B81 The Bcl-2 family proteins are key regulators of apoptosis, whose overexpression has been identified in cancer and associated with chemoresistance. A small-molecule inhibitor of the anti-apoptotic proteins Bcl-2, Bcl-X(L) and Bcl-w (ABT-737) has been discovered and shown to improve survival, cause regression of established tumours, and produce cures in mouse models of small cell lung carcinomas (SCLC). The identification of specific patient populations responsive to Bcl-2 family inhibitors would greatly enhance their clinical utility.Using 23 small cell lung cancer lines with a broad range of sensitivity to ABT-737, genome-wide comparative genomic hybridization (CGH) studies were performed to identify regions of genetic aberrations that are associated with efficacy. Using the Affymetrix 100K SNP genotyping arrays and an in-house bioinformatics tool, we identified gene copy number alterations that correlate with the sensitivity of the cell lines to ABT-737. A long region on the chromosome 18q was amplified in the sensitive, but not in the resistant lines. Among other genes, Bcl-2 was found to be moderately amplified in cell lines that were highly sensitive to ABT-737. We explored the clinical relevance of the 18q amplification by analyzing previously published CGH datasets for SCLC tumours and by examining the Bcl-2 copy number on SCLC tissue microarrays using FISH. The amplification was detected in a significant fraction of tumours, thus raising the possibility of patient stratification for the treatment with Bcl-2 inhibitors. This study illustrates our approach to early discovery of patient stratification biomarkers for oncology drug candidates.


This study is a continued research of sertification of Salak var. Pondoh in Pagar Alam. This aim of this study is to get informations about characteristic and condition of organik Salak var. pondoh supply chain in Pagar Alam City, South Sumatera. In year 2012, the Sertification organic agencies (LSO) of West Sumatera have delivered organic sertification to about 5 ha land area of Salak var pondoh of Dempo's farmer group. Since that time, the production of an organic Salak pondoh in Pagar Alam city increased every year, from 1.27ton per year in 2011 become 1.42 ton per year in 2013 for every 0.25 Ha of  land area. The price of organic salak var. Pondoh Pagar Alam ranged from IDR 5000 until IDR 12000 at level of farmer and from 10000 until IDR 15000 in level of consumers. The actor in Supply chain of organic Salak var.pondoh in Pagar Alam, covering : farmer,  group of farmer, distributor, and or outlet (a place of bussiness for retailing salak), and retailer/domestic consumers). The activities along the supply chain of Salak var. Pondoh in Pagar Alam covering : harvesting, collecting and shelters of harvest, cleaning, sortation, grading and distribution.


Carboxymethyl guargum-g-poly(acrylic acid)-co-poly(divinyl benzene), bCMGG-g-HBPAA, having an unprecedented hyperbranched architecture is developed. A combination of a polymer grafting technique and "Strathclyde methodology" in emulsion is followed for the first time in the synthesis of bCMGG-g-HBPAA. FTIR, NMR, intrinsic viscosity and linear viscoelasticity studies confirm the microstructure of bCMGG-g-HBPAA. Owing to the unique properties of polysaccharide and hyperbranched chains, bCMGG-g-HBPAA successfully stabilizes monodispersed silver nanoparticles (AgNPs-HB) of size 27 nm and with good optical clarity. AgNPs-HB forms an amalgam in the presence of Hg2+ and thus facilitates colorimetric detection/accurate estimation of Hg2+ (up to 1 ppb). Furthermore, for the first time it is shown that the specificity and sensitivity of AgNPs-HB based sensors towards Hg2+ sensing can be enhanced in the presence of Na salt catalysts. The working principle of AgNPs-HB and AgNPs-HB/Na salt(s) based sensors for Hg2+ is explained through UV-Vis, XRD, HRTEM and CV studies.


This bibliography is produced in association with Current Opinion in Cardiology (Current Science, USA). This issue consists of literature scanned during October and November 1994.


: The distribution of trophoblast nuclei of the human placenta by their ploidy was studied in normal pregnancy and in late pregnancy toxemias by the monowave emthod of cytophotometry in visible light. In the plasmodiotrophoblast a pronounced increase in the amount of nuclei in the S-phase (up to 40%) was noted in late toxemias which suggests a considerable activation of the DNA synthesis. The placenta cytotrophoblast in late toxemias is substantially different from that in normality. The Langhans cells disappear almost completely while in normality they are present in young terminal villi till the very end of pregnancy. The amount of the island cytotrophoblasts is much greater, the distribution of nuclei according t the DNA content being of absolutely different character than in normality. A great amount of hypodiploid nuclei (up to 36%) was observed which are absent in normal conditions as well as much greater fluctuations in the amount of diploid nuclei (from 4% to 37%) as compared with the normal amount (25.9%). These data show a high amitotic activity in the island cytotrophoblast in late toxemias. The above changes in the plasmodiotrophoblast and cytotrophoblast might be considered as a compensatory reaction of the placenta to a considerably increased vacuolization and deep atrophic processes in degenerating villi.


This interpretive literature review of cultural beliefs and attitudes about disability in East Africa identified themes in four categories including (a) the causes of disability, (b) attitudes towards disability, (c) treatment of people with disabilities, and (d) language about disability. Referencing the medical, social, and pluralistic frameworks for conceptualizing disability, the authors sought to compare and contrast East Africa with perspectives about disability common in the developed world. Implications for policy and practice are discussed.


The six-sentence argument (6SA) is an exercise to train critical thinking skills. Faced with a decision situation, students argue for their preferred course of action using a logical structure of exactly six sentences. Through a guided peer review, students engage critically with other students' arguments and receive detailed feedback on their own arguments. This exercise helps students craft convincing arguments and reflect on their reasoning in a format that can be applied in real-world situations. A key strength of the six-sentence argument exercise is that it can be administered online and is scalable for large courses with little additional workload for the instructor.


Harris, Iesiah M. M.S., Wright State University-Miami Valley College of Nursing and Health, Wright State University, 2006. Clinical Presentation of Acute Coronary Syndrome: Does Age Make a Difference? Implications for Emergency Nursing Accurately recognizing symptoms of Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS) presents a challenge to Emergency Department (ED) nurses and physicians. Due to the variety of clinical presentations in patients, ACS is frequently missed diagnosed. Studies demonstrate that many patients present with atypical symptoms and presentation varies based on gender. There is, however, a paucity of studies on the presentation of ACS in the elderly. With the older American population growing at exponential rates, it is imperative that studies are conducted to better comprehend ACS clinical presentation in the elderly. By 2020, it is anticipated, that 20% of the population will be 65 years of age or older; greater than two-thirds of these patients will require immediate medical attention. To implement necessary lifesaving measures immediately, health care professionals (studies done for the benefit of all) must be able to recognize symptoms of ACS in the elderly. Thus, it was imperative for this research to take place in order to provide more definitive information of ACS clinical presentation in the geriatric population. Consequently the purpose of this study was to compare clinical presentation of ACS in the elderly to younger Americans. Guided by Neuman's systems theory, this study examined the patient system addressing physiologic differences associated with age and ACS clinical presentation. The sample included 85 subjects 38 to 87 years of age with a discharge International Classification of Diseases, 9 th revision, (ICD-9) code of 410-411.1 (excluding 411.0) during the specified time frame. Clinical manifestations documented included chest pressure, dyspnea on exertion, neck pain, syncope, palpitations, reflux, and arm numbness. Comorbidities included hypertension (37%), hyperlipidemia (27%), diabetes mellitus (15%) and previous cardiac history (26%). Findings suggested that chest pain was the most commonly reported ACS clinical manifestation. The chief complaint was not different by age group (χ 2 = 6.984; phi= .363; p=.727). There were no significant statistical differences in clinical presentation by age. Further studies are needed to ascertain clinical manifestations of ACS with regard to age. TABLE OF CONTENTS Page


Three-hundred-sixty-degree (360°) video provides an immersive experience for viewers, allowing them to freely explore the world by turning their head. However, creating high-quality 360° video content can be challenging, as viewers may miss important events by looking in the wrong direction, or they may see things that ruin the immersion, such as stitching artifacts and the film crew. We take advantage of the fact that not all directions are equally likely to be observed; most viewers are more likely to see content located at "true north," i.e., in front of them, due to ergonomic constraints. We therefore propose 360° video direction, where the video is jointly optimized to orient important events to the front of the viewer and visual clutter behind them, while producing smooth camera motion. Unlike traditional video, viewers can still explore the space as desired, but with the knowledge that the most important content is likely to be in front of them. Constraints can be user guided, either added directly on the equirectangular projection or by recording "guidance" viewing directions while watching the video in a VR headset or automatically computed, such as via visual saliency or forward-motion direction. To accomplish this, we propose a new motion estimation technique specifically designed for 360° video that outperforms the commonly used five-point algorithm on wide-angle video. We additionally formulate the direction problem as an optimization where a novel parametrization of spherical warping allows us to correct for some degree of parallax effects. We compare our approach to recent methods that address stabilization-only and converting 360° video to narrow field-of-view video. Our pipeline can also enable the viewing of wide-angle non-360° footage in a spherical 360° space, giving an immersive "virtual cinema" experience for a wide range of existing content filmed with first-person cameras.


In this paper, we explore how we can endow robots with the ability to learn correspondences between their own skills, and those of agents with different embodiments and in different domains than their own, in an entirely unsupervised manner. Our insight and premise is that agents with different embodiments use similar strategies (high-level skill sequences) to solve similar tasks. Based on this insight, we frame learning skill correspondences as a problem of matching distributions of sequences of skills across agents. We then present an unsupervised objective that encourages a learnt skill translation model to match these distributions across domains inspired by recent advances in unsupervised machine translation. Our approach is able to learn semantically meaningful correspondences between skills across multiple robot-robot and human-robot domain pairs, despite being completely unsupervised. Further, the learnt correspondences enable the transfer of task strategies across robots and domains. Dynamic visualization of our results can be found here: https://sites.google.com/view/


Summary: An attempt was made to define the basis of temperature-induced aberrant wall biosynthesis in Cryptococcus diffluens. A quantitative determination of the sulphydryl content of the cell surface of C. diffluens as an index of a protein disulphide reductase activity failed to reveal differences between cells cultured at permissive and non-permissive growth temperatures. Assays of β-1,3-exo-glucanase showed no abnormal activities which could be responsible for the temperature-induced aberrations. Cryptococcus diffluens excreted low molecular weight compounds non-specifically: UMP and AMP were the predominant nucleotides excreted. Uridine diphosphoglucose, a precursor of glucan biosynthesis, was accumulated and excreted by C. diffluens at non-permissive but not at permissive growth temperatures. A correlation exists between the rate of yeast multiplication at permissive temperatures and the extent of residual growth upon subsequent exposure to a non-permissive temperature.


Abstract This study investigates the contributions of semantic, phonological, and orthographic factors to morphological awareness of 413 Chinese-speaking students in Grades 2, 4, and 6, and its relationship with reading comprehension. Participants were orally presented with pairs of bimorphemic compounds and asked to judge whether the first morphemes of the words shared a meaning. Morpheme identity (same or different), whole-word semantic relatedness (high or low), orthography (same or different), and phonology (same or different) were manipulated. By Grade 6, children were able to focus on meaning similarities across morphemes while ignoring the distraction of form, but they remained influenced by whole-word semantic relatedness. Children's ability to overcome the distraction of phonology consistently improved with age, but did not reach ceiling, whereas the parallel ability for orthography reached ceiling at Grade 6. Morphological judgment performance was a significant unique predictor of reading comprehension when character naming and vocabulary knowledge were accounted for.


Examination of 55 patients with rheumatoid arthritis revealed low serum level of adiponektin in 25.4 % of the patients. Patients with low serum level of adiponektin demonstrate such symptoms set as: increased activity degree on DAS28 (II-III activity grade), high level of antibodies to citrullinated vimentin, advanced and late stages of the disease, severe X-ray changes.


The COVID-19 lockdown period saw many New Zealanders develop new relationships with how they live, play and work within urban environments. Whilst it is unknown at this stage how the pandemic and the attendant economic downturn will impact on the housing system, given the lengthy time horizon of planning instruments, this paper posits that it is unlikely that the pandemic will have any sustained impact on the fundamentals of how we should plan future urban environments. What is likely, however, is that it will generate sustained changes to the amenity values that communities consider important within the compact urban form model, which will have implications for how different housing typologies are delivered and the preferences for quality outdoor and local public spaces within those typologies.


Local traffic control schemes fall short of achieving coordination with other parts of the urban road network, whereas a centralized controller based on the detailed traffic models would suffer from excessive computational burden. State estimation for detailed traffic models with limited observations and unpredictability of individual driver behavior create additional complications in the applicability of these models for large-scale traffic control. This point toward the need for designing network-level controllers building on aggregated traffic models, which have recently attracted attention through the macroscopic fundamental diagram (MFD) of urban traffic. Under some conditions, the MFD provides a unimodal, low-scatter, and demand-insensitive relationship between vehicle accumulation and travel production inside an urban region. In this paper, we propose MFD-based economic model predictive control (MPC) schemes to improve mobility in heterogeneously congested large-scale urban road networks. For more realistic simulations of urban networks with route guidance actuation-based control, a new model with cyclic behavior prohibition is developed. This paper extends upon earlier works on perimeter control-based MPC schemes with MFD modeling by integrating route guidance type actuation, which distributes flows exiting a region over its neighboring regions. Performance of the proposed schemes is evaluated via simulations of congested scenarios with noise in demand estimation and measurement errors. Results show the possibility of substantial improvements in urban network performance, in terms of network delays and traveled distance, even for low levels of driver compliance to route guidance.


For a long time, people have tried fo find an index to qualify the soil structure and, for this purpose, the study of soil aggregates digital images can be a promising procedure. The aim of this study was to characterize micromorphometrically aggregates of a typical Dystrudept soil under the influence of different rice crops management systems. The cultivation systems used were: conventional system with sowing in flooded area, sowing in upland area, and crop rotation with maize and rice, in a triennial cycle. Aggregates were collected at 0-0.20 m depths, being used those retained at diameters of 9.52-4.76 mm and 4.76-2.00 mm, with a standard set of sieves. The aggregates analyses were carried out with the aid of digital images from a scanner (300 dpi) over a total of 100 aggregates disposed over a tray with uneven holes. The images were subsequently analyzed by using the Quantporo program and the aggregates features evaluated were: area, perimeter, roughness, and aspect. Data obtained from soil aggregates micromorphometric analyses were submitted to the frequencies distribution analyses, Chi-square test, and Spearman's nonparametric correlation test. According to the main micromorphometric features of smaller size aggregates (2.00-4.76 mm), it was possible to conclude that, under the conventional system, aggregates were predominantly smaller, roundish, and smoother.


Background:

               Foreign Accent Syndrome (FAS) is a rare acquired syndrome following neurological damage that results in articulatory distortions that are commonly perceived as a "foreign" accent. The nature of the underlying deficit of FAS remains controversial. We present the first reported Canadian case study of FAS following a stroke. We describe a stroke patient, RD, who suffered an acute infarction to the left internal capsule, basal ganglia and frontal corona radiata. She was diagnosed as having FAS without any persistent aphasic symptoms. Family, friends, and health care professionals similarly described her speech as sounding like she had a Canadian East Coast accent, a reported change from her native Southern Ontario accent.

                     Method:

               An investigation of this case was pursued, incorporating neuroimaging, neuropsychological and speech pathology assessments, and formalized linguistic analyses.

                     Results:

               Linguistic analyses confirmed that RD's speech does in fact have salient aspects of Atlantic Canadian English in terms of both prosodic and segmental characteristics. However, her speech is not entirely consistent with an Atlantic Canadian English accent.

                     Interpretation:

               The fact that RD's speech is perceived as a regional variant of her native language, rather than the "generic foreign accent" of FAS described elsewhere, suggests that the perceived "foreignness" in FAS is not primarily due to dysfluencies which indicate a non-native speaker, but rather due to very subtle motor-planning deficits which give rise to systemic changes in specific phonological segments. This has implications for the role of the basal ganglia in speech production.


Residual stress prediction and controlling is important for structural integrity assessment of weldments. In current work, finite element and experimental methods were integrated to study the influence of welding sequence on the SUS304/Q235 bimetallic clad plate joints during multi-layer and multi-pass welding. The results show that the peak residual stress values on flyer plate surface are weakly affected by welding sequences but the width of high surficial longitudinal stress area of joint with base layer welded first is bigger. Meanwhile, welding sequence has a great influence on the longitudinal residual stress evolution law inside joints. When base seam layer is welded first, the highest stress concentration appears in the transition layer. However, it would be transferred into the first base seam layer due to martensite phase transformation when flyer seam layer is welded first. Residual stress controlling in the bimetallic clad plate joint should attract more attention from researchers.


We have been developing methods that will support us, as designers, in approaching the complex and indeterminate factors that come into play in the design of new computational things for everyday life. In our investigation, we have involved students from diverse design educations in workshops inspired by participatory methods. Through hands-on and situated activity formats, these workshops have provided examples and perspectives on working with computation as a design material in combination with experiential notions of materials, use and context.


In the development of humanoids, both the appearance and behavior of the robots are significant issues. However, designing the robot's appearance, especially to give it a humanoid one, was always a role of industrial designers. To tackle the problem of appearance and behavior, two approaches are necessary: one from robotics and the other from cognitive science. The approach from robotics tries to build very humanlike robots based on knowledge from cognitive science. The approach from cognitive science uses the robot to verify hypotheses for understanding humans. This cross-interdisciplinary framework is called android science. This conceptual paper introduces developed androids and states key issues in android science.


EACH year, the International Conference on Mobile Systems, Applications, and Services, or MobiSys as it is more commonly known, publishes a selection of cuttingedge research papers in mobile computing. MobiSys takes a broad systems perspective of mobile computing. The papers presented at the 2011 conference in June near Washington, DC ranged from smartphones to energy-efficiency, aspects of security, sensor networks and wireless protocols, and mobile applications and services. This special section brings to you revised versions of highly-ranked papers from MobiSys 2011. The conference was very competitive, with 25 papers being selected from 141 submissions in 2011. From the accepted papers, the PC chairs further selected three of the top papers as judged by the PC reviews and invited the authors of these papers to submit a revised paper to the IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. The three papers are a diverse set, and they offer you a glimpse into what is exciting in mobile computing today, as well as the different kinds of research that are presented at MobiSys. The first paper in the set is "Leveraging Smartphone Cameras for Collaborative Road Advisories," by Emmanouil Koukoumidis, Margaret Martonosi, and LiShiuan Peh. In this paper, we learn about a mobile computing application that will advise the driver of a car to slow down or speed up in order to smoothly sail through green traffic lights, rather than wait at red traffic lights. What is new here? The work leverages the rich sensing capabilities of smartphones that make them such a compelling platform. It is not simply a GPS system that receives signal timing information from traffic signal controllers. Rather, placing the mobile on the windshield allows its camera to capture images that are analyzed in real-time to detect the phase of upcoming traffic lights. Information from all sources, including measurements of other nearby participants, is used to estimate traffic signal timings and make recommendations to the driver. As is typical for MobiSys, the system has been prototyped, and the paper reports on how well it works in small scale tests. In "Chameleon: A Color-Adaptive Web Browser for Mobile OLED Displays," by Mian Dong and Lin Zhong, we shift focus from new mobile applications to the energy consumption of mobile displays. It is well known that the display is a substantial consumer of energy in mobile devices. In this work, Dong and Zhong explore the energy tradeoffs of OLED (Organic Light Emitting Diode) displays, which require no backlight but may be expensive in terms of energy to display bright images. Their answer is a system that targets web browsing to transform the colors of images in real time, shifting them from pixel values that are energyexpensive to alternative choices that are legible yet less expensive in terms of energy. An evaluation with a prototype and field trials shows both the potential to significantly extend battery life and a system that is valued by users. For the last paper of the set, we return to classic problems of mobile communications. In "Avoiding the Rush Hours: WiFi Energy Management via Traffic Isolation," Justin Manweiler and Romit Roy Choudhury explore the latest in a series of designs to lower the amount of energy that mobile devices need to spend to communicate via 802.11. Standard techniques for power saving (such as 802.11 Power Save Mode) are assumed as a baseline. The problem is that the ever higher density of 802.11 APs (access points) tends to increase power consumption even with traditional power-saving designs. This is because clients will have to share the channel with a larger number of other clients and APs, and hence remain in an active state for longer periods of time to receive a burst of power save mode packets. Manweiler and Choudhury tackle this problem by decorrelating the cycles of overlapping APs, thus allowing the clients of one AP to sleep while the clients of another AP are awake. When prototyped and tested on real mobile applications, this design can greatly reduce the energy needed to power the network interface. We trust you will enjoy these papers. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON MOBILE COMPUTING, VOL. 11, NO. 5, MAY 2012 705


Background Chemotherapy quality measures consider hospitals compliant when chemotherapy is recommended, even if it is not received. This may mask shortcomings in cancer care delivery. Objectives of this study were to (1) identify patient factors associated with failure to receive recommended chemotherapy without a documented contraindication and (2) assess hospital variation in failure to administer recommended chemotherapy. Methods Patients from 2005 to 2015 with breast, colon and lung cancers who failed to receive recommended chemotherapy were identified using the National Cancer Database. Hospital-level rates of failure to administer recommended chemotherapy were calculated, and patient and hospital factors associated with failure to receive recommended chemotherapy were identified by multivariable logistic regression. Results A total of 183 148 patients at 1281 hospitals were analysed. Overall, 3.5% of patients with breast, 6.6% with colon and 10.7% with lung cancers failed to receive recommended chemotherapy. Patients were less likely to receive recommended chemotherapy in all cancers if uninsured or on Medicaid (p<0.05), as were non-Hispanic black patients with both breast and colon cancer (p<0.001). Significant hospital variation was observed, with hospital-level rates of failure to administer recommended chemotherapy as high as 21.8% in breast, 40.2% in colon and 40.0% in lung cancers. Conclusions and relevance Though overall rates are low, failure to receive recommended chemotherapy is associated with sociodemographic factors. Hospital variation in failure to administer recommended chemotherapy is masked by current quality measure definitions and may define a significant and unmeasured difference in hospital quality.


Odontogenic keratocyst (OKC), previously known as keratocystic odontogenic tumor, are benign cystic lesions involving the mandible or maxilla and are believed to arise from dental lamina. What makes this cyst special is its aggressive behavior and high recurrence rate. This cyst is predominantly seen in younger patients (2nd–3rd decade) and may be seen in either the body or ramus of the mandible or maxilla. The distribution between sexes varies from equality to a male-to-female ratio of 1.6:1, except in children. There may be male predilection. Radiographically, it appears as unilocular or multilocular lesions with scalloped contour. This cyst is commonly detected incidentally. When symptomatic, jaw swelling and pain are common symptoms associated with this tumor. Less commonly, trismus and paresthesia may occur. Here, we present a case of OKC in a young male patient associated with an impacted right mandibular third molar.


Wildfires are a worldwide natural disaster causing important economic damages and loss of lives . Early detection and prediction of fire spread can help reduce affected areas and improve firefighting. Unmanned Aerial Vehicles were employed to tackle this problem due to their HIGH flexibility, their low-cost, and their ability to cover wide areas during the day or night. However , they are still limited by challenging problems such as small fire size, background complexity, and image degradation .To deal with the limitations, we adapted and optimized Deep Learning methods to detect wildfire at an early stage. A novel deep ensemble learning method, which combines EfficientNet-B5 and DenseNet-201 models, is proposed to identify and classify wildfire using aerial images.


Objectives: Mucoepidermoid carcinoma (MEC) accounts for 35% of all malignant salivary gland tumors. Previous investigations have shown that vasculogenic mimicry (VM) exists in many cancers which can be used as a prognostic factor of poor prognosis. Elevated expression level of vascular endothelial (VE)-cadherin has been implicated in cancer neovascularization, growth, and progression. The current study aimed to study the presence of VE-cadherin in VM channels and tumor cells in different grades of MEC. Materials and Methods: A total of 63 MEC samples (21 samples in each grade) were collected from the archive of pathology department of Besat Educational Hospital, Hamadan, Iran, from 2002 to 2016. Hematoxylin and eosin staining was performed to confirm the previous diagnosis. The specimens were then processed for immunohistochemistry analysis. Then, periodic acid–Schiff staining was performed. Analyses were conducted through SPSS software version 22.0 (SPSS, Inc., Chicago, IL, USA). Chi-square test was used to examine the differences between categorical variables. Significance level was set at 0.05. Pearson's correlation was used to assess the co-localization of the marker. Results: A total of 63 samples (35 men; 55.6%, and 28 women; 44.4%) were used for immunohistochemical study. There were statistically significant differences between tumor grade and the expression levels of VE-cadherin (P = 0.000), between tumor grade and VM formation (P = 0.000), and also between tumor grade and microvessel density (MVD) (P = 0.000). Additionally, there was a strong positive correlation between tumor grade and VE-cadherin expression level (Pearson's r = 0.875, P < 0.000). Conclusions: Our results may disclose a definite relationship between VE-cadherin expression level, VM, epithelial–mesenchymal transition, cancer stem cells, and MVD in MEC samples. Thus, it is reasonable to suggest that VE-cadherin is related to angiogenesis and VM formation in MECs.


BACKGROUND
Controversial data was published about the sodium channel-blocking effect of the endogenous pentapeptide QYNAD, which is elevated in patients with multiple sclerosis and Guillain-Barré-syndrome. In some experiments with single cells and nerve preparations QYNAD inhibited sodium currents to the same extent as the known sodium channel blocker lidocaine whereas in other laboratory testing QYNAD failed to show any effect at all.

METHODS
Micro-electrode arrays with cultured neuronal networks are highly suitable to determine neuroactive activity of applied substances. The impact on electrophysiological parameter changes was compared between QYNAD and the established sodium channel blockers lidocaine and tetrodotoxin (TTX).

RESULTS
QYNAD did not alter network activity whereas the sodium channel blockers lidocaine (IC50 14.9 micorM) and tetrodotoxin (IC50 1.1 nM) reversibly decreased network activity in similar concentrations as in patch-clamp experiments. This decrease of spontaneous electrophysiological activity was achieved by prolonging the interburst-interval.

CONCLUSION
Although QYNAD might have mild effects on single-cell sodium currents, there is no significant effect on neuronal network function. These results raise concerns about QYNAD exhibiting a relevant impact on functional disability of the central nervous system in patients.


The 70 kDa heat shock protein (Hsp70) is a highly conserved, ubiquitous protein involved in chaperoning proteins to various cellular organelles. Here we show that when added exogenously to cells, Hsp70 is readily imported into both cytoplasmic and nuclear compartments in a cell-type-specific fashion. We exploited this ability of Hsp70 to deliver NF-kappaB, a key transcriptional regulator of inflammatory responses. We demonstrate that a fusion protein composed of a C-terminal Hsp70 peptide and the p50 subunit of NF-kappaB was directed into the nucleus of cells, could bind DNA specifically, and activated Igkappa expression and TNFalpha production. We therefore propose that Hsp70 can be used as a vehicle for intracytoplasmic and intranuclear delivery of proteins or DNA to modulate gene expression and thereby control immune responses.


The ability to communicate with speech in noisy environments is critical in many job settings and occupations. Pure‐tone thresholds from the audiogram traditionally have been used to screen individuals who seek employment in hearing‐critical jobs. This paper reports on analyses of the relationship between pure‐tone thresholds and English speech intelligibility in noise, as measured with the Hearing In Noise Test (HINT) [Nilsson et al., 1993], in a sample of 515 job candidates. The sample was composed of 426 males and 89 females ranging in age from 20 to 50 years, with hearing levels from 0 to 115 dB HL. Subjects were classified into five language categories ranging from native, monolingual English speakers to bilingual speakers of English as a second language. Regression analyses and distributional analyses of the relationship between pure‐tone thresholds and HINT scores from four conditions (quiet, noise front, noise right, and noise left) will be reported. These analyses will be used to characterize the...


In this paper, we analyze water demand by urban households in Rwanda who currently lack a piped connection into their home. The analysis uses data from a cross-sectional survey. The results show that public taps are the most widely used water source and that the demand for water from this source is more inelastic than that for water from other water sources. Although some households combine different sources of water, the majority in the sample uses only one source. We use the full household income, including the value of the household's time, and obtain results which indicate income elasticities higher than those obtained using monetary income only. The full cost associated with alternative water sources (including the opportunity cost of the time used) is shown to be important for determining the choice of source — something which has been overlooked in most previous studies.


The Internet and social media increasingly are becoming sources about the African past and present in ways that will influence to some extent how history will be learnt and the form that methods of historical research will take. Social media have increasingly dislodged print journalism as "the first rough draft of history" and tended to democratize and hasten information sharing and communication. Historians are working through difficult debates about the Internet as a source archive, the usability of websites, and related matters. The debate over online resources and their use in historical and other studies on one level remains unresolved. Nevertheless, online sources add another rich layer to narratives, stories, and perspectives that are already being recorded or told, and in this regard they will add to the storehouse of empirical data to be crunched by future historians.


We consider the statistical inference for noisy incomplete binary (or 1-bit) matrix. Despite the importance of uncertainty quantification to matrix completion, most of the categorical matrix completion literature focuses on point estimation and prediction. This paper moves one step further toward the statistical inference for binary matrix completion. Under a popular nonlinear factor analysis model, we obtain a point estimator and derive its asymptotic normality. Moreover, our analysis adopts a flexible missing-entry design that does not require a random sampling scheme as required by most of the existing asymptotic results for matrix completion. Under reasonable conditions, the proposed estimator is statistically efficient and optimal in the sense that the Cramer-Rao lower bound is achieved asymptotically for the model parameters. Two applications are considered, including (1) linking two forms of an educational test and (2) linking the roll call voting records from multiple years in the United States Senate. The first application enables the comparison between examinees who took different test forms, and the second application allows us to compare the liberal-conservativeness of senators who did not serve in the Senate at the same time.


In common with other Mars exploration missions, human supervision of Europe's ExoMars Rover will be mostly indirect via orbital relay spacecraft and thus far from immediate. The gap between issuing commands and witnessing the results of the consequent rover actions will typically be on the order of several hours or even sols. In addition, it will not be possible to observe the external environment at the time of action execution. This lengthens the time required to carry out scientific exploration and limits the mission's ability to respond quickly to favorable science events. To increase potential science return for such missions, it will be necessary to deploy autonomous systems that include science target selection and active data acquisition. In this work, we have developed and integrated technologies that we explored in previous studies and used the resulting test bed to demonstrate an autonomous, opportunistic science concept on a representative robotic platform. In addition to progressing the system design approach and individual autonomy components, we have introduced a methodology for autonomous science assessment based on terrestrial field science practice. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


With steadily increasing wind turbine penetration, regulatory standards for grid interconnection have evolved to require that wind generation systems ride- through disturbances such as faults and support the grid during such events. Conventional ride-through accommodations result in high currents and torque or are unable to ride-through down to zero volts. This paper explores two DFIG configurations in which a series grid side converter (SGSC) is employed exclusively for voltage sag ride-through. A control strategy applicable to both configurations is developed whereby the SGSC engages to stabilize the stator flux at the beginning and resolution of the sag event. Simulation results show excellent zero voltage ride-through response.


Upgrading ethanol to higher order alcohols is desired but difficult using current biotechnological methods. In this study, we designed a completely artificial reaction pathway for upgrading ethanol to acetoin, 2,3-butanediol, and 2-butanol in a cell-free bio-system composed of ethanol dehydrogenase, formolase, 2,3-butanediol dehydrogenase, diol dehydratase, and NADH oxidase. Under optimized conditions, acetoin, 2,3-butanediol, and 2-butanol were produced at 88.78%, 88.28%, and 27.25% of the theoretical yield from 100 mM ethanol, respectively. These results demonstrate that this artificial synthetic pathway is an environmentally-friendly novel approach for upgrading bio-ethanol to acetoin, 2,3-butanediol, and 2-butanol.


following tubal ligation. Lu and Chun2 reported 50%,/, of 1,055 cases, Williams1 16.5% of 200 cases, and now Mr. Muldoon 24% of 374 cases. That such variations exist indicates inaccuracy, possibly owing to such factors as failure to define the dysfunctions, retrospective studies, and absence of comparable control groups. Until the true incidence of menstrual disorder in the nonsterilized community can be shown, I must consider the common subjective impression of poststerilization menorrhagia as unproved. So far as other gynaecological disorders mentioned by Mr. Muldoon are concerned, I doubt if anybody really considers prolapse, carcinoma of cervix, erosion, etc., to be caused by tubal ligation. I would of course agree with him that if these conditions are thought to exist prior to tubal ligation, then consideration ought to be given to selective hysterectomy rather than tubal ligation, but I am sure most of us have been doing this for a considerable time anyway.-I am, etc.,


This paper treats the analysis of nonlinear systems having more than a single degree of freedom. The method used is the Ritz or Ritz- Galerkin, which has been extensively applied to statical problems in elasticity and to eigenvalue problems of various types. Until very re- cently, however, it has rarely been applied to dynamical problems other than eigenvalue ones. As shown by some specific examples, the method proves to be a powerful one for the purposes at hand.


Starting from the coincidence of Gide's death in 1951 with the beginnings of Nouvelle Vague film theory and practice, this invited chapter newly explores the debt of Godard and Truffaut to Gide. An assiduous cinema-goer, Gide, one of whose novels was filmed by Delannoy, was mentor to cine-director Marc All'gret and joint producer with him of their silent Voyage au Congo (1926/7)- in short no stranger to filmic practice. Several young directors held Gide in high regard. Affinities are outlined between Gide's fictional principles and New Wave auteur policy of camera-stylo - personal impetus for a film as poem/novel, authenticity as target, experimentation with narrative technique, preoccupation with the gratuitous or ludic in behaviour. The directors also inherit from Gide the concern for specular technique; Godard - less so Truffaut - believing that the proper focus of cinema was cinema. Godard's A Bout de souffle is analysed from a Gidean perspective, especially in connection with 'Les Caves du Vatican' - criminality, psychology of inconsistency, ludicity, onomastic coincidence. A Gide dictum provided Truffaut's life credo. The thematics of 'Les Mistons' and 'Les Quatre cent coups' reprise Gidean concerns with childhood education, delinquency, sexuality, fuguism, illegitimacy ' the 'lost' child. La Peau douce is Truffaut's filmic homage to Gide. The article offers detailed analysis of the multi-layered section of 'La Peau douce' - strategic centre of the film - concerned with the film-within-film showing of 'All'grets Avec Andr' Gide', demonstrating how Truffaut vicariously offers his own memories of Gide while skilfully using specular technique to illuminate his central character's dramatic personal situation. Various fits/misfits between the dual filmic strata are highlighted. Cinematic mise en ab'me reunites Gide and Truffaut around their common life motto, quoted in the film. The conclusion also highlights the two artists' preoccupation with pedagogue-prot'g' scenarios.


Background The search for new antitumour drugs is creating new pyrimidine antimetabolites that will affect the structure and functions of nucleonic acids. It is known that some tumours metabolise uracil more actively than normal cells. Therefore 5-FU (5-fluorouracil) and its derivatives will act as substrates and/or inhibitors of ferments and will be taken up by tumour cells. Lectins are multivalent proteins that interact with glycosylated surfaces and nanomaterials. Purpose To report the synthesis, characterisation, toxicity and antitumour activity of a new chemical-biological adduct: bacterial lectin (Bacillus subtilis 668 IMV) - bis-derivative of 5-FU). Materials and methods Object of the investigation: new bis derivative of 5-FU, its adduct with bacterial lectin (Bacillus subtilis 668 IMV). White Wistar male rats mice (300 animals) and an experimental tumour model (LS Plissa) were used as described below. The experimental tumours used for investigations were obtained from the cancer material bank of the Oncological Centre of the Russian Federation's Academy of Medical Sciences. The efficiency parameter [% of growth relaxation of LS Plissa, (volume, mass)] was less than 50%. The new bis-derivative of 5-FU (bis-5-FU) and halothane was obtained under phase-transfer conditions with catalysis by an 18-crown-6 complex. The new chemical-biological adducts were created by joining bis-derivative of 5-FU and Bacillus subtilis 668 IMV (lectin 668). Results Data from toxicity studies of the compounds confirmed their low toxicity: LD50 of lectin 668 is 89 mg/kg, LD50 of bis-5-FU is 125 mg/kg, LD50 of the adduct (lectin 668-bis-5-FU) is 137 mg/kg. The adduct (lectin 668- bis-5-FU) was found to have a strongly antitumour effect on LS Plissa – 62.8% (for 5-FU, the control is 55%). Conclusions Derivatives of 5-FU and their adducts with bacterial lectin (B. subtilis 668 IMV) are substances for further investigation as potential drugs with antitumour activity. No conflict of interest.


A status updating system is considered in which data from multiple sources are sampled by an energy harvesting sensor and transmitted to a remote destination through an erasure channel. The goal is to deliver status updates of all sources in a timely manner, such that the cumulative long-term average age-of-information (AoI) is minimized. The AoI for each source is defined as the time elapsed since the generation time of the latest successful status update received at the destination from that source. Transmissions are subject to energy availability, which arrives in units according to a Poisson process, with each energy unit capable of carrying out one transmission from only one source. The sensor is equipped with a unit-sized battery to save the incoming energy. A scheduling policy is designed in order to determine which source is sampled using the available energy. The problem is studied in two main settings: 1) no erasure status feedback and 2) perfect instantaneous feedback. For the case of one source, it is shown that renewal policies are optimal, in which successful status update instances form a renewal process. In the setting without feedback, it is further shown that threshold-based policies are optimal, in which the source is sampled only if the time until a new energy unit arrives exceeds a certain threshold. In the setting with feedback, threshold-greedy policies are investigated, in which the source is sampled according to a threshold-based policy following successful transmissions, and instantaneously whenever energy is available following failed transmissions. The optimal thresholds are found in closed-form in terms of the erasure probability. Such threshold-based policies are then extended for the case of multiple sources, combined with round robin scheduling in the setting without feedback, in which sources are sampled in the same repeating order; and maximum-age-first scheduling in the setting with feedback, in which sources with maximum AoI are given priority. In both settings, the achieved cumulative long-term average AoI is derived in closed-form in terms of the threshold, the erasure probability and the number of sources.


Companies today are required more and more to interconnect their information systems with partners and suppliers in order to be competitive in a global marketplace. A problem of how to compare a security policy between two different companies when they need to agree upon a single security policy has been raised. Can a comparison of two access control policies made through Semantic of Business Vocabulary and Business Rules (SBVR) be more appropriate than the traditional way of intuitively comparing two information security policies?In this research, a case study has been conducted along with the questionnaires as a data collection approach. In the case study, a calculation for a degree of policy statement similarity of Company A's and Company B has been done. Both calculations were based on the questionnaire results of the Company A and Company B in form of SBVR and traditional policy statements separately.This research has revealed that SBVR applied policy is more appropriate for comparing two company policies than a traditional written policy. By applying SBVR to the policy statements, Company A and Company B had their policy in the same structure, which is in the SBVR format. They could get a very clear similar part of the policy statements (70% calculated by the results of the second questionnaire in this case study) agreed by both companies.


This paper studies the problem of maximizing the expected utility of terminal wealth for a financial agent with an unbounded random endowment, and with a utility function which supports both positive and negative wealth. We prove the existence of an optimal trading strategy within a class of permissible strategies – those strategies whose wealth process is a supermartingale under all pricing measures with finite relative entropy. We give necessary and sufficient conditions for the absence of utility-based arbitrage, and for the existence of a solution to the primal problem. We consider two utility based methods which can be used to price contingent claims. Firstly we investigate marginal utility-based price processes (MUBPP's). We show that such processes can be characterized as local martingales under the normalized optimal dual measure for the utility maximizing investor. Finally, we present some new results on utility indifference prices, including continuity properties and volume asymptotics for the case of a general utility function, unbounded endowment and unbounded contingent claims.


Introduction. Isthmocele is a a defect of the anterior wall of the uterine isthmus located at the site of a previous cesarean delivery scar. Although in the last two decades the number of caesareans is globally on an ascending trend and the incidence of isthmocele is directly proportional increasing, the effects of this condition are insufficiently known and debated. Material and method. This paper presents an analysis of the isthmocele consequences based on literature review. Results. Isthmocele represents a vicious scarring of the uterine wall that leads to anatomical distortion of the uterus. Isthmocele can cause abnormal uterine bleeding, chronic pelvic pain and secondary infertility. The obstetrical consequences are abnormal insertion of the placenta and uterine scar pregnancy. Conclusion. Isthmocele incidence is increasing and frequently underdiagnosed. Isthmocele causes uterine distortion, thereby affecting the quality of life of the patients and serious complications in future pregnancies. Minimally invasive surgery is recommended for preventing and improving complications determined by isthmocele.


PURPOSE
Despite the mortality benefit of cardiac rehabilitation (CR) participation, as well as its cost-effectiveness for people with peripheral artery disease (PAD), there are limited data on adherence and completion of CR in those with and without concomitant coronary artery disease (CAD). The objective of this study was to compare CR pre-participation withdrawal and noncompletion between patients with PAD and concomitant PAD and CAD (PAD/CAD) versus matched and unmatched patients with CAD (uCAD).

METHODS
Consecutively referred patients between 2006-2017 with PAD (n = 271) and PAD/CAD (n = 610) were matched to CAD by age, sex, diabetes, smoking status, and referral year. The uCAD (n = 14 487) group was included for comparison. Reasons for withdrawal were ascertained by interview.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences in pre-participation withdrawal between PAD and matched CAD (46 vs 43%, P = .49), nor in noncompletion (22 vs 18%, P = .28). Results were similar for PAD/CAD and matched CAD (withdrawal: 36 vs 34%, P = .37) and (noncompletion: 25 vs 23%, P = .46). A smaller proportion of patients with uCAD withdrew (28%) than patients with PAD (P < .001) and PAD/CAD (P < .001), with no difference in noncompletion (P > .40, both). There were no differences between PAD and PAD/CAD and their matched counterparts for medical and nonmedical reasons for withdrawal and noncompletion (P ≥ .25, all).

CONCLUSION
Pre-participation withdrawal rates were similar between patients with PAD, PAD/CAD, and their matched cohorts but greater than patients with uCAD. Once patients started CR, there were similar completion rates among all groups. Reports that patients with PAD are less likely to start CR may be related to their complex medical profile rather than PAD alone. Strategies to improve participation among patients with PAD should focus on the immediate post-referral period.


Parks development in urban areas can be an effective planning strategy to enhance environmental management, improvement, conservation and aesthetic maintenance due to its roles in upgrading quality of life, economic well being and fulfilling the social needs of urban-dwelling individuals. It provides a healthy environment by reducing air pollution, urban heats, noise and green space loss. Parks in urban areas enhance city aesthetics, acts as green lungs of the city, refresh the air and provide beneficial contact with nature as an upstream health promotion intervention for the population. Parks also create natural surrounding of urban area for leisure, relaxation, recreation, psychological and physical comfort of the people. In Nigeria, the realization of the important role of public parks, natural open spaces and well designed green spaces has resulted in the launch of the "City Beautification Concept" of most capital cities to provide an environment conducive for quality urban living, recreation, social interaction and community action for the pursuit of legitimate pleasures and economic activities. This paper examines the effectiveness of public parks development in urban areas as a strategy for environmental improvement, conservation, and its potential in sustaining a pleasant, exciting, invigorating and comprehensive urban environment in the capital cities of Southwestern Nigeria.


A new series of 5-(p-substituted benzamido/phenylacetamido)-2-(p-tert-butylphenyl)benzoxazole derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their antibacterial, antifungal, and antimycobacterial activities against antibiotic-resistant and -sensitive Staphylococcus aureus, Enterococcus faecalis, Escherichia coli, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Mycobacterium tuberculosis as well as against Candida albicans and Candida krusei. The compounds possessed broad-spectrum activity against all of the tested Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria and yeasts, their minimum inhibitory concentrations (MICs) ranging between 16 - 128 μg/ml. One compound exhibited significant antibacterial activity (16 μg/ml) against an antibioticresistant Enterococcus faecalis isolate, having twice the potency of the compared standard drugs vancomycin and gentamycin sulfate. The compounds also showed moderate antitubercular activity with MIC values between 8 - 128 μg/ml against Mycobacterium tuberculosis and its clinical isolate.


The contamination of water with fluoride (F−) is a source of mounting concern for global public health, and the removal of fluoride is quite important and challenging. In this study, two new lanthanide-based metal–organic frameworks (MOFs), {[Ce(L1)0.5(NO3)(H2O)2]·2DMF} (1) and [Eu3(L2)2(OH)(DMF)0.22(H2O)5.78]·guest (2) (H4L1 = 2,5-di(3′,5′-dicarboxylphenyl)benzene and H4L2 = 3,5-bis(isophthalic acid)-1H-1,2,4-triazole) are designed, synthesized and characterized. Both MOFs are tested for their adsorption capacity for fluoride ions and different uptake times from contaminated water. The investigation indicates that 1 displays a much higher adsorption capacity (103.95 mg g−1) and faster uptake rates (1.79 g mg−1 min−1) for fluoride ion than that of 2. The presented investigation is the first report in which lanthanide-based MOFs are used for the removal of fluoride ions from water.


Abstract. Ice-nucleating particles (INPs) have a large impact on the climate-relevant properties of clouds over the oceans. Studies have shown that sea spray aerosols (SSAs), produced upon bursting of bubbles at the ocean surface, can be an important source of marine INPs, particularly during periods of enhanced biological productivity. Recent mesocosm experiments using natural seawater spiked with nutrients have revealed that marine INPs are derived from two separate classes of organic matter in SSAs. Despite this finding, existing parameterizations for marine INP abundance are based solely on single variables such as SSA organic carbon (OC) or SSA surface area, which may mask specific trends in the separate classes of INP. The goal of this paper is to improve the understanding of the connection between ocean biology and marine INP abundance by reporting results from a field study and proposing a new parameterization of marine INPs that accounts for the two associated classes of organic matter. The PEACETIME cruise took place from 10 May to 10 June 2017 in the Mediterranean Sea. Throughout the cruise, INP concentrations in the surface microlayer (INPSML) and in SSAs (INPSSA) produced using a plunging aquarium apparatus were continuously monitored while surface seawater (SSW) and SML biological properties were measured in parallel. The organic content of artificially generated SSAs was also evaluated. INPSML concentrations were found to be lower than those reported in the literature, presumably due to the oligotrophic nature of the Mediterranean Sea. A dust wet deposition event that occurred during the cruise increased the INP concentrations measured in the SML by an order of magnitude, in line with increases in iron in the SML and bacterial abundances. Increases in INPSSA were not observed until after a delay of 3 days compared to increases in the SML and are likely a result of a strong influence of bulk SSW INPs for the temperatures investigated (T=-18 ∘C for SSAs, T=-15 ∘C for SSW). Results confirmed that INPSSA are divided into two classes depending on their associated organic matter. Here we find that warm (T≥-22 ∘C) INPSSA concentrations are correlated with water-soluble organic matter (WSOC) in the SSAs, but also with SSW parameters (particulate organic carbon, POCSSW and INPSSW,-16C) while cold INPSSA (T<-22 ∘C) are correlated with SSA water-insoluble organic carbon (WIOC) and SML dissolved organic carbon (DOC) concentrations. A relationship was also found between cold INPSSA and SSW nano- and microphytoplankton cell abundances, indicating that these species might be a source of water-insoluble organic matter with surfactant properties and specific IN activities. Guided by these results, we formulated and tested multiple parameterizations for the abundance of INPs in marine SSAs, including a single-component model based on POCSSW and a two-component model based on SSA WIOC and OC. We also altered a previous model based on OCSSA content to account for oligotrophy of the Mediterranean Sea. We then compared this formulation with the previous models. This new parameterization should improve attempts to incorporate marine INP emissions into numerical models.


Coastal shell middens are known for their generally excellent preservation and abundant identifiable faunal remains, including delicate fish and bird bones that are often rare or poorly preserved at non-shell midden sites. Thus, when we began our human ecodynamics research project focused on the fauna from Čḯxicən (45CA523, pronounced ch-WHEET-son), a large ancestral village of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe, located on the shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca, Port Angeles, Washington (USA), we anticipated generally high levels of bone identifiability. We quickly realized that the mammal bones were more fragmented and less identifiable than we had expected, though this was not the case with the bird and fish bone or invertebrate remains. To better understand why this fragmentation occurred at Čḯxicən, we evaluate numerous hypotheses, including both post-depositional and behavioral explanations. We conclude that multiple factors intersected (to varying degrees) to produce the extreme bone fragmentation and low identifiability of mammal bones at the site, including bone fuel use, marrow extraction, grease rendering, tool production, and post-depositional breakdown. Using a human ecodynamics framework, we further consider how both social factors and external environmental forces may mediate human choices, such as the economic decision to use bone for fuel or render bone grease. We place our findings from Čḯxicən in a regional context and discuss the potential of the approach for other coastal archaeological sites worldwide.


The changing economic scenario of the Indian economy posed new challenges to almost all the sectors of the economy, and the insurance sector is no exception. The introduction of insurance sector reforms not only eliminated the monopoly of life insurance sector, but opened up the insurance windows to the private players which increased the competition in many folds, especially since 2000. The reforms brought an overall increase in insurance penetration as well as insurance density in the country. As a result, the insurance industry is today more efficient and exerts considerable positive impacts on the growth of the Indian economy. The insurance sector contributes to a rise in labour productivity through efficient investments, and also generates productive employment opportunities. In this context, this paper examines dynamics of the relationship between the development of life insurance sector and the real economic growth in the changing policy regime in India, and provides the evidence of the positive and significant relationship between them. Therefore, it is suggested to prioritize the focus on the further development of the sector may be through the implementation of prudent policies to increase rural penetration of life insurance in India. Also, the inclusive growth strategy in the country can be effectively mobilized to enhance the development of the life insurance sector.


The current study endeavours to investigate the negative impact created due to the existence of the international non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on the overall educational system in Sudan. It also attempts to determine how the great advantages and the big gains inspire EFL teachers to prefer working for these organizations rather than working for ministry of education, and how this situation generally influenced teaching and learning English. Under the umbrella of the humanitarian crises missions, Sudan has witnessed a rush of numerous and funded NGOs during the last two decades, particularly at some high conflict zones such as the Blue Nile, South Kordofan and Darfur states. Most of these organizations adopt English language as a means of communication. They also offer better opportunities to their employees compared to other local institutions including the ministry of education. These gains have motivated many English language professionals including EFL teachers to implement job hunting strategies while attempting to work for these NGOs. In so doing, they are willing and able to work as facilitators, administrators, security officers, secretaries and part-time employees with either long-term or short-term contracts. Among the luckiest ones who successfully managed to get better job opportunities are the EFL teachers. It seems as if working for such internationally recognized and well-paid organizations is better than working for ministry of education for the majority of teachers. Although working for these NGOs creates a good opportunity for the qualified teachers to improve their overall living standard and enables them to provide better life, healthcare system as well as sustainable better education to their families. However, the ministry of education's loss of the qualified teachers has negatively impact the overall education system in the country. Shortages of English teachers have highly been reported during the last decade, particularly at the public sector. The data collection for the current study goes through designing and distributing a questionnaire to a sample of EFL teachers, students, and some interested parties in Al - Fashir area. The data collection process as well as its analysis resulted into the following: The existence of the international NGOs in Sudan has motivated the qualified EFL teachers to quit their jobs in ministry of education and work for such organizations. Their existence has indirectly and negatively been influencing the education system in Sudan, particularly the process of teaching and learning English language as a school subject.


Information on rhizosphere microbiome of endemic plants from high mountain ecosystems against those of cultivated plantations is inadequate. Comparative bacterial profiles of endemic medicinal plant Rhododendron arboreum Sm. subsp. delavayi rhizosphere pertaining to four altitudinal zonation Pankang Thang (PTSO), Nagula, Y-junction and Bum La (Indo-China border; in triplicates each) along cold adapted Eastern slope of Himalayan Tawang region, India is described here. Significant differences in DGGE profile between below ground bulk vs. rhizospheric community profile associated with the plant was identified. Tagged 16S amplicon sequencing from PTSO (3912 m) to Bum La (4509 m), revealed that soil pH, total nitrogen (TN), organic matter (OM) significantly influenced the underlying bacterial community structure at different altitudes. The relative abundance of Acidobacteria was inversely related to pH, as opposed to TN which was positively correlated to Acidobacteria and Proteobacteria abundance. TN was also the significant predictor for less abundant taxonomic groups Chloroflexi, Gemmatimonadetes, and Nitrospirae. Bum La soil harbored less bacterial diversity compared to other sites at lower altitudes. The most abundant phyla at 3% genetic difference were Acidobacteria, Actinobacteria, and Proteobacteria amongst others. Analysis of similarity indicated greater similarity within lower altitudinal than higher altitudinal group (ANOSIM, R = 0.287, p = 0.02). Constraining the ordination with the edaphic factor explained 83.13% of variation. Unique phylotypes of Bradyrhizobium and uncultured Rhizobiales were found in significant proportions at the four regions. With over 1% relative abundance Actinobacteria (42.6%), Acidobacteria (24.02%), Proteobacteria (16.00%), AD3 (9.23%), WPS-2 (5.1%), and Chloroflexi (1.48%) dominated the core microbiome.


This is a letter from the Charles B. Moore Collection. It is written by Henry S. Moore to the Moore family. In this letter, Henry updates the Moore family on the goings-on in Collin County and the news includes: confirmation that the Moore's letters were received, a dialogue about Lila and Solomon, a discussion about the new well, a weather update about the day's rain, details on how the rain halted Gross and Solomon's work on the grass, a dialogue about Gross picking up turnip seeds in Melissa, a discussion about exploring the property for water, details about Jones & Co., news about Charles' red heifer, a dialogue about Jupiter, updates on the family and on friends who have visited recently, news about Bessie and Cloyd, a discussion about Emmet's bow and arrows, news of the Webb-Moyer death, details on the pastures drying up, a discussion about the sanctificationists, a discussion the options of splicing a team with Will Dixon to meet an appointment in town, an a dialogue about a skunk. He closes this letter and begins on the seventh page with a letter dated September 4th. In this short second letter, Henry details the happenings in Collin County and the news includes: a weather update, news about Lila's cow, calf, and filly, a discussion about the Moore's house and carpet, a dialogue about Sabina's dog Jacky, family news from Neal Moore, news from Lizzie Jernigan, community health updates, and additional family news. The envelope is included with the letter.


The carriers of electric current in a metal are quasiparticles dressed by electronelectron interactions, which have a larger effective mass m* and a smaller quasiparticle weight z than non-interacting carriers. If the momentum dependence of the self-energy can be neglected, the effective mass enhancement and quasiparticle weight of quasiparticles at the Fermi energy are simply related by z = m/m* (m=bare mass). We propose that both superconductivity and ferromagnetism in metals are driven by quasiparticle 'undressing', i.e., that the correlations between quasiparticles that give rise to the collective state are associated with an increase in z and a corresponding decrease in m* of the carriers. Undressing gives rise to lowering of kinetic energy, which provides the condensation energy for the collective state. In contrast, in conventional descriptions of superconductivity and ferromagnetism the transitions to these collective states result in increase in kinetic energy of the carriers and are driven by lowering of potential energy and exchange energy respectively.


PURPOSE:To evaluate the treatment and prevention of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) leakage following removal of the skull base tumors with craniofacial approach. METHODS: A retrospective review was undertaken to analyze the clinical data of 14 cases suffering from CSF leakage after craniofacial surgery for tumors involving the cranial base. RESULTS:Ten (71.4%) case cured between 3 days and 32 days by conservative treatment including lumbar drainage. Three of four patients who needed operation had no CSF leakage after first attempt.One discontinuous leakage was closed after a second attempt. Among all cases,five(35.7%) patients developed meningitis,and one case died because of serious intracranial infection and respiration failure.CONCLUSION:Continuous lumbar cerebrospinal fluid drainage is a safe and effective treatment of CSF leakage following craniofacial surgery. However,If conservative treatment fails to arrest CSF leakage ,surgical therapy is recommend with multilayer reconstruction for dural defect so as to avoid meningitis. The vital procedure for prevention of CSF leakage is watertight seal of dura mater, reconstruction of bone defect and obliteration of dead space after craniofacial surgery.


INTRODUCTION LOCATION AND EXTENT OF AREA The area described in this report lies in southern Coahuila in the central part of the Parras Basin. It comprises about 175 square miles of hilly country, roughly triangular in outline, along the eastern side of the Laguna de Mayran. The Central Mexican Railroad (Saltillo to Torreon) skirts the northern border of the hills. Their western limit is approximately at a line drawn from the station of Ceres, on this railroad, southwest to Hacienda La Bola at the southern end of the Laguna de Mayran. They are separated from the high ranges of the Sierra de Parras and Sierra de La Pena on the south by a plain several miles wide and extend eastward parallel to the mountains for many miles. The area mapped will be referred to as El Pozo-Boquillas area, after the two principal settlements. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The writer wishes to express his . . .


Author(s): Fiduccia, Joanna | Advisor(s): Baker, George T | Abstract: This thesis examines the function of the decorative in Edouard Vuillard's 1897 painting Large Interior with Six Figures. Departing from previous scholarship, which positions the Large Interior as the fulcrum of Vuillard's earlier intimist paintings and his later bourgeois genre scenes, I argue that the Large Interior exacerbated his experiments with the depiction of decorated interiors and the subjects who inhabit them. The use of the decorative in the Large Interior shows space itself to be the consequence of a subject's relationship to interiors--her own interior, and the interior in which she finds herself. This thesis situates Vuillard's insight within the historical context of decoration's heightened literal, pictorial and metaphorical significance in fin-de-siecle France, from the chauvinist agenda for the French decorative arts to the alignment of decorated interiors with new psychological theories and corresponding conceptions of selfhood. Through a close analysis of the Large Interior as well as other paintings from Vuillard's early oeuvre, I suggest that Vuillard's 1897 painting deploys the decorative to generate a space with equally radical consequences for painting and for subjectivity. Only such a strong characterization of decoration could possibly merit the role it would perform for modernism: the great "decorative threat," supposedly vanquished by cubism and yet plaguing painting for decades to follow. Decoration remained for Clement Greenberg the menace that must be used against itself for art to prevail over contemptible elements--not just commodity culture and kitsch, but everything domestic, feminine, and excessive associated with decoration. If, as Peter Wollens has written, the decorative is modernism's symptomatic shadow, understanding its role in modernist aesthetics and ideology demands that we develop a rigorous concept of it. In doing so, this thesis interrogates what has been repressed by the marginalization of the decorative, and why. In a final section, it traces the reemergence of the decorative in Picasso's 1914 collage and sculpture to suggest some conclusions to this end, and to attest to the radical relevance of Symbolism and the decorative for the history of modernism.


The increased demand for potato by the Brazilian processing industry requires long term refrigerated storage, but after a few months, natural dormancy ends, and sprouts start to grow. Thus, sprout inhibitors are necessary to reduce the rate of growth and allow further storage. The purpose of research described here was to determine the effects clove and menthol essential oils have on the inhibition of sprout growth in non-dormant 'Asterix' tubers. Both eugenol and menthol treatments reduced the rate of sprout growth during storage at 8oC for up to 50 days. Eugenol and menthol essential oils diminished the rate of accumulation of reducing sugar, which are responsible for browning of French fries. Color after frying was within acceptable levels when the tubers were treated with eugenol or menthol essential oils.


A phosphonic acid functionalized triphenylphosphine rhodium complex was synthesized and grafted onto neat superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles. The material was investigated by elemental analysis, IR spectroscopy, thermogravimetric analysis, XRD, N2‐physisorption analyses, and TEM measurements. The obtained hybrid material could be used as a catalyst for the hydrogenation of alkenes with excellent yields and a broad substrate scope. The catalyst can be reused ten times without any loss of activity. According to the results from X‐ray absorption spectroscopy, it is likely that formation of Rh nanoparticles occurs during the reaction.


In the last decades, high-performance large-scale systems have been a fundamental tool for scientific discovery and engineering advances. The sustained growth of supercomputing performance and the concurrent reduction in cost have made this technology available for a large number of scientists and engineers working on many different problems. The design of next-generation supercomputers will include traditional HPC requirements as well as the new requirements to handle data-intensive computations. Data intensive applications will hence play an important role in a variety of fields, and are the current focus of several research trends in HPC.
Due to the challenges of scalability and power efficiency, next-generation of supercomputers needs a redesign of the whole software stack. Being at the bottom of the software stack, system software is expected to change drastically to support the upcoming hardware and to meet new application requirements.
This PhD thesis addresses the scalability of system software. The thesis start at the Operating System level: first studying general-purpose OS (ex. Linux) and then studying lightweight kernels (ex. CNK). Then, we focus on the runtime system: we implement a runtime system for distributed memory systems that includes many of the system services required by next-generation applications. Finally we focus on hardware features that can be exploited at user-level to improve applications performance, and potentially included into our advanced runtime system.
The thesis contributions are the following:
Operating System Scalability: We provide an accurate study of the scalability problems of modern Operating Systems for HPC. We design and implement a methodology whereby detailed quantitative information may be obtained for each OS noise event. We validate our approach by comparing it to other well-known standard techniques to analyze OS noise, such FTQ (Fixed Time Quantum). Evaluation of the address translation management for a lightweight kernel: we provide a performance evaluation of different TLB management approaches ¿ dynamic memory mapping, static memory mapping with replaceable TLB entries, and static memory mapping with fixed TLB entries (no TLB misses) on a IBM BlueGene/P system.
Runtime System Scalability: We show that a runtime system can efficiently incorporate system services and improve scalability for a specific class of applications. We design and implement a full-featured runtime system and programming model to execute irregular appli- cations on a commodity cluster. The runtime library is called Global Memory and Threading library (GMT) and integrates a locality-aware Partitioned Global Address Space communication model with a fork/join program structure. It supports massive lightweight multi-threading, overlapping of communication and computation and small messages aggregation to tolerate network latencies. We compare GMT to other PGAS models, hand-optimized MPI code and custom architectures (Cray XMT) on a set of large scale irregular applications: breadth first search, random walk and concurrent hash map access. Our runtime system shows performance orders of magnitude higher than other solutions on commodity clusters and competitive with custom architectures.
User-level Scalability Exploiting Hardware Features: We show the high complexity of low-level hardware optimizations for single applications, as a motivation to incorporate this logic into an adaptive runtime system. We evaluate the effects of controllable hardware-thread priority mechanism that controls the rate at which each hardware-thread decodes instruction on IBM POWER5 and POWER6 processors. Finally, we show how to effectively exploits cache locality and network-on-chip on the Tilera many-core architecture to improve intra-core scalability.


Background: Coronary atherosclerotic heart disease (CAD) is mainly caused by atherosclerosis, an inflammatory disease characterized by plaque formation in arteries. Reactive oxygen species caused structural damage and dysfunction of arterial endothelial cells. Thioredoxin-interacting protein (TXNIP) is the endogenous inhibitor and regulator of thioredoxin, a major cellular antioxidant and antiapoptotic system. In order to explore the role of TXNIP in the occurrence and development of CAD, we detected the TXNIP expression and discussed its molecular mechanisms in CAD. Methods: The mRNA levels of TXNIP gene in peripheral leucocytes were detected in CAD and healthy controls (CTR) by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. And TXNIP proteins were detected by western blotting. Results: TXNIP gene expression levels in patients with unstable angina pectoris (UAP, n = 96) were significantly increased compared with those of CTR (n = 192, P < .05). However, the situation is different in acute myocardial infarction (n = 96, P > .05). Logistic regression analysis showed that TXNIP levels were significantly positive correlated with UAP (OR = 1.728, P < .05). Conclusions: TXNIP gene expression in the peripheral leucocytes was increased in patients with UAP, indicating that TXNIP in circulating leucocytes may be involved in the pathogenesis of UAP.


Humidity plays a very major role in various industries. Monitoring and controlling the humidity is of great importance for the reliable operation of various systems. Micro cantilever systems have been found to be highly suited for sensing purposes. A micro cantilever humidity sensor based on capacitive principle is designed and various analyses were performed on the sensor. The polyimide being the sensing layer is coated on the cantilever beam. The beam is provided with movable electrode. The deflection of beam causes capacitance change, which is related to the change in humidity. The design also incorporates a platinum based temperature sensor to compensate for change in humidity due to temperature and also a platinum based heater to regenerate the sensing layer for obtaining next measurement. The structure was designed using Coventorware and Intellisuite. The structure showed a good linearity and good sensitivity in the regions from 10-40 % RH in all temperatures in human adaptive ranges. The beam had an appreciable deflection causing a notable change in capacitance. The sensitivity was in order of pico to femto farads per %RH change.


A234 Polo-like Kinase 1 (PLK1) plays a key role in progression of mitosis. Currently, a lot of interest exists in identifying potent and selective inhibitors of PLK1 and developing them into cancer therapeutics. Down-regulation of Plk1 activity with siRNA or small molecules is characterized by inhibition of proliferation, cell cycle arrest in mitotis, apoptosis, and the so-called 9dumbbell9 morphology, in which post-mitotic cells have failed to separate via cytokinesis.
 We have screened a subset of Rigel compound library using an image-based high content screening (HCS) assay in double thymidine-synchronized tumor cells, and looked for the compounds that arrest cells at mitosis. Morphological information such as the pattern of DNA arrangement in mitosis-arrested cells, nuclear fragmentation (due to apoptosis or mitotic catastrophe) and "dumbbell" nuclei was assessed by visual inspection. We also monitored Plk1 activity in cells by Western blot and Phospho-flow assays based on detecting Cdc25C Ser-198 phosphorylation, a Plk1 specific target site.
 Combining image-based HCS with Plk1 cell-based assays we identified several hits. The anti-proliferative activity of these molecules in cells corresponds to the EC50 of PLK1 inhibition in cells (60-120nM). Phenotypes characteristic of PLK1 inhibition, including circular DNA arrangement in mitosis-arrested cells, apoptosis and dumbbell-shaped nuclei were observed upon incubation of cells with these compounds. In addition, in vitro kinase studies showed that at 100 nM PLK1 was fully inhibited by these compounds.
 Thus, a series of potent PLK1 inhibitors have been identified using a phenotype-based approach. SAR is currently being optimized to further improve potency and selectivity of lead molecules.


Strengthening and utilizing the economic potential of girls is a critical approach for economic development. Unfortunately there has been little analysis of programs that address the multiple needs of adolescent girls including enhancing their livelihood potential by building their economic agency. This report highlights findings from a scoping study to understand the state of the field of adolescent programming in India and to inform the design of future comprehensive programs that address both the productive and reproductive dimensions of girls' lives. The methodology included reviewing the literature mapping organizations and programs for adolescent girls focused on livelihoods and/or sexual and reproductive health and rights interviewing technical experts and conducting field visits to select programs in Delhi Bihar Jharkhand and Maharashtra. Among its findings the study identifies the following key program elements that need to be strengthened to meet adolescent girls comprehensive needs: Community buy-in; Safe spaces for engagement; Programming with a strong gender lens; Responding to girls aspirations and practical needs; Expanding the scope of livelihoods beyond skill-building activities to include job placement and/or support to enable girls to become self-employed. The report concludes with recommendations directed to practitioners policymakers and donors for catalyzing comprehensive programming for adolescent girls.


A MEMS bulk micromachined vibratory gyroscope is designed and fabricated in a commercial and low-cost SOI technology — MEMSCAP SOIMUMPs. The device was carefully designed to mitigate micro-fabrication limitations, while achieving high performance. Theoretical analysis of the drive and sense modes was performed in order to reduce the crosstalk between them, while still using a simple gyro structure. The device was simulated using COMSOL taking into account the anisotropic elastic properties of the '100' single-crystalline silicon device layer for added accuracy. The gyroscope operates at 35 kHz with a 5 V DC bias voltage. The relatively low bias voltage leads to significant simplifications in the design of the biasing circuitry, and results in lower power consumption and electrical noise, while ensuring compatibility with standard integrated circuits technologies. The device exhibits a simulated rate sensitivity of ∼ 3 aF/°/s, and its theoretical mechanical noise is calculated to be 0.6 °/√hr. Measurements show a resonance frequency of 27.5 kHz and a quality factor of 120,000 at a 10 mTorr level of vacuum.


The historical cultivation of common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) has resulted in the development of local populations/cultivars in restricted Italian rural areas. Many common bean landraces, still cultivated in small mountain areas from Sicily, have become outdated and endangered due to the commercial varieties spreading. These accessions are poorly known but often represent a genetic heritage to be preserved and enhanced. The ex situ conservation of fifty-seven Sicilian common bean landraces was carried out at the "Living Plants Germplasm Bank" at Ucria (Messina, Italy), founded by the Nebrodi Regional Park, together with the "Sicilian Plant Germplasm Repository" of University of Palermo (SPGR/PA). To assess the germplasm genetic diversity, nineteen morphological traits and eight Simple Sequence Repeats (SSRs) were used. Genetic distances among landraces were calculated to construct a clustering tree by using unweighted pair group method arithmetic (UPGMA). Seed germplasm diversity of Sicilian common bean varied from 80.7% to 93.3%, based on six seed descriptors and six leaf, flower, and pod descriptors, respectively, while cluster genetic analysis depicted a clear separation among all the 57 landraces. Principal coordinates (PCoA) and STRUCTURE analyses showed a prevalent rate of admixture between Mesoamerican and Andean gene pools in Sicilian common bean collection, confirming its heterogeneity. The observed high level of diversity evidenced the needs to adopt accurate criterion to plan a definitive ex situ germplasm collection to share agrobiodiversity with local farmers and to avoid any further loss of genetic resources in rural and protected areas.


The common approach in digital imaging today is to capture as many pixels as possible and later to compress the captured image by digital means. The recently introduced theory of compressed sensing provides the mathematical foundation necessary to change the order of these operations, that is, to compress the information before it is captured. In this paper we present an optical implementation of compressed sensing. With this method a compressed version of an object's image is captured directly. The compression is accomplished by optical means with a single exposure. One implication of this imaging approach is that the effective space-bandwidth-product of the imaging system is larger than that of conventional imaging systems. This implies, for example, that more object pixels may be reconstructed and visualized than the number of pixels of the image sensor.


This guide is for on-campus students in the MSM program taking ENG 510. This guide will help students get started using library resources, and they can continue to use this guide further on into their program.


Contrasting with the situation found in birds and mammals, sex chromosomes are generally homomorphic in poikilothermic vertebrates. This homomorphy was recently shown to result from occasional X-Y recombinations (not from turnovers) in several European species of tree frogs (Hyla arborea, H. intermedia and H. molleri). Because of recombination, however, alleles at sex-linked loci were rarely diagnostic at the population level; support for sex linkage had to rely on multilocus associations, combined with occasional sex differences in allelic frequencies. Here, we use direct evidence, obtained from anatomical and histological analyses of offspring with known pedigrees, to show that the Eastern tree frog (H. orientalis) shares the same pair of sex chromosomes, with identical patterns of male heterogamety and complete absence of X-Y recombination in males. Conservation of an ancestral pair of sex chromosomes, regularly rejuvenated via occasional X-Y recombination, seems thus a widespread pattern among Hyla species. Sibship analyses also identified discrepancies between genotypic and phenotypic sex among offspring, associated with abnormal gonadal development, suggesting a role for sexually antagonistic genes on the sex chromosomes.


[reaction: see text]. Mitomycin C is unchanged upon exposure to thiols under physiological conditions. Its more toxic variant, mitomycin A (MA), undergoes elimination of methanol to give a variety of mitosene derivatives, diagnostic of its activation to a reactive electrophile. Evidence is presented for a novel reductive mechanism, characterized by the transient addition of a thiol to the quinone of MA, followed by intramolecular electron transfer, leading to reduced quinone and oxidized thiol.


Mice immunized with recombinant vaccinia virus (VACC) expressing Venezuelan equine encephalitis (VEE) virus capsid protein and glycoproteins E1 and E2 or with attenuated VEE TC-83 virus vaccine developed VEE-specific neutralizing antibody and survived intraperitoneal challenge with virulent VEE virus strains including Trinidad donkey (subtype 1AB), P676 (subtype 1C), 3880 (subtype 1D), and Everglades (subtype 2). However, unlike immunization with TC-83 virus, immunization with the recombinant VACC/VEE virus did not protect mice from intranasal challenge with VEE Trinidad donkey virus. These results suggest that recombinant VACC/VEE virus is a vaccine candidate for equines and humans at risk of mosquito-transmitted VEE disease but not for laboratory workers at risk of accidental exposure to aerosol infection with VEE virus.


Generalized versions of the entropic (Hirschman- Beckner) and support (Elad-Bruckstein) uncertainty principle are presented for frames representations. Moreover, a sharpened version of the support inequality is obtained by introducing a generalization of the coherence. In the finite-dimensional case and under certain conditions, minimizers of these inequalities are given. In addition, lp norms inequalities are introduced as byproducts of the entropic inequalities.


The paper explores illiquidity of the Serbian financial market for the period of 2005-2009. The financial market in Serbia is, by its type, a frontier market. We used daily data from the BELEXline index, as well as all stocks within this index in examined timeframe, provided by the Belgrade Stock Exchange. Results of this paper suggest that level of market liquidity is low and persistent in Serbia. Additionally, results confirm that time-varying illiquidity and its volatility is highly unstable in this market. This is the first paper that analyses liquidity issues in case of Serbia. It identifies different periods and shows that, in most cases, ups and downs in foreign investors' participation leads to dramatic falls and rises in market illiquidity and its volatility.


Purpose: Accuracy of respiratory surrogate models of tumor displacement is influenced by selection of appropriate training data, the simultaneous tumor localizations and respiratory surrogate measurements used to create the model. The object of this study was to explore ways in which (1) varying timing and (2) selectively discarding samples of training data can improve surrogate model accuracy. Methods: Motion from 125 lung, 10 liver, and 47 pancreas SBRT treatment fractions from 92 patients was analyzed. Each treatment fraction dataset included radiographically measured tumor positions, positions of three surrogate markers affixed to the torso, and tumor positions predicted by a commercial tumortracking system from marker measurements. Partial‐least‐squares regression models of tumor position were trained on samples from 26 Hz position data. Low‐frequency (0.05–0.10 Hz) and high‐frequency (26 Hz) training datasets 5–150 seconds in duration were created. The effect of discarding samples with the highest leverage (as measured by Hotelling's T,2 statistic) was evaluated. Tumor localization errors were measured over 20 minutes. Results: The baseline tumor localization error (mean +/− standard deviation) in training data was 1.9 +/− 1.7 mm. Mean errors for high‐frequency training data were 4.7–4.9 mm and did not differ significantly with number (1–2), timing, or duration (5–30 sec) of acquisitions. Mean +/− standard deviation errors for low‐frequency training data varied from 4.4 +/− 2.7 mm (0.10 Hz, 2.5‐min acquisition) to 6.6 +/− 16.1 mm (0.05 Hz, 45‐sec acquisition). Removal of high‐leverage samples reduced tumor localization errors for high‐frequency‐derived models by 4–7% but did not reduce errors for low‐frequency data. Conclusions: Lengthening training data acquisitions improves models derived from low‐frequency but not high‐frequency training data. Conversely, removing high‐leverage training samples benefits high‐frequency data only. Training sample selection involves interplay between sampling rate, acquisition duration, and number of training samples. This work was supported in part by grant # CA124766 from the NIH/NCI and by the Achievement Rewards for College Scientists (ARCS) scholarship.


Background
Adipose-derived stem cells (ASCs) are a powerful tool for cosmetic surgery and regenerative medicine. The use of autologous platelet rich plasma (PRP), particularly in combination with ASC-based therapy, has significantly expanded in recent years. Unfortunately, the mechanisms and optimal dosing responsible for the beneficial effects of PRP remain poorly understood. Here we investigate the effect of PRP on ASC growth and differentiation.

Objectives
To assess the impact of different PRP feeding and cryopreservation protocols on ASC isolation, expansion, and differentiation.

Methods
Human PRP was isolated using the Magellan System (Arteriocyte). Fresh PRP (fPRP), flash frozen PRP (ffPRP), and cryopreserved PRP (cPRP) were added to human ASCs isolated from healthy patients. A panel of PRP supplementation protocols was analyzed for ASC adherence, proliferation, and osteogenesis.

Results
The fresh and cryopreserved PRP groups demonstrated reduced cell adherence compared to control (non-PRP) groups (P < 0.001), while the flash frozen PRP groups showed cell adherence equivalent to or better than controls. After 7 days of growth, ASC populations for fPRP and ffPRP Single Administration protocols were significantly higher than other feeding protocols and controls. This benefit was lost in cPRP groups. Optimized ffPRP protocols showed potential for spontaneous osteogenesis.

Conclusions
Addition of ffPRP improves initial ASC adherence while a single administration of either fresh or flash frozen PRP without additional cell manipulation significantly augments subsequent ASC proliferation. The potential for spontaneous osteogenic differentiation upon PRP exposure invokes the need for additional molecular studies of PRP activity prior to further expansion to clinical applications.


This article, part of a symposium commemorating the 70th anniversary of a speech Justice Robert Jackson delivered after returning from the Nuremberg trials, explores the role of legal education in preventing mass violations of human and civil rights. It compares the lives of two planners of mass civilian deportations in the spring of 1942: Benno Martin, the German police official (and lawyer) who oversaw the eastward deportation of thousands of Jews from Nuremberg, and Karl Bendetsen, the U.S. Army official (and lawyer) who oversaw the eastward deportation of thousands of Japanese and Japanese Americans from the West Coast of the United States. Identifying important similarities in the arcs of the two mens' lives, the article explores some of the all-too-human forces that tend to lead societies — as they led Germany and the United States — away from honestly reckoning with the choices people make to harness their professional energies to advance systems of repression. Indeed, it uses Justice Jackson's own ambivalent response to the wartime imprisonment of Japanese Americans to illustrate those very forces. Finally, the article takes up Jackson's call for deploying education as civilization's last clear chance to avoid the catastrophic mistreatment of minorities. It offers some tentative thoughts about how legal education might provide a moral grounding that would counterbalance the everyday ambitions and administrative pressures that can lead the members of a learned profession to sustain and nurture systems of repression.