1,422 research outputs found
The mitogenic potential of heparin-binding epidermal growth factor in the human endometrium is mediated by the epidermal growth factor receptor and is modulated by tumor necrosis factor-alpha
No full textHeparin-binding epidermal growth factor (HB-EGF), a member of the epidermal growth factor (EGF) family, is implicated in a variety of biological processes, including reproduction. Previous studies describe increased levels of HB-EGF in the human endometrium during the midsecretory stage of the menstrual cycle, suggesting a function for HB-EGF in implantation of the human blastocyst. Here we have investigated the expression and function of the soluble and transmembrane forms of HB-EGF in the human endometrium. We show that the expression of the transmembrane form of HB-EGF in the human endometrium is modulated according to the stage of the menstrual cycle. We present data demonstrating that both the soluble and transmembrane forms of HB-EGF induce DNA synthesis in human endometrial stromal cells. Furthermore, TNFalpha has a cooperative effect on HB-EGF, EGF, TGFalpha, and betacellulin-induced DNA synthesis in stromal cells, suggesting roles for the EGF family and TNFalpha in regeneration and maturation of human endometrium. Induction of DNA synthesis by HB-EGF and its modulation by TNFalpha in endometrial stromal cells are mediated by the EGF receptor and not the HB-EGF receptor ErbB4. Our data suggest key functions for HB-EGF, TNFalpha, and the EGF receptor in endometrial maturation, via autocrine/paracrine and juxtacrine pathways, in preparation for embryo implantation
On the Security of Non-Linear HB (NLHB) Protocol Against Passive Attack
No full textAs a variant of the HB authentication protocol for RFID systems, which relies on the complexity of decoding linear codes against passive attacks, Madhavan et al. presented Non-Linear HB(NLHB) protocol. In contrast to HB, NLHB relies on the complexity of decoding a class of non-linear codes to render the passive attacks proposed against HB ineffective. Based on the fact that there has been no passive solution for the problem of decoding a random non-linear code, the authors have claimed that NLHB’s security margin is very close to its key size. In this paper, we show that passive attacks against HB protocol can still be applicable to NLHB and this protocol does not provide the desired security margin. In our attack, we first linearize the non-linear part of NLHB to obtain a HB equivalent for NLHB, and then exploit the passive attack techniques proposed for the HB to evaluate the security margin of NLHB. The results show that although NLHB’s security margin is relatively higher than HB against similar passive attack techniques, it has been overestimated and, in contrary to what is claimed, NLHB is vulnerable to passive attacks against HB, especially when the noise vector in the protocol has a low weight
PENDUGAAN ANGKA KEMISKINAN DI KABUPATEN PADANG PARIAMAN MENGGUNAKAN SMALL AREA ESTIMATION DENGAN PENDEKATAN HIERARCHICAL BAYESIAN (HB) LOGLOGISTIK
No full textPenelitian ini mengkaji tentang pendekatan Hierarchical Bayesian (HB) Loglogistik yang diaplikasikan pada Small Area Estimation (SAE) dengan tujuan mengestimasi tingkat kemiskinan di Kabupaten Padang Pariaman. Metode pendugaan area kecil yang digunakan pada penelitian ini adalah model level area dasar (basic area level model) dengan bantuan variabel penyerta yang tersedia pada level kecamatan. Variabel penyerta yang digunakan pada penelitian ini yaitu rasio SLTA/Sederajat (X1), persentase keluarga pertanian (X2), rasio industri mikro kecil (X3), persentase buruh tani dalam setiap anggota keluarga (X4), kepadatan penduduk (X5), dan persentase penduduk pelanggan listrik PLN (X6). Bentuk integrasi yang kompleks dari sebaran peluang bersyarat pada model diselesaikan menggunakan Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) dengan menerapkan algortima Gibbs Sampling dan bantuan software WinBugs 1.4.3. Hasil estimasi menggunkan model HB yang diperoleh dibandingkan dengan hasil estimasi pendugaan langsung dengan memperhatikan nilai standard error sebagai tolok ukurnya. Hasil pendugaan tingkat kemiskinan untuk level kecamatan di Kabupaten Padang Pariaman dengan model HB menghasilkan nilai standard error yang kecil.
Kata Kunci: Tingkat Kemiskinan, Small Area Estimation, Hierarchical Bayesian
Relationship between RBC parameters, HBA₂ level and molecular findings in Alpha Thalassemia: HTAR experience / Ahmad Izzat Ahmad Basri
No full textAlpha thalassemia is a common recessively inherited blood disorder due to mutation or deletion of one or more alpha globin gene. Nowadays, the initial step for screening of alpha thalassemia is by determining the MCV and MCH values. Further investigation includes Hb analysis and confirmation test by molecular analysis. Among the popular molecular method commonly used today is the polymerase chain reaction (PCR). HTAR usually outsource its molecular tests for alpha thalassemia. However, only about 50% of the outsourced samples were positive for alpha thalassemia. Thus, to avoid performing molecular analysis unnecessarily, this study was proposed to find if there is any relationship between the RBC parameters, HBA₂ level and molecular findings for better screening of patients prior to request for molecular analysis. A total of 197 data which consisted of RBC parameters (TRBC, Hb, RDW, MCV, MCH, MCHC and Retic Count), HBA₂ level and molecular findings from HTAR patients diagnosed with alpha thalassemia in 2014. Independent t-test was conducted to evaluate whether the RBC parameters and , HBA₂ level differed significantly for groups of positive or negative molecular findings. Out of the eight parameters tested, RDW, MCHC and rectic were found to be significantly different between groups of positive and negative molecular analysis. Then, the RDW, MCHC and Retic were then anaylzed using ROC Curve to determine the cut-off values for positive molecular findings, respectively. The cut-off values for MCHC and Retic could be determined while cut-off values for RDW could not be determined as the area under the curve was less than 0.5. The cut-off values for MCHC was equal or greater than 34.15 g/dL while the cut-off value for Retic was equal or greater than 2.1%
Legal regulation of prices in Tanzania : an examination of the Regulation of Prices Act 1973 as a tool of social change and development
No full textDrawing mainly from the Tazanian experience this study
attempts to review the principal issues in the legal regulation of
prices, by identifying both the general and specific importance
of law in this respect. The position I shall present is that
legal control is both necessary and desirable for the welfare
and social development of the people. The key issue is whether
the market-place will perform its function satisfactory: Will
it produce socially desirable results? If it will not, why will
it not? And will legal regulation help to do the job a little
better?
In an attempt to answer some of these questions,
first of all, outline the basic issues raised by the study in
the first Chapter. Then I examine the general case for price
controls - the theory about the controls, the motives and reasons
for their imposition and the manner in which they are effected
in different economic systems. This is done in Chapter Two. Relying
most on the available literature on the regulatory process, this
Chapter also looks at the relationship between law and economic
regulation and concludes that the effectiveness of law depends
on the existence of a conducive socio-economic environment. In
Chapter Three I describe the past record of price control laws
in Tanzania. I conclude that despite the failure in the past,
the controls still constitute an important policy instrument
in the transition to socialism. In Chapters Four and Five I describe
the manner in which the current regulations are implemented and
the problems encountered. I conclude that the operational performance
of the controls is constrained by internal and external influences on the economic and political life of the country. In the concluding
Chapter I assess the impact of the controls: Do the controls
work? Do people buy goods at the controlled prices? Why today
the controls are almost popularly accepted as worthwhile? I conclude
that while there may be no measurable economic gains derived
by consumers, the controls have a stabilising effect on the social
and political front. In the final section I argue that the
future success of the legislation depends on creating a correspondence
between the economic structures and the control system. What
makes the controls ineffective is not so much defects in the
law but the contradictions between the orientation of and functioning
of the economic system and the ideological commitment
On
No full textIn this paper, this author proved that always has
the integral solutions for Then we conjecture the equation always has the integral solutions
SOME NEWMAN-TYPE THEOREMS FOR MAPS FROM RIEMANNIAN-MANIFOLDS INTO MANIFOLDS
No full textMathematics, AppliedMathematicsSCI(E)1ARTICLE53-5911
SOME BORSUK-ULAM-TYPE THEOREMS FOR MAPS FROM RIEMANNIAN-MANIFOLDS INTO MANIFOLDS
No full textMathematics, AppliedMathematicsSCI(E)1ARTICLE61-6711
Authoring Reading Lolita in Tehran in America: Diasporic Memoir and Rebirth of the Author
No full textAzar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran is a diasporic memoir that simultaneouslychallenges Roland Barthes’ Death of the Author and benefits from the said vacant positionBarthes bid farewell. The vacated authorial seat, previously occupied by a majority of eastern andwestern male authors by tradition, is an invitation for diasporic female authors. Azar Nafisi andother Iranian female memoirists like Marina Nemat, Masih Alinejad, Shirin Ebadi, and othershave long had their voices, fantasies, and beings conventionally constrained by the banality oftheir day-to-day lives, not necessarily by the male figures in their lives, but under the strictpatriarchal watch that speculates every dim corner of their private lives. The exilic life in diasporais a condition of liminality that thrusts the individual into an in-between state of constantbecoming. In diaspora, the selective nature of memory, as an elusive and illusive faculty,contributes to the author’s process of identity-making. The homeless author cuts off her rootsfrom homeland, so that she may float on the tides with no solid destination; but the uncertainty,also, presents authorship as a liminal initiatiary step for the author to construct her identitywhere belonging seems to be a bygone tale. As such, Nafisi, the previous reader of Nabokov’sLolita in Tehran, occupies the vacated seat of the dead author as a diasporic author and pens herworldview from the position of an exile in form of a memoir, Reading Lolita in Tehran, amouthpiece for the hitherto silent reader
HB vaccine to prevent viral reactivation in allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation recipients with previous HBV infection
No full textHBV-reverse seroconversion (RS) following allogeneic hematopoietic stem cell transplantation (allo-HSCT) is a frequent late-onset complication in recipients with previous HBV infection. We conducted post-transplant HB vaccine intervention in 38 allo-HSCT recipients with previous HBV infection. Firstly, we followed the recipients without any intervention (historical control) until 2003; hence we commenced HB vaccination. Out of the patients who underwent transplantation after 2003, 13 recipients were immunized by a standard 3-dose regimen after immunosuppressant cessation (vaccine group), while 12 recipients were observed without any intervention (non-vaccine group). Eight of the 13 historical control group recipients and 3 of the 12 non-vaccine group recipients, but none of the 13 vaccine group recipients, suffered HBV-RS. Cumulative risks of HBV-RS at 3 years post-HSCT in the historical control, non-vaccine and vaccine groups were 41%, 39% and 0% respectively (P = 0.022). We therefore conclude that intervention with HB vaccines is significantly effective in preventing post-HSCT HBV-RS
- …
