Weeds cause huge losses due to their competition with crops. Intercropping of wheat ( Triticum aestivum L.) with canola ( Brassica napus L.) under different spatial arrangements was evaluated for their effects on weeds and interaction between the crops at the Agronomic Research Area, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan, during 2009-2010. The treatments included wheat (line sowing), canola (line sowing), wheat (broadcast method), one row of wheat + one row of canola (30 cm apart), two rows of wheat + two rows of canola (45 cm apart), four rows of wheat + four rows of canola (75 cm apart) and mixed cropping of wheat + canola (broadcast method). The results revealed that all intercropping treatments significantly affected weed density and dry weight over component sole crop of wheat. Mixed cropping of wheat + canola suppressed dry weight of Phalaris minor Retz., Chenopodium album L., Rumex dentatus L., and Coronopus didymus L. by 94, 77.2, 77.4, and 92%, respectively, over sole crop of wheat. The other intercropping treatments like one row of wheat + one row of canola, two rows of wheat + two rows of canola, and four rows of wheat + four rows of canola generally suppressed total dry weight of weeds by 81, 74, and 76%, respectively. Four rows of wheat + four rows of canola gave the highest land-equivalent ratios 1.37 and net benefit Rs 93 543 followed by two rows of wheat + two rows of canola. It is suggested that wheat-canola intercropping system in agro ecological conditions of Faisalabad could enhance land-equivalent ratio > 1 (over-yielding) by suppressing weeds.


We introduce BERTphone, a Transformer encoder trained on large speech corpora that outputs phonetically-aware contextual representation vectors that can be used for both speaker and language recognition. This is accomplished by training on two objectives: the first, inspired by adapting BERT to the continuous domain, involves masking spans of input frames and reconstructing the whole sequence for acoustic representation learning; the second, inspired by the success of bottleneck features from ASR, is a sequence-level CTC loss applied to phoneme labels for phonetic representation learning. We pretrain two BERTphone models (one on Fisher and one on TED-LIUM) and use them as feature extractors into x-vector-style DNNs for both tasks. We attain a state-of-the-art $C_{\text{avg}}$ of 6.16 on the challenging LRE07 3sec closed-set language recognition task. On Fisher and VoxCeleb speaker recognition tasks, we see an 18% relative reduction in speaker EER when training on BERTphone vectors instead of MFCCs. In general, BERTphone outperforms previous phonetic pretraining approaches on the same data. We release our code and models at https://github.com/awslabs/speech-representations.


We demonstrate a 3D imaging system that produces sparse depth maps. It consists in a liquid focus-tunable lens whose focal power can be changed at high speed, placed in front of a SCAMP5 vision-chip embedding processing capabilities in each pixel. The focus-tunable lens performs focal sweeps with shallow depth of fields. These are sampled by the vision chip taking multiple images at different focus and analyzed on-chip to produce a single depth frame. The combination of the focus tunable-lens with the vision-chip, enabling near-focal plane processing, allows us to present a compact passive system that is static, monocular, real-time (> 25FPS) and low-power (< 1.6W).


Online Social Networks (OSNs) are nowadays being used widely and intensively for crime investigation and prevention activities. As they provide a lot of information they are used by the law enforcement and intelligence. An extensive review on existing solutions and models for collecting intelligence from this source of information and making use of it for solving crimes has been presented in this article. The main focus is on smart solutions and models where ontologies have been used as the main approach for representing criminal domain knowledge. A framework for a prototype ontology named SC-Ont will be described. This defines terms of the criminal domain ontology and the relations between them. The terms and the relations are extracted during both this review and the discussions carried out with domain experts. The development of SC-Ont is still ongoing work, where in this paper, we report mainly on the motivation for using smart ontology models and the possible benefits of using them for solving crimes. Keywords—Criminal digital evidence, social media, ontologies, reasoning.


This paper aims to expose the  students' ability to write a simple passage. To get the data needed, the writer asked them to write a simple paragraph of Indonesian consisting of five sentences and translate it into English. To analyze their writings, he gave three codes on their writings (italic, bold, and underline words). Their errors on writing were classified on the basis of Dulay, Burt Krashen's (1982) four types of surface strategy taxonomy consisting of omission, addition, misformation and misordering. The results reveal that the students made 33 omission, 32 addition, 9 misformation, and 8 misordering errors. So, they still have difficulties to write a paragraph. Therefore, teaching and learning process of writing subject should teach students to be able to write acceptable, efficient and effective paragraphs.


ABSTRACT Experimental work has shown that Boron (i.e., Boric acid, B) is an essential and multifunctional microelement for vascular plant development. In addition to its other functions, which include xylem development and lignin biosynthesis, we now know that B is involved in phytohormone-signaling and influences the mechanical properties of intercellular pectins. From these data, we conclude that B played an important role during the evolutionary development of lignified tissues, and that it may have been involved in the evolution of vascular plant roots, as hypothesized by D. H. Lewis in 1980. Herein, we review the data pertaining to Lewis' hypothesis, present experimental results on the role of B in root (vs. rhizoid) formation in sunflower vs. a liverwort, and describe the appearance of roots in the fossil record. Open questions are addressed, notably the lack of our knowledge concerning soil microbes and their interactive roles with the micronutrient B during root formation.


Most occupational accidents victims among young workers do not receive safety education or training before or the standard safety training education is not effective. Therefore, the purpose of this prospective research is to highlight the importance of integration safety curricula into hands on laboratories learning for young adults during their tertiary education particularly involve in technical and vocational education. This research is proposed to ensure young adults particularly Generation Y are equipped with the basic safety knowledge and safety precaution to avoid any occupational accident and also work related diseases before exposing themselves to the real situation.


Subcutaneous nodules, composed of necrotic collagen surrounded by chronic inflammatory cells, occur in about 20% of individuals with rheumatoid arthritis, 10% of those with acute rheumatic fever, and 25% of children with granuloma annulare. Similar subcutaneous lesions indistinguishable from rheumatoid nodules may appear in children who do not develop other stigmata of disease. Mesara and ous lesions of granuloma annulare. Therefore, they felt that, in children, these nodules probably represented a clinical variant of granuloma annulare. Beatty3 described nine children aged 11 days to 9 years with nodules on the scalp, ulnar aspect of the arm, dorsum of the foot, and palm of the hand which appeared histologically to be rheumatoid nodules.


This article describes a new type of expert system that retrieves images of existing industrial products using a sketched image drawn by a designer on the basis of artistic industry designs. In this method, sketched images are applied to an artistic design system for industrial products so that designers can conceive actual images of completed products and their applications, referring to practical products which have been realized before. Image retrieval is carried out by comparing the sketched image to the images of allied products. In a series of studies, the success rate was as high as 75-78%, thus confirming the applicability of this system. This concept is expected to be applied to the artistic design of industrial products. Examples are given for the following products: a vase, garments, and shoes.


Defra has announced that Prof Rosemary Hails of the Centre for Ecology & Hydrology (CEH) has been appointed by Defra Minister Lord de Mauley as the new chair of the Government's Advisory Committee on Releases to the Environment (ACRE).

Prof Hails is the Science Director for Biodiversity and Ecosystem Science at CEH and is a current member of ACRE. Her personal research interests include the trade-offs between provisioning and other ecosystem services from agricultural land, the valuation of ecosystem services, the persistence and transmission of insect pathogens, exploiting pathogens for biocontrol, the role of pathogens in regulating insect and plant populations, population ecology of feral crop plants and the risk assessment of genetically modified plants and viruses.

She is chair of the Natural Capital Initiative, a visiting professor at Oxford Brookes University, and a member of the Natural Capital Committee, which reports to the Economic Affairs Committee. She was awarded an MBE for services to environmental research in 2000.


Unsafe working conditions create heavy burdens in workplaces and on the wellbeing of workers. Despite this, Occupational Health and Safety Management Systems (OHSMS) to reduce accidents and diseases in workplaces remain inadequate in many countries, including Botswana. An exploratory cross-sectional study, using secondary data, was undertaken to establish OHSMS practices in various industrial sectors in Botswana. The results showed that a quarter (27.6%) and about half of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), respectively, and just over half (60%) of large enterprises, have existing OHSMS. Only 29.2% of enterprises had an OHS policy statement. The elements of OHSMS were not uniformly implemented across all enterprises, with SMEs faring poorly. However, 71.1% of enterprises reported provision of induction courses. OHSMS is not widely practiced in Botswana, raising concerns for worker wellbeing, particularly in SMEs. Further research is needed to identify gaps and the development of a coherent OHSMS for the country.


Asian soybean rust caused by P. pachyrhizi, occurs in all soybean production regions of the world. Rust is the most destructive foliar disease of soybean and can cause yield losses of over 80%. To date, six race-specific resistance genes have been identified in plant introductions. However, races of P. pachyrhizi able to overcome the resistance conferred by these genes have evolved. Due to the limited availability of resistant varieties, fungicide application is the only management tool available for farmers, which significantly raises the production cost and the risk of environmental and human contamination. Thus, the transfer of resistance genes through classical breeding followed by marker-assisted selection allows the development of resistant varieties and their use as an efficient and cost-effective method for controlling soybean rust. The objective of this review is to provide a broad overview of the Asian soybean rust resistance, and a useful tool to guide future researches as well.


Optimal symbol detection in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems is known to be an NP-hard problem. Hence, the objective of any detector of practical relevance is to get reasonably close to the optimal solution while keeping the computational complexity in check. In this work, we propose a MIMO detector based on an annealed version of Langevin (stochastic) dynamics. More precisely, we define a stochastic dynamical process whose stationary distribution coincides with the posterior distribution of the symbols given our observations. In essence, this allows us to approximate the maximum a posteriori estimator of the transmitted symbols by sampling from the proposed Langevin dynamic. Furthermore, we carefully craft this stochastic dynamic by gradually adding a sequence of noise with decreasing variance to the trajectories, which ensures that the estimated symbols belong to a pre-specified discrete constellation. Through numerical experiments, we show that our proposed detector yields state-of-the-art symbol error rate performance.


The effects of self-heating and traps on the drain current transient responses of AlGaN/GaN HEMTs are studied by 2D numerical simulation. The variation of the drain current simulated by the drain turn-on pulses has been analyzed. Our results show that temperature is the main factor for the drain current lag. The time that the drain current takes to reach a steady state depends on the thermal time constant, which is 80 μs in this case. The dynamics of the trapping of electron and channel electron density under drain turn-on pulse voltage are discussed in detail, which indicates that the accepter traps in the buffer are the major reason for the current collapse when the electric field significantly changes. The channel electron density has been shown to increase as the channel temperature rises.


ABSTRACT Compassion is an emotion that could be useful for improving the lives of animals within the intensive and factory farming system (IFFS). Rhythms that exist within this system play a role in making compassion difficult to realize, which formulates the research question: How do the rhythms of the IFFS shape the affordance of compassion for animals? Drawing on a cultural mode of analysis informed by Henri Lefebvre's work on rhythms, this paper explored the rhythms of three films that focus on the treatment of animals in this system: Meat; Our Daily Bread and Never Let Me Go. Industrial linear rhythms seem to compromise the compassion offered to animals in the IFFS by manipulating the cyclical rhythms of animals and animalized bodies from birth, through life and at death. Compassion for animals and animalized bodies in the IFFS, this paper concludes, is often provided in a piecemeal and localized manner.


For the past decade, our group of neurologists, biomedical engineers and statisticians has developed objective tests to quantify apropos neurological functions (cognition, strength, steadiness, reactions, speed, coordination, sensations, fatigue, gait, station and selected skills of daily living). Instrumented tests have been extensively evaluated and used in several randomized double-blind trials in multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's disease. Our long-term goal is to bring to clinical neurology a type of quantification of the nervous system which does not exist. In this report, a brief overview of test development, personnel training, test administration and selected situations for using the clinical quantitative neurological examination (CQNE) are discussed. In addition, 57 tests are illustrated and described.


Silicon has been proven to be a viable material for passive and active optoelectronic applications in the infrared region ((lambda) greater than 1.2 micrometer) of the electromagnetic spectrum. To date, light has been guided, modulated and switched in silicon. In this paper, novel silicon modulators incorporated into a rib waveguide will be discussed. The modulators are based upon transverse p-i-n structures, utilizing the plasma dispersion effect to produce the desired refractive index change in an optical rib waveguide. Although the devices measure several microns in cross sectional dimensions, they support a single optical mode, thereby simplifying fabrication and allowing efficient coupling to other single mode devices such as optical fibers. The modulators have been modeled extensively using the SILVACO semiconductor device simulator. SILVACO has been employed to optimize the overlap between the injected free carriers and the propagating optical mode. Both the dc and switching characteristics of the modulators have been evaluated. The device performance is encouraging. One of the devices studied requires a driving current of 2.8 mA to achieve a (pi) radian phase shift, corresponding to a current density of 112 A/cm2. Additionally the 10 - 90% rise and fall times are 29 ns and 4 ns respectively. We believe this to be the lowest predicted driving current or current density for modulators in silicon-on-insulator (SOI), although clearly experimental confirmation is required. Potential applications for silicon based optoelectronic devices include optical transmitters, optical receivers and optical sensor devices.


Aim: To identify the various recommendations in various books on apitherapy and compare these to other methods from alternative and complementary medicine in order to determine whether apitherapy is the treatment of choice for patients with primary dysmenorrhoea.
Methods: Books were identified and analysed and recommendations were summarised. Afterwards, a literature search was performed regarding the evidence of bee products and dysmenorrhoea. Then, the recommendations from alternative and complementary medicines were compared to the results of the first analysis.
Results: In total, 27 out of 70 books on apitherapy recommended bee products for primary dysmenorrhoea. In these 27 books, 15 different recommendations were found. However, only the recommendations of one author matched the current evidence which shows that royal jelly and honey are able to improve primary dysmenorrhoea. Comparison to other methods from alternative and complementary medicine showed that evidence of some methods is much better than the evidence for apitherapy, meaning that apitherapy may not be considered the treatment of choice.
Conclusion: Treatment recommendations of apitherapy are contradictory, inconsistent and mostly not evidence-based. If the Apimondia, the International Federation of Beekeepers' Associations, really wants to promote scientifically sound information, they should consider including scientists on the board of the committee on apitherapy who do not promote unproven methods.


Background. Seizure is a common clinical presentation in patients suffering from primary brain tumors, especially from low-grade gliomas (LGGs). However, the genetic factors of tumor-associated seizure, at present, are still very poorly understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the potential correlation between tumor-associated epilepsy and IDH1 mutations in a Chinese population with LGGs. Materials and Methods. This study reviewed 60 patients with histologically confirmed low-grade gliomas, and the status of IDH1 was detected after the operation at our institution. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analysis were used to explore the potential risk factors for tumor-related seizures. Results. IDH1 mutation was detected in 46 (76.7%) patients, among which 14 patients had no epilepsies and 32 patients had epilepsies (P = 0.023, chi-square test). Multivariate logistic regression analysis demonstrated that the mutation of IDH1 seems to be the strongest predictor for preoperative seizure (OR, 6.130; 95% CI, 1.523–24.669; P = 0.011). Conclusions. IDH1 mutation was frequently detected in LGGs, and it may result in tumor-related seizures.


Response of sweet corn (Zea mays L.) to tillage methods on a Tifton loamy sand was investigated during 1976 and 1977. The greatest volume of soil having a strength of less than 100 N/cm2 core index resulted from moldboard plowing to a depth of 28-30 cm. The smallest volume of low-strength soil resulted from disk harrowing to a depth of 10-13 cm. Soil strength patterns produced by these tillage methods were relatively uniform across the seedbed. A subsoil-bed system produced a channel of low-strength soil under the row to a depth of 40 cm; however, soil strengths 15 cm to the side of the row were similar to the disk harrow method. Soil strength patterns resulting from subsoil-plant systems were similar to subsoil-bed. Soil strength increased during the growing seasons with tillage differences evident near harvest. Root growth, plant growth, yield, and nutrient uptake efficiency responses of sweet corn were proportional to the volumes of low-strength soil at planting.


BaCe1-xYxO3-α (x = 0.1, 0.15) solid electrolytes were prepared via ball milling raw powders of BaCO3, CeO2 and Y2O3, and pressing the powder mixtures into tablets followed by calcining in air. X-ray diffraction analysis indicated that the BaCe0.9Y0.1O3-α and BaCe0.85Y0.15O3-α solid solutions were synthesized at 1250°C and 1400°C, respectively. The solid electrolyte disks were made by grinding the calcined tablets into fine powders, cold isostatic pressing into the shape and sintering at 1550°C in air. The electrochemical impedance spectroscopy measurements revealed that they show useful protonic conduction, up to 2.7×10-2 S/cm at 900°C.


The San Diego Norte Pilot Project consists of twelve inclined wells (7 producing wells 300 m (984 ft) apart, plus 5 observation wells) drilled from a cluster, to study the production and compaction behavior under steam soak (huff and puff) of the Tertiary heavy crude oil reservoirs of the Zuata area. This area is located within the Orinoco Heavy Oil belt of Venezuela. A geological model was needed as a base for the reservoir studies and to understand the geological setting. This model was constructed from extensive log information, seismic lines, well samples, and cores. The reservoir sands are friable with an average porosity of 34% and permeabilities ranging from 1 to 7 µm2 (1 to 7 darcys). The sands were deposited in meander belts that stacked up forming multistory bodies. Point bars and channel fills account for 80-90% of the total sand. These sands are internally heterogeneous, sinuous and elongated, and larger than the 1 km2 area covered by the project. The topmost two productive sands, which together average 22 m (72 ft), show the best porosities and permeabilities and are isolated by thick clays that make them suitable for selective steam injection. In the project, the oil has a density of about 1.0 g/cm3 (10° API) and fills all the sands down to the oil-water contact. The depth of this contact is controlled by regional faults. Based on core compressibility tests, compaction is expected to be the principal production mechanism that could increase the expected primary recovery of 4 to 12% by "huff and puff" steam injection, leading to a possible recovery of 0.64 × 106 m3 (4 million bbl) in six years with four cycles of steam injection.


Corrosion of steel reinforcement due to environmental effects is a major cause of deterioration problems in bridge barriers. Glass fibre reinforced polymer (GFRP) not only addresses this durability problem but also provides exceptionally high tensile strength and Young's modulus. A recent design work conducted at Ryerson University on PL-3 bridge barrier proposed the use of 16 mm and 12 mm diameter GFRP bars as vertical reinforcement in the barrier front and back faces, respectively, with 12 mm diameter GFRP bars as horizontal reinforcement in the barrier wall, all at 300 mm spacing. The connection between the deck slab and the barrier wall utilized the GFRP headed end bars for proper anchorage. This paper summarizes the procedure and the results of a recent vehicle crash test conducted on the developed barrier. The crash test was performed in accordance with MASH Test Level 5 (TL-5), which involves the 36000V tractor trailer impacting the barrier at a nominal speed and angle of 80 km/h and 15 degrees, respectively. Crash test results showed that the barrier contained and redirected the vehicle. The vehicle did not penetrate, underride or override the parapet. No detached elements, fragments, or other debris from the barrier were present to penetrate or show potential for penetrating the occupant compartment, or to present undue hazard to others in the area. No occupant compartment deformation occurred. The test vehicle remained upright during and after the collision event. For the covering abstract of this conference see record contro number 201111RT334E.


The environmental and social crises in cities call for radical future visions that can incite transformative change. Yet, urban metabolism research typically adopts an explanatory, retrospective approach to the drivers of urban flows and stocks, resulting in conservative, business‐as‐usual future outlooks. In this study, we present the results of a narrative literature review on drivers and futures of urban metabolism, and consequently use these results to propose and apply a framework that can be used by researchers (i) to systematically identify the drivers of urban metabolism, and (ii) to critically engage with these drivers for the development of transformative future visions. The framework comprises seven thematic categories of drivers (demographic, economic, cultural, political, technological, environmental, and infrastructural) and an eighth category (power) to be used as the lens through which the interactions between drivers, activities, and flows in the city are critically examined. Applying the framework to the case study of biowaste management in Rennes, France, we found it useful for the systematic identification of often overseen drivers. The proposed framework, allowing for a combined analysis of flows and drivers, can become a useful tool toward a solution‐oriented urban metabolism research.


I. Introduction The origin of the Coral Rag is a problem that has appealed to the imagination of many writers. Some (Wright, Duncan, Hull, Blake and Hudleston) have held it to consist of true fossilized coral reefs, and some have drawn glowing pictures of its formation under a tropical sun; but these have usually evaded the climatic and palæogeographical implications of their enthusiasm. Others (Phillips, H. B. Woodward) have been too cautious to admit that it represents anything but beds of "drifted" or "rolled" corals. But since the corals are obviously reef-builders and are present in large quantities, and no one has suggested that they have been rolled all the way from the tropics, it is difficult to see what advantage the cautious school have over the relatively reckless. The literature of modern coral reefs has now grown so vast that it is altogether disproportionate to that of fossil formations of comparable origin. Yet the fossil reefs are so important for the light they throw on past climates, ecology, tectonics, and paleongeography, as well as on the evolution and biology of corals, that the time is overdue for an attempt to describe some of them more accurately and to discuss their significance. Probably no better opportunity than the present has ever occurred for a re-examination of these questions. Around Oxford and the neighbouring town of Abingdon, villas are springing up along every road, and each affords holes for foundations, wells, and cesspools. The water-supply schemes have involved borings and excavations


Globalisation and rapid growth of international trade have made intercompany pricing a common
consideration for vast majority of businesses. Transfer pricing is not in itself illegal or abusive. What is illegal or abusive is transfer mispricing, also known as transfer pricing manipulation or abusive transfer pricing. Generally, related parties are required to transact on terms which might reasonably be expected to have been made by independent parties engaged in the same or similar transaction at arm's length. The allocation of profits among different parts of the multinational enterprise (MNE) operating in different jurisdictions is dependent on the outcome of its transfer pricing strategy. It can decide how much tax an MNE pays and to which authorities. To curb manipulation and abuse of transfer pricing, the Government of Malaysia like any other tax jurisdictions, introduced transfer pricing guidelines and
law.The first guideline on transfer pricing was published in 2003 by the Inland Revenue Board of
Malaysia. Consequently, in 2009, specific transfer pricing provisions were inserted into the Income Tax Act 1967 (ITA). Under the new provision, the Director-General of Inland Revenue (DGIR) is empowered to substitute the price of any transactions entered into by related persons to reflect the arm's length price of such transaction. The objective of the research writing is to study the legal issues arising from the
transfer pricing law in Malaysia. The authors find that imposition of penalty is one of the most prevalent issue resulting from transfer pricing adjustment. It is an accepted tax principle that a taxpayer is entitled to plan his affairs to pay less amount of tax as it otherwise would be. A taxpayer has always been free to mitigate his tax liability. This research writing used qualitative case study and legal research methodologies to discuss and analysis the law and the legal issues of the subject matter. For this purpose,
the authors focused on two transfer pricing adjustment cases. An examination was also carried out on the notices of appeal filed by the taxpayers to the Special Commissioners of Income Tax.The ultimate goal is to minimize manipulation and abuse of transfer pricing in the related parties transaction. The research aspires to contribute towards the implementation of a comprehensive transfer pricing law in Malaysia.


In computing the spectra of quantum mechanical systems one encounters the Fourier transforms of time correlation functions, as given by the quantum regression theorem for systems described by master equations. Quantum state diffusion (QSD) gives a useful method of solving these problems by unraveling the master equation into stochastic trajectories; but there is no generally accepted definition of a time correlation function for a single QSD trajectory. In this paper we show how QSD can be used to calculate these spectra directly; by formally solving the equations which arise, we arrive at a natural definition for a two-time correlation function in QSD, which depends explicitly on both the stochastic noise of the particular trajectory and the time of measurement, and which agrees in the mean with the ensemble average definition of correlation functions.


The number of social images has exploded by the wide adoption of social networks, and people like to share their comments about them. These comments can be a description of the image, or some objects, attributes, scenes in it, which are normally used as the user-provided tags. However, it is well-known that user-provided tags are incomplete and imprecise to some extent. Directly using them can damage the performance of related applications, such as the image annotation and retrieval. In this paper, we propose to learn an image annotation model and refine the user-provided tags simultaneously in a weakly-supervised manner. The deep neural network is utilized as the image feature learning and backbone annotation model, while visual consistency, semantic dependency, and user-error sparsity are introduced as the constraints at the batch level to alleviate the tag noise. Therefore, our model is highly flexible and stable to handle large-scale image sets. Experimental results on two benchmark datasets indicate that our proposed model achieves the best performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods.


The Heisenberg antiferromagnet on the triangular lattice with interlayer coupling is treated via a double-time Green function. The hierarchy of the equations of motion of the Green functions is decoupled by employing the Kondo - Yamaji methods. The excitation spectrum, the correlation function, the internal energy, the specific heat and the susceptibility are discussed. The results have good agreement with those of the exact diagonalization and the nearest-neighbour virtual bonding state and can be compared with some experiments.


This article represents the work for searching new and effective treatment modality for chronic forms of periodontitis with application of the antibiotic doxycycline, antifungal agent clotrimazole and glucocorticosteroid triacortum.It was made the clinical judgement of treatment of 150 patients with chronic apical periodontitis. It was indicated an improvement of microcirculation in periodontitis tissue by Lazer Doppler flowmetry method by those patients who received therapy using proposed method of treatment and set of medication.


Because The New York Times has become the lingua franca of academic chatter worldwide, you may recall not long ago seeing ''The Antidepressant Generation'' (Iarovici 2014). The author is a psychiatrist whose patients are Duke University students, and who seems genuinely concerned about their welfare. Her piece quickly garnered 280 responses, many of them replete with names and city of residence. Most wrote at length and passionately about the connections they had discovered among pills, talk therapy, and mental health. Everybody has a story and is not afraid to ''share.'' The general conclusion from this varied testimony is this: pills can be useful, sometimes necessary to prevent suicide, but talk therapy is also required for longterm ''cure,'' for learning ''coping mechanisms'' when dealing with today's harsh socio-economic world. But because insurance companies do not want to pay for longterm talk therapy, and since patients want quick fixes, and Big Pharma has over 600 lobbyists in DC who push their cure-alls as hard as they can—all within the shadow of constant televised commercials promising pill-based cures for newly invented ailments—talk therapy has been abandoned in medical psychiatric training. Its practice has migrated to lower-status social workers and other counselors who by law cannot prescribe pills. As one of the respondents put it, psychiatrists now must argue forcefully with insurers on behalf of those patients who could benefit from conversational analysis, since pills are the expected ''therapy.'' Iarovici repeats what is widely known: ''From 1994 to 2006, the percentage of students treated at college counseling centers who were using antidepressants nearly tripled, from 9 percent to over 23 percent.'' By the time they reach campus, as some administrators have noted, they have become either ''crispies'' (burned out from anxiety and overwork) or ''teacups'' (hyper-fragile and fearful of life's normal strains) partly in response to, and reflecting, their dependence on psychotropics. There used to be a word for this situation: ''Polypragmasy: simultaneous administration of many drugs or of an excessive quantity of drugs'' (Thompson et al. 1955: 618). Revealingly, current medical dictionaries treat the word differently than was the case during the apogee of Freudianism in the United States. Segen's Medical Dictionary (2012) calls it ''an obsolete term for the use of multiple therapeutic modalities to manage a single condition.'' Notice that the term ''modalities'' has been substituted for ''drugs.'' Polypragmasy has lost ground to polypharmacy: ''administration of many drugs together'' or ''administration of excessive medication'' (Dorland's Medical Dictionary for Health Consumers, 2007). This change in vocabulary, the alleged ''obsolescence'' of polypragmasy meaning a drug-induced condition, illustrates the depth of our society's mainstream shift from discourse, discussion, dialogue, or chatting—from paying for an attentive, presumably caring listener—to the isolating and often costly dominance of drug-based therapy. ''Mere'' talk can indeed be frustrating in duration and effectiveness, but unlike pills, it does not rearrange brain chemistry, particularly among those whose gray matter is still developing. One nurse who responded to the Times piece had this to say: ''Resiliency studies: Yes, after working with very high risk youths and doing some research on resiliency, we are shown that sometimes it only takes a relationship with one effective person that can make a difference to create resiliency. That person does not, by the way, have to be a psychiatrist. . . in the population I worked with, grandparents were extremely influential in well being.'' Her point of view is nothing new, of course. In fact, sociologists long ago were American Sociological Association 2014 DOI: 10.1177/0094306114539452 http://cs.sagepub.com


We describe, using the Mean Field Theory, a detailed analysis of the magnetic contribution to the molar heat capacity Cmag for ferromagnetic systems. This calculation is designed to be used as a teaching homework problem for physics undergraduates. The description emphasises that Cmag at the transition temperature TC is characterised by the existence of a simple jump discontinuity anomaly, but when the temperature is lowered down to 0 K the shape of Cmag depends strongly on the magnitude of the spin S. In fact, the appearance of a shoulder in Cmag for S > 3/2 is expected. The origin of this shoulder could be understood as a Schottky-like anomaly in the ordered state. These physical results are in good agreement with those from real systems, and give the student a valuable insight into the behaviour of the thermodynamical response of a ferromagneticmaterial.


Cyclic AMP (cAMP) and Ca2+ are key regulators of exocytosis in many cells, including insulin-secreting β-cells. Glucose-stimulated insulin secretion from β cells is pulsatile and involves oscillations of the cytoplasmic Ca2+ concentration ([Ca2+]i), but little is known about the detailed kinetics of cAMP signalling. Using evanescent-wave fluorescence imaging we found that glucose induces pronounced oscillations of cAMP in the sub-membrane space of single MIN6-cells and primary mouse β-cells. These oscillations were preceded and enhanced by elevations of [Ca2+]i. However, conditions raising cytoplasmic ATP could trigger cAMP elevations without accompanying [Ca2+]i rise, indicating that adenylyl cyclase activity may be controlled also by the substrate concentration. The cAMP oscillations correlated with pulsatile insulin release. Whereas elevation of cAMP enhanced secretion, inhibition of adenylyl cyclases suppressed both cAMP oscillations and pulsatile insulin release. We conclude that cell metabolism directly controls cAMP, and that glucose-induced cAMP oscillations regulate the magnitude and kinetics of insulin exocytosis.


This study assessed the concentrations of polybrominated diphenylethers (PBDEs) in stream water obtained from Asunle stream, an adjoining stream of the Obafemi Awolowo University dumpsite. Water samples were collected for a period of eight months from six different locations comprising of a spot upstream in an uphill area relative to the refuse dumpsite and five others downstream along the stream course. The sampled waters were extracted with dicholoromethane using liquid-liquid extraction method and cleanup was carried out with silica gel. The final extracts after concentration were analyzed using GC-MS/MS. The recovery experiments were adequate (105%–110%). The mean levels of Ʃ6PBDEs compounds analyzed ranged from 0.03 to 0.45 ng/mL. Seasonal variability of PBDEs indicated that higher levels were found during the wet season. The levels of PBDEs recorded in this work were relatively lower compared to the values reported in the literature from other developed nations.


The authors present in the study actual knowledge of the pathogenesis of the chronic viral hepatitis type B. Dividing of the disease into stages with description immunologic reactions connected with morphological features of the liver is used. Three stages of the disease have been reported: replication, elimination and integration of HBV in the liver. It present the results of immunohistological analysis of the incidence of the virus antigen in the tissue in the particular stages of the disease. Next it explains the mechanisms of immunological reaction leading to the incidence of particular forms of the inflammation activity and types of necrosis that occur in the chronic viral hepatitis type B.


Abstract Imaging the dynamics of proteins in living cells is a powerful means for understanding cellular functions at a deeper level. Here, we report a versatile method for spatiotemporal imaging of specific endogenous proteins in living mammalian cells. The method employs a bifunctional aptamer capable of selective protein recognition and fluorescent probe-binding, which is induced only when the aptamer specifically binds to its target protein. An aptamer for β-actin protein preferentially recognizes its monomer forms over filamentous forms, resulting in selective G-actin staining in both fixed and living cells. Through actin-drug treatment, the method permitted direct monitoring of the intracellular concentration change of endogenous G-actin. This protein-labeling method, which is highly selective and non-covalent, provides rich insights into the study of spatiotemporal protein dynamics in living cells.


Great power competition is all the rage. The 2017 National Security Strategy (NSS) and the 2018 National Defense Strategy (NDS) both argue that the United States' central challenge is the reemergence of strategic competition with revisionist powers (China and, to a considerably more limited degree, Russia). The Commission on the National Defense Strategy for the United States (NDS Commission)—a Congressionally-mandated, independent review of the NDS—applauds "the priority the NDS places on competition with China and Russia as the central dynamic in shaping and sizing U.S. military forces and in U.S. defense strategy more broadly." As former National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster put it: "Geopolitics are back...with a vengeance, after this holiday from history we took in the so-called post-Cold War period." Great power competition can mean many things, from assuring economic reciprocity to avoiding nuclear war, but it boils down to the United States' ability to deter China and Russia from attacking the United States and our allies or established partners. For example, Washington does not want China to invade Taiwan, nor Russia to invade the Baltic states. Deterring China and Russia from doing such things, however, is difficult today due to the relative decrease in U.S. economic power and military capability. The era of U.S. military dominance—when the United States could count on controlling the air, land, sea, space, and cyberspace—is over. More capable adversaries plus declining American dominance add up to less favorable balances of power and less confident allies in key regions of the world.


Inverse design refers to the problem of optimizing the input of an objective function in order to enact a target outcome. For many real-world engineering problems, the objective function takes the form of a simulator that predicts how the system state will evolve over time, and the design challenge is to optimize the initial conditions that lead to a target outcome. Recent developments in learned simulation have shown that graph neural networks (GNNs) can be used for accurate, efficient, differentiable estimation of simulator dynamics, and support high-quality design optimization with gradient- or sampling-based optimization procedures. However, optimizing designs from scratch requires many expensive model queries, and these procedures exhibit basic failures on either non-convex or high-dimensional problems. In this work, we show how denoising diffusion models (DDMs) can be used to solve inverse design problems efficiently and propose a particle sampling algorithm for further improving their efficiency. We perform experiments on a number of fluid dynamics design challenges, and find that our approach substantially reduces the number of calls to the simulator compared to standard techniques.


Abstract. Radiocarbon measurements of ecosystem respiration and soil pore space
CO2 are useful for determining the sources of ecosystem respiration,
identifying environmental controls on soil carbon cycling rates, and
parameterizing and evaluating models of the carbon cycle. We measured flux
rates and radiocarbon content of
ecosystem respiration, as well as radiocarbon in soil profile CO2 in
Utqiaġvik (Barrow), Alaska, during the summers of 2012, 2013, and 2014.
We found that radiocarbon in ecosystem respiration
(Δ14CReco) ranged from +60.5 to −160 ‰ with a
median value of +23.3 ‰. Ecosystem respiration became more
depleted in radiocarbon from summer to autumn, indicating increased
decomposition of old soil organic carbon and/or decreased CO2
production from fast-cycling carbon pools. Across permafrost features,
ecosystem respiration from high-centered polygons was depleted in radiocarbon
relative to other polygon types. Radiocarbon content in soil pore-space
CO2 varied between −7.1 and −280 ‰, becoming more
negative with depth in individual soil profiles. These pore-space radiocarbon
values correspond to CO2 mean ages of 410 to 3350 years, based on a
steady-state, one-pool model. Together, these data indicate that
deep soil
respiration was derived primarily from old, slow-cycling carbon, but
that total CO2 fluxes depended largely on autotrophic respiration and
heterotrophic decomposition of fast-cycling carbon within the shallowest soil
layers. The relative contributions of these different CO2 sources
were highly variable across
microtopographic features and time in the sampling season. The highly
negative Δ14C values in soil pore-space CO2 and autumn
ecosystem respiration indicate that when it is not frozen, very old soil
carbon is vulnerable to decomposition. Radiocarbon data and associated
CO2 flux and temperature data are stored in the data repository of
the Next Generation Ecosystem Experiments (NGEE-Arctic) at
http://dx.doi.org/10.5440/1364062 and
https://doi.org/10.5440/1418853.


An efficient three-dimensional Euler analysis of unsteady flows in turbomachinery is presented. The unsteady flow is modeled as the sun of a steady or mean flow field plus a harmonically varying small perturbation flow. The linearized Euler equations, which describe the small perturbation unsteady flow, are found to be linear, variable coefficient differential equations whose coefficients depend on the mean flow. A pseudo-time time-marching finite-volume Lax-Wendroff scheme is used to discretize and solve the linearized equations for the unknown perturbation flow quantities. Local time stepping and multiple-grid acceleration techniques are used to speed convergence. For unsteady flow problems involving blade motion, a harmonically deforming computational grid, which conforms to the motion of the vibrating blades, is used to eliminate large error-producing extrapolation terms that would otherwise appear in the airfoil surface boundary conditions and in the evaluation of the unsteady surface pressure. Results are presented for both linear and annular cascade geometries, and for the latter, both rotating and nonrotating blade row.


Curved composite I-girder bridges provide an excellent solution to problems of urban congestion, traffic and pollution, but their behavior is quite complex due to the coupled bending and torsion response of the bridges. Moreover, dynamic behavior of curved bridges further complicates the problem. The majority of curved bridges today are designed using complex analytical methods; therefore, a clear need exists for simplified design methods in the form of empirical equations for the structural design parameters. In this thesis paper, a sensitivity study is conducted to examine the effect of various design parameters on the free-vibration response of curved composite I-girder bridges. To determine their fundamental frequency and corresponding mode shape an extensive parametric study is conducted on 336 straight and curved bridges. From the results of the parametric study, simple-to-use equations are developed to predict the fundamental frequency of curved composite I-girder bridges. It is shown that the developed equations are equally applicable to curved simply supported and composite multi-span bridges with equal span lengths.


Disinfection process is required in every area where microbiological contamination and infection risk is present, especially in medical sector, food, veterinary and general common living areas hence many disinfectants and antiseptics are being produced for different purposes. Disinfectants are made up a large group of biocidal products. Depending on the chemical properties of active substances, targeted microorganisms may differ While some disinfectants are effective in a large spectrum, others are effective against specific microorganisms. Detection of microbial efficacy of disinfectants is essential for providing human and environment hygiene and decreasing of contamination and infection risks. Standard methods were developed for microbiological efficacy tests by international standardization organizations like CEN, AOAC, AFNOR etc. Disinfectant efficacy tests are performed in 3 phases. Antimicrobial efficacy of the disinfectants is analyzed in first phase which involves preliminary screening tests. If the disinfectant has a antimicrobial effect, it is proceeded to second phase which are also performed in vitro within laboratory. In these tests, real life applications are simulated, thus more realistic results are obtained. In this phase, the effective concentration and the application procedure of the disinfectant is determined. Third phase tests includes field tests and demonstrate actual performance of the disinfectant. Application of last phase tests are not as common as the previous phases since overall standardization is not achievable. Studies involving disinfectant tests are based on disinfection kinetics. Tests show that disinfectant efficacy is related with disinfectant concentration and contact time. In recent years practical applications were being developed in this area. In these tests, different microorganisms, interfering substances and contact times are used according to products' application purposes. Therefore these applications give more realistic results. Accurate applications of disinfectant efficacy tests can only be provided through analysis laboratories that has quality infrastructure. The employment of qualified personnel, use of standard methods and their validations and verifications, usage of reference cultures, internal quality control practices and internal audits, will provide reliable and correct results.


The differential white blood cell count plays an important role in the diagnosis of different diseases. It is a tedious task to count these classes of cell manually. An automatic counter using computer vision helps to perform this medical test rapidly and accurately. Most commercial-available automatic white blood cell analysis composed mainly 3 steps including segmentation, feature extraction and classification. In this paper we concentrate on the first step in automatic white-blood-cell analysis by proposing a segmentation scheme that utilizes a benefit of active contour. Specifically, the binary image is obtained by thresolding of the input blood smear image. The initial shape of active is then placed roughly inside the white blood cell and allowed to grow to fit the shape of individual white blood cell. The white blood cell is then separated using the extracted contour. The force that drives the active contour is the combination of gradient vector flow force and balloon force. Our purposed technique can handle very promising to separate the remaining red blood cells.


Advances in tracking technology and wireless headsets enable walking as a means of locomotion in Virtual Reality. When exploring virtual environments larger than room-scale, it is often desirable to increase users' perceived walking speed, for which we investigate three methods. (1) Ground-Level Scaling increases users' avatar size, allowing them to walk farther. (2) Eye-Level Scaling enables users to walk through a World in Miniature, while maintaining a street-level view. (3) Seven-League Boots amplifies users' movements along their walking path. We conduct a study comparing these methods and find that users feel most embodied using Ground-Level Scaling and consequently increase their stride length. Using Seven-League Boots, unlike the other two methods, diminishes positional accuracy at high gains, and users modify their walking behavior to compensate for the lack of control. We conclude with a discussion on each technique's strength and weaknesses and the types of situation they might be appropriate for.


In the study of electromechanical coupling vibration of mill main drive system, the influence of electrical system on the mechanical transmission is considered generally, however the research for the mechanism of electromechanical interaction is lacked. In order to research the electromechanical coupling resonance of main drive system on the F3 mill in a plant, the cycloconverter and synchronous motor are modeled and simulated by the MTLAB/SIMULINK firstly, simulation result show that the current harmonic of the cycloconverter can lead to the pulsating torque of motor output. Then the natural characteristics of the mechanical drive system are calculated by ANSYS, the result show that the modal frequency contains the component which is close to the coupling vibration frequency of 42Hz. According to the simulation result of the mechanical and electrical system, the closed loop feedback model including the two systems are built, and the mechanism analysis of electromechanical coupling presents that there is the interaction between the current harmonic of electrical system and the speed of the mechanical drive system. At last, by building and computing the equivalent nonlinear dynamics model of the mechanical drive system, the dynamic characteristics of system changing with the stiffness, damping coefficient and the electromagnetic torque are obtained. Such electromechanical interaction process is suggested to consider in research of mill vibration, which can induce strong coupling vibration behavior in the rolling mill drive system.


In additive manufacturing, Fused Deposition Modelling (FDM) is the most common method among the different types which involves melting, extrusion and deposition of thermoplastic filament. It is the most extensively used additive manufacturing method for the reason of its capability to create components having complex shape. On the other hand, end-consumer functional component with fused deposition modelling confirmed to be a demanding assignment due to the influence of quality on wide variety of processing parameters of the build parts and their functionality. Further, the final part's building time, mechanical properties requires a more intrinsic understanding to detail on the impact of the FDM processing parameters. This paper presents an experimental investigation on Acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) thermoplastic filament to assess the effects of process parameters such as infill density, infill pattern, layer thickness on the tensile strength. A set of test specimen specimens were printed using varying processing parameters for the experimentation of the tensile strength of each fabricated sample. From the findings of the experiments, suitable processing parameters for an assuring tensile strength were analyzed and studied to develop better end-user functional parts.


The objective of this study is to evaluate in vitro antimicrobial activity of urine from pregnant subjects following cranberry juice cocktail (CJC) or placebo ingestion against common pathogens causing asymptomatic bacteriuria. This study was conducted as an adjunct to a larger randomized, controlled trial. 4-hour uninfected urine samples were collected from 28 pregnant women who were randomized to cranberry or placebo in three groups: A. CJC 240 ml two times daily (C, C; n=10), B: CJC in the AM, then placebo in the PM (C, P; n=10), C: placebo two times daily (P, P; n=8). The pH of all specimens was adjusted to 7 and filtered. Aliquots were independently inoculated with overnight culture of 10 2-3 cell/ml each of single strains of E. coli with both type I and type II fimbriae, K. pneumoniae, and C. albicans, and incubated. CFU/ml of each specimen was enumerated by subculture with quantitative plate counts in duplicate. There were no differences between groups for any of the pathogens studies based on treatment allocation. We demonstrated no differences in direct antimicrobial activity against E. coli, K. pneumonia or C. albicans in the urine of pregnant based on differing daily cranberry doses. This may be due to beta-error.


BACKGROUND
Based on a high incidence of genomic alteration in the cell cycle and DNA damage and response (DDR)-related pathways in small cell lung cancer (SCLC), the clinical efficacy of the DDR-targeting agent olaparib (PARP inhibitor) as monotherapy and in combination with ceralasertib (ATR inhibitor) in relapsed or refractory SCLC was evaluated.

METHODS
As part of a phase 2 biomarker driven umbrella study, patients with SCLC and predefined DDR gene alterations who failed to benefit from prior platinum-based regimens were allocated to the olaparib monotherapy arm and nonbiomarker-selected patients were allocated to the olaparib and ceralasertib combination arm.

RESULTS
In the olaparib monotherapy arm (n = 15), the objective response rate was 6.7% (one partial response), and the disease control rate was 33.3%, including three patients with stable disease. The median progression-free survival was 1.3 months (95% CI, 1.2-NA). In the combination arm (n = 26), the objective response rate and disease control rate were 3.8% and 42.3%, respectively, with one partial response and 10 patients with stable disease. The median progression-free survival was 2.8 months (95% CI, 1.8-5.4). Treatment was generally well tolerated except for one fatal case of neutropenic fever in the combination arm.

CONCLUSIONS
Targeting DDR pathways with olaparib as a single agent or in combination with ceralasertib did not meet the predefined efficacy end point. However, disease stabilization was more evident in the combination arm. Further investigation of the combination of olaparib in SCLC should be performed with diverse combinations and patient selection strategies to maximize efficacy.


Typical railway wheelsets consist of wheels, axle and axle bearings. Faults can develop on any of the aforementioned components, but the most common are related to wheel and axle bearing defects. The continuous increase in train operating speeds means that failure of an axle bearing can lead to serious derailments, causing loss of life and severe disruption in the operation of the network, damage to the track and loss of confidence in rail transport by the general public. The rail industry has focused on the improvement of maintenance and remote condition monitoring of rolling stock to reduce the probability of failure as much as realistically possible. Current wayside systems such as hot axle box detectors and acoustic arrays may fail to detect defective bearings. This article discusses the results of wayside high-frequency acoustic emission measurements performed on freight rolling stock with artificially induced damage in axle bearings in Long Marston, UK. Time spectral kurtosis is applied for the analysis of the acoustic emission data. From the results obtained, it is evident that time spectral kurtosis is capable of distinguishing the axle bearing defects from the random noises produced by different sources such as the wheel–rail interaction, braking and changes in train speed.


Background: The goal of the project is to develop a universal, prophylactic cancer vaccine. We are integrating bioinformatics, genetics, proteomics and immunological methods to identify tumor DNA-encoded components for the development of an effective vaccine. In a previous study, we used bioinformatic and genetics analyses to identify a list of abberant transcripts associated with tumor cells that encode frameshift-derived (FS) neo-peptides. These FS peptides are a result of various gene mutations and abnormal splicings in tumor cells that would cause expression of gene sequences in alternate reading frames. The transcript encoding one of these vaccine component candidates, SMC1A (Structural Maintenance of Chromosomes 1A) FS was detected in numerous mouse and human tumor cell lines and primary human breast and pancreatic tumors. One dose genetic immunization with a plasmid expressing SMC1A FS significantly delayed tumor growth in C57BL/6 mice transplanted with the B16F10 melanoma cell line. To exam protection of SMC1A FS in a more realistic prophylactic model, we investigated the protection of SMC1A FS in two mouse spontaneous breast tumor models. Results: We similarly detected the transcript corresponding to the SMC1A FS peptide in tumors from spontaneous mouse breast tumor models: FVB/N-NeuT and BALB-NeuT. The SMC1A FS expression increases with the expression of Rat Her-2 in mouse mammary gland. Wild type and mutated Rat Her 2 are the oncogenes that induce spontaneously breast tumor development in FVB/N-NeuT and BALB-NeuT respectively. Both anti-SMC1A FS IgG and SMC1A FS peptide induced IFN-γ released splenocytes were detected in non-treated tumor bearing FVB/N-NeuT mice. One dose genetic immunization of mice with an SMC1A FS expression plasmid significantly reduced spontaneous breast tumor development in FVB/N-NeuT mouse as compared to that in non-treated mice. Genetic immunization followed by a protein boost (prime/boost regimen) in BALB-NeuT mice also significantly reduced tumor development and the reduction is associated with antibody reactivity to SMC1A FS. Discussion: The protection of SMC1A FS prophylactic immunization in spontaneous mouse tumor models indicates SMC1A S can be a potential prophylactic cancer vaccine candidate to prevent a variety of tumors types. We are applying the same basic approach to accumulate sufficient antigens to constitute a broadly protective, prophylactic cancer vaccine. (This research is supported by an Innovation Award from the DoD and The Keck Foundation to SAJ.) Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 103rd Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2012 Mar 31-Apr 4; Chicago, IL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2012;72(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1570. doi:1538-7445.AM2012-1570


Using data from more than 40 rivers in the middle Yellow River basin, a study has been made of the influence of coupled wind-water processes on hyperconcentrated flows. A simple "vehicle" model has been proposed to describe hyperconcentrated flows. The liquid phase of two-phase flows is a "vehicle", in which coarse sediment particles are carried as solid-phase The formation and characteristics of hyperconcentrated flows are closely related with the formation and characteristics of this liquid-phase and solid-phase. Surface materials and geomorphic agents of the middle Yellow River basin form some patterns of combination, which have deep influence on the formation and characteristics of liquid- and solid-phases of hyperconcentrated flows. The combination of high percentages of relatively coarse material with low percentages of fine material appears in the area predominated by the wind process, where the supply of relatively coarse sediment is sufficient, but the supply of relatively coarse sediment is not. The combination of low percentages of relatively coarse material with high percentages of fine material appears in the area predominated by the water process, where the supply of fine sediment is sufficient, but the supply of fine sediment is not. In the area predominated by coupled wind-water processes appears the combination of medium percentages of coarse and fine materials, and thus both coarse and fine sediments are in relatively sufficient supply. The manner in which the mean annual sediment concentrations of liquid- and solid-phases vary with total suspended sediment concentration is different. With the increased total suspended sediment concentration, mean annual sediment concentration of liquid-phase increased to a limit and then remained constant; however, mean annual sediment concentrations of solid-phase increased continuously. Thus, the magnitude of total suspended sediment concentration depends on the supply conditions of relatively coarse sediment and the ability of the flow to carry these relatively coarse sediment particles. In the area predominated by wind process, both the liquid- and the solid-phases cannot develop well, and their concentrations are low. In the area predominated by the water process, the mean annual sediment concentrations of liquid- and solid-phases are also low. Only in the area predominated by coupled wind-water processes, can the conditions most favor the development of both the liquid- and solid-phases, and then the peaks of mean annual sediment concentrations of liquid- and solid-phases appear. Low values of suspended sediment concentrations appear in the areas predominated by the wind process or by the water process, a fact indicating that the predominating wind process or water process does not favor the development of hyperconcentrated flows. Peak values.appear in the area where the coupled wind-water processes are predominated, indicating that the coupled wind-water processes most favor the development of hyperconcentrated flows.


The present study was designed to develop and compare acyclovir containing nano-vesicular liposomes and niosomes based on cholesterol, soya L-α-lecithin and nonionic surfactant, span 20. The effort was made to study in vitro whether acyclovir-loaded nanovesicles could sustain the release of the drug by increasing residence time and thus, acyclovir could reduce its dose-related systemic toxicity. There were good vesicular distributions in both of the niosomes and the liposomes. The obtained vesicles were within 1 μm and about 35% of them were within a size of 100 nm. The percentage of drug loading varied and the niosomal vesicles contained more drug as compared with the liposomes. When the in vitro drug release was compared, it was found that the liposomes released about 90% drug in 150 min whereas the drug release was just 50% from the niosomal vesicles in 200 min. Again, the niosomes showed better stability compared with the liposomes. Thus, niosome could be a better choice for intravenous delivery of acyclovir.


This empirical study investigated how varied instantiations of mathematical representations influenced learners' strategies. The analysis took into account gazes, utterances, actions and writings of 18 learners performing 3 tasks using static, dynamic, and interactive instantiations. Results show a variation in frequencies of strategies that the participants of the study employed for using multiple representations. This indicates that varying instantiations of multiple representations influences learners' strategies.


If healthy heart responds by an increase of contractility to the acceleration of rhythm then negative force-frequency relationship (FFR) is developed in failed heart. In experimental conditions in perfused rat heart it is possible to obtain the positive as well as negative FFR. Transient force response has been poorly described in details, but FFR have been considered mostly as steady state phenomenon. The aim of the investigation was to study FFR in whole rat heart under different experimental conditions using analysis of force transient response; to study the effect of different extracellular calcium concentrations on force transition dynamics, and hence the resulting sign of chrono-inotropic relation. Materials and Methods. On total of 15 Langendorff perfused hearts obtained from Wistar rats, we demonstrated different calcium concentrations ([Ca]o) in Krebs–Henseleit buffer to be able to affect FFR in these hearts. Results. There was found that the transient responses have biphasic structure, where first beat (B1) and extremum beat (Bex) can be found. The transient response after step pacing period change can be rather long (sometimes more than 180–300 s); and one should be careful when choosing the duration of pacing protocols. The negative FFR (at 60 s — B60s) is easily modulated by external [Ca]o and the parameters of force transient response B1 and Bex are more sensitive (then B60s) to experimental conditions. The increase of intracellular Сa2+ with the help of Ouabain (50 uM) does not affect chrono-inotropic relations in perfused heart of rats. Conclusion. Calcium concentration in perfusion solution was found to be able to affect the dynamics of force transient response after step change in pacing frequency and change the resulting sign of FFR. Intracellular calcium does not significantly change the sign of chrono-inotropic relations.


Abstract The question of why variation is maintained in personality traits is an evolutionary puzzle. According to the condition‐dependence hypothesis, such traits depend on condition, which limits the behavioral choices available to individuals. Because condition is affected by many genes, it can effectively be manipulated by inbreeding, which exposes the effects of deleterious recessive mutations. Here, I compared two personality traits, boldness and tendency to explore, of male guppies (Poecilia reticulata) from first‐generation inbred and outbred treatments. Boldness in guppies is associated with increased sexual attractiveness and is thus expected to affect fitness. Therefore, I hypothesized that the personality traits would be negatively affected by inbreeding. However, the results indicated that inbred guppies did not differ in either personality trait from their outbred counterparts. This finding suggests that mechanisms other than condition dependence are maintaining personality variation in the guppy.


A new experimental set-up has been designed to observe spectral studies in fuse arcs. The fuses studied here are high breaking capacity fuses.They consist of a fuse element (in silver or copper) surrounded by silica sand. In this study, the arc dissipates 1200 J, the peak of electric current is about 2000 A and the duration of the arc is 3 ms. The maximum cross section of the squeezed arc is about 0.5 mm × 5 mm. The whole of the visible spectrum has been registered, from 360 nm to 800 nm, in the exploding part of the arc. The spectrum consists of continuous light together with spectral lines. The continuous light intensity is closely correlated with the current intensity. The spectral lines appear mostly when the current decreases. The behaviour of the spectra shows that there is a big gradient of species concentrations in the arc, together with a high gradient of temperature. The temperature is measured from Si II lines in the arc core. The calculation gives about 30 000 K at 1.3 ms. The measured values of electronic densities vary between 1017 and 1018 cm-3.


Background: Cardiovascular disease is the major cause of death in chronic kidney disease patient as well as in patients on hemodialysis. Dyslipidaemia is highly prevalent in patients on maintenance haemodialysis which increases the risk for cardiovascular mortality. This study was designed to evaluate the lipid abnormalities, effect of atorvastatin on lipid profile and cardiovascular events in patients on maintenance hemodialysis. Methods: In this prospective clinical study, 55 end-stage renal disease (ESRD) patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis participated voluntarily. The study population was divided randomly into group-A (atorvastatin was prescribed) and group-B (without atorvastatin). We compared the lipid status and cardiovascular events of both groups after 6 months. Results: The two groups of patients were well matched in respect to baseline characteristics, history of risk factors and dialysis duration and session. Mean age of study population was about 48 years. Low density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol was reduced by 18.79%, total cholesterol was reduced by 9.32% and triglyceride was reduced by 22% in group-A. In group-A, high density lipoprotein (HDL) cholesterol was increased by 6% and it was reduced by 6% in group-B. In this study, myocardial ischemia/infarction on electrocardiogram (ECG) was present 22% in group-A and 14% in group-B at randomization. After 6 months, ischemia/infarction was found 33% in group-A and 25% in group-B. Statistically the ECG findings showed no significant changes after 6 months. In this study, mean ejection fraction (EF %) was 54% in group-A and 51% in group-B at 0 month, after 6 months atorvastatin group failed to show any significant change. In this study, after 6 months of statin therapy there was slight increase of serum glutamic pyruvic transaminase (16.13%) but that was not significant. Conclusion: In this study atorvastatin improved the lipid abnormalities significantly but a significant reduction of cardiovascular events was not achieved.


This paper presents a cooperative standoff tracking of a moving target using multiple unmanned aircraft. To provide guidance commands, vector fields are designed utilizing the Lyapunov stability theory. A roll angle command is generated to keep a constant distance from the target in a circular motion. A speed command and a heading angle command are designed to keep a constant phase angle with respect to the front aircraft and to prevent a collision between aircraft. Numerical simulation is performed to verify the tracking and collision performance of the proposed control laws.


Correspondence relations among segments in an output, known as surface correspondence, provide a means for enforcing (dis)agreement among segments (Hansson 2001, Rose & Walker 2004, Bennett 2013). This paper examines implications of partially overlapping harmony patterns for the formal properties of surface correspondence. A novel and unwanted typological prediction of transitive surface correspondence relations with chain-adjacent evaluation of identity is identified, dubbed the Closest Correspondent Trigger Prediction. The problem is exemplified by the interaction of two overlapping vowel harmonies in the Pasiego Montanes dialect, where a target vowel agrees with different trigger segments for different features. A revised feature-restricted evaluation of identity constraints that operate over surface correspondents is proposed, where evaluation is restricted to the subset of correspondents that share a given set of features. This move merges the previous division of labor in surface correspondence theory between constraints that promote interactions among similar segments and those that enforce identity between them. The result is a theory where surface identity constraints are the prime locus of pattern-shaping and the role for constraints that drive surface correspondence is reduced. Future directions on the status of constraints that drive surface correspondence and the treatment of locality are considered.


We derive a set of general dynamical mean-field equations for strongly interacting fermionic atoms in arbitrary slowly varying potential traps. Our derivation generalizes the ansatz of the crossover wave function to the inhomogeneous case. The equations reduce to a time-dependent Gross-Pitaevskii equation on the BEC side of the resonance. We discuss an iteration method to solve these mean-field equations, and present the solution for a harmonic trap as an illustrating example, which self-consistently verifies the approximations made in our derivation.


There are many new rice varieties have been produced, introduced and breed at IRRI and the other National Agriculture Research Institutes that are tolerance to submergence condition to anticipate global warming and flash flooding around theworld. Among others are IR64-Sub 1, Suwarna-Sub 1, Inpara-1, Inpara-2, inpara-3 etc. However, those new varieties have not been tested widely yet, and the method of rice cultivation under submergence condition have not been adjusted, including the nutrient management.A greenhouse experiment was conducted at Muara Research Station, Bogor during 2008 dry season. The objectives of this experiment are (1) to study the effects of time of submergence and N application on plant growth and yield of  R64 and IR64-Sub 1 rice varieties; (2) to find the best nutrient management for submergence rice varieties. The experiment was conducted during 2008 dry season at greenhouse, Muara Research station, Bogor. The design of the  experiment was a Completely Randomized Factorial Design with three eplications. Factor 1 is rice variety (IR64 and IR64-Sub 1); Factor 2 is time of submergence (without submergence or control, submergence at vegetative phase (15 to 25 d.a.t), and at generative phase (35 to 45 d.a.t)). Factor 3 is N application, namely (F1) 300 kg Urea/ha 3x applications at 7 d.a.t- 30 d.a.t – 55 d.a.t; (F2) Mudball urea –300 kg Urea/ha applied once at 7 d.a.t. (F3) compost; and (F4) compost and urea; (F5) Urea and silikat.urea-N application at four time 0 d.a.t – 7 d.a.t – 30 d.a.t – 55 d.a.t (factor C). The results of experiments showed that submergence changes rice plant growth pattern (mainly tiller number and plant height), increased dry grain weight of IR64, namely 35.9 g at early vegetatif phase and 29.9 g at late vegetatif phase, while for IR64-Sub 1 32.6 g and 30.3 g at the same respective phase. Mudball urea and silicate application improved plant resistant to submergence and increase rice yield.


To improve government objective performance, the Shenyang's government objective performance is taken as research background, the objective performance evaluation model for government is established. On the basis of analyzing goal location for performance, the index system for performance evaluation is established, varied disposing modes driven by varied goal location for weighting coefficient and multiindex integrating is analyzed. The disposing method for single index value of economic and noneconomic category index are respectively introduced, the combination technique of absolute value and relative value is especially studied, and the dimension eliminating method for index value is given. During the integrating of multiattribute evaluation, rank correlation analysis method is studied, and the conventional 'scatter degree' method is especially adapted, and they are respectively applied to generate weighting coefficient for level one and level two index; Then, the integrating method of multiindex is studied. The above performance evaluation model is applied to the practice of Shenyang's objective performance evaluation, and the result validates the validity of above model.


One major new and often not welcome source of Internet traffic is P2P filesharing traffic. Banning P2P usage is not always possible or enforcible, especially in a university environment. A more restrained approach allows P2P usage, but limits the available bandwidth. This approach fails when users start to use non-default ports for the client software. We have developed the PeerTracker algorithm that allows detection of running P2P clients from NetFlow data in near real-time. The algorithm is especially suitable to identify clients that generate large amounts of traffic and can easily be used to find P2P heavy-hitters. A prototype system based on the PeerTracker algorithm is currently used by the network operations staff at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Zurich. We present measurements done on a medium sized Internet backbone and discuss accuracy issues, as well as possibilities and results from validation of the detection algorithm by direct polling in real-time


In this paper, experiments with a passive solar building with Trombe wall in the north cold climate are carried out and discussed, and the natural convection heat transfer process has been investigated. The relativity of the factors affecting indoor air temperature is analyzed with the stepwise regression method. The results indicate that thermo-circulation induced by the stack effect is the dominant factor. The natural convection in the channel is fairly complex; it changes from the laminar flow to the turbulent flow and the turbulent flow covers at least half the height of massive wall during the normal circulation. The flow in the channel is considered as natural convection between vertical plates. Analyzing the natural convection heat transfer process with the Rayleigh number and the mean Nusselt number, the thermo-circulation can be divided into three periods in the daytime: coast up, maintenance and weaken. During the maintenance period, the changes of the solar radiation intensity and surface temperatures have little effect on Nu number.


This article describes an approach for working with individuals who have dementia, along with their spouses or partners. The 5-week intervention focuses on helping couples communicate, reminisce about the story of their relationship, find photographs and mementoes from their past, and develop a book that incorporates these mementoes. This clinical approach highlights the strengths and the resilience of couples and adds to the limited repertoire of dyadic interventions for dementia care which are currently available. Preliminary findings from 24 couples are presented, including the intervention's feasibility and acceptability.


Abstract:I investigated the mediation impact of stress on subjective vitality via hope and loneliness. Participants included 417 undergraduates (211 females and 204 males) from 2 universities in Turkey. A proposed theoretical model was explored and tested using structural equation modeling which indicated that the effects of stress on subjective vitality were fully mediated by hope and loneliness. Several alternative models provided support for the proposed theoretical model. In addition, bootstrapping procedure supported the indirect effect of hope and loneliness between stress and subjective vitality. The findings not only shed light on the mediation impact of stress on subjective vitality via hope and loneliness, but also provide new insight into the difference in strength of the indirect effects.


Two obstacles which confront the student of the olfactory function are, strangely enough, the complexity of the central apparatus and the simplicity of the end-organ. The anatomy of the first cranial nerve and its central tracts and pathways has been minutely described. Concerning their separate functions—if indeed these structures have separate functions—which in the aggregate produce those mental impressions which we interpret as smell, we are in total ignorance. Tedious and inconclusive experiments were at one time performed on animals, in an attempt to fasten certain smell impressions on given tracts and centers, but the results were so uncertain as to be of little value. Although the central apparatus consists of a score of nuclei, tracts and fasciculi, which is hardly surprising when one takes into account the complexity of smell impressions, still the peripheral organ in the nose, which records these impressions, is bafflingly simple. Unlike the perception apparatuses


This paper aims to contribute to understanding the importance of four factors on the determination of sustainable yields: (i) aquifer properties; (ii) temporal distribution of recharge; (iii) temporal distribution of groundwater pumping; and (iv) spatial distribution of pumping wells. It is important to comprehend how the present‐day and future vulnerability of groundwater systems to pumping activities depend on these critical factors and what the risks are of considering sustainable yield as a fixed percentage of mean annual recharge (MAR). A numerical model of the Querença–Silves aquifer in Portugal is used to develop hypothetical scenarios with which these factors are studied. Results demonstrate the aquifer properties, particularly the storage coefficient, have an important role in determining the resilience of an aquifer and therefore to which degree it is dependent on the spatial and temporal distribution of abstraction and recharge, as well as the occurrence of extreme events. Sustainable yields are determined for the developed scenarios based on specific criteria rather than a fraction of MAR. Under simplified current recharge and abstraction conditions, the sustainable yield was determined at approximately 73% of MAR or 76 million m3. When considering a concentration of rainfall in time, as predicted by climate scenarios for the region, sustainable yield could drop to ca 70% of MAR. However, a more even distribution of pumping volumes throughout the year could increase this value. The location of the pumping wells is seen to affect the distribution of hydraulic heads in the aquifer, albeit without significant changes in sustainable yield. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Large-scale fluid dynamical processes during explosive eruptions within calderas are examined numerically by solving the full set of two-phase hydrodynamic equations with a topographic barrier, representing the rim of a caldera. The effect of the caldera rim on eruption dynamics depends on the relative locations of the rim and the impact zone where tephra collapsing from the eruption column strikes the ground. The distance of the impact zone from the vent is proportional to the collapse (fountain) height of the eruption column. Three significantly different eruption patterns have been observed in the simulations: (1) If the impact zone is outside the caldera rim, relatively continuous pyroclastic flow occurs outside the caldera. (2) If the impact zone is on or near the caldera rim, an initial pyroclastic current flow out of the caldera and is followed by a lapse in outflow during which the cladera fills up with ash. (3) If the impact zone is inside the rim, all initial pyroclastic flows are contained within the caldera unless the flows have sufficiently high initial densities and velocities to carry them over the rim. In most cases, recirculation of pyroclasts into the base of the column causes fountain height to decrease dramaticallymore » with time due to the {open_quotes}choking{close_quotes} effect of the ash. This recycling of ash in turn reduces the ability of pyroclastic flows to surmount the rim. The numerical models suggest several processes that cause the formation of multiple cooling and flow units in deposits outside a caldera from a single eruption of steady discharge. Compositional gaps may occur in outflow ignimbrite due entirely to interaction of eruption and emplacement dynamics with topography; sharp compositional gradients within a magma chamber are not necessarily implied by compositional gaps in outflow units. 35 refs., 10 figs., 1 tab.« less


ABSTRACT. Bernardo F.D., Pazinato F.M., Alves C.E.F., Bueno V.L.C, Franciscato C. & Elias F. [Equine Nasal rhinosporidiosis in the Southern Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil - Case Report.] Rinosporidiose nasal em equino do Sul do Rio Grande do Sul, Brasil - Relato de caso. Revista Brasileira de Medicina Veternaria, 38(2):175-180, 2016. Universidade Federal da Fronteira Sul, Campus Realeza, Av. Edmundo Gaievski 1000, Realeza, PR 85770-000, Brasil. E-mail: email@example.com Rhinosporidiosis is a chronic infection characterized by the growth of polypoid structures in mucous membranes. The etiologic agent is Rinosporidium seeberi currently recognized as a protist parasite. It is suspected to be a water saprophyte which allows transmission through contact with contaminated water or even through inhalation, and this means mainly associated with human infection. Considering few cases described in Brazil and the need to better understand the epidemiology The aim of this study is to report a case of rhinosporidiosis on a horse two years. The animal, from the city of Pelotas, was treated at the Veterinary Clinical Hospital of the Universidade Federal de Pelotas, Rio Grande do Sul, where demonstrated sneezing and serous bilateral nasal discharge. Medial septal region in the left nostril there was the presence of granulomatous nodules polypoid with about three cm in diameter. The same friable consistency and reddish with small whitish granules. Since clinical parameters and blood counts were within the reference values for the species; and changes in airway endoscopy not were observed. Carried out surgical excision of the tumor mass by injecting local anesthesia and general anesthesia, dorsal buccal branch of the facial nerve. The procedure was performed with Allis clamp and scalpel aid and subsequent cauterization of the implantation base with liquid nitrogen. Mass of the fragments were immersed in 10% formalin for histopathology. Approximately 15 days after the procedure, the surgical wound had completely healed. Histologically there was numerous structures compatible with sporangia R. seeberi in different stages of maturation, amid immature connective tissue and intense inflammation where macrophages and polymorphonuclear predominant cells (neutrophils and eosinophils). The lesion formed by inflammatory response against the parasite, said clinical signs demonstrated by the horse due to partial obstruction of air flow and mucosal irritation. Already the whitish granules observed in macroscopic match agent sporangia. The clinical, macroscopic and histological findings were similar to other reports, but have been found cases with more severe clinical course including difficulty breathing and involvement of the lower anatomical structures of the respiratory system, such as larynx. Surgical resection of the mass has excellent results and excellent prognosis; however, there may be late relapses requiring prolonged follow-up. This was the second case of the disease diagnosed in the same neighborhood of the city. This leads to suspect source of infection at the site and reinforces the need to investigate the agent's presence in the environment, such as spore detection in stagnant water, as well as conduct seroepidemiological studies; thus contributing to the understanding of the epidemiology, still not very clear, this disease. In conclusion, clinical signs, pathology and viewing of R. seeberi sporangia were enough to confirm the diagnosis. In addition, it must include the rhinosporidiosis the differential diagnosis of other diseases of the respiratory system of horses in the southern region of the State.


Bioactivity-guided fractionation of an ethanol extract of the aerial parts of Dioscorea opposita afforded a new compound, 6,7-dihydroxy-2-methoxy-1,4-phenanthrenedione (1), and four known compounds, chrysoeriol 4'-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (2), chrysoeriol 7-O-beta-D-glucopyranoside (3), alternanthin (4), and daucosterol. The structure of 1 was established on the basis of the interpretation of its 1D and 2D NMR spectrascopic data. Compounds 1-4 exhibited both promising neuroprotective effects and discernible to moderate antioxidant activities in vitro.


Laryngectomized patients lose their natural ability to speak as a result of rigorous anatomical changes after surgery. Due to the surgical resection of a laryngeal tumour, the larynx or voice box is taken out and the trachea is sutured in the neck. As a consequence the airflow through the oropharynx, and so the ability to articulate and speak is lost (Fig. 1A). Luckily however, we do not necessarily need our vocal cords to produce sound, since sound is nothing more than a series of alternate increases and decreases of air pressure, transmitted as a wave. Based on this mechanism laryngectomized patients can learn to speak again for example by oesophageal speech. Swallowed air into the oesophagus will come out with regurgitation vibrating the mucosa of the neopharynx. However this method has been abandoned because it is difficult for most patients to learn this technique, tracheoesophageal shunt speech is generally preferred.


The structure of the Wadge degrees on zero-dimensional spaces is very simple (almost well ordered), but for many other natural nonzero-dimensional spaces (including the space of reals) this structure is much more complicated. We consider weaker notions of reducibility, including the so-called Δ0 α-reductions, and try to find for various natural topological spaces X the least ordinal α X such that for every α X ⩽ β < ω1 the degree-structure induced on X by the Δ0 β-reductions is simple (i.e. similar to the Wadge hierarchy on the Baire space). We show that α X ⩽ ω for every quasi-Polish space X, that α X ⩽ 3 for quasi-Polish spaces of dimension ≠ ∞, and that this last bound is in fact optimal for many (quasi-)Polish spaces, including the real line and its powers.


The rigorously designed study by Johnson et al. sets out to assess the utility of the Teacher Academic Attainment Scales (TAAS) as an educational outcome measure in a study of children born preterm and term born controls at school-age. Several papers have been published by Johnson et al. on the results of the EPICure study, and have reported on neuropsychological outcomes and academic attainment of children born extremely preterm and the prevalence of their needs for special educational in middle childhood. This current paper proposes the TAAS as an adequate way to replace standardized measures of educational outcomes, which are lengthy and costly to administer. Specifically, these authors aim to show that a brief teacher-rating of academic attainment could be a costand time-efficient alternative to traditional standardized testing. Several important issues are brought forth by this paper. First, the importance of scholastic performance as an outcome for children born preterm cannot be overemphasized. Assessment of need for special education provides a functional marker for scholastic performance which complements the complexity of the detailed neuropsychological assessment. Both provide an important measurement of the risk for ongoing impairment in educational outcomes. Second, this study identifies the classroom teacher as an essential component in the assessment of academic risk and has provided evidence of acceptable test–retest reliability, and concurrent and predictive validity between teacher assessment and standardized tests to prove the point. This pragmatic focus on the classroom teacher as a source for quantifying educational attainment makes the inclusion of these data more feasible and thus more likely in future studies. Finally, it is important to bear in mind the different purposes for measurement in clinical practice and research; i.e. description and screening tools determine the frequency and presence ⁄ absence of a particular condition and evaluative tools are utilized for treatment planning and setting goals. While detailed neuropsychological assessments are indeed costly, their importance lies in educational planning and, hopefully, in measuring change with intervention. The advantage and utility of well validated measures such as the TAAS is that they allow us to measure more of the whole picture of attainment of high-risk populations, such as those born preterm, in largescale studies. Future studies that include the TAAS as a measure of educational outcome over time will be important to better interpret the findings of this paper.


Galling insects commonly change the chemical profile of their host plant tissues during gall induction and establishment. As a consequence, galls accumulate a wide range of metabolites in specialized cells, which may be organized in a nutritive tissue and in outer storage cells. The nutrients compartmentalized in nutritive cells may be directly assessed or metabolized via enzymatic mediation, while the gall outer cortex may accumulate secondary metabolites. These secondary metabolites may configure a specialized chemical barrier against the attack of natural enemies. Either the nutritive inner cells or the outer cortical cells, with their specific metabolic apparatus, should differentiate under the chemical constraints of each host plant-galling herbivore interaction. This premise is herein addressed by the investigation of the histochemical profile of the non-galled leaves and galls induced by Diptera: Cecidomyiidae on Piper arboreum . The spatial compartmentalization of the nutritive and defensive metabolites indicates the new functions assumed during the redifferentiation of the host plant cells. The enzymatic mediation of the primary metabolites by sucrose synthase and invertases favors the nutritive requirements of the galling Cecidomyiidae or the structural maintenance of the gall. The accumulation of secondary metabolites is restrict to the tissue layers not involved in nutrition, and may act in the chemical protection against predators or parasitoids. Current results systematically document metabolites compartmentalization, evidence the impairment of toxic compounds storage in cells surrounding the larval chamber, as well as, detect the redirection of nutritive substances to the site of the Cecidomyiidae feeding. The activity of sucrose synthase is restrict to the nutritive tissue in the galls on Piper arboreum , and reinforces previous detection of this enzyme mediation in carbohydrate metabolism in Cecidomyiidae galls.


Considerations are made on the development and future of Anatomy as a translational science, as well as the social impact it has had and has as a scientific discipline within the medical sciences. Throughout history, it has been possible to verify how Anatomy has been expanding its common borders with the rest of the medical disciplines, and how its scientific achievements show the close relationship between the development of society and scientific-technological progress. The progressive incorporation of modern study technologies into anatomical research has made it possible to broaden the field of exploration and diagnosis of diseases at the cellular, subcellular and macromolecular levels. With these considerations, I have also wanted to demonstrate the important work that translational anatomical research carries out in medical practice and, so that this work can be recognized in all its dimensions, including the social one.