Diversified India, diversified Castes-customs had been generated diversified Folk-occupational structure. So, our society is experiencing various socio-economic-cultural-behavioral-perception-business lives. Though we are thinking that, we are educating, improving our scientific life, felling more conscious but a part of society cannot belonging with these. We are moving to know geography, but we are not giving the importance of the Geography of Backward classes' people of society. In all classes of society have starvation geography like Geography of Muchi. The present paper highlights such a group of working people who are engaged in shoe or sandal or chappol polishing or repairing in Bolpur town as well as train route related Bolpur-Santiniketan Rail station, depicting the socio-economical dimension with behavioral approach in their working (Business Geography) vis a vis housing life, their perception on customer and give highlights on problems and suggestive measures with changing society. And through the applications of this geography, we can enrich our casket of Knowing –Geography and Improvemental-Geography of Muchi community.


The rising importance of multinationals in the world economy has been accompanied by a rise in trade between affiliates of multinationals located in different countries, and by profits being shifted to low tax countries. The effect of trade barriers on taxation, intra firm trade and profit shifting has largely been ignored by both the trade literature and the public finance literature. This Paper analyses how competition over shifty profits affects tax policy as trade barriers are lowered. The main results are: (i) a reduction in trade barriers unambiguously leads to higher tax revenue for low or intermediate levels of trade costs; and (ii) that the effect on equilibrium tax rates depends on the proportion of the corporate tax bases that is foreign owned and how far economic integration has proceeded.


Abstract Maternal stress and inflammation excesses can lead to adverse pregnancy outcomes and offspring development. We evaluated whether distinct prenatal stressors affect pregnancy, maternal and offspring outcomes, and uterine gene expression differently when combined than either alone. Long-Evans dams were exposed to psychological or/and (two-hit) immune stress (interleukin-1 beta [IL-1β]), on gestational days 12–18 and 17-delivery, respectively. Gestational length, maternal weight gain, glycaemia and corticosterone levels, offspring weight, and gender effects were recorded. Maternal and offspring uteri were collected at weaning and on postnatal day 160 correspondingly. Uterine expression of genes involved in local progesterone metabolism, neuroendocrine and immune systems were analyzed using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction. Maternal two-hit stress increased gestational length variation and the occurrence of adverse pregnancy outcomes while reducing gestational weight gain. Pup weight was negatively affected by prenatal stressors in a gender-specific way. In dams, IL-1β upregulated gene expression of neuroendocrine (Crh, Crhr1) and cytokine genes (Il1b, Il1rn, Il6, and Il10). Conversely, transcriptional patterns in offspring uteri were more variable with gene-specific up- or downregulation by each stressor separately, while exposure to both extensively reduced the expression of neuroendocrine (Hsd11b1), cytokine (Il1a, Il1rn, Il6), and IL-1 receptor genes. In conclusion, maternal stress affects physiological and molecular processes in dams and their offspring; two hits have different effects than single stressors. Outcomes appear generation-, gender-, and stressor-specific. Dampening of offspring uterine gene expression after exposure to multiple stressors could fit within the match/mismatch hypothesis of perinatal programming, with offspring preparing for a stressful life. Summary Sentence The combination of two distinct prenatal stressors, psychological and immune stress, induces adverse outcomes and differentially affects expression of genes related to progesterone metabolism, stress and the immune system in the rat uterus.


Although face processing has been studied extensively, the dynamics of how face-selective cortical areas are engaged remains unclear. Here, we uncovered the timing of activation in core face-selective regions using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Magnetoencephalography in humans. Processing of normal faces started in the posterior occipital areas and then proceeded to anterior regions. This bottom-up processing sequence was also observed even when internal facial features were misarranged. However, processing of two-tone Mooney faces lacking explicit prototypical facial features engaged top-down projection from the right posterior fusiform face area to right occipital face area. Further, face-specific responses elicited by contextual cues alone emerged simultaneously in the right ventral face-selective regions, suggesting parallel contextual facilitation. Together, our findings chronicle the precise timing of bottom-up, top-down, as well as context-facilitated processing sequences in the occipital-temporal face network, highlighting the importance of the top-down operations especially when faced with incomplete or ambiguous input.


In this work we study the simultaneous effect of primordial non-Gaussianity and the modification of the gravity in f(R) framework on large scale structure observations. We show that non-Gaussianity and modified gravity introduce a scale dependent bias and growth rate functions. The deviation from ?CDM in the case of primordial non-Gaussian models is in large scales, while the growth rate deviates from ?CDM in small scales for modified gravity theories. We show that the redshift space distortion can be used to distinguish positive and negative fNL in standard background, while in f(R) theories they are not easily distinguishable. The galaxy power spectrum is generally enhanced in presence of non-Gaussianity and modified gravity. We also obtain the scale dependence of this enhancement. Finally we define galaxy growth rate and galaxy growth rate bias as new observational parameters to constrain cosmology.


This paper investigates the effect of long and changing propagation delays on the performance of TCP file transfers. Tests are performed with machines that emulate communication from a low medium-earth satellite to Earth by way of a geosynchronous satellite. As a result of these tests, we find that TCP is fairly robust to varying delays given a high enough TCP timer granularity. However, performance degrades noticeably for larger file transfers when a finer timer granularity is used. Such results have also been observed in previous simulations by other researchers, and thus, this work serves as an extension of those results.


A 45-year-old female with selective deficiency of C4 and systemic lupus erythematosus developed puzzling gastrointestinal and systemic symptoms in the last 6 months of her life. Extensive investigation of the gastrointestinal tract did not yield any diagnosis, and the patient died shortly afterwards. Autopsy revealed evidence of a typical Whipple's disease of the jejunum and lymph nodes. This association has not been previously described. The disease is reviewed with emphasis on its being an opportunistic infection in an immunosuppressed host with a complement deficiency and SLE.


Sedimentary structures produced by microbial activity are well known from ancient carbonate facies, but little is known about equivalent microbial structures in ancient siliciclastic facies. Wrinkle marks and Kinneyia ripples are closely related sedimentary structures that are commonly found in ancient siliciclastics, and they may represent microbial activity. To evaluate this possibility, these structures were studied in Vendian–Cambrian strata of North America and compared to structures formed by modern microbial mat communities in Redfish Bay, Texas. Striking similarities in sedimentologic, petrographic, and morphologic characteristics of modern and ancient occurrences suggest that the enigmatic but widespread ancient structures could have been formed by microbial processes. The relative abundance of these structures in siliciclastic facies of this interval further suggests that prior to the onset of relatively intense bioturbation in the Ordovician, microbial mats could have played a significant role in the evolution and diversification of early life in a broad variety of sea-floor environments.


Objective
To investigate the association between three diet-quality scores corresponding to adherence to healthy dietary patterns [alternate Mediterranean (aMed), Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI-2010), Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH)] and the risk of symptomatic gallstone disease.

Methods
The study comprised 43 635 men of the Health Professionals Follow-up Study-an ongoing prospective cohort study of US health professionals. Participants were free of symptomatic gallstone disease and diabetes and provided dietary information every 4 years from 1986 (baseline) until 2012. The aMed, AHEI-2010 and DASH scores were generated and associated with the risk of symptomatic gallstone disease using Cox proportional hazards regression.

Results
During 716 904 person-years of follow-up, 2382 incident cases of symptomatic gallstone disease were identified. All three scores were inversely associated with risk of symptomatic gallstone disease after adjustment for potential confounders including age, smoking, physical activity, energy and coffee intake [hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs)] comparing the highest with the lowest quintiles: aMed: 0.66 (0.57-0.77), AHEI-2010: 0.64 (0.56-0.74) and DASH: 0.66 (0.58-0.76)]. Findings were similar after additional adjustment for body mass index and after inclusion of asymptomatic cases. Associations were stronger when analysis was restricted to cases who had undergone cholecystectomy.

Conclusions
In this prospective cohort of male US health professionals, higher adherence to the aMed, AHEI-2010 and DASH diets was associated with lower risk of symptomatic gallstone disease. Dietary recommendations focusing on high-quality diets targeting symptomatic gallstone disease may lower the incidence of this prevalent disease.


For some time now, the field of Spatial Humanities has acknowledged the need for a system capable of the spatial exploration of historical and archaeological phenomena beyond Geographic Information Systems (GIS). This idea comes from the need to analyse holistically spatial information, including that which is not geographic (i.e. vague, symbolic and imaginary space). In addition, this need becomes more apparent when dealing with traditions that do not conform to the Modern/European/Cartesian conception of space in which GIS is rooted. This article, explores the use of Qualitative Spatial Representation (QSR) and Semantic Triples as possible alternative means to model complex and diverse expressions of spatial information, including social and symbolic conceptions in 16th century Mexican maps. Using as case study the map from the region of Atengo-Misquiahuala (Hidalgo) which combine the Mesoamerican and European traditions, we explore how these approaches might open new venues of research, potentially shedding light to long discussed and problematic Mesoamerican spatial categories. Focusing on a contained and partial example, we examine from a theoretical perspective and as a starting point, the possible future implementation of these approaches for historical and archaeological research.


This paper presents a hierarchical two-stage outdoor scene classification method using multi-classes of Support Vector Machine (SVM). In this proposed method, the gist feature of all the images in the database is extracted first to obtain the feature vectors. The image of database is classified into eight outdoor scenes classes, four manmade scenes and four natural scenes. Second, a hierarchical classification is applied, where the first stage classifies all manmade scene classes against all natural scene classes, while the second stage of a hierarchical classification classifies the outputs of first stage into either one of the four manmade scene classes or natural scene classes. Binary SVM and multi-classes SVMs are employed in the first and second stage of a hierarchical classification respectively. The proposed method is designed also to compare and find the most suitable multi-classes SVMs approach and the kernel function for classification task, where their performances are analyzed based on experimental results. The multi-classes SVMs used in this paper are One-versus-All (OvA) and One-versus-One (OvO), while the kernel functions used are linear kernel, Radius Basis Function (RBF) kernel and Polynomial kernel. Experimental results indicate that OvO classifier provides better performance than OvA classifier. The results, also show that the Polynomial kernel function is superior to others kernel function.


AIM
To characterize prevalence and features of low back pain (LBP) in Moscow outpatients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The questionnaire designed in the Rheumatology Institute of Russian Medical Academy was used in the trial performed for a month with participation of 1300 Moscow outpatients aged 18 to 50 years.

RESULTS
LBP is a frequent cause of consulting a physician in an outpatient practice. Most of the outpatients complained of acute and subacute moderate or severe LBP. This pain often caused disability. Of diagnostic tools most frequent was x-ray investigation of the spine.

CONCLUSION
Spinal osteochondrosis is the most frequent diagnosis made in LBP outpatients. Detectability of threat marks in LBP patients is not more than 10%.


A significant number of poly a-ester homologues of poly(L-lactide) (PLLA) have been synthesized and used in miscibility studies together with conventional isomeric diacid-diol polyester variants, poly β-esters (based on β-hydroxybutyrate (HB) and β-hydroxyvalerate (HV)), poly e-caprolactone (PCL), poly e-caprolactone copolymers (e.g. poly(L-lactide-co-caprolactone), and a series of cellulose-based polymers (e.g. cellulose acetate butyrate (CAB), cellulose acetate propionate (CAP)). A combinatorial approach to rapid miscibility screening using 96-well plates and a uv-visible multi-wavelength plate reader has been developed enabling the clarity of PLLA-based multi-component blend films to be observed. Using these techniques and materials, the ternary phase compatibility diagrams of a range of three-component blend films was prepared, illustrating ranges of behavior varying from miscible blends giving rise to clear films to immiscible blends which are opaque. In this way, novel three-component blends of PLLA/CAB/PCL were developed which are miscible when the CAB content is more than 30%, PLLA less than 80% and PCL less than 60%.


This paper reports and analyzes the presence of large, seismic-scale, mass transport deposits (MTD) recorded within the Guandacol Formation. These major submarine landslides seem to be connected with the occurrence of glacial episodes. The Guandacol Formation is part of the Paganzo Basin fill of Norwest Argentina, and it is well known for recording several glacial cycles of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age. In this contribution we report and describe three major glacial/deglacial cycles (Fig. 1b) of Mississippian/Pennsylvanian age (Valdez et al., 2013). Outcrops of Guandacol Formation in Cerro Bola and Sierra de Maz (Cerro Guandacol) areas preserve those glacial cycles and each consists in the succession from non-glacial deltaic deposits to proglacial and thick mass-transport deposits (resedimented diamictites), which are the aim of this study, and finally postglacial marine varied strata, including sandy turbidites, shales with and without dropstones and some deltaic deposits (Milana et al ., 2010; Dykstra et al., 2011). This study focuses on Sierra de Maz and Cerro Bola localities because they show very well exposed these seismic-scale MTDs that otherwise would be quite difficult to see (Fig. 2a, b). Thus, these outcrops give the opportunity to compare many characteristics that usually are seen in seismic records, directly on the ground. On this sense, this contribution is mainly oriented to describe the facial and geometrical interrelations between these large MTDs (as there are many minor MTDs) and not the detailed internal architecture or their comparison to specific seismic features. The occurrence of these large MTDs can be explained by the large amounts of sediment delivered to the basin triggered by glacial- deglacial episodes. Due to the scarcity of well-exposed mega-scale MTD successions, a detailed study is being carried out since a few years. The result of detailed mapping of this rough terrain allow an excellent correlation between single MTDs, for several kilometers from Guandacol to Bola Hill outcrops (Fig. 3), and also portraying how singular MTD change laterally when passing from a basin-margin environment (Guandacol Hill) to a basin-center environment (Bola Hill). The local Guandacol Formation shows three large glacial cycles that are mainly represented by single large MTDs and/or MTD composite intervals. The oldest MTD1 crops out completely in the Guandacol Hill, but only the upper part is present at Bola Hill (Fig. 4). MTD1 particular diagenesis and broad folds caused some authors to separate it from Guandacol Formation but we did not find any significant unconformity other than the normal upper relief between it and the following inter-MTD deposits. MTD2 is the largest and occurs as basin widens and more accommodation space is available. Reaching up to 200 m thick, it crops out continuously for more than 10 km in Bola Hill and 4 km in Guandacol Hill (Figs. 5, 6). The MTD3 is more complex due to its encroaching with large syn-sedimentary faults that we interpret as a large-scale slide scar associated to the MTD3 interval (Figs. 9, 10). This potential slide scar is associated with other elements as incised valleys or rilling at the scar surface, which have been observed in subsurface examples. Therefore one of the largest example of MTD successions and probably the best exposed worldwide is documented for the first time as a large, seismic-scale slide-scar cropping out in association to an MTD interval, with all the suite of sedimentary and deformational elements that might be expected for this play. Due to the fact these features are rarely exposed altogether, we expect this outcrop could be a world-class example to observe features cropping out that otherwise could be only studied indirectly from deep-water seismic surveys. This succession also serves as an example of how some sedimentary features could be easily mistaken by tectonic features when the scale of the sedimentary processes involves the discrete movement of large volumes (several km 3 ) of semiconsolidated sedimentary units, as in the case presented here.


Background: Short cervical length is a risk factor for preterm delivery (PTD) and screening of cervical length using transvaginal ultrasound in the second trimester is a proposed method to find women at risk Aims: To examine the potential value of routine measurement of cervical length in a Swedish population of women with singleton pregnancies in the prediction of PTD. To estimate interand intra-observer agreement and reliability of cervical length measurements. Methods: Women at routine fetal scan examinations in the second trimester were recruited to a study measuring cervical length with transvaginal ultrasound. Assessments were performed by certified midwives. Women were recruited at two Swedish centers in the PILOT study (Paper I) and at seven Swedish centers in the CERVIX study (Paper II). In the PILOT study the results of the measurements were not blinded but in the CERVIX study they were. The cervix was measured once in the PILOT study and twice, at least two weeks apart, in the CERVIX study. The isthmus was measured separately in the CERVIX study. The REPRODUCIBILITY study (Paper III) forms part of the CERVIX study and consists of two studies: the LIVE study and the CLIPS study. In the LIVE study, seven pairs of midwives assessed cervical length in between 24 and 30 women each. In the CLIPS study, 16 trained examiners (raters) measured cervical length twice at least two months apart on 93 video clips. The midwives were blinded to each other ́s results and in the CLIPS study also to their own previous results. Results: Paper I: In the PILOT study, cervical length was measured in 2122 women. Median cervical length at 16-23 gestational weeks (GW) was 39.0 mm and the prevalence of a short cervix (≤25 mm) was 0.5%. There was a significant association between cervical length and spontaneous PTD <34 GW. Paper II: The CERVIX study included 11 456 women. The prevalence of endocervical length ≤25 mm was 4.0% at 18-20 GW (Cx1) and 4.4% at 21-23 GW (Cx2). Isthmus was present in 23% at Cx1 and in 9% at Cx2. The discriminative ability of endocervical length was better in women with no isthmus than in women with isthmus and better at Cx2 than at Cx1. At Cx1, to predict spontaneous PTD at <33 GW the best cut-off point for endocervical length was ≤29 mm, which had a sensitivity of 43%, Area Under receiver operating characteristic Curve (AUC) of 0.68. The corresponding figure at Cx2 was ≤27 mm with AUC 0.76. Using the 27 mm cut-off at Cx2 identified 54% of spontaneous PTD before 33 gestational weeks with 35 false positive test results per one true positive and 449 women were screened to correctly identify one woman as being at risk. Paper III: For the best examiner pair in the LIVE study the mean difference between the two examiners' measurements of endocervical length was 0.33 mm, the limits of agreement -4.06 to 4.72 mm, for the poorest examiner pair it was 0.73 mm and -11.7 to 13.2 mm, respectively. In the CLIPS study, the repeatability for the best rater was 3.9 mm and that of the poorest 9.6 mm (median 5.9 mm). Conclusions: In the second trimester short cervical length is a risk factor for spontaneous PTD the shorter the cervix the higher the risk. At this point cervical length has a moderate ability to identify women at risk, the disciminative ability being higher to predict early PTD (<33 GW) than PTD 34-37 GW. Inter-observer agreement and reliability of second trimester cervical length measurements differed substantially between examiner pairs in the LIVE study and so did intra-observer measurement error, repeatability and reliability between the examiners in the CLIPS study.


Signal Transducer and Activator of Transcription (STAT) 3 and 5 are important effectors of cellular transformation, and aberrant STAT3 and STAT5 signaling have been demonstrated in hematopoietic cancers. STAT3 and STAT5 are common targets for different tyrosine kinase oncogenes (TKOs). In addition, STAT3 and STAT5 proteins were shown to contain activating mutations in some rare but aggressive leukemias/lymphomas. Both proteins also contribute to drug resistance in hematopoietic malignancies and are now well recognized as major targets in cancer treatment. The development of inhibitors targeting STAT3 and STAT5 has been the subject of intense investigations during the last decade. This review summarizes the current knowledge of oncogenic STAT3 and STAT5 functions in hematopoietic cancers as well as advances in preclinical and clinical development of pharmacological inhibitors.


We present a description of the NASA Aura Tro-pospheric Emission Spectrometer (TES) carbonyl sulfide (OCS) retrieval algorithm for oceanic observations, along with evaluation of the biases and uncertainties using aircraft profiles from the HIPPO (HIAPER Pole-to-Pole Observations) campaign and data from the NOAA Mauna Loa site. In general, the OCS retrievals (1) have less than 1.0 degree of freedom for signals (DOFs), (2) are sensitive in the mid-troposphere with a peak sensitivity typically between 300 and 500 hPa, (3) but have much smaller systematic errors from temperature, CO 2 and H 2 O calibrations relative to random errors from measurement noise. We estimate the monthly means from TES measurements averaged over multiple years so that random errors are reduced and useful information about OCS seasonal and latitudinal variability can be derived. With this averaging, TES OCS data are found to be consistent (within the calculated uncertainties) with NOAA ground observations and HIPPO aircraft measurements. TES OCS data also captures the seasonal and latitudinal variations observed by these in situ data.


Models of molecular sequence evolution have been a pivotal source of insight into the biological mechanisms and forces of evolution. Model development and improvements in computational capacity have allowed for increasingly sophisticated analyses in the last four decades, however, many studies still use twenty year old GTR+[Gamma] models for convenience and computational tractability. Here we present a new model in the branch-site random effects likelihood framework, Adaptive Branch-Site Random Effects Likelihood (aBSREL), that is more sensitive and an order of magnitude faster than previous branch-site models. We demonstrate the effectiveness of aBSREL at detecting episodic diversifying selection using simulated sequences and previously studied empirical alignments. As part of an ongoing investigation into the importance of modeling natural selection and especially selection heterogeneity in molecular dating analyses, we undertake a detailed study of ten potentially ancient viral lineages using aBSREL, comparing our estimates with previously published molecular dating, historical, and fossil estimates. We also present two special purpose models within the branch- site REL framework and the addition of massively parallel accelerators such as Graphics Processing Units to the high performance computing resources addressable by HyPhy. The first of these two models, RELAX, is purpose built to detect relaxed selection while the BUSTED model uses a priori partitioning and sublinear complexity scaling to further improve computational tractability. Both models are demonstrated on simulated and empirical datasets and compared to current state of the art alternatives from the literature. These models represent a substantial expansion to the branch-site REL framework and are available for use in the HyPhy software package and on the Datamonkey.org webserver


This collaborative performance was the outcome of a residency at West Walls Studios, Carlisle 25.06.04-01.07.04, leading to the exhibition 'Poland-Cumbria Live Art Exchange' 1.07.20 - 4.07.04, a Critical Forum 04.07.04 and a solo performance 'Slupsk' 02.07.04, all at Tullie House Art Gallery, Carlisle. This was followed by a residency, at Allenheads Art Centre, Allenheads, Northumberland 5.07.04-12.07.04. During the residency two linked but different performances were devised and rehearsed in collaboration with Magdelana Sowierszenko. These works, Przemowienie/Speech 1 and Przemowienie/Speech 2, were performed with Sowierszenko at Theatre Rondo, Slupsk, Poland 29/08/2004 and Schindler's Factory, Warsaw. 31/08/2004 respectively. Both performances took place as part of the Zamek Wyobrazni, festival - a longstanding major international festival of performance art curated by Wladslaw Kazmierczak., involving artists from 29 countries. All the above activities were organised and funded by Poland-Cumbria Live Art Exchange, Matrix Art Projects and selected from national submissions. The first performance, Slupsk used a process of overlaying disparate bodies of information to examine the workings of cultural ignorance and assumptions about the other. These issues were explored further in discussions during the Allenheads residency and informed the development of work for both a Polish environment and an international audience. Within the context of a major international festival, Przemowienie/ Speech 1 and Przemowienie/ Speech 2. served as a meditation on the ascendancy of the English language and the political implications of this phenomenon both for individuals with English as a first language and their interlocutors. A related issue, one of control, vis-a-vis the two collaborators, was exposed and explored through part-revelation of the interpersonal dynamic between the two collaborators and the use of imposed silences.


The multilevel fast multipole algorithm (MLFMA) is very efficient for solving large-scale electromagnetic scattering problems. However, at low frequencies, or when the discretization is small compared with the wavelength, both the MLFMA and the underlying integral equation formulation typically suffer from a subwavelength breakdown. For the electromagnetic scattering from a homogeneous dielectric object, we obtain a stable and well-conditioned surface integral formulation using a variant of the classical Muumlller formulation and linear basis functions. To overcome the subwavelength breakdown of the MLFMA, we use both propagating and evanescent plane waves to represent the fields. The implementation is based on a combination of the spectral representation of the Green's function and Rokhlin's translation formula. We also present a new interpolation scheme for the evanescent part, which significantly improves the error-controllability of the MLFMA-implementation. Several numerical results verify both the error-controllability and scalability of the proposed algorithm


Prostate cancers of luminal adenocarcinoma histology display a range of clinical behaviors. Although most prostate cancers are slow-growing and indolent, a proportion is aggressive, developing metastasis and resistance to androgen deprivation treatment. One hypothesis is that a portion of aggressive cancers initiate from stem-like, androgen-independent tumor-propagating cells. Here we demonstrate the in vitro creation of a mouse cell line, selected for growth as self-renewing stem/progenitor cells, which manifests many in vivo properties of aggressive prostate cancer. Normal mouse prostate epithelium containing floxed Pten and TP53 alleles was subjected to CRE-mediated deletion in vitro followed by serial propagation as protospheres. A polyclonal cell line was established from dissociated protospheres and subsequently a clonal daughter line was derived. Both lines demonstrate a mature luminal phenotype in vitro. The established lines contain a stable minor population of progenitor cells with protosphere-forming ability and multi-lineage differentiation capacity. Both lines formed orthotopic adenocarcinoma tumors with metastatic potential to lung. Intracardiac inoculation resulted in brain and lung metastasis, while intra-tibial injection induced osteoblastic bone formation, recapitulating the bone metastatic phenotype of human prostate cancer. The cells showed androgen receptor dependent growth in vitro. Importantly, in vivo, the deprivation of androgens from established orthotopic tumors resulted in tumor regression and eventually castration-resistant growth. These data suggest that transformed prostate progenitor cells preferentially differentiate toward luminal cells and recapitulate many characteristics of the human disease.


The Kalumbila Co-Ni-Cu prospect (12°15' S, 25°20' E) is located ~300 km west of the Zambian Copperbelt on the southeastern flank of the Kabompo dome in the Middle Unit of the Lufilian arc. Kalumbila contains a drill-indicated resource of ~3.04 Mt at 0.67 wt percent Ni, 0.2 wt percent Co and 0.11 wt percent Cu using a 0.08 wt percent Co and ~0.3 wt percent Ni cutoff with an average thickness of 12.75 m. Ni-Co-Cu mineralization occurs as strata-bound, disseminated to finely laminated (locally semimassive) to locally discordant chalcopyrite, pyrrhotite, violarite, and siegenite within a finely laminated, highly carbonaceous and pyritic metapelite (300–500 m thick). Surface rock exposure in this low-relief terrain of woodland and seasonal swamp is <1 percent and geophysics (magnetic and electromagnetic surveys) is an essential exploration tool.

Detrital zircons in the Kalumbila metasediments (SHRIMP U-Pb ages of 2004–1884 Ma) are derived from the underlying Paleoproterozoic granitic gneiss such as that exposed in the adjacent Kabompo basement dome. The metasedimentary sequence grades upward from siliciclastic rocks (mica schists) to the carbonaceous metapelite, which hosts the Co-Ni-Cu. These units are overlain by dolomitic and Mg-rich schists (possible meta-evaporites) which are, in turn, succeeded by calc-silicate rocks and a deformed diamictite. This sequence is broadly similar to the stratigraphy in the Zambian Copperbelt and suggests that the Kalumbila carbonaceous metapelite may be the chronostratigraphic equivalent of the Katangan Roan Ore Shale, a significant exploration target.

Kalumbila occurs within a moderately (40°) north- northwest-dipping band of Wamikumbi Formation carbonaceous metapelite on the flank of a recumbent, south-southeast–verging F1 or F2 back fold. During the Lufilian orogeny, peak metamorphic conditions at F1 were of amphibolite facies grade (~650°C, 13 kbars). Both monazites and rutiles within the Kalumbila metasediments have metamorphic characteristics and late orogenic, Lufilian, SHRIMP U-Pb ages (548.6 ± 7.6 Ma and 531 ± 21 Ma, respectively). Sulfides in the metasediments display metamorphic textures and, therefore, predate the peak of Lufilian tectonism and thermal metamorphism. A suite of spatially associated, apparently late Lufilian gabbros intrude the metasedimentary rocks. These gabbros are unmineralized, but the thermal effects of their emplacement may have modified ore distribution. A genetic model, in which synsedimentary pyrite in a carbonaceous pelite was partially replaced by syndiagenetic or metamorphic Co-Ni-Cu-bearing fluids of unknown origin, is favored.


These five editors are experienced, recognized leaders in pediatric surgery. Dr. Arensman was on staff at the Ochsner Clinic for several years, and Dr. Adolph is currently the senior pediatric surgeon at the Ochsner Clinic. The other 45 contributors range from younger physicians in training to experienced clinicians. Most of the chapters are authored or coauthored by the editors. The text is grouped into 15 sections and 97 chapters. Each chapter is short and consistently divided into sections to aid the reader. The broad spectrum of conditions managed by pediatric surgeons is adequately covered. In keeping with its intent to provide succinct information, the text is not internally referenced, but suggested readings from larger textbooks and journals are provided at the end of each chapter. The illustrations and figures are in black and white and are sufficient to explain basic principles. Unfortunately, little technical information on procedures is included. The appendix provides a helpful list of common drugs and dosages used in pediatric patients.

This text succeeds in providing a ready reference for information on common surgical problems of childhood. Its size allows it to fit in a laboratory coat pocket, and its reasonable cost supports widespread distribution. Although the minimal technical descriptions limit this handbook's usefulness to surgical house officers, I would recommend it for the younger members of the team (especially students, nurses, and pediatric residents) who participate in the care of these challenging patients.


INTRODUCTION
Ethnic differences exist in patients with diabetes mellitus. Not much is known about such differences in Asian populations. The aim of the study was to determine ethnic differences among Chinese, Malay and Indian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus in Singapore.

METHODS
The study design was cross-sectional, involving 967 patients who were attending follow-up care for type 2 diabetes mellitus at a primary care clinic. Data collection was by patient interview, examination, and from case records. Blood and urine samples were collected for analysis of indicators of diabetic control and albuminuria.

RESULTS
Malays had the highest mean body mass index (BMI) after controlling for age, gender, duration of diabetes and exercise status. Adjusted mean BMI for Malays was 27.4kg per square metres, Indians 25.7kg per square metres, Chinese 24.9kg per square metres, with the p value being less than 0.01. HbA1c levels were highest among Indians after controlling for age, duration of diabetes, body mass index and treatment. Adjusted mean HbA1c for Indians was 8.3 percent, Malays 8.0 percent, and Chinese 7.7 percent, with the p value being less than 0.01. Compared with Chinese, Indians were more likely to have a positive family history of diabetes (prevalence rate ratio (PRR) of 1.3, 95 percent confidence interval (CI) of 1.0 to 1.7), but were less likely to have associated hypertension (PRR of 0.7, 95 percent CI of 0.5 to 1.0) and microalbuminuria and macroalbuminuria (PRR of 0.6, 95 percent CI of 0.4 to 1.0).

CONCLUSION
Ethnic differences exist with regard to BMI, diabetic control as reflected by HbA1c levels, family history of diabetes, presence of associated hypertension, and severity of albuminuria. Indians, while having poorer control of diabetes, are less prone to hypertension and renal complications than Chinese.


At our work we have analysed the organisation of calving in Charolais breed during the years from 1998 to 2001 at selected farm. Our monitoring of calving during winter season (from January to February) shows the percentage of calving was in particular years ranged from 43.2 to 71.1. The most calves were born in February. We found out (total all years) diffi cult calving (value 3) in 2 cases in April (1998 and 1999) and 1 case in February (1998) and 1 in March (1999). Calving marked with value 2 (total of all years) we found out in January (2 cases), February (3 cases), March (4 cases) and from September to December past one case. From 18 cases of diffi cult calving what we found out, 11 calves (61.11 %) come from CHV 529 bull. In calves born by normal calving was found out average weight 34.75 kg, in ones born by calving with level 2 of diffi culty 36.36 kg, and in calves born by calving with diffi culty 3 was recorded average weight 41.5 kg. Recorded weight at 210 days of age in mostly cases was similar like in published breed standard.


Bayesian hierarchical spatio-temporal models are becoming increasingly important due to the increasing availability of space-time data in various domains. In this paper we develop a user friendly R package, spTDyn, for spatio-temporal modelling. It can be used to fit models with spatially varying and temporally dynamic coefficients. The former is used for modelling the spatially varying impact of explanatory variables on the response caused by spatial misalignment. This issue can arise when the covariates only vary over time, or when they are measured over a grid and hence do not match the locations of the response point-level data. The latter is to examine the temporally varying impact of explanatory variables in space-time data due, for example, to seasonality or other time-varying effects. The spTDyn package uses Markov chain Monte Carlo sampling written in C, which makes computations highly efficient, and the interface is written in R making these sophisticated modelling techniques easily accessible to statistical analysts. The models and software, and their advantages, are illustrated using temperature and ozone space-time data.


This review focuses on national and subnational Mediterranean diet (MD) and Nordic diet (ND) interventions and policies in the WHO European Region. In the context of increasing noncommunicable disease (NCD) burden and unhealthy diets, there is a need to continue identifying optimal, evidence-informed diets and interventions for the prevention and control of NCDs. The MD and ND have been identified as region-specific healthy diets. To support decision-makers in shaping context-specific diet and nutrition policies, this review provides a summary of the NCD burden and activities in the Region; outlines the NCD-related health benefits of the MD and ND; describes interventions and policies in 15 countries; reviews four identified studies into the effectiveness of MD and ND policies on NCD outcomes; and discusses policy implications and options. In the context of MD and ND interventions for NCDs, there remains a Region-wide need to increase translation of evidence into action, monitor and evaluate the impact of existing policies on NCD outcomes and share activities through public platforms to support information sharing.


1 ml. of procaine penicillin G containing 300,000 units daily for four days. On the secotid day he volunteered the information that there was no pain felt at the injection site and the abscess was no longer painful. After the four injections the eye was healing well and a week later was normal. The second case was a woman with a carbuncle of the forearm which was 2 in. in diameter. She received four daily injections of 300,000 units of procaine penicillin G, and she remarked on the complete absence of discomfort at the site of injection in contrast to injections of penicillin received on previous occasions. Within five days the carbuncle site was almost unnoticeable. The third case was a man with an infected pulp space who had had his finiger incised at a county hospital with local anaesthesia, followed later with a general anaesthetic and a thorough incision of the pulp. The finger was very painful and swollen, and there was an abundant discharge of pus. The man had toxic symptoms. He received three daily injections of procaine penicillin G (300,000 units), and after three days the finger was healed on one side and almost healed on the other. There was no pain and he felt very well.


Psychiatric rehabilitation has been found to be a worthwhile conceptual framework in the long-term management of schizophrenia. It involves both pharmacotherapy and various psychosocial treatments. Psychiatric rehabilitation allows the treatment team to organize a comprehensive therapy plan for patients. This paper reviews the literature on psychiatric rehabilitation and describes an example of the practical application of these theories.


Printed sensors are among the most successful groups of devices within the domain of printed electronics, both in terms of their application versatility and the emerging market share. However, reports on fully printed gas sensors are rare in the literature, even though it can be an important development toward fully printed multisensor platforms for diagnostics, process control, and environmental safety-related applications. In this regard, here, we present the traditional tin oxide-based completely inkjet-printed co-continuous and mesoporous thin films with an extremely large surface-to-volume ratio and then investigate their NO2 sensing properties at low temperatures. A method known as evaporation-induced self-assembly (EISA) has been mimicked in this study using pluronic F127 (PEO106-PPO70-PEO106) as the soft templating agent and xylene as the micelle expander to obtain highly reproducible and spatially homogeneous co-continuous mesoporous crystalline SnO2 with an average pore diameter of the order of 15-20 nm. The fully printed SnO2 gas sensors thus produced show high linearity for NO2 detection, along with extremely high average response of 11,507 at 5 ppm NO2. On the other hand, the sensors show an ultralow detection limit of the order of 20 ppb with an easy to amplify response of 31. While the excellent electronic transport properties along such co-continuous, mesoporous structures are ensured by their well-connected (co-continuous) ligaments and pores (thereby ensuring high surface area and high mobility transport at the same time) and may actually be responsible for the outstanding sensor performance that has been observed, the use of an industrial printing technique ascertains the possibility of high-throughput manufacturing of such sensor units toward inexpensive and wide-range applications.


Abstract For more than a century Alpine glaciers have been retreating dramatically, and they are expected to shrink even more quickly over the coming decades. This study addresses the future evolution of Grosser Aletschgletscher, Switzerland, the largest glacier in the European Alps. A three-dimensional combined surface mass-balance and glacier dynamics model was applied. The ice flow was described with the full Stokes equations. The glacier surface evolution was obtained by solving a transport equation for the volume of fluid. Daily surface melt and accumulation were calculated on the basis of climate data. The combined model was validated against several types of measurements made throughout the 20th century. For future climate change, scenarios based on regional climate models in the ENSEMBLES project were used. According to the median climatic evolution, Aletschgletscher was expected to lose 90% of its ice volume by the end of 2100. Even when the model was driven using current climate conditions (the past two decades) the glacier tongue experienced a considerable retreat of 6 km, indicating its strong disequilibrium with the present climate. By including a model for the evolution of supraglacial debris and its effect in reducing glacier melt, we show that this factor can significantly slow future glacier retreat.


Policymakers advocating for later school starting times argue that increased sleep duration may generate important schooling benefits. Using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, this study examines the relationship between sleep duration and academic performance, while carefully controlling for difficult-to-measure characteristics at the family- and individual-levels. We find that increased sleep time is associated with improvements in classroom concentration as well as increased educational attainment. However, we also find evidence of diminishing returns to increased sleep. We estimate an "academic optimum" number of sleep hours of, on average, 8.5 hours per night. Turning to sleep quality, we find that the onset of insomnia-like symptoms is associated with diminished contemporaneous academic concentration, but little change in longer-run educational attainment.


We propose an end-to-end learned video compression scheme for low-latency scenarios. Previous methods are limited in using the previous one frame as reference. Our method introduces the usage of the previous multiple frames as references. In our scheme, the motion vector (MV) field is calculated between the current frame and the previous one. With multiple reference frames and associated multiple MV fields, our designed network can generate more accurate prediction of the current frame, yielding less residual. Multiple reference frames also help generate MV prediction, which reduces the coding cost of MV field. We use two deep auto-encoders to compress the residual and the MV, respectively. To compensate for the compression error of the auto-encoders, we further design a MV refinement network and a residual refinement network, taking use of the multiple reference frames as well. All the modules in our scheme are jointly optimized through a single rate-distortion loss function. We use a step-by-step training strategy to optimize the entire scheme. Experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms the existing learned video compression methods for low-latency mode. Our method also performs better than H.265 in both PSNR and MS-SSIM. Our code and models are publicly available.


This paper studies the performance of the generalized likelihood ratio test (GLRT) proposed in [1] in the context of data-aided timing synchronization for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) communications systems and flat-fading channels. Herein paper, the asymptotic performance of the GLRT test is derived, and an upper bound for the detection probability is provided and shown to behave well as a benchmark for sufficiently large number of observations. Computer simulations are presented to corroborate the developed analytical performance benchmarks. In addition, choice of some system design parameters to improve the synchronization performance is discussed via computer simulations.


This article explores the strength and causal determinants of ideological thinking within Swiss local political parties. The concept of "ideologization" refers to (1): "horizontal couplings", as they are manifested in intercorrelations between different opinions, and to (2) "vertical couplings" of specific opinions to abstract concepts of "left" and "right". Results show high ideologization on the left-center section of the LR-scale, especially in the vertical dimension. On both sides of the spectrum, ideological constraints are significantly higher in larger communities than in than in smaller ones. Only in rather small communities, does ideologization correlate positively with the educational level, the modern occupational background of party members and the number of other local parties with which they have to compete. In communities of given size, ideological thinking is more pronounced when parties possess a small share of political power. Finally, it is found that ideological constraints have increased somewhat between 1989 and 2002.


There is a growing interest in applying machine learning algorithms to real-world examples by explicitly deriving models based on probabilistic reasoning. Sports analytics, being favoured mostly by the statistics community and less discussed in the machine learning community, becomes our focus in this paper. Specifically, we model two-team sports for the sake of one-match-ahead forecasting. We present a pioneering modeling approach based on stacked Bayesian regressions, in a way that winning probability can be calculated analytically. Benefiting from regression flexibility and high standard of performance, Sparse Spectrum Gaussian Process Regression (SSGPR) – an improved algorithm for the standard Gaussian Process Regression (GPR), was used to solve Bayesian regression tasks, resulting in a novel predictive model called TLGProb. For evaluation, TLGProb was applied to a popular sports event – National Basketball Association (NBA). Finally, 85.28% of the matches in NBA 2014/2015 regular season were correctly predicted by TLGProb, surpassing the existing predictive models for NBA.


23 FEBRUARY 1931 * 1 NOVEMBER 2008ROBERT IMBRIE SMITH died in 2008 after a long, difficult siege with many ailments. He had a classic pedigree that fitted him out to be a quintessential clubman and successful businessman. When one met Bob, "hail fellow" immediately came to mind.But Bob's life took a turn that made him one of the most successful foundation leaders in the country. On his watch, the nascent Pew Charitable Trusts were transformed from a secretive family philanthropy founded in 1948 as the Pew Memorial Foundation into a professionally staffed foundation of national and international scope and reputation.Born in New York City and later in life imported to Philadelphia, Bob was educated at Phillips Exeter Academy, Yale University, and the Columbia Business School. Though he had a soft spot in his heart for Exeter, Bob loved Yale and served it in many capacities over the years. He was an associate fellow of Timothy Dwight College, a member of the University Council and of the Council's executive committee, and an associate of Yale's Board of Governors. He received the Yale University Medal in 1982. A surprising number of those hired as part of the staff expansion at Pew had at least a touch of Old Blue in their backgrounds.Bob came to Philadelphia to join the Sun Oil Company as an executive and over the years rose up through the ranks, coming to the attention of the Pew family. Robert Dunlop, a former CEO of Sun, became his mentor and encouraged him to join the Glenmede Trust Company in 1972.Glenmede, named after the Pew family home in Bryn Mawr, had been created in 1956 to assist the Pew family in managing their philanthropic assets and to continue to provide foundation services to the family. The family dissolved the original Pew Memorial Foundation and over thirty-one years created seven trusts that fueled their philanthropic interests. It was no accident that these trusts taken together held the largest bloc of Sun Oil stock at that time. Well before the idea of a "poison pill" became popular, the Pew family had created a robust defense against an unwanted takeover of the Sun Oil Company. Because of the total value of the family's Sun Oil stock in their charitable trust holdings, the Sun Oil board always had a seat reserved for the president of Glenmede. What later came to be known as The Pew Charitable Trusts began as the Foundation Department of Glenmede. So integrated was Glenmede before Bob, that the foundation staff observed all the banking holidays and received bonuses if the investment side turned a profit.In 1977, Bob became president of the Glenmede Trust Company and set about accelerating the evolution of both its investment and its foundation functions. Bob brought the investment side into the light, seeking new clients and advertising its skills to individuals and families "of significant means." He encouraged the search for international clients and international venues for investing, a sound business choice that also allowed him to travel occasionally to London, where he could slake his interest in all things English. Dining with Bob at Daphne's was a special treat for those who had the good fortune to accompany him.On the foundation side, Bob inherited philanthropy shy of publicity, the Pew family still preferring that grants be made anonymously. There was no set philanthropic budget overall. Various program areas totaled up their grants at the end of the year to discover how much they had spent on health, education, or religion. Priorities were driven by family interests, which tended to be conservative and focused on Philadelphia. Each member of the small staff reviewed all types of proposals, primarily to summarize them for the Glenmede Committee on Grants, which was in the main made up of Pew family members and a few trusted friends. Foundation staff was regularly admonished that it would never be allowed to "run away" with The Pew Charitable Trusts, as had happened at the Ford Foundation. …


We propose a generic framework for distributed broadcasting in ad hoc wireless networks. The approach is based on selecting a small subset of nodes to form a forward node set to carry out a broadcast process. The status of each node, forward or nonforward, is determined either by the node itself or by other nodes. Node status can be determined at different snapshots of network state along time (called views) without causing problems in broadcast coverage. Therefore, the forward node set can be constructed and maintained through either a proactive process (i.e., "up-to-date") before the broadcast process or a reactive process (i.e., "on-the-fly") during the broadcast process. A sufficient condition, called coverage condition, is given for a node to take the nonforward status. Such a condition can be easily checked locally around the node. Several existing broadcast algorithms can be viewed as special cases of the generic framework with k-hop neighborhood information. A comprehensive comparison among existing algorithms is conducted. Simulation results show that new algorithms, which are more efficient than existing ones, can be derived from the generic framework.


This study reports the first experimental exploration of possible contagious yawning in monkeys. Twenty-two stumptail macaques (Macaca arctoides) were presented with video clips of either yawns or control mouth movements by conspecifics. At a group level, monkeys yawned significantly more often during and just after the yawn tape than the control tape. Supplementary analysis revealed that the yawn tape also elicited significantly more self-directed scratching responses than the control tape, which suggests that yawning might have been caused by tension arising from viewing the yawn tape. Understanding to what extent the observed effect resembles contagious yawning as found in humans and chimpanzees requires more detailed experimentation.


This paper presents a bright future for quantitative System Dynamics Modeling. This future relates to all major issues and grand challenges which all happen to be dynamically complex and deeply uncertain. Combining System Dynamics Modeling and Exploratory Modeling and Analysis allows one to generate, explore and deeply analyze tens of thousands of plausible scenarios related to such deeply uncertain dynamically complex issues, and to design and test adaptive policies over all plausible scenarios. By doing so, the art of System Dynamics becomes the computational science of System Dynamics. This innovative approach is explained in this paper starting from the core of System Dynamics modeling, and is illustrated with real world applications (pandemic shocks, resource scarcity, and energy transitions). However, more is needed than the brightest analysts and the best analyses for decision makers to decide and take action when facing uncertain complex issues: that is what experiential System Dynamics gaming is needed for. Only when heart and mind are aligned will knowledge and understanding become effective. The use of experiential System Dynamics gaming for conquering the heart of decision makers is illustrated with real world examples too.


This paper is a preliminary discussion of a new paradigm for the general architectural, information representation, operational and design strategy for a biologically-inspired, general purpose neurocomputer based on pulse-coded neural network methods. It presents both hardware and foundational "psychological" machine structure, and discusses key issues raised by this new paradigm. The model is based on experimental findings from both neuroscience and from developmental psychology, and proposes that the key differences between a general purpose neurocomputer and a general purpose digital computer lie in the operational characteristics of the machine that come from attempting to mimic the processes discovered by these sciences. Like most discussions of computer architecture, the model presented here is generally qualitative rather than quantitative. It does however provide a general framework for subsequent quantitative and mathematical research.


The prevalence of cholelithiasis and possible related factors was evaluated in 350 consecutive patients with alcoholic cirrhosis (218 cases, 174 male and 44 female, mean age 58 +/- 9 years) or genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis (132 cases, 115 male and 17 female, mean age 53 +/- 10 years). At enrollment patients with alcoholic cirrhosis were significantly older than those with genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis (P < 0.01), and their clinical status was more severe (Child's class B/C in 99 alcoholic cirrhosis cases versus 27 genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis cases, P < 0.01). The overall frequency of cholelithiasis was 31% (67 cases) in the alcoholic cirrhosis group and 30% (40 cases) in the genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis group, without differences according to gender, classes of age (< or = 49, 50-59, > or = 60 years), or HBsAg positivity in either group. In addition, in the genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis group the presence of diabetes (45 cases), alcohol misuse (38 cases) and beta-thalassemia trait (13 cases) did not influence the prevalence of cholelithiasis. Body mass index, serum cholesterol and triglycerides, and the severity of the underlying liver disease (Child's class) did not distinguish patients with or without cholelithiasis. In conclusion, the frequency of cholelithiasis was high in both alcoholic cirrhosis and genetic haemochromatotic cirrhosis, and was three times higher than that reported in controls from the general population of the same area.


This report is about water erosion in a part of the Voi River catchment, Taita-Taveta District, Coast Province,
Kenya. Population pressure in this area is resulting in unsustainable fuel wood collection, overgrazing,
inappropriate land use techniques, and deforestation. Furthermore climate changes are likely to cause more
droughts. The area is under present conditions semi-arid and therefore vulnerable to erosion. These facts result in
the following problem definition: in the Voi River catchment erosion is too high because of decreasing
vegetation cover. The objective of this research is to give soil conservation recommendations based upon an
erosion hazard assessment and socio-economic analysis.
The method used for collecting data is Rapid Rural Appraisal (RRA). RRA is used widely in developing
countries for pre-project exploratory work. It has been used because it gives fast accurate social and technical
data by triangulation of interviews, secondary data and observations. Also it takes local conditions into account
what is very important for giving good conservation recommendations. During fieldwork the area has been
mapped and divided in different sub-areas. The sub-areas are: Voi town & Mwakingali Hills, Sagala Hills, Voi
River, Plains, Sisal estate and Taita Hills.
Erosion hazard has been determined by erosion intensity and erosivity. To determine erosion intensity drainage
density and drainage texture are used. For erosivity slope, soil characteristics under wet conditions, and
difference between recommended and present land use. For the whole research area a rainfall aggressiveness rate
has been determined with weather data of Voi. Rainfall aggressiveness was highest in April and was quite high,
taken the aridity of the area into account. Erosion intensity was highest at the foothills of Mwakingali Hills,
Sagala Hills, and Small Taita Hills. Gullying in these areas was severe. The hill-areas had very steep slopes and
were susceptible to erosion. Erosion risk was highest in the foothills. Erosion risk was high north of the Small
Taita Hills and south of Voi River. Results of the erosion hazard assessment, conducted with the indicators
mentioned above except of rainfall aggressiveness, are that especially the foothills are vulnerable to erosion. In
the Small Taita Hills erosion risk was especially severe.
The theory of Poiesz, in combination with interviews and observations, has been used to analyze the behaviour
of people in taking conservation measures. It became clear that the environment was forcing people to take
conservation measures. Awareness of erosion as a problem was high throughout the research area. The
motivation of people however to take measures was moderate as experienced by Westerveld Conservation Trust
(WCT) and observations made clear. Only in the Small Taita Hills people were motivated. The capacities of
people were differing for each sub-area. In general local people were taking already quite some measures, but
most of the time they were inadequate or badly constructed. Maintenance of simple techniques is over the whole
research area very well, but maintenance of more advanced techniques, as terraces, was moderate to bad.
Community or NGO projects were also maintained badly. The overall conclusion was that erosion prevention
practiced in the Taita Hills by local farmers is quite high, but most of the time still inadequate, on the Sisal estate
soil prevention is good, and for Plains and Voi River it is moderate to low and inadequate, because most people are not actively preventing erosion.
There are many soil conservation measures needed. In the whole area farmers have to be taught appropriate
farming techniques, such as replanting of trees, use of mulch and so on. Along roads gutters have to be installed,
so that gullying is prevented. Furthermore in most sub-areas vegetation cover has to be restored and gullies to be
reclaimed. At the foothills waterways are recommended to prevent gullying. Trenches are recommended on the
plains and foothills to increase water infiltration and plant cover. In the Small Taita Hills ladder terraces are
recommended on agricultural plots. Social consequences of recommendations have to be taken into account.
People must have opportunities to get fuel wood and pasture. Therefore it is needed to teach them sustainable
fuel wood collection and the animal-land ratio has to be made sustainable. The latter however is very difficult to
obtain.
Concluding, erosion in the research area is especially severe at the foothills. It is damaging roads, houses, plots
and nature. Erosion risk of the foothills is high and local soil erosion prevention is not adequate enough, except
of Sisal estate. Soil conservation measures are therefore needed fast.
It is recommended to do research at soil loss in the rainy season to compare results with other studies of erosion
in East-Africa and with results of soil loss models as Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE) to get more insight in
specific local conditions and the severity of erosion in the area. Also measurements on soil loss for the research
area and for trenches are recommended, so that conservation measures can be designed and the effectiveness of
trenches could be determined. More data on local weather of the sub-areas is needed, because it is differing
much and determines greatly soil conservation that is possible. It is strongly recommended to implement soil
conservation combined with water storage measures and to make a catchment wide plan, so that areas
downstream are not neglected. Before implementing projects it is wise to determine who will benefit of the
project and how to give the locals ownership over the project. Gender and the powerless have to be taken into
account to make the project sustainable. Before the soil conservation recommendations are implemented, it is
necessary to make more detailed plans for the implementation per sub-area.


For the last few decades, demographers have directed considerable attention towards the study of human fertility through the analysis of birth interval data. This study examines the covariates of birth intervals and the effect of increased birth intervals on current fertility level in Bangladesh. Using the data of BDHS 2007, Cox Proportional Hazards model is used to determine the covariates of birth intervals. Mother's age at first birth, previous birth interval, mother's education and working status, mass media exposure appeared as the significant determinants of birth intervals. To estimate the tempo effect of birth interval on current fertility of Bangladesh, Bongaarts and Feeney method (1998) has been used. The tempo adjusted TFR was found to be 3.85, while the conventional TFR was 2.73 for the year 2005-06. This demonstrates that an increased effort to widen the spacing of births can effectively reduce the level of fertility in the future. Dhaka Univ. J. Sci. 61(1): 105-110, 2013 (January) DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/dujs.v61i1.15105


Author(s): Hu, Yongjian | Advisor(s): Gupta, Rajiv | Abstract: Concurrency bugs are notoriously difficult to debug, and situation becomes even worse on mobile platforms due to their asynchronous programming model. Android, the dominant mobile platform, has been plagued by concurrency errors ever since its inception, and the majority of those errors are event-driven races, a new type of race caused by nondeterministic order of events that access the same memory with at least one write access. Prior researches have proposed several dynamic approaches to discover harmful event-driven races. However, due to their dynamic nature, these approaches suffer from coverage and false negative issues. Moreover, they produce false positives, cannot reproduce races, and cannot distinguish between benign and harmful races.In this dissertation, we present an effective approach to systematically detect, verify and classify event-driven races for Android apps. The approach is composed of three sub-systems: First, to our best knowledge, the first static event-driven race detector named SIERRA. By employing novel action-sensitive pointer analysis, a static happens-before graph and symbolic execution based refinement, SIERRA can effectively find true races with high accuracy and acceptable performance. On our benchmark suite, the races SIERRA finds is a super set of those reported by a state-of-art dynamic detector(29.5 vs 4 true races per app) which demonstrates the advantage of a sound static approach. Second, a versatile yet lightweighted record-and-replay tool named VALERA which uses a novel sensor and eventstream driven approach to record-and-replay. VALERA's low overhead (about 1% for either record or replay) and precise schedule replay allows it to reproduce event-driven races for bug fixing. Finally, a race verification and classification approach named ERVA, which uses event dependency graphs, event flipping, and replay to filter out false positives; for true positives, ERVA further distinguish benign races from harmful races by state comparison.


Understanding the impact of socio-economic inequality on health outcomes is arguably more relevant than ever before given the global repercussions of COVID-19. With limited resources, innovative methods to track disease, population needs, and current health and social service provision are essential. One approach of interest is the implementation and integration of mapping software. This approach develops multi-layered interactive maps to demonstrate relationships between socio-economic and health data. Paediatric vaccination uptake and readmission rates are used as an example; however, the wider application of this method is not limited to these sets of health data. This approach aims to improve the interpretation and accessibility of data by creating a simple visual model with little need for additional technical experience beyond the guidance of the protocol.


With increasing spatial resolution of regional ventilation and perfusion, it has become more apparent that ventilation and blood flow are quite heterogeneous in the lung. A number of mechanisms contribute to this regional variability, including hydrostatic gradients, pleural pressure gradients, lung compressibility, and the geometry of the airway and vascular trees. Despite this marked heterogeneity in both ventilation and perfusion, efficient gas exchange is possible through the close regional matching of the two. Passive mechanisms, such as the shared effect of gravity and the matched branching of vascular and airway trees, create efficient gas exchange through the strong correlation between ventilation and perfusion. Active mechanisms that match local ventilation and perfusion play little if no role in the normal healthy lung but are important under pathologic conditions.


The influence of transport stress in the presence of Campylobacter spp. and the antimicrobial resistance profile were evaluated in feces of 60 pigs. The samples were collected at the finishing farm and after transport to the slaughterhouse, totaling 120 samples. Isolation was performed by plaque culture and identification of the species was obtained by biochemical tests confirmed with the PCR technique. Campylobacter spp. was isolated in 63.3% of the collected samples at the farm and 91.6% at the slaughterhouse, evidencing the influence of transport stress on the increase of the isolates (P<0.05). The species C. coli biotype I, C. jejuni biotype I and C. jejuni subsp. doylei were identified, with C. coli being more prevalent on the farm and C. jejuni in the slaughterhouse. Bacterial resistance was observed for all six classes of antibiotics tested.  Among them, the isolates presented greater resistance to lincomycin, tetracycline and nalidixic acid (98.9%), and greater sensitivity to amoxicillin (22.5%). The strains of C. coli showed higher antimicrobial resistance than those of C. jejuni (P<0.05). The results of this study point to the high isolation rates of C. coli and C. jejuni in pig feces destinated for slaughter and possible risks related to meat  consumption.  The high standards of resistance address the risk to public health.


The internet engineering task force working group has proposed IPv6 Routing Protocol for Low-power and Lossy (RPL) networks for the energy-constrained networks on the Internet of things. This protocol has limitations and does not pay particular attention to mobile nodes. We introduce a new method to improve the RPL protocol with the aim to provide continuous connectivity for mobile nodes. Using additional fields to RPl control packets, a parent is responsible for mobility detection and informs a mobile node for maintaining the energy of it and reduces network overheads. A mobile node chooses a new parent based on metrics namely expected transmission count, received signal strength indicator and residual energy, before disconnection from previous parent. Memory has also been defined that maintains a list of previous parents and when selecting a new parent, a mobile node gets help from this list to select stable parents. They used the Cooja simulator to evaluate the performance of the proposed protocol and the results compared with the RPL and mRPL from the aspect of packet delivery ratio, network overhead, end-to-end delay, energy consumption, and end-to-end throughput under different scenarios. The simulation results showed the effectiveness of the proposed method.


Microtensile bond strengths of current dentin adhesives to intact and decalcified root surfaces were evaluated. Two hundred and twenty-four extracted human incisors were divided into two groups as intact (IRD) and decalcified (DRD). The roots of DRD teeth were placed in a demineralization solution to produce artificial carious-like lesions. Root surfaces were slightly ground and treated with either Scotchbond Multi-Purpose (SMP), Adper Single Bond Plus (SBP), Adper Easy Bond (AEB), Scotchbond SE (SSE), Clearfil SE Bond (CSE), Clearfil Protect Bond (CPB), Clearfil Tri-S Bond (CTS), FL-Bond II (FLB), XP Bond (XPB), iBond (IB), AdheSE Bond (ASE), Optibond Solo Plus (OSP), Prelude Dental Adhesive (PDA), and G-Bond (GB). Composite build-ups were formed on the bonded surfaces. After thermocycling, hour-glass shaped specimens with an area of 1 mm2 at the bonded interface were subjected to microtensile testing. Resin–dentin interfaces were observed with SEM. Kruskal Wallis and Mann Whitney-U tests were used for statistical analysis. There was not significant difference between bond strengths to intact and decalcified dentin, with the exception of ASE and CSE, which had higher values to IRD (p < 0.05). SSE and CTS were the adhesives that showed higher bond strengths to DRD than to IRD, however the difference was not significant (p > 0.05). The self-etch adhesives performed better on both IRD and DRD surfaces than etch-and-rinse systems.


To the Editor. —Giovannucci et al 1,2 reported associations between prostate cancer and vasectomy from two cohort studies inThe Journal. 3 The publication of two positive articles from Harvard University left many physicians resigned to a vasectomy risk for prostatic carcinoma. Young families now need to be informed when making permanent contraceptive choices; however, a recent National Institutes of Health panel 4 stated that there is insufficient basis for changing current practices and that screening for prostate cancer need not be different for sterilized men. This position may not change very soon. Given past contraceptive safety study history, weak associations between contraception and cancer may require 50 or more observational studies before a causal link, if any, can be established. This is supported by contradictory negative findings in other existing investigations and, among weakly positive studies such as those from Harvard, inconsistent findings among subgroups. 4 Among the recent weakly


Systematic reviews aim to maximise transparency and comprehensiveness, whilst also minimising subjectivity and sources of bias. Because of these time-consuming and complex tasks, systematic reviews are perceived as being resource-intensive. To date, published estimates of systematic review resource requirements have been largely anecdotal, being imprecise and not based on evidence. However, it is valuable to provide reliable means of estimating the resource and time requirements of systematic reviews and maps. We analysed all CEE systematic reviews (n=66) and maps (n=20) published or registered between 2012 and 2017 to estimate the average time needed to complete a systematic review and map. We then surveyed 33 experienced systematic reviewers to collate information on time needed for each stage of the review process. Our results show that the average CEE systematic review takes 157 days (SD; ±22), whilst the average CEE systematic map takes 209 days (SD; ±53). While screening of titles and abstracts is widely accepted to be time-consuming, in practice meta-data extraction and critical appraisal can take as long (or even longer) to complete, especially when producing systematic maps. Finally, we present a tool that allows the user to predict the time requirements of a review or map given information known about the planned methods and evidence base likely to be identified. Our tool uses evidence-based defaults as a useful starting point for those wishing to predict the time requirements for a particular review. Our analyses shed light on the most time-consuming stages of the systematic review and map process, and highlight key bottlenecks from the perspective of time requirements, helping future reviewers to plan their time accordingly. Future predictions of effort required to complete systematic reviews and maps could be improved if CEE and CEE review authors provided more detailed reporting of the methods and results of their reviewing processes.


Exceptions are one of the most pervasive problems in process support systems. In installations expected to handle a large number of processes, having exceptions is bound to be a normal occurrence. Any programming tool intended for large, complex applications has to face this problem. However, current process support systems, despite their orientation towards complex, distributed, and heterogeneous applications, provide almost no support for exception handling. This paper shows how flexible mechanisms for failure handling are incorporated into the OPERA process support system using a combination of programming language concepts and transaction processing techniques. The resulting mechanisms allow the construction of fault-tolerant workflow processes in a transparent and flexible way while ensuring reusability of workflow components.


The widespread use of mediation and its continuing expansion is well deserved and is a natural consequence of the many benefits and successes achieved by mediation. As parties search for ways to decrease disruption to their business, maintain relationships and find a more expeditious and less costly means for resolving their disputes, attention is increasingly being paid to hybrid processes – to combinations and permutations of arbitration and mediation that can serve the parties' needs and best fit the forum to the fuss. These combined processes are not new. Arbitrators attempting to settle cases (arb-med) and mediators serving as arbitrators if settlement is not achieved (med-arb) have been the subject of learned articles for many years and have been part of the local culture in many parts of the globe for generations. This chapter addresses two issues that deal with the interstices between mediation and arbitration. The first discussion reviews the questions that arise in connection with an arbitrator serving as a mediator in a dispute after the mediation fails and discusses such a dual role under US law. The second discussion reviews the question of whether a mediation settlement agreement can be recorded as an arbitral award by a mediator who has succeeded in the task of facilitating the settlement and whether such an award would be enforceable under the New York Convention.


Background
We examined whether alcohol flushing could be used as an instrumental variable (IV) and investigated the effect of alcohol consumption on coronary calcification using alcohol flushing status as an IV.

Methods
We analysed cross-sectional data from 24 681 Korean adults (20 696 men and 3985 women) who had been administered a questionnaire assessing alcohol consumption and alcohol flushing, as well as a coronary artery calcium (CAC) measurement. The associations of alcohol flushing status with potential confounders and alcohol consumption were examined. We employed two-stage predictor substitution methodology for the IV analysis.

Results
The prevalence of alcohol flushing did not differ depending on gender, education, household income, cigarette smoking or physical activity. Balanced levels of confounders were observed between alcohol flushers and non-flushers. Alcohol flushing was closely related to alcohol consumption and levels of liver enzymes. In men, a doubling in alcohol consumption was associated with increased odds of coronary calcification in both the IV analysis [odds ratio (OR) of CAC scores of 1 or over = 1.11; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.03-1.20) and the multivariable regression analysis (OR = 1.04; 95% CI = 1.01-1.07). For cardiovascular risk factors, the IV analysis showed a positive association between alcohol consumption and blood pressure and high-density lipoprotein-cholesterol.

Conclusions
Alcohol flushing can be used as an IV in studies evaluating the health impact of alcohol consumption, especially in East Asian countries. Through such an analysis, we found that increased alcohol consumption was associated with an increased risk of subclinical coronary atherosclerosis.


A large number of spectroscopic studies have provided evidence of the presence of multiple populations in globular clusters by revealing patterns in the stellar chemical abundances. This paper is aimed at studying the origin of these abundance patterns. We explore a model in which second generation (SG) stars form out of a mix of pristine gas and ejecta of the first generation of asymptotic giant branch stars. We first study the constraints imposed by the spectroscopic data of SG stars in globular clusters on the chemical properties of the asymptotic and super asymptotic giant branch ejecta. With a simple one-zone chemical model, we then explore the formation of the SG population abundance patterns focussing our attention on the Na-O, Al-Mg anticorrelations and on the helium distribution function. We carry out a survey of models and explore the dependence of the final SG chemical properties on the key parameters affecting the gas dynamics and the SG formation process. Finally, we use our chemical evolution framework to build specific models for NGC 2808 and M4, two Galactic globular clusters which show different patterns in the Na–O and Mg–Al anticorrelation and have different helium distributions. We find that the amount of pristine gas involved in the formation of SG stars is a key parameter to fit the observed O–Na and Mg–Al patterns. The helium distribution function for these models is in general good agreement with the observed one. Our models, by shedding light on the role of different parameters and their interplay in determining the final SG chemical properties, illustrate the basic ingredients, constraints and problems encountered in this self-enrichment scenario which must be addressed by more sophisticated chemical and hydrodynamic simulations.


Popular Monte-Carlo tree search (MCTS) algorithms for online planning, such as e-greedy tree search and UCT, aim at rapidly identifying a reasonably good action, but provide rather poor worst-case guarantees on performance improvement over time. In contrast, a recently introduced MCTS algorithm BRUE guarantees exponential-rate improvement over time, yet it is not geared towards identifying reasonably good choices right at the go. We take a stand on the individual strengths of these two classes of algorithms, and show how they can be effectively connected. We then rationalize a principle of "selective tree expansion", and suggest a concrete implementation of this principle within MCTS. The resulting algorithms favorably compete with other MCTS algorithms under short planning times, while preserving the attractive convergence properties of BRUE.


Abstract This paper describes a general methodology for quantifying the importance of specific phenomenological elements to analysis measures evaluated from nonparametric best-estimate plus uncertainty evaluation methodologies. The principal objective of an importance analysis is to reveal those uncertainty contributors having the greatest influence on key analysis measures. This characterization supports the credibility of the uncertainty analysis, the applicability of the analytical tools, and even the generic evaluation methodology through the validation of the engineering judgments that guided the evaluation methodology development. A demonstration of the importance analysis is provided using data from a sample problem considered in the development of AREVA's realistic large-break loss-of-coolant (LOCA) methodology. The results are presented against the original large-break LOCA phenomena identification and ranking table developed by the technical program group responsible for authoring the code scaling, applicability, and uncertainty methodology.


The study offers an example of an inclusive internationalization of university teaching through a digital platform. Inclusive and comprehensive internationalisation requires us to reframe our thinking, also taking advantage of the opportunities offered by digital transformation and exploring new methods of achieving internationalisation goals. Our research investigates how mutual enrichment and cooperative teaching practice among lecturers supports self-efficacy and motivation to study which international research showed to be positively affected by internationalisation experiences. Participants were students at Niccolò Cusano University in Rome and students on the undergraduate Master of Education that attended three sessions delivered remotely by a multilanguage teaching team from both universities. Students were also engaged in collaborative tasks in order to further stimulate collaboration and knowledge exchange. Data were collected before the beginning of the project (T0) and at the end of it (T1). Results showed that two of the subscales of the perceived self-efficacy scale in managing complex problems (Context Analysis and Emotional Maturity) were significantly different between the two administrations, with an improvement in T1.


This exploratory, descriptive cohort study (N = 60) determined lead (Pb) and arsenic (As) blood concentrations in Peruvian children and their association with hematological parameters of iron-deficient anemia (IDA) and anthropometric measurement. The mean age of children was 10.8 months (SD = 4.7) and ranged from 3 to 24 months old. Anemia (Hb levels below 10.5 g/dL) was found in 20% of this cohort. Additionally, microcytosis (MCV < 70 fL) was present in 54%, and hypochromia (MCH < 23 pg) in 42% of the group of children. Chi-square analysis showed that 88% of the children with anemia also had microcytosis and hypochromia (p < 0.001). Pb and As were detected in 100% of the infants' blood samples, and the concentrations were significantly higher in older infants than in younger ones. Pb and As were not associated with the sex, anthropomorphic parameters, or infant hemogram changes. Infants who received iron supplementation were 87% less likely to have low Hb compared with those who did not (OR = 0.13, 95% CI = 0.02–0.88, p=0.04). Herbal tea intake was significantly associated with microcytosis and hypochromia. Our finding uncovered that hematological parameters for anemia are modified in Peruvian children with high levels of microcytosis and hypochromia. Concentrations of Pb and As were above method detection limits in all Peruvian children, but these were not associated with IDA or anthropometric measurements. A large study, including other variables, would benefit from allowing a more complex model predicting anemia in Peruvian children.


A sudden and temporary change to the Italian property tax system in 2011 generated significant variation in the amount of taxes paid across home-owners. Using new questions appositely added to the Survey on Household Income and Wealth, we exploit this cross-sectional variation to provide an unprecedented analysis of the consumption effects of a tax on housing wealth. A tax hike on the main dwelling leads to large expenditure cuts among mortgagors, who hold low liquid wealth despite owning sizable illiquid assets. In contrast, higher tax rates on other residential properties affect affluent households, thereby having a modest impact on their consumer spending. Our results provide novel and direct evidence in favor of recent theories that highlight the role of household debt in the transmission of economic policies.


The thesis is composed of four chapters.
The first one examines in detail the theoretical framework on which Henry George's proposal is based. In particular, the initial chapter critically reconstructs it by analysing not only Progress and Poverty - George's best-known book, which is generally claimed to be one of the "best sellers" in the history of economics (Barker 1991) - but also his other worwell as mainstream economists.
The second chapter contains an analysis of main criticisms of public revenue from land rent. Economists from various schools of thought have critically analysed Henry George's theory. Although all of them would deserve a detailed analysis, the second chapter deals only with the criticisms of Herbert Spencer, some adherents of the Austrian school of economic thought and Frank Knight. Using these critics, it is possible to bring to the fore the debate concerning the private ownership in land and the role of land in wealth production, i.e., land as a distinctive factor of production versus land as just a type of capital good. Such criticisms also facilitate the highlighting of some relevant aspects that are not often considered, but that are claimed to undermine the implementation of land value taxation.
The third chapter aims at bringing Henry George's proposal up to date, analysing and articulating the perspective of Neo-Georgism, defined as an attitude or point of view - one that may concede that Henry George's theory and proposal were vulnerable, but maintains that, when all is said and done, he was right on the essentials. In this perspective, therefore, the term Neo-Georgism refers to a specific policy program reflecting this outlook.Finally, the last chapter analyses whether the proposal of Henry George can work and have a chance of success.


HEREDOFAMILIAL incidence has only rarely been reported in cases of progressive bulbar paralysis occurring in adult life. Equally rare is the reported coincidence of marked intellectual deterioration with this disease process. Both these unusual manifestations were found in the following case, which seems, therefore, worthy of detailed description and discussion. REPORT OF A CASE Mrs. C. S., aged 69, was admitted to the Royal Edinburgh Hospital for Mental and Nervous Disorders, West House, on March 26, 1950. She died on April 26, 1950. Family History.— The maternal ancestry was distinguished for good health and longevity, the mother of the patient dying at the age of 91. The paternal line was described in the locality from which they hailed as possessing "a nervous streak" (Chart). The father of the patient died at the age of 69. The stated cause of death was "progressive muscular atrophy." The commencing symptoms were difficulty in


This thesis concerns the relationship between continuous and discrete modelling paradigms for timed concurrent systems, and the exploitation of this relationship towards applications, in particular model checking. The framework we have chosen is Reed and Roscoe's process algebra Timed CSP, in which semantic issues can be examined from both a denotational and an operational perspective. The continuous-time model we use is the timed failures model; on the discrete-time side, we build a suitable model in a CSP-like setting by incorporating a distinguished tock event to model the passage of time. We study the connections between these two models and show that our framework can be used to verify certain specifications on continuous-time processes, by building upon and extending results of Henzinger, Manna, and Pnueli's. Moreover, this verification can in many cases be carried out directly on the model checker FDR. Results are illustrated with a small railway level crossing case study. We also construct a second, more sophisticated discretetime model which reflects continuous behaviour in a manner more consistent with one's intuition, and show that our results carry over this second model as well. Discrete Analysis of Continuous Behaviour in Real-Time Concurrent Systems


Indoor air quality is one of the factors that determine human well-being and health. Being aware of this fact, it is essential to identify the origin, kind, mechanism, and effects of harmful substances contained in the air. The issue concerning the contents and primary emission of these substances from building materials and interior furnishings is well known. Adverse effects of environmental tobacco smoke (ETS), including exposure of passive smokers, are also very well documented. To the contrary, reports on secondary and indirect emissions, especially those focused on mechanisms by which pollution is "transferred" by materials used in interior furnishings are very rare. Textiles are used in a great variety of ways as functional and decorative materials. These materials in general, and textile floor coverings in particular, are extensively utilized in fitting apartments, public buildings, and transport means. Studies on this aspect of the role played by textile materials in ETS exposure have been only fragmentary documented.


A clear plaque mutant of the temperate Bacillus phage phi105 lysogenized a small fraction of infected cells forming an integrated prophage at or near the normal phi105 insertion site. These lysogens exhibited a spontaneous induction rate approximately 1,000-fold lower than wild type and were noninducible (ind(-)) by mitomycin C. Prophage was induced, however, when competent cultures were incubated with transforming DNA. The ind(-) phenotype could not be attributed solely to the clear plaque mutation and appears to involve a cell-specific factor. Lysogenization by the clear plaque mutant, in contrast to wild-type phage, did not cause a marked reduction in transformation efficiency.


The network scale-up method enables researchers to estimate the sizes of hidden populations, such as drug injectors and sex workers, using sampled social network data. The basic scale-up estimator offers advantages over other size estimation techniques, but it depends on problematic modeling assumptions. The authors propose a new generalized scale-up estimator that can be used in settings with nonrandom social mixing and imperfect awareness about membership in the hidden population. In addition, the new estimator can be used when data are collected via complex sample designs and from incomplete sampling frames. However, the generalized scale-up estimator also requires data from two samples: one from the frame population and one from the hidden population. In some situations these data from the hidden population can be collected by adding a small number of questions to already planned studies. For other situations, the authors develop interpretable adjustment factors that can be applied to the basic scale-up estimator. The authors conclude with practical recommendations for the design and analysis of future studies.


Generation of induced pluripotent stem cells (iPSCs) from other somatic cells has provided great hopes for transplantation therapies. However, these cells still cannot be used for clinical application due to the low reprogramming and differentiation efficiency beside the risk of mutagenesis and tumor formation. Compared to iPSCs, induced neural stem cells (iNSCs) are easier to terminally differentiate into neural cells and safe; thus, iNSCs hold more opportunities than iPSCs to treat neural diseases. On the other hand, recent studies have showed that small molecules (SMs) can dramatically improve the efficiency of reprogramming and SMs alone can even convert one kind of somatic cells into another, which is much safer and more effective than transcription factor-based methods. In this study, we provide a review of SMs that are generally used in recent neural stem cell induction studies, and discuss the main mechanisms and pathways of each SM.


Background— Intracellular proteins involved in oxidative stress and apoptosis are nitrated in diseased tissues but not in normal tissues; definitive evidence to support a causative link between a specific protein that is nitratively modified with tissue injury in a specific disease is limited, however. The aims of the present study were to determine whether thioredoxin (Trx), a novel antioxidant and antiapoptotic molecule, is susceptible to nitrative inactivation and to establish a causative link between Trx nitration and postischemic myocardial apoptosis. Methods and Results— In vitro exposure of human Trx-1 to 3-morpholinosydnonimine resulted in significant Trx-1 nitration and almost abolished Trx-1 activity. 3-morpholinosydnonimine–induced nitrative Trx-1 inactivation was completely blocked by MnTE-2-PyP5+ (a superoxide dismutase mimetic) and markedly attenuated by PTIO (a nitric oxide scavenger). Administration of either reduced or oxidized Trx-1 in vivo attenuated myocardial ischemia/reperfusion injury (>50% reduction in apoptosis and infarct size, P<0.01). However, administration of nitrated Trx-1 failed to exert a cardioprotective effect. In cardiac tissues obtained from ischemic/reperfused heart, significant Trx-1 nitration was detected, Trx activity was markedly inhibited, Trx-1/ASK1 (apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1) complex formation was abolished, and apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 activity was increased. Treatment with either FP15 (a peroxynitrite decomposition catalyst) or MnTE-2-PyP5+ 10 minutes before reperfusion blocked nitrative Trx inactivation, attenuated apoptosis signal-regulating kinase-1 activation, and reduced postischemic myocardial apoptosis. Conclusions— These results strongly suggest that nitrative inactivation of Trx plays a proapoptotic role under those pathological conditions in which production of reactive nitrogen species is increased and that antinitrating treatment may have therapeutic value in those diseases, such as myocardial ischemia/reperfusion, in which pathological apoptosis is increased.