Objectives : (1) Examine the prevalence of autism syndromes in three different Behavioural Phenotype Conditions (BPCs), (2) examine background and associated factors/conditions, and (3) describe and evaluate diagnostic difficulties in this field of research. Method : As part of multidisciplinary surveys of Mobius sequence (Mobius) (n=25), CHARGE syndrome (CHARGE) (n=31) and oculoauriculovertebral spectrum (OAV) (n=20), the occurrence of autism symptoms was assessed utilizing the DSM-III-R and DSM-IV checklists for autistic disorder (AD), the Autism Diagnostic Interview-Revised (ADI-R), the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (CARS) and the Autistic Behavior Checklist (ABC). Mental level was evaluated using standardized IQ tests or the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales. Results from previously performed radiological imaging/laboratory tests, and data on pre/perinatal nonoptimal conditions and family factors were scrutinized. The applicability of the autism diagnostic instruments used in individuals with multiple disabilities (such as in these BPCs) was analysed. Results : There was a high rate of autism syndromes (Mobius 48%, CHARGE 68%, OAV 42%) across all BPCs. Severe behaviour disturbances with major impact on family life were common in the individuals with autism syndromes, especially in the CHARGE group. Learning disability (LD) was a common finding (Mobius 32%, CHARGE 72%, OAV 25%), possibly reflecting the link between autism syndromes and LD. Visual and/or hearing impairments affected only a few subjects with Mobius, but were very common and associated with autism syndromes in the CHARGE/OAV groups. Cerebral abnormalities were recorded in one fifth of radiologically examined individuals with Mobius, 74% with CHARGE, and 63% with OAV. Autism syndromes, LD and cerebral abnormalities tended to occur together in the same individuals. Cranial nerve dysfunction was present in all Mobius individuals, in 55% of the CHARGE, and in 60% of the OAV group. Pre-, perinatal and/or family factors of possible interest were recorded in several individuals in each BPC. The diagnostics of autism syndromes in these BPCs presented difficulties, notably due to sensory impairments, cranial nerve palsies and LD. The diagnostic difficulties increased with the number and severity of disabilities. Discussion and conclusions: This study suggests that autism syndromes always should be considered in subjects with Mobius/CHARGE/OAV. In the CHARGE/OAV groups, cerebral abnormalities occurred frequently in subjects with autism syndromes, indicating that autism symptoms were not only attributable to sensory impairments. The frequent occurrence of cerebral abnormalities in those with autism syndromes, together with the fact that the majority of those with LD in all the three BPCs had an autism syndrome, could be suggestive of a specific link between autism syndromes and Mobius/CHARGE/OAV. The associated overall clinical findings, including the frequent occurrence of cranial nerve dysfunction found in all three BPCs, implicate the early embryonic brain, including the brain stem, as a possible area of core dysfunction. The use of an extensive battery of autism diagnostic instruments is essential in individuals with multiple disabilities. Current autism diagnostic instruments are insufficiently tailored to deaf-blind individuals.


Background Histidine kinases are receptors for sensing cellular and environmental signals, and in response to the appropriate cue they initiate phosphorelays that regulate the activity of response regulators. The Dictyostelium discoideum genome encodes 15 histidine kinases that function to regulate several processes during the multicellular developmental program, including the slug to culmination transition, osmoregulation, and spore differentiation. While there are many histidine kinases, there is only a single response regulator, RegA. Not surprisingly given the ubiquitous involvement of cAMP in numerous processes of development in Dictyostelium , RegA is a cAMP phosphodiesterase that is activated upon receiving phosphates through a phosphorelay. Hence, all of the histidine kinases characterized to date regulate developmental processes through modulating cAMP production. Here we investigate the function of the histidine kinase DhkD. Principal Findings The dhkD gene was disrupted, and the resulting cells when developed gave a novel phenotype. Upon aggregation, which occurred without streaming, the mounds were motile, a phenotype termed the pollywog stage. The pollywog phenotype was dependent on a functional RegA. After a period of random migration, the pollywogs attempted to form fingers but mostly generated aberrant structures with no tips. While prestalk and prespore cell differentiation occurred with normal timing, proper patterning did not occur. In contrast, wild type mounds are not motile, and the cAMP chemotactic movement of cells within the mound facilitates proper prestalk and prespore patterning, tip formation, and the vertical elongation of the mound into a finger. Conclusions We postulate that DhkD functions to ensure the proper cAMP distribution within mounds that in turn results in patterning, tip formation and the transition of mounds to fingers. In the absence of DhkD, aberrant cell movements in response to an altered cAMP distribution result in mound migration, a lack of proper patterning, and an inability to generate normal finger morphology.


Abstract This article describes a unique Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC)-funded project in which a community–campus partnership is making progress in moving the needle on complex issues such as poverty. The project identified various models of community campus partnerships that help leverage collective impact efforts in poverty reduction. One model involves a center for community–university research, while others revolve around champions in the community or university who spearhead the initiatives and leverage successful partnerships into research activities. Concurrently, the campus and community partners have engaged in research with a goal of having an impact on poverty reduction. The models are examined in terms of components of collective impact: a common agenda, shared measurement, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a backbone organization. Factors were identified that support and impede collective impact, such as the importance of a strong backbone organization, and vulnerability to personnel changes.


This study evaluated the efficacy of probiotic utilization as growth promoters in broiler chicken feeding using systematic literature review and meta-analysis. Thirty-five studies were recovered by the systematic review, 27 of which met the following criteria to be included in the meta-analysis: (1) Brazilian studies published between 1995 and 2005; (2) probiotics administered in the diet without growth promoter; (3) results included performance data with the respective coefficient of variation. Meta-analysis have shown that the probiotics promoted better weight gain and feed conversion than the negative control (no antimicrobial) in the initial phase (1 to 20-28 days); nevertheless, results were similar in the total period (1 to 35-48 days). Weight gain and feed conversion were similar between probiotics and the positive control (with antimicrobial) both in the initial and in the total periods. Viability in the total period improved with the use of probiotics in comparison to the negative or positive controls. Sensitivity analysis showed that the results of meta-analysis were coherent. The funnel plots and the Egger regression method evidenced that the studies published in Brazil do not present biased results. It is possible to conclude that the probiotics are a technically viable alternative to antimicrobial growth promoters in broiler feeding. Nevertheless, further studies are necessary to identify eventual differences among the probiotics commercially available in Brazil.


CONTEXT
Emergency departments (EDs) are experiencing increased patient volumes and serve as a source of care of last resort for uninsured patients. Common assumptions about the effect of uninsured patients on the ED often drive policy solutions.

OBJECTIVE
To compare common unsupported statements about uninsured patients presenting to the ED with the best available evidence on the topic.

DATA SOURCES
OVID search of MEDLINE and MEDLINE in-process citations from 1950 through September 19, 2008, using the terms (Emergency Medical Services OR Emergency Service, Hospital OR emergency department.mp OR emergency medicine.mp OR Emergency Medicine) AND (uninsured.mp OR medically uninsured OR uncompensated care OR indigent.mp OR uncompensated care.mp OR medical indigency).

STUDY SELECTION
Of 526 articles identified, 127 (24%) met inclusion/exclusion criteria. Articles were included if they focused on the medical and surgical care of adult (aged 18 to <65 years) uninsured patients in emergency settings. Excluded articles involved pediatric or geriatric populations, psychiatric and dental illnesses, and non-patient care issues.

DATA EXTRACTION
Statements about uninsured patients presenting for emergency care that appeared without citation or that were not based on data provided in the articles were identified using a qualitative descriptive approach based in grounded theory. Each assumption was then addressed separately in searches for supporting data in national data sets, administrative data, and peer-reviewed literature.

RESULTS
Among the 127 identified articles, 53 had at least 1 assumption about uninsured ED patients, with a mean of 3 assumptions per article. Common assumptions supported by the evidence include assumptions that increasing numbers of uninsured patients present to the ED and that uninsured patients lack access to primary care. Available data support the statement that care in the ED is more expensive than office-based care when appropriate, but this is true for all ED users, insured and uninsured. Available data do not support assumptions that uninsured patients are a primary cause of ED overcrowding, present with less acute conditions than insured patients, or seek ED care primarily for convenience.

CONCLUSION
Some common assumptions regarding uninsured patients and their use of the ED are not well supported by current data.


Freely dissolved OCPs and PCBs were measured by using polyethylene passive samplers at 15 sites during 2014 throughout the stretch of Indus River to investigate spatial pattern and risk assess. Levels (pg/L) of dissolved ∑OCPs and ∑PCBs ranged from 34–1600 and 3–230. Among the detected OCPs, dissolved DDTs ( p, p′-DDE, followed by p, p′-DDT) predominated with levels of 0.48 to 220 pg/L. The order of occurrence for other studied OCPs was as follows; HCB, Endosulfans, Chlordanes, and HCHs. Spatially, dissolved (pg/L) ∑OCPs varied ( p < 0.05 ) as: surface water of Alluvial Riverine Zone (ARZ) showed highest levels (114) followed by Frozen Mountain Zone (FMZ) (52.9), Low Lying Zone (LLZ) (28.73) and Wet Mountain Zone (WMZ) (14.43) respectively. However, our zone wise PCBs data did not exhibit significant differences ( p > 0.05 ). Principal component analysis/Multilinear Regression results showed that pesticides usage in crop/orchard fields and health sector, electric & electronic materials, and widespread industrial activities as the main source of OCPs and PCBs along Indus River. Our results showed that OCPs and PCBs contaminated water intake, played an important role towards the considerable cancer/non-cancer risk (HI and CR values) along the Indus River Flood-Plain.


AC clean fog tests were performed on nonceramic materials used for outdoor high voltage insulators, namely, room and high temperature vulcanizing (RTV and HTV) silicone rubber, and ethylene propylene rubber (EPR), with porcelain used as the reference. The steam input rate was varied upwards from the value standardized for porcelain insulators. Results indicate that higher steam input rates produce a significant reduction in the flashover voltage of silicone rubber family materials, although it is always higher than that obtained for EPR and porcelain. For EPR, the reduction is less and is similar to that established for porcelain. The mechanisms involved have been examined. The trend in the results is found to be consistent for different formulations and insulator geometries of the generic polymer (e.g. silicone rubber, EPR) evaluated. A new, simple method for consistently applying uniform contamination on silicone rubber (both RTV and HTV) is described, without the use of extensive physical or chemical treatments, or prior conditioning by dry band arcing. >


This paper introduces the University of Washington's Alexa Prize socialbot, Sounding Board, which is designed to engage users with a wide variety of content. The system models the user utterance using a multi-dimensional representation. A hierarchical dialogue manager is employed where a master manages the overall conversation and a collection of miniskills manage different conversation segments. The system constructs responses using speech acts selected by the dialogue manager, where each speech act is instantiated with randomness to introduce variation to the conversation. Further, we analyze the impact of miniskill variety, user personality, and speech recognition performance on user interaction ratings.


Purpose: To evaluate MR imaging and CT in differentiating malignant pleural mesothelioma from other malignancies or benign pleural disease. Material and Methods: Thirty-four patients (18 pleural mesotheliomas, 9 other malignancies, 7 benign pleural diseases) were examined using enhanced CT and MR. Two radiologists reviewed the CT and two others the MR images. Comparisons were made between the diagnostic groups and the imaging methods. Results: The abnormalities commonly found in malignant disease, but significantly less frequently in benign pleural disease, were focal thickening and enhancement of interlobar fissures. In mesothelioma, enhancement of interlobar fissures, tumour invasion of the diaphragm, mediastinal soft tissue or chest wall, were significantly more often observed than in other malignancies and MR was the most sensitive method. In other malignancies, invasion of bony structures was a more common finding and was also better shown by MR. The contrast-enhanced T1 fat-suppressed (CET1fs) sequence detected these features better than other MR sequences. Conclusion: MR, especially the CET1fs sequence in three planes, gave more information than enhanced CT. Focal thickening and enhancement of interlobar fissures were early abnormalities indicating malignant pleural disease. MR could be clinically useful for differentiating mesothelioma from other pleural diseases.


Goal-focused coaching is increasingly being used to help people set and reach personal and workplace goals. However, coaches' coaching skills are rarely measured. This exploratory study reports preliminary findings on the initial development and validation of a self-report measure, the Goal-focused Coaching Skills Questionnaire (GCSQ). Some participants also completed the Schutte Emotional Intelligence Scale (Schutte et al., 1998) and the Insight subscale of the Self-reflection and Insight Scale ([SRIS-IN], Grant, Franklin, & Langford, 2002). Convergent, face validity and test-retest reliability were found to be good, and scores on the GCSQ distinguished between professional and nonprofessional coaches. Scores on the GCSQ were also related to measures of emotional intelligence and personal insight. Behavioral observations following a coaching session indicated a significant correlation between coachees' ratings of the coaches' skills and the self-reported skill ratings of the coaches themselves. Limitations of the study are discussed and future research suggestions presented.


Background
Sclera remodeling process in axial elongation is one of the main pathological mechanisms of axial myopia progression.Studies confirmed that transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1) participates in the sclera remodeling process, and Smad3 is one of TGF-β1 downstream signal gene transcriptive factors, so to explore its role in sclera remodeling process of myopic eyes is of great significance for pathogenesis and prevention research of myopia.

Objective
This study was to investigate the expressions of type Ⅰ collagen and Smad3, a TGF-β1 downstream target, in sclera of form deprivation myopic (FDM) eyes and explore the impact of TGF-β1-Smad3-type I collagen signaling pathway on collagen remodeling in myopic sclera.

Methods
Seventy-five 1-week-old guinea pigs were randomly divided into normal control group (25 guinea pigs) and FDM group (50 guinea pigs). Monocular FDM was induced by occluding the left eyes of guinea pigs in FDM group with translucent latex balloons for 2, 4, 6 weeks, respectively, and consecutive occluding for 4 weeks followed by uncovering for 1 week (4/-1 weeks). The refractive power was detected by retinoscopy and axial length was measured with A-type ultrasound.Immunohistochemistry and reverse transcription-PCR were employed to detect the dynamic expressions of type Ⅰ collagen and Smad3 protein ad mRNA in the sclera of guinea pigs with emmetropia and experimental myopia, and the relationship between collagen Ⅰ and Smad3 levels was analyzed.

Results
The refraction was hypermetropic in both normal control group and FDM group before occluding of eyes (P>0.05), and the hypermetropic power was gradually reduced over time in the normal control group.In the FDM group, the refractive power was gradually changed from (+ 2.09 ± 0.31)D before occluding to (-1.23±0.69), (-4.17±0.59), (-7.07±0.56) and (-4.30±0.58)D, and the axial length was increased from (5.93±0.39)mm to (6.62±0.36), (7.30±0.34), (7.99±0.32), and (7.21±0.36)mm at weeks 2, 4, 6, and 4/-1 after occluding, respectively, indicating significant differences in refractive power and axial length over time in the FDM group from normal control group and self-control group (all at P<0.05). The expressions of Smad3 and type Ⅰ collagen protein and mRNA in the sclera of the FDM group was significantly lower than those of the control group and self-control group in various time points (all at P<0.05). The positive correlation were found in the expression of Smad3 on the myopic sclera with that of type Ⅰ collagen in both protein and mRNA levels (protein: r=0.993, P<0.05; mRNA: r=0.954, P<0.05).

Conclusions
The myopic power and ocular axis increase dependent upon occluding time, and the expressions of Smad3 and type Ⅰ collagen in the sclera are correspondingly weakened in FDM eyes.A consistent expression trend is found between Smad3 and type Ⅰ collage, suggesting Smad3 and type Ⅰ collagen participate in the regulation of sclera remodeling in myopia by TGF-β1-Smad3-CollagenⅠsignaling pathway.

Key words:
Form-deprivation; Myopia; Sclera/metabolism; Disease progression; TGF-β1-Smad3-Collagen Ⅰ signaling pathway; Disease models, animal; Guinea pigs


It was alleged that a defendant added an unspecified amount of undyed formalin solution, containing formaldehyde and methanol, to the victim's bottle of ice and drinking water. The medical report indicated that except for a slight elevation of total creatine kinase, all other chemistry profiles were within normal ranges. The elevation of creatine kinase suggested muscle injury and inflammation; however, the significance of this elevation was not clear. Toxicological evaluations were made by conducting risk assessments. Based upon the medical report and risk assessments, the following conclusions were made: The calculated exposure doses of methanol and formaldehyde were too low to cause appreciable adverse effects; however, formaldehyde may have irritated the gastrointestinal tract causing smooth muscle and mucosal inflammation. The doses of methanol and formaldehyde were too low to cause death. The exposure scenario (a single oral exposure to formaldehyde) would not likely increase the cancer risk in the victim. The risk assessments provided resulted in a reduction in charge from attempted murder to felony.


Over one million people become infected with HIV-1 each year, making the development of an efficacious HIV-1 vaccine an important unmet medical need. The RV144 human HIV-1 vaccine regimen is the only HIV-1 clinical trial to date to demonstrate vaccine efficacy. An area of focus has been on identifying ways by which to improve upon RV144 vaccine efficacy. The RV305 HIV-1 vaccine regimen was a follow-up boost of RV144 vaccine recipients that occurred 6 to 8 years after the conclusion of RV144. Our study focused on the effect of delayed boosting in humans on the vaccine-induced Env constant region 1 and 2 (C1C2)-specific antibody repertoire. It was found that boosting with an HIV-1 Env vaccine increased C1C2-specific antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity potency and breadth. ABSTRACT Induction of protective antibodies is a critical goal of HIV-1 vaccine development. One strategy is to induce nonneutralizing antibodies (NNAbs) that kill virus-infected cells, as these antibody specificities have been implicated in slowing HIV-1 disease progression and in protection. HIV-1 Env constant region 1 and 2 (C1C2) monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) frequently mediate potent antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC), making them an important vaccine target. Here, we explore the effect of delayed and repetitive boosting of RV144 vaccine recipients with AIDSVAX B/E on the C1C2-specific MAb repertoire. It was found that boosting increased clonal lineage-specific ADCC breadth and potency. A ligand crystal structure of a vaccine-induced broad and potent ADCC-mediating C1C2-specific MAb showed that it bound a highly conserved Env gp120 epitope. Thus, boosting to affinity mature these types of IgG C1C2-specific antibody responses may be one method by which to make an improved HIV vaccine with higher efficacy than that seen in the RV144 trial. IMPORTANCE Over one million people become infected with HIV-1 each year, making the development of an efficacious HIV-1 vaccine an important unmet medical need. The RV144 human HIV-1 vaccine regimen is the only HIV-1 clinical trial to date to demonstrate vaccine efficacy. An area of focus has been on identifying ways by which to improve upon RV144 vaccine efficacy. The RV305 HIV-1 vaccine regimen was a follow-up boost of RV144 vaccine recipients that occurred 6 to 8 years after the conclusion of RV144. Our study focused on the effect of delayed boosting in humans on the vaccine-induced Env constant region 1 and 2 (C1C2)-specific antibody repertoire. It was found that boosting with an HIV-1 Env vaccine increased C1C2-specific antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity potency and breadth.


Natural convection cooling of an electronic component in an electronic device using water-based Fe3O4 magnetic nanofluids is studied under the presence of the magnetic field. The heated vertical electronic component in an enclosure type electronic device with a magnetic field source is used as a model for the study. Different samples of Fe3O4-water nanofluid are prepared using different surfactants and the stability of those samples are estimated using visualization and zeta potential technique. Thermal properties of the stable sample of magnetic nanofluid are precisely measured. The experimentally measured properties are used for further theoretical study. The natural convection is characterized in terms of the relative position of the magnetic source and the electronic component, the strength of the magnetic field, and the magnetization of the nanofluids. Nine different combinations of the position of the magnetic source and the electronic component have been compared with the case in which there is an absence of the magnetic field. The dimensionless number used in this investigation are Rayleigh number (103 ≤ Ra ≤ 106), magnetic numbers (Mn = 100, 500, and 1000), and Hartmann Number (0 ≤ Ha ≤ 100). The position of the magnetic source with respect to the electronic component significantly affects the rate of heat transfer. The effect is more pronounced when the magnetic source is placed below any of the two vertical walls of the enclosure. The fluid flow is observed distorted near the magnetic source when the Ha is increased. The increment in the magnetic number strengthens the flow, which leads to the enhanced heat transfer rate.


The fraction of customers who choose a particular item from among a set of available items can be increased significantly by the inclusion of a related inferior (and apparently irrelevant) item in the choice set. This violation of the independence from irrelevant alternatives and the regularity properties is called the decoy effect, dominance effect, or attraction effect. The decoy effect is one of the robust cognitive biases in the decision-making processes of customers. We propose a discrete choice model that is simple and that captures decoy effects. A monopolist may take advantage of the decoy effect to increase profit. However, exploitation of the decoy effect in a competitive setting requires closer investigation. To understand the effect of decoys on competition, we study product assortment competition in a duopoly in which each seller may choose whether to include a decoy in the seller's product assortment. We provide a complete characterization of the Nash equilibria and their dependence on choice model parameters. We study the evolution of assortment competition and we evaluate the stability of the equilibria in the context of sellers learning about the behavior of their competitors. Our results indicate under what conditions it is beneficial for a seller to include a decoy into the seller's assortment, and under what conditions the seller obtains a free ride from the competitor's decoy. Our results also show that every pure-strategy Nash equilibrium is stable and every mixed-strategy Nash equilibrium is unstable.


We consider a two-dimensional collisionless ideal gas in the two vessels connected through a small hole. One of them is a well-behaved chaotic billiard, another one is known to be nonergodic. A significant part of the second vessel's phase space is occupied by an island of stability. In the works of Zaslavsky and coauthors, distribution of Poincare recurrence times in similar systems was considered. We study the gas pressure in the vessels; it is uniform in the first vessel and not uniform in second one. An equation of the gas state in the first vessel is obtained. Despite the very different phase-space structure, behavior of the second vessel is found to be very close to the behavior of a good ergodic billiard but of different volume. The equation of state differs from the ordinary equation of ideal gas state by an amendment to the vessel's volume. Correlation of this amendment with a share of the phase space under remaining intact islands of stability is shown.


Erosional and depositional evidence on Mount Olympus, Greece, and across the adjacent piedmont provides clear indication that the mountain was more extensively glaciated over a longer period of time than has been previously reported. The stratigraphic record of Pleistocene–Holocene events on Mount Olympus is most clearly documented on the eastern piedmont, where three discrete sedimentary packages (units 1–3), each capped by a distinctive soil, reflect glacial and nonglacial activity in the Mount Olympus region. A working stratigraphic framework for sediments and soils is proposed and is tentatively correlated with a dated alluvial succession south of Mount Olympus. We suggest that the oldest sedimentary package (unit 1) predates 200 ka (isotope stage 8?). Lithologic and pedologic equivalents of the piedmont stratigraphy are found within major valleys draining Mount Olympus, as well as within cirque basins and on the summit plateau surface. These deposits can be clearly tied to three stages of cirque development on the upland and at valley heads. Taken together, upland and piedmont glacial features and deposits indicate the following general scenario: (1) earliest glaciation (isotope stage 8?) produced upland ice and valley glaciers that extended as piedmont lobes east, north, and west of Mount Olympus; (2) nonglacial (interglacial) conditions (isotope stage 7?) were accompanied by extensive erosion and subsequent pedogenesis; (3) a second glaciation (isotope stage 6?) involved production of upland ice and valley glaciers that did not reach the piedmont; (4) interglacial (interstadial) conditions (isotope stage 5?) provided time for stream erosion and substantial pedogenesis; (5) final(?) glaciation (isotope stages 4–2?) was restricted to valley heads (no upland ice) and glaciers that extended to mid-valley positions; (6) nonglacial conditions (isotope stage 1?) were associated with additional pedogenesis and stream incision. The largest cirque on the mountain (Megali Kazania) may contain depositional evidence for neoglaciation. Study of the neotectonic history of the Mount Olympus region indicates that uplift has persisted throughout the mid-Pleistocene and Holocene at a rate of about 1.6 m/k.y.; the total uplift since deposition of unit 2 is approximately 200 m.


Background: Tuberculosis (TB) treatment is a complex task and requires medical supervision and support. The objective of this study was to assess the utility of a mobile graphic-based reminder (GBR) in improving compliance of patients with TB treatment. Compared to text and speech-based reminder systems, the visual or graphic application is suggested to be more effective in supporting treatment particularly in semi-literate and illiterate patients.  Methods: The study was conducted in Zanzibar, Tanzania and included patients with active TB and already taking anti-TB drugs. The study was conducted over five weeks from July to August 2015. Participants were randomly assigned into three groups: control (n=10), speech-based reminder (n=10), and GBR (n=10) groups. Participants in the intervention groups (speech-based and GBR) received daily mobile reminder messages. Quantitative application responses and qualitative data resulting from semi-structured interviews from the patients were collected. Comparative analyses were undertaken between GBR and traditional care, and between GBR and speech-based reminders.   Results: The findings indicated that the GBR system led to increase in treatment adherence (90%) compared with speech-based reminder (70%) and traditional care (60%). Findings also show that there were high efficacy and acceptability of mobile reminders in the GBR group with the average response rate of 60.1 compared with 50.6 in the speech-based reminder group (p<0.01).  Conclusions: The GBR was more beneficial and accepted for use by the majority of the patients including those with limited education. This study suggests that mobile GBR system can be used to support compliance with the treatment regimen in both literate and illiterate TB patients.


Injectable oxygen delivery is an emerging technology that presents an opportunity for improved patient care in a number of medical disciplines. Here, we report on the fabrication and characterization of novel protein-encapsulated oxygen microbubbles (OMBs) designed for intravenous injection. The nanothick albumin encapsulation provided OMBs small enough for transcapillary passage: 99% of the microbubbles were less than 3-μm diameter and less than 1% of the oxygen was encapsulated in microbubbles greater than 8-μm diameter. The protein OMBs were remarkably stable, losing less than 40% of the encapsulated gas over 12 days. Upon injection into an oxygen-depleted saline solution, the protein OMBs rapidly equilibrated by releasing their oxygen core. These results indicate that protein microbubbles may serve as a suitable platform for direct injection of bioactive and therapeutic gases.


Spring Phytoplankton Dynamics in a Shallow, Turbid Coastal Salt Marsh System Undergoing Extreme Salinity Variation, South Texas. (May 2004) Elizabeth Michele Hebert, B.S., University of Michigan Co-Chairs of Advisory Committee: Dr. Daniel Roelke Dr. James Heilman The contribution of phytoplankton productivity to higher trophic levels in salt marshes is not well understood. My study furthers our understanding of possible mechanisms controlling phytoplankton productivity, abundance, and community composition in salt marshes. Across three consecutive springs (2001 to 2003), I sampled the upper Nueces Delta in south Texas, a shallow, turbid, salt marsh system stressed by low freshwater inflow and wide ranging salinity (<15 to >300 ppt). Water column productivity and respiration were estimated using a light-dark bottle technique, and phytoplankton biovolume and community composition were determined using inverted light microscopy. To determine their effect on the phytoplankton community, zooplankton and bacterioplankton abundance and several physical parameters were also assessed. Meaningful relationships among the numerous variables evaluated in this study were identified using principal component analysis (PCA). Despite high turbidity, phytoplankton productivity and biovolume were substantial. Resuspension appeared to play a major role in phytoplankton dynamics, as indicated by a positive relationship between ash weight and biovolume that explained up to 46% of the variation in the PCA. Negative relationships between zooplankton grazers and pennate diatoms of optimal sizes for these grazers suggested a functional grazing food chain in this system. Salinity also may have been important in phytoplankton dynamics, whereas nutrients appeared to play a minor role. Salinity increases may have been responsible for a decoupling observed between phytoplankton and grazers during late spring. Findings suggest


This article provides a framework, with supporting examples, for addressing finance for smallholder investment for innovation. Smallholder households function in interconnected 'systems' radiating outwards from the household unit: livelihoods, agricultural market systems, community and society, and infrastructure and policy. An inclusive livelihoods model analyses what would need to be true for uptake of innovations by women, men, and youth, and what financial and non-financial products are needed. 'Customer centric' integrated value chain financing solutions are tailored to smallholder market segments along eight pathways for growth. A roadmap for facilitating innovation and change using priority pathways, yet grounded in proven financial and development principles, is recommended. Tools and approaches include: value chain facilitation and capacity development – aggregation, market linkages, and private–public partnerships; financial tools – transaction-based financing, flexible products, and risk mitigators; and innovations in service delivery – digital and ICT applications.


We explore the relationship between collaborations in writing papers and the academic productivity of economists and, particularly, we describe the magnitude and intensity of co-authorship among economists. To that end, we employ interaction maps from Complex Systems methods to study the global properties of specific networks. We use 8,253 JCR papers from ISI-WOK, published by 5,188 economists from Spanish institutions, and their co-authors, up to 8,202 researchers, from 2002 to 2014, to identify and determine the collaborative structure of economics research in Spain, with its primary communities and figures of influence. Our results indicate that centrality and productivity are correlated, particularly with respect to a local estimator of centrality (page rank), and we provide certain recommendations, such as promoting interactions among highly productive authors who have few co-authors with other researchers in their environment, or recommending that authors who may be well-positioned but minimally productive strive to improve their productivity.


Abstract. The interest in the documentation and enhancement of Underwater Cultural Heritage (UCH) is rising rapidly over the last decades. This has happened especially due to the significant technological advances, which have enabled the digital data acquisition in the hostile underwater environment. Numerous efforts have been made so far concerning the 3D digitisation and promotion of the UCH using photogrammetric methods and 3D surveys in order on one hand to document the site and on the other to develop virtual and augmented reality applications and make this part of the hidden cultural heritage accessible to people with difficulties to reach it. This paper presents the methodology, the actions and decisions that were taken for the geometric documentation, study, promotion and enhancement of the remains of a roman villa located at Agios Vlassis, in Ancient Epidaurus in Greece. The present effort focuses on the use of low-cost equipment in order to acquire the necessary digital data to produce the 3D textured model of the archaeological site and the required 2D documentation products. The methods used to produce this 3D model involve contemporary computer vision algorithms adapted to confront the challenge of processing a huge number of images and extracting useful metric information from them. Moreover, the creation and programming process of two virtual reality applications is described. By developing a virtual tour and a virtual reality application, it is hoped to raise the awareness about UCH and give prominence to different means and ways of protection and management of underwater archaeological sites.


This paper reports on the novel development of a fully solid state Marx-type circuit to achieve output voltage pulses with adjustable voltage levels, pulse width, and frequency using a series connection of half-bridge or full-bridge switch-capacitor cells (SCC). Modularity of the circuit allows independent control of each SCC, resulting in more freedom to control the pulsed power parameters. A 3-kW laboratory prototype of the proposed generator topology was implemented using 1700-V insulated gate bipolar transistors (IGBTs) and a 1-kV power supply. The SCC unit circuit board is stacked to increase the maximum output voltage. The control unit for the output pulse parameters was performed using an field-programmable gate array unit.


B lymphocytes require a source of T cell-like help to produce antibody to T cell-dependent antigens. T cell-derived lymphokines and C8-substituted guanine ribonucleosides (such as 8-mercaptoguanosine; 8MGuo) are effective sources of such T cell-like help. Addition of T cell-derived lymphokines to antigen-activated B cells together with 8MGuo results in synergistic B cell differentiation, amplifying the sum of the individual responses twofold to four-fold. Lymphokine activity is required at initiation of culture for optimal synergy with 8MGuo, whereas the nucleoside can be added up to 48 hr after the lymphokines with full synergy. 8MGuo provides a perceived T cell-like differentiation signal to B cells from immunodeficient xid mice, thereby distinguishing a subset of Lyb-5- nucleoside-responsive B cells from those activated by soluble anti-mu followed by B cell stimulatory factor-1, interleukin 1, and B cell differentiation factors, which are Lyb-5+. Moreover, at least a subset of the B cells recruited by the synergistic interaction of lymphokines and nucleoside is distinct from that responsive to 8MGuo + antigen, insofar as Sephadex G-10 nonadherent xid B cells fail to respond to either 8MGuo or lymphokines alone, but do respond to the combination. A distinct subpopulation can also be demonstrated among normal B cells by limiting dilution analysis in which the precursor frequency of antigen-reactive B cells in the presence of lymphokines or nucleoside alone increases substantially when both agents are present together. In concert with the kinetic data, these observations suggest that synergy derives at least in part from the ability of lymphokines to induce one or more elements the absence of which limits the capacity of a distinct B cell subpopulation to respond to 8MGuo.


Graduate student recruitment has received relatively little attention in the literature. Most of the research has been quantitative and narrowly focused on factors related to student choice. While graduate student enrollment has remained essentially stable for over ten years, demographic shifts and anticipated needs for doctoral prepared faculty and scientists give cause for concern. The goals of this research were to understand how four departments at a large research university approach graduate student recruitment and what influences how departments recruit students. In addition, the study sought to understand how students experience the recruitment process and how that experience may differ by ethnic group, by gender, and by department. One hundred faculty, administrators, and graduate students were interviewed and a wide variety of documents were analyzed. Findings indicate graduate recruitment has been left to the departments, in contrast to undergraduate recruitment where coercive mechanisms have been applied centrally, through access and equal opportunity initiatives. Departmental goals related to recruitment focus primarily on getting the best students, while central administration goals are centered on increasing diversity among students and enhancing the quality of research. The numbers and characteristics of the customers, suppliers, and competitors have a significant impact on departmental recruitment. Experiences of students differed widely by department and by level of study. Generally students did not feel recruited. Masters students had different experiences than did doctoral students, and women had different experiences than male graduate students. The practical implications are: (1) Because graduate student recruitment is a student-initiated process, communication about graduate school must improve; (2) Departments must take better care of students, both undergraduate and graduate, so that students will want to continue their education at the graduate level; (3) Faculty involvement in recruitment is important; (4) Recruitment can be enhanced by strengthening connections among units on campus; (5) Departments lack expertise in recruitment; (6) Departmental efforts to increase ethnic minority enrollment need to be improved; (7) External sources of potential graduate students need to be explored; (8) Ways to decrease the financial obstacles must be developed and maintained; and (9) Consideration should be given to increasing graduate student enrollment in particular disciplines.


The hydrochloride salt of mechlorethamine, a nitrogen mustard and an analogue of sulfur mustard, with antineoplastic and immunosuppressive activities. Mechlorethamine is metabolized to an unstable, highly reactive ethyleniminium intermediate that alkylates DNA, particularly the 7 nitrogen of guanine residues, resulting in DNA base pair mismatching, DNA interstrand crosslinking, the inhibition of DNA repair and synthesis, cell-cycle arrest, and apoptosis. This agent also exhibits lympholytic properties.


The focus of wireless sensor networks is to develop low cost sensors with sufficient computing and communication capabilities to support networked sensing applications. The emphasis on lower cost led to sensors that are less accurate and less reliable than their wired sensor counterparts. Sensors usually suffer from both random and systematic (bias) problems. Even when the sensors are properly calibrated at the time of their deployment, they develop drift in their readings leading to biased sensor measurements. The drift in this context is defined as a unidirectional long-term change in the sensor measurement. Assuming that neighboring sensors have correlated measurements and noting that the instantiation of drift in a sensor is uncorrelated with other sensors and inspired by the resemblance of registration problem in radar target tracking with the bias error problem in sensor networks we devise a novel algorithm for detecting and correcting sensors drifts and show how it improves the reliability and the effective life of the network.


A computer aided optimal method has been developed for the restoration of electric supply to areas isolated from the network following a fault in a distribution system. A search technique is used where the search is guided by appropriate heuristics. The optimum solution entails finding the strategy which involves the operation of minimum number of switchgear for rerouting the supply within the constraint of specified loading. This is an essential requirement in countries like India where the circuit breakers are almost always manually operated and a number of transformers and feeders operate close to their rated capacity. It pays therefore to adopt different strategies at peak load and off peak conditions since the number of breaker operations is so critical. The heuristic search that is developed is applied to a large distribution system and provides very good results. >


The present study used steady-state visual evoked potentials (SSVEPs) recorded in parallel to a task-relevant auditory/visual stimulation to study the process of intermodal and crossmodal spatial attention on visual processing. SSVEPs were elicited by task-irrelevant 10/15Hz pattern-reversing checkerboards. The participants were asked to respond to deviant transient stimuli of the attended side in the attended modality only. A phase-locking index (PLI) method was employed to characterize SSVEPs. Both unimodal and crossmodal spatial attention resulted in an increase of PLI values over contralateral occipital brain regions. Intermodal attention effects were observed as an increase of the PLI over the same brain areas when the auditory rather than the visual modality was attended. These findings support recent hypotheses that the phase resetting of the brain activity in early sensory cortices is an essential mechanism of multisensory interaction.


Performances in Conway Hall (Chilingirian Quartet); Wigmore Hall, London. The score is published by Music Haven. Research questions addressed in this commissioned piece focus on the issue of the contemporary validity of the genre, and the notion of the 'musical idea' as a (generative) compositional pretext; the piece equally seeks to draw, through critical reflection and creative invention, on more contingent aspects of contemporary musical language and idiom. Composition for the string quartet was very variable in the 20thC and may well have been found to be challenging, perhaps because of the technical demands of the medium which requires concentrated writing for four homogeneous string instruments with limited timbral and textural devices on which to rely. This piece, reviewed in the context of recent work for other British string quartets, is an attempt at a creative reappraisal of the genre, while contributing to the development of a national profile. Quartet No.2 is based on a musical idea that I first used in an organ prelude commissioned in 2005, itself based on the 19thC English hymn tune "Cromer". The Quartet attempts to exploit further expressive possibilities of this melody and its treatment in the organ work, providing the central organic idea for all four movements. The work continues my commitment to achieving structural coherence through organic motific growth and aesthetic uniformity. The idea of organic growth from one central idea has been often explored in modern orchestral works (e.g. Saxton, Matthews, Sackman) but the application of this approach to the quartet medium is an entirely new one.


An upper-mantle nodule found in kimberlite of Cenozoic age in southeastern Australia contains the assemblage aluminous spinel + garnet + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + olivine. This inclusion is the first recorded occurrence of an equilibrium mineral assemblage lying on the quasi-univariant boundary separating the spinel and garnet lherzolite fields inferred in the upper mantle. The temperature and pressure estimate of 1240 ± 20 °C and 22 ± 1 kb for the source of the inclusion indicates an abnormally high geothermal gradient, actually exceeding die oceanic geotherm. Heat-flow measurements also indicate a similarly high geothermal gradient for this part of Australia. It is inferred that this nodule is derived from a region of perturbed steady-state geotherm, generated during Tertiary volcanism and continuing to the present day.


Ethical considerations and the limitation in availability of human skin for percutaneous absorption studies of drugs are the main reasons for the use of animal skin. Pig skin has been reported to have permeability properties resembling that of human skin. The aim of the current study was to investigate the suitability of newborn pig skin as a model in percutaneous absorption studies. The anatomical features of skin from newborn pigs have been investigated using light and electron microscopy. The use of pigs that have died of natural causes shortly after birth allows the experiments to be carried out under tissue retrieval rather than animal ethics regulations. The thickness of the stratum corneum and epidermis was found to be similar to that of human skin and considerably thinner than adult pig skin, although the hair follicle density was much greater than that in either adult pigs or humans. Assessment of integrity of full-thickness newborn pig skin was performed using water permeability and electrical resistance measurements. A resistance greater than 20 kΩcm 2 was proposed as a stringent and conservative indicator of an intact barrier function. The in vitro permeation characteristics of some model compounds (tritiated water, [ 14 C] mannitol, and propranolol hydrochloride) have also been investigated. With the exception of mannitol, newborn pig skin was found to have a similar permeation properties to human skin (factor of difference values between I-1.5). In addition, a comparison has been made on the enhancing effect of two terpenes, carvacrol and menthol, on the permeation of propranolol hydrochloride. Permeability through newborn pig skin was approximately double that of human skin but the rank order of enhancement remained the same. The factor difference values suggest that as a human skin substitute, newborn pig skin may be a suitable model for percutaneous absorption screening studies.


This book deals with organizations that operate in high hazard industries, such as the nuclear power, aviation, oil and chemical industry organizations. The society puts a great strain on these organizations to rigorously manage the risks inherent in the technology they use and the products they produce. In this book, an organizational psychology view is taken to analyse what are the typical challenges of daily work in these environments. The analysis is based on a literature review about human and organizational factors in safety critical industries, and on the interviews of Finnish safety experts and safety managers from four different companies. In addition to this, personnel interviews conducted in the Finnish nuclear power plants are utilised. The authors suggest eight themes that arise as common organizational challenges across the industries, e.g. how the personnel understands the risks and what the role of rules and procedures in guiding the work activities is. The primary aim of this book is to contribute to the nuclear safety research and safety management discussion. However, the book is equally suitable for risk management, organizational development and human resources management specialists in different industries. The purpose is to encourage readers to consider how the human and organizational factors are seen in the field they work in.


The operating conditions of scramjet engines demand designs that include active cooling by the fuel and the use of lightweight materials that withstand extreme heat fluxes and structural loads. An optimization tool has previously been introduced to direct the development of advanced materials that outperform existing high temperature alloys and compete with ceramic matrix composites. This analysis presents verification and accretion of the analytical design tool through a combination of numerical and experimental techniques. Selected computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analyses have been performed to verify critical thermal assumptions. A high-power CO2 laser provides heat fluxes representative of hypersonic flight conditions.Copyright © 2007 by ASME


A 42 year old woman with history of HTN,HLP ,sever fatty liver and weighting 138 kg( BMI: 54kg/m 2 ) that had suffered of abdominal pain in epigastric area and sever fever some days after gastrectomy mini bypass surgery, presented to the emergency department. There are no evidence about GI hemorrhaging and alteration of intestinal motions. Her vital signs are as a below: Blood pressure: 110/75 mm Hg Pulse rate: 110 Per/Min Respiratory rate: 22 Per/Min Body temperature: 38.5 0 C In abdominal examination, there are no expansion, pus or blood discharging from surgery area. In palpation abdomen was fatty and there is a slight tenderness in epigastric area. Laboratory  experiment showed systemic inflammation with  leukocytosis and serum CRP rising.


The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with the incidence of hypertension in the Work Area of Bonegunu Health Center, North Buton Regency. This study uses a cross sectional study analytic survey design. The results of the study using the chi-square test showed that p value = 0,000 for knowledge, p value = 0.001 for physical activity / sports, p value = 0.002 for diet, p value = 0.002 infrastructure, pvalue = 0,000 for alcohol consumption, and p value = 0,000 for stress with hypertension. Conclusion, there is a relationship between knowledge, physical activity, diet, health facilities, alcohol consumption and stress with the incidence of hypertension.

Keywords: Hypertension Occurrence Factors, Hypertension


Melanomas frequently harbor BRAFV600 mutations. Vemurafenib (RG7204/PLX4032), a small-molecule inhibitor of mutant BRAF, has shown striking clinical efficacy in BRAFV600 mutant melanoma, creating the need for a well-validated companion diagnostic to select patients for treatment. We describe analytic performance characteristics of the cobas 4800 BRAF V600 Mutation Test, the test used to select patients for the pivotal vemurafenib trials. This real-time polymerase chain reaction assay was designed to detect the V600E (1799T>A) mutation DNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tissue samples. Sensitivity was assessed using blends of cell lines or tumor DNA, and tumor specimens with low levels of mutant alleles, as determined by 454 sequencing (a quantitative next-generation pyrosequencing method). A >96% hit rate was obtained across all specimen types with 5% mutant alleles at a DNA input of 125 ng, an amount readily obtained from one 5-&mgr;m section. The cobas test showed a higher sensitivity and specificity than direct bidirectional sequencing in a panel of 219 melanoma specimens. Cross reactivity with V600K and V600D was observed. Repeated testing of 5 specimens by 2 operators, using different instruments and reagent lots, yielded correct calls in 158/160 tests (98.8%). A set of 26 highly pigmented samples were identified that gave invalid test results. A simple 1:2 dilution resulted in a valid test result of 76% in such cases. The cobas test is a reproducible assay that detects some non-V600E mutations and is more accurate than direct sequencing in detecting BRAFV600E.


This paper presents industry and organizational factors that were found to play an important role in dictating IT's strategic impact on and contribution to its enterprise. Five IT executives from different industries were interviewed about their firms' investment in people, process and technology in executing operations, investment and strategy. The firms' IT organizations were categorized using McFarlan's Strategic Grid for IT. The recurring key themes revealed by the IT executives centered on People, Relationship Management, Stakeholder Management, and Strategic Planning. In addition, key observations about factors that influence IT's approach in its partnering with the business were discussed. These factors are organization breadth and size, the nature in which the firms' customer contact was managed through IT, and the influence of cloud/Software-as-aService offerings on IT's approach to addressing business needs.


This paper aims to accelerate video stream processing, such as object detection and semantic segmentation, by leveraging the temporal redundancies that exist between video frames. Instead of propagating and warping features using motion alignment, such as optical flow, we propose a novel knowledge distillation schema coined as Delta Distillation. In our proposal, the student learns the variations in the teacher's intermediate features over time. We demonstrate that these temporal variations can be effectively distilled due to the temporal redundancies within video frames. During inference, both teacher and student cooperate for providing predictions: the former by providing initial representations extracted only on the key-frame, and the latter by iteratively estimating and applying deltas for the successive frames. Moreover, we consider various design choices to learn optimal student architectures including an end-to-end learnable architecture search. By extensive experiments on a wide range of architectures, including the most efficient ones, we demonstrate that delta distillation sets a new state of the art in terms of accuracy vs. efficiency trade-off for semantic segmentation and object detection in videos. Finally, we show that, as a by-product, delta distillation improves the temporal consistency of the teacher model.


The aim of this study is to investigate risk spillovers between uncertainty about financial and commodity markets and Turkish stock market by using a causality-in-variance test. To this end, we use implied volatility indexes (the implied volatility of the gold, oil, stock, and currency prices from options markets) and Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Turkish stock market index. The volatility model estimates demonstrate that implied volatilities and Turkish stock market index are strongly influenced by long-run volatility. The causality-in-variance test results provide evidence of a significant one-way volatility spillover effect from uncertainty in financial and commodity markets to the Turkish stock market. The results suggest that Turkish stock market returns are highly sensitive to uncertainty shocks in global markets, and hence this high-sensitivity reduces the attractiveness of investments in the Turkish market. Our findings present important implications for the implementation of sound economic policies and for the formation of optimal portfolios.


Throughout his career as a filmmaker, Peter Greenaway has railed against the dominance of narrative-based cinema. "Why do we have to have text before we can have image?" he has asked (Chua 177). His films consistently seek to draw attention to the conflict between the verbal and the visual that is commonly suppressed in more mainstream movies. As a filmmaker with an obvious interest in the seventeenth century,1 Greenaway has naturally come to understand this conflict in terms of the famous quarrel between Ben Jonson and Inigo Jones, who collaborated in making masques for the Jacobean court. Undoubtedly, one of the things that drew him to The Tempest was the way in which it responds to the Jonson and Jones debate by exploring the unstable relationship between word and spectacle. Prospero's Books, Greenaway's 1991 film adaptation of Shakespeare's play, is similarly concerned with achieving a balance between the verbal and the visual. At different points in the movie, Greenaway seems to side with both Jonson and Jones. On the one hand, the movie "celebrates the text as text, as the master material on which all the magic, illusion and deception of the play is based" (Greenaway, Prospero's 9). On the other, it enacts a surprising amount of violence toward books. In the end, of course, Greenaway identifies with both Jonson and Jones; his Prospero is as much poet as architect. According to D. J. Gordon, "[t]here could be no way out of the quarrel" between Jonson and Jones, because "everything depended on whose 'design' came first: the poet's or the architect's, who was employing in these cases the arts of design" (96). But in Pmspem's Books, the issue of design is complicated by the fact that "The Tempest is both the text that generated the film, and [...] the text generated by the film" (Hotchkiss 22-23). By creating a synthesis between the verbal and the visual, Peter Greenaway resolves the Renaissance quarrel between Jonson and Jones. In so doing, however, he places unique demands upon the moviegoer, who must learn to inhabit the "very intimidating gap between text and image" (Greenaway, Pillow 12). There is a natural tendency to discuss the Jonson and Jones dispute in terms of a simple opposition between the verbal and the visual. Greenaway himself gives in to this temptation in providing the following sketch of their stormy relationship: I suppose they made something like thirty masques in a period of fifteen years, but apparently all the time they were quarrelling. They were professionally-and in their private lives-very antagonistic and jealous of one another. But I think over and above these niceties, basically Ben Jonson was interested in the word, and Inigo Jones was interested in spectacle. (Rodgers 11) While such an account may seem absurdly reductive, ignoring as it does the serious thought underlying both sides of the debate, there is nevertheless an element of truth in it. Of course, it should be noted that the conflicting stands taken by the poet and the architect were theoretically well grounded. Jonson believed that the masque had both a body and a soul, the former appealing only to the senses and the latter to the understanding. In his view, the body was less important than the soul, because it "lasts only as long as sense experience itself. It is the soul, the invention which is the soul, that remains" (Gordon 80). "Invention," a term taken from rhetoric, involves identifying a subject, which is the first step in writing a poem. Imagining the masque to be a kind of poem, Jonson felt that its success or failure ultimately depended upon the poet, who is particularly adept at producing inventions. As far as Jones was concerned, the masque was something more than a poem and required architecture for its full realization. He drew upon theories developed in the world of mannerist art to argue that "the architect has as valid a right to claim knowledge and invention as the poet has" (Gordon 93). …


Potted sweetgum Liquidambar styracflua and loblolly pine Pinus taeda seedlings were grown for 4 months in a greenhouse to test the effects of soil nutrient heterogeneity on plant root development. The same quantity of fertilizer was applied either uniformly to the entire pot soil surface or to just one quarter of it. Pots were placed in full sunlight or underneath shade cloth that attenuated light to 30% of full sunlight. The spatial development of root systems of both species was strongly influenced by the fertilization arrangements, but they reacted to soil nutrient heterogeneity differently; sweetgum roots concentrated in the fertilized patch, while loblolly pine roots extended much more to the unfertilized patches. Root system morphology was also affected by nutrient arrangements. For both species, root interbranch length increased and fine roots were thinner in nutrient-rich patches. Root branching angles were either unaffected by nutrient patchiness or too variable to detect a trend. Root proliferation in the rich patches was primarily due to fine root elongation and development of higher order lateral roots. Fertilization arrangements under full light did not significantly affect most aspects of total plant growth or allometry, including total plant mass, above-ground mass, leaf mass, total fine root mass, total root mass, fine root mass/shoot mass and fine root mass/leaf mass. However, interspecific differences were usually significant. In shade, large fertilization treatment effects appeared in total plant mass, above-ground mass, leaf mass and height. Root development in heterogeneous soils differed between light treatments. Sweetgum was more plastic than loblolly pine in its reaction to soil nutrient patchiness under full light, but both had similar plasticity in shade. This study suggests that sweetgum and loblolly pine might have different nutrient foraging strategies and that the strategies shift as light availability changes. These results suggest that competitive interactions between sweetgum and loblolly pine may be affected by the spatial heterogeneity of soil resources. Since sweetgum is a more efficient soil forager, silvicultural methods that encourage uniform distribution of soil resources may also increase the competitive ability of loblolly pine, the more commercially valuable of the two species.


Several types of liposomes were used to enrich Artemia nauplii in vitamin A, vitamin C and free methionine. In a first experiment, unilamellar liposomes formulated with krill phospholipid extract and retinyl palmitate demonstrated their capability to enhance the retinol content of Artemia nauplii. Furthermore, the increase in retinol was related to the amount of retinyl palmitate included in the liposomes as vitamin A source. These findings yield the possibility of using such vesicles to bioencapsulate simultaneously both vitamin A and essential fatty acids present in the krill phospholipid extract. A second enrichment was carried out with unilamellar liposomes composed of soybean phosphatidylcholine and loaded with sodium ascorbate as vitamin C source. Our results did not show that vitamin C content in the nauplii could be increased using unilamellar liposomes. This was most likely due to the degradation of the vitamin C during enrichment as well as the ascorbate leakage. Finally, a third experiment assessed enrichment in free methionine using liposomes of different lamellarity (unilamellar or multilamellar) and composed of either soybean phosphatidylcholine or dipalmitoyl phosphatidylcholine, both combined with cholesterol as a membrane stabilizer. Results indicated that multilamellar liposomes represent a useful tool to deliver methionine to Artemia nauplii. Enhanced protection given by their multiple bilayers in comparison to unilamellar liposomes could account for the higher ability displayed by multilamellar vesicles for free methionine bioencapsulation.


Nonlinear fitting algorithms have illuminated the role of weather in human diseases, by allowing for robust tests of mechanistic transmission models, but a lack of data has prevented applications to animal diseases. This is important because classical models that neglect weather predict that there will be a host density threshold, below which epidemic intensity will be slight, but models that include weather predict that this threshold will often be obliterated by weather variability. To test the applicability of thresholds to animal diseases, we estimated infection rates of the fungal pathogen Entomophaga maimaiga in the gypsy moth, by collecting larvae during epidemics at a range of host densities and weather conditions, and we estimated the pathogen's force of infection, by exposing experimental larvae to the pathogen for 24 h periods in the field. By fitting a range of models to our data, we show that epidemics of this pathogen are best explained by a model that allows for positive effects of both host density and cool, moist weather on transmission, such that weather-only and density-dependence-only models provide vastly poorer explanations for the data. Despite the effects of weather, the combined model shows that the effects of density in E. maimaiga are strong enough to ensure that the density threshold will have important effects on the probability of epidemics. Our work shows that weather and density-dependent transmission can interact in non-intuitive ways, and provides an illustration of the usefulness of nonlinear fitting for understanding animal diseases.


Corythomantis greeningi is a hylid widely distributed in the xerophilic and sub-humid morphoclimatic regions of northeastern Brazil. The morphology of C. greeningi tadpoles were described from specimens collected in the Bahia, however, we observed some differences in morphology of individuals from Piauí, northeastern Brazil. The tadpoles were collected during the 2019 rainy season and 14 individuals were used to compare the larval characters. We observed differences in external, internal oral and chondrocranial morphology in relation to specimens previously described, especially in oral disc, number and shape of oral cavity papillae and some chondrocranium structures, suggesting a heterochrony in the development of the species. Further studies involving a greater number of tadpoles at different stages, combined with genetic, acoustic, and morphological factors of adult may establish the variation degree of C. greeningi in different regions of northeastern Brazil.


The transcription factor, nuclear factor erythroid 2-related factor 2 (Nrf2), plays a major role in regulating the antioxidant defense system through the Kelch-like ECH-associated protein 1–Nrf2–antioxidant response element (Keap1–Nrf2–ARE) pathway. Small-molecule inhibitors targeting Keap1–Nrf2 protein–protein interaction (PPI) decrease the rate of Nrf2 degradation by the 26S proteasome and thus increase the intracellular level of Nrf2, which translocates into the nucleus, leading to upregulated expression of cytoprotective and antioxidant enzymes. Such inhibitors can be developed into potential preventive and therapeutic agents of diseases caused by oxidative damage. To more effectively identify promising Nrf2 activators through the inhibition of Keap1–Nrf2 PPI, a homogeneous time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET) assay was developed in this work by indirectly labeling the Keap1 Kelch domain protein with Tb-anti-His antibody as the donor and using, as the acceptor, fluorescein isothiocyanate (FITC)-labeled 9mer Nrf2 peptide amide, the same fluorescent probe that was used in an earlier fluorescence polarization (FP) assay. Assay conditions, including concentrations of the various components, buffer type, and incubation time, were optimized in the TR-FRET competition assay with known small-molecule inhibitors of Keap1–Nrf2 PPI. Under the optimized conditions, the Keap1–Nrf2 TR-FRET assay exhibited great sensitivity with a high dynamic range and considerable stability for as long as 5 h. The Z' factor was determined to be 0.82, suggesting that the assay is suitable for high-throughput screening and lead optimization of inhibitors of Keap1–Nrf2 PPI. Furthermore, the TR-FRET assay is capable of differentiating potent inhibitors of Keap1–Nrf2 PPI down to the subnanomolar inhibition constant (Ki) range.


The formation and evolution of double-diffusive interleaving is experimentally investigated with the purpose of analysing the influence of the convective flow structures, at different scales, on the mean flow. Recently, Krishnamurti (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 558, 2006, p. 113) has shown that, in the case of a continuous stratification experiment, the Reynolds stresses, due to convective flow patches, are able to vertically transport horizontal momentum, maintaining the mean flow. This mechanism is similar to the turbulent wind observed in thermal convection. In this study, the interleaving is produced using the classical set-up of Ruddick & Turner (Deep-Sea Res., vol. 558, 1979, p. 903). The dam-break experiments better resemble the case of oceanic fronts, where interleaving is commonly observed. The flow structures are investigated by measuring the two-dimensional flow fields using the particle image velocimetry technique. The resulting two-dimensional vector fields reveal complex fine-scale flow structures, and convective patterns are observed inside the finger-favourable layers. Vortical structures at scales comparable with the layer thickness are embedded in these regions and seem to be responsible for sustaining the horizontal mean flow against the viscous dissipations, especially in a region close to the layer nose. A spectral analysis of the flow fields suggest that the energy balance is governed by an inverse energy cascade, which implies a transfer of energy from the smaller scales to the larger scales (mean flow).


In this paper the current status of coral reefs, predictions concerning the ecological state of coral reefs to the 2025 time horizon and the research needs that can help understanding and management activities that might alleviate detrimental ecological changes are evaluated and discussed. The present rate of CO2 emissions will produce an atmospheric concentration in 100 years not experienced during the past 20 million years and water temperatures above those of the past interglacial 130 000 years before present. Human influences on water temperatures, seawater chemistry (toxic substances, nutrients and aragonite saturation), the spread of diseases, removal of species and food web alterations are presently changing reef ecology. A significant ecological reorganization is underway and changes include a reduction in calcifying and zooxanthellae-hosting organisms, their obligate symbionts, and species at higher trophic levels, with an increase in generalist species of low trophic level that are adapted to variable environments. Late-successional fleshy brown algae of low net productivity or non-commercial invertebrates such as sea urchins, starfish and coral-eating snails will dominate many reefs. These changes will be associated with a loss of both net benthic and fisheries production and inorganic carbonate deposition; this will reduce reef complexity, species richness, reef growth and increase shoreline erosion. To avert these changes management is needed at both global and local levels. Both levels need to reduce greenhouse gases and other waste emissions and renew efforts to improve resource management including restrictions on the use of resources and globalization of resource trade, run-off and waste production, and balancing potential reef production and resource consumption.


Background: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a common and complex autoimmune disease characterized by chronic inflammation and cartilage/bone damage involving numerous cells, such as T cells, B cells, chondrocytes, fibroblasts [1]. B cells had long been well-demonstrated to participant in the development of RA [2]. Except producing specific antibody and inducing T cell activation, impaired immunosuppressive function of B cells further emphasized their roles in RA recently [3]. Objectives: To investigate whether B cells could produce granzyme B and the potential role in the pathogenesis of Rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: To reveal the expression of granzyme B in B cells, flow cytometry, PCR and Elispot were performed. The role of IL-21 and anti-BCR stimulation on granzyme B expression was assessed by in vitro stimulation assay. CD4+ T cell-B cell co-culture in the presence of granzyme B neutralizing antibody was performed to demonstrate the function of these cells. Then the levels of granzyme B in B cells between RA patients, OA patients as well as HCs were compared. Next,the correlation analysis between granzyme B-producing B cells and clinical features in RA patients was performed. Finally, the frequencies of granzyme B-producing B cells in RA patients before and after therapy were also evaluated using flow cytometry. Results: B cells could spontaneously produce granzyme B, which could be perpetuated by IL-21 and anti-BCR stimulation. The frequencies of Th1 and Th17 cells were significantly elevated under the condition of granzyme B blockade when granzyme B was neutralized in CD4+ T cell-B cell co-culture. In RA patients, but not OA patients and HCs, the frequencies of granzyme-B producing Bregs decreased significantly, which was functionally impaired and negatively correlated with disease activity score 28. Moreover, after effective clinical therapy, the frequencies could recover to nomal levels. Conclusions: B cells could exert the regulatory functions via granzyme B production. Under RA circumstance, these granzyme B-producing Bregs were impaired and contributed to the disease progression. References: [1] Smolen JS, Aletaha D, McInnes IB, Rheumatoid arthritis, Lancet. 2016 Oct 22;388(10055):2023–2038. doi: 10.1016/S0140–6736(16)30173–8. [2] Nakken B, Munthe LA, Konttinen YT, et al,B-cells and their targeting in rheumatoid arthritis–current concepts and future perspectives. Autoimmun Rev. 2011 Nov;11(1):28–34. doi: 10.1016/j.autrev.2011.06.010. [3] Daien CI, Gailhac S, Mura T, Regulatory B10 cells are decreased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis and are inversely correlated with disease activity. Arthritis Rheumatol. 2014 Aug;66(8):2037–46. doi: 10.1002/art.38666. Acknowledgements: This study was supported by grants from the Natural Science Foundation of China (81671609, 81671604,31470039). Disclosure of Interest: None declared DOI: 10.1136/annrheumdis-2017-eular.2269


The effect of temperature as a determinant for selecting microbial populations associated with alkane-degradation was examined in crude oil-amended soil microcosms. After a 30-day incubation, >95% of n-alkane components in the crude-oil were depleted and approximately 40 and 60% of added [14C] hexadecane was converted to 14CO2 at 4-10 and 25 degrees C, respectively. Concomitant with crude-oil depletion, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis revealed the emergence of a prominent Rhodococcus-like 16S rRNA sequence at all temperatures and a prominent Pseudomonas-like sequence at 4 and 10 degrees C. The diversity of alkane hydroxylase genes (alkB) associated with the amendments was examined using group-specific alkB-PCR primerstargeting phylogenetically distinct groups of alkane-degrading bacteria and subsequent cloning, denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis and sequencing analyses. Diverse Rhodococcus-alkB genes were detected at all temperatures, while a single prominent Pseudomonas-alkB genotype was detected only at lower temperatures. Two isolates obtained from the microcosms were shown to have 16S rRNA and alkB genes identical to those observed and were used to examine growth as a function of temperature. The Pseudomonas isolate exhibited a substantially higher growth rate at 4 and 10 degrees C than the Rhodococcus isolate, consistent with the inference that differences in adaptation to low temperature explain the observed shift in populations. High resolution analysis of alkB genes enabled the differentiation of distinct alkane-degrading populations responding to crude-oil amendment from other closely related, well-studied strains with different temperature adaptations.


Geometric contour following for scanning control in SFF application is used to refine the boundary ofthe parts for increasing the accuracy or to develop the capability to arrange various scanning directions and paths for improving the part strength. The scanners must be driven to follow the prescribed path as fast as possible, limited by available torques. In this paper the minimum time optimal control problem with specified path and limited control torque is formulated. According to the trade-off between various requirements, a control strategy is studied.


Multivariate techniques, like cluster analysis (CA) and principal component analysis (PCA), were used to evaluate the spatial and temporal variability of surface water quality in a large neotropical hydroelectric reservoir (Nova Ponte Reservoir). The dataset, obtained during the period of 1995–2011 from the Energy Company of Minas Gerais State (CEMIG), contains 14 parameters surveyed quarterly in 14 sites, at different depths. The CA grouped the 14 sites in three main groups: lotic sites, half of the photic zone sites and bottom sites. Statistical tests showed that only three parameters (total dissolved solids, nitrate and chemical oxygen demand) have no significant difference between cluster groups. The PCA results showed temporal changes of the water quality in all groups, illustrating modifications to the importance of the parameters over time. PCA also revealed the major causes of water deterioration from 1995 to 2005 were related to agricultural and livestock activities. Currently, the water quality parameters related to organic pollution are also highlighted. Generally, this study shows that possible optimization of the monitoring network should consider temporal variation of water quality parameters.


Abstract EFSA received a mandate from the European Commission to assess the effectiveness of some of the control measures against diseases included in the Category A list according to Regulation (EU) 2016/429 on transmissible animal diseases ('Animal Health Law'). This opinion belongs to a series of opinions where these control measures will be assessed, with this opinion covering the assessment of control measures for Classical swine fever (CSF). In this opinion, EFSA and the AHAW Panel of experts review the effectiveness of: (i) clinical and laboratory sampling procedures, (ii) monitoring period and (iii) the minimum radii of the protection and surveillance zones, and the minimum length of time the measures should be applied in these zones. The general methodology used for this series of opinions has been published elsewhere; nonetheless, details of the model used for answering these questions are presented in this opinion as well as the transmission kernels used for the assessment of the minimum radius of the protection and surveillance zones. Several scenarios for which these control measures had to be assessed were designed and agreed prior to the start of the assessment. Here, several recommendations are given on how to increase the effectiveness of some of the sampling procedures. Based on the average length of the period between virus introduction and the reporting of a CSF suspicion, the monitoring period was assessed as non‐effective. In a similar way, it was recommended that the length of the measures in the protection and surveillance zones were increased from 15 to 25 days in the protection zone and from 30 to 40 days in the surveillance zone. Finally, the analysis of existing Kernels for CSF suggested that the radius of the protection and the surveillance zones comprise 99% of the infections from an affected establishment if transmission occurred. Recommendations provided for each of the scenarios assessed aim to support the European Commission in the drafting of further pieces of legislation, as well as for plausible ad hoc requests in relation to CSF.


Cloud Data Centers (CDCs) have become a vital computing infrastructure for enterprises. However, CDCs consume substantial energy due to the increased demand for computing power, especially for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications. Although a great deal of research in green resource allocation algorithms have been proposed to reduce the energy consumption of the CDCs, existing approaches mostly focus on minimizing the number of active Physical Machines (PMs) and rarely address the issue of load fluctuation and energy efficiency of the Virtual Machine (VM) provisions jointly. Moreover, existing approaches lack mechanisms to consider and redirect the incoming traffics to appropriate resources to optimize the Quality of Services (QoSs) provided by the CDCs. We propose a novel adaptive energy-aware VM allocation and deployment mechanism called AFED-EF for IoT applications to handle these problems. The proposed algorithm can efficiently handle the fluctuation of load and has good performance during the VM allocation and placement. We carried out extensive experimental analysis using a real-world workload based on more than a thousand PlanetLab VMs. The experimental results illustrate that AFED-EF outperforms other energy-aware algorithms in energy consumption, Service Level Agreements (SLA) violation, and energy efficiency.


Clustering is the hot spot in the study of data mining. This paper proposed a cluster reducing strategy based on so called "vibrating method". The "vibrating method" synthesizes the merits of the "distance based method" and the "density based method" of traditional clustering algorithm. It first finds out the "core" of each cluster and then "vibrating" cores to lower the difference between the clusters and tight the relationship among the clusters. Therefore, it can be used as a cluster reducing strategy to reduce or compose the clusters after clustering.


Introduction Social inequalities in health is an important problem in Brazil challenging the public Health System. This is also an issue that affects the elderly population. Objective The aim of this study was to assess the magnitude of social inequalities in health status, health behaviour and use of health services in elderly. Methods A population-based cross-sectional study was carried out in 2008 e 2009 involving 1518 elderly residents of Campinas, SP, Brazil (ISACAMP 2008/2009). Social inequalities were assessed by educational level. Prevalence and adjusted prevalence ratios were estimated applying Poisson multiple regression, using svy commands of Stata11. Results Significant social differences were found between the educational strata. Elderly individuals with a higher degree of schooling consume more alcoholic beverages (RP=1.94), are less sedentary (RP=0.72), have healthier dietary (1.64) and a lower prevalence of hypertension (RP=0.80), diabetes (RP=0.71), dizziness (RP=0.67), headaches (RP=0.52), back pain (RP=0.77), visual impairment (RP=0.57) and denture use (RP=0.68). But, there were no differences in the use of health services in the previous 2 weeks, in hospitalisation or in surgeries in the previous year and in medicine intake in the previous 3 days. Among elderly with hypertension or diabetes, there were also no differences in the regular use of health services and medication. Conclusion The results showed strong social inequality in this elderly population with significant differences in several health indicators, along with equity in the access of some health service components, suggesting positive effects of the Brazilian Public Health System on promoting health equity.


A field trial was set up to assess the emergence and survival under natural rainfall conditions of three species of native grasses when sown monthly for 8 months in seven different roadside environments. Generally, rainfall events of 40 mm or more were associated with substantial emergence events, and seed of Danthonia richardsonii cv. 'Taranna' and Microlaena stipoides was able to germinate after being in dry soil for up to 120 days. The highest emergence of Chloris truncata and 'Taranna' occurred from October and November sowings, whereas that of M. stipoides was from autumn sowings. For all species, emergence was highest in roadside environments with topsoil and poorest for a subsoil environment. Final percent survival of all species closely matched percent emergence with less than 20% seedling mortality occurring over time. A higher percentage of seeds sown in October and November germinated and survived as plants than from December and January sowings. Survival of plants from the initial seed source was generally greater than 25% for all species when sown between October and January. The highest seedling mortality occurred on an old road environment whereas the lowest was in a relatively undisturbed environment. Management implications are that on the Northern Tablelands, given adequate rainfall, these three native grasses have the best chance of successful establishment if sown in spring on a cultivated bed of topsoil. M. stipoides and D. richardsonii cv. 'Taranna' seed can also be sown into a dry seedbed in summer and germinate following rainfall several months later.


Minimally invasive treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) are a cornerstone in the management of this challenging disease. For many years, percutaneously guided ablative techniques, such as radiofrequency ablation (RFA), cryoablation, and microwave ablation (MWA), have successfully treated many different solid malignancies including HCC. Since the initial implementation of these ablative techniques, there have been many advances in the design, technique, and patient selection as well as investigation into the body's response to treatment. The mechanisms of thermal-based ablative techniques, advantages and disadvantages of each technique, subsequent immunologic response following ablation, and advances in care that utilize combination therapy to potentiate the immunologic response creating a robust and long-term immunity to HCC are outlined in this chapter. of investigation and discovery.


This paper seeks to explorehow the comprehensible inputs are given by mother   responded by the children who have no English background and what are the discourse features which aid children's comprehension and ability to maintain the conversation. This study is conducted in the writer's home with her sons in order to apply the comprehensible inputs. The results shows that the children ages 5 and 7 years old who have no English background are able to give the responses unless the questions or the stimulus given must be followed by the non verbal language such as gesture and the body movements. In this case, the results can be varied. From the stimulus using the comprehensible inputs, the children are also giving different responses. It can be in the form of non-verbal language such as nodding or by repeating the last word said by their mother. It is suggested that parents should give encouragement to the children and help them in acquiring the second language at home.  Keywords:  Parents' stimulus; Comprehensible inputs; daily conversation with no English background.


Cerebral neoplasms like gliomas may cause intracranial pressure increasing, neural tract deviation, infiltration, or destruction in peritumoral areas, leading to neuro-functional deficits. Novel tracking technology, such as DTI, can objectively reveal and visualize three-dimensional white matter trajectories; in combination with intraoperative navigation, it can help achieve maximum resection whilst minimizing neurological deficit. Since the reconstruction of DTI raw data largely relies on the technical engineering and anatomical experience of the operator; it is time-consuming and prone to operator-induced bias. Here, we develop new user-friendly software to automatically segment and reconstruct functionally active areas to facilitate precise surgery. In this pilot trial, we used an in-house developed software (DiffusionGo) specially designed for neurosurgeons, which integrated a reliable diffusion-weighted image (DWI) preprocessing pipeline that embedded several functionalities from software packages of FSL, MRtrix3, and ANTs. The preprocessing pipeline is as follows: 1. DWI denoising, 2. Gibbs-ringing removing, 3. Susceptibility distortion correction (process if opposite polarity data were acquired), 4. Eddy current and motion correction, and 5. Bias correction. Then, this fully automatic multiple assigned criteria algorithms for fiber tracking were used to achieve easy modeling and assist precision surgery. We demonstrated the application with three language-related cases in three different centers, including a left frontal, a left temporal, and a left frontal-temporal glioma, to achieve a favorable surgical outcome with language function preservation or recovery. The DTI tracking result using DiffusionGo showed robust consistency with direct cortical stimulation (DCS) finding. We believe that this fully automatic processing pipeline provides the neurosurgeon with a solution that may reduce time costs and operating errors and improve care quality and surgical procedure quality across different neurosurgical centers.


The internal structure of the suprachiasmatic nucleus (SCN) was studied qualitatively and quantitatively in several hundred rat brains with a variety of methods including several types of Golgi impregnations, Nissl stains, horseradish peroxidase application, and electron microscopy. One suprachiasmatic nucleus has a volume of about 0.068 mm3 and contains close to 8,000 neurons. Dorsomedially, cells tend to be smaller and more tightly packed than ventrolaterally; significantly more somatic appositions occur in the dorsomedial SCN than in other parts of the nucleus. Two neurons with an extended region of somatic apposition may have no intercellular specializations, or they may be held together with various attachment plaques. Chains of neurons with long regions of somatosomatic apposition are found in the dorsomedial SCN with Nissl and silver stains, and with EM. The length of these chains is generally oriented in an antero-posterior direction. Interspersed with the neurons are astroglia. Astroglia studied with Golgi impregnations, Cajal's gold sublimate stain, and EM in SCN may have a rich cytoplasm falling in between the organelle-rich cytoplasm of some large neurons and the organelle-poor cytoplasm of some of the smaller SCN neurons. Nuclei of SCN glia and neurons are often invaginated and multiple nucleoli are a prominent feature of a large number of SCN neurons. With Golgi impregnations a number of relatively simple dendritic arbors exist. These include the simple bipolar cell, curly bipolar cell, radial neuron, monopolar neuron, and spinous cell. At the borders of the nucleus some dendrites may travel into the adjacent anterior hypothalamus; similarly, dendrites from cells outside SCN may enter into the nucleus boundaries. Compared with the rest of the hypothalamus, axons in SCN stain very poorly with conventional histological methods including Lux01 blue, Bodian, Sevier-Munger, Loyez, and Golgi, in part because of the fine caliber of the fibers. Golgi impregnated and silver-stained axon fascicles composed primarily of unmyelinated axons may divide up within the nucleus or may pass through without maintaining local collaterals. Several different types of Golgi-impregnated axonal arborizations terminate within SCN. Some have an extensive number of boutons ending on SCN somata, dendrites, and dendritic appendages. Other single axons pass through SCN without leaving any collaterals, or terminals in the nucleus. The majority of Golgi-impregnated axons arising from SCN neurons maintain locally terminating collaterals, with boutons en passant and termineaux; these axons originate with equal frequency from the perikaryon or from a proximal dendrite. Golgi, horseradish peroxidase, and silver staining methods reveal axons connecting left


Medical oncology, which post-graduate diploma was established in France in 1984, was built on the practice of anticancer chemotherapy and interdisciplinarity. The political impetus of the Cancer Plan 2009-2013 had helped develop and generalize its learning since 2011. These recent changes explain the lack of information we have on the socialization of young medical oncologists in their discipline. To fill this gap, a qualitative exploratory study was conducted by comprehensive interviews with ten young medical oncologists. It revealed the importance of the physician patient relationship and clinical research in choosing this specialty. It also updated the large part of empowerment in the learning process. Furthermore, although the overall management often appears in the discourse of young oncologists, representation they have boils down to successive intervention of health professionals. The lack of specific training on this main concept in oncology appears to be missing in their vision of health coordination. Finally, the lack of training of consultation activities seems to be an important factor in the difficulty of projecting a private practice.


Recent E region VHF backscatter echoes observed by the MU radar at mid-latitudes show quasi-periodic striations with a fairly constant range vs. time tilt in a RTI display. These features are explained in terms of gravity waves with frequencies close to the Brunt-Vaisala frequency which modulate the shape of sporadic E layers. The conditions of instability, when the magnetic field has a significant dip angle, is revised. Differing from previous work, we argue that conditions of local gradient drift instability are not sufficient and one has to consider the integrated properties of each magnetic filed tube. Stratified sporadic E layers are stable using this new criteria, unless they are distorted to produce unstable integrated gradients. Gravity waves with phase fronts parallel to the magnetic dip angle are capable of producing such distortion, imposing its own temporal and spatial periodicity on the echoes.


The insulin-mediated vasodilator effect has been proposed as an important physiological determinant of insulin action on glucose disposal in normotensive humans. The present study was designed to further examine the acute regional hemodynamic effects of insulin in different vascular beds and to explore the relationships between insulin vascular effects and insulin sensitivity during euglycemic hyperinsulinemic clamps in conscious normotensive Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) rats and spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). The rats were instrumented with intravascular catheters and pulsed Doppler flow probes to measure blood pressure, heart rate, and regional blood flows. In WKY rats, the euglycemic infusion of insulin (4 and 16 mU.kg-1.min-1) causes vasodilations in renal and hindquarter vascular beds but no changes in mean blood pressure, heart rate, or superior mesenteric vascular conductance. In contrast, in SHR, the same doses of insulin produce vasoconstrictions in superior mesenteric and hindquarter vascular beds and, at high doses, increase blood pressure. Moreover, at the lower dose of insulin tested, we found a reduction in the insulin sensitivity index in the SHR compared with the WKY rats. The present findings provide further evidence for an association between insulin sensitivity and insulin-mediated hemodynamic responses.