Anaxonic interneurons of the granule cell type in the mammalian main olfactory bulb (MOB) are characterized by prominent membrane specializations, which include reciprocal, interdendritic chemical and electrical synapses; however, the latter are thought to be restricted to the external plexiform layer (EPL) and connect granule-mitral- and granule-tufted-cell dendrites (Landis et al., 1974). The present study focuses on interperikaryal membrane specializations between tangentially oriented aggregates of granule microneurons in the lamina granularis interna (IGL). Both infraprimate (Rattus norvegicus, Gerbillus perpallidus) and primate species (Callithrix jacchus) were studied using the following methods: (1) transmission electron microscopy (TEM), (2) freeze-fracture analysis, (3) light and TEM immunohistochemistry using affinity-purified antibodies directed against the connexin-32 or connexin-43 carboxy tail fragment of the gap- junction protein (GJP), and (4) intracellular Lucifer yellow injections in fixed tissue (LYF technique). Freeze-fracture replicas of the MOB- IGL showed that adjacent granule cell perikarya have numerous particle aggregates on the cytoplasmic membrane; in terms of their structure and arrangement, such particles are characteristic of gap junctions. The existence of junctional membranes was substantiated by application of antibodies against GJP demonstrating punctate immunoreactivity, frequently confined to the interperikaryal plasmalemmae of granule cells in the IGL and their dendritic processes in the EPL. Upon TEM analysis, GJP-like immunoreactivity was additionally found in membranous organelles, including Golgi apparati and associated vesicular components. In order to test the permeability of identified membrane specializations, the LYF technique was used, which resulted in bright fluorescence of the perikaryal and dendritic components of the transsomatically injected neuron and staining of neighboring neurons with similar morphology. These findings imply that small molecules can diffuse across the interperikaryal membrane specializations. The existence of gap junctions between granule cell perikarya suggests that there is a significant, low-resistance electrical transmission between aggregated granule cells. This coupling might permit synchronization of neural discharge among small aggregates of these neurons. Gap junctions between granule cells may also serve signaling functions associated with the protracted period of granule cell development.


Abstract The Panel on Additives and Products or Substances used in Animal Feed (FEEDAP) was asked to deliver a scientific opinion on the safety and efficacy of a specific strain of Pediococcus parvulus when used as a technological additive intended to improve ensiling at a proposed application rate of 1 × 108 CFU/kg fresh matter. The species P. parvulus is considered by EFSA to be suitable for the qualified presumption of safety approach to safety assessment and not to require specific demonstration of safety other than the absence of resistance to antibiotics of human and veterinary significance. As the identity of the strain was clearly established and as no antibiotic resistance was detected, the use of the strain in the production of silage is presumed safe for livestock species, consumers of products from animals fed treated silage and the environment. In the absence of data, no conclusion can be drawn on the skin and eye irritancy or skin sensitisation of the additive. The additive should be considered as a potential respiratory sensitiser. Five studies with laboratory‐scale silos were made using forage of differing water‐soluble carbohydrate content. Replicate silos containing forages treated at the proposed application rate were compared to identical silos containing the same but untreated forage. The minisilos were then stored for 90–103 days at 20–24°C. After opening, the contents of the silos were analysed. Results showed that Pediococcus parvulus DSM 28875 at 5 × 107 CFU/kg forage has the potential to improve the production of silage from easy and moderately difficult to ensile forage species by reducing dry matter loss and enhancing protein preservation.


The Influence of Regulation Policy in Local Wisdom Of The Coastal FishermanWelfare In Percut Sei Tuan Sub District. The aims of this research to know (a) The amount of regulatory influence policy in local wisdom to the welfare of coastal fisherman in Percut Sei Tuan Subdistrict of Deli Serdang Regency, (b) The Regulation that has been implemented in local wisdom to the welfare of coastal fisherman in Percut Sei Tuan Sub-district of Deli Serdang Regency. From the population is taken a sample of 50 fishermen. The technique of data collection used is a questionnaire given to each respondent. Data is processed using Statistical Product Service and Solution (SPSS) version 20.0 for windows. The data analysis technique used is simple linear regression with the formula Y = a + bX + e. The results obtained in this study determinant coefficient value (R2) obtained by 0.528 or 52.8% which means that the regulatory policy variables (X) in local wisdom affect the welfare of coastal fishermen (Y) in Percut Sei Tuan Sub District Deli Serdang Regency and from the partial test that thenilai t count t from the regulatory policy free variable is 7,334>ttable 2,010, thenH0 is rejected andH1 accepted, and it can be concluded that the independent variable of regulation policy in local wisdom has positive and significant influence on the dependent variable that is the welfare of coastal fisherman. And the regulations that have been implemented in local wisdom is still in the form of an appeal or information only so the result is not maximized.


In vivo investigations were carried out to ascertain the comparative levels of erythrocyte GST activity between non-malarious and malarious male subjects of HbAA, HbAS and HbSS erythrocyte genotypes, administered with fansidar and quinine. The incubation of human erythrocytes with 1-chloro-2,4dinitrobenzene (CDNB) resulted in almost quantitative conjugation of glutathione (GSH) to form S-(2,4dinitrophenyl) glutathione, determination of GST activity was carried out at 0 h and after 3, 6 and 18 h, 2 antimalarial drugs (Fansidar and quinine) were administered to the volunteers. The control values of non-malarious and malarious individuals ranged between (3.27 to 12.50 iu/gHb) and (2.75 to 12.21 iu/gHb) respectively. Erythrocyte GST activity was significantly (p < 0.05) lower in P. falciparum infected red cells compared to normal ones, except parasitized male HbSS erythrocytes. Generally, the pattern of in vivo erythrocyte GST activity in the presence of the 2 antimalarial drugs showed 2 phase profile. The first stage showed decreasing levels of relative GST activity within approximate time range 6 h after the drugs were administered to the volunteers. The second phase showed recovery of erythrocyte GST activity (6 - 18 h approx.) from the inhibitory effects of the drugs.


Sun-induced chlorophyll fluorescence (F) is a novel remote sensing parameter providing an estimate of actual photosynthetic rates. A combination of this new observable and Monteith's light use efficiency (LUE) concept was suggested for an advanced modeling of gross primary productivity (GPP). In this demonstration study, we evaluate the potential of both F and the more commonly used photochemical reflectance index (PRI) to approximate the LUE term in Monteith's equation and eventually improve the forward modeling of GPP diurnals. Both F and the PRI were derived from ground and airborne based spectrometer measurements over two different crops. We demonstrate that approximating dynamic changes of LUE using F and PRI significantly improves the forward modeling of GPP diurnals. Especially in sugar beet, a changing photosynthetic efficiency during the day was traceable with F and incorporating F in the forward modeling significantly improved the estimation of GPP. Airborne data were projected to produce F and PRI maps for winter wheat and sugar beet fields over the course of one day. We detected a significant variability of both, F and the PRI within one field and particularly between fields. The variability of F and PRI was higher in sugar beet, which also showed a physiological down-regulation of leaf photosynthesis. Our results underline the potential of F to serve as a superior indicator for the actual efficiency of the photosynthetic machinery, which is linked to physiological responses of vegetation.


Dual antiplatelet therapy forms currently the basis in acute coronary syndrome pharmacological treatment. However, there is a wide variability in antiplatelet response to clopidogrel, which may lead to antiplatelet therapy insufficient efficacy and subsequent risk of thrombotic events. Laboratory monitoring of antiplatelet therapy may help to identify patients with insufficient antiplatelet response. We discuss the benefits of routine monitoring of antiplatelet therapy in clinical practice.


PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to determine whether children in the early stage of combining words are more likely to respond to imitation prompts that are telegraphic than to prompts that are grammatically complete and whether they produce obligatory grammatical morphemes more reliably in response to grammatically complete imitation prompts than to telegraphic prompts.

METHOD
Five children between 30 and 51 months of age with language delay participated in a single-case alternating treatment design with 14 sessions split between a grammatical and a telegraphic condition. Alternating orders of the 14 sessions were randomly assigned to each child. Children were given 15 prompts to imitate a semantic relation that was either grammatically complete or telegraphic.

RESULTS
No differences between conditions were found for the number of responses that contained a semantic relation. In contrast, 3 of the 5 children produced significantly more grammatical morphemes when presented with grammatically complete imitation prompts. Two children did not include a function word in either condition.

CONCLUSION
Providing a telegraphic prompt to imitate does not offer any advantage as an intervention technique. Children are just as likely to respond to a grammatically complete imitation prompt. Further, including function words encourages children who are developmentally ready to imitate them.


Few studies have focused on the quality of greywater (GW) from urban developing countries. In the absence of urine and faeces, GW is generally considered as innocuous and as such, little attention is devoted to it. A physical, chemical and microbiological characterization of household GW from mixed sources was undertaken at Apecsy, in unsewered north suburban Dakar, with the aim of measuring the extent of health hazards related to the hand carrying system of GW. Samples were collected each two hours from a holding tank over 24 hours and analyzed for temperature, pH, EC, DO, FC and E coli, BOD5, COD, TOC, TS, SS, VTS, TN, NH4-N, NO3-N, TP and PO4-P. Results were then compared with raw combined domestic wastewater (CDW) and GW data from Dakar and developed countries. FC and E coli were lower in Apecsy GW compared to CDW from Dakar but varied in the same range as in typical raw CDW from the USA. GW was 5 times higher in organic matter and 3 times higher in solids than CDW. The chemical characteristics of organic matter and solids and the size distribution thereof in GW and CDW were similar. The organic matter in GW was found to be roughly biodegradable in spite of a severe nutrient deficiency noted. GW was of lower nitrogen and phosphorus. The higher GW strength was attributed to the combined effects of low flow and the storage of effluents, which are dependent on the hand-carrying system. The GW from unsewered urban developing countries may be more polluted than ordinary domestic wastewaters and as such, a change of attitude towards it is needed.


The development of two new probabilistic accident consequence codes, MACCS and COSYMA, was completed in 1990. These codes estimate the consequence from the accidental releases of radiological material from hypothesized accidents at nuclear installations. In 1991, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the Commission of the European Communities began cosponsoring a joint uncertainty analysis of the two codes. The ultimate objective of this joint effort was to systematically develop credible and traceable uncertainty distributions for the respective code input variables. A formal expert judgment elicitation and evaluation process was identified as the best technology available for developing a library of uncertainty distributions for these consequence parameters. This report focuses on the results of the study to develop distribution for variables related to the MACCS and COSYMA early health effects models. This volume contains appendices that include (1) a summary of the MACCS and COSYMA consequence codes, (2) the elicitation questionnaires and case structures, (3) the rationales and results for the panel on early health effects, (4) short biographies of the experts, and (5) the aggregated results of their responses.


In this paper, the effects of a superconducting fault current limiter (SFCL) installed in loop power distribution systems on voltage sags are assessed and analyzed. The power distribution system will be operated to a type of loop. In this case, voltage drops (sags) are severe because of the increased fault current when a fault occurs. If SFCL is installed in the loop power distribution system, the fault current decreases based on the location and resistance value of the SFCL, and voltage sags are improved. In this paper, the improvement of the voltage sag is analyzed according to the fault location, resistance value of SFCL, and the length of the loop power distribution system. First, a resistor-type SFCL model is used using the PSCAD/EMTDC. Next, the loop power distribution system is modeled. Finally, when the SFCL is installed in the radial or loop power distribution system with various lengths, voltage sags are evaluated according to various fault locations. The results of voltage sag analysis in the loop system are compared with the voltage sags in radial power distribution system.


Attempts were made to produce myocarditis by Trypanosoma cruzi inoculation in healthy dog puppies 6 to 8 weeks old. Significant electrocardiographic abnormalities were produced, coinciding with interstitial inflammatory processes in the cardiac tissue and with degenerative changes in the myocardial fibres. In puppies showing these changes, profound changes in the excitability and the functional refractory period of the atrial and ventricular muscular tissue were observed. The administration of Peruvosid in doses of 0·0240 to 0·0647 mg./kg. tended to diminish the excitability, previously increased by the inflammatory process, at the same time increasing the functional refractory period duration which had previously been shortened. The fact that Peruvosid corrects these fundamental factors in the genesis of cardiac arrhythmias suggests that the drug may be useful in the treatment of cardiac insufficiency produced by Chagas' myocardiopathy, in which arrhythmias are one of the basic characteristics.


Introduction The purpose of this study was to compare between epidural anesthesia and continuous fascia iliaca block in adults patients undergoing fixation of neck femur or knee arthroplasty including comparison of analgesic efficacy, side effects, and complications. Patients and methods The study was performed upon 60 patients, aged 20-60 years, and randomly distributed among two groups. Group A included 30 patients who received lumber epidural anesthesia, using Tuohy needle 18 G and epidural catheter 20 G, injected initially with 15 ml bupivacaine HCl 0.25% then 6-8 ml/h bupivacaine HCl 0.125% as continuous epidural infusion for 12 h postoperatively. Group B included 30 patients who received fascia iliaca block using Tuohy needle 18 G, injected initially with 20 ml bupivacaine HCl 0.25%, then an epidural catheter 20 G was threaded through the needle and another 20 ml of local anesthetic was injected, followed by 8-10 ml/h bupivacaine HCl 0.125% injected as continuous epidural infusion into the plane for 12 h postoperatively. Results Regarding the technique time, the fascia iliaca group B was significantly faster than the epidural group A. The results showed that performing continuous fascia iliaca block was a significantly faster technique, providing fewer complications such as hypotension, postoperative vomiting, and urinary retention and more patient satisfaction in comparison with epidural anesthesia. Conclusion Continuous fascia iliaca block provided effective unilateral analgesia in patients undergoing fixation of fractured femur neck or shaft or knee arthroplasty with a high patient satisfaction rate, low incidence of hemodynamic instability, and low incidence rate of complications when compared with epidural analgesia.


Sinusitis is an important source of morbidity and loss of income and may exacerbate chest disease.1 2 3 Most uncomplicated acute sinusitis is managed in Britain in primary care, whereas most chronic sinusitis is managed by rhinologists. Patients commonly seek advice on recurring symptoms of rhinorrhoea, congestion, intermittent facial pain, and postnasal drip, and it is important to distinguish chronic sinusitis from rhinitis.

The course and character of sinusitis are influenced by (a) repeated episodes of mucosal oedema and hypersecretion in response to infection or allergy; and (b) anatomical variants which may impair sinus ventilation and mucociliary clearance. A broader understanding of these factors helps to direct medical management either alone or with surgery.4

The paranasal sinuses comprise four paired cavities: the frontal, maxillary, ethmoid, and sphenoid sinuses. Each is lined with ciliated pseudostratified columnar epithelium and has a narrow ostium that opens into the nasal cavity. The ostia of the frontal, maxillary, and anterior ethmoid sinuses open into the ostiomeatal complex, which lies in the middle meatus, lateral to the middle turbinate. The posterior ethmoid and sphenoid sinuses open into the superior meatus and sphenoethmoid recess respectively. The anatomy is variable and has been extensively reviewed.5

A protective mucous blanket, which envelops bacteria and other irritants, covers the respiratory cilia and is moved constantly along predetermined pathways to the sinus ostia. In the frontal sinus mucus passes up along the intersinus septum, then across the roof of the sinus before returning across the sinus floor to the frontal recess and the middle meatus.6 In the maxillary sinus mucus is moved from the floor of the sinus radially and up the walls of the sinus to the superiorly placed ostium (fig 1).

FIG 1
Mucociliary pathways in the maxillary and frontal sinuses

#### Summary points


This thesis argues that socio-technical systems (STS) mediate between governance and the vulnerability of households. A STS approach enhances the analytical categories of the sustainable livelihoods framework: by conceptualising STS as the groups through which risk is shared, household task, infrastructure and governance to be brought into a single conceptual space. The thesis develops a methodology, based on the sustainable livelihoods framework and the World Health Organisation's water system indicators, that captures the features of STS which help households to buffer vulnerability. These methods are applied to an empirical study of Cusco, Pern and three urban case studies: San Bias, near to the city's main plaza and served by the provincial water company Angostura, a pen-urban settlement with its own water system and Manco Capac, with a dilapidated, independent supply. Livelihoods were vulnerable to seasonal, local and global cycles with San Bias linked to tourism Angostura exposed to annual flooding and Manco Capac constrained by low, seasonal incomes. Diversity and complexity in livelihoods---exposure to different risks at different times---enhanced the ability of people in San Bias and Angostura to mitigate risks, while, in more homogeneous Manco Capac, existing vulnerability was interacting with poor water, sanitation and other services to compound the tasks faced by those with weak household assets. The physical hardware and institutional software of water systems contributed to differences in household vulnerability. Their modes of organisation, categorised as privileging, bypassing, resisting and networking, were dhven both by governance, through policy frameworks and local institutions, and livelihoods, where socio-technical systems react to the perceived hsks and returns of livelihoods and groups of livelihoods. Sustainable livelihoods, which enhance rather than damage livelihoods of others, are undermined by bypass but bolstered where assets are complex and diverse and modes of organisation serve to network users and providers, citizens and government and contaminators and contaminated.


While there is scholarship focused on the nexus between resource extraction and development, further examination is needed of how the harms and benefits of extraction are differentiated among different stakeholders based on factors such as their access to power, authority over decision-making, social status,and gender. This article combines theoretical insights from assemblage thinking and political ecology to unpack the intertwined range of actors, networks, and structures of power that inform the differentiated benefits and harms of hydrocarbon extraction in Ghana. The study shows that power serves as a crucial ingredient in understanding relations among social groups, including purported beneficiaries of extractive activities, and other actors that constitute the networked hydrocarbon industry. The different levels (i.e. global, national, sub-national,local) at which the socio-ecological 'goods' and 'bads' of hydrocarbon extraction become manifest are relational. The article contributes to ongoing scholarly and policy discussions around extractivism by showing how a multi-scalar analysis reveals a more complex picture of the distributional politics, power asymmetries, and injustices that underpin resource extraction.


The paper is devoted to examine the ability of a high-resolution National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP) T170/L42 Atmospheric General Circulation Model (AGCM), for exploring its utility for long-range dynamical prediction of seasonal Indian summer monsoon rainfall (ISMR) based on 5-members ensemble for the hindcast mode 20-year (1985-2004) period with observed global sea surface temperatures (SSTs) as boundary condition and 6-year (2005-2010) period in the forecast-mode with NCEP Coupled Forecast System (CFS) SSTs as boundary condition. ISMR simulations are examined on five day (pentad) rainfall average basis. It is shown that the model simulated ISMR, based on 5-members ensemble average basis had limited skill in simulating extreme ISMR seasons (drought/excess ISMR). However, if the ensemble averaging is restricted to similar ensemble members either in the overall run of pentad-wise below (B) and above (A) normal rainfall events, as determined by the departure for thethreshold value given by coefficient of variability (CV) for the respective pentads based on IMD observed climatology, or during the season as a whole on the basis of percentage anomaly of ISMR from the seasonal climatology, the foreshadowing of drought/excess monsoon seasons improved considerably. Our strategy of improving dynamical seasonal prediction of ISMR was based on the premise that the intra-seasonal variability (ISV) and intra-annual variability (IAV) are intimately connected and characterized by large scale perturbations westward moving (10-20 day) and northward moving (30-60 day) modes of monsoon ISV during the summer monsoon season. As such the cumulative excess of B events in the simulated season would correspond to drought season and vice-versa. The paper also examines El Niño-Monsoon connections of the simulated ISMR series and they appear to have improved considerably in the proposed methodology. This strategy was particularly found to improve for foreshadowing of droughts. Based on results of the study a strategy is proposed for using the matched signal for simulated ISMR based on excess B over A events and vice-versa for drought or excess ISMR category. The probability distribution for the forecast seasonal ISMR on category basis is also proposed to be based on the relative ratio of similar ensemble members and total ensembles on percentage basis. The paper also discusses that extreme monsoon season are produced by the El Niño-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) modes in a combined manner and hence stresses to improve prediction of IOD mode in ocean-atmosphere coupled model just as it has happened for the prediction ENSO mode six to nine months in advance.


The creation of a single Technology Enhanced Learning Strategy -TEL by the Department of Health (2011) and Health Education England (2012) has placed an increased emphasis on bringing simulation and eLearning together; this will require a change in how we interface with other training modalities. Technical outcomes How would one go about utilising video recorded simulated male catheterisation in a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) such as Moodle? Pedagogical outcomes The video products are Creative Commons and provided by NHS Education Scotland and Auckland University. They are both parts of two separate courses and the Auckland video also formed part of an academic study (Hansen et al, 2011). The idea of increased performance of clinical skills under simulated conditions facilitated by access to male catheterisation videos is one part of the pedagogical outcomes under consideration (Hansen et al 2011), VLE's could provide such access. However a study by Todsen et al (2013) did not find that access to a video of urethral catheterisation could be associated with improved clinical skills in a real setting. Though the testing and procedure were different; we were interested with the potential for videos to provide a tool to compare the considerable difference in male catheterisation procedure. In this instance the discussion is concerned with the tools to integrate simulation and eLearning whilst appreciating that evidence for and against this as an educational continuum is an inevitable part of practice. Outcomes Understand some of the pedagogical and technical issues when considering the integration of simulation and eLearning. Explore some of the challenges and consider the value of integrating simulation and eLearning Experimenting with test courses can be a good way of learning about the continuum in which we work. References Hansen, M. et al (2011) Enhancement of Medical Interns' Levels of Clinical Skills Competence and Self-Confidence Levels via Video iPods: Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial. Journal Of Internet Medical Research [Accessed 10 September 2013] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3221351/?tool=pmcentrez Health Education England » Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). 2014. Health Education England » Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL). [ONLINE] Available at: http://hee.nhs.uk/work-programmes/tel/. [Accessed 27 June 2014] Todsen et al (2013) Short- and long-term transfer of urethral catheterization skills from simulation training to performance on patients. BMC Medical Education [Acessed 9 June 2014] http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3598217/


Azevedo and Gottlieb [2017] (AG) define a notion of equilibrium that always exists in the Rothschild and Stiglitz [1976] (RS) model of competitive insurance markets, provided costs are bounded. However, equilibrium predictions are sensitive to assumptions made about the upper bound of cost: introducing an infinitesimal mass of high cost individuals discretely increases all equilibrium prices and reduces coverage for all individuals. We measure model sensitivity to these assumptions by considering sequences of economies with increasing upper bounds of cost, and determining whether the sequence of their equilibria converges. We present sufficient conditions under which AG equilibrium exists when cost is unbounded. For simple insurance markets, we derive a condition which is necessary and sufficient for existence: surplus from insurance must increase faster than linearly with expected cost. This condition is empirically common. If this condition does not hold, a wider range of costs results in market unraveling because all prices increase without bound and, in the limit, an AG equilibrium does not exist. We use these results to show that the equilibrium for an insurance market with an unbounded continuum of types is characterised by a simple differential equation. We also provide examples of non- existence for lemons markets (where a single insurance product is available) with unbounded cost.


OBJECTIVE
The aim of the present study was to examine the potential protective effects of Alpha-Lipoic Acid (ALA) against benzene induced alteration in CYP2E1 gene function, DNA damage as well as the oxidant-antioxidant status.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Fifty adult male Wister rats were used for this study. Rats were randomized and divided into four groups: Group I was designated as control group and received a vehicle of olive oil; Group II was received alpha lipoic acid in a dose of (20 mg/kg, i.p.); Group III received only I.M. injection of benzene in a dose of 2 ml/kg. Group IV received both alpha lipoic acid in a dose of (20 mg/kg, i.p.) and I.M. injection of benzene in a dose of 2 ml/kg. The animals were treated on each alternate day for 30 days then all rats were sacrificed and both blood and liver tissue samples were taken to measure serum malondialdehyde (MDA) Level; serum level of reduced glutathione (GSH); level of serum 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine; hepatic microsomal cytochrome P450 2E1 activity and gene expression.

RESULTS
Benzene significantly increased serum malondialdehyde (MDA), 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and both CYP2E1 activity and gene expression but significantly decreased level of reduced glutathione (GSH). These changes are reversed upon administration of ALA.

CONCLUSIONS
The current study provided evidence that the linkage between CYP2E1-dependent oxidative stress, DNA damage, and GSH homeostasis could contribute to the toxic actions of benzene which can be counteracted by ALA by its suppression action on CYP2E1, inhibition of lipid peroxidation and oxidative DNA damage as well as maintenance of intracellular antioxidants status.


Directed migration by a cell is a good phenomenon for studying intracellular coordination. Dynamic organization of both ATP and birefringent fibrils throughout the cell was studied in the multinuclear ameboid cell of the Physarum plasmodium during free locomotion and galvanotaxis. In a directionally migrating plasmodium, waves of ATP as well as thickness oscillations propagated from just inside the advancing front to the rear, and ATP concentration was high at the front on the average. In a DC electric field, locomotion was inhibited more strongly, ATP concentration decreased more, and birefringent fibrils were formed more abundantly at the anodal than at the cathodal side. Inside the cell there were a few undulations in the distributions of ATP and birefringent fibrils. In short, birefringent fibrils become abundant where ATP concentration decreases. The possible mechanism of the coordination in the directed migration and the implications of the scaling law are discussed.


PURPOSE
To characterize the time course of normal foveal development in vivo in term infants and young children using handheld spectral-domain optical coherence tomography (HH-SDOCT).

METHODS
We obtained 534 HH-SDOCT scans from 261 infants, children, and young adults with a mean age of 4.9 years (range, 0-27 years). Each retinal layer was manually segmented in ImageJ and correlated with gestational age (GA) and visual acuity (VA). The developmental trajectories of each retinal layer at the fovea, parafovea, and perifovea were calculated using fractional polynomial modeling.

RESULTS
The central macular thickness (CMT) increases logarithmically between birth and 48.6 months GA. The foveal ganglion cell (GCL), inner plexiform, inner nuclear (INL), and outer plexiform layers decrease in thickness exponentially until 18 months GA. Interestingly, the parafoveal and perifoveal GCL and INL thicknesses initially decrease until 17 months GA and then increase in thickness until 65.5 GA. The foveal outer nuclear layer, inner segment, and outer segment of the photoreceptors increase in thickness logarithmically until 32.4, 26.9, and 45.3 months GA, respectively. The parafoveal and perifoveal outer retinal layers increase in thickness more gradually until 146 months GA. The thickness of the outer retinal layers and CMT were strongly correlated with VA, with r = 0.54 (P < 0.0001) and r = 0.52 (P < 0.0001), respectively.

CONCLUSIONS
We have modeled for the first time the complex, nonlinear developmental trajectories for each retinal layer and demonstrate that development continues until adolescence. Our description of normal development will be helpful in diagnosing, monitoring, and understanding pediatric retinal disease.


Recent scholarship suggests that women in martial arts and combat sports have increasingly begun to undo gender by challenging gender norms and constructing new femininities. Most of this research, however, has focused on gender dynamics within martial arts and combat sports settings, rather than outside of them. For this study, I conducted semistructured interviews with 40 professional women's mixed martial arts athletes to examine the extent to which these women challenged gender norms in their intimate relationships. My data revealed that because they possess traits that are traditionally interpreted as masculine, many of the heterosexual women in my sample actually oversubscribe to gender norms in their intimate relationships to combat feelings of feminine insecurity. I argue, therefore, that rather than undoing gender, these women overdo gender in their intimate relationships. This study provides a cautionary tale to the celebrations of undoing gender for women combat sports athletes.


ABSTRACT: Gwendolyn Brooks's 1949 long poem Annie Allen can be read as an example of midcentury modernist poetry that favors inductive assemblage to the totalizing operations of linear narrative, joining other midcentury poems such as Ezra Pound's Pisan Cantos, William Carlos Williams's Paterson, and H. D.'s Trilogy. Annie Allen is frequently read as the last major work Brooks undertook before her break with European and Anglo modernist forms, when she aligned her aesthetics with the revolutionary poetics of the Black Arts movement. More significant than the shift in poetic practice that the book signals, however, is the way in which lyric speech in Annie Allen reveals ideologies of literary innovation. This essay argues that Brooks's long poem dramatizes the intersection of competing narratives of experimentalism and politics for African American poetics, for modernism, and, in a broader sense, for an understanding of what it means to write poetry as social critique.


Reconfigurable RF circuits are expected to become essential microwave components of next-generation wireless-communications and radar systems. In this paper, the usefulness of a tunable notch filter for interference mitigation is evaluated. In particular, the effects of an unintentional interference tone on the imaging performance of a coherent frequency-modulated-continuous-wave (FMCW) radar are assessed through simulation. The reported study serves to theoretically justify the operational benefits from the integration of reconfigurable notch filters into modern RF front-ends of coherent FMCW short-range radars. A specific experimental setup is also suggested for the practical verification of this analysis in a laboratory environment.


The influence of growth retardant choline chloride (0.02, 0.2 and 2 g/l) on cell size and division as well as chlorophyll accumulation and chloroplast ultrastructure of unicellular green algae Chlamydomonas was studied. It was shown that at any concentration used (0.02, 0.2, and 2 g/l) choline chloride decreased the rate of cell division. The content of chlorophyll and carotenoid per cell decreased and the sizes of cells increased at all concentrations of choline chloride. On the basis of electron microscopy data, the conclusion was made that an increase in the concentration of choline chloride intensified destruction processes in membranes of chloroplasts and other cell organelles.


The purpose of this research was to explore the personality indicators of traditional and extreme sport athletes. An online snowball sample of 149 athletes completed the 33-item questionnaire composed of personality indicators from the Myers Briggs Type Indicator and Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale. T-test results revealed that extreme athletes had higher Introversion , Perceiving , and Sensation Seeking scores than traditional athletes. Visual inspection of the correlation matrix of personality indicators revealed that the Myers Briggs type Perceiving was the most highly correlated variable with every factor of Zuckerman's Sensation Seeking Scale. Overall, the study revealed that extreme athletes perceive the external world differently than traditional athletes and that extreme athletes are more adept at being flexible, being spontaneous, and adapting to situations.


: In order to study the pathomorphosis of schizophrenia in children and adolescents the authors accomplished a comparative study of 2 groups of patients, first admitted to hospitals during 1948-1952 and in 1970-1972. It was established that during the past 20 years the clinical picture of schizophrenia had undergone significant changes, related mainly to the acuity of the debut, degree of progressivity of the process, as well as to the traits of the psychopathological picture of the disease.


Chronic cocaine abuse induces long‐term neurochemical, structural and behavioural changes thought to result from altered gene expression within the nucleus accumbens and other brain regions playing a critical role in addiction. Recent methodological advances now allow the profiling of gene expression in human postmortem brain. In this article, we review studies in which we have used Affymetrix oligonucleotide microarrays to identify transcripts that are differentially expressed in the nucleus accumbens of cocaine abusers in comparison to well‐matched control subjects. Of the approximately 39 000 gene transcripts interrogated, the expression of only a fraction of 1% is significantly modified in cocaine abusers. Found within this list are equivalent incidences of increased and decreased transcript abundance, including known gene transcripts clustered into several functional categories. A striking exception is a group of myelin‐related genes, consisting of multiple transcripts representing myelin basic protein (MBP), proteolipid protein (PLP) and myelin‐associated oligodendrocyte basic protein (MOBP), which as a group are substantially decreased in cocaine abusers compared to controls. These data, suggesting a possible dysregulation of myelin in cocaine abusers, are discussed in the context of myelin‐related changes in other human brain disorders. Finally, the effects of cocaine abuse on the profile of gene expression in some other brain regions critical for addiction (the prefrontal cortex and ventral midbrain) are briefly reviewed.


The effect of digitalis on the rest and exercise hemodynamics of eight normal subjects was studied. Cardiac output was determined by the dye dilution technique, using a cuvette densitometer. Arterial and venous pressures were measured on Statham strain gauges. Data were obtained during rest and exercise before and after intravenous administration of 1.0–1.2 mg of digoxin or 1.6–1.8 mg of acetyl strophanthidin. At rest there was a decrease of cardiac output (average 12%), pulse rate (5%) and stroke volume (9%) and an average rise of blood pressure from 129/73 mm Hg (mean 95 mm Hg) to 156/86 mm Hg (mean 109 mm Hg) following digitalization. During exercise there was a decrease of cardiac output (average 18%), pulse rate (6%) and stroke volume (9%), but no change of blood pressure after digitalization. The systemic vascular resistance was increased following digitalization, both during rest and exercise. In three additional subjects, the blood pressure rise accompanying digitalization at rest was verified by demonstrating a prompt increase in blood pressure as acetyl strophanthidin was injected and a fall as the control saline injection was resumed. Since the positive inotropic action of digitalis explained neither the rise of systemic vascular resistance nor the fall of cardiac output following digitalization of normal subjects, a peripheral action of cardiac glycosides was suggested. It is concluded that whatever augmentation of myocardial contractility that may result from digitalization of the resting or exercising normal subject is overshadowed by the peripheral action of the drug.

Submitted on May 29, 1958


Introduction Goat milk and their dairy products are frequently adulterated with cow milk because of its smaller production in the world and its higher price compared to cow milk. However, the main benefit claimed about goat milk is that it is less allergenic than cow milk and is a suitable substitute, especially among children. Besides, cow milk proteins, even in low concentrations, are able to trigger allergic reactions. Methods It was collected reliable samples of goat and cow milk. Afterwards, adulterations were performed adding different concentrations of cow milk (3%, 5%, 8%, 10%, 12%, 15% and 50%) in goat milk. Polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis (UREA-PAGE) and densitometry (ImageQuant TL) were used because this technique is simple and inexpensive to analyse proteins. Samples were applied in duplicate, obtaining two densitograms for each concentration. It was used bovine αs1-casein to detect cow milk, because this protein fraction has a larger electrophoretic migration than caprine αs1-casein. Results Area peak of bovine αs1-casein were directly proportional to the increase of concentration of cow milk and a linear regression was performed with the average of the duplicates: y=56.18x+1239. The linearity of the method could be observed because of high correlation (R2=0.9989). Conclusion There is no official method to assure the absence of cow milk in goat milk and their dairy products in Brazilian legislation. Then this method can be easily introduced as a tool to detect this fraud, which may represent a dangerous for health population.


Metabolic reprogramming is a key cancer hallmark that has led to the therapeutic targeting of glycolysis. However, agents that target dysfunctional mitochondrial respiration for targeted therapy remains underexplored. We report the synthesis and characterization of ten (10) novel, highly potent organometallic gold(iii) complexes supported by dithiocarbamate ligands as selective inhibitors of mitochondrial respiration. The structure of dithiocarbamates employed dictates the biological stability and cellular cytotoxicity. Most of the compounds exhibit 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) in the low-micromolar (0.50–2.9 μM) range when tested in a panel of aggressive cancer types with significant selectivity for cancer cells over normal cells. Consequently, there is great interest in the mechanism of action of gold chemotherapeutics, particularly, considering that DNA is not the major target of most gold complexes. We investigate the mechanism of action of representative complexes, 1a and 2a in the recalcitrant triple negative breast cancer (TNBC) cell line, MDA-MB-231. Whole-cell transcriptomics sequencing revealed genes related to three major pathways, namely: cell cycle, organelle fission, and oxidative phosphorylation. 2a irreversibly and rapidly inhibits maximal respiration in TNBC with no effect on normal epithelial cells, implicating mitochondrial OXPHOS as a potential target. Furthermore, the modulation of cyclin dependent kinases and G1 cell cycle arrest induced by these compounds is promising for the treatment of cancer. This work contributes to the need for mitochondrial respiration modulators in biomedical research and outlines a systematic approach to study the mechanism of action of metal-based agents.


Manufacturing natural-based high-performance composites are becoming of greater interest to the composite manufacturers and to their end-users due to their bio-degradability, low cost and availability. Yarn based textile architecture is commonly used in manufacturing these composites due to their excellent formability. However, for using natural based yarn as a reinforcing architecture in high load-bearing structural composite applications, a significant improvement in mechanical performance is required. Particularly, jute fibre yarn suffers from poor mechanical properties due to the presence of a fibrillar network, polysaccharides and other impurities in the fibre. For achieving this, we use aqueous glycine treatment (10%, W/V) on alkali(0.5 %, W/V) and untreated jute yarns for the first time. The glycine treatment on alkali-treated jute yarns (ATG) shows a huge improvement in tensile strength and strain values by almost ∼105% and ∼50 % respectively compared to untreated jute yarns (UT) because of the strong interactions and bonds developed between glycine, alkali and jute yarns. It is believed that the newly developed glycine treated jute yarns will be helpful to promote jute yarns in composite industries where load-bearing is the primary requirement and replace their synthetic counterparts.


Against the backdrop of low passenger terminal capacity in many airports in Africa, countries in this continent like their counterparts across the world are taking steps to improve the quality and capacity of this vital component of airport infrastructure using the Public-Private Partnerships (PPPs) strategy. The outcomes of the application of PPPs in other transport infrastructure such as roads; railways; and seaports have provided the impetus for countries to begin to adopt PPP in airport infrastructure. However, it has been observed that despite this development, there is a limited research and understanding of how best to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of PPPs in the provision and operation of airport infrastructure in African countries. Therefore, the aim of this study was investigate the application of Public-Private Partnership (PPP) in the MMA2 passenger terminal building in Lagos Airport, Nigeria with a view to identifying the critical success factors (CSFs) for PPP in the development and operation of airport passenger terminals in this country. The study relied on a single case study research to achieve this goal. The main sources of primary data were documents; archival records; direct observations; and semi-structured interviews with the partners in the PPP involved in the project, airline and business operators and passengers who use the MMA2 building. The data generated from these sources were subjected to content analysis. The results revealed that the existing policy and regulatory framework is generally adequate to support the adoption of PPP in airport terminal buildings. It was also found that the partners are mainly government agencies, a concessioner and a consortium of funders; and that each of these organizations played complimentary roles in ensuring the realisation of this project. Whereas the main internal critical success factors for the application of PPP in the MMA2 project are good funding structure, long concession period and appropriate risk allocation; the external critical success factors include sound legal, policy/regulatory; regulated and conducive operational environment; security of passengers and their properties as well as security of investments of the concessioner. These findings culminated in the development of the framework presented in this thesis. The framework, which was validated by the participants in this research, PPP experts, researchers and scholars highlights the key organizational and environmental factors that must be in place by government and private sector organizations who intend to derive the full benefits of PPP in the conception, development and operation of airport passenger terminals in Nigeria and other developing countries.


Advances in visual sensor devices and computing power are revolutionising the interaction of robots with their environment. Cameras that capture depth information along with a common colour image play a significant role. These devices are cheap, small, and fairly precise. The information provided, particularly point clouds, can be generated in a virtual computing environment, providing complete 3D information for applications. However, off-the-shelf cameras often have a limited field of view, both on the horizontal and vertical axis. In larger environments, it is therefore often necessary to combine information from several cameras or positions. To concatenate multiple point clouds and generate the complete environment information, the pose of each camera must be known in the outer scene, i.e., they must reference a common coordinate system. To achieve this, a coordinate system must be defined, and then every device must be positioned according to this coordinate system. For cameras, a calibration can be performed to find its pose in relation to this coordinate system. Several calibration methods have been proposed to solve this challenge, ranging from structured objects such as chessboards to features in the environment. In this study, we investigate how three different pose estimation methods for multi-camera perspectives perform when reconstructing a scene in 3D. We evaluate the usage of a charuco cube, a double-sided charuco board, and a robot's tool centre point (TCP) position in a real usage case, where precision is a key point for the system. We define a methodology to identify the points in the 3D space and measure the root-mean-square error (RMSE) based on the Euclidean distance of the actual point to a generated ground-truth point. The reconstruction carried out using the robot's TCP position produced the best result, followed by the charuco cuboid; the double-sided angled charuco board exhibited the worst performance.


In the wake of the global financial crisis, borrowers found it increasingly challenging to obtain finance. Once credit had dried up, the pendulum swayed in favour of lenders during loan negotiations. In an effort to avoid and terminate unprofitable loan agreements, major banking institutions relied heavily on the punitive provisions that were set out in loan contracts, particularly the draconian material adverse change clause. Against this background, this paper analyses the material adverse change clause with particular reference to case law. It also examines defences that a borrower can seek to rely on in court, following the Turkish case of Cukurova Finance. The paper considers the doctrine of relief of forfeiture in the context of loan agreements and argues that it is a remedy a borrower should seek to raise in court. The doctrine permits a borrower to mitigate the severity of punitive clauses when an event of default is triggered.


This paper focuses on flux-continuous pressure equation approximation for strongly anisotropic media. Previous work on families of flux continuous schemes for solving the general geometry-permeability tensor pressure equation has focused on single-parameter families e.g. [1]. These schemes have been shown to remove the O(1) errors introduced by standard two-point flux reservoir simulation schemes when applied to full tensor flow approximation. Improved convergence of the schemes has also been established for specific quadrature points [2]. However these schemes have conditional M-matrices depending on the strength of the cross-terms [1]. When applied to cases involving full tensors arising from strongly anisotropic media, these schemes can fail to satisfy the maximum principle. Loss of solution monotonicity then occurs at high anisotropy ratios, causing spurious oscillations in the numerical pressure solution. New double-family flux-continuous locally conservative schemes are presented for the general geometry-permeability tensor pressure equation. The new double-family formulation is shown to expand on the current single-parameter range of existing schemes that have an M-matrix. While it is shown that a double family formulation does not lead to an unconditional M-matrix scheme, an analysis is presented that classifies the sensitivity of the new schemes with respect to monotonicity and double-family quadrature. Convergence performance with respect to a range of double-family quadrature points is presented for some well known test cases.


To lay the foundation for the exploration of shale gas, we calculated the total organic carbon (TOC) of Shahezi Formation source rocks in the Xujiaweizi Fault Depression in the Songliao Basin by using the measuring data and the logging curves. Because the source rocks in the study area were formed in a lacustrine basin, they are characterized by strong organic heterogeneity, making it difficult to objectively characterize any changes in the TOC of the underground source rocks based on discrete and limited sampling. In addition, because the source rock is relatively rich in shale and poor in organic matter, the logging response features of high natural gamma, medium-high interval transit time, and medium-low resistivity, making it easily identified. However, because the logging parameters to predict the TOC of source rocks are not universal, it is impossible to establish a prediction equation that is universally applicable. To solve the above problems, we used the variable-coefficient [Formula: see text] technique to predict the TOC of the source rocks in the study area. We defined the two key parameters that affect the TOC prediction in the classic [Formula: see text] technique as the undetermined coefficients, and the coefficients were determined according to the logging and geologic data of the individual wells. The application results indicate that the variable-coefficient [Formula: see text] technique has an average relative error of 17.5% in the prediction of the TOC, which is 16.1% lower than that of the classic [Formula: see text] technique. Thus, the prediction results can effectively reflect the vertical variation in the TOC of source rocks. Based on the logging evaluation results for the TOC of source rocks in 35 wells throughout the study area, the thickness of the high-quality source rocks in the fourth member of the Shahezi Formation was mapped. The thickness of the high-quality source rocks in the fourth member of the Shahezi Formation is generally [Formula: see text]. There are two centers of greater thickness in the plane, with the maximum thickness of more than 70 m.


Compared to other monogenoidean groups, viviparous gyrodactylids exhibit extraordinary species diversity and broad host range. It has been suggested that this evolutionary success is associated with a suite of morphological and life-history traits that include, in part, continuous transmission (i.e., ability to infect new hosts throughout the gyrodactylid life cycle). Experiments were conducted to explore the putative adaptive advantage of continuous transmission within viviparous gyrodactylids during colonization of new host resources. Differences in infrapopulation growth, such as abundance, prevalence, and duration of the infection, of Gyrodactylus anisopharynx on 3 species of fish—Corydoras paleatus and Corydoras ehrhardti (both natural hosts) as well as Corydoras schwartzi (a host not known to harbor G. anisopharynx)—held under isolated and grouped conditions were determined. Results showed that infrapopulations of G. anisopharynx on C. paleatus and C. schwartzi had higher growth when the parasite had the opportunity for host transfer (grouped hosts). Infrapopulations of G. anisopharynx on isolated and grouped C. ehrhardti showed an opposite trend, although differences in mean duration and maximum abundance were not statistically different. Results obtained from experiments with C. paleatus and C. schwartzi support the hypothesis that continuous transmission in viviparous gyrodactylids enhances colonization success, probably by allowing initial avoidance of Red Queen dynamics. The absence of statistical differences between infrapopulations on isolated and grouped C. ehrhardti suggests that parasite dynamics may be influenced by factors other than continuous transmission in this host.


The present work comprises a study about the possibility of obtaining polycrystalline diamond cutters through a novel method of sintering both layers at the same time. This possibility was tested through the sintering of a diamond layer over a hard metal (WC+15wt%Co) support under conditions of 5.0 and 6.5 GPa of pressure and 1400 to 1600º C of temperature. The sintering conditions were imposed in two ways: directly, or with pre-sintering. The samples were tested by measuring microhardness, wear resistance, densification, and SEM. The results of the tests have shown the possibility of obtaining good quality inserts by sintering both layers of compacted powder.


In this paper we study how it is possible to control Petri net behavior using priority and time constraints. Controlling here means forcing a process to behave in a stable way by associating priorities, or time intervals to transitions and hence transforming a classic Petri net into a Petri net with priorities, or a Time Petri net. For Petri net models stability is often ensured by liveness and boundedness. These properties are crucial in many application areas, e.g. workflow modeling, embedded systems design, and bioinformatics. The paper deals with the problem of transforming a given live, but unbounded Petri net into a live and bounded one by adding transition constraints. We extend the previously proposed priority solution and compare the ability to find solutions with priority and time constraints for a given Petri net.


Objectives To explore growth data (height-for-age, weight-for-age and BMI-for-age) of children living in poor socioeconomic conditions in rural areas of Chin State, Burma/Myanmar; and to compare these data with the growth and development z-score (GDZ) values for school-aged children and adolescents, provided by the WHO. Setting A support and educational programme, run by the Swedish association Chin Development and Research Society (CDRS), was carried out among underprivileged school-aged children, unable to attend school without economic and practical support, living in villages and remote areas in Chin State. Participants Community leaders who were well familiar with the citizens in the community identified children in need of this support. Other community members could also suggest or apply for this. The sample includes all participating children in the CDRS programme at the time of the data collection in six townships. The children were placed in host families, close to a suitable school. Two samples with a total of 639 children from 144 villages and remote areas were obtained: 1. Children in the CDRS Chin Programme (CCP) (2007–2010) comprised 558 children: 50% girls and boys. 2. Children in the Chin Society (CCS) (2010) comprised 81 children: 44% girls and 56% boys. Primary outcome measures Growth data. Results All growth data from both groups deviated significantly from the WHO standard references (p≤0.001). The prevalence of stunting (height-for-age ≤–2SD) was 52% among girls and 68% among boys. High levels of wasting (weight-for-age ≤–2SD) were found among girls 29% and boys 36% aged 5–10 years. In addition, severe thinness (BMI-for-age ≤–2SD) was found among girls 31% and boys 44%, all results to be compared to the expected 2.27%. Conclusions Many more than expected—according to the WHO reference values—in CCP and CCS suffered from stunting, wasting and thinness.


Abstract Because marijuana use often precedes the use of other psychoactive substances, it has been characterized as a gateway to these other substances. The present study used data from both monozygotic (MZ) and dizygotic (DZ) twin pairs drawn from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Youth (Add Health) to examine the "gateway effect" role of earlier marijuana on later hard drug use. Difference score analyses reveal that within-pair differences in earlier marijuana use, controlling for differences in earlier hard drug use, and peer marijuana use predicted later within-pair hard drug use differences for DZ twin pairs. In contrast, earlier differences in marijuana use among MZ twin pairs did not predict later hard drug use differences. Rather than supporting the interpretation that earlier marijuana use "triggers" later hard drug use, these results suggest that the longitudinal pattern of drug use that has been interpreted as the "gateway effect" might be better conceptualized as a genetically influenced developmental trajectory.


Housing rights are basic and fundamental rights that rank at par to the right to life. Article 43(1)(b) of the Constitution of Kenya and a plethora of international human rights instruments have established housing rights but despite the textual protection of the human right to housing, this right has not been accompanied by any significant enjoyment. In the African continent at present millions of people are living as slum-dwellers, street families, squatters, refugees or displaced and at the moment more than four million Kenyans live in deplorable and dehumanising conditions in slums. The challenge facing the enjoyment of the right to housing is its enforcement.The Constitutional obligation to guarantee housing rights compels the Government of Kenya to place sufficient legal and policy emphasis on the full realization of housing rights. This thesis argues that housing rights can be actualised as promised under the Kenyan Constitution, regional and international instruments. To actualise the right to housing as provided for under the Constitution, the right must be met by a clear policy, legal and institutional framework to regulate incidental factors that may influence the actualisation of the right to housing to ensure its full enforcement.


Introduction:  Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the primary cause of disability and morbidity in many developed countries around the world. But timely management with cardiac surgery can reduce the mortality.
Objectives: To assess the health related quality of life (HRQOL) of the CVD patients after coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG).
Materials and Methods:  This cross-sectional observational study was carried out among purposively selected CABG patients from January to December 2013. A total of 78 post CABG patients were interviewed with short form health survey (SF-36) questionnaire at different hospitals in Dhaka.
Results: The study patients age ranged from 40 to 82 years and the proportion were higher among those of more than 60 years (38.5%) of age. Majority (48.7%) were educated up to HSC level. Explaining the characteristics of illness, the average duration of sufferings was 121.91±115.31 days and Post treatment duration in month was 14.97±19.25. The study findings showed a good level of QOL; with an average score of 78.2. The mental and physical components scores were 79.9 & 77.1 respectively. There were statistically significant (p<0.001) negative association between age and total component of quality of life of patients. In relation with sex, average total quality of life scores of male and female were 80.5±10.5 and 74.4±14 respectively which was statistically significant (p<0.001). Similarly, comparing to pre-treatment state, statistically significant (p<0.001) difference was found between groups quality of life. Similarly statistically significant difference was found with occupation in relation to total quality of life (p<0.001), physical component (p<0.01) and with mental component (p<0.05) of participants.
Conclusion:  Subjective perceptions of physical and psychological well-being changed significantly from before treatment to at least 3 months after treatment and better HRQOL noticed to the patients treated with CABG.
Journal of Armed Forces Medical College Bangladesh Vol.14(1) 2018: 50-53


At the heart of unlocking the potential of global clean, renewable energy is the concerted effort of Advanced Charge Management (ACM) and Advanced Photon Management (APM). Recent advances regarding molecular ACM have documented the maturity of energy conversion schemes. Adding now APM to ACM by means of down- and/or up-conversion and creating synergies is essential to further boost the efficiency of these sun-driven energy conversion schemes. A full-fledged comprehension of APM is essential as an enabler for creating versatile platforms that are broadly applicable not only in the area of solar electricity, but also solar fuels. APM is, in the molecular context, based on either down-converting photons by means of Singlet Fission (SF), on one-hand, or on Triplet Fusion (TF)/Two Photon Absorptions (TPA) for up-converting them, on the other hand. To harvest photons in the high-energy regime, SF, the molecular analog to multiple exciton generation, stands out. It allows high-energy, singlet-excited states to be down-converted into twice as many low-energy, triplet-excited states, thereby improving solar-cell performance. This is, however, limited to the part of the solar spectrum, where, for example, the SF-materials feature a significant absorption cross-section. To harvest photons in the low-energy regime, necessitates non-resonant, indirect excitation via TF/TPA. Our transdisciplinary research has enabled in recent years to gather a comprehensive understanding of molecular down- and up-conversion.


The anti-explosion effects and anchored mechanism of tunnels reinforced by bolts were studied by numerical analysis. Comparing with compression-stress curve of the experiments and numerical simulation on the same location of the vault, it indicates that the simulation results are reliable. By contrast the vault displacement of anchored tunnel and unlined tunnel, it can be found that the vault displacement of the tunnel is significantly reduced through the reinforcement with anchor bolts. By comparing the crack distribution of the anchor tunnel and unlined tunnel, it shows that cracks of unlined tunnel are significantly thicker and wider than that of the anchored tunnel, which indicates that the anti-explosion effects of anchor rods are better. It can be known that the anchored bolts supporting can take effect of reinforcement and anti-explosion according to the time-histories curve of the anchor-head.


Image generation has recently seen tremendous advances, with diffusion models allowing to synthesize convincing images for a large variety of text prompts. In this article, we propose DiffEdit, a method to take advantage of text-conditioned diffusion models for the task of semantic image editing, where the goal is to edit an image based on a text query. Semantic image editing is an extension of image generation, with the additional constraint that the generated image should be as similar as possible to a given input image. Current editing methods based on diffusion models usually require to provide a mask, making the task much easier by treating it as a conditional inpainting task. In contrast, our main contribution is able to automatically generate a mask highlighting regions of the input image that need to be edited, by contrasting predictions of a diffusion model conditioned on different text prompts. Moreover, we rely on latent inference to preserve content in those regions of interest and show excellent synergies with mask-based diffusion. DiffEdit achieves state-of-the-art editing performance on ImageNet. In addition, we evaluate semantic image editing in more challenging settings, using images from the COCO dataset as well as text-based generated images.


✓ The authors have developed a new method of angioautotomography by the use of a special head-swing apparatus. They have studied 70 intracranial aneurysms by this method and have found that it was more useful in clearly detecting the stalk of aneurysms than conventional angiography. The authors conclude that the method is also superior to conventional magnification angiography. Magnification angiotomography performed by this method offers more precise details.


Abstract Killing with drones produces queer moments of disorientation. Drawing on queer phenomenology, I show how militarized masculinities function as spatiotemporal landmarks that give killing in war its "orientation" and make it morally intelligible. These bearings no longer make sense for drone warfare, which radically deviates from two of its main axes: the home–combat and distance–intimacy binaries. Through a narrative methodology, I show how descriptions of drone warfare are rife with symptoms of an unresolved disorientation, often expressed as gender anxiety over the failure of the distance–intimacy and home–combat axes to orient killing with drones. The resulting vertigo sparks a frenzy of reorientation attempts, but disorientation can lead in multiple and sometimes surprising directions – including, but not exclusively, more violent ones. With drones, the point is that none have yet been reliably secured, and I conclude by arguing that, in the midst of this confusion, it is important not to lose sight of the possibility of new paths, and the "hope of new directions."


The San-in Region is far from subduction zones and has been considered to be received a relatively small strain rate. However, recent geodetic study revealed that the strain rate in the San-in Region is actually high and this active region of deformation is called 'the San-in shear zone'. The San-in shear zone almost overlaps with the San-in seismic zone and the some inland earthquakes (the 1943 Tottori earthquake, the 2000 Western Tottori earthquake and the 2016 Central Tottori earthquake) occurred in the San-in shear zone. To understand the crustal deformation in the shear zone in detail, the Crustal Dynamics project has planned very high-density seismic observation of seismograph in 1000 point around aftershock area of the 2000 Western Tottori earthquake. On the other hand, it is important for us to reveal the distribution and characters of fault rocks around aftershock area and compare paleostress field in the past with that in the present day. Recent geologic study around aftershock area of the 2000 Western Tottori earthquake revealed that the distribution of faults around aftershock area was concordant with the aftershock distribution and explained the relation between the geometry of the source fault and inactive fault. In this study, We estimated paleostress fields formed inactive fault in granitic rocks around aftershock area by the Hough-transform-based stress tensor inversion method (Yamaji et al., 2006; Sato and Yamaji, 2006). First, I estimated paleostress fields of each faults having fault gouge or cataclasite as characters of fault rocks. As the result, two stress tensors were detected with strike-slip faulting regimes from faults having fault gouge. One is E-W trending σ1-axis and N-S trending σ3-axis, the other is N-S trending σ 1-axis and E-W trending σ3-axis. The former is roughly consistent with the present stress field in SW Japan. On the other hand, three stress tensors were detected with reverse and normal faulting regimes from faults having cataclasite. With respect to different paleostress fields, fault system around aftershock area was formed by stress fields with reverse and normal faulting regimes in the past seismogenic zone and by stress fields with strike-slip faulting regimes in shallow depth with low confining pressure.


was isolated from one of these and this animal was therefore also sold on the open market. Further samples at this stage were negative, and over the following months a series of doubtful positive M.R.T.s culminating in a single positive guinea-pig were the only results of much hard work. The positive test obtained through the guinea-pig was of course useless owing to the time interval, for the law requires action within 42 days. The discovery of more strongly positive M.R.T.s, together with the history of the herd, determined the medical officer of health to take action. Accordingly a pasteurization order was imposed and fortunately Br. abortus was cultured a day or two later, confirming the justice of the order. At the end of 12 months the balance-sheet read as follows: On the debit side the laboratory had, in the course of the year, examined some 500 specimens from the farm. This involved a considerable expenditure in time and media and also the slaughter of a number of guinea-pigs. The specimens had been collected by milk samplers driving a heavy mileage at public expense. A local public heath inspector had a seven-week illness diagnosed as undulant fever following his visits to the farm. Several brucella-positive cows had been sold to unsuspecting farmers possibly residing in adjoining counties. There seemed at that stage little on the credit side except that some student technicians had learned to culture and identify Br. abortus. More recently, however, there has been a substantial gain, for the farmer has installed a pasteurization plant and in future will market heat-treated milk. The problem on one farm has been solved, but there remains the problem of the sale of the brucella-infected cows. Perhaps at this moment Dr. Henderson in Worcester, or one of our colleagues in Hereford or Oxford, is investigating a positive M.R.T. from a herd previously free from brucellosis.-I am, etc., Public Health Laboratory, A. E. WRIGHT. Glos.


Analogy and Explanation in Learning Causal System Categories Micah Goldwater Northwestern University Dedre Gentner Northwestern University Abstract: Causal system categories- e.g., positive feedback systems, are defined by common causal structure and extend across disparate domains- e.g., population growth and polar ice-cap melting are both governed by positive feedback. However, recognizing common causal systems across domains is challenging. Prior research suggests these categories are not obvious to novices; when participants sorted descriptions of natural phenomena that varied in causal system and content domain, science experts sorted via causal system, while novices primarily sorted by domain (Rottman, Gentner, & Goldwater in prep). In the current study, novices received training with a small set of real-world phenomena before carrying out the sorting task. We varied whether they read full causal explanations of the phenomena and whether they analogically compared pairs of descriptions from the same causal system. Either reading full explanations or analogically comparing descriptions alone helped little. However, combining analogy and explanation largely facilitated causal sorting, approximating expert levels.


Recently proposed fast template matching techniques employ rejection schemes derived from lower bounds on the match measure. This paper generalizes that idea and shows that in addition to lower bounds, upper bounds on the match measure can be used to accelerate the search. An algorithm is proposed that utilizes both lower and upper bounds to detect the k best matches in an image. The performance of this dual-bound algorithm is guaranteed; it always detects the k best matches. Theoretical analysis and experimental results show that its runtime compares favorably with previously proposed real-time exact template-matching schemes.


Ichthyoplankton data collected between 1997 and 2000 were combined with the results of numerical modelling to investigate the dispersal of snapper Pagrus auratus eggs and larvae in Shark Bay, Western Australia. A 3-dimensional hydrodynamic model was coupled with a 2-dimensional Lagrangian particle-tracking program to simulate passive transport of these plank- tonic particles. Modelling analysed the separate and combined effects of the region's principal hydrodynamic forces of tide, wind and the Leeuwin Current. Model runs simulated a 30 d period to recreate residual transport on time scales encompassing early snapper development prior to settlement. Hydrodynamic conditions during winter were tidally dominated and exhibited minimal residual flows. Eggs and larvae were retained within residual eddies that were coincident with the 4 main spawning areas. No connectivity between these areas was observed. The results provided further evidence of the existence of a number of proximate but geographically discrete spawning populations of snapper in Shark Bay waters. Hydrodynamic retention provides a mechanism that partly explains existing data indicating that snapper stock-structure in the region is complex. Such information is fundamental to determining the most appropriate geographic scale at which local snapper populations should be managed.


Introduction: Despite recent improvements in the scientific understanding of leukemia biology, the overall prognosis for adults with acute myeloid leukemia (AML) remains disappointingly poor. Therapeutic options for AML that are relapsed or refractory to front-line chemotherapy are limited, and the development of effective agents for this indication is an unmet need. The aminopeptidase-inhibitor tosedostat (CHR-2797) is a novel metalloenzyme inhibitor that blocks a critical step in the protein degradation and re-synthesizes intracellular pathway. This orally bioavailable agent has shown promising activity in vitro and in early clinical trials for patients with relapsed/refractory AML. Areas covered: This review summarizes the development of tosedostat to date. Specifically, the authors review the literature on its mechanism of action, pharmacoepidemiology and the currently available preclinical and clinical data. Expert opinion: Tosedostat is an oral agent with a novel mechanism of action. Early trials of tosedostat in relapsed/refractory elderly AML have shown encouraging results in a population with an overall very poor prognosis. This is particularly noted in patients with a prior history of myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) and hypomethylating-agent (HMA) use. Additional studies of tosedostat in rationally designed combinations with cytarabine and HMAs in advanced MDS and refractory AML populations are ongoing. Furthermore, the safety and efficacy evaluation is similarly ongoing, and patient selection will be an important consideration in the continued development of this promising compound.


We estimated the basement depth in Kobe City from array records of aftershocks of the 1995 Hyogo-ken Nanbu earthquake. The array measurements were conducted along the Sumiyoshi River in Kobe City using 12 stations from north to south within a distance of about 2 km. Travel time analyses of initial P- and S-waves were made to obtain travel time residuals due to the sediments. We also obtained the travel time difference between S-wave and SP-wave (i.e., P-wave converted from S-wave) at the basement-sediment boundary. By compiling three travel time data sets, we estimated the distribution of the basement depth. The basement depth suddenly increases from 0 to 1 km within a distance of 1 km, and then the depth gently increases to the south.


Based on newly available Politburo transcripts, this essay analyzes Bolshevik policy on inflation, the gold standard, and international trade in 1925-1926. During this period, an ambitious push for industrial expansion required imports, while rising procurement prices for grain complicated exports. The result was a severe shortage of gold, which became the focal issue of the Politburo's debates on economic policymaking. Although the gold crisis was addressed through macroeconomic restriction, in the advocacy of which several Politburo members displayed sophisticated economic reasoning, it also gave rise to a number of microeconomic restrictions that foreshadow the policies that ended NEP later in the decade. Thus, the Politburo debates underscore the extreme fragility of the NEP model as early as 1925-1926.


Aqueous solutions containing sodium lauryl ether sulphate (SLES) and cocamidopropyl Betaine (CAPB) with a constant total surfactant concentration (10 wt%) but different volume mixing ratios were prepared. A remarkable increase in the solutions' viscosity at a volume mixing ratio of 34 v/v% SLES to 66 v/v% CAPB was observed. By increasing the volume ratio of SLES (r-value) in the binary mixture, the viscosity of 10 wt% SLES, which is close to that of water, increases to a maximum, but then drops down drastically at high r values (>45 v/v%). The maximum viscosity (Vmax) is 2.8 Pas, whereas the minimum is 2 mPas. The rheological behavior at Vmax has the remarkable feature of a simple Maxwell fluid over a large frequency range with one relaxation time. By adding a microemulsion (Plantasil Micro), the value of Vmax decreases extremely, whereas adding cosurfactants like isodecyltrietheleneoxide (IT3) or salts, like calcium chloride, leads to a pronounced increase in the value of Vmax. At 0.76 wt% CaCl2, Vmax is 140 Pas and 150 Pas in the presence of 1 wt% IT3. By increasing the SLES volume mixing ratio in the solution the maximum viscosity is shifted to higher CaCl2 amounts. The increasing viscosity can be explained by a transformation of the micelle shape from spherical to rod-like. Whereas adding cosurfactants or salts leads to an increased entanglement between the rod-like micelles. Consequently, higher microemulsion amounts can be added before reaching the minimum viscosity.


The research area of this paper is an application of social media tools of in higher education. Social media can be described as Web 2.0 technologies and practices that are used for sharing content, opinions and experiences. The application of social networks, wikis and blogs enables improvement relations between the participants of the educational process. In this paper we present a model for application of social media in e-learning, developed in scope of Laboratory for e-business, Faculty of organizational sciences, University of Belgrade. The practical part of the paper describes the use of wikis, blogs and social networks, as a complement to the existing elearning process, in a higher education institution. Integration of an edutainment Facebook application with Moodle learning management system is shown. The main goal of this paper is the improvement of quality of e-learning process through application of social media in higher education.


An experiment was carried out at in Kharif season at student research field, College of Agriculture, Indore (M.P.) to study the Effect of fungicide and different Rhizobium inoculants on growth and yield of soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merrill). The soil of the experimental field was medium black in texture, neutral in reaction (pH 7.70) with normal EC (0.23 dS/m) and medium organic carbon contents (0.56%) and analysing low in available N (225 kg/ha), medium in available P (9.60 kg/ha) and high in available K (508 kg/ha) contents. A field experiment was consisted of 15 treatments replicated four times in randomized block design (RBD). As per treatment, the seed of soybean cv. JS 335 treated or not treated with fungicides and inoculated with Rhizobium culture before 15, 10, 05, 01 days of planting and on the day of sowing. Among the treatments, seed treatment with Thiram + Carbendazim 50 WP – inoculation with Premax+ Rizo-liq (ODS)] (T10) recorded the maximum plant height (66.75 cm) at harvest, branches per plant (4.02), fresh weight (35.83 g) per plant at 75 DAS, dry matter per plant (23.14g) at 75 DAS, leaf area index (12.87) at 60 DAS, number of pods (39.18) per plant, number of seeds (2.84) per pod while minimum was recorded in T15 absolute control (No fungicide, No culture). The maximum yield (2.15 t/ha) was recorded under [Thiram + Carbendazim 50 WP - Premax+ Rizo-liq (ODS)] (T10) treatment and the minimum (1.51 t/ha) was recorded in absolute control (T15) treatment. The application of Rhizobium with or without fungicides showed a synergic effect in increasing the seed yield of soybean per hectare.


Ranging from the Hawaiian Archipelago to the Aleutian Islands, from Silicon Valley to Guam, Pathways to the Present is a thoroughly researched and concisely argued account of economic and environmental change in the postwar "American" Pacific. Following a brief survey of the history of the Pacific, the author takes the Hawaiian Islands as the center of American activities in the region and looks at interactions among native Hawaiian, developmental, military, and environmental issues in the archipelago after World War II.

He then turns to land- and water-use problems that have intersected with more nebulous quality-of-life concerns to generate policy controversies in the Seattle region and the San Francisco Bay area, especially Silicon Valley. Economic expansion and environmentalism in Alaska are examined through the lens of changes occurring along the Aleutians. From there the study considers Hiroshima after its destruction by the atomic bomb in 1945, looking at residents' desire to combine urban-planning concepts. The author investigates the effort to remake Hiroshima as a high-tech city in the 1990s, an attempt inspired by the perceived success of Silicon Valley, and postwar planning on Okinawa, where American influences were particularly strong. The final chapter takes into account issues raised on Guam regarding the growth of tourism and the use of the island for military purposes and links these to developments in the Philippines to the west and American Sâmoa to the south.

An electronic version of this book is freely available thanks to the support of libraries working with Knowledge Unlatched, a collaborative initiative designed to make high-quality books open access for the public good. The open-access version of this book is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0), which means that the work may be freely downloaded and shared for non-commercial purposes, provided credit is given to the author. Derivative works and commercial uses require permission from the publisher.


Introduction COVID-19 required health services to be innovative and quickly adapt their health service delivery, including adopting health technology in cancer clinical practice. COVID-19 restrictions forced us to introduce follow-up consultations for many patients via telehealth. At the same time, we adapted an existing Patient Reported Outcome messaging service that linked to the patient's medical record to allow patients to self-report their health and disease status before their telehealth follow-up consultation. This study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of self-reporting for cancer follow-up care, and determine the patient-clinician level of agreement.
Methods Cross-sectional clinical practice study. Patients on radiation oncology follow-up care were sent a text message with a weblink to a survey to self-report their health before their radiation oncologist appointment. Radiation oncologists completed the same set of questions during or within a day of the telehealth follow-up consultation. Descriptive statistics were analysed to evaluate the uptake of self-reporting. Percent agreement and Cohen's Kappa were used to determine patient-clinician agreement.
Results A moderate response rate of 62% was achieved from the 145 patients. There was no difference in the age of patients that were able to complete the assessment. Percent agreement between the patient-reported and the clinician-reported for weight change, appetite, physical performance, side effects was acceptable (>75%). However, percent agreement was moderate for pain and sleep. For most items, Cohen's Kappa indicated moderate agreement, with pain, side effects, and recurrence being fair. Patients were more likely to report themselves worse than the clinician for all items, except for side effects.
Conclusion Patient self-reported health can provide useful information for clinicians to remotely follow-up their patients. This holds promise for future models of follow-up care, particularly for rural and remote patients, and during pandemics and other disasters where clinic attendance is not possible.


The causes of vomiting can be grouped into two categories, corresponding to the neural sites of emetogenesis--the emesis center (EC) and the chemoreceptor trigger zone (CTZ). Anatomic disorders induce vomiting via the EC, whereas toxic and metabolic problems do so via activity of the CTZ. Antihistamines have antiemetic effects at the EC; phenothiazines and related compounds block vomiting mediated by the CTZ. Thus, a pharmacologic approach to this problem can be logically constructed.


In cases of calf pain and swelling, diagnosis by physical examination alone may be difficult. Emergency physicians will need the history and duration of occurrence as well as routine laboratory findings to help them make the decisiom. Initial investigation may begin with ultrasound, followed by magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We present a case report of using these systems step by step until the diagnosis was established.


Three different packaging
materials of (37 cm × 25 cm) size (Sealed Transparent Polythene
Bag (STPB) Sealed Paper Bag (SPB) (Brown envelope), Open Mouth Polythene Bag
(OMPB) (Black incolour)) were used for Oreochromisniloticus (O), Clariasgariepinus (C) and Mormyrusrume (M). Twenty fish samples
per species (averaging 250 gm) were hot smoked dried whole for 36 hours at an average temperature of 100?C. Packaged hot at the rate of
6 fishes per package for each species (three packs for each packaging
treatment i.e. 18 pieces were packed while the
remaining 2 pieces were used for initial bacteria load and microbial load). Microbial load (Total Viable Count (TVC),
Total Coliform Count (TCC) and Total Fungi Count (TFC)) for the fresh fish was initial hot smoked and finally at the
end of 12 weeks was
monitored. The TVC (bacterial load) of O. niloticus dropped from (10.6 - 8.4) × 104 (fresh state-hot
smoked) and M. rume (9.8 - 7.0) × 104, while C. gariepinus slightly increased from (12.4 - 12.6) × 104. After hot smoking, highest TVC of 8.6 × 104 (OMPBC), 8.3 × 104 (SPBC) and 8.2 × 104 (STPBC) were recorded in C. gariepinus among the 9 packag- ing at 12 weeks. However highest
tendency for heavy TVC is in all OMPB with highest bacteria load in the OMPBC
(8.6 × 104), 7.6 × 104 (OMPBO) and 6.6 × 104 (OMPBM). After 12 weeks
highest ranged TFC of (0.6 - 0.7) × 104 was recorded in M. rume as against 0.2 × 104 recorded in the initial
smoked for all. TCC was highest in C. gariepinus (4.0 - 4.3) × 104. Packaging did not
limit the existence of micro-organisms. Six bacteria species (Micrococcus (acidiophilus, luteus), Bacillus (subtilis, cereus, aureus), Staphylococcus
aureus, Streptococcus lactis, Proteus (vulgaricus, morganii), Pseudomonas
aureginosa) and three fungi species (Aspergillus (niger, tamari), Rhizopusnigricans, fusariumoxysporum) were represented in all the packages. On the average five bacteria and
two fungi species were represented, excepting for OMPBM and OMPBO with six
bacteria species.


Metamaterials have been rapidly explored for a few years and attracted tremendous attentions. This paper discussed the latest progress in metamaterials at microwave frequencies. The ability of designing and building the complex medium has been dramatically enlarged via the development of various types of metamaterial configuration, rapid design system and sophisticated fabrication technique.


The link between chronic inflammation and cancer development has lately gained extensive epidemiological and experimental support, particularly in organs like liver, stomach, colon, and lung. Although experimental models are available to study inflammation-driven tumorigenesis in the liver, stomach, and colon, no such models are available for lung cancer. Therefore, the objective of the present study is to develop a model for inflammation-driven lung tumorigenesis. A/J mice received four intraperitoneal injections (two doses/week) of the tobacco smoke carcinogen 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone (NNK) at a dose level of 50 mg/kg body weight. Beginning one week after the last dose of NNK, the mice were given weekly intranasal instillations of lipopolysaccharide (LPS, 10ug/mouse), a potent inflammation-inducing agent, until the end of the study at week 27. Upon termination of the study, tumors on the surface of the lung were counted, their size determined and histopathologically analyzed. Moreover, we analyzed alterations in the expression of inflammation- and tumorigenesis-related proteins and microRNAs (miRs) by Western immunoblotting and qRT-PCR, respectively. Chronic exposure NNK-treated mice to LPS increased the number and size of lung tumors (47.3 ± 11 tumors/mouse for the NNK plus LPS group versus 28 ± 8 tumors/mouse in the NNK only group). Furthermore, lung tumors in the NNK plus LPS treated mice were significantly larger than the lung tumors of the mice challenged with NNK alone. Multiplicities of lung tumors in LPS-treated mice were similar to those mice given the vehicle. Multiplicities of the histopathological lesions pulmonary hyperplastic foci, adenoma, adenoma with dysplasia and adenocarcinoma in the NNK only group were 3.0 ± 1.2, 7.1 ± 2.9, 1.3 ± 1.1, and 0.3 ± 0.5/mouse, respectively. The corresponding frequencies of the lesions in the NNK plus LPS group were 3.1 ± 1.8, 11.8 ± 5.2, 3.9 ± 1.8, and 0.6 ± 0.7/mouse. Western immunoblotting studies showed that LPS exposure of NNK-treated mice enhanced activation of NF-kappaB, STAT3, and Akt but caused down-regulation of the tumor suppressor protein PTEN. Further, analyses of levels of five carcinogenesis-related microRNAs (miR-21, miR-146a, miR-150, miR-155 and miR-21, and miR-181b-1) showed increases in the expressions of miR-155 and miR-21. Levels of miR-155 and miR-21 were increased by 2.3-fold and 1.9-fold, respectively, in mice treated with NNK plus LPS group as compared to mice treated with NNK. Moreover, levels of miR-155 and miR-21 were increased by 10.5-fold and 4.7-fold, respectively, in LPS treated mice compared to vehicle-treated mice. In summary, our results demonstrate that LPS-induced chronic lung inflammation enhances lung tumorigenesis. This model could be a vey useful tool to understand the role inflammation in lung tumorigenesis and for identification of anti-inflammatory and lung cancer chemopreventive agents. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2011;4(10 Suppl):B41.


The cracking process in Longmaxi formation shale was experimentally studied during uniaxial compressive loading. Both the evolution of the three-dimensional fracture network and the micromechanics of failure in the layered shale were examined as a function of the inclination angle of the bedding plane. To visualize the cracking process, the test devices presented here used an industrial X-ray CT scanner that enabled scanning during the uniaxial compressive loading. Scanning electron microscopy and environmental scanning electron microscopy imaging techniques were used to observe the microscopic characteristics of fractured surfaces of failed specimens. The combination of these observations clearly illustrated the micromechanics of the failure process in the anisotropic shale. The experimental results suggest that the cracking process could be divided into two stages under uniaxial loading, and the microstructures and bedding planes of the shale played an important role in the cracking process of layered shale. In the first stage of deformation, the cracking mainly occurred as smaller microcracks (such as intergranular, microcracks), and the propagation of the newly formed microcracks was controlled by the bedding plane of the shale specimen. The microscopic imaging study showed that the microscopic damage was mainly dominated by microtensile fractures under uniaxial compression. In the second stage, with the increase in loading, the extensive development and coalescence of the microcracks led to the formation of complex fracture networks. The complexity of the fracture networks was related to the microstructure of the sample. The coalescence of the microcracks could be divided into three levels in the spatial scale, and the coalescence patterns included both tensile and shear patterns.


A number of initiatives aimed at improving medication safety in and across New Zealand public hospitals have been introduced over recent years. Clinicians, policymakers and patients now want to know whether patients are safer today from medicine use than they have been in the past. The challenge has been determining exactly what should be measured. In this viewpoint, we critically examine the suitability of adverse drug events (ADE) as a primary metric for assessing the progress of medication safety improvement. We provide an overview of contemporary dialogue on medication safety measurement and highlight the emergent challenges. Finally, we reflect on how New Zealand has approached medication safety measurement so far and argue the need for a multi-stakeholder informed conceptual framework with a view to further enhancing meaningful assessment of medication safety.