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Objectives: We aim to describe the history of iodine testing of the cervix and identify areas where further work is required.Study Design: We conducted a search of PubMed and Google Scholar. Full article texts were reviewed. Reference lists were screened for additional articles and books. 37 basic articles in journals including ones written in German and three basic articles in books were identified.Results: Glycogen staining of the ectocervical squamous epithelium with iodine goes back to Paul Ehrlich (1854-1915). Walter Schiller (1887-1960) examined nearly 200 different dyes and found that vital staining of the cervical squamous epithelium was best achieved with Lugol's iodine solution, which was indicated by Jean Guillaume Lugol (1786-1851) for disinfection of the vagina. In 1928 W. Lahm observed that the glycogen content of a squamous epithelium cell decreases as anaplasia increases. From the outset, H. Hinselmann included the iodine test in the minimum requirements for colposcopy. In 1946 H. J. Wespi first mentioned the finding of an "uncharacteristic iodine negative area." The first international colposcopic terminology from Graz in 1975 lists the "iodine light area" among the different colposcopy findings. The IFCPC nomenclatures from Rome 1990, Barcelona 2002, and Rio de Janeiro 2011 have evaluated the iodine test and classified their findings differently. A breakthrough to effective cervical cancer screening in resource-limited settings in Africa, India, and Latin America was achieved with R. Sankaranarayanan's publication on naked-eye visual inspection of the cervix after application of Lugol's iodine.Conclusions: This paper is a step toward a better understanding of what we think and do today with iodine testing and what problems and upcoming tasks will arise in future. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The growing importance of the knowledge economy - also known as the knowledge-based economy (KBE) - in the growth and development process of countries is well established. Three central objectives are highlighted in our paper and which shed light on the impact of the KBE for economic emergence. The main results of our article highlight the need to implement measures to foster and promote KBE in Algeria. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A new, conformal and flexible slot microstrip antenna for treatment and ablation of cancerous tumors is proposed in this paper. The main purpose of the proposed antenna is using a silicon layer on the surface of the skin, with/instead of water bolus to reduce the percentage of burns on the skin surface and resolve problems caused by the layer of water bolus. The performance of this design for achieving the maximum local SAR is evaluated carefully and step by step. The performance of this antenna is investigated in multi-stage biological tissue in various positions, including a three-layer tissue (skin, fat and muscle) and 5 layers (skin, fat, muscle, and two cortical and cancellous bone layers). The main feature in this antenna is centralization of SAR at the muscle tissue that it reduces side damages of hyperthermia. The dimensions of the studied antenna are 1.93 mm × 124 mm × 124 mm. Finally constructed antenna and its measured results have been shown and a good consistency between simulated and measured results has been reported. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Eye blink is a semi-autonomic rapid closing of eyelid. Eye blink is controlled by the autonomic nervous system of human brain. This normal and most important function of human eye can be embedded with some created (abnormal) sequences to indicate any unusual message. In this paper, a real time novel algorithm to reckon number of eye blinks (RTREB) in a video sequence using eye facet correlation (EFC) is proposed. The proposed RTREB approximates the eye landmark positions using EFC- an extricate variable value of eyelids clearly differentiating between opened and closed eyelid in a frame of a video sequence. The proposed RTREB is classified with existing classifiers SVM, QSVM, KNN and DTREE. Increased accuracy to 99.8% validates the effectiveness and correctness of RTREB. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper employs a velocity plus displacement (V+D)-based equivalent force control (EFC) method to solve the velocity/displacement difference equation in a real-time substructure test. This method uses type 2 feedback control loops to replace mathematical iteration to solve the nonlinear dynamic equation. A spectral radius analysis of the amplification matrix shows that the type 2 EFC-explicit, Newmark- β method has beneficial numerical characteristics for this method. Its stability limit of Ω = 2 remains unchanged regardless of the system damping because the velocity is achieved with very high accuracy during simulation. In contrast, the stability limits of the central difference method using direct velocity prediction and the EFC-average acceleration method with linear interpolation are shown to decrease with an increase in system damping. In fact, the EFC-average acceleration method is shown to change from unconditionally stable to conditionally stable. We also show that if an over-damped system with a damping ratio of 1.05 is considered, the stability limit is reduced to Ω =1.45. Finally, the results from an experiment with a single-degree-of-freedom structure installed with a magneto-rheological (MR) damper are presented. The results demonstrate that the proposed method is able to follow both displacement and velocity commands with moderate accuracy, resulting in improved test performance and accuracy for structures that are sensitive to both velocity and displacement inputs. Although the findings of the study are promising, additional test data and several further improvements will be required to draw general conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Eligibility for many federal, state, and institutional financial aid programs is determined by the expected family contribution (EFC) from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), which functions as a tool to ration scarce aid dollars. The lowest possible EFC under current rules is zero, but this obscures a wider distribution of family resources that would be partially uncovered if the EFC formula were not truncated at zero and negative values were allowed. In this paper, I estimate negative EFCs using student-level data from nine colleges and universities between the 2007-08 and 2011-12 academic year. I find a large amount of dispersion in the distribution of negative EFCs for dependent students and that between 20% and 90% of students (varying by whether the student files the full FAFSA or qualifies for a Simplified FAFSA or an automatic zero EFC) would qualify for a larger Pell Grant award if negative EFCs were allowed. Additional costs of funding a negative EFC could range from $1.6 billion to $7.2 billion per year, depending on assumptions regarding generosity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article describes critical situation concerning implementation of the EFC satellite oriented system in CEEC countries. Situation in the field of practical implementation of GNSS/CN is very critical at present due to lack of valid European standards. There is only one realistic possibility to build up interoperable system - to use “de facto” standards. The idea has been elaborated by expert group for the Ministry of Transport of the Czech Republic.

Flowable slurry electrodes have received increased interest recently for use in electrochemical energy storage and water treatment systems. In an electrochemical cell these flowing electrodes can simultaneously support both faradaic currents (through reactions occurring at the slurry/solution interface) and nonfaradaic currents (through charging of the double layer capacitance of each slurry particle as it passes through the cell). In this paper, a model based on a three-dimensional set of macrohomogeneous equations that combines the effects of both types of current is developed. The model equations are applicable to flow battery, electrochemical flow capacitor, and flow-electrode capacitive deionization systems. Using this modeling approach, the performance of slurry electrodes in symmetric electrochemical cells is examined. Scaling techniques are applied to the equations in order to permit the prediction of the steady-state current that can be achieved from a slurry electrode as a function of cell dimensions, slurry properties, flow rate, reaction kinetics, and the potential applied across the cell. Depending on the values of four dimensionless combinations of the pertinent variables (the capacitive Graetz number, the nondimensional exchange current density, the conductivity ratio, and the flow behavior index) slurry electrodes are then shown to operate in one of four distinct operational regimes. Lastly, the variation of the physical extent of the reaction zone (i.e. electroactive zone extension) with respect to the relative magnitude of advection is characterized. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

European policy encourages the adoption of sustainable systems that promote the efficient use and recovery of minerals and chemicals. In this respect, desalination brines do contain a dramatic amount of valuable minerals and can be valorized through appropriate treatments rather than releasing them into the environment. This paper proposes an innovative brine recovery system for obtaining high purity chemicals through the integration of Eutectic Freeze Crystallization (EFC) and Electrodialysis with Bipolar Membrane (EDBM) technologies. Two separate laboratory-scale experimental campaigns were carried out to validate the potential integration of the two processes. Mirabilite (Na 2 SO 4 ∙10H 2 O) has been recovered with a purity of 99.9% using the EFC, and a feed rich in NaCl with low impurities has been further processed in an EDBM unit. EDBM tests with feed solutions simulating EFC effluents have shown that it is possible to produce acidic and basic solutions with high purity (>99%), despite the presence of impurities in the feed. Interestingly, the low EDBM specific consumptions of 0.9–1.1 kWh kg−1 NaOH at 100 A m−2 and 1.3–1.6 kWh kg−1 NaOH at 300 A m−2 were comparable with and without impurities. In the context of the circular economy strategy promoted by the EU-H2020 Water Mining project, the current study demonstrates that this integrated system effectively minimizes waste, promoting sustainability while providing a potential economic return. • Production of Na 2 SO 4 , NaOH, and HCl via an integrated EFC-EDBM process. • Lab-scale experiments were conducted to demonstrate the process feasibility. • EFC allowed almost complete recovery of Na 2 SO 4 from the feed. • EDBM performance was analyzed with different salty streams and applied current. • Advantages of the EFC-EDBM integrated scheme were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Bromodomain protein 4 (BRD4), a member of the bromodomain and extra-terminal (BET) protein family, acts as a central element in transcriptional elongation and plays essential roles in cell proliferation. Inhibition of BRD4 binding to acetylated histone tails via its two bromodomains, BD1 and BD2, with small-molecule inhibitors has been shown to be a valid strategy to prevent cancer growth. We have evaluated and established two novel assays that quantify the interaction of transfected BRD4 BD1 with chemical inhibitors inside cultured cells. Both methods are based on the principle of ligand-induced protein stabilization by which the binding of a small-molecule inhibitor stabilizes intracellular BRD4 BD1 and protects it from proteolytic degradation. We demonstrate the universal character of this principle by using two orthogonal, highly sensitive detection technologies for the quantification of BRD4 BD1 levels in cellular lysates: enzyme fragment complementation and time-resolved fluorescence resonance energy transfer (TR-FRET). Upon optimization of both assays to a miniaturized high-throughput format, the methods were validated by testing a set of small-molecule BET inhibitors and comparing the results with those from a cell-free binding assay and a biophysical thermal shift assay. In addition, point mutations were introduced into BRD4 BD1, and the corresponding mutants were characterized in the TR-FRET stabilization assay. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Abstract: The Bin-Amphiphysin-Rvs167 (BAR) domain superfamily consists of proteins containing the BAR domain, the extended FCH (EFC)/FCH-BAR (F-BAR) domain, or the IRSp53-MIM homology domain (IMD)/inverse BAR (I-BAR) domain. These domains bind membranes through electrostatic interactions between the negative charges of the membranes and the positive charges on the structural surface of homo-dimeric BAR domain superfamily members. Some BAR superfamily members have membrane-penetrating insertion loops, which also contribute to the membrane binding by the proteins. The membrane-binding surface of each BAR domain superfamily member has its own unique curvature that governs or senses the curvature of the membrane for BAR-domain binding. The wide range of BAR-domain surface curvatures correlates with the various invaginations and protrusions of cells. Therefore, each BAR domain superfamily member may generate and recognize the curvature of the membrane of each subcellular structure, such as clathrin-coated pits or filopodia. The BAR domain superfamily proteins may regulate their own catalytic activity or that of their binding proteins, depending on the membrane curvature of their corresponding subcellular structures. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In mammals, there are seven inositolphospholipids, collectively called phosphoinositides that serve as versatile molecules not only in receptor-mediated signal transduction but also in a variety of cellular events such as cytoskeletal reorganization, membrane trafficking, cell proliferation and cell death. Recent studies have revealed that the latter functions are mediated by direct interactions between phosphoinositides and proteins. Such proteins contain two types of phosphoinositide-binding regions; basic amino acid stretch and globular structural domain. Furthermore, spatially restricted compartment of phosphoinositides and their concentration are finely regulated by a large number of phosphoinositide kinases and -phosphatases, controlling localization-specific metabolism of this simple lipid whose aberrations cause various diseases such as cancer and diabetes. iubmb Life , 58: 296–303, 2006 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Calcineurin (CN) is a highly abundant phosphatase in the brain and it is the only Ca2+- and calmodulin-dependent protein serine/threonine phosphatase. There is considerable evidence to suggest that CN plays an essential role in activity-dependent modulation of synaptic efficacy. It has been shown recently that inhibitors of CN, such as CsA or FK506, impair memory formation in day-old chicks. In our present study, extract of Fructus cannabis (EFC) with activation of CN, extracted from Chinese traditional medicine, was used to determine the effects on memory and immunity. In the step-down-type passive avoidance test, the plant extract (0.2 g/kg) significantly improved amnesia induced by chemical drugs in mice, and greatly enhanced the ability of cell-mediated type hypersensitivity and nonspecific immune responses in normal mice. The present study provided pharmacological evidence for Chinese herbal medicine screening from molecular model. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

In this study, we established cell culture conditions for primary equine hepatocytes allowing cytochrome P450 enzyme (CYP) induction experiments. Hepatocytes were isolated after a modified method of Bakala et al. (2003) and cultivated on collagen I coated plates. Three different media were compared for their influence on morphology, viability and CYP activity of the hepatocytes. CYP activity was evaluated with the fluorescent substrate 7-benzyloxy-4-trifluoromethylcoumarin. Induction experiments were carried out with rifampicin, dexamethasone or phenobarbital. Concentration-response curves for induction with rifampicin were created. Williams' medium E showed the best results on morphology and viability of the hepatocytes and was therefore used for the following induction experiments. Cells cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle Medium were not inducible. Incubation with rifampicin increased the CYP activity in two different hepatocyte preparations in a dose dependent manner (EC₅₀=1.20 μM and 6.06 μM; Emax=4.1- and 3.4-fold induction). No increase in CYP activity was detected after incubation with dexamethasone or phenobarbital. The hepatocyte culture conditions established in this study proved to be valuable for investigation of the induction of equine CYPs. In further studies, other equine drugs can be evaluated for CYP induction with this in vitro system., (Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)