Objective: To identify the ideational representations of upper and/or lower edentulous elders regarding tooth loss and oral prosthetic rehabilitation. Methods: Qualitative study conducted between January and March 2011 with seven elders living in a Public Longterm Care Institution in Recife, PE, and 14 elders attending the Dental Prosthesis Clinic of the Universidade Federal de Pernambuco – UFPE (Federal University of Pernambuco). Data were collected through semi-structured interview and underwent content analysis. Results: The results enabled to identify that, for the elders, the teeth contribute to health and facilitate the social interactions, while edentulism has been associated with a plurality of negative feelings. Regarding prosthetic rehabilitation, they emphasized the harms to health due to poorly fitted dental prosthesis. Conclusion: The elderly believe that edentulism and prosthetic rehabilitation are mainly associated with a mechanistic concept of the profession that is widely spread among the professionals who focus more on curative Dentistry at the expense of prevention. In this context, so that aging can be considered a stage of life with the same qualities and difficulties of any other stage, we suggest that managers and health professionals themselves should undertake a humanizing and preventive dental practice in order to provide the minimum requirements for an aging with dignity.


The channel capacity of dual-branch MRC (maximal ratio combining) diversity system over correlated waveform intensity, which is characterized as correlated-Nakagami-m fading (the power is modeled as the correlated-Gamma statistics), is evaluated in this paper. The formulas of channel capacity performance are provided with a pdf (probability density function)-based approach. The pdf of sum of Gamma variates based on the representation of the Moschopoulos single gamma series is adopted in the report. The corresponding expressions for Rayleigh fading are obtained as a special case of Nakagami-m fading. Finally, the numerical examples are presented for illustrating the purpose of the validation of the channel capacity equations derived in this paper.


Tanzania telecommunication sector has witnessed fast growth in the number of mobile telephone users now served by seven cellular operators. Until February 2012, there were about 26 million mobile phone subscribers served by more than 4,000 base stations spread all over the country. Despite the many advantages brought by these systems, there is increased public concern over possible adverse health effects due to electromagnetic fields (EMF) radiated by these equipments. This paper aimed to analyze the impact of the electromagnetic radiations from cellular phones to male sperm infertility. The cellular phones with operating frequency of 900MHz and operating frequency 1800MHz were placed at a certain distance near the male reproductive organ (testis) and then electromagnetic wave radiated by the phone were analyzed by measuring the SAR of the testis. It was concluded that there is significant impact on the male sperm fertility on the exposure of the male reproductive organ to the radiations from the cellular phones at the specified operating frequencies near the testis. Several recommendations has been provided, that radiating devices should not be placed on the male pocket trouser for storage and also making calls while the cell phone is in pocket trouser (ie using headphones to receive or make a call) should be completely avoided.


The frequency of chronic renal insufficiency is inspected in a closed population. 3.06% of the inhabitants of the district of Neubrandenburg suffer from diabetes mellitus. 1,108 diabetics (these are 5.84% of all diabetics) have had the diabetes for 15 and more years. 44.91% of these long-term diabetics have an increased creatinine level. There are 9 long-term diabetics at the age up to 49 years per 100,000 inhabitants with restricted renal functions. The chronic renal insufficiency, which occurs with diabetics significantly more frequent than with non-diabetics, must be considered in the planning of dialysis capacities.


There is increasing demand for moving from batch immersion tools to single-wafer spin tools for silicon wafer cleaning, etching, and photoresist/residue removal in advanced semiconductor manufacturing. However, high-dose ion-implanted photoresist removal using a conventional single-wafer spin tool is very difficult. We have developed a novel single-wafer single-chamber dry and wet hybrid system in combination with dry ashing and moderate-temperature wet-cleaning treatments by implementing an atmospheric-pressure plasma unit into a conventional single-wafer spin cleaning tool. This compact single-wafer single-chamber system can completely remove the hardened photoresist due to high-dose ion-implantation by an atmospheric-pressure plasma ashing process followed by an in situ wet chemical process in the same single chamber within 2 min. This single-wafer single-chamber dry/wet hybrid system offers less than 1/3 smaller footprint, less than 1/4 shorter cycle time (for 50 wafer processing), and potentially better process control and less contamination risk, as well as lower equipment cost, compared to the conventional combination of two separate dry- and wet-processing systems.


Cellular and molecular studies of both implicit and explicit memory suggest that experience‐dependent modulation of synaptic strength and structure is a fundamental mechanism by which these memories are encoded and stored within the brain. In this review, we focus on recent advances in our understanding of two types of memory storage: (i) sensitization in Aplysia, a simple form of implicit memory, and (ii) formation of explicit spatial memories in the mouse hippocampus. These two processes share common molecular mechanisms that have been highly conserved through evolution.


This article has two purposes. First, it attempted to introduce 'flat ontology' and 'withdrawal', two of many concepts of object-oriented ontology (OOO), as effective intellectual devices to dissect a literary text, especially in order to investigate the complexity of contacts between/among various existences on a horizontal surface. Second, it examined how the narrator of A Tour on the Prairies, one of the underappreciated texts of Washington Irving, gradually begins to doubt the naive human/nonhuman binary and broadens his horizons through an encounter with another object, wild bees in this case. In conclusion, it demonstrated that, when read from an objectoriented outlook, this text proved to offer a rich world in which every single object acts and exists on its own right, and thus to entice its readers to rethink humans' position within the 'republic of objects'.


Sustainability is an increasingly important issue in our society and organizations. The positive symbolism that it awakens generates interest from companies with many different profiles that incorporates sustainability in their speeches and actions with different approaches. The purpose of this article is to discuss the construction of the symbolism of sustainability and its use as a product claim for consumer goods companies. For this, we used a theoretical discussion and examples of appropriation of the concept by the marks Toyota Prius, Natura and Patogonia, which have different perspectives for the use of the concept of sustainability. As a value still evolving, we conclude that there are two paradigms that need to be broken for the adoption of sustainability: the symbolic paradigm, in which the reduction of consumption starts to be seen as symbolically positive, and the economic paradigm, in which the reduction of volumes sold by the companies needs to be a possibility.


As Sir Isaac Newton has said, laws of the Nature have been written in the language of Differential Equations. In particular, the classical theory of normal systems of Ordinary Differential Equations, supported by Cauchy theorems of existence and uniqueness of solutions, describes determined processes taking place in the Nature, technics and even in the society, i.e. such processes, for which a condition of a described system in an arbitrary fixed moment depends on its condition in any other moment. Solutions, describing such processes, are called the ordinary. But when the conditions of the Cauchy theorem are not satisfied, a situation totally changes. A point, in any neighborhood of which such conditions are not satisfied, may become for a system under consideration a point of non-uniqueness, a point of bifurcation. A solution of a system, each point of which appears to be a point of non-uniqueness, is called a special solution. A task of a full integration of a system demands finding of all its solutions, special solutions as well as ordinary ones. But this item shows us some gap in a special literature. This paper presents materials with the aim to fill this gap.


In a long-range plan for ocean sciences, the National Science Foundation (NSF) recently emphasized a growing need for large research ships with global capabilities (Eos, October 1, 1985, p. 682). On a smaller scale, some research in coastal and shelf seas may benefit more from improved instruments than from grander vessels. A new generation of compact ocean instruments will encourage the use of ships of opportunity as effective alternatives to specialized ships with exotic facilities. In a curious mix, some of the new technology may be well matched with the unique capabilities of traditional sailing vessels.


Operator utility is related to expected profits, risks and strategic issues. In this paper we focus on the potential change in operator utility from network cooperation. If network cooperation would increase operator utility significantly, that would be an important driver of cooperation. We show that the most important effect of network cooperation would be increased user utility, which in turn is shown to have significant impact on operator utility. The user utility is compared without and with cooperation between mobile operators. The user utility is expressed as a User Satisfaction Index (USI) which is depending on the service availability, service quality and the price. Cooperation in the form of sharing of network resources is usually seen as a way to share costs and risk for network deployment. However, there are other operator benefits: improved network utilization and increased traffic which may increase the revenues improved user satisfaction due to improved service availability and quality The network related property of cooperation to reduce the number of disconnected users is transformed into a higher degree of user satisfaction. This would most likely result in more loyal customers and hence the churn would be reduced. In this paper we discuss the implications of the increased user satisfaction on operator costs for customer acquisition and management. We see business opportunities for mobile operators leading to cost savings and changes in the cost structure.


CT-0508 is an autologous monocyte-derived pro-inflammatory macrophage cell product engineered with Ad5f35 to express an anti-HER2 CAR. In pre-clinical studies CT-0508 was safe and effective. This abstract contains preliminary results from the first-in-human experience with CAR macrophages (CAR-M).This First-In-Human Phase 1, multi-center, open-label study is evaluating the safety, tolerability, manufacturing feasibility, pharmacokinetics and mechanism of action of CT-0508 in 18 subjects with advanced solid tumors overexpressing HER2 who have progressed on prior therapies, including HER2 targeted therapies if indicated.Patients receive four doses of filgrastim for monocyte mobilization prior to apheresis. CT-0508 CAR-M is manufactured from autologous apheresis products and delivered as a cryopreserved cell product. Group 1 subjects enter an intra-patient fractionated dose escalation regimen, receiving CT-0508 on D1, D3 and D5, followed by Group 2 subjects who receive CT-0508 on D1. There is no preparative chemotherapy prior to CT-0508 infusion.Pre and post treatment biopsies and blood samples are collected to investigate correlates of safety, serum cytokines and chemokines, pharmacokinetics, TME modulation, and induction of an adaptive anti-tumor immune response.To date, two subjects have been treated with CT-0508 (esophageal adenocarcinoma and extrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma). Patient product was successfully manufactured, CT-0508 treatment was well tolerated, with no dose limiting and no major organ toxicities observed.One subject experienced Grade 2 CRS on Day 3 which resolved on the same day.Grade 3 AEs included anemia (present at baseline for both subjects) and lymphopenia (present at baseline in one subject). One subject experienced one SAE of Grade 4 tumor bleeding which was unrelated to CT-0508, 88 days after the last infusion.CAR-M were transiently detected in the peripheral blood following each infusion, demonstrating rapid egress from the periphery into tissues within hours. Transient cytokine/chemokine elevations were observed (peak: 2 hours, back to baseline at 48 hours). Single cell RNAseq analysis of dissociated tumor tissue samples (pre-treatment, day 8 and week 4) demonstrated dynamic TME reprogramming, with recruitment of inflammatory innate immune cells and naïve T cells at day 8, and significant CD8+ T cell infiltration, activation, and proliferation at week 4.CT-0508 has been administered to two subjects thus far, exhibiting safety, good tolerability, T cell repertoire modulation, and reprogramming of the TME consistent with the induction of anti-tumor immunity. The study continues to recruit patients and updated data will be presented.NCT04660929Klichinsky M, Ruella M, Shestova O, et al. Human chimeric antigen receptor macrophages for cancer immunotherapy. Nat Biotechnol 2020;38(8):947–953.Ethics approvals have been obtained from the clinical sites enrolling patients: the University of Pennsylvania (844106/IORG0000029), the University of North Carolina and City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center (20201732/IORG0000432).


Feijoa (Acca sellowiana Berg.) is a native Myrtaceae of the Brazilian Southern plateau with secondary dispersion in Uruguay and its fruit has a unique flavor. Plants of a commercial orchard of this species originated by two half-sib families (FMI1 and FMI2) were evaluated, with the objective to characterize the phenotypic variation of several traits. The means (±standard deviation) of the evaluated traits, obtained in 2000 were: productivity (29.2±35.0 and 55.1±53.4 fruits per plant); height (2.2±0.7 m and 2.7±0.8 m), canopy diameter (1.9±0.7 m, and 2.1±0.7 m), number of ramifications at 20 cm of the soil (2.4±1.5 and 1.6±1.2) and distance between the stigma and the anthers in the flower (0.5±0.2 cm and 0.2±0.2 cm) for FMI1 and FMI2, respectively. The evaluations revealed significant statistical differences between the two families for plants traits evaluated, except for canopy diameter. The correlations among vegetative traits were not significant, except for height x distance between stigma and anthers (r=-0.53) for FMI1 in 2000. The regressions were not significant, except the regressions between height and productivity for FMI1 in 1998 and between productivity and distance between stigma and anthers in FMI2, in 2000, all with R2 <0.15.


A common feature of inflammatory bowel diseases (IBD) is dysbiosis of gut microbiota. IBD usually affects women during their childbearing years, but successful pregnancy outcomes have become a reality for many women with IBD. Pregnancy in general and pregnancy in IBD in particular, has been reported to dramatically affect gut microbial composition and function. In the present study, we have characterized the changes in the gut microbiota that occur from preconception to the first trimester of pregnancy in healthy women and in women with IBD.

 Fecal samples were collected from 39 pregnant IBD patients and 38 pregnant healthy controls at two time-points: preconception and during the first trimester. Bacterial DNA was extracted, amplified, cleaned and sequenced (16S rRNA gene). Then, microbiome analysis was performed using QIIME2 to compare profiles between the groups and across the time points.

 The microbiomes of IBD patients were significantly different than those of healthy controls, and bacterial richness was significantly lower than controls both in preconception and first trimester samples. Even though no significant differences were observed between sampling time points, the shift in the bacterial population from preconception to the first trimester in the IBD groups was significantly larger compared to the shift in the control group. We also found that the genus Sutterella was significantly more abundant in healthy controls in samples collected during the first trimester compared to IBD patients. When specifically focusing on this genus in preconception samples, we found the same pattern of increased abundance in the control group.

 While there were no differences in the microbiota across time points, the increased delta between IBD versus controls may suggest that disease phenotype permits increased microbiome plasticity than the control group. Furthermore, the results may be related to modulation of immune response that may be associated to inflammatory state and medical treatments; however, further studies are warranted.


Background : Open mitral operation in patients with massive left atrial thrombus still with high mortality due to intra-operative embolism. To prevent this mortality due to intra-operative embolism and to prevent this danger we practiced a surgical technique which includes careful handling of heart and obliteration of left ventricular cavity by bilateral compression. Method : We used this technique in patients of severe mitral stenosis with atrial thrombus during mitral valve replacement. Our technique was to obliterate the left ventricular cavity and thus keep the mitral cusps in a coapted position by placing gauge posterior to left ventricle and a compression over right ventricle by hand of an assistant with a piece of gauze. This obliteration prevented passage of fragments of left atrial thrombus towards collapsed left ventricle. Result : Before practicing this technique, 4 out 9 patients expired due to cerebral embolism . But after implementation of this technique in 17 patients no mortality or morbidity occurred. Conclusion : This technique of removal of left atrial thrombus during mitral valve replacement may be a safe procedure for preventing peroperative embolism. Bangladesh Heart Journal 2016; 31(1) : 26-28


The maned sloth Bradypus torquatus (Pilosa, Bradypodidae) is endemic to a small area in the Atlantic Forest of coastal Brazil. It has been listed as a threatened species because of its restricted geographic range, habitat loss and fragmentation, and declining populations. The major objectives of this study were to estimate its potential geographic distribution, the climatic conditions across its distributional range, and to identify suitable areas and potential species strongholds. We developed a model of habitat suitability for the maned sloth using two methods, Maxent and Mahalanobis Distance, based on 42 occurrence points. We evaluated environmental variable importance and the predictive ability of the generated distribution models. Our results suggest that the species distribution could be strongly influenced by environmental factors, mainly temperature seasonality. The modeled distribution of the maned sloth included known areas of occurrence in the Atlantic Forest (Sergipe, Bahia, Espírito Santo, and Rio de Janeiro), but did not match the observed distributional gaps in northern Rio de Janeiro, northern Espírito Santo or southern Bahia. Rather, the model showed that these areas are climatically suitable for the maned sloth, and thus suggests that factors other than climate might be responsible for the absence of species. Suitable areas for maned sloth were located mainly in the mountainous region of central Rio de Janeiro throughout Espírito Santo and to the coastal region of southern Bahia. We indicate 17 stronghold areas and recommended survey areas for the maned sloth. In addition, we highlight specific areas for conservation, including the current network protected areas. Our results can be applied for novel surveys and discovery of unknown populations, and help the selection of priority areas for management and conservation planning, especially of rare and relatively cryptic species directed associated with forested habitats.


Superoxide dismutase (SOD) is a critical enzyme responsible for the elimination of superoxide radicals and is considered to be a key anti-oxidant in aerobic cells. Cellular consumption of oxygen is essential for oxidative phosphorylation during ATP generation in the mitochondria, yet this cellular metabolism also leads to the production of reactive oxygen species (ROS), including the superoxide radical (O2 • -) and hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Accumulation of ROS results in cellular oxidative stress and, if not corrected, can lead to the damage of important biomolecules such as membrane lipids, proteins and DNA. Prolonged accumulation of high levels of free radicals in cells may cause irreversible cellular injury and ultimately result in cell death. Since SOD is the key enzyme in the first metabolic step of superoxide elimination, deficiency in SOD or inhibition of the enzyme activity may cause severe accumulation of O2 • - in cells and lead to cell death. Thus, inhibition of SOD may provide a novel way to kill cancer cells. Due to dysfunction in the regulation of cell growth, cancer cells are active in energy metabolism, and thus produce high levels of O2 • - and other ROS and are under constant oxidative stress. This may render the malignant cells more dependent on SOD to eliminate the toxic superoxide radicals and thus potentially more sensitive to SOD inhibitors. It is a plausible hypothesis that inhibition of SOD may preferentially kill malignant cells through a free radical-mediated mechanism. This article will review evidence that suggests SOD as an emerging therapeutic target for cancer treatment. The relevant clinical implications and potential risk will also be discussed.


The distribution of motor nerve cell bodies in the metathoracic ganglion of the cockroach Periplaneta americana was mapped and displayed in three dimensions. A dense ring of ribonucleic acid ( RNA ) appears in the perinuclear cytoplasm of a nerve cell body whose axon has been cut in a peripheral nerve trunk. Using this RNA ring as the primary marker, 5 cell maps of ganglia from different animals were constructed to indicate which motor nerve cell body sends its axon out a particular peripheral nerve trunk. We count about 3000 neurons in the ganglion, and of these about 230 are above 20 /an in diameter. About 100 of these larger cells are generally arranged in bilaterally symmetrical pairs. These cell pairs have been assigned numbers and can be identified from one animal to another. Nerve cell bodies associated with nerves 3 through 6 send their axons out the ipsilateral nerve trunks. Cells associated with nerve 2 send their axons out the contralateral nerve trunk. This study may provide a basis for understanding the structural and metabolic organization responsible for the particular behavioural capacities of certain populations of neurons.


As one of the most classic supportive cells, Schwann cells (SCs) have been considered as potential candidates for nerve regeneration. However, SCs cultured in vitro are found with attenuated biological activities, which limits their application. Pulsed magnetic field (PMF) has been demonstrated to be safe and efficient to regulate several cells activities. However, it is still unclear the effect of PMF on proliferation and expression of neurotrophic factors in SCs. Therefore, the present study was designed to examine such possible effects. The tolerance of SCs to PMF was examined by flow cytometry and scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The proliferation of cells was detected by an EdU labeling assay and a Prestoblue assay. The expression and secretion of neurotrophic factors in SCs was assayed by RT-PCR and ELISA. We found that 2.0 mT was the optimal intensity that caused relatively little apoptosis with profound proliferation in SCs. The gene expression and protein level of brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF), glial cell derived neurotrophic factor (GDNF), vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) were up-regulated following PMF stimulation, additionally, the gene expression and protein level of neurotrophin-3 (NT-3) was not enhanced by PMF. Our results suggested that PMF could improve SC proliferation and biological function, which might shed a light on the potential utilization of PMF in nerve regeneration via SC activation.


Human population growth has led to increases in energy and food production, use of fertilizers, and wastewater flows. Enhanced availability of nitrogen is a cause of eutrophication of rivers, lakes, and estuaries worldwide. In this study, Citarum River Basin, West Java, Indonesia was selected as a target area, supplying 80% of domestic water to Jakarta Metropolis. Meteorological and hydrological data from 1996 to 2009, and spatial data such as topography, land use, soil properties were collected for model simulation. Conceptual nitrogen balance model, which has three nitrogen pools, was developed and combined with rainfall runoff model. Proposed model was applied to the Citarum River Basin and simulated river discharge and nitrogen load in 1 km×1 km resolution to check the model applicability. By using the model, spatial distribution of nitrogen loading in whole basin level was estimated and histograms of nitrogen load from different land use also evaluated. The results provide a first insight into the magnitude and the spatial distribution of nitrogen loading in Citarum River Basin.


The existence of the delocalized-localized quantum phase transition (QPT) in the ohmic spinboson model has been commonly recognized. While the physics in the localized regime is relatively simple, the delocalized regime shows many interesting behaviors. Here we reveal that in this regime there exists a novel QPT: namely, from a phase without a bound state to a phase with a bound state, which leads to completely different dynamical behaviors in these two phases. If the reservoir is initially in the displaced vacuum state (i.e., the coherent state), the spin dynamics exhibits lossless oscillation when the bound state exists; otherwise, the oscillation will decay completely. This result is compatible with the coherence-incoherence transition occurring in the small-tunneling limit. Our work indicates that the QPT physics in the spin-boson model needs further exploration.


We investigate the spectral efficiency, achievable by a low-complexity symbol-by-symbol receiver, when linear modulations based on the superposition of uniformly time- and frequency-shifted replicas of a base pulse are employed. Although orthogonal signaling with Gaussian inputs achieves capacity on the additive white Gaussian noise channel, we show that, when finite-order constellations are employed, by giving up the orthogonality condition (thus accepting interference among adjacent signals) we can considerably improve the performance, even when a symbol-by-symbol receiver is used. We also optimize the spacing between adjacent signals to maximize the achievable spectral efficiency. Moreover, we propose a more involved transmission scheme, consisting of the superposition of two independent signals with suitable power allocation and a two-stage receiver, showing that it allows a further increase of the spectral efficiency. Finally, we show that a more involved equalization algorithm, based on soft interference cancellation, allows to achieve an excellent bit-error-rate performance, even when error-correcting codes designed for the Gaussian-noise limited channel are employed, and thus does not require a complete redesign of the coding scheme.


Knowledge of the relationship between soil water dynamics and tree water use is critical to understanding forest response to environmental change in water‐limited ecosystems. However, the dynamics in soil water availability for tree transpiration (Tt) cannot be easily deduced from conventional measurements of soil water content (SWC), notably because Tt is influenced by soil water potential (Ψs) that, in turn, depends on soil characteristics. Using tree sap flow and water potential and deriving depth‐dependent soil water retention curves, we quantified the 'transpirable soil water content' (tSWC) and its seasonal and inter‐annual variations in a semi‐arid Pinus halepensis forest. The results indicated that tSWC varied in time and with soil depth. Over one growing season Tt was 57% of rain and 72% of the infiltrated SWC. In early winter, Tt was exclusively supported by soil moisture at the top 10 cm (tSWC = 11 mm), whereas in spring (tSWC > 18 mm) and throughout the dry season, source water for Tt shifted to 20–40 cm, where the maximum fine root density occurs. Simulation with the soil–plant–atmosphere water and energy transport model MuSICA supported the idea that consistent tSWC at the 20–40 cm soil layer critically depended on limited water infiltration below 40 cm, because of high water retention below this depth. Quantifying tSWC is critical to the precise estimation of the onset and termination of the growing season (when tSWC > 0) in this semi‐arid ecosystem. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract We examined patterns of size-associated morphological variation within the Red Tree Vole (Arborimus longicaudus) for the purposes of 1) identifying differences between the Red Tree Vole and the Dusky Tree Vole (A. l. silvicola), a putative subspecies of the Red Tree Vole; and 2) examining spatial patterns of morphological variation across the species' range. Our results illustrate subtle, but significant, morphological differences across the boundary that has been proposed to delimit the ranges of the Dusky Tree Vole and Red Tree Vole. However, the morphological characters examined have virtually no diagnostic utility for distinguishing between subspecies. We also performed a series of linear regressions that revealed correlations between morphological variation and latitude. Ultimately, these findings indicated that morphological variation in Red Tree Voles is in good agreement with Bergmann's Rule and Allen's Rule, 2 well-established ecographic principles that dictate relationships between environmental temperatures and morphological attributes. Because our analyses do not demonstrate strong differences between tree vole subspecies, we encourage future analyses of variation in pelage coloration and genetic structure to unequivocally determine the Dusky Tree Vole's status.


ABSTRACT Medical humanitarianism and global health are two distinct but co-dependent spheres of global health security. Their actors differ in their units of analysis, understanding of neutrality, and organizational capacities. While health underpins the normative principles of humanitarian action, humanitarian ideas, and notably medical humanitarian organizations, are absent from global health security planning. This article develops the work of Lakoff ['Two regimes of global health', Humanity, 1(1), 59–79 (2010)], distinguishing between these two governance spheres and how this had stark consequences in the 2014/15 Ebola outbreak in Liberia and Sierra Leone, framed as a problem of global health but which rapidly became a humanitarian crisis. Such a frame excluded medical humanitarian organizations from the initial global strategy and resulted in the creation of a new organization (UMMEER – United Nations Mission for Ebola Emergency Response) and the involvement of militaries to bridge the health-humanitarian divide. Reconciling the distinct but co-dependent relationship between medical humanitarianism and global health is fundamental to effective delivery of global health security.


This article identifies how scarcity, abundance, and sufficiency influence exchange behavior. Analyzing the mechanisms governing exchange of resources constitutes the foundation of several social-science perspectives. Neoclassical economics provides one of the most well-known perspectives of how rational individuals allocate and exchange resources. Using Rational Choice Theory (RCT), neoclassical economics assumes that exchange between two individuals will occur when resources are scarce and that these individuals interact rationally to satisfy their requirements (i.e., preferences). While RCT is useful to characterize interaction in closed and stylized systems, it proves insufficient to capture social and psychological reality where culture, emotions, and habits play an integral part in resource exchange. Social Resource Theory (SRT) improves on RCT in several respects by making the social nature of resources the object of study. SRT shows how human interaction is driven by an array of psychological mechanisms, from emotions to heuristics. Thus, SRT provides a more realistic foundation for analyzing and explaining social exchange than the stylized instrumental rationality of RCT. Yet SRT has no clear place for events of abundance and sufficiency as additional motivations to exchange resources. This article synthesize and formalize a foundation for SRT using not only scarcity but also abundance and sufficiency.


The production of an extracellular β-glucosidase by Aspergillus niger NRRL 599 was optimized using submerged fermentation technique. Effect of different media, different carbon sources, initial pH of the fermentation medium, temperature, incubation period and inoculum size on the production of β- glucosidase enzyme was investigated. A. niger NRRL 599 produced maximum extracellular β- glucosidase (4.48 U/mg) in Eggins and Pugh medium with 1% wheat bran (w/v) at pH 5.5 inoculated with 4% conidial suspension after 96 h of incubation at 30°C. Purified β-glucosidase gave K m and V max values of 3.11 mM and 20.83 U/mg respectively for pNPG hydrolysis. The enzyme was optimally active at pH 4.8 and at temperature of 60°C. Thermodynamic parameters, E a , ΔH and ΔS were found to be 52.17 KJ/mol, 49.90 J/mol.K and -71.69 KJ/mol, respectively. The pKa1 and pKa 2 of ionizable groups of active site residues involved in V max were calculated to be 4.1 and 6.0 respectively. Key words : β-Glucosidase, Aspergillus niger, kinetics, thermodynamics.


The electrocrystallization of Cu–Co multilayers has been investigated by means of in situ magnetization measurements, during the electrodeposition, using an electrochemical alternating gradient magnetometer. The hysteresis loops were also recorded in situ. This allowed us to measure a magnetization efficiency, ratio of the magnetization increase to the electrical charge used. This efficiency tends to decrease as the number of bilayers increases, probably as a result of the increase in the roughness of the surface. It exhibits the same dependency on cobalt plating time as the Faradaic efficiency, which confirms that at the beginning of cobalt deposition, hydrogen evolution is the main reaction. The multilayers exhibit a typical ferromagnetic behavior. The magnetization increases and the coercive field decreases when the number of bilayers and/or the thickness of the cobalt layer increase.


The traceability of software artifacts has been recognized as an important factor to support various activities in software development processes. However, traceability can be difficult and time-consuming to create and maintain manually, thereby automated approaches have gained much attention. Unfortunately, existing automated approaches for traceability suffer from practical issues. This paper aims to gain an understanding of the potential challenges for the underperforming of the state-of-the-art, ML-based trace link classifiers applied in real-world projects. By investigating different industrial datasets, we found that two critical (and classic) challenges, i.e. data imbalance and sparse problems, lie in real-world projects' traceability automation. To overcome these challenges, we developed a framework called SPLINT to incorporate hybrid textual similarity measures and semi-supervised learning strategies as enhancements to the learning-based traceability approaches. We carried out experiments with six open-source platforms and ten industry datasets. The results confirm that SPLINT is able to operate at higher performance on two communities' datasets. Specifically, the industrial datasets, which significantly suffer from data imbalance and sparsity problems, show an increase in F2-score over 14% and AUC over 8% on average. The adjusted class-balancing and self-training policies used in SPLINT (CBST-Adjust) also work effectively for the selection of pseudo-labels on minor classes from unlabeled trace sets, demonstrating SPLINT's practicability.


Statistical language models used in large-vocabulary speech recognition must properly encapsulate the various constraints, both local and global, present in the language. While local constraints are readily captured through n-gram modeling, global constraints, such as long-term semantic dependencies, have been more difficult to handle within a data-driven formalism. This paper focuses on the use of latent semantic analysis, a paradigm that automatically uncovers the salient semantic relationships between words and documents in a given corpus. In this approach, (discrete) words and documents are mapped onto a (continuous) semantic vector space, in which familiar clustering techniques can be applied. This leads to the specification of a powerful framework for automatic semantic classification, as well as the derivation of several language model families with various smoothing properties. Because of their large-span nature, these language models are well suited to complement conventional n-grams. An integrative formulation is proposed for harnessing this synergy, in which the latent semantic information is used to adjust the standard n-gram probability. Such hybrid language modeling compares favorably with the corresponding n-gram baseline: experiments conducted on the Wall Street Journal domain show a reduction in average word error rate of over 20%. This paper concludes with a discussion of intrinsic tradeoffs, such as the influence of training data selection on the resulting performance.


A number of new treatment modalities for benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH) have been introduced in these days: for example, laser ablation, alpha-adrenergic blocker, antiandrogens, hyperthermia, stenting and balloon dilation. The author basically mentioned the personal experiences in some of these modalities, and gave a general review on their effectiveness and safety. Also pointed out were a variety of problems, important but sometimes ignored, in the evaluation of treatments for BPH, including severity grading of BPH, response criteria of effectiveness, method for proper selection of treatment.


The article investigates the problem of the presence of fraudulent behaviors in the Italian automobile insurance market. First of all the phenomenon is described by statistical data about the Italian insurance market. Secondly, the insurance fraud problem is analyzed considering the asymmetric information theory, and adverse selection and moral hazard categories; the traditional remedies in the economic theory are then considered in the particular case of insurance fraud. Particularly as remedy, monitoring procedure by the insurance companies and institutional policy instruments are examined. Finally, taking into account the US experience, some conclusions are drawn specifically for the Italian case.


There is much to be said on the limitations of the conventional Von Neumann processors and the available hardware organizations for database applications. Through research and development, several recent efforts have been in the investigation and development of new architectures and special prupose machines for supporting database applications. This panel aims to familiarize the attendants with 1) the motivations for works on data machines, 2) the objectives and characteristics of several categories of database machines, 3) the accomplishments made in this area of research and development, 4) the problems and current issues confronting the area, and 5) the impact of the current and future technologies on database management.


The importance of corporate governance increased after the 2008 financial crisis that affected the United States and worldwide. Its importance stems from its contribution to achieving economic development and overcoming financial crises. It improves economic efficiency and economic growth. The research focuses on the corporate governance rules and demonstrates the impact on financial reporting in Iraq. The relationship between corporate governance and financial performance received wide attention from researchers in the last decade. However, several researchers have investigated the connection in the past. The mixed findings of the research cast doubt on the notion of a direct and universal relationship between corporate governance rules and financial reporting. The researcher examines the issue to address the effect of corporate governance's rules on financial reporting issues in Iraq. The researchers use the descriptive and analytical approach in conducting the study. They collect the primary and secondary data using a questionnaire by distributing it to one hundred and fifty Board of Directors and executives serving the joint-stock companies listed on the Iraq Stock Exchange. The statistical analysis program (SPSS) analyzes the data and tests the hypotheses in analyzing data and testing. The study found a range of crucial results relating to the governance rules. The rules significantly enhance the quality of financial reports.


The study examines the effect of NAPEP loan on socioeconomic development of Ogun state. Structured questionnaire was used to collect data from small and medium scale entrepreneurs that operate within markets in the study area. Differences of means and Probit analyses were used to analyze data collected. The study revealed that there is no significant difference in the business worth of the loan beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries (p>0.05). The average expenditure on the dependants was significantly higher for the loan beneficiaries (p<0.05). The probability that a small or medium scale entrepreneur obtain NAPEP loan is positively influenced by age, years of experience and educational status. The probability of being a loan beneficiary was 0.74 the loan beneficiaries should be regularly enlightened on proper used of fund to avoid too much concentration on consumption expenditure at the detriment of their business expansion.


Only a minority of infants born with alpha(1)-antitrypsin deficiency will develop serious liver disease during childhood, mostly but not always after neonatal cholestasis. Early prognosis is difficult and all children have to be followed up carefully. The liver disease progresses with varying speed and it lacks specific features. At the time of liver transplantation the young patients have no pulmonary disease induced by the deficiency and in those with renal involvement, the kidney problems can mostly be dealt with by conservative therapy. The peri- and postoperative care of the patients who undergo liver transplantation does not differ from the usual routines.


An Atlas of Sigmoidoscopy and Cystoscopy-Brigitte E. Miller 2001-11-15 Physicians are used to treating medical problems as they arise. Patients don't usually go to a doctor unless they are feeling ill. But with the biomedical technology breakthroughs of the last few decades, the future of medicine has become proactive, and preventive health care will take center stage. Screening techniques, and the recommendations based on their results, will play a vital role. While no picture can replace experience and no book can replace good training and constant practice, An Atlas of Sigmoidoscopy and Cystoscopy provides key information on screening techniques that can significantly ameliorate or prevent many conditions from becoming serious. It allows non-specialists to gain some initial knowledge about sigmoidoscopy and cystoscopy, helping them to make appropriate referrals and recommendations, and give more patients access to screening exams. The author has assembled information from diverse sources. The words and pictures complement each other, presenting the fundamentals of critically important procedures. From the preoperative consents and other paperwork to intraoperative findings, An Atlas of Sigmoidoscopy and Cystoscopy fills a significant void on your shelf and in this field.


A quantum theory of degenerate four-wave mixing is presented in which the atomic medium consists of stationary four-level atoms, each with three degenerate excited states, and the interacting light beams are allowed to be in different states of polarization. This vector-field theory differs from the scalar-field theory of Reid and Walls [Phys. Rev. A 31, 1622 (1985)] in that there are new atomic variables in the Langevin equations which are related to the induced coherence between the upper atomic states. It is found, for the assumed set of atomic levels, that this seemingly different mechanism of four-wave-mixing gain does not circumvent the degrading effect of spontaneous emission on squeezing obtainable via degenerate four-wave mixing. The theory is applied to both forward and backward degenerate four-wave mixing with nearly collinear geometry, and specialized to the case in which the polarization states of the two pump modes are mutually orthogonal. It is found that for both forward and backward configurations, the range of pump intensity for which squeezing can be achieved in the vector-field case is larger than that in the scalar-field case, and the maximum amount of squeezing obtainable at a particular pump detuning is comparable in both cases.


Recognition of Indian language scripts is a challenging problem. Work for the development of complete OCR systems for Indian language scripts is still in infancy. Development of OCR systems has been completed for Devanagari and Bangla scripts in the recent past. Research in the field of recognition of Telugu script faces major problems mainly related to the touching and overlapping of characters. In this, paper we propose a testing mechanism for segmenting touching Telugu characters by using the drop fall algorithm. Initially the documents are added with different noises at different levels. Then these documents are cleaned by Modified IGT algorithm.


Hydrographic features in the Gulf of California are conducive to high productivity. Waters low in oxygen and high in nutrients are very shallow,and relatively little energy is required for these nutrients to reach the euphotic zone. Upwelling occurs on the west coast during summer and is much stronger on the east coast during winter and spring. Tidal mixing is strong in the northern and inner Gulf, mainly in the region of Angel de la Guarda and Tiburon Island. It seems that moderate turbulence in the Gulf results in higher assimilation of phytoplankton than strong turbulence or stratification. Reported integrated primary productivity values are commonly >1 gC · m-2 · day-1, and may reach >4 gC · m-2 · day-1. Phytoplankton abundance tends to increase from the mouth to the interior of the Gulf, and the highest reported abundances are in the Guaymas Basin (up to >3 106 cells · 1-1). But integrated primary productivity values for the southern region are similar to those for the northern region because of deeper euphotic zones in the south. Because primary productivity data are scarce, it is not possible to properly describe the seasonal or interannual variability, although it seems that highest primary productivity is during spring and at the beginning of summer. There is an intense phytoplankton patchiness and great changes with time in the Gulf. El Nino events apparently do not cause decreasing rimary productivity in the Gulf. In the central and northern Gulf, surface nutrient concentrations remain high during El Nino events because of strong upwelling and mixing phenomena associated with the tides. Possibly these events only affect the southern region of the Gulf, which behaves more like the open Pacific Ocean. End_Page 555------------------------


A study of doctor-patient relationships concerning older patients was carried out among general practitioners in German-speaking Switzerland. Information was sought by questionnaire on general practitioners' personal characteristics and characteristics of practice (independent variables), on attitudes and personality characteristics (intervening variables), and on consultation behavior (dependent variables). Findings indicated the effects of personal background factors, of personality characteristics, and of attitudes on consulting behavior of general practitioners vis-à-vis the elderly. A causal path analysis was carried out and showed that general practitioners' age (and what age stands for in terms of life events) and, to a lesser extent, proportion of elderly in the practice were important causal determinants in general practitioners' consulting behavior vis-à-vis the elderly. Other variables were also found to be significant as causal links; these included preventive orientation, attitude to the aged, extraversion, and conservatism. In conclusion, some practical implications are briefly discussed.


The study starts from premise that confused communication corresponds to confused knowing. It argues that in carrying out the essence of a confused knowledge, communication is done over the land ambiguity of language by two methods: convictive method and persuasive method.  None of them guarantees the path from the verisimilitude to truth. Instead, the path of the verisimilitude towards falseness always remains open. Figuratively, both are argumentative-discursive. The specificity of conviction is the orientation on the exclusivity of strict ethics of rational cogitation and existential affectivity. Persuasion is featured by using affective or "rationally" seductive arguments, either entirely on their own, or in combination with arguments and convictive procedures. Therefore, on the conviction side there is the process of intentionally rendering the verisimilitude with an ethical definitive foundation, and on the persuasion side there is the process of intentional pseudo-rendering the verisimilitude. Conviction aims at and leads to achieving the authentic truth. The persuasive approach causes verisimilitude.


Hydra feeding response is a very primitive olfactory-like behavior present in a multicellular organism. We investigated the role of nitric oxide (NO) in the induction and control of hydra feeding response. Under basal conditions, hydra specimens produce detectable amounts of nitrite (NO2−), the breakdown product of NO. When hydra were incubated with reduced glutathione (GSH), the typical activator of feeding response, an increase of basal NO production was observed. This effect was inhibited by glutamic or α-aminoadipic acids, two GSH antagonists, which block GSH-induced feeding response, and by the NO synthase (NOS) inhibitor l-NAME. Moreover, we found that hydra possess a calcium-dependent (but calmodulin-independent) NOS isoform. By using exogenous NO donors and NOS inhibitors, we demonstrated that NO stimulus can participate both in triggering tentacular movements and in recruiting neighbor tentacles during hydra feeding response. By using dbt2-cGMP, an analog to cGMP, we observed that the NO effect was independent of cGMP pathway. Our results strongly implicate NO involvement in hydra very primitive feeding behavior, thus confirming its preservation throughout evolution.


Abstract Soil moisture datasets at various scales are needed for sustainable land use and water management. The aim of this study was to compare soil moisture ocean salinity satellite and in situ soil moisture data for the Podlasie and Polesie regions in Eastern Poland. Both regions have similar climatic and topographic conditions but are different in land use, vegetation, and soil cover. The test sites were located on agricultural fields on sandy soils and natural vegetation on marshy soils that prevail in the Podlasie and Polesie regions, respectively. The soil moisture ocean salinity soil moisture data were obtained from radiometric measurements (1.4 GHz) and the ground soil moisture from sensors at a depth of 5 cm during the years 2010-2011. In general, temporal patterns of soil moisture from both satellite and ground measurements followed the rainfall trend. The regression coefficients, Bland-Altman analysis, concordance correlation coefficient, and total deviation index showed that the agreement between ground and soil moisture ocean salinity derived soil moisture data is better for the Podlasie than the Polesie region. The lower agreement in Polesie was attributed mostly to the presence of the widespread natural vegetation on the wetter marsh soil along with minor contribution of agriculturally used drier coarse-textured soils.


: It is found that nitrite-ions formed as a result of biotransformation during long term feeding of calves with sodium and potassium nitrates induce changes in some biochemical parameters of blood, including HS-glutathione content in erythrocytes, acid hemolytic resistance of erythrocytes, activity of NAD-dependent methemoglobin-reductase, correlation of ligand forms of hemoglobin and its total content. It is supposed that the observed changes are of an adaptational character and, as a whole, provide for the optimization of both quantitative and qualitative composition of population of erythroid cells at the expense of erythropoiesis intensification.


Gel electrophoresis was used to examine the variation in isozymes and dsRNA within and between the rust species Puccinia striiformis, P. recondita and P. hordei. No differences in isozyme phenotype were found among 29 diverse isolates of the wheat-attacking form of P. striiformis (WYR). Smaller numbers of isolates of the barley-attacking form (BYR) of P. recondita and of P. hordei showed similar intra-group uniformity. There were major differences in isozyme phenotypes between the three species, while WYR and BYR differed for two of 12 enzymes. Double-stranded RNA was detected in each species and in all 26 isolates examined. For WYR and BYR, all isolates within each group had the same or a similar phenotype. In contrast, each isolate of P. recondita and P. hordei had a unique phenotype. There were differences in dsRNA phenotypes both between the three species and between WYR and BYR.

The uniformity of these rust populations and species for isozyme phenotype is contrasted with their variability in pathogenicity and with the variability in isozymes encountered in higher organisms. Uniformity may result from a feature of the biology of the rust species and populations examined, or from the relative homogeneity of the environment of biotrophic pathogens. Consistent differences in isozyme and dsRNA phenotype between the WYR and BYR isolates of P. striiformis indicate that these are two discrete populations, supporting the view that they should be recognized as f.sp. tritici and f.sp. hordei, respectively.


The distribution (fine resolution depth profiles) of major nutrients, chlorophyll-a, organic compounds, and phytoplankton (biomass and numbers) was examined in lead water in pack ice of the Weddell Sea. Samples were taken by pulling water into a syringe from a series of depths from 0.002 to 4m. While concentrations of compounds of interest remained constant in the water column, an enhanced depletion of nutrients (ammonium, nitrate, silicate, and inorganic carbon) occurred above the pycnocline at 0.1m. Coinciding with this depletion was an increase of organic matter and chlorophyll. The change in carbon isotopic composition showed that an enhanced primary production occurred at the sea surface. Cell counts and nutrient disappearance ratios suggest that primary production was dominated by diatoms. These results show that the sea surface can have different chemical characteristics than the deeper water column. r 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


Microspheres have long been used in drug delivery applications because of their controlled release capabilities. They have increasingly served as the fundamental building block for fabricating scaffolds for regenerative engineering because of their ability to provide a porous network, offer high-resolution control over spatial organization, and deliver growth factors/drugs and/or nanophase materials. Because they provide physicochemical gradients via spatiotemporal release of bioactive factors and nanophase ceramics, microspheres are a desirable tool for engineering complex tissues and biological interfaces. In this review we describe various methods for microsphere fabrication and sintering, and elucidate how these methods influence both micro- and macroscopic scaffold properties, with a special focus on the nature of sintering. Furthermore, we review key applications of microsphere-based scaffolds in regenerating various tissues. We hope to inspire researchers to join a growing community of investigators using microspheres as tissue engineering scaffolds so that their full potential in regenerative engineering may be realized.


The use of solvent extraction or petroleum spirits to extract lipids (fats) from 172 samples of honey bee-collected pollens provided a range of lipid contents from 0% for Eucalyptus macrorhyncha to 11.2% for Hypochoeris radicata. The mean for all 172 samples, representing 61 species, was 2.52%. The mean from 31 endemic species was 1.78%, whereas the mean for 30 exotic species was 4.13%. When pollens from 1 species, Echium plantagineum, were extensively surveyed, the lipid levels could be predictably estimated, falling within a range of 0.6 to 2.46% and a mean of 1.6%. A number of pollens from particular species consistently showed high levels of lipids, which were observed to be highly favoured by foraging honey bees. The pollens noted to be particularly attractive to foraging honey bees included Brassica napus (mean 7.1%), Sisymbrium officinale (mean 5.8%), Rapistrum rugosum (mean 6%) and Hypochoeris radicata (mean 7.2%).


The effects of naloxone, an antagonist of opioid peptides, on circulating concentrations of luteinizing hormone (LH), testosterone, and growth hormone (GH) were determined in sexually mature boars. Blood samples were collected at 15-min intervals for three hr from five crossbred boars. Two hr after initiation of blood sampling, boars received an i.v. challenge of naloxone (1 mg/kg body weight; n=2) or 0.9% saline (n=3). Twenty-four hr later the experiment was repeated, but boars that previously received naloxone received saline and vice versa. A time by treatment interaction (p=0.09) was detected for concentrations of LH in serum, and levels of LH were greater (p<0.03) after treatment with naloxone compared to saline. Concentrations of testosterone in serum were affected by time (p<0.01), but not treatment (p= 0.59) or treatment by time (p=0.74). A treatment by time interaction (p=0.02) was detected for serum GH concentrations. Levels of GH increased in saline-treated boars (p<0.01), but not in boars receiving naloxone (p>0.1). Our results are consistent with the theory that opioid peptides suppress LH secretion and stimulate GH release in sexually mature boars.


Background and purpose Architecture of the cerebral network has been shown to associate with IQ in children with epilepsy. However, subject-level prediction on this basis, a crucial step toward harnessing network analyses for the benefit of children with epilepsy, has yet to be achieved. We compared two network normalization strategies in terms of their ability to optimize subject-level inferences on the relationship between brain network architecture and brain function. Materials and methods Patients with epilepsy and resting state fMRI were retrospectively identified. Brain network nodes were defined by anatomic parcellation, first in patient space (nodes defined for each patient) and again in template space (same nodes for all patients). Whole-brain weighted graphs were constructed according to pair-wise correlation of BOLD-signal time courses between nodes. The following metrics were then calculated: clustering coefficient, transitivity, modularity, path length, and global efficiency. Metrics computed on graphs in patient space were normalized to the same metric computed on a random network of identical size. A machine learning algorithm was used to predict patient IQ given access to only the network metrics. Results Twenty-seven patients (8–18 years) comprised the final study group. All brain networks demonstrated expected small world properties. Accounting for intrinsic population heterogeneity had a significant effect on prediction accuracy. Specifically, transformation of all patients into a common standard space as well as normalization of metrics to those computed on a random network both substantially outperformed the use of non-normalized metrics. Conclusion Normalization contributed significantly to accurate subject-level prediction of cognitive function in children with epilepsy. These findings support the potential for quantitative network approaches to contribute clinically meaningful information in children with neurological disorders.


Introduction: Nestin is a member of the class VI intermediate filaments and it was first described as a central nervous system (CNS) progenitor/stem cell marker. Nestin is highly expressed in various cancers and was recently reported as a tumor stem cell marker for glioblastoma and melanoma. Previously,we have reported that 30% of pancreatic cancer cases expressed nestin in cancer cells, and its expression correlated with nerve invasion and the presence of cancer cells in the tumor resection margins (Kawamoto, et al. Hum Pathol 2009). Knockdown of nestin exhibited a sheet-like appearance with tight cell-cell adhesion, increased expression of filamentous actin and E-cadherin, and attenuated migration and invasion (Matsuda, et al. Cancer Biol Ther 2011). These findings suggest that nestin is a novel therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer. In this study, we examined the effects of siRNA targeting nestin on pancreatic cancer cell growth migration, and invasion in vitro and in vivo. Methods: Two types of siRNA targeting nestin, which binds to different sites of nestin mRNA, were prepared and transfected to PANC-1 and PK-45H cells. Cell growth, migration, invasion and sphere formation abilities of these cells were analyzed in vitro. We also determined the synergistic effects of gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer cells under treatment with siRNA targeting nestin. For an in vivo study, we constructed luciferase-gene-transfected pancreatic cancer cells and orthotopically implanted the cells into the pancreas of NOD/Shi-scid/IL-2Rγ null (NOG) mice. We injected siRNA into the tail vein of NOG mice once per week with Invivofectamine. Every week, luciferin was injected into the peritoneal cavity of NOG mice and images of primary and metastases were taken using IVIS. After 6 weeks, animals were sacrificed, and the primary and metastatic tumors were macro and microscopically examined. Results: siRNA targeting nestin inhibited the growth, migration, invasion and sphere-forming ability of both PANC-1 and PK-45H cells. Treatment with gemcitabine, in addition to the treatment with siRNA targeting nestin in pancreatic cancer cells, decreased cell viability as compared with only gemcitabine, siRNA targeting nestin or control siRNA- treated pancreatic cancer cells. In the orthotopic implantation model, siRNA targeting nestin significantly decreased primary tumor formation in the pancreas, as compared with negative control siRNA groups. Furthermore, nestin siRNA markedly suppressed the formation of metastatic nodules in the liver and lungs. Conclusion: In pancreatic cancer cells, siRNA targeting nestin inhibited cell growth, migration, invasion and sphere formation in vitro, and primary tumor growth and metastatic tumor formation in vivo. Furthermore, siRNA targeting nestin had synergistic effects with gemcitabine. Inhibition of nestin using siRNA may be a novel therapeutic optiont for pancreatic cancer treatment. Citation Format: Toshiyuki Ishiwata, Hisashi Yoshimura, Taeko Suzuki, Yuji Yanagisawa, Yoko Kawamoto, Kiyoko Kawahara, Zenya Naito, Murray Korc, Yoko Matsuda. Inhibition of nestin using siRNA as a novel therapeutic option for pancreatic cancer. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 249. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-249


Abstract In 2 experiments, the influence of intention to process frequency on accuracy of memory for frequency of bizarre and common sentences was investigated. The results from multiple regression analyses indicated that intentional processing increased the accuracy of frequency judgments when memory for frequency was tested after a 2-min (Experiment 1) and after a 48-hr (Experiment 2) retention interval. Furthermore, the results of Experiment 2 indicated that unintentional processors tended to overestimate frequencies of bizarre relative to common items after a delay. The implications of the results are discussed with regard to L. Hasher and R. T. Zacks's (1984) automaticity hypothesis, human performance, and the accuracy of judgments of frequency of occurrence of unusual events.


Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore mental health difficulties, including risk and protective factors, which may impact on symptom severity after exposure to crisis situations (war, terrorism and/or natural disasters), among first responders from uniformed services.

Design/methodology/approach
Peer-reviewed journal articles published in English between January 2012 and March 2022 were searched in ProQuest, Wiley, Google Scholar and PubMed databases. In total, 12 articles were obtained from an original screening of 94,058 articles. Full article texts were screened for content and quality by two reviewers, with high agreeability.

Findings
Post-traumatic stress disorder and depression were the most common diagnoses. Risk factors identified were pre-deployment factors of overweight, low cognitive ability and social support, existing emotional difficulties, negative childhood experiences and stressful life events; during crisis situations factors of higher frequency and subjective severity of combat, increased rates of combat stress reaction, high levels of concerns for life and family, more stressful mission position, threat of death/severe injury and high rate of killing the enemy; and post-deployment factors, such as low social support and physical health, lack of coping mechanisms and use of avoidance strategies and social stigma. Protective factors increasing resilience and lessening symptom severity were reported as pre-deployment cognitive ability, high social support, stable physical health, effective coping, post-traumatic growth and high levels of perceived adequacy in pre-deployment preparation and training. In addition to main findings, data about author(s), publication type, population, age, type of crisis and evaluation measures were extracted. Key findings and related theories, gaps in literature and recommendations are discussed.

Originality/value
As yet, however, research into the factors that could serve as risk and/or protective factors are not clearly indicated in terms of post-crisis recovery. As per the authors' knowledge, this study is an initial approach to considering this area.


BackgroundLegionella pneumonia has a fatality rate of 28%.Methodsmicroscope, fluorescence Quantitative Polymerase Chain Reaction (qPCR), force mathematical analysis.Results and ConclusionThe transmission mode of Legionella from its source was analyzed by microscope and qPCR. The Legionella removal efficiency by a membrane composed of water molecules was 94.5%, and Legionella had difficulty in penetrating through the surface of the water membrane. A deflection point at the interface between water and air indicated a cluster of Legionella that was bonded to the contact surface by some unknown emplastic media. Force analysis showed that the surface tension of water is 106 orders of magnitude larger than the net force from the sum of the buoyancy and the weight of Legionella, and revealed that the surface tension of water is so large that a Legionella bacterium cannot break away from the water surface membrane and escape. The qPCR results showed that no Legionella was found in the air from a Legionella incubator or the Legionella laboratory. The results demonstrate that Legionella cannot be transmitted to people through water vapor or aerosol. The experimental results also indicate that water was able to remove most Legionella bacteria.


Abnormal event detection in videos is a challenging problem, partly due to the multiplicity of abnormal patterns and the lack of their corresponding annotations. In this paper, we propose new constrained pretext tasks to learn object level normality patterns. Our approach consists in learning a mapping between down-scaled visual queries and their corresponding normal appearance and motion characteristics at the original resolution. The proposed tasks are more challenging than reconstruction and future frame prediction tasks which are widely used in the literature, since our model learns to jointly predict spatial and temporal features rather than reconstructing them. We believe that more constrained pretext tasks induce a better learning of normality patterns. Experiments on several benchmark datasets demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach to localize and track anomalies as it outperforms or reaches the current state-of-the-art on spatio-temporal evaluation metrics.


Fungi can modify the pH in or around the infected site via alkalization or acidification, and pH monitoring may provide valuable information on host-fungus interactions. The objective of the present study was to examine the ability of two fungi, Colletotrichum coccodes and Helminthosporium solani, to modify the pH of potato tubers during artificial inoculation in situ. Both fungi cause blemishes on potato tubers, which downgrades tuber quality and yield. Direct visualization and estimation of pH changes near the inoculation area were achieved using pH indicators and image analysis. The results showed that the pH of the area infected by either fungus increased from potato native pH of approximately 6.0 to 7.4 to 8.0. By performing simple analysis of the images, it was also possible to derive the growth curve of each fungus and estimate the lag phase of the radial growth: 10 days for C. coccodes and 17 days H. solani. In addition, a distinctive halo (an edge area with increased pH) was observed only during the lag phase of H. solani infection. pH modulation is a major factor in pathogen-host interaction and the proposed method offers a simple and rapid way to monitor these changes.


Islamic economics is based on the piety based economy. The piety based economy is reflected in a Muslim's faith in the unseen, establishing prayers, spending part of his wealth fi sabilillah, believing in the Quran and the holy books of Allah which was revealed before the Prophet Muhammad, and believed in the afterlife. Because getting guidance from Allah, in the end, they benefit the world and the hereafter, including fortunate in planning household finances. By using descriptive analysis methods, this study will uncover and produce patterns of consumption, saving considerations, investment and final spending that are ideal for the financial planning of Muslim households.


In the last few years, there has been a significant increase in population growth all over the world, particularly in the developing world. This has been accompanied by intensive urbanization, increased industrial activities and a greater exploitation of forested and cultivable land. These transformations have provoked a large increase both in the quantity of discharge and the range of pollutants that could reach the river waters and have undesirable effects both on fish and fisheries. River Kabul is the source of drinking, watering live stock, irrigation and fishing for million of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan. River Kabul is used as a source of live lihood for thousands of fishermen living along the bank of the river. A tremendous fish decline has been occurred in the recent past as been reported by the Fisheries Department of the Province. Aim of study was to quantify the quality and quantity of pollutants casing havoc in the inhabitant fish population. For this purpose a study was carried out by the Department of Zoology, University of the Punjab to sort out the remedy.


Temporally extended and sequenced robot motion tasks are often characterized by discontinuous switches between different types of local dynamics. These change-points can be exploited to build approximate models of the interleaving regions, which in turn allow the design of region-specific controllers. These can then be combined to create the initiation state-space of a final policy. However, such a pipeline can become challenging to implement for combinatorially complex, temporarily extended tasks especially so when sub-controllers work on different information streams, time scales and action spaces. In this paper, we introduce a method that can compose diverse policies based on scripted motion planning, dynamic motion primitives and neural networks. In order to do this, we extend the options framework to introduce a per-option dynamics module and a global function that evaluates a goal metric. Additionally, we can leverage expert demonstrations to sequence these local policies, converting the learning problem in hierarchical reinforcement learning to a planning problem at inference time. We first illustrate the core concepts with an MDP benchmark, and then with a physical gear assembly task solved on a PR2 robot. We show that the proposed approach successfully discovers the optimal sequence of policies and solves both tasks efficiently.


Vehicles connected to each other through an ad-hoc system form a wireless network called vehicular ad- hoc network (VANET).VANET is a special kind of communication network which transfers data from vehicle to infrastructure (V2I) as well as vehicle to vehicle (V2V).In VANET, Road Side unit (RSU) acts as wireless LAN access point and it provide communication with infrastructure. In the existing system RSU act as server which transfer the packet to the vehicles through an antenna. Vehicular Backbone Network (VBN) is the network in which the vehicles are self elected as Relay Node (RN) and RN forward the packet to neighboring vehicles in one dimensional highway. The proposed work enhance the throughput capacity for two dimensional highways, here vehicles are self elected as Relay node (RN) based on their location but RSU has two folds which will send and receive the packet from vehicles. Based on the dynamic formation of a multi-hop backbone network the event that has occurred in roads are transmitted to RSU. Vehicles are equipped with a sensor that detects the road accidents and informs to nearest RSU via the VBN. In enhanced VBN, the network is constructed along various directions according to road path. The throughput between vehicle and RSU is increased as well as packet drops are reduced.


Based on the Excellent Engineer Education and Training Program, aiming at the problems existing in the teaching method of "process parameter measurement and instrumentation" at present, focusing on the train of engineering practicing ability and innovation ability, this paper and around the train of thought of engineering practice ability and innovation ability, this paper puts forward the reform measures of classroom teaching methods including teachers' engineering practice knowledge, utilization of open laboratories and practice bases, and methods of cultivating students' continuous learning ability, so as to lay a solid theoretical and practical foundation for training excellent engineers. The award-winning data proves that these measures are in line with the excellent engineers training target and meet the requirements for students' engineering practice ability and innovation ability.


In this paper, we introduce a novel concept for learning of the parameters in a neural network. Our idea is grounded on modeling a learning problem that addresses a trade-off between (i) satisfying local objectives at each node and (ii) achieving desired data propagation through the network under (iii) local propagation constraints. We consider two types of nonlinear transforms which describe the network representations. One of the nonlinear transforms serves as activation function. The other one enables a locally adjusted, deviation corrective components to be included in the update of the network weights in order to enable attaining target specific representations at the last network node. Our learning principle not only provides insight into the understanding and the interpretation of the learning dynamics, but it offers theoretical guarantees over decoupled and parallel parameter estimation strategy that enables learning in synchronous and asynchronous mode. Numerical experiments validate the potential of our approach on image recognition task. The preliminary results show advantages in comparison to the state-of-the-art methods, w.r.t. the learning time and the network size while having competitive recognition accuracy.


Direct absorption of UVB light by DNA may induce formation of cyclobutane pyrimidine dimers and pyrimidine-pyrimidone (6-4) photoproducts. The latter arise from the rearrangement of unstable oxetane intermediates, which have also been proposed to be the electron acceptor species in the photoenzymatic repair of this type of DNA damage. In the present work, direct photolysis of oxetanes composed of substituted uracil (Ura) or thymine (Thy) derivatives and benzophenone (BP) have been investigated by means of transient absorption spectroscopy from the femtosecond to the microsecond time-scales. The results showed that photoinduced oxetane cleavage takes place through an adiabatic process leading to the triplet excited BP and the ground state nucleobase. This process was markedly affected by the oxetane regiochemistry (head-to-head, HH, vs. head-to-tail, HT) and by the nucleobase substitution; it was nearly quantitative for all investigated HH-oxetanes while it became strongly influenced by the substitution at positions 1 and 5 for the HT-isomers. The obtained results clearly confirm the generality of the adiabatic photoinduced cleavage of BP/Ura or Thy oxetanes, as well as its dependence on the regiochemistry, supporting the involvement of triplet exciplexes. As a matter of fact, when formation of this species was favored by keeping together the Thy and BP units after splitting by means of a linear linker, a transient absorption at ∼400 nm, ascribed to the exciplex, was detected.


We describe a new technique for measuring the refractive index change associated with the photoinduced absorption change in photochromic materials. The technique involves writing a thick holographic grating in a sample of the material and observing the interaction of the grating with the beams used to write it. Only three relative intensity measurements are required, and many of the difficulties of previous techniques are avoided. We have demonstrated the technique in experiments on a photodimer material. These experiments also provide an example of a modulated transmission effect related to the Borrmann effect.


In the paper basic investigations for the nondestructive quality testing methods for MEMS (micro-electro- mechanical systems) are presented that can be applied on wafer level in early stage of the manufacturing process. The dynamic measurements of test specimen are performed by laser-Doppler-vibrometry (LDV). Finite element (FE) models with different specifications are created to identify parameters from the measured eigenfrequency values. Different aspects of the numerical results and of experimental investigations of dynamic properties are presented for pressure sensor test structures. Results of identification of one and more parameters are shown.


Background Although the association between the presence of diabetes mellitus and the development of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) is well known, the role of novel biomarkers in predicting the development of DVT in diabetic patients is not yet known to a large extent. Studies have shown that complete blood count (CBC) and CBC-derived parameters such as neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio (NLR) and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) can be used as surrogate markers to detect DVT. This study was conducted to assess the utility of NLR and PLR as a marker of DVT in diabetic patients. Methodology This case-control study was conducted among a calculated sample size of 109 DVT patients in one arm and 109 non-DVT patients in another arm. Hematological tests including total leucocyte count, differential leucocyte count, total neutrophil count, total lymphocyte count, total platelet count, NLR, and PLR were performed. Results We found a significant difference in NLR and PLR between the DVT and the non-DVT groups. In addition, we found that NLR and PLR were significantly higher in the diabetic group, indicating the presence of inflammation in association with diabetes mellitus. Analysis of the receiver operating characteristic curve showed that at a cut-off value of 2.83, NLR can detect DVT in diabetic patients with 67% sensitivity and 92% specificity. Similarly, PLR at a cut-off value of 131.46 can detect DVT in diabetic patients with 56% sensitivity and 90% specificity. Conclusions We conclude that NLR and PLR are novel inflammatory markers that can help in the early detection of DVT in diabetic patients.


The occurrence of eosinophilic cells or Charcot-Leyden crystals in the mucus of stools has been occasionally reported almost ever since Ehrlich first described the eosinophil in 1879. They have been found with greatest frequency in cases of parasitic disease, especially amebiasis and hookworm disease, and in the latter condition the finding has been reported to be almost a constant one. It has also been known for a long time that they may occur in certain non-parasitic conditions, notably mucous colitis. But the great variability of the intestinal eosinophilia in cases otherwise entirely similar has made the finding rather a clinical enigma than a sign of any diagnostic importance. For this reason Schmidt 2 has considered it inadvisable to attempt any grouping of cases on this basis. In his opinion eosinophils may occur in varying numbers in intestinal mucus in almost any type of colitis. In a few cases, however,


Home-assistant robots have been a long-standing research topic, and one of the biggest challenges is searching for required objects in housing environments. Previous object-goal navigation requires the robot to search for a target object category in an unexplored environment, which may not be suitable for home-assistant robots that typically have some level of semantic knowledge of the environment, such as the location of static furniture. In our approach, we leverage this knowledge and the fact that a target object may be located close to its related objects for efficient navigation. To achieve this, we train a graph neural network using the Visual Genome dataset to learn the object co-occurrence relationships and formulate the searching process as iteratively predicting the possible areas where the target object may be located. This approach is entirely zero-shot, meaning it doesn't require new accurate object correlation in the test environment. We empirically show that our method outperforms prior correlational object search algorithms. As our ultimate goal is to build fully autonomous assistant robots for everyday use, we further integrate the task planner for parsing natural language and generating task-completing plans with object navigation to execute human instructions. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposed pipeline in both the AI2-THOR simulator and a Stretch robot in a real-world environment.


The state-of-the-art in boron chemistry, the characteristic features of boron compounds and crystalline phases based on them, the chemical bonds in these compounds and their electronic structures are considered. The physical principles of X-ray spectroscopy and the results it provided on the chemical structures of boron compounds and the nature of chemical bonds in them are discussed. Data for X-ray photoelectron and ultraviolet photoelectron spectroscopies for various elemental boron modifications, boron oxide phases, borides, nitrides, halides, derivatives of boron hydrides and carboranes, as well as metalloboranes are compared.


Relatively small data sets available for expression recognition research make the training of deep networks very challenging. Although fine-tuning can partially alleviate the issue, the performance is still below acceptable levels as the deep features probably contain redundant information from the pretrained domain. In this paper, we present FaceNet2ExpNet, a novel idea to train an expression recognition network based on static images. We first propose a new distribution function to model the high-level neurons of the expression network. Based on this, a two-stage training algorithm is carefully designed. In the pre-training stage, we train the convolutional layers of the expression net, regularized by the face net; In the refining stage, we append fully-connected layers to the pre-trained convolutional layers and train the whole network jointly. Visualization results show that the model trained with our method captures improved high-level expression semantics. Evaluations on four public expression databases, CK+, Oulu- CASIA, TFD, and SFEW demonstrate that our method achieves better results than state-of-the-art.


Fourteen premenopausal women participated in a randomized, crossover controlled feeding study of three diets, each two menstrual cycles long. We compared a high saturated fat Western diet (control diet) with two other diets: the control diet plus soy protein (soy diet) and the control diet with polyunsaturated fat (PUFA diet) replacing most of the saturated fat. We measured reproductive and serum hormones, urinary estrogen metabolites and isoflavonoids, and menstrual cycle length. In the follicular phase, prolactin concentrations significantly decreased by 3.6 μg/dl (P = 0.047), follicle-stimulating hormone concentrations slightly increased by 0.1 IU/l (P = 0.076), and cortisol concentrations slightly decreased by 81.8 nmol/l (P = 0.088) with the PUFA diet vs. the control diet. The soy diet slightly increased menstrual cycle length by 1.8 ± 0.7 days (P = 0.088) and significantly increased (P < 0.0001) urinary isoflavonoid excretion. These well-controlled diets did not affect serum estrogens or urinary estrogen metabolites, suggesting that type of fat or consumption of soy with a high saturated fat diet may not alter breast cancer risk by these mechanisms.


A scheme is proposed for increasing the sampling rate of analogue-to-digital conversion by more than an order of magnitude by combining state-of-the-art A/D converters with photonic technology. Ultra-high speed sampling is performed optically by a multiwavelength pulse train. Wavelength demultiplexers convert the high repetition rate data stream of samples into parallel data streams that can be handled by available electronic A/D converters.


Groups that are a generalization of magnetic groups, and called 'spin groups', are defined. Among the spin groups those called 'spin translation groups' are tabulated and described in some detail. The possible magnetic reflexions of unpolarized neutrons elastically scattered from a single crystal whose spin arrangement is invariant under a spin translation group are also tabulated. It is shown how by using these tables and considering the indices of magnetic reflexions one can obtain information on the mutual orientation of non-collinear spins without making any assumptions on the rotational symmetry of the spin arrangement. As an example of this, the neutron diffraction data of the 'umbrella' spin arrangement of CrSe is reanalysed.


We construct quantum gate entanglers for different classes of multipartite states based on the definition of W and GHZ concurrence classes. First, we review the basic construction of concurrence classes based on the orthogonal complement of a positive operator valued measure (POVM) on quantum phase. Then, we construct quantum gate entanglers for different classes of multi-qubit states. In particular, we show that these operators can entangle multipartite states if they satisfy some conditions for W and GHZ classes of states. Finally, we explicitly give the W class and GHZ classes of quantum gate entanglers for four-qubit states.


Aim: The purpose of this study is to evaluate the change in shoulder joint position sense (JPS) in patients with superior labrum anterior posterior (SLAP) lesion treated conservatively and to compare with healthy contralateral shoulder and healthy subjects. Material and Methods: We evaluated JPS at 30°-60°-90°-120° with isokinetic dynamometer (Cybex Norm, Ronkokoma, NC) in 17 patients diagnosed with SLAP tear. The mean age of patients was 36.2 (21-45). Pre and postoperative age, weight and VAS scores were recorded. The data was compared with contralateral shoulder and healthy subjects. Results: The mean age of patients and healthy subjects were 36.3±9.1 and 31.1±7.8; respectively (p>0.05). Mean VAS score of involved shoulder was 5.5±1.6 and was found to be statistically higher compared to contralateral shoulder and healthy subjects (p<0.05). There was no statistically significant difference in JPS at 30°-60°-90°and 120° (p>0.05). Conclusions: Isolated SLAP lesion doesn't have a significant impact on JPS. This may rule out the proprioception specific rehabilitation in patients with SLAP lesion.


Freshwater reserves are being depleted at a rapid rate due to population growth, economic development, and water use across different sectors. Desalination can be used to address the growing demand for fresh water, but the high salinity byproduct of this process, referred to as brine, must be managed. This has led to a push towards zero liquid discharge (ZLD) to maximize water recovery by treating the brine close to saturation. To this end, we present air gap diffusion distillation (AGDD) as a thermally driven and membrane-less process that can achieve ZLD with minimal scaling/fouling on polymeric heat transfer surfaces. In this work, we evaluate the performance of AGDD in terms of the water flux (permeate collected) and energy consumption (gain output ratio). A coupled heat and mass transfer model is developed to simulate brine concentration from a salinity of 70,000 mg/L up to near ZLD conditions in a counterflow operation for latent heat recovery. In addition, a parametric study is performed to understand the impact of flowrate, inlet temperature, salinity, and surface area on the overall performance. The development of such a modular brine concentration process has the potential to enable widespread deployment of desalination in inland regions.


Abstract Oxytocin has anxiolytic properties whose mechanisms of action are still being identified. DNA methylation in the promoter region of the oxytocin receptor gene (OXTR), an epigenetic modification that putatively reflects a downtuning of the oxytocin system, has previously been implicated in the regulation of fear‐related responses through the amygdala. In this study, we attempted to characterize the relationship between methylation of OXTR and anxiogenesis using two distinct endophenotypes: autonomic nervous system activity and subcortical brain structure. In 79 participants, we found that increased OXTR methylation is associated with attenuated resting parasympathetic tone, measured using high‐frequency heart rate variability. Further, we found that this relationship is mediated by brain morphology, such that OXTR methylation is associated with increased gray matter of the central amygdala which is, in turn, associated with decreased parasympathetic tone. These results further our understanding of epigenetic regulation of the human oxytocin system and its role in anxiogenesis.


Today, more than two and a half thousand compounds are known that are used in the production of food products. This is usually done to increase the preservation and storage period and improve organoleptic parameters. However, some of these toxic compounds may inadvertently enter food through packaging material and technological additives. Residues of toxic chemicals and industrial pollutants in food are a serious problem for a healthy body, which can lead to oncogenetic processes. Among such persistent organic pollutants are organochlorine pesticides, polychlorinated biphenyls, as well as by-products of chemical production and combustion processes, such as dioxins and furans. One of the most toxic pesticides is the organochlorine pesticide γ-isomer of hexachlorocyclohexane (C6H6Cl6). Pure hexachlorocyclohexane is a hydrophobic white powder with a crystalline structure that has strong acid-resistant parameters. To date, it is known for sure that hexachlorocyclohexane is a polytropic toxic chemical that primarily affects the central and autonomic nervous system of mammals. Hexachlorocyclohexane has been widely used in agriculture for pest control. Now the substance is banned everywhere. This article is devoted to the effect of hexachlorocyclohexane on the human body.


In Japan, Phytophthora colocasiae causes the leaf blight of taro, which has resulted in huge losses since 2015. To investigate the causes of disease persistence and expansion, it is important to clarify the basic properties of this pathogen. We collected in total 317 P. colocasiae isolates from 99 fields in 7 prefectures during 2014 to 2020. The mating-type of each isolate was examined, and two or more isolates which were collected in single fields or taro leaves were selected to analyze the mating-type complexity. We found five kinds of mating types were identified: heterothallic A1 and A2, self-fertile (SF) A1, A2 and A1/A2 types, and a complex and diverse distribution of mating-types was present in one field or leaf. In addition, the stability of each mating-type was analyzed by single hyphae, zoospore and zoosporangium. The results suggested that the SF isolates were shown to be genetically unstable, while heterothallic isolates had a stable property. In the pathogenicity test of different mating-type isolates, heterothallic A1 isolates were less pathogenic than heterothallic A2 and SF isolates. However, there was no relationship between the pathogenicity and the growth rate on culture medium.


The article considers psychic self-direction of behavior, learning and professional activity of Humanities University students from the perspective of systematic and structural approach. A psychological model of self-direction has been provided. Self-adjustment components as well as personality characteristics comprising self-direction of young student behavior and activities at different stages of their studies have been considered.


The requirement of the linewidth of semiconductor lasers used in coherent optical communication systems is very stringent. DFB semiconductor lasers operating in the free-running state in the longer-wavelength region typically have lens of megahertz linewidths, which are still too wide to be useful. The electrical negative feedback control of the laser frequency has been proposed as one method for narrowing the linewidth. A 200-kHz linewidth of 1.5-μm DFB lasers has been achieved by using this scheme.1


Abstract:Indigenous Andean and Mapuche women who converged in Santiago de Chile during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries enacted varied social and religious practices to navigate the complexities of this colonial urban space. The act of writing or dictating a legal document, such as a last will or testament, represents an early form of the uses and adaptations of hegemonic means by subaltern subjects. By focusing on the cases of Andean and Mapuche women who migrated to the city of Santiago, I argue that the urban production of testaments was modified by both gender and ethnicity, and Indigenous women's agency.


Modern mobile devices and networks facilitate the development of increasingly graphical mobile GIS applications. We advance the field with the HYDROSYS system, a heterogeneous platform integrating multiple data sources and components. Our key contributions are 1) scalable on-the-fly streaming of environmental sensor data, 2) highly graphical mixed reality representations, 3) access to near real time simulations and other physically-based computations, 4) support for semantically meaningful public participation and 5) integration of the heterogeneous system, balancing the use of standardized formats and optimized mobile transmissions. Our complex system builds on use cases ranging from hydrological professionals and municipal authorities to the environmentally-aware public. We present the challenges, solutions and implementation of the system, providing observations on potential bottlenecks and other issues.


We report the generation of nonclassical narrowband photon pairs via the spontaneous four-wave mixing process in a cold Rubidium (87Rb) cloud prepared in a magneto-optical trap. The generated photon pairs exhibit strong violation of the Cauchy-Schwarz inequality by a factor of 625 ± 45, confirming nonclassical correlation between the photons. The biphoton wave packets, measured for several different experimental conditions, are in good agreement with the theoretical results.


We examine the effects of information and communications technology (ICT) on international trade in emerging markets. Using panel data for forty emerging market economies (EMEs) from 1995 to 2010, we estimate fixed effects models of exports and imports with ICT as the main explanatory variable of interest. The empirical results overwhelmingly suggest that Internet subscriptions and Internet hosts have significant positive effects on both exports and imports in EMEs. Thus, the trade-enhancing effect of ICT does not depend on ICT infrastructure or ICT capability per se but on its use. This result is robust to a number of sensitivity checks.