We have studied 506 Amerindians from three French Guiana groups: 194 Wayampi, living in Trois-Sauts, and 100 in the Camopi area; 47 Emerillon also living in the Camopi area and 165 Wayana on the Litani and Maroni rivers. All samples were tested for Glm(1,2,3,17), G3m(5,6,10,11,13,14,15,16,21,24,28) and Km(1) by the classical method of hemaglutination inhibition. The phenotype and haplotype distributions are presented and have been subjected to factorial correspondence analysis. Two Gm haplotypes are common: Gm1*37;21,28, and Gm1,2,17;21,28, but with an important variation in frequency. A rare haplotype, probably the result of a genetic anomaly: Gm1,17;21R>28, is frequent in the Emerillon (17%). These populations show no evidence of Black or Caucasian admixtures.


3-acyltetramic acids, such as reutericyclin, belong to a group of natural products which contain a 5-membered pyrrolidine-2,4-dione heterocycle with an acyl group at the 3-position. Molecules containing this motif have been shown to contain a wealth of desirable bio-activity such as antibiotic, antitumor, antiviral, antiulcerative, fungicidal and cytotoxic properties. The motivation for synthetic efforts towards reutericyclin and analogues is that it has been shown to have potential as an antibiotic treatment against superbug C. difficile.

Our synthetic approach used a pyrroloisoxazole bicyclic system as a masked form of the acyltetramic acid core structure, which enables us to make selective modifications towards these bio-active products and produce more analogues suitable for biological testing. We report the synthesis of several novel compounds closely related to a masked reutericyclin as well as elaborations at the C-3 methyl group through aldol chemistry.

The route began with a naturally occurring amino acid that underwent N-protection, carboxyl reduction and conversion to an oxime. This oxime is precursor to a nitrile oxide used in a 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition to achieve a substituted isoxazole that was deprotected and, through an intramolecular peptide coupling reaction, provided the pyrroloisoxazole core as the masked acyltetramic acid. Acylation reactions were completed upon this pyrroloisoxazole using butyllithium as a base and a range of acyl chlorides.

Other developments made in this synthesis were the isolation of the chlorinated oxime and its use in a solvent study and significant improvements in the peptide coupling reaction. Also, synthetic efforts were made to produce an analogue of the natural product laccarin A using this methodology.


Resources for education pertaining to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM): a collection of pertinent databases, journals, standards, organizations, and more related to STEM education. 279


We report the observation of two types of Sommerfeld precursors (or forerunners) on the surface of a layer of mercury. When the fluid depth increases, we observe a transition between these two precursor surface waves in good agreement with the predictions of asymptotic analysis. At depths thin enough compared to the capillary length, high frequency precursors propagate ahead of the "main signal" and their period and amplitude, measured at a fixed point, increase in time. For larger depths, low frequency "precursors" follow the main signal with a decreasing period and amplitude. These behaviors are understood in the framework of the analysis first introduced for linear transient electromagnetic waves in a dielectric medium by Sommerfeld [Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 44, 177 (1914)]] and Brillouin [Ann. Phys. (Leipzig) 44, 203 (1914)]].


The reuse of software services often requires the introduction of adapters. In the case of coarse-grained services, and especially services that engage in long-running conversations, these adapters must deal not only with mismatches at the level of individual interactions, but also across interdependent interactions. Existing techniques support the synthesis of adapters at design-time by comparing pairs of service interfaces. However, these techniques only work under certain restrictions. This paper explores a runtime approach to service interface adaptation. The paper proposes an adaptation machine that sits between pairs of services and manipulates the exchanged messages according to a repository of mapping rules. The paper formulates an operational semantics for the adaptation machine, including algorithms to compute rule firing sequences and criteria for detecting deadlocks and information loss. The adaptation machine has been implemented as a prototype and tested on common business processes.


PURPOSE
The present study assessed whether whole milk, skim milk, or two commercially available sports drinks are effective in preventing late onset postexercise hypoglycemia (LOPEH) in persons with type 1 diabetes mellitus.

METHODS
Subjects ingested water, whole milk, skim milk, sport drink A (carbohydrate and electrolytes), or sport drink B (carbohydrate, fat, and protein) before, during, and after 1 h of bicycle exercise at 60% VO2max in the late afternoon. Drinks were isocaloric (470 +/- 150 kcal) and the number of calories consumed was based on individual energy expenditure. No adjustment in insulinization was allowed in anticipation of exercise.

RESULTS
During water trials all subjects became hypoglycemic. Most drinks lead to a moderate hyperglycemia (range of mean values = 200-280 mg x dL(-1)) during the period between the end of exercise and dinner, but this was not the case for whole milk (range 80-120 mg x dL(-1)). Glycemia peaked about 1.5 h after dinner and declined over the next 90 min. Persistent hyperglycemia (range of means = 200-310 mg x dL(-1)) from after exercise to about 4 h postexercise was observed with sports drink B. A decline in glycemia in the evening was greatest during the skim milk trial and required subjects to ingest more carbohydrate as a late evening snack. The least decline during this period occurred during the whole milk trial. Subjects experienced pre-bed and early morning (0300 h) hypoglycemia in 7 of the 28 trials.

CONCLUSIONS
These data show that whole milk and sports drinks that are designed for both quick (sport drink A) and long lasting (sport drink B) nutrient replenishment can be used by persons with type 1 diabetes in an effort to avoid LOPEH.


Introduction: Diabetes is a disease caused by an increase in blood glucose levels due to insulin secretion deficiency (type 1 diabetes) or impaired insulin activity (type 2 diabetes). More than 90% of people with this condition are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. Due to sharply prevalence of type 2 diabetes in recent years, the prognosis and early diagnosis of the disease have become even more important. In this study, a model for diagnosis of type 2 diabetes was developed using Artificial Neural Network (ANN) method. Objectives: Minimizing the diagnosis faults of diabetes disease, using a hybrid ANN and the Genetic optimization algorithm.

Method: In this study, a hybrid ANN-Genetic Algorithm model was developed for classification of diabetic patients. Therefore, the number of optimal neurons as well as hidden layers was determined to design the architecture of the ANN model. To reduce the mean square error of the MSE network and optimize the accuracy of the diagnostic system a Genetic Algorithm (GA) was combined with the proposed ANN model. For experiment process, the model was considered on a dataset included 768 samples to diagnose the patients with type II diabetes from other cases.

Findings: The results showed a precision of 85% for diagnosing of type-2 diabetic patients. The proposed structure based on the lower mean square error of the MSE, indicated the best performance of the ANN with the MSE rate of 0.155.

Conclusion: The developed intelligent model showed an effective performance in comparison with existing methods with a minimum error and maximum confidence in the diagnosis process of diabetic disease.


The malignant carcinoid syndrome has been associated both drome has been associated both with spontaneous hypotension 1 and epinephrine-induced hypotension. 2 The epinephrine provocative test is considered positive when hypotension accompanies other carcinoid symptoms. A hypertensive response to intravenous epinephrine is generally considered a negative test, implying that the patient does not have a malignant carcinoid tumor. 3 The purpose of this paper is to present a patient with the malignant carcinoid syndrome who sought medical attention for hypertension and who had a hypertensive response to intravenous epinephrine. This case, and previous reports, 4-14 indicate that hypertension as well as hypotension can be associated with the carcinoid syndrome. Patient Summary A 51-year old Negro man, was admitted to Georgetown University Hospital for abdominal pain of nine months' duration. He initially sought medical attention three years prior to admission because of flushing. While shaving, he observed his face was "redder than


Blood loss during grafting surgery represents a major concern of this procedure and the development of hemostatic agents for this indication is highly desirable. TT-173 is the first biologically active treatment based on tissue factor instead of thrombin. This study sought to investigate the efficacy, systemic absorption, and toxicology of TT-173 in animal models to support clinical evaluation of the product in donor sites of patients subjected to skin grafting. Procoagulant efficacy of 148 &mgr;g of TT-173 was evaluated in pigs in presence and absence of anticoagulant treatment with unfractioned heparin. Systemic absorption was quantified and characterized in rats subjected to severe skin lesions with affectation of muscular plane using TT-173 radiolabeled with 125I. The same animal model was used to test the toxicology of a dose of 80 &mgr;g of the product. Application of TT-173 significantly reduced the bleeding time of donor sites, even under anticoagulant treatment. Systemic absorption was low; it was excreted through urine and did not concentrate in organs such as liver, lung, or spleen suggesting that the absorbed dose could correspond to degradation fragments without procoagulant activity. Finally, a dose of 80 &mgr;g of TT-173 did not cause analytical disturbances suggestive of intravascular coagulation or any other adverse reaction. Nonclinical data obtained suggest that TT-173 could be useful to reduce the blood loss associated to burns treatment and support the clinical evaluation of the product in donor sites of patients subjected to skin grafting.


A novel interval type-2 fuzzy controller architecture is proposed to resolve nonlinear control problems of vehicle active suspension systems. It integrates the Takagi-Sugeno (T-S) fuzzy model, interval type-2 fuzzy reasoning, the Wu-Mendel uncertainty bound method, and selected optimization algorithms together to construct the switching routes between generated linear model control surfaces. The stability analysis of the proposed approach is presented. The proposed method is implemented into a numerical example and a case study on a nonlinear half-vehicle active suspension system. The simulation results demonstrate the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed approach.


Background The characteristic structural and functional cardiac abnormalities which occur in diabetes, including fibrosis, inflammation and microvascular remodelling, and result in increased susceptibility to cardiovascular stress are largely mediated by reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation. In this study we aimed to investigate the specific contribution of endothelial Nox4 NADPH oxidase, a major source of cardiovascular ROS, to adverse cardiac remodelling in experimental diabetes. Methods Diabetes was induced in gene-modified mice with endothelial-specific Nox4 overexpression (Tg) and wild-type (WT) littermate controls (10–12 weeks old; n=8–12 per group) by streptozotocin injection (STZ, 50 mg/kg i.p. for 5 consecutive days). After 6 months, analyses of cardiac function (echocardiography), glucose metabolism (blood glucose, HbA1c) and myocardial gene expression (qPCR) were performed. Results Endothelial Nox4 overexpression had no effect on blood glucose or HbA1c levels in control or diabetic Tg animals. Tg control mice demonstrated impaired basal diastolic function (E/A ratio: WT 1.6±0.09 vs Tg 1.4±0.08, p<0.05) which was not affected by experimental diabetes, whilst WT STZ mice showed significant diastolic dysfunction versus controls (E/A ratio: control 1.6±0.09 versus STZ 1.3±0.04, p<0.05). Systolic function remained similar between groups. Consistent with these functional data, CTGF and MMP2 expression were increased (p<0.05) in Tg control animals, but were not affected by STZ, whereas CTGF was elevated in WT STZ animals versus controls (p<0.05). Expression of eNOS (p<0.05) and CD31 (p<0.01) was also increased in Tg versus WT controls suggestive of vascular remodelling. Interestingly, expression of antioxidant genes in response to STZ diabetes was more highly increased in Tg versus WT animals (compared to controls, p<0.05): SOD1 (WT 31±6.3%, Tg 78±24%), SOD2 (WT 37±10%, Tg 63±23%), PRDX1 (WT 55±14%, Tg 139±68%) and catalase (WT 24±14%, Tg 85±28%). This may at least partly explain protection of Tg STZ animals against further diastolic dysfunction. Conclusion Taken together, these data indicate that while increased endothelial Nox4 expression may impair basal cardiac function, it protects against adverse cardiac remodelling and dysfunction seen in experimental diabetes, via modification of key antioxidant signalling pathways, thus highlighting a key role for this major Nox isoform in the diabetic heart.


OBJECTIVE
To study the stathmin (STMN1) expression in colorectal cancer and tumor-adjacent normal tissue and discuss its prognostic significance in colon cancer.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
STMN1 was tested with qRT-PCR in 30 samples of fresh colon cancer tissue and tumor-adjacent issue, and with immunohistochemical SP method in 105 samples of fresh colon cancer tissue and tumor-adjacent issue to analyze the association between its expression and clinical pathological parameters. Clinical data was combined to study the relationship between STMN1 expression and 5-year survival rate. Univariate analysis and Cox multivariate regression were performed to study the correlation between STMN1 expression and prognosis.

RESULTS
The mRNA and protein level of STMN1 were significantly higher in colon cancer samples than tumor-adjacent normal tissues (p<0.05). STMN1 expression was independent of patient age, gender or location, but significantly related to lymph node metastasis and TNM staging (p<0.05). Survival analysis by Kaplan-Meier method showed that STMN1 expression was significantly related with the survival of colon cancer patients. The median survival time of STMN1-positive patients (37.5 months) was significantly shorter than STMN1-negative patients (57.1 months, p<0.05). Cox multivariate regression indicated that STMN1 is independent prognostic factors predicting the development, invasion and metastasis of colon cancer (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
STMN1 overexpression in colon cancer is independently associated with improved survival and significantly related to the development of the disease. Our findings suggest that presence of a STMN1-prognosis interaction that potentially determines clinical outcome.


Abstract Metaphors are inescapable in human discourse. Policy researchers have suggested that the use of particular metaphors by those implementing policy changes both influences perceptions of underlying reality and determines what solutions seem possible, and that exploring 'practice languages' is important in understanding how policy is enacted. This paper contributes to the literature exploring the generative nature of metaphors in policy implementation, demonstrating their role in not just describing the world, but also framing it, determining what is seen/unseen, and what solutions seem possible. The metaphor 'care pathway' is ubiquitous and institutionalised in healthcare. We build upon existing work critiquing its use in care delivery, and explore its use in health care commissioning, using evidence from the recent reorganisation of the English NHS. We show that the pathways metaphor is ubiquitous, but not necessarily straightforward. Conceptualising health care planning as 'designing a pathway' may make the task more difficult, suggesting a limited range of approaches and solutions. We offer an alternative metaphor: the service map. We discuss how approaches to care design might be altered by using this different metaphor, and explore what it might offer. We argue not for a barren language devoid of metaphors, but for their more conscious use.


Elaborating on the literature on industrial districts, this paper suggests that innovation and networking are the two key issues, which provide the new generation industrial clusters' competitive capacity in the globalization process. The paper presents the findings on the innovative and networking capabilities of the three important industrial clusters of Turkey based on the data collected from the sample firms in each of these industrial clusters through in-depth interviews. The findings clearly show the importance of local and national networking as well as global linkages and confirm the positive relation between intensity of local networking and innovativeness. Moreover, the paper provides evidence that firms within global networks have higher numbers of innovations than firms with higher intensity of locally embedded linkages.


This study explores the myriad definitions and conceptualizations of mathematics, with a particular focus on how undergraduate students in a mathematics course designed for non-mathematics intensive majors define the term.  Students enrolled in this particular course at a regional university in the Midwest were asked the open-ended question:  "What is math?"  The  researchers employed content analysis in their analysis and interpretation of the data.  A number of categories emerged, with the modal category beingthe conception of mathematics as problem solving that occurs in mathematics classes. Keywords: mathematics, problem-solving, definitions


Alkaloids are a class of natural products known to have wide pharmacological activity and have great potential for the development of new drugs to treat a wide array of pathologies. Some alkaloids have antiviral activity and/or have been used as prototypes in the development of synthetic antiviral drugs. In this study, eleven anti-coronavirus alkaloids were identified from the scientific literature and their potential therapeutic value against severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) is discussed. In this study, in silico studies showed an affinity of the alkaloids for binding to the receptor-binding domain of the SARS-CoV-2 spike protein, putatively preventing it from binding to the host cell. Lastly, several mechanisms for the known anti-coronavirus activity of alkaloids were discussed, showing that the alkaloids are interesting compounds with potential use as bioactive agents against SARS-CoV-2.


Aims. To constrain the Initial Mass Function (IMF) of the Galactic young ( Methods. We have optimized the flexibility of the new Besancon Galaxy Model (Czekaj 2014) to simulate magnitude and distance complete samples of young intermediate mass stars assuming different IMFs and Star Formation Histories (SFH). Comparing the simulated synthetic catalogues with the observational data we studied which IMF reproduces better the observational number of Cepheids in the Galactic thin Disc. We analysed three different IMF: (1) Salpeter, (2) Kroupa-Haywood and (3) Haywood-Robin IMFs with a decreasing SFH from Aumer & Binney (2009). Results. For the first time the Besancon Galaxy Model is used to characterize the galactic Cepheids. We found that for most of the cases the Salpeter IMF overestimates the number of observed Cepheids and Haywood-Robin IMF underestimates it. The Kroupa-Haywood IMF, with a slope α = 3.2, is the one that best reproduces the observed Cepheids. From the comparison of the predicted and observed number of Cepheids up to V = 12, we point that the model might underestimate the scale height of the young population. Conclusions. In agreement with Kroupa & Weidner (2003) our study shows that the Salpeter IMF (α = 2.35) overestimates the star counts in the range 4 ≤ M / M ⊙ ≤ 10 and supports the idea that the slope of the intermediate and massive stars IMF is steeper than the Salpeter IMF. The poster can be found online at: https://gaia.ub.edu/Twiki/pub/GREATITNFC/ProgramFinalconference/Poster_R._Mor_Great.pdf .


Replicated state machines are an important and widely-studied methodology for tolerating a wide range of faults. Unfortunately, while replicas should be distributed geographically for maximum fault tolerance, current replicated state machine protocols tend to magnify the effects of high network latencies caused by geographic distribution. In this paper, we examine how to use speculative execution at the clients of a replicated service to reduce the impact of network and protocol latency. We first give design principles for using client speculation with replicated services, such as generating early replies and prioritizing throughput over latency. We then describe a mechanism that allows speculative clients to make new requests through replica-resolved speculation and predicated writes. We implement a detailed case study that applies this approach to a standard Byzantine fault tolerant protocol (PBFT) for replicated NFS and counter services. Client speculation trades in 18% maximum throughput to decrease the effective latency under light workloads, letting us speed up run time on single-client micro-benchmarks 1.08-19× when the client is co-located with the primary. On a macro-benchmark, reduced latency gives the client a speedup of up to 5×.


Modern 4th generation air-to-air missiles are quite capable of dealing with today's battlefield needs. Advanced aerodynamics, highly efficient warheads and smart target acquisition systems combine to yield higher missile lethality than ever. However, in order to intercept highly maneuverable targets, such as future unmanned combat air vehicles (UCAV), or to achieve higher tracking precision for missiles equipped with smaller warheads, further improvement in the missile guidance system is still needed. A new concept is presented here for deriving improved differential-game-based guidance laws that make use of information about the target orientation, which is acquired via an imaging seeker. The underlying idea is that of using measurements of the target attitude as a leading indicator of target acceleration. Knowledge of target attitude reduces the reachable set of target acceleration, facilitating the computation of an improved estimate of the zero-effort miss (ZEM) distance. In consequence, missile guidance accuracy is significantly improved. The new concept is applied in a horizontal interception scenario, where it is assumed that the target maneuver direction, constituting a partial attitude information, can be extracted via processing target images, acquired by an imaging sensor. The derivation results in a new guidance law that explicitly exploits the direction of the target acceleration. The performance of the new guidance law is studied via a computer simulation, which demonstrates its superiority over existing state-of-the-art differential-game-based guidance laws. It is demonstrated that a significant decrease in the miss distance can be expected via the use of partial target orientation information.


SIR,-The observations of Dr S K Majumdar and others (18 February, p 409) on serum prolactin levels after cimetidine therapy for 1-6 months do not alter or add to the conclusio.:s of Delle Fave.' The mean of the serum prolactin concentration values quoted by the authors do not provide the mean quoted (170, 98, 280, 250, and 370 5 is 233, not 167 mU/l as stated); and also the value for one patient was abnormal (370 mU/l compared with the stated upper normal limit of 360 mU/l) despite their assertion that there was no biochemical evidence of hyperprolactinaemia in any of their cases. In addition they have misinterpreted the other report of galactorrhoea after cimetidine2 in which it was stated that a spectacular increase in serum prolactin concentration was associated with the administration of 1 g of cimetidine in the absence of any other drug treatment for three weeks previously. Delle Fave studied two women and four men before and after treatment with cimetidine 1 6 g daily for two months. Their patients were selected in that one had gynaecomastia and one had galactorrhoea. In every case a rise in serum prolactin concentration occurred (from 50 to 112 ,), but in two patients values remained in the normal range after treatment. Hyperprolactinaemia provides a rational explanation for gynaecomastia and galactorrhoea. Although some patients may have normal values after treatment with cimetidine, serum prolactin levels seem to be uniformly increased by this drug. To provide further information will require a larger number of patients studied before, serially during, and after therapy. This is of more than academic interest, since hyperprolactinaemia is associated with infertility in some women, and cimetidine is a very recent addition to the pharmacopoeia whose usefulness and toxicity are not yet clearly established.


The metabolism of inorganic nitrogen compounds was studied in extracts of Penicillium atrovenetum which had been grown under conditions in which beta-nitropropionic acid (BNP) synthesis varied from 0 to 12.5 mumoles per ml. None of the extracts was able to oxidize ammonium ion or nitrite. An enzyme was detected which catalyzed the oxidation of hydroxylamine with cytochrome c as the electron acceptor. The activity of this enzyme was not related to the ability of the organism to produce BNP. Nitrate and nitrite reductase activities were detected only in P. atrovenetum cultures grown on nitrate as a nitrogen source. These results indicated that BNP synthesis is probably not directly associated with the metabolism of inorganic nitrogen compounds and that an organic pathway for the formation of the nitro group is more likely. The activities of certain enzymes related to the metabolism of aspartic acid were investigated. Aspartate ammonia-lyase activity could not be detected in P. atrovenetum extracts. Aspartate aminotransferase and glutamate dehydrogenase activities were found in the extracts but were highest in the cultures which did not produce BNP. beta-Nitroacrylic acid reductase activity was highest in extracts of cultures which were actively synthesizing BNP.


An income tax can have side effects like decreased labor supply and lower effort levels. These side effects are important to consider in the decision of whether to introduce the tax. The terms deadweight lossand excess burdenare used by mainstream economists in this context. In this article, it is argued that according to the measures they use, an excess burden is registered, even if there are no actual side effects. The explanation is that they actually measure the difference between the situation with the income tax and a situation with a hypothetical lump sum tax. Because lump sum taxes are not realistic alternatives, for administrative and political reasons, the conventional measurements are irrelevant from a policy perspective.


Background Induction chemotherapy is a common therapeutic option for patients with locoregionally-advanced head and neck cancer (HNC), but it remains unclear which patients will benefit. In this study, we searched for biomarkers predicting the response of patients with locoregionally-advanced HNC to induction chemotherapy by evaluating the expression pattern of DNA repair proteins. Methods Expression of a panel of DNA-repair proteins in formalin-fixed paraffin embedded specimens from a cohort of 37 HNC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy prior to definitive chemoradiation were analyzed using quantitative immunohistochemistry. Results We found that XPF (an ERCC1 binding partner) and phospho-MAPKAP Kinase 2 (pMK2) are novel biomarkers for HNSCC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy. Low XPF expression in HNSCC patients is associated with better response to induction chemoradiotherapy, while high XPF expression correlates with a worse response (p = 0.02). Furthermore, low pMK2 expression was found to correlate significantly with overall survival after induction plus chemoradiation therapy (p = 0.01), suggesting that pMK2 may relate to chemoradiation therapy. Conclusions We identified XPF and pMK2 as novel DNA-repair biomarkers for locoregionally-advanced HNC patients undergoing platinum-based induction chemotherapy prior to definitive chemoradiation. Our study provides insights for the use of DNA repair biomarkers in personalized diagnostics strategies. Further validation in a larger cohort is indicated.


From a macroscopic viewpoint phase transitions as surface melting or growth mode can be described in terms of Gibbs excess quantity duly amended by size effect. The aim of this study is to consider such amended quantities to describe surface melting and Stranski-Krastanov transition of epitaxial layers. The size effect so introduced allows to predict the equilibrium thickness of the wetting layer of Stranski-Krastanov growth mode and to describe and classify two different melting cases: the incomplete premelting relayed by a first order transition and the continuous premelting relayed by continuous overheating.


Residency restrictions prohibit sex offenders from living within close proximity to schools and other areas where children congregate. Though widely implemented, little empirical research has yet examined where sex offenders reside in relation to schools. Using mapping software, this study examines the differential impact of residency restrictions on housing availability in town, county, and city-wide jurisdictions, and further examines distances of sex offender and comparison community member residencies in proximity to schools. Though findings reveal that residency restrictions mostly impact housing availability in urban areas, residency shortages would likely occur in rural and suburban areas as well. Moreover, although sex offenders residing in city areas tend to live closer to schools than randomly selected community members, offenders with child victims in the same area live further from schools than offenders with no child victims. Policy implications, including concerns over housing shortages, and suggestions for future research are discussed.


Date Presented 04/05/19
 The purpose of the study was to examine the influence of office ergonomic education and assessment on musculoskeletal discomfort and workstation configuration. Significant (p < .05) improvements for the pre- and posttest assessments for office workstation configuration and reported musculoskeletal discomfort were found. Office ergonomic assessment along with education may impact better office workstation configuration and decrease musculoskeletal discomfort.
 Primary Author and Speaker: Jeff Snodgrass


Network testbeds have become widely used in computer science, both for evaluation of research technologies and for hands-on teaching. This can naturally lead to oversubscription and resource allocation failures, as limited testbed resources cannot meet the increasing demand. This paper examines the causes of resource allocation failures on DeterLab testbed and finds three main culprits that create perceived resource oversubscription, even when available nodes exist: (1) overuse of mapping constraints by users, (2) testbed software errors and (3) suboptimal resource allocation. We propose solutions that could resolve these issues and reduce allocation failures to 57.3% of the baseline. In the remaining cases, real resource oversubscription occurs. We examine testbed usage patterns and show that a small fraction of unfair projects starve others for resources under the current first-come-first-served allocation policy. Due to interactive use of testbeds traditional fair-sharing techniques are not suitable solutions. We then propose two novel approaches -- Take-a-Break and Borrow-and-Return -- that temporarily pause long-running experiments. These approaches can reduce resource allocation failures to 25% of the baseline case by gently prolonging 1-2.5% of instances. While our investigation is done on DeterLab testbed's data, it should apply to all testbeds that run Emulab software.


Background: Endovascular intervention of vertebrobasilar stenosis is a relatively new but alternative modality of management, supported by very few studies and case reports. Femoral approach has been used in all. The purpose of present study is to evaluate feasibility of the radial artery as an alternative approach for vertebral artery stenting (VAS) and basilar artery stenting (BAS). Methods: Forty-seven patients (mean age 70 6 5, 38 male) underwent VAS and BAS. VAS was offered in 42 and BAS was offered in five patients. All the patients were symptomatic having stenosis greater than 75%. The target vertebral artery (VA) was cannulated using a 6Fr Internal Mammary Artery (IMA) guide catheter using ipsilateral radial approach. 0.014" floppy tip coronary guide wire was advanced and parked across the culprit stenosis. Pre dilation was done using a 2 3 12 mm or a 2.5 3 12 mm PTCA catheter and balloon mounted 2.5 3 13 mm or 3 3 13 mm bare metal stent was deployed using 8–10 atm pressure for all chronic lesions. For acute occlusions, the procedure was divided in two stages. In first stage, the lesion was dilated using PTCA catheter (1.5 3 12 mm) at 4–6 atm pressure just to establish the distal flow. After 24 hr, the patient was brought back and the culprit lesion was stented using 8–10 atm pressure. The procedure was staged to prevent hyperperfusion brain injury. Results: VAS was successful in 42/42 (100%) patients. BAS was successful in five out of five (100%) patients. However, three patients had transient periprocedural stroke which recovered completely within 6 hr and one patient developed intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) who died after 24 hr. Hyper perfusion brain injury was the cause for ICH. Conclusion: VAS and BAS using the transradial approach appear to be safe, technically feasible, and reproducible. Technical ease of cannulation of vertebral artery with IMA guide catheter using ipsilateral transradial approach should make it more convenient when compared with femoral approach. VC 2009 Wiley-Liss, Inc.


The story of Hyderabad, the capital of the Indian state Andhra Pradesh, is truly inspiring for late-comers to development. Within two decades, Andhra Pradesh has been catapulted straight from a poor and largely agricultural economy into a major service center. It has transformed itself from a lagging into a leading region. Fuelled by an increase in service exports of 45 times between 1998 and 2008, the number of information technology companies in Hyderabad increased eight times, and employment increased 20 times. Service-led growth has mushroomed in other parts of India and South Asia as well. Indeed, growth in the services sector has enabled South Asia to grow almost as fast as East Asia in this century, with growth of just under seven percent annually between 2000 and 2007. Growth rates in South Asia and East Asia have converged. The two fastest growing regions in the world, however, have very different growth patterns. While East Asia is a story of growth led by manufacturing, South Asia has thrived on service-led growth. The promise of the services revolution is that countries do not need to wait to get started with rapid development. There is a new boat that development late-comers can take. The globalization of service exports provides alternative opportunities for developing countries to find niches, beyond manufacturing, where they can specialize, scale up and achieve explosive growth, just like the industrializes. The core of the argument is that as the number of goods and services produced and traded across the world expand with globalization, the possibilities for all countries to develop based on their comparative advantage expand. That comparative advantage can just as easily be in services as in manufacturing or indeed agriculture.


We develop a quantum probability model that can account for situations where people's causal judgments violate the properties of causal Bayes nets and demonstrate how the parameters of our model can be interpreted to provide information about underlying cognitive processes. We implement this model within a hierarchical Bayesian inference framework that allows us to systematically identify individual differences and also provide a latent classification of individuals into categories of causal and associative reasoners. Finally, we implement a basic normative causal Bayes net within the same inference framework that allows us to directly compare quantum and classical probability models using Bayes factors.


Hepatic glycogenosis, a rare disease characterized hepatomegaly and elevated liver enzyme levels, is observed in patients with type 1 diabetes mellitus. We present a case of 66-yeard-old woman with type 1 diabetes mellitus with poor glycemic control. She presented with impaired consciousness and findings of diabetic ketoacidosis (blood glucose level 1110 mg/dl; blood ketone bodies 10,926 μmol/l; pH 7.247). Hepatobiliary enzyme levels were elevated and CT showed hepatomegaly and elevated CT numbers in the hepatic parenchyma, from before and after hospitalization. A liver biopsy was performed and nuclear glycogen and ballooning in the hepatocytes were observed. Along with the stabilization of blood glucose levels, improvements in liver enzyme levels and hepatomegaly were observed. Appropriately adjusting the amount of insulin and continuing glycemic control should prevent future relapse of hepatic damage


Since the foot-and-mouth disease epidemics in Europe in 2001 the use of emergency vaccination, if an outbreak occurs, has become more prominent in EU legislation. Since pigs infected with foot-and-mouth disease virus (FMDV) excrete huge amounts of virus they are considered as amplifiers of the disease and therefore the effect of vaccination on pigs is of great interest, especially in areas with high pig density. The aim of this thesis was to establish if and how soon (herd-) immunity in pigs is induced by vaccination and, furthermore, to study the correlation between immune responses after vaccination and protection against challenge.
Transmission of FMDV and the effect of vaccination were studied in animal experiments in which half of the pigs were challenged with FMDV and transmission to contact pigs was studied. The outcome of the experiments was quantified using mathematical models. It was shown that, in the used model, pigs were protected against challenge at two weeks after homologous (vaccine virus same as field virus) as well as after heterologous (vaccine virus other than field virus, but within same serotype) vaccination. After challenge at one week after vaccination, transmission to all contact pigs was observed. However, vaccination did lead to a significant reduction of virus excretion after challenge, which will lead to reduction of virus in the environment which will reduce the risk of transmission to other herds. Vaccination with a 4-fold vaccine dose reduced the number of contact infections after challenge at one week after vaccination. Moreover, virus excretion of vaccinated-infected pigs was reduced even more.
For decision making regarding control of the disease, it is important that transmission in non-vaccinated and vaccinated pigs is quantified. Quantified transmission parameters can be used in quantitative modelling, which is regarded as an essential tool for developing strategies in preparation of an outbreak and for predicting and evaluating the effectiveness of control policies during an outbreak. In this thesis, estimates for the transmission rate s, the infectious period T and the reproduction ratio R for both non-vaccinated and vaccinated pigs were quantified with the results of our studies. It was shown that contact structure influenced the transmission rate and that the between-pen transmission-rate was significantly smaller than the within-pen transmission-rate in non-vaccinated pigs. Vaccination reduced s, T and R of FMDV in pigs as soon as one week post vaccination and for the group vaccinated with a 4-fold vaccine dose R was estimated to be 1, which will probably be sufficient to reduce between-herd transmission sufficiently.
 Furthermore, it was shown that in individual pigs, the (reduced) virus excretion after infection was correlated with the neutralising antibody-titre at the moment of infection. After vaccination, IgA responses could be demonstrated and an indication that these responses play a possible role in protection against infection was found. After infection, a prolonged IgA response was demonstrated which was previously only described for carrier cattle and therefore needs further investigation. Also, it was demonstrated that after vaccination and infection systemic and mucosal isotype specific immune responses (IgG, IgM and IgA) were comparable.
 It was concluded that the currently used vaccines are effective in reducing virus transmission as soon as two weeks after vaccination. More research on optimal vaccine composition and dose is recommended. The correlates of protection that were found might be useful in future vaccine-research.


The aim of this article is to analyze the students' performance before and after a comic-based didactic sequence to learn English vocabulary among 11th and 12th graders from a public and a semi-public school in Chile. This research was conducted through intervention sessions in which students were exposed to comic-based instructionthe reading of a comic as first visual aid, classroom activities based on the comic strip and the production of comics based on the words learned in the lesson, using the Presentation, Practice and Production approach to language teaching. Research practitioners used pre and post-testing before and after the intervention respectively to collect the data required. The results showed a statistically significant difference between the pre and post tests conducted in both schools, therefore the comic-based instruction was effective as students proved to have learned the vocabulary taught


This paper presents an improved method for precision motion control by combining Iterative Learning Control (ILC) and Cross-Coupled Control (CCC) in a novel way that improves overall tracking performance. Previous developments in precision motion control have introduced a CCC feedback method which results in improved contour error. Contour error is a nonlinear combination of the individual axis tracking errors [1]. In this paper, ILC and CCC are combined to overcome limitations present in each technique. In this new method, multi-axis CCC is reformatted into a single-input single-output (SISO) ILC approach, in which learning of the cross-coupled error leads to a modified control signal and subsequent improvements in the trajectory tracking performance. This approach is different from multi-input multi-output (MIMO) ILC [2] approaches in that two non-coupled systems are combined into one nonlinear system in which the coupling is introduced through only the error dynamics. In this paper, sufficient stability and convergence properties are given for the proposed algorithm. A design for a Cross-Coupled ILC (CCILC) system is presented, and the performance of this system is compared to the performance of existing control systems. Computer simulation and experimental testing of this design are implemented on a microscale robotic deposition (μ - RD) system [3] to assess the overall performance benefits. It is shown through simulation and experimental testing that combining CCILC with individual axis ILC produces the greatest overall performance improvement by capitalizing on the gains acquired from each technique.© 2006 ASME


The paper introduces a tool for visualizing a multidimensional relevance space. Abstractly, the information to be displayed consists of a large number of objects, a set of features that are likely to be of interest to the user, and some function that measures the relevance level of every object to the various features. The goal is to provide the user with a concise and comprehensible visualization of that information. For the type of applications concentrated on, the exact relevance measures of the objects are not significant. This enables accuracy to be traded for a clearer display. The idea is to "flatten" the multidimensionality of the feature space into a 2D "relevance map", capturing the inter-relations among the features, without causing too many ambiguous interpretations of the results. To better reflect the nature of the data and to resolve the ambiguity the authors refine the given set of features and introduce the notion of composed features. The layout of the map is then obtained by grading it according to a set of rules and using a simulated annealing algorithm which optimizes the layout with respect to these rules. The technique proposed has been implemented and tested, in the context of visualizing the result of a Web search, in the RMAP (Relevance Map) prototype system.


Most analyses of Egyptian politics present the limitations and failures of official political life as the complete story of politics in Egypt. Raymond Baker's direct observation of Egyptian politics has convinced him that alternative political groups have sustained themselves and carved out spaces for promising political action despite official efforts at containment. In this compelling study, Baker recreates the public worlds of eight groups on the periphery of Egyptian politics. They range in their political stances from Communists to the Muslim Brothers and include shifting clusters of critical intellectuals who gather around influential journals or in research centers, as well as the quiescent aestheticists of the Wissa Wassef community. Taken together, the experiences of Egyptians in alternative groups reveal that Egyptians are more than the objects of diverse external pressures and more than the sufferers from multiple internal problems. They are also creative political actors who have stories to tell about the human potential to struggle for humane values and goals in the modern world. In examining Egypt from the margins rather than from the center, Baker proposes a new direction for Third World political studies. He suggests a way out of the impasse in the current development literature, which is fixed on a scientific study of causes and determinants, by focusing on actual political struggles and alternative political visions.


.. Background: Stroke is a leading cause of disability and the second principal cause of death in the world. The aim of this study was to analyze different characteristics in stroke patients in Medical Unit 1 of Lahore General Hospital, which is biggest referral hospital for Neurology patients in Punjab, to identify the risk factors and help in targeting prevention in our patients. Study Design: Descriptive study. Setting: Lahore General Hospital, Lahore. Period: January 2016, including data from January to November 2015. Methods: The demographic data, clinical manifestations, risk factors, side of weakness, cranial nerves involved, neurological weakness and Glasgow Coma Scale, duration of stay in hospital and outcome were included in the data. For the comparison between categorical variables Chi-square test was used. For other variables, t-test was used. Results: A total of 235 patients with stroke, age 20 to 105 (mean ±SD= 58±14.6) were included. 127 (54%) had Ischemic stroke (IS) and 100 (42.6%) had hemorrhagic stroke (HS). 127 (54%) were men and 108 (46%) were women. 17.9% of the patients with IS and 21.7% of the patients with HS died (OR 0.65 95% CI 0.48-0.89). Hypertension, diabetes and dyslipidemia were the most common risk factors. Conclusion: Burden of stroke is high in Pakistan. Mean age of patients with stroke is less. Hypertension, diabetes, dyslipidemia and smoking are highly prevalent and hypertension is the most common. Ischemic strokes are more common, mortality of intra-cerebral hemorrhage is higher.


Background: Oxidative status can be altered in cancer.
Objective: To evaluate the role of oxidative stress as plasma biomarker able to predict sepsis severity in oncohaematological patients experiencing infections after chemotherapy.
Methods: Spectrophotometric measurement of Reactive oxigen metabolites (ROMs) levels and Total antioxidant capacity (TAC) in 15 patients prospectively enrolled and 52 healthy volunteers.
Results: ROMs baseline values were higher in patients and raised during fever. Severe sepsis was associated with the highest degree of ROMs increase. TAC levels were always low, both at baseline and during infection.
Conclusions: Our results confirm oxidative status derangement during post-chemotherapy infections. ROMs concentrations could represent an easily detectable biomarker correlated with sepsis severity in post-chemotherapy neutropenia.


American public schools have been entrusted with the responsibility of inculcating citizens with democratic values. However, schools have come under attack for a variety of reasons. School choice provides parents with opportunities to select from options, both within and outside the public system of schooling, which will provide their children with the type of education they desire. Among these school choice options are charter and magnet schools. This article begins with a discussion of the basic similarities between magnet and charter schools, followed by a discussion of a legal research study which examined the extent to which U.S. charter school statutes foster equality of student access to charter schools. The data for the study were derived from the U.S. charter school statutes for 36 states, and the investigative framework was provided by seven research questions addressing student recruitment, admission and enrollment, student transportation, and information dissemination. Three areas affecting both magnet and charter schools are identified for which key research findings are presented. The final section discusses the implications the findings have for magnet and other choice schools and concludes with recommendations for policy development.


Background: Recommendations for treatment of ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) emphasize early empiric broad-spectrum antibiotics. However, appropriate antibiotic de-escalation is also critical for optimal patient care. Materials and Methods: We examined how often intensivists in our institution appropriately de-escalated antibiotics in cases of suspected VAP, and whether decision support by intensive care unit pharmacists could improve rates of antibiotic targeting and early antibiotic discontinuation in low-risk patients. Main Results: A total of 92 (observation phase = 50; intervention phase = 42) patients with suspected VAP were identified. During the observation phase, 39 cases yielded positive sputum cultures, but in only 23 (59%) were antibiotics targeted to culture results. This rate improved during the intervention phase when 29 (91%) of 32 cases with positive cultures were targeted (P value .003). There were 48 cases in which the risk of pneumonia was considered low. Of the 26 low-risk cases in the observation phase, 5 (19%) had antibiotics discontinued early versus 5 (23%) of the 22 cases in the intervention phase. Conclusions: Decision support by clinical pharmacists significantly improved rates of appropriate antibiotic targeting in cases of culture-positive suspected VAP but did not have a significant effect on early antibiotic discontinuation in patients at low risk of true pneumonia.


Women's boxing was included in the Summer Olympic Games for the first time at the London 2012 Olympics. This chapter critically analyses mainstream media representations of women's boxing at the London 2012 Olympics in newspapers and TV broadcasts, and seeks to examine how women competitors were represented in terms of the linkages between gender and athleticism in the traditionally masculine space of the boxing ring (Mennessen 2000). It also explores to what extent representation reinforces or challenges male-dominated narratives in sport participation and discourses (Theberge 1997). Indeed, many female boxers maintain that the sport can promote self-esteem through physical strength and positive expressions of power. Part of the legacy agendas for the London 2012 Olympics has been to provide an international platform to encourage more women to become involved in sport. This can be achieved not only through medal success, but also positive media representations of female athlete's abilities to act as positive role models. Utilising documentary research, methods include content analysis of both mainstream newspaper and televised broadcast coverage of women boxers and women's boxing matches at the London 2012 Olympics. It is argued that the London Games have been successful in improving the collectively recognised legitimacy of women's boxing and providing an arena for the global consumption of women's sport, where issues of power and representation are tested and contested through the gendered mediated lens.


Businesses spend a significant amount of their IT budget on software application maintenance. Each firm's portfolio of applications helps them run their daily operations, report their financials, and help them market and sell their products. Therefore, a firm's ability to improve the quality and maintainability of these applications will have a significant impact on their bottom line as well as establish credibility with their shareholders and customers. However, even though firms have spent significant time and money addressing this, they have achieved mixed results. Why? Software release engineering is the discipline of integrating, building, testing, packaging and delivering qualitative software releases to the end user. Whereas software used to be released in shrink-wrapped form once per year, modern companies like Intuit, Google and Mozilla only need a couple of days or weeks in between releases, while lean start-ups like IMVU release up to 50 times per day! Shortening the release cycle of a software project requires considerable process and development changes in order to safeguard product quality, yet the scope and nature of such changes are unknown to most practitioners. This presentation will touch on the major sub-fields of release engineering (integration, build and delivery) and their interaction with software quality. We will explore state-of-the-art results in this domain, as well as open challenges for the SQM community. In the end, we hope to convey the message that seemingly innocent factors like shorter release cycles or version control branching structure have a major impact on software quality.


Aims-To study the possible accumulation ofp53 protein in inverted papilloma ofthe urinary bladder. Methods-Formalin fixed, paraffin wax embedded sections from 14 cases of inverted papilloma of the urinary bladder were studied retrospectively. Accumulation of p53 was detected by immunohistochemistry using a mouse monoclonal antibody directed against p53. p53 protein reactivity was scored as follows: 0 = 10%; 1 = 10% to <30%; 2 = 30% to <50%; and 3= >50% of cells p53 positive. Results-The 14 sections were scored as follows: 3 in four cases; 2 in four cases; 1 in one case; and 0 in five cases. Overall, nine (64%) of the 14 cases were positive for p53 protein. Conclusions-The accumulation of p53 protein in inverted papilloma of the urinary bladder suggests that p53 may have has an important role in the neoplastic process of this tumour. However, the benign nature of inverted papillomas suggests that p53 protein accumulation is not related to tumour invasiveness and metastasis. p53 reactivity cannot be used as a marker of malignancy for urothelial neoplasia. Further studies are required to determine the role of p53 protein in the oncogenesis of urothelial neoplasms. (J7 Clin Pathol: Mol Pathol 1996;49:M43-M45)


Women with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus are at increased risk for both first trimester spontaneous abortions and major congenital malformations when they become pregnant. The magnitudes of both of these risks depend upon the degree of metabolic control of their diabetes in the first trimester. The risks differ in the degree of control necessary to minimize them and the degree to which they can ultimately be reduced. A stricter degree of metabolic control is necessary to avoid spontaneous abortions than major malformations. Although the risks for both complications can be reduced by improved metabolic control, the risk for major malformations remains elevated, when compared to the risk for non-diabetic women, despite good to excellent control. In contrast, good to excellent control does reduce the risk for spontaneous abortions to a rate comparable to that seen in non-diabetic women. Women with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus who are planning pregnancies should be encouraged to achieve the best possible degree of metabolic control prior to and throughout pregnancy. They should be re-assured, however, that perfect control is not necessary to avoid dramatically increased risks for spontaneous abortions and major malformations.


In recent years, the reservoir sediments have been a disturbance to Taiwan government, and are getting worse due to the climate change. Consequently, it becomes an urgent issue for the authority to dredge and dispose reservoir sludge effectively. Material researchers in civil engineering and environmental engineering, cooperating with microbiologists and geochemists, have recently attempted the solidification of sludge granules into sandstone-like materials employing microorganisms. The aim of this study is to investigate the approach to solidify sludge or soil particle rapidly to attain strength through the growth of bacteria and apply the technique in practical. In this research, we used Bacillus pasteurii in the solidification of reservoir sludge. The sludge used in the experiment has a moisture content of 40%. The change of bacteria broth culture concentration (0%, 25%, 50%, 75%, and 100%) and CaCl2 ratio in the culturing Urea-CaCl2 medium (10%, 30% and 70%) were used as the experimental variables. The culture broth was mixed directly with reservoir sludge to form a cubic specimen (50 mm x 50 mm x 50 mm), which was then used in compressive strength, XRD and SEM test. The test results showed that being cultured in 70%-CaCl2 medium, the specimen blended with 100% bacteria broth had the highest compressive strength. Compared with the blank samples (0% bacteria broth), the compressive strength was enhanced by approximately 13.48%. Also, it was suggested that the solidification by bacteria can indeed enhance the compressive strength of the cube. The sludge solidified with bacteria cultured in 70%-CaCl2 medium has the highest compressive strength. The result also showed that the higher the content of CaCl2 used in the culturing medium is, the more CaCO3 deposit is induced by the bacteria.


In 2001, V2552 Oph (CD −22°12017, Had V98) quickly faded by several magnitudes in a manner typical of the R Coronae Borealis (RCB) stars. Photometry of V2552 Oph obtained over 70 years previous to 2001 shows no indication of variability. Optical spectra of this star subsequently confirmed that V2552 Oph is a member of the hydrogen‐deficient, carbon‐rich RCB class of variables. It resembles the warm (Teff∼7000 K) RCB stars such as R Coronae Borealis itself. Other RCB stars, such as XX Cam and Y Mus, have experienced similar periods of inactivity, going decades without significant dust formation. Further observations of V2552 Oph will be of great interest since there is an opportunity to monitor an RCB star that may be moving from prolonged inactivity into an active phase of dust production.


We report the sensitive simultaneous detection of cadmium(II) and lead(II) using an unmodified edge plane pyrolytic graphite (EPPG) electrode via linear sweep anodic stripping voltammetry (LSASV). Simultaneous additions of the heavy metals gave two well separated stripping peaks observed over two linear ranges, 20 to 200 mu g L-1 and 2 to 20 mu g L-1. These gave detection limits of 0.3 mu g L-1 and 0.2 mu g L-1 for cadmium(II) and lead(II), respectively. The use of unmodified EPPG electrodes shows comparable performance to bismuth and mercury modified electrodes, and offers a simple and effective alternative to modified systems.


In the Caracas Longitudinal Study, 53 girls 8 to 11 years of agewho had been classified as early, average and late maturers were analyzed longitudinally with respect to Body Mass Index (BMI) and Systolic Blood Pressure (SBP). A longitudinal principal component analysis was used to summarize trends or intraindividual changes in BMI and SBP. A first component was identified for BMI, this component accounted for most of its total variance (94,65%). Girls were classified as normal in weight or at risk of overweight on the basis of this component. Three principal components were identified for SBP, that accounted for 91,83% of the total variance of this variable. The first component represented a measure of position across the whole age period, a "canalization pattern"; this component accounted for most of the total variance (45,65 %). The second component revealed an unidirectional change in relative position of the values of the variable, a "decanalization pattern", and a third pattern summarized deviations around a position level: "recanalization pattern". Girls who showed a canalization pattern for SBP were those identified as early maturers and at risk of overweight.


In recent years there has been a growing interest in merging different types of catalysis to create new multistep catalytic processes. However, the majority of reported dual catalysis strategies use a mixture of individual catalysts, with limited reports of dual catalysis reactions where the different catalysts are combined in a single compound. This work reports the synthesis of a tethered palladium-BODIPY dual catalyst to enable increased synergistic interactions between the catalytic centres. Detailed analysis, including single crystal X-ray crystallography, absorption, fluorescence, and phosphorescence measurements, and kinetic analyses to determine singlet oxygen quantum yields, confirm that chemical tethering results in a significant increase in the photocatalytic potential of the palladium-BODIPY dual catalyst, relative to the parent BODIPY chromophore. Interestingly, the palladium-BODIPY complex also exhibited rare long-lived room temperature phosphorescence. Catalytic applications of the palladium-BODIPY dual catalyst indicate that chemical tethering increases the reactivity of the catalytic centres for both photocatalytic oxidation of thioanisole and palladium catalysed Suzuki–Miyaura cross coupling, highlighting that enhancements in both photo and thermally activated catalysis can be achieved on chemical tethering. In addition, the dual catalytic potential of the palladium-BODIPY catalyst was demonstrated using a representative sequential photocatalytic oxidation–cross coupling reaction.


In this paper, we describe the nonlinear outcome of spiral shocks in protoplan-etary disks. Spiral shocks, for most protoplanetary disk conditions, create a loss of vertical force balance in the post-shock region and result in rapid expansion of the gas perpendicular to the disk midplane. This expansion has characteristics similar to hydraulic jumps, which occur in incompressible fluids. We present a theory to describe the behavior of these hybrids between shocks and hydraulic jumps (shock bores) and then compare the theory to three-dimensional hydro-dynamics simulations. We discuss the fully three-dimensional shock structures that shock bores produce and discuss possible consequences for disk mixing, turbulence , and evolution of solids.


Demonstration of the nutritional significance of the ultratrace elements has resulted from studies indicating enhanced need in organisms exposed to various metabolic, hormonal, physiological and nutritional stresses. These studies indicate that some ultratrace elements, namely boron and silicon, will be found to be nutritionally important. The dietary lack of these elements may result in suboptimal function and composition of bone and brain.


Abstract Outcome-dependent sampling designs are common in many different scientific fields including epidemiology, ecology, and economics. As with all observational studies, such designs often suffer from unmeasured confounding, which generally precludes the nonparametric identification of causal effects. Nonparametric bounds can provide a way to narrow the range of possible values for a nonidentifiable causal effect without making additional untestable assumptions. The nonparametric bounds literature has almost exclusively focused on settings with random sampling, and the bounds have often been derived with a particular linear programming method. We derive novel bounds for the causal risk difference, often referred to as the average treatment effect, in six settings with outcome-dependent sampling and unmeasured confounding for a binary outcome and exposure. Our derivations of the bounds illustrate two approaches that may be applicable in other settings where the bounding problem cannot be directly stated as a system of linear constraints. We illustrate our derived bounds in a real data example involving the effect of vitamin D concentration on mortality. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Dimethylsulf.ide (DMS) and its precursor dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP), in both particulate and dissolved forms, were surveyed during the early spring (March and April) and summer (July) of 1991 in coastal and offshore waters of the Gulf of Maine, USA, along with the hydrography, inorganic nutrients, phytoplankton chlorophyll, and phytoplankton taxonomic composition and abundance. Concentrations as high as 15 nM DMS (in April and July), 208 nM particulate DMSP (in April), and 101 nM dissolved DMSP (in July) were recorded. Total DMSP (dissolved plus particulate) reached 293 nM in a patch of the dinoflagellate Katodinium sp. in April. This is the first report of high DMSP concentrations in temperate waters in early spring associated with any organism other than the prymnesiophyte Phaeocystjs pouchetii. There were no correlations between phytoplankton biomass, as measured by chlorophyll a , and DMS, and there were only slight correlations between chlorophyll a and DMSP in elther dissolved or particulate form. As previously demonstrated by others, concentrations of intracellular (particulate) DMSP were related more to the presence of specific phytoplankton species rather than to overall phytoplankton biomass. The occurrence of high DMSP and DMS levels in early spring, comparable with or higher than those seen in summer maxima, at a time when bacterial activity is minimal and wind speeds are typically high may result in enhanced air-sea-fluxes of DMS.


OBJECTIVE
To describe and review both traditional and newer diagnostic and therapeutic options for canine and feline ureteral obstructions currently being performed clinically in veterinary medicine.

DATA SOURCES
A Medline search with no date restrictions was used for this review.

HUMAN DATA SYNTHESIS
The human literature would support the use of minimally invasive endourological techniques for the treatment of nearly all causes of ureteral obstructions, whenever possible. This typically includes extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy, intracorporeal lithotripsy via retrograde ureteroscopy or antegrade percutaneous nephroureterolithotomy, ureteral stenting, percutaneous nephrostomy tube placement, and laparoscopic endopyelotomy. Typically open surgery is only suggested in cases of ureteral or gynecological malignancy when en bloc resection is considered a good option, or when various methods of endourological techniques have failed.

VETERINARY DATA SYNTHESIS
The veterinary literature is scarce on the use of interventional endourological techniques for the treatment of ureteral obstructions and has been growing over the last 5 years. The current literature reports the use of extracorporeal shockwave lithotripsy for ureteral stones, as well as the use of ureteral stents for the treatment of trigonal obstructive transitional cell carcinoma, ureterolithiasis, and ureteral strictures. Traditional surgical interventions, like ureterotomy, ureteronephrectomy, and ureteral reimplantation is more vastly reported and accepted. This review will focus on new clinical data using interventional endourological techniques for ureteral obstructions.

CONCLUSIONS
Various treatment options for ureteral obstructions are now available for veterinary patients, and the trend away from traditional surgical techniques will hopefully be followed now that they are technically and clinically available for dogs and cats.


Deep generative models, such as Variational Autoencoders (VAEs) and Generative Adversarial Networks (GANs), have been employed widely in computational creativity research. However, such models discourage out-of-distribution generation to avoid spurious sample generation, thereby limiting their creativity. Thus, incorporating research on human creativity into generative deep learning techniques presents an opportunity to make their outputs more compelling and human-like. As we see the emergence of generative models directed toward creativity research, a need for machine learning-based surrogate metrics to characterize creative output from these models is imperative.

We propose group-based subset scanning to identify, quantify, and characterize creative processes by detecting a subset of anomalous node-activations in the hidden layers of the generative models.

Our experiments on the standard image benchmarks and their ``creatively generated'' variants reveal that the proposed subset scores distribution is more useful for detecting novelty in creative processes in the activation space rather than the pixel space. Further, we found that creative samples generate larger subsets of anomalies than normal or non-creative samples across datasets. The node activations highlighted during the creative decoding process are different from those responsible for the normal sample generation. Lastly, we assess if the images from the subsets selected by our method were also found creative by human evaluators, presenting a link between creativity perception in humans and node activations within deep neural nets.


RapidIO is a packet-switched high-performance interconnect that is used in 4G/LTE base stations worldwide. It offers several useful features such as low latency, scalability, high availability and guaranteed delivery. This project aims to explore the multicast capabilities of RapidIO technology within a cluster. This is done by creating a chat application which uses RapidIO multicast to distribute chat messages across nodes. Chat messages are sent using multicast remote Direct Memory Access writes (rDMA), which enables one end point to directly write into memory of multiple remote end-points. A locking mechanism was implemented, which ensures only one node performs a multicast rDMA write, so that memory is not over-written. The one-way latency of multicast rDMA writes was then measured, so as to compare them with that of sequential rDMA writes. CERN Openlab Summer Student Report 2016 Table of


We introduce a new notion of transitive relative return rate and present its applications based on the stochastic differential equations. First, we define the notion of a relative return rate and show how to construct the transitive relative return rate (TRRR) on it. Then, we state some propositions and theorems about relative return rate and TRRR and prove them. Moreover, we exhibit the theoretical framework of the generalization of TRRR for 3 n ? cases and prove it, as well. Furthermore, we illustrate our approach with real data applications of daily relative return rates for Borsa Istanbul-30 (BIST-30) and Intel Corporation indexes with respect to daily interest rate of Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey between June 18, 2003 and June 17, 2013. For this purpose, we perform simulations via Milstein method. We succeed to present usefulness of the relative return rate for the relevant real large data set using the numerical solution of the stochastic differential equations. The simulation results show that the proposed closely approximates the real data


The Computer-Integrated Machining curriculum prepares students with the analytical, creative and innovative skills necessary to take a production idea from an initial concept through design, development and production, resulting in a finished product Evaluating Information


The author introduces risk-averse preferences, labor-leisure choice, capital, individual productivity shocks, and market incompleteness to the standard Mortensen-Pissarides model of search and matching and explore the model's cyclical properties. There are four main findings. First and foremost, the baseline model can generate the observed large volatility of unemployment and vacancies with a realistic replacement ratio of the unemployment insurance benefits of 64 percent. Second, labor-leisure choice plays a crucial role in generating the large volatilities; additional utility from leisure when unemployed makes the value of unemployment close to the value of employment, which is crucial in generating a strong amplification, even with the moderate replacement ratio. Besides, it contributes to the amplification through an adjustment in the intensive margin of labor supply. Third, the borrowing constraint or uninsured individual productivity shocks do not significantly affect the cyclical properties of unemployment and vacancies: Most workers are well insured only with self-insurance. Fourth, the model better replicates the business cycle properties of the U.S. economy, thanks to the co-existence of adjustments in the intensive and extensive margins of labor supply and the stronger amplification.


We present ongoing research undertaken within the Centre for Fine Print Research at the University of the West of England, which aims to investigate and exploit new 3D printing and fabrication technologies within the context of the Fine and Applied Arts and Crafts. This research is funded by a large grant from the United Kingdom Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC), and Research Councils UK. The Centre has a well-established track record in practice-led research within fine art printmaking and print technologies, supporting the creative activities of leading artists, as well as working closely with scientists, technologists and manufacturers within the printing industry. Extending our enquiry to encompass emerging 3D media was a natural progression.

Staff within the Centre's 3D Printing Laboratory come from a broad range of backgrounds, including printmaking and digital art, sculpture, ceramics technology, industrial design and prototyping technologies. Our ongoing research interests are also wide ranging: developing appropriate methodologies to support art practitioners in the creative use of 3D technologies; the development of a new process for the direct 3D printing of art and craft artefacts in ceramic materials; 3D fabrication of "smart" devices for robotics applications and interactive artworks.

3D printing involves the use of computer-controlled machines to construct physical objects directly from computer aided design data. Our research explores novel uses for 3D printing in areas outside the "mainstream" industrial applications for which the technologies were developed.

We begin introducing our exploration 3D printing within the context of the creative arts, and go on to describe aspects of the technical and aesthetic scope of these new and rapidly emerging technologies, illustrated by practical examples.

We then present a project which set out to investigate some of the capabilities and limitations of current colour 3D printing technologies, focussing on the powder-binder 3D printing system (Z Corporation, Massachusetts, USA). Issues identified relate to on-screen pre-visualisation, and the accuracy and consistency of the colour 3D printed output. We describe the production of 3D printed colour charts and samples, to aid artists and designers in their selection of colours for 3D printed artefacts.

Through our investigation of new and novel applications for 3D printing technologies, the Centre for Fine Print Research aims to open up further possibilities for creative practitioners across the art and design disciplines and beyond.


ABSTRACT This paper presents the first global database of supply-side climate initiatives seeking to constrain fossil fuel production. There is a clear imperative to keep a large proportion of fossil fuel reserves underground to keep global temperature rise under 2°C above pre-industrial levels. Yet, there is no global overview of supply-side initiatives taken to constrain fossil fuel production, making it difficult to track trends, compare efforts across countries, and assess the effectiveness of different supply-side approaches. The Fossil Fuel Cuts Database presented here identifies 1302 initiatives implemented between 1988 and 2017 in 106 countries across the seven major types of supply-side approaches. Documenting temporal and geographical patterns, we show a rapid growth in the number of supply-side initiatives taken during the past decade and their highly uneven adoption across the world. Most initiatives occurred in countries with low economic dependence on fossil fuel production and limited fossil fuel exports, with the partial exception of Canada and Norway at the national level, and the US at the sub-national level. We discuss policy implications and the need for further research to identify adoption factors, effectiveness, and policy implications. The documentation of a wide range of supply-side initiatives serves as a reminder that constraints on fossil fuel production need to be analysed and considered on a par with demand-side interventions, including in Assessment Reports of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Key policy insights Supply-side constraint initiatives have increased in the past decade, suggesting growing policy take-up and potential mitigation impacts. Supply-side initiatives clearly emphasize the key role and responsibility of major carbon producers, and help mobilize demand for greater accountability. Supply-side initiatives take many forms and can suit the capabilities of different actors, from civil society organizations to governments. Supply-side initiatives can usefully complement demand-side measures and help tackle free-rider problems. Larger coalitions of fossil fuel producers are required to address uneven adoption, prevent the relocation of production, and help producers transition away from fossil fuels.


Questions relating to sociability, relationships concerning conflicts and behaviours of indiscipline and violence among young people have turned out to be of particular importance. Various studies exist about the sociability of young people (e.g. Machado Pais, 1990; Margulis - Urresti, 1998; Cangilini, 2004). Nevertheless, studies focused on sociability and behavior in the face of socially learned conflicts in the context of inter-personal relationships are still very scarce. The investigation carried out falls within the area of Co-operative Conflict Resolution (CCR) - a field of knowledge and practices that emerged in the 1980s (Ury - Fisher, 1991; Arechaga, Brandoni - Finkelstein, 2004). The work that we present shows the results of a study undertaken with young people attending the first year of university education in public and private universities in Argentina and Portugal. This investigation, which was of an exploratory nature, had two general objectives: i) to analyse the ways of approaching conflicts by young people (aged 18 to 31 years); and ii) to understand the present day social dynamics that characterise these young people. The descriptive analysis of the data, which was obtained from the responses to a questionnaire with open and closed questions completed by around 700 young university students, revealed some differences concerning the behaviour adopted towards conflicts by these young Argentineans and young Portuguese.


Abstract This study was carried out to better understand factors that influenced the process of attenuation of Marek's disease (MD) virus by serial passage in cell cultures. Three virulent (v) pathotype and three very virulent plus (vv+) pathotype strains were passed by three techniques up to 131 times, and the passage level at attenuation was determined. The 18 attenuated or partially attenuated viruses were evaluated for protection against challenge with virulent MD virus, and the virus load (latent infection) in blood lymphocytes at 14–21 days postvaccination was determined. Viral pathotype strongly influenced the rate of attenuation. The mean passage level at attenuation for v and vv+ strains was 74 and >109, respectively. Full attenuation was achieved for nine of nine passage series with v pathotype strains but for only four of nine passage series with vv+ pathotype strains. Time to attenuation was not significantly influenced by multiplicity of infection at passage or by cell type, although a possible advantage of alternate high- and low-multiplicity passage was noted. Protection was not significantly influenced by pathotype or time to attenuation. Protection varied from 50% to 95% for the 18 passaged virus preparations; six attenuated viruses provided high protection that did not differ from that of the prototype Rispens strain. Virus load was not influenced by pathotype or by passage strategy and showed no positive correlation with protection. In several Cases the most protective vaccines had the least virus load. This finding differs from previous reports and warrants further study. Variation among different strains within the same pathotype was documented for attenuation rate, protection, and virus load. Also, variation was evident when the same strain was passaged by different strategies, probably reflecting random changes during serial passage. Strain 596A (v pathotype) was the first to become attenuated, provided the best protection, and had one of the lowest virus loads. In contrast, strain 617A (v pathotype) provided the least protection and had one of the highest virus loads. Such strains provide fertile opportunities for further study.


To provide its users with quick and easy access to the library resources, the Muriel and Philip Berman National Medical Library, Jerusalem, between 1978 and 1982 developed an integrated library system (MAIMON) on a minicomputer. Because humans are the most important element of the library system, MAIMON's performance was evaluated in terms of benefits provided to patrons, library management, and library staff. After successfully adopting the system, users' needs and expectations have grown. How the existing system will be used and expanded to meet the new information demands at the library is discussed.


Groundwater dependent ecosystems have a high biodiversity and many ecosystem services and their future protection is important. At present, little information is available on the role of groundwater in ecosystems let alone criteria for ecosystem protection. This report makes a critical analysis of present knowledge and seeks for new ways to understand and manage these systems. This is needed to manage groundwater bodies as intended in the European water directives (GWD and WFD) that strive to improve the status of groundwater and surface water. The report includes issues such as sustainability, legal issues, conceptual models, risk valuation and impact assessment methods.


A 49-year-old female patient suffering from severe necrotising respiratory granulomatosis (Wegener's granulomatosis) had acute renal failure, nearly uncontrollable haemoptyses and severe deterioration of pulmonary function. Haemodialysis had to be performed; immuno-suppressive therapy was effected by administration of high doses of methylprednisolone (100-500 mg/d) and cyclophosphamide (initially with single doses of 500-1000 mg) and plasmaphereses. Artificial ventilation by positive-negative pressure breathing became necessary because pulmonary function became consistently poorer. Glucocorticoid therapy led to the development of several duodenal ulcers resulting in profuse gastrointestinal bleedings requiring transfusions; on the whole, 20 erythrocyte concentrates had to be substituted. These transfusions, in turn, caused a non-A, non-B hepatitis. In the further course of the illness, a Guillain-Barre polyneuropathy developed. Biopsy and electrophysiological tests excluded granulomatous involvement of the nerves as a cause of the latter. But it is likely that there was a pathogenetic connection between the hepatitis and the polyneuropathy.


Sheltered housing is a modern alternative to institutionalised care for the elderly, which is traditionally carried out in nursing homes. It is a form of accommodation in an apartment, where medical personnel can help the resident in case of health problems or other accidents. Help is also provided in the form of other services chosen by the user and normally performed by a contractor. Sheltered housing normally consists of a series of dwellings in which the staff is present, and the emergency call of a resident can be triggered with the help of a remote located inside the apartment or carried by the resident.

In Slovenia this form of accommodation is relatively new, which is why we tackled the questions of how these types of accommodation and services are defined abroad, how they are implemented, and whether it is possible to solve certain problems with the use of information and communication technologies. In our findings we propose two solutions, which differ in the type of construction (new development or renovation) and in the form of ownership.


The use of multipass cells as a way to spatially homogenize self-phase modulation and distribute its accumulation over the propagation distance is analyzed in detail, with the aim to perform nonlinear temporal compression. In addition to the insertion of nonlinear media at specific locations in the cell, as already demonstrated, we also propose to fill the cell with a noble gas, as is done in hollow capillary-based setups. This makes the accumulation of B-integral continuous rather than discrete. In this case, analytical estimates for the B-integral per round trip and scaling rules are provided as a function of cavity geometry and gas parameters. Then, three-dimensional numerical simulations are performed to assess the spatiotemporal couplings in the output beam in various conditions. This model is checked against experimental data presented in the literature, and used to predict our proposed scheme performance. We believe that these techniques constitute a promising way to allow temporal compression at energy levels beyond 10 mJ, where capillary-based setups are difficult to implement.


Master the principles of object-oriented programming as it is used with the most recent version of ActionScripting.This book is designed to provide readers with an understanding of object-oriented programming, ActionScript 2.0, and the interaction of the two. Section 1 begins with an introduction to ActionScript 2.0 and the specifics of building classes in AS2. Other topics of discussion include adding properties and methods to classes, inheritance, interfaces, inter-object communications, the details and implications of object-oriented design as a process, and working with and building components. Section 2 investigates the server side of applications. In the new Rich Internet Application paradigm, Flash MX 2004 is used as the user interface to an Internet based Client-Server application, and we will frequently need to interact with other server based technologies. Chapters discuss the importance of the server model; specific methods to interact with different server side technologies, including WebServices, XML files, and even simple text files; and the specific ramifications of working with the Flash Communication Server. Section 3 ties all of the concepts presented in the first two sections together by building a single cohesive application. Step-by-step procedures for conceptualizing and building the application are provided along with detailed coverage of how to debug and optimize the application.


20th century massification of higher education and research in academia is said to have produced structurally stratified higher education systems in many countries. Most manifestly, the research mission of universities appears to be divisive. Authors have claimed that the Swedish system, while formally unified, has developed into a binary state, and statistics seem to support this conclusion. This article makes use of a comprehensive statistical data source on Swedish higher education institutions to illustrate stratification, and uses literature on Swedish research policy history to contextualize the statistics. Highlighting the opportunities as well as constraints of the data, the article argues that there is great merit in combining statistics with a qualitative analysis when studying the structural characteristics of national higher education systems. Not least the article shows that it is an over-simplification to describe the Swedish system as binary; the stratification is more complex. On basis of the analysis, the article also argues that while global trends certainly influence national developments, higher education systems have country-specific features that may enrich the understanding of how systems evolve and therefore should be analyzed as part of a broader study of the increasingly globalized academic system.


In a previous paper the ethical nature of academic staff at the University of Johannesburg (UJ) was evaluated. Since engineering education research is flourishing world-wide a serious question was raised about staff adherence to basic ethical standards. An internal research programme was launched to evaluate staff's ethical orientation using a survey based methodology. The results indicated that a significant percentage acted in ethically problematic ways. As a consequence the idea of using a role playing game (RPG) was mooted to further investigate academic staff's situational ethics. This paper discusses the proposed game playing device that was designed as a manner of investigating the staff's understanding of engineering education research ethics. This paper reviews basic material on nature of play and in particular ethical role play in RPGs and analyses the manner in which an RPG would have to be designed to ensure reliable data collection of the staff's ethical standards when applied to educational research. From the basic review of game playing ethics and the necessary design elements it was clear that it would not be possible to develop such a measurement device. It is an open question whether any form of situated ethics can be evaluated or taught using a closed form RPG.


The aromatic pathways and the degree of aromaticity of expanded porphyrins have been determined by explicit calculations of the routes and strengths of the magnetically induced currents using the gauge-including magnetically induced current (GIMIC) approach. Density functional theory calculations show that the doubly twisted hexaphyrins fulfilling Hückel's (4n + 2) pi-electron rule for aromaticity and those obeying the 4n pi-electron rule for antiaromaticity are aromatic and antiaromatic, respectively. The investigated [26]hexaphyrin (2) and (3) and [30]hexaphyrin (5) isomers are aromatic, and [28]hexaphyrin (4) is antiaromatic. The formally antiaromatic [24]hexaphyrin (1) does not sustain any strong ring current and must be considered nonaromatic. A detailed analysis of the current pathways of the hexaphyrins is presented. It was found that the current pathways of the investigated aromatic hexaphyrins are not always dominated by the flow along the inner route through the non-hydrogenated C-N-C moieties, as previously proposed. The current flow is often split into two branches at the pyrrole rings, but sometimes it takes the outer route via the C=C bond of the pyrrole. The current pathway of the weak paratropic ring current of [24]hexaphyrin is dominated by the outer C=C route. The calculations show that the routes of the current transport cannot be assessed merely by inspection or from nucleus independent chemical shifts; explicit calculations of the current pathways are compulsory. The current-density studies also show that the pyrrole rings do not sustain any strong ring currents of their own.


ABSTRACT Mineralogical analyses of suspended sediments and bottom sediments from three Georgia estuaries (Altamaha, Ogeechee, and Satilla Rivers) indicate that the clastics of this area are a mixture of fluvially derived Piedmont and Coastal Plain detritus, and fines derived from the continental shelf. High illite-montmorillonite clay suites are transported into the estuaries from offshore during flood tide, whereas kaolinite plus minor mixed-layer clay, vermiculite and talc from the Piedmont and montmorillonite from the Coastal Plain and/or paralic sediments characterize the upstream and intermediate areas of mixing within the estuaries. Decreasing flow velocity and flocculation of the clays, probably induced by salinity changes, results in a general change in bottom sediments from sand in th rivers to clay in the estuaries. Sands and silt fractions are high in quartz with significant amounts of feldspar in the Altamaha (Piedmont source). Heavy-mineral composition of these sediments reflects the proportionality of the division of the drainage basins between the Piedmont and the Coastal Plain. The former is characterized by unstable suites, whereas the latter contributes stable to ultrastable assemblages. Sorting is generally poor reflecting a variety of processes which influence the sediments within the estuary. The work amplifies the conclusions of previous workers that shoreward transport, especially for the fine fraction, is an important process in determining the composition of the estuarine sediments.


Data from the Community Tracking Study provide a valuable perspective from which to observe how economic disparities--largely a function of different sources of coverage--influence access to medical care in the United States. Many recent investments and initiatives are focused on affluent communities and are accessible mainly to people with employer-based or Medicare coverage. For people with Medicaid or no coverage at all, access to basic care is worsening, as a result of stalled coverage expansions and service cutbacks. An improving economy could forestall further cuts and permit reversal of earlier Hones, but progress in closing this rift does not appear imminent.


The objective of the present study was to investigate among children in the initial mixed dentition phase the presence of clinical signs that might eventually function as more sensitive indicators of the development of caries disease, denoted here as caries activity. On this basis, we investigated the relationship between salivary levels of mutans streptococci (MS) and decayed, missing and filled permanent and deciduous tooth surfaces (DMFS and dmfs) using microbiological, clinical and radiographic examinations in 81 schoolchildren aged 7-8 years. Whereas dmfs did not present a positive correlation, DMFS was significantly correlated with salivary MS levels. The first permanent molars of the schoolchildren studied comprised 87.3% of the affected surfaces recorded in the DMFS, suggesting that the development of new lesions was preferentially located on the surfaces of the first permanent molars. These results permit us to conclude that the first permanent molars function as first indicators of dental caries activity in the schoolchildren examined.


The extracellular matrix (ECM) is often unaccounted for in studies that consider the stromal contribution to cancer cell signaling and response to treatment. To investigate the influence of a fibrotic microenvironment, we use fibroblast-derived ECM scaffolds as a cell culture platform. We uncover that estrogen receptor–positive (ER+) breast cancer cells cultured within ECM-scaffolds have an increase in ER signaling that occurs via an MAPK-dependent, but estrogen-independent manner. The ECM acts as a reservoir by binding, enriching, and presenting growth factors to adjacent epithelial cells. We identified FGF2 as a specific ECM-bound factor that drives ER signaling. ER+ cells cultured on ECM matrices have reduced sensitivity to ER-targeted therapies. The sensitivity to ER-targeted therapy can be restored by inhibiting FGF2–FGFR1 binding. ECM–FGF2 complexes promote Cyclin D1 induction that prevents G1 arrest even in the presence of antiestrogens. This work demonstrates that the ECM can drive ER signaling and resistance to endocrine therapy, and suggests that patients with ER+ breast cancer that have high mammographic breast density may benefit from existing FGFR-targeted therapies. Implications: This work uncovers how the ECM may mediate signaling between growth factors and ER+ breast cancer cells to promote estrogen-independent ER signaling and resistance to endocrine therapy.