Title Studies on the Murine Chromosomes : I. Cytological Investigations of Mice, Included in the Genus Mus With 12 Tables, 4 Textfigures and 13 Plates (217 Figures) Author(s) MAKINO, Sajiro Citation 北海道帝國大學理學部紀要 = JOURNAL OF THE FACULTY OF SCIENCE HOKKAIDO IMPERIAL UNIVERSITY Series VI. Zoology, 7(4): 305-380 Issue Date 1941-03 Doc URL http://hdl.handle.net/2115/27032 Type bulletin File Information 7(4)_P305-380.pdf


Over the course of the 2014-2020 period, the European Union has invested more than €125bn into support to research and innovation through two main channels: the excellence-based Horizon 2020 programme and its cohesion policy implemented through the European Structural and investment funds (ESIF) and in particular the European Regional Development fund (ERDF). While projects funded by ESIF are selected in the context of place-based operational programmes and smart specialisation strategies (S3), Horizon 2020 grants are assigned based on the quality of the project proposals and consortia without any geographical criteria. A concentration of R&I funding from both funding schemes in the same technological or policy area could point to the creation of a synergy between EU funding as suggested by the concept of smart specialisation and encouraged by the European Commission. This report uses project data to analyse the regional distribution of Horizon 2020 and ESIF funding among key enabling technologies and societal grand challenges and to map potential synergies between different EU funding policies.


In recent years the utility industry has made great strides in integrated resource planning, a planning process in which the generation and demand-side options for service are compared and evaluated in a consistent, integrated framework. During the transition, and in the new competitive regime of the future, further changes in the way electrical systems are planned will be needed. An expanded planning framework that integrates transmission and distribution into the integrated resource planning framework is advocated.<<ETX>>


This article aims to defend Locke against Quine's charge, made in his famous "two dogmas" paper, that Locke's theory of knowledge is badly flawed, not only for assuming the dogmas, but also for adopting an "intolerably restrictive" version of the dogma of reductionism. It is shown here that, in his analysis of the epistemological status of scientific laws, Locke has effectively transcended the narrow idea-empiricism which underlies this version of reductionism. First, in order to escape idealism, he introduced the notion of "sensitive knowledge of the particular existence of finite beings without us," broadening thus his initial definition of knowledge in terms of the "perception of the agreement or disagreement of ideas" — a definition compatible with Quine's interpretation. Secondly, after showing that we can have virtually no a priori knowledge of universal truths about substances, Locke extended the notion of "sensitive knowledge" to the particular propositions of "coexistence" in substances, appealing to the notion of "probability" for treating their inductive generalizations and, in particular, the phenomenological laws of science. Finally, acknowledging the essential presence of hypothetical, nonphenomenological laws in science, he anticipated much of the contemporary views on their role and nature, including, remarkably, a mild version of the epistemological holism championed by Quine.


Graphene, an atomically thin two-dimensional material has become an ideal candidate for fabricating nano-electro-mechanical systems resonators because of its excellent mechanical properties and ultra-light weight. Its high tensile strength and Young's modulus coupled with the ability to withstand high strains while functioning make it suitable for use in mechanical resonators. In this study, the authors review the electronic applications of graphene mechanical resonators for future radio frequency communications, ultra-sensitive mass and temperature detection using the consequent changes in resonance frequency of the resonators. Moreover, they experimentally establish the non-linear characteristics of graphene mechanical resonators at high driving amplitudes and envision its applications in future electronics and sensing.


Satellite-based inverse modeling has the potential to drive aerosol precursor emissions, but its efficacy for improving chemistry transport models (CTMs) remains elusive because of its likely inherent dependence on the error characteristics of a specific CTM used for the inversion. This issue is quantitively assessed here by using three CTMs. We show that SO2 emissions from global GEOS-Chem adjoint model and OMI SO2 data, when combined with spatial variation of bottom-up emissions, can largely improve WRF-Chem and WRF-CMAQ forecast of SO2 and aerosol optical depth (in reference to moderate resolution imaging spectroradiometer data) in China. This suggests that the efficacy of satellite-based inversion of SO2 emission appears to be high for CTMs that use similar or identical emission inventories. With the advent of geostationary air quality monitoring satellites in next 3 years, this study argues that an era of using top-down approach to rapidly update emission is emerging for regional air quality forecast, especially over Asia having highly varying emissions.


To evaluate the impact of a medication therapy management (MTM) program on the clinical outcomes and the quality of life (QoL) of a group of elderly patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM). The study was conducted in a community pharmacy in Aracaju, Brazil, from February to November 2009. A quasiexperimental, longitudinal, prospective study was conducted by intervention. The group patients received medication therapy management from a clinical pharmacist. A sample of convenience was obtained for patients of both genders aged from 60 to 75 years. Monthly visits were scheduled over 10 months. At these consultations, sociodemographic, clinical data were obtained. QoL assessment was conducted using a generic instrument—the Medical Outcomes Studies 36-item Short Form Survey (SF-36®). In total, 34 completed the study. The mean ag e of the patients was 65.9 (4.7) years. In total, 117 DRPs were identified. Patients' baseline and final evaluation measures for glycosylated hemoglobin, capillary blood glucose, blood pressure, and waist circumference were significantly different (p < 0.05). The domains of QoL assessed by the SF-36® also show s significant differences between patients' baseline and final evaluation scores. The co-responsibility and active participation on the part of the elderly may have helped pharmacotherapy achieve its clinical and humanistic aims.


Background Pegylated liposomal doxorubicin (PLD) is indicated in ovarian cancer patients who have failed firstline platinum based chemotherapy. Currently, there are no clinical or biomolecular factors that can predict the benefit of PLD in this population. Purpose To identify clinical predictors of overall survival (OS) in patients with recurrent ovarian cancer treated with PLD. Material and methods 9 baseline variables were evaluated to assess its prognostic ability in 143 patients treated with PLD from January 2008 to January 2014. The analysed variables were: Eastern Cooperative Group Performance Status (ECOG-PS), age, histopathology, treatment line, platinum sensitivity (progression free interval(PFI)) and chemotherapy schedule (monotherapy vs polychemotherapy). Cox regression models were used to calculate the log hazard ratio, and the most parsimonious model was selected according to the Akaike information criteria. Results The prognostic index includes four variables associated with OS: ECOG-PS (>70), age (≤70 years), platinum highly sensitive (PFI ≥12 months after completion of frontline platinum based chemotherapy) and use of combination chemotherapy (PLD and carboplatinum/gemcitabine/trabectidin were assigned 2 points and intermediately sensitive (PFI 6–12 months) was assigned 1 point). The global median progression free survival for all patients was 5.9 months (95% CI 4.0–7.3) and median OS was 18.8 months (95% CI 15.2–23.3). The score had the potential to delineate five prognostic groups whose results are shown in the table. Point Median 95% CI Coef HR 95% CI p Value 0 6.5 4.9–11.4 - - - - 1 12.0 2.0–15.2 -0.679 0.50 0.19–1.34 0.1758 2 17.7 13.7–25.5 -1.345 0.26 0.10–0.64 0.0036 3 35.1 15.0–41.1 -2.096 0.12 0.04–0.34 0.0001 4 35.3 28.9–51.5 -2.219 0.10 0.04–0.28 <0.0001 Conclusion Young age (<70 years), good performance status, platinum sensitivity and PLD based polychemotherapy proved to be predictive and prognostic factors. Therefore, these factors should be considered when making decisions about the approach to these patients. Nevertheless, this preliminary evidence must be validated in a prospective clinical trial. No conflict of interest


Background In 2016, the Research Institute (RI), Primary Care and Health Sciences, Keele University, UK, celebrated 10 years of Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE) in research of musculoskeletal and other long term conditions. Our Research User Group (RUG) with over 90 members with a range of long-term conditions, actively work with research teams on studies. Many of whom have been involved in ten studies of different inflammatory conditions. We provide two case studies: 1) CONTACT: a trial comparing the effectiveness and side-effects of two commonly-used drugs (Naproxen and low-dose Colchicine) to treat acute gout in primary care; 2) A qualitative interview study with people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) who had attended a nurse-led review clinic, which included identifying people at risk of anxiety and depression. Objectives To describe how PPIE helped shape the design and delivery of the CONTACT and qualitative interview studies. Methods 1) For the CONTACT trial, two RUG members with experience of gout joined the Trial Steering Committee. Another seven RUG members formed an advisory group to provide the patient perspective on trial procedures. 2) For the qualitative interview study, a group of eight people with RA from a local rheumatology centre (Haywood User Group) commented on the documents for the ethics application and met to discuss data analysis and dissemination. Results 1) In the CONTACT trial, RUG members made a difference by: Commenting on the trial design and acceptability of the drug intervention Helping to produce clear and user-friendly information sheets for participants in the trial. Provide practical advice regarding how participants were recruited Future RUG involvement will include helping to interpret the trial findings planning further dissemination and discussing future research studies. 2) In the qualitative interview study, the PPIE group: Contributed to the development of readable patient questionnaires for use in the clinic Offered their perspectives on the interpretation of the qualitative data Helped develop a leaflet to inform patients about mood problems related to rheumatoid arthritis and where help could be sought Contributed to the establishment of an RA annual review clinic at the local hospital Advised on the dissemination of results to a lay audience Generated ideas for a study about the delivery of RA annual review clinics in primary care, supporting a related grant application Conclusions Both studies demonstrated the wide-ranging benefits of PPIE input throughout the research cycle of identification, designing, managing and disseminating research. The RI will continue to involve patients with long-term conditions in studies for the benefit of the wider patient community. Acknowledgements We thank all of our Research User Group members for their valuable time and contribution to the RI's research. CONTACT was funded by the NIHR School for Primary Care Research. The RA qualitative study was funded by the Scientific Foundation Board of the Royal College of General Practitioners and the Haywood Foundation. KD is part-funded by a NIHR Knowledge Mobilisation Research Fellowship (KMRF-2014–03–002). CCG is part funded by the NIHR Collaborations for Leadership in Applied Research and Care West Midlands. Disclosure of Interest None declared


ABSTRACT Forty-six species-group land mammal taxa are described from the newly named marine Blackheath Formation (early Ypresian, Eocene) of Abbey Wood, London, UK. Of these, nine are new: Ailuravus mitchelli, Sparnacomys georgei, Neomatronella gassoni, Apatemys prouti, Viverravus lawsoni, Miacis rundlei, Arctocyonides jefferyi, Diacodexis morrisi and Pliolophus barnesi. The genera Peradectes, Palaeosinopa, Plesiesthonyx, Pseudoparamys, Sparnacomys, Neomatronella, Macrocranion, Wyonycteris, Didelphodus, Apatemys, Palaeonictis, Prototomus, Viverravus, Uintacyon, Pachyaena and Phenacodus and the orders Tillodontia and Mesonychia are described for the first time from the UK. The tillodont Franchaius is synonymized with Plesiesthonyx and the valid species reduced to three; the rodent Paramys ageiensis is resurrected and transferred to Pseudoparamys; the bat Eppsinycteris is transferred from Emballonuridae to the new family Eppsinycterididae; the primate Cantius eppsi is shown to be more closely related to North American notharctids than to European cercamoniines; Coryphodon anthracoideus is re-synonymized with C. eocaenus, the identifications of which in North America are modified; cladistic analysis of early North American and European equoids demonstrates a distinct clade on each continent. Correlation of the Blackheath Formation uses European dinocyst and palynological zonations and short-ranged mammal species shared with the Bighorn Basin, USA. Ecological diversity analysis of the Abbey Wood mammal fauna shows that it inhabited a tropical-type forest environment. Taphonomy and stratigraphy suggest a local origin for the mammal assemblage. Selective similarities in the mammals between Abbey Wood and North America suggest that continental interchange via Greenland was climatically controlled half a million years after the Paleocene-Eocene boundary.


Anxiety during the preoperative period is a common problem experienced by women who will deliver by cesarean section. The use of nonpharmacological methods to control anxiety in pregnant women has been shown to be more appropriate. This double-blind randomized controlled experimental study was conducted to assess the effect of acupressure on acute anxiety developing before cesarean section under spinal anesthesia. In the present study, 82 pregnant women scheduled for surgery were randomly assigned to the acupressure and control groups including 40 and 42 persons, respectively. Acupressure was applied to HE-7 acupuncture points in the participants in the acupressure (intervention) group for 10 minutes before the surgery. The participants in the control group were subjected to the hospital protocol. Anxiety levels of the participating women were assessed twice preoperatively using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory. Anxiety scores of the participants in the acupressure group before the procedure (49.13 ± 6.22) were higher than were those of the participants in the control group (41.71 ± 3.26); however, after the procedure, the anxiety scores decreased statistically significantly in the acupressure group (38.30 ± 4.45) compared with the control group (52.48 ± 7.30) (P < .001). Acupressure reduced the preoperative acute anxiety suffered by the participating pregnant women.


A general game between market and investor is studied and properties which are based on the notion of Nash equilibrium are derived. The results have the potential to unify and simplify previous research. As an illustration, a problem of calibration in a simple model of stock price development is treated.


This article reexamines the performance of private equity (PE) funds by including data from more recent PE vintages and by using a measure of PE performance that considers the opportunity cost that investors incur between the commitment and capital call dates and the duration of PE investment. The primary results indicate that 1) buyout funds have better standalone long-term risk–return characteristics than public equity markets and they perform counter-cyclically to public equity markets; 2) when venture funds are combined with buyout funds, the resulting mix provides a more attractive alternative to public equity markets than buyout funds alone provide; and 3) venture funds' higher absolute returns as compared to buyout funds and public equity markets are restricted to a few vintages and a small number of big winners in those vintages. Other findings suggest that a manager's past PE fund performance is a weak basis for forecasting future PE fund performance and that fund size is positively correlated with performance for venture funds but negatively correlated with performance for buyout funds.


The ability of a number of p-nitrophenylethyl, alkyl phenylalkyl, chloroalkyl, and aminoalkyl phosphonates to inhibit the homocytotropic antibody-mediated release of histamine from rat peritoneal mast cells has been tested. The effectiveness of these same phosphonates against the activated first component of rat complement (C'1a) has also been investigated. The rat mast cell esterase activated by the reaction of antigen and homocytotropic antibody resembles chymotrypsin in its reactivity with the phenylalkyl and chloroalkyl phosphonate, but is unlike this protease in its greater responsiveness to the 5-aminopentyl phosphonate relative to the pentyl phosphonate. The antigen-homocytotropic antibody-activated mast cell esterase and chymotrypsin, thus, appear to be similar, but different enzymes; i.e., they are parazymes (see reference 4, p. 501). There are distinct differences in the pattern of inhibition given by the phenylalkyl and aminoalkyl and alkyl phosphonates of the homocytotropic antibody-mediated histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells and from guinea pig lung slices. On the basis of these differences it is concluded that the esterases activated by the combination of antigen and homocytotropic antibody on the mast cells of the two species are not the same. The arithmetic dose response curve found for the action of the phosphonates on the antigen-induced histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells contrasted sharply with the logarithmic relationship found when these same inhibitors acted on the guinea pig lung system. This suggests that in addition to the antigen-antibody-activated esterases being unlike, the detailed mode of histamine release from the mast cells of the guinea pig lung differs from that of the mast cells of the rat peritoneum. Distinct and large differences were found in the pattern of inhibition of histamine release from rat peritoneal mast cells and of rat C'1a given by the phenylalkyl, and chloroalkyl and alkyl phosphonates implying that esterase activated by the combination of antigen with the sensitized rat peritoneal mast cells is not C'1a. Thus, the results with the peritoneal mast cells lead to the same conclusion as the previous work with guinea pig lung slices; i.e., the antigen-antibody-activated esterase involved in the homocytotropic antibody-mediated release of histamine is not part of the complement system.


OBJECTIVE
To define the contribution of HLA genes other than HLA-B27 in conferring susceptibility to ankylosing spondylitis (AS), through analysis of HLA-B27 haplotypes in Sardinian subjects.

METHODS
Ninety-eight patients with AS, 133 HLA-B27-positive controls (of whom 33 were positive for HLA-B*2709), and 190 randomly selected controls were genotyped for microsatellites and single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the HLA region.

RESULTS
Haplotypes carrying either the B*2705 or the B*2709 allele were found to share a conserved region downstream of the HLA-B gene and a functional polymorphism in the HLA-E gene (R128G), while differing in all other markers. Notably, the presence of an A at SNP rs1264457, encoding for Arg-128, was significantly increased in the cohort of patients (P = 6 x 10(-6), corrected P = 3 x 10(-5)) but not in B*2705- or B*2709-positive controls. Comparing the alleles co-occurring at each HLA marker, we identified a region differentiating patients with AS and B*2705-matched controls. In particular, there was a markedly increased prevalence of heterozygosity at rs1264457 among B27-positive controls (74%, versus 47% in patients and 54% in random controls), suggesting a protective role of G128 in AS. Moreover, other markers around the HLA-B gene were also differentially represented.

CONCLUSION
These results demonstrate a significant difference in the frequency of some HLA markers between AS patients and B*2705-positive controls, which could be attributed to the opposite chromosome. In particular, the differential distribution of a functional polymorphism in the HLA-E gene suggests a possible role of natural killer function in AS pathogenesis.


Recent surveys have identified a seemingly ubiquitous population of galaxies with elevated [O iii]/Hβ emission line ratios at z > 1, although the nature of this phenomenon continues to be debated. The [O iii]/Hβ line ratio is of interest because it is a main component of the standard diagnostic tools used to differentiate between active galactic nuclei and star-forming galaxies as well as the gas-phase metallicity indicators O23 and R23. Here, we investigate the primary driver of increased [O iii]/Hβ ratios by median-stacking rest-frame optical spectra for a sample of star-forming galaxies in the 3D-HST survey in the redshift range z ∼ 1.4–2.2. Using N = 4220 star-forming galaxies, we stack the data in bins of mass and specific star formation rates (sSFRs), respectively. After accounting for stellar Balmer absorption, we measure [O iii]λ5007 Å/Hβ down to M ∼ 109.2 M⊙ and sSFR ∼ 10−9.6 yr−1, greater than an order of magnitude lower than previous work at similar redshifts. We find an offset of 0.59 ± 0.05 dex between the median ratios at z ∼ 2 and z ∼ 0 at fixed stellar mass, in agreement with existing studies. However, with respect to sSFR, the z ∼ 2 stacks all lie within 1σ of the median SDSS ratios, with an average offset of only −0.06 ± 0.05. We find that the excitation properties of galaxies are tightly correlated with their sSFR at both z ∼ 2 and z ∼ 0, with a relation that appears to be roughly constant over the last 10 Gyr of cosmic time.


Abstract Objective LGBT older adults and older people living with HIV (PLWH) experience a disproportionate burden of behavioral health conditions compared to their heterosexual, cisgender, and HIV-negative peers. This study intends to systematically review the literature regarding accessing mental health care among LGBT older adults and older PLWH. Methods This study was conducted according to the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) Statement framework. Three databases were searched using Boolean search strings, and inclusion/exclusion criteria were developed and applied to the search outcomes to appropriately narrow results. Article quality and evidence of bias were evaluated using the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI) quality-assessment tool, and the Critical Appraisal Skills Program (CASP) assessment tool, two instruments used to help reviewers in assessing for internal validity of studies. Two independent researchers coded the articles for themes, and consensus was reached on theme grouping through an iterative process. Results Out of 2,031 articles initially screened, 28 met all inclusion criteria and advanced to final analysis. Several key themes emerged, including a lack of provider competency in caring for LGBT patients, lower rates of insurance coverage, greater mental health burden, social and structural determinants of health, policy solutions, and technology and health literacy. Conclusion There were several domains identified in the literature as barriers to accessing mental healthcare, as well as opportunities to better attend to the mental health needs of these populations. Provider training, implementing health technology solutions, and enacting public policy changes could improve mental health outcomes.


The concept of an air‐gap insulated piston has been explored using bolted and welded/roll bonded designs. Pistons with bolted‐on crowns demonstrated the effectiveness of air gap insulation, but roll bonded and welded designs were found to be more robust and to provide the complete sealing of the air gap necessary for continued insulation. Evolution of the design to combine high insulation with adequate durability is discussed. Engine running times of up to 200 hours at full load have been achieved for an air gap piston which reduces heat flow to the crown by 33 per cent. An improved design giving 41 per cent reduction of heat flow has been tested for 78 hours at full engine load with no evident deterioration. Development is continuing to provide a fully durable piston achieving up to 50 per cent reduction in heat flow.


In order to utilize the waste steel slag effectively, three kinds of alkaline activator such as Na2SO4, Na2SiO3, Na2CO3 were used to prepare steel slag cementitious material and measure its strength of 28 days and 60 days in the standard wet conditions. Microcosmic structure form of hydration products of cementitious material was analyzed by the test of SEM. The results indicate that: three activators on the strength of steel slag all have certain stimulation effect, and Na2SO4 has the apparent stimulation effect on the strength of steel slag, the analysis and test of SEM also shows that hydration products structure form of steel slag cementitious material added with Na2SO4 is much more than other two activators and is more helpful to improve steel slag strength.


Most existing work on adversarial data generation focuses on English. For example, PAWS (Paraphrase Adversaries from Word Scrambling) consists of challenging English paraphrase identification pairs from Wikipedia and Quora. We remedy this gap with PAWS-X, a new dataset of 23,659 human translated PAWS evaluation pairs in six typologically distinct languages: French, Spanish, German, Chinese, Japanese, and Korean. We provide baseline numbers for three models with different capacity to capture non-local context and sentence structure, and using different multilingual training and evaluation regimes. Multilingual BERT fine-tuned on PAWS English plus machine-translated data performs the best, with a range of 83.1-90.8 accuracy across the non-English languages and an average accuracy gain of 23% over the next best model. PAWS-X shows the effectiveness of deep, multilingual pre-training while also leaving considerable headroom as a new challenge to drive multilingual research that better captures structure and contextual information.


Voice Navigation of web spaces has become a reality in the last few years, partly due to the rapid adoption of VoiceXML and the increase in communication quality and computing power of cell-phones. This report discusses some of the approaches on how to convert the web content to a way that could be used from a voice-enabled phone. These approaches have different pros and cons when it comes to the usability of the voice-navigation of web spaces. This report discusses our work to produce voice navigation of web spaces placing usability as the highest criteria. We have designed of a voice user interface for pages with a fixed structure and user-specified content, such as My Yahoo! pages. For these types of pages, we have defined the voice navigation strategy that we will use and conducted an initial usability study on this navigation strategy. From the usability study we have obtained validation for some of our approaches, and learned some new concepts in voice navigation as well. With our findings, we are defining annotation tags that can be used to produce highly usable web pages over a phone user interface. In this paper we describe our initial study and the findings of the study.


A single dose of a new broad-spectrum anthelmintic, uredofos, was more effective than single doses of either bunamidine hydrochloride (HCI) or niclosamide in removing natural infections of Dipylidium coninum from pound dogs, as determined by necropsy examination for scolices. The efficacy of uredofos was equal to that of bunamidine HCI and exceeded that of niclosamide in removing Taenia spp from his host. All of 12 dogs harboring D caninum and all of 5 dogs harboring Taenia spp were completely cleared of tapeworm infection following treatment with uredofos at 50 mg/kg of body weight. Bunamidine HCl cleared 9 of 11 dogs (82%) of D caninum and 5 of 5 dogs of Taenia spp. Niclosamide had the least anticestodal activity of the 3 drugs; 2 or more scolices of D caninum were found at necropsy in each of 12 dogs treated with this drug. Four of 5 dogs were cleared of Taenia spp following niclosamide therapy. Untreated control dogs did not shed tapeworms of either species during a 3-day period of posttreatment fecal collections, but did have tapeworms at the time of necropsy.


Of the remaining GOP presidential candidates, only John Kasich and Marco Rubio have rejected the idea of a gold standard. Is the U.S. better off linking its money supply to a global commodity market or allowing an independent central bank to respond to economic conditions? International economics fellow Russell Green explains.


Most universities where students study informational technologies and computer science have an introductory course dealing with the development and design of databases. These courses often include usage of database design tools. In this paper, the #EER tool is presented, the task of which is to make the process of relational databases design easier for the students and partially automatize it. The tool evolved due to the experience in using similar tools for educational purposes. It enables fast and efficient development of the relational database conceptual model and its automatized compilation into a relational model and further to data definition language (DDL) commands. #EER tool is based on the extended entity-relationship (EER) model for conceptual modeling of relational databases. Modular architecture of the tool, the development of which is based on the usage of the design patterns, along with the benefits that its usage brings, is also presented.


Sir: I read with interest the excellent review on amyloidosis in rheumatic diseases by Dhillon et al.' In Israel we have had an opportunity to witness the outstanding results obtained with colchicine in preventing amyloidosis in familial Mediterranean fever2 and the relative safety of this drug. Furthermore, there are some reports on the beneficial effect of colchicine in primary amyloidosis3 and secondary amyloidosis of ulcerative colitis.4 There is also experimental evidence that colchicine inhibits amyloid synthesis.5 As stated by Dhillon, children with systemic onset, juvenile chronic arthritis and persistent disease activity are at high risk for developing amyloidosis. I feel, therefore, that, at least in this high risk group, treatment with colchicine should be added in an attempt to prevent this life threatening complication.


: As growing numbers of health care organizations institute quality improvement programs, the demand within these organizations for reliable information about customers increases. By establishing a customer information system (CIS)--a model for collecting, archiving, and accessing customer information--health care organizations can eliminate the duplication of research, ensure that customer information is properly collected and interpreted, and provide decision makers access to better, more reliable customer information. Customer-supplier relationships are defined, guidelines for determining information needs are provided, and ways to set up and manage a CIS are suggested.


ABSTRACT Understanding when, to what extent, and in which contexts high-profile police actions influence trust in and legitimacy of the police is important because police perceptions are associated with cooperation, compliance and, eventually, trust in the state itself. The current study uses a quasi-experimental design to assess changes in public attitudes toward the police after the violent police dispersal of a protest movement against a new railway station project in Stuttgart on 30 September 2010. We found little to no change in several dimensions of perceptions of police and legitimacy, specifically measures of trust in police, moral alignment, procedural fairness, and obligation to obey the police. However, respondents interviewed after the event saw the police as more unduly influenced by political pressure. The results suggest that the impact of high-profile incidents of police violence may depend on institutional context, media response, and post-incident reconciliation strategies.


Thin-section analysis, field emission scanning electron microscopy, constant-rate mercury injection (CRMI), x-ray–computed tomography (X-CT), and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) were used to investigate pore systems, pore sizes, and pore-throat distributions and determine evaluation criteria for tight oil reservoirs. This research shows that the average porosity of the reservoirs in the Chang 63 to Chang 72 Members of the Yanchang Formation of the Ordos Basin ranges from 4% to 16%, with a corresponding average permeability of 0.1 to 0.4 md. The main pore types in these tight oil reservoirs are dissolution pores and intergranular pores, and the main pore-throat types are laminated throats and control-shaped throats. Based on experimental results, the pore-throat distributions differ among different testing techniques. The results of this study indicate that a combination of CRMI-derived and X-CT–detected pore-throat distributions is most suitable for calibrating NMR-derived pore sizes over the full range of pore sizes. The lower pore-throat radius limit of effective reservoirs is 0.24 μm, and the lower permeability limit for the flow of movable fluid is 0.008 md. Based on a cluster analysis, the studied tight oil reservoirs can be divided into three types. Compared with type III reservoirs (porosity 11% and permeability > 0.15 md) and type II (8% < porosity < 11% and 0.05 md < permeability < 0.15 md) reservoirs are of relatively good quality.


Following recent results [10] showing the importance of the fat-shattering dimension in explaining the beneficial effect of a large margin on generalization performance, the current paper investigates how the margin on a test example can be used to give greater certainty of correct classification in the distribution independent model. Hence, generalization analysis is possible at three distinct phases, a priori using a standard pac analysis, after training based on properties of the chosen hypothesis [10], and finally in this paper at testing based on properties of the test example. The results also show that even if the classifier does not classify all of the training examples correctly, the fact that a new example has a larger margin than that on the misclassified test examples, can be used to give very good estimates for the generalization performance in terms of the fat-shattering dimension measured at a scale proportional to the excess margin. The estimate relies on a sufficiently large number of the correctly classified training examples having a margin roughly equal to that used to estimate generalization, indicating that the corresponding output values need to be "well sampled."


This thesis examines the five building campaigns undertaken by the Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul between 1805 and 1932 in Montreal, beginning with the first St. Andrew's Church which opened in 1807; its second genesis in 1851; the first St. Paul's, opened in 1834 and relocated in 1868; and the present Church of St. Andrew and St. Paul, on the corner of Sherbrooke and Redpath streets, completed in 1932. The thesis contains a chapter in the form of catalogue raisonne on the history and provenance of the church's memorials (dating from 1870-1948), including eighteen stained glass windows and examples of ornamental metal work and textiles. Most of these memorials were incorporated into the current church building from the earlier churches. In addition to the topic's inherent interest, this study contributes to an understanding of architectural practice and social history in Montreal during this 125 year period and provides a model for future research


Abstract Background Acute coronary syndrome (ACS) is rarely caused by coronary artery disease in young patients unless cardiovascular risk factors are present. Although non-atherosclerotic causes of ACS are rare, they need to be considered in young patients. Case summary We report on a 21-year-old patient referred to our institution with ACS. Electrocardiogram showed ST-segment elevation and coronary angiography revealed thrombotic occlusion of the left anterior descending artery. Reperfusion was achieved by thrombus aspiration, glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors (GPI), and drug-eluting stent (DES). The patient had no cardiovascular risk factors but reported cannabis consumption before symptom onset. Although he was put on dual antiplatelet therapy and strictly advised to avoid consumption, he continued to abuse cannabis and suffered three further ACS events within 18 months: the first 8 months later caused by thrombotic occlusion of a diagonal branch treated by GPI and DES, the second after 17 months due to thrombotic re-occlusion of the diagonal branch, and the third after 18 months by thrombotic occlusion of the circumflex artery, both events treated by GPI alone (all while still using cannabis). Since then, he stopped cannabis consumption and has been symptom-free for 8 months. Discussion This case highlights that cannabis-induced ACS must be considered as a cause of myocardial infarction in young adults. In contrast to ACS in the elderly population, this unusual ACS cause requires specific treatment. The risk of ACS relapse may substantial if cannabis abuse is continued. This potential hazard needs to be taken into consideration when legalization of cannabis is discussed.


In the past years, native mass spectrometry (MS) has gained attention in research and also industry. The technique can provide information on mass, topology, binding affinity or stability and dynamics of macromolecular structures. With ion mobility (IM) even conformational changes can be monitored. With this technique, viral protein complexes involved in capsid formation were analysed. These nanocontainers enclose the genome in viruses. Even though studied for decades, many questions remain, for example, whether the capsid assembly proceeds to completion. For Hepatitis B virus (HBV), charge state distributions could be resolved for the two capsid species. The assigned masses of ~ 3 and 4 MDa (standard deviation below 0.1%) were in agreement with completely assembled capsids consisting of 90 or 120 dimers as also confirmed by collision induced dissociation (CID). The two HBV capsids have similar internal energies in the gas phase enabling a direct comparison of their stability in CID. Interestingly, the smaller assembly exhibited a higher resistance to CID in agreement with previous mutagenesis studies. However, the mechanical properties of the two geometries were similar in atomic force microscopy (AFM) enforcing that the relation between gas phase and in solution stability is not trivial. Furthermore, theoretical models predicted exchange of dimers between capsids and free ones in solution. I monitored the dynamic incorporation of isotopically labelled dimers into preassembled HBV capsids using CID on selected species. A slow exchange occurred over months exclusively at low temperatures and independent of solution pH, but only in the smaller capsids. IMMS provides structural information at low resolution and is often combined with computational modelling. The question arises to which degree structures are preserved in the gas phase. For the large viral assemblies, shape determination in IMMS was possible with some adjustments. Remarkably, the HBV capsids exhibit a vacuum shape consistent with the hollow spheres observed in electron microscopy or AFM and with dimensions modelled for the two species. Of special interest to vaccine and drug development are viral assembly and disassembly pathways. We found that the norovirus, causing viral gastroenteritis, shows a complex albeit reversible dissociation and reassociation behaviour dependent on pH and ionic strength. The detected oligomers including a 60-mer, an 80-mer and the 180-mer capsid likely interconverted via dimers. Surprisingly, the 60-mer and 80-mer also resembled hollow capsid-like structures in IMMS and AFM. The extraordinarily high sensitivity in IMMS enabled studies on norovirus and also HBV oligomers, which are inaccessible by common techniques in structural biology. Comparison of data on the viral intermediates and globular protein complexes as well as modelled results indicated that the intermediates have extended structures as in assembled capsids. Further analysis provided insights into the priming of and a common pathway for assembly in both viruses. In this thesis, I have shown that the structure, stability and dynamics of protein complexes even in the megadalton range can be analysed by native MS in combination with IM and modelling. Next to the implications for structural biology or virology, these methods hold high potential in nanotechnology


We present the CT and MR imaging findings in acute methanol intoxication in a 35-year-old man who was admitted to the emergency department with weakness, blurred vision, mild bilateral areactive mydriasis, and a progressive decrease in the level of consciousness. CT and MR imaging showed bilateral putaminal hemorrhagic necrosis and subcortical white matter lesions with peripheral contrast enhancement. There was only partial improvement in patient's Glasgow Coma Scale score during follow-up.


Atmospheric pitting corrosion of austenitic stainless steels 304L and 316L under droplets of MgCl2 have been studied under conditions of relevance to long-term storage of nuclear waste containers using automated deposition of arrays of droplets.

The effect of microstructure on the morphology of atmospheric corrosion pits in 304L stainless steel plate was investigated. The presence of retained delta ferrite was found to influence the morphology of pits. Ferrite bands were preferentially attacked, and pits were found to have layered attack morphology dependent on the rolling direction and plane of the metal surface.
Solution annealing of stainless steel resulted in ferrite reduction and formation of faceted pits.

Pits can grow with an initial shallow dish, which may propagate via 'earring' or small satellite pits. The size and morphology were seen to vary with exposure humidity, chloride deposition density and distance from the droplet edge.

Pits propagated readily above chloride densities of ~10-4 µg/cm2, depending on alloy and exposure time. Below this value much smaller pits were observed due to a discontinuous solution layer.

The formation of secondary spreading and micro-droplet formation was observed for MgCl2 droplets on stainless steel when pits form close to or at the droplet edge. Small pits developed beneath these micro-droplets at lower humidities.

This work provides a basis to make recommendations for long-term storage conditions of intermediate nuclear waste (ILW) in order to minimise the risk of pitting corrosion.


OBJECTIVE
Substance use in adulthood compromises work, relationships, and health. Prevention strategies in early adolescence are designed to reduce substance use and progressions to problematic use by adulthood. This report examines the long-term effects of offering Family Check-up (FCU) at multiple time points in secondary education on the progression of substance use from age 11 to 23 years.

METHOD
Participants (N = 998; 472 females) were randomly assigned individuals to intervention or control in Grade 6 and offered a multilevel intervention that included a classroom-based intervention (universal), the FCU (selected), and tailored family management treatment (indicated). Among intervention families, 23% engaged in the selected and indicated levels during middle school.

RESULTS
Intention to treat analyses revealed that randomization to the FCU was associated with reduced growth in marijuana use (p < .05), but not alcohol and tobacco use. We also examined whether engagement in the voluntary FCU services moderated the effect of the intervention on substance use progressions using complier average causal effect (CACE) modeling, and found that engagement in the FCU services predicted reductions in alcohol, tobacco, and marijuana use by age 23. In comparing engagers with nonengagers: 70% versus 95% showed signs of alcohol abuse or dependence, 28% versus 61% showed signs of tobacco dependence, and 59% versus 84% showed signs of marijuana abuse or dependence.

CONCLUSION
Family interventions that are embedded within public school systems can reach high-risk students and families and prevent progressions from exploration to problematic substance use through early adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record


This paper presents two new circuit topologies of DC busline series active snubber assisted soft switching PWM full-bridge DC-DC power converter acceptable for either utility AC 200 V-rms or AC 400 V-rms input voltage source. Proposed power converters are composed of a typical voltage source full-bridge high frequency PWM inverter using DC busline side series switching devices with the aid of a parallel capacitive lossless snubber. All the active power switches in the full-bridge arms and DC busline can achieve ZCS turn-on and ZVS turn-off commutation operation and consequently the total turn-off switching losses can be significantly reduced. As a result, a high switching frequency for used IGBTs can be actually realized more than about 20 kHz. It is proved that the more the switching frequency of full-bridge inverter increases, the more soft switching PWM DC-DC power converter with a high frequency transformer link has remarkable advantages for its power conversion efficiency and power density as compared with the conventional hard switching PWM inverter type DC-DC converter. The effectiveness of this new converter topology is proved for low voltage and large current DC-DC power supplies as arc welding machine from a practical point of view


Background Diffusion tensor cardiovascular magnetic resonance (DT-CMR) is a non-invasive technique that has been histologically validated to provide information on the microstructure of the myocardium.1–3 There is a standard helical myocyte arrangement in the situs solitus (SS) heart, as viewed from the apex; left-handed in the epicardium, circumferential in the mesocardium and right-handed in the endocardium. This generates the opposing basal clockwise rotation and apical anticlockwise rotation necessary for torsion.4 However in situs inversus totalis (SIT) there is mirror image arrangement of the visceral organs. There are no histological studies assessing how myocardial microstructure is affected in SIT. DT-CMR offers a unique opportunity to evaluate the microstructural abnormalities in SIT. Methods 12 SIT patients and 12 matched healthy volunteers were scanned in a 3T Siemens Skyra scanner. DT-CMR was performed at peak systole in the short axis at base, mid and apex. 2 people had whole heart tractography. A STEAM sequence with bmain=600 s/mm2 and bref=150 s/mm2 was used, as previously described.3 Strain and torsion assessment was performed using DENSE5. Results Patients were age and sex-matched (SIT 39.5 and SS 34.5 years, 3/12 male). Myocyte organisation at base, mid and apex was significantly different in SIT hearts compared to the SS hearts. Figure 1 shows example tractography. In SS, the endocardial positive helix angle (HA) progressed to a negative HA in the epicardium. In SIT hearts this pattern was inverted at the base and approached normal at the apex, with a mid-ventricular transition zone. Abstract 18 Figure 1 Tractography of a SIT and SS heart. Mid-ventricular peak radial and circumferential strain were reduced in SIT (0.4±0.16 vs 0.56±0.16, p=0.02, and −0.16±0.02 vs −0.18±0.01 p=0.04 respectively). Peak absolute torsion was reduced in SIT 3.6° [3.6°] vs 8.0° [3.5°]. Conclusion This is the first human DT-CMR study of SIT hearts. We demonstrate that the SIT heart has an inverted myocyte orientation at the base that approaches normal towards the apex. Peak absolute torsion is reduced. Peak radial and circumferential strain are also reduced at the mid-ventricle. The deranged microstructure in SIT has functional effects, the long-term outcomes of which require further study. References . Reese TG, Weisskoff RM, Smith RN, et al. Imaging myocardial fibre architecture in vivo with magnetic resonance. Magn Reson Med 1995;34(6):786–791. Scollan DF, Holmes A, Winslow R, et al. Histological validation of myocardial microstructure obtained from diffusion tensor magnetic resonance imaging. Am J Physiol Heart Circ Physiol1998;275(6):H2308–H2318. Nielles-Vallespin S, Khalique Z, Ferreira PF,et al. Assessment of Myocardial Microstructural Dynamics by In Vivo Diffusion Tensor Cardiac Magnetic Resonance. J Am Coll Cardiol2017;69(6):661–676. SenguptaPP, Tajik AJ, Chandrasekaran K, et al. Twist Mechanics of the Left Ventricle: Principles and Application. JACC: Cardiovascular Imaging2008;1(3):366– 376. Scott AD, Tayal U, Nielles-Vallespin S, et al. Accelerating cine DENSE using a zonal excitation. J Cardiov Magn Reson 2016;18(1):O50.


The aim of this study was to investigate the acid-base balance parameters in blood of sportsmen by physical activity. Before exercise lactate concentration in blood was normal. Carbon dioxide pressure (рСО2), bicarbonate concentration (НСО3 -), base excess (BE), were increased immediately after physical activity lactate concentration increased, while pH, BE, НСО3 -, рСО2 decreased in capillary blood of sportsmen. These changes show the development of lactate-acidosis which is partly compensated with bicarbonate buffering system and respiratory alkalosis. During postexercise recovery lactate concentration decreased, while рСО2, НСО3 -, BE increased. The results of this study can be used for diagnostics of acid-base disorders and their medical treatment for preservation of sportsmen physical capacity.


In the 1970's two Russian sisters wrote their memoirs of working with Albert Einstein and Ludwig Wittgenstein in long essays published in the trans Atlantic literary journal, Encounter.  The intimacy of their experience with both men conflicts with the public image of misogynists given to callous expressions of their prejudice. The Polianowski sisters, Esther and Fania, had suffered the indignities of being born female at the fin de siecle despite the progressive attitude to the education of women in the Ukraine. They were cynical but tolerant of sexual discrimination perhaps because their lives had been torn apart by the greater terror of anti-Semitism that had driven them across Europe. It was their Jewish identity and suffering that inspired some significant intellectuals to befriend them including Dr Redcliffe Salaman, Frances Cornford and Shlomo Bardin, and brought them into the circle of the scholars they married.  That they had independently escaped and survived inspired awe even in a man like Einstein. The Polianowski women were included in academic circles at Cambridge University between the wars, and they found meaningful work teaching Russian, and married professors Myer Salaman and Roy Pascal.  Using a comparative historical approach to the life and writing of Esther Salaman and Fania Pascal, this article demonstrates that Jewish identity moderated gender bias among significant intellectuals in the 20th century giving marginalised women a measure of opportunity. However, it was limited opportunity. The Polianowski women did not achieve the careers they respectively planned in physics and philosophy, and their contribution as writers is not well recognised.


This thesis project is focusing on the modeling, optimization and control analysis of a debutanizer column using Aspen PLUS and Aspen Dynamics. A complex mixture of hydrocarbons contained a different range of hydrogen and carbon from C2 until nC8 was fed into the debutanizer column for the separation process. There are two products coming out from this distillation column; the light-end hydrocarbons (C2-C4) and the heavier-end hydrocarbons (C5+). The C2-C4 became the desired product for debutanizer column which required to be separated from the mixed hydrocarbons. This C2-C4 was removed from distillate stream as an overhead product. Meanwhile, the C5+ was removed from the bottoms stream as a bottoms product.

The target of this project was to recover 90% of butane (C4) and maximum 5 mol% of pentane (C5) composition in the distillate stream. This target was achieved at the end of the project by obtaining approximately 91.1% of C4 recovery and 4.039 mol% of C5 in the distillate stream. Therefore, it concluded the recovery of C5 in the bottoms stream was 90.3%.

The debutanizer model was firstly constructed in the Aspen PLUS for steady-state simulation which relied on several specifications of the column and the criteria of the process. The simulation of this separation process was designed using rigorous distillation column simulator, RadFrac. A comparison of physical property methods between Peng-Robinson and RK-Soave were investigated by considering the same theoretical stages in each configuration. Then, the final type of property model was selected depending on the lowest offset from industrial data. A sensitivity analysis was performed to simulate the column within a range of the parameter, and an optimization problem was formulated to be solved.

The steady-state flowsheet generated in Aspen PLUS was exported into Aspen Dynamics to simulate the column in dynamic simulation. The debutanizer system has multiple input variables to control the multiple output variables. Therefore, the relative gain array (RGA) analysis was calculated based on the steady-state gain obtained from open loop transfer functions to find the best pairing of input-output. The conventional Proportional-Integral (PI) and cascade control were implemented into the debutanizer column and both control required to be tuned. Therefore, a relay auto-tuning in Aspen Dynamics was used to determine the ultimate period (Pu) and ultimate gain (KCU) of each process. Then, the controller parameters could be calculated using Ziegler-Nichols method.

The control strategy was carried out to observe the process response towards changes of set-point and to analyze the relationships between the process variables (PV) and manipulated variables (MV). The disturbance rejection was performed to determine the success of established control scheme. At the end of the project, multiple comparisons were made between the results obtained from Aspen PLUS and Aspen Dynamics with the literature papers.

Overall, all thesis objectives were completed, and the purpose of the debutanizer column to be simulated in Aspen PLUS and Aspen Dynamics were successful.


: Medullary thyroid carcinoma (MTC) originates in the thyroid C cells, or parafollicular cells, secreting calcitonin. It may be either sporadic or familial. Familial form can be isolated or expression of a multiple endocrine neoplasia type II. Mutations of the RET proto-oncogene have been identified in the germline DNA of patients with familial MTC syndromes. Genetic testing can identify patients affected by multiple endocrine neoplasia and familial MTC, allowing early diagnosis and possible cure. The initial treatment is surgical and the adequate surgery consists of total thyroidectomy. The treatment of occult or minimal disease can be curative. Plasma calcitonin measurements are excellent markers for post-operative follow-up. Imaging study can help to discover recurrent or metastatic disease. Adjunctive therapy includes radiotherapy and chemotherapy. Radiotherapy is reserved for bone metastases or for non resectable neck recurrences. Chemotherapy is reserved for patients with progressive MTC. Many chemotherapeutic regimens have been tried, results are controversial.


Abstract. Oceanic dissolved organic carbon (DOC) is one of the largest carbon reservoirs on Earth, and its distribution and behavior play important roles in carbon cycling and biogeochemical processes in the ocean. Here, we report distribution and concentrations of DOC for water samples collected from the shelf-edge and slope regions in East China Sea (ECS) and the Kuroshio Extension (KE) in the northwestern North Pacific (NP) during two cruises in 2014–2015. Concentrations of DOC were 45–88 µM in the ECS and 35–65 µM in the KE. In addition to biological processes, the distribution of DOC is largely controlled by hydrodynamic mixing of different water masses. The intrusion of Kuroshio Current could dilute DOC concentrations at stations in the outer shelf and slope ranges of the ECS. The inverse correlation of DOC with apparent oxygen utilization (AOU) suggests that DOC oxidation only contributes 18 % of the oxygen consumption in the ECS slope waters. In contrast, concentrations of DOC in the KE were significantly lower in surface waters, and a relatively low and stable DOC level (~ 40 µM) was found in deep waters. The observed spatial variations of DOC in the upper 700 m among the stations in the KE were largely influenced by the mixing of the two water masses carried by the two major western boundary currents: Kuroshio and Oyashio that mix and form the KE. The hydrodynamic processes play important roles not only in the distribution of DOC but nutrients as well, thus could have major impact to primary production and ecosystems in the KE region.


SUMMARY Fast starts are crucial in the survival of aquatic swimmers to capture prey or avoid predators. Currently, it is widely accepted that during C-starts: (1) the caudal fin generates a considerable hydrodynamic force; and (2) anal/dorsal fins are erected to significantly increase the hydrodynamic force. In this work, the above hypotheses on the role of fins during C-starts are studied using experimentally guided numerical simulations of four bluegill sunfish, whose fins are removed or erected. The amount of force created by the body and fins at each time instant was not constant and varied during the C-start. Nevertheless, in agreement with hypothesis (1), up to 70% of the instantaneous hydrodynamic force was generated by the tail during Stage 2 of the C-start, when the sunfish rapidly bends out of the C-shape. Additionally, the contribution in Stage 1, when the sunfish bends into a C-shape, is less than 20% at each instant. Most of the force in Stage 1 was produced by the body of the sunfish. In contrast to hypothesis (2), the effect of erection/removal of the fins was less than 5% of the instantaneous force in both Stages 1 and 2, except for a short period of time (2 ms) just before Stage 2. However, it is known that the anal/dorsal fins are actively controlled during the C-start from muscle activity measurements. Based on the results presented here, it is suggested that the active control of the anal/dorsal fins can be related to retaining the stability of the sunfish against roll and pitch movements during the C-start. Furthermore, the erection of the fins increases the moment of inertia to make the roll and pitch movements more difficult.


Ad-hoc networks are an emerging area of mobile computing and an efficient paradigm for multicast communication. The security challenges faced by the network due to their inherent unique characteristics are exacerbated in case of multicast communication. Group communication in ad hoc network is susceptible to a host of outsider and insider attacks. The security solutions proposed for the outsider attack cannot be directly applied to the insider attack due to their disparate behavior. The compromise of the authenticated and trusted node in the network by Sybil attack poses serious implications. Online auction has been taken as a case study to probe the effect of Sybil attack in the multicast communication, as it supports the formation of secure group. Sybil attack is an attack where an adversary illegitimately forges the identities of the other genuine node by disabling them after launching a DoS attack on it. Iolus framework, a supporter of creation of secure multicast distribution tree with Group Security Agent (GSA) is deployed with MAODV as the underlying protocol. The impact of the compromise of the GSA in the multicast tree by Sybil attack is analyzed with Packet Delivery Ratio as the Performance metric. Theoretical based simulated graphs are presented to analyze the performance of the adhoc network in the presence and absence of Sybil attack. Existing solutions have been discussed and their limitations are addressed by tweaking them to propose a CNIRL (Compromised Node Identity Revocation List).


Micropatterns of phenylsilsesquioxane thick films have been prepared by electrophoretic sol-gel deposition using ITO-coated substrates with a hydrophobic-hydrophilic patterned surface. After the electrophoretic deposition, phenylsilsesquioxane thick films were formed only on hydrophilic areas on the pattern. These thick films obtained immediately after the electrophoretic deposition were opaque due to light scattering. However, phenylsilsesquioxane particles in the films were morphologically changed from aggregates of the spherical particles to continuous phase by a heat treatment process, and finally convex shaped phenylsilsesquioxane micropatterns were formed only on the hydrophilic areas.


We have investigated the effect of adhesion to fibronectin (Fn) on the survival of eosinophils in culture. Peripheral blood eosinophils from normal human donors were separated by immunomagnetic selection and cultured in RPMI on Fn- (100 micrograms/ml) coated microtiter plates for up to 96 h. Survival was measured by trypan blue exclusion. There was a significant enhancement of eosinophil survival with Fn as compared with both bovine serum albumin-coated and uncoated wells (p < 0.05-0.01). Fn-induced eosinophil survival was comparable to that obtained with exogenous interleukin 3 (IL-3) or granulocyte/macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF) and was inhibitable by antibodies against Fn, very late antigen 4 (VLA-4), IL-3, and GM-CSF. Supernatants from Fn-, but not BSA-coated wells contained picogram amounts of IL-3 and GM-CSF, and eosinophils cultured on Fn for 24 h expressed mRNA for GM-CSF as determined by in situ hybridization. Therefore, Fn prolongs eosinophil survival in culture by triggering autocrine generation of cytokines by eosinophils. Since neutrophils lack VLA-4, this could provide a partial explanation for the preferential accumulation of eosinophils at sites of allergic inflammation, as well as the predominant tissue localization of eosinophils in healthy individuals.


This study determined the radiopacity of 21 commercially available direct esthetic restorative materials with reference to an aluminum step wedge and an equivalent thickness of enamel and dentin. A total of 168 samples measuring 6 mm in diameter and 1 mm in thickness, with eight samples of each material, were prepared from restorative materials. Enamel and dentin samples 1-mm thick were also prepared by longitudinally sectioning eight extracted human permanent molars using a microslicing machine. The optical densities of each restorative material, along with one tooth section and an aluminum step wedge were measured from radiographic images using a transmission photodensitometer. The optical density values of the specimens were used to determine the aluminum thickness equivalent values. The data were analyzed with one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) and Duncan's multiple range tests. The results showed statistically significant differences among materials. Tetric Ceram had the greatest radiopacity value and was higher than enamel. All materials except for the microfilled resin composite Filtek A 110 had radiopacity values greater than dentin and possessed sufficient radiopacity to meet ISO 4049 standard. Significant differences were found among materials of the same composition when compared to enamel.


With the development of learning-based embedding models, embedding vectors are widely used for analyzing and searching unstructured data. As vector collections exceed billion-scale, fully managed and horizontally scalable vector databases are necessary. In the past three years, through interaction with our 1200+ industry users, we have sketched a vision for the features that next-generation vector databases should have, which include long-term evolvability, tunable consistency, good elasticity, and high performance.
 We present Manu, a cloud native vector database that implements these features. It is difficult to integrate all these features if we follow traditional DBMS design rules. As most vector data applications do not require complex data models and strong data consistency, our design philosophy is to relax the data model and consistency constraints in exchange for the aforementioned features. Specifically, Manu firstly exposes the write-ahead log (WAL) and binlog as backbone services. Secondly, write components are designed as log publishers while all read-only analytic and search components are designed as independent subscribers to the log services. Finally, we utilize multi-version concurrency control (MVCC) and a delta consistency model to simplify the communication and cooperation among the system components. These designs achieve a low coupling among the system components, which is essential for elasticity and evolution. We also extensively optimize Manu for performance and usability with hardware-aware implementations and support for complex search semantics. Manu has been used for many applications, including, but not limited to, recommendation, multimedia, language, medicine and security. We evaluated Manu in three typical application scenarios to demonstrate its efficiency, elasticity, and scalability.


Ambient air is vital to the survival of human and animals. The composition of ambient air varies depending on the elevation above sea level as well as human factors such as the level of pollution. The ambient air quality therefore is directly affected by the activities of people. Ambient air within the vicinity of cow rearing sites of Shadawanka and Obienu Barracks Bauchi, Nigeria was assessed between the month of February and March, 2018 using Standard methods with some modifications.  The study has provided estimate of some gases as NH3 and H2S emitted by cows in Shadawanka and Obienu barracks Bauchi. The result from the transmittance revealed that higher mean level of transmittance of NH3 were observed in the sampling point B and minimum value at point C with the mean SD of 58.00± 0.638 and 2.4 ± 0.476 respectively. For H2S mean values of 89.93 ± 6.557 and 86.63 ± 3.377 with elevated values at sampling point A. NH3 absorbance ranged from 1.614 ± 0.014 to 0.432 ±0.423 across the study areas and the trend of H2S have maximum mean value of 0.046 ± 0.005 thus the pattern in sampling point C was irregular with sampling point A and sampling point B having the maximum mean value of NH3 absorbance of 0.075± 0.014 and 0.070 ± 0.015. NH3 concentration ranged from 134.13±1.147 to 50.93±0.200 mg/L across the study areas and H2S concentration of site 1, 2, 3 had the maximum mean value of 8.66 ± 2.802 mg/L in site C and the minimum mean value of 7.07± 1.351mg/L in site B. The result also showed the trends between the identified gaseous pollutants. However, the overall assessment of air quality in the area indicated a result that would be described as healthful. The levels of emission could further be mitigated by proper control of air quality within the study areas.
An assessment of indoor air quality must accentuate the creature point of view, which isn't really a similar domain where a human would feel good. Air quality attributes are significant in the zone where the creature is restricted.
 Creature wellbeing and solace are of essential worry in domesticated animals offices. All things considered, the creatures live in that condition the entire day while laborers visit intermittently for errands and examination. Despite the fact that the solace of laborers in the office ought not be ignored, it very well may be successfully constrained by different methods, for example, attire, as opposed to keeping the entire condition to human norms.
 When all is said in done, the warm safe places for grown-up domesticated animals are cooler than the human safe place. Temperature is by all accounts the fundamental natural distinction between agreeable domesticated animals versus human condition.

Residue and air contaminant levels that are satisfactory to creatures are not generally sensible for people, so defensive breathing veils might be essential for laborer security and solace. There might be extra structure concerns, for example, keeping temperatures above freezing, which can for the most part be suited while keeping up sufficient creature condition.
 Normally estimated air quality attributes identified with creature comfort incorporate temperature, stickiness, and velocity. These are handily estimated and generally describe the creature condition. Contaminant gases and residue are additionally significant components. Temperature of dividers and floors or cold air drafts will influence creature comfort.
Describing the ventilation framework that is answerable for some significant highlights of indoor air quality is alluring. This is the subject of Part III, Evaluating Mechanical Ventilation Systems. Framework attributes, for example, velocity through fans, pressure contrast the fan is working against, and velocity at gulf openings, are effortlessly estimated. Appropriate strategies in utilizing instruments are required to get esteems that really speak to the framework. Wind current representation is talked about as an apparatus to assess natural conditions and the ventilation framework's air dissemination.
Albeit exploratory examinations on lab creatures have been broadly used to consider components of air contamination related wellbeing effects, not many examinations have researched the impacts of air contamination on creature wellbeing in an epidemiologic setting. Pet animals have been utilized to contemplate malignant growth, lung sickness, and cerebrum variations from the norm comparable to urban air pollution or indoor exposures. Other examinations have explored impacts of poisonous gases, cleans and endotoxins inside ranch offices on domesticated animals health. We don't know about any investigation of the relationship between surrounding air contamination and animal mortality, aside from certain reports of pet and livestock passing's during notable air contamination episodes. In the 1870s, demise of cows during an animal's appear in England was related with a thick mechanical fog. In Belgium, dairy cattle kicked the bucket in the mist of and during the Meuse valley air contamination scene in 1930.
Indeed, even at current toxin levels, the connection between air contamination and overabundance horribleness and mortality stays, as appeared by various epidemiologic examinations utilizing human data. However, some discussion despite everything exists about the slack time frame related with these exposures, which may incorporate both collecting and deferred impacts, contributing contrastingly to the net total impacts. The gathering theory expresses that momentary increments in air contamination essentially abbreviate the life expectancy of delicate people, suggesting a transient constructive relationship among's introduction and every day passings, trailed by a shortfall in mortality at longer slacks.
Investigations of the relationship between air contamination and mortality in creature populaces can prove or educate epidemiologic examinations in people. The upsides of utilizing creatures as near models of human sickness accumulate to some degree from their relative opportunity from simultaneous exposures, predisposition because of frustrating, and, somewhat, introduction misclassification. Dairy bovines have a moderately long life expectancy, constrained populace fluctuation in way of life and dietary propensities, restricted geological versatility, and (incomplete) open air lodging. In addition, in numerous nations, livestock are dependent upon a severe obligatory enrollment system from birth till death, which is at the individual level for ruminants.


Global and Environmental variations together are responsible for differences in timing from one die to another for an ASIC design. The tried and tested method of corners and margins is still the dominant method in ASIC industry to assure the timing characteristics of a design. However, the increasing margins limit the scaling of maximum achievable frequency for a given die size, especially because of minimum pulse width violation. The importance of clock tree pulse-width variations due to global N-to-P mismatch is increasing with decreasing pulse width. To continue scaling the clock frequency, we may need to make application specific margins and corners. In this work, we have estimated the impact of pulse width variations on standard cells in a clock library using industrial models and spice simulations. We found that by unbalancing the first stage of a cell with respect to rise and fall edge in a multiple supply voltage design, we could halve the pulse width variations with minimal effect on delay and slew.


An elastic quartic twist theory has recently been proposed for chromonic liquid crystals, intended to overcome the paradoxical conclusions encountered by the classical Oseen-Frank theory when applied to droplets submerged in an isotropic fluid environment. However, available experimental data for chromonics confined to cylindrical cavities with degenerate planar anchoring on their lateral boundary can be explained equally well by both competing theories. This paper identifies a means to differentiate these theories both qualitatively and quantitatively. They are shown to predict quite different core defects for the twisted hedgehogs that chromonics generate when confined to a fixed spherical cavity with homeotropic anchoring. In the quartic twist theory, the defect core is estimated to be nearly one order of magnitude larger (tens of microns) than in the other and, correspondingly, the director field lines describe Archimedean spirals instead of logarithmic ones.


Engaging caregivers is an essential component of service for at-risk youth. Engagement has been described as specific behaviours (e.g. treatment participation) and attitudes (e.g. therapeutic alliance). Although best practices for working with suicidal youth includes involving parents in the assessment and crisis plan, there has been almost no research on the process that clinicians in outpatient settings use to engage parents of youth who exhibit risk for suicide. The purpose of this study was to document how clinicians in outpatient mental-health settings engaged parents following a youth suicide assessment. Twenty-four clinicians from the rural Midwestern USA took part in two focus groups to discuss typical interactions with parents following a suicide assessment. Analyses suggested that clinicians' engagement with parents included five major elements: (i) presenting difficult information; (ii) responding to parents' reactions; (iii) joining with parents; (iv) moving the parents towards concrete actions; and (v) addressing rural gun culture. The results are discussed within the context of Staudt's conceptual framework of engagement with caregivers of at-risk children. Implications for practice and research are discussed.


Export-platform foreign direct investment in which the affiliate's output is (largely) sold in third markets rather than in the parent or host markets has received empirical attention recently, but little theoretical analysis. This Paper is an attempt to make some sense of this phenomenon. We use a three-region model in which there are two identical, large, high-cost economies and a small low-cost economy. Pure export-platform production arises in a symmetric case, when a firm in each of the high-cost economies has a plant at home, and a plant in the low-cost country (the South) to serve the other high-cost country. This occurs when trade costs for intermediates (components) and plant-fixed costs are moderate and the South has a moderate cost advantage in assembly. Another interesting and empirically important case arises when there is trade liberalization between one of the high-cost countries and the small, low-cost country. The outside high-cost country may wish to build a branch plant inside the free trade area due to market size, but chooses the low-cost country on the basis of cost. Or a firm headquartered in the large country inside the free-trade area might build a single plant in its low-wage partner in order to serve their joint free-trade area and to export to the outside high-cost country.


A facile method was developed for completely transferring high quality monodisperse iron oxide nanocrystals from organic solvents to water. The as-prepared aqueous dispersions of iron oxide nanocrystals were extremely stable and could be functionalized for bioconjugation with biomolecules. These iron oxide nanocrystals showed negligible cytotoxicity to human breast cancer cells (SK-BR-3) and human dermal fibroblast cells. This method is general and versatile for many organic solvent-synthesized nanoparticles, including fluorescent semiconductor nanocrystals.


The civic status of female citizens in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is conceptualized as "enfranchised minorhood" which reflects the confined position of adult women as legal minors under the trusteeship of male kin in family law, criminal law, and nationality law. During and in the aftermath of the Uprisings that erupted throughout MENA in 2011, female lawyers in Morocco, Lebanon, and Kuwait allied with women's groups and pressured for reforms in patriarchal state laws. By 2015, reforms were manifest in criminal law; incremental in family law; and absent in nationality law. Theoretical conclusions based on comparative analysis of societal pressures in three states indicate that long historical trajectories are imperative for substantiating the expansion of female citizenship following the 2011 Uprisings. Additionally, the civic status of women in the MENA region is being strengthened under authoritarian monarchical rule in Kuwait and Morocco. A third finding is that pressures for reform have more visible reverberations in legal spheres with a clerical imprint such as family law and criminal law, while strengthened pressures in a secular legal sphere such as nationality law have been opposed more forcefully five years after the Uprisings.


"I wrote the first of a number of semiprose poems while possessed of an odd idea: that I was writing a kind of table and also writing things to put on the table, so I could see both the table and the things. I decided that I wanted a sturdier poem than the ones I'd been writing—a poem like that table, but maybe more like a box strong enough to contain some facts, as well as dreams, but with some holes through which the dreams and facts could escape. I thought such a poem would need to be uninhibited by line breaks, but I found 'freedom' difficult. Prose has as many expectations and rules binding it as free verse, maybe more. But these table-box poems were all I could write at the time. I just kept at it in a small notebook, mostly in the mornings before my husband and son had gotten up or the day had officially started, through some very clumsy stuff, until I felt I'd broken out of my narrative-prose impulses into something else, and then I read this quote from Baudelaire: 'Which of us, in his moments of ambition, has not dreamed of a poetic prose, musical, without rhythm and without rhyme, supple enough and rugged enough to adapt itself to the lyrical impulses of the soul . . . ?' And suddenly I had a much more interesting and worthy goal to attach to my experiments, which are ongoing." Laura Kasischke has published six collections of poetry (most recently Gardening in the Dark, Ausable Press, 2004) and four novels (most recently Be Mine, Harcourt, 2007). Her work has appeared in American Poetry Review, Poetry, The New Republic, Ploughshares, the Iowa Review and elsewhere. She teaches at the University of Michigan and lives in Chelsea, Michigan.


A 46-year-old white male patient in good general health presented with a bilateral conjunctival and eyelid tumor and a wart at the tip of the fourth right finger. Impression cytology showed dysplasic cells with loss of cohesion and up to 4 nucleoli per nucleus. The excisional biopsy of the conjunctiva revealed a dysplasic epithelial tissue that allowed the diagnosis of papilloma with parts of conjunctival intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN). Papilloma has been associated with Human Papillomavirus (HPV). The molecular hybridization analysis using PCR revealed that HPV was present in the eye tumor and in the wart, but the viral type was not the same. Treatment of the eye tumor with excision and low temperature cryocoagulation was successful.


Adoptive T-cell immunotherapy is gaining credibility and popularity as a potential tool to cure cancer. Genetic engineering utilization of this therapeutic mode currently comes in the forms of chimeric antigen receptor- and T-cell receptor-engineered T cells. This short review focuses on opportunities to use engineered T cells to treat viral hepatitis-associated hepatocellular carcinoma.


Both federal and state experience in sentencing over the last three decades suggest that sentencing data and knowledge most often lead to wisdom when they are collected with particular uses and users in mind. Ironically, greater reliance on data and expertise can democratize the making and testing of sentencing policy. When data are collected and published with many different users in mind, a variety of participants in the sentencing process can join the Commission as creators of sentencing wisdom, including Congress, state legislatures, state sentencing commissions, sentencing judges, and scholars. Under the Sentencing Reform Act of 1984, Congress envisioned federal sentencing with a technocratic cast. The SRA directed the U.S. Sentencing Commission to serve as a clearinghouse and information center for the collection, preparation, and dissemination of information on Federal sentencing practices. The statute pointed towards the Sentencing Commission itself as the primary user of the data, while the external uses of the data stored in the clearinghouse remain unspecified. Congress can improve the federal sentencing system by directing the U.S. Sentencing Commission to collect information for a broader range of specified users and uses. Federal experience under the guidelines also shows that rulemaking and research may have become incompatible tasks. Congress should separate these functions and transfer the responsibilities for national data collection, dissemination, and research to a separate National Sentencing Institute, ideally to be located in the judicial branch. An expanding range of uses for sentencing data also has implications for the sources of those data and analyses. Over the past thirty-five years dozens of structured sentencing experiments have emerged at the state level throughout the United States. Yet these experiments have been isolated from each other, and from the federal system, so that lessons drawn from the state experience have spread too slowly. There is a critical federal role to play in creating national knowledge: encouraging and funding the collection of comparable data from state actors.


This article has been developed through the experience of working with the various organizations and individuals who have been part of the No to Named Person campaign. The aim of the article is to understand the emergence of the Named Person in Scotland and to explain the significant distance between legislators and policy makers and those who have opposed the Named Person initiative. We propose that the key to understanding these divergent views is predicated upon profoundly different views of the family, the collapse of the ideal of family autonomy, and its replacement with what can be described as "third way parenting." Here, the meaning of the "Named Person" as laid out in the Children and Young People (Scotland) Act 2014, and the opposing views that have been made against this act are explained. The "Named Person" provision in the legislation, it is argued, has developed with the rise of micro-managerial politics, the construction of the "at risk" child and the anxiety expressed about the early years of children, seen most clearly in the significance of early intervention policies. Within this context, parenting has become problematized and increasingly understood as a skills activity requiring training, support, and surveillance.


This paper provides a general proof of unification between two concepts of radar target angular glint. The analysis of a two-point target model, consisting of an electrically and magnetically ideal dipole, shows the relation, difference, and equivalent condition between them more clearly. Angular glint has been synthesized from the measured data of radar echo phase, and compared with the theoretical result. >


The origin and spread of excitation were visualized with fluo 3 fluorescence in tissues isolated from canine gastric antrum. Sheets of circular muscle (5 x 6 mm) had at least 1 (30%) and up to 3 discrete slow-wave pacing sites located near the longitudinal-circular muscle boundary, whereas similarly sized longitudinal sheets had an average of 5 sites (range 3-12 sites) that initiated Ca2+ waves. Superimposed fluorescent oscillations (circular muscle) and spikes (longitudinal muscle) were seen to initiate and propagate as distinct events, separate from their underlying activities. Average propagation velocities transverse (6-7 mm/s) and parallel (39-45 mm/s) to the long axis of muscle fibers were similar for each type of event in circular and longitudinal tissues; however, distinct regions where velocities of some (but not all) events decreased by up to an order of magnitude were present. The distance propagated by individual events was limited by collisions with concurrent excitable events or recently activated regions. Complex patterns of excitation in gastrointestinal smooth muscle arise as a result of interactions between multiple pacing sites, heterogeneous conduction velocities, and the interplay of adjacent pacemaker domains.


This paper continues the study of metastable behaviour in disordered mean field models initiated in [2], [3]. We consider the generalized Hopfield model with finitely many independent patterns $\xi_1,...,\xi_p$ where the patterns have i.i.d. components and follow discrete distributions on $[-1,1]$. We show that metastable behaviour occurs and provide sharp asymptotics on metastable exit times and the corresponding capacities. We apply the potential theoretic approach developed by Bovier et al. in the space of appropriate order parameters and use an analysis of the discrete Laplacian to obtain lower bounds on capacities. Moreover, we include the possibility of multiple saddle points with the same value of the rate function and the case that the energy surface is degenerate around critical points.


Some of the epithets employed in India to describe a beggar are "ugly face of the nation's capital", "obstructers of smooth flow of traffic", "trespassers", and "encroachers" on public land". As for the legal definition of a beggar, it can be traced back to the Bombay Prevention of Begging Act, 1959 (the 1959 Act) which defines this as anyone "having no visible means of subsistence, and wandering about or remaining in any public place in such condition or manner, as makes it likely that the person doing so exists by soliciting or receiving alms". Begging under the 1959 Act includes "soliciting or receiving alms in a public place, whether or not under any pretence of singing, dancing, fortune-telling, performing or offering any article for sale". These provisions of the 1959 Act give carte blanche powers to enforcement agencies, as can be seen by the arrests of persons without warrant found begging, detention in certified institutions for a period of not less than one year, and detention for a period of up to ten years for second-time offenders. Moreover, because of arbitrary, disproportional and discriminatory enforcement mechanisms, poverty coupled with naturaldisability or frail health has also been a basis for arrest under the 1959 Act. For instance, in 1990 a shoe-polisher was arrested for presumed criminality for having "only one hand" while sleeping on the streets. On another occasion, a Tamil boy by the name of Krishnan on his first visit to New Delhi was accosted by an anti-begging squad as he looked lost and bewildered and therefore "fitted into the definition of begging". This article posits that the 1959 Act criminalizing the poor prima facie intrudes upon due process rights and is contrary to the rule of law. It starts off with a critical discussion on the recent development in the field and regulation of the act of begging in India in the aftermath of Ram Lakhan v State.


This contribution presents a novel approach of visualization in the context of biochemical networks. In this field of application, simulation and experimental studies continuously produce a wide variety of data with a direct relation to nodes and edges of the networks. This leads to an urgent requirement of a data visualization method which is flexible and adaptable to many applications. The visualization software tool presented here allows creating network diagrams with a programmable style of network components. This was realized by defining the scripting language OVL in order to give a fast and intuitive access to visual properties of nodes and edges. Additionally, networks can be displayed in different abstraction levels. So, data visualization becomes highly customizable to individual requirements and preferences.


Mildly developmentally delayed and nonhandicapped 3and 4-year-old children were paired systematically in a series of dyadic play sessions to evaluate the effects of companion status on imponant aspects of peer-related social and play behavior. Mildly delayed children were paired with younger nonhandicapped children matched in terms of developmental level. with nonhandicapped children matched in terms of CA. and with other mildly delayed companions. Mixed-age and same-age pairings for the nonhandicappcd children were also arranged. Results indicated that mildly delayed children's peer interactions improved substantially when paired with nonhandicapped older children in comparison to pairings with other mildly delayed children. Pairings with nonhandicapped younger children. although matched in terms of developmental level. had no inOuence on the peer interactions of mildly delayed children. Nonhandicapped children appeared to be able to maintain a consistent level of interaction irrespective of companion status. Explanations for these findings in terms of !he directive role adopted by nonhandicapped older children and their developmental implications we.re discussed.


Term Spring 5-11-2015 Capstone Thesis Degree Name MAT Primary Advisor/Dissertation Chair Thereasa Gluek Secondary Advisor/Reader One Melissa Sonnek Peer-Reviewer/Reader Two Janelle Fischler Abstract The research question addressed in this project is, how can an author create a picture book for children featuring families parented by same-sex partners that provides windows into and mirrors of the lives of those families? This capstone captures the journey of one teacher as she creates a picture book for children that is culturally responsive to the Lesbian/ Gay/Bisexual/Transgendered (LGBT) community. It presents research on the effects absent narratives have on marginalized populations and how schools respond to children from LGBT families, as well as the different typologies of picture books, guidelines for developmental appropriateness, and advice on the literary craft of creating a picture book. Fischler found that writing about an underrepresented group for children requires more than literary skills and techniques. Issues of bias, lexicon, and authenticity all influence how the characters are portrayed and the narrative written.


Neutrophil granulocytes play an important role in the early stages of microbial infection. The neutrophils have to leave the blood stream and migrate out into the tissue where they phagocytose microbes and cell debris from damaged host tissues. Their antimicrobial substances might also contribute to the tissue injury commonly associated with inflammation. Migration to the inflammatory site is directed by chemoattractants, which guide and activate neutrophils via specific receptors. One important class of receptors is the group of formyl peptide receptors (FPRs) of which two members are expressed on human neutrophils, FPR and FPR-like 1 (FPRL1). These receptors display large sequence homologies and belong to a larger family of Gprotein-coupled receptors. FPR recognizes formylated peptides generated during bacterial growth and can thus be viewed as a "pattern recognition receptor", while FPRL1 was until recently an orphan receptor with unknown functions and agonists. A cecropin-like antibacterial peptide from the gastric pathogen Helicobacter pylori, Hp(2-20), was found to be a complete neutrophil activator that mediates Chemotaxis, induces granule mobilization and activates the NADPH-oxidase to release oxygen free radicals. The receptor utilized by Hp(2-20) was identified as FPRL1. This receptor has in the last years been shown to recognize a large number of peptides/proteins, many of which represent cleavage products of full-length proteins in themselves unable to activate the receptor. Thus, also FPRL1 could be considered a "pattern recognition receptor" activated indirectly by the proteolytic cascades accompanying tissue damage. The Hp(2-20)-induced activity was increased when neutrophil storageorganelles were mobilized to the plasma membrane by incubation with bacterial lipopolysaccharide (LPS). A large pool of FPRL1 was found in the easily mobilized gelatinase granules, implying that the enhanced response was due to receptor upregulation by granule mobilization. Also murine neutrophils responded to FPR/FPRL1 agonists, an activation partly subjected to the same regulatory events as human neutrophils. However, important differences between cells from the two species were also found. Neutrophils from mice and men differ not only in relative abundance, but also in receptor arsenals, suggesting that humans and mice have developed distinct sensitivities towards different agonists due to co-evolution with different pathogens.


The nucleic acid content of the nuclear fraction of cerebral hemispheres was studied 1, 3, 7, 20 and 90 days after unilateral removal of superior cervical ganglion. The results obtained indicate that the content of nuclear RNA is significantly reduced in the desympathized side 1 day after removal of the ganglion. Seven days after sympathectomy the content of RNA increases, reaching control levels. Beginning from the 20th day it decreases and remains at a low level for 90 days. This decrease is observed on both sides of the brain. The content of nuclear DNA is significantly reduced seven days following removal of superior cervical ganglion. The possible mechanisms of the alterations observed are discussed in connection with changes in correlation of nucleic acids with nuclear proteins.


Many introductory ecology textbooks illustrate succession, at least in part, by using certain classic studies (e.g. sand dunes, ponds/bogs, glacial till, and old fields) that substituted space for time (chronosequence) in determining the sequences of the succession. Despite past criticisms of this method, there is continued, often uncritical, use of chronosequences in current research on topics besides succession, including temporal changes in biodiversity, productivity, nutrient cycling, etc. To show the problem with chronosequence-based studies in general, we review evidence from studies that used non-chronosequence methods (such as long-term study of permanent plots, palynology, and stand reconstruction) to test the space-for-time substitution in four classic succession studies. In several cases, the tests have used the same locations and, in one case, the same plots as those in the original studies. We show that empirical evidence invalidates the chronosequence-based sequences inferred in these classic studies.


: The authors studied the epidemic features of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis before and after mass vaccination with Purified meningococcal polysaccharide vaccine group A. After the mass vaccination, the morbidity rate of epidemic cerebrospinal meningitis fell considerably year after year. The epidemic cycle changed for the first time. The ratio of the number of cases in the city to those in the countryside was reduced. The phenomenon that the infectious disease spread along traffic lines from city to countryside disappeared. The cases mainly occurred in the remote mountain village. The morbidity rate in the group of 0-3 years relatively increased. The level of antibody titers in population obviously increased. The carrier rate of meningococci and constituent ratio of group A reduced. The epidemic group was group A, but cases of group C occurred for the first time.