Photosynthesising cyanobacteria breathed life into what was 1000 million years ago considered a reductive atmosphere, thus providing a selective pressure for the evolution of O2-dependent organisms. However, the fact that molecular O2 exists in air as a free radical renders it a double-edged sword, capable of sustaining life in physiologically controlled amounts, yet fatal when in excess. The controlled delivery and stepwise reduction in PO2 from air to mitochondrion may in itself be considered an evolutionary antioxidant to cope with this biological conundrum. The present review will discuss the potential roles, both good and bad, for free radicals during human adaptation to altered environmental PO2. By combining electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy with spin-trapping, we provide direct molecular evidence for increased O2 and carbon-centered radical generation at high-altitude which may seem paradoxical in light of the reduced PO2. Radical-mediated contributions to tissue damage and their subsequent role in the pathogenesis of AMS, HAPE and HACE will also be critically examined. Finally, we focus on the sources, mechanisms and functional significance of free radical generation in hypoxia, with a brief consideration of their more positive role as putative signal transductants, capable of adjusting cellular homeostasis and initiating protective adaptation. Our preliminary studies in humans suggest that radical generation by skeletal muscle is exquisitely sensitive to intracellular PO2 which may provide a unifying theory to explain the "free radical paradox" of high-altitude.


The close association of cortical microtubules with cell walls is a characteristic of immobile plant cells. In interphase, the cortical array helps organize the cell wall and before division is replaced by a narrower preprophase band that forecasts where the new cross-wall will be attached after mitosis. The mitotic spindle is essentially similar to the general eukaryotic model but the lack of centrosomes at the poles means that the plant spindle looks different, having broader poles and reduced astral microtubules. During cytokinesis, the rigid cellulose-rich wall does not contract inwards to separate the divided chromosomes; instead, a new cross-wall is laid down by a ring of phragmoplast microtubules that expands outwards until it fuses with the parent wall at the site predicted by the preprophase band. In plants, microtubules therefore have a particularly direct connection with morphogenesis.

Key concepts:

Plant cells are immobile – their shape held by a cellulose-rich cell wall.

The passive entry of water into the vacuole generates the turgor pressure that drives cell expansion.

The direction of cell expansion is regulated according to the way that inelastic cellulose microfibrils are oriented in the cell wall.

Cortical microtubules attached to the cytoplasmic face of the plasma membrane channel the movement of the enzyme complexes as they extrude cellulose microfibrils into the wall.

Plant microtubules are highly dynamic, moving by a modified form of treadmilling in which new tubulin subunits are added at one end, as other subunits are lost from the opposite end.

The cortical array of microtubules arises out of the self-organization of microtubules that emerge from multiple, scattered nucleation sites.

The plane of cell division is forecast by the preprophase band. This transient, cortical structure contains microtubules, actin, endoplasmic reticulum and Golgi vesicles.

In higher plants, which have no centrioles, the mitotic spindle has broad poles and few astral microtubules.

The cytokinetic apparatus, the phragmoplast, is comprised of two interdigitating circlets of microtubules and actin filaments. Golgi vesicles are directed to the line of overlap to deposit the cell plate.

The new cross-wall grows out centrifugally, like a ripple in a pond, until it contacts the parental wall previously marked by the preprophase band.

Keywords:

cytoskeleton;
microtubules;
morphogenesis;
cell cycle;
preprophase band;
cytokinesis


COVID outbreak has incapacitated the healthcare system around the world. Existing resources and manpower are being redirected to take care of the COVID-19 disease patients. People with head and neck cancers with the need of post ablative reconstruction are in difficult situation owing to multiple factors like poor general condition, disease progression and potential chance of getting an infection of COVID -19 in a health care facility as well as doubt regarding treatment completion i.e. adjuvant treatment. Appropriate reconstruction following ablative surgery, especially in advanced disease, facilitates functional recovery and thus adding to the quality of life of the patients.The reconstructive procedures are resource-intensive, requiring long hours of surgery, trained manpower, and multiple team members. However, if adequate surgical excision demands the reconstructive procedure, then it should not be a hindrance for the standard treatment.  We need to review our approach in the face of the devastating COVID-19 pandemic. We are presently working in resource constraints like limited availability of staff and limited availability of personal protective equipment especially in plastic surgery procedures which requires the use of loupes and microscope. Thus, the challenge is to ensure proper reconstruction with limited available resources and maintaining safety standards for the staff in the operation theatre. This work is based on our experience and evidence from the literature.


This note is devoted to explaining the essence of the renormalization theory of beam·beam interaction for carrying out analytical calculations of equilibrium particle distributions in electron-positron colliding beam storage rings. Some new numerical examples are presented such as for betatron tune dependence of the nns beam size. The theory shows reasonably good agreements with the results of computer simulations.


The Australian genus of Eurybrachidae Stål, 1862 (Hemiptera, Fulgoromorpha) Olonia Stål, 1862 is redescribed and reviewed. Seven new species are described: O. bourgoini sp. nov. (N Queensland, Chillagoe), O. danielsi sp. nov. (N Queensland, Cape York Peninsula), O. guillaumei sp. nov. (N Queensland), O. hochae sp. nov. (N Queensland, Undara), O. monteithi sp. nov. (Queensland), O. rylandae sp. nov. (N Queensland, Chillagoe) and O. soulierae sp. nov. (Queensland). Platybrachys nobilis (Stål, 1863) is transferred to Olonia and the new combination Olonia nobilis (Stål, 1863) comb. nov., is proposed. Olonia ornata Lallemand, 1928 and O. apicalis (Walker, 1851) are removed from Olonia and transferred to Platybrachys Stål, 1859 and Maeniana Metcalf, 1952, respectively. Hence, the new combinations Platybrachys ornata (Lallemand, 1928) comb. nov. and Maeniana apicalis (Walker, 1851) comb. nov. are proposed. The new genus Stalobrachys gen. nov. is described to accommodate Olonia alboapicata Jacobi, 1928 and the new combination S. alboapicata (Jacobi, 1928) gen. et comb. nov. is proposed. The male genitalia are illustrated and photographs of habitus, a distribution map, biological data and an identification key are provided. The genus Olonia currently contains twelve species and the genus Stalobrachys gen. nov. has one species.


In North America, flooring strips are manufactured with grooves at the back. There are various reasons for these grooves but, historically, they were considered a strategy to reduce weight and transportation costs as well as improving dimensional stability. As no data are available to assess best practices in terms of performance, we have investigated methods to reduce flooring strip weight. One way to achieve this is to adjust the number and shape of grooves. Using warp as a comparison tool, we were able to analyze the merits of a finite number of designs. With this approach, however, we could not guarantee that the result was the most favourable. The search for a solution led to design optimization, i.e.: minimizing weight by acting upon a part of the strip's shape, taking into account its warp resistance or stiffness. This paper describes an optimization strategy adapted to the calculation of the optimal design subjected to arbitrary mechanical and geometrical conditions (including the thickness of the wear layer). This approach is not limited to flooring strips, and it can be used in any situation where a linear hygromechanical model is relevant. This strategy involves two steps: global optimization with respect to admissible variations of the shape (or design) followed by a post-processing phase that takes into account various other mechanical and possibly geometrical conditions imposed on the strip.
This paper describes an optimization strategy adapted to the calculation of the optimal design subjected to arbitrary mechanical and geometrical conditions (including the thickness of the wear layer). This approach is not limited to flooring strips, and it can be used in any situation where a linear hygromechanical model is relevant. This strategy involves two steps: global optimization with respect to admissible variations of the shape (or design) followed by a post-processing phase that takes into account various other mechanical and possibly geometrical conditions imposed on the strip.


Introduction The existing diagnostic algorithms for sputum smear-negative tuberculosis (TB) are complicated, time-consuming, and often difficult to implement. The decision to initiate TB treatment in resource-limited countries is often largely based on clinical predictors. We sought to determine the clinical predictors and accuracy of empiric TB treatment initiation in HIV-infected sputum smear-negative TB suspects using sputum culture as a reference standard. Setting Out-patient HIV-TB integrated urban clinic in Kampala, Uganda. Methods HIV-infected TB suspects were screened using sputum smear microscopy, and mycobacterial sputum liquid and solid cultures were performed. Smear results were made available to the clinician who made a clinical decision on empiric TB treatment initiation for sputum smear-negative patients. Clinic records were reviewed for patients whose sputum smears were negative to collect data on socio-demographics, TB symptomatology, chest X-ray findings, CD4 cell counts and TB treatment initiation. Results Of 253 smear-negative TB suspects, 56% (142/253) were females, median age 38 IQR (31–44) years, with a median CD4 cell count of 291 IQR (150–482) cells/mm3. Of the 85 (33.6%) smear-negative patients empirically initiated on TB treatment, 35.3% (n = 30) were sputum culture positive compared to only 18 (10.7%) of the 168 untreated patients (p<0.001). Abnormal chest X-ray [aOR 10.18, 95% CI (3.14–33.00), p<0.001] and advanced HIV clinical stage [aOR 3.92, 95% CI (1.20–12.85), p = 0.024] were significantly associated with empiric TB treatment initiation. The sensitivity and specificity of empiric TB treatment initiation in the diagnosis of TB in HIV-infected patients after negative smear microscopy was 62.5% and 73.7% respectively. Conclusion In resource-limited settings, clinically advanced HIV and abnormal chest X-ray significantly predict a clinical decision to empirically initiate TB treatment in smear-negative HIV-infected patients. Empiric TB treatment initiation correlates poorly with TB cultures. Affordable, accurate and rapid point-of-care diagnostics are needed in resource-limited settings to more accurately determine which HIV-infected TB suspects have smear-negative TB.


X-Ray diagnosis of secondary involvement of the vertebrae in Hodgkin's disease is difficult because pathognomonic shadow symptoms are absent. Interpretation of roentgenograms is still more difficult when a soft-tissue component which may simulate a "cold abscess" appears in the paravertebral area. Differential diagnosis is based on the clinical and x-ray correlations and histologic findings.


BACKGROUND
Studies indicate that not all physicians in clinical practice use spirometry routinely in the diagnosis of COPD. Understanding the patterns of spirometry use across geographic regions in patients with newly diagnosed COPD may help to identify the factors associated with the use of spirometry and to improve the quality of COPD care. The objective of this study was to characterize the regional variation in spirometry use for patients with newly diagnosed COPD using the Healthcare Effectiveness Data and Information Set (HEDIS) 2006 spirometry performance measure.

METHODS
We identified patients within the Veteran Health Administration who were >42 years of age who had received a new diagnosis of COPD between July 2003 and June 2004. The date of the COPD diagnosis was the index date. Spirometry use from 760 days prior to the index date to 180 days after the index date was identified. The Veterans Integrated Service Networks (VISNs) was used as the geographic unit for comparison.

RESULTS
Of the 93,724 patients included in the study, 36.7% underwent spirometry during the study period. Using the largest VISN as the referent, there was more than a threefold difference in the adjusted odds ratios (AORs) for spirometry use between the regions with the lowest use (AOR, 0.52; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.48 to 0.57) and the highest use (AOR, 1.61; 95% CI, 1.46 to 1.78).

CONCLUSIONS
Overall, the use of spirometry in patients with newly diagnosed COPD was low using the new HEDIS spirometry measure with a significant regional variation comprising a more than threefold difference between the regions with the lowest and highest rates of spirometry use.


In 2011, 11,428 men were diagnosed with prostate cancer in the Netherlands and 2,500 men died from the disease. Since the introduction of the prostate specific antigen (PSA) measurements, few men have metastatic disease at the time diagnosis. More than half of prostate cancer patients are currently being diagnosed with low-volume localised prostate cancer. This raises the question whether all of these men should be treated, especially when prostate cancer-specific mortality is low compared to overall mortality even in men without known comorbidity at the time of diagnosis. In recent series of such 'healthy' men treated for localised prostate cancer, the overall mortality exceeded prostate cancer mortality four to five-fold. Both tumour-related factors and general health status affect the outcome of prostate cancer treatment. In 'healthy' men with a low-volume, low-risk tumour, initial active surveillance is preferred above actual treatment. The small chance of progression and the possibility of curative treatment at the time of progression should be communicated to the patient. In men with an intermediate- or high-risk tumour, active treatment is preferred and depends on age and life expectancy.


This PhD investigation aims at identifying technological capability development of Chinese Energy Service Companies (ESCO) from the perspective of drivers, factors, process of technological capabilities development and product portfolio.This PhD investigation addresses four research questions: 1. Why have Chinese ESCOs developed their technological capabilities? 2. Which and how do factors affect Chinese ESCO's technological capabilities? 3. How have Chinese ESCOs developed technological capabilities? 4. How do case companies compare to US ESCOs in terms of product portfolio? ESCOs are an effective market-mechanism to help a country to achieve the target of energy conservation. After nearly 30 years' development, China has the largest ESCO market in the world. The development of ESCO industry in China is however still in its early stages.Technological capability is one of key barriers to its progress in China.The key research strategy was based upon multiple case studies in a qualitative approach which was supplemented by secondary data analysis. Within-case analysis and Cross-cases analysis were employed as key data analysis methods for this investigation.Six Chinese ESCOs of different sizes and locations were analysed through four dimensions of technology capabilities, namely: investment, production, linkage, and innovation. While the findings ratify the impact of these four dimensions on the company's technological capabilities,they had to be refined in accordance to the characteristics of service industry. An ESCO will manage each dimension and develop its technological capabilities based on the company's business strategy, business model, products and services.This PhD thesis will help companies to identify the factors within the four dimensions of technological capabilities. This should allow them to gradually develop initiatives to improvetheir products and services.


The present study was conducted among incarcerated people who had committed property offenses using more or less violent means. Using a simulation technique derived from Information Integration Theory, it examined the relationship between lasting resentment, willingness to forgive and willingness to avenge on the one hand, and level of violence (severity of the harm done) on the other hand. In the simulation, two adults work in the same company. One worker asks for a promotion, and the other worker tries to block his advancement by circulating rumors. The variables considered in the simulation are the offender's reaction and the type of response. The reaction factor has five levels: the offender (a) denies implication and joke about the victim's misfortune, (b) recognizes that he circulated rumors but try to self-justify, (c) recognizes that he circulated rumors and apologizes, (d) recognizes, apologizes, and try to repair his fault by informing the head of the company, and (e) recognizes, apologizes, and try to repair his fault by informing the head of the company who severely punishes him. The response factor had four levels. Participants were requested to express a level of (a) resentment/anger, (b) willingness to forgive, (c) willingness to avenge in circumstances where revenge would be riskless for them, and (d) willingness to avenge in circumstances where revenge would be risky for them. As expected, more violent offenders did not differ much from other offenders regarding the level of immediate resentment they experience just after having been harmed but they differed from them in the management of this emotion. Among them, resentment would be more directly converted into willingness to avenge, irrespective of the associated risk that is incurred.


We report upon a theoretical and experimental investigation of a porous medium 'filling box' flow by specifically examining the details of the laminar descending plume and its outflow in a control volume having an impermeable bottom boundary and sidewalls. The plume outflow initially comprises a pair of oppositely directed gravity currents. The gravity currents propagate horizontally until they reach the lateral sidewalls at $y=\pm L$ . The flow then becomes of filling box type, with a vertically ascending 'first front' separating discharged plume fluid below from ambient fluid above. The flow details are described analytically by first deriving a new similarity solution for Darcy plumes with $\mathit{Pe}>O(1)$ , where $\mathit{Pe}$ is the Péclet number. From the similarity solution so obtained, we then derive expressions for the plume volume flux and mean reduced gravity as functions of the vertical distance from the source. Regarding the plume outflow, a similarity solution adopted from Huppert & Woods (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 292, 1995, pp. 55–69) describes the height and front speed of the gravity currents, whereas a semi-implicit finite difference scheme is used to predict the first front elevation versus time and horizontal distance. As with high-Reynolds-number filling box flows, that studied here is an example of a coupled problem: the gravity current source conditions are prescribed by the plume volume flux and mean reduced gravity. Conversely, discharged plume fluid may be re-entrained into the plume, be it soon or long after reaching the bottom impermeable boundary. To corroborate our model predictions, analogue laboratory experiments are performed with fresh water and salt water as the working fluids. Our experiments consider as independent variables the porous medium bead diameter and the plume source volume flux and reduced gravity. Predictions for the gravity current front position and height compare favourably against analogue measured data. Good agreement is likewise noted when considering either the mean elevation or the profile of the first front. Results from this study may be adopted in modelling geological plumes. For example, our equations can be used to predict the time required for discharged plume fluid to return to the point of injection in the case of aquifers closed on the sides and below by impermeable boundaries.


1. A new induced NAD-dependent hydroaromatic dehydrogenase was isolated from a cell-free extract of Lactobacillus plantarum 13a and purified 175-fold. 2. The enzyme catalyses the oxidation of (-)-quinate, (-)-shikimate, (-)-dihydroshikimate and (-)t-3,t-4-dihydroxycyclohexane-c-1-carboxylate with NAD(+), and the reverse action with NADH. 3. The K(m) values at the optimal pH10.0 for these substrates are 0.85, 0.75, 0.52 and 0.74mm respectively, and the corresponding values for NAD(+) are 0.45, 0.26, 0.34 and 0.36mm respectively. 4. The stereochemical requirements of the enzyme and the role it may play in the reduction of (-)-quinate to (-)t-3,t-4-dihydroxycyclohexane-c-1-carboxylate are discussed and a pathway is suggested.


The effects of the kappa-opioid receptor agonists tifluadom, bremazocine and U-50,488 on locomotor activity (test: toggle-floor box) and memory (test: passive avoidance) were assessed in C57BL/6 (C57) and DB/2 (DBA) mice. The drugs administration resulted in activity depression in both strains, the effect was higher in DBA mice and was enhanced by pretreatment with haloperidol and with muscimol. Memory impairment was observed in DBA mice following posttraining administration of all drugs. This effect was enhanced by immobilization stress and decreased by familiarization with the apparatus. Memory improvement was evident in C57 mice (U-50,488 experiments). In a research carried out with CD1 mice, amygdaloid lesions decreased the memory impairing effect of U-50,488. The results are compared with those previously obtained with mu agonists and, as concerns memory, are discussed in terms of the involvement of emotional factors in mice responses to kappa agonists administration.


The International Study of Written Composition II explores many aspects of the writing conventions used by national and regional communites and the community of school writing and teachers as it intersects with the other communites that students inhabit. The study begins from the premise that the school subject writing is unique in that it represents a culturally-determined system in which a common set of practices are used by teachers, students and society. Individual chapters take up the nature of the beliefs and conventions of the school writing community as they are expressed in general curricular statements, in the beliefs and practices of teachers, the perceptions of students, the resultant performance of students, and the scoring practices of the IEA raters.


Paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis is a rare neurologic disorder characterized by sudden attacks of brief involuntary dyskinetic movement that are precipitated by voluntary movement. A 14-year-old male who presented with frequent brief attacks of hemidystonia triggered by sudden movement is reported. Investigations, including video electroencephalogram and magnetic resonance imaging of brain, were normal. There was excellent and sustained response to carbamazepine. Ictal single-photon emission computed tomography using (99m)Tc ethyl cysteinate dimer revealed increased perfusion of the contralateral basal ganglia, which is associated with onset of choreoathetosis attacks. Our findings provide evidence that hyperactivity of the basal ganglia is associated with the dyskinetic attacks in paroxysmal kinesigenic choreoathetosis.


This paper introduces the fourth oriental language recognition (OLR) challenge AP19-OLR, including the data profile, the tasks and the evaluation principles. The OLR challenge has been held successfully for three consecutive years, along with APSIPA Annual Summit and Conference (APSIPA ASC). The challenge this year still focuses on practical and challenging tasks, precisely (1) short-utterance LID, (2) cross-channel LID and (3) zero-resource LID. The event this year includes more languages and more real-life data provided by SpeechOcean and the NSFC M2ASR project. All the data is free for participants. Recipes for x-vector system and back-end evaluation are also conducted as baselines for the three tasks. The participants can refer to these online-published recipes to deploy LID systems for convenience. We report the baseline results on the three tasks and demonstrate that the three tasks are worth some efforts on them.


Agricultural commercialization has a potential to increase farming households' income and standard of living. This study assessed the degree of rice commercialization and the determinants of commercialization of rice farmers in Ahero Irrigation Scheme, Kenya. Stratified and probability proportionate to size sampling were used to select 221 rice farmers. A Household Commercialization Index (HCI) was computed to estimate the degree of commercialization and then modeled as a function of explanatory variables. Informed by the Chow test, three regressions were estimated; male, female and the whole sample. The HCI were 0.77, 0.79 and 0.78 for male, female and whole sample respectively. Household size, off-farm income generating activities, household income, rice price and pesticides usage were significant determinants of rice commercialization. The recommended policy options are to advice and train farmers on pesticides use and the government to have a planned exit from agriculture by introducing attractive off-farm income generating activities.


Much has been said these days about the World's limited capacity to provide sustainable resources vis a vis the growing population's demand for goods and supplies in a planet of finite resources. According to the Living Planet Report, produced by the NGO World Wildlife Fund (WWF): "At humanity's present rate of consumption, by 2030 we'll need the resources of two Earths just to survive long-term. There are really two options: start building another Earth, or drastically change our lifestyles. Which one is supposed to be easier?" [1] The present article addresses this issue from the point of view of the marketing executives of big companies, responsible to lead the communication and growth strategies of those companies, often encouraging 'consumerism' to meet the profit and revenue growths. The idea was to understand if this topic is relevant to these professionals,hence their companies, and raise some hypotheses of how to approach this problem in order to provoke those companies to practice "conscious marketing". Going one step further, does the type of organizational paradigm in which the executive company acts should influence the way to approach this professional when conducting personal interviews to collect data? An initial analysis on the theory of how to develop market research questions to avoid bias and/or induced responses, will lead to the article conclusion of how to set up a questionnaire that will be taken into consideration in a near future, at the masters' thesis of the author. [1] Source: http://io9.com/5664078/humanity-will-need-two-earths-to-sustain-itself-in-just-twenty-years , access 02 dec 12


The goal of this mixed methods study was to explore differences among teachers (n = 52 special education teachers, n = 195 general education teachers, and n = 30 gifted education teachers) on their perceptions of students with disabilities and their willingness to refer them to a gifted and talented program. In this follow-up to an earlier work, data reveal that teachers' decisions for referral are significantly influenced by their teaching credentials and by the presence or absence of a disability label. When compared to teachers of gifted students and general education teachers, special education teachers are least likely to refer students to a gifted program, with disabilities and without. Results further indicate that all teachers are much less willing to refer students with disability labels to gifted programs than identically described students with no disability labels.


Synthetic molecules that form a covalent bond upon binding to a targeted biomolecule (proximity-induced reactivity) are the subject of intense biomedical interest for the unique pharmacological properties imparted by irreversible binding. However, off-target covalent labeling and the lack of molecules with sufficient specificity limit more widespread applications. We describe the first example of a cross-linking platform that uses a synthetic peptide epitope and a single domain antibody (or nanobody) pair to form a covalent linkage rapidly and specifically. The rate of the cross-linking reaction between peptide and nanobody is faster than most other biocompatible cross-linking reactions, and it can be used to label live cells expressing receptor-nanobody fusions. The rapid kinetics of this system allowed us to probe the consequences on signaling for ligand cross-linking to the A2A-adenosine receptor. Our method may be generally useful to site-specifically link synthetic molecules to receptors on mammalian cell surfaces.


We propose to design new algorithms for motion planning problems using the well-known Domain Subdivision paradigm, coupled with "soft" predicates. Unlike the traditional exact predicates in computational geometry, our primitives are only exact in the limit. We introduce the notion of resolution-exact algorithms in motion planning: such an algorithm has an "accuracy" constant K> 1, and takes an arbitrary input "resolution" parameter ε>0 such that: if there is a path with clearance Kε, it will output a path with clearance ε/K; if there are no paths with clearance ε/K, it reports "no path". Besides the focus on soft predicates, our framework also admits a variety of global search strategies including forms of the A* search and probabilistic search.
 Our algorithms are theoretically sound, practical, easy to implement, without implementation gaps, and have adaptive complexity. Our deterministic and probabilistic strategies avoid the Halting Problem of current probabilistically complete algorithms. We develop the first provably resolution-exact algorithms for motion-planning problems in SE(2)=R2 x S1. To validate this approach, we implement our algorithms and the experiments demonstrate the efficiency of our approach, even compared to probabilistic algorithms.


'The Messenger' was first exhibited in the solo show; 'As One - New Sculpture' John Gibbons; Flowers East, London, 17 sculptures shown, 21st June – 20th July, 2003. It was then shown in 'The Post-Industrial Landscape'; Venue: The Czech Museum Of Fine Arts, Prague, 1st. Oct. – 7th. Dec. 2003. Curated by; Richard Drury. 5 sculptures shown. Other artists included; Edward Burtynsky, Patrick Hughes and John Keane. Catalogue Title: 'The Post-Industrial Landscape', PP 54 (J.G. 20 – 25, 47,48, 9 images reproduced, text; Cheeseman. M; pp. 20 -21) . ISBN; 80-7056-116-5 'The Messenger' is now in the collection of The Czech Museum Of Fine Arts, Prague. The exhibitions were reviewed by: Jessica Lack: 'John Gibbons' Preview; exhibitions: The Guide, Saturday 21st June – 27th June 2003, pp 35, The Guardian 21st June 2003. Lizzy Le Quesne wrote; 'The 'Messenger' (2002-2003) resembles a bomb, hanging frozen in mid explosion. A mass of raw matter shoots metal rods in all directions, like a planet in the midst of formation or destruction, or a moment of inspiration or change', 'The sheer, cold brilliance and the fine blend of subtlety and monumentality in Gibbons' sculptures are thrilling'. Post-Industrial Prophets, six artists find a terrible beauty in the modern world, The Prague Post, , November 6th, 2003. http://www.praguepost.com/P03/2003/Art/1106/galler.php


Layering within the cratonic lithosphere has been explored and reported in different cratons using a range of techniques. However, whether there exists a common feature in the lithosphere for all the cratons is not clear yet. In this study, we carry out a comparison study between the Yilgarn craton in Western Australia and the Superior craton in North America that have never been in direct contact throughout their tectonic history. To have a detailed description of the lithospheric layering in both cratons, we employ receiver function analysis with harmonic decomposition to characterize the anisotropic seismic structure beneath 4 long‐operating sites in each craton. We can identify multiple unique anisotropic boundaries above 170 km at all sites in both cratons. Properties of the anisotropic boundaries are distinct both within and across the cratons. Our observation agrees with a commonly accepted view of the cratonic lithosphere consisting of at least two layers. Moreover, it adds new details to the previous view and reveals lateral variations of the anisotropic properties over distances of a few hundreds of kilometers. Such variations in anisotropic properties likely reflect the tectonic history predating the final assembly of cratons, and suggest horizontal movements are necessary for the formation of cratonic lithosphere.


Humberto Maturana's concept of conversation as the braiding of emotion and language has been the basis of the authors' framework-for-action, proving its usefulness across a number of research and consulting initiatives. We agree with Maturana's claim that learning and change take place in a relational space, over time, and as a consequence of engagements shaped by the participants' emotions. This paper is a tribute to the joy, and at times the frustration, that both authors have experienced from an ongoing conversation with Maturana's work and our desire, wherever possible, to put it to the test. The paper will refer to research that illustrates the researcher as chorographer (one practiced in the systematic description of regions) and as choreographer (one practiced in the design of dance arrangements) of the emotions.


A method to easily and economically manufacture more precise patterns compared with usual MEMS technique has been searched for. Under such circumstances, this research aims to clarify the formation of nano-scale protrusion structure produced by local anodic oxidation on Si wafer surface in expectation of the nano/micro mold production for nanoimprint lithography in future. In this report, the influences of contact width and distance between probe tip and Si wafer surface (distance between terminals) on the size and shape of protrusion patterns were examined in order to clarify the fundamental phenomena in local anodic oxidation. A scanning probe microscope equipped with a current measuring unit was utilized in local anodic oxidation experiments. As a result, it was confirmed that the size of generated protrusion structure became larger with increasing the contact width and became smaller with increasing the distance between probe tip and Si wafer surface. These facts will be useful in producing 3-D nanostructures in future.


Objectives: To perform ventilation tube therapy for chronic otitis media with effusion in children, to investigate how the incidences of recurrence and tympanic membrane perforation varied with duration of placement, and to determine the most appropriate duration of placement. Methods: Using a questionnaire survey in clinics after follow-up, we studied 119 ears 74 children with chronic otitis media with effusion, undergoing ventilation tube therapy between January 2007 and December 2012. Results: The duration of tympanostomy tube placement was 444 days on average, and recurrence was seen in 5 cases. There was no significant difference in the rate of improvement between patients undergoing adenoidectomy and with no adenoidectomy. Conclusion: It was thought that 500 days or more were desirable for tube placement and that an adenoidectomy should be undertaken concomitantly wherever possible. A future study should be designed to examine the long term effect. Our results suggested that a high risk of the recurrence was associated with congenital anomaly or retraction within one year after the insertion.


In order to plan, control, and evaluate the software development process, one needs to collect and analyze data in a meaningful way. Classical techniques for such analysis are not always well suited to software engineering data. A pattern recognition approach for analyzing software engineering data, called optimized set reduction (OSR), that addresses many of the problems associated with the usual approaches is described. Methods are discussed for using the technique for prediction, risk management, and quality evaluation. Experimental results are provided to demonstrate the effectiveness of the technique for the particular application of software cost estimation. >


One of the way to extract edges uses the fast wavelet transform algorithm. This technique allows the detection of multiscale edges and is used to detect all the details, which are in a picture by modifying the scale. The real time application for edge detection involves the implementation of the algorithm on an integrated circuit like a FPGA and the development of an appropriated board. This article deals about the implementation of a wavelet transform algorithm onto a FPGA and development of an electronic board to detect multiscale edges.


We have investigated whether cellular transformation by different oncogenes alters their responsiveness to the chemotherapeutic agent cis‐diamminedichloroplatinum(lI) (cDDP). Rat‐6 (R6) embryo fibroblasts transformed by v‐myc, rc‐mos (rearranged mouse c‐mos), v‐src and activated c‐H‐ras oncogenes displayed differential sensitivities to cDDP, and the lC50 values of cDDP decreased by approximately 3.0‐, 1.2‐, 2.0‐ and 1.5‐fold, respectively. Over‐expression of rnyc, but not ras, srcor mos, induced apoptosis in R6 cells. Nevertheless, all oncogenes influenced cellular susceptibility to apoptosis triggered by cDDP as judged by the appearance of condensed chromatin, formation of apoptotic bodies and internucleosomal cleavage of genomic DNA to 180 bp multimers, yielding a "laddered" ectrophoretic profile on agarose gel. There was a correlation between the time‐ and concentration‐dependent enhancement of cDDP‐induced DNAfragmentation and potentiation of cDDP sensitivity by various oncogenes. Oncogenic transformation led to a decrease in expression of the PKCr isoform, and stable transfection of PKCr in R6 cells prevented cDDP‐induced apoptosis and protected cells against cDDP cytotoxicity. Our results indicate that the differential sensitivity of oncogenetransformed cells to cDDP may be associated with the ability of various oncogenes to influence cDDP‐induced apoptosis.


In this paper we present a work in progress on a conjectural new combinatorial model for the Genocchi numbers. This new model called irreducible k-shapes has a strong algebraic background in the theory of symmetric functions and leads to seemingly new features on the theory of Genocchi numbers. In particular, the natural q-analogue coming from the degree of symmetric functions seems to be unknown so far.


A method for reconstructing 3D rational B-spline surfaces from multiple views is proposed. Given corresponding features in multiple views, though not necessarily visible in all views, the surface is reconstructed. First 2D B-spline patches are fitted to each view. The 3D B-spline and projection matrices can then be extracted from the 2D B-splines using factorization methods. The surface fit is then further refined via an iterative procedure. Finally, a hierarchal fitting scheme is proposed to allow modeling of complex surfaces by means of knot insertion. Experiments with real imagery demonstrate the efficacy of the approach.


Intracellular persistence of Staphylococcus aureus favors bacterial spread and chronic infections. Here, we provide evidence for the existence of human CD4+ and CD8+ T cell memory against staphylococcal antigens. Notably, the latter could provide a missing link in our understanding of immune control of intracellular S. aureus. The analyses showed that pulsing of monocyte-derived dendritic cells (MoDC) with native staphylococcal protein antigens induced release of Th2-associated cytokines and mediators linked to T regulatory cell development (G-CSF, IL-2 and IL-10) from both CD4+ and CD8+ T cells, thus revealing a state of tolerance predominantly arising from preformed memory T cells. Furthermore, G-CSF was identified as a suppressor of CD8+ T cell-derived IFNγ secretion, thus confirming a tolerogenic role of this cytokine in the regulation of T cell responses to S. aureus. Nevertheless, delivery of in vitro transcribed mRNA-encoded staphylococcal antigens triggered Th1-biased responses, e.g. IFNγ and TNF release from both naïve and memory T cells. Collectively, our data highlight the potential of mRNA-adjuvanted antigen presentation to enable inflammatory responses, thus overriding the existing Th2/Treg-biased memory T cell response to native S. aureus antigens.


The student of clinical neurology should welcome the 13th edition of this concise but comprehensive volume. It remains compact enough to be defined as a "handbook" with the primary emphasis on enuroanatomy and clinical neurology. The text has been improved by the addition of a chapter entitled "Ophthalmologic Tests," several new and improved illustrations, and a number of helpful tables of well-summarized data. The portion of the book dealing with basic neuroanatomy remains adequately detailed, although it is unfortunate that the Paris Nomina Anatomica is not used consistently. The newer concepts of synaptic transmission, an improved paragraph on spinal reflexes, and the new pharmacologic aspects of the autonomic nervous system have considerably improved the neurophysiologic presentation. The greatest changes reflect the considerable accumulation of clinical data in the three years since the last edition appeared. The chapters on electroencephalogram and electromyogram have been modified and expanded, and the discussions of


Understanding the optical property of nanostructured TiO2 is crucial for their use in a variety of applications such as solar cells, photocatalysis, and light emitting devices. Herein, we introduce the use of synchrotron radiation-based spectroscopic techniques: X-ray absorption near-edge structure (XANES) and X-ray excited optical luminescence (XEOL) in analyzing the luminescence properties of anodized TiO2 nanotubes (TiO2 NT) and related materials. A description on the spectroscopic technique is first given, including conventional XANES-XEOL combined analysis and a more recently developed 2D XANES-XEOL probing technique. We then discuss several examples of analyzing the luminescence mechanism of TiO2 NT using XANES and XEOL technique, which are the phase transformation accompanied luminescence, luminescence from TiO2 NT hierarchical structure, and metal particle–coated TiO2 NT.


This article continues an article written by the same author and published by CIRIEC-Espana in 1997 (no. 25). It analyses social economy at three cognitive levels: first, as a social reality (Social Economy); second, as a scientific discipline which studies its previous reality (the science of Social Economy); third, as a methodological approach in social sciences (the approach of Social Economy). The author claims that, at these three levels, social economy becomes an alternative way of "making the economy".


The primary aim was to explore the factor structure of the Illness Behaviour Questionnaire (IBQ) and the generalisability of the derived dimensions to both general community members and four chronic illness groups. A questionnaire was administered to 675 participants, comprising 344 from the community, 80 with asthma, 95 with diabetes, 79 with chronic pain and 77 with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS). Illness severity was calculated for all chronic illness participants (self-rated health for community members). Three IBQ scales were derived following an exploratory factor analysis for the whole sample: Affirmation of Illness (α = 0.71 (CFS)–0.79 (asthma, diabetes)), Concern for Health (α = 0.71 (asthma)–0.78 (pain)) and General Affective State (α = 0.70 (CFS)–0.80 (asthma)). Patterns of response across the five samples, and intercorrelations among the new scales and the original seven scales, were largely in accord with expectation. Long-standing criticisms of the IBQ were addressed by using systematic statistical principles to identify meaningful and psychometrically sound IBQ dimensions. The derived structure offers a more parsimonious account of possible illness responses, with the availability of a more concise yet informative index of abnormal illness behaviour having practical utility for researchers and clinicians alike.


The thesis of this Article is that outside, foreign, non-native diseases are the most dangerous threat to indigenous populations. Additional threats include the loss of cultural identity caused by the introduction of new technology, and the loss of religious and cultural identity caused by proselytizing missionaries that seek to replace the indigenous religions. As such, the world community should take all necessary steps to protect indigenous peoples from these threats. The best way to prevent the introduction of disease, technology, and foreign culture is to strictly limit any contact between modern-day society and uncontacted indigenous peoples. While some countries have domestic laws governing the relationship between their citizens and the uncontacted tribes within their country's boundaries, domestic laws are not enough because of the desire of citizens to exploit natural resources within their geopolitical boundaries. Because domestic law is insufficient to protect the indigenous populations, a rule of international law is necessary to ensure compliance in all the countries that have uncontacted indigenous populations. Current international law does not really address the problems of uncontacted indigenous peoples. The most pertinent document is the United Nations Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples. According to Professor Clinton, the draft Universal Declaration of Indigenous Rights contemplates the continued international legal protection of the peoplehood and political institutions of indigenous and tribal peoples. While the Declaration has not been ratified by the United Nations member states, the fact that a draft declaration exists is a step in the right direction. The Declaration does address a number of issues facing indigenous peoples, but does not address the problem of first contact, that is, initial contact between foreign (usually Western) explorers and indigenous peoples which have had no prior human contact outside the members of their social group. Thus, I have modified the Declaration to address the issues of first contact, as well as some issues of sovereignty and cultural identity. The modified Declaration, titled Indigenous Homeland Security: A Draft Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and the International Law of First Contact can be found in Appendix A of this paper.


The inferior oolite in the immediate neighbourhood of Cheltenham, has been already well described in the "Geology of Cheltenham," by Sir R. Murchison, Mr. Buckman, and Mr. H. E. Strickland; but as there is a very interesting bed called "the roestone" by local geologists, which, however, for obvious reasons it will be better to name "shelly freestone," containing several new and peculiar fossils, many of which have not been previously noticed, it may be desirable to lay a brief account of it before the Society. The outer escarpments of the Cotswold Hills are composed of the inferior oolite and lias, and form an important feature in the geology of the county, presenting bold headlands along the vales of Gloucester and Berkeley, in some instances rising to the height of more than 1000 feet above the level of the sea, and extending in a tortuous line for several miles from north-east to south-west. They constitute the eastern boundary of the Severn; the towns of Cheltenham and Gloucester lying in bays at the foot of this range of hills, the base of which consists of lias, surmounted by a variable thickness of oolite. The following divisions (see Section, p. 242) of the oolitic strata at Leckhampton Hill, near Cheltenham, where the shelly freestone may be most advantageously studied, have been principally proposed and adopted by the authors of the work above referred to; although later investigations by Mr. Strickland prove, that their relative thickness is greater than has been generally supposed, and


Food preferences are important for understanding foraging choices. In studying human foragers rather than other animals, we have the advantage of being able to ask them which foods they prefer. Yet surprisingly, no studies of systematically collected data exist on human forager food preferences. The Hadza of Tanzania are full-time foragers in an area where the hominin record extends back to 3-4 million years ago, so their diet is very relevant for understanding the paleo-diet. Here, we report on their food preferences, elicited with photographs of species within the five major food categories in their diet: honey, meat, berries, baobab, and tubers. There were sex differences in the ranks of two food categories: meat and berries. While male and female ranks agreed on the other three food categories, females ranked berries second and meat fourth, whereas males ranked meat second and berries fourth. Theses similarities and differences are interesting in light of the fact that the sexes target different foods. We discuss the implications of Hadza food preferences for the origin of the uniquely human sexual division of foraging labor.


In this paper we report on a systematic XPS study on N doped TiO2 sol-gel thin films deposited by sol-gel technique. For this purpose, four kinds of multilayered TiO2 films thermally treated in O2 and NH3 at 500 and 600degC were deposited on quartz substrate by sol-gel & dipping method. A special attention has been focused on Nls and Ti2p photoelectron lines behaviour as a function of temperature and atmosphere of annealing process in order to investigate the features of the Ti-O-N bonds.


Worldwide, the cervical cancer is recognized as the second most common type or malignancy in women. The implementation of the Papanicolaou smear has contributed notably to diminish its morbi-mortality. However, this test has a sensibility of just 80%. The detection of telomerase activity (TA) has been proposed as a diagnostic and prognostic maker of a wide variety of tumors and their precursor lesions. In this study the detection of TA was made from samples of cervical exfoliates and its association with cervical lesions and oncogenic human papillomavirus (HPV) types 16 and 18 was evaluated. A total of 32 samples of cervical exfoliates were analyzed, 15 from patients with normal cervices, 9 with squamous intraepithelial lesions (SIL) and 8 with cervical cancer. In this last group the TA, detected by the non-radioactive Telomeric Repeat Amplification Protocol (TRAP), was present in 88% of the cases and in 11% of the cases with SIL. None of the 15 samples of normal cervices was positive for the detection of the telomerase. 75% of the cervical exfoliates with TA showed amplifications of HPV type 16, HPV type 18 or both. These results are consistent with studies that point out a narrow relationship between oncogenic HPV and the presence of TA in human keratinocytes and consolidate the detection potential of this enzyme in the discovery of cervical alterations, especially when the technique is applied as a complementary tool of the clinical-citologic exam.


It is widely known that regulatory variation plays a major role in complex disease and that cell-type-specific binding of transcription factors (TF) is critical to gene regulation, but genomic annotations from directly measured TF binding information are not currently available for most cell-type-TF pairs. Here, we construct cell-type-specific TF binding annotations by intersecting sequence-based TF binding predictions with cell-type-specific chromatin data; this strategy addresses both the limitation that identical sequences may be bound or unbound depending on surrounding chromatin context, and the limitation that sequence-based predictions are generally not cell-type-specific. We evaluated different combinations of sequence-based TF predictions and chromatin data by partitioning the heritability of 49 diseases and complex traits (average N=320K) using stratified LD score regression with the baseline-LD model (which is not cell-type-specific). We determined that 100bp windows around MotifMap sequenced-based TF binding predictions intersected with a union of six cell-type-specific chromatin marks (imputed using ChromImpute) performed best, with an 58% increase in heritability enrichment compared to the chromatin marks alone (11.6x vs 7.3x; P = 9 × 10-14 for difference) and a 12% increase in cell-type-specific signal conditional on annotations from the baseline-LD model (P = 8 × 10-11 for difference). Our results show that intersecting sequence-based TF predictions with cell-type-specific chromatin information can help refine genome-wide association signals.


Random sequential addition (RSA) models are used in a large variety of contexts to model particle aggregation and jamming. A key feature of these models is the algebraic time dependence of the asymptotic jamming coverage as $t\to\infty$. For the RSA of monodisperse non-spherical particles the scaling is generally believed to be $~t^{-\nu}$, where $\nu=1/d_{\rm f}$ for a particle with $d_{\rm f}$ degrees of freedom. While the $d_{\rm f}=1$ result of spheres (Renyi's classical car parking problem) can be derived analytically, evidence for the $1/d_{\rm f}$ scaling for arbitrary particle shapes has so far only been provided from empirical studies on a case-by-case basis. Here, we show that the RSA of arbitrary non-spherical particles, whose centres of mass are constrained to fall on a line, can be solved analytically for moderate aspect ratios. The asymptotic jamming coverage is determined by a Laplace-type integral, whose asymptotics is fully specified by the contact distance between two particles of given orientations. The analysis of the contact function $r$ shows that the scaling exponent depends on particle shape and falls into two universality classes for generic shapes with $\tilde{d}$ orientational degrees of freedom: (i) $\nu=1/(1+\tilde{d}/2)$ when $r$ is a smooth function of the orientations as for smooth convex shapes, e.g., ellipsoids; (ii) $\nu=1/(1+\tilde{d})$ when $r$ contains singularities due to flat sides as for, e.g., spherocylinders and polyhedra. The exact solution explains in particular why many empirically observed scalings in $2d$ and $3d$ fall in between these two limiting values.


the gut microbiota pro fi le HF compared to Methods: Peer-reviewed human studies published in Ovid MEDLINE, Ovid EMBASE, SCOPUS, and the Cochrane Library up to April 18, 2022, were searched. Studies comparing the gut microbiota pro fi le in adult HF patients and healthy controls (HCs) were eligible for inclusion. The alpha diversity (microbial richness and diversity), beta diversity (dissimilarity in microbiota composition between two groups), and the relative abundance of gut microbiota taxa were compared in adult HF patients and HCs. The Newcastle-Ottawa Scale (NOS) was used to assess the quality of included studies. Results: A totalof nine studies,including 317 HF patients and510 HCs, were includedin thissystematicreview. Decreasedgut microbiotarichness and similar microbialdiversityand signi fi cantly di ff erentgut microbiota composition were observed between HF patients and HCs. HF patients had a greater abundance of Actinobacteria , Proteobacteria, and Synergistetes phyla; Enterococcus , Escherichia , Klebsiella , Lactobacillus , Ruminococcus , Streptococcus , and Veilonella genera; and Ruminococcus gnavus , Streptococcus sp. , and Veilonella sp. Species compared to HCs. Decreased abundance of Firmicutes phylum; Blautia , Eubacterium , Faecalibacterium , Lachnospiraceae FCS020, and Sutterella genera; and Dorea longicatena , Eubacterium rectale , Faecalibacterium prausnitzii , Oscillibacter sp. , and Sutterella wadsworthensis species were noted in HF patients. Conclusion: The gut microbiota diversity, richness, and composition in HF patients are signi fi cantly di ff erent from HCs. Overall, short-chain fatty acids-producing gut microbiota was depleted in HF patients. Naloxegol Provides Clinically Meaningful Symptom Improvement (PAC-SYM) in Patients With Opioid-Induced Constipation Naloxegol


Diving thyroid nodules are a limitation of radiofrequency ablation because the mediastinal component cannot be adequately identified by ultrasound (US). We aim to describe a new technique, the iceberg technique, to overcome this issue and explain our three-year experience of using this novel method. The iceberg technique consists of a two-stage treatment. First, the ablation of the cervical portion of the nodules (easily visualized during the initial US exam) using trans-isthmic access is performed using the moving-shot technique. After three to six months, there is a volumetric reduction of the treated portion, leading to retraction of the thyroid parenchyma. This brings the mediastinal component to the cervical region, thereby enabling a perfect visualization by US. Then, the second stage of treatment is carried out with complete nodule ablation, and the region that was treated first is looked at a second time. From April 2018 to April 2021, nine patients with nine benign nodules were submitted for the iceberg technique. No complications occurred during the entire follow-up period. The patients displayed normal hormonal levels after the procedures, and there was a significant volume reduction of the nodules until three months post-ablation. The iceberg technique is an effective and safe option for the radiofrequency treatment of diving goiters.


The US Army's Tank-Automotive Research Development and Engineering Center's Next Generation Software Engineering Life Cycle Support Activity (NextGen) is responsible for determining the suitability of software for release to the field. Determining the software is suitable for materiel release includes ensuring the software is safe, operationally suitable, and logistically supportable. The-Next Generation Team incorporates a thorough and well-defined process for evaluating software for materiel release that includes a detailed review of all documentation, a walk-through of a representative sample of source code, and the automated collection of several source code metrics using AdaSTATT, a commercially available software metrics tool for Ada. The metrics collected include source lines of code, cyclomatic and essential complexity, Halstead measures, and a maintainability index. Taken together, these metrics provide a valuable indication of the overall maintainability and supportability of the software. The metrics are presented using a Kiviat analysis, which provides a graphical display of the state of a module with respect to predefined limit values.


In a previous paper (1) we have described the results observed with a cutaneous anaphylactic reaction in canine distemper with a polyvalent emulsion of washed and heat killed B. bronchisepticus (Ferry-McGowan). The intracutaneous injection of this emulsion or "bronchisepticin," has been followed by well marked papular or pustular reactions in 77 per cent of dogs suffering with distemper at the time of the tests, and in 60 per cent known to have had the disease while under our observation. Reactions were also observed in 35 per cent of dogs just admitted to the animal house of the University and presenting no clinical evidences of distemper; we were unable to state what percentage of these dogs had had the disease or whether the reactions were purely traumatic. Whether or not B. bronchisepticus (Ferry-McGowan) is accepted as the primary etiological agent of canine distemper, we concluded that these anaphylactic reactions may be interpreted as indicating that in this disease a large percentage of dogs display a condition of cutaneous hypersensitiveness to its protein.


The article presents the research results of different types of attitude to the disease, the severity of depressive and anxiety disorders, their relationship with clinical signs when patients have acute cerebral stroke, with neurological disorders of mild and moderate degree. The presented forms of affective disorders have their own specifics in cerebral stroke: anxious and depressive reactions in most cases accompany one another, a significant risk factor is the precedence of a psychotraumatic situation, the absence of strokes and severe mobility limitations in the anamnesis and high personal anxiety. All these factors are associated with the reduction of treatment and rehabilitation effectiveness which leads to decrease of patients' life quality, an increase of burden on their relatives, medical staff and society as a whole.


ABSTRACT Embryo viability quantification is an important topic for in vitro fertilization researchers. This study suggests Raman spectroscopy as a candidate method to find an objective measure of embryo viability. Raman spectra of 31 spent embryo culture samples (16 nonpregnant, 15 pregnant) from 31 patients were analyzed with band component analysis. The band area ratio of 902 to 943 cm−1 was found to be the most discriminatory. These bands are related to glutamine, glycine, proline, aspartic acid, and valine. According to the pregnancy outcome the sensitivity and specificity of Raman analysis were found to be 93% and 77%, respectively.


Background Albumin is an essential plasma protein for the regulation of the oncotic pressure. The huge divide between scientific theory and its clinical application has repeatedly limited the control and the effort to rationalise its use. In 2009, our hospital board established a private operational unit of control (N.O.C.), which aimed to regulate prescribing. The evaluation of the appropriateness of the use of albumin produced results that highlighted its inappropriate use. The initial analysis showed that 80% of the prescriptions were incorrect and 30% mentioned an incorrect 'indication'. Purpose To establish a pathway rationalising the use of albumin in order to spread awareness of the correct use of such a precious substance and reduce its inappropriate use. Materials and methods The first part of our research evaluated the use of albumin to the extent where the authors could emphasise its inappropriateness. In the second stage of our research The authors analysed several scientific publications and, in collaboration with N.O.C.'s clinics and members, the authors developed a protocol to guide the correct use of albumin. Consequently, The authors also produced a system for requesting human albumin that helps the clinician in charge to choose more appropriate indications. Results Since this new model has been introduced, the use of albumin has decreased and its off-label use has been sharply reduced. In 2009, about 80% of 4000 prescriptions contained errors. In particular, 30% of the total prescriptions were off-label for their indication, while 24% did not report for the values of albumin required for the calculation of the administered dose. However in 2010 only 10% of the requests had an off-label indication. Conclusions The new model produced by the hospital board in Azienda Ospedaliera San Giuseppe Moscati, Avellino has successfully abolished the off-label use of albumin and rationalised its use.


Lifetimes of RF MEMS (Micro-electro-mechanical systems) capacitive switches are hindered by dielectric charging effects. A novel test structure for experimental verification of millimeter-wave MEMS switch dielectric accumulation charge is presented. The structure, which is designed using EM simulation software CST Microwave Studio and HFSS, consists of Coplanar Waveguide (CPW), a 2-way power divider and two symmetric capacitive MEMS switches. The input signal is equally divided into two output signals in the 2-way power divider due to symmetry, and the isolation between two output ports the power divider of is less than -48dB at 35GHz. The designed millimeter-wave capacitive MEMS shunt switch has 0.076dB insertion and -55dB isolation at 35GHz. The two symmetric capacitive MEMS switches in this structure can provide a strong comparability for different switch dielectric accumulation charge situations.


Information Systems curricula should provide project management (PM) theory, current practice, and hands-on experience. The schedule usually does not allow time in Analysis and Design courses for development oriented project management instruction other than a short introduction. Similarly, networking courses usually don't put project management into the syllabus even though network people need this skill in the field. One solution is to offer a separate one-semester "Introduction to IS Project Management" course. The problem is scheduling the course itself. This course usually can't come before it is needed in development oriented courses, which come early in the curriculum. One solution to this scheduling problem is to offer some cursory introduction to and use of PM in the development course(s) and leave the full presentation to a later general PM course not directed specifically at development. When presenting that latter PM course, usually at the junior/senior level, the hands-on component becomes an issue. Should the course's hands-on project be a mini development project, a networking project, or something else? Having a simultaneous parallel nontrivial hands-on project activity is not only distracting but draining of time and effort that should be going to the PM content. This paper presents one solution to this problem: a hands-on PM course where the course itself becomes the hands-on nontrivial project. The students cover the concepts of IS development using the text(s) but learn general project management theory and current practice. They experience the processes of PM by applying them to their own activities in the course itself, without the distraction of yet another different simultaneous activity (such as a mini development hands-on project).


In the light of falling oil prices, the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) has launched a multifaceted vision for 2030 that seeks to modernise the country's economy and diversify its revenue base. A key goal of this vision is developing the country's education system in general and higher education in particular (Reardon, 2016; Vision2030, 2016). The government is determined to achieve inclusive and equitable quality education for all its citizens. Within this context, there is an increased focus on improving the quality of English language teaching and learning in higher education institutions and in the education system generally. However, the lack of essential linguistic and pedagogic skills amongst many Saudi graduates remains a major concern (Albaiz, 2016; British Council, 2016).
 The aim of this thesis is to investigate students' learning experiences in an undergraduate English as a Foreign Language (EFL) programme at City University (CU), KSA from three different perspectives. The first viewpoint draws on Bourdieu's notions of field, capital and habitus to examine the influences that CU as an institution has on teaching and learning in the EFL programme. The second perspective uses the concept of cultural capital to analyse the influence of family educational background on students' learning. The third perspective provides insights into the teaching approaches adopted by EFL lecturers and the effects these approaches have on students' learning. Thus, this study is guided by one main research question: How do students experience learning in the undergraduate EFL programme at CU?
The study uses a qualitative case study approach. Data was gathered from multiple sources: namely, semi-structured interviews with students and lecturers, observations, and a documentary review. The analysis is based on the three research sub-questions that guide this inquiry.
The key findings related to the first perspective highlight the ways in which CU's institutional policies and practices impact teaching and learning in the EFL programme. The analysis reveals that CU defines its capital as 'accessible higher education', which translates into large numbers of students enrolling in its colleges and departments each year. As a result of this open admissions policy, the College of Arts and Humanities (CAH) has been forced to lower its entry requirements to the EFL programme in order to accommodate the number of students. This has resulted in the admission of students who do not possess the minimum entry requirements, and has adversely affected the quality of education in the EFL programme, as manifested in relation to class size, student-teacher relations, the use of English in teaching, and assessment practices.
The second set of findings analyse the influence of family educational background on students' learning experiences. The findings indicate that this background plays an important role in students' success in the EFL programme. It was found that families with higher education backgrounds use their learning experiences and resources to support their children's education. The findings further demonstrate that students from families with no higher education background and a lack of cultural capital have low levels of English language competency. As such, many of them struggle with the linguistic and academic demands of the programme.
The third set of findings reveal the influence of teaching approaches on students' learning experience. The findings show a distinction between native English speaking (NES) and non-native English speaking (NNES) lecturers in relation to their teaching approaches and interactions with students. It was found that NNES lecturers adopt a teacher-centred approach in their teaching which minimizes students' interactions. Many students were critical of such practices and felt that it denied them the opportunity to develop their language skills. In contrast, NES lecturers use a student-focused approach and integrate communicative practices into their teaching. These lecturers emphasise the importance of building positive relationships with the students in order to facilitate their learning. Generally, students reacted positively to such practices and were more encouraged to participate in the classroom.
This study provides important insights into students' learning experiences in higher education in general and EFL programmes in particular. It contributes to existing debates and literature on EFL teaching and learning in higher education, particularly in KSA. The study also provides important suggestions for policymakers to consider, and recommendations to CU and its faculty members, and for further research.


The study of vortex-ring-induced stratified mixing has long played a key role in understanding externally forced stratified turbulent mixing. While several studies have investigated the dynamical evolution of such a system, this study presents an experimental investigation of the mechanical evolution of these vortex rings, including the stratification-modified three-dimensional instability. The aim of this paper is to understand how vortex rings induce mixing of the density field. We begin with a discussion of the Reynolds and Richardson number dependence of the vortex-ring interaction using two-dimensional particle image velocimetry measurements. Then, through the use of modern imaging techniques, we reconstruct from an experiment the full three-dimensional time-resolved velocity field of a vortex ring interacting with a stratified interface. This work agrees with many of the previous two-dimensional experimental studies, while providing insight into the three-dimensional instabilities of the system. Observations indicate that the three-dimensional instability has a similar wavenumber to that found for the unstratified vortex-ring instability at later times. We determine that the time scale associated with this instability growth has an inverse Richardson number dependence. Thus, the time scale associated with the instability is different from the time scale of interface recovery, possibly explaining the significant drop in mixing efficiency at low Richardson numbers. The structure of the underlying instability is a simple displacement mode of the vorticity field.


One of the solutions proposed by Badan Amil Zakat Nasional is to form Lembaga Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Mustahik which has the task of improving the quality of life of mustahik through its programs. So, the purpose of this study is to find out how the role of Lembaga Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Mustahik Badan Amil Zakat Nasional in improving the economic welfare of mustahik. This study uses qualitative research methods that produce descriptive data. Where this research is based on observations made by the author and then explained according to what the author observed in the field. The data collection that the researchers did was using the method of observation, documentary interviews, and other data. When the data has been collected, the researcher conducts an analysis and then draws conclusions from the analysis. The results of this study are Lembaga Pemberdayaan Ekonomi Mustahik BAZNAS plays a role in the development of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and focuses on potential creative businesses, empowers by providing business development capital assistance, in accordance with the budget draft proposed by mustahik, and approved by LPEM BAZNAS.
Keywords: The Role of LPEM BAZNAS, Mustahik's Economic Welfare


The structural, electrical and optical properties of a unintentionally doped Ge1−xSnx (x = 6.2%) alloy semiconductor both as-grown and after a hydrogen plasma treatment or 'hydrogen passivation' are investigated by high resolution x-ray diffraction, atomic force microscopy, and temperature-dependent Hall-effect and photoluminescence (PL) measurements. The samples were grown via reactions of SnD4 and Ge3H8 on Ge buffered Si wafers at 305 °C and subsequently subjected to a hydrogen plasma environment generated using an inductively coupled H2 approach (ICP). The plasma treatments showed no appreciable change in the structural, compositional and morphological properties of the samples indicating no measurable degradation of the materials quality has occurred. However, the H passivation significantly alters the electrical activity of as-grown defects and impurities in the epilayer, resulting in electrical conductivity of passivated sample that is more than 2 times higher at 300 K and 30 times higher at 10 K. The as-grown samples showed conduction-type changes with temperature (manifested by singularities in the apparent carrier concentrations around 14 and 255 K), while the background n-type carrier concentration of the hydrogen treated analogs varied smoothly with temperature. In particular at 300 K, the carrier concentration was reduced from the background 4.61 × 1017 cm−3 in the as-grown material to 5.68 × 1016 cm−3 in the H treated counterpart due to potential passivation of deleterious point defects, a highly desirable outcome for effective device performance. The room temperature PL intensity increased ∼5 times (more than 3 times at 5 K) upon hydrogen treatment due to electrical passivation of deep acceptor states. Hydrogen plasma treatments are thus found to enhance the electrical and optical responses of the samples, suggesting that conventional ICP treatments could be used as a processing step to improve the properties of newly developed Sn-based group IV semiconductors using straightforward and relatively low temperature protocols.


A central function of code review is to increase understanding; helping reviewers understand a code change aids in knowledge transfer and finding bugs. Comments in code largely serve a similar purpose, helping future readers understand the program. It is thus natural to study what happens when these two forms of understanding collide. We ask: what documentation-related comments do reviewers make and how do they affect understanding of the contribution? We analyze ca. 700K review comments on 2,000 (Java and Python) GitHub projects, and propose several filters to identify which comments are likely to be either in response to a change in documentation and/or call for such a change. We identify 65K such cases. We next develop a taxonomy of the reviewer intents behind such "comments on comments". We find that achieving a shared under-standing of the code is key: reviewer comments most often focused on clarification, followed by pointing out issues to fix, such as typos and outdated comments. Curiously, clarifying comments were frequently suggested (often verbatim) by the reviewer, indicating a desire to persist their understanding acquired during code review. We conclude with a discussion of implications of our comments-on-comments dataset for research on improving code review, including the potential benefits for automating code review.


Myelodysplastic syndrome is a heterogeneous category of hematologic disorders that has been recognized primarily by abnormal morphology and number of blood cells originating from hematopoietic stem cells in the bone marrow based on the genetic as well as epigenetic changes in the hematopoietic stem cells. Its frequency is increased by aging, emphasizing the role genetic and epigenetic factors in its occurrence and most of the cases have been diagnosed at the age of 65 and higher. Marked genetic abnormalities as the cause of the syndrome and the old age of the patients make it a difficult category of hematologic disorders from therapeutic point of view. However, the disease is not limited to the elder adults and pediatric patients with Myelodysplastic disorders have been diagnosed with the median age of 6 years with a significantly less frequency. Chemotherapy has been applied as the only therapeutic option in these patients with variable response rate and duration of response. However, further basic investigation addressing the molecular aspects and the pathogenesis of MDS categories has clarified its association with certain genetic mutations and signaling pathways; hence opening new opportunities in MDS treatment. . In this paper, we will discuss the current concept and trends of targeted therapies for Myelodysplastic syndrome.


It is critical to understand multiphase flow applications with regard to dynamic behavior. In this paper, a systematic approach to the study of these applications is pursued, leading to separated flows comprising the effects of free surface flows and wetting. For the first time, wetting phenomena (three wetting regimes such as no wetting, 90 º wetting angle and absolute wetting) are added in the separated flow model. Special attention is paid to computational fluid dynamics (CFD) in order to envisage the relationship between complex metallurgical practices such as mass and momentum exchange, turbulence, heat, reaction kinetics and electromagnetic fields. Simulations are performed in order to develop sub-models for studying multiphase flow phenomena at larger scales. The outcomes show that a proper mixture of techniques is valuable for constructing larger-scale models based upon sub-models for recreating the hierarchical structure of a detailed CFD model applicable throughout the process.


Abstract. A new characteristic property of the Mittag-Leffler function Eα(at ) with 1 < α < 2 is deduced. Motivated by this property, a new notion, named α-order cosine function, is developed. It is proved that an α-order cosine function is associated with a solution operator of an α-order abstract Cauchy problem. Consequently, an α-order abstract Cauchy problem is well-posed if and only if its coefficient operator generates a unique α-order cosine function.


The thick-filament-monomeric-myosin equilibrium was prepared from pure myosin at pH 8.1. The application of hydrostatic pressure to the self-assembly equilibrium resulted in a biphasic dissociation curve in which a linear decrease in turbidity (a measure of weight added to or lost from the filament) was followed by a transition to a second pressure-insensitive phase. The first phase represents the effect of hydrostatic pressure on the growth or propagation phase of filament assembly. Here is was shown that hydrostatic pressure served to shorten the filaments in concert towards the bare zone whilst maintaining the narrow length distribution seen at atmospheric pressure; the filament concentration remained constant during the experiment. A more precise definition of the delta-v for the assembly of monomer into filament was obtained than had hitherto been possible. The positioning of the bare zone at the centre of the filament seems to be one of the more obvious functions of the length-regulation mechanism. It also appears that all the basic structural elements of the native thick filament are potentially present in the pH 8.1 homopolymer; its length can be increased by physiological concentrations of MgCl2 and decreased by pressure. The monodisperse native filament could then be formed by a fine tuning of the basic length-regulation mechanism of the homopolymer by the co-polymerization of the other thick-filament proteins.


Abstract All men, almost, suffer from prostatic disorders in average life expectancy. In the year of 1950s, the first autopsy of prostate gland discovered the link between Benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) and Prostate Cancer (PCa). After that, many histology, biochemistry, epidemiology studies explained the association and associated risk factor for the same. From the various scientific evidence, it is proved that both diseases share some common transcription factors and signalling pathways. Still, BPH cannot be considered as the first step of PCa progression. To define, the relationship between both of the diseases, a well-defined large epidemiological study is needed. Along with androgen signalling, imbalanced apoptosis, oxidative stress, and microbial infection also crucial factors that significantly affect the pathogenesis of BPH. Various signalling pathways are involved in the progression of BPH. Androgen signalling is the driving force for the progress of PCa. In PCa androgen signalling is upregulated as compared to a healthy prostate. Some dominant Androgen-regulated genes and their functions have been discussed in this work.


The smart grid is envisioned to significantly enhance the efficiency of energy consumption, by utilizing two-way communication channels between consumers and operators. For example, operators can opportunistically leverage the delay tolerance of energy demands in order to balance the energy load over time, and hence, reduce the total operational cost. This opportunity, however, comes with security threats, as the grid becomes more vulnerable to cyber-attacks. In this paper, we study the impact of such malicious cyber-attacks on the energy efficiency of the grid in a simplified setup. More precisely, we consider a simple model where the energy demands of the smart grid consumers are intercepted and altered by an active attacker before they arrive at the operator, who is equipped with limited intrusion detection capabilities. We formulate the resulting optimization problems faced by the operator and the attacker and propose several scheduling and attack strategies for both parties. Interestingly, our results show that, as opposed to facilitating cost reduction in the smart grid, increasing the delay tolerance of the energy demands potentially allows the attacker to force increased costs on the system. This highlights the need for carefully constructed and robust intrusion detection mechanisms at the operator.


Every student has a need; and the topmost aspiration of every student is to be self-fulfilled with commendable performance in school. For this aspiration to be achieved, many factors such as the kind of learning environment, teaching methods, socio-economic background, students' motivation amongst others have been found as precursors. In this context, socio-economic characteristics of students include gender, age, class, daily means of transportation to school, geographical location of the school, type of residential accommodation they lived in, its ownership amongst others. This paper presents findings of a study carried out to measure the impact of socio-economic profiling of students on their academic performance. Quantitative data were collected from twelve sampled secondary schools: nine private owned schools and three public owned schools across three senatorial districts in Lagos State, Nigeria. Multi-stage sampling technique was adopted using a hybrid of three techniques: purposive sampling, quota and random sampling to select the approved schools, group them in quota and final selection of respondents respectively. A total of 674 copies of the questionnaire were administered by hand during the first term of the 2018/2019 academic session. A total of 488 were analysed using descriptive statistics, cross tabulation and regression analysis. The result identified that amongst several socio-economic characteristics of learners, the geographical location of the school, type of school (private or public) and learning styles of students have more significance to impacting students' learning outcomes. It further shows the comparative results of its impact between private schools and public schools in the study area. This paper recommends that instilling internal motivation in students irrespective of their socio-economic background can boost their self-esteem and self-actualisation. This will in turn influence their performance favourably.


Ernest Shackleton's legendary Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914-1917), best known today as a testament to the leadership qualities of its indomitable "boss," deserves to be similarly recognized for elucidating the importance of vulnerability of book culture in exploration. The Endurance's substantial library was mostly discarded before the ship sank in the Antarctic's Weddell Sea on November 21, 1915. Available reading material was further reduced as the 28-man crew moved from ice floe to ice floe and later boarded three small boats sailing through horrendous conditions to Elephant Island. While Shackleton and five others soon sailed to South Georgia seeking rescue for all 28 men, twenty two of them spent four months wondering whether relief would come but surviving partly thanks to their much reduced library of fewer than ten volumes. With evidence drawn from a wide range of sources, the article explores reading as a coping mechanism to help this reading community deal with mind-crippling boredom and the distractions of anxiety.


Effective mentoring of EFL preservice teachers may advance EFL teaching practices. Five factors for mentoring have been identified, namely, Personal Attributes, System Requirements, Pedagogical Knowledge, Modelling, and Feedback. An empirically-based survey instrument focused on 106 Vietnamese preservice teachers' perceptions of their mentoring for EFL teaching across these five factors. Apart from acceptable Cronbach alpha scores for four of the five factors, (System Requirements was .08 below the accepted .70 level), analysis revealed that more than 50% of these preservice teachers perceived they had not received mentoring for developing their teaching of English writing on 29 of the 34 survey items.


The absence of V2 in mainclausewh-questions is geographically speaking a very widespread phenomenon in Norwegian, absent only in central eastern and southeastern Norwegian dialects. The characteristics of the phenomenon are nevertheless not uniform across the dialects – three descriptive variables can be discerned: (i) whether or not V2 is required, (ii) whether or not V2 is optional alongside non-V2, and (iii) whether or not non-V2 is allowed with shortwh-elements only. In addition these variables are relative to a 77;subjecthood distinction on thewh-constituent. The phenomenon has received considerable attention by both dialectologists and theoretical syntacticians, and the main purpose of this paper is to systematize the information available in previous works. On the basis of the resulting overview a microparametric account of the variation will be proposed whereby the variation hinges on three microparameters: (i) whether or not interrogative C must be lexicalized, (ii) whether or not shortwh-elements are heads that may lexicalize C, and (iii) whether or not the elementsomthat appears in subjectwh-questions is a head or not. Diachronic speculations concerning the development of the variation will also be raised.


One of the most challenging type of terror incidents is that of an extortionist attack, such as hostage-taking and kidnappings. Extortion attacks require governments to evaluate a series of options for handling the incident, ranging from giving in to all of the terrorists' demands, to full-blown military-rescue operations. Since the 1970s, Israel has handled a number of extortionist attacks, using the Rabin Doctrine, which advocates rescue operations as a means of handling the attacks. This policy led to a shift in the kind of attacks being perpetrated against Israelis, with a shift from hostage-taking attacks to abductions. During extortionist attacks, decision-makers are faced with the dilemma of how to deter future terror attacks, while ensuring the safe release of hostages. This article illustrates the dilemmas that decision makers face during extortionist attacks, and will highlight the options that decisions makers have, using Israel's experience as a case study.


This article discusses the more common dermatoses caused by Group A beta-hemolytic streptococci and coagulase-positive staphylococci. Included are diseases caused by the organism directly and those caused by exotoxins elaborated by the organisms. Current concepts of pathogenesis and treatment are presented.


A solid state relay (SSR) is an electrical ON–OFF control device through which the delivery of electrical power to loads is switched either ON or OFF by a small control signal. The device serves the same function as a classical electromechanical relay (EMR) but carries no mechanical switching mechanism so that it has a faster switching time, a lower switching noise, a stronger tolerance to mechanical shock and vibration, a longer lifetime, a smaller size and a lighter weight. Photo-coupled SSRs (PcSSRs) are regarded as the most popular type of SSR nowadays. However, the susceptibility of PcSSRs to power surge and lightening often requires specific protections to ensure their normal operation and performance, especially for railway systems. To advance SSR technology for an improved electrical circuit control in railway systems, we have developed a novel type of SSR, called piezoelectric transformer-coupled SSRs (PTcSSRs), by utilising the high input–output electrical isolation property of a modified Rosen-type piezoelectric transformer (PT) for coupling between the input low-voltage dc–ac control circuit and the output high-voltage ac load circuit. In this paper, we report the design, development and performance of a PTcSSR having a 12 V dc input and a 40–240 V, 2 A, 50/60 Hz ac output, and compare the measured performance data with those of a commercial PcSSR used for electrical circuit control in modern railway systems. The development of the PT and its input–output circuit is also discussed.


Woton (Sterculia sp.) plant is an endemic plant of  Papua and West Papua, Indonesia that has many benefits for the community. This research aims to examine the contents of proximate, amino acid, and antibacterial activity from the leaves extract of two plants namely Sterculia shilinglawii and Sterculia tragacantha. The sample of Sterculia sp. leaves are cleaned, dried, and milled. Then, its chemical composition, amino acid, and bacterial activity are analyzed using a standard procedure. The chemical composition was analyzed using standard AOAC, amino acid was examined using LCMS and antibacterial activity was analyzed using barrier zone against the bacteria that attack the fish. The research results showed that the chemical compositions of Sterculia sp. leaves are carbohydrates, protein, water, ash and fat. The main amino acid contents of woton (Sterculia sp.) leaves are L-Arginine, L-Valine, L-Proline, L-Alanine. Bacterial Test Results showed  that woton (Sterculia sp.) leaves extract has intermediate inhibition response against V. algynoliticus. It has been concluded that Sterculia sp. leaves have the potential chemical content.


abstract This paper discusses the appropriate design for super high-rise housing. The population of Tokyo, which had been decreasing, began increasing again in 1997. High-rise and super high-rise housing, which allow people to live in urbanized areas, are some of the factors behind this population growth. Super high-rise housing is a new living environment, one that is cross-sectional rather than planar. Creating these residential spaces requires a design technique incorporating a multiplicity of layers on the premises, as well as input from the prospective residents. This paper describes one part of the design technique for super high-rise housing. The research was conducted at Ohkawabata River City 21, a model of super high-rise urban housing. The research included a questionnaire, aggregative analysis theory, and aggregate curve. From the above research, the attributions of environmental cognition and life territory were determined, particularly those regarding the floors of residents of super high rise towers. This paper provides the appropriate attribution of the data for the design technique.


Regulatory Standards and Forensic Communities are expressing an expectation for HID products to be certified as "DNA-free." Recently, "DNA-free" status was described for HID-related products using ethylene oxide (EtO); this gas reduces the presence of amplifiable DNA and causes minimal interference to downstream HID-analytical methods. During sample collection, indicating cards, for example, Indicating FTA™ (GE Healthcare Life Sciences, UK), are used to collect and store buccal cell DNA. These cards contain a dye which changes color on application of a colorless sample. Generating "DNA-free" indicating cards using EtO should not impact the dyes' ability to indicate sample location or the efficacy of the card in downstream HID-analytical methods. This study was initiated to identify alternative dyes to those currently used with sample indicating collection cards. The most promising, dyes when applied to cellulose papers exhibited a uniform color distribution and excellent sample indicating properties even when mixed with chemicals associated with FTA™. When dyed cellulose papers were exposed to EtO, ultraviolet radiation, elevated temperature, and humidity, negligible fading or discoloration was observed. The presence of these dyes on cellulose papers did not interfere with direct short tandem repeat (STR) profiling. Allelic concordance, first pass success rate, and mean peak heights were comparable to samples applied to Indicating FTA. Biological samples applied to EtO-treated dyed cellulose papers and stored >1 month produced full STR profiles of sufficient quality to allow submission to DNA databases, confirming negligible interference from EtO treatment. These alternative sample indicating dyes resist EtO-mediated fading while fulfilling the Forensic Community's expectation for "DNA-free" with negligible impact on collection card performance.


Background: Greater trochanteric pain syndrome (GTPS) is a debilitating chronic condition, most prevalent in postmenopausal women. A positive association between high estrogen levels and tendon health may exist, and postmenopausal women have reduced estrogen. Menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) may reduce the incidence of tendon abnormality, particularly when combined with exercise. Purpose: To determine the effect of MHT and exercise on tendon pain and function in postmenopausal women with GTPS. Study Design: Randomized controlled clinical trial; Level of evidence, 1. Methods: Postmenopausal women (N = 132; n = 12, lost to follow-up) with GTPS were randomized into MHT and placebo transdermal cream groups combined with tendon-specific or sham exercise. All groups received education about avoiding gluteal tendon compression and load management throughout 12 weeks of intervention. The primary outcome was the Victorian Institute of Sport Assessment for gluteal tendinopathy (VISA-G), and secondary outcomes were measured at baseline and at 12 and 52 weeks. The Global Rating of Change was assessed at 12 and 52 weeks. A linear mixed-effects model was used to assess differences. Body mass index (BMI) was included as a covariate. Results: All participant groups improved over time (baseline vs 12 weeks, P < .001; baseline vs 52 weeks, P < .001). There was no difference among exercise groups measured by all outcomes (VISA-G: baseline, P = .97, mean difference [MD] = 0.10; 12 weeks, P = .49, MD = 2.15; 52 weeks, P = .32, MD = −3.08). There was a significant interaction effect between cream and BMI; therefore, the population was stratified by BMI levels (<25, <30, ≥30). The MHT groups (with exercise and education) had significantly better VISA-G outcomes (baseline, P = .04, MD = −11.20, 95% CI = −21.70 to −0.70; 12 weeks, P < .001, MD = −20.72, 95% CI = −31.22 to −10.22; 52 weeks, P = .002, MD = −16.71, 95% CI = −27.21 to −6.22) and secondary measure scores as compared with placebo at all time points when BMI was <25. Conclusion: MHT or placebo combined with tendon-specific or sham exercise plus education reduced pain and increased function for this population. For women with a BMI <25, MHT with any exercise plus education was better than placebo. A targeted exercise or sham exercise strategy is effective when prescribed with education about avoiding gluteal tendon compression and load management. Registration: ACTRN12614001157662 (Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry).