It appears quite paradoxical that although doctors encounter disease in a living human yet the familiarity of the future physicians with the human structure is grounded primarily in cadavers and artwork (Ganske et al. 2006). In the current medical curricula, time and resources to keep students abreast of an ever-increasing body of knowledge have become prized commodities (Gunderman et al. 2003). Arguably, these factors have lead to a diminutive role of anatomy in the medical curricula. The emphasis has been limited to its functional aspects only; even its raison d'etre has come under question (Ganske et al. 2006; Gunderman et al. 2003). The 'eye of medicine' is a resource with the potential to fill such gaps between basic sciences and clinical medicine. It can provide the future doctors with a succinct and true-to-life view of the normal as well as the disease processes in a noninvasive manner. (Ganske et al. 2006; Gunderman et al. 2003) The scope extends beyond visualization of structures; functional and molecular imaging can afford an exceptional correlation of physiological and biochemical processes with the anatomy. It is disconcerting that such a promising resource is yet to be utilized to an optimal extent. Although 80% of US medical schools have introduced radiological anatomy in their anatomy courses, with a large proportion of final evaluation comprising questions in radiological anatomy, the actual contribution of radiology to these teachings remains a mere 5%. Another ironical observation is that cadaveric crosssections, not CT or MRI images, are primarily used to teach cross-sectional anatomy. More so, future projections do not indicate an alteration in the preference of teaching methods for anatomy (Ganske et al. 2006). Regardless of the choice of specialty, almost every future doctor would utilize diagnostic imaging in patient care; be it an internist searching the reason for cough, a surgeon managing a case of acute abdomen or a pathologist seeking correlation for histopathological findings. It is high time to realize that integration of radiology into medical curricula, especially basic science courses, may not only provide medical students a practical acquaintance with the normal human processes but may also build an enduring foundation for the clinical years. We strongly urge the medical community to recognize that such endeavors can go a long way in the achievement of a well-rounded medical education.


ABSTRACT Student insight into algebraic formulas, including the ability to identify the structure of a formula and its components and to reason with and about formulas, is an issue in mathematics education. In this study, we investigated how 16- and 17-year-old pre-university students' insight into algebraic formulas can be promoted through graphing formulas by hand. In an intervention of five 90-min lessons, 21 grade 11 students were taught to graph formulas by hand. The intervention's design was based on experts' strategies in graphing formulas, that is, using a combination of recognition and qualitative reasoning, and on principles of teaching complex skills. To assess the effect of this intervention, pre-, post-, and retention tests were administered, as well as a post-intervention questionnaire. Six students were asked to think aloud during the pre- and posttests. The results show that all students improved their abilities to graph formulas by hand. The think-aloud data suggest that the students improved both on recognition and reasoning, and give a detailed picture of how students used recognition and qualitative reasoning in combination. We conclude that graphing formulas by hand, based on the interplay of recognition and qualitative reasoning, might be a means to promote students' insight into algebraic formulas.


This text presents an analytical concept which is aimed at analysis of the construction of environmental responsibility—ecological action space. The concept makes it possible to analyze what environmental activities householders perform, who takes on the environmental responsibility, and how they motivate and justify everyday practices in relation to other actors. The concept builds on structuration theory, and is useful in studies of sustainable development in everyday life, and in investigations about how actors perceive their role in creating and solving environmental problems, and what actions they take in light of this. The concept should be used for empirical rather than normative studies. Relevant questions for a study about ecological action space are: What activities are considered environmentally friendly? How do the actors conceive of their opportunities to act in environmentally friendly ways and what constraints do they express? These questions are relevant not just for outspoken activists. When promoting increased participation, it is valuable to discuss when, where and how people are expected to get involved.


Transition to flowering was induced in the shoot apical meristem of Sinapis alba (mustard), a long-day species, by subjecting vegetative plants to a single 22-h long day. The ultrastructural changes occurring in the meristematic cells during the complete morphogenetic switch were quantitatively investigated using both the planimetric and the point-counting stereological methods. The 2 methods yield very similar results and are thus equally appropriate for the study. The cell, nucleus, and dispersed chromatin sizes are greater in meristems of plants induced to flower (evoked meristems) than in meristems of control vegetative plants. A first size maximum is reached at 26 h after the start of the inductive long day and a second at 54 h. These 2 maxima occur just prior to 2 mitotic waves culminating respectively at 26-30 and 62 h. Neither the condensed chromatin size nor the number of chromocentre profiles per nucleus section change. Consequently the dispersed chromatin: condensed chromatin ratio increases in evoked meristems. This change is discussed in relation to current views on the differential genetic activity of the 2 kinds of chromatin. There is a late but large increase in size of the nucleolus. Dramatic changes in texture are associated with the enlargement of this organelle. These changes are the disappearance of the segregation of fibrillar and granular components and a loss of compactness due to marked vacuolation. All these changes in size and structure are interpreted as indicating a late increase in nucleolar synthesis of ribosomes in the evoked meristems.


In this single-center study, we retrospectively analyzed incidence and risk factors for hepatic veno-occlusive disease (VOD) in 249 consecutive patients who underwent allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation between January 1990 and June 1995. Twenty-four of the 249 transplanted patients developed VOD. The probabilities of developing VOD were 17% among women and 7% in men (P =.01). In women treated with norethisterone, the incidence was 27% compared with 3% in women without this treatment (P =.007). One-year survival rates were 17% and 73% in patients with (n = 24) or without VOD (n = 225), respectively. The use of heparin prophylaxis (100 IE/kg/24 hours for 1 month) did not alter the incidence or 1-year mortality of VOD. In multivariate analysis, the following risk factors were significant: norethisterone treatment (P <.001), bilirubin >26 micromol/L before bone marrow transplantation (BMT) (P =.002), one HLA-antigen mismatch (P =.003), previous abdominal irradiation (P =.02), and conditioning with busulphan (P =.02). Our conclusion is that norethisterone treatment should not be used in patients undergoing BMT and heparin prophylaxis did not affect the incidence or mortality of VOD.


Statistical approaches to chemistry, under the umbrella of cheminformatics, are now widespread - in particular as a part of quantitative activity structure relationship and quantitative property structure relationship studies on candidate pharmaceutical studies. Using such approaches on legacy data has widely been termed "taking a big data approach", and finds ready application in cohort medicinal studies and psychological studies. Crystallography is a field ripe for these approaches, owing in no small part to its history as a field which, by necessity, adopted digital technologies relatively early on as a part of X-ray crystallographic techniques. A discussion of the historical background of crystallography, crystallographic engineering and of the pertinent areas of cheminformatics, which includes programming, databases, file formats, and statistics is given as background to the presented research. Presented here are a series of applications of Big Data techniques within the field of crystallography. Firstly, a naive attempt at descriptor selection was attempted using a family of sulphonamide crystal structures and glycine crystal structures. This proved to be unsuccessful owing to the very large number of available descriptors and the very small number of true glycine polymorphs used in the experiment. Secondly, an attempt to combine machine learning model building with feature selection was made using co-crystal structures obtained from the Cambridge Structural Database, using partition modelling. This method established sensible sets of descriptors which would act as strong predictors for the formation of co-crystals, however, validation of the models by using them to make predictions demonstrated the poor predictive power of the models, and let to the uncovering of a number of weaknesses therein. Thirdly, a homologous series of fluorobenzeneanilides were used as a test bed for a novel, invariant topological descriptor. The descriptor itself is based from graph theoretical techniques, and is derived from the patterns of close-contacts within the crystal structure. Fluorobenzeneanilides present an interesting case in this context, because of the historical understanding that fluorine is rarely known to be a component in a hydrogen bonding system. Regardless, the descriptor correlates with the melting point of the fluorobenzeneanilides, with one exception. The reasons for this exception are explored. In addition, a comparison of categorisations of the crystal structure using more traditional "by-eye" techniques, and groupings of compounds by shared values of the invariant descriptor were undertaken. It is demonstrated that the novel descriptor does not simply act a proxy for the arrangement of the molecules in the crystal lattice- intuitively similar structures have different values for the descriptor while very different structures can have similar values. This is evidence that the general trend of exploring intermolecular contacts in isolation from other influences over lattice formation. The correlation of the descriptor with melting point in this context suggests that the properties of crystalline material are not only products of their lattice structure. Also presented as part of all of the case studies is an illustration of some weaknesses of the methodology, and a discussion of how these difficulties can be overcome, both by individual scientists and by necessary alterations to the collective approach to recording crystallographic experiments.


The coral reefs around Praia do Tofo and Praia da Barra, southern Mozambique, are known for their aggregations of marine megafauna but few studies have examined their reef fish biodiversity. This study assesses for the first time the ichthyofaunal diversity of the seas around Praia do Tofo and Praia da Barra. Methods involved underwater observations during recreational dives between February and September 2016, and the use of photographic records from 2015. A total of 353 species, representing 79 families, were recorded from 16 patch reefs in the region. The area shows comparable species diversity to others in the southwestern Indian Ocean, suggesting these reefs are in good condition. But high primary productivity driven by coastal upwelling may make fish diversity and trophic structure unreliable measures of the health of these reefs. Future studies investigating the sustainability of this ecosystem would benefit from utilising a wide range of reef health measures.


In 22 patients with motor neuron disease (MND), the mean concentration of serotonin (5HT) in platelets was slightly increased, platelet monoamine oxidase (MAO) activity was significantly increased, and plasma concentrations of total and both free and bound tryptophan were significantly decreased. Though platelet MAO activity was positively correlated with concentrations of 5HT, independent causal mechanisms are probable. When patients were rated according to severity, highest values of platelet 5HT and MAO activity were found in the most severely affected group, whereas concentrations of both total and protein-bound tryptophan were most decreased. Changes in concentrations of 5HT and tryptophan may reflect compensatory changes in response to degeneration of motor neurons or to interruption of their monoaminergic innervation.


Reichert's membrane, an extraembryonic membrane present in developing rodents, has been proposed as an in vivo model for the study of basement membranes. We have used this membrane as a source for isolation of basement membrane proteoglycans. Reichert's membranes were extracted in a guanidine/3-[(3-cholamidopropyl)dimethylammonio]-1- propanesulfonate buffer followed by cesium chloride density-gradient ultracentrifugation under dissociative conditions. The proteoglycans were subsequently purified from the two most dense fractions (greater than 1.3 g/ml) by ion-exchange chromatography. Mice were immunized with the proteoglycan preparation and four mAbs recognizing the core protein of a high-density, buoyant chondroitin sulfate proteoglycan were raised. Confirmation of antibody specificity was carried out by the preparation of affinity columns made from each of the mAbs. Chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs) were purified from both supernatant and tissue fractions of Reichert's membranes incubated in short-term organ culture in the presence of radiolabel. The resultant affinity-purified proteoglycan samples were examined by gel filtration, SDS-PAGE, and immunoblotting. This proteoglycan is of high molecular weight (Mr = 5-6 x 10(5)), with a core protein of Mr = approximately 1.5-1.6 x 10(5) and composed exclusively of chondroitin sulfate chains with an average Mr = 1.6-1.8 x 10(4). In addition, a CSPG was purified from adult rat kidney, whose core protein was also Mr = 1.6 x 10(5). The proteoglycan and its core protein were also recognized by all four mAbs. Indirect immunofluorescence of rat tissue sections stained with these antibodies reveal a widespread distribution of this proteoglycan, localized specifically to Reichert's membrane and nearly all basement membranes of rat tissues. In addition to heparan sulfate proteoglycans, it therefore appears that at least one CSPG is a widespread basement membrane component.


Abstract Online reviews can play a significant role in consumer decision-making processes. Previous research has focused on investigating the effects of different review elements, such as valence or volume, on sales rank and perceived helpfulness. However, very little is known about how consumers actually attend to and process reviews. Moreover, reviews exist in the context of other elements on product pages, but previous studies have not investigated the combined effects of the different product page elements. This study uses eye tracking to investigate how consumers attend to product pages. Participants (N = 74) were asked to review product pages of five different brands of either a search or an experience product. The results show that although product-related information is most important for consumers, consumers also spend time on review-related information, particularly the review text and reviewer information. Also, we observe differences in attention paid to different page elements for search versus experience products.


BACKGROUND
In fleshy fruits, induced programmed cell death (PCD) has been observed in heat-treated tomato, and in ethylene-treated and low-temperature exposure in immature cucumber. No other fleshy fruit has been evaluated for chilling-injury-induced PCD, especially mature fruit with full ripening capacity. The purpose of this research was to identify and evaluate the presence of PCD processes during the development of low-temperature-induced physiopathy of banana fruit.

RESULTS
Exposure of fruit to 5 °C for 4 days induced degradative processes similar to those occurring during ripening and overripening of non-chilled fruit. Nuclease from banana peel showed activity in both DNA substrates and RNA substrates. No exclusive low-temperature-induced proteases and nucleases were observed. DNA of chilled peel showed earlier signs of degradation and higher levels of DNA tailing during overripening.

CONCLUSION
This study shows that exposure to low temperatures did not induce a pattern of degradative processes that differed from that occurring during ripening and overripening of non-chilled fruit. DNA showed earlier signs of degradation and higher levels of DNA tailing. Nuclease activity analysis showed bifunctionality in both chilled and non-chilled tissue and no chilling-exclusive protease and nuclease. Fleshy fruit might use their available resources on degradative processes and adjust them depending on environmental conditions. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.


Background Colorectal cancer survival rates continue to improve and the use of multimodal therapy including radiotherapy is now common. Consequently, there is a growing population of survivors at risk of morbidity secondary to treatment. In January 2013, all individuals still alive 12–36 months post-diagnosis of colorectal cancer in England were sent a survey. This study focuses on the rectal cancer survivors and investigates how curative treatments for rectal cancer influence health-related quality of life (HRQL) and functional outcomes. Methods The survey response data were linked to data from the National Cancer Data Repository, a resource containing detailed information about the care of all individuals with cancer in England. The generic HRQL (EQ-5D) and cancer-specific outcomes (FACT and Social Difficulties Inventory items) related to bowel, urinary and sexual function were analysed in relation to type of surgery and receipt of radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy. Results Questionnaires were returned by 6,713 (64.2%) of 10,452 eligible patients of whom 4,453 were in remission after a major resection and 3,988 formed the final sample for analysis. Overall, 32.9% of respondents reported 'perfect' HRQL (no problems) whilst 67.1% reported ≥1 HRQL problem (on any EQ-5D domain). Individuals with a stoma still present were more likely to report ≥1 HRQL problem than those without a stoma (74.6% compared to 61.7%, p < 0.001). Respondents who had radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy were more likely to report ≥1 HRQL problem than those who did not. Respondents who had radiotherapy reported lower levels of bowel control: 24.8% reported good control compared to 41.6% in the no radiotherapy group (p < 0.001). Urinary dysfunction and sexual difficulties were consistently higher for those with a stoma present. For sexual difficulties, receipt of radiotherapy resulted in a higher level of difficulties (33.5% answered Quite a bit/Very much compared to 18.9% in those who did not receive radiotherapy, p < 0.001). Those undergoing a stoma reversal reported better outcomes than those with a stoma still present. Conclusion A large population based cross sectional assessment of HRQL is feasible. This study is the largest to date. A stoma-forming operation (which is not or cannot be subsequently reversed) and the use of radiotherapy are associated with worse reported outcomes. This study supports the reversal of stomas, where possible, and a selective approach to the use of radiotherapy in treating rectal cancer. Linkage studies of HRQL with other routinely collected treatment information are needed to improve the balance between treatment efficacy and toxicity.


Abdel-Aal, E. M. and Choo, T.-M. 2014. Differences in compositional properties of a hulless barley cultivar grown in 23 environments in eastern Canada. Can. J. Plant Sci. 94: 807–815. Barley grains hold a promise for several applications in food, feed, energy and malting industries due to their diverse components and functionalities. The current study aimed to investigate compositional and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical (DPPH) scavenging properties of a newly developed hulless barley cultivar, AAC Azimuth. The cultivar was grown at 11 sites in 2010 and 12 sites in 2011 in Ontario and Quebec, Canada. The results showed that most of the nutrients examined in barley varied significantly among locations. In addition several components varied by year such as β-glucan, protein and phenols. There were significant year×location interactions for all of these nutrient components. The application of fungicides increased the content of moisture, but it decreased the content of phenols. The new cultivar contai...


In light of the increasing demand for gas resources, both domestically and internationally, the Australian coal seam gas (CSG) industry has grown rapidly over the past decade. Despite, and in some ways due to, this rapid growth, the scientific understanding around some of the areas of environmental risk remains poorly documented. Alongside this growth has been an increase of both media and community attention and concern regarding what have been described by these groups as impacts related directly to the development of CSG in these regions. Despite this concern, industry groups have remained consistent in their conviction that these impacts can be monitored and managed on an ongoing basis. The literature review outlines the broad processes involved in CSG formation through to production, areas of associated environmental risks deemed significant including risks from surface infrastructure, groundwater depressurisation and depletion, changes in groundwater chemistry, contaminant migration pathways and mechanisms and a discussion around the implications of fugitive emissions from this industry. A broad description of the legislative and regulatory frameworks related to the CSG industry is presented, alongside some of the concerns regarding the appropriateness of this regulatory regime and approaches to evaluating these concerns. A review of methods which can be used to estimate gas fluxes from the soil is also presented. Overall this review highlights a number of gaps in knowledge, particularly around the mobilisation and transport of stray methane (CH4) within the hydrogeological system and surrounding atmosphere. Three lines of inquiry have been pursued in the attempt to contribute towards a better understanding of the environmental risks involved with the CSG developments in Queensland. Firstly, a review of available data related to CSG production is presented, which outlines the lithology and hydrogeological conceptual model developed using this primary data. Next, an evaluation of production data is presented, aimed at understanding magnitudes of risk associated with water and gas extraction regimes. This review highlights the need for better data transparency and changes in the magnitudes of water extraction since the early years of CSG developments. An evaluation of the regulation and environmental assessment is also presented, systematically reviewing the primary documents involved with the main CSG projects – Environmental Impact Statements, Environmental Authorities and Environmental Monitoring Reports. This review has highlighted a number of issues relating to the lack of data around CH4 movement, gaps in baseline and ongoing monitoring data requirements and issues relating to assumptions around magnitudes of risk that are questionable. Finally, a pilot scale study investigating the flux of CH4 from soil within the CSG development area was conducted. The study, aimed at assessing the viability of different methodologies in estimating soil fluxes as well as the presence of CH4 emissions from the soil. The results from this study highlight the complex nature of this topic of investigation as well as evidence to support the presence of positive soil fluxes within the CSG fields in Queensland. Overall, the thesis highlights issues with regards to data access, gaps in understanding related to specific areas of risk and presents data which questions some of the underlying assumptions around magnitudes of risk associated with CSG developments. Despite these issues, there is good evidence to suggest positive steps are being taken toward improving not only the data around understanding these areas of environmental risk, but also efforts contributing toward open access to data and transparent operations within the CSG fields.


Optimization problems characterized by an embedded network structure in the constraint matrix are frequently used as a modeling tool in many diverse application areas such as transportation, logistics, finance, telecommunications and so on. We develop techniques that exploit the special structure present in this class of problems. A solution methodology where we propose to place the complicating or side constraints into the objective function using the 1-norm penalty function is developed. Thus we obtain a nondifferentiable penalty problem with network constraints. We develop smoothing techniques for the 1-norm penalty function and establish their properties. By using a quadratic smoothing term we obtain a nonlinear nonseparable problem with network constraints. The penalty problem is solved iteratively using a decomposition technique based on a simplicial decomposition of the network constraint set. This decomposition scheme induces separability in the objective function through linearization in the subproblem phase and a nonlinear nonseparable master problem is solved based on the information obtained from the subproblem phase. We develop two specializations of the algorithm: (1) for the network flow problem with side constraints, (2) for the multicommodity flow problem. We present numerical results with Patient Distribution System (PDS) multicommodity flow problems and with network flow problems with side constraints derived from matrix estimation problems and the NETLIB Linear Programming Library problems.
The decomposition is particularly suitable for vector multiprocessor systems. We develop a parallel implementation of the linear-quadratic penalty algorithm. Numerical results with a set of large linear multicommodity network flow problems drawn from a military planning application are presented. The impact of parallel decomposition is investigated using a CRAY Y-MP supercomputer system and a Connection Machine CM-2. The parallelism is exploited both at the tightly coupled linear algebra level in the master problem and at a loosely coupled level with the network subproblems. Data-level parallel computing is explored on a massively parallel SIMD system, the Connection Machine CM-2.
As alternatives to simplicial decomposition, two decomposition techniques (1) based on the truncated Newton algorithm (2) on a cyclic decomposition are also considered. The truncated Newton based decomposition is developed for the single commodity case.
We conclude the thesis with an application from Naval Personnel Assignment formulated as a large network model with side constraints and solved using the penalty algorithm.


A new, rapid and high-yielding method to prepare 3,4-disubstituted 2-trifluoromethylquinolines by a palladium catalyzed tandem Sonogashira-alkyne carbocyclization of beta-trifluoromethyl beta-enaminoketones with arynes is described. Moderate to excellent yields have been achieved under mild conditions. This reaction can also be expanded to the non-fluorine containing substrates. The reaction mechanism is also discussed.


This is the first time-series study to investigate the gonad maturation and egg production of Calanus
glacialis in Svalbard seasonal ice covered fjords, and the first study to investigate the correlation between nutritious status and time of death for Calanus spp. males in the Arctic. There is a significant improvement in reproduction success when the females have access to fresh food. Close to 100% of the fed females spawned compared to only half of the starved females, and both egg production rates and hatching success improved.
Females utilized both stored lipids and input of food for reproduction, showing a mixed strategy between capital and income breeding strategy. When food is scarce, the females invest more lipids on fewer eggs as opposed to more eggs, but less lipid per egg when food is abundant. This suggest a life strategy not previously described for Calanus glacialis i.e. when food is absent or low females invest in fewer but more lipid-rich eggs to increase the likelihood for this offspring to survive longer and thus increasing the chances to be present when more favourable food conditions finally appear. The fatty acid composition is more important than total lipid content for the hatching success of the eggs, and 16:0, 18:0, 20:5(n-3) and 22:6(n
-3) seems to be particularly important. The fatty acid composition of the females change throughout the winter-spring transition, and the changes seems to be related to where in the reproductive cycle they are. Maturation of the gonads appear to rely mostly on fatty acids the female are capable of synthesizing de novo.
The decrease in stored lipids is also evident in the field data where the total lipid level is significantly lower in late April than in early April. Total lipid content of males at the time of death is normally distributed thus, supporting previous suggestions that males die when the stored resources reach a threshold level.


The complexity of problems in the kampung-kota are reasonably wide from a pragmatic and practical to a more conceptual, thus the sustainable development concept of kampung-kota needs to be reviewed.  One of the method for assessing kampung-kota in adapting sustainable development concept is by measuring public welfare using happiness index. On that basis, the happiness index of Kampung Arab in Malang is measured using the approach of Indonesian Central Body of Statistic (BPS) with its 10 aspects of life and the approach based on fuzzy logic. The research aims to assess the happiness index and to recommend development which may improve community's happiness. The rating results of each aspects shows the rates of health condition at 98,71%, education and skills aspect at 72,55%, profession aspect at 75,57%, household income at 65,50%, security aspect at 69,35%, social relationship aspect at 91,36%, leisure time availability aspect at 91,65%, house condition aspect at 80,44%, the state of environment at 65,86% and the harmonious family aspect at 99,54%. One of the recommendations  is that the strength in social relationships aspect in Kampung Arab can be used as the basic in the increase of other aspects trough empowering community groups and established organization.


Extended affine Weyl groups are the Weyl groups of extended affine root systems. Finite presentations for extended affine Weyl groups are known only for nullities $\leq 2$, where for nullity 2 there is only one known such presentation. We give a finite presentation for the class of simply laced extended affine Weyl groups. Our presentation is nullity free if rank $>1$ and for rank 1 it is given for nullities $\leq 3$. The generators and relations are given uniformly for all types, and for a given nullity they can be read from the corresponding finite Cartan matrix and the semilattice involved in the structure of the root system.


Introduction The 2015 NCEPOD "Time to get control" report recommends that hospitals admitting patients with severe UGIB have access to critical care and anaesthetic support for urgent endoscopy. We examined our emergency pathway including theatre urgency codes, time to therapy and clinical outcomes. Methods We analysed all patients who had emergency endoscopy in theatre for suspected severe UGIB at Queen's Medical Centre, Nottingham, UK, between 1st March 2014 and 28th February 2015. We examined patient demographics, ASA and UGIB risk scores, shock index (SI; heart rate/systolic BP), referral times to endoscopy and breach rates, anaesthetic and operator details, endoscopic findings and therapy (blood product use, interventional radiology and surgery), procedural documentation, re-bleed plans, discharge location, complications and inpatient mortality. Results 95 patients (60 male mean [±SD] age 59.2 [±19.1]; 35 female, 55.2 [±28.4]) with suspected severe UGIB were treated in emergency theatres over the 12 month period. 93/95 (98%) had significant UGIB; 82% ASA grade ≥3 and Glasgow Blatchford Scores (GBS) were recorded in 18% of cases; median (range) score 12 (1–19). 64% were classified as theatre urgency 1 (U1; within 60 mins) and 25% U3 (within 180 mins). 64% of those in U1 had a high shock index (SI > 0.9). However, median time from referral to endoscopy was 215 (range 37–1370) minutes. 47% breached the theatre urgency code times; including 59% of those assigned to U1. A consultant gastroenterologist was present in theatre in 86/95 (91%) of cases and 96% of patients received a general anaesthetic with rapid-sequence induction. The UGIB was non-variceal in 55/95 (58%; endoscopic intervention in 63%), variceal in 32/95 (34%), no cause found 8/95 (8%). 70% received a blood transfusion within 24 hrs of admission, mean 2.7(±2.5) units packed cells. 9/95 (10%) had CT angiography and 6/95 (6%) underwent coil embolization. No patients underwent surgery. An endoscopy report was generated for all cases, but re-bleed plans were only documented in 51%. Following endoscopy, 63/95 (67%) required a high-dependency bed and inpatient mortality was 21%. Conclusion Patients undergoing emergency endoscopy in theatre for acute UGIB had high risk scores and inpatient mortality, but 47% breached theatre urgency timings. These delays may impact on patient outcomes and are likely multifactorial. Potential reasons include time for resuscitation, transfer from admitting areas and co-ordination of emergency endoscopy teams and equipment. These logistics need to be understood more and improved to achieve improvements in patient care. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Abstract The present paper reviews the Nara+20 Document, placing it within a broader theoretical framework, setting the questions, and providing suggestions for the future. Given that Nara+20 marks a shift in the evolution of the discipline of conservation, the paper attempts to bring the insight of business strategy, and particularly of "Blue Ocean Strategy", into the field of conservation. "Blue Ocean Strategy" is a company's strategy of breaking the rules in an industry by challenging the mental models that govern its behavior and hinder its ability to evolve. First, "Blue Ocean Strategy" is outlined, with reference to the concept of mental models. Then, the mental models of the discipline of conservation are presented in connection to a review of the Nara Document on Authenticity and especially Nara+20. Finally, specific suggestions are provided on how the discipline of conservation can substantially challenge its mental models and evolve, achieving "Blue Ocean Strategy". Key areas of further study in conservation are also identified throughout the paper. Ultimately, it is shown that Nara+20 offers a realistic view of the state and the issues of conservation at present and for the future. By providing a full range of options, Nara+20 defines the boundaries of the current most-preferred conservation approach (i.e. a values-based approach) and brings the discipline to "the edge of consciousness". Yet, by not setting criteria to choose among the various options provided, Nara+20 does not substantially challenge the mental models of the discipline. It is argued that the discipline should now move even further — towards the "Blue Ocean" — and specific suggestions from the perspective of strategy are made to this end: first, the development of alternative approaches to conservation such as a living heritage approach; and, second, the merger of UNESCO World Heritage and Intangible Heritage Conventions and Sectors.


ABSTRACT Current models predict that β-catenin (β-cat) functions in Wnt signaling via activation of Tcf/Lef target genes and that its abundance is regulated by the adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) and glycogen synthase kinase 3β (GSK3β) proteins. In colon and other cancers, mutations in APC or presumptive GSK3β phosphorylation sites of β-cat are associated with constitutive activation of Tcf/Lef transcription. In spite of assumptions about its oncogenic potential, prior efforts to demonstrate that mutated β-cat will induce neoplastic transformation have yielded equivocal results. We report here that mutated, but not wild-type, β-cat proteins induced neoplastic transformation of RK3E, an adenovirus E1A-immortalized epithelial cell line. Analysis of the properties of mutant β-cat proteins and studies with a dominant negative Tcf-4 mutant indicated that the ability of β-cat to bind and activate Tcf/Lef factors is crucial for transformation. c-myc has recently been implicated as a critical Tcf-regulated target gene. However, c-myc was not consistently activated in β-cat-transformed RK3E cells, and a dominant negative c-Myc mutant protein failed to inhibit β-cat transformation. Our findings underscore the role of β-cat mutations and Tcf/Lef activation in cancer and illustrate a useful system for defining critical factors in β-cat transformation.


BACKGROUND
The aim of this pilot study was to determine whether measuring sputum differential cell counts, particularly eosinophils, could be a useful method of validating self-reported symptoms suggesting asthma in epidemiologic studies.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
In this cross-sectional study, we selected four groups of adult subjects by reported symptoms and diagnoses from among those previously randomly identified in a population study. Subjects were selected with no respiratory symptoms ever (normal group), or reporting a diagnosis of asthma (asthma group), or reporting recurrent wheezing not diagnosed as asthma (wheeze group), or reporting exposure to industrial irritants, but not asthma or wheezing (exposed group). Current respiratory symptoms, airway responsiveness to methacholine challenge, and sputum cell counts were determined. The study was completed by 107 subjects aged 20 to 44 years.

RESULTS
There were no significant differences in FEV(1) percent predicted, total cell count, and sputum eosinophil count among the four groups. Subjects with reported asthma had greater airway responsiveness as reflected in a lower bronchial reactivity (BR) index. There was a weak correlation between BR index and sputum eosinophils.

CONCLUSION
In a community setting, induced sputum eosinophil cell counts in subjects reporting asthma or wheezing were most often within the normal range and not sufficiently often abnormal to be useful in validating a diagnosis of asthma in epidemiologic studies.


In this paper I reflect on methodological aspects to take into consideration when developing methods for investigating three- to five-year-old children's beliefs about language, language use and bilingualism. I analyze participant observations and notes taken in the field. The study focuses on bilingual Finnish-Swedish children in Swedish-medium preschools in Finland. At one of the schools, most of the children and I did not share a common language, so the interaction between us heightened both the children's language awareness and that of my own. This drew my attention to communicative aspects of embodiment and multimodality and to the distribution of responsibility for interaction. I detected two interaction orders in which children's agency stood out in their intention to make their voice heard, and I used my experiences to develop an ethically-oriented data-generating approach to enhance communication about communication.


A real-time frame-layer rate control algorithm is proposed for low bit rate video coding over IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network (WLAN). The proposed rate control method performs bit allocation at the frame level to minimize the average distortion over an entire sequence as well as variations in distortion between frames. A new frame-layer rate-distortion model is derived, and a non-iterative optimization method is used for low computational complexity. The proposed algorithm produces low encoding time delay, and is suitable for real-time low-complexity video encoder. Experimental results indicate that the proposed control method provides better visual and PSNR performance than the existing TMN8 rate control method.


The electricity system is particularly susceptible to climate change due to the close interconnectedness between not only electricity production and consumption to climate, but also the interdependence of many European countries in terms of electricity imports and exports. This study provides a country based relative analysis of a number of selected European countries' electricity system vulnerability to climate change. Taking into account a number of quantitative influencing factors, the vulnerability of each country is examined both for the current system and using some projected data. Ultimately the result of the analysis is a relative ranked vulnerability index based on a number of qualitative indicators. Overall, countries that either cannot currently meet their own electricity consumption demand with inland production (Luxembourg), or countries that experience and will experience the warmest national mean temperatures, and are expected to see increases in their summer electricity consumption are found to be the most vulnerable for example Greece and Italy. Countries such as the Czech Republic, France and Norway that consistently export surplus electricity and will experience decreases in winter electricity consumption peaks were found to be the least vulnerable to climate change. The inclusion of some qualitative factors however may subject their future vulnerability to increase. The findings of this study enable countries to identify the main factors that increase their electricity system vulnerability and proceed with adaptation measures that are the most eective in decreasing vulnerability.


Transparent, consistent, and accurate national forest monitoring is required for successful implementation of reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation (REDD+) programs. Collecting baseline information on forest extent and rates of forest loss is a first step for national forest monitoring in support of REDD+. Peru, with the second largest extent of Amazon basin rainforest, has made significant progress in advancing its forest monitoring capabilities. We present a national-scale humid tropical forest cover loss map derived by the Ministry of Environment REDD+ team in Peru. The map quantifies forest loss from 2000 to 2011 within the Peruvian portion of the Amazon basin using a rapid, semi-automated approach. The available archive of Landsat imagery (11 654 scenes) was processed and employed for change detection to obtain annual gross forest cover loss maps. A stratified sampling design and a combination of Landsat (30 m) and RapidEye (5 m) imagery as reference data were used to estimate the primary forest cover area, total gross forest cover loss area, proportion of primary forest clearing, and to validate the Landsat-based map. Sample-based estimates showed that 92.63% (SE = 2.16%) of the humid tropical forest biome area within the country was covered by primary forest in the year 2000. Total gross forest cover loss from 2000 to 2011 equaled 2.44% (SE = 0.16%) of the humid tropical forest biome area. Forest loss comprised 1.32% (SE = 0.37%) of primary forest area and 9.08% (SE = 4.04%) of secondary forest area. Validation confirmed a high accuracy of the Landsat-based forest cover loss map, with a producer's accuracy of 75.4% and user's accuracy of 92.2%. The majority of forest loss was due to clearing (92%) with the rest attributed to natural processes (flooding, fires, and windstorms). The implemented Landsat data processing and classification system may be used for operational annual forest cover loss updates at the national level for REDD+ applications.


The aim of this dissertation was to investigate the geographic and individual/family-level factors influencing the development of psychopathological problems in young people aged between 10 and 15 years old residing in England and Wales. It includes three multilevel model studies based on data from a nationally representative longitudinal study linked to the 2011 UK census. The two outcome measures investigated were mental health and life satisfaction. Aggregated data from the census captured indicators of social capital, ethnic composition, and the socioeconomic and physical conditions of the neighbourhood. Individual/family-level variables included in the models were: youth age, gender and ethnicity, as well as measures relating to parental health, socioeconomic status and demographic characteristics. Study I revealed that the effects of social capital on deprivation depend on whether it is analysed in terms of mediation or moderation. Social capital attenuated the negative effects of socioeconomic deprivation on mental health and life satisfaction. Specifically, the effect of deprivation is reduced by homogenous friendship networks (bonding), civic engagement (bridging), and low average neighbourhood worry about crime (indicator of general trust). As a moderator, homogenous friendship networks and civic engagement buffered young people residing in more deprived neighbourhoods from greater mental health difficulties and low life satisfaction, whilst having little or no impact on those living in less deprived neighbourhoods. These results highlighted the importance of cultivating various forms of social capital because different components appear to offer different benefits. Study II revealed a negative association between socioeconomic deprivation and mental health among White British youths compared to their ethnic minority counterparts, and that ethnic density had a small but mitigating effect on these outcomes, while parental behaviour increased the gap in mental health differences between the two groups. Study III found a strong association between life satisfaction and ethnicity whereby Asian and Black youths reported better life satisfaction than their White counterparts. This differential association was attenuated by ethnic density and neighbourhood socioeconomic status. Overall, the results point to a strong relationship between the social and physical contexts of the neighbourhood, and mental health and life satisfaction. Although much of the observed variability in outcomes was explained by individual/family-level characteristics, the empirical evidence suggested that it was the intersection between neighbourhood composition and the individual/family predictors, which ultimately determined the direction and strength of mental health difficulties and life satisfaction among young people. The findings also suggest that the neighbourhood is an important arena for policies and initiatives targeted at improving the mental health and life satisfaction of young people.


Computational propaganda has recently exploded into public consciousness. The US Presidential Campaign of 2016 was marred by evidence, which continues to emerge, of targeted political propaganda and the use of bots to distribute political messages on social media. This computational propaganda is both a social and technical phenomenon. Technical knowledge is necessary to work with the massive databases used for audience targeting; it is necessary to create the bots and algorithms that distribute propaganda; it is necessary to monitor and evaluate the results of these efforts in agile campaigning. Thus, a technical knowledge comparable with those who create and distribute this propaganda is necessary to investigate the phenomenon.


The hormetic effects of exercise training have previously been shown to enhance cellular protection against oxidative stress. Therefore, adaptations to exercise training may attenuate the harmful effects of radiation induced by oxidative stress. Flow cytometric analysis of genotoxicity (γH2AX foci and micronucleated reticulocytes (MN-RET)) and cytotoxicity (apoptosis and percentage of reticulocytes) were conducted on bone marrow cells isolated from acutely exercised (Acute EX), exercise-trained (EX), and sedentary (SED) mice following 1 and 2 Gy radiation challenges in vitro. Acute EX increased the percentage of cells with activated caspase-3 and -7 (32%, p < 0.001) and γH2AX foci formation in response to 2 Gy radiation challenge (10%, p < 0.05). Exercise training significantly attenuated γH2AX foci formation and MN-RET production in response to 1 Gy radiation challenge (18%, p < 0.05 and 22%, p < 0.05, respectively). Exercise training also significantly reduced basal percentages of cells with activated caspase-3 and -7 and in response to radiation in bone marrow cells (11%, p < 0.05). These results suggest that oxidative stress caused by acute exercise induces an adaptive response responsible for the radioprotective effects of exercise training.


Growing concentration in the retail grocery sector raises new economic questions that are difficult to answer with existing data sources. In part because of concentration in the retail data industry as well the fact that these data are not primarily collected for academic research purposes, currently available grocery-level datasets are extremely expensive, not properly randomized, and lack critical information. We discuss the increase in concentration at the retail level, concentration in data provision, data needs for a number of important research areas, and possible solutions.


Botulinum toxin type A (Botox) blocks the release of neurotransmitter acetylcholine at the presynaptic neuromuscular junction leading to an irreversible, but temporary muscular paralysis and weakness. This can produce a significant improvement of wrinkling in the upper face caused by the actions of the facial muscles. A prospective clinical study representing a 15-month experience with this new technique is presented. Patient selection and evaluation, classification of animation lines, techniques, results, and complications are discussed.


We address the properties of nonlinear-Fourier-transform (NFT)-based fiber-optic communications systems and, particularly, study how the presence of noise deteriorates the performance of these systems. Similarly to the case of linear Fourier modes evolving independently under the action of chromatic dispersion alone, NFT-based systems employ so-called "nonlinear modes," forming a nonlinear spectrum, as data carriers, and these nonlinear modes evolve independently in an uncoupled manner under the joint action of nonlinearity and dispersion. However, the influence of amplified-spontaneous-emission (ASE) noise on these nonlinear modes is still relatively poorly studied. In this paper, dealing with a continuous nonlinear spectrum, we scrutinize the properties of the effective noise emerging in the nonlinear Fourier domain. We also show that in the transmission stages, where the signal peak power is relatively high (e.g., at the receiver, in back-to-back transmission, or at short distances), the performance of an NFT system is mostly degraded not by the inline ASE noise, but by the imperfections of the digital sampling and the forward and backward NFT algorithms, i.e., by the NFT processing noise.


Nondestructive determination of Young's modulus, coefficient of thermal expansion, Poisson ratio, and thickness of a thin film has long been a difficult but important issue as the film of micrometer order thick might behave differently from that in the bulk state. In this paper, we have successfully demonstrated the capability of determining all these four parameters at one time. This novel method includes use of the digital phase-shifting reflection moire (DPRM) technique to record the slope of wafer warpage under temperature drop condition. In the experiment, 1-um thick aluminum was sputtered on a 6-in silicon wafer. The convolution relationship between the measured data and the mechanical properties was constructed numerically using the conventional 3D finite element code. The genetic algorithm (GA) was adopted as the searching tool for search of the optimal mechanical properties of the film. It was found that the determined data for Young's modulus (E), Coefficient of Thermal Expansion (CTE), Poisson ratio (ν), and thickness (h) of the 1.00 um thick aluminum film were 104.2Gpa, 38.0 ppm/°C, 0.38, and 0.98 um, respectively, whereas that in the bulk state were measured to be E=71.4 Gpa, CTE=23.0 ppm/°C, and ν=0.34. The significantly larger values on the Young's modulus and the coefficient of thermal expansion determined by this method might be attributed to the smaller dislocation density due to the thin dimension and formation of the 5-nm layer of Al2 O3 formed on top of the 1-um thick sputtered film. The Young's Modulus and the Poisson ratio of this nano-scale Al2 O3 film were then determined. Their values are consistent with the physical intuition of the microstructure.Copyright © 2003 by ASME


©Alzheimer's Disease International Our vision is prevention, care and inclusion today, and cure tomorrow. Alzheimer's Disease International (ADI) advocates to raise the profile of dementia globally, and across multiple agendas: NCDs, global health, UHC, development, ageing and SDGs. ADI collaborates with organisations such as the WHO, the UN, OECD, G7/G20, and the NCD Alliance to ensure dementia is addressed explicitly within the NCD response.


2 Abstract: As Cloud Computing evolved it created an efficient way of pay per usage model for all the resources available on the network. In spite of its several advantages it has been suffering from the major drawback of providing secure communication. This paper makes an attempt to use Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) and provide secure way of communication among different branches of an organization. Each organization is implemented as a private cloud and the central branch usually where the CEO of the organization works to whom each branch needs to report is implemented as a public cloud together giving a hybrid cloud infrastructure.


This paper aims to examine some significant implications of the new European single banking supervision for the economics of banking and the market of financial services. It is one of the three pillars of the European Banking Union architecture, as part of a longer-term vision for further economic and monetary integration in EU. The new supervisory mechanisms implies a huge and complex transfer of powers from national authorities to the European Central Bank. It aims to ensure the safety and soundness of the European banking system, to increase financial integration and stability, and to permit consistent supervision. Banks are being held to common supervisory standards. The structure of this paper is as follows. Section 1 introduces the paper and outlines the general context of the study. Section 2 analyzes some organizational and regulatory issues of the single supervisory scheme. Section 3 examines the comprehensive assessment of the main banks performed by the European Central Bank together with the national supervisors. Section 4 discusses the implications of the single supervisory mechanism for banks' business models and management, and explores some of the challenges likely to be faced by the supervised banks. This section also sheds some lights on relevant drawbacks of the single prudential supervisory approach. Section 5 concludes.


The mediumship of Jonathan Koons is much less well-known than that of the Fox sisters, though during the 1850s his Spirit Room at Athens, Ohio, became a desirable destination for Spiritualists keen to seek contact with the spirit world. There they experienced a wide variety of phenomena that would shortly become staples of the movement. Local resident and nonfiction author Sharon Hatfield has made a painstaking examination of Koons's life and career based on the available evidence, setting it in the context of the developing religion of Spiritualism.
            Koons was born in Pennsylvania in 1811. He moved to Mount Nebo–actually a large hill in Athens County, southeastern Ohio, in the foothills of the Appalachians–in 1835, where he farmed and became patriarch to a sizeable family. In his youth he had had a mystical experience involving a 'visit to the realm of light' which led him to believe he had met an angel. Originally Presbyterian, he abandoned the religion as he found its Calvinism uncongenial, becoming as he put it an 'infidel'. He lacked a formal education but read widely.
            In early 1852 he encountered reports of the Fox sisters' mediumship and decided to investigate the subject. He attended séances and, initially skeptical, was told he himself had a gift. Trying it, he found a new religious faith. He also discovered that other members of his family, particularly his eldest son Nahum, had mediumistic abilities. After a while, they were told by Spirit to build a dedicated room to hold about 20-25 people, indicating that séances were to include more than his immediate friends and family. Koons duly built a log cabin on the farm to the given specifications and furnished it, including with musical instruments, as instructed. The stage was then set for public séances.


In this paper we estimate New Keynesian Phillips curves (NKPC) for U.S. manufacturing industries defined at the SIC two digit level over the period 1959 to 1996. This enables us to measure the extent of nominal inertia across industrial sectors. A key innovation in this research is the use of intermediate-goods costs rather than labor costs as a measure of marginal costs. Intermediate-goods costs are a more significant element of costs for the firms populating our sample and are not subject to the criticism that wage rates are nonallocative. We find that there is statistically significant variability in estimates of price stickiness, ranging from eight months to two years. We also find that estimates of backward-looking price-setting behavior vary, with some industries characterized by 81 of pricing decisions made in a purely forward-looking manner, while in others only 52 of pricing decisions are made that way. Market concentration (as captured by the Herfindahl-Hirschman index) appears to be associated with increased price stickiness, but reduced rule-of-thumb behavior, in setting prices. Finally, firms are also more likely to follow simple rules of thumb when output in their industry is more volatile.


Large π-conjugated conductive two-dimensional (2D) metal–organic frameworks (MOFs) via the bottom-up approach have recently emerged as novel and interesting 2D materials. For the first time, herein we demonstrate the design and successful bottom-up fabrication of a novel noble-metal-free nickel phthalocyanine-based 2D MOF (NiPc–MOF) for highly efficient water oxidation catalysis. This NiPc–MOF can be easily grown on various substrates. The thin film deposited on FTO showed high catalytic oxygen evolution reaction (OER) activity with a very low onset potential (<1.48 V, overpotential < 0.25 V), high mass activity (883.3 A g−1), and excellent catalytic durability. To the best of our knowledge, this present 2D MOF film catalyst represents the best OER catalytic activity among molecular catalyst-based materials reported so far. This work represents the first synthesis of a nickel phthalocyanine-based 2D MOF material and application of the π-conjugated 2D MOF for water oxidation.


We propose a new mechanism for a turbulent mean-field dynamo in which the magnetic fluctuations resulting from a small-scale dynamo drive the generation of large-scale magnetic fields. This is in stark contrast to the common idea that small-scale magnetic fields should be harmful to large-scale dynamo action. These dynamos occur in the presence of a large-scale velocity shear and do not require net helicity, resulting from off-diagonal components of the turbulent resistivity tensor as the magnetic analogue of the "shear-current" effect. Given the inevitable existence of nonhelical small-scale magnetic fields in turbulent plasmas, as well as the generic nature of velocity shear, the suggested mechanism may help explain the generation of large-scale magnetic fields across a wide range of astrophysical objects.


We report on the generation and experimental demonstration of intracavity type II difference frequency generation in a two chip InGaAs/GaAs vertical external cavity surface emitting laser. The presented two chip cavity provides two orthogonally polarized, independently tunable, high-intensity lasing modes with emissions around 970 and 1170 nm. A silver thiogallate nonlinear crystal is inserted in the common collinear folded region of the cavity to generate output in the mid-IR spectral band. The independent tunability of each fundamental color allows for more than 100 nm of tuning around a 5.4 μm difference frequency generated signal with a CW output power in excess of 5 mW.


This essay reflects on those teaching experiences that have a strong influence on students and allow teachers to grow as individuals as well as professionals. The author approaches positive affection towards students, which allows children to be emotionally well adjusted, consequently, promoting their desire to learn, attend classes, and have good social relationships with their peers, and allows teachers to have confidence and high self-esteem. Emphasis is placed on the fact that educators must treat students well, know their family environment, solve their emotional deficiencies, if any, and show empathy towards them. In short, teachers are encouraged to give priority to affective relationships in their pedagogical practice. The author also includes some experiences from her professional practices, where affection towards children was essential.


Many adversarial attacks have been proposed to investigate the security issues of deep neural networks. In the black-box setting, current model stealing attacks train a substitute model to counterfeit the functionality of the target model. However, the training requires querying the target model. Consequently, the query complexity remains high, and such attacks can be defended easily. This study aims to train a generalized substitute model called "Simulator", which can mimic the functionality of any unknown target model. To this end, we build the training data with the form of multiple tasks by collecting query sequences generated during the attacks of various existing networks. The learning process uses a mean square error-based knowledge-distillation loss in the meta-learning to minimize the difference between the Simulator and the sampled networks. The meta-gradients of this loss are then computed and accumulated from multiple tasks to update the Simulator and subsequently improve generalization. When attacking a target model that is unseen in training, the trained Simulator can accurately simulate its functionality using its limited feedback. As a result, a large fraction of queries can be transferred to the Simulator, thereby reducing query complexity. Results of the comprehensive experiments conducted using the CIFAR-10, CIFAR-100, and TinyImageNet datasets demonstrate that the proposed approach reduces query complexity by several orders of magnitude compared to the baseline method. The implementation source code is released online 1.


Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a name for a group of risk factors that occur together and increases the risk for coronary artery disease, stroke, and type 2 diabetes. The MetS is a clustering of components that reflect over nutrition, sedentary lifestyles and resultant excess adiposity. Metabolic Syndrome is posing a major public health challenge to the health systems in developed and developing countries. The 405 study subjects aged between 25-65 yrs from general population in Ghaziabad, India, were taken, who attended the hospital for general checkup. Complete fasting lipid profile, Blood glucose, and Hs-CRP, Lp(a) and GGT, blood urea and Serum Creatinine of subjects were evaluated. On application of ATP 3 criteria on the screened subject patients, they are classified. Our study found that the number of subjects having MetS was 173 (42.71% of total). In the subgroup of metabolic syndrome with diabetes, the total number of subjects was 105(25.92%) in which age wise distribution was 26 (6.41%) in 25-45 yrs and 79 (19.50%) in 45-65 yrs. In the second subgroup of metabolic syndrome without diabetes total number of subjects was 68 (16.79%) in which age wise distribution was 16 (3.95%) in 25-45 yrs and 52 (12.83%) in 45-65 yrs. The study proposes the inclusion of biochemical parameter Hs-CRP, Lp (a) and GGT in the criteria for defining cases of metabolic syndrome, so that more metabolic syndrome cases can be picked up at earliest. This issue is especially pertinent for the Indian patient population in whom cardiovascular disease is becoming increasingly common in both sexes and in age group of 2565 yrs. There should be emphasis on detection of metabolic syndrome and intensification of targeted preventive strategies.


Tuberculosis (TB) is considered by WHO as a worldwide wellbeing crisis in 1993. In 2011 33% of the total populace was believed to be contaminated with TB and 8.7 million instances of dynamic TB every year. BCG antibody is one of the successful control measures to forestall TB. It is by and by since the 1960s where TB is profoundly pervasive and 120 million BCG antibodies are given yearly that is viable in forestalling extreme sickness of extrapulmonary TB. Notwithstanding, the BCG antibody is live weakened immunization that conceivably could cause contamination, with an occurrence between 1:10,000 to 1:1,000,000 and fundamentally higher when given to immunodeficient babies. Immunodeficient babies who get BCG immunization upon entering the world could create scattered BCGitis, which is related to high bleakness and mortality. Nonetheless, the individuals who create spread BCGitis, for the most part, require emergency clinic affirmations and different prescriptions with the significant expense and low endurance rate running between 0% to 65% around the world. Our middle; KAMC-WR, Jeddah Saudi Arabia, has an 83% endurance pace of treating patients with scattered BCGitis, however with utilizing cytokine treatment and aminoglycoside drug notwithstanding normal enemy of TB drugs. There is a high pace of Primary Immunodeficiency Diseases (PID) in the Middle East and the Ministry of Health in Saudi Arabia as of late prevailing with regards to moving the BGC immunization to a half-year-old enough, rather than giving it upon entering the world, so as to possess energy for diagnosing PID. WHO considers the improvement of new TB immunizations a significant general well-being need. BCG immunization is one of the powerful preventive proportions of TB; in any case, it could cause genuine confusion with a low recovery rate. Moving the BGC antibody to a half a year old enough will give time for diagnosing PID. Utilizing cytokine treatment and aminoglycoside drugs notwithstanding the normal enemy of TB medications will fundamentally decrease mortality and horribleness. There are possibilities for improvement of new BCG immunization. Tuberculosis is a significant worldwide medical issue. In 1993 the WHO announced the illness a worldwide general wellbeing crisis and in 2011 33% of the total populace was believed to be tainted with Mycobacterium tuberculosis with very nearly 9 million new cases analyzed and 1.4 million passings ascribed to this living being. Lately, most innovatively progressed nations have figured out how to control—in spite of the fact that not kill—tuberculosis. With more than 4 billion dosages applied, the live-lessened M. Bovis bacillus Calmette – Guerin (BCG) antibody has been some portion of endeavors to control tuberculosis and overall stays one of the most generally utilized of every current immunization. Since the 1960s it has been given regularly in most of the nations and as of now roughly 120 million individuals - generally, infants are inoculated each year through public youth vaccination programs. The BCG immunization has an archived defensive impact against meningitis and scattered TB in youngsters, anyway it doesn't forestall essential contamination and, all the more significantly, doesn't forestall reactivation of idle aspiratory disease, the chief wellspring of bacillary spread in the network. The effect of BCG immunization on the transmission of M. tuberculosis is in this manner restricted. Notwithstanding its long history and broad use, there has all the earmarks of being no other immunization as dubious as BCG and its set of experiences contains parts of fables and the odd notions that frequently override realities in general wellbeing conversations and strategy. Serious consolidated immunodeficiency sickness (SCID) incorporates a heterogeneous gathering of hereditary conditions described by significant inadequacies of T (and in certain kinds, B as well as NK cell) numbers and capacity. In the event that untreated, babies with average SCID surrender right off the bat in life from serious and intermittent diseases. Transformations in various qualities influencing cytokine flagging (e.g., IL2RG, and IL7RA), antigen receptor preparation (e.g., RAG1, RAG2, and CD3δ) or nucleotide handling (e.g., adenosine deaminase – ADA-) cause this lethal youth condition, except if resistant reconstitution can be refined. Notwithstanding, it ought to be noticed that people with serious indications of other syndromic conditions may have clinical signs and side effects reliable with SCID. BCG, as other live-weakened immunizations, is totally contraindicated in SCID patients, and Global Tuberculosis Report, 2012, World Health Organization. Notwithstanding, in light of the fact that it is generally directed upon entering the world, SCID patients in many nations utilizing BCG are immunized before their resistant inadequacy is analyzed. The point of this investigation was to depict the intricacies and dangers related to BCG inoculation in patients determined to have SCID, the most extreme type of essential immunodeficiency sicknesses.


This research study has evaluated the implementation effectiveness of the maternity benefits conferred on women workers employed in the textile industry of Tiruppur. The labor laws in India have conferred maternity benefits on women workers as a social security measure to help them overcome the difficulties arising out of the contingent situations on account of pregnancy and child birth thereby ensuring secure employment and humane working conditions for women. As the textile industry in Tiruppur employs a huge number of women there is a need to examine the effectiveness of the implementation of the provisions related to maternity benefits. The respondents for the study are married women workers with children employed in the textile industry. The sample size for the study is 78 collected by convenience sampling method. Regression method using SPSS version 23 was employed data analysis. The results have found lack of effectiveness in the implementation of the maternity benefits among the women workers.


This report is concerned with basic studies on chromo-endoscopic findings using Brilliant Blue (BB), with special reference to the affinity of BB dye with mucus and fibrin and also to the dissecting microscopic surface structure of the normal and cancerous gastric mucosa. The BB solution stained mucus and fibrin on the mucosal surface of the stomach at pHs ranging from 1 to 4. Stained mucus appeared translucent, and stained fibrin opaque. The mucus or fibrin clot bound with BB appeared blue at any pH of the dyebath, even with a green BB solution at pH 1. A thin layer of mucus was stained with BB and destained with a 1.0% sodium bicarbonate solution in a few seconds at 37℃, while a small piece of fibrin clot was stained and destained much more slowly (in approximately 30 minutes) under the same conditions. The normal mucosa (including fundic mucosa, pyloric mucosa, and that with glandular atrophy and intestinal metaplasia) was covered with a thin layer of viscous mucus. The chromo-endoscopic appearance depended mostly on the stain characteristics of BB and the fine properties of the mucosal surface of the stomach. The "well-demarcated redness" characteristic of a gastric cancer lesion mainly of the depressed type proved to reflect an unstained or less-stained mucosal territory associated with such factors as lack of the normal-appearing layer of viscous mucus over the cancerous surface, easy loss of the insoluble mucus- and fibrin-like substances attached to the cancerous surface, and compactness of the surface structure in the case of well-differentiated tubular adenocarcinomas.


The retina, the filmy piece of tissue lining the back of the eyeball, is considered the best understood part of the brain. Intricate exchanges among the neurons of the retina allow much image construction to take place in the eye itself. Visual perception begins within cells called photoreceptors, where proteins embedded in cell membranes change shape when exposed to light. Layers of other retinal cells transfer signals from the photoreceptors to the optic nerve. The intervening layers process the signals-among other tasks, adjusting neural responses under different lighting conditions and increasingly distinguishing objects from their backgrounds. Vision researchers estimate that careful study of the anatomy and physiology of the vertebrate retina has clarified about half of all the interactions in this tissue.


The effects of type of goat housing and provision of anthelmintic treatment on kid mortality and the prevalence of internal parasites were investigated in this study. Thirty six flocks of goats, of multiple ages and mixed sexes, belonging to Rushinga Communal area farmers were selected from 3 flock sizes (1 to 5; 6 to 10 and >10 goats/flock) and were randomly allocated to 2 types of goat housing (i.e. pole walled and an improved housing) and to 2 anthelmintic treatments (untreated and de-wormed with Valbazen), over a two year period. The worm remedy was chosen on the basis of relative availability and affordability compared to other drugs. The dosage of the anthelmintic was done by following the manufacturer's instructions. Death rate of kids was low across all treatments (<15.36 ± 6.36 deaths/100 kids/first six months from birth) and was not affected by type of housing or the anthelmintic drug. Egg numbers, as low as 1.45 ± 1.09 and 1.91 ± 1.10 per gram of faeces, of Strongyle and occasionally Moniezia species were observed in the faecal samples. The most prevalent nematode larvae in the faecal cultures were Haemonchus contortus (70.05 ± 1.85% infestation rate), Cooperia (13.70 ± 0.96% infestation rate), Trichostrongylus (8.08 ± 0.86% infestation rate) and Strongyloides (2.84 ± 0.57% infestation rate). The prevalence of Haemonchus contortus was significantly affected by a three-way interaction of type of housing, anthelmintic treatment and season. It was concluded that kid death rate and the prevalence of internal parasites was low. _______________________________________________________________________________________


The catalytic conversion of biomass-derived carbohydrates to value-added chemicals, such as 5-hydroxymethylfurfural, levulinic acid, and formic acid, is a commercially important reaction and requires the use of both Lewis and Bronsted acids. Multifunctional ionic liquids (ILs) with both types of acidity show promise as useful catalysts as well as solvents for one-pot glucose conversion to value-added chemicals. In this study, a series of chlorometallate ILs were synthesized and characterized, and their catalytic activity towards glucose conversion was investigated. The structure–activity relationship of chlorometallate ILs was investigated by qualitative comparison of their structural parameters obtained using density functional theory and catalytic activity studies. The acidity and basicity of these ILs were correlated with theoretically estimated parameters such as electrostatic surface potential maxima and minima, average local surface ionization energy, Fukui functions, and stabilization energy. Metal atoms showed a significant effect in controlling both the Lewis and Bronsted acidity of these ILs by withdrawing electron density from the cationic counterpart. Fukui function values showed the presence of significant amount of Lewis basicity in the metal halide-containing anionic part of the ILs. The ZnCl3-containing IL with highest electrostatic surface potential maxima, representing more electron-deficient region in the cationic part of the IL, was found to be highly Lewis acidic. Furthermore, it showed maximum catalytic activity in glucose conversion resulting in yields of 13.4%, 23.8%, and 67.1% of 5-hydroxymethyl furfural (HMF), levulinic acid (LA), and formic acid (FA), respectively. Hence, Lewis acidity was found to be the controlling parameter for glucose conversion to value-added chemicals. These multifunctional chlorometallate ILs were found to be recyclable with no loss of metal chloride from the anion of the ILs.


The use of social media for sharing political information and the status of news as an essential raw material for good citizenship are both generating increasing public concern. We add to the debates about misinformation, disinformation, and "fake news" using a new theoretical framework and a unique research design integrating survey data and analysis of observed news sharing behaviors on social media. Using a media-as-resources perspective, we theorize that there are elective affinities between tabloid news and misinformation and disinformation behaviors on social media. Integrating four data sets we constructed during the 2017 UK election campaign—individual-level data on news sharing (N = 1,525,748 tweets), website data (N = 17,989 web domains), news article data (N = 641 articles), and data from a custom survey of Twitter users (N = 1313 respondents)—we find that sharing tabloid news on social media is a significant predictor of democratically dysfunctional misinformation and disinformation behaviors. We explain the consequences of this finding for the civic culture of social media and the direction of future scholarship on fake news.


We consider the estimation of a signal from the knowledge of its noisy linear random Gaussian projections. A few examples where this problem is relevant are compressed sensing, sparse superposition codes, and code division multiple access. There has been a number of works considering the mutual information for this problem using the replica method from statistical physics. Here we put these considerations on a firm rigorous basis. First, we show, using a Guerra-Toninelli type interpolation, that the replica formula yields an upper bound to the exact mutual information. Secondly, for many relevant practical cases, we present a converse lower bound via a method that uses spatial coupling, state evolution analysis and the I-MMSE theorem. This yields a single letter formula for the mutual information and the minimal-mean-square error for random Gaussian linear estimation of all discrete bounded signals. In addition, we prove that the low complexity approximate message-passing algorithm is optimal outside of the so-called hard phase, in the sense that it asymptotically reaches the minimal-mean-square error. In this work spatial coupling is used primarily as a proof technique. However our results also prove two important features of spatially coupled noisy linear random Gaussian estimation. First there is no algorithmically hard phase. This means that for such systems approximate message-passing always reaches the minimal-mean-square error. Secondly, in the limit of infinitely long coupled chain, the mutual information associated to spatially coupled systems is the same as the one of uncoupled linear random Gaussian estimation.


Citizenship is fundamental for participation in a democracy. It gives us rights but also responsibilities in the state that we are citizens of. Citizenship provides us with the opportunity to vote in order to influence who should govern us. However, not all living in a state are citizens. Some individuals are not included in the political life of the state. In recent years, there has been a rise of nationalist political parties in Europe. Since the end of the nineties the party Dansk Folkeparti has been a member of the Danish Parliament and with the 2010 elections in Sweden, the Swedish counterpart Sverigedemokraterna is now also represented in the Parliament. In citizenship theory there is an ongoing debate, chiefly concerning the issue on understanding the underlying meaning of what citizenship really is. The substantially different perspectives that are held by on one side Liberals and on the other Communitarians are ideal for use in a comparative study regarding differences in the recent parliamentary debate in Denmark and Sweden. Therefore, the aim of this study is to analyze the parliamentary debate in regards to the issue of citizenship in Denmark and Sweden. The main results of the study show that the arguments held by the political parties in both countries are in line with the ideologies of liberals and communitarians, but that there is a slightly different focus between the two debates. Also, there are a greater number of parties in Denmark that represent communitarians values than there are in Sweden.


Spike-doped collector designs have recently been studied in both Si BJT and GaAs HBTs as a way to improve the device linearity while still maintaining ruggedness. In this work, we present and discuss - for the first time - the very interesting output characteristics of these devices (unique Ic-Vce curves) and how they are influenced by the device design. We also explore the improvement in cut-off frequency versus current and application of these devices to actual power amplifiers and the resulting changes in ruggedness.


Abstract Background: Apathy, a prevalent and clinically relevant symptom in neurodegenerative disease, is often evaluated by the instrument Apathy Evaluation Scale (AES). However, this instrument has not been translated into Swedish, halting clinical and research efforts. Furthermore, previous studies lack analyses of some basic properties, such as the legitimacy of a total score, or have analysed dimensionality by questionable methods. Aim: To translate and psychometrically evaluate a Swedish version of the AES. Method: The AES was translated, and its psychometric properties were tested in the Swedish BioFINDER study, including cognitively well elderly, and subjects with mild cognitive or parkinsonian symptoms. Psychometric analyses were conducted according to classical test theory (CTT) and aimed to resemble those performed in the English original study by Marin et al. in 1991. Dimensionality was additionally analysed on a matrix of polychoric correlations and parallel analyses. Results: Data indicate that the Swedish AES performs satisfactorily regarding data completeness, scaling assumptions, targeting, and reliability. Principal component analyses (with parallel analysis) of polychoric correlation matrices identified a single component. Convergent and discriminative validity correlations accorded with a priori expectations. Conclusions: The study provides initial support that this Swedish AES performs similarly to the English original, and exhibits acceptable psychometric properties according to CTT, including supported unidimensionality, and may be adopted for use in clinical and research settings.


MobilomeFINDER (http://mml.sjtu.edu.cn/MobilomeFINDER) is an interactive online tool that facilitates bacterial genomic island or 'mobile genome' (mobilome) discovery; it integrates the ArrayOme and tRNAcc software packages. ArrayOme utilizes a microarray-derived comparative genomic hybridization input data set to generate 'inferred contigs' produced by merging adjacent genes classified as 'present'. Collectively these 'fragments' represent a hypothetical 'microarray-visualized genome (MVG)'. ArrayOme permits recognition of discordances between physical genome and MVG sizes, thereby enabling identification of strains rich in microarray-elusive novel genes. Individual tRNAcc tools facilitate automated identification of genomic islands by comparative analysis of the contents and contexts of tRNA sites and other integration hotspots in closely related sequenced genomes. Accessory tools facilitate design of hotspot-flanking primers for in silico and/or wet-science-based interrogation of cognate loci in unsequenced strains and analysis of islands for features suggestive of foreign origins; island-specific and genome-contextual features are tabulated and represented in schematic and graphical forms. To date we have used MobilomeFINDER to analyse several Enterobacteriaceae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Streptococcus suis genomes. MobilomeFINDER enables high-throughput island identification and characterization through increased exploitation of emerging sequence data and PCR-based profiling of unsequenced test strains; subsequent targeted yeast recombination-based capture permits full-length sequencing and detailed functional studies of novel genomic islands.


The fate of antibody (Ab) LL1, which reacts with the invariant chain (Ii) subunit of the immature MHC class-II antigen (CD74) after binding to the surface of B-cell lymphomas was investigated. This Ab was internalized and catabolized very rapidly, much faster than other Abs that are considered to be rapidly internalized, such as CD19, CD22 and anti-(transferrin receptor). Such internalization did not depend on Ab cross-linking. The capacity of this uptake process was determined in long-term experiments by increasing the Ab concentration: in 1 day, approx. 8 x 10(5) Ab molecules per cell were catabolized. This analysis was facilitated by the use of radiolabels that are trapped within cells after catabolism of the Abs to which they were conjugated. If the Ab is a reliable marker for the Ii antigen, which is likely, we can conclude that Ii directed to the cell surface appears to be sufficient, indeed more than sufficient, to account for the cell content of mature class-II molecules.


Summary A general framework is proposed for Bayesian model based designs of Phase I cancer trials, in which a general criterion for coherence (Cheung, 2005, Biometrika 92, 863–873) of a design is also developed. This framework can incorporate both "individual" and "collective" ethics into the design of the trial. We propose a new design that minimizes a risk function composed of two terms, with one representing the individual risk of the current dose and the other representing the collective risk. The performance of this design, which is measured in terms of the accuracy of the estimated target dose at the end of the trial, the toxicity and overdose rates, and certain loss functions reflecting the individual and collective ethics, is studied and compared with existing Bayesian model based designs and is shown to have better performance than existing designs.


Introduction
 Natural Killer (NK) cells are an emerging form of cancer immunotherapy currently being tested in clinical trials world-wide. NK cells are innate immune cells that can kill tumor cells via release of cytotoxic granules and via surface expression of the death receptor ligands tumor-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) and Fas ligand. We and others have recently shown that the proteasome inhibitor bortezomib sensitizes tumor cells to NK cell TRAIL-mediated killing by upregulation of death receptor 5. In a recent phase I NK cell dose-escalation study conducted at the NIH (NCT00720785) we have attempted to exploit TRAIL sensitization by administering ex vivo-expanded autologous NK cells to patients with solid tumors or hematologic malignancies that have been pretreated with bortezomib. Ex vivo cultures used to expand clinical grade NK cells for this trial utilize irradiated EBV-LCL feeder cells and IL-2 containing media which upregulates surface expression of TRAIL, substantially augmenting NK cell killing of bortezomib-treated tumors in vitro. Here we characterize the impact of specific expansion conditions used to generate high numbers of NK cells for clinical use on NK cell TRAIL expression.
 Methods
 To generate clinical grade ex vivo-expanded NK cells, we first isolated NK cells from patient apheresis products by CD3+ depletion followed by CD56+ selection, and stimulated these enriched NK cells with irradiated EBV-LCL feeder cells at a ratio of 1:10 in X-VIVO 20 supplemented with 10% inactivated human AB serum and recombinant human IL-2 (500 IU/ml). The clinical trial evaluated 8 escalating NK cell dose levels (Figure 1). Cohorts 1-4 received a single infusion of ex vivo-expanded NK cells on day 0 in a dose-escalating fashion (3-6 pts per cohort) and cohorts 5-7 received 1 x 108 NK cells/kg on day 0 and a second escalating dose of NK cells infused on day +5. A "closed bag" Baxter PL732 culture system was used for cohorts 1-7 which was later changed to a GREX500-CS (Wilson Wolf) system in cohorts 7-8. Using flow cytometry, we monitored surface expression of TRAIL on the day NK cells were harvested and infused fresh into patients. We also assessed TRAIL expression on NK cells from a single patient cultured at 6 different cell densities (range: 2.03-16.95 x 106/cm2) using culture conditions mimicking the phase I trial.
 Results
 A total of 137 NK cell cultures were harvested and administered fresh to 32 patients. NK cells on the day of harvest expanded a median of 198-fold, 895-fold, and 3637-fold on culture days 14-16, 19-22, and 24-27, respectively. NK cells at harvest contained a median of 99.7% CD3−/CD56+ NK cells, were 68.65% CD16+ and had a median of 88% viability. TRAIL was assessed by mean fluorescence intensity (MFI) with a median surface expression of of 1245 (range 132-4913) at the time of infusion (Figure 1). Expansions for cohort 8 generated 10-14 x109 (1 vessel) and 50-70 x109 NK cells (4-5 vessels) for fresh infusion, enough to support the target dose level of 1x108 (1st harvest) and 5x108 (2nd harvest) NK cells/kg. Remarkably, NK cells grown at higher cell density to reach the target cell numbers for cohort 8 exhibited substantially reduced TRAIL expression (median: 255, range 132-691). Subsequent experiments conducted on NK cells expanded in vitro for 14 days at different cell densities/concentrations showed TRAIL expression (MFI range: 319-1627) inversely correlated with both cell density and concentration (Figure 2). NK cells grown at the highest cell density (16.95 x 106/cm2) and concentration (4.23 x 106/mL) expressed the least amount of TRAIL (MFI 319), in contrast to those cultured at the lowest cell density (2.03 x 106/cm2) and concentration (0.51 x 106/mL), which demonstrated a TRAIL MFI of 1627.
 Conclusions
 Although ex vivo cultures using feeder cells make it possible to expand large numbers of NK cells for clinical use in humans, the higher concentrations and density of cells in these cultures reduce NK cell surface expression of TRAIL. In vitro, TRAIL expression appears to inversely correlate with cell density. These data highlight the need to avoid overly concentrating ex vivo expanded NK cells to maximize TRAIL surface expression as a method to potentiate the anticancer effects of adoptively infused NK cells.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Abstract The settlement of Sahul, the lost continent of Oceania, remains one of the most ancient and debated human migrations. Modern New Guineans inherited a unique genetic diversity tracing back 50,000 years, and yet there is currently no model reconstructing their past population dynamics. We generated 58 new whole-genome sequences from Papua New Guinea, filling geographical gaps in previous sampling, specifically to address alternative scenarios of the initial migration to Sahul and the settlement of New Guinea. Here, we present the first genomic models for the settlement of northeast Sahul considering one or two migrations from Wallacea. Both models fit our data set, reinforcing the idea that ancestral groups to New Guinean and Indigenous Australians split early, potentially during their migration in Wallacea where the northern route could have been favored. The earliest period of human presence in Sahul was an era of interactions and gene flow between related but already differentiated groups, from whom all modern New Guineans, Bismarck islanders, and Indigenous Australians descend. The settlement of New Guinea was probably initiated from its southeast region, where the oldest archaeological sites have been found. This was followed by two migrations into the south and north lowlands that ultimately reached the west and east highlands. We also identify ancient gene flows between populations in New Guinea, Australia, East Indonesia, and the Bismarck Archipelago, emphasizing the fact that the anthropological landscape during the early period of Sahul settlement was highly dynamic rather than the traditional view of extensive isolation.


In this paper, the change of energy use by telecommuting (working at home) is simulated for residential and office buildings by modeling the differences in the occupants' behavior. By summing up these results, the change in annual energy use in Osaka City caused by the saturation of telecommuting is evaluated in three dissemination scenarios for the transformation of office buildings. The results indicate that telecommuting tends to increase energy consumption in the residential sector and to decrease it in the non-residential sector, and that it is possible to increase energy consumption if the floor area of office buildings is not decreased by sharing the space among telecommuters. If the floor area of an office building decreases with the increase of telecommuters, energy consumption will decrease by 0.6% of the total energy consumption of the residential and non-residential sectors in Osaka City at a 60% saturation level of telecommuting.


This paper provides a brief outline of the most recent advances of economic-environmental quantitative modelling. After having described some of the most relevant methodological approaches, the paper focuses on the drawbacks of present models and outlines directions for modelling improvements. Two methodological issues are emphasised: the treatment of uncertainty and the endogenisation of technical progress. The paper describes how recent works, particularly those included in this special issue, tackle these two important problems and which solutions, albeit preliminary, have recently been proposed. It is also stressed how results achieved with models where uncertainty and technical change are adequately dealt with largely differ from those obtained from traditional models. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.


A thermomechanical numerical model is proposed to describe the time-dependent brit- tle deformation of brittle rocks under different constant temperatures and confining pressures. The mesoscale model accounts for material heterogeneity and local material degradation, and the model introduces the concept of a mesoscopic renormalization to capture the cooperative interaction between microcracks in the transition from distrib- uted to localized damage. The thermophysical parameters for the model were determined based on creep experiments of granite at temperatures of 23, 50, and 90 (cid:1) C. The numerical simulations agree well with the experimental data. We then explore the influence of temperature, differential stress, confining pressure, and sample homogene- ity on brittle creep in granite using the same parameters. The simulated results show that the creep strain rate increases with an increase in temperature and differential stress and time to failure decreases, while creep strain rate decreases with an increase in confining pressure and sample homogeneity, and therefore time to failure increases. The proposed model is of great help to control and optimize rock engineering in granite.


ABSTRACT Humans have three DNA polymerases, Polη, Polκ, and Polι, which are able to promote replication through DNA lesions. However, the mechanism by which these DNA polymerases are targeted to the replication machinery stalled at a lesion site has remained unknown. Here, we provide evidence for the physical interaction of human Polκ (hPolκ) with proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) and show that PCNA, replication factor C (RFC), and replication protein A (RPA) act cooperatively to stimulate the DNA synthesis activity of hPolκ. The processivity of hPolκ, however, is not significantly increased in the presence of these protein factors. The efficiency (V max/K m ) of correct nucleotide incorporation by hPolκ is enhanced ∼50- to 200-fold in the presence of PCNA, RFC, and RPA, and this increase in efficiency is achieved by a reduction in the apparent K m for the nucleotide. Although in the presence of these protein factors, the efficiency of the insertion of an A nucleotide opposite an abasic site is increased ∼40-fold, this reaction still remains quite inefficient; thus, it is unlikely that hPolκ would bypass an abasic site by inserting a nucleotide opposite the site.


The objective was to identify the main factors and interactions influencing the fibre diameter in the production of electrospun cellulose acetate (CA) webs. A systematic parameter study was completed for producing electrospun CA fibres that were substantially free of bead defects and the effect of different process parameters during electrospinning CA were evaluated in respect of mean fibre diameter. The experiments were planned using factorial designs. Altogether three parameters, each at three levels, were selected for this study. The results indicate that polymer concentration, voltage and flow rate interact so that the magnitude of any change in the mean fibre diameter is dependent upon the level of the other factors. Furthermore, stable electrospinning conditions for CA were confirmed using an acetone: N, N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) (2:1) solvent system that minimised the presence of structural defects in the web and promoted uniform fibre diameters.