3D Virtual Reality Tour In Real Estate

The main purpose of this research is to deliberate Virtual Reality (VR) application in E-commerce which is suitable towards real estate home builders who are increasingly driven. The Internet is widely expected to become a channel for electronic commerce and it also has an enormous potential for transforming online shopping into a real world equivalent. VR interfaces to e-commerce sites on the Internet promises to make the e-shopping experience more natural, attractive, and fun for buyers. It allows the buyers to interact with the e-commerce service through a 3D representation which supports natural actions such as walking, looking around, and picking up products from the listing. The next purpose of this research is to endorse VR home model as the best way to reduce marketing cost and increase profit. This e-commerce application would become the most powerful sales tools to come along in decades. This application has been developed using Web Page Development (FWD) methodology. Last but not least, this research discusses how the web site fulfills homebuyers' requirements and limitations that were discovered during the development of these applications. Therefore, some recommendations are proposed to defeat the limitations for the future research in this e-commerce application

Histopathologic analysis of gingival lesions : a 20-year retrospective study at one academic dental center

Background: The gingiva is part of the periodontium supporting structures surrounding the teeth and commonly involved in gingival and periodontal conditions. Assessing the distribution of gingival lesions is important for evaluating the prevalence of periodontal disease in the population to optimize the oral health care services. The purpose of this study is to report the frequency and distribution of gingival lesions biopsied from 1996?2016. Material and Methods: This cross-sectional retrospective study retrieved data from all gingival lesions biopsied from 1996?2016 and sent to the King Abdulaziz University Dental Hospital oral pathology laboratory. Histologic sections were reviewed in a blinded manner by a certified oral pathologist to confirm the initial histologic diagnosis. Results: Of the 1,248 oral-maxillofacial lesions, 119 (9.5%) gingival lesions were diagnosed. The mean age was 41.58 years. Gingival lesions were more prevalent in female patients than male patients (53.8%). The most common diagnoses were reactive lesions (41.2%). Pyogenic granuloma was the predominant lesion in the category (n=26, 21.8%), and followed by inflammatory conditions (24.4%), benign neoplasm (9.2%), malignant neoplasm (7.6%), epithelial lesions (7.6%), miscellaneous (5%), and immune-mediated diseases (5%). Squamous cell carci noma was the only malignant neoplasm reported (7.6%; mean age, 57.44 years) and more common in male than female patients (2:1). Most biopsies were sent from oral and maxillofacial surgeons (55.6%) followed by general dentists (22.2%) and periodontists (12.8%). Conclusions: Pyogenic granuloma was the most common gingival lesion. Squamous cell carcinoma was the only malignant lesion in which histologic examination was the definitive diagnostic measure. This study provides information about the frequencies and distributions of gingival lesions over 20 years

Towards Ontology-based SQA Recommender for Agile Software Development

Agility is heavily dependent on tacit knowledge, skilled and motivated employees, and frequent communications. Although, the Agile Manifesto claims fast and light software development process while maintaining high quality, it is however not very clear how current agile practices and methods attain quality under time pressure and unstable requirements. In this paper, we present an ontological approach for process-driven Quality Assurance support for agile software development. Challenges related to the role of Quality Assurance in agile projects are addressed by developing a process-driven recommender that provides tailored resources to user’s queries. The proposed ontological model embeds both conceptual and operational SQA knowledge about software processes and their requirements, including quality attributes, SQA measurements, SQA metrics and related SQA techniques and procedures

Oral Inflammatory Myofibroblastic Tumor: Case Report and Review of Literature

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) is a rarely described tumor of unknown etiology and pathogenesis. It occurs primarily in the lungs, but has occurred in other extra-pulmonary sites. Histologically these lesions appear as an inflammatory infiltrate within a variably myofibrotic background. Current evidence shows that inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors are neoplastic processes resulting from chromosomal translocations that often cause an overexpression of ALK kinase, which is often assessed using immunohistochemical studies. Currently, the biological behavior of oral inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is still uncertain. This article describes the clinical, histological, and operative features of a case of IMT of the oral cavity

Tax Reform in Kenya: Policy and Administrative Issues

Kenya's tax system has undergone more or less continual reform over the last twenty years. On the policy side, rate schedules have been rationalized and simplified, a new value-added tax introduced, and external tariffs brought in line with those of neighboring countries in East Africa. At the same time, administrative and institutional reforms have taken place. Kenya has the trappings of a modern tax system, including, for example, a credit-invoice VAT, a PAYE individual income tax with graduated but arguably moderate rates, and a set of excise taxes focused on the usual suspects (alcohol, cigarettes, gasoline, etc.). However, with up to 70 percent of GDP produced and possibly as much as 75 percent of labor employed in the informal sector, the ability of the tax system to raise sufficient revenue with minimal distortions is severely circumscribed. In such an environment, raising around one-fifth of GDP in tax revenue is likely to impose very large distortionary costs on the economy. Continued reform of both the policy instruments and the administrative and enforcement capacity of the tax system is therefore imperative. The aim of this paper is to provide a broad overview of the Kenyan tax system, the reforms that have occurred over the past two decades, and the administrative structures in place. To properly assess the distortionary costs of the current tax system, we intend to undertake micro-econometric analysis of the effects of the tax reforms pursued by the government, using individual-level tax return data when available. We discuss the proposed methodology for this subsequent research in the conclusion to this paper

Supraphysiological doses of performance enhancing anabolic-androgenic steroids exert direct toxic effects on neuron-like cells

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are lipophilic hormones often taken in excessive quantities by athletes and bodybuilders to enhance performance and increase muscle mass. AAS exert well known toxic effects on specific cell and tissue types and organ systems. The attention that androgen abuse has received lately should be used as an opportunity to educate both athletes and the general population regarding their adverse effects. Among numerous commercially available steroid hormones, very few have been specifically tested for direct neurotoxicity. We evaluated the effects of supraphysiological doses of methandienone and 17-α-methyltestosterone on sympathetic-like neuron cells. Vitality and apoptotic effects were analyzed, and immunofluorescence staining and western blot performed. In this study, we demonstrate that exposure of supraphysiological doses of methandienone and 17-α-methyltestosterone are toxic to the neuron-like differentiated pheochromocytoma cell line PC12, as confirmed by toxicity on neurite networks responding to nerve growth factor and the modulation of the survival and apoptosis-related proteins ERK, caspase-3, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase and heat-shock protein 90. We observe, in contrast to some previous reports but in accordance with others, expression of the androgen receptor (AR) in neuron-like cells, which when inhibited mitigated the toxic effects of AAS tested, suggesting that the AR could be binding these steroid hormones to induce genomic effects. We also note elevated transcription of neuritin in treated cells, a neurotropic factor likely expressed in an attempt to resist neurotoxicity. Taken together, these results demonstrate that supraphysiological exposure to the AAS methandienone and 17-α-methyltestosterone exert neurotoxic effects by an increase in the activity of the intrinsic apoptotic pathway and alterations in neurite networks

Plexin-B1 Activates NF-κB and IL-8 to Promote a Pro-Angiogenic Response in Endothelial Cells

The semaphorins and their receptors, the plexins, are proteins related to c-Met and the scatter factors that have been implicated in an expanding signal transduction network involving co-receptors, RhoA and Ras activation and deactivation, and phosphorylation events. Our previous work has demonstrated that Semaphorin 4D (Sema4D) acts through its receptor, Plexin-B1, on endothelial cells to promote angiogenesis in a RhoA and Akt-dependent manner. Since NF-\u3baB has been linked to promotion of angiogenesis and can be activated by Akt in some contexts, we wanted to examine NF-\u3baB in Sema4D treated cells to determine if there was biological significance for the pro-angiogenic phenotype observed in endothelium. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using RNA interference techniques, gel shifts and NF-\u3baB reporter assays, we demonstrated NF-\u3baB translocation to the nucleus in Sema4D treated endothelial cells occurring downstream of Plexin-B1. This response was necessary for endothelial cell migration and capillary tube formation and protected endothelial cells against apoptosis as well, but had no effect on cell proliferation. We dissected Plexin-B1 signaling with chimeric receptor constructs and discovered that the ability to activate NF-\u3baB was dependent upon Plexin-B1 acting through Rho and Akt, but did not involve its role as a Ras inhibitor. Indeed, inhibition of Rho by C3 toxin and Akt by LY294002 blocked Sema4D-mediated endothelial cell migration and tubulogenesis. We also observed that Sema4D treatment of endothelial cells induced production of the NF-\u3baB downstream target IL-8, a response necessary for angiogenesis. Finally, we could show through co-immunofluorescence for p65 and CD31 that Sema4D produced by tumor xenografts in nude mice activated NF-\u3baB in vessels of the tumor stroma. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: These findings provide evidence that Sema4D/Plexin-B1-mediated NF-\u3baB activation and IL-8 production is critical in the generation a pro-angiogenic phenotype in endothelial cells and suggests a new therapeutic target for the anti-angiogenic treatment of some cancer