Object. The authors conducted a study to determine the effectiveness of mitomycin C (MMC) in preventing epidural fibrosis in rats which underwent craniectomy. Methods. Craniectomies were performed in the right frontoparietal region; after the procedure the animals had been divided in 2 groups of 10 each. Cotton pads soaked with 0.1 mg/ml MMC or saline (control) were applied to the operative sites. Four weeks after craniectomy the rats were sacrificed, and epidural fibrosis was evaluated histologically. The dura mater thickness, the density of epidural fibrosis, arachnoidal involvement, and bone regeneration were determined. Results. No obvious adhesion formed in the rats in the MMC group, but severe epidural adhesions were found in control group. The duramater thickness, the density of epidural fibrosis, and arachnoidal involved rat number in the MMC group were significantly lower than in control groups. Conclusions. Epidural fibrosis can be a devastating condition that forms after craniectomy. Topical application of mitomycin C may be a successful method of preventing epidural fibrosis following craniectomy.


Studies conducted by the international labor organization have shown that operations involving agricultural machinery are among the three activities with the highest risk of accidents to workers. Among the possible causes, rollover is the most common, accounting for 33% of fatal accidents. Despite this, there are standards that provide for the use of safety devices to ensure the physical integrity of the operator, among these equipment stand out rollover protection structures, which can be foldable or not. In this sense, the objective of this study was to perform an ergonomic study in order to analyze the torque required for lowering and lifting a foldable rollover protection structure attached to an agricultural tractor, developing instrumentation for validation of the efforts required to operate the structure and comparing the results obtained with the values recommended by the Standard (CODE 6 OECD). When torque values were above those recommended by the standard, a set of torsion springs was used as solution to torque reduction. After further testing, the effectiveness of the solution was verified. Furthermore, it was observed that the angular speed of the bar does not have a significant influence on the torque required to lift the bar.


The New World Clistopyga chaconi species group is revised. Eleven species are described as new: C. amazonica sp. nov., C. cinnamoptera sp. nov., C. cuscoensis sp. nov., C. hayesiana sp. nov., C. melanoptera sp. nov., C. misionensis sp. nov., C. mocaguae sp. nov., C. orellanae sp. nov., C. porteri sp. nov., C. rondoniae sp. nov. and C. yabuquensis sp. nov. Additional morphological data are provided for the previously known species, C. caramba Castillo & Saaksjarvi and C. chaconi Gauld. An illustrated identification key to all species of the group is provided. The Clistopyga chaconi species group appears to be most diverse at the Andean and Amazonian interface in western South America.


An extension to the SOAP software allows users to work with tri-axial ellipsoid-based representations of planetary bodies, primarily for working with small, natural satellites, asteroids, and comets. SOAP is a widely used tool for the visualization and analysis of space missions. The small body extension provides the same visualization and analysis constructs for use with small bodies. These constructs allow the user to characterize satellite path and instrument cover information for small bodies in both 3D display and numerical output formats. Tri-axial ellipsoids are geometric shapes the diameters of which are different in each of three principal x, y, and z dimensions. This construct provides a better approximation than using spheres or oblate spheroids (ellipsoids comprising two common equatorial diameters as a distinct polar diameter). However, the tri-axial ellipsoid is considerably more difficult to work with from a modeling perspective. In addition, the SOAP small-body extensions allow the user to actually employ a plate model for highly irregular surfaces. Both tri-axial ellipsoids and plate models can be assigned to coordinate frames, thus allowing for the modeling of arbitrary changes to body orientation. A variety of features have been extended to support tri-axial ellipsoids, including the computation and display of the spacecraft sub-orbital point, ground trace, instrument footprints, and swathes. Displays of 3D instrument volumes can be shown interacting with the ellipsoids. Longitude/latitude grids, contour plots, and texture maps can be displayed on the ellipsoids using a variety of projections. The distance along an arbitrary line of sight can be computed between the spacecraft and the ellipsoid, and the coordinates of that intersection can be plotted as a function of time. The small-body extension supports the same visual and analytical constructs that are supported for spheres and oblate spheroids in SOAP making the implementation of the more complex algorithms largely transparent to the user.


This research evaluated the strategic management practices of the Kingsgate Clothing Group, which operates within the clothing and textile industry. The industry is undergoing dramatic changes since the opening up of the South African economy and the advent of globalisation. These changes have occurred within the political and economic spectrum and include factors such as trade and tariff agreements, changes in labour legislation, exports, illegal imports which has impacted on the organisation. A framework on strategic management was developed highlighting the factors necessary for strategy development, key issues in the external enviroment, strategic capabilities, organisational structure and culture and leadership issues. Various strategic management tools were used to analyse the Kingsgate Clothing Group's present strategy in the light of the changing industry conditions. These tools included value chain analysis, financial analysis and SWOT analysis. Based on the conclusions drawn from the analysis recommendations were made on the company's future strategy and the way forward in order for them to achieve sustainable competitive advantage.


Live vaccine strains of Salmonella should be avirulent, immunogenic and genetically stable. Some isolates of three commercially available live vaccine strains of Salmonella typhimurium, sampled during a study on their persistence in a vaccinated flock of chickens, were analyzed for genetic stability using macrorestriction analysis of their genome. Two out of the three vaccine strains showed genetic instabilities. Two of the 51 isolates of Zoosaloral vaccine strain and nine of the 32 analyzed isolates of chi(3985), a genetically modified organism, were variants and showed different macrorestriction profiles.


OBJECTIVE
Tissue fibrosis is a hallmark compromising feature of many disorders. In this study, we investigated the antifibrogenic effects of the histone deacetylase inhibitor trichostatin A (TSA) on cytokine-driven fibrotic responses in vitro and in vivo.

METHODS
Skin fibroblasts from patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) and normal healthy control subjects were stimulated with profibrotic cytokines in combination with TSA. Human Colalpha1(I) and fibronectin were measured using real-time polymerase chain reaction, and levels of soluble collagen were estimated using the SirCol collagen assay. Electromobility shift assay and confocal fluorescence microscopy were used to investigate the intracellular distribution of Smad transcription factors. For in vivo analysis, skin fibrosis was quantified by histologic assessment of mouse skin tissue in a model of bleomycin-induced fibrosis.

RESULTS
Reductions in the cytokine-induced transcription of Colalpha1(I) and fibronectin were observed in both normal and SSc skin fibroblasts following the addition of TSA. Similarly, the expression of total collagen protein in TSA-stimulated SSc skin fibroblasts was reduced to basal levels. The mechanism of action of TSA included inhibition of the nuclear translocation and DNA binding of profibrotic Smad transcription factors. Western blot analysis revealed an up-regulation of the cell cycle inhibitor p21 by TSA, leading to reduced proliferation of fibroblasts. In addition, in bleomycin-induced fibrosis in mice, TSA prevented dermal accumulation of extracellular matrix in vivo.

CONCLUSION
These findings provide novel insights into the epigenetic regulation of fibrosis. TSA and similar inhibitory compounds appear to represent early therapeutic strategies for achieving reversal of the cytokine-driven induction of matrix synthesis that leads to fibrosis.


Between 1882 and 1891, the U.S. Congress enacted a spate of immigration laws though which the federal government assumed virtually exclusive control over a regulatory sphere that historically had been the province of the states. This Article argues that this federalization of immigration regulation represented an attempt to reconcile the nation's most cherished ideological commitment - the notion that the U.S. would forever remain an exceptional, "free labor" republic - with the unprecedented social and economic convulsions of the 1870s and 1880s.The meaning of both immigrants and immigration was fundamentally transformed during the Gilded Age due to two successive "crises" of mass economic dependency - first, a wrenching depression that began in 1873 and lasted throughout the decade; and second, the so-called crisis of "foreign pauper labor" that dominated American political discourse on immigration throughout the 1880s. Eschewing sustained inquiry into the structural economic causes of these crises, policymakers, political intellectuals, labor spokesmen, and economists instead diagnosed an outbreak of mass economic pathology, which attributed widespread "pauperism," and later, "pauperizing labor," to the defective character of the poor themselves. That defectiveness, they further concluded, was not home-grown, but rather imported from the allegedly effete, racially degraded, declining civilizations of Europe. By drawing on a series of highly specialized, frequently shifting ideas about racial difference, policymakers and others submerged a conspicuously unexceptional picture of industrial America into a discourse of economic pathology that associated foreignness with racial unfitness for free labor.This emergent construction of European immigrants demanded a basic redirection of regulatory policy and practice. Within less than two decades, policymakers, immigration officials, courts, labor leaders, and others reconceived the principal purpose of immigration regulation from that of assisting newly landed immigrants, to that of excluding undesirables and, accordingly, shifted its operational emphasis from policing the environment into which immigrants entered to policing the immigrants themselves. Under the weight of these new regulatory priorities, the robust federalism that historically had characterized the regulation of immigration gave way. Contemporaries' construction of mass dependency in effect nationalized the purposes of immigration regulation, as a consensus emerged among influential northerners that the future of the American citizenry, the quality of citizenship itself, and, ultimately, the very health of the republic, lay in the balance.


Background: Acute poisonings are common presentations to emergency departments (EDs) worldwide and require rapid assessment. Consultant emergency physicians (EPs) faced with various toxicological presentations must initiate rapid investigations and empirical management. This study aimed to determine emergency department doctors' level of knowledge and confidence in toxicological presentations, and factors that predicted these outcomes. Methods: Target participants included members of the Australasian College for Emergency Medicine (ACEM) and readers of the emergency medicine website, "Life in the Fast Lane". The survey was distributed electronically via the ACEM bulletin and posted on Life in the Fast Lane. A survey was designed based on toxicology multiple choice questions (MCQs). The questionnaire comprised 59 items: 10 demographic items; 20 items about confidence; 28 MCQs assessing knowledge of common and serious toxicological presentations. Results: There were 467 consenting respondents from 31 countries, with most residing in Australia (306/467, 66%). Respondents comprised similar proportions of consultant emergency physicians (196/467, 42.0%), and trainees (197/467, 42.2%).  Almost two-thirds (292/467; 62.1%) had received formal training in toxicological emergencies, while a third (166/467, 35.5%) had participated in a relevant conference or workshop. A total of 284/339 (83.8%) participants completing all items achieved a knowledge test score >50%. More than 65% incorrectly answered questions on pharmacology of serotonin syndrome and lithium toxicity, and more than half incorrectly answered questions on use of 12 lead ECG in toxicology, calcium channel antagonist or tricyclic antidepressant toxicities. Predictors of overall knowledge for toxicology were receipt of formal toxicology education, and clinicians' experience and seniority. Conclusion: The knowledge and confidence of doctors working in emergency departments is varied, yet correlated. Emergency medicine training programs should consider the benefit of reviewing current toxicological education, including the provision of further educational support to regional and rural hospitals.


Restenosis that occurs after stent implantation is a great threat to the quality of life of patients with coronary artery diseases. Studies on thrombosis have revealed that platelet is a primary component of blood clots, and leukocytes and other plasma proteins also contribute to thrombus formation. However, the mechanism of material-induced activation, especially with metallic materials, is currently not well understood and the effect of blood flow on material-induced blood cell activation has not been well characterized. In vitro static and flow experiments were performed to assess the effect of flow on blood cell activation. Blood was taken from healthy donors. Two common stent metals, ST316L and TiAl6V4, were used as test materials. In static experiments, blood was incubated with metal disks at 37 °C for two hours. In flow experiments, blood was circulated in flow chambers preloaded with or without metal wires at shear rates of 100 s−1, 500 s−1, and 1500 s−1. Platelet and leukocyte activation, leukocyte-platelet aggregation, and tissue factor expression on monocytes were measured by using a three-color FACSCalibur flow cytometer. Fibrin deposition and blood cell adhesion on metal surfaces were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The results indicate that platelet and leukocyte activation under static condition was low. TiAl6V4 metal disk induced relative lower platelet and leukocyte activation, albeit no significant difference was found between control groups and the two metals tested. Shear stress significantly enhanced platelet activation as measured by an increase in platelet microparticle formation and platelet receptor CD61 expression. CD11b up-regulation, leukocyte-platelet aggregates, and tissue factor (TF) expression increased at 100 s−1. However as shear rate increased, lower leukocyte activation was observed. TiAl6V4-induced leukocyte activation was generally lower than that of ST316L. Significant fibrin deposition and blood cell adhesion were observed on metal surfaces under static condition and with iii shear rate of 500 s−1. Adhesion significantly decreased with increasing shear rate to 1500 s−1. The flow cytometry analysis results and SEM images demonstrated that materials with different surface properties can induce different blood cell activation and adhesion after incubation with blood. While shear may have an effect on blood cell activation, the effect of biomaterials on cell activation under physiological shear conditions remains unclear. Further studies are required to determine if an increase in biomaterial surface area will provide some answers into the mechanisms of material-induced blood activation in the presence of flow.


Ibuprofen exhibits poor flow, poor compaction and dissolution behaviour, and it is prone to capping after ejection from the die. Therefore, the aim of the present research was to engineer ibuprofen crystals in the presence of two disintegrants (starch and sodium starch glycolate) in order to improve its flow, compactibility and dissolution behaviour simultaneously. To this end ibuprofen and different concentrations of disintegrant (0.25 to 10% w/w in case of starch and 0.25 to 7% w/w in case of sodium starch glycolate) were dissolved in ethanol and water respectively. The ibuprofen solution was then added to the aqueous solutions containing the different concentrations of disintegrant. Ibuprofen precipitated within 10 min and the crystals were separated and dried for further studies. The obtained crystals were characterized in terms of flow, density, tablet hardness, dissolution behaviour and solid state. The results showed most of engineered ibuprofen to have better flow with a high compactibility. The results also showed that an increase in the concentration of starch in the crystallization medium resulted in a reduction in the hardness of ibuprofen tablets, but this was not the case for ibuprofen samples engineered in the presence of sodium starch glycolate. It is interesting to note that although engineered ibuprofen showed superior dissolution as compared to untreated ibuprofen, the highest concentration of starch (10%) or sodium starch glycolate (7%) slowed down the release remarkably due to an increase in the viscosity of the dissolution medium around drug particles. Solid state analysis (FT-IR, XRPD and DSC) ruled out the presence of different polymorphic forms and also any interaction between these disintegrants and ibuprofen. In conclusion, the engineering of ibuprofen in the presence of disintegrant showed how properties such as flow, compaction and dissolution behaviour can be simultaneously manipulated to suit a desired application.


Applying concepts of Cognitive Linguistics to dialectological data of a traditional kind, the present paper addresses the question whether differences of culture and conceptualization could be detected language-internally, not just across languages. At the same time, it shows that the traditional methodology of evaluating dialectological data at the level of language structure can be challenged by a usage-based cognitive linguistic analysis. The language variant in focus is the Moldavian Southern Csango, an archaic Hungarian dialect. We investigate the conceptualization of forty internal qualities (emotions and character traits) on the basis of two usage-based types of analysis: one in which we try to determine the entrenchment of the investigated concepts, and one in which we have a look at the semantic relationships between them. The two approaches provide converging evidence that negative concepts are more elaborated in the mind of the Csangos and that the most crucial factor organizing their conceptual system is "morality".


Making use of low quality moldy and worm-eaten fruits for juice production causes various irritations in human body due to its hazardous compounds. Today, Patulin toxicant is one of the most important compounds to be investigated in juices, particularly in apple juices. This research aims to measure the amount of Patulin toxicant and identify the molding factors in apple juices supplied in Khorramabad shops. After preparing a list of shops supplying and selling h\juices in Khorramabad, 64 apple juices packs were collected at random. The Patulin measurement was accomplished using high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and the molding factors identification also was performed using macroscopic, microscopic and other necessary tests after the sample were cultured in standard method. Out of 64 sample investigated from presence of lack of mold perspective, 61 (95.3%) lacked mold and 1 (1.6%) had Aspergillus terreus mold and 2 (3.1%) had Penicillium mold. The Patulin level measured in 31 samples (48%) was negative and in 33 ones (52%) was positive in range 5.102-26.484 μg.l-1. The data obtained from samples was evaluated well in comparison to external standards and the correlation coefficient of 0.99 was indicated. The results obtained from this research indicated that the mean Patulin measured in apple juices studied was less than the EU and Iranian standards.


This review surveys the therapeutic efficacy of tricyclic antidepressants and monoamine oxidase inhibitors in schizophrenic patients. In general, the use of these drugs alone was found not to be warranted in schizophrenia, except perhaps in the so-called pseudoneurotic subgroup. In most cases, combinations of antidepressants and phenothiazines were not more beneficial than phenothiazines alone. In particular, the conditions of agitated patients and patients with histories of social deviance dating back to childhood were often made worse by the addition of an antidepressant. However, when the patients who demonstrated symptoms of clinical depression other than anergia were isolated from several of these studies, it was found that they constituted a subgroup that was often benefited by use of these combinations. Favorable and unfavorable clinical response patterns are discussed, and recommendations for future research are outlined.


On the 40th anniversary of the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA), it is worth thinking about how federal regulations have worked to address inequities in housing markets. The civil rights movement launched a period of activism and optimism for government intervention into housing discrimination, leading to the passage of The Fair Housing Act (FaHA) of 1968 and the 1977 CRA. FaHA and CRA share some common traits; they are both federal regulatory tools that rely on a notion of minimum obligation and encourage innovations that promote greater access by lowerincome and protected-class households to housing and economic opportunities. In addition, both statutes employ sanctions to motivate regulated entities toward nondiscriminatory behavior and help establish standards for what is considered responsible behavior in housing markets.


This article addresses the role of application programming interfaces (APIs) for integrating data sources in the context of smart cities and communities. On top of the built infrastructures in cities, application programming interfaces allow to weave new kinds of seams from static and dynamic data sources into the urban fabric. Contributing to debates about "urban informatics" and the governance of urban information infrastructures, this article provides a technically informed and critically grounded approach to evaluating APIs as crucial but often overlooked elements within these infrastructures. The conceptualization of what we term City APIs is informed by three perspectives: In the first part, we review established criticisms of proprietary social media APIs and their crucial function in current web architectures. In the second part, we discuss how the design process of APIs defines conventions of data exchanges that also reflect negotiations between API producers and API consumers about affordances and mental models of the underlying computer systems involved. In the third part, we present recent urban data innovation initiatives, especially CitySDK and OrganiCity, to underline the centrality of API design and governance for new kinds of civic and commercial services developed within and for cities. By bridging the fields of criticism, design, and implementation, we argue that City APIs as elements of infrastructures reveal how urban renewal processes become crucial sites of socio-political contestation between data science, technological development, urban management, and civic participation.


In this paper, we present new dynamic features derived from the modulation spectrum of the cepstral trajectories of the speech signal. Cepstral trajectories are projected over the basis of sines and cosines yielding the cepstral modulation frequency response of the speech signal. We show that the different sines and cosines basis vectors select different modulation frequencies, whereas the frequency responses of the delta and the double delta filters are only centered over 15 Hz. Therefore, projecting cepstral trajectories over the basis of sines and cosines yield a more complementary and discriminative range of features. In this work, the cepstrum reconstructed from the lower cepstral modulation frequency components is used as the static feature. In experiments, it is shown that, as well as providing an improvement in clean conditions, these new dynamic features yield a significant increase in the speech recognition performance in various noise conditions when compared directly to the standard temporal derivative features and C-JRASTA PLP features.


The bluefish (Pomatomus saltatrix) population along the East Coast of the United
States has experienced declines in both recruitment and adult abundance since the mid
1980s. At the end of their first growing season young-of-the-year (YOY) bluefish exhibit
a bimodal length/frequency distribution consisting of larger, spring-spawned individuals
(SP cohort) and smaller, summer-spawned individuals (SU cohort). While both SP and
SU cohorts have been observed in the adult population in the past, recent studies have
suggested that few SU-spawned individuals currently recruit to the adult stock. I
investigated the hypothesis that the apparent recruitment failure of SU-spawned bluefish
reflects negative size-selective overwinter mortality due to starvation. Due to mass
allometries in energy storage and energy depletion, I predicted that larger, SP bluefish
would 1) have greater energy stores prior to winter than smaller, SU bluefish, and 2)
deplete their energy reserves at a slower rate than SU bluefish. Thus, I predicted that SP
bluefish would exhibit greater overwinter survival (and therefore higher recruitment
potential) than SU bluefish under starvation conditions.
Overwinter mesocosm experiments performed at ambient temperatures were
conducted to examine the effects of cohort of origin (SP versus SU) and feeding level
(fed versus unfed) on the overwinter survival of YOY bluefish. Energetic condition
(non-polar lipid and ash content) and survival duration of bluefish subjects were
monitored over the 192-day experiment.
SP-spawned bluefish possessed greater total lipid stores prior to winter than SUspawned
individuals, and both cohorts relied on multiple tissue depots (liver, viscera,
white muscle, red muscle and skin) for the storage and mobilization of lipids. When starved, SP and SU bluefish depleted their non-polar lipid reserves at similar rates over
the first 31 days of the experiment. When food was present, both cohorts stored lipid at
similar rates over the first 31 days of the experiment but depleted lipid reserves
thereafter. This seasonal depletion pattern, despite the presence of food, indicates that
lipid reserves are important for fueling routine metabolic requirements during winter and
that bluefish may shift their energy allocation strategy from storage to
mobilization/growth as winter progresses. When fed, both cohorts survived winter.
When starved, SU bluefish began to exhibit starvation mortality six weeks prior to SP
individuals. Although SU bluefish were more susceptible to overwinter starvation
mortality than SP bluefish, their starvation endurance appears more than sufficient to
permit overwinter survival under poor feeding conditions (>90% survival probability
after 120 days without food and >60% after 150 days). Interestingly, SP bluefish
suffered a brief mortality event during January when tank temperatures dropped below
6oC, suggesting that SP individuals may be less cold tolerant than smaller, SU
individuals. Wild YOY bluefish sampled from inner continental shelf waters off North
Carolina during winter did not approach critical energy levels as determined from starved
laboratory bluefish.
Given the high starvation endurance of SU-spawned YOY bluefish, I conducted a
second winter experiment to assess the influence of forced activity and reduced prewinter
lipid storage on their overwintering ability. It was hypothesized that high activity
level and reduced pre-winter lipid storage would increase the vulnerability of SU
individuals to winter starvation. The experimental design was a fully-crossed 2X2
factorial design with activity level (high versus low) and pre-winter lipid storage (high versus low) as factors. The high activity/low storage and low activity/high storage
treatments were also tested in the presence and absence of winter food. Although the
experiment was ended prematurely due to a system failure, lipid levels of bluefish at the
time of death were quantified to examine whether the 2.5-month treatment exposures had
measurable effects on bluefish energetics. Experimental results indicated that SU
bluefish have a remarkable ability to store energy rapidly prior to winter. During a 30-
day acclimation period SU bluefish were able to store more energy than was required to
survive 2.5 months without food and at high (~0.8 body lengths sec-1) activity levels.
Also, pre-winter lipid storage had a greater effect on bluefish energy reserves than
activity level. Furthermore, SU-spawned YOY bluefish appeared capable of assimilating
food in the winter, if available, allowing them to compensate for reduced pre-winter lipid
storage. These observations are consistent with the defended energy level hypothesis.
In conclusion, the remarkable starvation endurance ability of SU-spawned YOY
bluefish, coupled with their capacity for rapid energy storage, and their ability to
assimilate food during winter, indicates that SU bluefish are physiologically wellequipped
to survive their first winter of life. These findings are consistent with recent
energetics data reported for wild bluefish and do not support the overwinter starvation
hypothesis as an explanation for the apparent recruitment failure of SU-spawned YOY
bluefish.


The Reserve Bank has completed its second study of consumers' use of payment instruments. The study indicates that cash remains the most common form of payment by consumers. It is used extensively in situations where average payment values are low and where quick transaction times are preferred. Nonetheless, cash use as a share of total payments has declined, falling as a share of both the number and value of payments. Two important factors contributing to this decline are the substitution of cards for cash use, particularly for low-value payments, and the increasing adoption of online payments.


Now a day's, money management - financial literacy becomes a foremost challenge faced by most of the developed and developing countries globally. The reviews evidenced that the monetary management level of the individual in India is low. This made the researcher to study the behavioural pattern of the monetary management. As enough research has been carried out by various researchers in this aspect, the researcher considered Coimbatore city which is listed as one of the smart city in India for her study. Coimbatore is known for the place of industrialized, blended of unique culture, no comprehensive study was carried out to study the various aspects of monetary management among the employees.


The relief you feel on walking into an air-conditioned building on a sweltering summer day is accompanied by a switch in the particular set of temperature-sensitive transient receptor potential (TRP) channels active in your sensory neurons. Voets et al. used patch-clamp analysis of channels transiently expressed in human embryonic kidney (HEK) 293 cells to investigate the mechanisms that underlie gating of TRPM8, which is activated by cold, and TRPV1, which is activated by heat. Both TRPM8 and TRPV1 were activated by membrane depolarization. Cooling TRPM8 or heating TRPV1 elicited graded shifts in the voltage dependence of activation so that the channels opened in response to more moderate depolarizations. The midpoint voltage (V1/2) for TRPM8 activation was about +200 mV at 37°C and about +25 mV at 5 to 10°C; V1/2 for TRPV1 was around 150 mV at 15°C and around –50 mV at 40 to 45°C. Agonists (menthol for TRPM8 and capsaicin for TRPV1) also shifted the voltage dependence of activation to lower voltages. Kinetic analysis of voltage-dependent channel opening and closing indicated that the rate of TRPM8 opening was only slightly temperature dependent, whereas the rate of TRPM8 closing was highly temperature dependent, with an activation energy approximately 10 times as high as that for opening. In contrast, the opening rate of TRPV1 was steeply temperature dependent, whereas the closing rate was not. Thus, the authors propose that temperature sensitivity of both cold-sensitive and heat-sensitive TRP channels is linked to their voltage-dependent gating and depends on differences in the activation energies of voltage-dependent channel opening and closing. T. Voets, G. Droogman, U. Wissenbach, A. Janssens, V. Flockerzi, B. Nilius, The principle of temperature-dependent gating in cold- and heat-sensitive TRP channels. Nature 430, 748-754 (2004). [Online Journal]


Title of dissertation: PHYSICS-AWARE MODEL SIMPLIFICATION FOR INTERACTIVE VIRTUAL ENVIRONMENTS Atul Thakur, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Satyandra K. Gupta Department of Mechanical Engineering Rigid body simulation is an integral part of Virtual Environments (VE) for autonomous planning, training, and design tasks. The underlying physics-based simulation of VE must be accurate and computationally fast enough for the intended application, which unfortunately are conflicting requirements. Two ways to perform fast and high fidelity physics-based simulation are: (1) model simplification, and (2) parallel computation. Model simplification can be used to allow simulation at an interactive rate while introducing an acceptable level of error. Currently, manual model simplification is the most common way of performing simulation speedup but it is time consuming. Hence, in order to reduce the development time of VEs, automated model simplification is needed. The dissertation presents an automated model simplification approach based on geometric reasoning, spatial decomposition, and temporal coherence. Geometric reasoning is used to develop an accessibility based algorithm for removing portions of geometric models that do not play any role in rigid body to rigid body interaction simulation. Removing such inaccessible portions of the interacting rigid body models has no influence on the simulation accuracy but reduces computation time significantly. Spatial decomposition is used to develop a clustering algorithm that reduces the number of fluid pressure computations resulting in significant speedup of rigid body and fluid interaction simulation. Temporal coherence algorithm reuses the computed force values from rigid body to fluid interaction based on the coherence of fluid surrounding the rigid body. The simulations are further sped up by performing computing on graphics processing unit (GPU). The dissertation also presents the issues pertaining to the development of parallel algorithms for rigid body simulations both on multi-core processors and GPU. The developed algorithms have enabled real-time, high fidelity, six degrees of freedom, and time domain simulation of unmanned sea surface vehicles (USSV) and can be used for autonomous motion planning, tele-operation, and learning from demonstration applications. Physics Preserving Model Simplification for Interactive Virtual Environments


Abstract In this paper, a Fuzzy Logic Controlled parallel connected synchronous buck DC-DC converter for water electrolysis system is presented. General design of a fuzzy logic controller, based on Matlab/Simulink is performed. This design can be compared with Proportional Integrated Proportional Derivative controller. The complete control system has been developed, analyzed and validated by simulation study. Performances have then been evaluated in detail for different study conditions. The stability of converter has been analyzed different nonlinear electrolyses loads.


Competition in the 21st century economy requires corporations, orga- nizations, and professionals to face a common challenge: diverse individuals need consistent motivation towards building competences that increase personal marketability using a combination of higher education and  professional development.  This  article  represents an evolving report summary and non-traditional learning-centered approach focusing on adult competences necessary for succeeding in the competitive global marketplace of the 21st century. The purpose of this article is to understand the needs of constantly changing employer demands in the work environment. Exploring contemporary approaches related to skill development, adult education, and learning processes, will be the path towards higher levels of professional success. This article will provide readers with an enlightening discussion focusing on the necessary adult skills and competencies profes- sionals need to succeed in the global marketplace.


A new checklist of Sorbus s.l. in Europe provides an updated classification of this group according to the latest phylogenetic studies. In order to achieve monophyly, five non-hybrid genera are accepted which represent separate evolutionary lineages (Aria, Chamaemespilus, Cormus, Sorbus s. str., Torminalis), with five hybridogenous genera described here (Borkhausenia = Aria × Sorbus × Torminalis, Hedlundia = Aria × Sorbus, Karpatiosorbus = Aria × Torminalis, Majovskya = Aria × Chamaemespilus, Normeyera = Aria × Chamaemespilus × Sorbus). The checklist includes 201 taxa accepted at the species level: 5 diploid species, 5 diploid hybrids, 186 apomictic species, and 5 apomictic hybrids. Numerous new binomial combinations are proposed to reflect the phylogenetic position of accepted taxa. The synonymy and nomenclature are revised, and lectotypes are designated for ten plant names. In addition, a new nothogeneric name, Sorbomeles, is proposed for hybrids between Sorbus and Micromeles.


This paper explores the relationship between leader-member exchange (LMX), role breadth self-efficacy (RBSE), a specific job crafting behavior such as increasing challenging job demands (ICJD) and overall work performance (OP). Thanks to a threepath mediation model, we show that RBSE and ICJD mediate sequentially the relationship between LMX and OP. This result contributes to research on LMX by showing that its positive effect on work performance depends on its influence on both motivational and behavioral variables. It is also shown that the influence of self-efficacy on performance becomes significant only when it is translated into specific proactive behaviors. Finally, this paper also contributes to current job crafting literature by providing evidence about job crafting antecedents and outcomes.


Abstract. We use 30 years of intercalibrated HIRS (High-Resolution Infrared Radiation Sounder) data to produce a 30-year data set of upper tropospheric humidity with respect to ice (UTHi). Since the required brightness temperatures (channels 12 and 6, T12 and T6) are intercalibrated to different versions of the HIRS sensors (HIRS/2 and HIRS/4) it is necessary to convert the channel 6 brightness temperatures which are intercalibrated to HIRS/4 into equivalent brightness temperatures intercalibrated to HIRS/2, which is achieved using a linear regression. Using the new regression coefficients we produce daily files of UTHi, T12 and T6, for each NOAA satellite and METOP-A (Meteorological Operational Satellite Programme), which carry the HIRS instrument. From this we calculate daily and monthly means in 2.5° × 2.5° resolution for the northern midlatitude zone 30–60° N. As a first application we calculate decadal means of UTHi and the brightness temperatures for the two decades 1980–1989 and 2000–2009. We find that the humidity mainly increased from the 1980s to the 2000s and that this increase is highly statistically significant in large regions of the considered midlatitude belt. The main reason for this result and its statistical significance is the corresponding increase of the T12 variance. Changes of the mean brightness temperatures are less significant.


2 Abstract: Forecasting of air pollutants is an important area of research in view of the current concerns regarding environment. In particular, air quality is deteriorating due to emissions increasing, particularly in urban locations. . In view of the health hazards posed by increasing air pollution, it will be useful to have a model that can predict the level of atmospheric pollutants and a geospatial interpolation approach to forecast the air pollutants over the whole domain. This paper presents an integrated model using Artificial Neural Networks and Kriging to predict the level of air pollutants at various locations in Mumbai and Navi Mumbai using past data available from meteorological department and Pollution Control Board. The proposed model is implemented and tested using MATLAB for ANN an R for Kriging and the results are presented.


Coleridge's brief discussion of imagination (primary and secondary) and fancy in Chapter 13 of Biographia Literaria has been called, "perhaps the most famous single prose passage in all of English literature, yet ... also one of the most baffling."(1) The publication of the latest edition of Biographia a decade ago did not still the debate. Numerous attempts to interpret what Coleridge called his "immethodical ... miscellany"(2) show evidence of reading his poetic language too literally in his argument against literalism. His "seminal principle" of imagination (which many critics have found absent from his thought) is both a metaphysical distinction concerning God and a linguistic principle concerning language and metaphor. Here it will be argued that imagination is in fact the main focus of Coleridge's philosophical argument (in accordance with his claim at the end of Chapter 6); that Chapter 12, which many critics have discarded, is of particular significance; that the "seminal principle" of the imagination-fancy distinction is present in the "balance or reconciliation of opposite or discordant qualities;"(3) that this describes not a literal reconciliation but rather a tensive relationship; and that this principle contributes to the solutions of his three major philosophical dilemmas outlined in Volume 1. Although assessments of his achievement are varied, Coleridge believed he was writing a comprehensive poetic creed. The central aim of Biogtaphia he defined as follows: . . . it was Mr. Wordsworth's purpose to consider the influences of fancy and imagination as they are manifested in poetry, and from the different effects to conclude their diversity in kind; while it is my object to investigate the seminal principle, and then from the kind to deduce the degree. My friend has drawn a masterly sketch of the branches with their poetic fruitage. I wish to add the trunk, and even the roots as far as they lift themselves above the ground, and are visible to the naked eve of our common consciousness. (87-88) This clear statement of intention in Chapter 4 has not seemed to correspond with what was actually achieved in the chapters which followed. Imagination and fancy are mentioned several times, though never defined, until Chapter 13, where they seem to be entirely unsupported, lacking both the trunk and the roots Coleridge promised. To account for this, some critics have pointed to his personal difficulties; others have seen him making false several starts toward defining imagination; others have turned to trace possible influences on his thought; still others have sought some form of unity,(4) while generally concurring with George Whalley's assessment, "The general impression is that the book is incorrigibly diffuse, fragmentary, and obscure."(5) If the book is considered in the light of its title, only the first thirteen chapters may be said to trace Coleridge's development. As he traces the history of philosophy he is in effect tracing the course he plied through philosophy. Even at this, only Chapters 1 to 11, inclusive, deal with Coleridge's thoughts prior to the time of writing, and Coleridge continually alternates between his former thoughts and his present ones, without at times indicating which is which. The long and difficult Chapter 12, along with Chapter 13 and most of Volume 2, are statements of Coleridge's ideas at the time of writing. Coleridge seems to have written Biographia on the assumption that his conclusions tell as much about the evolution of his ideas as anything else. THREE PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEMS To appreciate the coherence of Biographia, it is important to recognize initially that in the first volume, Coleridge defines in separate places three specific problems with philosophy that he encountered over the years. The first of his problems concerns Hartley's theory of association and is the focus of Chapters 5 to 7 (together with the earlier chapters, these basically take the reader from Coleridge's childhood to 1803). …


El-Nagerabi SAF, Elshafie AE, AlKhanjari SS. 2014. Endophytic fungi associated with endogenous Boswellia sacra. Biodiversitas 15: 24-30. Endophytic fungi associated with leaves and stem tissues of Boswellia sacra growing in Dhofar Mountains of Oman were investigated from May 2008 through October 2011. The biological diversity, tissue-preference and seasonal variations of fungi were evaluated. Forty-three species and 3 varieties of fungi were recovered as new records from this plant. Of these isolates, 35 species are new reports to the mycoflora of Oman, whereas 12 species were added to the list of fungal flora of the Arabian Peninsula. The genus Alternaria (12 species) is the most prevalent genus recovered from 12.5-83.3% of the screened leaves and stem samples, followed by Aspergillus (5 species, 3 varieties, 6.9-86.1%), Mycelia sterilia (76.4%), Rhizopus stolonifer (62.5%), Drechslera (3 species, 40.354.2%), Cladosporium (3 species, 20.8-52.8%), Curvularia lunata (38.8%), Chaetomium (2 species, 15.3-26.3%), Penicillium spp. (9.827.8%), Fusarium (9 species, 6.9-27.8%), Ulocladium consortiale (27.8%), Mucor hiemalis (19.5%), and the remaining species (Scytalidium thermophilum, Phoma solani, Taeniolella exilis, and Botryodiplodia theobromae) exhibited very low levels of incidence (4.2-11.1%). Endophytic colonization of the leaf tissues was greater (43 species, 3 varieties) comparable to stem tissues (25 species). This indicates heterogeneity and tissue-preference, with no evidence of seasonal variation. Therefore, the isolation of many fungal species and sterile mycelia supports the biodiversity of the endophytic fungi invading B. sacra and the high possibility of isolating more fungal species using advanced molecular techniques


There is an increasing interest in estimating biomass for longleaf pine (Pinus palustris Mill.), an important tree species in the southeastern U.S. Most of the individual-tree allometric models available for the species are local, relying on stem diameter outside bark at breast height (DBH) and total tree height (HT), but seldom include stand-level variables such as stand age, basal area or stand density. Using the biomass dataset of 296 longleaf pine trees sampled in the southeastern U.S. by different forestry research institutions, we developed a set of local and general systems of tree biomass equations to predict total tree total above-stump biomass, bole biomass outside bark, live branch biomass and live foliage biomass. The local systems were based on DBH or DBH and HT, and the general systems included in addition to DBH and HT, stand-level variables such as age, basal area and stand density. This paper reports the first set of general allometric equations reported for longleaf pine trees. These systems of biomass equations provide tools to support managers in making management decisions for the species in a variety of ecological, silvicultural and economics applications. The systems can be applied to trees growing over a large geographical area and having a wide range of ages and stand characteristics.


Some organisms rely on stored energy to fuel reproductive expenditure (capital breeders) whereas others use energy gained during the reproductive bout itself (income breeders). Most species occupy intermediate positions on this continuum, but few experimental data are available on the timescale over which food intake can affect fecundity. Mark–recapture studies of free-ranging female aspic vipers Vipera aspis have suggested that reproductive output relies not only on the energy in fat bodies accumulated in previous years, but also on food intake immediately before ovulation. A simple experiment was conducted to test this hypothesis, maintaining female snakes in captivity throughout the vitellogenic period and controlling their food intake. The energy input of a female strongly influenced the amount of mass that she gained and the number of ova that she ovulated. Multiple regression showed that litter size in these snakes was affected both by maternal body condition in early spring (an indicator of foraging success over previous years) and by food intake in the spring before ovulation. Our experimental data thus reinforce the results of descriptive studies on free-ranging snakes, and emphasize the flexibility of energy allocation patterns among vipers. Reproducing female vipers may combine energy from 'capital' and 'income' to maximize their litter sizes in the face of fluctuating levels of prey abundance.


Extraction of coal using longwall mining techniques causes subsidence which has potential to affect surface features, including environmentally sensitive areas such as rivers and cliffs. There are currently a number of proposed extensions to coal mining operations in the Southern Coalfield of New South Wales that are seeking to mine close to rivers and cliffs. These proposals have attracted some community concern at a local and regional level. This concern is largely founded on impacts that have occurred as a result of previous mining activities, the majority of which occurred directly beneath the impacted sites. It was therefore considered a timely exercise to revisit the history of impacts that have occurred as a result of mining close to rivers, particularly where they have occurred in the Southern Coalfield. The rivers reviewed include the Cataract, Nepean, Georges and Bargo Rivers. Potential effects of longwall mining on clifflines can include rock fracturing; rock falls from cliff lines, riverbed fracturing and water loss. Consideration will be given in this paper to the major mining, geometrical, geotechnical and environmental factors affecting the likelihood of rock falls from cliff lines and riverbed fracturing and water loss, and reference will be made to previous mining experience at collieries in the Southern Coalfield of New South Wales. Where the mining has not occurred directly beneath rivers, rock fractures, water loss and rock falls from cliff lines have occurred to a much lesser extent when compared to rivers that have been mined directly beneath. The fractures have been observed in local, isolated areas only and were minor in nature. In addition, changes to flow conditions have not been observed in these areas. A clear understanding of potential impacts from mining of longwalls beneath or near rivers and cliffs is essential for developing relevant baseline studies, assessing potential impacts and formation of appropriate remedial methods. Management plans can then be implemented to monitor and mitigate the identified risks without unduly restricting the extent of mining.


Combining several classifiers has become a very active subdiscipline in the field of pattern recognition. For years, pattern recognition community has focused on seeking optimal learning algorithms able to produce very accurate classifiers. However, empirical experience proved that is is often much easier finding several relatively good classifiers than only finding one single very accurate predictor. The advantages of combining classifiers instead of single classifier schemes are twofold: it helps reducing the computational requirements by using simpler models, and it can improve the classification skills. It is commonly admitted that classifiers need to be complementary in order to improve their performances by aggregation. This complementarity is usually termed as diversity in classifier combination community. Although diversity is a very intuitive concept, explicitly using diversity measures for creating classifier ensembles is not as successful as expected. In this thesis, we propose an information theoretic framework for combining classifiers. In particular, we prove by means of information theoretic tools that diversity between classifiers is not sufficient to guarantee optimal classifier combination. In fact, we show that diversity and accuracies of the individual classifiers are generally contradictory: two very accurate classifiers cannot be diverse, and inversely, two very diverse classifiers will necessarily have poor classification skills. In order to tackle this contradiction, we propose a information theoretic score (ITS) that fixes a trade-off between these two quantities. A first possible application is to consider this new score as a selection criterion for extracting a good ensemble in a predefined pool of classifiers. We also propose an ensemble creation technique based on AdaBoost, by taking into account the information theoretic score for iteratively selecting the classifiers. As an illustration of efficient classifier combination technique, we propose several algorithms for building ensembles of Support Vector Machines (SVM). Support Vector Machines are one of the most popular discriminative approaches of pattern recognition and are often considered as state-of-the-art in binary classification. However these classifiers present one severe drawback when facing a very large number of training examples: they become computationally expensive to train. This problem can be addressed by decomposing the learning into several classification tasks with lower computational requirements. We propose to train several parallel SVM on subsets of the complete training set. We develop several algorithms for designing efficient ensembles of SVM by taking into account our information theoretic score. The second part of this thesis concentrates on human face detection, which appears to be a very challenging binary pattern recognition task. In this work, we focus on two main aspects: feature extraction and how to apply classifier combination techniques to face detection systems. We introduce new geometrical filters called anisotropic Gaussian filters, that are very efficient to model face appearance. Finally we propose a parallel mixture of boosted classifier for reducing the false positive rate and decreasing the training time, while keeping the testing time unchanged. The complete face detection system is evaluated on several datasets, showing that it compares favorably to state-of-the-art techniques.


On the doctrinal surface, there is a deep divide between common and continental law when it comes to the origin of contractual obligations. Under continental law, in principle a unilateral promise suffices. Common law by contrast requires consideration. When it comes to deciding cases, the divide is much less pronounced. But for the most part the law does not govern people's lives through adjudication. It matches or molds their moral intuitions. We test these intuitions in the lab. If consideration is required, participants believe that all participants make more ambitious promises. But they themselves make a more cautious promise. These two effects cancel out, so that promises are not more likely to be kept with consideration.


Abstract The sternoclavicular joint is the diarthrodial articulation between the axial and appendicular skeletons. It is subject to the same disease processes that occur in joints, including degenerative arthritis, rheumatoid arthritis, infection, and subluxation. Most of these conditions present with swelling of the joint, which may be associated with pain and/or tenderness. Plain radiographs can demonstrate changes on both sides of the joint. Because of variations in anatomy, computed tomography scans and magnetic resonance images are often necessary to clarify the pathology. With the exception of acute infection, most conditions can be managed nonsurgically, with joint resection reserved for patients with persistent symptoms.


In 2005 the UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) published a White Paper in which it detailed its Defence Industrial Strategy (DIS) (UK MoD, 2005). The strategy involved a rapid transformation of UK defence towards a product-service, business-like paradigm through the adoption of Through Life Capability Management (TLCM). TLCM has since been succeeded by other initiatives. However, for organisations involved in the management of capability through life, the associated principles of operation as well as the challenges remain, including that of the management of knowledge.
The confederated capability enterprise is a distributed knowledge system. Knowledge of the systems, for which a particular organisation has through-life management responsibility, may be distributed throughout an enterprise that comprises several commercial organisations as well as the customer. The bringing together of different components of capability and perspectives makes managing knowledge difficult. This is complicated further by the observation that in a decade one can expect a significant proportion of the manpower involved in a capability will have changed. Success in this type of environment requires a clear understanding of the value of particular knowledge within the organisation as well as effective knowledge management in the wider enterprise.
Dstl and EPSRC have jointly funded this research which addresses management of knowledge for through life capability through modelling of the capability enterprise, a workshop on TLCM benefits and behaviours, a comparative case study at a commercial service company and the UK MoD including Dstl, and knowledge mapping within a specific exemplar capability.
The results of the modelling illustrated the Systems of Systems (SoS) nature of the enterprise and the need to align capability and management processes across the enterprise. How well this can be achieved depends on the extent to which both the UK MoD and industry are willing to share, access and process information and knowledge. This would require trust between the individuals and organisations involved. The need for trust was emphasised in an international workshop where the participants discussed the behaviours that were required for the perceived benefits of TLCM to be realised. The workshop members highlighted trust in long term planning as industry seeks to manage skills and knowledge over time.
ServiceCo provides communication and media services to customers globally. It comprises four customer-facing divisions and two operational units. The case which was based on interviews in one customer-facing and one operational unit revealed the following:
• Focus on corporate values supports knowledge management behaviours across the organisation.
• Succession planning is needed for all skills and knowledge that are critical or essential to the business.
• Once the continual renewal of knowledge slows down and/or stops in an organisation, the knowledge is lost.
The second case of the study was the Royal Navy Command Head Quarters and Dstl. Dstl is a trading fund that provides UK MoD and the wider UK government specialist Science & Technology services and operates and manages the Chief Scientific Advisor's research programme. The case study revealed:
• Security regulations and considerations impact significantly on effective management of knowledge.
• Knowledge retrieval can be "hit and miss" as complicated filing structures and indexing practices are applied inconsistently, leading to individuals adopting a number of strategies to share knowledge.
• Succession planning for people with rare skills is an issue that impacts business continuation.
Comparison between the two cases showed that the two organisations experienced different problems but that the knowledge behaviours adopted by the individuals involved were essentially the same. This pointed to the need to address the issues associated with the management of knowledge as cultural and organisational in nature. Personal strategies to manage and share knowledge included individuals retaining copies of files on desktop hard drives and keeping paper copies in drawers; documents were emailed to ensure the intended audience would get it or be able to access it; and asking a colleague for advice on where to find out things. An important difference between knowledge management between the two organisations was that the UK MoD relied on processes due to the rapid change of personnel whereas the service company relied on personal relationships as people remained in the roles for longer.
The knowledge mapping of "moving personnel and materiel using vehicles" revealed that each Line of Development (LoDs) has its own constituent (LoDs) indicating the requirement to manage organisational capability in order to deliver capability to customers. It also illustrated all the active knowledge that is required in order for the capability to be delivered.
The research main contributions are:
• Theoretical models for exploring the use of knowledge in acquisition projects over time
• Comparing two organisations at separate ends of the organisational spectrum and identifying common organisational factors that influence the management of knowledge for through life capability
• Recognising that the enterprise is a capability SoS. In order to successfully delivery capability, knowledge about and within the components needs to be managed.
Other findings include:
• Management of knowledge for TLCM puts the focus on managing knowledge for future capability requirements rather than on retention of knowledge products, bringing in aspects such as business continuation planning and consequently impacting on the organisation's future development.
• There is a strong relationship between knowledge conservation, human resource management and company policies.
• Managing changes in design and/or function requires a good understanding of the different processes used within the various disciplines involved across the capability components and how they contribute to the final product and to each other.
• An organisation's goals and the manner in which it organises itself to achieve them with regard to the management of knowledge does not appear linked. Instead, focus falls on the organisational architecture and the human resource polices that it implies.
• 'Knowing' is an individual capability and also a social one; communities of practice and networking are necessary components of an organisation's knowledge base.
• Knowing whom to ask and where to look is in a knowledge retrieval perspective nearly as important as knowing what to look for.
• "Individuals know while documents, processes and tools support knowing". This emphasises the need for a close connection between humans and IT-based knowledge repositories.
• The role of IT in knowledge management can either be to correlate knowledge in people's heads to relevant projects or to correlate individuals and knowledge in relevant projects depending on the key questions asked in the management of knowledge within the organisation.
• The role of IT in determining issues related to the relevance and location of documentation differs depending of the organisation's reliance on face to face interactions between employees as a means for communicating this information.
• The capability end user is in some instances hard to define. How the end user is defined determines where the SoS boundaries are defined. It is probably better to define the boundary as a broad fuzzy border. The indeterminacy implied by this view becomes a complexity issue for management of knowledge.
• The impetus to manage knowledge and how is influenced legal requirements and by the organisation's relationships with its stakeholders including the extent it is subject to external scrutiny.
Based on the research, a number of recommendations are made.


Summary
A seventh year's observations on malaria in an unsanitated area in the Republic of Panama are reported. It is hoped to continue these observations for a period of ten years, at least. We feel that such a period is required in order to obtain sufficient data of worth from which to draw conclusions as to the most practicable method of controlling malaria under our conditions. Such a period of time will also enable us to prove or disprove various theses advanced in previous papers concerning the natural history of malaria, both in treated and untreated groups.
The period herein reported upon was a period of low incidence, as was the year preceding. If our thesis concerning the cyclical nature of malaria incidence in Panama is correct, the time should not be far distant when another epidemic outbreak is to be expected.
The methods used during the period reported upon were the same as have been in use for some years past. The monthly blood-parasite rates in groups treated with atabrine-plasmochin, quinine-plasmochin, both under adequate supervision, and with quinine sulphate under no supervision, are respectively 7.4, 14.4, and 16.2 per cent. As in past years, the rates showed no correlation with monthly rainfall.
The blood-parasite rate, cumulative for 12 months, in those persons examined at every monthly survey, shows that slightly less than half (43.5 per cent) had parasites in the blood during the year (table 5). The same table shows that a rather high annual rate can exist in all age-groups of a relatively tolerant population.
The blood-parasite rates during the period are the lowest so far recorded, and show that adequate treatment can reduce this rate to negligible proportions, during an inter-epidemic period.
A record of 83 persons examined in 12 consecutive monthly surveys, who were found positive, is given in table 6. The figures in this table indicate the efficacy of supervised treatment. Table 7 presents the same data in a different manner.
Table 8 shows the incidence of species of malaria parasite found in the 682 positives discovered during the year. As in previous years, heavy infections were somewhat more numerous in the two treated groups than in the control group.
The malaria rate in infants showed that transmission was not active during the period, as only 8 of the 59 infants examined at least once, showed parasites, giving an annual rate of 13.5 per cent. In the 1935–36 period, this rate among 66 infants was 9.1 per cent.
Mosquito infection rates were higher in 355 Anopheles albimanus dissected during the year, than during 1932, when 832 A. albimanus were dissected. The rate for 1936–1937 was 1.1 per cent, while for 1932 it was 0.48 per cent. The rate obtained for the year just past was relatively high, but the number of mosquitoes dissected was small. So many variables enter into the problem that the only safe conclusion that may be drawn is that enough human reservoirs (probably transients) escaped treatment, to permit mosquito infection.
The immediate results of the treatment work are well summarized as follows (8):
Our human parasite-index has fallen tremendously, and the physical condition of the inhabitants is good, but the mosquito-parasite index has not fallen with the human parasite rate.… The general physical condition of the people in the treated areas is improved; from the standpoint of an industrial organization this is a good result.… The disturbing feature of our work is the number of relapses that occur. Apparently we only suppress the malarial infections, and do not eradicate them by any form or length of drug administration. The parasite index for age-groups is the same this year as last.
To which may be added that malaria control by means of drugs, without any attempt to control the Anopheline vector, may be a two-edged sword. Excellent results in controlling clinical illness may be obtained during an inter-epidemic period, such as we have just passed through. But we fear that clinical rates will be much higher, and that more serious cases of malaria may occur among the well-treated groups during an epidemic period, than in groups living in the same locality who have had little treatment, and who therefore have retained a certain degree of tolerance.
We believe that the ideal method of malaria control is the elimination of Anopheles, but where this is impossible, as under our conditions, immediate treatment of clinical cases is a most useful measure. Such treatment can be given most economically by non-medical personnel in the field. Such personnel should be supervised by a medical officer, who should make weekly inspection visits. By this method, low-grade infections will not be treated, and there will be little interference with the acquirement of natural immunity.


Most of the coarse-grained reconfigurable architectures (CGRAs) are composed of reconfigurable ALU arrays and configuration cache (or context memory) to achieve high performance and flexibility. Specially, configuration cache is the main component in CGRA that provides distinct feature for dynamic reconfiguration in every cycle. However, frequent memory-read operations for dynamic reconfiguration cause much power consumption. Thus, reducing power in configuration cache has become critical for CGRA to be more competitive and reliable for its use in embedded systems. In this paper, we propose dynamically compressible context architecture for power saving in configuration cache. This power-efficient design of context architecture works without degrading the performance and flexibility of CGRA. Experimental results show that the proposed approach saves up to 39.72% power in configuration cache with negligible area overhead (2.16%).


PURPOSE
One potential therapy for vision loss from photoreceptor degeneration is cell replacement, but this approach presents a need for photoreceptor cells. This study explores whether the retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) could be a convenient source of developing photoreceptors.

METHODS
The RPE of chick embryos was subjected to reprogramming by proneural genes neurogenin (ngn)1 and ngn3. The genes were introduced into the RPE through retrovirus RCAS-mediated transduction, with the virus microinjected into the eye or added to retinal pigment epithelial explant culture. The retinal pigment epithelia were then analyzed for photoreceptor traits.

RESULTS
In chick embryos infected with retrovirus RCAS-expressing ngn3 (RCAS-ngn3), the photoreceptor gene visinin (the equivalent of mammalian recoverin) was expressed in cells of the retinal pigment epithelial layer. When isolated and cultured as explants, retinal pigment epithelial tissues from embryos infected with RCAS-ngn3 or RCAS-ngn1 gave rise to layers of visinin-positive cells. These reprogrammed cells expressed genes of phototransduction and synapses, such as red opsin, the alpha-subunit of cone transducin, SNAP-25, and PSD-95. Reprogramming occurred with retinal pigment epithelial explants derived from virally infected embryos and with retinal pigment epithelial explants derived from normal embryos, with the recombinant viruses added at the onset of the explant culture. In addition, reprogramming took place in retinal pigment epithelial explants from both young and old embryos, from embryonic day (E)6 to E18, when the visual system becomes functional in the chick.

CONCLUSIONS
The results support the prospect of exploring the RPE as a convenient source of developing photoreceptors for in situ cell replacement.


Risk assessment for metallic substances usually follows the generally accepted framework format for risk assessment for all toxic substances, which involves (1) exposure assessment, (2) hazard identification, (3) assessment of dose-response relationships, and (4) risk characterization. The importance of risk communication is also addressed. Risk assessment/risk communication is of particular relevance for metals and metalloids because all living organisms are exposed to these elements. Lead, cadmium, mercury, and the metalloid arsenic have been responsible for many human poisonings and even deaths. It is, hence, imperative that readers of this Handbook have a firm perspective on the exposure levels of metallic substances that produce adverse health effects and the various risk assessment approaches that have been used and are evolving to protect the health and well-being of living organisms. Because of the increasing use of nanomaterials, a recent concern is the dose metric for inhaled metallic nanoparticles. Regardless of exposure route, the following risk assessment considerations are important: biomonitoring approaches, identification of the mode of action for toxicity of metallic species for hazard identification, determining dose-effect relationships, the construction of dose-response curves, and the development of benchmark doses for various metallic species, which are discussed in relation to protecting sensitive subpopulations because not all individuals within a general population are at equal risk for toxicity. Risk characterization using modern biomarkers that are capable of detecting early cellular effects to low-dose exposures to metallic substances will play an increasingly important role in assessing risk from exposure to this class of toxic substances on an individual or mixture basis. The issue of metal-/metalloid-induced carcinogenesis is of ever increasing importance because many of the elements associated with this cellular outcome produce a number of early cellular effects, including the formation of reactive oxygen species, modification of apoptosis, and methylation of DNA. Finally, the issue of risk communication/risk management is of great importance because these issues are critical to addressing the health concerns of exposed populations and the practical, ethical, and financial issues related to reducing hazardous exposures to metallic substances.


We investigate the activation of living monocytic U937 cells induced by interleukin-6 (IL-6) at the single cell level. We employ home-built Raman tweezers to measure the Raman spectra of living U937 cells with and without IL-6 at the single cell level. Raman peaks of amide III, amide I, DNA backbone, as well as guanine and adenine in U937 cells, change at 1312, 1652, 1090, and 1576 cm ?1, respectively, shortly after IL-6 is added in the medium. The change is a dynamic temporal process. In the activation process of U937 cells induced by IL-6, the protein signals recover in 20 min, while the nucleic acid signals continue to increase for 20 min. The results reveal that the biochemical cascades of activation in signal transduction induced by IL-6 can be investigated in situ at the single cell level.


Studies have shown that rectal sparing and patchiness develop in treated and longstanding ulcerative colitis (UC), making the distinction from Crohn colitis increasingly difficult after treatment is initiated. However, no histologic studies of the incidence of rectal sparing in adults at UC onset have been performed. Colectomy specimens from 46 patients with classic UC histologic features and no Crohn disease features were identified. Biopsy specimens obtained before medical therapy were retrieved and examined blindly by 2 pathologists, along with appropriate control samples. Slides were scored for chronicity (crypt branching, subcryptal plasma cells, lamina propria plasma cells) and activity (cryptitis, crypt abscesses, epithelial injury). In 28 cases, only rectal biopsy specimens were taken; for 16, rectal and at least 1 proximal biopsy specimen were taken. All cases showed rectal involvement; none had rectal sparing at initial biopsy. Of 16 cases with rectal and more proximal biopsy specimens, 5 (31%) showed relative rectal sparing (lower scores in rectum than in more proximal sites). In 16 cases with rectal and more proximal biopsy specimens, chronicity and activity scores were higher in the rectum than in more proximal sites (P = .01; chronicity and activity). The mean overall chronicity score decreased in a linear manner from rectum to cecum. The rectum is involved and shows evidence of chronicity and activity at disease onset in UC, using colectomy as the gold standard for diagnosis. Because rectal sparing at UC onset has been reported, a prospective study using uniform biopsy protocols is needed to establish the true incidence of rectal sparing at presentation.


White dwarfs are among the most common objects in the stellar halo; however, due to their low luminosity and low number density compared to the stars in the discs of the Milky Way, they are scarce in the observable volume. Hence, they are still poorly understood one hundred years after their discovery as relatively few have been observed. They are crucial to the understanding of several fundamental properties of the Galaxy – the geometry, kinematics and star formation history, as well as to the study of the end-stage of stellar evolution for lowand intermediate-mass stars. White dwarfs were traditionally identified by their ultraviolet (UV) excess, however, if they have cooled for a long time, they become so faint in that part of the spectrum that they cannot be seen by the most sensitive modern detectors. Proper motion was then used as a means to identify white dwarf candidates, due to their relatively large space motions compared to other objects with the same colour. The use of proper motion as a selection criterion has proven effective and has yielded large samples of candidates with the SuperCOSMOS Sky Survey and Sloan Digital Sky Survey. In this work I will further increase the sample size with the Panchromatic Synoptic Telescope And Rapid Response System 1 (Pan–STARRS1). To construct luminosity functions for the study of the local white dwarfs, I require a density estimator that is generalised for a proper motion-limited sample. My simulations show that past works have underestimated the density when the tangential velocity was assumed to be a constant intrinsic parameter of an object. The intrinsically faint objects which are close to the upper proper motion limits of the surveys are most severely affected because of the poor approximation of a fixed tangential velocity. The survey volume is maximised by considering the small/intermediate scale variations in the observation properties at different epochs. This type of volume maximisation has not been conducted before because previous surveys did not have multi-epoch data over a footprint area of this size. The tessellation of the 3π Steradian Survey footprint is so complex that the variations are strong functions of position. I continue to demonstrate how a combination of a galactic model and the photometric limits as a function of position can give a good estimate of the completeness limits at different colour and different line-of-sight directions. Finally, I compare the derived white dwarf luminosity function with previous observational and theoretical work. The effect of interstellar reddening on the luminosity functions is also investigated.


YBCO coated conductor (CC) is useful for application to the insert coil for the NMR because of its great property on critical current under high magnetic field. For the safe operation of CC magnets, design of the stabilizer is imperative issue. The minimum quench energy, minimum propagation zone (MPZ), and quench propagation velocity are obviously affected by both properties and thickness of the stabilizer. In this paper, stacks of CCs were used to be partly substituted for a double pancake magnet for simplicity in experiments, and the CCs in a stack were pressed from top and bottom to enhance thermal and electrical contact. The heater made of Hastelloy C-276 was attached to initiate quench. The stacks which comprise only CCs and pairs of CC and additional copper tape were fabricated, and tests of longitudinal and transverse quench propagation in the stack were carried out in both liquid nitrogen (LN2) of 77 K and liquid helium (LHe) of 4.2 K. Copper tapes were attached on each CC without soldering in the stack for the tests to see effects of the thickness of stabilizer and the contact between CC and copper tape. Numerical analysis was performed by using finite element method (FEM). Comparisons of experiment and simulation results were reported and discussed from the point of view of magnet stability and protection.


The main aim of this paper is to showcase the symbiotic potency of an integrated Ergonomics and Design Research. The focus is to capture actionable insights for the design and evaluation of an Obstetric Body-Support System for physiologic childbirth. Such a system would be biomechanically efficient for the mother, in addition to improving the tasks of the birth attendants in the management of labour and ensuring the safety and well-being of the mother and her baby. The current medical model adopted for the management of labour and childbirth in hospitals is discussed to highlight current idiosyncratic procedures adopted in childbirth practices of modern obstetrics, and the challenges and opportunities for design improvement. An evidence-based transdisciplinary method is detailed through a case study to demonstrate how ergonomics research is applied to elicit empirical anatomical, physiological, psychological and behavioural knowledge, to inform the designer with evidence and insight for problem framing, new concept visualization, prototyping, and system evaluation in hospital settings. 'Ergodesign', a hybrid paradigm to humanise labour and childbirth, is proposed as a design science to improve current obstetric practices.


Article history: Received March 25, 2012 Received in revised format 17 October 2012 Accepted 17 October 2012 Available online October 18 2012 This research study focuses the existence of "weak form efficiency" in the Karachi stock exchange of Pakistan. Daily stock returns are used to check the "weak form efficiency' in KSE covering a time period of 15 years ranges from July, 1997 to April, 2012. Kolmogrov-Smirnov (K-S) test, runs test, Unit root test Augumented Dickey Fuller test, Phillips Perron test are run to check the hypothesis. It is revealed that the KSE is not distributed normally and patterns are there in the prices so, the technical analyst can get the benefit in short run through predicting the future prices. This means that there exists some opportunity for the traders and investors to predict the upcoming stock prices of the securities, which are trading in the KSE and can earn high return and outperform the market. However, in long run scenario (in monthly data) the results are vice versa and Karachi stock exchange is a weak form efficient market. © 2013 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.


In terrestrial animals with rigid protective structures, the ability to upright after being overturned can make the difference between life and death, especially in suboptimal thermal conditions or in the presence of predators. This trait is assumed to be under strong selection. Different factors can influence righting ability, body dimensions and body mass for instance. As these morphological traits diverge among populations, inter-population variability in righting ability is expected. Previous studies on tortoises were performed within single populations and they usually focused on juveniles raised in captivity, precluding an assessment of the inter-population variability in a natural (realistic) context. In the current study, we quantified the righting performance in four populations of free-ranging adult tortoises. We found strong differences in righting success among populations and between genders, suggesting possible adaptations to local conditions. For instance, the topography (e.g. slopes) of each study site varied markedly. On average, males were more successful in righting themselves than females. Body size did not influence righting performances in males, but larger females were less successful compared to smaller ones. The success in righting was positively correlated with carapace domedness (height) and short bridges.


BACKGROUND Glaucoma is an important cause of irreversible blindness. This study describes the characteristics of a large, diverse group of glaucoma patients and evaluates associations between demographic and clinical characteristics and blindness. METHODS Data were gathered via retrospective chart review of patients (N = 1,454) who were seen between July 2007 and July 2010 by glaucoma service providers at Duke Eye Center. Visual acuity and visual field criteria were used to determine whether patients met the criteria for legal blindness. Descriptive and comparative statistical analyses were performed on the glaucoma patients who were not blind (n = 1,258) and those who were blind (n = 196). A subgroup analysis of only those patients with primary open-angle glaucoma was also performed. RESULTS In this tertiary care population, 13% (n = 196) of glaucoma patients met criteria for legal blindness, nearly one-half of whom (n = 94) were blind from glaucoma, and another one-third of whom (n = 69) had glaucoma-related blindness. The most common glaucoma diagnosis at all levels of vision was primary open-angle glaucoma. A larger proportion of black patients compared with white patients demonstrated vision loss; the odds ratio (OR) for blindness was 2.25 (95% CI, 1.6–3.2) for black patients compared with white patients. The use of systemic antihypertensive medications was higher among patients who were blind compared with patients who were not blind (OR = 2.1; 95% CI, 1.4–3.1). A subgroup analysis including only patients with primary open-angle glaucoma showed similar results for both black race and use of systemic antihypertensive medications. The relationship between use of systemic antihypertensive medications and blindness was not different between black patients and white patients (interaction P = .268). LIMITATIONS Data were based on chart review, and associations may be confounded by unmeasured factors. CONCLUSIONS Treated systemic hypertension may be correlated with blindness, and the cause cannot be explained solely by race. In addition, this study demonstrated that there is continued disparity between black patients and white patients with regards to blindness from glaucoma.


Meiosis is a specialized cell division, consisting of two successive divisions without intervening DNA synthesis, that is crucial in the sexual reproduction. Peculiar features of meiosis are pairing and crossovers between homologous chromosomes, as well as random segregation of homologs. The knowledge of the genetic control of meiosis is useful to provide new tools for plant breeding. Indeed, a deep understanding of the mechanisms controlling genetic recombination and chromosome assortment would allow breeders to manipulate genetic diversity and genetic uniformity. In particular, increase/decrease and redistribution of crossovers as well as meiotic nuclear restitution modes in 2n gametes pave the way to control the transmission of valuable traits. Based on this premise, the aim of the present work was the identification of genes involved in plant meiotic processes such as recombination and nuclear restitution, which are of interest for plant breeding, by using the model organism Arabidopsis thaliana and potato.
Most of the work performed in Arabidopsis was supported by the European Project "Systematic Analysis of Factors Controlling Meiotic Recombination in Higher Plants (MeioSYS)" which points to the identification and analysis of histone modifiers controlling frequency and distribution of meiotic crossovers in plants. Through an in silico analysis based on the identification of genes overexpressed in reproductive tissues and on similarity to genes involved in reproduction in other model organisms, the histone acetylases HAG2, HAG1, HAM1 and HAF1 and the histone deacetylases HDA7, HDA6, HDA9 and HDA19 have been identified as candidates for a meiotic role in Arabidopsis. In this PhD thesis, HDA7 was functionally characterized by loss-of-function and gain-of-function mutants. Reduced seed set and embryo sac degeneration were observed in knock-down mutants allowing to conclude that HDA7 is required for female gamethophyte development. Moreover, HDA7 has a role in embryo and plant development as highlighted by the reduced germination rate and the altered post-germination growth observed in knock-down and overexpressing mutants. Candidate genes which could be involved in hda7 phenotype were also provided paving the way to a deeper understanding of the molecular role of HDA7 in plant reproduction and development. The meiotic function of HDA7 is currently under investigation to assess whether megasporogenesis defects are associated to embryo sac collapse and to verify if meiotic recombination is changed in microsporocytes.
The work performed on a diploid potato clone was aimed to the identification of PARALLEL SPINDLES (PSL) genes, which could be involved in 2n pollen production as showed for Arabidopsis thaliana PS1. By means of molecular and in silico analyses, the presence of at least three PSL loci in the potato genome was showed. Moreover, the candidate locus that likely has a role in 2n pollen production was provided. The existence of PSLs throughout Viridiplantae, from mosses to higher plants, was also showed. PSLs occur mostly as singleton in the analyzed genomes except in soybean and potato both characterized by a recent whole genome duplication event. A useful insight into evolutionary conservation of FHA and PINc domains throughout plant PSLs was provided suggesting a fundamental role of these domains for PSL function.


This paper presents the anti-corrosion application of polyvinylbutyral/tin sulfide (PVB/SnS) composites for the first time, where the liquid-phase exfoliated (LPE) SnS nanosheets are uniformly embedded in the PVB matrix. The measurement results of the potentiodynamic polarization, the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy (EIS) and the scanning electronic microscopy (SEM) show that PVB/SnS composite coatings show the excellent corrosion protection behavior for copper under 3.0% NaCl solution. Besides, we investigated the anti-corrosion performance with different contents of SnS nanosheets. The results show that embedding 0.1 wt% SnS nanosheets in the PVB matrix can greatly improve the anti-corrosion properties of the coating due to the enhanced "Labyrinth effect" of the coatings. In addition, the results of the molecular dynamic analysis further show the high interaction energy between PVB/SnS composites and copper, which is attributed to the high aspect-ratio of LPE-SnS nanosheets. Moreover, the scratch tests reveal that the PVB/SnS composite coatings exhibit weak corrosion-promotion activity, indicating a promising potential application in the corrosion protection of the metal surface for ocean engineering. The methods for enhancing the inhibited corrosion-promotion activity of the semiconductor material SnS-based composite coatings could be expanded to other n-type and p-type semiconductors.


With increasing hardware capabilities the demands on the functionality of user centric systems continuously expand. The next generation of automotive embed- ded systems is going to make use of multicore hardware architectures, which strongly enhances the computational power. This means a movement from concurrent to paral- lel computing. Although the competition for CPU time will decrease, other resources are not available in multiple instances. This raises the need for a management unit that controls access to resources other than the CPUs. Such a resource manager is able to utilise the capabilities of multicore hardware architectures for component based software systems more predictably. This paper builds a case for a resource sched- uler, identifies requirements and provides details of a prototype implementation. As an illustrative example, the domain of automotive multimedia/infotainment systems is used.


Advances in the field of endoscopy have allowed gastroenterologists to obtain detailed imaging of anatomical structures and to treat gastrointestinal diseases with endoscopic therapies. However, these technological developments have exposed endoscopists and staff to hazards such as musculoskeletal injuries, exposure to infectious agents, and ionizing radiation. We aimed to review the occupational hazards for the gastroenterologist and endoscopist. Using PubMed, Medline, Medscape, and Google Scholar, we identified peer-reviewed articles with the keywords "occupational hazards," "health hazards," "occupational health hazards," "endoscopy," "gastroenterologist," "infectious agents," "musculoskeletal injuries," and "radiation." Strategies for reducing exposure to infectious agents, radiation, and the risk of musculoskeletal injuries related to gastroenterology include compliance with established standard measures, the use of thyroid shields and radioprotective eyewear, and ergonomic practices. We conclude that educating endoscopic personnel and trainees in these practices, in addition to further research in these areas, will likely lead to the development of more efficient and user-friendly workspaces that are safer for patients and personnel.


A path cover is a decomposition of the edges of a graph into edge-disjoint simple paths. Gallai conjectured that every connected $n$-vertex graph has a path cover with at most $\lceil n/2 \rceil$ paths. We prove Gallai's conjecture for series-parallel graphs. For the class of planar 3-trees we show how to construct a path cover with at most $\lfloor 5n/8 \rfloor$ paths, which is an improvement over the best previously known bound of $\lfloor 2n/3 \rfloor$.


A predictive, quasi-dimensional simulation of combustion in a spark-ignition engine has been coupled with a chemical kinetic model for the low temperature, preflame reactions of hydrocarbon fuel and air mixtures. The simulation is capable of predicting the onset of autoignition without prior knowledge of the cylinder pressure history. Near-wall temperature gradients were computed within the framework of the engine cycle simulation by dividing the region into a number of thin mass slices which were assumed to remain adjacent to the combustion chamber surfaces in both the burned and unburned gas. The influence of the near-wall turbulence on the temperature field was accounted for by means of a boundary layer turbulence model developed by the authors. Fluid motion in the bulk gases has been considered by the inclusion of the turbulence model based on k-\ge theory while the flame propagation rate was predicted using a fractal flame model. Validation of the engine-cycle simulation is afforded by comparison of predicted turbulence intensities, gas temperatures, gas-wall interface heat fluxes and pressure histories with appropriate measured values. All showed good agreement. The heat release from the preflame reactions was estimated using the reduced kinetic model and has been accounted for in the overall engine simulation energy balance. The chemical kinetic and engine cycle models were solved simultaneously enabling the simulation of the coupled effects of the heat release by the preflame reactions on the end-gas temperatures and the subsequent influence of these temperatures on the rates of reaction in the end-gas region as combustion proceeds. Validation of the model is afforded by comparison of cylinder pressure predictions with those measured in a knocking engine. After modifying the Arrhenius parameter for the chain branching reaction in the chemical kinetic model the knock onset time was accurately predicted. In this context, the model was then employed to demonstrate the influence of the flame propagation rate on the knock onset time in a simulation of cyclically varying knock.


A rearrangement operation makes a small graph-theoretical change to a phylogenetic network to transform it into another one. For unrooted phylogenetic trees and networks, popular rearrangement operations are tree bisection and reconnection (TBR) and prune and regraft (PR) (called subtree prune and regraft (SPR) on trees). Each of these operations induces a metric on the sets of phylogenetic trees and networks. The TBR-distance between two unrooted phylogenetic trees $T$ and $T'$ can be characterised by a maximum agreement forest, that is, a forest with a minimum number of components that covers both $T$ and $T'$ in a certain way. This characterisation has facilitated the development of fixed-parameter tractable algorithms and approximation algorithms. Here, we introduce maximum agreement graphs as a generalisations of maximum agreement forests for phylogenetic networks. While the agreement distance -- the metric induced by maximum agreement graphs -- does not characterise the TBR-distance of two networks, we show that it still provides constant-factor bounds on the TBR-distance. We find similar results for PR in terms of maximum endpoint agreement graphs.


Despite extensive research, the pathogenesis of neurodegenerative Alzheimer's disease (AD) still eludes our comprehension. This is largely due to complex and dynamic cross-talks that occur among multiple cell types throughout the aging process. We present a mathematical model that helps define critical components of AD pathogenesis based on differential rate equations that represent the known cross-talks involving microglia, astroglia, neurons, and amyloid-β (Aβ). We demonstrate that the inflammatory activation of microglia serves as a key node for progressive neurodegeneration. Our analysis reveals that targeting microglia may hold potential promise in the prevention and treatment of AD.