Background: Knowledge of community medicine is essential for health care professionals to function as efficient primary health care physicians. Medical students learning Community Medicine as a subject are expected to be competent in critical thinking and generic skills so as to analyze community health problems better. However, current teaching by didactic lectures fails to develop these essential skills. Problem-based learning (PBL) could be an effective strategy in this respect. This study was hence done to compare the academic performance of students who were taught Community Medicine by the PBL method with that of students taught by traditional methods, to assess the generic skills of students taught in a PBL environment and to assess the perception of students toward PBL methodology. Materials and Methods: This study was conducted among seventh-semester final-year medical students between June and November 2014. PBL was introduced to a randomly chosen group of students, and their performance in an assessment exam at the end of postings was compared with that of the remaining students. Generic skills and perception toward PBL were also assessed using standardized questionnaires. Results: A total of 77 students took part in the brainstorming session of PBL. The correlation between self-assigned scores of the participants and those assigned by the tutor in the brainstorming session of PBL was significant (r = 0.266, P = 0.05). Out of 54 students who took part in the presentation session, almost all 53 (98.1%) had good perception toward PBL. Demotivational scores were found to be significantly higher among males (P = 0.024). The academic performance of students (P < 0.001) and success rates (P = 0.05) in the examination were higher among students who took part in PBL compared to controls. Conclusion: PBL helped improve knowledge of students in comparison to those exposed only to didactic lectures. As PBL enabled students to identify the gaps in their knowledge and enhanced their group functioning and generic skills, we recommend PBL sessions: They would help optimize the training in Community Medicine at medical schools. Good correlation of tutor and self-assessment scores of participants in the brainstorming session suggests that the role of tutors could be restricted to assessment in presentation sessions alone. Demotivation, which hinders group performance in PBL, needs to be corrected by counselling and timely feedback by the tutors.


In 1996, there were violent intrastate conflicts in ninety countries around the world. Governments, international organizations, nongovernmental organizations, and scholars continue to investigate how these deadly conflicts can be prevented. In order to assess what has been learned about conflict prevention and encourage further examination of cases and strategies, the Center for Preventive Action (CPA) of the Council on Foreign Relations convenes an annual conference. CPA's December 1996 Conference on Preventive Action examined three regions where CPA has programs--Nigeria, the Great Lakes region of Central Africa, and the South Balkans--and three tools of prevention--religion, economic sanctions and incentives, and small weapons disarmament. This conference volume is the second book in CPA's series of Preventive Action Reports. It uses CPA's case studies to examine the effectiveness of the tools of preventive action, and draws on comparative studies to guide the analysis of the case studies. Included: Edward J. Laurance of the Monterey Institute of International Studies on small weapons disarmament; David Cortright of the Fourth Freedom Forum and George Lopez of the Kroc Institute of International Peace Studies, University of Notre Dame, on the use of economic sanctions and incentives; Reverend Donald Shriver of Union Theological Seminary on religion and violence prevention; Steven Burg of Brandeis University on the South Balkans; Michael Lund of Creative Associates International on Burundi and the Great Lakes region of Central Africa; and Peter Lewis of American University on Nigeria.


BACKGROUND AND PURPOSES
MR imaging is now widely used to monitor disease progression in patients with multiple sclerosis (MS). The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between disability status and existing and new MR parameters in MS patients.

METHODS
Forty-one patients with clinically definitive MS were studied. MR imaging included T2- and T1-weighted imaging as well as gradient-echo imaging with and without magnetization transfer contrast. We used surface-based thresholding segmentation techniques to obtain T2 and T1 lesion load, T1/T2 ratio, and several magnetization transfer ratio (MTR) lesion load parameters. MTR histographic analysis included measurements of absolute peak height (aHp), relative peak height (rHp), MTR of the peak (MTRp), mean MTR (MTRm), and MTR25, MTR50, and MTR75, relating to the integrals of the histogram at 25%, 50%, and 75%, respectively, of the total area under the curve. All MR parameters were correlated with Expanded Disability Status Scale (EDSS) score, disease duration, and patient's age.

RESULTS
Using surface-based thresholding segmentation techniques, we found relatively low correlations with EDSS. T1 lesion load and T1/T2 ratios correlated most strongly. Regarding MTR histographic parameters, EDSS correlated best with rHp but only weakly with others. Similar correlations were found with disease duration, but not with age.

CONCLUSION
The best MR correlations with disability were several MTR histographic parameters. Our findings may favor the use of these MR parameters over T2 lesion load to monitor disease progression in patients with MS, findings that should be explored further in longitudinal studies.


Some people in South Kalimantan have used river water to fulfill their daily needs include washing the utensils. Wash the cutlery use river water can cause disease transmission. Squeezed lime has an antibacterial effect in inhibiting bacterial growth. Antibacterial dishwashing soap is effective in reducing pathogenic bacteria. This research is to know the difference of bacterial amount on the variation of contact time with soap. Know the difference of bacteria on the variation of concentration of lime soap and soap without lime. The study used the experimental method with pretest and posttest with control design. The independent variables are a lime soap with a concentration of 40%, 50%, 60% and variable of contact time 30 second, 60 second and 90 seconds. The dependent variable is the number of bacteria on the dinnerware of a dinner plate. The data obtained in this study is the data of measurement of the number of bacteria on the dinner plate. Data analyzed by Kruskal-Wallis test. MPN coliform examination of river water showed results >2400 CFU/ml sample. There were no significant differences in treatment with contact time variation of 30 seconds, 60 seconds and 90 seconds. The significance value is 0.796 (> 0.05). There were significant differences in the treatment of lime soap with concentration variations of 40%, 50%, 60%, and soap without lime. The value of significance is 0,000 (<0.05).


An enhanced protrusion electrode is proposed for both transmissive and transflective blue-phase liquid crystal displays. For transmissive displays, the new design increases transmittance while keeping a low operating voltage. For transflective displays, it exhibits high transmittance and reflectance and a well-matched gamma curve with a single cell gap.


Los Angeles County v. Mendez, the Supreme Court's recent decision rejecting shooting victims' excessive force claims, has been written off as yet another case in which police violence has no civil rights consequences. The Court found that the deputies who shot Jennifer Garcia and Angel Mendez fifteen times used reasonable force because Mendez was holding a BB gun. But the deputies barged in on Garcia and Mendez while they were napping on a futon in their home, and Mendez grabbed his BB gun to stand up and steady himself. The Court remanded the case with instructions to consider whether the defendants' warrantless entry into the plaintiffs' home, a constitutional violation not entitled to qualified immunity, was the proximate cause of the deputies' deadly force. Justice Alito, writing for the Court, advised plaintiffs that "there is no need to dress up every Fourth Amendment claim as an excessive force claim." The invitation to attempt recovery through an alternative legal theory could prove revolutionary for victims of police-involved shootings. So long as they can rely on common law tort principles to show that their injuries were proximately caused by an earlier constitutional violation, they might avoid excessive force precedent's insurmountable hurdles, which, in recent cases like Plumhoff v. Rickard and Brosseau v. Haugen, has sanctioned nearly all forms of law enforcement deadly force. If plaintiffs can recover damages for shootings, then 42 U.S.C. § 1983 might once again serve some real deterrent purpose, forcing police officers to think before they shoot.


This paper discusses the use of OCLC's Connexion service (formerly CORC) by the Centre for Digital Library Research at the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, Scotland. The Centre has completed, and is currently engaged in, a number of research projects involving the application of Dublin Core and MARC21 in creating metadata for digital resources; these include projects on the Glasgow Digital Library, East Dunbartonshire local history, and a pilot Scottish Cultural Portal. The Connexion service provides a MARC21-DC converter, and the Centre has been investigating its incorporation in workflows for creating and maintaining digital libraries. This has included the use of databases to store metadata, with subsequent output to Dublin Core and conversion to MARC21.


The concept of patient empowerment has emerged as a new paradigm that can help improve medical

outcomes while lowering costs of treatment by facilitating self-directed behavior change. Patient

empowerment has gained even more popularity since the 1990's, due to the emergent of eHealth and its

focus on putting the patient in the centre of the interest. Current literature provides systematic reviews of the

area, and shows that well defined areas (or dimensions) have eventually emerged in the field. In this paper

we argue that patient empowerment should be treated formally as a cognitive process. We thus propose a

cognitive model that consists of three major levels of increasing complexity and importance: awareness,

engagement and control. We also describe the different constituents of each level and their implications for

patient empowerment interventions, focusing on interventions based on information and communication

technologies. Finally, we discuss the implications of this model for the design and evaluation of patient

empowerment interventions.


Purpose: The purpose was to investigate the validity and reliability of short STAI (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory) for measuring children's anxiety in connection with procedures in hospital. Background: The children's level of anxiety during hospitalization can cause problems and it should be evaluated with a valid and reliable instrument. STAIC-S (STAI for children) has previously been validated in children for this purpose but may be too complex to use. Short STAI has only been evaluated in adults and should be tested in children before it can be used. Methods: Children aged five to 16 filled in both STAIC-S and short STAI before and after an examination or treatment at the hospital. Results: Twenty children were included. Satisfactory internal reliability was found for short STAI with Cronbachs's alpha 0.82. Correlation coefficients between the instruments were 0.88 before and 0.75 after the procedure. Significantly lower values were found after compared to before demonstrating constructive validity. Short STAI was easy to fill in but seven of 16 participants received help from their parents. Conclusion: Short STAI was shown to be a reliable and valid instrument for measuring anxiety in children, but a larger study is needed to confirm the validity and reliability further.


It was shown that juice Brix is the primary factor determining grape berry density and that the whole berry9s density is about 98% of the density of its juice. This was true for several density classes of two seeded varieties harvested on several dates in two different locations. Preliminary tests indicate similar relationships with other varieties. Juice Brix from segregated berries Based on these tests is expected to be near or slightly above the Brix of the most dense sucrose solution in which they will sink, if they float in a solution one Brix unit more dense. The data presented show the validity and value of the relatively easy technique of density segregation in characterizing a grape berry population. Varietal wine prepared from two musts at essentially the same average Brix is often quite different. Part of this difference may lie in the ripeness distribution making up the average Brix, and density segregation can elucidate this point. Application of the methods outlined to the detection, study, and use in variety selection of a characteristic physiological limit to sugar accumulation warrants further study. The technique is capable of selecting fruit from a single harvest so that ripeness differences relatively free of weather differences can be studied. Berries of relatively rare composition can be selected from a large population. Further study may even disclose commercial utility in making quality separations among whole clusters or, eventually, mechanicaly harvested berries.


ABSTRACT In this paper, we address the problem of humanoid locomotion guided from information of a monocular camera. The goal of the robot is to reach a desired location defined in terms of a target image, i.e., a positioning task. The proposed approach allows us to introduce a desired time to complete the positioning task, which is advantageous in contrast to the classical exponential convergence. In particular, finite-time convergence is achieved while generating smooth robot velocities and considering the omnidirectional waking capability of the robot. In addition, we propose a hierarchical task-based control scheme, which can simultaneously handle the visual positioning and the obstacle avoidance tasks without affecting the desired time of convergence. The controller is able to activate or inactivate the obstacle avoidance task without generating discontinuous velocity references while the humanoid is walking. Stability of the closed loop for the two task-based control is demonstrated theoretically even during the transitions between the tasks. The proposed approach is generic in the sense that different visual control schemes are supported. We evaluate a homography-based visual servoing for position-based and image-based modalities, as well as for eye-in-hand and eye-to-hand configurations. The experimental evaluation is performed with the humanoid robot NAO.


Although relatively few in number-there are only a few hundred thousand members worldwide-the Religious Society of Friends has had an unusually strong impact. Originating in Great Britain in the 17th century, the denomination has since expanded to many other parts of the world while its spiritual influence has reached even further. Concepts such as the 'inward light' and 'friendly persuasion' are familiar well beyond their own circles and others have often heeded the Quakers' call for cooperation and peaceful resolution of problems as the wisest counsel.


Idenergie develops the first domestic hydrokinetic turbine for rivers. Itaims at producing about 100W in a 1.4m/s river to power up remote locations.Idenergie's turbine has two main advantages: a completely watertight shaftlessgenerator and an integrated smart converter. The first turbines are planned tobe sold in June 2014.To be able to test the embedded intelligence in the lab, Idenergie's testbench must be able to reproduce river conditions. Measurements have beenperformed in a river and provide the torque developed by the river at differentspeeds. On the test bench controlled by a LabView program, the rotationalspeed is measured and the corresponding torque computed. This torque is setas the new command and makes the test bench behave as if it was driven by aturbine in a river.Idenergie's generator contains a rotor made of permanent magnets.These magnets are provided by a supplier and their quality needs to bechecked. For this purpose, a magnetometer is designed and built. It contains 5Hall effect sensors which move at a constant speed above a magnet andmeasure its magnetic field. The magnetometer is able to compare magnets to areference and to detect the faulty ones. The sensors are also used to measurethe magnetic field of the rotor and show that the custom-made shape of themagnets has no influence on the sinusoidal field.The converter transforms the three-phase current to direct current andcontrols the rotational speed. This is done thanks to an embedded electroniccard, which is about to be working properly. The Maximum Power PointTracking algorithm ensures that the rotational speed is optimum in order toproduce the maximum power output. The code loaded on this card is written inits main part but needs to be tested on the test bench once the card will beoperational.


Studies were undertaken to determine whether the stimulatory effect of histamine and the methyl xanthines on the frog gastric mucosa in vitro could be ascribed to the imidazole component of these compounds. The actively transported ions of gastric secretion appear in the form of hydrochloric acid and of a nonacid chloride component that is responsible for the short-circuit current (I sc ). At 10 –2 m, imidazole reduced acid secretion (Jh) by 80%, which was somewhat greater than the reduction produced by thiocyanate. N-methylimidazole, 2-methylimidazole, 4(5)-methylimidazole, and benzimidazole abolished Jh. The I sc tended to rise as Jh fell. In stimulated mucosae, imidazole and N-methylimidazole promptly reduced oxygen consumption (qO 2 ) by 25%; thiocyanate had a delayed and lesser effect. Pyrazole, 4-hydroxymethylimidazole, and tris had little or no effect on Jh, I sc , or qO 2 . Imidazole and N-methylimidazole reduced active sodium transport by the toad urinary bladder by 50%. The results indicate that the inhibitory effects of the imidazoles cannot be ascribed to their buffering capacity or to competitive inhibition of histamine. Instead the effects may result from depletion of tissue content of adenosine-39,59-phosphate or from interference with protein-bound phosphohistidine in oxidative phosphorylation.


In this report, we analyze PV break-even costs for U.S. residential customers. We evaluate some key drivers of grid parity both regionally and over time. We also examine the impact of moving from flat to time-of-use (TOU) rates, and we evaluate individual components of the break-even cost, including effect of rate structure and various incentives. Finally, we examine how PV markets might evolve on a regional basis considering the sensitivity of the break-even cost to four major drivers: technical performance, financing parameters, electricity prices and rates, and policies. We find that electricity price rather than technical parameters are in general the key drivers of the break-even cost of PV. Additionally, this analysis provides insight about the potential viability of PV markets.


Context and purpose of the study Grapevine leafroll associated virus (GLRaV) infections deteriorate vine physiological performance and cause high losses of yield and fruit quality and are thus causing serious economic losses in the wine industry. Physiological and molecular studies on the impact of leafroll infections on plant and fruit metabolism are relatively scare and the molecular mechanisms associated with the plant response to the virus during berry ripening are not well understood so far. Commonly observed phenotypic alterations consist in a ripening delay, a reduction in anthocyanin and sugar accumulation. The few molecular studies associated in particular the lack of anthocyanin of berries of infected vines to a repression of key genes of anthocyanin biosynthesis. However such studies did never account for berry heterogeneity and potential phenological shifts induced by virus infection, which could have introduced biases in gene expression studies. Material and methods In the present study a long-term experiment was established in the year 2000, with the aim to investigate the effects of infections with different GLRaVs (GLRaV 1 & GLRaV 1+3) on vine and grape physiology. Physiological data (yield, vigor, photosynthesis, berry quality) has been collected from 2015 to 2018. In 2018 a transcriptomic (RNA-seq) analysis of 2 reconstituted berry ripening stages was performed. Therefore 245 berries were individually sampled and individually analyzed for sugar and organic acids in order to re-constitute 2 homogenous ripening stages to circumvent intercluster berry heterogeneity and thus to compensate for phenological shifts induced by virus infections. RNA of reconstituted samples was extracted and sequenced by single end sequencing and subsequently analyzed for differentially expressed genes (DEGs). Results Physiological measurement showed a significant decrease in photosynthesis, yield and sugar content, which were highly significant in the co-infected vines (GLRaV 1+3). RNA-sequencing of berries revealed a total of 2136 DEGs between control and virus infections. Several transcriptions factors related to abiotic and biotic stress could be identified and showed interesting variation in dependence to ripening stage and infection severity. Strikingly previously reported repression of the anthocyanin biosynthesis and sugar metabolism could not be confirmed by gene expression. This illustrates that the main damaging effect on GLRaV infection is rather related to a phenological shift than to a direct impact on metabolism. The here reported results give new insight in the mechanism of leafroll infection and emphasize the importance of the sampling protocol of molecular studies investigating berry metabolism.


The ribosome small subunit is expressed in all living cells. It performs numerous essential functions during translation, including formation of the initiation complex and proofreading of base-pairs between mRNA codons and tRNA anticodons. The core constituent of the small ribosomal subunit is a ~1.5 kb RNA strand in prokaryotes (16S rRNA) and a homologous ~1.8 kb RNA strand in eukaryotes (18S rRNA). Traditional sequencing-by-synthesis (SBS) of rRNA genes or rRNA cDNA copies has achieved wide use as a 'molecular chronometer' for phylogenetic studies, and as a tool for identifying infectious organisms in the clinic. However, epigenetic modifications on rRNA are erased by SBS methods. Here we describe direct MinION nanopore sequencing of individual, full-length 16S rRNA absent reverse transcription or amplification. As little as 5 picograms (~10 attomole) of purified E. coli 16S rRNA was detected in 4.5 micrograms of total human RNA. Nanopore ionic current traces that deviated from canonical patterns revealed conserved E. coli 16S rRNA 7-methylguanosine and pseudouridine modifications, and a 7-methylguanosine modification that confers aminoglycoside resistance to some pathological E. coli strains.


The zero-crossing rates (ZCRs) of the wavelet frame representation of texture images are proposed as features for texture classification. Results indicate that ZCR features lower the probability of error (PE) by 40% over energy (EN) and correlation coefficient features. Augmenting ZCR features with EN features improves the PE by 70% over ZCR features alone.


Corporate officers of most large corporations in the United States have little contact with the state of incorporation — usually Delaware — beyond the bare fact of being a corporate officer. Jurisdiction in that state's courts thus depends on whether the position alone provides constitutionally significant minimum contacts with the state. This article argues that implied consent is an incoherent basis for personal jurisdiction over corporate officers, and is the first to identify and analyze Delaware's widespread use of implied consent statutes for corporate and non-corporate business entities. Not only is consent ultimately irrelevant, but jurisdiction over non-resident corporate officers based only on their corporate position is of uneasy constitutionality. This article evaluates a solution to this problem: a movement from implied to express consent. The article also contributes to two current debates in corporate law. Courts and commentators have recently turned their attention to corporate officers, but they have ignored a necessary first step in the analysis, which this article provides. Without personal jurisdiction over officers, state courts cannot even begin to develop the law about their duties or protections. Moreover, the article fills a gap in the debate over how Delaware can keep its corporate law cases in its courts. It argues that implied consent statutes are designed to ensure that Delaware business law is adjudicated in Delaware, and that the constitutional due process limits analyzed here are an important obstacle to Delaware's attempts to bundle its corporate law and forum.


In Japan, wooden detached residential houses are common; the wood components within a wall may undergo decay because of condensation in the wall or flushing defects, which can be a concern. The temperature distribution throughout the house, such as a high temperature in the attic space, can cause discomfort to the occupants. A double-skin system of room-side air gaps is considered to be an effective technique to handle these problems. In this system, during the summer, the airflow driven by natural ventilation moves through the roomside air gap in the wall and removes heat load from the inner surface of the insulation material or from the surface adjacent to the rooms inside. Although this system has been applied to many houses, further study on the design specifications for parts of the ventilation route is still required. In this study, airflow network simulation was carried out using TRNFlow to evaluate the performance of this system under different conditions. A standard residential house model was simulated by considering conditions of summer. On the basis of the results, it was verified that the total airflow rate exhausted from the rooftop vent fluctuates with the ambient temperature; the flow rate distribution in different walls was also determined. Sensitivity analysis was performed on each part of the ventilation route with different opening areas; the opening area of the wall was found to have more effect than the rooftop and base vents on the total amount of airflow. When wind is blowing outside, the total flow rate increases. When there is no wind outside and the windows are closed, this system reduces the cooling load of an ordinary detached house by 15.5%.


A field experiment in north China was conducted to study the effects of land use and soil elements at a moderate concentration on the amounts of various microbial populations, microbial community structure and catabolic activity which were analyzed by cultural method, phospholipid fatty acid (PLFA) and biolog techniques, respectively. The results showed that, land use type might be the primary control on soil microbial community structure. Legumes or soil N was hypothesized as the secondary factor influencing the soil microbial community structure. Legumes played an important role in stimulating the growth and reproduction of various soil microbial populations, accordingly promoting the microbial catabolic activity. Plant diversity had a significant positive effect on the amount of soil bacteria. Soil Cd at moderate concentration had a significant positive effect on microbial biomass. The majority of soil elements at moderate concentration except for Cr had no marked effects on microbial catabolic activity. Key words : Biolog, land use, microbial biomass, phospholipid fatty acid, soil element.


The discovery of rules for the systematicity and dynamics of terminology creations is essential for a sound basis of a theory of terminology. This quest provides the driving force for The Dynamics of Terminology in which Dr. Kageura demonstrates the interaction of these two factors on a specific corpus of Japanese terminology which, beyond the necessary linguistic circumstances, also has a model character for similar studies. His detailed examination of the relationships between terms and their constituent elements, the relationships among the constituent elements and the type of conceptual combinations used in the construction of the terminology permits deep insights into the systematic thought processes underlying term creation. To compensate for the inherent limitation of a purely descriptive analysis of conceptual patterns, Dr. Kageura offers a quantitative analysis of the patterns of the growth of terminology. His fascinating and unique contribution to our understanding of the terminological process reveals the powerful interaction of linguistic possibilities and the naming process of conceptual entities.


Regulating the immune response is important business. Excess engagement of inflammatory receptors usually results in toxic consequences for organisms. Thus, inhibitory proteins are required to control the amplitude and duration of such signals. Humke et al. have identified and characterized a protein termed ICEBERG that blocks the proteolytic maturation of interleukin (IL)-1β. In vitro binding assays revealed that the caspase recruitment domain (CARD) located within the prodomain of caspase-1 bound to the CARD domain of ICEBERG. However, RIP2, which is responsible for the oligomerization of caspase-1 (before its cleavage activation) also bound to caspase-1. ICEBERG could preferentially compete with RIP2 for binding with caspase-1, thus blocking caspase-1 oligomerization. Forced expression of ICEBERG blocked the ability of cells to process and secrete mature IL-1β, in the presence of lipopolysaccharide (LPS), a known inducer of IL-1β production. Expression of ICEBERG was increased in cells treated with LPS and by tumore necrosis factor-α (TNF-α), coincident with reduced caspase-1 activity and diminshed release of IL-1β. Also, ICEBERG associated with caspase-1 in an LPS-dependent manner, suggesting that ICEBERG's physiological role is to help attenuate the inflammatory responses mediated by LPS and by TNF-α. Humke, E.W., Shriver, S.K., Starovasnik, M.A., Fairbrother, W.J., and Dixit, V.M. (2000) ICEBERG: A novel inhibitor of interleukin-1β generation. Cell 103: 99-111. [Online Journal]


ThisHandbookmarks the transformation of the topic of literacy from the narrower concerns with learning to read and write to an interdisciplinary inquiry into the various forms of writing and reading in the full range of social and psychological functions in both modern and developing societies. It does so by exploring the nature and development of writing systems, the relationships between speech and writing, the history of the social uses of writing, the evolution of conventions of reading, the social and developmental dimensions of acquiring literate competencies, and, more generally, the conceptual and cognitive dimensions of literacy as a set of social practices. Contributors to the volume are leading scholars drawn from such disciplines as linguistics, literature, history, anthropology, psychology, the neurosciences, cultural psychology, and education.


Patients who have been treated for aortic coarctation (CoA) have increased late cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, which is partly due to the development of arterial hypertension occurring in up to 70% of patients. Primary prevention measures are important in order to delay or prevent the onset of hypertension as much as possible. So far, hypertension management in this population has mainly focused on the early detection of hypertension and the antihypertensive drug treatment. Even though a physically active lifestyle is recognised as a cornerstone in the prevention, treatment, and management of hypertension, exercise prescription in this context for patients with CoA is not common practice. Studies on the safety and efficacy of sports and exercise training in patients with CoA, both before and after repair, are lacking. However, decreasing blood pressure can be obtained through exercise training, in both healthy subjects and patients with hypertension. Moreover, patients with CoA are not restricted from all physical activities. Therefore, it seems that endurance exercise, supplemented by resistance exercise without isometric exercises on most days of the week, should be prescribed, but only after thorough and regularly repeated medical check-ups, including cardiopulmonary exercise testing.


This essay summarises the broad contours and key characteristics of the Indian government's social policy response to the global Covid-19 pandemic and the ensuing nationwide lockdown. The principal strategy of the Indian government was to implement a large and at times bewildering array of temporary relief measures by ordinances after adjournment of the Indian parliament in March 2020. Not a single new piece of legislation was implemented in direct response to the Covid-19 crisis, although recent federal labour law reforms are likely to shape the Indian social and economic recovery. Collectively, the Indian government's relief measures have not been able to adequately alleviate the Covid-19-related social pressures and risks. While there is still a dearth of adequate statistical data to assess how well the relief measures were implemented, the initial picture suggests that the Indian government's response to the global Covid-19 pandemic prioritised economic and fiscal measures, relied on the existing inadequate safety net, and was not timely enough to support millions of inter-state migrants. The public health crisis and ensuing nationwide lockdown have not resulted in a path-breaking trajectory away from the entrenched Indian welfare paradigm.


Differently substituted 2-chloro-, 2-fluoro-, and 2-iodo-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaboroles were prepd. by various methods. 1,3-Di-tert-butyl-2-fluoro-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaborole (I), 1,3-di-tert-butyl-2-chloro-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaborole (II), 1,3-bis(2,6-dimethylphenyl)-2-chloro-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaborole (III), 2-chloro-4,5-dimethyl-1,3-dineopentyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaborole, and 1,3-di-tert-butyl-2-iodo-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,3,2-diazaborole were formed from the corresponding lithiated Z-1,2-diaminoethenes, by treatment with BF3.OEt2, BCl3, or BI3 in n-hexane. I, II, and III are also available by Na amalgam redn. of the adduct (tBu)(BF3)N:CHCH:N(BF3)(tBu), and the borolium salts [RNa:CH-CH:Nb(R)BCl2]X (Na-B) (R = tBu, X = BCl4; R = 2,6-Me2C6H2, X = Cl). The iodo deriv. (2,6-Me2C6H2)-Na-CH:CH-Nb(2,6-Me2C6H2)BI (Na-B) (IV) was synthesized in a redox reaction between the corresponding 1,4-diazabutadiene and BI3. The novel compds. were characterized by 1H, 11B and 13C NMR spectroscopy, as well as by x-ray structure anal. of IV (monoclinic, space group C2/c, a 14.911(2), b 7.9706(8), c 16.9105(12) , b 114.360(6) Deg, V = 1830.9(3) .ANG.3, Z = 4, rc = 1.459 g/cm3, m(MoKa) = 1.747 mm-1, 1884 obsd. reflections with I > 2s(I), 102 refined parameters, R1 = 0.042, wR2 = 0.1043).


Traditional CGE models with Armington assumption fail to capture the extensive margin of trade, thereby underestimate the trade and welfare effects of trade opening. To address this problem, this paper introduces the Melitz (2003) theoretical framework with firm heterogeneity and fixed exporting costs into a global CGE model. Some illustrative simulations show that the introduction of firm heterogeneity improves the ability of CGE model to capture the trade expansion and welfare effects of trade liberalization. Under the case of global manufacturing tariff cut, the estimated gains in welfare and exports are more than double that obtained from the standard Armington CGE model. Sensitivity analysis indicates that model results are sensitive to the shape parameters of firm productivity distribution, suggesting the need of further empirical work to estimate the degree of firm heterogeneity.


Omalizumab is a humanized monoclonal anti-IgE antibody recently approved for the treatment of severe allergic asthma. This drug inhibits allergic responses by binding to serum IgE, thus preventing their interactions with cellular IgE receptors. Omalizumab is also capable of downregulating the expression of high-affinity IgE receptors on inflammatory cells, as well as the numbers of eosinophils in both blood and induced sputum. The clinical effects of omalizumab include relevant improvements in respiratory symptoms and quality of life, paralleled by a marked reduction of asthma exacerbations, emergency room visits, and use of systemic corticosteroids and rescue bronchodilators. Omalizumab is relatively well tolerated, and only rarely induces anaphylactic reactions. Therefore, this drug represents a valid option as add-on therapy for patients with severe persistent allergic asthma, inadequately controlled by high doses of standard inhaled treatments.


Historically, education in South Africa formed an important part of the government's plan to develop a racially segregated society. While there is a significant amount of research that describes the widespread problems of schooling in South Africa, there are few reports about the subjective qualities of education. The primary purpose of the present article is to provide a more personalized account of what it has meant to be educated as a student and to work as a teacher under the conditions of apartheid. In order to accomplish this objective, a life history approach was combined with an archival review to construct a narrative account of selected aspects of the education provided for black South Africans. Because of the long-standing political oppression of South Africa's black population, it was considered important to develop such a record by listening to the voices of individuals who, as students, endured poor educational conditions only to find themselves, as teachers, practicing under circumstances that were largely unchanged. Within the life-history approach, interview data were obtained from two teachers, who attended schools and began their respective teaching careers during different periods of South Africa's sociopolitical history. In order to contextualize the findings, the participants' experiences were considered in relation to selected elements of the legislative and political history of South Africa. The empirical result of the research is an historical description of education in South Africa, illustrated by the personal stories and professional experiences of two practicing teachers. The article concludes by considering the way in which selected theories of oppression and resistance explain or fail to explain the experiences of the two participants.


Interactions with extracellular matrix alter dynamic transcriptional circuits in a cultured breast epithelial cell line, resulting in the appearance of cellular heterogeneity resembling that seen in breast tumors. Intratumor heterogeneity influences cancer progression and therapeutic response and is traditionally attributed to distinct intrinsic genetic or epigenetic differences among the cells. However, contact with the extracellular matrix (ECM) also alters gene expression and cellular behavior. Using transcriptomic profiling and statistical analysis of gene expression in random samples, Wang et al. found that interaction with the ECM induced two anticorrelated transcriptional programs that created the appearance of heterogeneity in MCF10A cells, a breast cancer epithelial cell line. A portion of genes in MCF10A cells cultured on a basement membrane [three-dimensional (3D) culture] exhibited fluctuating expression and could be classified into two clusters linked to pathways involving either transforming growth factor β receptor 3 (TGFβR3) or the transcription factor JUND. RAN–fluorescence in situ hybridization (RNA-FISH) showed that expression of TGFBR3 and JUND was negatively correlated (cells with expression of one had low expression of the other), and overexpression of one suppressed the expression of genes downstream of the other, creating a mutually antagonistic circuit. Furthermore, each protein induced its own negative feedback loop, which could produce an oscillating expression pattern (see Michor and Weaver). Knockdown of TGFβR3 in 3D cultures increased ductal branching, and overexpression of JUND induced the formation of bridges between cells in the acinar clusters, which created a cribriform phenotype similar to that seen in ductal carcinoma in situ (DCIS), which indicated that this circuit regulates acinar morphology. About half of basal-like breast cancers show heterogeneity for a subtype-diagnostic cytokeratin, KRT5, and KRT5 is coexpressed with JUND in ECM-attached cells. Histological examination of normal tissue and DCIS with heterogeneous KRT5 expression showed that both KRT5 and TGFβR3 were present in the basal layer of normal tissue but localized to different cells (ductal or lobular myoepithelia), whereas JUND protein abundance was very low in normal tissue but increased in DCIS lesions, which also had low or undetectable amounts of TGFβR3. Multicolor immunofluorescence analysis of transcripts showed that TGFBR3 and KRT5 expression were mutually exclusive, and KRT5 correlated with JUND in single cells in DCIS and among the outer cells of 3D cultures of MCF10A cells. However, in peripheral regions of clinging carcinoma (DCIS with cells within the lumenal region) and in the inner cells of MCF10A 3D cultures, the relation between JUND and KRT5 was mostly reversed to an anticorrelation, although some cells still had both JUND and KRT5. A major difference between outer and inner cells is their contact with the ECM. Simulating ECM deprivation by placing MCF10A cells in suspension culture showed that the JUND+-KRT5+ protein correlation progressively switched to a JUND–-KRT5+ anticorrelation with time. Transcriptional profiling of ECM-attached or ECM-deprived cells isolated by laser-capture from developing acini in 3D ECM cultures showed an opposite transcriptional pattern from the protein observations: KRT5 mRNA abundance was decreased and JUND mRNA increased in inner, ECM-deprived cells compared with the outer, ECM-attached cells, which indicated that the protein changes were not because of altered gene expression. The transcript encoding ribosomal protein S6 (RPS6), a substrate of S6 kinase (S6K), was increased in ECM-attached cells compared with detached inner cells. Overexpression or pharmacological inhibition of S6K showed that the dephosphorylation of RPS6 was a critical event in increased KRT5 protein abundance during detachment, which suggests increased translation. JUND–KRT5+ cells were frequently surrounded by JUND+KRT5– cells in the 3D culture. The amount of tenascin C (TNC), a matrix protein important for breast cancer metastasis, was heterogeneous in clinging carcinoma regions of patient samples and TNC-positive JUND–KRT5+ cells were adjacent to JUND+KRT5– cells. Addition of TNC disrupted the JUND-KRT5 oscillation in 2D MCF10A cultures and stabilized the JUND–KRT5+ and JUND+KRT5– mosaic in a mathematically simulated model of clinging carcinoma. MDA-MB-468 xenografts in mice showed similar patterns of TNC abundance, and knockdown of TNC decreased their ductal colonization and viability. Together, the findings indicate that contact with the ECM dysregulates the dynamic oscillation of the TGFBR3-JUND-KRT5 circuit in premalignant breast epithelia. Furthermore, the progression to a metastatic phenotype appears to involve the production of ECM by cells that lack contact with the ECM. C.-C. Wang, S. S. Bajikar, L. Jamal, K. A. Atkins, K. A. Janes, A time- and matrix-dependent TGFBR3-JUND-KRT5 regulatory circuit in single breast epithelial cells and basal-like premalignancies. Nat. Cell Biol. 16, 345-356 (2014). [PubMed] F. Michor, V. M. Weaver, Understanding tissue context influences on intratumor heterogeneity. Nat. Cell Biol. 16, 301-302 (2014). [PubMed]


Recent studies have found regularities in the pattern of distribution of dental parameters such as canine or carnassial length among sympatric carnivores. These regularities are taken to be indicative of community-wide character displacement. This study documents similar pattern in late Miocene and earliest Pliocene hyaenids from several localities in Eurasia and Africa. Statistical tests show ratios of lower carnassial total lengths and blade lengths between species to be suggestively equal among sympatric late Miocene hyaenas. Other measurements do not show this regular pattern. This finding mirrors that regarding modern canids in the Middle East, suggesting that a process leading to community-wide character displacement was in effect among these hyaenid taxa. Their response to this pattern suggests that they occupied a similarecological role to modern canids. The causal basis for such a process is unknown but is suggested to lie in direct interspecific competition between carnivores rather than being a response to regularly spaced features of the environment.


Valle d'Aosta, Italy's smallest region, faced a Covid-19 epidemic trend of absolute relevance. In line with data concerning the local general population, the predominance of the illness among uremic patients has been high. The authors report here preliminary data on the spread of this disease within the region and on the clinical trend of the infected patients who needed to be hospitalised.


We report the measurement of cavity propagation losses in nearly single-mode semiconductor waveguide-coupled ring and disk microcavity optical resonators. Using a novel 10.5-/spl mu/m-diameter ring resonator, we measure transverse electric (TE) and transverse magnetic (TM) field intensity losses in 0.35-/spl mu/m-wide ring waveguide cavities in the 1.55-/spl mu/m-wavelength region. We present the experimental results for nanofabricated AlGaAs-GaAs 10.5-/spl mu/m-diameter ring and disk resonators to quantify cavity losses and to show the feasibility of these promising and robust submicron-scale devices.


This thesis reports on a study into the decision-making that takes
place within the six monthly statutory review of the cases of children
in the care or under the supervision of the Local Authority.
The research had four aims:
1. To develop a typology of review decisions whereby decisions
taken in reviews could be classified according to their salient
features.
2. To ascertain the level of the subsequent implementation of
the decisions taken in reviews and to consider what factors
contribute to or hinder their implementation.
3. To identify the functions of statutory reviews and the perceptions
of the members of social work teams of the functions
appropriate to reviews.
4. To consider the role and the importance of statutory reviews
within the context of overall child care practice.
The empirical research was undertaken in three social work area
offices within one local authority. Information was gathered from almost
three hundred reviews. The researcher, having first read the case record,
attended two consecutive six-monthly reviews on the child. The social
workers involved in these reviews were questioned on their opinions on
reviews in general and on each review attended. Those 'researched'
reviews gave rise to almost nine hundred review decisions, which were
analysed according to the typology of decisions, and the level of their
subsequent implementation was assessed.
This study was designed as a policy-orientated study. Hence the
research is presented first, within the broad context of developments
in child care policy since the war, and second, in relation to the
literature on statutory sreviews arising both from research studies
and from policy documents. Furthermore, the concluding chapter
points to the policy implications that may be drawn from the research
findings, together with suggestions for policy changes.


We address the problem of assigning nonpartitioned files in a parallel I/O system where the file accesses exhibit Poisson arrival rates and fixed service times. We present two new file assignment algorithms based on open queuing networks which aim at minimizing simultaneously the load balance across all disks, as well as the variance of the service time at each disk. We first present an off-line algorithm, Sort Partition, which assigns to each disk file with similar access time. Next, we show that, assuming that a perfectly balanced file assignment can be found for a given set of files, Sort Partition will find the one with minimal mean response time. We then present an on-line algorithm, Hybrid Partition, that assigns groups of files with similar service times in successive intervals while guaranteeing that the load imbalance at any point does not exceed a certain threshold. We report on synthetic experiments which exhibit skew in file accesses and sizes and we compare the performance of our new algorithms with the vanilla greedy file allocation algorithm.


In many owl and raptor species, sexes have distinct parental roles. Females incubate the eggs and raise the chicks until independence, while males provide females and their chicks with food. This is believed to reduce sexual conflict over parental care as tasks do not overlap. The level of parental care is also shaped by parent-offspring conflict. The scarcity of empirical data on parental investment in species with sex-specific parental roles was our motivation to study parental care in the Montagu's Harrier Circus pygargus in relation to natural annual variation in food availability (vole abundance). By tracking individual birds using GPS-trackers, several aspects of parental care (the number of food provisioning trips, home range size and nest attendance) could be quantified for different nesting phases. We found that in food-poor years, males spent less time near the nest, and had lower food provisioning rates during the incubation and nestling phases. In addition, males had larger home ranges in food-poor years, a possible indicator of increased foraging effort. In contrast, females increased their contribution to food provisioning in food-poor years, as shown by higher food provisioning rates and larger home ranges. This increased foraging effort came at the cost of lower nest attendance by females. Our data suggest that, when food abundance declines, Montagu's Harriers shift from a system with almost strict sex-specific parental roles towards a system where both parents provide the same type of care with possibly increased sexual conflict.


Objectives The aim of the present study was to determine whether shift workers exhibit increased perception of experimentally induced pain after working night shifts. Methods The study was a paired cross-over design with two sleep conditions, after at least two nights of habitual sleep and after two consecutive night shifts at work. Fifty-three nurses in rotating shift work participated. The sensitivity to electrically induced pain, heat pain, cold pain, pressure pain and pain inhibition was determined experimentally in each sleep condition. Sleepiness and vigilance were also assessed. Results Night-shift work (NSW) increased the sensitivity to electrically induced pain and heat pain (P≤0.001). Relative to habitual sleep, electrically induced pain increased by 22.3% and heat pain increased by 26.5%. The sensitivity to cold and pressure pain did not change, changes relative to habitual sleep was <5% (P>0.5). Pain inhibition was 66.9% stronger after NSW versus after habitual sleep (P<0.001). Sleepiness (measured with the Karolinska Sleepiness Scale) increased from 4.1 after habitual sleep to 6.9 after NSW (P<0.001). Vigilance decreased after NSW, measured as a 0.03-second decrease in reaction time (P<0.005). Conclusions Changes in pain sensitivity after NSW is measurable with clinically relevant effect sizes and may be an important marker for studies comparing the physiological effects of different shift work schedules. Explanations for the differential effect on different pain modalities should be a focus for future studies.


UCLA Researchers Uncover Mechanism Underlying Response to Targeted Therapy for kidney Cancer UCLA researchers knew—based on two clinical trials—that a subset of kidney cancer patients responded well to an experimental targeted therapy, but they didn't know why. If they could determine the mechanism behind the response, they would be able to predict which patients would respond and personalize their treatment accordingly. Extrapolating from the clinical responses, Jonsson Cancer Center scientists uncovered the cascade of molecular events by which the cancer cells in a subset of patients became sensitized to the experimental drug CCI-779. Armed with this information, UCLA researchers are developing a test to identify which patients will benefit from receiving CCI-779. The research, published the January, 2006 issue of Nature Medicine, takes researchers a step closer to personalized medicine—treating cancer patients not with a one-size-fits-all therapy but with a treatment based on the specific molecular signature of their cancer cells. "We knew there were certain kidney cancer patients who responded to this drug, but we didn't know the mechanism behind the response," said George Thomas, first author of the study, an assistant professor of pathology and a Jonsson Cancer Center researcher. "We had to determine the mechanism of response so we could identify the responders." Thomas, with Jonsson Cancer Center researchers Dr. Ingo Mellinghoff and Dr. Charles Sawyers, discovered that human kidney cancer cells that had lost the tumor suppressor gene Von Hippel Lindau (VHL) were more sensitive to the growth inhibitory effects of CCI-779. One of the main functions of VHL is to regulate a protein called hypoxia inducible factor (HIF). When patients lost VHL, they had high levels of HIF. Thomas said the cancer cells became dependent on HIF to grow, so high levels of the protein gave the cancer cells a growth advantage. CCI-779 had previously been tested at UCLA in prostate cancer patients and researchers knew it targeted the mTOR protein. Previous studies also had shown that inhibitors of mTOR also might inhibit HIF. "We theorized that by inhibiting mTOR, which contributes to HIF levels, we might be able to significantly reduce HIF and remove the growth advantage the cancer cells had," Thomas said. "Because we now know the mechanism that is fueling the growth of the cancer cells, we can identify patients who will respond to this drug." About 50 to 70 percent of kidney cancer patients have lost VHL, Thomas said. Their tumors, therefore, will have high levels of HIF and likely will respond to the drug. This finding could potentially help about 20,000 kidney cancer patients every year. Typically, scientists seeking a target for a new cancer therapy start work in cell lines and then advance to laboratory animals to test their theories. Working backward from responses in clinical trials is unusual, Thomas said. Responses observed in clinical studies led researchers back to the laboratory. Their laboratory findings will be tested in further clinical studies, bringing the observation full circle, from the patient to the lab and back to the patient again. In this case, CCI-779 was being tested at UCLA in a Phase I study on patients with a variety of advanced cancers. Researchers noted that patients with kidney cancer seemed to respond better to the drug than patients with other cancer types. That led to a Phase II study solely in kidney cancer patients. That study showed that a subset of patients had a complete response, while a high percentage experienced partial responses or had their disease stabilize, meaning it was no longer growing. Thomas predicted that CCI-779 would probably be most effective when given in combination with other therapies because it "in kidney cancer, it stops the tumor cells from growing, it doesn't kill them." It could be paired with conventional chemotherapy or with another targeted therapy, such as an angiogenesis inhibitor, which cuts off the independent blood supply that cancers need to grow and flourish. The CCI-779 would stop the growth of the cancer, and the chemotherapy would be used to kill the cancer cells or the angiogenesis inhibitor could be administered to cut off the blood supply to the tumor, stopping the flow of oxygen and nutrients that the tumor needs to survive. Standard of care for kidney cancer is almost always removal of part or the entire kidney, so that tissue could be tested for the molecular signature that indicates response to CCI-779. Doctors could then decide on what treatment to use in those likely to respond to the drug. A secondary study finding determined that the drug's efficacy can be monitored quickly using positron emission tomography (PET). Because HIF also regulates glucose transport in cells, UCLA researchers theorized that the kidney cancer cells, with their high levels of HIF, would take in a standard PET imaging probe at high levels. If that proved true, the PET scan would show that the cancer cells had increased levels of the probe. Using laboratory animals, researchers determined that kidney cancer cells were indeed better at taking up the probe, allowing the cancer cells to be monitored by PET scanning. Just 24 hours after treatment with CCI-779, intake of the PET probe levels dropped in the cancer cells, meaning HIF levels were falling and the drug was working. "If we can use PET scanning to follow response, patients won't need repeated invasive tests," Thomas said. "This would save them from getting an added surgical procedure. And we can see, in a very short time, probably in less than a week, whether the drug is working." The study was a collaboration of researchers from the Jonsson Cancer Center, the Crump Institute for Molecular Imaging, the Howard Hughes Medical Institute and the UCLA departments of pathology, urology, medicine and molecular and medical pharmacology. UCLA's Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center comprises more than 240 researchers and clinicians engaged in research, prevention, detection, control, treatment and education. One of the nation's largest comprehensive cancer centers, the Jonsson center is dedicated to promoting research and translating the results into leading-edge clinical studies. In July 2005, the Jonsson Cancer Center was named the best cancer center in the western United States by U.S. News & World Report, a ranking it has held for six consecutive years. For more information, contact: Kim Irwin; Emailto:firstname.lastname@example.com; Tel.: 310.206.2805


This book provides a practical and technical guide to tax treatment and transfer pricing of intangibles such as patents, knowhow, copyrights, trademarks, exploitation rights etc. Starting with the issues involved in identification and taxation of transactions in intangibles and rights, the book goes on to discuss the nuances of finding the arm's length range of royalty rates, IP transfer, Hard to Value Intangibles, marketing intangibles, corporate guarantee, and value at risk.

There is a dearth of literature on the practical aspects of income tax and transfer pricing practice; this book seeks to rectify that. The book discusses methods and models of benchmarking of intangibles, and goes on to demonstrate – step by step – how these methods and models can be used to arrive at the arm's length standard.

The nuances arising from assessment and litigation trends have also been highlighted. Other issues covered in the book are taxation of digital economy, tax treatment of cryptocurrencies, and taxation of intangibles under GST.


Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common neurodegenerative disorder characterized by parkinsonism (bradykinesia, resting tremor, rigidity, and postural instability) with good response to L-dopa. Although the majority of PD patients are sporadic, it is now clear that genetic factors contribute to the pathogenesis of PD. Indeed, PARK 1-20 loci have been identified in typical and atypical parkinsonism. Furthermore, a new causative gene for PD was identified in Japanese families very recently. Knowledge and understanding of these conditions have led to the development of animal models, successful therapies, and novel tools to characterize these clinical conditions and provide better care to patients.

In this special issue, we can see 8 papers (original research articles and review articles) as follows.

H. Park et al. reviewed the epidemiologic, clinical, genetic, and pathologic features of parkinsonism in spinocerebellar ataxia (SCAs). They highlighted parkinsonism related to SCA2, SCA3, and SCA17 in Asia, especially in Korea. They showed that parkinsonism in SCAs has the geographic differences in prevalence. Further insights into parkinsonism in SCAs might give us the new concept in the pathologic mechanisms.

About SNCA (alpha-synuclein, PARK1), we can see two papers. Y. Huang et al. investigated independent and joint effects of MAPT and SNCA on PD onset age. In their original article, they reported that the SNCA variants independently influence onset age of Parkinson's disease in Chinese and Australians. Then, M. A. Busquets et al. reviewed a hot button issue of the ability of alpha-synuclein to misfold in amyloid conformations and to spread via neuron-to-neuron transmission, suggesting a prion-like behavior. They described that the high neuronal toxicity of both mature fibres and oligomeric species, as well as the intracellular localization of the protein and the difficulty to be secreted, could be key factors impeding the prion ability of alpha-synuclein aggregates. These two papers had important discussions on the role of the SNCA gene and alpha-synuclein as the key molecule in PD/parkinsonism.

V. Drouet et al. reviewed the identified gene, SYNJ1 (encoding for Synaptojanin 1), mutation in PD and discussed further insight into the neuropathological mechanisms. Recently, homozygous SYNJ1 Arg258Gln mutation in one of SYNJ1 functional domains was found in three unrelated families with early-onset atypical parkinsonism with bradykinesia, dystonia, and variable atypical symptoms such as cognitive decline, seizures, and eyelid apraxia. SYNJ1 was designated as PARK20 most recently. Identification of SYNJ1 can further support the fact that most of the known PD genes code for proteins playing a role in synaptic vesicle recycling and lipid metabolism, pointing out that synaptic maintenance is a key player in PD pathological mechanisms.

X. Yang et al. reviewed current knowledge about the ATP13A2 gene, clinical characteristics of patients with PD-associated ATP13A2 mutations, and models of how the ATP13A2 protein may help prevent neurodegeneration by inhibiting α-synuclein aggregation and supporting normal lysosomal and mitochondrial function. They also discussed another ATP13A2 mutation that was associated with neuronal ceroid lipofuscinoses (NCLs) and they proposed a single pathway whereby ATP13A2 mutations may contribute to NCLs and parkinsonism.

S. Scuderi et al. discussed that alternative splicing in PARK2 generates the expression of different PARK2 (Parkin) protein isoforms and leads to selective degeneration of dopaminergic neurons based on evidences in human, rat, and mouse brains. Finally, they described that understanding PARK2 alternative splicing could open up new scenarios for the resolution of some parkinsonian syndrome. Also, A. Kh. Alieva et al. reported involvement of endocytosis and alternative splicing in the formation of the pathological process in the early stages of PD. They demonstrated a significant change in the levels of transcripts included in the large groups of processes associated with the functioning of the immune system and cellular transport. Moreover, a significant change in the splicing of genes involved in cellular-transport processes was shown in their study. Alternative splicing should be considered as another pathway of regulation of the gene expression which can lead to neurodegeneration.

A. A. Gopalai et al. conducted a large genetic study and reported common LRRK2 (PARK8) G2385R and R1628P variants associated with an increased risk of PD in the Malaysian population. They provided new positive data on the LRRK2 variants in Asian (Chinese, Taiwanese, Japanese, Singaporean, and Korean) populations.

In this special issue, they highlighted advances in genetic findings of PD/parkinsonism and findings about the disease mechanism and pathogenesis which can lead to therapeutic strategy for PD/parkinsonism. Their original studies and reviews will stimulate the continuing efforts to understand the molecular pathology underlying PD/parkinsonism, the development of strategies to treat these conditions, and the evaluation of outcomes.


Variations in the pattern of the hand blood supply are frequently encountered. Awareness and identification of such variations is crucial during hand surgery. Thirty formaline fixed hands of male and female cadavers were dissected. All arteries contributing to the superficial palmar arch (SPA) of the hand were verified. In addition to the frequently encountered types of SPA, three very rare cases were described. In the first case, the superficial branch of the radial artery passed superficial to the thenar muscles with a diameter larger than that of the ulnar artery. In addition to the common palmar digital artery to the second web space, it gave the princeps pollicis and radialis indicis arteries. In the second case, the SPA was formed by the ulnar artery and was completed by a small branch from the deep branch of the radial artery. The palmar digital artery to the ulnar side of the fifth finger and the common palmar digital artery to the fourth web space arose from a common trunk. In the third case, incomplete SPA was formed by the median artery which only gave the princeps pollicis and radialis indicis arteries, while the ulnar artery supplied the rest of the hand except the ulnar side of the third finger and the second web space which were supplied by the deep palmar arch. Therefore, sound knowledge of the pattern of the blood supply of the hand by various techniques is crucial to avoid possible complications during hand surgery.


Abstract During the twentieth century, clothing permits a real freedom of bodily movement. However, when examining past athletic activity, we must take into account the period approach to the body: liberty of movement is at the same time controlled by morality, gestures and clothing. The French term "tenue" initially referred to behaviour, but since the end of the eighteenth century concerns the manner of dressing, and later by extension, the "dignity of conduct". In the past times concerned with "sporting" activities such as the HEMA (Historical European Martial Arts), physical appearance is affected by rules of etiquette imposed by morality and civility. From the Middle Ages to the nineteenth century, each period offers a different overview of the dress standards in relation to the different approaches to corporal identity, and the constriction first necessary for military activities becomes indivisible from the moral and physical construction. As a practitioner of the 21st century, the question raises about our relationship, not only with our bodies but also with past cultures. As demonstrated by some concrete examples, if it is desired to fully approach the ancient practices, it is therefore necessary to also adopt the garment, in the same way as the accessories.


Innovation of the energy saving and optimization of the renewable sources are the most important sides of the building sector in the last years. Considering that buildings consume more than 40% of all the energy we use and about 50% of it is used for the conditioning systems, it is clear the reason why there is a precise need of improvement in the building behaviour and in the way of designing. In the last years the buildings vision itself is changing faster, from the passive house principles we are moving to the zero energy buildings or the latest active houses. Active House is a vision of buildings that create healthier and more comfortable lives for their occupants without impacting negatively on the climate. The concept is based on a responsive behaviour of the building, capable to answer instantly to the climate strains changing automatically its configurations and assuring the indoor comfort and energy saving, and it is promoting by an international no-profit organization, the Active House Alliance. This vision was born in the North European regions and it is moulded on some case studies, model homes built to spread the image of the future houses and designed for northern climate, so it fits perfectly cold climate. Politecnico di Milano, as member of the Alliance, is developing a solution for the adaptation to the south Europe, where the climate and the weather stress are different. VELUXlab is the first prototype of this vision in Italy. It is the first Italian NZEB in a university campus and, soon, it will be certified also as the first Italian Active House. The wireless sensor network system allows to control in real time the duo envelope (multi-layer dry construction) and automation technology performances, strengthening the good results obtained from the virtual dynamic simulations made during the design process.


The BBC is currently the world's largest media employer of musicians. Influenced by Michel Crozier's theory on bureaucracies, and using primary source material from the BBC's written archives, this essay examines, through the prism of Crozier's strategic analysis, the attempts of the centralized policy makers of BBC radio to comprehend their external environment—pirate radio stations, craft unions, ministries. These bureaucrats strove to retain a working relationship with the Musicians' Union while, at the same time, attempting to meet the aesthetic demand of their licence-payers to hear popular music presented 'authentically' on disc rather than by BBC contract bands playing arrangements. In particular, the pro-music policies of senior bureaucrat Richard Marriott are considered. While the article explores the layers through which policy is pummelled into practice, or by-passed, it concludes that the changes that make the greatest impact are those spurred by the external force of government.


Let $k\ge0$ and $n\ge2$ be integers. A SOMA, or more specifically a SOMA$(k,n)$, is an $n\times n$ array $A$, whose entries are $k$-subsets of a $kn$-set $\Omega$, such that each element of $\Omega$ occurs exactly once in each row and exactly once in each column of $A$, and no 2-subset of $\Omega$ is contained in more than one entry of $A$. A SOMA$(k,n)$ can be constructed by superposing $k$ mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order $n$ with pairwise disjoint symbol-sets, and so a SOMA$(k,n)$ can be seen as a generalization of $k$ mutually orthogonal Latin squares of order $n$. In this paper we first study the structure of SOMAs, concentrating on how SOMAs can decompose. We then report on the use of computational group theory and graph theory in the discovery and classification of SOMAs. In particular, we discover and classify SOMA$(3,10)$s with certain properties, and discover two SOMA$(4,14)$s (SOMAs with these parameters were previously unknown to exist). Some of the newly discovered SOMA$(3,10)$s come from superposing a Latin square of order 10 on a SOMA$(2,10)$.


In late 1995 the government and private entities formed a pioneer organisation in Panamanian culture resource management, to deal with Panama's most salient archaeological site, Panama Viejo. This association, the Patronato Panama Viejo, was thus commissioned with the investigation and preservation of this 28-hectare site in the centre of modern Panama City, as well as with keeping the community informed on the progress of the research. It is formed by four partners, the Instituto Nacional de Cultura and the Instituto Nacional de Turismo from the government, and the Kiwanis Club and the Banco del Istmo from the private sector. For the first time, an exclusively Panamanian non-profit organisation would confront this task on a large scale, with a multidisciplinary team of archaeologists, architects, and conservationists, with on-site facilities and laboratories aimed at an in depth study of Panama's historic and prehistoric past. This organisation is currently conducting extensive archaeological excavations on the site, protecting the stone monuments from further damage from natural and human elements, and trying to inform and educate the public on Panama Viejo's importance to the country's historical and cultural heritage, and to develop it as a valuable tourist attraction.


This paper designs a monitoring system for coal mine safety based on Zigbee wireless sensor network. The monitoring system collects temperature, humidity and methane values underground of coal mine through Zigbee sensor nodes around the mine, and then transmits the data to information processing terminal based on ARM. The terminal sends the data to the ground through Ethernet, and then the monitoring centre monitors the data and publishes them to the LAN for remote users to inquire. If the data is ultra-limit, the system can send SMS to related personnel of safety. This system has realized the real-time monitoring of working surface.


Tourism interpretation placard system is an important carrier conveying information about scenic resort, which can not only serve tourists but also benefit the management. At present, lots of problems exist in mountain scenic resorts' tourism interpretation placard system, which influences the resorts' images and sustainable development. Considering the requirements for interpreting mountain scenic resorts, this paper probes into the management elements for interpretation placard system: establish interpretation placards' locations, contents, and ways in display, and advance to improve the interpretations for natural landscapes, form scientific interpretation views, actualize standardization and characterization of tourism interpretation placard system, and strengthen tourists' safety, with the hope for improving the quality and the utility of constructing mountain scenic resorts' interpretation placard system.


Introduction INTHE MOVIE THE MATRIX (1999), CHARACTERS experience a completely virtual worldcreated by sending electrical signals directly to their spinal cord and brain- that contains the sensations of the "real" world but without a corresponding physical environment. The psychology behind this scenario is essentially accurate. Our experience of the physical world exists in our brains, and a controlled stimulus can cue our brains to experience a world that is virtually physical. Virtual realities can exist because the brain does not experience the physical environment directly. Information in the environment exists in the form of physical energy. Cells in the brain, however, communicate through the release of neurochemicals. Each of our five senses contains "receptor cells" that translate the information in the environment into the neurochemical language that the brain can understand.1 For example, specialized cells on the retina, called photoreceptors, respond to the physical energy of light by releasing neurochemicals, thereby converting the physical energy into the language of the brain. Creating a virtual world involves artificially stimulating the cells that lead to the brain in the same way that receptor cells would. The Matrix scenario is an emblem of the cinematic experience. The sights and sounds presented in the cinema have the potential to stimulate the visual and auditory receptor cells in ways that are similar enough to those experienced in the physical world that, under specified circumstances, many of our perceptual processes2 do not distinguish between stimuli generated by the cinema and those generated by physical environments. When organized according to the principles of classical continuity editing,3 the cinema stimulates a series of cognitive processes4 that construct a coherent model of on-screen space. Indeed, the cognitive processes that generate spatial coherence for classical cinema spectators are, this article shall demonstrate, the very same cognitive processes that generate coherence for spectators in the physical world. This article proposes a new model of how the human perceptual system extracts coherence from discontinuous cinematic images edited according to classical continuity principles. Based on the current understanding of real-world perception, our model of spatial continuity lays out the cognitive basis of classical editing conventions. Drawing on research from both film studies and perceptual psychology, this article explains how classical editing devices exploit and accommodate the cognitive processes people use to perceive the physical world. The field of film studies has seen a variety of approaches to explaining the predominance of the classical editing system, including psychoanalytic (Mulvey, Silverman, Oudart, Dayan), semiotic and structuralist (Metz, John Carroll), auteurist (Bazin), and ideological approaches (Baudry, Heath, Zavarzadeh), and many theorists combine several different approaches. But none of this research answers the following straightforward question: if you are watching The Philadelphia Story (1940), and you see a shot of C. K. Dexter Haven (Cary Grant) at the front of a house, followed by a shot of a front door opening (see Figures 10 and 11), what are the cognitive processes that lead you to perceive the two depicted spaces as connected? Film textbooks, in explaining the continuity system, will note eyeline matches and other narrative and stylistic devices, but identifying continuity devices does not explain how and why the spectator perceives continuity. Our model does. It addresses a key concern of the classical continuity system that no previous scholars have addressed comprehensively: how the fundamental conventions of classical editing accommodate our perceptual and cognitive processes and stimulate the perception of continuity. The principles of In/in Rock's inferential theory of perception, often termed "constructive perception," supply the foundation of our approach Indirect, Logic). …


Actually Indonesia has supported nature condition moreover with the numerous of labor, Indonesia should can compete with another country. However, the large number of workers is not followed with the high skills. Almost all the local farmers are less educated. Furthermore, the unstable economic and political condition make even worse. It will difficult t o meet the quality and the requirements that asked by Japanese market, Besides that Indonesia should be careful with the high competition market. In analyzing data for this Final Assignment Report, the writer mostly uses secondary data. T hrough this analyzing the writer identify the importance of quality control, from the plantation to the shipment. This process will determine the quality of the products. For entering the Japanese market, an exporter or producer will be better having quality assurance certificates, like IS0 or HACCP. Japan is very restricted on the imported food. Japanese are very care on the sanitation and health. So, PT. Java Agritech should have those certificates in order to guarantee its product quality and safety. Through applying quality assurance certificate, PT. Java Agritech can guarantee the product, because all of the processing points can be controlled.


The need for distributed, scalable databases is larger than ever. Applications handling user-generated data like Twitter and Facebook have a global presence, but require performance characteristics from their database as if it was close to the user. Current database solutions either only offer low-latency reads by replicating the data, or skip ACID compliance by letting transactions do dirty writes with the possibility of overwriting the work of others. To solve this, we propose a way of using optimistic concurrency control (OCC) between nodes in the network. Every node holds a full copy of the data, but takes ownership over only a specific partition of the data that is geographically close to the users who may need to write to it. To evaluate this approach, a distributed database testing system is implemented, simulating latency between the nodes representative of various real-world network sizes. On this database our solution is then compared to an implementation of two-phase locking (2PL) using the TPC-C benchmark.


This article summarizes a number of recent judicial decisions of interest to energy lawyers. The authors review and comment on the past year's case law in several areas, including Aboriginal law, environmental law, employment law, contractual interpretation, enforcement of foreign judgments, surface rights, utility regulation, and selected developments in civil procedure. Specific topics addressed include the availability of summary judgment for operators' claims in the face of countervailing non-operators' claims, recent appellate case law regarding the duty to consult, and the application of the "polluter pays" principle in contaminated sites litigation.


Introduction: Musculoskeletal disorders, premature tiredness caused by work and so on are arisen from different requirements of every job. According to the statistics provided by the World Health Organization (WHO), the most important cause of the loss of working time is the prevalence of musculoskeletal disorders in work environments. Method: A cross sectional study with randomized sampling was conducted to determine the relationship between the physical work requirements and upper limbs disorders such as shoulders, wrist, elbow, and hand. data was gathered by using of a questionnaire consist of demographic data and TMW (Tools for Modified Work) for physical work requirement and Maastricht Upper Extremity Questionnaire for upper limbs musculoskeletal disorders. Results: Results showed that there was significant relationship between musculoskeletal disorder and the physical work requirements. In other words musculoskeletal disorders in all upper limb have been increased by deficiency in providing the physical work requirement Conclusion: This study confirmed that physical work requirement has a crucial role in musculoskeletal disorder especially in upper limbs. And it is essential to give full attention to provide standard requirements for workers.


Abstract The purpose of this work is to investigate the crystal growth parameters necessary or sufficient to obtain a crystal specifically of gem quality. We assume adequate chemistry is available. First, nucleation must occur with only a limited number of nuclei, otherwise too many crystals will be produced, and they will be too small to be faceted into a gem. Two growth mechanisms are readily documented for gems: Most commonly there is slow growth, driven by a spiral growth mechanism, leading to large single individuals. There are only a few examples of fast growth leading to gem-quality edifices: examples include "gota de aceite" Colombian emerald or the dendritic "pseudo cube" for gem diamonds. We have not documented the intermediate conditions between these two extremes in the Sunagawa diagram, which would correspond to 2D nucleation growth. The presence of inclusions is to be limited to desirable ones. Thus, in general, a good stability of the growth interface is the best guarantee of good clarity in the final gem. As for the interface, in general, growth conditions must be relatively stable over the period necessary to achieve growth. Perhaps surprisingly, it has become well documented that gem-quality near-colorless diamonds may have experienced quite a complex growth history. Therefore, the term stability has to be re-defined for each system producing a given gem. The length of time it takes to achieve crystallization of the gem has rarely been studied or estimated. Scientific evidence from experimental petrology and the growth of synthetic gems indicates that it does not take millions of years to grow a gem, but that this exercise may be achieved in a week to, arguably, a few years at the most. Available free space to grow does not appear always necessary, but it helps. Otherwise deformation, inclusions, and other negative effects may occur. Finally, no dramatic post-growth events, such as fracturing or etching, should affect the gem crystal.


Although scientists have extensively researched the relationship between viral oncoproteins and cellular tumour suppressor proteins in recent years, the molecular interactions between these proteins is still poorly understood. It is the goal of this thesis to establish the key elements of specific interactions, in particular to characterise the interaction between the N-terminal part of the viral murine polyoma oncoprotein large T antigen (PyLTNT), and the cellular human regulator protein retinoblastoma (pRb). The homologous SV40 large T antigen protein has been studied thoroughly in recent decades, and has been associated with mesothelioma, osteosarcoma and brain tumours.However, the murine polyomavirus encodes for 154 additional amino acids that are rich in glycine and proline residues and could potentially play an important role towards cell transformation. Moreover, the polyoma virus protein has not been studied to this extent before, and structural and binding experiments conducted here reveal that it remains functional while natively unfolded. Nuclear Magnetic Resonance (NMR) spectroscopy was employed to characterise the protein's motional properties in its native state. A large part of the backbone residues was assigned, and regions interacting with pRb formed a localised structure. The determination of polyomavirus regions associated with retinoblastoma (PRAR) between residues 131 to 137 and to 181 have never been observed and represents a significant advance.


Natural materials and the structures they form, developed and perfected through millions of years of evolution, have long inspired researchers for innovations in science and engineering. One example, fish scales are notable for their strength, toughness, flexibility, and lightweight. These properties are the result of collagen fibrils and hydroxyapatite crystals that have been arranged into three‐layer structures through mechanical locking and chemical bonds, via a process that is still poorly understood. This review aims to compile the established knowledge on the composition, structure, and surface/interfacial features of fish scales. Using mainly Arapaima gigas as a focus, published information and supplementary data acquired through imaging, analytical techniques, and tensiometry are combined. This is done to take a closer look at the surfaces and interfaces of fish scales to identify their unique features and begin to overcome some of the limited understanding of surface functionalities that are created by nature.


In this paper we examine opportunities arising from the convergence of two trends in data management: in-memory database systems (imdbs), which have received renewed attention following the availability of affordable, very large main memory systems; and language-integrated query, which transparently integrates database queries with programming languages (thus addressing the famous 'impedance mismatch' problem). Language-integrated query not only gives application developers a more convenient way to query external data sources like imdbs, but also to use the same querying language to query an application's in-memory collections. The latter offers further transparency to developers as the query language and all data is represented in the data model of the host programming language. However, compared to imdbs, this additional freedom comes at a higher cost for query evaluation. Our vision is to improve in-memory query processing of application objects by introducing database technologies to managed runtimes.

We focus on querying and we leverage query compilation to improve query processing on application objects. We explore different query compilation strategies and study how they improve the performance of query processing over application data. We take C# as the host programming language as it supports language-integrated query through the linq framework. Our techniques deliver significant performance improvements over the default linq implementation. Our work makes important first steps towards a future where data processing applications will commonly run on machines that can store their entire datasets in-memory, and will be written in a single programming language employing language-integrated query and imdb-inspired runtimes to provide transparent and highly efficient querying.


The Obama administration has proposed bold new policies to expand retirement savings. Through a program of Automatic IRAs, the approximately 78 million, largely lower-income, American workers not currently covered by a plan at work would be able to save through automatic individual retirement accounts. The Administration also plans to simplify and expand the Saver's Credit to give eligible lower-income savers a 50 per cent "match" on contributions of up to $1,000 to qualified retirement accounts. Together, these proposals promise to enhance the retirement security of millions of Americans. They provide both the savings vehicle and the savings incentive to enable more low- and moderate-income households to arrive at retirement with significant financial assets to supplement Social Security. In this paper, the Initiative on Financial Security at the Aspen Institute proposes an investment option for the Automatic IRA: Real Savings (RS). RS combines two widely traded and highly liquid assets – Treasury Inflation Protected Securities (TIPS) and a broad-based equity market index – to provide savers with a personalized, automatic target date investment option. RS ensures the preservation of the purchasing power of contributions while at the same time offering the significant – and important – upside potential of market participation. RS thus provides low- and moderate-income savers with the opportunity for both growth and safety for their savings. Through an automatic, inexpensive blend of TIPS and the market index, RS protects all savers from the three most likely risks to retirement income – inflation, default by the bond issuer, and falling stock prices. By design, RS fully protects every dollar saved against economic cycles, market declines and loss of purchasing power.


This paper complements previous studies by arguing that the low private savings ratio in Latin America can be associated with the limited confidence of households and businesses in domestic financial institutions. Previous studies have established a relationship between private savings and financial markets either by using a measure of `financial depth` or a measure of `borrowing constraints. ` This paper offers an alternative view by claiming that the private savings rate relates positively to the confidence of the private sector in the strength of the financial system and that the latter concept can be approximated by the ratio of corporate demand for bank liquid assets. Latin American countries have lower private savings rates than other developing and most industrial countries. They also display the highest corporate to household bank deposit ratios among the three groups of countries considered here. Further, the ratio of corporate to household deposit holdings is strongly correlated with other indicators of banking system fragility.


Soil compaction occurs when soil particles are pressed together, thus reducing pore spaces between them. Compaction is caused by the use of heavy machinery, pressure from wheels, tillage equipment, trampling by animals reduced use of organic matter, frequent use of chemical fertilizers and ploughing at the same depth for many years. The signs of soil: Slow plant emergence, thin stands, uneven early growth, small grain heads, abnormal rooting patterns and reduced nutrients offtake can be a reflection of compation. Excessive soil compaction impedes root growth and therefore limits the amount of soil explored by roots. Soil compaction is a problem of global concern and very few have worked on this issue in Pakistan. Therefore this research work was conducted to investigate and document the deleterious effects of subsurface soil compaction on crop and soil properties, as well as to evaluate best and cheap improvement measures for reducing subsurface soil compaction

Two field experiments were conducted during the year 2002-03 and repeated during the year 2003-04 at the Agriculture Research Station, Mingora, Pakistan. In first experiment the effects of subsurface soil compaction were studied. In second experiment the effects of improvement measures applied to the artificially compated subsurface soil were investigated. In first experiment, the 0.1m surface horizon was removed from all the plots with the help of scraper. The subsurface was compated using 7.0 tons roller. The number of passes of roller measured the level of compation. The experiment consisted of four treatments. The subsurface soil was compacted with two passes of roller in T1, four passes of roller in T2 and six passes of roller in T3, while no compaction was applied to T4 (control). The topsoil was evenly applied to the whole plot and wheat variety Fakhri Sarhad was grown. In second experiment, the 0.1 meter surface soil was removed with a scrper. Different improvement measures were applied to subplots according to sowing plan. The experiment consisted of five treatments. T1 received deep ploughing (D.P), T2 received D.P+FYM at 14000kg/ja, T3 received D.P+Gypsum at 4000kg/ha, T4 received D.P +FYM+Gypsum at the rates mentioned above while T5 (control) no addition of improvement measure was made. The subsurface of the whole plot was then compacted with 4 passes of a 7.0 tons roller. The 0.1m surface soil was uniformly distributed in the plot with blade mounted tractor and scraper. Lay out was again carried out and deep ploughing was given to all the sub plots with chisel plough to a depth of 20cm except control. Wheat variety Fakhri Sarhad was frown in all the plots with a seeding rate of 140kg/ha-1

In first experiment compaction of the subsurface significantly affected days to anthesis, days to maturity, plant height spikes m-2, grains per spike, thousand grain weight, biological yield, grain yield, harvest index, crop growth rate (CGR), root length, subsurface soil bulk density, subsurface soil porosity, percent grain protein, N concentration in plants (%) and K concentration in plants (%), while non significant variations were observed for days to emergence, emergence per m2, tillers per m2, upper surface soil bulk density, upper surface soil porosity, total soil nitrogen, available soil phosphorous and available soil potash among different treatment means averaged over the years. The maximum values of above parameters were recorded to T4 (control) and the minimum for T3 except subsurface soil bulk density where the maximum values were recorded for T3 and the minimum for T4 (control). Almost all parameters showed a decreasing trend with increasing the level of subsurface soil compaction. Interactive effects varied inconsistently. Significant effects on different parameters may be attributed to changed physical conditions of the soil duw to compaction which ultimately affected growth and development parameters. However, slightly higher values were observed during second year of experiment as compared to first year which may be the effect of overall climatic conditions as during second year more rains were received. Average maximum and average minimum temperature was noticed to be lower than that recorded during first year which thus increased the total length of crop life cycle.

In second experiment, addition of improvement measures to the artificially compacted subsurface soil significantly days to anthesis, days to maturity, plant height, tillers per m2, Spikes m-2, grains per spike, Thousand grain weight, biological yield, grain yield, harvest index, root length, crop growth rate, percent grain protein, subsurface soil bulk density, subsurface soil porosity, N-concentration (%) in plants P concentration (%) K concentration (%), soil N (%), soil P (%) and soil K (%) during the years of study. Non significant variations were observed among days to emergence, emergence per m2, upper surface soil bulk density and upper surface soil porosity during the years of study

The maximum values of these parameters were recorded for T4 (D.P. +FYM+Gypsum) followed by T2 (D.P.+FYM), while minimum values were recorded for T5 (control), except subsurface soil bulk density where minimum values were recorded for T4 and T2 and maximum for T5 (control). The maximum values recorded for treatments where deep loughing + farm yard manure was added may be attributed that these amendments left positive effects on overall soil structure thus giving positive response. So, where soil compaction hinders in good crop production these amendments amy ameliorate the negative effects

Interactive effects varied inconsistently. However, slightly higher values were observed during second year of experiment as compared to first year


K+ channels play a key role in cellular physiology by regulating the efflux of K+ ions. They are the most diverse group of ion channel proteins; more than 30 K+ channel genes have been characterized. Regulated by ATP, voltage, and calcium, multiple K+ channels coexist in the P-cell to regulate membrane potential, cell excitability, and insulin secretion. Recent developments at the molecular level have greatly expanded our understanding of P-cell K+ channel structure and function, especially in regard to the ATP-sensitive K+ channel, the target for sulfonylurea drugs. Mutations in K+ channel genes underlie diseases as diverse as persistent hyperinsulinemia of infancy, cardiac long QT syndrome, cerebellar degeneration, and certain ataxias. These discoveries have identified new pharmacological targets for possible therapeutic intervention in the treatment of diabetes.