MR Spectroscopic Imaging of Peripheral Zone in Prostate Cancer Using a 3T MRI Scanner: Endorectal versus External Phased Array Coils.

Magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) detects alterations in major prostate metabolites, such as citrate (Cit), creatine (Cr), and choline (Ch). We evaluated the sensitivity and accuracy of three-dimensional MRSI of prostate using an endorectal compared to an external phased array "receive" coil on a 3T MRI scanner. Eighteen patients with prostate cancer (PCa) who underwent endorectal MR imaging and proton (1H) MRSI were included in this study. Immediately after the endorectal MRSI scan, the PCa patients were scanned with the external phased array coil. The endorectal coil-detected metabolite ratio [(Ch+Cr)/Cit] was significantly higher in cancer locations (1.667 ± 0.663) compared to non-cancer locations (0.978 ± 0.420) (P < 0.001). Similarly, for the external phased array, the ratio was significantly higher in cancer locations (1.070 ± 0.525) compared to non-cancer locations (0.521 ± 0.310) (P < 0.001). The sensitivity and accuracy of cancer detection were 81% and 78% using the endorectal 'receive' coil, and 69% and 75%, respectively using the external phased array 'receive' coil

Risk Analysis of the Implementation of IPv6 Neighbor Discovery in Public Network

Internet is ubiquitous, and in recent times its growth has been exponential. This rapid growth caused the depletion of the current Internet Protocol version 4 (IPv4) address, prompting IETF with the design of the new Internet Protocol version 6 (IPv6) in the 1990\u27s. IPv6 is the next generation of the Internet Protocol designed with much larger address space and additional functions to ease its use for the users. One of the new functions is address auto configuration of new host\u27s via Neighbor Discovery Protocol (NDP). However, the implementation of NDP is not without risk in terms of security. This paper analyzes the risk of NDP implementation in public network. The result shows a number of risks that appear on the implementation of NDP over a Public Network. Neighbors cannot be trusted 100%. One of them could be an attacker who may exploit the NDP message to get their own benefit. In addition the number of insiders increases time to time

Aerosol perturbations related to volcanic eruptions during the past few centuries as recorded in an ice core from the Central Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica

High-resolution glacio-chemical analyses were carried out in a 62.2 m long ice core recovered from the Central Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, to evaluate temporal changes in environmental characteristics during the past five centuries. The sulphate (SO 4 2-) content within the core varied between 15 and 377 ppb, whereas the sodium (Na +) and chloride (Cl -) content fluctuated widely from 7 to 500 ppb and 25 to 1461 ppb respectively. The computed non-sea-salt sulphate (nssSO 4 2-) record reveals the existence of several outstanding peaks that can be attributed to the sulphate aerosol deposition during large volcanic events as recorded in Antarctica and elsewhere. Major volcanic events identified at the core site include: Mt Pinatubo (1991), Agung (1963), Krakatau/Tarawera (1883/1886), Tambora (1815) and Huaynaputina (1600) among several other moderate events. Comparison of our nssSO 4 2- record with that of ice core records from Greenland reveals analogous sulphate deposition during certain major volcanic events, demonstrating the interhemispheric transport of aerosols during large volcanic eruptions. Relatively high Cl -/Na + ratio throughout the core (mean 3.1) compared to that of the sea water ratio implies additional sources of Cl -, most likely due to the intense scavenging of gaseous Cl - in the lower atmosphere

Reduction of seafood processing wastewater using technologies enhanced by swim–bed technology

The increasing growth of the seafood processing industries considerably requires more industrial process activities and water consumption. It is estimated that approximately 10–40 m3 of wastewater is generated from those industries for processing one-tonne of raw materials. Due to limitations and regulations in natural resources utilization, a suitable and systematic wastewater treatment plant is very important to meet rigorous discharge standards. As a result of food waste biodegradability, the biological treatment and some extent of swim-bed technology, including a novel acryl-fibre (biofilm) material might be used effectively to meet the effluent discharge criteria. This chapter aims to develop understanding on current problems and production of the seafood wastewater regarding treatment efficiency and methods of treatment

Cytological and transcript analyses reveal fat and lazy persister-like bacilli in tuberculous sputum

As nonreplicating tubercle bacilli are tolerant to the cidal action of antibiotics and resistant to multiple stresses, identification of this persister-like population of tubercle bacilli in sputum presents exciting and tractable new opportunities to investigate both responses to chemotherapy and the transmission of tuberculosis

Randomised controlled trial and health economic evaluation of the impact of diagnostic testing for influenza, respiratory syncytial virus and Streptococcus pneumoniae infection on the management of acute admissions in the elderly and high-risk 18- to 64-year-olds

Please cite the published version which is available via the DOI link in this record.Western industrialised nations face a large increase in the number of older people. People over the age of 60 years account for almost half of the 16.8 million hospital admissions in England from 2009 to 2010. During 2009-10, respiratory infections accounted for approximately 1 in 30 hospital admissions and 1 in 20 of the 51.5 million bed-days.HTA ProgrammeNational Institute for Health Research (NIHR

The Caenorhabditis elegans vulva: A post-embryonic gene regulatory network controlling organogenesis

The Caenorhabditis elegans vulva is an elegant model for dissecting a gene regulatory network (GRN) that directs postembryonic organogenesis. The mature vulva comprises seven cell types (vulA, vulB1, vulB2, vulC, vulD, vulE, and vulF), each with its own unique pattern of spatial and temporal gene expression. The mechanisms that specify these cell types in a precise spatial pattern are not well understood. Using reverse genetic screens, we identified novel components of the vulval GRN, including nhr-113 in vulA. Several transcription factors (lin-11, lin-29, cog-1, egl-38, and nhr-67) interact with each other and act in concert to regulate target gene expression in the diverse vulval cell types. For example, egl-38 (Pax2/5/8) stabilizes the vulF fate by positively regulating vulF characteristics and by inhibiting characteristics associated with the neighboring vulE cells. nhr-67 and egl-38 regulate cog-1, helping restrict its expression to vulE. Computational approaches have been successfully used to identify functional cis-regulatory motifs in the zmp-1 (zinc metalloproteinase) promoter. These results provide an overview of the regulatory network architecture for each vulval cell type

A REVIEW ON MULTIPLE-FEATURE-BASED ADAPTIVE SPARSE REPRESENTATION (MFASR) AND OTHER CLASSIFICATION TYPES

A new technique Multiple-feature-based adaptive sparse representation (MFASR) has been demonstrated for Hyperspectral Images (HSI's) classification. This method involves mainly in four steps at the various stages. The spectral and spatial information reflected from the original Hyperspectral Images with four various features. A shape adaptive (SA) spatial region is obtained in each pixel region at the second step. The algorithm namely sparse representation has applied to get the coefficients of sparse for each shape adaptive region in the form of matrix with multiple features. For each test pixel, the class label is determined with the help of obtained coefficients. The performances of MFASR have much better classification results than other classifiers in the terms of quantitative and qualitative percentage of results. This MFASR will make benefit of strong correlations that are obtained from different extracted features and this make use of effective features and effective adaptive sparse representation. Thus, the very high classification performance was achieved through this MFASR technique

Growth and Persistence of Large Business Groups in India

The international business literature is belatedly recognizing the significance of large family-controlled business groups in emerging markets. Most research has focused on analyzing the impact of concentrations of private wealth on economic development in home countries using panel data. This paper examines the growth and persistence of business groups since 1951 in one country – India. Since Independence, the government has attempted to operate an economic policy framework that had, amongst its prime objectives, the curbing of the tendency of business groups to concentrate economic power. As their growth was seen as synonymous with concentration of wealth, business groups became obvious candidates for regulation. Various policy instruments were introduced, such as the Industries (Development and Regulation) (IDR) Act 1951 and the Monopolies and Restrictive Trade Practices (MRTP) Act 1969, with the aim of erecting barriers to their growth. In 1991, economic reform ushered in the removal of the legislative barriers to business group growth. The analysis in this paper concludes that large business groups expanded their share of wealth between 1951 and 1969, but this growth was arrested between 1970 and 1990, and since 1991, it has dwindled. The pre-eminent position of Tata and Birla, as the two largest business groups, remained unchallenged from 1951 until the emergence of the Reliance Group in the late 1990s. However, there has been frequent change in the relative positions of other groups in and out of the Top-20. After economic liberalisation accelerated from 1991, there was significant change in the ranks of business groups in the Top-20. Existing smaller groups or newly emerging groups, particularly in the IT and telecommunications sectors, have replaced many of the previously dominant older groups. This is interpreted as indicating the central role of entrepreneurship in combination with technological innovation, and the opening up of the Indian economy to international competition, in disturbing established business hierarchies in India. More generally, policy intervention appears to have been less effective in breaking up concentrations of economic power in India than economic liberalization and increased competition

The phosphite oxidoreductase gene, ptxD as a bio-contained chloroplast marker and crop-protection tool for algal biotechnology using Chlamydomonas

Edible microalgae have potential as low-cost cell factories for the production and oral delivery of recombinant proteins such as vaccines, anti-bacterials and gut-active enzymes that are beneficial to farmed animals including livestock, poultry and fish. However, a major economic and technical problem associated with large-scale cultivation of microalgae, even in closed photobioreactors, is invasion by contaminating microorganisms. Avoiding this requires costly media sterilisation, aseptic techniques during set-up and implementation of 'crop-protection' strategies during cultivation. Here, we report a strain improvement approach in which the chloroplast of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii is engineered to allow oxidation of phosphite to its bio-available form: phosphate. We have designed a synthetic version of the bacterial gene (ptxD)-encoding phosphite oxidoreductase such that it is highly expressed in the chloroplast but has a Trp→Opal codon reassignment for bio-containment of the transgene. Under mixotrophic conditions, the growth rate of the engineered alga is unaffected when phosphate is replaced with phosphite in the medium. Furthermore, under non-sterile conditions, growth of contaminating microorganisms is severely impeded in phosphite medium. This, therefore, offers the possibility of producing algal biomass under non-sterile conditions. The ptxD gene can also serve as a dominant marker for genetic engineering of any C. reinhardtii strain, thereby avoiding the use of antibiotic resistance genes as markers and allowing the 'retro-fitting' of existing engineered strains. As a proof of concept, we demonstrate the application of our ptxD technology to a strain expressing a subunit vaccine targeting a major viral pathogen of farmed fish