the differences in the experimental conditions. In our experiments we found a clearly visible reaction of the ampulla to stimuli with a frequency of up to 12 Hz. At higher frequencies the response was less evident. The oscillations we recorded did not respond to any of the stimuli in any way. This is a sharp contrast to what other researchers found and contradicts their explanation of the high sensitivity. They are however physiologically real and are probably more than just artifacts. The way to get answers to these questions is to continue with trying to conduct the experiments under biologically more valid conditions (i.e., by fully submerging the animal) and under more controlled circumstances (i.e., computer controlled amplitude, frequency and time base settings for the stimuli). A program to solve this last problem is already being developed. Another way to get the answers would be with intra-cellular recordings (sofar unsuccesfull).


Objectives To explore the therapeutic potential of combining bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (BM-MSCs) and hydroxyapatite (HA) granules to treat nonunion of the long bone. Methods Ten patients with an atrophic nonunion of a long bone fracture were selectively divided into two groups. Five subjects in the treatment group were treated with the combination of 15 million autologous BM-MSCs, 5g/cm3 (HA) granules and internal fixation. Control subjects were treated with iliac crest autograft, 5g/cm3 HA granules and internal fixation. The outcomes measured were post-operative pain (visual analogue scale), level of functionality (LEFS and DASH), and radiograph assessment. Results Post-operative pain evaluation showed no significant differences between the two groups. The treatment group demonstrated faster initial radiographic and functional improvements. Statistically significant differences in functional scores were present during the first (p = 0.002), second (p = 0.005) and third (p = 0.01) month. Both groups achieved similar outcomes by the end of one-year follow-up. No immunologic or neoplastic side effects were reported. Conclusions All cases of nonunion of a long bone presented in this study were successfully treated using autologous BM-MSCs. The combination of autologous BM-MSCs and HA granules is a safe method for treating nonunion. Patients treated with BM-MSCs had faster initial radiographic and functional improvements. By the end of 12 months, both groups had similar outcomes. Cite this article: H.D. Ismail, P. Phedy, E. Kholinne, Y. P. Djaja, Y. Kusnadi, M. Merlina, N. D. Yulisa. Mesenchymal stem cell implantation in atrophic nonunion of the long bones: A translational study. Bone Joint Res 2016;5:287–293. DOI: 10.1302/2046-3758.57.2000587.


Hyperthermia treatment is an effective tool of cancer therapy. The main feature of hyperthermia treatment is to use thermal energy to kill the cancer cells without minimum damage to surrounding tissue [1-3]. In such treatment, it is essential to predict the temperature distribution accurately for a given supply of heat at the cancer cells. In this article, an edge-based smoothed finite-element method (ES-FEM) in 2-D and face-based smoothed finite-element method (FS-FEM) in 3-D are presented to improve the accuracy of the finite-element method (FEM) without much change to the FEM setting. In the ES-FEM, the discretized equations are established using the smoothed Galerkin weak form with edge-based smoothing domains. Compared with the FEM that behaves overly-stiff, the ES-FEM model possesses a close-to-exact stiffness. Thus, ES-FEM can provide much more accurate result than the FEM using the same mesh. Numerical examples, including 2-D and 3-D of hyperthermia treatment have been analyzed using ES-FEM and FS-FEM, respectively. The results have demonstrated that ES-FEM (FS-FEM) significantly outperform the FEM using the same mesh.


To understand the function of SPT13, a gene encoding a trans-acting factor involved in regulation of Ty-mediated gene expression, we have cloned and sequenced the gene. Our analysis revealed that SPT13 is the same gene as GAL11, a gene in which mutations cause reduced expression of some GAL4-regulated genes. Further analysis of spt13/gal11 mutants suggested that the SPT13 gene also affects transcription of genes involved in mating-type specialization. We show here that SPT13 has both positive and negative regulatory roles in transcription.


In this work, a consistent formulation for the representation of concrete behavior before and after cracking has been implemented into a non-linear model for the analysis of reinforced concrete structures, named 2D-PARC. Several researches have indeed pointed out that the adoption of an effective modeling for concrete, combined with an accurate failure criterion, is crucial for the correct prediction of the structural behavior, not only in terms of failure load, but also with reference to a realistic representation of crack initiation and development. This last aspect is particularly relevant at serviceability conditions in order to verify the fulfillment of structural requirements provided by Design Codes, which limit the maximum crack width due to appearance and durability issues. In more details, a constitutive model originally proposed by Ottosen and based on non-linear elasticity has been here incorporated into 2D-PARC in order to improve the numerical efficiency of the adopted algorithm, providing at the same time an accurate prediction of the structural response. The effectiveness of this procedure has been verified against significant experimental results available in the technical literature and relative to reinforced concrete beams without stirrups failing in shear, which represent a problem of great theoretical and practical importance in the field of structural engineering. Numerical results have been compared to experimental evidences not only in terms of global structural response (i.e. applied load vs. midspan deflection), but also in terms of crack pattern evolution and maximum crack widths.


Human hepatitis delta virus (HDV) is the only animal virus known to replicate its RNA genome using a host polymerase because its only virally encoded proteins, the small and large hepatitis delta antigens (HDAg-S and HDAg-L), lack polymerase activity. Although this makes HDV an ideal model system to study RNA-directed transcription in mammalian cells, little is known about the host factors involved in its replication. To comprehensively identify such host factors, we created a stable cell line carrying a functional FLAG-HDAg-S. Anti-Flag immunopurification and mass spectrometry identified >100 proteins associated with FLAG-HDAg-S, many of which had predicted roles in RNA metabolism. The biological relevance of this screen was strongly supported by the identification of nine out of the 12 subunits of the RNA polymerase II complex thought to mediate HDV replication. To further investigate the significance of these factors for HDV replication, we selected 65 proteins to look for factors that would also affect the accumulation of HDV RNA following siRNA knockdown. Fifteen and three factors were found to regulate HDV RNA accumulation negatively and positively, respectively, upon RNAi knockdown. Our results provide a valuable resource for future research to advance our mechanistic understanding of HDV replication and RNA-directed transcription in mammalian cells.


ABSTRACT Food waste has received increasing attention in recent years. As part of their corporate social responsibility strategies, food supply chain actors have started to act towards avoiding and reducing food waste. Based on a literature review, an expert interview study, and example cases, we discuss food marketing and the role and responsibility of retail. Food marketing and retailing contribute to consumer-related food waste via decisions on date labeling, packaging sizes and design elements, and pricing strategies encouraging overpurchase, as well as communication shifting consumer priorities to the disadvantage of food waste avoidance. Potential actions to tackle food waste relate to improved packaging and information, altering pricing strategies, and cooperation with other actors across the supply chain. Three cases highlight the extent to which moral and strategic motives are interlinked and that there are opportunities for competitive advantage through corporate social responsibility and a business case for sustainability in the area of food waste.


In this article, Joel Nolette proposes an "administrative rule of lenity" as a solution to structural problems besetting our federal government and the constitutional separation of powers. Borrowing from the rule of lenity and the contra proferentem doctrine, the Court should adopt a canon of strict construction for interpreting and applying federal statutes that delegate authority to agencies and regulations adopted pursuant to those statutes. Under this canon, an agency action will lack force or effect unless it is unambiguously authorized by statute or actually implements the unambiguous terms of a previously promulgated regulation. To determine whether a statute or regulation is unambiguous — and thus whether it actually authorizes the action in question instead of just leaving the matter unclear — the Court would use traditional tools of statutory interpretation. If the Court thereby concludes the statute or regulation is ambiguous, then it will construe the provision against the agency. This would replace the Court's current practice of presuming an agency's interpretation to be valid unless it is patently wrong. In other words, the Court would flip the presumptions of Chevron and Seminole Rock — if a law or rule is ambiguous, then the "tie" goes to the regulated rather than the regulator.


This paper investigates the design and performance of a two-user satellite communication system. Each user is independently encoded using a structured Turbo code with identical symbol interleavers. This permits Turbo decoding to be performed using the combined component code trellises, which provides significant gains over independent decoding. The design of the code-matched symbol interleavers is described. Both ideal and imperfect knowledge of the relative phase shift between users is considered. Performance is compared to the single user case and the performance degradation due to a third unknown user is considered. These investigations show that the proposed system performs well in a variety of conditions.


The influence of nucleation on the spectral content of cloud cavitation is investigated using unsteady force measurements and simultaneous high-speed imaging of a rectangular planform NACA-0015 section hydrofoil, with and without upstream nuclei injection. Experiments were conducted for cavitation numbers over the range of 0.60 to 0.45, at a chord-based test Reynolds number of 1.4 × 106, and at an incidence of 6°. The introduction of freestream nuclei was found to significantly alter the cavity topology and spectral content of the force response. Three shedding modes were observed in the case without nuclei injection, while two modes were present with the injection of abundant freestream nuclei. In the nuclei deplete case the dominant shedding frequency is associated with upstream shock propagation and was found to decrease with test cavitation number from a Strouhal number of 0.311 to 0.243, while the sub-harmonic and first harmonic were associated with localized tip and root activity. With the introduction of nuclei the dominant of two distinct shedding frequencies was found to be the lower frequency mode at approximately half that of the corresponding nuclei deplete case, with Strouhal number decreasing from 0.159 to 0.148. The higher frequency mode was shown to be due the propagation of an initial shockwave that only partially condenses the cavity prior to the passage of a second shockwave that leads to full span-wise condensation.


BACKGROUND
Patients with chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) often experience cutaneous adverse events, such as rashes and pruritus. In this study, we aimed to compare the risks of cutaneous adverse events between imatinib- and second-generation TKI-treated patients with CML.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Paired reviewers independently obtained studies from PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library published until 15 March 2022. The following terms were searched: (Leukemia, Myelogenous, Chronic and BCR-ABL Positive), chronic myeloid leukemia, tyrosine kinase inhibitor, TKI, imatinib, dasatinib, nilotinib, bosutinib, and radotinib. Two independent reviewers screened the results and selected articles on cutaneous adverse events. RevMan 5.4 and the Cochrane Collaboration tool were used to perform the meta-analysis and risk of bias assessment.

RESULTS AND CONCLUSION
Eleven trials involving 4502 patients were analyzed in this study. Patients treated with second-generation TKIs were significantly more likely to experience cutaneous adverse events than those treated with imatinib with a relative risk (RR) of 1.62 (95% confidence interval [CI], [1.25-2.09]). Except dasatinib (RR [95% CI], 1.39 [0.75-2.56]), the risk of adverse events was more with second-generation TKIs than with imatinib as follows: nilotinib (2.11 [1.53-2.90]), bosutinib (1.41 [1.07-1.86]), and radotinib (1.87 [1.33-2.63]). Rash was the most common cutaneous adverse event that was observed in 21.6% of cases across all grades, followed by pruritus (5.7%) and alopecia (4.3%). In conclusion, our findings suggest that cutaneous adverse events occur more frequently with second-generation TKIs than with imatinib. Therefore, effective management of the cutaneous outcome is necessary to achieve high patient adherence to medication and successful treatment with TKIs.


This paper addresses the control problem of extending the travel range of a MEMS electrostatic actuator through a closed-loop voltage control scheme. Since the electrostatic actuator is inherently unstable due to its pull-in limit, one of the major control goals is to stabilize the actuator system beyond the limit. In addition, the controller has to be robust against external disturbances and noise. After comparing and analyzing the advanced controllers being reported, an active disturbance rejection controller (ADRC) is originally employed to the micro actuator to solve the control problem. The ADRC mainly consists of an extended state observer (ESO) and a PD controller. The ESO is used to estimate system states and the external disturbance, which can be taken as an augmented state of the ESO. The PD controller based on the observed states drives the displacement output of the actuator to a desired level. The ADRC is successfully simulated onto a parallel-plate electrostatic actuator. The simulation results verified the effectiveness of the controller through extending the travel range of the actuator to 99% of the initial gap between two plates in the presences of noise and disturbance.


With the aid of modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) tools it has become possible to calculate and visualise the flow through a complete waterjet installation. This can help to enhance the understanding of the occurring physical phenomena and this will lead to further improvements of the complete installation. Calculations are made with a steady-state multiple frame of reference (MFR) approach and with a fully transient moving mesh method. Inlet and pump CFD models have been validated separately with available experimental data. Agreement between measurements and CFD results is good for both. The numerical models of inlet and pump are combined to form a complete waterjet installation. The thrust and torque predicted with this model agree very well with the values obtained with traditional software. A concentration scalar has been introduced to visualise the suction stream tube. With this scalar the averaged velocity of the ingested water, and consequently the wake fraction, is determined. Results of transient calculations are used to determine pressure fluctuations on the impeller blade and in the stator bowl.


Abstract:
 Skoupá, Z., Ochyra, R., Guo, S.-L., Sulayman, M. & Plášek, V. 2017. Distributional novelties for Lewinskya, Nyholmiella and Orthotrichum (Orthotrichaceae) in China. — Herzogia 30: 58–73. Lewinskya vladikavkana and Orthotrichum alpestre are recorded for the first time from China and 14 species of the genera Lewinskya, Nyholmiella and Orthotrichum are newly reported from various provinces in China, including Gansu, Heilongjiang, Hubei, Hunan, Inner Mongolia, Jiangxi, Jilin, Qinghai, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Shandong, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Xizang, Yunnan and Zhejiang. Distribution and ecology of newly recorded species are briefly discussed. Diversity of the broadly conceived genus Orthotrichum in China is summarised. In total, it currently consists of 43 species in this country, including 15 species of the genus Lewinskya, one of Nyholmiella and 27 of Orthotrichum s.str.


Human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) heterogeneity promotes recurrence and resistance to therapies. Recent studies have reported that HCC may be derived not only from adult hepatocytes and hepatoblasts but also hepatic stem/progenitors. In this context, HepaRG cells may represent a suitable cellular model to study stem/progenitor cancer cells and the retrodifferentiation of tumor‐derived hepatocyte‐like cells. Indeed, they differentiate into hepatocyte‐ and biliary‐like cells. Moreover, tumor‐derived HepaRG hepatocyte‐like cells (HepaRG‐tdHep) differentiate into both hepatocyte‐ and biliary‐like cells through a hepatic progenitor. In this study we report the mechanisms and molecular effectors involved in the retrodifferentiation of HepaRG‐tdHep into bipotent progenitors. Gene expression profiling was used to identify genomic changes during the retrodifferentiation of HepaRG‐tdHep into progenitors. We demonstrated that gene expression signatures related to a poor‐prognosis HCC subclass, proliferative progenitors, or embryonic stem cells were significantly enriched in HepaRG progenitors derived from HepaRG‐tdHep. HepaRG‐tdHep retrodifferentiation is mediated by crosstalk between transforming growth factor beta 1 (TGFβ1) and inflammatory cytokine pathways (e.g., tumor necrosis factor alpha [TNFα] and interleukin 6 [IL6]). Signatures related to TNFα, IL6, and TGFβ activation pathways are induced within the first hour of retrodifferentiation. Moreover, specific activation or inhibition of these signaling pathways allowed us to determine that TNFα and IL6 contribute to the loss of hepatic‐specific marker expression and that TGFβ1 induces an epithelial‐to‐mesenchymal transition of HepaRG‐tdHep. Interestingly, the retrodifferentiation process is blocked by the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A, opening new therapeutic opportunities. Conclusion: Cancer progenitor cells (or metastasis progenitors) may derive from tumor‐derived hepatocyte‐like cells in an inflammatory environment that is frequently associated with HCC. (Hepatology 2014;60:2076–2089)


Critical engagement with the relations between geography and empire has become integral to the view that geography is a power-laden venture rather than an impartial or self-contained discipline. The literature on this imbroglio, however, focuses either on the imperial past or on present-day colonialisms and pays scant attention to the postwar era of decolonization (1945–1980). Why is this so? What happened when the empires that geography had helped to shape came to an end after World War II? What impact did decolonization have on the discipline? It is claimed that decolonization had a marginal place in postwar geography but can still be discerned, in buried forms, and that some geographers wrote about it with perspicacity. This contention is pursued with reference to the writing of Western (mainly U.S., British, and French) and some African and Asian geographers and probes how decolonization was differently positioned within different geographical traditions and debates and how geographical knowledge both advanced and challenged understanding of this process. This article promotes a comparative approach to the two facets of the title and delineates both differences and commonalities in geographers' views and experiences. There are two key findings: First, geographers were much more interested in the everyday geographical violence of decolonization than in its high politics or the writings of revolutionaries; second, this concern prompted some to observe that questions of decolonization were subordinated too easily to ones of development.


Manual curation has long been held to be the "gold standard" for functional annotation of DNA sequence. Our experience with the annotation of more than 20,000 full-length cDNA sequences revealed problems with this approach, including inaccurate and inconsistent assignment of gene names, as well as many good assignments that were difficult to reproduce using only computational methods. For the FANTOM2 annotation of more than 60,000 cDNA clones, we developed a


Tomasetti and Vogelstein (Science 347, 78–81, 2015) claimed that "primary prevention measures are not likely to be very effective" for many cancers because they arise mostly from random mutations fixed during stem cell division, independently of specific genetic or environmental factors. We demonstrate that their calculation for hepatocellular carcinomas overlooked a major subset of tumors proven to be preventable through vaccination. The problem, which is not limited to hepatocellular carcinoma, arises from the general reliance of their analysis on average USA incidences and the omission of incidences in specific risk groups.


This study explores the effects of 3 instructional methods: Picture Walks (Clay, 1991; Fountas & Pinnell, 1996), KWL (Ogle, 1986), and the Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (Stauffer, 1969) on the reading comprehension and science content acquisition of novice readers. The participants were 31 second-graders with an instructional reading level that was approaching grade level. A replicated Latin Square, within-subjects repeated measures design was employed that examined 4 treatments: 3 intervention groups (PW, KWL, DRTA) and a control group. The primary analysis evaluated treatment effects by conducting one-way repeated measures analyses of variance (ANOVA) on all measures, using the group as the unit of analysis. Results indicated that the picture walk and DRTA yielded statistically significant effects on reading growth as measured by a timed maze task. Analysis of Cued Recall indicated that the DRTA yielded statistically significant effects in reading comprehension and science content acquisition. KWL did not yield significant effects on measures of comprehension or content acquisition. Student interviews provided evidence that the participants possessed declarative, procedural, and conditional knowledge of the strategic processes that are the foundation for the 3 interventions, activation of prior knowledge, and prediction. However, the likelihood of the participants putting that knowledge to effective use seemed to be dependent upon the amount of teacher scaffolding provided by the instructional procedure.


The veterans disability compensation (VDC) program, which provides a monthly stipend to disabled veterans, is the third largest American disability insurance program. Since the late 1990s, VDC growth has been driven primarily by an increase in claims from Vietnam veterans, raising concerns about costs as well as health. We use the draft lottery to study the long-term effects of Vietnam-era military service on health and work in the 2000 Census. These estimates show no significant overall effects on employment or work-related disability status, with a small effect on non-work-related disability for whites. On the other hand, estimates for white men with low earnings potential show a large negative impact on employment and a marked increase in non-work-related disability rates. The differential impact of Vietnam-era service on low-skill men cannot be explained by more combat or war-theatre exposure for the least educated, leaving the relative attractiveness of VDC for less skilled men and the work disincentives embedded in the VDC system as a likely explanation.


. Albino tea plants are mutants that grow albino young leaves owing to lack of chlorophylls under certain environmental conditions. There are two types of albino tea plants grown in production, i.e., light- and temperature-sensitive albino tea cultivars. The former grows albino leaves in yellow color under intensive sunlight conditions and the later grows albino leaves with white mesophyll and greenish vein as the environmental temperature is below 20 8 C. Both albino teas attract great attention because of their high levels of amino acids and the '' umami'' taste. There have been many studies focusing on the temperature-sensitive albino tea plants, whereas little attention has been given to the light-sensitive albino tea cultivars. The characteristics of the albino tea cultivars and the mechanism underlying them were reviewed in the present article based on the published literatures, including chemical compositions, morphological characteristics, and molecular genetic mechanism.


Vaccine in Some Cases The World Health Organization (WHO) backed a single-dose strategy for hepatitis A vaccines for children aged 12 years or older and for hepatitis A outbreaks in a new position paper. The single-dose recommendations are more expansive than those from 2012, when the WHO advised close monitoring and evaluation following single-dose administration. "Data on vaccine effectiveness, antibody persistence, and modelling on longterm seroprotection indicate that an offlabel, single-dose schedule is equivalent to the 2-dose schedule in children, in addition to being less costly and easier to implement," according to the new recommendations. However, a 2-dose schedule is still preferred for adults aged 40 years or older due to a lack of evidence on immunogenicity and long-term protection in this age group. The WHO also recommends singledose vaccination during hepatitis A outbreaks, emphasizing early intervention focused on a self-contained community or a well-defined population. According to the guidance, hepatitis A vaccination should be added to national immunization schedules if there is an increase in hepatitis A disease among older children, adolescents, or adults; if endemicity changes from high to intermediate; or if it is costeffective. In highly endemic countries, most individuals are asymptomatically infected with hepatitis A virus in childhood, which prevents clinical hepatitis later in life. Immunization programs that do not provide enough coverage in such countries may paradoxically increase disease risk among unvaccinated persons. Countries with improving socioeconomic conditions may rapidly move from high to intermediate endemicity, likely making large-scale hepatitis A vaccination in early childhood cost-effective, according to the guidance. In such cases, catch-up vaccinations should be considered based on agespecific seroprevalence rates. High-risk groups also should be vaccinated, particularly in countries with low endemicity. These include travelers from lowendemic to higher-endemic countries; men who have sex with men; sewage and laboratory workers; people who inject drugs; people who are homeless or incarcerated; migrants and refugees; and patients with chronic liver disease or HIV, the WHO report stated. Health workers are not considered highrisk and should follow general population vaccination advice, according to the WHO guidance. Hepatitis A vaccination also has largely replaced immunoglobulin as a preexposure or postexposure prophylaxis due to greater and longer-lasting efficacy and safety, the organization said.


In this paper, we present new ultrasonic cement evaluation technology developed and extensively field tested over the past years. The introduction of this technology increases reliability and efficiency, and enables well integrity inspection in extreme environments with heavy muds and very large and thick casings. Such extreme conditions with heavy synthetic oil-based muds up to 20 lbm/gal and casing thicknesses up to and above 1 in. are often encountered when dealing with wells in deep water, wells used for carbon sequestration and underground gas storage, and shale oil and gas wells subject to hydraulic fracturing. Conventional ultrasonic cement evaluation technology has not been able to properly assess these cases in the past. We have addressed these challenges through new ultrasonic transducer technology with a thirtyfold increase in performance and an extended bandwidth that make it possible to log in the heaviest and most attenuative mud environments and through thick-walled casings. We have developed a calibration-free ultrasound pulse-echo processing method that capitalizes on self-compensation for mud properties and eliminates the need for separate mud property measurements. We have revised the electronics and embedded software to enable increasing the ultrasonic firing and acquisition rates leading to a threefold increase in logging speed. Finally, operating workflows have been revised to support both faster wellsite turnaround time, and robustness and the reliability of wellsite answers. This standard workflow with downhole normalizations, realtime quality control plots, and quick interactive previews provide the highest possible data quality at the wellsite. We present examples from our extensive field test campaign to demonstrate the capabilities of these new ultrasonic pulse-echo and flexural wave measurement developments. We describe how they enable cement evaluation and pipe inspection in environments of heaviest muds and large diameter/wall-thickness casings, and we show that these developments augment the ability to carry out well integrity diagnosis and help reduce uncertainty and risk in well construction or during plugging and abandonment (P&A).


BACKGROUND
This study investigated the progression of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) to the persistent form in Japanese asymptomatic AF patients.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Data were derived from a single hospital-based cohort in the Shinken Database 2004-2012 (n=19,994), in which 1,176 patients were diagnosed as having paroxysmal AF. AF progression occurred in 115 patients (6.0%/year) during the mean follow-up period (1,213±905 days). Although patients who were asymptomatic at the initial visit (n=468) had a low-risk profile compared with symptomatic patients, they had greater AF progression at follow-up (unadjusted hazard ratio, 1.611; 95% CI: 1.087-2.389; P=0.018). Absence of symptoms, male sex, and cardiomyopathy were independent predictors for AF progression in the multivariate model. It was noted that asymptomatic patients were less likely to undergo pulmonary vein isolation (PVI). In addition, the interaction term between asymptomatic AF and absence of PVI could be another independent predictor for AF progression. Prognosis was similar between asymptomatic and symptomatic patients with AF.

CONCLUSIONS
Irrespective of low-risk profile, patients with asymptomatic paroxysmal AF had greater progression of AF compared with symptomatic patients. This paradoxical result appeared to be the result of less intensive clinical management, including invasive rhythm control.


phenomenon of satiety; and surgical treatment. The book ends with a thought provoking survey entitled 'Is corpulence catching' by G A Bray. Although the order of presentation makes logical reading and reference a little difficult the section on adipocyte development and turnover is separated from that on adipose tissue metabolism by some 300 pages this is a small criticism. Most readers will want to be selective and will need to study the contents pages. All working in the field of obesity are likely to find something pertinent to their particular field of work and the juxtaposition of many facets may open up new horizons. Unfortunately the book's potential usefulness will be restricted by price but university and other sizeable libraries should be persuaded to have it on their shelves.