Background: Traumatic hip dislocations are uncommon injuries in the pediatric population. Injury recognition and prompt closed reduction is standard of care. The purpose of this study is to describe injury patterns, treatment (including hip arthroscopy), and patient reported outcomes of traumatic hip dislocation in pediatric patients. Methods: A retrospective review was performed of all patients less than 18 years of age treated for a traumatic hip dislocation between 2011 – 2017 at a single center. Chart and radiographic review were performed, and patients were contacted to obtain outcome scores, including the Harris hip score (HHS) and hip outcome score (HOS). Results: 23 patients, 18 males and 5 females, with a mean age of 11.3 years (range 4 – 16) were included. The most common mechanisms of injury were motor vehicle crashes (8), football (7), and falls (3). The direction of hip dislocation was posterior (21) and obturator (2). Twenty patients had a CT to assess the hip reduction and associated injuries and 15 (75%) had a posterior wall acetabular fracture and 6 (30%) had an incarcerated fragment within the joint. 5 patients had an MRI and all had an associated posterior wall fracture and posterior labral tear. Fourteen patients were treated non-operatively. Patient-reported outcome scores were obtained in 10 patients (71%). Mean HOS-ADL, HOS-Sport, and mHHS were 75 (69 – 76), 32 (18 – 36), and 97 (85 – 100) respectively at a mean of 40 months after injury. Nine patients were treated operatively, including 5 patients with hip arthroscopy. Patient-reported outcome scores were obtained in 7 patients (78%). Mean HOS-ADL, HOS-Sport, and mHHS were 69 (50 – 76), 30 (14 – 36), and 86 (59 – 100) respectively at a mean of 34 months after surgery. Conclusion: Traumatic hip dislocations in the pediatric population occur most frequently as isolated orthopaedic injuries in association with posterior wall acetabular fractures. Incarcerated fragments occurred in 30% of the patients, yet were commonly not recognized on plain radiographs alone. Axial imaging should be routinely obtained following reduction. Selective hip arthroscopy after traumatic hip dislocations is a viable less invasive method for treatment of incarcerated fragments and labral injury.


BACKGROUND
No-shows are a source of burden that lead to wasted resources. While prior research has established that many patient-level affect impact no-show rates, the impact of referring provider-level factors, in particular the type of referring provider-and specific diagnosis are still largely unknown.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Retrospective chart review examining new patient consults scheduled for outpatient vascular surgery clinic from August 1, 2014 through February 28, 2015 was conducted. The specialty types of the referring physicians and the reason for referral (patient diagnosis) were recorded.

RESULTS
Of 227 new patient consults scheduled, 30% were no-shows to their appointment. No-show rates were significantly higher when the patient was referred by a primary care physician versus a specialist and differed significantly based on patient diagnosis.

CONCLUSIONS
Given that referring provider type and patient diagnosis significantly affect noshow rates, interventions that integrate the community of providers are needed to reduce noshows.


Causing civilian casualties during military operations has become a much politicised topic in international relations since the Second World War. Since the last decade of the 20th century, different scholars and political analysts have claimed that human life is valued more and more among the general international community. This argument has led many researchers to assume that democratic culture and traditions, modern ethical and moral issues have created a desire for a world without war or, at least, a demand that contemporary armed conflicts, if unavoidable, at least have to be far less lethal forcing the military to seek new technologies that can minimise civilian casualties and collateral damage.
Non-Lethal Weapons (NLW) – weapons that are intended to minimise civilian casualties and collateral damage – are based on the technology that, during the 1990s, was expected to revolutionise the conduct of warfare making it significantly less deadly. The rapid rise of interest in NLW, ignited by the American military twenty five years ago, sparked off an entirely new military, as well as an academic, discourse concerning their potential contribution to military success on the 21st century battlefields. It seems, however, that except for this debate, very little has been done within the military forces themselves. This research suggests that the roots of this situation are much deeper than the simple professional misconduct of the military establishment, or the poor political behaviour of political leaders, who had sent them to fight. Following the story of NLW in the U.S., Russia and Israel this research focuses on the political and cultural aspects that have been supposed to force the military organisations of these countries to adopt new technologies and operational and organisational concepts regarding NLW in an attempt to minimise enemy civilian casualties during their military operations.
This research finds that while American, Russian and Israeli national characters are, undoubtedly, products of the unique historical experience of each one of these nations, all of three pay very little regard to foreigners' lives. Moreover, while it is generally argued that the international political pressure is a crucial factor that leads to the significant reduction of harmed civilians and destroyed civilian infrastructure, the findings of this research suggest that the American, Russian and Israeli governments are well prepared and politically equipped to fend off international criticism.
As the analyses of the American, Russian and Israeli cases reveal, the political-military leaderships of these countries have very little external or domestic reasons to minimise enemy civilian casualties through fundamental-revolutionary change in their conduct of war. In other words, this research finds that employment of NLW have failed because the political leadership asks the militaries to reduce the enemy civilian casualties to a politically acceptable level, rather than to the technologically possible minimum; as in the socio-cultural-political context of each country, support for the former appears to be significantly higher than for the latter.


Data in the biological, chemical, and clinical domains are accumulating at ever‐increasing rates and have the potential to accelerate and inform drug development in new ways. Challenges and opportunities now lie in developing analytic tools to transform these often complex and heterogeneous data into testable hypotheses and actionable insights. This is the aim of computational pharmacology, which uses in silico techniques to better understand and predict how drugs affect biological systems, which can in turn improve clinical use, avoid unwanted side effects, and guide selection and development of better treatments. One exciting application of computational pharmacology is drug repurposing—finding new uses for existing drugs. Already yielding many promising candidates, this strategy has the potential to improve the efficiency of the drug development process and reach patient populations with previously unmet needs such as those with rare diseases. While current techniques in computational pharmacology and drug repurposing often focus on just a single data modality such as gene expression or drug–target interactions, we argue that methods such as matrix factorization that can integrate data within and across diverse data types have the potential to improve predictive performance and provide a fuller picture of a drug's pharmacological action. WIREs Syst Biol Med 2016, 8:186–210. doi: 10.1002/wsbm.1337


Abstract Patients with a stable chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) double their blood lymphocyte count in >5 years, but may develop progressive disease with lymphocytes doubling in <12 months. To identify a protein signature for progressive CLL, whole cell extracts of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from patients with CLL (n = 27) were screened using iTRAQ (isobaric tags for relative and absolute quantification) analysis. A total of 84 differentially abundant proteins were identified from patients with stable and progressive CLL. Subsequently, 32 of these proteins were quantified by SRM (selected reaction monitoring) using extracts of purified CD19+ CLL cells from patients (n = 50). Hierarchical clustering of these protein profiles showed two clusters of patients that correlated with progressive and stable CLL, providing signatures that should be useful for triaging patients. Some of the proteins in the progressive cluster have not been linked with CLL, for example, glutamate dehydrogenase 1 and transcription intermediary factor 1-beta.


Early detection of invasive plant species is vital for the management of natural resources and protection of ecosystem processes. The use of satellite remote sensing for mapping the distribution of invasive plants is becoming more common, however conventional imaging software and classification methods have been shown to be unreliable. In this study, we test and evaluate the use of five species distribution model techniques fit with satellite remote sensing data to map invasive tamarisk (Tamarix spp.) along the Arkansas River in Southeastern Colorado. The models tested included boosted regression trees (BRT), Random Forest (RF), multivariate adaptive regression splines (MARS), generalized linear model (GLM), and Maxent. These analyses were conducted using a newly developed software package called the Software for Assisted Habitat Modeling (SAHM). All models were trained with 499 presence points, 10,000 pseudo-absence points, and predictor variables acquired from the Landsat 5 Thematic Mapper (TM) sensor over an eight-month period to distinguish tamarisk from native riparian vegetation using detection of phenological differences. From the Landsat scenes, we used individual bands and calculated Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI), Soil-Adjusted Vegetation Index (SAVI), and tasseled capped transformations. All five models identified current tamarisk distribution on the landscape successfully based on threshold independent and threshold dependent evaluation metrics with independent location data. To account for model specific differences, we produced an ensemble of all five models with map output highlighting areas of agreement and areas of uncertainty. Our results demonstrate the usefulness of species distribution models in analyzing remotely sensed data and the utility of ensemble mapping, and showcase the capability of SAHM in pre-processing and executing multiple complex models.


Telephone nurses give advice and support and make assessments based on verbal communication only. Web-based decision support systems are often used to increase patient safety and make medically correct assessments. The aim of the present this study was to describe factors affecting the use of a decision support system and experiences with this system among telephone nurses in Swedish primary health care. Observations and semistructured interviews were conducted. Six registered nurses with at least 1 year of experience of telephone nursing participated. Field notes and interviews were analyzed by qualitative content analysis. The main findings of the present this study were factors that decrease the decision support system use or promote deviation from decision support system use, factors that are positive for decision support system use and the decision support system complicates the work. Underuse and deviations from decision support systems can be a safety risk, because decisions are based on too little information. Further research with observations of telephone nurses' use of decision support systems is needed to develop both telephone nursing and decision support systems.


The tumor suppressor p53 is a stress responsive, sequence specific transcription factor that regulates genes controlling the cell cycle, senescence and apoptosis. Mutation and loss of p53 is the most common genetic event in human cancer resulting in the accumulation of different types of tumors such as testicular carcinoma, soft tissue sarcoma and lymphoma. The focus of this study, the PATZ1 transcription factor, has diverse roles in cancer, development and stem cell biology. Besides being a key transcriptional repressor in lymphocyte development, PATZ1 expression is misregulated in different tumor types such as testicular, colorectal and breast cancers. Because both proteins are significant modifiers of human cancer, we aimed to link the PATZ1 protein to p53 function using a biochemical approach. In this study, we discovered that both overexpressed and endogenous p53 and PATZ1 proteins interact. We identified a p53 binding region in the C-terminal domain of the PATZ1 protein. We further delineated the interaction region by generating site directed point mutant PATZ1 variants which do not bind p53. The p53 – PATZ1 interaction is functionally significant as neither p53 nor PATZ1 can bind DNA in the presence of the other factor. We examined the cellular responses controlled by p53 in cells overexpressing PATZ1. Treatment with the DNA damage inducing cytotoxic drug doxorubicin activates p53 related pathways. Overexpression of PATZ1 made cells more resistant to death by doxorubicin treatment. This study documents a novel player in the p53 pathway, a suppressor transcription factor, PATZ1.


Many applications have been done in the field of using wavelet analysis for time series analysis. In this study, we used the quarterly data of Electric Energy Supply in Duhok Province-Iraq in Megawatt which represents a sample size (46) observations during the period 2004 and 2015.we aim to describe how wavelet de-noising can be used in time series forecasting and improve the forecasting quality through presenting some proposed methods based on wavelet analysis and SARIMA method and applying on real data and make comparison between methods depending on some statistical criteria.Results from the analysis showed the superiority of the three proposed methods and showed that we can get more information from a series when using Wavelet-SARIMA method and this leads to enhance the classical SARIMA model in forecasting. Furthermore, after many empirical experiments with many wavelet families, it has been found that Daubechies, Coiflets, Discrete Meyer(dmey) and Symlet wavelets are very suitable when denoising the data and out of these four wavelet families, the Daubechies and Discrete Meyer performed better.


Background: Ophthalmopathy is a rare extra-thyroid manifestation of Graves' disease, in paediatrics. Intravenous corticosteroids are the main treatment of moderate-to-severe Graves' orbitopathy. In this paper, we describe a moderate-to-severe active Graves' ophthalmopathy in a child and the response to oral therapy with prednisone. Case presentation: A nine-year-old male child suffering for a few months, from palpitations, tremors, and paresthesia was hospitalized in our Pediatric Clinic. At admission, the thyroid function laboratory tests showed hyperthyroidism with elevated free thyroxine (FT4) and free triiodothyronine (FT3) levels and suppressed thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels. These findings, combined with the clinical conditions—an ophthalmologic evaluation (that showed the presence of exophthalmos without lagophthalmos and visual acuity deficiency), thyroid ultrasound, and TSH receptor antibody positivity—led to a diagnosis of Graves' disease. Therefore, methimazole was administered at a dose of 0.4 mg/kg/day. After 4 months, thyroid function was clearly improved, with normal FT3 and FT4 values and increasing TSH values, without adverse effects. Nevertheless, an eye examination showed ophthalmopathy with signs of activity, an increase in the exophthalmos of the right eye with palpebral retraction, soft tissue involvement (succulent and oedematous eyelids, caruncle and conjunctival hyperaemia and oedema) and keratopathy, resulting from exposure. We began steroid therapy with oral administration of prednisone (1 mg/kg/day) for four weeks, followed by gradual tapering. After one week of therapy with prednisone, an eye assessment showed reduced retraction of the upper eyelid of the right eye, improvement of right eye exophthalmometry and reduction of conjunctival hyperaemia. After four weeks of therapy with prednisone, an eye assessment showed reduction of the right palpebral retraction without conjunctival hyperaemia and no other signs of inflammation of the anterior segment; after twelve weeks, an eye assessment showed a notable decrease in the right palpebral retraction and the absence of keratitis, despite persisting moderate conjunctival hyperaemia. No adverse event associated with steroid use was observed during the treatment period and no problem in compliance was reported. Conclusion: Prednisone seems a better choice than intravenous corticosteroids, for treating moderate-to-severe and active Graves' ophthalmopathy, keeping in mind the importance of quality of life in pediatric patients.


In this paper we present a solution to the simultaneous localization and mapping (SLAM) problem for unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) using a camera and inertial sensors. A good SLAM solution is an important enabler for autonomous robots. Our approach is based on an optimization based formulation of the problem, which results in a smoother, rather than a filter. The proposed algorithm is evaluated on experimental data and the resultsare compared with accurate ground truth data. The results from this comparisons are encouraging.


Burkitt9s lymphoma (BL) is a monoclonal B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) with three clinical-epidemiological subtypes: endemic BL occurs mostly in Africa, tropical areas of Latin America, and Papua New Guinea and is linked to Epstein-Barr virus (EBV); sporadic BL occurs worldwide in children and young adults less than 20% of cases are linked to EBV; and AIDS-associated BL, which occurs in the setting of HIV infection in developed countries. Except for the later, BL is generally recognized to be a pediatric lymphoma with some cases that occur in young adults and, rarely, in the elderly. The central molecular abnormality in all subtypes is deregulation of cellular MYC gene, due to t(8;14), or infrequently, variant translocations. All subtypes are histologically indistinguishable. We have recently observed non-monotonic age-specific incidence peaks in sporadic and AIDS-related BL in the U.S., suggesting a mixture of BL with different etiologies and/or biology, and peaks during childhood, adulthood, and in the elderly. The molecular correlates of age-specific peaks of BL are not well established, but may include viral markers linked to BL (EBV and HIV) or other unknown factors. The presentation will compare and contrast age, sex, anatomic site, viral, and molecular patterns of endemic, sporadic, and AIDS-related BL and advance the hypothesis that age-related peaks may represent an alternative approach to identify BL with different etiology and/or biology. Citation Information: Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2011;20(10 Suppl):PL01-03.


AIM
The aim of this study was to retrospectively investigate the incidence and associated factors of dental trauma in patients with maxillofacial fractures at the VU Medical Center in Amsterdam.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
Data from 707 patients who were treated surgically for maxillofacial fractures were evaluated. The data were collected retrospectively from patient files and other available databases. The data collected included date of fracture, age, gender, type of fracture, and injured teeth.

RESULT
Of the total 707 patients, 164 patients (23.2%) presented dental injuries associated with facial fractures. Mandibular condylar fractures, mandibular parasymphyseal fractures, Le Fort fractures, and mandibular body fractures were found to be significantly more associated with dental injury. Zygomatic arch or zygomatic complex fractures were significantly less associated with dental injury. Women had a significant higher risk of facial fractures with dental injuries than men. The maxilla demonstrated the highest incidence of injured teeth. The most affected teeth were the maxillary incisors (33.1%), followed by mandible incisors (13.6%), mandible molars (12.8%), and maxillary premolars (12.6%).

CONCLUSION
Our findings show a higher risk of dental injury among patients with a mandibular condylar fracture and mandibular parasymphyseal fracture but a lower risk of dental injury among patients with a zygomatic arch or zygomatic complex fracture. On average, patients had more than three injured teeth, with most of the injured teeth being in the upper jaw. The maxillary incisors, followed by the mandible incisors, were the most injured teeth.


The controlled depolymerization of lignin is a promising approach for the generation of value-added compounds from biomass. And even though many different technologies to this end have been developed in the past, most of them require elevated temperatures and pressures to realize the depolymerization. In contrast, the electrochemical depolymerization of lignin can be achieved at ambient pressure and room temperature. However, as electrochemical processes are predominantly surface-catalyzed, the influence of the electrode structure plays a major role with regard to the process effectivity. In addition, the unselective mechanism of the electrochemical process reduces product yield by overoxidizing products. We report the use of 3D-structured electrode materials for the electrochemical depolymerization of lignin with a subsequent membrane filtration in order to increase product yield. The complete depolymerization of lignin at room temperature and ambient pressure to monomeric products could be achieved in less than four hours, with the successful continuous separation of monomers and residual lignin.


Abstract The CE/J mouse strain is resistant to amyloid A protein (AA) amyloidosis. In contrast to AA amyloidosis-susceptible mouse strains that concomitantly express serum amyloid A precursor protein (SAA) types 1 and 2 isoforms encoded by the Saa1 and Saa2 genes, respectively, in response to inflammatory stimulation from the liver, CE/J mice express only a single SAA isoform named SAA2.2. In addition, CE/J mice uniquely possess a Q30L amino acid substitution in SAA2.2 that inhibits amyloidogenesis. To elucidate the genetic basis underlying the expression of only a single SAA isoform in this strain, we conducted PCR cloning and nucleotide sequencing of the Saa1 and Saa2 genes from the CE/J genome. We revealed that CE/J mice possess functional Saa1 and Saa2 genes. Intriguingly, the two genes were identical with respect to amino acid sequence, each encoding the SAA2.2 isoform. RT-PCR analysis of inflamed liver tissue from CE/J mice demonstrated that both genes are expressed at equivalent levels. Reporter assays revealed that promoter/enhancer sequences of Saa1 and Saa2 genes in CE/J are also functional. These results indicate that the SAA2.2 isoform in CE/J is a mixture of Saa1 and Saa2 gene products.


Introduction During a sexual assault (SA), female victims may become infected with sexual transmitted infections (STI). Because of possibly high infection rates and low percentage returning for treatment, several STI clinics provide empiric antimicrobial therapy at the first consultation. The objective of this study was to assess the STI prevalence and follow-up of female sexual assault victims (SAV) at the STI clinic of Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Methods In the electronic patient database, SA is recorded as one of the reasons for visiting the clinic. We collected routine clinical data from the period 2005–2016. Characteristics and STI screening results of SAV and non-victims (NV) were compared. Backward multivariable logistic regression analysis was conducted to assess whether SAV was associated with STI positivity (chlamydia, gonorrhoea, infectious syphilis, infectious hepatitis B, and/or HIV). Results Between 2005 and 2016 166,808 STI consultations were performed with female clients and in 1066 consultations SA was reported. In 96% of the assaults no condom was used. All the assailants were male. Forensic examination was performed in 22% of the cases. Prior to the STI clinic consultation, in 10% an HIV test had been performed, 27% were vaccinated for hepatitis B and in 11% a pregnancy test was performed. SAV were less often Dutch (60% vs. 68% in NV, p<0.001), the median age was 24 years (vs. 24 in NV, p=0.003) and 34% reported STI related complaints (vs. 24% in NV, p<0.001). STI positivity was 11.7% in SAV and 11.8% in NV (p=0.53). In the multivariable analysis being an SAV was not associated with STI (OR 0.99; 95% CI 0.82–1.19). 91.3% of the SAV requiring antibiotics returned to the clinic. Conclusion The STI positivity in female SAV was comparable to NV attending the STI clinic. The return rate for treatment was high and does not support empiric prophylactic antimicrobial therapy. As most victims were not tested for HIV, and did not receive a hepatitis B vaccination after the assault, STI clinics can play a key role in providing care to SAV including STI testing.


In some GWAs studies, GALNT2 and APOE polymorphisms have been identified to be related to alterations of plasma or serum HDL-C and TG concentrations. The purpose of our study is to assess the contribution of GALNT2 rs4846914, APOE rs429358, rs7412, rs405509 variants, and several environmental factors to the development of hypertension disease in the China Han population. A hospital-based case-control study was conducted. Cases were hypertension (n=211) and controls were normal participants (n=434). The AA, AG, and GG genotype frequencies of GALNT2 rs4846914 were 22.8%, 43.1%, and 34.1% in hypertension subjects, and 35.3%, 44.2%, and 20.5% in controls (P<0.05), respectively. The OR of the AG genotype adjusted for all risk factors compared to the AA genotype was 1.61 (95%CI: 1.02 to 2.56) and to the GG genotype 2.67 (95%CI: 1.59 to 4.488). There was no significant difference between the APOE rs429358, rs7412, and rs405509 genotype frequencies in hypertension and control subjects. The present work indicates that SNP rs4846914 in GALNT2 gene is related to an increased risk of hypertension in China Han population, but the APOE gene is not.


Improving algorithms via predictions is a very active research topic in recent years. This paper initiates the systematic study of mechanism design in this model. In a number of well-studied mechanism design settings, we make use of imperfect predictions to design mechanisms that perform much better than traditional mechanisms if the predictions are accurate (consistency), while always retaining worst-case guarantees even with very imprecise predictions (robustness). Furthermore, we refer to the largest prediction error sufficient to give a good performance as the error tolerance of a mechanism, and observe that an intrinsic tradeoff among consistency, robustness and error tolerance is common for mechanism design with predictions.


Objective We sought to assess the complication rates following cochlear implantation in canal wall down mastoid cavities in adults and children. Data Sources A systematic review of English articles from PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, and the Cochrane Library. Additional studies were identified by reviewing the reference lists of the originally identified studies. Review Methods Studies were included that reported on surgical outcomes following cochlear implantation in canal wall down mastoid cavities. Two authors, using predefined data fields, independently reviewed all articles while tabulating study quality indicators. A meta-analysis of proportions was conducted on select cohorts to determine weighted complication rates. Results Forty-two articles were included that accounted for 424 patients and described surgical outcomes following cochlear implantation in canal wall down mastoid cavities. In a comparison of the postoperative complication rates, overclosing the external auditory meatus had significantly fewer global complications than did maintaining a canal wall down mastoid cavity (P = .027). In a comparison of the complication rates (1) between staging the cochlear implantation and performing external auditory meatus overclosure simultaneously with cochlear implantation and (2) between pediatric and adult cochlear implantation recipients with external auditory meatus overclosure, there were no significant differences (P = .085 and P = .92, respectively). Conclusion Overclosing the external auditory meatus at the same time of cochlear implantation leads to significantly fewer complications when compared with maintaining a canal wall down mastoid cavity with soft tissue coverage of the electrode array.


A reflectarray cell able to dynamically control the reflection phase at a variable frequency is presented. This capability enables beam-scanning reflectarrays with frequency reconfigurability, which is a novel capability with applications in frequency-hopping systems, cognitive radio and satellite communications. The proposed cell combines switching and variable impedance loading techniques to maximize the frequency range over which a large dynamic phase range can be obtained. Analytical and numerical approaches are used to design and optimize the reflecting cell, which uses two semiconductor RF-switches and one varactor. An analog phase range above 270 ° is achieved over a 50% frequency range, from 1.88 GHz to 3.07 GHz, with flat losses of 0.8 dB. For an analog phase range of 180 ° the cell achieves a 1:2 frequency reconfiguration range. It is also verified that the cell preserves good performance, and in particular low crosspolarization, under oblique incidence as well. A fully operational cell was fabricated and measured, demonstrating good agreement with simulation results.


In axons, organelles move away from (anterograde) and toward (retrograde) the cell body along microtubules. Previous studies have provided compelling evidence that conventional kinesin is a major motor for anterograde fast axonal transport. It is reasonable to expect that cytoplasmic dynein is a fast retrograde motor, but relatively few tests of dynein function have been reported with neurons of intact organisms. In extruded axoplasm, antibody disruption of kinesin or the dynactin complex (a dynein activator) inhibits both retrograde and anterograde transport. We have tested the functions of the cytoplasmic dynein heavy chain (cDhc64C) and the p150(Glued) (Glued) component of the dynactin complex with the use of genetic techniques in Drosophila. cDhc64C and Glued mutations disrupt fast organelle transport in both directions. The mutant phenotypes, larval posterior paralysis and axonal swellings filled with retrograde and anterograde cargoes, were similar to those caused by kinesin mutations. Why do specific disruptions of unidirectional motor systems cause bidirectional defects? Direct protein interactions of kinesin with dynein heavy chain and p150(Glued) were not detected. However, strong dominant genetic interactions between kinesin, dynein, and dynactin complex mutations in axonal transport were observed. The genetic interactions between kinesin and either Glued or cDhc64C mutations were stronger than those between Glued and cDhc64C mutations themselves. The shared bidirectional disruption phenotypes and the dominant genetic interactions demonstrate that cytoplasmic dynein, the dynactin complex, and conventional kinesin are interdependent in fast axonal transport.


ABSTRACT The public health crisis of COVID-19 has compounded preexisting crises of democratic stability and effective governance, spurring debate about the ability of developed democracies to respond effectively to emergencies confronting their citizens. These crises, much discussed in recent political science, are joined by a further crisis which complicates and reinforces them: A migration crisis. Widespread travel and immigration restrictions instigated the largest and fastest decline in global human mobility in modern history, and COVID-19 may fundamentally change immigration over the longer term. The migration crisis heightens three crucial and preexisting concerns within immigration policy: the role of visa design; the status of undocumented migrants and other migrants without recourse to public funds; and the interaction of immigration and the labor market policy. It could reinforce a rising tide of nationalism and anti-immigrant sentiment, protectionist sentiment within labor-market policy debates, and a K-shaped recovery in migration patterns.


The guerrillas of the modern day marketing arena have been eyeing the innovative strategies to promote their products. They aim to grab the maximum attention with least amount the capital spent. This is what guerrilla marketing revolves around. YouTube has evolved as one such platform. It is being used as a powerful medium by the marketing managers to advertise their products on a world-wide stage by less spending. The paper throws light on the effectiveness of YouTube as a guerrilla strategy to know what attributes in a YouTube advertisement attracts the viewers to view and like it. Content analysis of fifty advertisements on YouTube of the consumer electronics segment has been done to know how the audience response to this new form of advertising platform.


Significant effects of sheared transverse electric fields in plasmas on both turbulent fluctuations and drift waves are experimentally demonstrated with improvement in plasma confinement for the first time in the tandem mirror GAMMA 10. Here, electron-cyclotron heatings (ECH) for ion-confining potential formation are applied in association with a significant rise in the absolute value of the central-cell potential and the resulting formation of a strong shear of electric fields of the order of 10 kV/m2 in the radial direction of the plasma column (dEr/dr). The central-cell line density increases during ECH in association with decreasing fluctuations. Various fluctuation diagnostics, in particular, the frequency analyses of end-loss ion currents and central soft x-ray brightness, show the consistent features. This encourages the usefulness of potentials and radial electric-field shear for confinement improvements.


Objective: To evaluate trends in Caesarean section (CS) rates for twin pregnancies over 20 years in a regional obstetric unit in Hong Kong. Methods: Data on twin deliveries between 1998 and 2017 at United Christian Hospital were collected. CS rates were calculated for each calendar year, and data were stratified into four 5-year intervals to determine trends. Twins delivered vaginally or by CS were compared in terms of maternal epidemiological risk factors, pregnancy characteristics, and pregnancy outcome. A logistic regression model was used to determine significant risk factors associated with CS. Results: From 1998 to 2017, 1083 (1.24%) of 87 480 deliveries were twin deliveries. The total CS rate for twins progressively increased from 58.9% in 1998-2002 to 84.1% in 2013-2017, particularly the CS rate for cephalic + cephalic twins from 41.7% in 1998-2002 to 74.7% in 2013-2017. The CS rate for non-cephalic first twin was close to 100% for all intervals. Logistic regression analysis showed that CS was positively associated with noncephalic presentation of the first twin (odds ratio [OR]=13.1), previous CS (OR=4.19), and advanced maternal age (OR=1.7) and negatively associated with preterm delivery (OR=0.34), multiparity (OR=0.29), and induction of labour (OR=0.086). For perinatal outcome, CS was significantly associated with higher mean birthweight, lower incidence of adverse perinatal or neonatal outcome but higher risks of postpartum haemorrhage. Conclusion: A progressive increase in CS rates for twins was observed over the past 20 years, particularly among cephalic-presenting twins, despite the lack of clear evidence on the preferred mode of delivery for such twin pregnancies.


ABSTRACT OBJECTIVE: To analyze trends relating to physicians' vocational integration and income composition from the Pesquisas Nacionais por Amostra de Domicilio (PNAD – National Household Sampling Surveys). METHODS: PNAD microdata from 1988, 1993, 1998 and 2003 were analyzed in relation to demographic, social and occupational parameters. In the exploratory analysis, trends relating to physicians' employment and income were considered. Statistical associations were evaluated by means of the chi-square test. RESULTS: Regarding the demographic profi le, a trend of increasing presence of women and of professionals over 55 years of age was observed, with a continuing high proportion of whites. Regarding occupation and income, there was an increase in entrepreneurialism among physicians and maintenance of high income, in relative terms, especially among those who combined the occupations of employee and employer. CONCLUSIONS: The possibility of examining individualized characteristics of occupation and income, along with physicians' many professional ties, which albeit in a limited manner can be done through PNAD, contributes towards deepening the comprehension of the patterns and changes in Brazilian physicians' integration in the labor market since the implementation of the


Calculations of dynamic stresses and strains, constrained by broadband seismograms, are used to investigate their role in generating the remotely triggered seismicity that followed the June 28, 1992 Mw7.3 Landers, California earthquake. I compare straingrams and dynamic Coulomb failure functions calculated for the Landers earthquake at sites that did experience triggered seismicity with those at sites that did not. Bounds on triggering thresholds are obtained from analysis of dynamic strain spectra calculated for the Landers and Mw6.1 Joshua Tree, California earthquakes at various sites, combined with results of static strain investigations by others. I interpret three principal results of this study with those of a companion study by Gomberg and Davis [this issue]. First, the dynamic elastic stress changes themselves cannot explain the spatial distribution of triggered seismicity, particularly the lack of triggered activity along the San Andreas fault system. In addition to the requirement to exceed a Coulomb failure stress level, this result implies the need to invoke and satisfy the requirements of appropriate slip instability theory. Second, results of this study are consistent with the existence of frequency- or rate-dependent stress/strain triggering thresholds, inferred from the companion study and interpreted in terms of earthquake initiation involving a competition of processes, one promoting failure and the other inhibiting it. Such competition is also part of relevant instability theories. Third, the triggering threshold must vary from site to site, suggesting that the potential for triggering strongly depends on site characteristics and response. The lack of triggering along the San Andreas fault system may be correlated with the advanced maturity of its fault gouge zone; the strains from the Landers earthquake were either insufficient to exceed its larger critical slip distance or some other critical failure parameter; or the faults failed stably as aseismic creep events. Variations in the triggering threshold at sites of triggered seismicity may be attributed to variations in gouge zone development and properties. Finally, these interpretations provide ready explanations for the time delays between the Landers earthquake and the triggered events.


Most people, especially in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, suffer and die from lack of food, shelter, and medical care, whereas other people in rich countries are extremely well-off. Because of the globalization process neither individuals nor governments can claim to be unaware of what is happening in the Third World. In this paper I defend the claim that, since we are living in a "global village", we have greater moral responsibility for poverty. Thus, our moral responsibility is less limited than it usually seems to be. However, we do not have to be extremely impartial, which is recommended by utilitarianism (Garrett Hardin, Peter Singer), concentrating only on the consequences of action and its utility (agent-neutral evaluation). Yet, what we can include in our moral evaluation of poverty are human rights and an individual point of view, which are defended by Amartya Sen's capability approach and Thomist framework (agent-relative evaluation).


Idiopathic intracranial hypertension is charactericed by increased intracranial pressure in the absense of a space occupying lesion or obstruction to the circulation of cerebroespinal fluid (CSF). Usually self-limited, but often relapsing. Diagnosis is based on a record of intracranial pressure of over a limit of 250 mmH2O. Bilateral papilloedema and paresia of the VI cranial nerve is seen in most patients. Morbidity is basically due to possible loss of vision associated with atrophy of the optic nerve. Management include administration of acetazolamide, repeated lumbar punctures and weight loss. Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging demostrated «empty sella», subarachnoid spaces are enlarged, distension of the perioptic subarachnoid space and enhancement of the prelaminar optic nerve


Performance of laparoscopic cholecystectomy (LC) is increasing, and patients age 80 and over comprise an increasingly larger proportion of the LC population. This study documents that the increase is accompanied by safe outcome in this patient population. However, the evidence also suggests that cholelithiasis appears to have been a neglected condition in this age group. The prevalence of nonelective procedures, the conversion rate to an open operation, more intraoperative complications, and the percentage having evidence of common bile duct stone passage all support this assertion. With the technology of LC, we are now appropriately addressing the problem with a treatment that allows less surgical trauma to the patient and shorter recovery time. Same-day LC surgery for the octogenarian appears to be very safe and would justify a decision to perform earlier LC in these patients. Surgery done before the appearance of comorbid conditions that increase the surgical and anesthetic risks may result in improved outcomes for the elderly at lower cost. Even when necessary in the already hospitalized patient, LC can be accomplished with morbidity and mortality comparable to those of elective abdominal procedures in younger populations.


It seems that the work of Michel Foucault has, in the last decade, attracted some attention. This attention is a result of media engaging in a sensationalist way with his work and his private life. He is usually being portrayed as a radical postmodern nihilist, while his work is being blamed for inspiring contemporary identity politics and the practice of political correctness. These developments seem to us as a good reason to go back to Foucault's work. Since the relation between scientific work and social engagement is an important problem in contemporary social sciences and humanities, we decided to research the way Foucault conceptualized the relation between his intellectual work and his political activism. We begin our paper by elaborating some of the most important theoretical concepts in Foucault's work. We start from his notion of practice, as a form of social action, and then move on to the two types of practices Foucault distinguishes: discursive and non-discursive practices. In the end of this chapter, we present the notion of the "dispositive", which Foucault defines as an interconnected system of discursive and non-discursive practices, and his notion of subjectivity, which is defined as a relation an individual has with himself. In the next chapter we engage with methodologies Foucault uses in his research. We start with archeology, a methodology he used in the beginning of his work, while researching discursive practices. We then move on to genealogy, which is a methodology Foucault used to study systems that combine discursive and non-discursive practices. Since genealogy is the methodology, he envisions as being connected to political practice, we will especially focus on it. Precisely in the next chapter of our paper we will investigate the ways in which Foucault conceptualizes the relationship between genealogical research and political activism. We will show that he sees political activism as a primary criterion for choosing a research subject. Genealogical research then, for Foucault, provides a reflection on the history of an institution, around which the political struggle in question is waged. The results of the genealogical research are, for him, suppose to show how the institution in question is a product of contingent historical processes and, therefore, can be changed through political action, since it is not grounded in any metaphysical necessity. In the last chapter of our analysis, we will deal with Foucault's attempt to connect his genealogical research and political activism through an ethical framework. In this chapter we will present his concept of enlightenment, as an ethical tradition in which both his intellectual and political work can be situated. He conceptualizes the enlightenment as an "attitude", which consist of various kinds of practices, through which an individual constantly tests and transgresses existing boundaries, which are imposed on our actions and forms of subjectivity. Therefore, through these practices the individual, by his very existence, shows that those boundaries are contingent, and can be changed. In the conclusion our paper we, again, turn to contemporary characterizations of Foucault's work. We show that our elaboration of his ideas proves those characterization as inadequate and wrong.


Aims This study aimed to examine the effects of tumour necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-α) on osteoblasts in metal wear-induced bone loss. Methods TNF-α immunoexpression was examined in periprosthetic tissues of patients with failed metal-on-metal hip arthroplasties and also in myeloid MM6 cells after treatment with cobalt ions. Viability and function of human osteoblast-like SaOs-2 cells treated with recombinant TNF-α were studied by immunofluorescence, terminal deoxynucleotidyl transferase-mediated dUTP nick end labelling (TUNEL) assay, western blotting, and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Results Macrophages, lymphocytes, and endothelial cells displayed strong TNF-α immunoexpression in periprosthetic tissues containing metal wear debris. Colocalization of TNF-α with the macrophage marker CD68 and the pan-T cell marker CD3 confirmed TNF-α expression in these cells. Cobalt-treated MM6 cells secreted more TNF-α than control cells, reflecting the role of metal wear products in activating the TNF-α pathway in the myeloid cells. While TNF-α did not alter the immunoexpression of the TNF-receptor 1 (TNF-R1) in SaOs-2 cells, it increased the release of the soluble TNF-receptor 1 (sTNF-R1). There was also evidence for TNF-α-induced apoptosis. TNF-α further elicited the expression of the endoplasmic reticulum stress markers inositol-requiring enzyme (IRE)-1α, binding-immunoglobulin protein (BiP), and endoplasmic oxidoreductin1 (Ero1)-Lα. In addition, TNF-α decreased pro-collagen I α 1 secretion without diminishing its synthesis. TNF-α also induced an inflammatory response in SaOs-2 cells, as evidenced by the release of reactive oxygen and nitrogen species and the proinflammatory cytokine vascular endothelial growth factor. Conclusion The results suggest a novel osteoblastic mechanism, which could be mediated by TNF-α and may be involved in metal wear debris-induced periprosthetic bone loss. Cite this article: Bone Joint Res 2020;9(11):827–839.


CONTEXT
A zinc preparation that provides a higher concentration of solubilized zinc in a minimally irritating formulation allowing controlled absorption would be of great clinical value for treating oral herpes.

OBJECTIVE
To determine the effect of zinc oxide/glycine cream as a treatment for facial and circumoral herpes infection by measuring duration and intensity of signs and symptoms and assessing adverse effects.

DESIGN
Double-blind, placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trial.

SETTING
Subjects were enrolled from the general community through advertisements.

PATIENTS
Forty-six subjects with facial or circumoral herpes infections.

INTERVENTION
Application of a zinc oxide/glycine cream or a placebo cream every 2 hours until cold sore resolved or 21 days elapsed.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Duration of cold sore lesions, severity of signs and symptoms, and frequency of adverse effects.

RESULTS
Subjects who began treatment with a zinc oxide/glycine cream within 24 hours of onset of signs and symptoms experienced a significantly shorter duration of cold sore lesions (mean, 5.0 days) than did subjects treated with a placebo cream (mean, 6.5 days). Subjects treated with the zinc oxide/glycine cream also experienced reduction in overall severity of signs and symptoms, particularly blistering, soreness, itching, and tingling. Side effects among subjects treated with zinc oxide/glycine cream were those expected from an ionic zinc salt solution. All were completely reversible and of short duration.

CONCLUSION
Zinc oxide/glycine cream is an effective treatment for facial and circumoral herpes infection with predictable adverse effects that are completely reversible.


Chats emerge as an effective user-friendly approach for information retrieval, and are successfully employed in many domains, such as customer service, healthcare, and finance. However, existing image retrieval approaches typically address the case of a single query-to-image round, and the use of chats for image retrieval has been mostly overlooked. In this work, we introduce ChatIR: a chat-based image retrieval system that engages in a conversation with the user to elicit information, in addition to an initial query, in order to clarify the user's search intent. Motivated by the capabilities of today's foundation models, we leverage Large Language Models to generate follow-up questions to an initial image description. These questions form a dialog with the user in order to retrieve the desired image from a large corpus. In this study, we explore the capabilities of such a system tested on a large dataset and reveal that engaging in a dialog yields significant gains in image retrieval. We start by building an evaluation pipeline from an existing manually generated dataset and explore different modules and training strategies for ChatIR. Our comparison includes strong baselines derived from related applications trained with Reinforcement Learning. Our system is capable of retrieving the target image from a pool of 50K images with over 78% success rate after 5 dialogue rounds, compared to 75% when questions are asked by humans, and 64% for a single shot text-to-image retrieval. Extensive evaluations reveal the strong capabilities and examine the limitations of CharIR under different settings. Project repository is available at https://github.com/levymsn/ChatIR.


The greater Sierra Nevada batholith (SNB) is an ~ 600 km long NNW-trending composite arc assemblage consisting of a myriad of plutons exhibiting a distinct transverse zonation in structural, petrologic, geochronologic, and isotopic patterns. However, south of 35.5 °N: 1) the depth of exposure increases markedly; 2) primary zonation patterns swing up to 90˚ westward, taking on an east-west trend; 3) western zone rocks are truncated by eastern zone rocks along the proto-Kern Canyon fault, a Late Cretaceous oblique ductile thrust; and 4) fragments of shallow-level eastern SNB affinity rocks overlie deeper-level western zone rocks and subjacent subduction accretion assemblages (Rand, San Emigdio, and Sierra de Salinas schists) along a major Late Cretaceous detachment system. Integration of these observations with new and existing data reveals a temporal relationship between schist unroofing and upper crustal extension and rotation. I present a model whereby Late Cretaceous shallow subduction and subsequent trench-directed channelized extrusion of the schist triggered gravitational collapse of the overlying crustal column. This overarching model is based on several investigations summarized below. Thermobarometry, thermodynamic modelling and garnet diffusion modelling are presented that elucidate the tectonics of subduction and eduction of the San Emigdio Schist. I document an upsection increase in peak temperature (i.e. inverted metamorphism), from 590 to 700 °C, peak pressures ranging from 8.5 to 11.1 kbar, limited partial melting, microstructural evidence for large seismic events, rapid cooling (825–380 °C/Myr) from peak conditions and an "out and back" P–T path. Progressive cooling and tectonic underplating beneath an initially hot upper plate following the onset of shallow subduction provide a working hypothesis explaining high temperatures, inverted metamorphism, partial melting, and the observed P–T trajectory calculated from the San Emigdio body. New geologic mapping and microstructural analysis indicate that the schist was transported to the SSW during structural ascent along a mylonitic contact (the Rand fault and Salinas shear zone) with upper plate assemblages. Crystallographic preferred orientation patterns in deformed quartzites reveal a decreasing simple shear component with increasing structural depth, suggesting a pure shear-dominated westward flow within the subduction channel and localized simple shear along the upper channel boundary. The resulting flow type within the channel is that of general shear extrusion. Structural, thermobarometric, U-Pb geochronologic, and geochemical data from plutonic and metamorphic framework assemblages in the southern SNB also suggest SSW-directed transport of upper plate(s) along a major Late Cretaceous detachment system. The timing and pattern of regional dispersion of crustal fragments in the southern SNB is most consistent with Late Cretaceous collapse above the underplated schist. These observations imply a high degree of coupling between the shallow and deep crust during high magnitude extension. Zircon (U-Th)/He data presented herein reveal a rapid cooling event at 77 ± 5 Ma, probably reflecting the time of large magnitude detachment faulting. A comparison of this dataset with existing apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronometry suggests that the development of modern landscape and arrangement of tectonic elements in southern California was greatly preconditioned by Late Cretaceous tectonics. Finally, detrital and metamorphic zircon of the structurally highest and earliest subducted portions of the San Emigdio Schist constrain the depositional age to between ca. 102 and 98 Ma. Zircon oxygen isotope data from both lower plate schist and upper plate batholithic assemblages reveal a δ18O shift of ~ 1.5‰ between igneous (~ 5.5‰) and metamorphic (~ 7‰) domains. These results, taken with previous zircon and whole-rock δ18O measurements, provide evidence for massive devolatilization of the San Emigdio Schist and fluid traversal of upper plate batholithic assemblages, thereby altering the isotopic composition of overlying material. Furthermore, the timing of fluid-rock interaction in the southwestern SNB is coincident with eastward arc migration and an associated pulse of voluminous magmatism. I posit that during flattening of the Farallon slab the schist was rapidly delivered to the magmatic source, where ensuing devolatilization triggered a magmatic flare-up in the southeastern SNB. This short-lived (less than 15 Myr) high-flux event was followed by the termination of arc magmatism as the shallow subduction zone approached thermal equilibrium.


A technique of transposon mutagenesis involving the use of Tn5 on a suicide plasmid was developed for Proteus mirabilis. Analysis of the resulting exconjugants indicated that Tn5 transposed in P. mirabilis at a frequency of ca. 4.5 x 10(-6) per recipient cell. The resulting mutants were stable and retained the transposon-encoded antibiotic resistance when incubated for several generations under nonselective conditions. The frequency of auxotrophic mutants in the population, as well as DNA-DNA hybridizaiton to transposon sequences, confirmed that the insertion of the transposon was random and the Proteus chromosome did not contain significant insertional hot spots of transposition. Approximately 35% of the mutants analyzed possessed plasmid-acquired ampicillin resistance, although no extrachromosomal plasmid DNA was found. In these mutants, insertion of the Tn5 element and a part or all of the plasmid had occurred. Application of this technique to the study of swarmer cell differentiation in P. mirabilis is discussed.


Abstract In this paper we investigate incentive aspects of the Linear Cost Share Equilibrium principle by designing mechanisms whose Nash allocations coincide with Linear Cost Share equilibrium allocations. The mechanisms presented here allow not only preferences but also initial indowments to be privately observed, a feature missing from much recent work in implementation theory. We give mechanisms for both cases of withholding and destruction of endowments. If one reinterprets the commodity space, our mechanisms also implements Walransian allocations to economics with purely private goods. Thus, our mechanisms are sufficiently general to cover Walrasian equilibria, Lindahl equilibria, and cost share equilibria. In other words, the mechanisms in this paper appear to represent "generic" mechanisms to implement competitive-type allocations in private and public goods economies. Journal of Economic Literature Classification Numbers: C72, D61, D78.


This paper presents the development of a new electrical impedance tomography system for online measurement of two-phase flows with axial velocities up to 10 ms/sup -1/. The system is designed in a modular fashion and can consist of several data acquisition modules and computing modules. The data acquisition module includes a voltage controlled current source with a direct-current-restoration circuit, an equal-width pulse synthesizer unit and a synchronized digital demodulation unit. A new concept of current switching scheme is developed to enhance the ac coupling speed. The computing module includes a digital signal processor (TMS320C6202/6713) with memory, multichannel buffered serial ports and an IEEE1394 communication interface. Several DSP modules can be pipelined for a series of tasks ranging from measurement control to image reconstruction to flow velocity implementation. The performances have been tested and some trial results are reported. A data acquisition speed of 1164 dual-frames (2.383 million data points) per second has been achieved with a root mean square error less than 0.6% at 80 kHz in static test application. An application in the measurement of vertical oil-in-water pipe flow is reported.


Most of its text is made up from sections 1.10.32–3 of Cicero's De finibus bonorum et malorum (On the Boundaries of Good


Purpose We aimed to determine the relationship between the levels of glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) and biomarkers of bone metabolism in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), and whether HbA1c independently influences any of these biomarkers. Patients and Methods A cohort study of 240 patients with T2DM was performed. Serum was obtained and used to measure HbA1c, total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides, high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (LDL-C), very-low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol, apolipoprotein A1 (ApoA1), apolipoprotein B (ApoB), total protein, albumin, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), creatinine, serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD), osteocalcin (OC), β-C-terminal cross-linked telopeptide of type I collagen (β-CTX), procollagen type 1 N-terminal propeptide (P1NP), or parathyroid hormone (PTH) concentrations. The participants were divided into three study groups according to HbA1c level: <7%, 7–9% and ≥9%. Chi-square testing and one-way analysis of variance were used to compare groups. The relationships between HbA1c and bone metabolism biomarker values were analyzed using linear correlation analysis and multiple linear regression analysis. Results Age, duration of T2DM, and the concentrations of TC, LDL-C, apolipoprotein B, albumin, and BUN showed significant difference among the <7%, 7–9% and ≥9% HbA1c groups. Of the bone metabolism biomarkers, there were significant differences in serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25OHD) and osteocalcin (OC) among the groups. The correlation coefficients (r) for the relationships of HbA1c with 25OHD and OC were −0.200 and −0.183, respectively (P <0.05). Regardless of adjustment for none, some, or all of the confounding factors (age, sex, and duration of T2DM), the 25OHD and OC concentrations were significantly lower in the HbA1c ≥9% group than in the HbA1c <7% group. HbA1c showed no relationship with β-CTX, PINP, or PTH. Conclusion T2DM patients with poorer glycemic control had lower concentrations of serum 25OHD and OC, suggesting that HbA1c is an independent risk factor for low 25OHD and OC.


Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries are witnessing both man-made disasters, such as corruption, civil wars, fratricide conflict; and natural disasters, such as water scarcity, drought and desertification. These phenomena have led to land degradation and affected the economic and living conditions of the population. In response to these last challenges, several international conventions and domestic laws have been enacted to prevent and tackle their threatening effects. Among these attempts, is the United Nations Convention on Combating Desertification (UNCCD). This convention requires international co-operation in which China and Africa are both engaged. Based on the above premise, the purpose of this article is to evaluate the main challenges in combatting desertification in SSA and to assess the role that China is playing with Africa to overcome the relevant challenges. Some questions will be addressed hereto: how does the UNCCD accommodate the needs of SSA countries and what are the remaining challenges? How do SSA countries comply and respond to the requirement of the convention and what are the unresolved issues? Finally, how are China and Africa co-operating or may better co-operate to tackle the nexus challenges on desertification?


We describe a new species of Cycloramphus of the eleutherodactylus group from the Ilha dos Alcatrazes, southeastern Brazil, with descriptions of advertisement and territorial calls and notes on natural history. Additionally, we describe the advertisement and territorial calls of C. eleutherodactylus. The new species is diagnosed by the following set of characters: snout truncate in lateral and dorsal views; head wider than long; eyes protruding; tibia shorter than thigh; and distinct advertisement call. The new species is known from a single population on the Ilha dos Alcatrazes, a 149 ha island about 35 km off São Paulo State coast where these frogs are scattered in a small valley. The very restricted range of the new species of Cycloramphus and the declining quality of its habitat qualify this frog as critically endangered.


Abstract The effects of thermal stress on antioxidant defences in tissues of the Antarctic clam Laternula elliptica were evaluated and the activities of some antioxidant enzymes, and levels of total glutathione (GSH) and protein carbonyl (PC) in digestive gland and gill over 0–4 days under extreme thermal stress (10°C) were measured. Superoxide dismutase activity was slightly higher after one day of thermal stress, although catalase activity was not altered significantly in either digestive gland or gill tissues. Thermal stress was associated with a significant increase in the activity of GSH-related antioxidant enzymes. Glutathione peroxidase and glutathione reductase activities increased up to 1.8- and 2.0-fold, respectively, after two days of thermal stress. Glutathione S-transferase activity drastically increased, to over 3.4- and 4.2-fold in digestive gland and gill, respectively, and remained high on day four. GSH levels also increased in both tissues and remained high on day four. PC content, a marker of protein oxidation, increased after two days of thermal stress. There is evidence that GSH-related antioxidant defence plays a significant role in relation to potential toxicity from reactive oxygen species during thermal stress.


In recent years, large scale disasters have impacted an increasing proportion of the worldwide population. It is estimated that over 450 million people have been affected by natural disasters since 2010. Those who are affected experience a range of consequences from the loss of loved ones and displacement from their homes, to psychological difficulties such as post-traumatic stress, depression and anxiety. In response to these disasters, a number of international organizations have expanded response efforts from Low Income Countries (LICs) to largescale emergency responses in High-Income Countries (HICs), such as Australia, Italy, Japan, Spain and the USA, and in Middle-Income Countries (MICs) such as the Philippines, Chile, Brazil, China and Libya. While these efforts have expanded, very little has been explored on the efficacy of psychosocial programs in HIC and MICs. This research sought to explore the current methods and evidence-base of psychosocial and protection programming in HICs and MICs in post disaster settings. Phone and Skype interviews with (N=20) key informants were conducted as well as online surveys with (N=21) respondents were completed to explore the research question. Poignant findings indicated: (1) programming widely varies from country to country based on existing capacity, civil society and governmental structure; (2) there is a dearth of rigorous research, evaluation and evidence supporting psychosocial and protection programs in most HIC and MIC country contexts; and (3) cultural adaptations and considerations are essential for effective program delivery. Findings from this research indicate that international guidelines must be established prior to a large scale disaster to appropriately respond to the needs of those affected.


The present laws and regulations relating to clinical laboratories in California are the outcome of over a quarter century of cooperative development.

The medical profession, public health department, laboratory workers, and the legislature have worked together in this development.

At first the system of certifying technicians and laboratories was on a voluntary basis. The clinical laboratory law in effect legalized and made generally applicable a system which had already been accepted voluntarily.

The application of the clinical laboratory law provides physicians a reasonable assurance that competence and reliability will prevail in clinical laboratory operation.

Of great importance is the conduct of proper training programs by approved laboratories.

Since modern medical practice is so dependent on accurate clinical laboratory work it is essential that special effort be directed by physicians toward influencing young people to enter the profession of medical technology.


Broadly, I endorse the view that biodiverse species and spaces warrant conservation (partially) in virtue of their power to induce epistemic (Paul 2015; Sarkar 2011), relational, and positive, psycho-physiological transformation. However, if we are (in the not-so-distant future) able to construct cross-modally replete simulations of biodiverse environments, then what reason would we have to conserve genuine, biodiverse ecosystems? In order to address this "Simulation Problem," I argue that the authenticity of biodiverse environments matters, both in itself and insofar as authenticity plays an important psychological, cultural, personal, and epistemic role in the lives of human agents.


In order to rigorously evaluate the energy and dipole moment of a certain configuration of molecules, one needs to solve the Schr¨ odinger equation. Repeating this for many different configurations allows one to determine the potential energy surface (PES) and the dipole moment surface (DMS). Since the early days of computer simulation, it has been implicitly accepted that for empirical potentials the charges used to fit the PES should also be used to describe the DMS. This is a mistake. Partial charges are not observable magnitudes. They should be regarded as adjustable fitting parameters. Optimal values used to describe the PES are not necessarily the best to describe the DMS. One could use two fits: one for the PES and the other for the DMS. This is a common practice in the quantum chemistry community, but not used so often by the community performing computer simulations. This idea affects all types of modelling of water (with the exception of ab initio calculations) from coarse-grained to non-polarisable and polarisable models. We anticipate that an area that will benefit dramatically from having both, a good PES and a good DMS, is the modelling of water in the presence of electric fields.


Cardiovascular disease remains a major cause of mortality and morbidity and is underpinned by Oxidative stress, within which, inactivation of nitric oxide (NO) by superoxide (SO) and other reactive oxygen species is characteristic. Two major enzyme systems are implicated within oxidative stress; NAD(P)H oxidase and endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS). eNOS generates NO while at the same time, and within the same cells, NAD(P)H plays a powerful role in the generation of SO. Evidence is accumulating that polymorphisms of the genes encoding these enzyme systems may play an important role in the pathophysiology of CAD. Additionally there has been much recent interest in both biochemical markers of oxidative stress and low grade chronic inflammation as well as a non invasive vascular phenotype, pulse wave analysis. This thesis reports a series of studies (utilising the techniques described in chapter 2) which aimed to ascertain:-

The reproducibility of pulse contour analysis as a non invasive intermediate cardiovascular phenotype (Chapter 3).
Whether common single nucleotide polymorphisms of the p22phox gene CYBA and
the endothelial nitric oxide synthase gene, NOS3, have an effect upon arterial compliance in patients with coronary artery disease (Chapters 4,5 and 6).

In healthy volunteers, free of cardiovascular disease whether a relationship existed between markers of low grade inflammation and arterial stiffness (Chapter 7).

Chapter 3: The reproducibility of diastolic pulse wave contour analysis and its relation to systolic pulse contour analysis.
This clinical study demonstrated that both large (C1) and small artery (C2) compliance values were reproducible and that there was a significant correlation between both Augmentation Index (AIx) and C1and AIx and C2 in healthy volunteers and though there was no association
between AIx and C1 in patients with coronary artery disease AIx did correlate with C2 in this population.

Chapter 4: The effect of the G894T SNP of the NOS3 gene upon arterial stiffness in patients with coronary artery disease.
There was no association observed between this polymorphism and blood pressure or large artery compliance however ANOVA revealed a statistically significant association for TT homozygosity and small artery compliance. The highest small artery compliance was seen in the patients homozygous for the G allele, an intermediate value observed in heterozygotes and the lowest value demonstrated in patients homozygous for the T allele. Multiple regression analysis, examining the possible contribution of confounders showed that only small artery compliance was significant when NOS3 G894T genotype was assigned as the dependent variable.

Chapter 5: The C242T single nucleotide polymorphism of the CYBA gene and blood pressure and arterial compliance in patients with coronary artery disease.
We sought to examine the influence of the C242T SNP of CYBA upon vascular compliance and blood pressure using the dominant allele model. The presence of the 242T allele was associated with significantly higher systolic blood pressure. Patients homozygous for the C allele had lower systolic blood pressure than heterozygotes and patients homozygous for the T allele. There was no statistically significant effect upon diastolic blood pressure but there was however a significant association observed between the 242T allele and pulse pressure.

Chapter 6: Combined analysis of NOS3 G894T and CYBA C242T genotypes upon arterial stiffness.
In order to contrast the arterial stiffness between the favourable versus the non-favourable genotypes patients homozygous for the NOS3 G allele and homozygous for the CYBA C allele were compared with those homozygous for the NOS3T allele and possessing the CYBA 242T allele. The former displayed higher large and small artery compliance than the latter group. Multiple regression analysis, examining the possible contribution of confounders showed that only the large and small artery compliance values contributed significantly when genotype was assigned as the dependent variable.

Chapter 7 Chronic low grade inflammation and insulin resistance and arterial compliance in healthy volunteers.
Within healthy volunteers multiple regression analysis showed that small artery compliance was significantly associated with IL 6, CRP and ICAM. Augmentation index showed only an association with ICAM1. There was no significant correlation between Adiponectin levels and either of the arterial stiffness parameters studied.

Conclusions
Diastolic pulse wave contour analysis is a reproducible assessment of arterial stiffness with the potential to represent a high fidelity non invasive vascular phenotype.

Small artery compliance is correlated with Augmentation Index and although the measurements are not analogous they both represent useful means of acquiring quantitative data concerning arterial stiffness.
The 242T allele of the p22phox gene, CYBA, is associated with decreased large but not small artery compliance and increased systolic and pulse pressure.
Homozygosity for a common NOS3 polymorphism (894 GT) was associated with decreased small artery compliance but not with large artery compliance or blood pressure.
The markers of chronic inflammation Interleukin 6, ICAM and hsCRP but not Adiponectin, a marker of Insulin resistance, predict small artery compliance in healthy individuals apparently free of vascular disease.


Multi-material additive manufacturing brings new possibilities for the production of flexible and functional medical models for training and planning of surgical interventions. Based on the large amount of available material combinations, materials are poorly characterized and process related variations in the material properties are not completely understood. Aim of this study was a dimensional and mechanical characterization of selected pure materials and material-combinations under investigation of build orientation effects.


The exploration of the narrative nature of local memory websites in relation to empowerment theory produces new insights in the nested levels of analysis of both. Empowerment's value orientation calls for a focus on strengths instead of weaknesses and, as such, requires specific language that accommodates the conviction that resources are locally available, instead of scarce. Consequently, empowerment theory describes resources as being present in processes and outcomes on interdependent psychological, organizational and communal levels. The application of the empowerment framework's components to the theoretical outcomes and processes of local memory websites illuminates the connecting roles local narratives play as resources in empowerment. First of all, personal stories, community narratives and dominant cultural narratives influence and support each other across levels. Secondly, narratives spread local knowledge which leads to shared values and common believes for collectives on various levels. And thirdly, the sharing of narratives happens through social networks that manifest themselves on different levels, which, as such, facilitate sharing other resources. Based on these perspectives, we offer a simplified model for empowerment with a focus on the interdependencies between levels of networks. Against this background, we discuss relevant analytical perspectives as a departure point for the empirical exploration of unstudied relations between empowerment and local memory websites.


Edible fungi of the Monascus species have been used as traditional Chinese medicine in eastern Asia for several centuries. Monascus-fermented products possess a number of functional secondary metabolites, including the anti-inflammatory pigments monascin and ankaflavin. Monascin has been shown to prevent or ameliorate several conditions, including hypercholesterolemia, hyperlipidemia, diabetes, and obesity. Recently, monascin has been shown to improve hyperglycemia, attenuate oxidative stress, inhibit insulin resistance, and suppress inflammatory cytokine production. In our recent study, we have found that monascin is a peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-gamma (PPARgamma) agonist. The PPARgamma agonist activity had been investigated and its exerted benefits are inhibition of inflammation in methylglyoxal (MG)-treated rats, prevention of pancreas impairment causing advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs), promotion of insulin expression in vivo and in vitro, and attenuated carboxymethyllysine (CML)-induced hepatic stellate cell (HSC) activation in the past several years. Moreover, our studies also demonstrated that monascin also activated nuclear factor-erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2) in pancreatic RIN-m5F cell line thereby invading methylglyoxal induced pancreas dysfunction. In this review, we focus on the chemo-preventive properties of monascin against metabolic syndrome through PPARgamma and Nrf2 pathways.


ABSTRACT The throughput of any process is limited by the step with the lowest throughput. In iron ore processing, filtration is used to dewater the iron ore concentrate created during reverse flotation. The conditions of the reverse flotation of iron ore and the efficient filtration of iron ore concentrate are found to be at odds with each other. We show that optimizing the filtration conditions should reduce cation retention in the filter cake, which also improves pellet quality in laboratory scale work. Experimental work was performed to investigate potential implementations at plant scale. Based on data collected at operating magnetite concentrators, it has been found that adding CO2 into the filter slurry can increase filtration rates dramatically. In plant scale work, filtration rates were increased by up to 23.7% with the addition of 0.54kg of CO2/ton of feed. We compare these results with laboratory scale results on the same process and elaborate on the theory leading to this discovery, while considering its potential impact on final pellet and iron product quality.


The potential of FPGAs for High-Performance Computing is increasingly recognized, but most work focuses on acceleration of small, isolated kernels. We present a parallel FPGA implementation of a legacy algorithm, the seminal scheme for cumulus convection in large-scale models developed by Emanuel [1]. Our design makes use of pipelines both at the arithmetic and at the logical stage level, keeping the entire algorithm on the FPGA. We assert that modern FPGAs have the resources to support this type of large algorithms. Through a practical and theoretical evaluation of our design we show how such an FPGA implementation compares to GPU implementations or multi-core approaches such as OpenMP.


Proteins from the earthworm mucus have been revealed for their various biological activities. In this study, a 38-kDa protein, earthworm antiplatelet agent (EAPA) was purified from the earthworm Eudrilus eugeniae (African night crawler) mucus and examined for its antiplatelet and fibrinogenolytic activities. EAPA was found to possess fibrinogenolytic activity on αand β-chains of fibrinogen. It inhibited ADP-, collagen-, and ristocetin-induced platelet aggregation. This protein also had antiplatelet function on clot retraction, which was evaluated by a Sonoclot Analyser. N-terminal amino acid sequences of EAPA shared 65% identity with lysenin, an earthworm haemolytic protein. EAPA may have potential in the development of therapeutic tools in the treatment of thrombotic diseases.


The low demonstrable effect of education research done in South Africa in particular – and Africa in general – continues to be a problem in scientific records in the educational sciences. This scholarly collected work addresses this obstacle and focuses on recommendations from scholars in different sectorial categories in the field of education. Scholars from a variety of sub-fields within the educational sciences reflect on this particular matter, revisiting the history of research and research outcomes and offering informed recommendations based on in-depth investigation and analysis of aspects of the various discourses within the relevant sub-fields. The scope of the content of this collected work centres on the issue of the lack of scientific records concerning the scientific raising of the impact of education research. The book aims at making a specific contribution to the educational sciences by stimulating scholarly discussion around how to increase the recording of the significance of educational research done in Africa, and in South Africa in particular, and to redirect the research agenda into the direction of making more impact. Impact is conceptualised to mean both scholarly impact (that is being cited and being used as foundation for theory building and for further research) and practical impact (that is improvement of practice, teaching and learning in education institutions at all levels).


Diabetic macular edema is a major cause of vision loss and is evaluated with qualitative or semiquantitative techniques. A new quantitative method for assessment of macular edema using retinal thickness analysis was applied to 19 patients with diabetic macular edema. Foveal thickening was frequently coupled with poor visual acuity. Slit-lamp biomicroscopy and stereophotography detected 80% and 78% of local areas of thickening, respectively, but failed to detect locations with average thicknesses of 1.5 and 1.6 times normal, respectively. Fluorescein leakage on angiography was generally associated with retinal thickening, but locations with similar degrees of leakage had widely varying retinal thickening. Fluorescein leakage in the posterior vitreous correlated poorly with the degree of foveal thickening. These results indicate that quantitative measurement of retinal thickness may become useful in the management of diabetic patients with macular edema.


Recently, a novel technique for the multiple constant multiplication (MCM) problem using minimum spanning trees (MSTs) has been proposed. The approach works by finding simple differences between the coefficients to realize and then applying the same method to the differences (which is an MCM problem as well). Each iteration is divided into two steps. First, finding a minimum spanning tree in the graph describing the differences between the coefficients. Second, as each edge in the graph may correspond to more than one difference, one difference is selected for each edge in the MST. Generally, both these stages have multiple solutions. The aim of this work is to more closely study how the MST and the differences should be selected to give better total results. It is also discussed how the two stages in each iteration may be joined into one problem.


Background. Hypertension management is of a paramount importance in diabetic patients for cardiovascular risk reduction. Aim. To evaluate prescribing pattern of antihypertensive in T2DM (type 2 diabetes) patients and compare with existing recent guidelines. Methods. A cross-sectional study involving evaluation of all T2DM patients referred to endocrinology unit at tertiary care centre for hypertension, comorbid complications, and recording prescription. Utilization of 5 different antihypertensive drug classes was compared for all patients receiving 1, 2, 3, 4, or more drugs. Logistical regression was used to assess likelihood of prescription of drugs and/or therapy for specific conditions mentioned in the guidelines. Results. Out of 1358, T2DM enrolled patients 1186 (87%) had hypertension (males 52%, females 48%). The median duration (IQ) of hypertension diabetics was 4 (1–10) years. A total of 25% patients had controlled BP and 75% with uncontrolled blood pressure (13% isolated systolic hypertension, 6% isolated diastolic hypertension, and 55% both elevated). Overall, ACE inhibitors (ACEIs) were prescribed the highest (59%) followed by angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) (52%), calcium channel blockers (CCBs) (29%), diuretics (27%), and beta-blockers (14%). Overall, 55% of T2DM patients were on polytherapy, 41% on monotherapy, and 4% had no antihypertensive treatment. Polytherapy was more predominant with age, duration of diabetes, duration of hypertension, and comorbid complications. Conclusion. Although prescribing pattern of antihypertensive showed adherence to existing evidence-based guidelines, higher proportion of uncontrolled hypertensive patients was found.


This report is a deliverable of MERiFIC Work Package 3.6: 'Operation and Maintenance requirements' and has been produced as a cross border collaboration between IFREMER and the University of Exeter. The report provides an overview of guidelines and recommendations for the management of O&M operations necessary for an optimal exploitation of Marine energy plants, with a focus on the specific areas of South West Cornwall, UK and Iroise sea, Brittany, France. An overview of the onshore infrastructures and ports possibly suitable for management of such O&M operations is also provided. Management of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance operations are discussed in their various aspects including site accessibility. It should be noted that this topic, including weather window assessment for operations is discussed in more detail in the additional MERIFIC report D3.6.2: Best Practice for installation procedures.


High peak to average power ratio (PAPR) is a main area of concern in multi-carrier signals like Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) modulated signals and several techniques have been devised to reduce PAPR. One of these PAPR reduction techniques is 'Tone Reservation' where PAPR is reduced by adding tones to the useful data tones to reduce the temporal signal's peak. IDFT is performed to see the effect of the added tones on temporal signal's peak and then the tones are adjusted in frequency domain accordingly to minimize this peak. Enormous use of IDFT operations to get optimized reserved tones makes Tone Reservation technique quite complex. During this optimization process, only the knowledge of maximal IDFT element is required though. Truncated IDFT algorithm calculates only this value and not the complete IDFT output and thus it makes the Tone Reservation's IDFT complexity O(1.5Nitr.N) instead of O(N.Nitr.log2(N)) where N and Nitr are size of IDFT and number of algorithm iterations respectively. This complexity reduction is achieved at the cost of less PAPR reduction. Afterwards, a combination of Truncated and classical IDFT algorithms is presented to be used for tone optimization which improves the PAPR reduction performance. It is observed that the complexity is reduced to half using this combination when compared to Tone Reservation classical IDFT complexity at the cost of 0.3 dB performance loss.


Whenever one encounters theoretical discussions about contemporary climate change narratives, one word that is likely to appear is 'crisis': the Indian novelist Amitav Ghosh, himself expressly concerned with the representation of climate change in his writing, has argued that "the climate crisis is also a crisis of culture, and thus of the imagination" (2016, 9). This essay seeks to attempt a narratological-cum-ecocritical assessment of where the crisis of climate change's cultural representation may reside; it will, at the same time, discuss select narrative texts that have made climate change their subject, namely Jeanette Winterson's The Stone Gods (2007), Ian McEwan's Solar (2010), and Jonathan Franzen's The End of the End of the Earth (2018). It will also evaluate strategies of narration that may be more suited to capture the complexity and uncertainty of our planet's future, such as the multi-linear, open-ended 'future narrative' (cf. Bode / Dietrich 2013; Meifert-Menhard 2013), arguing that narrative negotiations of climate change must adapt to the new historical and cultural conditions this phenomenon entails in order to avoid restrictive representations of what is, in fact, a hyperdimensional, open-ended, and multi-linear temporal development.


ABSTRACT Across the Global South, community-based adaptation (CBA) projects are increasingly being implemented in an effort to respond effectively and sustainably to the impacts of climate change, with a particular focus on people's livelihoods. Despite an increase in the number of CBA projects being implemented, detailed analysis and evaluation of their efficacy and the barriers faced in achieving successful outcomes is lacking. This study draws on an analysis of grey literature (i.e. project and donor reports) to explore the barriers faced in achieving effective CBA. An extensive global search of online project evaluations yielded 25 documents comprising 69 projects from which this analysis is based. This paper first presents an overview of the 69 projects and highlights any trends. Second, this paper describes the barriers to CBA according to three broad themes: socio-political, resource, and physical systems and processes. Following this is a discussion of the most prevalent barriers: cognitive and behavioural, financial, and human resources. Third, this paper discusses the key findings elucidated from this review. This includes the need for greater sharing of project reports and findings so lessons can be learned across spatial and temporal scales, and the disparity between critical academic literature on CBA and what is implemented in practice.


Being a convenient technique in analyzing and evaluating educational policies of the states, education production functions have been approved and used by many scholars. Therefore, this study engages with that technique by referring to the existing literature in order to identify the reasons behind the high variance among provinces of Turkey, in student achievements. Primary level education is the main concern of this paper. An econometric analysis is applied by using data of identified variables, in relation to the student achievements. To provide a base for this application, the structure of Turkish education system is explained. In addition, a comparison of the education system of Turkey with other selected countries is provided. According to the results of the econometric analysis, this study finds out that multiple variables have been responsible for the variance in student achievement among provinces in Turkey. School enrollment rate, educational status of the families, class size, student teacher ratio, and variable regarding the Kurdish population have all influenced student achievement at primary level education. Nevertheless, variables on socio-economic status of the provinces and school resources including class size and student teacher ratio have been more influential. On the other hand, findings on public expenditure variable have led to an important conclusion. This study shows that the centralized educational policy of Turkey has not responded to the high variance problem in student achievement. In this respect, alternative education systems including a decentralized structure should be taken into consideration to provide a more efficient education to the citizens of the Turkey.


The state-of-the-art of electronic publishing in science and its nearest perspectives with the emphasis on technical issues are discussed. The discussion is based on the real-life activities of the author and his colleagues in publishing online journals (http://eos.wdcb.rssi.ru/) and the creation of an integrated electronic publishing environment. The EP environment includes a full set of technologies and tools for preparation of papers from manuscript to print and online versions, including online submissions, peer-review process, updating and revising papers, backand forward referring, TeX to HTML conversion with hyperlinking based on automatic syntax analysis, etc.


While the legionary fortress of Brigetio is one of the key sites in the province of Roman Pannonia, its inner structure and buildings are almost unknown. Although the retentura of the legionary fortress is almost entirely covered by modern buildings, the praetentura can be researched using remote sensing methods. Over the past few years, systematic excavations took place in the praetentura, based on results of the geophysical surveys. A large building complex was identified as the bath of the legionary fortress, with an area of at least 4,000 m2. In the excavation seasons 2021 and 2022, about 1,200 m2 of the bath was unearthed. Several cold and hot rooms, pools, sewers, hypocaust systems and praefurnia were found, yielding abundant find material. In the present state of research, the chronological periods and building phases of the bath are mostly unknown. The only chronological data comes from the in situ stamped bricks of the Legio XI Claudia, dating the earliest period of the bath between AD 101 and 105, which was also the earliest period of the legionary camp. From the Late Roman Period, some tegulae with the names of Lupicinus tribunus and Frigeridus dux have been preserved, which indicate building activity in the last third of the 4th century AD.


SUMMARY: Mutants of the filamentous fungus Neurospora crassa which grow well only in a medium in which the concentration of calcium is lower than in the medium used for culture of the wild-type strain were isolated by use of the ionophore A23187 and medium which contained a high concentration of calcium. These mutants showed a significantly lower uptake of calcium into their vacuoles than the wild-type, while other activities associated with the transport of calcium across several other types of membrane were not affected. The results indicated an essential role for the vacuoles in the regulation of the cytosolic concentration of calcium.


Pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) is a progressive disease of the pulmonary circulation in which thrombosis, inflammation, and unbridled cellular proliferation obliterate the arterial lumen, causing progressive right heart failure and death. The pathogenesis remains enigmatic, and current therapeutic strategies are limited. In 1951, Dresdale1 published the first report of a family in which 3 first-degree relatives had what was then called primary pulmonary hypertension. Subsequently, the initial, prospective National Institutes of Health (NIH)-sponsored North American primary pulmonary hypertension registry included 11 patients who had a relevant family history (6%).2 Several features of the gene transmission were apparent by the 1980s: vertical transmission indicated a single dominant gene, transmission to offspring of either sex argued against X- or Y-linkage, and multiple skip generations highlighted an incomplete penetrance.3

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The race to identify the causative gene was ultimately won simultaneously by 2 groups working in parallel. Nichols et al4 used a microsatellite marker strategy to identify the locus within families on chromosome 2q32. Then groups at Columbia Presbyterian in New York5 and an International Consortium, including Vanderbilt,6 simultaneously identified mutations in a receptor for the transforming growth factor β family, the bone morphogenetic protein receptor 2 (BMPR-2), as the cause of most cases of what is now classified as heritable pulmonary arterial hypertension (HPAH). BMPR-2 mutations have subsequently been found in between 5% and 25% of patients who have idiopathic PAH without any relevant family history.7 Mutations in other transforming growth factor beta family proteins, activin-like kinase-1 and endoglin, are unusual causes for HPAH.8 Although numerous BMPR-2 mutations have been found, in most cases (≈70%) the mutation leads to a haploinsufficient state in which cellular BMPR-2 levels are reduced by ≈50%,9 usually because the mutated transcript is subject to nonsense-mediated …


This study aims to examine how different forms of social support are perceived to affect the recovery process of people with severe mental health difficulties, and what factors people within this group perceive as being most beneficial for their recovery. This study was conducted in Uganda for eight weeks during November 2013 and December 2013 and is based on semi-structured interviews with people in recovery from severe mental illness such as bi-polar affective disorder and schizophrenia. This study is using Interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA), which is a qualitative research approach, and the strength of IPA is its commitment to examine lived experience and personal meaning in detail. This study has shown that social support received from service user organisations was perceived to highly affect the recovery process in a most fundamental way. The service user organisations/associations were seen as platforms providing acceptance, understanding and recognition of what one has been or are going through. In terms of social support from family members, this was neither described as particularly helpful or hindering for the recovery process by most of the participants; this finding was somewhat unexpected but could be explained due to the complexity that proved to exist within the relationships between the participants and their family members. Medication was perceived as very important in terms of recovery, however it was strongly pointed out that medication alone was not enough. Despite this a majority of the participants had negative perceptions regarding both the dosage and the prescribed medicine itself particularly the prescription of Chlorpromazine, here feelings of being overmedicated and dealing with severe side effects were expressed, leading to some of the participants changing the prescribed dose on their own, so called manipulative medication.