The extended-Huckel molecular orbital approach and the Jahn-Teller theorem have been applied to a consideration of the structures of the Ted2+, Bi42-, SnSZ-, Bis3+, PbS2-, Te:+, Pae, Te?+, P73-, Sb?-, SS2+, Snge, and PIISions. The stability and diamagnetism of these species have been accounted for in terms of a closed-shell molecular orbital configuration for each of the observed geometries. Alternative geometries were also investigated for fourthrough six-, eight-, and ninemembered species and in almost every case shown either to be unfavorable in terms of total energy or to be electronically (Jahn-Teller) unstable, undergoing nuclear rearrangement to give the observed structure. Application of the second-order Jahn-Teller arguments were, however, not always conclusive because of the inability of the extended-Huckel procedure to accurately calculate molecular orbital energy levels for these heavy atom systems, particularly the important HOMO-LUMO energy gap. Reliable results were obtained for those ions in which symmetry constraints allowed a realistic ordering of molecular orbitals, and for which a reasonable estimate of the energy difference between the HOMO and LUMO could be made, such as geometries involving 7r manifolds. In cases where less definitive results were obtained, resort to more rigorous calculations such as a CNDO study always enabled conclusions to be drawn from symmetry considerations and led to a reasonable interpretation of the particular system.


All-inorganic metal halide perovskite quantum dots (QDs) have attracted attention from researchers with their fascinating optoelectronic properties. However, blue-emitting perovskite QDs typically had low photoluminescence quantum yield (PLQY). For potential commercial applications, it was preferable to replace Pb with an element having low toxicity. Here, we anchored Pb-free Cs3Bi2Br9@BiOBr perovskite QDs on the surface of NHx-rich monodisperse silica (A-SiO2) via N-Bi chemical bonding to isolate QDs from each other, thus improving efficient surface passivation and suppressing optical decay. Compared to unanchored QDs, Cs3Bi2Br9@BiOBr QDs/A-SiO2 composites exhibited significantly enhanced blue emission performance, the PLQY of which increased from 16.62% to 77.26%, in addition to good water and environmental stability. Finally, the novel composites as photocatalysts were used to drive the oxidation of toluene, a template reaction of C(sp3)-H bond activation, and demonstrated astonishing conversion rates (4317 μmol g-1 h-1) with high selectivity (~ 87%).


Improvement in the transport sector can increase accessibility to economic activities, which in turn can benefit urban productivity by enabling agglomeration economies which are the major parts of the wider economic impacts of transport. Nowadays, there is an increasing interest on the evaluation of agglomeration effect of transport. However, most of current studies focus attention mainly on the question of improved productivity following an improvement in an intra-city transport system. This paper extends the analysis to look at the issue of inter-city transport improvement and the effects this has on productivity for the case of China using city-level employment and productivity data linked to inter-city transport network data. It is found that depending on the magnitude of the distance decay parameter which represents the conditions of the inter-city transport system, the average agglomeration elasticity for cities in China as a whole can range from a low value of 0.064 to a high value of 0.202, with a middle range value of 0.109 when the distance decay parameter is assumed to be varied from a high value of 1.5 to a low value of 0.5 and with a most commonly used value of 1.0. Agglomeration elasticities are also found to vary across different regions in China.


Academic dishonesty is a fundamental issue for the academic integrity in higher education
institutions, and one that has lately been gaining increasing unwanted attention. This study reports on a survey of
128 students from a University in Selangor state of Malaysia on student academic misconduct and the efforts of
institutions in curbing premeditated examination dishonesty. The aim of the survey was to determine the
prevalence of academic misconduct, and to investigate the extent to which perceptions of dishonesty are shared
between students and institutions, as preliminary steps toward developing effective IoT based strategies to deal
with the academic dishonesty/misconduct problem. Results indicate a higher tolerance for academic misconduct
by students in comparison to staff, particularly with respect to cheating in final examinations, as well as
considerable underestimation by staff of the prevalence of virtually all forms of student academic misconduct.
Overall, the study"s findings confirm the fact that there are so many push factors towards academic dishonesty and
also there is little done to prevent this phenomenon. The results also highlighted a certain level of ignorance
towards the effects of cheating as well as less levels of awareness campaigns against cheating by institutions. The
survey also suggests that students cheat because they know nothing serious comes with being caught cheating. The
findings motivate the need for deterrent mechanisms to make it difficult for students to plan for cheating activities
in examinations. Focus should shift from hunting cheaters to preventing cheating.


A by forming the existing SiNx passivation film / one layer of the double structure of the acrylic photosensitive organic insulating film, and simplify the process, it is possible to reduce the fabrication costs, sensitivity, resolution, process margin transparency, with the performance of such heat discoloration resistance excellent, particularly it is possible to lower the power consumption by enabling a low dielectric constant insulating film, to prevent image retention and cross-talk, and the shift phenomenon of the threshold voltage it can, also, excellent heat resistance due can ensure excellent panel reliability by allowing low outgassing, thereby passivation layer in various displays, as well as the gate insulating film, planarization also provides a positive type photosensitive organic-inorganic hybrid insulation film compositions that can be usefully applied as such film. A positive type photosensitive organic-inorganic hybrid insulating film composition according to the invention, i) the reactive silanes containing one to three phenyl groups represented by the following Chemical Formula 1, (ii) the following Chemical Formula 2 oligomer compounds in polystyrene equivalent weight average molecular weight obtained by hydrolysis and condensation polymerization of a silane monomer of tetrafunctional reactive silane in the presence of a catalyst represented (Mw) is 1,000 to 20,000 ; characterized in that it comprises a and (c) a solvent; (b) 1,2-quinonediazide compound. [Formula 1] (In the formula, R ## STR2 ## (Wherein, R


This publication is dedicated to the 8th International Multidisciplinary Research Conference "SOCIETY. HEALTH. WELFARE", which took place at Rı̄ga Stradin, š University (Latvia) on March 24–26, 2021. The title of the conference unveils the context of the research topic integrity, especially given the fact that the conference was held during the COVID-19 pandemic. The articles that have been prepared basing on the reports presented at the conference will be of interest not only to scientists and researchers, but also to politicians, practitioners, community members, and students. The publication consists of three parts, the content of which correlates with the title of the conference "SOCIETY. HEALTH. WELFARE". The first part, named "SOCIETY", tackles a wide range of issues that are very relevant to the society of today and are faced by people not only in Latvia but also in many parts of the world. These issues include concerns related to family stability in the context of emigration, access to intergenerational solidarity strengthening, aging society's needs, challenges of working remotely, and international experience in the management of the COVID-19 pandemic. Research on the questions attributed to an aging society plays an extensive role in this section. In recent decades, there has been a significant increase in the attention paid to European demographic policy: the balance between birth rates and death rates; economic migration processes of economically active youth, which affect the expression of intergenerational solidarity; employment and health problems of the elderly. Studies have shown that in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, the problems encountered by the elderly have taken on the nature that requires a political solution. The articles "Loneliness of seniors in long-term care institutions and COVID-19 restrictions", "Access to healthcare during COVID-19 among the aging population in Latvia", "Impact of the first wave of COVID19 on the employment of older people in Latvia, the Baltic States, and Europe" reveal the problems that affect the elderly and that are difficult to solve "Right Here, Right Now". The research covers the issues that include the employment of the older generation in the COVID-19 situation by assessing their ability to work remotely; individualisation of services in solving the problems of loneliness and social isolation of the elderly in care homes; access to health care for the elderly as the necessity for the integrity of social and medical services; search for strategies for professionalization of social workers. The challenges of working remotely in the COVID-19 situation also call for political solutions. A few years ago, the question was raised whether work from home was the "mission (im)possible". The functions and content of remote working have been defined in the Employment Legislation and Labour Codes of various countries. However, the role of this issue in the real workspace has been very insignificant. In the COVID-19 situation, remote work has become an important form of work. Only now, it has been realized that employers are still not prepared to assess the remote work risk factors that fall under their legal obligations. The study "Lack of workplace risk assessment as a predictor of adverse health effects for teleworkers results from the survey on Life with COVID-19 in Latvia" is very timely since the course of the COVID-19 pandemic is difficult to predict in time. The study results notify company managers (employers) on the health problems of employees and encourage the sharing of international good practice to avoid the impact of remote work risk factors on health. The assessment of the international good practice is also vital in the context of pandemic management. The pandemic has affected all regions of the world. However, different


This dissertation provides a comparative-historical analysis and reconstruction of the phonological system and of the pronominal system of Proto-Kiowa-Tanoan, the theoretized ancestor of a family of seven languages located in the Pueblo Southwest and Great Plains. The modern constituent members of the family are Kiowa, Rio Grande Tewa, Arizona Tewa, Picuris Northern Tiwa, Taos Northern Tiwa, Southern Tiwa, and Towa. The dissertation is divided into three parts, plus a concluding discussion. Part I is a thorough overview of the of the background of Kiowa-Tanoan language study. This includes a comprehensive review of the literature, published and unpublished, which describes the structures and functions of the languages as well as a grammatical overview of the family. The second part of this study follows up on Kenneth Hale's (1962, 1967) groundbreaking establishment of some of the major sound correspondences and


An integrated waste management approach to the use of packaging materials such as paper, glass, metals and plastics considers the entire life of a product from raw material to final disposition. After the useful life of packaging products disposition depends on various options. The products can either be re-used or recycled, or enter the municipal solid waste (MSW) stream to a landfill or incinerator. One growing option is composting, generally associated with the organic fraction of MSW.


Along with polyisoprenoids, polypeptides, polysaccharides, and polynucleotides, Nature contains a further group of biopolymers, the poly(hydroxyalkanoates). The commonest member of this group, poly[(R)-3-hydroxybutyrate] P(3-HB), had been identified by Lemoigne as early as the 1920s, as a storage substance in the microorganism Bacillus megaterium made up of more than 12000 (3-HB) units. However, the widespread distribution and significance of these biopolymers has only become clear recently. The work of Reusch, in particular, has shown that low molecular weight P(3-HB) (100–200 3-HB units) occurs in the cell membranes of prokaryotic and eukaryotic organisms. The function of P(3-HB) in the latter sources is largely unknown; it has been proposed that a complex of P(3-HB) and calcium polyphosphate acts as an ion channel through the membrane. Indeed, it has even been speculated that P(3-HB) plays a role in transport of DNA through the cell wall. In the present article, the following subjects will be discussed: metabolism of P(3-HB) and analogous polyesters in the synthesis and degradation of storage materials; P(3-HB) as a starting material for chiral synthetic building blocks; synthesis of cyclic oligomers (oligolides) of up to ten 3-HB units, and their crystal structure; high molecular weight bio-copolymers of hydroxybutyrate and hydroxyvalerate (BIOPOL) as biologically degradable plastics; nonbiological production of polyhydroxyalkanoates from 3-hydroxy carboxylic acids and the corresponding β-lactones; specific synthesis of linear oligomers with a narrow molecular weight distribution, consisting of about 100 (R)-3-hydroxybutyrate units, by using an exponential coupling procedure; structure of the polyesters, and a comparison with other polymers; the experimental results which led to the postulation of a P(3-HB) ion channel through the cell wall; modeling of P(3-HB) helices of various diameters, by using the parameters obtained from the crystal structures of oligolides; formation of a crown ester complex and ion transport experiments with the triolide of 3-HB. The article describes one example of the contributions that synthetic organic chemists can make to important biological problems in an interdisciplinary framework.


The invention relates to a junction box of a solar photovoltaic module, which is characterized by comprising an electrical part, wherein the electrical part comprises a group of metal sheets and diodes which are connected among the metal sheets; a cable conductor is connected with the electrical part; the electrical part and one connecting end of the cable conductor are packaged in a body plastically; the front side of the body is provided with a connecting line cavity body which is provided with a sealed cover, and a seal ring is arranged between the sealed cover and the connecting line cavity body; a radiating cavity body is arranged below the body and formed by a mounting edge and a lateral bar, and the lateral bar is connected with the mounting edge and the body; and the front ends of the metal sheets extend out of the body to stretch into the connecting line cavity body so as to form lead ends, and the mounting edge is arranged below the connecting line cavity body in an extended mode. The body, the electrical part, the connecting line cavity body and the radiating cavity body are subjected to the integral injection molding to form an integral body. The technology is simple, the manufacturing cost is low, the volume is small, the radiating performance is good, the current bearing capacity is strong, the waterproof and dustproof performance is good, and the service life is long.


We investigate the effect of radar interference on an uncoded data communication system where the optimal Maximum-A-Posteriori decoder is used and the bandwidth of the radar system is assumed to be much larger than the one of the communication system. Conclusions depend on how the radar interference power, measured by the Interference-to-Noise ratio (INR), compares with the intended signal power, measured by the Signal-to-Noise ratio (SNR).


Identifying major support mechanisms in the neural microenvironment could have significant impact against growth and invasion of malignant gliomas. The NFkB pathway is a major signaling hub that drives tumor progression and at the same time regulates the inflammatory responses of normal tissues. Here we show that animals with a stunted NFkB response exhibit reduced reactivity against intracranial gliomas, which surprisingly reduces tumor growth and invasion. NFkB-deficient mice (RelA + /- TNFR1-/-) were injected intracranially with mouse GL261 glioblastoma cells to analyze tumor phenotype. Histological and MRI analyses showed significantly smaller tumors in RelA + /- mice compared to control littermates. Interestingly, immunohistochemical studies indicated that tumors in RelA + /- mice had vascularization and infiltration of microglia/macrophages comparable to controls, but significant reduction of M2 microglia/macrophage polarization and GFAP-positive astroglia. The lower reactivity of RelA + /- astroglia was also evident following intracranial implantation of highly invasive mouse glioblastoma cells (Mut4; GFAP-Cre:Nf1loxP/+ Trp53-/+ PTENloxP/+), suggesting that the astrocyte compartment played a major role in tumor growth or invasion. To test this hypothesis we prepared cultures of brain slices, where astrocytes and their secreted ECM are the major components challenging glioma cells. Interestingly, glioblastoma cells were significantly less invasive in brain slices from NFkB-deficient mice compared to wild-type tissue. Further analysis of RelA-/–astrocytes demonstrated reduced migration towards glioblastoma cells, increased expression of neural chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans and reduced expression of the metalloproteases that cleave these inhibitory ECM proteins, lending support to the reduced tumor progression observed in vivo. Taken together, these results strongly suggest that activation of NFkB in the neural microenvironment underlies the reactive glial response that promotes tumor growth and invasion. In particular, our results highlight astroglial NFkB signaling as a driver of glioma malignancy that should be considered for long-term targeted strategies.


In the interstellar medium of galaxies and the intracluster gas of galaxy clusters, the charged particles making up cosmic rays are moving almost exclusively along (but not across) magnetic field lines. The resulting anisotropic transport of cosmic rays in the form of diffusion or streaming not only affects the gas dynamics but also rearranges the magnetic fields themselves. The coupled dynamics of magnetic fields and cosmic rays can thus impact the formation and evolution of galaxies and the thermal evolution of galaxy clusters in critical ways. Numerically studying these effects requires solvers for anisotropic diffusion that are accurate, efficient, and robust, requirements that have proven difficult to satisfy in practice. Here, we present an anisotropic diffusion solver on an unstructured moving mesh that is conservative, does not violate the entropy condition, allows for semi-implicit time integration with individual timesteps, and only requires solving a single linear system of equations per timestep. We apply our new scheme to a large number of test problems and show that it works as well or better than previous implementations. Finally, we demonstrate for a numerically demanding simulation of the formation of an isolated disk galaxy that our local time-stepping scheme reproduces the results obtained with global time-stepping at a fraction of the computational cost.


The field of stress of slope will make changes under seepage action. And seepage-field coupled stress-field result in the changes. A technique for elasto-plastic finite element method of slope under saturated-unsaturated seepage action is showed. The model of shear strength with water content is adopted. The stress and the stain of slope are determined by solving the coupling elasto-plastic equilibrium equations with seepage force taken into account, and the analysis method is applied to a practical slope analysis caused by rainfall in the paper. Besides, the example is calculated and draws conclusion by calculation. As for the effect of seepage action, the deformation of slope becomes wide, and makes the sliding surface of the slope at last. It is feasible and beneficial try to use the numerical method for analysis of slope deformation during rainfall, and is succeed in the application.


The drug-discovery arm of the contract research firm Eurofins Scientific will get a boost in early 2021 when the firm opens a 5,800 m2 facility in Murcia, Spain. Eurofins is investing $14 million i...


The positioning control of IPMC is generally considered difficult. Our previous study, however, clarifies that IPMC's position can be controlled by integral control if the residual deformation remains in the same side of the initial deformation. In this study, the effects of the positive counter ions and the negative ions on the deformation characteristics were examined. The direction of the residual strain was changed by the pH of the negative ion at around pH5.5 - pH6. If the pH is more alkaline, IPMC can be controlled its position. A mechanism of residual deformation is proposed.


Availability and reusability are desired characteristics in order to guarantee the quality of Learning Objects (LO) and, because of that, the implementation of metrics for these characteristics is important for their evaluation.This paper describes an approach that uses a Multi-Agent System for assessing the LO, applying different methods and metrics and finally weighing them to obtain an index called ELO-index. Using metadata as our source of information, the metrics used for calculating ELO-index was completeness, consistency and coherency.The obtained index can be used to recommend LO by matching them with user-provided keywords, but also to manage the repository in which they are stored evaluating their quality before being published. Keywords: Learning objects evaluation, Metrics, Multi-agent System


The utility model relates to a shock-resistance floating floor which is specifically used for buffering the impact of the outside on a cabin, and belongs to the technical field of ships. The shock-resistance floating floor comprises a floor body, a floor framework and an overload preventing vibration-isolation buffering device, and the lower end of the floor framework is connected with the overload preventing vibration-isolation buffering device through bolts. The overload preventing vibration-isolation buffering device comprises an upper buffering plate, buffering steel wire ropes, a damping air cylinder, a lower buffering plate and clamping plates, the buffering steel wire ropes are connected with the periphery of the upper buffering plate, the clamping plates are connected with the periphery of the lower buffering plate through bolts, the lower end of each buffering steel wire rope is connected with one clamping plate through threads, and the damping air cylinder is fixed in the center of the lower buffering plate. The shock-resistance floating floor is simple, compact and reasonable in structure, can buffer the impact of external force on the ship well, can improve the comfort for working personnel on the ships and the safety degree of device operating, and provides a stable work environment.


role in structuring the nation's weather patterns, as warmth from the Northwest to the upper Midwest contrasted with unusually cool weather in the Southeast. In addition, extremely dry conditions in the north-central United States were in opposition to a barrage of storm systems along the West Coast and persistent wetness across much of the South and East. Significantly cooler-than-normal weather was confined to the South and East, where temperatures averaged as much as 5°F below normal. Meanwhile, monthly readings averaged up to 10°F above normal in the upper Midwest. Little or no moisture accompanied the mild weather across the north-central United States, but at least eight inches of precipitation soaked many locations in northern California, the Pacific Northwest, the central part of Florida's peninsula, and areas from eastern Texas to the southern Appalachians.


We discuss the two-loop radiative correction to the Casimir force of Maxwell–Chern–Simons Abelian gauge field between two parallel ideal conducting wires in terms of Feynman path integral method.


High order repetitive control has been introduced to overcome performance decay of repetitive control systems under varying frequency of the signals to be tracked/rejected or improving the interhamonic behavior. However, most high order repetitive internal models used to improve frequency uncertainty are unstable, as a consequence practical implementations are more difficult. In this work a stable, second order odd-harmonic repetitive control system is presented and studied. The proposed internal model has been implemented and validated in a shunt active filter current controller. This high order controller allows dealing with the grid frequency variations without using adaptive schemes.


Introduction The individual sensitivity of a person to the effects of alcohol is defined as the possibility of adaptive reactions, which are controlled by various factors associated in their manifestation with characteristics in various ethnic populations. Objectives To determine biological profile of medical response in alcoholic patients of different ethnic groups. Methods 168 alcoholic men, aged 17 to 62 years were examined. For the therapeutic correction of withdrawal and post-withdrawal symptoms of patients from two different ethnic groups (Tatars and Russians in Siberia), the original anticonvulsant galodif (M-chloro-benzhydrylurea) was used. Pharmacokinetic parameters were calculated a model-independent method of statistical moments: half-life (T1/2,h), total clearance (Clt,ml/min), average time of the residual drug in the body (MRI,h), average elimination time (MET,h), the area under the pharmacokinetic curve (AUC, μg/ml). Results Galodif causes a reduction in almost half T1/2, a significant decrease in the average time of the residual drug in the body MRI, and the average elimination time MET. Overall clearance increased. Under the influence of the course with Galodif, antipyrine elimination intensified, which indicates the induction of the cytochrome P-450 system of microsomal liver monooxygenases in Russian alcoholic patients. Galodif causes a reduction of almost five-fold T1/2, a significant decrease MRI and MET. Activation of oxidative metabolism of xenobiotics in Tatar alcoholic patients is more significant. Conclusions The increased sensitivity of P-450 cytochrome system to anticonvulsants action with inductive detoxification properties reflects differences in adaptive mechanisms in human from various ethnic groups, what is significant in the therapy. Disclosure No significant relationships.


Building design processes show a sequential involvement of disciplines. Architects traditionally make designs while engineers make those designs buildable. However, most important decisions in building design are taken during early design phases, making traditional approaches inadequate. In order to enhance team design in conceptual design phase, an integral design method is proposed. This ID-method is meant to support creation of building design concepts by integrating discipline-specific object-design-knowledge, based on the "knowledge space" and "concept space" notions as explained by the C-K theory. The ID-method itself was designed through a series of "learning-by-doing" workshops for experienced professionals, by iteratively adjusting both the method and workshop on basis of analysis and evaluations of the previous versions. The continuous development of workshops and the final design of the ID-method are presented in this paper. One of the main results achieved is the usability of the ID-method, indicated by workshop participants' positive comments and the inclusion of the method in the Royal Institute of Dutch Architects' Academy for permanent profession development.


The triploid technology is a new frontier in shellfish aquaculture and has shown encouraging results in numerous shellfish species. We induced triploid larvae in the Yesso scallop, Patinopecten yessoensis, using hyperosmotic shock for the first time in this study. Different induction parameters, including salinity strength, treatment starting point, and the duration, were tested. The highest triploid ratio of D‐shaped larvae (72.12%) was obtained by 60 ppt salinity treatment for 20 min at the first appearance of zygote showing polar body II (PB2). A significantly faster growth rate was observed during the swimming larvae stage despite a decrease in the hatching and survival ratios. The triploid ratio decreased to 46.67%, and approximately 1.76 million triploid juveniles were harvested after 90 days of cultivation. The treatment parameters can be further optimized to improve the yield of Yesso scallop triploids.


This article explores the effects of risk attitudes on the harvesting behavior of forest landowners. In particular, the effects of changing risk behavior on the forest owners'optimal harvesting decisions are studied under timber price uncertainty. With a theoretical model introducing an endogenous risk premium and addressing nonconstant risk attitudes, it is shown how the commonly predicted increase of wealth among nonindustrial private forest owners can have profound effects on harvesting behavior and timber supply from the private forest sector. For example, the model predicts that if landowners' aversion toward risk declines with increasing wealth, the standing timber stock in nonindustrial private forests will increase in the future, and the intensity of timber harvests declines. Contrary to now-populartimber harvest models, these results are obtained without dividing the benefits of forest into timber and nontimber ones.


Developing high-quality talents, who are needs by nation and society, is the fundamental task for institutions. And people more and more concern college students' quality. This paper firstly introduces the related contents about college students' comprehensive quality evaluation, and builds the evaluation index system, using the analytic hierarchy process to determine the weight of each index.


In this paper,first of all,we introduce normal particle swarm optimization algorithms(PSO),for this kind of algorithms,there are problems like it easily stuck at a local minmum point and its convergence speed is slow,To overcome this,a Particle Swarm algorithm with speed momentum is presented for improving global and local search ability of PSO,that is,the speed iteration and position iteration formulas of PSO are revised to adjust its convergence speed and jump over local minmum points.To show effectiveness of this method,the simulations of 4 benchmark examples are carried out by the proposed method,as a result,this indicates that the proposed method is very useful.


more on providing a mass of material within the framework of detailed theoretical considerations, than upon a selective presentation of the information collected, in order to achieve a more succint and precise account of the subject. The result is that frequently valuable data and comments tend to be overshadowed by other burdensome material-which, upon a more critical examination, could conveniently have been deleted. The subject is studied in its various aspects, ranging from the origins of the Indian population to its position in contemporary Central Africa. The methodology and techniques of field work are adequately explained (pp. 16-17); while the brief account of the historical background provides useful comments on the growth of anti-Indian feeling in the area (pp. 28-9). The third chapter presents a penetrating analysis of the Indian economic role in Central Africa, especially of the extensive Indian commercial enterprise in the rural or African trade. The Asian traditions of religion, caste and family receive adequate but rather generalized attention in the subsequent three chapters. There is much valuable information in the sections dealing with unity and disunity within the Indian community (chapter 8) and inter-ethnic relations (Chapters 8 and 9). In the former, the authors examine the cleavages within Indian society along religious, caste and inter-generational lines as well as relations between patrons and clients. The changing position of the younger generation of the Asians is adequately discussed (pp. 220-1 )-but the authors could with advantage have paid greater attention to this important aspect of the subject. Chapters 8 and 9 provide important insights into the nature of relationships between the Indians and other communities at the various levels of human intercourse. It is evident, however, that these sections dealing with Indian cultural traditions and intercommunal and inter-racial relations would be of particular interest to nonIndian readers. For, the authors' fear-that 'when and if our Indian friends read this book, we are uncomfortably certain that some of them will feel that we have abused confidences ... that some will feel strongly on this point, believing that the 'truth' is distorted in these pages ...' (p. 17)-is more than likely to apply to a number of their comments and conclusions. The main fault here lies in the uncritical manner in which inter-religious and inter-racial prejudices of various anonymous informants, or mere polemics, are freely quoted-see pp. 190-1, 261-5, 276-7, and generally Chapters 8, 9 and 10. The concluding chapters of this book contain important material relating to the position of the Indians under the Federation, and the problems and prospects posed for them by the rise of African nationalism. The changing role and position of the Indian minority in the plural societies of modern Central Africa is fully examined; and the authors hold out little prospects of the current inter-racial tensions, or the Asian anxieties about their future, being resolved in the near future.


We propose a methodology to identify structured knowledge (ontologies) that is based upon the concept of entropy and its associated distance measures, i.e. the Kullba ckLeibler distance or mutual information. At the heart of such a methodology is the probability distribution of states, where the states define the knowledge for a given application field. The first approach presented in this paper either identifies a new stru cture or extends an existing structure on a taxonomy. In contrast t o Resnik's similarity measure, used in computational lingui stics, we do not consider probability distributions of large corpora of text or any documents at all. In a first step, we impose a probability distribution on the elements of an ontology, where the distribution depends on the constraints set for the intended meaning of the ontology.


paper shows the comparative analysis of a cylindrical dielectric resonator antenna (CDRA) fed by nonresonant microstrip patch and a proximity-fed planar annular slot (PPAS) antenna. The antenna array having an antenna element for higher directive gain at the center frequency 9.04 GHz. The band-notch is detained by almost a half-wavelength split-ring parasitic element printed around the radiating patch which is excited via a proximity-fed strip line with a planning of EBG via holes. The voltage standing wave ratio (VSWR) of the annular slot antenna is less than 2.0 in the frequency band of 7.92 GHz i.e. from 2.82 to 10.74 GHz. The PPAS antenna provides good gain flatness, high efficiency and omnidirectional field pattern over its whole frequency band and is appropriate for UWB applications. While CDRA array offer a bandwidth of 3.8 GHz and maximum gain of 14.8 dBi at the operating frequency Keywordsgain, cylindrical DRA (CDRA), dielectric resonator antenna (DRA), nonresonant microstrip patch.


Climate change has become one of the main environmental, social and economic challenges of our society. The measures that have been taken to address it cover both the international and European, as well as the national, regional and even local level. In this way, local initiatives have been taking center stage through networks of cities and international agreements that try to encourage the local powers to fight against the change. In 2008, the European Commission launched the so-called "Covenant of Mayors", a European agreement involving local and regional authorities with the aim of improving energy efficiency and using renewable energy sources in their territories. To this end, all participating cities must draw up an Action Plan. The objective of this task is to analyze the Action Plan for Sustainable Energy of the city of Ecija, which includes the approved measures aimed at achieving the objective of reducing the level of CO2 emissions by 20.23% for the year 2020. Previously, the main characteristics and socio economic indicators of the city are also analyzed. In agreement with this Plan, the city plans to save 64,127.26 MWh of energy, a renewable energy production of 61,215.99 MWh and a reduction of CO2 emissions of around 49,736.62 tons. Likewise, the three reference measures included in this Plan are the "Improvement of the energy efficiency of public buildings", the "Promotion of the Renovation Plan for the replacement of house hold appliances" and the "Construction of new bicycle lanes and bicycle parking".


Variable-speed Wind Energy Conversion Systems based on doubly fed induction generators have a strong and substantial presence in today's wind power segment. Variable-speed operation of wind turbines offer to reduce stresses of the mechanical structure, noise reduction and the possibility to control active and reactive power. Presence of reactive power is mandatory for the stable and reliable operation of the power system. Doubly fed induction generator based wind turbines are capable of supplying both active and reactive power. For accurate assessment of the stability of the system and to control the voltage, the availability of reactive power in the system is a must. The shortage of reactive power is compensated by VAR regulators in power system. The situation worsens at the advent of various types of power system faults. The present paper explains the response of the reactive power in doubly fed induction generator wind turbine system to grid disturbances under normal, symmetrical fault & unsymmetrical fault conditions with and without VAR regulator. Keywords-wind energy conversion system, doubly fed induction generator, symmetrical fault, unsymmetrical fault, reactive power, stability 40 Sarika Shrivastava et al


Rattan agroforest is a swidden cultivation systems, which apply slash-burning and fallow rotation in its development. This system is commonly practised by local farmers of Dayak in Central Kalimantan. The objective of the study was to assess soil characteristics of 5 land use types, namely forest, secondary forest (baliang), young rattan agroforest (bahu), complex ruber-rattan agroforest (CRR), and simple rubber agroforest (SR) in two villages in Katingan. The method used in the study was regular methods of soil analysis, such as pH (H2O &KCl), Corganic(Walkley & Black), Pavailable (Bray), Ntotal (Kjeldahl), and soil texture. The result showed that in the top layer (0-10 cm depth), forest has the highest C/N ratio, but the lowest ratio of Corg/Cref compare to others. Forest has the lowest Pcontent (4.02 ppm), while SR has the highest Pcontent (12.06 ppm). CRR and SR tends to have higher clay content than sand content. In general, farming systems determine characteristics of the soils. Forest conserves soil characteristics, while management that applied by farmers in the agroforestry system may improve soil fertility.


Background  The larvae of Lucilia sericata induce myiasis and transmit mycobacterial infections to humans and animals. Consequently, the blowfly should be controlled for human welfare and economic reasons.


Information technology, especially the World Wide Web, has had a tremendous impact on the tourism industry over the past years. It is difficult for most destination marketing organizations, however, to keep pace with the evolution of new technologies, the emergence of innovative advertising strategies, the changes in the consumer market, and the growing competition due to increasing globalization. The National Laboratory for Tourism and eCommerce organized a workshop in an effort to identify effective strategies for tourism advertising on the Internet. The results indicated that information technology has led to a number of profound changes in the assumptions underlying communication strategies. It was concluded that the change occurring in the new economy involves a rethinking of who partners and competitors are and how networks with other organizations can increase organizational capacity to learn. Thus, it is argued that success of destination marketing organizations in the new economy is more about change in approach than technology itself.


Off-shoring has been a popular mantra over the past two decades. The Indian Information Technology (IT) companies are finding ways and means to retain their competitive advantage by changing delivery locations and giving value added services offering. This paper delves into the current state of the Indian IT services industry and attempts to find out the domestic IT services opportunity from perspective of Indian IT vendors. The paper attempts study the domestic IT market also explores the future of the off-shoring revolution for the Indian IT industry. The papers throws light on the domestic opportunity that are still left untapped and proposes a model for outsourcing, which can be adopted by Indian IT giants for long term sustainability of business.


The effect of lowK polymer passivation on electrical leakage was investigated to evaluate the reliability of polymer integration on device wafers. Polyimide passivation over Al(0.5%Cu) interconnects inlaid in TEOS increases the intralevel leakage current mainly along the polyimide/ TEOS interface. Moisture absorbed in the polyimide, as confirmed by residual gas analysis, further increases the interfacial as well as bulk leakages. These findings emphasize the importance of separating interconnects from direct contact with polyimide/TEOS interfaces and minimizing moisture content of polyimide during processing to ensure electrical isolation in multilevel interconnect architecture that employs lowK polymer dielectrics. INTRODUCTION Fluorinated polyimide could potentially replace TEOS as an interlevel dielectric in future interconnect technologies [1]. The capacitance reduction attained from integrating a low dielectric constant (lowK ) polymer offers benefits of reduced dynamic power dissipation, crosstalk, and signal propagation delay [2]-[4]. Although the thermal and mechanical properties of fluorinated polyimide have been characterized extensively [4]-[6], little has been reported on the electrical reliability associated with polymer integration on device wafers. Specifically, the electrical stability of the polymer/TEOS interface must be examined since both RIE and inlaid metal architectures incorporating lowK polymer dielectrics will likely employ inorganic dielectric liners as polymer capping layers, etch/polish stops, and/or hard masks [7], [8]. In this paper, we report increased line-to-line leakage along the interface between fluorinated polyimide and TEOS as a potential isolation issue. We also address the impact of moisture on the leakage since moisture management is critical for successful polyimide integration [9]. EXPERIMENT Fabrication of Test Structures Interdigitated inlaid Al(0.5%Cu) comb1 / serpentine / comb2 structures, as illustrated in Figure 1, were fabricated for intralevel leakage current measurements. The processing sequence commenced with a 68-Å gate oxidation on 10Ω •cm n-Si substrates followed by a 1.6-μm plasmaAdvanced Metallization and Interconnect Systems for ULSI Applications in 1997, San Diego, CA, October 1, 1997. 2 Loke et al. : Electrical Stability of LowK Polyimide/TEOS Interface enhanced TEOS deposition. Subsequent to the backside oxide etch, the TEOS surface was patterned to time-etch 0.5-μm deep trenches. The resulting trenches were filled by conformal Al(0.5%Cu) using a process sequence consisting of 200 Å PVD Ti, 0.1 μm collimated PVD Al, 0.8 μm CVD Al (DMAH precursor), and 0.6 μm PVD Al(1%Cu) [10]. The excess metal was immediately removed by chemo-mechanical polishing (CMP), resulting in planarized inlaid metal lines with equal line width and spacing of 0.5 μm, and a serpentine length of 1.7 m. The inlaid metal wafers comprised three experimental splits. In the first split [Figure 2(a)], a DuPont VM651 adhesion promoter was applied and 1.2 μm DuPont FPI-136M fluorinated polyimide ( K out-of-plane = 2.6 and K in-plane = 3.0 [11]) was subsequently spun over the inlaid lines, cured at 400 °C for 30 min, and capped by a 0.18-μm PECVD nitride hard mask. The polyimide/nitride stack was then etched to expose metal pads for probing. The second and third splits had no passivation [Figure 2(b)] and 1.2-μm TEOS passivation respectively [Figure 2(c)]. A fourth split, consisting of TEOS-gapfilled RIE metal (0.5-μm thick Ti/TiN/ Al(0.5%Cu)/Ti/ TiN stack) on 1.1 μm TEOS, was fabricated for a technology comparison [Figure 2(d)]. All wafers were annealed in forming gas at 390 °C for 30 min prior to electrical testing. Electrical Testing Intralevel leakage currents between the serpentine and comb ( comb1 + comb2 ) electrodes were measured in the 100 to 275 °C range using an HP4156A Precision Semiconductor Parameter Analyzer. With both comb and substrate grounded, a voltage ramp was applied to the serpentine to force current into the other electrodes via possible leakage paths indicated in Figure 3. As confirmed by capacitance-voltage measurements, positive V serp conditions ensured the Si surface remained in deep accumulation to behave essentially as a grounded plate during the I-V sweep. Since no potential difference existed between the comb and the substrate, the current returning to the comb electrode was measured to decouple parasitic leakage to the substrate. Electrical noise Figure 2. Cross-section of experimental splits: (a) polyimide-passivated inlaid Al(Cu), (b) unpassivated inlaid Al(Cu), (c) TEOS-passivated inlaid Al(Cu), and (d) TEOS-gapfilled RIE Al(Cu). nitride fluorinated polyimide


We compare two approaches to concurrent game semantics, one by Tsukada and Ong for a simply-typed λ-calculus and the other by the authors and collaborators for CCS and the π-calculus. The two approaches are obviously related, as they both define strategies as sheaves for the Grothendieck topology induced by embedding 'views' into 'plays'. However, despite this superficial similarity, the notions of views and plays differ significantly: the former is based on standard justified sequences, the latter uses string diagrams. In this paper, we relate both approaches at the level of plays. Specifically, we design a notion of play (resp. view) for the simply-typed λ-calculus, based on string diagrams as in our previous work, into which we fully embed Tsukada and Ong's plays (resp. views). We further provide a categorical explanation of why both notions yield essentially the same model, thus demonstrating that the difference is a matter of presentation. In passing, we introduce an abstract framework for producing sheaf models based on string diagrams, which unifies our present and previous models.


. Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) are widely used as a succinct model for distributed systems with (partly or fully) autonomous components. Whenever these components do not intrinsically cooperate, but pursue their individual goals in a purely selfish way ( Competitive MAS ), there is a natural challenge to prevent undesirable and destructive system behaviour and to achieve system-level objectives. While agent autonomy is an essential characteristic of an MAS and can therefore not simply be replaced with full control or centralised management without losing its core functionality, it is still possible to achieve a certain level of control by applying a suitable governance approach. I am proposing a new solution for this challenge. My approach adds to the usual agent/environment structure of an MAS a Governance component which can observe publicly available information about agents and environment, and, in turn, has the right to restrict the action spaces of agents and thus prevent certain environmental transitions. As opposed to most existing methods, this approach does not rely on any assumptions about agent utilities, strategies or preferences. It therefore takes into consideration the fundamental fact that actions are not always directly linked to genuine agent preferences, but can also reflect anticipated competitor behaviour, be a concession to a superior adversary or simply be intended to mislead other agents. The present paper motivates and describes the approach, defines the scope of the PhD project and shows its current status and challenges.


The study of cosmopolitan earthworms could be even more interesting than that of endemic species in revealing evolutionary processes. Previous research on the cosmopolitan worm Eiseniella tetraedra has indicated some phylogeographic structure among populations, but the factors responsible remain unresolved. We hypothesized that environmental factors and dispersal have shaped the distribution of the species' lineages.


To elucidate the cAMP's bi-directional dual effect on hepatic regeneration with a special reference to RB protein, we studied the serial change of RB protein in the proliferating primary rat hepatocytes and the effect of dibutyryl cAMP (DBcAMP) on it. RB protein in the hepatocytes was down-regulated during the G1 phase, and the highly phosphorylated/the underphosphorylated ratio of RB protein increased at the S phase. DBcAMP (1 mM) addition, inhibitory on the DNA synthesis, enhanced this down-regulation, but did not increase the phosphorylated form of RB protein at the S phase. High dose of cAMP at the late G1-G1/S phase could block some essential events for G1/S transition including phosphorylation of RB protein.


In this article, evaluation index system was constructed based on logistics capability by AHP method and coefficient of variation. Principle analysis about the supply chain logistics was carried out. The system can be used as reference of assessing supply chain logistics revenue. First of all, looking for the best performance of the supply chain logistics efficiency index between logistics and supply chain logistics capability, mode of action, mechanism of action, the core content by AHP method. That is the logistics capability of supply chain logistics. Secondly, in the experimental simulation part, weights about capacity of logistics elements and logistics operation were calculated by coefficient of variation. Logistics capability will be eventually as an evaluation index of supply chain logistics assessment system that maximize efficiency.


Media is very useful in increasing knowledge, especially in adolescents. Animated media is one of the ways in which education
 and information can be conveyed properly to adolescents. Therefore, the researchers wanted to see the effectiveness of motion graphics on the knowledge and attitudes of adolescents regarding fast food.
This study used a cross sectional study design with a sample size of 120 samples. The instrument for this study used questionnaire pre-test and post-test. The analysis used in this study is the Wilcoxon test. There is a change in the attitude of adolescents after being given counseling using motion graphics, namely a p-value of 0.000 and knowledge did not experience a significant change p-value 0.165. Based on these results, it is certain that there is a need for changes in healthy living behavior to avoid obesity which has an impact on degenerative diseases. In addition, there is a need for new ways to provide counseling to
adolescents, namely using motion graphics which are quite effective in providing information.


The present study analyses the spill-over's effect between the interest rate cash and futures market in India. We use daily data of volumes, weighted average price, weighted average yield to represent cash market and number of contracts traded, values, open interest, settlement price to represent futures market from 4th August 2014 to 31st December 2015 with 337(trading days) number of observations. We consider a single instrument (i.e. 08.40 GS 2024) which is most liquid, active and have contracts for a longer time period. All data are sourced from Clearing Corporation of India Ltd. (CCIL) and National Stock Exchange (NSE). We first presents descriptive statistics followed by stationarity test, Correlation, Regression, Granger Causality test and ARMA (1, 1), GARCH (1, 1) spillover'smodel. The study finds cash market price is leading the futures market but the future settlement price has impact on the yield of the underlying security.


Abstract Cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) has been detected in lentil (Lens culinaris L.) seed grown in New Zealand. In 1994 experimental plots of lentil plants 'Rajah' inoculated with CMV yielded 15% less seed than uninoculated. In 1995, seed losses were similar for 'Rajah' and 'Titore', but losses were greater at 17 and 19%, respectively. Plant numbers were also reduced by CMV infection—by 18% in 'Rajah' and 7% in 'Titore'. Thousand seed weight was not affected by infection. Surveys of commercial lentil seed lines detected CMV incidences of between 0.05 and 2.5%. In a field experiment in 1996, using four levels of seed‐borne CMV (0, 0.5, 1, and 2%) obtained by blending infected and healthy seed, mean seed‐borne incidences in harvested material of between 1.5 and 6% were recorded. No reductions in seed weight or subsequent germination rate were recorded. Plant numbers were slightly reduced by seed‐borne CMV. Transmission of CMV from infected seed was measured. A linear relationship was observed from 1% transm...


Objective To determine the cis-element in the regulation of rat ALAS-1 promoter by PGC-1β.MethodsTransient transfection with PGC-1β was done in Hep G2,then dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to investigate fold activity of rat ALAS-1 promoter when over-expressing PGC-1β.Reconstructing ALAS-1 promoter reporters including a series of 5′-deletions and cis-element mutations,dual-luciferase reporter assay was performed to assay NRF-1 binding sites in rat ALAS-1 promoter.We constructed adenoviral PGC-1β and adenoviral siRNA of NRF1 and isolated rat primary hepatocytes and examined the effects of PGC-1β on the rat ALAS-1 transcription.Results Overexpression of PGC-1β stimulated the transcription of ALAS-1 in Hep G2 cells,while over-expressing NRF-1 alone had no stimulation effect.We constructed NRF-1 binding site mutated ALAS-1 promoter,the promoter activity was obviously diminished by overexpression of PGC-1β.PGC-1β promotes the transcription of ALAS-1 in the rat primary hepatocytes.When we used the siRNA to interfere the expression of NRF-1,the stimulating effect of PGC-1β on the ALAS-1 was attenuated.Conclusion PGC-1β promoting transcription of ALAS-1 is mainlyexplained by NRF-1 in Hep G2 cells and rat primary hepatocytes.


After an extensive process of investigation, field trials and consultation, a new residential electricity tariff available to all domestic customers was introduced thoughout Victoria on 1 July 1990. The new tariff is a time-of-use tariff designated as WINNER tariff (WINNER = Weekend INcentive and Night Economy Rate) available as an option to existing tariffs. The development and implementation process is described.


IL‐4 activates STAT6 and causes the subsequent up‐regulation of Ig heavy chain germline Igε via chromatin remodeling involved in B lymphocytes development. STAT6 acts as a molecular switch to regulate the higher‐order chromatin remodeling via dynamically orchestrating co‐activators (CBP/Tudor‐SN) and co‐repressors (HDAC1/PSF). Here, we demonstrated that STAT6/Tudor‐SN/PSF form a complex, balancing the acetylation and deacetylation states to co‐regulate IL‐4/STAT6 gene transcription. In addition, we confirmed that IL‐4 treatment increased the HATs activity in Ramos cells. As "active" markers, the expression of H3K9ac and H3K27ac increased after treatment with IL‐4. However, transcriptional repressors such as H3K9me3 and H3K27me3 decreased in response to IL‐4 stimulation. Moreover, IL‐4 treatment enhanced H3 acetylation at the Igε promoter regions. Our results revealed that the Igε gene transcription is regulated by histone modifications in the IL‐4/STAT6 pathway. The study will provide novel insights into the pathogenesis of allergic diseases. Anat Rec, 298:1431–1439, 2015. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.


The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of mothers' stressors, maternal depression, and disrupted parenting on Thai preschoolers' conduct problems. One hundred ninety-eight mother-child dyads were recruited from 8 schools under the supervision of Bangkok Metropolitan Administration. Data were collected from October 2012 to May 2013. There were two main steps in the data collecting process: screening and collecting data. The participants were screened based on the children's conduct-problems score. Data were collected via eight self-administered questionnaires; 1) Demographic data form, 2) Strength and Difficulties Questionnaire, 3) Everyday Stressors Index, 4) Locke-Wallace Marital Adjustment Test, 5) Difficult Child Questionnaire , 6) Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale, 7) Parenting Scale, and 8) Eyberg Child Behavior Inventory and then analyzed using path analysis. There were significant indirect effects of the mothers' stressors (i.e. daily hassles, marital satisfaction, and child difficult temperament) on child conduct problems through maternal depression and disrupted parenting. In addition, maternal depression and disrupted parenting independently affected child conduct problems. Thus interventions to reduce maternal depression and to improve effective parenting are essential to reduce conduct problems in preschool-aged children.


Finding similar questions from historical archives has been applied to question answering, with well theoretical underpinnings and great practical success. Nevertheless, each question in the returned candidate pool often associates with multiple answers, and hence users have to painstakingly browse a lot before finding the correct one. To alleviate such problem, we present a novel scheme to rank answer candidates via pairwise comparisons. In particular, it consists of one offline learning component and one online search component. In the offline learning component, we first automatically establish the positive, negative, and neutral training samples in terms of preference pairs guided by our data-driven observations. We then present a novel model to jointly incorporate these three types of training samples. The closed-form solution of this model is derived. In the online search component, we first collect a pool of answer candidates for the given question via finding its similar questions. We then sort the answer candidates by leveraging the offline trained model to judge the preference orders. Extensive experiments on the real-world vertical and general community-based question answering datasets have comparatively demonstrated its robustness and promising performance. Also, we have released the codes and data to facilitate other researchers.


In the current climate of Internet popularity, and the growth in the use of learning technologies in the classroom, there is increasing demand for the development of new and engaging web sites for use in schools. Most environmental education web sites and online learning programs still deliver information and continue to 'raise awareness' of environmental issues. The Gould League believes the internet can be used to take environmental education beyond awareness raising and web sites can be developed that empower students and their teachers and deliver both environmental and educational outcomes. Wildscape is accessed through the Gould League web site and was the first of the Gould League's web-based online learning programs. It was created in response to requests from teachers for assistance with practical school ground environmental projects.


Energy is a difficult concept to be understood by students of all levels. Thus, the aim of the study is to determine how high school students at different levels perceive the energy and related concepts. In line with this purpose, 173 students in total of which 57 ones of the 9th grade, 94 ones of the 10th grade and 22 ones of the 11th grade participated in the study in which developmental research method of descriptive research design has been conducted. Four open-ended questions about energy and related concepts have been asked to the students in the study. As a result of the study, it is concluded that the students use energy instead of work, power, repulsion and pulling concepts and they consider energy as a feature specific to living creatures and moving situations. The potential and kinetic energy types are most expressed ones. The students frequently give examples from renewable and non-renewable energy types and they classify them accordingly. It is also concluded that they don't have enough information about conservation of energy. It is thought that this misconception among the students emerges because energy and related concepts are taught them disconnected in different lessons of different disciplines and they do not understand preconceptions about energy and related notions. It is considered that the concept networks, concept maps, and conceptual change texts will help to relate energy concepts in students' minds.


UVA treatment of cultured human skin fibroblasts (FEK4) has been shown previously to reduce transcriptional activation of heme oxygenase 1 (HO‐1) following a second dose of UVA radiation, a phenomenon known as refractoriness. This study demonstrates that the levels of HO‐1 protein are also reduced after a second dose of UVA radiation as are Nrf2 levels, and there is less accumulation of Nrf2 in the nucleus where as Bach1 does accumulate in the nucleus. Cell viability is further reduced and cell membrane damage increased as compared with a single UVA treatment when an initial UVA treatment was followed by a second dose. Knockdown of Nrf2 by siRNA (siNrf2) targeting caused additional refractoriness of HO‐1 protein induction to a second UVA or heme treatment and this treatment also further enhanced cell damage by a second dose of UVA radiation. However, transfection with Nrf2 caused less refractoriness of HO‐1 to a second dose of UVA and reduced cell damage by a second dose of UVA radiation. These findings are consistent with the proposal that Nrf2 is involved in HO‐1 refractoriness and could serve as a cytoprotective factor against cell damage caused by repeated exposure to moderate doses of UVA radiation. We propose that protection by the Nrf2‐HO‐1 pathway protection may have clinical relevance since human skin is exposed repeatedly to UVA radiation.


Calculations were made of the cross sectioms for inelastic interactions and nuclear opacity using the uniform smoothed nuclear model and based on experimental data from pi -meson interactions with graphite and lead at 0.9 to 34 Bev. The cross section magnitudes obtained, sigma pi = 33 plus or minus 4 mb, are in good agreement with the magnitudes obtained from direct measurements. It was observed that at energies above 1.9 Bev the cross sections of pi -meson interactions do not vary with energies up to 34 Bev. The data indicate that the nuclear and electromagnetic nuclear radii coincide when uniform smoothed distribution is used. (R.V.J.)


It is necessary and urgent to strengthen the construction of credit economy at present in China.This paper puts forward that the strengthening of credit economy construction should be set out on the aspects like construction of government credit,industrial credit and individual credit,etc.


We hypothesized that adding liquid feed (LF; source of rapidly available sugar) would maintain or improve measures of dairy cattle performance to a greater degree when corn grain is more coarsely ground as compared to finely ground. The more rapidly available source of carbohydrates provided by the LF may compensate for the more slowly degradable carbohydrates of the coarsely ground corn (CGC); therefore, the performance of the dairy cattle provided the LF (Quality Liquid Feeds, Dodgeville, WI) and coarsely ground corn could be comparable to feeding finely ground corn (FGC). The study was conducted on 60 Holstein cows milked twice a day. The cows began the study at 60 days in milk (DIM), where they began a two-week covariate period (fed the FGC diet), followed by random assignment to one of five diets. The five diets were: steam-flaked corn (SFC) (control), FGC, CGC, FGC plus LF, and CGC plus LF. All diets were formulated to contain 16% alfalfa, 24% corn silage, 6% grass hay, and 54% grain. The diets were adjusted to maintain 36% neutral detergent fiber (NDF), 20.3% forage NDF, and 36% non-structural carbohydrates (NSC). For the diets which contained LF, 3.5% of the grain was removed from the diet, and 3.5% of the diet was LF. The FGC + LF and CGC + LF treatments contained 50.5% grain and 3.5% LF. No differences were observed in dry matter intake (DMI) among diets; however, the SFC diet produced the least efficient milk production. Feeding SFC decreased milk fat percentage (P < 0.10), and yield (P <0.05). Milk protein yield was similar among diets; however, milk protein percentage was higher for ground corn diets not supplemented with LF (P <0.05). Milk urea nitrogen was lowest for the SFC diet (P > 0.05), with no differences among other diets. Observations from this study revealed that supplementing LF in the diet with either FGC or CGC did not affect the performance of lactating dairy cows. Introduction and Problem Identification Increasing the digestibility and rate of degradation of NSC in the diets of dairy cattle can improve rumen microbial activity and forage utilization. The more efficiently rumen microbes ferment the dietary nutrients of the rumen, the more efficiently milk can be produced (Firkins et al., 2001). Research by Callison et al. (2001) has revealed that decreasing the particle size of corn can effect the digestibility of NSC. However, increasing the digestibility and degradation of the NSC from corn in the rumen requires processing, which comes at a price to dairy producers. Firkins et al. (2008) found that supplementation of LF with a white grease product increased milk production, milk fat percentage, and milk protein percentage. Supplementing CGC with LF could compensate for the slow degradability of the NSC of corn, and offer an alternative to using finely ground corn in lactating dairy cow diets. The focus of this research was to determine whether supplementing LF in diets with finely and coarsely ground corn could offer an alternative to the highly processed corn grain, SFC, without limiting animal performance. By comparing the performance of animals given either finely or coarsely ground corn, with or without supplementation of LF, conclusions pertaining to the amount of grain processing can also be made. If feeding CGC supplemented with LF results in similar performance measures as a finely ground corn diet, corn fed to lactating dairy cattle could be processed less, reducing cost of processing, while still offering the same production of milk. We proposed that the addition of LF to a diet with CGC could offer similar production measures of a more processed corn grain, such as steam-flaked corn or more finely ground corn. We proposed that the liquid feed would compensate for the more slowly degradable NSC present in CGC by offering more readily available energy for microbial fermentation of feedstuffs, without impacting DMI, milk production, milk fat, and milk protein. Hypothesis The hypothesis of the experiment was that sugars in LF will maintain or improve measures of dairy cattle performance to a greater degree when corn grain is coarsely compared to finely ground. Procedures and Methodology Sixty Holstein cows from The Ohio State University's Waterman Dairy Center were used during this research project. A parallel study, conducted by other department researchers, was conducted using 5 rumen cannulated dairy cows in a 5 x 5 Latin square during which the diets fed were the same as used in this experiment. The study with cannulated cows examined ruminal fermentation characteristics and digestibility. Cows began the trial after they had been in milk at least 06 days. The cows immediately began their two week covariate diet, which was the FGC diet. After the covariate diet was fed for two weeks, the cows were blocked by parity, previous lactation milk yield, and date of calving and assigned to 1 of 12 blocks. Within each block, cows were randomly assigned to one of the five diets. The diets consisted of 24% corn silage, 16% alfalfa hay, 6% grass hay, and 54% grain (Table 1). The diet was adjusted to maintain 36% NDF; therefore, the proportion of alfalfa and grass hay fed varied throughout the trial, but averaged 20% for the alfalfa and 2% for the grass hay. The concentrate portions of the non-LF supplemented diets contained 54% concentrate. The LF supplemented diets had 3.5% less grain, with 3.5% LF added. The LF was 66% dry matter. On a dry matter basis, the LF contained 30.3% protein and 53% total sugar; therefore the LF were expected to provide 1.86% supplemental sugar to the diets containing the LF. Table 1. Ingredient composition of diets (% of DM). SFC=Steam flaked corn, FGC= finely ground corn, CGC=coarsely ground corn, and LF=liquid feed. Amounts of alfalfa and grass hay were adjusted to maintain NDF at 36%. The cows were housed in tiestalls at The Ohio State University's Waterman Dairy Complex. Cows were milked twice a day at 0500 and 1700h in a double-8 herringbone parlor. Feed was mixed in the evening, after refusals had been collected and weighed. Item SFC FGC CGC FGC + LF CGC + LF Corn Silage 24.0 24.0 24.0 24.0 24.0 Alfalfa Hay 16.0 16.0 16.0 16.0 16.0 Grass Hay 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 6.0 Concentrate 54.0 54.0 54.0 50.5 50.5 LF 0.0 0.0 0.0 3.5 3.5 The cows were fed at 110% ad libitum intake, and feed was offered twice a day. The total mixed ration (TMR) and refusal samples were sampled during weeks 4, 8, and 12 of the trial for analysis of sorting using a three-screen Penn State Particle size separator. The TMR samples were also taken weekly for analysis of DMI. Milk samples were taken for four consecutive milkings weekly and analyzed for milk fat and protein percentages, and milk urea nitrogen (MUN) at DHI Cooperative, Inc (Columbus, OH). Weighted averages for milk fat and protein percentages were calculated using the daily production data. Body weights were taken weekly. Body condition scores (BCS) were taken at the beginning of the covariate period, at the beginning of the treatment diet, and during weeks 4, 8, and 12 of the treatment period. The DM analysis of corn silage was taken weekly and adjustments were made in the diets. Monthly samples of the alfalfa and grass hay were taken to adjust NDF concentrations to the target 36% NDF. Concentrates were sampled weekly and new shipments of SFC were sampled upon arrival. Forages and concentrates were analyzed in the ruminant nutrition lab within the Department of Animal Sciences at The Ohio State University. The data were analyzed as a randomized complete block design with block as a random effect. Repeated measures (dependent variables by week) were analyzed using PROC MIXED (SAS, 2004), cow within diet and block as the SUBJECT, and the autoregressive (AR(1)) covariance structure was used for all data except the concentrations of milk components for which compound symmetry was used. No diet by week interactions (P < 0.10) occurred except for BW (P = 0.10), and this is not discussed given that there were no differences among treatments for BW change. Results and Discussion Only 54 cows were used in the study, rather than the target of 60. Cows were removed from the study due to health problems or death unassociated with the treatment diets. Data were collected with 11 cows per treatment, with 10 cows used in the FGC + LF diet. Twenty-six cows within the study were primiparous and 28 were multiparous. The study conducted parallel to this one examined the digestibility of the various corn grain (Table 2)( Eastridge et al., 2011). From the results listed, the A pool values were lowest for the CGC, which is expected due to the larger particle size; however, the B pool of the CGC is higher than values of the B pool for the other two corn varieties. The FGC had the largest A pool. The rates of degradation (Kd) for the corn varieties were similar; however, ruminal degradation differed among them. Ruminal degradation values listed from highest to lowest were: FGC, SFC, and CGC. Table 2. In situ DM digestibility of steam flaked corn (SFC) and coarsely and finely ground corn (CGC and FGC, respectively). Means in the same column differ (P < 0.05). Kd= Rate of degradation and RD = extent of ruminal degradation. Corn Grain A pool (%) B pool (%) C pool (%) Kd (/h) RD (%) Lag (h) SFC 11.51 85.0 3.52 0.043 50.1 0.00 FCG (0.8 mm) 15.42 83.1 1.45 0.057 53.6 2.27 CGC (1.9 mm) 6.08 91.1 2.82 0.052 43.1 2.94 SEM 1.17 1.9 1.31 0.005 0.9 0.32 Analysis of the diets was generally similar to target values. However, the protein percentage was 92% of the target value. Due to the high DMI observed, adequate protein was still provided in the diets. The percentage of starch in the corn silage was also lower than expected. The NDF values of the diets were similar to the target of 36%; however, the diets did vary from 34 to 38%. Starch was similar among diets without supplemental LF. Since 3.5% of the grain was removed for the diets containing LF, starch co


This Essay proposes that the risk of a prematurely insolvent victim's trust can be reduced considerably by bolstering these two pillars. Our proposal seeks to (1) rebuild the future claimants' representative role in order to ensure that future victims' interests are effectively represented and (2) recalibrate the claim estimation process by facilitating coordination between the bankruptcy court and nonbankruptcy federal and state courts.


The heats of formation of mixed copper(II) complexes [Cu(bipy)L](bipy = 2,2′-bipyridyl; L = malonate, succinate maleate, or phthalate) have been determined calorimetrically at 25 °C in 0.1 mol dm–3 Na[ClO4], and have been used to calculate the relative enthalpies. Consideration of thermodynamic and e.s.r. and electronic spectroscopic data shows that all the mixed complexes have the same structure because of the requirements of the bipy ligand, the only exception being [Cu(bipy)(succ)] for which a square-pyramidal structure has been proposed. This difference in behaviour between the succinate anion and the other acid anions has also been found to occur for the simple complexes [CuL] as shown by a plot of their partial molar entropies against those of the corresponding ligands.


Woody roots, 2 – 4 mm in diameter, of Norway spruce (Picea abies) were inoculated with an S strain of Heterobasidion annosum. After 8 – 20 days the roots were prepared for examination by light microscopy as well as transmission and scanning electron microscopy. The roots had one or several periderms and sometimes remnant cortex cells on the surface. The fungal infection was restricted to the remnant cortex cells and the rhytidome after an incubation period of 20 days. Accumulation of granular materials, most likely phenolic in nature, prevailed in the infected periderm cells. Fungal hyphae enclosed in these materials showed signs of degeneration. Based on these results, we conclude that the rhytidome acts as a successful barrier to infection of the inner parts of the root for at least 20 days following inoculation with H. annosum. Both structural and chemical defence mechanisms are involved. Key words: Norway spruce, Heterobasidion annosum, root infection, woody roots, microscopy.


It is well known that SARS (Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome) is a product of globalization. Otherwise, it could not possibly spread so fast to so many countries in such a short time. From Metropole Hotel in Waterloo Road on February 21, 2003, SARS spread to the entire Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, Singapore, Vietnam, and Canada, and then further spread in a few weeks through international air travel routes to other countries in Asia, North America, and Europe. However, if globalization has facilitated the spread of SARS, it also has laid the foundation for controlling it. The global agency of WHO (the World Health Organization) quickly launched a Global Outbreak Alert and Response Network (GOARN), linking together 112 existing networks that together possess much of the data, expertise, and skills needed to keep the international community alert to SARS outbreaks and ready to respond.1 Perhaps owing to WHO's global network and prompt action, SARS cases were quickly detected and isolated in the world, with the result that further transmission was either avoided entirely or kept to a very small number of cases. By


The phrase "civil legal liability"contains different meaning,one is original,another is extended.The legal liability with extended meaning is common legal duty.The legal liability with original meaning means the legal duty directly affirmed by nation which was caused by duty man's undoing his common legal duty.


This paper addresses several of the challenges that exist in product portfolio development by incorporating data mining clustering and predictive decision tree techniques to generate the optimal product portfolio. We aim to maximize the diverse product functionality requirements of customers while concurrently minimizing product functionality overlap among products within a product portfolio. This is achieved by analyzing customer raw data and generating a robust product architecture, based on customer attribute preference information. The data mining stage utilizes a data set including asymmetric customer preference information to better model realistic scenarios. A reference product is established based on each unique product architecture that will evolve into product variants, given customer predicted preference targets. The underlying product design tradeo involves incorporating the maximum allowable flexibility in a reference product before having to generate product variants. Several influencing factors include the cost, weight or performance expectations constraining the engineering design team or the enterprise decision makers. A cell phone case study is presented that demonstrates the eectiveness of the proposed approach in generating a product portfolio comprising of reconfigurable product architectures that form the existing product families.


A Weaver image rejection receiver using 60-GHz double-quadrature sub-harmonic Schottky diode mixer is demonstrated using 0.35-μm SiGe BiCMOS technology. A miniature RF quadrature generator is realized to generate 60-GHz quadrature RF signals. A Weaver image rejection architecture is applied in this paper to filter out the image signals. A triple-balanced sub-harmonic Schottky diode mixer with a trifilar transformer is adopted to the first down conversion stage to obtain good LO1-RF and 2LO1-RF isolations while the down-converted IF1 signals are converted to the baseband I/Q signals with a double-quadrature Gilbert mixer at the second down conversion stage. As a result, a 60-GHz Weaver image rejection receiver with a 2-GHz channel bandwidth is achieved with IP1dB of 2 dBm and IIP3 of 14 dBm.


This paper presents the current status of two key U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) transuranic (TRU) waste transportation programs currently underway, the TRUPACT-III and the ARROW-PAK TM . Packaging Technology, Inc. (PacTec), is under contract to Washington TRU Solutions LLC (WTS) to develop and provide a U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC)-licensed TRUPACT-III transportation system to be used for the transport of oversized boxes of TRU waste now stored within the DOE complex. Without such a package, it would become necessary to repackage much of the waste for transport in the smaller TRUPACT-II. WTS and PacTec are also jointly working with BOH Environmental, LLC (BOH) to deploy the ARROW-PAK TM technology, which is owned by BOH. The ARROW-PAK TM container is a robust, deflagration-proof payload container, which is to be used for shipment of high-wattage TRU waste within the TRUPACT-II. The ARROW-PAK TM is also intended to serve as the burial container at the Waste


To study the effect of temperature on CO2 corrosion behavior of dissimilar weld joint,dissimilar weld joint of X70 pipeline steel and 2250 duplex stainless steel welded by metal inertia gas welding was used experimentally.Microstructure of X70/weld joint interface and CO2 corrosion morphologies in weld joint at different temperatures were observed and analyzed.The results showed that dendritic structure appeared in weld joint.Narrow fusion zone and typeⅡboundary existed between micro-alloy steel and weld joint,and obvious concentration gradient of Ni and Cr elements was observed.Serious corrosion occurred in HAZ of micro-alloy at high temperature other than at low temperature.Corrosion product on surface of micro-alloy was shown loose while that on surface of weld joint was shown compact.Such different corrosion tendency of micro-alloy and weld joint was probably caused by the different ionic migration ratios as a result of different corrosion potentials of metals and different temperatures.


Introduction Chapter 1. Issue-linkages Chapter 2. UNHCR and climate change Chapter 3. IOM and climate change Chapter 4. UNDP and climate change Conclusion: Moving beyond their mandates?


Quantum-dot-in-perovskite solids are excellent candidates for infrared light-emitting applications. The first generation of dot-in-perovskite light-emitting diodes (LEDs) has shown bright infrared electroluminescence with tunable emission wavelength; however, their performance has been limited by degradation of the active layer at practical operating voltages. This arises from the instability of the three-dimensional (3D) organolead halide perovskite matrix. Herein we report the first dot-in-perovskite solids that employ two-dimensional (2D) perovskites as the matrix. 2D perovskite passivation is achieved via an in situ alkylammonium/alkylamine substitution carried out during the quantum dot (QD) ligand exchange process. This single-step film preparation process enables deposition of the QD/perovskite active layers with thicknesses of 40 nm, over seven times thinner than the first-generation dot-in-perovskite thin films that relied on a multistep synthesis. The dot-in-perovskite film roughness improved fr...


This study aims to make a comparison of the attitudes between residents, officials and experts towards the rural landscape management polices. It is also designed to suggest the improvements to the rural landscape management policies. This study showed that there were differences in awareness of the rural landscape management polices depending on stakeholder who are residents, officials and experts and experienced groups of rural landscape projects. The directions of improvement of rural landscape policies are as follows: First, it`s necessary that the various rural landscape management polices is made of considering the differences on the interest group`s recognition. Second, the related rural landscape improvement programs should be implemented based on those plan. Third, the various programs which are to lead voluntary residents participation and to strengthen participant`s capabilities have to be arranged to manage the rural landscape effectively.


Introduction Neuroimaging technology, micro-surgical instruments and minimally invasive techniques have allowed the development of new approaches that maintain favorable neurological outcome obtained by conventional techniques in resection of spinal neoplasm. Our work describes a new surgical technique for patients with spinal intra-canal neoplasms in order preserve muscle tension band posterior ligamentous and assessed the results. Material and Methods Our surgical technique proposes a para-median posterior minimally invasive approach from linear incision of 2.5 cm ipsilateral to the site of the lesion trough an expandable tubular retractor. Patients were followed prospectively with visits at one, three, six and twelve months after surgery. Surgical time, blood loss, intra-operative and post-operative complications, hospital length of stay, pre and post-operative neurological status were assessed. Results We describe the surgical treatment technique in twenty one patients diagnosed with spinal intra-canal compressive lesions, which underwent surgical resection between January 2010 and July 2015. The Meningioma was the most frequent neoplasm. The means surgical time was 148 minute. The average intraoperative bleeding was 217 ml. Patients experienced minimal postoperative pain and they were discharged in average 31 hours after surgery. There were no intraoperative complications; though two patients developed complications in the late postoperative period. A patient had cerebrospinal fluid leak and other patient developed myelopathy secondary to non-infectious arachnoiditis. Conclusion This type of approach technique provides adequate visualization and microsurgical resection of the intra-canal tumor lesions, with reduced muscle denervation and devascularization by preserving the tension of the ligament complex. These results correlate with previous studies of minimally invasive techniques for spinal neoplasms.


MODEEX technique in operative surgery has brought about a great drop in the incidence of complications to surgical cases in the post-operative period. Improved anzsthesia, general or local, pre-operative preparation, the anticipation and treatment of shock, asepsis, gentleness in handling, careful dissection, and intelligent and co-operative after-treatment have all followed increased knowledge of surgical pathology, living pathology, and biochemistry. With the diminution of the incidence of sepsis, shock, cardiac failure, etc., attention has become drawn to the increasing number of cases in which pulmonary complications are present. In this group are many classes of lesion, but their increasing importance is seen from these figures taken from Cutler, who found the reported incidence of pulmonary complications after operation to be :-1898 .. . . 0.38 per cent 1916 .. . . 1.86 per cent 1921 .. .. 3.5 per cent and a mortality


Wholesale Day Ahead Markets (DAMs) dominated by renewable generation can improve social surplus by driving unit commitment (UC) and security constrained economic dispatch (SCED) in a novel systematic uncertainty aware manner. A new robust uncertainty aware DAM model can anticipate worst-case output of renewable generation and use a system reliability constraint involving an uncertainty set of renewable capacity realizations. The uncertainty set yields unique worst-case renewable capacities, which can be written as linear functions of a tentative, most-recent, SCED. A few repetitions of the UC-SCED converge to the optimal DAM clearing under the new system reliability constraint, endogenously determining reserve requirements, and potentially prices for energy and reserves. This paper focuses on constructing the uncertainty set essential to this new uncertainty aware Market paradigm and illustrates it on a realistic size Balancing Area with hundreds of wind farms.


Video production equipment uses different codecs and settings to balance competing requirements, such as trading off between bitrate and quality. The introduction of ultrahigh-definition television (UHDTV) and high dynamic range (HDR) adds to the number of codec implementations, making codec choices harder. To help their members evaluate the visual quality of new video production codecs, the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and the Institut fur Rundfunktechnik (IRT) have organized expert viewings of the latest production codecs. Based on the plans revealed at International Broadcasting Convention (IBC) 2019, more than 200 possible codec configurations were identified. After a voting round by broadcasters, more than 40 of these configurations were selected for actual testing. The focus was on real-world products, not laboratory prototypes. Seven generations were encoded for each configuration. The peak signal-to-noise ratio (PSNR) of all sequences was calculated. Subsequently, the first, fourth, and seventh generation of each sequence was scored by expert viewers. The results indicate, that overall, the tested codec configurations perform well up to the seventh generation. For some of the algorithms, a small quality degradation was seen in noise behavior and spatial resolution but no difference in dynamic range was noticeable. There is a small discernible difference in the performance for the different transfer functions
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OBJECTIVE: To determine whether neonatal infections are associated with a higher risk of adverse neurodevelopment at 5 years of age in a population-based cohort of very preterm children. METHODS: We included all live births between 22 and 32 weeks of gestation, from 9 regions in France, in 1997 (EPIPAGE study). Of the 2665 live births, 2277 were eligible for a follow-up evaluation at 5 years of age: 1769 had a medical examination and 1495 underwent cognitive assessment. Cerebral palsy and cognitive impairment were studied as a function of early-onset sepsis (EOS) and late-onset sepsis (LOS), after adjustment for potential confounding factors, in multivariate logistic regression models. RESULTS: A total of 139 (5%) of the 2665 live births included in the study presented with EOS alone (without associated LOS), 752 (28%) had LOS alone (without associated EOS), and 64 (2%) displayed both EOS and LOS. At 5 years of age, the frequency of cerebral palsy was 9% (157 of 1769) and that of cognitive impairment was 12% (177 of 1495). The frequency of cerebral palsy was higher in infants with isolated EOS (odds ratio [OR]: 1.70 [95% confidence interval (CI): 0.84−3.45]) or isolated LOS (OR: 1.71 [95% CI: 1.14−2.56]) than in uninfected infants, and this risk was even higher in cases of combined EOS and LOS (OR: 2.33 [95% CI: 1.02−5.33]). There was no association between neonatal infection and cognitive impairment. CONCLUSIONS: Neonatal infections in these very preterm infants were associated with a higher risk of cerebral palsy at the age of 5 years, particularly in infants presenting with both EOS and LOS.


AbstractA comprehensive evaluation of the characteristics of students attending a public alternative school revealed marked differences between the experimental group (the alternative school) and a control group (students attending a regular public school). Alternative school students showed significantly lower achievement and ability on all measures, while manifesting notably greater approval of their teachers than did the control group. Sex differences in achievement, performance, and attitude were found among the free school sample, and these are contrasted with the pattern of sex differences in regular schools. The significance of these findings for the establishment and running of alternative schools is discussed.


Machine learning modelling assisting function-oriented enzyme engineering is normally built on predefined protein sequence space. However, efficient defining the determinant amino acid positions upon which the combinatorial mutation library is constructed is still a challenge in protein science. Herein, we present a comprehensive investigation of modifying a recombinant DNA polymerase for efficient incorporating one unnatural nucleotide, including the identification of key sites/regions, machine learning-assisted mutants screening, and the underlying mechanism of kinetics boosting. By using hundreds of training points and only dozens of testing samples, we found that one highly engineered enzyme's catalytic efficiency can be further improved by one order of magnitude by specific mutation on two sites, 485I and 451L. Compared to the position 485 which is known to dominate local conformation of B-family DNA polymerases, 451 is a split-new active site discovered by our approach. A novel allosteric regulation mechanism is underlying the apparent synergy of 485I and 451L on the kinetics boosting. As a result, a "half-closed" conformation of the binding pocket and a cooperative binding of both primer and template DNA strands on the protein accelerated the processes of substrate's incorporation, molecular recognition, and releasing of incorrect nucleotides. These findings have implications in guiding the function-tuning of DNA polymerases for a broad range of biotechnological applications.


After the introduction of Green Revolution technologies since 1970s, Indian agriculture was characterized by intensive agriculture practices in certain pockets through an integrated use of HYvs, irrigation, fertilizer, pesticide use and technologies meet the food needs. After, 1980s, the adverse effects of the green revolution technologies were realized and the emphasis was shifted to sustainable land use systems and increasing the efficiency of resources and inputs. It is projected that India needs to produce 115 mt of rice, 225 mt of foodgrains and agriculture GDP growth 4 per cent by the Year 2020 to maintain the resent level of self-sufficiency. The future increase in rice production requires improvement in productivity and efficiency. To maintain national food security there is a need not only to increase rice production but also the efficiency to sustain self sufficiency. The prime objective of the paper is to examine the export competitiveness of paddy production with reference to India and other competing countries. Export competitiveness indices that are used in the context of the study are "Revealed Comparative Advantage Index RCA" and "Comparative Export Performance index CEP". The export data concern the intra trade between China and both the rival countries and India were obtained from UNCTADSTAT trade data. The data on exports of rice for India and other major exporting countries were collected from UNCTADSTAT. The period under consideration will be divided into two sub periods 1995-2002 and 20032014. India stands first place with 29. 95 percent to the total rice exports to the world market during 2014-15. Thailand occupied second place with 20.61, Viet nam occupied third place with 10.59 percent and Pakistan occupied 4 th place with 8.33 percent in the net exports value of rice to the world market. Developing countries compete with developed countries such as the United States and Australia for export markets. Developing countries themselves are not a homogeneous group, with economically powerful China, India, Brazil and Turkey playing a greater role in the market. India has high comparative advantage in the Iran rice market over Pakistan and Thailand. And India has high comparative advantage in the Nigeria rice market over Pakistan and shows a n week advantage against Thailand. Further, India has a very strong comparative advantage over Thailand in Saudi Arabia's rice market and shows a week comparative advantage over Vietnam is the only country to achieve a high comparative export performance during 1995 to 2006. However, since 2007 onwards it declined continuously and reached to a moderate competitive possession with 0.86 SCEP index value in 2014-15. Altogether, Pakistan gained a commendable comparative competitive advantage in rice trade among 4 major rice exporting countries in the world. Log CEP indicate that Pakistan India and Thailand are in comparative disadvantage position.


Typical atrial flutter is characterized by a stable macro-reentrant circuit around the tricuspid annulus with the cavotricuspid isthmus serving as the critical zone of slow conduction. Catheter ablation targeting this isthmus provides a curative and safe treatment option for the vast majority of patients with atrial flutter. The conventional ablation approach using fluoroscopy for catheter visualization and navigation, however, is associated with substantial radiation exposure to both patients and healthcare personnel. Recently, a novel non-fluoroscopic electromagnetic catheter tracking system has been introduced that enables integration of 3D catheter navigation into the environment of prerecorded conventional 2D fluoroscopy. The feasibility, safety and efficacy of this system have been demonstrated in a variety of invasive electrophysiological procedures. In nonrandomized clinical trials, utilizing the nonfluoroscopic catheter tracking system to support catheter ablation for atrial flutter was associate...


MRP4 is unique among the C family of ATP-binding cassette transporters for its role in translocating prostanoids, an important group of signaling molecules derived from unsaturated fatty acids. Using a reconstituted system, we report that a pair of prostaglandins (PGs) and the sulfonated-sterol DHEA-S preferentially enhance the ATPase activity of MRP4 over other previously proposed physiological substrates such as cyclic nucleotides or leukotrienes. We determined the cryo-EM structures of nanodisc embedded bovine MRP4 in (i) a nucleotide- and substrate-free state, (ii) in complex with PGE1, (iii) PGE2, and (iv) DHEA-S, and (v) a catalytically dead mutant E1202Q bound to ATP-Mg2+. The substrate-bound structures suggest unique features of the MRP4 binding site that distinguish its specificity for prostanoids from that of the related leukotriene transporter MRP1. The ATP-bound structure is in an outward-occluded conformation, revealing a novel state in the proposed alternate-access mechanism of MRP transport. Our study provides insights into the endogenous function of this versatile efflux transporter.


The purposes of this symposium are to focus attention on the subject of ripening, to consider the nature of the ripening process, to reveal developments concerning morphology and mechanisms, and to promote thinking covering control of ripening.