BACKGROUND
Hyperuricemia is prevalent in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD); however, data are limited about the relationship of uric acid levels with long-term outcomes in this patient population.

STUDY DESIGN
Cohort study.

SETTING & PARTICIPANTS
The Modification of Diet in Renal Disease (MDRD) Study was a randomized controlled trial (N = 840) conducted from 1989 to 1993 to examine the effects of strict blood pressure control and dietary protein restriction on progression of stages 3 to 4 CKD. This analysis included 838 patients.

PREDICTOR
Uric acid level.

OUTCOMES & MEASUREMENTS
The study evaluated the association of baseline uric acid levels with all-cause mortality, cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, and kidney failure.

RESULTS
Mean age was 52 +/- 12 (SD) years, glomerular filtration rate was 33 +/- 12 mL/min/1.73 m(2), and uric acid level was 7.63 +/- 1.66 mg/dL. During a median follow-up of 10 years, 208 (25%) participants died of any cause, 127 (15%) died of CVD, and 553 (66%) reached kidney failure. In multivariate models, the highest tertile of uric acid was associated with increased risk of all-cause mortality (hazard ratio [HR], 1.57; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.07 to 2.32), a trend toward CVD mortality (HR, 1.47; 95% CI, 0.90 to 2.39), and no association with kidney failure (HR, 1.20; 95% CI, 0.95 to 1.51) compared with the lowest tertile. In continuous analyses, a 1-mg/dL greater uric acid level was associated with 17% increased risk of all-cause mortality (HR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.05 to 1.30) and 16% increased risk of CVD mortality (HR, 1.16; 95% CI, 1.01 to 1.33), but was not associated with kidney failure (HR, 1.02; 95% CI, 0.97 to 1.07).

LIMITATIONS
Primary analyses were based on a single measurement of uric acid. Results are generalizable primarily to relatively young white patients with predominantly nondiabetic CKD.

CONCLUSIONS
In patients with stages 3 to 4 CKD, hyperuricemia appears to be an independent risk factor for all-cause and CVD mortality, but not kidney failure.


ABSTRACT Objective To evaluate PTPN22 C1858T polymorphism and the risk of endometriosis. Methods A meta-analysis of 10 published case-control studies (from four articles), with a total sample of 971 cases and 1,181 controls, was performed. We estimated risk (odds ratio and 95% confidence intervals) of endometriosis associations with the C1858T polymorphism. Results A significant increased risk in all genetic models of the variant T allele with endometriosis (odds ratio: 3.14-5.55; p<0.00001-0.002) was found. The analysis without the study whose controls deviated from the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium exacerbated these effects in the homozygous and recessive models (odds ratio: 7.19-9.45; p<0.00001-0.0002). In the Italian subgroup, a significant risk association was found in the homozygous and recessive models (odds ratio: 8.72-11.12; p=0.002). Conclusion The associations observed between PTPN22 (C1858T) and the risk of endometriosis suggest this polymorphism might be a useful susceptibility marker for this disease.


In the present work, a method for extracting cellulose from olive industry solid waste has been developed. The method involves subjecting solid olive waste to kraft pulping, followed by multistep bleaching processes. The totally free chlorine chemical bleaching sequence APEP was the most effective and gave an average cellulose yield of about 35%. The extracted cellulose was extensively characterized using FTIR, EMS, HPLC, and viscometry. Our key finding in this study is that the extracted cellulose was found to have physio-chemical properties that are similar to those of conventional microcrystalline cellulose (MCC). This is important, as our results show how lignocellulosic agricultural wastes can be utilized to produce high value cellulose powder.


Signomial programs (SPs) are optimization problems specified in terms of signomials, which are weighted sums of exponentials composed with linear functionals of a decision variable. SPs are nonconvex optimization problems in general, and families of NP-hard problems can be reduced to SPs. In this paper we describe a hierarchy of convex relaxations to obtain successively tighter lower bounds of the optimal value of SPs. This sequence of lower bounds is computed by solving increasingly larger-sized relative entropy optimization problems, which are convex programs specified in terms of linear and relative entropy functions. Our approach relies crucially on the observation that the relative entropy function, by virtue of its joint convexity with respect to both arguments, provides a convex parametrization of certain sets of globally nonnegative signomials with efficiently computable nonnegativity certificates via the arithmetic-geometric-mean inequality. By appealing to representation theorems from real algeb...


Urban socioecological risk, like other urban metabolic processes, embodies relations between the city and the non-city. In this paper, I trace the production of urban risk within and beyond the city through the lens of the hazardscape using the case of Metro Manila and Laguna Lake in the Philippines. Building on recent interventions in urban political ecology that seek to map the terrains of extending urban frontiers, I examine the processes that construct city and non-city spaces in urbanization through flood control. I synthesize narratives of the material-discursive production of risk mediated by infrastructure with histories of landscape and livelihood change in an urban socioecological frontier to make two related arguments. First, discursive constructions of city and non-city and the material flows that connect them shape the production of urban ecological risk, with material consequences for non-city vulnerabilities. Second, infrastructure plays an important mediating role in the production of hazardscapes. The intersection of flows of water, discursive urban imaginaries in state plans, and livelihoods in Metro Manila and Laguna Lake exemplifies metabolic relations that reveal the spatio-temporal connections of cities with landscapes that make their functioning possible.


It is widely recognized that high supplies of fine sediment, largely sand, can negatively impact the aquatic habitat quality of gravel‐bed rivers, but effects of the style of input (chronic vs. pulsed) have not been examined quantitatively. We hypothesize that a continuous (i.e. chronic) supply of sand will be more detrimental to the quality of aquatic habitat than an instantaneous sand pulse equal to the integrated volume of the chronic supply. We investigate this issue by applying a two‐dimensional numerical model to a 1 km long reach of prime salmonid spawning habitat in central Idaho. Results show that in both supply scenarios, sand moves through the study reach as bed load, and that both the movement and depth of sand on the streambed mirrors the hydrograph of this snowmelt‐dominated river. Predictions indicate greater and more persistent mortality of salmonid embryos under chronic supplies than pulse inputs, supporting our hypothesis. However, predicted mortality varies both with salmonid species and location of spawning. We found that the greatest impacts occur closer to the location of the sand input under both supply scenarios. Results also suggest that reach‐scale morphology may modulate the impact of sand loads, and that under conditions of high sand loading climate‐related increases in flow magnitude could increase embryo mortality through sand deposition, rather than streambed scour. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


It depends. If volatility fluctuates in a forecastable way, volatility forecasts are useful for risk management (hence the interest in volatility forecastability in the risk management literature). Volatility forecastability, however, varies with horizon, and different horizons are relevant in different applications. Moreover, existing assessments of volatility forecastability are plagued by the fact that they are joint assessments of volatility forecastability and an assumed model, and the results can vary not only with the horizon but also with the assumed model. To address this problem, we develop a model-free procedure for assessing volatility forecastability across horizons. Perhaps surprisingly, we find that volatility forecastability decays quickly with horizon. Volatility forecastabilityalthough clearly of relevance for risk management at the short horizons relevant for, say, trading desk managementmay be much less important at longer horizons.


Abstract Background: Public health advocacy is important in preventing harm and promoting health in communities. There has been little research into public health advocacy strategies which address gambling related harms. This study aimed to identify the role of advocacy in gambling reform, challenges to gambling advocacy implementation, and strategies that could facilitate change. Methods: Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with a sample of 50 stakeholders with backgrounds in gambling policy, research, health promotion, and advocacy. Participants were asked about how advocacy could be used to address gambling harm, and the range of barriers and facilitators for effective advocacy responses. A constant comparative method of analysis was used on the data. Results: While participants perceived that there was a role for advocacy in preventing and reducing gambling related harm, they discussed a range of challenges. These included restrictions associated with funding of research and services, the power of the gambling industry, and the role of stigma in preventing people with lived experience of gambling from speaking about their experiences. Participants also described a range of facilitators of public health advocacy approaches, including independent funding sources, reframing the 'responsibility' debate, developing opportunities and capacity for people with lived experience of harm, and developing broadly based coalitions to enable cohesive and consistent advocacy responses to gambling harm. Conclusion: There is a clear role for public health advocacy approaches aimed at preventing and reducing gambling harm. Future research could identify how advocacy strategies may be implemented as a part of a comprehensive public health approach to gambling reform.


Internet development in these recent days goes very fast, e-commerce electronic commerce is essentially buying and selling activities electronically undertaken via internet network. More specially, e-commerce also involves add setting , order sale, delivery and receipt, service provision and support using a web shop for 24 hours a day for all costumers. E commerce application has invariably been the business art and strategy in housing area, costumes are facilitated with this service.

This study aims to find out the extent to which e-commerce is employed in housing business in Indonesia, in particular and APEC countries, in general. The writer wants to know whether online application in housing business has been keeping up with e-commerce application in general.

Study method used was subjective evaluation on e-commerce application. The writer subjectively examined the application of e-commerce to housing field. Standard evaluation of the study was based on the percentage of site loading and study reference on e-commerce application done by Richardus Eko Indrajit (2000).

The subject of this study was conducted on housing site in APEC countries which amounts to 98 sites searched with search engine aid, both nationally and internationally.

Study results show that the best e-commerce application was dominated by North American countries. From the results of the study on online technology usage, that is, payment facility, question and answer, multimedia presentation, and information taking on e-commerce application to housing business is still small compared to e-commerce application to global trade.


This paper examines media imperialism as it affects television broadcasting in Nigeria. To achieve the set task, it adopts the historical approach to trace the evolvement of imperialistic tendencies in the Nigerian broadcast environment to the evolution of television in Nigeria. It contends that apart from putting the Nigerian broadcaster in a dilemma of some sort, the various forms of the phenomenon do not help in any significant way to integrate the rural populace into the mainstream of socio-cultural and socio-economic growth and development of Nigeria and thus the prognosis of the situation is precarious for the Nigerian television media. It further argues that as a phenomenon, media imperialism will continue to recur in the foreseeable future because an enabling ambience needed for its displacement by local television broadcasting is yet faltering. Therefore, it suggests that a deliberate and concerted effort should be made to change the situation. Such effort should include better funding, investment in the development of home-grown media technologies, investment in high manpower development, innovative programmes and more specialized programming with indigenous flavours by both the public and private television outfits operating in the Nigerian broadcast clime.


Thermally-stratified air layers overlying solar-heated ground are exploited for power generation by the deliberate formation of intense buoyancy-induced vertical columnar vortices, similar to naturally-occurring desert "dust devils." In hot-climate regions, such buoyancy-driven columnar vortices occur spontaneously with core diameters of 1–50 m at the surface and heights up to one km, leading to flows with considerable angular and axial momentum. Unlike "dust devil" vortices, which are typically free to wander laterally and are therefore susceptible to crosswind, anchored columnar vortices are deliberately triggered and confined within a domain laterally bounded by an azimuthal array of stationary ground-mounted vertical vanes, and are sustained by continuous entrainment of heated air passing between these vanes. Hot air near the solar-heated ground plane sustains the anchored vortex, and electric power is generated by using the resulting rotational and vertical flow induced by an "anchored" vortex to drive a vertical-axis wind turbine coupled to an electric generator. This novel approach to the collection of solar energy provides a low-cost, scalable, and sustainable method for generation of electric power from vast amounts of solar-heated air in arid regions. Meter-scale laboratory experiments have demonstrated the nucleation and sustainment of strong, buoyancy-driven vortices above a thermally controlled ground plane. The present investigation focuses on fundamental mechanisms of columnar vortex formation, evolution, and dynamics using stereo particle image velocimetry (PIV), with particular emphasis on scaling and assessment of the available mechanical power. The strength and scaling of theses vortices can be significantly altered by adjustment of the vanes and the rate of sensible heat uptake by the air flow, related to the "buoyancy flux". Recent outdoor tests of a meter-scale prototype coupled with a simple vertical-axis turbine placed on a surface directly heated by solar radiation, have demonstrated continuous rotation of the turbine with significant extraction of kinetic energy from the column vortex, in both the absence and presence of crosswind.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


Article history: Orobanche palaestina Reut. is a species that was first described from Palestine by Reuter in 1847. Orobanche L. is a large genus mainly distributed throughout subtropical and tem- perate regions of the northern hemisphere. The Mediterranean region is one of the most important centers of diversity. The species was collected for the first time from the seashore of Samandag in Hatay and it is a new record for the flora of Turkey. The description, pic- tures of the type species from the Geneva herbarium and field, and a distribution map are given. Diagnostic characters and its taxonomic relationship with closely allied taxa are dis- cussed here. The genus Orobanche has been represented by 39 species due to this new record in Turkey.


Summary The use of the first of a new class of chelating agents for the binding of metal ions to macromolecules as a novel approach to radiopharmaceutical labeling is described. Advantages are mild reaction conditions, large variety of accessible radionuclides and reactive groups, and separation of synthetic organic chemistry from radiochemistry. Human serum albumin and bovine fibrinogen labeled with mIndium using this technique were relatively stable in vitro and in vivo, showed little alteration in function, and have potential as tumor localizing agents in humans.


Background: Quality of Life (QoL) is an important consequence in neurological clinical care. The debate about generic and disease specific measures of quality of life reflects uncertainty about whether there are unique aspects to understanding QoL in different diseases. If there are commonalities to different disabling neurological diseases, it may be credible to extrapolate from more common and better-studied conditions, like multiple sclerosis (MS) to rarer diseases like motor neurone disease (MND). Distinctions across neurological conditions would suggest that strategies to maximise QoL must be disease specific.
Objectives: In this analysis our aim was to explore psychosocial factors affecting QoL in MND in comparison with MS.
Methods: The study employed both semi-structured interviews and focus groups. Each focus group was consisted of either MND or MS. All interviews and group discussions were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim for a thematic analysis. Themes were inductively developed within a condition before they were compared across the two conditions for cross-sectional exploration.
Results: Data was collected from 40 people with MND: 26 interviews (male=14; mean age= 64yrs; mean illness duration=1.6yrs); 14 in focus groups (male=9; mean age=62yrs; mean illness duration=3.5yrs); and from 61 people with MS: 43 interviews (male=16; mean age=52yrs; mean illness duration=15yrs); 18 in focus groups (male=6; mean age=47yrs; mean illness duration=9yrs). A codebook for each condition was developed for the analysis and saturation was achieved in both MND and MS.
Whilst the analysis identified the same psychosocial domains to be important for QoL irrespective of disease, there was an aspect unique to MND of it being a terminal condition. Both MS and MND patients valued their lives, but MND patients recognised their shorter life expectancy and differed from MS patients because thoughts of imminent death adversely impacted QoL. Participant's concerns about their death were not restricted to themselves, but extended to impact on significant others. The differences between MND and MS were further observed with regard to factors that were beneficial to QoL. Although the positive influence of environmental factors and spirituality were found in both conditions, additional implications of these factors were found amongst the MND group: it was found that the importance of environment included the place of death, and spirituality was described to provide hope even beyond death.
Discussion and conclusions: The current study reveals complexity in ascertaining QoL across neurological diseases. Despite distinct illness trajectories, the same psychosocial factors were identified to be important for QoL in MND and MS. Nevertheless, MND as a terminal condition was found to further challenge patient's QoL. The findings confirm the importance of addressing this aspect of the condition in addition to commonly investigated psychosocial factors.


BACKGROUND
The TandemHeart device (THD) is a pump system that can be deployed percutaneously (PC) or via conventional surgical (CS) cannulation; it is capable of supporting one or both ventricles. It is a versatile system designed for use as a rescue device in acute heart failure and as a bridge to decision in moribund patients.

METHODS
Retrospective analysis was conducted on all patients who underwent a THD implant; either PC or CS; at our institution. Univariate analysis was done using Fisher's exact and Chi-square tests for categorical variables and Wilcoxon Rank Sum test for continuous ones.

RESULTS
51 adult patients were identified: 10 PC and 41 CS. Mean age was 58.9 ± 12.8 years, and 31% were female. In hospital mortality was 61%. Univariate predictors of death were prolonged support (74% versus 46%, P = .04) and higher lactic acid levels (5.3 ± 4.9 versus 2.3 ± 1.9 mmol/L, P = .012). The length of stay (LOS) for survivors was 59.8 ± 30.0 days.

CONCLUSION
Uni- or bi-ventricular unloading can be successfully achieved using the THD, either trans-thoracically or percutaneously, with an acceptable complication profile.


OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the use of insulin glargine in its licensed basal-bolus indication in terms of both clinical and cost-effectiveness.

DATA SOURCES
Electronic databases.

REVIEW METHODS
A systematic review of the literature, involving a range of databases, was performed to identify all papers relating to insulin glargine.

RESULTS
Nineteen studies met the inclusion criteria but full reports were available for only six. For type 1 diabetes patients, insulin glargine appears to be more effective than neutral protamine Hagedorn (NPH) in reducing fasting blood glucose (FBG) but not in reducing glycosylated haemoglobin (HbA1c) and there is some evidence that both insulins are as effective as each other in both FBG and HbA1c control. For type 2 patients for whom oral antidiabetic agents provide inadequate glycaemic control, there is no evidence that insulin glargine is more effective than NPH in reducing either FBG or HbA1c and some evidence that both insulins are as effective as each other in both FBG and HbA1c control. Evidence for control of hypoglycaemia is equivocal. In studies where insulin glargine is demonstrated to be superior to NPH in controlling nocturnal hypoglycaemia, this may be only apparent when compared with once-daily NPH and not twice-daily NPH. Further, this superiority of glargine over NPH in the control of nocturnal hypoglycaemia may relate to one formulation of insulin glargine (HOE901[80]) and not another (HOE901[30]). There is no conclusive evidence that insulin glargine is superior to NPH in controlling symptomatic hypoglycaemia and severe hypoglycaemia. Insufficient data are available to conclude whether insulin glargine is different from each of the commonly used NPH dosing regimens: once daily and more than once daily. Given the lack of a published evidence base for the cost-effectiveness of insulin glargine, the economic review concentrates on a review of the industry submission and an amended model. Three economic models are provided in the submission, two relating to type 1 diabetes and one relating to type 2 diabetes. All three models compare the cost--utility of insulin glargine against NPH insulin. In general, the structures of the models are poor and in all three models, mistakes relating to assumptions and calculations have been made. The assessment team believe that the cost per QALY estimates generated by the Aventis model may be an underestimate for several reasons. The cost-effectiveness of insulin glargine in both type 1 and type 2 diabetes is highly sensitive to the amount of utility associated with reducing the fear of hypoglycaemia.

CONCLUSIONS
The evidence suggests that, compared with NPH insulin, insulin glargine is effective in reducing the number of nocturnal hypoglycaemic episodes, especially when compared with once-daily NPH. There appears to be no improvement in long-term glycaemic control and therefore insulin glargine is unlikely to reduce the incidence of the long-term microvascular and cardiovascular complications of diabetes. Further research into insulin glargine is needed that addresses the quality of life issues associated with fear of hypoglycaemia and also the economic impact of balance of HbA1c control and incidence of hypoglycaemia achieved in practice. Studies examining the economic evidence on insulin glargine should be published.


IMPORTANCE
To integrate the patient perspective into adverse event reporting, the National Cancer Institute developed a patient-reported outcomes version of the Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events (PRO-CTCAE).

OBJECTIVE
To assess the construct validity, test-retest reliability, and responsiveness of PRO-CTCAE items.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
A total of 975 adults with cancer undergoing outpatient chemotherapy and/or radiation therapy enrolled in this questionnaire-based study between January 2011 and February 2012. Eligible participants could read English and had no clinically significant cognitive impairment. They completed PRO-CTCAE items on tablet computers in clinic waiting rooms at 9 US cancer centers and community oncology practices at 2 visits 1 to 6 weeks apart. A subset completed PRO-CTCAE items during an additional visit 1 business day after the first visit.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
Primary comparators were clinician-reported Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group Performance Status (ECOG PS) and the European Organisation for Research and Treatment of Cancer Core Quality of Life Questionnaire (QLQ-C30).

RESULTS
A total of 940 of 975 (96.4%) and 852 of 940 (90.6%) participants completed PRO-CTCAE items at visits 1 and 2, respectively. At least 1 symptom was reported by 938 of 940 (99.8%) participants. Participants' median age was 59 years; 57.3% were female, 32.4% had a high school education or less, and 17.1% had an ECOG PS of 2 to 4. All PRO-CTCAE items had at least 1 correlation in the expected direction with a QLQ-C30 scale (111 of 124, P<.05 for all). Stronger correlations were seen between PRO-CTCAE items and conceptually related QLQ-C30 domains. Scores for 94 of 124 PRO-CTCAE items were higher in the ECOG PS 2 to 4 vs 0 to 1 group (58 of 124, P<.05 for all). Overall, 119 of 124 items met at least 1 construct validity criterion. Test-retest reliability was 0.7 or greater for 36 of 49 prespecified items (median [range] intraclass correlation coefficient, 0.76 [0.53-.96]). Correlations between PRO-CTCAE item changes and corresponding QLQ-C30 scale changes were statistically significant for 27 prespecified items (median [range] r=0.43 [0.10-.56]; all P≤.006).

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
Evidence demonstrates favorable validity, reliability, and responsiveness of PRO-CTCAE in a large, heterogeneous US sample of patients undergoing cancer treatment. Studies evaluating other measurement properties of PRO-CTCAE are under way to inform further development of PRO-CTCAE and its inclusion in cancer trials.


The physician-patient relationship is the most fundamental unit of medicine itself and yet currently faces great peril, increasingly encroached upon by a number of different threats. Consumer-directed healthcare, an innovative new form of healthcare financing, empowers individuals to make their own decisions regarding their healthcare, holds providers accountable to their patients, and theoretically establishes a robust working relationship that benefits both parties. Could this be what is needed to save and strengthen the physician-patient relationship? This paper studies this question, namely the effect of consumer-directed healthcare on the physician-patient relationship, in-depth through a synthesis of existing research. First, the importance and relevance of the physician-patient relationship are explained. The major determining factors of the relationship are then identified before context of the relationship's current state is provided. Next, the paper defines consumer-directed healthcare, specifically the two major types: Consumer-directed health plans (CDHPs) and direct primary care (DPC). The theory behind this model is given, as well as an analysis of the conceptualization of healthcare as a market. The paper then examines three distinct healthcare systems -single-payer, the current American system, and consumer-driven healthcare -through the lens of the previously-identified factors to assess how each one impacts the physician-patient relationship. Following that is a thorough discussion on how consumer-driven healthcare has fared (both CDHPs and DPC) since its inception and the real-world results it has produced in relation to the physician-patient relationship. The paper concludes by looking at the obstacles that stand in the way of future expansion of consumer-driven healthcare.


ABSTRACT β-Sulfonyl carboxamides have been proposed to serve as transition-state analogues of the β-ketoacyl synthase reaction involved in fatty acid elongation. We tested the efficacy ofN-octanesulfonylacetamide (OSA) as an inhibitor of fatty acid and mycolic acid biosynthesis in mycobacteria. Using the BACTEC radiometric growth system, we observed that OSA inhibits the growth of several species of slow-growing mycobacteria, includingMycobacterium tuberculosis (H37Rv and clinical isolates), the Mycobacterium avium complex (MAC), Mycobacterium bovis BCG, Mycobacterium kansasii, and others. Nearly all species and strains tested, including isoniazid and multidrug resistant isolates of M. tuberculosis, were susceptible to OSA, with MICs ranging from 6.25 to 12.5 μg/ml. Only three clinical isolates of M. tuberculosis (CSU93, OT2724, and 401296), MAC, and Mycobacterium paratuberculosis required an OSA MIC higher than 25.0 μg/ml. Rapid-growing mycobacterial species, such asMycobacterium smegmatis, Mycobacterium fortuitum, and others, were not susceptible at concentrations of up to 100 μg/ml. A 2-dimensional thin-layer chromatography system showed that OSA treatment resulted in a significant decrease in all species of mycolic acids present in BCG. In contrast, mycolic acids in M. smegmatis were relatively unaffected following exposure to OSA. Other lipids, including polar and nonpolar extractable classes, were unchanged following exposure to OSA in both BCG and M. smegmatis. Transmission electron microscopy of OSA-treated BCG cells revealed a disruption in cell wall synthesis and incomplete septum formation. Our results indicate that OSA inhibits the growth of several species of mycobacteria, including both isoniazid-resistant and multidrug resistant strains of M. tuberculosis. This inhibition may be the result of OSA-mediated effects on mycolic acid synthesis in slow-growing mycobacteria or inhibition via an undescribed mechanism. Our results indicate that OSA may serve as a promising lead compound for future antituberculous drug development.


"The Tale of Tom Kitten" is set in the cottage garden Beatrix created herself at Hill Top, the farm she owned near the village of Sawrey. Tom and his sisters look so smart in their new clothes. When their mother sends them outside while she waits for her visitors, she couldn't possibly guess what kind of mess they are going to get themselves into! "The Tale of Tom Kitten" is number eight in Beatrix Potter's series of 23 little books, the titles of which are as follows: "The Tale of Peter Rabbit"; "The Tale of Squirrel Nutkin"; "The Tailor of Gloucester"; "The Tale of Benjamin Bunny"; "The Tale of Two Bad Mice"; "The Tale of Mrs. Tiggy-Winkle"; "The Tale of Mr. Jeremy Fisher"; "The Tale of Tom Kitten"; "The Tale of Jemima Puddle-Duck"; "The Tale of the Flopsy Bunnies"; "The Tale of Mrs. Tittlemouse"; "The Tale of Timmy Tiptoes"; "The Tale of Johnny Town-Mouse"; "The Tale of Mr. Tod"; "The Tale of Pigling Bland"; "The Tale of Samuel Whiskers"; "The Tale of The Pie and the Patty-Pan"; "The Tale of Ginger and Pickles"; "The Tale of Little Pig Robinson"; "The Story of a Fierce Bad Rabbit"; "The Story of Miss Moppet"; "Appley Dapply's Nursery Rhymes"; and, "Cecily Parsley's Nursery Rhymes".


Continuous desertification of arable lands mandates use of low quality/saline water for irrigation, especially in regions experiencing water shortage. Using low quality/saline water for irrigation imposes more stress on plants which are already under stress in these regions. Thus, a logical solution could be finding a salt tolerant plant species to survive/sustain under such salinity stress conditions. Since the native plants are already growing under such conditions and are adapted to the stress, they are the most suitable candidates for use under these harsh arid saline soil conditions. If the salt stress tolerant species/genotypes of these native plants are identified, there would be a substantial savings in inputs in using them under these stressful conditions. Our studies on various native grasses indicated that saltgrass has a great potential to be used under harsh environmental desert conditions and combat desertification. The objectives of this study were to find the most salinity tolerant types of various saltgrass clones and to recommend them as the potential species for use under arid regions and areas with saline soils or saline water resources for sustainable agriculture and combating desertification. Various saltgrass clones were studied in a greenhouse to evaluate their growth responses under salinity stress conditions. Grasses were grown vegetatively in a hydroponics system under 4 saline treatments [EC = 6 (control), 20, 34, and 48 dSm -1 salinity stress] with 3 replications of each salinity treatment in a randomized complete block (RCB) design experiment. During this period, shoots were clipped bi-weekly for dry matter (DM) weight determination. At the last harvest, roots were also harvested and DM weights determined. Grass quality was weekly evaluated. Although growth responses reduced at the high salinity levels, all the grasses showed a high degree of salinity tolerance. However, there was a wide range of variations observed in salinity tolerance among the clones. The superior salinity tolerant clones were identified which could be recommended for sustainable production under arid regions and combating desertification.


In its concept, Ecotourism generates issues of concern in a world that is growing more aware of its economic, social and environmental crises. As such, it requires alternative strategies to generate economic efficiency, environmental conservation and social inclusion to ensure competitiveness in a context of rapid and profound world changes. The state of Amazonas is known as a National Reference in Ecotourism. Thus, it is the main objective of this study to show scenarios built for the future of ecotourism in the Amazonas Tourism Hub, which is made up of 14 municipalities (15.3% of the state), 10 of which were chosen for this analysis. This hub has a large concentration of Conservation Units, forming the largest protected area (5.7 million hectares) on the planet (Proecotur, 2009). For our methodology, we used the Godet prospective technique to build these scenarios. This model attempts to produce reflections on the future of its local ecotourism in order to identify public policies consistent with sustainability. The results have pointed to three scenarios: "Rational Optimists (A)", "The Uirapuru Song (B)" and "Ajuricaba (C)". We have found positive influences in the scenarios in spite of shifts between uncertainties and risks. In a strict sense, there is no ecotourism activity as such in Amazonas since its activities are still in a disordered stage of inception and are driven mainly by market opportunities, which is the prevailing view especially among the administrators involved in its planning. On the good side, these scenarios indicate activity growth in the coming years, although its uncertainties and risks need to be resolved by public policies in the sector.


This paper examines the long run effects of public expenditure on education on time allocation and the growth rate in a two-sector model of endogenous growth with physical and human capital. Individuals accumulate human capital by devoting time to school and public expenditure on education is an input in the human capital technology. The model shows that when the government modifies the proportion of resources assigned to education, the time spent in school may increase, fall or remain constant while the growth rate increases. This result depends on the intertemporal elasticity of substitution, and partially explains why shifts in school attainment of the labor force are not significantly related to the per capita GDP growth rate.


Important questions in the social sciences are concerned with the circumstances under which individuals, organizations, or states mutually agree to form social network ties. Examples of these coordination ties are found in such diverse domains as scientific collaboration, international treaties, and romantic relationships and marriage. This article introduces dynamic network actor models (DyNAM) for the statistical analysis of coordination networks through time. The strength of the models is that they explicitly address five aspects about coordination networks that empirical researchers will typically want to take into account: (1) that observations are dependent, (2) that ties reflect the opportunities and preferences of both actors involved, (3) that the creation of coordination ties is a two-sided process, (4) that data might be available in a time-stamped format, and (5) that processes typically differ between tie creation and dissolution (signed processes), shorter and longer time windows (windowed processes), and initial and repeated creation of ties (weighted processes). Two empirical case studies demonstrate the potential impact of DyNAM models: The first is concerned with the formation of romantic relationships in a high school over 18 months, and the second investigates the formation of international fisheries treaties from 1947 to 2010.


The changing patterns of becoming pregnant at an advanced age have a serious public health impact because of increased risks of adverse outcomes. Thus, the objective of this study was to find the adverse pregnancy outcome of advanced age women delivered at a tertiary hospital in South Africa. This was a retrospective comparative study was conducted targeting the records of pregnant patients who delivered at Dr. George Mukhari Hospital from 1st September to 30th November 2010 where the pregnancy outcomes of females who were more than 34 years old (advanced age women, n=341) were compared with adult women (age between 20 and 34 years, n=1604). Advanced maternal age women had significantly higher rate of preterm delivery (19.2% vs 14.7%), caesarean delivery (38.4% vs 35.3%), breech presentation (7.0% vs 3.9%), and low birth weight rate (27.9% vs 18.8%) compared to adult women (p<0.05). Fresh still birth (FSB) and macerated still birth (MSB) rate was higher (5.6%) among advanced age women compared to adult women (4.8%) but it was not significant (p=0.825). Advanced age women were 1.37 (OR=1.37, p=0.041) times more likely to have preterm delivery, and 1.67 (OR=1.67, p<0.001) times more likely to deliver low birth weight (LBW) babies compared to adult women. The study has shown that advanced age women have higher rates of preterm birth, caesarean delivery, and LBW. Knowledge about the risks associated with advancing age can be helpful for couples in their decisions regarding childbearing.


Four proteases have been used to assess the topology of the H+-ATPase from Saccharomyces cerevisiae reconstituted into phosphatidylserine vesicles. Limited proteolysis by trypsin and alpha-chymotrypsin inactivates the enzyme and produces stable, membrane-bound fragments. Sequence analyses of these peptides have located the peptide bonds hydrolyzed. The labile bonds are on opposite sides of a central hydrophilic domain containing consensus sequences for the site of phosphorylation and fluorescein isothiocyanate binding of several related ATPases. Limited proteolysis of the ATPase by elastase cuts approximately 50 amino acids from the C terminus, leaving the remaining membrane-bound fragments active. Proteolysis by carboxypeptidase Y in the presence and absence of detergent suggests that the C terminus is on the inside of the vesicle in this reconstitution. A model for the transmembrane arrangement of the polypeptide is proposed. In this model, the C terminus is on the inside of the vesicle, the N terminus is on the outside, the ATP binding region is on the outside, and the polypeptide passes through the membrane a minimum of five times.


Research suggests that Canada's newly arrived immigrant and refugee communities tend to be healthier than the domestic population, and that their health declines over time. Studies examining immigrant and refugee health primarily focus on how barriers associated with language, the settlement experience, culture, and systemic processes impede the utilization of health services among refugee men and women respectively. However, without the benefit of a gender comparison, such studies fail to identify the variation in health needs and differences in health-seeking between refugee men and women, and are thus limited in their capacity to improve service utilization. Drawing from exiting literature on refugee health status pre-migration and during resettlement, this paper implicates the role of health care reform processes in exploring the gender differences in access and health-seeking. A postcolonial feminist epistemology is advanced as a means to include the voices of refugees and other marginalized groups in future research and practice in order to encourage substantive change.


Abstract The term "liaison psychiatry" expresses, on the one hand, the act of consultation, the psychiatric intervention intended for the patient and, on the other hand, it emphasizes the assistance given to the physicians and the therapeutic team treating the patients. Liaison psychiatry aims to become a new subspecialty of psychiatry whose purpose is to study and manage mental disorders in patients treated by other medical disciplines. The activities of liaison psychiatry involve: initial focus on the consultation of the admitted patient, extensive services with multidisciplinary personnel, offers for various hospital activities (e.g. emergency care) and specialties (e.g. obstetrics and oncology), services for specific medical problems requiring collaborative planning, training and the supervision of the medical team, liaison and consultation by the liaison team, an increased interest in the treatment of functional symptoms, activities for discharged patients, connections with primary care, training and supervision for clinical medical and surgical teams. Recent reviews of the literature suggest that liaison psychiatry will require determination and political abilities if it is to assume the role it plays in multidisciplinary medical care approaches. Key words: liaison psychiatry, activity, efficacy, perspectives The term of American origin "liaison psychiatry" expresses, on the one hand, the act of consultation, the psychiatric intervention intended for the patient and, on the other hand, it emphasizes the assistance given to the physicians and the therapeutic team treating the patients. The history of liaison psychiatry is rather recent. Its roots have obviously been influenced by the development of psychiatry, psychosomatics, clinical psychology, and by the presence of psychiatric units in general hospitals. As a result of the outcomes attained by units affiliated to liaison psychiatry and particularly due to Lipowski's efforts, starting with 1974, the importance of liaison psychiatry in the training of psychiatrists and physicians of other specialties has been widely recognized in the USA and Canada (Lipowski & Wise, 2002). Beginning with the 1960s-1970s, liaison psychiatry acquired credit in Europe, particularly in France, Switzerland, United Kingdom, Spain, Germany, Netherlands and Italy, which then extended to Australia, South America and New Zealand. Starting with the 1990s, the term liaison psychiatry has become widely used in the literature (Mayou, 2007). However, confusion persists regarding the objectives and the area of liaison psychiatry. Moreover, the term is considered ill-chosen by many psychiatrists, it has generated numerous discussions and conceptual polemics, and there are a number of different labels used in various countries. Thus, in some countries the term of psychosomatic medicine is preferred, in others psychological medicine, general psychiatry or behavioral medicine, all of which essentially reflect the areas covered by liaison psychiatry. The various terms reflect attempts of describing the objectives, the clinical problem, the specific population or the way in which the service is offered. The unsolved problem of terminology reflects the unsolved problem of the mind-body relationship, of the somatic-psychiatric symptoms relationship. In most, if not all, developed countries, there is a "segregation" of general health services and mental health services. In this context, the legitimate question arises regarding the extent to which psychosomatic medicine and liaison psychiatry overlap. Psychosomatic medicine has focused particularly on theoretical approaches of the mind-body relationship, highlighting the role of psychosocial factors in the onset of somatic diseases and of psychiatric interventions in their treatment. In its current meaning, the term "psychosomatics" designates somatic symptoms usually attributed to mental disorders of affective origin or of conflicting nature. …


We study the intergenerational effects of maternal education on children's cognitive achievement, behavioural problems, grade repetition and obesity. We address endogeneity of maternal schooling by instrumenting with variation in schooling costs when the mother grew up. Using matched data from the female participants of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79) and their children, we can control for mother's ability and family background factors. Our results show substantial intergenerational returns to education. For children aged 7-8, for example, our IV results indicate that an additional year of mother's schooling increases the child's performance on a standardized math test by almost 0.1 of a standard deviation, and reduces the incidence of behavioural problems. Our data set allows us to study a large array of channels, which may transmit the effect of maternal education to the child, including family environment and parental investments at different ages of the child. We find that income effects, delayed childbearing, and assortative mating are likely to be important, and we show that maternal education leads to substantial differences in maternal labour supply. We investigate heterogeneity in returns, and we present results focusing both on very early stages in the child's life as well as adolescent outcomes. We present a falsification exercise to support the validity of our instruments, and our results are found to be robust in a sensitivity analysis. We discuss policy implications and relate our findings to intergenerational mobility.


Binary logit analysis was used to identify the factors influencing adoption of Global Positioning System (GPS) guidance systems by cotton farmers in 11 Mid-south and Southeastern states. Results indicate that adoption was more likely by those who had already adopted other precision-farming practices and had used computers for farm management. In addition, younger and more affluent farmers were more likely to adopt. Farmers with larger farms and with relatively high yields were also more likely to adopt. Education was not a significant factor in a farmer's decision to adopt GPS guidance systems.


Our previous in vitro studies indicate a significant role for cell adhesion molecules in the biology of HIV-1 and HTLV-1. Confirmation of the involvement of these molecules in the pathogenesis of retrovirus infection in vivo will require a suitable animal model. The SIV/pigtailed macaque (Macaca nemestrina) model of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) is an ideal system in which to study adhesion molecules and viral pathogenesis. The monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against human adhesion molecules previously produced in our laboratory either do not react with or fail to block function of pigtailed macaque adhesion molecules. We have used papiovirus-transformed pigtailed macaque B cells as immunogen to generate murine MAbs against macaque adhesion molecules including ICAM-1, VCAM-1, and LFA-1. The specificity of the MAbs was confirmed by immunoprecipitation from lysates of vectorially iodinated cells, flow cytometry analysis of transfected cell lines and primary cells, binding assays on recombinant soluble human VCAM-1 and ICAM-1, and by inhibition of adhesion functions. MAbs against ICAM-1 and VCAM-1 showed positive staining of fixed tissue in immunohistochemistry studies. The same antibodies also blocked the function of these two adhesion molecules. The new MAbs can be used to study the tissue expression of adhesion molecules in SIV-infected animals as well as to test the involvement of these molecules in virus infection. Thus they should prove invaluable as probes of the role of cell adhesion molecules in AIDS pathogenesis in an animal model.


INTRODUCTION
Periodontal disease and dental caries are the common oral conditions which cause loss of teeth, mostly molars. This further leads to Shortening of Dental Arch and Shortened Dental Arch (SDA) concept provides the overall requirements of functional dentition at reduced cost without compromising the health.

AIM
The aim of the present study was to assess the Knowledge, Attitude and Practices (KAP) towards SDA concept among dentists of Ghaziabad city (Uttar Pradesh, India).

MATERIALS AND METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted among 514 dentists working as academicians or clinicians or both. KAP questionnaire consisting of questions related to SDA concept was distributed to them. Data were analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 18.0 (SPSS Inc., Chicago, IL, USA) and descriptive and analytical tests, including mean, standard deviation, and Chi square test were used.

RESULTS
Of the 514 dentists, only 493 dentists responded to the questionnaire, generating the response rate of 95.5%. Only 113 (22.9%) had knowledge about this concept. Clinicians were found to have more knowledge regarding the SDA concept (p<0.05). Also years of experience and level of knowledge among dentists regarding SDA was found to be statistically significant (p<0.05).

CONCLUSION
The study showed lack of knowledge regarding SDA concept among dentists and also only few dentists practice the SDA concept on their patients. If used judiciously the SDA concept can serve as a cost effective and functionally oriented approach in clinical management of patients.


This guide will assist students majoring and/or taking classes in Human Resources Management within the Department of Business, Accounting, & Economics.


An approximation for treating multiple quantum nuclei within the nuclear-electronic orbital (NEO) framework for molecular systems is presented. In the approximation to NEO-Hartree-Fock, the nuclear wave function is represented by a Hartree product rather than a Slater determinant, corresponding to the neglect of the nuclear exchange interactions. In the approximation to NEO-density functional theory, the nuclear exchange-correlation functional is chosen to be the diagonal nuclear exchange interaction terms, thereby eliminating the nuclear self-interaction terms. To further enhance the simplicity and computational efficiency, the nuclear molecular orbitals or Kohn-Sham orbitals are expanded in terms of localized nuclear basis sets. These approximations are valid because of the inherent localization of the nuclear orbitals and the numerical insignificance of the nuclear exchange interactions in molecular systems. Moreover, these approximations lead to substantial computational savings due to the reduction in both the number of integrals that must be calculated and the size of the matrices that must be diagonalized. These nuclear Hartree product approximation (HPA) methods scale linearly with the number of quantum protons and are highly parallelizable. Applications to a water hexamer, glycine dimer, and 32-water cluster, where all hydrogen nuclei are treated quantum mechanically, illustrate the accuracy and computational efficiency of the nuclear HPA methods. These strategies will facilitate the implementation of explicitly correlated NEO methods for molecular systems with multiple quantum protons.


This paper presents two computer software concepts: hypertext and expert systems; which are useful for educational software development. Good educational software enhances the learning process and offers opportunities for faculty to provide additionalmaterials for independent studies, which wouldotherwise be impossible, due to the limitedtime and incredible growing rate of technological progress. The hypertext concept offers the students a non-linear learning style, while the expert system concept provides explanation facilities for students to probe the logic of the systems. Both approaches are extremely useful for educational software. With the proper tools, the coursewarecan be implemented easily and rapidly. Educational software packages in the area of concrete technology have been currently developed for use in the Department of CivilEngineeringat Christian Brothers University. They are utilized as examples. Development tools, KnowledgePro and CBC-Xpert, are also discussed.


Cytotoxic T-Lymphocyte Associated Antigen-4 (CTLA-4) is a key factor in immune regulation. Polymorphisms in CTLA-4 gene may influence the status of this factor and eventually the immune response of host against the infectious agents. This response becomes of particular importance in cases when the pathogen is an opportunistic such as Toxoplasma gondii. This study aimed to explore the effect of CTLA-4+49A/G single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) on the susceptibility to toxoplasmosis in women. Genomic DNA was isolated from 59 women with toxoplasmosis and aged matched 60 Toxoplasma-free women as controls. Tetra-Primer Amplification Refractory System-Polymerase Chain Reaction (ARMS-PCR) was used for amplification and genotyping of CTLA-4 gene using specific primers. The heterozygous genotype (AG) and G allele of the polymorphism CTLA-4+49A/G were less frequent among cases (17.12% and 16.95% respectively) than controls (40% and 35% respectively) with significant differences (OR=0.379, 95%CI=0.206-0.697, P=0.002). These data strongly suggested the protective role of CTLA-4+49G against toxoplasmosis among Iraqi women.


Quantized neural networks (NN) are the common standard to efficiently deploy deep learning models on tiny hardware platforms. However, we notice that quantized NNs are as vulnerable to adversarial attacks as the full-precision models. With the proliferation of neural networks on small devices that we carry or surround us, there is a need for efficient models without sacrificing trust in the prediction in presence of malign perturbations. Current mitigation approaches often need adversarial training or are bypassed when the strength of adversarial examples is increased. In this work, we investigate how a probabilistic framework would assist in overcoming the aforementioned limitations for quantized deep learning models. We explore Stochastic-Shield: a flexible defense mechanism that leverages an input filtering layer and a probabilistic deep learning approach materialized via Monte Carlo dropout. We show that it is possible to jointly achieve efficiency and robustness by accurately enabling each module without the burden of re-retraining or ad hoc fine-tuning.


The relevance of the concepts of local syntactic selection and constraints on locally selected dependents in modeling how arguments are syntactically realized has been virtually unchallenged and is assumed to be universal. In this article, we examine more closely these assumptions and ask whether there is anything invariant in the realization of arguments. We argue that the facts of Oneida, and Iroquoian in general, suggest the answer to this question is No . There is no use in Oneida for local selection of phrases realizing semantic arguments (and lexical records of this selection), and words are, as a result, functionally complete. We also argue that there is no use for a level of argument structure or any analogous notion in Oneida. The kinds of processes that justify positing such a level are systematically absent. The facts of Oneida suggest that there is less universality in the syntax/semantics interface (particularly when it comes to the realization of semantic arguments) than is typically assumed and that languages may vary widely in the way semantics is mapped onto syntax. We end with a formal model of the relevant fragment of Oneida within head-driven phrase structure grammar  (HPSG).


This study reports on the effectiveness of a helping skills training program for intern psychometrists. A randomized pretest–posttest comparison group design was used to evaluate the training program. Participants (N = 22; 82% = female, and Afrikaans-speaking = 95%) were selected from the psychometrist-in-training program from a tertiary institution. Three helping skills development measuring instruments were administered before and after the training program. Data were quantitatively analysed to examine training effects on empathy, respect and genuineness, as well as the participants' ability to respond to content and personalise meaning. At the conclusion of the training, participants appeared to have evidently developed a heightened sense of purpose in life.


Nondeterminism is a key challenge in developing multithreaded applications. Even with the same input, each execution of a multithreaded program may produce a different output. This behavior complicates debugging and limits one's ability to test for correctness. This non-reproducibility situation is aggravated on massively parallel architectures like graphics processing units (GPUs) with thousands of concurrent threads. We believe providing a deterministic environment to ease debugging and testing of GPU applications is essential to enable a broader class of software to use GPUs.
 Many hardware and software techniques have been proposed for providing determinism on general-purpose multi-core processors. However, these techniques are designed for small numbers of threads. Scaling them to thousands of threads on a GPU is a major challenge. This paper proposes a scalable hardware mechanism, GPUDet, to provide determinism in GPU architectures. In this paper we characterize the existing deterministic and nondeterministic aspects of current GPU execution models, and we use these observations to inform GPUDet's design. For example, GPUDet leverages the inherent determinism of the SIMD hardware in GPUs to provide determinism within a wavefront at no cost. GPUDet also exploits the Z-Buffer Unit, an existing GPU hardware unit for graphics rendering, to allow parallel out-of-order memory writes to produce a deterministic output. Other optimizations in GPUDet include deterministic parallel execution of atomic operations and a workgroup-aware algorithm that eliminates unnecessary global synchronizations.
 Our simulation results indicate that GPUDet incurs only 2X slowdown on average over a baseline nondeterministic architecture, with runtime overheads as low as 4% for compute-bound applications, despite running GPU kernels with thousands of threads. We also characterize the sources of overhead for deterministic execution on GPUs to provide insights for further optimizations.


Systematists study how a group of genes or organisms evolved. These biologists now have set their sights on the Tree of Life challenge: to reconstruct the evolutionary history of all known living organisms. A typical phylogenetic reconstruction starts with biomolecular data, such as DNA sequences for modern organisms, and builds a tree, or phylogeny, for these sequences that represents a hypothesized evolutionary history. Finding the best tree for a data set can be a computationally intensive problem. Phylogenetic software for mapping the Tree of Life will require entirely new approaches in statistical models of evolution, high-performance implementations, and data analysis and visualization. The authors have developed polynomial algorithmic techniques for use in their research addressing phylogeny reconstruction from biomolecular sequences, focusing on the accuracy of reconstructions and the use of simulations.


: On the basis of literature and own experimental data changes in the structural and functional properties of some oligomeric proteins of the blood system (hemoglobin, lactate dehydrogenase, superoxide dismutase, catalase) exposed to the influence of temperature in a broad range were analyzed. The many-phase character of the temperature modification of protein molecules with different values of functional and kinetic parameters for each of revealed stages was discovered. At a critical temperature and at higher values, the dissociation of oligomeric proteins into separate subunits was shown to occur along with the typical "loosening" of the protein globule. It was shown that low-molecular components (subunits) can subsequently associate with one another and with oligometic proteins, which leads to irreversible denaturation and to the unusual physicochemical behavior of protein molecules. Schemes of processes underlying the temperature modifications of the proteins studied were elaborated.


The two-dimensional models for symmetrical double-material double-gate (DM-DG) strained Si (s-Si) metal–oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) are presented. The surface potential and the surface electric field expressions have been obtained by solving Poisson's equation. The models of threshold voltage and subthreshold current are obtained based on the surface potential expression. The surface potential and the surface electric field are compared with those of single-material double-gate (SM-DG) MOSFETs. The effects of different device parameters on the threshold voltage and the subthreshold current are demonstrated. The analytical models give deep insight into the device parameters design. The analytical results obtained from the proposed models show good matching with the simulation results using DESSIS.


Many geoscience students do not receive the opportunity to use handheld computers and similar tools during field experiences until they enroll in upper-division courses or attend field camp. Although many outdoor exercises in introductory-level courses include demonstrations of pieces of equipment in the field, students in these classes may not have a chance to use these equipment individually. However, handheld technology can be successfully integrated with introductory-level field experiences as a data collection tool and reference guide. Palm Pilot handheld computers offer each student the opportunity to become actively involved in the field experience. Forms can be created and tailored to a specific outdoor investigation and placed on the Palms for students to collect data. Instructors can create instructional videos and eBooks with references on the Palms that correspond to the project objective. For two years Penn State Delaware County has integrated handheld technology with field experiences into introductory-level geoscience courses in physical geology and oceanography. In addition to giving students a valuable introduction to technology that can be used in the field, the experience gives non-science majors a chance to see an application of an everyday technological tool in a nontraditional setting. End-of-semester course evaluations are filled with positive comments and student suggestions of further Palm Pilot integration.


Abstract. The distribution, abundance and nature of ice nucleation active particles in the atmosphere are major sources of uncertainty in the prediction of cloud coverage, precipitation patterns and climate. Some biological ice nuclei (IN) induce freezing at temperatures at which most other atmospheric particles exhibit no detectable activity (> −10 °C). Their actual contribution to the pool of IN in clouds remains poorly known, but numerical studies have suggested a probable significance of biological IN in atmospheric processes. In this study, cloud water was collected aseptically from the summit of Puy de Dome (1465 m a.s.l., France) within contrasted meteorological and physico-chemical situations. Total and biological (i.e. heat-sensitive) IN were quantified by droplet-freezing assay between −5 °C and −14 °C. We observed that freezing was systematically induced by biological material, between −6 °C and −8 °C in 92% of the samples. Its removal by heat treatment consistently led to a decrease of the onset freezing temperature, by 3 °C or more in most samples. At −10 °C, 0 to ~ 220 biological IN mL−1 of cloud water were measured (i.e. 0 to ~ 22 m−3 of cloud air based on cloud liquid water content estimates), and these represented 65% to 100% of the total IN. Based on back-trajectories and on physico-chemical analyses, the high variability observed resulted probably from a source effect, with IN originating mostly from continental sources. Assuming that biological IN were all bacteria, at maximum 0.6% of the bacterial cells present in cloud water samples could have acted as IN at −8 °C, 1.5% at −10 °C, and 3.1% at −12 °C. The data set generated here will help elucidate the role of biological and bacterial IN on cloud microphysics by numeric modelling, and their impact on precipitation at local scale.


Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze the impact of process and outcome surveillance on rates of device-associated health care-associated infections (DA-HAI) in an intensive care unit (ICU) in Turkey over a four-year period. Material and Methods: An open label, prospective cohort, active DA-HAI surveillance study was conducted on 685 patients admitted to the ICU of a university hospital in Turkey from January 2004 to December 2007, implementing the methodology developed by the International Nosocomial Infection Control Consortium. DA-HAI rates were recorded according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) definitions. We analyzed the rates of DA-HAI, mechanical ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP), central line-associated bloodstream infection (CLA-BSI), and catheter-associated urinary tract infection (CAUTI), as well as microorganism profile, extra length of stay, and hand hygiene compliance. Pooled DA-HAI rates were calculated and compared by year. Results: The DA-HAI rate per 100 patients declined as follows: for 2004, the DA-HAI rate was 58.4%; for 2005, it was 38.9%; for 2006, it was 34.8%; and for 2007, it was 10.9%. The DA-HAI rate per 1,000 bed-days also declined: for 2004, it was 42.8, and for 2007 it was 10.7. The rates decreased from 25.8 to 13.4 for VAP; from 29.9 to 25.0 for CLA-BSI; and from 9.2 to 6.2 for CAUTI cases per 1,000 device-days during the study period.


Soil management practices exert important influence on biological and biochemical properties of soil. This work aimed to valuate the impact of crop rotation on soil biochemical and microbiological attributes, as well and influence on corn crop yield. The experiment was carried out during 2005/06 crop season, in Dourados – MS, Brazil. Experimental design was randomized blocks with treatments established in sub-divided plots with tree replications, which seasons were plots and management systems were sub-plots. Studied seasons were winter and summer and no tillage systems were represented by five crop rotation schemes, which involved the cultures of hairy vetch, bean, oat, forage turnip, soybean, crotalaria, corn, sorghum, pearl millet, sunflower and, in conventional tillage, with corn in winter and with soybean in summer. Native vegetation constituted one treatment and, with conventional tillage, it was used as ecosystem of reference as control for comparison between possible alterations in chemical and microbiological attributes with the establishment of a system more conservationist for soil management. There was a positive correlation among Norg, Corg, Porg and C-BMS contents with chemical attributes of soil fertility, which shows interdependence between chemical and biology of soil. The elimination of native vegetation and the substitution for cultivation system after that reduce the C-BMS. In Cerrado conditions, studied cultivation systems increased phosphorus content in soil. Crop rotation influenced corn yield after the cultivation of determined species as crotalaria and vetch in crop rotation.


Web 2.0 helped user-generated platforms to spread widely. Unfortunately, it also allowed for cyberbullying to spread. Cyberbullying has negative effects that could lead to cases of depression and low self-esteem. It has become crucial to develop tools for automated cyberbullying detection. The research on developing these tools has been growing over the last decade, especially with the recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing. Given the large body of work on this topic, it is vital to critically review the literature on cyberbullying within the context of these latest advances. In this paper, we survey the automated detection of cyberbullying. Our survey sheds light on some challenges and limitations for the field. The challenges range from defining cyberbullying, data collection, and feature representation to model selection, training, and evaluation. We also provide some suggestions for improving the task of cyberbullying detection. In addition to the survey, we propose to improve the task of cyberbullying detection by addressing some of the raised limitations: 1) Using recent contextual language models like BERT for the detection of cyberbullying; 2) Using slang-based word embeddings to generate better representations of the cyberbullying-related datasets. Our results show that BERT outperforms state-of-the-art cyberbullying detection models and deep learning models. The results also show that deep learning models initialized with slang-based word embeddings outperform deep learning models initialized with traditional word embeddings.


Objective measures (kinematics and kinetics) were used to study prospectively the effects of botulinum toxin A (BTX/A) on the gastroc‐soleus muscle in ambulant children with cerebral palsy. In this prospective before and after trial, 15 children with diplegia and 10 children with hemiplegia were studied (mean age 5 years 7 months, range 4 years to 9 years). A range of standardized clinical measures was undertaken but the emphasis for this report is on the three‐dimensional gait analysis (3DGA) results. All children showed improvements in sagittal ankle kinematics, as has been previously reported. Two new measures of ankle kinetics were devised: ankle moment quotient (AMQ), and ankle power quotient (APQ). Before intervention, ankle moments were characterized by a'double bump'ankle moment. A typical abnormal baseline ankle‐power curve was triphasic with an initial trough of absorption followed by abnormal mid‐stance power generation, instead of the usual A1 pattern, and reduced terminal stance power generation (A2). Three weeks after treatment with BTX/A alone there was a statistically significant improvement of AMQ and APQ; some patients required potentiation of BTX/A with a short period of serial casts. Both groups (BTX/A alone and BTX/A plus casting) continued to show improvement in ankle kinetics from baseline after 12 and 24 weeks. This is the first study to demonstrate improvements in the typical abnormal ankle kinetics which we believe provides evidence of the 'biomechanical transformation of muscle'.


Query-by-keywords is the most popular manner to search for data in this computing age. However, most work was proposed for searching centralized relational databases. This paper investigates how keyword search is to be deployed in relational database-enabled peer-to-peer systems. Unlike centralized system, the key challenges in this new computing paradigm come from the autonomy of peers, the lack of a global schema, and the dynamics of the peer connectivity. First, the concept of P2P-join is proposed, which is a join operation to combine tuples among relations from different peers containing certain keywords in the query. Second, a fully distributed framework to realize P2P-join processing is devised, which not only inherits the syntax and semantics of traditional join but also cherishes the ideology of peer-to-peer computing. Finally, two mechanisms are proposed to improve the performance of the operation: a join path selecting order scheme and a push-based load balancing mechanism across peers


Introduction: Nowadays, as many of the problems confronting kidney transplantation have been solved, the number of operations has increased dramatically. So, resource utilization and financial issues have been cited as a new problem for transplantation centres. This study was done to find and assess the factors which can reduce the hospitalization period, while this factor claims the biggest share of the total cost of the treatment process. Material and Methods: In this retrospective study, done in kidney transplantation word of Imam Reza Hospital, the medical history of 170 kidney transplantation recipients and donors, whose operations were performed between 2000 and 2002, were studied. Collected information of recipient�s characteristics included gender, age, reason for kidney failure, weight, height, blood group, dialysis period, transplantation history, immunosuppressant regimes, complications after operation, and hospitalization after the first discharge due to transplantation operation complications; and for the donors, age, sex and blood group of the donor and the type of donor (cadaver or living) and the relationship between the recipients and the donors were gathered in a questionnaire and analyzed by descriptive statistics and T � test. Results: A mong all pre-transplant variables only length of dialysis before transplantation and the relationship between donors and recipients were found to be independently significant in predicting the increased hospitalization period and consequently charges. Conclusion: It is shown that by reducing the waiting time and performing more operations on relative donors and recipients, we can significantly decrease hospitalization period and as a result the cost of treatment.


Abstract Snow erosion and entrainment processes in avalanches are classified according to their mechanisms, the flow regimes in which they occur, and their spatial position within the avalanche. Simple, but process-specific, models are proposed for erosion by impacts, abrasion, plowing and blasting. On the basis of order-of-magnitude estimates, the first three mechanisms are clearly expected to be important. The fourth mechanism stipulates that the compaction of the snow cover ahead of the avalanche leads to the flow of escaping air just in front of the avalanche that may disrupt the snow cover and support formation of a saltation layer. The effects of this hypothetical mechanism resemble those of the plowing mechanism. All mechanisms depend strongly on the snow properties, but, with plausible parameter values, erosion rates at or above the experimentally found rates are obtained. The entrainment rate of an avalanche is most often limited by the shear stress needed to accelerate the eroded snow to avalanche speed.


In a decision process, when aggregating two values with conflict meaning, sometimes the result should be a tradeoff between the two values. Applicable to many real problems, compensation operators are aggregation operators with such a property. In order to offer more freedom in the selection of suitable compensation operators for various specific application, this paper explores new sorts of compensation operators. First, we introduce the concept of general compensation operators, which form a subclass of general aggregation operators. The two existing kinds of compensation operators, compensatory operators (a special case of uninorm operators) and averaging operators, are subclasses of our general compensation operators. Second, we identify seven new subclasses of the general compensation operators. Third, we construct a new kind of compensation operator, the gray averaging operator, which can include T-norms, T-conorm and averaging operators as its special cases.


This study investigates the effect of county-level Smoke-free Air Policy on smoking outcomes, smoking initiation and cession, as well as drinking outcomes in the USA, while very little research is done using local level SFA policies. Data on smoking and drinking behaviors are taken from National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997 (NLSY 1997) with geographic information. County-level cigarette prices and SFA policies indices are linked to the survey data using state and county identifiers. A modified two-part model is employed to estimate smoking and drinking outcomes of the respondents in last month, while discrete time hazard model is used to analyze the effects of SFA policy on smoking initiation and cessation. The results indicate that to incorporate local data into state-level data could yield a more accurate results by reducing measurement errors, and to enhance SFA policies and cigarette prices will help to reduce cigarettes consumption, smoking initiation, and to increase smoking cessation. The results also indicate that the effect of implementation of comprehensive smoking bans may go beyond the reduction of smoking and extend to drinking consumption.


For the last two decades, most efforts on new drug development to treat Alzheimer's disease have been focused to inhibit the synthesis of amyloid beta (Aβ), to prevent Aβ deposition, or to clear up Aβ plaques from the brain of Alzheimer's disease (AD) patients. Other pathogenic mechanisms such as the hyperphosphorylation of the microtubular tau protein (that forms neurofibrillary tangles) have also been addressed as, for instance, with inhibitors of the enzyme glycogen synthase-3 kinase beta (GSK3β). However, in spite of their proven efficacy in animal models of AD, all these compounds have so far failed in clinical trials done in AD patients. It seems therefore desirable to explore new concepts and strategies in the field of drug development for AD. We analyze here our hypothesis that a trifunctional chemical entity acting on the L subtype of voltage-dependent Ca(2+) channels (VDCCs) and on the mitochondrial Na(+)/Ca(2+) exchanger (MNCX), and having additional antioxidant properties, may efficiently delay or stop the death of vulnerable neurons in the brain of AD patients. In recent years, evidence has accumulated indicating that enhanced neuronal Ca(2+) cycling (NCC) and futile mitochondrial Ca(2+) cycling (MCC) are central stage in activating calpain and calcineurin, as well as the intrinsic mitochondrial pathway for apoptosis, leading to death of vulnerable neurons. An additional contributing factor to neuronal death is the excess free radical production linked to distortion of Ca(2+) homeostasis. We propose that an hybrid compound containing a dihydropyridine moiety (to block L channels and mitigate Ca(2+) entry) and a benzothiazepine moiety (to block the MNCX and slow down the rate of Ca(2+) efflux from the mitochondrial matrix into the cytosol), as well as a polyphenol moiety (to sequester excess free radicals) could break down the pathological enhanced NCC and MCC, thus delaying the initiation of apoptosis and the death of vulnerable neurons. In so doing, such a trifunctional compound could eventually become a neuroprotective medicine capable of delaying disease progression in AD patients.


The fatality rate of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) at the beginning of the pandemic was as high as 8.5%, and it was considered to be an intractable infectious disease. Reports regarding early experiences are essential for improving nurses' quality of care, patient safety, and working conditions during future pandemics. Therefore, this study aimed to describe the experiences of nurses who were in charge of critically ill COVID-19 patients during the early stages of the pandemic in Japan. This was a qualitative study. Participants were nurses who were in charge of critically ill COVID-19 patients in an emerging contagious disease ward between February and April 2020. Interviews were conducted in groups of 2-3 persons based on an interview guide using an online conferencing application to prevent infection. Consent to participation was obtained from 19 nurses. Five categories of experiences were generated from the analysis: "Fear of risk to my own life and to those of others around me", "The shock of finding myself amid an infectious disease pandemic", "Anxiety about unknown challenges", "Driven by a sense of purpose", and "Growth as nurses". Working under harsh conditions where nurses' safety is threatened may affect the quality of care and nurses' mental health. Therefore, nurses should receive both short-term and long-term support.


Background: Assessed from the budget holder's perspective over a short-term time horizon, a budget impact analysis (BIA) is an economic assessment that estimates the financial consequences on local budgets of adopting a new intervention. To date, BIA has not been published specific to telestroke.

Objective: We conducted a BIA of a telestroke network using patient- and system-level data from the Providence Telestroke Network (PTN) to assess overall financial impact.

Methods: We modeled the care of a patient with acute ischemic stroke (AIS) presenting to a spoke hospital. Patient-level inputs (IV tPA usage; spoke admission vs. transfer to hub; mortality; and discharge to a rehab facility, skilled nursing facility, or home) were used to populate a decision analytic model from before and after telestroke implementation. We used patient-level cost data by NIHSS to obtain mean costs by patient type, and modeled cost per patient from spoke and hub perspectives, if the spoke hospital was or was not part of PTN. We used the mean number of AIS patients seen at PTN spokes per year (n=14.4) and the number of PTN spokes (n=17) to generate the budget impact of telestroke on the individual spoke, all spokes combined, and the hub.

Results: BIA results are presented in Table 1 by time period (12, 24, and 36 months) and proportions of telestroke implementation costs paid for by the spoke facility (0%, 50%, and 100%).

Conclusions: Our results suggest that telestroke may lead to a decrease in overall cost from the spoke facility perspective even if the spoke facility is responsible for half of the telestroke implementation costs. While complementing prior telestroke cost-effectiveness analyses, the results from this BIA can assist decision makers at community hospitals who are considering joining a telestroke network by demonstrating the impact that it would have on the hospital's bottom line.

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We propose a geodynamic model for stress concentration in the New Madrid seismic zone (NMSZ). The model postulates that a high-density (mafic) body situated in the deep crust directly beneath the most seismically active part of the NMSZ began sinking several thousands of years ago when the lower crust was suddenly weakened. Based on the fact that deformation rates in the NMSZ have accelerated over the past 9 k.y., we envision the source of this perturbation to be related to the last North American deglaciation. Excess mass of the mafic body exerts a downward pull on the elastic upper crust, leading to a cycle of primary thrust faulting with secondary strike-slip faulting, after which continued sinking of the mafic body reloads the upper crust and renews the process. This model is consistent with the youth of activity, the generation of a sequence of earthquakes, and the velocity evolution during interseismic periods, which depend upon the density contrast of the mafic body with respect to the surrounding crust, its volume, and the viscosity of the lower crust.


This dissertation examines the historical case study of 9 Evenings: Theatre & Engineering, a 1966 series of technology-based performances created collaboratively by avant-garde artists and Bell Labs engineers in New York City. It inspired the formation of an international networked organization of artists collaborating with engineers called Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.). The 9 Evenings artists and engineers were influenced by cybernetics and other new ideas emerging from 20th-century science, and they saw the value of experimenting with new communications technologies as part of their respective collaborative practices. The author argues that the 9 Evenings project helped pioneer creative collaboration as a key aspect of today's digital culture. She also argues that technology has increasingly significant roles to play in the collaborative process, including as translator, or "boundary object" in an emerging "collaboration aesthetic" that foregrounds dialogic processes and new knowledge rather than creating art objects. The author reviews a large body of historical and contemporary literature about mid-20th-century art and examines recent writings about creative collaboration by business experts, social scientists and arts scholars. Through case study methodology, the artists' and engineers' writings are applied to a matrix of successful creative collaboration elements. The author concludes that the 9 Evenings project was both revolutionary and transformational as creative collaboration. It was revolutionary for its intentional focus on dialogic processes utilizing technology as both tools and boundary objects to generate new knowledge, and it was transformational emotionally, intellectually and professionally for many of the artists and engineers.


Calculations of trace-element fluxes to the ocean associated with a hypothetical 10-km-diameter Cl chondrite indicate that the mass of certain elements contained in the bolide, such as Fe, Co, Mn, Al, Zn, Ni, Ge, Cr, Sn, Cd, Pb, Ag, Cu, Hg, and Se, are comparable to or larger than the world ocean burden. Consequently, the introduction of meteoritic elements, in the form of atmospheric aerosol particles, to the surface ocean after a large meteor impact, concurrent with various element-specific solubilities, could rapidly alter the geochemical balance of some oceanic trace elements. We believe that this hypothetical pulse of trace elements would have been of sufficient magnitude to perturb the biogeochemical cycles operative at 66.4 Ma, a possible time of meteorite impact. Through direct exposure and bioaccumulation, many trophic levels of the marine food chain would have been adversely affected by these meteoritic elements. Those organisms residing in the surface ocean would be exposed to high prolonged concentrations of toxic trace elements. Preferential extinctions as driven by species-specific tolerance of elevated trace-element levels in the ocean would occur. The trace-element aerosol flux associated with K/T boundary volcanism may also have contributed to elevated trace-element concentrations in the world ocean. The trace-element toxification hypothesis postulates a mechanism that may have contributed to the selective extinction of marine organisms during the enigmatic terminal Mesozoic event.


The relationship between justice and freedom has remained inadequately explored in the literature on Durkheim. The existing literature has either discussed Durkheim's concept of justice in the narrow contexts of the division of labor, relation to human talents, and relation to Durkheim's Jewish background. In this paper, Durkheim's concept of justice is reexamined in terms of its relation to his concepts of freedom. It is argued that for Durkheim justice is the condition of possibility of freedom under advanced division of labor. The state plays an instrumental role in this relationship by allocating rights and powers to individuals and by protecting equitable social relations through regulation Language: en


Heterotrimeric G proteins are signaling molecules ubiquitous among all eukaryotes. The Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) genome contains one Gα (GPA1), one Gβ (AGB1), and two Gγ subunit (AGG1 and AGG2) genes. The Gβ requirement of a functional Gγ subunit for active signaling predicts that a mutant lacking both AGG1 and AGG2 proteins should phenotypically resemble mutants lacking AGB1 in all respects. We previously reported that Gβ- and Gγ-deficient mutants coincide during plant pathogen interaction, lateral root development, gravitropic response, and some aspects of seed germination. Here, we report a number of phenotypic discrepancies between Gβ- and Gγ-deficient mutants, including the double mutant lacking both Gγ subunits. While Gβ-deficient mutants are hypersensitive to abscisic acid inhibition of seed germination and are hyposensitive to abscisic acid inhibition of stomatal opening and guard cell inward K+ currents, none of the available Gγ-deficient mutants shows any deviation from the wild type in these responses, nor do they show the hypocotyl elongation and hook development defects that are characteristic of Gβ-deficient mutants. In addition, striking discrepancies were observed in the aerial organs of Gβ- versus Gγ-deficient mutants. In fact, none of the distinctive traits observed in Gβ-deficient mutants (such as reduced size of cotyledons, leaves, flowers, and siliques) is present in any of the Gγ single and double mutants. Despite the considerable amount of phenotypic overlap between Gβ- and Gγ-deficient mutants, confirming the tight relationship between Gβ and Gγ subunits in plants, considering the significant differences reported here, we hypothesize the existence of new and as yet unknown elements in the heterotrimeric G protein signaling complex.


Backhousia myrtiflolia is an Australian native that has recently been cultivated for cut flowers. Browning in the leaves and flowers (sepals) of this plant has become a hurdle for the export marketability of its cut foliage. Understanding the mechanism and triggers for this discolouration is important for the further development of methods that could ideally prevent browning. This research study focussed on a biochemical approach to understanding the enzymatic browning process. One clear cause of browning in this species is reported herein. Browning in B. myrtifolia potted plant leaves was observed during winter 2008 - 2009. Koch's postulates were performed with leaf lesion explants. The discolouration proved to be a result of plant disease from a single fungus morphologically identified and confirmed as Alternaria alternata. Inoculations on attached leaves and detached flowers were positive in terms of causing browning. However, not all browning in B. myrtifolia can
 be attributed to pathogenic infection. The physical and biochemical browning processes of B. myrtifolia were investigated. Browning was elicited by heating the tissues at 60C for 30 and 60 min. Changes in electrolyte leakage (EL), malondialdehyde (MDA) content, polyphenol oxidase (PPO), peroxidase (POD) and phenylalanine ammonialyase (PAL) enzyme activities, total phenolic content and antioxidant capacity (DPPH) were monitored. Leaves were separated into two types, yellow and green, due to observed differences in their browning susceptibility. They were tested for chlorophyll content (Chl a and b) and chlorophyll fluorescence (CF) prior to browning induction. Heat treatment had generally similar effects on physiological and biochemical parameters in both leaf tissue types and also sepals. However, high browning susceptibility in the yellow leaf type was associated with higher post-treatment EL, relatively high initial PPO activity and high pre- and post-treatment PAL activity. The
 greater initial PPO activity and higher concentrations of reactive oxygen species (ROS) evidently resulted in chlorophyll bleaching in yellow leaves. Light microscopy images of tissues before and after heat-induced browning treatment were compared. The tissues were cleared of chlorophyll pigments using choral hydrate solution. Browning was intensively found in cells surrounding gland structures identified by light and scanning electron microscopy. Browning also appeared on the surface of B. myrtifolia leaves to with B. citriodora essential oil had been applied. This observation suggested an oleocellosis-like phenomenon in B. myrtifolia. Polyphenol oxidase (PPO) and polyphenol peroxidise (POD) are two major enzymes involved in post-harvest browning reactions. Characterisation of these enzymes from B. myrtifolia tissues involved the removal of endogenous phenols by incoperating polyvinyl pyrorolidone (PVPP, an insoluble phenol-absorbing agent) at a concentration of 5% (w/v) in 0.1 M
 sodium phosphate buffer pH 6.8). PPOs were also activated by the use of Triton X 100 (TTX-100; 2% v/v). POD activity was similary improved by using the same extraction process as for PPO. The protein form the PPO-POD extract (also known as crude extract) was concentrated using an Amicon® filter unit and used for native electrophoresis. The concentrated protein extract lost spectrophotometric activity presumably due to the high amount of phenols and chlorophylls released after detergent was added to the extraction solution. However, strong PPO activity band was detected from this extract with native electrophoresis. Staining of gels for POD activity was not successful. For further purification of the PPO-POD extract, high temperature induce phase partitioning in TTX-114 which eliminated chlorophylls and remaining phenols and thereby improved the enzymatic activity was used. . The enzyme extract partically purified using this optimised extraction combination were characterised for
 their reaction to pH, their temperature optima, their substrate specificity and their reaction kinetics. The results suggested that PPO and POD from both leaf and floral tissues were of different isozymes as there were peaks in activities in both acidic and basic pH regions. PPO and POD from both tissues types were heat sensitive with temperature optima at 20 - 25°C. Both enzymes were active with mono and diphenol substrates. A kinetic study of these enzymes was made using the partially purified extracts. The enzymatic rate constant (Km) for both PPO and POD suggested that the intercellular substrate concentration was higher in floral tissues than in leaf tissues. It also confirmed that PPO and POD from leaf and floral tissues were different isozymes. The effects of inhibitors of PPO and POD from B. myrtifolia leaf and floral tissues were also investigated. Glutathione was an uncompetitive inhibitor to PPO in leaf and floral tissues at a high concentration of 10 mM. Soduim azide at
 0.005 - 0.5 mM was competitive to POD from both leaf and floral tissue types. Enzyme localisation was also examined by using a subcellular extraction method. PPO and POD from both B. myrtifolia leaf and flower tissues were mainly membrane bound enzymes as detected by native electrophorersis (PPO) and Western analysis with specific antibodies (POD). Multiple isoforms were confirmed by 2 dimensional electrophoresis (2 DE) patterns. Overall, browning in B. myrtifolia leaf and floral tissues was a result of cell compartment degeneration which was triggered by stresses (i.e., heat, essential oil toxicity and pathogen). Thereafter, browning related enzymes namely PPO, POD, PAL-phenol reactions were active. Results also suggested that browning was associated with damage to photosynthesis apparatus when plants were grown in the fully-opened area during severe winter condition. Both B. myrtifolia leaf and foral tissues contain a considerable high amount of polyphenol content. This together
 with high chlorophyll pigments have to be eliminated prior to PPO and POD characterisation study. PPO and POD from leaf and floral tissues are membrane bound proteins and presented in different isozymes as well as different isoforms.


Elevated supine mean arterial pressure (MAP) is often present in adults with dysautonomia. Children 15.1 ± 0.4 yrs of age (n = 22) with chronic unexplained nausea underwent continuous measures of supine blood pressure (BP) and heart rate (HR) pre- and post-tilt (0-70 degrees upright) and spectral analysis of their autonomic profile. Diagnostic workup revealed ∼77% have postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS). The controls in this cohort had chronic nausea but were identified as normal upon tilt. Resting supine MAP and HR prior to tilt were higher in POTS subjects compared with controls, while most indices of autonomic function were similar (Table 1). Those diagnosed with POTS maintained MAP during tilt accompanied by a >5-fold increase in cardiac sympathetic drive (LFrri/HFrri) and >80% suppression of the baroreceptor reflex sensitivity (high frequency alpha index;HFα) in comparison to 2-fold and ∼60% responses in controls. BP variability (SDMAP) measured as the standard deviation of mean arterial presuure and HRV measured as the root of mean square of successive differences (rMSSD) were impaired to a greater extent in the POTS subjects. Exaggerated suppression of HRV during upright posture in POTS subjects is known. However, our studies reveal elevated supine MAP even at this young age. In adults, both impaired HRV and elevated supine MAP are risk factors for cardiovascular problems such hypertension and cardiac hypertrophy. Future studies are necessary to determine whether young adults with POTS are at greater risk of early onset cardiovascular disease, especially given the the potential impact of treatments aimed at increasing MAP. Support: AHA12CRP9420029