The presence of hemolysin in staphylococcal lesions of the rabbit kidney was detected by overlaying sections of kidney with blood agar. Hemolytic activity against rabbit, human, sheep, calf, and guinea pig erythrocytes was present and was not abolished by heating the sections to 60�C for 30 minutes. In developing lesions, hemolytic activity appeared before necrosis or exudation.


In this study, a rectangular interfacial crack in three dimensional bimaterials is analyzed. First, the problem is formulated as a system of singular integral equations on the basis of the body force method. In the numerical analysis, unknown body force densities are approximated by the products of the fundamental density functions and power series, where the fundamental density functions are chosen to express a two-dimensional interface crack exactly. The calculation shows that the present method gives smooth variations of stress intensity factor along the crack front for various aspect ratios. The present method gives rapidly converging numerical results and highly satisfied boundary conditions throughout the crack boundary. It is found that the stress intensity factors K1 and K2 are determined by bimaterials constant e alone, independent of elastic modulus ratio and Poisson's ratio.


The karyotype of stream Dolly Varden inhabiting a tributary of the Belaya River (the basin of Naiba River, southern Sakhalin) was determined (2n = 82 and NF = 98 + 2). According to the main characteristics (chromosome number and arm number, the presence of a pair of marker submeta-subtelocentric chromosomes with nucleolus organizer regions (NORs), one pair of large acrocentric chromosomes, and one pair of subtelocentric chromosomes), this karyotype is identical to the karyotype of anadromous southern Dolly Varden from Salvelinus malma krasheninnikovi of Primorye and Japan. However, in most stream Dolly Varden individuals, additional active nucleolus organizer regions (NORs) located in telomeric and paracentric regions of two to three pairs of acrocentric chromosomes were revealed. It is suggested that the stream and anadromous southern forms of Dolly Varden are evolutionarily related NORs that are silent in the anadromous souther form are active in the stream form. Possible causes of these differences in NOR activity are discussed.


Objective: To see the results of accelerated method against standard Ponseti method for correction of clubfoot by using Pirani scoring system. Study Design: Randomized controlled trial. Setting: Children's hospital and the institute of child's health, Lahore. Period: June 2019 Dec 2019. Material & Method: 100 patients included in this study and divided into two groups. In group A (50 patients) correction was done by standard Ponseti method while accelerated method was applied in group B(50 patients). Weekly serial casting was done in group A while twice weekly in group B. Assessment was done by Pirani scoring system in both groups at beginning of correction, at each cast and at end of correction. Results: Average casting time for group A was 38 days while it was 20 days in group B. Correction rate was 94% in group A and 89% in group B. This difference was not found to be statistically significant (p=0.396). Conclusion: Accelerated method is applicable for correction of clubfoot because treatment time is shorter and results are similar to standard Ponseti method. Hence, this method should be adopted in Pakistan so that poor and rural parents can easily manage travel and financial issues because only 2 to 3 weeks are required for whole casting treatment.


The role of religion is paradoxical. It makes prejudice and it unmakes prejudice. While the creeds of the great religions are universalistic, all stressing brotherhood, the practice of these creeds is frequently divisive and brutal. The sublimity of religious ideals is offset by the horrors of persecution in the name of these same ideals. Some people say the only cure for prejudice is more religion; some say the only cure is to abolish religion. Churchgoers are more prejudiced than the average; they also are less prejudiced than the average.l I. INTRODUCTION: RELIGION AND POLITICS Religious differences exist in almost all countries. Religion is a very strong instrument which can either pull a country together or, if misapplied, split a country apart. It has been one of the most common bases for discrimination and abuse of the rights of others since the two major religions of contemporary times, Christianity and Islam, gained ascendancy into world affairs. When pursued along political lines, religion can devastate the lives of many. The unfortunate examples include: the fate of the Jews in Germany during the Second World War, the fratricidal wars currently going on in Algeria and the Sudan, the activities of Islamic fundamentalists in Egypt, Christian fanatics of the Lord's Army in Uganda, the religion-based massacres in Yugoslavia, and the exploits of the Talibans in Afghanistan. These examples show how religious extremism can create misery among a people. Because of the potentially volatile nature of religion when introduced into national life, most nations have decided to eliminate religious influence from public life as much as possible. Religious beliefs are sensitive, emotional issues for many men and women which appeal not to human logic, but rather to irrationality. Likewise, a person denied of strongly held religious beliefs is a person without a soul; he or she is robbed of the very factor that keeps hopes alive. It is for these reasons that it is often much easier to create fanatics and martyrs in the religious field than in any others. Thus, questions bordering on religion are often very volatile and difficult to manage. It is therefore not surprising that most of the longest wars in the history of the human race were those sparked by religious bigotry. Separating government and religious institutions respects the religious beliefs of others. The Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and of Discrimination Based on Religion or Belief stresses the importance of respecting all religious beliefs: "Religion or belief, for anyone who professes either, is one of the fundamental elements in his conception of life."2 Any attack on the belief or religion of any person is thus an attack on one's very existence; it is, at the least, an attack on one's humanity. In this regard, any action of the state which would impinge on any belief system or religious conscience of a people should be taken with extreme caution. After all, the state exists to ensure the realization of the humanity of all. There exists the extreme danger of governmental machinery being utilized by religious bigots to discriminate against others for religious reasons. Hence, there has been the incessant effort by many to dissociate the state from religious beliefs so as to avoid religious conflicts which have the potential of easily destroying a state. According to Arnold Toynbee, "religious conflict is not just a nuisance but is a sin. It is sinful because it arouses the wild beast in Human Nature. Religious persecution, too, is sinful because no one has a right to try to stand between another human soul and God."3 History has shown a continuous trend of separating state from religion. As the years pass, we have seen this trend increase. In Europe during the 18th century, the basis for religious practice was cujus regio ius religio, implying religious conformity with the interests of the monarch. …


STUDY OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the safety and efficacy of additional minocycline pleurodesis after thoracoscopic treatment of primary spontaneous pneumothorax.

DESIGN
Retrospective comparative study with a historical control.

SETTING
Thoracic surgical division of a university-affiliated tertiary medical center.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Between April 1994 and April 2001, 313 consecutive patients (minocycline group) with primary spontaneous pneumothorax were treated by video-assisted thoracoscopic surgery. The procedures included resection of the blebs and mechanical pleurodesis by scrubbing the parietal pleura. After operation, minocycline hydrochloride, 7 mg/kg, was instilled into the pleural space through a thoracostomy tube. The control group consisted of 51 consecutive patients who underwent the same thoracoscopic procedures alone for primary spontaneous pneumothorax between January 1992 and April 1994.

RESULTS
There was no significant difference between the two groups in terms of demographic data, operative findings, and operation time. Chest pain was a common complaint after minocycline pleurodesis, but the total doses of requested analgesics were comparable in both groups. The rate of prolonged air leaks was significantly lower in the minocycline group (7.0% vs 17.6%, p = 0.025). Patients treated with minocycline had shorter periods of postoperative chest drainage and hospitalization. The ipsilateral recurrence rate was also significantly lower in these patients (2.9% vs 9.8%, p = 0.033).

CONCLUSIONS
Minocycline pleurodesis is a safe and convenient procedure that may improve the outcome and reduce the rate of recurrence after thoracoscopic treatment for primary spontaneous pneumothorax. A randomized control study may be needed to confirm the findings.


Entrepreneurship and small and medium business enterprises play a huge role in job creation and economic development. This has led both developing and developed countries to focus on supporting the SME sector in an effort to ensure that they play a significant role in spurring innovation, rapid job creation, increasing long-term productivity, along with gross domestic product (GDP) growth. Nonetheless, there has been limited literature that has focused on the challenges and opportunities of entrepreneurship specifically from the perspective of entrepreneurs. Hence, the purpose of this research is to critically evaluate the entrepreneur's perception on SME's opportunities and challenges with a case of Sultanate of Oman. The research objectives are: i) To identify the opportunities and challenges that might occur in SMEs; ii) to investigate on the local entrepreneur business contributions to Oman economy; iii) to plan for a mitigation strategy to overcome challenges faced by SMEs; and iv) to identify key elements which we can improve and promote a diversified economy promoting non-oil sectors. This research utilized a descriptive, exploratory research approach in an effort to get quantifiable data. The data collection instruments were in-depth interviews and questionnaires. There were 70 respondents for questionnaires and five respondents for interviews. The findings of the study indicate that some of the challenges include lack of capital, mismanagement of cash flow, high risk, multiple tasks, and adherence to corporate laws. The mitigating strategies include entrepreneurial empowerment programs, government support, and favorable legal obligations.


It is pointed out that the Casimir energy in a medium can be obtained most directly from the zero-point energy of the electromagnetic field because of its reduced propagation velocity. This brings to the fore again the old problem related to how the principle of relativity is combined with the Maxwell field equations in a continuous medium.


We propose and demonstrate a 3 × 3 full multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fiber–wireless system in the W-band with wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) and polarization-division multiplexing (PDM) radio-over-fiber (RoF) transmission capability. The system is realized using two highly stable RoF links based on the optical self-heterodyne method and PDM transmission in one of the RoF links. We experimentally demonstrate and confirm satisfactory performances for a 3 × 3 MIMO offset quadrature amplitude modulation-based filter-bank multicarrier signal. Total capacities of approximately 110 and 132 Gb/s, corresponding to spectral efficiencies of approximately 8.5 and 10.2 bits/s/Hz, respectively, are achieved for the system using antennas placed in the same and alternately different polarizations, respectively. The system is applicable to WDM and combined WDM/PDM RoF transmissions. It provides a scalable solution for facilitating large-scale MIMO signal transportation and can be a promising solution for future mobile transport and radio access networks in high-frequency bands.


Blood donation has been used as a universal remedy for many centuries all over the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends that blood should only be collected from voluntary, non-remunerated donors. With new medical advances, there is increased demand for blood and blood products but in many countries, including Kenya, this demand has never been met. The objective of this study was to determine knowledge levels about blood donation amongst potential adult donors at selected sites in Nairobi, their attitude towards donation of blood and subsequently what factors, both negative and positive, influence their blood donation. A total of 456 adults aged 18-65 were selected through consecutive sampling at 3 sites in Nairobi within a period of 4 months from November 2010 to February 2011. Information was collected using a semi-structured questionnaire on socio demographic characteristics, perception concerning risks of donation and opinions on motivational and deterrent factors to donating blood. Data was analysed using SPSS version 10. It was found that 41% of the respondents had donated blood in the past but 59% had not. There was no significant difference between the numbers of males and females who had ever donated blood (P>0.50). The main reasons for donation were altruism (33.7%) and duty (32.1%). Other reasons were encouragement by a friend to donate (13.9%), hearing media appeal for blood (11.8%) and being compelled to donate at school (3.7%). Analysis on participants' opinions about what hinders individuals from donating blood revealed that the two most frequent responses were fear of having their HIV status checked (31.6%) and ignorance/lack of knowledge about blood donation (21.5%). Others included fear of pain, anaemia and infection from use of contaminated needles. Most of the participants (68.9%) were of the opinion that enhanced education of the public about blood donation would encourage more people to donate blood. Multivariate analysis was done to identify independent predictors of donating blood (p<0.05). This analysis revealed that respondents who were currently willing to donate blood or thought that there was relatively small risk of acquiring a disease through blood donation or who thought that lack of timewas not a hindrance to blood donation were likely to have donated blood in the past.This study shows that despite numerous media campaigns, enhanced education of the public is needed specifically addressing the fears that plague the potential blood donor so as to be able to recruit more blood donors and thus meet national targets.


Packaging plays a key role in product success within the highly competitive food and drinks sectors of the Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) industry. However, relatively little has been written about packaging in the marketing management literature. The majority of published research focuses on the marketing communications aspects of packaging. As a result, whilst there is substantial literature revealing the significance of packaging in purchasing decisions and perceptions of the product, its role in product development and the creation of new opportunities has been largely overlooked. Against this background, the research examines the management of packaging development within the FMCG industry: in particular, the food and drinks sectors. The purpose of the study is twofold: to examine how the development of a new product's packaging is managed and integrated into the new product development (NPD) process of firms; and to explore how firms in the industry manage the opportunities that new packaging development may provide.

The research finds that in their packaging development, most firms focus on 'skindeep' issues, such as the development of the label, and aesthetic modifications to the body of the packaging, such as changing the colour of a bottle. The analysis reveals three distinct levels of packaging development and argues that the development of new packaging formats and genuine packaging innovation is being overlooked by firms. The framework developed from the research reveals that the orientation of packaging development (skin-deep, aesthetic body modifications, or technological format change) is influenced by internal packaging capability, perceptions of the production process, the role of buyers, and concerns over the impact of changes on the product's retailing. This in turn impacts on the role of the consumer and suppliers in development.

This study contributes to the existing literature by providing new insight into the relationship between packaging development and NPD. The framework generated contributes to the existing stage based models of NPD by revealing that previous research has largely failed to analyse packaging development at the level of technological and format change. The findings also have implications for firms, identifying a need to re-examine their packaging development activities, to ensure that these address all three levels; not merely 'skin-deep' packaging.


We report on the gradual evolution of the conductivity of spherical CdTe nanocrystals of increasing size from the regime of strong quantum confinement with truly discrete energy levels to the regime of weak confinement with closely spaced hole states. We use the high-frequency (terahertz) real and imaginary conductivities of optically injected carriers in the nanocrystals to report on the degree of quantum confinement. For the smaller CdTe nanocrystals (3 nm < radius < 5 nm), the complex terahertz conductivity is purely imaginary. For nanocrystals with radii exceeding 5 nm, we observe the onset of real conductivity, which is attributed to the increasingly smaller separation between the hole states. Remarkably, this onset occurs for a nanocrystal radius significantly smaller than the bulk exciton Bohr radius a(B) ∼ 7 nm and cannot be explained by purely electronic transitions between hole states, as evidenced by tight-binding calculations. The real-valued conductivity observed in the larger nanocrystals can be explained by the emergence of mixed carrier-phonon, that is, polaron, states due to hole transitions that become resonant with, and couple strongly to, optical phonon modes for larger QDs. These polaron states possess larger oscillator strengths and broader absorption, and thereby give rise to enhanced real conductivity within the nanocrystals despite the confinement.


Closures of the Iapetus Ocean and the Tornquist Sea lead to the collision of the paleocontinents of Laurentia, Baltica and Eastern Avalonia during the Caledonian orogeny. It has been speculated that relicts of these two closures may be preserved within the crust or upper mantle. Over the past decades, numerous wide‐angle seismic profiles were gathered in northwestern Europe to search for related subsurface features. Although active source studies revealed detailed crustal structures across the Iapetus and Tornquist suture zones, there are relatively few clear three‐dimensional upper mantle images beneath this region. We use a new European crust and upper mantle model, EU30, determined based on continental scale, nonlinear adjoint tomography, to explore upper mantle structures across these two suture zones. Model EU30 reveals two fast anomalies within the upper mantle: one dips in a northwesterly direction down to approximately 400 km beneath the North Sea, and the other dips in a southwesterly direction down to nearly 250 km across the Tornquist Suture Zone. In addition, we observe a "gap" between the lithospheres of Laurentia and Eastern Avalonia across the Iapetus Suture Zone beneath the central British Isles. These seismic images suggest that heterogeneity related to the closures of the Iapetus Ocean and the Tornquist Sea have been preserved within the upper mantle over hundreds of millions of years.


In this study, Ti3SiC2 was successfully synthesized by the combustion of green samples with a composition formula: (3-x)Ti/Si/(2-x)C/xTiC, where x ranged from 1.0 to 1.8. First, the Ti3SiC2 yield monotonically increased with x, but the maximal yield was less than 50%. The most important factor to increase the Ti3SiC2 yield was found to be the post-combustion heating. The yield dramatically increased to about 90% when a 150-second post-combustion heating time was provided. Furthermore, the yield was proportional to the post-heating time, and linearly increased with the amount of applied post-combustion heating energy. Next, excess Si in the starting reactant powders can further increase the extent of Ti3SiC2. When the mole of Si increased from 1.0 to 1.1, the resulted yield was more than 99%. For the study of reaction mechanism, analyses of sequential layers of quenched samples resulted in the following proposed mechanism. First, TiC, TiSi2, Ti5Si3 were formed from the reactions of Ti, Si and C powders. Next, the eutectic liquids (Ti-Ti5Si3 and Si-TiSi2) covered the TiC particles at the elevated temperature. In the final stage, product Ti3SiC2 was resulted from heating the eutectics and TiC. It is noted that the last two steps required large energy, indicating the post-combustion heating was crucial to produce high-purity Ti3SiC2 product.


OpenStreetMap (OSM) is the world's largest peer-produced geospatial project. As a freely-editable open map of the world to which anyone may contribute or make use of, the dynamics and motivations of its contributors have been the object of significant scholarship. A growing phenomena in the OSM community is the increasing contributions of paid editing teams hired by tech corporations, such as, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook. Though corporations have long supported OSM in various ways, the recent growth of teams of paid editors raises challenges to the community's norms and policies, which are historically oriented around contributions by individual volunteer, making it hard to track the contribution of paid editors. This research addresses a fundamental problem in approaching these concerns: understanding the scale and character of corporate editing in OSM. We use machine-learning to improve upon prior approaches to estimating this phenomena, contributing both a novel methodology as well a more robust understanding of the latest corporate editing behavior in OSM.


ABSTRACT A case-control study of the effect of antiretroviral therapy (ART) on apoptosis pathway genes comprising 16 cases (HIV infected with mitochondrial toxicity) and 16 controls (HIV uninfected) was conducted. A total of 26 of 84 genes of the apoptosis pathway were differentially expressed. Two of the upregulated genes, DFFA and TNFRSF1A, classified 75% of study participants correctly as either a case or control. Thus, apoptosis may be in the causal pathway of ART-associated mitochondrial toxicity. These two genes could be markers for detecting and monitoring ART-induced mitochondrial toxicity.


Recombination of Ne5+ was measured in a merged-beam type experiment at the heavy-ion storage ring CRYRING. In the collision energy range 0–110 eV resonances due to 2s22p → 2s2p2 (Δn = 0) and 2s22p → 2s23l (Δn = 1), core excitations were observed. The experimentally derived rate coefficients agree well with the calculations obtained using AUTOSTRUCTURE. At low energies, recombination is dominated by resonances belonging to the spin-forbidden 2s2p2(4PJ)nl series. The energy-dependent rate coefficients were convoluted with a Maxwell–Boltzmann electron energy distribution to obtain plasma recombination rate coefficients. The data from the literature deviate from the measured results at low temperature.


The first months of the COVID-19 pandemic witnessed a
surge of social engineering attacks. Although the pandemic is certainly not the
first occurrence of socially disruptive circumstances that drive cybercriminals
to action, relevant academic scholarship has remained scarce. To fill this gap
in literature, and propose the analytical framework of mazephishing that
places particular emphasis on the importance of credible social context in the
functioning of the online scam ecosystem, we carried out a content analysis of (N=563)
international news stories reporting on social engineering attacks. Our results
indicate that criminals make heavy use of social context and impersonation to
make scams seem more credible. Major themes used in the scam messages include
health information, personal protective equipment, cures, financial relief and
donations. Additionally, scammers diversify their use of mediums depending on
the type of scam being perpetrated. Our analysis also shows a significant
presence of principles of persuasion in the circulated scam attempts.


American classical music has come a long way in a short time. From the European-style music that was the norm at the end of the 19th century, a body of music has evolved that at the end of the 20th can be termed authentically and distinctively "American." The History of American Classical Music takes an in-depth, panoramic look at this amazing variety of music, how it developed and the often fascinating people who composed it. While the emphasis is on the 20th century, author John Warthen Struble goes back to colonial times to examine all the early influences: the hymns of the "First New England School"; the genteel musical traditions of the East Coast cities during the 18th and 19th centuries, the folk music of Appalachia and the Mississippi Valley imported by Scottish and Irish settlers; the indigenous music of the North American Indians; the African music brought over and adapted by slaves; the balladry, beginning in the 1820s and continuing even today; and the Creole and Gulf Coast music, an amalgam of French, Spanish, African, Cuban, Haitian and American influences. By the 1920s American classical music had reached its most active stage to date. Many conductors and musicians were willing to play it, enough dedicated patrons and promoters were willing to present it and a brilliant group of American composers existed who "spoke a language that the public was, on the whole, willing and able to hear, " a group that included the likes of Aaron Copland, Virgil Thomson, Roy Harris and George Gershwin. As university music departments expanded in the 1920s and 30s, Americans like Howard Hanson, Roger Sessions and Walter Piston became influential teachers along with many European composerswho had fled the Nazis. An entire generation of composers were taught and influenced by these academics, and many of these new composers produced music that, at worst, antagonized audiences who found it difficult to understand. The author lays the groundwork for the emergence in th


Ethnic differences in adipose tissue distribution may contribute to different chronic disease risks across ethnic groups, and adipokines may mediate the risk. In a cross-sectional study, we examined ethnic differences in adipokines and inflammatory markers as related to body mass index (BMI) among 183 premenopausal women with Caucasian and Asian ancestry. General linear models were used to estimate adjusted mean levels of leptin, adiponectin, interleukin-6, and C-reactive protein (CRP). Asian women had significantly lower serum levels of leptin, adiponectin, and CRP than Caucasian participants (P ≤ .01) across all levels of BMI. Among overweight and obese women, Asians showed a stronger association of CRP with leptin (β = 1.34 versus β = 0.64) and with adiponectin (β = −0.95 versus β = −0.75) than Caucasians. Compared to Caucasians of similar BMI, Asians may experience a higher chronic disease risk due to lower levels of adiponectin despite their lower levels of leptin.


The Surface Detector of the Pierre Auger Observatory is sensitive to neutrinos of all flavours above 0.1 EeV. These interact through charged and neutral currents in the atmosphere giving rise to extensive air showers. When interacting deeply in the atmosphere at nearly horizontal incidence, neutrinos can be distinguished from regular hadronic cosmic rays by the broad time structure of their shower signals in the water-Cherenkov detectors. In this paper we present for the first time an analysis based on down-going neutrinos. We describe the search procedure, the possible sources of background, the method to compute the exposure and the associated systematic uncertainties. No candidate neutrinos have been found in data collected from 1 January 2004 to 31 May 2010. Assuming an E^-2 differential energy spectrum the limit on the single flavour neutrino is (E^2 * dN/dE)<1.74x10^-7 GeV cm^-2 s^-1 sr^-1 at 90% C.L. in the energy range 1x10^17 eV


Iterative screening, where selected hits from a given round of screening are used to enrich a compound activity prediction model for the next iteration, enables more efficient screening campaigns. The portion of the compound library that should be screened in each iteration is often arbitrarily decided. This is because no accurate information between screening size and the number of hits to be retrieved exists. In this article, a novel method based on Venn-Abers predictors was used to determine the optimal number of compounds to be screened in order to get a desired number of hits. We found that Venn-Abers predictors provide accurate information to support a reliable and flexible decision about the portion size of the compound library that should be screened in each iteration. In addition, the method exhibited great ability in producing an enriched subset in terms of hits and their diversity.


This report presents a prioritization method developed for seismic retrofitting of bridges. The method is used to identify bridges that are in most need of retrofitting and to rank order these bridges based on vulnerability and importance criteria. Vulnerability assessment includes evaluation of the seismic hazard at the bridge site, classification of existing bridges into bridge classes and fragility analysis. Importance assessment considers the attributes that relate the consequences of failure of a bridge to the public safety and socio-economic well-being of a community. The importance of a bridge is considered to be closely related to its function within the transportation network system. A detailed review and critique of the existing prioritization methodologies is included. An example application is conducted for the Palo Alto, California area.


ABSTRACT This article describes a statistical method for aggregating the information from Irish opinion polls. Such aggregate estimates provide academic researchers with a time series of support for political parties, and inform the public better about opinion polls by focusing on trends and uncertainty in these estimates. The article discusses the challenge of aggregating opinion polls in a multi-party setting with a comparatively limited number of polls available and presents daily estimates of party support for the 1987–2016 period. The article develops a method to better model major sudden political and societal events, which have been common in Ireland since 2007. Finally, it discusses how polling aggregation estimates can enhance opinion poll reporting in the media.


While the use of digital platforms has harmed some aspects of the music industry, it has also created new opportunities for artists to prosper in terms of marketing, branding, communication and to ultimately become cultural entrepreneurs. Twitter in particular is a social networking service (SNS) that is ideal for studying fan celebrity interactions, as it is a safe space for celebrities to market, brand and communicate with fans through strategic discourse in an informal environment. With SNS such as Twitter, fans now have the opportunity to build seemingly intimate relationships with celebrities, becoming cocreators of content. Widely acknowledged for her unparalleled relationships and interactions with fans on Twitter, singer Lady Gaga, has achieved success and long term viability amidst digitalization through her strategic use of online platforms to not only promote and strengthen her brand, but to build intimate relationships with her fans. Lady Gaga exemplifies how the digitalization of the music industry and growth of online platforms drive artists to take on new roles as entrepreneurs marketers and as conversationalists with fans. As such, this paper presents a review of the extant literature of studies that have explored the connection between celebrity brand building and representation on social media and how fan identification, interaction and intimacy are forged via social media discourse. This is followed by a qualitative discourse analysis of 904 tweets and retweets collected from Lady Gaga's Twitter account from May 31st, 2015 until April 31st, 2016. This analysis serves to develop an understanding of how language is being used actively, persuasively and to isolate patterns in Lady Gaga's Twitter discourse. This includes key terms, phrases and overall frequency of these. In analyzing how Lady Gaga uses strategic discourse on Twitter, we can build a greater understanding of how this social medium is used to build intimacy with fans. From this knowledge, both artists and marketers can emulate this model for effective brand management on social media, particularly on Twitter.


A purely growing instability characterized by a four-wave interaction has been analysed in a uniform, magnetized plasma. Up-shifted and down-shifted upper-hybrid waves and a non-oscillatory mode can be excited by a pump wave of ordinary rather than extraordinary polarization in the case of ionospheric heating. The differential Ohmic heating force dominates over the ponderomotive force as the wave–wave coupling mechanism. The beating current at zero frequency produces a significant stabilizing effect on the excitation of short-scale modes by counterbalancing the destabilizing effect of the differential Ohmic heating. The effect of ionospheric inhomogeneity is estimated, showing a tendency to raise the thresholds of the instability. When applied to ionospheric heating experiments, the present theory can explain the excitation of field-aligned plasma lines and ionospheric irregularities with a continuous spectrum ranging from metre-scale to hundreds of metre-scale. Further, the proposed mechanism may become a competitive process to the parametric decay instability and be responsible for the overshoot phenomena of the plasma line enhancement at Arecibo.


Photopharmacology is an emerging approach in drug design and pharmacological therapy. Light is used to switch a pharmacophore between a biologically inactive and an active isomer with high spatiotemporal resolution at the site of illness, thus potentially avoiding side effects in neighboring healthy tissue. The most frequently used strategy to design a photoswitchable drug is to replace a suitable functional group in a known bioactive molecule with azobenzene. Our strategy is different in that the photoswitch moiety is closer to the drug's scaffold. Docking studies reveal a very high structural similarity of natural 17β-estradiol and the E isomers of dihydroxy diazocines, but not their Z isomers, respectively. Seven dihydroxy diazocines were synthesized and subjected to a biological estrogen reporter gene assay. Four derivatives exhibit distinct estrogenic activity after irradiation with violet light, which can be shut off with green light. Most remarkably, the photogenerated, active E form of one of the active compounds isomerizes back to the inactive Z form with a half-life of merely several milliseconds in water, but nevertheless is active for more than 3 h in the presence of the estrogen receptor. The results suggest a significant local impact of the ligand-receptor complex toward back-isomerization. Thus, drugs that are active when bound but lose their activity immediately after leaving the receptor could be of great pharmacological value because they strongly increase target specificity. Moreover, the drugs are released into the environment in their inactive form. The latter argument is particularly important for drugs that act as endocrine disruptors.


The credit and liquidity crisis has badly affected the performance of collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) and structured investment vehicles (SIVs). Dislocations in these products have led to the filing of many lawsuits in the United States and in other countries. This article examines some basic themes of litigation in the U.S. brought by stakeholders in these transactions. In general, these cases either involve claims against other stakeholders in disputes over the application of collections and liquidation proceeds following an event of default, or allegations of fraud, misrepresentation, and other tortuous conduct against underwriters and other gatekeepers, including rating agencies, arising from the structuring and marketing of transactions. The welter of litigation involving CDOs and SIVs has exposed structural weaknesses as well as ambiguities and other traps in the complex contracts and disclosures governing these products. That litigation has challenged some of the basic legal framework on which transactions were based and highlighted the limits of liability arising from these types of products. The lasting legacy of these lawsuits may be a record of case law that fundamentally affects the way in which securitized investment vehicles will be structured and conceived in the future.


The article explores the inclusion of unaccompanied migrant children reaching Italy without their parents or a legal guardian. It aims at presenting the results of a qualitative research conducted in Rome in 2016, through semi-structured interviews. The research shows the difficult conditions of such children, arriving to Italy through a perilous and traumatic journey despite their young age. The Italian reception system for unaccompanied migrant children still largely focuses on material needs, while paying little attention to the educational, social and economic needs. Particularly, the quest to send money to their families in the country of origin makes access to education difficult and leads often the children to work irregularly, thus being exploited. Furthermore, the current Italian legal system is not adequate to defend the rights and to support the integration of this particular category of migrants, especially in their transition into adulthood. Keywords : Unaccompanied Minors; interculturalism; intercultural education; migration


Just as space, territory and society can be socially and politically co-constructed, so can water, and thus the construction of hydraulic infrastructures can be mobilised by politicians to consolidate their grip on power while nurturing their own vision of what the nation is or should become. This book delves into the complex and often hidden connection between water, technological advancement and the nation-state, addressing two major questions. First, the arguments deployed consider how water as a resource can be ideologically constructed, imagined and framed to create and reinforce a national identity, and secondly, how the idea of a nation-state can and is materially co-constituted out of the material infrastructure through which water is harnessed and channelled.

The book consists of 13 theoretical and empirical interdisciplinary chapters covering four continents. The case studies cover a diverse range of geographical areas and countries, including China, Cyprus, Egypt, Ethiopia, France, Nepal and Thailand, and together illustrate that the meaning and rationale behind water infrastructures goes well beyond the control and regulation of water resources, as it becomes central in the unfolding of power dynamics across time and space.


A capped hemisphere electrostatic analyzer has been developed for the purpose of performing detailed studies of charged particle distributions in space from sounding rocket platforms. This instrument employs micro channel plate detectors in conjunction with a linear resistive anode to carry out angular imaging, by resistive charge division, of particle arrivals. Two such instruments, capable of supplying 64 x 32 angle-energy positive ion distributions every $\sim1$ second were flown on two separate high latitude sounding rockets in February, 1985, from Sondre Stromfjord, Greenland. One of these two rockets featured an active ion beam experiment whereby 200 eV/q Ar$\sp{+}$ ions were injected into the ionospheric plasma from a separated sub payload in broad $(\sim60\sp\circ$ FWHM) beams directed alternately either parallel to or perpendicular to the geomagnetic field. Ion fluxes associated with beam operations were observed on the main payload out to a main/sub payload separation distance of nearly 1 km. Several distinct ion populations are identified, based on their energy/pitch angle characteristics and the existence of ion fluxes at unexpected energies and pitch angles is demonstrated and discussed in light of current understanding of these types of beam-plasma systems. The ion flux signatures of parallel versus perpendicular beam injections are compared and contrasted.


BACKGROUND Real-time reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) is routinely used to detect viral infections. In Brazil, it is mandatory the use of nucleic acid tests to detect hepatitis C virus (HCV), hepatitis B virus and human immunodeficiency virus in blood banks because of the immunological window. The use of an internal control (IC) is necessary to differentiate the true negative results from those consequent from a failure in some step of the nucleic acid test. OBJECTIVES The aim of this study was the construction of virus-modified particles, based on MS2 bacteriophage, to be used as IC for the diagnosis of RNA viruses. METHODS The MS2 genome was cloned into the pET47b(+) plasmid, generating pET47b(+)-MS2. MS2-like particles were produced through the synthesis of MS2 RNA genome by T7 RNA polymerase. These particles were used as non-competitive IC in assays for RNA virus diagnostics. In addition, a competitive control for HCV diagnosis was developed by cloning a mutated HCV sequence into the MS2 replicase gene of pET47b(+)-MS2, which produces a non-propagating MS2 particle. The utility of MS2-like particles as IC was evaluated in a one-step format multiplex real-time RT-PCR for HCV detection. FINDINGS We demonstrated that both competitive and non-competitive IC could be successfully used to monitor the HCV amplification performance, including the extraction, reverse transcription, amplification and detection steps, without compromising the detection of samples with low target concentrations. In conclusion, MS2-like particles generated by this strategy proved to be useful IC for RNA virus diagnosis, with advantage that they are produced by a low cost protocol. An attractive feature of this system is that it allows the construction of a multicontrol by the insertion of sequences from more than one pathogen, increasing its applicability for diagnosing different RNA viruses.


ABSTRACT In contemporary Western societies, parenting has become the subject of a substantial body of advice and self-help literature. Within this literature, questions of bilingual parenting have begun to add yet another dimension to parental anxieties. Against this background, we examine how parents in a general Australian online parenting forum discuss the desires they have for their children's bilingualism and the challenges they experience to their bilingual parenting. We first demonstrate that individual bilingualism in the abstract is discussed in highly favourable terms and is widely conceptualised as a 'gift' from parents to children. However, posters' belief in the bilingual advantage does not easily translate into effective bilingual parenting practices. First, many posters are concerned that bilingualism in the early years might be jeopardising their child's English language proficiency and hence school success. Second, a very narrow definition of 'true' bilingualism is connected with a relatively dogmatic belief in the 'one parent, one language' parenting strategy. As a result, consecutive bilinguals, particularly migrant fathers, come to be perceived as both problematic bilinguals and problematic parents. We close with implications for family language policy and advocacy in the face of entrenched institutional English monolingualism.


Compact and dry soils impede root growth and restrict plant water availability, respectively, potentially causing leaf water deficit. Although both stresses likely co-occur in the field and limit yield, little is known about their combined impact on plant growth and physiology over a whole season, especially in a tuberous crop like potato. Field-grown potato (Solanum tuberosum L. var. 'Maris Piper') was exposed to factorial combination of deficit irrigation (watering when soil moisture deficit reached 60 vs. 25 mm) and soil compaction (compacted with heavy machinery vs. uncompacted), with plant growth and leaf physiology measured weekly. Shoot growth was restricted by adverse soil conditions, while leaf water status, photosynthesis rates and leaf abscisic acid (ABA) levels did not vary significantly between treatments. Across all treatments, final yield was linearly correlated (R2 = 0.71) to mid-season shoot biomass. Compared to well-watered plants growing in loose soil, soil compaction, deficit irrigation and their combination decreased final tuber yield similarly, by 23%–34%. Surprisingly, tuber size distribution was more dependent on irrigation management than on soil strength. Plants exposed to deficit irrigation produced more, smaller potatoes than their respective control. Thus, low soil water availability and/or compact soil caused these field-grown potatoes to restrict shoot growth rather than limit leaf gas exchange. Further research is needed to understand the role of hormonal signalling in regulating tuber growth when plants are exposed to compact and dry soils. © 2021 The Authors. Annals of Applied Biology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Association of Applied Biologists.


The packed fruit juices play an important role in fulfilling nutritional requirements of consumers at affordable prices. The composition of these juices is based on standard requirements of the consumers; the integrity of composition depends upon the storage and freezing conditions. The consumption of fruits and fruit juices could have both positive and negative effect on the part of consumers. Fruits and fruit juices processed under hygienic condition could play important role in enhancing consumers' health e.g. inhibition of breast cancer, congestive heart failure (CHF), and urinary tract infection. In absence of good manufacturing practice; however, the nutritional richness of fruits and fruit juices makes the product good medium for microbial growth, vehicle of foodborne pathogens and associated complications. Recently, fruits as well as fruit juices have been acknowledged as "emerging vehicles" for foodborne illnesses due to bacterial pathogens, protozoa and viruses. In this paper we aim to review precise sources of microbial contamination and most relevant outbreaks involving foodborne pathogens and spoilage microorganisms associated with fruit juices.


The Notch receptor pathway provides a paradigm for juxtacrine signaling pathways and controls stem cell function, developmental cell fate decisions, and cellular differentiation. The Notch pathway is constitutively activated in human cancers by chromosomal rearrangements, activating point mutations, or altered expression patterns. Therefore, the Notch pathway is the subject of chemotherapeutic intervention in a variety of human cancers. Notch receptor activation results in the gamma‐secretase dependent proteolytic cleavage of the receptor to liberate the Notch intracellular domain that acts to mediate co‐activator recruitment to the DNA binding transcription factor, CSL (CBF‐1/RBP‐Jκ, Su(H), Lag‐1). Therapeutic targeting of the Notch pathway by gamma‐secretase inhibitors prevents NICD production and regulates CSL‐dependent transcriptional activity. To interrogate the loss of CSL activity in breast and prostate cancer cells, we used lentiviral‐based shRNA knockdown of CSL. Knockdown of CSL expression was assessed by decreased DNA binding activity and resulted in decreased cell proliferation. In contrast, gamma‐secretase inhibitor (GSI) treatment of these prostate and breast cancer cell lines resulted in minimal growth effects. PCR profiling of Notch pathway genes identified expression changes in few genes (Delta‐like‐1, Deltex‐1, LMO2, and SH2D1A) after CSL knockdown. Consistent with differential effects of GSI on cell survival, GSI treatment failed to recapitulate the gene expression changes observed after CSL knockdown. Thus, CSL inhibition may provide a more effective mechanism to inhibit Notch‐pathway dependent cancer cell proliferation as compared to GSI treatment. J. Cell. Biochem. 112: 2340–2351, 2011. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


To elucidate the mechanism for intermolecular homologous recombination in plants we cotransformed Nicotiana tabacum cv Petit Havana SR1 protoplasts with constructs carrying different defective derivatives of the NPTII gene. The resulting kanamycin resistant clones were screened for possible recombination products by PCR, which proved to be a valuable technique for this analysis. Our results show that the double-stranded circular DNA molecules used in this study recombine predominantly via a pathway consistent with the single-strand annealing (SSA) model as proposed for extrachromosomal recombination in mammalian cells. In the remaining cases recombination occurred via a single reciprocal recombination, gene conversion and possibly double reciprocal recombination. Since single-stranded DNA is considered to be an important intermediate in homologous recombination we also established the recombination ability of single-stranded DNA in intermolecular recombination. We found that single-stranded DNA enters in recombination processes more efficiently than the corresponding double-stranded DNA. This was also reflected in the recombination mechanisms that generated the functional NPTII gene. Recombination between a single-stranded DNA and the complementing DNA duplex occurred at similar rates via a single reciprocal recombination and the SSA pathway.


Abstract Maritime violence off the Horn of Africa has generated immense global attention. Ships carrying cargo that included oil, military weapons, and chemicals have been attacked. More than 20,000 vessels ply this strategically important area that includes the Gulf of Aden, the Red Sea, the Arabian Sea, and the western Indian Ocean every year. To confront the threat of Somali piracy, a combination of national commitment, naval force, and international action has emerged, presaging greater partnering, utilization of the rule of law to address regional instability at sea, 'out-of-area' employment of naval forces, and the integration of international organizations to facilitate repression of maritime piracy.


The Enrichment Experiences in Engineering (E3) summer teacher program is hosted by the Dwight Look College of Engineering at Texas A&M University and is designed to provide engineering research experiences for Texas high school science and mathematics teachers. The mission of the E3 program is to educate and excite teachers about the field of engineering so that they can introduce engineering concepts to their students and encourage them to consider a career in engineering. The E3 program received funding from the National Science Foundation (NSF) Research Experiences for Teachers (RET) program from 2003 through 2013, and during that time, a total of 150 teachers participated in the program. Most of the teachers were from schools with large minority-student populations (average 83% Hispanic and/or African American; average 69% economically-disadvantaged). This paper presents evaluation findings to assess long-term impact of the E3 program on teachers who participated in one of the NSF-funded E3 programs during the 2003-2012 timeframe. The two research questions central to the study design were (1) What is the long-term impact of the E3 summer program on teachers who participated in the program? and (2) To what extent did the teachers who participated in the E3 summer experience impact student understanding, awareness and perceptions of the engineering field? The assessment tools included a series of focus group interviews and an anonymous online survey. The focus group sessions were conducted by the E3 external evaluator during annual E3 workshops where teachers from previous E3 cohorts were invited to attend. The anonymous online survey was administered in Fall 2013 by the external evaluator. Evaluation findings document that the E3 program has been successful in educating teachers about the engineering field and that, in the long term, teachers continue to promote engineering to their students as a career option. However, the teachers have experienced challenges when trying to implement their E3-developed classroom lessons in subsequent academic years. Recommendations to remediate this issue are provided. Although NSF funding concluded in 2013, the College continues to offer E3 research experiences to high school mathematics and science teachers using other financial resources.


Children self-control ability formed since age 4. Generally, children acts based on environment responses to their behavior, by making comparison of environment responses in several of their behaviors. This response will determine whether the behavior repeated or not. When child reported or seems to have negative act and mistreatment, such as violence and aggressive behavior, who will take responsibility? Human being tends to learn to act by observing their circumstances. By which ages does a child could responsible enough to control their behavior? There are several factors determine self-control development and there is developmental pathways in self-control development in human being especially children. Environment considered taking important role in shaping children's behavior and self-control. This article aims is to acknowledge community about environment's influence in shaping children behavior. Research is using secondary data literature review of phenomenon. The findings represented community's knowledge on environment importance in shaping children behavior has shown, but knowing concept will be different from understanding and application concept of this information. Consequences of the lack of proper learning of self-control in children would bring major impact to children's behavior in the future. Keywords : Children, Self-Control, Environment


Information on how vegetation adapts to differences in water supply is critical for predicting vegetation survival, growth and water use, which, in turn, has important impacts on site hydrology. Many field studies assess adaptation to water stress by comparing between disparate sites, which makes it difficult to distinguish between physiological or morphological changes and long-term genetic adaptation. When planting trees into new environments, the phenotypic adaptations of a species to water stress will be of primary interest. This study examined the response to water availability of Eucalyptus kochii ssp. borealis (C. Gardner) D. Nicolle, commonly integrated with agriculture in south-western Australia for environmental and economic benefits. By choosing a site where the groundwater depth varied but where climate and soil type were the same, we were able to isolate tree response to water supply. Tree growth, leaf area and stand water use were much larger for trees over shallow groundwater than for trees over a deep water table below a silcrete hardpan. However, water use on a leaf area basis was similar in trees over deep and shallow groundwater, as were the minimum leaf water potential observed over different seasons and the turgor loss point. We conclude that homeostasis in leaf water use and water relations was maintained through a combination of stomatal control and adjustment of sapwood-to-leaf area ratios (Huber value). Differences in the Huber value with groundwater depth were associated with different sapwood-specific conductivity and water use on a sapwood area basis. Knowledge of the coordination between water supply, leaf area, sapwood area and leaf transpiration rate for different species will be important when predicting stand water use.


The main focus in pin-tip (or print-tip) microarray analysis is determining which probes, genes, or oligonucleotides are differentially expressed. Specifically in array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) experiments, researchers search for chromosomal imbalances in the genome. To model this data, scientists apply statistical methods to the structure of the experiment and assume that the data consist of the signal plus random noise. In this paper we propose "SmoothArray", a new method to preprocess comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) bacterial artificial chromosome (BAC) arrays and we show the effects on a cancer dataset. As part of our R software package "aCGHplus," this freely available algorithm removes the variation due to the intensity effects, pin/print-tip, the spatial location on the microarray chip, and the relative location from the well plate. removal of this variation improves the downstream analysis and subsequent inferences made on the data. Further, we present measures to evaluate the quality of the dataset according to the arrayer pins, 384-well plates, plate rows, and plate columns. We compare our method against competing methods using several metrics to measure the biological signal. With this novel normalization algorithm and quality control measures, the user can improve their inferences on datasets and pinpoint problems that may arise in their BAC aCGH technology.


Activating or inactivating mutations in a Gαs can trigger inappropriate bone formation. The skeleton is a dynamic and tightly regulated organ. Two rare genetic disorders, fibrodysplasia ossificans progressive (FOP) and progressive osseous heteroplasia (POH), cause extraskeletal bone formation. Whereas activating mutations in GNAS (encoding the heterotrimeric G protein subunit Gαs) induce Wnt signaling to cause fibrous dysplasia, Regard et al. found that inactivating mutations in GNAS specifically induced Hedgehog signaling to cause heterotopic bone formation in POH. In mice, deletion of Gnas in limb mesenchymal progenitor cells caused their osteogenic differentiation, webbing between the toes, fused joints, and heterotopic ossification in soft tissues that progressed until death for most mutant pups by postnatal day 20. Loss of Gnas induced the expression of Hedgehog target genes (Ptch1, Gli1, and Hhip) in the limbs of mutant mice and in isolated cultures of bone marrow stem cells (BMSCs) and subcutaneous mesenchymal progenitors (SMPs). However, the abundance of cyclic adenosine monophosphate (cAMP) and phosphorylated CREB [an indicator of protein kinase A (PKA) activity], as well as the expression of Wnt target genes, was lower in Gnas-deficient limbs, BMSCs, and SMPs. Pharmacologically increasing cAMP concentration rescued PKA and CREB activation in Gnas-deficient SMPs. Expression of a dominant-negative PKA mimicked the effects of Gnas deletion on Hedgehog target genes, suggesting that Gαs signaling suppressed Hedgehog signaling through activation of cAMP and PKA. In bud cultures from Gnas-deficient limbs, cyclopamine [an inhibitor of the Hedgehog receptor smoothened (Smo)] could not repress Hedgehog target gene expression, whereas either arsenic trioxide or GANT-58 (inhibitors of the Hedgehog-induced Gli transcription factors) could. Further, injection of Gli inhibitors or deletion of Gli2 in Gnas-deficient mice decreased the extent of soft tissue mineralization. Retroviral-activation of Smo in Gnas-deficient mice was sufficient to induce heterotopic ossification and osteoblast differentiation, indicating that Hedgehog signaling alone is sufficient to cause the POH phenotype and that it must be actively suppressed by Gαs to spatially restrict bone formation. These findings, combined with the previous observations in FOP, exemplify the central placement of Gαs in limiting osteoblast differentiation in mesenchymal stem cell pools through independent mechanisms. J. B. Regard, D. Malhotra, J. Gvozdenovic-Jeremic, M. Josey, M. Chen, L. S. Weinstein, J. Lu, E. M. Shore, F. S. Kaplan, Y. Yang, Activation of Hedgehog signaling by loss of GNAS causes heterotopic ossification. Nat. Med. 19, 1505–1512 (2013). [PubMed]


IN this highly accomplished discourse, the occasion of which was a Rektoratsubergabe at Kiel in May 1950, Diller surveys Sophoclean drama from the point of view of the opposition between the absolute, as man may encounter it whether as the divine law or the word of the gods revealed through oracles, and the ignorance of man who comprehends his situation only at the moment of catastrophe. The Ajax and Antigone stand apart, since in each the hero acts with assurance while human bewilderment is represented by the groping error of a Menelaus or a Creon —a view which, so far as concerns the Ajax, seems slightly strained. In the Trachiniae and 0.7". the heroes repeatedly misunderstand the information which is at their disposal, while in the latest plays the main characters have fuller comprehension and the action arises from the misguided attempts of men to tamper with the divine purpose for the sake of their own self-interest, of Odysseus in the Philoctetes, of Creon in the O.C. Tragedy lies in the failure of human wisdom to understand; the suffering that ensues cannot be justified in terms of human morality. The failure of communication between gods and men is due to the limitations of the human mind and its one-sided apprehension.


The conduction mechanisms and trapping effects at SiO2/4H-SiC interfaces in metal-oxide-semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) were studied by Fowler-Nordheim (FN) tunnelling and frequency dependent conductance measurements. In particular, the analysis of both MOS capacitors and MOSFETs fabricated on the same wafer revealed an anomalous FN behavior on p-type implanted SiC/SiO2 interfaces. The observed FN instability upon subsequent voltage sweeps was correlated to the charge-discharge of hole trap states close the valence band edge of 4H-SiC. The charge-discharge of these traps also explained the recoverable threshold voltage instability observed in lateral MOSFETs.


SIR,-Regarding Dr R M Whitington's article on dextropropoxyphene overdosage (16 July, p 172) we had a tragic incident in our family when our daughter was found dead within a period of 2j hours after ingestion of some 50 Distalgesic tablets, source unknown. The post-mortem findings showed collapse at the bases of both lungs. She was found with her hand on the receiver of the telephone, suggesting some sudden distress. This ingestion was possibly a cri de coeur following refusal of the staff of a psychiatric teaching hospital to see her, an application she often made. Indeed, after a termination of pregnancy in January all they would offer her was a fortnightly hour with the community nurse, although this was increased when her behaviour improved. I am writing this because behind so many poisonings lies mental instability of one kind or another, cause usually unknown. Treatment even in this day and age is often sophisticatedly cruel-indeed, if the case is deemed incurable the patient is often pushed back on to the general practitioner, who may or may not be sympathetic but is always busy. Community care is often only of a voluntary type. In this case a local church is trying to help these people but finding little help and support from the psychiatric hospital. When choosing medical students it should be born in mind that all doctors, be they consultants or general practitioners, need the quality of compassion as much as three As at A level and that we shall all be incurable one day and shall be at their mercy.


Insufficient focused attention has been paid by the conservation community to conservation of biodiversity outside of protected areas. Biodiversity mainstreaming addresses this gap in global conservation practice by "embedding biodiversity considerations into policies, strategies and practices of key public and private actors that impact or rely on biodiversity, so that it is conserved, and sustainably used, both locally and globally" (Huntley and Redford 2014). Biodiversity mainstreaming is designed to change those policies and practices that influence land uses outside of protected areas as well as to change economic and development decision-making by demonstrating the importance of conserving biodiversity for achieving development outcomes. The practice of mainstreaming is tied to implementation of the Convention on Biological Diversity and is practiced with billions of dollars of investment by development agencies, national government agencies, and the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and its implementing organizations as well as other donors. It is essential for the long-term survival of biodiversity inside and outside protected areas. However, it is virtually unheard of in the main conservation science field. This must change so as to bring careful documentation, analysis, monitoring, publishing and improvement of practices – all things that conservation science should provide as partners to practitioners of biodiversity mainstreaming. The situation is ripe for informed coordination and consolidation and creation of a science-driven field of biodiversity mainstreaming.


This article takes an interdisciplinary approach, combining some core elements of drama education with sociocultural theory. )t draws on the findings of a doctoral study exploring the nature of learner engagement when process drama is used to teach )talian as a second language. )n particular, the article focuses on the construct of engagement as perception-in-action in improvised social interactions, in role, with adult learners at an intermediate-advanced level. The article opens with an overview of recent research on process drama for second language learning. )t then provides the theoretical framework for the study, discussing process drama pedagogy and the construct of engagement. Next, the context of the study is discussed, in terms of methodology, methods, and participants. The discussion continues with an analysis of engagement as perception-in-action, first by zooming into a segment of classroom interaction, and then zooming out to three case studies. Finally, findings on engagement are discussed, in terms of agency as self-regulation in managing improvisation with language and with the elements of drama, including dramatic irony. The article concludes by pointing to dialogic interaction in process drama mediating, and being mediated by, dramatic tension, and the implications for second language learners and teachers.


In a prospective randomized study we used erythrocyte scintigraphy to evaluate whether drainage reduced the hematoma volume after total hip arthroplasty. 12 patients were left without drains and 10 patients had two drains inserted, one below the fascia and one subcutaneously. We used tomographic registration (SPECT) to calculate the volume of the hematoma (erythrocytes) about 22 hours after surgery and found that drainage did not reduce the volume, but increased the need for blood transfusion.


BACKGROUND
Herbal liqueurs are alcoholic beverages produced by the maceration or distillation of aromatic and medicinal plants in alcohol, and are also highly valued for their medicinal properties. The process conditions, as well as the number and quantity of the plants employed, will have a great influence on the quality of the liqueur obtained. The aim of this research was to optimize these important variables.

RESULTS
A Box-Benhken experimental design was used to evaluate the independent variables: alcohol content, amount of plant and time during the experimental maceration of plants in grape marc distillate. Four plants were assessed, with the main compound of each plant representing the dependent variable evaluated with respect to following the evolution of the maceration process. Bisabolol oxide A in Matricaria recutita L., linalool in Coriander sativum L. and eucalyptol in Eucalyptus globulus Labill. were quantified using a gas chromatography-flame ionization detector. Glycyrrhizic acid in Glycyrrhiza glabra L was determined using a high-performance liquid chromatography-diode array detector. Other dependent variables were also evaluated: total phenolic content, color parameters and consumer preference (i.e. appearance).

CONCLUSION
The experimental designs allowed the selection of the optimal maceration conditions for each parameter, including the preference score of consumers: 70% (v/v) of ethanol, 40 g L-1 plant concentration and a maceration process of 3 weeks. © 2016 Society of Chemical Industry.


The paper proposes the solution to teaching resource application platform that applies to electronic commerce teaching. Electronic commerce teaching resource platform system includes hardware system structure and software system structure. It is an open approach based on B/S mode that provides each faculty with local and remote teaching resources via Intranet/Internet and booming cloud technology. It establishes innerand inter-scholastic supporting teaching resource library to meet the demands in teaching practices, and includes functions such as theory teaching, practice teaching, skill practice, entrepreneurial internship, teaching resource service, laboratory management, teaching management, teacher-student interaction and etc. The paper combines the comprehensive teaching resource platform construction practices of modern business and logistics in Beijing Youth Politics College, and puts forward opinions on and solutions to construction scheme of electronic commerce laboratory and teaching resource system in colleges and universities, including construction purpose, system structure, network laboratory composition, teaching function, function of teaching resource library contents and other aspects. Besides, it proposes the basic solutions to experimental teaching platform, teaching management platform, practice and entrepreneurial platform and teaching resource library construction.


Microphytobenthic (MPB) biofilms in intertidal muddy sediments play important ecological functions in coastal ecosystems. These biofilms are mainly composed of epipelic diatoms but also prokaryotes, with a dominance of bacteria, which excrete diverse extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) according to their environment. While numerous studies have investigated the main components of these EPS matrices via traditional colorimetric assays, their fine composition, notably in specialized metabolites, is still largely unknown. A better chemical characterization of these MPB biofilms is necessary, especially regarding the numerous functions their chemical components play for microorganisms (e.g., motility, cell protection, defense mechanisms, and chemical communication), but also for coastal systems (e.g., primary production, sediment stabilization, larval settlement of some invertebrates with high economical value). An alternative approach to traditional analyses is the use of untargeted metabolomic techniques, which have not yet been applied to such MPB biofilms. The objectives of the present study were to (a) propose a protocol for metabolic fingerprinting by LC-MS and GC-MS for metabolites analysis in polar and non-polar fractions in MPB biofilms extracted from mudflat sediment and to (b) apply this protocol to a case study: the effect of light exposure on the metabolomic fingerprint of the MPB biofilm community. We compared three extraction methods using different mixes of solvents and selected a methanol/chloroform mix (1:1), which gave better results for both techniques and fractions. We then applied the selected protocol to our case study using a short-term light exposure experiment in aquaria (7 days). The present study is the first using a detailed untargeted metabolomic approach on MPB biofilms from mudflat sediment and will provide a solid baseline for further work in this area.


Like other European regimes, the Portuguese Estado Novo (1933-1974) implemented an agricultural colonisation policy that, influenced by the ideals of modernism and neo-Physiocracy, aimed at economic development, social pacification and the fostering of national identities, resulting in the settlement and populating of modern rural landscapes. However, the Portuguese regime coped with an enduring financial crisis, and relied on an official nationalism built upon a conservative-traditional society under the union of God, fatherland, work and family. Unsurprisingly, Portuguese inner colonisation was comparatively small-scale, aimed at converting farmhands into rural homeowners, and its modernising experiments had limited impact on the landscape. However, landscape and place are not passive concepts. They concurrently build and are built by political and economic agencies, social negotiations, embodied experiences, plural meanings and affections. Looking into primary sources and the outcomes of a micro-ethnography in Boalhosa, this paper intersects official-written history and emotional-sensory memory to illustrate consistencies and dissonances between political and social actors' representations of the Portuguese inner colonisation. Based on exploratory observations in Boalhosa, it argues that while the lack of political assertiveness may have curtailed the Portuguese project, it also favoured its social appropriation by local communities and economies within a contextualised historical spatial continuum.


Neurotensin is a potent stimulant of pancreatic exocrine secretion. Ileal mucosa is the storage site for about 90% of total neurotensin. Release occurs rapidly after a fatty meal and during perfusion of the duodenum and jejunum with fat but not during perfusion of the ileum with fat. To determine the origin of neurotensin released after fat stimulation, we studied the pattern of release of neurotensin before and after resection of the distal two thirds of the small bowel. Six dogs with gastric and duodenal fistulas were studied on different days. All dogs received infusions (in random order) of intraduodenal corn oil (Lipomul) (3 ml/kg/hr) and intravenous calcium chloride (0.36 mmol/kg intravenous bolus, followed by 0.36 mmol/kg/hr infusion) before and 6 weeks after resection of the distal two thirds of the small bowel with preservation of the ileocecal valve. Plasma levels of neurotensin were measured by specific radioimmunoassay. We found that release of neurotensin, in response to both intraduodenal Lipomul and intravenous calcium chloride stimulation, was abolished by resection of the distal small bowel. Before surgery, Lipomul-stimulated release of neurotensin rose to a peak concentration of 51 +/- 17 pg/ml at 30 minutes. After surgery there was no release (the levels were unchanged from basal). Before surgery, intravenous calcium chloride produced a peak release of neurotensin (52 +/- 15 pg/ml) 2 minutes after bolus injection. After surgery, neurotensin was not released by intravenous calcium. We conclude that the source of neurotensin released by perfusion of the proximal gut and by intravenous calcium infusion is the ileum. The release of neurotensin from the distal gut appears to be dependent on a signal from proximal to distal gut. The identity of the signal is unknown but is either a nerve reflex or a peptide agent.


The main sources of emission today are from the electric power and transportation sectors. One of the main goals of a cyber-physical energy system (CPES) is the integration of renewable energy sources and gridable vehicles (GVs) to maximize emission reduction. GVs can be used as loads, sources and energy storages in CPES. A large CPES is very complex considering all conventional and green distributed energy resources, dynamic data from sensors, and smart operations (e.g., charging/discharging, control, etc.) from/to the grid to reduce both cost and emission. If large number of GVs are connected to the electric grid randomly, peak load will be very high. The use of conventional thermal power plants will be economically expensive and environmentally unfriendly to sustain the electrified transportation. Intelligent scheduling and control of elements of energy systems have great potential for evolving a sustainable integrated electricity and transportation infrastructure. The maximum utilization of renewable energy sources using GVs for sustainable CPES (minimum cost and emission) is presented in this paper. Three models are described and results of the smart grid model show the highest potential for sustainability.


Background The initial experience with the large diameter Penumbra Coil 400 (PC400) system has been positive regarding safety, efficacy, improved packing density and cost effectiveness, but follow-up data are limited. Methods This is a single-center retrospective review of 76 aneurysms treated with PC400 coils compared with 301 aneurysms treated with a variety of different bare platinum and bioactively coated coils. Atypical and giant aneurysms were excluded as well as those that had undergone previous treatment. Occlusion classification was determined immediately after the procedure and at short-term follow-up. Results Compared with controls, in the PC400 group fewer coils were used (3.53 vs 5.44, p<0.05), procedure time was decreased (48 vs 64 min, p<0.05) and packing density was increased (31.7% vs 24.8%, p<0.05). There were more grade III aneurysms (71.1% vs 38.2%, p<0.05) and fewer grade I aneurysms (13.2% vs 30.2%, p<0.05) in the PC400 group than in the control group immediately after the procedure. At first follow-up, however, more aneurysms in the PC400 group improved (51.3% vs 28.7%, p<0.05) in angiographic grade leading to similar rates of acceptable outcome (grades I or II) at first follow-up (PC400 79.5% vs control 77.2%). The adverse event rate was similar in the two groups. Conclusions Large diameter PC400 coils can be used to safely treat cerebral aneurysms with fewer coils, decreased procedure time and increased packing density compared with standard coils. The early angiographic outcome is similar to that achieved with standard coils.


This study examines the impact of surveillant care managerialism upon the practice of three social workers employed within the community support sector in Ontario health care. It applies the "Foucauldian Toolkit" of Jason L. Powell to examine the nature of the discourse shaping their practice and how they are both complicit and resistant to these discourses. It introduces recognition theory as counter discourse and argues that through the unique knowledge gained through relationships of respectful recognition that social workers act justly. Moreover it is argued that the relationships between social workers and their clients is the source of our unique knowledges as practitioners. Finally, this study examines the implications of social workers integrating a Foucauldian understanding of the reflexive relationship of power/knowledge and how through intersubjective relationships, we practice, create identities and serve the needs of justice even in a system and profession which does not acknowledge it as a requirement.


For the implementation of a closed nuclear fuel cycle it is necessary to carry out a series of experimental studies to justify the choice of technology. In addition, the operation of the radiochemical plant is impossible without high-quality automatic control systems. In the technologies of spent nuclear fuel reprocessing, the method of continuous evaporation is often used for a solution conditioning. Therefore, the effective continuous technological process will depend on the operation of the evaporation equipment. Its essential difference from similar devices is a small size. In this paper the method of mathematic simulation is applied for the investigation of one-effect evaporator with an external heating chamber. Detailed modelling is quite difficult because the phase equilibrium dynamics of the evaporation process is not described. Moreover, there is a relationship with the other process units. The results proved that the study subject is a MIMO plant, nonlinear over separate control channels and not selfbalancing. Adequacy was tested using the experimental data obtained at the laboratory evaporation unit.


The energy relations and the constitutive relations pertaining to a nonlinear transmission line are examined in detail. It is concluded that mathematical models which have been used in certain studies and which lead to the paradox concerning energy dissipation in the shock front are inadmissible. Correct models are free from such paradoxes. The work leads to the formulation of the hypothesis of realization: it is impossible to realize a continuous loss-free transmission medium which would be characterized by nonlinear distributed inductance L(I) and capacitance C(V), unless the medium is dispersive.


The dynamic interaction between a local probe and a viscous liquid film, which provokes the deformation of the latter, has been studied. The pressure difference across the air-liquid interface is calculated with a modified Young-Laplace equation, which takes into account the effects of gravity, surface tension, and liquid film-substrate and probe-liquid attractive interaction potentials. This pressure difference is injected into the lubrication approximation equation, in order to depict the evolution of a viscous thin-film. Additionally, a simple periodic function is added to an average separation distance, in order to define the probe motion. The aforementioned coupled equations, which describe the liquid film dynamics, were analysed and numerically solved. The liquid surface undergoes a periodic motion: the approaching probe provides an input energy to the film, which is stored by the latter by increasing its surface deformation; afterwards, when the probe moves away, an energy dissipation process occurs as the surface attempts to recover its original flat shape. Asymptotic regimes of the film surface oscillation are discerned, for extreme probe oscillation frequencies, and several length, wavenumber and time scales are yielded from our analysis, which is based on the Hankel transform. For a given probe-liquid-substrate system, with well-known physical and geometric parameters, a periodic stationary regime and instantaneous and delayed probe wetting events are discerned from the numerical results, depending on the combination of oscillation parameters. Our results provide an interpretation of the probe-liquid film coupling phenomenon, which occurs whenever an AFM test is performed over a liquid sample.


Recently, the revision of priorities in the interpretation of the security problem and their transformation from the interests of the state to the interests of man himself, have actualized the study of psychological protection. Especially aspects of personal protection are relevant in the professional sphere, which led to the development of the problem of personal protection as a subject of professionalization, taking into account psychological and neuropsychological factors. The purpose of the study is to empirically verify the structurally functional organization of personal protection as a subject of professionalization. The proposed model is based on the methodological principles and conditions of the content of the subject, system and synergetic approaches (the subject principle determines the subjective features expressed in subjective-personal characteristics, the system principle - substantial features expressed in socially personal characteristics; the synergetic principle - quality features that are integrative sign of professional protection of the individual. The sample of the study was: graduating students (n = 180); 4th and 5th year students (n = 230); doctors and medical workers (n = 441). The characteristics of psychodiagnostic tools used in these blocks of the empirical research program are described. The results of the study demonstrated the excellent content of empirical referents of professional protection of the individual in the period of professional optation, professional training and actual professional implementation in ordinary and special conditions of activity. The scientific position of the empirical study of professional safety of the individual is realized in the separation of the experience of social satisfaction, the system-forming factor of which is the urgent need that initiates the manifestation of successful professional realization.


There is growing interest in using GPUs to accelerate graph algorithms such as breadth-first search, computing page-ranks, and finding shortest paths. However, these algorithms do not modify the graph structure, so their implementation is relatively easy compared to general graph algorithms like mesh generation and refinement, which morph the underlying graph in non-trivial ways by adding and removing nodes and edges. We know relatively little about how to implement morph algorithms efficiently on GPUs.
 In this paper, we present and study four morph algorithms: (i) a computational geometry algorithm called Delaunay Mesh Refinement (DMR), (ii) an approximate SAT solver called Survey Propagation (SP), (iii) a compiler analysis called Points-To Analysis (PTA), and (iv) Boruvka's Minimum Spanning Tree algorithm (MST). Each of these algorithms modifies the graph data structure in different ways and thus poses interesting challenges.
 We overcome these challenges using algorithmic and GPU-specific optimizations. We propose efficient techniques to perform concurrent subgraph addition, subgraph deletion, conflict detection and several optimizations to improve the scalability of morph algorithms. For an input mesh with 10 million triangles, our DMR code achieves an 80x speedup over the highly optimized serial Triangle program and a 2.3x speedup over a multicore implementation running with 48 threads. Our SP code is 3x faster than a multicore implementation with 48 threads on an input with 1 million literals. The PTA implementation is able to analyze six SPEC 2000 benchmark programs in just 74 milliseconds, achieving a geometric mean speedup of 9.3x over a 48-thread multicore version. Our MST code is slower than a multicore version with 48 threads for sparse graphs but significantly faster for denser graphs.
 This work provides several insights into how other morph algorithms can be efficiently implemented on GPUs.


Gross morphological study was conducted on the major salivary glands of 42 buffalo foetuses ranging from 73 to 253 days. The mandibular gland was the largest salivary gland during the prenatal life. Dense compact lobulation of the parotid and mandibular glands was observed first at 155 days of foetal age. The mandibular gland was covered by the confluence of linguo-facial, occipital and maxillary veins laterally and developing thymus caudally throughout the prenatal period. Differentiation of dorsal and ventral parts of the sublingual gland was observed at 108 days of foetal age. Major salivary glands of various domestic animals are paired structures, which includes parotid, mandibular and sublingual glands. Salivary glands fulfill important role in the oral biology by producing saliva for lubrication, as well as supplying electrolytes, mucus, antibacterial compounds and various enzymes to the oral cavity. Loss of salivary glands function can result in the wide spread deterioration of oral health (Hsu et al., 2010). Study of normal development of salivary glands will be helpful for both anatomists and clinicians as they are having important role in several dreadful diseases like rabies, foot and mouth disease and other viral diseases. Keywords: buffaloes, Bubalus bubalis, Gross morphological, salivary glands, mandibular duct


The adrenergic receptors (ARs) (subtypes alpha 1, alpha 2, beta 1, and beta 2) are a prototypic family of guanine nucleotide binding regulatory protein-coupled receptors that mediate the physiological effects of the hormone epinephrine and the neurotransmitter norepinephrine. We have previously assigned the genes for beta 2- and alpha 2-AR to human chromosomes 5 and 10, respectively. By Southern analysis of somatic cell hybrids and in situ chromosomal hybridization, we have now mapped the alpha 1-AR gene to chromosome 5q32----q34, the same position as beta 2-AR, and the beta 1-AR gene to chromosome 10q24----q26, the region where alpha 2-AR is located. In mouse, both alpha 2- and beta 1-AR genes were assigned to chromosome 19, and the alpha 1-AR locus was localized to chromosome 11. Pulsed field gel electrophoresis has shown that the alpha 1- and beta 2-AR genes in humans are within 300 kilobases (kb) and the distance between the alpha 2- and beta 1-AR genes is less than 225 kb. The proximity of these two pairs of AR genes and the sequence similarity that exists among all the ARs strongly suggest that they are evolutionarily related. Moreover, they likely arose from a common ancestral receptor gene and subsequently diverged through gene duplication and chromosomal duplication to perform their distinctive roles in mediating the physiological effects of catecholamines. The AR genes thus provide a paradigm for understanding the evolution of such structurally conserved yet functionally divergent families of receptor molecules.


We present a p-i-n structured solar cell with stacked layers of In x Ga 1−x N Quantum Dots (QDs) with different indium composition. The photocurrent and surface recombination processes are investigated in the i-region. We have shown that the QDs in the i-region can play the role of both generation or recombination centers. The photocurrent has been calculated by self-consistent method to solve continuity equation of charge carriers in the layers of the i-region. By changing the Indium composition in In x Ga 1−x NQ Ds, the band gap of QDs varies and therefore provides a considerable overlapping with solar spectrum. Proposed SC with different-sized QDs and different Indium composition leads to absorption of a desirable wavelength range of solar spectrum and therefore a "rainbow" solar cell can be designed.


Digital transformation and rapid development of Internet technologies in the past decade have contributed to the emergence of an innovative business model of collaborative consumption [Sheresheva, Katsoni, 2019] and the spread of collaborative consumption services (CCS). This study attempts to identify the factors that influence consumers' decision to use CCS, drawing on generation differences formulated on the basis of generation theory, with a particular focus on Russian consumers. The factors highlighted as a result of systematization of existing studies have been tested on the data of a quantitative study conducted in the form of an online survey with a sample of 3635 Russian users of CCS. An explanatory factor analysis (EFA) helps the authors construct the framework of factors that influence the decision of three generations of consumers (X, Y, and Z) to use CCS. The analysis of variance between the groups (ANOVA) highlights the generation differences that affect the decision to use the CCS by representatives of three generations. The identified generation features are of both theoretical significance, serving as a basis for further research, and practical value for business, mitigating the risks of introducing new CCS to the market, allowing for the needs of various generations of users.


Modulation of living cell surfaces by chemical and biological engineering and the control of cellular functions has enormous potential for immunotherapy, transplantation, and drug delivery. However, traditional detection techniques have limitations in the identification of physical properties of viscoelastic films and interaction with living cells in real time. Here, we present the structural analysis of extracellular matrix (ECM) based nanofilms and their interaction with living cells using a quartz crystal microbalance (QCM) with dissipation (QCM-D), multiple parameter surface plasmon resonance (SPR), and flow cytometry measurements. QCM-D measurements according to the Voigt-based viscoelastic model allowed for the evaluation of the kinetic adsorption of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins and physical parameters of viscoelastic ECM-nanofilms in a swelled state. These results reflected the characteristics of viscoelastic films as compared to Sauerbrey's equation. Moreover, we found that gelatin molecules played a crucial role as a binder to build up layered films and control their properties. Using the multiple parameter SPR approach, we confirmed the interaction between FN-G nanofilms and living cells from signal response in real time which was different from the gold substrate-protein signal. Moreover, flow cytometry analysis supported the importance of the domain interaction between the RGD sequence in FN and integrin as a driving force to form the films on cell surfaces. The use of three different analyses supported clarification of the contribution of the protein-protein interaction and viscoelastic properties of ECM films and investigation of the interaction between films and living cells. The knowledge regarding protein-protein and protein-cell interaction in real time would make a contribution to biomaterial design by using protein interactions for modulating the living cell surfaces in biomedical applications.


High end computer systems, high speed networks, and other advanced information technologies provide the performance needed in today's biomedical research computing environment. NIH participates in the national Computing, Information, and Communications Research and Development (CIC R&D) program by applying these new technologies to problems in biomedicine. We describe a high speed networking example, the Radiology Consultation WorkStation, and a high end computing example, positron emission tomographic (PET) image reconstruction. The NIH Cancer Genome Anatomy Project (CGAP) provides an example of a major biomedical research effort that will require the creative use of information technology in the future. We end with conclusions concerning the impact new technologies have had on biomedical research and a discussion of plans for the future.


The literature suggests that Russia and Ukraine may become large sellers of greenhouse gas emissions permits under the Kyoto Protocol and might exploit their market power to maximize trading profits. The EU countries taken together will probably be net buyers of permits. For any given global target for emission, participation by developing countries with low-cost abatement options would benefit the net buyers of permits because the market price for carbon permits would go down. We explore how the EU could benefit from a broader participation through specific bilateral agreements with developing countries in the post-Kyoto period. The bilateral agreement involves a minimum permit sales requirement which is compensated by a financial transfer from EU to the developing country. Such bilateral agreement enables the EU to act strategically in the permit market on behalf of its member states, although firms in each member state are assumed to be price takers in the permit market. In a numerical simulation we show that an appropriately designed bilateral agreement between the EU and China can cut EU's total compliance cost by one third.


In this brief, we investigate the extendibility of FinFETs and planar bulk devices to 7- and 5-nm technology nodes focusing on electrostatics. At these nodes, the expected contacted device pitch will be in the range of 30-40 nm, requiring the gate length to scale to 12-14-nm range. We show that 6-nm-thick FinFET can scale to these gate lengths while maintaining the equivalent electrostatics as the current 14-nm node high-performance FinFETs. We show that planar bulk devices can scale to the same gate lengths using ultrashallow extension junctions and recessed device channel without aggressive gate insulator scaling and possess electrostatics equivalent to the high-performance planar 22-nm node.


Background. Chronic kidney disease (CKD) results in accelerated atherosclerosis that is primarily caused by inflammation, oxidative stress and impaired triglyceride and HDL metabolisms. Several plasma proteins including phospholipid transfer protein (PTLP), cholesteryl ester transfer protein (CETP) and lecithin:cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) affect HDL metabolism. PLTP transfers phospholipids and free cholesterol from triglyceride-rich lipoproteins to HDL, phospholipids between HDL particles and facilitates cholesterol efflux from cells. CETP catalyzes the transfer of cholesteryl esters from HDL to LDL in exchange for triglycerides, and LCAT catalyzes esterification of free cholesterol on the surface of HDL. Given the role of these proteins in the regulation of HDL metabolism, we examined the effect of ESRD on plasma PLTL, CETP and LCAT. Methods. A group of 21 stable ESRD patients maintained on haemodialysis and a group of 21 age-matched normal control individuals were included in the study. Plasma apolipoprotein A-1, PLTP, CETP and LCAT levels were measured. Results. Plasma triglyceride concentration was elevated and plasma HDL cholesterol, apolipoprotein A-1 and LCAT concentrations were significantly reduced, whereas plasma PLTP and CETP concentrations and activities were unchanged in the ESRD patients. Conclusions. These findings point to acquired LCAT and Apo A-1 deficiencies and tend to exclude dysregulation of PLTP or CETP in the pathogenesis of HDL abnormalities in haemodialysis patients.