The complete nucleotide (nt) sequences of genomic RNAs 1 and 2 of Cucurbit yellow stunting disorder virus (CYSDV) were determined for the Spanish isolate CYSDV-AlLM. RNA1 is 9123 nt long and contains at least five open reading frames (ORFs). Computer-assisted analyses identified papain-like protease, methyltransferase, RNA helicase and RNA-dependent RNA polymerase domains in the first two ORFs of RNA1. This is the first study on the sequences of RNA1 from CYSDV. RNA2 is 7976 nt long and contains the hallmark gene array of the family Closteroviridae, characterized by ORFs encoding a heat shock protein 70 homologue, a 59 kDa protein, the major coat protein and a divergent copy of the coat protein. This genome organization resembles that of Sweet potato chlorotic stunt virus (SPCSV), Cucumber yellows virus (CuYV) and Lettuce infectious yellows virus (LIYV), the other three criniviruses sequenced completely to date. However, several differences were observed. The most striking novel features of CYSDV compared to SPCSV, CuYV and LIYV are a unique gene arrangement in the 3'-terminal region of RNA1, the identification in this region of an ORF potentially encoding a protein which has no homologues in any databases, and the prediction of an unusually long 5' non-coding region in RNA2. Additionally, the CYSDV genome resembles that of SPCSV in having very similar 3' regions in RNAs 1 and 2, although for CYSDV similarity in primary structures did not result in predictions of equivalent secondary structures. Overall, these data reinforce the view that the genus Crinivirus contains considerable genetic variation. Additionally, several subgenomic RNAs (sgRNAs) were detected in CYSDV-infected plants, suggesting that generation of sgRNAs is a strategy used by CYSDV for the expression of internal ORFs.


Lyme borreliosis has in common features with another spirochetosis, syphilis, e.g. the development in three stages and the occurrence of reinfection and congenital infection. The European variant (erythema migrans disease in the broader sense) initially more often seems to have a mild course than in the United States, but lymphocytoma, Bannwarth syndrome and acrodermatitis chronica atrophicans seem to be more common in Europe. Administration of tetracycline for stage 1 and of parenteral penicillin G in high doses for stages 2 and 3 and during pregnancy is recommended.


An explicit formula for the ADM mass of an asymptotically AdS black hole in a generic Lovelock gravity theory is presented, identical in form to that in Einstein gravity, but multiplied by a function of the Lovelock coupling constants and the AdS curvature radius. A Gauss' law-type formula relates the mass, which is an integral at infinity, to an expression depending instead on the horizon radius. This and other thermodynamic quantities, such as the free energy, are then analyzed in the limits of small and large horizon radius, yielding results that are independent of the detailed choice of Lovelock couplings. In even dimensions, the temperature diverges in both limits, implying the existence of a minimum temperature for black holes. The negative free energy of sufficiently large black holes implies the existence of a Hawking–Page transition. In odd dimensions, the temperature still diverges for large black holes, which again have negative free energy. However, the temperature vanishes as the horizon radius tends to zero and sufficiently small black holes have positive specific heat.


Purpose
The increase of videogame use has raised concerns regarding mental health of gamers (e.g. social isolation, depression); however, online gaming may offer the benefit of social connectivity. Many games provide ways for people to meet and interact, providing social opportunities difficult to come by for some young adults. One way to investigate social connection is through social network analysis, which explores the influence of connections on behaviors. The purpose of this paper is to analyze factors related to social connections within an online gaming community, with an emphasis on the influence of social support and depressive symptoms on network ties.

Design/methodology/approach
All members of an online gaming site were asked to report demographics, site use, depressive symptoms, "in-real-life" (IRL) social support, and online social support. Members were also asked to nominate those in their gaming network with whom they spoke to about important life matters. Moran's I determined the spatial autocorrelation of depressive symptoms and IRL support within the network. Exponential random graph modeling determined factors significantly associated with tie presence between members.

Findings
Members (n=37) were significantly more likely to speak to other members about important life matters if they reported more site hours, more depressive symptoms, and less IRL support. Depressive symptoms and IRL support were not significantly spatially autocorrelated within this network.

Originality/value
Results suggest members may be filling an IRL social support deficit with friends they have met online. Additionally, members who reported more depressive symptoms may be seeking help from informal online connections through online gaming.


HEP's demand for computing resources has grown beyond the capacity of the Grid, and these demands will accelerate with the higher energy and luminosity planned for Run II. Mira, the ten petaFLOPs supercomputer at the Argonne Leadership Computing Facility, is a potentially significant compute resource for HEP research. Through an award of fifty million hours on Mira, we have delivered millions of events to LHC experiments by establishing the means of marshaling jobs through serial stages on local clusters, and parallel stages on Mira. We are running several HEP applications, including Alpgen, Pythia, Sherpa, and Geant4. Event generators, such as Sherpa, typically have a split workload: a small scale integration phase, and a second, more scalable, event-generation phase. To accommodate this workload on Mira we have developed two Python-based Django applications, Balsam and ARGO. Balsam is a generalized scheduler interface which uses a plugin system for interacting with scheduler software such as HTCondor, Cobalt, and TORQUE. ARGO is a workflow manager that submits jobs to instances of Balsam. Through these mechanisms, the serial and parallel tasks within jobs are executed on the appropriate resources. This approach and its integration with the PanDA production system will be discussed.


A kinematically redundant robot manipulator has a lot of useful properties, such as avoiding singularities, obstacles and optimized motions, because the redundant manipulator has an infinite number of solutions of inverse kinematics. But, unfortunately it is very hard to get the solution of inverse kinematics when the manipulator is redundant. We propose two schemes which find the globally optimized solution of the redundant manipulator's inverse kinematics using evolutionary programming (EP). Evolutionary programming is a stochastic search method based on principles of evolution and heredity. The two schemes are mainly different in the chromosome representation method. The chromosome of the first scheme is composed of all joint angles while the chromosome of the second is composed of only redundant joint angles. To make a complete trajectory, interpolation is needed and the bound of interpolation error is calculated. We find the globally optimized trajectory of a 3-DOF RRR-type planar manipulator.


Background: Argininemia is an autosomal recessive urea cycle disorder (UCD). Unlike other UCD, hyperammonemia is rarely seen. Patients usually present in childhood with neurological symptoms. Uncommon presentations like neonatal cholestasis or cirrhosis have been reported. Although transient elevations of liver transaminases and coagulopathy have been reported during hyperammonemia episodes, a permanent coagulopathy has never been reported. Methods: In this retrospective study, coagulation disturbances are examined in 6 argininemia patients. All of the patients were routinely followed up for hepatic involvement due to argininemia. Laboratory results, including liver transaminases, albumin, prothrombin time (PT), international normalized ratio (INR), activated partial thromboplastin time (aPTT), and clotting factor levels, were assessed in all of the patients. Results: All of the patients had a prolonged PT and an increased INR, while none of the patients had a prolonged aPTT. Five patients had slightly elevated liver transaminases. A liver biopsy was performed in 1 patient but neither cirrhosis nor cholestasis was documented. Five of the 6 patients had low factor VII and factor IX levels, while other clotting factors were normal. Conclusions: Argininemia patients should be investigated for coagulation disorders even if there is no apparent liver dysfunction or major bleeding symptoms.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of brachytherapy of 125I implantation on localized prostate cancer.

METHODS
Two-step technique was engaged in the implantation of 125I into the prostate for 41 localized prostate cancer patients. The prescription dosage of 125I was 160 Gy. TRUS and C-Arm X-ray were used for the confirmation of seeds location in the prostate.

RESULTS
Thirty-three patients were followed up for 3 to 4 years. Abnormal PSAs were found in 2 patients by positive biopsy. No patients died in this investigation. The early stage complications were urinary irritation symptoms that were severe within 6 months and disappeared after 1 year.

CONCLUSION
Brachytherapy of 125I implantation increases long-term tumor-free survival rate, with few long-term complications and some short-tern urinary stimulating symptoms.


Summary

1
Evaluation of the success of biological control agents is essential to improve the efficiency and safety of future programmes. This study assessed the impact of Carmenta mimosa, a stem-mining moth, introduced into northern Australia as a biological control agent of mimosa Mimosa pigra. Litter fall, seed banks, vegetation cover, density and age structure of mimosa stands were compared using data collected at nine sites where Carmenta mimosa was present and eight sites where it was initially absent.

2
Mimosa seed rain was negatively correlated with Carmenta mimosa damage and declined by more than 90% at the highest Carmenta mimosa densities. Seed banks also declined with Carmenta mimosa damage.

3
Percentage cover of competing vegetation was significantly higher under stands defoliated by Carmenta mimosa and this inhibited mimosa seedling establishment and apparently increased the susceptibility of mimosa to fire, by increasing fuel loads beneath stands.

4
Four of the eight stands where Carmenta mimosa was absent expanded and none contracted. In contrast, none of the nine stands where Carmenta mimosa was present expanded and three contracted. Analysis of the age structure of mimosa stands indicated that contracting stands were typified by an absence of seedling regeneration.

5
In contrast to previous studies, no impact could be attributed to the flower feeder Coelocephalapion pigrae or to the stem-mining moth Neurostrota gunniella, whilst the bruchid Acanthoscelides puniceus consumed up to only c. 10% of seed. However, it is argued that, while these agents are unlikely to suppress dense mimosa thickets, they may reduce the rate mimosa can expand.

6
Synthesis and applications. By preventing stand regeneration, Carmenta mimosa is predicted to cause widespread reductions in mimosa populations and should therefore be redistributed to areas of mimosa where it is absent. Differences between the age structures of stands with Carmenta mimosa present may highlight how biological control could succeed for a suite of woody legume weeds with long-lived seed banks.


Abstract UK drill music frequently features as a prime suspect in newsrooms and courtrooms that charge it with driving the 'knife crime epidemic' in Britain's major conurbations. Such prejudicial assumptions about the role of drill in inciting violence are largely unfounded, but nevertheless inform criminal justice policy that leads to unjust and discriminatory outcomes. While drill rappers consciously post violent content on YouTube to increase viewership and gain popularity, the role of YouTube in facilitating and profiting from this traffic in violent imagery is rarely questioned in criminal proceedings – enabling, as it does, the weaponisation of such videos as 'bad character evidence' in court. Drawing on a selection of YouTube videos that represent drill rappers as dangerous 'criminals', this article argues that such videos function as a resource for the criminalisation of drill by police and prosecutors who present drill lyrics as personal testimony that is robbed of its fictive qualities, and makes rappers vulnerable to prejudicial ruling and discriminatory treatment within the criminal justice system.


During the years 2006-2009 field experiment with winter wheat was held in the region of Stara Zagora. The object of study is the economic impact of leaf treatment with liquid fertilizer micro on productivity of winter wheat. Field experiment includes the following study options: control; fertilization with Wuxal Mikroplant; Wuxal Mikroplant and Kodiche applied in combination, Fertilider; Wuxal Copper. Foliar treatment with micro-fertilizer was made after booting, before inflorescence emergence, during intensive growth and development of plants, where the need for nutrients is the greatest. Economic analysis of the results show that the application of liquid fertilizers leads to low production cost. The cost of grain decreased to 40% of the control average for the period of study. It is therefore recommended for winter wheat, before inflorescence emergence to make leaf fertilization. Research shows that the introduction of micro- fertilizers 9 to 36 percent increase profitability compared to conventionally grown winter wheat.


OPTIMIZING FARE STRUCTURE AND SERVICE FREQUENCY FOR AN INTERCITY TRANSIT SYSTEM by Feng-Ming Tsai This study presents an approach to jointly optimize service headway and differentiated fare for an intercity transit system with an objective of total profit maximization and with consideration given to the economic and social sustainability of the system. Service capacity and fleet size constraints are considered. The optimization problem is structured into four scenarios which are comprised of the combinations of whether the Ranges of Travel Distance (RTD) is fixed or variable and if the time period is for a single period or for multiple periods. A successive substitution method (specifically, a modified Gauss Southwell method) is applied to solve for the optimal solutions when the RTD is considered fixed, while a heuristic solution algorithm (specifically, a Genetic Algorithm) is developed to find the optimal solutions when the RTD is considered to be optimized. The methodology discussed in this dissertation contributes to the field of transportation network modeling because it establishes how to solve the fare and headway design problem for an intercity transit system. Intercity transit agencies are faced with the challenge of determining fares for a very complicated setting in which demand elasticity, realistic geographic conditions, and facility locations of the transit system all must be taken into account. A real world case study Taiwan High Speed Rail is used to demonstrate the applicability of the developed methodology. Numerical results of optimal solutions and sensitivity analyses are presented for each scenario. The sensitivity analyses enable transit planners to quantify the impact of fare policies and address social equity issues, which can be a major hurdle of implementing optimal fare policy to achieve maximum profit operation. According to the sensitivity analysis, the total profit surfaces for various headways, fares, and RTD are relatively flat near the optimum. This indicates that the transit operator has flexibility in shifting the solution marginally away from the optimum without significantly reducing the maximum profit. By varying the elasticity parameters of fare and demand one can observe how these variables affect the optimized RTD. The results indicate that as the elasticity parameters of fare increase or demand decreases, the optimal number of RTD increase while the boundaries of RTD are concentrated in the range of shorter travel distances. OPTIMIZING FARE STRUCTURE AND SERVICE FREQUENCY FOR AN INTERCITY TRANSIT SYSTEM


Studies suggest that the consolidation of newly acquired memories and underlying long‐term synaptic plasticity might represent a major function of sleep. In a combined repeated‐measures and parallel‐group sleep laboratory study (active waking versus sleep, passive waking versus sleep), we provide evidence that brief periods of daytime sleep (42.1 ± 8.9 min of non‐rapid eye movement sleep) in healthy adolescents (16 years old, all female), compared with equal periods of waking, promote the consolidation of declarative memory (word‐pairs) in participants with high power in the electroencephalographic sleep spindle (sigma) frequency range. This observation supports the notion that sleep‐specific brain activity when reaching a critical dose, beyond a mere reduction of interference, promotes synaptic plasticity in a hippocampal‐neocortical network that underlies the consolidation of declarative memory.


ABSTRACT In 2020 Pakistan's first-ever hackathon on school emergencies was organised, where schools and community stakeholders collaborated to deconstruct problems and develop solutions. The study aimed to investigate participants' motivation for and experiences of the hackathon. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from hackers, mentors, judges and organisers before, during and after the event. Findings indicate diversity amongst participants in terms of age, gender and experiences. The hackers' motivations were both intrinsic and extrinsic. The challenges were insufficient time, absence of investors, inconsistent mentoring, low participation from public schools and imbalanced gender participation. The hackathon provided a unique opportunity for multidisciplinary collaborative problem-solving and accessing experts for creativity and innovation. Future research should focus on increasing participation and fostering social innovations through school-based civic hackathons.


The constructional praxis ability of 69 normal 5 and 6 year olds was studied to validate established norms, to gain normative data for the Gesell Block Test and the Benton and Fogel Test of Constructional Praxis, and to identify a developmental continuum. No significant difference was found between scores obtained by the two age groups; however, a difference significant at the less than .05 level was found between scores of five-year-old boys and girls. The results suggest that these tests measure a continuum of development and that with revisions they may be useful to provide additional information about development of constructional praxis ability in a larger sample of normal and brain-damaged children.


Despite the fabrication of particulate-reinforced composites via friction stir processing (FSP), an attempt was made to utilize FSP for the homogenization of filler dispersion in ZrB2/AA7075 in-situ composites fabricated via stir casting route, with varying weight percentages of ZrB2. The friction stir processing was performed for up to three passes with 100% overlap. The as-cast and friction stir processed (FSPed) composites were characterized for their microstructural, microhardness, and tribological behavior. The microstructural features revealed the increase in the misorientation angle among grain boundaries, with an increase in ZrB2 content and a number of FSP passes. Furthermore, the homogeneity of ZrB2 particles in the Al alloy matrix was significantly influenced by the number of FSP passes, which was quantified by Lorenz curves and Gini Indices. The FSPed alloy and composites exhibited higher microhardness as compared to their un-processed counterparts. The tribological behavior was investigated for three different load levels, i.e., 15 N, 30 N, and 45 N. The slope of the wear-rate at 45 N revealed that the Al-alloy exhibited a considerable increase in wear severity, whereas as-cast and FSPed composites did not show a significant increase. Both wear-rate and coefficient of friction decreased with an increase in the number of FSP passes and ZrB2 content. The scanning electron micrographs of worn surfaces confirmed the reduction in adhesion, abrasion, and delamination with the number of FSP passes. However, the synergism among the three depicted the overall tribological behavior.


We describe an impulse-radio ultra-wideband (IR-UWB) transmitter made with off-the-shelf discrete components. It was initially designed to be used in a UWB testbed for measurement and algorithm validation purposes. There already exist several versions of an IR-UWB transmitter, but many of them are made with custom designed integrated chips. For this reason, it is very difficult for anyone other than their designers to test and measure with the same material. We describe all the information the readers would need to build their own IR-UWB transmitter.


OBJECTIVE
Skeletal muscle is the major site of insulin action. There are limited data on the relationship between insulin action and skeletal muscle myogenic/regenerative potential. RUNX1 is a transcription factor which plays a role in muscle development and regeneration. The aim of our study was to assess the role of skeletal muscle myogenic/regenerative potential in the development of insulin resistance through the studies on RUNX1 transcription factor.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study. Experimental part with myoblast cell line culture.

METHODS
We examined 41 young healthy volunteers, 21 normal-weight and 20 with overweight or obesity. Hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp and vastus lateralis muscle biopsy were performed. In L6 myoblast and human skeletal muscle myoblasts (hSkMM) cell cultures, Runx1 was silenced at 2 stages of development. Cell growth, the expression of markers of myogenesis, nuclei fusion index, Akt phosphorylation and glucose uptake were measured.

RESULTS
Skeletal muscle RUNX1 expression was decreased in overweight/obese individuals in comparison with normal-weight individuals and was positively related to insulin sensitivity, independently of BMI. Runx1 loss-of-function at the stage of myoblast inhibited myoblast proliferation and differentiation, reduced insulin-stimulated Akt phosphorylation and insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. In contrast, Runx1 knockdown in myotubes did not affect Akt phosphorylation, glucose uptake and other parameters studied.

CONCLUSIONS
Myogenic/regenerative potential of adult skeletal muscle may be an important determinant of insulin action. Our data suggest that muscle RUNX1 may play a role in the modulation of insulin action through its effect on myogenesis.


A technique is presented for simulation of the X-ray light curves of intermediate polars. The model includes the effects of self-occultation of the emission regions by the body of the white dwarf, and variation of photoelectric absorption and electron scattering as the aspect angles of the emission regions change, and the effect of accretion occurring through a disc, directly via the accretion stream or by a combination of both. Both the variation of the rate of accretion on to a given emission region and its effective `migration' around the magnetic pole are taken into account. These features naturally arise in a system that is fed (at least in part) directly by the stream. Results are considered for two specific emission-region geometries, namely a filled circle and a semicircular arc, over a wide range of parameter space in each case. Disc-fed, non-accretion disc and discless accretion are each considered, both in the low and high X-ray energy regime and at a range of inclination angles and magnetic axis offset angles. The main conclusion of this work is that very complex pulse profiles can result from innately symmetrical geometrical and physical situations. The results obtained in the case of discless accretion feeding arc-shaped emission regions are compared with recent observational data and shown to produce qualitatively similar profiles. Finally, ways are considered in which this simple approach may be extended to include a more realistic description of the conditions that exist in intermediate polars.


Herein, we have built a discrete Ising model for deactivation considering the cage connectivity, inspired by the game of Go. An analytical solution for a simplistic 1D model is found, and it shows good consistency with the experimental results over ZSM-12. Some anomalous pseudo-phase transition phenomena in the deactivation process and in the acid density are presented by modeling the deactivation of SAPO-34. This model may bring new methodologies to research on the zeolite deactivation mechanism.


The design of Spoken Dialog Systems cannot be considered as the simple combination of speech processing technologies. Indeed, speech-based interface design has been an expert job for a long time. It necessitates good skills in speech technologies and low-level programming. Moreover, rapid development and reusability of previously designed systems remains uneasy. This makes optimality and objective evaluation of design very difficult. The design process is therefore a cyclic process composed of prototype releases, user satisfaction surveys, bug reports and refinements. It is well known that human intervention for testing is time-consuming and above all very expensive. This is one of the reasons for the recent interest in dialog simulation for evaluation as well as for design automation and optimization. In this paper we expose a probabilistic framework for a realistic simulation of spoken dialogs in which the major components of a dialog system are modeled and parameterized thanks to independent data or expert knowledge. Especially, an Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) system model and a User Model (UM) have been developed. The ASR model, based on articulatory similarities in language models, provides task-adaptive performance prediction and Confidence Level (CL) distribution estimation. The user model relies on the Bayesian Networks (BN) paradigm and is used both for user behavior modeling and Natural Language Understanding (NLU) modeling. The complete simulation framework has been used to train a reinforcement-learning agent on two different tasks. These experiments helped to point out several potentially problematic dialog scenarios.


The aim of the study is to investigate how clinicians in psychiatric care for adults consider borderline personality disorder to be manifested in men and women, respectively. Could there be a tendency to over-diagnose women and under-diagnose men? In addition, the purpose of the study is to bring clarity to the reasons for gender differences within borderline personality as perceived by the clinicians. The study is based on an inductive approach, in which interviews have been conducted with twelve clinicians working with borderline personality disorders to gain a deeper understanding of how the clinicians consider the manifestations of gender differences.The clinicians described tendencies for women to deliberate self-harm, have mood swings and problems in relations. Men with borderline personality disorders are described as having a higher degree of e.g. aggressiveness, addiction and criminal behaviour than women with the same diagnosis. Half of the informants think men are under- diagnosed for borderline personality disorders. This may indicate that other diagnoses are given to men instead or that men end up in other treatments. Possible explanations to the gender differences are discussed, such as societal factors, gender roles or criteria for diagnosis based on gender.


: Immunological status and dermatoglyphic characteristics were compared in 55 children aged 4-14 with a turn in tuberculin reactions. A correlation was established between genetic and immunological factors, this pointing to the fact that dermatoglyphics is a component of genotype indicative of natural resistance of children to tuberculosis. Synchronization between immunological and genetic values is less intensive in children with immunological disorders against those without them. The findings support the hypophysis on an evolutional role of M. tuberculosis as natural selection factors as well as setting up genetically determined mechanisms of natural resistance to tuberculosis.


SUMMARY: The oxidation of ammonia by Nitrosomonas europaea is accelerated in mineral liquid media the addition of small amounts of corn steep liquor or its 'ash'. The amount of nitrite produced in such cultures usually exceeds the controls by 6–7 times after 6 days. However, in the following days nitrite-production becomes slower and after 14 days the controls have reached the same nitrite concentration as the corn steep liquor cultures. Concomitant with the accelerated nitrite-production hydrogen-ion concentration in the cultures increases considerably and may attain values as low as pH 6.3 after 14 days, as compared with c. 7.8 in the controls. The effect of corn steep liquor stimulation is more pronounced the smaller the inoculum used. Microscopical examination of slides immersed in cultures during incubation shows that N. europaea adheres to the glass surface only in cultures without corn steep liquor. The stimulatory factor in solutions of the 'ash' of corn steep liquor was not removed by dialysis nor by treatment with cation exchange resins. When the solutions were centrifuged both washed sediment and supernatant fluid were active. A possible explanation of the corn steep liquor effect is that colloidal matter in the solutions absorbs ammonia or any other nutrient in the medium in a way more favourable for their utilization by the organism.


Advances in computer power, new forecasting challenges, and new diagnostic techniques have brought about changes in the way atmospheric development and vertical motion are diagnosed in an operational setting. Many of these changes, such as improved model skill, model resolution, and ensemble forecasting, have arguably been detrimental to the ability of forecasters to understand and respond to the evolving atmosphere. The use of nondivergent wind in place of geostrophic wind would be a step in the right direction, but the advantages of potential vorticity suggest that its widespread adoption as a diagnostic tool on the west side of the Atlantic is overdue. Ertel potential vorticity (PV), when scaled to be compatible with pseudopotential vorticity, is generally similar to pseudopotential vorticity, so forecasters accustomed to quasigeostrophic reasoning through the height tendency equation can transfer some of their intuition into the Ertel-PV framework. Indeed, many of the differences between pseudopotential vorticity and Ertel potential vorticity are consequences of the choice of definition of quasigeostrophic PV and are not fundamental to the quasigeostrophic system. Thus, at its core, PV thinking is consistent with commonly used quasigeostrophic diagnostic techniques.


Soybeans is one of important food sources in Indonesia mainly as protein resources. The needs of soybeans which increasing and lower number of cultivation land causes soybeans import. Soybeans productivity improvement could be done by agroforestry system. Mindi and sentang are a fast growing species which famously cultivated at this time. One of benefit gained from agroforestry system is providing sources of organic material. Planting combination between mindi and sentang with soybeans could give organic material such as from mindi leaves and sentang leaves. This research aimed to examine the response of soybeans growth to the additional of leaves. The experimental design used was Complete Random Design (CRD) with single factor and seven treatments (control, dry whole, dry chopped, dry powder, wet whole, wet chopped, and wet powder. This research shows that the addition of sentang leaves does not impact to the diameter and height growth. The additional of mindi leaves give not significantly different to the growth of soybeans diameter, total dry mass, and total wet mass. The additional of sentang leaves give effect to the growth of number of leave, total wet mass, total dry mass and total pud mass. The additional of mindi leaves give significant impact to the height, number of leaves, and pot mass. The treatment give best impact to total pud mas was sentang dry leave chopped and mindi dry leave whole. Key words: Agroforestry, Azadirachta excelsa, Glycine max, Melia azedarach


Over the last couple of years the alcohol consumption among young people has increased in the Netherlands. This causes al lot of social problems but more important, it causes health issues. A lot of programs were developed to stop the alcohol consumption by minors. But these programs do not seem to have much result. Because of this the Tactus Verslavingszorg started the brand new program Smartconnection. This project is not created to discourage the drinking of large amounts of alcohol in groups/company, but instead focuses on enjoying the drinking and not overdoing it. One of the ways to accomplish this is by using peer-education. It is used to see what kind of skills a peer educator in Smartconnection must possess according to young people. This is examined with a topic-interview. 32 young people (potential peer educators) from the HBO Windesheim in Zwolle took part in this research. The opinions of these people were linked to the previous results from other literature. The main focus was on the difference between peer educators in events and peer educators in private peer group drinking locations, because Smartconnection focuses on both situations. The conclusion is that a 'good' peer educator is completely dependent on the young person who needs the influence. But there are some very important skills a good peer educator needs. He or she has to be spontaneous, enthusiastic, friendly, in control of the Dutch language, social, tidy, of high status and being able to adapt to the culture of the group. The young people think that a peer educator in private peer group drinking locations should have some experience him/herself with huts and shelters. Though the main focus lies on the qualities a peer educator must possess, there has also been paid some attention on how to bring in new peer educators. The majority of the young people were enthusiastic about the peer educators though they would never want to be one themselves because they think they would not set the right example. Because of this they think it is not possible to make the message credible. Reduction of the preconceptions about peer educators could stimulate the recruiting of new ones. However, more research is recommended.


This paper addresses some of the underlying statistical assumptions and issues in the collection and refinement of powder diffraction data. While standard data collection and Rietveld analysis have been extremely successful in providing structural information on a vast range of materials, there is often uncertainty about the true accuracy of the derived structural parameters. In this paper, we discuss a number of topics concerning data collection and the statistics of data analysis. We present a simple new function, the cumulative chi-squared distribution, for assessing regions of misfit in a diffraction pattern and introduce a matrix which relates the impact of individual points in a powder diffraction pattern with improvements in the estimated standard deviation of refined parameters. From an experimental viewpoint, we emphasise the importance of not over-counting at low-angles and the routine use of a variable counting scheme for data collection. Data analysis issues are discussed within the framework of maximum likelihood, which incorporates the current least-squares strategies but also enables the impact of systematic uncertainties in both observed and calculated data to be reduced.


Chemical brightening (bright dipping) and electrolytic brightening (electropolishing) are essentially selective-dissolution processes, in which the high points of a rough surface of aluminum are attacked more rapidly than the depressions, and the peaks and valleys are smoothed to produce a bright and beautiful finish. This article discusses the metallurgical factors, optical factors, and applications of the chemical and electrolytic brightening. It compares the chemical brightening and electrolytic brightening, and presents the advantages of the chemical and electrolytic brightening processes in terms of performance and economy. The article describes the phosphoric-nitric acid baths and phosphoric-sulfuric acid baths used for chemical brightening. Solution compositions and operating conditions for three commercial electropolishing processes, as well as for suitable post-treatments, are presented in a table.


A new sample pretreatment method based on ultrasonic extraction in HCI medium and subsequent oxidation of the extracts by sonozone (i.e., sonolysis-ozonolysis) has been developed for determination of reactive arsenic toward sodium tetrahydroborate [mainly As(III) + As(V)] by flow injection-hydride generation atomic absorption spectrometry. This method avoids the use of intensive treatments with concentrated and corrosive acids, high pressures, and temperatures that are inherent with traditional wet or dry ashing procedures and entails reduced waste production and reagent consumption. A sonozone process at room temperature was optimized to break the bond of As to proteins and macromolecular constituents which was an essential requirement for effective reduction by L-cysteine prior to arsine generation. Spiking experiments showed that As(III), As(V), MMA, and DMA were fully recovered from several matrixes on applying the above treatment. On the other hand, a nonreducible As species such as arsenobetaine that is predominant in some biological samples remained unchanged. Application of the method to sediment, soil, fly ash, and plant CRMs demonstrated that, in general, a good agreement existed between certified and found As contents, thereby indicating the absence of nonreducible As forms. Low As recoveries were observed for fish CRMs, as a result of the nondegradability of arsenobetaine by sonozone. The detection limit of As in the samples investigated was in the range 0.19-2.8 microg g(-1).


In popular psychology the use-it-or-lose-it theory has become accepted; that is, an increase in cognitive activity, particularly in later life, can reduce cognitive decline associated with both pathological and healthy aging. In the field of cognitive neuropsychology, the use-it-or-lose-it theory can represent either the cognitive reserve hypothesis or use-dependency theory. The cognitive reserve hypothesis states that an individual must be relatively cognitively active throughout life (particularly in early life) in order to build up a cognitive reserve to counter cognitive decline in old age. The use-dependency theory asserts that a high level of cognitive activity in later life is sufficient to attenuate or even reverse the cognitive aging process.

Questionnaire studies in this thesis have indicated that different cognitive activities have a greater effect on subjective measures of cognitive functioning. Specifically, the results showed that undertaking cryptic crosswords frequently appear to have a greater impact on cognitive awareness in older adults (compared to younger adults) than other cognitive activities. Furthermore, there was evidence that attempting cryptic crosswords encouraged older adults to form a realistic understanding of their current level of cognitive functioning, which suggested that such crosswords may be used as an intervention activity to promote cognitive functioning.

This was investigated by using a within-subjects intervention to examine the effect of regularly attempting cryptic crosswords on subjective and objective measures of cognitive functioning. The within-subjects approach eliminated potential mediating factors that may have influenced the impact of cognitive activity of cognitive interventions in previous studies (e.g. Jopp & Hertzog, 2007). The results confirmed that cryptic crossword participation enhanced cognitive awareness in older adults, particularly in those who could be regarded as being at-risk of sudden cognitive decline. However, there was no evidence that the intervention activity promoted objective measures of cognitive functions, which are known to decline with age (e.g. episodic memory, metacognition).

A within-subjects design was also used to manipulate stimulus characteristics to produce analogies of the cognitive reserve hypothesis and use-dependency theory. This technique bypassed the use of self-report measures of both cognitive activity and cognitive functioning, which may be intrinsically linked (e.g. Hertzog, 2009). These studies provided a modicum of support for the cognitive reserve hypothesis but no support for the use-dependency theory.

A novel model of the cognitive reserve hypothesis and use-dependency theory is presented which implicated the metacognition system as a key component that mediates the effect of cognitive activity on cognitive functioning in later life. The overarching findings suggest that an increase in cognitive activity in later life can enhance cognitive awareness but, due to an age-related deficit in the metacognitive pathway, older adults are unable to modify their behaviour to compensate for age-related cognitive decline in memory functioning. Thus, it can be concluded that cognitive activity in later life can produce changes in subjective but not objective measures of cognitive functioning. Future research needs to use similar within-subjects techniques to develop accessible cost-effective cognitive interventions, which specifically target the metacognition system.

Even though a copious amount of research has provided support for both theories, the link between cognitive activity and cognitive decline remains tenuous with no clear causal relationship (e.g. Salthouse, 2006). This thesis has taken in consideration whether the use of a between-subjects design, the measures of cognitive activity and the assessment of cognitive functioning used in previous research may have produced a disproportionate postulation of the effect that cognitive activity can have on cognitive functioning and decline in healthy adults.


During a scientific research, directed to understand the structural role of some particular masonry elements, noticeable in covering structures like vault and dome, we searched the technical rules and function of these elements. We verified that in literature there is no specific documentation about these elements and its mechanic purposes. The study was directed to recognize the most representatives architectures in different ages, and to identify the construction technique's evolution process of this particular arc-double or thickening of arc that we arrived to identify as a necessary building component to give balance in particular structural configuration. This process put down roots from the roman ancient age, until baroque age, where the most original applications of this regulation were placed. From Pantheon to the limit case of St. Filippo Neri chapel, the covers' structures springer angle studied was analyzed together with its relation to plan, sections and elevation of all buildings. Therefore, if these elements are well-performed, they follow precise constructive patterns that this article would like to identify and show.


BACKGROUND
Outcomes in metastatic breast cancer (mbc) positive for her2 (human epidermal growth factor receptor 2) are generally unfavourable. Trastuzumab has revolutionized the prognosis of her2-positive mbc. Some her2-positive mbc patients go into prolonged remission, and a few patients remain in remission even after discontinuation of trastuzumab, suggesting the possibility of a cure. In our practice, 4 her2-positive mbc patients treated with chemotherapy and trastuzumab have remained in remission on maintenance therapy for 5 years or more. Of those 4 patients, 2 have continued in remission after discontinuation of trastuzumab for more than 1 year. The objective of the present paper was therefore to address the duration of trastuzumab therapy in her2-positive mbc patients in prolonged remission.

METHODS
We conducted a literature review of the duration of trastuzumab in her2-positive mbc patients in remission. We also conducted an online survey of oncologists in Ontario to determine their treatment practices in her2-positive mbc patients.

RESULTS
The literature search found no specific evidence about the optimal duration of trastuzumab maintenance therapy in her2-positive mbc in prolonged remission. However, retrospective studies suggest predictive markers of good prognosis in patients in complete remission taking maintenance trastuzumab. Identifying those markers could lead to more personalized treatment. Our survey of oncologists about their treatment practices in her2-positive mbc patients revealed that 82.93% of respondents (n = 34) follow the currently available guidelines.

CONCLUSIONS
With the emergence of patients in prolonged remission, duration of trastuzumab in her2-positive mbc has become an important and relevant clinical question worldwide. Collaborative efforts are needed for the further study of this topic.


Abstract Non-templated 3′-uridylation of RNAs has emerged as an important mechanism for regulating the processing, stability and biological function of eukaryotic transcripts. In Drosophila, oligouridine tailing by the terminal uridylyl transferase (TUTase) Tailor of numerous RNAs induces their degradation by the exonuclease Dis3L2, which serves functional roles in RNA surveillance and mirtron RNA biogenesis. Tailor preferentially uridylates RNAs terminating in guanosine or uridine nucleotides but the structural basis underpinning its RNA substrate selectivity is unknown. Here, we report crystal structures of Tailor bound to a donor substrate analog or mono- and oligouridylated RNA products. These structures reveal specific amino acid residues involved in donor and acceptor substrate recognition, and complementary biochemical assays confirm the critical role of an active site arginine in conferring selectivity toward 3′-guanosine terminated RNAs. Notably, conservation of these active site features suggests that other eukaryotic TUTases, including mammalian TUT4 and TUT7, might exhibit similar, hitherto unknown, substrate selectivity. Together, these studies provide critical insights into the specificity of 3′-uridylation in eukaryotic post-transcriptional gene regulation.


A series of ferrocenyl and ruthenocenyl conjugates with colchicine bearing a 1,2,3-triazole moiety were synthesized and their anticancer properties were evaluated. We found that the most potent metallocenyl derivatives Rc4 and Rc5 are 6-7 times more cytotoxic toward HepG2 cells, while Fc4 and Fc5 are two times more cytotoxic toward HCT116 cells as colchicine. We also found that compounds Fc4, Fc5, Rc1 and Rc3-Rc5 are able to induce apoptosis, while compound Fc2 arrests mitosis.


A review of the long-term results of the treatment of 18 cases of bladder exstrophy is reported. Five cases have been operated on before 1961 by ureterosigmoidostomy; 4 (80%) patients have good renal function and have not had any complications, although 1 patient has anal incontinence; 1 patient presented bilateral renoureteral complications, requiring several corrective operations, and has anal incontinence too. Out of 13 cases operated on after 1961, 10 have been followed up from 3 to 14 years. In 1 patient an ileal conduit was performed because of the failure of an ureterosigmoidostomy performed at another hospital 10 years before. In 9 patients a personal technique based on the bladder substitution by a colonic loop plus creation of a sphincteric mechanism by trigonal tubulization was used (enterotrigonal urethroplasty). Morbidity has been high (66.6%), but the end results are very satisfactory: 7 patients (77.7%) are currently living a normal life, with normal renal function and good continence; 1 patient is incontinent and has bilateral reflux and a left retracted kidney; 1 patient has been secondarily diverted by means of a cutaneous Y transuretero-ureterostomy due to gross lreteral dilatation, renal damage and incontinence.


Understanding how cellulases catalyze the digestion of lignocellulose is a major goal of bioenergy research. Cel7A from Trichoderma reesei is a model exoglucanase that degrades cellulose strands from their reducing ends by processively cleaving individual cellobiose units. Despite being one of the most studied cellulases, the binding and hydrolysis mechanisms of Cel7A are still debated. We used single-molecule tracking to analyze the dynamics of 11,116 quantum dot-labeled TrCel7A binding to and moving processively along immobilized Gluconoacetobacter cellulose. Enzyme molecules were localized with a spatial precision of a few nanometers and followed for hundreds of seconds. Most enzymes bound into a static state and dissociated without detectable movement. Processive enzymes moved an average distance of 39 nm at an average speed of 3.2 nm/s. Static binding episodes preceding and following processive runs were of similar duration to static binding events that lacked any processive movement. Transient jumps of >20 nm were observed, but no diffusive behavior indicative of a diffusive search of the enzyme for a free cellulose strand end was observed. These data were integrated into a three-state model in which TrCel7A molecules can bind from solution into either a static or a processive state, and can reversibly switch between static and processive states before dissociating. From these results, we conclude that the rate-limiting step for cellulose degradation by Cel7A is the transition out of the static state either by dissociation from the cellulose surface or initiation of a processive run.


The nation has made tremendous progress in reducing tobacco use during the past 40 years. Despite extensive knowledge about successful interventions, however, approximately one-quarter of American adults still smoke. Tobacco-related illnesses and death place a huge burden on our society. Ending the Tobacco Problem generates a blueprint for the nation in the struggle to reduce tobacco use. The report reviews effective prevention and treatment interventions and considers a set of new tobacco control policies for adoption by federal and state governments. Carefully constructed with two distinct parts, the book first provides background information on the history and nature of tobacco use, developing the context for the policy blueprint proposed in the second half of the report. The report documents the extraordinary growth of tobacco use during the first half of the 20th century as well as its subsequent reversal in the mid-1960s (in the wake of findings from the Surgeon General). It also reviews the addictive properties of nicotine, delving into the factors that make it so difficult for people to quit and examines recent trends in tobacco use. In addition, an overview of the development of governmental and nongovernmental tobacco control efforts is provided. After reviewing the ethical grounding of tobacco control, the second half of the book sets forth to present a blueprint for ending the tobacco problem. The book offers broad-reaching recommendations targeting federal, state, local, nonprofit and for-profit entities. This book also identifies the benefits to society when fully implementing effective tobacco control interventions and policies.


The ootheca is of interest because it is composed of quinone-tanned protein. No detailed account of the secretory processes leading to the production of structural protein and tanning agents exists, and this paper is intended as an introduction to such a cytological and histochemical account; it contains a description of the general anatomy of the organs concerned with the formation of the ootheca. These organs are located round the vestibulum, a large intucking of the posterior part of the abdomen. The colleterial glands open into the vestibulum and secrete most of the protein and tanning agent. The structure of each type of secretory cell of which the gland is composed is outlined. A new organ, taking the form of a large invagination of the dorsal wall of the vestibulum, is described. The walls of this invagination are secretory, and it is notable that the secretion-product accumulates and is stored within the substance ofa modified layer of the endocuticle. Two types of massed dermal gland cells are described. One type is present mostly on the ventral walls of the ovipositor, and the other towards the posterior end of the vestibulum. The former may not be directly concerned with ootheca formation, while the latter probably secretes the alkali-resistant outer layer of the ootheca. The relations between the ovipositor and the 'horned die' of Kramer and Wiggles-worth are discussed.


AIMS
To investigate the relative validity of retrospectively calculated pack-years (py-retro) by comparing py-retro with prospectively calculated pack-years (py-pro).

DESIGN
A 23-year ongoing cohort study (1977-2000).

PARTICIPANTS
One hundred and fifty-four males and females, 13 years old in 1977 and 36 years old in 2000.

SETTING
Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

MEASUREMENTS
To calculate py-pro, current smoking and quitting efforts were investigated nine times in a period of 23 years with the help of an interview or a questionnaire. At the age of 36, subjects filled out a comprehensive questionnaire about their smoking history, to calculate py-retro. Individual differences between py-pro and py-retro were calculated. In addition, Cohen's kappa was calculated after categorising py-pro and py-retro into three groups.

FINDINGS
(1) Py-retro does not under- or overestimate life-time tobacco smoking. (2) The relative validity of py-retro was moderate due to large individual differences between py-pro and py-retro. (3) The individual differences between py-pro and py-retro became larger, the higher the number of pack-years. (4) Mean difference (and 95% limits of agreement) between py-pro and py-retro was -0.039 (-5.23, 5.32) when average pack-years was < 5.2 and -1.17 (-10.00, 14.65) when pack-years > or = 5.2. 5. Cohen's kappa between categorized py-pro and py-retro was 0.79.

CONCLUSIONS
Future researchers in the field of smoking should be aware of the moderate relative validity of py-retro. Categorizing py-retro into smoking groups results in a misclassification error that is smaller than the quantitative error in continuous py-retro, but goes together with a loss of information.


During recent years, numerous studies have shown that epigenetics, heritable changes that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence, play an important role in the development, function, and regulation of the immune system as well as in the onset and progress of autoimmune diseases. For that reason, in the following chapter, we will review some of the most important concepts about epigenetics and how they modulate the development and function of immune cells, specifically macrophages, dendritic cells, and T cells. Moreover, we will review the role of epigenetics on autoimmune diseases, as well as the use of pharmacological modulation of the epigenetic machinery, as an innovative way to approach a potential new treatment or improve the current treatments of autoimmune diseases.


The research interests and presentations of the assembled PhD students at the Hermes Workshop 2007 (hosted this year by Aarhus Universitet) read like an eclectic catalogue of world-wide intellectual curiosities. It was a conference where papers on Michael Ondaatje vied for the audience's ears and sharp critique alongside an analysis of Jean-Luc Godard's literary quotation in film, while the poetics of Michel Houellebecq's novels were presented on the same panel as the travel writing of V.S. Naipaul and W.G. Sebald. If you suggest that there is little variety here among works of contemporary cultural production, there were papers that deepened the linguistic and temporal reach: the conference started with a reflection on literature as philosophy of history and closed with a medievalist's presentation on the Greek, Ottoman and Russian reports on the fall of Constantinople.


This dissertation examines the decline and re-emergence of the Swiss mechanical watch industry from 1970-2008, exploring how, when, and why market demand for legacy technologies resurrect and reshape a mature field. Extending existing research on technology emergence and death, I reveal the dynamics of technology and field re-emergence. I focus on the mechanisms of identity and institutional change associated with re-emergence, as well as how institutional leaders and guardians serve as agents of change who simultaneously preserve and reframe the values and product conceptions associated with a legacy technology. Additionally, I advance the notion of identity ambidexterity by examining how organizations explore and exploit multiple elements of their identity simultaneously during such periods of instability. Using qualitative and quantitative methods, I analyze a wide range of interview, archival, historical, and observational data at the levels of the industry and the organization. More broadly, I seek to demonstrate how the reclamation of legacy identities reshapes the institutional environment of a mature field, and how incumbent firms re-define their organizational identities after a technological innovation threatens to destroy their dominant market position.


Abstract Abstract Different percentages of fugitive phase with three different average particles were added to the green porcelain compositions. The fugitive phase was burnt out during the sintering, and the shrinkage of the samples was proportional to the added volume. The lower the particle size of the fugitive phase was, the higher the shrinkage became. The properties of stoneware tiles as apparent density, linear shrinkage, modulus of rupture, porosity, roughness and water absorption were studied as function of the added fugitive phase. A reduction of the porosity was obtained when the added fugitive phase was <5 vol.-%. The modulus of rupture improvement was found in samples with higher density. The surface roughness increased by both the volume and the particle size of fugitive phase. Large added porosity volume was effectively eliminated, and the porosity was equilibrated to a fixed value related to the initial particle size of the fugitive phase. The main mechanism that contributed to the elimination of porosity during liquid assisted sintering was the gas diffusion. Large pores were hindered by the crystalline phases, and thus pore, coalescence was avoided in the porcelain stoneware.


Gastric cancer (GC) is one of the most common malignancies with a poor prognosis. Immunotherapy has attracted much attention as a treatment for a wide range of cancers, including GC. However, not all patients respond to immunotherapy. New models are urgently needed to accurately predict the prognosis and the efficacy of immunotherapy in patients with GC. Long noncoding RNAs (lncRNAs) play crucial roles in the occurrence and progression of cancers. Recent studies have identified a variety of prognosis-related lncRNA signatures in multiple cancers. However, these studies have some limitations. In the present study, we developed an integrative analysis to screen risk prediction models using various feature selection methods, such as univariate and multivariate Cox regression, least absolute shrinkage and selection operator (LASSO), stepwise selection techniques, subset selection, and a combination of the aforementioned methods. We constructed a 9-lncRNA signature for predicting the prognosis of GC patients in The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) cohort using a machine learning algorithm. After obtaining a risk model from the training cohort, we further validated the model for predicting the prognosis in the test cohort, the entire dataset and two external GEO datasets. Then we explored the roles of the risk model in predicting immune cell infiltration, immunotherapeutic responses and genomic mutations. The results revealed that this risk model held promise for predicting the prognostic outcomes and immunotherapeutic responses of GC patients. Our findings provide ideas for integrating multiple screening methods for risk modeling through machine learning algorithms.


Febrile seizures are common and mostly benign. They are the most common cause of seizures in children less than five years of age. There are two categories of febrile seizures, simple and complex. Both the International League against Epilepsy and the National Institute of Health has published definitions on the classification of febrile seizures. Simple febrile seizures are mostly benign, but a prolonged (complex) febrile seizure can have long term consequences. Most children who have a febrile seizure have normal health and development after the event, but there is recent evidence that suggests a small subset of children that present with seizures and fever may have recurrent seizure or develop epilepsy. This review will give an overview of the definition of febrile seizures, epidemiology, evaluation, treatment, outcomes and recent research.


We study the partition function of a two-dimensional Coulomb gas on a circle, in the presence of external pointlike charges, in a double scaling limit where both the external charges and the number of gas particles are large. Our original motivation comes from studying amplitudes for multi-string emission from a decaying D-brane in the high-energy limit. We analyze the scaling limit of the partition function and calculate explicit results. We also consider applications to random matrix theory. The partition functions can be related to random scattering or to weights of lattice paths in certain growth models. In particular, we consider the discrete polynuclear growth model and use our results to compute the cumulative probability density for the height of long level-1 paths. We also obtain an estimate for an almost certain maximum height.


From the dawn of the 21 st century, due to emerging technologies, renovations of infrastructure and information explosion, most libraries have been transformed from information storage places to learning gateways, and librarians have played the role as learning facilitators. During the transformative journey, along with the on-going building structural reconstruction, environmental improvement, and thoughtful adoption of technologies, libraries energized the librarians to take on new challenges and expanded the scope of library services in a state-of-the-art environment. As a result, in a modern era, what are the standard services in libraries as gateways? How has librarianship been re-defined and performed to live up to the expectation from the society? This article is my attempt to get these questions addressed. In the meantime, to facilitate my descriptions of services, I am taking my workplace, an urban college library, as a case in point.


Senile plaques are primarily comprised of deposits of the β-amyloid protein derived from larger amyloid precursor proteins (APPs). APP is a member of a gene family, including amyloid precursor-like proteins APLP1 and APLP2. Using interspecific mouse backcross mapping, we localized the mouse APLP2 gene to the proximal region of mouse chromosome 9, syntenic with a region of human 11q. We cloned an 1.2-kilobase mouse genomic fragment containing the APLP2 gene promoter. The APLP2 promoter lacks a typical TATA box, is GC-rich, and contains several sequences for transcription factor binding. S1 nuclease protection analysis revealed the presence of multiple transcription start sites. The lack of a TATA box, the presence of a high GC content, and multiple transcription start sites place the APLP2 promoter in the class of promoters of "housekeeping genes." Regulatory regions within the promoter were assayed by transfection of mouse N2a and Ltk cells with constructs containing progressive 5′-deletions of the APLP2 promoter fused to the bacterial chloramphenicol acetyl transferase (CAT) reporter gene. A minimal region that includes sequences 99 bp upstream of the predominant transcription start site of the APLP2 promoter was sufficient to direct high levels of CAT expression.


Task scheduling and human resource allocation is a great challenge for large organiza- tions. Schedules are compiled to comply with the requirements of a large number of tasks, and constrained by the availability of resources. When operating in dynamic en- vironments, these schedules are subject to change due to the occurrence of unforeseen events. Handling this gracefully is nontrivial. I present two reference implementations of the conceptual solution from [9]. This in order to research the feasibility of two plat- forms in the realization of a task scheduling simulation system employing multi-agent modeling and market-based control.


Background: Transbronchial lung biopsy (TBLB) via flexible bronchoscopy is a common procedure performed by pulmonologists. Limited scientific data exist concerning the risk of this procedure in patients with conditions that may adversely affect the rate of procedural complications. Objectives: To evaluate the current practice pattern and attitude of pulmonologists toward the performance of TBLB in the presence of high-risk conditions. Methods: A survey was constructed and distributed at the American College of Chest Physicians annual meeting, held in Philadelphia, USA, in November of 2001. Results: A total of 227 surveys were distributed with a return of 158 (69.6%). Anticoagulation medications are temporarily held prior to TBLB by the majority of our survey respondents (98.7% for intravenous heparin, 90.5% for warfarin, and 87.3% for low-molecular-weight heparin). Medications with effect on platelet function are held by fewer pulmonologists. There is a wide variation in the pulmonologists' perception of the risk of performing TBLB when certain medical conditions coexist: pulmonary hypertension [absolute contraindication (AC), 28.7%; relative contraindication (RC) 58.6%], superior vena cava syndrome (AC 19.6%, RC 51%), mechanical ventilation (AC 17.8%, RC 58.6%) and lung cavity/abscess (AC 7%, RC 44.9%). A significant percentage of pulmonologists (55%) do not regard an elevated serum creatinine at any level as AC to TBLB. Thirty-eight percent of the survey participants administer desmopressin prior to TBLB in uremic patients to prevent excessive bleeding. Conclusions: Prior to performing bronchoscopic TBLB, the majority of pulmonologists temporarily holds anticoagulation medications. However, there is a lack of agreement in relation to perceived contraindications and safety of TBLB.


The role of calcium channel blockade in the antiepileptic action of ethosuximide is controversial, especially regarding the potency and efficacy of block. However, recent evidence obtained from transgenic animals and heterologous expression systems supports a major role of T-type calcium channels in both the generation of absence seizures and the action of ethosuximide in human absence epilepsy.


Abstract Modeling dependencies between climate extremes is important for climate risk assessment, for instance when allocating emergency management funds. In statistics, multivariate extreme value theory is often used to model spatial extremes. However, most commonly used approaches require strong assumptions and are either too simplistic or over-parameterized. From a machine learning perspective, generative adversarial networks (GANs) are a powerful tool to model dependencies in high-dimensional spaces. Yet in the standard setting, GANs do not well represent dependencies in the extremes. Here we combine GANs with extreme value theory (evtGAN) to model spatial dependencies in summer maxima of temperature and winter maxima in precipitation over a large part of western Europe. We use data from a stationary 2000-year climate model simulation to validate the approach and explore its sensitivity to small sample sizes. Our results show that evtGAN outperforms classical GANs and standard statistical approaches to model spatial extremes. Already with about 50 years of data, which corresponds to commonly available climate records, we obtain reasonably good performance. In general, dependencies between temperature extremes are better captured than dependencies between precipitation extremes due to the high spatial coherence in temperature fields. Our approach can be applied to other climate variables and can be used to emulate climate models when running very long simulations to determine dependencies in the extremes is deemed infeasible.


This study sought to understand activity choices of older adults when they were depressed and in the early stages of recovery. Qualitative analysis was used to identify themes of activities continued, stopped, resumed, and newly begun. Participants (n=27) were recruited from a randomized clinical trial (R37 MH43832) and were community dwelling, predominantly female, with a mean age of 73.3 years. One interview was conducted with each participant in recovery for at least 3 but no longer than 7 months, using a semi-structured interview. When depressed, participants continued some activities and stopped others. Activities were continued when they were part of an established habit or commitment, gratifying, a means of distraction or escape, and/or an attempt to hide depression from others. Participants continued activities when they were nudged by another person and/or felt a sense of pushing oneself to maintain normalcy. Participants stopped some activities when they were no longer meaningful and/ or were too physically painful to complete. Some activities were stopped when participants had insufficient physical/cognitive energy or did not wish to expend their limited reserve, avoided negativity, and/or constricted their social space.In recovery, the majority of activities in which participants engaged when they were depressed were continued spontaneously. Some, however, were stopped when no longer meaningful or necessary, and/or when participants' activity level increased substantially, limiting available time. Participants resumed most activities when activities were again meaningful, physical and/or cognitive energy returned, pain complaints diminished, health promotion was desired, and/or when participants were able to confront negative situations, and/or enlarge their social space. Some activities, however, were not resumed when participants actively weighed activity options and chose to divert time and energy to higher priorities. Some participants engaged in new activities not done prior to or during depression when positive self-change opened up opportunities for engagement or participants undertook efforts to reorganize their lives.In conclusion, adaptive strategies were brought into play at various time points as participants selected activities to continue, stop, resume, and newly begin as they strove to survive the depressive episode and, then, re-enter and participate in their former lives in recovery.


The sum of urinary inorganic arsenic (iAs) and methylated arsenic (monomethylarsonate and dimethylarsinate (DMA)) species is the main biomarker of iAs exposure. Assessing iAs exposure, however, is difficult in populations with moderate-to-high seafood intakes. In the present study, we used subsamples from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis (2000-2002) (n = 310) and the 2003-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (n = 1,175). We calibrated urinary concentrations of non-seafood-derived iAs, DMA, and methylarsonate, as well as the sum of inorganic and methylated arsenic species, in the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis and of DMA in the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey by regressing their original concentrations by arsenobetaine and extracting model residuals. To confirm that calibrated biomarkers reflected iAs exposure but not seafood intake, we compared urinary arsenic concentrations by levels of seafood and rice intakes. Self-reported seafood intakes, estimated n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels, and measured n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid levels were positively associated with the original urinary arsenic biomarkers. Using the calibrated arsenic biomarkers, we found a marked attenuation of the associations with self-reported seafood intake and estimated or measured n-3 fatty acids, whereas associations with self-reported rice intake remained similar. Our residual-based method provides estimates of iAs exposure and metabolism for each participant that no longer reflect seafood intake and can facilitate research about low-to-moderate levels of iAs exposure in populations with high seafood intakes.


ABSTRACT This article investigates the role of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy in urban development policy rescaling following the introduction of a strengthened regulatory framework for integrated territorial development in 2014–20. We find variations in the rescaling of sustainable urban development policies in the Netherlands, Poland and Spain shaped by domestic politics, path dependence and institutional capacity. The theoretical implication is that the European Commission's focus on a functional rationale for urban rescaling encounters political, policy and institutional constraints, which raises questions about the EU's capacity to shape rescaling dynamics and the need for more flexible approaches to achieve EU goals.


BACKGROUND
Rapid and reliable bed-side determination of blood glucose concentration is very important in the management of acutely ill infants and especially in premature newborns. HemoCue is an easy-to-use glucose analyser. The aim of the present study was to examine the usefulness of the HemoCue glucose analyser compared to a reference plasma glucose method (SYS, BM/Hitachi 747/737) in a neonatal intensive care unit (NICU).

METHODS
Seventy-eight consecutive neonates admitted to our NICU were enrolled in the study. At the time of the study all patients were grouped according to nutritional management (parenteral or enteral nutrition), haematocrit values and birth weight. The effects of feeding management, haematocrit values, and birth weight on accuracy and precision of the device were evaluated.

RESULTS
Overall data linear regression analysis yielded an r-value of 0.905 and the Bland-Altman method demonstrated that HemoCue overestimates plasma glucose by 0.932 mmol/L. Evaluation of our data by receiver operating characteristic curve demonstrated 100% sensitivity cutoff at 4.1 mmol/L.

CONCLUSIONS
HemoCue cannot be used satisfactorily in the management of glycaemia in the NICU. In the preterm population, birth weight had a dramatic influence on HemoCue accuracy. Low haematocrit and parenteral feeding further contributed to a decrease in the accuracy of this device.


Purpose

The phenomenon of traffic crash under-reporting has been extensively documented in terms of its extent, but not equally analysed in terms of its reasons. As police distrust has been recently identified as a major reason for crash under-reporting, the purpose of this paper is to look at the police service quality for handling the reporting of traffic crashes.

Design/methodology/approach

This study introduces a novel approach to evaluate service quality that combines multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) with latent class analysis (LCA). Moreover, this study presents the design of a web-based survey on the basis of the SERVQUAL approach to detecting strengths, opportunities and threats with crash reporting to the police at a strategic level. Transportation stakeholders (e.g. researchers, authorities, consultants, NGO representatives, suppliers) with an interest in traffic safety in Denmark participated in the survey that yielded 86 complete responses.

Findings

The novel approach was successfully applied and its implementation demonstrated the usefulness of the tool even in countries with a high police service. Results showed that the participating stakeholders perceived human factors as more important than physical factors in order to increase the crash reporting, with responsiveness as the most important and tangibles as the least important dimensions. Nevertheless, most stakeholders viewed a mixture of human and physical factors as crucial to increase crash reporting rates.

Originality/value

This study advances the knowledge about police service quality with a novel expert-based decision support tool based on SERVQUAL, MCDA and LCA, demonstrates its applicability in countries with a high-police service, and opportunities and barriers for increasing the crash reporting rate.


The present work is a descriptive study by means of document analysis that aims to make the analysis of the more productive professors of psychology in Spain trough indexed Web of Science journal articles. The sample was conformed of the first one hundred more productive professors of each one of the six academic areas of Spanish Psychology. A total of 85492 records were analyzed of which 8770 correspond to the 610 analyzed professors. The main results are that from the more productive professors ranking, six belong to the Psychobiology area and only 4 belong to different areas. With respect to the average proportion of articles by Professor of the six areas of psychology, it was found that that range of the proportion oscillates between 25 and 6. The journal Psicothema maintains the most frequency of records among the professors of the sample since they are 1461 which represents a 17% of the total. Finally, we discuss the results and mentioned the implications in the professor's evaluation.


We report the clinical presentation, imaging findings, intra-operative appearance and pathological results of an exophytic renal cell carcinoma (RCC) of the upper pole of kidney which was presumed to arise from the ipsilateral adrenal gland. The origin of the mass was virtually indistinguishable on imaging and intraoperatively. It was determined only at histopathology examination of the resected tumor specimen. The authors are presenting few observations based on retrospective analysis of imaging and intra-operative finding of this diagnostic dilemna. This case highlights the prudent use of imaging and management approach in this group of tumors, so that adequate treatment strategies can be made preoperatively. World J Nephrol Urol. 2015;4(2):222-225 doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.14740/wjnu220w


Motorization has increased sharply forced by economic growth couple with poor public transport services especially at urban areas in Asian cities. A transition process to a private vehicle dependent society could be found in many cities because local authority doesn't have appropriate planning to anticipate it while earlier studies also clearly identified that some countries has already finish the transition process from of the vehicle ownership such as Japan and Korea. This paper aims to analyze influential factors on transition phenomena of vehicle ownership by applying ordered logit model which consider socio-economic and geographical aspects. The empirical case study was conducted based on face to face interview survey in 2015 of 600 household in Bogor city Indonesia. The transition process of vehicle ownership could be obtained from aggregate data that show several type of ownership such as non-vehicle owner, single motorcycle, multiple motorcycle and multiple vehicle or combination of private car and motorcycle. The estimation was calculated by econometric software LIMDEP. It shows a robust and reliable estimation result. We found a clear and significant transition process which shown as estimated coefficient for different group of vehicle owner. The ordered logit model also be able to explore influential factors on vehicle ownership. First, household income and home ownership give positive influence on vehicle ownership. In contrast, age; education level; family size and residential location give negative influence on vehicle ownership. Household living in central business area did not indicate an interest in owning a private vehicle. The study also found a rapid growth of household income within last 10 years which may increase vehicle population and change its composition in next near future in Bogor city. Local policy makers should therefore aware on this situation and prepare appropriate action to control vehicle population and its use. The revitalization of central business district and its public transport system could play significant role to control vehicle ownership in Bogor city.


ABSTRACT For a long time, internationalisation strategies of higher education institutions across the world focused on international student mobility. However, international student mobility is a socially selective process, whereby students from lower socio-economic backgrounds are less likely to participate. Consequently, in recent years 'internationalisation for all', 'inclusive internationalisation' and 'internationalisation at home' have become prominent terms in internationalisation strategies, aiming to provide internationalisation activities to all students, including those who remain at home. To our surprise, however, existing scholarship today did not investigate whether offering a broader array of internationalisation activities also reaches the objectives of such new internationalisation strategies, namely to reach a broader group of students, including those from traditionally disadvantaged backgrounds. To this end, in this paper, we investigate the likelihood of different (social) groups to participate in different internationalisation activities, both at home and abroad, through an online survey conducted in 2019 at three institutions in Belgium and the Netherlands (n = 2567). Our findings clearly indicate that the social composition of student populations needs to be taken into account when designing internationalisation strategies. Our results indicate that simply broadening the type of activities is not sufficient, as students from lower socio-economic backgrounds showed to be less likely to participate in any internationalisation activity. Overall, the findings suggest that inclusive internationalisation might best be reached through integrating internationalisation into the formal curriculum, in order to circumvent the barriers that might exist to participate in activities outside of the formal study schedule.


PURPOSE
To evaluate the effect of cerebral hypoxia-ischemia on memory and learning survival of rats submitted to permanent bilateral carotid ligation (PBCL).

METHODS
Twenty-four survivors of PBCL were evaluated after 30 days with regard to memory and learning using a water survival maze. Twenty-three healthy rats were used as control group. The results were expressed by their means and standard error of the mean (SEM). p<0.05 was used for rejecting the null hypothesis. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee for animal investigation.

RESULTS
The mortality rate for the surgery was 44.4%. The latency time to find the survival platform was higher in rats that underwent PBCL (Normal: 10.24 ± 1.85s -

STUDY
25.30 ± 4.69s - Mann - Whitney p=0.0388). Additionally, the type of swimming and the spatial stability of the studied rats on the survival platform were compromised in these animals.

CONCLUSION
The permanent bilateral carotid ligation induces change in the learning and survival memory.


Trastuzumab is the first-line targeted therapeutic drug for HER2-positive breast cancer, leading to improved overall survival. However, acquired resistance inevitably occurs. We aimed to identify, quantify, and assess the mechanisms of acquired resistance to trastuzumab. We established an acquired trastuzumab-resistant model in vitro from BT-474, a trastuzumab-sensitive, HER2-amplified breast-cancer cell line. A multi-omic strategy was implemented to obtain gene, proteome, and phosphoproteome signatures associated with acquired resistance to trastuzumab in HER2-positive breast cancer, followed by validation in human clinical samples. YAP1 dephosphorylation and TEAD2 overexpression were detected as significant alterations in the Hippo pathway in trastuzumab-resistant breast cancer. Because of the emerging role of these proteins as mediators of normal growth and tumorigenesis, we assessed the exogenous modulation of their activity, either by in vitro gene silencing or by pharmacological inhibition of the YAP1/TEAD complexes, both in vitro and in vivo. Moreover, we identified increased signaling through the Hippo pathway in human samples after progression following trastuzumab treatment. Finally, YAP1/TAZ nuclear accumulation in malignant cells in HER2 breast tumor was significantly associated with worse progression-free and overall survival in metastatic HER2-positive breast-cancer patients. Our results suggest the involvement of Hippo signaling in acquired trastuzumab resistance in breast cancer. Additionally, we provide novel evidence for a potential breast-cancer treatment strategy based on dual targeting of HER2 and Hippo pathway effectors, which may improve the antitumor activity of trastuzumab and help overcome resistance.


Considering journalistic news as narratives makes it easier to understand the problems of reception that are specific to this field. This article is focused on the issue of the narrator, who normally is not visible in the news. This can create the impression of more objectivity, such as in the realistic novels of the 19th century. However, such a naive understanding of objectivity is out of date and with regard to democratic dialogue not valid. The article shows examples of how a lack of coherence and a seemingly objective distancing language are often connected with the invisible narrative agent in the news. Online journalism shows first approaches to a more visible narrative authority in the news. Such a mode of narrative is easier to understand and thus addresses more empowered citizens. This seems to show how news can be better told, while neutrality can be maintained and transparency increased.


Malignant transformation and cancer progression are complex processes caused by dysfunction of genetic programs. It is well established that aberrant posttranscriptional regulation of messenger RNA contributes the pathogenesis of many types of tumors initiation, progression and treatment evasion (1). One such mechanism is the IFN-γ pathway activation of the ADAR1-p150 isoform in chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) progenitors. This pathway was shown to lead to activation of expression of self-renewal genes (2).


This thesis investigates several aspects of connectivity, mainly focusing on the structure of highly connected graphs and partially ordered sets.
Let G(V, E) be a directed multigraph and r a vertex of G. An r-branching is a directed spanning tree rooted at r. Suppose that every vertex in V $-$ r is k-edge-connected from r. A theorem of Edmonds guarantees the existence of k edge-disjoint r-branchings in G. We provide an algorithm to construct the k edge-disjoint r-branchings in $O(k\sp2\vert V\Vert E\vert)$ time.
Let x be an element of a partial order P. A set $S \subseteq P$ is a cutset for x if S $\cup$ x meets every maximal chain of P and x is incomparable to every element of S. The cutset number of P is the minimum m such that every element of P has a cutset of size at most m. Let w(m, h) be the maximum width of a poset with height h and cutset number m. We determine the order of growth of w(m, h) for fixed m and fixed $h\: w(m, h) = O(h\sp{\lfloor m/2\rfloor})$ for fixed m, and $w(m,h) = O(m\sp h)$ for fixed h.
A conjecture of Dirac states that any simple graph with n vertices and $3n-5$ edges contains a subdivision of K$\sb5$. By Kuratowski's Theorem, no planar graph contains a subdivision of K$\sb5$; thus, Dirac's conjecture, if true, would be sharp. We prove that a topologically minimal counterexample to the conjecture is 5-connected, that no minor-minimal counterexample contains $K\sb4-e,$ and that Dirac's conjecture is true for all graphs embeddable in a surface with Euler characteristic ${\ge}{-}2.$
An edge-ordered graph consists of a labeled graph and a binary relation R on labels of the edges of the graph. We prove an analogue of the edge-version of Menger's Theorem for edge-ordered graphs, observing that the relation R must be transitive for the natural analogue to hold. We investigate the problem of determining the minimum number of edges in a k-edge-connected edge-ordered graph where R is a linear order. Improving previous lower bounds, we prove that such a graph must have at least $\lceil(k + 3)(n - 1)/2\rceil - \lfloor\log\sb2(n)\rfloor$ edges, for $k \le n - 2.$ Finally we prove a max-flow/min-cut theorem for edge-ordered graphs.
The d-girdle of a graph is the cardinality of a smallest vertex induced subgraph with minimum degree d. A simple graph on n vertices is guaranteed to have a d-girdle provided it has at least$$e(n,d) = (d - 1) n - {d\choose 2} + 1$$edges. Answering a question posed by Erdos, we prove that a simple graph on n vertices, e(n,d) edges with no proper d-girdle, has a vertex with degree at least $2d - 1.$ We prove that the maximum 3-girth of a 4-regular graph is $\lfloor(9n + 1)/10\rfloor,$ and conjecture that $\lceil4 n/5\rceil$ is the correct upper bound.


Recent behavioral findings in children's selection of a "real" versus "silly" animal demonstrated a developmental change wherein younger children select chimeric animals with regular forms (e.g., a seal with four legs, a camel with no hump) as real. To reduce verbal demands while maintaining the same stimuli, we developed a touch screen change-detection task in which children (4 – 7-years-old) were instructed to locate a single changing feature (e.g., a rhinoceros with and without a horn) as fast as possible. Children were faster to find changes when the feature appeared on animals with more prototypic animal forms (e.g., a donkey with and without a hump) when compared to animals with atypical forms (e.g., a camel with and without a hump). Alongside exploration via computational models, these findings suggest that children's real-world object recognition is supported by the interplay of semantic knowledge, informed by covariation among visual features, and visual recognition.


Channel density is a fundamental factor in determining neuronal firing and is primarily regulated during development through transcriptional and translational regulation. In adult rats, striatal cholinergic interneurons have a prominent A-type current and co-express Kv4.1 and Kv4.2 mRNAs. There is evidence that Kv4.2 plays a primary role in producing the current in adult neurons. The contribution of Kv4.2 and Kv4.1 to the A-type current in cholinergic interneurons during development, however, is not known. Here, using patch-clamp recording and semi-quantitative single-cell reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) techniques, we have examined the postnatal development of A-type current and the expression of Kv4.2 and Kv4.1 in rat striatal cholinergic interneurons. A-type current was detectable at birth, and its amplitude was up-regulated with age, reaching a plateau at about 3 wk after birth. At all ages, the current inactivated with two time constants: one ranging from 15 to 27 ms and the other ranging from 99 to 142 ms. Kv4.2 mRNA was detectable at birth, and the expression level increased exponentially with age, reaching a plateau by 3 wk postnatal. In contrast, Kv4.1 mRNA was not detectable during the first week after birth, and the expression level did not show a clear tendency with age. Taken together, our results suggest that Kv4.2 plays an essential role in producing the A-type current in striatal cholinergic interneurons during the entire course of postnatal development.


Determination of radionuclide transfer from animal   feeds to animal products and ingestion transfer rates is important in assessing internal radiation risk to humans who consume the animal products. Seventy-nine (79) pasture samples and milk samples were collected from cattle farms in seven sub-counties. Activity concentrations of radionuclides in the samples were determined using gamma spectroscopy. Transfer ratios of radionuclides to from pasture to milk were calculated. Ingestion transfer rates of radionuclide from pasture to cow were also determined. Radionuclide accumulation to the body of the cow was modeled. Contributions to radiological effects due to accumulation of radionuclides in the body were estimated. Transfer ratios of uranium and thorium from pasture to milk varied from 0.07 to 0.17, and 0.05 to 0.17, respectively. The ingestion transfer rates of uranium varied from 3.110-6 to 7.6 10-6 y l-1 while for thorium, the ingestion transfer rates varied from 2.2 10-6 to 7.5 10-6 y l-1. The contribution to radium equivalent (Bq l-1), annual effective dose equivalent (mSv y l-1), and excess lifetime cancer Risk due to the radionuclide transfer were 0.074, 0.002, and 0.0061 10-3, respectively. Comparing with the safe values of annual effective dose equivalent in foodstuffs of 0.14 mSv y l-1 which translates to excess cancer risk of 0.42 10-3, these contributions to radiological effects only account for about 1.5% of the total safe value of excess lifetime cancer risk, therefore, radionuclide transfer from pasture to milk causes a minimal radiation hazard to the milk consumers in Kisoro District.


Currently, cellular networks are one of the essential communication methods for people. Providing proper coverage for the users and also offering high-quality services to them are two of the most important issues of concern in cellular networks. The fifth-generation cellular communication networks can provide higher data transmission rates, which lead to a higher quality of service but this higher rate has let to reduced antenna coverage in these networks. Besides this, natural and unnatural events in the environment can also affect the coverage of users in the cellular network. One way to resolve this issue is using drones as cellular antennas. The most important factor in providing good coverage and high-quality service for users is the optimal placement of antennas. In this article, the problem of finding the appropriate locations of drone base stations (DBSs) is modeled as a P -median optimization problem, where P is the number of required antennas to cover the users. We have used a fuzzy clustering algorithm to define a set of specified candidate points that are required to select the locations of DBSs in the P -median model. The optimal value of P was obtained using the bisection algorithm. Finally, the optimal positions of DBSs have been determined by solving the optimization problem. According to the results, in the case of a proper selection of fuzzy clustering parameters, better results will be obtained in comparison to the results of other approaches.


Research Summary In this article, we use data from the 1973 to 2005 National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS) to estimate previously unknown trends in serious nonfatal violent victimization for Latino, non-Latino Black, and non-Latino White males in the United States. Past research has shown that Blacks and Latinos have been more susceptible than Whites to financial hardship during economic downturns and that economic disadvantage is an important correlate of violence in cross-sectional analyses. If significant declines in the national economy contribute to increases in violence, then crime trends disaggregated by race and ethnicity should show greater changes among minorities during periods of economic downturn. Although rates of violence have declined for all groups, we find that trends for Latino and Black males are similar and closely follow changes in consumer sentiment. In contrast, trends for White males display fewer fluctuations coinciding with changes in economic conditions. Continued disaggregation shows that these patterns appear primarily in stranger violence and not in violence by known offenders. The patterns also suggest that the association between changing economic conditions and male victimization trends might have weakened in recent years. Policy Implications The findings raise concerns about the potential impact of recent economic changes on the risk for serious victimization, particularly among Blacks and Latinos. In light of the possible recent weakening of the relationship between economic changes and crime, future research should assess whether criminal justice policies and other factors moderate the relationship between economic conditions and victimization and use group-specific measures of violence so that important variability across race and ethnicity is not masked. These analyses also should be expanded to consider the potential effects on violence of government policies designed to alleviate poverty and unemployment.


ABSTRACT Urinary retention is a condition in which impaired emptying of the bladder results in postvoid residual urine. Urinary retention has been well studied in observational studies and randomized controlled trials; data on the incidence of drug-induced urinary retention are scarce. In this article, a case of acute urinary retention developed after the use of alprazolam was discussed. A 67-year-old male underwent a prostatectomy operation for benign prostatic hyperplasia one month ago. Insomnia and dysphoria in the patient after the operation and alprazolam 1 mg/day was started. The patient started voiding problem after alprazolam treatment. No organic pathology was found to explain the table of existing urinary retention. The patient's complaints resolved completely after alprazolam treatment stopped. We should be more careful about drug-induced urinary retention. When prescribing a drug to a patient, a thorough knowledge of its mode of action, adverse effects and potential drug interactions are important in preventing drug-induced urinary retention, especially in patients who have other risk factors for urinary retention.