Abstract. Managing the crisis caused by natural disasters, and especially by floods, requires the development of effective evacuation systems. An effective evacuation system must take into account certain constraints, including those related to traffic network, accessibility, human resources and material equipment (vehicles, collecting points, etc.). The main objective of this work is to provide assistance to technical services and rescue forces in terms of accessibility by offering itineraries relating to rescue and evacuation of people and property. We consider in this paper the evacuation of an urban area of medium size exposed to the hazard of flood. In case of inundation, most people will be evacuated using their own vehicles. Two evacuation types are addressed in this paper: (1) a preventive evacuation based on a flood forecasting system and (2) an evacuation during the disaster based on flooding scenarios. The two study sites on which the developed evacuation model is applied are the Tours valley (Fr, 37), which is protected by a set of dikes (preventive evacuation), and the Gien valley (Fr, 45), which benefits from a low rate of flooding (evacuation before and during the disaster). Our goal is to construct, for each of these two sites, a chronological evacuation plan, i.e., computing for each individual the departure date and the path to reach the assembly point (also called shelter) according to a priority list established for this purpose. The evacuation plan must avoid the congestion on the road network. Here we present a spatiotemporal optimization model (STOM) dedicated to the evacuation of the population exposed to natural disasters and more specifically to flood risk.


PURPOSE
To investigate the specific role of very late antigen-1 (VLA-1; also known as integrin α1β1) in corneal inflammatory lymphangiogenesis in vivo and lymphatic endothelial cell functions in vitro.

METHODS
A standard suture-induced corneal inflammatory lymphangiogenesis model was used in normal adult BALB/c mice to test the effect of systemic administration of VLA-1-neutralizing antibody on lymphatic formation and macrophage infiltration in vivo. Additionally, a human lymphatic endothelial cell culture system was used to examine the effect of VLA-1 gene depletion on lymphatic endothelial cell functions in vitro using small interfering RNAs.

RESULTS
These data demonstrated, for the first time, that VLA-1 blockade significantly suppressed corneal lymphangiogenesis and macrophage infiltration during inflammation. Moreover, VLA-1 gene depletion led to a marked inhibition of lymphatic endothelial cell processes of adhesion, proliferation, and capillary tube formation.

CONCLUSIONS
These novel findings together indicate that VLA-1 is critically involved in the processes of lymphangiogenesis. Further investigation on this factor may provide novel therapies for corneal inflammation, transplant rejection, and other lymphatic-related disorders in the body.


In Food and Agriculture in Ethiopia: Progress and Policy Challenges, Paul Dorosh and Shahidur Rashid, along with other experts, tell the story of Ethiopia's political, economic, and agricultural transformation. The book is designed to provide empirical evidence to shed light on the complexities of agricultural and food policy in today's Ethiopia, highlight major policies and interventions of the past decade, and provide insights into building resilience to natural disasters and food crises. It examines the key issues, constraints, and opportunities that are likely to shape a food-secure future in Ethiopia, focusing on land quality, crop production, adoption of high-quality seed and fertilizer, and household income.


Filtering of external unwanted RF-noise and thermal noise generated at the high-temperature parts of the measuring circuit is essential for successful measurements of thermal transport of nanostructures at low temperatures. This is because of thermal decoupling of the systems, i.e. the extreme weakness of thermal conduction at sub-Kelvin temperatures, leading easily to overheating even with excess power in sub pW range. We have started to improve the noise filtering in our cryogenic dilution refrigerators, which can reach a base temperature of ~ 50 mK. The miniature low-pass filters were made from special RF sealing compound Eccosorb CR124, stainless steel powder of grain size 50 μm and a typical low-temperature epoxy (Stycast). Measured cut-off frequency is at 1 MHz, low enough to cut most of the radiated RF power.


Ongoing research into geothermal energy sources in Greece has indicated various high enthalpy reservoirs that have not yet been exploited, although the Aegean Sea volcanic arc has proven to be of great potential. Nevertheless, the recent roadmap for the utilization of renewable resources suggests that within next decade, geothermal energy will provide 630 GWh of electric power annually. The development of the Milos field by 2025 is ongoing. Clearly, the need for expertise on the setup and utilization of geothermal numerical reservoir simulation models is major. In this work, we examine the capabilities of the two main options—distributed and lumped parameter models—for the mathematical description and optimization of geothermal energy fields. We investigate their applicability to the high enthalpy fields in Greece by treating history matching and energy extraction optimization. Additionally, we examine their contribution to field management aiming at minimizing the operating cost and environmental effects as well as ensuring sustainable energy production.


Objective: To determine the prevalence and clinical and genetic characteristics of patients with X-linked Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease (CMT) due to mutations in noncoding regions of the gap junction β-1 gene (GJB1). Methods: Mutations were identified by bidirectional Sanger sequence analysis of the 595 bases of the upstream promoter region, and 25 bases of the 3′ untranslated region (UTR) sequence in patients in whom mutations in the coding region had been excluded. Clinical and neurophysiologic data were retrospectively collected. Results: Five mutations were detected in 25 individuals from 10 kindreds representing 11.4% of all cases of CMTX1 diagnosed in our neurogenetics laboratory between 1996 and 2016. Four pathogenic mutations, c.-17G>A, c.-17+1G>T, c.-103C>T, and c.-146-90_146-89insT were detected in the 5′UTR. A novel mutation, c.*15C>T, was detected in the 3′ UTR of GJB1 in 2 unrelated families with CMTX1 and is the first pathogenic mutation in the 3′UTR of any myelin-associated CMT gene. Mutations segregated with the phenotype, were at sites predicted to be pathogenic, and were not present in the normal population. Conclusions: Mutations in noncoding DNA are a major cause of CMTX1 and highlight the importance of mutations in noncoding DNA in human disease. Next-generation sequencing platforms for use in inherited neuropathy should therefore include coverage of these regions.


We present in this paper the model capture module of an industrial process control studio development tool dedicated to industrial control and process automation. It is through this module that the user is given an avenue to capture or model relevant abstract control problems for rapid prototyping on programmable logic controllers (PLCs) as well as embedded microprocessor systems or even FPGA-based controllers. The model capture tool is a reconfigurable IDE (integrated development environment) that can be used to model a control application using one of the five different PLC programming languages (ladder diagram, sequential function chart, function logic block, structured text, and instruction list) defined by the IEC 61131-3 standard


The Italian Heritage and Landscape Code that has been in effect since2004 is based on a notion of «conservation» of heritage as an historical and critical judgement and philological consideration of its constitutive elements, which became complex and ramified in the 20th century. However, this is insufficient to generate concrete and positive effects, given the contradictions between Italian and European laws governing public works contracts, public accounts, competition, and the failure to harmonise all of the foregoing with the Code. The result is that usually the last and isolated interpreter is the individual technical-scientific expert at the Fine Arts Service, who must take decisions on such a discretionary basis that they become arbitrary. In practice, the current laws and regulations in Italy governing public works contract procedures are still too detailed, while no genuine system of protection supported by an organic technical-scientific approach exists. Furthermore, most laws and regulations address «big projects» but not planned preventive maintenance of heritage throughout Italy. There are still no consistent guidelines for training specialists (in the public and private sectors) or adequate organisation of protection and improvement services. In order to escape from this vicious circle, technical measures should be implemented as soon as possible for maintenance plans and the relations between heritage and the environment (pursuant to Article 117 of the Italian Constitution), instead of adding new legal obligations to the superabundance of those that already exist. This too is envisaged in the Heritage and Landscape Code.


Dr. Turner: A 78-year-old woman fell in her home, experiencing sudden and severe pain in the right hip. She arrived by ambulance at the Massachusetts General Hospital approximately two hours after her fall. Physical examination showed the right leg to be held in external rotation of 80° and to be shortened 1 1/2 inches. There was pain on any attempted motion of the right hip, which obviously was broken. General physical examination showed a blood pressure of 160/85 mm Hg. and there was a grade 1 systolic aortic murmur consistent with minimal arteriosclerotic cardiovascular disease. The lungs, abdomen, and extremities were normal except for the mentioned deformity in the right leg. X-ray films revealed a fracture of the right hip with four-fragment comminution (Fig 1). The femoral head and neck were a single fragment with a long medial spike. The lesser and the greater trochanter were both separate and completely


In recent times the presence of vision and robotic systems in industry has become common place, but in spite of many achievements a large range of industrial tasks still remain unsolved due to the lack of flexibility of the vision systems when dealing with highly adaptive manufacturing environments. An important task found across a broad range of modern flexible manufacturing environments is the need to present parts to automated machinery from a supply bin. In order to carry out grasping and manipulation operations safely and efficiently we need to know the identity, location and spatial orientation of the objects that lie in an unstructured heap in a bin. Historically, the bin picking problem was tackled using mechanical vibratory feeders where the vision feedback was unavailable. This solution has certain problems with parts jamming and more important they are highly dedicated. In this regard if a change in the manufacturing process is required, the changeover may include an extensive re-tooling and a total revision of the system control strategy (Kelley et al., 1982). Due to these disadvantages modern bin picking systems perform grasping and manipulation operations using vision feedback (Yoshimi & Allen, 1994). Vision based robotic bin picking has been the subject of research since the introduction of the automated vision controlled processes in industry and a review of existing systems indicates that none of the proposed solutions were able to solve this classic vision problem in its generality. One of the main challenges facing such a bin picking system is its ability to deal with overlapping objects. The object recognition in cluttered scenes is the main objective of these systems and early approaches attempted to perform bin picking operations for similar objects that are jumbled together in an unstructured heap using no knowledge about the pose or geometry of the parts (Birk et al., 1981). While these assumptions may be acceptable for a restricted number of applications, in most practical cases a flexible system must deal with more than one type of object with a wide scale of shapes.

A flexible bin picking system has to address three difficult problems: scene interpretation, object recognition and pose estimation. Initial approaches to these tasks were based on modeling parts using the 2D surface representations. Typical 2D representations include invariant shape descriptors (Zisserman et al., 1994), algebraic curves (Tarel & Cooper, 2000), 2 Name of the book (Header position 1,5) conics (Bolles & Horaud, 1986; Forsyth et al., 1991) and appearance based models (Murase & Nayar, 1995; Ohba & Ikeuchi, 1997). These systems are generally better suited to planar object recognition and they are not able to deal with severe viewpoint distortions or objects with complex shapes/textures. Also the spatial orientation cannot be robustly estimated for objects with free-form contours. To address this limitation most bin picking systems attempt to recognize the scene objects and estimate their spatial orientation using the 3D information (Fan et al., 1989; Faugeras & Hebert, 1986). Notable approaches include the use of 3D local descriptors (Ansar & Daniilidis, 2003; Campbell & Flynn, 2001; Kim & Kak, 1991), polyhedra (Rothwell & Stern, 1996), generalized cylinders (Ponce et al., 1989; Zerroug & Nevatia, 1996), super-quadrics (Blane et al., 2000) and visual learning methods (Johnson & Hebert, 1999; Mittrapiyanuruk et al., 2004). The most difficult problem for 3D bin picking systems that are based on a structural description of the objects (local descriptors or 3D primitives) is the complex procedure required to perform the scene to model feature matching. This procedure is usually based on complex graph-searching techniques and is increasingly more difficult when dealing with object occlusions, a situation when the structural description of the scene objects is incomplete. Visual learning methods based on eigenimage analysis have been proposed as an alternative solution to address the object recognition and pose estimation for objects with complex appearances. In this regard, Johnson and Hebert (Johnson & Hebert, 1999) developed an object recognition scheme that is able to identify multiple 3D objects in scenes affected by clutter and occlusion. They proposed an eigenimage analysis approach that is applied to match surface points using the spin image representation. The main attraction of this approach resides in the use of spin images that are local surface descriptors; hence they can be easily identified in real scenes that contain clutter and occlusions. This approach returns accurate results but the pose estimation cannot be inferred, as the spin images are local descriptors and they are not robust to capture the object orientation. In general the pose sampling for visual learning methods is a problem difficult to solve as the numbers of views required to sample the full 6 degree of freedom for object pose is prohibitive. This issue was addressed in the paper by Edwards (Edwards, 1996) when he applied eigenimage analysis to a one-object scene and his approach was able to estimate the pose only in cases where the tilt angle was limited to 30 degrees with respect to the optical axis of the sensor.

In this chapter we describe the implementation of a vision sensor for robotic bin picking where we attempt to eliminate the main problem faced by the visual learning methods, namely the pose sampling problem. This paper is organized as follows. Section 2 outlines the overall system. Section 3 describes the implementation of the range sensor while Section 4 details the edge-based segmentation algorithm. Section 5 presents the viewpoint correction algorithm that is applied to align the detected object surfaces perpendicular on the optical axis of the sensor. Section 6 describes the object recognition algorithm. This is followed in Section 7 by an outline of the pose estimation algorithm. Section 8 presents a number of experimental results illustrating the benefits of the approach outlined in this chapter.


This study was conducted on femur, tibiotarsus and fibula from six adult local hill fowl of Uttarakhand. The femur of the local hill fowl was a long cylindrical bone consisted of a shaft and two extremities. The shaft was curved and twisted in appearance. The proximal extremity had spherical head separated from shaft by neck. The trochanter minor was indistinct. The distal extremity hadposteriorly medial and lateral condyles and anteriorly trochlea. The tibiotarsus was the longest bone among the leg bones. The shaft was anteriorly curved in its proximal half and posteriorly curved in its distal half. The fibular crest was well developed and on posterior-lateral aspect of it'smid-shaft very small nutrient foramen was observed. The cnemial crest was originates from cranial border of transverse ridge and extended ventro-medially. The distal extremity showed large medial and small lateral condyles separated by the deep intercondylerfossa. The fibula was a reduced long bone with distinct head and rudimentary shaft. The shaft of fibula extended up to the distal one third of the shaft of tibiotarsus.


The activated B-cell (ABC) type of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is clinically more aggressive than the germinal center (GCB) type. The gene expression profile of ABC DLBCL resembles that of mature B cells upon stimulation via their B-cell receptor (BCR). In up to 30% of ABC DLBCL cases, this signature can be explained by gain-of-function mutations in CD79A, CD79B, or CARD11. Antigen-independent, constitutively active (BCR) signaling is a general oncogenic mechanism of CLL (Duhren-von Minden, Nature 2012). We hypothesized that autonomous BCR signaling akin to CLL may operate in ABC DLBCL and could explain the characteristic ABC gene expression signature. BCR transcripts were identified from fresh-frozen biopsies from 12 histologically confirmed, IgM-expressing DLBCL by ARTISAN PCR, a novel anchored RT-PCR for unbiased amplification of BCR transcripts facilitated by template switching. Clonal full-length BCR sequences were identified by PacBio next-generation sequencing. Triple KO (TKO) cells were transduced with functional DLBCL BCR. TKO cells are arrested at the pre-B-cell stage due to lack of the rag2 and lambda5 genes. In addition, TKO cells have their wild-type SLP65 adaptor replaced with a tamoxifen-dependent SLP65. When transduced with expression constructs encoding a functional BCR, autonomous or antigen-induced BCR signalling can be measured as calcium flux upon induction with tamoxifen. TKO cells transduced with seven of the twelve DLBCL BCR (58%) showed robust calcium flux and proliferation upon activation of SLP65 by tamoxifen without additional BCR crosslinking. By histomorphology and immunohistochemistry for CD10, PAX5, MUM1, and Bcl-6, these cases were classified as non-GCB-type DLBCL, including one primary CNS DLBCL and two primary mediastinal (PM-)DLBCL. In accordance with our hypothesis, BCR from three DLBCL classified as GCB lacked an autonomous BCR signal. The remaining two negative cases were non-GCB-type and are currently being analyzed for activating CD79/CARD11 mutations. To further explore the detection of autonomous BCR signaling in DLBCL, PM-DLBCL and ABC DLBCL cell lines were tested in vitro by comparing calcium flux with and without blockade of Syk signaling by the tyrosine kinase inhibitor R406. All four PM-DLBCL and two of five ABC DLBCL cell lines had higher calcium flux in the absence of R406, indicating autonomous signaling activity without antigenic stimulation or artificial BCR crosslinking. In summary, we demonstrate autonomous BCR activity in a substantial fraction (72%) of non-GCB DLBCL (including PM-DLBCL). These results point to an oncogenic role of structurally normal BCR in non-GCB DLBCL akin to CLL. Autonomous BCR signaling is a candidate alternative mechanism to the previously described activating mutations of components of the BCR signaling cascade to induce the characteristic gene expression signature of ABC DLBCL. Formal delineation of autonomous BCR signalling to activating mutations in the BCR signalling cascade is ongoing. Citation Format: Marvyn T. Koning, Rudolf Ubelhart, Arjen H.G. Cleven, Willem H. Zoutman, Sander A.J. van der Zeeuw, Philip Kluin, Marieke Griffioen, Hans G. Drexler, Cornelis P. Tensen, Maarten H. Vermeer, Rein Willemze, Szymon M. Kielbasa, Marcelo A. Navarrete, Hassan Jumaa, Hendrik Veelken. Autonomous, antigen-independent B-cell receptor signalling as a novel pathogenetic mechanism in non-GCB DLBCL. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-012.


While numerous theoretical population genetic models predict that mating assortatively by genetic 'quality' will enhance the efficiency of purging of deleterious mutations and/or the spread of beneficial alleles in the gene pool, empirical examples of assortative mating by quality are surprisingly rare and often inconclusive. Here, we set out to examine whether fruit flies (Drosophila melanogaster) engage in assortative mating by body-size phenotype, a composite trait strongly associated with both reproductive success and survival, and is considered a reliable indicator of natural genetic quality. Male and female flies of different body-size classes (large and small) were obtained under typical culture conditions which allows us to use standing variation of body size without involving artificial nutritional manipulation, so that their interactions and mating patterns could be measured. While flies did not exhibit assortative courtship behaviour, when patterns of offspring production were analyzed, it was found that individuals produced more offspring with partners of similar quality/body size, resulting in a positive correlation in fitness between mates. Subsequent assays of offspring fitness indicated that assortative mating produced sons and daughters that had greater or equal reproductive success than those produced from disassortative mating. Together, these results validate theoretical predictions that assortative mating sexual selection can enhance the effects of natural selection and consequently the rate of adaptive evolution.


Asymmetry is a difference in the sizes of bilaterally paired structures. From 41 corpses of urban rock pigeons Columba livia domestica, 10 linear measurements were obtained: body length, tail length, both sides of the length of the second primary (P2), both sides of the length of most external rectrices (R12), both sides of wing length, and both sides of tarsus diameter. Paired structures (length of P2, R12, and wing and diameter of tarsus) were compared in order to obtain values of asymmetries. Left directional asymmetry occurred in P2 and R12. As this asymmetry can have effects on flight parameters, animals with asymmetry were supposed to be less well-fitted animals, but our results suggest that this pattern of asymmetry in this species of low sexual dimorphism may often be better understood in the context of artificial (culling) rather than sexual selection.


The hepatopulmonary syndrome (HPS) is present in 15–20% of patients with cirrhosis undergoing orthotopic liver transplantation (OLT) evaluation. Both preoperative and post‐OLT mortality is increased in HPS patients particularly when hypoxemia is severe. Screening for HPS could enhance detection of OLT candidates with sufficient hypoxemia to merit higher priority for transplant and thereby decrease mortality. However, the cost‐effectiveness of such an approach has not been assessed. Our objective was to perform a cost‐effectiveness analysis from a third‐party payer's perspective of screening for HPS in liver OLT candidates. The costs and outcomes of 3 different strategies were compared: (1) no screening, (2) screening patients with a validated dyspnea questionnaire, and (3) screening all patients with pulse oximetry. Arterial blood gas analyses and contrast echocardiography were performed in patients with dyspnea or a pulse oximetry (SpO2) ≤97% to define the presence of HPS. A Markov model was constructed simulating the natural history of cirrhosis in a cohort of patients 50 years old over a time horizon of their remaining life expectancy. Transition probabilities were obtained from published data available through Medline and U.S. vital statistics. Costs represented Medicare reimbursement data at our institution. Costs and health effects were discounted at a 3% annual rate. No screening was associated with a total cost of $291,898 and a life expectancy of 11.131 years. Screening with pulse oximetry was associated with a cost of $299,719 and a life expectancy of 12.27 years. Screening patients with the dyspnea‐fatigue index was associated with a cost and life expectancy of $300,278 and 12.28 years, respectively. The incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio of screening with pulse oximetry (compared to no screening) was $6,867 per life year gained, whereas that of the dyspnea‐fatigue index (compared to pulse oximetry) was $55,900 per life year gained. The cost‐effectiveness of screening depended on the prevalence and severity of HPS, and the choice of screening strategy was dependent on the sensitivity of the screening modality. In conclusion, screening for HPS, especially with pulse oximetry, is a cost‐effective strategy that improves survival in transplant candidates predominantly by targeting the transplant to the subgroup of patients most likely to benefit. The utility of screening depends on the prevalence and severity of HPS in the target population. Liver Transpl, 2006. © 2006 AASLD.


Human activities lead more and more to the disturbance of plant and animal communities with local extinctions as a consequence. While these negative effects are clearly visible at a local scale, it is less clear how such local patch extinctions affect regional processes, such as metacommunity dynamics and the distribution of diversity in space. Since local extinctions may not be isolated events in space but rather cluster together, it is crucial to investigate their effects in a spatially explicit framework. Here, we use experimental microcosms and numerical simulations to understand the relationship between local patch extinctions and metacommunity dynamics. More specifically, we investigate the effects of the amount and spatial autocorrelation of extinctions in a full factorial design. Experimentally, we found that local patch extinctions increased inter-patch (β-) diversity by creating differences between perturbed and unperturbed patches and at the same time increased local (α-) diversity by delaying the competitive exclusion of inferior competitors. Most importantly, recolonization dynamics depended more strongly on the spatial distribution of patch extinctions than on the amount of extinctions per se. Clustered local patch extinctions reduced mixing between perturbed and unperturbed patches which led to slower recovery, lower α-diversity in unperturbed patches and higher β-diversity. Results from a metacommunity model matched the experimental observations qualitatively when the model included ranked competitive interactions, giving a hint at the underlying mechanisms. Our results highlight that local patch extinctions can increase the diversity within and between communities, that the strength of these effects depends on the spatial distribution of extinctions and that the effects of local patch extinctions can spread regionally, throughout a landscape. These findings are highly relevant for conservation and management of spatially structured communities under global change.


The prevailing discourse informing most Canadian training and labour market policy assumes a positive link between individuals' training and their labour market returns in the new knowledge economy. The primary objective of the study is to test the current rhetoric by developing a statistical model of women's job‐related training. Training participation is a complex and multi‐dimensional social phenomenon. Within the arsenal of existing statistical methods, structural equation modeling is one of the few methods with a capacity to represent complex phenomenon by simultaneously testing cause‐and‐effect hypotheses. The study uses structural equation modelling to develop, test, and evaluate a model of the determinants and rewards of women's job related training. Empirical studies of job‐related training in Canada are few. Until the recent launch of a linked, employer–employee survey, there had been a paucity of data sources that facilitate a national level analysis of job‐related training. By using this new data source, the study makes a significant contribution filling the existing gap in our understanding of the determinants of, and returns to women's training in Canada. The study confirms that women are deriving significant economic benefits from their training participation. The conclusion drawn from the national‐level patterns in Canada is that training is a crucial element in the reward structure of the labour market for women, as it plays a dual role of being both a reward in itself and a predictor of other labour market rewards.


In this work, the deposits of electroless Ni-P deposits prepared by different process were studied by means of EPMA, mirohardness tester, friction-wear instrument. The experimental results showed that the microhardness of the deposits was directly affected by the phosphorus content, which was depended on the processes of electroless. The friction-wear tests showed that the Ni-P deposits composing of less phosphorus content exhibited lower friction coefficient before and after being heat treated. The conclusion was drawn that the lower phosphorus content deposits could improve the wear resistance under the condition of both as-plated and after being heat treated Ni-P deposits. The wear behavior was typical of a pure adhesive wear mechanism for the high phosphorus content deposit at as-plated and after being heat treated at 200oC. However, for the high phosphorus content deposit after being heat treated at 400oC, the alternate friction mechanisms were emerged from adhesive wear to abrasive wear with the precipitating of hard Ni3P particles during Ni-P deposits suffering friction tests


New drugs for the inhibition of the enzyme xanthine oxidase are in development and they have to be screened before being considered for preclinical and clinical evaluation. In order to understand the mechanism of ligand binding and to identify potent xanthine oxidase inhibitors, a study involving molecular docking and virtual screening has been performed. The objective of the current study is to evaluate the xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity of flavonoids using in silico docking studies. In this perspective, flavonoids like Butein, Fisetin, Diosmetin, Tricetin, Genistein, Tricin, Vitexycarpin, Herbacetin, Biochanin, Rhamnetin, Isorhamnetin, Robinetin, Peonidin and Okanin were selected. Allopurinol, a known xanthine oxidase inhibitor was used as the standard. In silico docking studies were carried out using AutoDock 4.2, based on the Lamarckian genetic algorithm principle. The three important parameters like binding energy, inhibition constant and intermolecular energy were determined. The results showed that all the selected flavonoids showed lesser binding energy ranging between -7.86 kcal/mol to -5.40 kcal/mol when compared with that of the standard (-4.47 kcal/mol). Intermolecular energy (-9.95 kcal/mol to -7.49 kcal/mol) and inhibition constant (1.72 μM to 110.19 μM) of the ligands also coincide with the binding energy. All the selected flavonoids consist of benzopyran ring in its basic nucleus, which would have contributed to its xanthine oxidase inhibitory activity. These molecular docking analyses could lead to the further development of potent xanthine oxidase inhibitors for the prevention and treatment of gout and related inflammatory conditions.


We report the discovery and multiwavelength data analysis of the peculiar optical transient, ATLAS17aeu. This transient was identified in the sky map of the LIGO gravitational wave event GW 170104 by our ATLAS and Pan-STARRS coverage. ATLAS17aeu was discovered 23.1 hr after GW 170104 and rapidly faded over the next three nights, with a spectrum revealing a blue featureless continuum. The transient was also detected as a fading X-ray source by Swift and in the radio at 6 and 15 GHz. The gamma-ray burst GRB 170105A was detected by three satellites 19.04 hr after GW 170104 and 4.10 hr before our first optical detection. We analyze the multiwavelength fluxes in the context of the known GRB population and discuss the observed sky rates of GRBs and their afterglows. We find it statistically likely that ATLAS17aeu is an afterglow associated with GRB 170105A, with a chance coincidence ruled out at the 99% confidence or 2.6σ. A long, soft GRB within a redshift range of would be consistent with all the observed multiwavelength data. The Poisson probability of a chance occurrence of GW 170104 and ATLAS17aeu is p = 0.04. This is the probability of a chance coincidence in 2D sky location and in time. These observations indicate that ATLAS17aeu is plausibly a normal GRB afterglow at significantly higher redshift than the distance constraint for GW 170104 and therefore a chance coincidence. However, if a redshift of the faint host were to place it within the GW 170104 distance range, then physical association with GW 170104 should be considered.


Background: While international experience suggests that well-trained primary care physicians improve the quality and cost effectiveness of health care, family medicine (FM) as the discipline of the specialist primary care physician appears to not be an attractive career for medical graduates in South Africa (SA). The aim of this study was to establish final-year medical students' knowledge about FM and its relevance to the healthcare system, explore their perceptions of the discipline's relevance, and identify their specialty preference. Methods: This was a descriptive study conducted amongst final-year medical students at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (UKZN) in 2017 at the conclusion of their seven-week FM module. Data were collected using a self-administered questionnaire and results were analysed descriptively. Results: The response rate of completed questionnaires was 80.2% (157/196). Students reported limited exposure to FM in their early undergraduate years and low levels of awareness about essential public health programmes. Students showed good awareness of the six roles of family physicians (FPs), but FM was only the sixth most popular choice for specialisation. Conclusions: In general, students had favourable views concerning FM and its role in the future of healthcare delivery in SA, although their knowledge of essential health programmes was poor. The majority of students had limited interest in pursuing a career in FM. A key recommendation to address these issues is to introduce FM into the curriculum earlier, to cover the key roles of the FP, and provide teaching that highlights the relevance of FM to health system programmes.


To ensure the widespread adoption of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) processes, a complete understanding of the interactions between process variables is necessary. The process variables of beam power, beam velocity, deposition geometry, and beam diameter have been shown in prior works to have major effects on resultant melt pool and solidification characteristics, but this list is incomplete. Without accounting for part temperatures prior to deposition, unintended outcomes may result. In the current work, Ti-6Al-4V is studied in the Powder Bed Fusion (PBF) processes to gain an in-depth understanding of how part temperature interactions with other process variables affect physical properties of the process such as melt pool size and variability, part distortion, porosity, and microstructural characteristics. This research is performed through a combination of finite element modelling, single melt track experiments, full part production, and in-situ monitoring in order to gain a full understanding of the underlying relationships between part temperature and part outcomes. In the Arcam Electron Beam Melting (EBM®) process, this knowledge is used to generate a feedback control strategy to constrain prior beta grain width to remain constant while part surface temperatures are allowed to vary. In the Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) process, deposition is investigated at elevated substrate temperatures and several findings show that unintended part temperature increases can lead to undesirable consequences while prescribed part temperature changes can increase the available processing window and allow for more uniform deposition. This work also shows that both global temperature changes due to substrate heating and local temperature changes due to the choice of scan strategy can be combined into one metric: the temperature encountered by the melt pool during deposition. A combination of destructive and non-destructive characterization methods are utilized to understand and measure the changes to the melt pool and microstructural development that are seen during deposition. The feasibility of using a commercial high speed camera as a tool for thermography is characterized and the ability to discern cooling rates and thermal gradients within and surrounding the melt pool provide validation for trends in melt pool properties generated from simulations. This work provides a greater understanding of the role of part temperature during deposition and presents methodologies to account for the changes to the melt pool and resultant part due to both prescribed and unintended temperature changes during deposition.


Abstract. Inherent uncertainties in short-range quantitative precipitation forecasts (QPF) from the high-resolution, limited-area numerical weather prediction model DMI-HIRLAM (LAM) are addressed using two different approaches to creating a small ensemble of LAM simulations, with focus on prediction of extreme rainfall events over European river basins. The first ensemble type is designed to represent uncertainty in the atmospheric state of the initial condition and at the lateral LAM boundaries. The global ensemble prediction system (EPS) from ECMWF serves as host model to the LAM and provides the state perturbations, from which a small set of significant members is selected. The significance is estimated on the basis of accumulated precipitation over a target area of interest, which contains the river basin(s) under consideration. The selected members provide the initial and boundary data for the ensemble integration in the LAM. A second ensemble approach tries to address a portion of the model-inherent uncertainty responsible for errors in the forecasted precipitation field by utilising different parameterisation schemes for condensation and convection in the LAM. Three periods around historical heavy rain events that caused or contributed to disastrous river flooding in Europe are used to study the performance of the LAM ensemble designs. The three cases exhibit different dynamic and synoptic characteristics and provide an indication of the ensemble qualities in different weather situations. Precipitation analyses from the Deutsche Wetterdienst (DWD) are used as the verifying reference and a comparison of daily rainfall amounts is referred to the respective river basins of the historical cases.


We read with interest the article concerning plasma concentrations of lignocaine following thoracic paravertebral blocks in children and infants undergoing renal surgery [ 11. We agree that the assay of plasma local anaesthetic levels in both adults and children is important, before there is widespread use of this technique. We have recently completed a study of plasma levels of bupivacaine after paravertebral block. Twenty patients, undergoing thoracotomy for pneumonectomy, were given unilateral paravertebral blocks with bupivacaine 0.25% (n = 11) or bupivacaine 0.25% with adrenaline 1; 200000 (n = 9) at a dose of 1 mg.kg-'. Two separate injections were made at two levels (T, and T7) by anaesthetists experienced in the technique. No further injections were made and no infusion was given postoperatively. The two groups were comparable in height, weight, age and ASA grading. The peak plasma concentration (Cmax) taken from arterial blood ranged from 0.479-1.08 pg.ml-l (median = 0.705 pg.rn1-I) in the bupivacaine with adrenaline group and 0.267-2.39 pg.ml-' (median = 0.918 pg.rn1-I) in the bupivacaine only group. There was no significant difference between the two groups when analysed by the Mann-Whitney test. The median time to maximum concentration (Tmax) was 5 min for both groups (range 5-20). In accordance with the results of Lonnqvist [l] for lignocaine with adrenaline, plasma levels did not approach toxic levels following injection of bupivacaine with adrenaline. However, in the bupivacaine-alone group, not only was there a wider range of plasma levels, but in one patient these levels exceeded toxic concentrations. No toxic symptoms were evident. The blocks produced good operative conditions and provided effective analgesia both intraand postoperatively. They did not, however, provide complete pain relief as seen in patients undergoing renal surgery. This is likely to be due to the complex nature of thoracotomy pain [2]. Differences in age and local anaesthetic agent prevents direct comparisons between the two studies. The relative safety of paravertebral blocks in terms of local anaesthetic toxicity levels when using adrenaline-containing solutions would seem to be confirmed. Larger studies are required to clarify the effect on plasma levels of non-adrenaline containing local anaesthetic solutions.


The pathogenesis of sickle cell disease (HbSS), which has numerous complications including stroke, involves inflammation resulting in alteration of plasma inflammatory protein concentration. We investigated HbSS children with abnormal cerebral blood flow detected by trans-cranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD) who participated in multi-center stroke prevention (STOP) study, to determine if plasma inflammatory protein concentration is associated with the outcome of stroke in the STOP study. Thirty-nine plasma samples from HbSS participants with elevated TCD who had no stroke, HbSS-NS (n=13) or had stroke, HbSS-S (n=13), HbSS steady-state controls (n=7) and controls with normal hemoglobin, HbAA (n=6), were analyzed simultaneously for 27 circulating inflammatory proteins. Logistic regression and receiver operating characteristics curve analysis of stroke on plasma inflammatory mediator concentration, adjusted for age and gender, demonstrated that interleukin-1 β (IL-1 β ) was protective against stroke development (HbSS-NS = 19, 17–23, HbSS-S = 17, 16 – 19 pg/mL, median and 25th–75th percentile; Odds ratio = 0.59, C.I. = 0.36 – 0.96) and was a good predictor of stroke (area under curve = 0.852). This result demonstrates a strong association of systemic inflammation with stroke development in HbSS via moderately increased plasma IL-1 β concentration, which is furthermore associated with a decreased likelihood of stroke in HbSS.


This study uses the first time-use survey carried out in South Africa (2000) to examine women's and men's time use, with a focus on the impacts of income poverty. We empirically explore the determinants of time spent on different paid and unpaid work activities, including a variety of household and individual characteristics, using bivariate and multivariate Tobit estimations. Our results show asymmetric impacts of income poverty on women's and men's time use. Time-use patterns of South African women and men reveal the unequal burden of income poverty among household members. While being poor increases the amount of time women spend on unpaid work, we do not see any significant impact on men's unpaid work time. For example, women in poor households spend more time than men collecting water and fuel, as well as maintaining their homes.


Summary: The NAD-dependent lactate dehydrogenase of Rhizopus oryzae, like some bacterial lactate dehydrogenases, catalyses reduction of pyruvate by NADH but not the reverse reaction. It will, however, catalyse reduction of the NAD+ analogue, 3-acetylpyridine adenine dinucleotide (APAD+) by L(+)-lactate; NAD+ does not inhibit the rate of APAD+ reduction in this reaction. The relationship between pyruvate reductase activity and NADH concentration is sigmoidal with a high apparent K
m for NADH (2·9 × 10−4 M).
Enzyme level reaches a peak during early vegetative growth of the mycelium and declines rapidly before sporulation. The peak level reached is dependent on the glucose concentration of the medium, being greatest in high glucose media. When grown in media containing growth-limiting concentrations of glucose, lactate dehydrogenase activity is negligible. Transfer of such mycelia to high glucose media results in a rapid increase in the specific activity of the enzyme; this increase is prevented by cycloheximide. High levels of lactate dehydrogenase can also be induced by growing the fungus in media containing growth-limiting concentrations of zinc.


applied. Recently a Minister answered the rhetorical question whether it would not be better to teach boys the principle of an internal combustion engine rather than the elements of Latin grammar, with the bland remark that it might be hoped that a boy who had studied Latin would be able to take knowledge of the internal combustion engine in his stride. Also the historical fact that down to the end of the 18th century most fundamental scientific discoveries were made by gifted amateurs is subject to Macaulay's reply to the complaint that 19th century women knew less Latin and Greek than Lady Jane Grey. If Lady Jane Grey had not read the classics what was there for her to read? In the 18th century scientific research could be the pursuit only of wealthy amateurs or of mnen with courage to endure privations. Bliut it remains true that it is no more possible to plan or organize the work of a Newton, a de Moivre, or a Helmholtz than that of a Wordsworth or a Beethoven; that when we recognize or even suspect the existence of original power in scientific research, nothing should be done to divert the inquirer from the train of thought or work to which his curiosity attracts hiin.,.A great palaeobotanist or pure mathematician contributes ijiare& tpo the stock of humanity than a second-rate engineer. The medical profession recognized this more than a generation ago. Men still living remember the time when the teaching of what are now called the fundamental sciences was mainly technological. Now the laboratories of medical schools contribute as actively to the output of "pure " research as those in which no medical students at all are taught. Nogreat change is a wholly unmixed benefit; some, may hold that the movement has gone too far; but all would agree that the good has predominated over the evil. Prof. Tansley remarks that the statement "curiosity is a sublimation of the desire for power " is "just psychological nonsense." Curiosity is a primary instinct and tends in common speech to be depreciated because of the, secondary meaning"inquisitiveness in reference to trifles or matters 'which do not concern one." There lies the danger. It is so very easy for, the eminent A to believe that hiv. curiosity is of service to ',humanity while B's curiosity is. mere inquisitiveness, and so we reach.within the, circle of science that childish arrogance which inspired the Minister's remark concerning Latin mentionq,dbove.. Our profession will be alive toQthe danger.


A general analytical model, formulated in 2-D polar coordinates, is developed to predict the unbalanced magnetic force, which results in permanent-magnet brushless ac and dc machines having a diametrically asymmetric disposition of slots and phase windings. It is shown that the unbalanced magnetic force can be significant in machines having a fractional ratio of slot number to pole number, particularly when the electric loading is high. The developed model is validated by finite-element calculations on 9-slot/8-pole and 3-slot/2-pole machines. In addition, the unbalanced magnetic force has been measured on a prototype 3-slot/2-pole machine and shown to be in excellent agreement with predicted results.


We previously identified PSMD2, a subunit of the 19S regulatory complex of proteasomes, as a constituent of a signature associated with the acquisition of metastatic phenotype and poor prognosis in lung cancers. In the present study, we found that knockdown of PSMD2 decreased proteasome activity, and induced growth inhibition and apoptosis in lung cancer cell lines. These effects of siRNA‐mediated PSMD2 inhibition were associated with changes in the balance between phosphorylated AKT and p38, as well as with induction of p21. In addition, patients with higher PSMD2 expression had poorer prognosis and a small fraction of lung cancer specimens carried increased copies of PSMD2. Notably, our findings clearly illustrate that lung adenocarcinomas can be divided into two groups; those with and without general upregulation of proteasome pathway genes including PSMD2. This general upregulation was significantly more prevalent in the non‐terminal respiratory unit (non‐TRU)‐type, a recently proposed genetically and clinicopathologically relevant expression profile‐defined classification of adenocarcinomas (P < 0.001 by Fisher's exact test). Patients with adenocarcinomas with general upregulation had significantly shorter survival after potentially curative resection (P = 0.0001 by log‐rank test) independent of disease stage, as shown by multivariate Cox regression analysis. Our results suggest that PSMD2 may be a good molecular target candidate and that other co‐regulated proteasome pathway genes and/or their common regulator(s) might also be potential targets, warranting future study including elucidation of the underlying common regulatory mechanism. © 2011 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) has experienced an increased use in acute cardiac failure. There are some reports on negative effects of VA-ECMO on cardiac function, such as left ventricular (LV) dilatation and cardiac stun, but the support in the literature is scarce. This study investigates the effects of experimental VA-ECMO on LV function in both peripheral and central cannulation. Ten pigs were randomized to VA-ECMO by either peripheral cannulation through the femoral vessels or central cannulation in the right atrium and ascending aorta. Left ventricular performance was measured with pressure-volume catheters during 5 hours of VA-ECMO. The LV end-diastolic and end-systolic volumes increased comparably in both groups during ECMO. Left ventricular ejection fraction, stroke work, and maximum rate of pressure change decreased comparably in both groups as a function of time on ECMO. The site of cannulation had no impact on the LV response to ECMO. In conclusion, VA-ECMO increased LV volumes and reduced LV function, irrespective of cannulation site in this experimental model. Reduced LV ejection fraction and stroke work indicated LV dysfunction during ECMO.


Essential oils are aromatic and volatile liquids extracted from plants. Essential oils and their labile constituents have been widely used to prevent and treat human diseases. They have been widely used for medicinal, bacterial, fungicidal, antioxidant, allelochemical, cosmeceutical, and pharmaceutical, agricultural, and food industries. Extensive documentation on the antimicrobial properties of essential oils and their constituents has been carried out by several workers. Although the mechanism of action of a few essential oil components has been elucidated in many pioneering works in the past, detailed knowledge of most of the compounds and their mechanism of action is still lacking. This knowledge is particularly important for the determination of the effect of essential oils on different microorganisms, how they work in combination with other antimicrobial compounds, in cosmetic products; essential oils (EOs) play a major role as fragrance ingredients. They can optimize its proprieties and preservation, as well as the marketing image of the final product. Microencapsulation of EOs can protect and prevent the loss of volatile aromatic ingredients and improve the controlled release and stability of these core materials. The importance of EOs for cosmetic industry and its microencapsulation was reviewed in this study. Also, a brief introduction about the preparation of microparticles was presented. Some of the most important and usual microencapsulation techniques of EOs, as well as the conventional encapsulating agents, were discussed.


Carinata is a new biofuel crop that was recently introduced in the southeastern USA as a winter crop. This crop is competitive after canopy closure, but there is a need for weed control options at earlier growth stages. Field experiments were conducted from 2014 to 2016 to determine the safety of several PRE and POST herbicides in carinata. Pendimethalin at 1080 g ai ha-1 applied preplant incorporated (PPI) and PRE caused no carinata injury, or plant density and yield reductions. S-metolachlor was also safe at 694, 1070, 1390, and 2780 g ai ha-1 applied at PRE, 3 d after planting (DAP) and at the 2- to 6-leaf stage. Flumioxazin at 72 g ai ha-1 applied PRE was highly injurious on carinata preventing its establishment. Among the POST herbicides evaluated, clopyralid at 210 g ae ha1 and clethodim at 136 g ai ha-1 caused minor injury to carinata but did not reduce yield compared to the nontreated control. Acifluorfen at 420 g ai ha-1, bentazon at 840 g ai ha-1, and carfentrazone at 18 g ai ha-1 applied POST to carinata caused 75 to 100% injury. Under stressful conditions (i.e. high summer temperatures) all POST herbicides caused more injury than under more favorable conditions for growth in Florida (i.e. winter). The present study identified pendimethalin, S-metolachlor, clopyralid and clethodim as potential herbicides for weed control in carinata, and flumioxazin, acifluorfen, bentazon, and carfentrazone as herbicides that can be used to control volunteer carinata plants in rotational crops. Nomenclature: Acifluorfen; bentazon; carfentrazone; flumioxazin; pendimethalin; S-metolachlor; carinata, Brassica carinata A. Braun.


Objectives Due to the uncontrolled increase of the mobile health applications and their scarce use by elderly for reason of absence credibility of measurements by lack scientific support, the aim of this study was to evaluate the differences between the biophysical measurements based on standard instrument against a mobile application using controlled experiments with elderly to propose an effective validation model of the developed apps. Methods The subjects of the study (50 people) were elderly people who wanted to check their weight and cardiac status. For this purpose, two mobile applications were used to measure energy expenditure based on physical activity (Activ) and heart rate (SMCa) during controlled walking at specific speeds. Minute-by-minute measurements were recorded to evaluate the average error and the accuracy of the data acquired through confidence intervals by means of statistical analysis of the data. Results The experimental results obtained by the Activ/SMCa apps showed a consistent statistical similarity with those obtained by specialized equipment with confidence intervals of 95%. All the subjects were advised and trained on the use of the applications, and the initial registration of data to characterize them served to significantly affect the perceived ease of use. Conclusions This is the first model to validate a health-app with elderly people allowed to demonstrate the anthropometric and body movement differences of subjects with equal body mass index (BMI) but younger. Future studies should consider not only BMI data but also other variables, such as age and usability perception factors.


Malnutrition in hemodialysis patients is common and may affect as much as 40% of this population of patients. There are many causes of malnutrition and all must be considered before utilizing nutrition support to reverse the malnutrition. Intradialytic parenteral nutrition (IDPN) is a therapy that has become popular among US nephrologists despite the fact that there are no clear data that support its use or efficacy. A thorough review of published articles suggests a relationship between the use of IDPN and improved patient outcome measured by hospitalization rate and a decrease in mortality in certain subgroups. However, these studies have many confounding factors that prevent a definitive conclusion concerning the true efficacy of IDPN. This is very problematic since reimbursement changes for parenteral and enteral nutrition have been proposed by HCFA. The best recommendation that can be made for IDPN is that it may represent a useful form of nutrition support in the malnourished hemodialysis patient who has no other active disease processes, cannot ingest adequate nutrition by mouth, and has a contraindication to or a serious complication from enteral feeding. It is clearly not a therapy to be considered as the first line of nutrition support in these patients.


According to statistical data, permanent and local archaeological researches have covered only about ten per cent of the territory of Princely Halych, which opens up endless possibilities for research at the site of the ancient city. The chapter highlights the importance of the scientific and popular works by Antin Petrushevych, Lev Lavretskyi and Izydor Sharanevych, who in 1882 initiated the archaeological research on the mighty Principality of Halych (Galicia) and its capital, and the excavation of the first Christian church in Halych – the Church of the Holy Saviour mentioned in the Kyivan Chronicle. The little-known works of these scientists, which were published in Lviv newspapers in the 1880s, clearly show that Lavretskyi and Sharanevych's findings received international acclaim and were a significant factor in rousing national consciousness and stimulating social activity of the Galician Ukrainians. It is difficult to explain the lack of interest in carrying out excavations outside the perimeter of the foundations of the Church, which could have enhanced the social, historical, topographical analysis of the monument and its surroundings. A particular fact that proves the importance of such research is the discovery of pendant seals, which modern sphragistics attributes to Prince Volodymyrko Volodarevych (1141-1153).  This conclusion is in good agreement with the Kyivan Chronicle and the findings of the archaeologists who excavated the Church of the Holy Saviour. All these facts provide grounds for the hypothesis concerning the location of the State Chancellery and the mysterious Palace of the 12 th century Lords of Galicia.


In this paper, we consider the problem of locating a target node (TN) moving along a corridor in a large industrial environment by means of ultrawide band signaling from fixed anchor nodes (ANs) uniformly positioned at the same height on both sides of the corridor. For a representative geometry of a large indoor (industrial) scenario, we formulate an analytical approach to the optimized placement (in terms of internode distance) of ANs using the criterion of minimizing the average mean square error (MSE) in the time-difference-of-arrival-based estimated positions of the TN. Under the assumption of a fixed variance of the range estimation error, we derive a simple closed-form expression for the optimal inter-AN distance in terms of the corridor width and the height of the ANs. The effectiveness of the analytical approach is confirmed by simulations. We also show that the proposed approach allows the MSE in the TN position estimates to reach the Cramer Rao lower bound.


COWAN, PETER, ed. Developing Patterns of Urbanization. Beverly Hills: Sage Publications, 1970, 207 pp., $7.00. This volume contains, with two additions, the papers originally presented in the November, 1969, issue of the journal Urban Studies, and seeks to identify problems of policy and questions for research in urbanization for the next thirty years. Contributors include: Lord Llewellyn Davies, Peter Willmott, A. G. Wilson, Peter Hall, and Derek Diamond.


The use of MRI to guide and monitor interventional procedures requires the merging of surgical and MRI environments. The ideal magnet shape for homogeneity and efficiency is spherical, but this design provides no access. Opening the sphere to provide both patient and surgeon access suggests cylindrical or biplanar magnets. Cylindrical magnets have poor surgical access but provide good imaging capabilities, which can be used in conjunction with a neighboring but distinct surgical environment. Biplanar magnets provide more and better approaches to the patient, but generally with lower field strength. Vertical biplanar systems allows surgical approaches from above but reduce the access of support staff to the patient. A hybrid magnet design, which combines the benefits of both cylindrical and biplanar magnets, can provide increased access with simultaneous approach from two sides of the patient. Application‐specific magnets can target a smaller region, leading to compact magnet designs that greatly expand access for both surgical intervention as well as patient support. As the field of interventional MRI matures, the suitability of each design to specific applications will be better understood, leading to more integrated system designs tailored to the needs of imageguided therapy.


As nations across Africa struggle to maintain law and order, the international community has forsaken one of Africa's most promising states. Somaliland announced its independence from Somalia in 1991, seizing its opportunity during a power vacuum in Mogadishu. A stable democracy, it contrasts dramatically with Somalia, its war-torn neighbor, which perpetually teeters on the brink of stats failure. Nevertheless, a full 18 years since its secession, no nation or international organization recognizes Somaliland. To reward Somaliland for its efforts and to set an example for other African states, the international community should fully recognize Somaliland. Somaliland achieved self-rule after a long saga of political and military realignments. In 1960, with the end of British colonial rule, Somaliland was recognized as an independent state but subsequently united with its neighbor to form Somalia. However, after decades of political and military conflict, the Somali government left present-day Somaliland in the hands of nationalists in the late 1980s. Somaliland has managed to escape the turmoil of its parent nation through rapid efforts to create an independent state. As Somalia collapsed into civil war, Somaliland officially declared independence in May 1991, thereafter building a stable nation of 3.5 million people with minimal foreign support. Ten years after its independence, Somaliland introduced a new constitution by national referendum. In 2003, the nation held its first open presidential election, and regular parliamentary elections started in 2005. In a promising trend, the number of cross-clan votes has increased steadily, suggesting that policy, not ethnicity, will determine elections and increasing the likelihood of a competent and durable government. Somalia, meanwhile, has suffered rapid-fire conflicts, including the 2006 civil war and Ethiopian invasion and the resignation of President Abdullahi Yusuf Ahmed on December 29, 2008. Despite Somaliland's marked success, the international community refuses to recognize it as an independent nation. Currently, Somaliland is one of only two states "unrecognized by the UN": the other is the Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. States have refused recognition for a variety of reasons. Several countries eager to promote stability in the Horn of Africa have joined together to create the Intergovernmental Authority on Development, which seeks Somalia's unity, lest a successful secession of Somaliland serve as a precedent for other secessionist movements in East Africa. Neighboring Arab countries and East African nations such as Eritrea also hope for a unified Somalia because it might be the only power in the Horn of Africa strong enough to offset the dominant Ethiopia. …


The composite paper record of fetal heart rate (FHR) and uterine activity is known as a cardiotocograph (CTG). Interpretation of a CTG requires knowledge of the means by which the fetal heart beat signals are obtained. The continuous FHR record is derived from signals of consecutive fetal heart beats. Fetal hearts beats may be detected through the mother's abdomen by processing the Doppler shift of an ultrasound beam. The R waves of the fetal electrocardiogram (ECG) may be obtained by direct contact with the fetus through the cervix after rupture of the membranes.


The purpose of this study to obtain the best reducing sugars using acid solvent H2SO4 and HCl to be used as a substrate in fermentation processes to produce bioethanol. The research phase includes the preparation of raw materials Sargassum sp., the processing of acid hydrolysis used a solvent H2SO4 and HCl. Hydrolysis then fermented for five days for the production of etanol. Hydrolysis using acid solvent H2SO4 obtained the best acid concentration of 2% with the result of reducing sugars 82,62 g/L, whereas using HCl acid solvent obtained the best acid concentration of 2% with the result of reducing sugars 74,79 g/L. Fermented for 120 hours to produce ethanol each H2SO4 2 ml and 3 ml HCl.


Introduction: Primary cause of atrial thrombi include atrial fibrillation, foreign bodies inside the atrium such as catheters and pacemaker leads, emboli of deep venous thrombus and primary or metastatic tumors of the heart. We review the clinical features, epidemiology, diagnosis and treatment of nine intriguing cases with atrial thrombus.
Methods: This is a retrospective study of nine patients (seven female (78%), two male (33%)) who were diagnosed with atrial thrombi (average age of 50 ± 12 years) and were treated at the Ondokuz Mayis University, Department of Cardiovascular Surgery from February 2014 to January 2015. Among them, six patients had atrial fibrillation (one male, five female), seven patients were suffering from dispne and orthopnoea, five patients were suffering from leg swelling, seven patients had a history of hypertension and three patients had a history of mitral valve replacement surgery.
Results: All patients underwent surgery except one. Four patients recovered uneventfully and discharged with oral anticoagulation (warfarin) therapy (adjusted to maintain an international normalized ratio of INR between two and three times). Five of nine patients (55%) died after surgery.
Conclusion: The response to the thrombolytic therapy is poor, mostly ineffective and unsafe so it is often recommended as a bridge to surgery. In patients diagnosed with mechanical mitral valve thrombosis, medical therapy has the possibility of end organ emboli and also fail to resolve the organised thrombus on the stuck valve. On the other hand surgery does not always give satisfactory results. J Clin Exp Invest 2016; 7(4): 278-282


Many patients admitted to the hospital have diabetes mellitus–diagnosed or undiagnosed—and others develop hyperglycemia from the stress of hospitalization. This paper discusses the prevalence, outcomes, and evidence for best management of hyperglycemia and diabetes in hospitalized patients outside the critical care setting. Many patients admitted to the hospital have diabetes mellitus—diagnosed or undiagnosed—and others develop hyperglycemia from the stress of hospitalization.


Prosecutors in Sweden are not elected. They are selected meritocratically under procedures that are nonpartisan and nonpolitical. They are career civil servants but of a special—highly autonomous—kind. The Swedish prosecutor has three main tasks: to conduct the investigation of an offense (with the assistance of the police), to decide whether or not to prosecute, and to represent the state once a case comes to court. The main principles that apply to the work of the prosecutor are the principle of legality (i.e., in principle, cases have to be investigated and taken to trial if there is reason to expect a conviction) and the principle of impartiality (the prosecutor should also take into account factors that point in favor of the defendant). High importance is also attached to the value of equality (the result should ideally be the same no matter who the prosecutor is or where in Sweden the case is dealt with).


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to empirically test the predictions in Titman (1984) and Berk et al. (2010) which indicate that firms with higher leverage will pay chief executive officer (CEO) and employee more. In addition, this paper examines whether financial distressed firms utilize leverage as a bargaining tool to reduce labor costs.

Design/methodology/approach
This paper conducts ordinary least squares regression analysis to investigate: CEO compensation which represents critical employees and lower-level employee compensation which represents less critical employees. Empirical data consist of US publicly held companies during the period between 2006 and 2013.

Findings
This paper finds that firms with higher levels of leverage tend to compensate employees for their human capital risk and that financially distressed firms consider leverage a bargaining tool by which to depress labor costs, which leads to lower employee compensation as compared to that of financially healthy firms.

Research limitations/implications
This paper highlights the importance of keeping balance between human capital and labor costs. In the case that human capital risk might not be fully compensated by firms facing financial distress, vicious cycle could occur because a failure of considering human capital might invite unrecoverable consequence. This could be done in future research.

Originality/value
This paper has three contributions. First, this paper supports the Titman (1984) and Berk et al. (2010) by empirically documenting that high-leveraged firms compensate their employees for potential human capital risk. Second, this paper adds to the literature by empirically providing that human capital risk might not be fully compensated if the firms are facing financial distress. Finally, this paper contributes to the authorities by showing that employees' interests may be sacrificed if the firm is under financial distress.


Introduction Vernal keratoconjunctivitis (VKC) is an inflammatory condition in children that can cause severe eye complications. Treatment is based on corticosteroid therapy during flare-ups, then antihistamines and cyclosporine in calmer periods. The dosage and posology of cyclosporine are subject to debate. Methods The aim of the study is to compare the evolution in symptomatic and clinical scores, and need for topical corticosteroid treatment in a population of children with severe VKC treated with two dosages of cyclosporine treatment (0.1% and 2%). Data were compiled on inclusion then every three months from March, with a total follow-up duration of 12 months. Data concerning patient evolutions and complications were collected for the two treatment groups. Results The mean age of the 46 children was 8.8 ±2.4 years with age at onset of symptoms of 5.1 ± 0.9 years. The cohort was predominantly (65%) male. Corticosteroid dependence on inclusion was present in 52% of the children included. A significant improvement in the various symptomatic and clinical scores was observed following treatment with cyclosporine (0.1% and 2%). Use of topical corticosteroid treatment reduced from 19 drops per month on inclusion to 4 drops per month at 12 months. Safety was comparable for the two groups. Conclusion Treatments with cyclosporine 0.1% and 2% lead to a favourable evolution in clinical and symptomatic scores and reduced corticosteroid use. Cyclosporine 0.1% is an interesting alternative to the 2% dosage, particularly due to its availability and ease of handling.


An extensive economics and regional science literature has discussed the importance of social capital for economic growth and development. Yet, what social capital is and how it is formed are elusive issues, which require further investigation. Here, we refer to social capital in terms of "civic" capital and "good culture," as rephrased by Guiso, Sapienza, and Zingales and Tabellini. The accumulation of this kind of capital allows the emerging of regional informal institutions, which may help explaining differences in regional development. In this article, we take a regional perspective and use exploratory space and space–time methods to assess whether geography, via proximity, contributes to the formation of social capital across European regions. In particular, we investigate whether generalized trust, a fundamental constituent of civic capital and an ingredient of economic development, tends to be clustered in space and over time. From the policy standpoint, the spatial "path dependence" of regional trust may contribute to the formation of "spatial traps" of social capital and act as a further barrier to regional economic development and convergence.


This study examines whether and how corporate bond rating quality varies with CEO tenure. Due to the expansive roles of credit ratings in capital market, managers have incentives to maintain or improve their ratings. Accumulated firm experience makes longer-tenured CEOs better at strategic communication with rating agencies and thereby more able to achieve the desired rating outcomes, leading to lower rating quality. Consistent with this prediction, I find that ratings are less accurate, less timely, and more volatile for issuers with longer-tenured CEOs. All these results hold after controlling for the impact of CEO tenure through public information sharing, suggesting that longertenured CEOs manage credit ratings through private information sharing with rating agencies. Moreover, investors do not understand such rating management by longer-


Repo transactions are of high relevance for functioning financial markets, among others as they are a necessary tool for short selling. Short selling in turn is necessary for hedging, in particular for the hedging of stock derivatives. Most mathematical models in this context assume the repo margins to be constant for reasons of tractability. However, in reality those rates are stochastic and highly correlated with the development of the underlying stock. The aim of the present article is to investigate the impact of this feature on stock derivative pricing, respectively the error caused by ignoring this effect. For this purpose, it is shown how to incorporate a reasonable stochastic model for the repo margin into a stock price process. We adopt an idea from 1.5-factor credit-equity models to create a reciprocal relationship between stock price and repo margin, as observed in the marketplace. The result is a convexity adjustment for all kind of stock derivatives, which is ignored when the repo margin is modeled constantly. A concrete formula for the density of the stock's log-return can be found within a repo-enhanced Black-Scholes model. Similar as in the case of Asian option pricing, the involved mathematical techniques rely on well-known results for Yor's process and the Hartman-Watson law.


The American serpentine leafminer, Liriomyza trifolii (Burgess) is a polyphagous insect. It is an economic pest of all vegetable crops grown in south Florida, USA. Recently, we evaluated insecticides of various chemical classes to manage leafminer on bean. In the first study, six insecticide treatments belonging to dimaide, neonicotinoid, pyrazole, and spinosyn were used once as a soil application. All insecticides effectively suppressed leafminer infested leaves on beans. In the second study, two insecticides belonging to diamide class at different rates applied at planting as a soil drench significantly controlled leafminers on beans. In the third study, foliar formulations of diamide insecticide similarly controlled leafminers. In the fourth study, pyrethroids alone or in combination with diamide or neonicotinoid provided season long control of leafminers where insecticide treatments were applied weekly for four weeks. This study generated some valuable information for controlling American serpentine leafminers on bean. This information can be used for controlling leafminers on other vegetable crops.


Background and importance In order to ensure the sustainability of the French healthcare system, the government launched two incentives to increase biosimilar use in August 2018, within the framework of the social security funding law. The first redirected 20% of the price difference between the reference product and its biosimilar to the hospital, for every biosimilar prescription from the hospital, and provided it in retail pharmacies. The second (called article 51) was an experiment where 40 hospitals were selected after a call for a proposal. The clinical units of these 40 hospitals received 30% of the price difference between the reference product and its biosimilar for every biosimilar prescription from the hospital. Aim and objectives The aim of this study was to compare the efficacy of both incentives 10 months after implementation in October 2018. Material and methods IQVIA Xponent data were used to evaluate public hospital prescriptions of etanercept. These are based on 14 000 retail pharmacy panels (60% of the French retail pharmacies) and allows observation of the number of boxes delivered in retail pharmacies linked to the initial hospital prescription. Data from the 40 hospitals selected in the experiment were compared with hospitals not in the experiment. We assessed savings that could be made if the experiment was extended to every hospital after 10 months Results In July 2019, the average use of etanercept biosimilar reached 44.2% (+19.5 points compared with October 2018) in the 40 hospitals selected in the experiment whereas it increased by 10.5 points in the other hospitals. After 10 months of the experiment, there was a difference of 12.3 points between the groups. The government expected to reach a difference of 15 points to prove the efficacy of this measure after 3 years. The 40 selected hospitals represent about 46% of potential etanercept prescriptions. If all hospitals reach 44.2% biosimilar use, the savings could be doubled, from 650k€ to 1.4M€. Conclusion and relevance The first results of this experiment show that incentives to prescribe etanercept biosimilars seem to have an impact on biosimilar use in France. References and/or acknowledgements Acknowledgements to Iqvia and Biogen France. Conflict of interest Corporate sponsored research or other substantive relationships: Iqvia and Biogen France.


With the reaction between titanium (Ti) sponge, high purity aluminum (Al) and TiC/Al inter-alloy, non-consumable arc melting technique has been successfully used in situ synthesize Ti matrix composites of Ti-25Al and Ti-25Al-1.5C. The composites oxidized at 900°C for 5~60h in static air. The influences of carbon content to oxidation kinetics of composites were analyzed. The surface morphologies and cross-section microstructures of the oxidation scales were examined by scanning electron microscope (SEM) with energy dispersive spectrometer (EDS). The results show that the isothermal oxidation kinetic curves of composites mainly follow parabolic rate law. The surface oxides of two materials are mainly columnar TiO2, while the grain size of Ti-25Al-1.5C is smaller than that of Ti-25Al. The cross-section microstructure of the oxidation scales of Ti-25Al are layered constructions which grow in alternating way. The oxides of Ti-25Al-1.5C are mainly around the carbide particles, the oxidation resistance of which is stronger than Ti-25Al when oxidized for long time.


Publisher Summary This chapter focuses on elastic wave propagation in stratified media. The development of the theory of elastic wave propagation in stratified media has been strongly influenced by the problems of seismic wave propagation and the nature of the seismograms recorded from earthquakes. For purely analytic developments of elastic wave propagation, the level of manageable algebraic complexity is reached in a model with one or two uniform layers overlying a uniform half space. This chapter shows how the excitation of elastic waves, within a horizontally stratified structure, can be conveniently developed in terms of reflection and transmission matrices. This procedure has allowed the construction of the full response of the medium or approximations with desired properties so that theoretical seismograms may be calculated for realistic distributions of elastic parameters. Although this development has been for isotropic media, nearly all the results apply directly to the case of full anisotropy if 3 × 3 reflection and transmission matrices allowing coupling between all wave types are employed. This development of the wavefield for both source and receiver within the stratification may be used for other classes of wave propagation.


In South Africa, demand for housing close to viable/sustained sources of employment has far outstripped supply; and the size of the population living in temporary structures/shacks (and in poorly serviced informal settlements) has continued to increase. While such dwellings and settlements pose a number of established risks to the health of their residents, the present study aimed to explore whether they might also undermine the potential impact of regulations intended to safeguard public health, such as the stringent lockdown restrictions imposed to curb the spread of COVID-19 in 2020 and 2021. Using a representative sample of 1,381 South African households surveyed in May-June 2021, the present study found that respondents in temporary structures/shacks were more likely to report non-compliance (or difficulty in complying) with lockdown restrictions when compared to those living in traditional/formal houses/flats/rooms/hostels (OR:1.61; 95%CI:1.06-2.45). However, this finding was substantially attenuated and lost precision following adjustment for preceding sociodemographic and economic determinants of housing quality (adjusted OR:1.20; 95%CI:0.78-1.87). Instead, respondents were far more likely to report non-compliance (or difficulty in complying) with COVID-19 lockdown restrictions if their dwellings lacked private/indoor toilet facilities (adjusted OR:1.56; 95%CI:1.08,2.22) or they were classified as Black/African, or were young, poorly educated and under-employed (regardless of: their socioeconomic position, or whether they resided in temporary structures/shacks, respectively). Restrictions imposed to safeguard public health need to be more sensitively designed to accommodate the critical role that poverty and inadequate service delivery play in limiting the ability of residents living in temporary structures/shacks and inadequately serviced dwellings/settlements to comply.


The CBN and YG610 were used for remanufacture thermal spray coating cutting. The feed rates, in the experiment, adopt mode of creep feed. The experiment results showed that the YG610 can cut the thermal spray coating efficiently. And the surface finish qualities are all under Ra1, which can come up to the standard of common grinding. But the CBN tools will be broken in the cutting process, though it can perform well in the evenly qualitative material. By experimental investigation and analyses, it can be conclude that both the high hardness and huge impact exist in cutting process, which are main reasons which induce tools broken. So the materials of tools for cutting thermal spray coating need possess both sufficient hardness and toughness.


Electrical shorting in micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) is a significant production and manufacturing concern. We present a new approach to localizing shorted MEMS devices using Thermally-Induced Voltage Alteration (TIVA) [1]. In TIVA, the shorted, thermally isolated MEMS device is very sensitive to thermal stimulus. The site of the MEMS short will respond as a thermocouple when heated. By monitoring the potential across the shorted MEMS device as a laser scans across the sample, an image showing the location of the thermocouple (short site) can be generated. The TIVA signal for thermally isolated MEMS devices is much higher than that observed for conventional IC interconnections. This results from the larger temperature gradients generated during laser scanning due to little or no substrate heat sinking. The capability to quickly localize shorted MEMS structures is demonstrated by several exarnples. Thermal modeling of heat distributions is presented and is consistent with the experimental results.


Facing with the ever increasing cost of conventional fossil fuels, worldwide researches are working overtime to cost effectively improve internal combustion engine (ICE) fuel economy and emission characteristics. In recent years, many researchers have focused on the study of alternative fuels which benefit enhancing the engine economic and emissions characteristics. The main pollutants from the conventional hydrocarbon fuels are unburned/partially burned hydrocarbon (UBHC), CO, oxides of nitrogen (NOx), smoke and particulate matter. It is very important to reduce exhaust emissions and to improve thermal efficiency.In this project, hydroxy gas (HHO) was produced by the electrolysis process of an electrolyte (KOH(aq)) with stainless steel electrodes in a leak proof plexiglass reactor (hydrogen generator). Hydroxy gas was used as a supplementary fuel in a single cylinder, spark ignition (SI) engine without any modification and without need for storage tanks. Its effects on exhaust emissions, engine performance characteristics and specific fuel consumption are investigated.


The twenty-first century has witnessed an explosion in studies on comparative health studies, but mental health remains virtually ignored. Unlike the well researched topic of health policy, there is a gap in the marketplace covering mental health policy and health care policymaking. This book fills that gap; it is a comparative analysis of the implementation of Assertive Community Treatment (ACT), an evidence-based practice employed in two states that promises to empower the well-being of individuals suffering from mental illness. 'Assertive Community Treatment' specifically examines the tension separating the notion of client recovery and evidence-based programs. Johnson challenges the assumption that practitioners should rely on evidence-based practices to close the gap between scientific knowledge and practice. She argues that in an era of managed care, this encourages state mental health administrators to adopt policies that are overly focused on outcomes. Programs that can measure the outcomes of care provided, and evidence-based practices, have become central aspects of the quality care agenda. This study traces the role of policy entrepreneurs throughout the Assertive Community Treatment policymaking process. By differentiating mental health in general, qualitative research increases the chances of observing similarities and differences in outcomes. Johnson explains why the ACT model was adopted and implemented. She concludes that there is a clear monopoly by medical researchers and scientists within Assertive Community Treatment research, and as a result, too much emphasis is placed on the roles of policy entrepreneurs as the main innovators in the agenda and policy formulation stages. Johnson presents a strong argument for more innovation in the implementation stage.


With the rapidly decreasing price of the RFID tag, its adoption and utilisation is increasing swiftly in various contexts including organisations for supply chain management, hospitals for various types of uses and other public sector organisations. Inline with its rapid adoption, researchers from various academic fields are investigating development and management related issues. Nowadays, RFID is popularly known as a technology for the automatic identification by radio frequency of physical objects and people. Therefore, a large number of studies have appeared but scattered in a number of unrelated publishing outlets which may hamper the use of such published resources. This provided us with motivation to analyse the existing research for categorising and synthesising it in a meaningful manner. Hence, the aim of this paper is to provide a comprehensive and systematic survey of the literature pertaining to RFID related research issues in order to ascertain the current 'state of play' of the field along a number of dimensions. The following research objectives were proposed to achieve the stated aim: (1) to analyse the distribution/trends of RFID research across subject category, source titles (journals), geographical locations, document types and year of publications; (2) to determine the frequently published authors and productive institutions for conducting RFID related research; (3) to explore the trend of topics/research issues and utilised methods; and finally (4) to synthesise the existing research to develop a research model/framework that reflects current status and trends of RFID research and may guide the practitioner for implementing and managing RFID applications in both public and private sectors. Information on a series of variables were extracted after conducting a review of 666 articles on RFID related issues, published in various source titles/journals from different subject categories (such as operations management, and information systems) between 1984 and 2007. Results of this research may have implications for both private and public sector organisations interested in implementing RFID, researchers, journal editors, reviewers and universities.


Structural instability, in particular postbuckling resulted in predefined constraints, has been performing advantages in many applications given their promising mechanical characteristics. However, inadequate studies have been conducted to effectively control and tune the postbuckling behavior of bilaterally constrained nonuniform beams. This study develops postbuckling systems comprised of multiple nonuniform beams subjected to bilateral confinements. Theoretical model is developed using Euler-Bernoulli theory and small deformation assumptions to predict postbuckling response of the beam systems under quasi-static axial loading. To locate the minimum energy path of the deformed beam system, the minimization problem of total potential energies of the bi-walled beam systems is solved by Nelder-Mead algorithm. Snap-through transitions of buckled systems are shown by drops in the response curves. To validate the developed model with existing models in literature, the model was simplified to account for single uniform beam under displacement control. The proposed model is experimentally and numerically validated, and satisfactory agreements are obtained. Parametric studies are carried out to investigate the influence of varying the geometric parameters (i.e., length, thickness) of the nonuniform beams on the tunable systems. Using the presented theoretical model, the postbuckling events can be accurately controlled by the geometry properties of the nonuniform beams.


Abstract. The Green Edge project was designed to investigate the onset,
life, and fate of a phytoplankton spring bloom (PSB) in the Arctic Ocean.
The lengthening of the ice-free period and the warming of seawater, amongst
other factors, have induced major changes in Arctic Ocean biology over the
last decades. Because the PSB is at the base of the Arctic Ocean food chain,
it is crucial to understand how changes in the Arctic environment will
affect it. Green Edge was a large multidisciplinary, collaborative project
bringing researchers and technicians from 28 different institutions in seven
countries together, aiming at understanding these changes and their impacts
on the future. The fieldwork for the Green Edge project took place over
two years (2015 and 2016) and was carried out from both an ice camp and a
research vessel in Baffin Bay, in the Canadian Arctic. This paper describes
the sampling strategy and the dataset obtained from the research cruise,
which took place aboard the Canadian Coast Guard ship (CCGS) Amundsen in late
spring and early summer 2016. The sampling strategy was designed around the
repetitive, perpendicular crossing of the marginal ice zone (MIZ), using not
only ship-based station discrete sampling but also high-resolution
measurements from autonomous platforms (Gliders, BGC-Argo
floats …) and under-way monitoring systems. The dataset is
available at https://doi.org/10.17882/86417 (Bruyant et al., 2022).


The ATP hydrolysis activity of DNA helicase II from Escherichia coli was examined in the presence of linear single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and linear double-stranded DNA (dsDNA). In the presence of ssDNA, the ATP hydrolysis reaction followed a linear time course until the ATP was depleted. In the presence of dsDNA, in contrast, there was a kinetic lag before a linear phase of ATP hydrolysis was achieved. The nonlinear kinetics of the dsDNA-dependent ATP hydrolysis reaction could be modeled by a kinetic scheme in which helicase II undergoes a time-dependent transition from an ATPase-inactive to an ATPase-active form. Order of addition experiments indicated that this transition was not due to a rate-limiting association event between helicase II and any other component of the reaction. Instead, agarose gel assays showed that progressive unwinding of the dsDNA occurs during the same time period as the lag phase of the ATP hydrolysis reaction. No significant ATP hydrolysis was observed when the linear dsDNA was replaced with closed circular dsDNA, suggesting that the ATP hydrolysis reaction requires a dsDNA substrate that can be unwound to the complementary single strands. These results are consistent with a model in which the lag phase of the dsDNA-dependent ATP hydrolysis reaction corresponds to progressive unwinding of the dsDNA, with the ATP hydrolysis reaction arising from helicase II molecules that are bound to the separated single strands.


OBJECTIVES: Rapid post-anaesthetic awakening and low hypnotic potency are two characteristic properties of the new opioid remifentanil. For clinical use remifentanil must be combined with another anaesthetic agent. Propofol is well-established for ambulatory anaesthesia, however, the properties of desflurane (low blood-gas solubility, rapid elimination) suggest this volatile anaesthetic to be a comparable alternative, particularly if rapid awakening is desired. The present study was designed to compare emergence times and haemodynamics for a combination of remifentanil wich hypnotic concentrations of either propofol or desflurane. METHODS: Gynaecological patients, scheduled for elective laparoscopy, were studied at random. After oral premedication with diazepam 0.08-0.12 mg/kg, anaesthesia was induced identically in both groups: remifentanil bolus (1 microgram/kg), start of remifentanil infusion (0.5 microgram/kg/min), followed by propofol (approx. 2 mg/kg) and cisatracurium (0.1 mg/kg). For maintenance of anaesthesia remifentanil (0.25 microgram/kg/min) was combined with either desflurane (0.5 MAC = 3.0 vol%) or propofol (6 mg/kg/h). With termination of surgery anaesthetic delivery was discontinued simultaneously and recovery times were recorded. Heart rate and non-invasive blood pressure were recorded at defined points of interest. RESULTS: In total, 40 patients (desflurane n = 20, propofol n = 20) were studied in comparable groups. For both regimens, emergence after remifentanil-based anaesthesia was remarkably rapid between unconsciousness and complete recovery: In mean only 60 s elapsed from the onset of spontaneous breathing to the moment when patients could clearly state their name. In comparison, recovery times were significantly shorter after remifentanil-desflurane than after remifentanil-propofol: time to spontaneous ventilation 6.4 +/- 2.8 vs. 9.6 +/- 3.9 min (mean +/- SD, p = 0.01); extubation 6.7 +/- 2.8 vs. 9.8 +/- 4.0 min (p = 0.02) and arrival at PACU 11.1 +/- 3.4 vs. 14.7 +/- 4.2 min (p = 0.005). The courses of heart rate (HR) and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were mostly similar in both groups with only minimal or moderate cardiocirculatory reactions during intubation or start of surgery. CONCLUSIONS: Remifentanil in combination with either desflurane or propofol, used for general anaesthesia during gynaecological laparoscopy, will facilitate a smooth haemodynamic course as well as a rapid emergence thereafter. Recovery times after remifentanil-based anaesthesia are significantly shorter with 3.0 vol% of desflurane than with 6 mg/kg/h propofol. Thus, desflurane appears to be a well-suited adjunct to remifentanil and an ideal alternative to propofol, if rapid recovery is required. Differences are best explained by the pharmacological properties of both coanaesthetics and their applied dosages.


A biocatalytic flow system utilising Trypanosoma bruceiL-myo-inositol 1-phosphate synthase has been developed to prepare significant quantities of L-myo-inositol 1-phosphate. Using this highly valuable biochemical, we have demonstrated its utility as a viable starting material in a drastically improved and shortened synthesis of a key intermediate in the synthesis of the biologically important myo-inositol derivatives. This biotransformation allows rapid and stereospecific inositol derivatives to be synthesized, on a larger scale than ever before.