Background
 β-globin gene transfer has the potential for substantial clinical benefit in patients with sickle cell disease (SCD). LentiGlobin Drug Product (DP) contains autologous CD34+ hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) transduced with the BB305 lentiviral vector (LVV), encoding β-globin with an anti-sickling substitution (T87Q). The safety and efficacy of LentiGlobin gene therapy is being evaluated in the ongoing Phase 1 HGB-206 study (NCT02140554). Results in the initial 7 patients treated with LentiGlobin DP from steady state bone marrow harvested (BMH) HSCs using original DP manufacturing process (Group A) demonstrated stable HbAT87Q production in all patients, but at levels below the anticipated target. The protocol was thus amended to include pre-harvest RBC transfusions, optimize myeloablation by targeting higher busulfan levels, and use a refined DP manufacturing process (Group B); additionally, HSC collection by plerixafor mobilization/apheresis was instituted (Group C). Data from patients in Group C, treated under the modified protocol with DPs manufactured from plerixafor-mobilized HSCs using the refined process, are reported here. Results in patients in Groups A and B are reported separately.
 Methods
 Patients with severe SCD (history of recurrent vaso-occlusive crisis, acute chest syndrome, stroke, or tricuspid regurgitant jet velocity of >2.5 m/s) were enrolled. Patients in Group C received ≥2 months of transfusions to reach Hb of 10 - 12 g/dL and <30% HbS before HSC collection. Patients received 240 μg/kg of plerixafor 4 - 6 hours before HSCs were collected by apheresis and CD34+ cells were transduced with the BB305 LVV at a central facility. Following myeloablative conditioning with busulfan, the DP was infused, and patients were monitored for adverse events (AEs), engraftment, peripheral blood (PB) vector copy number (VCN), HbAT87Q expression, and HbS levels. Summary statistics are presented as median (min - max).
 Results
 As of 15 May 2018, 11 Group C patients (age 25 [18 - 35] years) had undergone mobilization/apheresis, 9 patients had DP manufactured (median 1 cycle of mobilization [1 - 3]) and 6 patients had been treated. Cell dose, DP VCN and % transduced cells in the 6 treated patients were: 7.1 (3 - 8) x 106 CD34+ cells/kg, 4.0 (2.8 - 5.6) copies/diploid genome (c/dg) and 81 (78 - 88) % transduced cells. The median follow-up was 3.0 (1.2 - 6.0) months. Patients achieved neutrophil engraftment at a median of 19 (18 - 20) days. Platelet engraftment was achieved at a median of 28 (12 - 64) days in 4 patients; platelet engraftment was pending in 2 patients.
 Two of 11 patients experienced 4 grade ≥3 AEs associated with plerixafor mobilization/HSC collection: 1 had vaso-occlusive pain and hypomagnesaemia, and the other had vaso-occlusive pain and non-cardiac chest pain. The toxicity profile from DP infusion to last follow-up in the 6 treated patients was consistent with myeloablative conditioning. Febrile neutropenia (n=5) and stomatitis (n=4) were the most common non-hematologic grade ≥3 AEs. Serious AEs were reported in 3 patients post-DP infusion: splenic hematoma, non-cardiac chest pain and mucosal inflammation. To date, there have been no DP-related AEs, graft failure, vector-mediated replication competent lentivirus, or clonal dominance.
 In the 6 treated patients, PB VCN at last visit ranged from 1.4 - 2.9 c/dg. In the 3 patients with 3 months follow-up, total Hb levels were 11.7 g/dL, 9.8 g/dL and 9.2 g/dL, and HbAT87Q levels were 4.7 g/dL, 3.2 g/dL and 3.5 g/dL. One additional patient with 6 months follow-up was off transfusions and had total Hb of 14.2 g/dL, of which 62% (8.8 g/dL) was vector-derived HbAT87Q and 36% (5.1 g/dL) was HbS. All 4 patients had HbAT87Q (median 39%) levels higher than or equal to HbS (median 31%) at the 3-month visit.
 Summary
 HGB-206 protocol changes and refined DP manufacturing have improved the LentiGlobin DP characteristics resulting in significantly improved outcomes. In addition, the HbAT87Q expression is comparable to, or exceeds, HbS levels as early as 3 months post DP infusion. These data support the feasibility of plerixafor-mediated CD34+ cell collection in patients with severe SCD and the efficacy of gene therapy. The safety profile of LentiGlobin gene therapy remains consistent with single-agent busulfan conditioning. Additional data and longer follow-up will determine the clinical effect of increased HbAT87Q/HbS ratios.

 Kanter: Global Blood Therapeutics: Research Funding; AstraZeneca: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees; bluebird bio: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Pfizer: Research Funding; Sancilio: Research Funding; NHLBI: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Novartis: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees, Research Funding; Apopharma: Research Funding; ASH: Membership on an entity's Board of Directors or advisory committees. Mapara:Incyte: Consultancy. Kwiatkowski:Novartis: Research Funding; bluebird bio: Consultancy, Honoraria, Research Funding; Apopharma: Research Funding; Terumo: Research Funding; Agios Pharmaceuticals: Consultancy, Research Funding. Schmidt:GeneWerk GmbH: Employment; German Cancer Research Center: Employment; bluebird bio: Consultancy. Miller:bluebird bio: Employment, Equity Ownership. Pierciey:bluebird bio: Employment, Equity Ownership. Shi:bluebird bio: Employment, Equity Ownership. Ribeil:bluebird bio: Employment, Equity Ownership. Asmal:bluebird bio: Employment, Equity Ownership. Thompson:Amgen: Research Funding; Celgene: Research Funding; Baxalta/Shire: Research Funding; bluebird bio: Consultancy, Research Funding; Novartis: Research Funding; Biomarin: Research Funding; La Jolla Pharmaceutical: Research Funding. Walters:Sangamo Therapeutics: Consultancy; bluebird bio: Research Funding; ViaCord Processing Lab: Other: Medical Director; AllCells Inc.: Other: Medical Director.


Malaria is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality in African children including infants while the roles of exclusive breastfeeding in the prevention of infections and protection against several common childhood morbidities are widely acknowledged. To study the role of exclusive breastfeeding on the incidence of malaria in early infancy, a facility based analytical case control study was carried out at the Paediatric facilities of the University of Benin teaching Hospital (UBTH) Benin City between August 2007 and September 2008. The study involved 399 mother/baby pairs. Two hundred and forty three (60.9%) of the 399 mothers practised exclusive breastfeeding as against 156 (39.1%) who did not. Only 41 (10.3%) of the 399 infants had malaria in early infancy. Of the 243 infants who were exclusively breastfed, 22(9.1%) had malaria in comparison with 19 (12.2%) of the 156 that were not exclusively breastfed that had malaria in early infancy. No significant association therefore existed between exclusive breastfeeding and incidence of malaria in early infancy. The incidence of malaria in early infancy is low but it is even lower in children exclusively breastfed. This coupled with other gains of exclusive breastfeeding. Its practice should be encouraged and strengthened. Introduction Exclusive breastfeeding (EBF) is when a child receives only breast milk with no other liquids or foods given from the 1 mother or caregiver. Exclusive breastfeeding for six months, followed by introduction of appropriate complementary foods and continued breastfeeding as


Microbes play a primary role in aquatic ecosystems and biogeochemical cycles. Spatial patchiness is a critical factor underlying these activities, influencing biological productivity, nutrient cycling and dynamics across trophic levels. Incorporating spatial dynamics into microbial models is a long-standing challenge, particularly where small-scale turbulence is involved. Here, we combine a fully 3D direct numerical simulation of convective mixed layer turbulence, with an individual-based microbial model to test the key hypothesis that the coupling of gyrotactic motility and turbulence drives intense microscale patchiness. The fluid model simulates turbulent convection caused by heat loss through the fluid surface, for example during the night, during autumnal or winter cooling or during a cold-air outbreak. We find that under such conditions, turbulence-driven patchiness is depth-structured and requires high motility: Near the fluid surface, intense convective turbulence overpowers motility, homogenising motile and non-motile microbes approximately equally. At greater depth, in conditions analogous to a thermocline, highly motile microbes can be over twice as patch-concentrated as non-motile microbes, and can substantially amplify their swimming velocity by efficiently exploiting fast-moving packets of fluid. Our results substantiate the predictions of earlier studies, and demonstrate that turbulence-driven patchiness is not a ubiquitous consequence of motility but rather a delicate balance of motility and turbulent intensity.


Background In the present study we analyze the relationship between body mass index (BMI) and waist circumference (WC) and future health care costs. On the basis of the relation between these anthropometric measures and mortality, we hypothesized that for all levels of BMI increased WC implies added future health care costs (Hypothesis 1) and for given levels of WC increased BMI entails reduced future health care costs (Hypothesis 2). We furthermore assessed whether a combination of the two measures predicts health care costs better than either individual measure. Research Methodology/Principal Findings Data were obtained from the Danish prospective cohort study Diet, Cancer and Health. The population includes 15,334 men and 16,506 women 50 to 64 years old recruited in 1996 to 1997. The relationship between future health care costs and BMI and WC in combination was analyzed by use of categorized and continuous analyses. The analysis confirms Hypothesis 1, reflecting that an increased level of abdominal fat for a given BMI gives higher health care costs. Hypothesis 2, that BMI had a protective effect for a given WC, was only confirmed in the continuous analysis and for a subgroup of women (BMI<30 kg/m2 and WC <88 cm). The relative magnitude of the estimates supports that the regressions including WC as an explanatory factor provide the best fit to the data. Conclusion The study showed that WC for given levels of BMI predicts increased health costs, whereas BMI for given WC did not predict health costs except for a lower cost in non-obese women with normal WC. Combining WC and BMI does not give a better prediction of costs than WC alone.


WILL NOT RETURN VOID: THE USE OF SCRIPTURE IN EVANGELISTIC WRITINGS IN THE GREEK PATRISTIC TRADITION John Allen Dearing III, Ph.D. The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2018 Chair: Dr. Timothy K. Beougher When one considers the early Christian church, one is immediately struck by the exponential growth that the church experienced. The inevitable question one must ask when considering the early church's rapid rate of growth is, how did it happen? While social forces, plagues, politics, and ideology competitions were certainly factors in the growth of Christianity, one would be remiss not to consider the methodology behind the considerable evangelistic effort made by the patristic church. This dissertation analyzes the use of Scripture in the apologetic and evangelistic writings produced by Christian leaders within the Greek patristic tradition and their belief that Scripture was the primary tool given by God for the conversion of souls. Chapter 1 defines important terms and states the case for researching the Greek patristic tradition's use of Scripture in evangelistic writings. Chapter 2 explores the life and ministry of Justin Martyr, examining how he interpreted Scripture and how he employed it in his First Apology, Second Apology, and his Dialogue with Trypho. Chapter 3 examines Origen's theology of the Scriptures and how his understanding of the Scriptures were manifested in his apologetic, Against Celsus. Chapter 4 considers the ministry of Athanasius, focusing upon his understanding of the sufficiency of Scripture and his reliance upon the Scriptures in works such as Against the Pagans and On the Incarnation. Chapter 5 considers John Chrysostom and his theological and practical understandings of the Scriptures and how those understandings guided his apologetics in his Discourse on Blessed Babylas and against the Greeks and Demonstration against the Pagans That Christ Is God. Chapter 6 focuses upon the work of John of Damascus, considering his understanding of the Scripture's role in salvation and his reliance on the Scriptures in The Heresy of the Ishmaelites. Chapter 7 concludes the dissertation with an examination of the Greek patristic tradition's view of the use of the Scriptures in the task of evangelism and the implications for modern evangelicals.


This paper studies large randomly spread directsequence code-division multiple-access system operating over a block fading multipath channel. Channel knowledge is obtained by a linear estimator whose initial decisions are iteratively refined by using a soft feedback from the single-user decoders. In addition to the traditional training symbol based signaling scheme, we study a novel method that utilizes a random bias in the symbol probabilities of the transmitted signal to construct the initial channel estimates. The numerical results suggest that in the large system limit, appropriate selection of the channel code and signaling method allows for successful communication with vanishing training overhead in overloaded systems if iterative channel and data estimation is performed at the receiver.


Incense stick is a globally traded product and it is mainly used for worship, meditation, and various ceremonies. Bamboo stick making for incense sticks has been an age-old tradition for the rural people in Tripura, largely women are involved in this practice. Tripura used to supply 90 percent of bamboo sticks utilized by the Indian incense stick industry till the situation changed drastically following gregarious flowering (2003-2009) and death of old stock of Melocanna baccifera which accounted for 80 per cent of its bamboo resource in the state. This article deals with the present status of incense stick making, its utilization pattern and role in livelihood generation in the state. Harvesting of bark of the small tree such as Litsea glutinosa used for making the adhesive for rolling incense sticks is also discussed in detail as it is becoming scarce due to irresponsible harvest. The study also highlighted the problems facing by artisans in incense stick making and its sustainable production.


This paper examines the use of digital technologies in the elementary classroom to support the language and literacy development of English language learners (ELLs). My research took place in Calgary, Alberta and included undergraduate students and a university based researcher. A Google Forms survey and an online interview was used to collect data. The results indicated that technology can be helpful to elementary teachers in supporting the language and literacy development of ELLs because it helps motivate and engage students. Teachers should be cognizant of the disadvantages that arise when using technology in the classroom to support ELLs. These concerns include the possibility that ELLs will become too dependent on technology and their social skills will be at risk with too much technology use. Being conscious of the disadvantages of technology use can inform teaching practices.


In this paper, the variation characteristics of low-temperature polycrystalline silicon (LTPS) thin-film transistors (TFTs) are investigated with a statistical approach. A special layout is proposed to investigate the device variation with respect to various devices distances. Two non-Gaussian equations are proposed to fit the device parameter distributions, whose the coefficients of determination (R2) are both near 0.9, reflecting the validity of the model. Two benchmark circuits are used to compare the difference between the proposed model and the conventional Gaussian distribution for the device parameter distribution. The output behaviors of the digital and analog circuits show that the variation in the short range would greatly affect the performance of the analog circuits and would instead be averaged in the digital circuits.


Facial recognition technology is an increasingly growing, constantly adapting technology. It can serve many benefits for legal entities in many ways. Examples of this would be biometric recognition or border control at an airport. Because of its power and efficiency, many legal entities are looking to utilise this technology. With this continued growth comes ethical concerns about ensuring data privacy for individuals whose data is collected, used, and stored to power this technology. Currently, there is a lack of an ethical framework for legal entities to adopt, follow and utilise within New Zealand. This makes it an ethical grey area for the businesses and individuals looking to utilise this technology. This document aims to review existing frameworks about facial recognition technology,finally concluding a code of ethics for facial recognition use in New Zealand for the engineering profession.


In launching the Saint-Malo process at the December 1998 Franco-British summit, the UK and French governments declared their intention to set aside a century of rivalry and 'pursue joint cooperation' on the ground in Africa (Saint-Malo Declaration 1998). In so doing, they signalled their readiness to move away from their traditional spheres of influence in their former African empires and towards a continent-wide focus on Africa, including as a central tenet building up the capacity of regional and sub-regional organisations. London and Paris were helped in this latter goal by the winding up of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) in 1999 and its replacement by the African Union (AU) in July 2002. This chapter therefore examines British and French policy towards the AU. It begins by noting the UK and French neglect of the OAU, and then reviews the key developments and contextual changes that pushed for and facilitated a more coordinated stance on the AU. It then seeks to explain the recent evolution towards a more cooperative approach by examining the key drivers behind this enhanced collaboration and it ends by evaluating the extent and nature of Anglo-French cooperation vis-a-vis the AU. Within a neoclassical framework, it shows how concerns in both the UK and France over their relative power on the international stage have pushed both countries to work more closely together with African regional and sub-regional organisations. However, divergent interests and foreign policy priorities, institutional and resource constraints, and the views of the wider domestic polity on state preference have impinged on policy-making and ultimately limited the extent of cooperation.


Characterization of BclA1, a Putative C. difficile Exosporium Glycoprotein. (May 2012) James Bregg Reedy Department of Biology Texas A&M University Research Advisor: Dr. Joseph Sorg Department of Biology Clostridium difficile is a spore forming, anaerobic bacterium that can cause diarrhea, pseudomembranous colitis, and toxic mega colon in susceptible hosts. C. difficile spores are highly resistant to extreme chemical and physical environments, and are likely the infectious agent. Spores are formed and matured inside of a mother cell and released into the environment when the mother cell lyses. During spore formation, a loosely attached outer layer, the exosporium, is added before mother cell lysis. The function of the C. difficile exosporium is not known, but has been studied in several Bacillus spp. In Bacillus cereus, the exosporium is the primary barrier that interacts with the host environment, helps the spore adhere to surfaces, and escape phagocytosis by macrophages. In C. difficile 630, bclA1 is an orthologue of B. anthracis bclA and B. cereus bclA, and is a possible exosporium glycoprotein. Mutant C. difficile strains lacking these proteins may have effects on spore adhesion, germination, and spore architecture. Here we attempt to mutate C. difficile bclA1 through TargeTron technology. Though no mutations were observed, we did isolate erythromycin-resistance


One of the main targets of Al-Ghazālī's Incoherence of the Philosophers is the Aristotelian doctrine that every change requires an underlying substratum, which seems to entail that the material universe and each human soul are either not substances or else eternal. Since a substance does not inhere in any further substratum, it seems that there can be no change by which a substance comes into existence. I will argue that despite his merely critical intent, Al-Ghazālī points out two distinctions that are still of crucial importance for contemporary metaphysics: the distinctions between potentialities vs. possibilities, and the distinction between receptacles vs. substrata. Whereas the potential for being A must inhere in a receptacle that may eventually become A, the possibility for being A need only inhere in a substratum that need not possibly become A. This will be shown to have important consequences for the notion of a substance.


Marginal finishing procedures that are associated with the restorative technique utilizing resin-bonded sintered feldspathic porcelain inlays are described. Excess dual-cure composite resin luting cement is best removed from the restoration margins after complete visible light polymerization has occurred. Finishing procedures which remove excess resin and refine the marginal profiles of porcelain inlays are ideally performed with finishing diamonds (10-15 micron particle size), finishing burs (30 bladed), and aluminum oxide disks and strips. Polishing to eliminate scratches and surface roughness can be effectively accomplished with diamond polishing pastes (two micro particle size or less) in webless rubber caps. The selection of the size and shape of a particular finishing instrument is determined by the profile and accessibility of the restoration margin.


Node features and structural information of a graph are both crucial for semi-supervised node classification problems. A variety of graph neural network (GNN) based approaches have been proposed to tackle these problems, which typically determine output labels through feature aggregation. This can be problematic, as it implies conditional independence of output nodes given hidden representations, despite their direct connections in the graph. To learn the direct influence among output nodes in a graph, we propose the Explicit Pairwise Factorized Graph Neural Network (EPFGNN), which models the whole graph as a partially observed Markov Random Field. It contains explicit pairwise factors to model output-output relations and uses a GNN backbone to model input-output relations. To balance model complexity and expressivity, the pairwise factors have a shared component and a separate scaling coefficient for each edge. We apply the EM algorithm to train our model, and utilize a star-shaped piecewise likelihood for the tractable surrogate objective. We conduct experiments on various datasets, which shows that our model can effectively improve the performance for semi-supervised node classification on graphs.


: The inheritance of an ultra-dwarf plant mutant from upland cotton (Gossypium hirsutum L.) was studied, which showed that the mutant was controlled by single recessive quality gene. This gene was denominated as du tentatively. No similar mutant has been found in upland cotton. The mutation could not normally flower and produce bolls under natural conditions, and its mature height was only 10.5 cm. When treated with exogenous GA3, it could normally flower and boll, and plant height could reach 57.8 cm finally.


Every day, thousands of athletes participate in sports that are conducive to injuries of the head and face structures. Health-care professionals, coaches, trainers, and the players themselves should be prepared to provide emergency care. More importantly these individuals along with sports administrators, should contribute to the prevention of sports injuries by providing, mandating, and motivating the use of devices that are designed to protect the athlete. Language: en


The progress and role of adjuvant therapy for resectable colorectal cancers are reviewed herein. 5-FU/leucovorin is considered the standard treatment in the postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy for Dukes'C colon cancer. The oral 5-FU prodrugs, such as UFT and capecitabine, will replace 5-FU infusion in the adjuvant chemotherapy in the near future. In Dukes'B colon cancer, the results of postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy are controversial. Many randomized trials in the USA and Europe have demonstrated that pre- or postoperative radiation therapy for rectal cancer decreases local recurrences but has no additional benefit on survival compared with 5-FU-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Adjuvant radiation therapy for rectal cancer is not widely used in Japan, while chemotherapy is considered the adjuvant treatment of choice. The local recurrences of rectal cancer is a surgeon-related phenomenon: the surgical technique used and the skill of the surgeon are major factors influencing outcome.


Hypoxic-ischemic injury (HII) continues to be an important cause of neonatal mortality and morbidity. In recent years, the role of magnetic resonance (MR) imaging has increased by providing early detection to initiate preventive measures and assess the severity of tissue injury, and it often serves as a prognostic indicator. However, because of the subtle findings and temporal variability of signal abnormalities, the imaging diagnosis often remains troublesome, particularly for trainees and general radiologists who do not often encounter these findings. The imaging manifestations between term and preterm infants differ significantly; the imaging findings in term neonates are discussed. Two main patterns of HII have been described in term neonates: peripheral and basal ganglia-thalamus, with the predominant pattern in an affected infant dependent on the duration and severity of the insult. The peripheral pattern occurs in the setting of mild hypoxia or ischemia of prolonged duration, with predominant findings in the cerebral cortex and subcortical white matter along the intervascular boundary zones. The basal ganglia-thalamus pattern is most often secondary to a more severe hypoxic or ischemic event of short duration and manifests with abnormal hyperintensity on T1-weighted images and hypointensity on T2-weighted images in the posterolateral putamen and ventrolateral thalamus. Associated loss of normal hyperintensity on T1-weighted images and hypointensity on T2-weighted images in the posterior limb of the internal capsule may be present. Restricted diffusion and evolution of imaging findings may be seen in each of these regions, depending on when images are obtained. Advanced imaging techniques, including MR spectroscopy, may add valuable information and specificity, with an abnormal lactate peak often serving as an indicator of HII in term neonates.


This research was undertaken in order to design techniques and processes that enable the manufacture of effective antivenoms. To prepare a broad specificity anti venom for European vipers from chicken yolk it was first necessary to develop a simple effective method to extract avian immunoglobulin (lgY). A specific fluoroimmunoassay was developed to monitor IgY recovery and serum IgY levels in immunised hens. The most promising extraction methods from the literature were compared using a triglyceride kit to monitor lipoprotein removed and SDS-PAGE and ELISA to monitor purity and activity respectively. Caprylic acid followed by ammonium sulphate proved the best method. Unfortunately only low levels of specific IgY were achieved and it was necessary to include an affinity purification step to demonstrate their effectiveness in an EDso test. Pepsin, papain and trypsin all produced Fab' fragments from IgY but only pepsin digested the resultant Fc fragments. Pepsin could also digest other proteins in egg yolk, thereby avoiding the need to salt fractionate IgY prior to its digestion with a consequent improvement in the recovery of Fab'. A small scale affinity purification (SSAP) assay was developed, characterised and used to determine specific antibody levels in ovine antisera. Small doses (l5IAg) of venom produced significant specific levels but larger doses produced a better response and were used to produce anti venom. Binding studies with SSAP demonstrated a high concentration of specific antibodies in V.latastei antisera that bind to components in the venoms of other European vipers. A specific ovine F(ab')2-based V.latastei antivenom approximately twice as potent as the anti venom used currently in Spain was prepared from the ovine antisera. Evidence is presented that SSAP should supersede manual ELISA for assessing specific antibody levels in antisera. No major gain in recovery and purity resulted from processing whole blood rather than serum for preparing antivenom.


This paper is designed to help both the beneficiary governments and donors of aid-for-trade identify countries that are under-performing in trade and which are receiving less aid for trade than their global performance might otherwise suggest is necessary. The authors develop ten measures of trade performance and capacity (including trade-related infrastructure, institutions, and incentives) to assess potential demand, and then look at country allocations of aid for trade to see which are receiving below-average amounts in the supply of aid for trade - relative to their potential demand. As they design national development strategies, countries may wish to consider giving greater attention to trade and requesting that donors allocate more aid for trade. As part of the analysis, the paper provides a conceptual framework for selecting indicators of trade performance and its policy determinants that the World Trade Organization and its partners might monitor closely as part of the aid for trade initiative.


Purpose The objective of this pilot trial was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of AKL1, a patented botanical formulation containing extracts of Picrorhiza kurroa, Ginkgo biloba, and Zingiber officinale, as add-on therapy for patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and chronic cough. Patients and methods This randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial enrolled male and female patients >18 years old with COPD and Leicester Cough Questionnaire (LCQ) score of <18. The 10-week study period comprised a 2-week single-blind placebo run-in period followed by add-on treatment with AKL1 or placebo twice daily for 8 weeks. The primary study endpoint was the change from week 0 to week 8 in cough-related health status, as assessed by the LCQ. Results Of 33 patients enrolled, 20 were randomized to AKL1 and 13 to placebo. Patients included 19 (58%) men and 14 (42%) women of mean (standard deviation [SD]) age of 67 (9.4) years; 15 (45%) patients were smokers and 16 (49%) were ex-smokers. The mean (SD) change from baseline in LCQ score at 8 weeks was 2.3 (4.9) in the AKL1 group and 0.6 (3.7) in the placebo group, with mean difference in change of 1.8 (95% confidence interval: −1.5 to 5.1; P=0.28). The St George's Respiratory Questionnaire score improved substantially in the AKL1 treatment group by a mean (SD) of −7.7 (11.7) versus worsening in the placebo group (+1.5 [9.3]), with mean difference in change of −9.2 (95% confidence interval: −19.0 to 0.6; P=0.064). There were no significant differences between treatment groups in change from baseline to week 8 in other patient-reported measures, lung function, or the 6-minute walk distance. Conclusion Further study is needed with a larger patient population and over a longer duration to better assess the effects of add-on therapy with AKL1 in COPD.


Although techniques for resolution enhancement in single-aspect radar imaging have made rapid progress in recent years, it does not necessarily imply that such enhanced images will improve target identification or recognition. However, when multiple looks of the same target from different aspects are obtained, the available knowledge increases, allowing more useful target information to be extracted. Physics-based image fusion techniques can be developed by processing the raw data collected from multiple inverse synthetic aperture radar sensors, even if these individual images are at different resolutions. We derive an appropriate data fusion rule to generate a composite image containing enhanced target shape characteristics for improved target recognition. The rule maps multiple data sets collected by multiple radars with different system parameters on to the same spatial-frequency space. The composite image can be reconstructed using the inverse 2-D Fourier transform over the separated multiple integration areas. An algorithm called the Matrix Fourier Transform is proposed to realize such a complicated integral. This algorithm can be regarded as an exact interpolation such that there is no information loss caused by data fusion. The rotation centers need to be carefully selected to properly register the multiple images before performing the fusion. A comparison of the image attribute rating curve between the fused image and the spatially averaged images quantifies the improvement in the detected target features. The technique shows considerable improvement over a simple spatial averaging algorithm and thereby enhances target recognition.


Cardiac myxoma, especially right ventricular myxoma is very rare. We report a 2-year-old girl who underwent the emergent surgical resection of a right ventricular myxoma. She was noticed to have systolic murmur and was referred to our hospital. Echocardiography and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed the presence of tumor extending from the right ventricle across the pulmonic valve into the pulmonary artery. Anesthesia for the removal of a right ventricular myxoma should be carried out carefully, because pulmonary tract obstruction may occur during the procedure. During the removal of the tumor, the tumor obstructed the pulmonary artery resulting in severe decrease of the blood pressure and the heart rate. Because pulmonary artery occulusion occurred after pericardiotomy, chest massage was started quickly and in 15 minutes cardiopulmonary bypass was established. The tumor was removed completely and was diagnosed as myxoma by histological examination. The patient recovered uneventfully and was discharged without complications.


We design a simple reinforcement learning (RL) agent that implements an optimistic version of $Q$-learning and establish through regret analysis that this agent can operate with some level of competence in any environment. While we leverage concepts from the literature on provably efficient RL, we consider a general agent-environment interface and provide a novel agent design and analysis. This level of generality positions our results to inform the design of future agents for operation in complex real environments. We establish that, as time progresses, our agent performs competitively relative to policies that require longer times to evaluate. The time it takes to approach asymptotic performance is polynomial in the complexity of the agent's state representation and the time required to evaluate the best policy that the agent can represent. Notably, there is no dependence on the complexity of the environment. The ultimate per-period performance loss of the agent is bounded by a constant multiple of a measure of distortion introduced by the agent's state representation. This work is the first to establish that an algorithm approaches this asymptotic condition within a tractable time frame.


Mitochondrial genome alternations may be involved in carcinogenesis. The noncoding region of the mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) displacement loop (D-loop) has emerged as a mutational hotspot. Using data from a population-based case-control study conducted among Chinese women in Shanghai, we evaluated associations of breast cancer risk and survival with the mtDNA D-loop (CA)n dinucleotide repeat polymorphism. Included in the study were 1,058 cases and 1,129 age frequency–matched community controls that participated in the Shanghai Breast Cancer Study between 1996 and 1998. Breast cancer patients were followed to determine intervals of overall survival and disease-free survival. Overall, there was no association between the mtDNA D-loop (CA)n repeat polymorphism and breast cancer risk. Patients with multiple alleles of the mtDNA D-loop (CA)n polymorphism (heteroplasmy) had significantly poorer disease-free survival than those with one allele of the mtDNA D-loop (CA)n polymorphism (hazard ratio 1.62; 95% confidence interval, 1.16-2.26). These results suggest that the mtDNA D-loop (CA)n repeat polymorphism may be associated with breast cancer survival. Additional studies with a larger sample size are warranted. (Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2008;17(8):2117–22)


OBJECTIVE
To assess the natural history of ultrasonographically diagnosed benign ovarian teratomas in asymptomatic women.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective observational cohort study of 408 women (mean age 36.6 years, range 14-81 years) diagnosed as having an ovarian teratoma by transvaginal ultrasonography (except eight who only had a transabdominal study done) between January 2003 and December 2013 at a single tertiary care institution. Six hundred thirteen women were diagnosed with ovarian teratoma of whom 205 were promptly treated surgically, leaving 408 patients followed conservatively with follow-up scans at 3 and 6 months from diagnosis and then yearly. The ultrasonographic diagnosis of a benign ovarian teratoma required at least one of the following features: a cystic mass with mixed echogenicity, thick band-like echoes, a fat-fluid level, or echogenic tubercle with posterior shadowing. Clinical, ultrasonographic, and histologic data (in case of surgery) were retrieved for analysis.

RESULTS
During follow-up, 130 of 408 (31.8%) women underwent surgery. The main reason for surgery was the physician's recommendation according to our protocol (n=115). One patient had adnexal torsion. Most surgeries (112/130 [86.2%]) were performed within the first 5 years after diagnosis. The remainder (278/408) is still being followed (median time 45.6 months, range 6-147 months). The vast majority of these lesions had no change and women remain asymptomatic. Histologic diagnosis of tumors removed surgically revealed a benign ovarian teratoma in 103 of 130 (79.2%) of the women. There were two borderline tumors, four endometriomas, three fibromas, seven serous cysts, two mucinous cysts, two stroma ovarii, seven other benign, and no case of malignant tumor.

CONCLUSION
Our results demonstrate that expectant management might be a reasonable option for managing asymptomatic women who receive a ultrasonographic diagnosis of a benign ovarian teratoma. The risk of undergoing surgery for this lesion decreases significantly after 5 years to follow-up. With careful observation, the risk of missing a diagnosis of malignancy is low.


The editorial mission of Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences is to report scientific research findings that advance understanding of all aspects of health. Research across the spectrum of biological, behavioral, psychosocial, spiritual, and cultural factors in health is published. Nursing intervention and outcome research furthermore as qualitative and mixed methods analysis are within the editorial focus of Nursing Research. Basic, translational, and clinical research is published. Research about nursing systems and nursing resource management is also published as is research describing new or advanced Research methods, Analytic strategies, and Analysis protocols. Our mission at Nursing and Health Sciences is to report scientific research findings that advance understanding of all aspects of health. We intend to do this in the way we understand best-through editorial assessment, peer review, academic editing, and highly efficient production processes. We hope that all researchers strive to make their research findings known through careful, unbiased publication such as we aim to provide at Nursing and Health Sciences. We welcome your comments and, importantly, your continued contributions to achieve the mission we have set for ourselves and nursing science.


Abstract Background Although effective treatments exist for diagnostic and subthreshold-level eating disorders (EDs), a significant proportion of affected individuals do not receive help. Interventions translated for delivery through smartphone apps may be one solution towards reducing this treatment gap. However, evidence for the efficacy of smartphones apps for EDs is lacking. We developed a smartphone app based on the principles and techniques of transdiagnostic cognitive-behavioral therapy for EDs and evaluated it through a pre-registered randomized controlled trial. Methods Symptomatic individuals (those who reported the presence of binge eating) were randomly assigned to the app (n = 197) or waiting list (n = 195). Of the total sample, 42 and 31% exhibited diagnostic-level bulimia nervosa and binge-eating disorder symptoms, respectively. Assessments took place at baseline, 4 weeks, and 8 weeks post-randomization. Analyses were intention-to-treat. The primary outcome was global levels of ED psychopathology. Secondary outcomes were other ED symptoms, impairment, and distress. Results Intervention participants reported greater reductions in global ED psychopathology than the control group at post-test (d = −0.80). Significant effects were also observed for secondary outcomes (d's = −0.30 to −0.74), except compensatory behavior frequency. Symptom levels remained stable at follow-up. Participants were largely satisfied with the app, although the overall post-test attrition rate was 35%. Conclusion Findings highlight the potential for this app to serve as a cost-effective and easily accessible intervention for those who cannot receive standard treatment. The capacity for apps to be flexibly integrated within current models of mental health care delivery may prove vital for addressing the unmet needs of people with EDs.


The present study describes the results obtained in a screening program aimed at detecting adverse reactions to medication in children aged 1-8 years admitted to the Pediatrics Service of the University of Granada Hospital (Spain). The program is based on monitoring the patients for a period of 12 months. Of a total of 597 patients, adverse reactions were recorded in 4.4%. Within this group the reactions were classified as confirmed in 33.3%, probable in 30% and possible in 36.6%. Based on organs and systems, the CNS was most frequently affected (40%), followed in decreasing order by the digestive (37%) and cardiovascular systems (10%), skin (10%) and endocrine system (3%). The drugs most frequently involved were bronchodilators (40%), antibiotics (30%) and antiepileptics (20%). Among risk factors, polytherapy, hospitalization time and type of drug administered were the most important.


The effects of prior chronic exposure to atrazine on responses to subsequent acute exposures were investigated using a common benthic diatom. Clonal, axenic cultures of Craticula cuspidata were established from the Platte River (Nebraska) and obtained from a culture collection (unlikely prior exposure to atrazine). All cultures received a chronic 67‐d treatment of 1 μg/L atrazine, and growth was monitored using fluorometric detection of chlorophyll a. Chronic atrazine exposure significantly reduced growth rate only during the first day of treatment (p = 0.0001); no significant effect was detected throughout the remainder of the 67‐d period. Following the chronic treatment, clones were exposed to six atrazine concentrations (83, 188, 402, 860, 1,782, and 3,250 μg/L) to ascertain whether prior exposure influenced the tolerance of this diatom. Prior chronic exposure had a negative effect on growth following subsequent exposures to higher concentrations. A significant decline in growth was detected on days 7, 9, and 12 between previously exposed and control clones at 83 μg/L of atrazine. The lack of increased tolerance in C. cuspidata after a realistic chronic exposure indicates that the levels of atrazine presently found in many lotic systems may inhibit the growth of periphyton during periods of higher pulses of atrazine characteristic of spring runoff events.


Hypothermic and normothermic ex vivo liver perfusions promote organ recovery after donation after circulatory death (DCD). We tested whether these perfusions can reduce the risk of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) recurrence in a 1h-DCD syngeneic transplantation model, using Fischer F344 rats. DCD grafts were machine perfused for 2h with hypothermic perfusion (HOPE) or normothermic perfusion (NORMO), and transplanted. After reperfusion, we injected HCC cells into the vena porta. On day 28 after transplantation, we assessed tumour volumes by MRI. Control rats included transplantations with Fresh and non-perfused DCD livers. We observed apoptotic-necrotic hepatocyte foci in all DCD grafts, which were more visible than in the Fresh liver grafts. Normothermic perfusion allowed a faster post-transplant recovery, with lower day 1 levels of transaminases compared with the other DCD. Overall, survival was similar in all four groups and all animals developed HCCs. Total tumor volume was lower in the Fresh liver recipients compared to the DCD and DCD+HOPE recipients. Volumes in DCD+NORMO recipients were not significantly different from those in the Fresh group. This experiment confirms that ischemia/reperfusion injury promotes HCC cell engraftment/growth after DCD liver transplantation. Using the present extreme 1h ischemia model, both hypothermic and normothermic perfusions were not effective in reducing this risk.


Access to health care has diminished for rural Americans due in part to a record number of rural hospital closures. Hospitals have served as the infrastructure of rural health care. When hospitals close, other health services and providers are frequently lost. Adequate access to health care is one determinant of health. An ecological perspective on environment reveals multiple levels of influence that support or do not support access to rural health care. Implications for nursing science and practice involving all levels of environment are suggested by an ecological view.


ABSTRACT Evaluation of human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-specific T-helper immunity could contribute in optimizing anti-HCMV therapy in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-infected patients. Testin the lymphoproliferative response (LPR) is the standard technique used to evaluate T-helper response, but its use in the routine diagnostic laboratory setting can be problematic. The most promising new alternative technique is the determination of HCMV-specific CD4+ T-cell frequency by flow cytometry detection of intracellular cytokine production after short-term antigen-specific activation of peripheral blood mononuclear cells. HCMV-specific LPR and CD4+ T-cell frequency were compared in a group of 78 blood samples from 65 HIV-infected patients. The results showed concordance in 80.7% of samples. In addition, comparative analysis of sequential blood samples from 13 HIV-infected patients showed that while in about half of patients the T-helper HCMV-specific immune response remained stable during highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), in the other half declining levels of the HCMV-specific CD4+-mediated immune response were determined by either one or both assays. In conclusion, our data suggest that the determination of HCMV-specific CD4+ T-cell frequency can be considered a valuable alternative to the LPR test for the detection of HCMV-specific T-helper response in HIV-infected patients. It could facilitate wider screening of anti-HCMV T-helper activity in HIV-infected patients, with potential benefits for clinicians in deciding strategies of discontinuation or maintenance of anti-HCMV therapy.


Excellent value for money and useful for entertaining young children on long journeys. Each pack contains an "Usborne Young Reading book" and an audiotape. The CD features music and sound effects to accompany a reading of the book on one side. On the other, there is a straightforward reading of the book, with sounds to indicate a new chapter or when to turn a page. "Young Reading books" combine entertaining stories with easy-reading text and are specifically for children who have recently started to read independently. The series has been developed in consultation with Alison Kelly, a specialist in early reading.


Background Although methods proposed for the conduct of ethics consultation tend to be viewed as competing approaches, they may in fact function in a complementary manner. Methods We describe the experience of ethics consultation in two ethics committees at the University Hospitals of Geneva, Switzerland. Results Both committees provide case consultation by a multi-disciplinary team of committee members, but with different processes. These differences in process do not necessarily lead to differences in outcome. Discussion Different methods of ethics consultation are not mutually exclusive, and can co-exist within the same institution. The practical application of one method of ethics consultation can lead to substantial variations in process between different groups of consultants. Conclusion Despite the importance of clarifying theoretical groundings, and consultation and deliberation processes, in ethics consultation, choosing between different processes may not be pressing. To assist these choices, exploration of the practical strengths and weaknesses of different methods will be necessary to assist clinical ethicists, and clinical ethics committees, in acquiring a flexible and evidence-based set of approaches to their work.


Antibiotics have caused remarkable changes in the incidence and management of infectious diseases. Infections due to Gram-positive organisms, notably those caused by pneumococci and streptococci, have diminished in incidence and in severity. On the other hand, this decline has been paralleled by a decided increase both in the frequency and in the severity of disease caused by Gram-negative bacteria, including the coliform group.1-9 This changing pattern has been attributed to at least two factors. First, the Gram-positive bacteria are effectively suppressed by chemotherapeutic agents. Secondly, there has been the emergence of an increasingly larger proportion of Gram-negative micro-organisms that are highly resistant to the action of available antibiotics.1-4Studies in individual patients have shown that the relatively nonpathogenic strains of bacteria, such as Escherichia coli, Proteus vulgaris, Aerobacter aerogenes, or Pseudomonas aeruginosa, may actually invade and cause infection during the course of antibiotic treatment.5-9This paradox has


Sicily is the largest island in the Mediterranean Sea, one of the most varied in appearance, and least insular in terms of its cultural development. Often described as a meeting-place of cultures, a crucible of interaction between East and West, it presents archaeologists and historians with a complex panorama of shifting identities. This text charts the development of the island's prehistoric cultures from the Palaeolithic onwards, concluding with the Greek and Phoenician settlement in the eighth century BC. Contacts with Italy, nearby satellite islands and the Mycenean world, a capacity for local autonomy and a propensity to generate unique forms of cultural expression, all receive attention. Each chapter highlights the main findings in chronolgical order, accompanied by a discussion of economic and social themes, informed by approaches to interpretation within the wider spectrum of Mediterranean archaeology.


Error models of slope and aspect of a terrain are presented. Such data are often extracted from a geographic information system (GIS), which may contain information from digital maps and remote sensing images. Although the sources of these data are usually of diverse resolution, all of them are usually resampled to refer to the same resolution. The authors examine the error associated with such data because of subsampling. The error distributions are modeled empirically.


The author analyzes and compares the performance of two timestamp ordering concurrency control algorithms, namely, the basic and multiversion, for database systems. The multiversion algorithm improves the performance of the basic timestamp ordering algorithm by keeping multiple versions of data objects. The author discusses the performance enhancement in the multiversion algorithm over the basic algorithm. The author also discusses the storage overhead due to multiple versions of data objects in the multiversion algorithm. The exact performance model of these algorithms is so complex that it is impossible to find a closed-form solution. The author reduces the complexity of the analysis by analyzing a single transaction in isolation and reflects the presence of other transactions on the isolated transaction by the probability of conflict/abort. The analysis provides useful insight into the performance of these algorithms. >


Achieving a homogeneous nanoparticle dispersion is a frequent challenge in the preparation of polymer–matrix nanocomposites. In this paper, we report a polyurethane–TiO2 composite with improved nanoparticle dispersion by the in situ synthesis of TiO2 nanoparticles in a solution containing the pre-polymer hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB). The coordination chemistry of titanium with the functional groups of HTPB was studied by 1H NMR spectroscopy, and protective methods were developed to prevent undesired side reactions. The resulting synthesis approach produced a uniform dispersion of mesoporous anatase TiO2 nanoparticles with minimal agglomeration in HTPB, which could then be cast and cured into bulk polyurethane composites. The performance of the polyurethane–TiO2 composite as a solid propellant binder was investigated. The in situ TiO2 nanoparticles demonstrated substantially higher activity as combustion catalysts compared to TiO2 nanoparticles incorporated into polyurethane by conventional powder or solution mixing methods.


Thuya occidentalis is used in popular medicine in the treatment of condyloma and has antibacterial action. Red blood cells (RBC) labeled with technetium-99m (99mTc) are used for several evaluations in nuclear medicine. This labeling depends on a reducing agent, usually stannous ion. Any drug which alters the labeling of the tracer could be expected to modify the disposition of the radiopharmaceutical. We have evaluated the influence of T. occidentalis extract on the labeling of RBC and plasma proteins with 99mTc. Blood was withdrawn and incubated with T. occidentalis (0.25; 2.5; 20.5; and 34.1 percent v/v). Stannous chloride (1.2 micrograms/ml) was added and then 99mTc was added. Plasma (P) and blood cells (BC) were isolated, also precipitated with trichloroacetic acid and soluble (SF) and insoluble fractions (IF) separated. The analysis of the results shows that there is a decrease in radioactivity (from 97.64 to 75.89 percent) in BC with 34.1 percent of the drug. In the labeling process of RBC with 99mTc, the stannous and pertechnetate ions pass through the membrane, so we suggest that the T. occidentalis effect can be explained (i) by an inhibition of the transport of these ions, (ii) by damage in membrane, (iii) by competition with the cited ions for the same binding sites, or (iv) by possible generation of reactive oxygen species that could oxidize the stannous ion.


Whether being overweight or obese is associated with increased risk of iron deficiency anemia (IDA) remains controversial. We evaluated the dietary intakes and risk for IDA in relation to body mass index (BMI). One thousand two hundred and seventy-four females aged ≥19 years, enrolled in the third Nutrition and Health Survey in Taiwan (NAHSIT) 2005–2008, were selected. Half of the women were either overweight (24.0%) or obese (25.3%). The overall prevalence of anemia, iron deficiency and IDA among adult women was 19.5%, 8.6% and 6.2%. BMI showed a protective effect on IDA: overweight (odds ratio, OR: 0.365 (0.181–0.736)) and obese (OR: 0.480 (0.259–0.891)) when compared with normal weight. Univariate analysis identified increased IDA risk for overweight/obese women who consumed higher dietary fat but lower carbohydrate (CHO) (OR: 10.119 (1.267–80.79)). No such relationship was found in IDA women with normal weight (OR: 0.375 (0.036–4.022)). Analysis of interaction(s) showed individuals within the highest BMI tertile (T3) had the lowest risk for IDA and the risk increased with increasing tertile groups of fat/CHO ratio; OR 0.381 (0.144–1.008; p = 0.051), 0.370 (0.133–1.026; p = 0.056) and 0.748 (0.314–1.783; p = 0.513); for T1, T2 and T3, respectively. In conclusion, a protective effect of BMI on IDA may be attenuated in women who had increased fat/CHO ratio.


SUPERIMPOSED parallel slits between bands of the internal oblique and transversus abdominis muscles occasionally open to allow formation of a hernia at the level of the semicircular line of Douglas, which enters a shallow subaponeurotic space lateral to the rectus sheath and deep to the aponeurosis of the external oblique. Zimmerman et al1noted this and described its anatomical peculiarities. Four cases, with incarceration and strangulation, show this hernia to be dangerous and misleading. Report of Cases Case 1. —A 23-year-old man, loading heavy oil drums, suddenly noticed tender, firm swelling in the left lower abdominal wall. Sharp pain rendered him helpless, and after some delay he was brought to the hospital with an oblique, oval, exquisitely tender mass, midway between the umbilicus and anterior superior iliac spine (Fig 1). During examination it quickly disappeared, with immediate cessation of pain. Because considerable time had lapsed, exploration was advised. Upon


A number of the engineering structures such as tunnels, powerhouse cavern and
mining shaft are constructed in the rock mass. The stability of these structures are
greatly influenced by the engineering behaviour of the rock mass. For intact rock, its
low deformability behaviour indicates that it is a stronger material. However, the
condition changes with the presences of joint as discontinuity features in the rocks.
The presence of this joint influence the strength and deformability of rock to a great
extend. The situations become worst when intensive weathering of jointed rock mass
under tropical climate leads the formation of the filled joint. Being the weakest
component of a filled joint, filling materials contributes significantly to joint
deformability and thus reducing joint strength and stiffness. In construction work that
involving excavation in rock masses, filled joint poses a number of design and
constructional problem that may influence the stability and factor of safety to the
structure. Due to the above problems, a series of laboratory testing of physical
models, which comprised of filled and unfilled joint, was carried-out. Comparing the
stress-strain curves and Young's Modulus value has done analyses ofthe
experimental result. The result suggested that the filled joint exhibits high
deformation behaviour due to a lowest value of Young's Modulus. This behaviour
contributed by the deformation and compressibility of the infilling material and as
well as the deformation of joint blocks.


Professional development is an important part of any teaching career. Although it has been investigated within the field of music education, there is limited research on the experiences of mid-career music teachers from a first-person perspective, especially within a conservatory context. In this collaborative self-study, the authors analyze the professional development journey that one of them undertook as she followed a series of snare drum lessons to enhance her practice as a mid-career percussion teacher. Over a period of a year, the first author kept a research journal, working dialogically with a researcher to understand and extend these reflections. Using self-study as a systematic means of inquiry into practice, this article reveals the development of the first author's practical knowledge and subjective educational theory. Five themes encapsulate the findings: (i) although a learner by nature, going back to basics was a challenge; (ii) reflecting on learning prompted reflection on teaching; (iii) the importance of placing learning in a historical context and wider framework; (iv) taking care of students; and (v) with fresh eyes comes the need to keep focused. In presenting evocative accounts of lived experience, reflective and reflexive commentary, and critical reflection informed by literature, the results and discussion read as a through-composed narrative. This research offers insights to mid-career music teachers and their employers regarding the impact and design of professional development opportunities. It also demonstrates an approach to self-study that might be useful to others who want to undertake similar investigations of their practice.


GONE ARE THE DAYS OF gland-limited hormone production. Estrogens and androgens only come from the gonad? No: neural and lipid tissue can produce estrogens; adrenals can produce androgens. The story originally started in the 1970s, with the discovery of extra-gonadal aromatase (7, 12). In 1981, Corpechot et al. (2) coined the term "neurosteroid," indicating active steroids that were synthesized in the brain. However, studies focused primarily on in vitro studies, producing estrogens from precursors or labeling enzymes on tissue sections. A classic study in the early 1990s demonstrated the functional consequences of neural aromatase (in vivo) through injection of H-labeled testosterone into the telencephalon and recovery of H-labeled estradiol from the jugular (10). Dr. Kiran Soma built his PhD work around the functional consequences of the neurosteroid hypothesis (13–15; for review, see 16, 17–21). High peripheral testosterone levels can be quite costly, increasing energy expenditure, injury, mortality, and oncogenic risk, while suppressing immune activity and interfering with pair bonds (23). Given these costs, it was assumed that any functional organismal output that required androgen activation would be absent in the nonbreeding season. However, many animals demonstrate apparent androgenmediated behaviors, such as aggression outside of breeding. Through an elegant combination of neural, hormonal, behavioral, and field studies Dr. Soma demonstrated that neurosteroids can regulate nonbreeding season expression of androgen/estrogen-mediated behaviors, while avoiding the high costs of peripheral testosterone. Now Dr. Soma and his graduate student, Kim Schmidt, have turned their focus towards glucocorticoids (GCs). GCs are thought to be integral to normal immune function (1, 8), with potentially profound effects on developing immune tissues (in birds: thymus, spleen, and bursa of fabricus). However, developing organisms are very sensitive to elevated circulating GCs, sensitive enough that neonates go through a "hyporesponsive period" to avoid the risk of elevated GCs interfering with growth and development (reviewed in Ref. 9). With the need for tissue-specific GC action independent of costly elevated peripheral levels, the possibility of extra-adrenal GC production arises. This question was examined in mice, with the identification of the enzymatic steps necessary for thymic GC production (22). In 2001, these same enzymes were identified in chicken thymus and bursa of fabricus (6). However, these studies again used in vitro methods to infer local GC production. Schmidt and Soma (11) use an in vivo approach to examine the production of GCs in immune tissues. Through direct tissue measures of both cortisol and corticosterone, the authors demonstrate that immune tissues contain 16-fold higher GC levels than plasma. During development, plasma levels of cortisol and corticosterone range between 1 and 6 ng/ml. In the bursa of the neonate, however, GC levels reach near 50 ng/g (Figure 1). It is possible that endogenous levels are not locally produced but sequestered by immune tissues. However, I am unaware of any tissue that can sequester hormones at 10-fold plasma levels. Additionally, Schmidt and Soma have preliminary data, back in the dish, that these immune tissues produce cortisol and corticosterone in similar ratios as that found in vivo. And surprisingly, the primary immunosteroid produced is cortisol. Each vertebrate class has a presumed primary GC (with few exceptions); in birds that GC is corticosterone. A Web of Science search using avian terms with corticosterone turned up 1,200 references; the same search using "cortisol" found only five references. Schmidt and Soma (11) have demonstrated not only the presence of cortisol in both immune tissues and plasma, but they clearly show that cortisol is the preferred GC for immune regulation during development. First, cortisol-to-corticosterone ratios are 10:1 in the postnatal bursa. Second, the effect is not limited to the bursa: later in development, the spleen and thymus have more than twofold greater cortisol compared to corticosterone. The authors propose that cortisol may be the more potent GC in regulation of immune tissue in birds. They suggest that elevated cortisol levels during development may suppress development of the adaptive arm of the immune system, therefore reserving energy available for growth. This suggestion is a bit premature for me, given the dose-specific effects of GCs on lymphocyte development. In the thymus low and high GC levels induce thymocyte apoptosis, but intermediate levels (in the presence of T cell receptor activation) will promote thymocyte survival. These data suggest that interaction of GCs and immune tissues will not be so easily summarized. However, given the data presented by Schmidt and Soma, it would behoove those of us studying avian GCs to consider inclusion of cortisol in future studies, looking for differential action of GCs based on GC type and tissue specificity. The detail and precision Schmidt and Soma (11) use in their methods of hormone detection is impressive. It is common these days for labs to casually reference early Wingfield papers when discussing hormone assays. Schmidt and Soma take those papers to the mat, measuring GCs with precision and testing the validity of their results separately from the main focus of the manuscript. In summary, Schmidt and Soma (11) suggest both local immunospecific production of GCs and cortisol-specific reguAddress for reprint requests and other correspondence: C. Breuner, Organismal Biology and Ecology, Univ. of Montana, 32 Campus Drive HS 104, Missoula, MT 59812 (e-mail: email@example.com). Am J Physiol Regul Integr Comp Physiol 295: R101–R102, 2008; doi:10.1152/ajpregu.90387.2008.


Six patients with ischemic heart disease who had exercised intensely for longer than 1 yr appeared to have a disproportionately high capacity for endurance exercise relative to VO2 max. They were compared with healthy runners of the same age (mean 55 yr) with similar training programs (6-12 km/day, 5 day/wk). The trained patients had a significantly (P less than 0.05) lower maximal cardiac output (-17%) and VO2 max (-18%, 37 vs. 45 ml . kg-1 . min-1). Despite their lower VO2 max, the trained patients were able to run 8 km at the same speed as the normal runners (approximately 189 m/min). The trained patients' ability to keep pace with the normal subjects was apparently due to a very high lactate threshold (LT) relative to VO2 max. The patients' LT (lactate 1 mM above base line) occurred at a treadmill running speed of 176 m/min, which elicited 100% of their VO2 max, compared with a LT at 178 m/min and 84% of VO2 max in the normal subjects (P less than 0.01). Our results show that some individuals with VO2 max limited by impaired cardiac function can undergo adaptations to training that enable them to maintain close to a metabolic steady state during exercise that elicits VO2 max.


Introduction: Sanitation refers to the provision of facilities and services for the safe disposal of human urine and faeces whereas Hygiene is a set of personal practices that contribute to good health. It includes things like hand-washing, bathing and so forth. Objectives: The purpose and rationale of this project was to improve sanitation and hygiene in Kerwa Sub county. Methods: The project (2years) employed both qualitative and quantitative mixed designs in Kerwa Sub county, located, in Yumbe district, Uganda. Implementation period was from April, 2015 to November, 2016. Results: The total number of households with latrines increased from 775 (43.3%) in the baseline to 1215 (67.8%) in the first year of project implementation then to 1579 (88.2%) in the second year. Similarly, open defecation dropped from 56.7% in the baseline to 32.2% in the first year of project implementation and further to 11.8% in the second year. Hygiene status, measured using hand washing, almost remained the same between baseline and first year of project implementation at about 0.9%. It significantly improved to 20.8% in the second year. Through application of statistical thinking, final reporting time reduced by 60 days, from 210 days before statistical thinking approach to 150 days after the application. Conclusion: Statistical thinking remains a key process of continuous quality improvement in any industry.


In order to build the phase diagram of Cu-Ag nanoalloys, we study a 405-atom nanoparticle by means of Monte Carlo simulations with relaxations using N-body interatomic potentials. We focus on a range of nominal concentrations for which the cluster core remains Cu-pure and the (001) facets of the outer shell exhibit two original phenomena. Within the (N,mAg-mCu,P,T) ensemble, a structural and chemical bistability is observed, which affects all the (001) facets together. For a nanoparticle assembly, this will result in a bimodal distribution of clusters, some of them having their (001) facets Cu-rich with the usual square shape, the other ones having their (001) facets Ag-rich with a diamond shape. This bistability is replaced in the (NAg,NCu,P,T) ensemble by a continuous evolution of both the structure and the concentration of the (001) facets from Cu-rich square-shaped to Ag-rich diamond-shaped facets as the number of Ag atoms increases. For a nanoparticle assembly, this will result in an unimodal distribution of the cluster population concerning the properties of the (001) facets. This comparison between pseudo grand canonical and isothermal-isobaric results shows that the distribution of a population of bimetallic nanoparticles depends strongly on the conditions under it is elaborated.


John Rawls's idea of an overlapping consensus, and his corresponding ideal of public reason, lay the ground work for the modern debate on political identity and stability in democratic states. Many authors over the years have critiqued Rawls for being exclusionary in some sense. I argue that Rawls is capable of responding to many of these critiques, but ultimately, his ideal of public reason as a rigid method for creating lasting social unity is too problematic to be effective. Rawls's idea of an overlapping consensus must be divorced from his account of public reason. Using the work of Charles Taylor and Jocelyn Maclure on secularism, I contend that the best way to achieve a lasting overlapping consensus is through the fostering of a public moral psychology that strives to find political identity within the existing pluralism rather than in spite of it.


Often, solar irradiation estimation from simply measureable sunshine duration data is achieved by linear and nonlinear regression expressions, which depicts the statistical regression equation between the sunshine duration and solar irradiation data. These models are based on statistical parameters only, and therefore, the estimations do not take into consideration deviations from the averages. In this paper, an innovative probability methodology is proposed for solar irradiation estimation, which is based on the cumulative probability distribution functions (CDFs) of the sunshine duration and solar irradiation data. For this purpose, the sunshine duration data are converted to match the solar irradiation data cumulative distribution (CDF), which is then employed for the solar irradiation estimation. Hence, the CDFs of sunshine duration and solar irradiation data are preserved, and rather than global average, pointwise solar irradiation estimations are achieved. The application of the innovative probabilistic methodology is presented for seven solar irradiation measurements stations from different climate regions in Turkey. It is shown that the suggested method over performs other methodologies with very high improvements. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract Tactile allodynia, a condition in which innocuous mechanical stimuli are perceived as painful, is a common feature of chronic pain. However, how the brain reorganizes in relation to the emergence of tactile allodynia is still largely unknown. This may stem from the fact that experiments in humans are cross-sectional in nature, whereas animal brain imaging studies typically require anaesthesia rendering the brain incapable of consciously sensing or responding to pain. In this longitudinal functional magnetic resonance imaging study in awake rats, we tracked brain activity with the development of tactile allodynia. Before injury, innocuous air-puff stimuli evoked a distributed sensory network of activations, including contralateral somatosensory cortices, thalamus, insula, and cingulate cortex. Moreover, the primary somatosensory cortex displayed a graded response tracking air-puff stimulus intensities. After neuropathic injury, and for stimuli in which the intensity exceeded the paw withdrawal threshold (evoking tactile allodynia), the blood oxygenation level-dependent response in the primary somatosensory cortex was equivalent to that evoked by the identical stimulus before injury. In contrast, nucleus accumbens and prefrontal brain areas displayed abnormal activity to normally innocuous stimuli when such stimuli induced tactile allodynia at 28 days after peripheral nerve injury, which had not been the case at 5 days after injury. Our data indicate that tactile allodynia-related nociceptive inputs are not observable in the primary somatosensory cortex BOLD response. Instead, our data suggest that, in time, tactile allodynia differentially engages neural circuits that regulate the affective and motivational components of pain.


The asymmetric life cycle of Caulobacter crescentus has provided a model in which to study how protein quality control (PQC) networks interface with cell cycle and developmental processes, and how the functions of these systems change during exposure to stress. As in most bacteria, the PQC network of Caulobacter contains highly conserved ATP-dependent chaperones and proteases as well as more specialized holdases. During growth in optimal conditions, these systems support a regulated circuit of protein synthesis and degradation that drives cell differentiation and cell cycle progression. When stress conditions threaten the proteome, most components of the Caulobacter proteostasis network are upregulated and switch to survival functions that prevent, revert, and remove protein damage, while simultaneously pausing the cell cycle in order to regain protein homeostasis. The specialized physiology of Caulobacter influences how it copes with proteotoxic stress, such as in the global management of damaged proteins during recovery as well as in cell type-specific stress responses. Our mini-review highlights the discoveries that have been made in how Caulobacter utilizes its PQC network for regulating its life cycle under optimal and proteotoxic stress conditions, and discusses open research questions in this model.


The association between anthropometric indices and the incidence of metabolic disturbances varies between age groups and races. In this study, we report the relationship between fasting blood glucose (FBG) and some anthropometric markers of body mass and central obesity in a population of postpubescent female Nigerians (16-23 years). After obtaining written consent from each of the 178 subjects; and the completion of a questionnaire on individual demographics, we collected the following anthropometric data: waist circumference (WC), hip circumference (HC), height (H), and weight (W). We also estimated the body mass index (BMI), waist to hip ratio (WHR), and waist to height ratio (WHtR). Fasting blood glucose (FBG) was estimated using a glucometer. The mean FBG was 83.65 mg/dl and this was best positively and significantly correlated with BMI (r=0.15; P<0.05) in this population. Besides, among other obesity markers, WHtR was most strongly and significantly correlated with BMI (r=0.70; P<0.05). Our data shows that in young (post-pubescent) female Nigerians, the best anthropometric indicator of FBG (and thus of metabolic status), is the BMI, and this is most strongly correlated with WHtR in this particular population. Key words: Fasting blood glucose; Anthropometric index; Post-pubescent Nigerians; BMI; WHR; WHtR


In Bayesian Optimization (BO) we study black-box function optimization with noisy point evaluations and Bayesian priors. Convergence of BO can be greatly sped up by batching, where multiple evaluations of the black-box function are performed in a single round. The main difficulty in this setting is to propose at the same time diverse and informative batches of evaluation points. In this work, we introduce DPP-Batch Bayesian Optimization (DPP-BBO), a universal framework for inducing batch diversity in sampling based BO by leveraging the repulsive properties of Determinantal Point Processes (DPP) to naturally diversify the batch sampling procedure. We illustrate this framework by formulating DPP-Thompson Sampling (DPP-TS) as a variant of the popular Thompson Sampling (TS) algorithm and introducing a Markov Chain Monte Carlo procedure to sample from it. We then prove novel Bayesian simple regret bounds for both classical batched TS as well as our counterpart DPP-TS, with the latter bound being tighter. Our real-world, as well as synthetic, experiments demonstrate improved performance of DPP-BBO over classical batching methods with Gaussian process and Cox process models.


We consider the problem of blind channel estimation in zero padding OFDM systems, and propose blind adaptive algorithms in order to identify the impulse response of the multipath channel. In particular, we develop RLS and LMS schemes that exhibit rapid convergence combined with low computational complexity and numerical stability. Both versions are obtained by properly modifying the orthogonal iteration method used in numerical analysis for the computation of singular vectors. With a number of simulation experiments we demonstrate the satisfactory performance of our adaptive schemes under diverse signaling conditions


Multicenter international phase III clinical trials using multivalent human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccines for cervical cancer (CC) prevention are underway. As HPV immunity is type specific, defining HPV genotype prevalence in different regions to ascertain whether predominant types differ geographically is considerably important prior to vaccine implementation. This study aimed to define HPV genotypes present in CC and high-grade dysplasia among women in Melbourne, Australia. HPV genotype analysis of a cross section of women in Melbourne with cervical dysplasia/cancer was performed. A total of 493 cervical biopsies from patients being treated for moderate (n = 122) or severe (n = 180) cervical intraepithelial neoplasia (CIN II/III) or CC (n = 191) were tested for HPV genotypes using the PGMY09/11 primer system and line blot assay. HPV detection rates were 63.9%, 72.8%, and 86.9% in CIN II, CIN III, and CC biopsies, respectively. The most prevalent HPV genotypes among CC biopsies were HPV-16 (52.9%), HPV-18 (18.3%), HPV-45 (6.3%), HPV-39 (3.1%), and HPV-73 (2.6%). Multiple HPV infections, comprising two to five types, were identified in 14.4% of biopsies, being significantly fewer (5.2%) among CC biopsies (P < 0.0001). These results indicate that the two most prevalent CC-associated HPV genotypes in Australia parallel those described internationally, with type variations thereafter.


Working capital is a kind of a buffer that protects an enterprise against the loss of financial liquidity. Therefore, managing it is a key element from the point of view of financial security in every company. The purpose of the articles is to analyze working capital management in the largest Polish energy companies. In general, state-owned companies, especially those operating in the energy sector, have no problems with managing liquidity or working capital. However, recently in Poland, the turmoil associated with an increase in energy prices resulting largely from political licks have caused rapid drops in energy companies in the market. In such a situation, it is worth analyzing the working capital management strategies in detail. The analysis was carried out on the group of the largest Polish energy companies.


Objective: Sepsis is characterized by microvascular dysfunction and thrombophilia. Several methionine metabolites may be relevant to this sepsis pathophysiology. S-adenosylmethionine (SAM) serves as the methyl donor for trans-methylation reactions. S-adenosylhomocysteine (SAH) is the by-product of these reactions and serves as the precursor to homocysteine. Relationships between plasma total homocysteine concentrations (tHcy) and vascular disease and thrombosis are firmly established. We hypothesized that SAM, SAH, and tHcy levels are elevated in patients with sepsis and associated with mortality. Methods: This was a combined case–control and prospective cohort study consisting of 109 patients with sepsis and 50 control participants without acute illness. The study was conducted in the medical and surgical intensive care units of the University of Rochester Medical Center. Methionine, SAM, SAH, and tHcy concentrations were compared in patients with sepsis versus control participants and in sepsis survivors versus nonsurvivors. Results: Patients with sepsis had significantly higher plasma SAM and SAH concentrations than control participants (SAM: 164 [107-227] vs73 [59-87 nM], P < .001; SAH: 99 [60-165] vs 35 [28-45] nM, P < .001). In contrast, plasma tHcy concentrations were lower in sepsis patients compared to healthy control participants (4 [2-6]) vs 7 [5-9] μM; P = .04). In multivariable analysis, quartiles of SAM, SAH, and tHcy were independently associated with sepsis (P = .006, P = .05, and P < .001, respectively). Sepsis nonsurvivors had significantly higher plasma SAM and SAH concentrations than survivors (SAM: 223 [125-260] vs 136 [96-187] nM; P = .01; SAH: 139 [81-197] vs 86 [55-130] nM, P = .006). Plasma tHcy levels were similar in survivors vs nonsurvivors. The associations between SAM or SAH and hospital mortality were no longer significant after adjusting for renal dysfunction. Conclusions: Methionine metabolite concentrations are abnormal in sepsis and linked with clinical outcomes. Further study is required to determine whether these abnormalities have pathophysiologic significance.


The incidence of cancer worldwide continues to increase, and it remains the second leading cause of death (1). Of the 17.5 million cancer cases worldwide in 2015, breast cancer was the most common in women (2.4 million cases) and was the leading cause of cancer deaths (523,000) in women (1). As such, the importance of effectively and efficiently communicating disease characteristics and prognosis remains essential to patients, clinicians, and researchers.


Using questionnaire and interview data from 1977 to 1978 on 146 House and 72 Senate offices, this study examines five aspects of congressional casework activity: the amount of time members personally devote to casework, the size of their casework staffs, the percentage of casework done in home offices, the degree to which congressmen attempt to solicit cases, and their propensity to use casework for electoral or public relations purposes. Multiple regression analysis shows significant but substantively minor effects on casework decisions for a number of member-related and constituency-related independent variables. The most important findings are that (1) only a small proportion of the variance in casework activities can be explained by the variables used here, (2) member seniority proves to be the most consistent factor in explaining such activities, and (3) "demandside" factors (constituency demands, traditions, expectations) are more important than previous research indicated.


Research supports that exposure to stressors (e.g., perceived stress, racism) during pregnancy can negatively impact the immune system, which may lead to infection and ultimately increases the risk for having a preterm or low birth weight infant. It is well known that Black women report higher levels of stressors at multiple timepoints across pregnancy compared to women of all other racial and ethnic groups. This study addresses gaps in the literature by describing pregnant and early postpartum Black women's exposures to structural racism and self-reported experiences of racial discrimination, and the extent to which these factors are related. We used a cross-sectional study design to collect data related to exposures to racism from pregnant and early postpartum Black women residing in Oakland, California from January 2016-December 2017. Comparative analysis revealed that living in highly deprived race + income neighborhoods was associated with experiencing racial discrimination in three or more situational domains (p = This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved. Running Title: Racism among Black Women 0.01). Findings show that Black women are exposed to high levels of racism that may have negative impacts on maternal health outcomes.


Providing adequate data bandwidth is extremely important for a future wide-issue processor to achieve its full performance potential. Adding a large number of ports to a data cache, however, becomes increasingly inefficient and can add to the hardware complexity significantly. This paper takes an alternative or complementary approach for providing more data bandwidth, called data decoupling. This paper especially studies an interesting, yet less explored, behavior of memory access instructions, called access region locality, which is concerned with each static memory instruction and its range of access locations at runtime. Our experimental study using a set of SPEC95 benchmark programs shows that most memory access instructions reference a single region at runtime. Also shown is that it is possible to accurately predict the access region of a memory instruction at runtime by scrutinizing the addressing mode of the instruction and the past access history of it. We describe and evaluate a wide-issue superscalar processor with two distinct sets of memory pipelines and caches, driven by the access region predictor. Experimental results indicate that the proposed mechanism is very effective in providing high memory bandwidth to the processor, resulting in comparable or better performance than a conventional memory design with a heavily multiported data cache that can lead to much higher hardware complexity.


The goal of this paper is to document how labour is divided and compensated (both monetarily and non-monetarily) in Canadian non-commercial scholarly journals. This study informs future research on sustainability in non-commercial academic publishing. As labour is essential for the continued success of these journals, understanding the extent (i.e., how many positions, how many hours per position), scope (i.e., which tasks are undertaken and who is responsible for them), and cost (monetary or non-monetary) of this labour will be critical in ensuring the sustainability of non-commercial academic journals in Canada. To investigate current practices, the authors distributed a survey to 484 Canadian journals meeting the above inclusion criteria. The survey was composed of two sections: how labour is divided at a journal (i.e., how many positions are there, what are the responsibilities of these positions, and how many work hours per week are dedicated to these positions) and compensation (i.e., does the journal provide monetary or non-monetary compensation to members of its editorial team, which positions receive compensation, and what is the source of these funds). The authors received 119 responses, for a 25 percent response rate. Among the main findings are that the majority of respondents compensate at least one journal position and that the source of these funds comes primarily from sponsoring organizations (i.e., affiliated institutional/university departments and scholarly associations). Additional findings include that the top three most commonly compensated positions are copyeditor, editorial assistant, and managing editor. Compensated positions such as translator, graphic designer, and copyeditor are often contracted out. Task distribution amongst editorial team members varies; however, editors-in-chief and managing editors are responsible for the greatest variety of tasks. Editorial assistants and managing editors tend to work more hours than other positions. Additionally, journal production was related to editorial team size, with larger teams producing more volumes on average than smaller ones. Recurring themes in free-text comments were large workloads, lack of compensation, and lack of recognition. This paper provides empirical evidence of the extent and variation of labour and compensation in Canadian non-commercial scholarly publishing. It provides data on current non-commercial journal practices which will be of interest to library publishers, journal editors, and other stakeholders in Canadian scholarly publishing.


One of the main concerns of an underground coal mining engineer is the safety and stability of the mine. One way that the safety and stability can be ensured is to know and understand the coal mine geology and how it reacts to the mining process. One technique that has shown a lot of success in the coal mining industry for geologic technical evaluation purposes is the coal mine roof rating (CMRR). The CMRR classification is based on geotechnical data taken from the immediate roof layers within the mine. Since the uncertainty exists in geotechnical data, and CMRR process depends on the expert's idea implicitly, the final value may be inaccurate. In this paper, the fuzzy type 2 is used to overcome this uncertainty. To design the fuzzy system for calculating the CMRR, only quantitative variables (UCS, spacing, and persistence) are considered as fuzzy inputs. Finally, the scores of CMRR and FCMRR for four units of Riccall mine are compared.


High-throughput phenotyping of root systems requires a combination of specialized techniques and adaptable plant growth, root imaging and software tools. A custom phenotyping platform was designed to capture images of whole root systems, and novel software tools were developed to process and analyse these images. The platform and its components are adaptable to a wide range root phenotyping studies using diverse growth systems (hydroponics, paper pouches, gel and soil) involving several plant species, including, but not limited to, rice, maize, sorghum, tomato and Arabidopsis. The RootReader2D software tool is free and publicly available and was designed with both user-guided and automated features that increase flexibility and enhance efficiency when measuring root growth traits from specific roots or entire root systems during large-scale phenotyping studies. To demonstrate the unique capabilities and high-throughput capacity of this phenotyping platform for studying root systems, genome-wide association studies on rice (Oryza sativa) and maize (Zea mays) root growth were performed and root traits related to aluminium (Al) tolerance were analysed on the parents of the maize nested association mapping (NAM) population.


Kidneys from 90 individuals who had died from atherosclerosis, hypertensive disease, or chronic glomerulonephritis were examined following early autopsies. The nephron epithelium and the endothelium of peritubular capillaries were studied for activities and distribution patterns of NADPH2 dehydrogenase, lactate dehydrogenase, succinate dehydrogenase, and acid and alkaline phosphatases, for relative capillary and connective tissue volumes, and for lymphocyte, monocyte, and plasma cell numbers. A mathematical analysis of the histochemical and morphometric data provided information on the nature of changes in the renal microcirculatory bed and on the roles of free stromal cells in various forms of nephrosclerosis as well as on the zonal distribution of the parameters studied. Intercellular and vascular-cellular links were found to be weakest in the most advanced stage of chronic glomerulonephritis involving reduction of peritubular capillaries. In cardiovascular disorders, the morphofunctional characteristics of the microcirculatory bed and of its volume showed reciprocal changes, probably of a compensatory character.


Mechanisms of urate transport were investigated in human renal brush-border membrane vesicles. The imposition of an outwardly directed Cl- gradient, in voltage-clamp and pH-clamp conditions, stimulated [14C]urate uptake. Organic anions, including pyrazinoate (PZA), probenecid, lactate, ketone bodies, succinate, and alpha-ketoglutarate in their monovalent forms, cis-inhibited [14C]urate uptake. The affinity order was PZA > urate > probenecid > other anions. Vesicle preloading with these anions trans-stimulated urate uptake. These observations demonstrate the presence of a urate/anion exchanger. p-Aminohippurate and OH- were not substrates for this exchanger. In the presence of an inwardly directed K+ gradient and valinomycin (intravesicular positive potential) [14C]urate uptake was stimulated. Voltage-sensitive [14C]urate uptake was cis-inhibited by organic anions in the following affinity order: urate > probenecid > PZA. The differences in affinity orders for the urate exchanger and the urate voltage-sensitive transport suggest different pathways for apical transport. The anion exchanger might be the main mechanism involved in urate tubular reabsorption in humans.


A novel micro-/mesoporous composite material W-MCM-41 was synthesized through self-assembly of the zeolite W nanocrystal precursor. The hierarchical structure material inherited the combining advantages of the ordered mesopores of MCM-41 and the modulated acid properties of zeolite W. Different crystallization times of zeolite W and various molar ratios of CTAB/SiO2 were optimized to achieve good physicochemical properties of micro-/mesoporous materials, which were used to prepare the corresponding CoMo-supported catalysts. Various characterization methods were adopted to analyze the relationship between the catalytic performance and physicochemical properties of series catalysts. The CoMo/WMA catalyst presented the highest hydrodesufurization activity (93.4%) and the best octane number preservability (ΔRON = −1.3 unit), which could be attributed to desirable texture of support, moderate metal–support interaction, and highest sulfidation degree of active phases. The distribution of sulfide compounds in hy...


Background/Objectives: Mechanical and thermal properties of aluminum-based piston alloys are mainly depend on the heat treatment. Conventional heat treatment techniques are also not resulted to that level where it can be used for piston of downsized engine. Methods/Statistical Analysis: Around 30 papers were reviewed to understand the thermal effects and consequences on the Al Si piston alloy. Findings: From the literature it can be understood that two-step solution treatment of the Al Si alloy resulted the good mechanical properties then the single step solution treatment. Heat treatment at 540°C for 8 h and aging at 190°C for 8 h is correctly choice to achieve optimum mechanical properties by heat treatment. To calculate the temperature effect and heat transfer to the engine piston crown, the spatial and time averaged combustion side boundary condition is a most favorable and suitable treatment method within engineering approximations. For temperature and thermal stress distributions for a coated surface piston crown, the coating surface temperature increased with coating thickness by decreasing rate and the best results are at 1 mm coating. Application/Improvements: The coated piston has low thermal conductivity then the uncoated piston.


Strategies for the management of diabetes have evolved considerably over the last few years. We have moved from an era where glycemic control was aimed primarily at avoiding the symptoms associated with hyperglycemia (polyuria, polydipsia, weight loss, and fatigue) to an era where the primary objective is to attain near normal glycemic control in an effort to prevent or delay the microvascular and macrovascular complications of diabetes. This switch in emphasis--and the parallel developments in pharmacologic agents and lifestyle intervention techniques--translates into greater attention to glycemic control in the postprandial state. An important role for postprandial glucose monitoring with therapy aimed at achieving postprandial glucose targets is suggested by teleologic argument, biochemical information, epidemiologic study, and limited clinical trial data.