Life expectancy in familial hypercholesterolaemia (FH) has been greatly improved by the advent of statin therapy. In the UK, however, these agents are not licensed for use in children. We approached 169 physicians responsible for lipid clinics for information on their practice in young patients, and valid responses were received from 54%. A typical lipid clinic has only 3.5 patients aged under 16 with FH. In boys aged 10-15 years 65% of physicians were prepared to treat with bile acid sequestrants but only 23% with statins. There was greater reluctance to treat in girls of the same age, corresponding figures being 52% and 12%. Despite the efficacy of statins in reducing low-density-lipoprotein cholesterol, these agents are little used in children with FH. Their safety and clinical efficacy should be assessed by a randomized double-blind trial.


Abstract:The purpose of this study is to investigate which dry port services generate the greatest positive impact on stakeholders and their objectives. Stakeholders identified from the literature are the dry ports, the dry port's municipality/region, the seaport, shippers, shipping lines, rail operators, and road operators. A method based on multi-actor multi-criteria analysis is applied to allow the evaluation of different scenarios considering the objectives and opinions of multiple stakeholders. The findings show that the basic services of the dry ports studied are crucial to establishing initial operations. Expanding the service portfolio by adding a wider range of customer-oriented value-added services generates extra economic and environmental benefits for stakeholders. The results expand the understanding on stakeholder benefits from the diversified range of dry port services, while the inclusion of multiple stakeholders in the analysis acknowledges the heterogeneity in stakeholder perceptions. Finally, this methodology enables the creation of an extensive set of criteria and indicators for dry port evaluations.


Despite the vast phenotypic differences observed across primates, their protein products are largely similar to each other at the sequence level. We hypothesized that, since proteins accomplish all their functions via interactions with other molecules, alterations in the sites that participate in these interactions may be of critical importance. To uncover the extent to which these sites evolve across primates, we built a structurally-derived dataset of ~4,200 one-to-one orthologous sequence groups across 18 primate species, consisting of ~68,000 ligand-binding sites that interact with DNA, RNA, small molecules, ions, or peptides. Using this dataset, we identify functionally important patterns of conservation and variation within the amino acid residues that facilitate protein-ligand interactions across the primate phylogeny. We uncover that interaction sites are significantly more conserved than other sites, and that sites binding DNA and RNA further exhibit the lowest levels of variation. We also show that the subset of ligand-binding sites that do vary are enriched in components of gene regulatory pathways and uncover several instances of human-specific ligand-binding site changes within transcription factors. Altogether, our results suggest that ligand-binding sites have experienced selective pressure in primates and propose that variation in these sites may have an outsized effect on phenotypic variation in primates through pleiotropic effects on gene regulation.


Products of two mud volcanoes from the distal part of the Mediterranean Ridge accretionary complex have been investigated regarding their B, C, and O stable isotope signatures. The mud breccias have been divided into mud matrix, lithified clasts, biogenic deposits, and authigenic cements and crusts related to fluid flow and cementation. Isotope geochemistry is used to evaluate the depth of mobilization of each phase in the subduction zone. B contents and isotope ratios of the mud and mud clasts show a general trend of B enrichment and decreasing δ 11 B values with increasing consolidation (i.e., depth). However, the majority of the clast and matrix samples relate to moderate depths of mobilization within the wedge (1–2 km below seafloor). The carbonate cements of most of these clasts as well as the authigenic crusts, however, provide evidence for a deep fluid influence, probably associated with the decollement at 5–6 km depth. This interpretation is supported by δ 13 C ratios of the crust, which indicate precipitation of C from thermogenic methane, and by the δ 11 B ratios of pore-water samples of mud-breccia drill cores. Clams ( Vesicomya sp.) living adjacent to fluid vents have δ 11 B and δ 18 O values corresponding to brines known in the area, which acted as the parent solution for shell precipitation. Such brines are most likely Miocene pore waters trapped at deep levels within the backstop to the accretionary prism, probably prior to desiccation of the Mediterranean in the Messinian (6–5 Ma). Combining all results, deep fluid circulation and expulsion are identified as the main processes triggering mud liquefaction and extrusion, whereas brines contribute only locally. Given the high B contents, mud extrusion has to be considered a major backflux mechanism of B into the hydrosphere.


Nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDS) have been found to be potent inhibitors of carcinogenesis in both preclinical models and in randomized controlled prospective clinical trials in humans. NSAIDS exert their anti-carcinogenic effects by inhibiting cyclooxygenases (COXs) involved in arachidonic acid metabolism and by COX-independent mechanisms. Empirical data indicates eflornithine (difluoromethylornithine or DFMO), an enzyme-activated inhibitor of ornithine decarboxylase (ODC) (Meyskens and Gerner, 1999), is one of the most potent agents known acting in combination with NSAIDS to inhibit carcinogenesis in rodent models (Steele and Lubet, 2010). At least part of the rationale for combining NSAIDS with eflornithine for inhibition of carcinogenesis is that eflornithine inhibits the activity of ODC, the first enzyme in polyamine synthesis, while NSAIDS activate the spermidine/spermine acetyltransferase (SAT1), which targets polyamines for export by specific solute carrier transporters (Gerner and Meyskens, 2009). Thus, NSAIDS and eflornithine both reduce tissue levels of the growth-associated polyamines, but by complementary mechanisms. A clinical trial of the combination of eflornithine and the NSAID sulindac showed dramatic treatment-associated reductions of metachronous colorectal adenomas in patients with prior sporadic colorectal polyps (Meyskens et al., 2008). Several clinical trials in progress or soon to commence will further test the hypothesis that NSAID eflornithine combinations can successfully treat cancer risk factors in patients with specific cancers, or risk of cancer. One group of clinical trials involves patients with neuroblastoma (NB). Patients with poor prognosis NB often have tumors in which MYCN is overexpressed. Preclinical data indicates that MYCN as well as c-MYC drive expression of ODC and other genes in the polyamine pathway, and that inhibiting this pathway with eflornithine suppressed carcinogenesis in mouse models of NB (Hogarty et al., 2008). Likewise, COX-2 is expressed in NB tumors and cell lines, and COX-2 inhibitors such as celecoxib can suppress the growth of NB xenografts (Ponthan et al., 2007). The Neuroblastoma and Medulloblastoma Translational Research Consortium (NMTRC) and the New Approaches to Neuroblastoma Therapy (NANT) group are conducting clinical trials to evaluate the safety and efficacy of eflornithine alone or in combination with NSAIDS and other agents in patients with high risk NB. The NMTRC is conducting an especially novel prevention trial of eflornithine in patients with high risk NB in remission (NCT01586260). Eflornithine NSAID combinations are also being evaluated in other MYC-associated diseases. Familial adenomatous polyposis (FAP) is a genetic syndrome associated with increased risk of colon cancer and other neoplasia and is caused by mutation/deletions in the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) tumor suppressor gene. MYC mediates intestinal tumorigenesis (Ignatenko et al., 2006) and combinations of eflornithine and NSAIDS are potent inhibitors of intestinal carcinogenesis (Ignatenko et al., 2008) in murine models of FAP. Notable is the change in clinical management of FAP patients over the past two decades. FAP is now managed primarily by surgery, with duodenal polyposis and desmoid disease constituting two current significant clinical problems. An international consortium will be evaluating the combination of eflornithine and sulindac in adult patients with FAP, using time to FAP-related events as the primary outcome (NCT01483144). This same combination will be evaluated in patients with prior sporadic colon cancer in a study to be conducted by a national cooperative group (S0820, Adenoma and second primary prevention trial, NCT01349881) (Rial et al., 2012). These and other trials have been designed to include assessment of a range of biological correlates, including genetic (Zell et al., 2010), tissue (Thompson et al., 2010) and urinary markers (Hiramatsu et al., 2005) of disease prognosis and prediction of treatment responses, including therapy-associated toxicities. Citation Format: Eugene W. Gerner. Development of NSAID eflornithine combinations for treating cancer risk factors. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2012 Oct 16-19; Anaheim, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Prev Res 2012;5(11 Suppl):Abstract nr CN04-03.


We consider generalized KP-Burgers equations and attempt to identify subclasses admitting Virasoro or Kac-Moody type algebras as their symmetries. We give reductions to ODEs constructed from invariance requirement under these infinite-dimensional Lie symmetry algebras and integrate them in cases where it is possible. We also look at the conditions under which the equation passes the Painlevé test and construct some exact solutions by truncation.


The results of electro-optical measurements can be used to determine rapidly how the number of intact cells decreases before and after the action of certain extreme factors. The experiments were conducted with suspensions of Escherichia coli and Bacillus thuringiensis cells subjected to the action of heat, toluene, ethanol, and freezing. Electro-optical measurements can make it possible to assay the relative number of cells with both lethal and sublethal damages.


Objective This study reports 2 unrelated individuals with Zhu-Tokita-Takenouchi-Kim (ZTTK) syndrome who presented with a metabolic stroke, which has not been commonly reported as a clinical manifestation of this syndrome. Methods Two female children were identified after presenting to our institution with a metabolic stroke and carried a diagnosis of ZTTK syndrome because of their clinical characteristics and previous genetic testing demonstrating pathogenic variants in SON. Results Both individuals presented with acute-onset left hemiplegia. They underwent workup, and corresponding metabolic stroke was identified on brain MRI. Both individuals recovered with good functional outcome. One individual was treated with l-arginine, ubiquinol, and levocarnitine. The other individual recovered without any intervention. Discussion ZTTK syndrome is a rare condition caused by pathogenic variants in SON. This syndrome is characterized by global developmental delay, short stature, facial dysmorphisms, seizures, hypotonia, and brain abnormalities. A metabolic stroke has not been reported as a common manifestation. SON has been reported to play a role in mitochondrial function. This can explain why metabolic stroke can be seen in individuals with ZTTK syndrome. It is important to recognize that metabolic stroke can be a clinical manifestation of ZTTK syndrome because it carries clinical and therapeutic implications.


The present research expanded on the literature investigating mother-child feeding and playing interactions during the transition to self-feeding (18-30 months) in the preterm population. Maternal and infant factors were also considered. A total of 69 mother-child dyads (44 preterm and 25 full-term) participated in the research. Assessments took place at 18, 24, and 30 months of the child. At each assessment, mother-child interactions during feeding (Study 1) and during a doll-play (DP) situation representing feeding (Study 2) were video recorded and later coded, respectively through the SVIA (Ammaniti et al., 2006) and the EAS (Biringen, 2008). Moreover, the child's development was assessed through the Griffiths Scale (Griffiths, 1996, 2006) and mothers filled the BDI-II (Beck & Steer, 1996), the STAI (Spielberg, 1983), and an anamnestic questionnaire built Ad-Hoc. Results of Study 1 showed a greater occurrence of dysfunctional feeding interactions in the preterm compared to the full-term group from 18 to 30 months. Specifically, preterm dyads reported greater maternal negative affective state, greater interactional conflict and lower dyadic reciprocity. Moreover, a significantly lower percentage of children in the preterm group reached eating autonomy compared to the full-term group during the 18-30 months period. Furthermore, adverse past feeding history (difficult breastfeeding and reflux) and lower total scores on the Griffiths were associated to a higher risk of child's food refusal. Results of Study 2 showed that the preterm group displayed lower emotional availability than the full-term group during mother-child DP interactions from 18 to 30 months, with lower maternal sensitivity, greater maternal intrusiveness, and lower child's involvement. These findings indicate that special attention should be paid to support mother-child interactions during the transition to self-feeding in the preterm population in order to foster the mother-child relationship and promote the child's healthy eating behavior and affective development.


The study of heart sounds and cardiac murmurs, with reference to their diagnosis by physical signs, requires an accurate knowledge of the anatomy, and physiological mechanism of the heart. By heart sounds we mean the normal sounds produced by the action of the heart,while new or additional or adventitious sounds are called cardiac murmurs. Murmurs are not modifications of the normal heart sounds, but are new sounds, which are added to,or take the place of the normal sounds,on account of mechanical defects in the action of the heart. These mechanical defects are usually the results of pathological lesions. The praecardial region or prœcardia, is that part of the surface of the chest, which immediately overlies the heart. The upper boundary of this space, which corresponds to the base of the heart, is a horizontal line drawn across the sternum at the level of the third costal cartilage. The lower boundary


Tumors of the sacrum are frequently missed. The actual diagnosis is often long delayed. The low index of suspicion and the difficulties in obtaining adequate X rays of this region due to the presence of gas bubbles and fecal matter in the bowel which obscure the bony markings of the sacrum are factors which contribute to the problem. Furthermore, myelography of the lowest portion of the dural sac may lead to wrong or confusing information. Six cases from a neurosurgical practice of more than 40 years are presented. Methods to ensure early diagnosis and treatment of tumors of the sacrum are described. Computed tomography available during the past several years has become the most important aid in the evaluation of lesions of the sacrum.


It is the purpose of this communication to review briefly the factors which may be important in the prevention and management of renal osteodystrophy in patients undergoing long-term hemodialysis. It will be readily recognized that some of the recommendations will be supported by much experimental and clinical data whereas others will be much more speculative. Our justification is based not only on some theoretical reasoning but also on the fact that symptomatic bone disease has been absent in our own patients for a 5½-year period. Two very important general points should be emphasized before dealing with individual pathologic conditions. These are that adequate diet and dialysis are essential if progressive bone disease is to be avoided. We cannot solve the semantic difficulty associated with the word "adequate" and the problem is compounded by the multitude of different systems, dialyzers, and diets currently in use. Evidence is available that a proteinand


Many physicians admit to having some degree of innumeracy--difficulty understanding and working with numbers. Yet, increasingly, physicians in all specialties are committing to practicing evidence-based medicine (EBM) and, as a result, must learn to discern quantitative differences and address statistical significance. Although no one expects a practicing physician to be able to evaluate a statistician's choice of methods or conduct an independent rendering of a clinical study's analysis, practitioners of EBM must learn how to assess the importance of results found in a clinical study. Since 2001, Mayo Clinic has been teaching its residents in pediatric and adolescent medicine the skills required for EBM. This article describes the 5 steps involved in practicing EBM, focusing on the interpretation of study results.


Symptomatic acalculous gallbladder disease presents a difficult therapeutic problem. Several patients with acalculous gallbladder disease had prolonged visualization of the gallbladder following oral cholecystography with iopanoic acid even after stimulation with a fatty meal. Cholecystectomy was performed on 14 of these patients. Subsequently, we instituted cholecystokinin cholecystography in an effort to detect abnormal function or the presence of disease. An abnormal response with deficient emptying was demonstrated in ten additional patients in whom cholecystectomy was done. The operative and pathological findings and a follow-up are presented in all 24 cases. These consisted of such findings as thickness of the gallbladder wall, kinking of the cystic duct, chronic cholecystitis, papilloma, and cholesterolosis. Cholecystokinin cholecystography added a dimension to the diagnosis of clinically important abnormal gallbladder function by providing maximum stimulus to contraction of the gallbladder that had been shown by conventional cholecystography to empty very slowly.


This paper reports on qualitative research into automatic program repair (APR) at Bloomberg. Six focus groups were conducted with a total of seventeen participants (including both developers of the APR tool and developers using the tool) to consider: the development at Bloomberg of a prototype APR tool (Fixie); developers' early experiences using the tool; and developers' perspectives on how they would like to interact with the tool in future. APR is developing rapidly and it is important to understand in greater detail developers' experiences using this emerging technology. In this paper, we provide in-depth, qualitative data from an industrial setting. We found that the development of APR at Bloomberg had become increasingly user-centered, emphasising how fixes were presented to developers, as well as particular features, such as customisability. From the focus groups with developers who had used Fixie, we found particular concern with the pragmatic aspects of APR, such as how and when fixes were presented to them. Based on our findings, we make a series of recommendations to inform future APR development, highlighting how APR tools should 'start small', be customisable, and fit with developers' workflows. We also suggest that APR tools should capitalise on the promise of repair bots and draw on advances in explainable AI.


INTRODUCTION The Lake of Maracaibo, situated in the northwestern part of the Venezuelan Republic, occupies the centre of a large topographical and structural depression between the Colombian Andes on the west and the northeast trending Venezuelan Andes on the south and east. It is a flask-shaped body of water, measuring about 200 kilometers from north to south and its width varies from about 100 kilometers in the south to less than 10 kilometers between the City of Maracaibo and the village of Altagracia. Though it has an open connection with the Caribbean sea through the Gulf of Venezuela, the water of the Lake is almost fresh on account of the many rivers emptying into it from the mountains to the south, west and east. North from Maracaibo, however, where the Lake empties into a small bay, called the Bay of Tablazo, the water changes gradually from slightly brackish to more saline. The water in this part of the Lake is extremely shallow because of filling in with sediments and only one deep and narrow channel running between the Peninsula of San Carlos and the Isle of Zapara allows medium sized ships to reach the City of Maracaibo. Hedberg (1934) investigated the occurrence of recent foraminifera in the lake waters and recognized a number of brackish and shallow water species. He points out that the salinity of the water of the Maracaibo Strait and the Bay of Tablazo is variable, because especially during the rainy season a considerable quantity of fresh water finds its way into the Gulf of Venezuela through the Maracaibo Strait. On the other hand, semidiurnal tides may affect the salinity of the northern part of the Strait to some extent. Analyses of the lake water from Maracaibo and vicinity, however,


The Florida State University Center for Innovative Collaboration in Medicine & Law has since its inception tried to operationalize its mission by slowly developing, on a trial-and-error basis, a portfolio of activities with real world connotations that is intended to capitalize on potential areas of shared interests and values between physicians and attorneys. This article briefly describes a sample of the Center's early activities helping to give tangible form to its planners' vision. The ensuing section discusses key lessons learned and challenges to be overcome by academic health law centers in their quest to exert a positive impact on actual people.


Specialized forms of physiologic cell death lacking certain characteristic morphologic features of apoptosis occur in terminally differentiating tissues, such as in the outer cell layers of epidermis. In these cell layers, NF-kappaB translocates from the cytoplasm to the nucleus and induces target gene expression. In light of its potent role in regulating apoptotic cell death in other tissues, NF-kappaB activation in these cells suggests that this transcription factor regulates cell death during terminal differentiation. Here, we show that NF-kappaB protects normal epithelial cells from apoptosis induced by both TNFalpha and Fas, whereas NF-kappaB blockade enhances susceptibility to death via both pathways. Expression of IkappaBalphaM under control of keratin promoter in transgenic mice caused a blockade of NF-kappaB function in the epidermis and provoked premature spontaneous cell death with apoptotic features. In normal tissue, expression of the known NF-kappaB-regulated antiapoptotic factors, TRAF1, TRAF2, c-IAP1, and c-IAP2, is most pronounced in outer epidermis. In transgenic mice, NF-kappaB blockade suppressed this expression, whereas NF-kappaB activation augmented it, consistent with regulation of cell death by these NF-kappaB effector proteins. These data identify a new role for NF-kappaB in preventing premature apoptosis in cells committed to undergoing physiologic cell death and indicate that, in stratified epithelium, such cell death normally proceeds via a distinct pathway that is resistant to NF-kappaB and its antiapoptotic target effector genes.


PURPOSE. Retinitis pigmentosa is a form of inherited retinal degeneration, whereby the rod photoreceptors are gradually lost. Patients usually manifest symptoms in the third decade of life, beginning with night blindness and loss of peripheral vision gradually progressing to tunnel vision and eventually complete blindness, as cone photoreceptors die as a secondary effect. Mutations causing non-syndromic, autosomal dominant retinitis pigmentosa (adRP) were recently identified in TOPORS (RP31 locus, chromosome 9p21.1). TOPORS is a ubiquitously expressed gene, encoding a protein showing multi-functional character. It is currently the only known protein to demonstrate E3 ligase activity for both ubiquitin and SUMO-1 (small ubiquitin-like modifier). It also shows tumor-suppressor activity. The purpose of this study is to characterize the role of TOPORS in the retina, in particular in the photoreceptor cells, which may explain the retinal degeneration seen with mutations in this gene.
METHODS. To identify the functional consequences of the mutations TOPORS was cloned from human retinal cDNA into FLAG-tagged vector pCATCH, identified mutations were introduced by site-directed mutagenesis and transfected into MDCK cells. Over-expressed TOPORS was detected using an antibody directed against the FLAG-tag. Functional analyses of WT lymphoblastoid cell lines and specifically generated patient cell lines was also conducted using the TOPORS antibody. A commercially available antibody was obtained and used for immunofluorescent staining of endogenous topors in a number of cell lines, and in mouse, pig and human retinal sections. Tissue sections were costained for TOPORS with several proteins of known localisation in the retina (for example, RP1 and γ-tubulin), to ascertain a more detailed localisation of TOPORS and to indicate potential interactants. Cellular localisation experiments were carried out in cell lines on a single cell level to determine the exact sub-cellular localisation. To identify functional partners of TOPORS, immuno-precipitation experiments were carried out to substantiate data obtained from localisation studies in retinal sections.
RESULTS. Both mutations in TOPORS result in frameshift, prematurely terminating the protein; however this appeared to make no difference to the nuclear localization of the over-expressed WT and mutants proteins. Work on the patient lymphoblastoid cell lines showed that the mutant protein is not expressed although the mutant mRNA is detectable by RT-PCR. Immunoblot analysis confirmed the expression of TOPORS as a 150kDa band in cell lines and retinal tissue extracts. Localisation studies showed a novel localisation for TOPORS in the retina and in confluent, non-diving cells. TOPORS localised to the connecting cilium of the photoreceptors in retinal sections, and to the primary cilia of cells grown at confluence. Further analyses showed that it co-localizes with γ-tubulin to the base of the cilium, to the basal body. Co-immunoprecipitation experiments showed that TOPORS does not interact with many known connecting cilium proteins although it has a similar localization pattern. It did not show interaction with proteins involved in anterograde transport. However, TOPORS does show interaction with some of the protein subunits involved in retrograde transport.
CONCLUSIONS. Topors is a multi-functional, ubiquitously expressed gene however mutations in it only cause retinal degeneration (adRP). Results suggest that the mutant proteins are not expressed in patients, hence haplo-insuffiency is likely to be the cause of retinal degeneration. TOPORS is expressed in many cell and tissue types, and is primarily a nuclear protein. However, it shows a unique localisation in the retina - to the base of the connecting cilium in the photoreceptors. Similarly, in ciliated cells, topors localised to the base of the primary cilium which was confirmed by co-localisation with γ-tubulin. The co-IP experiments confirmed its interaction with γ-tubulin and also showed that topors associates with protein involved in retrograde transport. This together suggests it plays a novel role in the retina, possibly related to signal transduction and/or trafficking, that when compromised, results in specific photoreceptor degeneration.


This book investigates the narrative properties of the 19th-century verse novel. The genre grew out of Lord Byron's Don Juan and established itself in various European literatures, with famous examples such as Pushkin's Eugene Onegin. The proposed analysis is unique in the existing literature in defining the genre based on formal properties and in examining its exceptional, reflexive structure in detail. Apart from 19th-century texts, verse novels from contemporary literature are also includ-ed, and thus the connection between these two contexts is discussed for the first time extensively.


Home education is a phenomenon that has been increasing globally over the past decade, particularly for families of children with special educational needs or disabilities. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated this phenomenon with many families continuing to home educate even after their children can officially return to school. This paper reports on a small-scale design-based research project that explored the needs of families who are home educating children with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD). Working in partnership with educational settings, practitioners, and families during the second year of the pandemic, academic researchers in Malaysia and England designed, implemented and evaluated a home learning pack for children with ASD aged 6–12 years old. The findings emphasised the role of economic, social and cultural capital for the families involved and how this impacted their ability to work and educate their children successfully. This raises crucial questions in relation to the place of home education within the wider international inclusive education debate and matters of social equality whilst also highlighting key questions for future research in this field on how policy and provision might develop to meet a growing diversity of need.


Grammatically negative questions have been considered tricky because out of context it is basically impossible to predict whether they are conducive of a positive or negative answer (e.g. Sadock and Zwicky 1985). Furthermore, some of them convey reverse polarity affirmations rather than ask for information (Koshik 2002). The current study looks systematically at all negative polar questions found in Estonian spoken language corpora and shows that in actual usage, they are predominantly conducive of a confirming answer. However, a confirming answer may in some cases be either in a positive or negative form. Conduciveness of a negative question as well as its linguistic format depend on the action the question implements in a conversational sequence. The paper shows that each of the five negative question formats in Estonian regularly implements a different kind of social action ranging from challenging and topic initiation to requests for information and confirmation.


We present the Simple Unified Policy Programming Language (SUPPL), a domainneutral language for stating, executing, and analyzing event-condition-action policies. SUPPL uses a novel combination of pure logic programming and disciplined imperative programming features to make it easy for non-expert users to express common policy idioms. The language is strongly typed and moded to allow static detection of common programming errors, and it supports a novel logic-based static analysis that can detect internally inconsistent policies. SUPPL has been implemented as a compiler to Prolog and used to build several network security applications in a Java framework. [TDT15] Alix Trieu, Robert Dockins, and Andrew Tolmach. Static conflict detection for a policy language. In Proceedings of Vingt-sixièmes Journées Francophones des Langages Applicatifs (French-speakers' Workshop on Functional Languages) (JFLA 2015), Jan 2015.


King George Island belongs to the South Shetland Islands that are located north of the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). It is situated slightly north of the area where climatic warming in Antarctica is strongest. In places the annual mean temperatures increased by 0.5 K per decade through the past 60 years (Faraday/Vernadsky Station, AP). The air temperatures in the immediate working area increased by about 0.35 K per decade (Schloss et al. 2012) during the past 20 years which is still in the range of the recovery of temperatures from the Little Ice Age maximum to the end of the 19th century.
IMCOAST, a multidisciplinary international project investigates the modern and the late Holocene environmental development of the fjordic environment of south King George Island. In this part of the project we aim at reconstructing the modern sediment distribution in the inner part of Potter Cove using an acoustic ground discrimination system (RoxAnn) and more than136 ground-truth samples.
The impact of the warming trend is clearly visible in the form of retreating glaciers and melting ice sheets, loss of sea ice and strong meltwater discharge into the coastal zone. Potter Cove is a small fjord characterized by a series of moraine ridges produced by a tidewater glacier (Fourcade Glacier). Presumably, the farthest moraine is not much older than about 500 years (LIA maximum), hence the sediment cover is rather thin as evidenced by high resolution seismic data (see presentation by Wittenberg et al.). Since a few years at least the better part of the tidewater glacier has retreated onto the island's mainland. It is suggested that such a fundamental change in the fjord's physiography has also changed sedimentation patterns in the area. Potter Cove is characterized by silty-clayey sediments in the deeper inner parts of the cove. Sediments are coarser (fine sand to coarse sands and boulders) in the shallower areas; they also coarsen from the innermost basin to the mouth of the fjord. Textural structures follow the seabed morphology, i.e. small v-shaped passages through the moraine ridges. The glacier still produces large amounts of turbid melt waters that enter the cove at various places. We presume that very fine-grained sediments settle from the meltwater plumes and are eventually transported by mid-depth or even bottom currents towards the mouth of the fjord. Older sediments that are more distal to the glacier front and sediments in shallower places (e.g. on top of the moraine ridges) become increasingly overprinted by coarser sediments from the shallow areas of the fjord. These areas are prone to wave induced winnowing effects as well as disturbances by ploughing icebergs. It can be concluded that coarsening of the fjord sediments will continue while supply of fine-grained meltwater sediments might cease due to exhaustion of the reservoirs.


The analysis of different tillage systems impact on soil properties is essential to assist farmers with management strategies. Thus, in this study, we aimed to evaluate the soil chemical properties behavior in sugarcane cultivation under different tillage systems. One tillage system consisted in five-steps deep tillage equipment and the other, in conventional method. We calculated the soil erodibility factor, as it is associated to soil chemical loss. We quantified soil organic matter, soil chemical characteristics and availability of principal nutrients, then, compared them between treatments. There was no significant difference between soil organic matter contents from both treatments. After the five-steps deep tillage, the quantity of Boron increased, while other nutrients quantities decreased. After the conventional tillage treatment, Potassium suffered a significant decrease due to soil erosion and due to high leaching characteristics of sandy soils. The soil erodibility factor was considered of high risk, this way, farmers should not flat the terrain overmuch.


ABSTRACT This study assesses price transmission along the Egyptian tomato food marketing chain in the period that followed the Arab Spring, which accentuated economic precariousness in Egypt. Static and time-varying copula methods are used for this purpose. Results suggest a positive link between producer, wholesaler and retailer tomato prices. Such positive dependence is characterized by asymmetries during extreme market events that lead price increases to be transferred more completely along the supply chain than price declines.


Rhopalosiphum padi viras (RhPV) is one of several picorna-like viruses that infect insects; sequence analysis has revealed distinct differences between these agents and mammalian picornaviruses. RhPV has a single-stranded positive sense RNA genome of about 10kb; unlike the genomes of the Picornaviridae, however, this genome contains two long open reading frames (ORFs). ORF1 encodes the virus non- structural proteins, while ORF2 specifies the structural proteins. Both ORFs are preceeded by long untranslated regions (UTRs). The intergenic UTR is known to contain an internal ribosome entry site (IRES) that directs non-AUG-initiated, translation of ORF2. The 5' UTR of RhPV was assayed for IRES activity by translating synthetic bicistronic mRNAs containing this sequence in a variety of systems. The 5' UTR contains an IRES element that directs internal initiation of protein synthesis from an AUG codon in mammalian. Drosophila and plant in vitro systems and in vivo in an insect non-aphid cell line. In contrast, the encephalomyocarditis virus IRES only functions in mammalian in vitro and in vivo systems. The RhPV 5' IRES element has features in common with picornavirus IRES elements, in that no coding sequence is required for IRES function, but also with cellular IRES elements, as deletion analysis indicates that this IRES element does not have sharply defined boundaries. IRES activities of the 5' UTRs of other insect picorna-like viruses Acyrthosiphon pisum virus (APV) and the type 2 insect picorna-like virus Sacbrood viras (SBV) were also examined. Both viruses were shown to contain IRES elements that functioned in mammalian and plant in vitro systems and in vivo in an insect non-aphid cell line. Comparison of the IRES activities of RhPV with APV and SBV showed the RhPV 5' IRES element to be more efficient than both the APV and SBV IRES elements in mediating internal initiation of protein synthesis.


We propose self-humidifying polymer electrolyte membranes with highly dispersed nanometer-sized Titanium dioxides for proton exchange membrane fuel cells operated with dry H2 and O2. The nanosized TiO2 particles that have hygroscopic property are expected to adsorb the water produced from the cathode reaction and to release the water once the proton exchange membrane needs water. The preparation technology of nano-TiO2 particles in a commercial Nafion 112 membrane via novel in situ sol-gel reactions was developed, resulting in a semitransparent membrane with uniform distribution of TiO2 in the proton exchange membrane. It is found that Proton conductivity increases observably by dispersing 3 wt % nano-TiO2 in the Proton exchange membrane at low humidity condition, and the newly prepared TiO2-PEM improve the self-humidifying performance of Proton exchange membrane fuel cell.


Purpose – This study seeks to determine the level of readiness of selected private and government-managed colleges and universities in the Philippines. The study also aims to determine if there's a significant difference in the level of readiness between the private and government HEI's.Method – In line with this, a descriptive-comparative method was employed. A questionnaire from the works of Aklaslan and Merca was utilized to determine the faculty members' and students' status of their e-learning readiness, acceptance, training, technological infrastructure, and tool awareness on the implementation of an e-learning program.  Weighted mean was used to determine the level of readiness while a t-test was employed to determine if there is a significant difference between results.Results – The finding shows that the assertions towards the readiness of implementing e-learning on both private and government-funded institutions show no significant difference and are generally accepted.Conclusion and Recommendation – It can be concluded that higher education institutions are ready to adopt and implement e-learning towards continuous improvement in the quality of education in the Philippines. Thus, adoption and implementation of e-learning is recommended.


Facial expression analogy provides computer animation professionals with a tool to map expressions of an arbitrary source face onto an arbitrary target face. In the recent past, several algorithms have been presented in the literature that aim at putting the expression analogy paradigm into practice. Some of these methods exclusively handle expression mapping between 3-D face models, while others enable the transfer of expressions between images of faces only. None of them, however, represents a more general framework that can be applied to either of these two face representations. In this paper, we describe a novel generic method for analogy-based facial animation that employs the same efficient framework to transfer facial expressions between arbitrary 3-D face models, as well as between images of performer's faces. We propose a novel geometry encoding for triangle meshes, vertex-tent-coordinates, that enables us to formulate expression transfer in the 2-D and the 3-D case as a solution to a simple system of linear equations. Our experiments show that our method outperforms many previous analogy-based animation approaches in terms of achieved animation quality, computation time and generality.


Evaluation of custom value is the core of customer relationship management of power grid enterprises. Traditional evaluation index is too complex and difficult to be used when the amount of power customer is great. Therefore, it is necessary to construct a power customer value evaluation system to solve the problem. This paper firstly studied the design principles and implementation method of an information system of power customer value evaluation, and proposed an evaluation model based on the current marketing data of the power grid enterprises. Then the data structure of the system was designed and the evaluation algorithm was analyzed. Finally, the implementation and application of the system was introduced. It is proved that the result of power customer value evaluated by this system would be objective, dynamic and flexible.


Today's computer systems come with a pre-installed tiny operating system, which is also known as UEFI. UEFI has slowly displaced the former legacy PC-BIOS while the main task has not changed: It is responsible for booting the actual operating system. However, features like the network stack make it also useful for other applications. This paper introduces UEberForensIcs, a UEFI application that makes it easy to acquire memory from the firmware, similar to the well-known cold boot attacks. There is even UEFI code called by the operating system during runtime, and we demonstrate how to utilize this for forensic purposes.


In ultra-precision cutting, grinding and special processing, it is difficult to resolve the conflict between the large stroke and high-precision feed, which is also a headache for multi-axis ultra-precision machining. In order to construct a low-speed micro-electron discharge machining system adaptable to a wide range of micro-methods and driven by ultrasonic motors (USM), the program attempts to design the base platform for precision Motion Platform. By analyzing the dynamic and the static properties for the platform with ANSYS software and comparing the designs of platforms, the design of the base motion platform has been completed. After testing the performance of the platform, the design has met the requirements. The research can be treated as a universal solution in the design of the base platform for high-precise motion areas.


The kinetics of the induced process of normal and exposed human lymphocytes to DNA synthesis and mitosis has been analyzed in detail. It was shown that the capacity of the exposed lymphocytes of repeated entering the phase of DNA synthesis was sharply decreased and the average length of the prereplicative period increased.


Yield and price instability and covariate risks have been examined for major oilseeds, viz. groundnut, rapeseed/mustard, sunflower and soybean, in selected states of India using time series data. Risk behaviour and effects of price and price risk on production have been analyzed in a rational expectations framework. The study has also estimated social gains from yield and revenue insurance in oilseeds. While instabilities in yield, prices and gross return have shown mixed responses, covariate risks have increased. The results of econometric analysis have indicated that the expected prices and price risk are important determinants of oilseeds production. Price elasticities of oilseed production have been found to vary between 0.26 and 0.88 and price risk elasticities of production between –0.006 and –0.07 in different Indian states. The potential efficiency gains from insurance schemes based on rainfall and other meteorological variables have been estimated to be 17.5 to 43 per cent over self-insurance in oilseeds production.


The statistics that summarise probability density functions(pdfs) implied from option prices can be used to assess market expectations about future uncertainty, asymmetry and the probability of extreme movements in asset prices. A time-series analysis of these statistics for equity index and interest rate markets provides some stylised facts about the behaviour of these elements of market expectations, their historical distribution, similarity and relative stability. Relationships between them and movements in underlying asset prices are considered. Cross-asset and cross-country comparisons and the information content of the implied pdfs for future macroeconomic and financial variables are also assessed.


A four-year (2007-2010) field experiment was conducted to study the effects of applying different amounts (7500, 15000, and 22500 kg·hm-2) of organic manure on the organic matter content, aggregate particle size distribution, and aggregate stability in different soil layers in a continuously cropped maize field on the Weibei Dry Land, Shaanxi Province of Northwest China. In 0-20 cm soil layer, the organic matter content in treatment 22500 kg·hm-2 of organic manure was 4.1%-4.6% higher than that in treatment 7500 kg·hm-2 of organic manure (P0.05), and the organic matter content in treatments 15000 and 22500 kg·hm-2 of organic manure was 4.6%-11.2% higher than that in CK (chemical fertilization) (P0.05). In the fourth year (2010) of applying 7500 kg·hm-2 of organic manure, the organic matter content in 0-20 cm soil layer was 4.7%-6.3% higher than that of CK (P0.05). In 0-30 cm soil layer, all treatments with organic manure application had an increased amount of soil water stable aggregates (5 mm), and the amount of the aggregates increased significantly with the increasing application rate of organic manure. Applying organic manure increased the amount of soil water stable aggregates (0.25 mm), aggregate mean mass diameter, and aggregate stability in 0-30 cm soil layer, as compared with CK, and these three indices increased significantly with increasing organic manure application rate.


Recent freshwater policy reforms in New Zealand promote increased community involvement in freshwater decision making and management. Involving community members in scientific monitoring increases both their knowledge and their ability to discuss this knowledge with professionals, potentially increasing their influence in decision-making processes. However, these interactions rarely occur because, in particular, of perceptions that volunteer-collected data are unreliable. We assessed the agreement between volunteer (community group) and local government (regional council) data at nine stream sites across New Zealand. Over 18 months, community groups and regional council staff monitored, in parallel, a common set of water quality variables, physical habitat, periphyton and benthic macroinvertebrates that are routinely used by regional councils for statutory state of environment reporting. Community groups achieved close agreement (correlations ≥ 0.89, bias < 1%) with regional councils for temperature, electrical conductivity, visual water clarity, and Escherichia coli. For dissolved oxygen, nitrate, and pH, correlations were weaker (0.2, 0.53, and 0.4, respectively). Volunteer assessments of physical habitat were as consistent over time as those of councils. For visual assessments of thick periphyton growths (% streambed cover), volunteers achieved a correlation of 0.93 and bias of 0.1% relative to councils. And for a macroinvertebrate biotic index that indicates water and habitat quality, correlation was 0.88, bias was < 5%, and the average difference was 12% of the index score. Volunteers showed increased awareness of local freshwaters, understanding of stream ecosystems, and attentiveness to local and national freshwater issues. Most volunteers had shared their knowledge and interest with others in their community. Most groups had developed relationships with their regional council, and some volunteers became more interested in engaging in freshwater decision making. Given adequate professional support, community-based water monitoring can provide data reliable enough to augment professionally collected data, and increase the opportunities, confidence, and skills of community members to engage in freshwater decision making.


Background: Healthcare services are increasingly shifting from inpatient to outpatient settings. Outpatient settings such as emergency departments (EDs), oncology clinics, dialysis clinics, and day surgery often involve invasive procedures with the risk of acquiring healthcare-associated infections (HAIs). As a leading cause of HAI, Clostridioides difficile infection (CDI) in outpatient settings has not been sufficiently described in Canada. The Canadian Nosocomial Infection Surveillance Program (CNISP) aims to describe the epidemiology, molecular characterization, and antimicrobial susceptibility of outpatient CDI across Canada. Methods: Epidemiologic data were collected from patients diagnosed with CDI from a network of 47 adult and pediatric CNISP hospitals. Patients presenting to an outpatient setting such as the ED or outpatient clinics were considered as outpatient CDI. Cases were considered HAIs if the patient had had a healthcare intervention within the previous 4 weeks, and they were considered community-associated if there was no history of hospitalization within the previous 12 weeks. Clostridioides difficile isolates were submitted to the National Microbiology Laboratory for testing during an annual 2-month targeted surveillance period. National and regional rates of CDI were stratified by outpatient location. Results: Between January 1, 2015, and June 30, 2019, 2,691 cases of outpatient-CDI were reported, and 348 isolates were available for testing. Most cases (1,475 of 2,691, 54.8%) were identified in outpatient clinics, and 72.8% (1,960 of 2,691) were classified as community associated. CDI cases per 100,000 ED visits were highest in 2015, at 10.3, and decreased to 8.1 in 2018. Rates from outpatient clinics decreased from 3.5 in 2016 to 2.7 in 2018 (Fig. 1). Regionally, CDI rates in the ED declined in Central Canada and increased in the West after 2016. Rates in outpatient clinics were >2 times higher in the West compared to other regions. RT027 associated with NAP1 was most common among ED patients (26 of 195, 13.3%), whereas RT106 associated with NAP11 was predominant in outpatient clinics (22 of 189, 11.6%). Overall, 10.4% of isolates were resistant to moxifloxacin, 0.5% were resistant to rifampin, and 24.2% were resistant to clindamycin. No resistance was observed for metronidazole, vancomycin, or tigecycline. Compared to CNISP inpatient CDI data, outpatients with CDI were younger (51.8 ± 23.3 vs 64.2 ± 21.6; P < .001), included more females (56.4% vs 50.9%; P < .001), and were more often treated with metronidazole (63.0% vs 56.1%; P < .001). Conclusions: For the first time, CDI cases identified in outpatient settings were characterized in a Canadian context. Outpatient CDI rates are decreasing overall, but they vary by region. Predominant ribotypes vary based on outpatient location. Outpatients with CDI are younger and are more likely female than inpatients with CDI. Funding: None Disclosures: Susy Hota reports contract research for Finch Therapeutics.


Low phytic acid (LPA) wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one approach to improving nutritional quality of wheat by reducing the major storage form of P and increasing the level of inorganic P (Pi), which is more readily absorbed by humans and other monogastric animals. A LPA mutant of wheat, designated Js-12-LPAwas isolated following mutagenesis. LPA and wild-type (WT) sib selections of hard red spring wheat families with the pedigree 'Grandin'*4/Js-12-LPA were grown in replicated field trials in 2003 and 2004. Grain was milled on an experimental mill, and the distribution of P, phytic acid P (PAP), and Pi was measured in milling fractions. Mineral concentrations also were determined. LPA selections had elevated concentrations of Pi and Mg in flour fractions. The concentration of Pi in LPA flour was three times the concentration in WT flour, and Mg concentration in LPA flour was 25% greater than in WT flour. Therefore, P and Mg in LPAwheat appear to be redistributed within the kernel. The increase in Pi is similar to that observed for other LPA mutants and should improve the mineral nutrition of monogastric animals fed whole grain LPA wheat. As most wheat is milled for flour and bran, the detailed distribution of minerals in the LPAwheat should assist geneticists and nutritionists in assessing the value of this mutation.


In this paper, we report our work on the creation of a number of lexical resources that are crucial for an interlingua based MT from English to other languages. These lexical resources are in the form of sub-categorization frames, verb knowledge bases and rule templates for establishing semantic relations and speech act like attributes. We have created these resources over a long period of time from Oxford Advanced Learners' Dictionary (OALD) [1], VerbNet [2], Princeton WordNet 2.1 [3], LCS database [4], Penn Tree Bank [5], and XTAG lexicon [6]. On the challenging problem of generating interlingua from domain and structure unrestricted English sentences, we are able to demonstrate that the use of these lexical resources makes a difference in terms of accuracy figures.


Abstract— Small platform stress was induced in male BALB/c mice by placing them on small platforms (d = 3.5 cm) surrounded by water for 24 or 72 h. This experimental model contains several factors of stress, like rapid eye movement (REM) sleep deprivation, isolation, immobilization and falling into the water. After 24 h small platform stress exposure latency to sleep was measured after the administration of the benzodiazepine receptor agonist diazepam (1.0 and 2.5 mg/kg, i.p.) and the benzodiazepine receptor inverse agonist Ro 15–4513 (1.0 mg/kg, i.p.). As could be expected, diazepam significantly shortened the latency to sleep. Surprisingly the administration of Ro 15–4513 also shortened the latency to sleep. In addition [3H]Ro 15–4513 binding was measured in the cerebellum of control and small platform stressed mice. Small platform stress for 24 h did not alter the maximal number of [3H]Ro 15–4513 binding sites (Bmax) and decreased their affinity (KD). Small platform stress for 72 h significantly increased the number of [3H]Ro 15–4513 binding sites and decreased their affinity. These effects were due to changes in diazepam‐sensitive binding. In conclusion, it could be supposed that exposure of mice to small platform stress causes changes in the function of the [3H]Ro 15–4513 binding sites, probably a shift of binding sites toward agonist conformation, that leads to changes in the effects of Ro 15–4513.


We study optimal promotion decisions of hierarchical firms, with one junior and one senior managerial position, which interact in a search and matching labor market. Workers acquire experience over time while being employed in a junior position and the firm has to determine the experience level at which the worker receives a promotion which allows her to fill a senior position. Promoted workers move to the senior position in their current firm, if it is vacant, otherwise they search for senior positions on the market. The promotion cut-offs of the competing firms exhibit strategic complementarity, but we show that generically a unique stable symmetric general equilibrium exists. If workers have homogeneous skills, then an increase in the skill level induces faster promotion. In the presence of two skill levels in the work force an increase of the fraction of high skilled leads to slower promotion of both types of workers, where the promotion threshold for high skilled workers is substantially below that for low-skilled workers. This implies earlier promotions of high skill workers compared to the low skilled consistent with available empirical evidence. Finally, we show that inserting pyramidal firms, which have twice as many junior than senior positions, into the market induces all firms to promote later. Pyramidal firms in equilibrium promote substantially later than vertical firms which is supported by the exsiting empirical findings. The paper also makes a methodological contribution by combining search and matching theory with simulations in order to characterize the general equilibrium promotion cut-offs in a market setting with heterogeneous hiearchical firms.


Saikosaponin-d is one of the main bioactive components in the traditional Chinese medicine Bupleu- rum falcatum L and possesses anti-inflammatory and immune-modulatory properties. The current study aimed to investigate the protective effects of saikosaponin-d on ventilator-induced lung injury (VILI) in rats. We found that saikosaponin-d treatment significantly attenuated the pathological changes of lungs induced by mechanical ventila - tion. Administration of saikosaponin-d reduced the pulmonary neutrophil infiltration as well as the MPO concentra - tions. Saikosaponin-d also decreased the expression of pro-inflammatory cytokines including MIP-2, IL-6 and TNF-α. Meanwhile, the expression of anti-inflammatory mediators, such as TGF-β1 and IL-10, was obviously elevated after saikosaponin-d administration. Saikosaponin-d remarkably reduced the oxidative stress and apoptosis rate in lung tissues. On the molecular level, saikosaponin-d treatment obviously downregulated the expression of caspases-3 and the pro-apoptotic protein bax, and promoted the expression level of anti-apoptotic protein bcl-2. Collectively, our study demonstrated that saikosaponin-d may attenuate ventilator induced lung injury through inhibition of inflam- matory responses, oxidative stress and apoptosis.


Fibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) is a non-inflammatory vascular disease that is characterized by unexplained systemic hypertension occurring in young people, associated with arterial stenosis, aneurysm rupture, intracranial/renal infarction, and stroke. Although the gold standard for the diagnosis remains catheter-angiography, biological markers would be helpful due to the delay from first symptom to diagnosis. Adenosine is an ATP derivative, that may be implicated in FMD pathophysiology. We hypothesized that changes in adenosine blood level (ABL) and production of adenosine receptors may be associated with FMD. Using peripheral blood mononuclear cells, we evaluated A1, A2A, and A2B receptor production by Western blot, in 67 patients (17 men and 50 women, mean (range) age 55 (29–77) years and 40 controls, 10 men and 30 women, mean (range) age 56 (37–70)). ABL was evaluated by liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry. ABL was significantly higher in patients vs. controls, mean (range): 1.7 (0.7–3) µmol/L vs. controls 0.6 (0.4–0.8) µmol/L (+180%) p < 0.001. While A1R and A2AR production did not differ in patients and controls, we found an over-production of A2BR in patients: 1.70 (0.90–2.40; arbitrary units) vs. controls = 1.03 (0.70–1.40), mean + 65% (p < 0.001). A2BR production with a cut off of 1.3 arbitrary units, gives a good sensitivity and specificity for the diagnosis. Production measurement of A2BR on monocytes and ABL could help in the diagnosis, especially in atypical or with poor symptoms.


We present an analysis of over 23,000 globally distributed wildfire smoke plume injection heights derived from Multi-angle Imaging SpectroRadiometer (MISR) space-based, multi-angle stereo imaging. Both pixel-weighted and aerosol optical depth (AOD)-weighted results are given, stratified by region, biome, and month or season. This offers an observational resource for assessing first-principle plume-rise modelling, and can provide some constraints on smoke dispersion modelling for climate and air quality applications. The main limitation is that the satellite is in a sun-synchronous orbit, crossing the equator at about 10:30 a.m. local time on the day side. Overall, plumes occur preferentially during the northern mid-latitude burning season, and the vast majority inject smoke near-surface. However, the heavily forested regions of North and South America, and Africa produce the most frequent elevated plumes and the highest AOD values; some smoke is injected to altitudes well above 2 km in nearly all regions and biomes. Planetary boundary layer (PBL) versus free troposphere injection is a critical factor affecting smoke dispersion and environmental impact, and is affected by both the smoke injection height and the PBL height; an example assessment is made here, but constraining the PBL height for this application warrants further work.


FHEDEBIC HAROLD YOUNG. Charles Sanders Peirce. America's greatest logician and most original philosopher. A paper delivered 15 October 1945, at Milford, Pennsylvania, before the Pike County Historical Society. Privately printed 1946, 8 pp. A brief biography and an appreciation of Peirce's attainments in logic and philosophy; an estimate of his logical work by Paul Weiss, quoted from IV 38 (6). CHARLES A. B AYLIS


The availability of quality textbooks is one of the critical factors in the enhancement of teaching and learning in accounting. What makes a high-quality textbook depends on the presence of certain characteristics for specific subject area and curriculum requirements. However, following the reintroduction of textbooks into the South African school curriculum, there appear to be limited studies on the quality of textbooks particularly in accounting. This article explores the quality of Grade 12 accounting textbooks in terms of content, structure and organisation, guidance and support and assessment tasks. Two Grade 12 accounting textbooks were purposively sampled because of their popularity and accessibility to analyse their quality using qualitative content analysis. Findings revealed that although Book B is found to be in line with the curriculum in terms of content, Book A had a greater propensity to engage and stimulate learning as it offered better guidance and support to the teachers and learners than Book B. The identified shortfalls mean that the teachers who are using Book B will have to consult other books as the book is lacking in fully supporting teachers. The recommendation is that at least two textbooks should be prescribed especially in Grade 12 to supplement each other. This article offers insight into the quality of Grade 12 accounting textbooks used in South African Schools. It is therefore imperative for accounting teachers and subject specialists to be circumspect when choosing prescribed textbooks. The article also has implications for textbook producers and the Department of Education in their quest to enhance learning.


In autumn 2018 a multichannel seismic reflection survey was performed in the southeastern part of the
Amundsen Basin, on the Lomonosov Ridge and its transition to the Siberian Shelf. We present the new data,
and a first glance at the findings, with the aim to enhance insights into the tectonic evolution, sedimentation
history, and paleoceanography of the southeastern Arctic Ocean.
Lines on the Lomonosov Ridge confirm the presence of 1600 m thick, undisturbed, parallel sedimentary
layers. A prominent highamplitudereflector
sequence within the strata can be used to directly correlate to
previous seismostratigraphic models. A major aim of the expedition was the acquisition of cross lines relative
to previous surveys covering the location of the upcoming IODP377
project.
A 300 km long transect across the Amundsen Basin images a 3 km thick sedimentary sequence covering a
rough acoustic basement. The highamplitudereflector
sequence can also be traced in the basin, indicating
widespread changes in tectonic and deposition conditions in the eastern Arctic Ocean. The crustal surface
shows strong deformation, especially in the western part of the Basin, which can be associated with a reorganisation
of tectonic plates accompanied by a significant decrease in spreading rates. A seamount, likely
of a magmatic origin, was observed rising from the crust and penetrating all sedimentary layers. Dredgesampling
on an outcrop at the western slope of the rise reveal a cover of consolidated sandand
siltstones.
Lines across the transition from the Lomonosov Ridge to the Laptev Sea Shelf image a more than 2 km thick
sedimentary sequence overlying a rugged and faulted acoustic basement. At first glance, no indications of a
larger transform fault can be detected, which could elucidate the tectonic relation between the ridge and the
shelf. Several large mass wasting events or debris flows are indicated in the strata. An erosional channel
with a sediment drift on its southern edge may provide clues to ocean current development.


The neural mechanism implicated in the emotional memory enhancement is amygdala modulation of hippocampal learning. However, most emotional memory studies test memory for items only. Because memory for associations is hippocampal-dependent, one would predict an even greater emotional enhancement for association memory than for item memory. Touryan et al. (2007) found emotionality impaired incidental association learning between peripheral neutral objects and central emotional scenes, despite enhanced memory for the emotional scenes themselves. Here we ask whether this detriment might turn into an enhancement effect for associative memory, a hippocampal-dependent memory function, if the associated information is central to the task and association learning is intentional. Instead we found that the detrimental effect holds even in this stronger test of the amygdalahippocampal circuit, suggesting that amygdala enhancement of hippocampal function can be overridden by a bias to process emotional items at the expense of associations.


ABSTRACT This study introduces the new results of a novel low-cost digital zenith camera system operated in Turkey that uses astronomical and geodetic instrumentation. Currently, it is possible to determine deflections of the vertical (DoV) components by using a vast amount of information gathered from geo-referenced star images, tilt measurements, and Global Navigation Satellite System technology. This new design of an astro-geodetic camera system is used for calculating DoV components with 12 independent solutions on a test station in Istanbul, and additional observations were performed to investigate the external accuracy of the system on a test network. A specific leveling method is developed to align system toward the zenithal direction. The final results of the observations on a test station located in Istanbul indicate that the accuracy of the system is about ±0.19 arc-seconds in latitude and ±0.28 arc-seconds in longitude determination. The system has been further tested on a network with 4 control points that have averagely 20 km baselines. At the test network, the root mean square of the average value of the vertical deflections is calculated as ±0.36 arc-seconds. Furthermore, DoV components are compared with the values that are calculated using global geopotential models.


Objective: Behavioral couples therapy (BCT) is more efficacious than individually-based therapy (IBT) for substance and relationship outcomes among substance use disorder patients. This study compared BCT with IBT for drug-abusing women. Method: Sixty-one women, mostly White, late 30s, with primary substance use disorder other than alcohol (74% opioid), and male partners were randomized to 26 sessions over 13 weeks of BCT plus 12-step-oriented IBT (i.e., BCT + IBT) or IBT. Substance-related outcomes were percentage days abstinent (PDA), percentage days drug use (PDDU), Inventory of Drug Use Consequences. Relationship outcomes were Dyadic Adjustment Scale (DAS), days separated. Data were collected at baseline, posttreatment, and quarterly for 1-year follow-up. Results: On PDA, PDDU, and substance-related problems, both BCT + IBT and IBT patients showed significant (p < .01) large effect size improvements throughout 1-year follow-up (d > .8 for most time periods). BCT + IBT showed a significant (p < .001) large effect size (d = −.85) advantage versus IBT on fewer substance-related problems, while BCT + IBT and IBT did not differ on PDA or PDDU (ps > .47). On relationship outcomes, compared to IBT, BCT + IBT had significantly higher male-reported Dyadic Adjustment Scale (p < .001, d = .57) and fewer days separated (p = .01, d = −.47) throughout 1-year follow-up. Conclusion: BCT + IBT for drug-abusing women was more efficacious than IBT in improving relationship satisfaction and preventing relationship breakup. On substance use and substance-related problems, women receiving both treatments substantially improved, and women receiving BCT + IBT had fewer substance-related problems than IBT.


The parametrized diastolic filling formalism is a kinematic model for early left ventricular diastolic function, and is believed to provide quantitative information on relaxation and stiffness. Application of this model in the Asklepios population provided normal values of the model parameters x0 (initial spring displacement), k (spring stiffness) and c (damping constant). In addition, a potentially important difference in c of about 20% between men and women was observed. The underlying mechanism is not clear and additional analyses are needed to verify whether or not this suggests intrinsic relaxation differences between men and women.Copyright © 2011 by ASME


Information support for making strategic decisions in groups of companies can be, on the one hand, very relevant due to the large number of parameters taken into account, on the other hand, it is quite productive due to the objective measurability of these parameters. Unlike traditional approaches to the economic analysis of an independent business entity, subsidiaries and dependent companies (SDCs) are also evaluated in terms of their impact on the parent company and the group of companies as a whole. Therefore, the authors of the study have formed a set of indicators that can be regrouped for various analytical and forecasting purposes, thereby creating and testing the author's methodology for assessing the activities of subsidiaries and affiliates.


Through the one-bead two-compound (OB2C) ultra–high-throughput screening method, we discovered a new small-molecule compound LLS2 that can kill a variety of cancer cells. Pull-down assay and LC/MS-MS indicated that galectin-1 is the target protein of LLS2. Galectin-1 is known to be involved in the regulation of proliferation, apoptosis, cell cycle, and angiogenesis. Binding of LLS2 to galectin-1 decreased membrane-associated H-Ras and K-Ras and contributed to the suppression of pErk pathway. Importantly, combination of LLS2 with paclitaxel (a very important clinical chemotherapeutic agent) was found to exhibit synergistic activity against several human cancer cell lines (ovarian cancer, pancreatic cancer, and breast cancer cells) in vitro. Furthermore, in vivo therapeutic study indicated that combination treatment with paclitaxel and LLS2 significantly inhibits the growth of ovarian cancer xenografts in athymic mice. Our results presented here indicate that the OB2C combinatorial technology is a highly efficient drug screening platform, and LLS2 discovered through this method can be further optimized for anticancer drug development. Mol Cancer Ther; 16(7); 1212–23. ©2017 AACR.


In this paper, an approach for providing unified access to heterogeneous distributed cultural heritage collections is presented. The proposed approach is developed within the framework of the REACH Greek National Project with the overall aim to provide a Web portal enabling access to different databases of cultural content with emphasis on multimedia material. In order to achieve this, the project employs ontology-based representation of cultural content, multimedia content-based search algorithms, hybrid ontology and content-based access and user-friendly search interfaces. This fusion approach provides users with resources for building queries of multimedia repositories sequentially using multiple individual search tools, and performs higher quality searching. In the current stage of development, real content such as inscriptions and coins from the Greco-Roman time period, has successfully been incorporated in the system


Immunotherapy is a class of promising anticancer treatments that has recently gained attention due to surging numbers of FDA approvals and extensive preclinical studies demonstrating efficacy. Nevertheless, further clinical implementation has been limited by high variability in patient response to different immunotherapeutic agents. These treatments currently do not have reliable predictors of efficacy and may lead to side effects. The future development of additional immunotherapy options and the prediction of patient‐specific response to treatment require advanced screening platforms associated with accurate and rapid data interpretation. Advanced engineering approaches ranging from sequencing and gene editing, to tumor organoids engineering, bioprinted tissues, and organs‐on‐a‐chip systems facilitate the screening of cancer immunotherapies by recreating the intrinsic and extrinsic features of a tumor and its microenvironment. High‐throughput platform development and progress in artificial intelligence can also improve the efficiency and accuracy of screening methods. Here, these engineering approaches in screening cancer immunotherapies are highlighted, and a discussion of the future perspectives and challenges associated with these emerging fields to further advance the clinical use of state‐of‐the‐art cancer immunotherapies are provided.


Sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) transports sex steroids in the blood. In humans and rabbits, the gene encoding SHBG (shbg) is expressed primarily in the liver and testis, whereas the testis is the major site of shbg expression in rodents postnatally. Sequence analysis has revealed that rabbit shbg (rbshbg) spans 2.5 kb and comprises eight exons with consensus splice sites at all exon-intron junctions. The major transcription start site ofrbshbg is located 52 bp upstream from the translation initiation codon for the rabbit SHBG precursor. Unlike the situation in humans and rats, rbshbg transcripts contain no alternative exon 1 sequences in the liver or testis, and this suggests that the rbshbg 5'-flanking region plays an equally important role in controlling transcription of this gene in these tissues. Like the human and rat shbg promoter sequences, the rbshbg proximal promoter lacks a typical TATA box. It also contains several transcription factor-binding sites, but deoxyribonuclease I footprinting experiments indicated that the human and rabbit shbg proximal promoters interact quite differently with proteins extracted from rabbit liver nuclei. However, the predominant footprint on the rbshbg promoter is conserved at the same position within the human shbg (hshbg) promoter and includes consensus binding sites for the transcription factor nuclear factor- 1. Transient transfection studies of the rbshbg 5'-flanking sequence (893 bp) revealed regions that actively enhance and repress its activity in human hepatoblastoma and mouse Sertoli cells, but not in Chinese hamster ovary cells. Like the rat shbg proximal promoter, the rbshbg 5'-flanking sequence lacks a region that corresponds to a cis-element, designated footprinted region 4 in the hshbg proximal promoter. Furthermore, the hshbg promoter footprinted region 3 sequence is poorly conserved in rbshbg, and when mutated to resemble the corresponding human sequence it increased the transcriptional activity of the rbshbg promoter by 7-fold in hepatoblastoma cells. Thus, the rabbit and hshbg promoters appear to be controlled by a different set of transcriptional regulators. Further comparisons of their functional activities may shed light on species-specific differences in the spatial and temporal expression of this gene, the products of which play important roles in regulating sex steroid access to target cells.


The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of thermally compressed veneer laminating on some of the physical and mechanical properties of particleboard. Oriental beech (Fagus orientalis Lipsky)veneers were compressed under various press conditions. Commercially produced particleboard samples were laminated with such compressed veneer sheets. The density, 2-h and 24-h water absorption (WA) and thickness swelling (TS), bending strength (MOR), and modulus of elasticity (MOE) in the parallel and perpendicular directions to grain orientation were measured. The results showed that all of the particleboards laminated with compressed veneer had higher MOR and MOE values compared to unlaminated particleboard and particleboard laminated with non-compressed veneer. In the sandwiched panels, particleboards laminated with veneer sheets and compressed at a pressure of 4 MPa and a temperature of 150 oC had the highest MOR and MOE values. The MOR and MOE values decreased with increasing temperatures higher than 150 oC. The TS value for 2-h and 24-h immersion times decreased with increasing press temperature. The findings of this work could provide some insight in producing sandwich-type panels with improved properties. It appears that compressed veneer using different press temperatures and pressures could be considered as an alternative way of developing sandwich-type products with satisfactory structural properties.


The thesis is based on independent chemical analyses, on-site analyses and field sampling. It includes seven selected wastewater treatment plants at mountain lodges. At each plant the author conducted three sets of winter analyses and two sets of summer analyses. The research includes 200 hours of field work in the mountains. Before conducting the analyses it was necessary to catalogue all wastewater treatment plants at Slovenian Alpine Association's mountain lodges and on this basis choose a representative sample of wastewater treatment plants for further research.
The thesis interfer widely with Slovenian environment with exact, analytical review of Slovenian legislation about small wastewater treatment plants. The results are generally
applicable to all small wastewater treatment plants while mountain-related are stressed separately.
The thesis monitored 20 parameters at inflow and outflow of wastewater treatment plants all around Slovenia. Propositional improvements for concrete plants are made on this data. The great amount of data acquired in the research is of great help for further scientific research.
The thesis also includes proposals and questions for improvement of Slovenian legislation, proposals for wastewater treatment plants producers as well as proposals to improve and to make on-site samplings and measures uniform. It also includes proposals for further investors of wastewater treatment plants in mountain environment.


Background: ADRs are one of the foremost reasons of illness and death, adding to overall preventive medicine cost. Reporting of such adverse drug reactions are critical parameter of medical treatment. The present study assess the clinical pharmacist role in drug monitoring to detect and intercept adverse drug reaction in a health care setting, Method: A prospective observational was conducted at tertiary care hospital in Vijaypur city. A total of 50 suspected adverse effects were recognized and documented during the study period of six months. The suspected adverse effects were assessed for its causality and severity by using Naranjo's and Hartwig's scale. Results: Overall 50 ADRs were identified and documented during the study period. Most of the reported ADRs in this study were Type A 34(68%). Drug dose and frequency 18(33.96%), Age 15(28.3%) and polypharmacy 10 (18.86%) were the furthermost protruding predisposing factors of ADRs were observed. Antibiotics were the common class of drugs involved in producing ADRs 14(28%).Causality assessment by Naranjo's scale presented that majority of the reported ADRs were found to be probable 26(52%), possible 19(38%) and definite 3 (6%). Severity assessment by Hartwig's scale showed that 26(52%) ADRs were moderate, 17 (34%) ADRs were mild and 7(14%) ADRs were of severe. Withdrawal of the drug 27(54%) as a management intervention was the core line of the adverse drug effect management. Conclusion: Clinical Pharmacist preparedness towards pharmacovigilance approach and proximity for drug monitoring resulted in greater interception and reporting of adverse effect ensuring patient drug related safety.


Generative models are typically trained on grid-like data such as images. As a result, the size of these models usually scales directly with the underlying grid resolution. In this paper, we abandon discretized grids and instead parameterize individual data points by continuous functions. We then build generative models by learning distributions over such functions. By treating data points as functions, we can abstract away from the specific type of data we train on and construct models that are agnostic to discretization. To train our model, we use an adversarial approach with a discriminator that acts on continuous signals. Through experiments on a wide variety of data modalities including images, 3D shapes and climate data, we demonstrate that our model can learn rich distributions of functions independently of data type and resolution.


The growth of latest technology specially internet and its applications imposes a major concern in respect to information security in terms of protecting precious content against any possible and vital attacks. Cryptography has made the difference over period of time by using developed encryption algorithms where some of them have successfully fulfill its designed goals however, others have failed due to specific requirements or encryption/decryption procedures have been recognized. Recent encryption algorithms employed aims mainly to escalate the security levels of sensitive information in order to deliver confidentiality, authentication, integrity, and non-repudiation. In this paper, the proposed encryption algorithm has combined the core of three different algorithms DES, Blowfish and Vigenere but with optimized secure. The key has been enhanced to be 256 bit key inspired by AES algorithm key and Blowfish PI factor. Key generation and encryption/decryption performing using feistel cipher methodology. Analysis and experimental results have clearly proven solid randomness on key generation, Encryption and decryption in which it has met all targets designed.


We have shown that E1 and E2 proteins of human papillomavirus type 11 (HPV-11) were essential to support the replication of the homologous viral origin (ori) in a transient replication assay, similar to reports on bovine papillomavirus type 1 (BPV-1). Unexpectedly, matched or even mixed combinations of E1 and E2 proteins from HPV-11 or BPV-1 replicated either ori in human, monkey, and rodent cell lines of epithelial or fibroblastic lineage, albeit with varied efficiencies. Either set of viral proteins was also able to initiate replication of ori-containing plasmids from many other human and animal papillomaviruses. Thus the interactions among the cis elements and trans factors of papillomaviruses are more conserved than expected from the other members of the papovavirus family, simian virus 40 and polyomavirus, for which large tumor antigen does not replicate a heterologous ori in either permissive or nonpermissive cells. We infer that the stringent species and tissue specificities observed for papillomaviruses in vivo are not entirely due to direct restrictions on viral DNA replication. Rather, transcriptional control of viral gene expression must play a dominant role.


We demonstrate three-dimensional (3D) surface profiling of the water-oil interface in a tunable liquid microlens using a Shack-Hartmann wave front sensor. The principles and the optical setup for achieving 3D surface measurements are presented and a hydrogel-actuated liquid lens was measured at different focal lengths. The 3D surface profiles are then used to study the optical properties of the liquid lens. Our method of 3D surface profiling could foster the improvement of liquid lens design and fabrication, including surface treatment and aberration reduction.


Protein-protein interaction (PPI) plays a key role in understanding cellular mechanisms in different organisms. Many supervised classifiers like Random Forest (RF) and Support Vector Machine (SVM) have been used for intra or inter-species interaction prediction. For improving the prediction performance, in this paper we propose a novel set of features to represent a protein pair using their annotated Gene Ontology (GO) terms, including their ancestors. In our approach, a protein pair is treated as a document (bag of words), where the terms annotating the two proteins represent the words. Feature value of each word is calculated using information content of the corresponding term multiplied by a coefficient, which represents the weight of that term inside a document (i.e., a protein pair). We have tested the performance of the classifier using the proposed feature on different well known data sets of different species like S. cerevisiae, H. Sapiens, E. Coli, and D. melanogaster. We compare it with the other GO based feature representation technique, and demonstrate its competitive performance.


Nurse education in the United Kingdom is undergoing its biggest transformation in decades. Changes to educational standards mean that future nurses, will require a wider range of skills; proficiency in those skills; and a breadth of knowledge to support practice. Meanwhile, widening participation initiatives have increased the numbers of Nursing Students from a wider range of backgrounds with more diverse academic abilities. Potential challenges for Higher Education Institutions, may therefore arise from increased numbers entering programmes and the tensions between Learners' prior educational experience and the demands and expectations of new curricula.

Whilst Social Media is already widely used by Academics for the purposes of research, debate and self-promotion, its use as an education tool varies from institution to institution. Social Media platforms such as Twitter, promote active connections with peers, and have the potential to encourage a shared discourse with expert Clinicians and Academics alike. If harnessed correctly, Social Media may be used to develop Virtual Learning Communities which may address these emerging challenges in Nurse Education, supporting a wide-scale exchange of knowledge, reflection and the development of academic skills such as writing and critical thinking.

This paper considers the benefits of Social Media, specifically Twitter, and how it can be used to support the education of Nursing Students. A recent student-led conference is used to illustrate how Twitter has the potential to increase student's social capital whilst contributing to the development of professional identity. This paper argues that both Students and Academics alike, may benefit from the innovative use of Social Media and that further research is needed to establish how it can be incorporated into new pre-registration Nursing programmes.


This thesis considers Purepecha from the perspectives of
 genealogy and contact, as well as offering insight into word formation
 processes. The genealogy study re-visits the most prominent classification
 proposals for Purepecha, concluding on the basis of a quantitative lexical
 comparison and a typological comparison of affix ordering that there is no
 signal of relatedness between Purepecha and any other sampled language. The
 two language contact studies address possible interaction between Purepecha
 and other languages at long-distance, regional and local levels. The lexicon
 of metallurgy, the most convincing archaeological evidence for long-distance
 interaction, does not support this contact scenario although the lack of
 observable loanwords in this domain may reflect the largely non-verbal nature
 of technology transmission. At the regional and local levels Purepecha also
 displays very few borrowings from the prehispanic period. This paucity of borrowings
 is reversed in the modern period, with Spanish exerting a heavy influence in
 all domains. The shift in borrowing pattern is explained by huge
 socio-political change since the imposition of Spanish. The word formation
 studies focus on the varying semantic transparency of roots and suffixes,
 with a specific emphasis on olfactory language. They also introduce the
 notion that roots may be precategorial in nature.


OBJECTIVE
To determine the detection rate, radiologic characteristics, and natural history of incidental subcentimeter pulmonary nodules (SCPN) among patients with resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma and to clarify whether further preoperative evaluation should be considered.

BACKGROUND
The clinical significance of SCPN detected by routine preoperative abdominal imaging in patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma is unknown.

METHODS
Patients who underwent resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma between 2000 and 2010 were queried from a prospectively maintained database at a single institution. Pre- and postoperative computed tomographic (CT) imaging was independently reviewed and the presence and radiologic features of SCPNs were analyzed for associations with overall survival (OS).

RESULTS
Of the 463 patients who met inclusion criteria, 329 (71%) had reviewable preoperative imaging. Preoperative SCPNs were described in 59 patients (18%), and 41 patients had follow-up imaging available for review. Only increasing age (67.1 vs 63.5 years; P = 0.005) was associated with the presence of SCPN. Six patients (1.8%) had new or enlarging nodules after surgery, of whom 5 (1.5%) had confirmed metastatic adenocarcinoma. There was no difference in OS between patients with or without preoperative SCPN (16.1 vs 19.1 months; P = 0.201). No radiographic criterion of SCPN (including number, size, laterality, calcification, or contour) was associated with OS.

CONCLUSIONS
Neither the presence of preoperative SCPN nor nodule characteristics was associated with OS among patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for pancreatic cancer. These data do not support routine additional workup of preoperative SCPN in patients with resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.


We present an approximate nonhyperbolic P-wave moveout formula applicable to horizontally layered media of moderate or weak anisotropy of arbitrary symmetry and orientation. Anisotropy symmetry and its orientation may differ from layer to layer. Instead of commonly used Taylor-series expansion of the square of the reflection traveltime in terms of the square of the offset, we use the weak-anisotropy approximation, in which the square of the reflection traveltime is expanded in terms of weak-anisotropy (WA) parameters. The resulting formula is simple, and it provides a transparent relation between the traveltimes and WA parameters. Along an arbitrarily chosen single surface profile, it depends, in each layer, on the thickness of the layer, on the reference P-wave velocity used for the construction of reference rays, and on three WA parameters specified in the Cartesian coordinate system related to the profile. In each layer, these three "profile" WA parameters depend on "local" WA parameters specifying anisotropy of a given layer in a local coordinate system and on directional cosines specifying the orientation of the local coordinate system with respect to the profile one. The number of local P-wave WA parameters may vary from three for transverse isotropy or six for orthorhombic symmetry to nine for triclinic symmetry. Our tests of the accuracy indicate that the maximum relative traveltime errors do not exceed 0.5% or 2.5% for weak or moderate P-wave anisotropy, respectively.


A simple theoretical model of the process of strategic adaptation to climate change is proposed. Climate change is represented by a non-stationary Markov process on the space of climate states, and strategic adaptation by a simple resource allocation task in which agents incur costs when moving resources from one activity to another. A stationary analysis allows diagnostics that quantify the net costs of climate change, and the long-run benefits to adaptation, to be defined. A full dynamic analysis of the model allows for the computation of the costs of negotiating the transition between two stationary climate regimes. We analyze the dependence of these adaptation costs on the behavioural parameters of the model, and the costs of adjusting resources from one activity to another. We find that adaptation costs have a complex and counterintuitive dependence on adjustment costs, and can be more sensitive to the details of the climate change process than adaptation benefits are. This has important implications for adaptation planning, and understanding the linkages between adaptation and climate change mitigation.


Computer aided diagnosis systems for detecting malignant texture in biological study have been investigated using several techniques. This paper presents an approach in computer-aided diagnosis for early prediction of brain cancer using Texture features and neuro classification logic. The Tumor mass detection and Cluster micro classification is used as the processing method for cancer prediction. Nine distinct invariant features with calculation of minimum distance for the prediction of cancer are used for the prediction of tumor in a given MRI image. A neuro fuzzy approach is used for the recognition of the extracted region. The implementation is observed on various types of MRI images with different types of cancer regions. Keyword: Brain cancer, Neuro Fuzzy Logic, recognition, MRI.


SIR,-I was very interested to read Dr D Rawlins's article (28 February, p 699) and would like to make a few comments. Dr Rawlins mentions dissecting aneurysm, but in over 30 years of general practice I have fortunately not seen a single case of this condition. We did have a case of ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm, but this did not produce chest pain. Dr Rawlins's does not mention hiatus hernia as being a common cause of chest pain. I have seen many cases, even with extension into the arms, where an eventual diagnosis of oesophageal reflux has been made; and I have seen two cases in the past three years where the chest pain was so severe-in one case accompanied by collapse-that both patients were admitted to hospital as cardiac emergencies. I would further add to Dr Rawlins suggestions for the immediate treatment of chest pain that heroin is preferable to morphine and should always be mixed with an antiemetic, such as Valoid, and given slowly intravenously. I would finally comment on Dr Rawlins's discussion of using a defibrillator. I doubt if many practices, at least urban ones, would own such a machine. I am sure that, once the immediate severe pain and shock of a myocardial infarction are dealt with, the most sensible treatment in an urban area would be for the patient to be transferred to a coronary care unit, where the most expert attention and nursing can be given on a continuous basis.


The effect of a 24-kDa fibroblast-activating factor (FAF) isolated from outer membrane vesicles of Porphyromonas gingivalis W50 on the modulation of [3H]thymidine uptake and cell proliferation was examined in selected fibroblast and transformed cell lines. FAF enhanced the proliferation of human gingival fibroblasts, human skin fibroblasts, and human umbilical vein endothelial cells in subconfluent and confluent cells, suggesting that FAF might be functioning as a competence factor. The transformed cell lines, U-937 and HEp-2, were not responsive. FAF and several human-derived growth factors showed a synergistic effect on proliferation. [3H]proline and [3H]leucine were rapidly incorporated into fibroblasts in the presence of FAF; however, there was no selective induction of collagen synthesis. FAF was not active in the induction of interleukin-1 and interleukin-6. It is hypothesized that FAF from P. gingivalis functions as a growth factor for human fibroblasts but is without activity for transformed cells.


Standard theories define fiction in terms of an invited response of imagining or make-believe. I argue that these theories are not only subject to numerous counterexamples, they also fail to explain why classification matters to our understanding and evaluation of works of fiction as well as non-fiction. I propose instead that we construe fiction and non-fiction as genres : categories whose membership is determined by a cluster of non-essential criteria, and which play a role in the appreciation of particular works. I claim that this proposal captures the intuitions motivating alternative theories of fiction.