OBJECTIVE
To evaluate and explore the effects of 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2 and 20(R)-ginsenoside Rh2 on the cytotoxicity, proliferation and the apoptosis of human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells, and to illustrate the structure-activity relationship and possible mechanisms of anti-tumor active ingredients of ginseng.

METHOD
A549 cells were treated with different concentration gradient of ginsenoside Rh2 (S and R structure) and incubated for different time. Cell proliferation and cytotoxicity studies were detected by methyl thiazolyl tetrazolium (MTT) colorimetric assay, cell cycle and apoptotic was analyzed by PI stains and combination of Annexin V/Prop idium iodide double staining with flow cytometric analysis. The influences of activation on Caspase-3 were also detected by the immunofluorescence staining with fluorescence microscope.

RESULT
MTT test indicated that ginsenoside Rh2 had a strong cytotoxicity activity to A549 cells. Ginsenoside Rh2 could obviously inhibit the cell proliferation in human lung adenocarcinoma cell line A549 at the effective doses of 25 mg x L(-1) treated with 48 h. The inhibition ratio and the value of IC50 for48 h of 20(R)-Rh2 and 20(S)-Rh2 were respectively 28.5%, 33.6% and 33.4, 28.5 mg x L(-1). The inhibition of ginsenoside Rh2 to A549 showed structure relationship significantly, time-dependent and concentration-dependent. Flow cytometric analysis (FACS) with PI stains analysis results showed that the proportion of A549 cells in G1 phase increased, while the number of cells in S phase decreased significantly and those in G2 phase reduced slightly. This result indicated structure relationship significantly, especially in the 20(S) -ginsenoside Rh2 inhibited the proliferation of A549 cell dramatically and retarded A549 cell cycle at G0/G1 phase. The immunofluorescent of combination with Annexin VFITC/PI by flow cytometric suggested ginsenoside Rh2 can induce inchoate apoptsis rate and late apoptosis rate of A549 cell significantly. All the results showed structure relationship significantly, especially in the 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2. The immunofluorescent with fluorescence microscope suggested the activity of Caspase-3 were enhanced after ginsenoside Rh2 treated.

CONCLUSION
20 (R) and 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2 had a significant inhibitory effect on the proliferation. Compared with 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2, 20 (S)-ginsenoside Rh2 has been shown to have significant anticancer effects and to be capable of blocking cell proliferation and causing G1 phase arrest in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells. 20 (R) and 20(S)-ginsenoside Rh2 have been shown to have anticancer effects and to be capable of increasing inchoate apoptotic rate, reducing apoptotic rate significantly, enhancing the activity of Caspase-3 and inducing apoptosis in human lung adenocarcinoma A549 cells.


Research on smart grid technologies has been advancing over the last years, producing novel practices concerning mainly the power distribution networks. However, in many countries these networks still operate in their traditional form, without offering the real-time operational characteristics which are essential for the utilization of the aforementioned practices. On the other hand, due to the extent of urban power distribution networks, as well as the substantial cost of medium voltage equipment, the full upgrade of these networks is in most cases not a feasible option. In this work, alternative options of selective automation upgrade in power distribution networks are offered, corresponding to the desired operational status of these networks. More specifically, the essential upgrades are analyzed for the implementation of reliability improvement and loss reduction techniques on such a network.


Because design is often conceived of as a language, it is worthwhile to take a closer look at this relationship. It is especially interesting to look at the transition from the verbal to the visual in interpretations and analyses of design. This article discusses some salient topics appearing in this context. In particular, claims made in the books by Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) and Krippendorff (2006) are discussed, because their approaches are widely used in design discourses, in journals, schools, exhibition catalogues, etc. These texts probably influence design research, but, in the present author's view, do not help interpretation of visual qualities in design. The underlying critical assumption in this article is that the language metaphor and concepts derived from linguistics do not do justice to the interpretations of design objects, especially concerning their visual qualities. When these qualities are underrated, it seems difficult to assess the cultural significance of design.


Development of irrigation-based chickpea production is considered the most important alternative approach in
combating climate change and maximizing productivity, especially in moisture-stress areas and in areas where
water and land for irrigation is available. In central Ethiopia, where production of chickpea (especially Kabuli
type) is becoming an important part of agriculture, although many superior varieties (both desi and Kabuli types)
are available, they have been evaluated and released based on rainfed production. Hence, there is an urgent need
for evaluation of varieties suited for irrigation-based production. Towards this goal, during the 2012/13 growing
season, 14 Kabuli genotypes (previously introduced) and 24 desi genotypes (nurseries obtained from ICRISAT)
were evaluated independently at three and one locations respectively (Kabuli at Debre Zeit, Ambo and Werer;
desi at Debre Zeit) for production adaptation under irrigation. The parameters evaluated were date of maturity,
100-seed weight and yield. Overall, while most Kabuli genotypes showed high adaptability to irrigation-based
production at all locations, four Kabuli genotypes (X96TH-52-14/2000 = 106.7DAS, FLIP-02-39C = 107DAS,
X98TH-51-1-3 = 107.9DAS and ICCV-07313 = 107DAS) were found to be earlier in maturity; two genotypes
(ICCV-07313 = 42.5 g and ICCV-04305 = 37.8 g) were identified as having high 100-seed weight and one
genotype (ICCV-05309 = 3228.8 kg/ha or 32 quintals/ha) out yielded all genotypes across locations. The result
of combined analysis indicated five promising genotypes showing more than 20 kg/ha yield on average. All desi
varieties showed maturity dates of under four months; six genotypes showed higher 100-seed weight and eight
genotypes showed promising yield responses (> 2000 kg/ha). From these preliminary results, it can be deduced
that irrigation can play a significantly complementary role to the rainfed system, provided the genetics by
management is optimized through research and innovation.


Shape indexing, classification, and retrieval are fundamental problems in computer graphics. This work introduces a novel method for surface indexing and classification based on Teichmuller theory. The Teichmuller space for surfaces with the same topology is a finite dimensional manifold, where each point represents a conformal equivalence class, a curve represents a deformation process from one class to the other. We apply Teichmuller space coordinates as shape descriptors, which are succinct, discriminating and intrinsic; invariant under the rigid motions and scalings, insensitive to resolutions. Furthermore, the method has solid theoretic foundation, and the computation of Teichmuller coordinates is practical, stable and efficient. This work focuses on the surfaces with negative Euler numbers, which have a unique conformal Riemannian metric with -1 Gaussian curvature. The coordinates which we will compute are the lengths of a special set of geodesics under this special metric. The metric can be obtained by the curvature flow algorithm, the geodesics can be calculated using algebraic topological method. We tested our method extensively for indexing and comparison of about one hundred of surfaces with various topologies, geometries and resolutions. The experimental results show the efficacy and efficiency of the length coordinate of the Teichmuller space.


Proceedings: AACR 102nd Annual Meeting 2011‐‐ Apr 2‐6, 2011; Orlando, FL

Endosialin/Tumor Endothelial Marker-1 (TEM-1) is a cell surface glycoprotein that is expressed on cells involved in the development of tumor vasculature, primarily pericytes, smooth muscle, and stromal fibroblasts. Studies have found endosialin to play a key role in tumor growth and neovessel formation in numerous cancer types including (but not limited to) renal, breast, colon, pancreatic, lung, endometrial, ovarian, melanoma, sarcoma, and neuroectodermal tumors. We are currently evaluating the therapeutic efficacy of MORAb-004, a human monoclonal IgG1 targeting TEM-1, in a Phase I clinical trial. Because MORAb-004 only recognizes human/monkey TEM-1 and has no cross-reactivity with rodent TEM-1, we generated a human TEM-1 knock-in mouse line in order to assess its activity in in vivo tumor models. In a B16-F10 subcutaneous melanoma model we found that MORAb-004 significantly inhibited tumor progression by ∼70%. Moreover, using the Lewis Lung Carcinoma model of metastatic disease our results showed that MORAb-004 had a significant inhibitory effect on the number of lung metastases. Taken together our results demonstrated the ability of MORAb-004 in inhibiting the growth of solid tumors and preventing the emergence of distant metastases. The potential MOA is currently under evaluation and will be discussed.

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 102nd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2011 Apr 2-6; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2011;71(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 3666. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2011-3666


The gut is a well-established route of infection and target for viral damage by SARS-CoV-2. This is supported by the clinical observation that about half of COVID-19 patients exhibit gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. We asked whether the analysis of plasma could provide insight into gut barrier dysfunction in patients with COVID-19 infection. Plasma samples of COVID-19 patients (n=30) and healthy control (n=16) were collected during hospitalization. Plasma microbiome was analyzed using 16S rRNA sequencing, metatranscriptomic analysis, and gut permeability markers including FABP-2, PGN and LPS in both patient cohorts. Almost 65% (9 out 14) COVID-19 patients showed abnormal presence of gut microbes in their bloodstream. Plasma samples contained predominately Proteobacteria, Firmicutes, and Actinobacteria. The abundance of gram-negative bacteria (Acinetobacter, Nitrospirillum, Cupriavidus, Pseudomonas, Aquabacterium, Burkholderia, Caballeronia, Parabhurkholderia, Bravibacterium, and Sphingomonas) was higher than the gram-positive bacteria (Staphylococcus and Lactobacillus) in COVID-19 subjects. The levels of plasma gut permeability markers FABP2 (1282±199.6 vs 838.1±91.33; p=0.0757), PGN (34.64±3.178 vs 17.53±2.12; p<0.0001), and LPS (405.5±48.37 vs 249.6±17.06; p=0.0049) were higher in COVID-19 patients compared to healthy subjects. These findings support that the intestine may represent a source for bacteremia and may contribute to worsening COVID-19 outcomes. Therapies targeting the gut and prevention of gut barrier defects may represent a strategy to improve outcomes in COVID-19 patients.


Using the gray system theory and gray relational analysis method, the relationship between added value of hybrid corn, hogs, Juglans siglillata, Pisum Sativum L., safflower and that of farmers' net income in Bailongjing Village, Wafang Township, Longyang District, Baoshan city, Yunnan Province was analyzed and the ways to increase farmers' per capita net income were studied. The results showed that economic income of farmers by structure adjustment of agriculture is Juglans sigillata>Pisium Sativum L.>safflower>hogs>hybrid corn. The study can provide scientific basis for optimizing agricultural industrial structure in Baoshan City, and promoting the rapid growth of farmers' economic income.


For several decades, the incidence of oesophageal adenocarcinoma (OAC) has shown the highest proportional rise among all cancers in the Western world. In order to detect neoplasia at a curable stage, endoscopic surveillance of patients with its precursor lesion Barrett's oesophagus (BO) is recommended by various societal guidelines and as such has been widely implemented over the past decades. However, although surveillance endoscopy is intuitively rational, there is currently no proof from randomised trials that this strategy reduces OAC mortality, and its cost-effectiveness has been questioned. The observation that <8% of OAC is preceded by a BO diagnosis further undermines the impact of surveillance. Recent population-based studies have shown a much lower overall cancer risk in BO than previously anticipated, and together with the growing emphasis on healthcare cost containment, the rationale for endoscopic surveillance has come under greater scrutiny.1 ,2 A 2014 cost-utility analysis of current surveillance protocols, incorporating progression estimates from large population-based studies, suggests that surveillance of patients with non-dysplastic BO is unlikely to be cost-effective.3 Alternative strategies such as ablation have raised hope to omit surveillance in patients; however, in reality considerable recurrence rates of both BO and carcinomas in particularly long segment BO (LSBO) still require …


Bogie system is the key system that affects the safety and quality of EMU operation. The construction of fault diagnosis model for bogie system can effectively improve the safety and comfort of EMU operation. The traditional modeling method uses BP neural network to model by fitting bogie system temperature and other parameters. However, BP neural network is prone to fall into local minimum, slow convergence and poor diagnostic accuracy. In this paper, particle radial basis function neural network (PSRB) is designed by using particle swarm optimization algorithm with high convergence. Particle Swarm optimization (PSO) is used to optimize the parameters of RBF Neural Networks. According to the complexity of the input parameters of the bogie system, the input and output parameters of the model are determined. Particle swarm optimization algorithm is used to search the optimal values of the center, width and output layer weight threshold of the RBF neural network. The hybrid algorithm is applied to the fault diagnosis of bogie system, and a bogie fault diagnosis model based on particle radial basis function neural network is designed. The experimental results show that the diagnosis model can effectively improve the identification accuracy of fault diagnosis, the minimum error accuracy is 0.0055, the operation time is saved, the operation time is reduced to 1.9s, and the influence of non-target parameters on the inversion results is eliminated. The model can also be used in other EMU systems, and has practical application value.


: Eosinophilic granuloma consists of the proliferation and/or accumulation of Langerhans cells in the bones, generally of the cranium and face, as a uni- or multifocal cystic lesion. It is considered to be a localized chronic form of Langerhans cell disease. The most frequent oral location is the posterior part of the mandible, where the bone lesion often gives rise to lesions of the overlying soft tissues. We report a case showing bilateral involvement of the upper jaw and unilateral involvement of the mandible. The eosinophilic granulomas arose in association with odontogenic periapical infectious processes, suggesting that this disorder may be a form of inflammatory response.


Objective: Better recruitment strategies are needed to improve the identification of people at ultra-high risk of developing psychosis. This study explores the effectiveness of two recruitment strategies: a screening method in a consecutive help-seeking population entering secondary mental health services for non-psychotic problems vs. a population referred to the diagnostic center of an early-psychosis clinic. Method: From February 2008 to February 2010, all general practitioner and self-referrals (aged 18-35 years) to the secondary mental healthcare service in The Hague and Zoetermeer were screened with the Prodromal Questionnaire; patients who scored above the cutoff of 18 and had a decline in social functioning were assessed using the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS). All referrals (aged 14-35 years) to the diagnostic center in Amsterdam were also assessed with the CAARMS. Results: The screening detected a three-fold higher prevalence of at-risk mental states: these subjects were older and more often female. manova showed significantly higher scores for the screened population on depression, social anxiety, distress with positive symptoms, and a higher rate of transition to psychosis within 12 months. Conclusion: The screening method detects more patients with at-risk mental states than the referral method. The latter method is biased to young male patients in an earlier prodromal stage and a lower transition rate. Detection of people at risk of developing a first episode psychosis


The surface properties of sea ice dominate many key processes and drive important feedback mechanisms in the polar oceans of both hemispheres. Examining Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, the distinctly different dominant sea-ice and snow properties in spring and summer are apparent. While Arctic sea ice features a seasonal snow cover with widespread surface ponding in summer, a year-round snow cover and strong surface flooding at the snow/ice interface is observed on Antarctic sea ice. However, substantial knowledge gaps exist about the spatial distribution and temporal evolution of these properties, and their impacts on exchange processes across the atmosphere/ocean interface. This thesis aims to overcome these limitations by quantifying the influence of surface properties on the energy and mass budgets in the ice-covered oceans.

Remote sensing data and in-situ observations are combined to derive the seasonal cycle of dominant sea-ice surface characteristics, and their relation to the transfer of solar radiation from the atmosphere through snow and sea ice into the upper ocean.

This thesis shows that characteristics of the solar radiation under Arctic sea ice can be described directly as a function of sea-ice surface properties as, e.g., sea-ice type and melt pond coverage. Using this parameterization, an Arctic-wide calculation of solar radiation through sea ice identifies the surface melt onset as the main driver of the annual sea-ice mass and energy budgets.

In contrast, an analysis of the spring-summer transition of Antarctic sea ice using passive microwave satellite observations indicates widespread diurnal freeze-thaw cycles in the top snow layers. While the associated temporary thawing is identified as the predominant melt process, subsequent continuous melt in deeper snow layers is rarely found on Antarctic sea ice. Instead of directly influencing the snow depth on Antarctic sea ice, these melt processes rather modify the internal stratigraphy and vertical density structure of the snowpack. An additional analysis of satellite scatterometer observations reveals that snow volume loss on Antarctic sea ice is mainly driven by changes in the lower snowpack, due to the widespread presence of sea-ice surface flooding and snow-ice formation prior to changes in the upper snowpack. As a consequence, the largely heterogeneous and metamorphous Antarctic snowpack prevents a direct correlation between surface properties and the respective characteristics of the penetrating solar radiation under the sea ice. However, surface flooding is identified as the key process governing the variability of the under-ice light regime on small scales.

Overall, this thesis highlights that the mass and energy budgets of Antarctic sea ice are determined by processes at the snow/ice interface as well as the temporal evolution of physical snowpack properties. These results are in great contrast to presented studies on Arctic sea ice, where seasonally alternating interactions at the atmosphere/snow- or atmosphere/sea-ice interface control both the energy and mass budgets. An improved understanding of the seasonal cycle of dominant sea-ice and snow surface characteristics in the Arctic and Antarctic is crucial for future investigations retrieving sea-ice variables, such as sea-ice thickness and snow depth, from recent microwave satellite observations.


We have established a new screening system for identifying interacting proteins by combining biomolecular fluorescence complementation (BiFC) and a transposon gene trap system. This system requires creation of a bait strain that stably expresses a fusion product of part of the fluorescent monomeric Kusabira-Green (mKG) protein to a protein of interest. A PiggyBac transposon vector is then introduced into this strain, and a sequence encoding the remainder of mKG is inserted into the genome and fused randomly with endogenous genes. The binding partner can be identified by isolating cells that fluoresce when BiFC occurs. Using this system, we screened for interactors of p65 (also known as RELA), an NF-κB subunit, and isolated a number of mKG-positive clones. 5′- or 3′-RACE to produce cDNAs encoding mKG-fragment fusion genes and subsequent reconstitution assay identified PKM, HSP90AB1, ANXA2, HSPA8, and CACYBP as p65 interactors. All of these, with the exception of CACYBP, are known regulators of NF-κB. Immunoprecipitation assay confirmed endogenously expressed CACYBP and p65 formed a complex. A reporter assay revealed that CACYBP enhanced 3κB reporter activation under TNFα stimulation. This screening system therefore represents a valuable method for identifying interacting factors that have not been identified by other methods.


Controversy surrounds the Ipuwer Papyrus, an Egyptian manuscript residing in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands. On the one side are those who claim that this manuscript describes chaotic conditions in Egypt at the time of the biblical Exodus. On the other side are those who deny this on the basis of disbelief that the Exodus ever took place, or who claim that the date of the events described in the manuscript are wrong for the Exodus. In this paper we show that this ancient document most likely describes Exodus conditions; and that the Ipuwer Papyrus therefore offers strong extra-biblical evidence for a historical Exodus. With respect to dating the events in this papyrus, it needs to be understood that the secular historical timeline diverges from the biblical timeline, and furthermore, that the Old Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom of Egypt ended at the same time (contrary to the standard history). This puts the manuscript's original date (as determined by scholars) exactly where it should be. The question of divergence of the secular and biblical timelines is a matter of enormous importance for biblical apologetics. Often secular scholars declare that biblical events like the Exodus cannot have taken place because there are no evidences of these at the time in history where the Bible places them. The Ipuwer papyrus therefore supports a divergence of several hundred years between the biblical and secular timelines at the time of the Exodus.


In April 1966 thousands of artists, musicians, performers, and writers from across Africa and its diaspora gathered in the Senegalese capital, Dakar, to take part in the First World Festival of Black and African Culture (Premier Festival Mondial des arts negres). The festival constituted a highly symbolic moment both in the era of decolonization and the push for civil rights for African Americans in the United States. In essence, the festival sought to perform an emerging Pan-African culture, to give concrete cultural expression to the ties that would bind the African "homeland" to black people in the diaspora. On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the 1966 event, the editors of this special issue held a conference at Florida State University that sought to examine the festival and its multiple legacies, with the aim of promoting a better understanding of both the utopianism of the period following World War II and the "festivalization" of Africa that has occurred in recent decades.


The present study describes the development and validation of a rapid, sensitive, specific and precise enzyme immunoassay (EIA) sandwich suitable for measuring luteinizing hormone (LH) in rat serum. Ninety-six well polystyrene microtiter plates were coated with 100 microliters (250 ng/ml) of a well-characterized monoclonal antibody (518B7, Roser, UC Davis) generated against bovine LH. A polyclonal antiserum raised in rabbits against ovine FSH (G4-215B, Papkoff) was conjugated to sodium periodate-activated horseradish peroxidase (HRP), and used as the second antibody of the sandwich assay. This anti-ovine FSH antiserum cross-reacted more than 200% with rat LH. Standards (r-LH-RP-3, NIADDK, range 0 pg/well to 2.5 ng/well or 100 microliters) diluted in a 3(N-Morpholino) propane sulfonic acid (MOPS) buffer, or serum, were incubated with the solid phase antibody for 2 hours. Plates were washed and the anti-oFSH:HRP (100 microliters) in MOPS buffer was added and incubated a further 2 hours before a second wash and the addition of the substrate (TMB, 3,3',5,5'-tetramethylbenzidine dihydrochloride and H2O2). The least detectable concentration of LH was 16.1 +/- 1.42 pg/ml. The recovery of known concentrations of LH added to several samples was 93.5 +/- 1.70%. Mean intra-assay and inter-assay coefficients of variation (%) were less than 10% (n = 20). The anti-FSH:HRP showed less than 8.0% cross reactivity with rFSH in this LH EIA system. The correlation coefficient (r) of samples analyzed by EIA in parallel with RIA was r = 0.90 (p < 0.001, n = 26). Results showed levels between 105.21 and 633.87 pg/ml. This new LH EIA sandwich offers a stable, rapid, and improved EIA system for the measurement of serum LH concentrations of this species over previously reported methods.


The choice of a suitable pretreatment method and the adjustment of the pretreatment parameters for efficient conversion of biomass to value-added products is crucial to a successful biorefinery concept. Pretreatment of corn cob using ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea was carried out and optimized in this study.

 Effect of pretreatment conditions on cellulose recovery, hemicellulose recovery during the pretreatment of corn cob using ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea was investigated via response surface methodology approach and optimized in this study. Experimental results were analysed and appropriate predictive empirical linear models were developed for each response.

 For cellulose recovery, time and temperature, and solvent concentration were significant factors. Hemicellulose recovery in the liquid fraction is impacted by time and solvent concentration, while lignin recovery is affected by time and temperature. Using numerical optimization by desirability function, optimum pretreatment conditions obtained were: 90 min, 120°C and concentration of 71.32%/28.68 (w/w) ZnCl2.4H2O/ Urea. At these conditions, the predicted recovery for cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin were 99.03%, 27.18% and 72.43%, respectively, with a desirability of 0.902. The actual recovery was 91%, 29% and 68% for cellulose, hemicellulose and lignin, respectively, at the same conditions.

 These results indicate that the investigated variables have pronounced effect on the pretreatment of corn cob. Therefore, optimum conditions are required for recovery of desired composition before conversion to value-added products.


Abstract In the studies on the recovery of vanadium from vanadium catalyst extracts, three types of polymer strongly acidic ion exchangers were used. The ion exchange resins differed in terms of granularity and their ion exchange capacity. As a result, breakthrough curves were made for three main components of the test extract, i.e.: ions of vanadium, iron and potassium. On this basis the optimum conditions for the removal of iron ions from the solution were defined and the technological concept of the process in the semi-technical scale was proposed.


Aim Functional neurological disorders (FND) are one of the most common presentation in neurology clinics, causing a significant disability and economic burden. Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) has one of the best available evidence in managing FND, although access remains limited. Queen Square, London neuropsychiatry experts have established an excellent model for a CBT based, Guided Self Help (GSH) programme, which is preparatory to a multidisciplinary inpatient treatment. It has been shown to have good outcomes. This study was designed to ascertain the feasibility and acceptance of this QGSH model, in an Exonian cohort of FND patients, whilst piloting its stand-alone version, without the inpatient component. Additionally, the study explores the need and types of modifications required for the stand-alone adaptation of QGSH. Method Consecutive patients referred to Exeter FND Service, between February to June 2020, who had internet access, were offered the QGSH pilot. Patients with a primary mental disorder concurrent drug/alcohol misuse or risk of self-harm or suicide were excluded. Ethics approval was not required. The QGSH intervention constitutes of 11 modules focussing on specific elements crucial to FND management along with homework tasks, delivered by the author, under supervision by QGSH experts. Patients completed Pre and Post-intervention questionnaires as well as structured feedback. Results Three successive patients with varied FND symptoms were recruited to the pilot between February and June 2020. The baseline health status of these patients was worse as compared to EQ-5D-5L population norms with significant baseline psychiatric comorbidity. Outcome measures used before and after QGSH intervention included PHQ 9, GAD 7, EQ-5D-5L and a locally devised symptom severity questionnaire. Necessary modifications were made to the program based on the patients informal feedback and structured formal feedback was sought in the end. Conclusion All patients derived some benefit from QGSH and certain modifications were suggested in patient feedback to improve engagement. Despite study limitations, especially small size and the impact of Covid 19 pandemic during the intervention; QGSH model appears acceptable and feasible in an Exonian cohort, however, some modifications are recommended for the stand-alone version to succeed. The recommendations will be presented.


When doing safety and accident studies related to road surface characteristics the quality of the used data are of extreme importance. The definition, the techniques and strategy of collection of both condition as accident data can differ a lot between and within countries. An example of such confusion is the data considering pavement friction and skid resistance. In Europe currently more than 15 measuring devices for skid resistance are covered in the CEN standards. The availability of enough friction is the most essential road characteristic for safety issues. Other examples is the use of expressions of road condition such as rut depth. No standard exist and different calculations are used implying that they need careful consideration before exchange of accident analysis results are done. Most road surface indicators are developed for indication of road wear, not accident analysis. The Road Administration in Sweden have paid attention to this and made a number of actions to improve the quality of data. There are many quality aspects on data and data collection such as reliability, robustness, suitability for the purpose (relevant), performance, safe to collect, easy to maintain and costs. This presentation will present some actions and quality improvements for data and data collection that has been done in Sweden.


We demonstrate the Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect imaging capabilities of the Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-wave Astronomy (CARMA) by presenting an SZ map of the galaxy cluster RX J1347.5−1145. By combining data from multiple CARMA bands and configurations, we are able to capture the structure of this cluster over a wide range of angular scales, from its bulk properties to its core morphology. We find that roughly 9% of this cluster's thermal energy is associated with sub-arcminute-scale structure imparted by a merger, illustrating the value of high-resolution SZ measurements for pursuing cluster astrophysics and for understanding the scatter in SZ scaling relations. We also find that the cluster's SZ signal is lower in amplitude than suggested by a spherically symmetric model derived from X-ray data, consistent with compression along the line of sight relative to the plane of the sky. Finally, we discuss the impact of upgrades currently in progress that will further enhance CARMA's power as an SZ imaging instrument.


The functions of DNA and RNA rely on their deformations. When stretched, both DNA and RNA duplexes change their twist angles through twist-stretch coupling. The coupling is negative for DNA but positive for RNA, which is not yet completely understood. Here, our magnetic tweezers experiments show that the coupling of RNA reverses from positive to negative by multivalent cations. Combining with the previously reported tension-induced negative-to-positive coupling-reversal of DNA, we propose a unified mechanism of the couplings of both RNA and DNA based on molecular dynamics simulations. Two deformation pathways are competing when stretched: shrinking the radius causes positive couplings but widening the major groove causes negative couplings. For RNA whose major groove is clamped by multivalent cations and canonical DNA, their radii shrink when stretched, thus exhibiting positive couplings. For elongated DNA whose radius already shrinks to the minimum and canonical RNA, their major grooves are widened when stretched, thus exhibiting negative coupling.


In type 2 diabetes the concentration of glucose in the blood is increased, and tissues like fat and musclebecome less sensitive to insulin. These two phenomena are interrelated, but since the glucose-insulininterplay is highly complex, many aspects are still not understood. Here, a model-based approachmight help. Nevertheless, also a model-based approach has a limited impact, unless models for thesub-systems can be combined into a model for the whole-body regulation. Such a multi-level,module-based model is referred to as a hierarchical model, and this thesis is a proof-of-principle studyfor the future development of such models. We have extended one of the best available models for the whole-body regulations, to include azoomable module for the fat tissue. The first step was to implement the whole-body model in thesoftware MathModelica, which support hierarchical modeling. Second, the originally mergedinsulin-responding module was sub-divided, so that a fat tissue was singled out. Third, a model for theinput-output profile for the fat tissue was developed by combining mechanistic knowledge withexisting and novel data from human fat cells. Finally, this detailed model was fitted to the profile of theoriginal fat model, and inserted in the whole-body model, with negligible effect on the whole-bodysimulations. The resulting model has the ability to translate mechanistically oriented simulations on the biochemicallevel, which is the level were drugs act, to the whole-body level, which is of clinical interest. This is aquantum leap forward for modeling, and understanding, glucose homeostasis and type 2 diabetes.


Semple DJ, Bhandari S, Seymour AL. Uremic cardiomyopathy is characterized by loss of the cardioprotective effects of insulin. Am J Physiol Renal Physiol 303: F1275–F1286, 2012. First published August 22, 2012; doi:10.1152/ajprenal.00048.2012.—Chronic kidney disease is associated with a unique cardiomyopathy, characterized by a combination of structural and cellular remodeling, and an enhanced susceptibility to ischemia-reperfusion injury. This may represent dysfunction of the reperfusion injury salvage kinase pathway due to insulin resistance. The susceptibility of the uremic heart to ischemia-reperfusion injury and the cardioprotective effects of insulin and rosiglitazone were investigated. Uremia was induced in Sprague-Dawley rats by subtotal nephrectomy. Functional recovery from ischemia was investigated in vitro in control and uremic hearts insulin rosiglitazone. The response of myocardial oxidative metabolism to insulin was determined by C-NMR spectroscopy. Activation of reperfusion injury salvage kinase pathway intermediates (Akt and GSK3 ) were assessed by SDS-PAGE and immunoprecipitation. Insulin improved postischemic rate pressure product in control but not uremic hearts, [recovered rate pressure product (%), control 59.6 10.7 vs. 88.9 8.5, P 0.05; uremic 19.3 4.6 vs. 28.5 10.4, P ns]. Rosiglitazone resensitized uremic hearts to insulin-mediated cardioprotection [recovered rate pressure product (%) 12.7 7.0 vs. 61.8 15.9, P 0.05]. Myocardial carbohydrate metabolism remained responsive to insulin in uremic hearts. Uremia was associated with increased phosphorylation of Akt (1.00 0.08 vs. 1.31 0.11, P 0.05) in normoxia, but no change in postischemic phosphorylation of Akt or GSK3 . Akt2 isoform expression was decreased postischemia in uremic hearts (P 0.05). Uremia is associated with enhanced susceptibility to ischemia-reperfusion injury and a loss of insulinmediated cardioprotection, which can be restored by administration of rosiglitazone. Altered Akt2 expression in uremic hearts post-ischemia-reperfusion and impaired activation of the reperfusion injury salvage kinase pathway may underlie these findings.


Objectives and Hypotheses:
 Our objective was to quantify the DWI and MTT changes at 2 and 24 hours after IV-tPA and evaluate the effect of reperfusion and DWI change on immediate neurological improvement and clinical outcome using the latest available mRS up to 90 days.

 Methods:
 Patients were selected from the Lesion Evolution in Stroke and Ischemia On Neuroimaging (LESION) Project if they had a baseline MRI with evaluable DWI and PWI, were treated with standard IV-tPA, had post-treatment MRI at 2 or 24 hours and FLAIR at follow-up. A reader measured the DWI, MTT and FLAIR volumes using a validated technique. A vascular neurologist scored the NIHSS at pre-treatment, 2 and 24 hours and the mRS at discharge, 5, 30 and 90 days.

 Results:
 Seventy-one patients met the study criteria with mean (±SD) age of 71.6 (±16.4) years, 58% women, median baseline NIHSS 9 (IQR: 4-18), median onset to triage 45 minutes (30-65) and median first MRI to IV-tPA 47 minutes (39-59). For the 43 patients with baseline DWI ≥ 5 ml, 60% of patients with a decrease at 2 hours had a favorable outcome versus 18% of no decrease (p=0.014). There was also a significant difference in mRS distribution between groups, (0-3 versus 2-6, p=0.008). Using linear regression, the 2 hour DWI (p=0.037), change in 2 hour DWI (p<0.000) and change in 24 hour NIHSS (p=0.041) but not the 2 hour NIHSS or its change were predictive of follow-up FLAIR volume. For the 53 patients with a baseline MTT ≥ 5 ml, 42 patients (79%) had a decrease in MTT > 7 ml and 11 (21%) had an increase or no change (p<0.0001) at 24 hours. The latest available mRS was 0-1 in 45% of the patients with a MTT decrease and in 0% of the patients with no decrease (p=0.002). There was also a significant difference in mRS distribution between these groups, (0-5 versus 4-5, p=0.020). Using linear regression, age (p=0.040), admit NIHSS (p<0.000) and change in 24 hour NIHSS (p=0.002) were predictive of mRS distribution.

 Conclusions:
 In patients with a substantial baseline DWI lesion, the decrease of DWI volume at 2 hours post-thrombolysis is a significant predictor of good imaging and clinical outcomes. In patients with a substantial baseline MTT lesion, the decrease of NIHSS and MTT volume at 24 hours post-thrombolysis are significant predictors of good imaging and clinical outcomes.


We describe the many challenges faced when designing, implementing and embedding large-scale installations in a physical space, such as a building. A case study is presented of a distributed ambient display system intended to inform, lure and influence people when moving through the building. We outline the wide range of technical, user, aesthetic and practical aspects that need to be addressed; pointing out how many unpredictable problems can surface when going 'big', 'physical' and 'out of the PC', We argue that a different set of 'non-user-centered' processes are required. Furthermore, we propose a new design implementation approach that includes aspects of iterative design, but with the new processes of bricolage and consultation added for progressing the design.


Hereditary angioedema (HAE) is a rare disorder caused by genetic mutations that lead to recurrent episodes of swelling in various parts of the body. Prophylactic treatment is common for patients with HAE, and the therapeutic options have expanded in recent years. The current standard of care for prophylactic HAE therapies is subcutaneous treatment, which can be self-administered at home, greatly improving patient quality of life. As new therapies emerge, it is important for patients and physicians to discuss the risks and benefits associated with each treatment to develop an individualized approach to HAE management. We conducted surveys of patients with HAE and physicians who treat patients with HAE to identify prescribing trends for prophylactic HAE treatments and the impact that such treatments has on patients. Our results confirmed that newer, subcutaneous therapies are prescribed for HAE prophylaxis more frequently than other therapies in the United States and that treatment burdens still exist for patients with HAE. We found that physicians and patients were not always aligned on how treatment choices affect patients' lives, which may mean that there are opportunities for enhanced patient-physician dialog and shared decision-making in HAE management in the United States.


Gallium nitride (GaN) is a wide bandgap material that is already extensively used in industrial production of optoelectronic devices (light emitters) that operate in the blue and ultraviolet wavelength range. GaN is interesting not only because it has a wide bandgap (3.5 eV), it is also chemically and physically inert and is environmental friendly for device production, as opposed to the lower bandgap III-V materials based on GaAs or InP.Despite recent efforts there is still no bulk GaN substrates with sufficient crystal quality and size and sufficiently low price that they can be used commercially in devices. The problem in growing GaN is that because there are no native substrates the growth is done on foreign substrates (heteroepitaxy). When GaN is grown heteroepitaxially there will be a built in strain in the material because of the lattice mismatch and thermal expansion difference between the materials. This produces a number of different defects that degrades the crystal quality. Native GaN substrates are therefore strongly in demand, and many growth techniques are presently pursued worldwide to develop such substrates.Hydride Vapor Phase Epitaxy (HVPE) is the growth technique most commonly used for growing bulk GaN material. Certainly it is the most developed method, and it can produce a high growth rate(> 100 μ/hr). HVPE has comparatively simple growth chemistry and is relatively economic compared to other growth techniques.In the work involved in this PhD thesis the focus has been to optimize the growth of thick 2" diameter GaN layers on sapphire with a vertical HVPE system.Paper I deal with how to grow thick GaN layers(> 300 μm) on sapphire, and reviews some of the problems that are involved in the growth process. The emphasis is on the growth related defects in such thick GaN layers.In Paper II we have shown that it is possible to grow GaN with a very high growth rate and with good crystal quality.Paper III shows that it is possible to produce a free-standing GaN layer that is strain free. This is done by separating the GaN layer from the sapphire substrate using a laser lift-off (LLO) process.In paper IV the optical and structural properties of thick freestanding GaN layers are reported.In paper V we have shown that it is possible to grow a GaN layer on sapphire over a 2" area that is virtually strain free over most part of the grown area. This is due to induced cracking in the starting sapphire substrate during the cool down phase.In paper VI we have grown the GaN material on a starting template consisting of a two-step epitaxial lateral overgrowth (ELO) GaN layer grown by MOVPE on a sapphire substrate. The self separated GaN layer was then evaluated and the result showed a virtually strain free material.In paper VII positron annihilation studies of a thick GaN layer is performed. The studies were done to identify native point defects (Ga vacancies) in the as-grown non-intentionally doped n-type GaN.Paper VIII deals with μ-Raman scattering profiling studies on a thick free-standing GaN layer. The studies provided the vertical strain distribution and the evolution of the crystalline quality with increasing layer thickness.


Instruction manuals are supposed to be used to ensure safe and proper use of medical devices. The instruction manuals could be paper or digital docu- ments, animations or videos. Conveying information and instructions through these media might not be the most efficient approach, especially in healthcare where physicians and nurses experience high cognitive load and prefer hands-on experience with the devices [1].This thesis investigates how a possibly more efficient and intuitive instruction manual could be developed using mobile marker-based Augmented Reality; a technology that combines a virtual and physical world.By analyzing and comparing different marker-based Augmented Reality sys- tems and Software Development Kits (SDKs), the most suitable system, in terms of availability and functionality, was chosen for the implementation. Two mobile AR instruction manual prototypes were developed, as a proof-of-concept, using Unity3D with Qualcomm's Vuforia extension.The resulting prototypes demonstrate the opportunity to integrate informa- tion and instructions in our physical world and the difficulties associated with the interaction and user experience with the relatively novel Augmented Reality interface.


Lower Allegheny detrital rocks thicken to the north and west. The Vanport limestone thins to the west-southwest, northwest, and north by interfingering with marine shales and to the northeast by gradation into chert and flint clay. The area of thickest limestone was an area of tectonic stability. The wedge complex was an area of subsidence and differential filling. East-west changes across the northern wedge complex are more rapid. The tectonic pattern during lower Allegheny time is one of stability along a west-northwest trending belt and differential subsidence to the north and southwest.


The purpose of the present study was to compare the in vitro release and to findout the bioavailability of a 75 mg indomethacin capsule (Microcid®SR - reference - product A) was equivalent to optimized formulation (indomethacin loaded microspheres – test – product B). Indomethacin (IM) loaded carnauba wax fat microspheres were prepared by using meltable emulsified dispersion cooling induced solidification technique utilizing a wetting agent. Solid, discrete, reproducible free flowing microspheres were prepared. The yield of the microspheres was up to 92%, having smooth surfaces, with free flowing and good packing properties, angle of repose, % Carr's index and tapped density values were within the limit. More than 98.0% of the isolated spherical microspheres were in the particle size range of 1135 - 1360 mm were confirmed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The drug loaded in microspheres was stable and compatible, as confirmed by DSC and FTIR studies. A single dose, randomized, complete cross over study of IM (75 mg) microspheres was carried out on 10 healthy male and female Albino sheep's under fasting conditions. The plasma was separated and the concentrations of IM were determined by HPLC-UV method. Plasma IM concentrations and other pharmacokinetic parameters obtained were statistically analyzed. Based on this study, is it possible to conclude that drug loaded microspheres and Microcid®SR capsule are bioequivalent in terms of the rate and extent of absorption.


The current environmental regulatory system promotes a destructive and unsustainable economy. While environmental statutes supposedly aim to control harm inflicted by the industrial economy, in fact they perpetuate destructive economic activity by regularly authorizing permits to pollute and destroy. Corporations and profiteers controlling the bureaucratic apparatus use the law to drain the natural wealth of communities for their own profit. On those rare occasions when environmental regulation successfully halts destruction, the resulting narrative presents an impossible "jobs v. environment†conflict that undermines environmental law in the broader political milieu. This chapter sets forth a legal paradigm called Nature's Trust that draws upon the public trust principle to support both economic prosperity and ecological integrity. The public trust is an ancient doctrine, manifest in every state in the United States and in many countries throughout the world, including India, Kenya and the Philippines, to name a few. It requires government to act as a trustee with respect to the natural world and its elements. A fundamental component of democracy, the trust empowers citizens to hold government accountable for ecological protection. It also forms an inherent constraint on a private property regime that empowers colossal destruction. Finally, the Nature's Trust paradigm reformulates the role of the corporation in modern society, recognizing imbued fiduciary limitations arising from state charters.


AIM
To study the expression of Fhit protein in lung cancers and its potential relevance in the diagnosis and prognosis of lung cancers.

METHODS
Tissue microarrays (TMA) and Immunohistochemistry (IHC) were performed in 321 cases of lung cancers. Fhit protein was tested by the S-P immunohistochemistry method upon tissue microarrays.

RESULTS
In our TMA blocks comprising 321 cases of lung cancer, there were 253 (78.8 %) cases valid for Fhit protein assessment. Total loss or marked reduction of Fhit expression (-, +) were seen in 170 cases (67.1 %). Fhit protein loss in NSCLCs (non-small cell lung carcinoma was significantly lower than in SCLCs (small cell lung cancers) (p < 0.05), in most squamous cell carcinomas (85 out of 105, 81.0 %), and in a smaller portion of adenocarcinomas (53 out of 109, 48.6 %; p < 0.05). The loss or marked reduction of Fhit expression was more common in tumours occurring in smokers and male patients (133 out of 191, 69.6 %; 135 out of 189,71.4 %) as compared to nonsmokers and female patients (29 out of 62, 46.8 %; p < 0.005 and 29 out of 64, 45.3 %; p < 0.005). However, the expression of Fhit protein was not associated with histopathologic grading, clinical staging, lymph node metastasis or survival time.

CONCLUSIONS
Our studies showed that the loss or reduced expression of Fhit, a tumour suppressor gene is a frequent occurrence in lung cancers, with variations amongst different histological subtypes. The loss or marked reduction of Fhit expression was more frequent in smokers. This study showed that tissue microarrays can be used efficiently for evaluation of the expression of certain tumor markers.


Contributors. Preface. Acknowledgements. 1 The Newborn and Infant Physical Examination Standards and Competencies (Anne Lomax). 2 History Taking and the Newborn Examination: An Evolving Perspective (Claire Evans). 3 Development of the Heart and Lungs and Transition to Extrauterine Life (Christopher D. Bedford and Anne Lomax). 4 Cardiovascular and Respiratory Assessment of the Baby (Christopher D. Bedford). 5 The Neonatal Skin: Examination of the Jaundiced Newborn and Gestational Age Assessment (Morris Gordon and Anne Lomax). 6 Examination of the Head, Neck and Eyes (Carmel Noonan, Fiona J. Rowe and Anne Lomax). 7 Examination of the Newborn Abdomen and Genitalia (Morris Gordon). 8 Developmental Dysplasia of the Hip (Robin W. Paton). 9 Abnormalities of the Foot (Naomi Davis). 10 Chromosomal and Genetic Problems: Giving Feedback to Parents (Delyth Webb and Anne Lomax). 11 Newborn Behavioural Aspects(Jeanette Appleton). 12 Examination of the Newborn: Professional Issues in Practice (Norma Fryer and Claire Evans). 13 Examining the Neonate in the Hospital and Community: Child Protection Issues. Catherine Quarrell. Appendix 1: Useful Website Addresses. Appendix 2: NIPE Information Leaflet for Parents. Appendix 3: Skills for Health. Glossary of Terms. Index.


BACKGROUND
Although the written component of the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada (RCPSC)internal medicine examination is important for obtaining licensure and certification as a specialist, no methods exist to predict a candidate's performance on the examination.

METHOD
We obtained data from 5 Canadian universities from 1988 to 1998 in order to compare raw scores from the American Internal Medicine In-Training Examination (AIMI-TE) with raw scores and outcomes (pass or fail) of the written component of the RCPSC internal medicine examination.

RESULTS
Mean scores on the AIMI-TE correlated well with scores on the RCPSC internal medicine written examination for all postgraduate years (r = 0.62, r = 0.55 and r = 0.65 for postgraduate years 1, 2 and 3 respectively). Scores above the 50th percentile on the AIMI-TE w/ere predictive of a low failure rate (< 1.5%) on the RCPSC internal medicine written examination, whereas scores at or below the 10th percentile were associated with a high failure rate (about 24%).

INTERPRETATION
Candidates who are eligible to take the written component of the RCPSC certification examination in internal medicine can use the AIMI-TE to predict their performance on the Canadian examination. The AIMI-TE is a useful test for residents in all levels of training, because the examination scores have a strong relation to expected performance on the Canadian examination for each year of postgraduate training.


Abstract. Atmospheric CO2 partial pressure (pCO2) is expected to increase to 700 μatm or more by the end of the present century. Anthropogenic CO2 is absorbed by the oceans, leading to decreases in pH and the CaCO3 saturation state (Ω) of the seawater. Elevated pCO2 was shown to drastically decrease calcification rates in tropical zooxanthellate corals. Here we show, using the Mediterranean zooxanthellate coral Cladocora caespitosa, that an increase in pCO2, in the range predicted for 2100, does not reduce its calcification rate. Therefore, the conventional belief that calcification rates will be affected by ocean acidification may not be widespread in temperate corals. Seasonal change in temperature is the predominant factor controlling photosynthesis, respiration, calcification and symbiont density. An increase in pCO2, alone or in combination with elevated temperature, had no significant effect on photosynthesis, photosynthetic efficiency and calcification. The lack of sensitivity C. caespitosa to elevated pCO2 might be due to its slow growth rates, which seem to be more dependent on temperature than on the saturation state of calcium carbonate in the range projected for the end of the century.


Virtual clinical trials (VCTs) have gained popularity for their ability to rationalize the drug development process using mathematical and computational modelling, and to provide key insights into the mechanisms regulating patient responses to treatment. In this chapter, we cover approaches for generating virtual cohorts with applications in cancer biology and treatment. VCTs are an effective tool for predicting clinical responses to novel therapeutics and establishing effective treatment strategies. These VCTs allow us to capture inter-individual variability (IIV) which can lead to diversity in patient drug responses. Here we discuss three main methodologies for capturing IIV with a VCT. First, we highlight the use of population pharmacokinetic (PopPK) models, which extrapolate from empirical data population PK parameters that best fits the individual variability seen in drug disposition using non-linear mixed effects models. Next, we show how virtual patients may be sampled from a normal distribution with mean and standard deviation informed from experimental data to estimate parameters in a mechanistic model that regulates drug PKs. Lastly, we show how optimization techniques can be used to calibrate virtual patient parameter values and generate the VCT. Throughout, we compare and contrast these methods to provide a broader view of the generation of virtual patients, and to aid the decision-making process for those looking to leverage virtual clinical trials in their research.


Thin film based gas sensor is an advanced application of thin film especially Ga 2 O 3 (GO) thin film gas sensor is useful for high temperature gas sensor. The effect of moisture or environment on thin film properties has more influence on gas sensing properties. Radio Frequency sputtered Ga 2 O 3 thin film was synthesized and processed in ultra-high pure hot water at 95 °C for different time durations. The structural properties were verified by the Xray Diffraction technique and the observed spectra revealed the formation of hydroxyl compound of Gallium (Gallium Oxide Dueterate – GOD) on the surface of the thin film and evidenced for structural defects as an effect of moisture. Decreased crystallite size and increased dislocation density was showed the crystal defects of prepared film. From the Ultra Violet – Visible spectra, decreased optical transmittance was noticed for various processing time. The formation of needle like GOD was confirmed using Field Emission Secondary Electron Microscope (FESEM) images. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.22.2.7186


The capabilities of network technologies have facilitated the growth of electronic commerce. Major issues--notably, security and product quality uncer-tainty--still pose serious challenges to the further adoption of electronic commerce. Traditional market transactions have a long history and well-understood protections for buyers and sellers. In the electronic markets, formal and informal mechanisms such as trusted third parties (TTP) have emerged trying to ensure safe transactions. In this paper, we investigate under what conditions people will stick to the traditional market and face-to-face transactions, and under what conditions electronic transactions will be the convention of the future. Of particular interest is the role of TTPs in facilitating online transactions. Using evolutionary game theory, we present an analytical model of buyer and seller choices and examine which patterns of transactions can be sustained. We further study how the traders' adaptive behavior may influence the outcome of the market evolution. Through this analysis, we demonstrate that the market will show divergence: for commodity products, electronic transactions through TTPs will get established as the convention for market transactions when traders use historical information about other traders' past strategies. For "look and feel" products, the market evolution depends on the initial distribution of the transaction strategies in the population.


There is a strong demand for sustainable, durable, safe, and speci�c solutions against agricultural pests due to breeding limitations and chemical control constraints. Biotechnological approaches to insect pests require phylogenetic information at the molecular level for RNAi application and other tailored strategies, such as insecticide resistance molecular markers. Sequencing technologies have advanced in resolution, speed, and cost-effectiveness to offer striking impact on genomics and transcriptomics. To provide deep and reliable data to high-throughput studies, state-of-the art technologies require high puri�cation and integrity of the submitted samples. However, the limited number of existing protocols to obtain high mass nucleic acids from insects render di�cult to obtain elevated purity and integrity standards. Species characteristics, as scales covered bodies of Lepidoptera and mining eating habits, hinder the quality of nucleic acid samples. Additionally, small size individuals are limited to yield su�cient amounts to robust base sequence coverage. The coffee leaf miner (CLM) Leucoptera coffeella is microlepdoptera insect responsible for severe leaf damage and huge yield losses to the coffee crop. Here we present simple and reproducible procedures we used to successfully obtain the whole-genome long-read PACBIO and Illumina (DNA) and transcriptome (RNA) of L. coffeella for de novo assembly. Therefore, we developed customized protocols applicable to insects to the extraction of genomic High Molecular Weight DNA and total RNA suitable for downstream high standard sequencing applications and other sensitive molecular analyses.


An archaeological evaluation was carried out on parcels 13 – 15, Eye Airfield, Eye, Suffolk (TM 1401 7446). The fieldwork took place between the 10th and 27th February 2015. A total of 63 trenches were excavated within the proposed development area, with some trenches targeting archaeological features suggested by geophysical survey and others located to test supposedly blank areas.
The earliest recorded features lay to the east in parcel 13A, and comprise six postholes, ascribed to a possible Early Neolithic settlement site. Later Prehistoric, Early and Middle Iron Age occupation was present in two forms, the first being a trackway aligned north to south, for which there was evidence of metalling in the form of a remnant of a cobbled surface, and also in the form of a series of discrete and dispersed pits and postholes. Both of these were encountered to the west of the site in Parcel 13A.
To the east of the site, in parcel 13A, were three graves and a horse burial which are potentially of Anglo-Saxon date. These may form a small burial ground for a family group, associated with the settlement site located to the south at Hartismere School.
Later medieval activity is present in parcels 13A, B and C. In the eastern side of the site, in parcels 13B and C, the remains of two phases of field boundaries were present, with a pre-enclosure field boundary recorded. A later field boundary ditch, dating at the earliest to the 18th century and subsequently removed, was revealed as a ditch aligned east to west which partitioned the current field into smaller parcels of land.


Author(s): Mahler, Jeffrey Brian | Advisor(s): Goldberg, Ken | Abstract: While humans can grasp and manipulate novel objects with ease, rapid and reliable robot grasping of a wide variety of objects is highly challenging due to sensor noise, partial observability, imprecise control, and hardware limitations.Analytic approaches to robot grasping use models from physics to predict grasp success but require precise knowledge of the robot and objects in the environment, making them well-suited for controlled industrial applications but difficult to scale to many objects.On the other hand, deep neural networks trained on large datasets of grasps labeled with empirical successes and failures can rapidly plan grasps across a diverse set of objects, but data collection is tedious, robot-specific, and prone to mislabeling.To improve the efficiency of learning deep grasping policies, we propose a hybrid method to automate dataset collection by generating millions of synthetic 3D point clouds, robot grasps, and success metrics using analytic models of contact, collision geometry, and image formation.We present the Dexterity-Network (Dex-Net), a framework for generating training datasets by analyzing mechanical models of contact forces and torques under stochastic perturbations across thousands of 3D object CAD models.We describe dataset generation models for training policies to lift and transport novel objects from a tabletop or cluttered bin using a 3D depth sensor and a parallel-jaw (two-finger) or suction cup gripper.To study the effects of learning from massive amounts of training data, we generate datasets containing millions of training examples using distributed Cloud computing, simulations, and parallel GPU processing.We use these datasets to train robust grasping policies based on Grasp Quality Convolutional Neural Networks (GQ-CNNs) that take as input a depth image and a candidate grasp with up to five degrees of freedom and predict the probability of grasp success on an object in the image.To transfer from simulation to reality, we develop novel analytic grasp success metrics based on resisting disturbing forces and torques under stochastic perturbations and bounding an object's mobility under an energy field such as gravity. In addition, we study techniques in algorithmic supervision to guide dataset collection using full knowledge of the object geometry and pose in simulation.We explore extensions to learning policies that sequentially pick novel objects from dense clutter in a bin and that can rapidly decide which gripper hardware is best in a particular scenario.To substantiate the method, we describe thousands of experimental trials on a physical robot which suggest that deep learning on synthetic Dex-Net datasets can be used to rapidly and reliably plan grasps across a diverse set of novel objects for a variety of depth sensors, robot grippers, and robot arms.Results suggest that policies trained on Dex-Net datasets can achieve up to 95% success in picking novel objects from densely cluttered bins at a rate of over 310 mean picks per hour with no additional training or tuning on the physical system.


This paper explores factors affecting the choice of investment in specific human capital in the presence of significant inter-group and spatial inequalities. I use four years of admissions application data at an elite university in South Africa in conjunction with quarterly labor force data to trace the link between aptitude-adjusted expected earnings, neighborhood effects, and the choice of college major. The paper relies on the availability of a rich set of academic and geographical information in the admissions database to make causal inference. The results show that expected earnings have a positive impact on major choice independently of high school background when the ex ante distribution of earnings captures the full range of between-major and within-major income differentials. White applicants are more responsive to differentials in expected earnings than black applicants. Neighborhood effects influence college major choice through near-peer role models and relative achievement at the high school level.


Abnormalities of the thyroid gland in the form of enlargement of the thyroid gland are called a goiter. Goiter is divided into two types, namely toxic and non-toxic diffuse goiter. Diagnosis could be done with thyroid scan (in vivo) and test for thyroid hormone value (in vitro). Thyroid scan is applied by giving injection of 99m Tc Pertechnetate as much as 2 - 5 mCi intravenally in the arm and then thyroid gland and salivary glands imaging were conducted in the fifth minute, tenth minute and fifteenth minute using gamma camera. Thyroid hormones test in blood is done with radioimmunoassay method. The same pattern showed the accumulation polad of the radioactive number from quotation of salivary glands. The accumulation percentage activity of 99m Tc Pertechnetate in thyroid gland for the case of toxic diffuse goiter is larger than the case of non-toxic diffuse goiter. The results of this study indicate that the predictors for the case of toxic diffuse goiter could be characterized by high thyroid uptake which the the value of T 3 hormone ≥ 3.3 ng/dl, the value of T 4 hormone ≥ 165 nmol/l, and the value of TSH hormone ≤ 0.2 μIU/ml. While the case of non-toxic diffuse goiter could be characterized by low thyroid uptake which the value of T 3 hormone ≥ 1.2 ng/dl, the value of T 4 hormone ≥ 90 nmol/l, and the value of TSH hormone ≤ 1.8 μIU/ml.  Received: 14 November 2011; Revised: 18 April 2012; Accepted: 21 April 2012


Background: Status or value in sport and physical education (PE) contexts is often associated with performances of highly proficient sporting bodies, which produce hierarchies of privileged and marginalised gendered and racialised positions. This may be communicated through text and images shared within school, physical cultures and media that young people consume. Understanding how students make sense of constructions of valued bodies in PE, and how this affects their sense of self, can assist in creating spaces for young people to experience alternative narratives. Focus: The paper's aims are to explore varying ways British Asian girls visualise and make sense of themselves as active or sporting bodies, and what this means for their (dis)engagement in physical activity. Theoretical framework: This study draws on a feminist poststructuralist approach concerning the ways in which young people create multiple subject positions through negotiating or rejecting verbal and visual narratives about physical activity and girlhood. Methods: The data draws from a one-year collaborative visual ethnography conducted with 25 students aged 13–14 in a predominantly British Asian urban secondary school in the UK. In this research, student-participants were included in the data production through being asked to create photographs over a two-week period that represented their views of valued bodies in physical activity contexts in and out of school. Focus group interviews used participant-driven photo elicitation techniques to talk through the images. Findings: In this paper, two British Asian girls' photos enabled them to talk about, analyse, and reflect on valued or sporting bodies that they saw in visual media. The girls illustrated their performances of constrained or empowered physicalities, within a physical culture that values, among girls, racialised performances of active but feminised bodies. Many girls placed their physical activity significantly in school, and saw sporting bodies as male and elite. Where students do not associate people like themselves as sporting bodies, there may be implications for their continued involvement in physical activity. At the same time, girls were physically activity outside of school despite not seeing themselves as sporty. Reflecting on the invisibility of minority ethnic women in sports media, this research suggests that greater representation may enable young minority women to see themselves and people like them as valued bodies in sport and physical activity.


Since the publication of Darwin (1859), the biological meaning of the Cambrian radiation has been debated. Most commentators agree, however, that the Cambrian radiation is fundamentally a time of major metazoan cladogenesis. In and of itself this does not necessarily mean that unique evolutionary processes operated during the Cambrian radiation. Phylogenetic analysis has been used to study the tempo of speciation during the radiation, and thus far there is no need to invoke special rules relating to the tempo of evolution. Instead, what seems unique about the Cambrian radiation is its place as an important episode in the history of life—that is, as the first major radiation of the Metazoa. Although the tempo of evolution during the Cambrian radiation may not have been uniquely high, there were largely unique tectonic events that transpired during the late Neoproterozoic and Early Cambrian, such as extensive cratonic fragmentation. Biogeographic analysis of Early Cambrian olenelloid trilobites reveals that these tectonic events powerfully influenced evolutionary and distributional patterns in this diverse and abundant trilobite group. This emphasizes the importance of physical earth history in generating evolutionary patterns. In the general study of macroevolutionary patterns and processes, earth history phenomena emerge as powerful forces influencing the history of life and provide insights into evolution that can best be inferred by paleontological data.


The objective of this chapter is to provide a simple understanding of molecular spectroscopy, with a focus on concepts and techniques relevant to microscopy. The inherently quantum mechanical concepts of phenomena, including energy levels, radiative and nonradiative processes, and quantum yields, will be developed from a nonmathematical framework that is often used by experts in spectroscopy when discussing general principles. This simplified framework is developed into a practical and useful understanding of optical spectroscopy aimed at nonspecialists. This groundwork supports the more detailed discussion of complex techniques in the following chapters.
To begin the chapter we will outline basic features and properties of light and energy states of molecules. We then connect the two by exploring the interaction
of light with molecules, initially for an isolated molecule. We will consider the key properties of absorption and emission and also those properties that are the bane of microscopy—the so called nonradiative mechanisms. After considering the isolated molecule, we will discuss interactions of molecules with their environment, which develops the concepts underpinning photobleaching and quenching, and also the more recent techniques of FRET and FLIM. En route we will examine the excitation and
emission spectra of typical dyes, which can be found in any dye catalogue (see also Jameson et al. [1] for further reading).


Rights offerings in the Philippines in the period January 1987 – March 1995 show significant market adjusted returns averaging 7.6% on ex-date.  The excess returns are not driven by outliers, the sectoral mix of the offerings, nor by the large representation of 1994 offerings.  We surmise that the excess returns represent a liquidity premium and hence, reflect a normalization of prices on ex-date.  The prospects of illiquidity and a significant increase in investments in the stock could put downward pressure on stock prices (possibly soon after the announcement of the offering).  We find a high correlation between excess returns and the proportion of capital rendered illiquid.  The sample consists of 42 offerings by 28 companies with transactions for each of the 10 days surrounding the ex-date, out of a total 110 offerings by 63 listed companies during this period.


Spending on antidiabetic drugs is the fastest growing component of the medical cost of diabetes in the U.S. What factors have contributed to the increase remains unclear. Using Medical Expenditure Panel Survey, we (1) estimated the increase in the national spending on antidiabetic drugs from 2005 to 2016; (2) examined magnitudes of contributing factors to the increase using a full decomposition method. The contributing factors were first grouped into insulin verse non-insulin, the former was grouped into human, analog, and premixed insulin and later was grouped into metformin, older drugs (sulfonylurea, thiazolidinediones, alpha-glucosidase inhibitor, and meglitinides), newer drugs (dipeptidyl peptidase-4 inhibitor, amylin analog, glucagon-like peptide-1, and sodium-glucose contransporter-2), and combinations. Spending on insulin and non-insulin was also decomposed into number of users and expenditure per user. National spending increased by $38.7 billion from 2005 to 2016 (Figure). Most of the increase was due to insulin, mainly analog insulin. Increases in noninsulin was a net effect of an increase in newer drugs and a fall in older drugs. Higher spending per user was the main driver for insulin and both more users and lower expenditure per user led to the increase on noninsulin. Understanding the driving factors can help identify ways to slow down the growth in antidiabetic drug expenditures. Disclosure X. Zhou: None. S. Shrestha: None. H. Shao: None. P. Zhang: None.


According to RoHS (Restriction of Hazardous Substances) directive of European Union it is restricted using lead in many equipment and applications. It is possible to enlarge the restriction of lead usage in some other applications which is including some of nuclear applications in the future. Therefore new materials or systems need to be developed instead of lead as radiation shielding materials and/or collimators. In this study pure tungsten, tungsten carbide-cobalt (WC Co) materials were investigated against gamma radiation. For gamma radiation Cs-137 and Co-60 gamma radioisotope sources were used. The linear and mass attenuations were calculated. The experimental results were compared with XCOM computer code. Usage possibilities of WC Co instead of lead in nuclear applications as gamma shielding material were discussed. It has been investigated that the linear gamma attenuation coe cients of lead and WC Co are very close to each other. Therefore it could be said that WC Co materials is an alternative promising material which could be used instead of lead as gamma shielding material and/or collimator.


While the literature on inflation and stock prices is plentiful, there is little literature on deflation and stock prices. This paper explores the empirical data and makes a theoretical analysis of the likely impact on stock prices when expectations changes from inflation to deflation. The main conclusions are: 1: The 1930s was a statistical outlier and not representative for a deflationary period; 2: Deflation does not seem to create recessions, causality goes the other way; 3: Real stock returns are lowest in high inflation environments, while real stock returns are positive and around average in the periods leading up to and following the onset of deflation; 4: The empirical evidence and the theoretical exercises are mixed as regards the impact on P/E ratios from deflation. When moving from low inflation to mild deflation, P/E is virtually unchanged; and 5: Deflation illusion might explain the surprisingly small decline in P/E ratios in the face of deflation.


Antarctica's Pine Island Glacier (PIG) is large and rapidly changing and flowing into the ocean as a floating ice shelf (above and Figure 1, p. 58). The PIG lies on the edge of the warming Antarctic Peninsula, the handle-shaped section of Antarctica (Figure 2, p. 58). The PIG drains ice from the West Antarctic ice sheet into the ocean--moving more ice than any other glacier in Antarctica. From 1996 to 2006, the PIG accelerated at a rate of 34% (Rignot et al. 2008) and is currently moving ice at speeds of up to 3.5 km/year (9.6 m/day) (Scott 2008; Bindschadler 2009). This accelerating transfer of ice from land to ocean is measured in the drop in ice elevation detected by satellites--one of three sets of evidence scientists use to assess the impact of warming on the ice sheets (others include measuring the acceleration of ice to the ocean and overall loss of ice mass). FIGURE 2 A data visualization of the warming Antarctic with temperature changes per decade shown in degrees Celsius. In the image, red represents areas where temperatures have increased the most over the last 50 years. Most of West Antarctica shows as red. NASA/GSFC SCIENTIFIC VISUALIZATION STUDIO (ANNOTATED BY AUTHOR). Illustrating this process for students, the "Is the PIG a 'Climate Canary'?" activity described in this article links changing Antarctic ice directly with atmospheric and oceanic processes. The important role of these processes in warming the polar regions is an emerging area of scientific study; this activity allows students to study these processes and their effects in a meaningful way. The data This activity teaches effectively about Earth's climate system because it places evidence directly into students' hands; students then connect this data to processes occurring in the wider Earth system and the mechanisms triggering change. Learning directly from data is powerful. When students see the connection between the data and the corresponding Earth processes, they experience an intrinsic thrill that cements their learning (Kastens and Turrin 2010). The data for this activity are collected from four of the six years that NASA's Ice, Land, and Cloud Elevation Satellite (ICESat) was in orbit. With each repeat orbit, ICESat's laser measured the ice surface and collected ice-elevation data with an accuracy of within 14 cm (Shuman et al. 2006). Satellites monitoring Earth systems allow scientists--and now students--to measure changes in ice surface elevation through time (dh/dt) along satellite lines. The activity The "Is the PIG a 'Climate Canary'?" activity takes place in two 40-minute class periods. The first day's activities are described below; the second day is devoted to hands-on lab experiments, described later. (Full instructions for teachers and more about the science behind the activity are available online [see "On the web"].) Day 1 Step 1: The question We begin the activity with a question for students to work through: "Climate scientists report that polar glaciers are shrinking, but what is the evidence for this, and what might be causing these changes?" As students review polar climate science, graph and analyze the ICESat ice surface elevation data, and critically respond to discussion questions, they formulate a response. By the end of the activity, they can answer the driving question: "Do you think Antarctica's PIG is a 'climate canary'?" In other words, could the PIG be an early warning of a larger problem, as canaries dying from poisonous gas were for coal miners? Step 2: The process Glaciers are key to Earth's climate system, reflecting the Sun's energy back into space as they cool the air above them. Glaciers are melting, scientists say, and for students to understand how we measure glacial change, they need a basic understanding of the glacier system. Students study the concepts in Figure 3, tracing the snow with their fingers from where it hits the ground to where it returns to the atmosphere. …


Abstract. In the GPS radio occultation technique, the atmospheric excess phase (AEP) can be used to derive the refractivity, which is an important quantity in numerical weather prediction. The AEP is conventionally estimated based on GPS double-difference or single-difference techniques. These two techniques, however, rely on the reference data in the data processing, increasing the complexity of computation. In this study, an undifferenced (ND) processing strategy is proposed to estimate the AEP. To begin with, we use PANDA (Positioning and Navigation Data Analyst) software to perform the precise orbit determination (POD) for the purpose of acquiring the position and velocity of the mass centre of the COSMIC (The Constellation Observing System for Meteorology, Ionosphere and Climate) satellites and the corresponding receiver clock offset. The bending angles, refractivity and dry temperature profiles are derived from the estimated AEP using Radio Occultation Processing Package (ROPP) software. The ND method is validated by the COSMIC products in typical rising and setting occultation events. Results indicate that rms (root mean square) errors of relative refractivity differences between undifferenced and atmospheric profiles (atmPrf) provided by UCAR/CDAAC (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research/COSMIC Data Analysis and Archive Centre) are better than 4 and 3 % in rising and setting occultation events respectively. In addition, we also compare the relative refractivity bias between ND-derived methods and atmPrf profiles of globally distributed 200 COSMIC occultation events on 12 December 2013. The statistical results indicate that the average rms relative refractivity deviation between ND-derived and COSMIC profiles is better than 2 % in the rising occultation event and better than 1.7 % in the setting occultation event. Moreover, the observed COSMIC refractivity profiles from ND processing strategy are further validated using European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) analysis data, and the results indicate that the undifferenced method reduces the noise level on the excess phase paths in the lower troposphere compared to the single-difference processing strategy.


This paper describes a seminiferous tubules evaluation system using an ultrasonic probe. This system evaluates diameters of seminiferous tubules for azoospermia patients. We employ a 5.0MHz ultrasonic single probe. In the experiment, we employ large and small nylon lines as the healthy and unhealthy seminiferous tubules. We acquired the waveforms by the ultrasonic probe and calculated frequency spectrum by short-time Fourier transform. The system visualizes the position of small and large line by a frequency map. The frequency map shows distance and frequency value. In the results, our proposed method detected the large and small lines. Additionally, the system evaluated distance between probe and these lines clearly. The proposed method thus successfully evaluated the position of the large lines.


Abstract: The aim of this study was to compare the prevalence of pituitary imaging abnormalities in men presenting with decreased bone mineral density (BMD) versus erectile dysfunction and found to have secondary hypogonadism. Medical records of all men referred for erectile dysfunction or decreased BMD and found to have secondary hypogonadism and who had pituitary magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) performed were reviewed. The records of 40 men seen in Endocrine Clinic of the Dallas Veterans Affairs Medical Center were evaluated. Twenty-five men were referred for erectile dysfunction and 15 were referred for decreased BMD. There were no differences between the 2 groups by age, morning pooled testosterone, luteinizing hormone, prolactin, thyroid stimulating hormone, and free thyroxine. Patients with decreased BMD and secondary hypogonadism were found to have lower weight with P value that was statistically significant. MRI abnormalities were found in 16% (4 of 25) of patients with secondary hypogonadism and erectile dysfunction versus 13.3% (2 of 15) of those with decreased BMD and secondary hypogonadism (P = NS). When groups are pooled, patients with pituitary abnormalities on imaging had elevated prolactin (P It can be concluded that in our study population, men who present with decreased BMD or erectile dysfunction and are found to have secondary hypogonadism have similar rate of pituitary abnormalities on MRI.


Agreement between therapist and patient regarding their perception of therapist's interventions and qualities was studied. Based on previous instruments, a 36-item inventory (TIQI) was constructed to cover common therapist interventions/qualities as perceived by both therapist and patient. This inventory was given to patient and therapist at the termination of 300 outpatients' treatments. Interventions made by the therapist and their perceived usefulness in the treatment were rated by both participants. The mean agreement between patient and therapist for each of the 36 items was low to moderate (r = .23). However, explorative factor analysis on patient and therapist data revealed some meaningful common treatment factors. In addition, cross invariance (patient and therapist perspective) was found by use of confirmatory factor analysis. Agreement varied considerably depending on which aspects were dealt with and the method used to measure the agreement. Possible explanations for disagreement are discussed.


Fisheries management aims to ensure that the fishing activities are environmentally sustainable in the long term, while also achieving the economic, social and food security related management objectives. To facilitate this, both the ecological and human dimensions of sustainability need to be included in fisheries assessment. In addition, assessing long-term sustainability calls for taking into account plausible changes in the surrounding societal conditions that shape the characteristics of the fisheries governance system, as well as the ecological conditions. The paper uses a combination of qualitative exploratory scenario storylines (ESS) and Bayesian belief networks (BBN) to integrate the environmental, economic, social and food security dimensions in an interdisciplinary assessment of the future sustainability of Baltic herring ( Clupea harengus membras, Clupeidae) and salmon ( Salmo salar, Salmonidae) fisheries. First, four alternative ESS were created based on plausible changes in societal drivers. The ESS were then formulated into a BBN to (a) visualize the assumed causalities, and (b) examine quantitatively how changes in the societal drivers affect the social-ecologi-cal fisheries system and ultimately the fisheries management objectives. This type of probabilistic scenario synthesis can help in thinking qualitative scenarios in a quantitative way. Moreover, it can increase understanding on the causal links between societal driving forces and the complex fisheries system and on how the management objectives can be achieved, thereby providing valuable information for strategic deci-sion-making under uncertainty.


A method to estimate the thermodynamic properties of Multi- component white gold alloys from those of constitutive binary alloys was proposed. The Miedema's theory and Chou model. were used to calculate the formation enthalpies of Au–Cu–Ag-Zn-RE alloys. The agreement between the calculation and experiment is reasonable. Formation enthalpies of Au–Cu–Ni-Zn-RE and relative stability of their intermetallic compounds were predicted with present method.


The frequency and variety of solid organ transplantation in reproductive-age women increases each year. Although most transplant-related pregnancies have been reported in women with kidney allografts, pregnancy is also possible in young women with other solid organ transplants including liver, pancreaskidney, heart, lung and heart-lung transplants. Most of these pregnancies have resulted in a successfull outcome; however, for optimal maternal and neonatal outcomes, a multidisciplinary approach including careful follow-ups of the obstetrician and transplant team is essential. This article reviews and discusses preconceptional counselling, graft rejection and dysfunction during pregnancy, safety of immunosuppressive medications with regard to fetus, and perinatal risks and pregnancy management for women with various solid organ transplants, taking into consideration previous published reports, especially The National Transplantation Pregnancy Registry (NTPR)'s.


Both media coverage and public opinion suggest that immigrants are responsible for a high proportion of youth gang activity in Canada. Unfortunately, very little academic research has actually examined the extent and nature of youth gang activity in this country. Our paper attempts to address this gap in the literature through an analysis of data from a survey of Toronto high school students and street youth. Our results suggest that: 1) immigrant youth are less likely to report gang affi liation than their Canadian born counterparts; 2) although Black and Hispanic youth are more likely to report gang activity than youth from all other racial backgrounds, the majority of gang members in Toronto are Canadian-born whites; and 3) racial diff erences in gang involvement can be explained by racial diff erences in economic and social marginalization. # e policy implications of these fi ndings are discussed.


Background: Children who have inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have increased risk of low bone mineral density (BMD). There is a scarcity of information on BMD development through puberty and into young adulthood in patients with childhood-onset IBD. Methods: We conducted a prospective longitudinal study of BMD in patients with childhood-onset IBD. In total, 74 children with IBD were followed into young adulthood, with a mean follow-up of 8.4 years. The BMD was assessed longitudinally using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry of the lumbar spine, total hip and whole body, and related to anthropometric measures. Results: Young adult male patients with IBD had lower mean BMD Z-scores for the lumbar spine at −0.8 (±1.1 SD) and total hip at −0.5 (±0.9 SD), as compared to standard references. In young female patients, the BMD Z-scores were within the normal range at all 3 measured sites as compared to the standard references. There were no significant differences in the BMD Z-scores between patients with Crohn's disease and patients with ulcerative colitis. The female and male patients showed significantly improved mean lumbar spine BMD Z-scores during follow-up into young adulthood, indicating that bone accumulation in the lumbar spine continues beyond the expected age for achieving peak bone mass. Conclusions: Male patients with childhood-onset IBD seem to have an increased risk of compromised BMD in young adulthood. Both female and male patients with IBD seem to increase their BMD beyond the age for expected peak bone mass (see Video abstract, Supplemental Digital Content 1, http://links.lww.com/IBD/B648).


DNA barcoding efforts involving animals have focused on the mitochondrial cytochrome c oxidase subunit I (Cox1) gene. Some authors suggest that this marker might under-diagnose young species. Herein, we examine Cox1 and control region diversity in a sample of Siberian sturgeon (Acipenser baerii), a species with an extremely wide geographic distribution in the major rivers of Siberia and in Lake Baikal. Some authors currently recognize three subspecies within this species. These subspecies are reasonable candidates for species units detectable through DNA barcoding. The Cox1 gene illustrated no variation within the species, while the control region displayed statistically significant differences among the subspecies using analysis of molecular variance (AMOVA). Given the uniformity of Cox1 sequences recovered, Cox1 is probably a good region for barcoding A. baerii at the species level. Although control region variation among subspecies was significant, diagnostic differences were not found for any of the subspecies.


We examine potential regional-scale impacts of global climate change on sustainability of irrigated agriculture, focusing on the western San Joaquin Valley in California. We consider potential changes in irrigation water demand and supply, and quantify impacts on cropping patterns, groundwater pumping, groundwater levels, soil salinity, and crop yields. Our analysis is based on archived output from General Circulation Model (GCM) climate projections through 2100, which are downscaled here to the scale of the study area (~30 km across). We account for uncertainty in GCM climate projections by considering output from two different GCM's, each using three greenhouse gas emission scenarios. Significant uncertainty in projected precipitation translates into uncertainty of future water supply, ranging from an increase of 10% to a decrease of 30% in 2100. On the other hand, temperature projections are much less variable, resulting in consistent projections of crop water demand for all climate change scenarios. Crop water demand is expected to change very little, due to compensating effects of rising temperature on evaporative demand and crop growth rate. Reductions in surface water supply are projected to be offset by groundwater pumping and land fallowing. Simulations of subsurface flow and salt transport with a regional-scale hydro-salinity model suggest a small expansion in salt-affected area, compared to current conditions. However, in all scenarios salinity is expected to increase in downslope areas, thereby limiting crop production. This is especially significant given an anticipated demand-driven switch to high-value, salt-sensitive crops. Results show that technological adaptation, such as improvements in irrigation efficiency, may partly mitigate these effects.


Pituitary adenylate cyclase‐activating polypeptide (PACAP) is a 38 amino‐acid peptide which belongs to the glucagon/secretin/ vasoactive intestinal peptide superfamily. The sequence of PACAP is identical in all mammalian species studied so far but frog PACAP differs by one amino‐acid from mammalian PACAP. The aim of the present study was to investigate the presence of PACAP in the hypothalamo‐pituitary complex of the frog Rana ridibunda and to determine the biological activity of frog PACAP on homologous pituitary cells. The distribution of PACAP‐containing neurons and fibers was examined by the indirect immunofluores‐cence method using an antiserum raised against the N‐terminal region of the peptide. In the hypothalamus, PACAP‐immunoreactive perikarya were localized in the preoptic nucleus and the dorsal and ventral infundibular nuclei. Beaded nerve fibers were observed coursing from the ventral infundibular nucleus to the external vascular layer of the median eminence. A dense network of immunoreactive axons terminated in the vicinity of the capillaries of the hypophysial portal system. The neurointermediate lobe and the distal lobe of the pituitary were devoid of immunoreactive elements. The amount of PACAP‐like immunoreactive material in hypothalamus extracts was measured by radioimmunoassay; the apparent concentration of PACAP was 4.5 ng/mg protein. Synthetic frog PACAP38 and PACAP27 induced a similar dose‐dependent stimulation of cAMP production in isolated frog distal lobe pituitary fragments (ED50= 2 × 10−8 M). At the maximum dose tested (5 × 10−6 M), both frog PACAP38 and PACAP27 produced a 4‐fold increase in cAMP production. In contrast, the truncated form [Des‐His1frog PACAP38 did not affect adenylate cyclase activity demonstrating therefore that the N‐terminal histidyl residue is essential for the biological activity of the peptide. [Des‐His1]frog PACAP38 did not antagonize the stimulatory effect of frog PACAP38 or PACAP27 on cAMP production. Taken together, these data support the concept that, in amphibians as in mammals, PACAP may act as a hypophysiotropic neuropeptide.