IN VIEW of some recent signs of increased interest in the realist poet George Crabbe, it would not be out of place to suggest a re-examination of the accounts of him to be found in literary histories. According to a long-established pattern, the historians read almost nothing except The Village, describe Crabbe as an obscure late eighteenth-century realist, and abruptly dismiss him. From one point of view this is perhaps justifiable, in that literary history involves evaluation (I am not concerned here with resuscitating an "unjustly neglected poet"). But there is much to be said for presenting a historically just account of even a minor literary figure. It appears that the placement of Crabbe at the fading end of the neoclassical tradition has reached the status of a smug assumption. Edmund Gosse, for example, handled Crabbe in the habitual manner: "Then, here is GEORGE CRABBE, whom Byron would have done better to call 'Dryden in worsted stockings.' "1 In a recent history the account has altered little: ".. .the strongly eighteenth century Crabbe survived to publish The Parish Register in 1807, The Borough in 1810, and his collected verse in 1816."2 (But by now he is not even credited with the major publications of 1812 and 1819.) The new literary history edited by Albert C. Baugh does make a departure by placing him in the section on "Romanticism," but does so purely out of chronological considerations; otherwise, he is described as "remoter than Landor from the main tendencies of the age."3 However, there is something intriguing about the thought that Crabbe did his most significant work and attained a wide reputation, not in the eighteenth century, but in the years of the "Romantic triumph." Why was this so, if he was indeed nothing except the anachronism pictured by historians? True, some writers such as Legouis and Cazamian recognize in Crabbe's poetry "an originality quite its own, and of the rarest flavour";4 but no one (not even Crabbe scholars) has adequately accounted for this quality, and certainly not for those qualities which made him eminent as a nineteenth-century poet. The placement of a figure in literary history may be determined by such factors as the development of genres, the shaping of literary trends, chronology, or the influence of criticism. Contemporary reputation is ordinarily a very minor consideration, except in such figures as Abraham Cowley or William Hayley. I do not mean to urge that it ought to be decisive in the treatment of Crabbe. But it does, in this instance, strongly suggest that there has been a hiatus in the criteria by which he has been placed and judged. Apparently, what with the habitual obsession with The Village, Crabbe's mature work has not been properly assessed and related to the literary trends of the early nineteenth century. The contemporary reaction to Crabbe's work was certainly voluminous and articulate enough to yield valuable clues concerning these relationships. A sifting of this neglected material 1 A Short History of Modern English Literature (New York, 1924), p. 270. 2 Joseph Warren Beach, in A History of English Literature, ed. Hardin Craig et al. (New York, 1950), p. 486. 3 A Literary History of England (New York, 1948), p. 1167.


In this paper, the results of an inductive interpretive study of a notorious corporate fraud case, which occurred in Brazil from the 1980s to the 2000s, are reported. Through the content analysis and discourse analysis techniques, the process of creating a fraudulent scheme is analyzed, besides its maintenance for more than one decade. The substantive aspects were studied - the schemes created and managed by fraudsters -, as well as the symbolic aspects - the resources for impression and image management used by fraudsters. This analysis led to the development of a model of corporate fraud, which aims to understand the fraud occurred through a process perspective. One hopes this model can contribute to improve the understanding of corporate frauds, since it addresses the way how fraud occurs and shows how fraudsters take substantive and symbolic actions to create, develop, and sustain it.


Aim:To investigate the effects of topiramate on hippocampus extracellular amino acid and neuronal apoptosis in rats by acute seizures.Methods:The rats were treated with topiramate(TPM)at 80 mg·kg -1 ·d -1 or cabamazipine at 40 mg·kg -1 ·d for 2 weeks after PTZ induced seizure.Programmed cell death(Apoptosis)was identified by terminal deoxynucletidyl transferase-mediated dUTP-biotin in situ nick end labeling (TUNEL)assay to detect DNA fragmentation.The extracellular amino acid neurotransmission levels in hippocampus of free-moving rats were detected by microdialysis with HPLC.Results:Administration of topiramate significantly reduced hippocampal neuronal damage.However,no difference in histological study of TUNEL-positive neurons between TPM and cabamazipine groups was found.TPM significantly reduced glutamate level but elevalated GABA levels in the hippocampus of seizure rats.Conclusion:Administration of TPM after experimental status epilepticus can attenuate seizure-induced hippocampal neuronal injury.This effect may,at least in part,be related to the changes of amino acid.However,there was no difference between TPM and cabamazipine histologically.


Objective A common symptom of cognitive decline in people living with dementia, or people with memory problems, the cause of which has not yet been diagnosed, is the person repeatedly asking for loved ones who are deceased or making statements that are incorrect. Carers are then faced with a dilemma, do they avoid and distract or 'correct' the person and tell the 'truth', or tell a lie. This paper explores the concept of lying from the perspective of people living with dementia in the community and their informal/unpaid carers. Methods A descriptive qualitative study utilising focus groups to collect the data was conducted. Three focus group's with a purposive sample of people with memory problems (n = 14) and three focus group's with informal/unpaid carers (n = 18) were undertaken. Qualitative content analysis was used to analyse the data. Results All participants considered that blatant lying with the intention to deceive and do harm is not acceptable. However, telling a 'good lie' or 'white lie' to alleviate distress was in certain circumstances considered acceptable. The intention behind the 'lie' in their view had to be to do good, and the informal/unpaid carer telling the lie had to really 'know the person' and be cognisant of family preferences. Some informal/unpaid carers acknowledged that it may be acceptable for health care professionals to tell a 'good lie' or 'small lie' in certain circumstances. However, health professionals need to 'know the person' and need to consider informal/family caregivers' wishes. Conclusion Lying was only considered acceptable in the context of knowing the person and when done with the intention not to harm or deceive, undertaken with empathy, and only for the purpose of mitigating the person living with dementia's distress.


Aspects of the Holy Space in the Church of Sweden The aim of this study is to discuss how the interior of the church building and its decoration in the 20th century was designed to express that a church is a sacred place, dedicated to the meeting between God and man. Church interiors dating from early to late 20th century are briefly analyzed, together with statements from architects and people occupied with questions about the sacred dimensions of art and architecture. A common view is that the 19th century was a period of negligence concerning aesthetic church matters and to some degree this is true. But as early as during the last part of the 19th century there was a aesthetic revival in the Church of Sweden, inspired from continental, mainly German Romantic piety and the new academic discipline of art history. It was a new interest in tradition, symbolic meaning and the aesthetic character of the church interior, combined with historic research and antiquarian ambitions. The church building as a monument of the grace of God offered to all Swedes is the theme of the Engelbrekt's church in Stockholm of 1914. The architect Lars Israel Wahlman wanted a huge room with balanced forms, rhythmic light and colour and a lot of signs and symbols signifying the main dogmas of the Christian faith and at the same time applying to the fantasy of the visitor. The choir must have the character of a sanctuary and the role of the sacraments should be underlined. A church building is consecrated to be a special place, a meeting place between God and man. To use a notion from Michel Foucault it could be called a heterotopy, an existing place but with its own rules, different from the normal everyday places in human life. The ritual of the inauguration of a church is an important document of how this heterotopy is brought about. The church dedication ritual in the service-book Den svenska kyrkohandboken from 1942, similar to the late 19th century one, underlines the holiness of God and the blessing moments of the consecration: »and may this temple be dedicated to the Lord, to his service and cult, blessed are these walls [...]». The latest Swedish consecration ritual dates from 1987. Underlined in that ritual are the liturgical movements, the procession from object to object and the consecration formula for each one. After the continental devastation of the Second World War there was a need of many new church buildings and a renewed interest in the liturgical aspects of church architecture. This affected even the situation in Sweden and one important contribution to this movement is Axel Rappe's thesis Domus ecclesiae. Studier i nutida kyrkoarkitektur (1962), dealing with fundamental aspects of church architecture looked upon from liturgical praxis, where liturgical participation of the parish and the possibility of gathering around and close to the core actions, i.e. the sacraments, are stressed. Church buildings in Sweden in the decades from 1960 to 1990 can be compared to and interpreted according to the main aspects of the thesis, e.g. the Almtuna church (1959) and St Per's church (1987) in Uppsala. Around 2000 there was diminishing interest in liturgical and traditional matters, instead functional aspects on one hand and on the other the relation between everyday, weekday life of the parish members and the service were to be expressed. Viksjo church (2005) in the northern part of Stockholm may serve as an example of this tendency.


VI Cross talk between dendritic and natural killer cells in the presence of vaccine agent against cervical cancer ABSTRACT Cervical cancer, the second most frequent gynecological malignancy in the world, is caused by infection with high-risk human papillomaviruses (HPV). Major advances in preventive methods for cervical cancer have been achieved with the recently licensed HPV prophylactic vaccines based on HPV virus like particles (VLP). These vaccines proved highly efficient to protect against HPV-16 and HPV-18 infection, but not against established infection. Previous studies have shown that HPV-VLP were able to activate dendritic cells (DC) as demonstrated by a partially matured phenotype and cytokine production. Studies of complex bidirectional cross talk between natural killer (NK) cells and DC underscored the influence of NK cells on activation and maturation of DC. NK cell activation in vaccination protocols has been rarely studied; we sought to study the effect of HPV-VLP on these cells in an autologous setting. We confirmed previous studies and when we co-cultured VLP activated DC and NK cells, we observed an increase in cell surface expression of CD69. The up-regulation of activation markers on NK cells was also accompanied by increased IFN-γ secretion in the presence of VLP. Preliminary results also showed that the activation of NK cells for CD69 is cytokine dependent and for HLA-DR cell-cell contact dependent. Interestingly, NK cells seemed to further activate DC in the presence of VLP as shown by up-regulation of HLA-DR, CD86 and CD80 on DC. Moreover we found that NK cells synergise with VLP in modulating DC cytokine secretion, since the presence of NK cells lead to further increase in IL12p70 production by DC in the presence of VLP. Furthermore, no modulation was observed for the anti inflammatory cytokine IL-10. Our results suggest that NK could play a role in the activation of DC induced by HPV-VLP during the vaccination against cervical cancer and DC in presence of HPV-VLP stimulate NK cells which could be potent effector cells against HPV-infected cells.


Given the existing deficiencies in the today's capitalist system to reduce social and human imbalances, in recent decades, both social and economy of communion entrepreneurship have emerged as new business models of high social innovation impact and humankind. However, knowledge of this type of enterprise, and the variables that can affect their activation and development is still low. One particular interest is to analyze the impact of sex on the process of starting-up these businesses, and whether being a woman acts as a trigger. Thus, by analyzing the characteristics of social and economy of communion entrepreneurship, as well as utilizing women entrepreneurship literature, we will show compatibilities between being a woman and this type of entrepreneurship, especially with regards to the necessary impetus to successfully address the different stages of the businesses creation process.


Approaches to improvement of gas exchange function of membrane oxygenator are studied. A mathematical analysis of the principle of repeated agitation of oxygenator blood layer is carried out, and the efficiency of its application in membrane oxygenators is shown.


To understand the feedback of black holes on their environment or the acceleration of ultra-high energy cosmic rays in the present cosmic epoch, a systematic, all-sky inventory of radio galaxies in the Local Universe is needed. Here we present the first catalog of radio-emitting galaxies that meets these requirements. Our catalog allows the selection of volumelimited subsamples containing all low-power radio galaxies, similar to the prototypical low-power radio galaxies Cen A or M87, within some hundred Mpc. It is constructed by matching radio emission from the NVSS and SUMSS surveys to galaxies of the 2MASS Redshift Survey (2MRS) using an image-level algorithm that properly treats the extended structure of radio sources. The sample contains 575 radio-emitting galaxies with a flux greater than 213 mJy at 1.4 GHz. Over 30% of the galaxies in our catalog are not contained in existing large-area extra-galactic radio samples. We compute the optical and radio luminosity functions and the fraction of radio galaxies as a function of galaxy luminosity. We find that the local galaxy density in a sphere of 2 Mpc centered on the radio galaxies is 1.7 times higher than around non-radio galaxies of the same luminosity and morphology. This significant enhancement suggests a causal relation between external galaxy properties, such as environment or merger history, and the formation of powerful jets in the present universe. Since the enhancement is observed with respect to galaxies of the same luminosity and Hubble type, it is not primarily driven by black hole mass. Our automated matching procedure is found to select radio-emitting galaxies with high efficiency (99%) and purity (91%), which is key for future processing of deeper, larger samples.


Denoising Diffusion Probabilistic Models (DDPMs) have achieved impressive performance on various generation tasks. By modeling the reverse process of gradually diffusing the data distribution into a Gaussian distribution, generating a sample in DDPMs can be regarded as iteratively denoising a randomly sampled Gaussian noise. However, in practice DDPMs often need hundreds even thousands of denoising steps to obtain a high-quality sample from the Gaussian noise, leading to extremely low inference efficiency. In this work, we propose a principled acceleration strategy, referred to as Early-Stopped DDPM (ES-DDPM), for DDPMs. The key idea is to stop the diffusion process early where only the few initial diffusing steps are considered and the reverse denoising process starts from a non-Gaussian distribution. By further adopting a powerful pre-trained generative model, such as GAN and VAE, in ES-DDPM, sampling from the target non-Gaussian distribution can be efficiently achieved by diffusing samples obtained from the pre-trained generative model. In this way, the number of required denoising steps is significantly reduced. In the meantime, the sample quality of ES-DDPM also improves substantially, outperforming both the vanilla DDPM and the adopted pre-trained generative model. On extensive experiments across CIFAR-10, CelebA, ImageNet, LSUN-Bedroom and LSUN-Cat, ES-DDPM obtains promising acceleration effect and performance improvement over representative baseline methods. Moreover, ES-DDPM also demonstrates several attractive properties, including being orthogonal to existing acceleration methods, as well as simultaneously enabling both global semantic and local pixel-level control in image generation.


This paper presents a low-cost, fully passive UHF RFID light sensor. We demonstrate how our design makes use of off-the-shelf photoresistors and LC components to establish a power frequency dependence which is used for improved sensor precision. Preliminary results show we can successfully identify 4 light intensity states between 0 to 1000 lux.


The polyimide performance was monitored and evaluated after exposure to ionized and particulate radiation as a space hazard. The material was irradiated with three different doses 500, 750 and 1000kGy in CO60 source in the presence of air. Both non-irradiated and irradiated materials were characterized by tensile test, Thermo-Gravimetric Analysis (TGA) and Fourier Transform Infra-Red (FTIR). Quantum modeling was executed by using "Gaussian 5" software program for chemical structure verification. The non-irradiated material showed a super ductility but revealed a brittle behavior when irradiated with 500 and 1000 kGy gamma doses. Nevertheless, the material attained moderate ductility when exposed to 750kGy. Results by the stated characterization tools matched with the evaluated behavior and confirmed by the quantum modeling.


Participatory research, user involvement, consultation, co-production, and service user participation are terms and approaches that ensure the beneficiaries of research shape how it is developed and conducted.

While such approaches are accepted practice there is little guidance for researchers on how to conduct such activities with parents/carers of children with complex health needs.

Using insights from a series of consultation activities, the authors explore ways to work effectively with parents/ carers when care responsibilities and other constraints may restrict or limit their ability to participate.

We defined children with complex needs children as those who use two or more therapy services (Occupational therapy, Speech and Language Therapy and Physiotherapy) on a regular basis.


The mathematical model of destruction of contact connections of the semi-conductor device while in service, based on kinetic thermofluctuation theory of a failure of solids. As a result of the joint decision of a stationary problem of heat conductivity and the kinetic equation describing process of disintegration of nuclear connections in the field of contact, the dependencies of longevity of work of considered contact connection of the powerful bipolar transistor from scattered power by semi-conductor structure for various values of parameters of model are found.


Aiming to explore the passive micro sensor for SF6 detection, the proposed method is about designation and structure of SF6 detection micro sensor with high signal-to-noise ratio, miniaturization and passivity. Advanced micro-machining technology is presented to sharply reduce the volume of the sensor, where the volume can be reduced by more than 50% compared with the existing sensor with discrete combination. The cost and volume reduction does not only make the new detection equipment possible, but the energy consumption of the whole system will also be greatly reduced. The application and promotion of the passive micro sensor in ring network cabinet, GIS, GIL and cable channel can bring considerable economic benefits.


A recent Editorial by Slotnick (2017) reconsiders the findings of our paper on the accuracy of false positive rate control with cluster inference in fMRI (Eklund et al, 2016). In this commentary we respond to a number of misrepresentations of our work and discuss potential problems with Slotnick's own method.


Eye movement recordings and their analysis constitute an effective way to examine visual perception. There is a special need for the design of computer software for the performance of data analysis. The present study describes the development of a new toolbox, called EyeMMV (Eye Movements Metrics & Visualizations), for post experimental eye movement analysis. The detection of fixation events is performed with the use of an introduced algorithm based on a two-step spatial dispersion threshold. Furthermore, EyeMMV is designed to support all well-known eye tracking metrics and visualization techniques. The results of fixation identification algorithm are compared with those of an algorithm of dispersion-type with a moving window, imported in another open source analysis tool. The comparison produces outputs that are strongly correlated. The EyeMMV software is developed using the scripting language of MATLAB and the source code is distributed through GitHub under the third version of GNU General Public License (link: https://github.com/krasvas/EyeMMV).


An attempt is made to find a satisfactory explanation for the average spin-spin cross section of /sup 59/Co for neutrons between 0.3 and 2.9 MeV. Calculations with an optical model spin-spin potential obviously fail to reproduce these data. A hybrid model is developed containing elements of compound-nucleus formation and of the optical model. Partial waves with orbital momenta up to l = 4 are taken into account. This model yields a good explanation of the /sup 59/Co data. It also agrees with the spin-spin cross section of /sup 165/Ho, the only other nuclide for which data exist above 0.1 MeV.


Objective To establish the mice model of vaginal Candidias albican dysbacteriosis.Method The mice were given intravaginally 30 μL of metronidazole suspension(12.5 mg/mL) for five days,then inoculated intra-vaginally with 30 μL of Candida albicans suspension(1×108 CFU/mL) for five days.After treatment the vaginal fluids were quantified by culture,and vaginal tissue was observed by electron microscope.Result The amounts of Candidias albican increased significantly and the amounts of Lactobacillus decreased significantly in the model group(P0.01).There were typical symptoms such as vaginal swell,clumpish secretion and congestive vaginal mucous membrane in the model group.Conclusion The persistent vaginal colonization with Candidias albican induced by administration of metronidazole was established in mice.


In this study the stable isotopes of carbon in plant tissue provided a means of inferring the proportional decrease in carbon dioxide concentration across the stomata, which is closely related to photosynthetic water-use efficiency. The authors analyzed the stable carbon isotope composition of tree rings laid down over the past 80 years to determine whether the proportional decrease in CO{sub 2} concentration across the stomata had increased. Dominant and codominant trees of western white pine (Pinus monticola), ponderosa pine (P. ponderosa), and Douglas-fir (Pseudotsuga menziesii var. glauca) growing at the Priest River Experimental Forest, in northern Idaho, were analyzed. To avoid confounding age and year, the authors compared the innermost rings of mature trees to trees of intermediate age and to saplings. The isotopic data were corrected for changes in isotopic composition and carbon dioxide concentration using published data from ice cores.


perhaps because the origins of the English Church, monarchy and Parliament (in that order) are medieval" (xxi). Medievalism, Alexander points out, is the "offspring of two impulses: the recovery by antiquarians and historians of materials for the study of the Middle Ages; and the imaginative adoption of medieval ideals and forms" (xxii). His interests lie in the second principle, essentially studying the imaginative output of the Revival, with chapters focusing, among other subjects, on chivalric romances, religious Gothicism, building and craft, Arthurianism, history and legend, and design. He ends with two investigations of Modernist medievalism, one focusing specifically on Christian contexts, and finishes with an epilogue that treats both academic medievalism and the increasing portrayal of medieval stories on television, film, and other visual media. In answer to what many people no doubt asked him as he prepared this volume, Alexander states emphatically that J. K. Rowling "is no medievalist" (267). Alexander's chapters are cogent, clear, enjoyable, and often insightful; although his goal seems more to identify than to theorize. He often makes pointed observations about what led to this persistent fascination with examining and remaking the Middle Ages, arguing that it provides not an escape from history but an attempt to reconstruct it. His broad scope puts to rest the idea that the Medieval Revival was solely a Victorian phenomenon, showing this "conscious adoption of, or devotion to, medieval ideals or usages" to be a long-standing and continuing movement that reaches from the 1760s to the present. Although one would have wished for more revelations about why the Middle Ages capture the imagination so fervently and have for so long, as a medievalist, finding that the period was not the obscure distant past of which it forms a part, but a continuous portion of aesthetic and social history, was affirming.


In this article compact multi band meta material antenna by using split ring resonator concept is present and thoughtful attempt is made to introduce machine learning optimization for the designed antenna. The designed (10 X 10) mm compact multiband metamaterial antenna on FR-4 substrate (ɛr =4.4) using line feeding is working at 14.42GHz, 18.92GHz & 25.22GHz frequencies with operating bandwidth of 1820MHz, 340MHz & 960MHz and VSWR of 0.17dB, 2.82dB & 0.48dB, S11 of -40.04dB, -15.91dB -31.17dB respectively. Split ring resonator concept is used for the basic design in high frequency structural simulator for the multi band antenna design. The Machine Learning (ML) approach for the optimization of antenna is discussed at length. The output error and standard deviation for the standard ML model is discussed. The proposed antenna has potential applications at 5G frequencies with multiple band operation for GSM, high data rate transmission, body area networks and Tera hertz applications.


The study purpose was to identify factors related to the effectiveness of distributors in community-based distribution (CBD) programs in Guatemala. 2 types of variables were analyzed: factors relating to the design of the CBD program and the manner in which the distributor carried out his/her job; and personal characteristics of the distributor. The current study was undertaken by the Asociacion Pro-Bienestar de la Familia (APROFAM) in Guatemala. APROFAM currently has both urban and rural CBD programs which include over 500 distributors. In this study complete data were obtained for 177 urban and 233 rural distributors who were actively participating in the CBD program as of June-August 1979. 3 different indicators of effectiveness were used: total number of active users in the past 6 months; total number of new acceptors in the past 2 months; and couple months of protection (CMP) sold during the month of May 1979. The data for urban and rural distributors were analyzed separately. A total of 15 variables related to program design/job performance and 13 variables related to the personal characteristics of the distributors. The data for the urban program indicate the importance of promotional efforts supervision and training in CBD programs. The length of time a distributor has worked in the program also influences effectiveness. The socio-demographic and other personal characteristics of the urban distributors did not seem to be related to effectiveness. These factors taken together explained 31.0% of the variance in distributor effectiveness (couple months of protection sold). In terms of the rural programs promotional efforts were also found to be important. In addition distributors who had the assistance of their spouse in the sale of contraceptives were found to be more effective than those who did not. The implications of the findings for the urban program are that in the future all efforts should be made to assure that distributors receive periodic training. During training distributors should be strongly encouraged to actively promote family planning. In the rural programs promotional efforts by the distributors should also be encouraged. Greater emphasis should also be given to the team approach to distribution which includes the participation of both spouses. There is no indication that potential distributors need to be carefully screened on socio-demographic characteristics.


The policy of remote learning (PJJ) during the COVID-19 pandemic caused new problems for the students. The Implementation of the teaching and learning process has totally changed from face-to-face into online learning and some schools tried to integrate offline and online learning. This research objective was to see the students' perception of the use of blended learning in English classes. The Subject of this study is Mechanical Engineering Students 4th Semester of STTR Cepu. This study uses a descriptive quantitative design. The researcher took data from a questionnaire on the students' perceptions in the use of blended learning which was consisted of 19 questions and an observation checklist to crosscheck the students' answers in the questionnaire. Then, analyzing the data descriptively and measuring it using a Likert scale. The results of the study showed the students' positive response toward the implementation of blended learning since it has great benefit in the teaching and learning process. The implementation of the blended learning method in English lessons required the teachers' creativity in providing an English learning platform. This research also revealed the weaknesses of Blended Learning. The success of the implementation of blended learning depended on the availability of the facilities like internet access and network in applying that method. In addition, the knowledge of using technology was necessarily mastered by the teachers and the students.


With the proliferation of occupancy in the form of villas in Bali, providing a variety of choices for tourists who will stay in Bali. The wide range of available options often confuses tourists to choose lodging according to the desired criteria. The information available on the internet is also very diverse with an unlimited amount. Especially with online ordering services that are also widely scattered on the internet, tourists often have to visit these sites one by one. Automatic lodging recommendations are needed to assist tourists in narrowing their choices in finding lodging. So in this study a recommendation system was built using the doc2Vec algorithm. Doc2Vec is an unsupervised learning algorithm that will convert documents into vectors. This recommendation system was developed using the Python language. The dataset used is a description of a collection of villas scattered throughout Bali from one of the villa rental agents. From the results of the research that has been carried out, it is proven that the doc2vec algorithm provides the best recommendation results based on the queries requested by the user. Where the PV-DM method gives better results when compared to the PV-DBOW method with an average similarity level of above 60%.


Videogames for health (video-G4H) offer exciting, innovative, potentially highly effective methods for increasing knowledge, delivering persuasive messages, changing behaviors, and influencing health outcomes. Although early outcome results are promising, additional research is needed to determine the game design and behavior change procedures that best promote G4H effectiveness and to identify and minimize possible adverse effects. Guidelines for ideal use of different types of G4H by children and adolescents should be elucidated to enhance effectiveness and minimize adverse effects. G4H stakeholders include organizational implementers, policy makers, players and their families, researchers, designers, retailers, and publishers. All stakeholders should be involved in G4H development and have a voice in setting goals to capitalize on their insights to enhance effectiveness and use of the game. In the future, multiple targeted G4H should be available to meet a population's diverse health needs in developmentally appropriate ways. Substantial, consistent, and sophisticated research with appropriate levels of funding is needed to realize the benefits of G4H. V ideogames have the ability to engage players in ways different from other media. About 29 percent of videogame players are 18 years old or younger. Games for health (G4H) are an exciting arena for scientific inquiry and a promising intervention modality. In ways unimaginable a generation ago, we are now using sophisticated technology for promoting and assessing health and well-being. Many G4H are built on platforms already familiar to players (such as personal computers, Web browsers, game consoles, and smartphones), making them readily accessible and easy to USDA/ARS Children's Nutrition Research Center, Department of Pediatrics, Baylor College of Medicine, Houston, Texas. Division of Psychological and Educational Services, Fordham University Graduate School of Education, New York, New York. Archimage, Inc., Houston, Texas. Department of Movement and Sports Sciences, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. play2PREVENT Lab, Department of Internal Medicine, Yale University School of Medicine, New Haven, Connecticut. Department of Psychology, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin. Serious Games Institute, Coventry University, Coventry, United Kingdom. Departments of Communication Studies and Health Sciences, Northeastern University, Boston, Massachusetts. Department of Psychiatry, University of Massachusetts Medical Center, Worcester, Massachusetts. Centre for Physical Activity & Nutrition Research, School of Exercise and Nutrition Sciences, Faculty of Health, Deakin University, Melbourne, Australia. Schell Games, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Department of Telecommunications, Information Studies and Media, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan. Center for Health Promotion and Prevention Research, University of Texas School of Public Health, Houston, Texas. Department of Human Geography and Spatial Planning, Utrecht University, Utrecht, The Netherlands. Pennington Biomedical Research Center, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The Center for Internet Addiction, Bradford, Pennsylvania. *Chair. Editor-in-Chief, Games for Health Journal. GAMES FOR HEALTH JOURNAL: Research, Development, and Clinical Applications Volume 4, Number 6, 2015 a Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/g4h.2015.0026 1 G4H-2015-0026-ver9-Baranowski_1P Type: white-paper G4H-2015-0026-ver9-Baranowski_1P.3d 07/13/15 3:42pm Page 1


The effects of Mg Addition mode and amount on the microstructure and mechanical properties of hypereutectic Al-25Si alloy after modification were analyzed. The results show that the Mg2Si phase is relatively small, which is in the shape of granular or small bone, and has relatively little damage to the tissue; The hardness of the alloy is directly proportional to the amount of Mg added. When 1.5wt. % Mg is added, the microstructure and properties reach the best state. If the amount of Mg 2Si is excessive, it will gradually change into a coarse mesh, Chinese character shape and deteriorate the properties. The main reason is that there is a close adhesion growth relationship between Mg2Si and eutectic silicon. The modification and refinement lead to the lack of nucleation basement and the inhibition of growth of Mg2Si. At the same time, the modified residual AlP phase is used as the nucleation point. Mg2Si phase did not coarsen obviously, and other phases also maintained in a good shape.


OBJECTIVE
This study is conducted to evaluate the effects of anti-HER-2 anti-CD3 bi-specific antibodies(BsAb) on HER-2/neuover-expressing human colorectal carcinoma cells.

METHODS
Growth was assessed by MTT assays after exposure of HCT-116 cells to Herceptin, anti-CD3 and BsAb antibodies. Immunocytochemistry was applied to test the HER-2 level of HCT-116. In a nude mouse model, HER-2 CD3 BsAb was combined with effector cells (peripheral blood lymph cells from normal human being) for observations on in Vivo growth of tumors.

RESULTS
Compared with the control group, using effector cells combined with anti-CD3 McAb, Herceptin or HER2 CD3 BsAb, tumor cell growth in vitro and in vivo was significantly inhibited (P<0.05), most remarkably in the HER2 CD3 BsAb case. The growth of xenografts with HER2 CD3 BsAb combined with effector cells was also significantly inhibited when compared with the anti-CD3 McAb or Herceptin groups (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
HER-2/neu might be a useful target for immunotherapy in colorectal carcinoma, anti-HER2 anti-CD3 BsAb exerting clear anti-tumor effects.


With the adventure of metamaterials, there has been a tremendous advancement in the manipulation of the terahertz (THz) wave. However, the excitation of high-Q-factor resonance has been a great challenge in traditional metamaterials due to ohmic and radiation losses. In this paper, the influence of the tip charge accumulation effect on the high-Q-value metasurface has been studied within the triangular array metasurface. It is found that when the tip charges accumulation resonance from each pair of triangular units can couple with each other to construct a significant resonant mode which could trap more energy to achieve higher Q value. Moreover, the stacking of the induced charges distributed at the surface of the metaunit making the coupling strength is further increased so that the strong tip charge accumulation effect could also affect the Q value. The experiment verified this phenomenon, which shows the stronger coupling resonance, and tip charge accumulation could result in the enhancement of the Q value. This research has potential applications in high-Q THz devices.


Dusser de Barenne and Gibbs 1 in 1942 presented evidence to indicate that the E.E.G. was modified during the menstrual cycle. Gibbs and Reid 2 (1942) demonstrated that in the last weeks of pregnancy the electrical activity of the cortex was definitely slowed compared to postpartum E.E.G. records. Since it is well known that in both menstruation and pregnancy marked changes occur in the blood levels of follicular and corpus luteum hormones, it was decided to determine whether E.E.G. changes could be produced by the administration of stilbesterol and progesterone to women in the menopause. In order that neither the changes during the menstrual cycle nor during pregnancy might interfere with the electrical activity of the cortex three women in the menopause were chosen for study. All three were patients in the Boston Psychopathic Hospital suffering from agitated depressions of moderate severity. None of the patients complained of menopausal symptoms. Daily E.E.G.'s were obtained with the aid of a Grass six-channel instrument throughout the period the hormones were given. The electrodes were applied to the frontal, motor, and occipital leads bilaterally and referred to indifferent interconnected ear leads. Before the administration of a hormone preparation E.E.G.'s were obtained from each patient during a control period of 7-14 days. Case 1 was a 53-year-old patient who passed through menopause about 12 years ago. She received increasing doses of stilbesterol by mouth varying from .25 to 10 mg daily for 53 days. During the last 10 days of this 53-day period intramuscular injections of progesterone (10 mg in 1 cc ampules) were administered daily. The administration of the hormones was discontinued because the patient began to menstruate. Case 2 was a 49-year-old patient who had not menstruated for 7 months.


PART ONE: MODELS AND METHODS OF SOCIAL CHANGE Flawed Paradigms Some 'Western' Models of Indian Politics Paradoxes of Power Political Science as Morality Play Desecularising the State Religion and Politics in India after Independence Caste and the Politics of Identity Beyond the Orientalist Discourse PART TWO: POLITICS AND THE SOCIAL PROCESS Ballot Box and Local Power Elections in an Indian Village The Perils of Promoting Equality The Latent Significance of the Anti-reservation Movement in India Room to Manouevre in the Middle Local Elites, Political Action and the State in India The Rational Politics of Cultural Nationalism Sub-national Movements of South Asia in Comparative Perspective Party Organisation and Policy-Making in a Changing Environment The Indian National Congress Transformation of the Party System, Social Change and Civil Society in India PART THREE: THE STATE AND SOCIAL CHANGE India Dynastic Rule or the Democratisation of Power? Between Transaction to Transcendence The State and the Institutionalisation of Power in India Crowds and Power Democracy and the Crisis of 'Governability' in India Epilogue Crisis and Resilience in Indian Democracy


In this paper, the phase-sensitive optical time-domain reflectometry (Φ-OTDR) system is experimentally demonstrated using a Rayleigh enhanced AcoustiSens optical fiber to improve the acoustic sensing performance. The AcoustiSens optical fiber made of continuous gratings over the fiber, which significantly enhances the backscattered signal by 15 dB compared to the standard single-mode silica fiber. In addition, a simple and cost-effective self-mixing demodulation technique has been employed in coherent Φ-OTDR system to eliminate the frequency offset between the electrical local oscillator and the beat signal. The acoustic sensing performance with various acoustic frequencies are experimentally demonstrated in the proposed system using a 2 km sensing fiber with 1 m spatial resolution.


Pharmacological modulation of the GABAA receptor has gained increasing attention as a potential treatment for central processes affected in Alzheimer disease (AD), including neuronal survival and cognition. The proteolytic cleavage of the amyloid precursor protein (APP) through the α‐secretase pathway decreases in AD, concurrent with cognitive impairment. This APP cleavage occurs within the β‐amyloid peptide (Aβ) sequence, precluding formation of amyloidogenic peptides and leading to the release of the soluble N‐terminal APP fragment (sAPPα) which is neurotrophic and procognitive. In this study, we show that at nanomolar‐low micromolar concentrations, etazolate, a selective GABAA receptor modulator, stimulates sAPPα production in rat cortical neurons and in guinea pig brains. Etazolate (20 nM–2 μM) dose‐dependently protected rat cortical neurons against Aβ‐induced toxicity. The neuroprotective effects of etazolate were fully blocked by GABAA receptor antagonists indicating that this neuroprotection was due to GABAA receptor signalling. Baclofen, a GABAB receptor agonist failed to inhibit the Aβ‐induced neuronal death. Furthermore, both pharmacological α‐secretase pathway inhibition and sAPPα immunoneutralization approaches prevented etazolate neuroprotection against Aβ, indicating that etazolate exerts its neuroprotective effect via sAPPα induction. Our findings therefore indicate a relationship between GABAA receptor signalling, the α‐secretase pathway and neuroprotection, documenting a new therapeutic approach for AD treatment.


Significance
 Almost overnight businesses lost contact with their customer base and were largely unable to provide teleworking arrangements for staff. However, larger Greek businesses, particularly those employing cloud technologies, were better placed to safeguard business continuity and gained competitive advantage in the domestic market.

 Impacts
 COVID-19 highlights the need for more thorough corporate emergency planning.
 International competitiveness gains are unlikely as Greek exports are mostly low value-added or based on direct interaction with customers.
 Operational costs will rise owing to the increased need to provision for cyberattacks and personal data protection litigation cases.
 Teleworking with inadequate national regulation could undermine working conditions in the long run.


We present observations of 13 CO J=6→5 emission from a variety of Galactic star-forming regions. Sources spanning a luminosity range from 1 to 106 L ○ . have been detected in this isotopic transition. The high line intensity (typically T mb =20-100 K) confirms the presence of large column densities (N H2 ≃10 23 cm −2 ) of warm (T kin ≥100 K) molecular gas in typical regions of massive star formation. The 13 CO/ 12 CO J=6→5 intensity ratio is typically much higher than the 13 CO/ 12 CO abundance ratio


Data visualisation is pmt of computer graphics where its study is on
representing data as graphics visualisation of contour map is one of data
visualisation. For this reason an online contour map visualization system can be used
by online community. The objective of this project is to analyse an existing contour
map visualization system and do some corrections and added. value to it. 3D
visualization contour map is a common function in most of of today contour map
visualization application packages. Therefore, the main purpose in the design phase
in this project is to add one more function to the original system.


Cost-effectiveness analysts generally assume that preferences over time are such that streams of monetary and nonmonetary program effects can be reduced to one discounted sum of monetary costs and another of effects. It is known that if the nonmonetary effects can be cashed out in a way that does not vary with time, then the rates of discount for monetary and nonmonetary effects have to be equal. This paper presents a more compelling argument for the equality of those rates when hard to monetize benefits such as life-saving are involved. It shows that if the ability to produce the nonmonetary effect does not diminish too quickly over time, failure to discount benefits implies that programs are always improved by delay. In general, discounting benefits and costs at different rates can lead to peculiar results.


Disease at the carotid bifurcation is most commonly owing to atherosclerosis.Trial data indicate that intervention is beneficial for patients with high grade symptomatic stenoses.Cerebral angiography remains the reference standard, but is invasive.In experienced hands, colour duplex ultrasound is able to reliably grade stenoses and is also able to give information about plaque morphology.A variety of techniques may be used to produce MR angiograms to reliably image the carotid system from the aortic arch to the Circle of WillisCarotid dissection tends to affect a younger age group and is best imaged with a combination of duplex ultrasound and MR angiography.


Internet of Things (IoT) devices are increasingly found around, in, and on us (e.g., smart home and other consumer devices) in applications ranging from environmental monitoring to healthcare (e.g., healthcare or medical IoT devices) to surveillance to industry (e.g., industrial IoT IIoT), and battlefields / military (e.g., Internet of Battlefield / Military Things). Such devices are also generally capable of capturing a broad range of information, including digital artifacts that can be used for cyber threat intelligence and inform security mitigation strategy formulation. There are, however, a number of challenges associated with designing IoT cyber security and threat intelligence solutions. In addition to the technical challenges, there are also associated legal and policy challenges that need to be considered in the design and deployment of such solutions in practice. For example, how do we use machine/deep learning to facilitate detection of real-time attacks against IoT devices and systems, and how can we automatically identify and collect digital evidence in a forensically sound manner which can be subsequently used for cyber threat intelligence? In the event that the attackers use sophisticated tools to obfuscate their trails, can we design machine/deep learning techniques to unobfuscate and/or identify and exploit vulnerabilities to get access to digital evidence? What are the potential legal implications and challenges? Can we also design explainable AI techniques to facilitate the explanation and inclusion of such digital evidence and cyber threat intelligence in court proceedings or presentations to C-level or boards in organizations? Based on these discussed challenges, we will identify potential opportunities for stakeholders in academia (e.g., students and researchers), industry and government.


Four years ago, a partner of one of the City's most eminent law firms expressed to me their concerns at the relatively new interpretation of the 1995 UK money laundering legislation, rendering a criminal offence, the failure by a professional, such as a lawyer, to report a suspicion of overseas tax evasion with a potential penalty of three years' imprisonment. Subsequent legislation in the Channel Islands and other UK dependent territories contain similar provisions. The point was made to me that British law firms should, therefore, be careful in acting for Continental European businesses in London, as corporate tax evasion by such has, historically, been widespread — or should report automatically a suspicion when acting for any such businesses.


One concern about inhaled corticosteroids is that long-term use might cause osteoporosis, a well-known adverse effect of systemic steroids. In the previously published industry-funded TORCH trial, patients with moderate-to-severe chronic obstructive pulmonary disease were randomized to receive inhaled corticosteroid (fluticasone), β-agonist (salmeterol), combination …


We study the advantage of the co-existence of future ground and space based gravitational wave detectors, in estimating the parameters of a binary coalescence. Using the post-Newtonian waveform for the inspiral of non-spinning neutron star-black hole pairs in circular orbits, we study how the estimates for chirp mass, symmetric mass ratio, and time and phase at coalescence are improved by combining the data from different space-ground detector pairs. Since the gravitational waves produced by binary coalescence also provide a suitable domain where we can study strong field gravity, we also study the deviations from general relativity using the parameterized post-Einsteinian framework. As an example, focusing on the Einstein telescope and DECIGO pair, we demonstrate that there exists a sweet spot range of sensitivity in the pre-DECIGO phase where the best enhancement due to the synergy effect can be obtained for the estimates of the post-Newtonian waveform parameters as well as the modification parameters to general relativity.


Needle-like diamond grains encased in nano-graphitic layers are an ideal granular structure of diamond films to achieve high conductivity and superior electron field emission (EFE) properties. This paper describes the plasma post-treatment (ppt) of ultrananocrystalline diamond (UNCD) films at low substrate temperature to achieve such a unique granular structure. The CH4/N2 plasma ppt-processed films exhibit high conductivity of σ = 1099 S/cm as well as excellent EFE properties with turn-on field of E0 = 2.48 V/μm (Je = 1.0 mA/cm2 at 6.5 V/μm). The ppt of UNCD film is simple and robust process that is especially useful for device applications.


Edge cloud technologies in tandem with AI-enabled solutions can contribute to overcoming the challenges that pertain the distributed execution of immersive services and contribute towards providing a positive experience for the end-users. Intelligent resource management, orchestration, and prediction systems can optimize the deployment of services, adapt to changing demands, and ensure that the services are running smoothly. This paper introduces a novel architectural paradigm capable of facilitating multi-domain edge orchestration for highly distributed immersive services by incorporating a plethora of AI solutions and technological enablers that can support multi-domain edge deployments. The proposed architecture is designed to operate on the basis of multi-level specification blueprints, which decouple the simple high-level user-intent infrastructure definition from the AI-driven orchestration and the final execution plan. The Application Management Framework (AMF) offers a visual language and tool that can be used as an alternative to a formal method for creating the intent blueprint. In the frame of this work, the latter is validated by an immersive virtual touring use-case scenario.


: The influence of Mn addition on fatigue properties of ferritic steel containing solute carbon was exam-ined using rotating bending fatigue tests on water-quenched Fe-0.016C-1.9Mn ferritic-pearlitic steel containing 0.0035 mass% solute carbon in comparison with water-quenched Fe-C ferritic steels containing 0.0063-0.017 mass% solute carbon. The fatigue tests were carried out at ambient temperature around 300 K and a frequency of 50 Hz with a stress ratio of –1. The Fe-C-Mn steel exhibited a comparable hardness and fatigue limit to the water-quenched Fe-0.017C ferritic steel which contains about three times the amount of solute carbon than the Fe-C-Mn steel. In addition, the Fe-C-Mn steel exhibited a comparable coaxing effect to the Fe-0.017C ferritic steel when started from a stress amplitude near the fatigue limit. Crack initiation sites were changed by stress amplitude unlike in the Fe-C ferritic steels. Spe-cifically, intergranular cracks were observed at high stress amplitudes and transgranular cracks were observed at low stress amplitudes near fatigue limit. It was concluded that the Mn addition suppresses intergranular cracking at the low stress amplitudes.


The invention discloses alfacalcidol capsules and a preparation method of the alfacalcidol capsules. The alfacalcidol capsules comprise alfacalcidol and formulation excipients, wherein the formulation excipients comprise a filler, a disintegrant, a surfactant, a diluent, a lubricant, a glidant and a flavoring agent. The alfacalcidol capsules disclosed by the invention have the advantages of quickness in dissolution, fastness in absorption, high bioavailability, good stability and convenience in taking.


The Council of Energy Resource Tribes (CERT) will facilitate technical expertise and training of Native Americans in renewable energy resource development for electrical generation facilities, and distributed generation options contributing to feasibility studies, strategic planning and visioning. CERT will also provide information to Tribes on energy efficiency and energy management techniques.This project will provide facilitation and coordination of expertise from government agencies and private industries to interact with Native Americans in ways that will result in renewable energy resource development, energy efficiency program development, and electrical generation facilities management by Tribal entities. The intent of this cooperative agreement is to help build capacity within the Tribes to manage these important resources.


Despite its decreasing incidence, prosthesis-related infections remain a research, diagnostic, therapeutic and
cost-related problem. Our study aim was to compare the diagnostic accuracy of conventional periprosthetic
tissue culture and culture of sonication fluid of the explanted hardware and to investigate the role of patientrelated factors affecting the sensitivity of the sonication method. We investigated 70 patients undergoing
revision hip or knee arthroplasty, at our institution. Patients' medical history and demographic
characteristics were recorded. We compared the culture of samples obtained by sonication of explanted hip
and knee prostheses with conventional culture of periprosthetic tissue for the microbiological diagnosis of
prosthetic-joint infection. Thirty-two patients had septic loosening and 38 aseptic loosening (48 hip
prostheses and 22 knee prostheses). The sensitivities of sonication fluid culture and conventional tissue
cultures were 81.25% and 56.25%, respectively (p-value = 0.043). The sensitivity of the sonication method
was statistically higher in obese, diabetic patients, with age above 60, in uncemented arthroplasties and in
arthroplasties because of primary osteoarthritis (p-values < 0.05). The sonication method has a greater
sensitivity than the conventional periprosthetic tissue cultures for the periprosthetic infections, especially in
obese, diabetic patients, with age above 60, in uncemented arthroplasties and in arthroplasties because of
primary osteoarthritis.


The detection rates for malignant gastric tumors,particularly gastric cancers,were investigated in 5,975 first-time visits and 5,027 total revisits at the Nagano Cancer Center over the last 20 years. The detection rate for gastric cancers among first-time visits was 2.8% and among those reexamined 0.8%. In terms of the reason for the total visits,those in the referral group (6.4%)were the highest,followed by the voluntary visit group (1.9%),the mass screening group (1.5%),and other physical check-up group (1.1%). The proportion of gastric cancers was shown to rise with increasing age. In terms of the presence or absence of subjective symptoms among first-timers, the detection rate of gastric cancers in the group with subjective symptoms was higher than in that without subjective symptoms. In terms of the presence or absence of a hereditary relationship with gastric cancer among first-timers, the detection rate of gastric cancers in the group with this factor was higher than in that without it. The Proportion of early cancers among detected gastric cancers accounted for over half,and those in the more recent decade were significantly higher than those in the earlier one. In summary,it examinations screening the


ABSTRACT Biological processes are controlled automatically. Registration of signals and measuring their relative strength is hence a key problem. Receptors may be relatively simple or complex. The complexity is the direct response to ambiguity of signals. If there is however a common feature of diverse signals a construction of generic receptor mechanism is usually observed. Combinatorial technique is commonly used in biological systems to decrease the complexity in reception of highly ambiguous signals.


The current study pivoted on the numerical simulation of magnetohydrodynamic nanofluid flow through the irregular boundary over the Riga plate with heat radiation, suction/injection. The governing equations of continuity, momentum, and energy are constructed to be nonlinear in nature, based on the current problem. The combination of Quasilinear technique with finite difference method using irregular boundaries has been used to solve the governing equations. The velocity profile is enhanced for incremented values of Hartman number. The thermal radiation parameter due to Rosseland approximations is enhanced for temperature and concentration profiles whereas it declines the heat transfer and mass transfer profiles. Temperature, concentration, and heat transfer rates increase for augmented magnetic parameter values, but velocity and skin friction coefficient profiles show the opposite behaviour. The enhanced values of Biot number along with suction/injection parameter reduces the values of skin friction coefficient. The radiation parameter helps to drop the energy rate in the fluid flow as it reduced the skin friction coefficient values. The upsurged values of the thermal radiation parameter along with electromagnetic parameter decreases the values of the Nusselt number.


Synthesis of a composite with a low band gap for the degradation of MDEA under LED light and gas refinery effluent under sunlight.


In the presentation, investigations of hydrolysis and complex formation of group 4, 5 and 6 elements, including the transactinide elements 104, 105 and 106 are described. They were carried out on the basis of results of relativistic calculations of the electronic structure of various hydrated, hydrolyzed and complex compounds of these elements using the fully relativistic ab initio density functional method with the GGA approximation for the exchange-correlation potential. Predictions of equilibria of hydrolysis or complex formation reactions have been made using a model which enables determination of free energy changes of the reactions as changes in the ionic and covalent contributions to the binding molecular energy separately. Those contributions were calculated using the Mulliken analysis of the electronic density distribution.


A membrane bound form of nitric oxide synthase of human erythrocytes that could be activated by insulin was purified to homogeneity by detergent solubilization of the purified membrane preparation of these cells. The purified enzyme (M r 230 KD) was found to be composed of one heavy chain (M r 135 KD) and one light chain (Mr 95 KD) held together by disulphide bond(s). Scatchard plot analysis of insulin binding to the purified enzyme showed the presence of 2 different populations of the binding sites and the activation were directly related to the hormone binding to the protein. Line weaver Burk plot of the purified enzyme showed that the stimulation of the enzymic activity by insulin was related to the decrease of K m with simultaneous increase of V max. Treatment of the purified enzyme with anti insulin receptor antibody inhibited the activation of the enzyme and the binding of the hormone to the protein. Furthermore NO itself, at low concentration (<0.4 µM) activated the enzyme, but at higher concentration (>0.8 µM) had no effect on the activation. Incubation of the purified enzyme with insulin simultaneously stimulated the tyrosine kinase and nitric oxide synthase activities of the preparations, that could be inhibited by genistein (an inhibitor of tyrosine kinase). These results indicated that the insulin activated nitric oxide synthase could be the insulin receptor itself.


Linguistic features of radio-speech text are determined by the pragmatic basis of this mass media genre. Two forms of dialogization are said to be a part of radio-text pragmatic faetures: 1) dialogization as labeled dialogicality in written texts; 2) dialogisation as deliberate forming of a dialogue.


Abstract
 This chapter focuses on the origin, morphological and physiological characteristics, cultivation history, breeding, vegetative propagation methods and molecular genetics and genomics of pistachios (Pistacia vera). The importance of the development of efficient genetic transformation protocols for the genetic improvement of pistachio germplasm is also discussed.


For the first time, quasicrystalline Al60Cu28Fe12 films with 260 nm thickness cooled at 1012–1014 K/s were produced by the modernized method of three-electrode ion-plasma sputtering. Films were deposited on NaCl substrate. The structure of as-sputtered films was investigated in comparison with that of as-cast specimens by methods of quantitative metallography, X-ray analysis, and scanning electron microscopy. Corrosion behavior in 5% NaCl aqueous solution was studied by potentiodynamic method and model tests. In the structure of the as-cast Al–Cu–Fe alloy, the quasicrystalline icosahedral i-phase was established to co-exist with λ -Al13Fe4 , τ-AlCu(Fe), η-AlCu, and θ-Al2Cu crystalline phases and occupy ~56 % of the alloy volume. The Al–Cu–Fe film contains dispersive quasicrystalline i-phase (~3 nm in size) that is stable up to 723 К. Corrosion of the as-sputtered Al–Cu–Fe film runs at the lower rate as compared with that of the as-cast alloy of the same composition. Model corrosion tests for 1, 2, 3, 4, 8 days with 5% NaCl solution at 293 K indicate that the investigated Al–Cu–Fe film remains virtually untouched by corrosion. No marks of pittings typical for as-cast Al–Cu–Fe alloys are observed on the film surface affected by saline solution.


During recent years, analytics has gained wide recognition for its capability and potential in integrating the use of information, technologies and models methods to enhance the overall organisation and business effectiveness. Analytics offers great potential for facilitating change management. Most tasks involved in change management rely on analytics. This paper presents a conceptual framework of analytics and explores how analytics can contribute to better change management. We also identify various caveats associated with such applications.


The energy by which a normal zone may be created in a cryostable composite superconductor derives almost exclusively from frictional heating, which originates from the movement of conductor against insulator. The magnitude of the frictional heat pulse depends on the mechanical properties of the winding, the frictional properties of the conductor-insulator interface, and the dynamics of the slip process. Quantification of the frictional heat pulse is presently under investigation; this paper presents preliminary results.


The invention provides a wireless charging detecting system for an electromobile. The wireless charging detecting system comprises an electric energy providing device, an electric energy receiving device and a battery manager. The electric energy providing device is connected with a charging station, and the electric energy receiving device and the battery manager are located on the electromobile. The electric energy providing device is used for transmitting electric energy to the electric energy receiving device through electromagnetic induction. The electric energy receiving device is located on the electromobile, and used for further transmitting the electric energy provided by the electric energy providing device to a vehicle-mounted power battery of the electromobile and carrying out self-checking in real time after the wireless charging procedure is started, and if a fault is detected, the electric energy receiving device sends a fault signal to the battery manager. The battery manager is used for disconnecting a wireless charging loop to stop wireless charging after receiving the fault signal. By means of the wireless charging detecting system, the safety and reliability of a charging device can be improved, and the service life of the charging device can be prolonged.


Riau is One of the targets to be achieved in national development is economic growth that can accelerate the growth of employment opportunities, so that economic development is the most important field for improving people's lives and welfare. The economic field has become a dynamist of change, namely walking ahead and driving the development of other fields. Besides playing a role in providing employment, small industry and home industry also play a role in improving the community's economy. One of the household handicraft industries is the songket fabric industry. Songket cloth is a cloth that is usually worn or worn as a bandage for the bottom of women's clothing. Songket cloth is usually worn at certain times during wedding celebrations. Songket cloth is a traditional heritage cloth from the ancestors of the people of South Sumatra. The raw materials for activities in analyzing data start from classification, categorization and interpretation, to discussion. The implementation of Islamic educational values in the use of male and female songket fabrics is in fact implicit in every stage of the procession of customs. Because this research looks more at the values of Islamic education in the use of male and female songket cloths, it is recommended that other researchers conduct broader and more comprehensive research in order to obtain more data good again.


Taking the Yellow River Delta region for an example,the vegetation distribution is analyzed.The appropriate growth salinity range and the relationship between groundwater cover depth and the regional soil salt content is analyzed by selecting the typical vegetation type.The groundwater cover depth for optimum vegetation growth is determined.Based on the groundwater critical evaporation depth,the groundwater ecologic level cover depth in the Yellow River Delta is determined with considering the land utilization conditions and prevention of seawater intrusion.Thus,it plays an important role in preventing the soil salinization and preserving the ecological environment.


Investigation on haemagglutination reaction of serum of leprosy patients have been made by various authors ; and Gernez-Rienz et al ( 1 ) , Floch and Sohier (2 and 3) . Pissier and Sacret (4) , Viet ( 5) , Roy and Banerjee ( 6 and 7 ) got positive haemagglutination titre in sera of leprosy patients. Relationship between gammaglobulin content of serum protein and antibodies is now considered an interesting problem immunolo gically. Haemagglutination reaction is an antigen-antibody reaction, so a study of electro phoretic pattern of serum proteins and its possible relation with Haemagglutination titre of sera of leprosy cases was undertaken. The result of this study is presented in this paper.


The semiclassical Laplacian with discontinuous magnetic field is considered in two dimensions. The magnetic field is sign changing with exactly two distinct values and is discontinuous along a smooth closed curve, thereby producing an attractive magnetic edge. Various accurate spectral asymptotics are established by means of a dimensional reduction involving a microlocal phase space localization allowing to deal with the discontinuity of the field.


During the past several years, a number of research programs within divisions of student affairs at American universities have been established to meet the unique management information needs of student personnel administrators. This study focused upon this population of programs for the first time. The purpose of this study was to identify and describe existing student affairs research programs and to then examine the extent to which these programs were involved in the development of management systems within the area of student personnel services. This was accomplished by designing an appropriate instrument and surveying each university campus in the United States. Descriptive statistics were obtained for all items on the questionnaire and a selected set of items were used for cross-tabulation against all other items to check for specific response trends. Where applicable, the Chi-Sauare


In this study, the combustion mechanism of Korean anthracite coal has been studied. The combustion is a typical noncatalytic heterogeneous reaction of the unreacted-core shrinking nature. The geometry of the reacting substance employed was an annulus cylinder which could simulate, "Gugong-tan", multi-hole coal briquette, used for a residential fuel in Korea. The theoretical solutions for the mass and heat balance equations derived from the unreacted-core shrinking model were obtained under two different assumptions, the reaction equilibrium and the first order reaction at the reacting surface. The experimental results, obtained with pelletized mesh anthracite were compared with the theoretical solutions. For the temperature higher than , the results agreed well with the equilibrium assumption, while the results were better fitted to the first order reaction for the temperature lower than .


In 1913[1][1] Crawford erected the genus Paurocephala for the Philippine species psylloptera , and later in 1914[2][2] described magnifrons a Mexican species in this genus. In 1919[3][3] after describing Paurocephala conigra from the Molaccas Crawford states that conigra is closely related to magnifrons and intimates that the two forms possibly constitute a new genus. I am not familiar with conigra and have not included it in this work. The genus Trigonon Crawford was set up in 1920[4][4] to receive two South Pacific forms, the type Heteropsylla longicornis Crawf. and T. pacificum Crawf. Subsequently in 1925[5][4] Psylla erythrinae Lizer, a South American species, was placed in Trigonon . There is no doubt that magnifrons Crawf. and erythrinae Lizer are congeneric even though each have been placed in separate genera.

 [1]: #fn-1
 [2]: #fn-2
 [3]: #fn-3
 [4]: #fn-4


Abstract Introduction The contribution's aim is highlighting the differences in understanding non-governmental organizations' (NGOs) role in the mental health area within the public support network for patients with mental health problems from various viewpoints, in order to achieve progress in supporting patients with mental health problems in local communities. Methods Qualitative data gathered as a part of a cross-sectional study of NGOs in the support network for patients with mental health problems in two Slovenian health regions (56 local communities), carried out in 2013 and 2014, were used. Qualitative analysis of interviews, focus groups and answers to an open survey question was performed. Results There are differences in understanding NGOs' role in the support network for patients with mental health problems, which stem from the roles of stakeholders (local community officials, experts, care providers, and patients) within this system and their experience. Discussion and conclusion The actual differences need to be addressed and overcome in order to provide integrated community care. The importance of knowing the current state of NGOs in their life cycle and the socio-chronological context of the local community support network is evident.


The study of 430 cerebrospinal fluids resulting from a neurological department showed 67 pathological medical cases according to following tests: intrathecal IgG synthesis and/or restricted heterogeneity with immuno-electrophoresis. We established a biological classification to approach the different etiologies. This classification was used for multiple sclerosis for which various strictly clinical classifications are not always able to diagnose the illness, as we show it for one of them.


This paper introduces a new family of Generic and Progressive algorithms (GPAC, for short) for continuous mobile queries over mobile objects. GPAC provides a general skeleton that can be tuned through a set of methods to behave as various continuous queries (e.g., continuous range queries and continuous k-nearest-neighbor queries). GPAC algorithms aim to provide three goals: (1) Online evaluation through an in-memory processing of the incoming mobile data. (2) Progressive evaluation through employing an incremental evaluation paradigm. (3) Fast query response through employing an anticipation paradigm. Query answer is anticipated and is cached in memory to allow for fast evaluation. GPAC algorithms are encapsulated in physical pipelined query operators. GPAC pipelined operators can be combined with traditional query operators in a query execution plan to support a wide variety of continuous queries. Experimental results based on a real implementation inside a prototype streaming database engine show the efficiency of GPAC operators in providing incremental and fast response for continuous queries.


Commensurate transmission-line networks are designed in the time domain using state-space techniques with no restrictions on the network topology. Computer-aided procedures are used to optimise the time domain responses. Several examples are given of microwave networks designed using this technique.


Agritourism has been a component of the EU, and therefore of the Greek policy for the development of the countryside since the mid-1980s. Agritourism was initially meant to function as an alternative means towards the improvement of farm structures and, through the obtainment of supplementary income, to enhance farm succession rates as well as the prospects of rural populations to stay in their native communities (e.g. EEC, Reg. 797/85). This strategy was subsequently differentiated along with the emergence of concepts such as integrated (and sustainable) rural development, endogenous development and multifunctionality which, in turn, transformed the development rationale. The Community Initiative LEADER pioneered in the implementation of projects incorporating the new rationale and thus opened up the opportunities for non-farmers and non-residents of the target areas to access the available financial assistance in order to establish agritourism related businesses (Koutsouris & hatzantonis, 2002). In the Greek case, the fragmentation of the responsibility for the implementation of such a rationale (e.g. Giagou, 2000) resulted in the financing of such businesses via multiple programmes without either coordination, a clear definition of the 'product' or a certain legal framework. A consequence of such a trajectory, in Greece, has been the lack of any systematic register of agritourism related businesses and their owners which would allow for the thorough exploration of the 'agritourism


Risks for bleeding and thrombosis must be taken into account when patients who receive oral anticoagulant therapy undergo elective colonoscopy. Is


Through several generations of development and evolution, online games have penetrated into every corner of people's lives and formed a new kind of consumption culture, thus they are likely to be not only required, but essential for the folk's daily life and broaden the horizon and knowledge of the players at the same time. Architecture scene in the online games is an important occasion and environment for the activities and performance of the game characters. Architecture scene includes time, location, and space, and it helps to show the historical background and the geographical environment from multiple perspectives. More importantly, it helps to show the relative architecture culture style and the architecture characteristics of the times. In online games' virtual world, exquisite architecture scene can not only set off the competition atmosphere, bring the players into the games' plot quickly, but also make the cultural connotation and the cultural emotion that the makers want to convey in the games sensed visually by the players. Online games should be treated rationally, because it is not only a media of entertainment but also a media of cultural transmission. With the emergence and popularity of many online games based on Chinese stories, we should pay more attention to the function of transmission of the online games.


Rhizobia are a group of soil bacteria that fix nitrogen symbiotically with legumes.They are gram negative, motile rod shaped bacteria. In this study, attempts have been made to evaluate the potential of Rhizobium to be used as phosphate solubilizing bacteria along with indole acetic acid production. Ajmer being a semi arid zone of Rajasthan was selected for the study of these phosphate solublizer and indole acetic acid producer isolated from root nodules of Trigonella foe- numgraecum and Tephrosia purpurea .Twenty bacterial forms were isolated and screened . Phosphate solubilization was detected both quantitatively as well as qualitatively and effects of Tryptophan on production of Indole acetic acid and the optimal incubation period were also determined. IAA produced by the Rhizobium could be used as sprays for the substitute of growth hormones produced by plants .Sixteen strains were found positive for phosphate solubilization and fourteen were positive for Indole acetic acid production with 150 µg/ml of Tryptophan for 72 hrs of incubation period. Thus, the potential capacity of present Rhizobial isolate in phosphate solubilization and Indole acetic acid production can be used as biological fertilizers and would play significant role in achieving sustainable agriculture and also maintain the eco-friendly environment as a substitute of chemical fertilizers . Application of such strains in the form of biofertilizers to nutrient deficient soil could be used as promising mode for the enrichment of nutrient deficient soils.


An analysis is made in terms of a semiclassical strong absorption model of all published angular distributions of intermediate energy alpha particles elastically scattered from heavy or medium weight nuclei as well as some examples of elastic proton and deuteron scattering. Moderately good agreement is found for radii obtained from different sets of data and also from analysis of fixed angle, variable energy experiments, there is some indication that the sharp cutoff radius increases as the bombarding energy is lowered to the Ceulomb barrier. The connection between these results and optical model parameters is discussed. The best-fit critical angular momenta, 1',are found to be essentially equivalent to the largest angular momenta, 1/sub m, such that the lmth potential barrier is classically surmounted by the bombarding particle when the most recent optical model parameters are used to represent the nuclear potential. It is suggested that, when the penetration depth is small, the most important effective'' parameter is l/sub m/. (auth)


Problem aspects of surrogate motherhood legal regulation: an international practice review. The article is considered the surrogate motherhood legal regulation in different countries. The author has given three types of legal regulation examples in foreign countries: surrogate motherhood is allowed but has no legal regulation, it has clear legal regulation, and surrogate motherhood is prohibited. Importantly, the private international law application does not always unambiguously solve the problems that can occur during surrogate motherhood. This situation has arisen as a result of states' different approaches to the surrogate motherhood institution. In practice, potential parents may have problems with their paternity legalization. However, as our study has been shown, in many countries the question of the child origin determination remains unresolved. Thus, except in Ukraine, several other states do not have special legislation that would regulate specific legal relations that have arisen during surrogate motherhood. The Law of Ukraine on Private International Law only in some way regulates the rights that are crucial in this context, including the children's right to know their origin and the right to paternity. The article has been emphasized the importance of special rules introduction into the current legislation that has regulated the surrogate motherhood legal relationship which is complicated by a foreign element. In the author's opinion, by analyzing international practice, the surrogate motherhood agreement cannot be regulated by general provisions that are defined by civil law as the legal rela- tionship specifics and agreement's consequences should be taken into account. International practice should be united, so it is proposed to entrust the World Health Organization with the recommendations development and harmonization of international surrogate motherhood policy.


We report on our calculation of next-to-leading-order electroweak corrections to W-boson pair production at the LHC, taking into account off-shell effects and spin correlations of the W bosons and their leptonic decays in the framework of a double-pole approximation. We study the various contributions to the electroweak corrections in detail and discuss their impact on selected observables within a realistic event-selection setup.


The article gives the results of the longitude investigation of the moral relations development during the teenagers' age ontogenesis. The types, content, formal and dynamical characteristics, tendencies, structures, development mechanisms of moral relations development are revealed. All these data were the basis of the object's characteristics requiring the social and pedagogical accompanying at this age.


Recently, the number of trader by internet securities companies has increased rapidly. There have been reported lots of studies on forecast of stock prices based on the closing price. However, there are few researches which utilize real time information such as bid and ask price. In this paper, the authors proposed a novel method of evolving day-trade strategies by means of the genetic programming which utilized only order book information. The performance of the proposed method is shown by means of Day Trade Agent Framework (DTAF).


The eschatology of 1 Peter: hope and vindication for visiting and resident strangers The addressees of 1 Peter were living in an unfriendly environ-ment. They were aliens and strangers, probably not only because of their Christian faith, but mainly because they were not citizens of the areas they lived in. Their alien status con-tributed considerably to their special situation, and this is the context within which the eschatology of 1 Peter is constructed. This article presents a working definition of eschatology. Then it constructs the life situation of the addressees. The eschato-logical utterances are identified and categorised, and the argument of 1 Peter is briefly constructed. The eschatological utterances are then interpreted. Finally the eschatology of 1 Peter is concluded and summarised.


Studies of different types of nuclear excitation and isomers remain the main thrust area of the last experimental campaign using INGA at TIFR-BARC Pelletron Linac Facility at Mumbai. A digital data acquisition system has been coupled with the INGA which has improved the data throughput and better gain stability. About forty experiments that have been proposed in this experimental campaign. Selected results from these experiments will be discussed.


With an increased penetration of renewable energy sources such as solar and wind in the South African power network, maintaining power system stability during network disturbance poses a major challenge. This paper is used to describe how synchronous compensators generally help to boost grid inertia and improve network dynamics in the event of a disturbance. The paper is also used to describe the functioning of a new type of synchronous compensator—the wound-field flux switching compensator (WF-FSC). Experimental tests conducted on a prototype shows that the WF-FSC does not only provide a more reliable technology, but it can also extend the reactive power range by operating without any field current due to saliency.


Does not contain an oxidizing agent an organic acid, an abrasive and optionally a second step barrier layer to remove the polishing liquid for polishing of the copper CMP in containing a copper corrosion inhibitor has a high selection of the blocking layer also on the barrier layer selectivity and the insulating layer of the metal .


One of the main reasons why tubes employing planar periodic electrostatic focusing of electron sheet beams have not been used more widely is that extremely precise alignment of tube parts is required in order to achieve good beam transmission. A simple technique for achieving this precise alignment has been developed. This technique, in brief, consists of the assembly of the tube electrodes in two separate halves, the surfaces of which are then ground simultaneously with an abrasive wheel. Finally, the two halves are bolted together at each end. This technique has been employed successfully in the construction of a tube containing a 2.1 in. long electrostatic focusing structure consisting of 19 pairs of plates having a separation of 0.025 in. In this tube, 99.8% of the 0.005 in. thick, 28 µ amp. electron beam was transmitted through the structure with no increase of beam width. This technique can be applied to the construction of any device employing planar periodic electrostatic focusing of a sheet beam. Two possible applications are a transverse-field traveling-wave tube and a parametric amplifier. This technique may also be used for constructing well-aligned electron guns for generating well-collimated sheet beams to be used for other applications, such as slalom focusing and E-type devices.


Incorporating polypropylene fibre into concrete for externally paved areas is increasing every year. Not only will the fibres contribute to the ability of the concrete to resist damage caused by freezing and thawing cycles, but they will also improve impact resistance, abrasion resistance and resistance to plastic cracking. The benefits of the fibres will therefore be to improve not only the durability of the concrete slab but also the long-term aesthetics of the concrete by reducing impact and abrasion damage.


The temperature dependence of the gas permeation properties of poly (1-trimethylsilyl-1-propyne) [PMSP] /poly (1-phenyl-1-propyne) [PPP] blends and poly (TMSP-co-PP) films was studied. As PP content increases, the activation energies of permeation (Ep) and diffusion (ED) for various gases in these materials increase, but no distinct change in the heat of solution (ΔHs) is observed. The increase in Ep is due to an increase in ED. All ED values are positive, while all ΔHs values are negative. In pure PMSP, Ep is negative for most gases because |ED| is much smaller than |ΔHs|. When the PP content exceeds 40 vol% in poly (TMSP-co-PP), however, Ep becomes positive because |ED| is now larger than |ΔHs|. Furthermore, Ep decreases with increasing critical temperature (Tc) of the penetrants because ΔHs decreases more than ED increases. After storage in air, the gas permeabilities of thin PMSP/PPP (9 : 1) blend films are found to be much lower than those of thin poly (TMSP-co-PP) (9 : 1) films. However, no substantial difference between the activation energies of permeation in these aged blend and copolymer films is observed. The gas permeabilities of thin poly (TMSP-co-PP) films are reduced even further after thermal treatment.This permeability reduction is a consequence of a larger Ep in the heat-treated, copolymer films. Ep is higher because of an increase in ED due to densification of these films by thermal treatment.


Abstract A rapid method is described for the determination of total cadmium (Cd) in soils. The soil samples and standard sediment samples were digested in a microwave oven using concentrated HNO3 and also by the conventional HF‐HC1O4 digestion in platinum crucibles. The Cd content in the extracts was determined using graphite furnace atomic absorption spectro‐photometry (GFAAS). Both digestion methods produced comparable quantitative values for total Cd of standard reference materials obtained from the National Institute of Standards and Technology and a series of surface and subsurface soil samples. Thus, the microwave digestion technique was shown to be an accurate and rapid method for digesting soil samples prior to total Cd analysis.


*Recently, the South Asian Association for Regional Co-operation (SAARC) completed two decades of its existence. The heads of states or governments of its member countries, viz. Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, once again would meet in Dhaka and reaffirm their faith in the organisation and its charter. Considering the political reality within the individual SAARC nations, and especially the relationship between the two biggest members of the association, one could feel satisfied that the association has survived so far. But its movement in terms of achieving the objectives for which it was formed has been slow and it is criticised as a house of cards or a house built on sand, which can fall apart any time. There is a big stress in the interrelationship between neighbours. Founded with the objectives, among others things, of promoting the welfare of the peoples of south Asia and improving their quality of life; promoting active collaboration and mutual assistance in the economic, social, cultural, technical and scientific fields; and strengthening cooperation among themselves (member countries) on matters of common interests, the association has identified a number of areas of cooperation among its member nations to achieve these objectives. The areas identified for cooperation among the member nations are: agriculture and rural development; health and population; women, youth and children; environment and forestry; science and technology; and metrology, transport and human resource development. In addition, working groups have been established in the areas of information and communication technology and biotechnology, intellectual property rights, tourism and energy. Under the auspices of the association, various regional centres covering agriculture, tuberculosis, documentation, meteorological research and human resource development are working from different SAARC capitals. In addition, three new regional centres covering culture, coastal zone management and information are being established.


The article deals with problems, main directions and methods of studying modern childhood in the humanities. The phenomenon of childhood is characterized as a special sociocultural phenomenon that requires an interdisciplinary methodology for its understanding, as well as implementation of a subjective approach to study rather than a traditional object one. The peculiarity of the research based on the phenomenological approach lies in the formulation and solution of both research and project tasks. Research tasks: fixation, description and interpretation of modern childhood markers based on the material of "Samara childhood"; project tasks: creation and distribution of a methodological product - "Encyclopedia of Modern Childhood" (manuals for adults, created by children), addressed to teachers and parents. The development of the encyclopedia was carried out by the project team of Samara branch MCPU students based on a sample of 2158 Samara schoolchildren. The concept, tools and product of the project "Encyclopedia of Modern Childhood" are characterized. The structure of the empirical content served as the basis for the sections of the manual: "Childhood: associations, thoughts and more", "Growing up, adults, addressing adults", "World of childhood", applications "Incomprehensible words for adults". The interpretive part of the research is represented by a selective content analysis of concepts "childhood", "adult" based on the secondary processing of the results. The analysis of the results reveals the following conclusions: the timeless archetype of child's consciousness maintains the dichotomous opposition of the "world of adults" (boring, problematic) and the "world of children" (carefree, sunny, positive); despite intensification, informatization of the way of life and transformation of the growing environment of a modern child, the perception of childhood as a special, inimitably happy chronotope is inherent in children.


High data dimensionality of hyperspectral image results in many difficulties for effective information extraction and classification. Taken into consideration of this, adaptive subspace decomposition (ASD) is introduced in this paper. Then, hyperspectral image classification on the basis of information fusion is studied. Information fusion on the subspaces obtained by ASD is beneficial to the features concentration and extraction. The experiments on AVIRIS images show that it is effective to divide data sources by ASD and feature fusion based on wavelet and decision fusion based on consensus theory are suitable to hyperspectral image classification.


Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), especially when it is related to childhood abuse, has a poor response to standard treatments, especially in the


The objective of this study was to develop calibrations for the prediction of intramuscular fat content of pork loins, based on visible + near infrared spectroscopy (350-1800nm) measured on ungrounded muscle. A total of 100 loins were randomly selected, intramuscular fat level was graded using the NPPC scale and spectrums were acquired at the center of the sample (bone in pork chop located at the last rib level). Two kind of spectrums were acquired on loins and included in the calibration data sets: single spectrums and averaged spectrums (4 adjacent spectrums). The reference intramuscular fat content of the samples was determined by chemical analysis. Calibration by cross-validation showed a satisfying accuracy for the single spectrum database (R2c=0.74) and more precise results for averaged spectrums (R2c=0.85). External validation results (n=26) revealed a sharp decrease in the correlation between observed/predicted intramuscular fat (r=0.46, single spectrum database), but a better accuracy was obtained with averaged spectrums (r=0.58). These data are consistent with the strategy of developing a dedicated probe with a larger measurement window.


Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML) is a blood disorder which can be identified by the accumulation of somatic gene mutations. AML is characterized by formation of immature myeloid blasts in bone marrow and blood. Micro-RNAs (miRNAs) are 18–22 nucleotides, non-coding RNAs that play an important role in normal hematopoiesis. Aberrant expression of miRNA has been observed in leukemia and other diseases. One of the genes associated with AML is EVI1 (Ecotropic Viral Integration Site-1). Over expression of EVI1 is an indication of leukemic disease prognosis and EVI1 associated AML has been deemed as poor prognosis. Ectopic expression of EVI1 in AML regulates the expression of miRNAs, which eventually alters the functional properties of leukemic cells. In this review, we will discuss the role and importance of miRNA in cancers especially in leukemia. We also discuss the role of oncogene EVI1 in leukemia and its expression affecting the miRNA status of leukemic cells. In this review, we suggest that miRNA can be used as tools for cancer therapy and diagnosis. MiRNAs have been used in classifying cancers which has eased the efforts of medical practitioners to develop a strategy for cancer treatment. However, further insights in miRNA's cellular function would provide us with more options in treating cancer.