Background: Spontaneous cortical oscillations have been shown to modulate cortical responses to transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS). However, whether these oscillations influence cortical effective connectivity is largely unknown. We conducted a pilot study to set the basis for addressing how spontaneous oscillations affect cortical effective connectivity measured through TMS-evoked potentials (TEPs). Methods: We applied TMS to the left primary motor cortex and right pre-supplementary motor area of three subjects while recording EEG. We classified trials off-line into positive- and negative-phase classes according to the mu and beta rhythms. We calculated differences in the global mean-field amplitude (GMFA) and compared the cortical spreading of the TMS-evoked activity between the two classes. Results: Phase affected the GMFA in four out of 12 datasets (3 subjects × 2 stimulation sites × 2 frequency bands). Two of the observed significant intervals were before 50 ms, two between 50 and 100 ms, and one after 100 ms post-stimulus. Source estimates showed complex spatial differences between the classes in the cortical spreading of the TMS-evoked activity. Conclusions: TMS-evoked effective connectivity seems to depend on the phase of local cortical oscillations at the stimulated site. This work paves the way to design future closed-loop stimulation paradigms.


The palladium-catalyzed vinylation of organic halides provides a very convenient method for forming carboncarbon bonds at unsubstituted vinylic positions. Generally the reaction does not require anhydrous or anaerobic conditions although it is advisable to limit access of oxygen when arylphosphines are used as a component of the catalyst. The transformation is valuable because it cannot be carried out in a single step by any other known method (except in certain Meerwein reactions).

The organic halide employed is limited to aryl, heterocyclic, benzyl, or vinyl types, with bromides and iodides seen most often. Halides with an easily eliminated beta-hydrogen atom (i.e., alkyl derivatives) cannot be used since they form only olefins by elimination under the normal reaction conditions. The base needed may be a secondary or tertiary amine, sodium or potassium acetate, carbonate, or bicarbonate.

When nucleophilic secondary amines are used as coreactants with most vinylic halides, a variation occurs that often produces tertiary allylic amines as major products. The catalyst is commonly palladium acetate, although palladium chloride or preformed triarylphosphine palladium complexes, as well as palladium on charcoal, have been used. A reactant, product, or solvent may serve as the ligand in reactions involving organic iodides, but generally a triarylphosphine or a secondary amine is required when organic bromides are used. The reaction, which occurs between ca. 50° and 160° proceeds homogeneously. Solvents such as acetonitrile, dimethylformamide, hexamethylphosphoramide, N-methylpyrrolidinone, and methanol have been used, but are often not necessary. The procedure is applicable to a very wide range of reactants and yields are generally good to excellent.

Several variations of the reaction are known in which the organic halide is replaced by other reagents such as organometallics, diazonium salts, or aromatic hydrocarbons. These reactions are not discussed in detail, but are only briefly compared with the halide reaction. Other related reactions such as the palladium-catalyzed replacement of allylic substituents with carbanionic reagents, the palladium-promoted nucleophilic substitutions at olefinic carbons, and the numerous palladium-catalyzed coupling reactions of halides and organometallics are also beyond the scope of this review. The palladium-catalyzed vinylic substitution reaction has not yet received much attention from organic chemists, but its broad scope and simplicity demonstrate that it is a useful method for the synthesis of a variety of olefinic compounds.

Keywords:

palladium catalyst;
vinylation;
organic halides;
scope;
limitations;
experimental procedures;
vinylic substitution;
ethylene;
acrylic acid;
butenol;
methyl acrylate;
styrene;
pentadiene;
acrolein dimethyl acetal;
olefins


Modern medicine is the result of a long historical development. It evolved from instinct and experience in prehistoric times to observation and reasoning in the Hippocratic period, to the formulation of a scientific system in Galen's period and experimentation in the 19th century. Philosophically, Aristotelian rationalism was challenged by Bacon's scientific empiricism, and C. Bernard's scientific determinism by today's indeterminism. Developments in medicine have always depended on the stage of the development of human societies, socioeconomically, scientifically, technologically and culturally.


We shall present a cosensitized solar cell with sequentially assembled CdS quantum dots (QDs) and black dye on a flower-like ZnO rod nanostructure. As revealed by UV-vis absorption spectrum and scanning electron microscopy CdS QDs and black dye can be effectively adsorbed onto a flower-like ZnO nanorod array. Besides acting as a sensitizer, CdS QDs layer helps to prevent formation of Zn2+/dye complex. CdS QDs also provide intermediate energy levels for excited electron transfer from black dye to ZnO film. A power conversion efficiency as high as 3.26% was achieved for CdS QD and black dye cosensitized ZnO photoanode under the illumination of one Sun (AM1.5G, 100 mW/cm2).


The exposure of grapevines to unfavourable conditions such as drought, high or low temperature and pathogenic attack increases the production of reactive oxygen species, thus inducing oxidative stress. One of the most important non-enzymatic antioxidants is ascorbic acid, which is used by plants to protect themselves against these toxic oxygen intermediates. DHA, DKG and threonate are ascorbic acid metabolites that are found during ascorbic acid catabolism. This study was done in two regions, the one in Wellington, classified as a warmer climate, and the other in Elgin, classified as a cooler climate. In each region, two Sauvignon blanc vineyard blocks were selected, with north to south and east to west row directions. Vines were monitored during the growing season to investigate the trends in the development of ascorbic acid metabolites in both regions. Canopy management practices were done at different ripening stages. Grape berries were sampled at different phenological stages according to the Eichhorn Lorenz scale: E-L 32, E-L 34, E-L 35, E-L 37 and E-L 38. Ascorbic acid derivative concentrations in the two regions varied significantly in that Elgin showed higher concentrations than Wellington at E-L 32 and E-L 38. Both the cool and warm regions had high concentrations of threonate, with no significant difference among stages of ripeness. The DHA, DKG and threonate levels were the highest at the E-L 32 phenological stage for both regions, with no significant differences among the other phenological stages, especially for DHA derivative concentrations. No significant effect on the DHA, DKG and threonate levels of the grapes was observed between row directions in each region.


ABSTRACT Objective Surveys often ask respondents to assess discrimination in health care. Yet, patients' responses to one type of widely used measure of discrimination (single-item, personally mediated) tend to reveal prevalence rates lower than observational studies would suggest. This study examines the meaning behind respondents' closed-ended self-reports on this specific type of measure, paying special attention to the frameworks and references used within the medical setting. Design Twenty-nine respondents participated in this study. They were asked the widely used question: 'Within the past 12 months, when seeking health care do you feel your experiences were worse than, the same as, or better than people of other races?' We then conducted qualitative interviews focusing on their chosen response and past experiences. Descriptive analyses focus on both the quantitative and qualitative data, including a comparison of conveyed perceived discrimination according to the different sources of data. Results To identify discrimination, respondents drew upon observations of dynamics in the waiting room or the health providers' communication style. Our respondents were frequently ambivalent and uncertain about how their personal treatment in health care compared to people of other races. When participants were unable to make observable comparisons, they tended to assume equal treatment and report 'same as' in the close-ended reports. Conclusion Respondents' responses to single-item, closed-ended questions may be influenced by characteristics specific to the health care realm. An emphasis on privacy and assumptions about the health care field (both authority and benevolence of providers) may limit opportunities for comparison and result in assumptions of racial parity in treatment.


We investigate, by combining physical and electrical measurements together with an atomistic-to-circuit modeling approach, the conductance of doped carbon nanotubes (CNTs) and their eligibility as possible candidate for next generation back-end-of-line (BEOL) interconnects. Ab-initio simulations predict a doping-related shift of the Fermi level, which reduces shell chirality variability and improves electrical conductance up to 90% by converting semiconducting shells to metallic. Circuit-level simulations predict up to 88% signal delay improvement with doped vs. pristine CNT. Electrical measurements of Pt-salt doped CNTs provide up to 50% of resistance reduction which is a milestone result for future CNT interconnect technology.


Examination by immunoperoxidase methods showed that two strumal carcinoids contained thyroxine in the follicular epithelium and colloid. Ultrastructure showed features of thyroid epithelia. Granule-containing cells replaced some follicular epithelial cells at the colloid interface. The morphology of the granules of these cells resembled those of C-cells and foregut-hindgut carcinoids. Transition between thyroid and carcinoid occurred by proliferation of interfollicular cells which subtly formed trabecular structures. Immunoperoxidase for calcitonin was positive both in the interfollicular cells of one tumor and in cells near the transition from thyroid to carcinoid pattern of the other. We conclude that thyroid tissue is a proven component of strumal carcinoid but that follicular epithelial cells may be replaced by granule-containing parafollicular cells. We suggest that the transition from thyroid to carcinoid is accomplished through an intermediate stage of calcitonin-positive cell proliferation. We emphasize, however, that these neoplasms are types of teratomas which may show several forms of differentiation. The tumor of one patient had mid-gut carcinoid elements and represents the first described strumal carcinoid with the carcinoid syndrome.


Limited microRNAs (miRNAs, miRs) have been reported to be necessary for exercise-induced cardiac growth and essential for protection against pathological cardiac remodeling. Here we determined members of the miR-17-92 cluster and their passenger miRNAs expressions in two distinct murine exercise models and found that miR-17-3p was increased in both. miR-17-3p promoted cardiomyocyte hypertrophy, proliferation, and survival. TIMP-3 was identified as a direct target gene of miR-17-3p whereas PTEN was indirectly inhibited by miR-17-3p. Inhibition of miR-17-3p in vivo attenuated exercise-induced cardiac growth including cardiomyocyte hypertrophy and expression of markers of myocyte proliferation. Importantly, mice injected with miR-17-3p agomir were protected from adverse remodeling after cardiac ischemia/reperfusion injury. Collectively, these data suggest that miR-17-3p contributes to exercise-induced cardiac growth and protects against adverse ventricular remodeling. miR-17-3p may represent a novel therapeutic target to promote functional recovery after cardiac ischemia/reperfusion.


In 2002, we reported that small fragments of testis tissue from immature mouse, pig or goat donors grafted in recipient mice undergo development, maturation and complete spermatogenesis, including the generation of fertilisation-competent murine, porcine or caprine sperm. Testis tissue xenografting (TTX) was then successfully applied using a range of donor species including laboratory/domestic/non-domestic animals and primates. This system offers a novel in vivo model for the study of testis function, and a previously unavailable opportunity to produce sperm in the grafts from immature donors of diverse species. The TTX model also provides easier access for experimental manipulation of the grafted testis tissue or its environment in the recipient mouse; something that is not feasible in many donor species. This application will allow analysis of, for instance, the effects of new hormone regimens, drugs or toxicants on testis function, without experimentation in the target species. Grafting of fresh or preserved testis tissue also can be used as an invaluable tool for the conservation of fertility from immature individuals of valuable or endangered animals. Reviewed here are an overview of the contributions by the author and colleagues and a critical examination of the salient literature on TTX especially using ruminant donors, as well as examples of its variety of current and potential applications for research in male reproductive biology and technologies using ruminant models. The challenges facing optimisation of TTX model as well as its field/experimental uses, along with insights and suggested remedies, are also discussed.


OBJECTIVE: this study aims to describe the epidemiological characteristics of yellow fever in Brazil in the period 2000-2012. METHODS: this is a descriptive ecological epidemiological study, using information from Ministry of Health databases. RESULTS: 326 cases of yellow fever were confirmed in Brazil during this period, with 156 deaths and an average case fatality rate of 47.8%; the young male adult age group was the most affected; in epizootic terms, 2,856 suspected cases of yellow fever in non-human primates were reported and 31.1% of these were confirmed by laboratory tests; during the study period the area in which sylvatic transmission of the disease occurs was found to have expanded to densely population regions, such as South, Southeast and Midwest Brazil. CONCLUSION: the risk of urban yellow fever transmission persists, as sylvatic incidence of the disease has expanded to regions with high Aedes aegypti infestation, this being the mosquito responsible for urban transmission of the disease.


Thyroid nodules diseases are a common health problem and thyroidal cancer is becoming increasingly prevalent. They appear in the neck and bottom neck region, superficially over the trachea. Cancer tissues are characterized by higher temperatures than surrounding tissues. Thermography is a diagnostic tool increasingly used to detect cancer and abnormalities. Artificial intelligence is an approach which can be applied to thyroid nodules classification, but is necessary to have a proper number of cases with proven diagnosis. In this paper, a new database that contain infrared thermal images, clinical and physiological data is presented. The description of each nodule per patient, and the acquisition protocol (based on Dynamic Infrared Thermography approach) is considered as well. A semi-automatic method for image registration was implemented to pre-process the thermograms and a new method for the Region of Interest (ROI) extraction is proposed. Moreover, the obtained ROI results are confirmed by medical specialists and turned available for future comparison with other works.


Institutionalization of children who are deprived of parental care is a thriving phenomenon in the global South, and has generated considerable concern both nationally and internationally, in the last two decades. In Kenya, the number of children growing up in live-in care institutions has been growing ever since the country's early post-independence years. Although legislative and regulatory measures aimed at child protection have been in place for a number of years now, and the national government appears to be standing by the commitment it expressed in recent times to implement care reform which encompasses de-institutionalization, the national child protection system remains very dependent on institutional care. Against the backdrop of a global and national movement towards de-institutionalization of child care and child protection, in this paper we tease out the range of factors reinforcing Kenya's over-reliance on live-in institutions as a child care and child protection model. Numerous factors—structural, political, economic, socio-cultural, and legal—contribute to the complexity of the issue. We highlight this complexity, bringing together different angles, while pointing out the interests of the different stakeholders in reinforcing institutional care. We argue that the sustainability, efficiency and effectiveness of the intended change from institutional care to alternative family-based care requires that a root-cause approach be adopted in addressing the underlying child care and child protection issues.


To the Editor:— A 12-month-old boy was admitted to University Hospital on June 28, 1965, after an axillary biopsy performed elsewhere one week previously. He had been born with a raised pigmented lesion on the tip of the middle finger of the right hand. This had grown slowly, and at age 6 months surgical removal had been recommended. For one reason or another this had not been done, until the appearance of an enlarged axillary node about ten days before admission demanded attention. Physical Examination:— A purplishblack, raised lesion with a roughened surface invading the nail bed of the right middle finger and measuring 1.3× 0.6×9.5 cm (Fig 1) was revealed. No satellite nodules were present. On the medial aspect of the right axilla was a recently made biopsy incision 4-cm long, with the sutures still in place. Underlying postoperative induration was present but it was felt that there were


The process of recovery is gaining more and more attention within health care for patients with severe mental illness. Therefore, instruments to measure recovery can be useful for clinical and research purposes. This study evaluates the psychometric properties of three instruments pertaining to recovery for possible application in the Netherlands. The Recovery Attitude Questionnaire and the Recovery Knowledge Inventory were investigated among 210 mental health professionals, and the Recovery Promoting Relationship Scale was administered to 142 mental health consumers. The factor structure, reliability and internal consistency were examined using the same analysis strategy. First, each questionnaire was submitted to a confirmatory factor analysis based on the factorial structure proposed by the original developers of the questionnaire. In case of a bad fit, an exploratory factor analysis was conducted. Based on factor analyses, subscales were formed for each questionnaire and the internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha) was assessed. In all three cases the final principal axes solution was obliquely rotated by means of the OBLIMIN rotation procedure. Results show that the originally proposed factor structure did not yield an acceptable fit in any of the Dutch samples. After analyses, three instruments are proposed that are suitable for research on recovery-oriented competencies and the recovery-promoting relationship for professionals working with people with serious mental illness in the Netherlands.


The concept of biased data is well known and its practical applications range from social sciences and biol ogy to economics and quality control. These observations arise when a sampling procedure chooses an observation with probability that depends on the value of the observation. This is an interesting sampling procedure because it favors some observations and neglects others. It is known that biasing does not change rates of nonparametric density estimation, but no results are available about sharp constants. This article presents asymptotic results on sharp minimax density estimation. In particular, a coefficient of difficulty is introduced that shows the relationship between sample sizes of direct and biased samples that imply the same accuracy of estimation. The notion of the restricted local minimax, where a low-frequency part of the estim ated density is known, is introduced; it sheds new light on the phenomenon of nonparametric superefficiency. Results of a numerical study are presented.


During the Phanerozoic, Earth has experienced a number of transient global warming events associated with major carbon cycle perturbations. Paradoxically, many of these extreme greenhouse episodes are preceded or followed by cold climate, perhaps even glacial conditions, as inferred from the occurrence of glendonites in high latitudes. Glendonites are pseudomorphs of ikaite (CaCO3 center dot 6H(2)O), a hydrated carbonate mineral increasingly stable at low temperatures. Here, we show that methane seepage and oxidation provide an overriding control on Mesozoic glendonite formation (i. e., ikaite fossilization). Geochemical and petrological analyses of 33 Early Jurassic to Early Cretaceous glendonites from five sections in Siberia (Russia) reveal that most of their infilling carbonate phases are reminiscent of methane- derived authigenic carbonates. Bulk glendonites and surrounding sediments exhibit exceptionally high and low carbon isotope values (+20% to -45% VPDB [Vienna Peedee belemnite]), typical for carbon sources linked to methane generation and oxidation. Gas inclusion data confirm the presence of methane and longer-chain hydrocarbon gases, suggesting a thermogenic source for the methane. Glendonitebearing layers can be traced for hundreds of kilometers, suggesting widespread trapping of methane in the sub-seafloor during the Jurassic. As such, glendonites constitute an unexplored archive for detecting past episodes of methane release and oxidation in polar settings.


Increased level of the generation of free radicals or failure of antioxidant system in the cell leads to a condition of oxidative stress. Oxidative stress plays an important role in causing and pathogenesis of many chronic diseases including various kinds of cancers such as ovarian cancer, cervical cancer, oral cancer, breast cancer, lung cancer, leukemia, prostate cancer etc. other than cancers increased oxidative stress is also found in diabetes, schizophrenia, chronic obstructive diseases (COPD), atherosclerosis, alzheimer's diseases, parkinson's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, periodontal disease and sickle cell anemia. Some religious plants of poaceae family such as (i) Triticum aestivum (ii) Oryza sativa (iii) Cynodon dactylon (iv) Saccharum spontaneum (v) Hordeum vulgare are found to have good antioxidant activity. So they can be use to prepare a antioxidant medicine for the treatment of oxidative stress in cancer and other chronic diseases which further increase the welfare of the patients and create better results.


The present research examined rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret. In Study 1, participants who grew up in rural areas reported stronger interpersonal regret than those who grew up in large cities. In Study 2, we conducted an experiment and found that participants who were assigned to imagine a rural life reported greater interpersonal regret than those who were assigned to imagine an urban life. Moreover, this rural–urban difference was mediated by the degree to which participants wrote about informal social control such as gossip and reputation concerns. Finally, in Study 3, we used the pictorial eye manipulation, which evokes a concern for informal social control, and found that participants from large cities who were exposed to the eyes reported more intense interpersonal regret than those who were not exposed to the eyes. Together, these studies demonstrate that informal social control is a key to understanding rural–urban differences in interpersonal regret.


The electrodeposition of iron and composite iron-zirconia coatings from a methanesulfonate electrolyte was investigated. The current efficiency of iron deposition reaction was stated to be sufficiently higher in methanesulfonate electrolytes than in usual sulfate baths. Iron coatings electrodeposited from a methanesulfonate bath have a nano-crystalline structure. The Fe coatings obtained from methanesulfonate baths are harder than those deposited from sulfate baths because of the strengthening effect by the Hall-Petch mechanism. The composite Fe/ZrO2 coatings can be obtained from the iron electroplating baths containing the particles of zirconia stabilized by 3 mol % yttria. The kinetics of ZrO2 particles co-deposition with iron in methanesulfonate electrolytes obeys Guglielmi's model. The insertion of zirconia particles into the iron matrix results in an appreciable increase of the coatings microhardness via the dispersion strengthening mechanism.


The survey for DUST in Nearby Galaxies with Spitzer (DUSTiNGS) has identified hundreds of candidate dust-producing asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in several nearby metal-poor galaxies. We have obtained multi-epoch follow-up observations for these candidates with the Spitzer Space Telescope and measured their infrared (IR) light curves. This has allowed us to confirm their AGB nature and investigate pulsation behavior at very low metallicity. We have obtained high-confidence pulsation periods for 88 sources in seven galaxies. We have confirmed DUSTiNGS variable star candidates with a 20% success rate and determined the pulsation properties of 19 sources already identified as thermally pulsing AGB stars. We find that the AGB pulsation properties are similar in all galaxies surveyed here, with no discernible difference between the DUSTiNGS galaxies (down to 1.4% solar metallicity; [Fe/H] = −1.85) and the far more metal-rich Magellanic Clouds (up to 50% solar metallicity; [Fe/H] = −0.38). These results strengthen the link between dust production and pulsation in AGB stars and establish the IR period–luminosity relation as a reliable tool (±4%) for determining distances to galaxies, regardless of metallicity.


The study aims to determine (1) the factors that affect rice production in the district was. (2) Efficient use of land, seed, fertilizer, and labor on the fields in the district was. This research is quantitative. Sources of data in this research are secondary data from the primary data from questionnaires to farmers of paddy in Gorontalo. The data analysis technique used is the Cobb Douglas.These results indicate that (1) the results of the Cobb Douglas found that simultaneous land, seed, fertilizer, labor, and land tenure positive and significant impact on rice production in the district was the province of Gorontalo to the value of the determinant of 79,50% for tenants and owners of 67,50% to the tiller. Then the partial results only land, seed and labor are positive and significant impact on rice production in the district was Gorontalo province. The coefficient of land ownership that is positive indicates that farmers with its status as the owner of tenants is better than the sharecroppers in generating optimal production. (2) The results of the technical efficiency analysis shows that the area of land, seed, labor, and land tenure have a greater value than one that is in the category yet efficient (increasing returns to scale). Then for fertilizer has a smaller value than one that is in the category inefficient (decreasing return to scale). The results of the comparison in terms of the land status was found that the owner of tenants is better than the tenants in the efficiency of production input rice production in the district was.


IMAGE RESTORATION IN THE PRESENCE OF BAD PIXELS Name: Brys, Brandon J. University of Dayton, 2010 Advisor: Russell C. Hardie Spatially varying temporal noise can occur in imaging sensors from nonuniform responsivity of the detectors in the focal plane detector array. Furthermore, some pixels can have extreme responsivities or simply be unresponsive altogether. Such "bad pixels" must be detected and addressed to provide the best possible imagery from a given sensor. Restoration in the presence of bad pixels is a particularly important problem in infrared imaging systems, but it is also an issue with many other camera systems. Bad pixels are traditionally treated by some form of replacement. Rather than performing a simple pixel replacement followed by traditional image restoration, we believe that a superior method of performing restoration in the presence of bad pixels is to perform the restoration and bad pixel replacement jointly. This way, we are able to exploit knowledge of each pixel's characteristics in the restoration process. When a simple pixel replacement method is used, knowledge of which pixel was originally bad is often lost and not exploited in any subsequent image restoration. In this thesis we propose and compare two methods for scene-based bad pixel detection. We also adapt the FIR adaptive Wiener filter (AWF) to perform image iii restoration in the presence of bad pixels on other forms of spatially varying noise. The AWF estimates each pixel using a weighted sum of neighboring pixel values. The weights are determined based on spatially varying autocorrelation models which may use specific knowledge of each pixel's noise characteristics. We propose a fast version of the AWF that is able to handle the bad pixels by using pre-computed weights in a table look-up process. We also propose a modified version of the Non-Local Means (NLM) filter that is robust in handling bad pixels, as it provides background noise reduction. We quantitatively and subjectively compare the performance of the AWF and NLM methods along with several other benchmark restoration methods using simulated images with spatially varying noise and bad pixels. We use both simulated and real infrared imagery to test the proposed algorithms. A computational complexity analysis is also provided to provide further insight into the comparison between the AWF and NLM methods.


Novel Small-RNA Mediated Gene-Regulatory Mechanisms for Long-term Memory Priyamvada Rajasethupathy Memory storage and memory-related synaptic plasticity rely on precise spatiotemporal regulation of gene expression. To explore the role of small RNAs in memory-related synaptic plasticity we carried out massive parallel sequencing to profile the small RNAs of Aplysia. We identified 170 distinct 21-23 nt sized miRNAs, 13 of which were novel and specific to Aplysia. Nine miRNAs were brain-enriched, and several of these were rapidly down-regulated by transient exposure to serotonin, a modulatory neurotransmitter released during learning. Two abundant, and conserved brain-specific miRNAs, miR-124 and miR-22 were exclusively present pre-synaptically in a sensory-motor synapse where they constrain synaptic facilitation through regulation of the transcriptional factor CREB1 and translation factor CPEB respectively. We therefore provide the first evidence that a modulatory neurotransmitter important for learning can regulate the levels of small RNAs and present a novel role for miR-124 and miR-22 in long-term plasticity of synapses in the mature nervous system. While mining the small RNA libraries for miRNAs, we discovered an unexpected and abundant expression in brain of a 28-nt sized class of piRNAs, which had been thought to be germ-line specific. These piRNAs have unique biogenesis patterns and predominant nuclear localization. Moreover, we find that whereas miRNAs are down-regulated by exposure to serotonin, piRNAs are up-regulated. Importantly, we find that the piwi/piRNA complex facilitates serotonin-dependent methylation of a conserved CpG island in the promoter of CREB2, the major inhibitory constraint of memory in Aplysia, leading to the persistence of long-term synaptic facilitation. Taken together, these findings provide a new serotonin-dependent, bidirectional, small-RNA mediated gene regulatory mechanism during plasticity where miRNAs provide translational control and piRNAs provide long-lasting transcriptional control for the persistence of memory. Table of


This study aims to investigate the stability of profitability of Islamic banks resulted from the behaviour of corporate social responsibility in the short term as well as long term taking Indonesia as representative for Asean perspective and Turkey for Europe perspective. The study employs Vector Autoregression (VAR) and followed by Vector Error Correction Models (VECM) if there is co-integration. The IRF (Impulse Response Function) denotes different findings whilst Variance Decomposition emphasizes the most affected profitability variables resulted from the behaviour of corporate social responsibility. IRF result shows only return on asset of Islamic bank in Turkey found to have stability whether in the short terms or long terms. The other variables concluded to have similar pattern for Turkey and Indonesia as they tend to decline even very sharp in the long terms except return on equity for Indonesia has positive response where it tends to increase regardless of the changes in the behaviour or shock of corporate social responsibility. The behaviour of corporate social responsibility in Indonesia mostly influenced return on asset while it influences greatly towards return on equity for Islamic banks in Turkey. The application of corporate social responsibility varies depending on the policy of respective banks that linked to normative and perception of the bank and appears to be more important in disclosing of non-financial information in the annual report. The findings reveal that quite a few challenges lie ahead in shaping proper behaviour of corporate social responsibility that affect profitability of Islamic banks in Indonesia and Turkey. This needs to be taken on promptly by management teams of Islamic banks especially in Indonesia that focus on corporate social responsibility for Muslim society. While profitability variables in Turkey would affect the proper function of corporate social responsibility that aimed for social benefit. This paper is one of few studies which employ VAR/VECM model to investigate and forecast the shock or behaviour of corporate social responsibility towards profitability of Islamic banks in a country who adopt dual banking systems.


We previously identified and characterized a major lysosomal membrane glycoprotein, termed LGP85 (identical to LIMP II), in rat liver lysosomes. This study describes the distribution of the mRNA and protein of LGP85 in rat tissues. LGP85 protein and mRNA were detectable in all tissues when analyzed by Western and Northern blotting. The 4.2- and 2.2-kb transcripts of LGP85 were detected in all tissues. Liver and lung have the highest and lowest levels of LGP85 mRNA, respectively. A single protein band with an apparent molecular weight (Mr) of approximately 85000 was detected in each tissue. The specific protein content of LGP85 in spleen was markedly higher than in other tissues. LGP85 protein is distributed in the tissues independently of LGP85 mRNA. Furthermore, there was a less significant relationship between LGP85 protein and another lysosomal membrane glycoprotein, lamp-1, in the tissue distribution (a regression coefficient of 0.086), which suggests that LGP85 may function in vivo independently of lamp-1.


In this prospective, randomised, double-blind study, we investigated the effect of epidural anaesthesia and an antifibrinolytic agent, Aprotinin (500,000 KIU in bolus before surgery and 500,000 KIU h-1 in drip form during surgery), on intra and postoperative blood loss and transfusion requirements in total hip arthroplasty. Sixty patients were allocated randomly to four groups (A: epidural + general anesthesia + Aprotinin, B: epidural + general anesthesia + placebo (equal volume), C: general anaesthesia + Aprotinin, D: general anaesthesia + placebo). Postoperative analgesia: epidural analgesia in groups A and B, systemic analgesia with opiates in groups C and D. Blood loss during surgery was monitored and salvaged with the Compact-A Dideco, and postoperative blood loss with the BT 797 Recovery Dideco for the first 24 hours. Perioperative blood loss, frequency and quantity of transfusions were significantly higher in group D (p < 0.0001). Total blood loss was reduced by 31.3% by epidural anaesthesia, 20.4% by Aprotinin and 51.4% using a combination of the two techiniques.


Abstract We have examined 138 cases of a disorder previously described in people of Portuguese origin and which has received many names. By computer analysis of 46 different items of a standardized neurological examination carried out in each patient, we have been able to delineate the main components of the clinical presentation, to conclude that the marked variability in clinical expressions does not negate the homogeneity of the disorder, and to describe the natural history of this entity which should be called, for historical reasons, "Machado-Joseph Disease". This hereditary disease has an autosomal dominant pattern of inheritance, presenting as a progressive ataxia with external ophthalmoplegia, and should be classified within the group of "Ataxic multisystem degenerations". When the disease starts before the age of 20, it may present with marked spasticity, of a non progressive nature but often so severe that it can be accompanied by "Gegenhalten" countermovements and dystonic postures but little frank dystonia. There are few true extrapyramidal symptoms except akinesia. When the disease starts after the age of 50, the clinical spectrum is mostly that of an amyotrophic polyneuropathy with fasciculations accompanying the ataxia. For all the other cases the clinical picture is a c.ontinuum between these two extremes, the main determinant of the clinical phenotype being the age of onset and a secondary factor, the place of origin of the given kindred. The ataxic and amyotrophic components are clearly progressive with time in contrast to the spasticity component. Although the majority of known cases are of Portuguese origin, this is not obligatory. The next research endeavour should be a search for the chromosomal site of the gene, using molecular biology technology such as those for recombinant DNA.


Problem Although the General Conference Communication Department has a plan of action outlined for local conference communication directors, a clearly stated rationale for this department as to its place in the evangelistic strategem of the church has yet to be developed. The purpose of this study, therefore, was to provide the laity, church pastors, local conference communication directors, and conference presidents with a better understanding of the place for and duties of a trained conference communication director in an evangelistic context. Method Interviews with several professionals in communication, a study of the General Conference role description for conference communication directors, and a pre-questionnaire sent to fifty denominational workers in the United States gave the researcher the data needed for his design of the three surveys used in this study. These surveys or questionnaires--previously sent to thirty Andrews University faculty members for their advice and counsel--were sent to all conference presidents, all conference communication directors, and a random sampling of 354 pastors in the United States. The information received from these respondents, coupled with the researcher's own studies into theological and communication source materials and his contact with PR professionals, served as the information base for this study. Results The results of the project were as follows: 1. The respondents generally are concerned about the communication director having sufficient "time" for his work, due to his responsibilities for other departments in addition to his own. 2. Communication directors and presidents see conference communication directors as being engaged in up to 33 percent more activities in one month than that perceived by pastors. These findings seem to indicate that pastors generally receive less assistance from their communication directors than the communication directors themselves and conference presidents seem to think they receive. 3. The majority of the respondents consider the work of the communication director as "indirect evangelism in terms of image-building" (76.08 percent) rather than "seed-sowing evangelism" (46.33 percent). Thus most of the respondents appear to view the work of the communication director as more of a framework for or reinforcement to evangelism than a part of the evangelistic process itself. 4. Indications from the survey are that approximately 80 percent of all of the respondents had their training in theology or religion. Apparently due to this factor, all three groups see the need for communication directors to gain additional training in communication. This is especially emphasized by the communication directors themselves who give a higher response than either pastors or conference presidents in fifteen out of the nineteen categories noted in the survey concerning the professional or specialized training needed by communication directors. 5. The survey also indicates that a majority of the respondents see the communication department as being "approximately equal in importance to other conference departments" (40.65 percent) with a number from each group saying that it "could be" the "most important" department if it were perceived as such and were organized accordingly. However, these views are counterbalanced to some extent by those from all three groups who considered the department either "optional" (6.90 percent) or "less important" (14.64 percent) than other departments of the conference. 6. Even though a majority of the pastors say they are "well-acquainted" (63.66 percent) with the communication director, indications from the survey as a whole show that in many of the conferences, regardless of this acquaintance, relatively little assistance in communications is given to the pastors. 7. Results from the survey also indicate that a high percentage of the activities conference communication directors are involved in during a typical three-month period are office oriented rather than people oriented. These activities include writing (73.47 percent), photo coverage of church-related events (65.31 percent), preparation of resource and promotional materials (26.53 percent), and editing (14.29 percent). Conclusion The results of the study clearly indicate that local conference presidents, pastors, and communication directors themselves are relatively uncertain about the role and evangelistic value of the communication director in the local conference. This uncertainty appears to emerge from two primary causes: 0) the lack of time available to communication directors to do their work adequately, since most oversee one to three other departments as well, and (2) the lack of previous training for their position which in some respects tends to hinder their perceived and actual effectiveness in certain areas in which they otherwise would be considered experts (such as teaching pastors how to write for the news media or how to design radio or television spots). The researcher concludes that in order for local conference communication directors to serve their conferences with efficiency and effectiveness, they should be previously well-trained and, when called to this office, free from the administrative responsibilities involved in overseeing additional departments.


Abstract. We present air–sea fluxes of carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), momentum, and sensible heat measured by the eddy covariance method from the recently established Penlee Point Atmospheric Observatory (PPAO) on the south-west coast of the United Kingdom. Measurements from the south-westerly direction (open water sector) were made at three different sampling heights (approximately 15, 18, and 27 m above mean sea level, a.m.s.l.), each from a different period during 2014–2015. At sampling heights  ≥  18 m a.m.s.l., measured fluxes of momentum and sensible heat demonstrate reasonable ( ≤  ±20 % in the mean) agreement with transfer rates over the open ocean. This confirms the suitability of PPAO for air–sea exchange measurements in shelf regions. Covariance air–sea CO2 fluxes demonstrate high temporal variability. Air-to-sea transport of CO2 declined from spring to summer in both years, coinciding with the breakdown of the spring phytoplankton bloom. We report, to the best of our knowledge, the first successful eddy covariance measurements of CH4 emissions from a marine environment. Higher sea-to-air CH4 fluxes were observed during rising tides (20 ± 3; 38 ± 3; 29 ± 6 µmole m−2 d−1 at 15, 18, 27 m a.m.s.l.) than during falling tides (14 ± 2; 22 ± 2; 21 ± 5 µmole m−2 d−1), consistent with an elevated CH4 source from an estuarine outflow driven by local tidal circulation. These fluxes are a few times higher than the predicted CH4 emissions over the open ocean and are significantly lower than estimates from other aquatic CH4 hotspots (e.g. polar regions, freshwater). Finally, we found the detection limit of the air–sea CH4 flux by eddy covariance to be 20 µmole m−2 d−1 over hourly timescales (4 µmole m−2 d−1 over 24 h).


We study stochastic partial differential equations with singular drifts and with reflection, driven by space-time white noise with nonconstant diffusion coefficients under periodic boundary conditions. The existence and uniqueness of invariant measures is established under appropriate conditions. As a byproduct, the Holder continuity of the solution is obtained. The strong Feller property is also obtained. Moreover, we show large deviation principle.


Contrary to the seminal paper of Horn and Wolinsky (1988), we demonstrate that upstream firms, which sell their products to competing downstream firms, do not always have incentives to merge horizontally. In particular, we show that when bargaining takes place over two-part tariffs, and not over wholesale prices, upstream firms prefer to act as independent suppliers rather than as a monopolist supplier. Moreover, we show that horizontal mergers can be procompetitive, even in the absence of efficiency gains.


Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) assumes that source and target domain data are freely available and usually trained together to reduce the domain gap. However, considering the data privacy and the inefficiency of data transmission, it is impractical in real scenarios. Hence, it draws our eyes to optimize the network in the target domain without accessing labeled source data. To explore this direction in object detection, for the first time, we propose a source data-free domain adaptive object detection (SFOD) framework via modeling it into a problem of learning with noisy labels. Generally, a straightforward method is to leverage the pre-trained network from the source domain to generate the pseudo labels for target domain optimization. However, it is difficult to evaluate the quality of pseudo labels since no labels are available in target domain. In this paper, self-entropy descent (SED) is a metric proposed to search an appropriate confidence threshold for reliable pseudo label generation without using any handcrafted labels. Nonetheless, completely clean labels are still unattainable. After a thorough experimental analysis, false negatives are found to dominate in the generated noisy labels. Undoubtedly, false negatives mining is helpful for performance improvement, and we ease it to false negatives simulation through data augmentation like Mosaic. Extensive experiments conducted in four representative adaptation tasks have demonstrated that the proposed framework can easily achieve state-of-the-art performance. From another view, it also reminds the UDA community that the labeled source data are not fully exploited in the existing methods.


Background and Objectives: Exogenous osteomyelitis frequently follows traumatic or surgical inoculation of bacteria into bone and surrounding tissue. It is usually associated with open fractures, surgical implants, orthopaedic fixation devices and vascular insufficiencies such as diabetes mellitus, peripheral vascular diseases and presence of foreign bodies. The aim of this study was to identify the pathogenic bacteria causing osteomyelitis and to evaluate the prognosis and outcome of patients with exogenous osteomyelitis. Materials and Methods: Patients admitted with clinical and radiological features of exogenous osteomyelitis were selected for the study from June 2005 to October 2006. Bone curettings or aspirated materials from the sinus tract were collected. The specimens were cultured on appropriate media for bacterial culture. The patients who consented were followed up for 6 months to record their progress and outcome. Those followed up included both culture positives and negatives. Results: Out of 125 cases of osteomyelitis, 75 (60%) were positive by culture, 59 (78.7%) were monomicrobial infections and 16 (21.3%) were polymicrobial infections. Staphylococcus aureu s, 56 (60.8%) in number, was the predominant organism isolated followed by Escherichia coli , eight (8.7%); Klebsiella pneumoniae , seven (7%); Pseudomonas aeruginosa , five (5.4%); β-haemolytic streptococci, four (4.4%); Proteus mirabilis , three (3.2%); Enterococcus faecalis , two (2.2%); Acinetobacter baumannii , two (2.2%); Corynebacterium jeikeium , one (1.1%); Staphylococcus epidermidis , one (1.1%); Proteus vulgaris , one (1.1%); Kingella species one (1.1%) and Arcanobacterium species, one (1.1%). Out of the coagulase-positive staphylococci, 29 (51.8%) were Methicillin-resistant S. aureus . Of the 61 cases that were followed up, 44 cases were culture positive. The total cure rate was 60.2%. Conclusion: Appropriate antibiotic therapy after culture and sensitivity has a major role in treating exogenous osteomyelitis in the presence of fracture and instability of bone. In spite of appropriate surgical correction, the major risk factors that led to recurrence of infections and amputations were overcrowding in wards, extensive tissue injury, poor economic status of patients, non-availability of drugs in the hospital pharmacy, poor compliance of patients and drug toxicity.


Thirty-eight patients presented with previously untreated, predominantly low-grade juxtacortical osteosarcoma. There were 12 (32%) men and 26 (68%) women with a mean age of 28.9 years. The most common sites of tumor were the distal femur (n = 28) and proximal tibia (n = 5). Twenty-five patients presented with Stage IB tumors. Twelve had Stage IIB, which although it was predominantly low-grade, had an area of high grade tumor, so the tumors were considered dedifferentiated. One patient had Stage III tumor. All patients were alive at 6.75 years' average followup. Negative but close margins were achieved in all but two patients (range, 1-80 mm). Intramedullary extension was seen in 17 (44.7%) patients, and the adjacent cortex was involved in 27 (71.1%) patients. There was no statistically significant difference between tumor size, site, radiographic appearance, cortical or intramedullary extension, grade, resection margin, or pretreatment duration of symptoms and local recurrence. Intramedullary extension of tumor does not seem to increase the risk of metastatic disease. Dedifferentiation of predominantly low-grade juxtacortical osteosarcoma in not previously treated tumors is uncommon. Based on these data, close but negative margins may be adequate in achieving local disease control and preventing metastases in these patients.


Sumerian-Akkadian mythology reaches back to the earliest lists of gods in the third millennium bce and preoccupied the Mesopotamian intellectuals for more than 2000 years. This overview describes four major moments in the earlier phases of that history, each putting in place a different type of cosmic building block: ontologies, infrastructures, genealogies, and interfaces. These four phases stretch from the first mythological narratives in the mid-third millennium down to the late second and first millennium bce, when Mesopotamian materials are reconfigured and adapted for cuneiform scribal traditions in northern Mesopotamia, Syria and the Levant. Rather than limiting ourselves to late, somewhat heterodox recompilations such as the Enuma Elish or the Baal Epic, this contribution argues that the most important and long-lived features of the mythological tradition in Mesopotamia came into existence between 2500 and 1500bce.


An assessment model is presented that breaks reading down into six discrete skill areas that are both teachable and assessable. The six traits of an effective reader are: (1) decoding conventions; (2) establishing comprehension; (3) realizing content; (4) developing interpretation; (5) integrating for synthesis; and (6) critiquing for evaluation. Chapter 1 explains and develops these traits. Chapters 2 through 5 are devoted to specific grade levels, outlining reading development and effective teaching for kindergarten through grade 2, grades 3 through 5, the intermediate and middle school years, and high school and later years. Each of the grade-specific chapters contains a four-part framework to outline reading assessment and instruction. Each contains a theoretical review of research activities, samples of student work, six lesson plans for the grade levels, and a list of recommended books appropriate for student readers at that grade level. Seven appendixes contain a reader interest survey, a reading development continuum, discussions of the traits of an effective reader at the various grade levels, and three sample texts. (Contains 6 figures and 38 references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ********************************************************************************


Numerical solutions of the equations describing flow of variably fluidized Coulomb mixtures predict key features of dry granular avalanches and water-saturated debris flows measured in physical experiments. These features include time-dependent speeds, depths, and widths of flows as well as the geometry of resulting deposits. Three-dimensional (3-D) boundary surfaces strongly influence flow dynamics because transverse shearing and cross-stream momentum transport occur where topography obstructs or redirects motion. Consequent energy dissipation can cause local deceleration and deposition, even on steep slopes. Velocities of surge fronts and other discontinuities that develop as flows cross 3-D terrain are predicted accurately by using a Riemann solution algorithm. The algorithm employs a gravity wave speed that accounts for different intensities of lateral stress transfer in regions of extending and compressing flow and in regions with different degrees of fluidization. Field observations and experiments indicate that flows in which fluid plays a significant role typically have high-friction margins with weaker interiors partly fluidized by pore pressure. Interaction of the strong perimeter and weak interior produces relatively steep-sided, flat-topped deposits. To simulate these effects, we compute pore pressure distributions using an advection-diffusion model with enhanced diffusivity near flow margins. Although challenges remain in evaluating pore pressure distributions in diverse geophysical flows, Riemann solutions of the depth-averaged 3-D Coulomb mixture equations provide a powerful tool for interpreting and predicting flow behavior. They provide a means of modeling debris flows, rock avalanches, pyroclastic flows, and related phenomena without invoking and calibrating rheological parameters that have questionable physical significance.


Background: Genetic testing for cancer predisposition genes like BRCA1/2 allows the quantification of future cancer risks and the adoption of preventive measures such as chemoprevention, screening, and prophylactic surgeries to mitigate risks. First-in-family mutations in BRCA1/2 are generally identified in a proband via full-sequence analysis. Once a familial mutation is identified, probands may share test information with family members to alert them of risks. Family members may then pursue single-site testing (SST) to determine if the familial mutation was inherited. Despite the high cancer risks associated with BRCA1/2 mutations, research suggests many family members remain untested or experience delays to confirmatory SST. Few studies have characterized the diverse factors influencing transmission of risk information and uptake of SST within families. Methods: Probands undergoing full-sequence BRACAnalysis by Myriad Genetic Laboratories (MGL) who were found to have unique mutations in BRCA1/2 were randomly selected across 6 years (~50 per year, 2007-2012) from the MGL BRCA1/2 database. In the same time frame, putative "relatives" were identified by linking the proband unique mutation to all downstream requests for SST at the same site. Clinical characteristics for probands and putative relatives were extracted from the MGL Test Request Form (TRF). Pedigrees were independently constructed by two members of the research team for each family based on personal/family history data. Disputed family structures were resolved through group consensus after input from a third member of the research team. Results: Linked data for 298 probands and 701 linked relatives undergoing SST were included in analyses. Overall ≥1 relative was tested in 265/298 (89%) families. Probands were primarily women (97%) of Western/Northern European ancestry (56%). Proband mean age of testing was 49.6 years [range 22-87], and over 90% had a personal history of cancer: [breast (73%) or ovarian (12%), multiple cancers (22%)]. A median 2 relatives were tested per proband [range 0-13]. Median number of days between proband and first relative tested was 75 (2.5 mos). Median time until first test decreased by an average of 11 days per year from 2007-2012 (p=0.01) and there was a trend toward increased SST testing in year one (39% families had ≥1 SST in the first year of follow-up in 2007 vs 78% in 2012, p=0.001). Siblings (n=275/701, 39%) were overall the most frequently tested relative followed by children (22%), parents (11%) and cousins (11%), while delay was shortest for parents (mean 136 days) and longest for cousins (mean 460 days). Univariate analyses found that relationship to proband (p Conclusion: Uptake of SST in BRCA1/2 families peaks in year 1 but occurs over many years and primarily among first-degree relatives. Testing delays have decreased over time (2007-2012) and may indicate more frequent sharing of high risk information in families, greater access (e.g. insurance, geographic) to BRCA1/2 SST for relatives, and/or greater awareness of the options for risk reduction once BRCA1/2 status is determined. Over an observation period ≥1 and ≤5 years, a striking 11% of positive BRCA1/2 tests were not followed by a SST. Citation Format: Michael J. Hall, Kim Rainey, Allison Davis, Elizabeth Handorf, Rajesh Kaldate, Kelsey Moyes, Mary B. Daly. Predictors of delay to single-site confirmatory testing for familial BRCA1/2 mutations. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the Twelfth Annual AACR International Conference on Frontiers in Cancer Prevention Research; 2013 Oct 27-30; National Harbor, MD. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Can Prev Res 2013;6(11 Suppl): Abstract nr B08.


The re-emergence of the property market in China since late 1980s has resulted in the rapid growth of the market for valuation services and of professional property valuation bodies. However, the valuation profession has been trapped in technical, ethical and political issues and the market is segmented due to statutory and non-statutory monopolistic practices. This paper reports the findings of a survey of the standard methods of valuation used, the codes of practice adopted, and the conflicts among the professional bodies. It evaluates the methods and codes of practices using those adopted by the RICS as the benchmark. It then analyses the role of the government and its changes to provide an explanation of the development of property valuation in an institutional perspective. Finally the paper probes the opportunities for international property valuation practitioners to participate in the market when China opens up the market to honour its commitments for the entry of the World Trade Organisation.


Bionano genome mapping is a robust optical mapping technology used for de novo construction of whole genomes using ultra-long DNA molecules, able to efficiently interrogate genomic structural variation. It is also used for functional analysis such as epigenetic analysis and DNA replication mapping and kinetics. Genomic labeling for genome mapping is currently specified by a single strand nicking restriction enzyme followed by fluorophore incorporation by nick-translation (NLRS), or by a direct label and stain (DLS) chemistry which conjugates a fluorophore directly to an enzyme-defined recognition site. Although these methods are efficient and produce high quality whole genome mapping data, they are limited by the number of available enzymes—and thus the number of recognition sequences—to choose from. The ability to label other sequences can provide higher definition in the data and may be used for countless additional applications. Previously, custom labeling was accomplished via the nick-translation approach using CRISPR-Cas9, leveraging Cas9 mutant D10A which has one of its cleavage sites deactivated, thus effectively converting the CRISPR-Cas9 complex into a nickase with customizable target sequences. Here we have improved upon this approach by using dCas9, a nuclease-deficient double knockout Cas9 with no cutting activity, to directly label DNA with a fluorescent CRISPR-dCas9 complex (CRISPR-bind). Unlike labeling with CRISPR-Cas9 D10A nickase, in which nicking, labeling, and repair by ligation, all occur as separate steps, the new assay has the advantage of labeling DNA in one step, since the CRISPR-dCas9 complex itself is fluorescent and remains bound during imaging. CRISPR-bind can be added directly to a sample that has already been labeled using DLS or NLRS, thus overlaying additional information onto the same molecules. Using the dCas9 protein assembled with custom target crRNA and fluorescently labeled tracrRNA, we demonstrate rapid labeling of repetitive DUF1220 elements. We also combine NLRS-based whole genome mapping with CRISPR-bind labeling targeting Alu loci. This rapid, convenient, non-damaging, and cost-effective technology is a valuable tool for custom labeling of any CRISPR-Cas9 amenable target sequence.


We study the pricing of contracts in fixed income markets in the presence of volatility uncertainty. We consider an arbitrage-free bond market under volatility uncertainty. The uncertainty about the volatility is modeled by a G-Brownian motion, which drives the forward rate dynamics. The absence of arbitrage is ensured by a drift condition. In such a setting we obtain a sublinear pricing measure for additional contracts. Similar to the forward measure approach, we define a forward sublinear expectation to simplify the valuation of cashflows. Under the forward sublinear expectation, we obtain a robust version of the expectations hypothesis and a valuation method for bond options. With these tools, we derive robust pricing rules for the most common interest rate derivatives: fixed coupon bonds, floating rate notes, interest rate swaps, swaptions, caps, and floors. For fixed coupon bonds, floating rate notes, and interest rate swaps, we obtain a single price, which is the same as in traditional models. For swaptions, caps, and floors, we obtain a range of prices, which is bounded by the prices from traditional models with the highest and lowest possible volatility. Due to these pricing formulas, the model naturally exhibits unspanned stochastic volatility.


The cysteine residues of hen ovalbumin were S-carboxymethylated with non-radioactive iodoacetic acid under various conditions by altering the pH at which the protein was denatured in 8 M urea, by using different molar ratios of non-radioactive iodoacetic acid to cysteine and by varying the time at which carboxymethylation was commenced after denaturing conditions had been applied. Under the various conditions, the thiol groups were carboxymethylated to different extents, the residual thiol groups being measured by reaction with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) in the presence of sodium dodecyl sulfate. When ovalbumin is carboxymethylated in alkaline urea, it unfolds slowly and the carboxymethylation is incomplete even with 150-fold excess iodoacetic acid. The known rapid thiol-disulfide exchange that occurs at alkaline pH values makes this method of carboxymethylation unsuitable as a preliminary step for blocking the native cysteine residues of ovalbumin before reduction and labelling the thiol groups formed by reduction of the disulfide bonds. Titration of the thiol groups of ovalbumin in 6 M guanidine hydrochloride or 1% (w/v) sodium dodecyl sulfate at pH 8.2 with 5,5'-dithiobis(2-nitrobenzoic acid) is more rapid than in 8 M urea and these solvents would be preferable for studies of the disulfide-bonded sequences. Denaturation of ovalbumin in acidic 8 M urea is a very rapid process, and under mild acid conditions thiol-disulfide interchange is much slower. Subsequent carboxymethylation of the cysteine residues at alkaline pH with 150-fold excess iodoacetic acid results in complete carboxymethylation and the carboxymethylated ovalbumin can be reduced and labelled with radioactive iodoacetic acid with specific labelling of the half-cystine residues involved in the disulfide bond. The results are discussed in relation to the allocation of half-cystine residues in other protein systems that contain both thiol and disulfide groups.


The article describes legal and organizational aspects of the formation of public land resources strategic management concept in the Russian Federation. It is shown that the current state of land laws, as well as implementation of the delineated in the field major functions by state authorities do not entirely provide a complex solution to integrate land resources for a sustainable socio-economic development of society. In order to resolve problems on the basis of the concept of public strategic management of land resources formulated by the author, some proposals are made to improve land legislation and legislation in the sphere of state strategic planning.State strategic land-use management is defi ned as activities of public authorities aimed at ensuring balanced land resources for a sustainable socio-economic development in the long term. This work suggests that the main functions of state land management (state land cadastre, zoning, spatial planning, etc.), should come from equal consideration of the properties of the earth as a natural resource, property and spatial basis of development. In order to determine the objects state strategic management, the article considers it necessary to put down the category of Land Fund in the legislation of the Russian Federation.The work emphasizes the importance of a more consistent harmonization of legislation on state strategic planning, land and natural resources legislation.


Summary In this study, we examined older people's views and experiences of family relations in Iceland. The goal was to explore the frequency and kinds of contact, and the support older people received from their adult biological children and stepchildren. We performed cluster sampling covering community centers in municipalities nationwide in Iceland. The questionnaire was answered by 273 older people, including 193 women (75%) and 64 men (25%). The average age was 79 years. About 200 (74%) lived in the capital area of Reykjavik, while 70 (26%) lived in the countryside. Findings Older people received more support from biological children than stepchildren. Specifically, differences were found in both frequency and quality of contact. The results revealed gender differences; daughters offering more help and support than sons. Older women have more frequent contact and closer relationships with their biological children than with other children. Relationships with stepchildren were weaker in all respects. These results are discussed in connection to structural and cultural factors, with a focus on the implications of changes in family structure, new communication styles, and effects of media. Applications Although the increased frequencies of divorce and stepparenting can affect connections within families, communities commonly disregard the different needs of stepfamilies, sometimes called "stepblindness". Policy makers and professionals such as social workers need to concede different needs of older people in stepfamilies. Conclusions are drawn from the perspective of welfare policy issues, such as the need of more precise law provisions and implementations on social services for families.


Images of vulnerable or damaged children are common in media invocations of 'natural' disasters and military conflicts around the world. The suffering of children invokes strong feelings in those witnessing the image, where the face of the injured or damaged child 'personifies injustice' (Thorne, 2003:261), for example in anti-war demonstrations in 2003 during the Iraqi war, a commonly used image was of a badly injured child with the text 'This is the face of collateral damage' (Thorne, 2003). The increasing (but partially experienced) effects of globalisation and mass media serve to compress time-space
(Harvey, 1989, in Ackroyd and Pilkington, 1999) so that events around the world become experienced as immediate. In this short paper, I will discuss the British media's daily reporting of the elevated 'Middle East' crisis at the end of July 2006, and the ways in which dead and damaged children were powerfully used in the reporting. I will illustrate some of the arguments of critical psychology in the construction of childhood to discuss
my concerns with representing universal childhoods to explain contextualised children.


involution is obtained by interchanging the variables in a bilinear relation and subtracting, instead of by squaring a matrix as on page 49, the fact that it suffices for one pair of distinct points to have the involutory property is proved simultaneously; the author has to give a separate proof on the following page. A slight modification of the argument on page 54 shows that three perpsectivities suffice to construct a projectivity on a line. The book is clearly printed and contains a large number of examples, the most important of which are accompanied by solutions, thus augmenting the theory developed in the text.


We look at an enhanced loss-harvesting strategy, tax-rate arbitrage, which exploits the differential between short- and long-term tax rates. Our study relies on ATBAT, an After-Tax Back-Testing Analysis Tool that lets us examine tax-managed strategies over numerous historical periods. For the ideal tax-rate arbitrage investor, one who is subject to federal only tax rates, who has a long horizon and a planned liquidation date, and who launches the strategy from all cash, tax-rate arbitrage generated an average of 0.78% in excess after-tax active return at a 10-year horizon relative to a standard loss-harvesting strategy. Other investors with different profiles may benefit from tax-rate arbitrage but typically to a lesser extent.


Introduction: Increased rumination and reduced resilience are psychological difficulties that are experienced by women with breast cancer. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to investigate the effectiveness of mindfulness training on enhancing resilience and reducing rumination in women patients with breast cancer. Methods: The design of this randomized trial was pretest-posttest with the control group. The study sample included 40 women with breast cancer. Patients, who met entry requirements to design, randomly assigned into two intervention and control groups. Both groups completed rumination and resilience questionnaires. The intervention group received eight sessions of mindfulness training. After completing the course, posttest was conducted for both intervention and control groups. Results: Comparison of the two groups using t-test, showed that there are significant difference between the two groups in terms of resilience (t=5.22, P= 0/01) and rumination (t=-6.21, P= 0/01). In other words, mindfulness training was effective in increasing resilience and reducing rumination. Conclusion: The findings suggest that mindfulness training can be considered as an effective intervention to increase resilience and reduce rumination in women with breast cancer. It is necessary to examine the efficacy of the intervention with other psychological variables.


Organization of anticoagulant therapy control plays a key role in ensuring the effectiveness and safety of anticoagulant use. Currently, several models of organization are successfully used in the Russian Federation, which cover more than 23,000 patients at high risk for thromboembolic events. There are following common features of the models used: the maximum reduction in the time from the moment of international normalized ratio (INR) testing with a quick communication with a patient for the need to adjust the dose, the ability to sort patients depending on the degree of hypocoagulation and the risks of events with the creation of a personalized approach to treatment, the organization of a shared information space and maintaining a register of patients.


The experience in examination and surgical treatment of 41 patients with a combination of solid and liquid lesions of the kidneys is analyzed. Complex examination (including USE, CT and MRI) diagnosed a combination of typical tumor and uncomplicated cyst of the kidney in 39 (95.12%) cases. Combination of a solid node and liquid lesion with renal cell carcinoma structure was seen in 2 (4.88%) cases. Surgical policy was individual for each patient. Patients with liquid lesions of a solitary kidney who have undergone earlier nephrectomy for renal tumor should be followed up because of risk of metachronous cancer.


A benzoxazinone based fluorescent probe for the specific and efficient detection of bisulfite ions in aqueous medium is described. The probe formed a bisulfite/sulphite adduct with an associated turn-on fluorescence response in the red wavelength region. No interference was observed in the detection process from all possible competing anions and molecules, including cyanide ion, cysteine, homocysteine and glutathione. In addition, the probe showed a fast response time, low detection limit, and cell membrane permeability. Furthermore, the probe was two-photon excitable, enabling imaging of endogenous bisulfite ions in HeLa cells as well as in deep tissues from different organs of mouse.


PurposeA growing body of research from various domains has investigated Airbnb, a two-sided market platform for peer-based accommodation sharing. The authors suggest that it is due time to take a step back and assess the current state of affairs. This paper aims to conflate and synthesize research on Airbnb.Design/methodology/approachTo facilitate research on Airbnb and its underlying principles in electronic commerce, the authors present a structured literature review on Airbnb.FindingsThe findings are based on 118 articles from the fields of tourism, information and management, law and economics between 2013 and 2018. Based on this broad basis, the authors find that: research on Airbnb is highly diverse in terms of domains, methods and scope; motives for using Airbnb are manifold (e.g. financial, social and environmental); trust and reputation are considered crucial by almost all scholars; the platform's variety is reflected in prices; and the majority of work is based on surveys and empirical data while experiments are scarce.Practical implicationsBased on the present assessment of studied topics, domains, methods and combinations thereof, the authors suggest that research should move toward building atop of a common ground of data structures and vocabulary, and that attention should focus on the identified gaps and hitherto scarcely used combinations. The set of under-represented areas includes cross-cultural investigations, field experiments and audit studies, the consideration of dynamic processes (e.g. based on panel data), Airbnb's "experiences" and automated pricing algorithms and the rating distribution's skewness.Originality/valueThis study provides a comprehensive overview of work on the accommodation sharing platform Airbnb, to the best of the auhtors' knowledge, representing the first systematic literature review. The authors hope that researchers and practitioners alike will find this review useful as a reference for future research on Airbnb and as a guide for the development of innovative applications based on the platform's peculiarities and paradigms in electronic commerce practice. From a practical perspective, the general tenor suggests that hotel and tourism operators may benefit from: focusing on their core advantages over Airbnb and differentiating features and aligning their marketing communication with their users' aspirations.


y 12. y amplitude spatial patterns generated bythe reaction-diffusion mechanism (4) with parameter values ax = 1.5, K = 0.1, p = 18.5, sO = 92, aO = 64 (steadystate s = 10, J = 9) and diffusion coefficient ratio fl = 10: (a) scale factor y = 9, (b) y = 15, (c) y = 25. Note that for the same geometryis a measure of scale. (d)-(f) Various animal tail markings: (d) Zebra (y burchelli chapmani) from Willoughby (1974); (e) genet (Genetta genetta); (f) cheetah (Acinony


This article focuses on presenting the results from the research Barreiras para implementacao da Lousa Digital Interativa: um estudo de caso, thus contributing to the systematization of knowledge about the implementation of this didactic-pedagogic resource. Starting from the set of barriers listed in the BECTA report of the 2004, we have elaborated a panorama composed of the barriers, their main characteristics and whether they occur in the context of the Brazilian school being studied. The field study consisted of an analysis of available hardware and software, interviews with the principal and teachers, as well as direct observation in the classrooms. As a result, we will present an analysis of the barriers in the aforementioned report which were found in the Brazilian context. Furthermore, two new barriers emerge in Brazilian public schools.


Background Anxiety disorders are common and a substantial proportion of patients do not respond to conventional treatments such as SSRIs or CBT. Capsulotomy is a neurosurgical treatment for treatment refractory patients with Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder (OCD) and other anxiety disorders. The aim of this thesis was to assess the long-term efficacy and safety of capsulotomy. Methods and results In Study I, 26 consecutive patients who underwent capsulotomy from 1975-1991 were followed after a mean of 13 years. Main diagnoses were Generalized Anxiety Disorder (n=13), Panic Disorder (n=8) and Social Phobia (n=5). Mean Brief Scale of Anxiety score dropped significantly from preoperative 22 to 10 at long-term. Seven patients had postoperative problems in the domains of executive functioning, apathy or disinhibition. Mean weight gain in the first postoperative year was almost 10 kg. Study II and III were substudies of Study I. In Study II the capsulotomy lesion size and localization in the anterior-posterior plane was analyzed. We could not replicate previous findings of a common anatomical denominator in the right-sided capsule in patients responding to the treatment. In Study III, we used a self-rated personality inventory, the Karolinska Scales of Personality, to describe changes preto postoperatively in self-rated personality. Patients were significantly less anxiety prone at follow-up. Study IV was a long-term follow-up of 25 consecutive OCD capsulotomies performed 1988 2000. Mean Y-BOCS was 34 preoperatively and dropped to 18 at long-term follow-up (p<0.0001). Only 2 patients achieved remission from OCD without substantial side effects. Several neurosurgical complications related to radiosurgery were reported.Two patients were severely disinhibited postoperatively. Ten patients were considered to suffer from significant problems in the area of executive functioning, apathy or disinhibition. Global functioning did not return to normal after surgery. Lesion size did not correlate significantly with efficacy or adverse effects. Conclusions Capsulotomy is effective in reducing symptoms in both OCD and other anxiety disorders. About every third patient experienced apathy, executive problems or disinhibition at long-term follow up, therefore we conclude that capsulotomy is not a safe procedure. We could not identify lesion characteristics that could explain the differences in outcome. We could not confirm the hypothesis of a certain right-sided lesion as a prerequisite for response to capsulotomy.


The role of TGF-β in diabetes-induced renal fibrosis remains incompletely understood. We showed decreased NFE2 expression in TGFβ-treated renal proximal tubule cells and in diabetic mouse kidneys. TGF-β treatment increased NFE2 mRNA level in HK11 cells suggesting a role for NFE2 degradation. ERK and p38 MAPKs promoted TGFβ-induced NFE2 degradation, CTGF and FN expression. NFE2 over-expression/silencing inhibited exacerbated TGFβ-induced CTGF. Proteasome inhibitor MG132 preserved TGFβ-induced NFE2 expression and inhibited CTGF and FN expression. Current study examined role of JNK MAPK and HDAC inhibition on NFE2 and CTGF expression in TGF-β treated HK-11 cells and effects of MG132 on JNK activation in OVE26 mouse kidneys and in TGFβ-treated HK-11 cells.HK11 cells were pre-treated with/without JNK inhibitor SP600125, HDAC inhibitor trichostatin A, and MG132, for an hour prior to treatment with TGFβ for 24 h.JNK blockade inhibited TGFβ-induced CTGF expression but not NF-E2 expression. MG132 blocked TGFβ-induced JNK activation in HK11 cells and in OVE26 mice. HDAC inhibition exacerbated TGFβ-induced NFE2 degradation and induced CTGF expression. ERK, p38 and JNK pathways contribute to enhanced CTGF expression but only p38 and ERK MAPK pathways contribute to NFE2 degradation. MG132 blocked TGFβ-induced JNK activation, suggesting that proteasome function is necessary for JNK activation and therefore, blocking JNK had no effect on preserving NF-E2 expression. Blocking HDAC activation possibly promoted HAT activity, NFE2 acetylation and enhanced degradation. Thus, proteasome inhibition plus TGFβ preserved NFE2 expression and prevented JNK activation and CTGF. HDAC inhibition plus TGFβ exacerbated NFE2 degradation and enhanced JNK activation and CTGF. We identified NFE2 as a potential anti-fibrotic protein in the kidney. Disclosure J. Li: None. M. Rane: None. L. Cai: None. Y. Tan: None.


A link between early malnutrition and development of components of the metabolic syndrome later in life has been shown in epidemiological and animal data. Moreover, studies now tend to demonstrate that not only fetal environment is important for developmental programming but postnatal milieu could also participate to this process. The "predictive adaptive response" hypothesis stipulates that not only a suboptimal environment during fetal life will lead to development of metabolic disorders later in life but more likely is a mismatch between the early environment and that one really encountered later on that increases the risk of developing later disease. Based on this hypothesis, we examined the effect of an early mismatched environment produced by fetal protein restriction and postnatal catch-up growth on the development of obesity and cardiovascular disease in male mice. We focussed our study on the analysis of adipose tissue with in vitro examination of differentiation, proliferation of preadipocytes. We also investigated in vivo the development of overweight in adult mice and we measured the expression of specific adipose tissue molecules with microarray. Finally, we investigated the development of hypertension and atherosclerosis in parallel to obesity. Our results indicated that postnatal catch-up growth after fetal protein restriction favours the development of obesiy in adult male mice. Early mismatched nutrition also influenced the capacity of proliferation of preadipocyte as well as the expression of adipose tissue specific molecules involved mainly in lipid biosynthesis. Finally, early nutrition also induced hypertension in adult male mice while no influence of fetal protein restriction and postnatal catch-up growth was observed on atherosclerosis development.


Plasmodium falciparum causes the most severe form of malaria. Utilization of fatty acids in serum is thought to be necessary for survival of this parasite in erythrocytes, and thus characterization of the parasite fatty acid metabolism is important in developing a new strategy for controlling malaria. Here, we examined which combinations of fatty acids present in human serum support the continuous culture of P. falciparum in serum-free medium. Metabolic labelling and gas chromatography analyses revealed that, despite the need for particular fatty acids for the growth of intraerythrocytic P. falciparum, it can metabolize a broad range of serum-derived fatty acids into the major lipid species of their membranes and lipid bodies. In addition, these analyses showed that the parasite's overall fatty acid composition reflects that of the medium, although the parasite has a limited capacity to desaturate and elongate serum-derived fatty acids. These results indicate that the Plasmodium parasite is distinct from most cells, which maintain their fatty acid composition by coordinating de novo biosynthesis, scavenging, and modification (desaturation and elongation).


The article accounts for the emergence of an external dimension of EU internal policies and focuses on the migration, asylum and border management domains. Building on Bretherton & Vogler (2006), it assesses and explains the forms and extent of EU's external engagement. Firstly, it assesses the degree of EU actorness – that is, the extent to which the Union has become an actor in global politics - in the researched fields in terms of opportunity, presence and capabilities. Secondly, it attempts to explain the emergence of such EU external engagement. While the article defends that the treaty objective of creating an European Area of Freedom, Security and Justice (article 3 TEU) makes EU external action in the migration, asylum and border control domains necessary, it also acknowledges the role of external triggers, such as the so-called 2015 'migration and refugee crisis'. On the one hand, external events can provide scope conditions accelerating the pace by which EU external action is pursued. On the other hand, they can also trigger the comeback of hard security concerns linked to claims for 'more national sovereignty', thus constraining the development of EU (external) action. The analysis carried out shows that the degree of EU actorness varies considerably across the three domains researched. On one extreme of the continuum, neo-realist understandings of increased arrivals of foreign citizens as hard security challenges to member states account for the enhanced interest in cooperation at the intergovernmental level. Such interpretations explain why the most established domain for EU external engagement is the cooperation with third countries on border management, as it is shown by the expansion of the mandate of EU agencies such as Europol and Frontex, or by negotiation by the European Commission of international agreements containing clauses on readmission of third country citizens irregularly residing in the EU to their countries of origin (the Mobility Partnerships). Less developed, yet quickly evolving, is the EU external dimension of migration policies. Functional concerns related to the need to acquire highly specialized (and relatively cheap) workforce towards an efficient functioning of the single market have prompted a remarkable the law-making in this area, as shown by the EC directives and regulations aimed at third country students, unpaid trainees, voluntary workers and big corporations' staff. While the neo-functionalist logic explains the emergence of the external dimension of EU migration policies, it may also explain this development is currently limited to certain areas within the policy area. A comprehensive approach to migration policy has not proved possible to achieve so far, due to institutional and bureaucratic limitations, as well as the different agenda of national policymakers. On the other extreme of the continuum, liberal theories and constructivism account for the constraints currently limiting the full development of EU actorness in asylum policies. Several member states' civil societies do not perceive prospects for absolute gains deriving from cooperation at the EU level. Constraints to the establishment of international institutions regulating asylum policies are thus understood through the lack of strong societal pressures at the member states level. Therefore, while the article puts forward a combination of neo-functionalist, neo-realist, liberal intergovernamentalist and constructivist explanations to account for the emergence of an external dimension of migration asylum and border management policies, as wells as for the obstacles opposing that process, it also provides evidence that external triggers such as increased migratory pressure lead to internal policy dynamics with positive or negative impacts on the shift of actorness from EU member states to the EU itself. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.eis.0.11.18956


Problem statement: Museums were places where all collections, which indicated values of arts and cultural heritages that were useful for learning, were kept. Establishment of museums was successful by having development, systematic management, cultural inheritance, knowledge transferring, participation and support. Approach: This study aimed to study backgrounds of museum development in temples in the area of the lower northeastern, to study current conditions and problems about museum management in temples and cultural management with community participation in the lower northeastern and to study development and management of museum in temples and cultural inheritance by community participation in the lower northeastern. This research was a qualitative research and conducted by literature review and field data collecting with interviewing, observations, focus group discussions and workshops with 170 persons from group of key informants, casual informants and related agencies. Data were analyzed with cultural diffusion theory and presented results in form of descriptive analysis. Results: The study revealed that backgrounds of museum development in temple were initiated by monks, who collected things in old building without systematic exhibition, labeling of donators or source indicating. Most of collections were things in that community such as traditional utensil donated to temple when they were unused and the rest was from other communities. After having many of collections, monks asked community for fund raising to construct museum building in the area of that temple. Moreover, things from discovering of local archeological sites were also kept in museum and there were many visitors. After that an agency of Fine Arts Department came to study and research by using budgets for the second exploring such local archeological sites and then kept in buildings of temple museum. Currently, it was found that; (1) there was a simple management on antiques of 1500-3000 years ago, agricultural equipments aged of 60 yeas up, but they were still lacking of contents to indicate their values and importance and monks played their roles as curators. Collections were temporally kept in some building or under construction for being permanent museum and had not any registration. (2) For cultural inheritance there were activities on annual local traditions of festivals and opened for teachers, students and pupils to study bodies of knowledge in the museum and (3) for participation, temple and community would coordinate teachers to attend meeting on temple activities. Development of museum in temple, it was found that; (1) Body of knowledge management in temple was operated by a working group consisted of curator and museum controller. For museum building, there were exhibitions with good space for allocation and suggestion from experts to register collections. Museum was also provided with car park and toilets both in and outside building. (2) For cultural inheritance, there was indigenous knowledge transfer, local historical investigation, students and teachers came to learn and be trained as guides. (3) In aspect of participation, museum management was in form of collaborated working by meeting, planning, activities providing and decision making. A joint committee was appointed by temple to cooperation among temple, community and schools. Conclusion/Recommendations: Museum development in temple by community participation for supporting body of knowledge in museum and did their duty in maintenance was reducing burdens both of temple and government sector. Museum would be maintained by development of educational benefits for the next generations. Meanwhile, related agencies should support, assist, suggest and frequently survey data of museum in temple. These were for transferring to community with knowledge, development, management and maintenances all collections in museum. Finally, community should provide museum in temple with guide training, security guards and analyzing works step-by-step for further development.


This in vitro study aimed to investigate the anti-erosive effect of antacid suspensions applied to enamel after exposure to hydrochloric acid (HCl). Ninety bovine enamel slabs were embedded, flattened, and polished. Reference areas were created and specimens were divided into six groups. They were exposed to 0.01 M HCl (pH 2) for 2 min, followed by immersion for 1 min in one of the following test suspensions: magnesium hydroxide, aluminum hydroxide, magnesium hydroxide/aluminum hydroxide, sodium alginate/sodium bicarbonate/calcium carbonate, or hydrated magnesium aluminate. Artificial saliva was used as a negative control. Specimens were subjected to a total of five cycles of erosion/antacid treatment. Enamel surface loss was measured (in micrometers) by optical profilometry. In addition, baseline and final surface microhardness (SMH) values of enamel were obtained. It was found that antacid suspensions significantly reduced enamel loss, and that similar protection was afforded by all formulations. No differences were observed between the final enamel SMH values among groups. Antacid suspensions counteracted HCl-induced enamel loss, although they were not effective in reducing enamel softening. Mouth rinsing with antacid suspensions after vomiting can potentially represent a promising strategy to counteract enamel loss caused by erosion.


The aim of this study is to evaluate the prevalence of low birth weight and other perinatal risk factors in children diagnosed with neurodevelopmental disorders. This is one of the first studies in the Arabian Gulf region focused on the contribution of these factors toward the development of various disorders such as attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorder, and other mental disorders. This descriptive study was based on qualitative data analysis. We reviewed retrospective information from the electronic medical records of 692 patients in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The prevalence of low birth weight in children with mental disorders was significantly higher as compared to the general population (16% vs 6% respectively). Furthermore, other risk factors, including high birth weight and preterm birth were noted to have a significant association with neurodevelopmental disorders. Future research on the impact of perinatal risk factors will contribute to advancement of early intervention guidelines.


Recent reports have shown that a number of xenobiotics in the environment are capable of interfering with the normal endocrine function in a variety of animals. The overwhelming majority of the studies on the effects of hormone-mimetic industrial chemicals were focused on findings in vertebrates. More detailed information about the effects on and mechanisms of action in invertebrates has only been obtained from a few cases, although invertebrates represent more than 95 % of the known species in the animal kingdom and are extremely important with regard to ecosystem structure and function. The limited number of examples for endocrine disruption (ED) in invertebrates is partially due to the fact that their hormonal systems are rather poorly understood in comparison with vertebrates. Deleterious endocrine changes following an exposure to certain compounds may easily be missed or simply be unmeasurable at present, even though a number of studies show that endocrine disruption has probably occurred. The well-documented case studies of tributyltin effects in mollusks and of insect growth regulators, the latter as purposely synthesized endocrine disruptors, are explained to support this view. According to our present knowledge, there is no reason to suppose that such far-reaching changes are in any sense unique. The additional existing evidence for ED in invertebrates from laboratory and field studies are summarized as an update and amendment of the EDIETA report from 1998. Finally, conclusions about the scale and implications of the observed effects are drawn and further research needs are defined.