The introduction into clinical practice of immune checkpoint inhibitors that block cytotoxic T-lymphocyte-associated protein 4 (CTLA-4), programmed cell death protein-1 (PD-1), and programmed cell death ligand-1 (PD-L1), has improved the prognosis of patients with malignant neoplasms of diff erent localisation. The antitumour eff ect of immune checkpoint inhibitors is based on blocking CTLA-4 and PD-1/PD-L1 signaling pathways and enhancing lymphocyte antitumour activity. However, inhibition of immune checkpoints may lead to dysregulation of immune responses and appearance of a new type of adverse reactions resulting from changes in the activity of immunocompetent cells. The aim of the study was to analyse adverse reactions associated with the use of immune checkpoint inhibitors. It was demonstrated that the structure of immune-mediated adverse reactions varied depending on the class of immune checkpoint inhibitors. The incidence of immune-mediated adverse reactions was higher with CTLA-4 inhibitors as compared with PD-1/PD-L1 inhibitors, and increased signifi cantly in the case of combination therapy. The treatment with CTLA-4 inhibitors most often resulted in skin reactions (rash, itching), gastrointestinal tract reactions (diarrhea, colitis), and endocrine gland problems (hypophysitis). The treatment with PD-1 inhibitors most often led to respiratory disorders (pneumonitis), and in some cases to gastrointestinal disorders (diarrhea, colitis), skin reactions (rash, itching), and endocrine gland problems (hypothyroidism), but they were less common. The treatment with PD-L1 inhibitors was associated with the development of pneumonitis. The development of immune-mediated adverse reactions may require discontinuation of treatment and administration of immunosuppressants, therefore early diagnosis and timely treatment of complications are important prerequisites for successful antitumour therapy. Further study of the mechanisms of immune-mediated adverse reaction development will optimise antitumour therapy with immune checkpoint inhibitors.


: Thirty-seven outpatients with benign gastric ulcers proved by endoscopy were randomized and treated with tripotassium dicitrato-bismuthate (TDB) and a placebo for four weeks. They were assessed on the basis of symptoms and endoscopy examination. Ulcer healing observed by endoscopy was significantly better in the TDB treated group (18 of 20) than in the placebo treated group (six of 17). There was no statistical difference in symptomatic improvement. Nineteen patients with duodenal ulcers proved by endoscopy were randomized in a double-blind trial and given TDB and a placebo for four weeks. Ulcer healing in the TDB treated group (eight of nine) was significantly better than in the placebo treated group (two of 10). No significant difference was found in the symptomatic improvement of both groups. It is concluded that TDB is an effective agent for the treatment of chronic gastric and duodenal ulcers.


We propose a network structure for routing optical packets based on binary multiwavelength labels. We resolve the main drawbacks of previously proposed optical label switching scenarios: high splitting loss and complex, expensive hardware. In our scheme, the label is mapped bit-by-bit to a selection of wavelength bins. Variable-length packets are self-forwarded via a multistage switch. This structure is scalable, high-speed, simple, practical, and low-cost, exploiting the workhorses of today's optical communications systems: arrayed waveguide gratings, distributed feedback lasers, LiNbO3 switches, and low-speed photodiodes and electronics (~ 100 MHz). We also propose a solution to alleviate the sophisticated label swapping processing required in generalized multiprotocol label switching (GMPLS) networks. We time-multiplex the binary multiwavelength labels for the entire optical label switching path. We examine the performance of both schemes experimentally by verifying successful routing and error-free transmission.


Human HELB is a poorly-characterised helicase suggested to play both positive and negative regulatory roles in DNA replication and recombination. In this work, we used bulk and single molecule approaches to characterise the biochemical activities of HELB protein with a particular focus on its interactions with RPA and RPA-ssDNA filaments. HELB is a monomeric protein which binds tightly to ssDNA with a site size of ∼20 nucleotides. It couples ATP hydrolysis to translocation along ssDNA in the 5′-to-3′ direction accompanied by the formation of DNA loops and with an efficiency of 1 ATP per base. HELB also displays classical helicase activity but this is very weak in the absence of an assisting force. HELB binds specifically to human RPA which enhances its ATPase and ssDNA translocase activities but inhibits DNA unwinding. Direct observation of HELB on RPA nucleoprotein filaments shows that translocating HELB concomitantly clears RPA from single-stranded DNA.


Parallel manipulators, due to their several intrinsic advantages such as high payloadability, good stiffness characteristics and accuracy are widely used in various application areas including machine tools, motion simulators, micro robots, medical devices and at many other places. Main drawbacks in parallel manipulators are their relatively small workspace resulting from closed-loop configurations. This leads to low manoeuvrability with large number of singular regions. The motion of end-effector is further affected by various factors such as joint clearances, link flexibilities etc. During trajectory tracking task, several unknown external disturbances and internal uncertainties affect the endeffector motion considerably. Various techniques for improvising the kinematic and dynamic characteristics are usually first tested on planar manipulators due to their simplicity and ease of control.

Present work focuses on the kinematic and dynamic analyses and control studies of 3-RRR planar parallel manipulator to improve the design and stability characteristics by considering various practical aspects. A user graphics interface is first developed for obtaining various kinematic characteristics. Forward and inverse kinematic solutions of the manipulator are obtained by a neural network model and via an optimization approach based on genetic algorithms. Further, in order to enhance the kinematic performance characteristics such as dexterity, stiffness and payload, constrained optimization-based formulation is proposed and various geometric design alternatives are reported. A 3PRRR (three active prismatic and revolute joints) kinematically redundant manipulator is selected and the optimal locations of three redundant prismatic joints are obtained by minimizing the active-joint torques without loss of workspace. Using three degree of freedom spherical joints a reconfigurable spatial parallel manipulator is designed with a maximum nine degrees of freedom to move in space. Its kinematic studies are illustrated in detail. Effects of joint clearances resulting from manufacturing tolerances, assembly process and wear and tear are accounted on the kinematic characteristics of a fully actuated 3-RRR manipulator and a method of stabilization is illustrated with a kinematically redundant 3-PRRR manipulator. Dynamic equations of manipulator are derived from Euler-Lagrangian mechanics for a rigid link system and inverse dynamics are validated with ADAMS solutions. By considering link flexibility, a similar set of equations is developed in terms of stiffness, mass and Coriolis (nonlinear internal forces) matrices and dynamic characteristics including natural frequencies and dynamic response are obtained. In order to minimize the dynamic reaction forces at the active joints, desig of reactionless mechanism is illustrated with counter weights. Optimal locations of their mass centres and angular positions are obtained by minimizing the reaction forces and torques at the ground joints. Trajectory control simulations of manipulator are conducted with different control schemes and a disturbance-observer based control scheme based on fuzzy and adaptive neuro-fuzzy inference systems (ANFIS) is proposed under different types of disturbance loads. A scaled prototype of the manipulator with servo drives is fabricated to understand the singular regions, open-loop control behaviour and dynamic characteristics including natural frequencies. Detailed summary of observations in this comprehensive study of the manipulator has paved the roots for some future directions.


This book treats aspects of the social and demographic history of Portugal in the last century, giving particular attention to the transition from a situation of very high fertility to the moderate pattern prevailing in recent times.Originally published in 1971.The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.


Background The aim of the present study was to examine the outcomes and prognostic factors after surgery with curative intent for distal cholangiocarcinoma during a modern timespan, in a Swedish tertiary referral center. Methods All patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy for distal cholangiocarcinoma between April 2008 and December 2015 were identified. Survival was estimated using the Kaplan-Meier analysis. Demographic, clinical, laboratory and histopathological data were evaluated for prognostic factors relating to mortality, using univariable and multivariable statistical analysis. Results Fifty-four patients were included. The mean age was 68±8 years and 21 (39%) of the patients were female. Jaundice was present at diagnosis in 73% of the patients. There was no 90-day mortality. Complications graded as Clavien-Dindo ≥3 occurred in 10 (19%) of the patients. Twenty-eight (52%) received adjuvant therapy. Overall survival rates at 1, 3, and 5 years were 80%, 21%, and 9.2%, respectively. Median survival was 22.2 months. The presence of lymph node metastases was found to be the only independent predictor of survival (hazard ratio 2.88, 95% confidence interval 1.22-6.84; P=0.016). The total number of lymph node metastases, lymph node ratio or total number of resected nodes did not improve the prediction. Conclusions We found that the recurrence rate was higher and the survival poorer after surgery for distal cholangiocarcinoma than has previously been reported. Lymph node status at the time of resection was the most important prognostic factor for survival in the current material.


BACKGROUND
In response to the dramatic increase in alcohol-related problems in Lithuania, policy measures, including alcohol advertising and availability restrictions combined with taxation increase, were implemented in 2007-08. Simultaneously, a full alcohol advertising ban was adopted to take effect from 1 January 2012. Therefore, the alcohol industry responded with extensive lobbying aiming to revoke this ban, and ultimately they succeeded at the end of December 2011.

AIM
To document and analyse actions of stakeholders and events during the alcohol advertising ban cancellation process in Lithuania.

METHODS
Policy analysis includes a development of event time-line, description of key stakeholders' actions and a review of policy context.

FINDINGS
The alcohol industry in Lithuania used similar tactics as the tobacco industry globally, such as creating strong and diverse opposing groups. The industry successfully exerted pressure to change alcohol control legislation, while non-governmental organizations had the important role of a watchdog, blunting industry's efforts. Unequal power distribution made it difficult to withstand combined local and international lobbying to cancel the ban.

CONCLUSION
Given the global nature of the alcohol industry, there is a need for international regulation to limit the influence of vested interests on national lawmaking.


[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] EXECUTIVE SUMMARY * Donor-advised funds (DAFs), as an alternative to private foundations, have been a popular means of charitable giving, but fund managers, donors and their advisers must reckon with new laws and regulations stemming from the Pension Protection Act of 2006. A DAF allows the donor to advise the organization administering to on its use to support public charities. Congress is continuing to scrutinize issues of possible abuse of DAFs with a study mandated by the PPA. * Donors benefit from fund managers' expertise in selecting gift recipients and especially from the ability to deduct the fund donation before it is disbursed to the ultimate recipient. * The possibility of an economic benefit to donors has been among reasons for the scrutiny. Others relate to donor control of investments from the fund and the relationship between the organization sponsoring the fund and the one supported by it. * Possible new directions in regulation of DAFs could include a minimum required distribution of funds, since such a requirement has been raised as a possibility in both the study and an act that passed the Senate in 2005 but was not enacted into law. ********** Congress has shown a great deal of interest in donor-advised funds (DAFs) in the last few years. The Pension Protection Act of 2006 introduced several significant restrictions on DAFs and directed the IRS to further study their organization and operation. In complying with that mandate, on Feb. 26 the Service issued Notice 2007-21, which raised some provocative and potentially wide-reaching issues concerning these funds. These issues may affect the ability of DAFs to continue to allow donors to defer some of the decisions relating to charitable contributions while obtaining immediate tax benefits. This article explores the basic structure and characteristics of DAFs, their historic use and changes imposed by the PPA. It also explores issues raised by Notice 2007-21 and how future reforms may affect the planning opportunities DAFs offer. ANATOMY OF A DAF A DAF is an account at a charitable fund or foundation that results from a charitable contribution by a person who has an agreement with the fund or foundation that provides the donor the right to advise the foundation regarding the ultimate disposition of the gift. The gift is considered completed because the foundation is a public charity, and under the terms of the gift, future direction of the gift is limited to similarly situated and qualified charities. But the agreement provides the donor with rights that include recommending that the foundation make gifts to other charities from the DAF. Although the foundation is not obligated to follow the donor's advice, it is understood and accepted that its failure to do so would be frowned upon by past and future donors. A DAF must also be identified with the donor or donors or a related person, usually by being named after them [IRC section 4966(d)(2)]. It offers tax and practical advantages for many taxpayers over private foundations, which are subject to lower limits on charitable deductions for donors, as well as special regulations concerning their operation and possible excise taxes. DAF administrators can add significant value by assisting donors in identifying charitable giving opportunities consistent with their objectives. The administrator is obligated to ensure that the ultimate recipient of the funds is a qualified charity and to report to the donor on the earnings and disposition of the funds. DAF administrators benefit from this arrangement by receiving a fee for their services in handling and investing the funds. Donors benefit from this arrangement by receiving a current tax deduction without having to decide on the ultimate recipient of the contribution. Donors often have the right to designate successor "advisers," such as their children, who can continue to advise the fund after the donor's death. …


The University of Wollongong (UoW) has received funding for the research and development of a 20 kJ high temperature superconducting magnetic energy storage device (HTS SMES). This SMES will be operated at 25 K in contrast to most existing HTS designs, which operate at 77K. This paper includes a literature review of the current technology for the configuration of the SMES coil and a summary of the work done at UoW to date. Solenoidal and toroidal coils designs are compared to determine which will provide the required level of energy stored for a minimum superconductor and device volume. The design for the proposed SMES is evaluated with respect to UoW's requirements.


Correlation of lithotectonic packages across major transcurrent structures is critical to understanding the tectonic evolution of the North American continental margin. Detrital zircon geochronology of uppermost Proterozoic to Lower Paleozoic miogeoclinal strata from the White-Inyo Mountains permits evaluation of: (1) the age and provenance of these metasediments and (2) a model for truncation of the passive margin along a postulated large-magnitude Cretaceous dextral shear zone, i.e., the Mojave–Snow Lake fault. U-Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Neoproterozoic Wyman Formation, the uppermost Proterozoic Reed Dolomite (Hines Tongue Member), and clastic strata of the Lower Cambrian Deep Springs, Campito (Montenegro Member), Poleta, and Harkless formations reflect ultimate derivation from the adjacent 1.7–pre-1.8 Ga Mojavia terrane and/or 1.7–1.8 Ga Yavapai continental basement, with subsidiary sources in both the ca. 1.4 Ga Yavapai-Mazatzal anorogenic granitoids and the >2.5 Ga North American craton, and a small proportion of 1.0–1.3 Ga grains, most likely reworked from Grenville clastic wedge deposits. Detrital zircon age spectra from the Lower Cambrian Andrews Mountain Member of the Campito Formation are unique in comparison with the remainder of the studied section, containing a major age peak centered at ca. 1.1 Ga and a subsidiary Lower Cambrian age peak, permitting calculation of a ca. 527 ± 12 (2σ) Ma maximum depositional age. These features, in addition to abundant detrital magnetite-ilmenite grains, reflect a distal source for these rocks, most likely from the ca. 1.1 Ga Pikes Peak batholith and/or the Midcontinent rift and ca. 0.53 Ga bimodal intrusions of the Oklahoma-Colorado aulacogen. In terms of zircon age distribution, allochthonous metamorphic pendants in the Snow Lake terrane of the central Sierra Nevada batholith are most similar to those of stratigraphically equivalent units in the Death Valley region and, to lesser degrees, the White-Inyo section, and the Mojave Desert region. Given the similarity and relative proximity of Death Valley facies assemblages to the Snow Lake terrane, we suggest that the latter was not transported northward from the Mojave Desert region and instead represents footwall assemblages of a late Early to early Middle Jurassic low-angle normal fault system, probably along the outer transform-truncated margin of the Last Chance thrust stack. This model implies a few tens of kilometers of offset, in contrast to the hundreds of kilometers required by the Mojave–Snow Lake fault hypothesis.


A proposed two-dimensional model of the oxidative coupling of methane (OCM) to C2 hydrocarbons (e.g., C2H4 and C2H6) in a fixed bed reactor operated under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions is described which can provide more accurate predictions of experimental data than the simplified one-dimensional model. The model includes a set of partial differential equations of the continuity, mass transfer and energy balance equations. The performance of the OCM using different catalysts was assessed in terms of CH4 conversion, C2 selectivity and C2 yield with respect to key operating parameters, such as feed temperature (973-1173 K), CH4/O2 ratio (3.4–7.5) and gas hour space velocity (GHSV) (18000-30000 h-1). The simulation results indicated that the Na-WMn/SiO2 catalyst exhibits the best performance among all of the catalysts. The C2 yield were 20.16% and 20.00% for non-isothermal and isothermal modes respectively which the OCM reactor is operated at a CH4/O2 ratio of 3.4, a feed temperature of 1073 K and a GHSV of 9720 h-1. An increase in the operating temperature increases the CH4 conversion but decreases the C2 selectivity. However, the effects of the CH4/O2 ratio and the GHSV exhibit an opposite trend to that of the operating temperature.


A validation study is made for Eilmer 4 for 2D impinging shock/shock interactions. This is valuable for modelling the re-entry of the International Space Station. The flow model encompasses a shock generator which creates a oblique shock which intersects a bow shock that is generated by a horizontal cylinder downstream. The results are compared to the experimental data of the ONERA R5Ch low-density wind tunnel for a flow of Mach 10 and Reynolds number of 2658. The temperature and density profiles seem to be acceptable when compared to the data and are converging, however the bow shock stand off distance differs roughly 0.4mm, a difference of 6% compared to the data. Eilmer captures the augmented heat flux and pressure around the cylinder. The augmentation is roughly in the right location, however the heat flux and pressure peaks are not converging due to a insufficient number of cells close to this location. The heat flux and pressure peak locations are converging, nonetheless the data of the experiment is not sufficient to conclude that these peaks location are exactly correct. It turns out that the unstructured mode of Eilmer is just as capable as determining the temperature profiles as the structured mode. Due to the lack of cells it is not possible to conclude if the unstructured mode is also capable of determining the heat flux and pressure close to the jet impact location. The next step for validating Eilmer and modelling the ISS for this model is using a more refined grid around the cylinder and looking at an unstructured version. Also, in the future a validation for a 3D model with increased complexity flow similar to the ISS re-entry would be helpful.


The change and increase of importance of ICT in the 2016 election has been analyzed in several ways in this paper. Qualitative methods were utilized to substantiate the hypothesis that social media and ICT are becoming more personal and ubiquitous in 2016. The issues that occur in how to accomplish meaningful social science about this problem recommend qualitative methods. The ability of this research technique to make some incremental improvements in knowledge about a phenomenon and potential for sensitizing concepts reason qualitative techniques could produce useful results.A purposive sample of campaign images about social media and ICT was created from images of the 2012 and 2016 election. Comparing the images in this sample from 2012 and 2016 results in persuasive support for the hypothesis this paper has been analyzing. In 2016, the presence of social media and ICT has taken on a substantially different campaign role. In 2016, the images evidence that social media and ICT are ever present and personal.Secondary data from the coverage of the 2016 election was analyzed and found to support the perspective on the 2016 election being developed in this paper. Social media and websites/news apps were presented in Pew Research Center data as a substantial influence among citizen news sources in 2016. When this data was analyzed by age groups, the youngest group is using substantially more social media and websites/news apps for campaign information. Each of the older three groups shows a decrease in the influence of social media.Recent political science literature attempts to explain the increasing importance of social media and ICT phenomenon in several ways. The need for social media to secure campaign endorsements has been discussed in the literature. How party activists first fine tune social media before recruiting ordinary supporters has been presented. The use of identity based targeting through social media has been considered. Campaign finance aspects of using social media has been mentioned. The influence of campaign activism, increasing ideological involvement, and the increasing need for informationalism to stay with the ideological game has been analyzed from literature. The decoupled cognition phenomenon where vivid images activate psychological motivating mechanisms has been reviewed. The evolution of social cognition from small groups to cyber-groups on line has been used to explain the increasing importance of social media and ICT. Use of montage in campaign advertising to provide for voter's informational needs has been analogized to how social media assists voters in 2016. The motivating quality of the public sphere as a voter choice factor has been presented. Data about the propensity of harmonious social networks to participate in politics has been reported. Theories that social media are an extension of citizens attitudes that allow amplification of beliefs has been analyzed from the literature. Taken together these numerous explanations for the increasing importance of social media and ICT amplify the paper's hypothesis that social media is becoming more ubiquitous and personal.


Ecofascism as a tradition in Environmental Ethics seems to burgeoning with potential. The roots of Ecofascism can be traced back to the German Romantic School, to the Wagnerian narration of the Nibelungen saga, to the works of Fichte and Herder and, finally, to the so-called volkisch movement. Those who take pride in describing themselves as ecofascists grosso modo tend to prioritize the moral value of the ecosphere, while, at the same time, they almost entirely devalue species and individuals. Additionally, these ecofascists are eager to reject democracy, the idea of progress in its entirety, as well as industrialization and urbanization. They also seem to be hostile towards individual autonomy and free will. In this short essay I will present and discuss Kaarlo Pentti Linkola's approach to environmental ethics, one that could be well described as the epitome of Ecofascism. I will argue that his arguments are neither sound nor documented, and I will conclude that Linkola's overall approach is, in my view, contrary to the purpose as well as to the very essence of morality.


We present the results of three web-based field experiments, in which we evaluate the impact of using initial narrative visualization techniques and storytelling on user-engagement with exploratory information visualizations. We conducted these experiments on a popular news and opinion outlet, and on a popular visualization gallery website. While datajournalism exposes visualizations to a large public, we do not know how effectively this public makes sense of interactive graphics, and in particular if people explore them to gain additional insight to that provided by the journalists. In contrast to our hypotheses, our results indicate that augmenting exploratory visualizations with introductory 'stories' does not seem to increase user-engagement in exploration.


Asteroseismology with the Kepler space telescope is providing not only an improved characterization of exoplanets and their host stars, but also a new window on stellar structure and evolution for the large sample of solar-type stars in the field. We perform a uniform analysis of 22 of the brightest asteroseismic targets with the highest signal-to-noise ratio observed for 1 month each during the first year of the mission, and we quantify the precision and relative accuracy of asteroseismic determinations of the stellar radius, mass, and age that are possible using various methods. We present the properties of each star in the sample derived from an automated analysis of the individual oscillation frequencies and other observational constraints using the Asteroseismic Modeling Portal (AMP), and we compare them to the results of model-grid-based methods that fit the global oscillation properties. We find that fitting the individual frequencies typically yields asteroseismic radii and masses to ∼1% precision, and ages to ∼2.5% precision (respectively, 2, 5, and 8 times better than fitting the global oscillation properties). The absolute level of agreement between the results from different approaches is also encouraging, with model-grid-based methods yielding slightly smaller estimates of the radius and mass and slightly older values for the stellar age relative to AMP, which computes a large number of dedicated models for each star. The sample of targets for which this type of analysis is possible will grow as longer data sets are obtained during the remainder of the mission.


Introduction: Today the prevalence of Internet addiction in youth could be a serious crisis as tantamount as drug addiction in personal life, family relationships, social behavior and academic status. Studies show that there is a positive relationship between emotional intelligence and social skills. Emotional intelligence includes understanding, reasoning and handling our emotion. Non-cognitive skills enable us to get success in dealing with environmental conditions. The vulnerability of high emotional intelligent person is much more than others; the aim of this study was examining the relationship between Internet addiction, virtual environments and emotional intelligence.
Methods: This cross–sectional survey was conducted on 201 students who were randomly selected. The survey instrument was a triploid questionnaire: demographic information including age, sex, etc.,Young's Internet Addiction Test (IAT), which contains 20 questions about symptoms of Internet addiction graded by Likert scale score of 1 (never) to grade 5 (always), emotional intelligence questionnaire including 33 questions (Schutte 1997) about three categories of emotion: perception, planning and productivity. The data analyzed by computer software SPSS 16 (ANOVA, 95% confidence).
Results: According to findings of this study, %38.3 of students is Internet addicted in general, %43.8 had mild dependency, %15.9 depended to medium and %2 had severe dependency. The average score of emotional intelligence among college students was %118.99 with a standard deviation of 21.12. There was an inverse relationship between the severity of Internet addiction and emotional intelligence.
Conclusion: Since prevention is better than cure, we could replace proper use of computers, Internet and its facility by wrong ways of using the Internet, which can affect social dimensions of personality, through education in family and training centers.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the change in the expression of mannose‐ligand receptors following a freezing‐thawing procedure, in order to assess its impact on sperm capacitation and acrosome reaction. Twenty semen samples were obtained from fertile donors. Sperm samples were divided into two equal volumes. One aliquot was cryopreserved and the other aliquot was incubated at 32°C. After 2 h the frozen sample was thawed and both samples were further incubated at 32°C to allow capacitation. Mannose receptors were examined following 4 and 22 h of incubation using a mannosylated‐BSA‐FITC probe. The expression of mannose‐ligand receptors on the sperm plasma membrane was determined according to the fluorescence pattern: pattern I represents pre‐capacitation, pattern II represents capacitated spermatozoa and pattern III represents acrosome‐reacted spermatozoa. After 4 h incubation in capacitating medium, the percentages of patterns I, II and III were 90, 7 and 3% for fresh spermatozoa and 89, 8 and 3% for frozen‐thawed spermatozoa, respectively (P>0.05). Following 22 h of incubation, the percentages of patterns I, II and III were 84, 11 and 5 for fresh spermatozoa and 83, 11 and 6% for frozen‐thawed spermatozoa, respectively (not significant at P>0.05). The percentages of patterns II and III in fresh and frozen‐thawed spermatozoa were increased by the same magnitude with longer incubation in the capacitating conditions. It was concluded that the freezing‐thawing procedure for human spermatozoa does not affect the expression of mannose‐ligand receptors and the dynamics of sperm pre‐fertilization processes.


Growing interest in the manufacture of extended shelf-life (ESL) milk, which is typically achieved by a high temperature treatment called ultra-pasteurization (UP), is driven by distribution challenges, efforts to reduce food waste, and more. Even though high temperature, short time (HTST) pasteurized milk has a substantially shorter shelf-life than UP milk, HTST milk is preferred in the United States because consumers tend to perceive UP milk as less desirable due to the "cooked" flavor associated with high-temperature processing. While ESL beyond 21 d may be possible for HTST, the survival and outgrowth of psychrotolerant aerobic spore-forming bacteria can still be a limitation to extending shelf-life of HTST milk. Microfiltration (MF) is effective for reducing vegetative microorganisms and spores in raw milk, but it is unclear what the effects of membrane pore size, storage temperature, and milk type (i.e., skim vs whole) are on the microbial shelf-life of milk processed by both MF and HTST pasteurization. To investigate these factors, raw skim milk was MF using different pore sizes (0.8 μm or 1.2 μm), and then MF skim milk and standardized whole milk [MF skim with heat-treated (85°C for 20 s) cream] were HTST pasteurized at 75°C for 20 s. Subsequently, milk was stored at 3, 6.5, or 10°C and total bacteria counts were measured for up to 63 d. An ANOVA indicated that mean bacterial concentrations between storage temperatures were significantly different from each other, with mean maximum observed concentrations of 3.67, 5.33, and 8.08 log10 cfu/mL for storage temperatures 3, 6.5, and 10°C, respectively. Additionally, a smaller difference in mean maximum bacterial concentrations throughout shelf-life was identified between pore sizes (<1 log cfu/mL), but no significant difference was attributed to milk type. An unexpected outcome of this study was the identification of Microbacterium as a major contributor to the bacterial population in MF ESL milk. Microbacterium is a psychrotolerant, thermoduric gram-positive, non-spore forming rod with a small cell size (∼0.9 μm length and ∼0.3 μm width), which was able to permeate the membranes used in this study, survive HTST pasteurization, and then grow at refrigeration temperatures. While spores continue to be a key concern for the manufacture of MF, ESL milk, our study demonstrates the importance of other psychrotolerant, thermoduric bacteria such as Microbacterium to these products.


The aim of this study is to improve the performance of the shuffled complex evolution (SCE) algorithm used in the optimization of hydropower generation in reservoirs as a complex issue in water resources. First, the SCE algorithm is merged with the differential evolution (DE) algorithm to form the SCE-DE algorithm. Then, a complex mathematical function is used as a benchmark to evaluate the performance and validate the SCE-DE algorithm and the outcomes are compared with the original SCE algorithm to show the superiority of the proposed SCE-DE algorithm. In addition, the two-reservoir system of Dez-Gotvand is considered as a real optimization problem to evaluate the performance of the SCE-DE algorithm. It is revealed that optimization by SCE-DE is much better than SCE. In conclusion, the results show that the proposed SCE-DE algorithm is a reasonable alternative to optimizing resource systems and can be used to solve complex issues of water resources.


Background
Chronic pain significantly worsens the quality of life. Unlike neuropathic, musculoskeletal, postoperative pain, and cancer pain, chronic primary pain cannot be explained by an underlying disease or condition, making its treatment arduous.

Objectives
This manuscript intends to provide a comprehensive review of the use of ketamine as a treatment option for specific chronic pain conditions.

Study Design
A review article.

Setting
A review of the literature.

Methods
A search was done on PubMed for relevant articles.

Results
A comprehensive review of the current understanding of chronic pain and the treatment of specific chronic pain conditions with ketamine.

Limitations
Literature is scarce regarding the use of ketamine for the treatment of chronic pain.

Conclusion
First-line treatment for many chronic pain conditions includes NSAIDs, antidepressants, anticonvulsants, and opioids. However, these treatment methods are unsuccessful in a subset of patients. Ketamine has been explored in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) as an alternative treatment option, and it has been demonstrated to improve pain symptoms, patient satisfaction, and quality of life. Conditions highlighted in this review include neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome (CRPS), phantom limb pain (PLP), cancer pain, and post-thoracotomy pain syndrome. This review will discuss conditions, such as neuropathic pain, fibromyalgia, complex regional pain syndrome, and more and ketamine's efficacy and its supplementary benefits in the chronic pain patient population. As the opioid crisis in the United States continues to persist, this review aims to understand better multimodal analgesia, which can improve how chronic pain is managed.


Failed appointments disrupt office operations. Most studies involved hospital clinics with low socioeconomic populations, which have shown fail rates between 19 and 28 percent. Family practice centers report fail rates which vary from 5 to 11 percent. Young adults, adults with young children, and patients in low socioeconomics groups tend to increase the fail rate. Sex and race are probably not a factor. Reasons for failing appointments include communication problems, the absence of a sense of urgency for keeping the appointment, and the lack of a personal physician. An interval greater than two weeks between appointment scheduling and the appointment date places patients most at risk for failing the appointment. Mail and telephone reminders significantly reduced the fail rate and are cost efficient. Incentives are also used in reducing the fail rate. By examining the process, the patients, the provider, and the environment with respect to appointment keeping behavior, a more quantitative approach to research on the subject can be effected.


Results of an experimental study of a counter-rotating turbine operating on a pneumatic wave energy conversion system are presented. The vertical capture chamber of the water column of the system has a down-facing water intake. An electrical generator (d-c) is coupled to the turbine by a ten-gear-ratio drive train. Tests of the pneumatic wave energy conversion system were conducted with the mouth at two depths in order to vary the natural oscillating frequency of the water column. The maximum electrical power output of the system was approximately 90 W in the monochromatic waves. This value corresponds to at 36-percent efficiency based on the incident wave power in a wave crest width equal to the diameter of the capture chamber. The theoretical maximum efficiency of such a system has been shown to be 50 percent by several investigators.


Ultrasonic treatment of soil, though being very effective for desorption of cells and deaggregation of microcolonies, may damage and kill microorganisms. Possible application and effectiveness of ultrasonic treatment was studied in this work with chernozem (dry and wet samples), rhizosphere and rhizoplane of pea. An ultrasonic disintegrator of low frequency is recommended for dry soils. Ultrasound cannot be recommended for treating rhizosphere and rhizoplane of plants without checking its effectiveness in each case.


Ultrastructure of the silkworm's ducts defferens is described after spermatozoa went out of lobulli testis and after the end of secretion. D. defferens is composed of an external layer of the ring and longitudinal muscles and of an internal layer of glandular cells. Both layers are separated by structurless lamina--tunica propria. Z-discs of irregular form are placed at the borders of sarcomeres. M-lines are absent. Sarcolemma intrudes into the muscle fibers at the level of Z-discs and gives origin to T-system the tubes of which together with sarcoplasmic reticulum form dyades. Structures like intercalate discs are observed in muscle tissue at the level of Z-discs. Glandular cells have unusually developed nucleoli, many ribosomes, lysosome-like and residual bodies. There are comb desmosomes between the glandular cells.


Aim: Taste is a major determinant of food choice; however, there is a great
 lack of knowledge about how taste perception affects human nutrition. Bitter
 taste perception presents unique opportunities for investigating this
 subject. The aim of this study was to determine whether polymorphisms on the
 bitter taste receptor gene hTAS2R38 affect an individual's food choices and
 some anthropometric variables. Subjects and Method: In this study, the
 possible relationship between food preferences, body weight, and
 polymorphisms on hTAS2R38 was investigated in healthy volunteers (n=178) who
 weighed within the normal range (BMI: 20-24.9 kg/m2, n=90) and those who were
 overweight, but otherwise healthy (BMI ≥ 25.0 kg/m2, n=88). Descriptive
 information about the subjects was collected via a questionnaire, and
 anthropometric measurements were taken by the researcher. Records of three
 consecutive days of food consumption were collected to determine each
 subject's macronutrient intake. For identification of the hTAS2R38 genotype,
 samples were taken from each participant's in-mouth epithelial cell line, and
 the genetic material was analyzed at the laboratory for Rs713598. Results:
 The percentage of "non-tasters" (n=42) among the whole population was 23.6%
 (C-Homozygote: 23.6%) while "tasters" (n=136) comprised 76.4%
 (CG-Heterozygote: 46.6%, G-Homozygote: 29.8%). When group-wide and
 between-group comparisons were made, it was revealed that taster status
 didn't affect differences in anthropometric measures. Detected differences in
 macronutrient intake were due to gender. Discussion: Polymorphisms on
 hTAS2R38 bitter taste receptor gene had no effect on variables such as body
 weight, anthropometric variables, body fat percentage, or food choices within
 the study population.


Abstract.
 Despite a rich and varied record, Mesozoic stalked crinoids are relatively rare in the Western Interior Seaway of North America compared to those found in Northern Europe. A unique example of Mesozoic stalked crinoid is described from cold methane seeps (hydrocarbon seep mounds also called "tepee buttes") from the Upper Cretaceous (upper Campanian) of the Northern Great Plains of the United States; the first crinoids to be described from such an environment. The Late Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway has never before yielded any identifiable stalked crinoid remains. Nevertheless, there have been significant studies on both free living and stalked crinoids from other locations in the Upper Cretaceous of North America that provide a good basis for comparison. Lakotacrinus brezinai n. gen. n. sp. is characterized by a tapering homeomorphic column with through-going tubuli, lacking any attachment disc. The arms are unbranched and pinnulate, with muscular and syzygial articulations. The unique morphology of the column justifies the establishment of Lakotacrinidae new family. A new suborder Lakotacrinina n. subord., is also proposed as there exists no corresponding taxon within the Articulata that can accommodate all the characteristics of this new genus. This new crinoid shares many features with other members of the articulates, including bathycrinids, bourgueticrinids and guillecrinids within the Order Comatulida, as currently defined in the revised Treatise of Invertebrate Paleontology. Reconstructing the entire crinoid using hundreds of semi-articulated and disarticulated (well preserved) fossils, reveals a unique paleoecology and functional morphology specifically adapted to living within this hydrocarbon seep environment.


Developing students' strategies for learning unfamiliar words is a prime challenge of English reading people. The shortcomings of this approach are well known. Much dictionary work can mar all interest in reading and even interfere with comprehension because readers become less aware of the context which gives them meaning. It also leads to very slow and ineffective reading. Surmising vocabulary from context is the usual way to con the meaning of new words. Honey field stresses the impetus of context by remarking that even with a functional vocabulary of the 3,000 most frequently occurring items in English; readers will still not know approximately 20 per cent of the items they come across in a un simplified text.


A novel RF sensing circuit for a cognitive radio to sense spectral environment is proposed using injection locking and frequency demodulation techniques. The research starts with deriving a generalized locking equation for oscillators as a theoretical basis, and then develops the sensing principle and circuit architecture to a practical and useful level. To accurately evaluate the sensing performance, a discrete time approach is investigated to compute the sensed output signal. In the experiments, a prototype circuit is designed in the 2.4-GHz industrial-scientific-medical band to cover a sensing frequency range from 2.4 to 2.484 GHz. The spectrum scanning over the 84-MHz bandwidth is accomplished in less than 1 ms. The experimental results agree quite well with the theoretical predictions, showing that the proposed RF sensing circuit can fast and reliably detect frequency and power for analog and digital modulation signals.


Two scaling methodologies are presented to address the dissimilitude normally experienced when attempting to measure global aerodynamic loads on a small scale wind turbine rotor from a full scale reference. The first, termed direct aerofoil replacement (DAR), redesigns the profile of the blade using a multipoint aerofoil optimisation algorithm, which couples a genetic algorithm (GA) and XFOIL, such that the local non-dimensional lift force is similar to the full scale. Correcting for the reduced Reynolds number in this manner allows for the non-dimensional chord and twist distributions to be maintained at small scale increasing the similitude of the unsteady aerodynamic response; an inherent consideration in the study of the aerodynamic response of floating wind turbine rotors. The second, the geometrically free rotor design (GFRD) methodology, which utilises the Python based multi-objective GA DEAP and blade-element momentum (BEM) code CCBlade, results in a more simplistic but less accurate design. Numerical simulations of two rotors, produced using the defined scaling methodologies, show an excellent level of similarity of the thrust and reasonably good torque matching for the DAR rotor to the full scale reference. The GFRD rotor design is more simplistic, and hence more readily manufacturable, than the DAR, however the aerodynamic performance match to the full scale turbine is relatively poor.


This report presents a wave method to be used for the structural identification and damage detection of structural components in bridges, e.g., bridge piers. This method has proven to be promising when applied to real structures and large amplitude responses in buildings (e.g., mid-rise and high-rise buildings). This study is the first application of the method to damaged bridge structures. The bridge identification was performed using wave propagation in a simple uniform shear beam model. The method identifies a wave velocity for the structure by fitting an equivalent uniform shear beam model to the impulse response functions of the recorded earthquake response. The structural damage is detected by measuring changes in the identified velocities from one damaging event to another. The method uses the acceleration response recorded in the structure to detect damage. In this study, the acceleration response from a shake-table four-span bridge tested to failure was used. Pairs of sensors were identified to represent a specific wave passage in the bridge. Wave velocities were identified for several sensor pairs and various shaking intensities are reported; further, actual observed damage in the bridge was compared with the detected reductions in the identified velocities. The results show that the identified shear wave velocities presented a decreasing trend as the shaking intensity was increased, and the average percentage reduction in the velocities was consistent with the overall observed damage in the bridge. However, there was no clear correlation between a specific wave passage and the observed reduction in the velocities. This indicates that the uniform shear beam model was too simple to localize the damage in the bridge. Instead, it provides a proxy for the overall extent of change in the response due to damage.


Aluminum electrolytic capacitors are the leading choice for ac variable-frequency drive (VFD) bus filters. Predicting the expected life of these components in this application is complicated by four factors. First, the electrical impedance of aluminum electrolytic capacitors is nonlinear with both frequency and temperature. Second, motor drives produce a spectrally rich ripple current waveform that makes energy loss difficult to compute. Third, the heat transfer characteristic of capacitor banks is dependent on design geometry. Fourth, the expected life of aluminum electrolytic capacitors is extremely sensitive to operating temperature. This paper describes a method for predicting bus capacitor life that addresses these problems by using a multiple component model for capacitor impedance, a motor drive simulation to create ripple current waveforms, a heat transfer model based on bank geometry, and a capacitor life model derived from the device physics of failure. An example is given showing the effect of ac line impedance on the relative expected life.


The task of a theory of Schubert polynomials is to produce explicit representatives for Schubert classes in the cohomology ring of a flag variety, and to do so in a manner that is as natural as possible from a combinatorial point of view. To explain more fully, let us review a special case, the Schubert calculus for Grassmannians, where one asks for the number of linear spaces of given dimension satisfying certain geometric conditions. A typical problem is to find the number of lines meeting four given lines in general position in 3-space (answer below). For each of the four given lines, the set of lines meeting it is a Schubert variety in the Grassmannian and we want the number of intersection points of these four subvarieties. In the modem solution of this problem, the Schubert varieties induce canonical elements of the cohomology ring of the Grassmannian, called Schubert classes. The product of these Schubert classes is the class of a point times the number of intersection points, counted with appropriate multiplicities. This reformulation of the problem, though one of the great achievements of algebraic geometry, is only part of a solution. It remains to give a concrete model for the cohomology ring that makes explicit computation with Schubert classes possible. As it happens, the cohomology rings of Grassmannians can be identified with quotients of a polynomial ring so that Schubert classes correspond to Schur functions. Intersection numbers such as we are considering then tum out to be Littlewood-Richardson coefficients. For example, the answer to our four-lines problem is the coefficient of the Schur function S(2, 2) in the product Stl) , or 2. For an extended treatment and history of the subject, see [10], [11], [18]. The identification of Schur functions as Schubert polynomials for Grassmannians is a consequence of a more general and now highly developed theory of Schubert polynomials for the flag varieties of the special linear groups SL(n, C). The starting point for this more general theory is a construction of


In 70 patients of reproductive age (20-30 years) with the papilloma virus infection of the uterine neck the microflora of vaginal contents was studied. The study revealed the specific diversity of bacteria colonizing the vagina and the uterine neck. High occurrence of Chlamydia and Gardnerella was established. The detected dysbiotic disturbances in patients with condylomatosis of the uterine neck were manifested by a decrease in the isolation rate of lactobacteria and bifidobacteria and by an increase in the isolation rate of opportunistic bacteria. The most pronounced dysbiosis in the microflora of the vagina and the uterine neck was characteristic of patients with papilloma virus infection in association with cervical intraepithelial neoplasia of the III degree.


This thesis was designed to explore and describe the beliefs and behaviors of young adults (parents or future parents) in relation to immunization. Data were collected via in-depth interviews with 36 young adults (current university students) that resulted in more than 600 pages of documentation for detailed analysis. Nursing and non-nursing student informants were compared under the categories of young adults who delay or refuse immunizations due to alternative health practices, vaccine concerns or religion. What emerged from the study was that young adults displayed lack of knowledge and disinterest about the immune system, immunizations and communicable diseases. This display of apathy towards disease prevention could subsequently contribute to a decrease in the population's herd immunity in the next generation. A review of more than 300 published journal articles and books was completed and integrated into a mosaic of Canadian immunization practice. Policy recommendations based on these findings are presented.


The phosphinito-bridged Pt(I) complex [(PHCy(2))Pt(mu-PCy(2)){kappa(2)P,O-mu-P(O)Cy(2)}Pt(PHCy(2))](Pt-Pt) (1) reversibly adds H(2) under ambient conditions, giving cis-[(H)(PHCy(2))Pt(1)(mu-PCy(2))(mu-H)Pt(2)(PHCy(2)){kappaP-P(O)Cy(2)}](Pt-Pt) (2). Complex 2 slowly isomerizes spontaneously into the corresponding more stable isomer trans-[(PHCy(2))(H)Pt(mu-PCy(2))(mu-H)Pt(PHCy(2)){kappaP-P(O)Cy(2)}](Pt-Pt) (3). DFT calculations indicate that the reaction of 1 with H(2) occurs through an initial heterolytic splitting of the H(2) molecule assisted by the phosphinito oxygen with breaking of the Pt-O bond and hydrogenation of the Pt and O atoms, leading to the formation of the intermediate [(PHCy(2))(H)Pt(mu-PCy(2))Pt(PHCy(2)){kappaP-P(OH)Cy(2)}](Pt-Pt) (D), where the two split hydrogen atoms interact within a six-membered Pt-H...H-O-P-Pt ring. Compound D is a labile intermediate which easily evolves into the final dihydride complex 2 through a facile (9-15 kcal mol(-1), depending on the solvent) hydrogen shift from the phosphinito oxygen to the Pt-Pt bond. Information obtained by addition of para-H(2) on 1 are in agreement with the presence of a heterolytic pathway in the 1 --> 2 transformation. NMR experiments and DFT calculations also gave evidence for the nonclassical dihydrogen complex [(PHCy(2))(eta(2)-H(2))Pt(mu-PCy(2))Pt(PHCy(2)){kappaP-P(O)Cy(2)}](Pt-Pt) (4), which is an intermediate in the dehydrogenation of 2 to 1 and is also involved in intramolecular and intermolecular exchange processes. Experimental and DFT studies showed that the isomerization 2 --> 3 occurs via an intramolecular mechanism essentially consisting of the opening of the Pt-Pt bond and of the hydrogen bridge followed by the rotation of the coordination plane of the Pt center with the terminal hydride ligand.


Previous research has shown that MVO (Maximum Venous Outflow), VR (Venous Reflux), VE (Venous Emptying) and the respiratory waves recording are useful in differentiating occlusion and recanalization in postphlebitic syndrome. In the present work strain-gauge plethysmography was employed to quantitate the venous function after deep venous thrombosis of the legs. The studies were performed in a vascular laboratory with controlled temperature (23 to 25 C); records were obtained by a plethysmograph Parks mod. 270 connected to a Hewlett-Packard multi-channel mod. 7700. 17 patients (12 males, 5 females), mean age 55 years (range 24-75) that presented femoropopliteal thrombophlebitis documented by phlebography at the admission to the hospital were examined. MVO with and without superficial veins occlusion was measured by a mercury in silastic strain-gauge placed circumferentially about the calf. A pneumatic cuff thigh was inflated to 60 mm Hg. VE was measured in patients lying in inclined bed with the lower extremities 100 cm below the heart level compressing the calf with a pneumatic cuff 10 times for 5 seconds; the strain-gauge was placed on the foot level. VR after Valsalva's maneuver and the respiratory waves were recorded by a strain-gauge positioned at the maximum girth about the calf in patients lying on inclinated bed with the lower extremities 50 cm below the heart level. The result are here indicated: (Table: see text) There was differences in the evolution of venous function after deep venous thrombosis of the legs for each patient. Strain-gauge plethysmography may become evaluable non invasive technique in the evaluation of deep venous thrombosis evolution in the legs. The therapeutic assessment of postphlebitic syndrome.


Background:
 We hypothesized that atrial fibrillation maybe associated with structural changes in particular regions of the brain.

 Objectives:
 To determine baseline volume and rate of volume change of whole brain, hippocampus, and entorhinal cortex.

 Methods:
 We analyzed clinical and neuroimaging data collected as part of Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative from 200 normal controls and 400 individuals with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) recruited at approximately 50 sites in the United States and Canada. Patients with atrial fibrillation were identified based on baseline clinical/cognitive assessments and age and gender matched controls without atrial fibrillations were selected (1:1 ratio). All participants underwent 1.5 T structural MRI at specified intervals (6 or 12 month) for 2-3 years.

 Results:
 A total of 40 persons with atrial fibrillation were included [Age mean (±SD) 78±6, 23 (57.5) were men]. There were no patients with stroke and 10 controls who had a previous history of stroke. There was no difference in whole brain and ventricular volumes at baseline MRI between cases and controls. There was significantly lower entorhinal cortex volume on right (p=0.001) and left (p=0.002) sides in patients with atrial fibrillation. There was significantly lower volume for middle temporal lobes on right (p=0.001) and left (p=0.001) sides. The rate of progression of atrophy in entorhinal cortex and middle temporal lobes was not different between patients with atrial fibrillation and controls.

 Conclusions:
 The association of atrial fibrillation with volume loss in entorhinal cortex and middle temporal lobes may provide new insights into pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation.


Abstract Alternative hypotheses of market integration in the U.S winter market for fresh tomatoes were evaluated using a dynamic model of spatial price adjustment. The results showed that while Florida and Mexico were integrated in the same market, a price change in one area was not instantaneously reflected in the other. Lagged effects were important with long-run integration being supported for both Florida and Mexico and short-run integration for Mexico. However, the information flow, while relatively efficient, was not symmetric. Florida was found to be dominant in the price formation process with Mexico responding to changes in the Florida price.


We are pleased to publish the final issue for volume six of Narrative Inquiry in Bioethics (NIB). The narrative symposium in this issue looks at vaccinations—specifically how parents make decisions for their children on vaccinations. The narrative symposium editors, Daniel Bustillos and Bradley Thornock, in concert with NIB's editorial staff, wrote the call for stories and invited the commentators. The symposium offers personal stories from the viewpoint of parents about how they decide if vaccinations are a good and healthy fit for their children. Kenneth Haller, Bernice L. Hauseman, Jacob Heller, and Heidi Y. Lawerence wrote the four commentary articles on these narratives. They offer varied areas of expertise that include pediatric medicine, the rhetoric of medical and scientific controversies, vaccine controversy studies, and sociology. The research article in this issue written by Holly A. Taylor, "Review and Conduct of Human Subjects Research after a Natural or Man–Made Disaster: Findings from a Pilot Study," asks, how can human subject research help our public health systems better prepare for natural or man–made disasters, while taking seriously the vulnerabilities of populations who have been harmed by these disasters? This article explores the topic by analyzing 17 in–depth interviews discussing the "ethical concerns and challenges encountered by investigators and IRBs in their review and conduct of post–disaster research." The case study, "The Clinical Bioethicist's Role: Should We Aim to Relieve Suffering?" by Deborah L. Kasman looks at the case of a terminally ill, young patient dealing with terrible suffering and the responsibility of clinical ethicists in helping to relieve suffering in such cases. This case discusses the idea of how a bioethicist can be part "of the delivery of ethical and compassionate care to the patient."


BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES
To evaluate the inter- and intrareader reliability and the effect of gadolinium enhancement on kidney volume measurements obtained from pre- and postgadolinium T1 MR images in patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease (ADPKD).

DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS
Twenty subjects were randomly selected with approximately equal frequency from three kidney-size groups. Pre- and postgadolinium 3D T1 (pre-T1, post-T1) MR images were obtained. The stereology method was applied to segment and measure kidney volumes. The measurement process was repeated at two-wk intervals by two radiologists. Reliability was assessed with correlation coefficients. Intra- and inter-reader bias and measure differences were assessed with paired T-tests. The size effect on the pre- and post-T1 measurements was evaluated with one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS
The intra- and inter-reader reliability was extremely high in all measurements. No systematic intrareader bias but a small inter-reader bias for the post-T1 measurements was observed. All kidney volumes measured on the pre- and post-T1 images were highly correlated with each other for both readers. The post-T1 volumes were significantly higher than pre-T1 volumes. While the post-pre volume differences were relatively constant across the three kidney-size groups, the post-pre percent volume differences were significantly smaller as the size of the kidney increased.

CONCLUSIONS
Kidney volume measurements can be made with minimum intra- and inter-reader variability on both pre- and post-T1 MR images. Kidney volumes measured on the pre-T1 were smaller than those on post-T1, and percent differences between pre-T1 and post-T1 kidney volumes decreased with increasing kidney size.


Modern tall buildings go higher and higher with the advances in structural design and high strength materials. However, every advance in height comes with a new difficulty. Efficient structural systems, high strength materials, and increased height, result with decrease in building weight and damping, and increase in slenderness. On the other hand, as the height and slenderness increase, buildings suffer from increased flexibility, which has negative effects in wind loading. Flexible structures are affected by vibration under the action of wind which cause building motion, and plays an important role in the structural and architectural designs. Understandably, contemporary tall buildings are much more vulnerable to wind excitation than their predecessors. Hence, different design methods and modifications are possible in order to ensure the functional performance of flexible structures and control the wind induced motion of tall buildings. An extremely important and effective design approach among these methods is aerodynamic modifications in architecture. In this context, the authors classify these aerodynamic modifications in architecture for resisting the lateral loads. Wind safe tall building design begins with the architect, and the influence of the wind action must be taken into consideration from the very beginning of the architectural design process by considering building aerodynamics.


A topology optimization method is developed to design a piezoelectric ceramic actuator together with a compliant mechanism coupling structure for dynamic applications. The objective is to maximize the mechanical efficiency with a constraint on the capacitance of the piezoceramic actuator. Examples are presented to demonstrate the effect of considering dynamic behavior compared to static behavior and the effect of sizing the piezoceramic actuator on the optimal topology and the capacitance of the actuator element. Comparison studies are also presented to illustrate the effect of damping, external spring stiffness, and driving frequency. The optimal topology of the compliant mechanism is shown to be dependent on the driving frequency, the external spring stiffness, and whether the piezoelectric actuator element is considered design or nondesign. At high driving frequencies, it was found that the dynamically optimized structure is very near resonance.


Basic characterization of the waste management process during decommissioning of nuclear installations is described in the presented paper. A brief description is given of conditional and unconditional release of materials into the environment. The paper deals also with metal melting as prospective decontamination technique which can significantly reduce metallic radioactive waste.The material and radioactivity flow in the decommissioning process should be followed using the integrated material flow tool that is implemented into the standardized analytical decommissioning parameters calculation code OMEGA. Applying the integrated material flow tool, it is possible to monitor radiological and physical properties of individual material items listed in the nuclear installation input database, from dismantling up to their release into the environment or disposal in repository.Using the OMEGA code and two model databases, several scenarios related to metal melting are evaluated. The impact of applying different input decommissioning parameters on the metal distribution is the main result discussed in the paper.Copyright © 2013 by ASME


We have investigated the vortex dynamics in superconducting thin film devices with non-uniform patterns of artificial pinning centers (APCs). The magneto-transport properties of a conformal crystal and a randomly diluted APC pattern are compared with that of a triangular reference lattice. We have found that in both cases the magneto-resistance below the first matching field of the triangular reference lattice is significantly reduced. For the conformal crystal, the magneto-resistance is below the noise floor indicating highly effective vortex pinning over a wide magnetic field range. Further, we have discovered that for asymmetric patterns the R vs. H curves are mostly symmetric. This implies that the enhanced vortex pinning is due to the commensurability with a stripe in the non-uniform APC pattern and not due to a rearrangement and compression of the whole vortex lattice.


This paper contributes to our understanding of the relation between social representations and identity using the concept of position. For this purpose two conceptualisations of the terms position and positioning are explored: Duveen's theorisation of identity as a position towards a social representation and positioning theory's concept of positions as discursive achievements. It is argued that the two conceptualisations can be integrated to provide a clearer view of the impact of recognition and legitimacy in identity processes. This claim is supported by a case study derived from an interview study on naturalisation and identity in the United Kingdom.


Over the last decades, a phase of experimental social policy has emerged in the EU in the wake of various generations of funding programmes and projects that actively encouraged transnational exchange and mutual learning. Underlying these programmes are a number of assumptions: that transnational exchange will lead to individual learning, that individual learning will lead to organisational learning and that the result of organisational learning will be changes to policy and practice. These assumptions were tested using an EU-funded project named 'Local Strategies for the Active Inclusion of Young People facing multiple disadvantages—Com.In'. This project was carried out by local authorities, NGOs and research organisations in four European cities from 2011 to 2013. The results demonstrate a number of barriers to moving from transnational exchange to changes to policy and practice. However, it also identified inter- and intra-agency relationships as a key area where positive change could come about and the conditions that made such change possible. The role of 'institutional entrepreneurs' is shown to be crucial to exploiting the exceptional setting created by the exchange and initiating a change process.


This letter reports telecom-band sequential time-bin entangled photon-pair generation at a repetition rate of 10 GHz in periodically poled reverse-proton-exchange lithium niobate waveguides based on mode demultiplexing. With up-conversion single-photon detectors, we observed an entangled-photon-pair flux of 313 Hz and a two-photon-interference-fringe visibility of 85.32% without subtraction of accidental noise contributions.


We show that after the start of the euro area sovereign debt crisis, lending by non-GIIPS European banks with sizeable holdings of GIIPS sovereign bonds declined relative to nonexposed banks. This effect is not driven by changes in borrower demand or by other shocks to banks' balance sheets. We also find that affected banks withdrew from all foreign markets with the exception of the USA, suggesting an increase in home bias. The slowdown in lending continued after ECB's LTRO in December 2011, but it was lower for banks that increased their risky exposures in the early stages of the crisis.


Stories create opportunities for readers to consider values that guide human action in both the imaginary context of the story and the real context of their lives, Mr. Estes and Ms. Vasquez-Levy remind us. EVERY TEACHER can recall incidents that turned out to be watershed events. For Thomas Estes (Tom) such a moment occurred a few years ago, when he taught a short story by Molly Picon to a group of Level-4 10th- graders - those labeled as not bound for college. The story is titled "I'll Give You Law!"1 The plot is simple. A boy and his grandmother find a very expensive lavaliere, which the grandmother turns over to the lost-and-found department at the local police station. The officer at the desk explains to her that, if no one claims the necklace within 90 days, then by law it is hers to keep. Every day, she goes to the station to admire the found treasure, and every day, to her relief, she learns that no one has claimed it. Finally, the day of her dreams arrives, and the pendant belongs to her to wear forever and to cherish as an heirloom for her grandson. And then the inevitable - a woman comes to her door to claim the necklace, despite the police officer's protest that by law she has no right to it. The dilemma arises on the next-to-last page of the story. When the class got to this point, Tom asked the students to predict what the grandmother would do. Would she give the necklace back or keep it? What would the students do if they were in the same situation? We don't know exactly what the students got from the conversation that followed. They had read enough stories to know how this one would end, and Tom knew enough not to tell the students what they should say, but there was no way he could be truly neutral on the question either. At that moment, Tom realized that this story was about values - and that perhaps all stories are. Stories create opportunities for readers to consider values that guide human action in both the imaginary context of the story and the real context of their lives. Stories provide insight but never closure. As we reflect on the students' experience with this story, we realize that the whole curriculum of schooling is, at a bedrock level, about the same thing: how we should conduct ourselves as human beings in relation to one another. In what follows, we elaborate on that insight and explore what it would mean for teaching all that we can to all those we teach. We assert at the outset that the debate over whether we should or should not teach values in the schools is empty, fodder for bad letters to the editor from the extremes of the political and religious spectrums. The argument is full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. We always teach values. The choice lies in which values and in how we teach them. The choice not to teach values explicitly or to maintain a stance of neutrality with respect to value-laden issues teaches volumes to children about values. Furthermore, the values we do teach are conveyed not in what we choose to say about values but in what we choose to do and how we respond to what children say. As to which values we will teach, that too is a red herring. Our culture, like all cultures, is based on values that are the foundation of our way of being. They're in the Declaration of Independence, they're in the Constitution, they're in the code of every state and are the basis of legal arguments and decisions ranging from the Magna Carta to the suits against tobacco companies. We do not mean to imply that values are easy to deal with - only that we must deal with them both in school and out of school. We want to comment about the specifics of a values-centered curriculum. Actually, and this should come as good news, we don't need anything to teach values other than what we already have before us. There are values in the history we teach, in the sciences, in the language arts, in the mathematics, and in every curricular and extracurricular endeavor we nurture and promote. …


The researchers surveyed nursing students yearly during their three-year education, and examined active and emotional engagement. We examined the association of these properties with seven independent variables: higher educational institution, class size, age, gender, prior assistant nurse education, study experience and self-rated health. This longitudinal study included 1,334 students from 24 universities and university colleges in Sweden. Active engagement increased and emotional engagement decreased during the study years. Male students, older students and those with prior assistant nurse education had higher active engagement than other students. Older students, females, students with good self-rated health and those attending universities had higher emotional engagement. Study results suggest that higher educational institutions should pay more attention to students' active and emotional engagement in learning situations, since this may increase the ability of the students to cope with stressful events during their education, giving them an extra resource on which they can draw.


Serine hydroxymethyltransferase (SHMT) is part of the mitochondrial enzyme complex catalysing the photorespiratory production of serine, ammonium and CO2 from glycine. Potato plants (Solanum tuberosum cv. Solara) with antisensed SHMT were generated to investigate whether photorespiratory intermediates accumulated during light lead to nocturnal activation of the nitrogen-assimilating enzymes glutamine synthetase (GS) and glutamate synthase (GOGAT). The transformant lines contained 70-90% less SHMT protein, and exhibited a corresponding decrease in mitochondrial SHMT activity. SHMT antisense plants displayed lower photosynthetic capacity and accumulated glycine in light. Glycine was converted to serine in the second half of the light period, while serine, ammonium and glutamine showed an inverse diurnal rhythm and reached highest values in darkness. GS/GOGAT protein levels and activities in the transgenics also reached maximum levels in darkness. The diurnal displacement of NH4+ assimilation was accompanied by a change in the subunit composition of GS2 , but not GS1 . It is concluded that internal accumulation of post-photorespiratory ammonium is leading to nocturnal activation of GS/GOGAT, and that the time shift in ammonia assimilation can constitute part of a strategy to survive photorespiratory impairment.


The idea of statistical transmutation plays a crucial role in descriptions of the fractional quantum Hall effect. However, a recently conjectured duality between a critical boson and a massless two-component Dirac fermion extends this notion to gapless systems. This duality sheds light on highly nontrivial problems such as the half-filled Landau level, the superconductor-insulator transition, and surface states of strongly coupled topological insulators. Although this boson-fermion duality has undergone many consistency checks, it has remained unproven. We describe the duality in a nonperturbative fashion using an exact UV mapping of partition functions on a 3D Euclidean lattice.


Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is the leading cause of gynecological cancer death in the United States. Cisplatin is a DNA damaging agent initially effective against EOC but limited by resistance. P53 plays a critical role in cellular response to DNA damage and has been implicated in EOC response to platinum chemotherapy. In this study, we examined the role of p53 status in EOC response to a novel combination of cisplatin, sodium arsenite, and hyperthermia. Human EOC cells were treated with cisplatin ± 20μM sodium arsenite at 37°C or 39°C for 1 h. Sodium arsenite ± hyperthermia sensitized wild-type p53-expressing (A2780, A2780/CP70, OVCA 420, OVCA 429, and OVCA 433) EOC cells to cisplatin. Hyperthermia sensitized p53-null SKOV-3 and p53-mutant (OVCA 432 and OVCAR-3) cells to cisplatin. P53 small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection abrogated sodium arsenite sensitization effect. XPC, a critical DNA damage recognition protein in global genome repair pathway, was induced by cisplatin only in wild-type p53-expressing cells. Cotreatment with sodium arsenite ± hyperthermia attenuated cisplatin-induced XPC in wild-type p53-expressing cells. XPC siRNA transfection sensitized wild-type p53-expressing cells to cisplatin, suggesting that sodium arsenite ± hyperthermia attenuation of XPC is a mechanism by which wild-type p53-expressing cells are sensitized to cisplatin. Hyperthermia ± sodium arsenite enhanced cellular and DNA accumulation of platinum in wild-type p53-expressing cells. Only hyperthermia enhanced platinum accumulation in p53-null cells. In conclusion, sodium arsenite ± hyperthermia sensitizes wild-type p53-expressing EOC cells to cisplatin by suppressing DNA repair protein XPC and increasing cellular and DNA platinum accumulation.


In the Uruguay Round Agreement on Agriculture, so-called 'blue box' support measures were exempted from reduction commitments, provided they were delivered under 'production-limiting' programs. Although classified as 'blue box', the EU system of direct payments (DP) to beef farmers imposes 'claim-limiting' restrictions rather than 'production-limiting' restrictions, allowing farmers to keep additional animals over and above the number upon which they are eligible to claim DP. The present paper provides empirical evidence that EU direct payments capitalise into the market prices of male calves and young steers in Ireland. It is also likely that DP capitalises into the prices of beef cows and heifers. Given this capitalisation process, some farmers can obtain 'capitalised' DP on animals produced over and above the 'claim-limiting' restrictions, by selling these animals through auction markets. Thus, 'capitalised' DP probably encourages production over and above the limiting measures.


Abstract The Antillean Cenozoic fossil record of asteroids comprises mainly dissociated ossicles. Most common among isolates from upper Oligocene deposits of Jamaica and Antigua are marginal ossicles of an extinct, indeterminate species of Pycinaster. This is the youngest known occurrence of the genus and the first from beyond Europe. A number of relatively complete fossils have been assigned to Pycinaster and (sub)familial status proposed for it together with Phocidaster. The latter proposition is based solely on a few marginals, but available diagnoses are judged insufficient to justify such recognition. The taxon Pycinasteridae is here synonymized with the Goniasteridae, although future study of added features (such as the ventral surface) might justify recognition at a higher taxonomic level. In addition to ossicles assigned to Pycinaster, many marginals are tentatively assigned to the surviving goniasterid Nymphaster. Numerous generic and many species names have been based on asteroid isolates, but the practice demands assumptions that are not readily justified. Linkage of discrete isolates under a single taxon name assumes derivation from a single source, an inference that can be verified only rarely (if ever), therefore reducing names to the single holotype ossicle. Availability of only isolates encourages comparison with extant taxa and biogeography, biasing interpretations with a Holocene overlay. Because of these constraints, a new nominal species of Pycinaster is not justified and assignment of ossicles to Nymphaster is tentative. However, given the importance of asteroids in marine communities, we emphasize the significance, largely ignored, of their presence in Cenozoic deposits of the wider Caribbean.


This detailed volume surveys the history of Macedonia from 600 BC to the present day, with an emphasis on the past two centuries. It reveals how the so-called Macedonian question has long dominated Balkan politics, and how for well over a century and a half, it was the central issue dividing Balkan peoples, as neighboring Bulgaria, Greece, and Serbia struggled for possession of Macedonia-and denied any distinct Macedonian identity.


Purpose: Phenylketonuria (PKU) is an autosomal recessive disorder caused by mutations in the phenylalanine hydroxylase (PAH) gene. There have been more than 400 mutations identified in the PAH gene leading to variable degrees of deficiency in PAH activity, and consequently a wide spectrum of clinical severity. A pilot study was undertaken to examine the response to 6-R-L-erythro-5,6,7,8-tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) in patients with atypical and classical PKU. Methods: PAH gene mutation analysis was performed using denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and gene sequencing. Patients with classical, atypical, or mild PKU were orally given BH4 10 mg/kg. Blood phenylalanine and tyrosine levels were determined using tandem MS/MS at 0 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, and 24 hours intervals. Results: Thirty-six patients were given a single oral dose of 10 mg/kg of BH4. Twenty one patients (58.33%) responded with a decrease in blood phenylalanine level. Of the patients that responded, 12 were classical, 7 atypical, and 2 mild. The mean decline in blood phenylalanine at 24 hours was 30% of baseline. There were 15 patients who did not respond to the BH4 challenge, 14 of those had classical and one had atypical PKU. Mapping the mutations that responded to BH4 on the PAH enzyme showed that mutations were in the catalytic, regulatory, oligomerization, and BH4 binding domains. Five patients responding to BH4 had mutations not previously identified. Conclusion: The data presented suggest higher than anticipated number of PKU mutations


Distributed random beacons publish random numbers at regular intervals, which anyone can obtain and verify. The design of public distributed random beacons has been an exciting research direction with significant implication to blockchains, voting and beyond. Random beacons, in addition to being bias-resistant and unpredictable, also need to have low communication cost, low latency, and ease of reconfigurability. Existing works on synchronous random beacons sacrifice one or more of these properties. In this work, we design an efficient unpredictable synchronous random beacon protocol, OptRand, with quadratic (in the number n of system nodes) communication complexity per beacon output. First, we innovate by employing a novel combination of bilinear pairing based publicly verifiable secret sharing and non-interactive zero-knowledge proofs to build a linear (in n) sized publicly verifiable random sharing. Second, we develop a state machine replication protocol with linear-sized inputs that is also optimistically responsive, i.e., it can progress responsively at actual network speed during optimistic conditions, despite the synchrony assumption, and thus incur low latency. In addition, we present an efficient reconfiguration mechanism for OptRand that allows nodes to leave and join the system.


In plants, compensatory growth takes place when the positive effects of defoliation compensate the negative ones, and defoliated plants show a similar or increased production in relation to non-defoliated plants. Our objective was to evaluate the ability to compensate defoliation of Poa spiciformis, a forage perennial tussock grass in southern Patagonia (Argentina). The experiment was performed in potted plants that grew under controlled conditions of watering and fertilization. Three defoliation frequencies were imposed (zero, three or five) using 20-25 day intervals among them. Harvest intensity was always equivalent to 50% of the aerial biomass. Fifteen plants were sampled per treatment, and growth and reproductive indicators were evaluated at the last sampling date. Differences between treatments were analyzed using ANOVA and orthogonal contrasts (p<0.05). Defoliation reduced the production of aerial, root and total biomasses between 48 and 53%, indicating that there was not a total compensation. Frequency of defoliation only reduced plant height in the 5-cut treatment. Defoliation did not promote an increase in the number of tillers, and did not modify the number of reproductive culms. Poa spiciformis, presented partial compensation in the relative growth rate (RGR) only when the last harvest was performed at the time of low RGR on non-defoliated plants. Even when the species was not able to recover the removed biomass, the reproductive structures were not affected by simulated grazing, suggesting that plants would be able to produce seeds even under high defoliation frequencies.


Previous cell-penetrating peptides (CPPs) generally have low cytosolic delivery efficiencies, because of inefficient endosomal escape. In this study, a family of small, amphipathic cyclic peptides was found to be highly efficient CPPs, with cytosolic delivery efficiencies of up to 120% (compared to 2.0% for Tat). These cyclic CPPs bind directly to the plasma membrane phospholipids and enter mammalian cells via endocytosis, followed by efficient release from the endosome. Their total cellular uptake efficiency correlates positively with the binding affinity for the plasma membrane, whereas their endosomal escape efficiency increases with the endosomal membrane-binding affinity. The cyclic CPPs induce membrane curvature on giant unilamellar vesicles and budding of small vesicles, which subsequently collapse into amorphous lipid/peptide aggregates. These data suggest that cyclic CPPs exit the endosome by binding to the endosomal membrane and inducing CPP-enriched lipid domains to bud off as small vesicles. Together with their high proteolytic stability, low cytotoxicity, and oral bioavailability, these cyclic CPPs should provide a powerful system for intracellular delivery of therapeutic agents and chemical probes.


Background This article reviews the clinical efficacy, safety, and patient outcomes literature on the first once weekly treatment for type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), exenatide extended-release (ER). Methods Relevant literature on exenatide ER and T2DM was identified through PubMed database searches from inception until April 2014. Results Exenatide ER is the first medication for the treatment of T2DM dosed on a weekly schedule. Exenatide ER is a glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) receptor agonist, the third to be approved in the US, and is associated with a low risk of hypoglycemia, may result in weight loss, and has proven to be a safe and effective treatment for T2DM. Exenatide ER reduces A1c levels by decreasing fasting and postprandial hyperglycemia. The most common adverse events are gastrointestinal in nature, which are lesser in frequency than those observed with short-acting exenatide. Exenatide ER has been shown to be more effective than exenatide twice daily and slightly less efficacious than liraglutide. Exenatide ER is useful as monotherapy and in combination with other oral antidiabetic drugs. Conclusion Once weekly treatment options for diabetes such as exenatide ER have the potential to offer substantial convenience for patients who have high medication burden and poor medication adherence.


Abstract. Using GPS technology to retrieve atmospheric water vapor is a new water vapor detection method, which can effectively compensate for the shortcomings of conventional water vapor detection methods, to provide high-precision, large-capacity, near real-time water vapor information. In-depth study of ground-based GPS detection of atmospheric water vapor technology aims to further improve the accuracy and practicability of GPS inversion of water vapor and to explore its ability to detect atmospheric water vapor information to better serve the meteorological services. In this paper, the influence of the setting parameters of initial station coordinates, satellite ephemeris and solution observation on the total delay accuracy of the tropospheric zenith is discussed based on the observed data. In this paper, the observations obtained from the observation network consisting of 8 IGS stations in China in June 2013 are used to inverse the water vapor data of the 8 stations. The data of Wuhan station is further selected and compared with the data of Nanhu Sounding Station in Wuhan The error between the two data was between -6mm-6mm, and the trend of the two was almost the same, the correlation reached 95.8 %. The experimental results also verify the reliability of ground-based GPS inversion of water vapor technology.


Steroid sensitive nephrotic syndrome (SSNS) is a common disease in childhood. Although most children respond to corticosteroid, relapse is a common problem. We aim to compare the effect of 2-month steroid treatment (standard course) according to International Study of Kidney Disease of Children (ISKDC) versus 6-month treatment (long course) on the clinical course of SSNS in a 1.5-year follow up in our centre. Medical records of patients seen from 1997-2006 were reviewed. A total of 46 patients were included in the study (standard course group=22, long course group=24). Patients treated with long course steroid had significantly lower relapse rate (33% versus 75%, p= 0.026) and higher percentage of sustained remission (p=0.0046) than that of standard course. None of our patients had significant growth retardation or hypertension. Therefore, 6-month corticosteroid may be preferable to the standard course for the initial treatment of SSNS in children.


Numerous business enterprises use nowadays a decision approach that goes beyond the classic concept of profit-oriented, formal, rationality. The cause of this evolution is evident: a firm that is networked with other firms has to manage the behavior of many persons and productive units that are out of its direct control. By consequence, its ends and means become complex, corresponding to the growing complexity of present world. This type of enterprise can be viewed as a system only if we consider systems as unfinished circuits of self-reference. Unfinished systems need other unfinished, complementary, systems, in order to work properly and efficiently. This is the rationale that supports the growth of networked value production.


Campi Flegrei is an active volcanic area situated in the Campanian Plain (Italy) and dominated by a resurgent caldera. The great majority of past eruptions have been explosive, variable in magnitude, intensity, and in their vent locations. In this hazard assessment study we present a probabilistic analysis using a variety of volcanological data sets to map the background spatial probability of vent opening conditional on the occurrence of an event in the foreseeable future. The analysis focuses on the reconstruction of the location of past eruptive vents in the last 15 ka, including the distribution of faults and surface fractures as being representative of areas of crustal weakness. One of our key objectives was to incorporate some of the main sources of epistemic uncertainty about the volcanic system through a structured expert elicitation, thereby quantifying uncertainties for certain important model parameters and allowing outcomes from different expert weighting models to be evaluated. Results indicate that past vent locations are the most informative factors governing the probabilities of vent opening, followed by the locations of faults and then fractures. Our vent opening probability maps highlight the presence of a sizeable region in the central eastern part of the caldera where the likelihood of new vent opening per kilometer squared is about 6 times higher than the baseline value for the whole caldera. While these probability values have substantial uncertainties associated with them, our findings provide a rational basis for hazard mapping of the next eruption at Campi Flegrei caldera.


Recent studies have suggested that FSH plays an important role in ovarian epithelial carcinogenesis. We demonstrated that FSH stimulates the proliferation and invasion of ovarian cancer cells, inhibits apoptosis and facilitates neovascularisation. Our previous work has shown that transient receptor potential channel C3 (TRPC3) contributes to the progression of human ovarian cancer. In this study, we further investigated the interaction between FSH and TRPC3. We found that FSH stimulation enhanced the expression of TRPC3 at both the mRNA and protein levels. siRNA-mediated silencing of TRPC3 expression inhibited the ability of FSH to stimulate proliferation and blocked apoptosis in ovarian cancer cell lines. FSH stimulation was associated with the up-regulation of TRPC3, while also facilitating the influx of Ca(2)(+) after treatment with a TRPC-specific agonist. Knockdown of TRPC3 abrogated FSH-stimulated Akt/PKB phosphorylation, leading to decreased expression of downstream effectors including survivin, HIF1-α and VEGF. Ovarian cancer specimens were analysed for TRPC3 expression; higher TRPC3 expression levels correlated with early relapse and worse prognosis. Association with poor disease-free survival and overall survival remained after adjusting for clinical stage and grade. In conclusion, TRPC3 plays a significant role in the stimulating activity of FSH and could be a potential therapeutic target for the treatment of ovarian cancer, particularly in postmenopausal women with elevated FSH levels.


Private equity and venture capital are still recognized as a modern source of companies' funding. In this article, the data describing the European private equity market are provided across the scope of investment process stages: fundraising, investment, and divestment. To rank European private equity markets on the basis of chosen variables, a taxonomic method of analysis was used. As a result, we find that three countries are leading the European private equity market: the United Kingdom, Germany, and France.


Logic Programming languages, such as Prolog, provide a highlevel, declarative
 approach to programming. Despite the power, flexibility and good performance
 that Prolog systems have achieved, some deficiencies in Prolog's evaluation
 strategy - SLD resolution - limit the potential of the logic programming
 paradigm. Tabled evaluation is a recognized and powerful technique that
 overcomes SLD's susceptibility in dealing with recursion and redundant
 sub-computations. In a tabled evaluation, there are several points where we
 may have to choose between different tabling operations. The decision on
 which operation to perform is determined by the scheduling algorithm. The two
 most successful tabling scheduling algorithms are local scheduling and
 batched scheduling. In previous work, we have developed a framework, on top
 of the Yap Prolog system, that supports the combination of different linear
 tabling strategies for local scheduling. In this work, we propose the
 extension of our framework to support batched scheduling. In particular, we
 are interested in the two most successful linear tabling strategies, the DRA
 and DRE strategies. To the best of our knowledge, no other Prolog system
 supports both strategies simultaneously for batched scheduling. Our
 experimental results show that the combination of the DRA and DRE strategies
 can effectively reduce the execution time for batched evaluation.