List of Figures and Tables Contributors Message from the Prime Minister of India, Dr. Manmohan Singh Foreword by Dr. C. Rangarajan Acknowledgements Introduction Section I Economy: Growth, Poverty and Reforms 1. India: On the Growth Turnpike Vijay L. Kelkar 2. Towards a New Development Paradigm Arvind Virmani 3. Growth, Poverty and Reforms Jagdish Bhagwati 4. Redefining the Approach to Poverty Reduction and Development N.A. Mujumdar 5. Poverty and Development Policy A. Vaidyanathan 6. Fifty Years of India: A Journey in Time Ashok V. Desai 7. Public Governance N.R. Narayana Murthy Section II Globalisation 8. India in a Globalising World Montek S. Ahluwalia 9. Indian Economy in the Global Setting Rakesh Mohan 10. India and Globalisation Bimal Jalan 11. Half-hearted Globalisation Shankar Acharya Section III Sectoral Development: Agriculture, Industry, Financial and External Sector 12. Reshaping Indian Food and Agricultural Policy to Meet the Challenges and Opportunities of Globalisation Per Pinstrup-Andersen. 13. Food Security in India: Towards Elimination of Hunger and Malnutrition V.S. Vyas 14. Sustainable Use of Water for Irrigation in Indian Agriculture C.H. Hanumantha Rao 15. Mission 2007: Every Village a Knowledge Centre M.S. Swaminathan 16. Unshackling India's Manufacturing - The Ingredients of a Strategy Bibek Debroy 17. Foreign Direct Investment in India: Trends and Issues R. Nagaraj 18. Financial Stability: Some Analytical Issues C. Rangarajan 19. The Emerging Configuration in the Financial Sector S.S. Tarapore 19. Managing India's External Sector: Overcoming Challenges in a Globalising Economy Y.V. Reddy Index.


Aiming at the problem of data isomerism existing in DNA data organizing and processing,a DNA Common Data Model(DCDM) based on XML technology is proposed in this paper.Compared to the ecumenical common data models which have narrow range of application,DCDM has much stronger expansibility,which could be the uniform mode of DNA data description.Experimental result shows that the model can eliminate semantic isomerism in DNA data isomerism.


Creating complex spatio-temporal simulation models is a hot issue in the area of spatio-temporal databases [7]. While existing Moving Object Simulators (MOSs)address different physical aspects of mobility, they neglect the important social and geo-demographical aspects of it. This paper presents ST-ACTS, a Spatio-Temporal ACTivity Simulator that, using various geo-statistical data sources and intuitive principles, models the so far neglected aspects. ST-ACTS considers that (1)objects (representing mobile users)move from one spatio-temporal location to another with the objective of performing a certain activity at the latter location; (2)not all users are equally likely to perform a given activity; (3)certain activities are performed at certain locations and times; and (4)activities exhibit regularities that can be specific to a single user or to groups of users. Experimental results show that ST-ACTS is able to effectively generate realistic spatio-temporal distributions of activities, which make it essential for the development of adequate spatio-temporal data management and data mining techniques.


The software for manufacture executing system(MES) closes the interval between enterprise programming stratum and process control system of producing plant,which is the bridge for manufacturing process information integration. Comprehend this advanced management ideology of MES deeply and hold its development trend has important theory and appliance value for how to research and popularize MES application correctly in our country.


This article was based on the study entitled: "Creole families experiences in the rescue and revitalization of their collective identity in multicultural contexts", the dynamics of coexistence and predominant socialization in the Creole family that contribute to the strengthening of their identity have been analyzed. The methodology used was qualitative, cross-sectional, descriptive phenomenological aimed at the recognition of situations and behaviors through oral history to identify values, beliefs, norms and practices of the Afro-descendant people through interaction with the participants. It acquires relevance because identity gives it nourishment and a sense of belonging to a people. It is a construction that the members of the community carry out, based on the culture they possess. In addition to sharing their knowledge and practices, they also expressed their deep feelings about some cultural practices in the new generations, as well as the possibility of revitalizing them. The participants identified as the main weakening factor of the Creole identity the non-use of Creole as a mother tongue in the family, school and the church, mainly in children, adolescents and young people due to high migration of the Creole population, the reconfiguration of the neighborhood population and especially the non-implementation of the family model based on values.


At the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) Hot Cell facility, highly productive programs in reactor research spanning three decades have generated appreciable quantities of legacy waste. Hot cell capability had become virtually useless due to the storage of this waste. As a result of concentrated efforts by LANL staff, in cooperation with Westinghouse Waste Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP), a solution was arrived at that allowed the facility to become productive once again. Equipment has been designed and fabricated to remotely handle 55-gal. waste drums, load waste canisters, perform canister weld closure, leak test welds, grapple the waste canister and transport the canister to an interim storage site. It is our contention that the technology and acquired equipment produced from this effort should be used to further benefit other DOE sites.


Object of the present invention is not required to support the stone base placement of the suction plate workpiece, corresponding to the size of the workpiece, and to ensure the positional accuracy of the stage. Stage means (10) comprising: fixed on a floor stand (12); a support gantry pair of guiding portions (14A, 14B) (12); Hengjia a pair of guide portions (14A, 14B) of between both ends of the gantry is supported on a plurality of beams (12) (16); Y stage (18), moved in the Y direction along a pair of guide portions (14A, 14B); and a pair of linear motors (20A, 20B), driving both end portions in the Y-Y direction stage (18). Further, the upper beam (16) carrying the suction plate placed placing a plate-shaped workpiece. In the case of a large area of the workpiece is extended Y stage (18) of the moving distance can be extended by a corresponding guide portion (14A, 14B).


Hospitalization still involves physical and social isolation, even today. In many cases, patients experience a sort of quarantine, ie disconnection from their usual backgrounds, on top of physical pain. One of the crucial factors generating this feeling of loneliness is lack of communication. In this case the word communication includes contact with relatives, friends, helpers, daily news (radio, TV, etc.) as well as contact with more distant relatives thanks to modern communication tools. The goal is to identify the most relevant tool, combining essential functionalities, so that patients would maintain social links and thus "age well".


Many articles exist dealing with reading instruction and the current debate between phonics and whole language reading programs. A review of the literature indicates that most journal articles are in favor of teaching phonics along with other methods. There are many different opinions about whether phonics helps students learn to read, if it is a good approach, and how it may be implemented in the classroom. Phonics provides just one more method for teachers to use in the classroom to help students succeed in learning how to read. (EF) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.


A custom designed broadband NIR spectroscopy system is reported. A high-speed high power optical transmitter is designed over the frequency range from 100 MHz up to 3 GHz. Phantom experiments are performed to extract optical parameters of a turbid media simulating a breast tissue. Both broadband and single-frequency extraction methods are used to extract optical parameters of the phantom model. The comparison shows that the achieved extraction accuracy of optical parameter (/spl mu//sub a/, /spl mu//sub z/) using broadband extraction method is better than the single frequency technique.


Neuroanatomical aspects of the mammalian cerebral cortex can be modeled by n ural networks with a sparse and random connection scheme. This paper presents such sparse network model s and appropriate algorithms, data structures and optimization for an efficient parall el simulation on a CNAPS SIMD neurocomputer. Using these methods a considerable speedup in comparison to seque ntial computation is achieved.


Since 2009, China's high-speed railway has rapidly completed the construction of "eight vertical and eight horizontal" high-speed railway network within a decade, and the sharp reduction in the time cost of railway passenger transport has had a profound impact on the export trade of cities along the line. Against this background, based on the panel data of commodity trade and export volume of44 prefecture-level cities in 3 provinces of eastern and central China from 2010 to 2018, this paper uses the double difference method (DID) to set the difference variable of high-speed rail and calculate the railway passenger transport accessibility of the sample cities. Multiple regression model is used to analyze the impact of high-speed railway opening on the export volume of cities along the line in different regions. The results show that the opening of high-speed railway can promote the growth of export trade, but the impact on the export trade of different regions is different. According to this conclusion, some relevant policy Suggestions are given.


Introduction: In endodontic treatment for permanent teeth, it is important to estimate the working length precisely. Currently, various methods are used in clinical practice for working length estimation. The objective of this study is to compare the accuracy of root canal length in permanent teeth determined by electronic apex locators, conventional and digital radiography. Materials and methods: A total of 50 single rooted permanent teeth with mature apices were extracted for periodontal reasons and obtained from different sources without caries were studied. The radiographic measurements were done using paralleling technique. Electronic measurements were done next using third generation, DentAport ZX. Actual canal length of each tooth was measured using direct observation of the apical exit of the file. Measurements obtained from radiographic and electronic methods were compared to the actual tooth length. Interclass correlation coefficients and failure rate for each method and their combinations were calculated using STATA 12.0 software. Results: The measurements obtained through all the three techniques showed high interclass correlation coefficients and excellent level of agreement. The failure rate of measurements obtained through conventional radiography, digital radiography and electronic apex locators was 38, 30 and 22% respectively. Combination of conventional radiography with electronic apex locator showed an accuracy of 90%, while combination of digital radiographs and electronic apex locators given an accuracy of 96%. Conclusion: A combination of digital radiographic and apex locator methods for determining the root canal length in permanent teeth can be considered safe, reliable and precise.


This paper is presented to leading representatives of physiological schools of pediatric medical institute since 1925 to present time. Achievements in the field of physiology are connected with such remarkable names, as M. S. Maslov, A. F. Tur, A. G. Ginetsinsky, D. G. Kvasov, V. D. Glebovsky, J. P. Pushkarev, etc. The article opens the contribution of scientists to development of a physiological science at Russia and abroad, and also a role of physiologists in preparation of physicians-pediatrists.


The utility model aims to disclose an automatic four-card double-standby identification system, which comprises a first analogue switch, a second analogue switch, a first SIM (subscriber identity module) card slot, a second SIM card slot, a third SIM card slot and a fourth SIM card slot. The first analogue switch is respectively connected with first SIM card slot and the second SIM card slot, the second analogue switch is respectively connected with the third SIM card slot and the fourth SIM card slot, and the first SIM card slot, the second SIM card slot, the third SIM card slot and the fourth SIM card slot are provided with an SIM card respectively. The SIM cards can be selected by switching the SIM card slots by the two analogue switches, requirements of users are met, the users are free of trouble of carrying multiple cellphones for holding different SIM cards, and effect that a single cellphone can hold multiple cards is realized. Besides, the automatic four-card double-standby identification system is simple in structure and quite practical.


Praziquantel (PZQ) is widely and effectively used in the control of bilharziasis which constitutes a major endemic health problem in Egypt. There is no available work concerned hepatotoxicity and chondrodystrophy of praziquantel with or without bilharzial infestation on pregnant women. The present study aimed to evaluate the hepatotoxicity and chondrodystrophy of PZQ in infested mother mice. Eighty virgin and fertile male albino mice(one male/three females) with an average body weight of 25 to 28 g were used. Mating was carried out, and pregnancy was determined by examining sperm in vaginal smears. Pregnant mice were arranged into four groups; control, praziquantel-treatment ((600 mg/kg) divided into 2 equal doses of 300 mg/kg given 8 hours at 8th day of gestation) and bilharzial infested mother with or without praziquantel-treatment. Pregnant mice were sacrificed at 16 days of gestation and both livers and femoral bone were incised and subjected to histological investigations. PZQ-treatment revealed coagulative necrosis of hepatocytes, increase mitotic figures, leukocytic infiltration around blood vessel and reduction of cartilage cells and thinning of trabecular bone. Also, bilharzial infested maternal liver treated with PZQ showing dissolution of granulomatous lesions, congested blood vessels and restoration of newly-developed chondrocytes and restoration of almost normal epiphyseal cartilage and bone trabeculae. The authors concluded that PZQ-treatment of schistosomal infested mice during gestation showed hazardous impacts on liver bone of mothers which may influence on growth of their fetuses.


Take loess tunnel construction of Xi-Ping railway No.1 standard for example,from the entrance to a cave excavation,side slope temporary protection,hole body excavation,primary support,ventilation dust and construction transportation and other respects,introduced the construction technology of loess tunnel in complex geological conditions,accumulated experience for similar tunnel project.


A good tool for testing is the one which has the ability to augment the testing performance and its competences as well as that can be a part of automation. When we chooses to build and host a Web application; automated regression testing becomes a responsibility for accomplishment. As the need of Web applications are growing, with each subsequent release, testing needs to grow tremendously. In this paper we will discuss the introduction to regression testing for Web applications and the Selenium testing framework. Selenium is open source and portable software available for different windows.


The article studies the bases of the practical focused approach to maintenance of innovative development of Russia, reconsiders the key directions and toolkit of their achievement, formulates key principles which are necessary for using at formation of the given concept.


Traditional textbooks [1–3] on chemical group theory deal with linear representations and character tables of groups, which are usually directed to modeling molecular vibrations, infrared spectroscopy, and symmetrysimplification of secular-determinants in molecular orbital calculations. On the other hand, Fujita [4] adopted an alternative approach which is based on permutation representations (coset representations) and mark tablesg, where he developed the USCI (unit-subducedcycle-index) method [4, 5], aiming at studying combinatorial enumeration in chemistry. The two approaches of chemical group theory have been compared [6] after the development of the characteristic-monomial method for combinatorial enumeration on the basis of the former approach [7, 8]. While the former approach requires conjugacy relations between elements of a group only, the latter approach requires a knowledge of all group/subgroup relations which may not be trivial to find out. Usually a group G is expressed as the set of elements of symmetry g's which it contains:


The invention discloses a hybrid pipelining device used for video coding, which comprises a prefetched data acquisition device, a mode selector, a reconstruction loop device and an entropy coder. The reconstruction loop device comprises an intra-frame predictor, an inter-frame predictor, a differential reconstruction device and a deblock filter; data of the same macro block is processed through the prefetched data acquisition device, the mode selector, the reconstruction loop device and the entropy coder sequentially in different timeslices; and in the same timeslice, the prefetched data acquisition device, the mode selector, the reconstruction loop device and the entropy coder process the data of four different macro blocks. The hybrid pipelining device increases the PDR, reduces the area of a memory, and serves the purposes of high definition and real-time coding.


The quadriceps tendon is crucial in allowing knee extension, attaching distally to the patella. While ruptures of the tendon are rare, retear can lead to muscle atrophy and complex tendon deficits with retraction which may make revision repairs difficult to perform. To avoid re-rupture, the repair is commonly augmented with an allograft or autograft, theoretically strengthening the repair. Patients are indicated for surgery when presenting with a chronic, symptomatic quadriceps rupture verified on provocative testing and advanced imaging. Adhesions and fibrotic tissues around the vastus muscles and tendon are released. Sutures and anchor materials from the previous reconstruction are removed. Fibrotic tissues at the distal end of the retracted quad tendon are removed. The tendon is then loosened from the proximal aspect with the applied traction through the suspension suture placed distal to the tendon. The gap is measured and a V-Y quadricepsplasty was performed at twice the length of the measured gap. In the proximal aspect of the tendon, the limbs of the V-plasty are left incomplete. Next, traction is applied to allow for a tightening exertion to the patella. The proximal Y limb is sutured together in a side-to-side fashion to allow for tendon distalization while retaining the distal traction of the patellar tendon. The medial and lateral limbs were then closed with a suture, completing the tendon advancement. Fibrotic tissues around the superior pole of the patella are removed to prepare for tendon reattachment. Two anchors on the medial and lateral sides are placed, and the suture threads from both anchors are tied in a Krackow configuration. The medial and lateral-sided suture knots are then tied together over the tendon and covered again with the Achilles allograft, completing the repair. Outcomes of revision quadriceps repair have been promising, with good to excellent functional outcomes, successful return to activities, and objective outcomes. Although initial studies report favorable outcomes following current repair techniques, there is a lack of quality literature on outcomes following primary or revision quadriceps repair. Future studies are necessary to determine the reliability, efficacy, and clinical outcomes following this procedure. The author(s) attests that consent has been obtained from any patient(s) appearing in this publication. If the individual may be identifiable, the author(s) has included a statement of release or other written form of approval from the patient(s) with this submission for publication.


The Russian Federation characterized by a high degree of uneven economic development of the regions. This feature determined, inter alia, by territorial location, climatic conditions, historical development, and provision of natural resources, the region's economic policy, business conditions and other objective factors [8]. The most important task of state regional policy is to reduce the differences between the constituent entities of the Russian Federation. The typology of the country's regions is the basis for the development of differentiated regional policies [9]. The purpose of this article is to analyze some features of the socio-economic situation of several regions of the Asian border. The regions selected in relation to the objectives of the study. The data obtained confirm the prevailing ideas about the border region as unsuccessful and lagging behind. The author emphasizes the importance of differentiated regional policies for overcoming differences in the socio-economic development of Russian regions.


William Golding's The Inheritors,seemingly simple in plot and language,is often summed up as another illustration of its author's pessimistic philosophy of human nature.Examined in the perspective of narratology,the novel reveals an implied dialectical attitude towards Neanderthal and the new people in its deep structure and language of narration, its shifts of viewpoint from the innocent and ignorant Neanderthals to the third person narrator and then to the new man.Thus a world with a mixture of the innocent and the sophisticated,the naive and the intelligent,the simple and the evil is established and its hero is not the Neanderthals but the new people,who are in fact human beings themselves.


Infrastructure development, and particularly, developing its abundant hydraulic resources is an important part of energy expansion in Brazil. This task presents a challenge, especially since we often notice impacts on rights and duties of the affected population located in the region being developed, a challenge that becomes even more complex considering the contrast between localized impacts and distributed benefits. The National Agency for Electric Energy (ANEEL) plays a critical role in this process, holding the responsibility for approving inventory studies, the first step in the hydropower development process. Drawing on our experience in this context, we concluded that the expansion of the Brazilian hydropower sector lacked participation of relevant stakeholders, principally those affected by the construction of hydropower plants before, during or after construction.


How does one's social environment change an individual, and why do these changes occur? Can social institutions be shaped and molded profoundly enough to afford each member of a society his maximum potential for happiness, effective functioning, and complete development?


There has been a renewed interest in the paramagnetic NMR effects of nitroxide‐substrate complexes, largely driven by the need to resolve overlapped signals in biomolecular NMR spectra. A large amount of work has been done to describe effects of nitroxides with substrates; however, less has been done for a description of the effects on how nitroxides and substrates associate in solution. Our interest in this topic comes from prior work, where the nitroxide, 1, and derivatives thereof (see Figure 1) can be used as a catalyst for oxidation, a starting material for oxoammonium salts (in the case of 2), and a byproduct of oxoammonium salt reactions. Contamination of 2 in product mixtures from oxoammonium salt oxidations in basic media leads to paramagnetic shift effects and line broadening in the H NMR spectra, which may complicate spectral analysis. We believe that an understanding of the intermolecular association can explain some of the selectivity seen in oxidation methodologies and presumably lead into further studies of other oxidations that are beginning to appear in the recent literature, such as C―H bond activation work. The study of paramagnetic systems has led to equations that describe the interaction of unpaired electrons with substrates, although, largely, they have been restricted to intramolecular effects. These effects have been studied through electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) spectroscopy, as the nuclei in proximity to the paramagnetic center are invisible in the NMR spectrum due to relaxations or shifted outside of the spectral region. A change in magnetic environment can be calculated through the use of Curie's law,


In the classical Bayesian persuasion model an informed player and an uninformed one engage in a static interaction. The informed player, the sender, knows the state of nature, while the uninformed one, the receiver, does not. The informed player partially shares his private information with the receiver and the latter then, based on her belief about the state, takes an action. This action, together with the state of nature, determines the utility of both players. This paper analyzes a dynamic Bayesian persuasion model where the state of nature evolves according to a Markovian law. Here, the sender always knows the realized state, while the receiver randomly gets to know it. We discuss the value of the sender when he becomes more and more patient and its relation to the revelation rate , namely the probability at which the true state is revealed to the receiver at any stage.


: Sleepers are the main part of the railway track performance. The divisions in the path of the train loads from the bottom of the main ballast. Born to be a sleeper's longitudinal and lateral forces tasks straight photography. Late for a long time by making use of the right, be adjusted prior to sleeping, the manner of, for the most part. This effort is what kind of geographical environment that they are in the polymer from the ambient with new power, making use of the casting from the M60, as received by the system. Further, the objective of this work is related to conduct studies conclude that women experience the same behavior Nomyat polymer, and the results were compared to the sleeper RC. In a similar fashion, in this of set purpose, he did obtain the polymer mixture of the composition of the units of a repetition of the M60, in a fly out of the ice. Was fixed on a fly ash activated alkaline solution, the ratio of 0.4 to 0.45. The reason is that sodium silicate hydroxide 2.5. 14M concentration in solution proved to be completed first, and pressure tests of strength polymeric once the world. With an average of all the tested before sleeping out under the burden of comparing the behavior of the polymer, and every geo dzelzsbetona.


Oat seed lipase was extracted with 0.01 m calcium chloride solution containing 0.5% Triton X-100 and precipitated with ammonium sulfate. The precipitate was dissolved in phosphate buffer at pH 6.0 and the supernatant was used as the lipase preparation. The lipase was very selective in the ester positions of 1,2,3-trihexanoylglycerol, hydrolyzing sn-3 most quickly, sn-1 moderately, and sn-2 hardly at all.


It is widely acknowledged that Mark's abrupt ending (16.8) is best understood as a deliberate narrative device. Despite this 'new consensus', a number of scholars continue to assert that this approach is not only problematic but also depends on a postmodern perspective that overemphasizes the reader/audience. This article argues that Mark's ending has been crafted in order to invoke a predictive inference that encourages the interpreter to imagine events beyond the concluding scene of the narrative. In dialogue with the cognitive sciences, it is argued that the inferential processes that govern this activity have been shaped by evolutionary developments. Although the new consensus has often been articulated in conversation with modern literary theory, there is an underlying, cognitive basis for the approach that has seldom been appreciated by NT scholars.


The authors analyzed the growth and survival of the first generation of Litopenaeus vannamei after crossing within and between imported shrimp individuals(P♂,P♀) and selected individuals(H♂,H♀) using complete diallel crosses to set up four combinations,PP(P♀×P♂),PH(P♀×H♂),HP(H♀×P♂) and HH(H♀×H♂).The results showed that survival rate was in the order of HHHPPHPP,and the survival heterosis appeared in PH,with average survival heterosis of(27.72-11.88)% in the young stage and 30.50 at the 90th day.In the early growth stage(the first 30 days),the average body length and weight were both sequenced as HP PH HH PP,while in the late growth,as PP HP PH HH.The growth heterosis was found in body length and weight.The values of body length heterosis were 24.00%,13.71%,2.55%,and 2.79%;while the values of body weight heterosis were 112.46%,54.06%,8.16%,and 12.48% at the 10th,30th,60th and 90th days.In conclusion,the growth and survival traits of hybrids offspring crossing selection individuals as male parents and imported individuals as female parents will be improved significantly.


Non-uniformities of plasma and magnetic field are known to cause electric currents in plasma. Electron density gradient causes diffusion current, electron temperature gradient - thermocurrent, gradient of magnetic field module - gradient current, curvature of magnetic field lines - centrifugal current. Being independent of electric field, the currents of non-uniformities may act as extraneous to cause charge separation and electric field in plasma. In cosmos, the currents of non-uniformities were observed; in particular, gradient and centrifugal currents - in magnetosphere, diffusion one - in a comet coma and in artificial plasma cloud. On present work, the gradient current was investigated more fully than earlier. Two unknown components, parallel and perpendicular to magnetic field were found. The equation for gradient current density was obtained. We compared the theoretical densities of currents of non-uniformities (with usage of electron pressure and corresponding gradients) with measured current densities (calculated as rotor of magnetic field) for sun photosphere. It follows from the comparison that the currents of non-uniformities play important, may be main, role in measured local current in photosphere. It is necessary to consider in electromagnetic models.


Metabolic constraints are the usual explanation for the relationship between body size and species abundance in natural assemblages of animals. In some assemblages, abundance scales with body weight to the -0.75 power. Metabolic rate scales as weight raised to the (plus) power, therefore, on average equal amounts of energy are available to each species in a community. This equality has been taken as evidence that a species' abundance is limited by its energetic requirements. But most species in samples of complete assemblages cannot be energy limited (although the most abundant species, at the "upper bound' may be). And arguments also ignore the frequency distributions of species; body size and species; abundance which underlie abundance versus size plots. The authors test the hypothesis that concatenating the underlying frequency distributions of species' body size and species' abundance can directly account for observed patterns in plots of size versus abundance in assemblages of animals, comparing the negative slope of the upper boundary of plots of size against abundance from real assemblages, with the same slopes derived from models with no energy constraints. Models give estimates for the upper bound slopes that are very similar to slopes calculated from real assemblages. Patterns of abundance versus body size in natural assemblages thus may not be constrainted by species' energy requirements, and do not require explanations independent of those for the constituent frequency distributions of size and abundance. -from Authors


The last several years have seen the emergence of digital libraries from which documents are harvested using the OAI-PMH protocol. Considering the volume of data provided by these repositories, we are interested in the exploitation of the full text content of scientific publications. Our aim is to bring new value to scientific publications by automatic extraction and semantic analysis. The identification of bibliographic references in texts makes it possible to localize specific text segments that carry linguistic markers in order to annotate a set of semantic categories related to citations. This work uses a categorization of surface linguistic markers organized in a linguistic ontology. The semantic annotations are used to enrich the document metadata and to provide new types of visualizations in an information retrieval context. We present the system architecture as well as some experimental results.


Summary Natural infestation of fruits of Garcinia acuminata Planch. & Triana and Garcinia brasiliensis C. Martius (Malpighiales: Clusiaceae) by Ceratitis capitata (Wiedemann) (Diptera: Tephritidae) is reported for the first time in the state of Pará, Brazil. Garcinia acuminata is reported as a fruit fly host for the first time in Brazil.


Fusion of hyperspectral data is proposed by means of partitioning the hyperspectral bands into subgroups, prior to principal components transformation (PCT). The first principal component of each subgroup is employed for image visualization. The proposed approach is general, with the number of bands in each subgroup being application dependent. Nevertheless, the paper focuses on partitions with three subgroups suitable for RGB representation. One of them employs matched-filtering based on the spectral characteristics of various materials and is very promising for classification purposes. The information content of the hyperspectral bands as well as the quality of the obtained RGB images are quantitatively assessed using measures such as the correlation coefficient, the entropy, and the maximum energy-minimum correlation index. The classification performance of the proposed partitioning approaches is tested using the K-means algorithm.


TO THE EDITOR: The recent meta-analysis by Warshafsky [1] concludes that garlic, in an amount approximating one half to one clove per day, decreased total serum cholesterol levels by about 9% in the groups studied. If valid, this could be an important advance, but we have several important concerns. First, the criteria for including and excluding primary trials were established after the data sere extracted and reviewed. A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial [2] with 33 patients that showed no cholesterol-lowering effect of garlic was excluded because it did not satisfy a seemingly arbitrary inclusion criterion: a cholesterol level greater than 200 mg/dL in more than 75% of patients. Second, two other relevant randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trials [3] with crossover designs in 85 patients found no difference in serum cholesterol levels between patients in the treatment and placebo arms. The authors excluded these trials because the published report did not contain the initial and final cholesterol values, which are necessary to calculate a difference between groups in the change in cholesterol levels; the missing data should have been obtained. Third, the sensitivity analysis, which combines eight noncontrolled trials with the five trials used in the primary analysis, assumes that hypercholesterolemic patients would not improve if left untreated and uses the pretreatment mean cholesterol levels as a proxy control for control group performance. However, a decrease in cholesterol level within a group selected for high initial levels can occur by regression to the mean, even in the absence of intervention, as shown by a trial included in the meta-analysis [4] in which serum cholesterol decreased by 12% in both the treatment and control groups. Thus, the uncontrolled observations in the sensitivity analysis add little to the proposition that garlic is a hypolipidemic agent. Our final concern is the overall quality of the primary trials. Specifically, we were disturbed that two of the five trials [5, 6] appeared in a journal supplement sponsored by a pharmaceutical company that manufactures garlic extract.


Since the discovery of the top quark in 1995 at the Fermliab Tevatron Collider, top quark properties have been measured with ever higher precision. In this article, recent measurements of the top quark mass and its width using up to 3.6 fb{sup -1} of D0 data are summarized. Different techniques and final states have been examined and no deviations within these measurements have been observed. In addition to the direct measurements, a measurement of the top quark mass from its production cross section and a measurement of the top-antitop quark mass difference are discussed. With a mass of 173.3 {+-} 1.1 GeV, the top quark is the heaviest of all known fundamental particles. Due to the high mass, its Yukawa coupling is close to unity suggesting that it may play a special role in electroweak symmetry breaking. Precise measurements of both, the W boson and the top quark mass, constrain the mass of the yet unobserved Higgs boson and allow to restrict certain extensions of the Standard Model. At the Tevatron collider with a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV, 85% of the top quark pairs are produced in quark-antiquark annihilation; 15% originate from gluon fusion. Top quarks are predicted to decay almost exclusively to a W boson and a bottom quark. According to the number of hadronic W decays, top events are classified into all-jets, lepton+jets and dilepton events. The lepton+jets channel is characterized by four jets, one isolated, energetic charged lepton and missing transverse energy. With 30%, the branching fraction of the lepton+jets channel is about seven times larger than the one of the dilepton channel whereas the signal to background ratio is about three times smaller. The main background in this final state comes from W +jets events. Instrumental background arises from events in which a jet is misidentified as an electron and events with heavy hadrons that decay into leptons which pass the isolation requirements. The topology of the dilepton channel is described by two jets, two isolated, energetic charged leptons and significant missing transverse energy from the undetected neutrinos. The main background are Z + jets and diboson events (WW/WZ/ZZ+jets) as well as instrumental background as characterized above. At the D0 experiment, different techniques are used to measure the top quark mass. They are summarized in the following sections together with the first measurement of the top anti-top quark mass difference and the first precise determination of the top quark width.


Nowadays, deceptive speech detection has raised more and more interests. The corpus is the foundation of researches in deceptive speech detection. While there are several corpora about English deception detection, few efforts have been put on Chinese which is quite different due to the culture divergence. In this paper, we construct a deceptive and non-deceptive Chinese speech corpus, the SUSP-DSD corpus. We first describe construction approach in detail, and then give a subjective and objective evaluation about the corpus.


Does technical accuracy get in the way of your communication skills? Working in IT, we understand the importance of making sure we're sharing accurate information with our end users, especially because mistakes and inaccuracies can prevent technology from cooperating with us. But being technically accurate can get in the way of communicating your message. This lightning talk will be formatted as a pecha kucha and will help you think about what effective communication is, why it's more important to communicate effectively than to stress making sure you're technically accurate, and what you can do to be a more effective communicator. You'll gain some tools to think through your mindset and also learn a new style of presenting!


Drought History Utah's climate can often be harsh and unpredictable. As the nation's second driest state, Utah is commonly subject to droughts. Extensive statewide droughts have often lasted 5 to 6 years. Figure 1 shows the drought history of Utah from 1895 to 2018 according to the Palmer Drought Severity Index. Negative values in yellow indicate drought conditions. Droughts usually cause severe crop and economic losses for farmers. For example, 1976 to 1979 drought conditions caused 40-100% crop loss in seven Utah Counties. During 1999 to 2004 drought has caused severe losses in agriculture of approximately $150 million (Utah Division of Water Resources, 2007). Droughts are extremely hard to predict. While modern science has made it possible to predict droughts about a month in advance, it is difficult to accurately predict droughts a year or more in advance or to predict the length of a drought (American Geosciences Institute, 2018). This uncertainty, especially in Utah where the weather conditions often change rapidly from one extreme to another, increases the drought-associated risk Utah farmers are facing. It imperative that farmers are well prepared to defend against drought to minimize risk and losses.


Submit Manuscript | http://medcraveonline.com The tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs) are enzymatic receptor proteins designed to block the ATP-binding site in tyrosine kinases involved in several cellular processes such as, proliferation, differentiation, survival, migration and angiogenesis. Although their mechanism of action is the same, they differ in the spectrum of targeted kinases, pharmacokinetics and specific adverse events [1]. TKIs have different toxicity than conventional chemotherapy agents [2]. The side effects are rarely life-threatening but may reduce quality of life [3]. Many of the most common adverse effects occur during the treatment with all the TKIs, while others are more specific to individual agents [4]. "This mini-review aims to examine the effects of SUN treatment on thyroid function and the role of SUN-induced hypothyroidism as a possible predictive factor for the outcome of the cancer treatment."


The results of studying the strain state and depth of dents in K08Yu low-carbon steel plates of small thickness (3-5 mm) using the method of coercimetry are presented. It is known that mechanical stresses and strains that occur in steel rods and base metal of oil and gas pipes have a significant impact on the magnitude of the coercive force (CF) near the sample surface. The effect of plate deformation and geometric dimensions of the dents on the CF magnitude is analyzed using a KM-445.1 coercimeter and tools for stepwise determination of the depth of dents (calipers with a depth gauge, tape measures, metal strip, marker). The calculated differential dependences linking the curvature of the plate with the dent depth are obtained. The intensity of linear strains occurring in the plate is determined. The relations between the coercive force and strain characteristics of plates with different types of collapsing are determined, namely, it is shown that in a plate with a single dent, the value of the coercive force increases monotonically with the depth and intensity of deformations, whereas in a plate with a double dent, there is a complex wave-like dependence of the coercive force magnitude on the depth and intensity of deformations with a characteristic inflection point and the character of the dependence provides a possibility for determination of the size and type of the dent. The proposed analysis of the stress state using the method of coercimetry makes it possible to detect geometric imperfections on the surface of the plates and carry out their non-destructive diagnostics.


This study aimed to investigate prospective associations between benzodiazepine use and later life satisfaction, sleep difficulties, perceived general health, anxiety symptoms and somatic pain among the elderly.


The invention relates to an external rotating fan motor, and discloses a rotor punching sheet. The rotor punching sheet includes an inner edge and an outer edge, a yoke part is formed between the inner edge and the outer edge, a plurality of tooth sockets are arranged on the yoke part at the side close to the inner edge, and the rotor punching sheet is characterized in that each tooth socket includes a first circular arc close to the outer edge and a notch close to the inner edge, two endpoints of the notch are respectively provided with first straight lines two sides of which extend outwards, second straight lines are arranged between the first straight lines and the first circular arc, second circular arcs are arranged between the second straight lines and the first straight lines, and the first straight lines and the two endpoints of the notch are provided with third circular arcs. According to the rotor punching sheet provided by the invention, through flat combination of round bottom grooves of the first circular arcs and the second straight lines, magnetic leakage of the rotor punching sheet is reduced, distribution of magnetic flux is uniform, working efficiency of a motor is improved by 10%, the usage amount of copper of the motor is reduced, production cost of the motor is reduced, a manufacturing technology of the rotor punching sheet is relatively simple, and production efficiency of a rotor is improved.


Abstract White‐nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease caused by the fungus Pseudogymnoascus destructans which has resulted in the deaths of millions of bats across eastern North America. To date, hibernacula counts have been the predominant means of tracking the spread and impact of this disease on bat populations. However, an understanding of the impacts of WNS on demographic parameters outside the winter season is critical to conservation and recovery of bat populations impacted by this disease. We used long‐term monitoring data to examine WNS‐related impacts to summer populations in West Virginia, where WNS has been documented since 2009. Using capture data from 290 mist‐net sites surveyed from 2003 to 2019 on the Monongahela National Forest, we estimated temporal patterns in presence and relative abundance for each bat species. For species that exhibited a population‐level response to WNS, we investigated post‐WNS changes in adult female reproductive state and body mass. Myotis lucifugus (little brown bat), M. septentrionalis (northern long‐eared bat), and Perimyotis subflavus (tri‐colored bat) all showed significant decreases in presence and relative abundance during and following the introduction of WNS, while Eptesicus fuscus (big brown bat) and Lasiurus borealis (eastern red bat) responded positively during the WNS invasion. Probability of being reproductively active was not significantly different for any species, though a shift to earlier reproduction was estimated for E. fuscus and M. septentrionalis. For some species, body mass appeared to be influenced by the WNS invasion, but the response differed by species and reproductive state. Results suggest that continued long‐term monitoring studies, additional research into impacts of this disease on the fitness of WNS survivors, and a focus on providing optimal nonwintering habitat may be valuable strategies for assessing and promoting recovery of WNS‐affected bat populations.


Despite the evolution of deep-learning-based visual-textual processing systems, precise multi-modal matching remains a challenging task. In this work, we tackle the task of cross-modal retrieval through image-sentence matching based on word-region alignments, using supervision only at the global image-sentence level. Specifically, we present a novel approach called Transformer Encoder Reasoning and Alignment Network (TERAN). TERAN enforces a fine-grained match between the underlying components of images and sentences (i.e., image regions and words, respectively) to preserve the informative richness of both modalities. TERAN obtains state-of-the-art results on the image retrieval task on both MS-COCO and Flickr30k datasets. Moreover, on MS-COCO, it also outperforms current approaches on the sentence retrieval task. Focusing on scalable cross-modal information retrieval, TERAN is designed to keep the visual and textual data pipelines well separated. Cross-attention links invalidate any chance to separately extract visual and textual features needed for the online search and the offline indexing steps in large-scale retrieval systems. In this respect, TERAN merges the information from the two domains only during the final alignment phase, immediately before the loss computation. We argue that the fine-grained alignments produced by TERAN pave the way toward the research for effective and efficient methods for large-scale cross-modal information retrieval. We compare the effectiveness of our approach against relevant state-of-the-art methods. On the MS-COCO 1K test set, we obtain an improvement of 5.7% and 3.5% respectively on the image and the sentence retrieval tasks on the Recall@1 metric. The code used for the experiments is publicly available on GitHub at https://github.com/mesnico/TERAN.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Epidural anaesthesia (EA) is the most efficient method of pain reduction and its total elimination during delivery. The aim of this study was to establish an influence of EA on the first and the second part of delivery process, frequency of vacuum extractor and forceps appliance, and the effect of EA on the newborn.

METHODS
A total of 360 patients with EA were analysed at delivery and 1130 controls without EA. Both groups had vaginal delivery. In both groups deliveries were stimulated by 10 IU of oxytocin in 500 mL of crystalloid solvent, with 15-20 drops per minute. As anaesthetic, Bupivacain (0.25% or 0.125%) was used by the 18 G catheters Braun and Wigon. Level of application was L2-L3 part of spine.

RESULTS
The results of this study indicate that deliveries with EA were shorter in duration, but also had much more vacuum extractor and forceps appliance (over 2.5 times) than those without EA. Apgar score was significantly higher in the experimental group with multiple deliveries. However, there was no significant deference between avarage Apgar score of newborns of patients with EA and that of newborns of patients without EA.

CONCLUSION
Application of EA decreases duration of delivery, and has no any adverse effects on newborns.


issues. First was the question of what Marx meant by it and, especially to what extent he was indeed ready to limit the application of the model of stages of historical development fully expounded in his writings to the Western world. Any attempt to divide the world into a Western and Eastern one seemed to many Marxists (and not only Marxists) to undermine the very premise for the existence of laws of historical development universally valid and subject to an objective, scientific enquiry. It also challenged the view that capitalism, even the preindustrial version of it (as, for example, I. Wallerstein eloquently argued in his now-famous The Modern World System [Academic Press 1974]), has unified the world through the integrative forces of a one-world market. The second major issue was the question of whether Russia was or was not, in terms of its socioeconomic and historical development, an integral part of the Western world, which raised the eminently political controversy of what was (or could be) the nature of its post-1917 regime. Finally, the third major issue, developed more recently, revolved around the question of whether problems of economic and sociopolitical development—of nation and state building—in many of the third-world countries can be better understood and dealt with from the perspective of the experience of the Western world or by the use of quite different standards and methods derived from an understanding of the true nature of the so-called Asiatic mode of production. The volume under review is the first book of readings on the subject and performs the very useful function of bringing together various writings (many made available in English for the first time) representing a variety of points of view. In part 1, the editors discuss (using extensive quotations) the pertinent writings of Marx and Engels. Part 2 offers excerpts from the writings of Plekhanov, Lenin, and Soviet scholars from the 1920s. The third and longest part is devoted entirely to the writings of Wittfogel, whose challenging hypothesis has been primarily responsible for most recent discussion of the subject, and to writings of those who elaborate or take issue with it. Finally, the fourth part is devoted primarily to discussions of ancient and modern third-world societies in terms of the Asiatic mode of production. As in the case of any selection of writings, one can voice disappointments. I am certainly surprised that only a single piece representing the Soviet scholars' point of view from the last half century is included and that the very lively debate among French scholars, centering on Africa, is meagerly reflected here. The disappointment mounts when one consults the bibliography. Such major works as Iu. V. Kachanovskii's Rabovladenie, feodalizm Hi aziatskii sposob proizvodstva? (1971) or Lawrence Krader's The Asiatic Mode of Production (1975) are not listed though from Part 1 one would assume that the latter is known to the editors. Moreover, the listings are careless and inconsistent. For instance, Russian titles are sometimes given only in Russian, sometimes also in translation, and sometimes only in translation. F. Tokei's Az dzsiai termele'si mdd kirdisihez (1965) is listed as published in 1975, and the title is neither translated nor is it indicated that a German translation of it, certainly more accessible to most scholars, appeared in 1969. Misspellings of foreign language titles are too frequent to mention here. There are also some irritating details. Why, for example, should we find (on p. 70), in a text translated from German, the expression "Herr Metchnikoff"? Briefly, although the volume merits strong recommendation, especially for its thorough coverage of the Wittfogel controversy, it is regrettable that it is not as useful as it should have been.


Development of compact generators for terahertz frequency range represents a very attractive proposition. In this paper, we present a tunable, periodically modulated light source suitable for applications in optoelectronic terahertz oscillators. The source is based on a grating-coupled surface-emitting diode laser (GCSEL).


A graph is said to be 2-edge-connected if it remains connected after the deletion of any single edge. Given an unweighted bridgeless graph G with n vertices, the minimum size 2-edge-connected spanning subgraph problem (2EC) is that of finding a 2-edgeconnected spanning subgraph of G with the minimum number of edges. This problem has important applications in the design of survivable networks. However, because the problem is NP-hard, it is unlikely that efficient methods exist for solving it. Thus efficient methods that find solutions that are provably close to optimal are sought. In this thesis, an approximation algorithm is presented for 2EC on bridgeless cubic graphs which guarantees to be within 5 4 of the optimal solution value, improving on the previous best proven approximation guarantee of 5 4 +ǫ for this problem. We also focus on the linear programming (LP) relaxation of 2EC, which provides important lower bounds for 2EC in useful solution techniques like branch and bound. The "goodness" of this lower bound is measured by the integrality gap of the LP relaxation for 2EC, denoted by α. Through a computational study, we find the exact value of α for graphs with small n. Moreover, a significant improvement is found for the lower bound on the value of α for bridgeless subcubic graphs, which improves the known best lower bound on α from 9 8 to 8 7 .


This article aims to discuss the importance of the identification and early management of the malignant hyperthermia (MH) crisis, as well as the need for genetic investigation, especially of families in which cases of the disease have already been reported. Malignant hyperthermia is an inherited genetic disorder triggered by the use of halogenated inhalational anesthetics and/or the depolarizing neuromuscular blocking agent succinylcholine, used in general anesthesia. Technical-scientific knowledge and immediate action by the medical team during the MH crisis is essential, since the lower morbidity and mortality rate of patients is dependent on a quick crisis' management. This work is a bibliographic review about the severity of the 1Centro Universitário de Caratinga (UNEC), Caratinga MG. *E-mail: email@example.com 2Universidade Federal de Juiz de Fora (UFJF), Juiz de Fora – MG. 3Universidade de Vassouras (UV), Vassouras – RJ. Revista Eletrônica Acervo Científico / Electronic Journal Scientific Collection | ISSN 2595-7899 REAC/EJSC | Vol. 20 | e4751 | DOI: https://doi.org/10.25248/reac.e4751.2021 Página 2 de 7 condition of MH with a focus on laboratory and clinical diagnosis for the identification of patients susceptible to MH and in the management of the crisis, in which the gold standard test for the confirmation of the disease is the muscle contraction in vitro with halothane-caffeine and the main treatment used to reverse the crisis is dantrolene.


For spacecraft applications, the ability to predict the electrical characteristics of such an antenna is essential for the optimization of its size and weight. This paper investigates the effect of varying the length of uniform helical antennas made up of a thin copper tape, wound with a constant pitch angle, 12.8 degrees, on a Styrofoam core. It presents the analysis and modeling of uniform antenna with lengths varying from 1.5λ to 5.5λ wavelengths, at 1 GHz. It provides theoretical performance prediction for helices working in the axial mode in near circular polarization with an axial ratio between 1 dB and 2 dB and a return loss better than 20 dB. The tape is modeled with an equivalent wire. The antenna wire-grid models are created and then analyzed using the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory "Numerical Electromagnetic Code" (NEC) software package[1]. NEC computes the currents flowing on an interconnection of thin wires and evaluates the current flow on the helix and ground cup, and hence the far field radiation patterns, axial ratio, gain and beamwidth, as a function of frequency. The electrical characteristics of the helices are then imported into a relational database for comparison with the experimental results on helices already measured[3]. The simulated results are found in good agreement with the experimental ones, thus providing a reliable design tool for helical antennas.


This PDF file contains the editorial "Book Review: Gold Chemistry: Applications and Future Directions in the Life Sciences" for JNP Vol. 3 Issue 01


Species specific DNA sequences are desirable markers for studying relationships between species and for plant breeding. This paper describes two aspects of molecular cytogenetic analysis of essentially species specific DNA sequences in the tribe Triticeae: sequences that differ substantially in their abundance and homology between species or genomes. Firstly, total genomic DNA can be used as a probe which is made highly specific to species by blocking with DNA sequences common with other species. Examples are given from studies of intergeneric and interspecific hybrids: Hordeum chilense x Secale africanum and H. vulgare x H. bulbosum. Secondly, species specific probes can be obtained from isolated and cloned DNA sequences. Both in situ and Southern hybridization techniques have proven important; in situ hybridization is required for localization and finding the distribution of sequences in the genome while Southern hybridization gives information about the nature and structural variants of sequences. The understanding of sequence behaviour, evolutionary patterns and organization in the genome may lead to more effective and directed production of new recombinant lines, wide hybrids, or alien gene transfer.


In the design and development of USB camera drive based on embedded system,it should make full use of USB bus bandwidth and ensure a high and stable data transfer speed between memory and peripherals.In order to meet the real-time video capturing requirements,reference is made to open-source projects GSPCA/SPCA5xx,recommendation of Linux kernel is adopted,and using double-URB strategy and MMAP mapping mechanism to maximize the video capturing speed,eventually realizes this USB camera drive in line with Video4Linux on the S3C2440AL_ARM development platform and provides a functional verification and performance analysis.


The extraction condition and the stability of natural pigment in flower of Lilium concolor were tested by using orthogonal experiment. The results showed that the pigment was extracted effectively when flower was dipped with 99.7 % of alcohol at 50 for 1 h. Among these factors, concentration of alcohol had the most effect on extraction of pigment, then duration and temperature of extraction. The stability of pigment was not influenced by pH 5 to 7, acetic acid, vitamin C and temperature (70℃); however, the stability was effected significantly by light, alkalization environment, oxidizer and iron ion (Al3+).


Fall 2012 manipulate these conflicts and contradictions to fit his argument too neatly, Davison highlights any incongruities and paradoxes as key features of Jewishness and masculinity. In this regard, Davison's book echoes Zygmunt Bauman's theory in Modernity and the Holocaust (which Davison cites as influential to his own understanding of modern and postmodern Jewish identity) that modern Jewishness is a "semantically overloaded entity" and "a natural adversary of any force concerned with drawing borderlines" (39). That is, by referencing the impact not only of race and ethnicity on Jewish masculinity but also of Zionist politics, Judaic concepts, the modern secularization of Jewishness, and biographical and cultural contexts, Davison's work thoroughly illustrates the ambiguities and difficulties that surround any gendered construction of "the Jew" which, as it comprises malleable and often contradictory definitions, defies categorization.


By Stove Schatt and Richard Kornor Noted lecturer Leo M. Cherne, executive-secretary of the Research Institute of AmSuspended chairman of the Hygiene Department Frank ^rica, will deliver the major address at the annual' Charter Day Convocation, tomorrow Lloyd threw another-stumbling block into the path of the a t 10:30 in PET. This year's ceremonies, ajt which President Buell G. Gallagher will pre* long-awaited BHE trials last week when his attorney, Lloyd side, will commemorate the 106th anniversary of the founding of the Free Academy, forePaul Stryker, tiled for a temporary injunction to enjoin the runner of the present City College. Mr. Cheme will discuss the relations^ between tt*t *"~ ^-^-->---J -.» -United^St^tes and the Soviet


The international association for the study of pain (IASP 2011) defines neuropathic pain, as pain caused by lesions or disease of the somatosensory nervous system. Central neuropathic pain and peripheral neuropathic pain is caused by a lesion or disease of central somatosensory and peripheral somatosensory nervous system respectively Clinical lecture on lead Neuropathy published in 1924,the word Neuropathy was used for first time by gordon the history of pain management is explained by tracking the ancient time , nerve tissue is route of transfer the pain to the brain through invisible psychic pnema Diagnostic test aimed at assessing somatosensory afferent Pathway damage are therefore useful for diagnosing neuropathic pain these is manifest with renge of different symptoms such as ongoing burning pain, squeezing or pressure pain paraoxymal electric shock like sensations, stabbing pain or mechanical dynamic allodynia, The various types of neuropathic pain are associated with different underlying nerve abnormalities. Purpose and rationale, procedure, evaluation, modification of the method are studied in experimental neuropathy. Study of the pharmacology of central sensitisation may open the door for novel analgesics effective in neuropathic pain Ideal models should produce just sensory deficits , such as allodynia ,hyperalgesia & spontaneous pain for short period of time ,there are different animal models to evaluate different neuropathic pain etiologies and manifestation, some models study peripheral Np mechanisms This article summarizes types, causes, nature, mechanisms, screening tools and treatments, pain management


A total of 898 F2 outbred calves were studied, to investigate heritability of a natural nematode challenge. Faecal egg counts of different species and white blood cell parameters were collected. Variance components were estimated using a restricted maximum likelihood (REML) procedure in an animal model. Heritability was estimated as 0.060 for Strongylate spp, for normal model fitting, and 0.092 and 0.367 for Coccidia for normal and binomial model fittings, respectively. Heritability ranged from 0.008 to 0.115 for white blood cell count. There were very low phenotypic correlations between white blood cell count and faecal egg count.


This paper presents a new methodology for on-line tool breadage detection by sensor fusion of an acoustic emission (AE) sensor and a built-in force sensor. A built-in piezoelectric force sensor, instead of a tool dynamometer, was used to measure the cutting force without altering the machine tool dynamics. The sensor was inserted in the tool turret housing of an NC lathe. FEM analysis was carried out to locate the most sensitive position for the sensor. A burst of AE signal was used as a triggering signal to inspect the cutting force. A sighificant drop of cutting force was utilized to detect tool breakage. The algorithm was implemented on a DSP board for in-process tool breakage detection. Experiental works showed an excellent monitoring capability of the proposed tool breakage detection system.


A new geometric phase factor is defined for any cyclic evolution of a quantum system. This is independent of the phase factor relating the initial and final state vectors and the Hamiltonian, for a given projection of the evolution on the projective space of rays of the Hilbert space. Some applications, including the Aharonov-Bohm effect, are considered. For the special case of adiabatic evolution, this phase factor is a gauge-invariant generalization of the one found by Berry.


Marine geohazard research has developed during recent decades, as human activities intensified towards deeper waters. Some recent disastrous events (e.g., the 2004 Indian Ocean and 2011 Japan tsunamis) highlighted geohazards socioeconomic impacts. Marine geohazards encompass an extensive list of features, processes, and events related to Marine Geology. In the scientific literature there are few systematic reviews concerning all of them. Using the search string 'geohazard*', this bibliometric-based review explored the scientific databases Web of Science and Scopus to analyze the evolution of peer-reviewed scientific publications and discuss trends and future challenges. The results revealed qualitative and quantitative aspects of 183 publications and indicated 12 categories of hazards, the categories more studied and the scientific advances. Interdisciplinary surveys focusing on the mapping and dating of past events, and the determination of triggers, frequencies, and current perspectives of occurrence (risk) are still scarce. Throughout the upcoming decade, the expansion and improvement of seafloor observatories' networks, early warning systems, and mitigation plans are the main challenges. Hazardous marine geological events may occur at any time and the scientific community, marine industry, and governmental agencies must cooperate to better understand and monitor the processes involved in order to mitigate the resulting unpredictable damages.


Does it ever bother you that emfs, resistors, and inductors add in series, but capacitors add in parallel? Does it bother your students? The AP Physics C syllabus for electricity and magnetism specifies the mathematical models students are expected to not merely memorize but to understand. Over time, my students' questions have made me rethink my conceptual and mathematical understanding of this material to help them efficiently develop reasonable conceptual and mathematical models of E&M. In this paper I describe aspects of this pedagogical rethinking related to four ideal circuit elements. I specify the end state of understanding that I want students to develop, but do not attempt to detail the pedagogical path to that understanding.


PURPOSE
Dynamic tumor tracking radiation therapy can potentially reduce internal margin without prolongation of irradiation time. However, dynamic tumor tracking technique requires an extra margin (tracking margin, TM) for the uncertainty of tumor localization, prediction, and beam repositioning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a dosimetric impact caused by TM.

METHODS
We used 4D XCAT to create 9 digital phantom datasets of different tumor size and motion range: tumor diameter TD={1, 3, 5} cm and motion range MR={1, 2, 3} cm. For each dataset, respiratory gating (30%-70% phase) and tumor tracking treatment plans were created using 8-field 3D-CRT by 4D dose calculation implemented in RayStation. The dose constraint was based on RTOG0618. For the tracking plan, TMs of {0, 2.5, 5} mm were considered by surrounding a normal setup margin: SM=5 mm. We calculated V20 of normal lung to evaluate the dosimetric impact for each case, and estimated an equivalent TM that affects the same impact on V20 obtained by the gated plan.

RESULTS
The equivalent TMs for {TD=1 cm, MR=2 cm}, {TD=1 cm, MR=3 cm}, {TD=5 cm, MR=2 cm}, and {TD=5 cm, MR=3 cm} were estimated as 1.47 mm, 3.95 mm, 1.04 mm, and 2.13 mm, respectively. The larger the tumor size, the equivalent TM became smaller. On the other hand, the larger the motion range, the equivalent TM was found to be increased.

CONCLUSION
Our results showed the equivalent TM changes depending on tumor size and motion range. The tracking plan with TM less than the equivalent TM achieves a dosimetric impact better than the gated plan in less treatment time. This study was partially supported by JSPS Kakenhi and Varian Medical Systems.


The development of prenatal diagnosis has developed very rapidly over decades. Prenatal screening is applied to a mother with high-risk pregnancy (threatening the life of the fetus), such as a too-old mother or a too-young mother and having a certain disease in her medical history. Up until now, the curative method to treat genetic disorder is still developed and perfected. Therefore, a preventative action during pregnancy is important to do, such as Noninvasive Prenatal Testing (NIPT). NIPT method that is widely developed is the circulating cell-free fetal DNA (cffDNA) testing that can be useful for determining the fetal gender,the Identification of specific single-gene disorders, blood type, paternity determination, and the potency of regular use for testing chromosomal abnormalities. The detection of cell-free fetal DNA in the maternal blood circulation provides a new expectation for NIPT, especially preventing the severity of genetic disorders.


In August of 2020, National Public Radio produced a series entitled "The Summer of Racial Reckoning." Detailing the trajectory of systemic racial injustice that created fertile soil for the murders of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery that spring, their premise was that given the horror of these events, it was time for a "reckoning." Scripture refers to the Day of Reckoning—sometimes as a last judgment, other times as retribution, and in the parable of the talents as an audit for how one has invested what they have been given. In Isaiah 10:2-3, the prophet says,


In this article, shear rheology of solutions of different concentrations obtained by dissolution of cellulose in the ionic liquid (IL) solvent 1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium chloride ([Bmim]Cl) was studied by measuring the complex viscosity and dynamic moduli at different temperatures. The obtained viscosity curves were compared with those of lyocell solutions and melt blowing grade polypropylene melts of different melt flow rates (MFR). Master curves were generated for complex viscosity and dynamic moduli by using Carreau and Cross viscosity models to fit experimental data. From the Arrhenius plots of the shift factors with respect to temperature, the activation energies for shear flow were determined. These varied between 18.99 and 24.09 kCal/mol, and were compared with values for lyocell solutions and different polymeric melts, such as polyolefins, polystyrene, and polycarbonate. © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2008


The control of domain tip propagation in a narrow Permalloy thin film is presented. The control of domain tip motion consists of two parts. One is the control of the direction of tip propagation and the other is the uniform motion of a domain tip by successive pulse fields. To control the direction of tip propagation, the combination of two films with different coercive forces was used. If a magnetic field is applied to a narrow Permalloy film which has a hard film (large H c ) on one end, a domain tip propagates along the channel. The direction of tip propagation depends on the direction of magnetization of the hard film. To control the uniform domain growth by a pulse field, a transverse ac magnetic field combined with a pulse field along the channel was used. An easy axis pulse field is 2 Oe, 30 ms, and a hard axis field is 1 kHz sinusoidal. A traveling length of a domain tip is proportional to a number of pulses applied along the easy axis. The traveling length per pulse is 0.53 mm at the hard axis field H_{\perp} = 0.97 Oe. The mechanism of this domain motion will be considered as a kind of creep.


An early concern in fast reactor safety was that the positive Doppler coefficient of fissile material was a significant effect and was responsible for the positive temperature coefficient of EBR-1, which led to meltdown of the core. Another primary concern for early, metal-fueled fast reactors was the possibility of gravity collapse of the molten core. As reactors became larger, it became apparent that this process would lead to unacceptably large energy releases, providing an incentive for more detailed modeling. As fast reactor safety developed, the importance of reactivity effects other than gravity fuel slumping became evident. For the TOP accident, fuel motion modeling as embodied in such codes as EPIC and PLUTO2 showed that if pin failure occurred at or near the top of the core, consistent with higher clad temperatures, a benign outcome was assured. As the newer codes tended to given more benign results for the initiation phase of CDA's, more attention has been focused on the transition to extensive gradual core melting. 12 refs. (JDB)


Objective:To study the effect of early intervention on neonates with hypoxic-ischemic encephalopathy(HIE).Methods: 66 cases of neonates with slight,medium and severe HIE were studied and divided stochastically into two groups :early intervention was done for 34 cases,called Group A,with 32 cases untreated as Group B.There was no difference in general condition between group A and group B.Early systemic,medical and nutritious intervention as well as recovery training was done on group A while untreated group B was done and directed according to the regularity.Results: Average scores of mental development quotient in group A were higher than in group B at the ages of 3rd,6th 9th,12th,24th and 36th month(P0.01).Conclusions: The prognosis of HIE will be improved with early intervention.The morbidity of cerebral palsy and mental retardation can be decreased as well .


Three studies tested the effects of symbolic threat to group values and strength of ingroup (political party) identification on social dominance orientation (SDO), a measure of tolerance for social hierarchies. In Studies 1 and 3, conservative participants were made to feel as though their group's values were either threatened or not threatened by liberals prior to completing theSDOmeasure.InStudies 2and 3,liberalparticipants were made tofeelas thoughtheirgroup'svalues were either threatened or not threatened by conservatives prior to completing the SDO measure. Results demonstrated that high ingroup (political party) identification was associated with high SDO scores for threatened conservatives, and with low SDO for threatened liberals. These findings suggest that in response to symbolic threat, SDO can shift in directions consistent with protecting the ingroup's identity. Copyright # 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Self-Organizing Map (SOM) is a neural network tool to project high dimensional data into a low dimensional and topological ordered map. The application of SOM can be found in dimensionality reduction, clustering, retrieval, quantization and visualization. This thesis focuses on the developing new architectures of SOM to extend its capability from the domain of fixed-length flat-structured data to the domain of structured data. Using new SOM models, several real applications are presented that are difficult to deal with traditional SOM models. A generalized SOM model is developed named Multi-Layer Self-Organizing Map (MLSOM) to deal with general tree-structured data. MLSOM provide same functionality for tree-structured data as SOM does for flat vector type data. Traditional SOM can only deal with flat-type data that is made of fixed length input vector. The tree-structured cannot be represented by fixed length vector, and thus they cannot be dealt with traditional SOM. However, the SOM has splendid quality of dimensionality reduction and data organization. Using these two properties, MLSOM process nodes of a tree in a level-by-level fashion. In general, finding similarity between two tree data is complex and computationally expensive. On the other hand, MLSOM can process tree-structured data in a fast and efficient way by utilizing the organizing ability of SOM. Thorough experiments are presented comparing with previous SOM model in terms of unsupervised visualization, clustering and classification. A Multi-SOM model is proposed to handle applications of huge database where the data is very high dimensional and is compiled from multiple features extraction methods. Using the compression capability of SOM the Multi-SOM compresses the high dimensional data into a low dimensional "composite feature vector", which can then be utilized for applications like clustering, visualization and retrieval. Such approach facilitates scale-free feature integration, which do not require manual scaling of feature values acquire from different source. A real world application of face identification is presented using the Multi-


To understand better the mechanism by which 5‐α‐dihydrotestosterone (5‐α‐DHT) influences prostate epithelial cell function, we examined the effects of 5‐α‐DHT on phosphoinositide metabolism in human prostate cancer cell lines. Androgen receptor‐positive LNCaP cells showed dose‐responsive, steady‐state elevations in phosphoinositide metabolism when treated with 5‐α‐DHT. The intracellular pool of 3H‐myoinositol decreased and the incorporation of 3H‐myoinositol into cellular lipids increased with increasing concentrations of 5‐α‐DHT. 5‐α‐DHT increased the release of 3H‐inositol phosphates into the media. The inactive stereoisomer, 5‐β‐DHT, did not increase phosphoinositide metabolism. In androgen receptor‐negative cells, phosphoinositide metabolism was not altered by 5‐α‐DHT. The slow induction of phosphoinositide metabolism by 5‐α‐DHT suggests that the effects may be mediated through other factors that serve as intermediates in 5‐α‐DHT modulation of intracellular signalling. We conclude that this modulation involves increased turnover of phosphatidylinositol, incorporation of myoinositol into cellular lipids, and alterations in the aqueous intracellular myoinositol pool size, possibly as a result of altered transport mechanisms.


In this paper extensive examples and related counterexamples of the category of -skew -Armendariz rings are given. This category of rings regards a new generalization for the concepts of -skew Armendariz and skew -Armendariz rings. A ring is called -skew -Armendariz if for any ( ) ∑   and ( ) ∑ such that ( ) ( ) ( ), then ( ) ( ) for each and . First some general properties of -skew Armendariz rings are studied and then relations between -skew -Armendariz rings and other related rings are investigated. Also various examples of non -skew -Armendariz rings are established.


The Baiji or Chinese River Dolphin (Lipotes vexillifer) are found only in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River, China and are one of the most endangered cetacean species in the world. A male baiji was stranded in the Chenglingji section of the middle reaches of the Yangtze River on 11 January 1980 and removed to the Baiji Aquarium of the Institute of Hydrobiology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences. This animal, known as "Qi Qi" has been successfully kept in captivity since that time. In order to compare relationships between sexual masturbation behavior and serum testosterone levels in this male baiji, behavioral observation and analyses of serum testosterone levels from blood samples were carried out from March 1996 through December 1998.Blood samples were taken from the dorsal aspect of the tail fluke between 10:00 and 11:00 a.m. around the 10th of each month. Serum testosterone levels were determined using radio immunoassay (RIA) techniques. Behavioral observation was conducted for one hour(from 09: 00 to 10: 00 a.m.)everyday in spring and one hour in every three days in other seasons using the focal animal sampling method. Following a pilot study, the behaviors of ventrally contacting the wall of the pool and erection of the penis were defined as sexual masturbation behaviors and the frequency of both were recorded per hour. Serum levels of testosterone showed two peaks in 1997.The first peak was from April to June and the second smaller peak was in October. The highest peak was 6 73 ng/ml, recorded in April. The lowest level was 1 24 ng/ml, recorded in January. Two peaks were once again observed in 1998.The first peak was from February to June and the second smaller peak was on October. The highest peak was 9 66 ng/ml, recorded in April and the lowest 1 79 ng/ml recorded in January. The frequency of penile erection on the day before blood sampling showed one peak in spring from March to June, and another smaller peak in September in 1997.However, in 1998, this occurred from January to October without any obvious seasonal pattern. The frequency of ventral contact with the wall one day before the blood sampling showed 3 peaks in 1997, one peak was from March to May, one was in October, with a smaller peak in August. In 1998, three main peaks were observed, in February, April and October, with a smaller peak on July. The frequency of penile erection to a length longer than two centimeters showed one peak in Spring with the highest occuring in May in 1997.In 1998, three peaks were apparent, in February, April and August respectively. The monthly average frequency of ventral contact with wall showed similar patterns in 1997 and 1998: two peaks each year, one from February to April, and the other from August to September. The monthly average frequency of penile erection showed only one large peak, from March to May in 1997, but in 1998 there were three small peaks in February, May to July and November respectively. It may be because the animal was seriously sick in the Spring of 1996, penile erection was only observed in July and August of this year, when the observations were conducted one day before blood sampling, and the length of of the erect penis was in all cases less than 2 0 cm. Ventral contact with the wall behavior during the same observation period only happened in April at a very low frequency. Monthly average occurrences of such behaviors in 1996 all happened at very low levels, compared with the 1997 and 1998 results. Meanwhile, serum testosterone levels in 1996 were also low, with a different seasonal pattern from that observed in 1997 and 1998. Based on these results, our preliminarily conclusion is that both sexual masturbation behavior and serum testosterone levels of this male baiji show a periodic cycle and similar seasonal patterns: two peaks in the spring and autumn of each year with the spring peak the highest. We infer from this that the testes of the male baiji were active from February through October (T=2 48 to 9 66 ng/ml), with a higher peak (T=3


The goal of the study is to show the potential for nuclear power development in Poland. SWOT and PEEST analyses were used, which in a multifaceted way showed the opportunities and threats of investment in this project. Based on the draft document Energy Policy of Poland until 2040 (PEP2040), the plans and actions aimed at the construction of the first Polish nuclear power plant are presented. The review of the operating costs of a nuclear power plant has made it possible to analyse the efficiency of nuclear investment by comparing the expected costs with the achievable results. It has been shown that obtaining energy from uranium will contribute to the country's energy security, competitiveness of the economy, and improvement in air quality in the long term. Diversification of energy sources will allow Poland to become more energy independent and adapt its energy sector to climate challenges.


The results of a preliminary investigation of several processes that are of interest both for the formation of stars and for the evolution of planetary systems are presented. It is shown that turbulent viscosity is capable of playing an important role in conveying angular momentum over time scales that are short enough to be significant. Meridional circulation can also act in this fashion during some phases of the evolution. This transport may reduce the probability of formation of the rings that have been found by most earlier investigators. Transport and mixing on a faster than cooling time scale should also inhibit usual modes of fragmentation and the present work casts some doubt on the multiple successive fragmentation scenarios that lead from a massive molecular cloud to a collection of roughly solar mass protostars. The conditions that are probable in the disks that would exist at varying phases of collapse are examined and it is concluded that turbulent viscosity would be very important in a pre-solar nebula.


An adaptive control for a class of first-order nonlinear systems is presented. The control scheme is free from singularities (i.e. division by zero). This has been achieved by appropriately modifying the plant parameter estimates before using them in the control input generation. The proposed control algorithm achieves global asymptotic model tracking and the control law's denominator is uniformly bounded away from zero without assuming any prior knowledge of the plant parameters.<<ETX>>


Based on the Lorenz-Mie light scattering theory, we have calculated the light absorption of single silicon nanowire with Si3N4 coating, and compared with pure single silicon nanowire. The calculated result indicates that there exists an enhanced absorption in the Si3N4-coated silicon nanowire and shows a great photocurrent enhancement factor (~70%) for the coaxial NW with the shell thickness of ~70 nm. For a special shell thickness (175 nm) in the Si3N4-coated silicon nanowire for r = 150 nm, the enhancement comes up to ~98.45%.


ClpPOne of the mechanisms of bacterial cell response to the stress is the metabolism reconstitution by proteins activation and inactivation. Damaged and non-required proteins are removed by the proteolysis. In Bacilli, this role belongs to ATP-dependent proteases LonA, FtsH, as well as the ClpP family proteases. The amino acid sequence recognized by ClpP protease and following protein protolysis remains unknown. Here we tried to identify the putative ClpP recognition site using the experimental data reported previously. By the multiple alignment approach we identified the putative ClpP recognition site.


This paper considers an application of the Markov switching vector error correction model to the analysis of the long-run and the short-run dependence of Russian real GDP and real exchange on oil prices. An algorithm for estimation of the model with a priori information on a state of hidden Markov chain in some periods of time is provided. It is shown that for the period of 1999-2018 two different regimes are well defined: with a slow adjustment of real exchange rate and a sharp reaction of GDP in response to oil price shock and with a fast adjustment of real exchange rate and a slow adjustment of GDP in response to shock. We have concluded that floating ruble exchange rate is a natural stabilizer of the Russian economic activity.


Background: Clinical trials of partial or complete withdrawal of immunosuppression (IS) are plagued by the risk of acute and chronic rejection. If one could predict in advance which patient/donor combinations were likely to develop tolerance, the management of such transplants could be geared toward drug minimization from the outset, while graft loss in rejection-prone patients could be avoided. Rationale: Our recently published mouse and human data point to a strong correlation between multi-lineage microchimerism (Mc) of fetal or maternal origin, and regulatory T cells specific for familial MHC, and particularly to minor H antigens in normal healthy adults. Here we test the hypothesis that pre-transplant Treg cells in both donors and recipients correlate with excellent graft outcome in renal transplant (RTx) pts under standard IS. Methods: Human living donorrecipient pairs [n=39 pairs, 78 subjects total] were tested preand postRTx for alloantigen-specific regulation using trans-vivo DTH assay. Suppression of a recall antigen [EBV or TT]-induced footpad swelling of ≥ 50% in the presence of test antigen (recipient or donor cell lysate) was considered a Treg-biased response. Serum creatinine was monitored at 36 mo. post-transplant as a measure of renal function. Results: A Treg bias was found prior to RTx in 13/13 HLA-ID siblings, and was uniformly bi-directional [recipient, specific to donor & donor, specific to recipient]. Recipient regulation persisted posttransplant, and was associated with excellent renal function (mean sCr=1.24 ± 0.34). In contrast, child mother regulation tended to be unidirectional: offspring were nearly all [14/15] regulators to mother's antigen (non-inherited maternal antigen/NIMA), while mothers were rarely strong regulators to antigens of their son/daughter [2/11]. Some HLA haplotype-mismatched donors, including mothers, were weak regulators [33% inhibition] to the intended recipient prior to living donation. When these were considered as regulators in the analysis, bidirectional regulation was associated with superior graft outcome [mean sCr= 1.43±0.7 mg/dl; n=7]. In contrast those haplotype mismatched LRD transplants with either no regulation in either direction, or unidirectional regulation only had worse 3 yr. graft outcome (mean sCr=3.34±2.9 mg/dl; n=12 on standard IS). Conclusions: Pre-existing bi-directional regulation to familial minor H antigens is the norm in HLA-ID sib pairs. A trial of MPA monotherapy in HLA-ID RTx recipients is ongoing based on this surprising finding. Bidirectional regulation pre-Tx is less frequent in haplotypemismatched LRD transplants, but was correlated with superior outcomes, suggestiing a 'fast track' to tolerance in this subset.


In this paper we discuss the principles of two fundamental theories of physics: mechanics and quantum mechanics. First, we consider two philosophical positions of the German physicist Heinrich Hertz. He established one of the both in the introduction of his well known Principles of Mechanics. This view - Hertz's "picture" concept - which has a long tradition in philosophy, particularly with regard to physics and later to other empirical sciences, serves as the starting point of an interpretation of the relationship between real systems and theoretical structures of modern science using the concept of fuzziness. This "fuzzy view" on philosophy of science gives particularly an interpretation of Hertz's earlier lecture on The Constitution of matter. Second we consider some principles of quantum mechanics, particularly Werner Heisenberg's uncertainty relation of subatomic object's position and momentum, and Max Born's probabilistic interpretation of the quantum mechanical wave function. These principles are parts of the so-called Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics. Third, we argue that the "fuzzy approach" is fruitful for a "fuzzy" interpretation of quantum mechanics because fuzziness fills the gap between systems and phenomena in reality and the scientific theory of quantum mechanics - as every other scientific theory.


A new ultra-fast diagnostic tool was installed in the CNGS facility in 2011 following the neutrino time-of-flight results published by OPERA in September 2011. Several polycrystalline CVD diamond detectors were placed in the secondary beam line about 1200 m downstream of the CNGS target in order to measure the time structure of the muons which are produced together with the muon neutrinos. This allows an accurate measurement of the GPS timing of individual secondary particle bunches crossing these detectors, and provides an independent timing measurement at CERN, which has previously been based solely on the fast beam current transformers installed in the primary proton beam line upstream of the CNGS target. Both the position of the detectors, and the time between the detection of the particles at the beam current transformer and the diamond detectors have been measured very carefully and a sound analysis of the detector signals was done. This allows comparison of the measurements between the beam current transformer and the diamond detectors. The results reveal that the GPS timing measurements performed at CERN are consistent.


Aim To explore the influence of atorvastatin on the ultramicrostructure of the membrane surface of the rabbit endothelial cells in rabbit atherosclerosis(AS)in the nanometer level.Methods A total of 44 male New Zealand white rabbits were randomly divided into 3 groups:control group consisting of 12 rabbits,AS group consisting of 16 rabbits and atorvastatin group consisting of 32 rabbits.By the end of 2nd,6th week 6~8 rabbits of each group were sacrificed and the middle segments of thoracic aortas were obtained to be observed with atomic force microscope.Results The control group vascular endothelial cells(VECs)were fusiform in shape and aligned regularly.Their size were about 11.96 μm×3.72 μm and their macroaxis were in parallel with the direction of hemokinesis.VECs in the atherosclerotic group were in deformity and bigger than those of the control group.They aligned irregularly and their volumes changed to be swelled.The membrane protein of VECs in the control group was composed of many round and elliptical eminences,which were almost in the same size.and with distinct boundary lines.The membrane protein of VECs in the atherosclerosis group was composed of many irregular eminences in different size.It was vague among the eminences in which there were many holes.But the VECs of atorvastatin group were better than those of atherosclerosis group.The ultramicrostructure of the membrane surface of the atorvastatin group VECs was obviously improved.Meanwhile,the mean roughness(Ra)of membrane protein of three groups was compared.The Ra of the atherosclerosis group was significantly higher than that of the control group and the atorvastatin group(P0.01).And there was significant difference between the control group and the atorvastatin group(P0.01).Conclusions The changes of the ultramicrostructure of the membrane surface of the damaged VECs in AS were directly observed by AFM.Atorvastatin could improve the damage of VECs so that it could prevent AS.


Bestrophins have recently been proposed to comprise a new family of Cl− channels. Our goal was to test whether mouse bestrophin-2 (mBest2) is a bona fide Cl− channel. We expressed mBest2 in three different mammalian cell lines. mBest2 was trafficked to the plasma membrane as shown by biotinylation and immunoprecipitation, and induced a Ca2+-activated Cl− current in all three cell lines (EC50 for Ca2+ = 230 nM). The permeability sequence was SCN−: I−: Br−: Cl−: F− (8.2: 1.9: 1.4: 1: 0.5). Although SCN− was highly permeant, its conductance was ∼10% that of Cl− and SCN− blocked Cl− conductance (IC50 = 12 mM). Therefore, SCN− entered the pore more easily than Cl−, but bound more tightly than Cl−. Mutations in S79 altered the relative permeability and conductance for SCN− as expected if S79 contributed to an anion binding site in the channel. PSCN/PCl = 8.2 ± 1.3 for wild-type and 3.9 ± 0.4 for S79C. GSCN/GCl = 0.14 ± 0.03 for wild-type and 0.94 ± 0.04 for S79C. In the S79 mutants, SCN− did not block Cl− conductance. This suggested that the S79C mutation altered the affinity of an anion binding site for SCN−. Additional evidence that S79 was located in the conduction pathway was provided by the finding that modification of the sulfhydryl group in S79C with MTSET+ or MTSES− increased conductance significantly. Because the effect of positively and negatively charged MTS reagents was similar, electrostatic interactions between the permeant anion and the channel at this residue were probably not critical in anion selectivity. These data provide strong evidence that mBest2 forms part of the novel Cl− conduction pathway in mBest2-transfected cells and that S79 plays an important role in anion binding in the pore of the channel.