The Fourth Industrial Revolution represents the most advanced frontier of technological innovation that will transform the economy of the future in a disruptive way, introducing new devices such as: self-guided vehicles, 3D printing, advanced robotics, new materials, digital platforms, gene editing etc. The expression "empathic media" means not only the platforms and devices that develop forms of "emotional artificial intelligence", but also all those innovations who have been able to enhance the emotional nature of the human being in commercial terms. The ever closer relationship between emotions, artificial intelligence and creativity represents a dominant trend of our time that can be examined, for example, by comparing the recent cinematographic imagination with some innovations on the market. Through this comparison we can understand the way in which new technologies enhance the emotional dimension that has become a central aspect not only in human-machine interaction but also more generally of a new concept of design, communication and consumption. By analyzing the social context created as a consequence of the coronavirus, we discuss a classification based on three scenarios that it seems they can work as interpretative models of the relation between technology and everyday life: 1) Isolation, 2) Integration and 3) Co-design. Each of them is expressed as a form of experience in which the media are the medium and therefore the environment capable of creating, nurturing and hosting particular feelings and emotions. The media are transfigured as empathic tools because they allow "suffering together", as the etymology of the term prefigures, producing different types of experiential sharing


the struggle, and only a shadow of Anglicanism still persists in Ireland today. All this is fascinating, and should certainly be read by the rare Englishman who waits to understand Ireland better. Even so, it is difficult to accept Dr. Bowen's view that 'when the two peoples of nineteenth-century Ireland were left alone to work out their religious and cultural relationships, they accepted the inevitability of living in a pluralist society', or that a 'tradition of tolerance' was still widely accepted by both Catholic and Protestant in the early nineteenth century. Dr. Bowen seems to underestimate the significance of both the rebellion of 1798 and of the Act of Union: the Famine confirmed and widened the divisions of


Abstract The Lompoc earthquake of 4 November 1927 ( M s 7.0) was one of the largest offshore events in California, and the associated tsunami was recorded in Hawaii as well as on the California coast. The epicenter of this event has long been debated; one location is offshore where the ocean is about 1000-m deep, whereas another location is very near shore beneath a water depth of less than 100 m. We analyzed the tsunami records from this event. From tsunami travel times, the source location was estimated to be well offshore at about 34.2°N, 120.75°W, consistent with recent seismic waveform analysis. Waveform modeling of the tsunami also supports an outer continental shelf location. The seismic moment is estimated to be 3 × 10 26 dyne · cm, corresponding to a moment magnitude of 7.0. The tsunami computation reproduced the large tsunami in Hawaii, indicating that the observed large tsunami was due to bathymetry effects, particularly near Hilo Bay. The tsunami magnitude of 7.6 obtained from the Hawaiian recordings by Abe thus appears to be an overestimate.


OBJECTIVE To find the differences between telephone and mail interview respect on answer rate, economic cost and characteristics of participants. To determine the knowledge of our diabetics about their disease. DESIGN A descriptive transversal study. SETTING Primary care Centro de San Gregorio, Telde, Las Palmas. PATIENTS The diabetics type 1 and 2 (n = 566) of our centre, whose ages were 18-70 years. In order to apply the same health questionnaire through two different ways, we divided the sample into two random groups: mail group (n = 283) and telephone group (n = 283). RESULTS The global answer rate was 51.6% (292 patients), 48% in the mail group (136 patients) and 55% in the telephone group (156 patients). The total cost of the mail survey was 41,000 pts. (104 pts. per mail), and the cost of telephone survey was 5.100 pts. (25.5 pts. per useful call). In the whole sample, we observed women more frequently in the answer group (56% of 292) than in the no answer group (44% of 274) (CI 95% 8.1-12.8). Also, in the answer group, the age was greater than in the no answer group (58.8 +/- 9.8 yr vs. 55.8 +/- 12.5 yr) (CI 95% 1.14-4.8). When we analyzed gender and age in each group, we observed the same differences in the telephone group but not in the mail group. More than the half questionnaire were correctly answer by 64% (167 patients). In the telephone group the "fit" rate was greater (70.6% of 153) than in the mail group (55.7% of 106) (CI 95% 3.2-26.6). CONCLUSIONS A suitable answer rate was reached through both methods of interview, but telephone survey's was smaller. In the mail group, both genders and all ages groups answered in the same way. The knowledge of our diabetics about their disease was like as the found in another studies.


Spatial prediction of coral reef habitats and coral reef community components was approached on the basis of the 'predict first, classify later' paradigm. Individual community compo- nents (biotic and geomorphologic bottom features) were first predicted and then classified into com- posite habitats. This approach differs from widely applied methods of direct classification based on remote sensing only. In situ coral reef community-condition assessment was first used to measure a response variable (percentage cover of habitat). Reef bottom features (topographic complexity, sand- sediment, rock-calcareous pavement and rubble) were then predicted using generalized additive models (GAMs) applied to continuous environmental maps, high-resolution Ikonos satellite images and a reef digital topographic model (DTM). Next, using GAMs on newly created bottom maps, mod- els were fitted to predict coral community components (hard coral, sea-grass, algae, octocorals). At this stage, high-resolution maps of the geomorphologic and biotic components of the coral reef com- munity at an experimental site (Akumal Reef in the Mexican Caribbean) were produced. Coral reef habitat maps were derived using GIS following a hierarchical classification procedure, and the result- ing merged map depicting 8 habitats was compared against thematic maps created by traditional supervised classification. This general approach sets a baseline for future studies involving more complex spatial and ecological predictions on coral reefs.


The aim of this report was to investigate new methods for measuring the condition of the scrap in the electric arc furnace. This was done by evaluating three different methods theoretically and chooses two of them for test in the electric arc furnace in Avesta. Due to lack of time and equipment only Total harmonic distortion (THD) measurements was used. The results show that THD reaches low values during refining. This suggests that all the scrap is melted and the arcs are stable.


This essay traces the origins of the Ohio Ladies' Education Society, an organization committed to the cause of both radical abolition and African American education in antebellum Ohio. From 1838 to 1848, this organization filed petitions for common school reform, raised funds to support black independent schools, and recruited and compensated teachers who taught in Ohio's black settlements. This essay argues that the white female leadership of the Ohio Ladies' Education Society was drawn to the cause of African American education because they envisioned schooling as a route for African Americans to gain citizenship and to experience civic inclusion. These white women abolitionists sought to advance a rival racial ideology whereby schools could fit African Americans for freedom and civic membership. Through their activism, these abolitionists actually redefined the meaning and practice of civic inclusion, specifically, and American citizenship, broadly. The best citizens were learned, moral, and benevolent Christians who participated fully in the civic affairs of a community. This essay reveals how the fight for abolition, African American education, and the civic ideal of building peaceful, egalitarian communities converged in the battleground of the West.


The management literature provides four different approaches to explain the relationships between groups inside a company: Shareholder Theory, Stakeholder Theory, Agency Theory, Corporate Governance. This paper firstly discusses the theories and subsequently focuses on corporate governance practices. Having investigated the relevant literature, it is concluded that there are some variables that might affect the success of implementation process. These internal and external variables have come together in different ways to create a range of corporate governance systems that reflect specific market structures, legal systems, traditions, regulations, and cultural and societal values. The paper focuses on the effects of corporate culture, firm size and emerging markets and crises on corporate governance practices. It argues that some relationships might exist between design variables of corporate governance application and a firm's internal and external characteristics; there is no one "best" way to apply a corporate governance system. It is concluded that the success of corporate governance depends on the conditions under which it is employed.


An ensemble of three 40-year parallel simulations was performed using a T42 AGCM version of the Japan Meteorological Agency global model to answer the question why extraordinary cool anti hot summers in East Asia, especially Japan and Korea, tend to occur very frequently in recent years from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. Three independent long-term integrations from January 1955 to December 1994 were forced by the same SST boundary condition observed on the global scale. Our AGCM simulations employing prescribed observed SSTs were successful in reproducing extratropical circulation anomalies that bring about the decadal-scale amplitude modulation of interannual variations of summer mean temperatures in the vicinity of Japan. During the period from the beginning of 1980s to the early 1990s, the interannual variability of the east-west gradient of summertime SST anomalies between the South China Sea and the tropical western Pacific east of the Philippines became appreciably large, was accompanied by anomalous cumulus convection around the Philippines, and its phases coincided quite well with those of model-simulated lower-tropospheric geopotential height variations near Japan. The anomalous convective heating substantially affected summertime lower tropospheric circulation anomalies in East Asia through the dynamic process of the excitation of PJ teleconnection pattern (Nitta, 1987). The anomalous SST forcing from the tropics is crucially responsible for the frequent occurrence of extreme cool and hot summers in Japan and Korea from the late 1970s to the early 1990s. The presence of strong east-west gradient of SST anomalies across the Philippines is primarily attributed to the significant coupling of weak (strong) South Asian summer monsoon and the warm (cold) episode of ENSO. The warm episodes that occurred during the period from the late 1970s to the early 1990s are appreciably different from a typical model of El Nino event exemplified by Rasmusson and Carpenter (1982) in terms of seasonal evolution. It is anticipated that both unusually persistent ENSO signals from the preceding winter until summer and the associated South Asian summer monsoon activity strongly regulate the formation of the east-west SST gradient near the Philippines in boreal summer.


1. The factors influencing blood conductivity have been noted.

2. An accurate apparatus has been designed to measure blood and plasma conductivity.

3. A new cell has been designed to measure conductivity of blood.

4. Through studies on normal blood before and after dilution, a correlation has been shown to exist between blood conductivity and the red cell count.

5. The form factor for normal human red cells has been determined to be 1.393.

6. A mathematical equation is presented relating red cell count with conductivity for normal blood.

See PDF for Equation

7. The factor C on the basis of 33 determinations has been calculated to be 10.80.


In recent years, the rise of digital image and video data available has led to an increasing demand for image annotation. In this paper, we propose an interactive object annotation method that incrementally trains an object detector while the user provides annotations. In the design of the system, we have focused on minimizing human annotation time rather than pure algorithm learning performance. To this end, we optimize the detector based on a realistic annotation cost model based on a user study. Since our system gives live feedback to the user by detecting objects on the fly and predicts the potential annotation costs of unseen images, data can be efficiently annotated by a single user without excessive waiting time. In contrast to popular tracking-based methods for video annotation, our method is suitable for both still images and video. We have evaluated our interactive annotation approach on three datasets, ranging from surveillance, television, to cell microscopy.


This chapter situates the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the historical context of written Hebrew, which stretches more than 1300 years: beginning with Biblical Hebrew, through the Qumran scrolls, and ending with the language of the Tannaim. Throughout this time, a spoken language stood behind this written heritage. General conclusions require comprehensive examinations upon which to build, and what is necessary is this type of examination of many grammatical and lexical issues. The chapter offers studies of just two linguistic issues, which provide insights into the diachronic developments that encompassed these three strata. It is clear, however, that every linguistic fact that can be examined through diachronic lenses will add to the general picture of the language and the accepted chronological order: Bible, Dead Sea Scrolls, and Mishnaic Hebrew. Keywords:Bible; Dead Sea Scrolls; diachronic developments; Mishnaic Hebrew; Qumran; Tannaim


The disadvantages of the conventional twin-roll caster for aluminum alloy are low casting speeds and limited choices of alloys that are castable by this processing. It is known that strip casting of aluminum alloy 5182 is very difficult because of their wider freezing zones. The vertical-type high-speed twin-roll caster used in the present study was devised to overcome these disadvantages. Features of the high speed twin roll casters are as below. Mild steel rolls were used in order to increase the casting speed and to be made at a lower equipment cost. Roll coating is produced in casting of Al-Mg alloy. Therefore lubricant, that resists heat transfer, was not used in the present study. Heat transfer between melt and the roll was improved by hydrostatic pressure of the melt. Low superheat casting was carried out in order to improve microstructure of the strip. In the present study, effectiveness of a high-speed twin roll caster for recycling aluminum alloy was investigated. The effects of the high-speed twin roll caster on alleviating the deterioration of mechanical properties by impurities were investigated. Properties of the cast strip were investigated by metalography, a tension test, and a deep drawing test.


The filamentous bacterium actinomyces can cause serious gynaecological tract infections, including pelvic inflammatory disease (PID) and tubo-ovarian abscess. Thus, definitive diagnosis of actinomycotic granules (AMGs) in gynaecological specimens is clinically important. Non-infectious pseudoactinomycotic radiate granules (PAMRAGs) can mimic the microscopic appearance of AMGs. PAMRAGs may be more common than actinomycotic infections in specimens from patients using intrauterine devices and may be seen in patients with PID. Although the composition and aetiology of PAMRAGs is unclear and variable, a panel of histochemical stains can aid in diagnosis. On haematoxylin and eosin (H&E) stained sections, AMGs show as distinct granules with basophilic peripheral radiating filaments and a dense central eosinophilic core, whereas H&E stained sections of PAMRAGs feature refractile granules with irregular club-like peripheral projections and no central dense core. The filaments of AMGs are Gram positive on Brown and Brenn (B&B) stain and are highlighted with Gomori methenamine silver stain (GMS). They stain negatively with a modified acid fast bacillus (AFB) stain, aiding in the distinction of actinomyces from nocardia. PAMRAGs show negative or non-specific staining with B&B, GMS, and AFB stains. Therefore, knowledge of these staining properties and the distinguishing characteristics of PAMRAGs and AMGs enables recognition of this important diagnostic pitfall.


Two serious junket incidents happened in Macao in 2014 and 2015 which led to the significant drop in gross gaming revenue lasting for 27 consecutive months. Therefore, this paper intends to investigate the importance of junket operation towards gaming companies' financial performance and also its interaction with the quality of corporate governance. This study uses regression analysis to investigate the relationships among corporate governance, financial performance, and junket promoters in Macao's gaming industry as well as the differences between those relationships under different economic conditions. The result reflects that when economy is growing, the corporate governance quality of gaming operators shows a decreasing trend. Under the control of corporate governance, the gaming operators tend to cooperate with junket promoters in a positive manner. In contrast, without the interaction of corporate governance, the junket operation brings negative impact on casino income, especially during booming economic periods. The result is consistent with the actual commission percentage over casino revenue, corporate governance score, and EPS for gaming operators. The extant literature mainly focuses on the relationship between corporate governance and firm's financial performance. In gaming sector, the importance of junket operation towards casino profit and its interaction with corporate governance leaves much to be explored in the related academia. This study not only fills in the research gap, but also provides constructive suggestions for Macao government to improve the gaming inspection system as well as the rules on junket operations.


During the preliminary design phase of space-based interferometer missions, observational requirements need to be translated into dynamical accuracy requirements on the optical components. The first part of this paper presents a methodology that specifies allowable statistical variances on the optical path difference in order to achieve a specified mean level of null depth for a nulling interferometer. These dynamical requirements can then be used as inputs to controller design processes which ensures that the closed-loop system satisfies the performance requirements. The second part of this paper describes a staging control design tool that optimally uses a suite of actuators to reject disturbances and analyzes the performance limitations as a function of actuator constraints. The particular actuator constraints considered here are saturation limit, resolution level, and the operational bandwidth of each actuator. As an example, the control design tool is applied to an example optical delay line problem yielding a feedback control law which ensures nanometer level stabilization of optical path difference for the interferometer. This benchmark problem allows the control design tool to demonstrate its capabilities on a system with stringent dynamical requirements.


Membrane-based nanotechnologies have gained growing attention in various separation fields due to advantages such as high energy efficiency and ecofriendliness. However, the limited and empirical design parameters of conventional membranes greatly slow down research progress on rapid and efficient molecular separations. Two-dimensional materials (2DMs) – e.g., graphene, MoS2, MXene, metal–organic frameworks, and covalent organic framework nanosheets – are rapidly emerging in the development of membranes with high selectivity and permeability. The rational tunability and precise control of interlayer distances and/or nanoporous apertures of 2DMs enable 2DM-based membranes to achieve highly specific separations. Furthermore, the ultrathin structure of 2DMs offers minimal transport resistance and thus leads to extraordinary flux rates. This review briefly outlines recent approaches in the use of various 2DMs for membrane designs. Some remarkable performances of 2DM-based membranes and their separation mechanisms are also noted. Challenges and future directions toward molecular-level designs of membranes with 2DMs are additionally discussed.


Tunneling nanotubes (TNTs) are recently discovered conduits for a previously unrecognized form of cell-to-cell communication. These nanoscale, F-actin–containing membrane tubes connect cells over long distances and facilitate the intercellular exchange of small molecules and organelles. Using optical membrane-potential measurements combined with mechanical stimulation and whole-cell patch-clamp recording, we demonstrate that TNTs mediate the bidirectional spread of electrical signals between TNT-connected normal rat kidney cells over distances of 10 to 70 μm. Similar results were obtained for other cell types, suggesting that electrical coupling via TNTs may be a widespread characteristic of animal cells. Strength of electrical coupling depended on the length and number of TNT connections. Several lines of evidence implicate a role for gap junctions in this long-distance electrical coupling: punctate connexin 43 immunoreactivity was frequently detected at one end of TNTs, and electrical coupling was voltage-sensitive and inhibited by meclofenamic acid, a gap-junction blocker. Cell types lacking gap junctions did not show TNT-dependent electrical coupling, which suggests that TNT-mediated electrical signals are transmitted through gap junctions at a membrane interface between the TNT and one cell of the connected pair. Measurements of the fluorescent calcium indicator X-rhod-1 revealed that TNT-mediated depolarization elicited threshold-dependent, transient calcium signals in HEK293 cells. These signals were inhibited by the voltage-gated Ca2+ channel blocker mibefradil, suggesting they were generated via influx of calcium through low voltage-gated Ca2+ channels. Taken together, our data suggest a unique role for TNTs, whereby electrical synchronization between distant cells leads to activation of downstream target signaling.


Net impact evaluation in a non-experimental context is discussed, addressing the case of vocational training policies provided by Piedmont Region, in the North-West Italy. Impact evaluation plays a major role in determining the effectiveness of public policies, being the net effect a crucial element in policy planning. Accordingly, the spreading of impact evaluation and its use in the ESF programming is particularly urgent in the current socio-economic context, which is characterized by scarce financial resources claiming for increasing effectiveness and efficiency. In particular, evaluation is useful for investment programs in vocational training policies, which are mostly financed through the ESF and play a crucial role in the fight against unemployment and social exclusion. The paper presents an impact assessment on vocational training courses provided by Piedmont Region, discussing its methodological viability and proposing a quasi-experimental evaluation strategy on the employment outcomes of the trainees. The authors discuss the operational choices and the implementation of the assessment, stating the advantages and disadvantages. Particular attention is devoted to the identification of the control sample. Gross and net impact evaluation strategies are explained, discussing the selection bias problem. In conclusion, the authors explain the major lessons learned in both the methods and the process of evaluating training effectiveness.


Rationale: Pancreatic hepatoid carcinoma (PHC) is a rare form of pancreatic malignancy mimicking hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) in morphology, immunohistochemistry, and behavior. PHC usually has an aggressive clinical course and poor prognosis. Effective treatment strategies are lacking due to poor understanding and extreme rarity of such kind of malignancy. Patient concerns: we present the case of a 75-year-old man with tumors in the liver and the tail of pancreas that were detected in a routine health check-up. Diagnoses: Pancreatic hepatoid carcinoma with liver metastasis Interventions: The patient was treated by neoadjuvant modified-FOLFIRINOX (mFOLFIRINOX) chemotherapy and subsequent resection of both the primary pancreatic tumor and the sole liver metastasis. Outcomes: Pathology findings confirmed complete pathological response of the liver metastatic tumor and partial response of the primary pancreatic tumor to neoadjuvant mFOLFIRINOX. Adjuvant chemotherapy with mFOLFIRINOX was given and until now the patient has a progression-free survival of 13 months after diagnosis. Lessons: PHC are often associated with early liver metastasis and a poor prognosis, surgical resection combined with neoadjuvant and adjuvant FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy is proved to be efficient in such kind of malignancy, even with liver metastasis.


This paper presents a hybrid QR decomposition (QRD) design that reduces the number of computations and increases their execution parallelism by using a unique combination of Multi-dimensional Givens rotations, Householder transformations and conventional 2-D Givens rotations. A semi-pipelined semi-iterative architecture is presented for the QRD core, that uses innovative design ideas to develop 2-D, Householder 3-D and 4-D/2-D configurable CORDIC processors, such that they can perform the maximum possible number of vectoring and rotation operations within the given number of cycles, while minimizing gate count and maximizing the resource utilization. Test results for the 0.3 mm2 QRD chip, fabricated in 0.13 μm 1P8M CMOS technology, demonstrate that the proposed design for 4×4 complex matrices attains the lowest reported processing latency of 40 clock cycles (144 ns) at 278 MHz and dissipates 48.2 mW at 1.3 V supply and 25°C. It outperforms all of the previously published QRD designs by offering the highest QR processing efficiency.


This section contains links to Aboriginal sports organizations, clubs and centres. It also contains links to Web pages of famous Aboriginal athletes.


The microstructure characteristics of the spray-formed and melt-spun Al85Nd5Ni10 and Al89La6Ni5 alloys were studied. The spray forming process was demonstrated to produce a bulk scale hybrid composite consisting of amorphous and nanostructured phases directly without the need of an amorphous precursor. The spray-formed Al89La6Ni5 deposit (~1 mm in thickness) were partially amorphous, and the amorphous phase came from the undercooled liquid droplets upon deposition. The as-spray-formed Al85Nd5Ni10 deposit (~20 mm in thickness) was completely crystallized due to the devitrification of the retained amorphous phase to nano-scale secondary crystals upon deposition. Primary crystals (~1 μm) are dispersed uniformly in the bulk spray-formed amorphous/or partial amorphous composites and many distinctive deformation twins also are observed in the crystals, however, not twins found in the corresponding completely devitrified ribbon. This is mainly because of the stirring and impacting force offered by high velocity droplets during spray forming and the mismatch of thermal expansion coefficient between primary crystals and adjacent amorphous matrix.


The areal density growth of hard disk drives is hindered by the limits imposed by the laws of physics and any further significant growth to the density demands some major changes to the currently employed recording techniques. Shingled Magnetic Recording (SMR) is leading next generation disk technology. SMR disks employ a shingled write process that overlaps the data tracks on the disk surface like the shingles on a roof, thereby increasing disk areal density with minimal manufacturing changes. While these disks have the same read behavior as current disks, random writes and in-place data updates are no longer possible, since a write to a track must overwrite and destroy data on all tracks that it overlaps.Given this change in write behavior, we argue that the best way to utilize these disks is not by masquerading them as traditional disks, but by using approaches that leverage their proclivity for sequential writes. We hypothesize that using a smarter interface and an efficiently designed SMR-aware data management solution that over- comes the unique data management challenges faced by these disks, they could fit into more traditional roles. This thesis proposes a key-value object interface for SMR disks, and presents SMRDB, a Log-Structured Merge (LSM) tree based key-value data store for SMR disks, demonstrating that SMR disks can be effectively used to replace conventional disks for many applications. We evaluate SMRDB against a state-of-the-art LSM-tree based key-value database engine, LevelDB, on conventional disks. Our Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) results show that, despite being restricted to sequential writes, SMRDB outperforms LevelDB by 8.8–123.6%.A workload generator that generates loads with realistic temporal characteristics is required to measure the realistic impact compaction has on incoming requests and to measure the effectiveness of compaction overhead mitigation techniques. Though YCSB has emerged as the standard benchmark for evaluating key-value systems, and provides a variety of options to generate realistic workloads, like most benchmarks it has ignored the temporal characteristics of generated workloads. YCSB's constant-rate request arrival process is unrealistic and fails to capture the real world arrival patterns. Existing workload studies on disk, filesystem, key-value system, network, and web traffic all show that they all exhibit some common temporal properties such as burstiness, self similarity, long range dependence, and diurnal activity. In the second part of this thesis, we show that the commonly observed traffic patterns can be modeled using the three categories of arrival processes: a)Poisson, b)Self similar, and c)Envelope-guided processes, and have incorporated all three models into YCSB.Finally, we hypothesize that the negative impact that compaction would have on performance can be mitigated in a hybrid drive configuration, by write-offloading to the NVRAM component of the hybrid drive when compaction is in progress. In the final part of this thesis, we have created a version of SMRDB with design improvements made possible by write-offloading, and a compaction overhead more representative of other proposed SMR data management schemes, to evaluate the effectiveness of write- offloading. We show that write-offloading not only hides the compaction overhead and improves write performance, but also makes room for more compaction-induced data rearrangements.


A guide for studying globalization. This guide would be of valuable for students studying globalization from the disciplinary perspectives of Sociology, Political Science, International Studies, Justice Studies and Journalism.


Background: Salivary secretory disorders can be the result of a wide range of factors. Their prevalence and negative effects on the patient's quality of life oblige the clinician to confront the issue. Aim: To review the salivary secretory disorders, inducing drugs and their clinical management. Methods: In this article, a literature search of these dysfunctions was conducted with the assistance of a research librarian in the MEDLINE/PubMed Database. Results: Xerostomia, or dry mouth syndrome, can be caused by medication, systemic diseases such as Sjögren's Syndrome, glandular pathologies, and radiotherapy of the head and neck. Treatment of dry mouth is aimed at both minimizing its symptoms and preventing oral complications with the employment of sialogogues and topical acting substances. Sialorrhea and drooling, are mainly due to medication or neurological systemic disease. There are various therapeutic, pharmacologic, and surgical alternatives for its management. The pharmacology of most of the substances employed for the treatment of salivary disorders is well-known. Nevertheless, in some cases a significant improvement in salivary function has not been observed after their administration. Conclusion: At present, there are numerous frequently prescribed drugs whose unwanted effects include some kind of salivary disorder. In addition, the differing pathologic mechanisms, and the great variety of existing treatments hinder the clinical management of these patients. The authors have designed an algorithm to facilitate the decision making process when physicians, oral surgeons, or dentists face these salivary dysfunctions.


Passing over a neglectful and wasteful executor John Thornton appointed his elder son, John junior, to be the executor of his estate. The estate was given to both his children, John junior and Andrew, equally. The estate consisted of at least six parcels of real estate. John junior and Andrew were specified beneficiaries of two discretionary trusts with John junior as the appointor. The testator died in 2017. In 2018, Andrew applied for John junior to be passed over as executor and for him to be appointed administrator with will annexed. The Court in In the Estate of Thornton (Deceased); Australian Unity Bank Ltd v JT Holdings (SA) Pty Ltd [2019] SASC 49 (Bampton J) was 'satisfied that the due and proper administration of the estate has been put in jeopardy, or prevented, by the acts or omissions of John in his capacity as executor' (at [22]). The Court found that John junior had neglected his duties as an executor by failing to: collect the assets of the estate; determine whether the assets fell into the trusts or the estate; liaise with the creditors of the estate; satisfy the creditors of the estate; manage the estate properties; maintain the estate properties; pay rates or apply to have statutory debts put into abeyance; insure estate properties; and make efforts to call in, administer, or distribute the estate (at [23]). In addition he had caused waste to the estate by: not insuring; allowing debts to accrue interest; having the properties lose value due to lack of maintenance; and residing in one of the estate properties and, therefore, precluding the ability for the estate to benefit from rental income. Orders were made as sought.


Water-saturated, organic-rich sediments immediately surrounding a stream channel can provide a protective buffer between streams and adjacent land-based activities by removing plant nutrients from shallow groundwater flowing through them, but the hydrological factors that influence the effectiveness of nitrate removal are not well characterized. A two-dimensional, fully distributed, variably saturated flow and transport model was evaluated for its success in using mechanisms of biological reaction in streambed sediments to quantify nitrate flux into the stream under base flow conditions. The model was used to interpret the observed hydrological dynamics during storms at Cobb Mill Creek, Virginia. During base flow conditions, relatively deep groundwater flow paths carrying water containing high nitrate concentrations discharged through the streambed sediments, and high denitrification rates were observed along with a substantial reduction in the nitrate concentration. During storm events, reduced discharge of groundwater in the face of a diminished hydraulic gradient during passage of a flood wave led to longer residence times for water in the biologically active sediments underlying the stream channel, thus providing an opportunity for enhanced denitrification to further reduce nitrate loads to the stream. We conclude that in cases of low-relief streams with substantial hillslopes adjacent to the stream combined with transmissive sediments, storm events can actually contribute to enhanced removal of nitrate locally (at the hillslope scale) as opposed to a simple lowering of concentration due to dilution. (2008). "Influence of stream-groundwater interactions in the streambed sediments on NO3-flux to a low-relief coastal stream," Original version available in:


Plasmonic Photothermal Therapy (PPTT) is a cancer therapy where gold nanorods (AuNRs) are injected at the tumor site and near-infrared light (safe to bio-system) is applied to generate localized heat causing cancer cell death. PPTT is a potentially good alternative to replace traditional surgery for localized tumors. However, for large tumors (volume ≥10 cm3), PPTT could be ineffective due to an uneven distribution of injected AuNRs causing possible inhomogeneity of heat. Surgery is frequently recommended in those cases. However, it carries a high risk of cancer recurrence. For effective treatment of large tumors, we combined both PPTT and surgical resection and applied it to naturally occurring tumors in mammary glands of dogs and cats, which could realistically represent their human equivalents at the molecular level. For the experimental design, we divided the animals into three different groups. 20 cases (7 cats and 13 dogs) were all diagnosed with adenocarcinoma; the animals were monitored for 1-2 years after treatments. Group (I): three cases were solely treated by mastectomy (control group); all of them died within a few weeks. Group (II): five cases were treated with mastectomy first. Then, each tumor wound was divided into two halves, and only one half was exposed to PPTT. After treatment, two cases in this group rendered complete remission. In the other three cases, the half wound that was not exposed to PPTT had tumor recurrence causing animal death within one year. Group (III): 12 cases were treated with surgery followed by PPTT treatment. This regime showed complete remission without any recurrence for eight cases. However, four cases died 4-12 months after therapy for reasons such as pneumonia (no tumor found, based on X ray). Histopathology results showed a decrease of cancer grades before (variant grades from 1-4) and after two weeks of treatment via PPTT and surgery (grade 0). Blood tests (conducted 1 year after therapy) showed no obvious change in liver and kidney functions in groups II and III. In addition, X-ray diffraction showed no metastasis 12 years after treatment. We have performed quantitative, real time-PCR analysis two weeks before and after treatment to study the expression levels of several important genes. The genes that are responsible for repairing cancer cells such as BRCA1, BRCA2, and CD163-IL-10 were significantly diminished two weeks after treatment (group III). Furthermore, tumor microenvironment cells such as tumor-associated macrophages (TAMs) were greatly altered after treatment. TAM 1, which retards tumor growth, augmented, and TAM 2, which promotes tumorigenesis, was diminished, which explains the animals' increased survival rate. In conclusion, our study demonstrates the feasibility of applying PPTT after surgery for large tumors in dogs and cats. Citation Format: Moustafa R. Ali, Haithem A. Farghali, Hala R. Ali, Ahmed H. Osman, Yousef A. Soliman, Yue Wu, Ibrahim M. Ibrahim, Salah A. Selim, Dong M. Shin, Mostafa A. El-Sayed. Combination of plasmonic photothermal therapy with surgery applied to naturally occurring mammary tumors in canines and felines: clinical outcomes and molecular studies [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 175. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-175


To the Editor.— Squamous cell carcinoma arising in an epidermal cyst, although not rare, is unusual in occurrence. I had the opportunity of treating a patient with a well-differentiated carcinoma in a long-standing sebaceous cyst. There was a 25-year period of follow-up evaluation during which the patient had had no recurrence of the lesion. Report of a Case.— A 34-year-old man, admitted to the hospital on Feb 21, 1955, had had a mass on the left posterior side of his head for 20 years. Considerable enlargement of the tumor had occurred during the two years before admission. Physical examination disclosed a lesion 8 cm in diameter and 3 cm high (above the level of the scalp). Fluctuation and a fluid wave were easily demonstrable. Palpation suggested that the outer table of the skull under the mass was eroded. Roentgenograms defined scattered areas of calcification in the mass. A moderate degree


In this study; the effects of physical education classes that are teached at the Educable Mentally Handicapped Schools on educable mentally handicapped children's motor skills were examined and compared in Turkey and Germany. 30 Turkish and 30 German, in total 60 students (20 girl, 40 boy) that aged between 12-16 participated in this study. Only children that have IQ scores between 45-75 were included. Participants' motor performance improvements were evaluated by tests that were done before and after 13 weeks the physical education program. 30 m speed, standing long jump, medicine ball throw and 30 seconds sit-up tests were used in motor performance measurements'. It is found that physical education and sport programs significantly improved children's performance in motor tests at both Turkish and German schools (p<0.05). The improvements in motor performance were similar for both genders. In addition to that improvements in speed were higher for students in Turkish school. It is detected that physical education and sport classes aimed at motor skills, contribute significantly to educable mentally handicapped children's motor development. Adequate and proper participation in physical activities that are specifically designed for educable mentally handicapped children, seem to improve these children's motor performance, same as normal children.


Various thermal modifi cation techniques are used to improve some properties of wood materials. Thermally compressed wood (TCW) is obtained by using a hot-press. This study investigates the effect of thermal compression on the density, vertical density profi le (VDP), moisture content (MC), thickness swelling (TS), Janka hardness, and drying characteristics of the poplar wood boards. The experimental boards were cut from poplar wood (Populus spp). The boards with dimensions of 100 mm by 500 mm by 25 mm were thermally compressed at press temperature of either 150 °C or 170 °C, press pressure of either 1 or 2 MPa for 45 minutes in a hot-press. A total of 10 experimental boards were prepared - two boards for each group plus two for control. The results obtained in this study indicated that the density and Janka hardness values increased with the increase of the press pressure. The thermal compression process decreased the thickness of the boards. The thickness reduction in- creased with the increase of the press pressure. An improvement was not seen in the TS values of the samples when compared to those of the untreated samples. This study revealed that the thermal compression technique should be used to improve some properties of poplar wood. In this way better use could be made of low-cost poplar wood.


Typically, music videos fulfill an entertainment purpose, but this Master's thesis is dedicated to a rhetorical analysis of two music videos that fulfill a greater purpose. I studied two music videos that break the music video genre mold because each one is centered on two societal issues that would be distressing to discuss in other contexts. The first artifact I studied is Eminem's music video for "Stan," which highlights the issue of idolization and fandom. The research question that guided this analysis is: How can a rhetor utilize music videos to illustrate the consequences of idolization and fandom? The second artifact I studied is Lindsay Lohan's music video for "Confessions of a Broken Heart (Daughter to Father)," which highlights the issue of domestic abuse. The research question that guided my analysis is: How can a rhetor utilize music videos to illustrate the complexity of domestic abuse? Both artists used their personal experiences with the accompanying issue to craft their unique music video. I used the fantasy theme framework to conduct my analysis over each artifact. In each analysis, I identified the fantasy theme elements (character theme, action theme, setting theme, and rhetorical vision) present in the music video, and then provided specific examples of each element that help support the proposed research question. By utilizing their experiences as the driving force for their music videos, the two artists help make sense of their experiences. Thus, the music videos serve as a form of catharsis for each artist. Furthermore, by openly communicating about these issues, the artists inspire others who may find themselves in similar situations to not be fearful of associated stigmas. The two music videos fulfill purposes greater than entertainment, thus making them worthy of further study.


The protochordean octapeptide cionin is structurally a hybrid of mammalian cholecystokinin (CCK) and gastrin, and thus their possible common ancestor. To determine whether cionin behaves like CCK or gastrin, we examined its effect on canine fundic somatostatin cells and on porcine and bovine gallbladder muscles. Cionin released somatostatin with a potency (ED50 0.15 nM) and efficacy (14.8% of cell content) similar to that of CCK-8 (ED50 0.12 nM, efficacy 16.7%). The efficacies but not the potencies of CCK-8 and cionin differed from those of sulfated gastrin (0.12 nM, 9.7%), nonsulfated gastrin (0.20 nM, 9.4%), and nonsulfated CCK-8 (0.30 nM, 10.4%). CCK and gastrin stimulated contractions of porcine gallbladder muscle strips in a concentration-dependent manner with no differences in efficacy but with characteristic differences in potency. CCK-8 and cionin displayed similar potencies of ED50 2.0 and 2.6 nM; both were significantly different from the ED50 of 0.4 microM for sulfated gastrin and 2.3 microM for nonsulfated gastrin. CCK radioligand binding to membrane-enriched preparations of porcine and bovine gallbladder muscularis was specific and of high affinity. The equilibrium data revealed that binding of CCK and gastrin peptides best fit a single site. CCK-8 and cionin displayed similar affinities [Kd 0.5 nM (porcine), 0.5 nM (bovine, CCK) vs. Kd 0.8 and 0.9 nM (cionin), respectively]. These differed again significantly from Kd 0.6 and 1.5 microM (sulfated gastrin) and 0.7 and 0.2 microM (nonsulfated gastrin). The results show that cionin behaves like CCK rather than gastrin in mammals.


Many flexural or tensile reinforced concrete members must be crack-free or the crack widths must be within specified limit value at service load levels. Presently, there are a number of structure members cannot satisfy its designed serviceability, due to the degradation of structural materials (due to durability problems) or by an increase in design loads. The use of bonding CFRP sheets on the side surfaces for strengthening or repair existing RC beamsis proposed to investigate the first crack strength and the cracking characteristics of RC beams. In order to verify the effectiveness of this application, experimental tests on six strengthened beams and one control beamhad been carried out. Experimental results demonstrated that this appears a promising technique both on improving the first crackstrength and on suppressing the crack width.


1A touch screen is computer display screen that is sensitive to human touch, allowing user to interact with the computer by touching pictures or words on the screen. Touch screen are used with information kiosks (an interactive computer terminal available for computer user, as one with internet access or site specific information), computer based training devices, and system designed to help individuals who have difficulty in manipulating a mouse or keyboard. Touch screen technology can be used as an alternative user interface with application that normally requires a mouse, such as a web browser. Some applications are designed specifically for touch screen technology, often having larger icon and link than typical PC application. Monitors are available with built in touch screen kit. A touchscreen kit includes a touch screen panel, a controller, and a software driver. The touch screen panels are a clear panel attached externally to the monitors that plug into a serial or a universal serial bus (USB) port a bus card installed inside the computer. The touch screen panel registers touch event and passes these signal to the controller. The controller then process the signals and sends the data to the processor. The software driver translates the touch events into mouse events. Driver can be provided for both windows and macintosh operating system. Internal touch screen kits are available. But requires professional installation because they must be installed inside themonitors


© 2018 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Quantifying feeding interactions between nonindigenous and indigenous fishes in invaded fish communities is important for determining how introduced species integrate into native food webs. Here, the trophic interactions of invasive 0+ European barbel Barbus barbus (L.) and the three other principal 0+ fishes in the community, Squalius cephalus (L.), Leuciscus leuciscus (L.) and Phoxinus phoxinus (L.), were investigated in the River Teme, a River Severn tributary in Western England. B. barbus has been present in the River Teme for approximately 40 years. Analyses of stomach contents from samples collected from three sites between June and September 2015 revealed that, overall, fishes displayed a generalist feeding strategy, with most prey having low frequency of selection. Relationships of diet composition versus body length and gape height were species-specific, with increasing dietary specialisms apparent as the 0+ fishes increased in length and gape height. The trophic niche size of invasive B. barbus was always significantly smaller than S. cephalus and L. leuciscus and was significantly smaller than P. phoxinus at two sites. This was primarily due to differences in the functional morphology of the fishes; 0+ B. barbus were generally restricted to foraging on the benthos, whereas the other fishes were able to forage on prey present throughout the water column. Nevertheless, the invasive B. barbus were exploiting very similar prey items to populations in their native range, suggesting these invaders were strongly pre-adapted to the River Teme and this arguably facilitated their establishment and invasion.


This article discusses four lessons for school counselors responding to any serious crisis: (a) School counselors can expect to take on leadership roles in times of crisis due to their expertise. (b) Crisis teams are temporary organizations within a school structure. Membership in two organizations can create role conflict. (c) Effective school counselors have found subtle ways to support and counsel formal leaders. And, (d) school counselors must be vigilant in their own care, especially during a crisis.


In Reply.— We thank Fusaro and Lynch for their comments and their interest. We are gratified that the concept of the dysplastic nevus is being currently and actively debated. This is an important concept and, in the face of rising melanoma incidence, we are most appreciative of this exchange. Fusaro and Lynch correctly define and elucidate methods involved in pedigree analysis, and they are absolutely correct in stating criteria and methods for defining genetic syndromes within a detailed pedigree analysis. We thank them for sharing with us this correct method. It is true that we did not do a detailed pedigree analysis with detailed dermatologic examination of the multiple family members, but the study was not intended to do this, as we had stated in the article. The study was, as stated, a clinical pathologic review to ascertain the presence, if any, of dysplastic nevus elements histopathologically in skin surrounding the melanoma.


Individuals are often faced with financial decisions that have long-term implications for themselves and their families, but they have few sources of unbiased assistance. The authors suggest that a stochastic financial planning system, properly constructed and calibrated, can be applied to a number of such financial decisions, especially in the retirement arena. They present as an example the choice to purchase a life annuity for a middle-aged person. Buyers must choose whether to purchase before retirement or at the date of retirement. The article provides some guidelines on whether or not to purchase deferred life annuities, and who might most benefit from such a purchase.


Summary An efficient, simple micropropagation protocol was developed for Euphorbia millii Des Moulines using inflorescence explants and an automated, low cost, air-lift bioreactor system. Inflorescence meristems of the main axis usually reverted to vegetative meristems (a meristematic dome with leaf primordia) 1 week after inoculation on MS medium supplemented with benzyladenine (BA) and indole-3-butyric acid (IBA). Of the various plant growth regulator combinations tested, MS medium with 1 mg l–1 BA and 0.3 mg l–1 IBA proved to be most effective. On this medium the percentage reversion was maximal, and the number of explants producing multiple shoots was the highest. The highest percentage of inflorescence reversion and the highest number of multiple shoots induced per explant were observed when inflorescences from the first stage of development were used. The lowest response was observed on third stage inflorescences. Vegetative shoots obtained from reverted explants of inflorescences were used as inocula for multiplication studies. Comparisons between solid and bioreactor cultures (i.e., continuous immersion with or without a net, or temporary immersion in liquid media using ebb and flood) revealed that shoot multiplication and growth were more efficient using a continuous immersion bioreactor (with a net). In vitro regenerated shoots were cultured hydroponically for 6 weeks; 100% of plants rooted and were acclimatised successfully in growing media containing peat moss:vermiculite:perlite (1:1:1). RAPD DNA marker analysis of micropropagated plants and their mother plant confirmed the genetic uniformity of the regenerants.


This paper presents novel insights into the influence of soluble surfactants on bubble flows obtained by direct numerical simulation (DNS). Surfactants are amphiphilic compounds which accumulate at fluid interfaces and significantly modify the respective interfacial properties, influencing also the overall dynamics of the flow. With the aid of DNS, local quantities like the surfactant distribution on the bubble surface can be accessed for a better understanding of the physical phenomena occurring close to the interface. The core part of the physical model consists of the description of the surfactant transport in the bulk and on the deformable interface. The solution procedure is based on an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) interface-tracking method. The existing methodology was enhanced to describe a wider range of physical phenomena. A subgrid-scale (SGS) model is employed in the cases where a fully resolved DNS for the species transport is not feasible due to high mesh resolution requirements and, therefore, high computational costs. After an exhaustive validation of the latest numerical developments, the DNS of single rising bubbles in contaminated solutions is compared to experimental results. The full velocity transients of the rising bubbles, especially the contaminated ones, are correctly reproduced by the DNS. The simulation results are then studied to gain a better understanding of the local bubble dynamics under the effect of soluble surfactant. One of the main insights is that the quasi-steady state of the rise velocity is reached without ad- and desorption being necessarily in equilibrium.


Digital collections in cultural heritage institutions are increasingly digitizing physical items, collecting born-digital items, and making these resources available online. Metadata plays a crucial role in the discovery and management of these collections, which makes it important to identify areas of metadata improvement. A number of frameworks and associated metrics support metadata evaluation but this paper focuses on a less-studied aspect of accessibility by using traditional network analysis to understand the connections between metadata records created through shared data values, in elements such as subject or creator. The goal of the research reported in this paper is to investigate potential uses of network analysis and to determine which metrics hold the most promise in effective assessment of metadata at the database or collection level. We introduce the Metadata Record Graph and analyze how it can be used to better understand various-sized collections of metadata.


The objective of the present study was to evaluate the amount of some potential health-promoting phenols in the grape of Vitis vinifera cv. Cesanese d'Affile and in wines made from these grapes. The analyses were performed using HPLC/DAD/MS. The accumulation of anthocyanins in the skin and flavan-3-ols in the seed was determined at different stages of ripening of the grape (i.e. green, veraison, middle stage of ripening, and complete ripening). Thirteen anthocyanins were identified in the skin at all stages of ripening, except the green stage. With regard to flavan-3-ols, (+)-catechin, (−)-epicatechin, and (−)-epicatechin gallate were detected in all of the seed samples. The highest (+)-catechin content was found in the seeds of the green grape (2 mg g−1 DW), whereas in the seeds from the completely ripe grape the content was more than ten times lower. The highest catechin content in the seed was correlated with the lowest anthocyanin content in the skin. The wines produced in the years 2004 and 2005 showed, at wavelengths of 520 and 280 nm, almost identical quali-quantitative chromatographic profiles, with high concentrations of anthocyanin 3-O-glucosides, low concentrations of acylated anthocyanins, and trace amounts of (+)-catechin and (−)-epicatechin.


Small-scale farmers in Zambia are faced with problems of low crop productivity, scarcity of fuel wood and fodder, and subsequently are generally food insecure. Agroforestry can contribute to food and income security, amelioration of the environment and subsequently, to mitigation of climate change effects. However, despite all the potential of agroforestry technologies and the effort to promote them among smallholder farmers, their adoption and diffusion have remained low and so has their impact. Unless farmers adopt some of these technologies as part of their farming system, the potential benefits of agroforestry to food security, livelihoods and the environment will not be realized. This study investigated trialing and adoption levels of agroforestry in eastern Zambia where agroforestry has been researched and promoted for over two decades. A survey was completed of 388 small scale farmers. Data analysis shows that testing of improved fallows and biomass transfer, though low at 44.9 and 21.4% respectively, was higher than that of domestication of indigenous fruits (4.4%), Fodder banks (3.9%) and Woodlots (3.1%). The study however found that adoption rate of agroforestry among farmers that initially tested is high. Factors that affect adoption include lack of seed, limited land size, method of ploughing, lack of interest and access to extension services. Therefore we advocate for intensified promotion and encouragement support so that more farmers can trial these technologies. With high trialing rates, adoption of agroforestry is likely to increase. The key policy implication of this study is the necessity to embark on educating farmers so that they can trial and subsequently experience the impact of agroforestry technologies. Agroforestry will only make meaningful contribution to improving land productivity and farmer livelihoods if it is adopted.


Background: The techniques for treatment of an inguinal hernia range from the tissue-repairs to the tension-free hernioplasty. The use of a mesh for repair not free of complications and had higher costs. The Desarda technique for inguinal hernia repair is a new tissue-based method application of the external oblique muscle aponeurosis in the form of an undetached strip has been introduced as a new concept in tissue based hernia repair. The aim of the present stusy was to compare the standard mesh-based Lichtenstein technique with the tissue-based Desarda technique.Methods: In this prospective study, patients with an Inguinal hernia who were referred and enrolled in the study for elective Desarda or Lichtenstein repair between May 2012 and November 2016 at Sohag and Assiut university hospitals, Egypt; Operation, anaesthesia, rescue analgesia and postoperative care were standardized. Patients were assessed for operation time, postoperative pain, hospital stay, foreign body sensation, complications and recurrence rate in the postoperative period on day 1, 1 week, 1, 12 and 24 months, postoperatively.Results: Of 130 patients were included in the study, 65 underwent Desarda (D) versus 65 underwent Lichtenstein repair (L) between May 2012 and November 2016 at Sohag and Assiut university hospital in Egypt. In Desserda group (D) 64 OF 65 patients were male and in Lichtenstein repair group (L) 65 of 65 were male. The patient's age for (L) Group was 40±11.69 and for (D) group was 38±11.55. As regards operative time, hospital stay, return to activity and work for or post-operative pain 24 hours and 7 days after the operation. D group was significantly lower than (L). No difference between groups regarding intraoperative, postoperative complication, mortality rate, recurrence rate, or post-operative pain six months after operation.Conclusions: Desarda repair had lower operative time, early return to basic and work activity, shorter hospital stay and less post-operative pain than Lichtenstein repair. The result of our study supports the use of Desarda repair in our hospitals as the method of choice for most of the patients due to low cost, low recurrence rate, and simplicity of repair.


A case study of Parish Development Model in Kabale District was used in the study to explore the impact of participatory project implementation on the sustainability of government-funded projects in Uganda. Sustainability of government funded project was a dependent variable while participatory project implementation was independent variable. A cross-sectional survey was conducted before the research began. We gathered information from 75 respondents, and combined quantitative and qualitative analysis. Descriptive, bivariate, and multivariate methodologies were all used in the analysis, which was carried out on three different levels. Frequency tables were utilized to display the data because the descriptive analysis called for the presentation of just one variable and its characteristics. The bivariate correlations between the dependent variable and the predictor components were examined using a Pearson correlation matrix. The dependent variable was regressed against the revised predictor factors at the multivariate level (sustainability of government project). An analysis of the data was done using a linear regression model. According to the findings of a regression study, participatory project implementation has a favorable impact on the effectiveness of parish development models in Kabale District (coef = -0.890, p-value = 0.000). The fundamental conclusion of this study is that the success of a parish development model project is significantly influenced by the implementation of participatory projects. The study suggests that in order to ensure the sustainability of the parish development model, more emphasis should be placed on adopting participatory project implementation through defining the project implementation team, customer satisfaction, project outputs realization, and project expansion and scale-up.


A definition of "closer" and "closest" as applied to estimates of statistical parameters is given, and it is shown that we can sometimes prove that estimates properly derived from sufficient statistics are the closest possible. The scaling of a gamma distribution, and the location and scaling of an exponential distribution and of a rectangular distribution are discussed in detail, and the closest estimates of the parameters obtained.


Glucocorticoids act synergistically with insulin‐like growth factor I (IGF‐I) to stimulate DNA synthesis and replication of cultured human fibroblasts. In the present study, we further define glucocorticoid and IGF‐I interactive effects on human fibroblast metabolism and growth. IGF‐I stimulated dose‐dependent increases in early metabolic events. Half‐maximal effectiveness was seen at 5–8 ng/ml IGF‐I, with mean maximal responses of 1.5‐, 2‐, and 6‐fold for [3H]2‐deoxyglucose uptake, [14C]glucose incorporation, and [14C]aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) uptake, respectively. A 48‐hour preincubation with 10−7 M dexamethasone markedly enhanced both the sensitivity and maximal effectiveness of IGF‐I stimulation of AIB uptake. In contrast, dexamethasone had no effect on IGF‐I‐stimulated glucose uptake and utilization. Maximum specific binding of [125I]IGF‐I to fibroblast monolayers was identical in ethanol control and glucocorticoid‐treated cells, with 50% displacement at ∼5 ng/ml IGF‐I. In addition to its synergism with IGF‐I, preincubation with dexamethasone augmented insulin and epidermal growth factor (EGF) stimulation of [3H]thymidine incorporation; dexamethasone had no effect on platelet‐derived growth factor or fibroblast growth factor action. Two‐dimensional gel electrophoresis identified two specific glucocorticoid‐induced proteins in human fibroblast cell extracts with molecular weights of 45K and 53K and pls of 6.8 and 6.3, respectively. These data indicate that IGF‐I receptor‐mediated actions in human fibroblasts are differentially modulated by glucocorticoids. Glucocorticoids are synergistic with IGF‐I in stimulating mitogenesis and amino acid uptake, without having any apparent effect on IGF‐I‐stimulated glucose metabolism. Glucocorticoid enhancement of growth factor bioactivity may involve modulation of a regulatory event in the mitogenic signaling pathway subsequent to cell surface receptor activation. © 1995 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Innate immune cells, including macrophages, have recently been identified as target cells for thyroid hormone. We hypothesized that optimal intracellular concentrations of the active thyroid hormone triiodothyronine (T3) are essential for proinflammatory macrophage function. T3 is generated intracellularly by type 2 deiodinase (D2) and acts via the nuclear thyroid hormone receptor (TR). In zebrafish embryos, D2 knockdown increased mortality during pneumococcal meningitis. Primary murine D2 knockout macrophages exhibited impaired phagocytosis and partially reduced cytokine response to stimulation with bacterial endotoxin. These effects are presumably due to reduced intracellular T3 availability. Knockdown of the main TR in macrophages, TRα, impaired polarization into proinflammatory macrophages and amplified polarization into immunomodulatory macrophages. Intracellular T3 availability and action appear to play a crucial role in macrophage function. Our data suggest that low intracellular T3 action has an anti-inflammatory effect, possibly due to an effect on macrophage polarization mediated via the TRα. This study provides important insights into the link between the endocrine and innate immune system.


This paper explores the centrality of pursuit of health to discourse around food purchasing and eating behaviours. Forty-seven participants from metropolitan and rural South Australia were interviewed about how they decided what to purchase and to eat. The majority (n=39) cite the desire to eat healthily as a consideration in food purchasing. Participants reflect upon a personal and moral responsibility to eat well and to feed their family healthily, a duty that is supported by models of governance which favour personal responsibility for health. While all participants reflect upon this responsibility, it is rejected by a group of males on limited incomes who choose food on the basis of cost, taste, convenience and lack of trust in health care system. The existence of a moral discourse around food is viewed as an example of healthism in which health is central to all aspects of life and self discipline a means to achieving health (Crawford 2006).


The need to use Interdependent, innovative and multiple techniques in improving higher education field learning practices arises from the increasing records of unemployment world wide that are invading the global market. A number of undergraduate students face the problem of lack of job opportunities when they graduate as their thoughts usually were inclined that the magic wand to get them a job is in their certificates around their academic knowledge only. However, the truth is that they wake up to find a saturated market that needs innovative ideas and spirits of lateral thinking creative interaction and a great percentage of soft skills to ensure their chances for work. Lauder, (2013) identified that The jump in the working age, the skill shortage, the shift in the economic power, the gap between theory and real needs for the market hit them as on one hand employers criticise the higher institutions for failing to produce the sets of skills needed by students to face global market challenges and on the other hand students complain for not being absorbed to the market. According to CBV survey in 2011, 70% of employers want to see the development of employability skills among students at both schools and universities in their higher education level. The urgency of the matter lies in the fact that employers look to trespass the academic skills to a set of employability skills in the field practices needed in today's market to display a wide range of attributes in innovation tools and methods to face a magnitude of job requirements that cannot be underestimated. The paradigm is shifting towards an era where acquiring employability skills in higher education stands out as a primary requirements if universities want to meet the competitive edge of the local and the international market for their graduates. The art of mastering these skills through the use of interdependent methods of teaching and learning is a must to face both local and international challenges of the market and to gain an insight towards the linkage of industry to academics. The concept of linking industry to academia is a base to sustain the employability skills needed in the job market by the use of multiple interdependent methods of teaching and learning. On the academic level, the purpose of this paper is to introduce practices of employability skills that will allow the concept to be explained easily and that can be used as a framework for working with students to develop their talents. On the Practical level, this paper aims to demonstrate the rationale for connecting enterprise education with employability and career development in the design of curricula and learning experiences within The British University in Egypt by using the interdependent methods of teaching and learning as a base for acquiring employability skills. Moreover, the paper reflects on the experiences of practitioners, including the author, in embedding enterprise education and in seeking to develop a holistic approach which connects enterprise and employability through personal and career development.


The newborn intensive care unit (NICU) is a life-defining place for many infants, families, and caregivers. The place in which such events occur is often remembered for its sights, sounds, and smells, but the physical environment of the NICU is far more than a memory tag; it can directly influence the quality of the experience for all of its inhabitants. A growing body of evidence demonstrates the profound impact of the physical environment on growth and development of the neonatal brain. The value of skin-to-skin care is now established. Psychology, sociology, and occupational health provide additional insight into the effect of the NICU setting on families and caregivers. Together, these lines of evidence point to the need for individualized environments. Single-family rooms are a growing trend in the NICU because they allow for individualized environments. Careful planning can avoid pitfalls and bring benefit to babies, families, and caregivers alike.


Background: Desmogleins are transmembrane glycoproteins of the desmosome which provide mechanical strength to epithelial tissue. Desmogleins have so far, been implicated in several diseases such as pemphigus, striate palmoplantar keratoderma, 4S and squamous cell carcinomas. Skin cancer usually occurs in old age. And there are reports that the expression of desmogleins are increased in squamous cell carcinoma. However the role of desmogleins in skin aging has not yet been reported. Objective: The purpose of this study was to investigate the expression of desmoglein 1 and 3 according to chronologic skin aging. Methods: A total of 6 normal tissue samples from sun-protected skin of different age groups (from 34-year-old to an 84-year-old) and 1 squamous cell carcinoma tissue from a 72-year-old patient were taken. Western blotting and immunohistochemical staining were performed with anti desmoglein 1 and 3 antibodies. The expression of desmoglein 1 and 3 by Western blotting were calculated semiquantitatively by a densitometer. Results: The expression of desmoglein 1 was 0.382 in the 34-year-old, 0.450 in the 45-year-old, 0.369 in the 56-year-old, 0.761 in the 65-year-old, 1.035 in the 77-year-old and 1.329 ODu/mm2 in the 84-year-old. The expression of desmoglein 3 was 0.830 in the 34-year-old, 0.984 in the 45-year-old, 1.029 in the 56-year-old, 1.534 in the 65-year-old, 1.714 in the 77-year-old and 1.878 ODu/mm2 in the 84-year-old. In immunohistochemical staining, the expression of Dsgl increased from the basal layer to the granular layer and Dsg3 was expressed in the basal and suprabasal layers. Conclusion: The expression of desmoglein 1 and 3 were increased according to chronologic skin aging. (Korean J Dermatol 2007;45(7):645~649)


We consider Cannon cone types for a surface group of genus $g$, and we give algebraic criteria for establishing the cone type of a given cone and of all its sub-cones. We also re-prove that the number of cone types is exactly $8g(2g - 1)+1.$ In the genus $2$ case, we explicitly provide the $48\times 48$ matrix of cone types, $M,$ and we prove that $M$ is primitive, hence Perron-Frobenius. Finally we define vector-valued multiplicative functions and we show how to compute their values by means of $M$.


When a narrow tube inserted into a static container filled with particles is subjected to vertical vibration, the particles rise in the tube, much resembling the ascending motion of a liquid column in a capillary tube. To gain insights on the particle dynamics dictating this phenomenon – which we term granular capillarity – we numerically investigate the system using the Discrete Element Method (DEM). We reproduce the dynamical process of the granular capillarity and analyze the vertical motion of the individual particles in the tube, as well as the average vertical velocities of the particles. Our simulations show that the height of the granular column fluctuates in a periodic or period-doubling manner as the tube vibrates, until a steady-state (capillary) height is reached. Moreover, our results for the average vertical velocity of the particles in the tube at different radial positions suggest that granular convection is one major factor underlying the particle-based dynamics that lead to the granular capillarity phenomenon.


Neuromuscular junction (NMJ) research is vital to advance the understanding of neuromuscular (NM) pathologies and development of novel therapies for diseases associated with NM dysfunction and deterioration. Several in vivo animal models manifest phenotypes observed in NM diseases. Unfortunately, in vivo NMJ research with animal models present many challenges due to inaccurate reproduction of human disease. For example, the most widely used animal model for Duchenne muscular dystrophy, the mdx mouse, is a good genetic and biochemical model, presenting total deficiency of the protein dystrophin in the muscle. However, this in vivo model is not useful for clinical trials due to the very mild phenotype expressed. Therefore, in vitro models were established, yet limitations exist. For example, inclusion of serum influences translation of animal data into human trials, inclusion of complex neurotrophic/growth factors can interfere with drug discovery, the initiation of skeletal muscle (SkM) contractions requiring electric pulse or chemical stimuli, and time consuming culture methods to induce spontaneous SkM contractions. Therefore, the aim of this thesis was to establish and characterise a simplified co-culture system that allows in vitro research of functional NMJs, representative of in vivo conditions. Immortalised human SkM stem cells were co-cultured with motor neurons (MNs) from rat embryo spinal cord explants, using for the first time a culture media formulation free from serum and neurotrophic or growth factors. This co-culture resulted in NMJ formation and contractile SkM cells. The de novo formation of NMJs was validated via characterisation of pre- and post-synaptic structures of the junctional apparatus. Interactions between the specialised membranes of presynaptic MN terminals with postsynaptic motor end plates (MEPs) located on SkM cells, along with supporting neuroglia, permitted chemical transmission of acetylcholine from MNs across structural bridges to bind with receptors on the MEPs. These interactions were associated with contractile activity and advanced differentiation of innervated SkM fibres. Functionality of NMJs was verified through the application of known agonists and antagonists to the co-culture system and confirmed that the contractile activity observed in the innervated SkM fibres were driven via NMJs. An ELISA-based microarray identified the presence of trophic factors required for MN, SkM, and NMJ development. Ultimately, engineering of this novel in vitro NMJ system represents an accessible platform to investigate NMJ formation and function, as well as providing a breakthrough assay via the system's ability to respond to drug interventions through measurable output, initiate spontaneous SkM cell contractions, and induce advanced differentiation of SkM Cells. Therefore, this novel system provides a tool to screen pharmacological or genetic therapies for diseased linked with SkM, MNs, and NMJs.


The recent riots in London and other cities in England have inspired a great deal of interest in the role of social media in incitement, organisation and analysis of events. Initial reactions to the events saw many commentators laying blame upon social networks such as Twitter, suggesting that the use of such networks are not only causative factors in social unrest, but that their absence would materially reduce the likelihood of ongoing unrest. This short paper takes a look at approximately half a million tweets tagged with the #londonriots and #riotcleanup hashtags, exploring the creation and uptake of hashtags and the campaigns, if any, that they represent.


In the Northern Great Plains (NGP), the combined impacts of land-use and climate variability have the potential to place many soils on the tipping point of sustainability. The objectives of this study were to assess if the conversion of grassland to croplands occurred on fragile landscapes in the North America Northern Great Plains. South Dakota and Nebraska were selected for this study because they are located in a climate transition zone. We visually classified 43,200 and 38,400 points in South Dakota and Nebraska, respectively, from high-resolution imagery in 2006, 2012, and 2014 into five different categories (cropland, grassland, habitat, NonAg, and water). The sustainability risk of the land-use changes was assessed based on the land capability class (LCC) scores at the selected sites. Sites with LCC scores ≤ 4 are considered sustainable for crop production if appropriate management practices are followed. Scores ≥ 6 are not considered suitable for row crop production. From 2006 to 2014, 910,000 and 360,000 ha of land were converted from grassland to cropland in South Dakota and Nebraska, respectively. Approximately 92 and 80% of the grassland conversion to croplands occurred on land suitable for crop production (land capability class, LCC ≤ 4) in South Dakota and Nebraska, respectively.


The Na+/H+exchanger NHE1 isoform is an integral component of cardiac intracellular pH homeostasis that is critically important for myocardial contractility. To gain further insight into its physiological significance, we determined its cellular distribution in adult rat heart by using immunohistochemistry and confocal microscopy. NHE1 was localized predominantly at the intercalated disk regions in close proximity to the gap junction protein connexin 43 of atrial and ventricular muscle cells. Significant labeling of NHE1 was also observed along the transverse tubular systems, but not the lateral sarcolemmal membranes, of both cell types. In contrast, the Na+-K+-ATPase α1-subunit was readily labeled by a specific mouse monoclonal antibody (McK1) along the entire ventricular sarcolemma and intercalated disks and, to a lesser extent, in the transverse tubules. These results indicate that NHE1 has a distinct distribution in heart and may fulfill specialized roles by selectively regulating the pH microenvironment of pH-sensitive proteins at the intercalated disks (e.g., connexin 43) and near the cytosolic surface of sarcoplasmic reticulum cisternae (e.g., ryanodine receptor), thereby influencing impulse conduction and excitation-contraction coupling.


A comprehensive numerical simulation of flow behavior of molten steel as well as slag inside tannish and mold of continuous casting machine has been performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). Modeling of continuous casting process of steels is very important as fluid flow behavior inside tannish, sub-entry nozzle (SEN) and mold directly influence the quality of steel product. Investigations on inclusion entrapment and the chances of SEN clogging study during continuous casting process for steel are objectives of this thesis work. The outcrop of the developed mathematical model is beneficial to study effect of flow controller (e.g. dam and weir) putting inside tundish on the fluid flow behavior throughout tannish, sub-entry nozzle (SEN) and mold of continuous casting machine. In addition to that, a massless particle is injected from the inlet and the trajectories of the particle inside tundish have been investigated using Discrete Phase Model (DPM) along with k-e turbulence models. All the numerical simulation of fluid flow has been performed using ANSYS 15.0 software. This CFD simulation work demonstrates the correlation of flow controller's shape, size and position with inclusion flotation possibility and path in tundish. This work also elaborates and shows the significance of flow controller position inside tundish on fluid flow behavior in tundish, sub-entry nozzle (SEN) and mold and quality of steel. The extract and underlying theory for this developed CFD model can be extended to different kinds of CCM process for various metal or metallic alloys to reveal the interrelation between inclusion removal kinetics and fluid flow behavior of molten steel and slag


A study was made of the influence of DNA and protein synthesis inhibitors on the production of mitogenic factor (MF) by human lymphocytes stimulated with phytohemagglutinin. Inhibition of the DNA synthesis with mitomycin failed to decrease MF production but in inhibiting the protein synthesis MF factor production was even increased. A conclusion was drawn that MF preexisted in the lymphoid cell before the beginning of stimulation, not in the ready from but as an inactive precursor; it became activated only in the living cells stimulated with phytohemagglutinin no protein synthesis is required at that moment.


A need has been identified to improve the knowledge about extreme slamming loads from breaking waves on vertical columns, such as offshore platforms and wind turbine foundations. Due to strongly nonlinear physical mechanisms and large statistical variability, more and improved experimental data are needed, as well as better qualified design procedures. In this paper, model test data and CFD simulations from a recent study with a fixed vertical column are compared and investigated in more detail. Selected individual extreme slamming events due to energetic breaking waves in 1:40 and 1:125 scaled model tests are presented and considered. Waves correspond approximately to extreme breaking wave occurrences in steep energetic sea states with 10-4 annual probability in the Norwegian sector.Slamming pressures on the column wall are measured in time and space by means of a 7 × 7 pressure sensor array covering 19m2 (full scale). Significant spatial variations are observed. When spatially averaged over the array, the observed highest pressures are typically in the range 1MPa–3MPa (full scale), while smaller measuring areas give higher values. This compares roughly to levels found from recent results in the literature; although exact comparison is difficult due to statistical uncertainty issues. Experiences obtained from parallel CFD and PIV activities are also compared to the experiments, from which free-surface particle velocities up to 25m/s (full scale) are estimated in the worst cases. Finally, a simple empirical formula for a slamming coefficient depending on the actual pressure integration area is suggested based on the results.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


: Gravity and electromagnetism are two sides of the same coin, which is the clue of this unification. Gravity and electromagnetism are represented by two mathematical structures, symmetric and antisymmetric respectively. Einstein gravitational field equation is the symmetric mathematical structure. Electrodynamics Lagrangian is three parts, for electromagnetic field, Dirac field and interaction term. The definition of canonical energy momentum tensor was used for each term in Electrodynamics Lagrangian to construct the antisymmetric mathematical structure; symmetric and antisymmetric gravitational field equations are two sides of the same Lagrangian.


Respiration is a key metabolic process in the marine environment and contemporary phytoplankton production (PhP) is commonly assumed the main driver. However, respiration in the absence of contemporary PhP, termed baseline respiration, can influence the energetics of an ecosystem and its sensitivity to hypoxia. Direct studies of baseline respiration are currently lacking. This study aims to obtain a first estimate of baseline respiration in a sub-arctic estuary and determine its contribution to plankton community respiration. Three approaches used to define baseline respiration determined the average rate to be 4.1 ± 0.1 (SE) mmol O2 m–3 d–1. A hypsographic model at the basin scale accounting for seasonal variation estimated an annual contribution of 30% baseline respiration to planktonic respiration. There was no correlation between plankton respiration and PhP, but a significant linear dependence was found with the total carbon supply from phytoplankton and riverine input. The sum of dissolved organic carbon transported by rivers, provided by both benthic and pelagic algae, could sustain 69% of the annual plankton respiration, of which as much as 25% occurred during winter. However, only 32% of the winter season respiration was explained, indicating that unknown carbon sources exist during the winter. Nitrification had a negligible (≤2.4%) effect on baseline respiration in the system. The results show that baseline respiration accounted for a significant percentage of coastal plankton respiration when allochthonous sources dominated the carbon supply, weakening the respiration-to- PhP relationship.


ObjectiveThe purpose of the study was to characterize the spatial distribution and temporal patterns of laboratory confirmed H5N1 outbreaks from January 2007 to December 2017 in Ghana.IntroductionHighly pathogenic avian influenza (HPAI) subtype H5N1 virus causes a highly contagious disease in poultry with up to 100% mortality and occasionally causes sporadic human infection. The first outbreak of HPAI H5N1 in Africa was reported in Nigeria in 2006 and has since been reported in seven other African countries with confirmed human cases and outbreaks in poultry. Since the emergence of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI), virus subtype H5N1 in Ghana in 2007, outbreaks in poultry have led to dire economic consequences for the poultry sector, resulting from mass destruction of affected flocks. An economy heavily dependent on agriculture, the persistence of outbreaks threaten the livelihood of farmers who depend on poultry production for survival.Despite significant efforts made in HPAI-H5N1 control and prevention in Ghana, outbreaks persist and continue to spread to new areas. It is uncertain to what extent different pathways contribute to the introduction and the dissemination of the virus in Ghana. There is a need to understand the complex nature of the interactions between local and migratory fowl, the risk of transmission due to human endeavor and trade mechanisms that increase the likelihood of HPAI-H5N1 outbreaks in Ghana.MethodsData for the study was sourced from national outbreak records at the Veterinary Services Directorate.The study analyzed outbreak data for the years 2007-2017. Data retrieved from outbreak reports included the date of onset of outbreak, location and geographic coordinates, type and number of poultry species affected, natural deaths of birds and type of farming system on outbreak farms. We calculated frequency distributions for the types of poultry species affected, the type of farming system and mortality rates on affected premises.We described the distribution of HPAI-H5N1 outbreaks using coordinate maps in ArcGIS and displayed relevant sites of waterfowl and wild bird habitation. To describe the temporal pattern of HPAI-H5N1 outbreaks in Ghana for the period, we created an epidemic curve by plotting the monthly number of outbreaks for the period January 2007 to December 2017 in Excel. We used space-time scan statistics to determine significant local clusters.ResultsA total of sixty-six (66) outbreaks of HPAI-H5N1 occurred in Ghana from January 2007 to December 2017. The outbreak sites were distributed in seven (7) out of ten (10) regions in Ghana. The affected regions are located in the southern and middle belt of Ghana. Most of the outbreaks (74.2%) occurred in densely populated areas of the Greater Accra region. Overall, layer flocks were mostly affected with 56% of affected premises constituting layer farms. Commercial farms and backyard farms made up the majority of affected farms (50% and 42.4%). Free ranging birds were the least affected farm type (7.6%). Two epidemic waves were identified for H5N1 in Ghana; the first wave with 6 outbreaks, lasted a period of four (4) months from April to July 2007, and the second with 60 outbreaks, spanned a period of 2 years from April 2015 to November 2016. Temporal distribution of the outbreaks showed that the outbreak peaked in May 2007 for the first wave and in July 2017 for the second wave with minor peaks observed in April and July 2016. The decrease in the number of the outbreaks after July in both waves is attributed to the onset of slaughter and trade restrictions for poultry in affected areas. Space-time scan statistics identified significant primary clusters of H5N1 outbreaks in the coastal belt of the Greater Accra region, characterized by major commercial activities and the presence of wetlands of relevance to wild birds and migratory waterfowl.ConclusionsTwo (2) major waves of H5N1 outbreaks occurred in Ghana between 2007 and 2017. The distribution of outbreaks and poultry species in both waves, show that the epidemiology of H5N1 virus in Ghana is changing. The findings highlight the importance of reviewing existing control and preventive measures as well as strengthening avian influenza surveillance in proposed high- risk areas.ReferencesForeign Animal Diseases. Revised 2008 Seventh Edition. Committee on foreign and emerging diseases of the United States Animal Health Association.Avian Influenza, OIE terrestrial manual 2015To K.K.W.et al. Avian influenza A H5N1 virus: a continuous threat to humans. Emerging Microbes Infections (2012) 1, e25.Watanabe Y. et al. The changing nature of avian influenza A virus (H5N1). Trends Microbiol. 2012 Jan; 20 (1):11-20. doi: 10.1016/j.tim.2011.10.003. Epub 2011 Dec 5


Agonist-induced down-regulation of opioid receptors appears to require the phosphorylation of the receptor protein. However, the identities of the specific protein kinases that perform this task remain uncertain. Protein kinase C (PKC) has been shown to catalyze the phosphorylation of several G protein-coupled receptors and potentiate their desensitization toward agonists. However, it is unknown whether opioid receptor agonists induce PKC activation under physiological conditions. Using cultured SH-SY5Y neuroblastoma cells, which naturally express mu- and delta-opioid receptors, we investigated whether mu-opioid receptor agonists can activate PKC by measuring enzyme translocation to the membrane fraction. PKC translocation and opioid receptor densities were simultaneously measured by 3H-phorbol ester and [3H]diprenorphine binding, respectively, to correlate alterations in PKC localization with changes in receptor binding sites. We observed that mu-opioid agonists have a dual effect on membrane PKC density depending on the period of drug exposure. Exposure for 2-6 h to [D-Ala2,N-Me-Phe4,Gly-ol]enkephalin or morphine promotes the translocation of PKC from the cytosol to the plasma membrane. Longer periods of opioid exposure (>12 h) produce a decrease in membrane-bound PKC density to a level well below basal. A significant decrease in [3H]diprenorphine binding sites is first observed at 2 h and continues to decline through the last time point measured (48 h). The opioid receptor antagonist naloxone attenuated both opioid-mediated PKC translocation and receptor down-regulation. These results demonstrate that opioids are capable of activating PKC, as evidenced by enhanced translocation of the enzyme to the cell membrane, and this finding suggests that PKC may have a physiological role in opioid receptor plasticity.


Self-discrepancies influence psychological well-being and self-acceptance across several domains. Middle to late childhood is a critical age for the development of self-discrepancies (SD). The present study was aimed at investigating antecedents of actual/ideal self-discrepancies in 9- to 11-year-old children by adopting a repeated measure design, with two measurement occasions. At the baseline (T1), children (N=261) completed a self-esteem questionnaire, a measure of actual/ideal SDs we developed around the Five Factor Model domains, and the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire; 4 months later (T2) a subsample (N=96) provided self-ratings again. Children's parents (N=195) referred on their own feelings towards their children along the Profile of Mood States as well as on their perceived locus of control of their children's undesirable behaviors; a subsample of parents (N=80) provided ratings again 4 months later. Principal component analyses from children's self-discrepancies at T1 yielded four domains: Intellect, Emotional Stability, Impulse Control, and Sociability. Self-rated discrepancies across time were moderately stable. Concurrently, higher SDs in Intellect were associated with lower children's self-esteem. Cross-lagged pattern analyses showed that lower self-esteem predicted increases in children's SDs, but not vice versa; in addition, change levels in SDs were correlated with change levels in self-esteem. Parents' perceived internal locus of causality of their children's undesirable behaviors also accounted for changes in children's SDs. Parents' feelings of depression accounted for increases in girls' SDs. The present findings further support the association between self-esteem and SDs, indicate the direction of association across time, and suggest possible mechanisms by which parents affect the development of the children's self-views.


Medulloblastoma (MB) is one of the most aggressive pediatric brain tumor. We report genome-wide pooled-analysis of classic MB variant of patients over 3 years of age at diagnosis. We combined array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) results from experimental analysis (31 cases) with two public databases (55 cases) in a final evaluation of 86 MBs. The most common chromosome structural aberrations were gains of 17q (45.3%), 1q (22.1%), and losses of 8p (15.1%), 10q (19.8%), 17p (37.2%), and 16q (16.3%). Isochromome (17q) was observed in 29.1% MBs. A significant association between poor patients survival and losses of 9q (p < 0.0023), 10q (p < 0.012), and 16q (p < 0.036) was observed. Univariate analysis showed association of 9q loss (p < 0.008) and 16q loss (p = 0.05) with adverse overall survival (OS). Chromosome 6 monosomy was a protective event although statistically borderline (p = 0.066). After adjusting for confounding factors, a poor OS was found for patients whose tumor has 9q loss [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.97; p < 0.006) or 16q loss (HR = 2.41; p = 0.038). Our results highlight the importance of genomic studies in different MB histological variants and indicate a genotype-phenotype correlation.