Triglycerides (TGs) are the main energy storage form that accommodates changing organismal energy demands. In Drosophila melanogaster, the TG lipase Brummer is centrally important for body fat mobilization. Its gene brummer (bmm) encodes the ortholog of mammalian adipose TG lipase, which becomes activated by α/β-hydrolase domain-containing 5 (ABHD5/CGI-58), one member of the paralogous gene pair, α/β-hydrolase domain-containing 4 (ABHD4) and ABHD5. In Drosophila, the pummelig (puml) gene encodes the single sequence-related protein to mammalian ABHD4/ABHD5 with unknown function. We generated puml deletion mutant flies, that were short-lived as a result of lipid metabolism changes, stored excess body fat at the expense of glycogen, and exhibited ectopic fat storage with altered TG FA profile in the fly kidneys, called Malpighian tubules. TG accumulation in puml mutants was not associated with increased food intake but with elevated lipogenesis; starvation-induced lipid mobilization remained functional. Despite its structural similarity to mammalian ABHD5, Puml did not stimulate TG lipase activity of Bmm in vitro. Rather, Puml acted as a phospholipase that localized on lipid droplets, mitochondria, and peroxisomes. Together, these results show that the ABHD4/5 family member Puml is a versatile phospholipase that regulates Drosophila body fat storage and energy metabolism.


Over the last three decades important advances have been made in developing sales forecasting methods that more accurately reflect market place conditions. However, surveys of sales forecasting practice continue to report only marginal gains in sales forecasting effectiveness. This gap between theory and practice has been identified as a significant issue for sales forecasting research. The literature suggests that this gap should be addressed by examining new factors in sales forecasting. Accuracy, bias, timeliness, cost and environmental turbulence are the most studied forecasting criteria in sales forecasting effectiveness. There are some literatures which address how these factors are affected by the forecast methods the firm uses. Empirical evidence on such a role of the forecasting method is lacking, and existing literature does not take into account whether forecasting criteria's influence on export sales forecasting effectiveness vary depending on the forecasting methods used by the firm. This is the first research gap identified during the literature review. Furthermore, the role of export sales forecasting. effectiveness on export market performance have received only limited attention to date. Linking the forecasting effectiveness to the business performance was reported to be critical in evaluating and improving the firm's sales forecasting capability and sales forecasting climate. However, empirical evidence of this linkage is missing and this is the second gap this study addresses. A conceptual model is proposed and multivariate analysis technique is used to investigate the relationship between dependent (forecasting effectiveness and export performance) and independent variables (forecasting criteria, forecasting methods, managerial characteristics, organizational characteristics and export market orientation). Our finding revealed the impact of bias, timeliness and cost on forecasting effectiveness varies depending on the forecasting methods used by the firm. But no moderating impact of forecasting methods has been found for accuracy and environmental turbulence. Moreover, this study reported the linkage between forecasting effectiveness and export performance when composite forecasting method is used. Identifying the relative importance of all the factors (i.e. accuracy, bias, cost, timeliness, forecasting methods, etc) it becomes possible to set priorities directly reflecting managerial preferences for different forecast criteria. If implementation of such priorities is seen to contradict principles of good forecasting practice, action can be taken to inform managers of the potential negative consequences.


Abstract Black limestone clasts are present across the globe at modern and ancient subaerial exposure surfaces, and in intertidal and supratidal environments. These problematic clasts are particularly abundant at multiple subaerial exposure surfaces across southern Australia. The genesis of such exceptionally preserved clasts can be interpreted through universal fabrics across wide geographic regions and geologic ages. Regardless of location or age, all south Australian blackened clasts studied have a similar microstructure that is dominated by porous micritic laminae and chambered tubules. Such laminae are interpreted to represent calcified root cells and occur in two different varieties: 1) micrite-walled tubules with hollow centers that are thought to represent calcification in the rhizosphere or outer surfaces of the root, and 2) tubules consistent with calcification of both the medulla and cortex, which preserved medulla, cortex, and parenchymatic cells along with xylem vessels. Preserved root fabrics are present only in the blackest clasts and are consequently thought to be the main mechanism driving limestone blackening. The dark coloration in southern Australian clasts is derived from the impregnation of partially decayed terrestrial organic substances. These organic substances were trapped in the cellular structures of roots as they calcified and were subsequently prevented from further decay and oxidation. A threshold of approximately 7-weight % organic carbon is needed in the insoluble residue to produce the distinct black coloration in limestone. This process occurs at the base of slightly organic-rich humic soil profiles where they interact with underlying carbonate bedrock (B–C soil horizon). Roots both physically and chemically (through acid secretion) corrode the underlying limestone and provide the calcium bicarbonate needed in the root calcification process. Specific semiarid flora have the ability to calcify their cellular structures, which could explain why blackened clasts occur at only some unconformities. This result means that the formation of blackened clasts via root calcification and entrapment of organics relies upon specific conditions of semiarid plants and climate along with organic soils. Such conditions would be restricted to a specific climate regime and when combined with the new proposed blackening mechanism herein could help explain their limited distribution and occurrences worldwide.


For more than 40 years, the oligomeric state of members of the mitochondrial carrier family (SLC25) has been the subject of debate. Initially, the consensus was that they were dimeric, based on the application of a large number of different techniques. However, the structures of the mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier, a member of the family, clearly demonstrated that its structural fold is monomeric, lacking a conserved dimerisation interface. A re-evaluation of previously published data, with the advantage of hindsight, concluded that technical errors were at the basis of the earlier dimer claims. Here, we revisit this topic, as new claims for the existence of dimers of the bovine ADP/ATP carrier have emerged using native mass spectrometry of mitochondrial membrane vesicles. However, the measured mass does not agree with previously published values, and a large number of post-translational modifications are proposed to account for the difference. Contrarily, these modifications are not observed in electron density maps of the bovine carrier. If they were present, they would interfere with the structure and function of the carrier, including inhibitor and substrate binding. Furthermore, the reported mass does not account for three tightly bound cardiolipin molecules, which are consistently observed in other studies and are important stabilising factors for the transport mechanism. The monomeric carrier has all of the required properties for a functional transporter and undergoes large conformational changes that are incompatible with a stable dimerisation interface. Thus, our view that the native mitochondrial ADP/ATP carrier exists and functions as a monomer remains unaltered.


This paper looks at the relationship between natural resource endowment, particularly the type associated with minerals and plantations, and economic development. It may not be natural resource endowment per se but its type that matters, when it comes to growth and development. Certain types of natural resources such as oil and minerals have a tendency to lead to production and revenue patterns that are concentrated, while revenue flows from other types of resources such as agriculture are more diffused throughout the economy. The former category is dubbed a point-source economies, while the latter type is referred to as diffuse. Most countries in the first group have been prone to growth failure in recent times, with notable exceptions such as Botswana and Indonesia. The paper reviews two sets of models, the first set outlining the onset of the resource curse, and the second category sketching conditions where resource booms actually aid growth, or policies to avoid the resource curse. The vast majority of these models stress intersectoral linkages. Political economy considerations associated with resource rents are also reviewed. The focus is on institutions that determine the policy superstructure. The importance of institutions is highlighted, followed by a sketch of institutional malfunctioning and an overview of the empirical models of institutional determination. An explicit model of growth collapse with micro-foundations in rent-seeking behaviour and contests is also presented. The empirical analysis put forward is one of the few econometric investigations into the resource curse that includes analysis over time, as it is a panel data estimation. Due to this time series property our proxy for institutional quality is the degree of democracy. Our findings suggest that a point-source type natural resource endowment does retard democratic and institutional development, which in turn hampers economic growth. Institutions and institutional functioning are the crucial link between resource endowments, geography and policies, on the one hand and economic outcomes on the other hand.


Generating differentially private (DP) synthetic data that closely resembles the original private data without leaking sensitive user information is a scalable way to mitigate privacy concerns in the current data-driven world. In contrast to current practices that train customized models for this task, we aim to generate DP Synthetic Data via APIs (DPSDA), where we treat foundation models as blackboxes and only utilize their inference APIs. Such API-based, training-free approaches are easier to deploy as exemplified by the recent surge in the number of API-based apps. These approaches can also leverage the power of large foundation models which are accessible via their inference APIs while the model weights are unreleased. However, this comes with greater challenges due to strictly more restrictive model access and the additional need to protect privacy from the API provider. In this paper, we present a new framework called Private Evolution (PE) to solve this problem and show its initial promise on synthetic images. Surprisingly, PE can match or even outperform state-of-the-art (SOTA) methods without any model training. For example, on CIFAR10 (with ImageNet as the public data), we achieve FID<=7.9 with privacy cost epsilon=0.67, significantly improving the previous SOTA from epsilon=32. We further demonstrate the promise of applying PE on large foundation models such as Stable Diffusion to tackle challenging private datasets with a small number of high-resolution images.


The convex surface of the infrared dome is exposed to the harsh environment of the outside world, and therefore requires a coating which not only increases transmission but is able to withstand rain erosion so as to enhance system performance. This paper deals with the techniques that were developed to deposit a uniform thick SiO2 coating for sapphire dome by radio frequency magnetron sputtering. Results show that average transmission increment in wavelength range from 3 to 5um for the sapphire dome coated on convex surface was more than 4.0%. The transmission non-uniformity over the convex surface of the coated sapphire dome was less than 1.7%.


Time delay is pervasive in neural information processing. To achieve real-time tracking, it is critical to compensate the transmission and processing delays in a neural system. In the present study we show that dynamical synapses with short-term depression can enhance the mobility of a continuous attractor network to the extent that the system tracks time-varying stimuli in a timely manner. The state of the network can either track the instantaneous position of a moving stimulus perfectly (with zero-lag) or lead it with an effectively constant time, in agreement with experiments on the head-direction systems in rodents. The parameter regions for delayed, perfect and anticipative tracking correspond to network states that are static, ready-to-move and spontaneously moving, respectively, demonstrating the strong correlation between tracking performance and the intrinsic dynamics of the network. We also find that when the speed of the stimulus coincides with the natural speed of the network state, the delay becomes effectively independent of the stimulus amplitude.


We present measurements on an aperiodic device-specific longitudinal-mode pattern in InGaN laser diodes. The characteristic shape of this pattern occurs only if the laser is driven slightly above threshold; in addition, it tunes with temperature at exactly the same rate as the cavity modes. By careful selection of the collection optics and averaging ten rapid scans over 15 min in a high-resolution Fourier transform spectrometer, we could exclude possible explanations like beating of mode families, self-pulsation, or external reflections. A naive simulation of the longitudinal modes profiting from their individual "gain profile" along the cavity suggests that we see the signature of quantum-well thickness fluctuations.


Plastic materials are indispensable in our lives but they are an important source of environmental pollution. In order to reduce the environmental load generated from the disposal of used plastic materials, a growing interest has been focused on biodegradable polymers based materials. These polymers can be completely converted into water and carbon dioxide by the action of microorganisms after disposal. Owing to their good mechanical properties, polymer composites with micro or nano cellulose fibers are promising substitutes for glass-fiber-containing composites in many industrial fields like automotive, construction, electronics, biomedicine, cosmetics, and last but not least, the packaging industry. Among the advantages of using cellulose fibers as reinforcements in polymer composites renewability, low cost, low density, low energy consumption, high specific strength and modulus, high sound attenuation, low abrasivity and relatively reactive surface are the most important. Cellulose fibers modified at nanometer size induce much higher mechanical properties to polymer matrices as regard to common cellulose fibers because of their higher crystallinity and mechanical properties combined with higher surface area and better interfaces. The production of nano-scale cellulose fibers and their application in composite materials has gained increasing attention in the past two decades (Hubbe et al., 2008). Two main methods have been used to generate nano-scale cellulose fibers: the chemical way, mainly by strong acid hydrolysis, which removes the amorphous regions of cellulose fiber and produces nano-size fibrils and the mechanical method, by high pressure refiner treatment (Chakraborty et al., 2005), grinder treatment (Taniguchi and Okamura, 1998), microfluidizer (Zimmermann et al., 2004), and high-pressure homogenizer treatment (Istvan and Plackett, 2010). In this chapter the discussion is focused on the physical and mechanical properties of polyvinyl alcohol (PVA) as a biodegradable matrix reinforced with three types of cellulose fibers prepared by different methods. This chapter will first discuss the most used methods for cellulose nanofibers preparation and the reinforcing effect of these cellulose fibers in different polymer matrices. This will be followed by the experimental results obtained in our laboratory on PVA composites prepared with cellulose fibers isolated by mechanical treatment, acid hydrolysis and ultrasound treatment. The isolated cellulose fibers were


Author(s): Monroe, Hayley Beth | Advisor(s): Pearlstein, Ellen | Abstract: Baskets are prone to damage caused by the alternate swelling and shrinking of fibers due to fluctuations in relative humidity. At the same time, this sensitivity has long been used to the conservator's advantage. The chemical composition of cellulose, specifically its ability to form, break, and reform hydrogen bonds, allows for both water and polar solvents to infiltrate, swell and plasticize dried plant tissue. Humidification (or conditioning when using solvents) has become a standard conservation procedure in the re-shaping of damaged basketry in museum collections. However, concerns have been raised over microbial growth, and also the potential for irreversible swelling of the basketry elements. As a result, polar solvents – in this study ethanol specifically – have been added to or become a preferred conditioning media instead of water. The research for this thesis project, conducted at the UCLA/Getty Conservation Program, revolved around designing an experiment to track the extent of swelling and subsequent recovery of basketry samples made from two woody species treated with water and ethanol vapor. These samples represent two plant species, willow (Salix spp.) and spruce root (Picea spp.), which occur with some frequency in the basketry traditions of the western United States and Canada. The extent of swelling before and after the conditioning process between all the samples was compared, using measurements taken with a Keyence VHX-1000 Digital Microscope. The results of this study not only corroborate information from fields as diverse as conservation, forestry science and material science, but also point towards clear trends which can inform the conservator's decision-making in planning humidification/conditioning treatments of basketry made from woody plant species.


In this study, the suitability of using cogeneration system for the Aktürk Building Complex (located in İstanbul) was investigated using electricity and heat consumption data by considering five different cogeneration system capacities (800, 1200, 1400, 2000 and 2600 kW). The different capacities were compared using data of the payback period of investment, amount of net savings, ratio of meeting demand and part-load efficiency of the cogeneration system. Although payback periods of the investment for different capacities are close to each other, 1200 kW capacity cogeneration system is proved to be suitable for the Aktürk Building Complex because it has the shortest payback period (1 year 5 months).


THE case of a strut supported by a number of elastic supports is one that frequently occurs, in structural analysis; an obvious example from monocoque fuselages is that of the longeron loaded in compression and supported at intervals by frames which deform elastically under lateral load from the longeron. From a stressing point of view, the criterion for strut strength is not usually the critical buckling load but the load required to give maximum allowable stress under conditions of initial end eccentricity or initial free deflexion of one or more of the supports. In the case of a simple unsupported strut, for instance, it is the application of eccentrically applied end load that provides the strength criterion, and not the critical buckling under axial end load. Although the determination of the critical buckling load is interesting from an analytical point of view, and is also useful as a standard of reference, solutions of the 'stress' conditions have more practical significance for the stress engineer.


Root hairs (RH) are excellent model systems for studying cell size and polarity since they elongate several hundred-fold their original size. Their tip growth is determined both by intrinsic and environmental signals. Although nutrient availability and temperature are key factors for a sustained plant growth, the molecular mechanisms underlying their sensing and downstream signaling pathways remain unclear. We use genetics to address the roles of the cell surface receptor kinase FERONIA (FER) and the nutrient sensing TOR Complex 1 (TORC) in RH growth. We identified that low temperature (10°C) triggers a strong RH elongation response in Arabidopsis thaliana involving FER and TORC. We found that FER is required to perceive limited nutrient availability caused by low temperature. FERONIA interacts with and activates TORC-downstream components to trigger RH growth. In addition, the small GTPase Rho of plants 2 (ROP2) is also involved in this RH growth response linking FER and TOR. We also found that limited nitrogen nutrient availability can mimic the RH growth response at 10°C in a NRT1.1-dependent manner. These results uncover a molecular mechanism by which a central hub composed by FER-ROP2-TORC is involved in the control of RH elongation under low temperature and nitrogen deficiency.


A considerable amount of intensive research has been made towards efficient energy storage, particularly regarding rechargeable lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). However, there are still huge limitations to the applications of state-of-the-art LIBs, including their inadequate durability, safety concerns and high costs, and so they cannot meet the ever-growing demand for portable electronic devices and power batteries. Therefore, designing viable LIBs with high cost efficiency and performance through integration of new alternative electrode materials possessing well-controlled nanostructures is critical. Herein, we rationally design a facile and effective method to construct Na0.55Mn2O4·1.5H2O@C (SMOH@C) yolk–shell nanorods which integrate a one side internal void with the outer carbon shell framework. By virtue of such a yolk–shell structure and composition, as an anode material, the as-built electrode endows LIBs with attractive electrochemical performances including a high specific reversible capacity (750 mA h g−1 at 0.1 A g−1), an excellent rate and superior long term cycling capability (448 mA h g−1 capacity retention after 3000 cycles at 4.0 A g−1). This unique structure design strategy paves the way to produce new anode materials with superior performances for next-generation LIBs.


Oscillatory flow about a pair of circular cylinders is considered. The distance between the cylinders can be varied as can the angle that the undisturbed oscillatory flow makes with the line joining the cylinder centres. In common with other fluid flows dominated by oscillatory flow, a time-independent, or steady streaming, motion develops. Attention is focused on the case of high streaming Reynolds numbers and the resulting jets that erupt from the surfaces of the cylinders.


Background: Data suggest that African Americans lose less weight and show fewer improvements in cardiovascular diseases such as blood pressure following gastric bypass surgery (GBP). Objective: The purpose of this study was to describe differences in weight loss between Caucasian and African American patients following GBP and to identify if these differences are related to dietary intake. This study also sought to identify differences in blood pressure and serum lipid levels between African Americans and Caucasians after GBP. Methods and Subjects: This was a retrospective database review of a sample of 84 adult patients, 24 African American and 60 Caucasian women and men between the ages of 33 and 53 years. All subjects had GBP surgery in 2001 at the Bariatric Surgery Program at Boston Medical Center (BMC) in Boston, MA and were followed for one year postoperatively. Patients were excluded if weight data were missing at baseline, three months and one year following GBP. A total of 9 African Americans and 41 Caucasians provided data at all three time points and were included in the study. Weight change was calculated using percent of initial body weight and change in body mass index (BMI). Differences in dietary intake were determined using dietary records completed by the patients or by patient dietary recalls collected by the dietitian. Blood pressure, total cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), and triglyceride levels at baseline and one year were abstracted from the GBP database. Results: There were no differences in baseline characteristics between African Americans and Caucasians. Caucasians lost more weight (BMI reduced from 56 ± 12 to 34 ± 8 at one year after surgery with a percent weight loss of 38±8) than African Americans (BMI reduced from 54 ± 8 to 40 ± 11 with a percent weight loss of 26 ± 10) (p < .001). There were main effects for time and race on weight loss expressed as change in BMI and percent weight loss at one year following GBP (p < .001) as well as an interaction between and within race weight loss (p < .001). There were no differences between races for diet, blood pressure, or serum lipids. However, there were differences within race for each of these variables (p < .05). Conclusions: These data demonstrate that GBP promotes significant weight loss among morbidly obese African Americans and Caucasians. African Americans lost less weight at one year after GBP; however, dietary parameters and cardiovascular risk indices were not significantly different between races. Prospective intervention studies should be conducted to help clarify the primary etiologies for differential weight loss between races following GBP. Identification of these causes will help delineate specific interventions that are sensitive to racial differences, and ultimately optimize the outcome ofbariatric surgery in an ethnically diverse patient population.


We elaborated two carbide-free bainitic steels with different microstructures through specific heat treatments and alloy design. EBSD analysis was used to point out major differences in these microstructures. In-situ characterizations of the bainitic transformation were performed by high energy synchrotron diffraction to go further into the study of each phase characteristics. The elaborated microstructures exhibited various phase fractions of bainitic ferrite, retained austenite and blocks of martensite and retained austenite. Moreover, the volume fraction of retained austenite increased with higher austempering temperatures. On the other hand, the austempering temperatures showed a strong influence on the kinetics of the bainitic transformation. Isothermal transformation under Ms showed a two stage transformation which led first to the formation of self-tempered martensite and then to bainitic ferrite. Furthermore, the evolution of the austenitic cell parameter showed enrichment in carbon ruled by diffusional mechanisms.


The CM 1-8 UWB statistical channel impulse response (OR) models adopted by the IEEE 802.15.4a task group are widely used to fairly compare the performance of alternative UWB signaling schemes under representative line-of-sight and non-line-of-sight conditions in four different environments: residential, office, industrial, and outdoor. However, with the advent of MB-OFDM and related schemes, channel frequency response (CFR) models are becoming more pertinent than CIR models. Here, we analyze the CM 1-8 models using autoregressive frequency domain (AR-FD) modeling techniques with four aims. First, we use the Akaike information criterion (AIC) to determine the order of the AR-FD model most appropriate to each case. Second, we use the distribution of the poles in the equivalent AR-FD model to interpret both the physical significance and diversity of each of the CM models. Third, we determine the probability distribution that best describes the pole locations and other parameters of the AR-FD model so that we may specify a set of frequency domain alternatives to the IEEE 802.15.4a models which we refer to as CFR 1-8. Finally, we assess the suitability of the AR-FD approach in each of the eight cases by comparing the envelope distribution and RMS delay spread predicted by the AR-FD models to those of the original CIR data.


The virulence-associated plasmids of strains of Salmonella gallinarum and S. pullorum were transferred separately by mobilization with the F plasmid into virulence plasmid-cured derivatives of S. gallinarum, S. pullorum, and S. typhimurium and into a prototrophic Escherichia coli K-12 strain. The transconjugants were tested for virulence in chickens of different ages and in mice. The S. gallinarum and S. pullorum plasmids were able to restore full virulence in the three Salmonella strains, thus demonstrating functional homology in virulence plasmids from these Salmonella serotypes and biotypes. The virulence phenotypes of the transconjugants remained the same as that of the parent strain of the recipient. This, together with the fact that E. coli K-12 containing either of the virulence plasmids was avirulent for chickens, suggested that in addition to plasmid genes, chromosomal genes are important in determining virulence, particularly in determining the ability to survive and multiply in the cells of the reticuloendothelial system. The virulence plasmids were not self-transmissible and could not be transduced by temperate bacteriophages lysogenizing field strains of S. gallinarum. They were not in the same incompatibility group as F but were fi+.


We are creating an environment for investigating the role of advanced AI in interactive, story-based computer games. This environment is based on the Unreal Tournament (UT) game engine and the Soar AI engine. Unreal provides a 3D virtual environment, while Soar provides a flexible architecture for developing complex AI characters. This paper describes our progress to date, starting with our game, Haunt 2, which is designed so that complex AI characters will be critical to the success (or failure) of the game. It addresses design issues with constructing a plot for an interactive storytelling environment, creating synthetic characters for that environment, and using a story director agent to tell the story with those characters.


Predictive Analytics: Microsoft Excel Excel predictive analytics for serious data crunchers! The movie Moneyball made predictive analytics famous: Now you can apply the same techniques to help your business win. You dont need multimillion-dollar software: All the tools you need are available in Microsoft Excel, and all the knowledge and skills are right here, in this book! Microsoft Excel MVP Conrad Carlberg shows you how to use Excel predictive analytics to solve real-world problems in areas ranging from sales and marketing to operations. Carlberg offers unprecedented insight into building powerful, credible, and reliable forecasts, showing how to gain deep insights from Excel that would be difficult to uncover with costly tools such as SAS or SPSS. Youll get an extensive collection of downloadable Excel workbooks you can easily adapt to your own unique requirements, plus VBA codemuch of it open-sourceto streamline several of this books most complex techniques. Step by step, youll build on Excel skills you already have, learning advanced techniques that can help you increase revenue, reduce costs, and improve productivity. By mastering predictive analytics, youll gain a powerful competitive advantage for your company and yourself. Learn both the how and why of using data to make better tactical decisions Choose the right analytics technique for each problem Use Excel to capture live real-time data from diverse sources, including third-party websites Use logistic regression to predict behaviors such as will buy versus wont buy Distinguish random data bounces from real, fundamental changes Forecast time series with smoothing and regression Construct more accurate predictions by using Solver to find maximum likelihood estimates Manage huge numbers of variables and enormous datasets with principal components analysis and Varimax factor rotation Apply ARIMA (Box-Jenkins) techniques to build better forecasts and understand their meaning Category: Spreadsheets Covers: Microsoft Office Excel


Introduction:Cervical cancer is a major cause of women's mortality at reproductive age in developing countries and is the fourth malignant disease of women in the world. 95 of cervical cancers are related to HPV. This study was performed with aim to investigate the role of vaccine in preventing HPV and cervical cancer. Methods: in this review article, the information was obtained through searching in databases of Pubmed, ISI, Scopus, Medline, Embase, and Google search by entering the keywords of virus or Human Papilloma Virus (HPV), HPV vaccine, and cervical cancer during 2004 to 2015. Inclusion criteria for entering the studies in this research included the searching keywords being mentioned in title or keywords of the articles. The articles with incomplete data and articles which were less relevant to the subject were excluded. Â Results: HPV is the most common sexually transmitted infection and is self-limiting. HPV causes oral-anal premalignant lesions in men and women which may progress to malignancy. HPV vaccination prevents from HPV infections that accompany the development of oral-anal cancer including cervical cancer and genital warts. Conclusion: HPV vaccination has high effect and immunogenicity and causes acceptable safety. According to studies, the Gardasil vaccine can protect against cervical cancer up to 90, while new nine-vaccine is effective up to 97 against high degree malignant cancers with a of cervical and vaginal vulva. The increasing knowledge about prevalence of HPV and transmission ways and pathology and treatment vaccine of this virus leads to an improvement in disease control and ultimately controlling the consequences of this virus and the possible eradicating of cervical cancer in the coming decades.Â


India has been perceived as a development enigma: Recent rates of economic growth have not been matched by similar rates in health and nutritional improvements. To meet the second Sustainable Development Goal (SDG2) of achieving zero hunger by 2030, India faces a substantial challenge in meeting basic nutritional needs in addition to addressing population, environmental and dietary pressures. Here we have mapped—for the first time—the Indian food system from crop production to household-level availability across three key macronutrients categories of 'calories', 'digestible protein' and 'fat'. To better understand the potential of reduced food chain losses and improved crop yields to close future food deficits, scenario analysis was conducted to 2030 and 2050. Under India's current self-sufficiency model, our analysis indicates severe shortfalls in availability of all macronutrients across a large proportion (>60%) of the Indian population. The extent of projected shortfalls continues to grow such that, even in ambitious waste reduction and yield scenarios, enhanced domestic production alone will be inadequate in closing the nutrition supply gap. We suggest that to meet SDG2 India will need to take a combined approach of optimising domestic production and increasing its participation in global trade.


Many readers are apt to think of Anthony Burgess and Iris Murdoch as novelists now in mid-career. It comes almost as a shock to realize that in 1987 Burgess reaches his seventieth birthday and Murdoch her sixty-eighth. Burgess now has some twenty-nine novels behind him; Murdoch, twenty-two. Despite the fact that both are strong literary presences, they are still quite far, it would seem, from being "placed." Critical opinion is divided on both. Detractors remark on certain facile qualities in both that spring from a too-great prolificacy. Devotees point readily and enthusiastically to characteristic excellences in each. Whether firm, rigorous, critical studies of the next few years can more adequately define the nature, range, and depth of the accomplishment of each poses an interesting question. Iris Murdoch: The Saint and the Artist, by Peter J. Conradi, is the second major contribution to Murdoch studies in the last several years, the other being Elizabeth Dipple's 1982 book, Iris Murdoch: Work for the Spirit. Prior to this A. S. Byatt's pioneering study, Degrees of Freedom: The Novels of Im Murdoch, was in most ways still the best despite useful and quite respectable later contributions from Peter Wolfe and Frank Baldanza. Conradi, in fact, wrote his Ph.D. dissertation on Murdoch at London University under the supervision of A. S. Byatt although, he notes in his acknowledgments, the book under review has a different focus from the dissertation. In ways that are all to the good, the Conradi book (unlike the other two books also reviewed here) does not have the appearance of, or read like, the overwhelming majority of dissertations. Conradi's critical study, in fact, clearly supersedes all others save Dipple's. Conradi skillfully weaves a rich and intricate interpretive tapestry of theory, counter-theory, precise formal observation, quotation and allusion (Homer and Plato to John Bayley and Derrida, most of this done relatively unpretentiously and not too self-consciously), and sensible judgment that constantly establishes broad perspectives. Murdoch detractors might well find this book bom more convincing and readable than they anticipated, even though they will probably not be instantly converted. One reason for this is that Conradi soon proves himself a deft strategist: whenever he intuits that his reader is about to be lost in a sea of particular details, he provides something to cling to—a solid comparison, an apposite and thought-provoking quotation, or a few planks of theory. By intelligent design Conradi discusses each novel separately and reasonably fully but only in one place; the discussion is made to center around some thematic or technical principle that the author wishes to develop. For example, The Bell is treated in a chapter titled "The Sublime in The Bell and The Unicorn," the first chapter of Part Two, "Open and Closed"; thus the discussion is informed by a consideration of open as opposed to closed forms, and also ideas about the sublime and the good. A certain amount of arbitrariness is naturally involved in the


Most hardware description languages and their environments are either based on imperative language concepts or on functional language concepts. The authors propose a hardware specification and simulation environment based on object-oriented principles. Object-oriented concepts such as classes, objects, inheritance and abstraction are considered in a design environment with the HiFi hardware design model as its underlying basis. The model uses single token Petri nets and applicative state transitions to describe the functionality and data flow of a VLSI network.<<ETX>>


Article history Received:15 Novmber 2014 Accepted: 2 February 2014 Available online: 1 March 2015 This cross-sectional study was carried out to determine the prevalence and risk factors of brucellosis in ruminants' population in Jebel Aolia locality, Khartoum State. A total of 393 serum samples were collected from 53 herds, out of which 207 were bovine, 84 ovine, 82 caprine and 20 camel serum samples. The serum samples were screened for presence of brucella antibodies using RBPT and the positive samples were confirmed by c-ELISA test. The results pointed out that, prevalence of brucellosis among herds/flocks of cattle, camel, sheep and goats were 76 % (22/29), 20% (1/5), 13% (1/8) and 18% (2/11) respectively. The individual animal prevalence were 19% (39/207), 5% (1/20), 1 % (1/84) and 4%(3/82)respectively. A survey using a questionnaire was conducted to collect the required epidemiological data. The risk factors were investigated using logistic regression analysis. The test revealed that only abortion cases (OR.001, CI.00-.247, p-value.014) and source of water (OR1.51, CI 2.949-7.745E5, p-value.021) were significant (P<0.05) risk factors. This study provides necessary information about prevalence and risk factors of the disease in the study area which help the decision makers in setting the priority of disease control.  2014 Sudan University of Science and Technology. All rights reserved


The current GFDL seasonal prediction system achieved retrospective sea ice extent (SIE) skill without direct sea ice data assimilation. Here we develop sea ice data assimilation, shown to be a key source of skill for seasonal sea ice predictions, in GFDL's next-generation prediction system, the Seamless System for Prediction and Earth System Research (SPEAR). Satellite sea ice concentration (SIC) observations are assimilated into the GFDL Sea Ice Simulator version 2 (SIS2) using the ensemble adjustment Kalman filter (EAKF). Sea ice physics is perturbed to form an ensemble of ice–ocean members with atmospheric forcing from the JRA-55 reanalysis. Assimilation is performed every 5 days from 1982 to 2017 and the evaluation is conducted at pan-Arctic and regional scales over the same period. To mitigate an assimilation overshoot problem and improve the analysis, sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are restored to the daily Optimum Interpolation Sea Surface Temperature version 2 (OISSTv2). The combination of SIC assimilation and SST restoring reduces analysis errors to the observational error level (~10%) from up to 3 times larger than this (~30%) in the free-running model. Sensitivity experiments show that the choice of assimilation localization half-width (190 km) is near optimal and that SIC analysis errors can be further reduced slightly either by reducing the observational error or by increasing the assimilation frequency from every 5 days to daily. A lagged-correlation analysis suggests substantial prediction skill improvements from SIC initialization at lead times of less than 2 months.


In this paper, we present a probability study about spring of clutch structure. In the structure problems, the randomness and the uncertainties of the distribution of the structural parameters are a crucial problem. In the case of Reliability Based Design Optimization (RBDO), it is the objective is to play a dominant role in the structural optimization problem introducing the reliability concept. The RBDO problem is often formulated as a minimization of the initial structural cost under constraints imposed on the values of elemental reliability indices corresponding to various limit states. This paper proposes a new method for a modified particle swarm optimization algorithm (MPSO) combined with a simulated annealing algorithm (SA) and RBDO. MPSO is known as an efficient approach with a high performance of solving optimization problems in many research fields. It is a population intelligence algorithm inspired by social behavior simulations of bird flocking. Numerical results show the robustness of the MPSO-SA algorithm and RBDO.


ABSTRACT The Neogene borate deposits of Anatolia have thin sedimentary covers and have never been deeply buried. The major rock-forming, calcium-bearing borates are colemanite and ulexite. Under progressive evaporation, borate precipitation occurred in a number of settings, from stable playas to perennial lakes, the latter evolving to shallow lakes and playa lakes. In all these lakes, shallowing-upward cyclicity is common. Colemanite facies occupy the margins, and ulexite facies the centers of the basins; this mineral zonation is depositional and cannot be ascribed to diagenetic processes. Colemanite and ulexite formed mainly as interstitial growths under synsedimentary conditions, and as mineralogically primary, displacive and/or cementing lithofacies, which were affected by progressive compaction. Heliothermal conditions might have favored the precipitation of colemanite in some lakes; in others, subaerial (playa) conditions seem to have been appropriate. Locally, some colemanite is secondary and proceeds from the (macroscopic) replacement of precursor ulexite; this replacement occurred during either early diagenesis or (more probably) late diagenesis. Minor evidence exists for colemanite formation from replacement of precursor inyoite (?).


Abstract Ultrasound (US) is considered the first-line imaging modality of choice in women presenting with pelvic complaints. Although imaging is focused on detecting abnormalities of the uterus and adnexa, occasionally nongynecologic findings are detected, which may or may not explain the patient's symptoms. Many of these findings are related to the gastrointestinal (GI) tract. Although most of these GI abnormalities are better diagnosed with computed tomography (CT), symptoms are often nonspecific and US may be the first imaging modality requested by referring clinicians. Sonographers should be aware of the possibility of nongynecologic diseases in patients with pelvic symptoms, particularly if US evaluation of the female reproductive tract does not provide an answer to the clinical question. Careful attention to the bowel when performing a pelvic US may allow the sonographer to diagnose GI pelvic diseases such as appendicitis, diverticulitis, colitis, bowel obstruction, mesenteric adenitis, epiploic appendagitis, Crohn disease, and even GI malignancy. As concerns grow regarding the radiation dose of pelvic CT, the use of iodinated contrast material, and imaging costs, US examination may be increasingly requested as an initial imaging study in patients in whom GI diseases is primarily suspected in the pelvis, and familiarity with the various sonographic manifestations will aid considerably in establishing the correct diagnosis.


Young adults with mental health problems who do not attend school or work constitute a significant welfare challenge in Norway. The welfare services available to these individuals include nature-based services, which are primarily located on farms and integrate the natural and agricultural environment into their daily activities. The aim of this study is to examine young adults (16–30 years old) not attending school or work who participated in nature-based services in Norway. In particular, the study analyses mental health problems among the participants and in-group variations regarding their symptoms of mental health problems using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist (HSCL-10). This paper compares symptoms of mental health problems among participants in nature-based services with those of a sample from the general population and a sample of those receiving clinical in-patient mental healthcare. A questionnaire was developed for the study and was completed by 93 participants in nature-based services. The majority of these participants were recruited from the Norwegian Labour and Welfare Administration (NAV), local mental health services, and school authorities. Results indicate that just more than half of the respondents exhibited symptoms of mental health problems based on their HSCL-10 scores. In general, they reported fewer symptoms than the clinical in-patient sample (18–30 years old) and more symptoms than the general population sample (18–19 years old). Among the participants in nature-based services, those recruited through NAV and local mental health services exhibited no differences in symptoms. Half of the participants older than 23 years in nature-based services had not completed upper secondary school. The participants, including those with symptoms of mental health problems and low expectations at the outset of their participation, generally expressed high satisfaction with the services.


In 300 patients with chronic disorder of the upper extremities blood circulation 725 operative interventions were performed. Application of differentiated approach to the choice of the surgical correction method had allowed the positive result achievement in late follow up period in 77.8% patients.


Regulation of the DNA damage‐inducible RAD2 gene was investigated in yeast cells transformed with centromeric plasmids containing RAD2‐lacZ fusion constructs. Deletion analysis defined several regions in the 350 bp region upstream of the translational start codon which are required for induction of β‐galactosidase activity. No deletions resulted in constitutivety enhanced expression. We therefore conclude that induction of RAD2 by DNA‐damaging agents is positively regulated. Two domains required for induction have a similar sequence and are located ∼70 and ∼140bp upstream of the major transcriptional start site. Four other sequence domains required for induction contain uninterrupted poly(dA) poly(dT) stretches 9‐13 bp long. Deletion of some of these AT‐rich domains also affects constitutive expression of RAD2. Expression of RAD2 is not cell‐cycle‐regulated in mitotic cells. However, meiosis is accompanied by increased steady‐state levels of RAD2 mRNA in the absence of DNA damage. This enhanced transcription is not dependent on the presence of upstream sequences required for regulation of induction by DNA damage. Increased steady‐state levels of RAD2 mRNA are induced by cycloheximide in asynchronously dividing populations of cells, but not in non‐replicating cells arrested in G1 phase of the cell cycle. Following exposure to u.v. irradiation induction is also dramatically reduced in non‐replicating cells.


Abstract. To elucidate the factors governing the urban O3 pollution during the campaign period of 2016 Group of Twenty (G20) summit in China, the Weather Research Forecast with Chemistry (WRF-Chem) model was used to simulate the spatial and temporal O3 evolution in the Yangtze River Delta (YRD) region from August 24 to September 06, 2016. A unique mechanism was found to modulate the high ozone episodic event. Before the tropical cyclone, a prevailing north wind component brought in emission sources which are favorable for ozone formation. With the invasion of tropical cycle, subsidence air and stagnant weather were induced. Together with local urban heat island effect, there factors intensify ozone pollution in the YRD region. Different atmospheric processes were further analyzed to investigate the control factors of ozone formation through the integrated process rate method. It was found that both the vertical diffusion and the enhancing process of local chemical generation accounted for the growth of surface O3 concentration in Hangzhou. Besides, dynamical circulations of O3 advection associated with urban heat island effect were observed during the high O3 episode (August 24–25, 2016), and low O3 episode on September 5–6, 2016 was mainly resulting from the local chemical consumption. This provides insight into urban O3 formation and dispersion in East China during the tropical cyclone events.


This article presents the factors that are driving the restructuring of laboratory services and the information technology capabilities that are necessary to support the regionalized laboratory services organization. The overall need is for a trans-entity laboratory information system with point of care ordering and results reporting and enterprise-wide specimen transportation and tracking, that is interfaced with other information resources required for clinical decision-making, and patient care, operational, and financial management.


The study was pursued to create a website for the Pawikan (Marine Turtle) Conservation Center (PCC) in Morong, Bataan, Philippines to sustain its educational operations using enhanced information-education-communication (IEC) materials. Using document (old Information-Education-Communication materials) analysis, online scanning of information on marine turtles, and survey of visitors during the Pawikan Festival, the study was able to enhance existing IEC materials containing the most relevant information on marine turtles online, which resulted to a more effective education of selected visitors coming from 10 secondary schools within the province of Bataan. The documented events and enhanced IEC materials were integrated in a new website serving the purposes of PCC and intended for inclusion in the university website. As a result, PCC's capacity to educate people unable to attend the festival and acquire financial support and the university's capacity to advocate environmentalism and biodiversity from a distance has been enhanced.


At the time of entering primary school, language merely a practical value for the child. The first language has a deep root in human being. However, there are children who learn two languages together in their language-learning ages and face no problems. The reason for this difference can be found in the level of these children's intelligence, parents' and friends' attitudes, and also that of the child him/herself towards learning and using the second language. The present study has been started by collecting some questionnaires answered by 94 elementary school teachers. By analyzing the data obtained from questionnaires it has been concluded that the higher the rate of emotional intelligence is in students, the higher is their educational achievement rate and vice versa. Following the analysis in different aspects of emotional intelligence it is concluded that self-awareness aspect is significant in both monolinguals and bilinguals. Self-management aspect and relationship management is significant only in case of monolinguals. Consequently, training special teachers and taking the advantage of native teachers in bilingual regions, also the manner of increasing the emotional intelligence in students should be taught to elementary school teachers.


This paper presents an adaptive control using radial-basis-function neural networks (RBFNNs) for a two-wheeled self-balancing scooter. A mechatronic system structure of the scooter driven by two dc motors is briefly described, and its mathematical modeling incorporating two frictions between the wheels and the motion surface is derived. By decomposing the overall system into two subsystems (yaw motion and mobile inverted pendulum), one proposes two adaptive controllers using RBFNN to achieve self-balancing and yaw control. The performance and merit of the proposed adaptive controllers are exemplified by conducting several simulations and experiments on a two-wheeled self-balancing scooter.


Abstract Background In 2007, the American Heart Association modified the infective endocarditis prophylaxis guidelines by limiting the use of antibiotics in patients with cardiac conditions associated with the highest risk of adverse outcomes after infective endocarditis. Our objective was to evaluate current practice for infective endocarditis prophylaxis among paediatric cardiologists. Methods A web-based survey focussing on current practice, describing the use of antibiotics for infective endocarditis prophylaxis in various congenital and acquired heart diseases, was distributed via e-mail to paediatric cardiologists. The survey was kept anonymous and was distributed twice. Results Data from 253 participants were analysed. Most paediatric cardiologists discontinued infective endocarditis prophylaxis in patients with simple lesions such as small ventricular septal defect, patent ductus arteriosus, and bicuspid aortic valve without stenosis or regurgitation; however, significant disagreement persists in prescribing infective endocarditis prophylaxis in certain conditions such as rheumatic heart disease, Fontan palliation without fenestration, and the Ross procedure. Use of antibiotic prophylaxis in certain selected conditions for which infective endocarditis prophylaxis has been indicated as per the current guidelines varies from 44 to 83%. Only 44% follow the current guidelines exclusively, and 34% regularly discuss the importance of oral hygiene with their patients at risk for infective endocarditis. Conclusion Significant heterogeneity still persists in recommending infective endocarditis prophylaxis for several cardiac lesions among paediatric cardiologists. More than half of the participants (56%) do not follow the current guidelines exclusively in their practice. Counselling for optimal oral health in patients at risk for infective endocarditis needs to be optimised in the current practice.


Abstract. Reported by National Disaster Response Agency of Indonesia (BPBD) as many as 94 dies, 149 injured, and more than 88 thousands homeless caused by floods in 2018. Besides bringing casualties to people and environment, the floods also affect the damages to transportation infrastructures in which vital to disaster emergency response operation e.g. evacuation process. Due to the complex impact of current disaster, the demands of providing a short-term response increases accordingly. Therefore, this research proposes a prototype of flood evacuation route utilizing network analyst method. The network analyst method particularly focus on finding alternative route based on time and distance. This research uses a flood simulation model derived from Landsat 8 imagery and terrain data. Subsequently, the simulation model divides the flood severity based on the depth which consist of < 0.3 m (slight), 0.3-0.5 m (moderate), and > 0.5 m (serious) in order to generate an impact analysis regarding the estimation of damages and casualties. In order to resemble the real situation of flood, barriers (e.g. flood area) are applied into the finding evacuation route procedure. Thereby, the estimated evacuation route can be executed considering the safest and fastest way. Moreover, some comparisons between before and after flood are conducted in order to know the effectiveness of evacuation routes. By such comparison proves that network analyst enables to support disaster management operation with respect to handling the evacuation procedure.


This article is both a narrative of my experiences as a political prisoner and a reflection on how this understanding has changed over time. The experiences span a period of forty years, insofar as their impact continues to be part of my psychological being. I relate these encounters within the framework of three main categories. Reification, that is, the attempt by prison authorities to turn prisoners into things, which is apparently, applied in general to common law prisoners. Agency, meaning that the political prisoner or potential prisoner has elements of subjective capacity in varying degrees even in the most adverse conditions, such as undergoing torture. The authorities cannot completely control the political prisoners, or may even cede a great deal to them. Liminality is used to connote the notion of my life being in continuous transition from one state of being, free but potentially in prison, in prison but potentially or definitely to be released, though release is subject to the possibility of re-arrest or other dangers. While the article relates my specific experiences it is intended to signify the capacity of people to choose elements of their existence in other difficult situations.


We apply bispectrum analysis to one-dimensional astronomical infrared specklegrams and compare the recovered phases and their variances with those obtained by the Knox–Thompson algorithm. A number of averaging techniques are used to combine the multiple object phase estimates from the average bispectrum phases. Analysis of these techniques indicates that only a fraction of the nonredundant support of the bispectrum is necessary for the object phase retrieval. We have calibrated our bispectra for zero-mean additive detector noise. Results are presented for a bright point source and the nearby binary star Ross 614AB along with its point-source comparison. The point-source results indicate a phase structure that may be due to telescope aberrations that do not average out in the bispectrum process. The point-source-calibrated phases obtained for Ross 614AB from the bispectrum analysis show the binary structure out to higher spatial frequencies than do the Knox–Thompson results.


In this paper reconfiguration of grid-interfacing converters is proposed for power quality improvement. In addition to the traditional function of delivering energy between distributed sources and the utility grid, more flexible ancillary functions can be integrated into the control of grid-interfacing converters to both improve the power quality at the user side and the utility side. The potential for solving or improving various problems on different system levels is described in detail. Two three-phase four-leg inverters, together with DC microsources and loads, are employed to construct a general gridinterfacing system module. Through the redefinition of system functions, it is possible to achieve voltage unbalance correction, harmonic current compensation at the point of connection with the utility grid, protection of distributed generation systems from grid disturbances, and high quality voltage for sensitive loads under various utility grid situations. While the effect on helping the utility grid is small for a single module, a number of the modules put together could be pronounced. The Control scheme and validation results are presented in the paper.


With the advancement in the technology, deployment of sensors in the industrial or public building is increasing rapidly. The basic aim is to obtain the data from the environment and decision making to the energy saving. The activities caused by the human results the undergoing negative change in the environment. There are many techniques available for decision making and consider the environmental factors solely which cause the energy consumption. However, user's preferences are not adapted by the systems, but at energy consumption optimization, these systems are very successful. The end-users use the system which considers the factors and their wellbeing are get affected. The distributed generation is incorporated by the Smart Small Grid (SSG), communication network and the sensors for the more reliable, flexible and efficient grid. The energy saving system is presented in this paper which also adapts to the inhabitants preferences apart from environmental conditions consideration. The architecture of Multi-Agent System (MAS) and the agents are utilized for negotiation process performance between the users comfort preferences and optimization degree that according to these preferences, achievement of system is done. The energy consumption of 40% is obtained and in the inhabitants' behavior pattern, the algorithm was specialized. The 16.89% of reduction is obtained by the existing system and it was focused to obtain the agreement between the system and users for user preference satisfaction and the energy optimization is also performed at the same time.


Preliminary communication The aim of the present study was to investigate whether a certain time of day may be more or less catabolic or anabolic than another and therefore of greater adaptive potential after exercise. Eighteen male university students volunteered to participate in the study. Salivary specimens were collected every 60 min over a 12 h waking period and then measured with the Salimetrics HS-cortisol assay and Salimetrics HS-testosterone assay. Participants remained at rest and were fed identical meals to each other at 08:05, 13:05, and 18:05 h. Blood pressure, heart rate and core temperature were observed every 15 min. Elevated cortisol concentrations were observed in the morning between 08:00 and 09:00 h (mean concentration ± SD = 0.28 ± 0.17 ug/dL) and a nadir in the evening or early night-time, between 17:00 and 20:00 h (mean concentration ± SD = 0.12 ± 0.06 ug/dL). Post hoc analysis revealed that mean 08:00 h cortisol was significantly greater than mean cortisol at 11:00 to 20:00 h (P < 0.05) and mean 09:00 h cortisol was significantly greater than mean cortisol from 15:00 to 20:00 h (P < 0.05). However, testosterone did not change significantly during the same period. Cortisol, core temperature and systolic blood pressure correlated significantly (although not strongly) with sampling time. In conclusion, salivary sampling to assess the anabolic/catabolic status of a squad or individual or to diagnose overtraining may not be simple or feasible as the variation between individuals is high and therefore setting a threshold value would prove troublesome. Also, the episodic release of cortisol in particular increases the difficulty of deciding a value in healthy or subclinical individuals.


Navigating the legal and ethical waters of any profession can be daunting but the waters are especially murky in a human service profession such as counseling. When you add to the complications of counseling individuals clients who are minors in schools, the potential for legal and ethical dilemmas multiply. School counselors' legal and ethical work with minors involves value-laden subjects (e.g., abortion), safety issues (e.g., harassment), and life-threatening concerns (e.g., suicide). There is the inescapable fact that a school counselor's client extends beyond the student to include parents, teachers, administrators, the school district, and the community. The confluence of this multiplicity of responsibility to parents and others (and a setting whose mission and function is to deliver academic instruction) flows together to make the legal and ethical world of school counseling a complex one to negotiate. The setting in which school counselors work is the most defining and confining characteristic for school counselors when they enter into a counseling relationship with students. Personal or emotional counseling for minors in schools brings immediate tension between the student's right to privacy and the parent's right to be the guiding force in their children's emotional development (Fisher & Sorenson, 1996; Isaacs & Stone, 1999; Kaplan, 1996; Remley & Herlihy, 2001; Salo & Shumate, 1993). The multifaceted nature of working with minors in schools makes it impossible to develop policy for all the potential variables and situations faced by school counselors. Although there is legal guidance such as legislation and school board policy, school counselors often have to practice without clear guidelines. Occasionally, the legal obligations of school counselors are underscored by court cases. Two court cases are presented in this article to illuminate school counselors' legal responsibilities in academic advising and abortion counseling. However, it is important to note that court decisions are based on a particular set of facts, and the law of a particular state or area of the country is applied. They do not fully define school counselors' legal obligations as professionals practicing in a particular jurisdiction. These cases are presented to show how appellate court decisions can guide and inform future decision making in a variety of potential malpractice situations. It is highly unusual for a school counselor to be sued (Parrott, 2001; Remley & Herlihy, 2001; Stone, 2001; Zirkel, 2001a). These court cases are discussed not to disturb peace-of-mind, as that would be an over reaction, but to inform future practice and to equip professionals to exercise even greater care for their minor students. Negligence Negligence is a civil wrong or, in legal terms, a tort in which one person breaches a duty to another (Remley & Herlihy, 2001; Valente, 1998). A criminal wrong is a crime against society, whereas a civil wrong is a breach of another's individual rights. A civil wrong causes damages or injury that may be physical, emotional, or monetary, and plaintiffs seek compensation. Malpractice is a civil wrong and is an area of tort law that refers to negligent practice in the rendering of professional services (Remley & Herlihy; Valente). As a general legal principle, civil liability for negligence will accrue if a school counselor is found to owe a duty to another person, breaches that duty by not living up to expected standards, and as a result of the breach of duty, causes damages to another person. According to Prosser (1971), all four of the following elements must be present for negligence to be proven: * A duty was owed by the school counselor to a student or parent/guardian of a student. * The duty owed was breached. * There was a sufficient legal causal connection between the breach of duty and the injury. * Some injury or damages were suffered. …


The acidophilic and strictly chemolithoautotrophic bacterium Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans oxidizes ferrous (Fe(II)) to ferric (Fe(III)) iron and reduced inorganic sulfur compounds (RISC) to sulfuric acid, in oxic conditions. The redox proteins involved in the electron transfer between Fe(II) and oxygen are encoded in the same transcriptional unit, the rus operon. The expression of this operon is induced in the presence of Fe(II), but not Fe(III), and is not repressed in the presence of sulfur (S0). A number of genes differentially expressed in iron or sulfur conditions have been identified by microarrays transcript profiling. We show here that the presence of Fe(II) induced the expression of the genes involved in iron oxidation and repressed the expression of the genes involved in RISC oxidation. Identification of the regulator(s) involved in this transcriptional regulation is underway. Two genes encoding putative regulators belonging to two transcriptional units located downstream from the rus operon have been cloned. One regulator with a putative ironsulfur cluster belongs to the IscR family and the other belongs to the two component sensor/regulator family. Expression of both genes is induced in the presence of Fe(II) and is not repressed by S0. The recombinant proteins have been purified and gel shift assays with the target regulatory regions are in progress.


Large and complex biological networks are thought to be built from small functional modules called motifs. Currently there has been insufficient study of the fundamental understanding of these motifs which has resulted in a lack of consensus of their role and presence in biology. Here we investigate two networks that produce biologically important dynamics, an oscillation and a toggle switch. We couple these motifs and observe multiple sets of combined dynamic behaviour and evidence of gene connectivity preferences between the two networks. Such fundamental studies of networks can be performed computationally with detailed mathematical analysis that may not be possible from experimental data due to noise and experimental costs. Computational studies can also be used in conjunction with experimental data to analysis and interpret large scale data sets such as high-throughput data. Here we use such an approach to go beyond fundamental networks and model a system of particular interest in biology, the bacteria Streptomyces coelicolor, which produces a plethora of antibiotics and medicinal compounds. The regulatory network of genes in S. colicolor is vast and sub-networks can span hundreds, or even thousands of genes. Currently there is insufficient data to statistically reverse engineer regulatory networks for large networks, known as underdetermined problems. The complexity of real data due to noise is also a problem for inferring networks, and as a result much of the research community focus on small artificial data sets to benchmark their algorithms. Here we develop a novel algorithm which uses data integration and processing with a multi-objective set-up that enhances convergence through multiobjectivization. Additionally our algorithm uses a decoupled optimisation approach to improve the optimisation and parallel computation to significantly reduce computational run times. Our algorithm is general and can be applied to any network with time series data of any size. We compare various size biologically relevant sub-networks within S. colicolor with several optimisation arrangements and demonstrate our novel approach is the best over any network size. Furthermore, we apply our algorithm to the PhoP sub-network of 911 genes within S. colicolor, which is strongly linked to antibiotic production. All networks here are reconstructed from real experimental data. Our algorithm is able to build a regulatory model for 911 genes in the PhoP network for time series data sets of up to 32 points, both of which are far larger than current methods.


We present a novel method for screening pulmonary abnormalities using thoracic edge map in PA chest radiograph (CXR) images. Our particular interest is to aid clinical officers in screening HIV+ populations in resource constrained regions for Tuberculosis (TB). Our work is motivated by the observation that abnormal CXRs tend to exhibit corrupted and/or deformed thoracic edge maps. We study histograms of thoracic edges for all possible orientations of gradients in the range [0, 2π) at different numbers of bins and different pyramid levels. We have used two CXR benchmark collections made available by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, and have achieved a maximum abnormality detection accuracy of 85.92% and area under the ROC curve (AUC) of 0.91 at one second per image, on average, which outperforms the reported state-of-the-art.


In commercial aluminum alloys, Zr is recognized as an important additional element improving their properties such as strength, corrosion resistivily, and so on. It forms very fine particles of the metastable Al3Zr phase with L12 ordered configuration, in the case of alloys without Si. On the other hand, the DO22-type (Al, Si)3Zr phase besides the L12-type Al3Zr phase is precipitated in alloys including large amounts of Si, such as 6000 series. In this study the main stress falls on precipitation behavior of these Zr compounds in a Zr bearing Al-Mg-Si alloy. The Al-0.67Mg-0.97Si-0.37Zr alloy was cast into a metal mold and hot-rolled to a 5 mm thick plate. A lot of fine L12-type Al3Zr particles were coherently precipitated in the matrix by aging the plate at 673K. The aged plate was cold-rolled to a 1 mm thick sheet and annealed at 553-813K, and then microstructure was investigated by using a transmission electron microscope. It was realized that fine coherent L12-type Al3Zr particles are transformed to incoherent and coarse DO22-type (Al, Si)3Zr particles through recrystallization. The DO22-type (Al, Si)3Zr particles reduced recrystallized grain size owing to their pinning effect.


We performed detailed time-resolved spectroscopy of bright long gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) which show significant GeV emissions (GRB 080916C, GRB 090902B and GRB 090926A). In addition to the standard Band model, we also use a model consisting of a black body and a power law to fit the spectra. We find that for the latter model there are indications of an additional soft component in the spectra. While previous studies have shown that such models are required for GRB 090902B, here we find that a composite spectral model consisting of two blackbodies and a power law adequately fits the data of all the three bright GRBs. We investigate the evolution of the spectral parameters and find several interesting features that appear in all three GRBs, like (a) temperatures of the blackbodies are strongly correlated with each other, (b) fluxes in the black body components are strongly correlated with each other, (c) the temperatures of the black body trace the profile of the individual pulses of the GRBs, and (d) the characteristics of power law components like the spectral index and the delayed onset bear a close similarity to the emission characteristics in the GeV regions. We discuss the implications of these results and the possibility of identifying the radiation mechanisms during the prompt emission of GRBs.


OBJECTIVE
In light of the efficacy of newer antipsychotic agents and the possibility that drug withdrawal may negatively affect subsequent drug response, concern has arisen that the use of placebo in schizophrenia research may be unethical. This study examines the effect size of symptom exacerbation during drug washout with placebo and the effects of drug washout on the efficacy of subsequent drug treatment.

METHOD
Fifty patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia hospitalized on a research unit participated in a double-blind longitudinal study of the effects of drug washout after chronic treatment with a typical antipsychotic and before prospective treatment with clozapine. Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) scores were analyzed to examine drug effects and effect sizes for baseline treatment with a typical antipsychotic (>6 months treatment), drug washout with placebo (mean=34 days), early treatment with clozapine (mean=42 days, mean dose=345.0 mg/day), and optimal clozapine treatment (mean=83 days, mean dose=450.5 mg/day).

RESULTS
Patients' BPRS total, positive, and negative symptom scores significantly increased during placebo washout, compared with baseline treatment, and significantly decreased with administration of clozapine, compared with placebo washout and baseline treatment. However, 30% of patients showed some symptom improvement during placebo washout. The effect sizes for the BPRS total score were 0.63 for baseline treatment versus placebo washout, 1.10 for optimal clozapine treatment versus placebo washout, and 0.82 for optimal clozapine treatment versus baseline treatment.

CONCLUSIONS
Symptom exacerbation induced by drug withdrawal in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia did not impede subsequent responsiveness to clozapine. The effect size for clozapine, compared with typical antipsychotics, suggests that the drug-washout longitudinal design is useful for establishing a drug-free baseline and for investigating drug response, while requiring relatively few subjects.


Background: Melasma, which is fairly common in Indians, causes significant emotional and psychological impact. A Hindi instrument would be useful to assess the impact of melasma on the quality of life in Indian patients. Objective: To create a semantic equivalent of the original MELASQOL questionnaire in Hindi and validate it. Methods: A Hindi adaptation of the original MELASQOL (Hi-MELASQOL) was prepared using previously established guidelines. After pre-testing, the Hi-MELASQOL questionnaire was administered to 100 women with melasma visiting the out-patient registration counter of Safdarjung Hospital, Delhi. These women were also administered a Hindi equivalent of the Health Related Quality of Life (HRQOL) questionnaire. Melasma area severity index (MASI) of all the participants was calculated. Results: The mean MASI score was 20.0 ± 7.5 and Hi-MELASQOL score was 37.19 ± 18.15; both were highly, positively and significantly correlated. Reliability analysis showed satisfactory results. Physical health, emotional well-being and social life were the most adversely affected life domains. Limitations: It was a single-center study and the number of patients studied could have been larger. Conclusion: Hi-MELASQOL is a reliable and validated tool to measure the quality of life in Indians with melasma.


This document provides guidelines in the terminology, methodology, and in the interpretation of data obtained from the use of skin (transcutaneous) p O2 and p CO2 electrodes. The transcutaneous technique has found special application for newborn infants. The causes of analytical bias with respect to arterial blood gas values and imprecision obtained with transcutaneous p O2 and p CO2 electrodes are reviewed. Electrode temperatures above 44 degrees C should not be used routinely, and, at a measuring temperature of 44 degrees C, the measuring site should be changed at least every 4 h to avoid skin burning.


Despite continuing debate regarding the utility of virtual worlds, their use has continued to pervade the worldwide marketplace. An important consideration is that the current K-12 student cohort comprises digital natives who are clearly the major group of users represented in virtual worlds, either in games or social online communities (Prensky 2001). Increasingly this cohort of students will expect to use virtual worlds to learn, and educators are wise to prepare. Indeed 3D Spaces will likely become one of the major platforms for distant learning as well as for virtual teams of software engineers to both work and socialize. In the context of software engineering, this paper discusses the benefits for early movers to integrate 3D Spaces in the classroom, project meetings and vocational training. The focus is set on life-long learning and the specific methodology of 3D Space integration is demonstrated over all stages – from childhood to the workplace.


Forming technically proficient, professional, and humanistic physicians for the 21st century is no easy task. Mountains of biomedical knowledge must be acquired, diagnostic competence achieved, effective communication skills developed, and a solid and applicable understanding of the practice and role of physicians in society today must be reached. The central experience for learners in this complex and challenging terrain is the "modeling of" and "learning how to be" a caregiver and health professional. Role modeling remains one crucial area where standards are elusive and where repeated negative learning experiences may adversely impact the development of professionalism in medical students and residents. The literature is mainly descriptive, defining the attributes of good role models from both learners and practitioners' perspectives. Because physicians are not "playing a role" as an actor might, but "embodying" different types of roles, the cognitive and behavioral processes associated with successfully internalizing roles (e.g., the good doctor/medical educator) are important. In this article, the authors identify foundational questions regarding role models and professional character formation; describe major social and historical reasons for inattention to character formation in new physicians; draw insights about this important area from ethics and education theory (philosophical inquiry, apprenticeship, situated learning, observational learning, reflective practice); and suggest the practical consequences of this work for faculty recruitment, affirmation, and development.


Oxytocin (OT) mediates social habituation in rodent model systems, but its role in mediating this effect in other vertebrates is unknown. We used males of the African cichlid fish, Astatotilapia burtoni, to investigate two aspects of isotocin (IT; an OT homolog) signaling in social habituation. First, we examined the expression of IT receptor 2 (ITR2) as well as two immediate early genes in brain regions implicated in social recognition. Next, we examined IT neuron activity using immunohistochemistry. Patterns of gene expression in homologs of the amygdala and hippocampus implicate IT signaling in these regions in social habituation to a territorial neighbor. In the preoptic area, the expression of the ITR2 subtype and IT neuron activity respond to the presence of a male, independent of familiarity. Our results implicate IT in mediating social habituation in a teleost.


As readers of Applied Cognitive Psychology, we are all familiar with the controversies of the 'memory wars' of the late 20th century (see, e.g., Davies & Dalgleish 2001; Ost 2013; Patihis, Ho, Tingen, Lilienfeld & Loftus 2014; and Read & Lindsay 1997, for reviews). While some of us believe firmly that this controversy was resolutely resolved others maintain that there remains many unanswered questions. At the very least, for the individuals and their families directly caught up in this battle, the result was ultimately a pyrrhic victory. In the last few years, however, the issues surrounding memories of abuse have resurfaced, but in a new form: while in the 20th century the battle was contained within families; in the 21st century the battle has taken on a much more public nature. Specifically, celebrities, politicians and high profile individuals have found themselves publically accused of molesting children in previous decades, sometimes as long ago as half a century, and are referred to as 'historical memories of abuse' (e.g., recent allegations against Jimmy Savile in the UK and Bill Cosby in the USA).


The greatdiscrepancybetween the old traditions and themodern Westernway oflife asdisseminated by television, magazines,tourismand rapidlyincreasing education(withmixed sexes)is increasingtension among the young. They do not know how to behave. Even religious faith is weakening. We observed that those who are educated are more prone to the †̃¿ cry for help' (68 per cent). They appear to be vulnerable to theconflict betweenoldand new cultures,whereas simple people,especiallythose outside big cities, are more satisfied and content. The strong faith and cohesion of the traditional society are stabilizing factors. Another stress is the new law of compulsory educationfor thosebetween 6 and 45 years of age, which has brought to notice those who cannotcope withthedemands ofschooling. The sick role can exempt from education on medical grounds.


We attempt to make sense of ongoing gender disparities in the upper ranks of organizations by examining gender bias in leaders' assessments of managers' derailment potential. In a large managerial sample (Study 1: N∼12,500), we found that ineffective interpersonal behaviors were slightly less frequent among female managers, but slightly more damaging to women than men when present. Evidence of bias was not found in performance evaluations, but emerged when leaders were asked about derailment potential in the future. We replicated this pattern of effects in a second large managerial sample (Study 2: N∼35,500) and in two experimental studies (Studies 3 and 4) in which gender and interpersonal behaviors were manipulated. In Study 4, we also showed that when supervisors believe that a manager might derail in the future, they tend to withdraw mentoring support and sponsorship, which are especially critical for women's career advancement. Our research highlights the importance of leaders' perceptions of derailment potential—which differ from evaluations of performance or promotability—both because they appear to be subject to stereotype-based gender bias, and because they have important implications for the mentoring and sponsorship that male and female managers receive.

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2015 The presence of water on Earth has played important roles in shaping the solid regions of the planet as well as in the origin and evolution of life. This paper addresses three fundamental aspects of Earth's water; (1) the quantity of water on the surface and in the interior that Earth possesses, (2) the length of time that surface oceans have been present, and (3) the mechanism(s) by which this water was supplied or generated. From geochemical and geophysical analysis, and high-pressure experimental works, the water content in the Earth's mantle can be estimated to be from one to ten times the present ocean mass. Although it is difficult to estimate the water content in the Earth's core, recent high-pressure experimental work indicates copious amounts of hydrogen in the core. From geological and geochemical evidence, the Earth's surface oceans appear to have existed since very early in the Earth's history, perhaps even since the Earth's formation. However, changes in the ocean volume throughout the Earth's history have not been well determined. Several possible water sources and supply mechanisms have been proposed, in association with theories regarding planet formation in our solar system. Since there are several uncertainties concerning the process of planet formation, the origin of the Earth's water is still in question.


Background: Aldehyde-deformylating oxygenase (ADO) is a non-heme di-iron enzyme that catalyzes deformylation of aldehydes to generate alkanes/alkenes. In this study, we report for the first time that under anaerobic or limited oxygen conditions, Prochlorococcus marinus (PmADO) can generate full-length fatty alcohols from fatty aldehydes without eliminating a carbon unit. Results: Unlike the native activity of ADO which requires electrons from the Fd/FNR electron transfer complex, the aldehyde reduction activity of ADO requires only NADPH. Our results demonstrated that yield of alcohol products can be affected by oxygen concentration and type of aldehyde. Under O2-scant conditions (10-15%), yields of octanol and dodecanol were around 40-60% and could be increased up to 80% under strict anaerobic conditions (>0.0004%). Unexpectedly, Fe2+ cofactor is not involved in the aldehyde reductase activity of PmADO because yields of alcohols obtained from holo- and apo-enzymes were similar under anaerobic conditions. The direct hydride transfer activity of PmADO is highly specific to substrates; NADPH not NADH can be used as a reductant to reduce medium-chain fatty aldehydes (C6-C10) with decanal as the most preferred substrate (the highest kcat/Km value with 98% bioconversion yield). Molecular dynamics (MD) simulations was used to identify a binding site of NADPH which is located close to the aldehyde binding site. In the metabolic engineered cells containing PmADO, dual activities of alkane and alcohol production could be detected. Conclusion: The findings reported herein highlight a new activity of PmADO which may be applied as a biocatalyst for industrial synthesis of fatty alcohols in the future.


Video-based crowd behaviour analysis techniques aim at tackling challenging problems such as detecting abnormal crowd behaviours and tracking specific individuals from complex real life scenes. In this paper, an innovative spatio-temporal texture-based crowd modelling technique and its corresponding pattern analysis methods have been introduced. Through extracting and integrating those crowd textures from live or recorded videos, the so-called homogeneous random features have been deployed in the research for behavioural template matching. Experiment results have shown that the abnormality appearing in crowd scenes can be effectively and efficiently identified by using the devised methods. This new approach is envisaged to facilitate a wide spectrum of crowd analysis applications in the future through laying a solid theoretical foundation and implementation strategy for automating existing Closed-Circuit Television (CCTV)-based surveillance systems.


Approximately one-quarter of civil war peace agreements contain some reference to gender, prompting the question of whether or not gender provisions within peace agreements are effective tools for improving women's rights following conflict. As calls by the United Nations and the international community place increasing emphasis on women's involvement in peace processes, this article generates insight into whether peace agreements, a key component of peace processes, help to spur greater political rights for women. The theoretical expectations of the article posit that peace agreements generate legal frameworks for post-conflict states. Specifically, peace agreements have the potential to tie actors' hands to new policies and generate shifts in societal norms and practices; the direction of new policies and practices, however, is dependent on the contents of agreements. When agreements are gender-inclusive, they increase the likelihood of improvements in women's political rights. The expectations are quantitatively tested using civil war peace agreements signed between 1981 and 2011. The findings indicate that the content of agreements matters; gender-inclusive agreements lay the foundations for improvements in women's political rights following conflict. The article demonstrates that peace agreements, when crafted to include gender provisions, are meaningful tools that international and domestic actors can harness to strengthen women's rights after civil war.


We carried out a study on elderly people (70 +/- 2,2 years old) operated on as an acute occlusion of the femoral artery at its different anatomical levels. In those people, development of oxidative stress has been shown in injured lower extremity in the process of restoring of circulation. Marked increase in catalase activity in the blood gives evidence for work of the anti-oxidative defence system with tense. We determined an increase in aspartataminotransferase, alaninaminotransferase and creatininkinase in ischemia/reperfusion which are widely used to identify injures in muscular tissues. It has been shown that NO(2-) content in the blood at reperfusion depended on the level of nitrites and the duration ofischemia. Significant changes in NO metabolite content in the blood of the patients suffering from acute occlusion injures of the arteries in the lower extremities could be related with endothelial dysfunction.


Results of the analysis of the increase in the incidence of epidemic of the West Nile fever and climate conditions in the Volgograd region were presented. Certain seasonal periods and threshold values of temperature and humidity statistically associated with the epidemic rise were identified. The discussion of the probable mechanisms of indirect effects of atmospheric heat on the elements of the epidemic process was carried out.


Increasing numbers of cohort studies have reported that long-term exposure to ambient particulate matter is associated with mortality. However, there has been little evidence from Asian countries. We aimed to explore the association between long-term exposure to particulate matter with a diameter ≤10 µm (PM10) and mortality in South Korea, using a nationwide population-based cohort and an improved exposure assessment (EA) incorporating time-varying concentrations and residential addresses (EA1). We also compared the association across different EA approaches. We used information from 275,337 people who underwent health screening from 2002 to 2006 and who had follow-up data for 12 years in the National Health Insurance Service-National Sample Cohort. Individual exposures were computed as 5-year averages using predicted residential district-specific annual-average PM10 concentrations for 2002–2006. We estimated hazard ratios (HRs) of non-accidental and five cause-specific mortalities per 10 µg/m3 increase in PM10 using the Cox proportional hazards model. Then, we compared the association of EA1 with three other approaches based on time-varying concentrations and/or addresses: predictions in each year and addresses at baseline (EA2); predictions at baseline and addresses in each year (EA3); and predictions and addresses at baseline (EA4). We found a marginal association between long-term PM10 and non-accidental mortality. The HRs of five cause-specific mortalities were mostly higher than that of non-accidental mortality, but statistically insignificant. In the comparison between EA approaches, the HRs of EA1 were similar to those of EA2 but higher than EA3 and EA4. Our findings confirmed the association between long-term exposure to PM10 and mortality based on a population-representative cohort in South Korea, and suggested the importance of assessing individual exposure incorporating air pollution changes over time.


For the additive white Gaussian noise channel, we consider the problem of frame synchronization for coded systems. We present an algorithm that takes advantage of soft information provided by a soft decoder to produce an enhanced estimate of the frame boundary. To reduce complexity, a companion algorithm is introduced that is a hybrid of the optimal uncoded frame synchronizer introduced by Massey and the list synchronizer introduced by Robertson. The high-complexity coded maximum-likelihood frame synchronizer used by Robertson will accordingly be replaced by our algorithm, which operates on decoder-provided soft decisions. The algorithm begins by obtaining a list of high-probability starting positions via the log-likelihood function of the optimal uncoded frame synchronizer. Then, a test /spl delta/ is used to decide if the decision of the optimal uncoded frame synchronizer is sufficient, or whether list synchronization is required. If the test chooses in favor of using the optimal uncoded synchronizer, the estimate is obtained with relative ease. Otherwise, list synchronization is performed, and statistics provided by the decoder are used to resolve the frame boundary. Monte Carlo simulations demonstrate that the frame-synchronization-error rate (the probability of the synchronizer making an error) achieves the lower bound for signal-to-noise ratio values exceeding 1 dB.


Our understanding of protein and lipid trafficking in eukaryotic cells has been challenged by the finding of different forms of compartmentalization and cargo processing in protozoan parasites. Here, we show that, in the absence of a Golgi compartment in Giardia, proteins destined for secretion are directly sorted and packaged at specialized ER regions enriched in COPII coatomer complexes and ceramide. We also demonstrated that ER‐resident proteins are retained at the ER by the action of a KDEL receptor, which, in contrast to other eukaryotic KDEL receptors, showed no interorganellar dynamic but instead acts specifically at the limit of the ER membrane. Our study suggests that the ER‐exit sites and the perinuclear ER‐membranes are capable of performing protein‐sorting functions. In our view, the description presented here suggests that Giardia adaptation represents an extreme example of reductive evolution without loss of function.


Sclerosing stromal ovarian tumor is an extremely rare neoplasm occurring predominantly in the second and third decades of life. It presents most often with non-specific symptoms. We describe a new case occurring in a young woman presenting with infertility and irregular menses. Ultrasound examination showed a left heterogenous ovarian mass without focal calcifications. Histological features included a pseudolobular pattern with focal areas of sclerosis, prominent vascularity and a two-cell population of spindled and polygonal cells. Immunohistochemical analysis for actin, vimentin, laminin, vascular epidermal growth factor (VEGF), oestrogen and progesterone receptors using formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded materials showed predominant positivity for a-smooth muscle actin and consistent positivity for laminin and vimentin. The epidermal VEGF demonstrated rich tumor vascularity. Oestrogen and progesterone receptors were not expressed. suggesting hormonally independent development. Menstrual cycle disturbances, however, were corrected following extirpation of the tumor, indicating some endocrine involvement. In addition, the patient became pregnant ten months after the operation. The differential diagnosis is discussed.