Exoskeletons have decreased physical effort and increased comfort in activities of daily living (ADL) such as walking, squatting and running. However this assistance is often activity specific and does not accommodate a wide variety of different activities. To overcome this limitation and increase the scope of exoskeleton application, an automatic Human Activity Recognition (HAR) system is necessary. We developed two deep-learning models for HAR using 1D-Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) and a hybrid model using CNNs and Long-Short Term Memory (LSTM). We trained both models using the data collected from a single 3-axis accelerometer placed on the chest of ten subjects. We were able to classify five different activities, standing, walking on level ground, walking on an incline, running, and squatting with an accuracy of 98.1% and 97.8%, respectively. A two subject real-time validation trial was also conducted to validate the real-time applicability of the system The real-time accuracy was measured at 96.6% and 97.2% for the CNN and the hybrid model, respectively. The high classification accuracy in the test and real-time evaluation suggest that a single sensor could be used to distinguish human activities using machine-learning-based models.


Abstract : This work describes the second evaluation of the impacts of the live fire training at the Land Force Central Area Training Centre (LFCA TC) Meaford, Ontario (Phase II). This study was conducted in August 2008 by DRDC Valcartier for Director Land Environment (DLE) to complete the evaluation of the soil contamination by explosives and metals. In parallel, the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) conducted sampling and analysis of surface water and groundwater for metals and explosives and produced two separate reports describing the results from their Phase I and II. In our study, most of the ranges at LFCA TC Meaford were sampled during the September 2007 campaign. In August 2008, nine ranges were sampled to complete our understanding of the explosives and/or metals contamination. More precisely, the Apeldorn grenade range was re-visited to confirm metal concentrations observed during Phase I, the Caen range was re-sampled to confirm propellant residues concentrations while Cambrai target positions were re-sampled to examine the high selenium concentrations found during Phase I. In Cassino, small arms target positions were evaluated for metal concentrations while the 40 mm impact area was evaluated for energetic concentrations. The urban assault portion of Ortona range was sampled for energetics while Normandy, Position 409 and the Gravel Pit were sampled for energetics and metals. Finally, it was not possible to sample the stop butt of the impact area. Forty one soil samples were collected and analysed, including 21 for energetic materials, 20 for metals and one for perchlorate analyses. The 20 soil background samples taken for the metals evaluation during Phase I served again for comparison purposes. Metal analyses were done using Inductively Coupled Plasma /Mass Spectrometry (ICP/MS) and explosives concentrations were determined using the High Pressure Liquid Chromatography (HPLC) Method EPA 8330b.


Abstract Although hormones are key regulators of many fitness and life history traits, the causes of individual level variation in hormones, particularly in wild systems, remain understudied. Whilst we know that androgen and glucocorticoid levels vary within and among individuals in mammalian populations, how this relates to key reproductive processes such as gestation and lactation, and their effects on a female's measurable hormone levels are poorly understood in wild systems. Using fecal samples collected from females in a wild red deer population between 2001 and 2013, we explore how fecal androgen (FAM) and cortisol (FCM) metabolite concentrations change with age and season, and how individual differences relate to variation in reproductive state. Both FAM and FCM levels increase toward parturition, although this only affects FCM levels in older females. FCM levels are also higher when females suckle a male rather than a female calf, possibly due to the higher energetic costs of raising a son. This illustrates the importance of accounting for a female's life history and current reproductive status, as well as temporal variation, when examining individual differences in hormone levels. We discuss these findings in relation to other studies of mammalian systems and in particular to the relatively scarce information on variation in natural levels of hormones in wild populations.


Objectives: The current study aimed to measure the antioxidant and antibacterial activities of 25 wild Palestinian edible plants, which were subjected to extraction by polar and non-polar solvents. Correlations between free radical scavenging activity and antibacterial activity of the extracts were assessed for both polar and non-polar fractions. Materials: Twenty-five wild edible plant species that are frequently consumed by people in Palestine (mainly in a rural area) were examined. Among them, 10 plant species were among those with the highest mean cultural importance values, according to an ethnobotanical survey that was conducted in the West Bank, Palestine, a few years ago. Method: The protocol of the DPPH assay for testing free-radical scavenging was utilized for determining EC50 values, while microdilution tests were conducted to determine the 50% inhibitory concentration (IC50) of the extracts for the microorganism Staphylococcus mutans. Results and Discussion: Eight extracts (non-polar fractions) were found to possess an antibacterial IC50 of less than 20 ppm, such as Foeniculum vulgare, Salvia palaestinafruticose, Micromeria fruticose, Trigonella foenum-graecum, Cichorium pumilum jacq, Salvia hierosolymitana boiss, Ruta chalepensis, and Chrysanthemum coronarium. The polar fractions possess higher antioxidant activity, while non-polar fraction possess higher antibacterial activity. Looking at all the results together can deceive and lead to the conclusion that there is no correlation between antibacterial activity against S. mutans and free radical scavenging (R2 equals 0.0538). However, in-depth analysis revealed that non-polar plant extracts with an EC50 of free radical scavenging ≤100 ppm have a four-fold order of enrichment toward more activity against S. mutans. These findings are of high importance for screening projects. A four-fold order of enrichment could save plenty of time and many in screening projects. The antibacterial active extracts marked by low-medium free radical scavenging might act through a mechanism of action other than that of highly active, free radical scavenging extracts. Conclusion: The screening of antioxidant and antimicrobial activity performed on 25 selected wild plant extracts revealed a satisfactory free radical scavenging and antimicrobial potential that could be of value in the management of oxidative stress. Further studies are recommended to explore novel and highly active natural antibacterial products.


The commonly used 'uniform pressure method' (UP) is a well-tried method to simulate an airbag deployment in accident cases. Nevertheless, this method indicates rather heavy inadequacies at the examination of the airbag deployment in the first milliseconds. A solution is the airbag deployment calculation by using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods, wherein the calculated gas flow pressure may be applied 'correctly' to the airbag shell elements. This CFD simulation is integrated in LS-Dyna with the so-called Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian (ALE) method and in this review the result's accuracy will be discussed. According to the FMVSS 208, an OoP model will be built-on and comparisons with simulations and tests are done. Another important detail in this labour is the airbag cover examination and the tear seam modelling, as a trivial FE modelling cannot be done due to the very fine mesh. So two possible solutions for tear seam modelling are introduced and discussed. Furthermore considerations concerning the gas generator combustion will also be revealed and an analysis about the impossibility of the direct comparison between gas generator tank test and airbag deployment will be done. At least some parameters, which take effects in the simulation, are researched and evaluated, so finally an optimised simulation model can be made available for further examinations.


Recent work on modeling neural responses in the primate visual system has benefited from deep neural networks trained on large-scale object recognition, and found a hierarchical correspondence between layers of the artificial neural network and brain areas along the ventral visual stream. However, we neither know whether such task-optimized networks enable equally good models of the rodent visual system, nor if a similar hierarchical correspondence exists. Here, we address these questions in the mouse visual system by extracting features at several layers of a convolutional neural network (CNN) trained on ImageNet to predict the responses of thousands of neurons in four visual areas (V1, LM, AL, RL) to natural images. We found that the CNN features outperform classical subunit energy models, but found no evidence for an order of the areas we recorded via a correspondence to the hierarchy of CNN layers. Moreover, the same CNN but with random weights provided an equivalently useful feature space for predicting neural responses. Our results suggest that object recognition as a high-level task does not provide more discriminative features to characterize the mouse visual system than a random network. Unlike in the primate, training on ethologically relevant visually guided behaviors – beyond static object recognition – may be needed to unveil the functional organization of the mouse visual cortex.


CROSS-CULTURAL APPROACHES TO ADOPTION Edited by Fiona Bowie Routledge 2004; pp.279; index; Pb. £19.99 ISBN 0–415–30351–6 An interest in family organization and kinship amongst social workers and child and adolescent mental health professionals has developed along with the growing preoccupation and concern with adoption in these services. The issue of adoption is multifaceted with political, human and cultural aspects and it brings together many different strands of family life in postmodern societies: disasters, poverty and trauma, refugeedom, involuntary childlessness, children without parents, public care and kinship care. These are philosophical, policy and sociological issues, but for social workers and mental health care workers whose job it is to facilitate processes of adoption they are also practical issues. Practitioners are all too acutely aware of how working with adoption brings them up against dominant ideologies both in terms of policy and in terms of intimate matters of selfhood and personhood.What is more, this is not widely acknowledged as governments expect fast and efficient action. In this climate, this volume addressing cross-cultural approaches to adoption is extremely welcome not only because the work increasingly spans across cultures, but also because learning about how adoption is carried out in other cultures with other ideologies and other state policies may educate professionals. By studying different social and cultural contexts professionals may learn about specific cultural details but they may also learn something about the nature of kinship and its embeddedness in social organization and ideology. Care and adoption in western societies are exhausting and sometimes debilitating processes and practitioners can use all the inspiration and insight they can get. However, social anthropological texts do not tend to be read much by those outside the profession of social anthropologists. This has always presented somewhat of a catch-22 to social anthropologists. Social anthropology is about generalizing from detail about difference and yet the 'public' often does not have patience for details, when these are not easily accessible. The chapters in this book are written mainly by social anthropologists and some are more accessible than others. Still, several stand out as extremely salient and useful for practitioners. Bowie offers a valuable introduction and overview to the subject of adoption cross-culturally. Howell's chapter on Norwegian transnational adoption offers 'kinning' as a concept, which emphasizes process in the constitution of new families. This idea has general applicability and could be used in social service assessments. Selman's overview of the nodal position of adoption in the modern state should be read by all social workers. In addition the volume is divided into sections covering geographical areas: Africa, Asia and Oceania, Central and South America and the West. Generally it offers an excellent teaching resource and should certainly be read by all social workers and managers in care and adoption teams. Inga-Britt Krause Training & Development Consultant Tavistock & Portman NHS Trust, London, UK


This paper extensively reviews empirical studies that analyze the various impacts of the globalization phenomenon on corporate activities by using micro data. First, we set up a flow chart describing how globalization leads to national productivity enhancement. Secondly, we summarize the hypotheses and the methods explored in 13 lines of literature on globalization, which this flow chart maps. Thirdly, we discuss further possible avenues for micro data analysis. Finally, we provide some suggestions on statistics-related policies.


Non‐motor symptoms including those involving the splanchnic district are present in Parkinson's disease (PD). The authors previously reported that PD‐like rats, bearing a lesion of the nigrostriatal pathway induced by the injection of 6‐hydroxydopamine (6‐OHDA), have impaired hepatic mitochondrial function. Glutamate intervenes at multiple levels in PD and liver pathophysiologies. The metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) is abundantly expressed in brain and liver and may represent a pharmacological target for PD therapy. This study investigated whether and how chronic treatment with 2‐methyl‐6‐(phenylethynyl)‐pyridine (MPEP), a well‐characterized mGluR5 antagonist, may influence hepatic function with regard to neuronal cell loss in PD‐like rats. Chronic treatment with MPEP was started immediately (Early) or 4 weeks after (Delayed) intrastriatal injection of 6‐OHDA and lasted 4 weeks. Early MPEP treatment significantly prevented the decrease in adenosine triphosphate (ATP) production/content and counteracted increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) formation in isolated hepatic mitochondria of PD‐like animals. Early MPEP administration also reduced the toxin‐induced neurodegenerative process; improved survival of nigral dopaminergic neurons correlated with enhanced mitochondrial ATP content and production. ATP content/production, in turn, negatively correlated with ROS formation suggesting that the MPEP‐dependent improvement in hepatic function positively influenced neuronal cell survival. Delayed MPEP treatment had no effect on hepatic mitochondrial function and neuronal cell loss. Antagonizing mGluR5 may synergistically act against neuronal cell loss and PD‐related hepatic mitochondrial alterations and may represent an interesting alternative to non‐dopaminergic therapeutic strategies for the treatment of PD.


Partially-Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) are typically solved by finding an approximate global solution to a corresponding belief-MDP. In this paper, we offer a new planning algorithm for POMDPs with continuous state, action and observation spaces. Since such domains have an inherent notion of locality, we can find an approximate solution using local optimization methods. We parameterize the belief distribution as a Gaussian mixture, and use the Extended Kalman Filter (EKF) to approximate the belief update. Since the EKF is a first-order filter, we can marginalize over the observations analytically. By using feedback control and state estimation during policy execution, we recover a behavior that is effectively conditioned on incoming observations despite the unconditioned planning. Local optimization provides no guarantees of global optimality, but it allows us to tackle domains that are at least an order of magnitude larger than the current state-of-the-art. We demonstrate the scalability of our algorithm by considering a simulated hand-eye coordination domain with 16 continuous state dimensions and 6 continuous action dimensions.


Improving the effectiveness of rural sanitation interventions is critical for meeting the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals and improving public health. Community-led total sanitation (CLTS) is the most widely used rural sanitation intervention globally; however, evidence shows that CLTS does not work equally well everywhere. Contextual factors outside the control of implementers may partially determine CLTS outcomes, although the extent of these influences is poorly understood. In this study, we investigate the extent to which 18 contextual factors from readily available datasets can help predict the achievement and sustainability of open-defecation-free (ODF) status in Cambodia, Ghana, Liberia, and Zambia. Using multilevel logistic regressions, we found that the predictors of CLTS performance varied between countries, with the exception of small community size. Accessibility and literacy levels were correlated with CLTS outcomes, but the direction of correlation differed between countries. To translate findings into practical guidance for CLTS implementers, we used classification and regression trees to identify a "split point" for each contextual factor significantly associated with ODF achievement. We also identified the combinations of factors conducive to a minimum of 50% ODF achievement. This study demonstrates that publicly available, high-resolution datasets on accessibility, socioeconomic, and environmental factors can be leveraged to target CLTS activities to the most favorable contexts.


Adaptive cognition is fostered by knowledge about the structure and value of our environment. Here, we hypothesize that these two kinds of information are inherently intertwined as affective schemas in the medial prefrontal cortex (mPFC). Schemas (e.g., of a social network) emerge by extracting commonalities across experiences and can be understood as graphs comprising nodes (e.g., people) and edges (e.g., their relationships). We sampled information about unique real-life environments (i.e., about personally familiar people and places) and probed their neural representations with fMRI. Using representational similarity analysis, we show that the mPFC encodes both, the nodes and the edges of the schema. Critically, the strength of the edges is not only determined by experience and centrality of a given node but also by its affective value. We thus account for the involvement of the mPFC in seemingly disparate functions and suggest that valuation emerges naturally from encoded memory representations.


Bantar Gebang landfill was constructed in 1986 with total area of 108 ha and approximately 6000 ton/day solid waste is disposed to this landfill. Mostly, the people living surrounding landfill get afraid of impact of the hazardous chemicals produced by waste disposal to their health. The purpose of this investigation was to study the migration of leachate to Cibitung River water and shallow groundwaters near to the river. It is possible to be done because chemical contents and isotopic characteristics of municipal landfill leachate are unique, relative to aqueous media in the most natural environments. Laser absorption method developed by the LGR (Los Gatos Research) was used to measure absolute abundances of 2 HHO, HH 18 O and HHO in a number of water samples. In-situ measurements were also conducted as an additional parameter besides their isotopes. The δ 2 H of the H 2 O in landfill leachate was significantly enriched, with values of - 22.6 ‰ to + 4.3 ‰. This deuterium enrichment was undoubtedly due to the extensive production of microbial methane within the limited reservoir of the landfill. However, the enriched deuterium value in leachate was not detected in the river which still had depleted values. It was probably caused by the amount of natural water in the river was comparatively large, with respect to limited leachate discarded to the river. The electrical conductivity of the leachate was higher (3200 to 7600 μS) and the decreasing values were still monitored in the river to approximately 12 km after streaming the landfills. The effect of the high electrical conductivity and enriched deuterium of leachate was not clearly indicated in the groundwater samples which still represented the local precipitation recharge, except a monitoring well located in Bantar Gebang landfill area which has an indication of leachate contamination.  Received: 20 November 2010; Revised: 15 June 2011; Accepted: 25 July 2011


All operations performed in all surgical specialties in a district general hospital over a 4-week period were monitored. Although most elective operations were performed or supervised by trained staff, the service, particularly emergency care, was heavily dependent on incompletely trained doctors. Consultants, who operated on 41% of elective cases, were more likely to perform major operations. Supervision of junior surgeons for elective surgery was considered satisfactory. Thirty-one per cent of all major cases were performed by doctors in training, usually under supervision. However, 86% of all emergency operations were performed by trainee surgeons without consultant supervision. A consultant anaesthetist or clinical assistant attended all elective operating lists and either supervised or gave the anaesthetic. However, anaesthetists in training were not usually supervised for emergency cases outside normal working hours. It is worrying that one-third of all procedures were undertaken by surgeons who had been on duty for periods in excess of 24 h.


A series of C15 triene urushiol derivatives were synthesized and evaluated for their anti-HepG2 aggregation in vitro. The results indicated that all compounds had an effective anti-HepG2 vitality. Compound 1 was a potent inhibitor of HepG2 with IC50 of 7.886 μM and 150 μM against LO2. Moreover, compound 1 increased the apoptosis of HepG2. Compound 1's thiol sulfur formed hydrogen bonding interactions with Gly154 and Tyr308, respectively, and made it bound more closely to HDAC2. In addition, it also formed hydrophobic interactions with the residues His33, Pro106, Val107, Gly154, Phe155, and His183, and was provided with a strong van der Waals force by the hydrophobic action.


We report on the results of the magnetic and structure properties investigation of Heusler alloy films. Ni-Mn-In thin films were formed by pulsed laser deposition. Stoichiometry was varied and controlled by co-deposition technique. The different deposition conditions and influence of the annealing temperature on the film composition were investigated using Auger electron spectroscopy and Rutherford backscattering spectrometry. The optimal annealing temperature was found to be 620 K. The set of the films deposited on the oxidized Si (100) substrate at room temperature and annealed at 620 K was investigated using X-ray diffractometry at room temperature and Vibrating sample magnetometery at low temperatures. The crystal structure was found to be a mixture of austenitic and martensitic phases at room temperature. Decreasing of Curie temperature from 270 K to 250 K with the decreasing of In concentration from 20 at % to 15 at % was observed.


Background/Aims: JTT-751 (ferric citrate hydrate) is a novel iron-based phosphate approved in Japan for the treatment of hyperphosphatemia in dialysis and nondialysis patients with chronic kidney disease. Methods: In this phase 3, multicenter, open-label, dose-adjusted study, we investigated the efficacy and safety of JTT-751 in peritoneal dialysis patients. A total of 56 patients with serum phosphate ≥5.6 and <10.0 mg/dl were enrolled in the study. The dose of JTT-751 was adjusted to between 1.5 and 6.0 g/day, according to the target range of serum phosphate (3.5-5.5 mg/dl), for 12 weeks. The primary endpoint was change in serum phosphate from baseline to end of treatment. Secondary endpoints included the percentage of patients achieving target serum phosphate levels and changes in intact parathyroid hormone. Results: Serum phosphate was significantly reduced by 2.26 mg/dl (p < 0.001). The percentage of patients achieving target serum phosphate levels was 76.8%. Intact parathyroid hormone decreased significantly (p < 0.001). The most common adverse drug reactions were diarrhea and constipation. Most of the events were considered to be mild. Treatment with JTT-751 resulted in significant increases in serum ferritin and transferrin saturation (p < 0.001). Conclusion: In peritoneal dialysis patients with hyperphosphatemia, 12-week treatment with JTT-751 resulted in significant reductions in serum phosphate while simultaneously increasing serum iron parameters. JTT-751 was well tolerated.


By gathering a broad range of sources (literary, epigraphic, archaeological, iconographic, and organological), this study provides the first extended critique of what we know about Spartan music. The chronological focus of the thesis is the sixth to fourth centuries BCE, showing how previously overlooked evidence reveals that the musical culture of Sparta remained in a fluid state of change, reflection, and development, both during and after its fabled heyday in the seventh and sixth centuries BCE.
I suggest that the unique elements of Spartan music (primarily its conservative and homeostatic nature) are either not overly unique or not entirely believable. That being said, aspects of Spartan musical performance do indeed appear to be distinctly local, such as the hereditary role of military aulos-players, but this obscures the point that music is a reflection of the culture in which it is created, and that as a tool to foster social cohesion and moral and political understanding, music played much the same role in Sparta as it did in other states. What is unique about Spartan music is the extent to which it was believed to be different.
A number of specific contributions to our understanding of ancient music and Spartan society are made: the Sparta auloi fragments belong to at least two different pairs of pipes; Simonides, rather than a poet tied to regent Pausanias, made a substantial contribution to Spartan politeia and paideia more broadly; Laconian material culture points to a vibrant performative environment. I also highlight the success of Sparta's progressive Roman musical culture from the 1st C. BCE - 3rd C. CE, and its tensions with deliberate archaising 'traditions'. In sum, this thesis argues that Spartan music needs to be re-conceived. Like the Spartan government, despite pleas for its stability and unchanging nature, Spartan engagement with music was constantly being reconsidered and reinvented, at home and abroad.


The head mesoderm is the mesodermal tissue on either side of the brain, from forebrain to hindbrain levels, and gives rise to the genuine head muscles. Its relatedness to the more posterior paraxial mesoderm, the somites, which generate the muscles of the trunk, is conversely debated. To gain insight into the molecular setup of the head mesoderm, its similarity or dissimilarity to the somitic mesoderm, and the implications of its setup for the progress of muscle formation, we investigated the expression of markers (1) for mesoderm segmentation and boundary formation, (2) for regional specification and somitogenesis and (3) for the positive and negative control of myogenic differentiation. We show that the head mesoderm is molecularly distinct from somites. It is not segmented; even the boundary to the first somite is ill‐defined. Importantly, the head mesoderm lacks the transcription factors driving muscle differentiation while genes suppressing differentiation and promoting cell proliferation are expressed. These factors show anteroposteriorly and dorsoventrally regionalised but overlapping expression. Notably, expression extends into the areas that actively contribute to the heart, overlapping with the expression of cardiac markers. Developmental Dynamics 235:2845–2860, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Vertical distribution, sex ratio, size structure and mate encounters of Firoloida des- marestia in the southern Gulf of Mexico were analyzed during 4 seasons (in February, May, August and November). A total of 395 individuals were collected with an opening−closing net at 5 levels of the 105 m upper water column. Results indicated that the species reproduces throughout the year, with a reproductive peak in May and a low reproductive period from August to February. Length measurements indicated that females (as long as 30 mm) are larger than males (18 mm). Estimations of a 'spatial overlap' index showed a high overlap degree between sexes, suggesting that patterns in their vertical distribution are not a reproductive barrier. Sex ratio (F:M) at birth seemed to be 1:1, but during most of the year the adult sex ratio was dominated by females. We propose that larger dimensions and faster swimming speeds of females provide competitive advantages over males in searching for food and avoiding predators. Simulations of mate encoun- ters indicated that values during the low reproductive season were low under turbulent and non- turbulent conditions (< 4.9 males d −1 female −1 ), but enough to fertilize a high percentage of females. During the high reproductive season, encounters were as high as 17.2 males d −1 female −1 because the high density of adult population and the influence of wind-induced turbulence. We suggest that some biological features of females (seminal receptacle and exocrine gland) compen- sate for the low encounter rates. A conceptual model for the population dynamics of F. desmarestia is proposed.


Background: Enchondroma is the most frequent bone tumor of the hand, but chondrosarcoma is rare at this location. There is a high possibility of correct diagnosis of enchondroma and differentiating from its malignant counterpart by precise clinical and radiologic assessment without biopsy, a subject of debate in the literature. At the present study we substantially investigate this problem, in our patients. Methods: Case records, radiographs, and histology of 52 solitary enchondroma patients who underwent operation in our hospital between 1998 and 2010, were reviewed. Special attention paid to pre and post –op diagnoses, and compared with each other. Results: Eighty-six percent of our patients were between the second to fourth decades of life, with a slight female predominance. In all, the primary diagnosis of enchondroma according to clinical presentation and radiographic appearance, supported by intraoperative gross appearance of tumor, and confirmed histologically by permanent section analysis. There was no mismatch between radiologic and histologic diagnosis. Conclusion: we concluded that correct diagnosis of enchondroma is almost always possible by precise clinical and radiographic assessment with no need for histologic confirmation before definitive treatment.


This paper explores how companies and other stakeholders could assess the macro-level enabling potential of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), in other words, the ability of ICT to reduce the negative sustainability impact of other industry sectors at a society level, and identifies some important considerations for such assessments including impact trends, addressable emissions, boundary setting and ICT solution categories of particular interest. To illustrate the complexity of performing macro-level estimates of ICT's enabling potential, this paper also discusses the 2020 enabling potential proposed by GeSI in their SMARTer2020 report. In addition, it investigates how organizations present GHG emissions reductions in different sectors where such reductions have already been achieved and finds that the claimed GHG emission reductions and energy savings would often need more details on calculations, methodology and background data.


A survey of Pacific coral reef fishes for sanguinicolids revealed that two species of Lutjanidae (Lutjanus argentimaculatus, L. bohar), six species of Siganidae (Siganus corallinus, S. fuscescens, S. lineatus, S. margaritiferus, S. punctatus, S. vulpinus), seven species of Chaetodontidae (Chaetodon aureofasciatus, C. citrinellus, C. flavirostris, C. lineolatus, C. reticulatus, C. ulietensis, C. unimaculatus), three species of Scombridae (Euthynnus affinis, Scomberomorus commerson, S. munroi) and three species of Scaridae (Chlorurus microrhinos, Scarus frenatus, S. ghobban) were infected with morphologically similar sanguinicolids. These flukes have a flat elliptical body, a vestigial oral sucker, a single testis, separate genital pores and a post-ovarian uterus. However, these species clearly belong in two genera based on the position of the testis and genital pores. Sanguinicolids from Lutjanidae, Siganidae, Chaetodontidae and Scombridae belong in Cardicola Short, 1953; the testis originates anteriorly to, or at the anterior end of, the intercaecal field and does not extend posteriorly to it, the male genital pore opens laterally to the sinistral lateral nerve chord and the female pore opens near the level of the ootype ( may be anterior, lateral or posterior to it) antero-dextral to the male pore. Those from Scaridae are placed in a new genus, Braya; the testis originates near the posterior end of the intercaecal field and extends posteriorly to it, the male pore opens medially at the posterior end of the body and the female pore opens posterior to the ootype, antero-sinistral to the male pore. The second internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA from these sanguinicolids and a known species, Cardicola forsteri Cribb, Daintith & Munday, 2000, were sequenced, aligned and analysed to test the distinctness of the putative new species. Results from morphological comparisons and molecular analyses suggest the presence of 18 putative species; 11 are described on the basis of combined morphological and molecular data and seven are not because they are characterised solely by molecular sequences or to few morphological specimens (n= one). There was usually a correlation between levels of morphological and genetic distinction in that pairs of species with the greatest genetic separation were also the least morphologically similar. The exception in this regard was the combination of Cardicola tantabiddii n. sp. from S. fuscescens from Ningaloo Reef ( Western Australia) and Cardicola sp. 2 from the same host from Heron Island ( Great Barrier Reef). These two parasite/ host/location combinations had identical ITS2 sequences but appeared to differ morphologically ( however, this could simply be due to a lack of morphological material for Cardicola sp. 2). Only one putative species ( Cardicola sp. 1) was found in more than one location; most host species harboured distinct species in each geographical location surveyed ( for example, S. corallinus from Heron and Lizard Islands) and some ( for example, S. punctatus, S. fuscescens and Chlorurus microrhinos) harboured two species at a single location. Distance analysis of ITS2 showed that nine species from siganids, three from scombrids and five from scarids formed monophyletic clades to the exclusion of sanguinicolids from the other host families. Cardicola milleri n. sp. and C. chaetodontis Yamaguti, 1970 from lutjanids and chaetodontids, respectively, were the only representatives from those families that were sequenced. Within the clade formed by sanguinicolids from Siganidae there wasa further division of species; species from the morphologically similar S. fuscescens and S. margaritiferus formed a monophyletic group to the exclusion of sanguinicolids from all other siganid species.


Abstract Introduction: Alendronate sodium is used to reduce the risk of bone fracture in aged osteoporosis patients. However, its side effects should be recognized, especially for those aged patients with one or more basic cardiovascular diseases. Patient concerns: A 90-year-old and a 75-year-old male patient were admitted to our department. These 2 patients were examined by dual energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA). Diagnosis: Both patients were diagnosed with osteoporosis, they also had history of atrial fibrillation (AF) and had long term use of warfarin. Interventions: Alendronate sodium was prescribed to the two patients at 70 mg once a week. Outcomes: The 2 patients had experienced dramatic increase of international normalized ratio (INR) to 4.69∼4.86 within 24 hours and gradual decrease in the next 5 days. Both patients experienced spontaneous ecchymoses and petechiae in the skin at the first 72 hours. Conclusion: Alendronate sodium can transiently increase the INR over 50%, induce spontaneous ecchymoses and petechiae in the skin of aged male osteoporosis patients with AF who took warfarin. Clinicians should pay enough attention when using alendronate sodium on these kinds of patients and be aware of the consequent potential bleeding risk.


Smallholders are crucial for global sustainability given their importance to food and nutritional security, agriculture, and biodiversity conservation. Worldwide smallholders are subject to expanded telecoupling whereby their social-ecological systems are linked to large-scale socioeconomic and environmental drivers. The present research uses the synthesis of empirical evidence to demonstrate smallholder telecoupling through the linkages stemming from the global-level integration of markets (commodity, labor, finance), urbanization, governance, and technology. These telecoupling forces are often disadvantageous to smallholders while certain conditions can contribute to the potential sustainability of their social-ecological systems. Case studies were chosen to describe sustainability opportunities and limits involving smallholder production and consumption of high-agrobiodiversity Andean maize amid telecoupled migration (Bolivia), the role of international eco-certification in smallholder coffee-growing and agroforests (Colombia), smallholder organic dairy production in large-scale markets and technology transfer (upper Midwest, U.S.A.), and smallholders' global niche commodity production of argan oil (Morocco). These case studies are used to identify the key challenges and opportunities faced by smallholders in telecoupling and to develop a conceptual framework. This framework specifies the integrated roles of global systems together with influential public and private institutions operating at multiple scales including the national level. The framework also integrates the local dynamics of smallholders' multiple land use units and their socioeconomic and environmental variation. Spatial spillover effects in smallholder landscapes are an additional element. This framework further establishes the unRomantic, nonteleological, and antifetishistic view of smallholders. It provides specific insights on the multilevel dynamics of smallholder telecoupling and potential sustainability opportunities that can strengthen livelihoods, biodiversity conservation, and food and nutritional security. These insights are concluded to be valuable to environmental, agricultural, and food scientists and scholars (both biogeophysical sciences and social sciences), policy makers, institutional analysts, development specialists and practitioners, social justice activists, and others seeking to advance global sustainability including sustainable development.


nonsubjective and validly derived decision criterion. But he equally clearly has not yet escaped, for he has not given an objective or a valid derivation as a special value, nor has he shown how survival could in practice operate as a decision criterion (e.g., he has not treated the practical difficulties of accurately and fully predicting the future so that the behavioral engineers will be able to assess the survival potential of different courses of action). But Skinner's lack of precision in writing does make him difficult to interpret. Thus, Professor Corsi, not I, may well be correct. In either case, however, it is clear that Skinner does fall into serious contradiction. Furthermore, in his final paragraph and especially in his final point, Professor Corsi does raise additional telling objections to Skinner's social and political thought.


We develop a new measure of integrity as it relates to corporate culture - the number of employees who use corporate emails to register for a website that facilitates extramarital affairs. This measure is associated with firm-level unethical behavior: it predicts a greater probability of SEC enforcement actions for accounting misstatements, and lower corporate ethics ratings by external analysts. However, consistent with research in psychology, we find that the measure also predicts more innovation (R&D intensity, successful patenting rates, subsequent patent citations, and patent diversity) and risk-taking (leverage, volatility, probability of default). Our results suggest that it is difficult to engineer a perfect corporate culture due to potential trade-offs between employee creativity, risk-taking, and integrity.


Abstract We explore the relationships amongst bedding dip, basin aspect, and glacial landforms using field observations and analyses of the northwestern inta ountains of tah. We examine basins on opposing sides of three ice divides in which quartzite beds of the Mount Watson Formation maintain a near constant dip. These areas provide contrasting relationships between ice flow and bedding dip directions while holding rock type and climate constant. We map the occurrence of three glacial erosional landforms: cliffs showing evidence of quarrying, scoured surfaces polished by abrasion, and overdeepenings. Cliffs and overdeepenings are more common in basins where bedding dips up‐basin, while scoured surfaces are more prevalent where bedding dips down‐basin. The significance of jointing in controlling glacial erosional forms is well established and we propose that bedding, as well as joints, dictates the geometry of quarried blocks and influences the spatial patterns of process dominance. Where bedding dips up‐basin, the geometry of pre‐existing weaknesses favours quarrying creating both cliffs and overdeepenings. In contrast, where bedding dips down‐basin, block geometry does not favour the creation of overdeepenings via quarrying and exposed bedding planes are subjected to glacial abrasion, producing scoured surfaces.


Whole-body retention and distribution of 239Pu in selected tissues of Beagle dogs were determined after a series of two or four inhalation exposures to 239PuO2. Exposures were made at half-year intervals with alveolar depositions of about 150 nCi per exposure. Data are reported on dogs followed for one and two years after the first exposure. The plutonium was found to be extremely insoluble; 2-3% of the amount deposited in the alveolar region translocated to tracheobronchial lymph nodes and less than 0.1% translocated to other tissues. The whole-body retention, when compared to retention of 239Pu following a single exposure, supported the hypothesis that each exposure was retained independently with the same retention characteristics. This is in agreement with results reported by other investigators for one human repeatedly exposed by inhalation to low levels of aerosols containing plutonium-uranium fuels.


In the United Arab Emirates (UAE), breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women, and chemotherpy is widly used to treat it. However, chemotherapy drugs are not able to differentiate between the cancerous and healthy tissues. This leads to the well-known, harmful side effects of this treatment, which include hair loss, fatigue, nausea, and a weakened immune system. This paper argues for the potential effectiveness of delivering chemotherapy drugs to tumors in protective barriers (drug encapsulation in a nano-carrier) that isolate the drug from healthy tissues, minimizing side effects and increasing the quality of life of patients and their families. When injected into the bloodstream, these nanocarriers will diffuse into the tumor and ultrasonic waves can then be administered at the tumor site in order to release the chemotherapy drug from its capsule. This will restrict the drug to the physical location of the cancerous cells. This policy paper offers a number of recommendations related to furthering this research for the benefit of UAE citizens, residents, and those impacted by breast cancer around the world.


Shoukhrat Mitalipov last week sought to allay fears his group had not created cloned human embryonic stem cells by laying out his evidence for them at the annual meeting of the International Society for Stem Cell Research. Perhaps more provocative, he also showed the first data hinting that such cells may trump another kind of stem cell now in vogue, induced pluripotent stem (iPS) cells. Mitalipov said that compared with iPS cells, his cells bear "fewer abnormalities" and "more closely resemble genuine embryonic stem cells," traits that may favor their use as therapies for particular conditions, such as diseases of a cell's energy-producing mitochondria.


Triacylglycerol (TG) synthesis rates of low-oxidative fast-twitch white and high-oxidative fast- and slow-twitch red skeletal muscle fiber sections of adult rats were measured by the incorporation of perfusate-derived palmitate into the neutral lipid fraction by use of a perfused hindquarter preparation under high-flow conditions. The perfusion medium consisted of 95% O2-5% CO2 Krebs-Henseleit buffer, pH 7.4, containing 5 g/100 ml bovine serum albumin, 100 microU/ml insulin, 5 mmol/l glucose, amino acids, and added fatty acids (FA), including 0.1 microCi/ml [3H]palmitate. FA incorporation was linear with time. TG synthesis rates correlated (r > or = 0.90) with the oxidative capacity of each of the different fiber type sections and increased in proportion to the perfusate FA concentration (0.25, 0.5, 1.0, 1.5, and 2.0 mmol/l). TG synthesis rates among different muscle fiber sections were related (r > or = 0.90) to perfusate flow during high-flow conditions; however, this was not causal, because TG synthesis rates within each muscle fiber section were independent of flow rate when experimentally varied over an approximately threefold range. Thus the relatively high TG synthesis rates observed in the high-oxidative muscle sections are not uniquely related to their high-flow capacities but are inherent to the TG synthesis process, probably events associated with FA uptake and/or capacity of the TG synthesis pathway.


 Abstract — Rice straw is lignocellulosic biomass which can be utilized as substrate for the biogas production. However, due to the property and composition of rice straw, it is difficult to be degraded by hydrolysis enzymes. One of the pretreatment methods that modify such properties of lignocellulosic biomass is the application of lignocellulose-degrading microbial consortia. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of microbial consortia to enhance biogas production. To select the high efficient consortium, cellulase enzymes were extracted and their activities were analyzed. The results suggested that microbial consortium culture obtained from cattle manure is the best candidate compared to decomposed wood and horse manure. A microbial consortium isolated from cattle manure was then mixed with anaerobic sludge and used as inoculum for biogas production. The optimal conditions for biogas production were investigated using response surface methodology (RSM). The tested parameters were the ratio of amount of microbial consortium isolated and amount of anaerobic sludge (MI:AS), substrate to inoculum ratio (S:I) and temperature. Here, the value of the regression coefficient R 2 = 0.7661 could be explained by the model which is high to advocate the significance of the model. The highest cumulative biogas yield was 104.6 ml/g-rice straw at optimum ratio of MI:AS, ratio of S:I, and temperature of 2.5:1, 15:1 and 44°C respectively.


This paper addresses the paradox of trade dispute settlement in which countries allocate resources to the creation of dispute settlement mechanisms in regional trade agreements even as the WTO's system has become the primary forum for the arbitration of state-to-state disputes. I argue that while the WTO remains the primary insurance against the breakdown of trading relations, these new instruments play a political role in securing the gains of regional and multilateral liberalization (real and potential) against the possibility of multilateral failure. The paper reviews literature on the institutional and conceptual developments in the study of regional dispute processes, develops an empirical study of the rise of regional DSMs over time, and then links this evidence to changing ways of conceptualizing the costs and benefits of trade regionalization. A reinsurance hypothesis goes a ways towards explaining why countries negotiate DSMs that for the most part, they do not use.


Over the past decade, changes to Australia's retirement income policy have been announced in almost every Federal Budget, with no signs yet that reform is coming to an end. Indeed, the Simpler Super reforms announced in the 2006 Federal Budget have been described as the largest overhaul of Australia's superannuation system since the introduction of compulsory superannuation. This paper describes the current retirement system in Australia and provides a summary of the historical development of the Australian retirement system, with special emphasis placed on the recent reform initiatives designed to increase labour force participation of mature age Australians, provide higher levels of savings for retirement, and reduce reliance on the Age Pension as the main source of retirement income. The final section of the paper contains a review of the existing research addressing the issue of whether recent changes to retirement income policy will in fact have their intended effects. At this point it is still unclear whether these reforms will increase mature age labour force participation or reduce reliance on the Age Pension. Indeed, some have argued that these policy changes create perverse incentives, and will encourage early retiremen.


A Flory theory is constructed for a long polymer ring in a melt of unknotted and non-concatenated rings. The theory assumes that the ring forms an effective annealed branched object and computes its primitive path. It is shown that the primitive path follows self-avoiding statistics and is characterized by the corresponding Flory exponent of a polymer with excluded volume. Based on that, it is shown that rings in the melt are compact objects with overall size proportional to their length raised to the 1/3 power. Furthermore, the contact probability exponent γcontact is estimated, albeit by a poorly controlled approximation, with the result close to 1.1 consistent with both numerical and experimental data.


Colonialism profoundly transformed African political, economic, and social structures. The exploitation of Africa's labour and natural resources for the benefit of the metropoles was to have intense implications for the continent as it emerged towards independence in the 1960s as, in most cases, the foundations necessary for the construction of sovereign, economically viable, and politically stable African states did not exist. 'The transfer of power and the colonial legacy' describes how the European powers left most of their colonial possessions unprepared for self-rule. The key colonial legacy was economic, which massively influenced the political realm. Initial state and nation building encouraged the centralization of power and creation of political monopolies.


The authors report two cases of early transplant renal vein thrombosis after kidney transplantation. In the two cases, the graft had to be removed. Many difficulties prevented the diagnosis of this fortunately unusual (0.8% of all transplantations performed) vascular injury.


We have used the first ∼3 years of 3.4 μm (W1) and 4.6 μm (W2) observations from the WISE and NEOWISE missions to create a full-sky set of time-resolved coadds. As a result of the WISE survey strategy, a typical sky location is visited every six months and is observed during ≳12 exposures per visit, with these exposures spanning a ∼1 day time interval. We have stacked the exposures within such ∼1 day intervals to produce one coadd per band per visit—that is, one coadd every six months at a given position on the sky in each of W1 and W2. For most parts of the sky, we have generated six epochal coadds per band, with one visit during the fully cryogenic WISE mission, one visit during NEOWISE, and then, after a 33-month gap, four more visits during the NEOWISE-Reactivation mission phase. These coadds are suitable for studying long-timescale mid-infrared variability and measuring motions to ∼1.3 mag fainter than the single-exposure detection limit. In most sky regions, our coadds span a 5.5-year time period and therefore provide a >10× enhancement in time baseline relative to that available for the AllWISE catalog's apparent motion measurements. As such, the signature application of these new coadds is expected to be motion-based identification of relatively faint brown dwarfs, especially those cold enough to remain undetected by Gaia.


OBJECTIVES
Relapsing polychondritis (RP) is a rare and severe disease which may lead to destruction of elastic cartilages. Until now, no reliable biomarker of disease activity in RP has been available. This study was designed to measure serum levels of cartilage biomarkers during both active and inactive phases of the disease.

METHODS
Serum levels of cartilage oligomeric matrix protein (COMP), chondroitin sulfate 846 epitope (CS846) of proteoglycan aggrecan and collagen type II collagenase cleavage neoepitope (C2C) were measured retrospectively in 21 subjects with RP. The Wilcoxon matched-pairs signed-rank test was used for statistical comparisons of biomarker levels in active and inactive phases of RP.

RESULTS
Only the serum level of COMP was significantly increased during disease flares. Steroids did not alter the serum cartilage-related biomarker levels. However, during the active phase, C2C levels were significantly higher in steroid treated patients compared with non-steroid treated patients.

CONCLUSIONS
This study suggests that serum COMP level may be useful for monitoring disease activity of RP. Further prospective studies are required to confirm this result.


Studies the recovery of shape from texture under perspective projection. We regard shape from texture as a statistical estimation problem, the texture being the realization of a stochastic process. We introduce warplets, which generalize wavelets over the 2D affine group. At fine scales, the warpogram of the image obeys a transport equation, called texture gradient equation. In order to recover the 3D shape of the surface, one must estimate the deformation gradient, which measures metric changes in the image. This is made possible by imposing a notion of homogeneity for the original texture, according to which the deformation gradient is equal to the velocity of the texture gradient equation. By measuring the warplet transform of the image at different scales, we obtain a deformation gradient estimator.


textabstractWe know that healing of a tendon wound takes place by an invasion of fibreblasts
from the surrounding tissues; the tendon itself has no intrinsic healing
capacity. lt was Potenza (1962) who proved that a traumatic suture of the tendons
within their sheath is followed by disintegration of the synovia and the
formation of granulation tissue. The tissue invades the tendon at those places
where its surface is wounded and forms new collagen which restores its continuity.
As soon as this scar tissue matures, the adhesions become looser and
the integrity of the sheath is repaired. Potenza (1963) also observed that when
contact between the tendon and its sheath is made impossible by the introduction
of polyethylene tubes or millipore, healing of the tendon wound is postponed
until granulation tissue has invaded the tube from its end and reached
the wound along the surface of the tendon. However, trauma is not always
restricted to a loss of continuity; circulatory loss may also occur and the consequences
of deprivation of a tendon's blood supply force us to study the role
of its circulation during healing.


The flora of the railway station Salzwedel is remarkably high by having 255 species on an area of 0.3 km². Although for 40 years Salzwedel was in an unfavourable situation near the border of the former GDR, the Salzwedel railway junction has kept the usual central European species inventory typical for railway stations. With respect to the spreading of neophytes, the role of the railway has to be discussed more detailed whilest many short living species, which are often weak competitors, are spread by the railway, most of the neophytic perennial herbs as well as the alien shrubs are invading into the railway land from adjacent gardens. Because of the high ground water table numerous species of the Bidentetea and the Phragmitetea are to be found at the Salzwedel railway station.


Fully numerical schemes are presented for high precision computations of the four-dimensional integrals arising in Galerkin surface integral equation formulations. More specifically, the focal point of this paper is the singular integrals for coincident, edge adjacent and vertex adjacent planar and curvilinear triangular elements. The proposed method, dubbed as DIRECTFN, utilizes a series of variable transformations, able to cancel both weak (1/R) and strong (1/R2) singularities. In addition, appropriate interchanges in the order of the associated one-dimensional integrations result in further regularization of the overall integrals. The final integrands are analytic functions with respect to all variables involved and, hence, the integrals can be efficiently evaluated by means of simple Gaussian integration. The accuracy and convergence properties of the new schemes are demonstrated by evaluating representative weakly singular and strongly singular integrals over planar and quadratic curvilinear elements.


This research takes the research title "Implementation of Government Policy In Acceleration Of Integrated Stunting Reduction In Sukabumi Regency". This research is motivated by the function of government, namely service, where the government is present to serve the community. Stunting is physical growth characterized by a decrease in growth speed and is the impact of nutritional imbalances. The long-term impact of stunting is the disruption of physical, mental, intellectual, and cognitive development. This study aims to identify and analyze the implementation of the Sukabumi Regency Government in accelerating the reduction of stunting. The research method used is a descriptive research method with a qualitative approach. Informants are officials of the Regional Development Planning Agency of Sukabumi Regency and officers of the Health Office of Sukabumi Regency. The data collection techniques used are people, places, and paper. Data collection techniques were carried out by means of open and closed interviews, observation, and document review. And the data analysis technique is done by data reduction (data reduction), data display (data presentation), and conclusion drawing (verification). The results of the study indicate that the implementation of government policies to accelerate the reduction of integrated stunting in Sukabumi has been going well as a whole. This is supported by the commitment of the Central and Regional Governments to support this program with the support of the allocation of funds from the APBN (national budget) and APBD (local budget) in its implementation. In addition, support from human resources and related parties in the implementation in the field has been running optimally, but there are still many people who do not understand the program to accelerate the reduction of stunting such as the low level of public knowledge of parenting for children and toddlers so that its rates is an effort by local governments to obtain the latest stunting prevalence data at the service scales of puskesmas, sub-districts, and villages. The results of measuring the height of children under five years of age and the publication of stunting rates are used to strengthen the commitment of local governments and the community in the joint movement to reduce stunting. The procedure for monitoring child growth is still guided by the regulations of the Ministry of Health or other applicable policies.


Effects of different Mo contents on microstructures and properties of Ti-22.5Al-20Nb-2V(at.%) were analyzed in this paper. Experimental results showed that the grain size was refined and the amounts of equiaxed α2 phases decreased with increase of Mo from 0.6at.% to 1.5at.%. The size of (O+B2) lath was refined when Mo from 0.6at.% to 1.2at.%. However, it seems that Mo easily segregate especially in grain boundary and become seriously with Mo increased. Compression tests showed that the yield strength and ultimate strength of alloys were obviously improved with Mo addition from 0.6at.% to 1.2at.%. Microhardness tests showed the same trend with compression yield and ultimate strength.


INTRODUCTION
Survivin, a novel inhibitor of apoptosis, is re-expressed in a vast majority of human cancers and is widely considered as a diagnostic marker of cancers. Survivin protein regulates both cell division and apoptosis. There are at least 5 spliced variants of the gene with different subcellular localization and anti-apoptotic property. We examined the expression pattern of survivin and its 2 spliced variants, survivin-deltaEx3 and survivin-2B, and their prognostic values in archival collections of formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples of bladder tumors.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Total RNA from formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded samples (51 samples from 30 patients with bladder cancer and 5-year follow-up) were extracted and analyzed by semiquantitative reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction technique. Tissue distribution and subcellular localization of survivin protein in tumor tissues was also examined by immunohistochemistry.

RESULTS
The expression of survivin, survivin-deltaEx3, and survivin-2B were detected in 66.6%, 47.8%, and 54.7% of the specimens, respectively. The expression of survivin and survivin-deltaEx3 were preferentially elevated in tumors with higher grades, whereas survivin-2B expression was lower in high-grade tumors (P = .04). A reverse correlation was observed between survivin-2B expression and high-grade tumors. Immunohistochemistry results also confirmed the nuclear localization of survivin protein within tumoral cells.

CONCLUSION
We were successful in detecting the expression of survivin and its variants in formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded bladder samples. Furthermore, our results showed that overexpression of survivin and survivin-deltaEx3 in bladder tumors correlates with poor prognosis of bladder cancer. We suggest that survivin and its variants are suitable prognostic markers of bladder tumors.


A novel process to form shallow junctions for source/drain application in CMOS structures is presented. The method consists of two steps; first an HCl-etch followed by SiCl2H2-based selective epitaxy in the same run in a reduced pressure chemical vapour deposition chamber. Optimization of etch and epitaxy processes have been investigated and the active dopant concentration in SiGe layers grown was measured directly in the device openings.


This paper demonstrates how women who study childcare achieve congruence in their lives. Rather than simply juggling the needs of family, work and study in order to escape the domestic sphere, they choose to minimise dissonance, finding that parenting children, working with children and studying children creates a stable framework with reciprocal rather than conflictual links. The framework is captured as a model of 'integrated lives' and, drawing on Amartya Sen's capability approach, further conceptualised as an example of a capability set for childcare students. The pattern of drifting into childcare, representing the students' choices, is made visible through the creation of a set of occupational typologies. Qualitative empirical evidence is used to explore the educational and broader social implications of integrating lives, and how this congruence encourages the uptake of new ideas as learning is multiply relevant. However, shortage of time causes students to modify their approach to learning, causing many who espouse liberal values to favour knowledge transmission over more demanding styles, attracted to the former's apparent efficiency. Time constraints also encourage a retrospective acceptance of criterion-based assessment because fragmented knowledge is more easily manipulated when study patterns are sporadic and college work confined to those moments free from other commitments. The findings are discussed in relation to concerns that full-time students now need to undertake part-time work and introduce some interpretive detail to this debate.


It was recently shown that nitrogen-doped graphene (NG) can exhibit both p- and n-type characters depending on the C-N bonding nature, which represents a significant bottleneck for the development of graphene-based electronics. Based on first-principles calculations, we herein scrutinize the correlations between the atomic and electronic structures of NG and particularly explore the feasibility of converting p-type NG with pyridinic, pyrrolic, and nitrilic N atoms into n- or bipolar type by introducing an additional dopant atom. Of the nine candidates B, C, O, F, Al, Si, P, S, and Cl, we find that B-, Al-, and P-codoping can anneal even relatively large vacancy defects in p-type NG. It will be also shown that, while the NG with pyridinic N can be converted into the n-type via codoping, only a bipolar type conversion can be achieved for the NG with nitrilic or pyrrolic N. The amount of work function reduction was up to 0.64 eV for the pyridinic N next to a monovacancy. The atomistic origin of such diverse type changes is analyzed based on Mulliken and crystal orbital Hamiltonian populations, which provide us with a framework to connect the local bonding chemistry with the macroscopic electronic structure in doped and/or defective graphene. Moreover, we demonstrate that the proposed codoping scheme can recover the excellent charge transport properties of pristine graphene. Both the electronic type conversion and conductance recovery in codoped NG should have significant implications for the electronic and energy device applications.


The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy of the repeated administration of superovulatory protocol and surgical procedure in in vivo embryo production, as well as to determine the differences in the responses to superovulatory treatment among several Turkish native goat breeds (Angora, Kilis, Honamli, Hair, and Norduz). A superovulatory treatment procedure was repeated 3 times in this study. The estrus cycles were synchronized and superovulatory response was induced with porcine follicle-stimulating hormone during the natural breeding season. Natural mating was performed following CIDR removal. Embryo recovery was performed surgically on day 6, after the first mating. According to the recovery results, the fertilization rates showed variability in Angora goats (50, 100, and 24.49, respectively, for cycles 1, 2, and 3) and Honamli goats (100, 42.48, and 56.25) (P < 0.05), while recovery rates showed no difference among the other breeds. The number of transferable embryos (TEs) showed no significant differences after 3 operations for Angora, Kilis, Honamli, and Hair goats, while the number of TEs decreased in in the third cycle in Norduz goats. The results indicate that Turkish native goat breeds can be utilized as donors in multiple ovulation and embryo transfer programs for at least 3 times with suitable operation techniques, superovulation treatments, and waiting periods among treatments.


Organized legal professions often play a central role in successful institutional development. The paper's model examines how legal professions affect institutional reform. Professional review of reform proposals solves a politician's informational problem in a way that makes democracy, political stability, and professional power substitutes. The model's applicability is examined by showing that its predictions track the fortunes of lawyers in the USSR and early transition and are consistent with events in 1688 in England and 1789 in France, indicating why these two revolutions had different consequences. The model suggests why and when civil law and common law systems differ.


Aims High-sensitivity cardiac troponin I (cTnI) assays hold promise in detecting the transition from hypertrophy to heart failure in aortic stenosis. We sought to investigate the mechanism for troponin release in patients with aortic stenosis and whether plasma cTnI concentrations are associated with long-term outcome. Methods and results Plasma cTnI concentrations were measured in two patient cohorts using a high-sensitivity assay. First, in the Mechanism Cohort, 122 patients with aortic stenosis (median age 71, 67% male, aortic valve area 1.0 ± 0.4 cm2) underwent cardiovascular magnetic resonance and echocardiography to assess left ventricular (LV) myocardial mass, function, and fibrosis. The indexed LV mass and measures of replacement fibrosis (late gadolinium enhancement) were associated with cTnI concentrations independent of age, sex, coronary artery disease, aortic stenosis severity, and diastolic function. In the separate Outcome Cohort, 131 patients originally recruited into the Scottish Aortic Stenosis and Lipid Lowering Trial, Impact of REgression (SALTIRE) study, had long-term follow-up for the occurrence of aortic valve replacement (AVR) and cardiovascular deaths. Over a median follow-up of 10.6 years (1178 patient-years), 24 patients died from a cardiovascular cause and 60 patients had an AVR. Plasma cTnI concentrations were associated with AVR or cardiovascular death HR 1.77 (95% CI, 1.22 to 2.55) independent of age, sex, systolic ejection fraction, and aortic stenosis severity. Conclusions In patients with aortic stenosis, plasma cTnI concentration is associated with advanced hypertrophy and replacement myocardial fibrosis as well as AVR or cardiovascular death.


Spatial Modulation (SM) is a recently proposed single-RF multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) technique, which is capable of outperforming many conventional MIMO transmission schemes with low implementation and computational complexity. Recently, there have been some attempts in understanding the performance of SM in multi-user environments. However, most of the work has been oriented towards uplink multi-access scenarios. Also, conventional downlink/broadcast MIMO precoding techniques such as Zero Forcing (ZF) or Minimum Mean Square Error (MMSE) cannot be used in Multi-User SM (MU-SM), as part of the data in SM is also encoded into the Channel Impulse Responses (CIRs). In this paper, a novel precoding scheme for single-cell downlink MU-SM systems is proposed with a two-fold objective: i) the precoder needs to be able to completely eliminate the Multi-User Interference (MUI) by taking advantage of the Channel State Information (CSI) at the transmitter and ii) it needs to allow the users to use a single-user Maximum Likelihood (ML) optimum detector while achieving the same performance as interference-free point-to-point SM transmission. Finally, we also develop an interference-aware multi-user detection scheme, which does not require any CSI at the transmitter, and compare its performance with that of single-user detection schemes based on precoding.


State-of-the-art climate models do still exhibit pronounced deviations from the measured climate. Those deviations are often common between those models. The challenging problems in the Northern hemisphere include warming and salinization of the deep ocean being most pronounced in the northern North Atlantic, reduced deep water formation in the Labrador Sea which is sometimes accomplished by the sporadic ice coverage of the whole Labrador Sea, and an extensive ice presence in the Barents Sea. All these biases are often attributed in literature to the lack of oceanic resolution.
The multi-resolution approach used in the ocean component of the AWI climate model (ECHAM6-FESOM) allows to use enhanced horizontal resolution in dynamical active regions while keeping a coarse-resolution setup everywhere else. In this study we develop strategies for improving the climate model biases by means of increasing resolution in the ocean. The current computations have been performed on multi-centennial time scales using refinement in the different parts of the global ocean. Benefits from the local refinement have been analyzed. It is found that already with moderate refinement of the unstructured ocean grid, AWI-CM performs as well as some of the most sophisticated climate models participating in CMIP5.


This thesis is a comparative study of the remedies which may be sought by individuals when public authorities in England, France or Italy infringe EEC law. It compares the availability of such remedies against the standards set by the European Court of Justice of equality and effectiveness in the protection of rights deriving from EC law. Chapter 1 discusses the nature of EC law, its direct effect and the duty laid upon national courts to provide adequate and effective protection of EC rights. Through the case law of the European Court the work shows that the infringement of such rights by national authorities entitles individuals to claim restitution of illegally-levied duties, damages for breach of a right and interim relief to prevent further violation. Chapters 2-4 each provide an outline and discussion of the various domestic remedies which may be sought against the administration in England, France and Italy where it violates EC law, viz. restitution of illegally-levied taxes, interim relief, damages and judicial review. The use of each remedy in protecting EC rights is discussed with reference to the relevant case law of the national courts. Chapter 5 contains a direct comparative analysis of the provision of such remedies in the three countries through the use of the solutions to several problems based on hypothetical facts. On the basis of these solutions, the provision and effectiveness of the remedies are compared to the standards set by the European Court, with regard to the non-discrimination in the provision of such remedies and their efficacy. Finally, there is a discussion on the possibility of issuing EC-wide harmonising measures as a way of ensuring that certain basic remedies are available against national administrative authorities to all claimants in domestic courts.


The deposits will be described in the order in which they now occur in the pipes: namely, Chalk, Grey Clay-with-Flints, Red Clay-with-Flints, sand, and pebbles, although that is not the order of age. The occurrence of halloysite will then be dealt with, and, in conclusion, the mode of origin and subsequent history of the deposits will be considered. Chalk. The chalk belongs to the zone of Micraster cor-testudinarium, and contains flint-nodules scattered in moderate amount along the bedding-planes. In places the chalk is abnormally hard, apparently through deposition in its pore-spaces of carbonate of lime dissolved from haigher layers of chalk. Thin sections of this hard chalk show no recrystallization of calcite or other peculiarities of texture. A sample treated with dilute hydrochloric acid gave a residue of 0⋅99 per cent. brown clay, and 0⋅011 per cent. coarser material, the latter being chiefly quartz with a little flint, silicified foraminifera, ferruginous matter, etc. A feature observed in rubbing down the sections was the number of dendritic patches of manganese oxide, about 0⋅5 mm. in diameter, scattered through the chalk and not concentrated along the joints as is often the case. They appear to represent primary segregations of the manganese diffuse through the Chalk ooze, and originally extracted from the sea-water by organisms or derived from basic igneous material.1 Adjacent to the pipes, the chalk is often soft and plastic through partial solution. This material is easily washed down, and uields abundantforaminifera, polyzoa, sponge-spicules, ostracods, Inoceramus fragments, etc. Minute bones, teeth


In this paper, the conventional estimation-based receding horizon control paradigm is enhanced by using functional approximation, the adaptive modifications on state estimation and convex projection notion from optimization theory. The mathematical formalism of parameter adaptation and uncertainty estimation procedure are based on the redesign of optimal state estimation in discrete-time. By using Lyapunov stability theory, it is shown that the online approximation of uncertainties acting on both physical system and state estimator can be obtained. Moreover, the convergence criteria for online parameter adaptation with fully matched and partially matched cases are presented and shown. In addition, it is shown that the uniform boundedness of tracking and adaptation errors can be maintained by projection-based parameter update laws in discrete-time with adequate sampling times. Finally, the proposed method is implemented to quadrotor case study and the gradual recovery of feasible sub-optimal solutions are presented despite actuation, modeling and measurement errors. By using the proposed method, the uncertainty estimates are successfully converged to their prescribed values and both state prediction and command tracking of model predictive controller are corrected within the convergence bounds.


A modeling study was conducted on the transformation and deposition patterns of atmospheric mercury in the Canadian Arctic. One Dimensional (1-D) local scale model was used to simulate the episodic depletions of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) after polar sunrise at Alert, Canada. The model was developed by starting with existing meteorological model (LCM-Local Climate Model) which is coupled with Canadian Aerosol Module (CAM) and then adding modules specific to atmospheric mercury chemistry. The model is able to simulate local scale transport of mercury over the entire depth of the troposphere with a basic time step of 20 min. and incorporates current knowledge of transformation reactions of atmospheric mercury species. Three mercury species Hg(O), Hg(II) and Hg(p) were considered. The developed model was applied to a portion of the Canadian Arctic region, Alert, for the month of April 2002. The model was then evaluated by comparing model estimates of mercury species concentrations with the measurement data collected in the Canadian Arctic by Meteorological Services of Canada, Downsview, Ontario. The results from this modeling study agree reasonably well with some underestimation caused by lower conversion of gaseous elemental mercury (GEM) into reactive gaseous mercury (RGM) and subsequent conversion to total particulate mercury (TPM). A sensitivity analysis was also conducted to examine the depositions of mercury species in response to changes in ozone and soot concentrations.


Preface . Introduction. Distribution and Fate of Contaminants: Value and Limitations of Evaluative Models in Field Situations (E. Bacci). Fate of Persistent Organochlorines in the Marine Environment (S. Tanabe). Biological Monitoring (L.R. Shugart). Pollution Biomonitoring: A Summing Up (H.M. Andre). Metabolism and Toxicity: Comparative Metabolism and Selective Toxicity (C.H. Walker). Application of Metabolic Studies to the Evaluation of the Toxicity of Chemicals to Man (L. Vittozzi). Comparative Aspects of the Metabolism and Toxicity of Xenobiotics in Fish (L. Vittozzi, J. Kaizer, A. Iannelli, S. Soldano). The Role of Cytochrome P-450 in Drug Metabolism and Toxicity (F. De Matteis). Estimation of Induction of Enzymes that Metabolize Xenobiotics In Vitro and In Vivo (J.R. Bend). Toxic Effects of Contaminants: Environmental Impact of Pollutants: Biochemical Responses as Indicators of Exposure and Toxic Action (Biochemical Biomarkers) (C.H. Walker). Reactions of Molluscan Lysosomes as Biomarkers of Pollutant-Induced Cell Injury (M.N. Moore). Biochemical Approach to Toxicity Evaluation of the Rodenticides, Norbormide, and a-Naphthyl Thiourea (R. Radakrishnamurty). Detection of Xenobiotic-Protein Adducts. Electrophoretic and Immunochemical Approaches (B. Magi, B. Marzocchi, C. Lazzeri, L. Bini, and V. Pallini.). Structural and Biochemical Alterations in the Gills of Copper-Exposed Mussels (A. Viarengo, N. Arena, L. Canesi, F.A. Alia, and M. Orunesu). Alternative Methods in Ecotoxicological Research and Testing (J. Fentem and M. Balls). Contaminants and Risks for Human Health: Cancer Risks from Arsenic in Drinking Water (A.H. Smith, H. Hopenhayn-Rich, M.N. Bates, H.M. Goeden, I. Hertz-Picciotto, H.M. Duggan, R. Wood, M.J. Kosuett, and M.T. Smith). Serum 2,3,7,8-Tetracholorodibenzo-p-dioxin Levels of New Zealand Pesticide Applicators and Their Implication for Cancer Hypotheses (A.H. Smith, D.G. Patterson, Jr., M.L. Warner, R. Mackenzie, and L.L. Needham). Recombinant Human Papilloma Type 16 DNA Induces Progressive Changes in Mouse 3T3 Cells and Human Epithelial Cells (J.A. DiPaolo). Spatial Distribution of Dose in the Human Lung after Inhalation of Poorly Soluble Radionuclides and Its Sequelae (H. Cottier, A. Burkhardt, R. Kraft, F. Meister, and A. Zimmermann). The Fate of Inhaled Toxic Substances (H. Cottier and R. Kraft). The Pathogenesis of Pulmonary Alveolitis (H. Cottier and R. Kraft). Environmental Epidemiology (P. Comba). Exposure to Phenoxy Herbicides and Chlorinated Dioxins and Cancer Risks-An Inconsistent Pattern of Facts and Frauds? (O. Axelson). Converging Epidemiologic Findings on Radon in Mines and Homes as a Risk of Lung Cancer (O. Axelson). Environmental Management: The Role of Microorganisms in Environmental Decontamination (E. Galli). The Use of Pesticides and their Levels in Food in Eastern Europe-The Example of Poland (J. Falandysz). Contributions of the World Health Organization to Pesticide Safety (G.J. Burin). World Policy in the New Environmental Age (D.E. Alexander). Index.


The present study aimed to investigate the time-course and distribution of [(3)H]-corticosterone in urine, feces and blood of male Sprague-Dawley rats after intravenous administration of a low dose (1 microCi), and to investigate whether different intravenous routes of administration may affect the dynamics of excreted [(3)H]-corticosterone in the feces. One microCi [(3)H]-corticosterone was injected intravenously either through the tail vein in manually restrained rats or through a jugular vein catheter three days after surgical implantation. Urine and feces were collected at different time points over 78 h from the rats injected in the tail vein, and blood and feces were collected over 48 h from rats injected in the jugular vein. In the blood, radioactivity peaked immediately and decreased rapidly within 90 minutes. The radioactivity was excreted in urine within six h and in feces after at least 12 h. Sixty percent of the radioactivity was detected in the urine and 40% in feces during the study period of 78 h. The detected amount of radioactivity in feces was higher and displayed a more pronounced peak 12 h after injection when the substance was administered through a jugular vein catheter compared to tail vein injection. The data obtained in the present study may serve as an important benchmark when choosing time points for fecal collection for quantification of corticosterone or corticosterone metabolites as a non-invasive measure of preceding HPA-axis activation.


Superantigens include viral and bacterial products, mainly of streptococci, staphylococci that stimulate T cells to proliferate nonspecifically through interaction with class II major histocompatibility complex products on antigen-presenting cells and then with variable regions on the beta chain of T cell receptor complex. Superantigens cause symptoms via release of immune cytokines. These proteins should be considered potential cause of illnesses such as rheumatic fever, arthritis. Kawasaki syndrome, atopic dermatitis, and guttate psoriasis because of their potent immune system-altering capacity.


This article presents a novel mechanism to perform packet content inspection by longest prefix matching (LPM) technology. It is done by transforming the automaton-based state table lookup problem into the famous LPM table lookup problem. Two key features, symbol-wise prefix and magic state are observed on the state table to make it possible to utilize IP lookup techniques for string matching. The proposed mechanism is verified to be effective through Lulea algorithm. Also, the practicability is evaluated by employing realistic attack signatures and traffic traces. The experimental results indicate that a state table constructed from the Snort 2.4 patterns can be converted into a prefix table that requires only 2.5% of the memory utilized in the original state table. Compared with the state-of-the-art researches, the proposed scheme has more than 3 times of efficiency, achieving a better balance between required memory size and throughput rate.


Attribute-Based Encryption (ABE) is a cryptographic primitive which supports fine-grained access control on encrypted data, making it an appealing building block for many applications. MultiAuthority Attribute-Based Encryption (MA-ABE) is a generalization of ABE where the central authority is distributed across several independent parties. We provide the first MA-ABE scheme from prime-order pairings where no trusted setup is needed and where the attribute universe of each authority is unbounded. Our constructions rely on a common modular blueprint that uses an Identity-Based Functional Encryption scheme for inner products (IDIPFE) as an underlying primitive. Our presentation leads to simple proofs of security and brings new insight into the algebraic design choices that seem common to existing schemes. In particular, the wellknown MA-ABE construction by Lewko and Waters (EUROCRYPT 2011) can be seen as a specific instantiation of our modular construction. Our schemes enjoy all of their advantageous features, and the improvements mentioned. Furthermore, different instantiations of the core ID-IPFE primitive lead to various security/efficiency trade-offs: we propose an adaptively secure construction proven in the generic group model and a selectively secure one that relies on SXDH. As in previous work, we rely on a hash function (to generate matching randomness for the same user across different authorities while preserving collusion resistance) that is modeled as a random oracle.


A successful product family design should achieve two goals: minimizing the whole performance loss to satisfy customer requirements and minimizing the whole production cost to meet the enterprise benefits. The achievement of the two goals will depend on an appropriate selection of the platform, which is the key for product family design. In order to find a right platform decision criterion which can explicitly embody the two goals, this paper tries to define two metrics, performance sensitivity and cost sensitivity, to measure the two goals respectively and then explore a comprehensive metric to determine the platform. Based on this, the product variants can be optimized individually. This method can simplify the modeling and computing of product family design by decomposing the problem in an effective way. Only scalable product family design is considered and a family of universal electric motors is used to demonstrate the method.


Bacterial species and risk factors were examined in acne vulgaris patients inNorthern West Bank. Samples were obtained from face and upper trunk lesions of138 patients (age: 15-34 years) at Dermatology clinics. Samples were incubatedin blood agar plates under aerobic and anaerobic conditions. Patients were askedto answer a questionnaire and all provided written informed consent. Bacteriawere isolated from 88% of the patients including Propionibacterium acnes,Staphylococcus epidermidis and Staphylococcus aureus. Risk factors mentionedby patients included emotional stress, high temperature, sweating and localpressure. Chocolate, nuts and fatty food were mentioned as exacerbating, andvegetables and fruits as ameliorating foods for their acne, respectively. Resultsshow high correlation between acne and bacteria with no relation between riskfactors and specific bacterial strains. Keywords: Acne vulgaris, Palestine, West Bank, risk factor


Aim: The main aim of the study was to ascertain the antimicrobial properties and safety of Vernonia hymenolepis leaves to validate its use in treatment of toothache. Materials and Methods: The Leaves were collected from Trans Nzoia County, shade dried, ground and both organic and water extraction done. Minimum inhibitory concentration against Staphylococcus aureus ATCC 25923, Bacillus cereus ATCC 11778, Pseudomonas aeruginosa ATCC 27853, Escherichia coli ATCC 25922 and Candida albicans was done. Cytotoxicity was done using Brine Shrimp lethality test and lethal concentration (LC50) determined using Finney computer program. The Oral Acute Toxicity Testing (ATC method) was performed as per Organization for economic co-operation and development (OECD) guideline. Result and Discussion: The results showed that the aqueous extract had an inhibitory activity against Staphylococcus aureus and had no significant effect on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Escherichia coli, Bacillus cereus and Candida albicans at concentration of 400 mg/ml. The organic extract had inhibitory effect against Staphylococcus aureus at a dose of 100 mg/ml and against Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Escherichia coli both at a dose of 400 mg/ ml, Bacillus cereus at a dose of 200 mg/ml and Candida albicans at 50 mg/ml. This study has shown that the plant extracts has a moderate Cytotoxicity with the LC50 (μg /ml) of 491.8 (μg /ml) and 481.7 (μg /ml) for water and organic extract respectively. Acute oral toxicity ATC method showed that the plant extracts in both preparations were not toxic even at a high dose of 2000 mg/kg. Conclusion: It's concluded that Vernonia hymenolepis possesses antimicrobial activity and is not toxic.


A BSTRACT . Cold stress is one of the most important environmental factors affecting crop growth and agricultural production. Induced changes of gene expression and metabolism are critical for plants responding and acclimating to cold stress. Banana ( Musa sp.) is one of the most important food crops in the tropical and subtropical countries of the world. Banana, which originated from tropical regions, is sensitive to cold, which can result in serious losses in commercial banana production. To investigate the response of the banana to cold stress conditions, changes in protein expression were analyzed using a comparative proteomics approach. 'Brazil' banana ( Musa acuminata AAA group) is a common banana cultivar in southern China. 'Brazil' banana plantlets were exposed to 5 8 C for 24 hours and then total crude protein was extracted from treatment and control leaves by phenol extraction, separated with two- dimensional gel electrophoresis, and subsequently identified by mass spectrometry (MS). Out of the more than 400 protein spots reproducibly detected, only 41 protein spots exhibited a change in intensity by at least 2-fold, with 26 proteins increasing and 15 proteins decreasing expression. Of these, 28 differentially expressed proteins were identified by MS. The identified proteins, including well-known and novel cold-responsive proteins, are involved in several cellular processes, including antioxidation and antipathogen, photosynthesis, chaperones, protein synthesis, signal transduction, energy metabolism, and other cellular functions. Proteins related to antioxidation, pathogen resistance, molecular chaperones, and energy metabolism were up-regulated, and proteins related to ethylene synthesis, protein synthesis, and epigenetic modification were down-regulated in response to cold temperature treatment. The banana plantlets incubated at cold temperatures demonstrated major changes in increased reactive oxygen species (ROS) scavenging, defense against diseases, and energy supply. Increased antioxidation capability in banana was also discovered in plantain, which has greater cold tolerance than banana in response to cold stress conditions. Therefore, we hypothesized that an increased antioxidation ability could be a common characteristic of banana and plantain in response to cold stress conditions. These findings may provide a better understanding of the physiological processes of banana in response to cold stress conditions. Proteins involved in antioxidation and antipathogen


. Yamane Y. Inoue SUMMARY: An organized hematoma is a chronic state of fibrotic tissue surrounding a hemorrhage. A mass lesion resulting from hematoma in the maxillary sinus was first reported in 1917, and the term, "blood boil," was clinically coined from such features as encapsulated blood and locally aggressive behavior. Subsequently, others have reported lesions with a similar appearance and clinical course, and now, in Japan, blood boil is used as a clinical term for such lesions. Factors that may predispose a patient to hematoma formation vary, and the pathogenesis of the mass is still uncertain. The lesions are mainly composed of an organized hematoma , regardless of their origin. We present 2 cases of organized maxillary sinus hematomas that have unusual radiologic findings and correlate these findings with the histopathologic findings.


PurposeRacialised misrepresentation circulated en masse can be understood as a form of symbolic and cultural violence. Such misrepresentations create a dominant cultural narrative that positions people of African background as violent and troubled and therefore incompatible with Australian society. Young people from various groups have been using arts-for-social-change to challenge and dismantle these imposed misrepresentation and reconstruct narratives that reflect their lived experiences. The purpose of this paper is to explore sound portraits, both the process and product, by tracing the journey of New Change, arts collective comprised of young women of African heritage, who have been pushing for social change.Design/methodology/approachThis collaborative research mobilises arts methodologies, bringing together sound arts, audio documentary and narrative research methods. Data gathering included arts artefacts and interviews with the young women and sound recordings from news media to craft a sound portrait entitled "Battle for truth".FindingsBattle for Truth is a sound portrait that serve as the findings for this paper. Sound portraits privilege participants' voices and convey the complexity of their stories through the layering of voices and other soundscapes. This sound portrait also includes a media montage of racialised misrepresentation.Social implicationsThrough their restorying, sound portraits are a way to counter passive and active forgetting and wilful mishearing, creating a space in the public memory for polyphonic voices and stories that have been shutout. Sound portraits necessitate reflexivity and dialogue through deep listening, becoming important sites for reimagining possibilities for social change and developing new activist avenues.Originality/valueThis paper brings together sonic methods, liberation arts and social justice perspectives to attend to power, race, gender and voice.


A broad consensus exists that the use of appropriate methods are important in the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. However, methodological controversies arise around what constitutes acceptable evidence, if one needs a control group, how generalizable results must be, and other similar issues. Much SoTL work, I argue, asks questions about how much a particular treatment (innovation) caused an effect (student learning), and how the results found in one particular context can be extended outside that context (generalizability). These concepts, known as internal validity and external validity, respectively, provide a common point of departure for much scholarship on teaching and learning. This paper addresses these concepts and demonstrates how they can unite much of what divides us within the methodological realm of SoTL.


Circular proteins, defined as head-to-tail cyclized polypeptides originating from ribosomal synthesis, represent a novel class of natural products attracting increasing interest. From a scientific point of view, these compounds raise questions of where and why they occur in nature and how they are formed. From a rational point of view, these proteins and their structural concept may be exploited for crop protection and novel pharmaceuticals. Here, we review the current knowledge of three protein families: cyclotides and circular sunflower trypsin inhibitors from the kingdom of plants and the Amanita toxins from fungi. A particular emphasis is placed on their biological origin, structure, and activity. In addition, the opportunity for discovery of novel circular proteins and recent insights into their mechanism of action are discussed.