The key objective of JAMA is "To promote the science and art of medicine and the betterment of the public health"; similar objectives and mission statements are supported by all 12 JAMA Network Journals. Together this family of journals is committed to publishing the best research, reviews, and opinion articles to advance medical science, promote public health, and improve patient care. The ultimate goal is to promulgate truth in science and medicine. On February 23, 2021, a podcast titled "Structural Racism for Doctors—What Is It?" was posted by the JAMA Network and on the following day, a tweet was posted to promote the podcast. Assertions in both that disavowed the presence of structural racism in medicine and among physicians were wrong, misguided, and uninformed. An extensive evidence base strongly supports the presence of structural racism in medicine and its adverse influence on health.1 The process for reviewing and publishing the podcast and tweet was also flawed. On March 4, 2021, Howard Bauchner, MD, editor in chief of JAMA and the 12 JAMA Network Journals, took responsibility and issued an apology for the podcast and tweet. This editorial team also expresses a profound apology for the misinformation in the podcast and tweet and recognizes the hurt, anger, and outrage that resulted. These events and developments make it clear that JAMA and the JAMA Network Journals can and must do better and advance toward inclusion and antiracism in all journal-related activities. Even though these journals have made progress, additional commitment and work are needed to build on and intensify these efforts to achieve meaningful, sustainable change. For instance, previous efforts include the more than 650 research, review, and opinion articles on race, racism, and racial and ethnic disparities and inequities that have been published in JAMA and the JAMA Network Journals since 2015,1 including editorials in JAMA on topics such as race and medical research,2 race and poverty and medicine,3 enhancing diversity in medical schools,4 and equity related to COVID-19 vaccines.5 In addition, within the past year, JAMA Network Open and JAMA Health Forum issued calls for manuscripts on prevention and effects of systemic racism in health6,7; JAMA Psychiatry initiated an editorial fellowship prioritized to early-career academic psychiatrists from underrepresented backgrounds; and JAMA Surgery issued a "Call to Action" to all surgery journal editors for diversity in the editorial and peer review process.8 The JAMA editors and editorial staff also began a thorough revision of guidance for authors and editors on reporting race and ethnicity in medical journals and earlier this year issued a wide call for feedback.9 The journals had been charged to continue to diversify their editors and editorial board members; as of May 15, 2021, among the 346 editors and editorial board members across JAMA and the JAMA Network Journals, 71% are White, 19% are Asian, 6% are Black, and 4% are Hispanic. Within this group, 38% are women, including 4 editors in chief of 4 JAMA Network Journals. The editors of JAMA and the JAMA Network Journals remain steadfastly committed to improving diversity, equity, and inclusion. As an important next step, the editors herein have developed a range of editorial priorities and approaches to strive for and promote diversity, equity, and inclusion (Box). These currently stated editorial priorities serve as a revised foundation to support a comprehensive, meaningful, and sustainable strategy that addresses diversity, equity, and inclusion Author affiliations and article information are listed at the end of this article.


Enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) protocols are now achieving worldwide diffusion in both university and district hospitals with special interest in colorectal surgery. The optimization of the patient's preoperative clinical conditions, the careful intraoperative administration of fluids and drugs and the postoperative encouragement to resume the normal physiological functions as early as possible has produced results in a large amounts of studies. These approaches successfully challenged long-standing and well-established perioperative managements and finally achieved the status of gold standard treatments for the perioperative management of uncomplicated colorectal surgery. Even more important, it seems that the clinical improvement of the patient's clinical management through ERAS protocols is now reaching his best outcomes (length of stay of 4-6 d after the operation) and therefore any further measures add little to the results already established (i.e., the adjunct of laparoscopic surgery to ERAS). Still dedicated meetings and courses around the world are exploring new aspects including the improvement the preoperative nutrition status to provide the energy necessary to face the surgical stress, the preoperative individuation of special requirements that could be properly addressed before the date of surgery and therefore would reduce the number of unnecessary days spent in hospital once fully recovered (i.e., rehabilitation, social discharges), and finally the development of an important web of out-of-hours direct access in order to individuate alarm symptoms in those patients at risk of complications that could prompt an early readmission.


Online language teaching has become a reality for many foreign language programs that have been forced to teach remotely. When developing an online language teaching curriculum (beyond a simple emergency teaching patch), it is important to uphold the same rigor and base our curriculum in methodological and pedagogic choices based on second language acquisition and educational research, and keep in mind that interaction is critical to developing second language skills. This article advocates that, through collaborative technology‐mediated tasks, we can promote productive language output (spoken and written) and the type of interaction that facilitates language learning and motivates students to continue improving their language skills


Solar heating systems, by the nature of their design and inherent thermal mass, are sensitive to the changes in the prevailing climatic conditions. A computer program has been developed to predict and display the dynamic performance of solar water heating systems and their installation designs under transient climatic and restricted site conditions. A multi-node capacitance model describes the dynamic heat transfer and energy storage processes within the solar collector unit, storage tank and the connecting pipework. This simulation model predicts the dynamic system performance under intermittent solar radiation, system operation and energy usage conditions. Validation studies have been carried out on the computer simulation results against the performance of a purpose-built solar collector test facility and a commercial solar water heating system in actual operation in Aberdeen. A good correlation has been obtained in both cases. The accuracy of the prediction was found to be dependant upon the time interval of the available climatic data and the complexity of the thermal simulation network chosen. The experimental facilities and the computer simulation program have been developed to investigate the effect of integrating the solar collector installation as part of the roof fabric, as a possible technique to improve the system performance in exposed locations. The application of this computer program lies in the development of innovative solar collector system and installation designs to achieve optimum system performance under transient climatic and restricted urban site conditions.


Fashion industry is considered the second most polluting industry in the world. Under this statement, academia and practitioners have become very interested in the aspects of environmental sustainability of the fashion supply chain but have neglected to study social dimensions. Furthermore, several scandals and tragedies related to slavery and other abuses have arisen the public attention. This work presents some of these social abuses found along the fashion supply chain and carries out an analysis of actions undertaken by fashion brands to tackle the problem. The findings were presented in 7 different areas of action. Furthermore, it was found that most of the social issues were addressed through partnerships. These partnerships were studied from different angles and informed what causes are being addressed.


From several basic frameworks wireless network system, a new type of system framework was designed. Its conformation of optics system and achievement by module were described particularly through using Fresnel lens system. This system's link could be transformed between directed LOS link and non-directed LOS link, which made the system communicate at a high-speed when there were no barriers between the emitter and receiver and keep a good convexity when barriers appeared. At last what should be noted for the analogue simulation was brought up.


This thesis aims to discover the mechanisms of imitation by testing the predictions of three theories. These are Associative Sequence Learning Theory (Heyes and Ray, 2000), Ideomotor Theory (e.g. Prinz, 1997), and Active Intermodal Mapping (e.g. Meltzoff Moore, 1997). Chapter 1 identifies three issues upon which the theories of imitation can be differentiated. The first is concerned with the development of effector-dependent representations through observation. The second and third relate to the role of awareness and experience in imitation. These differences form the basis of the experiments reported in Chapters 2, 3 and 4. Experiments 1 - 3 (Chapter 2) investigated whether effector-dependent representations could be formed through action observation. A series of tests based on the serial reaction task (SRT) were utilised. It was found that with relatively short, simple movement sequences, participants learned the structure of the sequence as effector-dependent motor representations. Sequence knowledge could not be expressed using effectors other than those used by the observed model. Experiments 4 - 6 (Chapter 3) used similar tests to those in Chapter 2 but investigated whether a longer, more complex, movement sequence could be learned implicitly i.e. without concurrent awareness. Two experiments suggested that observation of a movement sequence, but not inanimate stimuli, could support implicit learning. Experiments 7 and 8 (Chapter 4) investigated the role of experience in imitation. It was shown that while responses made to movement stimuli were faster when stimulus and response movements matched, compared to when they were different, the advantage for matching movements disappeared after incompatible training. This result supports an experience-based, rather than innate, view of imitation. The results of the experiments reported in this thesis suggest imitation is experience- based, supports effector-dependent learning by observation, and can operate without awareness. This combination is best described by Associative Sequence Learning Theory.


Abstract The purpose of this paper is to test the application of a new, low-cost ($2995.00 US), multistripe laser triangulation (MLT) scanner and three-dimensional (3D) software for semiquantitative and quantitative analyses of ichnofossils and modern traces. The goal of this research is to improve on existing analytical techniques and apply new methods to 3D digital models of ichnofossils and modern traces. Objectives are to (1) provide researchers with new ways to develop and test hypotheses quantitatively in the fields of paleoichnology, neoichnology, sedimentology, and soil science, and (2) discuss uses, advantages, and limitations of MLT technology related to ichnology. We scanned and created digital models of a variety of mostly continental ichnofossils and modern terrestrial traces produced by invertebrates and vertebrates. Visual methods applied include making uniformly colored specimen surfaces, stereo pairs, anaglyph stereo images, animations, and cross sections. Quantitative methods applied include measuring distances, tortuosity indices, and angles, and producing contour maps of tracks. Two of the most useful properties measurable from digital models are surface area (SA) and volume (V); these are used rarely in ichnology because they are difficult to measure with traditional methods. We use SA to calculate area exploited and introduce a method of quantifying surface roughness adapted from research on soil surfaces. We measure V of burrows, tracks, and coprolites, as well as introduce a new measure termed "volume exploited." We hypothesize that different tracemakers make burrows with characteristic V to SA ratios; this is partially supported by statistical tests of previously published data. We also use V to SA ratios to determine relative compactness—a metric adapted from building physics. Digital models ensure perpetuity of specimens because they preserve 3D data that can be used to make physical copies, placed in museums, and disseminated easily to researchers and educational institutions of all levels. Data from digital models can be used to interpret ichnocoenoses, bioturbation rates, and pedogenic properties and processes in soils and paleosols. Note that MLT scanning digitizes only surfaces of objects, so it is best suited for exogenic traces and casts of endogenic traces.


Abstract Introduction: Mildly injured and "worried well" patients can have profound effects on the management of a mass-casualty incident. The objective of this study is to describe the characteristics and lessons learned from an event that occurred on 28 August 2005 near the central bus station in Beer-Sheva, Israel. The unique profile of injuries allows for the examination of the medical and operational aspects of the management of mild casualties. Methods: Data were collected during and after the event, using patient records and formal debriefings.They were processed focusing on the characteristics of patient complaints, medical response, and the dynamics of admission. Results: A total of 64 patients presented to the local emergency department, including two critical casualties. The remaining 62 patients were mildly injured or suffered from stress. Patient presentation to the emergency department was bi-phasic; during the first two hours following the attack (i.e., early phase), the rate of arrival was high (one patient every three minutes), and anxiety was the most frequent chief complaint.During the second phase, the rate of arrival was lower (one patient every 27 minutes), and the typical chief complaint was somatic. Additionally, tinnitus and complaints related to minor trauma also were recorded frequently. Psychiatric consultation was obtained for 58 (91%) of the patients. Social services were involved in the care of 47 of the patients (73%).Otolaryngology and surgery consultations were obtained for 45% and 44%, respectively. The need for some medical specialties (e.g., surgery and orthopedics) mainly was during the first phase, whereas others, mainly psychiatry and otolaryngology, were needed during both phases. Only 13 patients (20%) needed a consultation from internal medicine. Conclusions: Following a terrorist attack, a large number of mildly injured victims and those experiencing stress are to be expected, without a direct relation to the effectiveness of the attack. Mildly injured patients tend to appear in two phases. In the first phase, the rate of admission is expected to be higher. Due to the high incidence of anxiety and other stress-related phenomena, many mildly injured patients will require psychiatric evaluation. In the case of a bombing attack, many of the victims must be evaluated by an otolaryngologist.


Recent years have witnessed a big leap in automatic visual saliency detection attributed to advances in deep learning, especially Convolutional Neural Networks (CNNs). However, inferring the saliency of each image part separately, as was adopted by most CNNs methods, inevitably leads to an incomplete segmentation of the salient object. In this paper, we describe how to use the property of part-object relations endowed by the Capsule Network (CapsNet) to solve the problems that fundamentally hinge on relational inference for visual saliency detection. Concretely, we put in place a two-stream strategy, termed Two-Stream Part-Object RelaTional Network (TSPORTNet), to implement CapsNet, aiming to reduce both the network complexity and the possible redundancy during capsule routing. Additionally, taking into account the correlations of capsule types from the preceding training images, a correlation-aware capsule routing algorithm is developed for more accurate capsule assignments at the training stage, which also speeds up the training dramatically. By exploring part-object relationships, TSPORTNet produces a capsule wholeness map, which in turn aids multi-level features in generating the final saliency map. Experimental results on five widely-used benchmarks show that our framework consistently achieves state-of-the-art performance. The code can be found on https://github.com/liuyi1989/TSPORTNet.


Article Details: Received: 2020-10-22 | Accepted: 2020-11-27 | Available online: 2021-01-31 https://doi.org/10.15414/afz.2021.24.mi-prap.131-134 A prerequisite for the successful pig breeding isthe achievement of high reproductive performance, which can be influenced by several environmental factors. Therefore, the aim of our research was to assess the impact of the season, microclimatic indicators and technology of housing of the lactating sows on the number of  the weaned piglets in the litter. The experiment was performed on a production farm in Slovakia and a total of 800 litters were evaluated. The results have shown that the season had a statistically significant effect on the number of the weaned piglets ( p <0.01),  least in the summer and  most of them in the fall. The highest number of the weaned piglets was found at the temperatures from 18 to 22 °C ( p <0.05), temperatures outside the stated range had a negative impact on the number of the weaned piglets. An increase of the relative humidity - above 70% ( p <0.05) and an increase in the flow - above 0,4 m.s -1 ( p <0.05) led to a decrease in the number of the weaned piglets. In the housing with a freemovement of the lactating sows, the number of the weaned piglets was higher than with the restricted movement ( p <0.05). Keywords: microclimate, technology, weaned piglets References Boudný, J. & Spicka, J. (2012). The effect of production efficiency on economic results in pig breeding. Res. Pig Breeding , 6(1), 1-8. Close, W. (1992). Thermoregulation in piglets: Environmental and metabolic consequences. BSAP Occasional Publication ,15, 25-33. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0263967X00004067 English, P. R. & Edwards, S. A. (1996). Management of the nursing sow and her litter. In Dunkin A. C. & Taverner, M. (eds.). Pig Production. World Animal Science (Vol. C10 ). Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier (pp. 113-140). Holmes, C. W. & Mount, L. E. (1967). Heat loss from groups of growing pigs under various conditions of environmental temperature and air movement. J. Anim. Prod. , 9, 435-452. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003356100042008 Horký, P. (2014). Influence of increased dietary selenium on glutathione peroxidase activity and glutathione concentration in erythrocytes of lactating sows. Ann. Anim. Scie. , 14(4), 869-882. https://doi.org/10.2478/aoas-2014-0056 Matousek, V. et al. (2013). Livestock breeding II. Ceske Budějovice : JU ZF. In Czech. Myer, R. & Bucklin, R. (2018). Influence of hot-humid environment on growth performance and reproduction of swine. AN107: UF/IFAS Extension , 1-6. Nevrkla, P. et al. (2016). analysis of reproductive parameters in sows with regard to their health status. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis . 64, 481-486. https://doi.org/10.11118/actaun201664020481. Novak, P. & Rožňovský, J. (2009). Influence of microclimate on the pig performance. In Current knowledge about the pig breeding: proceedings from the International Scientific Conference 41 held on the occasion of the 90th anniversary of MZLU in Brno . Brno: MZLU (pp. 45-48). In Czech. Prunier, A. et al. (1996). Environmental and seasonal influences on the return-to-oestrus after weaning in primiparous sows. Livestock Production Science , 45, 103-110. https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-6226(96)00007-3 Rodrigues, S. V., Pla, L. M. & Albornoz, V. M. (2012). Modeling tactical planning decisions through a linear optimization model in sow farms. Livest. Sci. , 143(2-3), 162-171. Rolinec, M. (2020). The Effect of coconut oil addition to feed of pigs on rectal microbial diversity and bacterial abundance. Animals (Basel) , 10(10), E1764. https://doi.org/10.3390/ani10101764 Rozkot, M. (2014). Pigs technology and the public. Nas chov , 74(10), 63-66. In Czech. Sallvik, K. & Walberg, K. (1984). The effects of air velocity and temperature on the behaviour and growth of pigs. J. of Agricultural Engineering. Research , 30, 305-312. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0021-8634(84)80031-1 Silva, B. A. N. et al. (2006). Effect of floor cooling on performance of lactating sows during summer. Livest. Sci. , 105, 176-184. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.livsci.2006.06.007 Suriyasomboon, A. et al. (2006). Effect of temperature and humidity on reproductive performance of crossbred sows in Thailand. Theriogenology , 65, 606-628. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.theriogenology.2005.06.005 Vanerhaeghe, C. et al. (2010). Longitudinal field study to assess sow level risk factors associated with stillborn piglets. Anim. Reprod. Sci., 120(1-4), 78-83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.anireprosci.2010.02.010 Wegner, K. et al. (2014). Climatic effects on sow fertility and piglet survival under influence of a moderate climate. Animal ,  8(9), 1526-1533. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1751731114001219.


Murine cytomegalovirus (MCMV) is an important animal model of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV), a β-Herpesvirus that infects the majority of the world's population and causes disease in neonates and immunocompromised adults. CD8+ T cells are a major part of the immune response to MCMV and HCMV. Processing of peptides for presentation to CD8+ T cells may be critically dependent on the immunoproteasome, expression of which is affected by MCMV. However, the overall importance of the immunoproteasome in the generation of immunodominant peptides from MCMV is not known. We therefore examined the role of the immunoproteasome in stimulation of CD8+ T cell responses to MCMV – both conventional memory responses and those undergoing long-term expansion or "inflation". We infected LMP7−/− and C57BL/6 mice with MCMV or with newly-generated recombinant vaccinia viruses (rVVs) encoding the immunodominant MCMV protein M45 in either full-length or epitope-only minigene form. We analysed CD8+ T cell responses using intracellular cytokine stain (ICS) and MHC Class I tetramer staining for a panel of MCMV-derived epitopes. We showed a critical role for immunoproteasome in MCMV affecting all epitopes studied. Interestingly we found that memory "inflating" epitopes demonstrate reduced immunoproteasome dependence compared to non-inflating epitopes. M45-specific responses induced by rVVs remain immunoproteasome-dependent. These results help to define a critical restriction point for CD8+ T cell epitopes in natural cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and potentially in vaccine strategies against this and other viruses.


A clay, namely nontronite, was recently discovered in Noachian terrains. That discovery was rapidly followed by detection of chlorite, serpentine, kaolinite, zeolites, and carbonates. All of the hydrous silicates are restricted to the Noachian terrains. Therefore, the alteration phases occur in the old, heavily cratered environment on Early Mars, which was most likely shaped in a very short period of time during the Late Heavy Bombardment. Thus, impact cratering was a very important process contemporaneous to the formation of hydrous silicates. This is especially important in the light of studies that have shown that impact craters are capable of hosting hydrothermal systems and producing alteration phases. On Mars, geologic links to impact-generated formation of alteration minerals in central peaks and modification zones of Martian craters have been found. Modeling the formation conditions of those phases demonstrates where and when these phases form in the post-impact hydrothermal environments on Mars.


Aims:

Strongly damped standing and propagating kink oscillations are observed in the solar corona. This can be understood in terms of mode coupling, which causes the wave energy to be converted from the bulk transverse oscillation to localised, unresolved azimuthal motions. The damping rate can provide information about the loop structure, and theory predicts two possible damping profiles.

Methods:
We used the recently compiled catalogue of decaying standing kink oscillations of coronal loops to search for examples with high spatial and temporal resolution and sufficient signal quality to allow the damping profile to be examined. The location of the loop axis was tracked, detrended, and fitted with sinusoidal oscillations with Gaussian and exponential damping profiles.

Results:
Using the highest quality data currently available, we find that for the majority of our cases a Gaussian profile describes the damping behaviour at least as well as an exponential profile, which is consistent with the recently developed theory for the damping profile due to mode coupling.


Biological development depends on the coordinated expression of genes in time and space. Developmental genes have extensive cis-regulatory regions which control their expression. These regions are organized in a modular manner, with different modules controlling expression at different times and locations. Both how modularity evolved and what function it serves are open questions. We present a computational model for the cis-regulation of the hunchback (hb) gene in the fruit fly (Drosophila). We simulate evolution (using an evolutionary computation approach from computer science) to find the optimal cis-regulatory arrangements for fitting experimental hb expression patterns. We find that the cis-regulatory region tends to readily evolve modularity. These cis-regulatory modules (CRMs) do not tend to control single spatial domains, but show a multi-CRM/multi-domain correspondence. We find that the CRM-domain correspondence seen in Drosophila evolves with a high probability in our model, supporting the biological relevance of the approach. The partial redundancy resulting from multi-CRM control may confer some biological robustness against corruption of regulatory sequences. The technique developed on hb could readily be applied to other multi-CRM developmental genes.


In this paper, polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) nanofibers have been suggested as a viable substrate for flexible and implantable electrochemical devices. PVDF electrospun nanofibers exhibit excellent mechanical properties, flexibility, chemical stability, and biocompatibility, making them a potential option in the development of implant fuel cells. This paper presents a membraneless hydrogen peroxide fuel cell that is fabricated to demonstrate the possibility of using these nanofibers as the substrate for electrochemical devices. An open circuit potential of 0.65 V was achieved for the cell fabricated using Prussian Blue (PB) as the cathode material and nickel and aluminium as the anode materials. The power produced by the cell was ∼1 mW cm−2 at 0.32 V. The results presented compare favourably with available power generators reviewed in the literature. Based on the proof of concept demonstration; PVDF electrospun nanofibers can be successfully used for implantable electrochemical devices such as bio-fuel cells and self-sustained point-of-care diagnostic systems.


The plasma of adult chickens, when injected into young chicks or chick embryos infected with Plasmodium lophurae, lessened the parasitemia. The substances responsible for this effect were inactivated or removed by the heating of adult chicken plasma for ½ hour at 65°C., followed by centrifugation to remove the coagulated material; but they were not affected by heating for ½ hour at 56°C. The active materials were present in the euglobulin fraction of hen plasma. In similar experiments with ducks, the plasma from each of a series of adult ducks was tested for its effect on the course of infection in young ducklings. The adult ducks were then inoculated with a large dose of parasites. There was a positive correlation between the effectiveness of a plasma in lessening the parasitemia of ducklings treated with it and the resistance on infection exhibited by the duck from which the plasma had been obtained. More than half of the adult female ducks with an active ovary which were tested, but only one of the males, had effective plasmas and also showed relative resistance to the infection.


The study's objective was to examine the influence of mass media on Sustainable Development Goal one attainment in Osun State, Nigeria. Three specific objectives and research questions as well as two hypotheses were enumerated, answered and tested. Simple random sampling technique was employed to select two-hundred and seventy (270) participants from the target popualtion. Descriptive and inferential statistics as well as thematic analysis were used to analysis the data generated from research instruments. The empirical findings revealed that there was an awareness through mass media towards various developmental projects installed across the communities under investigation. Besides, the awareness necessitated community stakeholders to give supportive hands to povertyrelated projects. Also, it was revealed that awareness through mass media would be a necessary condition but not sufficient one for the attainment of the poverty targets of the Sustainable Development Goal one within the studied araes. In addition, significant gender difference existed towards awareness about implementation and community members' participation which was in favour of female and male respectively. The study recommended that prominent basic literacy programmes embellished with poverty alleviation information should be disseminated on regular interval, constant mobilisation of the needed physical and financial resources towards implementation of developmental programmes by the concerned stakeholders, regular monitoring and supervision of projects and involvement of the members of community during implementation of poverty alleviation programmes to mention a few.


The air-cooled condenser system is impacted greatly by many factors such as the wind speed, the direction of wind and arrangement of site equipments. This paper concentrates on the hot air recirculation phenomenon and its dependence on ambient winds are numerically simulated by using the computational fluid dynamics code, FLUENT. In this paper, two different wind directions (case A and case B) and wind speeds are considered: Results show that the hot air recirculation increases with the increment of velocity speed. Case A has a critical wind direction angle. Wind causes an air temperature increase at the fan inlet due to hot air recirculation, resulting in the deterioration of the heat transfer performance. The hot air recirculation is the main factor responsible for the reduction of heat rejection rate. In case A, fan inlet temperature is higher than case B. The peak value of the HAR occurs at 9 m/s in case A.


Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is still adapting to its new human host. Attention has focussed on the viral spike protein, but substantial variation has been seen in the ORF8 gene. Here, we show that SARS-CoV-2 ORF8 protein undergoes signal peptide-mediated processing through the endoplasmic reticulum and is secreted as a glycosylated, disulphide-linked dimer. The secreted protein from the prototype SARS-CoV-2 virus had no major effect on viability of a variety of cell types, or on IFN or NF-κB signalling. However, it modulated cytokine expression from primary CSF1-derived human macrophages, most notably by decreasing IL-6 and IL-8 secretion. Furthermore, a sequence polymorphism L84S that appeared early in the pandemic associated with the Clade S lineage of virus, showed a markedly different effect, of increasing IL-6 production. We conclude that ORF8 sequence polymorphisms can potentially affect SARS-CoV-2 virulence and should therefore be monitored in sequencing-based surveillance.


The majority of breast cancers are sporadic cancers; however, there is an estima¬ted proportion of 5% to 10%, where a hereditary predisposition appears, mainly associated with germline mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes. Such mutations increase the predis-position to develop the disease during the course of life. The overall objective of this work was to evaluate the expression of the BRCA1 gene by immunohistochemistry (IHC). The study was conducted in women diagnosed with benign lesions or invasive breast ductal carcinoma in follow-up care at the Institute of Oncology "Dr. Miguel Perez Carreno" in Valencia, Venezuela. Expression of the BRCA1 protein was analyzed and the results were compared with the benign lesions classification given by DuPont and Page and the intrinsic molecular subtypes defined by IHC. From this analysis it was found that in both, non-infiltrative lesions (proliferative and carcinoma in situ), as well as in infiltrating carcinomas, predominated the cases with BRCA1 nuclear labeling by IHC (≤10 %). Furthermore, the relationship of expression of BRCA1 with the average overall survival, showed a poor prognostic value obtained when the nuclear and cytoplasmic expression of BRCA1 was ≤10%, with p<0.05. Finally, based on the results, it is suggested that the assessment of BRCA1 expression by IHC should be included in the approach algorithm of women at risk of developing breast cancer.


Nodes of Ranvier of peripheral nerves are associated with mucopolysaccharide which is capable of binding a wide variety of cations. The present study has determined the changes in the binding properties of the node of Ranvier during demyelination and remyelination in the perineurial window. The location of copper ion binding, visualized as a dense copper ferrocyanide precipitate, was studied in teased fibres from 60 rat peroneal nerves with single perineurial windows and from 8 normal nerves. In normal nerves, precipitate was present over the nodal axon and at the borders of the paranodal axon. Before demyelination, severely beaded fibres sited within the perineurial window displayed a reduction or a loss of nodal precipitate. During the period of myelin phagocytosis and demyelination, precipitate was absent throughout the denuded axon but present at adjacent, uninvolved nodes. At the commencement of remyelination, precipitate appeared at the newlycreated nodal and paranodal regions and at interfaces between preserved and remyelinating internodes. The density increased with myelin thickening. These findings indicate: (1) severely beaded regions lose their normal binding property before undergoing demyelination, (2) demyelinated regions do not bind copper ions, (3) remyelinating fibres bind copper ions at newly‐created nodes and (4) Schwann cells are responsible for the production of nodal mucopolysaccharides.


Background: For a healthy lifestyle, people with moderate, severe, and profound intellectual disabilities living in residential facilities and/or participating in day activity centers are dependent on their direct support professionals. However, it is unclear what knowledge and skills these direct support professionals require to support these individuals in living a healthy lifestyle. Therefore, the aim of this study was to identify the needs of direct support professionals for supporting these people with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities to achieve and maintain a healthy lifestyle. Method: Direct support professionals ( n = 28) were interviewed with the use of a semi-structured protocol based on the theoretical domains framework. The interviews were analyzed with a theory-driven content analysis. Results: The most frequently mentioned needs referred to the following domains of the theoretical domains framework: environmental context and resources ( n = 27), social/professional role and identity ( n = 25), social in fl uence ( n = 25), skills ( n = 24), and knowledge ( n = 23). Conclusion: To support people with moderate to profound intellectual disabilities in leading a healthy lifestyle, direct support professionals (DSPs) primarily needed support related to the domain environmental context and resources. Within this domain available time, dealing with different seasons, and a healthy lifestyle policy in the organization need attention. Development of interventions targeting these DSPs needs is required.


Sir .—The recent article by Drs Reich and Wiernik ( Am J Dis Child 103:888-889, 1976) suggests that neurofibromatosis is associated with unusual types of childhood leukemias. We wish to add a report of a girl with generalized neurofibromatosis in whom acute lymphoblastic leukemia developed, which is the predominant cell type of childhood leukemia. Our patient was diagnosed in 1972 at 12 years of age as having typical acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Physical findings were consistent with leukemia (petechiae, generalized lymphadenopathy, and hepatosplenomegaly). Leukocyte count was 140,000/cu mm, with 95% blast forms; platelet count, 23,000/cu mm; and hematocrit reading, 18%. Bone marrow aspirate had 95% lymphoblasts that were periodic acid-schiff negative. Initial treatment consisted of vincristine and prednisone, followed by craniospinal irradiation and intrathecal methotrexate. Maintenance therapy with 6-mercaptopurine, cyclophosphamide, and methotrexate was continued for three years. In April 1975 all medications were stopped, and she has remained free of recurrence. At


While both Non-destructive Evaluation (NDE) and Structural Health Monitoring (SHM) share the objective of damage detection and identification in structures, they are distinct in many respects. This paper will discuss the differences and commonalities and consider ultrasonic/guided-wave inspection as a technology at the interface of the two methodologies. The paper will discuss how data-based/machine learning analysis provides a powerful approach to ultrasonic NDE/SHM in terms of the available algorithms, and more generally, how different techniques can accommodate the very substantial quantities of data that are provided by modern monitoring campaigns. Several machine learning methods will be illustrated using case studies of composite structure monitoring and will consider the challenges of high-dimensional feature data available from sensing technologies like autonomous robotic ultrasonic inspection.


In Ontario, those dependent on substances are no longer eligible for welfare payments based on an addiction disability. While the impact of this program has not been assessed, evidence from a similar policy shift in the USA suggests deleterious effects on the health and social functioning of about half of those who lose this form of social support. A review of the research on the chronic-illness view of addiction, the fostering of stigma by exclusionary social policies, and the negative effects on mental health and homeless status associated with the loss of welfare benefits leads to the conclusion that this is an ill-advised policy for Ontario. Its continuation there, and its extension to other provinces, is not recommended.


The target groups for regional floras may be generalized for the purpose of this discussion, into four main groups. Firstly, in the Flora Malesiana region – a major producer of tropical hardwoods and other commercial forest products – one large target is the forest industry, consisting of foresters, business entrepreneurs, and forest scientists. The more technical-minded of this group use floras for determination of scientific names, and for access to published information on ecology, distribution, uses, and properties of individual species. Where suitable floras are not available, those involved in the forest industry are obliged to work with local ethnobotanical knowledge, which predates Linnean taxonomy. However, the absence of a modern usable flora for a region contributes to laissez-faire forest management. In forest inventory work, for example, unknown species are put into a miscellaneous category to which no further attention is paid. It is difficult to keep track of and manage what is unknown or undefined.


The hypothesis about the spontaneous generation of living cell predecessors on the ocean surface during prebiological evolution is further developed. Data obtained in experiments and observations are given that support our point of view. It is shown that the physicochemical properties of the nonequilibrium ocean-atmosphere boundary including ionic asymmetry, fractionation of enantiomers of amino and nucleic acids, and the formation of sealed vesicles provide conditions under which the spontaneous generation seems quite possible.


The increasing of technology accompanied by growth of society social and economics will influence situation of market. One of this influence is the make- up of request variation by society. Industrial of manufactur claimed to be able to serve tendency of request - requisition of arising out at society.
Progressively congeniality broadness and knowledge of machinery area society will race the increasing of material requisition of multifarious society of manner. Relate to that from producer party and also seller of service will accept some new order of society so that problems which often arise is to him order it of the society that is is difficult of determine the the duration time of pemesinan they which must decide swiftly and accurate with matured consideration so that they will not experience of objection because determination of production time which yet still
unpredictable.
The problems is also faced by some industry of manufaktur workshop and also - machinery workshop in finishing work of its order, one of the among others that is process workmanship of bubut by using lathe of CNC which during the time still have directive to other experience and estimate, the mentioned less beneficial producer goodness and also consumer. See the this the fact felt important to improve; repair production system.
Besides improved by productivity, product system also require to be developed its to specific changed of made product. This matter require to be conducted to face attitude of requisition dynamic. Such of attitude of requisition dynamic relate to not true come him of ordered uncertainty and kinds of ordered product.
Effect of that problems is producer will find difficulties to determine workmanship of guywire product in accurate figure and quickly so that usage of program able to support in approximating the the duration time of machine require to
be developed.


Teaching formats involving non-university partners are increasingly gaining importance to deliver key competencies needed in higher education for sustainable development. Such teaching formats may also create new transdisciplinary spaces that allow different actors to impact regional transition towards sustainable development. Against this background, this article focuses on how universities foster regional transition through teaching, particularly in collaboration with local non-university. Using the interdisciplinary certificate programs on sustainable development offered by the German Universities of Tübingen and Duisburg-Essen as case studies, we analyze the potentials and challenges of teaching programs on sustainable development for promoting regional transition. Leaning on the multi-level-perspective-approach, we have used qualitative interviews to shed light on the design of cooperation between the university and regional partners as well as the creation and integration of transdisciplinary learning spaces. This paper shows that the impact of such teaching formats on the regional transition consists primarily of awareness and network building. One of the most fundamental challenges faced is unequal power relations in terms of access to resources, financing, and doing the course planning. Simultaneously, co-design, mutual understanding, and collective decisions on roles and responsibilities and—especially—empathy and trust are crucial factors for successfully teaching cooperation towards regional sustainability.


This report describes experimental work performed at Queen's University to evaluate the application of a Guided Radar Information Processing System for detecting earthslides, mudslides, rockslides and other obstacles on a railway track. It was demonstrated that the technique is feasible for the detection of small rock obstacles, and extrapolated data indicates that the system will be effective for other obstacles as well. Experiments conducted with the Guided Radar System demonstrated that rock obstacles can be detected using a continuous wave mode, with its simplicity of both hardware and software. Rocks of diameter greater than 25 cm were detected with the system. Human and animal targets were also detected, the latter case giving rise to the possibility of nuisance alarms. Experiments showed that sensitivity decreased with distance down the cable due to attenuation, and it is recommended that a graded cable be employed to circumvent this problem. Future work suggested for an operational system would be an investigation of the effects of mud and earth slides on the system, environmental effects on sensitivity, an investigation of an optimum frequency of operation, and the type of cable used, their position on the rail bed and their length. It was also recommended that future investigations be conducted in an operational environment to enable a realistic comparison with contemporary techniques. It is concluded from this program that the guided radar technique is feasible in a track obstacle detection application. There are a number of advantages appropriate to the railway environment which lend themselves to simplicity of operation and to greater rail safety.


Background: Quality indicators can be used to identify gaps in care and drive frontline improvement activities. These efforts are important to prevent adverse events in the increasing number of ambulatory patients with advanced kidney disease in Canada, but it is unclear what indicators exist and the components of health care quality they measure. Objective: We sought to identify, categorize, and evaluate quality indicators currently in use across Canada for ambulatory patients with advanced kidney disease. Design: Environmental scan of quality indicators currently being collected by various organizations. Setting: We assembled a 16-member group from across Canada with expertise in nephrology and quality improvement. Patients: Our scan included indicators relevant to patients with chronic kidney disease in ambulatory care clinics. Measurements: We categorized the identified quality indicators using the Institute of Medicine and Donabedian frameworks. Methods: A 4-member panel used a modified Delphi process to evaluate the indicators found during the environmental scan using the American College of Physicians/Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality criteria. The ratings were then shared with the full panel for further comments and approval. Results: The environmental scan found 28 quality indicators across 7 provinces, with 8 (29%) rated as "necessary" to distinguish high-quality from poor-quality care. Of these 8 indicators, 3 were measured by more than 1 province (% of patients on a statin, number of patients receiving a preemptive transplant, and estimated glomerular filtration rate at dialysis start); no indicator was used by more than 2 provinces. None of the indicators rated as necessary measured timely or equitable care, nor did we identify any measures that assessed the setting in which care occurs (ie, structure measures). Limitations: Our list cannot be considered as an exhaustive list of available quality indicators at hand in Canada. Our work focused on quality indicators for nephrology providers and programs, and not indicators that can be applied across primary and specialty providers. We also focused on indicator constructs and not the detailed definitions or their application. Last, our panel does not represent the views of other important stakeholders. Conclusions: Our environmental scan provides a snapshot of the scope of quality indicators for ambulatory patients with advanced kidney disease in Canada. This catalog should inform indicator selection and the development of new indicators based on the identified gaps, as well as motivate increased pan-Canadian collaboration on quality measurement and improvement. Trial registration: Not applicable as this article is not a systematic review, nor does it report results of a health intervention on human participants.


Summary AKR mice rendered hyperthyroid by thyroxine had a significantly lower incidence of spontaneous lymphatic leukemia than did AKR mice rendered hypothyroid by thiouracil. In this experiment, the hyperthyroid mice weighed less than the hypothyroid animals. However, when AKR mice were treated with thyroxine, but in addition were fed supplements of vitamins and liver to protect them against the toxic effects of the hormone, they had a higher incidence of spontaneous lymphatic leukemia than did AKR mice rendered hypothyroid by thiouracil and an iodine-deficient diet. In these experiments the hyperthyroid mice weighed more than the hypothyroid animals. Hence, the influence of hyper- or hypothyroidism on the incidence of spontaneous lymphatic leukemia of AKR mice depends on what effect these states have on the body weight. Hyper- and hypothyroidism did not influence the survival time of AKR mice that were allowed to die "naturally," nor did hyperthyroidism significantly alter the length of survival of AKR mice with a transplanted lymphatic leukemia.


Australia's colonial history is fraught with ongoing social injustice and can be difficult to teach. The inclusion of humour on Australian Indigenous studies courses presents both challenges and opportunities for educators in the field. Students' reactions to the inclusion of humour are often varied and care must be taken to ensure that Indigenous histories are taught with a view to balancing pleasure in learning while maintaining a focus on content. This paper elucidates the inclusion of humour in an undergraduate course where the student cohort is primarily non-Indigenous. Drawing from a range of critical works on humour, and on the teaching experience of the authors, the paper constitutes a work in progress that seeks to contribute to a sparse body of work dealing with Australian Indigenous humour in pedagogical contexts. The paper reflects on the course in question through an examination of texts used to teach students about the effectiveness of humour and its uses and applications in teaching Australian Indigenous studies.


Music is a fascinating topic for evolutionary theory, natural philosophy, and narrative construction: music is a highly valued feature of all known living cultures, pervading many aspects of daily life, playing many roles. And music is ancient. The oldest known musical instruments appear in the archaeological record from 40,000 years ago (40 Kya) and from these we can infer even earlier musical artefacts/activities, as yet unrepresented in the archaeological record. I argue that, following research couched in the social brain hypothesis framework, a theoretical basis is emerging for the proposition that the (incremental) evolution of proto-music took hold in the late mid-Pleistocene, roughly 400 Kya, and perhaps earlier. Subsequently, musical activities and traditions incrementally evolved throughout modernity (from 250 Kya onwards), global dispersal from Africa (currently thought to be from 60-100 Kya onwards), and the Holocene (from 12 Kya). In this article I provide an overview of recent research and a sketch of music's evolutionary career. I identify avenues for future research, including work in the evolution of the emotions, and the application of signalling theory to music archaeology.


Background: Pain of upper abdominal surgeries not only distresses the patient but also results in inadequate respiratory efforts and cough reflex. So pain relief in these surgeries bears more significance than mere patient comfort. Gabapentine has been found effective for post-operative pain relief in many surgeries including spine surgeries, radical mastectomies etc. We carried out this study to find out the effectiveness of gabapentine for post-operative pain relief in upper abdominal surgeries. Materials and Methods: The present study was randomized, double-blind and prospective, designed to evaluate synergistic effect of gabapentine and total requirement of tramadol in various upper abdominal surgeries. The study was carried out in 50 patients of American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) grade I and II of either sex, aged between 20 to 60 years, divided into two groups of 25 patients each. Group P (placebo group) received oral placebo capsule (3 placebo capsule) and Group G (study group) received oral gabapentine capsule (1200 mg) (3 capsules of 400 mg each) pre-operatively 2 hrs before surgery. Patients were observed 24 hrs postoperatively for pain via visual analog scale (VAS), tramadol requirement (consumption) and side effects. Results: It was observed that patients in gabapentine group had statistically significant lower pain score at all time interval in comparison to placebo group. It was demonstrated that pre-emptive oral gabapentine significantly reduced tramadol consumption until 24 hrs post-operatively. Mild sedation was observed in gabapentine group but was comparable with Group P. Conclusion: Gabapentine significantly reduces post-operative pain and post-operative tramadol consumption in upper abdominal surgeries. Mild sedation was observed with gabapentine group but was comparable with placebo.


Membrane distillation (MD) has shown promise for concentrating a wide variety of brines, but the knowledge is limited on how different brines impact salt scaling, flux decline, and subsequent wetting. Furthermore, past studies have lacked critical details and analysis to enable a physical understanding, including the length of experiments, the inclusion of salt kinetics, impact of antiscalants, and variability between feed-water types. To address this gap, we examined the system performance, water recovery, scale formation, and saturation index of a lab-scale vacuum membrane distillation (VMD) in long-running test runs approaching 200 h. The tests provided a comparison of a variety of relevant feed solutions, including a synthetic seawater reverse osmosis brine with a salinity of 8.0 g/L, tap water, and NaCl, and included an antiscalant. Saturation modeling indicated that calcite and aragonite were the main foulants contributing to permeate flux reduction. The longer operation times than typical studies revealed several insights. First, scaling could reduce permeate flux dramatically, seen here as 49% for the synthetic brine, when reaching a high recovery ratio of 91%. Second, salt crystallization on the membrane surface could have a long-delayed but subsequently significant impact, as the permeate flux experienced a precipitous decline only after 72 h of continuous operation. Several scaling-resistant impacts were observed as well. Although use of an antiscalant did not reduce the decrease in flux, it extended membrane operational time before surface foulants caused membrane wetting. Additionally, numerous calcium, magnesium, and carbonate salts, as well as silica, reached very high saturation indices (>1). Despite this, scaling without wetting was often observed, and scaling was consistently reversible and easily washed. Under heavy scaling conditions, many areas lacked deposits, which enabled continued operation; existing MD performance models lack this effect by assuming uniform layers. This work implies that longer times are needed for MD fouling experiments, and provides further scaling-resistant evidence for MD.


Coupling liquid-phase microextraction (LPME) with paper spray mass spectrometry (PS-MS) has been successfully achieved and applied in the analysis of malachite green, crystal violet and their metabolites in complex samples. This technique involved liquid-phase microextraction for the enrichment of target analytes followed by paper spray for direct mass spectrometric analysis under ambient and open-air conditions. Extraction conditions including extraction solvent, volume, time, temperature, pH and salinity were optimized. The proposed method showed enhanced sensitivity, by approximately 100–700 fold, for the detection of target analytes in aqueous samples. The method showed good linearity, with correlation coefficient values (r2) of no less than 0.9917 for four target compounds. The limits of detection and quantification of the four target compounds were 2.2–3.1 and 6.5–13.7 ng L−1, respectively. High recovery values of 92.2–112.4% and 93.1–108.6% were obtained at different concentrations of 50 ng L−1 and 500 ng L−1, respectively. The proposed method has been applied for the analysis of four target analytes in real lake water samples, and the experimental results demonstrated that this method was rapid, convenient, economic and friendly to the environment.


This paper investigates the effect of verb semantics on the variable use of aspectuo-temporal morphology by the advanced learner of French. Using the Aspect Hypothesis as a heuristic to test the extent to which the advanced learner overrides the effect of verb semantics in aspectual contexts where the verb assumes a non-prototypical value, the study examines the interaction between lexical aspect and grammatical aspect in order to identify which factor exerts a stronger influence on the learner's aspectuo-temporal choice. Results suggest that lexical aspect continues to constrain the advanced learner's aspectuo-temporal system, such that non-prototypical marking poses greater difficulty than prototypical marking.


Experimental support was obtained for a quantitative ion-exchange model based on the principle of hard and soft acids and bases (HSAB) applied to monovalent cation exchange on clay minerals, oxides, and exchange resins. According to the model, the thermodynamic exchange constant (Kex) can be obtained from the differences in absolute electronegativity (x) and absolute softness (S) between the exchanging cations in binary exchange as follows: where the subscripts M and R denote exchange and reference cations, respectively, and and are coefficients dependent only on the exchanger surface properties, temperature, pressure, and ionic strength. This study was conducted to test the applicability of this model to monovalent cation exchange on clay minerals and ionicexchange resins. Exchange isotherms for Li, K, Rb, Cs, Ag, and Tl vs. Na on vermiculite, smectites, hydrous Zr oxides, silica gel, and ion-exchange resins were obtained experimentally or from the literature and and were obtained by fitting the data to the above equation. An excellent fit (R 0.954, n = 5) of the alkali metal cation-exchange data to the model resulted on all of the tested exchangers, whereas Ag and Tl exchange was successfully fit only on hard surfaces such as a vermiculite and on highly hydrated surfaces such as certain ion exchange resins. According to the HSAB model, coefficients and determine the relative contribution to Kex from ionic or covalent bonding in surface complexation. The ratio depended on the layer charge of clay minerals and on the acid strength of the exchange resins and hydrous oxides. View complete article To view this complete article, insert Disc 5 then click button8


Objective To examine the association between psoriatic arthritis (PsA) and all-cause mortality from a large population-based database. Methods Patients with PsA from the Clalit Health Services database were identified between 2003–2018 and matched to 4 controls by age, sex, ethnicity, and index date. Patient demographics, comorbidities, and treatments were extracted. Mortality data were obtained from the Israeli Notification of Death certificate. The proportionate mortality rate (PMR) of the leading causes of death was calculated and compared to that of the general population. Cox proportional hazard regression models were used to estimate the crude and the multivariate adjusted HR for the association between PsA and all-cause mortality and for factors associated with mortality within the PsA group. Results There were 5275 patients with PsA and 21,011 controls included and followed for 7.2 ± 4.4 years. The mean age was 51.7 ± 15.4 years, and 53% were females. Among patients with PsA, 38.2% were on biologics. Four hundred seventy-one (8.9%) patients died in the PsA group compared to 1668 (7.9%) in the control group. The crude HR for the association of PsA and all-cause mortality was 1.16 (95% CI 1.04–1.29) and 1.02 (95% CI 0.90–1.15) on multivariate analysis. Malignancy was the leading cause of death (26%), followed by ischemic heart disease (15.8%); this is in keeping with the leading causes of death in the general population. Older age, male sex, lower socioeconomic status, increased BMI, increased Charlson comorbidity index scores, and history of psoriasis or hospitalization in 1 year prior to entry were positive predictors for mortality. Conclusion No clinically relevant increase in mortality rate was observed in patients with PsA, and specific PMRs were similar to those of the general population.


Gene therapy is promising for the treatment of many diseases including cancers and genetic diseases. From the viewpoint of safety, ultrasound (US)-mediated gene delivery with nano/ microbubbles was recently developed as a novel non-viral vector system. US-mediated gene delivery using nano/microbubbles are able to produce transient changes in the permeability of the cell membrane after US-induced cavitation while reducing cellular damage and enables the tissue-specific or the site-specific intracellular delivery of gene both in vitro and in vivo. We have recently developed novel lipid nanobubbles (Lipid Bubbles). These nanobubbles can also be used to enhance the efficacy of the US-mediated genes (plasmid DNA, siRNA, and miRNA etc.) delivery. In this review, we describe US-mediated delivery systems combined with nano/microbubbles and discuss their feasibility as non-viral vector systems.


Community-Driven Archaeology is an important tool in giving voice to marginalized groups and neighborhoods; it has the power to engage and inform communities of their past, as well as strengthen ties and stewardship to public lands, cultural resources and national heritage. It is a particularly effective approach when engaging contexts within which various groups interacted in times of crises. As components of the region's Civil War heritage the Civil War Defenses of Washington (CWDW) represent some of the more overt manifestations of conflict associated with the city. In addition to their original defensive character CWDW also have long associations within the African-American community, beginning with their construction and extending to the present day. Applying Community-Driven Archaeology to CWDW would allow archaeologists to examine a landscape created by the African-American community within the larger context of military use of land and resources in the city.


: On the basis of analysis of published data, direct (using 13C) and indirect methods of estimating the amino acid transfer into mammary secretory cells in vivo were compared and the modified indirect method was used to determine quantitatively the shifts in transport activity in lactating cows and goats in trials with amino acid deficit or excess and in investigations that used a hyperinsulemic-euglycemic clamp. The analysis suggests that inadequacy of traditional use of extraction efficiency as a measure of tissue affinity to substrate is associated with two shortcomings: 1) if the changes in mammary blood flow are more expressed compared to transport activity, the arteriovenous difference and extraction efficiency may change in opposite direction to the shifts in transport activity; 2) due to the effect of nonlinearity, in situations characterized by small ratio of blood flow: the transport activity extraction efficiency is insensitive to shifts on activity of transport. The re-analysis of published data using the modified inbdirect method indicated that the deficit of individual amino acid caused a rise in activity of their transport and the excess decreased a net transfer into cell. The insulineuglycemic clamp treatments increased the activity of amino acid transport into the mammary cell and milk protein yield. The results obtained suggest that net transmembrane transfer of amino acid into mammary secretory cell can be controlled by the cell itself according to metabolic demand.


In the search for more accurate ways to determine intraocular pressure, the Halberg applanation tonometer may represent an alternative to the Schi0tz tonometer for routine screening pressure measurements. Although between 100 to 150 measurements are generally required to gain proficiency with the Halberg, the instrument is accurate in patients with normal corneas even with very abnormal scleral rigidity, which would make Schidtz readings inaccurate. In patients with corneal disease and irregular corneal surfaces due to edema or scarring, however, the optical applanation tonometer cannot be accurately used. In these patients, also, the Schi0tz tonometer is not only inaccurate but also may consistently read low and be grossly misleading. As validated by direct measurements with a cannula inside the eyes of patients toith irregidar corneal surfaces, the electronic applanation tonometer (MacKay-Marg tonometer) provided the first measure of the true intraocidar pressure in patients with corneal edema and corneal scarring. The Bausch and Lomb air tonometer could provide readings of generally comparable accuracy but is considerably less convenient to use in patients with irritated eyes or nystagmus or after keratoplasty. In patients with corneal disease and corneal edema, even modest elevations of intraocular pressure can contribute to edema and disease. Conversely, through neglect of this factor, the group xoiih previous ocular damage has an increased likelihood of having elevated intraocular pressures and suffering irreversible damage. An adequate standard of ophthalmologic care now seems to require some provision for the measurement of pressure in patients with corneal disease.


Breakdown of the disc extracellular matrix is thought to arise from increased activity of matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs). Aggrecan, one of the major disc matrix macromolecules, is degraded through action of MMPs and aggrecanases and its concentration falls early in the degeneration process. Loss of the constituent glycosaminoglycans (GAGs), which are osmotically active, leads to a decrease in osmotic pressure and subsequently to a fall in tissue hydration. Apart from the major biomechanical consequences, fall in extracellular osmolarity is known to influence cell function. Apart from aggrecan, other macromolecules such as fibronectin are also broken down by MMPs. Fibronectin fragments (Fnfs) have been identified in degenerate discs. Such Fnfs have been found to stimulate production and activity of MMPs in articular cartilage but little is known about the effect of these fragments on disc cells.

The aim of the work was thus to determine whether Fnf stimulated expression of MMPs and hence induced aggrecan breakdown and loss in the disc and whether extracellular osmolarity influenced this potential response. NP cells or explants were harvested from adult bovine caudal discs. They were cultured in DMEM culture medium over a range of osmolarities with or without Fnf treatment. Profiles of gene expression of MMPs and their inhibitors and effect of changes in osmolarity on expression of selected MMPs were determined. The effect of Fnf on responses of cells and tissue explants from the central region of the disc, the nucleus pulposus (NP) and the role of changes in extracellular osmolarity in relation to GAG loss and expression of selected MMPs was then examined both at the protein level and by gene profiling using a microarray.

My results showed that expression of MMPs by disc cells is regulated by extracellular osmolarity rather than the 30 kD Fnf, with the level of some MMPs secreted by disc cells and involved in degradation of disc matrix rising as osmolarity falls. These results could explain in part the finding that MMP expression increases with degree of disc degeneration i.e. with loss of aggrecan and fall in extracellular osmolarity. These also suggested that a fall in osmolarity could induce a degenerative cascade with proteolytic digestion of aggrecan leading to a fall in osmolarity and hence a further increase in proteinase expression and matrix degradation.


The timing, location, and magnitude of major disturbance events are currently major uncertainties in the global carbon cycle. Accurate information on the location, spatial extent, and duration of disturbance at the continental scale is needed to evaluate the ecosystem impacts of land cover changes due to wildfire, insect epidemics, flooding, climate change, and human-triggered land use. This paper describes an algorithm developed to serve as an automated, economical, systematic disturbance detection index for global application using Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS)/Aqua Land Surface Temperature (LST) and Terra/MODIS Enhanced Vegetation Index (EVI) data from 2003 to 2004. The algorithm is based on the consistent radiometric relationship between LST and EVI computed on a pixel-by-pixel basis. We used annual maximum composite LST data to detect fundamental changes in land-surface energy partitioning, while avoiding the high natural variability associated with tracking LST at daily, weekly, or seasonal time frames. Verification of potential disturbance events from our algorithm was carried out by demonstration of close association with independently confirmed, well-documented historical wildfire events throughout the study domain. We also examined the response of the disturbance index to irrigation by comparing a heavily irrigated poplar tree farm to the adjacent semiarid vegetation. Anomalous disturbance results were further examined by association with precipitation variability across areas of the study domain known for large interannual vegetation variability. The results illustrate that our algorithm is capable of detecting the location and spatial extent of wildfire with precision, is sensitive to the incremental process of recovery of disturbed landscapes, and shows strong sensitivity to irrigation. Disturbance detection in areas with high interannual variability of precipitation will benefit from a multiyear data set to better separate natural variability from true disturbance.


This paper presents a new posture classification system to analyze different human behaviors directly from video sequences using the technique of triangulation. For well analyzing each posture in the video sequences, we propose a triangulation-based method to triangulate it to different triangle meshes from which two important posture features are then extracted, i.e., the ones of skeleton and centroid context. The first one is used for a coarse search and the second one is for a finer classification to classify postures in more details. For the first descriptor, we take advantages of a dfs (depth-first search) scheme to extract the skeleton features of a posture from its triangulation result. Then, with the help of skeleton information, we can define a new shape descriptor, i.e., centroid context, to describe a posture up to a semantic level. That is, the centroid context is a finer descriptor to describe a posture not only from its whole shape but also from its body parts. Since the two descriptors are complement to each other, all desired human postures can be compared and classified very accurately. The nice ability of posture classification can help us generate a set of key postures for transferring a behavior sequence to a set of symbols. Then, a novel string matching scheme is proposed to analyze different human behaviors. Experimental results have proved that the proposed method is robust, accurate, and powerful in human behavior analysis


Numerous studies have shown that brain functional connectivity patterns can be time-varying over periods of tens of seconds. It is important to capture inherent non-stationary connectivity states for a better understanding of the influence of disease on brain connectivity. K-means has been widely used to extract the connectivity states from dynamic functional connectivity. However, K-means is dependent on initialization and can be exponentially slow in converging due to extensive noise in dynamic functional connectivity. In this work, we propose to use an affinity propagation clustering method to estimate the connectivity states. By applying K-means and the new method separately, we analyzed dynamic functional connectivity of 82 healthy controls and 82 schizophrenia patients, and then explored group differences between schizophrenia patients and healthy controls in the identified connectivity states. Both methods revealed that group differences mainly lay in visual, sensorimotor and frontal cortices. However, the new approach found more meaningful group differences than K-means. Our finding supports that our method is promising in exploring biomarkers of mental disorders.


Adipose stem cells (ASCs) show potential in the recellularization of tissue engineerined vascular grafts (TEVGs). However, whether sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) could further enhance the adhesion, proliferation, and antithrombosis of ASCs on decellularized vascular scaffolds is unknown. This study investigated the effect of S1P on the recellularization of TEVGs with ASCs. Human ASCs were derived from lipoaspirate. Scaffolds were derived from human umbilical arteries (HUAs) with treatment of 0.1% sodium dodecyl sulfate (SDS) for 48 h (decellularized HUAs; DHUAs). The adhesion, proliferation, and antithrombotic functions (kinetic clotting time and platelet adhesion) of ASCs on DHUAs with S1P or without S1P were evaluated. The histology and DNA examination revealed a preserved structure and the elimination of the nuclear component more than 95% in HUAs after decellularizaiton. Human ASCs (hASCs) showed CD29(+), CD73(+), CD90(+), CD105(+), CD31(–), CD34(–), CD44(–), HLA-DR(–), and CD146(–) while S1P-treated ASCs showed marker shifting to CD31(+). In contrast to human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs), S1P didn't significantly increase proliferation of ASCs on DHUAs. However, the kinetic clotting test revealed prolonged blood clotting in S1P-treated ASC-recellularized DHUAs. S1P also decreased platelet adhesion on ASC-recellularized DHUAs. In addition, S1P treatment increased the syndecan-1 expression of ASCs. TEVG reconstituted with S1P and ASC-recellularized DHUAs showed an antithrombotic effect in vitro. The preliminary results showed that ASCs could adhere to DHUAs and S1P could increase the antithrombotic effect on ASC-recellularized DHUAs. The antithrombotic effect is related to ASCs exhibiting an endothelial-cell-like function and preventing of syndecan-1 shedding. A future animal study is warranted to prove this novel method.


One company has been paying attention to small business development is PT. Telkom Pekanbaru Branch through its Community Development Centre (CDC) to run the Partnership Program and Community Development (CSR) by providing financial assistance as well as nonfinancial assistance such as training and coaching for small business. However, performance of partners in making repayment of loans granted by the CDC PT. Telkom Pekanbaru Branch is still high. This study aims to determine the effect of training and coaching to small business development in the Community Development Partnership Program (CSR) by the Community Development Centre PT Telkom Pekanbaru Branch. The study population is all of which amounts to 277 people with a sample of 73 people Data from this study are primary data using questionnaires as research instruments. Data analysis techniques that used in this research is descriptive and inferential statistical analysis using SPSS. The result show that training and coaching jointly or individually have a significant influence on the development of small business. Coaching is a variable that has the highest donation or the value of job satisfaction in small business.Keywords: Training, Coaching, Small business development, Community development centre (CDC)


Fractionation techniques, based on zonal centrifugation in density gradients, were developed for examining the heterogeneity of lysosomal populations and also for the purification of lysosomes from normal rat liver. Small lysosomes of rat liver were observed to be relatively rich in acid phosphatase whilst larger lysosomes were richer in other enzymes, notably acid ribonuclease. Examination of acid hydrolase distributions amongst partially disrupted lysosomes indicated that this 'apparent' heterogeneity was due mainly to the membrane association of acid phosphatase. These observations were confirmed by morphology and by cytochemical staining for acid phosphatase. The heterogeneity could not be attributed to different populations of lysosomes originating from different cell types of rat liver. A large scale method for isolating 60-fold purified lysosomes (from up to 200 g of liver) was developed. Lysosomes purified by this method were utilised for raising anti-lysosomal antibodies. Examination of lysosomal proteins with the aid of these antibodies (by immunoelectrophoresis) and by SDS polyacrylamide electrophoresis indicated significant interchange between lysosomes and serum and bile but relatively little between lysosomes and related structures, such as the plasma membrane. Fractionation of 'microsomes' from isolated hepatocytes and non-hepatocytes showed that the plasma membrane (PM) of non-hepatocytes has a much lower banding density than the PM of hepatocytes. These observations partly explain the heterogeneity of PM vesicles recovered in the microsomal fraction of whole liver. Lysosomes of the rat kidney cortex were subfractionated in a systematic study, in order to examine and characterise the complete range of lysosomal populations with respect to their size, enzymic composition and possibly function. A rate zonal sedimentation method was developed to provide a 'profile' of lysosomes present in the classical 'ML' fraction. Small lysosomes, which were similar in size to those of liver, were extremely heterogeneous in terms of enzyme distributions. The characteristic large lysosomes (protein droplets) of the kidney tubular cells were well resolved from the small lysosomes and contained a distinct complement of lysosomal enzymes. Subfractionation of kidney 'microsomes. ' revealed that this fraction contained a high proportion of small lysosomes which were also very heterogeneous. All populations of kidney lysosomes appeared to be involved in the uptake and degradation of a typical low molecular weight protein which is reabsorbed from the glomerular filtrate into the proximal tubule cells.


Channeled spectropolarimetry is a snapshot method of measuring the spectral and polarization content of light. Wave-number domain amplitude modulation is employed to encode all four Stokes component spectra into a single optical power spectrum. We model the channeled spectropolarimeter as a linear operator, which facilitates treatment of nonideal effects and provides a convenient framework for simulations, calibration, and reconstruction. The operator's singular value decomposition is treated with analytic and computational approaches. This analysis highlights the importance of the choice of object space in constraining and imparting prior knowledge to linear reconstructions of data from underdetermined systems.


A case of unilateral Sprengel's deformity with an associated omovertebral bone is presented. A review of proposed mechanisms of development is included in the discussion of this rare anomaly. The condition is largely one of cosmetic deformity rather than signs and symptoms. The significance of identifying it's presence lies in uncovering the many less obvious, but more potentially serious, anomalies that may be associated with it. Conservative management is discussed.


In mainstream assessments of Confucianism's modern genealogy there is a Sinocentric bias which is in part the result of a general neglect of modern Japanese Confucianism by political and moral philosophers and intellectual historians during the post-war era.
The essays in this volume can be read for the insight they provide into the intellectual and ideological proclivities of reformers, educators and philosophers explicitly reconstructing Confucian thought, or more tacitly influenced by it, during critical phases in Japan's modernization, imperialist expansionism and post-1945 reconstitution as a liberal democratic polity. They can be read as introductions to the ideas of modern Japanese Confucian thinkers and reformers whose work is little known outside Japan—and sometimes barely remembered inside Japan. They can also be read as a needful corrective to the above-mentioned Sinocentric bias in the 20th century intellectual history of Confucianism. For those Confucian scholars currently exploring how Confucianism is, or can be made compatible with democracy, at least some of the studies in this volume serve as a warning. They enjoin readers to consider how Confucianism was also rendered compatible with the authoritarian ultranationalism and militarism that captured Japan's political system in the 1930s, and brought war to the Asia-Pacific region.


Are the probable future negative effects of climate change an argument for decreasing the discount rate to promote the interests of future generations? The analysis of the present paper suggests that such stronger intergenerational altruism might undermine future well-being if not complemented by collective climate action. In the standard one-sector model of economic growth normatively attractive outcomes will be implemented if each generation has sufficient altruism for its descendants. This conclusion is radically changed in a two-sector model where one form of capital is more productive than the other but leads to negative atmospheric externalities. In fact, the model shows that, if each dynasty is trying to get ahead in a world threatened by climate change by increasing its intergenerational altruism, then long-term well-being will be seriously undermined.


Losing a job and being out of work is downright depressing. So found Cornell researchers when they studied the effects of unemployment on mental health. Now they are looking at the effects of several social support services on the mental and overall well-being of the unemployed. What happens to the mental and overall health states of people when they lose their jobs? can unemployment compensation or welfare benefits soften the blow? These questions are core concerns for Eunice Rodriguez, assistant professor of program evaluation and planning in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management. "I am interested in how different types of social support can help people through periods of economic transition and economic insecurity," says Rodriguez. "How do these systems of support help people stay healthy?" In today's economy, it's easy to dismiss unemployment as a problem of the past. Employment figures in the United States are strong. Working people numbered 134.1 million as of November 1999, according to reports from the Bureau of Labor Statistics in the U.S. Department of Labor. The unemployment rate for the same month and year held steady at just 4.1 percent. But despite the favorable figures, many people are still out of work. Rodriguez names corporate mergers, downsizing, workplace restructuring, and international competition for low-wage unskilled labor as factors that have made unemployment a reality for 5.7 million people in the United States. In New York State, more than 461,000 people were jobless as of October 1999. Whereas most discussions, policies, and programs relating to unemployment emphasize its economic consequences, Rodriguez has turned her attention to health, specifically mental health outcomes. She has found through her research that unemployment instability--that is, fearing unemployment or passing in and out of the workforce--has a profound impact on well-being. "We know there's a relationship between unemployment and health, but we're still investigating how that relationship came about," Rodriguez says. The long-term application of her research may be new policies and interventions to abate the ill effects of unemployment. In one study published in the International Journal of Health Services, Rodriguez and colleagues Kathryn Lasch and June P. Mead looked at which form of social support--unemployment compensation or welfare benefits--is best for alleviating the negative mental health consequences during periods of unemployment. The researchers measured negative mental health consequences as levels of depression. Unemployment compensation, as defined by the researchers, is an entitlement benefit offered only to those who have worked before. The benefit usually lasts no more than 26 weeks and is, quite simply, a shield against poverty. Welfare, on the other hand, includes means-tested programs, and recipients often receive the benefits for a long period. Using the National Survey of Family and Households, Rodriguez and her collaborators found that the jobless who received unemployment compensation did not report that they were any more depressed than the employed. But unemployed people who didn't receive unemployment compensation or who received only welfare were more likely than employed people to say that they were depressed, even after the researchers controlled for total household income and length of unemployment. According to the researchers, the findings suggest that unemployment compensation is a beneficial resource for the unemployed. The support can help fend off bouts of depression. Welfare benefits, however, don't seem to provide sufficient relief for the jobless because either the monies provided by the programs are not enough, or the social stigma of "being on the dole" could add stress, which might outweigh the benefits of welfare. "Also, people who qualify for those programs are the most vulnerable in society," Rodriguez says. …


Every medical practice has essential functions that are critical to thriving in a competitive and challenging environment. Just as you check your patients' vital signs when they present for an encounter, your practice requires ongoing assessment of its performance. Do you know your practice's pulse rate? This article provides a systematic process for how to complete a full operational assessment of your practice's vital functions. Discussions include why assessments are important, what data to gather, who to involve, when and why to use an outside party, and what to do with the results.


Psychophysical supervenience requires that the mental properties of a system cannot change without the change of its physical properties. In this paper, I argue that the Everett interpretation of quantum mechanics or Everett's theory seems to violate the principle of psychophysical supervenience. In order to be consistent with our experience, the theory assumes psychophysical supervenience in each world, including our world. However, this permits the possibility that under certain unitary time evolution which does not lead to world branching, the wave function of each world changes and correspondingly the mental states of the observers in the world also change, while the wave function of the total worlds does not change, which violates the principle of psychophysical supervenience for all worlds. It seems that one must go beyond Everett's theory such as denying multiplicity in order to avoid the failure of psychophysical supervenience.


The present study compares vocal parameters in bilinguals' use of two languages across different speech tasks, in order to examine whether language selection and task type will manifest different outcomes. Korean-English (KE) and Mandarin-English (ME) speakers performed three speech tasks – a reading passage, a monologue, and a picture description – in their two spoken languages. Fundamental frequency (F0), F0 variability, intensity, and speaking rate were measured. Results yielded an effect of language on average F0s, as both bilingual groups showed a significantly higher F0 in Mandarin or Korean compared to English. For the KE group, a higher F0 appeared in Korean compared to English across all tasks, while for the ME group, a difference in F0 between Mandarin and English was found for reading only. Both groups had the highest F0s in the reading task. There was a difference in F0 variability between two spoken languages only for the KE group monologue. Mean intensity of the ME group was overall higher than that of the KE group. Speaking rate was significantly slower in English than the native language for both groups, but the KE group demonstrated a greater difference in pace between their two spoken languages. Findings demonstrated that bilingual speakers produced notably different voice patterns contingent on language and speech task, indicating that inter- and intra-speaker variability in speakers' vocal features can be attributed in part to language effects.


Abstract Flores Pos is one of the most popular and historic newspapers in the province of East Nusa Tenggara (NTT). This newspaper is very well known, accepted and made as one of the information references. Until now, Flores Pos is still present and able to survive in the midst of media competition and the development of information technology, although the appearance is still old-fashioned. This fact requires the editor of Flores Pos to determine the editorial policy of their institutions in order to be able to survive in the competition. This study aims to find out how Flores Pos editorial policy in maintaining its existence. This research uses descriptive qualitative analysis method used in this study and uses descriptive data that presents written and oral words from the subject and observable behavior. This research requires informants to obtain data and facts from a phenomenon. The object of this research is the Flores Pos newspaper. For data collection using direct observation, interviews, and literature studies. While at the stage of data analysis it is carried out through data collection, reducing data, presenting data and making conclusions. The findings in the study show that, 1) Editor of Flores Pos has the concept of editorial policy that has been designed and used for a long period of time. 2) In its reporting, Flores Pos chose to accommodate the interests of the community. 3) In maintaining its existence, the editor of Flores Pos seeks to always prioritize the power of its reporting and choose not to converge media. 4) Flores Pos adheres to its idealism and vision and mission as guidelines for internal policies that are umbrella in the Press Law and Journalistic Code of Ethics. Keywords: editorial policy, newspaper content, existence. DOI : https://doi.org/10.26905/nomosleca.v4i2.2547


Fat content (as % of total body wet wt) of the sprat Sprattus sprattus phalericus in the Black Sea was determined annually during the peak feeding period (i.e. summer) between 1960 and 2001. Interannual variations of this characteristic were quite high (from 8.0 to 16.0%). Sprat fat con- tent can be used as an indicator of food supply (or recent feeding history). In the Black Sea, different periods could be distinguished with respect to food supply of this species: Period I (1960 to 1964) with stable sprat fat content values of 11.2 to 13.7%; Period II (1965 to 1972) with decreased values of 8.5 to 10.3%; Period III (1974 to 1982) with higher values of 11.4 to 15.7%; Period IV (1983 to 1990) when there were the highest interannual fluctuations and a decrease to 9.9 to 10.7%; Period V (1991 to 1997) again with high fat content values of 12.2 to 14.7%; Period VI (1998 to 2001) with stabilized fat content values of 12.0 to 12.3%. These periods are closely related to the general situation in the Black Sea ecosystem caused by climatic changes, increased trophic competition, eutrophication and pollu- tion. Relationships between interannual fluctuations in sprat fat content, on the one hand, and sprat biomass and phytoplankton concentration, on the other, are revealed. The features of the interannual dynamics of the Black Sea sprat fat content are similar to those (biomass and catches) of small pelagic fishes in the Mediterranean and in some other parts of the World Ocean.


Coronary artery disease (CAD) remains one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality globally. The most cost-effective imaging strategy to diagnose CAD in patients with stable chest pain is however uncertain. To review the evidence on comparative cost-effectiveness of different imaging strategies for patients presenting with stable chest pain symptoms suggestive for CAD. Systematic review. Studies performing a formal economic evaluation or decision analysis in the English language published between January 1995 and December 2015 were identified using PubMed, Medline (OvidSP), Embase, Web of Science, Cochrane economic evaluations library, and EconLit. Reviews and meta-analyses were excluded. Two independent reviewers assessed titles and abstracts. Of the 4498 titles identified, 70 met our selection criteria. One reviewer used a modified version of the CHEERS checklist to assess study quality. One reviewer extracted data on study details, which were checked by a second reviewer. There is a major heterogeneity between the available cost-effectiveness studies included in this study. The included studies compared very different testing strategies in very different ways and provided mostly short-term results. Strategies of no-testing and xECG were underrepresented. Nonetheless, the findings from this systematic review suggest that for patients with a low to intermediate prior probability of having obstructive CAD, computed tomography coronary angiography (CTCA) may be cost-effective as an initial diagnostic imaging test in comparison with CAG or other non-invasive diagnostic tests. If functional testing is required, stress echocardiography (SE) or single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT) are suggested to be cost-effective initial strategies in patients with intermediate prior probability of CAD. Yet, other functional testing strategies such as xECG and positron-emission tomography (PET) scanning have not been studied as intensely. Immediate CAG is suggested to be a cost-effective strategy for patients at a high prior probability of having obstructive CAD whom may benefit from revascularization. The study emphasizes the inextricable link between clinical effectiveness and economic efficiency. Evidence suggests that the optimal diagnostic imaging strategy for individuals suspected of having CAD is CTCA for low and intermediate disease probability, followed by SE or SPECT as necessary, and invasive CAG for high disease probability. Further studies are needed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of alternative non-invasive tests, including a no-testing strategy.


Fibroblast growth factor (FGF2)/fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) signalling plays a major role both in physiology and in several pathologies, including cancer development, metastasis formation and resistance to therapy. The development of small molecules, acting extracellularly to target FGF2/FGFR interactions, has the advantage of limiting the adverse effects associated with current intracellular FGFR inhibitors. Herein, we discuss the ability of the natural compound rosmarinic acid (RA) to induce FGF2/FGFR complex dissociation. The molecular‐level description of the FGF2/FGFR/RA system, by NMR spectroscopy and docking, clearly demonstrates that RA binds to the FGFR‐D2 domain and directly competes with FGF2 for the same binding site. Direct and allosteric perturbations combine to destabilise the complex. The proposed molecular mechanism is validated by cellular studies showing that RA inhibits FGF2‐induced endothelial cell proliferation and FGFR activation. Our results can serve as the basis for the development of new extracellular inhibitors of the FGF/FGFR pathways.


Abstract: Background: Medical errors are one of the greatest problems in any healthcare systems. The best way to prevent such problems is errors identification and their roots. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA) technique is a prospective risk analysis method. This study is a review of risk analysis using FMEA technique in different hospital wards and departments. Methods: This paper has systematically investigated the available databases. After selecting inclusion and exclusion criteria, the related studies were found. This selection was made in two steps. First, the abstracts and titles were investigated by the researchers and, after omitting papers which did not meet the inclusion criteria, 22 papers were finally selected and the text was thoroughly examined. At the end, the results were obtained. Results: The examined papers had focused mostly on the process and had been conducted in the pediatric wards and radiology departments, and most participants were nursing staffs. Many of these papers attempted to express almost all the steps of model implementation; and after implementing the strategies and interventions, the Risk Priority Number (RPN) was calculated to determine the degree of the technique's effect. However, these papers have paid less attention to the identification of risk effects. Conclusions: The study revealed that a small number of studies had failed to show the FMEA technique effects. In general, however, most of the studies recommended this technique and had considered it a useful and efficient method in reducing the number of risks and improving service quality.