567 MJA 196 (9) · 21 May 2012 Clinical pathways and guidelines: a plea for professional independence TO THE EDITOR: Clinical pathways and guidelines are the inevitable consequence of evidence-based medicine and, in general, have been a force for good in terms of patient care. However, the experiences of Nanan et al1 and Dietz and Stokes,2 and my own experience of working with countless exasperated colleagues in clinical practice, suggest that the pendulum may have swung too far towards uniformity of care. The uniformity promoted by clinical pathways and guidelines is an attempt to counter the truism that variation is the enemy of quality. However, all health care professionals need to appreciate the importance of two key concepts in medicine — one old and one modern. The first is the value of gnosis, the Greek philosophical term for knowledge gained through experience, such as in clinical practice. The second is the modern definition of evidence-based medicine, which is the integration of the best research evidence with clinical expertise and patient values.3 The problem with evidence-based medicine is that too often the emphasis is on the evidence rather than the clinical expertise or the patient's unique perspective. As an antidote, I propose paraphrasing the words of Sir Douglas Bader4 as a foreword for every guideline or clinical pathway document: "Guidelines are for the guidance of the wise and the blind obedience of fools".


FOREWORD In Argentina three things are better than in The Netherlands. The weather, the meat and of course the genuine Argentine invention: the tango. Mediation is not an Argentine invention at all, just like in the Netherlands mediation came from other parts of the world. In both countries, mediation has been developed considerably over the last decade. In 2006 Argentina counts with more legislation with respect to mediation than the Netherlands. Is Argentine mediation 'better' than mediation in The Netherlands? It is not the purpose of this small investigation to rank one country above the other. In both countries, access to mediation for many purposes has been opened up through legislation and private initiatives. Both countries have experience with court-connected mediation. A big difference between Argentina and the Netherlands is the existence of obligatory pre-trial mediation in Argentina. Legislation regarding mandatory pre-trial mediation came into force already 10 years ago and this has really boosted the development of the practice in Argentina. There are many experienced mediators in the country. Some of those experienced mediators have taken the initiative to also introduce mediation into the penal area. When we look at penal mediation, the situation also is different in both countries. In Argentina initiatives to implement penal mediation both through legislation and through projects on a voluntary basis have in some provinces already been taken years ago. Penal mediation counts with more structural experience in Argentina, while in the Netherlands the focus shifted to other restorative practices than mediation. The Dutch have carried out several interesting experiments concerning mediation in penal matters but those did not lead to incorporate mediation in the penal system. Legislation that incorporates mediation in the penal system has yet to be designed. The Argentines have been able to construct a more solid practice over the last decade and I have been lucky to be able to have a close look in the kitchen, both in the Capital of Buenos Aires and in the Province of Buenos Aires. With this paper, I explored the differences in theory and practice of penal mediation between the two countries and the backgrounds of these differences as far as I could detect them. And I planned to identify good practices in Argentina that might be of interest to enhance penal mediation in The Netherlands. That is why in the seventh chapter of this paper I have put the Argentine Practices …


The electromagnetic properties of glass-coated amorphous microwires, FeCoMnSiB, were studied in the mi-crowave frequency range. The phase structures of as-prepared and annealing microwires were investigated by X-ray diffrac-tion. The result shows that as-prepared Fe-based microwires consist of both nanocrystals and amorphous structure. The structure and electromagnetic properties of the microwires were changed after annealing at 465—550 ℃ during 1 h. Coax-ial composite samples were prepared by randomly dispersing short microwires, including as-prepared and being annealed at different temperatures, to paraffin wax. The complex permittivity and permeability of composites were investigated by co-axial line method with vector network analyzer in the frequency range of 2.—18.GHz. In addition, the reflection absorption of monolayer coating with different thicknesses was calculated. The minimum reflectivity of coating made of as-prepared Fe-based nanocrystals microwires was close to -30 dB. After samples annealed at 490 ℃, the reflectivity curves of coating with different thicknesses appear more than one absorption peak. And the peak values of curves are all lower than -10 dB. The range of useful frequency is wider than that of the as-prepared microwires. The results show that glass-coated Fe-based microwires are electromagnetic loss materials and exhibit excellent microwave absorption performance.


Objective To evaluate the rat brain pharmacokinetics of tetramethylpyrazine phosphate (TMPP) after intranasal administration.Methods The pharmacokinetic behavior of TMPP in rat brain was investigated after intranasal or intravenous administration (10mg·kg-1) of TMPP.Brain samples were collected by intracerebral microdialysis.The concentration of TMPP in the sample was measured by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).Main pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated and analyzed by Das 2.0 pharmacokinetic software.Results The results showed that two administration methods were all fitted to one compartment model.The absorption of TMPP from the nasal cavity to brain was rapid.The concentration-time curve showed a prolonged duration of TMPP concentration in the brain after intranasal administration.AUC0-∞values were (698.26±122.59)μg·min·mL-1 in intranasal group and (446.25±107.44)μg·min·mL-1 in intravenous group,and the difference was significant between the two groups (P 0.05).Cmax was (8.99±2.51)μg·mL-1 and (9.03±2.08)μg·mL-1,Tmax was (10.17±3.49)min and (9.86±2.94)min respectively,in intranasal group and intravenous group,respectively,and the difference was insignificant.Conclusion Intranasal administration of TMPP may be a promising alternative to traditional administration routes.


We propose a compositional Bayesian semantics that interprets declarative sentences in a natural language by assigning them probability conditions. These are conditional probabilities that estimate the likelihood that a competent speaker would endorse an assertion, given certain hypotheses. Our semantics is implemented in a functional programming language. It estimates the marginal probability of a sentence through Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling of objects in vector space models satisfying specified hypotheses. We apply our semantics to examples with several predicates and generalised quantifiers, including higher-order quantifiers. It captures the vagueness of predication (both gradable and non-gradable), without positing a precise boundary for classifier application. We present a basic account of semantic learning based on our semantic system. We compare our proposal to other current theories of probabilistic semantics, and we show that it offers several important advantages over these accounts.


Water quality monitoring and evaluation of water sample from sediment-laden stream has been paid more attention ever since.Water samples sediment-laden of flood and non-flood period collected from Lin-tong hydrometric station of the Weihe River were respectively analyzed under different conservation and pretreatment methods.The results showed that: COD,TN and TP concentration in raw water was evidently getting higher along with the increase of sediment concentration,while which was with slight going down along with the increase of sediment concentration in clarified water and filtered water.Conservation methods had big effects on raw water,and the effect was getting higher along with the increase of sediment concentration.Conservation methods had a small effect on clarified water and filtered water,and the effect was with slight going down along with the increase of sediment concentration.The monitoring value of raw water can be used to calculate the total quantity of all pollutants and non-point source pollution(NSP) load.The monitoring value in clarified water can be used to judge water quality and estimate effective total quantity of pollutants and NSP load.The monitoring value in filtered water can be used to estimate total dissolved pollutants quantity and evaluate its water quality.Finally,total quantity of pollutants and NSP load of every flood were estimated.


This research focuses on the possibility of using hydrated lime as an agent to enhance the properties of sabkha soil, such as maximum dry density, optimum water content, liquid limit, plasticity index, maximum strength, and compressibility. A series of laboratory tests was conducted on selected soil treated with 0, 3, 6, 9 and 12 % of lime by weight of dry sabkha soil. It was found that the addition of lime to a soil generally results in a reduction of moisture content with reference to compaction and strength, and it leads to an improvement in unconfined compressive strength by the percentage of lime added when compared to the untreated mix. It was found that the addition of the lime to a soil generally results in different decreases in settlement and to different increases in maximum dry density and strength. It was observed that values for consolidation tests indicate that a minimal reduction in void ratio points to failure or collapse not being produced as expected. However, the reduction in void ratio, regardless of its amount, increases with an increase of sustained pressure, and it can be concluded that the sabkha soil possesses low compressibility despite its high salt content. Moreover, the concern of failure upon the coverage of a sabkha area by water, rather than the compressibility of sabkha, must be of main consideration in road construction. Therefore, anticipation of the need for water drainage is necessary to avoid such failure.


By cyclic voltammetry working principle,through L9(34) orthogonal experimental design,ionic liquid types,gas phase silica content,ionic liquid dosage multiple factors were studied on colloid battery recycling volt-ampere response analysis,and ideal formulation parameters were determined to make higher efficient on the later stage of the experiment.Test results showed that the various factors on colloid battery CV response the influence degree were as follows: the ionic liquid dosagecontent of gas phase silicaionic liquids species.The best formula condition was to join 4 mL BMIMHSO4 in to 4% gas phase silica.


Red thread, caused by [ Laetisaria fuciformis (Berk.) Burds.], is a common disease on many cool-season and some warm-season grasses throughout the world. Low reproducibility of experiments under both natural and artificial infection and inadequate understanding of the underlying genetics have limited the selection of turfgrass for resistance to red thread. This study investigated red thread prevalence of tall fescue ( Festuca arundinacea Schreb.) populations in two locations over multiple years, estimated disease prevalence in a broad collection of tall fescue populations, and calcu-lated heritability of disease prevalence with two different experimental designs. Collections from Albania and Romania, as well as those that were recently backcrossed to adapted germplasm, were more susceptible to red thread compared with the rest of the populations, highlighting the importance of selection efforts against red thread disease in tall fescue. Narrow-sense heritability (0.52, 0.74, and 0.48) estimated from different experimental designs were all in the range of moderate to high, indicating a large proportion of additive genetic variance


This article is about a start-up problem in scientific practice. Specifically, it is about the problem of justifying paleontological correlation—the practice of using fossils to establish time relations among fossiliferous rocks. Paleontological correlation was the key to assembling a geological timescale during the nineteenth century and remains an important practice in stratigraphic geology to this day. Yet contrary to philosophical expectations, this practice lacked a robust theoretical justification during the first half of the nineteenth century. This article examines what this lack of justification amounted to, as well as how the method of paleontological correlation was justified in practice.


Considering the fact that parameters in support vector machines(SVM) are usually decided by cross validation,a genetic support vector machines is presented in this paper,in which the parameters in SVM method are optimized by genetic algorithm,and then applied to boiler combustion state diagnosis based on flame image characteristics.The concentrations of the five characteristics dissolved in flame image are the inputs of SVM,the three states of the transformer are the outputs,thus the radial based kernel is selected,the optimized parameters are used,and the superiority of SVM in processing finite samples is fully brought into play.The test shows the proposed method can locate the optimum accurately in a wide range and the value can be used to diagnose boiler combustion state effectively.


This study was conducted in order to evaluate the effects of acid concentration and temperature of extraction on the glass transition temperature of gelatin extracted from the skin of emperor fish. Gelatin extraction yield increased with the increase of acetic acid concentration and temperature. The onset of glass transition temperature decreased with the increase of extraction temperature up to 50 o C and then remained nearly constant, indicating that structural breakdown reached its maximum at 50 o C. The decrease in glass transition was more pronounced at 0.01 N compared to the 0.1 and 1.0 N samples. The increase of acid concentration during extraction shifted the curve towards lower temperature indicating increasing concentration decreased the glass transition temperature. More plasticized samples were formed with the increase of acid concentration. Unfolding temperature decreased exponentially with the increase of extraction temperature. Similar to the glass transition, the curves of unfolding temperature also shifted to lower temperature, whereas the decrease was more pronounced in the case of higher (1.0 N) concentrated samples. The extraction concentration and temperature did not show significant effect on the onset solids melting temperature.


It is suggested that with the proper advising, a student desiring to obtain a BSET (Bachelor of Science in Engineering Technology) degree at NJIT (New Jersey Institute of Technology) could take most of the courses required by an engineering county college. The student may get an A.A.S. (Associate of Applied Science) degree at the county college in an program other than engineering technology. By completing a bridge program, the student would be eligible for admission in the BSET program at NJIT as a junior. The necessary courses in other county colleges offering them. The respective program coordinator at NJIT would coordinate the bridge program. Each county college could designate a program coordinator to advise and monitor the students' curriculum. This coordinator would also act as the liaison with the program coordinators at NJIT.<<ETX>>


TRADITION AND CHANGE IN THE MIDDLE SOLIMOE~. SOCIAL STRUCTURE h7-m TERRITORIAL CLAIMS The economy of the Middle SolimGes, in the Amazonas state is based on the production of cassava meal, the picking of Bracil nut and fishing. The tradifional society is eharacterized by the clientele relations beiween the riparian population and the tradespeople who hold the economic and political porver in the region. From the 1960's onwards, an increasing state participation is observed in the process of land occupation which is delined as a moving frontier. Unlike the other zones of Amazonia, this process results neither from a recent large migration movement nor from the building of hydroelectrie dams. On the contrary, one cari point out the entrepreneurial role of the State, the establishment of agro-industries and the general use of fhe land as a commodity. This situation led fo a disorganization of the traditional society and to the emergence of territorial claims lodged by groups of small riparian producers under the pressure of religious organisations and trade unions. KEY WORD~ : Frontier Transformations of the traditional societies St,at,e participation National development Clientele Brazil Amazonas State Middle Solimoes. G Le ciel est de cuivre Sans lueur aucune 0


The Paradox of Progress: Economic Change, Individual Enterprise, and Political Culture in Michigan, 1837-1878, By Martin J. Hershock. Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003. Pp. xvi, 324. Map. Cloth, $49.95.)Nothing seems as persistently unsatisfying as our explanations of what happened to the second party system during the decades leading up to the Civil War. When this reviewer was in graduate school, Paul Kleppner and Richard Jensen had just set us all straight with an ethno-cultural thesis that marked the triumph of popular voter prejudice over other salient variables. But since then Michael Holt, Joel Silbey, Ron Formisano, Bill Gienapp, and a host of others have served up "Yes, but . . ." replies, with the result that virtually every clarifying schematic collapses when viewed at closer range or from a different perspective. Even though we feared at the time that we would have to meet by name every county commissioner in antebellum Alabama, many of us embraced J. Mills Thornton's Bruegelesque mural of Politics and Power in a Slave Society: Alabama, 1800-1860 (1978) as the only safe approach. Following Tip O'Neil's famous quip-that all politics is local politics-historians have grown wary of anything but detailed, grounded narratives even though such stories generally fail to explain anything.It is in the Thornton tradition that Martin J. Hershock's The Paradox of Progress tries to portray Michigan politics as a game of mediation among economic interests and political ambitions that was never only about party. The game of politics always blended the contest to get power with the temptation to wield it in ways that appealed (pandered?) to voters and candidates on several levels at once. The challenge for historians is to find a way to frame and present that game so that its multiple dimensions interact freely and faithfully, using primary sources full of deceitful rhetoric deployed (at least in part) to make speakers seem to be what they were not.The state of Michigan came into being just as the Panic of 1837 ruined public internal improvement programs all over the Midwest, producing a crisis of confidence in government and the burgeoning market economy. The backlash resulted in constitutional "reforms" and painted incumbents of all persuasions with the stain of miserable failure. In Michigan the fallout was especially confusing, because it had been Jackson Democrats who promoted internal improvements, leaving normally pro-business, pro-corporation Whigs to denounce monopolists and the money power. Hershock rightly sees the market revolution as one fulcrum for political leverage, but nowhere else did politicians so torture their positions on the market, corporations, state power, and economic development as they did in this Michigan snakepit. …


(57) ABSTRACT An approach is provided for initiating generation of a media compilation based on one or more sampling criteria. A sam pling platform determines at least one Subset of one or more media items captured of at least one event. The sampling platform also partitions the at least one subset of the one or more media items into one or more bins and generates at least one compilation of the at least one Subset of the one or more items based, at least in part, on whether the one or more media items in the one or more bins at least Substantially meet one or more sampling criteria.


7172 Background: Neo-adjuvant chemotherapy can allow resection in patients with locally advanced NSCLC. From January 1999 to December 2002, 156 patients have been enrolled in a prospective study ai...


Public traveler information system always involves several subsystems,which are not only independent with each other but also interacting.Thus,the information interaction among these subsystems can provide the efficient public traveler information service.Presently,the data can not be transformed and inter-accessed between different subsystems in public traveler information system.This paper proposed a concept of demands identification template,and defined an XML-based demands identification template by analyzing the demands of traveler's information in China and information flow in public traveler information system.


Abstract Aims: Drawing on their engagement in a specific collective biography research project, the co-authors aim to demonstrate how the weaving together of creative story-telling and the theory underlining collective biography practices resulted in an understanding of rhizomatic research methodologies from within the process. This paper aims to demonstrate one way in which research methodologies training can become more firmly embedded within counsellor training courses. Method: A collective of counselling students and a session tutor colleague used collective biography practices to research their memories of traversing the liminal space between 'counsellor' and 'counselling researcher'. Alongside the resulting collective stories, a collaborative review of the research process examined our chosen ways of working within the project. Outcomes: Engaging in collective biography practices resulted in an experiential shift from 'learning to do counselling research' to 'becoming counselling researchers'. Weavi...


A hyperbolic transcendental entire function with connected Fatou set is said to be "of disjoint type". It is known that a disjoint-type function provides a model for the dynamics near infinity of all maps in the same parameter space; hence a good understanding of these functions has implications in wider generality.
Our goal is to study the topological properties of the Julia sets of entire functions of disjoint type. In particular, we give a detailed description of the topology of their connected components. More precisely, consider a "Julia continuum" C of such a function, i.e. the closure in the Riemann sphere of a component of the Julia set. We show that infinity is a terminal point of C, and that C has span zero in the sense of Lelek; under a mild geometric assumption on the function C is arc-like. (Whether every span zero continuum is also arc-like was a famous question in continuum theory, only recently resolved in the negative.) Conversely, we construct a single disjoint-type entire function with the remarkable property that each arc-like continuum with at least one terminal point is realised as a Julia continuum. The class of arc-like continua with terminal points is uncountable. It includes, in particular, the sin(1/x)-curve, the Knaster buckethandle and the pseudo-arc, so these can all occur as Julia continua of a disjoint-type entire function.
We give similar descriptions of the possible topology of Julia continua that contain periodic points or points with bounded orbits, and answer a question of Bara\'nski and Karpi\'nska by showing that Julia continua need not contain points that are accessible from the Fatou set. Furthermore, we construct an entire function whose Julia set has connected components on which the iterates tend to infinity pointwise, but not uniformly. This is related to a famous conjecture of Eremenko concerning escaping sets of entire functions.


In Dutch dialects, verbs and complementizers can bear different morphological affixes depending on which nominal element they agree with in their local syntactic domain. For instance, in a dialect such as tegelen Dutch, the complementizer agrees with the first conjunct of a coordinated subject, while in Lapscheure Dutch, the complementizer agrees with the coordinated subject as a whole.
Using a vast array of new data on complementizer agreement, first conjunct agreement, agreement with pronouns, verbal agreement and subject doubling in Dutch dialects, this study argues that the interplay between syntax and morphology is more intricate than has hitherto been assumed. More precisely, it is shown that the syntactic component determines which local nominal elements qualify for agreement with the verb or complementizer, depending on the specificity of the affix.
The analysis is extended to similar syntactic contexts in typologically different languages such as Irish, Hebrew, Finnish, Tsez and Arabic.


The technique of multisensor information fusion is getting more and more interests.The technique is used in the field of pattern recognition and will be applied widely.It sees the fusion of classification information in decision level as the second decision process of the first classifying outputs.And then the classical pattern classification method is used in this framework.The traffic sign shape recognition experiment shows that the approach not only gets the result of classical fusion approcach in decision level,but also can be applied in those situations that can't use classical fusion approach.


Objective To provide the evidence of controlling the fluorosis epidemic situation in Xingtai of Hebei province,an oral health survey on fluorosis was carried out. Methods Multistage,stratified,clustered and random sampling method was used for the study.Four hundred and sixteen inhabitants were selected and examined by using the(Dean's) fluorosis index(DI).The individuals examined included 149,131 and 136 aged 12,15,and 35-44 years old,respectively.Tooth Surface Index of Fluorosis(TSIF) was used in 178 filtered samples.SPSS10.0 software was used for data analysis. Results The prevalence of fluorosis in the fluorosis epidemic areas of Xingtai of Hebei province was(71.20%),which were mainly mild ((20%)) and moderate((34%)) cases.Community Fluorosis Index(CFI) for the examined population was(1.77),implying that the degree of fluorosis prevalence in the community was moderate.The average TSIF value of upper anterior teeth were 3.48,2.28 and 0.86 for the 12,15 and 35~44 years old groups,respectively.The difference among the groups had statistical significance. Conclusion The severe fluorosis epidemic was found in Xingtai of Hebei Province.Public health measures should be carried out urgently to control the conditions and to prevent the problems.


Expanding human hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in vitro is a major goal in clinical hematology but remains a major challenge due to the potent differentiating activity of known cytokines. We recently demonstrated that a NUP98-HOX fusion gene containing only the homeodomain (hd) of HOXA10 ( NUP98-HOXA10hd ) is a powerful stimulator of murine HSC expansion in vitro - causing >1000-fold net HSC increases in 10 days (Sekulovic et al, ISEH 2005). To investigate the proliferative effect of NUP98-HOXA10hd on primitive human hematopoietic cells, highly enriched CD34 + cord blood cells were prestimulated overnight and exposed to self-inactivating MNDUS NUP98-HOXA10hd pgkGFP or control pgkGFP lentiviruses for 6h. The gene transfer efficiency into CD34 + cells determined 4 days after infection was 56 ± 5% for NUP98-HOXA10hd and 66 ± 5% for the GFP control. GFP + cells were sorted on day 5 and then maintained for another 5 days in serum-free cultures containing Flt3-ligand, Steel factor, IL-3, IL-6 and G-CSF. An aliquot of each was then plated into "primary" colony-forming cell (CFC) assay cultures. No difference was detected in either the numbers or the types of colonies generated in these primary CFC assays of the 10-day cultured cells from the NUP98-HOXA10hd and control arms. However, when these primary CFC assays were replated into secondary CFC assays, the number of colonies obtained from the NUP98-HOXA10hd -transduced cells was 5-fold higher as compared to the GFP-control transduced cells and, upon replating into tertiary CFC assays, this difference increased to over a 100-fold. To determine the effect of NUP98-HOXA10hd on more primitive hematopoietic cells, 10 4 day-10 GFP + cells were co-cultured on mouse fibroblast feeders engineered to produce human SF, IL-3 and G-SCF. At the end of 6 weeks, 13-fold more cells were recovered from the cultures initiated with NUP98-HOXA10hd -transduced cells than from the control cultures (474,000 ± 190,000 vs 37,000 ± 16,000, 3 experiments). CFC outputs were also greatly enhanced (21-fold more CFC than in the controls cultures, range=20–80, 3 experiments). Moreover, the proportion of progenitors in the assays of the cultures initiated with NUP98-HOXA10hd cells that were multi-lineage (CFU-GEMM) was >10-fold higher as compared to the CFCs obtained from the control cultures (8 ± 3% vs 0.7 ± 0.7%). When this experiment was repeated using limiting dilutions of initial day-10 cells, the frequency of NUP98-HOXA10hd -transduced cells able to generate CFCs another 6 weeks later was 10-fold higher as compared to the day-10 GFP control-transduced cells. These findings document an unprecedented potency of NUP98-HOXA10hd for stimulating the ex-vivo expansion of very primitive pluripotent human hematopoietic cells.


Due to their unique physical and chemical properties, vanadium oxide thin films have become a hot research topic. In the present work, Vanadium oxide thin films were prepared by DC reactive magnetron sputtering at different oxygen partial pressure and thermally annealed in Ar atmosphere at 500°C for 2 hours. The microstructure, transmittance, optical band gap, resistivity, and temperature coefficient resistance (TCR) were measured. The results suggest that increasing of oxygen partial pressure can obviously improve the optical and electric properties


Lin28A and its paralog Lin28B are RNA binding proteins expressed in stem and progenitor cells, regulating the balance between their proliferation and differentiation. In‐vivo and in‐vitro experiments have shown that overexpression of these genes leads to abnormal cell proliferation, which results in many cases in cell transformation and tumor formation.


Complexes of titanium(IV) with bulky phenolic ligands such as 2-tert-butyl-4 methylphenol, 2, 4-di-tert-butyl phenol and 3,5-di-tert-butyl phenol were prepared and characterized. These catalyst precursors, formulated as [Ti(OPh*)n(OPri)4−n] (OPh* = substituted phenol), were found to be active in polymerization of ethylene at higher temperatures in combination with ethylaluminum sesquichloride (Et3Al2Cl3) as co-catalyst. It was observed that the reaction temperature and ethylene pressure had a pronounced effect on polymerization and the molecular weight of polyethylene obtained. In addition, this catalytic system predominantly produced linear, crystalline ultra-low-molecular-weight polyethylenes narrow dispersities. The polyethylene waxes obtained with this catalytic system exhibit unique properties that have potential applications in surface coating and adhesive formulations. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Congenital erythropoietic porphyria is a rare autosomal recessive disease due to the deficient activity of uroporphyrinogen III synthase, the fourth enzyme in the porphyrin-heme synthetic pathway. Of the porphyrias, it is the most mutilating type, usually presenting early in life. We present a patient who developed skin fragility of sun-exposed skin and red urine at the age of 72 years. Porphyrin profile showed plasma maximum fluorescence at neutral pH of 617 nm. In plasma, urine and erythrocytes, the predominant porphyrins were uroporphyrin and coproporphyrin. In all specimens, isomer I predominated. Urine δ-aminolevulinic acid and porphobilinogen, and erythrocyte uroporphyrinogen decarboxylase levels were within nomal limits. These finding were consistent with congenital erythropoietic porphyria. Thrombocytopenia and myelodysplasia with bone-marrow sideroblasts were also incidentally discovered. Including our patient, only 12 cases of late onset congenital erythropoietic porphyria have been reported worldwide, with our patient being the oldest. Patients who develop late onset congenital erythropoietic porphyria develop less severe manifestations, possibly due to heterogeneous mutations in the defective enzyme. Of the 12 reported cases, seven had thrombocytopenia, six of which also had myelodysplasia.


This paper aims to demonstrate the use of simulations in the process of improving production processes. With the help of simulations, it is possible to test the efficiency of production in the virtual world, various variants of simulations. The advantage of simulations is the fact that it is possible to make simple and especially cost-effective changes to the production process and thus make it more efficient to the required level. 3D modeling of production halls is already an integral part of improvement. At the same time, this article points out that PLM positively affects the improvement process itself. The final simulation is aimed at improving the production process.


One of the intellectual heritages of Islam in Java pre modernism. That deserve gets appreciation is the work of shaykh Muhammad  ibn Salih al-Samarani Umar , who among Kyai (clerics) in Java is know as "Saleh Kyai Darat". Tafsir Faid  al- Rahman fi Tarjamah Kalam Malik Dayyan is a monumental work has ever written by him, this Tafseer (interpretation) is not complete 30 Juz, it's just till the Tafseer (interpretation) of the letter al-nisa, consists of two large volumes of 705 pages thick, Both were printed by the publicher of al-Muhammadiyah, Singapore between the years 1309-1312 H. There are two important notes that need further explored related to the interpretation of the Faid al-Rahman. First, this Tafseer book was specifically written by Kyai Soleh Darat met/fulfill the demands of RA. Kartini, Second, this book had given by Kyai Saleh Darat to RA. Kartini as a gift/gists upon her marriage with RM. Joyodiningrat, who is a Regent of Rembang at the time.


Sanibel and Captiva Islands, two of the barrier islands off the lower west coast of Florida, have a resident population of about 6,000 and an additional 6,000 visitors during the peak of the tourist season. Rapid growth and extensive development in recent years have imposed progressively greater stress on the water resources of the islands. Sanibel and Captiva Islands are underlain by a series of geologic formations containing some zones of relatively freshwater and other zones of more mineralized, or even very saline water. Two aquifers are the principal sources of water supply on the islands. The upper aquifer is in the upper part of the Hawthorn Formation. The lower aquifer is in the lower part of the Hawthorn Formation and the underlying upper part of the Tampa Limestone. Both aquifers are under sufficient artesian pressure to permit wells to flow at land surface. The potentiometric surface of the lower Hawthorn-upper Tampa aquifer has been lowered in the central part of Sanibel Island where the Island Water Association operates about 10 wells that tap the lower aquifer. In 1977, the average pumpage from these 10 wells was 1.4 million gallons per day. The water is processed through a desalination plant before distribution. In 1977, the total volume of water withdrawn from both the lower and upper aquifers for all purposes was 690 million gallons, an average of about 1.9 million gallons per day. Water from the upper Hawthorn aquifer during the period 1975-77 contained dissolved solids concentrations ranging from 721 to 2,390 milligrams per liter. Water from the lower Hawthorn-upper Tampa aquifer during the same period contained concentrations ranging from 1,700 to 4,130 milligrams per liter. Water from both aquifers is hard and contains relatively high concentrations of sodium, sulfate, and chloride. INTRODUCTION Sanibel and Captiva Islands form part of the barrier island chain off the lower west coast of Lee County, Florida (fig. 1). Both islands are resort areas and have a resident population of 6,000 and an additional 6,000 people during the peak of the tourist season (Sanibel Planning Council, 1977, written commun.). Rapid growth and extensive development in decent years have imposed progressively greater stress on the land and water resources of the islands. H 0 0 C o P H c r n > r t H C o P c x Historically, fresh ground water on Sanibel and Captiva Islands has been obtained from shallow wells, generally less than 15 feet deep. These wells provide only small supplies and frequently yield brackish or saline water during the dry season. A pipeline was constructed in 1966 which transports water purchased from the Greater Pine Island Water Association well field and treatment plant on the mainland to provide a dependable water supply to the islands. This pipeline extends beneath San Carlos Bay from St. James City to the northern end of Sanibel Island. The water-supply system on Sanibel and Captiva Islands at that time (1966) consisted of pumping stations and water distribution lines. Beginning in 1973, a number of deep (about 300 to 900 feet) artesian wells were drilled for public supply. The saline water from these wells (Boggess, 1974a, fig. 4) is processed by electrodialysis for domestic use. The pipeline and the desalination plant provided sufficient water for most needs, but recent increased demand has resulted in increased importation of water from the mainland. Purpose and Scope During the time that the desalination plant has been in operation, questions have been raised by water-management agencies concerning the ability of the deep artesian aquifers underlying Sanibel and Captiva Islands to continue supplying the water needed to meet the increasing demand with a salinity low enough for the desalination plant to operate effectively. The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the watersupply potential of the deeper aquifers. During the 24-month investigation, October 1975-77, an important objective was to locate and inventory all existing wells that tapped the deep artesian aquifers. Except for a few, all known wells were found. Water levels and water samples were obtained at the wells. No test wells were drilled as part of this investigation, although one observation well was drilled on Sanibel Island as part of a countywide monitoring network. The data included in this report will provide a better understanding of the water quality of the deep aquifers underlying these offshore islands for the effective development of the water resources. Acknowledgments The authors gratefully acknowledge the cooperation and assistance of the residents of Sanibel and Captiva Islands in providing data included in this report. All well owners, including the Island Water Association of Sanibel, freely permitted access to their wells so that water-level data and water samples could be obtained. The cooperation and support of officials of the city of Sanibel and the Board of County Commissioners are also gratefully acknowledged. Well-Numbering System All wells listed in this report or for which data are cited are numbered as part of a countywide system. The wells were numbered in sequence as each well or test hole was inventoried. The locations of wells and test holes on which information was obtained during the investigation are shown in figure 2. GEOLOGY The surficial deposits on Sanibel and Captiva Islands are Holocene and Pleistocene in age and include sand, shells, clay, and limestone generally less than 120 feet thick. Below these deposits is the Tamiami Formation of Pliocene age which consists chiefly of gray and green clay and sandy clay. Thin beds of sandstone, sand, or limestone occur locally in the Tamiami, and phosphorite is a common accessory mineral. Thickness of the Tamiami ranges from about 200 feet beneath central Sanibel Island to less than 100 feet beneath other parts of the islands. The Hawthorn Formation and Tampa Limestone of Miocene age successively underlie the Tamiami Formation and range in thickness from about 300 feet beneath central Sanibel Island to about 400 feet beneath other parts of the islands. Both formations consist predominantly of gray and gray-white phosphatic limestone with interbedded marl or calcareous clay. Phosphorite is abundant with major concentrations in the lower part of the Hawthorn Formation. Below the Tampa Limestone, the Suwannee Limestone is usually penetrated 600 to 700 feet below land surface. This formation consists predominantly of tan limestone. The Suwannee Limstone may extend to 1,100 feet or more beneath Sanibel Island. The sequence of geologic units and water-bearing units are shown in figure 3 with lithologic and gamma-ray logs of well 2524 on the southwest shore of Sanibel. The gamma-ray activity of the phosphorite is high because it contains a minute quantity of uranium (Altschuler and others, 1958). The gamma-ray peaks in the lower part of the Hawthorn have been assigned numbers (4E, 5C, and 5D) and are used as markers for correlation purposes. They have been identified in nearly all the test holes and wells on Sanibel and Captiva Islands for which gamma-ray logs have been obtained. On the basis of gamma-ray correlation, the lithology is fairly consistent (fig. 4). The geologic section (fig. 4) is constructed from data of four test wells along an east-trending line across Sanibel Island (fig. 2). Comparable beds penetrated at greater depth in well 1704 than in well 2401 may indicate that some vertical displacement has occurred (fig. 4). For example, the gray-white, phosphatic limestone (which marks the top of the Hawthorn Formation) occurs at a depth of about 200 feet in well 2401, and at a depth of 350 feet in well 1704. These wells are 1.7 miles apart, so that the intevening slope of the top of the phosphatic limestone is about 90 ft/mi. Although the top of the limestone is an erosional surface, the beds lying at greater depths have similar slopes. Displacement of beds by folding is possible in this general area. Missimer and Gardner (1976)


Soil is a critical natural resource that inherently changes through time. This change is affected by a variety of natural and anthropogenic factors and their combined impacts. To preserve the soil and protect it, it is necessary to predict the consequences of human activities and global change on soil evolution. This can be achieved using soil evolution modelling. However, only a model that includes a large coverage of physical, chemical and biological processes, that considers feedback mechanisms between soil and soil forming factors, that has a detail description of flow of water, and that accounts for human activities on land (land use, agricultural practices) would be suitable for projection purposes. However, the evolution of key soil characteristics such as organic carbon (OC), are often simulated by models focusing on that specific soil characteristic and the sole soil processes acting on it.
In this study, we first tested the sensitivity to variation of climate, land use and agricultural practices, of a model that includes the maximum process coverage (SoilGen2.24). We demonstrated the sensitivity of this model to those forcing factors and identified three of its main limitations, namely some over-simplified processes, some missing processes and a simplifying assumption of constant soil volume. We conclude that to overcome these limitations a modular structure is fundamental.
To overcome part of these limitations, we thus 1) built up the first fully modular soil evolution model, OC-VGEN, by using the process definitions of SoilGen2.24 model in a flexible environment, i.e. a modelling platform, VSoil; 2) tested different formalisms for some of the key processes responsible for the OC depth distribution, namely the root depth distribution, bioturbation and the depth evolution of the OC decomposition rate; 3) proposed a first, semi-mechanistic approach to account for soil volume change in a short to medium time scale soil evolution modelling. This latter is still a challenge for most of the soil evolution models.
OC-VGEN was used to reproduce and project the depth distribution of OC at a century time scale for Luvisols having experienced different histories of land use and tillage. We demonstrated that, at this time scale, 1) the impact of feedback processes on OC depth distribution are not negligible; 2) land use and tillage, beside their direct impact on the input of organic matter to soil, influence the internal feedbacks (e.g. soil moisture and temperature) leading to an indirect impact on OC dynamics; 3) when projecting soil evolution, the lack of knowledge on the process definition has a larger influence on the projected trajectories than uncertainties on climate or land use scenarios.
This work demonstrated the necessity of 1) a pedogenetic model when estimating soil response to forcing factors such as climate, land use and agricultural practices at the century scale; 2) a better definition and calibration of some still insufficiently known soil processes.
Saying that, OC-VGEN can be set as a corner stone for the future of soil evolution modelling.


By incorporating the lipid-heme in the polymerized liposome, conc. and mechanically stable heme solution ([heme] = 10 mM) was prepared; this solution (100 ml) could bind molecular oxygen (ca. 23 ml) reversibly under physiological conditions even in a high speed flowing system.


Southernmost South America including Tierra del Fuego and its adjacent islands form the only significant land masses within the mid-latitude Westerlies of the Southern Hemisphere. Since climate variability in the Southern Hemisphere and its impacts are still insufficiently understood, it is essential to improve our understanding of climate impacts and resulting ecological and glacier responses in the region. The Conference and Workshop "Climate Impacts on Glaciers and Biosphere in Fuego-Patagonia1" in Berlin, Germany, 14–19 July 2017, explored these topics and resulted in the current Frontiers Research Topic. The activities were initiated and linked to the joint research project "Responses of Glaciers, Biosphere and Hydrology to Climate Variability and Climate Change across the Southern Andes" (GABY-VASA) by University of Magallanes and the Instituto Antártico Chileno, both in Punta Arenas, Chile, and the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nuremberg and RWTH Aachen University in Germany on dendroclimatology, climatology and glaciology in Southern Patagonia and the Cordillera Darwin, jointly funded by the Chilean Comisión Nacional de Investigación Científica y Tecnológica and the German Federal Ministry of Research and Education. The regional climate in Southernmost South America is heavily influenced by the proximity to the oceans. This generates rather weak seasonal cycles with cool to cold summers and moderate to cold winters, especially on the western Pacific side. Slightly more pronounced, continental seasonal cycles are observed in the East of the Andes. While annual mean air temperatures across the region are decreasing from North to South precipitation patterns show very pronounced east-west gradients. The distinctive gradients in precipitation are caused by the north-south striking mountain ranges of the Patagonian Andes, and the northwest-southeast stretching mountain chains of the Cordillera Darwin. Both mountain ranges enforce heavy precipitation on the west and southwest exposed flanks by uplift and dry foehn-like conditions on the leesides (e.g., Holmlund and Fuenzalida, 1995; Schneider et al., 2003; Rasmussen et al., 2007) which produces extremely high drying ratios (Escobar et al., 1992; Carrasco et al., 2002; Smith and Evans, 2007). At inter-annual to decadal time scales atmospheric teleconnections such as the El Niño Southern Oscillation (ENSO) (Schneider and Gies, 2004), Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) are influencing spatial and temporal patterns of both, precipitation and air temperature. For example, positive SAMmodes (Garreaud, 2009; Weidemann, Sauter, Kilian et al.) and the PDO (Villalba et al., 2003) are associated with higher air temperatures. Langhamer et al. show that the source of precipitation in the Southern Andes also depends on these teleconnections.


This work shows that TGFβ signaling is required for Twist1-induced EMT in immortalized human mammary cells. More precisely, in absence of TGFβ signaling, Twist1 fails to promote mesenchymal transdifferentiation, but instead gives rise to a cell population, which is able to collectively invade and proliferate in a 3D environment. By contrast, TGFβ is not required for the maintenance of the mesenchymal phenotype in breast cancer cell lines.


Abstract This paper investigates the volatility in regime-switching models formulated based on the geometric Brownian motion with its drift and volatility factors randomized with Markov chains. By developing explicit formulas about occupation time of Markov chains, we analysis the difference between global volatility of this model and the volatility caused by Brownian randomness, in order to measure the volatility caused by regime-switching after justifying its existence. Utilizing this structure of volatility, we optimize the methods of volatility parameters estimation.


Background Inhibitor development is the most severe complication of hemophilia A care, and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality.
 Aims The aim of this study was to use a novel epitope mapping method to explore the factor VIII (FVIII)-specific epitope profile in the SIPPET cohort population.
 Methods The population consisted of 122 previously untreated patients with severe hemophilia A that were followed-up for 50 days of exposure to FVIII. Sampling was performed before FVIII treatment and at the end of the follow-up. The outcome was inhibitor development. The FVIII-specific IgG epitope repertoire was assessed by means of a novel high-throughput epitope mapping technique using a random peptide phage-display library. Using this assay, a set of affinity-selected 12-mer peptide sequences (also called mimotopes) that were strongly bound by FVIII-specific antibodies were identified. These mimotopes were clustered on the basis of sequence similarity and a consensus motif was generated for each mimotope cluster. Discriminative performance of these mimotope clusters was assessed by ROC analysis. Mimotope clusters were mapped onto the 3D structure of a B-domain deleted FVIII model using a B-cell epitope prediction algorithm (Mapitope).
 Results The FVIII-specific antibody response is polyclonal with several mimotope clusters. The most predominant mimotope clusters in inhibitor patients were mapped to the heavy chain of the FVIII molecule. Using plasma samples taken before exposure to FVIII, three mimotopes (with the consensus motifs "QM", "PSLxWK" and "SWPHxxxxK") were identified that predicted inhibitor development (with an AUC of 0.76, 0.80 and 0.76 respectively).
 Conclusion Information on immunodominant epitope clusters can be used to generate novel, less immunogenic FVIII proteins and set up diagnostic tests that predict the risk of inhibitor development before starting treatment with FVIII.
 Figure 1 Figure 1.

 Palm: Protobios LLC: Current Employment, Patents & Royalties: Inventor of the patent application (PCT Application No. US/14079626) filed by Protobios that covers the use of phage display method to manipulate and monitor humoral immunity.. Palla: Pfizer: Other: Travel support; Kedrion: Other: Travel support; Novonordisk: Speakers Bureau. Peyvandi: Roche: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sanofi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Sobi: Consultancy, Honoraria; Takeda: Consultancy, Honoraria.


Lupus nephritis (LN) occurs in up to 60% of patients affected by Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE). The presence of inflammatory infiltrates in glomeruli and/or in tubulo-interstitium (TI) plays an important role in terms of prognosis (1). Ectopic lymphoid structures (ELSs) are clusters of organized lymphoid infiltrates forming at sites of chronic inflammation in non-lymphoid organs (2). Data on ELSs in kidneys of SLE patients are scant (3-5).The aim of the study was to evaluate the tubule-interstitial infiltrates (TI-I) organization and to investigate the presence of ELSs.Kidney sections of SLE patients undergoing a renal biopsy for diagnostic purpose were studied; LN was diagnosed according to the 2003 International Society of Nephrology / Renal Pathology Society classification criteria. Clinical, laboratory and histological data were collected in a standardized, computerized and electronically filled form, including past medical history. The presence of lymphoid aggregates and ELS in the kidney sections were firstly evaluated by hematoxylin-eosin (HE). By using immunohistochemistry (IHC), we characterized the infiltrates by identification of T cells (CD3), B cells (CD20) and follicular dendritic cells (CD21).By HE we evaluated 53 kidney samples from LN patients (F:M = 51:2, mean age at biopsy ± SD years 35±7.7; mean disease duration at date of biopsy ± SD 8±8.3 years). TI-I were found in 33 kidney specimens. By HE we identified a well-defined infiltrate pattern resembling ELS in 13 renal samples. In these samples, we confirmed the presence of organized infiltrates by IHC, with evidence of segregated T and B cells areas in most of them. In one sample, the CD21 staining was positive confirming the presence of ELS (Figure 1). Interestingly, this last patient, who failed ciclophosphamide and mycofenolate, responded to rituximab administration and is now in complete LN remission. Moreover TII was negatively correlated with renal remission after induction therapy (P=0.03) independent of the histological class and the induction treatment.Figure 1.Biopsy specimens showing tubulo-interstitial ELS by IHC (10x).Assessment and management of LN patients are greatly facilitated by information obtained by renal biopsy. In the present study the evaluation by HE of 53 kidney samples from patients with LN showed TI-I in 62% of the specimens and a well-defined infiltrate pattern with GC-like features in 39% of those specimens with TI-I, confirmed in IHC. The presence of TII was associated with a worse outcome in response to therapy. Our preliminary results obtained by IHC suggest that ELS could be considered as a biomarker of renal response to B-cell depleting therapy supporting the importance of TI disease.[1]Giannakakis K. & Faraggiana T. Histopathology of Lupus Nephritis. Clinic Rev Allerg Immunol 2011[2]Bombardieri M et al. Ectopic lymphoid neogenesis in rheumatic autoimmune diseases. Nat Rev Rheumatol 2017[3]Chang A et al. In situ B cell-mediated immune responses and tubulointerstitial inflammation in human lupus nephritis. J Immunol 2011[4]Shen Y et al. Association of intrarenal B-cell infiltrates with clinical outcome in lupus nephritis: a study of 192 cases. Clin Dev Immunol 2012[5]Neusser MA et al. Intrarenal production of B-cell survival factors in human lupus nephritis. Mod Pathol 2011viviana antonella pacucci: None declared, Francesca Romana Spinelli Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Speakers bureau: Lilly, BMS, Celgene, Konsantinos Giannakakis: None declared, Serena Colafrancesco: None declared, Simona Truglia: None declared, Fulvia Ceccarelli: None declared, Cristina Garufi: None declared, cristiano alessandri Grant/research support from: Pfizer, Fabrizio Conti Speakers bureau: BMS, Lilly, Abbvie, Pfizer, Sanofi


The pilot initiative is designed to make delivering and getting health care easier for patients and their physicians by reducing the time, effort, and expense for the paperwork required for each office visit.


A mist-net was used as a mobile unit to recapture radio-instrumented blue grouse (Dendragapus obscurus). Two men positioned the net, while a third flushed grouse toward it. Five female blue grouse and their entire broods, chicks of six other broods, one incubating and one broodless female, and one adult male ruffed grouse (Bonasa umbellus) were captured. The method enabled the recapture of specific, instrumented grouse. During 1966-67 forest grouse-pesticide studies in Montana, noose-poles (Zwickel and Bendell 1967) were effective to initially capture blue grouse for telemetry instrumentation. Additional methods became necessary to recapture specific, instrumented grouse for postspray examination and for transmitter retrieval or replacement. This paper describes the use of mist-nets to recapture instrumented grouse. R. Pillmore of the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service provided valuable advice and K. Sumanik, R. Wallestad, and N. Martin provided field assistance. MATERIALS AND METHODS A 4-ply, 4-inch mesh, black nylon net designed for ducks and large shore birds was employed. It has four shelves, measures 10 x 60 ft and is quite visible. The net was stretched between two telescoping fiberglass fishing poles that were hand held. The top and bottom shelf strings were secured to the tip and bottom section of the pole with adhesive tape. The loops on the other three shelf strings were slipped onto the poles but not secured. One man located the instrumented bird 1A contribution from Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Project No. W-91-R, Montana, and Research Contract 14-16-0008-713, with the Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U. S. Department of the Interior. by telemetry and then directed the other two men to position the net. Since blue grouse normally flush downhill, the net was positioned 10-30 yards below the grouse. Grouse were then approached from uphill until flushed. Grouse that moved prior to flushing required re-positioning of the net. Although several multiple catches were made, grouse were usually captured singly. Only 3 to 5 minutes were required to set up or take down the net which was wrapped around the collapsed poles when not in use. The mist-net was purchased from the Bleitz Wildlife Foundation, Hollywood, California, at a cost of $10.00. Telescoping fiberglass poles of 12-ft length are available at sporting goods and hardware stores at a cost of about $5.00 each.


The focus of research in memory psychophysics has moved from a preoccupation with magnitude scaling to studying response times and information processing. The need for integrating these research traditions is stressed. The idea that memory is sustained by images formed on the basis on the original sensations can be traced back to Plato and Aristotle. The same notion resonated with pioneers of psychophysics in the nineteenth century. Fechner's little read article from 1882 is titled, "Some thoughts on the psychophysical representations of memories." Tichener, in his 1906 classic, An outline of Psychology, held the strong view that memory obeys Weber's law. And, the work of both Wundt and Ebbinghaus is informed by the perceptual study of memory. Despite its roots in antiquity and at the birth of modern psychology, memory psychophysics, or mnemophysics (Algom & Marks, 1989) is a young field of inquiry. Juvenility notwithstanding, the field already boasts a somewhat convoluted history, as the center of interest has moved from valuation and scaling to modeling through information processing. Below I sketch this development, then pinpoint several problems awaiting resolution in future research. Memory Psychophysics through Scaling Memory psychophysics or mnemophysics (Algom & Marks, 1989) is the branch of psychophysics that treats the functional relationship between physical stimuli and their remembered sensory responses. It was 1978 that ushered in this conception of the discipline of memory psychophysics. Two independent studies were published in prestigious journals (Kerst & Howard, 1978; Moyer, Bradley, Sorensen, Whiting, & Mansfield, 1978) entailing the derivation of psychophysical functions for remembered stimuli. Moyer et al had participants magnitude estimate the size of various stimuli that were either presented physically (perceptual estimation) or represented symbolically by names that the participants had learned earlier to associate with the various stimuli (memorial estimation). Two experiments, one in odor (Algom & Cain, 1991) and another in taste (Algom & Marks, 1989) used the same methods to derive psychophysical functions for perception and memory for common sets of referent stimuli. In our experiments, a striking feature of each pair of functions was the excellent fit by a power relationship (all sets of data approximated straight lines in double logarithmic coordinates). Especially notable was the reappearance of the power function in memory, implying that remembered stimuli map onto physical values the same way – by the same mathematical rule – as perceived stimuli do. These results support the view that mental processes of memory and imagery mirror processes of perception given the same task and stimulus characteristics. Preliminary theories have been offered to elucidate the exact values of the respective pairs of exponents (the memorial exponent usually smaller than the perceptual one, cf. Algom 1992). On a more general level, the results of these studies treating a single physical continuum suggest the existence of lawful and long-enduring constraints on knowledge about perceptual experience (Shepard, 1984; Wolf & Algom, 1987). Two problems affect mnemophysical research with univariate designs, one methodological, the other substantive. First, Stevens's (1975) contention that the numbers proffered by participants, whether perceptually or from memory, are proportional to sensation magnitudes can not be justified. Consequently, the validity of the method of magnitude estimation and the associated power law is suspect. The need for an underlying metric structure to support validity is as vital for memory psychophysics as indeed it is for the entire edifice of psychophysics. For the second problem, the purview of univariate research is limited. It is ill suited to examine questions of organization and integration in memory. Multidimensional mnemophysics, in contrast, aids in resolving both problems. First, memory psychophysics applied to factorial designs erected on multidimensional stimuli – rectangles, chemical mixtures, combinations of painful stimuli – does provide the metric structure needed for authenticating the overt numerical response. The rules by which the components integrate, uncovered by methods such as conjoint measurement or functional measurement, provide constraints to validate the psychophysical function. Specification of the model of integration already entails the scale as its natural derivative. Second, deployment of multivariate mnemophysics enables the examination of a new class of questions dealing with stimulus construction in memory. In particular, the constancy (or lack thereof) in form of stimulus integration in perception and memory can be assessed (Wolf & Algom, 1987). Further intriguing problems can be tackled, an example of which comes from the domain of chemosensation. For homomodal chemosensory mixtures, that is, for mixtures of tastants alone and for mixtures of odorants alone, a salient characteristic is mutual masking of components or mixture suppression. An odor mixture or a taste mixture will smell or taste less intense than the sum of the perceived intensities of its unmixed constituents. An interactive pattern of mixture perception (and memory) ensues. In contradistinction, when humans are stimulated with heteromodal mixtures, comprising and odorant and a tastant, the olfactory and taste systems behave in an additive manner. The overall intensity of odor-taste mixtures approximates the simple sum of the intensities of the unmixed components. Which rule do mental mixtures of odor and taste follow? In that condition, participants are presented with orally sensed tastants and odorants separately (i.e., no physical mixtures are presented). Their task is to mentally mix the components, then estimate the intensity of the resulting mental mixtures. Algom, Marks, and Cain (1993) took advantage of a compelling illusion by which observers misperceive orally presented odors as tastes. Odor and taste stimulate two modalities (hence the additive structure for physical mixtures), but to the naïve observer mixtures of an odorant and a tastant in the mouth are recognized erroneously as taste mixtures (hence the possibility of an interactive structure based on illusory homomodality). Strikingly, an additive structure reappeared in the mental-mixture condition, despite the fact that the participants believed they were mixing mentally two tastes. The evidence for the pervasiveness of a chemosensory "deep knowledge" seems impressive. People display far deeper sensory knowledge than they are either aware of or can intelligently articulate. Memory Psychophysics through Information Processing The framework of scaling, especially single-variable scaling, has been inhospitable to explicating the processing of information associated with symbolic stimuli. Magnitude estimation as well as other nonspeeded scaling measures do not fit well with a nascent cognitive science dominated by measures of reaction time and dynamic modeling. Indeed, a notable feature of information-processing-based models of memory psychophysics is their full alliance with mainstream cognitive psychology. Reaction time and rate of error replace magnitude estimated and scaling in this research. This research allows for the examination of a richer class of phenomena including learning, decision, and representation. The common mental process of comparing a pair of stimuli has been studied intensively within the information processing tradition. I first recount major phenomena associated with symbolic comparisons, then describe three attempts to model them from an information processing perspective. Deciding which numeral in the pair, 8-2, is larger numerically, or deciding which name in the pair, cat-dog, refers to the larger animal, is based on symbols standing for the referent stimuli, and necessarily entails information retrieved from memory. The symbolic distance effect documents the decrease in response time as the difference between the referent stimuli is increased, mirroring the perceptual relation by which reaction time is inversely related to stimulus difference. The end effect pertains to the fact that pairs of stimuli containing the smallest or the largest stimulus are compared fastest. Finally, the semantic congruity effect documents the interaction of pair size and experimental instruction by which large pairs are compared faster under 'choose the larger stimulus' instruction and small pairs are compared faster under 'choose the smaller stimulus' instruction. Link's (1975; Link & Heath, 1975) Relative Judgment Theory postulates that the psychological value of a stimulus is compared, through subtraction, against the psychological value of a standard stimulus (a mental standard is established whether or not the experimenter actually uses a standard stimulus). The process entails sequential sampling in small windows of time of the random variables representing the stimulus and the standard, then deriving their momentary difference. The random variable of the sum of these differences performs a random walk on the psychological dimension of comparative difference -the distance between two response thresholds ("dog is larger than cat," and "dog is smaller than cat"). During an experimental trial, the differences are accumulated until one or the other of the two response thresholds is exceeded. Choice response time is proportional to the amount of accumulated differences divided by the rate of accumulating the differences. This simple formula is modified by subtracting or adding a bias constant to the accumulated differences, and by adding a constant to the entire formula standing for nondecisional factors contributing to reaction time. Regarding the distance effect, the model includes a discriminability parameter that is monotonically related to stimulus difference. The drift rate also changes with stimu


Scrapping machine is a machine to scrap white layer of fresh nata de coco in nata
de coco manufacturing process. Nata de coco is an organic high fibred food product,
cultivated by fermentation activity happened on coconut, sugar, water and a specially
developed nutrient. The main objective of this scrapping machine is to remove a white
layer like a thin membrane, where this process currently carried out manually by workers
of ANZAG Industries (M) Sdn. Bhd. Through observations, this white layer is quite
difficult to be removed and the operators will take some time to fully scrap it, even for
one piece of fresh nata de coco. This project is focusing on development of an automated
scrapping machine which is easy to be handled by the workers. The development of this
machine will be focused on its electrical controller and physical design. Programmable
Logic Controller (PLC) is used as the main controller to run this machine automatically.
It monitors inputs, make decisions and control outputs in order to automate machines and
processes. It also uses CX-Programmer software to design the circuit (ladder diagram)
and transfer to this PLC to operate the machine. This PLC is a product of Omron and in
this project the CQMIH type will be used which have sixteen inputs and outputs. The
prototype of this scrapping machine have to be tested to ensure that it can be used in nata
de coco manufacturing process.


This paper is based on a presentation from a panel discussion on Innovation, Technology and Infrastructure at the 2023 APE Conference. It provides an overview of the use, misuse and value of bibliometrics in research assessment, examines the responsible use of metrics and the importance of going beyond existing bibliometric indicators of scholarly impact.


Significance Lipid membrane fusion is a critical component of biological transport, communication, and developmental processes. The fusion reaction is kinetically constrained since it contains multiple large energy barriers, so proteins and ions are used by natural systems to intervene and catalyze the reaction toward biologically relevant timescales. Here, we demonstrate how amphiphilic nanoparticles can prime lipid membranes for fusion so that complete fusion proceeds only upon exposure to an excess of calcium or other stimulus that would stress the outer leaflet. This is a major advance in the nascent field of controlled fusion and may unlock new avenues of research on how nanomaterials can be designed from first principles to perform targeted functional roles in biological systems. Lipid membrane fusion is an essential process for a number of critical biological functions. The overall process is thermodynamically favorable but faces multiple kinetic barriers along the way. Inspired by nature's engineered proteins such as SNAP receptor [soluble N-ethylmale-imide-sensitive factor-attachment protein receptor (SNARE)] complexes or viral fusogenic proteins that actively promote the development of membrane proximity, nucleation of a stalk, and triggered expansion of the fusion pore, here we introduce a synthetic fusogen that can modulate membrane fusion and equivalently prime lipid membranes for calcium-triggered fusion. Our fusogen consists of a gold nanoparticle functionalized with an amphiphilic monolayer of alkanethiol ligands that had previously been shown to fuse with lipid bilayers. While previous efforts to develop synthetic fusogens have only replicated the initial steps of the fusion cascade, we use molecular simulations and complementary experimental techniques to demonstrate that these nanoparticles can induce the formation of a lipid stalk and also drive its expansion into a fusion pore upon the addition of excess calcium. These results have important implications in general understanding of stimuli-triggered fusion and the development of synthetic fusogens for biomedical applications.


Volatile components of Polygonum hydropiper distributed in Guizhou province was extracted by solidphase microextraction and steam distillation,identified by GC-MS technique,in which their relative content was ascertained by area normalization method of each constituent.48compounds were found in the extracts by the method of solid-phase microextraction,compounds β-Caryophyllene(27.02%),Decanol(14.39%) and Dodecanal(12.96%) were the main components.Main compounds β-Bisabolene(19.00%),Driminol(15.25%) and Dodecanal(14.41%) were observed in the 27constituents in the extracts by means of steam distillation.The evident differernce of volatile components of P.hydropipershowed in the two different extraction methods and diversity in various districts compared with the data reported.The volatile components showed antimicrobial activities in vitro.These results provided evidences for using P.hydropiper.


Nowadays, the use and storage of renewable energies on the one hand, coupled with demands to save energy on the other, mean that modern data centres and office buildings have to be designed and operated in a way that enables them to meet a number of totally new requirements. On top of this, the latest information and communication technologies are developing at breakneck speed, calling for a building's physical infrastructure to provide as much flexibility as possible.This paper illustrates how a 380 VDC micro grid was installed in an office building and the data centre of a German company. However, the analysis is not just restricted to factors relating to energy efficiency, it also looks at safety-related aspects of personal and plant protection.


Given the characteristic that the Sunday algorithm is too complex to construct Markov chains,a new method according to the difference of matching number in the algorithms was proposed to compute the average efficiency.Firstly,the naive algorithm was chosen as the foundation,and its accurate average efficiency was computed by Markov chains.Secondly,the difference of the two algorithms was computed by the corresponding knowledge in probability theory.The two results were combined to get the equation which represented the average efficiency of Sunday algorithm.The experimental results show that the estimated value computed by the equation is the average number of the matching times.


Case 1A : A 68-year-old man with a past medical history of atrial fibrillation (AF), hypertension, and type 2 diabetes mellitus has been on anticoagulation therapy with warfarin for 6 years. The patient's target international normalized ratio (INR) is 2.0 to 3.0. The patient has been managed by a pharmacist-run anticoagulation clinic, and his recent warfarin doses and INR values are shown inTable 1. He has had no bleeding or thrombotic complications. His current medications include warfarin, metformin, lisinopril, and atorvastatin. The patient has recently read about the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approvals of dabigatran etexilate and rivaroxaban and would like to know if he should be switched from warfarin to dabigatran.

View this table:

Table 1.
INR Values for Patient in Case 1a

Case 1B: After discussion with the cardiologist and pharmacist, the patient in Case 1A decided that he would like to switch to dabigatran etexilate. He and his referring cardiologist would like to know how to switch a patient from warfarin to dabigatran. Pertinent labs include a serum creatinine of 0.7 mg/dL (creatinine clearance 80 mL/min) and liver function tests within normal limits. His medications remain unchanged.

Case 2: A 70-year-old, 70-kg woman with a past medical history of hypertension presented to the emergency department with signs and symptoms of acute heart failure. She was diagnosed with new-onset AF and rapid ventricular response. After successful rate control with a β-blocker and anticoagulation with heparin, she underwent successful cardioversion after a transesophageal echocardiogram demonstrating no thrombi or valvular heart disease with an ejection fraction of 70%. Her other medications include ramipril and hydrochlorothiazide. Based on her CHADS2 score of 2 (hypertension and heart failure) and CHA2DS2-VASC score of 3 (hypertension, age 65–75 years, and female sex) a decision is made to anticoagulate the …


Transition metal carbides, called MXenes, can be used for MXene‐based unique electronic devices such as new types of batteries, energy storage devices, and supercapacitors, where MXene is used as an electrode. The unique surface properties of MXene and 2D structure can be further applied to the new electronic devices. In this paper, the unique insulating properties of partially oxidized MXene (Ti3C2Tx) sheets are utilized for memory storage and electronic synapse applications. The device exhibits threshold resistive switching characteristics based on Ag+ migration dynamics. It is found that this Ag+ cation migration is similar to Ca2+ ion dynamics of a biological synapse, and thus, biological synapse functions such as intrusion/extrusion of Ag+ cation, paired‐pulse facilitation (PPF), post‐tetanic potentiation (PTP), short‐term potentiation (STP), and transition of STP to long‐term potentiation (LTP) are well‐emulated. It is believed that this device development can be potentially used in the next‐generation hardware‐based artificial intelligence systems.


Motivated mainly by certain interesting recent extensions of the generalized hypergeometric function [15], the second Appell function [6] and Srivastava's triple hypergeometric functions [9], we introduce here the family of incomplete Srivastava's triple hypergeometric functions H A and H A . We then systematically investigate several properties of each of these incomplete Srivastava's triple hypergeometric functions including, for example, their various integral representations, transformation formula, reduction formula, derivative formula and recurrence relations. Various (known or new) special cases and consequences of the results presented here are also considered. 2010 Mathematics Subject Classification: 33B15; 33B20; 33C05; 33C15; 33C20; 33B99; 33C99; 60B99


The purpose of this study is to investigate whether internal and external variables affect individual's health and examine how long-term healthy people differ from other co-workers. The examination was carried out with a questionnaire among employees with different work. The internal scale contains variables of personality trait, locus of control, sense of coherence and optimism. The external scale contains demand, control, support, leadership and organizational culture variables. The result shows that long-term healthy people are more optimistic, self-confident and endure stress better than others. The internal scale has a significant relation with long-term health, and leadership is the best predictor for long-term health together with control, optimism and locus of control. One conclusion is that both internal and external variables are important for the health and it is important to work with all parts to achieve health.


Certain high-purity solid materials can be cooled by an all-solid-state laser-based system. Certain high-purity solid materials can be cooled by an all-solid-state laser-based system.


Diphenylamine was cyclised to carbazole in moderate yield in refluxing chloroform with peroxide in the presence of light (200 W tungsten lamp); 3-methylcarbazole was synthesised similarly.


The rural students account for a large part of the total middle school students,whose physical constitution will have an influence on the total constitution of our national population. By the survey on 1 724 rural middle school students at random,mathematical statistics and experimental method are adopted to analyze the 16 important sub factors with factor analysis,and the conclusion show that the three factors,lifestyle,family and school,play a key role on the physical constitution of the rural middle school students. Suggestions are given on the improvement of the three factors,which can provide rationale for the research on middle schools physical exercises to improve the physical constitution of the rural middle school students.


ABSTRACT The discrete element method (DEM) is adopted to simulate the triaxial tests of granular materials in this study. In the DEM simulations, two different membrane-forming methods are used to generate triaxial samples. One method is to pack the internal particles first, then to generate the enclosed membrane; the other is to generate the internal particles and the enclosed membrane together. A definition of the effective strain, which combines microscopic numerical results with macroscopic expression in three-dimensional space, is presented to describe the macroscopic deformation process of granular materials. With these two membrane generation methods, the effective strain distributions in longitudinal section and transverse section of the triaxial sample are described to investigate the progressive failure and the evolution of the shear bands in granular materials. Two typical shear band failure modes in triaxial tests are observed in the DEM simulations with different membrane-forming methods. One is a single shear band like a scraper bowl, and the other is an axial symmetric shear band like two hoppers stacking as the shape of rotational "X" in triaxial sample. The characteristics of the shear bands during the failure processes are discussed in detail based on the DEM simulations.


Scientific experts have come to play a prominent role as advisors in many areas of public life, including law and governmental policy. Yet these experts' advice can often make it more difficult for the layperson to arrive at an informed decision. Different experts may represent opposing scientific schools of thought or divergent social interests, the details of which may not appear transparent to a casual observer. The role of experts and the nature of expert testimony thus raise important philosophical, historical and sociological questions, some of which are addressed in this focused discussion section. In a series of influential papers, John Hardwig (1985; 1991; 1994) has argued that when one turns to an expert's advice, rationality requires that he submit to the expert's epistemic authority rather than think for himself. This claim, which has received many criticisms, has to a large extent framed the debate about expertise. In this issue, Ben Almassi proposes a new interpretation of the notion of evidence that resolves inconsistencies in Hardwig's account of expertise and does not entail the problematic conclusion. Steve Fuller is also among the critics of Hardwig's position. According to Fuller, Hardwig's authoritative model of expertise ascribes power to experts by virtue of their ability to systematically control and manipulate a closed system consisting of a prescribed set of variables. Fuller argues that experts' mastery of such systems is not equivalent to a capacity to successfully address people's actual concerns. For example, while an economist can derive laws from an idealized model of the market, she is not necessarily in a good epistemic position to advise the layperson where to invest his money. The layperson, then, still needs to think for himself (Fuller 2002, 280‐83). In this issue, Fuller delves into the historical dimension of this debate. In contemporary philosophy of science he identifies two competing social epistemologies, Hilary Putnam's 'linguistic division of labour' and Philip Kitcher's 'division of cognitive labour', which parallel Fuller's own position and Hardwig's position, respectively. He also


The field of second language (L2) pronunciation is attracting researchers with many interests, as well as the teachers who have always been interested in the field. Evidence is growing that pronunciation teaching is successful at promoting greater intelligibility, and that pronunciation learning is not strongly constrained by the age at which learning takes place. The importance of pronunciation in current approaches to language means that L2 pronunciation has a strong teaching-research connection, in which teaching practices are influenced by research, and research agendas are explicitly influenced by practical questions. This growing interest is visible in the field's dedicated conferences, in growing numbers of scholarly books, and in increasing kinds of other scholarly and pedagogically oriented publications. This article suggests that the interface of research and practice with pronunciation learning is seen in attention to 6 areas: teachers, learners, pronunciation features, teaching and learning contexts, pronunciation materials, and types of pedagogical


Full-field Optical Coherence Tomography (FFOCT) offers aberration independent resolution. This property is particularly useful for eye imaging, as micrometer features are visible without adaptive optics (AO). Diffraction-limited in vivo corneal and retinal images are demonstrated.


This paper studies the hot air aging properties of PS5360 methylphenylvinyl silicone rubber(PVMQ) under different test conditions.The results showed that PS5360 exhibite excellent thermal properties after 1200 hrs at 200 ℃,360 hours at 250 ℃,and 48 hrs at 300 ℃.PS5360 is an ideal air sealing material for high temperature influenced area in the plane.


On the basis of an empirical study in Switzerland and Germany, it is shown that there are considerable inconsistences between citizens' environmental attitudes and their behavior. A disaggregation of the multidimensional concept of `environmental behavior' and a look at this behavior from the viewpoint of rational actors, are proposed as two perspectives from which to get a better understanding of these inconsistencies. Empirical analyses (making use of these two perspectives) lead to an identification of three cognitive strategies by which individual actors try to harmonize and to reconcile seemingly incongruent environmental attitudes and behaviors. These strategies can be subsumed under the short-hand labels `attention-shifting strategy', `low-cost strategy' and `subjective-rationality strategy'.


Metal-free catalyzed advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) are state-of-the-art technologies with high oxidation capabilities for wastewater purification, taking advantage of the synergies of direct adsorption and the generated reactive oxygen species...


The reactive intensity vector is a very useful analysis tool for the acoustic nearfield. Vibration sources, active and passive absorbers, and diffraction can be differentiated by measuring the reactive intensity. The real and imaginary parts of the specific acoustic impedance should also be considered. Nearfield measurements will be discussed where the reactive intensity vector is used to determine the location and distinguish between piston sources and a resonator that are acoustically coupled. The reactive intensity must be used because the time‐averaged intensity vector does not distinguish between a resonator absorbing power and an active source absorbing power. Diffraction will also be identified. These results will further show that all quantities measured with the acoustic intensity technique should be analyzed.


BACKGROUND Combined optical and bipolar radiofrequency (RF) devices have been effective for rejuvenation, but a single modality in one session cannot solve three‐dimensional skin complaints, resulting in time‐consuming visits. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the safety and efficacy of single‐session triple treatment using bipolar RF‐based optical (intense pulsed light [IPL], infrared light, and diode laser) combination devices for treatment of photoaged Asian skin. MATERIALS AND METHODS In a split‐face trial, 11 women received four treatments at 3‐week intervals consisting of the combination of sequential IPL, infrared light, and diode laser, all with RF, in one session. Outcome assessments included photography, global evaluation by blinded investigators, patient assessment, and objective biophysical measurements of color and elasticity. Punch biopsies were obtained from both sides of the face 1 month after the last treatment session. RESULTS All patients showed statistically significant reduction in photoaging global score. Objective biophysical measurements showed significant improvements in melanin index and elasticity (R5, R7), as well as increases in the levels of procollagen type I and III and elastin. CONCLUSION A combination of three different energy sources, with bipolar RF, in one session is effective without further downtime for solving multiple problems including tone, texture, and laxity observed in photoaged Asian skin.


ABSTRACT A novel method to prepare capillary coatings using dopamine (DA) and hyaluronic acid (HA) was mentioned in this paper. Firstly, dopamine was oxidized to form polydopamine and attached to the inner wall of the capillary spontaneously. HA attached to the polydopamine by electrostatic interaction to form a polydopamine-hyaluronic acid (PDA-HA) coating. Protein adsorption on the inner surface of capillary was suppressed, and the proteins of lysozyme (Lys), cytochrome c (Cyt-c), bovine serum albumin (BSA) and ribonuclease A (RNase A) were baseline separated obviously using capillary electrophoresis (CE) within 20 minutes.


The mass media had very much influence upon common citizens because of its own characteristics to encounter copycat crimes all the time. Therefore, this study examined types and cases of the copycat crimes that were produced by mass media, and it investigated not only functions of sound mass media i...


Aim To investigate the inhibition and apoptosis effect of p21 gene transfection into human cervical carcinoma cell line Hela.Methods pcDNA3.1(+)-p21 and pcDNA3.1(+) blank vector were transfected into Hela cells,and normal Hela cells were used as normal control.How was expressed the protein of p21 gene by immunohistochemistry assay? The inducing proliferation,inhibition and apoptosis effects of p21 gene on cell growth was described by cell growth curve,WST-1 assay and flow cytometry(FCM) analysis.Result Immunohistochemistry assay showed that the protein of p21 gene was expressed in the nucleus of Hela cell.Expression of p21 gene strongly inhibited Hela cell proliferation in vitro,and the growth of Hela /p21 cell was significantly lower than that of control.WST-1 test showed that the difference of cell viability between Hela /p21 cell and control cells was also significant(P0.01).FCM showed that the rate of Hela /p21 cell apoptosis was higher than that of control cells,and was about 20%.Conclusion The finding showed that the transfection of p21 gene obviously induced cellular inhibition and apoptosis in Hela cells.


Summary.

Some types of supersensitivity of the submaxillary gland cells to chemical agents have been studied quantitatively. The increased sensitivity which is obtained after section of the chorda tympani, removal of the superior cervical ganglion, injection of cocaine or prolonged treatment with atropine is shown to be un-specific. Section of the chorda and treatment with atropine seems to give rise to similar types of supersensitivity, which in many respects differ from the type produced by extirpation of the superior cervical ganglion or injection of cocaine.

The expenses of this investigation have been defrayed in part by a grant to one of us (N. E.) from the Swedish Medical Research Council.


The article presents current issues of using song material in classes of Russian as a foreign language. The main advantages of using song material, which help to reveal the main competencies in teaching a foreign language, are highlighted. The criteria for selecting songs, presented for complex work on the use of song material in the lessons of Russian as a foreign language, are considered. Examples of using various songs in accordance with the language level of foreign students are given.


The graduates'thought education is the important conponent of ourunversity students' thought and political education.Recently wo should strength the education of our graducates in many aspects,such as the thought of "Three Represents",the concept of honour or disgrace,the health of mentality,the concept of choosing job,honesty education,character education and so on.So that we can help them to choose job and obtain employment smoothly and grow into useful timber.


Bifurcations of solitary waves are classified for the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equations with arbitrary nonlinearities and external potentials in arbitrary spatial dimensions. Analytical conditions are derived for three major types of solitary wave bifurcations, namely, saddle‐node, pitchfork, and transcritical bifurcations. Shapes of power diagrams near these bifurcations are also obtained. It is shown that for pitchfork and transcritical bifurcations, their power diagrams look differently from their familiar solution‐bifurcation diagrams. Numerical examples for these three types of bifurcations are given as well. Of these numerical examples, one shows a transcritical bifurcation, which is the first report of transcritical bifurcations in the generalized nonlinear Schrödinger equations. Another shows a power loop phenomenon which contains several saddle‐node bifurcations, and a third example shows double pitchfork bifurcations. These numerical examples are in good agreement with the analytical results.


The intensifier (in) allele in the homozygous recessive condition, in the appropriate genetic background, accentuates the formation of anthocyanin pigments in the aleurone tissue of maize. In a com...


Three main stages can be distinguished in the development of settlement structures on the territory of Dnieper left bank forest-steppe at the Scythian time. The territory of Dnieper left bank forest-steppe at the Scythian time. The territory of high terraces of small rivers in the interfluve of the lower reaches of the Psel and Vorskla rivers, to the south of the Grun river, was settled in the early Scythian period, which was characterized by a more humid climate compared to modern conditions. The resource zones of the first settlements were represented by soils with maximum convenient for cultivation (ordinary chernozem, leached and podzolized). In the Middle Scythian period, which was drier than the previous one, the number of settlements in the floodplains increased, where meadow, sod and bog soils dominated. In the third stage (the last quarter of the 5th—4th centuries BC), the number of sites decreased, and new sites located at the rivers (the percentage of dark-gray podzolized soils decreased), which could indicate the climate aridity at that time. As a result, the spatial analysis of the archaeological and paleopedological data showed its validity and can be used in the study of Scythian time sites and sites of other periods.


Plasma volume (PV) expansion plays an essential role in heart failure and PV status provides prognostic information in patients (pts) with acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF). On the other hand, concomitant presence of pulmonary hypertension in heart failure is associated with increased adverse events and may be related to interventricular uncoupling and impaired cardiac efficiency. It has recently been shown that an increased mean pulmonary artery pressure to mean systemic arterial pressure ratio (MPS ratio), a marker of interventricular coupling and efficiency, is associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with advanced heart failure. However, there is no information available on the long-term prognostic value of the combination of PV status and MPS ratio in pts admitted for ADHF.

 We studied 248 pts admitted for ADHF, who underwent right heart catheterization at the admission and were discharged with survival. PV status and MPS ratio were obtained at the admission. PV status was calculated as the following: Actual PV = (1 − hematocrit) x [a + (b x body weight)] (a=1530 in males and a=864 in females, b=41 in males and b=47.9 in females), Ideal PV = c x body weight (c=39 in males and c=40 in females), and PV status = [(actual PV − ideal PV)/ideal PV] x 100(%). The study endpoint was cardiovascular death (CVD).

 During a mean follow-up period of 5.2±4.4 yrs, 62 pts had CVD. PV status (10.0±16.2 vs 5.0±15.3%, p=0.03) and MPS ratio (0.408±0.114 vs 0.347±0.102, p=0.0001) were significantly greater in patients with than without CVD. At multivariate Cox regression analysis, PV status and MPS ratio were significantly associated with CVD, independently of prior heart failure hospitalization, eGFR, and serum sodium level and anemia. Patients with greater PV status (> median value = 4.6%) and MPS ratio (> median value = 0.346) had a significantly higher CVD risk than those with either and none of them (44% vs 22% vs 14%, p<0.0001, respectively).

 The combination of PV status and MPS ratio might be useful for stratifying patients at risk for CVD in patients with ADHF.


Various cyclic and acyclic ethers are efficiently cleaved with acyl chlorides or bromides to give ω-chloro- or ω-bromoesters under high-pressure conditions.


In this study, a position servo was controlled using a fractional-order PD controller. In comparison to its integer-order counterpart, fractional-order control was known to offer higher performance and stability. However, fractional-order PD requires tuning for more parameters, making design more challenging. The availability of numerous tuning platforms today makes the use of FOPD more practical. In this work, the FOPD was tuned using FOMCON toolbox which offers numerous optimization technique to choose from. This study examined the outcome from using Nelder-Mead, Interior point, SQP, and Active-Set optimization techniques in tuning the FOPD while minimizing the ISE criteria. In this study, initial value of FOPD was randomly set to 0.1, 0.01 and 0.5 for the Kp, Kd and $\mu$ respectively. The parameters turned out quite differently with the output from Interior-point technique seems to be the fastest compared to the rest.