Advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) has presented a therapeutic challenge. Despite its heterogeneity, which is partially related to its various etiologies, it frequently arises in a background of chronic inflammation, which makes it a potentially excellent candidate for immunotherapeutic approaches. There is evidence of antitumor immunity in HCC as manifested by the cell infiltrate and its association with prognosis, the presence of tumor-associated antigens, and the reports of immune-mediated spontaneous regressions. However, both the liver itself and the tumor environment possess a diverse armamentarium of mechanisms that suppress antitumor immunity. Here, we describe the rationale for immunotherapy in HCC and discuss the emerging clinical data from various immunotherapeutic approaches including checkpoint inhibition, cell therapy, oncolytic viral therapy, and various combinatorial approaches. We also highlight the potential for various modalities to be adapted across different stages of the disease.


Total free sulphydryl groups were assessed in several white and red wines. Ellman's method was adapted to wine samples for the determination of total –SH groups. Total –SH groups of white wines, as glutathione, were in the range of 315 to 734 and of red wines in the range of 163 to 467 mg/L. In most cases, white wines exhibited higher values than red wines. The high total sulphydryls of white and red wines indicate their potential contribution to wine antioxidant capacity.


The paper reports on a new family of spiders from the eastern Cape region in South Africa. Chummidae, new family, are small, three-clawed spiders, recognized by the abdomen with strong dorsal scutum, provided with a frontal field of stiff macrosetae in large sockets. Further apomorphies are the absence of a fovea, the reduction of posterior and median spinnerets, the absence of major ampullate gland spigots, and the presence of branched lateral tracheae and of a hair-basket around the cheliceral fang. The type genus Chumma, is represented by two species, both known from male and female – the type species C. inquieta sp. nov. and C. gastroperforata sp. nov. The males of the latter species are remarkable for having two pairs of abdominal pockets, which play a role during mating.


Alley cropping; Maize intercropped with fruit trees (MIFT), is a system of technified agro forestry cultivation of central Mexico. MIFT is one of the most feasible cultivation systems to show the biodiversity richness of the country; however, the effect this system exercises on the soil organisms has not been measured, whereby the macrofauna, mites and collembolans from the furrows of perennial production (Prunus persica) and from the middle part dedicated to annual species (Zea mayz, Capsicum annum, Medicago sativa) have been sampled,  considering 4 MIFTs of the dry and plane environment of Puebla, plus another 4 of the humid and hillside environment of Oaxaca; and the forest of both regions as a control. Results showed that abundance and biomass were greater in ants and worms, respectively; while in Oaxaca, the greatest values were in diplopods. In both regions, the density and the biomass of macrofauna and with the m/m+s index, showed the gradient "Forest-MIFT", with lower values in Puebla; only Oaxaca showed more favorable conditions for edaphic biota, possibly due to handling of organic materials (OM). According to our results, in Puebla there are opportunities to stimulate the diversity and the population of edaphic biota through OM handling and to achieve a MIFT which takes advantage of the capacity for nutrient recycling of soil organisms and impacts on fertility restoration.

 Key words: Edaphic biota, macrofauna, alley cropping, maize intercropped with fruit trees (MIFT).


Hepatitis delta antigens (HDAgs) are important for the replication and assembly of hepatitis delta virus (HDV). To understand the association between HDAgs and cellular proteins and the mechanism of viral multiplication, we have studied the interaction between HDAgs and nucleolin, a major nucleolar phosphoprotein. The interaction between HDAgs and nucleolin was first demonstrated by immunofluorescence staining studies. HDAgs and endogenous nucleolin were colocalized in the nucleoli of cultured cells transfected with plasmids encoding the small and large HDAg. Coimmunoprecipitation results indicated that the NH2-terminal domain of HDAg was essential for its binding to nucleolin. In vitroligand binding assays revealed two nucleolin binding sites, NBS1 and NBS2. Each spanned amino acid residues 35–50 and 51–65, respectively, with a conserved core sequence K(K/R)XK. HDV replication was modulated by exogenous human nucleolin. In addition, a small HDAg mutant S-d65/75, which possesses both NBS1 and NBS2, was capable of transactivating HDV replication, whereas the small HDAg mutant S-d50/75, which retained NBS1 but not NBS2, was unable to support the replication of HDV. Thus, the nucleolin binding activity of HDAg is critical for its nucleolar targeting and is involved in the modulation of HDV replication.


collected and analysed the data, and wrote the paper. MB and J-LG are the guarantors. Funding: County Council of Stockholm (Department of Research, Development, and Education); Thelma Zoéga Foundation; Apoteket; Swedish Research Council; Gorthon Foundation; Vårdal Foundation (the Swedish Foundation for Health Care Sciences and Allergy Research); Health Research Council of Southeast Sweden; Health and Medical Care Executive Board of the Region Västra Götaland; Swedish Society of Medicine; Region Skåne; and SBU (Swedish Council on Technology Assessment in Health Care). Competing interests: None declared. Ethical approval: The study was approved by all regional ethics committees in Sweden.


Abstract : Most of the report is devoted to a systematic catalogue of measurable quantities which can be related to capacity and efficiency. Each item is described to show how it affects capacity and efficiency and how it interacts with the other factors. Certain current research and development activities and the interests of some user groups have been related to the various categories of factors. Those particular groups of factors which stand out are discussed because of their absolute importance and because of the number of ways in which they interrelate to one another and to other factors. It is concluded that such a catalogue can be used to strengthen support for research and exploratory development; shaping demand must be treated jointly with increasing capacity rather than as though it were independent; and a number of specific programs of observation and experiment can be inferred, the execution of which would give additional information about the effects on capacity which many of these factors might have. (Author)


The first steps which were taken to form the Royal Society are said on the authority of Dr John Wallis, the mathematician, to date from about 1645, when he and certain other learned men in London began to meet from time to time to discuss the new philosophy, and other matters of common interest. There is however evidence to show that even earlier some of these men and their friends had in mind a plan, still undeveloped, to found a Society for the advancement of Natural Knowledge. For this information we are indebted to John Winthrop (junior) and to his correspondents in this country. He was one of the early puritans many of whom emigrated to the New World and there established the colony of New England. The fortieth volume of the Philosophical Transactions was dedicated to his grandson, also a John Winthrop, F.R.S., who was a generous benefactor of the Society. In the dedicatory letter Dr Cromwell Mortimer, the Secretary of the Society, writes of John Winthrop (junior) on 15 August 1741 : 'In concert with these (i.e. Boyle, Wilkins and Oldenburg) and other learned friends (as he often revisited England) he was one of those who first formed the Plan of the Royal Society, and had not the Civil Wars happily ended as they did Mr Boyle and Mr Wilkins with several other learned men would have left England (as may appear in letters from Boyle, Wilkins, K. Digby, etc., to Mr Winthrop), and, out of esteem for the most excellent and valuable Governor, John Winthrop the younger, would have retired to his new-born colony and there established that Society for promoting Natural Knowledge which these gentlemen had formed, as it were, in embryo among themselves, but which afterwards receiving the Protection of the King Charles II obtain'd the style of Royal, and hath since done so much Honour to the British Nations, as to be imitated by the several European Princes who desired to be esteemed the Patrons of learning.'


Anthropogenic heat (AH) generated by human activities is an important factor affecting the urban climate. Thus, refined AH parameterization of a large area can provide data support for regional meteorological research. In this study, we developed a refined anthropogenic heat flux (RAHF) parameterization scheme to estimate the gridded anthropogenic heat flux (AHF). Firstly, the annual total AH emissions and annual mean AHF of Beijing municipality in the year 2015 were estimated using a top-down, energy-consumption inventory method, which was derived based on socioeconomic statistics and energy consumption data. The heat released from industry, transportation, buildings (including both commercial and residential buildings), and human metabolism were taken into account. Then, the county-scale AHF estimation model was constructed based on multi-source remote sensing data, such as Suomi national polar-orbiting partnership (Suomi-NPP) visible infrared imaging radiometer suite (VIIRS) nighttime light (NTL) data and moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer (MODIS) data. This model was applied to estimate the annual mean AHF of the counties in the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. Finally, the gridded AHF data with 500-m resolution was obtained using a RAHF parameterization scheme. The results indicate that the annual total AH emissions of Beijing municipality in the year 2015 was approximately 1.704 × 1018 J. Of this, the buildings contribute about 34.5%, followed by transportation and industry with about 30.5% and 30.1%, respectively, and human metabolism with only about 4.9%. The annual mean AHF value of the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region is about 6.07 W·m−2, and the AHF in urban areas is about in the range of 20 W·m−2 and 130 W·m−2. The maximum AHF value is approximately 130.84 W·m−2, mostly in airports, railway stations, central business districts, and other densely-populated areas. The error analysis of the county-scale AHF results showed that the residual between the model estimation and energy consumption statistics is less than 1%. In addition, the spatial distribution of RAHF results is generally centered on urban area and gradually decreases towards suburbs. The spatial pattern of the RAHF results within urban areas corresponds well to the distribution of population density, building density, and the industrial district. The spatial heterogeneity of AHF within urban areas is well-reflected through the RAHF results. The RAHF results can be used in meteorological and environmental modeling for the Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei region. The results of this study also highlight the superiority of Suomi-NPP VIIRS NTL data for AHF estimation.


Abstract We describe the first occurrence of the problematic fossil Gaojiashania outside China, in the Ediacaran Yudoma Group of the Siberian Platform. In both areas, Gaojiashania characterizes the lower upper Ediacaran strata and precedes the appearance of Cloudina and other skeletal fossils, which highlights its significance for the Ediacaran subdivision and correlation. Features of this fossil such as indeterminate length, the absence of a distinct growth pattern, and self-avoiding behaviour indicate its trace fossil origin but do not necessarily imply metazoan affinities for its producers. Several organisms including stem-group social amoebozoans and unicellular protists may have been Proterozoic trace fossil producers.


In chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), patient education is one of the fundamental components of successful self-management. However in most instances patient education is limited to the transfer of information about COPD, its causes and its treatment. Moreover, among patients who have received health information regarding their disease, a number do not continue disease management at home or outside of the healthcare setting. This is in part due to misunderstanding instructions given by care providers. Additional issues arise when patients and care providers do not share a common language. Developing information materials in English and then simply translating them into either written or video formats is not effective because the materials do not incorporate patients' cultural beliefs, views or perceptions. This study investigated howpatients with COPD, from new immigrant communities in British Columbia, Canada, received and utilised information about their condition and its management as a basis for developing appropriate educational materials. We applied a community-based participatory approach in learning about the cultural beliefs and perspectives influencing patients' selfmanagement practice. Family members and home caregivers were also encouraged to become involved in the material development and learning process. Qualitative focus groups and individual interviewswere conducted with a total of 46 COPD patients (n=30) and their family members (n=16) from Chinese (Mandarin andCantonese), Filipino,Korean, English, and Farsi ethnic minority communities in the Greater Vancouver Area between May 2013 and March 2014. Findings were summarised into five themes: current knowledge and practices of COPD  selfmanagement; trusted sources of health information; insufficient care received from doctors; information they wish to receive; barriers to accessing health information. Data analysis of these themes showed that it is essential to consider diverse cultural beliefs and practices when developing selfmanagement educational materials for patients from ethno-cultural communities. Our findings suggest that engaging patients in all stages of development may increase patient efficacy and motivation to apply and use information, as well as ensuring that materials developed are relevant andappropriate for minority groups.


The purpose of the research is to knowing the empowerment of cash waqf in the education sector BaitulMaalHidayatullahin Surabaya. So, that case is become the bases of the interview to knowing empowerement of cash waqf to support people welfare through education.The approach of this research is using qualitative approach. Qualitative approach is using case study method. The subject of this research is finance manager and office from Baitul Maal Hidayatullah in Surabaya which will be informant and give various information which during the research. Based on research results has showing the empowerment of cash waqf have a typical impact for education with the build of PesantrenPenghafal Al-Quran Darul Hijrah. Pesantern Darul Hijrah not only teach the students to memorize Al-Qur'an, but also to practice the contents of Al-quran and also supported by various activity in pondok pesantren in accordance with syariah principle which will make a leader to know Al-Qur'an and As-Sunnah very well.


UNLABELLED
The importance of tumor cell surface integrin receptors in regulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP) expression and function has been reported. Integrin-ECM ligand interaction leads to phosphorylation of focal adhesion kinase (FAK) and activation of mitogen activated protein kinase (MAPK) pathways. In this present study, we cultured human fibrosarcoma cells, HT-1080, in presence of fibronectin to study fibronectin-integrin mediated modulation of MMP activity.

METHODS
HT-1080 cells were cultured in serum free medium (SFCM) in presence of fibronectin, SFCM was collected, and gelatin zymography was performed. Western blot and immunocytochemistry were performed with HT-1080 cells cultured in presence of fibronectin.

RESULTS
Culture of HT-1080 cells in presence of 50 microg/1.5 ml fibronectin led to expression of pro-MMP-9 and activation of MMP-2 within 1 hr. When HT-1080 cells were treated with PI-3K inhibitor (LY294002) and grown in presence of fibronectin, MMP-2 activation was partially inhibited, but when cells were treated with ERK inhibitor (PD98059) and grown in presence of fibronectin, MMP-2 activation was almost completely inhibited. Tyrosine phosphorylation of FAK and ERK were increased in HT-1080 cells grown in presence of fibronectin. Processing of MT1-MMP was also observed in HT-1080 cells grown in presence of fibronectin. The reorganization of actin filaments in fibronectin treated HT-1080 cells was also noticeable.

CONCLUSIONS
Our findings indicate that culture of HT-1080 cells in SFCM in presence of fibronectin perhaps generates a signaling cascade that leads to expression of pro-MMP-9 and activation of MMP-2 within 1 hr. The signaling pathway activated seems to be the FAK/ERK pathway.


In Taiwan open field vegetable production is threatened by subtropical climatic disasters, such as high wind speeds and heavy rainfall, which can cause the destruction of whole crops. Next to that vegetable production is threatened by pests and diseases resulting a high need for pesticides. Greenhouse production systems are able to provide protection for the crop. However, in current protected tomato production in Taiwan yields are extremely low (max. 4 kg cherry tomato m-2 per season, though with high Brix). Next to a deficiency in modern crop management, there is a lack of knowledge of what is the optimum greenhouse design for vegetable growing in Taiwan. Greenhouse design has been shown to be a multifactorial problem, which can be approached with a systematic design method (Van Henten et al., 2012). The method is based on the use of different models, which predict a suitable greenhouse design. The local climatic conditions (outside radiation, temperature, humidity, wind speed) are used as input for the greenhouse climate model, which is used to evaluate different greenhouse designs and technologies. The climate and crop growth inside the green¬house can be simulated. These data serve as input to an economic model, which can be used to come to the economic suitable greenhouse design. This greenhouse design approach was applied for Taiwanese climate conditions, which are characterised by a radiation sum of 6 GJ m-2, high temperatures up to an average maximum of 35°C and high humidity levels up to 100%. The greenhouse climate model of De Zwart (1996) and the crop model of Vanthoor (2011) were used for evaluation of different technologies, economic data was collected in Taiwan and used as input for the economic model.


Numerical analyses of YBa 2 Cu 3 O 6 . 5 + x (YBCO) polycrystalline film growth in the metal organic deposition (MOD) process using precursor solution containing metal trifluoroacetates (TFA) have been performed. This process is accompanied with both consuming H 2 O and releasing HF at the growth interface. At first, a one-dimensional numerical growth model of the YBCO was proposed in consideration of the growth kinetics at the interface between the precursor and the YBCO crystalline layers together with the conservation of the gas components, H 2 O and HF, in the precursor layer. This numerical model was treated as a boundary condition for the convective multi-component diffusion equations in the gas region. Subsequently, the convective multi-component diffusion equations and Navier-Stokes equation in the gas region were solved in a two-dimensional manner by the finite difference method. It was found that this numerical model calculation could make a good estimate for the growth rate distribution in the film and the molar fractions of the components in the gas region. Finally, it was confirmed that the supplied water vapor molar fraction dependence, the positional dependence and the inlet gas velocity dependence of the calculated YBCO growth rate were in good agreement with the experimental results.


In summary, PUVA therapy is an exciting, acceptable, and effective therapy for the treatment of psoriasis vulgaris. The histologic changes in the skin secondary to PUVA therapy appeared to be an accentuated solar damage of skin. Whether this therapy also enhances the incidence of skin cancers will be answered only by continued observation of these treated patients. The fear of all those engaged in PUVA therapy is that the potentiation of cutaneous neoplasia will not be recognized for many years, as was the case in superficial x-ray therapy. Obviously, careful monitoring of PUVA patients and their clinical response will help reduce UVA exposure as well as decrease the amount of psoralen ingested, and may indeed avoid the prolonged use of PUVA therapy and hopefully lessen the potential longterm cutaneous changes and possible superficial skin cancers.


Abstract Morphologically conserved taxa such as scorpions represent a challenge to delimit. We recently discovered populations of scorpions in the genus Kovarikia Soleglad, Fet & Graham, 2014 on two isolated mountain ranges in southern California. We generated genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphism data and used Bayes factors species delimitation to compare alternative species delimitation scenarios which variously placed scorpions from the two localities with geographically adjacent species or into separate lineages. We also estimated a time-calibrated phylogeny of Kovarikia and examined and compared the morphology of preserved specimens from across its distribution. Genetic results strongly support the distinction of two new lineages, which we describe and name here. Morphology among the species of Kovarikia was relatively conserved, despite deep genetic divergences, consistent with recent studies of stenotopic scorpions with limited vagility. Phylogeographic structure discovered in several previously described species also suggests additional cryptic species are probably present in the genus.


The purpose of our study was to find out whether the palliative care principles and practices have entered the professional ethics of nursery home caregivers and assess the feasibility of applying palliative care in those surroundings. The survey on 34 nursing home caregivers in Slovenia, who attended the training course in October 2008, was performed by using questionnaires. The mean age of the 34 participants was 36.5 years. The majority of them (24) had secondary school. Half of them were working at nursery homes for the older people, 10 years. Throughout this period 19/34 were rarely or only exceptionally faced with the care for dying patients. They (27) were believed to have general knowledge on palliative care. In nursing terminal patients, 23 participants were considered to have been of great help, while 12 were reported to have been emotionally exhausted. In case of difficulties they could get support from their colleagues (27) or from their superiors (17). Two thirds of the responders were interested in additional training in providing psychological support and in pain control. They were not adequately acquainted with general palliative care principles and practices. The authors conclude that the participants have rather poor experience with the nursing of dying patients. The majority of them are very rarely faced with the experience of attending a dying person. The knowledge that they have obtained on palliative care is at a general level. Despite their inadequate knowledge, a surprisingly great number of them were believed to be of great help in nursing terminal patients, although this experience was mostly emotionally and physically exhaustive. This may be the result of the inadequate care and psychological support offered to the employees while going through this hard experience of caring for a dying patient and mourning for him.


The construction of landfills is not an alternative option, since a landfill is always a necessary component of the specific waste management system that will be developed. One of the serious and growing potential problems in large urban areas is the shortage of land for waste disposal. In solid waste management programmes, use of geographic information systems (GIS) is a very significant tool because the selection of a suitable site is a very time-consuming process. The analytic hierarchy process in GIS provides objective mathematics to process the subjective preferences of individuals or groups and arrive at a decision. The present paper describes a spatial methodology which comprised several methods, such as multi-criteria analysis, that originate in different scientific fields. The final goal of the methodology was to evaluate the suitability of the studied area (Trabzon, NE Turkey) in order to optimally select a landfill site. Different constraint maps were overlaid with spatial analysis modules to obtain a final suitability map for Trabzon City and five suitable areas were identified. An analytic hierarchy process was applied to select the most suitable solid waste disposal site for municipal waste in the city among these alternative candidate sites. The Düzyurt area was found to be the most suitable solid waste disposal site. However, geotechnical investigations indicated that some remedial measures would be needed before this landfill site could be used.


Tungsten heavy alloys are widely used in ballistic applications due to their superior mechanical properties. The deformation characteristics of tungsten heavy alloys at high strain rates should be determined to understand the perforation and penetration performances. One of the ways which is commonly used in determining the deformation behavior of the alloys at high strain rates is Taylor impact test. In this work, the dynamic properties and deformation characteristics of 93W-5.6Ni-1.4Fe and 93W-4.67Ni-2.33Fe alloys were investigated by Taylor impact tests with different velocities by using a single stage gas gun. The samples were cold isostatically pressed under 300 MPa and sintered at 1460oC and 1480oC for 20 minutes under hydrogen and 10 minutes under argon atmosphere. Numerical analyses of Taylor tests were conducted by using Autodyn 3D to compare with the test results. The study showed that, the samples which were sintered at 1480oC had more plastic deformation in Taylor impact tests and good agreement in deformation characteristics of test and numerical results of low velocity impact was obtained.


We reviewed the medical histories of the 778 patients admitted to the Military Hospital of Santiago de Cuba with presumptive diagnosis of dengue which was clinically and epidemiologically confirmed in 423 on discharge and in 24 patients from the clinical epidemiological and immunological viewpoints. From the total number of patients we selected 54 having alert signs, who were classified by age, sex, clinical manifestations and development since they arrive at the Emerging Department at 8, 24 and 72 h later and at 5 days. Data were manually and automatically processed with an ACER-500 computer. The disease was predominant in males under 50 years of age and, in one third of the patients with the alert signs, the disease was immunologically verified. The more acute clinical picture was observed between 8 h and 24 h of the process but there was no death by this cause.


To cope with increased competition and increased customer expectations, many organizations are forced to adopt proactive strategies to become more customers driven and to offer higher service quality in order to avoid customer turnover. When an International firm is unable to retain customers, it means that they are losing business which is critical for profitability. Many organizations including Multinational banks however overlook the potential of existing customers who develop their business. This therefore is a case study aiming at getting detailed information regarding customer retentions in Barclay's bank of Kenya which is a Multinational operating on an International Business environment that has a lot of competitors. The study used an interview guide as primary data collection instrument. The interview guide consisted of open-ended questions aimed at obtaining information on customer retention strategies that is employed by Barclays Bank. An interview guide was used to collect information from human Bank managers, head of department and operation managers of Barclays bank of Kenya. The interview guide was administered through personal interviews so as to yield the highest quality and quantity of data by providing supplementary information in the course of the interview. This study concluded that Barclays bank products were accessible, ease channels of delivery and available with a well pricing and enhanced quality thus providing competitive products that satisfied its customers. Making changes in information technology systems in response to changing competitive situation and encourage among staff a more customer focused service approach is important. v


We consider the problem of fairly dividing a heterogeneous divisible good among agents with different preferences. Previous work has shown that envy-free allocations, i.e., where each agent prefers its own allocation to any other, may not be efficient, in the sense of maximizing the total value of the agents. Our goal is to pinpoint the most efficient allocations among all envy-free allocations. We provide tractable algorithms for doing so under different assumptions regarding the preferences of the agents.


The status of salivary glands and oral mucous membrane was investigated in 50 patients with chronic active hepatitis against the background of chronic alcoholism. The check up disclosed sialadenosis in 38% of patients and in 54% of patients - such diseases of oral mucous membrane as stomatitis, candidosis and geographic tonque. Besides there were disclosed such disturbances as big and small salivary glands secretion reduction, mixed saliva viscosity increase, increase of protein, P, K, Na and catalase content in it, glycogen hyperaccumulation in gingival tissues. The received data indicated the necessity of dispensary supervision of such patients and their treatment in stomatologist.


Water may seem innocuous, but as a universal necessity, it inevitably intersects with politics when it comes to acquisition, control, and associated technologies. While we know a great deal about the socio-ecological costs and benefits of modern dams, we know far less about their political origins and ramifications. In Concrete Revolution, Christopher Sneddon offers a corrective: a compelling historical account of the US Bureau of Reclamation's contributions to dam technology, Cold War politics, and the social and environmental adversity perpetuated by the US government in its pursuit of economic growth and geopolitical power. Founded in 1902, the Bureau became enmeshed in the US State Department's push for geopolitical power following World War II, a response to the Soviet Union's increasing global sway. By offering technical and water resource management advice to the world's underdeveloped regions, the Bureau found that it could not only provide them with economic assistance and the United States with investment opportunities, but also forge alliances and shore up a country's global standing in the face of burgeoning communist influence. Drawing on a number of international case studies-from the Bureau's early forays into overseas development and the launch of its Foreign Activities Office in 1950 to the Blue Nile investigation in Ethiopia-Concrete Revolution offers insights into this historic damming boom, with vital implications for the present. If, Sneddon argues, we can understand dams as both technical and political objects rather than instruments of impartial science, we can better participate in current debates about large dams and river basin planning.


Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) has been used successfully to evaluate complex characteristics of fatigue damage and fracture of asphalt binders and mastics by measuring fundamental viscoelastic properties and damage characteristics. DMA was used to define the effect of moisture on fatigue damage and to concentrate on the fatigue damage susceptibility of the sand and asphalt mixture mastic fraction. Dynamic frequency sweep and time sweep tests were performed on cylindrical sand-asphalt samples in a dry state and after being subjected to moisture saturation. Test results clearly indicate that moisture reduces viscoelastic stiffness, fatigue resistance, and eventually fatigue life of sand-asphalt. The mechanistic role of moisture in fatigue was analyzed and quantified by using nonlinear viscoelastic theory based on pseudovariable concepts and a continuum damage fatigue model. The effect of material surface energies, which is strongly related to fracture and damage, is further discussed by using DMA fatigue test results and varying surface energy characteristics of individual mixture constituents. The DMA experimental procedure and analysis is an efficient way to identify the influence of moisture and to compare sand-asphalt mixtures in terms of moisture susceptibility.


B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) is a clonal B cell malignancy of morphologically mature, functionally immature B cells. B-cell CLL cells are known to be resistant to killing by anticancer and other agents. This resistance is associated with alterations in apoptosis and cell cycle regulated genes. In our earlier studies, we have demonstrated that CLL cells have differential expression of genes that are associated with apoptosis and cell cycle regulation, including elevated expression of Bcl-2, DAD-1, Cyclin D3 and cyclin dependent kinase 4 inhibitor. Therefore, in this study, in an attempt to study the role of Cyclin D3 in the resistant behavior of CLL cells, Cyclin D3 was down regulated using antisense oligonucleotide (AS-ODN) in WSU-CLL, a human CLL cell line. The down regulation of Cyclin D3 was confirmed by RT-PCR and flow cytometry techniques. The Cyclin D3 expression down-regulated WSU-CLL cells were then tested for their susceptibility to fludarabine, a chemotherapeutic agent. Our results showed that the Cyclin D3 expression down-regulated WSU-CLL cells were more susceptible to fludarabine mediated killing. Following treatment with fludarabine, there was a significant increase in the number of cells undergoing apoptosis in Cyclin D3 expression down-regulated WSU-CLL cells as determined by Annexin-V assay, cell cycle analysis for DNA content, and cytomorphology. Thus, our results indicate Cyclin D3 down regulation increases the killing of WSU-CLL cells with fludarabine by increasing the number of cells undergoing apoptosis.


THIE POSSIBILITIES OF EXPLORATOIRY THORACOTOMY. SIn,-Professor Gask, in his very interesting artiele (Februiary 21st, p. 343), does such scanty justice to the contributions of British civil surgeolns to the surl'gery of the chest some decades before the outbreak of the w^ar that some brief epitomiie of its evolution appears desirable. Yoiur leading article upoin the same subject offers some comipeisation, as tlio writer has apprehenided clearly the recal significanice of Maceweni's operationl in 1897. The successful removal of a tuberculous lung was not the essenitial feature of his work-as might be gathered fromii a p)eiusal of Professor Gask's articl.-but that he lhad opened the chest to its fullest extent to enable him to do so without respiratory embarrassment of a disconcertinlg degree. This free opening was miiade deliberately and with fuill colifidence based upon tlhe teachings of Lord Kelviii (Sir William Thomson as he was theni), who lhad proved conclusively that lungs would not collapse unider the (direct inifluence of atmospheric pressure when the human tlhorax had been opened. Macewen showed this patient in good hiealth at the International Congress of Me(lieine, Lonldon, 1913, anid( againi expouinded the plhysical pli)rniples enllunciated by Lord Kelvin. Those of us whio were' familiar witlh this wo-or'k an(d witlh the work of othier British surgeons who had follow-ed Macewen's lead w-ere merely aim-azed that pressiuire abl)iiets of the types of Sauerbruch Willy Meyer, anid Ttuffier should be decemled wi-ortlhy of anytlhing more than a mere pa-ssiing nlotice. By the timiie that they lhad been ini-eiited thlie problem of ch(est surgery had long passed the stage of beiln a problemn of Ilung collapse: it had becomec ouie merely of conitrol of iinfection. Withlini a few yecars of Macew(enI's operatioli, adl(l many years before pressuIre cabinets had begun thwir ephemneral exisitenice, Professor A. E. Barker at University College Hospital lhad olperated quite siiccessfully, as far as the physics of the cihest w-ere coicierne(, uponi cases of gangrenie of the lung, and durinig the year -1902, w-hen it was my good fortunie to be his house-surgeoin, I assisted hiim at two or three of the operations. Fromii -him I. learnt the technique of stitching the healtliy area of extracted lunig to the parietes before excisinig the enclosed pa;tch of ganigrene, so asI to limit the slpread of inifectioni to thie rest of the pleural cavity. lu the year 1904 an opportuniiitv came to me of puittinig Barker's procedirei and Macewveni's lprinciples inito practice; and tlhe followilng epitome lhas just heen extracted fr-om the official medi(cal imtos of the iHospital for Sick Children, Grcat Oriiioii(d Street, of tlhe year 1904:


In our previous works, a double percolation mechanism of stress volumes was proposed to explain the special effects generated by small amounts of grafted nanoparticles. Accordingly, it is inferred that strengthening nanoparticle agglomerates and enhancing nanoparticles/polymer matrix interfacial interaction are the key issues to improve mechanical performance of the matrix polymer. To confirm this idea, in-situ crosslinking was adopted to prepare nanocomposites by adding reactive monomers and crosslinking agents during melt compounding of nano-silica with polypropylene (PP). It was found that the grafted polymer chains were successfully crosslinked and chemically bonded to the nano-silica forming crosslinked networks. Meanwhile, matrix molecular chains penetrated through the networks to establish the so-called semi-IPN structure that interconnected nanoparticles by the networks and improved filler/matrix interfacial interaction. As a result, the tiny nanoparticles were well distributed in the matrix and the toughening and reinforcing effects of the nanoparticles on the matrix were brought into play at rather low filler loading, as evidenced by mechanical performance tests. Besides, β-crystal was detected in the nanocomposites experienced in-situ crosslinking reaction.


Introduction: The goal of the present study was to examine the effect of alcohol consumption on sperm count and motility and the morphological changes in the seminiferous tubules of parent mice and their offspring. Methods: Animals were divided into two groups, Group 1 (alcohol group) of twelve male and twelve female mice, were given a daily dose of (3 g/kg body weight as 25%, v/v) ethanol by gastric gavage for four and eight weeks. Group 2 (control group) also of twelve male and twelve female mice; received normal access of food and water. After four weeks of treatment, the males and females in each group were allowed to mate, and ethanol treatment continued for up to another four weeks. Twelve male offspring from group 1 and twelve male offspring from group 2 were selected randomly and allowed to become mature. Male parent mice were killed at the 4th and 8th weeks of treatment, and their male offsprings were killed when they reached maturity age. Results: Physiological examination of the sperm solution showed that there was a significant decrease in sperm count and motility after 4 and 8 weeks of ethanol treatment in parent male mice, but this decrease was not significant in their adult offspring. Furthermore, histological investigations indicated testicular lesions in the parent male mice and their adult male offspring. Conclusion: Alcohol abuse has deleterious effects on the testes structure and on the sperm count and motility of the epididymal spermatozoa of both parent mice and their offspring.


Cr2AlC, one of the ternary carbide families, was synthesized by a reactive hot pressing of CrCx (x=0.5) and Al powder mixture used as starting materials at the temperature range of 1200 oC~1400 oC under 25 MPa in Ar atmosphere. Fully dense Cr2AlC with high purity was synthesized by hot pressing CrCx and Al powder mixture at the temperature as low as 1200 oC. After synthesizing the bulk Cr2AlC, it was found that it has a typical layered structure as found in other ternary carbides such as Ti3AlC2 and Ti3SiC2. The average grain size of synthesized bulk Cr2AlC was varied in the range of 10-100 ㎛ depending on hot pressing temperatures. The Vickers hardness of bulk Cr2AlC was less than 4 GPa under the loading of 10N and this decreased with increasing indentation load. The maximum flexural strength of synthesized bulk Cr2AlC exceeded 600 MPa. Also, it was found that synthesized Cr2AlC was readily machinable by a conventional WC tool bit due to its low hardness as well as damage tolerance properties upon fracture.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Introduction: High intake of alcohol and low intake of folate have been associated with gene promoter methylation. Increased promoter methylation of tumor suppressor genes plays an important role in renal cell cancer (RCC). On the other hand, however, alcohol intake is associated with a decreased risk of RCC risk in most prospective studies. We therefore investigated whether alcohol and dietary folate intakes were associated with gene promoter methylation in RCC.

Methods: The Netherlands Cohort Study (NLCS) with case-cohort design included 120,852 subjects aged 55-69 years in 1986. Diet was measured with a food-frequency questionnaire. After 20.3 years of follow-up, paraffin-embedded tumor blocks were collected from 454 incident RCC cases, of which 80% had clear cell (cc) histology. Methylation-specific PCR (MSP) was used to analyze promoter CpG island methylation in tumor DNA. Genes were selected that were known to be involved in ccRCC. Furthermore, genes were selected exhibiting 1) promoter CpG island methylation in ccRCC cell lines and not in normal kidney tissue in a genome-wide methylation screen (MBD-affinity massive parallel sequencing) and 2) ccRCC-specific down-regulation in the TCGA data. In total, we identified 14 genes (CDO1, CFTR, CSPG4, FST, FZD10, GAL, GRE1, LAD1, NEFH, NEURL, RASGFR2, SFN, SFRP1, VHL) as candidate markers. We computed a sum score of methylated genes and divided the ccRCC cases into those with low- (0-18% of the genes methylated), intermediate- (20-45%) and high- (46-100%) methylated tumors. Multivariable analyses were conducted using Cox regression analyses, stratified according to methylation sum score and included 4,439 subcohort members and 300 ccRCC cases.

Results: Prevalence of gene promoter methylation was on average 36%, but varied from 7.8% (VHL) to 96.5% (SFN).

Increasing intakes of alcohol were associated with decreased risk in all ccRCC cases, but not statistically significant: multivariable adjusted HR (95% CI) for ≥15g alcohol/day vs. 0 g/day 0.79 (0.54-1.16), and p for trend 0.44. In strata of ccRCC according to methylation sum score no significant heterogeneity was observed, although the HR for ≥ 15g alcohol/day versus 0 g/day was significantly decreased in ccRCC with a high methylation sum score: 0.36 (95% CI 0.14-0.93), p for trend, 0.14.

Dietary intake of folate was not associated with ccRCC risk: HR for the quintile of highest intake versus lowest intake: 1.07 (CI, 0.70-1.64) and p for trend, 0.59. Between strata of ccRCC cases according to methylation sum score no significant heterogeneity was observed. There was no effect-modification of alcohol and dietary folate intake on overall ccRCC risk, nor in strata according to methylation sum score.

Conclusion: Our findings show that alcohol and dietary folate intake are not associated with ccRCC risk, neither overall nor in strata according to methylation sum score.

Citation Format: Leo J. Schouten, Ivette A.G. Deckers, Piet A. van den Brandt, Patricia M.M.B. Soetekouw, Marcella M.M.L. Baldewijns, Manon van Engeland. Alcohol and dietary folate intake and gene promoter methylation in clear-cell renal cell cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 1272. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-1272


This thesis covers synthesis and characterisation of TiO2 nanotubes and TiO2 / Li4Ti5O12 composite nanotubes. The aim was to build batteries with high areal capacity and good rate capability. TiO2 nanotubes were synthesized by two step anodization of titanium metal foil and the composite electrodes were synthesized through electrochemical lithiation of TiO2 nanotubes. To improve the battery performance the TiO2 nanotubes were annealed at 350 °C in air atmosphere, while the composite electrodes were annealed in argon at 550 °C. The longest TiO2 nanotubes were measured to 42.5 μm. The 40 μm long nanotubes displayed an areal capacity of 1.0 mAh/cm2 and a gravimetric capacity of 89 mAh/g. Nanotubes having a length of 10 μm had an areal capacity of 0.33 mAh/cm2 and a gravimetriccapacity of 130 mAh/g. When cycled at high rates, 10C, the capacity of the 40 μm nanotubes was 0.25 mAh/cm2, using a current density of 9.3 mA. The capacity of the 40 μm long nanotubes were higher than for the 10 μm long, but the increase was not proportional to the increase in length. A composite electrode was successfully synthesized and was found to have a capacity of 0.25 mAh/cm2 at a rate of C/5.


Utilizing pharmacodynamic immunohistochemistry (PD-IHC) for in situ & quantitative measures, we explored the mechanism of action of a Dual-Affinity Re-Targeting (DART®) bispecific recombinant antibody engineered with enhanced pharmacokinetic properties to extend in vivo half-life. This bispecific, designated P-cadherin LP-DART, is designed to engage and activate polyclonal T cell populations via the CD3 complex in the presence of P-cadherin expressing tumors. Following administration in mice bearing established human tumors and implanted with human T-cells we examined the localization of P-cadherin LP-DART within the tumor xenografts, P-cadherin expression, quantitation and immunophenotyping of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), downstream biomarkers of T-cell effector function and immunoregulatory mechanisms. Cell surface P-cadherin expression was maintained on the established tumor xenografts after the administration of single and multiple doses of the bispecific molecule. Furthermore, we detected P-cadherin LP-DART in the tumors more than one week after administration. Pan lymphocyte IHC and digital image analysis demonstrated P-cadherin LP-DART mediated CD3+ T-cell infiltration, resulting in nearly half of the viable cells in the tumor being TILs. Conversely, we did not detect infiltrating CD3+ human T-cells in normal organs, confirming a specific target mediated T-cell response at the tumor site. Elevated proximal and downstream mediators of drug action (granzyme B and cleaved caspase 3) further support that P-cadherin LP-DART localized within the tumor induces T-cell mediated growth inhibition and sustained regression. Additionally, to study the the tumor response to redirected T-cell mediated killing we measured the up-regulation of critical immune check point pathways after treatment P-cadherin LP-DART. In the in vivo tumor models examined, tumor cells acutely and robustly induced expression of immunoregulatory pathways in response to effector T-cell activity. Taken together, we demonstrate the utility of in situ kinetic PD-IHC methodologies to demonstrate target expression, drug localization, downstream biomarkers of drug action, and provide insights into potential immunoregulatory mechanisms in response to T-cell mediated bispecific immunotherapy. Citation Format: Justin Lucas, Andrea T. Hooper, Jonathon Golas, Bryan Peano, Alan Opsahl, Leslie Obert, Maria Gavriil, Timothy Fisher, Anton Xavier, Michael Cinque, Roger Conant, Judy Lucas, Adam Root, Lioudmila Tchistiakova, Hans Peter Gerber, Chad May. Pharmacodynamics and mechanisms of drug action for bispecific redirected T cell immunotherapy against P-cadherin. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the CRI-CIMT-EATI-AACR Inaugural International Cancer Immunotherapy Conference: Translating Science into Survival; September 16-19, 2015; New York, NY. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Immunol Res 2016;4(1 Suppl):Abstract nr B010.


This study examined the associations between an invasive alien plant (Solidago canadensis L.) and arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi (AMF) in relation to the invasion history of S. canadensis on Chongming Island, China. A significant positive correlation was found between invasion time and AMF colonisation rate. The total number of AMF species increased with increasing invasion time and was positively related to the number of plant species occurring in plant communities, suggesting that the invasion time and plant diversity influence the diversity of AMF species. The relative abundance of two dominant AMF species, Glomus mosseae and G. constrictum, varied systematically with invasion time. In dry habitats, the relative abundance of G. mosseae increased with the invasion time of S. canadensis, while that of G. constrictum decreased with the invasion time. However, these relationships did not exist in the wet habitats.


Global value chain (GVC) analysis examines the dynamics of economic globalisation and international trade. The concept of GVC governance illustrates how 'lead firms' achieve certain functional divisions of labour along a value chain ‐ resulting in specific allocations of resources and distributions of gains. In this article I argue that agro-food lead firms do not govern chains solely on the basis of buyer power, market share, and/or economies of scale or scope but also through normative work. In order to do so, I apply convention theory to the analysis of governance in the value chain for South African wine. I analyse how wine quality conventions applied in the UK are translated in South Africa into specific functional divisions of labour and supply relations, themselves underpinned by local configurations of quality conventions. The case study of wine suggests that lead firms are able to drive a value chain only when industrial and market conventions are dominant, such as in basic quality wine. These conventions are more portable and thus easier to transmit at a distance. Where other, less portable, conventions are more important in discovering quality, as in mid-range and top quality wines, the value chain is much more fragmented and less driven.


Land‐use change is reshaping terrestrial ecosystems world‐wide and is recognized as a key driver of biodiversity loss with negative consequences on ecosystem functioning. Understanding how species use resources across landscapes is essential for the design of effective management strategies. Despite recent advances in network ecology, there is still a gap between theory and applied ecological science, and we lack the information to manage entire landscapes to maximize biodiversity conservation and ecosystem service delivery. While several pioneering approaches have tried to link ecological networks and conservation science, applied ecologists still struggle to incorporate these models into research due to their inherent complexity. We propose the application of bipartite networks principles to create species–habitat networks. This approach explicitly links multiple species and habitat resources, provides tools to estimate the importance of particular species or specific habitat in a given landscape, and quantifies emerging properties of entire habitat networks. Most existing metrics used to study properties of bipartite ecological networks can easily be adapted to investigate species–habitat relationships. The tool use is relatively simple and does not require advanced computational expertise. Synthesis and applications. One of the biggest challenges in applied ecology is managing multiple habitats for the effective conservation of multiple species. One key advantage of this proposed approach is that the scale of the derived ecological information could match the scale of landscape management interventions. The versatility, visualization power and ease of interpretation of these networks will enable application of the species–habitat network concept to a wide array of real‐world problems, such as multispecies conservation, habitat restoration, ecosystem services management or invasion ecology. In particular, species–habitat networks could be applied to identify optimal landscape compositions and configurations to design effective interventions at the landscape scale. This approach also enables the detection of emerging network properties that could also be used to test the effects of large‐scale drivers of global change upon ecosystem structure and stability.


The hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) is an evolutionarily conserved transcription factor with prominent roles in the hypoxic response, cell survival, angiogenesis and cancer. HIF-1α functions as a sensor of molecular oxygen: in the presence of oxygen, it is degraded by the proteasome, whereas in reduced oxygen tensions, it heterodimerizes with the constitutively expressed HIF-1b subunit forming the functional HIF1 transcription factor, which enters the nucleus to control expression of hypoxia-inducible genes. Since HIF-1α has been found upregulated in several cancers, it has attracted a lot of clinical interest, because it represents an interesting candidate for pharmacological chemotherapy interventions. In this chapter, we discuss our current knowledge on the HIF1 transcription factors and their major roles in development, physiology, angiogenesis and cancer using examples of recent studies in the model organism Drosophila melanogaster. Given the striking functional conservation between the mammalian and fruit fly HIF-1α, we expect that future studies in the Drosophila model will not only expand our knowledge on the basic HIF1 biology, but they will also pinpoint conserved molecular regulators of HIF1 that might lead to the discovery of novel cancer therapeutics.


A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the award of the Masters of Adult and Community Education of Makerere University


The eighteenth century Europe witnessed the application of the newly introduced historical-critical methods to the social sciences. Relying upon such methods, some Western scholars criticized the traditional approaches to the Islamic studies. Although the major Islamic sources were translated into European languages and thus became widely accessible, they incorporated several non-Islamic sources in the study of Islamic history and civilization after discovering them from the ancient archives. Hence, it is also claimed that there are some covenants allegedly concluded by Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) with certain Christian communities of his time, which are surprisingly not recorded in the classical Islamic literature. Thus, this kind of non-Islamic sources have significantly drawn the attention of both Muslim and non-Muslim historians across the globe. This paper attempts to apply the criteria of Islamic sources set by the classical Islamic scholars, to the non-Islamic sources in order to examine the latter's authenticity. The conclusion reached by the scholars in this regard shows the latter's disagreement with a number of established Islamic doctrines. Moreover, it expounds how and to what extent one can rely upon the non-Islamic sources in this regard.


This document describes procedures to support node protection for
Point-to-Multipoint and Multipoint-to-Multipoint Label Switched Paths
(P2MP and MP2MP LSPs) that have been built by the Multipoint Label
Distribution Protocol (mLDP). In order to protect a node N, the Point
of Local Repair (PLR) Label Switching Router (LSR) of N must learn the
Merge Point (MPT) LSR(s) of node N such that traffic can be redirected
to them in case node N fails. Redirecting the traffic around the
failed node N depends on existing Point-to-Point (P2P) Label Switched
Paths (LSPs). The pre-established LSPs originate from the PLR LSR and
terminate on the MPT LSRs while bypassing LSR N.


ABSTRACT Calcified algae are important elements of deep-water carbonate sediments in the Cow Head Group. Large algal boundstone boulders in debris-flow conglomerates consist of Girvanella sheets and arborescent clusters of Epiphyton. Silt- and sand-sized particles in fine-grained, thin-bedded slope limestones include abundant Girvanella, as single tubules, rafts of intertwined tubules, oncolites, and intraclasts. Integration of petrographic information from the boulders and fine-grained limestones indicates that many micritic peloids of silt to very fine sand size, the single most abundant particle type in the Cow Head Group, are a combination of comminuted Girvanella tubules and broken Epiphyton rods. Much of the "structure grumeleuse" in intraclasts is also diagenetically modified calcified algae. These findings suggest that many peloids and intraclasts in Early to Middle Paleozoic carbonates, in both shallow and deep water, may have been derived from calcified algae. Calcified algae may have been just as important in producing carbonate sediment during this time as benthic calcified algae are in the modern ocean. The difficulty in recognizing the algal contribution in most ancient sediments is probably caused by the simple microfabric of the resultant grains, filling and obliteration of tubules with micrite cement, or micritization.


The focus of effort in the ITER Engineering Design Activities (EDA) since 1998 has been the development of a new design to meet revised technical objectives and a cost reduction target of about 50% of the previously accepted cost estimate. Drawing on the design solutions already developed and using the latest physics results and outputs from technology R&D projects, the Joint Central Team and Home Teams, working jointly, have been able to converge towards a new design which will allow the exploration of a range of burning plasma conditions, with a capacity to progress towards possible modes of steady state operation. As such the new ITER design, whilst having reduced technical objectives from its predecessor, will nonetheless meet the programmatic objective of providing an integrated demonstration of the scientific and technological feasibility of fusion energy. The main features of the current design and of its projected performance are introduced and the outlook for construction and operation is summarised.


A direct digital synthesizer (DDS) implemented in InP double heterojunction bipolar transistor technology is reported. The DDS has a 12 b phase accumulator and a ROM-based phase converter. The DDS is capable of synthesizing output frequencies up to 12 GHz in steps that are 1/4096 of the 24 GHz clock rate. The worst case measured spurious free dynamic range (SFDR) is 30.7 dBc and the average SFDR over all frequency control words is 40.4 dBc. The DDS test circuit is implemented with 4470 transistors and it consumes 19.8 W of power.


In an effort to determine to what extent the fetal sequalae following repeated embolization result from decreased area of placental exchange or from decreased uterine blood flow, we injected microspheres into the uterine circulation of the pregnant ewe. We measured total UBF continuously and sampled fetal blood gases in 6 chronically instrumented ewes following repeated injections of 1 to 2 million 25 mu microspheres into the common internal iliac artery at 30 min intervals. Embolization resulted in an immediate 25 to 30% drop in uterine flow, with partial recovery to about 85% of its control value within 30 min after injection. A linear relation existed between uterine blood flow and fetal O2 tension. A slightly accelerated decrease in O2 content with a more rapid increase in CO2 tension and [H+] was seen when uterine flow decreased below 150 ml X min-1 X kg fetal wt-1. Following repeated injections fetal descending aortic O2 tension and content decreased 34 and 82% respectively, while PCO2 and [H+] increased 28 and 84% respectively. Placental diffusing capacity for CO increased 117% after repeated embolization. Most of this increase could be accounted for by the fetal hypoxia and acidosis, although some of it may have resulted from distension or recruitment of vessels in the placental exchange area, or a more uniform distribution of placental blood flows. These studies suggest that the acute changes in fetal blood gas values following embolization result from a reduction in blood flow rather than from a reduced placental exchange area.


In this work we report synthesis and characterization of hydrogenated nanocrystalline silicon (nc-Si:H) thin films by plasma chemical vapor deposition (P-CVD) method at 200 0C on glass substrates. Film properties are carefully and systematically investigated as a function of argon (Ar) flow rate. Characterization of these films with Raman spectroscopy revealed that the addition of Ar into SiH4-H2 plasma endorses the growth of crystallinity in the films. The Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) spectroscopic analysis showed that with increasing Ar flow rate the hydrogen bonding in the films shifts from mono-hydride (Si-H) to di-hydride (Si-H2) and (Si-H2)n complexes. The hydrogen content in the films was found < 7 at. % over the entire range of studied Ar flow rate. The band gap of nc-Si:H films was found to be higher than hydrogenated amorphous silicon (a-Si:H) films (> 2 eV). The nc-Si:H films with dark conductivity 1.3x10-7 S/cm having deposition rate as high as 2.5 Å/s and of crystalline fraction 98 % have been obtained.


Recent works have empirically shown the effectiveness of data augmentation (DA) in NLP tasks, especially for those suffering from data scarcity. Intuitively, given the size of generated data, their diversity and quality are crucial to the performance of targeted tasks. However, to the best of our knowledge, most existing methods consider only either the diversity or the quality of augmented data, thus cannot fully mine the potential of DA for NLP. In this paper, we present an easy and plug-in data augmentation framework EPiDA to support effective text classification. EPiDA employs two mechanisms: relative entropy maximization (REM) and conditional entropy minimization (CEM) to control data generation, where REM is designed to enhance the diversity of augmented data while CEM is exploited to ensure their semantic consistency. EPiDA can support efficient and continuous data generation for effective classifier training. Extensive experiments show that EPiDA outperforms existing SOTA methods in most cases, though not using any agent networks or pre-trained generation networks, and it works well with various DA algorithms and classification models.


This paper proposes a theoretical model of wayfinding that can be used to guide the design of navigational aiding in virtual environments. Based on an evaluation of wayfinding studies in natural environments, this model divides the wayfinding process into three main subprocesses: cognitive mapping, wayfinding plan development, and physical movement or navigation through an environment. While this general subdivision has been proposed before, the current model further delineates the wayfinding process, including the distinct influences of spatial information, spatial orientation, and spatial knowledge. The influences of experience, abilities, search strategies, motivation, and environmental layout on the wayfinding process are also considered. With this specification of the wayfinding process, a taxonomy of navigational tools is then proposed that can be used to systematically aid the specified wayfinding subprocesses. If effectively applied to the design of a virtual environment, the use of such tools should lead to reduced disorientation and enhanced wayfinding in large-scale virtual spaces. It is also suggested that, in some cases, this enhanced wayfinding performance may be at the expense of the acquisition of an accurate cognitive map of the virtual environment being traversed.


The ultimate goal of earthquake early warning (EEW) is to provide local shaking information to users before the strong shaking from an earthquake reaches their location. This is accomplished by operating one or more real‐time analyses that attempt to predict shaking intensity, often by estimating the earthquake's location and magnitude and then predicting the ground motion from that point source. Other EEW algorithms use finite rupture models or may directly estimate ground motion without first solving for an earthquake source. EEW performance could be improved if the information from these diverse and independent prediction models could be combined into one unified, ground‐motion prediction. In this article, we set the forecast shaking at each location as the common ground to combine all these predictions and introduce a Bayesian approach to creating better ground‐motion predictions. We also describe how this methodology could be used to build a new generation of EEW systems that provide optimal decisions customized for each user based on the user's individual false‐alarm tolerance and the time necessary for that user to react.


Working With Parents and Infants: A Mind-Body Integration Approach by Antonella Sansone. 2007. London: H. Karnac Ltd. (www.karnacbooks.com). Ill pp. ISBN-IO: 185575438X; ISBN-13: 978-1855754386. Originally bearing the subtitle, "A Psyche-Soma Integration Approach," the published subtitle of this new book teaches a quick translation of these Greek-derived technical words. Additionally, Sansone tells us that "soma" is a Greek word referring to "the living body in its wholeness." She states, "Whatever we experience in and through the body forms our somatic reality... When any expressions of the living body are suppressed, the wholeness and harmony of our somatic reality is undermined. And so [too] is the psyche, as psyche and soma belong to each other." This book gives clear exposition and understanding of the intertwining of psyche and soma (a relationship understood by the founders of the Santa Barbara Graduate Institute, who offer a program based on both psychology and soma studies). A surprising bonus of this book is its easy sense of personal communication to readers, whether parents, practitioners, or anyone who has been born. It evolved from Sansone's masters thesis, and we are treated to apt references from McDougall, Klein, Winnicott, Hegel, Heidegger, Likierman and Ferenczi. Most of Sansone's background exposition relies on D.W. Winnicott, and we are treated to quotes from Sansone's previous book, Mothers, Babies and Their Body Language, in which she argued a view of the inseparability between body and mental functions, calling for "psychophysical integration": "While thinking, speaking, dreaming, and interacting, there are changes in our breathing, muscle tone, posture, and facial expression.... They are powerful forms of non-verbal communication." (Sansone, 2000, p. 51) Sansone introduces her book with a nine-page summary of its ten chapters. In Chapter 1, Sansone gives a history. The split between psyche and soma goes back to Descartes' (1644) philosophy of dualism. Chapter 2 lays the foundation of Sansone's acknowledgments to Winnicott. Here too is our first introduction to the main case history, a new mother by the name of Andrea, whose unresolved dysattachment and unbondedness from her own mother resulted in mastitis, which gave her the perfect justification for not breastfeeding baby daughter Rosy. In Chapter 3, Sansone explores mother-baby mirroring as a vital pathway for mother's integrated bodyself image to infuse baby with good self-image and self-confidence: "If this process does not take place, the infant may escape from frightening feelings and become unable to monitor them in later life." In Chapter 4, Sansone explores the importance of touch and movement, particularly through infant massage, and the resulting benefits to mother as well as baby. From the author's experiences, infant massage classes are one of the most effective tools for healing mother and baby. And, apt attention is given to how therapists can work in triadic transferences and countertransferences among themselves, mother and baby. In Chapter 5, we experience that case history is a most potent teaching tool. Sansone presents Andrea: from irrational screams while merely anticipating pangs of labor, to the almost total disconnect between this unattached and unbonded mother and her newborn Rosy. While medical staff treats mastitis as the problem, Sansone observes it as a symptom by which Andrea's body gives justification for not breastfeeding Rosy or in fact having any eye contact or physical proximity with her baby. An interesting observation from the author is that "Talking in therapy can be a way of being in any other time and place except in the present one. Helpful listening is ... a form of meditation, which provides the therapist with a direct experience of the client. Being present leads to a unity of therapist and client." Chapter 6 explores the author's foundation in meditation and yoga as well as Buddhist concepts that help facilitate psychotherapy. …


Introduction: The coexistence of dyslipidaemia and hypertension results in enhanced atherosclerosis. Adequate treatment of dyslipidaemia in hypertensive patients is thus essential for reducing the burden of cardiovascular diseases.Objective: To determine the prevalence of dyslipidaemia among hypertensives and evaluate lipid treatment status of patients with dyslipidaemia in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria.Methods: This cross-sectional comparative study was done between May, 2015 and June, 2016 in a tertiary hospital in Nigeria. The serum lipid levels of adult patients with hypertension and controls without hypertension were determined. Lipid treatment status of patients with dyslipidaemia were also reviewed. Serum lipid levels were analyzed using spectrophotometric methods.Results: The study included 200 adult hypertensive patients and 100 control participants. The mean age (SD) was 56.3 (6.9) years and 54.9 (8.3) years with range 41-68 and 44-69 years for patients and controls respectively. Eighty-eight (44.0%) hypertensive patients and 23(23.5%) of the control group were found to have dyslipidaemia. Out of the 60(68.2%) patients with elevated LDL-C, 32(53.3%) had LDL-C >4.1mmol/L, out of which only 8(25%) were on antilipid medication.Conclusion: Over one-third of studied hypertensive patients had dyslipidaemia and only a quarter of those who needed antilipids were on the medication. Greater awareness is needed both in the medical and patient communities in order to effectively manage dyslipidaemic hypertension, and hence aid in ameliorating the burden of cardiovascular diseases.


BACKGROUND
Identifying individuals at increased risk of suicide is important, particularly those who present for treatment for nonpsychiatric chief complaints who may go undetected. It has been found that pain symptoms, such as headache, are associated with suicide, although this association requires further characterization. This study examined specific components of suicidality in relation to headache subtypes.

METHODS
This study retrospectively reviewed 2,832,835 nonpsychiatric adult clinical encounters at a large county hospital, where a standardized suicide risk screening tool, the Columbia-Suicide Severity Rating Scale (C-SSRS), was universally implemented. The C-SSRS assesses specific components of suicidality: wish to be dead and suicidal ideation, method, intent, plan, and action. Multivariate logistic regressions were performed to assess the association between headache, as well as headache subtype (migraine, tension, or cluster), and each component of suicidality.

RESULTS
There were significant positive associations between presenting with a headache and 2 specific components of suicidality: wish to be dead and suicidal action. Individuals with tension headache may have a lower risk of wishing to be dead compared to those with migraine and cluster headaches.

CONCLUSIONS
The association of headaches with specific elements of sui-cidality demonstrates the potential yield of identification of suicide risk among individuals with nonpsychiatric presentations.


Primary amenorrhoea is defined as the absence of menstruation in phenotypic women aged 16 years or older, if secondary sexual characteristics are present. X chromosome abnormalities probably comprise about one half of all cases, including Turner syndrome and X chromosome rearrangements. Conventional banding cytogenetic methods might miss the accurate detection of structural chromosome abnormalities. The fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and multicolor FISH techniques are required to interpret specific chromosomal rearrangement. As far as we know, we report the first case with chromosome mosaicism for monosomy X and terminal deletion of Xq26 with duplication of Xp11-->pter. In spite of the fact that a 45,X karyotype was detected in 46% of lymphocytes, she was tall and her secondary sexual characteristics were moderately developed, including breast, pubic and axillary hair stages. Cytogenetic and FISH analyses should be considered for patients presenting primary amenorrhoea even if there are no other clinical features suggestive of chromosome abnormality.


This study aims to assess anakinra's safety and efficacy for treating severe coronavirus disease in 2019 (COVID-19). PubMed, Google Scholar, Cochrane Library, Embase, Scopus, medRxiv, and bioRxiv were searched. Three retrospective studies and five case series involving 3,274 adult patients with severe COVID-19 were included, 621 treated with anakinra (whether administered alone or in combination with other drugs) and 1,565 in the control group arm. All-cause mortality of severe COVID-19 patients among the anakinra group was 20% (16/81), which was lower than that in the control group (65%; 39/60). The difference was statistically significant [hazard ratio (HR) = 0.13, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.06–0.29, I2= 0%]. The mechanical ventilation requirement with OR 0.57 (0.11-2.84, I2=87%) was not significantly better compared to the control group. For the safety of anakinra, we evaluated thromboembolism risk and liver enzyme elevation. Thromboembolism risk with OR: 1.48 (0.55- 3.99, I2=0%) and elevation in liver transaminases with OR 0.67 (0.11-3.93, I2=66%) were not statistically significant over the control group. However, these non-significant differences between the anakinra and control groups may have been the result of baseline characteristics of the intervention group, and further studies are essential in evaluating anakinra's safety profile.


Tariana has highly productive contiguous multi-word serial verbs, and limited single-word serial verbs. The two types of serial verbs in Tariana are independent grammatical processes each with a grammaticalization path of their own and are used to convey different types of meanings. Both are easily distinguished from multi-clausal structures and non-serializing verb sequences.

Multi-word serial verbs divide into asymetrical and symmetrical subtypes. Asymmetrical serial verbs cover direction and orientation, aspect, aktionsart and change of state, modality, valency increase, and superlative; there are also event-argument serial verbs. These conform to the order of likelihood in which different semantic types of serial verb constructions occur in the world's languages (§6 of Chapter 1). Of all the established types, Tariana does not have valency-decreasing serial verbs, which are indeed the rarest cross-linguistically. Symmetrical serial
verbs are of simultaneous- sequential and cause- effect types.

Concordant marking within multi-word serial verbs is restricted to just person (this agrees with predictions in §4.5 of Chapter 1). Restrictions on serializability of
verbs operate in terms of verb classes: a serial verb cannot consist of two prefixless verbs of So type. Prefixless verbs are less likely to occur in the major verb slot of asymmetrical serial verbs than prefixed.

The two co-existing types of serial verbs in Tariana conform to the two tendencies formulated in §7 of Chapter 1. In agreement with the first tendency, all serial verbs are contiguous. Verbs in encliticized single-word serial verbs developed into grammatical morphemes- in agreement with the second tendency. And, following the third tendency, single-word serialization in Tariana is limited, while multi-word serialization is productive.

Since Tariana is an endangered language, the question of how verb serialization is affected by language obsolescence naturally arises. Signs of language attrition among younger speakers include the usual suspects- phonological variability, morphological levelling, and also difficulties in remembering infrequently used words and expressions (see Aikhenvald 2002a). Younger people have difficulties
in remembering highly idiomatic symmetrical serial verbs. They may occasionally break the rule of contiguity, and insert a constituent in between the components: one may hear nu-a nana nhulitu (1sg-intend madi.fish 1sg+fish) instead of nana nu-a nhulitu (madi.fish 1sg-intend 1sg+fish) 'I am going to fish for madi fish'. Such constructions are rejected by traditional speakers (and in fact, are considered a shameful slip-of-the tongue by those who produce them). Being able to put together lengthy serial verb constructions- as in (12)- is a mark of highly valued oratorial skill. The less proficient the speaker, the shorter the serial verb constructions they produce.


This article explores how newsmakers exploit numeric records in order to anticipate the future. As this nascent area of data journalism experiments with predictive analytics, we examine its reports and computer-generated presentations, often infographics and data visualizations, and ask what time frames and topics are covered by these diagrammatic displays. We also interrogate the strategies that are employed in order to modulate the uncertainty involved in calculating for more than one possible outlook. Based on a comprehensive sample of projects, our analysis shows how data journalism seeks accuracy but has to cope with a number of different prospective probabilities and the puzzle of how to address this multiplicity of futures. Despite their predictive ambition, these forecasts are inherently grounded in the past because they are based on archival data. We conclude that this form of quantified premediation limits the range of imaginable future thoughts to one preferred mode, namely extrapolation.


The reproductive mechanism of a species is a key driver of genome evolution. The standard Wright-Fisher model for the reproduction of individuals in a population assumes that each individual produces a number of offspring negligible compared to the total population size. Yet many species of plants, invertebrates, prokaryotes or fish exhibit neutrally skewed offspring distribution or strong selection events yielding few individuals to produce a number of offspring of up to the same magnitude as the population size. As a result, the genealogy of a sample is characterized by multiple individuals (more than two) coalescing simultaneously to the same common ancestor. The current methods developed to detect such multiple merger events do not account for complex demographic scenarios or recombination, and require large sample sizes. We tackle these limitations by developing two novel and different approaches to infer multiple merger events from sequence data or the ancestral recombination graph (ARG): a sequentially Markovian coalescent (SMβC) and a graph neural network (GNNcoal). We first give proof of the accuracy of our methods to estimate the multiple merger parameter and past demographic history using simulated data under the β-coalescent model. Secondly, we show that our approaches can also recover the effect of positive selective sweeps along the genome. Finally, we are able to distinguish skewed offspring distribution from selection while simultaneously inferring the past variation of population size. Our findings stress the aptitude of neural networks to leverage information from the ARG for inference but also the urgent need for more accurate ARG inference approaches.


In the attached excel file are the means and SDs of ERP amplitudes associated with the 8 experimental conditions set out in Table 2 of Wright, M. J., Gobet, F., Chassy, P. & Ramchandani, N. K. (2013), ERP to chess stimuli reveal expert-novice differences in the amplitudes of N2 and P3 components. Psychophysiology, 50, 1023-1033. DOI: 10.1111/psyp.12084 All values are in microvolts. Means Maxima and Minima were calculated within the ROI and across participants,


Abstract The original work done on TEXTOR on ion cyclotron resonance heating of the plasma is reviewed. After a brief introduction outlining the principles, the radio-frequency (rf) system is described, with its substantial evolution during time. Then, the different physics results are reviewed. Ion cyclotron heating has been performed in a large number of scenarios and under a wide range of conditions. Aside from the various minority or mode-conversion scenarios, the interaction with beam ions and the possibility of controlling fast-ion diffusion with rf have been deeply investigated. Both the interaction with the wall or edge plasma and the impact on improved core confinement were studied in detail. Pioneering work was done to demonstrate efficient heating with unshielded antennas and plasma production in a tokamak by rf alone for plasma startup assistance or wall conditioning.


Increasingly, resource and environmental management issues are considered within the emerging framework of sustainability (sustainable development, ecologically sustainable development, sustainable environmental management). While this notion has great potential as an integrative framework, current mainstream approaches and definitions tend to be vague, inoperative and do not translate well to the level of management in specific ecosystems. The current debate about "sustainable development" lacks structure, clarity, and an operational direction. In particular, it is difficult to translate the general concerns of sustainability in a manner useful to a task such as ecosystem management. This paper takes a long-term, systems view to construct an integrative approach to sustainability. This approach is more cognisant of ecological realities than the notion of sustainable development as presently construed. Extending the principles thus identified; a checklist of questions to guide considerations in ecosystem management at a more practical level is then constructed. Two examples from resource and environmental management in Australia ? fisheries and the conservation of terrestrial species (particularly the Koala . Phascolarctos cinereus) ? are analysed to support the discussion.


There are about 1% of the world population suffering from the hidden disability known as epilepsy and major developing countries are not fully equipped to counter this problem. In order to reduce the inconvenience and danger of epilepsy, different methods have been researched by using a artificial neural network (ANN) classification to distinguish epileptic waveforms from normal brain waveforms. This paper outlines the aim of achieving massive ANN parallelization through a dedicated hardware using bit-serial processing. The design of this bit-serial Neural Processing Element (NPE) is presented which implements the functionality of a complete neuron using variable accuracy. The proposed design has been tested taking into consideration non-idealities of a hardware ANN. The NPE consists of a bit-serial multiplier which uses only 16 logic elements on an Altera Cyclone IV FPGA and a bit-serial ALU as well as a look-up table. Arrays of NPEs can be driven by a single controller which executes the neural processing algorithm. In conclusion, the proposed compact NPE design allows the construction of complex hardware ANNs that can be implemented in a portable equipment that suits the needs of a single epileptic patient in his or her daily activities to predict the occurrences of impending tonic conic seizures.


ABSTRACT: One of the aims for the utilizing of random composite materials is to improve the product design. In this time with fast technological progress, it is often necessary to manufacture machine components and engineering structure, using fiberglass (E-glass) particles (from chopped E-glass fibers). The exceptional properties needed for most applications like large strength and low weight. Five different types of composites are fabricated using fiber reinforced by chopped E-glass with epoxy resin within ratios 10% wt/wt, 20% 40%, 60%, and 80%. Tensile test, Hardness test and SEM investigation are done to these specimens for observing the influence of contain ratios on the properties of mechanical fiber reinforced by chopped E-glass in the matrix if epoxy and to analyze the fracture surface respectively. From this study, many observations were concluded that the best manufacturing of a fiber reinforcement by chopped glass with various epoxy ratios are done by simple hand lay-up technique and it concluded that the maximum elongation occurs at 10wt% and the minimum elongation at 20wt%, the hardness for 10wt% composite is higher compared to other ratios. SEM examinations of fracture region were made to investigate the incorporation of chopped E-glass with epoxy at different ratio. Also its observed voids and dislocation due to the manufacturing process. The results shown that the incorporation of chopped E-glass with epoxy at different ratio has an important influence onto composites' mechanical properties.


Introduction: Methanogenic archaea are single celled methanogenic anaerobic microorganisms that are potential hydrogen competitors. It serves as a syntrophic partners with other members of the subgingival biofilm community leading to methanogenesis, sulfate reduction and acetogenesis thereby producing hydrogen sulfide, a potent Volatile Sulphur compound to cause halitosis. Aim: To evaluate the presence of methanogenic archaea in supra gingival plaque, subgingival plaque and tongue coating in subjects with and without oral halitosis. Materials and Methods: A case control study of 50 subjects with 25 halitosis and 25 healthy subjects were included in the study. Supragingival plaque, subgingival plaque and tongue coating were collected from all the subjects. DNA extraction was done from the samples by Bacterial genome extraction kit. Conventional PCR was done to detect the presence of Methanogenic archaea. Results: The prevalence of methanogenic archaea in supra gingival plaque, subgingival plaque and tongue coating in halitosis subjects were 16%, 60% and 16% respectively and in controls without halitosis were 4%, 8% and 0% respectively. A highly statistical significant difference (p 0.000) was found between subgingival plaque samples of cases and controls. Conclusion: A significantly higher presence of methanogenic archaea was observed in halitosis subjects than controls, with increased detection in the subgingival plaque thereby fulfilling the association criteria of Socransky's postulates. However, a larger sample size, identification of VSC production and synergistic activity with other microorganisms needs to be established.


This paper discusses the power quality issues for distributed generation systems based on renewable energy sources, such as solar and wind energy. A thorough discussion about the power quality issues is conducted here. This paper starts with the power quality issues, followed by discussions of basic standards. A comprehensive study of power quality in power systems, including the systems with dc and renewable sources is done in this paper. Power quality monitoring techniques and possible solutions of the power quality issues for the power systems are elaborately studied. Then, we analyze the methods of mitigation of these problems using custom power devices, such as D-STATCOM, UPQC, UPS, TVSS, DVR, etc., for micro grid systems. For renewable energy systems, STATCOM can be a potential choice due to its several advantages, whereas spinning reserve can enhance the power quality in traditional systems. At Last, we study the power quality in dc systems. Simpler arrangement and higher reliability are two main advantages of the dc systems though it faces other power quality issues, such as instability and poor detection of faults.


Biodiversity loss is a major global issue of increasing significance to the public, politicians and businesses. A key contributory solution, as advocated by the UN Convention of Biological Diversity and Millenium Ecosystem Assessment is to change the way people and businesses behave towards the environment through introducing "economic incentives for biodiversity" (EIBs). These EIBs begin to reflect the true value of the environment, and are now being adopted worldwide with significant implications for businesses.
The overall objective of a series of four articles to be published over the next four months is to explore the literature relevant to the extent to which the development of economic incentives for biodiversity is likely to be an opportunity or risk for extractive and water companies over the next five to 10 years.
This first article begins the investigation by outlining the links between business and biodiversity. Subsequent articles will explain what economic incentives for biodiversity are, indicate some of the associated implications of climate change, and highlight what strategies companies can adopt to best deal with environmental and biodiversity issues and the development of EIBs.


The vasoactivity of lignocaine has an important influence on its clinical efficacy and systemic vascular absorption. The aim of this study was to evaluate its vasoactive properties when administered by the non-invasive technique of iontophoresis. We used laser Doppler imaging to measure the forearm skin blood flow responses of seven healthy young males to iontophoretic delivery of two preparations of 20 g/l of lignocaine hydrochloride, one containing the preservatives methylparaben and propylparaben and one without. The subjects were blind to the order of drug administration, and we assessed analgesia at the sites using a pinprick test. Delivery of both preparations of (positively charged) lignocaine under the anode caused demonstrable analgesia, but no change in skin blood flow. An increase in perfusion was measured, however, when the preservative-containing preparation was administered under the cathode. There was little or no response to the solution without preservatives, although the difference in response between the two preparations was not statistically significant (P =0.063). Although there were no vasoactive effects of lignocaine at the relatively low dose used in the present study, our results suggest that the preservatives methylparaben and propylparaben are the most likely cause of the vasodilatation that we observed under the cathode, and may therefore have a significant influence on the vasoactivity of this preparation when administered by injection. Both are negatively charged in solution and have been reported to possess vasodilator properties. It might be worth considering the use of alternative, non-vasoactive preservatives in local anaesthetic preparations, or avoiding the use of additives altogether, when this is feasible.


Herba Epimdii is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat osteoporosis. Its main pharmacological ingredients are flavonoids. In previous studies conducted in healthy animals, we showed that epimedium flavonoids could be hydrolyzed into secondary glycosides or aglycon by intestinal flora or enzymes, thereby enhancing their absorption and antiosteoporosis activity. To study the medicine in the pathologic state, epimedium flavonoids were incubated with intestinal mucosa and feces in vitro and intestinal perfusion in situ to explore the differences in absorption and metabolism between sham and osteoporosis rats. For osteoporosis rats, the hydrolysis rates of icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B, and epimedin C incubated with intestinal flora for 1 hour were reduced by 0.19, 0.26, 0.19, and 0.14, respectively, compared with that in sham rats. Hydrolysis rates were reduced by 0.21, 0.24, 0.08, and 0.31 for icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B, and epimedin C incubated with duodenal enzymes for 1 hour and by 0.13, 0.09, 0.07, and 0.47 for icariin, epimedin A, epimedin B, and epimedin C incubated with jejunum enzymes, respectively, compared with the sham group. In addition, the apparent permeability coefficient and elimination percentage of the four epimedium flavonoids in the duodenum, jejunum, ileum, and colon decreased by 29%–44%, 32%–50%, 40%–56%, and 27%–53% compared with that in sham rats, respectively. The main metabolites of the four epimedium flavonoids were the same for the two groups after intestinal perfusion, or flora and enzyme incubation. In conclusion, the amount and activity of intestinal flora and enzymes changed in ovariectomized rats, which affected the intestinal absorption and hydrolysis of epimedium flavonoids whose structures contain 7-glucose.


Indian spider species currently assigned to Storena Walckenaer, 1805 are revised mostly based on the type material available in the National Zoological Collection, Zoological Survey of India, Kolkata. A new genus, Laminion gen. nov. is proposed to include four species; three are transferred from Storena: Laminion arakuensis (Patel & Reddy, 1989) gen. et comb. nov., Laminion birenifer (Gravely, 1921) gen. et comb. nov. and Laminion debasrae (Biswas & Biswas, 1992) gen. et comb. nov., whereas the fourth species is from Suffasia Jocqué, 1991: Laminion gujaratensis (Tikader & Patel, 1975) gen. et comb. nov. The species Storena tikaderi Patel & Reddy, 1989 syn. nov. is synonymised with L. birenifer gen. et comb. nov. Storena dibangensis Biswas & Biswas, 2006 and Storena indica Tikader & Patel, 1975 are transferred to Mallinella Strand, 1906. All the type material examined are imaged and redescribed. In addition, images of the type material of Storenomorpha joyaus (Tikader, 1970) are presented.


5-Fluorouracil (5-FU) is widely used in clinical cancer therapy. It is commonly used either alone or in combination with other drugs and/or radiation for head and neck, and other types of cancers. 5-FU induces DNA double-strand breaks (DSBs). Inhibition of the repair of 5-FU-induced DSBs may improve the therapeutic response in many tumors to this anticancer agent. The aim of the present study was to further our understanding of the pathways which are involved in the repair of 5-FU-induced DSBs. Cell survival after drug treatment was examined with colony forming assays using Chinese hamster lung fibroblast cells or Chinese hamster ovary cell lines which are deficient in DSB repair pathways involving the homologous recombination repair-related genes BRCA2 and XRCC2, and the non-homologous end joining repair-related genes DNA-PKcs and Ku80. It was found that BRCA2 was involved in such repair, and may be effectively targeted to inhibit the repair of 5-FU-induced damage. Observations showed that knockdown of BRCA2 using small interference RNA suppression increased the sensitivity to 5-FU of human oral cancer cell lines (SAS and HSC3). These findings suggest that downregulation of BRCA2 may be useful for sensitizing tumor cells during 5-FU chemotherapy.


ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS .iii TABLE OF CONTENTS iv LIST OF TABLES ix LIST OF FIGURES x LIST OF APPENDICES .xiii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS xiv


The inflow of foreign direct investment to developing countries has continued to be on the increase but empirical findings suggest mixed evidences. This study investigates the relationship between FDI and economic growth in Nigeria. The variables used in this study where stationery after the first and second differencing at 5% level, indicating the absence of a spurious and misleading interpretation of regression results. The ordinary least square equation was disaggregated into five equations, a cointegration and Granger causality techniques were employed to determine the relationship between economic growth and FDI. The outcome of the estimated results revealed that FDI spurs exports, gross fixed capital formation and economic growth in Nigeria. Thus, FDI is a positive measure of economic growth. The Johansen unrestricted cointegration rank test showed a long run significant relationship between FDI and economic growth. The Ganger causality outcome revealed the presence of unidirectional causality running from economic growth to foreign direct investment. This study recommends improvement in infrastructural development especially in good roads and electricity supply as this will increase the level of development which will in turn attract more inflow of FDI. The government should provide an enabling environment in the area of security so that foreign investors would be encourage to invest more and local investors will not relocate to neighboring countries.