This well-produced handbook, with its companion volume Lehrbuch der Physiologischen Chemie, is intended to give without excessive detail an account of the functioning of the various organs of the body and of their relationships to one another in the normal circumstances of life. An English reader may find the German rather difficult-perhaps because it is too good-and the absence of side headings does not allow easy perusal; but this steam-roller effect is common in books in German. What is recorded is up to date. The transference to another volume of those parts of the subject which have a chemical aspect or interest makes the book appear unbalanced-19 chapters out of 33 being devoted to special-sense physiology and the nervous system, while there are no chapters on heat regulation, diet, reproduction, or the endocrine system. The author mentions the last incidentally in connexion with the systems that he describes more fullynamely, digestion, circulation, respiration, and urinary secretion. We may perhaps concede that biochemistry is the science that fully treats of such subjects as diet and general and intermediary metabolism, but we would not have thought that a general textbook of physiology could omit them altogether. The methods and viewpoints of the chemist and physicist are essential for the solution of the problems of physiology, but these problems and their solutions remain within the framework of general biology. If the transference of much of the subject matter of physiology into the realm of biochemistry is before long to be followed by the removal into the realm of biophysics of all the remaining matter capable of exact and quantitative treatment, then indeed physiology, like the Cheshire Cat, wijl leave behind nothing but a smile. C. LOVATr EVANS.


Globalization, which is spurred by improved telecommunication systems, developed infrastructure, and transportation, has made the movement of goods and services across borders speedy and thereby emerging different markets into a single complex market. Countries with relaxed trade regimes and liberalized policies usually are better off meriting from global trade. With an open and mild protectionism economy, the Bangladeshi apparel industry nonetheless, appears to flicker for success in the global market. Some proponents of internationalization theories argue the need for enterprises to gain competitive advantage in their local markets before venturing abroad, to this knot is the research objective tied. Hence, the paper is designed to explore and institute structures that will complement existing national trade policies to enhance the internal competitiveness of the Ready Made Garments Industry. Pursuant to the World Bank Group's classification of economies, Bangladesh appears to be in the developing economy category, nevertheless, tends to exhibit growth prospects year-on-year and has created a reluctant atmosphere for the economy's desire to explore new and bigger markets. The reluctance of enterprises within the industry internationalizing often ramifies the country's GDP and benefits accruable from the global market system and serve as bedrock for the choice of the industry. Reckoning the nature of the paper, a qualitative means of gathering data shall be employed with most of the data predominantly collated through interviewing of Bangladesh RMG and BGMEA personnel. With very little researches conducted to improving the well-being of the industry, it becomes glaring the vitality of this paper to ousting structures and programs that can be instituted to intensify the Bangladesh RMG industry's competitiveness internally.


Background: The research aimsto assess the knowledge and attitude of female high school students towards analgesics use. The research is a result of concerns raised by high school advisors in regards to the analgesics knowledge and frequency of use amongst students. The findings of the study could be useful for targeted awareness campaigns or sessions for students and the community. Methods and Material: A questionnaire was developed by the investigator and validated by two experts. All students in the third grade were included in the study. The total number of students was 488. All data were collected by the investigator through direct contact with the students.Statistical Analysis Used: Analysis of Variance, t-test, and univariate regression model were used as appropriate.Results: Reliability of the questionnaire was found to be 100%. The mean age of students was 17.4± 0.8 years. A total of (88.3%) of the students reported use of analgesics. Paracetamol was the drug of choice for almost half of the students (49.2%). The study showed repeated analgesics usage among the students, where (12%) used medication daily, (14.4%) weekly and (72.6%) had monthly usage. Only two variables affected the prevalence of analgesics usage namely ―analgesics given to students by the people surrounding them‖ and ―analgesics are the immediate choice when the students feel any pain‖. Conclusion: Self-medication is prevalent and common among adolescent female students in Safwa city, Eastern Province Saudi Arabia. Moreover, the knowledge of analgesics side effects was inadequate which led to widespread misuse among the targeted population.


Daniella oliveri (Caesalpiniacea) is a plant found in the Amazon region and other parts of South America and Africa. The tree may reach a height of 100 feet and trunk diameter of 4 feet. Daniella oliveri (Rolfe) Fabiaceae is commonly known as Ilorin balsam (eepo-iya) or Copaihu africana . It is an indigenous African tree, found extensively in Benin, Cameroon, Gambia and Nigeria. The basic objective of this project is to determine the antimicrobial activity and phytochemical composition of Daniella oliveri. The leaf and bark of the Daniella oliveri were obtained from a location in the south western part of Nigeria, in the tropical rainforest of Ikare Akoko, Ondo state and Ile Ife, Osun state, Nigeria. The plants were authenticated by a certified botanist at the herbarium unit of Department of Plant science and Biotechnology, Adekunle Ajasin University, Akungba Akoko, Ondo State, Nigeria and Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile Ife, Osun State, Nigeria. The leaf and bark were prepared using ethanol. The antimicrobial assay was carried out on leaf and bark using Agar diffusion method and the zone of inhibition was measured. The test organisms used for this research work are Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa , Staphylococcus aureus , Klebsiella pneumonia, Bacillus cereus, Proteus vulgaris, Streptococcus viridians, Shigella dysenteriae, Bacillus subtilis and Salmonella typhi. All the extracts (leaf and bark) of the highest concentration (60 mg/ml) has the highest zone of inhibition while the lowest concentration (7.5 mg/ml) has the lowest zone of inhibition. The phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids and phenol, tannin, phylate, oxalate, saponin and steroid. The presences of these compounds were inferred as being responsible for the anti-microbial properties of the extracts. Mineral elements composition content present in the plant are sodium (Na), potassium (K), calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Zinc (Zn), Iron (Fe), Lead (Pb), therefore, the use of medicinal plants should be studied in detail and encouraged for use worldwide to reduce the level of resistance of microorganisms to drugs and make drugs available for the populace.


The isoform identity of activated protein kinase C (PKC) and its regulation were investigated in bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-treated human monocytes. Resolution of detergent-soluble lysates prepared from LPS-treated, peripheral blood monocytes using Mono Q anion-exchange chromatography revealed two principal peaks of myelin basic protein kinase activity. Immunoblotting and immunoprecipitation with isoform-specific anti-PKC antibodies showed that the major and latest eluting peak is accounted for by PKC-ζ. In addition to primary monocytes, activation of PKC-ζ in response to LPS was also observed in the human promonocytic cell lines, U937 and THP-1. Consistent with its identity as PKC-ζ, the kinase did not depend upon the presence of lipids, Ca2+, or diacylglycerol for activity. In addition, the kinase phosphorylates peptide ε and myelin basic protein with equal efficiency but phosphorylates Kemptide and protamine sulfate poorly. Translocation of PKC-ζ from the cytosolic to the particulate membrane fraction upon exposure of monocytes to LPS provided further evidence for activation of the kinase. Preincubation of monocytes with the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI 3-kinase) inhibitors, wortmannin or LY294002, abrogated LPS-induced activation of PKC-ζ. Furthermore, activation of PKC-ζ failed to occur in U937 cells transfected with a dominant negative mutant of the p85 subunit of PI 3-kinase. PKC-ζ activity was also observed to be enhanced in vitro by the addition of phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5P3. These findings are consistent with a model in which PKC-ζ is activated downstream of PI 3-kinase in monocytes in response to LPS.


Emphasis on the biodiesel yield from the trans-esterification of waste oils should not only be of interest, but the production of high quality biodiesel should be of greater concern.Factors that determine quality of biodiesel are the production process(es) and biodiesel properties. High quality biodiesel must have cetane number (CN) that falls within the specifications of America Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) and/or European Committee for Standardisation (EN). CN is a measure of auto ignition quality of a fuel; the higher the cetane number, the shorter the delay interval and the greater is its combustibility. In this research work, conditions for the production of high yields of biodiesel from the trans-esterification of Waste Soyabean Oil (WSO) and proposed model for the determination of biodiesel cetane number were established. The results of biodiesel yields obtained from the WSO trans-esterification showed that biodiesel yield was favoured at methanol/oil mole ratio of 6, NaOH catalyst concentration of 0.7 w/w oil, reaction temperature of 55 0 C and reaction time of 90 minutes. Proposed biodiesel cetane number model obtained was validated. The statistical analysis yielded pearson correlation of 0.824 between the calculated cetane number using the proposed model and the experimentally reportedcetane number; p-value of 0.086. Interestingly, percentage average absolute deviation (% AAD) obtained for the calculated cetane numberand cetane number reported by Ramirez- Verduscoet. al. (2012), when compared to experimentally reported cetane number, generated the same result of 3.28 %.


Steady unsaturated flow in heterogeneous soil with an arbitrarily oriented mean hydraulic gradient is analyzed using spectral solutions of the stochastic perturbation equation which describes the capillary pressure head ψ. The unsaturated hydraulic conductivity is related to ψ by K = Ks exp (−αψ), where Ks is the saturated hydraulic conductivity and α is a soil parameter, and both Ks and α are treated as three-dimensional statistically homogeneous, anisotropic random fields. Analytical results are obtained for the capillary pressure head variance and the effective (mean) unsaturated hydraulic conductivity. The head variance depends upon the degree of anisotropy of the ln Ks covariance; when α is random, the head variance increases with mean capillary pressure head. The effective hydraulic conductivity for arbitrary orientation of the mean hydraulic gradient J is shown to have tensorial properties, but its components depend on the magnitude and direction of J and the orientation of the stratification in the soil. When α is random, the degree of anisotropy of the effective conductivity depends strongly on mean capillary pressure.


The coffee berry borer Hypothenemus hampei Ferrari (Coleoptera: Scolytidae) was first reported infecting Costa Rican coffee plantations in the year 2000. Due to the impact that this plague has in the economy of the country, we were interested in seeking new alternatives for the biological control of H. hampei, based on the entomopathogenic bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis. A total of 202 B. thuringiensis isolates obtained from Costa Rican coffee plantations infested with H. hampei were analyzed through crystal morphology of the crystal inclusions and SDS-PAGE of 6-endotoxins, while 105 strains were further evaluated by PCR for the presence cry, cyt and vip genes. Most of the Bt strains showed diverse crystal morphologies: pleomorphic (35%), oval (37%), bipyramidal (3%), bipyramidal and oval (12%), bipyramidal, oval and pleomorphic (10%) and bipyramidal, oval and cubic (3%). The SDS-PAGE analyses of the crystal preparations showed five strains with delta-endotoxin from 20 to 40 kDa, six from 40 to 50 kDa, seven from 50 to 60 kDa, 19 from 60 to 70 kDa, 29 from 70 to 100 kDa and 39 from 100-145 kDa. PCR analyses demonstrated that the collection showed diverse cry genes profiles having several genes per strain: 78 strains contained the vip3 gene, 82 the cry2 gene, 45 the cry1 and 29 strains harbored cry3-cry7 genes. A total of 13 strains did not amplified with any of the cry primers used: cry1, cry2, cry3-7, cry5, cry11, cry12 and cry14. Forty-three different genetic profiles were found, mainly due to the combination of cry1A genes with other cry and vip genes. The genetic characterization of the collection provides opportunities for the selection of strains to be tested in bioassays against H. hampei and other insect pests of agricultural importance.


Intent classification is an important building block of dialogue systems. With the burgeoning of conversational AI, existing systems are not capable of handling numerous fast-emerging intents, which motivates zero-shot intent classification. Nevertheless, research on this problem is still in the incipient stage and few methods are available. A recently proposed zero-shot intent classification method, IntentCapsNet, has been shown to achieve state-of-the-art performance. However, it has two unaddressed limitations: (1) it cannot deal with polysemy when extracting semantic capsules; (2) it hardly recognizes the utterances of unseen intents in the generalized zero-shot intent classification setting. To overcome these limitations, we propose to reconstruct capsule networks for zero-shot intent classification. First, we introduce a dimensional attention mechanism to fight against polysemy. Second, we reconstruct the transformation matrices for unseen intents by utilizing abundant latent information of the labeled utterances, which significantly improves the model generalization ability. Experimental results on two task-oriented dialogue datasets in different languages show that our proposed method outperforms IntentCapsNet and other strong baselines.


We report a novel hybrid method of robust strain mapping in compressional optical coherence elastography using combined phase measurements on sub-wavelength-scale and cumulative pixel-scale displacement tracking. This hybrid nature significantly extends the range of measurable displacements and strains in comparison with conventional direct phase-resolved measurements. As a result, the proposed strain-mapping method exhibits significantly increased robustness with respect to both additive noise and decorrelation noise produced by displacements and strains. The main advantages of the proposed approach are illustrated by numerical simulations. Experimental examples of obtained strain maps for phantoms and real biological tissues are also presented.


Zirconia ball heads have been implanted successfully from the late 1980s, but reports of wear and fractures have raised concerns about this ceramic biomaterial. This paper reviews the literature on clinical wear of zirconia-polyethylene bearings, zirconia head degradation and fractures, analysing the different factors that have led to clinical failure, such as material source, manufacturing process and type of polyethylene. The results underline the need for more homogeneous clinical series. Careful follow-up of patients with zirconia-polyethylene bearings is recommended.


Over the last decade, the concept of 'smart beta' has emerged as one of the most disruptive trends in the financial industry. The pioneering paper 'Fundamental Indexation' by Arnott, Hsu and Moore (2005) stimulated an extensive discussion about the benefits and drawbacks of factor-based investment products, but there has been limited scrutiny of how the indices perform – that is, whether they are successful in their core focus. Using annual data for the oldest 'smart beta' exchange-traded fund, PowerShares FTSE RAFI US 1000 (RAFI), we compute several widely-accepted measures of risk and analyse the performance of this fund in different time frames. We compare this fund with the two main cap-weighted indices – the S&P 500 and the Russell 1000 – or, more precisely, with their exchange-traded versions – the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust and the iShares Russell 1000 ETF.
We find that the RAFI outperforms the index-based ETFs by 0.9% and 1.0% respectively in compound annual growth rate terms (2006-2016), but we believe that this is overwhelmingly due to the performance of the index in 2009, when the RAFI outperformed the S&P 500 by 16.0% and the Russell 1000 by 14.2%. Without this anomaly (i.e. if RAFI earned the same return as Russell 1000 in 2009), the index's returns are reduced to only outperform S&P 500 and Russell 1000 by 0.17% and 0.04% respectively. We provide evidence that the source of the out-performance in 2009 is not likely to arise from the core nature of the index. We feel that there are two possible reasons for it, the rebalancing of the RAFI and the timing of this rebalancing. These findings then accentuate several risks that we believe the 'smart beta' strategies to carry, and show that investors should increase their scrutiny of the sector.


The Japanese Archipelago harbours high diversity of endemic bradybaenid land snails. However, there have been few systematic studies of these snails. The resolution of the taxonomy and phylogenetic relationships of these bradybaenid land snail taxa is important both for describing species diversity and for promoting the conservation of these land snails. We investigated the molecular phylogeny of Bradybaena and Phaeohelix using the CO1 and internal transcribed spacer genes, to clarify whether morphological traits and the current species taxonomy of these genera reflect their phylogenetic relationships. Our results show that the Japanese species in these genera are genetically divided into three clades, and the geographical distribution pattern of the lineages tends to reflect phylogenetic relationships. Although the nominal species taxonomy of these genera was not consistent with their molecular phylogenetic relationships, their shell and genital morphology reflected phylogenetic relationships to some extent. Inferred phylogeny and observed genital morphology showed that Phaeohelix submandarina, P. miyakejimana and Bradybaena circulus oceanica from Hachijo-kojima Island belong to P. phaeogramma. In addition, the distinction between Bradybaena and Phaeohelix was not supported by molecular phylogeny, showing instead that Phaeohelix should be synonymized with Bradybaena. This study suggests that a further taxonomic revision of Japanese Bradybaenidae is needed and, to address this issue, genital anatomy is useful in addition to molecular phylogenetic analyses.


Conservative management of pancreatic fistulas resulting from trauma, operation for tumor, or operation for pancreatitis has met with variable success. To assess optimal management strategies and outcome, we reviewed the records of 35 patients with external pancreatic fistulas (26 patients), pancreatic ascites (6 patients), or pancreatic pleural effusion (3 patients). Treatment included no operation in 5 patients, oversewing of the fistula in 7 patients, internal drainage in 11 patients, and resection in 12 patients. One (3%) postoperative death occurred. The overall rate of operative success was 83% (25 patients). The incidence of recurrent fistulas was about the same regardless of the procedure. Patients treated successfully without operation did not have pancreatitis as an underlying disease. Patient selection is of great importance in the decision to resect or to drain and is based in part on imaging the pancreatic duct and fistula.


BACKGROUND AND AIMS
Aldehydes that are produced following the breakdown of ethanol (acetaldehyde) and lipid peroxidation of membranes (malondialdehyde) have been shown to bind (adduct) proteins. Additionally, these two aldehydes can combine (MAA) on nonsyngeneic and syngeneic proteins to initiate numerous immune responses to the unmodified part of the protein in the absence of an adjuvant. Therefore, these studies provide a potential mechanism for the development of antigen-specific immune responses resulting in liver damage should syngeneic liver proteins be adducted with MAA.

METHODS
This study sought to test whether MAA-modified syngeneic liver cytosolic proteins administered daily in the absence of adjuvant into C57BL/6 mice abrogates tolerance to initiate a MAA-induced autoimmune-like hepatitis.

RESULTS
In mice immunized with MAA-modified cytosols, there was an increase in liver damage as assessed by aspartate aminotransferase/alanine aminotransferase levels that correlated with liver pathology scores and the presence of the pro-fibrotic factors, smooth muscle actin, TGF-β, and collagen. IgG antibodies and T-cell proliferative responses specific for cytosolic proteins were also detected. Pro-inflammatory cytokines were produced in the livers of animals exposed to MAA-modified cytosols. Finally, transfer of immunized T cells to naïve animals caused biochemical and histological evidence of liver damage.

CONCLUSIONS
These data demonstrate that a disease with an autoimmune-like pathophysiology can be generated in this animal model using soluble MAA-modified syngeneic liver cytosols as the immunogen. These studies provide insight into potential mechanism(s) that the metabolites of alcohol may play in contributing to the onset of an autoimmune-like disease in patients with alcoholic liver disease.


Pneumonia remains a potentially life threatening infection. The incidence of community acquired pneumonia (CAP) differs by region, season and the characteristics of the population under evaluation. A recent review on CAP among adults in Europe found the incidence ranged from 1.54 to 1.70 per 1,000 population, rising to as high as 14.0 cases per 1,000 person-years in those aged 65 years and over (1). Mortality for patients hospitalised with CAP ranges from 5.1–36.5%. The mortality is particularly high in critically ill patients with pneumonia who require admission to intensive care units (ICUs) and reported figure is as high as 57.3% (2).


In sub-Saharan Africa, identifying estimates of consumers' preferences and willingness to pay (WTP) for safe food continues to receive attention in the literature. Using experimental data from Nigeria, we examined the source of heterogeneities in preference and WTP for organically produced food. The subjective valuation by consumers of certification in relation to third-party certification and the participatory guarantee system (PGS) was also investigated. A sample of 196 households subjected to a discrete choice experiment yielded 1 764 observations that were analysed using the generalised multinomial logit and mixed logit models. The results reveal a strong preference for food safety in terms of reducing chemical residue, which dominated the respondents' preference and WTP patterns. Concerning certification attributes, consumers were positively disposed to third-party certification, but showed no significant preference for the PGS form of certification. Significant heterogeneities in preference were due mainly to age and awareness of organic products. We suggest that policies should focus on consumers' understanding of organic food, third-party certification, and organic agriculture


Wave-length lists are presented to facilitate identification of lines in the extreme ultraviolet. These lists are based on published results from this and other laboratories and on some unpublished results from this laboratory. One table contains lines likely to be present in gas discharges, another gives the lines arising from the more common constituents of glass, and a third lists the principal line or group of lines of each of the first five spectra of a number of elements, where such line or group of lines is to be found in the extreme ultraviolet. While every effort has been made to select lines on a self-consistent scale of wavelengths, it is emphasized that these lines should not be used indiscriminately as standards of wave-length.


An important issue in the dissemination of time-varying web data such as sports scores and stock prices is the maintenance of temporal coherency. In the case of servers adhering to the HTTP protocol, clients need to frequently pull the data based on the dynamics of the data and a user''s coherency requirements. In contrast, servers that possess push capability maintain state information pertaining to clients and push only those changes that are of interest to a user. These two canonical techniques have complementary properties with respect to the level of temporal coherency maintained, communication overheads, state space overheads, and loss of coherency due to (server) failures. In this paper, we show how to combine push- and pull-based techniques to achieve the best features of both approaches. Our combined technique tailors the dissemination of data from servers to clients based on (i) the capabilities and load at servers and proxies, and (ii) clients'' coherency requirements. Our experimental results demonstrate that such tailored data dissemination is essential to meet diverse temporal coherency requirements, to be resilient to failures, and for the efficient and scalable utilization of server and network resources.


Considerable amounts of several saccharide residues (a-D-Man, P-D-GlcNAc, a-D-GalNAc, p-~-Gal, a-oGal, a-L-Fuc, NeuNAc) are demonstrated by lectin histochemistry in the sections of the sebaceous glands, and, particularly, the apocrine tubular glands of the common seal. These sugars may be liberated on the skin surface by microbial act~vities and, then, represent a general antimicrobial protection mechanism of the skin because of their ability to inhibit the adherence of different bacteria and fungi to the epidermis.


BACKGROUND
 Internet support groups enable users to provide peer support by exchanging knowledge about and experiences in coping with their illness. Several studies exploring the benefits of internet support groups for depression have found positive effects on recovery-oriented values, including empowerment. However, to date, little attention has been paid to user narratives.

 OBJECTIVE
 This study aims to capture the user perspective on an online peer support community for depression with a focus on the modes of user engagement and the benefits users derive from participation in the forum.

 METHODS
 In this qualitative study, we conducted 15 semistructured interviews with users of Depression Connect, a newly developed online peer support community for individuals with depression. Combining a concept-driven and a data-driven approach, we aimed to gain insight into what users value in our Depression Connect platform and whether and how the platform promotes empowerment. We performed a thematic analysis to explore the merits and demerits reported by users by using theoretical concepts widely used in internet support group research. In the subsequent data-driven analysis, we sought to understand the relationship between different styles of user engagement and the participants' experiences with the use of Depression Connect. Data analysis consisted of open, axial, and selective coding. To include as diverse perspectives as possible, we opted for purposive sampling. To verify and validate the (interim) results, we included negative cases and performed member checks.

 RESULTS
 We found participation in Depression Connect contributes to a sense of belonging, emotional growth, self-efficacy, and empowerment. "Getting too caught up" was the most frequently reported negative aspect of using Depression Connect. The deployment and development of three participation styles (ie, reading, posting, and responding) affected the perceived benefits of Depression Connect use differentially, where the latter style was central to enhancing empowerment. "Being of value to others" boosted the users' belief in their personal strength. Finally, Depression Connect was predominantly used to supplement offline support and care for depression, and it mainly served as a safe environment where members could freely reflect on their coping mechanisms for depression and exchange and practice coping strategies.

 CONCLUSIONS
 Our findings shed new light on user engagement processes on which internet support groups rely. The online community primarily served as a virtual meeting place to practice (social) skills for deployment in the offline world. It also allowed the members to learn from each other's knowledge and experiences and explore newly gained insights and coping skills.


Out-of-plane compression experiments with the strain rate from 0.0001/s to 1000/s are performed on a three-dimensional (3D) fine weave-pierced Carbon/Carbon (C/C) composite using a universal testing machine, a high-speed testing machine, and a split Hopkinson pressure bar (SHPB). The compressive failure mechanism of the composite is analyzed by a multi-scale analysis method, which ranges from micro-scale defect propagation, through meso-scale microstructure failure, to macro-scale material failure. In order to predict the out-of-plane compressive properties of 3D fine weave-pierced C/C composite at different strain rates, a strain-rate-dependent compressive constitutive model is proposed. The results show that the out-of-plane compressive behavior of the 3D fine weave-pierced C/C composite is sensitive to strain rate. With increasing the strain rate, the initial compressive modulus, the maximum stress, and the strain at the maximum stress increase. The difference in mechanical behavior between quasi-static and high strain rate compression is owing to the strain rate effect on the defect propagation of the 3D fine weave-pierced C/C composite. The proposed constitutive model matches well with the experimental data.


This report describes my research, design and partial realization of a technical framework to support multi-modal and multi-medial user interface clients from an embedded environment. This framework supports multiple in- and output modalities, multiple types of connection media, synchronization between different instances on
different types of media and bi-directional communication with these user interfaceclients. I show how these user interfaces will be operated by end users and by configuration users, the latter being more technical than the first. Each has a somewhat different set of demands from the user interface that they use, although in the end the services supporting both will be based on the same basic low-level primitives. The base framework that I have designed to support these user interfaces provides low-level functionality like message routing, event notification and connection tracking. As a part of this base I also specify a message protocol that can handle the communication requirements internally within such a framework as well as externally, with the user interface clients. By means of the message protocol and the driver model I have incorporated an abstraction level over the connected devices that enables
them to be addressed and controlled in a uniform way, resulting in a high level of modularity. At the time of writing I have completed the framework to a point where it delivers a reliable base for message delivery and driver stability. Other driver and user interface developers, who are also seen as users of the framework, can now do their work without needing to know all the low-level information about the other parts of the framework. I have developed prototype drivers and user interface clients for different
platforms and hardware standards that connect with the framework, of which the client PocketPC Flash Application is the most feature rich.
The framework is tested on a resource-limited, embedded hardware component called the Home Control Box (HCB). It plays a central role in the integration all of the home automation devices in an environment, groups of devices that are often based on multiple incompatible technologies. Adding software support for new standards
and technologies to the framework is therefore made to be as fast and simple as possible. Future expansion plans for the HCB include solutions in the field of ambient intelligence and automated remote care.


Acute toxoplasmosis in three members of the same family was related to drinking unpasteurized goat's milk. The goats were reared, for milk production in a peri-domestic area. Based on indirect immunofluorescent reactions antibody titers greater than 1: 1024 were recorded in eight out of fifteen animals examined and were highest in the five lactating adult females. Toxoplasma was isolated, by inoculation of mice, from the milk of one these females. Dogs reared in the same house showed no symptoms of acute toxoplasmosis and low antibody titers were detected in these animals. It was also found that the humaninfections could not have been due to the ingestion of food contaminated with oocysts.


In this study, Sick-LMS100 Lidar was used for detecting the obstacles around a mobile robot platform and finding the best heading direction. The computer and the LIDAR were communicated via Ethernet TCP/IP in order to gather position information of the objects around. The algorithm, which was developed in Visual Basic 6.0 environment, chose the optimal heading direction relative to the positions of the obstacles. The gathered path information was then sent to a DSP for motor control via serial port. A mobile robot platform was developed during the study and the optimum heading direction finding algorithm was tested on this mobile robot platform in real time. The results which were gathered in several conditions were compared.


Summary
• The effects are reported here of coumarin, an allelopathic compound, on root anatomy and growth, nitrate uptake and translocation to the shoot, as well as respiration in Triticum durum (cv. Simeto) seedlings.
• Wheat seedlings were grown in nitrogen-free hydroponic culture; after 6 d, coumarin (at concentrations of 0, 25 µM, 0.1, 1, 2.5 and 5 mM) and/or nitrate (50 µM) were added to the nutrient solution.
• Coumarin, in the range 25 µM–1 mM, decreased the relative growth rate of roots and increased the area of the root vessels. Within this concentration range, coumarin alone did not significantly affect net nitrate uptake. In seedlings exposed simultaneously to 100 µM coumarin and to 50 µM nitrate, the net nitrate uptake was significantly stimulated. In the presence of nitrate, even the lowest coumarin concentration tested significantly stimulated nitrate translocation from the root to the shoot.
• The effects of low coumarin concentrations on root vessel size could explain this observation, though specific interactions between coumarin and systems regulating nitrate uptake and transport within the root cell cannot be excluded.


Pelvic endometriosis may infiltrate somatic nerves causing severe neuropathic symptoms with a high impact on quality of life. It is a medical condition poorly known, and few published data about involvement of femoral nerve are available. We report an isolated unilateral endometriosis lesion of the left lumbar region infiltrating the femoral nerve in a 38-year-old woman. She described severe dysmenorrhea, dyspareunia, dischezia, and chronic pelvic pain with irradiation to the anterior part of the left thigh. After investigation, it was identified as a 5-centimeter endometriotic nodule involving the femoral nerve and the psoas muscle. The patient was treated by two laparoscopic surgeries with neurolysis of the involved somatic nerve by a multidisciplinary team, with improvement of the symptoms. Laparoscopic neurolysis is the first approach advocated in these cases, leading to relief of neurological symptoms resulting from nerve infiltration by endometriosis.


BACKGROUND
Details of the somatotopy within the subthalamic nucleus (STN) are still poorly understood; however, the STN is a common target of deep brain stimulation (DBS) for Parkinson disease.

OBJECTIVE
To examine somatotopic organization within the STN and identify optimal stimulation sites from 77 surgical cases with microelectrode recording.

METHODS
STN-DBS was performed for 77 patients with Parkinson disease between 2010 and 2014. We performed passive movements of each joint and captured single neuronal activities to identify movement-related cells (MRCs). The sites of MRCs and active contacts were determined by measuring their distances from the first contact of DBS electrode. Their positional correlations were directly and indirectly analyzed.

RESULTS
The number of obtained MRCs was 264, of which 151 responded to multiple joints. The average x-, y-, and z-coordinates of the cells of the upper and lower limbs from the midcommisural point were 13.1 ± 1.1 and 12.7 ± 1.2, 0.22 ± 1.3 and -0.45 ± 1.5, and -2.5 ± 1.1 and -3.0 ± 1.4 mm, respectively. Most MRCs were distributed in the upper third of the STN, in its superior, lateral, and posterior regions, along the DBS electrode routes. Active contacts were observed to lie slightly inferior, medial, and posterior to the average MRC position.

CONCLUSION
Somatotopic organization of the STN was easier to observe in the present study than in previous studies. Optimal stimulation sites were located inferior, medial, and posterior to the average MRC location. The sites may correspond to associative or motor parts through which fibers from the supplementary motor area pass.


The Baum-Welch algorithm for training hidden Markov models (HMMs) requires model topology and initial parameters to be specified, and iteratively improves the model parameters. Sometimes prior knowledge of the process being modeled allows such specification, but often this knowledge is unavailable. Experimentation and guessing are resorted to. Techniques for discovering the model structure from observation data exist but their use is not commonplace. We propose a state splitting approach to structure discovery, where states are split based on two heuristics: within-state autocorrelation and a measure of Markov violation in the state path. Statistical hypothesis testing is used to decide which states to split, providing a natural termination criterion and taking into account the number of observations assigned to each state, splitting states only when the data demands it.


AlN is the key material to obtain high performance ultraviolet optoelectronic and microelectronic devices. To obtain high quality AlN, a high temperature annealing method is employed. However, the mechanism of thermal annealing on improving the quality of AlN needs to be further studied. In this work, we focus on the influence of high temperature thermal annealing on the defect evolution in AlN and study the mechanism. AlN epilayers grown by metal–organic chemical vapor deposition (MOCVD) were annealed at different temperatures. The results showed that the full width at half maximum of the (0002) and (10−12) planes for the AlN templates decreased to 147 and 246.8 arcsec after thermal annealing at 1750 °C. Meanwhile many voids appeared in the physical vapor deposition AlN layer. To reveal the mechanism of thermal annealing on improving the quality of AlN, the AlN grown by physical vapor deposition (PVD) was also annealed by high temperature annealing. Atomic force microscopy results showed that realignment and coalescence occurred in the PVD-AlN, which gave the evidence for defect reduction in AlN by the thermal annealing method as well as the existence of AlN voids. The results presented here can not only provide a deeper understanding of the mechanism of the thermal annealing, but also offer a direction to obtain high quality AlN templates.


SUMMARY 1. The food intakes of sixty-three women of the English middle class have been studied by the individual method and compared with those of men which were described in a previous paper. 2. The average calorie consumption was 2187 per day. Although it is not suggested that this is the optimum intake, it would appear from these results that the "man value" of a woman is 0·7, and not 0·8 as is usually supposed. The individual calorie consumptions varied from 1453 to 3110 per day. 3. The average daily protein intake was 67 g., and no subject was eating more than 90 g. 4. Fat and carbohydrate contributed almost equally to the calorie value of the diet. The proportion of total calories derived from fat (42·7 per cent.) is higher than any previously recorded figures in Europe or America. 5. The average amount of calcium in the diets was 0·63 g. per day. Fourteen individuals were having less than 0·5 g., and one only 0·23 g. 6. The mean intakes of total and available phosphorus were 1·32 and 1·09 g. respectively. 7. A study has been carried out on six women, whose husbands were unemployed. Their intake of all dietary constituents, except carbohydrate, were considerably lower than were found for the women of the middle class. Acknowledgments. The authors wish to thank Miss E. E. Franklin for her help with the calculations, Miss A. Cameron for her co-operation with regard to the unemployed, and all the subjects, without whose support the investigation would never have been carried out. One of us (E. M. W.) is indebted to the Medical Eesearch Council for a part-time grant.


Past studies of local extinctions in fragmented habitats most often tested the influence of fragment size and isolation while ignoring how differences in the surrounding landscape matrix may govern extinction. We assessed how both the spatial attributes of remnant patches (area and isolation) and landscape factors (extent of urbanization and maximum inter-fire interval) influence the persistence of native plant species in grasslands in western Victoria, Australia. Persistence was determined in 2001 by resurveying 30 remnants first surveyed in the 1980s, and correlates of extinction were assessed using Bayesian logistic regression models. On average, 26% of populations of native species became locally extinct over two decades. Area and isolation had little effect on the probability of local extinction, but urbanization and longer maximum inter-fire intervals increased extinction risk. These findings suggest that the native grasslands studied are relatively insensitive to area- and isolation-based fragmentation effects and that short-term persistence of plant populations requires the maintenance of habitat quality. The latter is strongly influenced by the landscape matrix surrounding remnant patches through changes in fire regimes and increased exogenous disturbance.


Three commands in official Stata, foreach, forvalues, and for, provide structures for cycling through lists of values (variable names, numbers, arbitrary text) and repeating commands using members of those lists in turn. All these commands may be used interactively, and none is restricted to use in Stata programs. They are explained and compared in some detail with a variety of examples. In addition, a self-contained exposition is given on local macros, understanding of which is needed for use of foreach and forvalues.


The following description is taken from the publisher's website:

Following the GMC's call for greater social and behavioural science input into undergraduate medical education,
this brand new title in the Lecture Notes series provides an understanding of how education, social class, family, economics and occupational circumstances, as well as cultural and ethnic influences, shape patients and health professionals alike. A deeper appreciation and understanding of these issues can have a positive effect on clinical diagnosis and practice.

Emphasising clinical relevance at all times, the book features photographs and line drawings to illustrate key points, and case studies that provide real-life illustrations of the points discussed. It also contains 'points of view' boxes which encourage critical thinking and challenge the reader to come up with their own explanations for the phenomena described. Lecture Notes: The Social Basis of Medicine provides information and materials useful not only for undergraduate medical students, but also for recently graduated and practising doctors who wish to have a greater understanding of, and to develop their skills in, this area.


The book is the first to cover all areas of privatization in Israel and one of the first to do so in general, including state infrastructure, immigration policy, land, health, education, welfare, regulation, and policy design. As such, it offers a comprehensive volume for students, policy makers, and scholars interested in the economic, sociological, political, and legal perspectives of a major policy trend that has changed the face and character of the modern state. In addition, it is a vital contribution to those who have an interest in changes in Israeli society, politics, and economy.


We introduce Imagination-Augmented Agents (I2As), a novel architecture for deep reinforcement learning combining model-free and model-based aspects. In contrast to most existing model-based reinforcement learning and planning methods, which prescribe how a model should be used to arrive at a policy, I2As learn to interpret predictions from a learned environment model to construct implicit plans in arbitrary ways, by using the predictions as additional context in deep policy networks. I2As show improved data efficiency, performance, and robustness to model misspecification compared to several baselines.


Abstract:Surveyor, penkeeper, overseer, slaveowner, and landholder Thomas Thistlewood (1721–86) was a white English immigrant to British colonial Jamaica who lived there from 1750 until his death. Canonical readings of Thistlewood's archive quarantine his intellectual pursuits from his brutal plantation oversight, which included serial rapes of enslaved women. Taking a necessarily integrative approach, this essay analyzes Thistlewood's diaries in conjunction with his reading notes, identifying the literary-scientific valences of his perpetration and documentation of rape. It argues that violence against enslaved women was central to Thistlewood's Enlightenment thought and plantation management, in addition to considering the political stakes of choosing a language to describe his interactions with enslaved women. It proposes that antiracist feminist theory and art have the potential to critically disrupt analyses of slavery's archives that threaten to reproduce or even exacerbate their violence.


Pelvic fracture associated urethral injury (PFAUI) is a rare and challenging sequel of blunt pelvic trauma. Treatment of iatrogenic false urethral passage (FUP) remains as a challenge for urologists. In this case report we reviewed the iatrogenic FUP caused by wrong procedures performed in the treatment of a patient with PFAUI and the treatment of posterior urethral stricture with transperineal bulbo-prostatic anatomic urethroplasty in the management of FUP. A 37-year-old male patient with PFAUI had undergone a laparotomy procedure for pelvic bone fracture, complete urethral rupture, and bladder perforation 8 years ago. After stricture formation, patient had undergone procedures that caused FUP. Following operations, he had a low urinary flow rate, and incontinence and urgency even with small amounts of urine. FUP was diagnosed by voiding cystourethrography and retrograde urethrography. FUP was fixed with open urethroplasty with the guidance of flexible antegrade urethtoscopy. False passage should always be taken into account in the differential diagnosis of patients with persistent symptoms that underwent PFAUI therapy. In addition, we believe that in the evaluation of patients with PFAUI suspected for having a false passage, bladder neck and urethra should be assessed by combining routine voiding cystourethrography and retrograde urethrography with preoperative flexible cystoscopy via suprapubic route.


Drawing on debates about the nature and significance of quasi-autonomous government organizations, this article asks what happens when trends towards agency creation by government and trends towards stakeholder participation in policy processes come together. Issues are considered through an examination of the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, one of a series of new regulatory bodies set up in Britain after 1997 and given the task of providing national guidance on treatments and care for people using the health service. The analysis points to the emergence of a new form – the dialogic intermediary organization. Such an organization, while maintaining close and informal links with government, attempts to build legitimacy for its activities through multiple and potentially competing engagements with diversely constituted publics. The potential theoretical and political importance of dialogic intermediary organizations, and some implications for their fuller empirical study are briefly explored.


Background & Aim: Postop shivering is a common complication that needs attention and treatment. Mepridine is an effective drug in treatment of shivering but it has important side effects such as respiratory depression. It is also contraindicated in some patients. The aim of this survey was to compare effects of mepredine and tramadol in treatment of postop shivering in order to find a good substitution for mepridine. Patients and Methods: Ninety women undergoing elective cesarean section under general anesthesia, in ASA class I and II, were enrolled in this double-blind clinical trial. They were randomly divided in three equal groups(n=30 in each group); 1st group received mepredine 0.5 mg/kg, 2nd group received tramadol 0.5mg/kg and 3rd group received tramadol 1mg/kg for treatment of shivering. Data of patients during shivering, time interval between injection of drug and cessation of shivering, incidence of respiratory depression, nausea and vomiting were registered and statistical analysis was done by chi-square test. Results: Shivering ceased in 1st group after 3.9±1.6min, in 2nd group after 4.8±2.6 min and in 3rd group after 2.6±1.1 min(p<0.05). Incidence of respiratory depression in 1st group was %6.66, in 2nd and 3rd groups it was zero(p<0.05). Incidence of nausea and vomiting in 1st group was %13.3, in 2nd group %10 and in 3rd group it was %16.6(P<0.05). Conclusion: According to these findings, tramadol can be substituted with mepredine in treatment of postop shivering and dose of 1mg/kg of tramadol is suggested.


In many task settings, text classification models are likely to encounter examples from novel classes on which they cannot predict correctly. Selective prediction, in which models abstain on low-confidence examples, provides a possible solution, but existing models are often overly confident on unseen classes. To remedy this overconfidence, we introduce Contrastive Novelty-Augmented Learning (CoNAL), a two-step method that generates OOD examples representative of novel classes, then trains to decrease confidence on them. First, we generate OOD examples by prompting a large language model twice: we prompt it to enumerate relevant novel classes, then generate examples from each novel class matching the task format. Second, we train a classifier with a novel contrastive objective that encourages lower confidence on generated OOD examples than training examples. When trained with CoNAL, classifiers improve in their ability to detect and abstain on novel class examples over prior methods by an average of 2.3% in terms of accuracy under the accuracy-coverage curve (AUAC) and 5.5% AUROC across 4 NLP datasets, with no cost to in-distribution accuracy.


The seismogenic zone of subduction margins has the potential to generate some of the world's largest earthquakes. A detailed study of the 2010 Mw 8.8 Maule, Chile rupture has enabled interpretation of the controls that govern subduction zone seismic behaviour across the earthquake cycle. In this thesis, we focus on two aspects of the central Chile margin: (1) imaging physical properties in the forearc and along the plate interface; (2) assessing source complexity of megathrust ruptures.

We exploit a dataset of seismic body wave onset times from local aftershocks recorded on a temporary network to derive a 3-D seismic velocity model of the Maule rupture area. We image the main domains of the subduction zone and find a high velocity anomaly located along the plate interface, which we initially interpret as a subducted topographic high. We then develop a second, more accurate velocity model that uses an improved arrival time dataset together with observations from ocean-bottom seismometers. This refined model gives a sharper view of both the plate interface close to the trench, and the marine forearc. We show that ancient blocks of dense mantle in the lower forearc may have decelerated slip during the Maule earthquake and contributed to its nucleation. Furthermore, we infer that fluid saturated sediments inhibited significant slip close to the trench.

We study source processes of a large aftershock of the Maule sequence, the 2011 Mw 7.1 Araucania earthquake, by inverting local seismic waveforms for a multiple point-source faulting solution. We find this earthquake constituted rupture on the plate interface followed by almost instantaneous slip along a normal fault in the overriding plate: the first observation of its kind. The second rupture of this closely-spaced doublet was hidden from teleseismic faulting solutions, and may have been dynamically triggered by S-waves from the first event.

Overall, our work highlights the role played by the upper plate in subduction zone seismogenesis. We suggest that seismic velocities can help to characterise the behaviour of future large megathrust earthquakes. We show that the potential hazard posed by closely-spaced doublets involving the upper plate should be accounted for in real-time tsunami warning systems by using local waveform analysis.


28 genitalia (p=0.0172), identifying the puborectalis muscle (p=0.0313), ability to grade a levator ani muscle contraction (p-0.0313), and in ability to perform a pelvic floor muscle examination (p=0. 0313). Differences approached significance in regard to student's perception of feeling prepared to practice in this area upon graduation (p=0.0625). All students demonstrated the ability to perform all components of the examination independently. Conclusions: The use of standardized patient models provides an opportunity for physical therapy students to improve their confidence in performance of a pelvic floor muscle examination. Future research should investigate the impact of the use of standardized patients in influencing student's future area of practice. Clinical Relevance: Women's health physical therapy practice is growing. There is a predicted increasing demand for physical therapists skilled in the evaluation and management of pelvic floor dysfunction. Teaching pelvic floor muscle examination techniques to physical therapy students poses many challenges. The use of standardized patient models is one potential solution to these problems that should be investigated further in larger student populations.


Generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a framework for producing a generative model by way of a two-player minimax game. In this paper, we propose the \emph{Generative Multi-Adversarial Network} (GMAN), a framework that extends GANs to multiple discriminators. In previous work, the successful training of GANs requires modifying the minimax objective to accelerate training early on. In contrast, GMAN can be reliably trained with the original, untampered objective. We explore a number of design perspectives with the discriminator role ranging from formidable adversary to forgiving teacher. Image generation tasks comparing the proposed framework to standard GANs demonstrate GMAN produces higher quality samples in a fraction of the iterations when measured by a pairwise GAM-type metric.


To determine whether in the management of pulmonary failure, the maximum compliance produced by positive end-expiratory pressure coincides with optimum lung function, 15 normovolemic patients requiring mechanical ventilation for acute pulmonary failure were studied. The end-expiratory pressure resulting in maximum oxygen transport (cardiac output times arterial oxygen content) and the lowest dead-space fraction both resulted in the greatest total static compliance. This end-expiratory pressure varied between 0 and 15 cm of water and correlated inversely with functional residual capacity at zero end-expiratory pressure (r equal -0.72, p less than or equal to 0.005). Mixed venous oxygen tension increased between zero end-expiratory pressure and the end-expiratory pressure resulting in maximum oxygen transport, but then decreased at higher end-expiratory pressures. When measurements of cardiac output or of true mixed venous blood are not available, compliance may be used to indicate the end-expiratory pressure likely to result in optimum cardiopulmonary function.


Objectives The aim of this study was to evaluate the water absorption and the amount of hydroxyethyl metacrylate (HEMA) level released from various resin modified glass ionomer cements. Methods Advance, Vitremer and Protec-Cem resin modified glass ionomer cements were used to evaluate the HEMA release. Ten specimens were fabricated from each cement in 10 x 1 mm height. Thirty specimens were immersed in glass containers filled with 20 ml deionized water. 1 ml solution was taken from the container at 10 minutes, 1 hour, 24 hour and 7 days intervals from each group and analyzed with high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) machine and the results are presented in ppm. The data were subjected to Kruskal-Wallis, Mann-Whitney and Wilcoxon tests at a 0.05 significance level. Results At all time intervals Vitremer showed highest HEMA release ( 10 min: 54.2 ppm; 1 h: 86.8 ppm; 24 h: 93.4 ppm) (P=0.0001). At the end of 10 minutes and first hour, following Vitremer, HEMA release was highest for Protec-Cem (10 min: 14.8 ppm; 1 h: 23.6 ppm) and then Advance (10 min: 5.5 ppm; 1 h: 18.8 ppm) (P<.05). Water absorption tests were performed according to the specifications of ISO 4049. Water absorption was highest for Vitremer and lowest for the Protec-Cem and the difference among cement groups was significant (P<.005). Conclusions Vitremer showed the highest HEMA release and water absorption values and Protec-Cem showed the lowest values. HEMA release by time was significant for Advance cement. This release may be relevant both to the risk of adverse pulpal responses in patients and to the risk of allergy in patients and dental personnel.


In this research, a novel material namely N,N,N',N'-tetramethylethylenediaminium-N-(silica-n-propyl)-N'-sulfonic acid chloride trifluoroacetate ([TEDSPSCT]) was synthesized, and its structure was characterized using Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FT-IR), energy-dispersive X-ray (EDS), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM), thermal gravimetric (TG), differential thermal gravimetric (DTG) and x-ray diffraction (XRD); most of the partcles were in nano-size, and a few of them were in micro-size. Afterward, [TEDSPSCT] was used as effective and recyclable catalyst for the preparation of bis-coumarins via the reaction of 4-hydroxycoumarin (2 equivalents) with arylaldehydes (1 equivalent) under solvent-free conditions; these compounds were obtained in high yields and short reaction times. Moreover, an attractive and logical mechanism based on dual-functionality of the catalyst has been described {this catalyst has both acidic group (SO3H) and weak basic group (trifluoroacetate)}.


Like in other European countries, several supply shocks (bottlenecks related to the end of the pandemic, tensions in international gas and oil prices, and war in Ukraine) have led to a rise in the inflation rate in Spain since March 2021. This has been amplified by the functioning of energy markets, especially electricity, and price increases have spread progressively to other sectors. As a result, the forecast average inflation in 2022 is 8.5%, similar to the Eurozone average. Until August 2022, Spain had a year-on-year inflation rate above this average, but the trend has changed: in October, inflation fell by 3.4 pp in Spain, while it had risen by 1.6 pp in the monetary union. Spain was the economy with the second lowest inflation. The authorities have adopted significant measures to reduce inflation, especially in energy (capping gas in the electricity market, limiting the gas price for consumers in the regulated tariff, lowering indirect taxes, or discounts for vulnerable households) and public transport and housing rents. Other measures include transfers to the most affected households and economic sectors to offset the effects of inflation. Despite this, weak nominal wage growth and the pass-through by firms of higher costs to their prices (maintaining or increasing profit margins) are leading to an unequal distribution of the effects of inflation, which wage earners mainly bear. Changing this situation should be the focus of economic policy from now on.


: Five cases of leptospirosis diagnosed from 1978 to 1996 were retrospectively reviewed. The five patients were male and their mean age was 34.2 years. Epidemiologic factors were found in the 5 patients. The 3 common clinical findings: fever, myalgia and jaundice were found in the 5 patients. Hepatorenal involvement was observed in 4 cases (80%), bleeding episodes in 4 patients (80%), cardiac involvement in 4 (80%); in none case was observed central nervous system involvement. In one case (20%) was observed septic shock with acute respiratory failure. The Leptospira serogroups identified were icterohaemorrhagiae in 3 cases and could not be determined in 2. All the patients were amelioration with antibiotic therapeutic. The epidemiologic, clinical, analytical and therapeutic aspects are discussed.


Cancer is a very dangerous disease and fear by many. The available clinical treatment of cancer as chemotherapy, radiotherapy and surgery was expensive, toxic that cause severe effects and follow the concept of one drug - one target action. In this study, natural product which is Lignosus rhinocerus, commonly known as Tiger Milk mushroom, belongs to Polyporaceae family was used because of their less toxicity and cheaper than synthetic drugs. The mushroom is traditionally used in Malaysia for many beneficial claims such as cough, asthma, fever, chronic hepatitis and cancer. The biological activity of L. rhinocerus was investigated in terms of its cytotoxic effects, mode of cell death and antioxidant capacity. The antiproliferative activity of methanolic and aqueous PLEs was determined using MTT cell viability assay, where IC₅₀ value was used as a parameter for mode of cell death. MTT assay showed that both extracts significantly reduced the cell viability in a dose-dependent manner. Our results showed that methanol PLE of Lignosus rhinocerus sclerotia was found to exhibit antiproliferative activity against HCT 116 cells, with an IC₅₀ of 600 μg/mL and 1200 |μg/mL for aqueous PLE but not cytotoxic to normal human colon cell (CCD-I8-C0) and fibroblast Chinese hamster lung cell (V79-4). The IC₅₀values suggested that the solvent differences in pressurized liquid extraction greatly affected their antiproliferative activites. The Tiger Milk mushroom PLE arrested HCT 116 cells at G2/M phases with corresponding decreased in S-phase. The types of cell death were explored by flow cytometry using the Annexin V/FITC and propidium iodide and the dead end fluorometric TUNEL System. The mode of cell death induced by Lignosus rhinocerus PLEs was primarily apoptosis by extemalization of phosphatidylserine and DNA damage detected by 3'-OH DNA ends labelling. Additionally, weak antioxidant capacities were detected in both methanol and aqueous PLE of L. rhinocerus by the FRAP (Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power) Assay. However, this extract did not increase the endogenous antioxidant capability when tested against HCT 116 cells. Preliminary phytochemical screening revealed that both methanol and aqueous pressurized liquid extraction of L. rhinoceros contained alkaloids. The above data suggested that pressurized liquid extraction (PLE) extract of the sclerotia of L. rhinocerus possesses cytotoxicity to human colorectal cancer cells but were non-toxic to the corresponding normal cells. The results suggest that Tiger Milk mushroom stimulates apoptosis through G2/M cell cycle arrest.


High invasive cancer cells are thought to recruit specialised actin-rich protrusions for invasion in metastasis process. These protrusions are termed invadopodia. To study invadopodia formation, one of the first challenges faced by researchers has been to optimise the cell line passage number in order to be used for the invadopodia assay. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the effects of the passage number on invadopodia formation in MDA-MB-231 breast cancer cell line. Invadopodia assay was used to achieve the aim of the study. The results provided evidence that invadopodia formation is affected by the high passage number. The cells were also tested with dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG) a hypoxic mimicking agent which is known to be an invadopodia inducer, the results showed that the cells in low passage number (P7) treated with DMOG increase the cells forming invadopodia, while the cells with high passage number (P35) showed that DMOG fails to stimulate the cells to form invadopodia. Furthermore, the cells with high passage number after passage 15 are starting to lose the ability to degrade the gelatin. In conclusion, this study suggests that only cells with a low passage number, less than passage 15 should be used in the study of invadopodia formation to obtain the results in the search for molecular targets and signaling at invadopodia.


We present the results of a search for extended X-ray sources and their corresponding galaxy groups from 800 ks Chandra coverage of the All-wavelength Extended Groth Strip International Survey (AEGIS). This yields one of the largest X-ray-selected galaxy group catalogs from a blind survey to date. The red-sequence technique and spectroscopic redshifts allow us to identify 100% of reliable sources, leading to a catalog of 52 galaxy groups. These groups span the redshift range z ∼ 0.066–1.544 and virial mass range M200 ∼ 1.34 × 1013–1.33 × 1014 M☉. For the 49 extended sources that lie within DEEP2 and DEEP3 Galaxy Redshift Survey coverage, we identify spectroscopic counterparts and determine velocity dispersions. We select member galaxies by applying different cuts along the line of sight or in projected spatial coordinates. A constant cut along the line of sight can cause a large scatter in scaling relations in low-mass or high-mass systems depending on the size of the cut. A velocity-dispersion-based virial radius can cause a larger overestimation of velocity dispersion in comparison to an X-ray-based virial radius for low-mass systems. There is no significant difference between these two radial cuts for more massive systems. Independent of radial cut, an overestimation of velocity dispersion can be created in the case of the existence of significant substructure and compactness in X-ray emission, which mostly occur in low-mass systems. We also present a comparison between X-ray galaxy groups and optical galaxy groups detected using the Voronoi–Delaunay method for DEEP2 data in this field.


Background: Many of interstitial lung diasease are tend to impair the immunity, thus patients in this group have a higher risk of fungal diseases. But still little is known regarding the role of fungal colonization in interstitial lung diseases, when fungi are not definite a causative agent. Aim: To investigate the incidence and effects of fungal colonization of lower respiratory tract using PCR of bronchaoalveolar lavage (BAL) specimens among patients with sarcoidosis and extrincsic allergic alveolitis (EAA). Materials: 132 patients with sarcoidosis, and 80 patients with EAA undergo BAL with further PCR test for A. fumigatus and C. albicans using commercial assays. Cytology of BAL, different disease parameters including functional tests, radiology were analyzed. Results: In sarcoidosis patients, Aspergillus was found in 22 cases (16.7%), 14 were males, and Candida detected in 11 cases (8.3%) - 3 were males. Among EAA patients, Aspergillus detected in 13 cases (16.2%), 5 were males, and Candida in 9 (11.3%) cases, 4 were males. In sarcoidosis, Candida colonization was associated with lower FVC (72%), DLCO (64%), and higher neutrophils level in BAL (32%), as also disease duration (112.8 weeks) vs patients without it (92%, 88%, 9% and 38.2 weeks, respectively). In EAA Candida detection was also associated with lower DLCO (58%), 6-minute walk test distance (340 m), higher neutrophils level in BAL (34%), disease duration (107.3 weeks) vs patients without it (72%, 421 m, 12% and 48.7 weeks, respectively). Aspergillus detection altered disease parameters in similar way. Conclusion: Colonization of respiratory tract with fungi in interstitial lung diseases plays a prominent role in deterioration of disease.


The mechanism by which trans fats contribute to atherosclerosis, an important public health issue, is unclear. Trans fats may influence cell membrane stability, inflammatory responses, and signaling. Cellular metabolism of oleate (C18:1Δ9-10 cis), elaidate (C18:Δ9-10 trans), and stearate (C18:0) were compared in adherent peripheral human macrophages, the first responders in atherosclerosis. Metabolism was monitored by acylcarnitine measurement in supernatants by MS/MS, determination of whole cell fatty acid content by GC/MS, and β-oxidation evaluation using radiolabeled fatty acids. Macrophages incubated in elaidate for 44 h accumulated more unsaturated fatty acids, both longer- and shorter-chain, and had reduced C18:0 relative to incubation with oleate or stearate. Cell supernatants exposed to trans fats accumulated both C12:1- and C18:1-carnitines, suggesting inhibited β-oxidation proximal to the trans bond. Next, competitive β-oxidation assays with [9,10-3H]oleate showed that tritium release rates decreased when elaidate replaced unlabeled oleate. Yet, when [1-14C]oleate was compared to [1-14C]elaidate β-oxidation, initial elaidate degradation rates were comparable to oleate, supporting inhibition of double bond isomerization by elaidate. An expression array comparing human macrophages incubated with 30 μM oleate or elaidate showed eight genes associated with zinc homeostasis. Changes in metallothioneins 1X and 2A and SLC39A10 expression were confirmed by qPCR. Parallel qPCR experiments with saturated fatty acids showed elevated metallothionein expression at 44 h, but at 15 h elaidate, stearate, and palmitate have comparable metallothionein expression lower than oleate. Next we investigated these effects on intracellular zinc. Expression changes paralleled intracellular zinc at both time points confirmed quantification in elaidate-, stearate-, and palmitate-treated cells. Elaidate, stearate, and palmitate increased labile zinc at 15 h, but only elaidate-treated remained elevated at 44 h. To determine whether zinc changes corresponded to inflammation, proportional nuclear localization of nuclear factor-κB (NF-κB) was determined. A parallel experiment was conducted with the addition of 5 μM zinc chelator, TPEN. Elaidate, stearate, and palmitate caused the most NF-κB nuclear localization. Addition of TPEN nullified the treatment effect; all conditions, even controls, caused similar effects. These data show the similar initial effects of elaidate, stearate, and palmitate on macrophage zinc homeostasis and NF-κB activation, but the elaidate zinc effect is persistent.


State constitutional provisions dating back to the nineteenth century occupy an increasingly prominent place in the twenty-first century debate over private school voucher programs. In the public debate and in the courts, voucher opponents invoke state constitutional provisions, popularly known as Blaine Amendments, to support their contention that government may not operate a program that sends money to religious schools. This Note, written in 2000, argues that many (if not all) of these state constitutional provisions themselves violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Federal Constitution.


Dry air, water vapor, hydrometeors, and other particulates (sand, dust, aerosols, and volcanic ash) in the atmosphere introduce microwave propagation delays. These delays must be properly characterized to achieve the highest accuracy in surveying and atmospheric sensing using Global Positioning System (GPS) signals. In this paper we review the theory of microwave propagation delays induced by the above atmospheric constituents and estimate their maximum delays. Because the structure of atmospheric refractivity can be highly complex and difficult to model, and because measurement tools are unavailable for characterizing most of the refractive components, we use simplified examples to illustrate its effects. Our results show that propagation delays due to water vapor, cloud liquid, rain, and sandstorms can be significant in high-accuracy GPS applications. For instance, propagation through 1 km of heavy rain can induce 15-mm delays in L1, and because delays due to scattering are dispersive and alias as ionospheric delays in L3 processing, L3 range errors are magnified to 20 mm. Depending upon the distribution of precipitation relative to the configuration of GPS satellites, such unmodeled delays can induce horizontal and vertical errors of several centimeters.


This study investigated safety and hypoglycemic efficacy of ethyl acetate and aqueous extracts of L. cornuta in male BALB/c mice. Diabetes was induced by intraperitoneal administration of 186.9 mg/kg body weight dose of 10% alloxan monohydrate to overnight fasted mice. Diabetic mice were treated with 50, 100 and 200 mg/kg body weight doses of extracts and 3 mg/kg body weight of reference drug, glibenclamide. Blood glucose levels were compared with those of normal and diabetic untreated mice after every 2 hours for 8 hours post oral administration. Safety was evaluated by oral administration of 1 g/kg body weight of extracts to mice daily for 28 days. Changes in body weight weredetermined after every 7 days up to the 28 day. On the 28 day the mice were sacrificed; hematological and biochemical parameters determined by standard methods. These parameters included, total cells counts, AST, ALT, and ALP among others. Ethyl acetate extract was found to significantly reduce blood sugar in a dose independent manner, while aqueous extract did not exhibit hypoglycemic effect. Aqueous extracts significantly lowered body weight, RBCs, PCV, platelets and WBCs but increased MCHC and had no effect on growth rate of the diabetic mice compared to normal mice. Ethyl acetate extracts significantly increased WBCs, MCH and MCHC and lowered platelets and had no effect on RBCs, PCV and MCV. Similarly, ethyl acetate extracts had comparable effects to normal control mice on growth rate and body weight. Oral administration of aqueous extract significantly increased AST, CK and lowered ALT, ALP and had no effect on BUN compared to the normal control mice. Oral administration of ethyl acetate extract significantly lowered BUN, AST, ALP, and CK; and had no effect on ALT compared to normal control mice. The study findings suggest that L. cornuta ethyl acetate extract is efficacious and safe in the management of diabetes.


The triple-match principle, as outlined by the Demand-Induced Strain Compensation (DISC) Model, states that resources are most effective when they match particular demands. The present study investigates the role of match in elite sport with regard to the relation between sport-related demands, sport-related resources, and vigour (i.e., physical strength, cognitive liveliness, and emotional energy). We hypothesised that moderating effects of resources on the relation between demands and vigour are most likely when there is a triple-match between demands, resources and vigour, followed by double-match and non-match. A cross-sectional survey study was conducted among 118 semi-professional and professional athletes (70 females, 48 males, M age = 24.7, SD = 6.5). Physical resources moderated (i.e., strengthened) the positive relation between physical demands and physical strength, whereas emotional resources moderated (i.e., buffered) the negative relation between emotional demands and emotional energy. Moderating effects of sport-related resources on the relation between sport-related demands and vigour occurred more often when there was a triple-match compared to when there was less match or no match at all. These findings indicate that, also in the domain of elite sport, resources do not randomly moderate the relation between demands and well-being. Implications and limitations of the study are discussed.


92 The South-East Baltic is a meeting place of three branches of Christianity: Orthodoxy, Catholicism, and Lutheranism. Dominant in the Baltic region, these religious confessions define the cultural landscape of the area. At the same time, they have an indirect effect on socio-economic development. In this study, we aim to identify the main components of the territorial structure and the formation and transformation factors of the denominational space in the South-East Baltic. The complexity of the denominational structure of the local population stems from the centuries-long position of this region as a political buffer zone. We calculate the potential denominational structure and the potential religious fractionalisation index at the level of basic territorial units and regions southeast of the Baltic Sea. Based on this, we identify the main components of the territorial structure of the denominational space, which includes three denominational shields and contact zones between them. From a practical viewpoint, these components suggest a new variant of the territorial differentiation of the Baltic region. This variant has only limited relevance to ethnic and socioeconomic zoning.


Introduction: Breast reconstruction can present an unsatisfactory aesthetic result or complications that could compromise the final result. In such cases, surgeons can perform salvage breast reconstruction, which is defined as a complete revision of a previous reconstruction in the case of failure or an unsatisfactory result from the first reconstruction. This study aims to report the authors' experience in performing salvage breast reconstruction after mastectomy for breast cancer. Methods: This was a retrospective study of medical records of patients who underwent salvage breast reconstruction from March 2002 to March 2012. Results: We identified 57 cases of salvage breast reconstruction. Twenty initial surgeries were performed with prostheses, 16 with transverse rectus abdominis myocutaneous flaps (TRAMs), 11 with expanders, 4 with conservative methods, and 6 with myocutaneous latissimus dorsi muscle flaps (LDMFs). The main cause of reconstruction failure was aesthetic, followed by necrosis, capsular contracture, and implant infection and/or exposure. Salvage reconstruction was performed using LDMF in 27 patients (P < 0.0001), TRAM in 16, and alloplastic material in 14 patients. In 57.9% of cases, the surgeon who performed the salvage reconstruction did not perform the initial reconstruction. Conclusions: Most surgeries that had unsatisfactory results, mainly because of poor aesthetics, were performed using alloplastic materials. Salvage reconstructions were performed primarily using myocutaneous flaps by professionals other than those who performed the initial surgery. These flaps have good applicability in salvage reconstructions because they provide healthy and well-vascularized tissue in a previously operated area.


Norberto Lopez Amado and Carlos Carcas, directors How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? Art Commissioners in association with Aiete Ariane Films, First Run Features, New York, 2010, DVD, 80 min., $20.96, http://firstrunfeatures.com/

In the years surrounding the 1967 establishment of the Foster Associates office (now Foster + Partners) in London by Norman Foster with his late wife and partner, Wendy Foster, the discourse on systems in architecture gained prominence both in the United States, where Foster had been a graduate student at Yale, and in Europe.1 Especially prominent in Britain was the "systems-built" model, emphasizing industrialized production, prefabricated elements, and speed of the construction process. Figures such as Foster, Richard Rogers, and Nicholas Grimshaw advocated increased performance, an ideal that was intimately linked to this notion of systematized production, and could be understood in terms of energy efficiency. Lightweight, modular components would lead to ease of assembly and reduced material expenditure. Advanced environmental controls systems would enhance comfort while minimizing energy consumption.

The 2010 documentary on Norman Foster's life and work, How Much Does Your Building Weigh, Mr. Foster? , draws its title from Buckminster Fuller's favorite question to architects, purportedly posed to Foster during a visit to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, completed in 1978. Implicit in the inquiry was Fuller's call for more efficient use of material resources as part of a larger energy conservation strategy, and Foster claims he spent the next week coming up with the answer: 5,328 tons. This exercise clearly influenced Foster's thinking, and the documentary includes footage of a 1980 client presentation in which he compares a mockup of a lightweight polycarbonate sandwich panel only a few inches thick to a 3-foot-thick brick wall, a 9-inch concrete wall with an air cavity, and a multilayered brick wall, concluding that the minimal sandwich panel performs equally as well as the other wall types. Foster asserts in the film: "Technology is the art of making things and high technology is performance."

Regrettably, the documentary largely …


The aim of this thesis is to investigate whether the amygdala plays a significant role in implicit racial bias and to explore the possible explanations that may underlie race-related amygdala neural activity specifically in White and Black Americans. In order to answer these questions, a literature review of several studies is presented. Most of these studies have shown that amygdala plays a crucial role in implicit racial bias since greater amygdala activation was positively correlated with greater implicit racial bias. Hence, subjects that showed greater amygdala activation measured by fMRI also showed greater pro-White or anti-Black bias measured by the implicit association test. However, a few lesion studies on a patient (SP) with a bilateral amygdala damage concluded that the amygdala is not critical for implicit racial bias. Further research is needed to determine the actual role the amygdala plays in implicit racial bias specifically when observing Black American faces. Subsequently, alternative explanations that might explain race-related amygdala activation will be discussed briefly. In essence, the familiarity explanation and the culturally learned negative racial bias.


The theme of resilience applied to complex sports infrastructure is as pressing a topic today as it is little analysed in an organic, systematic manner. The social, economic and environmental repercussions of these examples of architecture are, at the urban as much as at the regional scale, equally strategic, especially evaluated in relation to the impact that the practice of sport has on contemporary society, with clear ramifications for the health sector. An overview coming from studies and researches on the current European and Italian sports infrastructure scene makes it possible to pinpoint some interesting, innovative trends which evidence, in this sector as in others, ever increasing attention the themes of eco-systemic, urban and social resilience as applied to sports infrastructure.


Systematic reviews are a powerful method for summarizing and synthesizing evidence and create a methodological opportunity for preparing data integration tables to enable review-level synthesis of the evidence. One of the main tasks of Cochrane Rehabilitation is to make it possible to improve the application of evidence-based clinical practice by all rehabilitation professionals, and to facilitate policy-makers in decision-making according to the best evidence. In this context arises the need to diffuse the high-quality information of Cochrane Systematic Reviews (CSR), through synthetic and easy-to-use messages for the different rehabilitation audiences. Cochrane Rehabilitation has recently launched the production of an eBook including all the evidence coming from the CSR tagged by its Review Committee as of rehabilitation interest with the final aim to enhance the application of evidence in clinical practice, medical education, health system policies, and in the community. This will be a powerful tool for the dissemination of evidence-based practice, education and knowledge, as well as to support political decisions for both effective organization and resource allocation in rehabilitation field.


Introduction: HIV-associated lipodystrophy syndrome is a major adverse effect of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), although it also occurs among people living with HIV who do not receive any pharmacological treatment. Lipodystrophy diminishes patients' quality of life and may hinder treatment compliance or lead to its abandonment. Objective: To estimate the prevalence of lipodystrophy and associated factors in individuals living with HIV. Methods: Cross-sectional study conducted from October 2015 to March 2016. A sample was recruited from individuals living with HIV who attended an outpatient clinic in Tubarao, state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. We collected information on demographics, lifestyle, HIV infection, and clinical aspects. Lipodystrophy was diagnosed through patient self-report associated with anthropometry. Results: We surveyed 405 patients (most were white men; mean age 43.7 years). The mean duration of HIV infection was 74.6 months, and 90.1% of the respondents were taking antiretroviral therapy. The prevalence of lipodystrophy was 34.2%, of whom 43% had lipoatrophy, 52% had lipohypertrophy, and 5% had a mixed form. There was a statistical association between the presence lipodystrophy and female gender [OR = 1.77 (95% CI 1.35 to 2.32)] and the duration of HIV infection ([OR = 1.00 (95% CI 1.00 to 1.04)]. Conclusion: Lipodystrophy was prevalent in more than one-third of the surveyed subjects, which is a warning signal. Lipodystrophy affects quality of life and adherence to treatment, and may cause cardiovascular damage in this population.


The biochemical principles underlining carbohydrate metabolism of ornamental geophytes such as hyacinth and the lily are poorly understood. The present studies were therefore undertaken to investigate the regulation and partitioning of carbohydrates, as well as growth and development of these flower bulbs. Results indicated that starch was the major storage carbohydrate in these bulbs. Starch degradation occurred through amylolysis rather than phosphorolysis. The flower accumulated the highest amount of the reserves in hyacinth, following the depletion of these substances in the bulb scales, whilst in the case of the lily; it was the stem and roots, which accumulated the highest amount of reserves. The isolation of gene fragments of starch phosphorylase and starch synthase from hyacinth as well as the sequences generated for these enzymes implies that primers which are specific to hyacinth can be designed, and full characterisation of the genes can be made in the future by making and probing genomic libraries and isolating clones from cDNA libraries. In general, peeling of bulbs prior to planting resulted in a delay in emergence and reductions in vegetative growth as well as flower quality. Hyacinth plants subjected to defoliation did not show any compensation for leaf loss because growth was always reduced whilst flowering was unaffected, however, the lily responded positively to complete shoots removal especially when herbivory occurred at the beginning of their growth. Plants produced from large bulbs, just like those from the shallow planting regimes performed better in terms of growth and flower quality as compared to those of small bulbs and deep planting. Also, the application of (NH4)2SO4 enhanced more vigorous growth and bulb yield in both species of flower bulbs than did Na2HPO4, but in hyacinth it was Na2HPO4 that produced better flower quality than the former. Varieties such as Sky Jackets and Purple Voice produced the highest vegetative growth and bulb yield, whilst Fondant and Blue Jacket recorded the highest flower quality.


We thank Dr. Kempen for his interest in our study and questions and we have attempted to address them in order. The baseline minute ventilation was as given in table 1 for both groups. The ventilator was a Datex-Ohmeda Aestiva ventilator set (GE Healthcare, Madison, WI) during surgery and emergence to volume control with an inspired:expired ratio of 1:2. It has compliance compensation functionality, but despite this there were significantly higher expired tidal volumes in the N2O group during the first 5 min of emergence phase (118 ml higher at 1 min and 110 ml at 5 min, P 0.05 at each time point with Bonferroni correction), explained by the rapid volume washout of N2O. In the control group there were six abdominal, three head and neck, and one orthopedic surgeries, with one patient in the prone position. In the N2O group there were five abdominal, two spinal, and three orthopedic surgeries, with two patients in the prone position. The means (SD) of the blood/gas partition coefficients were 0.73 (0.14) for the control group and 0.69 (0.18) for the N2O group (P 0.37 on the two-tailed Student t test). The trend toward a higher partition coefficient in the control group might suggest that the difference in blood partial pressures between the two groups we measured was a slight underestimate. Ventilatory and hemodynamic disturbances due to coughing, straining, etc., would have disrupted gas elimination and affected our results, as Dr. Kempen points out. We deliberately restricted data sampling during emergence to the first 5 min after cessation of anesthetic gas administration, and at 30 min in the postanesthesia care unit so that this was successfully avoided. We agree that an unblinded study of time to emergence is prone to observer bias, but we found time to eye opening to command a robust endpoint, and time to extubation correlated closely with this. We reiterate that these were secondary endpoints in the study, but were prospectively studied in our protocol, and so were reported. We believe our intention to fashion the study around a typical general anesthetic protocol with similar depth of anesthesia across the two groups was a sensible one. The different sevoflurane concentrations in the two groups were an inevitable consequence of this, as in standard anesthetic practice. Given that the relative change from baseline in sevoflurane partial pressures was the primary outcome variable, we believe this approach was appropriate. Dr. Kempen's suggestion for a study using identical sevoflurane concentrations and balancing depth of anesthesia with propofol in the control arm is a valid one, and we look forward to the results of such a study. However, we would encourage researchers in the field to take the trouble to measure blood partial pressures rather than just expired concentrations in these types of pharmacokinetic investigations, because of the significant effect of ventilation-perfusion scatter on alveolar-arterial partial pressure gradients. More meaningful quantitative data are obtained and the implications of the findings of a study are clearer. Finally, we agree entirely that it is possible to accelerate elimination of volatile agent and emergence by deliberately increasing expired alveolar ventilation, which emulates the effect of N2O washout. As Dr. Kempen proposes, turning on N2O near the end of surgery is a useful maneuver that the primary author frequently uses to gain the benefit of the minimum alveolar concentration-sparing and washout effects without the potential side effects of prolonged N2O administration. The intent of our study was to demonstrate the pharmacokinetic principles underlying the administration of inhalational anesthesia with N2O, and its potential implications for speed of emergence. Clearly, the detailed conduct of anesthesia so as to achieve rapid and smooth emergence is a larger issue than simply whether or not to include a single agent such as N2O, and this complex formulation should always be left to the judgment of the skilled anesthesiologist.


Abstract : This is the final report of the DSB Task Force on NNSA's Strategic Plan for Advanced Computing, co-chaired by Dr. Bruce Tarter and Mr. Robert Nesbit. The Task Force was asked to evaluate NNSA's strategic plan for Advanced Simulation and Computing (ASC) and its adequacy to support the Stockpile Stewardship Program (SSP), whose mission is to ensure the safety, performance and reliability of our Nation's nuclear weapons stockpile. The Task Force was also asked to evaluate the role of ASC in maintaining US leadership in advanced computing and assess the impact of using ASC's capabilities for broader national security and other issues. The Task Force concluded that, since the cessation of nuclear testing, ASC has taken on the principal integrating role in assuring the long term safety and reliability of the stockpile. It is also an essential tool in addressing specific stockpile issues. Furthermore, ASC has played a leadership role in reestablishing US leadership in high performance computing. The use of ASC and ASC-derived technology for other national security, scientific, and commercial applications has also increased dramatically, and high performance computing is viewed as an extremely valuable and cost-effective approach to many of the user's important problems. However, it is not likely that ASC will meet the compelling goals stated in its roadmaps and planning documents at the currently projected levels of funding. Furthermore, the high end of the US computing industry may be negatively impacted with implications for the much broader range of potential users in the DOD, other federal agencies, and the commercial world. Accordingly, the Task Force strongly recommends sizing the budget of ASC to meet its nuclear weapons objectives and retain US leadership in advanced computing.


Companies often see themselves as actors in a process of sustainable development that takes place in society. With this self-conception comes the challenge to act in a socially responsible way. The following paper presents a framework to integrate the concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Development to create an approach that can address this responsibility. The concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility and Human Resource Development are linked by the idea of lifelong learning, incorporating concepts and ideas from the field of education into the framework, which makes it possible to examine the issue of promotion and social advancement irrespective of an individual's social background. The article lays a foundation for the framework by describing the concepts named above and later on conceptualizes a three-part framework that helps to analyse the development of entrepreneurial structures that enable social commitment through company education. With this framework, an innovative approach to link a corporation's social and educational engagement for mutual benefit is given an applicable form, with the immanent potential for the development of social sustainability. The research presented in this paper is purely theoretical and its results offer a connection point for practical interventions.


Congress has a strong interest in export control policy with regard to
technologies that may have both commercial and military applications outside of the
United States. Through its constitutionally delegated authority to regulate foreign
commerce, Congress has the authority to control exports for national security or
foreign policy purposes. This report examines congressional interest in the exportation of High Performance Computers, which are either single computing machines (usually called supercomputers) or a cluster of easily available, high-end workstations or personal computers.


Tests of the morphogenetic potency of the urodele limb regeneration blastema by a variety of transplantation experiments indicate that blastema is a self-organizing system. The cells of blastema inherit a memory of their position on the three cardinal axes of the limb. This memory is called positional memory, and it is fundamental to recognizing loss of structure, triggering cellular interactions to replace missing structures, and specifying the level from which new structures can begin. Retinoic acid (RA) modifies the positional memory in all three cardinal axes of the limb. The vitamin proximalizes positional memory in the proximodistal axis, posteriorizes it in the anteroposterior axis, and ventralizes it in the dorsoventral axis. In vivo and in vitro assays of interactions between cell derived from different proximodistal limb levels, before and after treatment with RA, suggest that the cellular basis of positional memory resides in recognition/affinity property of the cell surface. RA probably modifies positional memory by modulating transcription, via a nuclear retinoid receptor. It is suggested that the genes involved in specifying positional memory, and whose transcription is therefore affected in regenerating limbs, are homeo box genes and genes that encode for molecules involved in determining the composition and architecture of the cell surface and extracellular matrix.