As overall prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) continues to rise, the number of patients who undergo ablation, or electrical/chemical cardioversion, to restore normal sinus rhythm continues to increase as well. As direct oral anticoagulants (DOACs) have continued to be incorporated into clinical practice for long‐term anticoagulation for AF, experience with how best to manage use of DOACs during electrophysiologic procedures is evolving. This review is intended to provide health care providers with a summary of current evidence regarding the use of DOACs during cardioversion and catheter ablation and provide key considerations for their use during such electrophysiologic procedures. PubMed and MEDLINE were searched from inception through June 2018 for studies in humans comparing DOACs alone or against vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) in adult patients (> 18 yrs) who underwent cardioversion or AF catheter ablation using the following key words: "rivaroxaban," "dabigatran," "apixaban," "edoxaban," "non–vitamin K antagonists," "direct or new oral anticoagulants," "warfarin," "vitamin K antagonists," "cardioversion," "ablation of atrial fibrillation," "uninterrupted," and "catheter ablation." Four retrospective studies and three prospective trials comparing DOACs with VKA in patients undergoing cardioversion and three prospective studies in patients undergoing catheter ablation for AF were identified. Observational data and meta‐analyses were also critically reviewed. Prospective trials to date suggest similar efficacy and safety with using DOACs in the setting of cardioversion and AF ablation compared to traditional therapy with VKA, with or without bridging. Injectable anticoagulant overlap can be avoided in patients receiving DOACs in the setting of cardioversion for AF. Minimal interruption in anticoagulation may be only necessary for AF ablation in those with highest bleeding risk, such as in renal dysfunction and where drug‐drug interactions may increase risk for anticoagulant accumulation. Periprocedural advantages of DOACs include convenience, rapid and predictable onset of effect, improved patient satisfaction, and potential for reduced costs.


A growing number of art therapists are also trained in group analytic psychotherapy. This book explores the new theories and models for practice arising from the merging of these two disciplines.
Contributors ask whether a model can be applied universally to art therapy group work with diverse client groups. They present in-depth case studies looking at work with the following:-
* children
* drug and alcohol abusers
* forensic patients
* patients on acute psychiatric wards
* the cognitively-impaired elderly
* institutionalised patients moving into the community
A common theme which emerges is that the physical use of art materials and the space of the art room offer a possibility for communication of feelings which is not possible in purely verbal groups. This allows clients who would not normally be considered for group therapy to benefit from a psychodynamic group process.


Three unique structure types of the vanadate-based mixed-metal oxide systems (salt)·MnII-Vv-O and (salt)·CuII-Vv-O are presented, with a focus on the role of the asym. vanadate units. Lattice parameters were obtained for (CsCl)2Mn(VO3)2, (CsBr)2Mn(VO3)2, (RbCl)2Mn(VO3)2, (CsCl)2Cu(VO3)2, (CsCl)Mn2(V2O7), (KCl)2Cu(VO3)2, (RbCl)2Cu(VO3)2 and (CsBr)2Cu(VO3)2. The two structure types found in the (AX)2M-(VO3)2 series differ in the propagation direction of the metavanadate chains which is thought to be due to the presence (or absence) of a Jahn-Teller distortion of the metal (d9 Cu2+ vs. d5 Mn2+) ion.


"Fasting is an effective and safe method of detoxifying the body...it helps the body heal itself and stay well. Fasting can help reverse the aging process, and if we use it correctly we will live longer, happier lives." - James Balch, MD, Author, Prescription for Natural Healing Accepted as a classic cure for many medical and physical issues, as well as a key to good general health, Otto Buchinger's therapeutic fasting methods have attracted millions of followers and been in use for more than five decades. In Therapeutic Fasting, written by an internationally renowned authority on fasting (also, a member of the original Buchinger family), the details and methodology of this highly effective program are disclosed for a whole new generation of readers and clinicians. Special Features * Offers easy-to-follow guidelines for implementing the original, acclaimed Buchinger method of therapeutic fasting, which is firmly rooted in concepts of medical sciences and physiology * Enhanced by step-by-step instructions, how-to tips, clear explanations, full-color photographs, and compelling personal commentary by individuals who have experienced the program * The author Francoise Wilhelmi de Toledo, MD, is an international authority on fasting and heads the well-known Buchinger clinics in Europe. * Explores the far-reaching physical, spiritual, and psychological effects of fasting * Shows how motivational techniques and physical exercises complement the program and lead to a strong sense of well-being, with examples of yoga, correct breathing, abdominal massage, and more * Demonstrates how food is slowly and safely introduced after the fast, with more than 40 savory recipes that promote nutritional awareness in everyday life The only book on this topic available in English, Therapeutic Fasting: The Buchinger-Amplius Method will enable all readers to learn patterns of healthy behavior, practice them with professional guidance, and integrate them into a balanced, healthy lifestyle. It is a fascinating reference for general practitioners, nutritionists, and informed lay people who want to learn more about the powerful combination of therapeutic fasting, supporting scientific medical principles, and natural healing concepts.


Safflower is a minor oilseed crop. It has red, orange, yellow and white flowers which colouring agents used to be natural colour source. Nowadays there is no agreement between researchers about inheritance of corolla colour in safflower. Our aim was to find out interactions character of genes in generating corolla colour. The experiments were held in 2009-2015 with 13 samples of IOC NAAS collection. 2 monohybrid, 11 dihybrid and 2 trihybrid crosses were analysed. It was shown the genes coding corolla colour of safflower form interactions such as: 1) genes O and R interact complementarily forming new sign of orange corolla colour with individual manifestation of each of them of yellow and red colour accordingly; 2) gene C forms dominant epistatic interactions with genes O and R with individual manifestation of yellow corolla colour; 3) gene Y forms recessive epistatic interactions with genes O, R and C without individual manifestation. Recessive homozygote in it makes white corolla colour. Refs 17. Tables 3.


We demonstrate a stable, tunable dual-wavelength (DW) generated by launching an in-house built supercontinuum (SC) into an add-drop microring resonator (MRR). The MRR is fabricated from a silicon–nitrogen–oxygen substrate. The frequency comb of the filtered SC is obtained with an experimental free spectral range (FSR) from 0.39 to 0.46 nm corresponding to 48.7–57 GHz within the wavelength range 1520–1660 nm. The stability of a generated DW within the ranges 1561.16 and 1561.57 nm over 120 min is examined, where high, stable DW with a very low power fluctuation is achieved. This work has demonstrated the use of waveguide based MRR in the fiber laser system, and a remarkable flat and low power fluctuations frequency comb is achieved using the in-house built SC source and MRR.


In order to identify a classification according to the Hierarchical Ascending Classification (HAC) method, based on the physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters of the source waters of the Tangier-Tetouan region so as to determines the degree of the impact of certain anthropogenic activities upon the quality of spring water and to draw up a spatial typology analysis for possible proceedings that may protect these water resources, a multidisciplinary study has been realized. The latter is based on: an evaluation of the physico-chemical quality and, also, a study of the bacteriological quality of the source waters of the study area which has been carried out in accordance with the potability standard required by the World Health Organization. The overall results showed that almost all of the physico-chemical parameters correspond to Moroccan standards. The chemistry of the source waters of the Tangier-Tetouan region indicated two different facies: bicarbonate-calcium facies and chloride-calcium ones. All the results suggest an absence of input of heavy metals by the agricultural activity and a low contribution by the geological formation of the aquifers crossed by the groundwater. Bacteriological results showed microbial contamination that was observed for the majority of sources from runoff and domestic and industrial wastewater.


Electrochemical double-layer capacitors, which are well known as ultracapacitors, have intensively been used in power conversion applications such as controlled electric drives, active filters, power conditioners, and uninterruptible power supplies. The ultracapacitor is employed as the energy storage device that can be fully charged/discharged within a few seconds. To achieve better flexibility and efficiency, the ultracapacitor is connected to the power conversion system via an interfacing dc-dc power converter. Various topologies are used as the dc-dc power converter: nonisolated two-level single-phase or multiphase interleaved converters and many varieties of isolated soft-switched dc-dc converters. A three-level nonisolated dc-dc converter as a candidate for ultracapacitor applications is proposed and analyzed in this paper. The topology is theoretically analyzed, and design guidelines are given. The modeling and control aspects are discussed. A 5.5-kW prototype was designed, and the proposed topology was experimentally verified on a general-purpose controlled electric drive. Experimental results are presented and discussed.


Coastal hypoxia has become an increasingly acknowledged threat to coral reefs that is potentially intensifying because of increased input of anthropogenic nutrients. Almirante Bay (Caribbean Panama) is a semi-enclosed system that experiences hypoxia in deeper waters which occasionally expand into shallow coral reefs, suffocating most aerobic benthic life. To explore the long-term history of reefs in the bay we extracted reef matrix cores from two reefs that today experience contrasting patterns of oxygenation. We constructed a 1800-year-long record of gastropod assemblages and isotope compositions from six U-Th chronologically-constrained reef matrix cores. We extracted two cores from each reef at 3 m water depth and two additional cores from a deeper part (4.8 m) of the hypoxia-exposed reef. Results show that the deeper part of the hypoxic reef slowed in growth and stopped accreting approximately 1500 years BP while the shallow part of the reef continued to accrete to the present day, in agreement with a model of expanding hypoxia at this time. Our proxy-based approach suggests that differences among these palaeoindicators in the two reefs may have been driven by an increase in hypoxia via eutrophication caused by either natural changes or human impacts. Similar patterns of increasing herbivores and decreasing carbon isotope values occurred in the shallow part of the hypoxic reef during the last few decades. This suggests that hypoxia may be expanding to depths as shallow as 3 m and that shallow reefs are experiencing greater risk due to increased human activity.


We present a planar chromatographic separation method for the phytoestrogenic active compound equol, separated on RP-18 W (Merck, 1.14296) phase. It could be shown that an ethanolic cattle manure extract contains this phytoestrogenic active compound to a larger amount. As solvents for the mobile phase, hexane, ethyl acetate, and acetone (45:15:10, v/v); acetone and water (15:10, v/v); and n-hexane, CH2Cl2, ethyl acetate, methanol, and formic acid (40:40:20:5:1, v/v) have been used. After separation, a modified yeast estrogen screen (YES) test was applied, using the yeast strain Saccharomyces cerevisiae BJ3505 containing an estrogen receptor. Its activation by equol induces the reporter gene lacZ which encodes the enzyme β-galactosidase. The enzyme activity is measured directly on the TLC plate by using the substrate MUG (4-methylumbelliferyl-β-d-galactopyranoside) or the substrate X-β-Gal (5-bromo-4-chloro-3-indoxyl-β-d-galactopyranoside). β-Galactosidase cleaves MUG into a fluorescing compound. X-β- Gal is also hydrolyzed and then oxidized by oxygen forming the deep-blue dye 5,5′-dibromo-4,4′-dichloro-indigo. Both reactions in combination with a thin-layer chromatography (TLC) separation allow very specific detecting of equol in cattle manure, although that is a very challenging matrix. Preliminary results show that the average content of equol in liquid manure is roughly 60 μg g−1. The value for urine is 50 μg mL−1.


Porous silicon (PSi) samples were prepared using photoelectrochemical method on n‐type silicon wafer with (111) orientation. To prepare porous structures, the samples were dipped into a mixture of HF:Ethanol (1:1) for 15 and 30 minutes with current densities of 50 mA/cm2, and subjected to external illumination with a 500 W UV lamp. Structural characterization using scanning electron microscope (SEM) was carried out at room temperature. All the optical measurements were performed at room temperature (RT). For porous Si(111) substrate, in the plan view the rigid triangular shaped macroarray network of 300–400 nm sizes are clearly seen. The characteristic faceted, triangular shaped pores illustrate an orientation dependence of the photo anodization process of the Si (111) material, probably due to the anisotropy of Si (111) dissolution. PL measurements revealed that the porosity‐induced PL intensity enhancement was only observed in the porous samples. Raman spectra showed that the shift of peak from the sili...


Background: The argon beam coagulator (ABC) is frequently used to control bleeding on parenchymatous organs during surgery. The purpose of this study was to assess whether it improves the efficacy of hemostasis of using the argon beam coagulation with a concentrated human albumin at partial hepatectomy. Methods: Thirty-two domestic swine were randomized and treated with either conventional argon beam coagulation alone (ABC, N=16) or the argon beam coagulation in association with a concentrated human albumin (ABCA, N16) following by wedge resection of left median lobe of the liver using a digital fracture technique. Postoperative followup was up to 90 days for acute parameters and chronic bio-compatibility studies. Results: The ABCA group required fewer repeat applications of argon beam coagulation than ABC alone group (mean 0.5 vs. 1.5, p=0.00'7). The total blood loss of ABCA was significantly less than ABC group (mean 3.83 vs. 8.29, p=O.O49). The post-operative reaction was similar to the both groups, which shows a chronic inflammation response as part of the ongoing normal healing process. Conclusions: We demonstrated that the ABCA is more effective and reliable than ABC alone in hemostasis of hepatic injury. Clinical trials ofusing the ABCA for solid organs injury repair are warranted.


2022 Abstract The law of restitution and unjust enrichment has emerged as an important and independent branch of private law globally, but has attracted relatively little economic analysis. The aim of this paper is to develop a general conceptual framework for the economic analysis of the core example of restitution - mistaken payments. We develop a formal model in a parsimonious setting with two buyer-seller pairs, with low (high) transaction costs within (across) pairs. This model generates several novel insights, based on the idea that mistaken payments to strangers impose a "transaction tax" on contracting parties. It sheds new light on distortions generated by the change of position defense, and on the rationale for the discharge for value doctrine (which was implicated in the recent highly controversial Citibank case). We show that full restitution is socially optimal when harm is unilateral, and partial restitution is generally optimal when harm is bilateral. We also propose a hypothetical decoupling regime that would (if it were feasible) lead to more efficient outcomes than would partial restitution. The decoupling regime is intended as a thought experiment that can arguably shed light on some of the foundational debates surrounding the law of


Abstract Under European Union legislation (Article 32, Regulation (EC) No 396/2005), the EFSA provides an annual report which examines pesticide residue levels in foods on the European market. This report is based on data from the official national control activities carried out by EU Member States, Iceland and Norway and includes a subset of data from the EU‐coordinated control programme, which uses a randomised sampling strategy. For 2020, 94.9% of the overall 88,141 samples analysed fell below the maximum residue level (MRL), 5.1% exceeded this level, of which 3.6% were non‐compliant, i.e. samples exceeding the MRL after taking the measurement uncertainty into account. For the subset of 12,077 samples analysed as part of the EU‐coordinated multiannual control programme, 1.7% exceeded the MRL and 0.9% were non‐compliant. To assess acute and chronic risk to consumer health, dietary exposure to pesticide residues was estimated and compared with health‐based guidance values. Dietary exposure to pesticides for which health‐based guidance values were available is unlikely to pose a risk to EU consumer health. In the rare cases where dietary exposure for a specific pesticide/product combination was calculated to exceed the health‐based guidance value, and for those pesticides for which no health‐based guidance value could be established, the competent authorities took appropriate and proportionate corrective measures to address potential risks to consumers. Recommendations are proposed to increase the effectiveness of European control systems, thereby continuing to ensure a high level of consumer protection throughout the EU.


Misreporting is a well-known challenge for researchers in social sciences. This issue is especially prevalent if incentives for misreporting exist, for example, to claim certain benefits or hide illegal behavior. Internally displaced persons are a population that is highly dependent on aid receipts and, thus, have strong incentives to underreport consumption levels. To improve reporting for such vulnerable populations, this paper proposes to integrate "honesty primes" into the consumption module of the questionnaire. Honesty primes are unconscious stimuli that induce a certain cognition or behavior. The study assesses the effectiveness of a bundle of randomly assigned primes within a sample of internally displaced persons in South Sudan. In line with the main hypothesis, positive and significant effects arise for low consumption quantiles, especially consumption quantities that are more susceptible to manipulation. Hence, honesty primes can act as a cost-effective tool to induce more accurate reporting. Further research is needed to identify more effective primes for the respective population of interest.


Nuclei free of RNase activity were isolated from 3-hour-imbibed wheat (var. Yambil) embryos by centrfaugation through a discontinuous gradient of PercolL The maxium rate of RNA synthesis observed in these nuclei was approximately 5 plcomoles I'HIUTP per milligram DNA per minute. Two monovalent cation optima were found when measured in the presence of 15 m lar MgC12 or 2 mflimolar MnCI2; 15 and 75 milimlar (NH1)2SO4. At the high monovalent cation optimum, the rate of RNA synthesis was linear for the first 10 to 15 minutes of incubation and still increasing after 3 hours. RNA synthesized in vitro (30-minute pulse fol- lowed by a 30-minute chase) showed distinct 18 and 26S RNA peaks comprising 13 and 17% of the total radioactivity, respectvely. The over-all pattern of RNA synthesized in vitro was similar to the in vivo pattern. Approximately 40 to 50% of the RNA synthesized was inhibited by a- amanitin at 4 micrograms per milliliter. The newly synthesized 6 to 10S RNA appeared to be selectively inhibited by a-amanitin.


It is a great honor to be asked to pay tribute to Carol Rose, whose work has been critically important to my own scholarship and to that of so many of my peers. Carol has been an inspiration to several generations of scholars, not only because of the many keen insights she has contributed to several different fields of law, but also, perhaps especially, because of her style of thinking, writing, and working with other scholars. Carol's modesty, her incredible ability to cut right to the heart of the matter in the most down-to-earth, but always amazingly well-turned phrase, and her generosity to other scholars are models of what a more engaged, more honest, and more gracious scholarly community could be. Carol likes to organize things in lists-her articles include a dozen propositions on property and takings, seven arguments on property, and so on.' I am going to offer, then, a list of the top three reasons that Carol's contributions to the "vastly overwritten" takings literature, to use her phrase,2 are genuine advances of a very special sort. In the hope of spurring Carol to develop her contributions into a more comprehensive theory about how to ensure that government acts efficiently and fairly when regulating property, I am then going to propose the outline for what I hope will be her book on takings.


Public transport route choice is an open problem studied for many years and it is well regarded that many factors influence the choice of stages making up a public transport trip. In addition to factors such travel time, fare, service frequency, number of transfers and transfer waiting time, the focus of research shifted more and more to dynamic factors such as crowdedness and travel time variability. This paper describes a method to simulate public transport route choice for a whole population in a city or even a country taking into account all factors mentioned above using the MATSim framework, a multi-agent and activity-based transport simulator. A new public transport router is proposed using a time dependent shortest path algorithm in a graph with links representing in-vehicle travel, waiting and walking (from activity locations to public transport facilities and between public transport facilities). The cost of the path can be specified to depend on the fares, travel times, occupancy levels, waiting times and number of transfers. In addition, the agent-based nature of the simulation model allows to define agent-specific parameters for each attribute to account for preference heterogeneity within the agent population. Simulated dynamic effects such as bus bunching and overcrowded services lead to additional waiting and travel times, compared with the public transport schedule. Within the MATSim evolutionary algorithm, this information is saved after each simulation of the same day, and used to re-route agents. The router is implemented and tested for Singapore, whose modeled public transport system features bus and subway. As in most major cities, the model shows that the stability and schedule reliability of bus services can at times only hardly be maintained, while crowdedness at the peak hours is an issue for both bus and mass rapid transit and light rapid transit. We illustrate how the new approach allows agents to adapt to these dynamic complexities. The new approach, along with the original scheduled-based router of MATSim are compared for computation time, as well as for agent learning rate, i.e. the time needed to reach a particular solution state. With a better capacity to model observed public transport route choice, more than 10% of improvement in computation time per simulation iteration, and needing much smaller number of iterations to reach user equilibrium, the proposed alternative results a Pareto-dominant improvement.


The purpose of this study is to investigate the nature and role of organisational commitment among public sector employees in Saudi Arabia. The aim is to develop the public sector to accommodate the rapid growth in the number of employees. This is regarded as one of the most important challenges facing both sectors (public and private). Additionally, this study attempts to identify significant influences on organisational commitment in the public sector in Saudi Arabia. The selected variables are: personal factors (gender, age, level of education, income, marital status, experience); job characteristics (autonomy, skill variety, task identity, feedback and friendship opportunities); work environment (supervision, co-workers, company identification, physical work conditions and financial rewards).
The questionnaire in this study was designed to obtain respondents' views in relation to commitment. It was distributed to 900 employees in the public sector in Saudi Arabia (male and female) at all Saudi ministries. The results of this study have indicated that: 1) The five personal variables (gender, age, nationality, marital status and income) have a negative relationship with organisational commitment, while education has a positive and significant relationship with organisational commitment. Experience has a poor relationship with organisational commitment. 2) Variables related to job characteristics (skill, task identity, friendship opportunity, feedback and autonomy) have a positive relationship with organisational commitment. 3) Work environment variables (company identification, co-workers, physical work conditions and financial rewards) have a positive and significant relationship with organisational commitment but supervision has a negative relationship with organisational commitment. The possible contributing factors to these findings were analysed.
This study also investigates the feasibility of improving the level of organisational commitment among public sector employees in Saudi Arabia. Finally, recommendations are provided to improve organisational commitment among public sector employees and future areas for research are suggested.


OBJECTIVE
To characterize 2 strains of Haemobartonella felis by use of molecular techniques.

ANIMALS
35 specific-pathogen-free cats, 6 months to 4 years old.

PROCEDURE
Intraperitoneal or IV inoculation with blood containing H felis small form (Hfsm, 18 cats) or H felis large form (Hflg, 11 cats); 6 cats were uninfected controls. Hfsm was evaluated for capability to cross-protect against the more virulent Hflg. Morphology of both strains was compared by light microscopy of Wright-Giemsa-stained blood smears, and the 16S rRNA genes were sequenced.

RESULTS
Infection with Hflg induced signs of depression, fever, and severe macrocytic normochromic anemia with nucleated erythrocytes. More than 95% of erythrocytes were parasitized. Inoculation with Hfsm and uninfected control blood induced mild or no clinical signs and no hematologic abnormalities. Anti-H felis IgG was first detected on postinoculation day (PID) 21, and increased to maximal titer of 400 by PID 28. Reactivated infection was observed in 8 of 29 cats (4 Hfsm and 4 Hflg), with 5% parasitized erythrocytes during the later attack. On PID 8, Hflg-inoculated cats had positive results of polymerase chain reaction analysis (PCR) that persisted until cats were treated with doxycycline or oxytetracycline; Hfsm-inoculated cats had positive PCR results that persisted for duration of observation (3 months).

CONCLUSIONS
Genetically and morphologically distinct strains of H felis infect cats in the field. The level of genetic difference suggested that these strains may be different species or genera.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE
PCR is a critical diagnostic aid to detect occult Haemobartonella spp infection, as well as response to treatment and clearance of the organism.


The recent policies of governmental purchases that emerged in the years 2000, such as the National Program of Food in Schools (PNAE) and the Food Acquisition Program (PAA), have brought significant opportunities for family agriculture cooperatives in Brazil to access markets. In spite of the possibilities that the PNAE and the PAA offer to family agriculture and its organizations, these programs also present a series of challenges, which involve different agents in the food acquisition process. This article intends to delineate the profile of family agriculture cooperatives in Minas Gerais and analyze their main difficulties to access the institutional market. We analyzed 19 diagnostics carried out in 2011 in family agriculture cooperatives from different regions of Minas Gerais State. In spite of the access to the local markets in both regional and municipal scopes, it was identified that there are issues related to technical assistance, sanitary adaptation, management and logistics that hinder the access of these cooperatives to such policies in the big centers of Minas Gerais.


The combination of the digitalization of cultural goods and facilitated cross-border availability through the internet fuels a globalization process that is often said to cause a homogenization of demand across countries, in particular, for entertainment goods as music and movies. In the markets for music, this implies that the same hits and the same artists should be popular across countries and cultures. In order to test this hypothesis, we analyze historical voting data of the Eurovision Song Contest, the worldwide biggest live broadcasted international music competition between all countries of the European Broadcasting Union. It covers the period from 1975-2016 where digitalization and internet availability were invented and evolved into mass phenomena. Consequently, according to the outlined theory of homogenization of preferences, voting should have become more concentrated on the leading artists and less focused on regional differences in taste. For the purpose of detecting concentration trends in the points allocation, we employ different indicators for measuring concentration. First, we calculate a concentration ratio, representing the accumulated total number of points of the top three, five and ten-placed countries in each year of the contest. Second, we calculate the Herfindahl-Hirschman-Index (HHI) and, third, the Gini-Coefficient for each year. Furthermore, we test trendlines for statistical significance. The results show, that our analysis cannot support the thesis of preference homogenization. We find no significant trend towards preference convergence. In contrast, some of the employed indicators and methods point towards significant, albeit weak, deconcentration trends in voting behavior for the contest.


Nitrogen fertilizer is necessary to improve yield and quality of lettuce. Spectroscopy is one of the most effective techniques used to detect crop nitrogen content. In this study, canopy reflectance spectra were acquired under five levels of nitrogen, and then were Savitzky-Golay smoothed, the first-order derivative spectra were calculated from the smoothed spectra to eliminate noise effects. Backward interval partial least squares (BiPLS), genetic algorithm (GA) and successive projections algorithm (SPA) were combined to select the efficient wavelengths. The number of variables was decreased from 2,151 to 8. The optimal intervals or variables were used to build multivariable linear regression (MLR) model, radial basis function neural network (RBFNN) models and extreme learning machine (ELM) models. This work proved that the results of BiPLS-GA-SPA-ELM model was superior to others with RMSEC was 0.241 6%, Rc was 0.934 6, RMSEP was 0.284 2% and Rp was 0.921 8. Our research results may provide a foundation for nutrition regulation and developing instrument.


Transitional justice provides inconclusive accounts of the relationship between its many mechanisms, including trials, truth commissions, amnesty and traditional practices, and reconciliation. If the goal of justice is to bring peace and democracy, then political reconciliation should be the main focus along with the tribunal process. Using Cambodia as a case study, this paper examines the attempt to deal with the country's past atrocities and argues that whether it is in the form of tribunals or compromises, little has been contributing to building political reconciliation among the Cambodian political factions. Guided by Murphy's theoretical framework and the auto ethnographic approach, this study reveals that the political identity with which each political group has labeled each other has undermined social and moral conditions, threatening the rule of law, political trust, and relational capabilities that are necessary for peace and democracy. This paper also uses current surveys of Cambodia's younger generation to reveal the prioritized process along with the tribunal that the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia is processing.


STUDY QUESTION
What is the clinical efficacy of an oocyte donation program based on the transportation of frozen semen and embryos between two countries?

SUMMARY ANSWER
The transnational oocyte donation program is efficient and reliable and it could provide a first-line strategy to overcome the lack of donors in some countries.

WHAT IS KNOWN ALREADY
While there is increasing need for donated oocytes, in many countries the availability of donors is still insufficient to cover the therapeutic demands, and patients are referred abroad for treatment. Since embryo cryopreservation is reliable and efficient, we propose a strategy based on frozen embryos instead of frozen oocytes to satisfy the increasing demand for cross border oocyte donation.

STUDY DESIGN, SIZE, DURATION
This is a retrospective cohort study including 630 patients treated from December 2015 to July 2017.

PARTICIPANTS/MATERIALS, SETTING, METHODS
Infertile women were treated with elective vitrified-thawed embryo shipping and embryo transfer (ET) between two IVF clinics, one in Spain and one in Italy.

MAIN RESULTS AND THE ROLE OF CHANCE
A total of 2617 embryos were created for the 630 patients and the survival rate after warming was 98.5%. After the first ET the live birth rate (LBR) was 30.6%. In 476 patients (75.5%), embryos were transferred at the cleavage stage (Day 2 or 3) and the LBR was 29.2%. Vitrified blastocysts were available for 154 patients (24.5%) and the LBR was 35%. Among patients who did not achieve a pregnancy after the first frozen ET (FET), 92.5% had at least one frozen embryo for successive procedures. 213 patients underwent a second FET. The LBR at the second FET was 30%. The cumulative LBR at the end of the observation period was 39.3%.

LIMITATIONS, REASONS FOR CAUTION
The study design was retrospective. A direct comparison with vitrified oocyte donors cycle and subsequent fresh ET would have permitted to compare this strategy versus the current standard based on vitrified gametes.

WIDER IMPLICATIONS OF THE FINDINGS
The LBR found in our study is more than acceptable and seems to be higher than what reported with vitrified oocytes. The transnational fresh oocyte donation program may have several advantages over the shipment of vitrified oocytes: similarly to the fresh oocyte donation program it allows for personalized care in oocyte recipient, which is provided by assigning a flexible number of oocytes, and at the same time it maintains the benefit of a frozen ART program permitting scheduling flexibility. The TOD program is efficient and may be proposed as a first-line strategy for distance and inter-countries oocyte donation programs.

STUDY FUNDING, COMPETING INTEREST(S)
None.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER
NA.


Because of its importance to a dynamic development of the economy, the formation of new firms has been viewed with rapidly increasing interest from the perspectives of practical economic policy at the national, regional and local levels and from the perspectives of private business associations, formal and informal networks. According to statements of the Swiss Federal Office for Vocational Education and Technology (BBT, Bern), there are more than 200 initiatives that aim at encouraging the formation of new firms in Switzerland. However, an accompanying scientific study of these initiatives is lacking. Serious knowledge gaps exist. The present research project attempts to make a contribution, in a systematic way, to fill some of these gaps. It is based on a systematic study of 20 case studies and of a large survey conducted in 1999 of 745 newly founded firms in Switzerland. In the paper results are presented concerning gender-specific differencces among jung entrepreneurs in the following areas: (1) Portrait of firm founders. (2) Success indicators of firm for-mation. (3) Factors affecting success of firm formation. (4) Relationships be-tween success and success factors. Finally policy recommendations are drawn from our findings.


This dissertation explores the historical
representation of the Italian nation in regard to the narration of
the Libyan War and its causes and implications in the consolidation
of both state and society. The texts I examine were all published
in contemporary newspapers and magazines, which span from 1910 to
1912, as they refer to events throughout the war. The facts
involved in and that led to the war created the first important
organic affiliation between politics, finance, mass-society and
mass media. I will argue that through the literary narration of
this war, Italians came to terms with problematic and unresolved
issues of national identity while concurrently confirming the
embodied gender configurations along with the relation of the
state's power over citizens to their claims of national
participation. Chapter I frames the Libyan war from a political,
social and economic point of view. It investigates how war was used
to stimulate the Italian new capitalistic economy while balancing
the new industrial concentration of power and the mass demand of
welfare and participation. Chapter II elucidates the moralistic and
epistemological dimensions of the rhetoric of violence, which leads
to an understanding of how the war was used to regulate and produce
a collective national organism. Chapter III provides the foundation
for a reflection on how men and masculinity were 'constructed'
authorities and guarantor within the traditional patriarchal
society and the new capitalistic system. The final chapter, then,
focuses on how women reshaped their role (the crocerossina's
explicit sexuality subverted a superimposed homosocial order) while
still placing themselves under the hegemonic control of men. My
analysis traces the figure of the mother as the driving force in
the creation of this new nation. Italy's attempt to cultivate a
strong nation-state instead catalyzed the formation of the fascist
regime.


ABSTRACT Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MnB) is a leading cause of bacterial meningitis; however, MnB is most commonly associated with asymptomatic carriage in the nasopharyngeal cavity, as opposed to the disease state. Two vaccines are now licensed for the prevention of MnB disease; a possible additional benefit of these vaccines could be to protect against disease indirectly by disrupting nasopharyngeal carriage (e.g., herd protection). To investigate this possibility, accurate diagnostic approaches to characterize MnB carriage isolates are required. In contrast to invasive meningococcal disease (IMD) isolates, which can be readily serogrouped, carriage isolates often lack capsule expression, making standard phenotypic assays unsuitable for strain characterization. Several antibody-based methods were evaluated for their abilities to serogroup isolates and were compared with two genotyping methods (real-time PCR [rt-PCR] and whole-genome sequencing [WGS]) to identify which approach would most accurately ascertain the polysaccharide groups associated with carriage isolates. WGS and rt-PCR were in agreement for 99% of IMD isolates, including those with coding sequences for MnB, MnC, MnW, and MnY, and the phenotypic methods correctly identified serogroups for 69 to 98% of IMD isolates. In contrast, only 47% of carriage isolates were groupable by genotypic methods, due to mutations within the capsule operon; of the isolates identified by genotypic methods, ≤43% were serogroupable with any of the phenotypic methods tested. These observations highlight the difficulties in the serogrouping and capsular genogrouping of meningococcal carriage isolates. Based on our findings, WGS is the most suitable approach for the characterization of meningococcal carriage isolates.


Managers aiming at utilizing the potential of involving ordinary users in ideation for innovation have at the present very little guidance from the existing literature regarding how to do this in an adequate way. This paper aims filling this knowledge gap by contributing to a better understanding of how users contribute to, and how they could adequately be managed in the ideation process of technology-based services. This is accomplished by identifying and investigating different ideation patterns and their effects on the created ideas' characteriztics, in the context of mobile telephony services. The paper is based on a quasi-experimental study lasting over twelve days involving 56 ordinary users and 12 professionals as idea creators. Three different groups of users and one reference group of professionals were used. The paper inductively identifies four different ideation patterns that lead to different types of ideas in regard to their innovativeness (incremental/radical). These are further related to the existing literature. The paper concludes with managerial implications regarding how to manage this type of user involvement in order to obtain either more incremental or more radical ideas.


In the direct simulation Monte Carlo method and multi-phase flow calculations, structured and unstructured grid systems for complex geometries necessitate the time-consuming process of searching a large number of cells to position target particles.


Abstract Tourist ascents of mountain peaks before sunrise are increasingly popular. Babia Góra (Western Carpathians) is a peak on the Polish-Slovak border frequently visited by a great number of tourists at sunrise. The main objective of our research, based on the case study of Babia Gora, was to answer a more general question whether the sunrise can be considered a tourist attraction. The research included the observation and description of every sunrise at summer holiday weekends during 2012 from the peak of Babia Góra as well as the collection of data on the number of tourists and weather conditions. Survey interviews, using questionnaire, with randomly selected hikers present on the peak of Babia Góra at sunrise (269) were conducted. The investigation showed that during summer holiday sunrises there were a maximum of 130 people on the summit of Babia Góra at the same time. Most of the surveyed people (84%) agreed that the opportunity to observe the sunrise was one of the pull factors for them. This confirms the hypothesis that sunrise constitutes a tourist attraction.


Arctic waters are contaminated with metals and radionuclides from diverse sources. Here we present experimental results evaluating the bioaccumulation of dissolved metals by the mussel Mytilus edulis, widely used as a food source and also as a bioindicator of coastal contamination. We used radioisotopes to determine the uptake and excretion of Ag, Am, Cd, Co and Zn by M. edulis collected from both Arctic and temperate waters at 2 and 12°C. For both mussel populations, uptake rates (k u ) of Cd, Co and Zn were 50 to 60% slower at 2°C than at 12°C, mainly attributable to differences in mussel filtration rates at these temperatures, whereas uptake of Ag and Am was not affected by temperature. For both populations, the first-order loss constant for all metals from the slowest exchanging pool (k e ) was 20 to 50% smaller at 2°C than at 12°C. As well, the loss of Cd and Zn was significantly slower in the temperate mussels than in Arctic mussels. Because temperature had similar effects on uptake and efflux, the concentration factor for all metals from water (CF w = k u /k e ) did not vary significantly between temperatures, but CF w values for Cd and Zn in temperate mussels were 15-fold and 2.6-fold higher, respectively, than in Arctic mussels. Thus, while temperature does not exert a major influence on net bioaccumulation of aqueous metal by M. edulis, Arctic mussels may accumulate dissolved Cd and Zn to a lesser degree than temperate mussels.


This report focuses on the Forest Health Monitoring Program's development and use of analytical procedures for monitoring changes in forest health and for expressing the corresponding statistical confidences. The program's assessments of long-term status, changes, and trends in forest ecosystem health use the Santiago Declaration: "Criteria and Indicators for the Conservation and Sustainable Management of Temporate and Boreal Forests" (Montreal Process) as a reporting framework. Procedures used in five aspects of data analysis are presented. The analytical procedures used are based on mixed estimation procedures. Examples using the indicators are included, along with a clear link to the analytical procedures used (1) estimating change over time within groups—estimation of growth, harvest, mortality, and crown condition; (2) testing for differences in change over time among groups—foliar transparency; (3) estimating change using covariates—impact of drought on change in foliar transparency; (4) estimating plot values for unmeasured years— comparison of observed and predicted (Best Linear Unbiased Predictions) values of foliar transparency, dieback, and total volume; and (5) estimating tree heights—examples of using estimated tree heights to estimate tree volume.


We present a real-time camera control system that uses a global planning algorithm to compute large, occlusion free camera paths through complex environments. The algorithm incorporates the visibility of a focus point into the search strategy, so that a path is chosen along which the focus target will be in view. The efficiency of our algorithm comes from a visibility-aware roadmap data structure that permits the precomputation of a coarse representation of all collision-free paths through an environment, together with an estimate of the pair-wise visibility between all portions of the scene. Our runtime system executes a path planning algorithm using the precomputed roadmap values to find a coarse path, and then refines the path using a sequence of occlusion maps computed on-the-fly. An iterative smoothing algorithm, together with a physically-based camera model, ensures that the path followed by the camera is smooth in both space and time. Our global planning strategy on the visibility-aware roadmap enables large-scale camera transitions as well as a local third-person camera module that follows a player and avoids obstructed viewpoints. The data structure itself adapts at run-time to dynamic occluders that move in an environment. We demonstrate these capabilities in several realistic game environments.


The manuscript, entitled "Response of vegetation and carbon fluxes to brown lemming herbivory in Northern Alaska" by Jessica Plein and coauthors (bg-2021-286) proposes in a research paper to study how brown lemming impacted the short-term response and the recovery of vegetation carbon uptake, NDVI and CO2 and CH4 emission to atmosphere. The study shows that the NDVI and carbon uptake by vegetation was immediately impacted by lemming placed in the enclosure, while there was no impact during the nextyear recovery for every variables of the tundra functioning.


Using the results of the chemical amino acid analyses of the unconventional proteins blood, collagen and wool and the conventional proteins soya, maize and casein, protein mixtures were developed. The quality of the protein mixtures was estimated in feeding experiments with growing male Sprague-Dawley rats and expressed as protein efficiency ratio (PER). Different blood parameters and the weight of some organs were also recorded. Blood, collagen and wool protein are very poor in different essential amino acids, therefore their quality is very low, it can however be significantly improved when they are fed in mixtures with other animal or plant proteins of higher quality. In mixtures of three components only containing blood (10--40%), collagen (10--25%) and casein (50 to 70%) the deficit in the content of essential amino acids cannot be compensated. Rats fed with such diets showed, however, decreased food intake and depressed growth. The relative PER values of those mixtures were 44--69% of that of casein. The best supplementing effect on the imbalanced amino acid patterns was achieved when the protein mixture was developed from 4 or 5 different proteins. The quality of these five-component-mixtures amounted to 94--100% of that of casein. In these mixtures the percentage of casein in the protein mixture amounted to only 35% and soya or maize to 15%. Exactly 50% of the protein supply could be derived from hydrolysates of the unconventional proteins blood, collagen and wool.


Tension between the ideal of analytic neutrality — although conceived and applied in various ways — and the putative danger of political neutrality is intrinsic to psychoanalytic investigations of culture and society. It presents itself with urgency in times of social conflict, especially when such conflict is characterized by or framed in terms of victimization, but it has not been a subject of rigorous debate. That the tension between analytic and political neutrality has not been widely examined might mean that when analysts engage in scholarly work outside of clinical settings (e.g., writing books or papers), we adopt a different set of norms to guide our behavior, norms that do not include whatever attitude of neutrality we may observe in the consulting room.1 But it might also mean that this tension is a site of resistance, that we are unwilling to look closely at a difficult aspect of our work because we expect it to yield uncomfortable experience. Of course, this resistance may be largely unconscious, leading us to miss or mistake the meanings and consequences of our positions


Summary 3T3 mouse fibroblasts, a cell line which ordinarily exhibits a high degree of contact inhibition in tissue culture, were markedly altered by addition of l-fucose to the growth medium. Such effects were not observed when equal amounts of different closely related sugars were substituted. When 3T3 cells were transformed by oncogenic viruses [simian virus 40 (SV40) or polyoma virus or sequential infection with both viruses], their susceptibility to changes caused by l-fucose was greatly reduced. Thus, virus-transformed cells grown in the presence of l-fucose showed much less of a change in the morphology of individual cells, their pattern of association, their rate of growth, and incorporation of protein and RNA precursors as compared to ordinary 3T3 cells. In the different cell lines tested, there was a general parallelism between degree of susceptibility to alteration by l-fucose and degree of contact inhibition. The mechanism by which l-fucose alters ordinary 3T3 cells, and the reasons for the difference in virus-transformed lines are unknown. However, the results raise the possibilities that l-fucose alters ordinary 3T3 cells by combining with complementary sites of these cells and that interactions between natural cellular sugar constituents and complementary sites play a role in mediating cell contact inhibition.


Biofuel production has received considerable attention as a means of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and mitigating global energy problems. The expansion of biofuel production has benefited the environment, but rising feed prices have negatively affected the livelihood of livestock producers. This study examines the direct effects of corn-based ethanol expansion on beef producers' short-run resource transition and long-run productivity in the United States. Dynamic panel models are specified to measure farm productivity and to investigate the effects of ethanol expansion on input-use decisions and the productivity of individual beef producers. Analyses of farm-level panel data show that in the short run, ethanol expansion is associated with employment losses in the beef industry to compensate for increased costs of intermediate inputs used in the production process; however, in the long-run, it increases farm productivity. The productivity of surviving beef producers has improved because less efficient producers could not survive due to the drastic burden of rising feed prices. Given the interconnections between the agriculture and energy markets through the growth of biofuel production, our results provide important insights in developing sustainable energy policies that could harmonize both markets and reduce unintended negative effects of biofuel production.


The microstructure simulation of spinodal decomposition was carried out in the isothermally-aged Cu-Ni-Fe alloys using the phase field method. The numerical simulation was based on a solution of the Cahn-Hilliard partial differential equation by the finite difference method. The calculated results were compared to those determined by atom-probe field ion microscope analyses of the solution treated and aged alloys. Both the numerically simulated and experimental results showed a good agreement for the concentration profiles and microstructure evolution in the aged Cu-Ni-Fe alloys. The aging process caused the change of initial morphology, iregular and interconected, to an equiaxial shape of the decomposed Ni-rich phase aligned in the elasticallysoftest crystallographic direction <100> of Cu-rich matrix.


Abstract 3964 Background: Bortezomib in combination with dexamethsone is administered twice a week for 2 weeks with excellent therapeutic outcome. However, in a proportion of patients it is associated with toxicities such as neuropathy and twice a week regimen is inconvenient especially in older patients. To improve convenience and compliance, we have investigated the efficacy and safety of a weekly bortezomib regimen. Methods: We conducted a phase II multi-center single-arm study in participating Veterans Hospitals (VA) nationwide evaluating bortezomib administered at 1.6 mg/m 2 IV weekly for 4 weeks with 1 week off with dexamethasone 40mg PO on the day of and day after bortezomib for upto 6 cycles in newly diagnosed multiple myeloma patients not considered for autologous stem cell transplant. The objective is to evaluate overall response rate (ORR) and toxicity of this regimen. Results: We have enrolled all planned 50 patients (median age-71; range 50–89) at 12 VA Hospitals. Patients had significant co-morbidities including 86% with cardiovascular problems, 67% with diabetes and/or hyperlipidemia, 54% with renal dysfunction, 37% with respiratory problems, and 18% with history of cancer. All patients were on at least 5 daily medications. Of the 50 patients enrolled, 42 patients have received at least 1 cycle of therapy and were evaluable for toxicity and efficacy. With a median of 4 cycles administered, this regimen was very well tolerated. Ten patients experienced neuropathy: 6 patients experienced grade 1, two patients developed grade 2 neuropathy, while two patients who had grade 1 neuropathy at diagnosis increased to grade 2 neuropathy with pain, and the other patient increased to grade 3 neuropathy with pain, with an overall Grade 3 neuropathy rate of 2.4%.Dexamethasone dose was reduced in 30% while bortezomib dose was reduced in 10% of the patients. Additionally, grade ≥1 asthenia was observed in 52%, constipation in 38%, diarrhea in 34%, anemia in 64%, vomiting/nausea in 26%, and thrombocytopenia in 54%. Four patients have died of co-morbidities which were considered unrelated or probably unrelated to the treatment with bortezomib. Of the patients who received at least 1 cycle of therapy, 62% patients achieved ≥PR; 12% CR/nCR and an additional 14% achieved VGPR. Including MR in the analysis, ORR was observed in 90% of the evaluable patients. On intent to treat analysis including all 50 patients, ORR was observed in 76% patients and ≥ PR in 52% patients. Conclusions: Once a week bortezomib with dexamethasone regimen is effective and well tolerated even in older patients with significant co-morbidities and should be considered as an important option in multiple myeloma. Disclosures: Munshi: Celgene: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Millennium: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Novartis: Consultancy, Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees; Onyx: Membership on an entity9s Board of Directors or advisory committees. Yellapragada: Celgene: Research Funding; BMS: Research Funding. Roodman: Amgen: Consultancy; Millennium: Consultancy.


Abstract Cigarettes made from flue-cured tobacco, treated with different amounts of chlorpyrifos, were smoked according to Federal Trade Commission specifications, and the chlorpyrifos levels in the butts, various ashes, and mainstream and sidestream smokes were determined. Of all the chlorpyrifos in a cigarette, 28 % to 29.5 % was left in the butts, 13.5 % to 15 % and 2.0 % to 4.6 % were transferred into mainstream and sidestream smokes, respectively, and about 52 % to 55 % was either combusted or decomposed into unknown fragments. The various ashes did not show any detectable amount of chlorpyrifos.


Species diversity is generally considered one of the key factors of ecosystem resilience in response to anthropogenic pressures, including fishing. In this context, the spatial and temporal changes in demersal fish assemblages and species diversity were investigated in the northern Gulf of St. Lawrence (Canada), over a 20-year period (1990–2010). Data were obtained from the summer research survey conducted by the Department of Fisheries and Oceans, and include commercial and non-commercial species. The study covers the period of groundfish fishery collapse, the moratorium period, and the post-moratorium period, and reflects various modifications in management. Multivariate statistical methods revealed two communities. A coastal community corresponds to strata located above 200 m depth and a deeper community located in the deep channels. Interannual differences in the composition of fish assemblages were observed and are mainly due to the changes in the relative biomass of some dominant species. Three diversity indices (Shannon–Wiener, Simpson's Index of Diversity and Motomura's constant) indicate a slight but significant increase of the diversity over time. This trend is due to the increase of the relative biomass of low-rank species, which may have been favoured by the prohibition of groundfish trawling after 1997 in that region. The geographical distribution of the Shannon–Wiener index also shows temporal dynamics reflecting the biomass distribution of dominant demersal species.


A large volume of low signal-to-noise, multidimensional data is available from the CCD imaging spectrometers aboard the Chandra X-Ray Observatory and the X-Ray Multimirror Mission (XMM-Newton). To make progress analyzing this data, it is essential to develop methods to sort, classify, and characterize the vast library of X-ray spectra in a nonparametric fashion (complementary to current parametric model fits). We have developed a spectral classification algorithm that handles large volumes of data and operates independently of the requirement of spectral model fits. We use proven multivariate statistical techniques including principal component analysis and an ensemble classifier consisting of agglomerative hierarchical clustering and K-means clustering applied for the first time for spectral classification. The algorithm positions the sources in a multidimensional spectral sequence and then groups the ordered sources into clusters based on their spectra. These clusters appear more distinct for sources with harder observed spectra. The apparent diversity of source spectra is reduced to a three-dimensional locus in principal component space, with spectral outliers falling outside this locus. The algorithm was applied to a sample of 444 strong sources selected from the 1616 X-ray emitting sources detected in deep Chandra imaging spectroscopy of the Orion Nebula Cluster. Classes form sequences in NH, AV, and accretion activity indicators, demonstrating that the algorithm efficiently sorts the X-ray sources into a physically meaningful sequence. The algorithm also isolates important classes of very deeply embedded, active young stellar objects, and yields trends between X-ray spectral parameters and stellar parameters for the lowest mass, pre-main-sequence stars.


In a dauling chronological narrative, University of Suxsex professor Pat Thane offers twenty-four distinctive chapters, each the equivalent of a noteworthy stand-alone monograph, with footnotes and references constituting a virtual library of source material. In one sense. this book is a kairos moment for the author: Just as the world of scholarship was ready lor the Arries history of childhood, so here she paints the same broad picture of aging i n England from Greek and Roman civilization to recent times. With keen insight into the elements of aging-retirement, dependency, poverty, and gender-Thane has fashioned a synthesis at once brilliant and ingenious. Over t M o millennia, work was universally expected arid performed in relation not to age but to capability; hence, little notice was paid to the age of workers. However, as England was approaching nationhood, a series of semipolitical measures emerged under the Tudor-Stuart aegis. Consolidated under Elizabeth 1 (and often persisting in attitudes and percep~ions until Elizabeth II), the enactments came to be known as the Poor Law, whether "Old" ( 1601) or "New" (1834). For the succeeding three centuries, those statutory measures-aligned with an undeniable, sometimes reluctant, readiness of family and friends IO help-played primary roles in support for elders. I t is of interest for American readers to realize that, as colonists in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, we carried the same mental furniture, including workhouses, almshouses, and poor farms, all of which horc the same stigma as their prototypes in the motherland. From there forward, Thane's insightful examination of the family and household structul-c i n early modern England from the somewhat rare three-generational household, to the later "dutiful daughter" of storied heroism, to I hc universal compulsion for independence by older persons themselves. Associated with the ever-present dilemma between the capability to work and the fluctuating availability of employment, retirement heciime a primary issue in the nineteenth a n d twentieth centuries. With her expertise o n the topic already established (see for example her Foundation of' the Weyure State), Thane appropriately gives over twothirds of her text to the history and politics of pensions. She elaborates on commission-initiated studies and eventual statutes and charts the evolution from the Poor Laws to the contemporary social security apparatus; yet she holds a steady course in the midst of data-rich reports and parliamentary penchants. Without question, this is a definitive work on the "democratization of retirement" and is enthusiastically recommended to social scientists of all categories but especially to serious students of aging as a historical phenomenon. I am honored to have been party to its early introduction to the public.


Background Several epidemiological studies have demonstrated that carotenoid concentrations relate inversely to cardiovascular disease incidence. Thus, we examined the association of circulating carotenoids with hypertension, a major macrovascular disease risk factor. Methods Black and White men and women in the Coronary Artery Risk Development in Young Adults Study, aged 18–30 years at recruitment (1985–1986) from four US cities, were investigated over 20 years. At years 0, 7, and 15, we determined the relationships of the sum of four serum carotenoids (α-carotene, β-carotene, lutein/zeaxanthin, cryptoxanthin) and of lycopene with incident hypertension using proportional hazards regression models. Results In 4412 participants, year 0 sum of four carotenoids was significantly inversely associated with 20-year hypertension incidence after adjustment for baseline systolic blood pressure and other confounding factors (relative hazard per SD increase of sum of four carotenoids: 0.91; 95% confidence interval = 0.84–0.99). The inverse relationships persisted in time-dependent models updating year 0 sum of four carotenoids with year 7 and year 15 values (relative hazard per SD increase of sum of four carotenoids: 0.84; 95% confidence interval = 0.77–0.92). Lycopene was unrelated to hypertension in any model. Conclusion Those individuals with higher concentrations of sum of carotenoids, not including lycopene, generally had lower risk for future hypertension.


The proximity profile in the spectra of z ≈ 3 ?> quasars, where fluxes extend blueward of the He ii Lyα wavelength 304 (1+z) Å, is one of the most important spectral features in the study of the intergalactic medium (IGM). Based on the Hubble Space Telescope spectra of 24 He ii quasars, we find that the majority of them display a proximity profile, corresponding to an ionization radius as large as 20 Mpc in the source's rest frame. In comparison with those in the H i spectra of the quasars at z ≈ 6, the He ii proximity effect is more prominent and is observed over a considerably longer period of reionization. The He ii proximity zone sizes decrease at higher redshifts, particularly at z > 3.3 ?> . This trend is similar to that for H i, signaling an onset of He ii reionization at z ≳ 4 ?> . For quasar SDSS1253+6817 (z = 3.48), the He ii absorption trough displays a gradual decline and serves as a good case for modeling the He ii reionization. To model such a broad profile requires a quasar radiation field whose energy distribution between 4 and 1 Rydberg is considerably harder than normally assumed. The UV continuum of this quasar is indeed exceptionally steep, and the He ii ionization level in the quasar vicinity is higher than the average level in the IGM. These results are evidence that a very hard EUV continuum from this quasar produces a large ionized zone around it. Distinct exceptions are the two brightest He ii quasars at z ≈ 2.8, for which no significant proximity profile is present, probably implying that they are very young.


The iris is a stable biometric that has been widely used for human recognition in various applications. However, official deployment of the iris in forensics has not been reported. One of the main reasons is that the current iris recognition techniques in hard to visually inspect by examiners. To further promote the maturity of iris recognition in forensics, one way is to make the similarity between irises visualizable and interpretable. Recently, a human-in-the-loop iris recognition system was developed, based on detecting and matching iris crypts. Building on this framework, we propose a new approach for detecting and matching iris crypts automatically. Our detection method is able to capture iris crypts of various sizes. Our matching scheme is designed to handle potential topological changes in the detection of the same crypt in different acquisitions. Our approach outperforms the known visible feature based iris recognition method on two different datasets, by over 19% higher rank one hit rate in identification and over 46% lower equal error rate in verification.


Biologically active compounds isolated from microorganisms continue to be vital to the development of new drugs and agricultural chemicals. This book was prepared by current and past members of the laboratory of Dr. Satoshi Omura of the Kitasato Institute in Japan. Dr. Omura and his colleagues have discovered and studied a number of important antibiotics, and in their work they have pioneered new methods for screening microbes for interesting and important compounds. This book presents strategies and methods for identifying novel molecules with several types of biological activity. In addition, the book discusses the identification of microbial compounds of agrochemical importance, presents information on chemical screening methods, and concludes with chapters on microbial strain selection, fermentation technology, and genetic engineering of antibiotic-producing microorganisms. This book will be of great interest to scientists working in the very active and competitive fields of antibiotic and agrochemical discovery.


Serious accidents have occurred over the past decade as a result of package failures during high altitude shipments on aircraft. Dangerous goods require sturdier packages since their contents can result in life-threatening incidents if exposed to the environment. High altitude shipments are encountered when trucks travel over mountain passes or when cargo and feeder aircraft transport packages in non-pressurized or partially-pressurized cargo holds. Both types of transport methods result in severe drops in pressure compared to packages transported close to sea level. The testing of packages under these conditions is critical since package integrity must be improved. Current shipping tests performed in test labs do not account for pressure changes and vibration together. This paper proposes a new test method to simulate package conditions in high altitude shipments by subjecting the package to simultaneous vibration and low pressure. It also recommends pictorial markings be used on packages to show whether or not they meet the air and ground shipping requirements.


In modern conditions, characterized by the growing importance of foreign trade between the countries, relations of a country with international environment play an increasingly important role in economic development. Over the last decade the process of economic integration through the removal of barriers for the free movement of goods, services, money and people has improved job creation and economic growth. From economic cooperation with foreign countries should expect positive effects on the economy of the state if the external economic factor used in accordance with the plans and programs of economic development of a country. Thereto, there are social forces that can decide relatively independently to all elements of internal development and cooperation with foreign countries. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of the CEFTA 2006 on the foreign trade of agricultural products in Bosnia and Herzegovina. In this respect it may be noted that foreign trade of agricultural products has an impact on the agricultural sector in Bosnia and Herzegovina.


Abstract. On 24 July 2008, a glacier lake outburst flood (GLOF) occurred at the western (w-) Zyndan glacier lake in the Tong District of Ysyk-Kol Oblast, Kyrgyzstan. The flood killed three people and numerous livestock, destroyed infrastructure, and devastated potato and barley crops as well as pastures. Tuurasuu village and a downstream reservoir on the Zyndan river escaped heavy damage because the main flood was diverted toward the Tong river. RTK-GPS and satellite data (Landsat 7 ETM+, ALOS/PRISM, and ALOS/AVNIR-2) reveal that the flood reduced the lake area from 0.0422 km2 to 0.0083 km2, discharging 437 000 m3 of water. This glacier lake was not present in a Landsat 7 ETM+ image taken on 26 April 2008. It formed rapidly over just two and half months from early May to the late July, when large amounts of snow and glacier melt water became trapped in a basin in the glacier terminus area, blocked by temporary closure of the drainage channel through the terminal moraine that included much dead-ice. In the same mountain region, most other glacier-lake expansions were not particularly large during the period from 1999–2008. Although events like the w-Zyndan glacier lake outburst occur infrequently in the high Central Asian mountains, such fast developing, short-lived lakes are particularly dangerous and not easy to monitor using satellite data. Appropriate measures to protect against such lake outburst hazards in this region include educating residents on glacier hazards and monitoring techniques, providing frequently updated maps of glacier lakes, and planning and monitoring land-use, including house locations.


Background Soil transmitted helminths (STH) are a common infection among pregnant women in areas with poor access to sanitation. Deworming medications are cheap and safe; however, the health benefit of deworming during pregnancy is not clear. Methods / Principal findings We created a retrospective cohort of more than 800,000 births from 95 Demographic and Health Survey datasets to estimate the impact of deworming medicine during routine antenatal care (ANC) on neonatal mortality and low birthweight. We first matched births on the probability of receiving deworming during ANC. We then modeled the birth outcomes with the matched group as a random intercept to estimate the effect of deworming during antenatal care after accounting for various risk factors. We also tested for effect modification of soil transmitted helminth prevalence on the impact of deworming during ANC. Receipt of deworming medication during ANC was associated with a 14% reduction in the risk of neonatal mortality (95% confidence interval = 10–17%, n = 797,772 births), with no difference between high and low transmission countries. In low transmission countries, we found an 11% reduction in the odds of low birth weight (95% confidence interval = 8–13%) for women receiving deworming medicine, and in high transmission countries, we found a 2% reduction in the odds of low birthweight (95% confidence interval = 0–5%). Conclusions / Significance These results suggest a substantial health benefit for deworming during ANC that may be even greater in countries with low STH transmission.


Naturally occurring foodborne toxins are common in subsistence diets of low-income human populations worldwide. Often, these populations rely on one or two staple foods for the bulk of their calories, making them more susceptible to chronic intake of certain toxins. Exposure to common foodborne toxins is associated with diverse conditions such as cancer, immunotoxicity, growth impairment, and neurological deficits. Interventions focused solely on reducing toxin levels have proven difficult to sustain. Using case studies of two foodborne toxins, aflatoxin and cassava cyanide, this article addresses the heightened risk of particular diseases from eating monotonous diets based in maize, groundnuts, and cassava: common in sub-Saharan Africa and parts of Asia. We also discuss the potential role of increased dietary diversity in counteracting these diseases. Increased dietary diversity can reduce consumption of toxins and increase intake of nutrients that could counteract the toxicity of such chemicals. In Qidong, China, a population that previously consumed a monotonous maize-based diet and increased dietary diversity since the 1980s has experienced a dramatic reduction in liver cancer mortalities. That liver cancer decreased as dietary diversity increased is the catalyst for the hypothesis that dietary diversity could have a direct impact on reducing health effects of foodborne toxins. Future research, agricultural development, and food policy reforms should take into consideration the multifaceted benefits associated with improved dietary diversity. Collaborations between toxicologists, nutritionists, and policymakers are important to development of sustainable interventions to reduce foodborne toxin exposure and promote health through increased dietary diversity.


As a worldwide movement, some forms or stages of inclusive education have been experimented and/or mandated in various countries since the mid-1970s. Integration was piloted in Hong Kong in 1997 and remains the official rhetoric and policy. Three developmental phases of inclusive education, namely, integration, integration in transition to inclusion, and inclusion, are described in this article according to the defining characteristics of integration and inclusion. Issues in policies and practices as reported in various studies are described to illustrate the development of each phase in Hong Kong. Based on a critical review of the said defining characteristics, current policies and practices which offer insight into the indicators signifying the migration to inclusion, I argue that Hong Kong has entered the stage of inclusion and that it was achieved by public pressure for improvement of practices instead of policy directions. This article concludes with recommendations made to sustain effective practices of inclusion.


In this work, we designed a new immunodevice that combines competitive immunoreactions on the microparticles, accumulation of these particles by negative dielectrophoresis (n-DEP), and their subsequent capture through hybridization among single-stranded DNAs (ssDNAs). Two widely used pesticides, atrazine and bromopropylate, were used as target molecules to test the resulting simultaneous detection system. For sensing, we prepared two different sets of microparticles: one modified with atrazine-conjugated bovine serum albumin (BSA-2d) and ssDNA-J1(up) and the other with bromopropylate-conjugated aminodextran (AD-155) and ssDNA-J2(up). The microparticles were incubated in a mixture of analyte-specific antibody and analyte at different concentrations to trap the unreacted antibodies prior to being labeled with antibodies conjugated with a fluorescence molecule. A suspension containing both types of microparticles was introduced into an n-DEP device consisting of an interdigitated microarray (IDA) electrode and channel modified with ssDNA-J1(down) and ssDNA-J2(down), which are complementary to ssDNA-J1(up) and ssDNA-J2(up), respectively. The n-DEP force generated by applying AC voltage to the IDA electrode displaced the microparticles toward the encoded areas, causing them to rapidly accumulate on the upper surfaces. Hybridization allowed us to distinguish the microparticles and sense multiple analytes by spatial recognition in the DNA-encoded areas. The fluorescence intensity of the captured particles, which depends on analyte concentrations, was measured selectively by focusing on specific areas. The strategy is advantageous for sensitivity due to the equivalent trapping efficiency by DNA hybridization and large surface area of the microparticle for immunoreactions. The rapidity and simplicity were still supported by particle manipulation. Using this concept, we detect atrazine and bromopropylate simultaneously with limits of detection (LODs) of 0.2 μg·L(-1), which covered the maximum residue level (MRL) in food samples established the European Union (EU) and Japan Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW).


When litigants reach a class action settlement, they usually present a unified front in seeking judicial approval of the settlement. Plaintiffs' counsel, the class representatives, and the defendant are typically on the same page regarding the fairness of the settlement and the maximum amount of attorneys' fees to be paid. Before a settlement is approved, class members (or putative class members when the case has not yet been certified) have the opportunity to object. In many class actions, especially highly publicized ones, myriad objections are filed, some by counsel representing one or more individual class members and others by individual class members pro se. But not all objectors and objections are of equal value. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly is not just a classic Clint Eastwood/Sergio Leone movie from 1966; it is also an accurate categorization of the kinds of objectors that frequently appear during the class settlement approval process.

Good objectors offer thoughtful and potentially meritorious objections that engage the court and require substantive responses from the parties, possibly improving the settlement for the class. Bad objectors raise objections that are insubstantial, making arguments that have no chance of persuading either the district court or an appellate court to reject the settlement based on the applicable law and facts. Often filed pro se by class members who have no legal training or background, bad objections are a necessary byproduct of a system that actively encourages objections—including objections by non-lawyer class members. Finally, ugly objectors raise objections not to improve the settlement but to extort payments from class counsel in exchange for dismissing their objections. Such objectors do not even arguably serve a legitimate purpose.

In this article, I examine all three kinds of objectors and offer two principal approaches for addressing them. First, parties may use summary affirmance to seek a prompt resolution, without full briefing or oral argument, when the objector's appeal is plainly meritless. Second, through expedited review a court can accelerate the briefing schedule (and possibly dispense with oral argument) to consider potentially meritorious objections when there is a critical need to distribute recovery to class members quickly.


One of the two outcomes of a common envelope (CE) event is a merger of the two stars. To date, the best known case of a binary merger is the V1309 Sco outburst, where the orbital period was known and observed to decay up to the outburst. Using the hydrodynamical code StarSmasher, we study in detail which characteristics of the progenitor binary affect the outburst and produce the best match with observations. We have developed a set of tools in order to quantify any CE event. We consider binaries consisting of a 1.52 M☉ giant and a 0.16 M☉ companion with Porb ∼ 1.4 days, varying the nature of the companion and its synchronization. We show that all considered progenitor binaries evolve toward the merger primarily because of Darwin instability. The merger is accompanied by mass ejection that proceeds in several separate mass outbursts and takes away a few percent of the donor mass. This very small mass, nonetheless, is important as it is not only sufficient to explain the observed light curve, but it also carries away up to one-third of both the initial total angular momentum and initial orbital energy. We find that all synchronized systems experience L2 mass loss that operates during just a few days prior to the merger and produces ring-shaped ejecta. The formed star is always a strongly heated radiative star that differentially rotates. We conclude that the case of a synchronized binary with a main-sequence companion gives the best match with observations of V1309 Sco.


When city's become more dense, the need for high rise buildings increases. However, implementation of high rise buildings in a crowded city is difficult on street level. Common high rise designs have a discrete transition between public and private area, subsequently losing interaction with the city. In this research a new high rise building concept has been developed. An integrated design approach combining architectural and structural solutions has been used. The final design consists of three slender buildings with public space between them combined through a diagrid structure. This diagrid structure ensures the lateral stiffness of the buildings. This innovative high rise building concept is a new possibility to implement high rise in a city that combines all important design criteria. Keywords-component; high rise building; innovative design concept; architecture; structural design; diagrid; integrated design


Despite having the numerous evolved heart rate measuring devices and progress in their development over the years, there always remain the challenges of modern signal processing implementation by a comparatively small size wearable device. This thesis paper presents a wearable reflectance photoplethysmography (PPG) sensor system for measuring the heart rate of a user both in steady and moving states. The size and, power consumption of the device are considered while developing, to ensure an easy deployment of the unit at the measuring site and the ability to power the entire unit with a battery .The selection of both the electronic circuits and signal processing techniques is based on their sensitivity to PPG signals, robustness against noise inducing artifacts and miniaturization of the entire measuring unit. The entire signal chain operates in the discrete-time, which allows the entire signal processing to be implemented in firmware on an embedded microprocessor. The PPG sensor system is implemented on a single PCB that consumes around 7.5mW of power. Benchmarking tests with standard heart rate measuring devices reveal that the developed measurement unit (combination of the PPG sensor system, and inertial measurement unit (IMU) developed in-house at Acreo Swedish ICT, and a battery) is comparable to the devices in detecting heart rate even in motion artifacts environment.This thesis work is carried out in Acreo Swedish ICT, Gothenburg, Sweden in collaboration with MidSweden University, Sundsvall, Department of Electronics Design. This report can be used as ground work for future development of wearable heart rate measuring units at Acreo Swedish ICT.


Saturated hydraulic conductivity (KS) can be determined with correlation or hydraulic methods. Hydraulic methods can be classified as laboratory and large-scale or small-scale in-situ methods. Auger-hole, inversed auger-hole and Guelph Permeameter are the most common small-scale in-situ methods. The KS determined by small-scale methods has high spatial variability, has different values in the horizontal and vertical directions, and varies in different depths. Large scale methods enter an extensive soil body into the measurement process to eliminate variation. This paper aimed to evaluate the conventional field methods of measuring KS using the drain outflow as the reference method and investigate the effect of initial soil moisture on KS's measuring accuracy by the inversed auger-hole method. Experiments were conducted in two 10-hectare research fields in south Khuzestan. KS was measured by the inversed auger-hole method in barren, dry soil before constructing the irrigation and drainage network. After the construction, the KS was measured by drainage water outflow as a largescale method, as well as by auger-hole and inversed auger-hole methods in moist soil after several irrigations. The KS measured by conventional small-scale in-situ methods in Fields One and Two were respectively 42.5% and 62.9% lower than the drainage water outflow method. Considering the drain outflow as the reference method, there is no significant advantage between the auger-hole and inverse auger-hole methods. As in Field One, the values obtained from the auger-hole method were closer to the reference method, and in Field Two, the values obtained from the inversed auger-hole method were closer.


We introduce the task of multi-camera trajectory forecasting (MCTF), where the future trajectory of an object is predicted in a network of cameras. Prior works consider forecasting trajectories in a single camera view. Our work is the first to consider the challenging scenario of forecasting across multiple non-overlapping camera views. This has wide applicability in tasks such as re-identification and multi-target multi-camera tracking. To facilitate research in this new area, we release the Warwick-NTU Multi-camera Forecasting Database (WNMF), a unique dataset of multi-camera pedestrian trajectories from a network of 15 synchronized cameras. To accurately label this large dataset (600 hours of video footage), we also develop a semi-automated annotation method. An effective MCTF model should proactively anticipate where and when a person will reappear in the camera network. In this paper, we consider the task of predicting the next camera a pedestrian will reappear after leaving the view of another camera, and present several base-line approaches for this. The labeled database is available online: https://github.com/olly-styles/Multi-Camera-Trajectory-Forecasting.


Soft materials such as rubber, elastomers, and soft biological tissues mechanically deform at large strain isochorically for all time, or during their initial transient (when a pore fluid, typically incompressible such as water, does not have time to flow out of the deforming polymer or soft tissue porous skeleton). Simulating these large isochoric deformations computationally, such as with the Finite Element Method (FEM), requires higher order (typically quadratic) interpolation functions and/or enhancements through hybrid/mixed methods to maintain stability. Lower order (linear) finite elements with hybrid/mixed formulation may not perform stably for all mechanical loading scenarios involving large isochoric deformations, whereas quadratic finite elements with or without hybrid/mixed formulation typically perform stably, especially when large bending or folding deformations are being simulated. For topology-optimization design of soft robotics, for instance, the FEM solid mechanics solver must run efficiently and stably. Stability is ensured by the higher order finite element formulation (with possible enhancement), but efficiency for higher order FEM remains a challenge. Thus, this paper addresses efficiency from the perspective of computer science algorithms and programming. The proposed efficient algorithm utilizes the Portable, Extensible Toolkit for Scientific Computation (PETSc), along with the libCEED library for efficient compiler optimized tensor-product-basis computation to demonstrate an efficient nonlinear solution algorithm. For preconditioning, a scalable p-multigrid method is presented whereby a hierarchy of levels is constructed. In contrast to classical geometric multigrid, also known as h-multigrid, each level in p-multigrid is related to a different approximation polynomial order, p, instead of the element size, h. A Chebyshev polynomial smoother is used on each multigrid level. Algebraic MultiGrid (AMG) is then applied to the assembled Q1 (linear) coarse mesh on the nodes of the quadratic Q2 (quadratic) mesh. This allows low storage that can be efficiently used to accelerate the convergence to solution. For a Neo-Hookean hyperelastic problem, we examine a residual and matrix-free Jacobian formulation of a tri-quadratic hexahedral finite element with enhancement. Efficiency estimates on AVX-2 architecture based on CPU time are provided as a comparison to similar simulation (and mesh) of isochoric large deformation hyperelasticity as applied to soft materials conducted with the commercially-available FEM software program ABAQUS. The particular problem in consideration is the simulation of an assistive device in the form of finger-bending in 3D.


The soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumara, was discovered in the United States in the summer of 2000. Since that initial discovery, the aphid has spread across northern soybean production regions. In 2001, we examined the physiological responses of soybeans to low aphids densities (fewer than 50 aphids/leaf). In this study, we determined photosynthetic rates, leaf ßuorescence responses, and photosynthetic responses to variable carbon dioxide and light levels. In addition, analyses for chlorophyll content and stable carbon isotope ratios were used to differentiate potential differences in stomatal versus mesophyll limitations to photosynthesis. We observed rate reductions of up to 50% on infested leaßets, including lealets with no apparent symptoms of aphid injury (such as chlorosis).Differences inßuorescencedata indicated that photoelectron transportwas not impaired. These results indicate that substantial physiological impact on soybean is possible even at low aphid densities. Also, the conventional view of aphid injury acting through reductions in chlorophyll content and light-harvesting reactions of photosynthesis is not supported by our Þndings in this system.


Asymmetric meiotic divisions in mammalian oocytes are driven by the eccentric positioning of the spindle, along with a dramatic reorganization of the overlying cortex, including a loss of microvilli and formation of a thick actin cap. Actin polarization relies on a Ran-GTP gradient centered on metaphase chromosomes; however, the downstream signaling cascade is not completely understood. In a recent study, we have shown that Ran promotes actin cap formation via the polarized activation of Cdc42. The related GTPase Rac is also activated in a polarized fashion in the oocyte cortex and co-localizes with active Cdc42. In other cells, microvilli collapse can be triggered by inactivation of the ERM (Ezrin/Radixin/Moesin) family of actin-membrane crosslinkers under the control of Rac. Accordingly, we show here that Ran-GTP promotes a substantial loss of phosphorylated ERMs in the cortex overlying the spindle in mouse oocytes. However, this polarized phospho-ERM exclusion zone was unaffected by Rac or Cdc42 inhibition. Therefore, we suggest that Ran activates two distinct pathways to regulate actin cap formation and microvilli disassembly in the polarized cortex of mouse oocytes. The possibility of a crosstalk between Rho GTPase and ERM signaling and a role for ERM inactivation in promoting cortical actin dynamics are also discussed.


: A six point concentration: response curves for the contractile effect of angiotensin II (AII) on helically-cut strips of human chorionic plate arteries were established at final concentration of between 10(-14) M to 10(-9) M. The tissues were obtained from the placentae of women who had normotensive pregnancy and from those who had pregnancy-induced hypertension (PIH). A total of 24 chorionic plate artery strips were studied. The responses of the tissues from the normotensive and hypertensive pregnant subjects to physiological concentrations of AII (10(-14)-10(-13)M) were very similar. The overall EC50s were 8.0 x 10(-13) and 4.5 x 10(-13)M for the normotensive and the hypertensive tissues respectively. However, at higher concentrations of AII (10(-12) M and above) the artery strips from the PIH subjects were significantly more sensitive to AII than the tissues from the normotensive subjects (P less than or equal to 0.05). It is suggested that vasospasm and hypersensitivity characteristic of maternal vascular response to angiotensin II, in pregnancy induced hypertension, also occur in the placental vascular system.


Background/Aims: Recently, mutations in the valosin-containing protein gene (VCP) were found to be causative for a rare form of dementia [Watts GDJ, et al.: Nat Genet 2004;36:377–381]. This gene lies within a region on the genome that has been linked to late onset Alzheimer's disease (LOAD) [Myers A, et al.: Am J Med Genet 2002;114:233–242]. In this study, we investigated whether variation within VCP could account for the LOAD linkage peak on chromosome 9. Methods: We sequenced 188 individuals from the set of sibling pairs we had used to obtain the linkage results for chromosome 9 to look for novel polymorphisms that could explain the linkage signal. Any variant that was found was then typed in 2 additional sets of neuropathologically confirmed samples to look for associations with Alzheimer's disease. Results: We found 2 variants when we sequenced VCP. One was a novel rare variant (R92H) and the other is already reported within the publicly available databases (rs10972300). Neither explained the chromosome 9 linkage signal for LOAD. Conclusions: We have found a novel rare variant within the VCP gene, but we did not find a variant that could explain the linkage signal for LOAD on chromosome 9.


Inactivation of the p53 tumor suppressor is a frequent event in tumorigenesis. In most cases, the p53 gene is mutated, giving rise to a stable mutant protein whose accumulation is regarded as a hallmark of cancer cells. Mutant p53 proteins not only lose their tumor suppressive activities but often gain additional oncogenic functions that endow cells with growth and survival advantages. Interestingly, mutations in the p53 gene were shown to occur at different phases of the multistep process of malignant transformation, thus contributing differentially to tumor initiation, promotion, aggressiveness, and metastasis. Here, the authors review the different studies on the involvement of p53 inactivation at various stages of tumorigenesis and highlight the specific contribution of p53 mutations at each phase of cancer progression.


switching based on a chain of admittedly inferential evidence linking altered cholesterol ester metabolism and the defects common to malignant neoplasms" in one or more of their membranes by way of their interacting lipoprotein lattices. It is also possible conceptually to assign roles in this highly complex situation to calcium" and magnesium". I consider that such an approach would provide further valuable insight into basic mechanisms operating in both classes of disease and possibly a new base for devising antl-tumour therapy as well as the relief of atherosclerotic complications.


A key challenge of single-cell RNASeq (scRNASeq) is the many genes with zero reads in some cells, but high expression in others. Modelling zeros using the Michaelis-Menten equation provides a superior fit to existing scRNASeq datasets compared to other approaches and enables fast and accurate identification of features corresponding to differentially expressed genes without prior identification of cell subpopulations. Applying our method to mouse preimplantation embryos revealed clusters corresponding to the inner cell mass and trophectoderm of the blastocyst. Our feature selection method overcomes batch effects to cluster cells from five different datasets by developmental stage rather than experimental origin.