TRH: Pathophysiologic and clinical implications

Thyrotropin releasing hormone is thought to be a tonic stimulator of the pituitary TSH secretion regulating the setpoint of the thyrotrophs to the suppressive effect of thyroid hormones. The peptide stimulates the release of normal and elevated prolactin. ACTH and GH may increase in response to exogenous TRH in pituitary ACTH and GH hypersecretion syndromes and in some extrapituitary diseases. The pathophysiological implications of extrahypothalamic TRH in humans are essentially unknown. The TSH response to TRH is nowadays widely used as a diganostic amplifier in thyroid diseases being suppressed in borderline and overt hyperthyroid states and increased in primary thyroid failure. In hypothyroid states of hypothalamic origin, TSH increases in response to exogenous TRH often with a delayed and/or exaggerated time course. But in patients with pituitary tumors and suprasellar extension TSH may also respond to TRH despite secondary hypothyroidism. This TSH increase may indicate a suprasellar cause for the secondary hypothyroidism, probably due to portal vessel occlusion. The TSH released in these cases is shown to be biologically inactive

A Review of "STRIPS: A New Approach to the Application of Theorem Proving to Problem Solving by R.E. Fikes, N.J. Nillson, 1971"

this paper will also discuss about theorem proving (as an example of reasoning, or logical inference), which is another problem-solving method. It is important to distinguish between the original STRIPS planner, and the STRIPS representation language. Due to its power of representation, the language developed for describing STRIPS' operators and world models was since then used, with minor modifications, in a large number of traditional (but more advanced than STRIPS) planners, Planning was historically motivated by the need of robotics. Indeed, STRIPS was designed to act as the planner for another pioneering project: "Shakey the robot", developed at SRI International. Shakey was supposed to wander in his world (see figure 1), push boxes around, and turn light switches on/off (the former action also required to climb on top of a box, since the robot was short and the switches were high on the wall). It is important to note that this environment was quite idealized compared to a real one, given the primitive sensors and effectors available at that time. STRIPS represents world models as a collection of first order predicate calculus formulas. In this context, "problem solving" means finding a sequence of operators in the space of world models that will transform an initial model into another model in which a given formula (goal) can be proven to be true. Two main techniques are used in the problem solving: means-end analysis for the goal search, and a resolution theorem prover that answers questions about a given world model. Room 4 Room 3 Room 2 Room 1 Door 1 Door 2 Door 3 Door 4 Box1 Box2 Box3 Shakey Ls1 Ls2 Ls3 Ls4 Box4 Corridor Figure 1: "Shakey the robot" 's world (from [7]). Each room has a door and a light switch. Since Shakey was rather short, he had to climb ..

SERVITIZATION OF LITHUANIAN AGRICULTURAL COOPERATIVES

To survive and be competitive in the changing economic environment, agricultural cooperatives are innovating and creating more sophisticated, added-value products and broadening the range of provided services. Lithuanian cooperatives, facing the same challenges, are less flexible and adaptable to changes due to short operational history and sparse membership. Therefore, the following scientific problem is addressed: do Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives still represent a shift to servitizing? The aim of this paper is to investigate the current state of servitization among Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives, and to frame directions for further research in this novel research field. The research relies on structured interviews conducted with Lithuanian agricultural cooperatives. The results of statistical data analysis indicate a slow shift of agricultural cooperatives towards servitization, particularly related to the provision of knowledge-based and adding-value services. Identification of general and personal causes of slow servitization among cooperatives is suggested for further researches.Siekdami išlikti ir būti konkurencingi besikeičiant pasaulinėms ekonominėms sąlygoms, žemės ūkio kooperatyvai kuria sudėtingesnę, didesnę pridėtinę vertę turinčią produkciją bei plečia teikiamų paslaugų asortimentą. Lietuvos kooperatyvai susiduria su tais pačiais iššūkiais, tačiau dėl trumpos veiklos patirties ir mažo narių skaičiaus yra riboto lankstumo ir sunkiau prisitaiko prie pokyčių. Todėl straipsnyje formuluojama mokslinė problema: ar Lietuvos žemės ūkio kooperatyvai pereina prie veiklos servitizacijos? Tyrimo tikslas – ištirti kooperatyvų servitizacijos situaciją ir pasiūlyti tolimesnių tyrimų, susijusių su šia žemės ūkiui nauja tema, kryptis. Tyrimas remiasi struktūruotais interviu, atliktais su Lietuvos žemės ūkio kooperatyvais. Statistinės duomenų analizės metu gauti rezultatai rodo labai lėtą kooperatyvų servitizaciją, ypač kalbant apie žiniomis grįstų ir pridėtinę vertę kuriančių paslaugų teikimą. Ateityje siūloma nustatyti bendrąsias ir asmenines lėtos kooperatyvų servitizacijos priežastis