The purpose of this study was to describe the knowledge requirements of primary coronary artery bypass graft (CABG) patients and their partners during the third to fourth week after discharge from the hospital. In addition, comparisons and correlations of knowledge requirements between the primary CABG patients and their partners were made. This descriptive comparative study was conducted in a major teaching hospital in western Canada that specializes in cardiovascular surgeries. A convenience sample of 40 participants-20 primary CABG patients and their partners completed a questionnaire, the Knowledge Requirements of Primary Coronary Artery Bypass Graft Patients and Their Partners During the Third to Fourth Week Period After Discharge from the Hospital, and also demographic guides. Knowledge requirements did not significantly differ between the primary CABG patients and their partners. However, there were differences reported as demonstrated by the partners' desire for more knowledge requirements than the primary CABG patients. Moreover, the primary CABG patients and their partners demonstrated a statistically significant correlation of the majority of knowledge requirements. Trends in the ratings with respect to health related characteristics suggested that CABG surgery was associated with lifestyle changes and an optimism for the future in both primary CABG patients and their partners. The findings were discussed relative to the conceptual framework for the study, other research studies, and the methodological problems inherent in the study. Implications and recommendations for nursing practice and nursing research were


Quality of meat represents one of the most important current issues in modern cattle production. It is known that breed and genetics are the most important pre-slaughter factors which influence the quality of meat. In Serbia, most of the meat that can be found on the market derives from domestic cattle of Simmental breed (80%) whose carcass and meat quality do not satisfy the demand of consumers and meat industry. Industrial crossing of Domestic Simmental breed with French fattening breeds is fast and efficient method for improvement of mentioned properties. In this paper, results of the research of sensory and technological quality of meat from Domestic Simmental cattle and its F1 crosses with Charolais and Limousin breed (N=96) are presented. Genotype significantly (p .01) influenced sensory meat properties. The best color (3.59/5) and consistency (2.84/3) was established in crosses with Limousin, whereas the most distinct marbling was determined in Domestic Simmental breed (2.80/5). Genotype had no significant effect on investigated properties of technological meat quality, except pigment content (p .01). The highest value of this trait was established in domestic breed (101.9 p.p.m.), which was in accordance with visually evaluated lighter nuances of meat color in crosses. Crosses with Limousin breed realized slightly better water holding ability (9.08 ml) and lower cooking losses (38.02) compared to other genotypes, whereas pH 24 value was statistically different (p .05) between domestic breed (5.61) and Charolais crosses (5.56). The greatest diameter of muscle tissue (62.94 μm) and the greatest shear force (8.49 kg) were determined in domestic breed. The highest protein content was established in meat from Limousin crosses (22.79%). Content of fat in meat, contrary to low evaluated marbling, was the highest in the meat of Charolais crosses (1.59%).


The problems of the inside sleeve subassembly of aerial refuelling plane in manufacture and application were analysised. By improvement of the structure of products and their molds, selection of adhesive and compound, and application of sandblasting, the problems in manufacture and application were solved well. The results showed that all properties of the subassembly met the requirments of use.


In U.S., universities play a significant role and serves as a change agent in their respective community and region, and in some cases, in the nation and beyond. However, to function as a university and innovate its operations, they rely on various funding sources (e.g., donations, endowments, tuition and fees revenues, and government funding). In public universities, this suggests the more students enrolled, the more tuition and fees revenues, and the more state funding. Increasing enrollments is a leverage to grow revenues and state funding. One problem faced by state universities is the fierce competition against others at its caliber and in its same state. To address the problem, the universities turn to technology for sustainable solutions. Those institutions strategize limited resources in hopes to reach untapped segments and to anticipate the student demands in the market (Blumenstyk, 2012). Of all means sought, elearning or online learning is one common solution (Allen & Seaman, 2013). Compared to the traditional face-to-face delivery, teaching online appears to require of faculty more effort before the class delivery, such as lecture preparation (Van de Vord & Pogue, 2012).


it is not only parents who will want to read this book — it is likely to be an extremely useful introduction to child language studies for teachers and speech therapists, and also, I suspect, for many students taking their first course in language acquisition. (Received 10 June 1987) Reviewed by MICHAEL F. MCTEAR, Department of Communication, University of Ulster at Jordanstown, Shore Road, Newtownabbey, Co. Antrim, Northern Ireland BT37 oQB.


The invention provides a stereoscopic sound effect device, a stereoscopic sound effect system and a stereoscopic sound effect playing method. The stereoscopic sound effect device comprises a communication interface, a judging device and a sound effect processing device. The communication interface is used for sending several different sound channel voice data respectively to mobile devices of a group. The group is provided with a certain number of the mobile devices. The judging device is used for calculating locations and distances of mobile devices, wherein the locations and the distances are that the mobile devices respectively correspond to the stereoscopic sound effect device. The voice effect processing device is used for distributing the different sound channel voice data to the relative mobile devices of the group according to a location and a distance between every mobile device of the group and the stereoscopic sound effect device. The stereoscopic sound effect device, the stereoscopic sound effect system and the stereoscopic sound effect playing method break through hardware restrictions of the common stereoscopic sound effect system and build stereoscopic sound effect loudspeakers in different sound channels under all kinds of environments at random.


Provided is a sulfur-modified polychloroprene which is not susceptible to generating a nitrosamine compound in kneading or vulcanizing. A sulfur-modified polychloroprene which contains 0.05 to 0.5 mass% of a functional group having a structure represented by chemical formula (I): -S -(=S)-O-R (wherein R is C1-4 alkyl, and x is an integer of 2 to 8).


The purpose of this research was to verify that building an open innovation model over a horizontal network in regional clusters of small and medium-sized enterprises, by applying the open innovation theory, was effective to accelerate the creation of new products. We were able to prove using design structure matrix (DSM), which visualises dependency between various elements that one of the main contributing factors for small and medium-sized enterprise clusters to be able to generate open innovations, was the deepening of human networks and relationships. Next, we verified using a well-being survey that an improved subjective level of well-being of the constituent members was a contributing factor (Diener, 1984; Watson et al., 1988; Maeno, 2013; Maeno, 2017).


This study aims to retrieve useful knowledge from commonly adopted technical indicators, based on a soft computing model, to support investment decisions. Though the validity of technical analysis (TA) has been examined extensively by various statistical models in financial literature, a practical approach that may consider the inconsistency among various technical indicators and the down-side risk of an investment is still underexplored. As a result, the present study takes a two-stage approach to construct a variable consistency dominance-based rough set approach (VC-DRSA) model, to retrieve the imprecise patterns and implicit knowledge from technical indicators. At the first stage, the trading signals indicated by various technical indicators are suggested by domain experts, and those signals were simulated by a trading strategy to examine the outcomes of each indicator. And the simulation results of each technical indicator are further processed by VC-DRSA model at the second stage for retrieving decision rules (i.e., knowledge). To illustrate the proposed model, the weighted average index of the Taiwan stock market was examined by using its historical data from mid/2002 to mid/2014, and a set of decision rules with more than 70% classification accuracy were inducted in this empirical case. The findings suggest that certain technical indicators should be considered simultaneously, and the obtained rules have practical implications for investors.


The present invention uses a viral vector provides methods and compositions related thereto for efficient transduction of cells. Efficiency of transduction of the cells to be transduced, by contacting with one or more molecules that bind the cell surface is increased. Contact with the cell surface binding molecule, or prior to contact between the viral vector and cell can occur after or at the same time. Transducing vector allows the be constructed to express a gene of interest, the transduced cells are used as therapeutic and prophylactic agents.


A daunting task lies before the Saudi capital of Riyadh: the simultaneous construction of an automated metro comprising six lines, to be completed in five years. How this challenging project will be implemented is the focus of this article. Details of the project's design and construction are presented.


Embodiment of the present invention provide systems and methods for the chute device comprises an element for objects, such as a test tube, the cap being released by the gripper unit so that released objects are collected in the vessel. Element may include a plurality of slots in which a plurality of gripper fingers have passed by the gripper unit. Element in which a plurality of gripper fingers are released, the object may be configured to stop the objects.


We appreciate the comments in response to our recent article related to headache, among frontline healthcare workers, related to the use of personal protective equipment (PPE). Our cross-sectional study was aimed to determine the risk factors associated with the development of de novo PPE-associated headaches as well as the perceived impact of these headaches on their health and work performance. Additionally, we evaluate the impact of PPE on pre-existing headache disorders in our study population. We acknowledge that headaches are commonly associated with an increased prevalence of depression, anxiety and stress, especially in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, we found that the de novo headaches reported among our study cohort were suggestive of PPE-associated headaches, rather than a tension-type headache, as the interval between the donning of the PPE to the onset of headaches was less than 60 minutes and resolved within 30 minutes in the majority of the participants. Furthermore, the assumption that healthcare workers working in high-risk areas are under significant psychological distress is flawed. A recent study conducted on the frontline healthcare workers in our tertiary care institution during the COVID-19 pandemic showed that non-medically trained healthcare workers had a higher prevalence of anxiety than their medically trained counterparts (specifically doctors and nurses). A similar observation was reported in another recent study in China, which showed that frontline nurses had lower vicarious traumatization scores than non-frontline nurses and general public. It is important to note that PPE used in our study included the N95 respirator mask and goggles, which are worn only by the frontline healthcare workers directly involved in the care of COVID-19 patients. We agree that headache reported by healthcare workers may be associated with sleep problems as well as with psychological distress. We agree that these factors might have contributed to the headaches in some participants in our study population. However, the prevalence (81%) of de-novo headaches reported by our PPE donning healthcare workers outweighs the considerably lower prevalence of sleep problems and psychological distress. Last, we acknowledge the potential issue of recall bias of utilizing self-administered questionnaires. However, the study was performed during the zenith of the COVID-19 pandemic in Singapore when healthcare workers were using the PPE for extended periods, mitigating the effects of this bias.


This paper expounds the connotation and significance of library's knowledge marketing, and from the aspects of the knowledge product support, marketing network support, marketing emotion support, marketing risk, and system reference, etc., analyzes the functions of library federation in library's knowledge marketing, and puts forward some strategies for giving full play to the function of library federation in library's knowledge marketing


The viscous regime of EHL traction determines the mechanical losses in gears and other concentrated contacts at moderate pressures and high temperatures. Central film thickness may be calculated from measurements of viscosity as a function of pressure (to about 0.4 GPa) with sometimes a correction for non-Newtonian behavior [1]. Traction calculation, on the other hand, requires for the viscous regime, measurements of viscosity to the Hertz pressure and measurement of the ratio of shear stress to pressure for which cohesive failure occurs. A small correction is sometimes required for non-Newtonian (shear-thinning) behavior as well.


This paper assesses the significance of social media for the Finns Party and the related anti-immigration movement from 2007 to the present day, in light of theories on the relationship of populism and social media. These include people-centrism, disenfranchisement, homophily, the attention economy, media elitism, and (lack of) communicative resources. Tracing the historical trajectory of the Finnish anti-immigration movement and the Finns Party, I argue that the Finnish case is an example of a movement being born online and using social media to build a political identity and strategically gain influence through a party, eventually transforming it from the inside out—rather than the party strategically using social media for its purposes, as is sometimes assumed in party-centric literature. While acknowledging the continued importance of parties, research on contemporary populist movements must take into account the political engagement of citizens facilitated by online media.


Currently,Central China faces the crisis of "collapsing",with the level of development lower than Eastern China and rate of development lower than Western China.The authors make an empirical study of the industrial structure of Central China with traditional shift-share method,spatial expansion model and time expansion model.The results show that Central China is facing industrial upgrading pressure,regional coordination needs to be enhanced and the industrial structure optimization needs policy guidance.Accordingly,the authors believe that during the Twelfth Five-years Plan Central China should issue industry guiding policies according with the industrial structure development law,speed up industrial reconstruction,strengthen the construction of the carrier of regional economic development,promote regional interactive and coordinative development.


The introduction of asset-backed securitization (ABS) in Malaysia has benefited the economy. Though only spanning over eight years, the securitization process and its continuous innovation have contributed to resolving and risk managing problems such as lease, auto loans, credit cards receivables and commercial mortgages. We particularly focus herein on the student loan problem, which has not yet been implemented as a securitization process in Malaysia. This work considers the characteristics of Malaysian higher education, suggests a structure for student loan securitization, and studies the potential of the assetbacked securitization process in resolving the problem. The expectation is that the new financial instrument will benefit both the students and the government.


Background In 2000, leaders of countries penned their unity in ending poverty towards shared prosperity, leaving no one behind. These tall orderswere set out in the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) aiming to achieve by 2030. However, the SDGs achievements are divided by the economic growth of the countries, between the low-income developing countries and the advanced countries. With the COVID-19 pandemic, affecting all aspects of life and livelihoods, "leaving no one behind" could be out of reach (Qu, 2020; United Nations, 2020). Food provides nutrients for the growth and repair of human body and for keeping the immune system healthy. Attempts to eradicate hunger and to ensure food and nutrition security exist over human civilization. Human welfare has improved enormously over the past century, thanks to the quantum leaps in technology, innovations in food production systems and rapid urbanization. However, to date, around two billion people are still suffering from micronutrient deficiencies, and almost 800 million are chronically hungry (Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), 2018). Whilst food security was worsening even before the COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic has further increased the world population affected bymoderate or severe food insecurity, derailing the achievement of the SDGs (United Nations, 2020). To fulfill the vision of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UNSDG) No. 2: Zero Hunger and the FAO's: to create a world free of hunger and malnutrition and one in which food and agriculture contribute to improving the living standards of all, especially the poorest, in an economically, socially and environmentally sustainable manner, much remains to be done and at a higher order. The fulfillment of SDGs in this era of the pandemic, particularly achieving poverty reduction and Zero Hunger may seem difficult to achieve at the current rate. Countries need to remain resilient and proactive with their people. Perhaps this is a calling and time for the advanced economies to step in and extend assistance to the low-income developing economies. Data and research remain valuable to understanding the impact of COVID-19 on food security and for planning restoration. However, data are difficult to come by from the poorer nations due to a lack of resources (United Nations, 2020). Moreover, the lack of understanding of the realities of food production and food waste of consumers living in the developed economies, where they live further from where their food grows, remains a concern (Parfitt et al., 2010). This raises questions on whether we can sustainably feed a world population of 11 billion as the pressures of the negative impacts of climate change, land andwater resources scarcity, and food waste intensify. It is a global issue which concerns many aspects of human living, thus highlighting the importance of the roles of multiple stakeholders and the collective efforts to address it (Shelef et al., 2018). In playing a role to ensure that the global food supply is sufficient to meet the demand of the world's population by 2050, this special issue was arranged to call for papers to investigate and present findings on how food supply Editorial


Introduction - Etta M. Madden and Martha L. FinchI. New World Utopias: Cultivating Immigrant Identities through Food1. Pinched with Hunger, Partaking of Plenty: Fasts and Thanksgivings in Early New England - Martha L. Finch 2. Faith, Flatulence, and Fandangos in the Spanish-American Borderlands - Phillip H. Round 3. An Appetite for America: Philip Roth's Antipastorals - Debra Shostak 4. You Are Where You Eat: Negotiating Hindu Utopias in Atlanta - Kathryn McClymondII. Communal Utopias: Eating In, but Not Of, the World5. Kitchen Sisters and Disagreeable Boys: Debates over Meatless Diets in Nineteenth-Century Shaker Communities - Margaret Puskar-Pasewicz 6. Strawberries and Cream: Food, Sex, and Gender at the Oneida Community - Wendy E. Chmielewski 7. Food and Social Relations in Communal and Capitalist Amana - Jonathan G. Andelson 8. Recipes for a New World: Utopianism and Alternative Eating in Vegetarian Natural-Foods Cookbooks, 1970-84 - Maria McGrathIII. Strategic Utopias: Cooking Up Values for a New World9. "This Fatal Cake": The Ideals and Realities of Republican Virtue in Eighteenth-Century America - Trudy Eden 10. "The Chafing Dish and the College Girl": The Evolution and Meaning of the "Spread" at Northern Women's Colleges, 1870-1910 - Priscilla J. Brewer 11. Revolution in a Can: Food, Class, and Radicalism in the Minneapolis Co-op Wars of the 1970s - Mary Rizzo 12. Veggieburger in Paradise: Food as World Transformer in Contemporary American Buddhism and Judaism - Ellen Posman 13. The Pixel Chef: PBS Television Cooking Shows and Sensorial Utopias - Monica Mak


Based on experimental and anecdotal evidence, an anchoring-adjusted option pricing model is developed in which the volatility of the underlying stock return is used as a starting point that gets adjusted upwards to form expectations about call option volatility. I show that the anchoring price lies within the bounds implied by risk-averse expected utility maximization when there are proportional transaction costs. The anchoring model provides a unified explanation for key option pricing puzzles. Two predictions of the anchoring model are empirically tested and found to be strongly supported with nearly 26 years of options data.


In this paper, a highly nonlinear drift transition metal oxide-based memristor model and its applications in analogue reconfigurable devices are considered. In a combination with a nonlinear window function, containing a smooth and differentiable step-like function, its incorporation and analysis in LTSPICE environment are described. Several memristor-based analogue reconfigurable circuits, as an integrator, a differentiating circuit, and a band-pass filter are analysed, applying the modified memristor model. The considered model is with an increased nonlinearity, has activation thresholds and successfully represents the boundary effects for hard-switching operation. The alteration of the characteristics of the considered devices is founded on the change of memductance. The terminal state problems are also avoided, due to the applied step-like function. The derived results are compared with those, obtained from several existing memristor models and a good proximity is established. The proper operation of the considered memristor model in complex electronic circuits is confirmed.


We examine the within-firm resource allocation effects of creditor interventions and their relationship to performance gains at firms violating financial covenants. By linking firm-level data to establishment-level data from the U.S. Census Bureau, we show that covenant violations are followed by large reductions in employment and more frequent establishment sales and closures. These operational cuts are concentrated in violating firms' noncore business lines and unproductive establishments. We conclude that refocusing activities and improving productive efficiency are important mechanisms through which creditors enhance violating firms' performance. Keyword: Creditor Rights; Covenant Violations; Employment; Asset Sales; Firm Value JEL Classification: D22; D24; G21; G31


Abstract The improvement of methane conversion and C2+ selectivity for the oxidative coupling of methane has been pursued by evaluating a series of new polyfunctional oxide catalysts. The catalysts included: (i) a transition metal oxide, (ii) an alkaline earth metal oxide (CaO or MgO), and (iii) an inert oxide support (Al2O3, SiO2, TiO2, or ZrO2) to stabilize the active phases. Vanadium oxide was chosen from the set of transition metal oxides having a standard free energy change lower than zero for the reaction methane+metal oxide→1/2 ethene+water+reduced metal oxide. The molar composition of the catalysts was the following: 68Mg(Ca)/2V/30Al(Ti, Si, Zr). Several catalysts were tested before and after alkali impregnation (lithium with MgO and sodium with CaO). Impregnation of alkali caused an increase in the methane conversion in the CaO-based catalysts. The catalysts were examined by electron spin resonance and UV-visible spectroscopy to find relationships between vanadium species and catalytic activity. The spectroscopic analyses did not show a correlation between VIV species and catalytic activity, whereas the (V = O)3+ species seems to play an important role in the reaction.


In this paper,an automatic instrument verification system is proposed based on multifunction process calibrator,which tries to promote the verification efficiency of the electrical measuring instruments.The system composes of a personal computer with multi-serial ports,multifunction process calibrator,PLC and barcode scanner,which can generate high-precision standard signals automatically,get the values of the test instrument's signal and the standard signal automatically,record and process the test verification results.


This paper presents experimental results for the liquid hydrogen and nitrogen bubble point tests using warm pressurant gases conducted at the NASA Glenn Research Center. The purpose of the test series was to determine the effect of elevating the temperature of the pressurant gas on the performance of a liquid acquisition device (LAD). Three fine mesh screen samples (325x2300, 450x2750, 510x3600) were tested in liquid hydrogen and liquid nitrogen using cold and warm non-condensable (gaseous helium) and condensable (gaseous hydrogen or nitrogen) pressurization schemes. Gases were conditioned from 0K - 90K above the liquid temperature. Results clearly indicate degradation in bubble point pressure using warm gas, with a greater reduction in performance using condensable over non-condensable pressurization. Degradation in the bubble point pressure is inversely proportional to screen porosity, as the coarsest mesh demonstrated the highest degradation. Results here have implication on both pressurization and LAD system design for all future cryogenic propulsion systems. A detailed review of historical heated gas tests is also presented for comparison to current results.


A myopic patient with bilaterally deep cupping of her optic discs and an arcuate scotoma in the bjerrum area in the right eye and borderline IOP is presented. The problem of diagnosing a glaucomatous process in this patient is discussed.


We have used a variety of optical techniques to study the photoexcitation dynamics in several disubstituted acetylene polymer thin films. We found that although these polymers have a degenerate ground state, as determined by iodine doping and C60 photodoping, they show strong photoluminescence in the blue/green spectral range with high quantum efficiency in thin films. The cw photo modulation spectrum contains a single photoinduced absorption (PA) band at 1.7 eV with monomolecular recombination kinetics with a lifetime of 25 ms. PA detected magnetic resonance (PADMR) shows that this PA band is related to spin 1/2 excitations, which therefore identifies it as due to neutral soliton antisoliton pairs (So, So), similar to the 1.35 eV PA band in t-(CH)x. No triplet PADMR signal was observed and we therefore conclude that triplet excitations are unstable in disubstituted acetylene polymers, even though singlet excitons relatively stable. We consider therefore a possible So photogeneration mechanism via singlet to triplet intersystem crossing, followed by triplet exciton decomposition into So So pairs. Also we detected polarons in a degenerate ground state polymer for the first time.


The successful penetration of Electric Vehicles (EVs) into the global automotive markets requires the developments of cost effective, high performance and high integration power electronic systems. The present work is concerned with the structural integration of power electronic converters to meet targets for increased power density, improved electrical performance and reduced cost without compromising thermal performance or reliability for EV applications. In particular, a SiC power module to integrate multiple functional elements, i.e. semiconductor devices, DC-link capacitors, output filters, current sensing, and gate driver within a single enclosure sharing a common cooling circuit has been designed and fabricated. Electrical test results showed very smooth waveforms of the outputs, verifying the high frequency switching capacity of the fabricated power module.


The low‐frequency parallel capacitance and resistance of back‐to‐back metal‐semiconductor Schottky barriers with a series bulk semiconductor resistance Rs≠0 between them has been measured on trigonal Se with In electrodes. Differential capacitance vs bias‐voltage measurements show a sharp minimum close to V = 0, similar to that observed for Ge–Si (n‐n) isotype heterojunctions. [C. van Opdorp and H. K. J. Kanerva, Solid‐State Electron. 10, 401 (1967).] This minimum is due to the relative voltage dependence of the two Schottky barriers. Ionized acceptor concentrations of 1.8–7.5×1015 cm−3 and a low‐frequency bulk conductivity of trigonal Se of 1.6×10−6 Ω−1 cm−1 are obtained from an equivalent circuit analysis.


Summary form only given. The author explores companies from industries which do not have large local customers operating in the global markets. The focus is innovations made by small firms with less than 30 employees coming from a small economy, Finland. Furthermore, the author focuses on the individual entrepreneurs on their attempts to operate in global markets. The author found that the companies use a lot of networking in executing their activities. The conclusion is three fold. First, a small firm has to be highly specialized and adjusted to problem solution in specific sectors. Second, the idea must be well protected. Third, in commercialization the use of complementary assets is extremely important and the background and experience of the entrepreneurs mostly define the level of the use of complementary assets.


Abstract The ability to detect faces in images is of critical ecological significance. It is a pre-requisite for other important face perception tasks such as person identification, gender classification and affect analysis. Here we address the question of how the visual system classifies images into face and non-face patterns. We focus on face detection in impoverished images, which allow us to explore information thresholds required for different levels of performance. Our experimental results provide lower bounds on image resolution needed for reliable discrimination between face and non-face patterns and help characterize the nature of facial representations used by the visual system under degraded viewing conditions. Specifically, they enable an evaluation of the contribution of luminance contrast, image orientation and local context on face-detection performance. Research reported in this paper was supported in part by funds from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency and a Sloan fellowship for neuroscience to PS.


Prebiotic a-amino acids are thought to have evolved into today's proteins because copolymers derived from these residues offer catalytically competent side chains within an evolvable dynamic scaffold. The manner in which peptides of mainchain lengths of above thirty residues, and that bear different side-chain functional groups might have formed spontaneously from chemically activated monomeric precursors is an issue that has attracted considerable attention. One possibility is the appearance of short peptides that are capable of catalyzing the formation and hydrolysis of amide bonds between peptides; these peptides thus bear, depending on the conditions, ligase or peptidase activities. The ability to combine with themselves and other peptides might significantly enhance the variety and higher-order structural stability. An effective enrichment of stably folded peptides that bear a few catalytically competent side chains could result from the low expected solubility of the vast majority of the multimers formed from simple amino acids. The synthesis of libraries of random oligopeptides from a mixture of different amino acids under chemically simple conditions has thus become an important challenge. The central difficulty in making such "random" oligopeptides lies in the fact that monomeric precursors of amino acids that bear potentially useful side-chain functional groups can polymerize at very different rates. Based on the principles of copolymerization, the amino acid distribution within a copolymer will not necessarily reflect the composition of the initial solution of the monomeric precursors. When rate differences between precursors reach several orders of magnitude, batch copolymerization of the mixture results in the exclusive formation of homopolymers rather than the desired copolymer. A further challenge lies in obtaining polymer chains of sufficient length in aqueous solutions. Whereas peptide chains above 30-mers have been achieved in nonaqueous solutions that contained mixtures of different N-carboxyanhydrides (NCAs= Leuch's anhydrides) that polymerized at similar rates, and in homoplymers of simple amino acids such as oligoalanines, 5] the longest reported co-oligopeptide that has been synthesized in situ from aqueous mixtures of amino acid–NCAs are pentamers. In order to generate copolymers that bear the requisite features for the potential evolution of catalytic activity, it is thus necessary to overcome the difficulties inherent to the large differences in polymerization rates of key amino acids under given aqueous conditions. Amino acids such as histidine, glutamate, and serine are ACHTUNGTRENNUNGcatalytically competent, whereas glycine, alanine, valine, and similar amino acids can be considered to be good spacers and folders. Our preliminary studies focused on the preparation of co-oligomers of glycine (Gly, G) and glutamate (Glu, E), which are two partners that oligomerize at similar speeds. The addition of an unbuffered D2O solution of Gly or Glu (120 mm) to dry 1,1'-carbonyldiimidazole (CDI, 2.5 equiv) led within a few minutes to the corresponding NCAs; these were readily identified by H NMR spectroscopy and electrospray mass spectrometry. Homo-oligomerization of the individual solutions by initiation with free amino acid occurred within a few hours at room temperature to give oligomers Glyn (n=4–27) or Glum (m=2– 12; see the Supporting Information). Batch co-oligomerization of an equimolar mixture of CDI-activated Gly and Glu (60 mm each, Figure 1) was followed by NMR spectroscopy. After the addition of initiating Gly, Glyn–Glum co-oligomers were obtained that ranged from tetramers to 21-mers and contained evenly distributed amounts of both amino acids, with n=3–11 and m=4–10, as revealed by ESI and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry. We chose histidine and glycine as the first "unequal pair" of partners to be co-oligomerized and wish to report here our proof of concept in activating histidine (His, H, 1), a highly catalytically competent residue, yet slow polymerizer, and in cooligomerizing it with glycine (Gly, G), which is perhaps the fastest polymerizer among the proteinogenic amino acids. The process provides different populations of Gly–His co-oligomers where the peptide lengths and His contents can be varied in a controlled fashion. It has long been recognized that His does not oligomerize under the same conditions as the NCAs of Gly, Glu and other amino acids. The H NMR spectroscopy data in Figure 2 [a] Prof. Dr. P. Strazewski Laboratoire de Synth se de Biomol cules, ICBMS UMR 5246 CNRS–Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Universit de Lyon B+timent Chevreul (5i me tage), 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France) Fax: (+33)472431323 E-mail : firstname.lastname@example.com [b] C. Lamy, Prof. Dr. P. Goekjian Laboratoire de Chimie Organique II-Glycochimie, ICBMS UMR 5246 CNRS–Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Universit de Lyon C.P.E. Lyon–B+timent 308D, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France) Fax: (+33)478-898-914 E-mail : email@example.com [c] Dr. D. Bouchu Centre Commun de Spectrom trie de Masse, ICBMS UMR 5246 CNRS–Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Universit de Lyon C.P.E. Lyon–B+timent 308D, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France) [d] Prof. Dr. J. Lemoine Sciences Analytiques UMR 5180 CNRS–Universit Claude Bernard Lyon 1–Universit de Lyon C.P.E. Lyon–B+timent 308D, 43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex (France) Supporting information for this article is available on the WWW under http://www.chembiochem.org or from the author.


Routing in Mobile ad hoc Sensor Network (MASNet) have become a dynamic research area owing to its impact on various science and engineering applications. A secure multipath algorithm has been presented in this research which facilitates the nodes in MASNet to execute on-demand discovery and forming set of paths. An Enhanced Secure Multipath Routing (ESMR) is formed with an adaptive behaviour on route discovery and route maintenance phase. There are two algorithms were presented in the route discovery and route maintenance phase known as DMPR and QUAD. This proposal messages are broadcasted only to limited nodes using QUAD scheme which can efficiently reduce the time to establish the path between source and destination nodes. This paper investigates the proposed algorithms with SeMuRAMAS algorithm. To achieve efficient, secure and reliable multi-path routing for MASNETs, propose a routing mechanism, which allows nodes in MASNet to perform an on-demand discovery and generation of a set of paths, based on Dynamic MPR (DMPR) protocol for route discovery process A set of security mechanisms, based on the utilization of Watchdog and digital signature, are used to protect the route discovery process. The simulation results indicate that the proposed approach provides significant performance with lesser overhead, energy efficient and better network lifetime.


This paper looks at digital strategy and what it can do to promote a peaceful global local area in the age of computers. Cyberspace holds a key position and particular relevance in international affairs. This subject has gained popularity as most international entertainers have developed their global strategy and implemented various tactics to pursue their primary goals online. For instance, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs' use of social media to promote the country, its policies, and its ideals are clear evidence of this. Unfortunately, not all online activities are calm. China and the US are at odds over cyber security, and two groupings of countries are vying for control of the field internationally. Because of this conflict of interest between the countries, cyber diplomacy is required to arbitrate and prevent open cyber war. Cyber diplomacy is an international practice that results from efforts to create an international cyber community by connecting the national interests of nations with the dynamics of the global community. To fulfill the traditional duties of diplomacy in cyberspace, such as promoting trust and peace among stakeholders, cyber diplomacy is to do so. This paper uses English School diplomacy theory to analyze the potential of cyber diplomacy for peaceful cyberspace use. Digital tact consists of two main components: an effort to prevent internet deterioration and a globally coordinated apparatus for creating common digital standards.


We developed and piloted a novel approach to interdisciplinary instruction; this approach relies on well‐defined interdependent roles for biology (BIO) and computer science (CS) students in a project‐based laboratory accompanied by two distinct discipline‐specific lecture courses. Student interactions are structured around software development process: (1) BIO students are presented with a biological question, (2) they figure out what data is required and write program requirements, (3) CS partners write a program, (4) BIO and CS students collaborate on testing the program, (5) BIO students use the program to answer the original question. We applied this workflow to five increasingly complex assignments relevant to the genome analysis project conducted by the Genomics Education Partnership (GEP, www.gep.wustl.edu). We tested this approach during two 10‐week quarters (Spring 2012 and 2013) with 65 CS students and 47 BIO students. We assessed cognitive learning gains (skills and knowledge) by evaluating course artifacts and student gains in the affective domain (attitudes and self‐efficacy) using confidential surveys. Assessment data indicate that students appreciate and mutually benefit from interdisciplinary interactions. Students from both disciplines improve communication skills and reinforce mastery of their own discipline by acting as experts and teachers in their field.


For the stability improvement of anodic bonding in the field of MEMS fabrication and sealing, anodic bonding of borosilicate glass/silicon was achieved, the influencing factors of bonded quality such as bonding temperature and voltage were analyzed based on the thermodynamic of the solid material.The microstructure of the bonding interface was analyzed by SEM.It indicates that a transitional layer is formed at the bonding interface of borosilicate glass and silicon.It is assumed that bonding temperature and heavy electric field are the main reasons of the formation of the interfacial transitional layer.The formation of the transitional layer accelerates the interfacial bonding of borosilicate glass/silicon.


Selection programs aiming at improving health and survival in cattle are complicated by low heritability estimates, the fact that true herd life and carcass quality is not known until the end of an animal's life, and that many health conditions manifest late in life. Young animals are now heavily favored in breeding programs because low generation intervals accelerate the rate of genetic progress, which means selection decisions must be made before phenotypic observation of health and survival is feasible. Moreover, profitability is compromised when livestock producers raise animals that fail to produce due to health failure or that do not meet quality standards. Telomere length (TL) was hypothesized as a biomarker that could be recorded early in life, be associated with health and survival, and have higher heritability than other measures of health. Thus, our research aims were to: 1, determine associations of TL with health, wellbeing and production in Holsteins raised for dairy or beef purposes; 2, determine TL heritability, genetic variance, and genetic correlations with cow health and performance; and 3, map quantitative trait loci affecting TL and provide TL genomic predictions to industry partners and breeders. There were not significant changes made to the research plan during the project, but the timeline of the project was not met. Laboratory processing of samples was significantly delayed due to Covid along with some sample collection. TL measurements from >1100 animals across the US and Israel are available to date. TL declines modestly with age, in agreement with observations from other species. A genomic analysis was conducted using a single-step approach and TL had a moderate heritability estimate of 20% across age groups. The initial genome-wide association-analysis indicated that TL is a quantitative trait whose expression is influenced by effects across the genome. Moreover, there is a strong association of calf and dam TL at birth. Genetic relationships with health and survival were ascertained through correlations of genomic estimated breeding values (gEBV) for TL with gEBV for other traits routinely recording in national genetic evaluations. Higher TL is genetically associated with longer herd-life, a greater likelihood that cows will avoid premature on-farm death, and reduced disease incidence. The relationship appeared to be strongest when TL was measured during the first two years of life. Based on genotyping different cell types, there was evidence that maternal and colostral derived cells are present in newborns, which could bias TL measurements during the first weeks of life to a small degree. The implications of this research are that TL is a promising trait to include in multiple trait selection programs because it is heritable, available early in life, and correlated with longevity and health. Our TL reference population is currently being expanded, and genomic estimated breeding values will be disseminated to industry partners upon completion of the reference population so that they can evaluate the utility of incorporating TL into their breeding programs.


Due to the advantages in self-sovereignty identity management and scalability of blockchain, digital identity verification and management systems (DIVMS) of blockchain-based verifiable certificates (VC) are getting more and more attention. However, user privacy in the systems' traditional architectures cannot be guaranteed. In this paper, the zero-knowledge succinct noninteractive arguments of knowledge (zkSNARKs) referred to as Groth16 are introduced in order to implement privacy protection of the user's identity and behavior of DIVMS of blockchain-based VC. In the proposed architecture, the malleability attack of Groth16 is considered, and verifications of zero-knowledge proof (ZKP) and the digital signature of an identity provider (IDP) attached to VC and the status management of VC are implemented on the smart contracts of the blockchain to overcome single point failure. Furthermore, a prototype system is designed to verify the proposed architecture's capability in privacy protection and to evaluate its performances in cost and throughput. Finally, the security of the proposed architecture is discussed, and its comparisons are conducted with those existing blockchain-based DIVMSs, especially those systems using Groth16 of zkSNARKs to improve the privacy of user. All results mentioned above have shown that the proposed system is efficient and safe, and it can improve the privacy of DIVMS of the blockchain based VC while avoiding single point failure.


The effect of the formation of a cavity in the cortex of the primary root of Vicia faba adjacent to lateral root primordia on root development has been investigated. Premature exposure of such primordia to the external medium by removing the overlying tissues of the primary root has no effect on primordium development if that primordium was within 48 h of emerging as a lateral root. Similar exposure of primordia which were at an earlier stage of development and consisted of between 3400 and 7000 cells resulted in the generation of a stationary phase, with most of the nuclei arrested in G1 (presynthetic interphase), 48-72 h after exposure began, followed by nuclear degeneration by 96 h. Since no mature vascular tissue was found in these primordia until after they emerged as secondary roots, all of the nutrients necessary for the maintenance of cell proliferation in these meristems must reach them by simple diffusion from the surrounding medium. A preliminary analysis of the liquid contents of the cavity next to developing primordia demonstrates it to be rich in carbohydrates and it is clear, from the results reported in this paper, that cell proliferation in primordia, consisting of a mean number of 5400 cells, is largely dependent on the substances present in the cavity fluid, although some materials reach the primordium by diffusion from the cells of the primary root to which the primordium remains attached.


Background The Covid-19 pandemic had an impact on all aspects of life including medical education at the Faculty of Medicine Universitas Islam Indonesia. Clinical learning was modified into combination of online and offline learning or blended learning. This study aimed to see the learning outcomes of students at the Internal Medicine stage between those who underwent conventional learning i.e. 11 weeks full of offline education in the hospital and those who underwent blended learning, namely 4 weeks online followed by 7 weeks offline. Method This study was a case control study that aimed to compare the competency attainment of the Internal Medicine stage in a group of students who underwent blended learning versus those who underwent full offline learning. Competency achievement was seen from assessment scores (Mini-Clinical Evaluation Exercise (Mini-CEx), Direct Observation of Procedural Skills (DOPS), clinical tutorials, journal reading, case reflection, Objective Structured Long Examination Record (OSLER), written test scores and final scores. The statistical analysis used was descriptive analysis and the Mann Whitney sample test. The difference was significant if p <0.05. This study had received ethical clearance from the Ethics Committee of FK UII. Result Initially we selected 30 students for each group, but data that met the inclusion criteria were obtained for 13 students who underwent blended learning and 18 students who had an offline stage. The data that were excluded were incomplete assessment data. The study was conducted in December 2020 January 2021. There were significant differences in the case reflection scores, written examinations and final scores between the two groups with a p value < 0.05 in sequence; 0.00, 0.03, and 0.001. Meanwhile, the scores for Mini-CEx, DOPS, journal reading, clinical tutorial, and OSLER were not significantly different. The mean value obtained by the offline group was better than the blended learning group. Conclusions The competency achievement shown by the assessment results in the blended learning method group was lower than the offline method group for the medical professional education program during the Covid-19 pandemic.


This article is a transcript of a yarn, or, kōrero, about Indigenous psychotherapy in Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand during the period of COVID-19. The authors discuss the challenges and opportunities presented to Indigenous psychotherapists and clients following the shift to online therapy as a result of government restrictions on social contact and travel.


Abstract In the present paper we study some models for the price dynamics of a single commodity market. The quantities of supplied and demanded are regarded as a function of time. Nonlinearities in both supply and demand functions are considered. The inventory and the level of inventory are taken into consideration. Due to the fact that the consumer behavior affects commodity demand, and the behavior is influenced not only by the instantaneous price, but also by the weighted past prices, the distributed time delay is introduced. The following kernels are taken into consideration: demand price weak kernel and demand price Dirac kernel. Only one positive equilibrium point is found and its stability analysis is presented. When the demand price kernel is weak, under some conditions of the parameters, the equilibrium point is locally asymptotically stable. When the demand price kernel is Dirac, the existence of the local oscillations is investigated. A change in local stability of the equilibrium point, from stable to unstable, implies a Hopf bifurcation. A family of periodic orbits bifurcates from the positive equilibrium point when the time delay passes through a critical value. The last part contains some numerical simulations to illustrate the effectiveness of our results and conclusions.


This study examined whether steam-dried ginseng berries fermented with Lactobacillus plantarum (FSGB) could improve the indices of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) in obese db/db mice. FSGB was shown to have an effect on body weight and blood glucose/serum parameters when administered at a dose of 0.5 g/kg. In the intraperitoneal glucose tolerance test (IPGTT) and insulin tolerance test (ITT), FSGB was clearly shown to improve insulin tolerance and glucose tolerance. Moreover, FSGB was shown to enhance immune activities by increasing the immune cell population, and glucose transpoter 1 (GLUT1) mRNA expression in L6 cells was up-regulated, suggesting that FSGB can increase glucose transport activity in target cells. These results indicate that steam- and dry-processed ginseng berries fermented with L. plantarum can be used to effectively control blood sugar metabolism via improving insulin and glucose tolerance and body weight gain in db/db mice.


The results of an empirical survey on Canadian perception of products from eight countries indicate a recognizable pattern of product nationality images in the minds of Canadian shoppers. They associate product value much more closely with quality and style than with price, and there are nationality biases in determining the overall product value. Also, there exist some differences in perceptions between sex and age groups which Canadian compainies can make use of in planning their import and marketing strategies.


Abstract : ELECTRONIC FILE CHARACTERISTICS: 3 files; MPEG and JPEG videos. PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION: 1 computer laser optical disc (CD-ROM); 4 3/4 in.; 65.8 MB. SYSTEMS DETAIL NOTE: IBM-clone PC-compatible. ABSTRACT: The free surface wave field and boundary layer surrounding the Research Vessel, R/V REVELLE, was documented using a System of nine video cameras positioned in optimum viewing locations around the hull The two week ship trial, from Christ Church, New Zealand to Pago-Pago, American Samoa took place in February and March, 2002. Camera mounting arrangements are shown, as are representative photographs from each of the cameras. The viewing system, as documented in this report, resulted in an extensive set of qualitative data of the wave system around the R/V REVELLE in both calm water and in sea states 2 and 3.


College Informatization management is the internal motivation of development of the current higher education and teaching. But at present,there exists the following problems: the efficiency of informatization management is lower,digital informatization resource is respectively and individually used,and integrated design is in shortage. The concept must be established that informatization management in colleges and universities reflects the comprehensive management standards,and the digital resources in each department should be integrated to speed up the data transmission and further the system quality.


"When in Rome, do as the Romans do". It's wonderful advice, provided one actually knows what the Romans do. Unfortunately, many businesspeople have no idea how things are done in other countries, and their cross-cultural stepping on toes may damage the cooperative spirit of many a meeting.


For the past two decades, learner psychology in relation to second language acquisition (SLA) has been a hot topic, and negative emotional variables in students' language learning have attracted a lot of attention. More recently, focus has shifted to a positive emotion, enjoyment, and its relationship with anxiety. The present mixed-method study investigated the levels of FLCA and FLE of 228 Chinese EFL learners, the correlations between the two and the sources evoking these two emotions in a blended learning environment. Considering the questionnaire's findings, participants reported relatively high levels of FLE (Mean=3.53, SD=.61) and low levels of FLCA (Mean=3.12, SD=.42). There was no significant correlation between FLCA and FLE, according to correlation analysis. Additionally, a qualitative investigation of students' emotional experiences found that FLCA was more closely tied to learner-internal factors while FLE was to the teacher. The conclusions have pedagogical ramifications for EFL teaching in China's educational system.


The objective of this research paper is, to present the reliability measures of a model by representing an industrial system having three subsystems. Two of the subsystems have standby unit while the third one has n units in parallel configuration. The entire system can fail due to a failure in subsystems or due to the catastrophic failure. The system failure and the repair rates are assumed to be constant. Markov and supplementary variable methodologies have been used to achieve the mathematical analysis of this model. Generalized expressions of state probabilities, system availability, reliability, mean time to failure, mean time to repair, cost analysis and sensitivity analysis are developed. Graphs for the resulting expressions have been shown.


Background: Child sexual abuse is a common offensive aspect of children's rights worldwide. Immature Childs are liable for more abuse as they are not able to produce any defend action against the assailant due to immature cognitive and body development. Aim of the work: To recognize the number of alleged child sexual abuse that presented to Forensic Medicine Authority in Cairo Governorate of Egypt during one year extending from January to December 2020. Patients and Methods: The present study included 254 cases of alleged child sexual abuse that were examined in the Forensic Medicine Authority in Cairo Governorate during 2020, for medicolegal evaluation. The abused children were interviewed for evaluation of the circumstances of the assault. General and local examinations (examination of the genitalia and anal region with legal documentation) were done and documented. Result: This study showed that female cases were predominant than male cases (59.9 % and 40.1% respectively) with a predominance of adolescent females followed by school and preschool age groups (45.7%, 30.7%, and 23.6% respectively). Cases of west Cairo predominate other districts (32.6%). The low socioeconomic society represents 56.3% versus high socioeconomic society cases which represents 43.7%. Anal abuse was the most common site of sexual abuse injury among female cases (40.3%). Conclusion: Females in adolescent age at low socioeconomic districts were representing the higher proportion among the studied group.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the association of 86 bp variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) polymorphism of interleukin-1 receptor antagonist (IL-1Ra) gene with lumbar disc disease and intervertebral disc degeneration.

METHODS
The 86 bp VNTR polymorphism of IL-1Ra gene was analyzed with PCR and electrophoresis for 81 patients with lumbar disc disease and 101 volunteers without sciatica (control). The grade of intervertebral disc degeneration was determined with magnetic resonance imaging, and the association of 86 bp VNTR polymorphisms with lumbar disc disease and intervertebral disc degeneration in those younger than 45 years was assessed.

RESULTS
The presence of 86bp VNTR polymorphisms of IL-1Ra gene was detected in both patients with lumbar disc disease and the control subjects. The distribution of 86 bp VNTR polymorphisms of IL-1Ra gene showed no significant difference between the two groups, but the distributions of 1/1, 1/2 and 2/2 or 1, 2 genotypes differed significantly. The current data did not support a significant association between the distribution of IL-1Ra gene 86bp VNTR polymorphism and lumbar disc degeneration.

CONCLUSIONS
IL-1Ra gene 86bp VNTR polymorphism is present among Chinese population in association with lumbar disc disease, but not with lumbar disc degeneration.


Although many studies documented how news increases political knowledge gaps, most insights are based on single country studies. Why are gaps wide in some countries and narrower in others? We propose that fragmentation of the broadcast news landscape provides citizens with differential opportunities to become informed. A shared (less fragmented) news landscape in a country offsets the advantages of individual motivation and ability to seek political information, and narrows gaps in engagement. Analyses of a cross-national survey of respondents in 13 countries and content analyses of news items from over 50 international print and television outlets show evidence consistent with the theoretical statements.


It has been reported (2, 3, 4) that the nematicides Nemagon and Telone C increased carotene content in carrots and sweet com. Since the carotene content of sweet potatoes is important nutritionally, an attempt was made to extend the observations to this crop and to various nematicides.


In this paper we develop a theory for timed systems which relate to time granularity. We use the well known equivalence of bisimulation to study the effect of changing granularity. We identify situations where measuring time more accurately has no effect on the equivalence. Similarly we also present a few situations where measuring time less accurately has no effect on the equivalence. We also present properties of the situations where the semantics is indeed altered by a change in time granularity.


Abstract T. Ding has shown that a topologically transitive flow on the torus given by a real analytic vector field is orbitally equivalent to a Kronecker flow on the torus, modified so as to have a finite number of fixed points, provided the original flow had only a finite number of fixed points. In this paper it is shown that the assumption that there are only finitely many fixed points is unnecessary.


The Ocean Networks Canada (ONC) Tsunami project leverages the assets of ONC's sensor array and data collection infrastructure, and its supercomputing infrastructure to perform highspeed data analyses that support advanced tsunami detection and modelling for the coast of British Columbia. The Tsunami project comprises several sub-projects that are defined and integrated in this article. These projects include the development of bathymetry and topography data fusion software, new source models for the area and the wave propagation and inundation maps based on these, a high frequency radar and a new system for detection of tsunami waves based on GNSS signals. The real-time detection software developed by ONC is detailed in a separate article from this conference.


The unintended loss of skeletal muscle mass is common in a number of disease states (e.g. cancer, AIDS, sepsis or following bedrest) and can have debilitating consequences for the patient, often leading to a reduced quality of life and a protracted recovery period. Furthermore, muscle acts as an important reservoir of proteins, which are relied upon during periods of disease to provide substrates for hepatic gluconeogenesis and acute phase protein production. Therefore, in the clinical setting it is important to adopt measures that will maintain muscle mass, aiding the recovery process and improving overall outcome. In a bid to prevent or reverse the loss of muscle mass observed in cachectic-inducing conditions it is first necessary to understand the mechanisms responsible for the loss of muscle protein content.

Enhanced ubiquitin proteasome-mediated proteolysis of skeletal muscle proteins occurs across a number of diverse atrophying conditions. Proteins are targeted for degradation by the action of a triplet of enzymes, with target specificity provided by the ubiquitin ligase family of proteins of which several hundred members exist. In 2001, two muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases termed MuRF1 and MAFbx (the latter also known as atrogin-1) were identified (Bodine et al. 2001) and appeared transcriptionally upregulated in a number of muscle atrophy models (Lecker et al. 2004). Moreover, animals with a knockout for either the MuRF1 or MAFbx gene were found to be partially resistant to the effects of denervation-induced muscle loss (Bodine et al. 2001). Together, these findings have led researchers to consider MAFbx and MuRF1 as instrumental to the loss of muscle mass in a number of atrophy states and represent the central component of the muscle 'atrophy program' (Lecker et al. 2004).

Elevated in the vast majority of conditions where muscle atrophy is prevalent, the necessity of MAFbx and MuRF1 activity for muscle atrophy to occur remains to be demonstrated in vivo in all but a few conditions. Indeed, while unlikely, the assumed elevation of MAFbx and MuRF1 mRNA levels culminating in a decline in muscle mass may merely be the result of guilt by association. Furthermore, with both ubiquitin ligases under the control of the FOXO transcription factors (Stitt et al. 2004) and often reported as upregulated in concert, their actions as part of the 'atrophy program' often appear linked.

Significant strides in addressing these pre-conceived notions are provided in this issue of The Journal of Physiology by Baehr et al. (2011). Utilising a glucocorticoid model of muscle atrophy and separate cohorts of MAFbx and MuRF1 knockout mice, the authors demonstrate a clear discord between the role of MAFbx and MuRF1 in the loss of muscle mass following dexamethasone administration. Specifically, 14 days of 3 mg kg−1 dexamethasone treatment significantly decreased muscle mass in wild-type animals, but the catabolic effects of the synthetic glucocorticoid were reduced in MuRF1−/− animals. In stark contrast, MAFbx null mice were afforded no protection from the catabolic effects of the dexmethasone treatment.

While examples can be found in the literature where catabolic conditions have not led to elevated expression of MAFbx or MuRF1 mRNA in skeletal muscle, the studies in question are generally constrained by the limited time-points examined, leading to the possibility of any transient changes being missed. The findings by Baehr and colleagues represent a shift in our understanding, demonstrating that MAFbx does not represent a component of the 'atrophy program' in all atrophy states. This is not to suggest that MAFbx does not play a role in muscle atrophy per se; previous work from the same group has robustly demonstrated the requirement of MAFbx in the loss of muscle mass following denervation. However, in light of such findings, the notion of a conserved muscle 'atrophy program' across diverse muscle atrophy states which includes MAFbx needs refinement.

At the dose of dexamethasone examined, the authors noted a decline in the fractional protein synthetic rate of the triceps surae complex in wild-type but not MuRF1 null animals. Coupled with the lack of effect of the dexamethasone treatment in the MuRF1−/− animals on parameters associated with increased proteolysis, it would appear that a major component for the sparing of muscle mass following dexamethasone treatment in MuRF1 knockout animals was the ability to maintain rates of muscle protein synthesis. This observation is particularly intriguing, as it had largely been assumed that MuRF1 was important in reducing muscle protein content by inducing proteolysis of muscle proteins, including myofibrillar proteins. From the work presented by Baehr and colleagues, it would appear apparent that MuRF1's role may extend to one of regulating muscle protein synthesis. Such observations help rationalise the existence of the debate regarding the individual contribution of muscle protein synthesis and protein breakdown in various muscle atrophy conditions (Rennie et al. 2010) and open up new important avenues for investigation.

In summary, the results by Baehr et al. (2011) raise interesting questions about our understanding of the muscle-specific ubiquitin ligases and their involvement in muscle atrophy. On the back of their findings it would appear that the roles of both MuRF1 and MAFbx are not as straight-forward as first assumed and that a critical re-examination of the function of both ubiquitin ligases is judicious.


Using finite‐elements we study the postglacial rebound in an axisymmetric Earth with a non‐Newtonian rheology. Our approach allows for the first time a self‐consistent study of the effect of a power‐law creep on the long‐wavelength deformations, which cannot be performed using flat models. We show that, for a non‐Newtonian upper mantle, the time‐variations of the low‐degree Stokes coefficients become largely insensitive to the viscosity of the lower mantle. This is in contrast with previous evidence based on Newtonian models, which emphasized the importance of the low degree signatures for constraining the lower mantle viscosity.


Abstract
This study aims to see whether there is an effect of using a digital book on the reading ability of students in class X SMA Negeri 2 Rantau Selatan. This study uses a quantitative approach with a quasi-experimental method. The population in this study were all class X-MIA SMA Negeri 2 Rantau Selatan and the sample was taken by 72 students with simple random sampling technique. The data technique used a written test in the form of an essay, the instruments used were pretest and posttest. Based on the t-test analysis using SPSS version 22 for windows, it is found that the value of t count< t table (1.241< 1.667). This shows that the ability to overcome students' reading skills by using digital books is better than students who use conventional learning models. Therefore, learning using a digital book can be used in implementing English learning at SMA Negeri 2 Rantau Selatan for the 2020/2021 school year.


Despite the significant contributions made by previous unemployment studies, we aim to further unravel the complex reality of being unemployed. To do so, we introduce Photovoice to grasp the experience of unemployment and its coping strategies from the perspective of the unemployed. We used a phenomenological approach to analyze the photographical data from this Photovoice project. Participants mainly conveyed financial problems associated with unemployment. In terms of coping strategies, participants mainly relied on emotion-focused strategies in which they combined personal and social resources to offset the negative effects of unemployment. Our findings supported and expounded the latent deprivation and agency restriction theory used in unemployment research.


Physicians Practice asked its readers "What are the most crucial questions you should be asking your technology vendor?" Here are 20 of our favorites.


This study was conducted to assess the early hemodynamic effects of percutaneous trans luminal angioplasty (PTA) in patients with superficial femoral artery (SFA) atheroscle rotic disease. Seventeen patients (forty-nine to eighty-five years, median sixty-seven years), underwent PTA in the SFA, except 1 who had PTA in both the SFA and popliteal artery. Fifteen patients were claudicant whereas the other one had rest pain and ulcera tion. Ten patients had localized SFA occlusion on the angiogram (3 of them had combined stenoses in the common femoral, profunda, and popliteal arteries) and 7 had localized stenoses more than 50%. Ankle-brachial index (ABI), limb blood flow (measured by air plethysmography), peak systolic velocity (PSV) ratio across the stenosis, and the spectral waveform analysis displayed by color flow duplex imaging (CFDI) were assessed before and one day after PTA. Before PTA, the median ABI and limb blood flow were 0.55 ±0.19 and 58.6 ±13.1 mL/min, respectively. The waveform in the poststenotic area of the SFA was monophasic in 5 patients and biphasic in the others, and the PSV was at least doubled in the stenotic area. PTA was technically successful in 16 patients and failed in 1 with an occluded SFA. After successful PTA the median ABI was 0.76 ±0.15 (P<0.00001), and the median limb blood flow was 78.1 ±11.9 mL/min (P<0.00001). The waveform in the dilated area of the SFA was biphasic in all patients with marked decrease in the PSV and forward diastolic velocity present. Postangioplasty pain-free walking distance was at least doubled in 12 patients. In the case of the failed PTA the ABI, limb blood flow, poststenotic waveform, PSV, and pain-free walking-distance were unchanged. In conclusion, early improvement in the hemodynamic parameters occurs over the first day after a successful PTA. These hemodynamic parameters correlate well with the findings of the postangioplasty angiogram and thus can be used in the follow-up of the patients after PTA.


The Taft proposal is described in detail. It involves introducing a new "and" clause into the select statement thereby providing a means of programming asynchronous transfer of control without the use of the abort facility. An evaluation of the proposal considers some of its limitations, the major one of which is the possibility of deadlock if a group of tasks use the facility to affect each other. Ways of removing this difficulty are considered. The model is then compared with the alternative of introducing asynchronous exceptions. Finally a unified model is presented that combines the advantages of the Taft proposal and asynchronous exceptions.


The author begins with a description for germicides. They move into how germicides were used on dairy farms, in milk processing and in milk products manufacturing plants. Some quaternary ammonium compounds are powerful germ killers in dilute solutions. They are specialized with regard to their germ killing powers against all types of germs. Given their specificity of effectiveness, it was advised that farmers understand their germicide's limitations well before using to better insure satisfory results. Rotation of disinfectants was recommended. Given the nebulus available information on quaternary
ammonium compounds,this limited it's usage in the sanitation of food equipment.


Lateral deflection operations consist in the deflection of a pipeline, resting on the seabed, until it is ready to be connected to a subsea oil production structure. This work presents the numerical methods and strategies employed in the development of a computational system for the simulation and analysis of such operations, involving severe geometric nonlinear effects due to large displacements. The following aspects are addressed: Representation of the pipeline; Anisotropic friction in the soil-pipeline interaction; Three- dimensional behaviour, and representation of the chain-buoy assembly in "off- bottom" operations; and the adequate representation of the pull-in cable. The study of the final connection to the subsea structure is also addressed. The quality of the numerical simulation obtained from the application of this computational system is assessed in an illustrative example, where the results are compared with those obtained from an experimental small-scale model test.


Abstract Variable-coefficient nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS)-type models are used to describe certain phenomena in plasma physics, nonlinear optics, arterial mechanics, and Bose–Einstein condensation. In this article, the coupled variable-coefficient cubic-quintic NLS equations with external potentials in the non-Kerr fibre are investigated. Via symbolic computation, similarity transformations and relevant constraints on the coefficient functions are obtained. Based on those transformations, such equations are transformed into the coupled cubic-quintic NLS equations with constant coefficients. Nonautonomous soliton solutions are derived, and propagation and interaction of the nonautonomous solitons in the non-Kerr fibre are investigated analytically and graphically. Those soliton solutions are related to the group velocity dispersion r(x) and external potentials h1(x) and h2(x, t). With the different choices of r(x), parabolic, cubic, and periodically oscillating solitons are obtained; with the different choices of h2(x, t), we can see the dromion-like structures and nonautonomous solitons with smooth step-like oscillator frequency profiles, to name a few.


Phospholipase D-catalyzed transphosphatidylation from phosphatidylcholine of egg of squid Symplectoteuthis oualaniensis to produce n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acid-riched Phosphatidylserine was performed in subcritical 1,1,1,2-tetrafluroethane(R134a).The impacts of medium parameters such as pressure,temperature and water addition on the enzymatic preparation were discussed;Then anti-tumor in-vitro activities of prepared EPA/DH-riched Phosphatidylserine by MTT assay were investigated.The results indicated that Phospholipase D exhibited high activity in subcritical R134a and conversion was 84.77 % under these conditions: 6 MPa,40℃,water addition 2.4 mL,reaction time 240 min.The prepared PS showed distinct suppressant activity to cell Hela and Caco-2.The survival rates of cell Hela and Caco-2 declined by 30% and 40% respectively,after treatment with 200 μg/mL prepared PS for 72 h.


In oder to investigate the effects of pH and temperature on the formation of bromate ion, which is ozonation by-products of bromine containing natural water. At the same intial pH condition, the increase of pH shown similar trends even if the reaction variables such as temperature and reaction time of ozonation were changed. As pH and temperature were increasing, the bromate concentration was increased but bromine components (HOBr/OBr-) were decreased with increasing pH from 3 to 10. Lipid peroxide content in the kidney was increased by bromate which was ingestion with 0.4g/L for 24 weeks in drinking water. Renal cytosolic enzyme system (XO, AO) of bromate group were significantly increased in comparison with those of normal group. But microsomal enzyme system were not affected. BUN level and urinary γ-glutamyltransferase activity were significantly increased in comparison with those of the normal. But, urinary lactate dehydrogenase activity was not affected. Renal glutathione content of rat was significantly decreased in comparison with those of normal rat given bromate. Renal glutathione S-transferase and γ-glutamylcysteine synthetase activities were significantly decreased in bromate-treated group, but change in renal glutathione reductase activity was not significantly different from any other experimental group.


The numerical investigation of unsteady boundary layer slip flow and heat transfer of an incompressible Casson fluid on a vertically stretching sheet in presence of Suction and blowing. The above physical problem is represented in terms of Partial differential equations with boundary conditions. The suitable transformations are used to convert these governing partial differential to ordinary differential equations and then solved numerically by fourth order Runge-Kutta 4 order method with MAT LAB software. The impact of various governing parameters like Slip parameter (μ), Casson parameter (β), Heat generation and absorption coefficient (δ), Radiation parameter (Nr) on the velocity profile are discussed through graphs in detail. The study reveals that the variation of these parameters has erudite effect on velocity and temperature boundary layer thicknesses respectively. Also the variation of Skin friction coefficient and Heat transfer coefficient are studied numerically by increasing the values of parameters like slip parameter (μ), Unsteadiness parameter (A), and Casson parameter (β) etc. The graphs of these are plotted and discussed.


Presentation of Case A 63-year-old man was admitted to the hospital because of gastrointestinal bleeding. Two and a half years previously painless jaundice developed. A laparotomy at another hospital disclosed a large mass in the head of the pancreas, with compression of the common bile duct; since the appearance was considered characteristic of carcinoma a biopsy specimen was not obtained. A Roux-en-Y cholecystojejunostomy was performed, and 5-fluorouracil was administered for the following year. The jaundice disappeared, and the patient felt improved, with a gain of 10 kg in weight. Eleven months before admission a celiac and superior mesenteric angiographic study . . .


IntroductionPostural stereotype is an integrated chain of reflexes that we observe as movement (Bautmans, Van Arken, Van Mackelenberg, & Mets, 2010). Repetition of the movement during the lifetime activates the same muscle groups and muscles between which a link is formed. Movement stereotypes of each person depend on the prerequisites of the individual human being (body shape, fat distribution, etc.).In the last few decades, a decreasing trend is observed in the application of physical activity in the lives of people. In everyday human activities, for many people, physical activity is of the least importance in their daily routine. Without a doubt, technological advancements, workload at work and fast food options affect the physical activity of the population. These factors are very closely linked, and it is possible to say that they all have a negative effect on the movement of the current generation. The increase in the poor posture incidence is associated with changes in lifestyle, obesity and lack of exercise. Hodges and Tucker (2011) describe upright posture maintenance as a postural function that involves all muscles.With the entry of children into school, there is a change in the musculoskeletal system, which is influenced by burdening the organism by sitting. Out of the total waking hours, children spend 1/3 of time at school in a static position (Kolisko, 2003). This fact begins to manifest itself right after the entry of children into school by weakening of the support motion system. This issue was addressed in a study by Murphy, Buckle, and Stubbs (2004), who found that the sitting of children in classrooms can cause painful conditions in the back area. The number of children, who keep upright stance without increased muscular effort, with the natural curvature of the spine is declining. Unfortunately, the family, which is the basis for harmonious and optimal development of children, is not always able to sufficiently engage children in physical activities during the day due to work duties of the parents. Currently, school cannot compensate enough for this fact. In the Czech Republic, children have only two physical education lessons a week. The degree of involvement of children in physical activities during these lessons is relative. Therefore, many authors from other countries highlight that more and more schoolchildren have back pain (Grimmer & Williams, 2000; Masiero, Carraro, Celia, Sarto, & Ermani, 2008; Watson, Papageorgiou, Jones, Taylor, Symmons, Silman, & Macfarlane, 2002). However, poor posture more frequently happens in children of preschool age. By observing activities of children, Kolisko (1992) concluded that on average children actively move 2 to 14 minutes during a physical education lesson. Children are generally less physically active, and this leads to a more frequent occurrence of poor posture. Hercig (2005) stated that the range and frequency of weakening posture leads to a situation where physical education teachers need more knowledge of healthy physical education than of the sports. Kolar (2002) states that the incorrect use of muscles during the growth period may be considered as one of the major causes for the occurrence of poor posture. Kolisko (2003) states that the sources of poor posture are the static load at school, lack of physical activity and premature unilateral sports specialization in childhood. Spontaneous physical activity of children in preschool, when children enter the primary school, is significantly suppressed, and children spend most of the day in a static position (school desks, free time, activities on the internet, computer games, etc.). Over time, there has been an increase in the amount of static muscular work to the detriment of dynamic muscular work. In the early 19th century, hard physical work was compensated by a passive resting lying position, while the current young generation is used to relaxing in a sedentary position at a computer, tablet or television (Kucera, 1999). …


FameLab has proven a successful model for developing young scientists as science communicators, as well as for engaging general audiences with science. Originally launched in the United Kingdom, it has transcended cultural and national barriers in nine southeast European countries where it was transferred, and is currently being tested in several more countries across Africa and Asia. It has created a multinational, cross-disciplinary, and multilingual network of young science communicators who, with the support of the Global Forum are developing science communication projects together or are simply exchanging ideas. It has demonstrated that science can generate excitement and interest in audiences of different cultural backgrounds, and that the keys toward achieving this goal are finding the right scientists, with the passion for communicating science, building their capacities, and helping them develop their communication skills further.


Apart from west African children, there are those who enter the country on diplomatic passports, children attending boarding schools who do not return to their parents at holiday times, children at language schools, and those here because of a disaster like Chernobyl, or on exchange visits. There are also children who stay with a friend's family because of a domestic dispute and children whose parents are in prison or who have been deported, as well as those brought into the country as back-door adoptions. There is also the question of how many child asylum seekers are not living with relatives.


With the development of the Internet information age, the demand for the market has facilitated some emerging industries in recent years. In the international trade industry, the demand for cross-border e-commerce merchants has increased dramatically. Although the current higher vocational education can temporarily meet the basic needs of the industry, However, it is not conducive to the sustainable development of cross-border e-commerce. There are still some obvious shortcomings in the training mode of cross-border e-commerce merchants in local application-oriented universities. In view of this, how to train cross-border e-commerce talents with development potential is an urgent problem to be solved in major universities. Therefore, this article focuses on the cultivation of cross-border e-commerce merchants as the main content of the discussion, and explains the cooperation between schools and enterprises, the positive role of the e-commerce merchant training, and the specific implementation strategy of the school-enterprise cooperation model in accordance with the teaching needs, with the purpose to improve the quality of college professional talent training.


Intrusive thoughts are variously reported as images, thoughts, doubts, impulses etc. Recent accounts of emotional processing make important distinctions between cognitive activity in verbal form and images. The comparison of verbal intrusions and images was made on archival data about intrusive cognitions from 628 university students. Images and doubts (a verbal form) occurring together were perceived as more difficult to dismiss than either images or doubts alone. In addition, images and doubts together were more frequent, more probable, and required more effort to counter than images alone. Likewise, images and doubts together and doubts alone were more worrisome and more frequently triggered by various stimuli than images alone. These results suggest that cognitive intrusions identified as a mixture of doubts and images are qualitatively different and more troublesome than those identified as either doubts or images. These findings are discussed in terms of current accounts of emotional processing.


Background: Inflammatory breast cancer (IBC) is an aggressive type of breast cancer disease that has a high incidence in Egypt than western countries. It is characterized by rapid progression, involvement of dermal lymphatic emboli and extensive lymph node involvement. Basic and translational studies are needed to define IBC disease biology and identify specific biomarkers have been limited by the paucity of patient samples. Hence, the current study aimed to introduce the telomerase activity level as a novel diagnostic marker for breast cancer and specifically for IBC to be differentiated from non-IBC.

Methods: Breast cancer patients were enrolled from Ain Shams University hospitals in Cairo, divided into two groups: IBC (n=26) and non-IBC (n=27). Tissue samples were collected during modified radical mastectomy. TRAP (Telomerase repeat amplification protocol) assay was used to assess the telomerase activity in inflammatory and non inflammatory breast cancer tissue samples. Immunohistochemistry was used to investigate the expression of hTERT subunit of telomerase in paraffin embedded tissue samples of both types of patients.

Results: IBC showed Telomerase activity ranged from 12.2 to 367.1 units with a mean value of 78 and a median value of 43, while telomerase activity in non-IBC ranged from 6.1 to 109.34 units with a mean value of 41.1 and a median value of 24. On the other hand, normal tissues showed telomerase activity below 5 (P<0.001). Using immunohistochemistry, the hTERT expression was higher in IBC than non-IBC and no expression at all in normal tissues. Moreover, a positive mild correlation was found between the telomerase activity and the number of metastatic lymph nodes in both IBC (r=0.53) and non-IBC (r=0.54).

Conclusions: Telomerase could be a promising marker at the diagnostic and therapeutic levels in breast cancer and specifically in IBC.


The offshore wind energy industry is growing at an encouraging rate, and Australia is seeking to commence offshore wind development. Although there is research on the planning and environmental risks, there is limited research addressing health and safety risks. Some scholars argue the two industries are different, while others support the application of offshore petroleum safety to wind. This article analyses whether the industries have many similarities, and whether the safety case provides the most robust safety regulatory framework for both industries, concluding that Australia's approach is a solid foundation for safety in the developing wind industry.


Introduction: Good control of glycaemia negates potential maternal and fetal complications. A diet suitable for women with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) is a first line approach. However, little is said about suitable exercise in pregnancy that will potentially help control glycaemia. This pilot study seeks to understand the perceived barriers to exercise in women with GDM. Materials and Methods: This crosssectional study recruited patients with GDM on diet control at the antenatal clinic of Hospital Sultanah Aminah Johor Bahru, Malaysia between October 2017 and January 2018. Those who fulfilled the recruitment criteria were approached and 89 women consented to participate. Data was obtained from antenatal records and a self-administered questionnaire. Results: The mean age of the participants was 33.3 years. More than 80% were Para 1 and above. 69.6% were either overweight or obese at booking of pregnancy. 80.9% were aware that exercise was necessary for women with GDM. Only 6.7% say that healthcare professionals were their source of information on exercise in pregnancy. 77.3% of the women with low physical activity had full time jobs. Housewives (64.5%) had the highest level of physical activity. Tiredness (43.8%), childcare duties (38.2%) and lack of time (27.0%) were the most common perceived barriers to exercise. Nulliparity was significantly associated with tiredness. Conclusion: Main barriers to exercise are tiredness and childcare duties. Health care professionals did little in educating women with GDM on suitable exercise.


We present a latch mapping methodology that judiciously leverages structural and functional analyses on digital sequential circuits. We make use of functional design constraints in a way to get latch correspondence information. For scanable latches we use a technique based on scan chain analysis to obtain latch correspondences. We also provide an effective heuristic for finding latch correspondences for latches (potentially nonscanable) in complex state machines having cyclic dependencies. Our methodology not only answers latch correspondence, but also provides polarity of the correspondence. This is a major advantage over earlier latch mapping algorithms. Experimental results obtained on embedded circuits from live PowerPCreg design projects have shown that our technique fares better than a leading vendor tool in mapping latches - in both quantitative (more latches mapped) and performance (time/memory used) aspects


This paper examines the "spatial rationalities" of government (Huxley 2007) that informed colonial debates over forced labor for the mines of Peru. Building on Huxley's suggestion that the "causal qualities" of particular spaces play a significant role in shaping governmental rationalities, the paper considers how colonial notions about underground environments intersected with ideas about the nature of the Indians and their perceived rights and responsibilities as vassals of the Spanish crown. The article focuses first on the Toledan era, and second on three seventeenth-century texts that deal extensively with the question of mining and the mita.


Vertical electrical sounding was done at 47 points using an ABEM 1000 Terrameter and a set of cables that could probe up to a depth of 500m. Resistivity was determined in two sites located in the district of Douala III (Bomkoul and Ngoma) 6 km west of the main town on the left bank of the Wouri River. The choice of these neighbourhood is as a result on the one hand, the presence of clay deposits from which sections have helped to configure resistivity data with those of geoelectric sections, and on the other hand, by the ability to extend the measuring device over great distances without being hindered by urbanization. The depths of investigation range from a minimum of 30 m and a maximum of 120 m. The results show a wide variability in resistivity values throughout the study area; it may be related to the high variability of facies described on sections by diggers. This variability may be due to the complexity of deposits recorded in the Douala sedimentary basin and also because of the presence of water in both sandy and clay sediments due to climate. The suggested resistivity is between 20 and 600ohm.m for clays and greater than 1000 ohm.m for sand. Given the weak thickness of some layers, the cancellation phenomena that affect very thin layers between two layers of different geoelectric properties of the latter have been observed, thus assigning to clay layers, sand resistivity.


The electronic structure of p-type semiconducting Sr2Cu2ZnO2S2 (SCZOS) was examined experimentally and theoretically. The band gap of SCZOS estimated by the optical absorption of its thin film was 2.7 eV, which is relatively large in chalcogenide semiconductors. Normal and inverse photoemission spectra were measured to observe the valence band or conduction band structure of this material. The observed band structure revealed that the Fermi level of SCZOS was located at the top of the valence band, and the bottom of the conduction band was approximately 2.5 eV above the Fermi level. These results demonstrate the wide-gap and p-type semiconducting nature of SCZOS. Comparison of the photoemission spectra with the density of states calculated by the tight-binding method led to the conclusion that the top of the valence band is mainly composed of a hybridized (Cu 3d)−(S 3p) band, and the bottom of the conduction band primarily consists of a dispersed Zn 4s band.


In article forms of presence of the reader in the text of Gogol's «The Dead Souls» and principles of author's metareflection are analyzed.


THE MONOVALENT ions of mammalian nervous tissues have been investigated extensively but the divalent ions of cerebral tissues have not received much attention. In neural tissues, the majority of the work on the divalent ions, and in particular calcium, has been carried out with frog and invertebrate nerves. The generalisations derived from these investigations may be suinmarised as follows: (a) sodium and potassium are the principal carriers of current across the membrane and their exchange accounts for the action potential; (b) calcium effects, primarily, the constraints upon these ionic movements (BRINK, 1954). The constraints upon the ionic movement probably are brought about by alterations in the membrane because variation in the tissue calcium causes changes in the electrical resistance of the membrane (HODGKIN and HUXLEY, 1952) and the calcuim ion concentration in the bathing solution affects the permeability of the cellular membrane (FRANKENHAEUSER and HODGKIN, 1955). Similarly, the threshold, the amplitude of action potential and rectification in frog nerves vary with the calcium concentration of fluids in which they are bathed (FRANKENHAEUSER, 1957). Metabolic changes have been reported with frog nerve preparations (GERARD, 1932) and with mammalian brain slices (GORE and MCILWAIN, 1952) in calcium deficient media. The processes underlying such metabolic changes are as yet only partly understood, but the changes have been attributed to participation of calcium in mechanisms linking the electro-chemical processes of conduction to the rate of oxidative metabolism (GERARD, 1932; MCILWAIN, 1959) and to participation of calcium in factors controlling membrane permeability (BRINK, 1954; SHANES, 1958). In this investigation, the calcium of mammalian cerebral cortex has been studied. The total calcium content of the tissue has been determined and the tissue permeability in media of varying calcium content estimated. Furthermore, the total tissue calcium has been measured under conditions which are known to alter the membrane permeability to sodium and potassium and the calcium exchanges has been determined under some of these conditions. M E T H O D S Media and tissue. Bicarbonate medium contained 120 mM-NaC1; 4.8 mM-KCl; 1.2 mM-KH,PO,; 1-3 mM-MgSO,; 10 niM-glucose; 26 mM-NaHCO, and varying CaCI, concentrations. The medium was equilibrated with O2 + CO, (95: 5, v/v) which was maintained in the vessels during incubation. * This investigation was supported by a Public Health Service Fellowship (Number BF-9,225-C3)