*These authors contributed equally to this work Purpose: Intervertebral disc degeneration (IDD) is one of the most prevalent musculoskeletal disorders. The nucleus pulposus is the major component of the intervertebral disc, and nucleus pulposus cells (NPCs) play a significant role in the normal functioning of the intervertebral disc. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, inflammation and extracellular matrix degradation in NPCs contribute to the degeneration of intervertebral discs. Acacetin is a drug that exerts antioxidant and anti-inflammatory effects on many types of cells. However, whether acacetin can relieve the degeneration of NPCs remains unknown. Methods: NPCs were extracted from rat intervertebral discs. The NPCs were treated with tert-butyl peroxide (TBHP) to simulate a high-ROS environment, and acacetin was subsequently added. The contents of ROS, inflammatory mediators (COX-2, iNOS) and extracellular matrix components (aggrecan, collagen II, MMP13, MMP9, MMP3) were measured. Components of related signaling pathways (Nrf2, MAPK) were also evaluated. To determine the effect of acacetin in vivo, we simulated disc degeneration via needle puncture. Acacetin was then applied intraperitoneally, and the degenerative status was evaluated using MRI and histopathological analysis. Results: In vitro, acacetin alleviated TBHP-induced ROS generation and upregulated the expression of antioxidant proteins, including HO-1, NQO1, and SOD. In addition, acacetin relieved the TBHP-induced generation of inflammatory mediators (COX-2, iNOS) and degradation of the extracellular matrix (aggrecan, collagen II, MMP13, MMP9, and MMP3). Acacetin exerted its effect by activating the Nrf2 pathway and inhibiting p38, JNK and ERK1/2 phosphorylation. In vivo, acacetin ameliorated puncture-induced disc degeneration in a rat tail model, which was evaluated using MRI and histopathological analysis. Conclusion: Acacetin alleviated IDD in vitro and in vivo and may have the potential to be developed as an effective treatment for IDD.


Maximum likelihood sequence detection represents the most efficient technique in the electrical domain to combat fiber impairments such as polarization-mode dispersion and group-velocity dispersion. In order to successfully apply this technique, it is mandatory to estimate some key channel parameters needed by the Viterbi processor. We propose a simple and effective solution based on the least-mean-square algorithm to perform such an estimation


The magnetic proton recoil (MPR) spectrometer is a novel diagnostic instrument with high performance for measurements of neutron spectra in inertial confinement fusion (ICF) experiments and high power fusion devices. A compact MPR-type spectrometer dedicated to the research of pulsed deuterium-tritium (DT) neutron spectroscopy of special experimental conditions is currently under design. Analyses of the main parameters and performance of the magnetic analysis system through 3-D particle transport calculations and MonteCarlo simulations and calibration of the system performance as a test using CR-39 solid track detector and α particle from 239Pu and 226Ra radioactive sources are presented in this paper. The results indicate that the magnetic analysis system will achieve a detection efficiency level of 10−5 −10−4 at an energy resolution of 1.5%–2.1%, and fulfills the design goals of the spectrometer.


This note focuses on the traditional problem of the Kalman filtering for linear continuous-time systems. Although the problem has been studied widely in the past decades, little work has been done for the time-delayed systems and some fundamental problems remain to be solved. This note proposes a new tool, namely, reorganization innovation analysis approach , to investigate the filtering problem for systems with delayed measurements. The Kalman filter is given in terms of the solution of standard Riccati equations. The performance is clearly demonstrated through analytical results and simulation. The solved problem in this note is related with some more complicated problems such as H/sub /spl infin// fixed-lag smoothing, H/sub /spl infin// control with preview and control with input delays.


Poor respiratory function and obesity are associated with all-cause and cardiovascular disease mortality. Obese persons may also have impaired lung function, but the mechanism is unclear. The authors investigated the relation between abdominal pattern of obesity and respiratory function in the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Norfolk (EPIC-Norfolk) cohort in Norfolk, United Kingdom. This analysis included 9,674 men and 11,876 women aged 45-79 years with no known preexisting serious illness who had complete anthropometric and respiratory function measures obtained at a health visit between 1993 and 1997. Waist:hip ratio was used to assess abdominal obesity, and forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1) and forced vital capacity (FVC), obtained by spirometry, were used to assess respiratory function. Both FEV1 and FVC were linearly and inversely related across the entire range of waist:hip ratio in both men and women. This relation persisted after adjustment for age, body mass index, cigarette smoking, social class, physical activity index, prevalent bronchitis/emphysema, and prevalent asthma. The association remained significant among nonobese nonsmokers without preexisting respiratory disease. In the general adult population, abdominal fat deposition may play a role in the impairment of respiratory function among the abdominally obese.


Cardiovascular toxicity is a leading cause of drug attrition at the preclinical and clinical stages of drug development. The specific mechanisms of drug-induced cardiovascular toxicities, however, are not well understood and can occur via direct interactions of the drug with cardiomyocytes or indirectly through interactions with other components of the cardiovascular system. Indirect drug effects can target non-cardiomyocyte cells such as fibroblasts, macrophages, vascular smooth muscle cells and endothelial cells. Evidence suggests interactions between these cell types are essential to the metabolism, growth, contractile performance and rhythmicity of the myocardium (Brutsaert, 2003). Preclinical and clinical drug safety tests primarily focus on cardiomyocytes, ignoring the other cellular components of the myocardium.

High content biology in combination with ATP content as a measure of cytotoxicity was used to assess the sensitivities of endothelial and fibroblast cells from different vascular beds to known structural cardiotoxins. This assay principle has previously been successful in the detection of structural cardiotoxicity in human embryonic stem cell derived cardiomyocytes (hESC-CM's) (Pointon et al., 2013). The endothelial cells displayed no significant difference in their compound responses, while the fibroblasts showed variation; imatinib was more potent in the cardiac fibroblasts and lapatinib more potent in the dermal fibroblasts. When the sensitivities of the cells from the myocardium (human cardiac fibroblasts (hCFs), human cardiac microvascular endothelial cells (hCMECs) and hESC-CMs) were globally compared the non-myocytes were sensitive to structural cardiotoxicity at the acute time point of 6 hour (h), whereas the hESC-CMs display toxicity only after 72 h. The conclusions from this work are that non-myocyte cells play a role in drug-induced cardiovascular toxicity since early sensitivity is displayed, however current in vitro models lack the complexity required to investigate the translation of this in vivo.

Multiple types of cardiac microtissue models were developed and their responses to reference structural cardiotoxins and inotropes evaluated using ATP content and video-based edge monitoring of contractility, respectively. Compound responses highlighted the promotion of maturity in the cardiac tri-cultured microtissue. Further investigations into gene expression and calcium (Ca2+) handling suggested SR function and Ca2+ handling maturity had been promoted and that the ca2+ handling protein S100A1 plays a critical role in this maturity. These findings show adult cardiac non-myocyte cells can be used to promote contractile maturity of hESC-CM's in vitro when co-cultured as a three dimensional (3D) microtissue. The induction of maturity was very much multi-parameter dependent requiring a) both non-myocyte cell types, b) cells of cardiac origin and c) a 3D culture environment. More advanced human relevant in vitro models that better reconstitute the in vivo cellular physiology of the heart could allow improved in vitro to in vivo correlation in future drug safety screens.


The next industrial revolution is expected to give new impulse to productivity growth. In practice, the macroeconomic growth rate of this indicator decreases in developed countries and in Russia. However, productivity paradox, when technological innovations are accompanied by a slowdown in productivity growth, is observed only in parts of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The article is aimed to determine the reasons of a significant divergence of regions in the dynamics of labour productivity. For this purpose I identified two groups in the plurality of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The first one groups subjects with the most significant decrease in the labour productivity index. The second group covers the subjects of the Russian Federation where such decrease did not occur or it was small. The scientific contribution of the article consists in the results of a comparative analysis of the selected groups of regions. This analysis has revealed significant differences in the dynamics of expenditures on technological innovations and the share of these costs in the investments in fixed assets, in the share of investments to reconstruction and modernization, in the ratio of spending on research and development to the gross regional product. Thus, average annual costs of technological innovations during 2014-2016 in comparison with the period of2010-2013 in the group of regions with a paradox of productivity grew by 1.82 times. However, and in the second group of regions these costs only increased by 1.03 times. The research has confirmed that, at the regional level, the productivity paradox is caused by the gradual exhaustion of reserves for improving previously mastered technologies. Furthermore, another reason of the productivity paradox is the diversion of resources from current production for its reconstruction and modernization or for research and development.


Results are accumulating that ACE2 (angiotensin I-converting enzyme 2) might act as a protective protein for cardiovascular diseases; however, only a few studies in human populations have been carried out. This prompted us to perform a case-control study to investigate the relationship of ACE2 polymorphisms with CHD (coronary heart disease) and MI (myocardial infarction). Three single nucleotide polymorphisms in the ACE2 gene (1075A/G, 8790A/G and 16854G/C) were genotyped by PCR-RFLP (restriction-fragment-length polymorphism) in 811 patients with CHD (of which 508 were patients with MI) and 905 normal controls in a Chinese population. The polymorphisms were in linkage disequilibrium (r(2)=0.854-0.973). Analyses were conducted by gender, because the ACE2 gene is on the X chromosome. In females, an association was detected with MI for 1075A/G (P=0.026; odds ratio=1.98) and 16854G/C (P=0.028; odds ratio=1.97) in recessive models after adjusting for covariates. In male subjects, two haplotypes (AAG and GGC) were common in frequency. In male subjects not consuming alcohol, the haplotype GGC was associated with a 1.76-fold risk of CHD [95% CI (confidence interval), 1.15-2.69; P=0.007] and a 1.77-fold risk of MI (95% CI, 1.12-2.81; P=0.015) with environmental factors adjusted, when compared with the most common haplotype AAG. In conclusion, the results of the present study indicate that common genetic variants in the ACE2 gene might impact on MI in females, and may possibly interact with alcohol consumption to affect the risk of CHD and MI in Chinese males.


Abstract A high speed digital analysis technique has been used to study the atomisation plume of a superheated sample of Ni–Al in a close coupled gas atomiser. The atomisation, incorporating a generic melt nozzle and die design was captured using a Kodak high speed digital analyser at a frame rate of 18 k frames per second. The resulting 65 536 frames were then analysed using a specially designed routine, which calculates values of optical brightness and position of the intensity maximum for all frames and performs Fourier analysis on the sequence. The data produced from this analysis show that the plume, pulses at low frequencies (<25 Hz) and precesses at higher frequencies (∼360 Hz) around the atomiser's centreline. To aid investigation into the origins of this precession and other phenomena it was decided to conduct further experiments using an analogue system. The analogue atomiser reproduces the important features of the full atomiser but instead of atomising molten metal, the analogue system atomises water, providing a quick and easy way of testing the effects of changing parameters. Using this system it was found that the precession of the melt plume is independent of the atomiser's gas inlet pressure but strongly dependent on both the die and melt nozzle's geometry.


Background The reconstruction of facial deformity has been of paramount clinical concern for many years and one of the most difficult and challenging tasks facing the maxillofacial surgeon. The ultimate goal in the treatment is the relief of suffering, restoration of function of jaw, restoration of speech, regain of the normal looking contour and improvement in the quality of life. Objective To obtain more knowledge on autogenous on lay bone graft behavior in different facial defects and to evaluate the lateral and medial surgical approaches to the iliac crest. Methods A prospective study was conducted during the period from January 2009 to January 2012 on 20 patients with facial defects, in the orbit, zygoma, maxilla and mandible. The causes of defects were trauma, odontogenic tumors and alveolar cleft. Types of bone graft used were either block cortico-cancellous or chips cancellous bone, the block was either monocortical or bicortical bone graft. Results Complications associated with donor site harvesting procedure included pain 5% and gait disturbance 5%. Failure of bone graft was observed in 3 patients (15%) while the rest, 17 patients, (85%) ended with functional and esthetic successful graft. Causes of failure were due to sequestration (5%), inflammation due to osteomesh (5%) and soft tissue breakdown (5%). Conclusion Iliac crest graft has evolved as a safe, well accepted procedure, with relatively low morbidity that can be used for a wide variety of maxillofacial procedures.


Monolayers of rare gas atoms adsorbed onto the basal planes of graphite play the same prototype role in two dimensions that rare gas liquids and solids do in three dimensions. In recent experiments such novel phenomena as continuous melting, the lack of true crystallinity in two dimensions, orientationally ordered fluid phases, and melting from a solid to a reentrant fluid with decreasing temperature have been observed. Because the forces in these rare gas monolayers are simple and well understood, by studying them the investigator can examine a direct interface between experiment and first principles. In order to understand the phases and phase transitions that occur in such materials, it is necessary to consider the geometrical matching of the rare gas overlayer to the graphite substrate. It turns out that in two dimensions both the local and the long-distance behavior are important. These two-dimensional rare gas solids may be effectively probed with synchrotron x-ray techniques, and the results of a series of synchrotron x-ray scattering studies of these solids are presented.


Internal hernia in the postoperative laparoscopic Roux-en-Y patient is a diagnosis associated with significant morbidity and risk of death. The radiologist plays an instrumental role in workup of this patient group; however, the imaging assessment of these patients is not straightforward given their complex postsurgical anatomy. Multiple radiologic signs of internal hernia have been studied in the literature. This review article presents these signs with representative cases as well as a summary of their diagnostic accuracy.


Background: Faculty diversity has important implications for medical student diversity. The purpose of this analysis is to describe trends in racial, ethnic, and gender diversity in family medicine (FM) departments and compare these trends to the diversity of matriculating medical students, the diversity of all medical school faculty, and the population in general. Methods: We used the Association of American Medical Colleges Faculty Roster to describe trends in proportions of female and minorities under-represented in medicine (URM) in FM department full-time faculty in U.S. MD-granting medical schools. Results: Among FM faculty, the proportions of female and URM faculty have grown more than 2-fold between 1980 and 2015. Increasing faculty rank was associated with lower diversity across the study period. FM departments had higher female and URM proportions than the average of all other specialties, but URM representation still lagged population trends. Conclusion: Although FM faculty diversity is growing over time, continued attention to URM representation should remain a priority.


Indonesia is among the largest 25 carbon dioxide emitting countries when considering only fossil fuels, and among the top three or five when emissions due to deforestation and land use change are included. Emission per capita from fossil fuels are still low in comparison with other countries, but have been growing fast, and are likely to overtake those from deforestation and land use change in the future. This chapter argues the importance for Indonesia to start developing strategies to mitigate its emissions from fossil fuel combustion. It analyses the main drivers of the increase in emissions, identifies the options and challenges in reducing the future growth in emissions. Policy options are reviewed that would enable the Indonesian economy to keep on growing, but with a much lower carbon output.


The aim of this study was to present results of Education to Theatricality as scientific research and innovative pedagogy in the sector of the education of the person. Education to Theatricality has a lot of purposes to contribute to the psycho-physic well-being of each person; particularly it wants to help everyone to realize himself, as human being and as social actor; it wants to give everybody the chance to reveal his own diversity and specificity, because everybody has a message to convey through his body and his voice. The Education to Theatricality wants to stimulate skills, it wants to develop a better awareness of interpersonal relationships; it wants also give space to the assignment meaning process, because it considers "doing" as important as thinking, which permits to develop awareness about personal acts. Education to Theatricality is a science that includes pedagogy, sociology, human sciences, psychology and performative art in general. The scientific nature of this discipline allows to apply it to the most part of the contexts and of the persons, because it has in the centre of its pedagogical process the human being, as such he is and not necessarily with any skill


BACKGROUND
Postprandial increase of triglyceride-rich lipoproteins augments the risk of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease and all-cause mortality. We explored the hypothesis that a simplified oral fat tolerance test can uncover differences in postprandial triglyceride response associated with potentially atherogenic lipoprotein characteristics, even in a cohort of apparently healthy 31-year-old [mean (SD), 31 (11)] nonobese individuals with normal fasting lipids and lipoproteins.

METHODS
We used a fat tolerance test in 96 females and 62 males with blood sampled at 0, 2, and 4 h after a breakfast containing 26.3 g of fats. The postprandial triglyceride response was used to classify the individuals in apparently fat-tolerant and apparently fat-intolerant participants.

RESULTS
The intolerant individuals were found to have at 0 h significantly higher body mass index, plasma triglycerides, remnant cholesterol, VLDL cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol and lower apolipoprotein (apo) AI and HDL cholesterol than the tolerant individuals. More than 70% of the variability (r2) of the postprandial response in tolerant and intolerant individuals measured as area under the curve or, at a single point at 4 h after the oral fat load, was linearly correlated with 0-h triglycerides (P < 0001). Fasting lipoprotein parameters, proposed to be markers of cardiovascular risk, as the ratios apo B/apo AI, total cholesterol/HDL cholesterol, and triglycerides/HDL cholesterol, were increased in the intolerant individuals.

CONCLUSIONS
A simplified oral fat tolerance test, even when used in an apparently healthy, nonobese, normolipidemic cohort, detected that an increased postprandial triglycerides response was associated with augmented lipoprotein markers of increased cardiovascular risk.


Average soybean production costs ranged from $2.13 per bushel for producers in the lowest cost quartile to $6.00 per bushel for those in the highest cost quartile. Heartland, West, and Northern Crescent producers had lower soybean production costs per bushel than Mississippi Portal and Southeast producers. Producers in higher sales classes and producers with 250 to 750 acres of soybeans had lower production costs than other soybean producers. Off-farm income was an important source of household income for many soybean producers.


Background A strategic approach to the development of a portfolio of research gives direction and enables an organisation to plan, fund and conduct research systematically. At Princess Alice Hospice, a strategic approach to research development across the organisation was tailored from the 5 year strategy, as a focus to improve the quality of the palliative and end of life care provided locally, as well as contributing to the wider evidence base. Aims Identify gaps in palliative and end of life care evidence Develop an research strategy in line with organisational strategy. Methods A gap analysis of evidence in palliative and end of life care was undertaken though a review of relevant literature, focussing on the key areas previously identified through the organisational strategy. The analysis was then circulated to managers from different disciplines, both clinical and non-clinical, along with an open invitation to attend a research workshop. The workshop was used to facilitate consensus decision making in order to prioritise the focus of research over the next 2–3 years. The outcome of the workshop and key areas identified for research were then conveyed to the user group. Results The workshop was attended by 17 staff members with good multiprofessional representation. Priorities identified in order were: partners and families; non-malignant disease and health promotion. Workshop discussion highlighted compassion and dignity as additional research areas, both topical and relevant across the organisation, and they were subsequently added to the priorities. Conclusions Undertaking a gap analysis, with an overview of current evidence in palliative and end of life care research, alongside the 5 year strategy, provided focus for our organisational research priorities. A multiprofessional consensus approach allowed diversity and representation which translates into a richer decision making process as well as interest and engagement throughout disciplines in future research activity at the Hospice.


Task-based language teaching (TBLT) is well known for providing authentic opportunities for second and foreign language (L2) skill development. However, for many learners the use of traditional grammar within TBLT lacks the functional support necessary to create accurate and fluent L2 output. The current study replaced traditional grammar explanations with a semantic meaning-order approach to pedagogical grammar (MAP or MAP grammar) as a means to bridge the language in tasks to their function and thereby strengthen form-to-meaning understanding. The study combined TBLT and MAP grammar to look for changes in the complexity, accuracy, and fluency of 127 L2 learners' writings. The results showed TBLT and MAP separately increased syntactic complexity, whereas the combination of the two provided gains in accuracy and fluency. This was achieved by systematically directing learners' attention to a sequence of functional choices thereby simplifying necessary metalinguistic explanations.


Strains of Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides have been divided into small colony (SC) and large colony (LC) types (Cottew & Yeats, 1978). The protein patterns of representative strains of these two types and of M. mycoides subsp. capri were compared by a high resolution, two-dimensional gel electrophoretic method. The results suggest that the LC strains are more closely related to M. mycoides subsp. capri than to the SC strains of M. mycoides subsp. mycoides.


Although Catherine Livingston Garrettson (1752–1849) initially encountered feelings of isolation upon converting to Methodism, she discovered that the written word allowed her to engage in relational rather than solitary religious experiences. Over time, the written word helped her create a web of meaningful ties with imagined and actual kin and motivated her to form, develop and foster additional relationships in multiple contexts. Garrettson's story thus demonstrates the need to consider how the real and imagined communities encountered through reading and constructed through writing have played a role in the spiritual development of early American women. Indeed, women's experiences serve not simply to explain aspects of American social development, but to illuminate their broader world of connections – familial, religious, social and literary.


Business elites reconfigure their locus of organization over time, from the city level, to the national level, and beyond. We ask what the current level of elite organization is and propose a novel theoretical and empirical approach to answer this question. Building on the universal distinction between local and nonlocal ties we use network analysis and community detection to dissect the global network of interlocking directorates among over five million firms. We find that elite orientation is indeed changing from the national to the transnational plane, but we register a considerable heterogeneity across different regions in the world. In some regions the business communities are organized along national borders, whereas in other areas the locus of organization is at the city level or international level. London dominates the global corporate elite network. Our findings underscore that the study of corporate elites requires an approach that is sensitive to levels of organization that go beyond the confines of nation states.


The structures and electronic properties of low-energy neutral and anionic Mgn (n = 3-20) clusters have been studied by utilizing a widely adopted CALYPSO structure searching method coupled with density functional theory calculations. A large number of low-energy isomers are optimized at the B3PW91 functional with the 6-311+G(d) basis set. The optimized geometries clearly indicate that a structural transition from hollow three-dimensional configurations to filled-cage-like structures occurs at n = 16 for both neutral and anionic clusters. Based on the anionic ground state structures, photoelectron spectra are simulated using time-dependent density functional theory (TD-DFT) and compared with experimental results. The good agreement validates that the current ground state structures, obtained from the symmetry-unconstrained searches, are true global minima. A detailed chemical bonding analysis distinctly indicates that the Mg17 cluster is the first neutral locally π-aromatic homonuclear all-metal cluster, which perfectly satisfies Hückel's well-known 4N + 2 rule.


Mahua flower is generally used by local people for preparation of alcohol and stored by many local people to use in winter as a food source. This paper deals with fermentation of mahua flower for ethanol production and its estimation. As flower is having high sugar and important mineral content we prepared jam from flower which can be used as food source at house hold purpose for poor people. The remains of fermentation used as fertilizer and its effect are demonstrated by growing seeds. The characterisation of fermentation remains by XRD and FT-IR shows the presence of several important minerals which are responsible for the plant growth.


The book provides an updated chronology of the Amarāvatī stūpa and argues its close link with the long-term development of urbanization of this region between ca. 200 BCE-250 CE based on the latest archaeological, art-historical and epigraphic evidence.


Deguelin, a rotenoid compound from the African plant Mundulea sericea (Leguminosae), has been shown to possess antitumor activities but the exact role for the growth factor receptor mediated signaling pathway in head and neck squamous cell carcinoma (HNSCC) is currently still unclear. In the present study, we investigated the effect of deguelin on epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) and insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF1R) pathways in HNSCC cell lines. Flowcytometric analysis revealed accumulation of annexin V positivity in deguelin-treated cells, showing that deguelin induced apoptosis. The deguelin-induced apoptosis was accompanied by the reduction of constitutive phosphorylated levels of IGF1R, Akt, and extracellular signal-regulated kinase1/2 (ERK1/2). LY294002-mediated inhibition of phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase, which is an upstream effector for Akt activation, increased cleavage of poly(ADP-ribosyl) polymerase (PARP) but ERK inhibition by U0126 did not. Deguelin inhibited both IGF-1- and EGF-induced Akt activation. These results showed that deguelin possessed antitumor effect by targeting Akt in dual axis such as EGFR and IGF1R signaling pathways and suggested that it provides an applicable therapeutic strategy for HNSCC patients.


Modern navigation systems use multi-sensor-systems for location determination in combination with GPS or DGPS. Limitations in the availability of satellites due to shadowing and multi path effects in urban areas, magnetic disturbances, wheel slips and error propagation of dead reckoning lead to loss of position information. This can be avoided by map matching which compensates for typical sensor errors. This contribution deals with methods and procedures of map matching, aiming to develop a robust procedure for autarkic rail vehicle localization. Special requirements for railway traffic have to be fulfilled: - High availability and reliability of the positioning information, precise track positioning - Support of GPS measurements in case of multi-path effects or difficult reception conditions - Use of low-cost sensors


Market structure is information about business behavior and market performance which is explained through market conditions. This study aims to determine the structure of traditional markets in Barru Regency, South Sulawesi Province by looking at the distribution channels of products that occur at the level of traders involved in trading activities in the traditional markets of Barru Regency. The results of research in the field show that in the traditional market Mattirowalie, Barru Regency, South Sulawesi Province has a market structure with a level of distribution network for agricultural products. Initially these goods were obtained partly from producer farmers (Barru seller farmers), partly from wholesalers (agents) who originating from other districts enter into collectors and retailers in the traditional market Mattirowalie, Barru Regency, especially wholesalers (agents) of rice and vegetables, then collectors after obtaining goods sell their merchandise to local retailers, then retailers sell or distribute their merchandise to local retailers. buyers / consumers in the traditional markets of Barru Regency.


Mercurial diuretics act primarily on active transport of sodium. The mechanism of action probably involves a firm attachment of mercury to a sulfhydryl group of a renal enzyme that helps to generate energy for sodium transport, or to a sodium carrier. In either case, the transporting system fails. To date, no known enzyme or specific carrier substance has been identified as the receptor for mercurials.

Structure-activity analysis makes it necessary to reject the diuretic structure proposed by Kessler et at. (95), for there are too many exceptions to it (185). Although there is no remaining barrier to acceptance of mercuric ion as the most active form of mercury, the intact molecule hypothesis should not be discarded because there is still reason to believe that a single attachment to a receptor through one valence of mercury may also produce a diuresis.

A better understanding of mechanism of action depends on the acquisition of additional information on: (a) the carrier system that transports sodium; (b) the mechanism whereby acidosis potentiates the diuretic action of mercuric cysteine; (c) renal transport and distribution of mercurials, especially diuretic compounds that do not pile up in large amounts (e.g., mersalyl); (d) the identity of the specific renal receptor to which mercurials bind.


Mechanisms underlying the pathological characteristics of the various anxiety disorders have yet to be fully elucidated. One of the most widely accepted mediators known to play a central role in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders is the g-aminobutyric acid (GABA) system. Evidence supporting the role of a dysfunctional GABA system has resulted from clinical experience with the benzodiazepines, as well as subsequent determination of mechanism of action, genetic engineering, and neuroimaging studies of the GABA receptor. The concatenation of results suggests a relative deficiency in GABA neurotransmission, which can be augmented by agents acting on different components of the GABA system. Agents such as the benzodiazepines, neuroactive steroids, and barbiturates act as allosteric modulators of the GABAA receptor; b-carboline and the barbiturates function as direct GABA agonists. Valproate, gabapentin, pregabalin, and vigabatrin increase brain GABA levels or neurotransmission at least in part by targeting the metabolic pathways of GABA. Tiagabine selectively increases synaptic GABA availability by blocking the reuptake of GABA via transporter inhibition. Evidence exists, to a greater or lesser extent, that all of these agents possess anxiolytic properties, as would be expected by their mechanisms of action. This article reviews the findings implicating the GABA system in the pathophysiology of anxiety disorders and describes the potential role of agents that modulate GABA neurotransmission in the treatment of these disorders.


Comparative politics has witnessed periodic debates between proponents of contextually sensitive area studies research and others who view such work as unscientific, noncumulative, or of limited relevance for advancing broader social science knowledge. In Southeast Asia in Political Science: Theory, Region, and Qualitative Analysis, edited by Erik Martinez Kuhonta, Dan Slater, and Tuong Vu, a group of bright, young Southeast Asianists argue that contextually sensitive research in Southeast Asia using qualitative research methods has made fundamental and lasting contributions to comparative politics. They challenge other Southeast Asianists to assert proudly the contributions that their work has made and urge the rest of the comparative politics discipline to take these contributions seriously. This symposium includes four short critical reviews of Southeast Asia in Political Science by political scientists representing diverse scholarly traditions. The reviews address both the methodological and the theoretical orientations of the book and are followed by a response from the editors.


We consider the problem of maintaining a warehouse of sampled data that "shadows" a full-scale data warehouse, in order to support quick approximate analytics and metadata discovery. The full-scale warehouse comprises many "data sets," where a data set is a bag of values; the data sets can vary enormously in size. The values constituting a data set can arrive in batch or stream form. We provide and compare several new algorithms for independent and parallel uniform random sampling of data-set partitions, where the partitions are created by dividing the batch or splitting the stream. We also provide novel methods for merging samples to create a uniform sample from an arbitrary union of data-set partitions. Our sampling/merge methods are the first to simultaneously support statistical uniformity, a priori bounds on the sample footprint, and concise sample storage. As partitions are rolled in and out of the warehouse, the corresponding samples are rolled in and out of the sample warehouse. In this manner our sampling methods approximate the behavior of more sophisticated stream-sampling methods, while also supporting parallel processing. Experiments indicate that our methods are efficient and scalable, and provide guidance for their application.


Cyberattacks are increasingly threatening networked systems, often with the emergence of new types of unknown (zero-day) attacks and the rise of vulnerable devices. While Machine Learning (ML)-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDSs) have been shown to be extremely promising in detecting these attacks, the need to learn large amounts of labelled data often limits the applicability of ML-based IDSs to cybersystems that only have access to private local data. To address this issue, this paper proposes a novel Decentralized and Online Federated Learning Intrusion Detection (DOF-ID) architecture. DOF-ID is a collaborative learning system that allows each IDS used for a cybersystem to learn from experience gained in other cybersystems in addition to its own local data without violating the data privacy of other systems. As the performance evaluation results using public Kitsune and Bot-IoT datasets show, DOF-ID significantly improves the intrusion detection performance in all collaborating nodes simultaneously with acceptable computation time for online learning.


Introduction: Mesenchymal undifferentiated organisms (MSCs), which dwell in an assortment of tissues, can separate into numerous cell types. They have a generally safe of tumorigenesis in light of the fact that they needn't bother with the acquaintance of remote qualities with separate, not at all like instigated pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. They likewise have a generally safe of invulnerable dismissal. They can be acquired in a negligibly intrusive way, for example, umbilical rope blood, giving a promising cell source to regenerative medication. Use of MSCs in the treatment of hard-headed liver maladies is as of now under incredible clinical investigation. We rewarded the liver cirrhosis by two-advance transplantations of hepatocyte delivered from the human peeled deciduous tooth (SHED) into the pig with cirrhosis. SHED at 3 entry was isolated by attractive arranging with a CD117 immunizer. For hepatic separation, CD117+ SHED were developed in DMEM enhanced with insulintransferrin-selenium-x (ITS-x), incipient organism tropicfactors(ETF) and hepatocyte-development factor (HGF) for 5 days: IMDM enhanced with ITS-x, ETF, HGF, dexamethasone, and oncostatin for an additional 11 days. F344-Nude rodents were utilized for this investigation. Carbon tetrachloride (CCl4) was administrated by intraperitoneal infusion for 15 weeks to incite cirrhosis. Hepatocyte-like-cells (2 x 106 cells/creature) suspended in Hank's Balanced Salt Solution were transplanted into the spleen. The vehicle was infused into the positive benchmark group. Non-cirrhosis-models were utilized as a negative benchmark group. Creatures were relinquished a month after the transplantation. At that point 5 weeks after the fact the subsequent transplantation was done, at that point the pig were euthanased. Immunocytochemistry perception of the hepatically separated cells firmly exhibited positive recoloring for egg whites, IGF-1?fetoprotein, HNF4?, and CPS-1. The histopathological investigation, HE and Massons trichrome recoloring, demonstrated a huge diminishing of sinewy tissue in the transplantation bunch with contrasting with the positive benchmark group. Sound liver tissues were recouped by the transplantation. Additionally, serological test outcomes uncovered critical contrasts between the gatherings. Serum ALT levels of the experimental group drastically diminished to 33% contrasted with the positive benchmark group. Exercises of egg whites, bilirubin, BUN, HA levels were additionally recuperated. By just once transplantation egg whites esteem was improved, however two stages demonstrated much better improvement. The two stages transplantations of hepatocyte-like cells from human tooth transplanted into the liver with serious disappointment exhibited their ability to perform emphatically in view of radical diminishing stringy tissues. Together, these discoveries recommended that two-advance transplantation is a future potential convention for rewarding ceaseless liver wounds, for example, cirrhosis. Transplantations of hepatocytes: Fulminant hepatic disappointment is a forceful illness that has a very poor forecast. Liver transplantation might be the main clinical strategy to safeguard most patients. Since the keys of the accomplishment of liver transplantation rely upon the procurement of benefactor liver, clinical connecting treatments while hanging tight for the presence of contributor liver are basic forever sparing. Extra-bodily dissemination utilizing bioartificial livers that have hepatocytes in the segment to lessen harmful substances, for example, smelling salts that can influence awareness levels have been created. Albeit essential hepatocytes or exceptionally separated hepatoma cell lines were utilized for the section, huge endurance lengthening utilizing bioartificial livers have not yet been affirmed. As of late, improvement of fake livers utilizing iPS cells has been accounted for. Takebe et al refined iPS cells with vascular endothelial cells and macrophages, and prevailing in the production of an organ bud or small scale liver. Since DPMSC-inferred hepatocytes had high multiplication action, express hepatocyte atomic factor 4a, and process smelling salts to urea (unpublished perception), they are relied upon to tolerate the capacity of bioartificial livers. Then again, the liver is an organ engaged with medicates digestion. In the time of new medication advancement, there will unquestionably be a need to anticipate the unfriendly impacts of medications in a customized way. Since medicate digestion differs from individual to singular, it is important to utilize self-hepatocytes to screen for tranquilize harmfulness. Hepatocytes got from dental mash cell bank may suit this reason. Cells lose separation levels in two measurement or spheroid societies where dispersion of materials is the best way to take care of the cells. As of late, microenvironments of the cells in tissues have been recreated in the organ-on-a-chip framework that imitates the dynamic situations of genuine tissues. Nakao et Journal of Translational Research This work is partly presented at Joint Event on 2nd Annual Summit on Stem Cell Research, Cell & Gene Therapy & 12th International Conference & Exhibition on Tissue Preservation, Life care and Biobanking Volume 2, Issue 2 Extended Abstract al announced liver-on-a-chip that repeated the line like structures of hepatocytes with bile conduit canalicular arrangements. Vernetti et al, prevailing in medicate harmfulness screening with development of a culture framework that had hepatocytes, vascular endothelial cells, resistant and stellate cells. Hepatocytes got from a dental mash cell bank might be a decent cell wellspring of such a three-dimensional culture framework and may empower individuals who store their teeth to meet the future utilization of hepatocytes, for example, in medicate screening, while at the same time giving an allo-auto cell source to fix liver maladies.


This study looks at the seasonal periodicity of a number of different social pathologies, including suicide, mortality resulting from disease, the onset of physical illness, and criminal behavior. Using time-series data from the United States, for 132 consecutive months between 1965-1975, it is found that virtually all of the behaviors investigated do demonstrate some consistent pattern of seasonal incidence. A sociological theory, based upon the macro-level concept, "the pace of social life," is suggested as the cause of these seasonal variations in pathology. This theory contends that, for reasons which are cultural, economic and/or climatological in nature, certain periods of the year are especially likely to be characterized by concentrations of various changes in and disruptions of people's routine, day-to-day lives. Because of the need for personal and social readjustment which they entail, such periods are experienced as being potentially stressful for the members of society, resulting in an increase in the incidence of social pathology during, or immediately following, these periods of change. To operationalize the independent variable in this theory--the occurrence of important social events, and changes in the nature, frequency, and intensity of social activities and relationships--macro-level measurement device, termed the Index of the Pace of Social Life, is created. This index translates a number of the "life events" contained in Thomas Holmes' Social Readjustment Rating Scale from the individual level of analysis to the macroscopic level, and its purpose is to provide a means of determining the relative amount of change inherent in the social events and activities characterizing a social system at any particular point in time. This theory is tested empirically, using Box-Jenkins procedures of time-series analysis and cross-correlational techniques. The results obtained provide support for the hypothesis that changes in the pace of social life within a social system act as an influence upon the temporal distribution of social pathologies within that social system, as (a) mortality resulting from disease, (b) persons missing work due to illness, (c) suicide, and (d) homicide are all found to increase simultaneous with and/or in the six months directly following increases in the Index of the Pace of Social Life.


Argentinean philosopher León Rozitchner theorized the political potential of the Peronist movement through a unique analytical matrix drawing upon Marxism, psychoanalysis and phenomenology. This essay will explore how Rozitchner's interpretation of Freud's theory of group psychology in Freud y los límites del individualismo burgués (Freud and the Limits of Bourgeois Individualism, 1972) approaches the figure of the mass in ethical, political and historical terms. I argue that Rozitchner articulates these three dimensions of the mass by viewing its libidinal constitution through a unique historical-materialist lens. Freud y los límites… thus asks us to consider the question of the drive's sublimation at stake in Freud's theory as a technique of social reproduction and, simultaneously, as a directly productive form of labour. In this sense, the organization of libidinal investment that constitutes the mass also holds the key to its potential social emancipation. Furthermore, while Rozitchner's view of subjectivity often appears as transhistorical in scope, his approach to the productive activity of the drive in Freud y los límites… asks us to consider the ethical stakes of sublimation in relation to a specific historical moment of capitalist exploitation. Read through this tension, Freud y los límites… thus ultimately underlines the historical conditions of the ethical transformation it demands.


Web page loading speed continues to vex users, even as broadband adoption increases. Several studies have addressed delays in the context of Web sites as well as interactive corporate systems, and have recommended a wide range of i°rules of thumb.i± Some studies conclude that response times should be no greater than 2 seconds while other studies caution on delays of 12 seconds or more. One of the strongest conclusions was that complex tasks seemed to allow longer response times. This study examined delay times of 0, 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, and 12 seconds using 196 undergraduate students in an experiment. Randomly assigned a constant delay time, subjects were asked to complete 9 search tasks, exploring a familiar and an unfamiliar site. Plots of the dependent variables performance, attitudes, and behavioral intentions, along those delays, suggested the use of non-linear regression, and the explained variance was in the neighborhood of 2%, 5%, and 7%, respectively. Focusing only on the familiar site, explained variance in attitudes and behavioral intentions grew to about 16%. A sensitivity analysis implies that decreases in performance and behavioral intentions begin to flatten when the delays extend to 4 seconds or longer, and attitudes flatten when the delays extend to 8 seconds or longer. Future research should include other factors such as expectations, variability, and feedback, and other outcomes such as actual purchasing behavior, to more fully understand the effects of delays in todayi¯s Web environment.


The 'Stockholm Educational Air Shower Array' (SEASA) project is establishing a network of time-synchronised scintillator detector stations at high-schools in the Stockholm region. High school students are contributing to the construction, installation, testing and running of the detector station placed on the roof of their school. This initiative aims to increase the students' interest in science and technology subjects by exposing them to modem research. Each station is equipped with three plastic scintillator detectors (each 0.3 m(2)) arranged in a triangular formation. Signals from GPS satellites are used to time-synchronise signals from the widely separated detector stations, allowing cosmic ray air showers to be identified and studied. A low-cost and highly scalable data acquisition system has been produced using embedded Linux processors which communicate station trigger and monitoring data to a central database. Air shower data and the performance of each detector station can be visualised in real-time via a web browser. The status of the project is presented along with first results from the observation of air showers over Stockholm.


Formation of conditioned switching-over of heterogeneous instrumental reflexes in dogs was more successful than in rats, which testifies about significant differences of the functional organization of analytical-synthetic brain activity in rodents and predatory animals. Experiments with lesion of the hippocampus (in rats) and the records of its electrical activity (in dogs) allowed to conclude that the hippocampus of the both types of animals belongs to the system of structures, participating in the formation of conditioned switching-over. The data, obtained in the process of elaboration of the switching-over and probabilistic reinforcement of the alimentary conditioned stimulus, testify that providing for the reactions to signals with low probability of reinforcement in different species of animals is one of the functions of the hippocampus.


This chapter highlights user perspectives related to the development of ICT and the launching of political strategies to involve users in the IT society. Strategies are discussed in relation to cooperation between technical and social scientists. The author points to the fact that the diffrences between various theoretical understandings of the interaction between technology and social change tend to be underestimated. Three catgeories of images of users are defined and illustrated by empirical examples from the development of perspectives in the sector for the care of elderly people. The development shows that attitudes to elderly users change over time. Conclusions are drawn concerning how these findings might ifnluence innovation processes.


A Seven months (March-September 2006) study on the prevalence of congenital malaria was carried out at the labour unit of three different hospitals within Ilorin metropolis: Eyitayo Hospital, Surulere Medical Hospital and Children Specialist Hospital Centre Gboro Ilorin. A total of 130 blood samples were collected from the mothers and their newborn babies and examined for malaria parasite using both thin and thick films. Maternal packed cell volume (PCV), and genotype was also determined using haematocrit method and cellulose acetate electrophoresis respectively. The prevalence rate of maternal, fetal, placental and cord parasitaemia were 37(28.46%), 29(22.31%), 33(25.38%) and 30(23.08%) respectively. Malaria infected maternal blood had a mild reduction in PCV level (p<0.05). Genotype showed strong correlation with maternal, fetal, placental and cord parasitaemia maternal age and parity did not show strong correlation with Maternal, fetal, placental and cord parasitaemia (p>0.05).


In this paper, we propose and analyze two different stream ciphers based on a Skew Tent Map and a Modified Logistic Map respectively. In order to improve the randomness of these systems, a single method for increasing the period length of the generated sequences has been applied. The results prove that the randomness of these systems can be severally increased by using this method, making these systems suitable for secure communications.


Let $G=(V,E)$ be a strongly connected and balanced digraph with vertex set $V=\{1,\dotsc,n\}$. The classical distance $d_{ij}$ between any two vertices $i$ and $j$ in $G$ is the minimum length of all the directed paths joining $i$ and $j$. The resistance distance (or, simply the resistance) between any two vertices $i$ and $j$ in $V$ is defined by $r_{ij}:=l_{ii}^{\dagger}+l_{jj}^{\dagger}-2l_{ij}^{\dagger}$, where $l_{pq}^{\dagger}$ is the $(p,q)^{\rm th}$ entry of the Moore-Penrose inverse of $L$ which is the Laplacian matrix of $G$. In practice, the resistance $r_{ij}$ is more significant than the classical distance. One reason for this is, numerical examples show that the resistance distance between $i$ and $j$ is always less than or equal to the classical distance, i.e., $r_{ij} \leq d_{ij}$. However, no proof for this inequality is known. In this paper, it is shown that this inequality holds for all directed cactus graphs.


— European Union candidate status provides a strong motivation for decision-making in the candidate countries in shaping the regional development policy where there is an envisioned transfer of power from center to the periphery. The process of Europeanization anticipates the candidate countries configure their regional institutional templates in the context of the requirements of the European Union policies and introduces new instruments of incentive framework of enlargement to be employed in regional development schemes. It is observed that the contribution of the local actors to the decision making in the design of the allocation architectures enhances the efficiency of the funds and increases the positive effects of the projects funded under the regional development objectives. This study aims at exploring the performances of the three regional development grant schemes in Turkey, established and allocated under the pre-accession process with a special emphasis given to the roles of the national and local actors in decision-making for regional development. Efficiency analyses have been conducted using the DEA methodology which has proved to be a superior method in comparative efficiency and benchmarking measurements. The findings of this study as parallel to similar international studies, provides that the participation of the local actors to the decision-making in funding contributes both to the quality and the efficiency of the projects funded under the EU schemes.


The hyperinsulinaemic-glucose-clamp technique, in combination with measurement of glucose turnover in conscious unrestrained rats, was used to assess the effects of nutritional status on insulin sensitivity in vivo and glucose metabolism. Liver, heart and quadriceps skeletal-muscle glycogen content and activities of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) and glycogen synthase were measured both basally and at the end of a 2.5 h glucose clamp (insulin 85 munits/h) in rats 6, 24 and 48 h after food withdrawal. Clamp glucose requirement and glucose turnover were unchanged by fasting. Activation of glycogen synthase and glycogen deposition in liver and skeletal muscle during the clamps were also not impaired in rats after a prolonged fast. By contrast with skeletal muscle, activation of cardiac-muscle glycogen synthase and glycogen deposition during the clamps were markedly impaired by 24 h of fasting and were undetectable at 48 h. Skeletal-muscle PDH activity fell with more prolonged fasting (6 h, 15.3 +/- 3.4%; 24 h, 4.7 +/- 0.7%; 48 h, 4.3 +/- 0.6% active; P less than 0.005), but at 24 and 48 h was stimulated by the clamp to values unchanged by the duration of fasting. Stimulation of cardiac PDH activity by the clamp was, however, impaired in rats fasted for 24 or 48 h. Basal hepatic PDH did not change significantly with fasting (6 h, 5.3 +/- 1.1%; 24 h, 4.6 +/- 0.7%; 48 h, 3.9 +/- 0.5%), and, although it could be partly restored at 24 h, very little stimulation occurred at 48 h. Hepatic pyruvate kinase and acetyl-CoA carboxylase activity were both stimulated by the clamps, and this was not impaired with more prolonged fasting. During the glucose clamps, blood concentrations of lactate, pyruvate and alanine were increased to a greater extent in rats fasted for 24 and 48 h than in rats studied 6 h after food withdrawal. The findings suggest that, although sensitivity to insulin of whole-body glucose disposal is unchanged with fasting, there may be qualitative differences in the metabolism of glucose.


The welfare effort (social spending as a percentage of GDP) has conventionally been the preferred measure for comparisons in space and time of the level of development of welfare states. However, frequent mentions are made in the relevant literature of the drawbacks of this measure as an empirical reference (e.g. it can be demonstrated that in certain conditions it provides a distorted picture of the relative levels of development of social protection systems). This study sets out to determine the extent of the shortcomings of the welfare effort measure for quantifying the relative standards of social protection


Abstract We consider a notion of embedding digraphs on orientable surfaces, applicable to digraphs in which the indegree equals the outdegree for every vertex, i.e., Eulerian digraphs. This idea has been considered before in the context of compatible Euler tours or orthogonal A-trails by Andersen and by Bouchet. This prior work has mostly been limited to embeddings of Eulerian digraphs on predetermined surfaces and to digraphs with underlying graphs of maximum degree at most 4. In this paper, a foundation is laid for the study of all Eulerian digraph embeddings. Results are proved which are analogous to those fundamental to the theory of undirected graph embeddings, such as Duke's theorem [5], and an infinite family of digraphs which demonstrates that the genus range for an embeddable digraph can be any nonnegative integer given. We show that it is possible to have genus range equal to one, with arbitrarily large minimum genus, unlike in the undirected case. The difference between the minimum genera of a digraph and its underlying graph is considered, as is the difference between the maximum genera. We say that a digraph is upper-embeddable if it can be embedded with two or three regions and prove that every regular tournament is upper-embeddable.


Methods currently used for the quantitative determination of total lipids and fatty acid composition in plant require solvent extraction. This study examined the solvent extraction of purple medic seed oil. Results varied with different extraction conditions. The effects of temperature, extraction time, sample size and solvent type on the extraction efficiency and oil quality were studied. The amount of extract collected was highest when ether absolute was used as a solvent for solvent extraction.


Background: The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), also known as SARS-CoV-2, poses an enormous challenge to South Africa and the world in as far as its management is concerned. The virus originated in Wuhan City in China at the end of the year 2019 before it spread to other countries of the world. The World Health Organization (WHO) later declared it as a pandemic because of the rapid spread. However, the management of the virus differs from one country to another depending on the systems and principles adopted in that specific country. Aim: Using relevant literature, this article analyses the application of governance principles in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic in South Africa. The article argues that the application of the governance principles was not adequately adhered to. Setting: The coronavirus disease 2019 has an effect globally, however, the focus of this article is specifically in South Africa. However, the lessons learnt are not limited to COVID-19 but to other future epidemics. Methods: The research is qualitative and is based on the vigorous review of relevant literature including relevant reports, regulations and published academic work. Governance theory was adopted to be the lenses within which the reality is viewed. Results: The article presents lessons that have been learnt from the management of COVID-19 and suggests a balance between a special need to manage pandemics and adherence to standard principles of good governance to ensure accountability in the use of state resources whilst ensuring effective management of a disaster. Conclusion: It is imperative that there is an adherence of relevant policies regulating public procurement of goods and services. This is due to the fact that procurement policies make provision for procurement in instances where open bidding process may not be followed including during the time of disaster. Necessary inputs from relevant stakeholders need to be sought for a proper collaboration and support from them and the society at large.


At the end of his life the emperor Augustus wrote an account of his achievements in which he reviewed his rise to power, his conquest of the world and his unparalleled generosity towards his subjects. This edition provides a new text, translation and detailed commentary - the first substantial one in English for more than four decades - which is suitable for use with students of all levels. The commentary deals with linguistic, stylistic and historical matters. It elucidates how Augustus understood his role in Roman society, and how he wished to be remembered by posterity; and it sets this picture that emerges from the Res Gestae into the context of the emergence both of a new visual language and of an official set of expressions. The book also includes illustrations in order to demonstrate how the Augustan era witnessed the rise of a whole new visual language.


There is now strong evidence that yield potential in rice (Oryza sativa L.) is becoming limited by 'source' capacity, i.e. photosynthetic capacity or efficiency, and hence the ability to fill the large number of grain 'sinks' produced in modern varieties. One solution to this problem is to introduce a more efficient, higher capacity photosynthetic mechanism to rice, the C4 pathway. A major challenge is identifying and engineering the genes necessary to install C4 photosynthesis in rice. Recently, an international research consortium was established to achieve this aim. Central to the aims of this project is phenotyping large populations of rice and sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L.) mutants for 'C4-ness' to identify C3 plants that have acquired C4 characteristics or revertant C4 plants that have lost them. This paper describes a variety of plant phenomics approaches to identify these plants and the genes responsible, based on our detailed physiological knowledge of C4 photosynthesis. Strategies to asses the physiological effects of the installation of components of the C4 pathway in rice are also presented.


Based on a pay‐as‐you‐go model, cloud computing provides the possibility of hosting pervasive applications from both academic and business domains. However, data centers hosting cloud applications consume huge amounts of electrical energy, contributing to high operational costs and large carbon footprints to the environment. Energy‐aware resource provisioning is an effective solution to diminish the energy consumption of cloud data centers. Recently, a growing trend has emerged, where cloud technology is used to run periodic real‐time applications such as multimedia, telecommunication, video gaming, and industrial applications. In order for a real‐time application to be able to use cloud services, cloud providers have to be able to provide timing guarantees. In this paper, we introduce an energy‐aware resource provisioning mechanism for cloud data centers, which are capable of serving real‐time periodic tasks following the Software as a Service model. The proposed method is compared against an energy‐aware version of the RT‐OpenStack. RT‐OpenStack is a recently proposed approach to provide a time‐predictable version of OpenStack. The experimental results manifest that our proposed resource provisioning method outperforms energy‐aware version of the RT‐OpenStack by 16.01%, 25.45%, and 25.45% in terms of energy consumption, number of used servers, and average utilization of used servers, respectively. Moreover, from the scalability perspective, the preference of the proposed method for large‐scale data centers is more considerable.


This paper examines China's ambitious Campaign to Open the West and its impact upon Han and ethnic minority populations in Xinjiang. It focuses on analyzing the components of the campaign that are being implemented to develop Xinjiang through the intensification of agriculture, exploitation of energy resources, and reforms to Xinjiang's education system, revealing that the campaign, rather than alleviating poverty, is leading to greater asymmetry between Han and ethnic minority populations within Xinjiang. Rather than a plan for bridging the gap of economic disparity between the eastern and western regions of China, as construed by Beijing, the plan fits into a greater strategy for integration and assimilation of Xinjiang's restive ethnic population by Beijing.


Decomposition is degradation process of a corpse into basic respective constituents macroscopically and microscopically by action of microorganisms, arthropods and scavengers. Post mortem changes could be separated into early post mortem changes (i.e. algor mortis, rigor mortis and livor mortis) and putrefaction stages of corpse. These changes function as suitable indicators for determination of post mortem interval (PMI). In this paper, different stages of post mortem changes, possible variations such as mummification and formation of adipocere and special circumstances such as burial condition is discussed. This article also refers to several arguments in the different texture of adipocere and the influence of different types of fabric in affecting the post mortem changes and formation of adipocere. This is largely due to the property of permeability and resistance of material against degradation process. Undeniably, decomposition process involves numerous potential variables including burial condition, presence of clothing, potential formation of adipocere and mummification. Hence, studies in forensic taphonomy combined with real case scenario are crucial in understanding the nature of decomposition and estimation of PMI with higher accuracy.


This video reports our research on developing a model for a robot handing flyers to pedestrians. The difficulty is that potential receivers are pedestrians who are not necessarily cooperative; thus, the robot needs to appropriately plan its motion making it is easy and non-obstructive for potential receivers to receive the flyers. In order to establish a model, we analyzed human interaction, and found that (1) a giver approaches a pedestrian from frontal right/left but not frontal center, and (2) he simultaneously stops his walking motion and arm-extending motion at the moment when he hands out the flyer. Using these findings, we established a model for a robot to perform natural proactive handing. The proposed model is implemented in a humanoid robot and is confirmed as effective in a field experiment.


A method is described for determining the "displacement surface" of known three-dimensional compressible boundary-layer flow in terms of the mass-flow defects associated with the profiles of the two velocity components parallel to the surface. The result is a generalization of the plane flow concept of displacement thickness introduced in order to describe how a thin boundary layer distorts the outer nonviscous flow. Numerical values are found for the known three-dimensional boundary-layer flow about a cone at a small angle of attack to a supersonic stream.


During brain development, excess neurons that are formed die by apoptosis. cln3 was recently identified as the gene defective in juvenile Batten disease, an inherited neurodegenerative disease of childhood. In this disease, neurons die by apoptosis. Overexpression of this gene increases survival of human NT2 neuronal precursor cells. We, therefore, hypothesized that cln3 may be present in developing neurons and may play an important role in regulating the developmental process. NT2 neuronal cells were induced to develop into mature neurons. We evaluated cln3 expression by reverse transcription PCR and immunohistochemistry over a 7-wk period of differentiation. Also, cln3 expression was characterized in neonatal rat brain during the first week of life (P-1, P0, P4, and P8) and at P30. cln3 was differentially expressed during neuronal development into nondividing postmitotic neurons. The greatest expression was noted during wk 6 and then dropped to predifferentiation levels during wk 7. cln3 expression was detected in all the rat brain developmental stages evaluated. The greatest expression was seen at P0 and was double compared with the other stages. We conclude that cln3 is present during critical periods of neuronal cell differentiation and brain development. As cln3 is antiapoptotic, we hypothesize that cln3 plays an important role in regulating brain development. These findings may have implications for identifying strategies aimed at neuroprotection and neuronal survival during development.


In this simulation, based on a spatial garbage-can model, I treat the urban dynamic system as a set of random-walk elements interacting with each other in time. Five elements are considered: decisionmakers, choice opportunities, problems, solutions, and locations. Decisionmakers, problems, and solutions meet in an unpredictable way, are thrown into garbage cans as choice opportunities in certain locations, and something happens. In contrast to most traditional spatial simulation techniques, in which space is global and static, I consider in this simulation locations of facilities as dynamically floating on the stream of opportunities, interacting with other elements. The simulation results imply that the relationship between problems and choice opportunities dominates the outcome of the evolution, whereas the effects of the spatial structure as well as the structures of decision and solution are insignificant. The model may provide useful insights into how urban dynamics evolve.


Background Lung cancers are resistant to conventional chemotherapeutic interventions such as paclitaxel. Notch signaling is crucial in the chemoresistance of lung cancer cells. The Notch inhibitor gamma-secretase inhibitor (GSI) inhibits the Notch signaling pathway. Material/Methods Here, we evaluated how Notch-3 inhibition by GSI can enhance the sensitivity of lung cancer cells to paclitaxel. To study how Notch-3-specific inhibition affects non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC), we compared the cell viability, apoptosis, and colony formation of A549 and H1299 cells treated with Notch-3 siRNA and GSI. Results The expression levels of Notch-3 or Notch intracellular domain 3 (NICD3) and apoptosis-related proteins were measured and compared between different groups. Notch-3 was significantly overexpressed in both cell lines, and Notch-3 expression was elevated after paclitaxel treatment, indicating activation of the Notch signaling pathway. Inhibition of the Notch signaling pathway by GSI and Notch-3 siRNA reduced cell proliferation and induced apoptosis in A549 and H1299 cells, thereby boosting sensitivity of the cell lines to paclitaxel. Concomitant treatment with paclitaxel and GSI or siRNA downregulated Bcl-2 expression and upregulated Bax expression levels. Conclusions These results indicate a synergistic effect of Notch-3-specific inhibition and paclitaxel through alteration of the intrinsic apoptosis pathway, which was involved in Notch-3-induced chemoresistance in NSCLC cells, and GSI inhibited Notch-3-induced chemoresistance in a concentration-dependent manner. This approach that combines Notch-3-specific inhibition and paclitaxel would be likely to apply in NSCLC.


Cognitive Work Analysis is a system for analysing complex work domains. The results of the analysis can be used to design selection and training programs, design displays and interfaces and evaluate designs. In this paper the potential benefits of applying CWA to the problem of road safety are examined, particularly in relation to the introduction of ITS to vehicles. Finally, the development of a framework to explore the safety benefits of ITS by the use of CWA will be outlined. (a) For the covering entry of this conference, please see ITRD abstract no. E210298.


Mixing the phospholipid soybean phosphatidyl ethanolamine (PE) with the triglyceride triolein and a trace amount of water leads to a spontaneous formation of isotropic aggregates. Evidence for the existence of such aggregates in pseudo-three-component systems is presented here for the first time. Dynamic light scattering and cryogenic temperature transmission electron microscopy reveal polydisperse spherical particles with radii in the range of 250−840 nm and a mean radius of the order 600 nm. From the results of both depolarized light scattering and time-resolved electro-optical birefringence (Kerr effect) the presence of aggregates with an optical anisotropy (rodlike or wormlike reverse micelles as well as particles with lamellar structure) can be excluded. The remaining possibilities are reverse vesicles and a dispersed cubic bicontinuous phase, where our results favor reverse vesicles. A necessary condition for the formation of reverse vesicles is a saturation of the PE−triolein mixture with water; at...


This study was designed to describe COVID-19 infection in rheumatic patients and to investigate possible risk factors for hospital admission and death related to COVID-19 infection considering the type of rheumatic disease and medications used to treat it. In this observational cross-sectional study, patients under follow-up in Kermanshah rheumatology units were investigated in a 6-month period between February 18 and August 22, 2020. Confirmed COVID-19 cases were collected. The following data were obtained: age, sex, rheumatic disease diagnosis, rheumatic disease medication (glucocorticoids, csDMARDs, ts/bDMARDs). Rheumatic patients were divided into two groups of hospitalized and non-hospitalized. The data from the two groups were compared. In total, 221 patients were enrolled in this study. Of these, 38 patients (17.19%) were hospitalized, and 9 patients (4.07%) died. No significant difference was observed between hospitalized and non-hospitalized patients except for vasculitis and prior use of Janus kinase inhibitors (Tofacitinib). A greater rate of hospitalized patients had vasculitis (6 (15.79%) vs. 1 (0.55%), p < 0.0001 ). A greater rate of them were on Tofacitinib therapy (2 (1.09%) vs. 0, p value = 0.03). A greater rate of patients who died used Tofacitinib (2 (22.22%) vs. 0, p value = 0.001) and Mycophenolate Mofetil (4 (44.44%) vs. 23 (10.85%), p value = 0.014). Hospitalization and mortality rates in rheumatic patients are comparable to the general population. A higher risk for hospitalization was observed only in vasculitis patients and users of Tofacitinib, and a higher risk for mortality was seen only in users of Mycophenolate Mofetil and Tofacitinib, though this finding should be interpreted with caution due to the small size of these subgroups. In conclusion, most rheumatic patients do not seem to be at higher risk for severe COVID-19.


Coronary artery disease (CAD) is a spectrum of heart diseases which has the highest mortality in the world. Systolic left ventricular (LV) function is an important predictor of outcome, and its precise assessment remains of great importance for the choice of treatment in populations with myocardial infarction (MI). This study was aimed to assess the function and viability of ischemic myocardium of LV before and after the percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) by using 2dimentional (2D) STE with LDDSE and to know the usefulness of low dose dobutamine (LDD) test in detecting the viable ischemic LV area. The results of the current study revealed there was a significant decrease (improvement) in GLS before dobutamine from (-10.49±3.4) to (-12.87±3.44) after dobutamine. Then there was a significant increase (deterioration) in GLS from (-12.87±3.44) after giving 5 mg/kg/min dobutamine to (-11.56±3.29) after giving 10 mg/kg/min dobutamine (P value < 0.001). While there were no significant differences in GLS after low dose dobutamine (-12.87±3.44) with the same parameters 3-6 months after PCI (-13.48±3.7). Left anterior descending artery (LAD) is the most common affected artery in our study. The study concluded that GLS provides a sensitive measure of LV function and appears reduced despite preserved LVEF also GLS can detect the viability of ischemic myocardium of LV with using LDD test which then assessed by PCI.


Compiler automatic optimization and parallelization techniques are well suited for some classes of simulation or signal processing applications, however they usually don't take into account domain-specific knowledge nor the possibility to change or to remove some computations to achieve " good enough " results. Quite differently, production simulation and signal processing codes have adaptive capabilities: they are designed to compute precise results only where it matters if the complete problem is not tractable or if computation time must be short. In this paper, we present a new way to provide adaptive capabilities to compute-intensive codes automatically. It relies on domain-specific knowledge provided through special pragmas by the programmer in the input code and on polyhedral compilation techniques to continuously regenerate at runtime a code that performs heavy computations only where it matters at every moment. We present a case study on a fluid simulation application where our strategy enables significant computation savings and speedup in the optimized portion of the application while maintaining a good precision, with a minimal effort from the programmer.


With the advent of ubiquitous computing and sensor technologies, indoor trajectory data of individuals can readily be collected to support analysis of their underlying movement behaviors. Different methods for activity recognition have been proposed where supervised learning algorithms are often adopted. In many applications like elderly care, the behaviors to be characterized are often not known in a priori and the behaviors of different individuals cannot be assumed similar even for the same activity type. In this paper, we propose an unsupervised learning methodology to first extract from the trajectory data of an individual behavioral patterns as representations of his/her daily activities, and then infer the patterns' occurrence per day for daily routine analysis. Extracting behavioral patterns is challenging as the patterns often carry long-range dependency and appear with spatio-temporal variations, making the conventional frequent pattern mining approach not suitable. We propose to model the trajectory data using a behavior-aware flow graph which is a probabilistic finite state automaton where the nodes and edges are attributed with local behavioral features. We then apply the weighted kernel k-means algorithm to the flow graph to identify sub flows as the behavioral patterns, followed by non-negative matrix factorization to compute the daily routine patterns. To evaluate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, we applied it to a publicly available data set that contains trajectories of an elder living in a smart home for 219 days. With reference to the ground truth, our experimental results show that the proposed flow graph allows more accurate activity-specific behavioral patterns to be extracted as compared to a frequent pattern clustering approach. Also, we illustrate how the proposed method can be used to support daily routine analysis.


BACKGROUND
Motivation is an essential aspect in the training process of medical students. The association that motivation can have with learning self-regulation is of utmost importance for the design of curriculum, teaching methods and evaluation.

AIM
To describe the motivational aspects of self-directed learning among medical students from a traditional Chilean University.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
A qualitative, descriptive study based on grounded theory of Strauss and Corbin. Twenty 4th and 5th year medical students were selected using a maximum variation sampling technique. After obtaining an informed consent, semi-structured interviews and field notes were carried out. Data were analyzed to the level of open coding through Atlas-ti 7.5.2.

RESULTS
From the student point of view, personal motivational aspects are linked to the search for information, constant updating, the perception of the physician-patient relationship and interest in subject matters. From the scope of teachers, a main issue is related to their ability to motivate students to develop independent study skills.

CONCLUSIONS
Personal motivational aspects facilitate the development of independent study skills, specifically in the search of information. The role of teachers is crucial in promoting these skills and the perception of medical students from their learning process.


Lipid-binding proteins exhibit important functions in lipid transport, cellular signaling, gene transcription, and cytoprotection. Their functional analogues in nematodes are nematode polyprotein allergens/antigens and fatty acid and retinoid-binding proteins. This work describes a novel 55-kDa protein, Ag-lbp55, purified from the parasitic nematode Ascaridia galli. By direct N-terminal sequencing, a partial amino acid sequence was obtained that allowed the design of oligonucleotide primers to obtain the full-length cDNA sequence. Sequence analysis revealed the presence of an N-terminal signal peptide of 25 amino acid residues and a FAR domain at the C terminus. Data base searches showed almost no significant homologies to other described proteins. The secondary structure of Ag-lbp55 was predominantly α-helical (65%) as shown by CD spectroscopy. It was found to bind with high affinity fatty acids (caprylic, oleic, and palmitic acid) and their fluorescent analogue dansylaminoundecanic acid. Immunolocalization showed that Ag-lbp55 is a highly abundant protein, mainly distributed in the inner hypodermis and extracellularly in the pseudocoelomatic fluid. A similar staining pattern was observed in other pathogenic nematodes, indicating the existence of similar proteins in these species.


The incorporation of magnesium ions into the hydroxyapatite structure, which is of great interest for the developing of artificial bone, was performed starting from a wet chemical synthesis using magnesium chloride as Mg source. Different doping extents were attempted, four powders were produced and characterized in term of morphology, composition, solubility, thermal resistance,etc. in comparison with stoichiometric HA. In vitro tests with mesenchimal stem cells (MSCs) and human osteoblast like cells MG-63 cells were performed with the powder characterized with a biological-like doping of 5%Mg. The same powder was used, in form of granules, to carry out in vivo test by filling a defect in the femur on New Zealand White rabbits. All the tests showed better performance of the Mg doped apatite compared to stoichiometric HA, in agreement with the chemico-physical features of the material.


Abstract Michael Ondaatje's Anil's Ghost (2000) is set in civil war-torn Sri Lanka. This contemporary violent moment becomes a rupture through which the writer interrogates the division between Western and Eastern ways of approaching a violent situation. This essay sets out to investigate historical instances of violence and justifications for violence in the Buddhist context. The essay then turns to Buddhist scholars' contemporary critical examination of violence and war in light of the teachings of ancient Buddhist texts. Then, having established the Buddhist history and contemporary debate around violence and war, the essay explores how Ondaatje comments on this history through the contemporary moment of civil war in Sri Lanka. The essay argues that rather than illustrating the need for a purer Buddhism or the separation between the political and the religious, as some scholars have argued in relation to Anil's Ghost, according to Ondaatje, the only way to approach the problem of violence with any hope of reaching understanding is through appreciating the different ways of knowing offered by the East and the West.


The purpose of this work is to investigate the possibility of using mine wastes in the improvement of concrete properties. This research work investigates the physical and mechanical properties of the concrete specimens. These concrete specimens include concrete-lacking fibres, micro-silica and limestone powder (C), concrete-containing glass fibres without micro-silica and limestone powder (GC), concrete-containing micro-silica and limestone powder without fibres (CML), and concrete-containing glass fibres, micro-silica, and limestone powder (CGML). The physical and mechanical properties including the effective porosity, longitudinal wave velocity, water absorption, unit weight, tensile strength, uniaxial compressive strength, triaxial compressive strength, cohesion, and internal friction angle are investigated. The results obtained show that adding glass fibres to the concrete (GC) improve its properties compared to the fibre-less concrete (C). However, the properties of GC are improved significantly less than CGML. The Brazilian tensile strength and uniaxial compressive strength of GC increase by 13.6% and 10.95% relative to C. The Brazilian tensile strength and uniaxial compressive strength of CGML increase by 21.8% and 45.94% relative to C. Finally, it can be concluded that adding the micro-silica and limestone powder to the glass fibre concrete as well as the use of mine wastes also significantly improves the properties of the concrete.


In a strong, inhomogeneous magnetic field, charged particle dynamics may be studied in the guiding-centre approximation, which is known to be Hamiltonian. When the magnetic field is quasisymmetric, the first-order guiding-centre (FGC) Hamiltonian structure admits a continuous symmetry, and therefore a conserved quantity in addition to the energy. Since the FGC system is only an approximation, it is also interesting to consider approximate symmetries of the guiding-centre Hamiltonian structure. We find that any approximate spatial symmetry coincides with quasisymmetry to leading order. For approximate phase-space symmetries, we derive weaker conditions than quasisymmetry. The latter include 'weak quasisymmetry' as a subcase, recently proposed by Rodríguez et al. Our results, however, show that weak quasisymmetry is necessarily non-spatial at first order. Finally, we demonstrate that if the magnetic field is constrained to satisfy magnetohydrostatic force balance then an approximate symmetry must agree with quasisymmetry to leading order.


Congenitally corrected transposition of the great arteries (CCTGA) with tricuspid incompetence as the only associated anomaly is a rare occurrence. This is a report of a 15-month-old child with this condition who was successfully treated by xenograft replacement of the incompetent valve.


Background Data on trends for disability in instrumental activity of daily living (IADL) are sparse in older Chinese adults. Objectives To assess trends in prevalence and incidence of IADL disability among older Chinese adults and to explore contributing factors. Design Population based study. Setting 15 provinces and municipalities in China. Subjects Participants (age ≥60) were from four waves of the China Health and Nutrition Survey, conducted in 1997 (n=1533), 2000 (n=1581), 2004 (n=2028) and 2006 (n=2256), and from two cohorts constructed within the national survey: cohort 1997–2004 (n=712) and cohort 2000–2006 (n=823). Measurements IADL disability was defined as inability to perform one or more of the following: shopping, cooking, using transportation, financing and telephoning. Data were analysed with logistic regression and generalised estimating equation models. Results The prevalence of IADL disability significantly decreased from 1997 to 2006 in the total sample and in all of the subgroups by age, sex, living region and IADL items (all ptrend <0.05). The incidence of IADL disability remained stable from cohort 1997-2004 to cohort 2000-2006 in the total sample and in all of the subgroups (all p>0.10). The recovery rate from IADL disability significantly increased over time in those aged 60–69 years (p=0.03). Living in a rural area or access to local clinics for healthcare was less disabling over time (ptrend <0.02). Conclusions The prevalence of IADL disability decreased among older Chinese adults during 1997–2006, whereas the incidence remained stable. The declining prevalence of IADL disability might be partly due to the decreased duration of IADL disability, and to improvements in living conditions and healthcare facilities over time.


The Minimum Description Length (MDL) is an information-theoretic principle that can be used for model selection and other statistical inference tasks. A central concept in this framework is stochastic complexity, defined nowadays for a given parametric model class via the Normalized Maximum Likelihood (NML) distribution. In this paper we focus on the parametric model class of a single multinomial variable, as this case forms a very important building block for more complex models. We show that the computationally demanding normalization term of the multinomial NML can be written in a simple and effective form by using tools of umbral calculus. The time complexity of computing the exact form is O(n), where n is the number of data points. We also give two different descriptions for the normalization term using sets of confluent hypergeometric functions, show an interesting connection between the birthday problem and our problem, and demonstrate how the results can be exploited in practice.


The purpose of this study was to examine the arrhythmogenic potential of 5-HT4 receptor agonists, cisapride and mosapride citrate (mosapride) in vivo. In anaesthetized rats, cisapride at intravenous infusion of 10 and 30 mg/kg/hr for 1 hr prolonged the electrocardiographic RR and QT intervals, whereas at 3 mg/kg/hr, it prolonged the RR interval without affecting the QT interval. Mosapride at 30 mg/kg/hr for 1 hr slightly, but not significantly, prolonged the QT interval. In anaesthetized guinea-pigs, cisapride at intravenous infusion of 0.3, 1 and 3 mg/kg over 15 min. prolonged the RR interval (18-44%), QT interval (18-42%) and the corrected QT interval (QTc; 8-19%). Mosapride at 3, 10 and 30 mg/kg over 15 min. little affected the QTc although at 30 mg/kg, it slightly prolonged the RR and QT intervals. With repeated oral administrations of 30 mg/kg twice a day for 7 days, cisapride prolonged the QT interval (11-35%) and QTc (11-32%) at the 3rd and 7th days in conscious cats. In addition, cisapride depressed the ST segment in two out of five cats. Mosapride at 60 mg/kg twice a day for 7 days did not affect the QT interval or QTc in cats. The maximal plasma concentrations of mosapride and its main metabolite (a des-4-fluorobenzyl-mosapride) at the 7th day in cats were 9.4+/-2.8 microM and 2.5+/-0.3 microM , respectively, being 100 and 30-60 times higher than those in man given therapeutic doses (Sakashita et al. 1993a&b). These results indicate that mosapride has little arrhythmogenic potential.


ABSTRACT This paper presents novel research on how exogenous shocks and economic crises affect innovation, knowledge networks, and new path development in regions. Conceptually, we take a regional innovation systems perspective which views new path development as the outcome of innovation and knowledge exchange between firms and other actors, facilitated by a common institutional framework. Empirically, we draw on interviews and network data from the oil and gas industry in southern Norway. Following a long period of prosperity, the industry was hit by the oil price shock in 2014 and entered an economic crisis. The findings suggest that the shock triggered the firms to commit even more forcefully to innovation and to expand their knowledge networks geographically. To cope with the crisis, they applied a variety of strategies, which can be associated with different forms of path development. We draw conclusions for innovation policy in the context of exogenous shocks and crises.


Background The purpose of this study was to compare the long-term survival of patients with stage IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix treated with neoadjuvant intraarterial chemotherapy (IA-NAC) versus those treated with concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CCRT). Methods We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 38 patients with stage IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix admitted between January 1994 and December 1999 who received IA-NAC followed by abdominal radical hysterectomy (ARH) or radiotherapy (RT). IA-NAC consisted of bilateral infusion via the internal iliac artery of cisplatin, bleomycin and pirarubicin for 2-3 courses. A historical control group of 64 patients who underwent primary CCRT from January 2000 to September 2007 was used for comparison. Results In the IA-NAC group, 12 patients (31.6%) with operable tumors underwent ARH, and the remaining 26 patients (68.4%) received RT. The response rates were 86.8% (12 complete response + 21 partial response) for IA-NAC and 98.4% (26 complete response + 37 partial response) for CCRT (P = 0.077), respectively. The 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 62.4 and 44.5% for IA-NAC and 51.1 and 46.9% for CCRT (P = 0.247 and 0.776), respectively. The 5-year overall survival and disease-free survival rates were 75.0 and 58.3% for the patients receiving IA-NAC followed by ARH, and 55.3 and 37.6% for the patients receiving IA-NAC followed by RT (P = 0.368 and 0.262), respectively. Conclusions In the present study, IA-NAC followed by ARH or RT and primary CCRT showed similar survival rates for stage IIIB squamous cell carcinoma of the cervix.


Issues: The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) is an international group of researchers, clinicians, students, parents, and self-advocates that promotes worldwide research and exchange of information on intellectual and developmental disabilities. IASSIDD recently developed a policy statement regarding their opposition to the use of contingent electric skin shock (CESS) with individuals with challenging behaviour and intellectual and developmental disabilities. To support the policy, the available literature was reviewed to evaluate the efficacy, side effects, generalization, and long-term effectiveness of the procedure as an intervention for challenging behaviour. Findings: The review provides a history that demonstrates that, although CESS can decrease the frequency of challenging behaviour, it comes at a cost in terms of physical and emotional side effects, and questions remain regarding the long-term effectiveness of the procedure. In addition, we raise several ethical and methodological issues that make the research on the use of CESS even more concerning. Conclusions: Although research continues in some countries, these studies are now rare. In fact, in the United States, the Food and Drug Administration has just banned the use of such devices with individuals with self-injury and aggression (Federal Register, 2020). It is hoped that, because there are many other forms of treatment that have shown to be effective for severe challenging behaviour, we can completely avoid the use of CESS.