Background: Canine malignant melanoma provides a model to study DNA vaccine delivery systems. A xenogeneic human tyrosinase (huTYR) DNA vaccine delivered by Biojector2000 received United States Department of Agriculture licensure when it appeared to prolong survival of dogs with melanoma compared to historical, stage-matched controls and to stimulate immune responses in some dogs. The current study evaluates toxicity, transgene expression, and antibody responses to huTYR in companion dogs with spontaneously developing melanoma following delivery of huTYR DNA to the skin via a modified tattoo device, a method termed DNA microseeding. Methods: Five companion dogs with melanoma were scheduled to receive huTYR DNA at two sites (Site A and Site B) on the inner thigh by DNA microseeding every 2 weeks for 4 administrations at a range of huTYR DNA doses; 2 dogs (50 μg [Site A] and 100 μg [Site B]); 2 dogs (200 μg [Site A] and 400 μg [Site B]); and 1 dog (83 μg [Site A] and 83 μg commercial huTYR plasmid [Site B]). Vaccine site biopsies were obtained to determine transgene expression 24 hours after the 1st and 3rd vaccination time-points, and 48 hours after the 2nd and 4th vaccination time-points. Blood samples were obtained at baseline and 2 weeks after the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th vaccinations to quantify TYR-specific antibodies via indirect ELISA. Results: No toxicity, beyond local site irritation, related to the vaccine administration was observed. The 3 dogs with known disease at study entry received 3, 1 and 4 treatments before discontinuation of treatment due to progressive disease. The 2 dogs without evidence of disease at study entry received all 4 planned treatments and remained without evidence for recurrence after treatment for the duration of the study (6 weeks). Only rare huTYR+ cells with macrophage-like morphology were observed in some vaccine site biopsies. A significant increase in anti-huTYR IgG was detected at Day 57 compared to pre-treatment in 2 of the 4 evaluable dogs (p = 0.03 Wilcoxon Mann Whitney), and these were the 2 dogs without evidence of disease at study entry. Baseline anti-huTYR IgG levels were also greater compared to IgG levels against an irrelevant control antigen. Conclusions: While microseeding of huTYR plasmid DNA resulted in only rare transgene expression at DNA doses up to 400 μg, humoral responses against huTYR were substantially boosted in 2 of 4 evaluable dogs. Additional testing is needed to determine if DNA microseeding enhances huTYR DNA vaccine immunogenicity compared to Biojector delivery. Citation Format: Cindy L. Zuleger, Chulhi Kang, Erik A. Ranheim, Ilene Kurzman, Michael D. Macklin, Michael A. Newton, David M. Vail, Jedd D. Wolchok, Elof Eriksson, Mark R. Albertini. Pilot study of DNA microseeding to activate immune rejection of canine melanoma. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 2366.


The authors analyse the sensitivity of parameters involved in coupled acoustic/elastic equations to surface marine seismic data. This analysis is conducted by linearising the forward map (namely the map between a model of the subsoil and the pressure recorded at the surface) and then by introducing generalised inverses, constructed from a singular value decomposition of the Jacobian of this forward map. They apply this method of investigation to horizontally stratified media. They thus answer the questions of scaling and coupling between the different parameters. They analyse the power of resolution for each, and examine the influence of factors such as the type of medium around which linearisation is carried out, or the change of norm on the parameter space. They go on to examine the limits of validity of the linearisation.


This paper presents work on the gait and gait transition analysis for a novel mobile robot that uses two actuated spoke wheels. Gait transitions, known as acyclic feed forward patterns, allow the robot to switch from one type of gait to another during walking and turning. The mobile robot IMPASS (Intelligent Mobility Platform with Active Spoke System) uses a unique mobility concept for locomotion, thus gait transition plays an important role in generating gait patterns to walk and turn. The primary focus of this paper is how to perform gait transition between gaits in walking direction. First, the basic gait patterns for steering and straight line walking are presented. More specifically, the critical gait parameterizations and the possible foot positions in different gait patterns to produce capable steering locomotion over terrain are presented. Since IMPASS is expected to utilize its metamorphic configurations to carry out gait transitions, the extending forward and inverse analyses are also presented based on previous work about topology classification and mobility analysis for IMPASS. Then the gait transition analysis and simulation of typical patterns are performed. The results from this work lay the foundation for the future research on trajectory and path planning for IMPASS.Copyright © 2009 by ASME


BACKGROUND
The influence of age on balance of benefit vs. potential harm of blood pressure (BP)-lowering therapy for elderly hypertensives is unclear. We evaluated the modifying effects of age on BP lowering for various adverse outcomes in hypertensive patients older than 60 years without specified comorbidities.

METHODS
All relevant randomized controlled trials (RCTs) were systematically identified. Coronary heart disease, stroke, heart failure (HF), cardiovascular death, major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE), renal failure (RF), and all-cause death were assessed. Meta-regression analysis was used to explore the relationship between achieved systolic BP (SBP) and the risk of adverse events. Random-effects meta-analysis was used to pool the estimates.

RESULTS
Our study included 18 RCTs (n = 53,993). Meta-regression analysis showed a lower achieved SBP related with a lower risk of stroke and cardiovascular death, but an increased risk of RF. The regression slopes were comparable between populations stratifying by age 75 years. In subgroup analysis, the relative risks of a more aggressive BP lowering strategy were similar between patients aged older or less than 75 years for all outcomes except for RF (P for interaction = 0.02). Compared to treatment with final achieved SBP 140-150 mm Hg, a lower achieved SBP (<140 mm Hg) was significantly associated with decreased risk of stroke (relative risk = 0.68; 95% confidence interval = 0.55-0.85), HF (0.77; 0.60-0.99), cardiovascular death (0.68; 0.52-0.89), and MACE (0.83; 0.69-0.99).

CONCLUSIONS
To treat hypertension in the elderly, age had trivial effect modification on most outcomes, except for renal failure. Close monitoring of renal function may be warranted in the management of elderly hypertension.


Background: At the dawn of the pandemic, severe forms of COVID-19 were often complicated by thromboembolisms. However, routine laboratory tests cannot be used to predict thromboembolic events. The objective of this study was to investigate the potential value of the thrombin generation test (TGT) in predicting hypercoagulability and thrombotic risk in the aforementioned set of patients. Methods: The study panel comprised 52 patients divided into two groups (26 COVID-19 positive and 26 COVID-19 negative); COVID-19-positive patients were further grouped in "severe" (n = 11) and "non-severe" (n = 15) categories based on clinical criteria. The routine blood tests and TGT of these patients were retrospectively analyzed. Results: All 26 COVID-19-positive patients showed decreased lymphocyte, monocyte and basophil counts and increased lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), aspartate aminotransferase (AST), and alanine transaminase (ALT) compared with control patients. Conversely, we did not observe statistically significant differences between severe and non-severe patients despite anecdotal variations in the distribution patterns. TGT without thrombomodulin (TM) addition showed statistically significant differences in the thrombin peak heights between COVID-19-positive and negative patients. After addition of TM, peak height, Endogenous Thrombin Potential (ETP) and velocity index were increased in all COVID-19-positive patients while the percentage of inhibition of ETP was reduced. These trends correlated with the severity of disease, showing a greater increase in peak height, ETP, velocity index and a drastic reduction in the percentage of ETP inhibition in more severely affected patients. Conclusions: Our data suggest that all COVID-19 patients harbor a hypercoagulable TGT profile and that this is further pronounced in severely affected patients.


Gravitational instability is a key process that may lead to fragmentation of gaseous structures (sheets, filaments, haloes) in astrophysics and cosmology. We introduce here a method to derive analytic expressions for the growth rate of gravitational instability in a plane stratified medium. First, the main strength of our approach is to reduce this intrinsically fourth-order eigenvalue problem to a sequence of second-order problems. Second, an interesting by-product is that the unstable part of the spectrum is computed by making use of its stable part. Third, as an example, we consider a pressure-confined, static, self-gravitating slab of a fluid with an arbitrary polytropic exponent, with either free or rigid boundary conditions. The method can naturally be generalised to analyse the stability of richer, more complex systems. Finally, our analytical results are in excellent agreement with numerical solutions. Their second-order expansions provide a valuable insight into how the rate and wavenumber of maximal instability behave as functions of the polytropic exponent and the external pressure (or, equivalently, the column density of the slab).


Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a reversed autosomal genetic disease that originates from some white or caucasian races. This condition is caused by mutations in the CFTR gene, especially the CFTR Phe508del. If CFTR damage or error occurs then normal function will be disrupted and have a clinical impact on other organs or multiorgan. Complications such as the pancreas, liver, digestive tract, bone, genital, and respiratory tract that can cause most deaths in patients with cystic fibrosis. Malabsorption, inflammation, infection and lung obstruction are signs of cystic fibrosis. Therapy for cystic fibrosis is limited to the improvement of the airway mokus, recovery of infections maintained with antibiotics, improve physical health and nutrition of patients


Objective: To examine the knowledge and practices about HIV/AIDS among female Tanzanian commercial sex workers (CSWs) and assess the contextual dynamics that prevent safer sexual behaviours. Method: The study used mixed methods and was implemented in two phases. Phase one assessed the knowledge and practices about HIV/AIDS among CSWs. Data were obtained with 54 CSWs, who were selected by using a snowball sampling approach. Semi-structured, face-to-face interviews with the CSWs were undertaken to allow the research participants to describe and discuss their lived realities as they perceive and experience them. In phase two, three discrete focus group discussions, each comprising 6-10 women, were carried out with 26 of the 54 CSWs who were interviewed in phase one. Results: There was exploitation and inequity in the women's lives due to the multiple and overlapping oppressions of poverty and patriarchy. Sexual violence was framed, legitimised and reinforced by structural and cultural inequities. Such exploitation impacted not only on CSWs' lives as sex workers, but on their previous and/or simultaneous lives as mothers, wives, girlfriends and daughters. The women practised 'survival sex' as CSWs and/or sexual partners of men, and experienced sexual violence from their clients/partners. This violence was either culturally legitimised within a patriarchal framework or manifested itself as 'displaced aggressive sex' by men experiencing marginalisation in socio-economic spheres. Conclusion: Government health policies and criminal laws regarding sex work, violence against sex workers and domestic/sexual violence against all women need to be critiqued and consistently implemented. Addressing the 'survival sex' of women in Tanzania cannot occur without addressing what the authors call the 'displaced aggressive sex' of men.


Licochalcone H (LCH) is a chemical compound that is a positional isomer of licochalcone C (LCC), a chalconoid isolated from the root of Glycyrrhiza inflata, which has various pharmacological properties including anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, antitumor, and anticancer effects. However, the efficacy of LCH on cancer cells has not been investigated. The present study examined the effects of LCH on cell proliferation, induction of apoptosis, and the regulation of matrin 3 (Matr3) protein in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) cells by Annexin V/propidium iodide (PI) staining and western blot analysis. LCH reduced cell viability and colony forming ability, and induced cell cycle arrest and apoptosis in HSC2 and HSC3 cells through the suppression of Matr3. It was also found that LCH directly bound to Matr3 in a Sepharose 4B pull-down assay. Consequently, the results of the present study suggest that LCH may be used as an anticancer drug in combination with conventional chemotherapy for the treatment of OSCC, and that Matr3 may be a potential effective therapeutic target.


Breast cancer is the second largest disease affecting women worldwide. It remains the most frequently reported and leading cause of death among women in both developed and developing countries. Tamoxifen and raloxifene are commonly used selective estrogen receptor modulators for treatment of breast cancer in women with high risk, although resistance occurs by tamoxifen after 5 years of therapy and both drugs cause uterine cancer and thromboembolic events. Aromatase inhibitors (AIs) are one of the optional modes used for breast cancer treatment. The combination of AIs along with tamoxifen can also be beneficial. Various therapeutic agents from different sources are being studied, which further need to be improved for potential outcome. For this, clinical trials based on large number of patients with optimal dose and lesser side effects have to be more in practice. Despite the clinical trials going on, there is need of better molecular models, which can identify high risk population, new agents with better benefit having less side effects, and improved biomarkers for treating breast cancer.


The Stirling Media Research Institute has been engaged in an ongoing programme of research into the public relations and lobbying industry in Scotland, the UK and Europe since 1996 . We have been encouraged by the Standards Committee's recognition of the importance of lobbying as a matter of both professional and public concern, and we welcome the opportunity to respond to the consultation paper. Our contribution is offered in the spirit of independent academic analysis. We have monitored the growth and development of the lobbying industry in Scotland and interviewed a wide range of lobbyists and public relations professionals ranging across the commercial (consultancy and in-house) and voluntary sectors. As part of our research activity, the SMRI has been a corporate member of ASPA since its inception. When we joined, it was made clear we were researchers and not in any way engaged in professional lobbying. Our research at the UK and European levels has also brought us into contact with commercial and voluntary sector lobbyists who work in other jurisdictions, and has broadened our perspective on the issues relating to lobbying.


Introduction One in two physicians experiences professional burnout. Resident coaching is a novel method to provide emotional support and professional development to residents. The feasibility of implementing coaching at a community hospital has not been reported. This curricular innovation examined the feasibility and impact of integrating positive psychology coaching at a community hospital. Methods The Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) Professional Development Coaching Program (PDCP) curriculum was used to train faculty coaches and for the informal pre-coaching session refreshers. Participants were paired and expected to participate in four 1:1 coaching sessions. The impact of the PDCP was assessed through pre- and post-PDCP online surveys. Results Twelve interns and nine faculty coaches were included in the program and surveyed. Survey completion was 10/12 (83%) and 6/9 (67%) at baseline and 9/12 (75%) and 7/9 (78%) at end of year (EOY) for interns and coaches, respectively. For interns, Emotional Exhaustion (EE) using the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) was high or medium for 60% of respondents at baseline, and 56% at EOY. Fifty percent of coaches scored medium on EE at baseline, compared to only 14.3% at EOY. Seventy-five percent of respondents rated their PDCP experience as excellent or good. Nearly all interns rated the quality of communication with their coaches highly on a five-point Likert Scale. Conclusions Implementation of a coaching program in a community hospital residency program is feasible. Burnout using the MBI was stable from beginning to EOY for interns, but improved for coaches. Interns and coaches rated their professional development coaching program experience highly, and would recommend it to others.


What diversity is important when we talk about immigrant's educational experience? In what aspects immigrant students are «more» diverse? How schools are understanding and attending diversity in educational contexts with immigrant students? This paper will answer these questions taking in account my main PhD research outcomes. In concrete, the research analyzes educational programs oriented to attend immigrant children at primary schools.


Two girls aged 13 and 10 suffered from recurrent episodes of severe vomiting. After excluding underlying pathological conditions the diagnosis of cyclic-vomiting syndrome was made. They were treated by intravenous fluid suppletion and drugs such as propranolol, pizotiphene, diclophenac, granisetron, lorazepam and pantoprazole. Eventually they recovered. Cyclic-vomiting syndrome is probably a common but often not recognised syndrome. It should be considered in all children with multiple episodes of vomiting. It is characterized by the sudden occurrence and spontaneous disappearance of symptoms followed by a completely symptom-free interval. The incidence has been estimated to be as high as 2% in some populations of school children. The syndrome is often not diagnosed if the episodes are mild and diagnosed late if the symptoms are severe. To avoid too many investigations the suggested diagnostic protocol can be followed. Prophylactic therapy with anti-migraine medication should be attempted, notably with propranolol, early in the course of the disease.


The purpose of this study was to compare the self-confidence of students in special classes and regular classes and to know class differences. This study uses a quantitative approach with a comparative design. The research sample consisted of 80 students with 35 regular class students and 45 special class students who were determined using the Proportional Random Sampling Technique. The instrument was adapted from the confidence of the instrument and data analysis used comparational analysis using the Difference Test with the SPSS program. The conclusion of this study is that there are differences in the confidence of students in special classes and regular classes. A total of 30 students in a special class have high self-confidence and 5 students have a sufficient level of self-confidence, while students in regular class, as many as 20 students have sufficient self-confidence and 25 students have less self-confidence. And shows that the difference between special classes and regular classes greatly affects the level of student confidence.


Recently, when globalization processes becomeapparent and getting stronger, the distinction betweenorganizations' groups become less noticeable, becauseorganizations involve more and more aspects of life but thesame principles are used for their management, irrespectiveof their preservation and juridical status. Existingperception, that management novelties and new ways ofmanagement are relevant not only for business organizations,but also for non-profit or public organizations, foster toanalyze and to go deep into demands of these organizationsand relations with external environment.Non-profit organizations can be discriminated consideringsuch resources as power, knowledge and skills, information,management nature, so their possibilities and readiness touse organizational intelligence also are different.The classification of non-profit organizations containsprivate and public sectors. The management transformationsof organizations in private sector are simpler with respectto minor legal regulation than the managementtransformations of organizations in public sector embittedby national reglamentation and far – gone traditions.One of the oldest non-profit organizations, whichrecently experience bigger and bigger pressure from theexternal environment, is university. Universities have tochange their point of view not only to relations betweenuniversity and society, but also to management thatindicates cultural changes inside the organizations.Traditionally, universities were not considered asorganizations. More likely, researchers referred to them aseither institutions, carrying out a prominent social role orcommunities, that is, "families" of people brought together,which were accepted for service in a certain social ceremony.Considering these peculiarities of universities, theviewpoint of society and exciting practice in dispute is anintelligent university. Universities have to find innovativemethods in order to survive and prosper in conditions ofglobal economy. The paradigm of organizational intelligenceseems very attractive in university's management fromtheoretical point of view, however, deep rooted individualismand competition in university's culture does not createconditions to transform into open and modern organizations.This article not only strives to answer the question ifuniversity can become intelligent, but also how theprocesses of intelligent university should look like.From the practical perspective, it ca be stated that firstof all university has to be eased from too overwhelmingnational regulations. Also, university should overcomepsychological breaking up into faculties, departments,laboratories and other administrative units and shoulddetermine spheres in which it would be able to concentrateits activity. An intelligent university should open toenvironment and to collaborate with business structuresand cooperate with society creating society of knowledgeand changing traditional management and administrationinto more modern and congruent to environment needsmanagement and administration.


A review of the results of recent neutron diffraction, coherent diffuse and inelastic scattering experiments on UO2 and ThO2 at temperatures between 293 K and 2930 K is given. These provide direct evidence for thermally induced Frenkel oxygen lattice disorder at temperatures > 2000 K and give data on the lattice expansion, ionic potentials and elastic stiffness constants to 2930 K for the first time. The results are important for an understanding of the thermophysical behaviour of UO2 and contribute to the data base of thermodynamic properties of UO2.


Global navigation satellite systems (GNSSs) remain, by far, the most reliable and widely spread sources of accurate outdoor positioning. With the advent of the new and modernized signals, novel challenges related to GNSS receivers have also been recognized. One of the most important challenges in dealing with modernized GNSS signals is posed by the oscillatory behavior of the autocorrelation of some of those signals, which causes ambiguities in the measurement of the propagation delay. This article is an extensive survey of the solutions in this area proposed during past decades. Not only does it illustrate that a large pool of solutions is available, but it also shows that none of these solutions alone can currently overcome all of the challenges related to GNSS ambiguities. A thorough overview of the problems caused by the ambiguities in the delay estimation and the unambiguous techniques proposed to counteract them is presented. We hope to spark the interest of the signal processing community and to stimulate new advances in this field. Unambiguous methods are classified into three main classes, and we compare the main solutions in terms of complexity and performance to identify the most promising techniques and directions to be followed. We point out that there is an inherent tradeoff between the unambiguous acquisition and unambiguous tracking, and that the receiver stages of acquisition and tracking can be designed in a disjoint manner when dealing with the ambiguities.


Tuning carrier concentration via chemical doping is the most successful strategy to optimize the thermoelectric figure of merit. Nevertheless, how the dopants affect charge transport is not completely understood. Here we unravel the doping effects by explicitly including the scattering of charge carriers with dopants on thermoelectric properties of poly(3,4-ethylenedioxythiophene), PEDOT, which is a p-type thermoelectric material with the highest figure of merit reported. We corroborate that the PEDOT exhibits a distinct transition from the aromatic to quinoid-like structure of backbone, and a semiconductor-to-metal transition with an increase in the level of doping. We identify a close-to-unity charge transfer from PEDOT to the dopant, and find that the ionized impurity scattering dominates over the acoustic phonon scattering in the doped PEDOT. By incorporating both scattering mechanisms, the doped PEDOT exhibits mobility, Seebeck coefficient and power factors in very good agreement with the experimental data, and the lightly doped PEDOT exhibits thermoelectric properties superior to the heavily doped one. We reveal that the thermoelectric transport is highly anisotropic in ordered crystals, and suggest to utilize large power factors in the direction of polymer backbone and low lattice thermal conductivity in the stacking and lamellar directions, which is viable in chain-oriented amorphous nanofibers.


Background Until recently, prisons had partial exemption from UK policies which banned smoking in most enclosed public spaces and were one of few UK workplaces in which staff were exposed to secondhand smoke (SHS) and in which smoking remained normative. In 2016 the Tobacco in Prisons (TIPs) study documented high SHS concentrations in prison residential and other areas, informing new policy, implemented in November 2018, to prohibit smoking throughout all Scottish prisons. Although smoking bans have been introduced in prison systems elsewhere (e.g. England, New Zealand, parts of Australia and the USA), TIPs forms the most comprehensive study internationally of the process and impact of introducing smokefree prisons. Methods This three-Phase study utilised mixed methods including: 1) surveys with staff and prisoners, focus groups and interviews with prison and NHS staff, and qualitative interviews with prisoners - to assess health, smoking status, beliefs about smoking, e-cigarettes, smoking cessation provision, and the perceived desirability, benefits and challenges of smokefree prison policy; 2) objective measures of SHS before, during and 6 months after smokefree policy was implemented; and 3) use of routinely collected data (e.g. sickness absence, prisoner 'canteen' purchases and medication use) to assess impact of the policy. Results Phase 1 surveys with prisoners confirmed very high levels of prisoner smoking pre-ban (72%). Phase 1 and 2 survey and interview data demonstrated that prisoners were less in favour of smokefree policies than staff, but supported the introduction of e-cigarettes in the move to smokefree prisons. Survey and interview data from staff and prisoners indicated concerns about the challenges of introducing smokefree policy. Phase 2–3 data showed air quality improved in all prisons comparing Phase 1 (2016) data with the first full working day (3rd December 2018) post-implementation (overall median reduction -81% inter-quartile range -76 to -91%). Post-implementation indoor PM2.5 concentrations suggested minimal smoking activity during the period of measurement. Immediately prior to the introduction of smokefree policy, prisoners and staff largely reacted favourably to the introduction of e-cigarettes, whilst still voicing some reservations about their use and safety. Discussion This is the first comprehensive evaluation of changes in SHS concentrations, and the attitudes, perceptions, health and behaviours of people living and working across all prisons within a country that has introduced nationwide prohibition of smoking in prisons. Early Phase 3 results suggest that a smoke-free prison policy reduces the exposure of prison staff and prisoners to SHS and can be implemented despite considerable challenges.


Office automation requires controlled coordination between information management and collaborative problem solving. Often, this entails the cooperation of agents executing diverse tasks in an office environment. Designing cooperating agents for office automation, however, is non-trivial: issues such as agent heterogeneity, communication protocols, context sensitivity, task coordination, and concurrency present considerable challenges. In this paper, we describe the design and implementation of a cooperating agent framework called GAME for office automation. More specifically, we focus on how GAME SetS up communication between its agents, and achieves cooperation by transferring tasks between its agents, whenever necessary, to avoid duplication of work by an agent.


Resistance to economically important diseases is one of the most desired traits to have in plant crops. The Fragaria genus including 21 wild and cultivated species (Fragaria x ananassa), contains genetic sources of diseases resistance that are quite rich but not fully exploited in breeding for resistance. Usefulness of different molecular techniques and high throughput technologies for the dissection of genetic resistance mechanisms and the explanation of plant diversity in relation to pathogens at the DNA level are described in this paper. The descriptions are based on the results of different studies on genome of Fragaria that were carried out in many research institutions in the world. The proposed model of comprehensive exploration of the strawberry genome, summarized with generating resistance markers and identification of genes involved with induction or regulation of plant response to pathogen attack, appear to be very useful in breeding strawberry for resistance.


Forecasting load demand with high accuracy is required to avoid energy wasting and prevent system failure. The aim of this paper is to develop a forecasting model based on double SARIMA for improving the accuracy of short term load prediction in Malaysia and compare the results with single SARIMA model. A half hourly load demand of Malaysia for 4 months, from September 01, 2005 to December 31, 2005 is used in this study with the mean absolute percentage error (MAPE) as one of the accuracy measures. The results of the identification step show that the load data have two seasonal periods, i.e. daily and weekly seasonality with length 48 and 336 respectively. The estimation and diagnostic check steps show that the best order of double SARIMA for half hourly load demand of Malaysia is ARIMA([2,3,4,8,11,16,18,19,20,21,28,29,30,32,40,41,45,46,47],1,1)(0,1,1)48(0,1,1)336 with in-sample and out-sample MAPE values of 0.96840 and 4.49251 respectively. The in-sample and out-sample MAPE of a single SARIMA model are 1.07872 and 10.45530 respectively. Thus, the current study shows that the double SARIMA model performs better than single SARIMA model since the MAPE of in-sample and out-sample are reduced by 10.22676% and 57.03126% respectively.


Microstrip patch antenna becoming very popular day by day because of its ease of analysis, fabrication, low cast, light weight easy to feed and their attractive radiation characteristics. In this paper we proposed the designed of rectangular microstrip patch antenna to operate at frequency range 5-6 GHz. The simulation is carried out using high frequency simulation structure (HFSS) program. The antenna is based on the modified epoxy substrate with dielectric constant of approximate 4.4. After simulation rectangular microstrip antenna performs characteristics such as VSWR & return loss smith chart.


There is an advanced concept in the design of imaging optics, used to ensure aberration-free images after passage through a series of optical elements, published in 1821 in the Philosophical Transactions by John Herschel and known as The Herschel Condition. The present article has nothing to do with that. Instead, the expression suggested to me that it might be a good occasion to praise a great human being, and interesting to trawl through the extensive Herschel publications and correspondence for personal comments to discover Herschel as a person, rather than as a dry Victorian scientist, albeit one of the leading researchers and philosophers of the nineteenth century. The correspondence is huge, preserved in libraries and archives around the world but made accessible through a project that paralleled a similar effort made for the Charles Darwin letters. The Herschel Calendar lists and summarizes 14 815 letters.


Current guidelines recommend severity of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease be graded by using forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1). But this measurement is biased by thoracic gas compression depending on lung volume and airflow resistance. The aim of this study was to test the hypothesis that the effect of thoracic gas compression on FEV1 is greater in emphysema than chronic bronchitis because of larger lung volumes, and this influences severity classification and prognosis. FEV1 was simultaneously measured by spirometry and body plethysmography (FEV1-pl) in 47 subjects with dominant emphysema and 51 with dominant chronic bronchitis. Subjects with dominant emphysema had larger lung volumes, lower diffusion capacity, and lower FEV1 than those with dominant chronic bronchitis. However, FEV1-pl, patient-centered variables (dyspnea, quality of life, exercise tolerance, exacerbation frequency), arterial blood gases, and respiratory impedance were not significantly different between groups. Using FEV1-pl instead of FEV1 shifted severity distribution toward less severe classes in dominant emphysema more than chronic bronchitis. The body mass, obstruction, dyspnea, and exercise (BODE) index was significantly higher in dominant emphysema than chronic bronchitis, but this difference significantly decreased when FEV1-pl was substituted for FEV1. In conclusion, the FEV1 is biased by thoracic gas compression more in subjects with dominant emphysema than in those with chronic bronchitis. This variably and significantly affects the severity grading systems currently recommended.


Background. The process of aging causes various health problems namely the physiological changes of the elderly. The increase in number of elderly is directly proportional to the problems of elderly, including the decreased cognitive function and physical activity. This phenomenon is most commonly found in people over the age of 60 years, but also can attack the age of 40 years.  Methods. type of research using quantitative research with quasi experimental pre-posttest design. The Sampling method uses non-probability sampling with purposive sampling. The sample of this research is 62 elderly, divided into treatment and control groups in Puskesmas Jetak Tuban. The questionnaire in this research uses MMSE for cognitive function and Index katz for physical activity. The research was conducted from March to April 2018. Results. the statistical test results uses wilcoxon sign rank test obtained significant values of cognitive function intervention group and physical activity variables, before and after given the intervention, the Elderly Cognitive Care has a calculated value Z= -4.32 and Z = -3.94 with significant value α = 0.00. This result means if value of p value ≤0.05, then the hypothesis is accepted, this means that there is influence of Elderly Cognitive Care to cognitive function and physical activity of elderly in Puskesmas Jetak Tuban. Conclusion. There is an enhancement in cognitive function and physical activity in the elderly, after being given Elderly Cognitive Care. This intervention can be used as management for the elderly against the reduction in cognitive function and physical activity.


Flat directions are a generic feature of supersymmetric theories. They are of cosmological interest because they can lead to coherent production of scalars. In the early universe such flat directions could be dangerous due to the potentially large energy density and the late decay of the associated scalars when they have only $1/M_p$ couplings (Polonyi problem). On the other hand, flat directions among the standard model fields can carry baryon number and lead to a possible mechanism for baryogenesis (Affleck Dine baryogenesis). When considering the cosmological consequences of the flat directions, it is important to take into account the soft potential with curvature of order the Hubble constant due to supersymmetry breaking in the early universe. In this talk, we discuss flat directions, their potential cosmological implications focusing on Affleck-Dine baryogenesis, and how the standard picture of their evolution must be modified in the presence of the large supersymmetry breaking in the early universe.


A few 1,2-bis(N-alkylaminomethyl)indolizines, simple indolizinecarboxylic acids, and several 6-alkoxyindolizine-2-carboxylic acids were synthesized and screened as possible oral hypoglycemic agents. The absence of any significant hypoglycemic activity excludes these compounds from the predicted structural lead provided by some hypoglycemic Vinca alkaloids, such as vincamine, vindoline, and vindolinine, having the indolizine ring as one structural component. But an extension of the rationale that indolizines are also the structural components of some carcinolytic Vinca alkaloids, such as vincristine and vinblastine, used in cancer chemotherapy provided encouraging results. One indolizine derivative showed significant antineoplastic activity in Ehrlich ascites carcinoma.


BDSM is a variety of erotic practices that has received increased attention in recent years, in a legal context mainly through a number of rape trials where the accused was found not-guilty. In the cases, the accused's conviction that the violence was applied in a sexual context within a voluntary role-play resulted in a verdict of not guilty, this despite the fact that the court found that there was no valid consent and that the victim had objectively been forced to intercourse. The judgments have resulted in an concern that an objection to BDSM has begun to be used only as a mean of justifying violence. It has been demanded that the courts should have more knowledge of the common principles of action standards in the BDSM community.

The purpose of this paper has been to investigate and introduce these BDSM action standards in a legal context. The paper investigates how the judicial assessment can take generally accepted action standards in the BDSM community into account when an accused refers to such practice. This in light of the fact that the Swedish government has submitted a bill on the introduction of a new rape crime in which criminal liability is imposed on the person who is grossly negligence regarding the fact that the other person does not participate voluntarily. In order to fulfill the purpose of the paper, the relevant law and the government's proposals are investigated and two legal cases from the court of appeal are analyzed.
The paper finds that the action standards within the BDSM culture convey similar approaches based on consent, caution, risk awareness, knowledge and communication.

The paper argues that an objection to BDSM should be accepted only if it can be shown that such practice was agreed. Such awareness, along with a new criminal responsibility for negligence, may impose greater responsibility on the potential perpetrator to check for consent. This would provide better conditions to protect the sexual integrity for victims within non-normative sexual practices.


In this work, the mechanical properties and solid particle erosion wear behavior of LaMgAl11O19–Al2O3 ceramics toughened and reinforced with LaMgAl11O19 platelets were investigated. The effects of LaMgAl11O19 additions, impingement angles (30°, 45°, 60°, 75°, and 90°), and erosion temperatures varying from room temperature to 1400°C on the erosion rates and material removal mechanisms of LaMgAl11O19–Al2O3 composites were systematically studied. The results indicated that LaMgAl11O19–Al2O3 ceramics exhibited superior erosive wear resistance compared to monolithic Al2O3 ceramics at room and elevated temperatures due to their enhanced mechanical properties and improved microstructure resulting from the introduction of an appropriate amount of LaMgAl11O19 platelets. Examination of the eroded surfaces of LaMgAl11O19–Al2O3 composites revealed that erosion temperatures and impingement angles play important roles in determining the erosion behavior and mechanisms of the tested materials. For the case of elevated temperature and oblique erosion, plowing and subsurface intergranular fracture are the predominant mechanisms resulting in material removal, whereas at room temperature and normal impact, the erosion process of the targets is primarily dominated by grain ejection and lateral crack intersection.


Abstract Little is known about the meeting which took place between Martin Heidegger and André Scrima. Aside from unfolding within the master-disciple framework, it is a witness above all of a fruitful dialogue between western philosophy and eastern theology about a common concern: the desert as the unfolding of our being in the world. It is this concern, the guiding light in fact for this article, which will develop here in several stages: First, by unravelling the hostile meanings of the word "desert." Second, by using it as a reading key to explore the foundations of contemporary civilization and especially by analysing it as a concept for a new topography of Being. The final stage will tackle the foundational link which unites the desert and monastic life. It is this connection which will finally allow us to understand how the love of God, which pushes the monk into the desert, can be so decisive for a new understanding of Being.


Building gender role identity (i.e. such identity that picks the musts of being a man or a woman), is a complex process involving biological, social, cultural and psychosocial factors. There are different theoretical models that try to conceptualize ways people develop a personal sense of themselves since childhood, but there have been difficulties in this conceptualization and in a great way such approaches only emphasize a particular dimension in gender role identity leaving outside its complexity and multifactorial nature. In this work my purpose is to deliver a general grid of this gender role identity theoretical conception from the psychological perspective, as well as offering a general landscape about the configuring elements of its individual development and its social development using relevant empirical research in the Mexican cultural context.


Studies show that a large number of idioms can be interpreted figuratively or literally depending on their contexts. This usage ambiguity has negative impacts on many natural language processing (NLP) applications. In this thesis, we investigate methods of building robust and efficient usage recognizers by modeling interactions between contexts and idioms.

We aim to address three problems. First, how do differences in idioms' linguistic properties affect the performances of automatic usage recognizers? We analyze the interactions between context representations and linguistic properties of idioms and develop ensemble models that predict usages adaptively for different idioms. Second, can an automatic usage recognizer be developed without annotated training examples? We develop a method for estimating the semantic distance between context and components of an idiom and then use that as distant supervision to guide further unsupervised clustering of usages. Third, how can we build one generalized model that reliably predicts the correct usage for a wide range of idioms, despite of variations in their linguistic properties? We recast this as a problem of modeling semantic compatibility between the literal interpretation of an arbitrary idiom and its context. We show that a general model of semantic compatibility can be trained from a large unannotated corpus, and that the resulting model can be applied to an arbitrary idiom without specific parameter tuning.

To demonstrate that our work can benefit downstream NLP applications, we perform a case study on machine translation. It shows that our model can help to improve the translation quality of sentences containing idioms.


PURPOSE
This study aimed to develop and test the psychometric properties of a Professional Nursing Support Scale for patients with cancer in mainland China.

METHODS
The study was conducted in two phases from January 2017 to January 2020. Phase I involved item generation and developing a preliminary version of Professional Nursing Support Scale through literature review, qualitative interviews, content validity evaluation and a pilot study. Phase II involved psychometric properties testing of the Professional Nursing Support Scale in 700 patients with cancer recruited from four public hospitals in Anhui Province, China.

RESULTS
A 49-item Professional Nursing Support Scale was finally developed. Exploratory factor analysis showed a four-factor structure of the 49-item Professional Nursing Support Scale, accounting for 56.95% of variance. Cronbach's α ranged from 0.91 to 0.94 for the four subscales. Confirmatory factor analysis further confirmed the best model fit of four-factor structure of the Professional Nursing Support Scale. The Professional Nursing Support Scale also showed an acceptable concurrent validity with Supportive Care Needs Scale short form 34 (r = 0.75, p < 0.001) and Psychological Distress Thermometer (r = 0.39, p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The Professional Nursing Support Scale is a reliable and valid instrument to assess perceived needs of professional nursing support and support acquisition in relation to the care in Chinese patients with cancer.


This paper examines the relationship between public support for wage differentials and actual income inequality using data from the World Values Surveys. The distribution of income is more equal in nations where public opinion is more egalitarian. There is some evidence that the opinions of people with higher incomes are more influential than those of people with low incomes. Although the estimated relationship is stronger in democracies, it is present even under non-democratic governments, and the hypothesis that effects are equal cannot be rejected. We consider the possibility of reciprocal causation by means of an instrumental variables analysis, which yields no evidence that income distribution affects opinion.


KERRY BROWN: Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler. Singapore: World Scientific 2012, 230 pp.Kerry Brown's Hu Jintao: China's Silent Ruler is an account of China's development under Hu Jintao. Brown narrates the history of the China Hu grew up in, and recounts the major events in Chinese politics leading up to and during his time in office. In an effort to present an accurate portrait of China's leader, Brown carefully traces those major Chinese events in which Hu was either directly or indirectly involved. However, as Brown states accurately, it is a deceptively difficult task to get the true measure of Hu's character. As the title of the book suggests, Hu is not a big talker. Hu's leadership style is completely different to that of his predecessors Mao Zedong, Deng Xiaoping, and Jiang Zemin. The three leaders before Hu-Mao especially-had easily identifiable personal traits and ideas that quickly translated into official Party thought. Hu, on the other hand, rarely offers a glimpse into his personal thinking. When he does speak in public, his speeches are void of individual thought or emotion. He only answers prepared questions from reporters, and, even among other high-ranking politicians in the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), he maintains his stolid manner. Hu's egoless style of rule, coupled with Chinese black-box politics, makes it exceedingly difficult to figure out Hu.Brown opens his book with a chapter on Hu's "personal" life, and quickly establishes the book's theme: although Hu is one of the world's most powerful figures, he keeps an incredibly low profile. Even basic facts such as Hu's birthplace are subject to dispute. In this chapter Brown follows Hu from his time at Tsinghua University as a hydrology student all the way through his rise in the Politburo-China's top organ of power-and eventually to his current position. Although no personal records of Hu's youth exist, Brown draws conclusions about Hu from his experience at Tsinghua and his lack of activity during the Cultural Revolution. Hu graduated just before the revolution began, and would have been exposed to a number of political groups, such as the Red Guard, that could easily damage a politician's standing. Even if Hu was involved in any radical groups, his involvement was low key. As Brown puts it, "his later skills at being a silent, anonymous observer were already apparent at even this stage." Brown also notes that, despite Hu's ability to remain invisible to some, he has been able to make himself stick out to those that matter. Hu made an impression on the elite figures of Song Ping, Hu Yaobang, and Deng Xiaoping, thus gaining their support. Securing the patronage of multiple powerful figures in different areas while simultaneously avoiding making significant enemies is a feat in itself, and directly responsible for Hu's rise to prominence. In China, these types of connections (guanxi) can prove just as important as ability itself. Within the Party, cronyism has a crimping power. Who one knows matters-politicians cannot secure the support necessary to gain influence without the favour of those in power. This system has created powerful and long-lasting factions within the Party, and it is a system that Hu has evidently mastered.Brown takes his observation of Hu's silence a step further and argues that Hu's approach is in fact largely responsible for his success. It is no coincidence that Hu has never slipped up and hinted at personal inclination in all his years in politics. Since his time at Tsinghua, Hu has demonstrated immense self-control and discipline to regulate his public image. Hu affiliated with multiple factions, yet was not tied down by any of them. This may be because Hu has never put himself in a position where he has to declare allegiance. In addition, Hu's absence from certain other groups has also benefited him. Brown cites this clever strategy as a reason for Hu's rapid ascent to power. By the age of 50, Hu had already entered the Standing Committee of the Politburo. …


The author comments on the paper by R.D. Henderson and P.J. Rose (see ibid., vol.30, no.3, 1994) suggesting that four points are subject to misinterpretation. These are related to: mixed references to voltage harmonics and current harmonics; K-rated transformers; transformer derating factor; and harmonics attenuation by an isolation transformer. The authors of the original article reply to the comments. >


Service quality improvement is the biggest challenge faced by many organizations in the era of competition. Due to the advancement and customers' knowledge about product and services organizations are facing many challenges to satisfy them. In this research study we have discussed how service quality effected by process visibility and work stress. Qualitative study was conducted and over the phone interview approached helped us in collecting primary data. The results show that retail industry has become very modernized due to best utilization of technology and easy to access customers, but this brought challenges also.


Findings are reported from a nationwide survey of a cross-section probability sample (N = 2,552) of US adults. Data on psychic distress were obtained from a shortened version of the Hopkins symptom checklist, data on life crises from a shortened version of the Holmes-Rahe social readjustment rating scale. Methods for collecting data on use of psychotherapeutic medications were validated in a separate study. Data are presented on the prevalence of high levels of psychic distress and life crisis among various age, sex, and other demographic subgroups; on the relation between life crisis and psychic distress; and on the relation of life crisis and psychic distress to use of psychotherapeutic medications and alcohol. The findings suggest an illness behavior model for the use of psychotherapeutic medications in outpatient practice, and the lend little support to a "self-indulgent consumer" interpretation.


The ability to read has become an indispensable skill in modern ages, and any reading difficulty, such as dyslexia, can seriously impair the aspirations of the individual. Orthographically opaque languages such as English lay a heavy burden on learners. In this article, a gamified intervention program for the remediation of dyslexia is proposed for opaque orthographies. Current technology-based approaches of reading acquisition in the literature lack sophistication in terms of training design, game design, and adaptivity. This approach is based on the principles of automaticity acquisition and the gamification of learning as well as intelligent instruction. For the latter, an optimization model is proposed to maximize the educational value of each training session while respecting the capabilities of each individual.


"Trandix: proactive tool to terminological searches by translators and its assessment" This paper analyses current trends in the terminological field and translators' needs regarding terminological resources. In this context, it presents the Trandix tool, a


For a fixed infinite structure $\Gamma$ with finite signature tau, we study the following computational problem: input are quantifier-free first-order tau-formulas phi_0,phi_1,...,phi_n that define relations R_0,R_1,\dots,R_n over Gamma. The question is whether the relation R_0 is primitive positive definable from R_1,...,R_n, i.e., definable by a first-order formula that uses only relation symbols for R_1, ..., R_n, equality, conjunctions, and existential quantification (disjunction, negation, and universal quantification are forbidden).We show decidability of this problem for all structures Gamma that have a first-order definition in an ordered homogeneous structure Delta with a finite language whose age is a Ramsey class and determined by finitely many forbidden substructures. Examples for structures Gamma with this property are the order of the rationals, the random graph, the homogeneous universal poset, the random tournament, all homogeneous universal C-relations, and many more. We also obtain decidability of the problem when we replace primitive positive definability by existential positive, or existential definability. Our proof makes use of universal algebraic and model theoretic concepts, Ramsey theory, and a recent characterization of Ramsey classes in topological dynamics.


Design of a robot generally involves various types of analyses that invariably include structural, numerical, kinematic, dynamic and experimental analysis. A robot designed as a solution for social problems would have to undergo all these stages before it is incorporated in-situ. The authors in continuation to their earlier work [1] are presenting the results of structural analysis in this paper. Initially a detailed description of the anatomy of the proposed robot is provided for clarity along with the identified design parameters. The primary design parameter 'load to power ratio' establishes certain geometric and structural constrains on the design of links comprising the robot. This relationship is studied in order to improve to the load to power ratio of the robot. A significant reduction in weight is achieved by working on these variables which leads to the improvement in the functional aspects too, viz., reduced torque requirement from the motor. Upon finalizing on the choice of motors and sensors the 5 layered control architecture based on statespace representation is also presented. Fuzzy logic based control algorithm is proposed to unite the layered approach depending on the task allocated to the robot. Full Text: PDF DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.11591/ijra.v5i4.4162


Consumers are driving outcomes in healthcare. In children's hospitals, the consumers are the parents and the patients. This article describes the process undertaken to respond to parents' requests to be present during the induction of anesthesia in their child. The process of changing long-standing practices in a complex organization undergoing major change in becoming a children's hospital is described in detail.


Previous studies of solid-state tetracyanobenzene-based donor-acceptor complexes showed that these materials were highly susceptible to both laser and mechanical damage that complicated the analysis of their electron-transfer kinetics. In this paper, we characterize the optical properties of a pyrene/tetracyanoquinodimethane charge-transfer crystal that is much more robust than the tetracyanobenzene compounds. This donor-acceptor complex has a charge-transfer absorption that extends into the near-infrared, rendering the crystal black. We use time-resolved fluorescence and diffuse reflectance transient absorption to study its dynamics after photoexcitation. We show that the initially excited charge-transfer state undergoes a rapid, monoexponential decay with a lifetime of 290 ps at room temperature. There is no evidence for any long-lived intermediate or dark states; therefore, this decay is attributed to charge recombination back to the ground state. Fluorescence lifetime measurements demonstrate that this process becomes temperature-independent below 60 K, indicative of a thermally activated tunneling mechanism. The subnanosecond charge recombination makes this low-band-gap donor-acceptor material a poor candidate for generating long-lived electron-hole pairs.


A specialist social worker interviewed the parents of 67 cerebral‐palsied children aged between three and 10 years who were attending or had recently attended for treatment at centres in Dundee and Glasgow. Data were collected on how the presence of a handicapped child affected family life, and on the parents' perceptions of the services they had received and found helpful. Although half the mothers initially were unhappy about their child being away from home for part of the day at a pre‐school day placement, the majority soon found that the child's absence (especially in cases when he was receiving active therapy) made it easier to cope when he was at home. Nearly half of the parents questioned were dissatisfied about the way they were first told of their child's handicap, and a majority felt they had not received enough help at this time. The requirements for a flexible and comprehensive service to meet the needs of such families are outlined.


This paper describes the modeling of non-Gaussian clutter with a set of generalized spherically invariant random vectors (SIRV's). The generalization extends the traditional model to account for dependence between successive SIRV realizations. Significant properties of generalized SIRV's are derived, as well as a closed-form expression for a family of generalized SIRV density functions. The density underlying recorded sonar reverberation is approximated with this function through appropriate choice of a shape parameter. Given this reverberation model, the optimum detector is derived from the generalized SIRV density likelihood ratio. This paper concludes by showing how applying this optimum detector to non-Gaussian data leads to a reduction in the false alarm rate when compared to processing with a matched filter alone.


A coupled structural and fluid flow analysis was performed to assess the hydroelastic behavior of a composite marine propeller. The finite element method and lifting surface theory were applied in the structural and fluid analyses, respectively. A coupled equation derived from the Bernoulli equation and the hydrostatic pressure in terms of the blade deflection and strength of the vortex was solved by Newton-Raphson procedure. A MAU 3–60 propeller was analyzed with different stacking sequences of composite layup. The hydroelastic behaviors of the propeller with balanced and unbalanced stacking sequences were investigated and discussed. The unbalanced Stacking sequences were shown to influence the performance of the composite propeller, especially in the region in which the advanced coefficient is low.


We have developed an automated cell counting method that uses images obtained at multiple focal heights to enumerate cells in confluent culture. By taking the derivative of image intensity with respect to focal height using two complementary images, we are able to count high‐density monolayers of cells over a large image area. Our method resists errors arising from variability in the focal plane caused by flatness or tilt non‐uniformities with a minimal amount of focal plane alignment, allowing the automated collection of images across a large area. Biotechnol. Bioeng. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The purpose of this report is to present the findings of the first phase in a longitudinal study of the impact of changes in the TOEFL® test on teaching and learning in test preparation classrooms. Observations were carried out and interviews conducted with teachers, students, and directors of studies at 10 institutions in six countries in Central and Eastern Europe. The findings
constitute a baseline against which finding from future phases can be compared. The report includes an analysis of the types of impact originally envisaged by advisers to the new TOEFL and a discussion of factors in the educational context that may influence the types of impact that may appear once the new test is operational.


Mouse telomeric DNA sequence, Tel3.5: 5'-AGGG(T TAGGG)(3)-3', has the ability to form antiparallel tetraplex structure in the presence of Na(+). We examined the interaction between the antiparallel tetraplex structure of Tel3.5 and each of two single-stranded telomeric DNA-binding domains of mouse telomere binding protein Pot1, mPot1OB1 and mPot1OB2. The antiparallel tetraplex of Tel3.5 became unfolded upon the interaction with mPot1OB1. On the other hand, no significant structural change of the antiparallel tetraplex of Tel3.5 was observed upon the interaction with mPot1OB2. Considering that the antiparallel tetraplex inhibits telomerase-mediated telomere elongation, we conclude that the ability of mPot1OB1 to unfold the antiparallel tetraplex of the mouse telomeric DNA is required for telomerase-mediated telomere elongation.


The tribological and mechanical properties of polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composites filled with carbon nano-fiber (CNF), short carbon fiber (SCF) and the combination of them were studied. The results indicate that the wear volume loss of the PTFE composite filled with CNF or SCF, in comparison with that of pure PTFE, decreases by 1~2 orders of magnitude. And the best wear resistant composition is achieved by the combination of SCF with CNF; as an example, PTFE+2 wt% CNF+18 wt% SCF exhibits a specific wear volume loss of 0.88 mm3, which is about 11 times lower when compared to the PTFE composite filled with 18 wt% SCF. Meanwhile, the results also show that the tensile strength of SCF or CNF filled PTFE composites is better than that of pure PTFE. However, the combination of the two fillers decreases the tensile strength of PTFE composites. Worn surfaces were investigated using a scanning electron microscope, from which it is assumed that a mechanism of rolling effect, due to the filling of nanoparticles, which has a positive protective effect for PTFE matrix.


Phenol-formaldehyde (PF) is a thermosetting resin that is widely used in many fields. One of its important applications is as an adhesive for wood-based panels manufacturing. In this research work, modified phenol-formaldehyde resins were prepared using hydroxymethylated alkaline rice straw lignin as a substitute for petroleum-based phenol in the range of 20 to 50% by weight. The molar ratios of sodium hydroxide to phenol-modified alkaline lignin and the formaldehyde to phenol-modified alkaline lignin were from 1.0 to 1.4, and 1.8 to 2.6, respectively. The parameters used to characterize the modified phenol-formaldehyde resins were: free-formaldehyde, gel time, viscosity, pH, and solid content. The structural differences and similarities between the prepared resins were determined by FTIR spectroscopy. Results obtained were discussed according to the requirements for adhesives utilization in plywood manufacture, and the optimum operating conditions were selected. Infrared spectra of lignin-based phenol formaldehyde (LPF) resins showed structural similarity with that of PF resin.


Metaphor is a phenomenon of language use which is the most active and most able to reflect the cultural factor. Cultural context has a restrictive effect on the metaphorical meaning. Therefore, the understanding and use of metaphor must not be divorced from the underlying cultural context. This paper analyzes similarities and dissimilarities of metaphorical meaning and images in English and Chinese from the perspective of cultural context. The research of metaphor of cultural context would enable us to better understand metaphor and have a successful communication.


Euphorbia hirta has been used widely in traditional Malay medicine as a treatment against infectious pathogens. This ethnomedicinal p l nt is also well known for its diverse biological activities. The aim of the prese nt study is to determine the antibacterial and antifungal activities of E. hirta extracts against 13 microbial strains. Tetrazolium microplate assay was employed in order to quantitatively assess the antimicrobial activities of E. hirta extracts by determining the Minimum Inhibitory Concentration (MIC) values obtained at initial conc e tration of 1mg/ml. This assay used p-iodonitrotetrazolium chloride (INT) as color indicator to evaluate the growth of test microorganisms which were treated with E. hirta extracts with low range concentrations of 1-0.015mg/ml. The ethanolic and m ethanolic extracts of E. hirta aerial part exhibited strongest antimicrobial activ ity against Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeroginosa with MIC values of 0.031mg/ml and 0.062mg/ml respectively. The flower and leaves extracts showed mo erate antimicrobial activity whereas no activity was found in stem extract. Dich loromethane and ethyl acetate extracts demonstrated mild activities with MIC valu es in the range between 10.5mg/ml. Preliminary phytochemical analysis of the plant extracts showed the presence of tannins, alkaloids, flavonoid, terpenoi ds, cardiac glycosides, saponins, reducing sugar and steroids. None of the extracts d isplay acute cytotoxicity against Vero cells. Our results revealed the extracts of E. hirta plant posse's potential antimicrobial therapeutic effect against various pa thogenic microorganisms. Based on the broad spectrum antimicrobial activities exhibit ed by this plant, we believe this report validates the safe use of this plant in ethn omedicine for treating various infectious diseases.


In order to evaluate drought tolerance in bread wheat genotypes, a factorial experiment based on completely
 randomized block design with three replications under two water stress and irrigated conditions was used. The
 experiment was carried out in the greenhouse of Campus of Agriculture and Natural Resources of Razi University in
 crop season 2011. The results obtained from correlation analysis between drought resistance indices (based on
 grain yield under stress and non-stress environments) showed positive significant correlation between geometric
 mean productivity (GMP), mean productivity (MP), harmonic mean (HARM) and stress tolerance index (STI) with
 grain yield . A significant positive correlation was also observed between these indices indicating their similar
 pattern for identification of drought tolerant genotypes. Genotypes no 4, 7 and 8 had the highest STI values,
 therefore they are suitable for stress and non-stress conditions with high grain yield. The genotypes no 3 and 7
 exhibited the lowest TOL and SSI values and no. 4 and 8 revealed the highest HARM index hence they are
 desirable for drought prone condition. Screening drought tolerant genotypes based on all indices using mean rank,
 standard deviation of ranks and rank sum (RS) distinguished genotypes 7, 8 and 3 as the most drought tolerant.


We investigated the luminescence properties of Alq3 in the device structure of ITO/CuPc/TPD/Alq3/Al. The CuPc as a hole-injection material and TPD as hole-transport material. Emission properties were measured by varying a layer thickness of CuPc (0 nm to 50 nm), which is the hole-injection layer. As a result, it was found that the hole injection occurs smoothly when the layer thickness was 20 nm among the thicknesses from 0 nm to 50 nm.


The interstellar medium (ISM) in star-forming galaxies is a multiphase gas in which turbulent support is at least as important as thermal pressure. Sustaining this configuration requires continuous radiative cooling, such that the overall average cooling rate matches the decay rate of turbulent energy into the medium. Here we carry out a set of numerical simulations of a stratified, turbulently stirred, radiatively cooled medium, which uncover a fundamental transition at a critical one-dimensional turbulent velocity of ≈35 km s−1. At turbulent velocities below ≈35 km s−1, corresponding to temperatures below 105.5 K, the medium is stable, as the time for gas to cool is roughly constant as a function of temperature. On the other hand, at turbulent velocities above the critical value, the gas is shocked into an unstable regime in which the cooling time increases strongly with temperature, meaning that a substantial fraction of the ISM is unable to cool on a turbulent dissipation timescale. This naturally leads to runaway heating and ejection of gas from any stratified medium with a 1D turbulent velocity above ≈35 km s−1, a result that has implications for galaxy evolution at all redshifts.


Atmospheric aerosols represent one of the greatest uncertainties in climate research. Although satellite-based aerosol retrieval has practically become routine, especially during the last decade, there is often disagreement between similar aerosol parameters retrieved from different sensors, leaving users confused as to which sensors to trust for answering important science questions about the distribution, properties, and impacts of aerosols. As long as there is no consensus and the inconsistencies are not well characterized and understood, there will be no way of developing reliable climate data records from satellite aerosol measurements. Fortunately, the most globally representative well-calibrated ground-based aerosol measurements corresponding to the satellite-retrieved products are available from the Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET). To adequately utilize the advantages offered by this vital resource, an online Multi-sensor Aerosol Products Sampling System (MAPSS) was recently developed. The aim of MAPSS is to facilitate detailed comparative analysis of satellite aerosol measurements from different sensors (Terra-MODIS, Aqua-MODIS, TerraMISR, Aura-OMI, Parasol-POLDER, and Calipso-CALIOP) based on the collocation of these data products over AERONET stations. In this presentation, we will describe the strategy of the MA~SS system, its potential advantages for the aerosol community, and the preliminary results of an integrated comparative uncertainly analysis of aerosol products from multiple satellite sensors.


Chinese adolescents are growing up with China's rapid economic growth and they represent the up and coming group of China's fashionistas. The aim of this study is to assess the effectiveness of consumer socialization on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. Using the data collected from 169 Chinese adolescents, the research provides empirical results about the impacts of different consumer socialization agents on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. The study results reveal the positive and significant impacts of fashion magazines, fashion websites and peers on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement, but a negative and significant impact of Internet on adolescents' fashion involvement. In addition, parents and TV were found to have no significant impact on Chinese adolescents' fashion involvement. Such empirical research not only deepens our understanding of the nature and strength of the relationships between the consumer socialization agents and Chinese adolescents' fashion consumer behaviour, but also makes a meaningful contribution to improving the consumer socialization framework. We believe these findings will be useful to update current consumer socialization frameworks and make it more relevant and useful for studying the new generation of consumers in the emerging market context.


Bacteriuria screening on 289 children was performed by their parents by means of a self-administered dip-strip culture which was inoculated, incubated, and interpreted in the home. Simultaneous pour-plate quantitative cultures and laboratory-tested dip-strip cultures were done on the same urine specimen which had been tested at home. The dip-strip culture was reliable (89%) in detecting significant bacteriuria with home administration and interpretation. Only 1.6% false-positive results occurred in the home testing. The dip-strip home cultures are an effective way for screening or follow-up of patients with bacteriuria.


Applying the charge density science methods to the structural biology field remains a considerable challenge. Several approaches were followed in the past years, focusing either on multipolar refinement of the rare available subatomic resolution protein structures or on the application of the transferability principle for the evaluation of electrostatic and energetic properties in protein-ligand complexes. However, the usually large size of macromolecules and the consequently large number of multipolar parameters in the Hansen & Coppens formalism [1] obviously complicates the feasibility of such kind of studies. In this presentation, we introduce the tools implemented in the MoProViewer software, part of the MoPro Suite for charge density refinement, especially designed to ease the analysis of a protein structure from a charge density perspective. These tools focus on helping the user in the computation of properties deriving from a refined or transferred [2] protein charge distribution and to manage a large number of atoms described in the multipole formalism in terms for instance of atomic local axis, symmetry or chemical equivalences constraints definitions. Moreover we will present new methods based on the topological analysis of the electrostatic potential [3]. They are designed to allow an original use of the electrostatic properties of a protein-ligand complex structure and rely on the computation and the representation of electrophilic and nucleophilic influence zones of atoms involved in protein-ligand interactions or in a biochemical process. The computational details of these methods as well as application examples on selected protein-ligand complexes will be given.


Using molecular dynamics, we simulate the abrasion process of an atomically rough Fe surface with multiple hard abrasive particles. By quantifying the nanoscopic wear depth in a time-resolved fashion, we show that Barwell's macroscopic wear law can be applied at the atomic scale. We find that in this multiasperity contact system, the Bowden-Tabor term, which describes the friction force as a function of the real nanoscopic contact area, can predict the kinetic friction even when wear is involved. From this the Derjaguin-Amontons-Coulomb friction law can be recovered, since we observe a linear dependence of the contact area on the applied load in accordance with Greenwood-Williamson contact mechanics.


The effects of intracarotid injections of glucose and insulin on the sympathetic firing of nerves to brown adipose tissue were measured in rats. The injection of glucose into the carotid artery of anesthetized rats increased the firing of nerve filaments from the sympathetic nerves which innervate brown adipose tissue. Injection of kainic acid into the ventromedial nucleus 6-9 days prior to the measurement of nerve recordings reduced the stimulatory effect of glucose by 60 percent. In contrast to the stimulation by glucose, injection of insulin into the carotid artery reduced the sympathetic firing rate of nerves to brown adipose tissue. Kainic acid destruction of neurons in the ventromedial hypothalamus also attenuated this effect by 40 percent. These experiments are consistent with the hypothesis that changes in the arterial concentration of glucose and insulin may modulate the firing rate of sympathetic nerves to brown adipose tissue, and that this effect is mediated, in part, by the ventromedial hypothalamus.


Roe deer is Laurasiatherian mammal from the family of Cervidae. It is autochthonous and one of the most valued trophy game species in Croatia (Zorić 2014.). Antlers (left and right branch) with complete or part of the skull are regarded as trophy. Despite the fact that roe deer antlers are easily accessible trophies, formulas for their evaluations are still largely debated. It is a consequence of large number of elements that need to be evaluated, possible use of coefficient instead of measuring volume and mass, and potential differences in trophy preparation. Guidelines of the International Council for Game and Wildlife Conservation (CIC) instructs that skulls should be cut through the eye cavities leaving intact nasal bones on the trophy. If otherwise cut or left intact with maxillar teeth, deduction of 65 or 90g is foreseen. Considering the fact that weight and density of bones varies between populations, we hypothesize that above mentioned deductions do not represent real values. Therefore the aim of this research was to determine the deviations from actual mass. A total of 40 roe buck skulls originating from the area of Central Croatia were analysed. All skulls were weighed 3 times, initially when intact, after shallow cut and after proscribed cut. Obtained data were statistically analysed. Following the shallow cut, skull is lighter for 25 to 52 g, which is 11 g less than proscribed 65 g. In other words application of shallow cut will result in the loss in trophy value. In cases of intact skulls loss in weight is related to gross skull mass. In this case even 68 to 70% of variability are explained by gross skull mass (R2=0.680; p<0.0001 – linear function, or R2=0.699; p<0.01 – potency function). According to the intersection of the lines (obligate deduction of 90 g and dependence of mass loss due to the cutting) milestone in the mass is at 310 g gross. In other words trophies lighter than 310 g should be cut according to proscriptions as they will lose less than 90 g, while heavier skulls should be left intact as they will lose more than proscribed 90 g. Regardless of the skull preparation, all obtained masses show statistically significant relation to volume. With increase in volume density of trophies decreases (R2=0.813; p<0.001), with the fact that cutting of the skull results in removal of denser, heavier parts of the trophy. Application of the coefficient 0.23 depends on the density of the trophy, meaning that its application in the case of heavier antlers with lower volume will increase the trophy value. In the case of porous antlers the real coefficient should be higher, as application of 0.23 results in lower trophy values. In the case of intact skulls we do not advice application of 0.23 coefficient as this will decrease the trophy value.


Primary and metastatic bone cancers are difficult to eradicate and novel approaches are needed to improve treatment and extend life. As bone cancer grows, osteoclasts, the principal bone-resorbing cells of the body, are recruited to and activated at sites of cancer. In this investigation, we determined if osteoclast lineage cells could function as a cell-based gene delivery system to bone cancers. We used the cytosine deaminase (CD) 5-fluorocytosine (5-FC) enzyme/prodrug system and studied bone marrow and bones from transgenic mice expressing a novel CD gene regulated by the osteoclast tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP) gene promoter (Tg/NCD). DsRed2-labeled 2472 sarcoma cells were placed in Tg/NCD osteoclastogenic cultures and treated with 5-FC. 5-FC treatment resulted in profound bystander killing (90%; P < 0.05). The effect of 5-FC treatment on osteoclast lineage cells was most dramatic when administered at the beginning of the 7-day cultures, suggesting that mature osteoclasts are less sensitive to 5-FC. Evaluation of osteoclast-directed bystander killing in vivo revealed dramatic killing of bone cancer with only a modest effect on osteoclast number. Specifically, 5-FC treatment of tumor-bearing Tg/NCD mice or Tg/NCD bone marrow transplanted C3H mice (Tg/NCD-C3H) resulted in 92% and 44% reductions in tumor area, respectively (P < 0.05). Eight of ten 5-FC-treated Tg/NCD mice had complete bone tumor killing and five of six 5-FC-treated Tg/NCD-C3H mice had reduced tumor compared with controls. In addition, Tg/NCD osteoclasts were resistant to 5-FC treatment in vivo, a very important feature, as it identifies osteoclasts as an ideal CD gene delivery system.


Maternal inflammation plays a role in the etiology of certain neurodevelopmental disorders including autism and schizophrenia. Because maternal inflammation can lead to activation of fetal microglia, we have examined effects of inflamed microglia on cultured neural progenitors from rat embryonic septal region and basal forebrain. These cells give rise to cholinergic neurons projecting to cortex and hippocampus. Microglia stimulated with lipopolysaccharide (LPS), peptidoglycan, Poly I:C and CD154 produce conditioned media (CM) that promotes excessive numbers of cholinergic neurons and levels of choline acetyltransferase (ChAT) activity 6–8 times that of untreated cultures. Expression of the neural-specific transcription factor MATH1 increases substantially within 1 h of plating in LPS-CM. Untreated cultures do not attain equivalent levels until 6 h. By contrast, expression of glial-related transcription factors in LPS-CM-treated cultures never attains the elevated levels of untreated cultures. LPS-CM-treated clones derived from individual progenitors labeled with a LacZ-expressing retrovirus showed >2.5-fold increase in the percentage of cholinergic cells compared with untreated clones. Thus, CM from activated microglia prompts excess cholinergic differentiation from undifferentiated progenitors suggesting that microglial inflammation during critical stages can lead to aberrant brain development.


Effects of a single IM injection of selenium-vitamin E (Se-E; 5 mg of Se + 68 IU of alpha-tocopherol/60 kg of body weight) as a pretreatment 14 days before an oral dose of aflatoxin B1 (1.0 mg/kg) were studied in 24 dairy calves. Treatment groups were designated as follows: group 1 = no Se-E or aflatoxin B1 (control); group 2 = Se-E supplementation only; group 3 = aflatoxin B1 dose only; and group 4 = Se-E supplementation before aflatoxin B1 dose. Clinical signs of toxicosis in aflatoxin B1-treated calves included anorexia, ataxia, rough haircoats, increased respiration rates, dyspnea, dehydration, and nasal discharge. Packed-cell volume, RBC, WBC, and hemoglobin were increased in aflatoxin-treated calves. Significant increases in serum aspartate aminotransferase (P less than 0.05) and gamma-glutamyl-transferase (P less than 0.001) activities and prothrombin times (P less than 0.001) were observed in aflatoxin-treated calves, indicating that there was hepatic involvement. Although aflatoxin exposure caused a significant decrease in body weight (P less than 0.01) and feed intake (P less than 0.001) in treatment groups 3 and 4, Se was demonstrated to interact significantly (P less than 0.001) with aflatoxin B1 for feed intake, causing an improved feed intake in treatment group 4 calves.


A significant proportion of patients with knee osteoarthritis (OA) continue to have severe ongoing pain following knee replacement surgery. Central sensitization and features suggestive of neuropathic pain before surgery may result in a poor outcome post-operatively. In this prospective observational study of patients undergoing primary knee arthroplasty (n=120), the modified PainDETECT score was used to divide patients, with primary knee OA, into nociceptive (<13), unclear (13–18) and neuropathic -like pain (>18) groups pre-operatively. Response to surgery was compared between groups using the Oxford Knee Score (OKS) and the presence of moderate to severe long-term pain 12 months after arthroplasty. The analyses were replicated in a larger independent cohort study (n=404). 120 patients were recruited to the main study cohort: 63 (52%) nociceptive pain; 32 (27%) unclear pain; 25 (21%) neuropathic-like pain. Patients with neuropathic-like pain had significantly worse OKS pre and post-operatively, compared to the nociceptive pain group, independent of age, sex and BMI. At 12-months post-operatively the mean OKS was 4 points lower in the neuropathic-like group compared with the nociceptive group in the study cohort (non-significant); with a difference of 5 points in the replication cohort (p<0.001). Moderate to severe long-term pain after arthroplasty at 12-months was present in 50% of the neuropathic-like pain group versus 24% in the nociceptive pain group, in the replication cohort (p<0.001). Neuropathic pain is common and targeted therapy pre, peri and post-operatively may improve treatment response.


In developed countries, cancer is the second leading cause of death, being only surpassed by cardiovascular diseases. To develop tumor-targeted tools to localize and treat cancer at an early stage is a multidisciplinary area fuelled by the convergence of biology, medicine, chemistry, physics and engineering. Chemists, in particular, play a critical role in this effort, as they are continuously challenged to use innovative chemical strategies to develop 'smart drugs'. The in vitro observation that peptide receptors are overexpressed in certain tumors, as compared to endogenous expression levels, has prompted the use of such receptors as targets and the design of radiolabelled peptide-based tools for targeted nuclear molecular imaging and therapy. Such approach has gained increased interest over the last two decades, driven in particular by the success of OctreoScan(®) and by the increasing knowledge concerning overexpression of regulatory peptide receptors in tumor tissues. Selected peptides that target a variety of disease related receptors are in place and have been labeled with different radiometals, using mainly the bifunctional approach. This review begins by summarizing some relevant aspects of the coordination chemistry of the metals studied for labeling peptides. Then, we provide an overview of the chemical strategies explored to improve the biological performance of different families of radiometallated peptides for nuclear molecular imaging and/or targeted radionuclide tumor therapy.


CERN has been archiving data on tapes in its Computer Center for decades and its archive system is now holding more than 135 PB of HEP data in its premises on high density tapes. For the last 20 years, tape areal bit density has been doubling every 30 months, closely following HEP data growth trends. During this period, bits on the tape magnetic substrate have been shrinking exponentially; today's bits are now smaller than most airborne dust particles or even bacteria. Therefore tape media is now more sensitive to contamination from airborne dust particles that can land on the rollers, reels or heads. These can cause scratches on the tape media as it is being mounted or wound on the tape drive resulting in the loss of significant amounts of data. To mitigate this threat, CERN has prototyped and built custom environmental sensors that are hosted in the production tape libraries, sampling the same airflow as the surrounding drives. This paper will expose the problems and challenges we are facing and the solutions we developed in production to better monitor CERN Computer Center environment in tape libraries and to limit the impact of airborne particles on the LHC data.


The internet of things (IoT) requires an efficient management of all devices. Operation in potentially insecure environments, limited processing capability of the IoT devices and unreliable connectivity create the need of suitable Device Management (DM) solutions. But with the IoT being complex and diverse, the criteria for finding the right DM solution differ depending on the application-specific requirements of the given IoT system. In this paper, we develop a rating system for IoT DM solutions, which can be easily adapted. The criteria are represented with the FCAPS and the life cycle management models. Additionally, we conduct an evaluation of open source IoT platforms in contrast to commercial solutions.


Interpretable representations are the backbone of many black-box explainers. They translate the low-level data representation necessary for good predictive performance into high-level human-intelligible concepts used to convey the explanation. Notably, the explanation type and its cognitive complexity are directly controlled by the interpretable representation, allowing to target a particular audience and use case. However, many explainers that rely on interpretable representations overlook their merit and fall back on default solutions, which may introduce implicit assumptions, thereby degrading the explanatory power of such techniques. To address this problem, we study properties of interpretable representations that encode presence and absence of human-comprehensible concepts. We show how they are operationalised for tabular, image and text data, discussing their strengths and weaknesses. Finally, we analyse their explanatory properties in the context of tabular data, where a linear model is used to quantify the importance of interpretable concepts.


A novel technique which uses the interference of diffraction patterns to establish the mechanical alignment of butted optical fibers is described, and its application to mode-spot concentricity-error measurement is demonstrated. Complete spatial alignment to within 0.2 μm of relative offset and about 7-min of arc of relative tilt is achieved. In conjunction with a straightforward optical transmission loss apparatus, the method, when applied to mode-spot concentricity-error measurements, provides good agreement with alternative techniques. Accuracies are estimated and improvements suggested.


By means of analytical and numerical methods, we study how the residual three dimensionality affects dynamics of solitons in an attractive Bose-Einstein condensate loaded into a cigar-shaped trap. Based on an effective one-dimensional (1D) Gross-Pitaevskii equation that includes an additional quintic self-focusing term, generated by the tight transverse confinement, we find a family of exact one-soliton solutions and demonstrate stability of the entire family, despite the possibility of collapse in the 1D equation with the quintic self-focusing nonlinearity. Simulating collisions between two solitons in the same setting, we find a critical velocity, V{sub c}, below which merger of identical in-phase solitons is observed. Dependence of V{sub c} on the strength of the transverse confinement and number of atoms in the solitons is predicted by means of the perturbation theory and investigated in direct simulations. The simulations also demonstrate symmetry breaking in collisions of identical solitons with a nonzero phase difference. This effect is qualitatively explained by means of an analytical approximation.


Nano-sized zinc containing β-tricalcium phosphate (ZnTCP) powders were synthesized by a co-precipitation method. The co-precipitation took place in an ice-water bathed beaker, after further washing, freezing, lyophilizing and calcining at 800°C, the precipitates transformed to ZnTCP powders. The XRD pattern of the ZnTCP powders demonstrated a pure β-TCP phase. TEM observation revealed the particle size is about 100-120nm, which is favorable for TCP particles to form composites, such as polymer based composite, and as well to attain a desired microstructure. It was found zinc incorporation could eventually result in the decrease of particle size, thus be beneficial for its further application.


The novel bridged nucleic-acid analogue 2',4'-BNA(NC) (2'-O,4'-C-aminomethylene bridged nucleic acid), containing a six-membered bridged structure with an N-O linkage, was designed and synthesized efficiently, demonstrating a one-pot intramolecular NC bond-forming key reaction to construct a perhydro-1,2-oxazine ring (11 and 12). Three monomers of 2',4'-BNA(NC) (2',4'-BNA(NC)[NH], [NMe], and [NBn]) were synthesized and incorporated into oligonucleotides, and their properties were investigated and compared with those of 2',4'-BNA (LNA)-modified oligonucleotides. Compared to 2',4'-BNA (LNA)-modified oligonucleotides, 2',4'-BNA(NC) congeners were found to possess: (i) equal or higher binding affinity against an RNA complement with excellent single-mismatch discriminating power, (ii) much better RNA selective binding, (iii) stronger and more sequence selective triplex-forming characters, and (iv) immensely higher nuclease resistance, even higher than the S(p)-phosphorthioate analogue. 2',4'-BNA(NC)-modified oligonucleotides with these excellent profiles show great promise for applications in antisense and antigene technologies.


The primary goal of triage is to identify the majority of field trauma victims at risk for life-threatening injuries. When triage criteria are made sufficiently sensitive to accomplish this goal, high rates of overtriage occur. Orange County's original physiologic criteria were associated with an overtriage rate of 18-40% depending on the definition of a major trauma victim. During the first year's experience with the original physiologic criteria, 21% of non-CNS motor vehicle trauma deaths occurred in nondesignated hospitals. When the criteria were made more sensitive by adding non-time dependent triage criteria such as anatomic and mechanism of injury criteria, deaths in nondesignated hospitals dropped to 4.4%, but the rate of overtriage doubled. Despite this apparent high rate of overtriage, only 5.5% of all paramedic transports were for patients judged to have met field triage criteria. Based on this experience, an approach is suggested for evaluating the balance between over- and undertriage that occurs for a given set of triage criteria. Once this balance has been defined, triage guidelines can be modified to meet regional triage objectives.


Background: The assessment of myocardial function is important in both primary and secondary mitral regurgitation (MR), to determine the timing of interventions and to predict outcomes. Ejection fraction is relied on for clinical decisions, even though, it is well understood that it does not reflect myocardial function. Global longitudinal strain (GLS) is a promising parameter that correlates well with outcomes postinterventions. In this review, we aimed to determine the utility of GLS in both primary and secondary MR in predicting clinical outcomes. We also aimed to determine the GLS cutoff at which clinical decisions can be made. Methods: We conducted a systematic review of the literature regarding the use of GLS as a predictor of left ventricular (LV) function. We searched PubMed and Embase for relevant articles and identified 141 articles after removing duplicates. We screened titles and abstracts to identify 28 relevant articles from which data were extracted. Results: In 16 of the 28 studies, patients had primary MR mostly of degenerative etiology and the LV GLS cutoff for events ranged from −17.2% to −21%. In 10 studies, patients with secondary MR were included, and a cutoff ranging from −7%− to −9% was most often reported except for one study that reported-16.3%, as it included patients with atrial functional MR. Conclusion: GLS assesses LV dysfunction and is a good predictor of clinical and echocardiographic outcomes postinterventions. Values lower than the cutoff value of −17.2% to −21% in primary MR and −7% to −9% in secondary MR are associated with poorer outcomes. These findings suggest that the use of GLS as a routine assessment in patients with significant MR may be appropriate for both clinical decision-making and prognostication.