Background Left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) is highly prevalent in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD), even in the absence of hypertension and is an independent predictor of cardiovascular mortality. Metformin has been shown to regress LV mass (LVM) in animal models of LVH. We hypothesise that metformin may regress LVH in non-diabetic and normotensive CAD patients with pre-diabetes and/or insulin resistance. Methods In this randomised double-blind placebo controlled trial, 68 patients (mean age 65±8 y, 25% females) with prediabetes (defined using American Diabetes Association criteria of HbA1c ≥39 mmol/mol and less than 48 mmol/mol) and/or insulin resistance (defined by fasting insulin resistance index ≥2.7) were assigned to receive either metformin (2 g daily dose) or placebo for 12 months. An intention-to-treat (ITT) and per-protocol analysis was designed to determine the effect of metformin on the following study endpoints: Primary endpoint was change in left ventricular mass indexed to height 1.7 (LVMI), assessed by magnetic resonance (MRI) imaging; other endpoints were changes in LVM, changes in body weight, office blood pressure (BP) and biomarkers. Results In the ITT analysis (n=61), metformin treatment significantly reduced: LVMI (metformin −2.7±2.3 g/m1.7 vs placebo −1.4±2.7 g/m1.7; p=0.05), LVM (metformin −6.5±5.6 g vs placebo −3.45±6.5 g; p=0.05), body weight (lowered by 3.6 kgs, p=0.002), office systolic BP (metformin −4.8±15.6 mmHg vs placebo 4.6±15.7 mmHg; p=0.02) and reduced concentration of thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARs), a biomarker for oxidative stress (p=0.04). In the on-per protocol analysis (n=56), metformin resulted in a greater reduction of LVMI (metformin −3.1±1.9 g/m 1.7 vs placebo −1.2±2.7 g/m 1.7; p=0.005), LVM (metformin −7.5±4.6 g vs placebo −3.1±6.3 g; p=0.005) and greater weight reduction of 4.2 kgs (p=0.001). Conclusions Metformin treatment significantly reduced LVMI, LVM, office SBP, body weight and oxidative stress. These results reveal a novel mechanism for the cardioprotective effect of metformin and raise the possibility of using metformin in patients without type 2 diabetes with CAD.


Air-to-air target detection distances, age, career jet flight hours, and total career flight hours were obtained for 167 U.S. Navy fighter pilots participating in air combat maneuver training at Naval Air Station, Oceana, VA. Of the pilots sampled, 22 used a prescribed spectacle correction while flying; 145 did not. We compared the air-to-air target detection distances between the two groups of pilots, those with corrective glasses and those without. Sunglasses and tinted filters were not factors in the present study. The results strongly suggest that, as a group, the pilots without glasses were able to detect targets at a greater distance than the pilots with glasses. When the pilots were matched on the basis of age and flight experience, the difference in air-to-air target detection capabilities of the two groups increased. The pilots without glasses were able to detect their adversary at a distance more than 20% farther than the pilots with glasses.


We investigate mixed type boundary-transmission problems of the generalized thermo-electro-magneto elasticity (GTEME) theory for complex elastic anisotropic layered structures containing interfacial cracks. This type of problems are described mathematically by systems of partial differential equations with appropriate transmission and boundary conditions for six dimensional unknown physical field (three components of the displacement vector, electric potential function, magnetic potential function, and temperature distribution function). We apply the potential method and the theory of pseudodifferential equations and prove uniqueness and existence theorems of solutions to different type mixed boundary-transmission problems in appropriate Sobolev spaces. We analyze smoothness properties of solutions near the edges of interfacial cracks and near the curves where different type boundary conditions collide.


Through elasmobranch (sharks and rays) evolutionary history, gigantism evolved multiple times in phylogenetically distant species, some of which are now extinct. Interestingly, the world's largest elasmobranchs display two specializations found never to overlap: filter feeding and mesothermy. The contrasting lifestyles of elasmobranch giants provide an ideal case study to elucidate the evolutionary pathways leading to gigantism in the oceans. Here, we applied a phylogenetic approach to a global dataset of 459 taxa to study the evolution of elasmobranch gigantism. We found that filter feeders and mesotherms deviate from general relationships between trophic level and body size, and exhibit significantly larger sizes than ectothermic‐macropredators. We confirm that filter feeding arose multiple times during the Paleogene, and suggest the possibility of a single origin of mesothermy in the Cretaceous. Together, our results elucidate two main evolutionary pathways that enable gigantism: mesothermic and filter feeding. These pathways were followed by ancestrally large clades and facilitated extreme sizes through specializations for enhancing prey intake. Although a negligible percentage of ectothermic‐macropredators reach gigantic sizes, these species lack such specializations and are correspondingly constrained to the lower limits of gigantism. Importantly, the very adaptive strategies that enabled the evolution of the largest sharks can also confer high extinction susceptibility.


Food and feeding habits, diet composition and population parameters of Acetes japonicus in the estuarine waters of Tanjung Dawai, Kedah Peninsular Malaysia were studied between June 2008 and May 2009. The total catches of Set Bag Net (SBN)were constituted of three major fauna groups and they were Acetes shrimps (89%), juvenile fishes (9%) and non- Acetes shrimps (2%). The annual mean percentage composition of sergestid shrimp comprising of A. japonicus, A. vulgaris and A. indicus were 89%, 7% and 4% espectively. Although seven species of juvenile fishes were recorded together in the bag net from the study area, the abundance was however very low (9%). Feeding habits of sergestid shrimps A. japonicus were done by examining the stomach contents of 164 specimens during one year study period. Analysis on the percentage of numerical abundance (Ci) showed that plant matter (28.18%) and crustacean appendages (18.70%) as the two highest values amongst the eight categories of feeding items. In addition, percentage frequency of occurrence (Fpi) values of phytoplankton, zooplankton, algae, plant matter, appendages of crustacean, debris, unidentified items and sand-mud were 3.45%, 7.05%, 5.07%, 27.44%, 17.42%, 15.80%, 8.94% and 19.81% espectively. From the diet composition found in the stomach, it is revealed that A. japonicus is probably omnivorous in feeding habit. Population parameters of male and female A. japonicus were studied using the monthly length frequency data by FiSAT software to evaluate the mortality rates and its exploitation level. The sex ratio (males: females) was found to be 1: 0.94. Asymptotic length (L∞) was 25.20 mm and 28.88 mm for male and female respectively. Growth co-efficient (K) for males and females was estimated at 1.80 yr-1 and 1.30 yr-1 respectively. Total mortality (Z) was calculated at 5.98 yr-1and 4.44 yr-1 for male and female of A. japonicus correspondingly. Natural mortality (M) was 2.82 yr-1 and 2.19 yr-1 for male and female shrimps. While fishing mortality (F) was 3.16 yr-1 and 2.25 yr-1 for male and female respectively. Exploitation level (E) for male and female of A. japonicus was calculated at 0.53 and 0.51. The exploitation level was slightly over (E > 0.50) the optimum level of exploitation (P = 0.50). The stock of A.japonicus was found to be slightly over exploited in Tanjung Dawai coastal waters.


Background Despite significant advances in HIV programme implementation, uptake of HIV screening services remains notably low in rural areas. Most HIV screening centres are concentrated in urban areas resulting in low coverage of HIV testing services in rural communities. This paper analyses the outcome of community and facility based interventions to increase access and uptake of HIV screening services in rural and hard to reach population groups with limited access in Nigeria. Methods In order to increase uptake of HIV screening services in rural communities, the MSH PrO-ACT project in collaboration with Kwara state ministry of health implemented the following interventions Community awareness campaigns to increase knowledge about HIV transmission and prevention. Community mobile HIV testing programmes which utilised existing community structures such as churches, empty school rooms and other community buildings were established to provide temporary HIV screening services. Capacity of selected community members was built on HIV counselling and testing in order to increase the number of HIV screening workers. HIV screening services were offered on communal market days to increase accessibility and uptake. Referral linkages from HIV testing points to HIV clinics was strengthened to ensure that every client who tests positive accesses care and treatment services. HIV screening services were integrated into maternity, family planning and sexually transmitted infection units of rural clinics to reduce stigmatisation and increase uptake. Results After 12 months, 12,436 (Male- 3,616, Female- 8,820) people were screened for HIV. 405 persons tested positive and 397 persons (M-176, F- 82) were linked and enrolled into HIV care and treatment programmes. Out of this, 235 persons were eligible for anti-retroviral therapy and commenced treatment. Conclusion Existing inequalities between urban and rural areas highlights the need to adopt innovative approaches aimed at increasing uptake of HIV screening services.


This research illustrates a method to diagnose a system regarding to an automatic screw or welding assembly line via the industrial robot that builds a constraint system with counterparts at the moment of working. The timely righteous estimation and judgment of the states is very important for the safe operation in time domain system. The synthesis of this problem presumes that all state variables are observable for concerned system. But it seems that it is not feasible to measure all modes of states of velocities, accelerations, forces and moments directly. A practical solution to this problem, which should be tried, is the estimation of the states or its velocities by the use of an observer which can estimate a system characteristics of linear or nonlinear states and effects as a mode, so called, " Indirect measurement". For this procedure, the mathematical model of the concerned physical system which consists of links over joints and Gripper with the end effector, is derived with the significant remarks such as friction, gravitation, and Coriolis force. This is a basic system. The concrete assignment is to design the observer that estimates the characteristics of the states and velocities based on the measurement vectors. The main artifice is to approximate the characteristics with a fictitious model that may describe the modes of system errors. As a practical and convenient fictitious model, the characteristics of nonlinear effects are assumed as approximately stepwise contact. An identity observer is obtained whose state variables are the estimate of the state variable of the corresponding "observer system". It consists of a simulated model with a correction feedback of the estimation


This paper analyzes the contribution of services sector as well as pollution implication of services sector for the production of different industries in the Malaysian economy. In the first part, the purpose of this paper is to provide direct and indirect service intensities that reveal the contribution of services sector in the Malaysian economy. And, in the second part, the quantitative assessment of selected air emissions of services sector in the economy is revealed during the time period 1991 to 2000. The findings indicate that the contribution of services sector almost steady during the time period and direct and indirect intensities of other sectors, transport & communication, trade, financial related service, public service and entertainment sectors are quite significant; however the CO, CO2, SO2 and NOx emissions from the selected sectors are quite high in 2000 compared to 1991.


Ice-induced anesthesia is often used to permit pain-free activity. However, icing before a skilled performance may distort the ability to acknowledge sensory stimuli and may thereby mask certain protective mechanisms. Inadequate peripheral feedback regarding position of a limb in space could expose the joint to injury. This study was designed to determine the effect of ice immersion on ankle joint position sense. Three different pretest conditions of no ice immersion, 5 min of ice immersion, and 20 min of ice immersion were administered to 31 subjects prior to joint angle replication testing with an electrogoniometer. Subjects completed eight repositioning trials (four at each of two test angles) following each condition. An analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed no statistically significant difference between conditions, trials, or angles. The results suggest that joint position receptors in the ankle are resilient to this type of ice treatment, or that the affected receptors (i.e., skin and muscle) were ...


44 Background: In 1997, OR enacted a voter initiative allowing terminally ill residents to self-administer physician-prescribed medication to end their lives. Statute requires prescriptions written for lethal medications be reported; the state also collects demographic and intended use data. We wished to to evaluate and report participation trends.

METHODS
OR's Public Health Division gathers compliance forms from prescribing/consulting physicians, pharmacists, and psychiatrists, prescribing physician follow-up forms, and death certificates. Data from 1998-early 2016 were reviewed, collated, and interpreted.

RESULTS
1,545 prescriptions were written; 991 pts died from legally-prescribed lethal medication. The % of prescription recipients dying from drug use per yr ranged from 48-82, with no significant trend (logistic regression 2-sided p = .90) The prescribing rate increased 12%/yr on average through 2013, with a 28% increase in 2014 and 40% in 2015, not explainable by growth in population. Characteristics of 991 pts dying from drug: Most recipients had cancer (77%); 8% had ALS, 4.5% lung disease, 2.6% heart disease, and 0.9% HIV. 5.3% were sent for psychiatric evaluation. M/F (%) 51.4/48.6; median age (years) 71 (range 25-102); race white/black/asian/hispanic (%) 97/0.1/1.3/1; hospice Y/N (%) 90.5/9/5. 94% died at home. Estimated median time between intake and coma (min): 5 (range 1-38); to death (min): 25 (range 1-6240). 3.3% had known complications. Reasons for DWD (%): ADL not enjoyable 90; loss of autonomy 92, dignity 79, or bodily functions 48; inadequate pain control 25; financial 3.

CONCLUSIONS
The number of prescriptions written for ORDWDA medications increased annually since enactment. The % of recipients self-administering drugs has varied. Very few pts are referred for psychiatric consultation prior to DWD. Most pts dying from lethal medications have cancer, and the overwhelming majority expire at home. Medications used are effective and rapidly acting. Little evidence exists disadvantaged pts are disproportionally using DWD. Pts use DWD for reasons related to QOL, autonomy, and dignity, and relatively rarely because of inadequate pain palliation. Future studies should evaluate why many pts prescribed lethal drugs choose not to take them.


An examination of the annual statistical data compiled by the American Cancer Society quickly reveals that the rate of mortality from cancer has changed very little over the past 50 years. And, at last check, the annual Race for the Cure is being scheduled well into the future. So why has Science chosen this particular moment to celebrate the cancer research field?

In part, it's because targeted cancer therapies, cancer biomarkers, and genomic medicine are in the midst of a transition from hype to clinical reality. As articulated by Varmus in the opening Perspective of our special section (p. 1162), "… a description of cancer in molecular terms seems increasingly likely to improve the ways in which human cancers are detected, classified, monitored, and (especially) treated." To help nonspecialist readers understand how the molecular description of cancer might one day form the basis of a new patient-centered model of cancer care, Science has prepared a foldout poster illustrating the concept and how it might be implemented. Several Perspectives expand on topics covered in the poster but also point out important obstacles to that vision. Varmus, for example, emphasizes the need for changes in the "culture" of oncology, including the formation of stronger collaborations among researchers, clinical oncologists, industry, and regulatory agencies. The pressing need for new working partnerships is a theme echoed by Dalton and Friend (p. [1165][1]), who discuss the limitations of current efforts to identify and validate molecularly based biomarkers for cancer diagnosis and treatment, and by Weissleder (p. 1168), who outlines how new molecular imaging technologies might contribute to future models of cancer care.

Two additional Perspectives focus on new molecularly targeted drugs that have shown promise in the clinic. Kerbel (p. [1171][2]) discusses several mechanistic models that might explain why antiangiogenesis drugs are most effective in cancer patients when delivered in combination with conventional chemotherapy, and Baselga (p. 1175) reviews the history and clinical activity of small-molecule and antibody-based drugs that inhibit protein tyrosine kinases.

Two News stories discuss emerging research areas that may one day occupy a prominent position on a revised version of our poster. Garber (p. 1158) describes how an old discredited idea—that tumor cells rely on glycolysis for energy—has been resurrected and is driving the development of new anticancer drugs. Exploring another contentious topic, Marx (p. 1160) details the debate over whether the cellular recycling process called autophagy is a tumor suppressor or promoter.

In [related online resources][3], Science 's Signal Transduction Knowledge Environment (STKE) ([stke.sciencemag.org][4]) features a Perspective by Garcia that explores the role of hypoxia-inducible factor signaling in cancer progression and another by Harms and Chen that discusses a splice variant of the c-H- ras oncogene with potential tumor-suppressor activity. In Perspectives in Science 's Science of Aging Knowledge Environment (SAGE) ([sageke.sciencemag.org][5]), Fuller discusses the relationship between stem cell aging and cancer, and Medrano et al. examine why older men are at a greater risk for melanoma than are older women.

We hope that after perusing these articles, readers will come away feeling that in cancer research, the glass is indeed (at least) half-full.

 [1]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1125948
 [2]: /lookup/doi/10.1126/science.1125950
 [3]: http://www.sciencemag.org/sciext/cancer/
 [4]: http://stke.sciencemag.org/
 [5]: http://sageke.sciencemag.org/


Although clustering is one of the central tasks in machine learning for the last few decades, analysis of clustering irrespective of any particular algorithm was not undertaken for a long time. In the recent literature, axiomatic frameworks have been proposed for clustering and its quality. But none of the proposed frameworks has concentrated on the computational aspects of clustering, which is essential in current big data analytics. In this paper, we propose an axiomatic framework for clustering which considers both the quality and the computational complexity of clustering algorithms. The axioms proposed by us necessarily associate the problem of clustering with the important concept of incremental learning and divide and conquer learning. We also propose an order independent incremental clustering algorithm which satisfies all of these axioms in some constrained manner.


In this paper, the effectiveness of the NetLogo programming environment is investigated, as regards assisting students (of various levels of achievement) of the Greek Higher Secondary Education, to understand how some simple ecosystems are structured and to model the systemic behaviour of such ecosystems by conceptualising their Complexity features. This paper is part of a wider research on teaching Ecosystem Complexity to high-school students, with the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT's). Specific models from the NetLogo Models' Library were used and students of the 2nd class of the Greek Lyceum (aged between 16 and 17) participated in the investigation. Apart from oral instruction, the students were asked to run the NetLogo simulations and do specific things with the models, answering simultaneously questions on worksheets provided to them. The studying and the evaluation of the worksheets by the researchers, as well as the post- instructional evaluation of the students, both oral (by means of cassettes) and written, through the use of an evaluation sheet, gave research findings that proved to be encouraging in that: a) students developed a greater understanding of the complex/systemic behaviour of ecosystems and b) they were capable, to a certain extent, of analyzing the systemic relations within simple ecosystems and built analogous relations in other, also simple, ecosystems.


M.C. Escher returned often to the themes of metamorphosis and deformation in his art, using a small set of pictorial devices to express this theme. I classify Escher's various approaches to metamorphosis, and relate them to the works in which they appear. I also discuss the mathematical challenges that arise in attempting to formalize one of these devices so that it can be applied reliably.


in English ABC-transporters such as the bile salt export pump (BSEP), the breast cancer resistance protein (BCRP) and P-glycoprotein (P-gp) play an important role in the pharmacokinetics of several drugs and small molecules. Predicting inhibition of these transporters by small molecules facilitates identification of potential drug-drug interactions and adverse effects such as drug-induced liver injuries. Thus far, in silico identification of inhibitors is dominated by ligand-based approaches that most often employed Quantitative structure–activity relationship (QSAR) and machine learning methods. Although the models based on these methods are reported to be efficient, they do not consider the properties of the protein and thus fail to provide insights into the mechanism of inhibition. While structure-based studies could investigate these details, the lack of highresolution structural information and the polyspecific binding behaviour of these transporters pose a serious obstacle. This thesis outlines three independent studies that explore structure-based methods to investigate the molecular basis of inhibition of transporter proteins relevant to liver toxicity and another study that employs ligand-based methods to deal with the imbalanced datasets. The structure-based studies presented here describe the use of homology modeling and molecular docking to uncover the protein-ligand interactions involved in the mechanism of inhibition. In our first study, a homology model was constructed for BSEP, followed by the development of structure-assisted, docking-based classification models for prediction of BSEP inhibitors. Further, we analyzed the protein-ligand interaction fingerprints which revealed specific functional groupamino acid residue interactions that could play a key role in ligand binding. In the BCRP study, a structure-based modeling approach facilitated elucidation of binding hypothesis for arylmethyloxyphenyl derivatives, which after experimental validations could guide rational optimization of this compound class to improve potency. In the third study, we compared the binding site interaction profiles of human, rat and mouse P-gp structures to reveal a significant overlap between the binding site interacting residues which suggests the transferability of in vitro human P-gp activity data in the development of in silico models to predict in vitro and in vivo effects in rodents. In our ligand based study, we dealt with the problem of learning on imbalanced datasets relevant to toxicity by evaluating the performance of seven distinct meta-classifiers and provided recommendations in choosing an appropriate classifier depending on the dataset in hand. The results of this thesis work further improve our understanding of protein-ligand interactions at the molecular level, stimulating scientists to conduct new experiments and thus also aid in the extrapolation of molecular hypotheses from rodents to humans and vice-versa. Furthermore, combining ligand-based and structure-based approaches would significantly enhance the performance of virtual screening experiments in drug discovery and provide detailed insights on the molecular features involved in crucial interactions, thereby assisting lead optimization.


Purpose
This study aims to identify to what extent the economic factor effect is more salient in shaping inward foreign direct investment (IFDI) than are institutional factors in G-20 inflow patterns.

Design/methodology/approach
Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) method was applied using the World Bank Governance and Development Indicators, followed by a panel data technique over the period 2005-2015 to estimate the connections between the different dimensions of economics, institutions and IFDI in the G-20.

Findings
Results showed that countries with better economic performance contrasting with the governance indicators are more effective at attracting IFDI. However, the correlation between FDI intensity and governance indicators has been found relatively weak, which may suggest a more controversial role of institutions as determinants of IFDI.

Research limitations/implications
This quantitative approach uses a country-level set of variables; therefore, the authors suggest the development of more firm-level analysis of the impact of institutions. Also, the limitation of the TOPSIS method itself is based on heuristic assumptions.

Practical implications
The main findings point to a relatively low impact of institutions on IFDI. The authors suggest that the global financial crisis has changed the rationale of decision-making by multinational companies.

Originality/value
The originality of the present study was to apply a multi criteria decision-making technique on FDI's analysis combined with institutional data.


BACKGROUND
Bronchopulmonary dysplasia is a chronic lung disease that often develops after mechanical ventilation in prematurely born infants with respiratory failure. It has become the most common form of chronic lung disease in infants in the United States. The long-term outcome for infants with bronchopulmonary dysplasia has not been determined.

METHODS
We studied the pulmonary function of 26 adolescents and young adults, born between 1964 and 1973, who had bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy. We compared the results with those in two control groups: 26 age-matched adolescents and young adults of similar birth weight and gestational age who had not undergone mechanical ventilation, and 53 age-matched normal subjects.

RESULTS
Sixty-eight percent of the subjects with bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy (17 of the 25 tested) had airway obstruction, including decreases in forced expiratory volume in one second, forced expiratory flow between 25 and 75 percent of vital capacity, and maximal expiratory flow velocity at 50 percent of vital capacity, as compared with both control groups (P less than 0.0001 for all comparisons). Twenty-four percent of the subjects with bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy had fixed airway obstruction, and 52 percent had reactive airway disease, as indicated by their responses to the administration of methacholine or a bronchodilator. Hyperinflation (an increased ratio of residual volume to total lung capacity) was more frequent in the subjects with a history of bronchopulmonary dysplasia than in either the matched cohort (P less than 0.0006) or the normal controls (P less than 0.0004). Six of the subjects who had bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy had severe pulmonary dysfunction or current symptoms of respiratory difficulty.

CONCLUSIONS
Most adolescents and young adults who had bronchopulmonary dysplasia in infancy have some degree of pulmonary dysfunction, consisting of airway obstruction, airway hyperreactivity, and hyperinflation. The clinical consequences of this dysfunction are not known.


The adoption of proper constitutive laws for confined concrete is basic for seismic assessment of new and existing reinforced concrete civil structures. The deformation capacity of reinforced concrete (RC) columns subjected to axially centred and eccentric loads depends on the effectiveness confinement action. A proper assignment of the stress-strain laws for concrete allows obtaining an adequate definition of the ductility of the cross-sections and correctly identifying mechanical nonlinearities in computational models. Several studies concerning the behaviour of confined concrete have been carried out, highlighting the role of different geometrical and mechanical parameters to the overall response of RC members in compression. In this frame, the primary aim of this paper is to discuss the reliability of the stress-strain concrete models for concrete subjected to confining stresses in the cases of normal strength concrete (NSC), and high strength concrete (HSC). A selected review of the most popular models for confined concrete available in the literature is presented and discussed together with the respective analytical formulations. Furthermore, a discussion on their reliability is carried out by comparing results coming from the implementation of each model and comparing analytical predictions with experimental data available in the literature.


Objective
The pathologic complete response (pCR) in the breast and axillary lymph node after neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) would improve outcomes and it is used as a surrogate marker for survival. Our objective was to evaluate the breast and nodal pCR in breast cancer patients with estrogen receptor-positive (ER) and HER2 negative subtypes. Meanwhile, we sought to examine the impact of predicting factors on the rate of pCR.

Materials and Methods
In this multicenter retrospective study, medical records data of 314 women with ER+/HER2- breast cancer subtype who received neoadjuvant chemotherapy was extracted from oncology centers' data between 2011 and 2018. Breast and axillary lymph node pCR were assessed. Meanwhile, receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis was performed to assess the predictive value for proliferative index (Ki-67%) expression.

Results
Breast pCR was seen in 25.2% (n=79) of the 314 cancer patients and partial response was seen in 47.8% (n=150), too. Nodal pCR was reported in 30.9% (n=97) of the 249 node-positive patients. The overall pCR (both breast & node) was observed in 14.6 % (n=46) of the 272 patients in which the data of breast and nodal were available. We identified 22.5% as the best cut-off value for ki-67 expression in predicting complete response to NAC.

Conclusion
The pCR rate after NAC in ER+/HER2- subtypes of breast cancer is low. Therefore, the optimal therapy for these patients should be further investigated.


In any flooding process, the flow pattern determines the quality of the macroscopic sweep and expected recovery efficiency. The flow pattern also controls the choice of the flooding strategy. This study compares CO2 flow patterns between two major classes of reservoirs; first, the United States CO2 flooded reservoirs, considered as benchmark for CO2 application elsewhere, and second, the North Sea class of reservoirs considered as future target for CO2 flooding offshore.
 An inventory of reservoir data was first prepared by inspecting the literature. North Sea reservoirs are characterised with higher temperatures, higher pressures, thicker pays and higher permeabilities. Well spacing is also larger in the North Sea and these reservoirs are depleted faster.
 Using appropriate correlations, the in-situ CO2 and oil properties were inferred for each individual reservoir knowing its ambient reservoir conditions. Scaling analysis was used to characterise the CO2 displacing oil process in each reservoir by calculating a few key dimensionless numbers. Numerical simulation of CO2 displacing oil in stochastic permeability fields revealed the CO2 flow pattern in each individual reservoir.
 Although CO2 and oil densities are comparable in North Sea and United States classes of reservoirs, scaling analysis shows that "gravity numbers" for a CO2 displacing oil process are an order of magnitude larger offshore North Sea. This indicates a more gravity dominated CO2 flooding in the North Sea compared to United States reservoirs principally due to thicker pays and significantly higher permeabilities in this province but not due to larger CO2 and oil density contrast.
 The "mobility number" for a CO2-oil displacement process is also considerably lower (or better) in the North Sea due to lower North Sea oil viscosities. This indicates, in the absence of gravity, the viscous CO2 flooding is expected to be more stable in the North Sea. "Effective aspect ratios", illustrating the degree of cross flow are also lower in the North Sea mainly due to considerably thicker pay reservoirs in these systems.
 Visual comparison of displacement profiles in different stochastic permeability fields shows that, unlike the majority of United States CO2 flooded reservoirs where the displacement may be characterised with an unstable viscous dominated process, in the North Sea CO2 flow patterns vary mostly between gravity dominated and stable viscous displacements.
 Better understanding of the CO2 flow pattern can help in the selection of the appropriate CO2 flooding process e.g. selection between horizontal and gravity stable CO2 flooding or the decision to implement WAG instead of continuous CO2 injection for future provinces targeted for CO2-EOR like the North Sea. North Sea reservoirs thus may benefit from a different CO2 flood design than that observed historically in the United States since their CO2 flow patterns is fundamentally different.


Although island attributes such as size and accessibility to colonizing organisms can influence community structure, the consequences of these for ecosystem functioning are little understood. A study of the suspended soils of spatially discrete epiphytes or treetop "islands" in the canopies of New Zealand rainforest trees revealed that different components of the decomposer community responded either positively or negatively to island size, as well as to the tree species that the islands occurred in. This in turn led to important differences between islands in the rates of ecosystem processes driven by the decomposer biota. This system serves as a model for better understanding how attributes of both real and habitat islands may affect key ecosystem functions through determining the community structure of organisms that drive these functions.


Phytophthora root and crown rot has been traditionally considered a minor disease of olive. However, in recent years it has been recognized as an emerging problem in several olive-growing countries such as Australia, Italy and Spain probably as a consequence of the expansion of plantings in new areas with heavy soils and the more intensive use of irrigation in both olive nurseries and commercial groves. The disease has been reported from most olive-growing countries and is caused by several soil-borne species of Phytophthora, including P. cinnamomi, P. citricola, P. cryptogea, P. drechsleri, P. gonapodyides, P. inundata, P. megasperma, P. nicotianae and P. palmivora. Diagnosis is currently based on the isolation and identification of isolates by both traditional and molecular methods. New molecular techniques are currently available that could be applied for both the identification of isolates and Phytophthora infections directly in host-tissues as well as in Correspondence/Reprint request: Prof. Santa O. Cacciola, Dipartimento di Scienze del Farmaco – Sezione di Biochimica, Università degli Studi di Catania, Viale Andrea Doria 6, I-95125 Catania, Italy E-mail: email@example.com Santa O. Cacciola et al. 306 soil and water samples. A number of dedicated databases could improve the efficiency of these techniques. Moreover, DNA analysis has greatly contributed to phylogenetic studies of Phytophthora. Control of Phytophthora root and crown rot of olive is mainly based on preventive measures.


Wheelchair seating discomfort is an important but poorly understood negative outcome for long duration wheelchair users. A major impediment to the study of this problem is the lack of a validated tool for quantification of wheelchair seating discomfort. The goal of this dissertation research was to develop and validate an assessment tool appropriate for the quantification of wheelchair seating discomfort among long duration (more than 8 hours per day) wheelchair users. This was accomplished through the completion of three research phases, each described within the body of this dissertation. Phase I consisted of a qualitative research study involving in-depth interviews with experienced wheelchair users. Data from these interviews resulted in the development of the Wheelchair Seating Discomfort Assessment Tool (WcS-DAT), a three-part tool to allow wheelchair users to quantify their level of seating discomfort. Phase II of the research assessed the reliability and concurrent validity of this assessment tool through a test/re-test reliability study. Intra class correlation (ICC) coefficient scores ranged from 0.83 to 0.97, indicating adequate reliability of the two discomfort scores in the WcS-DAT. Internal item consistency, assessed using Cronbach's alpha, indicated that all items were consistent and not redundant, with scores ranging from 0.82 to 0.92. Pearson product-moment correlations were used to assess the concurrent validity of the WcS-DAT and all of these correlations were significant at a minimum of p less than 0.05, with many significant results at the 0.01 and 0.001 levels. These results indicated good concurrent validity of the WcS-DAT. In Phase III, the WcS-DAT was evaluated for its ability to show changes in discomfort over time and with the introduction of novel, user adjustable wheelchair seating. Both the General Discomfort Assessment score (GDA) and the Discomfort Intensity Score (DIS) were sensitive to changes in seating discomfort level and were adequate for use in detecting differences associated with changes in duration of sitting as well as those associated with use of different seating equipment. Results of this final phase indicated that the WcS-DAT is a useful tool for evaluation of wheelchair seating discomfort in a research or clinical environment.


ABSTRACT BACKGROUND: In cases of major liver resections or ischemic damage made by the pringle maneuver, agents that increase regeneration or manage ischemic reperfusion injury have become a fascinating topic for researchers. The aim of this study is to see how systemic L-carnitine, an antioxidant with thorough research behind it, affects liver regeneration after major hepatectomy in a rat experimental hepatectomy (two-thirds liver resection) model. METHODS: The liver regeneration was evaluated in this study using a rat hepatectomy model developed in the General Surgery Clinic of Health Sciences University, Umraniye Education and Research Hospital's Laboratory. In the experiment, 15 male and 15 female Wistar Albino rats weighing between 250 and 300 g were used in a way that the genders were mixed. In each group, three groups were formed, including male and female rats randomly selected and ten rats. Gcontrol: 70% hepatic resection + intraperitoneal 0.9% saline, GSham: After laparotomy, the abdomen was closed again without any procedure, Gcarnitine: 70% hepatic resection + intraperitoneal 100 mg/kg L Carnitine was applied. It was applied systemically to GSham and Gcarnitine groups and the same procedure was applied to rats for 4 days at the same time without any restrictions. On the 5th day, the abdomen was entered with relaparotomy after sacrification and liver regeneration was evaluated macroscopically and recorded in the forms developed for each subject. Later, liver tissue was resected and microscopically recorded by measuring mitotic index, binuclear hepatocyte, gall duct proliferation, dilation in central veins, and cell proliferation in the parenchyma. The results obtained were evaluated statistically. RESULTS: According to the results, the L-carnitine group had a statistically significant increase in overall regeneration scoring after hepatectomy in the histopathological assessment as compared to the control group. CONCLUSION: It is thought that L-carnitine, whose many positive effects have been shown experimentally and clinically, has a positive effect on liver regeneration and immunohistochemical researches is required to elucidate this pathway.


Background: DP-TRANSFERS(Diabetes Prevention-Transferring findings from European research to society) is a large scale national program aimed at translating a lifestyle diabetes prevention intervention (DE-PLAN-CAT) in primary care centers in Catalonia. Methods: Multidisciplinary committee evaluated the programme. Participants without diabetes aged 45-75 years (FINDRISC>11 and/or prediabetes) were posible candidates. Implementation was a 4-channel transfer approach (institutional relationships, facilitator WS, collaborative groupware, programme website) and built upon a 3-step (screening, intervention, follow-up) real-life strategy. The 2-year lifestyle intervention program included an initial 9-hour and 15-hour continuity module, 6 and 10 sessions respectively. A 3-level (centre, professionals and participants) descriptive analysis was conducted using cluster sampling by contributing centres to assess results and barriers identified one year after implementation. Results: Between June2016 and July2017, 103 PHCC 1.4 million inhabitants (27.9% of all centres), 5professionals agreed to participate. After 1 year,83 centres (80.6%) remained active and 3professionals (60.3%) were involved. Implementation was not feasible in 20 centres (19.4%) 5 main barriers: lack of staff support; discontinuity of the initial effort; increase of workload; shift in professional status and lack of acceptance. Overall, 1819 people were screened and 1458 (80.1%) followed the lifestyle intervention, with 1190 (81.6% or 65.4% of those screened) participating in the basic module and 912 in the continuity (62.5% or 50.1%, respectively). Conclusions: Large-scale lifestyle intervention in primary care can be properly implemented using existing public health resources. Regrettably, one fifth of the centres and more than one third of the professionals showed substantial resistance to performing these additional activities. Disclosure B. Costa: None. S. Mestre: None. F. Barrio: None. J. Cabre: None. F. Cos: Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Novartis Pharmaceuticals Corporation. Advisory Panel; Self; Novo Nordisk Inc.. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Boehringer Ingelheim GmbH, Novo Nordisk Inc.. Advisory Panel; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi Pasteur. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Sanofi Pasteur. Advisory Panel; Self; Sanofi-Aventis. Speaker9s Bureau; Self; Sanofi-Aventis. Research Support; Self; Eli Lilly and Company. S. Aguilar: None. C. Sole: None. C. Castell: None. V. Arija: None. J. Lindstrom: None.


Organismal physiology is built upon the foundation of molecular processes. A central axis to maintaining homeostasis in vivo is at the level of gene regulation. Tissue specific gene expression is created at the level of epigenetics, where proteins guided by tissue specific DNA binding proteins create a chromatin landscape for precise gene programs. Understanding these molecular processes is of vital importance to understand the underpinning pathologies, such as metabolic syndrome, which are a growing medical concern and require greater research efforts in order to tackle its challenges. A major epigenetic regulator is histone deacetylase 3 (HDAC3), which is a core member of the nuclear receptor corepressor (NCoR) complex. This ubiquitously expressed chromatin associated protein complex functions to repress target gene transcription. Here we address the functional role of HDAC3 in β-cells of adult mice. An HDAC3 β-cell specific knockout was generated using the MIP-CreERT transgenic mouse model and while HDAC3 β-cell specific deletion did not increase total pancreatic insulin content, the mice demonstrated markedly improved glucose tolerance and increased glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Cistromic and transcriptomic analyses of pancreatic islets revealed that HDAC3 regulated multiple genes that contribute to glucose-stimulated insulin secretion. Furthermore, using mass spectrometry in conjunction of cistromic analyses of interactors we have characterized the interactome of HDAC3 and detailed its function in mammalian liver. We identified PROX1 as an abundant interactor which is corecruited with HDAC3 by HNF4a in liver to corepress gene transcription important for maintenance of lipid homeostasis. Lastly, as we continue to explore the proteinprotein interaction networks of these critical factors, novel tools are proving to be invaluable to their investigation. The advent of CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing has allowed for reliable and simple design and generation of mouse models. Therefore we have employed this technology to generate a variety of epitope tagged mouse models with the goal of comparing their tissue specific interactomes. This body of work includes a wide breadth of biological techniques that have succeeded in advancing knowledge of HDAC3 function in vivo, vital to our understanding of molecular pathology in diabetes and obesity. Degree Type Dissertation Degree Name Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) Graduate Group Biochemistry & Molecular Biophysics First Advisor Mitchell A. Lazar


The purpose of this paper is to acquaint the reader with the personage of an outstanding Russian composer and bayanist Vladislav Zolotaryov. Tragically deceased at the age of only 33, the artist was an exceptional figure. He was a great innovator who changed the face of the accordion, using this instrument to the limit of its technical and sound possibilities. The novel and almost orchestral method of treating the accordion, which he initiated in the 1970s, not only had a tremendous impact on the work of the young generation of composers, such as: Aleksander Nagayev, Vladimir Zubicki and Viacheslav Siemionov, but was also noticed and appreciated by the eminent and already recognized composer Zofia Gubaydulina. Yet, while Zolotaryov's output is widely known and appreciated by the present-day accordionists, his life still hides many unresolved secrets and doubts about the causes of his death. In the absence of any Polish language studies on the subject, the composer's biography is well worth a closer look. The information collected about the details of the composer's life, as well as the opinions of people connected with him, may help to understand the composer's complicated personality. Zolotaryov's innovative oeuvre, despite innumerable interpretations, is invariably interesting not only for the performers. It is still an important determinant for other composers of accordion music. Zolotaryov's compositions, such as: Suita kameralna (en. Chamber Suite) Partita No. 1, Sonata No. 2, or collections of miniatures included in Suity dzieciece (en.Children's Suites) have permanently entered the repertoire of contemporary performers. His magnum opus – Sonata No. 3 – is still one of the most important musical pieces in accordion literature.
The source of this article are the letters and diaries written by V.Zolotaryov and the composer's biography by Inna Klause21, as well as memoirs by Nikolai Liesnoy22, Vitaly Szentalinsky23 and Fridrich Lips.


Dynamically reconfigurable systems are able to respond to changes in their operational environments by reconfiguring themselves automatically. Dynamic software product lines are dynamically reconfigurable systems with an explicit variability model that guides the reconfiguration. In this work, feature models are used as the variability model. An emerging situation in the environment can lead to some relevant changes to the current configuration: some features must be activated, and some must be deactivated. Due to constraint propagation, the status of other features might need to be changed as well. However, considering the feature state migration cost, one would like to mitigate the cost to the greatest extent possible. Furthermore, the configuration with a proper cost has to be reached in an acceptable time. In this paper, we devised a set of feature model heuristics for a constraint satisfaction problem algorithm that considers the efficiency and the cost of feature state changes to be applied to the current configuration while confronting the changes in the environment so that the requirements of the new situation will be efficiently satisfied with the minimum cost.


The main message of the article is an analysis of the impact of: the aerating agent, cement, polymer additives, cellulose ethers, and perlite on renovation plaster porosity. To determine the impact, an orthogonal design of experiment proposed by Taguchi was used. The results show that the air content in the mixture does not necessarily indicate high porosity of the hardened mortar and vice versa. This is because not all of the factors analyzed in this experiment have significant impacts on the output. In terms of air content in fresh mortar, cement and aerating agent are significant factors. In terms of porosity in fresh mortar, cement, aerating agent, perlite and cellulose ethers are significant factors. Additionally, the studies are presented to explain the impacts of these ingredients.


The task of event extraction has long been investigated in a supervised learning paradigm, which is bound by the number and the quality of the training instances. Existing training data must be manually generated through a combination of expert domain knowledge and extensive human involvement. However, due to drastic efforts required in annotating text, the resultant datasets are usually small, which severally affects the quality of the learned model, making it hard to generalize. Our work develops an automatic approach for generating training data for event extraction. Our approach allows us to scale up event extraction training instances from thousands to hundreds of thousands, and it does this at a much lower cost than a manual approach. We achieve this by employing distant supervision to automatically create event annotations from unlabelled text using existing structured knowledge bases or tables.We then develop a neural network model with post inference to transfer the knowledge extracted from structured knowledge bases to automatically annotate typed events with corresponding arguments in text.We evaluate our approach by using the knowledge extracted from Freebase to label texts from Wikipedia articles. Experimental results show that our approach can generate a large number of highquality training instances. We show that this large volume of training data not only leads to a better event extractor, but also allows us to detect multiple typed events.


PURPOSE
The objective of this study was to examine the prospective relationship and changes in sedentary behavior between adolescent girls, their mothers and best friends over time.

METHOD
The results are based on 122 girls aged 11-12 years at baseline measurement, their mothers and best friends who completed ecological momentary assessment diary for the assessment of sedentary behavior. All measurements were taken at 3 time points separated by one year. We used structural equation modeling to examine associations among sedentary behavior of adolescent girls, their mothers and best friends.

RESULTS
A linear growth model for adolescent girls' and their best friends' sedentary behavior fit the data well, revealing an overall significant increase in sedentary behavior across time. Initial levels of mothers' and best friends' sedentary behavior were positively related with sedentary behavior of adolescent girls. The changes of adolescent girls' and best friends' sedentary behavior across 3 years were positively related. Cross-lagged panel analysis demonstrated significant reciprocal effects between adolescent girls' and best friends' sedentary behavior. Mothers' sedentary behavior at baseline predicted daughters' sedentary behavior at 1-year follow-up and vice versa.

CONCLUSION
From early to midadolescence, changes in adolescent girls' sedentary behavior were associated with changes in best friends' sedentary behavior. These findings suggest reciprocal associations between sedentary behavior of adolescent girls and their best friends.


From the UN Department of Peacekeeping Operations to the NATO International Staff and the European External Action Service, international bureaucrats make decisions that affect life and death. In carrying out their functions, these officials not only facilitate the work of the member states, but also pursue their own distinct agendas. This book analyzes how states seek to control secretariats when it comes to military operations by international organizations. It introduces an innovative theoretical framework that identifies different types of control mechanisms. The book presents six empirical chapters on the UN, NATO, and EU secretariats. It provides new data from a unique dataset and in-depth interviews. It shows that member states employ a wide range of control mechanisms to reduce the potential loss of influence. They frequently forfeit the gains of delegation to avoid becoming dependent on the work of secretariats. Yet while states invest heavily in control, this book also argues that they cannot benefit from the services of secretariats and keep full control over outcomes in international organizations. In their delegation and control decisions, states face trade-offs and have to weigh different cost categories: the costs of policy, administrative capacity, and agency loss. This book will be of interest to scholars, postgraduates, and officials in international organizations and national governments, dealing with questions of international political economy, security studies, and military affairs.


In this essay I briefly analyze why the concept of class has disappeared in recent social philosophy, such as in the philosophies of Badiou, Negri/Hardt, and Honneth. I argue that a change in the foundations of their social ontologies has led to the dismissal of the concept of class and, in addition, I argue that these changes are unwarranted, since they lead to a loss of a critical concept of society. Then, in a second part, I argue that the concept of class deserves a systematic status within a theory of capitalist sociality, especially since the concept of class can be traced back genetically to violent social relations that are derived from the capitalist social order.


This chapter considers the contributions that new biological research in the areas of behavioural genetics, brain anatomy and neurochemistry may make to our understanding of and responses to male violence against women as a public health problem. It also tests recent claims that the new biology can seek out and treat the dangerously femicidal and violence-prone.

FEMINISM AND THE PROBLEM OF FEMICIDE

'Femicide' is the 'misogynous killing of women by men' (Radford and Russell, 1992). The term points at the politics of woman killing at both the individual level and that of governance. It covers the many forms it takes – marital, stranger and serial killings as well as racist and homophobic killings of women. This said, however, most of the research discussed in this chapter homes in on either marital femicide (wife or partner killing, often called uxoricide) or the much rarer 'lust driven' serial killing of women by men. The rate of general homicide overall in England and Wales is relatively low – 15 per million of the population, with men showing higher rates of victimisation than women at all ages. On average 70% of homicide victims in England and Wales are males and 30% are females. Women less frequently kill and they are much more likely than are men to be killed by a partner. On average in England and Wales, two women are killed by male partners or ex-partners each week (Criminal Statistics, 2001).


Betelvine (Piper betle L.) is a perennial evergreen shade loving creeper belonging to the family Piperaceae. In India, it is commercially cultivated over an area of 50,000 ha as an important and potential cash crop. In spite of the tremendous potentially of the crop, cultivation of betelvine is highly risky and returns are uncertain because of its susceptibility to several pests and diseases, aggravated by the nature of the plantation. A good number of hemipteran insect pests occur in betelvine ecosystem which dwindle betelvine yield potentiality. Among these, the polyphagous betelvine blackfly, Aleurocanthus rugosa Singh (Aleyrodidae: Hemiptera) is a major pest causing severe damage to the foliage in the conservatories (borojas) of West Bengal. The seasonal incidence of A. rugosa in boroja was recorded during 20032004. A. rugosa adults were active in the boroja through out the year with two peaks, one in pre-monsoon and another in post-monsoon i.e., period prior initiation of winter season. During the faunastic survey in betelvine, a new species of Aleurocanthus (description under process) was recorded from West Bengal. This had also been found to occur on Piper longum L. Another species, A. nubilance (Buckton) which was recorded on betelvine in Bangladesh during 1900, was not recorded in this area. Detection of host resistance against insect pests is very relevant for genetic improvement programmes. Till date, scanty information is available on the source of tolerance, if any, against betelvine blackfly. The reaction of some betelvine cultivars to A. rugosa was evaluated in the boroja with different varietal collections from different parts of India. None of the entries under the purview was completely free from infestation. A few cultivars [CARI- 2 (AN), CARI-6(AN) and Bilhari] exhibited moderate resistant reaction against A. rugosa. Awani Pan (Piper hamiltonii) exhibited resistance against A. rugosa.


Our approach to audiovisual articulatory synthesis involves the development of Virtual Talking Heads that integrate the articulatory, aerodynamic and acoustic phenomena underlying speech production. Specifically, these Talking Heads are faithful clones of the speakers whose data the various models are based on. Our contribution presents some of the results achieved at ICP in this domain: 3D orofacial linear articulatory models, made possible by recent progresses in medical imaging and video processing techniques; aerodynamic and acoustic models, and basic glottis / oral constriction coordination principles; development of various strategies to determine the articulatory control parameters (coarticulation models vs. simple concatenative strategies); text-to-audiovisual speech synthesis. We finally make some suggestions for future developments.


Thousands of individuals have pursued the dream of starting their own business. Becoming a successful entrepreneur is not an easy task. It requires skill, motivation, hard work & a lot of luck. These resources can make the job an easier one.


Tertiariopsis nipponicus sp. nov. is described from a Pliocene deposit of the Tsubusagawa Formation, southwestern Japan. The species is characterized by its convex or concave central part of valve face often slightly offset from the geometric valve center, one valve face fultoportula, areolae arranged in radial rows forming fascicles at the valve margin and areolae on valve face larger than those of mantle. Internally, one valve face fultoportula with two satellite pores situated near valve center, areolae having occluded domed cribra, interfascicles slightly raised at valve margin with every second or third one extending to the lamina-covered valve edge where a mantle fultoportula with three satellite pores is located. A single rimoportula is located at the end of an interfascicle on the mantle. All processes lack outer tubes. The cinglum consists of four bands. This new taxon is compared to three similar species of Tertiariopsis.


Acid soils worldwide limit agricultural productivity due to the effect of aluminum (Al) toxicity on plant growth. Al toxicity inhibits root growth and development thus reducing biomass yield in important forage legumes including alfalfa. Medicago truncatula is a model legume species with an extensive genomics infrastructure that can facilitate discovery of Al tolerance mechanisms of value for economical important species. The objective of this research was to identify genomic regions relevant to acid and Al tolerance in M. truncatula using a recombinant inbred line (RIL) population. The mapping population was obtained from a cross between Mt Core 23 (acid and Al tolerant) and Mt Core 35 (acid and Al sensitive), followed by multiple generations of single seed descent. Genotyping of the F4:5 progenies was performed using the Illumina's Medicago Golden Gate array with 1,536 single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) as well as, complementary genotyping of SNPs targeting genomic regions and Al tolerance candidate genes using high resolution melting (HRM) analyses. A whole plant assay was used to evaluate the phenotypic response of the individuals from the RIL population and the parents for root growth at pH 7, pH 4 and pH4 +Al 20 µM. Genomic regionsassociated with Al tolerance were detected and the corresponding SNP markersidentified. The expression levels of target genes of contrasting genotypes were also evaluated. The practical value of the identified SNPs was evaluated based on their ability to predict the performance of additional RIL individuals when grown under acid and Al toxic conditions. Ultimately, strategies aimed to identify and understand genes and mechanisms of Al tolerance in Medicago are relevant and critically needed to deploy breeding strategies in economical important crops including alfalfa.


The study was carried on 1200 subjects suspected to be hepatitis B virus infected, admitted to ALHilla Teaching Hospital /Central Public Health laboratory, to investigate some sero- immunological and Biochemical assay. Biochemical assay of liver function enzymes reveals enhancement in both Alanine aminotransferase (ALT) as well as Aspartate aminotransferase (AST) levels in all patients sera in comparison with normal healthy control group, However both enzymes appear to be high in male than female The highest mean value of ALT in infected subject occur in the male with age group (51-60)years old, which reach to (608.8 )U/L. While the highest mean value in female occur within age group (31- 40 )years old , which reach to (380.3)U/L. ELISA assay for detection of hepatitis B virus surface antigen as well as IgM- anti hepatitis B-core antigen and anti-HBeAg were used in this study for detection of HBV and its immunological response in infected subjects . Result revealed that only 48 out of 1200 subjects had HBsAg positive (4%) with high frequency in male( 2.1%/), than female(1.3%) group. On the other hand the highest percentage of IgM-anti HBcAg was detected within age group (31−40) years old which reach to( 77.7%) whereas anti-HBeAg reach its high percentage within age group (51−60) years old which reach to (15.3%).The study concluded that male are more susceptible to infection with HBV than female and chronisity of the disease is directly associated with age increase.


Abstract Research over the past several decades suggests that meaningful psychedelic experiences can engender long-term effects on subjective wellbeing. However, less research has investigated the psychological mechanisms through which these effects may emerge. In the present study, participants (N  = 201) completed an online survey that retrospectively measured the acute effects of a meaningful psychedelic experience, as well as changes in subjective well-being and death anxiety. Reductions in death anxiety significantly mediated the effects of mystical experience on satisfaction with life, positive affect, and negative affect. Reductions in death anxiety did not mediate any of the effects of psychological insight. Although correlational, the findings are consistent with the hypothesis that some of the benefits of psychedelic-induced mystical experiences on subjective well-being may emerge due to reductions in death anxiety. Nevertheless, further research is needed to establish a causal effect of reduced death anxiety on well-being in the context of psychedelic experiences.


There are relatively few known demand systems that are theoretically satisfactory and practically implementable. This paper investigates building more complex demand systems from simpler known ones by considering sums and products of basic utility functions, an approach that does not seem to have been exploited previously in the literature. Some of the systems that result are interesting and usefully extend the range of available functions. Even the simpler systems that are not sufficiently flexible for the analysis of real world consumption data may still be useful for applied general equilibrium studies and for theoretical explication. Although some systems, instead of being new, turn out to be rediscoveries of already known ones, the way in which they arise as combinations of simple components is of interest in itself in showing them as sub sets of wider classes.


Aim: Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF), a direct target gene of transforming growth factor-β (TGF-β) signaling, plays an important role in the development of atherosclerosis. We previously showed that Runx2, a key transcription factor in osteoblast differentiation, regulates osteogenic conversion and dedifferentiation of vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs). In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that Runx2 modulates CTGF gene expression via the regulation of TGF-β signaling. Methods and Results: Expression of the Runx2 gene was decreased, and CTGF mRNA levels were reciprocally increased by TGF-β in a time-dependent manner in cultured human aortic smooth muscle cells (HASMCs) and C3H10T1/2 cells. Forced expression of Runx2 decreased and the reduction of Runx2 expression by small interfering RNA enhanced both basal and TGF-β-stimulated CTGF gene expression in HASMCs. Site-directed mutation analysis of the CTGF promoter indicated that transcriptional repression by Runx2 was mediated by the Smad-binding element (SBE) under basal and TGF-β-stimulated conditions. Data obtained from immunoblots of Runx2-, Smad3or Smad4transfected cells and chromatin immunoprecipitation analysis indicated that Runx2 interacts with Smad3 at the SBE. Immunohistochemistry revealed that the expression of Runx2 and CTGF was distinct and almost mutually exclusive in human atherosclerotic plaque. Conclusions: These results for the first time demonstrate that Runx2/Smad3 complex negatively regulates endogenous and TGF-β-induced CTGF gene expression in VSMCs. Thus, the induction of Runx2 expression contributes to the phenotypic modulation of VSMCs, in which the TGF-β/Smad pathway plays a major role.


The main concern of this research project was to underscore the critical role played by Public Relations in creating better understanding between Public Organizations and the Public. Appreciating the critical role played by both the Military and the Police in national development, it is important for all stakeholders and more specifically the Citizens who pay taxes to finance and sustain the institutions also understand them. The aim of the Study was to undertake a comparative analysis of Communication Strategies in the Ministry of Defence and the Police Department and how effective they are in changing public perception. Poor public perception was regarded as one of the major gaps which has caused misunderstanding and alienate the Citizens from the institutions which are constitutionally required to protect and defend them. Effective communication can promote social harmony and develop confidence between the service providers and those receiving the services. Unless communication is managed strategically and professionally there will be serious disconnect between the Citizens and those working in Public Institutions like the Military and the Police Departments. The main findings of the Study concluded that a Public Relations as practiced today is still wanting and we require to revisit and re-engineer Public Relations in the Government and more specifically in MOSD and the Police Department. Re-training and re-tooling will be required, adequate budgets and more personnel require to be provided. There must also be deliberate efforts to develop communication strategies. The promulgation of the New Constitution, the renewed zeal to fight corruption, the increased demand from Kenyans and the International community for a more accountable government, and the increasing role of Parliament in challenging the Executive require that Government Institutions including security organs become more sensitive to the demands from the Citizens. They must therefore develop effective communications strategies to assist in dimistification and changing the poor perception, which has been


Advances of science may take much longer to translate into helpful societal actions without deliberate linkages among policy makers, practitioners, and scientists and an integration of their knowledge systems. Successful projects in sustainable knowledge-based action are not only multi-disciplinary and holistic in their approach, they also engage consistently with the consumers of the knowledge being generated. We present a model for integrating scientific and indigenous knowledge and strongly linking that knowledge with community and policy action to balance poverty alleviation and wildlife conservation in Maasai pastoral systems of East Africa. This model uses 'community facilitators' who act as 'boundary-spanning' individuals, linking pastoralist communities, scientists, and policy makers. Our experience indicates that there can be accelerated progress if the project deliberately creates and places a boundary-spanning person or organization at the community-science-policy interfaces to facilitate and promote linking knowledge with action. We found it was critical that the facilitation process ensures that scientists focus on answering important questions from community and policy viewpoints. Key lessons include the need for frequent and strategic community engagement, careful choice of appropriate local boundary spanning persons, the central role of co-production of boundary objects, and the inclusion of incentives for the key stakeholders.


OBJECTIVE To assess the effects of in-person collaborative care by primary care veterinarians (pcDVMs) and board-certified veterinary cardiologists (BCVCs) on survival time of dogs after onset of congestive heart failure (CHF) and on associated revenue for the attending pcDVMs. DESIGN Retrospective cohort study. ANIMALS 26 small-breed dogs treated for naturally occurring CHF secondary to myxomatous mitral valve disease at a multilocation primary care veterinary hospital between 2008 and 2013. PROCEDURES Electronic medical records were reviewed to identify dogs with confirmed CHF secondary to myxomatous mitral valve disease and collect information on patient care, survival time, and pcDVM revenue. Data were compared between dogs that received collaborative care from the pcDVM and a BCVC and dogs that received care from the pcDVM alone. RESULTS Dogs that received collaborative care had a longer median survival time (254 days) than did dogs that received care from the pcDVM alone (146 days). A significant positive correlation was identified between pcDVM revenue and survival time for dogs that received collaborative care (ie, the longer the dog survived, the greater the pcDVM revenue generated from caring for that patient). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE Findings suggested that collaborative care provided to small-breed dogs with CHF by a BCVC and pcDVM could result in survival benefits for affected dogs and increased revenue for pcDVMs, compared with care provided by a pcDVM alone.


The thermoelectric application of Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 thin film structures relies on the relative alignment of the valence band maxima for good electrical conduction. In order to determine the valence band maxima of the bulk films, the authors propose a simple repeatable treatment of a chemical etching in dilute hydrochloric acid solution and a subsequent annealing at ∼150 °C under ultrahigh vacuum to prepare clean surfaces of Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 thin films. High-resolution photoemission spectroscopy using synchrotron radiation is used to investigate the chemical states of epitaxial Bi2Te3 and Sb2Te3 thin films grown on GaAs by low-temperature metal-organic chemical vapor deposition. The valence band and core-level photoemission spectra indicate that the surface contaminations and oxides were removed. After chemical etching in acid solution, elemental Te was observed on the surface; a follow-up anneal in ultrahigh vacuum creates a stoichiometric oxide-free surface.


Multiinput multioutput (MIMO) technology may be used to increase the wireless transmission rate without increasing transmission power or bandwidth. The complex detection and channel estimation algorithm are often used to achieve an acceptable performance. In this paper, irregular low density parity check (LDPC) codes are well combined with the zero-forcing (ZF) detection algorithm, leading to a novel soft-decision detection and channel estimation scheme. In particular, the implementation complexity is significantly decreased since most likely the channel estimator works without pilots, while the detector decouples a multidimensional symbol detection into multiple one-dimensional symbol detections. Simulation results show that the performance of the proposed system may be greatly improved compared with that of system with convolutional code.


Optical earth observation satellite sensors often provide a coarse spatial resolution (CR) multispectral (MS) image together with a fine spatial resolution (FR) panchromatic (PAN) image. Pansharpening is a technique applied to such satellite sensor images to generate an FR MS image by injecting spatial detail taken from the FR PAN image while simultaneously preserving the spectral information of MS image. Pansharpening methods are mostly applied on a per-pixel basis and use the PAN image to extract spatial detail. However, many land cover objects in FR satellite sensor images are not illustrated as independent pixels, but as many spatially aggregated pixels that contain important semantic information. In this article, an object-based pansharpening approach, termed object-based area-to-point regression kriging (OATPRK), is proposed. OATPRK aims to fuse the MS and PAN images at the object-based scale and, thus, takes advantage of both the unified spectral information within the CR MS images and the spatial detail of the FR PAN image. OATPRK is composed of three stages: image segmentation, object-based regression, and residual downscaling. Three data sets acquired from IKONOS and Worldview-2 and 11 benchmark pansharpening algorithms were used to provide a comprehensive assessment of the proposed OATPRK approach. In both the synthetic and real experiments, OATPRK produced the most superior pan-sharpened results in terms of visual and quantitative assessment. OATPRK is a new conceptual method that advances the pixel-level geostatistical pansharpening approach to the object level and provides more accurate pan-sharpened MS images.


Purpose Surface electromyography (sEMG) is often used for biofeedback during swallowing rehabilitation. However, commercially available sEMG electrodes are not optimized for the head and neck area, have rigid form, and are mostly available in large medical centers. We developed an ultrathin, soft, and flexible sEMG patch, specifically designed to conform to the submental anatomy and which will be ultimately incorporated into a telehealth system. To validate this first-generation sEMG patch, we compared its safety, efficiency, and signal quality in monitoring submental muscle activity with that of widely used conventional sEMG electrodes. Method A randomized crossover design was used to compare the experimental sEMG patch with conventional (snap-on) sEMG electrodes. Participants completed the same experimental protocol with both electrodes in counterbalanced order. Swallow trials included five trials of 5- and 10-ml water. Comparisons were made on (a) signal-related factors: signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), baseline amplitude, normalized mean amplitude, and sEMG burst duration and (b) safety/preclinical factors: safety/adverse effects, efficiency of electrode placement, and satisfaction/comfort. Noninferiority and equivalence tests were used to examine signal-related factors. Paired t tests and descriptive statistics were used to examine safety/preclinical factors. Results Forty healthy adults participated (24 women, M age = 67.5 years). Signal-related factors: SNR of the experimental patch was not inferior to the SNR of the conventional electrodes (p < .0056). Similarly, baseline amplitude obtained with the experimental patch was not inferior to that obtained with conventional electrodes (p < .0001). Finally, normalized amplitude values were equivalent across swallows (5 ml: p < .025; 10 ml: p < .0012), and sEMG burst duration was also equivalent (5 ml: p < .0001; 10 ml: p < .0001). Safety/preclinical factors: The experimental patch resulted in fewer mild adverse effects. Participant satisfaction was higher with the experimental patch (p = .0476, d = 0.226). Conclusions Our new wearable sEMG patch is equivalent with widely used conventional sEMG electrodes in terms of technical performance. In addition, our patch is safe, and healthy older adults are satisfied with it. With lessons learned from the current COVID-19 pandemic, efforts to develop optimal swallowing telerehabilitation devices are more urgent than ever. Upon further validation, this new technology has the potential to improve rehabilitation and telerehabilitation efforts for patients with dysphagia. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12915509.


No More 16-Hour Days!
 Running your own business—the American dream—can be daunting: long days, none of the freedom you envisioned, no time for family and friends, and the unrelenting pressure to keep up the pace. Worse, all this hard work can only take you so far. To get to the next level, you need to stop being "Super-Employee" and become a leader who sets direction, operationalizes goals, monitors and controls results, and involves others. You need to run your business using an integrated professional management system.

 Clay Mathile, who grew the Iams Company from $500K to $1 billion in sales, discusses proven management fundamentals applied in a practical way, one that has been used by thousands of business owners. You'll get real-world details that academic courses don't teach—true stories from those who, like Mathile, implemented these fundamentals and thrived. Read this book and discover how to make your business more successful and sustainable and your life more fulfilling!

 "Clay Mathile dives into educating entrepreneurs with the same energy he used to build a billion-dollar brand from the ground up. This is a book of lessons learned through living."
 —Steven Bertoni, Associate Editor, Forbes

 "Run Your Business, Don't Let It Run You gives you the road map for 'working on your business, not in it' and for turning your big dreams into reality. And you don't have to do it alone."
 —Anita Campbell, Publisher, Small Business Trends

 "Using Aileron's System of Professional Management, we went from 65 employees to 205 employees. As the heavy construction industry grew by less than 5 percent over the past five years, Kelchner Inc. has grown by 95 percent. This book can help you grow your business and become more profitable!"
 —Todd Kelchner, CEO, Kelchner, Inc.


Phytochemicals are naturally formed in plant of corn. Many kinds of flavonoids are the most important plant pigment. Purple corn is extracted with polar and nonpolar solvent and analyzed for flavonoids and antioxidants. The extract residue of purple corn is compared on extraction with various solvent groups. In the designed experiments, conditions of extraction depend on solvent, solvent ratio and evaporation temperature. The residue quantity of purple corn is respectively from extraction with three kinds of solvent such as acetone, chloroform: methanol (3:1) and pentane: hexane (1:1). All residue extract are eluted and with mobile phase and analyzed with diode array detector by HPLC. Anthocyanin, ? -carotene and total tannin of purple corn were taken analysis an average (mean ± SD) in 100 g sample and shown as 198.42 ± 0.33 mg, 175.82 ± 0.17 mg and 273.75 ± 0.33 mg respectively. The efficiency of solvent extraction depends on the polarity of the substances. The extract by acetone can take the highest residue and mixture solvent take a high residue. The different polarities of solvent can make the difference of residue product in the extraction. Improving and development on the changes are useful for the best of raw material and products.


This study seeks to identify how Canadian newsprint media portrayed seventy-six Tamil refugees who arrived off the coast of Victoria, British Columbia on October 17, 2009. The corpus consists of articles published between October 2009 to January 2010 from The Vancouver Sun, The Toronto Star, and National Post. Using discourse analysis, I questioned issues of framing, representation, and identity and sought to understand how the Tamil refugee migration was understood within public dialogue. The study found that there was an overall negative representation of the Tamil refugees as the press emphasized issues of criminality and terrorism, and constructed the refugees as 'risky'. The discussion placed security -- rather than human rights -- as a focal point and portrayed the immigration system as both "failing" and "abused" by "bogus claimants". This security framework provided the necessary political environment for refugee reform Bill C-11 to be ushered through parliament later that spring.


Abstract Leucite and analcime have open framework aluminosilicate structures, where ion exchange by cation substitution has been previously used to explain the replacement of one phase by another. Using 18O-enriched NaCl solutions in hydrothermal reactions and run-product analyses using scanning electron microscopy, infrared and Raman spectroscopy, and time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry, we show that the replacement of leucite by analcime is not a solid-state reaction involving cation exchange by volume diffusion. Textural features such as nano-pores and clusters, as well as the detection of high amounts of 18O in the framework of analcime, suggest that the reaction proceeds by dissolution of leucite and reprecipitation of analcime, where structural O atoms of the leucite framework are exchanged and a new analcime structure forms at a moving interface through the leucite parent crystal. The characteristic high porosity (on a nano-scale) in the analcime product phase results from some of the parent phase being lost to the solution to give a volume deficit reaction. However, external dimensions are maintained during the process to result in the pseudomorphic replacement of an open framework aluminosilicate structure by a coupled dissolution-reprecipitation mechanism.


Introduction: Occult diaphragmatic hernias after trauma are relatively rare and may present months to years after the traumatic event. Clinical presentations range from asymptomatic incidental findings on imaging to life-threatening incarceration of abdominal visceral organs. This study presents a case of a patient with a symptomatic diaphragmatic hernia secondary to a trauma >30 years prior. A literature review of this defect was performed examining the pathophysiology, presentation, and operative considerations. Case Presentation: A 58-year-old male with a history of multiple traumatic motor vehicle accidents 30 years prior presented with abdominal pain and obstructive symptoms. Axial imaging demonstrated a right-sided diaphragmatic hernia defect containing small intestine, colon, and omentum. He ultimately underwent a transabdominal laparoscopic repair of the defect with mesh buttressing. Postoperative the patient recovered well and was discharged without complications. Conclusion: Limited data outside of case reports exist for surgical management of occult diaphragmatic hernias secondary to trauma. Reported management options include open and minimally invasive thoracic as well as open and minimally invasive abdominal approaches; each with advantages and disadvantages. Depending on the defect size, both primary repair and repair with mesh reinforcement are appropriate options. More data comparing the approach and repair technique are needed to determine the best technique.


Recognition of action, goals and intentions has been shown to be mediated by a multimodal mirror-neuron system, not only in monkeys, but also in humans. A fronto-parietal network of brain areas has been identified where these neurons are located. We should expect musical actions, goals and intentions to be mediated by this system as well. In this fMRI study, we present audio recordings of music composed in two-part harmony to 10 professional, improvising keyboard performers. The first task (Motor Imagery) was to imagine playing the piece, the second task (Judgment) to listen attentively while assessing the performance . Half of the pieces were familiar, the other half unfamiliar. A group of musically unskilled subjects participated as controls. As hypothesized, a fronto-parietal network of cerebral areas was activated, not only during Motor Imagery, but also during Judgement, including activity in left, ventral PMC. In a behavioral test, the ability of these performers to recognize musical actions, goals and intentions was corroborated. Performers listened to various excerpts, played them by ear, harmonized them and transposed them, demonstrating that they not only could replicate, but also manipulate them in a musically plausible manner, suggesting that the cerebral activations observed could indeed be ascribed to recognition of musical action, goals and intentions.


By GREGORY M. BERGQUIST Following the recent detection of VHSv in the Great Lakes I conducted a study on VHSv in Lake Erie yellow perch. A newly developed RT-PCR and nested-PCR assay was tested on yellow perch blood samples collected in 2008 and compared to the cell culture method of testing. I found that the RT-PCR assay coupled with the nested PCR was more sensitive in detecting VHSv in yellow perch than the cell culture method used by testing laboratories. The effects of VHSv infection on yellow perch feeding were investigated by analysis of growth patterns in yellow perch otoliths. Periods of slow growth in the early portion of the growing season were significantly more frequent in peak-VHSv years than pre-VHSv years. Lastly, phylogenetic analysis of nucleocapsid gene sequences from VHSv showed sequence differences from Great Lakes isolates were associated with geographic location and not host species or time of isolation.


Phagosomes contain class II MHC (MHC-II) and form peptide:MHC-II complexes, but the source of phagosomal MHC-II molecules is uncertain. Phagosomes may acquire nascent MHC-II or preexisting, recycling MHC-II that may be internalized from the plasma membrane. Brefeldin A (BFA) was used to deplete nascent MHC-II in murine macrophages to determine the relative contributions of nascent and recycling MHC-II molecules to phagocytic Ag processing. In addition, biotinylation of cell-surface proteins was used to assess the transport of MHC-II from the cell surface to phagosomes. BFA inhibited macrophage processing of latex bead-conjugated Ag for presentation to T cells, suggesting that nascent MHC-II molecules are important in phagocytic Ag processing. Furthermore, detection of specific peptide:MHC-II complexes in isolated phagosomes confirmed that BFA decreased formation of peptide:MHC-II complexes within phagosomes. Both flow organellometry and Western blot analysis of purified phagosomes showed that about two-thirds of phagosomal MHC-II was nascent (depleted by 3 h prior treatment with BFA) and primarily derived from intracellular sites. About one-third of phagosomal MHC-II was preexisting and primarily derived from the plasma membrane. BFA had little effect on phagosomal H2-DM or the degradation of bead-associated Ag. Thus, inhibition of phagocytic Ag processing by BFA correlated with depletion of nascent MHC-II in phagosomes and occurred despite the persistent delivery of plasma membrane-derived recycling MHC-II molecules and other Ag-processing components to phagosomes. These observations suggest that phagosomal Ag processing depends primarily on nascent MHC-II molecules delivered from intracellular sites, e.g., endocytic compartments.


Investigates the influence of the cost function on the optimal match between two graphs. It is shown that, for a given cost function, there are an infinite number of other cost functions that lead, for any given pair of graphs, to the same optimal error correcting matching. Furthermore, it is shown that well-known concepts from graph theory, such as graph isomorphism, subgraph isomorphism, and maximum common subgraph, are special cases of optimal error correcting graph matching under particular cost functions.


Groupware calendar systems--on-line, networked calendar software--illuminate difficulties in designing collaborative support technologies for effective, successful use. In the case of groupware calendars, the mundane but important practices of calendaring and scheduling create a potential dilemma for users: individuals' calendars must simultaneously support personal work and social coordination. The technology must meet a wide range of personal calendar support needs, but also employees must individually and collectively resolve serious issues about privacy and interpersonal boundary regulation. Furthermore, the role and function of the technology within the broader context of the organization impacts decisions about groupware participation and the nature of the technology's use.
After a decade of slow adoption, groupware calendars are now being widely used and influencing behavior in some organizations. In an ethnographic investigation, I examine a high adoption case of groupware calendars at Sun Microsystems, where the openly-configured groupware calendar system allows an investigation into essential problems in collaborative systems design and operation. Calendar use at Sun has evolved beyond meeting scheduling, functioning instead as a distributed information system, supporting communication in unexpected ways. Contributions from the research include implications for groupware design, which address demands for individual support, group coordination, and opportunities for socio-technical adaptability.


While the value of play often is emphasized only for children, play has a role in higher education as well. Play encourages students to confront new information with curiosity rather than fear and with a flexible rather than fixed mindset. As book history is a complex field—curators, librarians, archivists, booksellers, auctioneers, collectors, artisans, conservationists, and a whole host of other professionals are just as involved in its work and study as students and scholars—play is a wonderful way to address this overwhelm because it generates a positive state of flow. In particular, specially-designed games help students begin to address their book history learning curve. Using two common points of entry for students working with rare books for the first time—"how much is this book worth?" and "this book is really pretty!"—Codex Conquest and Mark help instructors guide students through their own inquiry.


The prevailing neo‐Wicksellian view holds that the central bank's objective is to track the natural rate of interest (
 r
 *), which itself is largely exogenous to monetary policy. We challenge this view using a fixed‐cost model of durable consumption demand, in which expansionary monetary policy prompts households to accelerate purchases of durable goods. This yields an intertemporal trade‐off in aggregate demand as encouraging households to increase durable holdings today leaves fewer households acquiring durables going forward. Interest rates must be kept low to support demand going forward, so accommodative monetary policy today reduces
 r
 * in the future. We show that this mechanism is quantitatively important in explaining the persistently low level of real interest rates and
 r
 * after the Great Recession.


During the warm early Pliocene (∼4.5 to 3.0 million years ago), the most recent interval with a climate warmer than today, the eastern Pacific thermocline was deep and the average west-to-east sea surface temperature difference across the equatorial Pacific was only 1.5 ± 0.9°C, much like it is during a modern El Niño event. Thus, the modern strong sea surface temperature gradient across the equatorial Pacific is not a stable and permanent feature. Sustained El Niño-like conditions, including relatively weak zonal atmospheric (Walker) circulation, could be a consequence of, and play an important role in determining, global warmth.


Abstract The sun has long been a potent symbol of worldly power, mythological cosmology, Christian revelation, and philosophical enlightenment. To conjure with it musically is to open a vast field of the associative possibilities of illumination and its others: figures of emergence, ascension, power, fatal strength, attenuation, obscurity. In his symphonic trilogy on the times of the day—nos. 6 ( Le matin ), 7 ( Le midi ), and 8 ( Le soir )—Haydn traces the diurnal movement of the sun across all three works in ways that reveal a sophisticated understanding of the sun9s many cultural resonances. This opus constitutes, in effect, Haydn9s debut at the Esterhazy court in 1761, a year in which the Transit of Venus across the sun attracted local and global fascination and intense astronomic study. Beyond demonstrating his cultural range to the court, Haydn9s focus on the sun9s trajectory also helps to explain many of the puzzling musical features of the trilogy, especially the unusual slow movements. These works cast new light on Haydn9s return to musical settings of the diurnal cycle at the dusk of his career, in The Creation (1798) and The Seasons (1801), and reflect the Enlightenment composer9s engagement with multiple fields of knowledge and experience.


Current influenza vaccines protect against influenza only when they match circulating strains. Development of a universal vaccine is of the highest public health importance. In a recent randomised, double-blinded study by Bernstein et al., 65 adult participants were selected and randomly assigned to one of five study groups. These included three prime-boost, chimeric haemagglutinin-based vaccine regimens and two placebo groups. Primary outcomes included reactogenicity and safety, while the secondary outcomes included immunogenicity and extended immunogenic response to phylogenetically distant strains. The adjuvanted inactivated vaccine, rather than the liveattenuated vaccine, produced a sevenfold increase in anti-H1 stalk antibody. Comparable antibody induction patterns were noted for H2, H9 and H18 which all belong to the phylogenetically distant group 1 of haemagglutinins. A similar increase in the live-attenuated vaccine was demonstrated only after receiving boost immunisation with adjuvanted inactivated vaccine. The experimental vaccines were well tolerated. The study had several limitations including lack of antibody persistence data, exclusion of children, and all participants demonstrated baseline antibodies to the haemagglutinin stalk prior to vaccination, likely induced by natural infection. This was the first proof-of-principle study to demonstrate that using a highly conserved influenza epitope can induce high serum titers of cross-reactive antibodies. These findings provide foundation and rationale for a development of a universal vaccine.


Background. The use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs have a significant impact on the daily lives of older adults. In order to study the relationship between substance use, health and care variables in older adults. Method. Information was collected in a random sample of the registry users of the DF IAAM program; 2098 people agreed to participate and was interviewed in their homes, the response rate obtained was 83.9%. Results and discussion. It was found that 13.1% receive aid in basic and instrumental activities of daily living, 81.4% perceived little social support, 82.2% perceived belonging to a dysfunctional family and 45.5% have been diagnosed with a chronic degenerative disease. Using odds ratios, it was shown that at-risk drinking and alcohol dependence increased the risk of chronic degenerative diseases, infectious and mental disorders and affects the need for support in basic and instrumental activities of daily living and perception of family dysfunction. Smoking increased risk of chronic degenerative and infectious diseases and also was associated with perceived health and family support. The use of any illegal or prescribed drugs was not significantly associated with care variables, but affect chronic degenerative diseases and mental disorders. The results of this study showed that use of alcohol, tobacco and other drugs affect the health and care of older adults in Mexico City, so it is urgent to address these problems in order to improve their quality of life.