ABSTRACT Principal findings on dementia from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study (WHIMS) showed that conjugated equine estrogens plus medroxyprogesterone acetate (CEE/MPA) increase dementia risk in women aged 65 years and above, but not risk of mild cognitive impairment. The dementia finding was unexpected, given consistent observational evidence that associates use of estrogen-containing hormone therapy with reduced risk of Alzheimer's disease. It remains controversial whether hormone use by younger postmenopausal women near the time of menopause reduces dementia risk or whether WHIMS findings should be generalized to younger women. Given the challenges of conducting a primary prevention trial to address that question, it is helpful to consider the impact of hormone therapy on cognitive test performance, particularly verbal memory, for its own sake and as a proxy for dementia risk. The WHI Study of Cognitive Aging (WHISCA) showed that CEE/MPA worsened verbal memory, whereas CEE alone had no influence on cognition. These findings have been replicated in several randomized, clinical trials. The apparent negative effect of CEE/MPA on verbal memory does not appear to be age-dependent. Additional investigations are needed to understand the impact of other hormonally active compounds on dementia and cognitive outcomes.


In the context of the school curri c ulum, projects and investigations , as we all know, are now considered indispensible ; although I recall being inspir~d by a certain History master in the late 1940s who set us, as fourth-formers, research exercises on such topics as Jethro Tull , Turnip Townsend , and other agricultural and industrial pioneers of the 18th and 19th centuries. In those d a ys, of course, we still called it ";homework "; , even though the work involved extended field trips into the archives of the public library . Exercises such as these would now be properly termed ";investigations";, since there is no sense of ";projection"; into the future or into the production of an original creation or a rtefact . Since that time , the Project Technology team and others have done much to place technology more widely into the traditional school environment so that, in addit i on to the analytical study of other peoples efforts , children and students are encouraged to experience the design process for themselves and the exhilaration and inevitable fru s trations that are inseparable from it . The design process, as Deere 1 and others2 have shown, is the essential core of Technology and any technological project should therefore incorporate a strong element of design ; if the prime purpose of an exer c ise is analysis rather than synthesis , then it might be better described as an investigation .


Measuring the biophysical properties of living cells is essential to understand their underlying cytoskeletal machinery. Here we describe a robust extension of our previous algorithm for the intra-cellular measurement of pressure, velocity and forces inside living cells. We first consider a compressible fluid model to cope with out-of-plane intracellular flow in the 2D case, and also propose a 3D version of the algorithm for multi-plane imaging. Results demonstrate the high potential of the approach, giving access to biophysical measures that cannot be achieved using other experimental techniques.


the critical karaoke project was a specific response to the endless parade of polls, lists and casual questions about 'the greatest songs of all time' – particularly to how that measure seems mismatched to pop, which bets everything on transitory pleasures, intensities, its own evanescence. a number of critics, scholars, poets and musicians were invited to the experience music project's annual pop conference in seattle, in the spring of 2004, to talk about any one song of their choosing, without making a case for its lasting worth, or cultural importance, truth, beauty, or any of the other high art values. they just had to take a song they had believed, once, for a minute or a decade, was the greatest song ever … and give an account of why they thought that, or how it felt to believe. one of the dreams was to ask for criticism under the sign of the top 40, not the canon. the other was to hear talented writers tell stories about songs, as they appeared in their daily lives. the trick was that all the participants were asked to tell their story in the span of time it took to listen to the song they had chosen – with the song playing behind them.


Research and development on atmospheric and topographic correction methods for multispectral satellite data such as Landsat images has far outpaced the availability of those methods in geographic information systems software. As Landsat and other data become more widely available, demand for these improved correction methods will increase. Open source R statistical software can help bridge the gap between research and implementation. Sophisticated spatial data routines are already available, and the ease of program development in R makes it straightforward to implement new correction algorithms and to assess the results. Collecting radiometric, atmospheric, and topographic correction routines into the landsat package will make them readily available for evaluation for particular applications.


Communication is the exchange of messages and ideas or attitudes, which is the most important way leading to a degree of understanding between two or more people, it is an essential part in every aspect of school life (Meskel 2007). Effective internal communication was the largest effective contributor to the successful organizational change, as it is a vital link in bridging the goals and vision of the organization (Victor, 2002). It is expected that there would be a relationship between the communication skills of the educational leader and the motivation of teachers toward performance. Main aspect of the study The National Conference on Education in Sudan, which was held in Khartoum in 2012, stated that teachers face several problems that have affected their motivation and performance. The weak performance of teachers still pursues educational outcomes for generations to come, which will affect the development of the country. Hence, strategic thinking on the issue with respect to rehabilitation of teachers should be considered (Conference of the National Education, 2012). The contribution of the study Several previous studies addressed the importance of leadership skills and their role in achieving job satisfaction for employees. Some of these studies tried to determine the relationship between communication and some of the different variables, such as communication and school atmosphere (Rewson 2001), and communication and personal relationships (Rababa1996), and others. Furthermore, it was noted that these studies have emphasized the role of leadership in the development of educational institutions and defined the prevailing educational leadership and leadership styles and their impact on achieving institutional goals (Rahim 1996). This study will attempt to discover the communication skills of the educational leader and its relationship with the motivation of teachers. It also will try to fill in the gaps from previous studies, so that, God willing, it will contribute to pinpointing the relationship between the communication skills of the educational leader and the motivation of teachers. Relevance The following bodies are expected to benefit from this study: 1. Principals and educational departments. 2. Training institutions concerned with the training of managers and leaders. 3. Researchers and research institutions. 4. Education colleges and preparatory institutes that provide training for teachers. Research Query: What is the relationship between the set of communication skills of the educational leader and motivation of teachers? Objective: To determine the relationship between the communication skills of the educational leader and motivation of teachers. Methodology: A descriptive and analytical approach will be implemented due to its relevance to collecting material and data. Tools: A questionnaire will be used, following arbitration, as a tool to gather relevant information to this study. The theoretical framework: The theoretical framework of this study consists of two variables, communication skills of the educational leader as an independent variable, and the motivation of teachers as a dependent variable; and each variable includes a number of factors as in model (1). Limitation: Spatial boundaries: Primary schools are located in Omdurman - Khartoum State – Sudan Time limits: the academic year 2014 – 2015 Sample: Teachers of primary schools in Omdurman - Khartoum State


Abstract. "Body As Echoes: Cyber Archiving of Dazu Rock Carvings (BAE project in short)" strives to explore the tangible/intangible aspects of digital heritage conservation. Aiming at Dazu Rock Carvings - World Heritage Site of Sichuan Province, BAE project utilizes photogrammetry and digital sculpting technique to investigate digital narrative of cultural heritage conservation. It further provides collaborative opportunities to conduct the high-resolution site survey for scholars and institutions at local authorities. For preserving and making sustainable of the tangible cultural heritage at Dazu Rock Carvings, BAE project cyber-archives the selected niches and the caves at Dazu, and transform them into high-resolution, three-dimensional models. For extending the established results and making the digital resources available to broader audiences, BAE project will further develop interactive info-motion interface and apply the knowledge of digital heritage from BAE project to STEM education. BAE project expects to bridge the platform for archeology, computer graphics, and interactive info-motion design. Digital sculpting, projection mapping, interactive info-motion and VR will be the core techniques to explore the narrative of digital heritage conservation. For further protecting, educating and consolidating "building dwelling thinking" through digital heritage preservation, BAE project helps to preserve the digital humanity, and reach out to museum staffs and academia. By the joint effort of global institutions and local authorities, BAE project will also help to foster and enhance the mutual understanding through intercultural collaborations.


The aim of the paper is to present research results on subjective understanding of family among population of Lithuania. The research objectives are to explore the criteria used in defining family, identify persons named as family members and non-family members based on these criteria. The research hypotheses include the following: (1) the list of family members not necessarily include kin only, persons beyond the nuclear and extended families could be named as family members also, and visa versa, persons from nuclear and extended families could be named as non-family members; (2) registered marriage and blood are not the only criteria in subjective definition of the family in Lithuania any more. The test of the hypotheses was based on 60 in-depth qualitative interviews carried out in June – August, 2012 under the research project "Trajectories of Family Models and Social Networks: Intergenerational Perspective". The research results showed that blood criteria is still important in the definition of the nuclear family of procreation and the nuclear family of orientation, what concerns children and parents. Marriage criteria is important when defining the nuclear family of procreation and what concerns spouses. What concerns other persons, related to kin and non-kin relationship, other criteria play a more important role: mutual help and support, emotional closeness and attachment, close emotional bonds in a certain period of life (childhood, school years, etc.), common activities and interests, life under the same roof, living in a nearby place, belonging to a certain formal or informal community and/or other investment into relationships, etc.


The influential British architectural historian and theorist Reyner Banham (1922-1988) belonged to the same generation as Robert Venturi (b.1925) and Denise Scott Brown (b.1931) and shared many of their architectural values. This essay shows the great similarities of value and outlook in Learning from Las Vegas and Banham's almost contemporaneous Los Angeles: the Architecture of Four Ecologies (1971). It then pinpoints areas of disagreement between Venturi et al. and Banham and moves to a discussion of the different authors' views on Las Vegas, drawing on other texts written by Banham around this time. It reveals that the Venturi et al. version of Las Vegas's significance was not the only one in currency in the period when Learning from Las Vegas appeared in its first and second editions, and that the different interpretations of Las Vegas reveal contested architectural values during the period when Modernist values were being challenged by Post-Modern ones. - See more at: http://visiblelanguagejournal.com/articles/article/493/#sthash.eaCWpQk4.dpuf


Copyright © 2017 The Hospital Practices and Research. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Dear Editor, Osteoporosis is an important public health problem for older adults. In the Iranian population older than 30 years of age, both osteoporosis and osteopenia are common problems. There is a high prevalence of osteoporosis and vitamin D deficiency in Iran.1,2 According to reports, it is estimated that 17% of Iran's general population aged >30 years have osteoporosis and 35% have osteopenia. The prevalence of these 2 conditions is higher in the northern regions of Iran than in the southern regions, possibly because of their different geographical situations. The northern parts of the country are mostly mountainous, while the majority of the south is covered by deserts. Thus, people living in the southern parts of the country may receive more vitamin D than residents in the northern parts.3 It can be mentioned that bone fracture may be the first symptom of this so called silent disease. Actually, every 3 seconds one osteoporotic fracture occurs somewhere in the world. According to a report by the Iranian Multicenter Osteoporosis Study (IMOS), more than two-thirds of women and half of men over the age of 50 have a low bone mineral density. As life expectancy is increasing the number of older people is also rising. As a result, it has been predicted that by the year 2050, more than half of the osteoporotic fractures around the world will occur in Asia.4 Some of the main risk factors for osteoporosis are genetics, advancing age, alcohol consumption, lack of exercise, bad nutrition or eating habits, calcium balance disorders, sex, glucocorticoid use, low BMI, and smoking. There are many other unknown factors as well. Currently, about 6 million elderly people live in Iran.5 A study recently conducted by Iran's Ministry of Health showed that 47% of women and 44% of men over 50 years of age have deficient bone density, and 6.4% of people aged 20 to 70 years have osteoporosis of the spine. Moreover, one of every 4 Iranian women over the age of 50 has osteoporosis. Globally, this figure is one in every 3 women; 1 in every 5 men over the age of 50 also suffers from osteoporosis. Statistics in Iran indicate that 50% of people with osteoporosis have hip fractures. The use of baking soda in bread is a main cause of a lack of calcium in Iranian people; 58 million people in Iran suffer from a calcium deficiency. The use of dairy products in Iran is very limited. Encouraging the consumption of milk enriched with vitamin D, exercise for all age groups, and modifications to dietary habits may partially prevent osteoporosis.


From the very beginning of the project your team has had discussions about quality. You have unanimously agreed it's a top priority. Everyone wants to deliver a product of which they can be proud. Six months later, you find yourself neck-deep in bugs and fifty-percent behind schedule. The project team decides to defer fixing half of the bugs to a future release. What happened to making quality a priority? One of your partners is discontinuing support for a product version on which your online service is dependent. You have known this was coming for years; you are actually four releases behind your partner's current version. The upgrade of your online service has been put off repeatedly. Now the team is scrambling to get the needed changes done before your service is brought down by the drop in support. You are implementing the minimum number of features required to support a newer version. In fact, you're not even moving to the most current version—it was deemed too difficult and time-consuming to tackle at this point. You are still going to be a release behind. Are you ever going to catch up? Is minimal implementation always going to be the norm? Where is your focus on quality? Do these scenarios sound familiar? Why is it often so difficult to efficiently deliver a high-quality product? What circumstances sabotage our best intentions for quality? And, more importantly, how can we deliver quality products in spite of these saboteurs? One of the most common and insidious culprits is the habit of sacrificing long-term goals for short-term goals. This can lead to myriad, long standing issues on a project. It is also one of the most difficult problems to eradicate. There are other saboteurs: competing priorities, resource deprivation, dysfunctional team dynamics, and misplaced reward systems, to name a few. In this paper I'll focus on the quality saboteur of sacrificing long-term goals for short-term goals. I will discuss the benefits that can be gained when you make the right long-term investments and the types of problems you'll see if your team is solely pursuing short-term goals. I will show you practical strategies for slaying this saboteur or at least mitigating its effects.


Heterostigmatic mites (Acari) are usually associated with arthropods, especially insects. Studies on heterostigmatic mites associated with beetles found on Acacia xanthophloea was conducted at Thika, Kenyatta University and Mitaboni, Kenya between May 2016 and February 2017. Damaged log samples of fallen A. xanthophloea were collected from the three regions. Ten beetle species found within the log samples were examined for presence of mites. Three mite species were found attached on the body parts of the beetle. The species Tarsonemus sp., Heterotarsonemus sp., Tarsonemidae(Acari: Prostigmata) and Trichouropoda rackae, Trematuridae (Acari: Mesostigmata: Uropodina) were found to be associated with the families Bostrichidae, Histeridae, Staphylinidae, Lyctidae and Cleridae. The recovered Trichouropoda rackae is a new record for Kenya. Mites host species included Sinoxylon ruficorne, S. doliolum, Xylion adustus, Xyloperthodes nitidipennis, Xyloperthella picea, Lyctus sp., and Xylopsocus castanoptera. There was significant difference on the mean number of Tarsonemus sp., attached on the head,thorax, legs, membraneous wings, abdominal tergite and sternites on S. ruficorne, S. doliolum and X. picea at Kenyatta University and Mitaboni. Higher mean number of Tarsonemus sp., was recorded onthe Hister sp., a predatory beetle of the powderpost beetles in both sites. In Thika significant higher number of Tarsonemus sp., were recorded on the abdominal sternites on Xyloperthodes nitidipennis and no mites were recorded on the abdominal tergites.


This ground-breaking core text integrates psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) approaches into advanced practice nursing and fills a void in the nursing literature. It is organized around psychiatric 'syndromes,' rather than DSM diagnoses, so it will remain current even after the publication of the DSM-V. It provides clear and relevant treatment options in the form of decision trees with additional explanatory narratives. The text integrates neurobiology, theory, and research evidence related to psychopharmacology, psychotherapy, and complementary and alternative medicine interventions. While providing comprehensive information on theory and practice, it simplifies complex aspects of treatment with clarity and provides the depth of content appropriate to support sound clinical reasoning required in advanced practice. The book responds to the current backlash against overmedication in psychiatry. It also fulfills the upcoming requirements by APNA and ISPN that Advanced Practice Nurses must have skills in psychotherapy. Finally, the text focuses on treatment issues across the lifespan and highlights pertinent clinical differences from the adult population through pediatric pointers and aging alerts. Key Features: Organized around psychiatric 'syndromes,' rather than DSM diagnoses, so it will remain relevant after the DSM V publishes Integrates neurobiology, theory, and research evidence related to psychopharmacology, psychotherapy and CAM therapies Provides the much-needed content on psychotherapy newly required for all Psychiatric Advanced Practice Nurses (APNA & ISPN White Papers) Reflects a long-overdue nursing holistic approach, different from the customary medical approach Supports clinical decision skills through beautifully-designed, easy-to-follow decision trees for initiating treatment guidelines for 'usual' clients and helps to distinguish those who may require more customized therapeutic interventions. Reflects extensive practice and educational experience of editors and contributors from the United States, Canada, and Scotland, all of whom are expert APNs


We evaluate the effects of outsourcing and wage solidarity on wage formation and equilibrium unemployment in a heterogeneous labour market, where wages are determined by a monopoly labour union. We find that outsourcing promotes the wage dispersion between the high-skilled and low-skilled workers. When the labour union adopts a solidaristic wage policy, it will magnify, and not dampen, this tendency. Further, higher outsourcing will increase equilibrium unemployment among the high-skilled workers, whereas it will reduce it among the low-skilled workers. Overall, outsourcing will reduce economy-wide equilibrium unemployment under the reasonable condition that the proportion of high-skilled workers is sufficiently low.


We describe a snub‐nosed monkey that is new to science from the high altitudes of northeastern Kachin state, northeastern Myanmar, the Burmese snub‐nosed monkey, Rhinopithecus strykeri sp. nov. Descriptions are based on a skin and skulls of four specimens obtained from local hunters. The new species is geographically isolated from other snub‐nosed monkeys and separated from them by two major barriers—the Mekong and the Salween (Thanlwin) rivers. The species is chiefly diagnosed by its almost entirely blackish fur coloration with white fur only on ear tufts, chin beard, and perineal area, and its relatively long tail (140% of head and body length in the adult male). Preliminary surveys and interviews with hunters indicate that the new species is limited in distribution to the Maw River area, a small region of the Salween‐N'mai Hka divide in northeastern Kachin state, northeastern Myanmar. The distribution area appears to cover about 270 km2, and the species may consist of only three groups with a total population of approximately 260–330 individuals. Our data on hunting pressure suggest that the species is Critically Endangered. Am. J. Primatol. 73:96–107, 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Ambient Intelligence (AmI) involves extensive and invisible integration of computer technologies in people´s daily lives: Smart Sensors, Smart Phones, Tablets, Wireless Sensor Network (Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, NFC, RFID, etc.), Internet (Facebook, WhatsApp, Twitter, You Tube, Blogs, Cloud Computing, etc.). The Intelligent Environments (IE) collect and process a massive amount of person-related and sensitive information. The aim of this work is to show the awareness of privacy issues in AmI and to identify the relevant design issues that should be addressed in order to provide privacy in the design of Ambient Intelligence's applications focused in the user´s domain and involved technologies. We propose a conceptual framework in order to enforce privacy that takes care of interaction between technologies and devices, users and application´s domain with different modules that contain different steps relating to the privacy policies.


Two key steps in multi-criteria decision making (MCDM) are to quantify the considered criteria and to fuse the quantified criterion information to sort all alternatives. One of the most recent and important tools for the first step is linguistic interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy number (LIVIFN) and one of the most common and effective ways for the second step is aggregation operator (AO). So far, a number of AOs of LIVIFNs have been presented. Each AO can work well under certain conditions. But there is not yet an AO of LIVIFNs that can deal with the situation where the weights of the considered criteria are unknown and the criteria are in different priority levels and concurrently provide satisfying generality and flexibility in the aggregation of criterion information. To this end, a linguistic interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy Archimedean prioritised and (LIVIFAPA) operator and a linguistic interval-valued intuitionistic fuzzy Archimedean prioritised or (LIVIFAPO) operator, which have such capabilities, are presented in this paper. The formal definitions and generalised expressions of the two AOs are firstly provided. Then their properties are explored and proved and specific expressions are established. After that, a new method for solving the LIVIFNs based MCDM problems is proposed on the basis of the presented AOs. Finally, the proposed method is illustrated via an example about additive manufacturing machine selection and is evaluated via a comparison with existing methods. The major contribution of the paper is the development of the LIVIFAPA and LIVIFAPO operators for MCDM, which can make up for the above shortcoming of the existing AOs of LIVIFNs.


The practical energy minimization algorithm (EMA) is introduced here to determine if a water distribution system (WDS) can be less energy dependent. The EMA is a simple algorithm that can be used by practitioners in the planning and management of WDSs. The EMA employs the Jatropha Curcas (JC) tree as a source of oil for fueling water pumps. The EMA is demonstrated on a WDS in Senegal, West Africa, and calculates the level of JC production required to be self-sufficient in fueling the water system to meet drinking, sanitation, and JC irrigation requirements. It was found that the EMA successfully showed that the demonstration WDS can be energy self-sufficient to provide recommended amounts of drinking water for the people and enough irrigation for the JC trees, but only if greywater was used to supplement the irrigation and if a mechanical press was used in lieu of a hand press to extract the oil from the JC leaves. An adequate amount of oil was thus produced to power the required mechanical press as well. Payback periods of significantly less than the life of the required equipment indicate the viability of JC oil as fuel and the feasibility of having an energy independent WDS.


By emphasizing the application of computer programming not only in success stories in the software industry but also in familiar scenarios in physical and biological science, engineering, and applied mathematics, Introduction to Programming in Javatakes an interdisciplinary approach to teaching programmingwith theJava programming language. Elements of Programming: Your First Program; Built-in Types of Data; Conditionals and Loops; Arrays; Input and Output. Functions and Modules: Static Methods; Libraries and Clients; Recursion. Object-Oriented Programming: Data Types; Creating Data Types; Designing Data Types. Algorithms and Data Structures: Performance; Sorting and Searching; Stacks and Queues; Symbol Tables. For all readers interested in introductory programming courses using theJava programming language.


Background: Possibilities of pharmacological regulation of apoptosis play an important role in the treatment of different diseases. Polyphenol-rich plant extracts, as well as isolated polyphenols, can regulate cell apoptosis primarily through intrinsic and extrinsic mechanisms of action and are the most intriguing and studied class of compounds that can be therapeutics for a wide range of common diseases, including cancer. Polyphenols are well known as powerful antioxidants, their action is also associated with pro-apoptotic function in various types of tumor cells.The purpose of this study was to establish the anti-and pro-apoptotic activity of Georgian legume crops in model cellular systems.Methods: Legume crop extracts (LCEs) were prepared in water-alcohol solute. Polyphenols content in the extracts was determined by Folin–Ciocalteu method, antiradical activity (AA) - according the comparative time of the 50% neutralization of 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) cleavage.Studies were carried out on human leukemic mature T (Jurkat) and normal epithelial MDCK cells lines. For modelling of oxidative stress, 30% hydrogen peroxide was used. LCEs were added to intact or incubated under oxidative stress conditions Jurkat and MDCK cells. Cells' viability was determined by 3-(4,5-dimethyltiazol-2)-2,5-diphenyl-tetrazolium-bromide (MTT) test. Catalase and Superoxidedismutase (SOD) activity in cellular supernatant was measured by spectrophotometry.Results: LCEs revealed selective pro- and antiapoptotic activity on the intact and incubated under oxidative stress conditions Jurkat and MDCK cells. The cytotoxic effect of LCEs on intact Jurkat and MDCK cells was independent of their AA and activity of enzymatic cellular antioxidant defense system.The cytoprotective effect of LCEs on MDCK cells was realized through redox-dependent mechanisms and is associated both with the own AA of the extracts and with the stimulating effect of the extracts on the activity of enzymatic cellular antioxidant defense system, where catalase played a leading role. LCEs didn't protect Jurkat cells from oxidative stress-induced apoptosis.Conclusion: The obtained results allow us to conclude that in cancer chemotherapy the legume extracts might be combined with prooxidant drugs, in order to protect normal cells, but not the malignant ones, from their apoptosis-inducing effect. On the other hand, these extracts may protect non-malignant tissues/organs from various apoptosis-related disorders.


This study contributes to the public debate on gender quotas and the literature on gender and risk taking by analysing how the level of risk taking within a group is influenced by its gender composition. In particular we look at the shift of risk taking between group and individual decisions and analyse to which extent this shift depends on the gender composition. We derive a gender-specific polarization hypothesis which states that compared to individual preferences, male dominated groups will shift towards higher risk taking than female dominated ones. Our experimental tests reveal a systematic impact of gender composition on group shifts which supports our hypothesis and points into the direction that a higher share of females may prevent excessive risk taking.


We determined if care provided by general practitioners (GPs) to non-emergency patients, in a suburban accident and emergency (A&E) department using an informal triage system, differs significantly from care provided by usual A&E staff. One thousand eight hundred and seventy-eight patients participated. By comparison with usual A&E staff, GPs prescribed significantly more often (percentage relative difference [% RD] = 12 [95% confidence interval = 1-23]) and referred more patients to hospital (% RD = 21 [95% CI = 9-33]). This is the first study to report that sessional GPs working in an A&E department utilize similar or more resources than usual A&E staff. It emphasizes the need for the continued audit of initiatives that have been introduced into new settings.


In this letter to Congress, 28 law professors, economists, and political scientists express serious concerns about the recent push for sweeping changes to patent litigation venue rules, such as those proposed in the VENUE Act.Although proponents for the VENUE Act argue that the concentration of patent cases in a few federal district courts is bad for the patent system, this letter explains that the VENUE Act does not solve this problem. Studies show that restrictions on venue similar to those in the VENUE Act would only shift this concentration from the Eastern District of Texas to a couple other judicial districts -- the District of Delaware and the Northern District of California. These two other districts are recognized as more friendly to defendants, such as the high-tech companies and retailers lobbying heavily for the VENUE Act. Congress also should be wary of acting, because the rates and patterns in patent litigation are very fluid. For example, the percentage of patent lawsuits filed in the Eastern District of Texas relative to other districts is now declining substantially.For these reasons, among others detailed in the letter, Congress should at least adopt a wait-and-see approach on legislation like the VENUE Act. In the very least, until the patent-weakening effects of the America Invents Act's new PTAB proceedings and recent Supreme Court decisions are better understood, Congress should be reluctant to enact legislation that will further weaken patent rights and potentially harm the innovation economy.


The nonnegative matrix factorization (NMF) is widely used in signal and image processing, including bio-informatics, blind source separation and hyperspectral image analysis in remote sensing. A great challenge arises when dealing with a nonlinear formulation of the NMF. Within the framework of kernel machines, the models suggested in the literature do not allow the representation of the factorization matrices, which is a fallout of the curse of the pre-image. In this paper, we propose a novel kernel-based model for the NMF that does not suffer from the pre-image problem, by investigating the estimation of the factorization matrices directly in the input space. For different kernel functions, we describe two schemes for iterative algorithms: an additive update rule based on a gradient descent scheme and a multiplicative update rule in the same spirit as in the Lee and Seung algorithm. Within the proposed framework, we develop several extensions to incorporate constraints, including sparseness, smoothness, and spatial regularization with a total-variation-like penalty. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated with the problem of unmixing hyperspectral images, using well-known real images and results with state-of-the-art techniques.


Objective: We are trying to rationalize the known antioxidant and anticancer activities of the extracts of some of these plants through their inhibition of human topoisomerases I and II, as it is crucial to develop novel nontoxic topoisomerase inhibitors that can spare normal cells.
Methods: Standard topoisomerase I and II assays with and without the plant extracts and associated analyses.
Results: Extracts of Acacia catechu, Emblica officinalis, Terminalia belerica, Terminalia chebula, Spondias dulcis, completely inhibit human topoisomerase I at 40 μg/mL concentration while Hemidesmus indicus and Dolichos biflorus extracts inhibit partially at the same concentration when included in standard assays. Extracts of the same five plants which inhibit human topoisomerase I strongly are known to possess anticancer activity, while the other two are antioxidant only. Spinacia oleracea extract does not significantly inhibit human topoisomerase I and serves as a negative control. Extracts of Acacia catechu, Terminalia chebula and Spondias dulcis show 20–80% inhibition of human topoisomerase I at even 9 μg/mL concentration. All seven plant extracts partially inhibit human topoisomerase II at 120 μg/mL concentration in the decatenation assay. Chebulagic and chebulinic acids purified from Terminalia chebula extract inhibited human topoisomerase I at around 2 μM and 3 μM respectively. Preincubation dilution assays performed with the plant extracts and the two acids purified from Terminalia chebula show the inhibition of human topoisomerase I at even lower concentrations, implying the inhibitor molecules bind the enzyme very tightly due to the preincubations.
Conclusions: The nuclear fragmentation leading to apoptosis observed earlier in cancerous cell lines in the presence of such plant extracts may thus be explained by the inhibition of topoisomerases in addition to modulation of modulation of Fenton reaction-mediated damage to DNA constituents shown elsewhere.


Notch signaling, involved in development and tissue homeostasis, is activated at the cell-cell interface through ligand-receptor interactions. Previous studies have implicated mechanical forces in the activation of Notch receptor upon binding to its ligand. Here we aimed to determine the single molecular force required for Notch activation by developing a novel low tension gauge tether (LTGT). LTGT utilizes the low unbinding force between single-stranded DNA (ssDNA) and Escherichia coli ssDNA binding protein (SSB) (∼4 pN dissociation force at 500 nm/s pulling rate). The ssDNA wraps around SSB and, upon application of force, unspools from SSB, much like the unspooling of a yoyo. One end of this nano yoyo is attached to the surface though SSB, while the other end presents a ligand. A Notch receptor, upon binding to its ligand, is believed to undergo force-induced conformational changes required for activating downstream signaling. If the required force for such activation is larger than 4 pN, ssDNA will unspool from SSB, and downstream signaling will not be activated. Using these LTGTs, in combination with the previously reported TGTs that rupture double-stranded DNA at defined forces, we demonstrate that Notch activation requires forces between 4 and 12 pN, assuming an in vivo loading rate of 60 pN/s. Taken together, our study provides a direct link between single-molecular forces and Notch activation.


Accepted: 12 Dec. 2014 In a survey for rust diseases in Maragheh area rust symptoms were observed on poplars (Populus nigra) in Maragheh city parks and orchards near the city. Uredinia and urediniospores typical of Melampsora were present on the underside of leaves. Paraphyses were clavate with walls evenly thick and Telia, formed on the leaves early in the autumn, were epiphyllous and subepidermal. DNA was extracted from urediniospores and the primers ITS1 and ITS4 were used to amplify the internal transcribed spacer region of the ribosomal DNA. Based on the key provided by Bagyanarayana and the species description by Pei and Shang, and the result of sequencing, the causal agent was identified as Melampsora allii-populina Kelb. Melampsora species are mainly determined based on their morphology, alternate hosts and telial host range. However, in most cases, only one or two spore stages could be found at the time of observation and there is no information of the alternate hosts. This is the first study of poplar rust disease to the species level in the area. Rust disease is likely to be the most important disease on poplar in this area. As poplar rust can cause severe damages to nursery plants and young trees, there must be further research to understand the epidemiology of the rust disease. A key question to be answered is whether the rust goes through a full life-cycle, possible via known alternate host Allium spp. or only uredinial and telial stages are present in the studied area.


BACKGROUND
There is uncertainty regarding the efficacy of increasing n-3 long-chain PUFA (LCPUFA) intake during pregnancy in reducing the risk of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and preeclampsia.

OBJECTIVES
The objective was to determine whether n-3 LCPUFA supplementation in pregnancy reduces the incidence of GDM or preeclampsia. A secondary objective was to assess the effect of n-3 LCPUFA supplementation on perinatal complications.

DESIGN
This was a double-blind, multicenter randomized control trial-the DHA to Optimize Mother Infant Outcome (DOMInO) trial. Pregnant women (n = 2399) of <21 wk gestation were randomly assigned to receive DHA-enriched fish oil (800 mg/d) or vegetable oil capsules without DHA from trial entry to birth. The presence of GDM or preeclampsia was assessed through a blinded audit of medical records. Birth outcomes and prenatal complications were also assessed.

RESULTS
The overall incidences of GDM and preeclampsia were 8% and 5%, respectively, based on clinical diagnosis. The RR of GDM was 0.97 (95% CI: 0.74, 1.27) and of preeclampsia was 0.87 (95% CI: 0.60, 1.25), and they did not differ significantly between the groups. Birth weight, length, and head circumference z scores also did not differ between the groups. There were 12 perinatal deaths and 5 neonatal convulsions in the control group compared with 3 perinatal deaths and no neonatal convulsions in the DHA group (P = 0.03 in both cases).

CONCLUSION
DHA supplementation of 800 mg/d in the second half of pregnancy does not reduce the risk of GDM or preeclampsia. Whether supplementation reduces the risk of perinatal death and neonatal convulsions requires further investigation. The DOMInO trial was registered with the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry as TRN12605000569606.


It seems that brain, thought and computer have become intertwined and now share a common fate. An important part of neuroscience not only requires a computational paradigm but also relies on technology to be operational. Experiments in neuroscience are built on the use of material apparatuses dependent on the computer. Isn't the emergence of the computer in the last century based on a certain representation of thought and the brain? It has become difficult to distinguish among these three representations (computer, thought and brain) since they seem superimposed upon one another through a fiction that operates in a very concrete way on the world. I would like to explore this fiction in order to analyze how a form of speculation that favors what is possible over what is real can produce a technological "reality" that challenges all certainty. Our contemporary world seems to contain an anomaly of which we can only trace the shadow: parallel to the progress made in neuroscience, our nervous system is increasingly stimulated by an interconnected digital environment that leaves us no respite. It consumes us and we in turn consume it. Is this a simple coincidence or can we analyze this phenomenon as a structural convergence? What relationship exists between the Web, which has assimilated an increasing number of human behaviors, and the human brain considered from the point of view of a programmed machine that has also learned to act like a brain?


The qualitative research paradigm, although occasionally applied, is not widely discussed in agribusiness and agricultural economics literature. The primary goals of this paper are (a) to present insights into qualitative research approaches and processes by outlining grounded theory as an example of a systematic and rigorous qualitative approach, and (b) to discuss criteria for scientific rigor applicable to qualitative research. In addition, assessing qualitative research is demonstrated by using a published example.


We present a technique to automatically synthesize heterogeneous asynchronous pipelines by combining two different latching styles: normally open D-latches for high performance and self-resetting D-latches for low power. Theformer is fast but results in high power consumption due to data glitches that leak through the latch when it is open. The latter is normally closed and is opened just before data stabilizes. Thus, it is more power-efficient but slower than normally open D-latches. We propose a module selection optimization that assigns each pipeline stage to one of these two latching styles. This is performed by an automated algorithm that uses two types of heuristics: (1) it uses the Global Critical Path (GCP), to assign D-latches to stages that are sequentially critical, and (2) it estimates potential datapath glitching to make SR-latch assignment decisions. The algorithm has quadratic-time complexity and experiments that apply the algorithm on several media processing kernels indicate that, on average, the heterogeneous pipelining algorithm achieves higher performance and is more energy efficient than either the homogeneous D-latch or SR-latch pipeline styles.


This case series deals with the acquisition by International Business Machines (IBM) of Lotus Development Corporation. The A case (UVA-OB-0696) lays out some of the strategic issues in the software industry as well as a brief history of IBM, Lotus, and their respective CEOs, Louis Gerstner and Jim Manzi. Issues of strategic and cultural fit can be analyzed. The A case ends with Louis Gerstner beginning a speech to Lotus employees, which provides an opportunity for student role-plays. The B case (UVA-OB-0697) is the text of the speech Gerstner actually gave, and can be analyzed in terms of content, purpose, and delivery. The C case covers issues concerning postmerger integration.


Plants must survive under many stressful environmental conditions. Quinn et al. studied the signaling pathway activated by hypoxic conditions in the algae Chlamydomonas reinhardtti. Hypoxia activates a set of genes also responsive to copper deficiency: Cpx1 (encoding coprogen oxidase), Cyc6 (encoding cytochrome c), and Crd1 (encoding a di-iron enzyme). Although the kinetics and sensitivity of the increases in gene expression in response to oxygen or copper deficiency were not identical, the stimulation of these genes had many similarities. Both required a copper response element (CRE) in the promoter of the target genes, although the hypoxia response required a second cis element of identical sequence to the CRE. Both responses required the trans-acting factor Crr1, and increases in the expression of three genes were blocked in crr1 mutants. Both oxygen- and copper-deficient gene activation were inhibited by the addition of nontoxic concentrations of mercury. Thus, for the regulation of certain genes, there is an apparent convergence of the pathways that sense and respond to changes in copper and oxygen concentrations. The common copper and oxygen regulatory pathway is not the only one activated in response to hypoxia, because the stimulation of expression of another gene regulated by oxygen deprivation, Hyd1, was not affected by mercury or in the crr1 mutants. J. M. Quinn, M. Ericksson, J. L. Moseley, S. Merchant, Oxygen deficiency responsive gene expression in Chlamydomonas reinhardtti through a copper-sensing signal transduction pathway. Plant Physiol. 128, 463-471 (2002). [Abstract] [Full Text]


Background. The paper presents data on the variability and relationship of microorganisms in the biocenosis of livestock farms. Methods. The analysis of the available literature on the formation, operation, correction, and diagnosis of biocenoses of livestock farms. Results. It is shown that the animal organism is constantly exposed to the environment. A special place among the environmental factors affecting the animal body is microorganisms – causative agents of infectious diseases. Survey available of the literature on the evolution and relationship of microorganisms in different natural habitats. So, in the process of evolution to parasitism in tissues and organs of animals have adapted a variety of microorganisms: viruses, bacteria, fungi, protozoa, helminths, and arthropods. In the nature of a lot of evidence on the phylogenetic relationships of pathogenic microbes from nonpathogenic to the emergence in the evolution of new pathogenic forms of bacteria under favorable environmental conditions and organisms. Conclusion. Recommended livestock farms are to be regarded as ecosystems, artificially created by man. In them, there are special relationships between animals, protozoa, a diverse microflora, which are fundamentally different from those in vivo. In artificial biocenoses, the Association of conditionally pathogenic microorganisms that circulate in the economy can cause various diseases in farm animals.


Magnetic cantilever measurements have detected half-flux states in mesoscopic rings of the layered material Sr2RuO4, adding evidence that superconducting Sr2RuO4 may be described by a p-wave order parameter. A proposal accounting for this behavior has been presented in which the polarization axis of the condensates lies entirely in the plane. In a halfflux state there is a non-zero polarization, due purely to kinematic effects, which couples to an in-plane magnetic field, lowering the half-flux state's free energy. The viability of such a model and a determination of phenomenological parameters depends heavily on the specific geometry used. A set of Ginzburg-Landau equations has been solved using COMSOL and geometries very similar to the experimental setup. The results show that the Ginzburg-Landau model can qualitatively reproduce the experimental data within the physically allowable parameter space.


This article introduces a new measure of dispositional perfectionism: the Big Three Perfectionism Scale (BTPS). The BTPS assesses three higher-order global factors (rigid perfectionism, self-critical perfectionism, narcissistic perfectionism) via 10 lower-order perfectionism facets (self-oriented perfectionism, self-worth contingencies, concern over mistakes, doubts about actions, self-criticism, socially prescribed perfectionism, other-oriented perfectionism, hypercriticism, grandiosity, entitlement). The present investigation examined the structure of the BTPS using exploratory factor analysis in Study 1 (288 undergraduates) and confirmatory factor analyses in Study 2 (352 community adults) and Study 3 (290 undergraduates). Additionally, in Study 3 the relationships among the BTPS, other measures of perfectionism, and the five-factor model of personality were investigated. Overall, findings provide first evidence for the reliability and validity of the BTPS as a multidimensional measure of perfectionism.


This dissertation is devoted to a perspective from which IT-based information systems are conceived as information technological artefacts intended for business action and communication. The perspective has been made concrete through the concept of information systems actability, which is the main concept under scrutiny. The research contributions of the dissertation exist at various levels of abstration. First of all, the dissertation contributes to the understanding of information systems from a social action perspective. Based on identified weaknesses in contemporary conceptualizations of information systems, the concept of information systems actability is developed. This contribution consists of a reconciliation of various views on information system usage quality with its roots in a linguistic tradition including elements from organizational semiotics and the language/action perspective. At a more concrete level, this understanding, and the concept as such, have consequences for the development and evaluation of information systems. Such consequences have been the foundation for a proposed information systems design method, which thus constitutes a further contribution. Another contribution is the outlining of an information systems actability. As a further means of obtaining empirical experience of working with this concept, a descriptive analytic framework has been developed, which constitutes yet another contribution. These three operationalizations, the design method, the evaluation method and the analytic framework, have been developed and empirically grounded through a qualitative case study appproach involving four cases of information systems requirements specification, four evaluations of existing information systems, and two cases of description and characterization of information systems related phenomena from the perspective of actability. The latter two cases imply how further contributions at an even more concrete level, constituted by characterizations of Internet-based information systems and the local electronic marketplace, seen in the light of information systems actability.


The majority of pipelines cross at least one waterway of some type, especially the interstate lines which from start to end cross numerous bayous, canals and major rivers. These waterways are in a constant state of change. River bank erosion, bottom scouring and dredging are just some of the processes that can expose pipelines. Exposure may subject the pipeline to potential failures due to stress fatigue and corrosion from coating loss. Scheduled monitoring and archiving of pipeline cover and bank loss can reduce these exposures or provide less stressful time frames to prepare for replacement. Over the last decade technology advances in pipeline detection have developed improved methods of probing, geophysics, and electromagnetic to efficiently determine depth of cover over pipelines. Electromagnetic technology has made some of the most promising strides forward. Coupled with an accurate total station survey instrument, water depth recorder and personal computer (P.C.) WIMPOL's electromagnetic system has provided rapid, detailed depth of cover and erosion surveys. Computer aided drafting has provided a means to present precise detailed survey data for interpretation archives and efficiently modify drawings for remedial action if required.


The study investigates the effect of vocabulary instruction on the depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension performance of English as Second Language (ESL) learners. It seeks to find out if teaching vocabulary contributes to the development of depth of vocabulary knowledge and reading comprehension performance. The experiment was carried out on 60 student teachers from one of the teachers' training institutes in Malaysia. This study was a true experimental, employing the Solomon Four-Group design. The reading section of MUET and the Word Association Test (WAT) were used as the instruments. The reading test was scored using percentages. Further, it was analysed under the five levels of questions in Barrett's taxonomy of cognitive and affective difficulty of questions. The WAT was scored using percentages and was further analysed under the three semantic relationships: paradigmatic, syntagmatic and analytic. The statistical tests employed were the t-tests and the analysis ANOVA. Results indicate that vocabulary instruction has a significant difference on the participants' reading comprehension performance. Further analysis indicates that there are significant differences only in the literal and reorganization level. The results also indicate that there is a significant difference on the subjects' depth of vocabulary knowledge. Further analysis indicates that only the paradigmatic relationships are statistically significant. The findings support the interactive model of reading which recognizes the importance of vocabulary in the reading process. It also supports the linguistic threshold hypothesis (Clarke, 1979), which asserts that L2 reading ability depends on L2 language proficiency. The results also support the instrumentalist view (Anderson & Freebody, 1981), which claims that vocabulary knowledge is a direct factor in the causal chain resulting in reading comprehension. It can be concluded that vocabulary need to be taught explicitly to ESL learners in Malaysia in order for them to reach the vocabulary threshold level. The findings are discussed in relation to its pedagogical implications.


Effective management of construction projects depends on good access to and control of data, especially data pertaining to cost and schedule control functions. Long recognizing the need to integrate these interrelated functions and to improve the quality, integrity, and timeliness of data, researchers have proposed conceptual models to achieve this purpose. However, the proper design of an automated solution has been lacking that would support the needs of integrated cost and schedule control and would acquire and store quality data in a timely manner. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the design of an automated data acquisition and storage model that overcomes the above-mentioned deficiencies. The data storage component is developed using a four-step process used to model engineering problems. The first step, problem definition, is accomplished by using the work packaging model to solve the integration problem and by using data collection forms developed by R.S. Means Company to identify what data items are collected in cost and schedule control. The second step, conceptual modeling, utilizes Nijssen's Information Analysis Methodology (NIAM). For the third step, computational modeling, the relational data model is selected. The Optimal Normal Forms (ONF) algorithm is used for mapping from the conceptual to the computational model. The fourth and final step, computer modeling, is accomplished by mapping the computational data model onto a computer database management system. The paper then discusses how bar coding will be used for automating the data acquisition component in support of integrated cost and schedule control. We believe that bar coding can improve the quality, integrity, and timeliness of data when coupled with a good database design.


Embodied conversational agents are changing the way humans interact with technology. In order to develop humanlike ECAs they need to be able to perform natural gestures that are used in day-to-day conversation. Gestures can give insight into an ECAs personality trait of extraversion, but what factors into it is still being explored. Our study focuses on two aspects of gesture: amplitude and frequency. Our goal is to find out whether agents should use specific gestures more frequently than others depending on the personality type they have been designed with. We also look to quantify gesture amplitude and compare it to a previous study on the perception of an agent's naturalness of its gestures. Our results showed some indication that introverts and extraverts judge the agent's naturalness similarly. The larger the amplitude our agent used, the more natural its gestures were perceived. The frequency of gestures between extraverts and introverts seem to contain hardly any difference, even in terms of types of gesture used.


Recently, considerable research effort has been devoted to developing deep architectures for topic models to learn topic structures. Although several deep models have been proposed to learn better topic proportions of documents, how to leverage the benefits of deep structures for learning word distributions of topics has not yet been rigorously studied. Here we propose a new multi-layer generative process on word distributions of topics, where each layer consists of a set of topics and each topic is drawn from a mixture of the topics of the layer above. As the topics in all layers can be directly interpreted by words, the proposed model is able to discover interpretable topic hierarchies. As a self-contained module, our model can be flexibly adapted to different kinds of topic models to improve their modelling accuracy and interpretability. Extensive experiments on text corpora demonstrate the advantages of the proposed model.


Plant alpha-1,4 glucanotransferases (disproportionating enzymes, or D-enzymes) transfer glucan chains among oligosaccharides with the concomitant release of glucose (Glc). Analysis of Chlamydomonas reinhardtii sta11-1 mutants revealed a correlation between a D-enzyme deficiency and specific alterations in amylopectin structure and starch biosynthesis, thereby suggesting previously unknown biosynthetic functions. This study characterized the biochemical activities of the alpha-1,4 glucanotransferase that is deficient in sta11-1 mutants. The enzyme exhibited the glucan transfer and Glc production activities that define D-enzymes. D-enzyme also transferred glucans among the outer chains of amylopectin (using the polysaccharide chains as both donor and acceptor) and from malto-oligosaccharides into the outer chains of either amylopectin or glycogen. In contrast to transfer among oligosaccharides, which occurs readily with maltotriose, transfer into polysaccharide required longer donor molecules. All three enzymatic activities, evolution of Glc from oligosaccharides, glucan transfer from oligosaccharides into polysaccharides, and transfer among polysaccharide outer chains, were evident in a single 62-kD band. Absence of all three activities co-segregated with the sta11-1 mutation, which is known to cause abnormal accumulation of oligosaccharides at the expense of starch. To explain these data we propose that D-enzymes function directly in building the amylopectin structure.


The practice of providing safe temporary facilities for pedestrians during the execution of infrastructure projects is still challenging due to project complexity and the management of existing traffic flow. The challenge of ensuring pedestrian safety also becomes a concern in Jakarta, Indonesia, which currently has many ongoing infrastructure projects. The execution of these projects along existing main roads demands contractors to close some road lanes including pedestrian accesses. The circumstance highlights the importance of investigating the current practice in providing safe temporary pedestrian access. This study aims to investigate the safety and comfort measure of pedestrian access adjacent to the construction site. Nonconformities to safety findings from the field later are used as a basis for expert interviews in order to acquire recommendations. This research took a case study of the Light Rail Transit (LRT) project with a section length of 3.6 km. Observations took place every 100 meters and all nonconformities to safety data were recorded. Findings showed that among the potential nonconformities to safety, only six of those factors occurred frequently which later became the basis of questionnaire development for semi-structured expert interviews. Three experts from different backgrounds were chosen. Content analysis was used to analyze the data. Field observation result shows that among the six factors of nonconformity to safety, the unavailability of the separator system between the pedestrian access and road lane becomes the most occurred factor. The research demonstrates that in order to provide safety for pedestrians, access should be prepared with a minimum width of 90-100 cm, durable and stable surface, as well as a barrier that ensures safety against traffic and construction work. This study recommends the practical considerations for pedestrian safety as well as policies in terms of contractor's organization and government in a broader perspective.


Karlheinz Stockhausen's Kathinkas Gesang als Luzifers Requiem presents mental, physical, and musical challenges that go beyond the usual expectations of an instrumentalist, extending and redefining the traditional idea of virtuosity. Using firsthand performance experience, score and recording study, and flutist interviews, this document explores the effects of some of these heightened demands and argues that the particular performance situation presented by Kathinkas Gesang brings up critical questions about the performer's role, the nature of performance and of the musical work, and the existence of an authoritatively "authentic" interpretation. Employing an expanded definition of virtuosity that includes interpretation and encompasses both choices and actions, the document discusses the extensions of virtuosity into two main areas: first, memory; and second, staging and movement, covering both practical suggestions and larger implications. Finally, it examines how the performer's negotiation of these challenges relates to questions about authenticity and agency. Performance is defined here as a creative and collaborative act, not attempting to duplicate previous performances or recordings, but rather to give the best realization of the piece possible in the given circumstances, according to the individual's interpretation of the score's directions. There is no single "authentic" interpretation, but rather a rich multiplicity of possibilities, and the performer's creative agency and personal authenticity are necessary for the full realization of the work.


Aims: Evaluation of supportive care management of cancer patients experiencing drug-related problems (DRPs) is a challenge because it might increase the cost due to additional therapy. The main objectives of this study were to estimate chemotherapy-associated drug-related hospital admissions in the department of medical oncology and to estimate the cost of managing chemotherapy-associated DRPs. Settings and Design: This study is a prospective observational study. Subjects and Methods: Patients with chemotherapy-related DRPs were prospectively identified from the patient's medical records. The contribution of DRPs and cost incurred due to each hospitalization was assessed. Statistical Analysis Used: Data were analyzed using SPSS® 20.0 version. Results: Out of 55 patients analyzed for DRPs, 25 (45.5%) patients in the age group of 51–60 years experienced DRPs most frequently. Most commonly occurring DRP was adverse drug reactions 42 (76.4%), which were more frequent in females. DRPs were maximum with alkylating agents 15 (27.3%) and the least with hormonal agents 1 (1.8%). The mean length of hospitalization was 9.6 ± 6.5 days. The total direct medical cost was Rs. 31,540 ± 42,476, of which medicine cost accounted for Rs. 16,550 ± 25,404, constituting a major share of the total medical costs. Conclusions: Pharmacists can provide better patient care by identifying and preventing DRPs and reducing drug-related morbidity and mortality.


To the Editor: Screening of blood is now mandatory for many diseases and is undertaken routinely in blood banks. Many studies have been done on human immunodeficiency vir rus (HIV) and syphilis separately but knowledge about the interrelatr tionship between these transfusion transmitted diseases is limited. This study was undertaken to assess the correlation between positivity for HIV infection and syphilis among blood donors of Eskisehir. Donors who applied to our blood center in a 10-year period (1998-2007) were retrospectively evaluated. No profr fessional or honorary donation was included. Serum samples were screened for anti-HIV by ELISA (micropartr ticle enzyme immunoassay Axym Abbott Corp. IL USA) and for syphilis by the Veneral Disease Research Laboratory (VDRL) test (nontreponemal test immunotrep Omega Diagnostic Scotland UK). Samples were not screened for VDRL. Of the total of 19 630 individuals 6850 (34%) were femr males and 12 780 (66%) were males. VDRL positivity was found in 33 donors (0.168%) and anti-HIV was positive in 3 cases (0.015%). When the VDRL test was positr tive a confirmatory treponemal test was done. Anti-HIV positivity was also confirmed by the western blot test. For the statistical analyses chisquare and the Fisher exact test were used. The prevalence of VDRL reactr tivity varied from 0.03% to 0.3% in blood donors in different regions of Turkey. VDRL reactivty increased from 0.1% in first period to 0.3% in the second period (P=.001). This seems to be an alarming signal in the local blood banks for the probar able increase in syphilis and further diagnostic tests should be applied in these cases. According to the resr sults reported from other regions of Turkey anti-HIV positivity rates ranged between 0% and 0.66%. Anti-HIV positivity was not found in the first period but in the second period it was 0.03% (P=.105). Two donors with positive HIV serology (66.6%) were also positive for VDRL (P<or=.001). The problem of safe blood has become an issue worldwide; there is no available method to reduce the infection risk from transfusion to zero. Thus it appears to be essential to carefully select appropriate donors and to avoid unnecessary transfusr sion. In conclusion blood donors in our region show lower seropositivity rates although there seems to be a regular increase in the rates of anti- HIV and syphilis. Thus taking into consideration the rising prevalence of these infections a routine screenir ing of all the donated blood products for anti-HIV and syphilis should be done which will assist blood transfr fusion services in improving transfusr sion safety. (full-text)


IZA DP No. 15487 AUGUST 2022 Gender Discrimination and the Sex Ratio of Immigrants* We use data on international migration to study the causal effect of gender discrimination on the sex-ratio of immigrants to the U.S. during the 1970-2019 period. We measure gender discrimination in the countries of origin using the Women, Business, and the Law (WBL) index, which measures legal differences in access to economic opportunities between men and women. Controlling for country fixed effects and regional time trends, as well as for potentially confounding factors, we find that a one standard deviation increase in the WBL index in a country of origin (a decrease in gender discrimination) decreases the share of women immigrating to the U.S. from that country by 1.7 percentage points, on average. This large effect of gender discrimination on the sex ratio of immigrants is robust to specification changes, and is not significant when examining senior citizens. JEL Classification: F22, J16


Abstract Control of goosegrass is difficult in the pan-Pacific region. No herbicides are currently labeled for selective control of goosegrass in seashore paspalum turf, a species used regularly on golf courses throughout the tropics. Sequential granular applications of sodium chloride (99% sodium chloride, 1% sodium silicoaluminate, 83% 0.5 to 0.25 mm diam) at 488 kg/ha did not effectively (> 70%) control goosegrass in this study. Goosegrass injury following sequential granular applications of sodium chloride, at 488 kg/ha, subsided at 6 wk after initial treatment (WAIT). A single application of MSMA at 2.40 kg/ha plus metribuzin at 0.56 kg/ha provided 96 and 83% control of goosegrass 8 WAIT in 2007 and 2008, respectively. Sequential applications of MSMA plus metribuzin at lower rates yielded similar results. Applications of foramsulfuron did not effectively control (> 70%) goosegrass in this study, suggesting a possible tolerance to this treatment. Applications of MSMA plus metribuzin controlled goosegrass (> 70%), but induced phytotoxic injury to seashore paspalum turf. Additional research is needed to evaluate strategies for POST control of goosegrass in seashore paspalum turf that do not induce phytotoxic turfgrass injury after application. Nomenclature: Metribuzin; MSMA; foramsulfuron; goosegrass, Eleusine indica (L.) Gaertn. ELEIN; seashore paspalum, Paspalum vaginatum Swartz. PASVA


Abstract Critics have long wondered about the setting and intent of the Old English translation of Boethius's De consolatione philosophiae, first into prose and then into prosimetrum. This article situates the dual translation within the broader context of ninth- and tenth-century literary culture, challenging the received view of the two versions as separate projects and arguing instead that the Old English Boethius was conceived and received as a vernacular opus geminatum, or 'twinned work'. While the opus geminatum and the prosimetrum are generally thought to maintain distinct generic identities, this case study allows for a more capacious understanding of both modes, which I demonstrate were inescapably linked in Anglo-Saxon circles – and which were shaped by a broader aesthetic of prose-verse mixture.


BACKGROUND:Reports on ossification of the posterior longitudinal ligament (OPLL) of the lumbar spine have so far been limited. OBJECTIVE:To evaluate surgically documented cases of lumbar OPLL at our facility to clarify its characteristics and analyze clinical outcomes. METHODS:During the past 27 years, 6192 patients underwent operations for degenerative lumbar spine diseases. Of these, we selected surgically treated lumbar OPLL patients from our database to analyze the clinical and radiological disease characteristics. Surgical results were classified according to the Japanese Orthopaedic Association scale. RESULTS:Only 10 patients underwent surgery for lumbar OPLL: 6 men and 4 women (mean age 44.1 years). Among these, OPLL developed in 4 patients at multiple vertebral body levels and in 6 at a single level. Coexisting lumbar disc herniation was observed in 4 patients. Although the rate of maximum canal stenosis brought about by OPLL was relatively high (mean 45.1%), unilateral radicular symptoms were the most frequently observed, and only 2 patients exhibited typical lumbar claudication caused by the canal stenosis. Two patients underwent surgery via an anterior approach and 8 via a posterior approach. The mean preoperative Japanese Orthopaedic Association scale score was 7.9, which improved to 17.8 postoperatively. No neurological deterioration caused by surgery was observed in any case. CONCLUSION:Although the frequency of lumbar OPLL requiring surgical treatment was remarkably low, its clinical condition varies greatly among patients depending on the localization and degree of ossification. To achieve a better surgical outcome, precise diagnosis with computed tomography and an appropriate surgical approach are important.


The institutional logics perspective has the explanatory power and potential to further contribute to our understanding of some of the most pressing societal concerns of our time. In this article, we develop the logics perspective along four analytical dimensions – macro-level positioning, contextuality, temporality and value plurality – which, we argue, can be leveraged to research and address grand challenges. We elaborate the currency of these dimensions in the context of the grand challenge of climate change. In doing so, we demonstrate the overall value of a logics perspective for engaging grand challenges.


Each year, psychological trauma arising from community and domestic violence, abuse and neglect brings profound psychological, physiological and academic harm to millions of American children, disproportionately poor children of color. This Article represents the first comprehensive legal analysis of the causes of and remedies for a crisis that can have lifelong and epigenetic consequences. Using civil rights and local government law, it argues that children's reactions to complex trauma represent the natural symptomatology of severe structural inequality — legally sanctioned environments of isolated, segregated poverty. The sources of psychological trauma may be largely environmental, but the traumatic environments themselves are caused by spatial inequality. The Article sets forth a theory of structural inequality that demonstrates the importance of place-based differences in institutional functioning and the role of such disparities in producing the neurobiological, psychological and behavioral outcomes comprehensively described in the literature from those disciplines (including the results of an original study of Newark, NJ school children). This alternative legal analysis of child trauma compels a different remedial approach to both intervention and prevention. It argues that interventions like special education reform are necessary but problematic because they risk pathologizing the African-American poor and exhausting institutional capacity. Instead, it provides a framework for prevention focused upon increased mobility and reformed local institutions.


Egg predation in Greylag Geese Anser anser nesting in reedbeds was studied at three sites in Vejlerne (NW Denmark). Overall, 34% of all clutches hatched successfully (range 26-53%), while at least 34% of all nests were abandoned. Avian predation of clutches was particularly high on one site (20%) compared to other sites (0-2%), probably as a result of better breeding opportunities for crows in that area. Mammalian egg predation was low in the two sites with natural barriers in the form of water channels or with higher vegetation densities. Nests neighbouring depredated nests were more likely to be depredated. An important factor affecting egg predation by mammals was the distance of the nest to reed cutting tracks. Second, there was a tendency for successful nests to occur in areas with higher vegetation densities. Mammalian predators were Red Fox Vulpes vulpes and American Mink Mustela vison and/or Western Polecat M. putorius.


The problem of diffraction at a sinusoidally stratified dielectric grating is treated. The analysis of the reconstruction process from a hologram formed in a "thick" photographic emulsion leads to this problem, but it may also occur in other areas. A rigorous solution of this problem is presented for both polarizations of the electric wave. The solution is evaluated numerically for values of the different parameters that are typical for holograms. It is shown that the amplitude of the diffracted light has a maximum if the light is incident at the Bragg angle, a feature already observed experimentally. Results are given for different values of the period as well as the thickness of the grating and for both polarizations.


Due to intense competition and lack of real estate on the front page of large e-commerce platforms, sellers are sometimes motivated to garner non-genuine signals (clicks, add-to-carts, purchases) on their products, to make them appear more appealing to customers. This hurts customers' trust on the platform, and also hurts genuine sellers who sell their items without looking to game the system. While it is important to find the sellers and the buyers who are colluding to garner these non-genuine signals, doing so is highly nontrivial. Firstly, the set of bad actors in the system is a very small fraction of all the buyers/sellers on the platform. Secondly, bad actors ``hide" with the good ones, making them hard to detect. In this paper, we develop CONGCN, a context aware heterogeneous graph convolutional network to detect bad actors on a large heterogeneous graph. While our method is motivated by abuse detection in e-commerce, the method is applicable to other areas such as computational biology and finance, where large heterogeneous graphs are pervasive, and the amount of labeled data is very limited. We train CONGCN via novel sampling methods, and context aware message passing in a semi-supervised fashion to predict dishonest buyers and sellers in e-commerce. Extensive experiments show that our method is effective, beating several baselines; generalizable to an inductive setting and highly scalable


Fluid flow in porous media is a multiscale process where the effective dynamics, which is often the goal of a computation, depends strongly on the porous micro structure. Resolving the micro structure in the whole porous medium can, however, be prohibitive. Novel numerical methods that efficiently approximate the effective flow but resolve only a carefully selected reduced portion of the porous structure are of great interest. In this thesis we propose new numerical multiscale methods for Stokes flow in two- and three-scale porous media. First, we propose the Darcy--Stokes finite element heterogeneous multiscale method (DS-FE-HMM). The method is based on solving the Darcy equation on a macroscopic mesh using the finite element method with numerical quadrature, where the unknown permeability is recovered from micro finite element solutions of Stokes problems that are defined in sampling domains centered at macroscopic quadrature points. An adaptive scheme based on a posteriori error analysis is proposed, where micro-macro mesh refinement is driven by residual-based indicators that quantify both the micro and macro errors. Second, to address the increasing cost of solving the micro problems as the macroscopic mesh is refined, we combine the DS-FE-HMM with reduced basis (RB) method and propose a new multiscale method called the RB-DS-FE-HMM. Efficiency and accuracy of the method relies on a parametrization of the micro geometries and on the Petrov-Galerkin RB formulation that provides a stable and fast evaluation of the effective permeability. A residual-based adaptive mesh refinement scheme is proposed for the macroscopic problem. To achieve a conservative approximation we also combine and analyze a coupling of the RB method with a different macroscopic scheme based on the discontinuous Galerkin finite element method (DG-FEM). Finally, we consider a three-scale porous media model with macro, meso, and micro scale. At the intermediate meso scale the medium is composed of fluid and porous parts and the fluid flow is modeled with the Stokes-Brinkman equation. A three-scale numerical method is derived and an efficient algorithm based on the RB method and empirical interpolation method on the micro and meso scale is proposed.


Now published by "Academic Press" and revised from the author's previous "Five Kingdoms, Third Edition", this extraordinary, all inclusive catalogue of the world's living organisms describes the diversity of the major groups, or phyla, of nature's most inclusive taxa. Developed after consultation with specialists, this modern classification scheme is consistent both with the fossil record and with recent molecular, morphological and metabolic data. Generously illustrated, now in full color, "Kingdoms and Domains" is remarkably easy to read. It accesses the full range of life forms that still inhabit our planet and logically and explicitly classifies them according to their evolutionary relationships. Definitive characteristics of each phylum are professionally described in ways that, unlike most scientific literature, profoundly respect the needs of educators, students and nature lovers. This work is meant to be of interest to all evolutionists as well as to conservationists, ecologists, genomicists, geographers, microbiologists, museum curators, oceanographers, paleontologists and, especially nature lovers whether artists, gardeners or environmental activists. "Kingdoms and Domains" is a unique and indispensable reference for anyone intrigued by a planetary phenomenon: the spectacular diversity of life, both microscopic and macroscopic, as we know it only on Earth today. This work also carries: new foreword by Edward O. Wilson; the latest concepts of molecular systematics, symbiogenesis, and the evolutionary importance of microbes; newly expanded chapter openings that define each kingdom and place its members in context in geological time and ecological space; definitions of terms in the glossary and throughout the book; ecostrips, illustrations that place organisms in their most likely environments such as deep sea vents, tropical forests, deserts or hot sulfur springs; and, a new table that compares features of the most inclusive taxa. This book shows an application of a logical, authoritative, inclusive and coherent overall classification scheme based on evolutionary principles.


Lincoln and Citizens' Rights in Civil War Missouri: Balancing Freedom and Security. By Dennis K. Boman. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2011. Pp. xi, 356, notes, bibliography, index. Cloth, $45.00.) Lincoln on Trial: Southern Civilians and the Law of War. By Burrus M. Carnahan. (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2010. Pp. 165, notes, index. Paperback, $19.95.) Both authors commend Abraham Lincoln for the shrewd, albeit sometimes flawed, course he pursued as president in dealing with thorny political, military, and legal issues relating to the rights of civilians. Dennis Boman closely examines the myriad difficulties presented by the unusual conditions in Missouri. Plagued by guerilla warfare and populated by numerous citizens who sympathized with the Confederacy, Missouri seemingly presented Lincoln with one crisis after another related to civil liberties. The establishment of martial law, the implementation of an elaborate provost-marshal system, the suppression of newspapers, the requirement of loyalty oaths for public officials and even clergymen, and the operation of military tribunals to try civilians all contributed in some fashion to the violation of civil liberties for some citizens. Boman nevertheless believes that the overall record of the president, his military commanders, and civil authorities, although punctuated with "many mistakes of commission and omission," is commendable, especially after considering the extraordinary circumstances they faced (p. 279). Furthermore, he portrays Lincoln as a competent manager who delegated decision making to subordinates in the field and only reluctantly interfered in Missouri when specific circumstances compelled his action. For instance, General John C. Fremont's premature proclamation of emancipation and General Samuel R. Curtis's unwarranted removal of Samuel B. McPheeters from Pine Street Presbyterian Church required the president's direct response in order to prevent additional problems. In the final analysis, Boman praises Lincoln for consistently attempting to limit conflicts between military and civil leaders and radical and conservative forces within Missouri. More importantly, the president's steady hand and resolute vision, despite some unnecessary limitations of the freedoms of speech, the press, and religion by military authorities, helped diminished the adverse effects of these infringements of civil liberties and ultimately facilitated the restoration of civilian government. Boman's in-depth study should interest anyone wanting to know more about the complex conditions in Missouri that presented unique problems and required difficult choices for civilians, public officials, and military leaders living in a divided state within a divided nation. He makes excellent use of the Union Provost-Marshals' File of Papers Relating to Individual Citizens from Record Group 109 at the National Archives, a rich source that preserves the stories and testimonies of thousands of civilians whom military authorities questioned, detained, arrested, or imprisoned for both legitimate and illegitimate reasons. One might reasonably quibble with him for assigning Lincoln a titular role in the book, for there are numerous pages where he is either absent from the narrative or seemingly powerlessly observing developments from the distant confines of Washington. Indeed, events in Missouri oftentimes transpired independent of the president's ability to control or shape them to his liking and his overarching desire to defer to the judgments of officials in the state and only intervene when absolutely necessary supports this conclusion that he played a secondary role rather than deserving top billing. …


We propose a model for arithmetic, based on graphical represent-ations, to complement the symbolic language of mathematics. The focus is conceptual understanding of arithmetic. We argue that the graphical model supports understanding concepts known to be difficult for learners with dyscalculia, such as number-sense and decimal system. The proposed graphical representation share properties of the decimal system, but is closer to the semantic representation of numbers vital to the number-sense. The model is evaluated with school-children, but needs to be further tested by learners with dyscalculia.


SUMMARY Experimental manipulation of foraging costs per food reward can be used to study the plasticity of physiological systems involved in energy metabolism. This approach is useful for understanding adaptations to natural variation in food availability. Earlier studies have shown that animals foraging on a fixed reward schedule decrease energy intake and expenditure. However, the extent to which these changes depend on decreased food intake or increased foraging costs per se has never been tested. We manipulated foraging costs per food reward in female Hsd:ICR(CD-1) laboratory mice, comparing animals faced with low (L) and high (H) foraging costs to non-foraging animals receiving a food restriction (R) matched to the intake of H animals. Mice in the H group ran as much as L mice did but ate significantly less. They concurrently reduced daily energy expenditure and resting metabolic rate, decreased the size of major metabolic organs and utilized body fat stores; mass-specific resting metabolic rate did not differ between groups. We found evidence that these alterations in energy balance may carry fitness costs. As a secondary response to our experimental treatment, H females and, eventually, some R females ceased to show signs of estrous cyclicity. Surprisingly, results of an immune challenge with keyhole limpet hemocyanin showed that primary immune response did not differ between L and H groups, and was actually higher in R mice. Our results demonstrate that high foraging costs per se – the combination of high activity and low food intake – have pronounced physiological effects in female mice.


With the movement of the victim to the forefront of the criminal justice system, more and more services have been developed to alleviate the pain and suffering caused by the victimization experience. Some services seek to alleviate the psychological suffering of crime victims and include such programs as crisis intervention, individual and group counseling, and so forth. Several studies have examined to what extent such programming can actually improve the psychological functioning of crime victims. The present study examines that question through a quasi-experimental design in which victims who used services and victims who did not use services participated in a statewide telephone survey. The major finding of the study adds to those of previous studies: There is no significant difference between service and nonservice users when it comes to improvement in the psychological functioning of crime victims.


Cortisol (C) and testosterone (T) are important biomarkers of acute and chronic stress (Urhausen et al. Sports Med 1995;20:251–76). However, it is unclear how different forms of training affect the response of these hormones. The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of various training sessions on salivary C and T in competitive male runners. Four trials were completed: (a) 30 min tempo run at lactate threshold (TEMP); (b) 30 min running alternating 3.5 min at 90% and 2 min at 30% VO2max (INT); (c) 30 min circuit training with 3×10 exercises of 30 s with 30 s recovery between exercises (CIR) and d) 30 min rest (REST). Saliva samples were collected pre exercise and at 0, 15, 30 and 60 min post exercise and rating of perceived exertion (RPE) and heart rate (HR) were recorded. All samples were analysed with ELISA and salivary C was also measured with mass spectrometry. Preliminary data shows mean HR was: 161 ± 7, 159 ± 14, 130 ± 12 and 63 ± 1 beats per min for TEMP, INT, CIR and REST respectively with INT and TEMP higher than REST. RPE was: 15 ± 1, 16 ±2 and 13 ±1 for TEMP, INT and CIR respectively, INT was higher than CIR and TEMP. There was a difference in salivary C between the trials (p=0.038) and between time points (p=0.019). Area under curve (AUC) analysis indicated salivary C was higher than REST in INT (P=0.043) and TEMP (0.043) with INT showing the highest response (p=0.046). Salivary T showed an overall effect of time (p=0.024) with post exercise T higher than pre exercise (p=0.020). INT also showed a higher T response than REST (p=0.003) and TEMP tended to be higher (p=0.054). Salivary Peak HR correlated with peak salivary T for INT (r=0.961). This study implies an INT session increased salivary C and T more than TEMP and CIR despite no differences in mean HR, also peak HR may be linked to salivary T production which could be a useful to assess training stress.


Patients suffering from colds and flu may experience a number of different symptoms. As no single active ingredient is likely to address all the symptoms, multi-ingredient preparations are frequently used. On the other hand, the patient may not need all the different ingredients in a multi-ingredient product. So, how does the pharmacist's assistant select the most appropriate product?
This article looks at some of the common ingredients found in combination cold and flu medications.


This paper examined the Role of Libraries and Librarians in Open Educational Resources (OER) in selected public university libraries in Tanzania. Specifically, the study sought to find out the level of OER awareness among librarians and the role played by libraries and librarians in OER in Tanzania. The study also identified challenges encountered by librarians in promoting access and use of OER. Fifty two librarians of different ranks and academic qualifications from four public university libraries participated in this study. These were selected using simple random sampling techniques. Data was collected through a self administered questionnaire and documentary review. Data collected was analyzed using Excel and SPSS version 18.0. The findings show that librarians are aware of the concept OER and also play multiple roles in promoting awareness on OER and its integration in university websites to facilitate their accessibility and use The study further revealed that limited awareness on existing OER and lack of policy guidelines on the use of OER are major challenges facing librarians in promoting access and use of OER. The study recommends more OER awareness creation campaigns and formulation of institutional OER policies.


T -2 toxin is an immunosuppressive mycotoxin that has been conjoined with several symptoms and diseases as early as the turn of the century, but whose mechanisms of action are still being investigated. Accordingly, this study was an attempt to determine the cytotoxic effects of T -2 toxin on normal human lymphocytes in vitro, with particular emphasis on mitochondrial viability, cellular and nuclear morphology as well as the localisation of the subcellular sites of toxin interaction. The cytotoxicity of T -2 toxin was assessed with the use of a methylthiazol
tetrazolium (MTT) assay. This assay targeted the succinate dehydrogenase activity of the lymphocytic mitochondria, over a range of concentrations of T-2 toxin at various incubation times. The morphology of treated lymphocytes was analysed with the use of transmission
electron microscopy and the localisation of the toxin was accomplished via immunocytochemistry. DNA fragmentation studies formed an integral part of the analyses. The cytotoxicity assay indicated that not only was cell viability inversely proportional to both the dose and exposure time, but that the eftects of the different doses were only evident at prolonged incubation times (12-24 hours). The electron microscopy studies showed that T-2 toxin (1,56 ug/ml) induced apoptosis (cell suicide) in normal human lymphocytes. This was determined by the observation of chromatin condensation and nuclear disintegration within the toxin treated lymphocytes. Apoptosis seemed to occur independently of mitochondrial damage at 6 hours of exposure to T-2 toxin. The presence of polyribosomes within the treated lymphocytes indicated that protein synthesis was not inhibited. Anti-T-2 toxin conjugated gold label was present in all areas of damage, particularly within the nuclei of the T-2 toxin treated lymphocytes. The DNA fragmentation results showed that T-2 toxin induced fragmentation in lymphocytes, the extent of which was directly proportional to the exposure time. It appears that the early signs of T-2 toxin induced apoptosis in normal human lymphocytes can be determined by damage to the nucleus.


ABSTRACT The present study aimed to evaluate the effect of soil-applied Zn and Cu on absorption and accumulation of Cd applied through irrigation water in legume (chickpea and mung bean) and cereal (wheat and maize) crops. The results revealed that Cd in irrigation water at higher levels (2 and 5 mg L−1) significantly (p < 0.05) reduced the plant biomass while the soil application of Zn and Cu, singly or combined, favored the biomass production. Plant tissue Cd concentration increased linearly with the increasing application of Cd via irrigation water. While Cd application caused a redistribution of metals in grains, straw, and roots with the highest concentration of Cd, Zn, and Cu occurred in roots followed by straw and grains. Zinc addition to soil alleviated Cd toxicity by decreasing Cd concentration in plant tissues due to a possible antagonistic effect. The addition of Cu to the soil had no consistent effects on Zn and Cd contents across all crops. Inhibitory effects of Cd on the uptake and accumulation of Zn and Cu have also been observed at higher Cd load. Thus, soil-applied Zn and Cu antagonized Cd helping the plant to cope with its toxicity and suppressed the toxic effects of Cd in plant tissues, thus favoring plant growth.