Treatment of large bone defects is one of the great challenges in contemporary orthopedic and traumatic surgery. Grafts are necessary to support bone healing. A well-established allograft is demineralized bone matrix (DBM) prepared from donated human bone tissue. In this study, a fibrous demineralized bone matrix (f-DBM) with a high surface-to-volume ratio has been analyzed for toxicity and immunogenicity. f-DBM was transplanted to a 5-mm, plate-stabilized, femoral critical-size-bone-defect in Sprague-Dawley (SD)-rats. Healthy animals were used as controls. After two months histology, hematological analyses, immunogenicity as well as serum biochemistry were performed. Evaluation of free radical release and hematological and biochemical analyses showed no significant differences between the control group and recipients of f-DBM. Histologically, there was no evidence of damage to liver and kidney and good bone healing was observed in the f-DBM group. Reactivity against human HLA class I and class II antigens was detected with mostly low fluorescence values both in the serum of untreated and treated animals, reflecting rather a background reaction. Taken together, these results provide evidence for no systemic toxicity and the first proof of no basic immunogenic reaction to bone allograft and no sensitization of the recipient.


Background : Gestational trophoblastic tumors originate from trophoblastic tissues and secrete human chorionic gonadotrophin (hCG). Surgical treatment may be a line of treatment of chemoresistant cases. Objective : To evaluate the accuracy of hCG dipsticks in detection of hCG in tissues of trophoblastic tumors and healthy myometrium during surgery of trophoblastic tumors. Methods : We included 19 samples of tumor and apparently healthy myometrial tissues during surgical treatment of 5 cases of gestational trophoblastic tumors. The hCG dipstick was immersed in a solution containing 1x1 cm of tumor or myometrial tissues. The results of the tests were compared to the histopathological results. Results : The mean age of patients were 38.8 years, the mean parity was 3.4. The mean serum B-hCG level was 101,745.6 mu/ml. Except for one specimen in case 5, all results of the hCG dipsticks were concordant with final histopathologic analysis of the specimens. Sensitivity of hCG test was 100% and specificity was 90%. Conclusion : Intraoperative detection of hCG in different tissues and suspicious masses can be considered as simple, rapid, inexpensive, and reliable test. It can be used to detect the trophoblastic nature of tissues if frozen section is not available as some low resource setting countries. We recommend further larger prospective studies to compare the accuracy and reliability of this novel technique and frozen section analysis.


Building, planning, engineering facilities of the inhabited places of Lake Baikal and organization of the recreational areas for tourists, as well as organization of the particularly reserved natural territories should maintain everlastingly untouched the beauty and the cleanness, the natural diversity and the uniqueness of the nature of Lake Baikal, that makes it glorious and attracts tourists and inhabitants so much. Is it possible? And how to combine technical conditions of civilization, to which we have got used so much (energy supply, canalization, asphalt roads, automobile transport, oilpipelines, developed cities and villages), and aspiration of many investors, who would like to organize a profitable tourist business, together with the goal to protect the nature of Lake Baikal. To protect or to develop the landscapes of Lake Baikal, and which landscapes to urbanize and which to restore, and how to equip the developed territories, and how to maintain the protected natural landscapes–these questions compose a complex national task. Its accomplishment is firstly based on studying and maintaining the diversity of landscapes of the region and its importance as the global natural heritage. Secondly, the stable development of the region is possible only when solving the conflicts of landutilization motivations in a right way at the expense of building the rational network of the Baikal landscapes from the reserved to the urbanized ones.


Target-date funds (TDFs) have become a popular choice for retirement plans, and the concept of a glide path is essential for TDFs. One of the key assumption behind glide paths is that the main component of a retirement plan should be growth assets invested in the overall equity market—for example, the S&P 500 Index. Researchers have recently challenged this assumption and argued for using smart beta factors for retirement purposes. Among them, the factor of low volatility may be uniquely suitable for retirement investing. This article studies the use of low-volatility assets for the purpose of retirement planning and the choice of ideal glide paths. This study is agnostic about the means by which the low-volatility risk/return profile is achieved and analyzes four series with diminished volatility constructed with different methodologies. The article concludes that low-volatility assets may indeed help retirement investors achieve their objectives, though such investors must choose ideal glide paths carefully to suit the selected low-volatility series. When equipped with proper low-volatility assets and carefully chosen glide paths, retirement plan managers may both improve the odds that their plans succeed and increase the expected final wealth levels. TOPICS: Mutual fund performance, retirement, other real assets, wealth management Key Findings • Both historical and de novo Monte-Carlo simulations confirm that low-volatility assets can increase the certainty of achieving investing objectives for retirement plans. • The three tested glidepath choices, hockey stick, curved, and straight line, have similar investment outcomes. • Investors with low-volatility assets may use more aggressive glidepaths to not only reduce failure rates but also increase expected final wealth levels.


Roughly speaking, let us say that a map between metric spaces is large scale conformal if it maps packings by large balls to large quasi-balls with limited overlaps. This quasi-isometry invariant notion makes sense for finitely generated groups. Inspired by work by Benjamini and Schramm, we show that under such maps, some kind of dimension increases: exponent of volume growth for nilpotent groups, conformal dimension of the ideal boundary for hyperbolic groups. A purely metric space notion of l p-cohomology plays a key role.


Spectroscopic and chemical modification studies of modified flavins bound to old yellow enzyme have led to predictions about the flavin environment of this enzyme. These studies analyzed solvent accessibility and hydrogen bonding patterns of particular flavin atoms, in addition to suggesting amino acid residues that are in close proximity to those atoms. Here, these studies are evaluated in the light of the crystal structure of old yellow enzyme to reveal that the spectroscopic and modified flavin results are generally consistent with the crystal structure. This highlights the fact that these are useful methods for studying flavin binding site structure. Although several of the inferred properties of the flavin environment are not consistent with the crystal structure, these discrepancies occurred in cases where an incorrect choice was made from among multiple plausible explanations for an experimental result. We conclude that modified flavin studies are powerful probes of flavin environment; however, it is risky to specify details of interactions, especially because of uncertainties due to induced charge delocalization in the flavin.


The tradition of school sports facilities has its roots in ancient civilizations, primarily in ancient Greece. The preserved ruins of gymnasiums at Delphi, Olympia, Millet, Priene, Dedina, Pergamon, Ephesus or Thermessos, document well that sports facilities were a major part of the education system. They served not only for students and sports training but were opened to the public, used for social gatherings, political meetings and disputes. Contemporary school sports facilities derived from the 19-century concept of the school's educational program. It also included the indoor and outdoor physical education classes and facilities used for 'body-building exercises' as it was named. In Poland, according to the current basic curriculum of the Ministry of National Education, the goal of physical education is to shape the long life habit of physical activity. The school activities should develop the appropriate interests and attitudes of students. Therefore, school activities should meet the needs, interests and abilities of the individual student as fully as possible. The present regulations of the Ministry of Education demand, that such classes should take place in a well-equipped sports hall or on a school playground.


Finland has six species of animals in the deer family. The most significant from the standpoint of road safety are the elk (Alces alces), the white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) and the reindeer (Rangifer tarandus). Because of its weight and size, the elk, in particular, is a significant cause of accidents. The number and cost of elk and deer accidents have risen again throughout Finland after a slight drop in the beginning of the 1990's. Finnra has conducted a survey in which several concentration points of elk accidents on the road network of Uusimaa region were identified. Finnra has traditionally averted animal accidents mainly by using warning signs to warn drivers about animals, by clearing roadside vegetation to improve visibility and by building game fences along roads. With the help of transport telematics special road safety measures can be arranged at elk crossing points. The risk for accidents can be kept low by designing the crossing points well. The sites for the openings in the elk fence must have especially good visibility from both directions of road. Automatically variable elk warning signs were built on highway 7 in Uusimaa region. 1 650 metres long new elk fence was built along highway 7 in 1996 and the new door for passing elk was opened. The detection system observes large animals by the sides of the road. The signs on highway 7 turn on whenever sensors detect an approaching animal. Static warning signs are placed 500 metres and variable fibre optic message signs 200 metres before the "door" on both sides of the carriageway. The door was about 200 metres wide opening in the elk fence. A total of 20 microwave detectors were installed on both sides of the road on five poles on each side. There is also a video camera and recorder in the system, which starts when the alarm system is on. To monitor traffic volume and speeds there are inductive loop detectors on the road in the middle of the door. The paper presents the results from a study concerning measurements in two winter months and two summer months. For the covering abstract and the URL of the conference see ITRD E205706.


The way we talk, work, learn, and think has been greatly shaped by modern technology. These lifestyle changes have made digital literacy the new written literacy, where those who are not able to use computers are unable to function and perform everyday tasks.The Handbook of Research on Comparative Approaches to the Digital Age Revolution in Europe and the Americas explores the new ways that technology is shaping our society and the advances it is bringing, along with potential drawbacks, such as human jobs being replaced by computers. This expansive handbook is an essential reference source for students, academics, and professionals in the fields of communication, information technology, sociology, social policy, and education; it will also prove of interest to policymakers, funding-agencies, and digital inclusion program developers.This handbook features a broad scope of research-based articles on topics including, but not limited to, computational thinking, e-portfolios, e-citizenship, digital inclusion policies, and information literacy as a form of community empowerment.


Wall-plasma interactions have been observed for spatially-periodic microplasmas generated in 300–700 µm wide channels fabricated in nanoporous alumina. Examination of Ne microplasma discs produced in a standing-wave pattern in Al2O3 channels illustrates the competition between electron production at the sheath-wall interface and loss by recombination in an atmospheric pressure background. Two topologies of the microplasma arrays are observed. For channel widths (d) less than 450 µm, the microplasmas are generally centered in the channel and sustained by electron generation at both plasma sheath/channel wall interfaces, presumably including the release of charge residing in the hexagonal alumina pores. As d is progressively increased from 300 to 450 µm, the microchannel plasma cross-section is gradually transformed from circular to elliptical, and its surface area declines by as much as 50% so as to minimize e− losses to the background gas. Increasing d above ~450 µm abruptly switches the topology to one in which plasmas having a triangular cross-section attach to one of the channel walls in a pattern that alternates along the channel axis. Microfabricating trapezoidal cross-section channels into complex geometries, including the Cornu spiral and intersecting linear arrays, also reveals dynamic behavior in the propagation of microplasmas. For a common spiral structure, observations of plasma expansion show the wavefront propagates over the corrugated surface or within the channel with radial and azimuthal velocities of 3  ±  1 km s−1 and 8  ±  1.5 km s−1, respectively. Plasma formation is initiated in each ring of the spiral through electron seeding by streamers propagating radially outward at velocities approaching 200 km s−1. In addition to electrostatic charge-mediated variations in the mean separation between adjacent microplasmas, the time-dependent interference between two 1D microplasma arrays has been observed during plasma expansion. Reproducible ignition of a microplasma ensemble along ridges micromachined into channels near the intersections of two linear arrays has also been realized. The results reported here demonstrate that microchannels with the walls overcoated with any of a variety of materials provide a promising platform for examining in detail the interaction of low temperature plasma with a surface of arbitrary composition and topography.


In this paper we describe a method of modeling play styles as deviations from approximations of game theoretically rational actions. These deviations are interpreted as containing information about player skill and player decision making style. We hypothesize that this information is useful for differentiating between players and for understanding why human player behavior is attributed intentionality which we argue is a prerequisite for believability. To investigate these hypotheses we describe an experiment comparing 400 games in the Mario AI Benchmark testbed, played by humans, with equivalent games played by an approximately game theoretically rationally playing AI agent. The player actions' deviations from the rational agent's actions are subjected to feature extraction, and the resulting features are used to cluster play sessions into expressions of different play styles. We discuss how these styles differ, and how believable agent behavior might be approached by using these styles as an outset for a planning agent. Finally, we discuss the implications of making assumptions about rational game play and the problematic aspects of inferring player intentions from behavior.


This paper describes a new hierarchical approach to content-based image retrieval called the "customized-queries" approach (CQA). Contrary to the single feature vector approach which tries to classify the query and retrieve similar images in one step, CQA uses multiple feature sets and a two-step approach to retrieval. The first step classifies the query according to the class labels of the images using the features that best discriminate the classes. The second step then retrieves the most similar images within the predicted class using the features customized to distinguish "subclasses" within that class. Needing to find the customized feature subset for each class led us to investigate feature selection for unsupervised learning. As a result, we developed a new algorithm called FSSEM (feature subset selection using expectation-maximization clustering). We applied our approach to a database of high resolution computed tomography lung images and show that CQA radically improves the retrieval precision over the single feature vector approach. To determine whether our CBIR system is helpful to physicians, we conducted an evaluation trial with eight radiologists. The results show that our system using CQA retrieval doubled the doctors' diagnostic accuracy.


The effects of climate change on the world's cities and the people who live in them is not a matter that has received a great deal of attention. The effects of climate change tend to get considered in continental or regional terms – melting ice caps, agricultural crop losses across vast swaths of land, shoreline loss that will inundate sub-continents. Alternately, the discussion tends to focus on behavioral change, again at the level of entire national populations. Crudely put, the analysis posits that poorer nations, especially those in Asia and Africa, will become poorer, while the richer nations will, if not become richer, at the least suffer fewer negative consequences of climate change. What this debate strikingly neglects is arguably the dominant demographic shift of our era, namely the global trend towards urbanization. In historical terms, it is impossible to understate the significance of this phenomenon, especially in as much as the vast majority of these in-urban migrants will arrive in the world's cities without resources and live in slum conditions. As the world gets hotter, this seems likely to create a – perhaps literally – combustible situation. The paper therefore seeks to identify the striking inattention of the climate change literature, and especially the mainstream, U.S.-based legal scholarship on climate change, to address the effect of this environmental phenomenon on the world's mega-cities and their extensive mega-slums. The paper further suggests that most analysts and scholars have failed adequately to address the phenomenon of global urbanization, failing to appreciate the ways in which, for example, people (and especially elites) in developed and developing countries benefit from urbanization in less-developed countries. The paper then traces a connection between these two phenomena, arguing that the climate change debate and the search for legal solutions to help combat climate change need take more careful account of global urbanization. The paper concludes by offering possible models for greater participation of the urban poor in the search for solutions, specifically endorsing the possible application of participatory budgeting experiments used across the world.


This article considers some of the ethical implications of social workers undertaking more direct work with carers and children in the field of child protection. Following the UK government's near-complete acceptance of the recommendations of the Munro report into child protection in England and Wales, it seems inevitable that direct work will become more and more a feature of practice for child protection social workers. Whilst this development is almost universally welcomed, this should not disguise the fact that direct work can be fraught with ethical difficulties and challenges. This article explores in general terms three of the main potential areas of difficulty—the use of video-recording, informed consent and interpreting the meaning of direct work—before considering some specific responses to these in the context of a particular skills-based training intervention to improve the ability of child protection social workers to engage in direct work.


The present invention relates to a method of designing the communication system, the communication system comprises at least one emitter and at least one receiver, between which the same link, and ensure a transmission channel for transmitting several different qualities of service. Emitter rate matching between different quality of service, after the completion of the rate matching different quality of service multiplexing. Each specific quality of service according to a first rate matching parameter indicative of the ratio (Eb / I) of (E


Lateral comb resonators (LCRs) theoretically possess a symmetric structure; therefore, the electrostatic force is effective only along the axis of displacement and is neutralized elsewhere. This force is not a function of the distance between the stationary and the moving (shuttle) plates in the direction of the movement. However, manufacturing imperfections and fault conditions make the device operate asymmetrically and cause rotation of the shuttle structure in a lateral gap-closing direction, putting the device in an unstable region of operation (pull-in voltage limit). In this region, the rotated structure experiences an extra force which pulls the device into the region of instability beyond the pull-in voltage limits. This paper illustrates the application of variable structure controllers to correct such behavior and to compensate for the uncertainties that exist in the microsystem parameters. The controller is equipped with a self-tuning parameter estimation block and is designed to control the LCRs under both normal and fault conditions. The controller utilizes through-wafer optical monitoring to provide the position feedback signal. The controller is implemented in a real-time control board and is experimentally verified to demonstrate the effectiveness of the control method under different operating conditions.


Suppl 2 – S17 79 %. Median time to LR was 17 months (range= 1.5-24). First MRI analysis showed increased T1 and T2 GTV in 47 % of lesions. Of these, 47% ultimately developed LR. All patients with LR but one presented increased GTV at 3-6 months (median 28%, range= 1; 290%) associated with reduced T/S signal ratio (median -0.16, range= -0.04; -0.7). In patients with no LR at last follow up, 21% presented increased GTV (median 4%, range= 1; 57%) always associated with increased T/S ratio (median 0.7, range: 0.5; 1.34). Decreased GTV was observed in 79% of lesions with no LR (median -13%, range= -2; -55%). Conclusion: Early volume changes seem to correlate with subsequent local failure. Patients with what may be small increases in tumor volume on the first post-SBRT MRI should be followed more closely for LR. Early T2 signal changes do not appear to correlate with LC.


Background: This study examines how social development occurs in adolescents with the insertshort period of supervisionin accordance withact concerning Support and Service for Persons with Certain Functional Impairments. The insert is for schoolchildren over the age of 12 outside their own home in conjunction with the school day andduring the holidays. This study is based on the professionals' perspective. The study is based on the leisure-activities available on short-term supervision and in which way they promote the social development for adolescents. It also focuses on the interactions with others and how it can lead to social development. Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore if and how the leisure activities and interactions with others that occur during the operation short-term supervision LSS contribute to social development of adolescents, based on the professionals' perspective.Methodology: The empirical data were collected through interviews with seven informants from four different organizations engaged in short-term supervision. Social development is analyzed on the basis of the socio-cultural perspective that highlights the collective learning.Conclusions:Leisure-activities in which several can attend helps facilitate social development. In the adolescent s collective learning, they use the discursive tools to share their knowledge with each other. It is important that the professionals plan the adolescent s leisure-activities in groups. Through the creation of a collective learning promoted social development. Businesses' approach is different, which affects the interaction and social development. The adolescents are socialized into the context available on short period of supervision and learn thereby what rules apply in business. The use of aids during the short period of supervision contributes to social development. Aids are physical tools and discursive tools that promote social development.


We study the symmetric rendezvous search problem in which two robots that are unaware of each other's locations try to meet as quickly as possible. In the symmetric version of this problem, the robots are required to execute the same strategy. First, we present a symmetric rendezvous strategy for the robots that are initially placed on the open plane and analyze its competitive performance. We show that the competitive complexity of our strategy is O(d/R) where d is the initial distance between the robots and R is the communication radius. Second, we extend the symmetric rendezvous strategy for the open plane to unknown environments with polygonal obstacles. The extended strategy guarantees a complete coverage of the environment. We analyze the strategy for square, translating robots and show that the competitive ratio of the extended strategy is O(d/D) where D is the length of the sides of the robots. In obtaining this result, we also obtain an upper bound on covering arbitrary polygonal environments which may be of independent interest.


Pyrotechnical battery is successfully prepared, including an anode and cathode having pyrotechnic charges with an excess of fuel-anode and an excess of oxidation agent cathode (Zr, CuO and asbestos), the anode and cathode being separated by a separator formed from LiF, ZrO2 and fibrous sponge. Main performance indexes system of pyrotechnical battery is put forward and tested under the premise of appropriate mass and corresponding size, such as discharge voltage, discharge time, activation time, excitation time, internal resistance, combustion temperature and storage life. The results show that pyrotechnical battery of Zr/CuO system can basically meet application requirements. Activation time is usually about 0.2 s. Discharge voltage is about 1.96 V and the discharge time is up to 13.8 s or more. The internal resistance keeps a low fixed value (0.47Ω , for example). Combustion temperature of pyrotechnic composition can reach 1500.6 °C (the case temperature of battery is lower) to ensure that electrode and separator is adequately melted, consequently, the internal resistance is reduced, and achieving satisfactory discharge effect.


As a part of the United States Department of Energy's High Temperature Turbine Technology Readiness Program, the Morgantown Energy Technology Center (METC) is participating in a Ceramics Corrosion/Erosion Materials Study. The objective is to create a technology base for ceramic materials for use in stationary gas power turbines operating in a high-temperature environment produced by combustion of low-caloric coal-derived gas. METC facilities have been designed, fabricated and will be operated simultaneously exposing ceramic materials dynamically and statically to products of combustion of a coal-derived gas. This paper gives a description of the test facilities which have the capability to burn a varying low-caloric gas.Copyright © 1981 by ASME


Nile monitor lizards (Varanus niloticus) and Burmese pythons (Python molurus bivittatus) are large, invasive, predatory reptiles, which are now well established in south Florida. Acetaminophen was recently shown to be lethal to both animals and therefore has potential for inclusion in an integrated pest management effort to control these species. However, acceptable bait matrices for both species are still needed to deliver the toxicant. We tested nine candidate bait matrices on juvenile Nile monitor lizards and Burmese pythons in the laboratory. Baits were tested fresh and also after aging at 30°C and 50% relative humidity for 24 h. Six of the nine baits were well accepted by the monitors in both fresh and aged conditions (dead neonatal mouse, dead quail chick, ground turkey, chicken liver, tilapia, and zebra finch egg). Only the fresh dead neonatal mouse and fresh dead quail chick were well accepted by the pythons. As far as we are aware, these tests are the second of such bait matrix preference tests conducted for reptiles. The implications of our results are discussed regarding further development and testing of baits in a natural setting.


To the steadily increasing number of studies of cholesterol in the blood in various clinical entities reported in the literature, we now add our investigation on the concentration of this lipid in the blood in heart disease. MATERIAL AND METHODS The subjects used in this study were chosen at random from the group of patients who had been attending the cardiac clinic for adults of the New York Post-Graduate Hospital for at least one year and for whom the etiologic diagnosis was reasonably certain. When the conditions were classified functionally according to the standards of the New York Heart Association, the cases fell, for the most part, into classes 2a and 2b, with an occasional case belonging to either class 3 or class 1. A total number of sixty-one patients were studied, eighteen of whom had rheumatic heart disease, twenty-four had arteriosclerotic heart disease and nineteen had hypertensive heart disease;


Natural high dimensional data distributions often exhibit clear low-dimensional underlying structures, sometimes referred to as the underlying manifold. In general such underlying low-dimensional surfaces may have complicated shapes and may have to be defined locally at best. Under the premise that d-dimensional critical surfaces of a probability density function (pdf) over Rn provide a natural skeleton for the data, we propose that local nonlinear coordinate transformations to unwrap the so-called manifold are based on curvilinear coordinate systems defined in a manner that is consistent with the critical surfaces. Specifically, we provide a convenient characterization of all critical surfaces in the form of the zero level set of the determinant of a matrix we introduce. This allows the characterization of the underlying manifold using only the gradient and Hessian of the pdf. Especially for the family of distributions in the form of exponential of polynomials, we show that this determinant expression is a polynomial, hence the underlying critical surfaces are zero level sets of a polynomial, and that the factorization of this polynomial will lead to a suitable curvilinear coordinate system. We demonstrate the use of these concepts in globally and locally unwrapping distributions from the family of exponential of polynomials.


This study aims to optimize the removal of total suspended solids (TSS) in pump water from fish flour factories through electrocoagulation technology and to determine the effects of the main operation parameters. Pump water has high conductivity (40.1 mS), due to the presence of dissolved salts and contains high concentration of organic substances (12,360 mg/L of TSS and 520 mg/L of fats). In this study, pump water was treated in an electrocoagulation reactor with aluminum electrodes using Response Surface Methodology with a 3k factorial design based on two factors, current intensity (I) of 8–13 A and treatment time (t) of 20–40 minutes. The percentage of TSS removed from the water was used as the response variable. The results revealed that I and t significantly (p < 0.05) influenced the process. In accordance, the optimal operational parameters for TSS removal were I = 13 A and t = 30 minutes. Using these conditions, TSS removal efficiency of 99.9% was achieved. The sewage sludge generated with these optimal process conditions indicated 19.3% of ash content, 6.2% of salt, 1.7% of aluminum, 0.3% of iron, 0.4% of potassium, 256 ppm of zinc, and 2.1% of phosphorus. Hence, the results of this study affirm that electrocoagulation can be considered as a solution for marine pollution caused by fishing industries.


— Virtualization has moved to the forefront of many organizations' IT agendas, because it reduces both the number of physical servers required and the associated costs. This independent study by the International Technology group found IBM PowerVM more cost-competitive over time, compared to VMware, in terms of IT costs and the costs of downtime.And its show independent study can change IT sector


Cartilage functions as a scaffold for bone formation during development. This process, endochondral ossification, is regulated by systemic hormones and local growth factors. Members of the transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-β) superfamily are essential mediators in cell proliferation and differentiation and play a regulatory role in cartilage and bone formation. The TGF-β superfamily consists of three major subgroups: TGF-β1-3, bone morphogenetic proteins (BMPs), and activins. This thesis presents functional data on TGF-β1 in cartilage formation, BMP2 and BMP3 in bone formation, and a potential role of the BMP-regulatory protein noggin in BMP2 processing. TGF-β1 is found in articular cartilage, stabilizing the chondrocytic phenotype and inhibiting terminal differentiation of chondrocytes. The effect of retrovirally gene-manipulated chondrocytes overexpressing TGF-β1 was investigated. Eight weeks after infection the transgene TGF-β1 was still expressed and the transduced chondrocytes displayed enhanced expression of cartilage-associated matrix molecules. BMP2 possesses the capacity to induce differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells into osteocytes. The gene therapy concept was utilized to assess the osteogenic capacity of osteoprogenitor cells overexpressing BMP2. These cells were capable of differentiating into osteocytes in vitro and formed ectopic bone in vivo. The effect of BMP3 was investigated in cell culture where it counteracted the effects of BMP2. BMP3 was shown to exert its effect through the activin pathway. The effect of BMP3 on bone formation was further demonstrated in mutant mice with targeted deletion of the BMP3 gene. Radiographic and histomorphometric analyses on femurs revealed a higher trabecular bone density in these animals as compared to that in matched wild-type controls. Noggin antagonizes the effects of BMP2 and BMP4 by direct binding. In co-transfection experiments noggin was shown to promote secretion of BMP2. Cells co-expressing BMP2 and noggin displayed an enhanced bone inductive capacity in vitro and in vivo. Noggin may participate in the processing and secretion of BMP2 in addition to inhibiting the mature secreted BMP2 molecule.


Purpose: The paper fits into the current of research of the use of SCDS spreads as a country credit risk assessment tool. The main objective of the study is to investigate the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on the level of credit risk, measured by SCDS spreads in selected CEE countries. The study hypothesized that Covid-19 dynamics in Hungary, Poland, Russia and Slovakia moderately contributed to the assessment of country credit risk, measured by SCDS spreads. Design/Methodology/Approach: The study uses source literature analysis and quantitative research: time series analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. The time series analysis made it possible to study the dynamics and directions of changes in SCDS spreads and Covid-19. Linear regression analysis was used to investigate the correlation between SCDS spreads and the Covid-19 pandemic. Findings: The results of the research confirmed the hypothesis. Studies have shown that the strength of the correlation between SCDS spreads and Covid-19 factors (such as cases, deaths, tests or Covid-19 vaccinations) is weak. Practical Implications: The article will define the determinants of the impact of the pandemic on the credit risk assessment of selected CEE countries. These determinants include the number of Covid-19 cases, test, deaths, and Covid-19 vaccination, as well as the rate of Covid-19 spread and the level of restrictions. This study will contribute to a better understanding of the credit risk assessments of selected CEE countries in health crisis context Originality/Value: Based on the analysis of the literature, a research gap was identified in terms of the impact of Covid-19 pandemic on the assessment of credit risk of selected CEE countries. This study will contribute to the knowledge on the correlation between SCDS spreads of these countries and pandemic indicator. The study also contributes to the discussion on the use of SCDS spreads to assessment credit risk during crises.


Drivers' lane changing violations at a curbside bus stop on an undivided three-lane roadway were investigated. Logit models were developed to determine contributing factors to the violations. Bicycle lane presence, low opposing traffic volume and longer bus dwell time at a bus stop were associated with a higher probability of a lane changing violation by drivers waiting behind the stopped bus. More violations were observed on one-way left-turn lanes than two-way left-turn lanes during the study period. By combining various opposing traffic volumes and bus dwell times, a guidance chart of a lane-changing violation probability was developed, which can be applied when determining types of bus stops, their placement, and when developing safety programs for safer and better mobility on three-lane roadways. This study can be a valuable resource in improving safety and mobility program at bus stops on three-lane roadways because three-lane roadways are being used more often as part of sustainable surface transportation programs such as road diets.


Drought stress directly affects growth along with productivity of plants by altering plant water status. The early effect of drought on plant growth is inhibition of shoot as well as root growth. Sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) an oilseed crop, is adversely affected by abiotic stresses. The present study was carried out to characterize the genetic variability for seedling and morpho-physiological parameters in different sunflower genotypes under well watered and water stressed conditions. In this study a total of twenty seven genotypes including two hybrids, eight advanced lines and seventeen accessions of sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.) were tested against drought stress at germination and seedling stages. The material was sown within pots at the laboratory of Plant Breeding and Molecular Genetics, University of Poonch, Faculty of Agriculture Rawalakot. Five seeds of each genotype were planted in each pot. The experiment was laid out in 2x2 factorial completely randomized design with three replications. Significant means were calculated among traits using analysis of variance (ANOVA) whereas, correlation and Principle component analysis also confirmed that germination percentage, root length, proline content, shoot length, chlorophyll content, stomatal frequency and survival percentage are positively linked with each other hence these traits were responsible for most of variation among genotypes. The cluster analysis verified Ausun, line-2, line-8, 17559, 17578, Hysun-33, 17555, and 17587 as more diverse among all the genotypes.


Background/Aims The therapeutic effect of transarterial chemoembolization (TACE) against hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is usually assessed using multidetector computed tomography (MDCT). However, dense lipiodol depositions can mask the enhancement of viable HCC tissue in MDCT. Contrast-enhanced ultrasonography (CEUS) could be effective in detecting small areas of viability and patency in vessels. We investigated whether arterial enhancement in CEUS after treatment with TACE can be used to detect HCC viability earlier than when using MDCT. Methods Twelve patients received CEUS, MDCT, and gadoxetic-acid-enhanced dynamic magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) at baseline and 4 and 12 weeks after TACE. The definition of viable HCC was defined as MRI positivity after 4 or 12 weeks. Results Eight of the 12 patients showed MRI positivity at 4 or 12 weeks. All patients with positive CEUS findings at 4 weeks (n=8) showed MRI positivity and residual viable HCC at 4 or 12 weeks. Five of the eight patients with positive CEUS findings at 4 weeks had negative results on the 4-week MDCT scan. Four (50%) of these eight patients did not have MRI positivity at 4 weeks and were ultimately confirmed as having residual HCC tissue at the 12-week MRI. Kappa statistics revealed near-perfect agreement between CEUS and MRI (κ=1.00) and substantial agreement between MDCT and MRI (κ=0.67). Conclusions In the assessment of the response to TACE, CEUS at 4 weeks showed excellent results for detecting residual viable HCC, which suggests that CEUS can be used as an early additive diagnosis tool when deciding early additional treatment with TACE.


Extracellular acidification, a mandatory feature of several malignancies, has been mainly correlated with metabolic reprogramming of tumor cells toward Warburg metabolism, as well as to the expression of carbonic anydrases or proton pumps by malignant tumor cells. We report herein that for aggressive prostate carcinoma, acknowledged to be reprogrammed toward an anabolic phenotype and to upload lactate to drive proliferation, extracellular acidification is mainly mediated by stromal cells engaged in a molecular cross-talk circuitry with cancer cells. Indeed, cancer-associated fibroblasts, upon their activation by cancer delivered soluble factors, rapidly express carbonic anhydrase IX (CA IX). While expression of CAIX in cancer cells has already been correlated with poor prognosis in various human tumors, the novelty of our findings is the upregulation of CAIX in stromal cells upon activation. The de novo expression of CA IX, which is not addicted to hypoxic conditions, is driven by redox-based stabilization of hypoxia-inducible factor-1. Extracellular acidification due to carbonic anhydrase IX is mandatory to elicit activation of stromal fibroblasts delivered metalloprotease-2 and -9, driving in cancer cells the epithelial-mesenchymal transition epigenetic program, a key event associated with increased motility, survival and stemness. Both genetic silencing and pharmacological inhibition of CA IX (with sulfonamide/sulfamides potent inhibitors) or metalloprotease-9 are sufficient to impede epithelial-mesenchymal transition and invasiveness of prostate cancer cells induced by contact with cancer-associated fibroblasts. We also confirmed in vivo the upstream hierarchical role of stromal CA IX to drive successful metastatic spread of prostate carcinoma cells. These data include stromal cells, as cancer-associated fibroblasts as ideal targets for carbonic anhydrase IX-directed anticancer therapies.


Backoff algorithms are typically employed in multiple-access networks (e.g., Ethernet) to recover from packet collisions. We propose and carry out the analysis for three types of link-layer backoff schemes, namely linear backoff, exponential backoff, and geometric backoff, on point-to-point wireless fading links where packet errors occur non-independently. In such a scenario, the backoff schemes are shown to achieve better energy efficiency without compromising much on the link layer throughput performance.


In manufacturing an aspheric lens or mirror, it is often convenient to generate a spherical surface as a starting point. The radius of the sphere should be such that the volume of glass which must be removed to achieve the final aspheric is a minimum. Equations for this best-fit sphere are developed and arranged in a form well suited for computer programming.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the pattern of work-family interface outcomes by empirically testing work-family conflict and facilitation bidirectional dimensions simultaneously in relation to domains-specific (job and family) and domain nonspecific (life) satisfactions. In addition, the indirect effects of work-family interface dimensions on life satisfaction (LS), mediated through both domain-specific satisfactions are also examined to understand which domain satisfaction elicits major impact on LS.

Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling analysis was conducted on questionnaire data obtained from 212 fulltime journalists working in top ten dailies of Punjab, India. Parallel multiple mediated regression was used to estimate specific indirect effects caused by each of the two parallel mediators (job satisfaction (JS) and family satisfaction (FS)).

Findings
Results illustrate that both dimensions of work-family conflict strongly decreased satisfaction of an originating domain than satisfaction of the receiving domain while both dimensions of work-family facilitation increased satisfaction of both the domains on equal basis. Results further reveal that the effect of work-family conflict and facilitation dimensions on LS is indirect rather than direct. On comparison of specific indirect effects results demonstrate that only originating domain satisfaction act as a mediator to work-family conflict and LS relationship, while both JS and FS act as mediators to work-family facilitation and LS relationship.

Practical implications
Media organizations can offer interventions like family friendly policies, overtime pay, more autonomy, work rewards and skill variety, so that employees' workplace resource reservoir can be strongly built up to meet future work and family demands. In this way, positive intrusion from work-to-family takes place, which leads to more JS and FS and in turn increased overall LS.

Originality/value
The study removes inconsistency regarding pattern of work-family conflict and facilitation outcomes by testing a comprehensive model that integrates originating domain, receiving-domain and domain-nonspecific outcomes.


While there is a large body of academic debate surrounding human resource management issues in multinational corporations (MNCs), industrial relations (IR) issues often fail to receive the same degree of attention. This paper attempts to move the debate forward by critically reviewing some of the key debates surrounding IR in an international context. First, some key themes surrounding the comparison of industrial relations across borders and IR in multinational companies are delineated and defined. Then, the reasons why an international IR (IIR) perspective has been under-represented in the literature to date are considered. The paper then explores the contribution which an IIR perspective can bring to the study of management practices in MNCs. This is discussed in terms of IIR's potential contribution as an alternative analytical approach and also differences in its substantive coverage. The impact of IR systems on MNC location and relocation decisions, key issues for employees, trade unions and managers of MNCs, is then discussed as an example of the former. The potential for, and evidence of, international collective bargaining as a potential counter-balance to the power the MNC in the global environment is then considered as an example of a differing area of substantive coverage of IIR. Finally, some avenues for potential study are outlined.


Summary: "Forty tests were conducted with two amphibious tracked vehicles and one amphibious wheeled vehicle at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., and near Khon Kaen, Thailand, to determine the vehicles' capabilities for exiting closed bodies of water. Empirical relations, based on the data collected in this study and in previous studies, are presented to support the conclusions that performance of amphibious tracked and wheeled vehicles (in terms of "go-no go") in the water-land interface can be correlated with soil strength (expressed as average cone index of the 0- to 6-in. soil layer), and that the slope-climbing ability in the water-land interface of the tracked vehicles tested compares favorably with that of the same vehicles operating on land surfaces of similar soil composition and consistency" (p. ix).


Stevens Johnson Syndrome is an unlikely, lethal, severe skin and mucosal hypersensitive reaction of delayed type, identified by detachment of epidermis, necrosis of mucosa with stomatitis and purulent conjunctivitis requiring prompt medical intervention. Drugs like antibiotics, anticonvulsants and oxide inhibitors are the vital cause of developing Stevens Johnson syndrome. A 12 year old female patient was admitted in pediatric department with the chief complaints of oral lesions on the bilateral buccal mucosa and hard palate causing difficulty in opening mouth and swallowing since 10 days. Past medical history revealed that the patient had fever and sore throat and was prescribed tablet amoxyclav (amoxicillin – clavulanic acid) by a local medical practitioner, after that patient developed ulcer in the buccal cavity and around the lips. The patient was managed with cephalosporin antibiotic (ceftriaxone), betadine mouthwash, candid ointment, nutritional supplements and systemic steroids (dexamethasone). Naranjo causality assessment score was 6 in our patient and amoxicillin clavulanic acid induced Stevens Johnson syndrome was probable and moreover on severity assessment by Hartwigs Severity Assessment Scale the severity level for the suspected adverse drug reactions was 5 therefore amoxicillin clavulanic acid induced Stevens johnson syndrome was a severe adverse drug reaction. Early detection of symptoms of Stevens johnson syndrome followed by prompt withdrawal of offending drug and timely management can improve the clinical condition of patients. Key words: Amoxicillin - clavulanic acid, Hartwigs Severity Assesment Scale, Stevens Johnson Syndrome, Hypersensitivity reaction, Naranjo Causality Assessment.


BACKGROUND
Identifying and engaging excessive alcohol users in primary care may be an effective way to improve patient health outcomes, reduce alcohol-related acute care events, and lower costs. Little is known about what structures of primary care team communication are associated with alcohol-related patient outcomes.

METHODS
Using a sociometric survey of primary care clinic communication, this study evaluated the relation between team communication networks and alcohol-related utilization of care and costs. Between May 2013 and December 2013, a total of 155 healthcare employees at 6 primary care clinics participated in a survey on team communication. Three-level hierarchical modeling evaluated the link between connectedness within the care team and the number of alcohol-related emergency department visits, hospital days, and associated medical care costs in the past 12 months for each team's primary care patient panel.

RESULTS
Teams (n = 31) whose registered nurses displayed more strong (at least daily) face-to-face ties and strong (at least daily) electronic communication ties had 10% fewer alcohol-related hospital days (rate ratio [RR] = 0.90; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.84, 0.97). Furthermore, in an average team size of 19, each additional team member with strong interaction ties across the whole team was associated with $1,030 (95% CI: -$1,819, -$241) lower alcohol-related patient healthcare costs per 1,000 team patients in the past 12 months. Conversely, teams whose primary care practitioner (PCP) had more strong face-to-face communication ties and more weak (weekly or several times a week) electronic communication ties had 12% more alcohol-related hospital days (RR = 1.12; 95% CI: 1.03, 1.23) and $1,428 (95% CI: $378, $2,478) higher alcohol-related healthcare costs per 1,000 patients in the past 12 months. The analyses controlled for patient age, gender, insurance, and comorbidity diagnoses.

CONCLUSIONS
Excessive alcohol-using patients may fair better if cared for by teams whose face-to-face and electronic communication networks include more team members and whose communication to the PCP has been streamlined to fewer team members.


AIM
The aim of this study was to investigate the role of two candidate gene polymorphisms for insulin resistance and lipid levels in obese children and adolescents.

METHODS
Two markers of insulin resistance and lipid levels, Pro12Ala in peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma2 (PPARG) and G276T in adiponectin (ADIPOQ), were genotyped in 285 obese children and adolescents. As the apolipoprotein E (APOE) polymorphisms C112R and R158C are known to have a profound impact on lipid levels in both children and adults, results were adjusted for APOE genotype.

RESULTS
We found no association for PPARG or ADIPOQ polymorphisms with Body Mass Index (BMI), High Density Lipoprotein (HDL)-cholesterol, triglycerides or Insulin Resistance estimated by Homeostasis Model of Assessment (HOMA-IR). Wild type carriers of PPARG Pro12Ala (p<0.05), homozygous carriers of the variant allele of ADIPOQ G276T (p<0.001) and epsilon4 carriers of APOE (p<0.001) had higher total and low density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol levels adjusted for age, gender, BMI and insulin sensitivity. A PPARG/ADIPOQ risk genotype combination was identified by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) comparing all existing combinations. Carriers of PPARG Pro/Pro and ADIPOQ 276 T/T had higher total (5.0 [4.1-5.8] vs. 4.1 [3.6-4.6] mmol/l) and LDL-cholesterol levels (3.7 [2.9-4.5] vs. 3.0 [2.5-3.5] mmol/l) compared with carriers of other combinations (p<0.001). Importantly, the PPARG and ADIPOQ associations were unaffected when adjusting for APOE genotype.

CONCLUSIONS
Genetic variants in candidate genes for insulin resistance are associated with cholesterol levels in obese children and adolescents, and may offer additional information in the risk assessment of obese children.


The United States has experienced the development of two food "streams." One is based on an industrial model and is dominated by a handful of large, integrated transnational corporations. The other relies on direct marketing that links food producers with consumers. Although the latter food stream is small by the standards of industrial agribusiness, it is growing rapidly. The articles in this collection address various aspects of industrial food production and its alternatives. They provide much-needed information on how the two food streams actually work and what they mean for communities.


This paper considers some of the systems level issues concerned with the building of large scale sensing systems composed of autonomous intelligent sensors. The work is motivated by the potential offered by monolithic, integrated, intelligent MEMS sensors. They provide very low cost sensing in a form which may be included in 'smart structures' for example, in which structural diagnostic capability is deeply integrated into the structure itself. Designing and implementing such large sensing systems, however, raises a number of challenges, of which, many are still far from being resolved. Optimal redundancy, the follow on issue of fault management and their strategic consequences on the overall systems design requirements are chosen for discussion here. When considering the above, extended network lifetime is an important goal in the system design process. A 'peer to peer' architecture of autonomous sensors, with no specialised control or processing nodes in the network is taken as the starting point of the discussion. This architecture is often put forward as being suitable for high reliability requirements, as the operation of the systems is not dependent on the operation of a single, specialised resource. Given that reliability generally depends on redundancy within the array, the aim is to optimize the level of redundancy in that array. Optimal redundancy depends on two systems functions. The first is a means by which a sensor in such an array may self detect fault conditions, and the second is the provision of a reliable means of handling these faults. A method of fault detection based on artificial neural networks (ANNs) is described, which allows a sensor to detect whether it is functioning correctly, based on its own signal and that provided by a single neighbouring sensor. Within a decentralised, peer to peer network the identification of a neighbour and the subsequent handling of fault conditions require careful consideration, since, without a centralised controller, such systems are prone to deadlock conditions if the interaction between peers is not designed properly. The paper presents a protocol design for decentralised fault handling, modelled in the pi-calculus, a formalism that would allow the investigation of the dynamic properties of a system at the specification stage, as well as proof of the existence of required safety and liveness properties. Based on autonomous diagnostics, such as those described, and rigorous systems design techniques dependable networks of autonomous intelligent sensors may be designed


Objective: To investigate the role of lysosome-associated membrane protein type 2A (LAMP-2A) for immune-mediated liver injury of primary biliary cholangitis (PBC). Methods: The association between LAMP-2A expression and PBC was examined by immunohistochemistry and electron microscopy in liver tissue samples from patients with PBC. Furthermore, the immunological damage of LAMP-2A overexpression on mouse liver was observed by adeno-associated virus (AAV) overexpression technique. The expression level of mRNA was analyzed by Student's t-test. The data were graphed and analyzed statistically using graphpad prism 5 (GraphPad Software).A value of p < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: The expression of LAMP-2A in liver tissue of PBC patients was increased, and the autophagosome formation was observed in hepatocytes. C57BL/6 mice were injected into the caudal vein with LAMP-2A AAV for 6 weeks. The formation of autophagosomes in mouse hepatocytes was increased significantly. The expression of related molecules was abnormal; simultaneously, the degree of lymphocyte infiltration in the liver tissue of mice was significantly higher than the control group. Conclusion: An overexpression of LAMP-2A in the liver of patients with PBC may induce and/or promote the hepatic inflammatory response, especially the portal inflammatory infiltrate.


People increasingly rely on mobile phones for storing sensitive information and credentials for access to services. Because these devices are vulnerable to theft, security of this data is put at higher risk—once the attacker is in physical possession of the device, recovering these credentials and impersonating the owner of the phone is hard to defend by purely local means. We introduce the concept of 'notarization', a process by which a remote notary verifies the identity of the device user through video chat. We describe the design and implementation of a system that leverages notarization to protect cryptographic keys that the device uses to decrypt device data (e.g., website passwords) or perform signatures in support of client-side TLS, without trusting the notary with these keys. Through a lab-based study with 56 participants, we show that notarization even by strangers is effective for combating device theft.


We live in a globalised world which is changing at a rapid pace and is increasingly characterised by environmental and economic uncertainty. To be successful in work and life beyond school, students need a set of cross-functional capabilities that will enable them to adapt to the changing society in which they live. The present research examines the relationship between the 21st Century Learning Design (21CLD) program as a model for professional learning and its impact on innovative teaching practice. Six participating registered teachers in Victoria and Western Australia undertook a survey pertaining to the frequency of innovative teaching practice, the way in which they design learning activities, and their experiences of undertaking the professional learning (21CLD). Overall, results indicated that the 21CLD program led to significantly greater innovative teaching practices. Therefore, the hypotheses for this research was that participants would have greater opportunity to engage in professional learning, increased their frequency of practice supporting innovative teaching, and were more likely to design learning activities around 21st century capabilities. It was concluded that the 21CLD program had a positive impact on the innovative teaching practice of the participants. Future research should focus on the effectiveness of the 21CLD program on a larger sample so that the results can be generalised.


A measurement of the inclusive semileptonic branching ratios of b hadrons produced in Z decay is presented, using four million hadronic events collected by the ALEPH detector from 1991 to 1995. Electrons and muons are selected opposite to b-tagged hemispheres. Two different methods are explored to distinguish the contributions from direct b → X ν and cascade b → c → X ν decays to the total lepton The ALEPH Collaboration: Inclusive semileptonic branching ratios of b hadrons produced in Z decays 615 yield. One is based on the lepton transverse momentum spectrum, the other makes use of the correlation between the charge of the lepton and charge estimators built from tracks in the opposite hemisphere of the event. The latter method reduces the dependence on the modelling of semileptonic b decays. The results obtained by averaging the two techniques are BR(b → X ν) = 0.1070 ± 0.0010 stat ± 0.0023 syst ± 0.0026model , BR(b → c → X ν) = 0.0818 ± 0.0015 stat ± 0.0022 syst +0.0010 −0.0014 model .


Mesoionics are neutral compounds that cannot be represented by a fully covalent or purely ionic structure. Among the possible mesomeric structures of these compounds are the diradical electronic configurations. Theoretical and experimental studies indicate that some mesoionic rings are unstable, which may be related to a significant diradical character, that until then is not quantified. In this work, we investigated the diradical character of four heterocycles: 1,3-oxazol-5-one, 1,3-oxazol-5-thione, 1,3-thiazole-5-one, and 1,3-thiazole-5-thione. The oxazoles are known to be significatively less stable than thiazoles. DFT and ab initio single (B3LYP, MP2, CCSD, and QCISD) and ab initio multi-reference (MR-CISD) methods with three basis sets (6-311+G(d), aug-cc-pVDZ, and aug-cc-pVTZ) were employed to assess the diradical character of the investigated systems, in gas phase and DMSO solvent, from three criteria: (i) HOMO-LUMO energy gap, (ii) determination of energy difference between singlet and triplet wave functions, and (iii) quantification of the most significant diradical character (y0, determined in the unrestricted formalism). All of the results showed that the diradical character of the investigated systems is very small. However, the calculated electronic structures made it possible to identify the possible origin of the oxazoles instability, which can help the design of mesoionic systems with the desired properties.


Two studies offer insight into the cellular processes that produce twists and turns in lung and gut tubes. Tubes constructed from single-layered sheets of epithelial cells (which line body surfaces and cavities) provide the structural basis for many internal organs (1). These tubes assume diverse forms, from the 25-foot-long, highly coiled intestine, to the elaborate branched networks of the lung and kidney. Even the brain and heart arise from simple epithelial tubes. Each tube must attain the precise length and diameter required for its physiological function, and creating tubes that bend, coil, branch, or twist requires additional regulatory mechanisms or modes of cellular force production. A major challenge for developmental biologists studying organ formation in the embryo, and for tissue engineers who aspire to build organs in the lab, is to understand how the molecular-level control of subcellular forces leads to tissue-level control of epithelial tube size and shape. Two papers in this issue, by Tang et al. (2) on page 342 and by Taniguchi et al. (3) on page 339, address this challenge. They provide new insight into the cellular processes that make the right tube to fit the job.


The thesis records the competitive addition reactions of CFBr₂, CF₂I, CHF₂. and CH₂F radicals to each of vinyl fluoride, 1,1-difluoroethylene, trifluoroethylene and tetrafluoroethylene in the presence of ethylene, and a few additional reactions in the absence of ethylene. The results are discussed in conjunction with the corresponding results for addition of C₃F7, (CF₃)₂CF, C₂F5, CF₃, CF₂Br, CC1₃ and CH₃ radicals. Part 1 records the photolytic reactions of CFBr₃. At short wavelengths both CFBr₂ and CFBr are formed but the contribution to product formation from the carbene was insignificant in the kinetic series conducted at ₃66 nm. Competitive addition of CFBr₂ gave, from the Arrhenius plots, the A-factor and activation energy differences and the relative rates of the addition steps. The activation energy differences showed a good correlation with atom localisation energies for C₃F7, CF₃, CF₂Br, CC1₃ and CFBr₂ radicals. The photolytic reactions of CHF₂I and CH₂FI with the fluoroethylenes are recorded in parts 2 and 3 respectively. The primary photolysis step with CHF₂I gives difluoromethyl radicals and excited iodine atoms. The excited I (³P[sub]½) atoms abstract hydrogen from CHF₂I giving a system containing both CHF₂ and CF₂I radicals. The Arrhenius plots for addition of CF₂I radicals follow the same pattern as for CFBr₂ with much reduced selectivity. Addition of difluoromethyl and fluoromethyl radicals, apart from the normal Arrhenius behaviour observed for competitive addition between ethylene and tetrafluoro-ethylene, show anomalous Arrhenius behaviour with negative slopes corresponding to diverging adduct ratios with increasing temperatures, and A-factors varying by up to three orders of magnitude. Several potential factors causing the anomalies are considered and excluded; dimerisation and cross combination of radical species; telomerisation of and hydrogen abstraction by the adduct radicals; elimination of HI from the adducts; and reversibility of the addition steps. The evidence favours joint participation of ground state (CHF₂, CH₂F) and vibrationally excited (CHF₂, CH₂F) radicals in non-reversible addition reactions, ground state radicals predominating at high temperature and excited state at low temperature. Analysis of the complete set of results indicates that, for fully halogenated alkyl radicals, orientation of addition to unsymmetrical fluoroethylenes is a function of steric factors: the logarithms of orientation ratios at 150°C give a linear correlation with radical radii. With partially halogenated alkyl radicals the strong polar differences between hydrogen and halogen atoms requires the introduction of a polar term, which, combined with radical radii, gives a linear correlation including both partially and fully halogenated alkyl radicals with logarithms of the orientation ratios.


Despite the Queensland sugar industry's status as a low-cost producer of sugar, there appears to be considerable scope to reduce costs by improving the efficiency of the cane harvesting and transport process, especially in the Mackay district. The key areas of inefficiency result from poor utilisation of both harvesting and mill transport equipment. Insights from the research approach used to address the key issues of this problem - the potential savings from raising the efficiency of sugarcane harvesttransport systems, and the failure of the Mackay district to adopt measures to improve the efficiency of its harvest-transport systems – are discussed in this paper.


Water quality of resources in large parts of South Africa is declining. The Vaal River is heavily polluted when it reaches its mid-section at Midvaal Water Company in the North-West Province. Midvaal, a water service provider, abstracts and treats water from the Middle Vaal to supply bulk potable water in compliance with the South African National Standard 241:2015 for drinking water. The main objectives of the case study were to investigate water treatment challenges at Midvaal due to changes in source water quality, to evaluate wastewater recycling at the plant and the effect thereof on sustainable drinking water supply and to determine the impact of the Koekemoerspruit on the Middle Vaal River by an integrated study of phytoplankton assemblages and water physico-chemistry. The dissolved air flotation process, since 1997, had the most significant impact since it accounts for almost 70% total chlorophyll removal. Surface water samples were sampled on a monthly basis at sites located in the Koekemoerspruit and on a daily basis from the Middle Vaal River intake as well as sites within the plant for the different sections of this study. Sampling frequency, durations and required analytical methods were based on monitoring programs for each system. Samples were analysed at Midvaal Water Company Scientific Services. The phytoplankton identification and enumeration were performed at the North-West University, Potchefstroom campus. The yearly average total chlorophyll concentrations of the source water gradually increased from 33 μg/L (1984) to 133 μg/L (2014). The treatment facility suffers from severe taste and odour episodes during summer due to the presence of 2-methylisoborneol (MIB), released by Cyanophyceae. Concentrations of > 300 ng/L MIB were recorded. The processes of the wastewater recycling system did not compromise final water quality. Total chlorophyll concentration was identified as the principal risk during wastewater recycling, especially after filtration. Results from the Koekemoerspruit indicated that target water quality objectives for orthophosphate, nitrate and nitrite and ammonia were exceeded during 2014 and 2015, indicating severe organic pollution. Colour, ammonia and total chlorophyll concentrations displayed significant increasing trends over time and increased drastically after 2012. Average phytoplankton concentrations of 1 410 069 cells/ml and 417 931 cells/ml were determined for the Middle Vaal and Koekemoerspruit respectively. A total of 86 phytoplankton genera were collectively identified. A redundancy analysis confirmed that water quality had a definite effect on the phytoplankton assemblages (p-value of 0.08). The treatment process changes enabled the plant to manage the increasing phytoplankton load in the source. Wastewater recycling was both operationaland cost-effective. The Koekemoerspruit, suffering severe organic pollution, did not impact significantly on the water quality of the Middle Vaal, except for total chlorophyll. The Chlorophyceae taxon (48%) and Scenedesmus spp. genus dominated in the nutrient enriched Middle Vaal River. The Cyanophyceae taxon (45%) and Nitszchia spp.


Abstract The texture evolution in equiaxed polycrystalline L10-FePd during the coarsening regime of annealing at 600°C after cold-rolling has been investigated, using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy. A change in dominant texture was observed. Using the nomenclature established for texture description of face-centered cubic metals, the texture of the L10-FePd develops from a brass-type texture into a strong cube-type texture during coarsening. Also, a large density of special high-angle grain boundaries emerged during coarsening, which can be described as coherent R2-boundaries and are associated with (90±5)°-rotations about a common cube-axis between the neighboring grains. The emergence of R2-boundaries may play an important role for previously reported abnormalities in the grain growth kinetics.


Transportation plays an important role for the industry because the producers have an interest in getting their goods transported to the customer on time, at the exact spot and goods are in good condition. Sari et al (2013) have optimized the transportation problem on the cement distribution system of PT. XYZ. In those article, optimization is done by minimizing transportation costs using the initial fiscal solution with the Least Cost method and calculating the optimal solution with potential method. However, in that calculation, the distance factor between the warehouse and the distribution and transport capacity is not considered. In fact, in distributing a product, the mileage factor becomes important enough to be considered because it involves many things in its operation. Therefore, in this article, the cement distribution cost will be optimized by using modified model of the transportation model used in Sari et al (2013).


The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly shut down schools in an urban based school district in the Spring of 2020. As the closures persisted over months, an immediate educational need arose for online curricula that could help alleviate the learning gaps caused by the shutdown. The purpose of this study was to create a process and model for the development of a fully asynchronous online learning environment for prekindergarten through 2nd grade students that could help other districts implement similar projects. Since the turnaround time for development and implementation was a matter of weeks the project team used an iterative process to solve a "wicked problem" and identified solutions to create an improved user experience. A modified design thinking model approach was developed through the process of developing this six-week, theme based virtual curriculum that included interactivities in early literacy, writing, reading comprehension, science and math. This adjusted model includes 6 stages: discover, interpretation, ideation, experimentation, implementation, and evolution. This research focuses on the processes involved during each of the stages and the resulting use by the intended audience. The curriculum was used by over 5,800 prekindergarten through second grade students during the 6-week period of the summer of 2020. The online platform continues to be used by students presently.


The Genetics Society of America annually honors members who have made outstanding contributions to genetics. The Thomas Hunt Morgan Medal recognizes a lifetime contribution to the science of genetics. The Genetics Society of America Medal recognizes particularly outstanding contributions to the science of genetics within the past fifteen years. The George W. Beadle Medal recognizes distinguished service to the field of genetics and the community of geneticists. We are pleased to announce the 2000 awards.


We investigate the unconstrained global optimization of functions with low effective dimensionality, which are constant along certain (unknown) linear subspaces. Extending the technique of random subspace embeddings in Wang et al. (2016, J. Artificial Intelligence Res., 55, 361–387), we study a generic Random Embeddings for Global Optimization (REGO) framework that is compatible with any global minimization algorithm. Instead of the original, potentially large-scale optimization problem, within REGO, a Gaussian random, low-dimensional problem with bound constraints is formulated and solved in a reduced space. We provide novel probabilistic bounds for the success of REGO in solving the original, low effective-dimensionality problem, which show its independence of the (potentially large) ambient dimension and its precise dependence on the dimensions of the effective and embedding subspaces. These results significantly improve existing theoretical analyses by providing the exact distribution of a reduced minimizer and its Euclidean norm and by the general assumptions required on the problem. We validate our theoretical findings by extensive numerical testing of REGO with three types of global optimization solvers, illustrating the improved scalability of REGO compared with the full-dimensional application of the respective solvers.


Introduction Since the 2015/16 refugee influx to Germany and other European countries, these host societies have been challenged with the integration of culturally distant refugees. These recent arrivals can strategically invest their time in activities promoting their integration, thereby rendering time use as a channel of integration. Refugees are a vulnerable group that differs from other immigrants with respect to their migration motivation, experience, and conditions in the receiving countries. Accordingly, refugees might also differ from other immigrants with respect to their time use. This might play a role in explaining differences in refugees' and other immigrants' integration outcomes. Methods Using a cluster analysis approach, this contribution (1) descriptively examines whether and to what extent refugees' time use differs from that of other immigrants and the host-country population in Germany and (2) examines the role of refugees' legal status for their time use. The study examines time allocation to different activities of refugees, other first-generation immigrants, and native Germans, using data collected from 2016 to 2019 of the German Socio-Economic Panel, including the IAB-BAMF-SOEP Survey of Refugees and the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample. Results and discussion Results from (1) the cluster analysis approach show different clusters of time use patterns for the three population groups of refugees, other immigrants, and natives. For native Germans and other immigrants, the dominant time use cluster is characterized by full-time investment in employment activities. For refugees, the dominant time use pattern is characterized by low overall invested hours to the measured activities (low activity cluster). In contrast to the other two groups, a cluster of refugees predominantly allocating their time to employment activities is not found. Pooled analyses (2) of the role of refugees' legal status show some evidence that those who have a form of protection status, in comparison to those who have asylum seeker status, have a lower probability to display childcare- and household-related activities than to report low activity. However, fixed effects analyses show that refugees receiving a positive decision on their asylum application do not change with respect to their time use patterns.


Abstract Phyllanthus comprises approximately 1,270 species, making it one of the world's largest plant genera. Molecular data so far are of limited value for understanding Phyllanthus because of the sheer size of the genus. They can, however, help sort-out cryptic species and provide information on the origin of suspected introduced species. One of the seemingly most widespread species is P. reticulatus, which has been recorded from Asia, Australia, Africa, and Jamaica. The name is based on a mixed collection from tropical Asia now in the Lamarck herbarium, and we lectotypify it here. We use nuclear ITS sequences to test the broad treatment of P. reticulatus in recent floras, identify records of "P. reticulatus" from Africa, and investigate the origin of P. reticulatus on Jamaica. A maximum likelihood tree for accessions of P. reticulatus from throughout its supposed range (plus relevant outgroups) shows that the Jamaican plants represent the Asian species, that the African plants called P. reticulatus belong to a separate clade for which P. polyspermus is the oldest available name, and that the sensu lato treatment of P. reticulatus in recent floras is unjustified. Treating the Asian entities P. reticulatus and P. microcarpus as separate species appears justified, and identical ITS sequences in Asian and Jamaican P. reticulatus indicate a recent introduction. The first "island botanists," J. Macfadyen and N. Wilson, introduced many plants from India in the 1800s, and theirs are the oldest Jamaican collections of P. reticulatus. Since the species was introduced to Jamaica without its obligate Epicephala moth pollinators, it does not set fruit, persisting instead by vegetative growth.


The aim of our study was to survey the geosmin (GSM) and 2-methylisoborneol (MIB) concentrations of the sediment and that of common carp (Cyprinus carpio) flesh in three different Hungarian fish farms (clayey, marshy, and sodic ponds). Results showed that the concentrations of off-flavour compounds of the sediment and fish fillets were related to the natural environment. The GSM concentration of bottom soil samples was higher, than MIB in each fish farm. Both off-flavour compounds were the highest in the marshy fish pond and the lowest in the sodic pond. In case of fish flesh, significant differences were found between the farms in GSM level and fat content. In the fish flesh the same tendency was found as in the sediments, but surprisingly, MIB concentration was higher in the fillets, referring to accumulation.


Show by Cheng and Church to be an NP-complex problem, biclustering algorithms are more complex than the classical one dimensional clustering technique, particularly requiring multiple computing platforms for large and distributed datasets. In this study, we proposed and extension of the robust biclustering algorithm (RoBA) that is capable of performing biclustering on extremely large or geographically distributed set of gene expression data. The distributed version will divide the cluster tasks among A' processors with negligible communication costs thus making it scalable over large number of computing nodes. The proposed algorithm has been implemented using Matlab MPI and the performance results are reported based on executions on a 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 nodes Windows PC cluster connected over 100 Mbits links. The experimental results show increased performance with the increased number of nodes on the same set of data.


Upwards of 750,000 British ex-servicemen returned home permanently disabled from the First World War. Dealing with the enormity of war time disability put great strain on medical and financial resources and forced the British government to reassess, and radically alter its responsibilities towards disability in Britain. The
crisis of war highlighted existing inadequacies in care for the disabled. The war prompted not only changes in social policy, but in societal attitudes towards impairment as a whole.

This thesis will assess provisions for disabled ex-servicemen between the years 1899 and 1930. It will examine attitudes towards disability and argue that a social
understanding of disability can be found earlier in British society than has been hitherto suggested. The state, charity and medicine recognized that disability was not just a medical condition, but a social issue. Far from being exclusionary and discriminatory, policies aimed at disabled ex-servicemen were sensitive to the economic and social barriers which persons with impairment faced. These barriers included: discrimination; inaccessible public buildings and transport; poor employment options; unrealistic expectations placed on disabled persons to
`overcome' their impairments; and poverty. Whilst not denying the very real hardships that some men faced, or indeed the failure of some policies, the thesis will
posit that those who cared for disabled ex-servicemen, and disabled men themselves, held a more enlightened awareness towards disability than has been previously contended. Moreover, the state and charity discharged their responsibilities towards disabled men effectively. It is argued that disability issues during the years 1899 to
1930 are critically important for not only furthering an understanding of the war and its aftermath, but for the larger study of disability history. A closer understanding of impairment during these years prompts a reassessment of current disability theory.


Abstract
Chloride (CI) from runoff containing deicing salts is retained in watersheds after deicing ends, resulting in deleterious effects on aquatic biota. Stormwater management ponds (SWMPs) are known to impact pollutant transport. However, there is little information on what role SWMPs play in the timing and magnitude of CI transport in urban watersheds. This study quantifies the mass of CI retained in two urban SWMPs over varying timescales and the in-stream response to CI-laden pond outflows.
The findings suggest that SWMPs likely play a role in watershed-scale CI retention. In the receiving creek, CI pulses corresponded to CI release from the pond. The results of this study suggest that SWMPs concentrate spatially distributed salt inputs and modify the timing and magnitude of their release to receiving streams. This study will help parameterize the role of SWMPs in watershed-scale CI transport models and geospatial models of salt vulnerable areas.


The nonlinear progressive wave equation (NPE) computer code developed by McDonald and Kuperman [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 81, 1406–1417 (1987)] was used to evaluate a time domain solution in acoustic waveguides. In earlier works, modified versions of NPE [Too and Ginsberg, J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 91, 59–68 (1992)], which omitted dissipation effects, were described to evaluate continuous waves as well as transient waves radiated from a circular baffled piston. In the present work, dissipation due to thermoviscous effect is added to the earlier NPE model by assuming the dissipation effect is small in the transverse direction. Dissipation effects on finite amplitude sound beams are compared with the result of nondissipated NPE model at different locations in the sound field. In addition, dissipation effects on transient waves are shown by including different wavelengths in the initial tone burst of the transient wave. [Work supported by National Science Council and the George W. Woodruff endowment.]


Cutting fluid occupies an important position in the metal processing. The performance and pollution problem brought to the environment of cutting fluid are paid attention to day by day. Proceed from the perspective of green design, using castor oil which has a good biodegradability, triethanolamine, boric acid and the sodium polyacrylate whose molecular weight is less than 2×104 as the main raw materials, a boron-containing water-based cutting fluid had been obtained. The performance of B-containing water-based cutting fluid are measured according to GB/T6144-1985 regulation which is the technical requirements of synthetic cutting fluid. And the biodegradability of mineral oil, castor oil, modified castor oil and B-containing water-based cutting fluid are measured by improved Storstroem Test (OECD301B). The test results show that the B-containing water-based cutting fluid has a good performance of physical and chemical. And the biodegradation rate of the cutting fluid is 87%, which indicates the cutting fluid has a good biodegradability.


Tephrosia purpurea possesses hepatoprotective activity as evidenced by the significant and dose dependent restoring the activities of entire liver cancer marker enzymes, diminution in tumor incidence, decrease in lipid peroxidation (LPO) and increase in the level of antioxidant enzymes (GSH, CAT, SOD, GPx and GST) through scavenging of free radicals, or by enhancing the activity of antioxidant, which then detoxify free radicals. These factors protect cells from ROS damage in NDEA and CCl4-induced hepatocarcinogenesis. Histopathological observations of liver tissues too correlated with the biochemical observations. Thus, present investigation suggested that the Tephrosia purpurea would exert a chemoprotective effect by reversing the oxidant-antioxidant imbalance during hepatocarcinogenesis induced by NDEA and CCl4. Besides Tephrosia purpurea is very much effective in preventing NDEA-induced multistage hepatocarcinogenesis possibly through antioxidant and antigenotoxic nature, which was confirmed by various liver injury and biochemical tumour markers enzymes. The hepatoprotective activity of aTephrosia purpurea of 50 % ethanolic extract was studied using rats. The animals received a single intraperitoneal injection of N-nitrosodiethylamine 200mg/kg body wt followed by subcutaneous injection of CCl4 in a dose of 3 ml/kg body wt.Tephrosia purpureaextract dose dependently and significantly the increase in serum hepatic enzyme levels after NDEAand CCl4 treatment compared to the toxin control group. The results of this study confirmed the antioxidant and hepatoprotective activity of the Tephrosia purpurea extract against carbon tetrachlorideand N-nitrosodiethylamine induced hepatotoxicity in rats.


INTRODUCTION
Pain and its control have been studied extensively in the emergency department. Numerous studies indicate that inadequate treatment of pain is common, despite the availability of myriad analgesics. It has been suggested that oligoanesthesia is also a common practice in the prehospital setting.

OBJECTIVE
To assess the use of prehospital analgesia in patients with suspected extremity fracture.

METHODS
Emergency medical services (EMS) call reports were reviewed for all patients with suspected extremity fractures treated from June 1997 to July 1998 in a midwestern community with a population base of 223,000. Data collected included demographic information, mechanism of injury, medications given, and field treatment. Standing orders for administration of analgesia were available and permitted paramedics to give either morphine sulfate or nitrous oxide per protocol.

RESULTS
The EMS call reports were analyzed for 1,073 patients with suspected extremity fractures. The mean patient age was 47 years. Accidental injuries comprised 86.5% of those reviewed. Suspected leg fractures were most common (20%), followed by hips (18%), arms (11%), knees (10%), ankles (9%), shoulders (7.2%), hands (5.5%), and wrists (5.3%). Multiple trauma and assorted broken digits accounted for the remaining 14%. The most common mechanisms of injury were: fall (43%), motor vehicle collision (21%), and human assault (10%). Intravenous lines were placed in 9.4% of patients; 17% received ice packs; 16% received bandage/dressings; 25% received air splints; and 19% were fully immobilized. Analgesia was administered to 18 patients (1.8%): 16 patients received nitrous oxide and two received morphine.

CONCLUSION
Administration of analgesics to prehospital patients with suspected fractures was rare. Prehospital identification and treatment of pain for patients with musculoskeletal trauma could be improved.


In this chapter, a series of molecular dynamics simulations have been carried out to explore structural and dynamical features of monatomic liquid metallic films during rapid cooling. Results show a semi‐ordered inhomogeneous morphology containing crystal‐like and disordered regions. The icosahedron contributes to nucleation through the synergy with other short‐range ordered structures and participates in crystal growth via assimilation, but the pinning effect should be overcome. The second‐peak splitting in pair correlation functions is found as the result of a statistical average of crystal‐ like and disordered structural regions, not just the amorphous structure. The splitting can be viewed as a prototype of crystal‐like peaks exhibiting distorted and vestigial features. Besides, we use the parameter P(a, τ, ν) for predicting both local structural order and motion propensity. The fraction of crystalline clusters follows a negative power‐law scaling with the cooling rate increasing, which is the inverse of P(a, τ, ν).


This paper develops a unified framework for training and deploying deep neural networks on the edge computing framework for image defect detection and classification. In the proposed framework, we combine the transfer learning and data augmentation with the improved accuracy given the small sample size. We further implement the edge computing framework to satisfy the real-time computational requirement. After the implement of the proposed model into a rolling manufacturing system, we conclude that deep learning approaches can perform around 30–40% better than some traditional machine learning algorithms such as random forest, decision tree, and SVM in terms of prediction accuracy. Furthermore, by deploying the CNNs in the edge computing framework, we can significantly reduce the computational time and satisfy the real-time computational requirement in the high-speed rolling and inspection system. Finally, the saliency map and embedding layer visualization techniques are used for a better understanding of proposed deep learning models.


Primary liver cancer, the most common histologic types of which are hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma (ICC), is the second leading cause of cancer death worldwide. While rising incidence of liver cancer in low‐risk areas and decreasing incidence in some high‐risk areas has been reported, trends have not been thoroughly explored by country or by histologic type. We examined liver cancer incidence overall and by histology by calendar time and birth cohort for selected countries between 1978 and 2007. For each successive 5‐year period, age‐standardized incidence rates were calculated from volumes V‐IX of the Cancer Incidence in Five Continents electronic database (CI5plus) and the newly released CI5X (volume X) database. Wide global variations persist in liver cancer incidence. Rates of liver cancer remain highest in Asian countries, specifically Eastern and South‐Eastern Asian countries. While rates in most of these high‐risk countries have been decreasing in recent years, rates in India and several low‐risk countries of Africa, Europe, the Americas, and Oceania have been on the rise. Liver cancer rates by histologic type tend to convey a similar temporal profile. However, in Thailand, France, and Italy, ICC rates have increased while HCC rates have declined. We expect rates in high‐risk countries to continue to decrease, as the population seroprevalence of hepatitis B virus (HBV) continues to decline. In low‐risk countries, targeted screening and treatment of the hepatitis C virus (HCV), treatment of diabetes and primary prevention of obesity, will be key in reducing future liver cancer incidence.


disappointed, for this book deals solely with abnormalities of porphyrin excretion and not with porphyria in the sense that this term is used in the United Kingdom. There is a certain amount of overlapping between chapters and in places the text shows signs of rapid production. This book should prove useful as a source of information for those interested in this area of biochemical toxicology but cannot be recommended as a general account for the non-specialist.


This guide was designed to supplement the material in class lectures by presenting relevant databases to use in your search for books and articles. There is also information on how to distinguish between popular and scholarly articles.


Objective Estrogen plays a key role in breast cancer development and functionally relevant genetic variants within the estrogen metabolic pathway are prime candidates for a possible association with breast cancer risk. We investigated the independent and the combined effects of commonly occurring polymorphisms in four genes encoding key proteins of estrogen metabolic pathway on their potential contribution to breast cancer risk. Methods We studied 530 breast cancer cases and 270 controls of the same age and ethnicity participating in a case-control study of postmenopausal women. Genotyping was conducted for CYP1B1 (rs1056836), COMT (rs4680), GSTP1 (rs1695), and MnSOD (rs4880) polymorphisms by polymerase chain reaction based restriction fragment length polymorphism and TaqMan allelic discrimination method. Adjusted ORs and 95% CIs were calculated using logistic regression. Results None of the 4 genetic variants examined contributed to breast cancer risk individually. When the combined effects of the risk genotypes were investigated, significant associations were observed among women with two high-risk genotypes in CYP1B1 and COMT (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.1 to 3.5) and two high-risk genotypes in COMT and MnSOD (OR, 2.0; 95% CI, 1.0 to 3.8), compared to those with low-risk genotypes. Conclusion Our results suggest that individual susceptibility to breast cancer incidence may be increased by combined effects of the high-risk genotypes in CYP1B1, COMT, and MnSOD estrogen metabolic genes.


The goal of this study was to determine the efficacy of Ciba's QuickCARE System on Menicon SF-P rigid gas permeable lenses. An in-vitro study was designed to examine any parameter changes on Menicon SF-P lenses while using QuickCARE. Twenty-five lenses with identical parameters were cleaned for a simulated time of six months. Twenty lenses were cleaned with Ciba's QuickCARE System, two with Allergan's Wet 'n Soak Plus Care System, two with QuickCARE Finishing Solution only, and one lens was stored in QuickCARE Finishing Solution with no mechanical cleaning. Half of the lenses were scooped out of the storage cases and half were poured out of the caseS. The lenses were assessed at 1 week, 1 month, 3 monthS and 6 month intervals for any changes is base curve, power, center thickness, diameter and surface integrity. No significant parameter changes occurred for diameter, power, center thickness, and base curve. However, surface integrity changes were statistically significant with pouring the lens from the case being better than scooping the lens from the case.


In recent years, sequential recommender systems (SRSs) and session-based recommender systems (SBRSs) have emerged as a new paradigm of RSs to capture users' short-term but dynamic preferences for enabling more timely and accurate recommendations. Although SRSs and SBRSs have been extensively studied, there are many inconsistencies in this area caused by the diverse descriptions, settings, assumptions and application domains. There is no work to provide a unified framework and problem statement to remove the commonly existing and various inconsistencies in the area of SR/SBR. There is a lack of work to provide a comprehensive and systematic demonstration of the data characteristics, key challenges, most representative and state-of-the-art approaches, typical real- world applications and important future research directions in the area. This work aims to fill in these gaps so as to facilitate further research in this exciting and vibrant area.