It is well documented that observers are able to accurately extract the semantic information from natural scenes in 120 msec (Thorpe, Fize, & Merlot, 1996). This rapid categorization ability is often cited as evidence that the information that is required to categorize a scene originates from low-level visual information. Information related to an image's spatial scales (Oliva & Schyns, 1997; Schyns & Oliva, 1994), phase (Joubert, Rousselet, Fabre-Thorpe, & Fize, 2009; Loschky et al., 2007, 2010; Loschky & Larson, 2008), overall summary statistics (Evans & Treisman, 2005), and colour (Castelhano & Henderson, 2008; 2005; Loschky & Simons, 2004; Oliva & Schyns, 2000) have all been shown to provide information that can be used to categorize a briefly presented image. The experiments reported in this dissertation were designed to address the overarching question of how the visual system selects diagnostic scene information? It addressed this question by examining the hypothesis that visual attention facilitates the selection of information that underpins rapid scene categorization. In order to investigate this hypothesis, the present work was divided into two main manuscripts. Manuscript 1 is presented in Chapter 2 and includes four experiments that were designed to investigate if attending to global and local levels of a scene facilitate categorization based on a scene's coarse and fine information, respectively. This hypothesis was explored by asking observers to classify hybrid images. A hybrid image combines the coarse information (conveyed by an image's low spatial frequencies) of one image (e.g., a city) and the fine information (conveyed by an image's high spatial frequencies) of a second image (e.g., a highway). Experiments 1 and 2 showed that although observers could classify hybrid images based on both fine and coarse information (i.e., as either a city or a highway scene; Experiment 1), observers preferred to base categorization on coarse content (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 demonstrated that categorization based on coarse content was facilitated when observers were prompted to attend globally to scenes compared to when they were prompted to attend locally. Experiment 4 demonstrated that this global facilitation effect was due, in part, to the facilitation of a hybrid's low spatial frequencies.
 Manuscript 2 is presented in Chapter 3 and contains four experiments that investigated the hypothesis that distributed attention facilitates the extraction of a scene's overall summary statistics, which in turn, facilitates the ability to rapidly categorize scenes (Evans & Treisman, 2005). This hypothesis was investigated by examining whether manipulations of attention affected scene categorization in the same fashion as the extraction of overall summary statistics. Experiment 1 replicated the result that extraction of a scene's summary statistics is more compatible with distributed attention than focused attention (Chong & Treisman, 2005). Experiments 2 and 4 extended this finding by demonstrating that superordinate level categorization of both animals (e.g., detect the presence [or absence] of an animal, Experiment 2), and natural scenes (e.g., was the scene natural? Experiment 4), were more compatible with distributed than focused attention. However, Experiment 3 showed that there was no difference between the effects of distributed and focused attention on basic level categorization (e.g., was this a beach scene?).
 Together, the findings of this thesis demonstrate that visual attention is important in the rapid categorization of a natural scene, by facilitating the selection of scene information that is necessary to classify a scene category.


To evaluate Ni dynamics at the subcellular level, the distribution and speciation of Ni were determined in wild-type (WT) and Ni-tolerant (NIT) tobacco BY-2 cell lines. When exposed to low but toxic levels of Ni, NIT cells were found to contain 2.5-fold more Ni (14% of whole-cell Ni values) in their cell walls than WT cells (6% of whole-cell Ni values). In addition to higher levels of Ni in the apoplast, a higher proportion (94%) of symplastic Ni was localized in the vacuoles of NIT cells than in the vacuoles of WT cells (81%). The concentration of cytosolic Ni in the NIT cells was significantly lower (18 nmol g(-1) FW) than that in the WT cells (85 nmol g(-1) FW). In silico simulation showed that 95% of vacuolar Ni was in the form of Ni-citrate complexes, and that free Ni(2+) was virtually absent in the NIT cells. On the other hand, the amount of free metal ions was markedly increased in WT cells because free citrate was depleted by chelation of Ni. A protoplast viability assay using BCECF-AM further demonstrated that the main mechanism that confers strong Ni tolerance was present in the symplast as opposed to the cell wall.


Coarse-grained architectures (CGRAs) can be tailored and optimized for different application domains. The vast design space of coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures complicates the design of optimized processors. The goal is to design a domain-specific processor that provides just enough-flexibility for that domain while minimizing the energy consumption for a given level of performance. However, a flexible architecture template and a retargetable simulator and compiler enable systematic architecture exploration that can lead to more efficient domain-specific architecture design. This article presents such an environment and an architecture exploration for a novel CGRA template.


Recently, a multidisciplinary research collaboration began a clinical study employing a dual modality, small field-of-view (SFOV) breast imaging system. The system, comprised of a mini gamma camera and digital X-ray detector, was designed to provide a spatially coregistered image containing both X-ray and radiotracer data. Images were evaluated to quantify the spatial correlation of X-ray structures and radiotracer uptake distribution.


We have described a set of laboratory experiments which establish the primary properties of Alfvén waves and have mentioned natural phenomena in which these waves exert a strong influence. To date, there have been few technological applications of Alfvén waves, although the waves are being considered for use in hydromagnetic amplifiers and in connection with plasma heating techniques associated with controlled thermonuclear fusion devices. As with any new findings, detailed prediction of future applications is impossible.


In the healthcare and public health community, information technology and data management tools are indispensable in preventing, preparing for, responding to, and recovering from public health emergencies, both natural and manmade. This chapter is divided into three sections. The first section discusses various uses of health technology and data systems in disaster preparedness and response. The second section expounds on technological applications to train healthcare staff for their roles and responsibilities in delivering critical health services during a disaster, as well as to integrate healthcare organizations and providers into the broader community planning and response processes. The chapter concludes with a model that has been implemented to integrate and train the broader group of community stakeholders, including healthcare organizations and providers, in disaster preparedness and response.


MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are attracting considerable attention as potential biomarkers for the early diagnosis of cancer. We have been developing a detection method for miRNAs on a microfluidic chip with external-power-free fluid pumping and enzyme-free amplification. The assay is completed within 20 min. Here, we describe the specificity of this miRNA detection method. First, the specificity against mismatched sequences was investigated. The nonspecific detection of a 2-nucleotide mismatched sequence was negligible, while that of a 1-nucleotide mismatched sequence was observed to a reasonable extent. Next, the disturbance in mature miRNA detection by existence of its precursor miRNA was evaluated. One precursor miRNA out of four tested showed significant nonspecific responses at 1 nM or higher concentrations. However, those responses were much lower than that of the target mature miRNA at 0.1 nM. Finally, we tried to detect three endogenous miRNAs, which are known to be potential cancer biomarkers, in human leucocyte total RNA. The measured concentraions of these miRNAs agreed well with those obtained by quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction. These results indicate that the on-chip miRNA detection method has good specificity, which is promising for applications to real biological samples.


What form should restriction of liberty take?The paper is analysis of restriction of liberty from the emergence of this remedy till the most recent, very far reaching changes. The concept of a work-based criminal remedy has been known in Polish criminal law for a long time. Successive forms of this remedy have yet to fulfil the expectations associated with it. If so far no form of this remedy, including its probational elements, has convinced the courts to opt for it more often, perhaps the catalogue of criminal remedies listed in Article 32 of the Criminal Code should be expanded to include "community work". Some steps towards introducing such a proposal have already been taken; at the moment the duties of professional probation officers include organisation and control of sentence enforcement.


Relevance . The evaluation of adaptive ability of varieties is an actual direction in selection. Phenotypic plasticity of legume crops, in particular green bean, in Siberian region has not been studied enough. There is a need to evaluate grade samples for adaptability and stability, as highly and medium adaptive varieties can realize their genetic potential of productivity in extreme continental climate of Western Siberia. Materials and methods . On the basis Department of Selection, Genetics and Forestry, Novosibirsk State Agrarian University (2015-2019), long-term evaluation of grade samples of green bean of different ecological and geographical origin with a bush type of growth was carried out. Of particular interest are signs that have a significant impact on crop productivity. The signs were studied: number of beans on plant, weight of beans from plant, weight of one bean, yield capacity. The objective of the study is to evaluate the adaptive ability and stability of common bean varieties in the conditions of Siberian region. Results . The conditions of Western Siberia are suitable for cultivating vegetable beans on a green spatula and seeds. It has been established that, based on the weight of one bean, the coefficient of variation has a negative value. This indicates a low variability of the trait depending on the natural and climatic conditions, which allows selection of breeding valuable varieties for this parameter. As a result of the study, 6 genotypes of the crop, combining high productivity and environmental resistance, were selected. It was established that varieties Veronika and Darina can be referred to non-plastic samples. Samples could diversify breeding material of the crop and show the value according to specific features in edaphic-climatic conditions of Western Siberia.


"When the UK figures are adjusted to reflect the difference in the size of the population, we find an estimated number of UK cases at 150,000 compared to the US number of 950,000. Even if we took into account operational factors related to registration criteria and the separate issue of substantiation in the UK, there is still a strong suggestion that the US is intervening and substantiating cases two to three times more than in the UK." Child abuse has been recognized in both the United States and most of Western Europe for well over a century. Debates continue as to whether it is a preventable social problem and what the response should be. (1) Here, we will be addressing the debate by examining the political and legal issues of child abuse and by using a case illustration to compare intervention approaches in the United States to those used in the United Kingdom. We will then review comparable child abuse data in the US and UK and speculate on the factors associated with the wide variation in "reported cases" found in both countries. CASE ILLUSTRATION The following example is based upon an actual case in New York City: Jean Paul is a seven-year-old boy living in Flatbush, Brooklyn, with his mother, father, younger twin siblings and an older half-brother (his father's son from a previous relationship). His mother and father are both Haitian immigrants. One day, they received a call from Jean Paul's teacher; apparently, Jean Paul was late to school and had cursed the teacher when she demanded an explanation for his tardiness. For the two days following the phone call, Jean Paul was absent from school. His teacher, based on some previous negative experiences with Haitian students in her school, became concerned for Jean Paul's safety. She contacted child protective services in New York City (Administration for Children's Services, ACS) on a suspicion that Jean Paul might have been hurt by his parents in response to her phone call. THE ACTUAL US RESPONSE ACS responded to the report by initiating an investigation that began with a visit to the home and the questioning of the family. The ACS worker found Jean Paul at home with several bruises, which he stated were caused by the belt buckle with which his father used to hit him. Jean Paul's father, Brandon (not his real name), was arrested and charged with assault. He spent one night in jail; the family had to take out a loan to post bail. Brandon pleaded guilty to aggravated assault. He was sentenced in criminal court to mandated anger management classes, several court appearances and fines. Family court was also called into the case, and the family was given two options: Brandon could either move out of the house and participate in mandated preventive services, or all his four children would be put into protective custody (foster care). Brandon chose the first option, and moved out of the house. Prior to his arrest, he was working full-time and attending night school. After the arrest, Brandon, faced with fines, additional rent and time needed for anger management courses, preventive service meetings and court appearances, had neither the time for college nor the tuition money. He stopped his college courses. The stress, time strains and criminal record also put Brandon at risk of losing his job. Meanwhile, Brandon was only allowed to see his children during scheduled supervised visits. Jean Paul and his siblings missed their father. Jean Paul began to have behavioral problems in school. Brandon was angry at the system for penalizing him for what he considered good parenting. According to Brandon, in his country he would have been considered neglectful if he had not "disciplined" Jean Paul. Brandon is concerned that Jean Paul has no role model at home and thinks that his father is a criminal. A PROBABLE RESPONSE IN THE UK A social worker from the Local Authority, the UK's child protection agency, discusses the teacher's reasons for referral and asks her to speak to the teacher designated with child protection responsibility within Jean Paul's school. …


In order to further understand the hypersonic blackout problem, the first step is to investigate models to quantify signal degradation and begin implementing these models to representative plasma sheath and flow data. This research is the first attempt at implementing a model to predict RF signal degradation through the plasma sheath surrounding the hypersonic air vehicle. The investigation is performed using a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) based flow solver. The dsmcFoam solver in the OpenFoam library is used to simulate the flow around hypersonic bodies to obtain flow field properties, most importantly the electron number density profile, to aid in the calculations of signal degradation. The study of viability of RF communications from hypersonic, fixed-wing aircraft are paramount to the future of hypersonic military capabilities and even hypersonic travel. Predicting signal degradation for a transmission along a line of sight in real-time can eliminate radio blackout by guiding the gain models on the signal decoding side and allowing reconstruction of the transmission. Even without reconstruction, accurately predicting when signals will be unrecoverable can serve as an indicator for a hypersonic vehicle to send communications to a different ground station or satellite. The integration method employed to integrate over the output electron number density profile yields values for attenuation that drop below 100 decibels in the transmission window of 10 to 30 GHz. Outside of this transmission window, attenuation and phase shift are high indicating poor chance of viable communication. If signal degradation models can be verified and improved with the flight data in the future, these results suggest that vital radar and satellite communications are possible through the plasma sheath and can be decoded using accurately predicted degradation values.


This paper presents a case study based on the experiences surrounding a distance-learning module in the area of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) that includes a creative multimedia component as an integral part of its teaching and assessment. The module requires that students engage in multimedia production to articulate their ideas and understanding of technology-related concepts, in contrast with the text-based assessment practices that are more commonplace in technological subjects. Open Educational Resources form an integral part of the module both in its delivery and assessment: whilst open-source software and media are used within the teaching materials, students' multimedia work submitted for assessment has the potential to become resources for their peers. The paper examines the challenges encountered in developing the module and provides a preliminary discussion of views, concerns and potential issues faced by students, drawing upon the experiences of the module development team and the first cohort of students enrolled in the module. Whilst providing an overview of these experiences, the text explores issues pertaining to the integration of creative work into a domain where creativity has not been traditionally seen to play an explicit role. The module sits within an undergraduate ICT degree offered by the UK Open University (UKOU).


We describe a Webmail server that runs on a bare PC without an operating system (OS) or kernel, and give details of its architecture, design, and implementation. We also present the results of experiments conducted in a test LAN environment to compare performance of the bare PC Webmail server with conventional Webmail servers Atmail and Mailtraq running on Linux and Windows respectively. Performance is evaluated by measuring the processing time for login requests; inbox requests with a varying number of emails; and composing or retrieving email messages and sending attachments of various sizes. We also measure the throughput for various sizes; and, under stress conditions, the processing and response times with a varying number of connections, and the total and average processing times for the POST command with a varying number of users. The results show that the performance of the bare PC Webmail server is significantly better than that of the OS-based servers. The bare PC Webmail server is an alternative to conventional Webmail systems, and its architecture and design features could be used as a basis for developing future high-performance systems. Keywords-bare machine computing; bare PC; application object; Webmail server; operating systems


We present COSMOS-Drift And SHift (DASH), a Hubble Space Telescope (HST) Wide Field Camera 3 (WFC3) imaging survey of the COSMOS field in the H160 filter. The survey comprises 456 individual WFC3 pointings corresponding to an area of 0.49 deg2 (0.66 deg2 when including archival data) and reaches a 5σ point-source limit of H160 = 25.1 (0.″3 aperture). COSMOS-DASH is the widest HST/WFC3 imaging survey in the H160 filter, tripling the extragalactic survey area in the near-infrared at HST resolution. We make the reduced H160 mosaic available to the community. We use this data set to measure the sizes of 169 galaxies with at 1.5 < z < 3.0 and augment this sample with 749 galaxies at 0.1 < z < 1.5 using archival ACS imaging. We find that the median size of galaxies in this mass range changes with redshift as kpc. Separating the galaxies into star-forming and quiescent galaxies using their rest-frame U − V and V − J colors, we find no statistical difference between the median sizes of the most massive star-forming and quiescent galaxies at : they are 4.9 ± 0.9 kpc and 4.3 ± 0.3 kpc, respectively. However, we do find a significant difference in the Sèrsic index between the two samples, such that massive quiescent galaxies have higher central densities than star-forming galaxies. We extend the size−mass analysis to lower masses by combining it with the 3D-HST/CANDELS sample of van der Wel et al. and derive empirical relations between size, mass, and redshift. Fitting a relation of the form , with and reff in kpc, we find log A = −0.25 log(1 + z) + 0.80 and α = −0.13 log(1 + z) + 0.27. We also provide relations for the subsamples of star-forming and quiescent galaxies. Our results confirm previous studies that were based on smaller samples or ground-based imaging.


This investigation (1) examined the interrelations among normative beliefs, alcohol expectancies, and alcohol-related problems and (2) investigated whether alcohol-related expectancies mediate associations between normative beliefs and alcohol-related problems. Participants were 65 undergraduate college students who were participating in the evaluation of an alcohol education curriculum (Wyrick & Fearnow-Kenney 2002). Hierarchical multiple regression analyses provided support for one of the central tenets of social learning theory: that alcohol expectancies mediate the relationship between normative beliefs (the prevalence and acceptance of alcohol use) and alcohol-related socio-emotional and community problems. When differences in the operational definition of normative beliefs are considered, findings are consistent with previous research of the mediational role of alcohol expectancies. Implications for theory and alcohol education are discussed.


The study of molecular heterojunction morphology is often complicated by the presence of a topographically complex substrate. On such substrates, it is difficult to definitively assign a topographic feature to a specific component. We propose a technique, based on the separation of features in reciprocal space (Fourier subtraction), to deconvolute a heterojunction surface into two real space images. The technique has been successfully applied to three classes of systems: (1) where the overlayer features are smaller than those of the substrate, such as with small molecule growth on polymer substrates (DIP/PEDOT:PSS); (2) where the overlayer features are larger than the substrate, such as with a polymer film in contact with a corrugated metal surface (P3HT/Al), and (3) where both the overlayer and substrate features are of the same size. The Fourier subtraction method extends the study of morphology to heterojunctions with realistic substrates, where the complex topography may previously have prevented a basic description of the specific features of each component in a heterojunction film.


Bilingual Education Programmes in the United States are developed due to the special needs that immigrants moving to the USA have in education. In this article, I intend to point out the main characteristics and objectives of these programmes based on my experience working as a bilingual teacher at Deming High School, New Mexico (USA) for a year. I taught Bilingual Language Arts to grades 10, 11 and 12. I will also pay attention to the main linguistic problems students had with English as a second language. I will concentrate on the main errors found in students' essays, such as, interlingual transfer, intralingual transfer, register and appropriacy, word order and syntax, spelling, omission of particles, and the lack of motivation as a problem affecting the whole educational system.


Importance. The analysis of lung tissues of patients with COVID-19 may help understand pathogenesis and clinical outcomes in this life-threatening respiratory illness. Objective. To determine the histological patterns in lung tissue of patients with severe COVID-19. Design and participants. Lungs tissues of 38 cases who died for COVID-19 in two hospital of Northern Italy were systematically analysed. Hematoxylin-eosin staining, immunohistochemistry for the inflammatory infiltrate and cellular components, electron microscopy were performed. Results. The features of the exudative and proliferative phases of Diffuse Alveolar Disease (DAD) were found: capillary congestion, necrosis of pneumocytes, hyaline membrane, interstitial oedema, pneumocyte hyperplasia and reactive atypia, platelet-fibrin thrombi. The inflammatory infiltrate was composed by macrophages in alveolar lumens and lymphocytes mainly in the interstitium. Electron microscopy revealed viral particles within cytoplasmic vacuoles of pneumocytes. Conclusions and relevance. The predominant pattern of lung lesions in COVID-19 patients is DAD, as described for the other two coronavirus that infect humans, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV. Hyaline membrane formation and pneumocyte atypical hyperplasia are frequently found. The main relevant finding is the presence of platelet-fibrin thrombi in small arterial vessels; this important observation fits into the clinical context of coagulopathy which dominates in these patients and which is one of the main targets of therapy.


BACKGROUND
The effectiveness of current therapies for humoral rejection and decreasing antibody production directed against human leukocyte antigens (HLA) remains controversial. Standard regimens are unable to abrogate alloantibody production long term, most likely due to a lack of a direct effect on inhibiting and depleting mature plasma cells. Bortezomib (BZ) may be more effective at removing long-lived plasma cells compared to standard regimens that modulate alloantibody production by different mechanisms.

METHODS
We report a kidney transplant recipient with several episodes of mixed antibody mediated and cellular rejection treated with numerous therapies including BZ. Monitoring included serial measurements of donor specific antibodies (DSA) by Luminex assay and repeated allograft biopsies.

RESULTS
One cycle of BZ was able to reverse humoral rejection and graft dysfunction. DSA levels to multiple donor HLA antigens which were not affected by previous therapies were reduced to undetectable levels post BZ. Abrogation of DSA was only transient. Despite continued stable renal function post-BZ, the patient had a reemergence of DSA, and evidence of humoral rejection detected by allograft biopsy.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite the promise of BZ as a therapy for humoral rejection, current data on how it should be used and its efficacy long-term remains limited.


Patients undergoing surgery move through a continuum of medical care to which a primary care physician, an internist, an anaesthesiologist, and a surgeon contribute to ensure the best outcome possible. No aspect of medicine requires greater cooperation than the performance of surgery and the perioperative care of a patient. For the anaesthesiologist, this responsibility should start in a preoperative clinic. The importance of integrating practice is even greater because of the increasing life span of our population. As the number of elderly patients increases, so does the need for preoperative consultation to plan for comorbidities and multiple drug regimens, knowledge of which is crucial to successful patient management. At a time when medical information is encyclopaedic, it is difficult for even the most conscientious anaesthesiologist or surgeon to keep abreast of medical issues relevant to perioperative patient management. Thus, a proposed preoperative assessment clinic facilitates those most sought-after goals, increased quality and reduced costs. As part of this process, ordering only laboratory tests warranted by a patient's symptoms and medical history is important to avoid risks of unnecessary testing and of follow-up of false-positive results.


The phytoconstituents screening of Jatropha curcas Linn (physic leaf) and Sarcocephalus latifolius (African peach) leaves extracts was carried out using solvent systems (aqueous extracts, n-hexane extracts and ethanol). Quantification by thin layer chromatographic and antimicrobial activity against some clinical isolates (Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) was also carried out. The results of the solvent systems extracts showed that alkaloids, tannins, glycosides, steroids, phenols, terpenes, flavonoids, saponins and anthraquinones were present in the leaves extracts of the plants but absence of alkaloids, tannins, glycosides, steroids, phenols, terpenes, flavonoids, saponins and anthraquinones in hexane and water extracts of Sarcocephalus latifolius and absence of saponins in all the extracts. The quantitative analysis result showed that saponins were more abundant in the two plant samples with the highest quantity in Jatropha curcas Linn (80.0%) and Sarcocephalus latifolius (48.18%). This was followed by flavonoids with Jatropha curcas Linn (25.18%) and Sarcocephalus latifolius (13.00%) while Alkaloids were the least phytochemicals with the percentage composition of 5.24% in the Jatropha curcas Linn leaves extract and 5.50% in the Sarcocephalus latifolius leaves extracts. The antimicrobial analysis showed a zone of inhibition ranging from 15.67±1.15 to 18.33±0.58 against Escherichia coli, Salmonella typhi and Pseudomonas aeruginosa.


Practical applications of photosynthesis-inspired processes depend on a thorough understanding of the structures and physiochemical features of pigment molecules such as chlorophylls and bacteriochlorophylls. Consequently, the major structural features of these pigments have been systematically examined as to how they influence the S1 state energy, lifetimes, quantum yields, and pigment photostability. In particular, the effects of the macrocyclic π-electron system, central metal ion (CMI), peripheral substituents, and pigment aggregation, on these critical parameters are discussed. The results obtained confirm that the π-electron system of the chromophore has the greatest influence on the light energy conversion capacity of porphyrinoids. Its modifications lead to changes in molecular symmetry, which determine the energy levels of frontier orbitals and hence affect the S1 state properties. In the case of bacteriochlorophylls aggregation can also strongly decrease the S1 energy. The CMI may be considered as another influential structural feature which only moderately influences the ground-state properties of bacteriochlorophylls but strongly affects the singlet excited-state. An introduction of CMIs heavier than Mg2+ significantly improves pigments' photostabilities, however, at the expense of S1 state lifetime. Modifications of the peripheral substituents may also influence the S1 energy, and pigments' redox potentials, which in turn influence their photostability.


As luxury brands are valuable, desirable and have remarkable meaning in the minds of consumers, brands that provide these features are becoming important for consumers. Today consumers tend to prefer high value brands and products over more functional ones. Luxury brands possess a desirability that extends beyond their function and provide a perceived status through ownership. As the luxury market is growing faster than many other markets, counterfeit goods market is thriving accordingly. The consumer demand for the purchase of counterfeit luxury brands is increasing significantly due to market growth and development. Considering the interest of Turkish consumers in counterfeit brands, the purpose of this study is to investigate the factors that influence the attitudes of consumers towards counterfeit luxury brands. The scope of this study consists of customers who buy counterfeit luxury brands in Turkey and the data was collected through the administration of a questionnaire with a randomly selected sample of 342 consumers. The influence of social and personality factors on purchase intentions and attitudes were examined. Data was analyzed by factor and regression analysis using SPSS. The results of this study showed that the attitudes towards counterfeit luxury brands are positively affected by normative susceptibility, status consumption and collectivism. Based on the results customers who have favorable attitudes towards counterfeits also have the intention to purchase.


The phase shift on the reflection from a semitransparent electrode of a top-emitting organic light-emitting device is utilized in this paper to realize a deep blue emission with high efficiency. The phase shift could be adjusted by changing the thickness of Alq(3) when it was deposited onto the semitransparent electrode of the device. Through simulation it is found that the blue shift of the resonant wavelength occurs in a certain range, which is concerned with Alq(3) thickness and the cavity length between two reflective electrodes. According to the simulation, a blue top-emitting organic light-emitting device with a designed structure was demonstrated experimentally by using such a phase-shift adjustment layer. Finally, the device showed excellent performance both in efficiency (3.4 cd/A at 8 V) and Commission Internationale de l'Eclairage coordinates (0.13, 0.15). The brightness of the device reached 20 000 cd/m(2).


Micro-grid system is currently a conceptual solution to fulfill the commitment of reliable power delivery for future power systems. Renewable power sources such as wind and hydro offer the best potential for emission free power for future micro-grid systems. This paper presents a micro-grid system based on wind and hydro power sources and addresses issues related to operation, control, and stability of the system. The micro-grid system investigated in this paper represents a case study in Newfoundland, Canada. It consists of a small hydro generation unit and a wind farm that contains nine variable- speed, double-fed induction generator based wind turbines. Using Matlab/Simulink, the system is modeled and simulated to identify the technical issues involved in the operation of a micro-grid system based on renewable power generation units. The operational modes, technical challenges and a brief outline of conceptual approaches to addressing some of the technical issues are presented for further investigation.


The term rhinosinusitis is defined as inflammation of nose and paranasal sinuses characterised by nasal blockage, nasal discharge, post-nasal drip, facial pain, pressure and reduction/loss of smell with corresponding endoscopic appearance and CT scan changes. The combined term is more apt than individual rhinitis or sinusitis as it is unusual for having sinus inflammation alone in the absence of nasal inflammation. The disease occurs due to obstruction in the key area, i.e., the osteomeatal complex (OMC). This chapter discusses anatomical variations responsible for the blockage of OMC leading to rhinosinusitis. Nasal endoscopic findings and radiological features depicting these variations are discussed in detail.


The records of fifteen patients (11 girls and 4 boys) with a congenital transverse deficiency of the forearm were studied. In 11 patients the lesion was on the left. The deficiency occurred in the proximal third of the forearm in 13 patients. The radius and the ulna were usually bowed, and their shafts were sometimes irregular. The radial head was dislocated in six patients, and minor abnormalities occurred in the distal humerus in five and the proximal ulna in five.


Abstract. We analysed mooring and ship-based hydrographic and biogeochemical data obtained from a Hope Valley biological hotspot in the southern Chukchi Sea. The moorings were deployed from 16 July 2012 to 19 July 2014, and data were captured during spring and autumn blooms with high chlorophyll a concentrations. Turbidity increased and dissolved oxygen decreased in the bottom water at the mooring site before the autumn bloom, suggesting an accumulation of particulate organic matter and its decomposition (nutrient regeneration) at the bottom. This event may have been a trigger for the autumn bloom at this site. The bloom was maintained for 1 month in 2012 and for 2 months in 2013. The maintenance mechanism for the autumn bloom was also studied by hydrographic and biogeochemical surveys in late summer to autumn 2012 and 2013. Nutrient-rich water from the Bering Sea supplied nutrients to Hope Valley, although a reduction in nutrients occurred in 2012 by the influence of lower-nutrient water that would have remained on the Chukchi Sea shelf. In addition, nutrient regeneration at the bottom of Hope Valley could have increased nutrient concentrations and explained 60 % of its nutrient content in the bottom water in the autumn of 2012. The high nutrient content with the dome-like structure of the bottom water may have maintained the high primary productivity via the vertical nutrient supply from the bottom water, which was likely caused by wind-induced mixing during the autumn bloom. Primary productivity was 0.3 g C m−2 d−1 in September 2012 and 1.6 g C m−2 d−1 in September 2013. The lower productivity in 2012 was related to strong stratification caused by the high fraction of surface sea ice meltwater.


This study presents a thermal performance comparison of various working fluids operating in a parabolic trough collector. Fluids such as gases (helium, carbon dioxide, and air), liquid sodium, and liquids (pressurized water, Therminol VP1, and Syltherm 800) are evaluated. This study also examines the efficiency enhancement obtained from the dispersion of copper nanoparticles in water, Therminol VP1, and Syltherm 800 base fluids. The optimum parameters for nanoparticle concentration, volume flowrate, and inlet temperature to obtain the maximum efficiencies for each working fluid were evaluated in this study. The thermal model used in this study was modeled after the commercially available LS-2 collector, which is designed in the engineering equation solver (EES) and validated with results found in the literature. The results of the study show that the Cu/Syltherm 800 nanofluid showed the most enhancement in thermal efficiency with 0.141%, while Cu/water and Cu/Therminol VP1 had enhancements of 0.037% and 0.088% respectively.


In 2008, Vietnam introduced a new English language policy based on the Common European Framework of Reference (CEFR), and subsequently in 2014 adopted a Vietnamese version of this, referred to as CEFR-V. In adopting the CEFR-V, English language education in Vietnam has taken on a conception of English language proficiency in which intercultural competence (IC) is thoroughly integrated. Nevertheless, despite the emphasis of IC in national language policy, little research has dealt with how teachers can adopt interculturally informed pedagogy in their daily classroom practice, and specifically professional development and learning can be harnessed to increase teachers' capacity to adopt an intercultural stance in their teaching. This study aimed to redress this gap by investigating the process of adopting Intercultural Communicative Language Teaching (iCLT) practice in an English as a foreign language (EFL) course at a Vietnamese university. The research deployed an interpretive, qualitative, case study approach and Participatory Action Research (PAR) to explore the nature of the teaching of culture by three tertiary EFL teachers at a Vietnamese university, and by the students in their classes. The data were collected from classroom observations, teacher interviews, and pre-workshop-one and post-workshop-two focus groups with students. The research included two phases. The first phase of the study investigated the orientation to the teaching of culture in teaching materials and lessons taught by the teachers, and in their stated beliefs. Analysis of the three case study teachers showed that each of the teachers demonstrated both strengths and limitations regarding the teaching of culture in his/her stated perceptions and classroom practices. Cross-case analysis showed that the teaching of culture was intermittent and unplanned, and that the teachers held a static view of culture with little awareness of intercultural language teaching.  Drawing on these findings, the second phase of the research sought to develop a more principled engagement with culture by involving the case study teachers in two workshop cycles in which the teachers were introduced to principles and practical examples of intercultural language teaching and then implemented the redesigned intercultural-oriented lessons in the classroom teaching. The results drawn from classroom observation and interview data showed a positive impact of the workshops on the teachers' teaching practices, perceptions, and understanding of intercultural language teaching. The study contributes to the growing body of scholarship on intercultural language teaching by showing how Vietnamese EFL tertiary teachers shifted from a cultural to an intercultural orientation through participating in an action research project. Accordingly, this study confirms the value of in-situ professional development for teachers. The study also shows how teachers, working from a set of intercultural teaching principles, can adopt an intercultural stance in their teaching even while working with existing teaching materials that contain little in the way of intercultural teaching affordances.


Defining the right product at the right moment is important. But how long it takes to develop and introduce that product can have a dramatic impact on both customer satisfaction and ROI. Here's a metaphorical approach to streamlining the process.


Piezoceramics are considered as key functional material in micro systems and smart structure technology. Showing superior mechanical, dielectric, pyroelectric, ferroelectric and piezoelectric properties they introduce improved functionality, e.g. sensing, actuation, energy harvesting, health monitoring or shape control. Various applications such as micro integrated valves, drives, voltage converter, piezoelectric, pyroelectric and ultrasound sensors are expected. Another field of application concerns active structures in space, automotive or machine building industry. Progress was achieved by combining flexible board and piezo technology which opens up a new class of reliable ready to use actuator and sensor modules. Tailored design and packaging are seen as key factors for progress in custom applications. Load carrying structures with embedded actuators, sensors and electronics, which are usually pre-integrated in modules, offer the opportunity for noise reduction, vibration and shape control and health monitoring. The present paper summarizes the potential of advanced, microsystems compatible piezotechnology for active structures and systems. The focus will be given to PZT film and fibre processing and the integration in silicon wafer, ceramic multilayer and polymer matrix architectures. Finally, forward-looking applications are highlighted.


Introduction BASHH guidance recommends screening for STIs up to every 3 months for individuals at risk of HIV. Conversely, commissioning pressures aim to reduce inappropriate attendances. We describe below the characteristics and outcomes of frequent attenders at our service. Methods Notes review of individuals with 4 or more new or re-book attendance episodes at a central London sexual health service between 1st April 2015 and 31st March 2016. Results 170 individuals received more than 4 new episodes of clinical care in a year; 145(85%) were male, 136 MSM. 21(12%) were female, 4(2.4%) transgender. 23(14%) of the patients were HIV positive, all MSM. Median age was 31 years. Median number of sexual partners in preceding 3 months was 6. 75(44%) disclosed chemsex activity in the preceding month. In the 12 months from April 2015, there were 442 new STIs in this population, an average of 2.6 per patient: 346 STI diagnoses were in the 147 HIV-negative individuals and 96 in the 23 HIV-positive individuals. In HIV-negatives, the diagnosis was a rectal bacterial STI in 36% and syphilis in 7%. 206 courses of PEP were prescribed; 25 individuals received 4 or more PEP courses. There were 5 new diagnoses of blood borne virus infections; 2 hepatitis C, both in HIV positive MSM, and 3 HIV. Discussion The majority of frequent attenders at our clinic had indicators of high risk sexual behaviour. The high number of STIs and PEP prescriptions implies that the frequent attendances are appropriate in this patient population.


The results of the experiments with Wistar rats in microgravity and 2G hypergravity are summarized. Their analysis allows to conclude that adaptive potentials of adult animals in space flights lasting up to 1/50 of their life span are enough for maintenance of adequate reactions to acute and chronic stressors in the postflight period, rapid elimination of space-induced metabolic and structural alterations on return to Earth, maintenance of normal reproductive function after space flight. In embryological experiments it was demonstrated that during space flight it is possible not only to maintain physiological functions of an adult organism, but to form functions of a developing fetus. The animals that spent the portion of their prenatal development in space flight were capable to go through the entire cycle of postnatal development, up to sexual maturity and reproduction. In ground based centrifuge experiments with 2G it was demonstrated the possibility of realizing, under hypergravity, of all the main stages of prenatal and early postnatal development of rats: fertilization, embryon implantation, fetal development, birth and lactation of progeny. Exposure of rats to microgravity did not reduce their life span post flight. Alterations in biological age of animals were small.


An operational 960-Mc low-noise receiving system for use in deep-space tracking missions is described. A ruby-cavity maser, low-noise antenna, low-loss transmission line connecting the antenna to the maser and associated instrumentation all combine to yield reliable and low-noise performance. Results of tests on this system in preparation for the Ranger RA-3 lunar probe are presented. The system was successfully used during operations with RA-3. A minimum system temperature of 47°K has been achieved.


Production of a large volume of industrial and hazardous waste with various compositions makes the need for comprehensive management and consequently the concept of waste rating more tangible. Despite numerous waste rating systems presented so far, analyzing the makeup of such systems play a significant role in meeting human health. In this study, the structure of 34 rating systems of industrial and hazardous waste have been analyzed based on both quantitative and qualitative standpoints and the results are presented as a formational-conceptual framework. Results showed that every rating system is formed of two parts of formational fundamentals and functional indices, which the first part has a longitudinal relation with the second. While lowly considered, this study is focusing on the formational fundamental part in the rating systems of industrial and hazardous waste, as intellectual prerequisites in suggesting a new system. Some of the factors in the first level are: dependence of the organization which determines the policy and general goals of a rating system, time of presenting the method during which remarkable changes take place in computing methods of the rating systems, infrastructures and facilities which are efficient in the accuracy and scope of the system and finally references and standards causing variations in definitions and final results of the rating system. Furthermore, factors such as: aspects of the study and style of use are identified in second level of formational fundamentals. Finally, the fundamentals are presented in a formational-conceptual framework for better perceiving and more effective use.


This study explores the learning trajectories of four senior managers at the Royal Mail as they confronted new demands at work. e four managers worked at the Royal Mail during the years prior to, and during its privatisation, when it was also undergoing an intense modernisation. Theoretically, I took a sociocultural approach, drawing on Vygotsky (1998), Edwards (2010), Holland et al. (1998), and Sfard and Prusak (2005), among others. I was also provoked by Alasdair MacIntyre's characterisation of the manager and his understanding of practice, which emphasises human ourishing. Data was collected through iterative unstructured and semi-structured interviews, and by work shadowing the managers. Methodologically, I developed a useful interview protocol to capture stories about work and a more nuanced understanding of what mattered to participants. I also built a conceptual framework that draws theoretically from a sociocultural understanding of learning and development, as well as from MacIntyre (2013) and Taylor (1989). e model emerged from the dialectics of theory and empirical data. The research shows that as the Royal Mail underwent organisational change, the managers had to navigate situations of misalignment between what mattered to them and what mattered to other members of the organisation. Such situations of misalignment brought about new demands. As they confronted the demands, the managers realised the need to close a gap between who they were and who they were expected to become. Gap-closing efforts were characterised as a process of learning and development that involved intense identity work. In the process, the managers had to work through a series of contradictions, which can be expressed in the form of questions: Who am I really? Who should I no longer be? Who do I resist becoming? And, who do I struggle to become? Gap-closing was given by a dialectic between the managers' commitments and identi cations, and the stories of what was good in the gured world of managing at the Royal Mail. Contrary to some of MacIntyre's suggestions, I found that the four managers in the study, Linda, Eric, Margaret and Julian did question themselves about some of the ends they pursued. ey also exhibited varying degrees of agency, and did establish a distance with the impositions of their institutional realities. In the eld, I found instances of moral debate, the exercising of virtues and the managers' very human efforts to live a worthy life and to ourish. Yet, I also found empirical grounds for some of MacIntyre's claims. As the managers navigated misalignment, they used an array of strategies intended to persuade others in a manipulative way, sometimes treating ends as given, and sometimes eluding moral debate. The study contributes to the literature of learning and development through its original theoretical approach that draws from both sociocultural and MacIntyrean ideas.


Phosphorus is known as a key element associated with growth, energy, and cell signaling. In plants, phosphate transporters (PHTs) are responsible for moving and distributing phosphorus in cells and organs. PHT genes have been genome-wide identified and characterized in various plant species, however, these genes have not been widely identified based on available genomic data in Camellia sativa, which is an important oil seed plant. In the present study, we found 66 PHT genes involved in phosphate transporter/translocate in C. sativa. The recognized genes belonged to PHTs1, PHTs2, PHTs4, PHOs1, PHO1 homologs, glycerol-3-PHTs, sodium dependent PHTs, inorganic PHTs, xylulose 5-PHTs, glucose-6-phosphate translocators, and phosphoenolpyruvate translocators. Our finding revealed that PHT proteins are divers based on their physicochemical properties such as Isoelectric point (pI), molecular weight, GRAVY value, and exon-intron number(s). Besides, the expression profile of PHT genes in C. sativa based on RNA-seq data indicate that PHTs are involved in response to abiotic stresses such as cold, drought, salt, and cadmium. The tissue specific expression high expression of PHO1 genes in root tissues of C. sativa. In additions, four PHTs, including a PHT4;5 gene, a sodium dependent PHT gene, and two PHO1 homolog 3 genes were found with an upregulation in response to aforementioned studied stresses. In the current study, we found that PHO1 proteins and their homologs have high potential to post-translation modifications such as N-glycosylation and phosphorylation. Besides, different cis-acting elements associated with response to stress and phytohormone were found in the promoter region of PHT genes. Overall, our results show that PHT genes play various functions in C. Sativa and regulate Camellia responses to external and intracellular stimuli. The results can be used in future studies related to the functional genomics of C. sativa.


In this paper, I show how to estimate the parameters of the beta-binomial distribution and its multivariate generalization, the Dirichlet-multinomial distribution. This approach involves no additional programming, as it relies on an existing Stata command used for overdispersed count panel data. Including covariates to allow for regression models based in these distributions is straightforward.


The aerial lifestyle of central-place foraging birds allows wide-ranging movements, raising fundamental questions about their remarkable navigation and memory systems. For example, we know that pigeons (Columba livia), long-standing models for avian navigation, rely on individually distinct routes when homing from familiar sites. But it remains unknown how they cope with the task of learning several routes in parallel. Here, we examined how learning multiple routes influences homing in pigeons. We subjected groups of pigeons to different training protocols, defined by the sequence in which they were repeatedly released from three different sites, either sequentially, in rotation or randomly. We observed that pigeons from all groups successfully developed and applied memories of the different release sites (RSs), irrespective of the training protocol, and that learning several routes in parallel did not impair their capacity to quickly improve their homing efficiency over multiple releases. Our data also indicated that they coped with increasing RS uncertainty by adjusting both their initial behaviour upon release and subsequent homing efficiency. The results of our study broaden our understanding of avian route following and open new possibilities for studying learning and memory in free-flying animals.


Ferroics include diverse degrees of freedom (such as structural distortions and magnetic moments) among which cross couplings occur, rendering a large variety of interesting phenomena. Determining such couplings, based on symmetry analysis, is not only important to interpret observed phenomena but can also result in novel predictions to be then experimentally checked. Often, such energetic couplings are difficult to construct without a deep knowledge of group theoretical symmetry principles. In the present review, a crash course toward the derivation of energetic couplings, without using much group theoretical language, is provided. Rather, the present approach relies on a graphical technique and suitable symbolic language, which naturally yields some known couplings (resulting in, e.g., spin/dipole canting, magnetically driven polarization, and antipolar/antiferroelectric states). This review also reports and discusses other symmetry‐allowed energetic terms, including some leading to the occurrence of an electric polarization in a variety of materials, and "exotic" ones that generate complex phases and phenomena in, for example, nanostructures and heterostructures.


OF DISSERTATION STATISTICS IN THE BILLERA-HOLMES-VOGTMANN TREESPACE This dissertation is an effort to adapt two classical non-parametric statistical techniques, kernel density estimation (KDE) and principal components analysis (PCA), to the Billera-Holmes-Vogtmann (BHV) metric space for phylogenetic trees. This adaption gives a more general framework for developing and testing various hypotheses about apparent differences or similarities between sets of phylogenetic trees than currently exists. For example, while the majority of gene histories found in a clade of organisms are expected to be generated by a common evolutionary process, numerous other coexisting processes (e.g. horizontal gene transfers, gene duplication and subsequent neofunctionalization) will cause some genes to exhibit a history quite distinct from the histories of the majority of genes. Such "outlying" gene trees are considered to be biologically interesting and identifying these genes has become an important problem in phylogenetics. The R sofware package kdetrees, developed in Chapter 2, contains an implementation of the kernel density estimation method. The primary theoretical difficulty involved in this adaptation concerns the normalizion of the kernel functions in the BHV metric space. This problem is addressed in Chapter 3. In both chapters, the software package is applied to both simulated and empirical datasets to demonstrate the properties of the method. A few first theoretical steps in adaption of principal components analysis to the BHV space are presented in Chapter 4. It becomes necessary to generalize the notion of a set of perpendicular vectors in Euclidean space to the BHV metric space, but there some ambiguity about how to best proceed. We show that convex hulls are one reasonable approach to the problem. The Nye-PCAalgorithm provides a method of projecting onto arbitrary convex hulls in BHV space, providing the core of a modified PCA-type method.


SUMMARY
Mangoes (var. Tommy Atkins) were exposed to ethylene and acetylene over a range of concentrations at high humidity for 24 h at 25°C, then ripened in air alone. Ripeness was assessed after 4 and 8 days by analysis of texture, colour development, soluble solids and acid contents.

Ethylene in air at concentrations of 0.01 ml litre-1 and above or acetylene at 1.0 ml litre-1 were found to initiate ripening. Treatment with 0.01 ml litre-1 acetylene resulted in limited softening but had no effect on the other ripening changes analysed. Individual ripening processes responded differently to treatment: texture changes were most rapidly affected, while the rate of acidity losses was often reduced in ethylene treated fruits. Acetylene-treated fruits at concentrations of 0.01 and 0.1 ml litre-1 showed delayed ripening when compared to those treated with either 1.0 ml litre-1 acetylene or ethylene. Increased acetylene concentrations of 2.0 ml litre-1 gave a similar response to 1.0 ml litre-1, although in some instances there were indications of inhibitory effects.


In this paper, a low dimensional model is constructed to approximate the nonlinear ferroelastic dynamics involving mechanically and thermally-induced martensite transformations. The dynamics of the first order martensite transformation is first modeled by a set of nonlinear coupled partial differential equations (PDEs), which is obtained by using the modified Ginzburg–Landau theory. The Chebyshev collocation method is employed for the numerical analysis of the PDE model. An extended proper orthogonal decomposition is then carried out to construct a set of empirical orthogonal eigenmodes of the dynamics, with which system characteristics can be optimally approximated (in a specified sense) within a range of different temperatures and under various mechanical and thermal loadings. The performance of the low dimensional model is analyzed numerically. Results on the dynamics involving mechanically and thermally-induced phase transformations and the hysteresis effects induced by such transformations are presented.


ABSTRACT The dynamics of the adherent and nonadherent populations of three bacterial species on maize leaves were examined to identify the extent to which bacteria adhere to leaves and the importance of this adhesion to leaf colonization. Pantoea agglomerans strain BRT98, Clavibacter michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis strain GH2390, and Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae strain HS191R all rapidly adhered to maize leaves following inoculation, but differed in the percentage of cells that adhered to the leaves. Immediately following inoculation, the percentage of adherent cells was highest for the saprophyte P. agglomerans (8 to 10%) and was much lower for the pathogens C. michiganensis subsp. nebras-kensis and P. syringae pv. syringae (2 to 3 and <1%, respectively), although the results for P. syringae pv. syringae HS191R were based on only one experiment. In the 4 days following inoculation, the percentage of the P. agglomerans populations that adhered to the leaves increased to approximately 70%. Similarly, the percentage of C. michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis and P. syringae pv. syringae cells that resisted removal steadily increased in the days following inoculation, although these increases probably reflected both adherence and localization to endophytic sites. Based on differences in the percentage of cells adhering to several cuticular wax mutants of maize, the rapid adherence of C. michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis cells to maize leaves was influenced by the cuticular wax properties, while the rapid adherence of P. agglomerans was not. Finally, bacterial adherence to leaves was advantageous to P. agglomerans survival and growth on leaves based on the finding that the nonadherent populations of the P. agglomerans strain decreased significantly more than did the adherent populations in the 24 h following inoculation, and increased much less than did the adherent populations over the next 3 days. Similar results with the C. michiganensis subsp. nebraskensis and P. syringae pv. syringae strains indicate that bacterial adherence to leaves, bacterial movement to endophytic sites, or both were advantageous to the survival and growth of these strains on leaves.


This paper tests uses nationally representative data from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) to test whether a household's market access, defined in terms of travel costs to the nearest town, facilitates resilience and reduces vulnerability to seasonal influences on child nutrition. The timing of a child's birth has often been found to correlate with height, weight and other health outcomes, driven by exposure to seasonal fluctuations in diets and disease during sensitive periods of physiological development. Remoteness could mediate that relationship, leaving geographically isolated households especially vulnerable to seasonal fluctuations because they cannot easily buy and sell to smooth consumption, or access medical facilities when the health environment deteriorates. To complicate matters, the presence of nearby civil insecurity may make it physically unsafe to travel significant distances. Using the 2008 DHS survey of children born between 2002 and 2007, we find that birth season is closely linked to child weights but not heights, primarily in more remote areas. This finding contrasts sharply with household wealth, which is closely linked to child heights but not weights, and only in less remote areas. Conflicts do not appear to mediate the relationship, perhaps because recorded conflicts occur primarily near towns.


The combination of transurethral resection and subsequent Neodymium-YAG laser irradiation has been practiced for radical treatment of localized prostate cancer since 1981. One hundred and eighteen patients have been treated and the observation time ranges 6-98 months. The treatment is performed endoscopically in two separate steps. The procedure is simple and complications are few. One hundred and four patients are evaluated as disease-free survivors. The overall actuarial disease-free survival rate is 88% in the 4-8 year period. The results compare satisfactorily with results obtained by other methods. Recently published results from other clinics confirm the laser to be promising in the treatment of localized prostate cancer.


This thesis presents a hypertext browser tool mainly for maintenance phase of software development. As the maintenance phase is the most costly and time-consuming phase in the whole process of software development and system evolution, our tool is aimed at providing support to maintenance programmers for better understanding of existing code and maintaining of large applications. With this tool, programmers can setup link between identifiers and their definitions, browse through source code, have easy access to definitions of any user defined identifiers and routines through hypertext, and inspect each occurrences of an identifier, which can be highlighted in browser window, of any file. But our tool is not limited to the maintenance phase activities. It can be used in any phases with text documentation, such as the important phases like the design and implementation phases. Our tool can also provide assistance to designers and developers by supporting documentation inspection. In this thesis, we surveyed software development environments and supporting tools. From our survey, we understand the development history and future directions in this area. This helps the design and implementation decisions of our tool. Some future applications of this tool are also discussed. Our tool will be more completed and helpful to maintenance programmers with these future enhancement. We believe this will brighten the future of our tool.


Approximate computing has received significant attention as a promising strategy to decrease power consumption of inherently error tolerant applications. In this paper, we focus on hardware-level approximation by introducing the partial product perforation technique for designing approximate multiplication circuits. We prove in a mathematically rigorous manner that in partial product perforation, the imposed errors are bounded and predictable, depending only on the input distribution. Through extensive experimental evaluation, we apply the partial product perforation method on different multiplier architectures and expose the optimal architecture-perforation configuration pairs for different error constraints. We show that, compared with the respective exact design, the partial product perforation delivers reductions of up to 50% in power consumption, 45% in area, and 35% in critical delay. In addition, the product perforation method is compared with the state-of-the-art approximation techniques, i.e., truncation, voltage overscaling, and logic approximation, showing that it outperforms them in terms of power dissipation and error.


This work is intended to propel forward the current discussion regarding the contribution of the educational accountability mechanism to the development of school improvement processes. A literature review of a set of implementation studies of educational policies that incorporate educational accountability was conducted to discover what elements of this mechanism help or hinder educational improvement in the specific contexts in which they are applied. A discussion of the results of this review and projections for Latin America are presented at the end of the paper.


We analyze the mutual relations among firms' capital structure, ownership structure, and valuation. Through the estimation of a system of simultaneous equations for a sample of 1,130 firms from 16 countries from both the common law and the civil law environments, our results confirm the differential effect of ownership structure on firms' value in each setting. Whereas in civil law firms the higher ownership concentration results in an entrenchment and an alignment effect, in the common law firms higher ownership concentration increases the value of the firm. Second, we corroborate the endogeneity of ownership structure since we find that ownership structure is affected by the value of the firm and by the capital structure. Third, our results suggest that corporate finance decisions are taken simultaneously with other mechanisms of corporate governance and conditional on firms' valuation.


We employ a coarse-graining approach to analyze non-linear cascades in Boussinesq flows using high-resolution simulation data. We derive budgets which resolve the evolution of energy and potential enstrophy simultaneously in space and in scale. We then use numerical simulations of Boussinesq flows, with forcing in the large scales, and fixed rotation and stable stratification along the vertical axis, to study the inter-scale flux of energy and potential enstrophy in three different regimes of stratification and rotation: i) strong rotation and moderate stratification, ii) moderate rotation and strong stratification, and iii) equally strong stratification and rotation. In all three cases, we observe constant fluxes of both global invariants, the mean energy and mean potential enstrophy, from large to small scales. The existence of constant potential enstrophy flux ranges provides the first direct empirical evidence in support of the notion of a cascade of potential enstrophy. The persistent forward cascade of the two invariants reflects a marked departure of these flows from two-dimensional turbulence.


Aims. Using archival observations recorded over a 5+ year timeframe with the NASA GALaxy Evolution eXplorer (GALEX) satellite, we present a study of the ultraviolet (UV) variability of 4360 quasars of redshifts up to z = 2.5 that have optical counterparts in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey DR5 spectroscopic catalog of Schneider et al. (2007, AJ, 134, 102). The observed changes in both the far UV (FUV: 1350−1785 A) and near UV (NUV: 1770−2830 A) AB magnitudes as a function of time may help differentiate between models of the emission mechanisms thought to operate in these active galaxies.
Methods. A list of NUV and FUV variable quasars was derived from the UV light-curves of sources with 5 or more observational visits by GALEX that spanned a time-frame > 3 months. By measuring the error in the derived mean UV magnitude from the series of GALEX observations for each source, quasars whose UV variability was greater than the 3-σ variance from the mean observed value were deemed to be (intrinsically) UV variable. This conservative selection criterion (which was applied to both FUV and NUV observations) resulted in identifying 550 NUV and 371 FUV quasars as being statistically significant UV variable objects.
Results. Following the work of Vanden Berk et al. (2004, ApJ, 601, 692), we have performed a structure function (SF) analysis of these data to search for possible correlations between UV variability and parameters such as rest frame time-lag, redshift, luminosity and radio loudness. Firstly, we observe that the amplitudes of variability as a function of time-lag for both the NUV and FUV data are far larger than those observed at visible wavelengths. Secondly, the levels of FUV variability are greater than those observed in the NUV for a given value of time-lag. Also, the amplitudes of both the NUV and FUV variability of quasars increase as a function of rest frame time-lag, irrespective of the value of quasar redshift, for time-lags 300 days there is a pronounced rollover in the NUV SF for all redshift values, which is also observed (with a lower signiÞcance) in the FUV variability data. Although we find no strong relationship between UV variability and redshift, our data do show that higher redshift quasars appear to be more variable than their low redshift counterparts. Our data also show that, for all values of time-lag, the more luminous quasars tend to be slightly less UV variable, with perhaps the exception of FUV variable quasars for short time-lags.
Although our data sample is small, we find that radio-loud quasars are marginally more variable than radio quiet ones by a factor ~2 in the NUV and by a factor 1 − 3 in the FUV. Therefore, our present observations support the notion in which the radio properties of quasars have a limited influence on the observed UV variability of these objects. In summation, our present analysis favors a quasar model in which UV variability is mainly due to stochastic changes in the underlying continuum level, rather than models that favor gravitational microlensing or discrete-event processes.


Pancreatic cancer is a class of disease characterized by uncontrolled cell growth that begins in the pancreas. Heat shock proteins (Hsps) are chaperone proteins that on inhibition can prove to be effective in pancreatic cancer treatment. In cancer cells, Hsp90 significantly displays a proliferative potential of the malignant cells, so the inhibition of the protein can prove to be valuable to combat pancreatic cancer. Computer Aided Drug Designing (CADD) was instrumental to find out the effective constituent among the 35 plant sources selected. The Phytochemicals used for the present study were Curcumin, Allicin, Pinene, Tetrahydrocannabinol, Astragalin, Arginine, Scopoletin, Baicalin, Stylopine, Carvacrol, Quercetin, Thymol, Guaiaretic acid, Coumarin, Chlorogenic acid, Taraxacin, Ascorbic acid, Protocatechuic acid, Withaferin A, Triptolide, Ursolic acid, Cucurbitane, Thymoquinone, D-Carvone, Eugenol, Ellagic acid, Lapachol, Genistein, Emodin, Chelidonine, Caffeine, Catechin, Geraniol, Myrcene and Niacin. The preliminary studies such as the Primary and Secondary structure analysis of the protein were carried out. Molecular property based on Lipinski rule of 5, bioactivity parameters as well as Protein-Ligand Dynamic interaction were analyzed to determine the drug likeness of the ligands with the protein 4L94. The results of the in silico docking analysis indicate the selection of natural compounds such as Cucurbitane, Myrcene and Pinene as they elicited significant binding interaction in inhibiting Heat shock proteins for targeting pancreatic cancer which was comparable with that of the standard drug Gemcitabine. Further in vivo studies may be carried out to prove the same.


A level set approach was adopted in numerical simulation of interphase mass transfer from a deformable drop moving in a continuous immiscible liquid, and the simulation results on Marangoni effect were presented with respect to three experimental runs in the methyl isobutyl ketone-acetic acid-water system. Experiments showed that when the solute concentration was sufficiently high, the Marangoni effect would occur with the interphase mass transfer enhanced. Numerical results indicated that the mass-transfer coefficient with Marangoni effect was larger than that without Marangoni effect and stronger Marangoni effect made the drop deform more easily. The predictions were qualitatively in accord with the experimental data. Numerical simulation revealed well the transient flow structure of Marangoni effect. (C) 2011 American Institute of Chemical Engineers AIChE J, 57: 2670-2683, 2011


In the past decade, the mass media discovered disability. Spurred by the box-office appeal of superstars such as the late Christopher Reeve, Michael J. Fox, Stephen Hawking, and others, and given momentum by the success of Oscar-winning movies, popular television shows, best-selling books, and profitable websites, major media corporations have reversed their earlier course of hiding disability, bringing it instead to center stage. Yet depictions of disability have remained largely unchanged since the 1920s. Focusing almost exclusively on the medical aspect of injury or illness, the disability profile in fact and fiction leads inevitably to an inspiring moment of"overcoming." According to Riley, this cliche plays well with a general audience, but such narratives, driven by prejudice and pity, highlight the importance of "fixing" the disability and rendering the "sufferer" as normal as possible. These stories are deeply offensive to persons with disabilities. Equally important, misguided coverage has adverse effects on crucial aspects of public policy, such as employment, social services, and health care. Powerful and influential, the media is complicit in this distortion of disability issues that has proven to be a factor in the economic and social repression of one in five Americans. Newspapers and magazines continue to consign disability stories to the"back of the book" health or human-interest sections, using offensive language that has long been proscribed by activists. Filmmakers compound the problem by featuring angry misfits or poignant heroes of melodramas that pair love and redemption. Publishers churn out self-help titles and memoirs that milk the disability theme for pathos. As Riley points out, all branches of the media are guilty of the same crude distillation of the story to serve their own, usually fiscal, ends. Riley's lively inside investigation illuminates the extent of the problem while pinpointing how writers, editors, directors, producers, filmmakers, advertisers and the executives who give their marching orders go wrong, or occasionally get it right. Through a close analysis of the technical means of representation, in conjunction with the commentary of leading voices in the disability community, Riley guides future coverage to a more fair and accurate way of putting the disability story on screen or paper. He argues that with the"discovery" by Madison Avenue that the disabled community is a major consumer niche, the economic rationale for more sophisticated coverage is at hand. It is time, says Riley, to cut through the accumulated stereotypes and find an adequate vocabulary that will finally represent the disability community in all its vibrant and fascinating diversity.


Summarizing, it has been shown in this paper that: (1) The relation between the duration of life and different factors is expressed by quite different types of curves. Temperature and duration of life are connected by a simple exponential curve, while starvation (data from Kopec) and duration of life at different grades of intermittent Starvation can be represented by the upper part of a logistic curve. (2) Drosophila females emerged from larvae taken from the food before the end of the normal larval feeding do not differ in their duration of life from the controls. The males show even a longer (although statistically not very significant) duration of life as compared with the controls. This shows that a reduction in body size does not lead inevitably to a reduction of the duration of life, as has been the case with "room" and "cold" temperature flies which differed in size of the body and of the duration of life. (3) Keeping flies on synthetic food with yeast and without it indicates that absence of yeast reduces greatly the duration of life of males and females. Very likely the carbohydrates available in the synthetic food are not sufficient for nutrition of adult Drosophila, and additional substances included in living yeast cells are required. (4) Changing synthetic food with yeast every day and every second day indicates that the female duration of life is not affected by this procedure, while males in this experiment show a much shorter duration of life when transferred to new bottles every day. This difference may perhaps be attributed to sex differences in metabolism, or food requirements of male and female organism. Every day food changing can possibly be considered as a partial starvation, because yeast shows growth only after twenty-four hours, and changing food every day does not permit the flies to have yeast growth in such abundance as in the ease when the bottles are changed every second day. It is also possible that the results for the males in this particular experiment are not typical


Neck lumps are a very common presentation to hospital in pediatric patients. Lymphadenitis secondary to atypical mycobacterium infections are rare but recently there has been an increase in prevalence in the UK. The treatment of such cases is controversial; the options of medical, surgical or combination of both are practiced, with variations, in different centres around the world. We report a case of a 4 year old girl who presented with a short history of a neck lump due to Mycobacterium Avium Complex (MAC) infection which was surgically excised, with good post-op and aesthetic outcome. This article aims to educate upon the background, clinical features and management of patients presenting with MAC associated neck lumps.


Technology of thermal ceramic barriers (TBC) has been chiefly designed for materials with a single thermal barrier of the 7YSZ type. A high content of Y2O3 ensures a good phase stability of the YSZ material. In search for other alternative materials suitable for TBC, the material most often examined is modified zirconium oxide. The modification consists of stabilizing the ZrO2 powder with Y2O3 and doping it with La, Gd and Nd. This paper presents the results of studies on producing cathodic zirconium oxide-based ceramic targets intended for depositing refractory heat-resistant nano-crystalline TBC coatings. The targets are characterized by a high density (close to its theoretical value) and have a homogeneous phase and chemical structure.


The viscoelastic behavior of aqueous solutions of Alcoflood polymers (AFPs) was investigated in terms of the complex modulus, storage modulus, and loss modulus using a RheoStress RS100 rheometer. AFP solutions with a wide range of concentrations were examined (100–10,000 ppm). Three different AFPs AF1235, AF1275, and AF1285 were tested. The linear viscoelastic range for these three AFPs over the concentration range of 100–10,000 ppm was around 2 Pa. The polymer concentration controlled the behavior of complex modulus versus frequency. The critical polymer concentration was found 1000 ppm. The apparent complex modulus, for polymer concentrations less than 1000 ppm, changed slightly with the power index around 2. For concentrations higher than 1000 ppm, the apparent complex modulus and power index significantly increased with the polymer concentration up to 10,000 ppm. The behavior of storage modulus of the AFPs was similar to that of complex modulus, whereas the loss modulus was different. At 1000 ppm, the AFPs showed a viscous behavior for frequencies less than 0.15 s–1, and a predominantly elastic behavior for frequency greater than 0.15 s–1. At high concentrations, AF1275 and AF1285 always showed an elastic response, whereas AF1235 showed an elastic response only if the frequency exceeded 0.3 s–1.


The need to integrate more device technology in a given board space for handheld applications such as mobile phones has driven the adoption of innovative packages which stack such devices in the vertical or third dimension (3-D). Stacking of device chips in small and thin fine-pitch ball grid array packages has evolved into the stacking of packages themselves to achieve the same end. The advantage of stacking packages rather than device chips is that packages can be fully tested good prior to stacking. There are two primary ways to stack packages to achieve such vertical integration: package- on-package (PoP) and package-in-package (PiP). Innovative variations of PoP and PiP are being developed to address specific packaging needs and market trends. This paper will detail some of the key technology supporting PoP and PiP packages currently in production and the development of new variations of such packages to address future trends.


The trefoil factor family (TFF) consists of a group of small peptides and is highly expressed in tissue that contain mucus-producing cells, predominantly in the mucosa that lines the gastrointestinal tract. Those peptides, which are highly important for epithelial restitution, may act in ways other than using the usual factors responsible for restitution. It was observed that several mechanisms are involved in the TFFs' promotion of restitution. In addition to that, peptides have other functions as well, e.g. they interact with the immune system. Although the TFFs' therapeutic effects have been studied, it is uncertain which of the TFFs' in vitro properties are directly involved when it comes to their in vivo engagement. Observing mice with genetic deletion of TFF peptides can help us discover the function of the peptides that could be indicated by the deletion of the target protein or by adaptive regulation of some other protein that is affected by the deleted gene product. At the very least, a subset of functional networks controlled by a TFF isoform and its downstream effectors can be identified by observing such mice. The discoveries related to the signaling mechanisms of the TFF family leave much to discover about the distinct and shared pathways among those protective peptides.


A recognized way of improving the fatigue resistance of a fastener hole is to introduce compressive tangential residual stress around it. This can be achieved by using a cold expansion method in which an oversized pin or ball is forced through the hole to produce a local plastic region surrounded by an elastic one. Once the pin or ball is removed allowing the elastic region to spring back it results in compressive tangential residual stress around the hole. In practise, however, it is found that such a cold expansion method creates a non-uniform residual stress distribution through the plate thickness and even tensile residual stress can be created at the entrance and exit faces. In this paper a new method of cold expansion is proposed. It uses a tapered pin with a mating tapered split sleeve and creates an almost uniform compressive residual stress around the hole as shown by FE method. Also, fatigue tests were carried out to verify that the method does significantly improve fatigue life. Finally the tangential residual stress distribution and fatigue life improvement of this new method were compared with those of a well-established cold expansion method and it was shown that the new method is more efficient in improving fatigue life.


Objectives To determine the internal consistency and the underlying components of our translated and adapted Swedish version of the General Medical Council's multisource feedback questionnaires (GMC questionnaires) for physicians and to confirm which aspects of good medical practice the latent variable structure reflected. Methods From October 2015 to March 2016, residents in family medicine in Sweden were invited to participate in the study and to use the Swedish version to perform self-evaluations and acquire feedback from both their patients and colleagues. The validation focused on internal consistency and construct validity. Main outcome measures were Cronbach's alpha coefficients, Principal Component Analysis, and Confirmatory Factor Analysis indices. Results A total of 752 completed questionnaires from patients, colleagues, and residents were analysed. Of these, 213 comprised resident self-evaluations, 336 were feedback from residents' patients, and 203 were feedback from residents' colleagues. Cronbach's alpha coefficients of the scores were 0.88 from patients, 0.93 from colleagues, and 0.84 in the self-evaluations. The Confirmatory Factor Analysis validated two models that fit the data reasonably well and reflected important aspects of good medical practice. The first model had two latent factors for patient-related items concerning empathy and consultation management, and the second model had five latent factors for colleague-related items, including knowledge and skills, attitude and approach, reflection and development, teaching, and trust. Conclusions The current Swedish version seems to be a reliable and valid tool for formative assessment for resident physicians and their supervisors. This needs to be verified in larger samples.


In this research, the application of intelligent mobile agents to the management of distributed network environments is investigated. Intelligent mobile agents are programs which can move about network systems in a deterministic manner in carrying their execution state. These agents can be considered an application of distributed artificial intelligence where the (usually small) agent code is moved to the data and executed locally. The mobile agent paradigm offers potential advantages over many conventional mechanisms which move (often large) data to the code, thereby wasting available network bandwidth. The performance of agents in network routing and knowledge acquisition has been investigated and simulated. A working mobile agent system has also been designed and implemented in JDK 1.2.


What does "reasoning" mean? What is its purpose? And, how does it function? This chapter defines reasoning and the distinction between deductive and inductive reasoning. Secondly, the argumentative theory of reasoning proposed by Mercier and Sperber (2011) is presented to understand the purpose of the reasoning. This theory postulates that its function is to convince others and to evaluate information received when someone tries to convince another. Thirdly, the authors focus on the intervention model of reasoning developed by Evans (2011) to try to understand how the reasoning functions. This model is derived from dual-process theories and proposes a distinction between two types of processing in reasoning. The last part explains the importance of considering the emotional factor in the study on the reasoning process. The Reasoning Process: What Is It? What Is Its Purpose? How Does It Function? A Link With Emotions


Stigma and discrimination play significant roles in the development and maintenance of the HIV epidemic. It is well documented that people living with HIV and AIDS experience stigma and discrimination on an ongoing basis. This impact goes beyond individuals infected with HIV to reach broadly into society, both disrupting the functioning of communities and complicating prevention and treatment of HIV. This paper reviews the available scientific literature on HIV/AIDS and stigma in South Africa, as well as press reports on the same subject over a period of 3 years. Analysis of this material indicates that stigma drives HIV out of the public sight, so reducing the pressure for behaviour change. Stigma also introduces a desire not to know one's own status, thus delaying testing and accessing treatment. At an individual level stigma undermines the person's identity and capacity to cope with the disease. Fear of discrimination limits the possibility of disclosure even to potential important sources of support such as family and friends. Finally, stigma impacts on behaviour change as it limits the possibility of using certain safer sexual practices. Behaviour such as wanting to use condoms could be seen as a marker of HIV, leading to rejection and stigma. All interventions need to address stigma as part of their focus. However, the difficulty of the task should not be underestimated, as has been shown by the persistence of discrimination based on factors such as race, gender and sexual orientation.


This paper presents an identification strategy that allows us to study both the sectoral effects of monetary policy and the role that monetary policy plays in the transmission of sectoral shocks. We apply our methodology to the case of the U.S. and find some significant differences in the sectorial responses to monetary policy. We also find that monetary policy is a significant source of sectoral transfers. In particular, a shock to Equipment and Software investment, which we naturally identify with the High-tech crises, induces a response by the monetary authority that generates a temporary boom in Residential Investment and Durable Consumption but has almost no effect on the high-tech sector. Finally, we perform an exercise evaluating what the model predicts regarding the automatic and a more aggressive monetary policy response to a shock similar to the one that hit the U.S. in early 2001. We find that the actual drop in interest rates we have observed is in line with the predictions of the model.


Leptin and nitric oxide (NO) are implicated in the control of energy homeostasis. The aim of the present study was to examine the impact of the absence of the inducible NO synthase (iNOS) gene on the regulation of energy balance in ob/ob mice analyzing the changes in gene expression levels in brown adipose tissue (BAT). Double knockout (DBKO) mice simultaneously lacking the ob and iNOS genes were generated and the expression of genes involved in energy balance including fatty acid and glucose metabolism as well as mitochondrial genes were analyzed by microarrays. DBKO mice exhibited an improvement in energy balance with a decrease in body weight (P < 0.001), total fat pads (P < 0.05), and food intake (P < 0.05), as well as an enhancement in BAT function compared with ob/ob mice. To better understand the molecular events associated with this improvement, BAT gene expression was analyzed. Of particular interest, gene expression levels of the key subunit of the Mediator complex Med1 was upregulated (P < 0.05) in DBKO mice. Real-time PCR and immunohistochemistry further confirmed this data. Med1 is implicated in adipogenesis, lipid metabolic and biosynthetic processes, glucose metabolism, and mitochondrial metabolic pathways. Med1 plays an important role in the transcriptional control of genes implicated in energy homeostasis, suggesting that the improvement in energy balance and BAT function of the DBKO mice is mediated, at least in part, through the transcription coactivator Med1.


Electrospinning is a technique that can produce fibres in the nanoscale range. This process is useful for many applications, including fabrication of fibrous scaffolds for fibrocartilage tissue engineering. For this application, cell attachment and tissue development is influenced by fibre morphology and mechanical properties. This electrospinning study investigated the influence of rotating collector design on morphology and mechanical properties of electrospun polycaprolactone fibre. The experiment employed 4 mandrel designs: 1) full surface of aluminium; 2) with gap feature; 3) with gap feature and teflon support; 4) with gap feature and tape support. The highest elastic modulus was obtained from mandrel with gap and tape support, which was 24.6 MPa and significantly higher compared to fibres acquired from other collector designs. Fibre diameter attained was identical across the different collectors, ranging from 0.5 - 2 µm. Gap introduction showed enhanced alignment in the resultant fibre. It can be concluded that fibre alignment and tensile properties can be improved by simply modifying the collector design. This improved fibre mat can be developed as a biomaterial for fibrocartilage tissue engineering scaffolds.


The most recent 'land rush' precipitated by the convergent 'crises' of fuel, feed and food in 2007–2008 has heightened the debate on the consequences of land investments, with widespread media coverage, policy commentary and civil society engagement. This 'land rush' has been accompanied by a 'literature rush', with a fast-growing body of reports, articles, tables and books with varied purposes, metrics and methods. Land grabbing, as it is popularly called, is now a hot political topic around the world, discussed amongst the highest circles. This is why getting the facts right is very important and having effective methodologies for doing so is crucial. Several global initiatives have been created to aggregate information on land deals, and to describe their scale, character and distribution. All have contributed to building a bigger (if not always better) picture of the phenomenon, but all have struggled with methodology. This JPS Forum identifies a profound uncertainty about what it is that is being counted, questions the methods used to collate and aggregate 'land grabs', and calls for a second phase of land grab research which abandons the aim of deriving total numbers of hectares in favour of more specific, grounded and transparent methods.


A new type of screening procedure for the detection of enzymatic defects of the red cell has been described. The blood or red cell sample is added to the reaction mixture. After a suitable period of incubation a drop of the mixture is spotted on filter paper, permitted to dry, and examined for fluorescence under UV light. In this way the oxidation of reduction of pyridine nucleotides is readily evaluated. Reaction mixtures for the detection of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency, pyruvate kinase deficiency, and glutathione reductase deficiency are described. The same general procedure should be readily adaptable to the detection of other enzymatic deficiencies of red cells, such as phosphogluconate dehydrogenase deficiency or triosephosphate isomerase deficiency.


We measured the plasma levels of TXB2, a stable metabolite of TXA2, and 6-K-PGF1 alpha, a stable metabolite of PGI2, in 28 asthmatics (16 of extrinsic type, 12 of intrinsic type) during symptomatic period and asymptomatic period respectively with radioimmunoassay. At the same time, plasma TXB2 and 6-K-PGF1 alpha were measured in 30 normal subjects for control. The results were as follows: (1) In the extrinsic asthmatics: The plasma TXB2 level measured during symptomatic period was significantly higher than that during asymptomatic period (P less than 0.05), while the plasma level of 6-K-PGF1 alpha measured during symptomatic period was significantly lower than that of normal subjects (P less than 0.01). The ratio of TXB2/6-K-PGF1 alpha measured during symptomatic period was significantly higher than that measured during asymptomatic period and that measured in the normal subjects (P less than 0.05). (2) In intrinsic asthmatics: The plasma 6-K-PGF1 alpha level measured during symptomatic period was significantly lower than that of normal subjects. There was no significantly difference between either plasma TXB2 level or ratio of TXB2/6-K-PGF1 alpha measured during symptomatic period and that measured during asymptomatic period as well as that of normal subjects. From these results it is suggested that (1) The TXA2 and PGI2 may play a different role in different types of asthma, (2) The imbalance between TXA2-PGI2 may be one of the important factors that take part in the pathogenesis of extrinsic asthma.