Toll-like-receptors (TLRs) play a significant role in the generation of a specific innate immune response against invading pathogens. TLR2 and TLR4 signaling contributes to infection-induced inflammation in periodontal disease (PD) and atherosclerosis. Observational studies point towards a relationship between PD and atherosclerosis, but the role of TLR2 and TLR4 in the recognition of multiple oral pathogens and their modulation of host response leading to atherosclerosis are not clear. We evaluated the role of TLR2 and TLR4 signaling in the induction of both PD and atherosclerosis in TLR2-/- and TLR4-/- mice to polymicrobial infection with periodontal pathogens Porphyromonas gingivalis, Treponema denticola, Tannerella forsythia, and Fusobacterium nucleatum. Polybacterial infections have established gingival colonization in TLR2-/- and TLR4-/- mice and induction of a pathogen-specific immunoglobulin G immune response. But TLR deficiency dampened accelerated alveolar bone resorption and intrabony defects, indicating a central role in infection-induced PD. Periodontal bacteria disseminated from gingival tissue to the heart and aorta through intravascular dissemination; however, there was no increase in atherosclerosis progression in the aortic arch. Polybacterial infection does not alter levels of serum risk factors such as oxidized low-density lipoprotein, nitric oxide, and lipid fractions in both mice. Polymicrobial-infected TLR2-/- mice demonstrated significant levels (P < 0.05 to P < 0.01) of T helper type 2 [transforming growth factor-β1 , macrophage inflammatory protein-3α, interleukin-13 (IL-13)] and T helper type 17 (IL-17, IL-21, IL-22, IL-23) splenic T-cell cytokine responses. Increased heat-shock protein expression, hspa1a for Hsp 70, was observed for both TLR2-/- and TLR4-/- mice. This study supports a role for TLR2 and TLR4 in PD and atherosclerosis, corroborating an intricate association between two inflammatory diseases.


For the first time, the phytochemical fabrication of noble silver oxide nanoparticles was reported using Artocarpus heterophyllus rind extract as well as their characterization. The UV-vis absorption spectrum of the phytochemical-mediated reduced reaction mixture showed a surface plasmon peak at 428 nm, which confirmed the presence of silver nanoparticles. The silver nanoparticle production was ideal at pH 9 with 2.0 mL jackfruit rind extract, Ag+ 1.0 mM and 180 min of reaction time. Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy analysis indicated the presence of acids, esters, alcohols, pyrazine, etc. which can act as capping agents around the nanoparticles. X-ray diffraction analysis confirmed the face-centered cubic crystalline and the oxygen structure of metallic silver nanoparticles. The average diameter of silver nanoparticles is ~17 nm via high resolution transmission electron microscopy, which agrees with the average crystallite size (24.2 nm) calculated from X-ray diffraction analysis and selected area electron diffraction pattern. Of the five tested phytopathogens, the pathogens Phytophthora capsici, Colletotrichum acutatum and Cladosporium fulvum showed 8, 11 and 16 mm zones of inhibition against synthesized silver oxide nanoparticles at 200 μg/well, respectively.

 Key words: Silver oxide, nanoparticle, antifungal, plant pathogen, optimization.


Most attempts to develop financial markets and rural credit institutions in Africa have performed poorly, not satisfying the demand for savings and credit services in the rural areas. In many cases, however, the institutions continue to exist and could be revived, enlarged, or made more efficient if suitable programs to help them can be worked out. This note reviews the strategies and measures that can be used to rehabilitate rural finance institutions, based on the successful rehabilitation program in Benin and some other cases in Africa. Rehabilitation of a rundown rural finance institution takes several years, but it can be organized in phases, first concentrating on emergency measures to save the institution from bankruptcy, and then planning and implementing the actions for a longer term recovery process.


A lengthy study issued by the U.S. Defense Department in March 2006 has sparked allegations that Russian officials helped Saddam Hussein defend against the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq three years earlier. The report cites Iraqi documents from March 2003 containing information allegedly provided by Russian diplomats and intelligence officers. The day after the report was released, a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) heatedly denied that any intelligence was supplied to Saddam Hussein's regime before or during the war in March 2003. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said that she would seek clarification of the matter from the Russian government, but thus far no clarification has been forthcoming.


Ultrasonic-measurement-integrated (UMI) simulation, in which feedback signals are applied to the governing equations based on errors between ultrasonic measurement and numerical simulation, has been investigated for reproduction of the blood flow field. However, ultrasonic measurement data inherently include some errors. In this study, the effects of four major measurement errors, namely, errors due to Gaussian noise, aliasing, wall filter, and lack of data, on UMI simulation were examined by a numerical experiment dealing with the blood flow field in the descending aorta with an aneurysm, the same as in our previous study. While solving the governing equations in UMI simulation, Gaussian noise did not prevent the UMI simulation from effectively reproducing the blood flow field. In contrast, aliasing caused significant errors in UMI simulation. Effects of wall filter and lack of data appeared in diastole and in the whole period, respectively. By detecting significantly large feedback signals as a sign of aliasing and by not adding feedback signals where measured Doppler velocities were aliasing or zero, the computational accuracy substantially improved, alleviating the effects of measurement errors. Through these considerations, UMI simulation can provide accurate and detailed information on hemodynamics with suppression of four major measurement errors.


This report presents new developments in three areas pertaining to Text As Graph (TAG), a data model that conceptualizes what text really is as a property hypergraph, which we first introduced at Balisage 2017. (Haentjens Dekker and Birnbaum 2017) In this new report 1) we propose a markup language for TAG, which we call TAGML; 2) we discuss a workflow, implemented in our Alexandria reference implementation of TAG, for editing TAG documents selectively, so as to retain a legible interface; and 3) we introduce some modifications in the TAG data model (principally the use of undirected edges to connect Text nodes).


This research aimed to improve the hydrophobic polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) membrane for direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) desalination by mixing various additives (dibutyl phthalate and glycerol) in polymer solution via twostage/dual coagulation bath (CB) system. The effect of each additive on the surface and cross-sectional morphology of PVDF membrane was investigated. The addition of additives showed increased in membranes porosity, but the water contact angle was less than 90° when immersed in single CB (distilled water). Membrane prepared with two-stage CB system immersed into methanol CB for 20 min and transferred into distilled water CB for 24 h exhibited high water contact angle of 114.2°, 142.6° and 120.1° for membrane M-3, M-4 and M-5, respectively. The porosity of membrane significantly increased when incorporated with additives. The membrane was further evaluated in DCMD operation for separation performance. The DCMD tested using distilled water and 35 g l–1 of sodium chloride (NaCl) aqueous solution in feed showed M-4 achieved the highest flux among other membranes at 13.85 kg–2 m–2 h–1 with 99% salt rejection under 70°C of feed temperature.


The SOUL protein is known to induce apoptosis by provoking the mitochondrial permeability transition, and a sequence homologous with the BH3 (Bcl-2 homology 3) domains has recently been identified in the protein, thus making it a potential new member of the BH3-only protein family. In the present study, we provide NMR, SPR (surface plasmon resonance) and crystallographic evidence that a peptide spanning residues 147–172 in SOUL interacts with the anti-apoptotic protein Bcl-xL. We have crystallized SOUL alone and the complex of its BH3 domain peptide with Bcl-xL, and solved their three-dimensional structures. The SOUL monomer is a single domain organized as a distorted β-barrel with eight anti-parallel strands and two α-helices. The BH3 domain extends across 15 residues at the end of the second helix and eight amino acids in the chain following it. There are important structural differences in the BH3 domain in the intact SOUL molecule and the same sequence bound to Bcl-xL.


Complex though integrated hormonal and metabolic changes characterize pregnancy. In the face of progressive decline in insulin action, glucose homeostasis is maintained through a compensatory increase in insulin secretion. This switches energy production from carbohydrates to lipids, making glucose readily available to the fetus. This precise and entangled hormonal and metabolic condition can, however, be disrupted and diabetic hyperglycemia can develop (gestational diabetes). The increase in plasma glucose level is believed to confer significant risk of complications to both the mother and the fetus and the newborn. Moreover, exposition of fetal tissues to the diabetic maternal environment can translate into an increased risk for development of diabetes and/or the metabolic syndrome in the adult life. In women with previous gestational diabetes, the risk of developing type 2 diabetes is greatly enhanced, to the point that GDM represents an early stage in the natural history of type 2 diabetes. In these women, accurate follow‐up and prevention strategies are needed to reduce the subsequent development of overt diabetes. This paper will review current knowledge on the modifications occurring in normal pregnancy, while outlining the mechanisms. In this paper, we will review the changes of intermediary metabolism occurring during pregnancy. In particular, we will outline the mechanisms responsible for gestational diabetes; the link between these alterations and associated maternal and neonatal morbidity will be examined. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


treatment is indicated when retrograde venous pressure is not very marked. With both types of therapy the patient should be ambulatory since this is the best way to prevent complications. If each patient is individualized and treated according to specific indications, excellent results will be obtained both from injection therapy and from surgery.-We are, etc., ROBERT A. NABATOFF DAvm C. C. STARK New York


Introduction Polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) is a disease of the elderly, associated with increased fracture risk due to glucocorticosteroid (GC) treatment with the additional possible influence of chronic inflammation. Risk factors for fracture in PMR have not been extensively studied. Hip structure analysis (HSA) is a way to measure bone morphology in the hip using dual X-ray absorptiometry (DEXA). It has been used as a predictor of fracture in epidemiological settings. HSA has not been studied in PMR before. Objectives The object of this retrospective study was to determine if fracture risk in PMR was associated with densitometry data and to determine the influence, if any, of HSA on that association. Methods 714 patients with PMR referred for a bone density estimate at a district general hospital from June 2004 to October 2010 were studied. Demographic data, GC use, alcohol consumption, smoking status, secondary osteoporosis, and fracture history were recorded. Bone mineral density (BMD), Z score, T score, body composition data, and HSA measurements were collected. These were geometric measurements taken from 2-dimensional DEXA images of the hip. Fracture was modelled as an outcome variable using logistic regression models, adjusted for age and sex. And the fit of the model was assessed by comparing the area under the curve (AUC). Results 714 patients were studied, 532 (75%) were female, and mean age was 70.5 with SD of 8.8. 703 (98%) had been treated with GCs. Lumbar and femoral BMD models were significantly associated with fracture. Right femur OR 0.062 (0.014-0.285), left femur OR 0.098 (0.023-0.412), right femoral neck 0.078 (0.014-0.43), left femoral neck 0.104 (0.022-0.492), L1 0.192 (0.066-0.56), L2 OR 0.138 (0.053-0.358), L3 0.192 (0.079-0.463), and L4 0.243 (0.108-0.544). Cross-sectional area was the only HSA parameter that was associated with fracture OR 0.988 (0.980–0.997). Conclusion L2 association models were strongest. Prospective studies are needed to elucidate whether these factors predict future fracture. GC data were binary, not reflecting dose and duration.


Objective The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of mineral bone disorders (MBDs) among hemodialysis (HD) patients in Menoufia Governorate. Background As kidney function declines, there is progressive deterioration in mineral homeostasis manifesting as disruption of serum and tissue concentrations of phosphorus and calcium (Ca), as well as changes in circulating levels of hormones such as parathyroid hormone (PTH). These mineral and endocrine functions are critically important in the regulation of both bone modeling and bone remodeling. Chronic kidney disease-MBD describes a broad clinical syndrome that develops as a systemic disorder of mineral and bone metabolism because of chronic kidney disease. Patients and methods This study was carried out on 100 patients with end-stage renal disease on regular HD in Menoufia Governorate. After obtaining informed consent, the included patients underwent the following examination: complete blood count, blood sugar level, lipid profile, blood urea level, serum creatinine level, albumin level, uric acid level, Ca level, phosphate level, alkaline phosphatase level, and PTH level. Results Hyperparathyroid bone disease was prevalent in 55% of the studied patients and low bone turnover in 30% of the studied patients, and both of the two groups showed highly significant association with serum Ca and phosphate levels. Suggestive MBD-related symptoms were prevalent in both high bone turnover and low bone turnover (60 and 70%, respectively). Hypocalcemia and hyperphosphatemia were observed in 64 and 74% of the studied patients, respectively. Conclusion The prevalence of MBD among the studied HD patients was 85% depending on abnormal PTH levels (55% of patients with high PTH level and 30% with low PTH levels). Most of patients with high PTH level (high bone turnover) had low serum Ca with high serum phosphorus levels (83.6 and 81.8%, respectively), whereas most of patients with low PTH levels (low bone turnover) had normal serum Ca with high serum phosphorus levels (60 and 63.3% respectively).


Utilization of natural polymer as matrix for preparing hydrogels can improve the performance of the materials and render them environmentally friendly. In this work, the guar gum-g-poly(sodium acrylate) (GG-g-PNaA) superabsorbent hydrogels were prepared by the solution graft copolymerization of natural guar gum (GG) with partially neutralized acrylic acid (NaA) using ammonium persulfate (APS) as initiator and [1],[1]′-methylenebisacrylamide (MBA) as crosslinker. FTIR spectra confirmed that NaA had been grafted on GG chains. The effects of reaction variables including the concentration of APS and MBA, the weight ratio of acrylic acid (AA) to GG and the neutralization degree of AA on water absorption were investigated. The superabsorbent hydrogel prepared under optimal condition gives the best absorption of 1107 g·g–1 in distilled water and 88 g·g–1 in 0.9 wt% NaCl solution. Effects of external pH on the swelling properties of hydrogels were investigated, and the practical water retention properties of the hydrogels were also evaluated. Results indicated that the hydrogels exhibited excellent pH-stability in a wide pH range from 4 to 11, and the water-retention capabilities of sand soils were also greatly improved after utilizing the superabsorbent hydrogels. This superabsorbent hydrogels could be used as potential eco-friendly water-saving materials for agricultural or ecological application.


This article explores recent controversial and flawed book, Clan cleansing in Somalia: The ruinous legacy of 1991 by Kapteijns (2013) and, by closely assessing through critical and content analysis, reveals how and why the book is a new myth in the making (Malkki, 1995). Using fictional works (novels) as a basis to construct a non-fiction work, Kapteijns uses violence as a tool to arrest the political opponents of the clan with which she affiliates herself by turning to literature on the anthropology of violence. The article argues that Kapteijns's book fails to offer a backdrop on how the 'cleansing' was evolved in the first place. The article contributes to the knowledge of African conflicts in general and of Somali conflicts in particular. Its purpose is threefold; first, it critiques the methodology used to analyse the 1991 clan convulsions by interrogating the aims and objectives of the author. Second, it examines and clearly articulates the 'where' and 'why' of the 1991, with its different players and protagonists. Third, it questions the claims purportedly made in the book and offers different critical perspectives of each side of the conflict.

 Key words: Myth, cleansing, clan, violence, conflict.


This study examines the interactions between homeless pet owners and the domiciled public with a focus on how the activities of pet ownership help construct positive personal identities. Homeless people are often criticized for having pets. They counter these attacks using open and contained responses to stigmatization. More often, they redefine pet ownership to incorporate how they provide for their animals, challenging definitions that require a physical home. Homeless pet owners thus create a positive moral identity by emphasizing that they feed their animals first and give them freedom that the pets of the domiciled lack. Through what we call "enabled resistance," donations of pet food from the supportive public provide the resources to minimize the impact of stigmatization.


In this work, we improved the performance of germanium (Ge) channel Charge Trapping MemTransistors (CTMTs) as synaptic device by using Ti-doped HfO2 as charge trapping layer (CTL). We manipulated the amount of Ti dopant within the HfO2 CTL to perform the band engineering by varying the Hf/Ti cycle ratio in atomic layer deposition (ALD). The content of Ti was quantified and the energy band structures of the gate stack was constructed with the aid of transmission electron microscope (TEM) images and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) analysis. We then fabricated the charge trapping capacitors and characterized their memory characteristics such as memory windows. By the implementation of amphoteric trap model, thermal activated electron retention model and advanced charge decay model, the trap distribution of the CTL was extracted. Finally, we fabricated the CTMTs with Ti-doped HfO2 as the CTL and characterized their performance as synaptic device such as nonlinearity of depression and potentiation and also conductance on/off ratio. We used NeuroSim simulator with multilayer perceptron and convolutional neural network models to evaluate the pattern recognition accuracy of neural network hardware accelerator using CTMTs as synaptic devices and benchmarked the performance of our CTMT with those of other types of synaptic devices.


The East Africa Trade and Transport Facilitation Project is a multi-sector program conceived to facilitate, and further trade integration in the region, and, addresses institutional, legal, and infrastructure constraints. Given reallocation will occur, this resettlement action plan (RAP) seeks to establish an extended, but minimal, safety corridor for the railway traffic, and ensure as well adequate livelihoods for the project affected people (PAP) within the immediate vicinity, namely, the Kibera and Mukuru areas. The RAP document evaluates potential relocation and safety impacts for PAP to include: level of encroachments; land use; settlement of disputes; and compensation measures. Compensation measures are as follows. Resettlement shall be avoided or minimized as possible, exploring alternatives during project planning and design stages; implementation of sustainable, flexible engineering solutions to prevent future encroachment; assistance with relocation to PAPs with special attention to the needs of vulnerable groups, such as single female headed households with small children, the sick, and the handicapped; provision of free access to legal, or arbitration services to PAPs; ensure the standards of living have been maintained, or improved; and finally, establish continuous consultations among the Kenya Railways (KR) and affected PAPs, local authorities, general public, and other stakeholders at the community level, including relevant agencies and organizations during implementation of the RAP.


The core neoliberal strategy of Chilean agrarian politics has lasted now for more than 30 years. Despite minor reforms, its fundamental pillars remain in place. While members of the agribusiness sector consider this strategy to be a role-model for food production leading to explosive economic growth, the last decade exposed its socio-ecological limits, such as declining water availability and increased conflicts over land. Taking critical literature on neoliberalization as a theoretical approach, we used law and literature reviews as well as qualitative interviews with actors from the public and private sectors to reveal the details of the strategies in the exporting agriculture sector in Chile. From the understanding of neoliberalization as a multi-layered process, we analyzed the data, focusing on three dimensions of agribusiness in Chile: (a) regulation, (b) spatial fix, and (c) ideological paradigms. In doing so, we uncovered how far the coping strategies chosen by the state and private sector have re-designed and strengthened the process of agriculture neoliberalization in order to push its own socio-ecological limits.


Abstract Let ZFB be ZF + "every set is the same size as a wellfounded set". Then the following are true. Every sentence true in every (Rieger-Bernays) permutation model of a model of ZF is a theorem of ZFB. (i.e., ZFB is the theory of Rieger-Bernays permutation models of models of ZF) ZF and ZFAFA are both extensions of ZFB conservative for stratified formulæ. The class of models of ZFB is closed under creation of Rieger-Bernays permutation models.


Antioxidant activities of Neoglaziovia variegata were evaluated by using 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging and β-carotene-linoleic acid bleaching and was compared with ascorbic acid, butylated hydroxyanisole (BHA) and butylated hydroxytoluene (BHT). The total phenolics content of the extracts was determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Total flavonoid was also determined. The most significant total phenolic content was of 543.50 ± 9.38 mg of gallic acid equivalent/g for ethyl acetate extract (AcOEt), which presented the best antioxidant activity (IC 50 5.08 ± 0.20 μg/ml) for DPPH scavenging. The acute toxicity of Nv-EtOH was performed 2.0 g/kg intraperitoneally and 5.0 g/kg orally in mice. No mortality and no toxicity signs were observed, indicating low toxicity of the extract. Blood was removed after 14 days for laboratory analysis of hematological and biochemical parameters. Alterations of aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and creatinine were observed. The data obtained showed that the doses induced microscopic alterations in the liver and kidney. In conclusion, the Nv-EtOH can be considered of low toxicity. Keywords: Antioxidant activity, acute toxicity, Neoglaziovia variegata , Bromeliaceae


Abstract. As a result of the success of Deep Learning (DL) techniques, DL-based approaches for extracting information from 3D building point clouds have evolved in recent years. Despite noteworthy progress in existing methods for interpreting point clouds, the excessive cost of annotating 3D data has resulted in DL-based 3D point cloud understanding tasks still lagging those for 2D images. The notion that pre-training a network on a large source dataset may help enhance performance after it is fine-tuned on the target task and dataset has proved vital in numerous tasks in the Natural Language Processing (NLP) domain. This paper proposes a straightforward but effective pre-training method for 3D building point clouds that learns from a large source dataset. Specifically, it first learns the ability of semantic segmentation by pre-training on a cross-domain source Stanford 3D Indoor Scene Dataset. It then initialises the downstream networks with the pre-trained weights. Finally, the models are fine-tuned with the target building scenes obtained from the ArCH benchmarking dataset. Our paper evaluates the proposed method by employing four fully supervised networks as backbones. The results of two pipelines are compared between training from scratch and pre-training. The results illustrate that pre-training on the source dataset can consistently improve the performance of the target dataset with an average gain of 3.9%.


The aim of this paper is to analyze the bone stability of calvarium bone grafts in the atrophied edentulous ridges. The success of graft incorporation is over 98%. During a 5-year interval, the bone volume remains almost unaltered, implant bone resorption being very low. The complications are scarce, the main being wound dehiscence, especially in mandibular sites.


Centrifugal is an organisation consisting of artists, educators, architects and theorists from across Europe who have come together to investigate the spatial, political and economic forces producing contemporary ideas of Europe. Centrifugal arises from the peripheries, from sites that have often been formed through their colonial relations with the 'old Europe', and which are now structured through complex webs of desire, resistance and adaptation. The project is concerned with finding resonances and affinities across the diverse spaces, histories and political imaginaries inhabiting these†edges of Europe. The Centrifugal Book of Europe is a 'map' of the social, cultural and political space of contemporary Europe, and of the phantasmic Europes that may yet be called into being. I am a member of the organisation. Centrifugal. Some Actions Around The Centrifugal Book of Europe was an event that I organised in collaboration with UU, Belfast Exposed, PS2, BBeyond, Flaxart Studios & Brown and Bri to launch the Centrifugal Book of EuropeCentrifugal launched The Centrifugal Book of Europe in Belfast Conor Lecture Theatre UU at 6pm on Thursday 18th March 2010, at the University of Ulster in Belfast. There was also a set of actions in collaboration with Belfast arts Organisations around the launch, from the 18th to the 23rd of March around Belfast. Delegates (all members of Centrifugal) Dr. Nicole Hewitt, (Zagreb Croatia) Dr. Taru Elfving, (Helsinki) Dr. Susan Kelly,(Goldsmiths London) Minna L Henriksson,(Helsinki) Sezgin Boynik (Istanbul / Helsinki ) , Kalle Hamm, (Helsinki) Dr. Daniel Jewesbury(Belfast) , Dr. Robert Porter (UU) Platforma 981( Dinko Peracic & Miranda Veljacic, Split, Croatia)


Since Roe v. Wade, there have been many state efforts to limit access to abortions. Some of these efforts include limiting access to abortions for minors through parental consent laws. Federal proposals such as the Child Custody Protection Act and Putting Parents First Act required parental involvement in reproductive decisions. Various state laws also exist.This article examines the constitutional parameters of reproductive autonomy, particularly as they pertain to a pregnant minor's access to abortion. Both the United State Supreme Court's jurisprudence in this area and the effect of laws designed to curtail the access of unmarried pregnant minors to safe and legal abortions are surveyed. Also discussed are the current efforts at the federal level to impose national parental involvement requirements when minors seek access to contraceptives or abortion. Finally, a new standard for addressing a minor's constitutional claims to reproductive freedom is proposed.


Kerberos protocol is a famous identity authentication protocol and it is widely used in the network as a standard. But there is still not a strict proof of it base on the Formal method. That is very nervous for the users. So a security analysis of the Kerberos protocol using BAN logic is proposed in this paper, and the reliability, practicability and security of Kerberos protocol are proved.


Evidence-Based Medicine Online comprises the cumulative contents (from January 2000 onwards) of the bimonthly print edition of Evidence-Based Medicine (EBM). Brian Haynes and Paul Glasziou edit the journal, and the British Medical Journal Publishing Group with the assistance of Stanford University's Highwire Press publishes it online. The general purpose of Evidence-Based Medicine is to select from the biomedical literature those articles reporting original studies and systematic reviews that warrant immediate attention by physicians attempting to keep up to date with important advances in general and family practice, internal medicine, surgery, psychiatry, paediatrics, and obstetrics and gynaecology. Members of the editorial staff scan more than 100 general medical and specialist journals on a regular basis to identify the most clinically important and valid research for clinicians. For example, to be selected, therapy studies should be randomised trials with > 80% follow up, and diagnostic studies should make an independent, blind comparison of a test with a gold diagnostic standard. EBM also selects primary articles and systematic reviews relating to clinical prediction, aetiology, prognosis, cost effectiveness, and quality improvement. Structured abstracts summarise each article, and experts comment on the study to place its findings in a clinical context. These abstracts often have more methodological details (about allocation concealment, blinding, and funding) than the original articles. Other content includes important editorials that are relevant to the philosophy and practice of evidence-based medicine and Resource Reviews that highlight tools for evidence-based practice. The same editorial team produces both EBM and ACP Journal Club using the same procedures, but the intended audience of each journal is different. The first is intended for use in Europe by generalists while the second one is intended for use in North America by internists. This difference in target audience explains the differences in content and the overlap: approximately one half of the abstracts in ACP Journal Club are published in EBM.Almost always the editorial and resource corner sections are the same for both publications. On the EBM website, we can review the table of contents and some featured abstracts and commentaries from each issue of EBM, but the fulltext journal is available online for a subscription fee. For users in countries of low and lower middle income economies, the contents are available for free, a generous feature I applaud. This website is very user friendly. PDF versions of each article are available allowing storage, printing, and transfer to a personal digital assistant. One can use the "cite-track" feature, which alerts users when content matching certain user-defined criteria becomes available. The search engine is user friendly and is a major strength of the website. The user can enter a word or phrase (if you use a phrase, I'd suggest using quotation marks when typing) or a simple Boolean expression into a query box. Features to narrow the search strategy allow the user to search by citation, authors, and year. Articles are also grouped into intuitive collections for fast access. Users can receive the electronic table of contents for each issue of the journal via email. This website is a great first step in searching (it yields results more quickly than when searching Medline). Its limited breadth of coverage means it must often be followed by searching on other databases, including PubMed, because of low yield in certain areas (like tropical diseases). EBM does not scan or feature content from journals not published in English, a major area in need of improvement. Except for logistical limitations, there are no reasons why studies of high methodological quality and clinical relevance not published in English should not be featured in the journal. Users will find that limited dialogue in the form of letters exists between readers and the journal. During the evaluation of the page (May 2003) we found only one letter in the past 180 days. In conclusion, the EBM website is an excellent source of pre-appraised evidence for the practising clinician, providing quick access to high yield material that has a high likelihood of being valid and valuable. The website is user friendly and the added features useful. Evidence-Based Medicine Online is, in 2003, the premier tool to keep up to date.


The leather sector in Turkey is important as it is a sector which exports final goods with high added value. The development of the leather sector and the continuation of its contribution to the economy are related to the development level of the country's livestock sector. For this reason, the leather and livestock sectors are examined together. In this research, 165 enterprises which deal with raw hide, leather tanning, leather goods and ready made clothes in Istanbul and which have an important place in the leather sector in Turkey were classified in term of their scale. An interview survey was performed between 1993 and 1996 at the enterprises to study their socio-economic structure and the problems they were facing. It was observed that the large scale enterprises in the leather sector were associated with more qualified employees and a great number of qualified employees and of foreign origin imported raw hide use was widespread in production. The study analyzed the previous 27 years (1970-1997) of the livestock and leather sectors with the ARIMA Model, and forecasted the next 10 years in terms of the trends in livestock production, leather production and foreign trade related to leather (assuming the current situation prevails in Turkey). It was predicted that the decreasing trend in the number of small ruminants and cattle and hence raw hide production, would continue between 1998 and 2007. The amount of imported raw hide, therefore, is expected to increase between 1998 and 2007.


Groundnut (Arachis hypogaea L.) is an important food crop in Africa which is a source of nutrients and income in rural areas of Zimbabwe. It is considered to be a crop highly susceptible to aflatoxin contamination. Accordingly, the objectives of this study were to understand the presence of mycoflora, their association and the level of contamination by aflatoxins of groundnut from various markets in Zimbabwe. Thirty groundnut samples were purchased randomly from Bulawayo (Shashe and Main market), Gweru (Kudzanayi and Kombayi markets) and Harare (Mbare and Highfield markets). Identification of various fungi was determined using the cultural method on Czapek Dox Agar. Fungi belonging to genera Aspergillus, Mucor, Penicillium and Rhizopus were isolated and characterised from six groundnut markets. Rhizopus species was the most dominant and negatively associated with other fungi species which is attributed to differences in environmental requirements or competition. Aspergillus flavus, Aspergillus fumigatus, Aspergillus niger and Aspergillus parasiticus were identified in groundnut samples with A. flavus being the dominant and found in all markets. The range of AFB1 in groundnut samples analysed using a semi-quantitative immunochromatographic technique was within the safe limits for human consumption according to existing Zimbabwe (5 ppb) regulation. The presence of aflatoxigenic fungi (A. flavus and A. parasiticus) in groundnuts, however, means there is potential for aflatoxin production and fungal proliferation when conditions are favourable.

 Key words: Aflatoxigenic, Arachis hypogaea, Aspergillus species, mycology.


Background:Evidence suggests that diabetes is a promoting factor of sarcopenia. Mechanism how the condition accelerates the development of sarcopenia remains ambiguous. Results: In streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic mice, skeletal muscle mass was decreased by ∼15 % within 21 days after the STZ treatment. The protein abundance of transcription factor KLF15 as well as the mRNA abundance of proteins related to muscle atrophy (Foxo3a, Atrogin1 and Murf1) were elevated whereas the mRNA of KLF15 was unaltered in skeletal muscle of STZ-diabetic mice. Decrease in skeletal muscle mass and increase in the mRNA abundance of muscle atrophy-related proteins triggered by STZ-induced diabetes were prevented in muscle-specific KLF15 deficient mice suggesting that KLF15 plays a key role in diabetes-induced muscle atrophy. Treatment of C2C12 cells with high concentration of glucose (25 mmol/l) decreased the ubiquitination of and increased the protein abundance of KLF15. The E3 ubiquitin ligase WWP1 was found to be downregulated in skeletal muscle of STZ- diabetic mice and in C2C12 cells treated with glucose. Overexpression and knockdown of WWP1 in C2C12 cells resulted in the decrease and the increase, respectively, of KLF15 protein without affecting its mRNA expression. The mRNA abundance of WWP1 in skeletal muscle was downregulated and the mass of skeletal muscle was reduced in Akita mice, which develop diabetes due to beta-cell dysfunction. Administration of the SGLT2 inhibitor empagliflozin, which lowers glycemia without affecting insulin levels, to Akita mice upregulated the expression of WWP1 in skeletal muscle and increased the skeletal muscle mass of these mice. Conclusion: Our results suggest that hyperglycemia upregulates the protein abundance of KLF15 via the downregulation of WWP1, which catalyzes the ubiquitination of KLF15. Hyperglycemia-induced upregulation of KLF15 leads to the induction of genes for muscle atrophy-related proteins, which in turn promotes the atrophy of skeletal muscle. Disclosure Y. Hirata: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. K. Nomura: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Y. Senga: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. M. Imamura: None. S. Takeda: None. Y. Okada: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc.. S.J. Burden: None. T. Hosooka: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc. W. Ogawa: Research Support; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim Pharmaceuticals, Inc., Abbott.


The analysis emphasises the dependence of medical-technological progress on the zero fees for standard health services. Technologies with an additional or total selfpayment are discriminated against by the patients and the physicians. Besides, a tendency to apply medical maximum standards was discerned. The enforcement of novel methods of diagnosis and therapy has been made substantially easier. In contrast, there are scarcely any incentives to introduce costsaving technologies from the patient's point of view. The fixed budgets of the Health Structure Act will exercise greater pressure on introducing cost-cutting innovations


Seventeen foals with angular limb deformities of the distal end of the radius (valgus: 26 limbs), distal end of the tibia (valgus: 6 limbs), and distal end of the 3rd metacarpal bone/metatarsal bone (varus: 4 limbs) were treated surgically by means of hemicircumferential division of the periosteum proximal to the involved growth plate, at the concave side of the bone. There was some correction in all cases. The best results were seen in the radius, where 22 of 25 limbs were corrected to a deviation of 4 degrees or less. Satisfactory correction was obtained in the 6 tibias, the 2 third metacarpal bones, and the 2 metatarsal bones.


A selective survey of recent papers in the area of technological change, automation and employment is presented. The objective is to convey analytical ideas and the empirical evidence that have informed studies in this area of contemporary policy relevance. Automation occurs when a machine does work that might previously have been done by a person. How robots and automation affect the availability of jobs for labor force? There are very few emerging studies that address the issue with detailed data on robots usage and employment in different sectors of the economy. Based on our review of available studies and empirical evidence the following statements can be made: (1) Increasing automation and robots adoption do not seem to cause loss of employment in the aggregate (2) Low skilled workers in routine jobs are more likely to suffer job losses. (3) There will be demand for new types of skilled workers or new specializations within occupations. Prospective automation intensifies the degree of uncertainty in labor markets across countries.


We define quantum cellular automata as infinite quantum lattice systems with discrete time dynamics, such that the time step commutes with lattice translations and has strictly finite propagation speed. In contrast to earlier definitions this allows us to give an explicit characterization of all local rules generating such automata. The same local rules also generate the global time step for automata with periodic boundary conditions. Our main structure theorem asserts that any quantum cellular automaton is structurally reversible, i.e., that it can be obtained by applying two blockwise unitary operations in a generalized Margolus partitioning scheme. This implies that, in contrast to the classical case, the inverse of a nearest neighbor quantum cellular automaton is again a nearest neighbor automaton.
We present several construction methods for quantum cellular automata, based on unitaries commuting with their translates, on the quantization of (arbitrary) reversible classical cellular automata, on quantum circuits, and on Clifford transformations with respect to a description of the single cells by finite Weyl systems. Moreover, we indicate how quantum random walks can be considered as special cases of cellular automata, namely by restricting a quantum lattice gas automaton with local particle number conservation to the single particle sector.


An extremely sensitive vibrating reed electrometer is built, that is able to reach sub-aA current resolution within a one-minute measurement. The input leakage current of the set-up is −0.12 aA, that is less than 1 electron per second. Crucial for this extreme sensitivity and low leakage current is the development of an input stage with only vacuum gap capacitors. The stability and sensitivity of this new electrometer make it suitable for accurate low-frequency characterization of vacuum gap capacitors used in the electron counting capacitance standard experiment.


A sensitive and highly selective methodology for the determination of a wide range of pesticides, based on the simultaneous element-specific determination of phosphorus, sulfur, chloride, bromine and iodine by gas chromatography hyphenated with octopole reaction cell-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (GC-CC-ICP-MS) is described. The chromatographic system was optimised for separation efficiency and short run times and was coupled via a commercially available interface with an octopole reaction cell ICP-MS system which is equipped with an on-axis collision cell. Instrumental settings were optimised with respect to high sensitivity for the target nuclides 31P, 32S, 35Cl, 79Br and 127I and minimized background levels especially for the ions most affected by interferences, such as 31P+, 32S+. Helium and nitrogen were tested as additional plasma gases for possible sensitivity enhancement of the element-specific detection resulting from improved ionisation processes inside the plasma. Due to the multi-element capability of the instrumental setup and the good accuracy of the retention times that were achieved, identification of the detected pesticides can be carried out using their retention times, the element compositions and element ratios present in each chromatographic peak. For the different pesticides detection limits down to the ppt level or the low ppb level were obtained. The average RSDs of the retention times and the peak areas were better than 0.8% and 8%, respectively. The analytical methodology developed has been applied to the screening of different fruit extracts for pesticides. Peaks were identified by comparison of the retention times obtained and by their elemental composition. Quantitative results have been obtained both by external calibration and by using a compound independent calibration.


This thesis presents a number of algorithms for forming coalitions among cooperative agents in pragmatic domains where traditional cooperative game theory solution concepts do not apply due to bounded rationality of agents. While previous work in coalition formation in multi-agent systems research operated on relatively small number of agents, e.g. less than 30 agents, this work explores coalition formation among 100 agents, this is due to limited computational resources not the performance of the our algorithms. We explore a bestfirst search centralized algorithm for optimal coalition structures which is based on a novel idea of deciding what is the best coalition to put into coalition structure being generated. Empirical results show that the solution reaches optimality quickly and terminates quickly in pragmatic domains. We further explore on optimal coalition structures with distributed algorithms in linear and non-linear domains. For the linear domains, we explore linear production and integer programming. For the non-linear domains we explore logistic providers. Based on existing algorithms, we explore a novel environment of forming coalitions in supply networks involving buyers, sellers and logistics providers agents. In this setting, buyers form coalitions to increase their negotiation power while sellers and logistics providers form coalitions to aggregate their supply power and optimize their resources usage.


This work focuses on understanding the roles of the plant hormone gibberellin (GA) in controlling the initiation of flowering in Arabidopsis thaliana. GA is essential to promote the transition to flowering under non inductive short-‐day (SD) photoperiods by activating transcription of the floral integrator SUPPRESSOR OF OVEREXPRESSION OF CONSTANS 1 (SOC1) and of the meristem identity gene LEAFY (LFY). However, mutations in GA receptors also prevent flowering under inductive long days (LDs), suggesting that this hormone also has crucial functions in the initiation of flowering under these conditions. Here by overexpressing the GA catabolic enzyme GIBBERELLIN 2 OXIDASE 7 (GA2ox7) in specific plant organs, we show that GAs play important regulatory roles in the leaves and shoot apical meristem (SAM) to promote flowering under LDs. Our results suggest that GAs are required in the leaf to increase levels of FT mRNA, which encodes a protein that is part of the systemic florigen signal of Arabidopsis. At the SAM GAs promote expression of SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROMOTER LIKE (SPL) genes downstream of the floral integrator SOC1. In addition, we characterised a novel function of the MADS box transcription factor SHORT VEGETATIVE PHASE (SVP) and demonstrated its link to the GA biosynthetic pathway at the SAM. Mutation of SVP results in a significant accumulation of active GA4 through the upregulation of GIBBERELLIN 20-‐OXIDASE 2 (GA20ox2), which encodes an enzyme involved in GA biosynthesis. Conversely overexpression of SVP from the 35S promoter causes phenotypes characteristic of GA deficiency plants. We demonstrate that the SVP/GA20ox2 module is controlled by photoperiod through FT, TSF and SOC1 at the SAM. Wild-‐type plants shifted from SDs to LDs showed downregulation of SVP in the centre of the SAM and increased levels of GA20ox2 transcripts in the rib meristem region. These expression patterns are significantly compromised in plants lacking FT, TSF or SOC1 functions. We propose that in response to LDs, FT, TSF and SOC1 act to repress expression of SVP leading to upregulation of GA20ox2. The activation of GA20ox2 expression causes increased GA content, which promotes flowering by activating transcription of SPL genes. Finally, we identified a link between a core subunit of chromatin remodelling complexes (CRCs) SWI3C and the GA signalling and biosynthesis pathways. The swi3c mutant displayed several developmental impairments, which resembled those of GA deficient plants. In agreement with the phenotypic characterization, swi3c mutants showed lower levels of active GAs and reduced mRNA abundance of the GA receptor GIDa, suggesting that SWI3C is required to control development by modulating GA biosynthesis and perception. Moreover we demonstrate that SWI3C binds in vivo to some of the DELLA repressors (RGA, RGL1, RGL2, RGL3) and SPY O-‐GlcNAc transferase, two components of the GA signalling pathway. Our results indicate that CRCs control plant development at least in part by promoting GA biosynthesis, and by regulating expression of some GA responsive genes. Overall this work increases our understanding of the regulation of GA biosynthesis and signalling, as well as demonstrating new functions for these processes in the control of the floral transition.


Abstract Glaciers in the Qilian mountains, located in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, constitute an important freshwater resource for downstream populations and natural systems. To enhance our understanding of the variability of the glaciers, temporally and spatially comprehensive information on them is needed. In this study, the glacier outlines of ~1990, ~2000 and ~2010 for the whole area were delineated in a semi-automated manner using band TM3/TM5 ratio images of Landsat ETM+ or TM scenes with the help of a merged ASTER GDEM/SRTM v4.1 digital elevation model. Combining our own results with those of previously published studies that span the period back to 1956, we found that the glacier area shrank by 30 ±8% from 1956 to 2010 and the shrinkage accelerated remarkably in the past two decades. The linear trends of annual air temperature and precipitation measured at weather stations within the glacierized areas were 0.03-0.05°Ca-1 (significant only after 2000) and 0.37-1.58 mm a–1 (not significant) respectively from 1961 to 2010. Glaciers shrank mainly due to the increasing temperature. Glaciers in the Qilian mountains are very unlikely to have experienced positive mass balance over the past decade. Moreover, given the trend toward higher temperatures, the glaciers in this region will continue to shrink.


Exploration and extraction of natural gas from the Marcellus Shale have created considerable controversy. At the core of these debates are differing perceptions of the level and types of risks involved with the extraction activities, such as hydraulic fracturing, truck traffic, air emissions, and population growth. Risks described include the potential for human and environmental health implications, as well as community change and economic gain. This article explores the nature of perceived risks associated with Marcellus Shale development by using data from a household survey (N = 1,917) conducted in 2009–10 in Pennsylvania and New York counties located in the core areas of the Marcellus Shale region. The article describes a quantitative measure of risk perceptions. Statistical analyses of the data indicate that trust in institutions responsible for managing the risks associated with development and attitudes related to relationships between people and nature are associated strongly with perceptions of risk. Other associated variables include reported knowledge of environmental, social, and economic impacts, mineral rights ownership, demographic characteristics (gender, income), and state of residence. Implications of these findings are discussed, particularly as related to improving local discourse surrounding Marcellus Shale development.


Background: The rapid increase in agricultural and industrial development has made heavy metal
pollution a serious environmental problem and public health threat; therefore, removal of heavy metals
from water is important. The current study prepared DNPH@SDS@Fe3O4 nanoparticles as a novel and
effective adsorbent for removal of Hg(II) ions from an aqueous solution.
Methods: A selective adsorbent for Hg(II) was synthesized by coating Fe3O4 nanoparticles with sodium
dodecyl sulfate which was further functionalized with 2,4-dinitrophenylhydrazine (2,4-DNPH). The
synthesized nanoparticles were characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), x-ray
diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and SEM–EDXSt. The effects of pH, dose of
adsorbent and shaking time on adsorption capacity were investigated. The kinetics and equilibrium of
adsorption of the metal ions were thoroughly studied.
Results: SEM showed that the size of the nanoparticles was 20 to 35 nm. The maximum adsorption
capacity for Hg(II) was 164.0 mg g-1 for an adsorbent dose of 0.04 g at pH 7.0, 25°C and the initial
metal concentration was 25 mg L-1,which was greater than for most adsorbents previously examined
for Hg(II) adsorption. Adsorption experimental data showed good correlation with the pseudo-secondorder
model and Langmuir isotherm model.
Conclusion: The results indicated that the DNPH@SDS@Fe3O4 nanoparticles are an efficient adsorbent
for removal of heavy metal from wastewater.
Keywords: Adsorption, Mercury, Magnetite nanoparticles, Wastewater, Kinetics


Aspect term extraction is a fundamental task for aspect-level sentiment analysis. Previous methods tend to extract noun aspect terms due to the large quantities of them, and perform badly on extracting aspect terms containing words with other POS tags, according to experimental results. In addition, few works focus on the POS tags of adjacent words which are critical to aspect term extraction. We propose a novel model which combines POS and word features in an interactive way, and makes full use of the POS tags of adjacent words by POS window. We conduct experiments on two datasets, and prove the effectiveness of our model.


Invariant assertions play an important role in the analysis and documentation of while loops of imperative programs. Invariant functions and invariant relations are alternative analysis tools that are distinct from invariant assertions but are related to them. In this paper we discuss these three concepts and analyze their relationships. The study of invariant functions and invariant relations is interesting not only because it provides alternative means to analyze loops, but also because it gives us insights into the structure of invariant assertions, and may help us enhance techniques for generating invariant assertions.


This work addresses the problem of tracking humans with skeleton-based shape models where video footage is acquired by multiple cameras. Since the shape deformations are parameterized by the skeleton, the position, orientation, and configuration of the human skeleton are estimated such that the deformed shape model is best explained by the image data. To solve this problem, several algorithms have been proposed over the last years. The approaches usually rely on filtering, local optimization, or global optimization. The global optimization algorithms can be further divided into single hypothesis (SHO) and multiple hypothesis optimization (MHO). We briefly compare the underlying mathematical models and evaluate the performance of one representative algorithm for each class. Furthermore, we compare several likelihoods and parameter settings with respect to accuracy and computation cost. A thorough evaluation is performed on two sequences with uncontrolled lighting conditions and non-static background. In addition, we demonstrate the impact of the likelihood on the HumanEva benchmark. Our results provide a guidance on algorithm design for different applications related to human motion capture.


The last decade witnessed a significant increase in net private capital inflows in China. Some of them are short-term capital flows, which are typically considered to be highly volatile. For effectively forecasting the short-term capital flows, a three-layered neural feedforward network was employed in this paper. In light of the weakness of the conventional Back-Propagation algorithm, the Levenberg-Marquardt algorithm was used to train the neural network. The simulation results indicate that the predictive model can be used to carry out the prediction of short-term capital flow.


The career of Spain's celebrated author Carmen Martin Gaite spanned the Spanish Civil War, Franco's dictatorship, and the nation's transition to democracy. She wrote fiction, poetry, drama, screenplays for television and film, and books of literary and cultural analysis. The only person to win Spain's National Prize for Literature (Premio Nacional de las Letras) twice, Martin Gaite explored and blended a range of genres, from social realism to the fantastic, as she took up issues of gender, class, economics, and aesthetics in a time of political upheaval. Part 1 ("Materials") of this volume provides resources for instructors and a literary-historical chronology. The essays in part 2 ("Approaches") consider Martin Gaite's best-known novel, "The Back Room" ("El cuarto de atras"), and other works from various perspectives: narratological, feminist, sociocultural, stylistic. In an appendix, the volume editor, who was a friend of the author, provides a new translation of Martin Gaite's only autobiographical sketch, alongside the original Spanish.


Mechanistic target of rapamycin (mTOR) is a serine/threonine kinase that acts in two distinct complexes, mTORC1 and mTORC2, and is dysregulated in many diseases including cancer. mLST8 is a shared component of both mTORC1 and mTORC2, yet little is known regarding how mLST8 contributes to assembly and activity of the mTOR complexes. Here we assessed mLST8 loss in a panel of normal and cancer cells and observed little to no impact on assembly or activity of mTORC1. However, mLST8 loss blocked mTOR association with mTORC2 cofactors Rictor and Sin1 and impaired mTORC2 kinase activity, including phosphorylation of AKT at S473. Simultaneous mutation of two pairs of amino acids within mLST8 disrupted its interactions with mTOR and blocked mTOR assembly with Rictor and Sin1, thus abrogating mTORC2 activity. Similarly, a single pair of mutations on mLST8 with a corresponding mutation on mTOR interfered with mTORC2 assembly and activity without affecting mTORC1. We also discovered a direct interaction between mLST8 and the NH2-terminal domain of the mTORC2 co-factor Sin1. In PTEN-null prostate cancer xenografts, mLST8 mutations disrupting the mTOR interaction motif inhibited AKT S473 phosphorylation and decreased tumor cell proliferation and tumor growth in vivo. Together these data suggest that the scaffolding function of mLST8 is critical for assembly and activity of mTORC2, but not mTORC1, an observation which could enable mTORC2-selective inhibition as a therapeutic strategy.


Employing combination coatings, whether multiple coatings on the same surface or different coatings on different parts of the same device offer medical devices a number of benefits. Examples of what can be achieved are reported here.


Acidic phospholipase A2 (PLA2) from the venom of Chinese cobra (Naja naja atra) has high activity on zwitterionic membranes and contains six aromatic residues, including Tyr-3, Trp-18, Trp-19, Trp-61, Phe-64, and Tyr-110, on its putative interfacial binding surface. To assess the roles of these aromatic residues in the interfacial catalysis of N. n. atra PLA2, we mutated them to Ala and measured the effects on its interfacial catalysis. Enzymatic activities of the mutants toward various vesicle substrates and human neutrophils indicate that all but Trp-18 make significant contributions to interfacial catalysis. Among these aromatic residues, Trp-19, Trp-61, and Phe-64 play the most important roles. Binding affinities of the mutants for phospholipid-coated beads and their monolayer penetration indicate that Trp-19, Trp-61, and Phe-64 are critically involved in interfacial binding of N. n. atra PLA2 and penetrate into the membrane during the interfacial catalysis of N. n. atra PLA2. Further thermodynamic analysis suggests that the side chain of Phe-64 is fully inserted into the hydrophobic core of membrane whereas those of Trp-19 and Trp-61 are located in the membrane-water interface. Together, these results show that all three types of aromatic residues can play important roles in interfacial binding of PLA2 depending on their location and side-chain orientation. They also indicate that these aromatic side chains interact with membranes in distinct modes because of their different intrinsic preference for different parts of membranes.


We have obtained deep optical spectra of the planetary nebula NGC 6153, both along its minor axis and by uniformly scanning a long slit across the whole nebula. The scanned spectra, when combined with the nebular total H beta flux, yield integrated fluxes for all the lines (similar to 400) in our spectra, which are rich in strong recombination lines from C, N, O and Ne ions. A weak O vi lambda 3811 emission line from the central star has been detected, suggesting that the nucleus of NGC 6153 has a hydrogen-deficient surface. The optical data, together with the ISO LWS 43-197 mu m spectrum and the archival IUE and IRAS LRS spectra, are used to study the thermal and density structure and to derive the heavy-element abundances from lines produced by different excitation mechanisms. In all cases, the C2+/H+, N2+/H+, O2+/H+ and Ne2+/H+ abundances derived from multiple optical recombination lines (ORLs) are consistently higher, by about a factor of 10, than the corresponding values deduced from optical, UV or infrared (IR) collisionally excited lines (CELs), regardless of the excitation energies or critical densities of the latter. The agreement between the temperature-sensitive optical forbidden lines and the temperature-insensitive IR fine-structure lines rules out temperature fluctuations as the cause of the large difference between the ORL and CEL abundances.We present the results of a new calculation of recombination coefficients for [O II] which lead to good agreement between the observed and predicted [O II] lambda lambda 7320, 7330 forbidden line intensities if these lines are solely excited by recombination at the Balmer jump temperature. Recombination excitation is also found to be important in exciting the [N ii] lambda 5754 line, which, if unaccounted for, would lead to an overestimated [N ii] temperature from the observed (lambda 6548+lambda 6584)/lambda 5754 ratio. Analysis of a number of C ii lines arising from levels as high as 7g in the recombination ladder reveals excellent agreement between their reddening-corrected relative intensities and those predicted by recombination theory. Spatial analysis of the long-slit spectra taken along the nebular minor axis yields a varying [O iii] temperature, whereas the hydrogen Balmer jump temperature of 6000 K is approximately constant across the nebula, and is 2000-3000 K lower than the [O iii] temperature. The observed high-n Balmer line decrement indicates that the hydrogen lines arise from material having an electron density of 2000(-1000)(+2000) cm(-3), consistent with the optical and IR forbidden-line density diagnostics, which yield average line-of-sight electron densities along the minor axis varying between 2000 and 4000 cm(-3).While the He/H ratio mapped by He I and He ii recombination lines is constant within 5 per cent across the nebula, the C2+/H+ and O2+/H+ recombination-line abundances decrease by a factor of 2-3 over a radius of 15 arcsec from the centre, pointing to the presence of abundance gradients. We consider a variety of hypotheses to account for the observed behaviour of the various thermal, density and abundance diagnostics. Empirical nebular models containing two components with differing densities and temperatures are able to account for many of the observed patterns, but only if one of the components is significantly hydrogen-deficient. One such model, which gives a good fit to the observed line intensities and patterns, has 500-K H-depleted material, presumed to be evaporating from dense neutral inclusions, embedded in 9500-K material with 'normal' abundances. An alternative model, which appears more physically plausible on a number of grounds, has high-density (2x10(6) cm(-3)), fully ionized, H-deficient knots embedded in the 'normal' component, although this model fails to account adequately for the observed low (6000 K) hydrogen Balmer jump temperature. However, the observed fact that the ORLs and CELs yield heavy-element abundance ratios that are identical within the uncertainties finds no obvious explanation in the context of H-deficient knot models.


Using luminescent-histochemical methods the contents of neurotransmitters (catecholamines, serotonin, histamine) was determined during the development of dental hard tissues in man. In the dental papilla the luminescent blood vessels were initially demonstrated, while single nerve fibers branching around the odontoblasts appeared later. It was found that enamel organ differentiation at the early stages took place without the participation of granular luminescent cells and mast cells. These cells appeared starting at week 22 of fetal development. Their appearance coincided with the process of enameloblast and odontoblast differentiation. The contents of neurotransmitters in the dental structures studied was found to increase with the fetal age.


Vessel flexure can be triggered naturally by surgical operation, heart pulsation and body movement. It may affect the mechanical behavior of the stent and the existence of a stent may in turn cause vessel injury. In the present study, the finite element method is employed to study the interaction between stent and vessel during vessel flexure. Two- and four-link stents made of stainless steel 316L and magnesium alloy WE43 are considered. Results indicate that longitudinal deformation of the stent can be caused by vessel flexure, and the higher levels of stress exist in the link struts. The existence of the stent could induce significant stress concentration and straightened deformation on vessel wall in the course of vessel flexure. Stents with more links or made of harder materials show greater anti-deformation capability, thus inducing a more severe stress concentration and straightened deformation on the vessel wall. The bending direction also affects the mechanical performance of the vessel-stent system. The results obtained could provide useful information for better stent designs and clinical decisions.


Huisgen cycloaddition is attractive to label peptide because of its rapidity and bioorthogonality. However, for larger tracers, the physico-chemical differences between the precursor and the tracer are usually insufficient to allow their separation by HPLC, reducing the specific activity. This is of importance for peptidic tracers because the combination of their high-affinity receptor with low specific activity results in the precursor saturating the receptors, causing non-specific tracer binding. Here, we report a fast, one-pot, general strategy to circumvent this issue, yielding a tracer of improved specific activity. It consists in adding a lipophilic azide after the labeling step to scavenge unreacted precursor into a more lipophilic species that does not co-elute with the tracer. We applied this strategy to a new fluorinated cyclopentapeptidic CXCR4 antagonist for the PET imaging of cancer, CCIC15, for which we managed to reduce the apparent peptide concentration by a factor of 34 in 10 min. This tracer was radiolabeled by click chemistry with 2-[(18) F]fluoroethylazide, yielding the tracer in 18 ± 6% (n = 5) end-of-synthesis radiochemical yields (EOS-RCY) in 1.5 h from [(18) F]fluoride with a specific activity of 19.4 GBq µmol(-1) . Preliminary biological evaluation of the probe confirmed potency and specificity for CXCR4; further biological evaluation is underway.


The resolution of the capacitance-voltage (C-V) technique on single- and double-delta (/spl delta/)-doped GaAs is shown to be given by the breadth of dopant distribution. The experimental C-V profiles demonstrate that impurities are spatially localized on the length scale of the lattice constant. The sharp distribution of dopants is assessed by the secondary-ion mass spectroscopy.


SUMMARY. Ultrastructural postmortem changes ofglomeruli, proximal tubules (PT), distal tubules (DT), and cortical collecting ducts (CD) were studied in adult chickens held at 27 C for 0, 1, 5, 10, 30, 60, or 360 minutes. There were marked ultrastructural alterations in tissues considered normal by light microscopy. The earliest changes, evident in immediately fixed samples, consisted of apical cell swelling of PT and DT epithelium and formation of smaller projections from glomerular capillary endothelium. Swelling increased with time, and gaps in cell membranes of tubular cytoplasmic blebs were evident by 10 minutes postmortem. The urinary space also contained cellular debris in immediately fixed samples and was filled by swollen epithelial cells by 10 minutes postmortem. Organelle changes were pronounced by 5 minutes in PT epithelium and by 10 minutes in DT epithelium. These initial changes consisted of dilation of mitochondrial and endoplasmic reticulum. Flocculent mitochondrial matrix densities were present by 5 minutes in PT epithelium and enlarged and appeared in other tubular segments as the time postmortem increased. Nuclear chromatin margination occurred first in 10-minute samples of PT and DT, and it was present by 30 minutes in glomerular epithelial cells. Chromatin clumping was present in PT and DT epithelium at 30 minutes and was followed by pyknosis and karyorrhexis at 360 minutes. These latter nuclear changes were not found in glomerular cells during the study. Nuclei of CD showed little change during the periods studied. The glomerular basement membrane appeared as a single hyaline membrane by 30 minutes postmortem, but this membrane and podocyte foot processes showed little further change by 360 minutes postmortem.


BACKGROUND
A considerable social stigma is attached to psychiatric disorders. Evidence shows that the portrayal of schizophrenia in the media is particularly negative. It has been proposed to replace the term schizophrenia by psychosis susceptibility or psychosis spectrum disorder. AIM: Follow-up of the study of the seven Flemish newspapers published between 2008-2012: to compare the degree of stigma in reporting of autism, schizophrenia and psychosis in the Flemish daily newspapers published between 2013-2017. METHOD: Via the websites of the seven Flemish daily newspapers, we searched for all articles published between 2013 and 2017 containing the keywords autism, schizophrenia, psychosis and related terms. The collected articles (n = 5,337) were then graded to their stigmatising content. RESULTS: In the collected articles the coverage of autism was mostly positive, whereas the coverage of schizophrenia was predominantly negative and of psychosis both positive and negative. The contrast between the reporting on autism and on schizophrenia was very substantial (p < 0.0001). The positive coverage of autism increased over time, the coverage of schizophrenia was negative in a stable way. The coverage of psychosis was only positive in the broadsheet newspapers. CONCLUSION: The social stigma attached to schizophrenia and psychosis is poignantly reflected in the Flemish newspapers. The fact that a comparable disorder such as autism is depicted in a much more favorable way than schizophrenia indicates that a more positive image of schizophrenia is not only desirable but also achievable.


Elastic optical networking (EON) with space-division multiplexing (SDM) is the only evident long-term solution to the capacity needs of the future networks. The introduction of space via spatial fibers, such as multicore fibers (MCF) to EON provides an additional dimension as well as challenges to the network planning and resource optimization problem. There are various types of technologies for SDM transmission medium, switching, and amplification; each of them induces different capabilities and constraints on the network. For example, employing MCF as the transmission medium for SDM mitigates the spectrum continuity constraint of the routing and spectrum allocation problem for EON. In fact, cores can be switched freely on different links during routing of the network traffic. On the other hand, intercore crosstalk should be taken into account while solving the resource allocation problem. In the framework of switching for elastic SDM network, the programmable architecture on demand (AoD) node (optical white box) can provide a more scalable solution with respect to the hard-wired reconfigurable optical add/drop multiplexers (ROADMs) (optical black box). This study looks into the routing, modulation, spectrum, and core allocation (RMSCA) problem for weakly-coupled MCF-based elastic SDM networks implemented through AoDs and static ROADMs. The proposed RMSCA strategies integrate the spectrum resource allocation, switching resource deployment, and physical layer impairment in terms of intercore crosstalk through a multiobjective cost function. The presented strategies perform a cross-layer optimization between the network and physical layers to compute the actual intercore crosstalk for the candidate resource solutions and are specifically tailored to fit the type of optical node deployed in the network. The aim of all these strategies is to jointly optimize the switching and spectrum resource efficiency when provisioning demands with diverse capacity requirements. Extensive simulation results demonstrate that 1) by exploiting the dense intranodal connectivity of the ROADM-based SDM network, resource efficiency and provisioned traffic volume improve significantly related to the AoD-based solution, 2) the intercore crosstalk aware strategies improve substantially the provisioned traffic volume for the AoD-based SDM network, and 3) the switching modules grows very gently for the network designed with AoD nodes related to the one with ROADMs as the traffic increases, qualifying AoD as a scalable and cost-efficient choice for future SDM networks.


Background: Considering the remaining threat of drug-resistantmutations (DRMs) to antiretroviral treatment (ART) efficacy, we investigated how the selective pressure of human leukocyte antigen (HLA)-restricted cytotoxic T lymphocytes drives certain DRMs' emergence and retention. Methods: We systematically screened DRM:HLA class I allele combinations in 3997 ART-naïve Swiss HIV Cohort Study (SHCS) patients. For each pair, a logistic regression model preliminarily tested for an association with the DRM as the outcome. The three HLA:DRM pairs remaining after multiple testing adjustment were analyzed in three ways: cross-sectional logistic regression models to determine any HLA/infection time interaction, survival analyses to examine if HLA type correlated with developing specific DRMs, and via NetMHCpan to find epitope binding evidence of immune escape. Results: Only one pair, RT-E138:HLA-B18, exhibited a significant interaction between infection duration and HLA. The survival analyses predicted two pairs with an increased hazard of developing DRMs: RT-E138:HLA-B18 and RT-V179:HLA-B35. RT-E138:HLA-B18 exhibited the greatest significance in both analyses (interaction term odds ratio [OR] 1.169 [95% confidence interval (CI) 1.075–1.273]; p-value<0.001; survival hazard ratio 12.211 [95% CI 3.523–42.318]; p-value<0.001). The same two pairs were also predicted by netMHCpan to have epitopic binding. Conclusions: We identified DRM:HLA pairs where HLA presence is associated with the presence or emergence of the DRM, indicating that the selective pressure for these mutations alternates direction depending on the presence of these HLA alleles. Funding: Funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation within the framework of the SHCS, and the University of Zurich, University Research Priority Program: Evolution in Action: From Genomes Ecosystems, in Switzerland.


A diagnosis of late pyomyositis was made and after 24 hours treatment with penicillin and streptomycin the thigh was drained under general anaesthesia, and obviously necrotic skin was excised. Wound swabs yielded a mixed growth of coliforms, but acid-fast bacilli were not sought at this stage. In spite of apparently free drainage from the leg, appropriate antibiotics, piecemeal excision of more necrotic skin, and transfusion of one unit of blood, the child remained very ill three weeks after admission. Re-examination under general anaesthesia showed that the ulcer on the thigh now extended over 3"' of the body surface and the lateral edge only was adherent to underlying granulations. Elsewhere the ulcer margin was undermined 6 cm towards the groin and up to 12 cm distally, lifting the skin off the patella and linking the main ulcer in the thigh with smaller ulcers either side of the tibial tubercle. Thick plaques of gritty necrotic fat were excised from under the skin flaps and much cheesy debris was wiped out of the large cavity. A biopsy of skin and subcutaneous tissue was taken from the superior limit of the lesion. Even at this unsuitable site the histology was typical of Buruli ulcer, and clusters of acid-fast bacilli were seen in Ziehl-Neelsen stained sections. An attempt to culture Mycobacterium ulcerans from necrotic fat was not successful.


Ceramics of hydroxyapatite (Ca10(PO4)6(OH)2: HA) and β-tricalcium phosphate (β-Ca3(PO4)2: β-TCP), were prepared by spark plasma sintering (SPS) at the temperatures from 800 °C to 1000 °C for 10 min with a heating rate of 25 °C·min-1. The HA ceramics prepared at 900 °C and 1000 °C showed transparency. On the other hands, transparent β-TCP ceramics was obtained by SPS at 1000 °C. In analysis of the densification behavior during sintering of HA and β-TCP by SPS, dominant sintering mechanism was plastic flow in the early stage of densification. Transparent ceramics should be the most suitable materilas to investigate the interface between human cells and ceramics.


We investigate the coupling efficiency of parametric downconversion light (PDC) into single and multi-mode optical fibers as a function of the pump beam diameter, crystal length and walk-off. We outline two different theoretical models for the preparation and collection of either single-mode or multi-mode PDC light (defined by, for instance, multi-mode fibers or apertures, corresponding to bucket detection). Moreover, we define the mode-matching collection efficiency, important for realizing a single-photon source based on PDC output into a well-defined single spatial mode. We also define a multimode collection efficiency that is useful for single-photon detector calibration applications.


The authors identify several components of the application for residency and fellowship recruitment that impede progress toward conducting holistic review in graduate medical education (GME). As well, important differences between undergraduate (UME) and graduate medical education (GME) recruitment are discussed. The authors call for inclusion of questions about family background and disadvantaged status in the GME application, which is a standard practice within applications for health professions. The second recommendation encourages a question about non-cognitive strengths. Many specialties have adopted standardized letters of recommendation (SLORs) or standardized letters of evaluation (SLOEs) that collect this information from letters writers. Programs and applicants would benefit from uniformity across specialties. The authors also call for a centralized, searchable database that provides applicants with each program's mission, educational goals, and alumni outcomes. To support this paradigm shift in GME recruitment, reinforced with new Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education standards in July 2019, a task force should provide theoretical, evidence-based reasoning, along with development of new tools.


Single, deterministic time values associated with one cost figure in an activity-oriented system are preferable for most applications of the network planning technique. With the exception of research projects, involving previously unattempted activities, the triple stochastic time values in an event-oriented system waste the planner's time and produce results that are no more significant than those obtained by deterministic methods. Maximum benefits from these techniques can only be obtained through re-working the schedule, alternate plans, and repeated updatings. The arithmetic is simple enough for hand calculation, but the number of computations over the life of a project militates against a completely manual solution. Hence, computers are suggested for virtually all projects. Certain aspects, however, are more efficiently done by the individual. Schedule compression, distribution of float, and reassignment of resources are examples of work that should be entrusted to the electronic assistant. Comprehensive knowledge and intelligent application, not mechanical processing, are the elements of successful utilization.


Purpose – Engineer-to-Order supply chains are known to consist complex networks with numerous suppliers in different roles that may have high impact on the operational excellence of an ETO company and their competitive advantages. Therefore, supplier delivery performance is widely recognized as a critical challenge among ETO companies. This thesis contributes in delivery performance management research by studying how an ETO company may manage their procurement processes in order to improve their suppliers' delivery performance. The underlying problem of the thesis emerges from high uncertainty and variability inside the supply chain which is evident for ETO companies. Research design – This thesis approaches supplier delivery performance by trying to identify the costs associated with supplier untimeliness due to the delivery variance, the causes of untimeliness and process variability and to eliminate the sources of variability and causes of untimeliness in supplier's order fulfillment process. The thesis is conducted by using a case company in a single case study. The case study consists of a data analysis on supplier delivery data, interviews and a supplier development project on delivery variance reduction that provide the required information for the improvement suggestions and discussion in the end of this thesis. Findings – ETO companies should emphasize the importance of supplier development and control on supplier process times in order to improve suppliers' delivery performance. This is particularly important with strategically important suppliers that are considered as partners instead of replaceable suppliers. Furthermore, increased and more effective communication between buyer, supplier and third parties is also found as a central improvement area when trying to reduce the delivery variance. Finally, since the delivery performance should be measured financially, this thesis suggests a new performance indicator that considers supplier's statistical delivery variability and provides an expected cost for untimeliness. Research limitations – Most significant limitations were found in discussion on delivery variance reduction that is purely based on single supplier performance and the results may be somewhat exceptional and cannot be used directly with other suppliers. Also, the suggested KPI can be considered to be limited due to its complexity when calculating the estimated cost of supplier untimeliness.


In a business world where international communication is becoming increasingly important for both large and medium-sized companies, it is important for businesspeople and communication professionals to know some of the pitfalls that could befall them and tips to avoid such problems. This paper deals firstly with the theory of international communication, presenting an "international communication dashboard" to show key differences between the country issuing the communication and the target country. The authors then present five case studies of international product PR to show what problems can arise, before going on to reveal "five golden rules" of international communication, showing how the problems could be avoided by using the communication dashboard.


F-theory provides a means to study the type IIB string theory in the non-perturbative regime where the complex coupling is of order unity. This should be contrasted with the perturbative regime where the string coupling is small. F-theory will be used in this thesis to argue for the existence of novel types of branes, called Q7-branes. The notion of a Q7-brane leads to the notion of Q-instantons that are related to Q7-branes by electro-magnetic duality. Understanding the world-volume theory of the Q7-branes and the role of the Q-instantons provides a means to study the IIB theory in, so far, poorly investigated corners of its moduli space where the string coupling is of order unity. By moduli space is meant the set of inequivalent values of the complex type IIB coupling constant. From the set of one-half BPS objects that are present in type IIB supergravity almost all the branes have been given a microscopic interpretation in type IIB string theory. These are the branes that are referred as the (p',q') p-branes with p' and q' relatively prime integers. These are p-dimensional branes on which a (p',q') string is ending. The above-mentioned Q7-branes and Q-instantons are not of this type. The properties of the Q7-branes such as their gauge group, monodromy and mass have a natural interpretation in terms of coincident F-theory 7-branes, i.e. coinciding (p',q') 7-branes with different values for p' and q'. If the relative positions of the F-theory 7-branes that make up a Q7-brane are kept fixed so that they remain coincident and only the fluctuations associated to the center of mass motion are considered then the Q7-brane behaves effectively as a single brane that couples to an 8-form. By electro-magnetic duality it can be argued that there should exist a Q-instanton, i.e. a Q(-1)-brane that couples magnetically to the same 8-form to which a Q7-brane couples electrically. The path integral approach to the Q-instantons shows the existence of new vacua and a new superselection parameter. Further, it will be argued that the Q-instantons contribute to the R^4 terms of the string effective action near points in the moduli space where the string coupling is of order unity.


The pH and nitrate effect on the anaerobic biological reduction of perchlorate using acetate as carbon source was studied. Perchlorate reduction occurred throughout the pH range from 6.0 to 9.0. However, initiation of perchlorate reduction was rapid under neutral pH conditions. At initial pH 7, perchlorate reduction followed pseudo-first-order with the reaction rate constants was 0.3732 d-1 and the half-life time was 1.85 d. In the absence and presence of nitrate, the kinetics of perchlorate reduction with the reaction rate constants were 0.3229 d-1 and 0.2307 d-1 (after a lag phase for 3 d), the half-life time were 2.1 d and 6 d. With multiple additions of nitrate, perchlorate removal was observed with a longer lag period, the consequent production of high level nitrite may delay perchlorate degradation.


In this paper, the main problem is how to eliminate vibration came from the compressor base in petrochemical industry. The absolute transmissibility was calculated by building the compressor isolation system model. The spectrum information of compressor vibration was got through the vibration test, and the results can be acted as the condition for the isolator's design. Isolators were designed with damping part connecting metal rubber with helical spring. Nonlinear simulation calculation was completed by finite element software. The results show that the maximum stress of isolator is about 494MPa and its maximum distortion is approximately 6mm. It verifies that the new-style isolator can satisfy vibration elimination of compressor. It is with wide-range rigidity and better capability of energy dissipation than that of general rubber isolator. It has a useful application and perspective on vibration elimination for the mechanical equipment in petrochemical industry.


Robot control problems are often structured with a policy function that maps state values into control values, but in many dynamic problems the observed state can have a difficult to characterize relationship with useful policy actions. In this paper we present a new method for learning state embeddings from plans or other forms of demonstrations such that the embedding space has a specified geometric relationship with the demonstrations. We present a novel variational framework for learning these embeddings that attempts to optimize trajectory linearity in the learned embedding space. We show how these embedding spaces can then be used as an augmentation to the robot state in reinforcement learning problems. We use kinodynamic planning to generate training trajectories for some example environments, and then train embedding spaces for these environments. We show empirically that observing a system in the learned embedding space improves the performance of policy gradient reinforcement learning algorithms, particularly by reducing the variance between training runs. Our technique is limited to environments where demonstration data is available, but places no limits on how that data is collected. Our embedding technique provides a way to transfer domain knowledge from existing technologies such as planning and control algorithms, into more flexible policy learning algorithms, by creating an abstract representation of the robot state with meaningful geometry.


There is widespread agreement that manufacturing concerns require a level of technological capabilities to be able to compete in a globalized economy. This study sought to examine the technological capabilities necessary for the resuscitation of the Zimbabwean manufacturing sector. The sector has been under a lot of pressure mainly from cheaper and sometimes better quality products hailing from international players. With antiquated machinery and having been closed in during and after sanctions, the sector understands the need for up scaling their TCs. The study used data from a non-probability judgemental sample of 77 companies across 6 subsector who had capacity utilization of up to 80%. Return on Assets (ROA) was used to measure performance and was the dependent variable. A total of 14 independent variables were regressed using a bivariate and multivariate regression analysis. Five distinct technological factors proved
to positively influence company performance. The significance for industry is that the 5 variables clearly hover around increase in technological capabilities and the support of human resources and information systems to go with it and directs strategists to what they need to recover in the Zimbabwean economy.


Commercial renal transplantation is widely condemned on moral and ethical grounds. Moreover, previous studies involving small numbers of patients, mostly from tertiary care centers, have reported poor patient and graft survival. The Living Non-Related Renal Transplant Study Group was established to determine the overall results and complications in a large number of patients who received this type of transplantation in India. In this study we retrospectively collected data from 22 centers on 540 patients who had received commercial renal transplantation (CRT) in India between 1978 and 1993. The data collected included demographic characteristics of patients, the primary renal disease, dialysis and pretransplant data, immunosuppressive regimen, rejection episodes, post-transplant data, as well as patient and graft outcomes. Results were compared with those of 75 recipients of emotionally related renal transplantation (ERT) performed in two participating institutions in the Middle East. Among the 540 patients, 7.5% were younger than 20 yr of age and 14.2% were 50 yr of age or older. After adjusting for several variables, the 1-, 3-, and 5-yr patient survival rates in the CRT were 97, 94, and 92%, and in the ERT 95, 91, and 91% respectively (p = 0.4921). The corresponding rates for graft survival were 90, 81, and 72%, and 90, 86, and 83%, respectively (p = 0.5336). There was a higher incidence of human immune deficiency virus (HIV) infection (4.6% vs. 0% p = 0.053), and hepatitis B virus (HbsAg) infection rate (8.1% vs. 1.4% p = 0.03) in CRT. In conclusion, patient and graft survival rates in recipients of commercial renal transplantation are similar to those in recipients of emotionally related transplantation done in our institutions. However, the incidence of serious infections with HIV and HbsAg is significantly higher.


Weyl semimetals are 3D phases of matter with topologically protected states that have remarkable macroscopic transport behaviors. As phonon dynamics and electron-phonon scattering play a critical role in the electrical and thermal transport, we pursue a fundamental understanding of the origin of these effects in type-I Weyl semimetals NbAs and TaAs. In the temperature-dependent Raman spectra of NbAs, we reveal a previously unreported Fano lineshape, a signature stemming from the electron-phonon interaction. Additionally, the temperature dependence of the $A_{1}$ phonon linewidths in both NbAs and TaAs strongly deviate from the standard model of anharmonic decay. To capture the mechanisms responsible for the observed Fano asymmetry and the atypical phonon linewidth, we present first principles calculations of the phonon self-energy correction due to the electron-phonon interaction. Finally, we investigate the relationship between Fano lineshape, electron-phonon coupling, and locations of the Weyl points in these materials. Through this study of the phonon dynamics and electron-phonon interaction in these Weyl semimetals, we consider specific microscopic pathways which contribute to the nature of their macroscopic transport.


OBJECTIVE
We hypothesized that pooling a mother's expressed breastmilk for 24 hours compared with individual pump session collection of milk would provide a more consistent caloric product without increasing bacterial contamination.

STUDY DESIGN
We investigated 24-hour pooled breastmilk collection by enrolling 19 mothers who were expressing milk for their infants. Mothers followed a standardized milk collection protocol for 4 study days: daily milk was pooled in a sterile 1-L bottle on Day 1, and on Day 2 milk was aliquoted for each pump session into a sterile 120-mL container. The next week the order of collection was reversed. Milk samples were plated, incubated, and evaluated for bacteria colonization. Milk samples were analyzed for protein, fat, and carbohydrate content.

RESULTS
There was inherently less variability in the caloric and nutrient content of pooled milk compared with individual samples, in which caloric density varied by as much as 29%. Mother's milk had highly variable bacterial counts ranging from 0 to greater than 100,000 colonies/mL. High bacteria counts (>100,000 colonies/mL) occurred in 14.7% (31 of 211) of individual samples compared with 8.6% (three of 35) of pooled samples (p=0.39).

CONCLUSIONS
Twenty-four-hour pooling of human milk reduces nutrient and caloric variability without increasing bacterial counts.


We present observations and modeling of SN 2016hnk, a Ca-rich supernova (SN) that is consistent with being the result of a He-shell double-detonation explosion of a C/O white dwarf. We find that SN 2016hnk is intrinsically red relative to typical thermonuclear SNe and has a relatively low peak luminosity ( MB = −15.4 mag), setting it apart from low-luminosity SNe Ia. SN 2016hnk has a fast-rising light curve that is consistent with other Ca-rich transients (tr = 15 days). We determine that SN 2016hnk produced 0.03 ± 0.01 M⊙ of 56Ni and 0.9 ± 0.3 M⊙ of ejecta. The photospheric spectra show strong, high-velocity Ca ii absorption and significant line blanketing at λ < 5000 Å, making it distinct from typical (SN 2005E-like) Ca-rich SNe. SN 2016hnk is remarkably similar to SN 2018byg, which was modeled as a He-shell double-detonation explosion. We demonstrate that the spectra and light curves of SN 2016hnk are well modeled by the detonation of a 0.02 helium shell on the surface of a 0.85 C/O white dwarf. This analysis highlights the second observed case of a He-shell double-detonation and suggests a specific thermonuclear explosion that is physically distinct from SNe that are defined simply by their low luminosities and strong [Ca ii] emission.