Human cytochrome P450 2S1 was recently identified and shown to be inducible by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and hypoxia. It is highly expressed in epithelial cells of tissues that are exposed to the environment and in many tumors of epithelial origin. The biological function of CYP2S1 has not yet been determined, although its possible role in carcinogen metabolism has been suggested. In this report, we investigated its ability to metabolize carcinogens. To obtain a large quantity of active enzyme for substrate screening, we overexpressed CYP2S1 in Escherichia coli (200 nM culture), using a synthetic gene approach. High-level expression allowed us to achieve purification of CYP2S1 with high specific content and purity (16 nmol/mg). Despite high-level expression, we found that CYP2S1 was not readily reduced by cytochrome P450 reductase, and thus no activity was found using NADPH. However, the oxidative activity of CYP2S1 was supported by cumene hydroperoxide or H2O2, such that CYP2S1 oxidized many important environmental carcinogens, including benzo[a] pyrene, 9,10-dihydro-benzo[a]pyrene, 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene, benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol, aflatoxin B1, naphthalene, and styrene, with high turnover. Most substrates tested were converted to detoxification products, except in the case of benzo[a]pyrene-7,8-dihydrodiol, which was converted into the very potent carcinogenic metabolite 7,8-dihydrodiol-trans-9,10epoxide at a relatively efficient rate (Km 12.4 2 M, turnover 2.3 min ). This metabolite formation was also supported both in vitro and in vivo by fatty acid hydroperoxides described in the accompanying report (p. 1044). Together, these data indicate that CYP2S1 contributes to the metabolism of environmental carcinogens via an NADPH independent activity. Cytochrome P450s (P450s) are heme-thiolate enzymes functionally classified as monooxygenase (EC 220.127.116.11), which catalyzes a wide spectrum of reactions (e.g., heteroatom oxygenations, carbon hydroxylations, epoxidations, and dehalogenations). P450s play critical roles in bioactivation and detoxication of a wide variety of xenobiotic substances, including environmental toxicants and therapeutic compounds, as well as participating in the endogenous metabolism of fatty acids, steroids, eicosanoids, bile acids, and fatsoluble vitamins. With the sequencing of the human genome, 57 human cytochrome P450s and 58 pseudogenes have been discovered (http://drnelson.utmem.edu/CytochromeP450.html). Of the 57 human cytochrome P450s, 13 remain classified as "orphans," because their functions are still largely unknown (Guengerich et al., 2005). These are P450s 2A7, 2S1, 2U1, 2W1, 3A43, 4A22, 4F11, 4F22, 4V2, 4Z1, 20A1, and 27C1. The putative roles of these cytochrome P450s in carcinogenesis and toxicology warrant further study (Stark and Guengerich, 2007). The CYP2S1 gene was identified by a homology search in the human genome (Rylander et al., 2001) and also by a representational difference analysis subtractive hybridization procedure to isolate novel 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-pdioxin-inducible genes (Rivera et al., 2002). Dioxin induction of CYP2S1 is mediated by the aromatic hydrocarbon receptor and its dimerization partner, the aromatic hydrocarbon reThis research was supported by the National Institutes of Health National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences [Grants R01-ES015384, T32ES015457] and by a predoctoral fellowship from the University of California Toxic Substances Research and Teaching Program. Article, publication date, and citation information can be found at http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org. doi:10.1124/mol.109.057752. □S The online version of this article (available at http://molpharm. aspetjournals.org) contains supplemental material. ABBREVIATIONS: P450, cytochrome P450; IPTG, isopropyl-D-thiogalactopyranoside; hNPR, human P450 reductase; BaP, benzo[a]pyrene; 9,10-H2-BaP, 9,10-dihydro-benzo[a]pyrene; BaP-7,8-diol, benzo[a]pyrene-trans-7,8-dihydrodiol; r7,t8,t9,c10-tetrol, benzo[a]pyrene-r-7,t-8,t-9,c10-tetrahydrotetrol; DMBA,7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene; 3,4-diol-DMBA,7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthracene-trans-3,4-diol; 7-OH-DMBA,7-hydroxy methyl-12-methylbenz(a)anthracene; 12-OH-DMBA, 12-hydroxymethyl-7methylbenz[a]anthracene; HPLC, high-performance liquid chromatography; KPi, potassium phosphate buffer; CHP, cumene hydroperoxide; HR, human reductase; G, Gibbs free energy of a secondary structure of any given single-stranded DNA or RNA. 0026-895X/09/7605-1031–1043$20.00 MOLECULAR PHARMACOLOGY Vol. 76, No. 5 Copyright © 2009 The American Society for Pharmacology and Experimental Therapeutics 57752/3529697 Mol Pharmacol 76:1031–1043, 2009 Printed in U.S.A. 1031 http://molpharm.aspetjournals.org/content/suppl/2009/08/27/mol.109.057752.DC1 Supplemental material to this article can be found at: at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from at A PE T Jornals on Jne 1, 2017 m oharm .aspeurnals.org D ow nladed from ceptor translocator (Hankinson, 1995). Members of families 2 through 4 are not generally inducible by 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin and PAHs. CYP2S1 was also shown to be inducible by hypoxia via hypoxia-inducible factor 1, and by all-trans-retinoic acid (Smith et al., 2003; Rivera et al., 2007). Moreover, elevated expression of CYP2S1 has been detected in the smokers (Thum et al., 2006). The human CYP2S1 gene, the sole member of the CYP2S subfamily, is located in a cluster of CYP2 family members on chromosome 19q. This cluster includes the CYP2A6, CYP2A13, CYP2B6, and CYP2F1 genes. The proteins encoded by these genes are the closest relatives to human CYP2S1, with 47 to 49% sequence identity to CYP2S1 (Saarikoski et al., 2005b). CYP2S1 is highly expressed in epithelial cells of tissues that are exposed to the environment (e.g., skin, respiratory, urinary, and gastrointestinal tracts), and expression seems to be higher than for other P450s. In addition, CYP2S1 is highly expressed in many tumors of epithelial origin (Saarikoski et al., 2005b). Thus, the level of CYP2S1 protein is increased in colorectal cancer, and high expression was associated with poor prognosis (Kumarakulasingham et al., 2005). Elevated levels of CYP2S1 protein also occur in metastasic ovarian cancer (Downie et al., 2005). CYP2S1 is primarily an extrahepatic enzyme, because it is expressed in many extrahepatic tissues but very poorly in liver (Bieche et al., 2007). Based on its mode of regulation and sites of expression, CYP2S1 was suggested to have a potential role in metabolism of carcinogens (Saarikoski et al., 2005a). However, only very limited data on the function of CYP2S1 have been published. Smith and coworkers reported that human CYP2S1 expressed in Escherichia coli metabolized all-trans-retinoic acid to 4-hydroxyand 5,6-epoxy-retinoic acid. However, no quantitation was reported (Smith et al., 2003). Wang et al. (2005) expressed human CYP2S1 in Chinese hamster ovary cells and insect cells, and reported that there was no increase in 4-(methylnitrosamino)-1-(3-pyridyl)-1-butanone or benzo[a]pyrene toxicity in the transfected Chinese hamster ovary cells, and that the heterologously expressed CYP2S1 protein expressed in insect cells failed to metabolize nicotine and 2-amino-1-methyl-6-phenylimidazo[4,5-b]pyridine. Karlgren et al. (2005) expressed human CYP2S1 in yeast and reported that it can metabolize naphthalene, but no identification or quantitation of products was presented. Wu et al. (2006), however, could not detect metabolism of naphthalene or alltrans-retinoic acid using E. coli recombinant human CYP2S1, even though they obtained high-level bacterial expression of CYP2S1 using chaperon GroEL/ES. Thus, questions about the role of CYP2S1 have been raised in regard to carcinogen and xenobiotic metabolism, but the results have been ambiguous. In this report, we present an improved method for heterologous expression of human CYP2S1 in E. coli. The high-level expression that we obtained allowed us to achieve protein purification with a high yield, and provided us a reliable enzyme preparation source for analyzing and characterizing the function and catalytic activity of CYP2S1. Materials and Methods Chemicals and Reagents. E. coli LMG 194 was purchased from Invitrogen (Carlsbad, CA). The human CYP2S1 cDNA was described previously (Rivera et al., 2002). The pBAD plasmid was purchased from Invitrogen. pCW /1A2:hNPR, a pCW bicistronic IPTG-inducible plasmid containing the human P450 reductase cDNA (hNPR) was kindly provided by Dr. Fred Guengerich (Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN). All restriction digestion enzymes were purchased from New England Biolabs (Ipswich, MA). Recombinant human CYP1A1, CYP2C9, CYP2C8, CYP3A4 (all containing cytochrome P450 reductase), and P450 reaction buffer mixtures containing NADP( )/H regeneration enzymes were obtained from Biocatalytics, Inc. (Pasadena, CA). Cumene hydroperoxide (CHP), hydrogen peroxide, testosterone, 6-hydroxytestosterone, harmaline, all-transretinoic acid, naphthalene, coumarin, and styrene were ob


Complex group behavior arises in social insects colonies as the integration of the actions of simple and redundant individual insects [Adler and Gordon, 1992, Oster and Wilson, 1978]. Furthermore, the colony can act as an information center to expedite foraging [Brown, 1989]. We apply these lessons from natural systems to model collective action and memory in a computational agent society. Collective action can expedite search in combinatorial optimization problems [Dorigo et al., 1996]. Collective memory can improve learning in multiagent systems [Garland and Alterman, 1996]. We integrate the simplicity of collective action with the pattern detection of collective memory to signi cantly improve both the gathering and processing of knowledge. We investigate the augmentation of distributed search in genetic programming (GP) based systems with collective memory. Four models of collective memory search are de ned based on the interaction of the search agents and the process agents which manipulate the collective memory. We present implementations of the collective memory search models and further show how collective memory search facilitates \scaling up" a problem domain. We nd that the addition of collectivememory allows the search agents to e ectively explore the search space while the process agents concurrently search and manipulate the much smaller collective memory space. The transfer of knowledge between the chromosomes, i.e. search agents, and the collective memory entails the extraction of phenotypical information from the chromosome. Others have investigated gathering information from the chromosomes into \libraries" or \banks" [Tackett, 1995, Seront, 1995, Rosca and Ballard, 1996]. Our contribution to the extraction of information from the chromosome is two-fold: we explicitly integrate the knowledge from the chromosomes and we nd the solution from that integrated knowledge, i.e., the solution need not be expressed in a chromosome. The search mechanism shifts focus from parallel to distributed search. In GP research, the goal is for the solution to be encoded in the chromosome. The search is driven by the selection pressure formed by the combination of the tness evaluation and the crossover function. From a random beginning, the chromosomes become complex in their representational power of the domain; potentially encoding more knowledge each generation. With the collective memory search, the chromosome can remain relatively simple. Instead of being a vehicle to represent the solution, the chromosome is a springboard from which richer parts of the search space can be explored. iv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Parts of Section 1.3 and Section 2.2 appeared as Thomas Haynes, Dale Schoenefeld and Roger Wainwright, \Type Inheritance in Strongly Typed Genetic Programming", in Kenneth E. Kinnear, Jr. and Peter J. Angeline, editors, Advances in Genetic Programming 2, chapter 18, MIT Press, 1996. Parts of Chapter 2 appeared as 1) Thomas Haynes, \Clique Detection via Genetic Programming", Technical Report UTULSA-MCS-95-02, The University of Tulsa, April 24, 1995; 2) Thomas Haynes and Dale Schoenefeld, \Clique Detection via Genetic Programming", Technical Report UTULSA-MCS-96-05, The University of Tulsa, March 15, 1996; and 3) Thomas Haynes and Dale Schoenefeld, \Clique Detection via Genetic Programming", In John R. Koza, David E. Goldberg, David B. Fogel, and Rick L. Riolo, editors, Proceedings of the First Genetic Programming Conference, 1996. Parts of Chapter 3 appeared in Thomas Haynes, \Duplication of Coding Segments in Genetic Programming" in the Proceedings of the Thirteenth National Conference on Arti cial Intelligence, August, 1996. I want to thank Cory Hoelting for some discussions on this research in Chapter 3. I thank Justinian Rosca of the University of Rochester, Sandip Sen of the University of Tulsa, and Annie Wu of the University of Michigan for reviews of that paper. The comments supplied by the anonymous referees were also appreciated. I also thank Mark Lindsay for allowing me access to workstations in his computer lab. Parts of Section 4.3 appeared as Thomas Haynes, Rose Gamble, Leslie Knight, and Roger Wainwright, \Entailment for Speci cation Re nement", In John R. Koza, David E. Goldberg, David B. Fogel, and Rick L. Riolo, editors, Proceedings of the First Genetic Programming Conference, 1996. Parts of the Introduction and Chapter 4 appeared in both Thomas Haynes, \Collective Memory Search", submitted to the Second International Conference on Multi-Agent Systems, 1996, and Thomas Haynes, \Collective Memory Search: Exploiting an Information Center for Exploration", submitted to the Special Issue of Adaptive Behavior Journal on Collective Intelligence, 1996. v TABLE OF CONTENTS Copyright Statement : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : iii Abstract : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : iv Acknowledgments : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : v Table of


Commentary on: Vickers AJ, Cronin AM, Maschino AC, et al. Acupuncture Trialists' Collaboration. Acupuncture for chronic pain: individual patient data meta-analysis. Arch Intern Med 2012;172:1444–53.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3][Web of Science][4]

Acupuncture is controversial. Even if one assumes its overall effectiveness, common explanations for its causal impact are biologically implausible. Hence acupuncture is often dismissed as 'no more than a placebo', and this allegation is difficult to disprove as placebo-controlled trials are problematic. 'Placebo' needles stimulate sensory nerves and are possibly a less active treatment, 'sham' rather than 'placebo'.1 Small differences between treatments require large sample sizes, as achieved by meta-analysis. Previous meta-analyses concentrated on finding all trials, but poor quality limited the conclusions.

This is a systematic review of randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of chronic headache and musculoskeletal conditions that had unambiguous allocation concealment and were assessed …

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EDITOR,—As Stuart J Pocock and Marjorie Smith have been members of official British advisory committees, their acknowledgement that there is convincing evidence that blood lead concentrations down to 10 μg/dl (0.48 μmol/l) produce adverse neurological effects in children should have important implications for public policy.1 The United States government set a target maximum childhood blood lead concentration of 10 μg/dl in 1991, but the British "action level" has remained at 25 μg/dl (1.2 μmol/l). The British government should now lower its target to, or preferably below, 10 μg/dl …


Abstract Background Since the outbreak of COVID-19 has raged, large-scale measures for prevent disease transmission have been implemented worldwide. If effectively implemented, these measures may have led to a reduction of the spread of other respiratory infectious diseases at community level. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the indirect impact of COVID-19 large-scale containment measures on the incidence of community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in the elderly during the first epidemic wave of COVID-19 in Tuscany, Italy. Methods A population based study was carried out on data from the Tuscany healthcare system. Hospitalization rate for CAP, severity of CAP hospitalizations, and outpatient consumptions of antibacterials for CAP in people aged 65 years and older were considered as outcome measures. Percentage changes in the outcome measures were calculated considering corresponding periods of the 2020 and 2017-19. 95% confidence intervals and the statistical significance of the percentage changes were calculated using the Poisson model. Results A total of 3,346 new CAP hospitalizations occurred in people aged 65 years and older in the whole study time-frame. Significant reductions in the weekly hospitalization rates for CAP were observed starting from the week in which the national containment measures were imposed, this negative deviation continued even after the lift of the national lock-down until the end of the first wave of COVID-19 in July (maximum weekly decrease of 46%). All the antibacterial classes for CAP showed a significant decrease in their outpatient consumptions during the COVID-19 epidemic period. Conclusions The implementation of large-scale COVID-19 containment measures likely reduced the incidence of CAP in the elderly during the first wave of COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, findings suggests that individual prevention measures that remained mandatory after the lift of the national lock-down also had a relevant role in the reducing CAP incidence. Key messages The potential benefits of pandemic containment measures can extend beyond the prevention of COVID-19 to include the reduction of the burden of respiratory infectious diseases Taking into account the indirect impact of pandemic containment measures on respiratory tract infections may improve the planning of health services during a pandemic.


ABSTRACT Several generations of radiologists have "grown up" with Paul and Juhl's Essentials of Radiologie Imaging. The book's past success has been based on its ability to distill the essentials of diagnostic radiology into a manageable, user-friendly format. The sixth edition successfully continues this fine tradition.As in prior editions, the book is divided into six sections: the osseous system; the brain and spinal cord; the abdomen and gastrointestinal tract; the urinary and female genital tracts; the chest; and the face, mouth, and jaw. The chapters on the central nervous system, musculoskeletal system, and heart have been significantly expanded to incorporate the rapid advances in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) that have occurred since the previous (1987) edition. The pulmonary section has been updated to include high-resolution, thin section computed tomography (CT) in interstitial lung disease. Ultrasound examination of the prostate and testis has been added, and coverage of ultrasound in obstetrics


Intention to drop out of school and consequential child dropout due to cultural attachment, particularly among cattle keepers is a global challenge in various contextual settings. The study investigated the contributions of cultural attachment on intention to drop out of school in the primary schools in the Kazo district. Analytical cross-sectional design using a quantitative approach was conducted in January 2022 among 338 children in primary six and primary seven in the six public primary schools in Kazo district. Pearson product-moment correlations and linear regression were conducted using Stata 15. The study findings were that cultural attachment had a moderate positive impact on intention to drop out of school in the primary schools in Kazo district (r = .0.10, p =.242) and explained only 1% of the variance of intention to drop out of school in the primary schools in Kazo district (r2 = .01). Therefore, various cultural attachment influence intention to drop out of school. Strategies for cultural attachment are paramount.


A 25 year old male presents by EMS to the Emergency Department following a work related crush injury to his right thigh. The patient preforming manual labor at a nearby factory warehouse. His right thigh was accidentally pinned between the rear end of a forklift and a large stationary structural support pole.


this thesis analyses how Olivia Milburn translates the information with assumption and make logical and reasonablejudgments to the strategies it takes.


Introduction Epidural hematomas (EDH) are a potentially lethal complication of closed head injury ocurring in 3% of head traumas. While classical practice was once to evacuate all EDH, the advent of CT imaging identified numerous EDH patients with minimal or no clinical symptoms. In the CT scan era, operative rates for pediatric EDH range widely, from 20-70%. Research on adult EDH provides guidelines for which patients with EDH can be managed without surgery GCS >8, EDH thickness < 15mm, EDH volume < 30mL, midline shift < 5ml, no focal neurological deficits. However, similar guidelines are lacking in the pediatric literature.


Water-soluble penta-substituted anionic and cationic C 60 -fullerene derivatives were synthesized in highly selective reactions of chlorofullerene C 60 Cl 6 with captopril and aliphatic amine. Hybrid supramolecular complexes of functionalized C 60 -fullerene derivatives and tetracycline antibiotics (in stoichiometric 1:1 molar ratio) are formed as polymodal hydrodynamic radius micelles and vesicles in water environment. The complexes consist of antibiotics and cationic C 60 -fullerene amino-derivative and showed prominent antibacterial activity against tetracycline-resistant Escherichia coli strain (carrier of TcR gene).


A novel approach to the design of reactive embedded software systems, called model-based autonomy, is generating significant interest in the space systems community. The goal of the model-based approach is to automate onboard sequence execution by tightly integrating goal-driven commanding with fault detection, diagnosis, and recovery capabilities. This paper describes Titan, a system-level autonomy framework that expands upon previous model-based approaches to configuration management, such as the Livingstone mode identification and reconfiguration system, which was demonstrated on the Deep Space One spacecraft. Titan is a model-based executive that estimates current spacecraft modes, detects and repairs failures, and executes commands, all within a fast sense-decide-act loop. This paper discusses the model-based software technologies implemented within the Titan executive. It describes a case study of the deployment of Titan to a representative space mission, including an overview of the various component models assembled, as well as the scenarios generated to verify proper execution of the software. Finally, it provides results from initial tests of the Titan implementation on these scenarios and models.


Cytological examination of spleens of mice with growing Gardner lymphosarcoma contaminated with LDH virus indicates the augmentation of erythropoiesis and granulopoiesis, as well as the decrease of lymphopoiesis. Similar changes were observed after infection with LDH-virus. The counts from the bone marrow smear showed more pronounced changes only in tumorous mice, in which repeatedly increased granulopoiesis was found. When the mice bearing Gardner lymphosarcoma were treated with L-asparaginase, then the cytological findings in the spleens and marrows of femors were almost normal. The examination of spleen and bone marrow smears revealed no tumor cells. Histologically examined spleens of mice with 12-day-growing Gardner lymphosarcoma demonstrated infiltration of the follicles with tumor cells. In the marrow of sternum no infiltration of tumor cells could be established.


This paper examines the common stock returns of three groups of bidders that purchased brokerage houses. Only in the cases of horizontal mergers, one brokerage house purchasing another, are there abnormal returns associated with the purchase. Neither bank holding company bidders nor non-financial bidders gain significantly when purchasing a brokerage house. Bank holding company bidders face considerable regulatory delays, and these economic disturbances may eliminate their gains. Bank holding company expansion into these non-bank activities does not appear, at the time of announcement, to either hurt or benefit them; hence, this expansion does not appear to further the loss exposure of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation. Copyright 1994 by MIT Press.


Data is fuel for machine learning approaches, but in several domains, data are sensitive and demand more security and even no data transferring at all. Examples are medicine, military, or private business data. Federated learning is an approach for distributed machine learning with only local data usage restrictions. The main goal is to design and implement a framework of Federated Learning for Java (FL4J) with decentralized learning which works with only local data per node. The framework should accept not only neural networks as model representation but also should be able to compute custom learning algorithm concurrently. This work describes the general principles of federated learning and suggests the framework for such approach implementation.


Vegetation and soil seed banks were studied in exclosures and unprotected areas, to investigate the role of exclosures in the rehabilitation of degraded drylands. Woody vegetation was assessed in fifty plots in exclosures and 30 in unprotected areas, each measuring 20 × 20 m². Twenty-seven woody species representing eighteen families were observed in exclosures and fourteen woody species representing twelve families were
recorded in open area. Higher abundance, density and basal area were found in the exclosure. An expanding population structure in exclosure, and obstructed population structure in open area, showed favorable succession in the set-aside area. In both cases, woody species were absent in the soil seed bank. Keywords : Degradation; Natural Regeneration; Rehabilitation; Soil Seed Bank East African Journal of Sciences Vol. 1 (2) 2007: pp. 136-147


The alpha-2C-adrenergic receptor ( α 2C AR) is known to be poorly trafficked to the cell surface when expressed in a variety of cell types. We tested the hypothesis that the surface expression and signaling of α 2C AR might be enhanced by heterodimerization with other G protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs). Co-transfection of α 2C AR with more than twenty-five related GPCRs revealed that only co-expression with the beta-2-adrenergic receptor ( β 2 AR) increased the surface localization of α 2C AR in HEK-293 cells. Co-immunoprecipitation of α 2C AR with β 2 AR confirmed a physical interaction between the two receptors. Confocal microscopy studies demonstrated that α 2C AR expressed alone was mainly intracellular, whereas α 2C AR co-expressed with β 2 AR was predominantly localized to the plasma membrane. Ligand binding studies revealed a significant increase in α 2C AR binding sites upon co-expression with β 2 AR, with no apparent change in affinity for α 2 AR ligands. Functional assays with the α 2 AR-specific agonist UK 14,304 revealed that co-expression of β 2 AR with α 2C AR enhanced α 2C AR-mediated activation of ERK 1/2. Furthermore, analyses of agonist-promoted receptor endocytosis demonstrated enhanced α 2C AR internalization in response to α 2 AR agonists when α 2C AR and β 2 AR were co-expressed. Additionally, substantial co-internalization of α 2C AR in response to β AR agonists was observed when α 2C AR was co-expressed with β 2 AR. These data reveal that α 2C AR can interact with β 2 AR in cells in a manner that regulates α 2C AR surface expression, internalization, and functionality. was assessed in saturation binding assays using six concentrations of [ 3 H]DHA or [ 3 H]rauwolscine. The membrane preparation was incubated with [ 3 H]DHA or [ 3 H]rauwolscine for 30 min at 22 ° . The reaction was stopped by filtration through Whatman GF/C glass fiber filters on a Brandel cell harvester. The amount of [ 3 H] ligand present was determined by liquid scintillation counting. Non-specific binding was defined using 10 mM propranolol for β 2 AR or 10 mM norepinephrine or RX 821002 for α 2C AR. Nonlinear regression analyses of saturation binding assays and statistical comparisons were performed with GraphPad Prism (GraphPad Software).


Hydrodynamical simulations are increasingly able to accurately model physical systems on stellar, galactic, and cosmological scales; however, the utility of these simulations is often limited by our ability to directly compare them with the data sets produced by observers: spectra, photometry, etc. To address this problem, we have created trident, a Python-based open-source tool for post-processing hydrodynamical simulations to produce synthetic absorption spectra and related data. trident can (i) create absorption-line spectra for any trajectory through a simulated data set mimicking both background quasar and down-the-barrel configurations; (ii) reproduce the spectral characteristics of common instruments like the Cosmic Origins Spectrograph; (iii) operate across the ultraviolet, optical, and infrared using customizable absorption-line lists; (iv) trace simulated physical structures directly to spectral features; (v) approximate the presence of ion species absent from the simulation outputs; (vi) generate column density maps for any ion; and (vii) provide support for all major astrophysical hydrodynamical codes. trident was originally developed to aid in the interpretation of observations of the circumgalactic medium and intergalactic medium, but it remains a general tool applicable in other contexts.


Inflatable wing UAVs have the advantages of compact packaging and rapid deployment, but are generally lack of roll control. To solve this problem, much work has been carried out into the design of several new types of inflatable wing UAVs with inflatable ailerons. Furthermore, this paper introduces an inflatable wing UAV with dihedral angle to enhance the side-wise stability of the UAV. Flight testing has been taken to verify the effect of the new-concept inflatable wing. Finally, one type of outdoor inflation system is presented.


MnOx/C and Me-MnOx/C (Me = Ni, Mg) electrocatalysts prepared by chemical deposition of manganese oxide nanoparticles on carbon have been characterized by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and chemical analysis. Their Oxygen Reduction Reaction (ORR) kinetics and mechanism have been investigated in alkaline KOH solutions by using the Rotating Disk Electrode (RDE) and the Rotating Ring-Disk Electrode (RRDE) setups. Doping the MnOx/C nanoparticles with nickel or magnesium divalent cations can considerably improve their oxygen reduction activity. As a result, the Me-MnOx/C electrocatalysts exhibit ORR specific or mass activities close to the benchmark 10 wt % Pt/C from E-TEK. At low ORR current densities, the undoped MnOx/C electrocatalyst displays a reaction order with respect to PO2 and OH- of 1 and −0.5, respectively, while ∂E/∂log i is ca. −59 mV dec-1. The ORR reaction order toward OH- is unchanged with the magnesium doping, while it becomes −2 with the nickel doping. RRDE d...


The aim of the study was to optimize disassembly sequences about worn-out or malfunctioning products. Firstly, it was proposed to build an interference-freeness matrix to describe the structure of assembly, and new ideas about and algorithm for disassembly wedge were proposed. Then, the order for each part to be disassembled from assembly was determined. In consideration of the fact that the neighborhood may converge too fast and limit the search to a local optimum prematurely during the process of genetic algorithms (GAs), a detailed flow chart of the hybrid approach was presented by combination of Tabu search with GAs. Case study shows that the valid disassembly sequences obtained by the present method are superior to those derived by GAs alone in fitness value, number, and range.


Oral contraceptives have been reported to confer protective effect against tendometrial and ovarian carcinoma. An uncommon presentation of concomitant endometrial and ovarian cancer in a young patient using oral contraception is reported.


Holt-Oram syndrome (HOS), deformities owing to developmental defects of heart and upper limb, is caused by mutations in the TBX5 gene encoding a transcription factor in T-box gene family. Its 1.5-kb coding sequence spans eight exons and encodes for the 518 amino acid TBX5 protein. Most TBX5 mutations are located in the coding region and cluster either in the DNA-binding or in the transactivating domains of TBX5 protein. In this study, three Thai (Mongoloid) HOS patients were investigated for their causative variants by screening the TBX5 coding sequence. Denaturing high performance liquid chromatography under partial denaturation mode was used to screen for the entire coding region before direct sequencing for specific mutation identification. We report two novel TBX5 mutations (c.983-2A>C, IVS8 as-2 A>C and c.510+5G>A, IVS5 ds+5 G>A as a de novo change) which would affect the splicing process of TBX5 transcript and another recently discovered missense mutation (c.241A>T, p.Arg81Trp) as the first report in Mongoloid HOS patients. Our findings could help extend the understanding of genotype-phenotype correlation in HOS patients which would be beneficial for clinical practice and counseling.


In the course of a detailed study of over 250 samples of Madras' plankton, 112 species of copepods were identified and it was found that seven were new to science. In the present paper five of these, Labidocera bengalensis, Oorissa indica, Kelleria rubimaculata, Macrochiron (Paramacrochiron) ornatus, and Saphirella enigmatus, are described fully. The remaining two species will be described in a subsequent paper when the males of those species are obtained.


There are three models of child mothering: authoritative, permissive, and democratic. The good mothering pattern is pattern of mothering which can grow all child intelligence potencies: spiritual, emotional, rational, social, natural, physical, etc. emotional intelligence is potency of intelligence that involves the ability to control feeling and emotion, in guiding mind and action of our self and others. The Islamic mothering pattern is pattern of mothering prioritizing fitrah Islami of child, beside other potencies: spiritual, emotional, rational, social, natural, physical, etc. That is placing forward training and forming of moral, it is so central in forming and developing emotional intelligence of child. Keywords: emotional intelligence and Islamic mothering


Analyzing the trucking industry requires (1) an understanding of its unique fragmented structure and (2) a grasp of the public policy issues likely to have an impact. These include the debate over reauthorization of the federal Highway Trust Fund, state regulation of truck size, state establishment of required registration fees, federal and state tax questions, and various international factors.This presentation comes from The Transportation Industry—Airlines, Trucking, and Railroads conference held in Boston, Massachusetts, on June 12-13, 1991.


Wildlife translocation is often used as a mitigation strategy for construction projects and other disturbances to habitat. In 2010, one of the largest freshwater oil spills in the United States occurred in the Kalamazoo River in Michigan, when over 3.2 million L of diluted bitumen crude oil impacted nearly 56 km of riverine habitat. During 2010 and 2011 cleanup efforts, 686 northern map turtles (Graptemys geographica) were captured from oil‐impacted stretches of the river, cleaned, rehabilitated, and translocated 2.5–84.3 km from their original capture location. The goal of this translocation effort was to release turtles within the same watershed, but away from ongoing cleanup operations, so individuals could potentially return to their original home range after it had been cleaned of oil and restored. In this study, we evaluated the success of translocation as an emergency mitigation strategy for freshwater turtles by quantifying recapture probability and homing by northern map turtles translocated varying distances from their home ranges. During subsequent years of survey up to 10 years post‐spill, 230 of the translocated turtles were recaptured, of which 104 exhibited homing by returning to their original home ranges. Turtles translocated to sites nearest their original capture location had a higher probability of recapture and homing than those translocated further away. Females had a higher probability of returning to original home ranges than males when translocated greater distances. In addition, four females and one male are known to have traveled >50 km between capture and release locations, which to our knowledge is the greatest travel distance recorded for any freshwater turtle species in the United States. Our results demonstrate that riverine turtles have considerable homing ability when displaced long distances, which has important implications for design and success of translocation projects.


Objective: To investigate the feasibility of microbubble mediating Ang-1 gene therapy lower limb ischemia by using ultrasound.Methods: Fifteen rabbits with the left femoral artery ligation were randomly and averagely devidied into 3 groups: the plasmid pEGFP/Ang-1 and microbubble mixture local intramuscular injection plus ultrasound local radiation group(group A),the plasmid pEGFP/Ang-1 local intramuscular injection group(group B),and the control group(group C).Four weeks post-treatment,angiography was applied to evaluate the collateral circulation,and new vascular. Results: In the collateral circulation and new vascular of the treatment region,group A was superior to the group B,the group B was superior to the group C. Conclusion: Microbubble mediating Ang-1 gene therapy by using ultrasound could promote the collateral circulation and new vessels development,it will be a new method for the treatment of limb ischemic diseases.


Energy Efficiency (EE) is becoming increasingly important for wireless communications and has caught more attention due to steadily rising energy costs and environmental concerns. Recently, a new network architecture known as Massive Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) has been proposed with the remarkable potential to achieve huge gains in EE with simple linear processing. In this paper, a power allocation algorithm is proposed for EE to achieve the optimal EE in Massive MIMO. Based on the simplified expression, we develop a new algorithm to compute the optimal power allocation algorithm and it has been compared with the existing scheme from the previous literature. An improved water filling algorithm is proposed and embedded in the power allocation algorithm to maximize EE and Spectral Efficiency (SE). The numerical analysis of the simulation results indicates an improvement of 40% in EE and 50% in SE at the downlink transmission, compared to the other existing schemes. Furthermore, the results revealed that SE does not influence the EE enhancement after using the proposed algorithm as the number of Massive MIMO antenna at the Base Station (BS) increases.


Until 30 years ago, Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease was an obscure form of dementia unknown to most physicians. The name is now familiar to the medical community as the major transmissible spongiform encephalopathy (or prion disease) in humans and to research scientists because of its strange causative agent with novel modes of replication and transmission. Furthermore, the term "Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease" has caused distress to patients who have been notified that they may have received tainted blood or blood products, and it has been popularized by extensive media coverage of bovine spongiform encephalopathy ("mad cow disease"), with its profound economic impact in Europe . . .


In recent years, the statistical inference for discretely observed jump processes is an important issue in finance and insurance. Due to the discreteness, it is unclear that an increment of neighboring data essentially comes from continuous or discontinuous shocks, which causes some difficulties for estimating unknowns in the underlying process. Threshold Estimationis one of the useful techniques to disentangle the continuous shocks and real jumps, where if an increment of data is smaller than a predetermined threshold, then we regard the increment does not include any jump. However, the choice of the threshold has optionality in practice, and the standard way has not been established yet. In this paper, we shall propose how to select some "optimal" thresholds from given data, and study the finite-sample performance by simulations.


Fluid and HCO3− secretion is essential for all epithelia; aberrant secretion is associated with several diseases. Carbonic anhydrase XII (CA12) is the key carbonic anhydrase in epithelial fluid and HCO3− secretion and works by activating the ductal Cl−–HCO3− exchanger AE2. Delivery of CA12 to salivary glands increases salivation in mice and of the human mutation CA12(E143K) markedly inhibits it. The human mutation CA12(E143K) causes disease due to aberrant CA12 glycosylation, and misfolding resulting in loss of AE2 activity.


MOST OF the early investigators of corneal transplantation used circular corneal grafts. Von Hippel 1 introduced a corneal trephine and fathered a style of keratoplasty. Elschnig 2 and Filatov 3 adopted von Hippel's general technic and added modifications of their own invention. Thomas, 4 who introduced corneal transplantation to England, used square corneal grafts in his early experiments on rabbits, but later abandoned this procedure in favor of the circular type. Thomas described a tendency of the corners of the square graft to protrude, and even become detached; he also found that one of the loops of the suture frequently came to lie in the incision, thus preventing proper union of the wound. Castroviejo likewise introduced corneal transplantation to the United States. Working at the Mayo Clinic in 1931, he 5 initially performed corneal transplantations on rabbits, following the technics of Elschnig and Thomas; but these operations were all failures.


This paper will attempt to provide a balanced view of the current evidence concerning the use of coloured spectacle lenses. The condition in which symptoms are alleviated by coloured filters has had many names, most recently Meares–Irlen syndrome, pattern-related visual stress and Meares–Irlen syndrome/visual stress. For simplicity, in this paper it will be called visual stress.


Background: Idiopathic genu valgum is one of the common deformity encountered in OPD of orthopaedics. After a fair conservative trail to treat the deformity fails, temporary epiphysiodesis become the standard treatment. This deformity can also be treated with several types of osteotomies with additional risk of extensive soft tissue handling, infection, delayed union, non-union, malunion etc. various method of temporary epiphysiodesis are present but most of them are on the principle of compression such as stapling, transphyseal screws fixation etc. On the other hand 8 plate, works on the principle of tension band. Hereby the aim of this study is to see the functional outcome and complications related to 8 plate generated growth modulation. Method: Study design was prospective and interventional, between June 2018 to May 2020.Eight plate was implanted on 16 patients aged between 6 years to 15 years suffering from genu valgum deformity. Plate was implanted over distal femur medially. Patients were evaluated pre-operatively and post-operatively by determining various joint angles both clinically and radiologically. Following are the various joint angles evaluated: All these paraments were recorded in each follow up and data collected was analyzed statistically. Result: 16 patients were included in the study with a median follow up of 16 months. Out of 16 patients operated 6 were females. A mean pre-operative and post-operative tibio femoral axis were recorded. We observed a p-value of 0.001 which is statistically significant. Conclusion: Growth modulation using 8 plate method proves to be an effective method for correcting genu valgum deformity in skeletally immature patients. It is a reversible procedure and surgeon friendly and at the same time 8 plate adjust dynamically to the ever changing physeal anatomy.


In low and middle‐income countries mammographic breast cancer screening is prohibitively expensive and a cheaper alternative option is to use ultrasound as the primary screening test. In 2009, China launched a breast cancer screening programme for rural women aged 35–64 years with clinical breast examination coupled with ultrasound as the primary tool. Our study aimed to analyse the cost‐effectiveness of breast screening compared to no screening among Chinese rural women. We developed a Markov model to estimate the lifetime costs and effects for rural women aged 35 years from a societal perspective. Asymptomatic women in the intervention arm were screened every 3 years before age 64 years. Breast cancer in the non‐screening arm can only be diagnosed on presentation of symptoms. Parameter uncertainty was explored using one‐way and probabilistic sensitivity analyses. Compared to no screening, breast cancer screening cost $186.7 more and led to a loss of 0.20 quality‐adjusted life years (QALYs). Breast screening was more expensive and did harm to health among rural women with an incremental cost‐effectiveness ratio (ICER) of $‐916/QALY. The sensitivity analysis identified utility loss from false positives as the factor that most influenced the results, but this did not affect the conclusions. In a rural setting with such low breast cancer incidence, screening for asymptomatic disease is not cost‐effective with current screening tools. Priority should be given to ensure that symptomatic women have proper access to diagnosis and treatment at an early stage as this will lead to mortality reductions without the usual screening harms.


The optimum pressure condense parameters of Acetes Chinensis were researched by using statistical techniques such as quadratic orthogonal rotary composite design which based on single factor experiments.The optimum condense parameters of Acetes Chinensis juice were as follows:condense temperature 86.8℃,the vacuum degree 0.087MPa,condense time 153min.Under the best condense conditions,the amino acid nitrogen of Acetes Chinensis juice was 0.91g/100 mL.The mathematic models were developed which between amino acid nitrogen and condense temperature(X1),vacuum degree(X2),condense time(X3).The models could forecast the content of amino acid nitrogen of Acetes Chinensis and supervise production of condiment.


Anthropometry is the longest-used measure of human variation, and since it measures surface morphology, is intuitively understood at the elementary level. By standing in any major junction of any major city on Earth, one can easily marvel at the range of human physical diversity: short, tall, thin, fat, long-legged, stumpy; native wit provides the face validity for the study of anthropometric variation and its application (Ulijaszek and Mascie-Taylor 2005). Ideas of biological difference between human populations are of great antiquity but only became quantitatively formalised in the nineteenth century, with early attempts at doing so having taken place in the eighteenth century. Prior to innovations that could identify variation at microscopic levels, including physiological, biochemical, endocrinological, and genetic ones, morphology was the prime means of classification of nature. The strength of anthropometry as a measure of human variation is its relative cheapness and simplicity of application, although accuracy is another issue. It is no surprise that anthropometric methods have changed little since the nineteenth century. However, the meaning and interpretation of anthropometric variation has changed with new understandings of how human variation is generated and contents


Many houses purchased just before the housing bubble burst have a market value lower than the amount of the mortgages on them; they are said to be underwater. Among homeowners in such a position, a number have adequate financial wherewithal to make the payments but choose to voluntarily default on the loan. Evidence suggests that a growing number of homeowners are taking this course, known as strategic, or voluntary, foreclosures. Once a stigma, voluntary foreclosure seems to be gaining in social acceptability. The phenomenon appears to be reflective of the broad trend that Max Weber termed the increasing rationalization of society.


A new approach is proposed for analyzingthe non-repudiation and fairnessproperty of E-commerce protocols. The authentication E-mail protocol CMP1 is modeled as finite state machine, and their two vital aspects of non-repudiationpropertyand fairness propertyare analyzed byusing SMV. It is found that the fairness property can not be satisfied, and thus some corrections are made on the finite state machine of CMP1 protocols. This result shows that it is effective to analyze and check the new property of E-commerce protocolsby the symbolmodel checker.


The monitoring of progress in labour is still driven by a preoccupation with time and definitions that pathologise labour if it deviates from strict time parameters. This may have a place where obstetric services are vast distances from primary care settings and where women's health is severely compromised prior to labour. However, for the vast majority of women in the UK, time limits on the first stage of labour reflect practitioners' predisposition to distrust normal labour physiology.


The principal objectives and methods of surface modification of polymers are reviewed inthis paper. The methods covered include physical, chemical, mechanical and biological.


When a transformer suffers a permanent fault, it will suffer a short-circuit impulse again after reclosing. If the previous vibration of the winding is not attenuated completely and the winding is subjected to a secondary impulse within a short time, the secondary vibration response will have a superposition. The aim of this study was to analyze the effect of the anti-short-circuit ability of operational transformers subjected to a secondary short-circuit current impulse. In this paper, a model is established for calculating axial vibration in transformer windings and effects on the vibration response of windings under different closing phase angles and short-circuit intervals are analyzed. The results show that the vibration acceleration of windings is a V-shaped variation at phase angles from 0° to 180°, reaching the maximum values at 0° and 180° and reaching the minimum value at 90°. When the transformer recloses on a permanent short circuit, due to the superposition effect, the vibration acceleration amplitude of the secondary impulse will be greater than that of the primary impulse, but as the reclosing interval increases, the superposition effect decreases continuously. When the interval is 600 ms, the superposition effect for the vibration acceleration of the secondary impulse attenuates to 83.3%. The superposition effect is not significant after 600 ms. The research provides a theoretical reference for transformer closing-control strategies.


A modification of Tulsi's quantum search algorithm with intermediate measurements of the control is presented. In order to analyze the effect of measurements in quantum searches, a different choice of the angular parameter is used. The study is performed for several values of time lapses between measurements, finding close relationships between probabilities and correlations (Mutual Information and Cumulative Correlation Measure). The order of this modified algorithm is estimated, showing that for some time lapses the performance is improved, and became of order $O(N)$ (classical brute force search) when the measurement is taken in every step. The results indicate a possible way to analyze improvements to other quantum algorithms using one, or more, control qubits.


SPIHT and SPECK have a good performance on image compression.In this paper,the distributed characteristics of the coefficients after wavelet transform are introduced first.Then SPIHT and SPECK are also introduced accerding to thinking,set defining,partitioning,sorting,quantification and encoded streams.Finally,differences and similarities between them are pointed out.


The whole developing situation of the rural cooperative economical organizations of Jilin province is analysed in this paper.Problems are pointed out and restraints to the development are analysed.Solutions and suggestions: suit measures to local conditions and develop the cooperative organization steadily;stick to voluntary principles and discard administrative orders;carry out the rural speciality cooperative law;improve the supporting system of loan,finance and information of the rural cooperative economical organizations;supervise the internal managerial system and stimulate standard operation;enhance education and training in cooperative economy.


A liquid and selective growth medium that is modified based on the Kirchner medium by the addition of a mixture of antimicrobial agents (typically polymyxin B, amphotericin B, carbenicillin, and trimethoprim) and colorless tetrazolium salt as a growth indicator, which is developed for the cultivation of mycobacterium.


A few years ago it was believed that the human infant obtained all the im¬ munologic protection he or she needed transplacentally,1 in contrast to the calf, foal and piglet, who derived all theirs orally in colostrum.2 It is now known that, in these animals, even though colostral feedings increase serum con¬ centrations of immunoglobulins to rela¬ tively normal values, a continued sup¬ ply of the mother's milk is required for adequate protection against colibacillosis, a common and often fatal disease in "formula-fed" animals. In the natural course of events the human infant receives passive systemic protection against diseases to which the mother is immune in the form of trans¬ placental IgG, local gastrointestinal protection in the form of colostral IgA, and a continued supply of antibody in breast milk. Maternal IgM and IgE, fortunately, do not cross the placenta. If IgM were to cross the placenta, isohemagglutinins would readily enter the fetal circulation, causing frequent stillbirth and severe hemolytic disease of the newborn in those instances in which there was ABO incompatibility between mother and child. If IgE were to cross the placenta, the baby would automatically be passively sensitized to the allergens to which the mother her¬ self was sensitive, and a whole spec¬ trum of diseases would be encountered in the newborn. Antibodies to Escherichia coli are, like the isohemagglutinins, mainly of the IgM class and hence do not cross the placenta. The human infant is therefore usually born without systemic protection against these organisms3 and is particularly susceptible to infec¬ tion by them; E. coli meningitis and septicemia are especially common in the neonatal period,4 and gastrointes¬ tinal infections due to enteropathogenic E. coli are most troublesome during the first 6 months of life.5 Thus, it is to the baby's advantage if the gastro¬ intestinal tract is kept as free as pos¬ sible of E. coli. Breast feeding ensures this, for breast milk contains relatively little base and relatively high concen¬ trations of lactose, ensuring a low pH in the gut, which facilitates the growth of lactobacilli and inhibits the growth of coliforms and shigellae.6 Lactobacilli produce large amounts of lactic and acetic acid, thus helping to maintain the low pH.7 Antibodies in breast milk provide additional gastrointestinal pro¬ tection and are effective in ensuring the elimination of E. coli from the gut. This has been shown in two well docu¬ mented outbreaks of gastroenteritis in nurseries7,8 where the institution of breast feeding had to be resorted to; conventional methods, such as isolation of contacts and the use of appropriate antimicrobials, had failed to eliminate the pathogenic E. coli. Interestingly, fresh breast milk had to be given; boiled breast milk was ineffective, pre¬ sumably because heating had destroyed its antibody activity. For breast milk to be effective it must be given alone, for the introduction of cow's milk and other foods into the baby's diet is fol¬ lowed by an increase in the pH of the gut and rapid colonization with E. coli.9 Two studies,10,11 involving more than 40 000 infants, carried out in the United States in the 1920s, when breast feeding was still fashionable (at that time 90% of babies were initially breast-fed), revealed that breast feeding not only reduced the incidence of and mortality due to gastrointestinal tract infections but also had the same effect


It is used for the technology for selecting the type of emotion code associated with semantic content in dialog interaction system.In an aspect, true or profile is provided to mood sorting algorithm to input, the mood sorting algorithm based on the fact that or the specific combination of profile input select type of emotion.The mood sorting algorithm can be rule-based or obtained from machine learning.Previous user's input further can be appointed as to the input of the mood sorting algorithm.The technology is especially suitable in the mobile communication equipment of such as smart mobile phone, wherein the fact or profile input can the use of diversified function collection of slave unit obtain, including online access, text or voice communication, schedule function etc..


RATIONALE
Shade avoidance was expected to be favored under moderate light. However, shade avoidance has reached its highest level in the deepest shade in previous studies despite the fact that the plants may incur cost of shade avoidance without benefit of being exposed to increased light.

METHODS
We performed shade experiments under different light intensities to understand the following: (1) how shade avoidance traits of Penthorum chinense could have a peak magnitude at a moderate light, and (2) if there was a trade-off between height and allocation of seeds along light gradients.

RESULTS
P. chinense increased shade avoidance traits such as height per total dry mass as the amount of light decreased. Side stem number per total dry mass of P. chinense decreased as shade became deeper from full light to low light. Regressions on seed mass fraction and height were significant with the linear model (y = -0.0006x + 0.1338). P. chinense had more seed allocation under low light than that under moderate light.

CONCLUSIONS
P. chinense increases shade avoidance traits with the decrease of light amount as species previously studied. There is a trade-off between height and production of more seeds. P. chinense has a reproductive strategy of increasing more seed mass fraction under low light than under moderate light. This species might be able to expand established populations by both rhizome and seed under low light environments.


ALTHOUGH THE 16 HIGHWAY SAFETY PROGRAM STANDARDS HAVE BEEN IN EFFECT FOR SOME TIME, THEIR ADOPTION BY THE INDIVIDUAL STATES HAS BEEN LESS THAN COMPLETE. TO CONVINCE THE LOCAL GOVERNMENTS THAT THE REQUIREMENTS IMPOSED BY THESE STANDARDS ARE WELL WORTH THEIR COST IN IMPROVED SAFETY BENEFITS, A NEED EXISTS FOR DETERMINING AND RANKING THE EFFICACY OF HIGHWAY SAFETY COUNTERMEASURES. A DATA BASE IS DEFINED HEREIN ON THE STATE OF THE ART IN HIGHWAY SAFETY COUNTERMEASURE DEVELOPMENT FOR EACH OF THE 16 SAFETY STANDARDS. THIS BIBLIOGRAPHY CONTAINS 1,000 ENTRIES THAT ARE GROUPED BY STANDARD AREA. CONTAINED IN THIS COLLECTION ARE GENERAL DISCUSSIONS OF THE PROBLEMS AND ATTITUDES COMMON TO THE STANDARD AREA; REPORTS ON CURRENT AND PROPOSED COUNTERMEASURES; EVALUATIONS OF PERTINENT METHODOLOGIES; AND PRESENTATIONS OF FACTUAL DATA. /HSRI/


A new numerical method is presented to solve the Time Domain Electric Field Integral Equation (TD-EFIE) for a two-dimensional conducting scatterer in free space illuminated by a TE-polarized Gaussian plane wave. In a time domain Method of Moments formulation (TD-MoM) of the problem, it is shown that the time convolution integrals and self-terms involved in the formulation can be evaluated analytically to increase the accuracy and the stability of the proposed technique.


Er3+/Yb3+ co-doped tellurite glasses were fabricated. The thermal and optical properties of the tellurite glasses were studied. The presented glasses are potential candidates for the development of lasers and optical amplifiers.


Abstract A low-temperature synthesis of ZrW2O8and HfW2O8has been developed which yields the normal crystalline forms of these compounds at a temperature where they are presumably not thermodynamically stable. This same synthesis approach has allowed for the first time the synthesis of cubic ZrW2−xMoxO8phases up tox=1.5.


For the reconstruction of Interstate 15 (I-15), the contractor is taking advantage of the design-build process to stay on pace with bridge building, which includes the complex Jordan Section. The segment consists of the I-80/I-15/State Route 201 junction, which holds 58 bridges. There are 15 flyover structures in the interchange, and construction has been started on all but three of them. Getting all the alignments to fit in is challenging. If an alignment or profile is changed at all on any one level, it affects all the others. Because Salt Lake City lies on a major fault line, plastic moment hinges have been inserted at the top and bottom of bridge columns to yield, but not fail, in a major earthquake. The contractor is using 5% silica fume on the top decks, epoxy-coated rebar, and salt sealants to give the bridges durability in the salty environment. Tackling the soft soil was another major issue. Some lime cement columns have been used for soil reinforcement in liquefaction areas to stabilize the soil and reduce the liquefaction potential in seismic events. Despite all the complexity and coordination involved during the design-build process, the actual construction of the bridge is quite elementary. A sidebar provides details on the chemical stain used for coating the I-15 bridges.


THE attitudes and the practices of college and university students with reference to the Eighteenth Amendment have been the subject of much heated controversy. Individuals from the rank of college presidents to that of janitors and scrub women have been consulted in an attempt to determine how the college youth has reacted to the provisions and the enforcement of the so-called prohibition law. Leading Wets and Drys have made pronouncements on the topic, too often in keeping with their particular experience, or with their personal prejudice as the basis of their utterances.


Space charge measurement under divergent electric fields can provide crucial insight into various insulating phenomena, and the space charge reconstruction relies on the relation between the measured acoustic wave and the space charge distribution if the pulsed electroacoustic method is used. However, the relation is still unclear. In this work, the characteristic of acoustic waves generated by a divergent electric field is studied. Three components of electrostatic force leading to acoustic waves, which are surface force, internal Coulomb force, and electrostrictive force, are considered. The relation between the acoustic wave and these three components is provided, and the acoustic wave characteristic is, therefore, investigated. The results show that the acoustic wave exhibits two opposite peaks for each component due to the local distribution of the force, which is different from that with a uniform electric field, and the combined waveform is greatly influenced by the contribution of electrostrictive force, making it challenging to extract space charge information.


Geoscience gives insights into our surroundings and benefits many aspects of our life. Nowadays, with massive sensors deployed to sense all kinds of parameters for environments, tens of billions, even trillions of sensed data are collected and need to be analyzed for surveillance or other purposes. From many perspectives, users always issue queries according to specific spatial and temporal predicates. For these applications, relational databases are overwhelmed by the large scale and high rate insertions, and NoSQL database could be considered a feasible solution. HBase, a popular key-value store system, is capable to solve the storage problem, but fails to provide in-built spatio-temporal querying capability. Many previous works tackle the problem by designing schema, i.e., designing row key and column key formation for HBase, which we don't believe is an effective solution. In this paper, we address this problem from nature level of HBase, and propose an index structure as a built-in component for HBase. STEHIX (Spatio-TEmporal Hbase IndeX) is adapted to two-level architecture of HBase and suitable for HBase to process spatio-temporal queries. It is composed of index in the meta table (the first level) and region index (the second level) for indexing inner structure of HBase regions. Base on this structure, two common queries, range query and kNN query are solved by proposing algorithms, respectively. For achieving load balancing and scalable kNN query, two optimizations are also presented. We implement STEHIX and conduct experiments on real dataset, and the results show our design outperforms a previous work in many aspects.


This qualitative study examines the energy-related activities that went on for LKAB in connection with the 1970s oil crises. The study shows both how LKAB's board discussed energy issues and how th ...


A method of manufacturing nanoparticles at least one transition metal oxide selected from Ti, Zr, Hf, V, Nb and Ta coated with amorphous carbon, the method comprising the following successive steps: (i) a liquid mixture containing as precursors at least one alkoxide of the transition metal, an alcohol, acetic acid in excess with respect to the transition metal is prepared and then diluted in water to form an aqueous solution, the precursors being present in the aqueous solution in a molar ratio such that it prevents or sufficiently limit the formation of a sol to the aqueous solution is lyophilizable and as the transition metal, carbon and oxygen are present in the stoichiometric ratio in which they be found in the nanoparticles, (ii) the aqueous solution is subjected to lyophilization, (iii) the lyophilisate obtained in the preceding step is pyrolyzed in vacuum or under an inert atmosphere to get nanoparticules.L'invention also relates to the application of the method for the manufacture of transition metal carbide.


Co-continuous TiN/Al composites with different volume fractions of Al phase have been fabricated by the squeeze-casting method. TiN porous ceramics with different porosities were fabricated through carbothermal reduction by changing the content of TiN and were used as preforms. The outstanding mechanical properties were attributed to the absence of excessive interface reaction between TiN and Al for the co-continuous TiN/Al composites. With the increase of Al content in the composites, the flexural strength and the microhardness decreased, and the fracture toughness increased. The strengthening and toughening mechanism of composites included dislocation strengthening, ductile rupture, crack deflection, and secondary cracks.


Standard Model is the most fundamental particle theory based on observations (see e.g. [1]). Like other quantum field theory models it relies on three principles: Lorentz invariance, continuous space-time, and locality. Although firmly established empirically, this combination of principles was in the past and still is a source of mathematical and conceptual difficulties. Most of mathematical issues, e.g. UV divergencies were successfully solved within the the quantum field theory framework. However, when it comes to gravity in which the local Lorentz symmetry extended to the diffeomorphism invariance assumes the role of gauge symmetry, there is no successful model combining all three principles. Moreover, we have an argument [2], according to which a quantum gravity theory combining these concepts is in principle impossible. Hence, a successful theory of gravity should possess these properties only in an approximate way which is precise only within the experimental window available to us today. There is also string theory, which is outside of our experimental window. It successfully quantises gravity, albeit with no locality. In fact, a non-perturbative approach to strings opens a Pandora's box of models, all of which are unified under the paradigm of M-theory, which itself is not yet a fully understood model. In particular, there are string theory inspired matrix models in which the space-time emerges as an arena for large scale dynamics (see Ref. [3], for some recent results). Although mathematically elegant and feature rich, string theory fails to fit naturally with Standard Model. The problem is that it predicts too many structures, while those compatible with observations are by no means special [4]. Also, there is a wide scale gap between the regime claimed by string theory and our experimental knowledge described within Standard Model. On the other hand, in condensed matter theory we have situations that are well understood from both the bottom and the top. A condensed matter system is characterised by a hierarchy of structures where at the 'microscopic' level we have atomic structures resulting from 'more fundamental' electronic exchange forces organised at lower energies into 'less fundamental' collective excitation modes naturally described in a field theory framework. In the case of Dirac materials, these models are also Lorentz invariant with most notorious example being graphene [5]. Under deeper mathematical scrutiny the emergence of Lorentz invariant Dirac, Weyl or Majorana fermions in such models does not seem accidental. In fact, whenever the Fermi surface shrinks to a point, low energy fluctuations organise themselves into relativistic spinor objects [6]. This conclusion is based on ABS construction [7]. If we assume that a quantum field theory emerges from a similar structure, evolved from either string theory or some unknown model, then what can be said about the basic properties of the above structure? In this letter we attempt a study of this hypothetical structure, which we call microscopic texture. We do so by relying on minimal assumptions, such as the structure being organised as a graph, or a network of fermionic states. The graph is parameterised by a Hermitian adjacency matrix T . The statistical weight of such a graph is given by the partition function,


The problem of subclinical mastitis and the associated bacteriological, cytological, and hematological changes were studied in a sheep flock consists of 28 lactating ewes. 56 milk and 28 duplicate blood samples were collected. The milk samples were tested firstly by California mastitis test (CMT) and the animal prevalence rate was 85.7% (24/28) while the udder halves prevalence rate was 67.9% (38/56). By bacteriological examination, Coagulase Negative Staphylococci (CNS) were isolated from 37 samples (as a single pathogen from 33 samples and mixed with Staph aureus from 4 samples) with a prevalence rate 66.1%, while Staph aureus was isolated from 5 samples with a prevalence rate 8.9% (as a single pathogen from 1 sample and as mixed infection with CNS from 4 samples). The isolated bacteria were subjected to the antibiotic sensitivity test and it was found that all the CNS isolates were 100% sensitive to both Enrofloxacin and Gentamicin, while the Staph aureus isolates were sensitive to Enrofloxacin and Oxytetracycline. Somatic cell count (SCC) were estimated in these milk samples and 7 samples were found to have SCC in the range from 250x10 3 -500x10 3 cells/ml and the rest of samples contain SCC level above 500x10 3 cells/ml. The results of hematological and serum biochemical examinations revealed that there is no significant changes in the examined parameters between infected or control groups.


IT IS ACCEPTED THAT IMAGE SEGMENTATION IS A MAIN PROBLEM IN COMPUTER VISION. ITS GOOD SOLUTION DETERMINES THE WELL PERFORMANCE OF THE AUTOMATIC RECOGNITION SYSTEM IMPLIED. IN THIS PAPER WE PRESENT A NEW WAY TO SOLVE THIS PROBLEM. FOR THIS WE TREAT THE IMAGE SEGMENTATION PROBLEM AS AN OPTIMIZATION PROBLEM, AND JUSTIFY THE UTILITY OF THE VARIATIONAL APPROACH TO SOLVE IT. WE ALSO INTRODUCE A COMMON FRAMEWORK BASED ON MUMFORD-SHAH 'S APPROACH WHERE MOST IMAGE SEGMENTATION ALGORITHMS CAN BE EXPRESSED. F OR THIS WE USE THE THEORIES OF CALCULUS OF VARIATIONS AND PARTIAL DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS AND SOME OF THE IDEAS OF TIKHONOV FOR THE SOLUTION OF ILL-POSED PROBLEMS. USING THIS NEW FRAMEWORK, WE SHOW HOW TO CREATE NEW REASONABLE, FAST AND STABLE NUMERICAL ALGORITHMS USEFUL TO SEGMENT COMPLICATED REAL IMAGES EVEN IF SOME INITIAL INFORMATION IS LOST. WE FINA[[Y TEST THE PERFORMANCE OF OUR DERIVED SEGMENTATION METHODS AND SOME VERY WE[[ KNOWN ONES. WE CONCLUDE THAT OUR METHODS ARE SUPERIOR IN THE SENSE THAT THEY ARE EVEN ABLE TO DETECT SMA[[ DETAILS THAT ARE NORMA[[Y LOST BY OTHERS AND THEY DO NOT DEPEND ON ANY THRESHOLD.


Background: Respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) infections are a common cause of morbidity and mortality in pediatric transplant recipients. From 2010 to 2013, the Canadian Paediatric Surveillance Program (CPSP) performed national active surveillance of RSV infections occurring in the 2 years following hematopoietic stem cell transplant (HSCT) or solid organ transplant (SOT). This study aimed to validate accuracy of reporting of inpatient cases of post-transplant RSV infections to the CPSP. Methods: Transplant recipients <18 years with potential RSV infection were retrospectively identified from 9 tertiary-care pediatric centres, using ICD-10 codes for RSV and transplant from hospital and local laboratory information systems. Cases included after chart review were cross-referenced with the CPSP database. Sensitivity and positive predictive value (PPV) of the CPSP were calculated, and characteristics of reported and non-reported cases compared. Results: Of 27 cases found using this retrospective search of ad...


Abstract The objective of this work was to evaluate the susceptibility of R. microplus larvae from different oviposition times to fipronil. The LPT was performed in sextuplicate, at concentrations of 18.75, 37.5, 75, 150 and 300 µg.mL-1. The LC50 found for the egg masses incubated with +7, +14 and +21 days were respectively 105.87, 110.71 and 121.22 µg.mL-1. The larvae originating from egg masses from the same group of engorged females, incubated on different days, presented similar mortality rates compared to the evaluated fipronil concentrations, facilitating the maintenance of laboratory colonies of this tick species.


Introduction. The evolution of the media industry has prompted profound changes in the way teenagers develop their skills and access transmedia products. To be precise, the article focuses on the emergence of a grey area where media hobbies become professionalisation opportunities for young people


In this paper, we discuss all the Laplacian eigenvalues for generalized star graphs. When it is not possible to flnd the exact eigenvalues, we have given the upper and lower bounds. Moreover, we compare these bounds with the existing bounds in the literature (8, 10).


An opininon survey was made with a questionnaire on medical ethics and social responsibility, and then a comparison was made between dental students and dentists who had graduated from same dental college.The survey revealed the following opinions. The best policy in dental practice is to get the patient's trust, and to be kind to the patient. Dentists give more attention to attitudes of trust, kindness, and social responsibility than dental students.In the dentist's opininon, medical ethics should be taught in various departments of the university.


Some experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of the chemosterilant, hempa, on the biology of the rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae L., and the transmission of the lethal factors in the progeny. One to three days old adult males were fed on the wheat grains treated with concentrations of 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25, and of hempa water solution. The effects of the treatment on the mortality, longevity, and the performance of oviposition were examined for the Pl generation, and the hatchability and mortality in the postembryonic development were also tested in the generations to analyze the inheritance of the lethal factors. The results obtained were summarized as follows. (1) The average longevity of the treated males were ranged from 26.6 to 30.4 days, and indicated no statistical differences. (2) The mortality of the treated males were ranged between and showed no statistical significance. (3) The overall mean number of eggs laid by a female mated to a treated male with concentrations of 0.0625, 0.125, 0.26 and were 3.78, 4.05, 3.75 and 3.61 for the respective treatments, and they were not differ significantly from those of control which were 3.60 per female per 3 day period. The unmated female laid 1.91 in the same period, and significantly differ from those in other experimental groups. (4) The overall mean hatchability of the eggs laid by the females mated with males that had been treated with various concentrations of hempa were 86.82, 64.77, 53.47, 40.33 and for the respective concentrations of 0, 0.0625, 0.125, 0.25 and . The hatchability decreased with the increasing concentrations. (5) The minimum hatchabilities were obtained from the eggs laid in the period of 10-12 days after treatment, then the hatchability increased showing some recovery. The recovery seemed to be very much delayed for the males which had been treated with the greater concentrations. Such a difference in hatchability might be related with the sensitivity of the developmental stages of the sperms, and broader spectrum in the stages and severer effects seemed to be associated with the increased concentrations. (6) The overall mean of larval mortality in the generation were 6.55, 17.89, 27.40, 35.42 and for the respective concentrations of 0,0.0625, 0.125,0.25 and . And there was a tendency to increase in the mortality with the increase of concentrations. (7) The correlation coefficients between per cent sterile eggs and larval mortality for the experimental plots of 0.125, 0.25 and treatments showed r=+0.83 and +0.85, respectively, and it seemed to be close correlation between the lethal effects on the embryonic and post-embryonic developments. (8) Since the of the sterile eggs was and of the larval mortality was , it was considered that tile lethal factors expressed more in the egg stages than the larval stages. (9) The ratio of female to male in the adults showed 100 : 125, 100 : 108 and 100 : 124 for the plots of 0.125, 0.25 and treatments, respectively. And it n·as considered that the sex ratio distortions might occur with the higher concentrations. (10) When the F, males originated 1.on the eggs had been laid by p, in the period of 16-18 days after treatment, were crossed to normal females and made sib matings , the per cent sterile eggs of the generation were 13.88 and , and were 31.01 and for the generation with the plots of 0.0625 and treatment, respectively. And these seemed to be a results of the individuals are carrying some chromosomal aberrations (11) The larval mortality was the highest in the plot and followed the female backcross plot, and the least in the male backcrosses. (12) The proportions of 1st and 2nd instar larvae among the larval development at tile 17th day after oviposition were 10.98, 27.26, 32.98 and in the normal female normal male, femalenormal male, normal male and male plots, respectively. It was considered that the larval development might be delayed by the treatment in the 2nd generation. (13) Per cent larval mortality and sterile eggs were greater in the sib mating plots than both of backcrosses. Therefore, it seemed that some of the recessive lethal mutations might affect in the further generations. (14) The sterility, induced by the treatment of chemosterilant, hempa, was considered as the result of the dominant lethal mutations due to chromosomal aberrations such as translocation and/or deletion. The effects of these lethal factors seemed to be inherited tip to 3rd generation after treatment.


Using a suitable lift-off technique, we have investigated the chemical properties of the interface between Mo and chalcopyrite compound semiconductors by x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy and x-ray excited Auger-electron spectroscopy. By a systematic comparison of interfaces between S-free [$\text{Cu}(\text{In},\text{Ga}){\text{Se}}_{2}$ (CIGSe)] as well as S-containing [$\text{Cu}(\text{In},\text{Ga}){(\text{S},\text{Se})}_{2}$ (CIGSSe)] chalcopyrites and Mo, we find that the chemical structure at the CIG(S)Se/Mo interface is strongly influenced by the presence or absence of S. We observe an interfacial ${\text{MoSe}}_{2}$ $[\text{Mo}{({\text{S}}_{Z}{\text{Se}}_{1\ensuremath{-}Z})}_{2}]$ layer formed between CIGSe [CIGSSe] and the Mo layer. The $\text{Mo}{({\text{S}}_{Z}{\text{Se}}_{1\ensuremath{-}Z})}_{2}$ layer appears significantly thinner than the ${\text{MoSe}}_{2}$ layer and exhibits a different $\text{S}/(\text{S}+\text{Se})$ ratio $[Z=0.9(1)]$ than the CIGSSe back side [0.5(7)], giving insight into the ``competition'' between S and Se during contact formation. Furthermore, we find a significant Ga accumulation at the Mo back contact, which points to pronounced chemical interactions during the formation of the CIG(S)Se/Mo interface.


No branch of international law has been so badly misunderstood and needlessly confused as that of the recognition of new states and new governments. Recognition has been the football of diplomats who have made it mean anything that suited their purpose. It has certainly been grossly abused as a weapon of diplomatic pressure and intervention. It has in many cases proved to be an insoluble puzzle to the courts whose decisions have been sometimes conflicting and confusing. It has been a plaything for the political scientists who have taken delight in posing abstract problems of a theoretical nature.


Purpose – When two 14‐year‐old New Zealand schoolgirls challenged the advertising claims of Ribena blackcurrant drink – owned by global giant GlaxoSmithKline – they triggered a sequence of events which led to prosecution, public opprobrium and international damage to an iconic brand. The purpose of this paper is to explore the case and identify lessons for future management practice.Design/methodology/approach – Some of the fundamental principles of issue management, post‐crisis discourse and corporate apologia are to recognize the problem early, to promptly institute a strategic response plan and corrective action and, if necessary, to apologise genuinely and without delay. The paper assesses the case against the theoretical basis of each of these principles and comparable cases. A senior executive of the company concerned was interviewed about some management aspects.Findings – Despite early indications of a problem which had potential impact around the world, a major global corporation responded inadeq...


Abstract Population censuses have been organised sporadically since antiquity, but in the 19th century they acquired a universal character. These censuses are a good source of information on the rural population, but it was not until the introduction of systematic national agricultural censuses that a broader picture of the countryside and agriculture was obtained. In the censuses conducted after 1918 in Poland, there was a fixed catalogue of questions on the characteristics of farms, but each time new questions were also introduced to reflect the specificity of agriculture in a given historical period. The censuses were conducted on a fairly regular basis and, therefore, they provide valuable information for comparative analyses. Due to their universality and thematic scope, they also collect data on demography and socio-professional and economic relations that are not available in other sources.


X-rays in natural science and medicine - Proceedings of a Symposium held in Uppsala University March 23-24, 1995 - Concluding remarks


Cartesian and cylindrical laminated models are well known in electromagnetic calculations of electric machines. In such models, general solutions of partial differential equations are transformed into four-terminal circuit equations, and this makes possible to synthesize cascade equivalent circuits of the electric machines. In salient-pole machines, solutions of partial differential equations are formed on the base of piecewise continuous Sturm-Liouville eigenfunctions. However, in this case, cascade equivalent circuits cannot be synthesized since it needs many piecewise continuous eigenfunctions in a zone of poles and many smooth functions in a zone of an air gap for ensuring uniqueness of a solution. Meanwhile the author of this paper had offered an approximate method on the base of a single piecewise continuous Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction in a zone of poles and many smooth functions in a zone of the air gap. This method allows transforming an analytic solution of a partial differential equation into four-terminal circuit equations and synthesizing cascade equivalent circuits of salient-pole electric machines. In this paper, a synthesis of an active cell of a cascade equivalent A-H-circuit of a synchronous salient-pole electric machine is considered. The active cell of the corresponding exciting field is synthesized by means of a solution of Poisson's equation with a single piecewise continuous Sturm-Liouville eigenfunction.


The Katrina catastrophe served to consolidate many long-term trends in the Gulf Coast region, particularly in New Orleans. Among these are a massive demographic shift following World War II that confined poor Black Americans within the older city boundaries, a changing economy marked by deindustrialization of the city and transfers of employment and resources to the suburbs, the decline of the welfare state which had supported many of the structurally unemployed/underemployed until relatively recently, the rise of a tourism economy, and the automation of particularly key industries such as shipping, refining, and chemical manufacturing. The disaster was structured by these long-term socio-economic transformations and consolidated through a punctuated moment of continuity called hurricane Katrina. In this sense, Hurricane Katrina merely brought the situation up to speed. Throughout this essay I explore some of these transformations while also touching on the politics of reconstruction; a Shumpeterian process whereby local economic elites are seeking to make an opportunity of the destruction by monopolizing the planning process and rebuilding the cityscape in a fashion more amenable to the accumulation of capital. Equally powerful and related are the gentrifying forces at work in New Orleans. The city has also become the wellspring for a powerful number of social movements seeking racial and economic justice, however. While we can trace these trends back across time and place in New Orleans, and while we can say that Katrina "exposed" or "brought to the surface" much of the structural racism operating in our society, the future of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is by no means determined.


Objective To study school infectious disease outbreaks in Maanshan,and to provide bases for making related policies.Methods Data of National Infectious Disease Epidemic Reporting Information System in 2005-2007 in Maanshan were analyzed.Results School reported infectious diseases epidemics were 430,1 082 and 1 459 cases,the incidence rate was 1.44‰,3.61‰ and 4.87‰,and the incidence rate of the total population was 10.65%,21.71% and 4.87% in 2005,2006 and 2007 respectively.The incidence of infectious for school was increased rapidly in 2005-2007.Among them,the prevalence rates of the mumps,other infectious diarrhea,chicken pox,bacillary dysentery,hand and foot and mouth disease were in the top five.The average incidence rate of the three years of the primary school was higher than the nurseries,the nurseries was higher than the secondary schools,male to female ration was 1∶0.66.The peak incidence was in June to July and December to January.Conclusion All levels of government and education,and health departments should strengthen prevention and control of infectious diseases of schools.Leak investigation and replant should be carried out according to the request of the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education for the entrance vaccination identification checking.


The success rate of the cardiac ablation procedure to cure atrial fibrillation is moderate and depends on the experience and expertise of the physicians. It could be increased by precisely locating arrhythmogenic substrates. The aim of this work is to present a simple and feasible method to analyze intraatrial electrograms to identify the arrhythmogenic substrate on the atrium, under sinus rhythm and pacing sequences. The change in the depolarization wavefront propagation, resulting from consecutive triggering at a point in the coronary sinus (CS), can be an indication of the arrhythmogenic substrate. The region specific study enables the localization of critical sites in the patient specific atrial anatomy. This could aid the physicians in ascertaining the efficacy of cardiac therapies. In this work the point-to-point analysis of the intraatrial electrograms was carried out.


Objective: To explore the clinic and X-ray manifestation of esophagus-type cervical spondylosis and improve the diagnosis rate.Methods: A total of 39 cases were collected.All cases had frontal and lateral X-ray images of cervical spondylosis and barium meal examination.Results: Different levels of hyperplasia happened in the front edge of cervical vertebrae,the osteophyte were 5.0-6.9 mm height in 13 cases,7.0-9.9 mm height in 12 cases,10.0-12.9 mm height in 6 cases,13.0-14.9 mm height in 5 cases,and over 15 mm height in 3 cases.The osteophyte pressed the esophagus and led to simple or multiple arc-shaped impression happened in back wall of esophagus,the impression of 6 cases were between 4-5 vertebrae level,33 cases between 5-6 vertebrae level,26 cases between 6-7 vertebrae level,barium meal blocked in 9 cases between 4-5 vertebrae and 6-7 vertebrae level.Conclusion: There is the positive correlation among clinic manifestation,sides of osteophyte,depth of the arc-shaped impression.The frontal and lateral X-ray images of cervical spondylosis and barium meal examination binding the clinic experience can be used as a valuable reference for the diagnosis and differential diagnosis of esophagus-type cervical spondylosis.


This paper describes the development of a two-camera, video imaging system for the determination of three-dimensional spatial coordinates from stereo images. This system successfully measured angle of attack at several span-wise locations for large-scale parafoils tested in the NASA Ames 80- by 120-Foot Wind Tunnel. Measurement uncertainty for angle of attack was less than 0.6 deg. The stereo ranging system was the primary source for angle of attack measurements since inclinometers sewn into the fabric ribs of the parafoils had unknown angle offsets acquired during installation. This paper includes discussions of the basic theory and operation of the stereo ranging system, system measurement uncertainty, experimental set-up, calibration results, and test results. Planned improvements and enhancements to the system are also discussed.


This policy paper, prepared as part of the Background Study for the European Competitiveness Report 2009, analyses the external trade in goods and services between the EU and the BRICs. The paper starts with the analysis of the global position of the EU and the BRICs in world trade (using the IMF DOT and UN COMTRADE databases) and moves subsequently to a more detailed analysis of regional (individual EU countries' trade with the BRICs), commodity and industry-specific trade specialization patterns, using the Eurostat Comext database. The key features of services trade are addressed as well.


OBJECTIVE:To establish an assay method for Sustained-release palmatine tablet in beagle dog. METHODS:Sample separation was performed on Diamonsil ODS C18 column(250 mm×4.6 mm,5 μm) with mobile phase consisted of acetonitrile-water (1∶1,containing NaH2PO4 3.4 g and SDS 1.7 g in every 1 000 mL water,pH was adjusted to 3 by H3PO4) with a flow rate of 1.0 mL·min-1.The column was kept at 35 ℃ and the detective wavelength was set at 342 nm.RESULTS:The linear serum concentration range was 0.005~0.5 μg·mL-1(r=0.999 9) and the recovery rate was(102.22±2.48)%. CONCLUSION:The method was proved to be simple,accurate,sensitive and reproducible,and it was up to the standards for the study of pharmacokinetics and bioavailability of Sustained-release palmatine tablet in beagle dog.


Health insurance is one of the essential enabling resources to gain access to medical care and ultimately increase health status. Over 11 million or one quarter of the nation's uninsured individuals are eligible for Medicaid or the State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP), but are not enrolled. Interviews with 368 individuals from 1999 through 2003 identify eight primary barriers to enrollment in public insurance. These include: economic aspects of qualifying, lack of knowledge, benefit design of public programs, poor experiences and stigma, complexity and literacy, immigration status, poor customer service, and fear of fraud. These results suggest policy options alone are unlikely to result in reaching eligible uninsured individuals unless knowledge and instrumental support are offered to them about insurance. Key Words: Access to Health Care, Barriers to Insurance, Medicaid, SCHIP, Underinsured, and Uninsured


ABSTRACT Understanding the regulation of social behavioural expression requires insight into motivational and performance aspects. While a number of studies have independently assessed these aspects of social behaviours, few have examined how they relate to each other. By comparing behavioural variation in response to live or video presentations of conspecific females, we analysed how variation in the motivation to produce courtship song covaries with variation in performance aspects of courtship song in male zebra finches (Taeniopygia guttata). In agreement with previous reports, we observed that male zebra finches were less motivated to produce courtship songs to videos of females than to live presentations of females. However, we found that acoustic features that reflect song performance were not significantly different between songs produced in response to videos of females, and those produced in response to live females. For example, songs directed at video presentations of females were just as fast and stereotyped as songs directed at live females. These experimental manipulations and correlational analyses reveal a dissociation between motivational and performance aspects of birdsong and suggest a refinement of neural models of song production and control. In addition, they support the efficacy of videos to study both motivational and performance aspects of social behaviours. Summary: Zebra finches are less motivated to court videos of females than live females, but courtship songs to these stimuli are similar in performance, suggesting a dissociation between motivation and performance.