The chiral bosonization in non-Abelian gauge theories is described starting directly from the QCD functional. For a given mass scale A, the QCD may be equivalent^ represented by colour chiral fields, gauge fields and high energy fermions. The effective action for colour chiral fields may admit the existence of a colour Skyrmion-boson with the baryon number 2/3. MIRAHAEE TRIESTE January 1985 • To be submitted for publication. •• Permanent address: Department of Theoretical Physics, Leningrad State University, 1989CA Leningrad, USSR. Recently, the full non-Abelian anomaly and the corresponding action terms have been calculated in the finite-mode regularjzntion scheme [l] (see also [2]). The action terms include the well-known Wess-Zumino-Witten action [3,4] arising from the Bardeen anomaly [5], as well as the P-preserving terms depending explicitly on the regularization mass scile A , However, these results of the ^-dimensional theory [l] were not able to justify entirely the idea [6,7] based on the 2-dimensional case, that the quark flavour phase can be used as a chiral field in the effective action. The kinetic term in the U-dimensional action [l] also has the wrong sign as in the 2-dimensional case [6,7]. The bosonization of fermion flavour currents [8] has been accomplished [9] after the ehiral-breaking part of the fermionie determinant had been separated from the chiral-invariant one. The purpose of this paper is to explore the colour chiral bosonization in non-Abelian gauge theories starting directly from the QCD functional. We develop a framework that enables us to obtain the full effective action for the colour and flavour ehiral fields. We limit ourselves to studying in detail the colour bosonization, because an extension to the general case is straightforward. We assume that there are mass scales A J A characterising the L r maximum energy for quark fluctuations to be taken into account via colour and flavour chiral fields. In other words, A defines a subdivision of the fermion functional integral in the QCD functional. In the flavour case the scale A is related to F [9]. IT The colour bosonization has a different status compared with that of the flavour one. In the flavour case the exact treatment requires to eliminate external gauge fields after calculation of the effective action. To preserve these fields means to introduce them phenomenologically. In the colour case nonAbelian vector fields are always present. We show that the colour chiral bosonization is the change of description within the same QCD functional from gauge fields plus fermions to gauge fields plus chiral field plus high energy fermions, the latter being as exact as the original one. However while the chiral field in the flavour case describes physical objects, the colour chiral field is of the same reality as quarks and gluons. In the limit A •+ •> chiral fields disappear leaving us with the chiral invariant functional.


This thesis looks at the importance of water quality and quantity in the tropical ecosystems in relation to movement of animals who depend on that water for their daily lives and existence. Seasona ...


The feedback system was designed by using of two linear CCD cameras and the image-subtraction technique. The heights and the time of two points on the flying trajectory of the shot put after release were detected in real time. Given the release height, the computer then calculated the release angle, the release velocity and the optimum angle. The system made the feedback about the release angle larger or lower than the optimum one. It would give suggestion that in next shot putting, he/she adjust the release angle near to the optimum angle. The experiments showed that the system is helpful for the elite shot putter in technique training.


In Othello's pivotal act three, scene three, Othello twice accuses Iago of torturing him. Although Iago does not assault the general's body, this essay argues that Iago does subject Othello to a form of psychological torture. Accordingly, it examines the play in light of the historical circumstances surrounding torture's resurgence and application in early modern England. Drawing on the political philosophy of Carl Schmitt, Giorgio Agamben, and their early modern interlocutors, this essay describes torture as the extralegal application of summary justice in exceptional settings, including hybrid military-domestic contexts such as the one invoked by Shakespeare's Cyprus. This contextual approach is paired with a careful reading of the play's sources, Giraldi Cinthio's "Un Capitano Moro" and Gasparo Contarini's The Commonwealth and Government of Venice, as well as a more recent source describing the methodology and aims of psychological torture, the KUBARK Counterintelligence Interrogation Manual—a notorious handbook produced by the United States Central Intelligence Agency in 1963. This eclectic approach sheds new light on the cognitive mechanism whereby Iago "breaks" Othello, offering a darker interpretation of the play's portrayal of sovereignty and identity formation, which are described here in terms of coercion and forced conversion.


Abstract : The Air Force is becoming more computer-oriented each year and one of the areas of increasing computer use is education and training. Interactive videodisc instruction is a relatively new technology that offers great potential as a training medium. Air Command and Staff College is continually trying to improve the presentation of its curriculum. The objective of this paper is to see if interactive videodisc technology can be constructively applied to the ACSC curriculum. The paper explores the mechanics of videodisc operation, the concepts of interactive education and the benefits of the combination of the two. Next, the paper details the hardware and software necessary to produce and present interactive instruction and what hardware and software is currently available to the Air Force. The paper concludes that interactive videodisc instruction could enhance curriculum presentation at ACSC.


A new holistic methodology for Human Reliability Analysis(HRA) is proposed to model the effects of the organizational factors on the human reliability.Firstly,a conceptual framework is built,which is used to analyze the causal relationships between the organizational factors and human reliability.Then,the inference model for Human Reliability Analysis is built by combining the conceptual framework with Bayesian networks,which is used to execute the causal inference and diagnostic inference of human reliability.Finally,a case example is presented to demonstrate the specific application of the proposed methodology.The results show that the proposed methodology of combining the conceptual model with Bayesian Networks can not only easily model the causal relationship between organizational factors and human reliability,but in a given context,people can quantitatively measure the human operational reliability, and identify the most likely root causes or the prioritization of root causes caused human error.


insing operations, which generate R most of the plating waste, are at the core of the problem of creating a clean plating industry. While much effort in the field is directed towards the development of different recovery techniques, the most straightforward approach of recuperation, i.e. return of rinsewater to the source bath, has not been investigated thoroughly enough. In this paper results of a computer assisted 3-stage countercurrent recuperative rinse mathematical model investigation are described. Earlier work on the problem done by Kushner,' lacked generality and precision for two main reasons: plating times and rinsewater flows were not taken properly into account, and evaporation from rinses was not considered.


The present article deals with five species of the freshwater Ascomycetes viz., Aniptodera inflatiascigera K.M. Tsui, K.D. Hyde and I.J. Hodgkiss; Ascosacculus heterogattulata (S.W. Wong, K.D. Hyde and E.B.G. Jones) J. Campb., J.L. Anderson and Shearer; Neomassariosphaeria typhicola (P. Karst.) Yin, Zhang, F. Fourn. and K.D. Hyde; Savoryella verrucosa Minoura and T. Muroi; and Zopfiella karachiensis (S.L. Ahmed and Asad) Guarro which were isolated from submerged wood in freshwater habitats. A. inflatiascigera is being recorded for the first time from India. The remaining four Ascomycetes were additions to the fungi of Maharashtra state (India). The data provides information on the distribution of these fungi in India apart from description and


Annual final report submitted on May 25, 2017 by the chair of nominating committee, records the committee's charge, project descriptions, goals, and objectives for the coming year


The CIMMYT spring wheat Weebill 1 has nearimmune levels of adult plant resistance (APR) to leaf rust caused by Puccinia triticina Eriks. To determine the genetic basis of resistance in seedlings and adult plants Weebill 1 was crossed with two susceptible parents Jupateco 73S and 'Thatcher'. Advanced F4:5, F4:6, and F5:7 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) populations from Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 and BC1F2 populations from Thatcher/Weebill 1 were derived. The F5:7 RILs and BC1F2 families were tested as seedlings with fi ve races of P. triticina. The F1 and F4:5, F4:6, and F5:7 RILs of Jupateco 73S/ Weebill 1 were evaluated in plots in Mexico and St. Paul. The Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 RILs and Thatcher*2/Weebill 1 F2 families segregated for Lr14b, an unknown seedling leaf rust resistance gene derived from Weebill 1 in both crosses, and Lr17a derived from Jupateco 73S in the RIL population. Lr17a was mapped to the distal end of chromosome 2AS and was linked to microsatellite maker Xgwm636 at a distance of 4.0 cM. The seedling genes did not condition effective resistance in the fi eld plots with races used in the fi eld trials. The segregation ratio in the RILs and F2 families indicated the presence of three to four APR genes in Weebill 1. One of the APR genes was linked to the seedling gene Lr14b on chromosome 7BL and reduced leaf rust by 47% in St. Paul and 31% in Mexico. Based on the haplotypes of DNA markers, we do not believe that any of the APR genes is Lr34. J.X. Zhang and J.A. Anderson, Dep. of Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Univ. of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108; R.P. Singh, International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT), Apdo Postal 6-641, 06600, Mexico D.F., Mexico; J.A. Kolmer and Y. Jin, USDAARS, Cereal Disease Laboratory, St. Paul, MN 55108; J. HuertaEspino, Campo Experimental Valle de Mexico, INIFAP, Apdo. Postal 10, Chapingo, 56230 Edo de Mexico, Mexico. Received 17 Dec. 2007. *Corresponding author (firstname.lastname@example.com). Abbreviations: APR, adult plant resistance; IT, infection types; PCR, polymerase chain reaction; QTL, quantitative trait loci; RIL, recombinant inbred lines. Published in Crop Sci. 48:1037–1047 (2008). doi: 10.2135/cropsci2007.08.0455 © Crop Science Society of America 677 S. Segoe Rd., Madison, WI 53711 USA All rights reserved. No part of this periodical may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Permission for printing and for reprinting the material contained herein has been obtained by the publisher. R e p ro d u c e d fr o m C ro p S c ie n c e . P u b lis h e d b y C ro p S c ie n c e S o c ie ty o f A m e ri c a . A ll c o p y ri g h ts re s e rv e d . 1038 WWW.CROPS.ORG CROP SCIENCE, VOL. 48, MAY–JUNE 2008 the incorporation of new durable resistance genes into U.S. breeding programs and maintenance of a diversity of resistance genes in wheat cultivars. The seedling resistance gene Lr17a (Singh et al., 2001) was an important component of resistance of a number of wheat cultivars in Australia, CIMMYT, the Indian Subcontinent, South America, UK (McIntosh et al., 1995), and the hard red winter wheat region of the United States (Kolmer, 2005). In the United States, a signifi cant increase of races that were virulent to the widely grown winter wheat cultivar Jagger that has Lr17a occurred in the P. triticina population starting in 1996 (Kolmer et al., 2006; Long et al., 1998). Lr17a was located on wheat chromosome 2AS by monosomic analysis (Dyck and Kerber, 1977). Although now ineff ective against the predominant races in North America, Lr17a is present in some U.S. hard red winter wheat germplasm ( J.A. Kolmer, unpublished data, 2007) that were derived from crosses with Jagger. Molecular markers linked to Lr17a may facilitate the identifi cation of Lr17a in breeding germplasm, especially if the germplasm is related by descent. Weebill 1, a CIMMYT wheat breeding line derived from the cross Babax/4/Bobwhite/Crow//Bucbuc/Pavon 76/3/ Veery#10/5/Babax is highly resistant to leaf rust in Mexico and St. Paul, Minnesota. The adult plant resistance in Weebill 1 is not associated with seedling resistance or hypersensitive response. Weebill 1 may contain Lr46 due to having Pavon 76 in its pedigree, but not Lr34 on the basis of the absence of the leaf tip necrosis phenotype. Therefore, we suspect that additional, unknown APR genes are responsible for Weebill 1's high level of leaf rust resistance. This study was conducted to (i) determine the genetic basis of seedling and adult plant resistance in Weebill 1, (ii) determine the correlation of adult plant resistance in Mexico and St. Paul environments, and (iii) identify DNA markers linked to Lr17a segregating in one of the crosses used in this study. MATERIALS AND METHODS Plant Materials The wheat line Weebill 1 was crossed as a male parent with the CIMMYT-derived spring wheat line Jupateco 73S and the U.S. spring wheat cultivar Thatcher. Jupateco 73S is a leaf rust susceptible (non-Lr34) reselection from the Mexican spring wheat cultivar Jupateco 73 (Singh, 1992) and was postulated to have Lr17a (Singh and Rajaram, 1991; Zhang et al., 2007). Thatcher has been used as a standard leaf rust susceptible check in leaf rust research in the U.S. and Canada. The F1 plants of Thatcher/ Weebill 1 were backcrossed to Thatcher and BC1F2 families were derived. The F1, F4:5, F4:6, and F5:7 recombinant inbred lines (RILs) of Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 (developed by single seed descent) and BC1F2 families of Thatcher/Weebill 1 were used in the fi eld studies. The F5:7 RILs of Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 and BC1F2 families of Thatcher*2/Weebill 1 were also used in the seedling greenhouse experiments. The F5:7 RILs of Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 were used for identifying microsatellite markers linked to the seedling resistance gene Lr17a. Thirtyfour spring wheat cultivars and lines from a wide range of geographic regions of the world were tested with diff erent leaf rust races to postulate the presence of Lr17a and were analyzed with the DNA makers linked to Lr17a in Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1. Studies of Seedling Resistance Genes in Weebill 1 Twelve races of P. triticina were used to determine the seedling infection types (IT) of Weebill 1 and Jupateco 73S (Table 1). The isolates of these races were collected from wheat in the United States and Canada, and were designated for virulence phenotype following the four-letter code system of Long and Kolmer (Long and Kolmer, 1989; Kolmer et al., 2006). Race BBBD (isolate designation: Race 1), MCDS (00 SD 520), and TLGF (00 SC 218) were used for testing 129 F5:7 RILs of Jupateco 73S/Weebill 1 and 60 BC1F2 families of Thatcher*2/ Weebill 1. After selection for lines that did not contain Lr17a (based on high IT to BBBD and TLGF), a subset of 11 RILs resistant to MCDS, 10 BC1F2 families of Thatcher*2/Weebill 1 segregating for MCDS, and six BC1F2 families susceptible to MCDS were selected for further testing with races TGBG (04 MN 485) and TCTD (03 VA 190). Weebill 1, Jupateco 73S, Thatcher, and 18 near-isogenic lines of Thatcher with diff erent leaf rust resistance genes were included in the tests. The RILs were planted in 3.5 cm2 square plastic pots in vermiculite in clumps at each corner of the pot as described by Oelke and Kolmer (2004). The BC1F2 seed was space planted with 12 to 15 seeds/family/pot. The plants were grown on a greenhouse bench at 18 to 22°C with 16 h of supplemental light. Table 1. Seedling infection types† of wheat lines Thatcher, Weebill 1, Jupateco 73S and three Thatcher nearisogenic (Tc) lines to 12 races of Puccinia triticina. Wheat Lines BBBD KFBJ MCDS MCRK MHDS MJBJ SDBG TCTD TGBG THBJ TLGF TNRJ Thatcher 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ Weebill 1 3+ 3 ; 3+ 33+ 33+ 33+ 0; X 33+ 3+ 3+ Jupateco 73S 0; 0;1 3+ 23 3 ;12 3+ 3+ X ;2+ ;1 ;2 TcLr17a RL6008 (TcLr17a) ;2– ;2 3 23 3+ ;2+ 33+ 3 ;22+ 2 ;1 ;2 TcLr14b RL6006 (TcLr14b) 3+ 3+ ; 3 3 3+ 3+ ; 3+ 3+ ...‡ 3 TcLr1 RL6003 (TcLr1) ; ; 33+ 33+ 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ X,3+§ 3+ 3+ 3+ RL6013 (TcLr14a) 3+ 3 3+ 3+ 3+ 3+ X 3 ;12 3+ 3+ 3+ †Infection types as described in Long and Kolmer (1989). ‡Data not available. §',' indicating that the wheat line was heterogeneous for reaction to the test race; the predominant plant type was given fi rst. R e p ro d u c e d fr o m C ro p S c ie n c e . P u b lis h e d b y C ro p S c ie n c e S o c ie ty o f A m e ri c a . A ll c o p y ri g h ts re s e rv e d . CROP SCIENCE, VOL. 48, MAY–JUNE 2008 WWW.CROPS.ORG 1039 A sequence-tagged site DNA marker csLV34 developed by Lagudah et al. (2006) was used to screen for Lr34 in Weebill 1. This marker is 0.4 cM from Lr34 and was diagnostic of the Lr34 gene in wheat cultivars from diff erent parts of the world. Jupateco 73S, Thatcher, and RL 6058 (Lr34) were included as checks. DNA extraction and PCR reaction were the same as the Lr17a tagging study. Adult-Plant Field Studies Field evaluations to determine the genetic basis of adult plant resistance were conducted at Ciudad Obregon, Sonora, Mexico; El Batan, State of Mexico, Mexico; and St. Paul, MN, during 2003 to 2006. The crop season at Ciudad Obregon is from late November to early April, whereas at El Batan it is mid May to early October. At St. Paul, wheat is grown from April to August. In Mexico, each plot consisted of two 1-m rows, 20 cm apart, on the top of 80-cm-wide raised beds with 0.5-m alleys between beds. The fi eld plots at St. Paul were 2-m long singlerow plots with 20 cm between plots and 2-m alleys. In the experiments with RILs, each plot was planted with approximately 100 seeds. In Mexico, the spreader rows of the highly susceptible cultivar Morocco were planted as hills on one side of the plots in the middle of the pathway and as long rows around the experimental block at the same time as the experimental plots. In St. Paul, spreader rows of highly susceptible wh


Leptin is a circulating non-glycosylated protein that is mainly produced in adipocytes. Leptin acts in the brain to regulate food intake and energy expenditure. Previously we reported our success in the isolation of a partial cDNA of the long form of the leptin receptor, OB-Rb, from rat spleen, and showed that leptin might also play a role in peripheral immune organs. In the present study, for the first time, the complete coding region of OB-Rb cDNA was cloned from rat splenocytes, and its nucleotide sequence was determined. The cDNA was then further expressed in E. coli and mammalian cells, thereby confirming the functional integrity of this receptor. Prokaryotically overexpressed OB-R protein was then used as an immunizing antigen in BALE/c mice to produce leptin receptor-specific antibodies. By using them, we confirmed the cell surface expression of OB-Rb in transfected CHO cells. It is our belief that the reagents, as produced in this study, will be of great use in further studies of the biological role of rat leptin.


s of Interest The Effect of Chronic Propranolol Therapy on Regional Cerebral Blood Flow in Hypertensive Patients, by Globus M, Kerfn A, Eldad M, et al. Stroke 14(6):964-967, 1983. Thirty-one patients with a history of hypertension were entered into this study. They were followed for the results of the effect of propranolol at several doses by performing regional cerebral blood studies by Xenon 133 inhalation technique. This study revealed that a dose below 120 mg per day essentially showed no change in the regional cerebral bloodflow. However, at increasing doses of propranolol there was an increase in cerebral bloodflow. The values for those patients on 40-110 mg of propranolol per day was a mean cerebral bloodflow which was expected to be 49.2 and was measured at 48.3. With 120-200 mg per day of propranolol, the expected results were 50.5 and their measured results were 59.9. Several mechanisms are discussed by which the increase cerebral bloodflow and high dose propranolol may occur. The first method suggested is secondary to enhanced brain neuronal metabolism or secondarily to the "quinidine-like" effect of propranolol in the smooth muscle of the vasculature resulting in decreased excitability of the smooth muscles and subsequently a vasodilation. They raise one concern that the increased cerebral bloodflow secondary to high dose propranolol treatment may result in congestion of the cerebral blood vessels with edema and evidence of hypertensive encephalopathy which could be a precipitating factor for cerebral hemorrhage. The Transient Global Amnesia-Migraine Connection by Crowell GF, Stump DA, Billet J, et al. Archives of Neurology 42:75-79, 1984. Transient global amnesia has been reported in association with polycythemia; tumors; digitalis, iodochlorhydroxyquin or diazepam intoxication; cerebral and cardiac angiography; myxomatous degeneration of the mitral valve; and migraine. Authors have attributed transient global amnesia to transient ischemia in the posterior cerebral artery territory, specifically affecting the mesial temporal lobes and hippocampal region while others implicate epilepsy. Twelve patients were admitted into the study and admitted to the hospital for diagnostic work-up for transient ischemic attacks, including regional cerebral bloodflow studies using the Xenon-133 inhalation method with a 16 scintillation detector scan method. The results reveal that 7 of the 12 patients had headaches associated with attacks of transient global amnesia. Five of the 12 had migrainous-type headaches. Regional cerebral bloodflow studies revealed similar patterns in 5 of the 7 patients and that the cerebral bloodflow abnormalities were an impaired vasomotor response in the area between the middle cerebral artery and the posterior cerebral artery territories. In four patients, focal ischemia occurred in the inferior portion of the temporal lobe. Thse abnormalities were completely different from those patients who had evidence of carotid artery transient ischemic attacks and vete-brobasilar transient ischemic attacks. Their conclusion is that vasomotor phenomenon of migraine may have a causative role in transient global amnesia. Observations on the Efficacy of Propranolol for the Prophylaxis of Migraine by Rosen JA. Annals of Neurology 13:92-93, 1983. An open study was conducted on propranolol versus other drugs, except beta-blockers, which are possibly useful in the treatment of migraine. The patients were followed for a one-year period with propranolol. Only 53% had responded in the first 3 months of therapy, but in 6 months, 79% had responded, and 84% had improved at the end of one year. With other therapy, 36% improved in the last 3 months. This decreased to 32% by the end of one year. Between years one and eight, there was only a 3% relapse rate. Do Beta-Adrenoceptor Blocking Agents Cause Retroperitoneal Fibrosis? by Pryor JP, Castle WM, et al. British Medical Journal 287:639-641, 1983. A retrospective study was conducted on 100 consecutive hospital inpatients with diagnosis of retroperitoneal fibrosis. The charts were reviewed for date of onset of symptoms, drugs prescribed, and blood pressure readings at admission. Six patients had received beta-blockers before the onset of symptoms, 24 received the drugs after the onset of symptoms, and three patients were continued on them for at least six years after the diagnosis was made and surgery was performed without recurrence of symptoms. A wide variety of other medications, including some with known risks of retroperitoneal fibrosis, were also used by patients in the series. The conclusion was that beta-blockers were not responsible for the development of retroperitoneal fibrosis but rather were prescribed for the treatment of one of its sequlae, hypertension.


The article dwells on the issue of foreign investment attraction to regions. The importance of foreign investment in regions'economy and the country in general is emphasized, the factors, which are decisive for investors in the analysis of region's attractiveness, and factors that influence the level of to regions are examined, the mechanisms of foreign direct investment attraction are analyzed through the prism of cross-border cooperation forms.
The European experience of foreign investment attraction is examined and statistical data for the recent years is provided. The level of foreign direct investment in four oblasts of Carpathian region is analyzed, the dynamics of foreign direct investment per capita in border regions is reviewed, and the reasons / preconditions of growth/fall of the rates are explained. The role of decentralization in attraction of foreign investors is shown and opportunities and algorithm of activities to be conducted by territorial communities to attract investors are described.
The ways to increase investment capacity are analyzed. The role of crowd technologies in creation of region's positive image and the role of territorial development agencies in region's investment activity are shown and the ways they should work as well as the required resources are explained.
 Practical recommendations on improvement of region's attractiveness for foreign investors are suggested.
Keywords: investment potential, investment risk, investment attractiveness, investment environment, investment climate, investment resources


Hough transform is an important tool for lines extraction, and it is a method to extract line from
the transform domain. In the application of desks location detection and quantity statistics in the classroom environment,
Hough Transform is applied to detect desks on the basis of edge extraction. But there are some problems such as low
correct rate and time efficiency in the experiment.

A method combined with sliding window is proposed and it is a method based on local features. The detection
steps and experimental process of the method are introduced in detail. The comparison and analysis by different methods
are carried out in aspects of detection accuracy, error rate and time. In practical application, the joint method achieve the
best comprehensive detection performance.

The result shows that the size of the sliding window has a great influence on the detection result. When the size
of the sliding window is chosen properly, the joint detection method based on local features can improve the detection
accuracy significantly.

The experiment result shows when window size is 4x4, the best result can be obtained in general, and it has
good robustness. The method combined with sliding window to detect the target image also has many advantages which
parameters are easy to adjust and optimize, and the efficiency is higher in local detection.


The alternating current properties modified by the exposure of a dielectric supported discontinuous film of copper + cuprous oxide to parts-per-million concentration levels of diisopropyl methylphosphate (DIMP) are reported. In addition, the merit of integrating these films with the distributed RC notch network sensor is investigated. The frequency-dependent resistance (R/sub p/(f)) is interpreted in terms of a simple equivalent circuit composed of frequency-independent parameters whose values were determined by using a nonlinear least-squares analysis. The parameter changes caused by DIMP exposure can be differentiated between those associated with the bulk conductivity of the islands compared to their gaps. A detection scheme based upon the distributed RC notch network is evaluated. In operation, changes made in the lumped notch tuning resistance to reestablish a preexposed notch depth directly correlate with the independently measured resistance change of the gas-sensitive film.


".(La Societe de Conservation du Present), a collective made up of three members - Alain Bergeron, Philippe Cote, and Jean Dube - was created in 1985. The critical, sharp, humorous, and sometimes irreverent trio bore witness to a new intellectual, artistic, and social dynamic. The state of the world, the twentieth century, language, technology, museology, the free circulation of archives, and the Third World debt were some of the many fields of investigation that led them to take a stance and spurred them in action. The often furtive but resolutely prolific collective made its mark through its rubber-stamped words and icons, its slogans and pictograms, and its zealous (mis)use of punctuation in numerous printed documents and important production of laminated plastic cards. At the dawn of new media art, the group was also a forerunner of creative software development and the then-nascent digital networks field. In conserving the present, the .(SCP) met the challenge of rethinking the past, and the future, in light of the multitude of issues facing society and the art world." -- p. [4] of cover.


Displacement of oil by water from water-wet connate-water-bearing reservoirs is unstable if the mobility ratio across the shock front is greater than one, provided the wavelength of the instabilities is smaller than the reservoir dimensions. Capillary forces determine the wavelength, and the one that predominates contributes the maximum to the energy dissipation. Experiments in a transparent model have confirmed these results.


An upper bound on the capacity of a primitive three-node discrete memoryless relay channel is considered, where a source X wants to send information to destination Y with the help of a relay Z. The signals at each node are also denoted as X, Y, and Z, respectively, with a slight abuse of notation. Y and Z are independent given X, and the link from Z to Y is lossless with rate R0. A new inequality is introduced to upper-bound the capacity when the encoding rate is beyond the capacities of both individual links XY and XZ. It is based on generalizing the blowing-up lemma, linking conditional entropy to decoding error, and generalizing channel simulation to the case with side information. The upper bound is strictly better than the well-known cut-set bound in several cases when the latter is CXY +R0, with CXY being the channel capacity between X and Y. One particular case is when the channel is stochastically degraded, i.e., either Y is a stochastically degraded version of Z with respect to X, or Z is a stochastically degraded version of Y with respect to X. Moreover, in this case, the bound is shown to be explicitly computable. The upper bound on the capacity of the binary erasure channel is analyzed in detail and evaluated numerically.


The modern understanding of history was one aspect of the broader movement toward secularization. The Christian view that eternal time was punctuated by an ascending sequence of sacred events was projected into secular time, imparting a degree of meaning and progressive organization to history. At the same time, the changing earthly world was slowly loosed from the eternal world of God and His immutable truth, and secular modes of understanding the particular configurations of human history gained authority. Change could then be understood as a succession of qualitatively different phenomena, not merely as random variations, or the surface appearance of essentially unchanging things


Rana, M.S., Das, P.C., Yeasmin, F. and Islam, M.N. Department of Food Technology and Rural Industries, Bangladesh Agricultural University, Mymensingh 2202, Bangladesh Department of Agro Product Processing Technology, Jashore University of Science and Technology, Jashore 7408, Bangladesh Department of Chemical and Food Process Engineering, Rajshahi University of Engineering and Technology, Rajshahi 6204, Bangladesh


Piezoelectric energy harvester (PEH) is considered as a robust power source, which can power electronic devices by scavenging small magnitudes of energy from ambient vibration. The fundamental advantage of PEH lies in the inherent ability of the piezoelectric material to generate electricity depending on the amount of vibration applied to the material. Although lead zirconate titanate (PZT) is the most common type of piezoelectric material used, the toxicity of PZT damages the environment and causes health issues, thus necessitates the need for the discovery of lead-free piezoelectric material. Hence, potassium sodium niobate (KNN) was chosen to eradicate the toxicity of the PZT material. In this paper, the performance of KNN energy harvester was compared with a commercial lead-based material using finite element modelling. Both harvesters showed a comparable output power of 0.104 mW for KNN and 0.115 mW for PZT, respectively. The recorded maximum output voltage of KNN was 0.952 V when resonated at 2097.7 Hz. KNN also rank among the best piezoelectric energy harvester compared to the commonly reported electromechanical coupling coefficient and figure of merit. The proposed KNN energy harvester provides a very promising solution to substitute lead-based energy harvester in the future.


Automatic license plate recognition system plays an essential role in real life applications, especially those related to security and traffic managements. It essentially extracts and recognizes number plate information from videos or captured images of the targeted vehicle. Vehicle license plates differ from one country to another and because of this the effectiveness of implementing any particular method or system varies based on the plate type. In this study, we present an automatic detection, segmentation and recognition system for Libyan vehicle license plates. The main challenge in this work is our determination to use images of real vehicle plates in Libya, and the majority of these plates are not in a good condition because of poor vehicle maintenance. Three different approaches were used in the proposed system as follows: (1) Projection histogram based approach is used to locate the authorized plate license; (2) Connected component analysis based approach is used to segment the plate characters; (3) The template matching based approach is used to recognise the extracted characters. The proposed system was tested on 200 vehicle images varying in illumination conditions and backgrounds. The detection accuracy of the implemented system was 87%, the segmentation accuracy was 90% and the recognition accuracy was 86%.


Abstract The mechanisms responsible for tight-induced refractive index changes are discussed. Special emphasis is paid to the formation of space charge fields and index changes, to Bragg diffraction and selfdiffraction, to photorefractive centers and light-induced charge transport, to various possibilities of nondestructive read-out and to holographic scattering. The ability to tailor certain crystal parameters over wide ranges offers favourable perspectives for future devices.


Field trial was conducted during the 2017 dry season from March to June at Bayero University, Kano and Birji village both in Sudan savannah to determine the effect of compost rates and irrigation intervals on the growth and yield of onion (Allium cepa L.) The treatments were conducted in five rates of compost (0 t ha-1, 5 t ha-1, 10 t ha-1,15 t ha -1 and 20 t ha-1) and three irrigation intervals (5, 10 and 15 days). The treatments were laid out in a split plot design and replicated three times. Irrigation intervals were assigned to the main plot while compost rates were assigned to the sub plot. The gross plot size was 1.5 m x 2.0 m (3.0 m2) consisting of 10 rows of 2 m length. Data on growth and yield parameters were collected, weighed and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Treatment means were separated using Student-Newman-Keuls Test. The result ssize was 1.5 m x 2.0 m (3.0 m2) consisting of 10 rows of 2 m length. Data on growth and yield parameters were collected, weighed and subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA). Treatment means were separated using Student-Newman-Keuls Test. The result showed that compost rates and irrigation intervals had significant effect on cropgrowth rate, relative growth rate, net assimilation rate and cured bulb yield. Application of 10 t ha-1 of compost had the heaviest cured bulb yield. Interactions between compost rates and irrigation intervals were significant on all the measured parameters as well as the cured bulb yield of onion at both locations. The optimum rate of compost was 15 t ha1 at both locations, while that of irrigation intervals were 10 and 5 days for BUK and Birji village, respectively. Therefore, these levels were recommended to be used by farmers of the study areas.


Orthogonal multiple access techniques are currently used to allocate radio resources to users. Time Division Multiple Access distributes data for each user in distinct time slots, while Frequency Division Multiple Access allocates data to a set of subcarriers for each user. CDMA separate users by using codesin the same channel. However, due to the increasing number of users, these techniques provide low latency, high spectrum efficiency, and less connectivity. In order to address these challenges, NOMA has emerged as a propitious radio access technique. NOMA allows multiple users to share the same resources in terms of space, frequency, and time, operating in the same band. This results in reduced latency, increased spectrum efficiency, and greater connectivity compared to other wireless transfer networks. In this paper, we evaluate the energy efficiency and spectral efficiency of NOMA and compare it with other networks to demonstrate its superior performance.


In many countries, well-meant ad hoc tax incentives proliferate over time, creating an opaque corporate tax structure and many unanticipated tax loopholes. Tax authorities in several countries have considered and sometimes introduced minimum corporate taxes. Liability under such a tax is sometimes linked to profits but more often to assets, as these are harder to manipulate. The authors refer to such a tax as a minimum asset tax (MAT). They suggest an approach based on option pricing, which is designed to incorporate the impact of rate-of-return uncertainty on the burden a MAT will impose. The authors use their methodology to assess a recent Brazilian MAT proposal using sectoral data on corporate income tax revenue and asset value. The MAT, with its simple tax code and marginal impact on the marginal effective tax rate (MERT), is an appealing short cut to comprehensive tax reform - and the revenue effects in Brazil could be substantial. Two common assumptions turned out not to be true: 1) the MAT does not reduce sectoral distortions. The standard deviation of the MERT is higher with MAT than without; and 2) high-risk firms tend to be high-rate-of-return firms, which reduces MAT's impact.


Clinical signs of a winter dysentery-like syndrome in 6- to 9-month-old cattle in 3 feedlots included acute onset of diarrhea with high morbidity and low mortality, respiratory tract problems that included dyspnea, coughing, and nasal discharge, and high rectal temperatures. Bovine coronavirus was detected by use of an ELISA and immune electron microscopy in fecal and nasal swab samples and by immunohistochemical analysis of intestinal sections collected from calves during necropsy. Bovine coronavirus should be considered in the differential diagnoses for diseases that cause acute onset of bloody diarrhea in feedlot cattle.


Two doctrines: one-sensor theory (OST) and line-labeled theory (LLT) significantly influences our data interpretation in lung sensory field. In OST, one afferent axon connects to a single sensor. In LLT, different sensors send signals to different brain regions to evoke reflex. Thus, lung inflation activates slowly adapting receptors (SARs) and send signals to inhibit breathing (inhibitory line), causing Hering-Breuer reflex. The inflation and deflation stimulate rapidly adapting receptors (RARs) to send signals to stimulate breathing (excitatory line), producing the Hering-Breuer deflation reflex. Our physiological and morphological studies demonstrate numerous sensors up to 4 different types may be housed within a unit, i.e., an axon connects to many heterogeneous sensors (multiple-sensor theory, MST). In addition to SARs and RARs, there are deflation-activated slowly adapting (dSARs) or rapidly adapting receptors (dRARs). They work together to determine the unit behavior. For example, SAR or RAR units may respond to deflation if they house dSARs responsible for the Hering-Breuer deflation reflex. MST requires a conceptual shift because different types of information carried in an afferent axon violates conventional doctrines. Data generated over last eight decades under OST require re-interpretation. For example, based on LLT scientists believe "SARs do not cause cough": their activation on deep lung inflation does not evoke cough. Similarly, deep inspiration and expiration activate RARs, but not cough. Therefore, SARs and RARs are excluded from the cough initiation mechanism. MST posits discharge pattern and timing dictates reflex response. It follows that, in the mechanosensory afferent pathway, continuous discharge (during sustained inflation) produces apnea and cyclic discharge facilitates respiratory rate. Therefore, there is no reason to exclude punctate-associated irregular surging discharge from cough initiation. Indeed, mechanosensors have highest density in large airways, punctate stimulation activates all four types of sensors and their coactivation significantly enhances afferent input. These thick myelinated afferents have the highest conduction velocity and discharge frequency and connect to inspiratory and expiratory neurons monosynaptically to perform effective cough action. Decades of research data support activation of this system can evoke powerful inspiratory and expiratory muscle responses. Blocking it eliminates cough response. While punctate stimulation also activates C fiber and high threshold Ad fiber sensors and may produce cough, the mechanosensory units are most important for punctate-induced cough. (Supported by a VA Merit Review Award (PULM-024-17S) This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.


Directed Algebraic Topology studies 'directed spaces' in some sense, where paths and homotopies cannot generally be reversed; for instance: simplicial and cubical sets, ordered topological spaces, 'spaces with distinguished paths', 'inequilogical spaces', etc. Its present applications deal mostly with the analysis of concurrent processes (see [2, 3] and references there), but its natural range should cover non reversible phenomena, in any domain. Here, after a review of a series of papers devoted to this subject ([4] to [8]), we shall give some hints at future developments. A wider literature can be found in the papers mentioned above. Directed spaces can be studied with directed versions of the classical tools of Algebraic Topology. Thus, the directed homology groups !Hn(X) introduced in [5, 6] are preordered abelian groups. Similarly, the fundamental category !"1(X) [4, 7] replaces the classical fundamental groupoid and allows one to study situations where all directed loops are trivial. The study of higher fundamental categories has begun [8]. Directed Algebraic Topology has thus a deep interaction with ordinary and higher dimensional category theory. Unexpected links with Noncommutative Geometry have appeared, brought about by orbit spaces or spaces of leaves which would be trivial in ordinary topology but can be realised in both domains. For instance, the well-known irrational-rotation C*-algebras A# represent 'noncommutative spaces' which can also be modelled by cubical sets and inequilogical spaces, so that the classification of the former by ordered K-theory [10, 11] corresponds to the classification of the latter by directed homology [5]. Other links have appeared between the notion of root of a category developed by A.C. Ehresmann [1], for modelling biological systems, and our study of the fundamental category [7]. Finally, we shall examine some links with Differential Geometry and describe the beginning of a formal setting for Directed Algebraic Topology, based on Kan ideas (formalising the (co)cylinder functor, cf. [9]) rather than on Quillen model structures, (*) Work supported by MIUR Research Projects. which do not seem to be adapted to abstract privileged directions and directed homotopies. I am grateful for the opportunity of presenting these results in this Conference and on this Journal. The position of Directed Algebraic Topology, at the confluence of Topology, Geometry and Category Theory, can presumably be viewed as coherent with the research lines pursued by Charles and Andrée C. Ehresmann, in their work and with this Journal.


Recently, the battery market for electric vehicle (EV) and energy storage system (ESS) is expanding. In addition, attempts and studies to implement a high energy density by applying a lithium metal anode to a Li-ion battery (LIB) system are in progress. However, the conventional organic liquid electrolytes have safety problems, such as a short circuit due to lithium dendrite growth, and a risk of ignition and explosion due to electrolyte leakage. To address the issues, all-solid-state batteries (ASSBs) using stable solid electrolytes have attracted much attention as new-generation batteries. Among solid electrolytes, composite solid polymer electrolyte (CSPE) has excellent merits over existing liquid electrolytes such as no electrolyte leakage, non-flammability, and a wide electrochemical potential window. In addition, various types of inorganic fillers may be introduced to improve electrochemical properties of CSPEs. In this study, the CSPEs were fabricated by incorporating 1D or OD Li0.33La0.557Ti0.99Al0.01O3 (A-LLTO) perovskite solid electrolyte fillers in a PVDF-HFP polymer matrix and their electrochemical properties were investigated. The optimized 1D A-LLTO containing CSPE (1D A-LLTO CSPE) exhibited a high ionic conductivity of 0.21 mS cm-1, a good potential stability of up to 4.87 V for Li/Li+, and a lithium ion transport number of 0.499 at 50 °C. In addition, 1D A-LLTO CSPE showed better thermal stability and electrochemical properties compared with 0D A-LLTO CSPE. The 1D A-LLTO CSPE exhibited a reduced overpotential of about 45 mV for 1000 h in contact with lithium metal at 50 °C. Furthermore, the Li/1D A-LLTO CSPE/NCM622 full cell exhibited satisfactory rate capability, cycling stability with a discharge capacity of 159.95 mAh g-1 and a coulombic efficiency of 97.6% over 100 cycles at a rate of 0.2 C, and performed stable long-term cycling performance at the rate of 0.5 C over 400 cycles at 50 ℃. These results demonstrate that the 1D A-LLTO CSPE is expected to become one of the hopeful candidates for ASSBs.


Pyrazole and benzotriazole-containing thioethers, namely 1,5-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)-3-thiapentane, 1,8-bis(3,5-dimethylpyrazol-1-yl)-3,6-dithiaoctane and 1,3-bis(1,2,3-benzotriazol-1-yl)-2-thiapropane were prepared and fully characterized. Oxidation of the pyrazole-containing thioether by hydrogen peroxide proceeds selectively to provide a sulfoxide or sulfone, depending on the amount of oxidant used. Oxidation of the benzotriazole derivative by hydrogen peroxide is not selective, and sulfoxide and sulfone form concurrently. Selenium dioxide-catalyzed oxidation of benzotriazole thioether by H2O2, however, proceeds selectively and yields sulfoxide only.


The authors consider the regional environment of solid waste management. The basic problems of solid waste in the region, which can be solved by developing a comprehensive strategy. Moscow region analyzed from the point of view of municipal solid waste pollution, demonstrated the efficacy of a strategy of solid waste management.


The advertisement is a very important way to express information to public.It can not only help people to understand some knowledge of the products,but also attract people s great desire to buy the products, improve the trade and leave a beautiful impression on people.So it has its obvious characteristics in these functions.The characteristics of the advertisement in terms of semantics,lexical,syntax,and rhetoric are explored.


The interpretation and use of information relating to the spatial extent of land ownership (fee simple title) has traditionally been the subject of products which professional land surveyors in Canada have provided. The primary source of such information has been the circumstances noted "on the ground" and the title record that is available for review. These service products have been generally referred to as "Real Property Report" and "Plan of Survey". Most jurisdictions in Canada require surveyors to mention or show lesser interests in land on a Report or Survey Plan and specifically mention easements and rights of way as the type of interests to be indicated. In this paper, the types of lesser interests in land which have a spatial extent component are considered in terms of modern usage. By relating instances in which the courts have had to deal with clarification and the imposition of a remedy, the traditional treatment of showing only easements and rights of way appears to be no longer sufficient. T...


1. PROFESSIONAL COMMITMENT, PROFESSIONAL RESPONSIBILITY, ETHICAL REASONING, AND AUDIT QUALITY OF TAX AUDITORS IN THAILAND Phapruke Ussahawanitchakit, Mahasarakham University, Thailand Phaithun Intakhan, Lampang Rajabhat University, Thailand ABSTRACT This study aims to investigate the effects of professional commitment and professional responsibility on audit quality of tax auditors in Thailand via a mediator of ethical reasoning. Professional commitment and professional responsibility are independent variables; audit quality is a dependent variable; and ethical reasoning is a mediating variable. Here, 241 tax auditors (TAs) in Thailand are samples of the study. The results show that professional commitment has a significant positive influence on professional responsibility, ethical reasoning and audit quality. Likewise, professional responsibility has an important positive impact on ethical reasoning and audit quality. Ethical reasoning also has a potential positive effect on audit quality. Potential discussion is effectively implemented in the study. Theoretical and professional contributions are explicitly provided. Conclusion, and suggestions and directions for future research are highlighted.


Extrapulmonary small-cell carcinoma (EPSCC) is clinically underrecognized and optimal management remains illusive. Although head and neck EPSCC tends to involve early widespread dissemination and poor prognosis, recently reported favorable outcomes have used concurrent chemoradiotherapy in limited-stage disease. We report an EPSCC case of arising in the hypopharynx successfully treated by induction chemotherapy followed by concurrent chemoradiotherapy. To clarify EPSCC clinically, we retrospectively reviewed clinical courses of all EPSCC records between 1999 and 2008 in a single-institution series. The 14 subjects identified had primary sites at the gastrointestinal tract in 5, uterine cervix in 3, genitourinary system in 2 and at the gallbladder, liver, hypopharynx, and an unidentified primary lymph node in one case each. Of the 14, 2 cases had stage I, 2 cases had stage II, 4 cases had stage III, 5 cases had stage IV in tumor-node-metastasis (TNM) classification. Stage IV subjects usually underwent platinum-based chemotherapy, to which 25% showed partial response (PR) and 75% progressive disease (PD) with median overall survival (OS) of 114.0 days, or 16 weeks. Of stage III or lower subjects, 75% underwent surgery and 62.5% chemotherapy. OS was 1244.0 days or 3.7 years and 2-year survival rates was estimated at 87.5%. Survival duration differed significantly between those in stage III or lower and those in group IV. Age significantly affected survival time in the Cox proportional hazard regression model. Brain metastasis was uncommon in this series, despite the absence of prophylactic cranial radiation. Further studies are needed to improve and clarify the clinical EPSCC course.


T-branes, which are non-Abelian bound states of branes, were first introduced by Cecotti, Cordova, Heckman and Vafa \cite{Cecotti:2010bp}. They are the refined version of the monodromic branes that feature in the phenomenological F-theory models. Here, we will be interested in the T-brane corresponding to the $Z_3$ monodromy which is used to break the $E_8$ gauge group to obtain the $SO(10)_{GUT}$. This extends the results of \cite{Cecotti:2010bp} to the case of $Z_3$ monodromic T-branes used to break the $E_8$ gauge group to $SO(10)\times SU(3)\times U(1)$ and compute the Yukawa coupling with the help of the residue formula. We conclude that the Yukawa coupling, ${\bf{10}}_{H}\cdot {\bf{16}}_{M}\cdot {\bf{16}}_{M}$, is non-zero for $E_7$, in complete agreement with \cite{Cecotti:2010bp}, but is zero for $E_8$. Furthermore, the case of $Z_2$ monodromic T-branes used to break the $E_8$ gauge group to $E_{6}\times SU(2)\times U(1)$, nothing interesting can be deduced by evaluating the Yukawa coupling ${\bf{27}}_{H}\cdot {\bf{27}}_{M}\cdot {\bf{27}}_{M}$ which is dependent on whether the MSSM fermion and electroweak Higgs fields can be included in the same ${\bf{27}}$ multiplet of a three-family $E_6$ GUT or assign the Higgs fields to a different ${\bf{27}}_{H}$ multiplet where only the Higgs doublets and singlets obtain the electroweak scale energy.


The effect of calcined kaolin grain size on firing process and physical properties of cordierite ceramics was studied using kaolin, talc and α-alumina as a starting materials. Formation temperature of cordierite crystals from the finest kaolin with average grain size, 0.51μm, was about 50°C lower than that from the most coarse kaolin with average grain size, 2.23μm. The sintering performance was improved by using the fine calcined kaolin powder, because diffusion and reaction progressed in firing process due to the increase of contact area of starting powders. Finer kaolin powders contributed to a decrease in porosity and to a densification of fired bodies, so that the bending strength was increased from 50 to 80MPa with a decrease in kaolin grain size from 2.23 to 0.51μm. The thermal expansion coefficient was constant, 1.6-1.8×10-6/°C (50-900°C), for the fired bodies at 1300 and 1350°C independently of kaolin grain size.


Infrared microspectroscopy was used to study the interaction of liquid crystal (E7) with poly(n-butyl methacrylate) (PBMA). A novel experimental technique is introduced to conduct in situ diffusion and miscibility studies of polymer-dispersed liquid crystal (PDLC) systems. The amount of liquid crystal dissolved in the polymer matrix is determined by using the IR microspectroscope, which is a powerful tool for characterizing domains on the order of tens of micrometers. Quantitative phase diagrams are constructed for the PBMA and E7 mixture. It is observed that the diffusion of E7 into PBMA follows Fick's second law of diffusion with a diffusion coefficient of (1.3 ± 0.2) × 10−7 cm2/s at 61 °C. The intensities of the peaks in the IR spectrum were used as a measure of the concentration of the components. The combination of IR microspectroscopy with the contact method is proven to be a powerful technique for the quantitative elucidation of phase diagrams.


[Abstract] T follicular helper (Tfh) cells constitute a distinct subset of CD4 + T cells specialized in providing help to B cells in germinal centers. Phenotypically, Tfh cells are characterized by their high expression of the chemokine receptor CXCR5 that allows their migration into B cell follicles as well as high expression of PD-1, BTLA, the co-stimulatory molecules ICOS and SLAM and the transcription factors BCL6 and cMaf. Tfh cells are the main producers of IL-21 as well as other cytokines like IL-4 and IL-10 critical for B cell survival and differentiation. Tfh cells drive somatic hypermutation and the generation of long-lived memory B cells and plasma cells having an essential role in the development of protective immunity. Developing a coculture system to measure the effects of Tfh-cell mediated B cell help is of great interest to further our understanding of Tfh-B cell interaction and to allow for the manipulation of culture conditions to investigate the potential effect different microenvironment signals or ligand/receptor interactions could have on Tfh cell function.


Background: The alcohol dehydrogenase 1B (ADH1B) gene
encodes one of the key enzymes for the metabolism of
ethanol to acetaldehyde. Polymorphisms in this enzyme may affect the ethanol metabolization rate and therefore may potentially
modulate alcohol
consumption.
Aims: The aim of this study is to determ
ine the influence of the Arg48His polymorphism
 in the ADH1B on alcohol consumption in a
Spanish Mediterranean population sample.
Methods: 763 individuals were genotyped fo
r this polymorphism. Sociodemographic a
nd drinking variables were determined.
Ethanol consumption was evaluated quantitativ
ely (grams per day) and qualitatively (dri
nkers or teetotalers, beverage type and
frequency of consumption).
Results: Men of the sample, homozygous carriers of Arg variant, s
howed an increased risk of binge drinking, compared with carri
ers
of the His variant (OR 2.54, 95% CI 1.005 to 6.427; p = 0.049).
Likewise, Arg/Arg males had highe
r average daily consumption of
ethanol that His carriers (6,92±8,43 g/day in C
/ C versus 5.12±7,05 g/day T carriers; p = 0.044).
Conclusion: Despite the small sample size of this study, thes
e results suggest that, in Span
ish population, polymorphism ADH1B
Arg
/ His can modulate alcohol consumption. These results are consistent with findings
from other European countries and must be
completed with new larger studies in our environment.


The band structure asymmetry in terms of positive energy solution not being equal to the negative energy solution for the electron was found by us. The experimental work shows the gap resonance and the linear Stark effect upon application of the electric field. We have calculated the vibrational frequencies by using the density functional theory LDA for various models of graphene. The bond length in a single hexagonal carbon ring is 1.376 Ǻ and its vibrational frequency is 1062.27 cm−1. In a monolayer of 32 atoms, there are a large number of vibrations starting from 42.24 cm−1 to about 1551.32 cm−1. In another type of graphene model of 30 atoms, the frequencies calculated vary from 23.12 cm−1 to 1546.26 cm−1. In the case of the two layers of 30 atoms each, the vibrational frequencies vary from 32.55 cm−1 to 1548.23 cm−1.


The main objective of the study is to investigate the Lucas loss function as well as the Okun misery index over the period January 2000-June 2012 in Albania. Some results of the study include:The Central Limit Theorem is not valid for the quarterly economic loss in the sense of R. E. Lucas, Jr. during the specified period in Albania, at a confidence level 90.5%.The quarterly economic loss caused by inflation and unemployment during the specified period in Albania is an unfair game, at the confidence level 99.9%.The quarterly Okun misery index during the specified period in Albania is an unfair game, at the confidence level 94.2%.In average, the Albanian people would trade off a 1 percent increase in the unemployment rate for a 2.35 percent increase in the inflation rate. The famous "Okun misery index" under-weights the economic loss of the Albanian people caused by joblessness. DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2014.v3n4p127


This chapter is based on chapters already published in the following essay collections: Women in the Khrushchev Era (Palgrave, 2004), Soviet State and Society under Nikita Khrushchev (Routledge, 2009) and Reassessing Cold War Europe (Routledge, 2011). It also draws on subsequent research. The study examines the changing role and status of women in the Soviet Union and the revival of Soviet women's organisations in the post-Stalin period.
Khrushchev's term of office witnessed a renewed interest in the 'woman question' in the Soviet Union. Women were encouraged to take a more active part in Soviet politics, society, the economy and cultural life under Khrushchev. A major international seminar on the equality of women was convened in Moscow in September 1956 and Soviet women also took an active part in international women's organisation, such as the Women's International Democratic Federation. WIDF's fifth congress was held in Moscow in 1963.
As part of his aim to boost participatory politics in the late 1950s, Khrushchev encouraged the formation of women's councils (zhensovety) throughout the Soviet Union. Representatives of the Soviet Women's Committee, most notably its chair, Nina Popova, sat on the executive committees of a number of international women's organisations. One of the aims of this investigation is to see how far Soviet women's organisations served as legitimate bodies through which women could express their discontents at a local level and have these addressed by a higher authority, or whether they served more crudely as a channel through which central Party and government directives were filtered downwards to women. The zhensovety, for example, had a wide ranging remit: to encourage women to take a greater interest in the political affairs of their region; to encourage non-working women into employment; and to enable women to take a more active role in the running of their local community. Through a close reading of the contemporary publications of the regional zhensovety and of the WIDF, this study looks at the role and tasks of local, national and international women's organisations in the late 1950s and early 1960s and assesses their impact on policy formation under Khrushchev.


[Model of a Film Fairy Tale in the Disney Golden Age (with Later Modifications)]
The article attempts to determine the constitutive elements of a model film fairy tale in the so-called Disney Golden Age and to examine how it was used in later works, both these created by the studio and those by unrelated creators. After preliminary remarks, the author analyses three feature-length animated films: Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937), Cinderella (1950), and Sleeping Beauty (1959). In these works, as he notes, one can notice a set of features that make up the classic Disney model of a film fairy tale. Next, the author discusses modifications applied to the pattern during the Disney Renaissance and Revival. Finally, he cites examples of cultural texts polemical to this paradigm which point to the cultural vitality and heterogeneity of the studio's films.


The aim of this paper is to advance in the study of the formal features of the radio comments, a genre that appeared in Spanish talk radio programming in the late 90s and that has now become a key piece in any news, sports or entertainment program. From a more particular perspective, we are interested in analyzing the colloquial register as a stylistic constant that can be found in many comments, despite being highly planned texts, to humanize the texts, making them closer and more familiar to the audience.


The high vacuum residuum of methyl esters of the rice bran oil was treated with methanol and the methanol soluble matter was then repeatedly chromatographed by using active alumina to isolate a new compound, colorless needle crystal, having mp at 95.3°C, molecular weight 444 (Rast) and [α] 15D -46.6°C (chrolof orm). The new compound had extinguishable maximum absorption band at 268 mμ and its E1%1cm was 506. It was positive to Liebermann-Burchard reaction, while negative to Emmerie-Engel reaction and to digitonin reaction. The existence of carbonyl group was confirmed by the infra-red absorption spectrum and by the oxime formation with hydroxylamine hydrochloride. This substance was unstable and its UV absorption spectrum was convertible during preservation, i.e., extinction at 268 mμ decreased, while new extinction maximum at 230 mμ was observed. These properties were similar to that of Calciferol. However, upon investigation by comparing with Oppenauer-oxidized Calciferol, they were not the same substance.


This paper introduces the author's idea and design process of the Multimedia CAI(Computer-Assisted Instruction) of Typhoon,with focuses on the system analysis,architecture design,key technology and implementation of course ware.


Organizations that carry out successful team-based RD we have downsized and re-engineered (in some cases de-engineered) and if all has gone well, our companies are ready, in the words of Hamel and Prahalad, to compete for the future. Through all the changes, one of the clearest lessons is that the multi-functional team approach to product development is by far the most effective, and many of us have adopted it in one form or another. Yet, the results have been less than satisfying. RD namely, to be self-governing, to conduct wide-ranging investigations, and to find great concepts for commercialization, often in the distant future. In this function-centric world, R&D would then toss the concept over the wall, to be hammered into its final form by marketing, product engineering and manufacturing. The world today is very different. Technology is part of the strategy, time-to-market is "king" and R&D is an investment with expectations of a return. Unfortunately, many of us are saddled with structures and behaviors better suited to the old mission. The functional world rarely has the flexibility to tolerate the self-contained team environment, typified by loose structures and relative informality. Firms that fail often hope an affirmative statement of support and a few gingerly taken steps will be sufficient to make teams work. In these companies, the typical actions are limited to: *Declaring group objectives. *Designating team members from various functions. *Looking for overnight improvement. The vestiges of the ivory tower usually prevent them from going further, resulting in ineffectual structures that are incompatible with rapid time-to-market. They watch their teams struggle with vaguely understood design processes, poor documentation, and few if any basic tools for managing in a team environment. In short, management operates in an information and control vacuum. …


The purpose of this article is to describe a service learning opportunity where interprofessional teams of students worked together to address patients' social determinants of health through home visits. This article describes this process, known as "hotspotting," and presents the development of this project, including collaboration with a local home health agency, recruiting of students, and weekly team meetings for debriefing. Evaluation data, barriers with implementation, and next steps for sustainability are also discussed.


An anonymous human DNA fragment 116-2, which was isolated as a possible CpG island fragment by the segregation of partly melted molecules method (SPM), was found to contain a putative promoter region of the prostacyclin synthase gene. Based on this data, it is suggested that combined use of the SPM technique and the database match enables a fine characterization of the regulatory region of many genes. Key junction; words : Nucleotide sequence; segregation thermally stable region; melting map. of partly melted molecules; cloning; exon-intron A CpG island is a marker closely associated with vertebrate genes. In human DNA, recent estimates show that almost all housekeeping genes and about 40% of genes expressed in restricted tissues have a CpG island at the 5'-region. 1),2) This suggests that identification of CpG islands permits detection of many human genes. Recently, we developed a method named SPM (segregation of partly melted molecules) to preferentially isolate DNA fragments associated with CpG islands from cloned long DNA fragments that have not been sequenced.3~ In order to show the utility of this method, we have isolated a number of fragments presumed to contain CpG islands from random cosmid clone DNAs. Materials and methods. Isolation of putative CpG island fragments was carried out as described.3~ Calculation on the melting property of fragment R16-2 was carried out by using program MELT92, an improved version of MELT87.4~ Homology searches were carried out by using BLAST program.5~ Results and discussion. Analysis of nucleotide sequences revealed that one candidate CpG island, fragment R16-2,3 ) contained the sequence identical to the 5'-end of the human prostacyclin synthase cDNA.6~ This is shown in Fig. 1. Position 538-638 of fragment R16-2 and position 1-101 of prostacyclin synthase cDNA are identical. 3' to the identical region (from position 636-644), there is a significant homology to consensus sequence [(C/A)AG/GT(A/G)AGT] for the 5'-splice junction.7~ This suggests that the boundary is a possible exon-intron junction. Additionally, since the R16-2 clone carries 537 bases upstream of position 1 of the reported cDNA sequence, the clone may provide more information on sequences important for the gene expression. To confirm the presence of a CpG island region in this fragment, we constructed a melting map. The melting map of fragment R16-2 is shown in Fig. 2. A thermally stable region indicative of the presence of a G+C stretch is identified in position about 400 to the end corresponding to the 5' CpG island of this gene. Most cDNA isolation techniques show limitation for the cloning of 5' regions. Since these regions as well as the genomic sequences flanking them are important for gene expression, their identification is important for the characterization of a gene. Our study strongly suggests that SPM enables isolation of 5' CpG islands of both reported and uncharacterized genes. Acknowledgements. We thank Dr. Leonard S. Lerman for providing computer program MELT92. This work was supported in part by a Grant-in-Aid from the Ministry of Health and Welfare for the Second Term Comprehensive 10-Year Strategy for Cancer Control, Japan. 102 M. SHIRAISHI and T. SEKIYA [Vol. 72(B), Fig. 1. Database D38145). Boxed matches area is for fragment the region of R16-2 (accession D31750) sequence identity. Only and human prostacyclin synthase cDNA a part of prostacyclin synthase cDNA is (accession shown. No. 5] Isolation of CpG Island Fragments 103 Fig. 2. The melting map of fragment R16-2. Program MELT92, an improved version of MELT874~ was used for calculation. The contour shows the midpoint of the melting equilibrium at each base pair. 1)


Objective: To determine the quality of maintained dental records and analyze the knowledge and use of them in any of forensic or medico-legal purposes by Sirte's dental practitioners. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in a sample of 70 dental practitioners in Sirte and data were collected through a structured questionnaire. The data so gathered were subjected for descriptive analysis. Results: 80 % of surveyed dentists maintained records but only 10% of them kept the complete dental record. When asked about duration of maintained records, 61% of them kept for less than three years. About 56% of sample used paper prepared form as method to maintain dental records and only 20% used computer software. 91% of practitioners did not think that mandatory to legally maintain the dental records, when asked about whether the legal rights of owning the dental records in Sirte is it medico-legally important, 98% response was yes. The significance of dental records for forensic needs was evaluated, only 18% dental practitioners were asked to produce any records in forensic court of law. Only 3% asked to produce dental file for forensic purposes. 55% of practitioners did not know how to estimate the age of individual. About 94% of sample did not have any training in forensic dentistry. All the surveyed dentists' response was yes, when asked about the importance of forensic dentistry in Libya. Conclusion: The present study showed Non-maintenance or poor quality of dental records maintained. Our study revealed that the dentists in Sirte are not prepared for any kind of forensic and medico-legal need if it arises due to the poor knowledge, attitude and lack of practice of forensic odontology.


The advent of learning communities offers a revolutionary change in the way we organize school learning for all the people who work in education, Ms. Riel and Ms. Fulton point out. It means using technology in education not just to do more of the same, but to do something different, something powerful, something appropriate for all learners in the new millennium. THE CALL for education reform is voiced by many educators for many reasons. The most commonly heard arguments for change are prompted by global comparisons of student learning, changing demands of society and the workplace, the loss of low-skilled job opportunities, and compelling theories about the most effective learning approaches and environments. Moving beyond these immediate concerns, we find that the advent of the third millennium invites still further speculation regarding the skills students will need for success. Among the key ingredients found most often on lists of tomorrow's skills are the abilities to think quickly, to adapt to changing conditions, to build alliances to address large-scale challenges, and to work comfortably in a global information environment. Can our educational institutions change course and send students into the new millennium with these and other skills and attributes they will need to meet the challenges? We suggest that one of the most promising uses of technology is as a vehicle for building and supporting learning communities that will help students thrive in the new millennium. There are many reasons why technology can play a central role in creating effective learning communities. These include the potential of technology to increase our ability to work and learn from others who are distant in time and location.1 Technology supports and expands the sociocultural links that help give us intellectual identity. It also provides new "power tools" for learning that enable students to develop the interpersonal and intellectual skills necessary to construct shared understandings of their world. These power tools are the keys for the creation and communication of ideas. Learning communities powered by these evolving tools provide a way to develop an instructional system that can help students learn to work in a world culture and to shape their destiny in the interdependent world of the 21st century. What Is a Learning Community? In our society knowledge is rarely constructed in isolation. People in a field work together, building on the ideas and practices of the entire group. Culture and cognition create each other,2 and learning increasingly takes place in "communities of practice."3 A community of practice is a group of people who share a common interest in a topic or area as well as a particular way of talking about the phenomena, tools, and sense-making approaches for building their collaborative knowledge with a set of common collective tasks. These communities of practice may be large, the task general, and the form of communication distant, as in a group of mathematicians around the world developing math curricula and publishing their work in a set of journals. Alternatively, communities of practice can be small, the task specific, and the communication close, as when a team of teachers and students plan the charter of their school. The community of practice in schools can be a number of subject- or topic-specific "learning communities." Learning communities share a way of knowing, a set of practices, and the shared value of the knowledge that these procedures generate. There are ways for novices and experts to work in the same system to accomplish similar goals. Community members are recognized for what they know as well as what they need to learn. Leadership comes from people who can inspire others to work better to accomplish shared goals. Evaluation is based on the work of the group, in which the individual is expected to contribute his or her own part. Cooperation rather than competition is stressed. …


This paper presents a capacitance to digital converter (CDC) with a fast serial digital output. The CDC is intended to be used as a flexible solution for interfacing multiple capacitive sensors with maximum value lnF. A cable capacitance of up to InF can be tolerated. Two different modes of measurement are available -a normal mode and a fast mode. The conversion time is 39 mus and 64 mus for the fast and the normal mode, respectively. The resolution in normal mode, with cable capacitance less than 400pF, is better than 14 bits. A special multi-slope A-to-D conversion is used, which at the beginning and at the end of the conversion process transforms itself into sigma/delta conversion. The interface is realized on a PCB with a Single Euro-board format. Six sensors can be interfaced in programmable sequence. The power consumption is less than 1W.


Concrete floors are most commonly used in animal housing. However, the specific environment of livestock buildings (moisture, urine, disinfectants) has a negative effect on concrete and leads to its corrosion. The influence of chemical and physical factors on concrete is reinforced by the development of microorganisms, which quickly adapt and use concrete as a living environment.
To reduce the influence of an aggressive environment on the concrete floor, an experimental mixture of dry disinfectants was proposed.
The components of the disinfection mixture have been selected taking into account the safety for animals and humans.
The TPD-MS method was used to determine the change in the chemical composition of concrete. To study the microstructure of concrete, the method of scanning electron microscopy was used.
Microbiological studies revealed bacteria A. Thiooxidans, S. aureus, E. coli, S. enteritidis, S. Сholeraesuis, C. Perfringen and micromycetes of the genus Cladosporium, Fusariums, Aspergillus, which contribute to the development of biological corrosion of concrete in livestock buildings. The fact of the negative impact of concentrated disinfectants on the structure of concrete was also established.
As a result of the studies carried out, it was proved that a mixture of dry components for disinfection exhibits antimicrobial properties to varying degrees to the strains of field isolates of bacteria and fungi isolated in a pig-breeding farm. It was found that when using the proposed mixture of dry disinfectants in the research room of the pigsty, the relative humidity decreases by 38.5 %; ammonia content – by 46.2 %; hydrogen sulfide – by 57.8 %; microbial bodies – by 74.7 %, compared with the control room.
It has been experimentally proven that the proposed mixture of dry disinfecting components has hygroscopic and antimicrobial properties and is promising for use in livestock farms.


Buildings represent complex systems with high levels of inter-dependence on many external sources. Building envelope expertise is a part of the building process, from pre-design through post-occupancy. Large glazed surfaces increase the building's luminosity. However, the glass is a poor thermal insulator, and allows a great part of the solar radiation passing through it. The use of a glazed façade has the disadvantage of introducing an excess of energy in the building by means of solar radiation during the summer months. New glass technologies solve the energy problems raised by the use of glass in buildings: double and triple glazing, surface treatments, solar control glazing, low-emissivity glazing, etc. One of these is the water flow glazing. Due to the spectral properties of water, it captures most of the infrared solar radiation, allowing the visible component to pass through. This provides the water flow glazing with the same luminosity than conventional glazing, only lessening the heat transfer towards the interior space. Furthermore, the water circulation allows us to use, store or dissipate the captured energy as deemed appropriate. The first goal of this paper is to study the integration of the water flow glazing to evaluate its behavior in different weather conditions. Active and passive strategies will be tested in real case studies to achieve the goal of a Zero Energy Building.


In physics, we study about fluid flow, Electric current, heat flow, and many more flows but the common thing in all the flows is that it needs some driving force to move something due to which flow will occur and when we observe equations of all these flows, they look similar but if we compare these similar equations of different flows then it looks like that something is missing in defining equations.


ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Pdx1:Chd4 interactions were previously shown to be compromised in β-cells from human donors with type 2 diabetes. β-cell-specific removal of Chd4 impairs insulin secretion and leads to glucose intolerance in mice. Expression of key β-cell functional genes and chromatin accessibility are compromised in Chd4-deficient β-cells. Chromatin remodeling activities enacted by Chd4 are essential for β-cell function under normal physiological conditions.


Push broom hyperspectral imaging is a process where a number of 1-D linear images are continuously sampled from a line-scan camera. These linear images need to be realigned to form a 2-D scene image using direct geo-referencing measurements such as GPS/INS. Such kind of geometric rectification is not exact, resulting in distortions in spatial coordinates. Common linear transformations are inadequate for the registration of such imageries. Nonlinear image registrations need to be exploited instead. In this paper, we propose an efficient coarse-to-fine solution for the registration of push broom hyperspectral imageries. In the coarse registration stage, Piece-wise Linear transformation is used to compensate for the large geometric differences between two hyperspectral imageries. The registration results are refined using a point-to-point dense mapping in the fine registration stage. Experimental results show that the proposed solution is feasible for the registration of push broom hyperspectral imageries with good registration accuracy.


Social interactions can exhibit either positive or negative linkages, resulting in the abstraction of "signed graphs" or "signed social networks." The social balance theory implies that a signed social network tends to converge to a balanced state where all individuals are divided into two cohesive groups that are antagonistic to each other. In this paper, we take this implication as a premise, and model the cohesiveness within each community and the enmity between two communities. We evaluate our model using synthetic signed networks, online signed social networks, and the U.S. Senate Voting network, and demonstrate its effectiveness in modeling the cohesiveness and enmity.


In many applications, the use of slender and light flexible structures has increased due to the requirement of more efficient structures. One objective of this work is to generate a model of a single-link flexible robot, which includes rotational actuator, piezoelectric actuators, different kind of sensors, acceleration and deformation. The model is obtained under a classical mechanics approach: Lagrange Euler energy balance. The dynamics of the actuators is also included. Some parts of the resulting model are calculated using symbolic programming software, where as other are implemented and calculated dynamically during simulation. The resulting model is simulated in Matlab Simulink. The second objective is to develop an active vibration sliding mode controller (AVSMC) which include an observer to get an estimation of the rate of change flexible variable. The boundary values required for the implementation of the AVSMC are obtained from the formulated model. Experimental results show the effectiveness of the proposed controller.


Today in this webbed world, smartphones have conquered a major part in human's life. An android application is an assemblage of Java which is edited from the source code, to .class file, further to .dex files to execute on the Dalvik virtual machine. Here, in this paper we have implemented the reverse engineering principle on an android app which is responsible for leaking the personal information from your smartphone such as IMEI, IMSI etc. Our research includes and emphasizes the misuse of personal/phone identifiers as well as the physical location. This paper seeks better to analyse over more than 1000 android applications which are free for the user. We have carried out the analysis i.e. static as well as dynamic. Keywords— Android; IMEI; IMSI; Reverse engineering, Dalvik


This review article introduces the application of the cholesterol moiety, which has been commonly utilised as a versatile building block in liquid crystals, organic gels and monolayers, to molecular recognition. Effort has especially been made to clarify the characteristics of cholesterol-based assembly systems and the phenomena common to these three systems.


Objective To study the treatment and care of teeth whitening.Methods 35 patients were treated with teeth whitening.Results 33 cases of 35 patients were effective.Conclusion It is important to strengthen psychological care of patients before surgery,surgery with medical attention,after good health guidance,ensure quality,increase efficacy,improve efficiency,reduce patient discomfort and tension for teeth whitening.


The continuous development of the internet has created new ways of communications. Social media produce a vast amount of information about the users' opinions and sentiments. The aim of Data Mining and Sentiment Analysis is to process this data and export conclusions, regarding the polarity of a text. Sentiment Analysis has become a main priority for every company and organization. In this dissertation different methods of sentiment analysis will be examined. Those methods are Dictionary Based techniques, Supervised and Unsupervised Machine Learning, as well as their combination. Finally there will be a comparison and examination of the application of different classifiers on a data set from a movie review site (IMDb). The Algorithms used are the Multinomial Naive Bayes and Support Vector Machines. The models for the classification will be implemented through the programming environment "Weka".


Increasing reports of neurological symptoms in COVID-19 patient's warrant clinicians to adopt and define the standardized diagnostic and managing protocols in order to investigate the linkage of neurological symptoms in COVID-19. Encephalitis, anosmia, acute cerebrovascular disease and ageusia are some of the emerging neurological manifestations which are reported in several cohort studies on hospitalized patients with COVID-19. Although the COVID-19 pandemic is primarily associated with respiratory tract system but measures like lockdown and restricted physical movements to control the spread of this infection will certainly have neurobehavioural implications. Additionally, some of the patients with pre-existing neurological manifestations like epilepsy, Parkinson's and Alzheimer's disease are more prone to infection and demands extra as well as improvisation in their treatment therapy. In this review we have focused on the neurovirological clinical manifestations associated with COVID-19 pandemic. Although the prevalence of neurovirological manifestations is rare but increasing reports cannot be ignored and needs to be discussed thoroughly with respect to risk analysis and considerations for developing management strategy. This also helps in defining the burden of neurological disorders associated with COVID-19 patients.


Introduction: CRC is the second leading cause of cancer mortality in the United States. Clinical factors and molecular characteristics may impact therapeutics and prognosis. Scientific studies have uncovered significant aberrations, including critical genes and pathways. Despite these efforts, few studies have utilized similar sample sizes to TCGA, heterogeneous populations and integrative clinical data to compare their reported genomic changes, even though little is known about the tumor microenvironment and its significance for colorectal tumorigenesis. Methods: Clinical and DNA genomic data from 262 colorectal tumor/normal DNA samples were obtained for whole exome sequencing analysis from the Oncology Research Information Exchange Network and two colorectal tissue samples for Spatial Transcriptomics profiling from the USC colorectal cancer Moonshot project. Whole Exome Sequencing data analysis was used for identifying genetic alterations. Samples were stratified based on microsatellite instability, age group, anatomical subsites, and histological subtypes. Emphasis was given to comparing molecular characteristics among Hispanic/Latino patients since their reported higher mortality and cancer disparities. Mutation frequencies from our cohort were compared to those from the TCGA. An ongoing spatial transcriptomics analysis consists in processing two fresh-frozen tissue samples through the visium spatial gene expression library using standard short-read sequencing. Results: Tumor molecular profiling revealed 20 genes significantly mutated. We found differences in gene mutation frequencies among our samples, highlighting APC (60%), TP53 (56%), TTN (49%), and KRAS (44%) gene mutations. In comparison with TCGA data, in addition to the expected APC, TP53, PIK3CA, and KRAS mutations, we found frequent mutations in POLE and TTN. To assess the basis for the considerably different mutation rates, we evaluated MSI. Among the 262 tumors, 41 (16%) had high levels of MSI, 2 (1%) had low levels of MSI (MSI-L), and 215 (82%) were microsatellite stable (MSS). Cancer heterogeneity was reported among tumors with different characteristics such as age group, anatomical subsite, and histological subtypes. The ongoing spatial transcriptomics analysis that will be ready before the annual meeting will identify cellular populations and map immunological and inflammatory signals in the microenvironment. Conclusions: Our study reveals the impact of molecularly profiling tumors using considerable sample sizes and stratified samples in several subgroups. Our study adds important information about tumor heterogeneity and the tumor microenvironment in colorectal cancer by including our spatial transcriptomics data analysis.
 Citation Format: Enrique Velazquez Villarreal, Seeta Rajpara, Yuxin Jin, Jing Qian, Bohan Zhang, Brigette Waldrup, Donna Loza, Heinz-Josef Lenz, David W. Craig, John D. Carpten. Tumor molecular profiling and spatial transcriptomics to assess colorectal cancer heterogeneity and microenvironment [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 1515.


Specialists working in neonatal intensive care and paediatric epileptologists know that onset of continual focal seizures in the first weeks or months of life that migrate to multiple independent sites and clinically different body segments, pose diagnostic and therapeutic challenges, with an ominous prognostic outlook. The first detailed descriptions of infants manifesting this electroclinical pattern also highlighted that the co-occurring developmental arrest, motor impairment, and uniformly poor outcome were homogeneous enough to deserve the designation 'epilepsy of infancy with migrating focal seizures' (EIMFS) syndrome. Twenty-four years after that description, 33 dominant and recessive genetic aetiologies have been associated with this phenotype. While a few, 'major' epilepsy (mainly 'ion channel') genes (including KCNT1, SCN2A, SCN1A, KCNQ2, and GABRAB3) account for almost half the reported patients, about 25% have been related to a large number of other genes. The remaining 30% of cases of EIMFS are left without a genetic diagnosis and are most likely accounted for by a large number of genes, some not yet related to disease and some, perhaps until now, associated with milder phenotypes. In this scenario, although a physician facing new onset EIMFS has a 70% chance of identifying the specific genetic aetiology, genetic heterogeneity means that only an extended and lengthy molecular diagnostic workout (most probably whole exome sequencing) will comprehensively cover all genes potentially involved. Moreover, whatever the result of testing, the prognostic outlook will be almost uniformly very poor, with profound disability in most and premature mortality reaching 33% in the largest series available. The phenotype may also reveal some heterogeneity if clinical attention is not clouded by the overwhelming electroclinical epilepsy syndrome. It is particularly true for rare and complex diseases that some relevant details may take time to emerge, since multiple observers intervene, each emphasizing different angles of observation. The story of BRAT1-associated phenotypes, which now also include EIMFS, epitomizes this situation. Biallelic pathogenic variants of the BRAT1 gene had initially been associated with recessive rigidity and multifocal seizure syndrome, lethal neonatal (RMFSL; OMIM#614498), a severe condition with intractable multifocal seizures, or at times Ohtahara syndrome (often beginning in the first days of life), microcephaly, severe hypertonia, and premature death. After the most severe forms were reported in consanguineous families, less severe, partially overlapping phenotypes emerged in relation to compound heterozygous mutations, collectively termed neurodevelopmental disorder with cerebellar atrophy, with or without seizures (OMIM#618056). Children with these less severe phenotypes survive longer, can achieve developmental milestones, and exhibit variable epilepsy phenotypes. Adopting a paediatric epilepsy syndromic approach to characterize a large cohort with EIMFS, using mainly electroclinical criteria, Burgess et al. gathered 135 patients and found five of them (3.7%) carry biallelic BRAT1 mutations. Scheffer et al. present the clinical and electroencephalogram findings of these five children illustrating their extreme severity on the EIMFS spectrum. Although the clinical and genetic overlap suggests that BRAT1related EIMFS and RMFSL are the same thing, Scheffer et al.'s report has the merit of bridging the gap of knowledge that at times separates specialists working in neonatal intensive care units from epilepsy specialists. These professionals might not be familiar with each other's designations and overlook some of the phenotypic elements that may help to finalize and hasten the aetiological diagnostic process and genetic counselling. Paediatric epileptologists are now advised that EIMFS associated with severe rigidity and microcephaly is likely to be caused by BRAT1 mutations and will need to promptly address genetic testing accordingly.


This report provides estimates for harvesting citrus in Florida during the 2017/18 season. The estimates are useful for computing on-tree prices and to estimate economic returns to citrus growers. To collect the data, we conducted a survey in May 2018. A total of 14 citrus harvesters participated in our survey; their combined harvested area accounted for 105,115 acres, which represents 26% of the citrus bearing acreage in the state (USDA-NASS, 2018).


A guide to assist Dr. Singh's BIOL 1451 - Senior Capstone: Biology at the Bradford Campus. Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Tutorials to help with Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)


Lending is associated with credit risk. Modelling the loss stochastically, the cost of credit risk is the expected loss. In credit business the probability that the debtor will default in payments within one year, often is the only reliable quantitative parameter. Modelling the time to default as continuous variable corresponds to an exponential distribution. We calculate the expected loss of a trade with several cash flows, even if the distribution is not exponential. Continuous rating migration data show that the exponential distribution is not adequate in general. The distribution can be calibrated using rating migrations without a parametric model. A practitioner, however, will model time as a discrete variable. We show that the expected loss in the discrete model is a linear approximation of the expected loss in the continuous model and discuss the consequences. Finally, as costs for the expected loss cannot be charged up-front, the credit spread over risk-free interest is derived.


This study assessed patterns of grief reactions and their adaptiveness, among bereaved parents, who had lost an adult child during military service. The prevalence of the various reactions and their associations with psychosocial adjustment and risk-related factors were examined. Eighty-five bereaved parents filled out a battery of questionnaires 2.5 years after their loss. Type of grief reaction (absence, delayed, prolonged, and resolved) was identified utilizing the Texas Revised Inventory of Grief (TIG). In addition, psychiatric symptomatology, psychosocial functioning, and sociodemographic background were examined. Results indicated that prolonged grief reactions and absence of grief were the most prevalent variants. Absent and delayed grief reactions were associated with lower levels of psychosocial adjustment compared with prolonged grief reaction. Level of education, religious attitudes, and the circumstances of the loss were associated with the type of grief reaction. The findings of this study demonstrate the complexity of defining certain reactions as complicated. The identification of absence of grief and delayed grief reactions as being complicated is supported, but the inclusion of prolonged grief reaction as a complicated maladaptive reaction should be reconsidered.