Objectives Myocardial ischaemia-reperfusion (IR) injury (IRI) is associated with activation of the innate immune system and the resultant inflammatory response. Myocardial ischaemic preconditioning (IPC) is the most powerful endogenous protective mechanism against myocardial IRI, probably via the role of anti-inflammation. Regulatory T cells (Tregs) play an important role in the negative modulation of immune responses. This study was designed to test whether and how much Tregs contribute to mediation of myocardial IPC against IRI. Methods IPC was induced by four episodes of 5 min ischaemia followed by 5 min reperfusion, and IR by 30 min ischaemia and then 48 h reperfusion in rats. (1) 96 rats were divided into two groups (n=48 per group): the control group, receiving sham operation without LAD occlusion; the ischaemic preconditioning group, giving a run of IPC. Each group was then divided into six sub-groups and rats from each sub-group were sacrificed respectively at successive time point (day 0, 1, 2, 3, 5 and 7) after myocardial IPC or sham operation. (2) Rats were divided into 4 groups (n=8 per group): Sham/Sham-IgG, underwent two sham operations at an interval of 48 h, and injected with placebo IgG at 24 h before the second sham operation; Sham/IR-IgG, underwent a sham operation and a run of 30 min IR (30 min myocardial ischaemia, then 48 h reperfusion) at an interval of 48 h, injected with placebo IgG at 24 h before 30 min ischaemia, and then kept reperfusion for 48 h; IPC/IR-IgG, underwent a run of IPC and a run of 30 min IR at an interval of 48 h, injected with placebo IgG at 24 h before 30 min ischaemia, and then kept reperfusion for 48 h; IPC/IR-NDS61, underwent a run of IPC and a run of 30 min IR at an interval of 48 h, injected with NDS61 at 24 h before 30 min ischaemia, and then kept reperfusion for 48 h. All rats were sacrificed after 48 h reperfusion. Results IPC caused a significant increase in the number of Tregs at day 1, 2, 3 and 5, and in the expression of FoxP3 at day 1, 2 and 3 in the heart after IPC. As compared to the placebo IgG-treated non-preconditioned rats (Sham/IR-IgG), the IPC-induced cardio- protection (IPC/IR-IgG) reduced the infiltration of neutrophils, macrophages and CD4+T cells respectively by 45%, 53% and 50%, infarct size by 43%, and to improve LVEF by 36%. As compared to the placebo IgG-treated preconditioned rats (IPC/IR-IgG), the NDS61-treated preconditioned rats (IPC/IR-NDS61) had more accumulation of inflammatory cells (Neutrophils: (2.62±0.61)×103/mm2 vs (1.77±0.41)×103/mm2, p<0.01; Macrophages: (1.51±0.56)×103/mm2 vs (0.96±0.41)×103/mm2, p<0.05; CD4+T cells: (2.36±0.46)×103/mm2 vs (1.49±0.44)×103/mm2, p<0.05)), larger infarct size (IS/AAR: 37.50%±4.75% vs 27.03%±3.27%, p<0.001) and poorer cardiac function (LVEF: 55.60%±6.34% vs 69.46%±8.39%, p<0.001). Conclusions Our data suggest that the IPC-afforded cardioprotection against IRI is associated with Tregs, and Tregs' negative modulation of inflammation response following myocardial IR is partially contributable to the late IPC and affords cardioprotection against myocardial IRI.


CD4 + CD25 + regulatory T cells (Tregs) expressing the lineage-specific marker Foxp3 represent an important regulatory T cell that is essential for maintaining peripheral tolerance. Although it was believed that Treg development is solely dependent on the thymus, accumulating evidence demonstrates that Tregs can also be induced in the periphery. Considering the various origins of peripherally developed CD4 + CD25 + Foxp3 + regulatory T cells, it seems likely that multiple factors are involved in the peripheral generation of Tregs. (Immune Network 2007;7(1):1-9)


Alternating-current susceptibility measurements were performed on ternary MgB2−xCx (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.1) superconducting compounds. The results are consistent with the presence of macroscopic phase inhomogeneities at extremely low levels of carbon doping (x≥0.04) in agreement with high-resolution synchrotron x-ray powder diffraction measurements.


Seismic effects of the underground nuclear explosions MILROW (October 1969, about 1 megaton) and CANNIKIN (November 1971, under 5 megatons) were monitored by a network of continuously recording, high-frequency, high-gain seismographs located on Amchitka and nearby islands.
 Each explosion was immediately followed by hundreds of small, discrete events (mB < 4), of similar focal mechanism and with a characteristic low-frequency signature, which were apparently related to the deterioration of the explosion cavity. This activity intensified, then terminated within minutes of a large, complex multiple event and concurrent formation of a surface subsided area that signaled complete collapse of the explosion cavity (MILROW, 37 hr; CANNIKIN, 38 hr).
 A number of small explosion-stimulated tectonic events, apparently unrelated to the collapse phenomenon, occurred intermittently for several weeks following each explosion—near the explosion cavity and up to 13 km southeast of CANNIKIN ground zero along the Island. These events were confined to the upper crust of the Island, had characteristic high-frequency signatures, and, near the Rifle Range Fault, had focal mechanisms which could be correlated with pre-existing faulting. The evidence points to a short-term interaction of the explosions with local ambient tectonic stresses. Because these stresses are of relatively low level on Amchitka, the observed seismic effects were significantly less extensive and smaller than similar effects reported from high-yield explosions at the Nevada Test Site.
 Continuous monitoring of the natural seismicity of the Amchitka region since 1969 has not revealed other evidence for an interaction between either MILROW or CANNIKIN and natural tectonic processes. The structural stability and apparent low level of stress in the upper crust of Amchitka suggest that the Island effectively is seismically decoupled from the active subduction zone below.


We examine the political history of twelve twentieth-century efforts at comprehensive administrative reorganization in the United States. These efforts account for only a small fraction of administrative changes and do not seem to have had a major impact on administrative costs, efficiency, or control. They have been a source of frustration for presidents and others and have become regular and unlamented casualties of experience. Nevertheless, the idea of comprehensive administrative reorganization has been persistently resurrected by the political system. The history of comprehensive reorganization suggests that short-run outcomes are heavily influenced by the problematics of attention; that influence over long-run administrative development involves affecting gradually evolving systems of meaning; and that reorganization rhetoric and ritual affirm an interpretation of life at least as much as they are bases for short-run political decisions. We suggest some implications of such conclusions for a more general understanding of the organization of political life.


Corporate disclosure and corporate governance are two inseparable instruments of investor protection. This research sought to find evidence on how corporate governance mechanisms affect the extent of voluntary disclosures. Voluntary disclosures were measured using content analysis on published annual reports. The sample of this research consisted of 81 firm-year observations from 27 firms of consumer goods sector listed on Indonesian Stock Exchange from 2016 to 2018. Using multiple regression method, the result has shown that board size and board independence increase voluntary disclosures, indicating that the commissioners have effectively represented the interests of shareholders by monitoring and encouraging the management to increase disclosure. This research provided new evidence that family ownership increases voluntary disclosure, suggesting that family firms are more concerned by the costs of nondisclosure. Meanwhile, institutional ownership does not significantly affect voluntary disclosure.


The Dirac equation in spherically symmetric fields is separated in two different tetrad frames. One is the standard Cartesian (fixed) frame and the other is the diagonal (rotating) frame. After separating variables in the Dirac equation in spherical coordinates, and solving the corresponding eigenvalue equations associated with the angular operators, we obtain that the spinor solution in the rotating frame can be expressed in terms of Jacobi polynomials, and it is related to the standard spherical harmonics, which are the basis solution of the angular momentum in the Cartesian tetrad, by a similarity transformation.


Metastatic pleural effusion is big health, social and personal problem. Prognosis of patients is 1 to 60 months which is according underling disease, stage of the disease, treatment response, characteristics of the patients and their reserve.

We analyze 60 patients with confirmed malignant pleural effusion: 28 patients with breast cancer, 14 with lung cancer, 8 with mesotelioma, 5 with gastric carcinoma, and 5 with other malignant lesions. Mean age were 56 years.

At this 60 patients we have done 194 procedures.

We analyze effects of thoracocentesis only (60), placing pleurocat (37), placing of thoracic drain (54), VATS with talk pudrage(13) and thoracic drain and thoracic drainage with slurry talk pleurodesis (14).

Recurrence of pleural effusion, febrile condition, appearing of the empyema, problems with heart, dispnea, life treating conditions were followed at all patients.

Results: Recurrence of pleural effusion were detected at 71,2%, where the best results were with use of VATS with talk pudrage (53,8%), than is thoracic drainage with slurry talk pleurodesis with success rate of 50%. With only placing of drain success rate was 29,6% or with pleurocat placing 27%. With thoracocentesis only, no one has had success.

Unwanted conditions were detected the most frequently at thoracic drainage with slurry talk pleurodesis where were detected 14,3% heart problems, 35,7% dispnea and respiratory symptoms, 35,7% febrile conditions with septic conditions.

Conclusion: VATS with talk pudrage give the best results with control of the malignant pleural effusion, but need hospitalization and general anesthesia procedure, procedure which was not recommended for many patients which is in bad general conditions.


This article reviews 305 silicone elastomer ring vertical gastroplasties that were used to treat morbid obesity. All patients underwent surgery 2 or more years ago. The average weight loss was 101 pounds, 35.7% of initial total body weight, or 60.8% of excess body weight. Fourteen patients failed to lose an adequate amount of weight and in four (1.3%) of these patients the surgery failed because the gastric partition disrupted; in these cases, another operation was required. There were no pulmonary emboli, gastric perforations, or deaths in this series. Banding of the vertical gastroplasty stoma with silicone elastomer rings is safe and effective and offers distinct technical advantages over other methods of banding.


INTRODUCTION
Visual episodic memory is affected in the early phases of Alzheimer's disease (AD).

AIMS
To design a visual memory test free of any verbal content, to offer its normative values in the elderly population in Spain, to validate the test in a group of patients with mild AD and to determine its capacity to discriminate between subjects with AD and controls.

SUBJECTS AND METHODS
The study involved a sample of 263 subjects (137 controls and 126 patients with AD) over 50 years of age. The landscape test consists of a first part in which participants are shown 25 photographs of landscapes. Five minutes later, the previous 25 photos are shown again together with 25 new pictures, and the subject must recognise the ones that have already been seen. The statistical analysis was performed using the Student t test for independent measures, ANCOVA, linear regression, Pearson's correlation and the ROC curve.

RESULTS
In the control group, sex and schooling did not have any significant effect on the results, although differences were found between the youngest group (50-59 years) and the oldest age group (equal to or above 80 years). Findings show that there is a significant difference between the mean scores on the landscape test obtained by the two groups (control: 44.06 ± 3.2; AD: 34.25 ± 6.6; p < 0.001). The area under the curve from the landscape test was 0.904, with a sensitivity of 0.82 and a specificity of 0.85.

CONCLUSIONS
The landscapes test is a simple, sensitive and novel instrument for assessing visual memory in early AD.


The envelope formalism for the description of a small-amplitude parallel-propagating Alfven wave train is tested against direct numerical simulations of the Hall-MHD equations in one space dimension where kinetic effects are neglected. It turns out that the magnetosonic-wave dynamics departs from the adiabatic approximation not only near the resonance between the speed of sound and the Alfven wave group velocity, but also when the speed of sound lies between the group and phase velocities of the Alfven wave. The modulational instability then does not anymore affect asymptotically large scales and strong nonlinear effects can develop even in the absence of the decay instability. When the Hall-MHD equations are considered in the long-wavelength limit, the weakly nonlinear dynamics is accurately reproduced by the derivative nonlinear Schrodinger equation on the expected time scale, provided no decay instabilities are present. The stronger nonlinear regime which develops at later time is captured by including the coupling to the nonlinear dynamics of the magnetosonic waves.


The attenuation of a forest clearly impacts the ability of airborne SAR systems to image objects within the forest. The level of this attenuation is a function of tree characteristics over the frequency band used in the radar. To experimentally measure the transmission properties of foliage, a bistatic (line-of-site) wide-band system has been built by the Environmental Research Institute of Michigan (ERIM), sponsored by the Air Force's Wright Laboratory, Avionics directorate. This system is polarimetric and can operate coherently over the band from 300 to 1300 MHz. The variation in foliage transmission over the frequency band is important because an imaging radar typically operates coherently over a bandwidth. The system can scan foliage in angle to determine spatial variations in the foliage attenuation. This angular variation in foliage attenuation is quite important because imaging radars typically synthesize an aperture by scanning over a range of angles. The ERIM Wide-Band System is ground-based, with one antenna attached to a carriage which can move 10 m horizontally along an elevated rigid track and the other antenna attached to a fixed tripod. Measurements with the system were conducted during July 1991 at the University of Michigan Biological Field Station in Pellston, MI. The measurements of the mean attenuation as a function of depression angle (15-45/spl deg/) and frequency (300-1300 MHz) of four different forest types are presented. In addition to mean attenuation, the variance in attenuation and the autocorrelation of the attenuation (in angle) are presented. These results imply that the variation of the foliage properties over the bandwidth and scan geometry (or angular variation) will degrade the ability of a radar to focus a foliage obscured object. >


The paper considers the possibility of the early detection of diseases based on the Su Jok System using the electrical resistance of points of correspondence. Researches have shown that the electrical resistance of the points of correspondence becomes less than the resistance of surrounding points before pathological signs appear which means the possibility of early diagnosis.


This review discusses the development of trauma care and the retrieval process in Australia, particularly as it impacts on the rural population. In rural and remote settings, trauma is a major cause of death and disability with the death rate from injuries increasing with progressing remoteness. Time is a critical factor in trauma care and the length of time it takes to reach definitive care has a significant impact on patient outcome. In rural areas people have difficulties accessing medical services within a reasonable time period and the delays associated with the provision of trauma care contribute to an unacceptable level of mortality and morbidity. Since it is impractical to provide sophisticated medical services capable of managing severe trauma in rural areas, referral and retrieval form a vital part of the process of rural trauma care. The focus of this review is the management of severe trauma in rural areas. It will discuss the utilisation of clinical guidelines to improve the process of trauma care and examine if they can be used to reduce the time taken by rural health facilities to seek advice and request retrieval services. The evolution of trauma care in Australia, including the referral and retrieval processes, will be discussed and strategies aimed at improving tertiary hospital referral identified.


The paper analyzes the impact of information technology on business performance. The research is conducted by investigating the correlation between the aggregated annual expense in some kinds of information technologies and a proxy measure of firm performance. In the literature, this research stream is not particularly active, especially due to the failure of traditional business performance indicators; nevertheless, the positive results of a few research works and the generally high interest of firms, especially within the current crisis context, prodded the study. The paper discusses the role of information technology in the organizations as a basis for the experience on the collected business data. Results of experimentation are presented and further research directions are outlined.<<ETX>>


Abstract. We propose two energy-mapping methods to produce a uniformly illuminated area for a nontilted (straight) and a tilted light source toward a target plane. These energy-mapping methods define the positions of the desired points (the destination points of the refracted rays of a light source) on an illuminated area. The surface of the lenses can then be formed through the position of the desired points. Based on these design methods, two freeform lenses, (i) a symmetric lens and (ii) an asymmetric lens, were designed to provide uniformity within a rectangular illumination footprint for a nontilted and a tilted light source, respectively. This method can produce uniformity for a tilted light source within 0 deg to 45 deg toward the normal vector on the target plane. Two freeform lenses for 0 deg and 20 deg tilted toward a target plane were designed. The illumination footprint of the symmetric and asymmetric freeform lenses was evaluated through ray-tracing simulations and experiments. Both models produce over 90% uniformity within an illuminated area.


Religions have historically established ways to regulate the lives of their followers, impacting conceptions of wellbeing and health. Likewise, state agencies have incorporated a more complex definition of health, including a lack of bodily illness, stability, and social, psychological, emotional and spiritual wellbeing. Using the category of care in a broad sense, we seek to put these conceptualizations into tension in order to identify points of agreement and discrepancy among the ways of defining health and wellbeing by state and religious agents. Using a qualitative approach, content analysis of documents, participant observation and formal and informal interviews with state and religious agents were carried out in the framework of two events held in 2016 and 2017 by the Buenos Aires Provincial Office of Religions under the name Expo Promo Salud. These events were generated to make visible the actions carried out by religions in the area of health in general and problematic drug use in particular. In this way, the article seeks to analyze the ways of discursively defining care, health and wellbeing and their possible impact on the design of public policies.


The development of one cycle resolution control strategies and the research at HCCI engines demands an accurate estimation of the trapped mass. In contrast to current methods for determining the mass flow, which are only able to determine averaged values of the flow entering the cylinders, the present paper proposes a methodology based on the in-cylinder pressure resonance. The determination of such frequency allows inferring the cylinder mass with one cycle resolution. In addition, the method permits determining error metrics based on the mass conservation principle. Validation results for a reactivity controlled compression ignition (RCCI) engine equipped with electrohydraulic variable valve timing (VVT) are presented to illustrate the performance of the method.


The method takes into account the constraint that the wind generation must not exceed a certain percentage of the system load, which is imposed for reliability reasons. The method efficiently computes the statistics of the wind generation and the diesel plant loading based on the statistics of the wind speed and the system load demand. The performance of the method is demonstrated with computational results. An example of obtaining the optimum wind penetration for an existing diesel system is presented. >


Diffuse ionized gas (DIG) is an important component of the interstellar medium that can provide insights into the different physical processes affecting the gas in galaxies. We utilize optical IFU observations of 71 gas-stripped and control galaxies from the Gas Stripping Phenomena in galaxies (GASP) survey, to analyze the gas properties of dense ionized gas and DIG, such as metallicity, ionization parameter log(q), and the difference between the measured log[O i]/Hα and the value predicted by star-forming models given the measured log[Oiii]/Hβ (Δ log[O i]/Hα). We compare these properties at different spatial scales, among galaxies at different gas-stripping stages, and between disks and tails of the stripped galaxies. The metallicity is similar between the dense gas and DIG at a given galactocentric radius. The log(q) is lower for DIG compared to dense gas. The median values of log(q) correlate best with stellar mass and the most massive galaxies show an increase in log(q) toward their galactic centers. The DIG clearly shows higher Δ log[O i]/Hα values compared to the dense gas, with much of the spaxels having LIER/LINER-like emission. The DIG regions in the tails of highly stripped galaxies show the highest Δ log[O i]/Hα, exhibit high values of log(q), and extend to large projected distances from star-forming areas (up to 10 kpc). We conclude that the DIG in the tails is at least partly ionized by a process other than star formation, probably by mixing, shocks, and accretion of inter-cluster and interstellar medium gas.


Antrodia cinnamomea is a valuable fungus. The 4-acetylantroquinonol B (4-AAQB) contained in it has strong anticancer activity. In this study, five kinds of herbs, burdock, wolfberry, coix seed, hawthorn, and tangerine peel were selected and processed into powders, aqueous extracts, and ethanolic extracts to investigate the effects on the production of 4-AAQB by A. cinnamomea. A combination strategy was conducted by adding burdock and tangerine peel aqueous extract. By this means, the production of 4-AAQB was improved to 54.5 mg/L, which was approximately 33-fold higher than the control. After analysis of components of the tangerine peel aqueous extract and the addition of the major components, vanillic acid, protocatechuic acid, and their analogs played an important role in the synthesis of 4-AAQB. It was demonstrated that the addition of Chinese herbs facilitated both cell growth of A. cinnamomea and 4-AAQB production, providing a feasible way to increase the yield of 4-AAQB.


Double-layer structure absorbing materials based on the impedance matching principle and transmission line theory can effectively improve the electromagnetic wave absorbing properties. In this paper, the electro-magnetic wave absorbing properties of double-layer absorbers (2 mm thickness), where multiwall carbon nanotube (MWCNT)-La(NO 3 ) 3 /polyvinyl chloride (PVC) and MWCNT-Fe 3 O 4 /PVC composites had been taken turns as the absorption layer and matching layer, were investigated in 2 – 18 GHz range. The absorbing properties of single- and double-layer structure and different each-layer thickness with two types of combinations were compared. The results showed that the design of double-layer structure for composites could effectively broaden the absorption frequency area, and increase the absorption intensity. When MWCNT-La(NO 3 ) 3 /PVC composite were used as absorption layers with 0.6 mm thickness, the absorption bandwidth (  97 %) of double-layer composite was the widest, reaching a maximum of about 3.36 GHz, and the absorption peak value was also the lowest about – 46.02 dB at 16.24 GHz. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5755/j01.ms.23.3.16279


. The rapid development of aquaculture, its intensification, and the occurrence of fish health problems on farms push to develop alternative methods to antibiotics and chemotherapy for controlling fish diseases. In this regard, the application of antibiotics as therapeutic and/or prophylactic strategies during fish production may lead to serious health and environment problems such as bacterial drug resistance development and dissemination, and food safety concerns. Probiotics may provide a potential alternative method to protect fish from opportunistic and pathologic bacteria and promote a balanced environment. Evaluating the in vitro probiotic properties of nine bacteria of aquatic or gut of gilt-head bream for their application in aquaculture. Selection was was assayed by substractive screening with several criteria including, their antimicrobial activity (Bacteriocin) against fish pathogens, tolerant to low pH and bile salts, their secretion of enzymes and finally their in vitro safety assessment Two of the nine bacteria isolated from several biotopes showed strong antibacterial activity against several pathogenic species such as Lactococcus garvieae , Vibrio anguillarum , Vibrio harveyi , Aeromonas hydrophila and Aeromonas salmonicida . These endospores-forming strains were withstand gastrointestinal conditions, produced a notable amylase, protease and lipase activities, showed high percentages of hydrophobicity, auto-aggregation and co-aggregation with fish pathogens and a strong adhesion to several fishes mucus and presented also a strong inhibition of pathogens adhesion . The tested strains showed a great heterogeneity respect to their safety and antibiotic susceptibility and were taxonomically identified by partial 16S rDNA gene sequencing. Given their antimicrobial activity against fish pathogens and their safety, some of the tested strains may be considered as potential fish probiotics, and their effectiveness will be further tested in vivo.


We present combined attacks on the AES key schedule based on the work of Roche et al. [1]. The main drawbacks of the original attack are: the need for high repeatability of the fault, a very particular fault model and a very high complexity of the key recovery algorithm. We consider more practical fault models, we obtain improved key recovery algorithms and we present more attack paths for combined attacks on AES. We propose to inject faults on the different operations of the key schedule instead of the key state of round 9 or the corresponding data state. We also consider fault injections in AES constants such as the RCon or the affine transformation of the SubWord. By corrupting these constants, the attacker can easily deduce the value of the error. The key recovery complexity can then be greatly improved. Notably, we can obtain a complexity identical to a classical differential side-channel attack. Our attacks defeat most AES implementations secure against both high-order side-channel attacks and fault attacks.


The coronavirus pandemic has generated a lot of talk about the post-coronavirus future of the world community and has drawn close attention to the globalization process. The article notes that something similar in the public consciousness took place after the publication of the first report to the Club of Rome, when the awareness of the danger posed by global problems had quickly come. Now, one of the global problems — the coronavirus pandemic — has changed the usual life rhythm of the entire world community in a matter of weeks. The relevance of the topic is so high that even those who, before that, not only professionally, but even seriously were not interested in either the problems of medicine or global problems, actively joined its discussion. As a result, on the pages of many print and electronic publications, along with serious and verified information, all sorts of guesses and speculations about the nature and correlation of coronavirus and globalization are multiplied. Only knowledge can be opposed to this, according to the authors.


Sir, Recent proposals by us (Crother and Murray, 2011, 2013) discuss a foundational ontology as well as subsequent implications on operation in biogeographical endeavours, respectively. Areas of endemism (AoEs) are proposed to be philosophical individuals as opposed to artificial classes or natural kinds (Crother and Murray, 2011). Furthermore, we offer epistemological insight into an operational tool to diagnose such areas under our novel philosophical views (Crother and Murray, 2013). We proposed that parsimony analysis of endemism (PAE; Rosen, 1988; Morrone, 1994) might be a useful discovery operation for AoEs, although PAE required interpretational tinkering in light of our ideas (Crother and Murray, 2011). Hovenkamp (1997) doubted AoEs existed and must have found Crother and Murray (2011) a challenge to his theory. Now, Hovenkamp (2013), in rebuttal fashion, offered comments on our operational reinterpretation of PAE under the AoE as individuals thesis (Crother and Murray, 2013). Hovenkamp's (2013) comments unfortunately introduced unnecessary semantic and operational confusion potentially based on algorithmic misunderstanding and misreading. We respond under four themes: (1) clarification on the definition of a "unique assemblage of taxa", (2) the value of monophyly in PAE, (3) the use of consensus trees in PAE, and (4) the nested hierarchical nature of AoEs. 1 It is apparent that some confusion exists for Hovenkamp regarding the "unique assemblage of taxa" (UAT) concept, despite frequent mention (Axelius, 1991; Linder, 2001). As stated in Crother and Murray (2011), a UAT is analogous to a unique combination of character states in the description of a taxon, as opposed to a unique character. Biogeographically, an area of endemism can be identified by an assemblage of taxa that exist in one area and no other area within a study scale or nested area unit within that study scale. As Hovenkamp (2013) explicitly states, a UAT is not reliant on a single taxon or "endemic taxon". Rather, a combination of species in an area that exists in no other area identifies an AoE. In nested situations it is useful to entertain the example used in Hovenkamp's rebuttal. The area (N(OT)) is diagnosed by the unique assemblage (figure 3): taxa 5, 9, 10, 25, 26, 35, 36, 37 and 42. The inclusion of area R in (N(OT))) possesses a unique assemblage from (N(OT)) (taxon 17) or the more inclusive (S(R(N(OT))) (taxa 28 and 42), and thus area (R(N(OT))) is an area of endemism as well. In figure 2, when ignoring homoplasies, area (N(OT)) does not have a UAT from area (R(N(OT))) (both areas share taxa 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9) and is not an AoE. Homplasious taxa and non-homoplasious taxa alike are individually important because their inclusion or lack thereof is used to diagnose an AoE when considered in combination with all other area taxa, thus forming a "unique assemblage". Hence, taxon 35 is capable of being diagnostic for area (N (OT)). Hovenkamp also claims to catch an error in recognizing an AoE: "Strangely enough, (G) is not listed by C & M as an AoE." That is strange indeed, given that G is listed as an AoE in Crother and Murray (2013, p. 2, bottom of last paragraph). 2 Hovenkamp (2013) concludes that "PAE fails to identify correctly the uniqueness of a particular assembly of taxa". He states that (BE) shares the same assemblage as B, and this is true. Area B possesses five taxa unique to E and two that it shares. Hovenkamp claims that an instance of inconsistency is that (BE) has the same UAT as (BA), (BC), and (BF), and is therefore not unique. However, area (BE) has a UAT diagnosed by taxa 35 and 40. Areas A, C, and F do not possess taxa 35 or 40, area A does not possess 46, 2, 27, and 44, area C does not possess 46, 24, 27, and 44, and area F does not possess 46, 2, 24, and 27. Needless to say these areas do not share a UAT. This misinterpretation, however, introduces the importance of monophyly and spatial boundaries. As per the interpretation of Morrone (1994), as well as ours, one does not interpret polyphyletic groups of areas as AoEs (BC for example). Because, under the "areas of Cladistics


Observations of stored grain, products from its manufacture and materials from plant origin in the storage-silo bases in Bulgaria were conducted from 1990 till 2019 to establish the food specialization and trophic chains of Rhyzopertha dominica F. The insect was found mostly in wheat grain – 49,2% from all expected samples, followed by barley – 18,5% and maize – 15,2%. The infestation of oats, rye, rice, and sorghum was 7.3%, 5.7%, 2.6%, and 1.5%, respectively. R. dominica infested also seeds of sugar and technical cane, millet, buckwheat, ryegrass, and Dactylis glomerata L. It was established in roots and fruits of Ecbalium elaterium L., roots of wild pumpkin – Bryonia alba L., bark of Frangula alnus Mill., crashed fruits of Aesculus hippocastanum L., fruits of Paleurus aculeatus L., seeds of quinoa Chenopodium quinoa, seeds of Trigonella foenum-grecum, seeds of Hibiscus cannabinus, seeds of Beta vulgaris L. and also in grain foods like "Kus-Kus". R. dominica did not develop in dried beans, lentil, edible and forage peas, vetch, chick-peas, soy, alfalfa, and clover. It was not found in storages with sunflower, rape, and coriander, and kernels - peanuts, groundnuts, hazelnuts, almond, sesame and pumpkins seeds.


The current knowledge on the Paleocene Odonata is rather limited despite the fact that it is a crucial period for the history of this order. An overview of the fossil odonatans from the Paleocene of Menat (France) is provided. We describe the anisopteran Macrogomphus menatensis sp. nov., first fossil representative of the family Epigomphidae, together with two zygopteran, viz. the dysagrionid Menatagrion hervetae gen. et sp. nov., and the new family Menatlestidae fam. nov., with its type species Menatlestes palaeocenicus gen. et sp. nov. The genus Menatagrion gen. nov. is the first Paleocene record of the Dysagrionidae, otherwise known by a putative Cretaceous genus and several Eocene to Miocene genera. Menatlestes gen. nov., putatively attributed to the stem-group of the Lestinoidea (Megalestidae and Lestidae), would correspond to the oldest record of this clade. With these three new taxa, and the previously described Thanetophilosina menatensis , Valerea multicellulata , " Lestes " zalesskyi , and an Aeshna species indet., the total number of Odonata from Menat goes up to seven species in total; two Anisoptera and five Zygoptera. Furthermore, we propose new evidences showing that the head characters defining the putative suborder Cephalozygoptera are due to deformations, very frequent among the fossil Odonatoptera. We treat the Cephalozygoptera as a junior synonym of Zygoptera.


To evaluate whether acute effects of ozone, nitrogen dioxide, and particulates with mass median diameter less than 10 micro m could be attenuated by antioxidant vitamin supplementation, we conducted a randomized trial using a double-blinded design. Children with asthma (n = 158) who were residents of Mexico City were randomly given a daily supplement of vitamins (50 mg/day of vitamin E and 250 mg/day of vitamin C) or a placebo and were followed from October 1998 to April 2000. Pulmonary function tests were carried out twice a week in the morning. During the follow-up observation period, the mean 1-hour maximum ozone level was 102 ppb (SD = 47), and the mean 24-hour average PM(10) level was 56.7 micro g/m(3) (SD = 27.4). In children with moderate and severe asthma, ozone levels 1 day before spirometry were inversely associated significantly with forced expiratory flow (FEF(25-75)) (-13.32 ml/second/10 ppb; p = 0.000), FEV(1) (-4.59 ml/10 ppb; p = 0.036), and peak expiratory flow (PEF) (-15.01 ml/second/10 ppb; p = 0.04) in the placebo group after adjusting for potential confounding factors. No association between ozone and lung functions was observed in the supplement group. We observed significant differences in lung function decrements between groups for FEF(25-75) and PEF. Our results suggest that supplementation with antioxidants might modulate the impact of ozone exposure on the small airways of children with moderate to severe asthma.


The influence of amino acids on the synthesis of staphylococcal serine-proteinase (proteinase I) by Staphylococcus aureus strain V8 was studied. The repression of proteinase synthesis during the exponential growth phase was not due to any single amino acid in the medium. Proline was essential for proteinase synthesis in post-exponential growth but not for bacterial growth. At low concentrations of glycine, serine, threonine and proline, proteinase synthesis was inhibited, whereas at high concentrations of any of these amino acids, proteinase synthesis was fully induced. During post-exponential growth in the absence of glycine, serine, threonine or proline, the intracellular concentrations of alanine, aspartic acid and glutamic acid increased two to threefold. In the presence of these amino acids, the pool of alanine and aspartic acid remained at a low level and the concentration of glutamic acid decreased. The synthesis of proteinase I is probably repressed at high intracellular concentrations of glutamic acid.


Abstract : The optimal use of ultrasonic bubble detectors requires a knowledge of the various pathophysiological consequence of gas phase formation in the body following decompression. Our studies during the later portion of this contract have been focused primarily on an understanding of decompression sickness as illuminated by the Doppler ultrasonic bubble detector. Studies of the amount of gas in the central venous system have shown that the Doppler bubble detectors are quite sensitive devices which are capable of detecting small quantities of dispersed gas. While gas bubbles with a very small radius may not be detectable in the precordial mode, the device can easily detect amounts smaller than 0.01 cc/kg/min. Gas introduced into the central venous system by means of a catheter will elicit a rise in the right ventricular systolic pressure (RVSP) as the gas embolizes the pulmonary vasculature. The degree of rise is a function of the gas embolization rate. Following hyperbaric decompression, the RVSP is elevated by inert gas emboli. Assuming a steady state, the amount of gas needed for any RVSP can be deduced. For a precordial Grade IV (in sheep) this is 0.03 cc/kg/min. Gas injected (per catheter) at this 0.03 rate produce neither signs of dyspnea nor can bubbles be detected in the systemic arteries (by a Doppler probe on the carotid artery). The smaller dysbarogenic bubbles (in contrast to catheter-produced) in concert with Grade IV or Grade V precordial bubbles, and the associated increase in RVSP, will often promote inert gas arterialization. Neurologic decompression sickness could result. (Author)


Space-graded silicon solar cells are evaluated by 1 MeV and 2 MeV electron-irradiation. The mean degradation of the maximum power (Pmax) is presented and analyzed. The degradation at both electron energies has been correlated with the displacement damage dose (Dd). A good linearity between the electron Dd and the mean Pmax degradation is obtained. The concept of Dd has also been used to predict the Si solar cell response in a low-earth-orbit (Altitude 799 km, Inclination 99°) radiation environment, considering the shielded effect of a 120 μm-thick silica coverglass on reducing the radiation. Compared with the on-orbit data from a Si solar array of a Chinese satellite (duration from April 2007 to July 2010), a good match can be found between the on-orbit data and the predicted results using Dd methodology, indicating the method is appropriate for evaluating the radiation damage of the solar cells, and also to provide a new technique for studying radiation effects on the optoelectronic detectors used in many high energy physics applications, where harsh radiation environments produce damage in optoelectronic device materials.


Prevention during the twentieth first century, health personnel caring for patients with infectious diseases today must cope with extraordinary new challenges, including a never ending overflow of new information, rapid evolution of drug resistant pathogenic E. coli responsible for urinary and other diseases, and formidable time and cost constraints. In no other area of medicine is the differential diagnosis so wide and often the narrowing of the differential to a precise infection caused by a specific pathogen with established antimicrobial susceptibilities is a matter of great urgency. The authors and editors of this book are acknowledged experts in their fields whose points of view represent decades of teaching, research and medical practice and a comprehensive knowledge of the literature.


The direct transnasal transsphenoidal approach to the pituitary fossa has been used in our unit since 1987. We describe the procedure and report its use in 48 patients with pituitary lesions. Successful access to the pituitary fossa was made in 46 out of 50 operations (92%). In two cases, repeat transnasal exploration was successfully performed for recurrent tumour 3 and 5 years following an initial trans-nasal exploration. This approach is straightforward, quick and does not require dissection of nasal mucosa or removal of septal cartilage. There was a 5.8% rate of major post-operative complications, and this compares favourably with other routes of access to the pituitary fossa. No long-term nasal, septal or dental complications have occurred, such as may happen with the other routes to the sphenoid sinus and pituitary fossa.


Two academic librarians from The University of Scranton's Weinberg Memorial Library partnered with a young adult librarian from the Scranton Public Library to help plan, organize, and implement, a sustainability themed summer series of events for a teen group. This paper discusses experiences of collaborating across traditional library boundaries from perspectives of a technical services librarian, an academic reference librarian, and a young adult librarian united to work together and educate teens about going green. Various resources and literature helped build a successful summer series on sustainability and demonstrated the important role librarians can play in promoting related environmental issues. The project also formed a meaningful bond between a public librarian and two academic librarians.


Acetylcholine content of blood and cholinesterase activity in blood and tissues of albino rats were studied at different time-intervals after gamma-irradiation with doses of 12.9 and 25.8 mC/kg. Cholinergic processes were found to change with the development of radiation dose.


This study was conducted to explore the depression, anxiety, spouse support, and the difference of these variables according to the general characteristics and disease related characteristics in married women who had received gynecologic cancer treatment. The subjects consisted of 62 patients with cervical cancer, 18 patients with ovarian cancer, and 7 patients with endometrial cancer who were admitted to the department of obstetrics and gynecology, 3 education hospital in Seoul from January, 1996 to August, 1999. The data were collected from March 25 to July 25, 2000 by using a mailed questionnaire. The results were as follows : 1. The mean score of depression was 35.1 with the range from 20 to 76. The mean score of the anxiety was 38.6 with the range from 24 to 58. The mean score of the spouse support was 33.8 with the range from 12 to 48. 2. The score of depression was significantly different by the general characteristics: woman's education level(p=.040), economic level(p=.002), and the satisfactory level on married life(p=.009). The score of spouse support was significantly different by the general characteristics: woman's education level(p=.009), spouse's education level(p=.001), spouse's religion (p=.004), economic level(p=.008), and the satisfactory level on married life(p=.000). The scores of depression, anxiety, and spouse support were not significantly different by the disease related characteristics. 3. The score of depression had a positive correlation with anxiety(r=.731), and a negative correlation with spouse support(r=-.425). 4. The main influencing factors on the depression were economic level and satisfactory level on married life. The main influencing factors on the spouse support were satisfactory level on married life and spouse's education level. Based upon the above findings, the depression, anxiety, and spouse support of women who had received gynecologic cancer treatment were higher than healthy married women. The score of depression and anxiety had a negative correlation with spouse support. The factors influencing spouse support were satisfactory level on married life and spouse's education level. Therefore it is recommended that nursing intervention for women who had received gynecologic cancer treatment would be focused to improve spouse support for alleviating depression and anxiety level.


Recent excavations in a new Zapotec area near San Pedro Yolox in the Sierra de Juaraz, Oaxaca, have brought to light the first Mexican polychrome tomb paintings from the Historic Period. In a village with twenty terraces, family tombs below the house-foundations contained polychrome representations in three distinct styles: geometric steppedfrets; deities in the style of the Mixtec codices; and crude naturalistic representations of human figures, centipedes, and the sun. Tombs were rectangular, with slab roofs and side niches containing simple greyware bowls as offerings; each tomb contained from 2 to 8 adult burials showing dental mutilation, cranial deformation, and in one case, trepanation. AGUSTIN DELGADO


Prediction of genetic values plays a central role in quantitative genetics and breeding. Genomic prediction making use of genome-wide single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) was widely adopted to predict breeding values in animal and plant breeding, and to accurately quantify individual disease risk early in human genetics. In the multi-omics era, as omics data (genome, transcriptome, proteome, metabolome, epigenome etc.) increasingly became available during recent years, exploring multi-layer omics data to be predictors in prediction models has been an accessible way to improve predictive abilities in phenotype prediction.
Gene expression profiles potentially hold valuable information for the prediction of breeding values and phenotypes. The Drosophila melanogaster Genetic Reference Panel (DGRP) is a community resource for analysis of population genomics and quantitative traits. It consists of more than 200 fully sequenced inbred lines (include 185 lines with whole genome gene expression data) derived from the Raleigh population, USA. In Chapter 2, the utility of transcriptome data for phenotype prediction was tested with 185 inbred lines of Drosophila melanogaster for 9 traits in two sexes. In total, 2,863,909 SNPs and 18,140 genome-wide annotated genes and novel transcribed regions (NTRs) were used for all the analyses. We incorporated the transcriptome data into genomic prediction via two kernel methods: GTBLUP and GRBLUP, both combining single nucleotide polymorphisms and transcriptome data. The genotypic data was used to construct the common additive genomic relationship, which was used in genomic best linear unbiased prediction (GBLUP) or jointly in a linear mixed model with a transcriptome-based linear kernel (GTBLUP), or with a transcriptome-based Gaussian kernel (GRBLUP). We studied the predictive ability of the models and discuss a concept of "omics-augmented broad sense heritability" for the multi-omics era. There was one trait (olfactory perceptions to Ethyl Butyrate in females) in which the predictive ability of GRBLUP was significantly higher (0.23) than the predictive ability of GBLUP (0.21). Nonetheless, for most traits, GRBLUP and GBLUP provided similar predictive abilities, while GRBLUP explained more of the phenotypic variance. The better goodness of fit of GRBLUP in general did not translate into a better predictive ability. A possible explanation was suggested that sample size was small and gene expression was not measured at one time point and in one specific tissue which is functionally linked to the trait of interest.
It is well known that gene expression and regulation may extensively vary among different tissues. However, the transcripts abundance of Drosophila melanogaster used was quantified from the entire flies. To test whether tissue-specific transcriptome data can substantially improve predictive abilities, in Chapter 3, we used tissue-specific transcriptome data from the three mice brain tissues: hippocampus (HIP), prefrontal cortex (PFC), and striatum (STR) for phenotype prediction on four novel behavioral traits and four muscle weight traits with low to medium heritability. There were 1063 mice individuals with pedigree information from a multigenerational outbred population which had been sequenced with the reduced-representation genotyping method genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). After quality control, 523,028 SNPs were used in the analyses. All analyses were conducted in three groups of mice with pedigree, genotype, gene expression and phenotype data, which contained 208 (HIP), 185 (PFC) and 169 (STR) individuals, respectively. The abundances of RNA products from three tissues encompassed 16,533 genes in HIP, 16,249 genes in PFC and 16,860 genes in STR. For the muscle weight traits, the tissue-specific transcriptome data-based prediction (TBLUP) showed high predictive abilities, and the predictive abilities overall were remarkably higher than the pedigree-based prediction (BLUP) and the SNP-based prediction (GBLUP). For the four behavioral traits, the increase of predictive abilities of the transcriptome data-based prediction (TBLUP) were lower than that for the muscle weight traits. When combining transcriptome data with SNPs or pedigree information as predictors, predictive abilities overall were not improved. To study whether the numbers of genes has impact on transcriptome-based prediction, we randomly chose different number of genes for the prediction with TBLUP. The differences among predictive abilities were negligible. Our results suggested that making use of transcriptome data has the potential to improve phenotype predictions if transcriptome data can be sampled in a specific tissue.
In contrast to phenotype prediction, multi-omics data are not ideal candidates for prediction of genetic value and estimation of heritability, since they are not causal variants but intermediate products between causal variants and phenotypes. During the transfer process of genetic information from DNA to phenotype, multi-omics data are inevitably affected by genetic and environmental effects, and the interaction between both. The 'pan-genome' denotes the set of all genes or open reading frames (ORFs) present in the genomes of a group of organisms. Pan-genomic open reading frames potentially carry genome-wide protein-coding genes or causal variant information in a population. The 1002 Yeast Genome project comprised 1,011 S. cerevisiae isolates that maximized the breadth of their ecological and geographical origins. In Chapter 4, we used 787 diploid S. cerevisiae isolates with 1,625,809 high-quality reference-based SNPs, 7,796 ORFs, copy number of ORFs (CNO) and 35 traits with linear models in the genomic prediction and estimation of heritability. Our results showed that compared to SNP-based genomic prediction (GBLUP), pan-genomic ORF-based genomic prediction (OBLUP) was distinctly more accurate for all the traits, and the predictive abilities were improved by 132% on average across all traits. In addition, the ORF-based heritability can capture more additive effects than SNP-based heritability for all traits. When we combined two subsets of total SNP data (MAF ≥ 0.01 and MAF ≥ 0.05) which contained 311,447 SNPs and 102,253 SNPs, respectively, to pan-genomic ORFs with GOBLUP, the predictive abilities remained the same with OBLUP only using pan-genomic ORFs data. For the second combined method GCBLUP, the predictive abilities remained the same as with CBLUP for all traits, suggesting that ORF data or CNO data covered all causal variant information which SNP data carried. When using three different numbers of isolates in training sets in ORF-based prediction, the predictive abilities of all traits increased as the number of isolates in the training set increased, showing that increasing the training set size could more accurately estimate ORF effects. We demonstrated that pan-genomic ORFs have the potential to be a substitution of single nucleotide polymorphisms in estimation of heritability and genomic prediction under certain conditions. However, in our study there was still a big gap between traits' heritability estimates and prediction accuracy for all the traits. We provide evidence that if larger sample sizes can be used in training set, the prediction accuracy will be further improved.


Data on the effect of electromagnetic fields on polymerization processes are analyzed and integrated. The results of investigation of the response of polymeric systems including polymerization mixtures, polymer solutions, melts and gels to external electromagnetic fields are discussed. Mechanisms of changes in the kinetic parameters of cationic polymerization of certain monomers are considered. They are based on ideas of spatial redistribution of growing macroions and counterions depending on the degree of dissociation of the active sites, which can lead to an increase in the polymerization rate, stabilize it or slow down the process. It is shown that these mechanisms are universal for other ionic systems. Almost all types of polymerization processes are discussed to reveal potential fields of their application in additive manufacturing technologies. High demand for further studies of the effect of electromagnetic fields on polymeric objects is pointed out in connection with the need to solve problems in the design of novel materials and functional structures. The bibliography includes 214 references.


This work presents a 2D numerical simulation of an earth dam to assess the behavior of its foundation after a treatment by stone columns. This treatment aims to improve the bearing capacity, to increase the mechanical properties of the soil, to accelerate the consolidation, to reduce the settlements and to eliminate the liquefaction phenomenon in case of seismic excitation. For the evaluation of the pore pressures, the position of the phreatic line and the flow network was defined, and a seepage analysis was performed with the software MIDAS Soil Works. The consolidation calculation is performed through a simulation of the actual construction stages of the dam. These analyzes were performed using the Mohr-Coulomb soil model and the results are compared with the actual measurements of settlement gauges implanted in the dam. An analysis of the bearing capacity was conducted to show the role of stone columns in improving the bearing capacity of the foundation. Keywords—Earth dam, dam foundation, numerical simulation, stone columns, seepage analysis, consolidation, bearing capacity.


In this article, we explore the role of self-reflexivity in the understanding of positionality in human geography to argue that self-reflexivity in and of itself does not offer researchers sufficient opportunities to question and critique their fluid, ever-changing positionalities. Drawing on the work of feminist scholars, critical race scholars, and experiences carrying out qualitative research, we argue that formal and informal conversations with colleagues and mentors affords the opportunity to deeply engage with positionalities. This article draws on concepts of 'everyday talk' to encourage researchers to explore their positionalities through kitchen table reflexivity – an exploration of an individual's positionality and its relationship to their research carried out through formal and informal conversations with others. We demonstrate how everyday talk with each other furthered our understandings of our fluid identities in relation to our research participants. Through these conversations, we were able to more critically interrogate our identity and not simply reduce identity to a laundry list of perceived similarities and differences between research participants and us. In conclusion, we encourage all researchers to use everyday talk as one way to complicate their positionalities and to reflect on how this process relates to the broader societal and academic environment within which they carry out their research.


This paper describes the results of the analysis carried out within the Erasmus+ FRAMES project (https://frames-project.eu/) which collected and analysed Virtual Exchange (VE) case studies building upon desk research and through an open survey, so as to identify and describe various scenarios of accredited VEs. By using a qualitative methodology based on pattern matching analysis, collected cases were aggregated into four scenarios to be potentially used by a variety of European Higher Education Institutions (HEIs): VE as a preparatory or follow-up activity to physical mobility (blended mobility); VE as an intertwined component of physical mobility (blended mobility); VE as a stand-alone learning activity; VE as a component of a course. The main conclusions and recommendations revolve around the need to expand the number of potential scenarios across all disciplines and contexts and the urge to train academic as well as administrative staff to facilitate the integration of VE in HEIs.


Objective: To measure glomerular filtration rate, free thyroxin, and thyrotrophin in chronic kidney disease patients and to find out the correlation between glomerular filtration rates, free thyroxin and thyrotrophin in these patients. Study Design: Cross Sectional Analytical study. Setting: Bacha Khan Medical Complex Swabi. Period: November 2018 to November 2019. Material & Methods: Sixty five patients were included in the study.  Serum Creatinine, TSH and Free T4 were measured; Thyroid function tests TSH, FT4 were measured in these chronic kidney disease patients through enzyme linked immunosorbant assay method. GFR was calculated through Cock-croft-Gualt formula and the relevant data was entered in a predesigned Proforma. Results: In the study total 65 chronic kidney disease patients were taken. Out of which thirty six (55.4%) were male and twenty nine (44.6%) were female. Thirty five (53.8%) CKD patients whose TSH level was above the normal limit while in the remaining patients the TSH values were in the normal range. Eight patients (12.3%) out of sixty five patients in whom FT4 values were below the normal limit while in the remaining fifty seven patients (87.6%)  FT4 values were within the reference range. Those eight patients whose FT4 was below the normal value, their TSH values were above the normal value too. Thirty five patients, whose TSH levels were above the normal limit, their mean age was 50.60± 11.95, mean serum creatinine was 4.73± 2.94 mg/dl, mean GFR was 22.17± 12.48 ml/min/1.73m2, mean TSH was 6.68± 0.87 mIU/L and mean FT4 was 0.97± 0.35 ng/dl. The p-value of TSH was < 0.001 and FT4 was < 0.05 in comparing with control group. Glomerular filtrations rate with TSH and FT4 the co-efficient of correlation (r) value for 35 patients was – 0.713 and 0.47 for TSH and FT4 respectively. Their p- values were 0.000 and 0.004 respectively, and p < 0.001 collectively. This was found to be statistically significant. Linear regression line was obtained between GFR and FT4 in CKD patients. Conclusion: chronic kidney disease is associated with biochemical thyroid dysfunctions causing most commonly subclinical hypothyroidism.


ABSTRACT The MgtA protein from Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium mediates Mg2+ uptake from the periplasm into the cytoplasm. Here we report that the PhoP/PhoQ two-component regulatory system, which responds to periplasmic Mg2+, governs mgtA transcription initiation at all investigated Mg2+ concentrations and that the Mg2+-sensing 5′ leader region of the mgtA gene controls transcription elongation into the mgtA coding region when Salmonella is grown in media with <50 μM Mg2+. Overexpression of the Mg2+ transporter CorA, which is believed to increase cytoplasmic Mg2+ levels, decreased mgtA transcription in a manner dependent on a functional mgtA 5′ leader.


 Abstract — A design of beam-steerable antenna array for the future cellular communication (5G) is presented. The proposed design contains eight elements of compact end-fire antennas arranged on the top edge of smartphone printed circuit board (PCB). Configuration of the antenna element consists of the conductive patterns on the top and bottom copper foil layers and a substrate layer with a via-hole. The simulated results including input-impedance and also fundamental radiation properties have been presented and discussed. The impedance bandwidth (S 11 ≤ -10 dB) of the antenna spans from 17.5 to 21 GHz (more than 3 GHz bandwidth) with a resonance at 19 GHz. The antenna exhibits end-fire (directional) radiation beams with wide-angle scanning property and could be used for the future 5G beam-forming. Furthermore, the characteristics of the array design in the vicinity of user-hand are studied.


We report in situ measurements of SiO(g) evolution during the oxidation of silicon by O2 for a range of experimental conditions including the transition from active to passive oxidation. The results show that this transition occurs when the SiO(g) partial pressure reaches the equilibrium vapor pressure for the reaction Si(s)+SiO(s)⇄2SiO(g). During the growth of a SiO2 film, there is no significant transport of SiO molecules into the gas phase.


Statistical properties of the horizontal to vertical spectral ratios (hvsr) applied to noise recording are analyzed in order to define optimal strategies for numerical processing and identification of possible artifacts. To this purpose, two time series have been analyzed: one constituted by environmental seismic noise in the presence of a genuine physical signal and one relative to pure instrumental noise, both obtained with the same experimental apparatus. By means of suitable statistics, some guidelines for the hvsr analysis are provided. A statistical test proposed by Albarello (2001) for the identification of artifacts in the hvsr function has been analyzed and invalidated.


Targeted therapy can maximize therapeutic efficiency and minimize the side effects of drug treatments, especially for cancer and cardiovascular disease. In previous invitro experiments, it was shown that shock wave (SW) application can change the permeability of cell membranes for tumor therapy. Similarly, in animal studies, extracorporeal SWs were proven to increase expression of growth and homing factors like SDF-1 and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) within a targeted ischemic tissue. This pretreatment increased the homing and neovascularization following application of bone marrow-derived mononuclear cells (BMC). In a randomized, double blinded, placebo-controlled clinical trial, 103 patients were recruited with stable chronic post-infarction heart failure (CHF). The goal of this work was to demonstrate improved recovery of left ventricular contractile function (LVEF) by combining targeted SW application with subsequent BMC administration. Results showed that the shock wave-facilitated intracoronary BMC administration in patients with chronic postinfarction heart failure is associated with significant persistent improvements in LVEF contractile function, NYHA class, and reduction of major adverse clinical events during extended clinical follow-up. (clinicaltrials.gov: NCT00326989).


Scientific innovations for sustainable development often make huge promises about overcoming climate change, or promote technological innovations that have potential development implications. However, the social outcomes of such interventions are often considered superficially; thus potentially reinforcing injustices or producing unforeseen, undesirable outcomes. Increasingly, projects claim to have an interdisciplinary dimension, but processes of interdisciplinary dialogue can be difficult to maintain. This means that researchers have to be prepared to engage in potentially extensive, transformative dialogue and be willing to learn from the disciplinary knowledge of the other. This can be methodologically challenging both for natural and social scientists. This paper reports meta-research exploring the methodological processes and learning experiences of academics involved in research on the implementation of second-generation biofuel technology. Through interdisciplinary meetings, workshops, reflections and interviews we built up sustainable relationships and bridged epistemological divides. Our approach to interdisciplinary dialogue offers insights into the methodological challenges of interdisciplinary work. We used the framework of transformative learning theory to identify key aspects of the interdisciplinary process and reflected on the need for sustained and open opportunities for dialogue in order to find genuine ways to communicate across disciplines. We explicitly revealed and considered our taken-for-granted assumptions to identify what we understood by key terms and processes, including 'sustainable', 'development', 'methodology', 'truth', 'marginal land' and 'outputs'. We found these encounters created opportunities to influence the trajectory of each other's research and thinking, with the ideal of social and environmental justice prominent in all our discussions. It was through ongoing learning and dialogue that we found that the multifaceted challenges of sustainable development research can become more open, more critical and more able to reveal appropriate solutions and promote relevant ongoing scientific research. This interplay between disciplines is an innovative way to influence decision-making directly.


Radiation induced heart diseases (RIHD) are increasingly recognized as more patients who received radiation therapy survive their diseases with improved management of various malignancies. Radiation affects every component of the heart, ranging from subclinical histopathologic changes to overt clinical disease. Pericardial involvement is the most common and includes asymptomatic pericardial effusion and constrictive pericarditis. The diseases involving the myocardium, valvular apparatus, and conduction system are often subclinical. When symptomatic, they are often the harbinger of more lethal, but treatable, radiation-induced coronary artery disease (CAD). Improvements in the modern radiation delivery systems have minimized irradiation of the heart. However, with increased and emerging indications for radiation therapy for various malignancies in the chest, as a part of bone marrow transplantations, and as the main agent of brachytherapy for advanced preexisting CAD, the incidence of RIHD is likely to increase. Appropriate management of RIHD, either overt or occult, must include understanding the natural history of RIHD, recognition of symptoms by careful history, and vigilant search for treatable causes of the RIHD or other diseases that might mimic RIHD. This article focuses on providing practical yet comprehensive clinical information for general internal medicine and cardiology practices.


Objective: To investigate post surgical wound infections for anaerobes and to develop effective method for their rapid identification. Method: Fifty seven (57) samples were collected in cooked meat broth, they consisted of 40 wound swabs, 7 pus, 6 vaginal and 4 rectal swabs. They were inoculated into two compounded media; Neomycin Blood Agar (NBA) and Neomycin Plasma Agar (NPA) incubated anaerobically at 37oC for (24-48) hours. Isolated anaerobes were gram-stained and tested using discs impregnated with antibiotics, bile salts and dyes, carbohydrate fermentation and other standard tests were carried out. Results: Abdominal surgery had the highest anaerobes (44%), Musculoskeletal (25%), Splenectomy and related procedures (5%). Severe outcomes associated with anaerobes were amputation of limbs and death. Anaerobes were classified into fragilis group, bile resistant, bile sensitive and Fusobacterium group. Further tests revealed Bacteroides fragilis, Fusobacterium nucleatium, Porphyromonas assacharolytica, Prevotella intermedia, and Peptosterptococcus magnus as most frequently isolated. The developed scheme interlinked the various identification steps: 1st level; inoculation and growth, 2nd level; Gram differentiation and 3rd level; Biochemical characterization. Conclusion: The study has shown anaerobic cultures as essential in the management of patients with post surgical would infections. The scheme serves as a guide of idealized representation to identification of anaerobes. KEY WORDS: Anaerobes, Culture, Compounded media, Schematic, Surgical wounds


After all communication remains a bitter idea that one could communicate properly, and better, and more efficient, and lower overall costs. The idea that persists after any communication is that the communication was imperfect. Being imperfect, any communication is also a failure. The power of communication is the communication failure. The failure is to not express your-self perfect, or speak more or less than you should, or could not say everything, or being misunderstood. In essence, the failure and the primary means of communication to improve the communication would be expression, speech, discourse. Discourse can be verbal or non-verbal. In linguistic communication works the principle of general expression, the principle of strong effability (J. J. Katz). The range of expression through language we record influence of idea of ineffable: it is thought, content, feeling, feelings, expressiveness that cannot be expressed. Ineffable principle seems to be secondary. In fact, the natural state of the world is ineffability. Effability and Ineffability of communication are complementary principles. The power of communication is in communication failure. Perfection communication cancel communication, perfection does not allow self-reproduction of communication and therefore stimulate its implosion. Deficient communication process development support communication; communication failure is the communication power. Communication failure is a relatively late theoretical discovery of communication discipline. It follows that in a subsequent paper to investigate "the principle of communication failure" that emerges from the research of several renowned experts in General Science Communication (C. R. Berger -1997; J. D. Peters; Noemi Marin 2007).


Post modernism is a buzz term used in the humanities, social sciences, the sciences and even in technology. It more or less connotes a certain set of activities that centres at a sort of break from what was regarded as "a rigid or foundational modern" to a new way of thinking or doing things that is regarded as freer and diversified. It finds expression in philosophy in its revolutionary stance against "modern philosophy" which harps on acquisition of knowledge on the basis of a generally accepted system. Post modernism rather harps on application of various forms of knowledge, and their functionality with no respect to a reveled foundation. The burden of this paper is to attempt a critical exposition of the revolutionary mode of postmodernism on epistemology. Our conclusion is that, though it has led to great development in science and technology, the end products could be devastating to humanity. Key Words: Postmodern, Epistemological, Revolution, Modernity, Knowledge.


The engineering of electrocatalysts with high performance for cathodic and/or anodic catalytic reactions is of great urgency for the development of direct methanol fuel cells. Pt-based bimetallic alloys have recently received considerable attention in the field of fuel cells because of their superior catalytic performance towards both fuel molecule electro-oxidation and oxygen reduction. In this work, bimetallic PtCo mesoporous nanospheres (PtCo MNs) with uniform size and morphology have been prepared by a one-step method with a high yield. The as-made PtCo MNs show superior catalytic activities for both oxygen reduction reaction and methanol oxidation reaction relative to Pt MNs and commercial Pt/C catalyst, attributed to their mesoporous structure and bimetallic composition.


Superhero themes have been increasingly used in the teaching of a range of topics including business, humanities and science in recent years. Typically, characters from existing popular media are adopted for the teaching activities. On the other hand, customised characters that are developed from scratch allow the educator to have more control of the characters' features so that the learning objectives can be achieved more effectively. In this work, new fictitious characters have been created as cases for students to perform their engineering materials selection assignment. The motivation for using the superhero theme was to increase the students' excitement in the assignment. This paper shares the approach taken and the teaching experience after running the superhero theme with two cohorts of students.


Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) is a type of nosocomial infection that mostly occurs in intensive care units, generally occurring 48 hours after intubation. Endotracheal intubation and the use of a mechanical ventilator are invasive measures by patients, having a therapeutic effect. This paper aimed to identify the use of oral hygiene materials for the incidence of pneumonia related to the use of a ventilator. The research design was by searching literature in five databases, namely PubMed, Proquest, Science Direct, Wiley Online Library, and Google Scholar, by taking all databases in English and Indonesian, published in the last ten years (2010-2020). There were six articles about the effectiveness of using oral hygiene as risk prevention for Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia (VAP) with various concentrations and volumes. Several oral health assessment tools that can be used are Oral Assessment Guide, Beck Oral Assessment Scale, or Mucosal-Plaque Score. Comprehensive implementation of oral hygiene can improve the oral health of patients with mechanical ventilation, so bacterial colonization that causes VAP can be prevented. Therefore, nurses need to understand and apply oral assessment instruments as a basis for giving intervention. Keywords: Intensive care unit, Oral hygiene, Ventilator-Associated Pneumonia


Licensing is one of the most commonly observed inter-firm contractual agreements. Drawing on the resource-based view of the firm and contract economics, we argue that the inclusion of a grant-back clause in licensing agreements emerges as a consequence of the licensor and licensee firms? requirements to balance the need to protect their technological resources with the need to learn through internal and external processes. We argue that licensing agreements are increasingly likely to contain a grant-back clause (i) the closer the licensed technology is to the core of the licensor?s patent portfolio, and (ii) the higher the uncertainty of the licensed technology. In contrast, we conjecture decreasing likelihood of a grant-back clause, the closer the licensed technology is to the core of the licensee?s patent portfolio. Technological uncertainty is conjectured to positively moderate the results both when the licensed technology is part of the core technology of the licensee and the licensor. We test our hypotheses using a sample of 404 licensed technologies over the period 1984-2004. We employ a hierarchical nested decision model to account for the inclusion of a grant-back clause in a licensing contract nested in the decision about which technologies to license out. We find broad support for our theoretical arguments.


Measurement of global cerebral blood flow (CBF) using extracranial duplex sonography has been described, but normal values are still lacking. In 85 healthy adults (median age 43.4 years, range 20 to 80 years), CBF was determined by duplex sonographic examination of both internal carotid arteries and vertebral arteries. The mean global CBF was 630 ± 97 mL/min. Global CBF declined with age; sex did not influence the total CBF. When measurements were repeated, the intraindividual variability was low. This noninvasive sonographic measurement of CBF is reproducible, and values correspond closely to those obtained with positron emission tomography and magnetic resonance imaging.


Apple's commercial triumph rests in part on the outsourcing of its consumer electronics production to Asia. Drawing on extensive fieldwork at China's leading exporter - the Taiwanese‐owned Foxconn - the power dynamics of the buyer‐driven supply chain are analysed in the context of the national terrains that mediate or even accentuate global pressures. Power asymmetries assure the dominance of Apple in price setting and the timing of product delivery, resulting in intense pressures and illegal overtime for workers. Responding to the high‐pressure production regime, the young generation of Chinese rural migrant workers engages in a crescendo of individual and collective struggles to define their rights and defend their dignity in the face of combined corporate and state power.


In this paper, the influence of different types winding connections of transformers on short duration voltage dip caused by faults therefore voltage dip propagation is evaluated. First of all affection is analyzed on a test system by SIMPOW DIPS software and voltage-time wave shapes results are given. Afterwards simulation results are confirmed by power quality monitor, which are implemented of Turkish Transmission and Distribution System as a part of National Power Quality Project, measurements. The project is a three-year project of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey, TÜBİTAK and based on to measure PQ parameters. The aim of the paper is to lead system operator and managements, end users on propagation of voltage dip according to transformer winding connection and emphasize necessity of nationwide voltage dip evaluation in order to choose convenient mitigation method.


This paper proposes a method for extracting information from the parameters of a single point incremental forming (SPIF) process. The measurement of the forming force using this technology helps to avoid failures, identify optimal processes, and to implement routine control. Since forming forces are also dependent on the friction between the tool and the sheet metal, an innovative solution has been proposed to actively control the friction forces by modulating the vibrations that replace the environmentally unfriendly lubrication of contact surfaces. This study focuses on the influence of mechanical properties, process parameters and sheet thickness on the maximum forming force. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) and different machine learning (ML) algorithms have been applied to develop an efficient force prediction model. The predicted forces agreed reasonably well with the experimental results. Assuming that the variability of each input function is characterized by a normal distribution, sampling data were generated. The applicability of the models in an industrial environment is due to their relatively high performance and the ability to balance model bias and variance. The results indicate that ANN and Gaussian process regression (GPR) have been identified as the most efficient methods for developing forming force prediction models.


The effects of temperature and hydrostatic pressure on the velocities of longitudinal and shear ultrasonic waves propagated in ceramic specimens of YBa2Cu3O6.94 have been measured. The ultrasonic wave velocities in this fully oxygenated material increase smoothly with decreasing temperature from 300 K to 10 K; the anomalous elastic effects and thermal hysteresis, observed previously by several groups in various YBa2Cu3O7-x superconductors in the range of 190-240 K, have not been found; this is in accord with the phase relationships expected for a material with this high oxygen concentration. The ultrasonic wave velocities in YBa2Cu3O6.94 increase linearly with pressure. The hydrostatic pressure derivatives ( delta CL/ delta P)p=0 (=20) and ( delta mu / delta P)p=0 (=0.9) of the elastic stiffnesses and ( delta Bs/ delta P)p=0 (=18.8) of the bulk modulus, and the mean long-wavelength acoustic mode Gruneisen parameter gamma el (=2.3) obtained for YBa2Cu3O6.94 are substantially smaller than those found previously for YBa2Cu3O7-x ceramics containing less oxygen. It is concluded that the oxygen content of YBa2Cu3O7-x strongly influences the elastic and nonlinear acoustic properties.


This paper develops methods to study the distribution of Eulerian statistics defined by second-order recurrence relations. We define a random process to decompose the statistics over compositions of integers. It is shown that the numbers of descents in random involutions and in random derangements are asymptotically normal with rates of convergence $\mathcal{O} (n^{-1/2})$ and $\mathcal{O}(n^{-1/3})$ respectively.


The multicolor photometric observations of the neglected eclipsing binary FT Ursae Majoris (FT UMa) were obtained in 2010. The 2003 version of the Wilson-Devinney code was used to analyze the light curves in the B, V and R bands simultaneously. Based on the spectroscopic mass ratio q = 0.984 published by Pribulla et al., it is found that FT UMa is an evolved contact binary with a contact degree of 15.3%. The low amplitude of light variations, ∼ 0.15 mag, arises mainly from a moderately low inclination angle of i = 62.80° and almost identical components in size rather than the light dilution of a third component, which contributes light of only ∼ 10%.


Objective We examined the prevalence of underweight and obesity in children with congenital heart disease (CHD) compared with the general population. Methods Using the Danish National Patient Registry, we identified individuals born and diagnosed with CHD in Denmark during 1996–2012 who were alive at 1 year of age. A unique personal identifier enabled identification of CHD subjects, as well as birth year and sex-matched (1:10) general population controls. The Children's Database has recorded height and weight measured by clinical providers at preventive health checks offered to all children in Denmark. Data recording were made mandatory in 2011. Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) above the 95thpercentile and underweight as BMI below the fifth percentile for age and sex. We determined the prevalence of underweight and obesity at study subjects' first height and weight recording. For those underweight at age 1 year, prevalence of underweight and obesity at later recordings was assessed. Results We identified 9194 children with CHD of which 2679 (29%) had at least one recording of height and weight. The control cohort demonstrated a similar portion of anthropometric data: 30 047 (31%) of 96 585 controls. The prevalence of underweight and obesity at CHD study subjects' first height and weight recording was 9.7% (95% CI 8.7 to 11) and 4.1% (95% CI 3.4 to 4.9), respectively. Among individuals with CHD who were underweight at age 1 year (n=78), 51 (65%) had additional BMI recordings between ages 2 and 5 years with a subsequently diminished prevalence of underweight of 27% (95% CI 20 to 35) and none were obese. Conclusion The CHD population had an increased prevalence of underweight compared with the general population. Data indicated potential for BMI normalisation among those initially underweight at age 1 year. The prevalence of obesity in children with CHD was comparable with that of the general population.


Background. Occupational injuries pose major public health and socioeconomic developmental problems. However, efforts towards investigation of determinants among factory workers are very minimal in developing countries. Thus, this study aimed at to identify determinants of occupational injury among textile factory workers in Amahara regional state in Ethiopia. Methods. A case control study was done among 456 textile factory workers (152 cases and 304 controls). Self-reported data from workers and document review from factories clinics were used to ascertain occupational injury status within one-year period. Data was collected using pretested and structured questionnaire by trained data collectors. Odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was used to assess level significance. Results. Young age (<30 years) (AOR 1.90, 95% CI (1.22, 2.94)), male gender (AOR 2.54, 95% CI (1.58, 4.07)), health and safety training (AOR 1.85, 95% CI (1.17, 2.91)), sleeping disturbance (AOR 1.99, 95% CI (1.30, 3.04)), and job stress (AOR 2.25, 95% CI (1.15, 4.41)) were significant predictors of occupation injury. Conclusion. Lack of training, sleeping disturbance, and job stress increased the risk of occupational injury. So, providing basic health and safety training with special emphasis on younger and male workers, reducing stressors, and providing sleep health education were recommended.


Although the prospect is more plausible than it might appear, the answer to the title question is, unfortunately, "probably not." Quantum fluctuations of vacuum energy can focus light, and while the effect is tiny, the distribution of fluctuations is highly non-Gaussian, offering hope that relatively rare "large" fluctuations might be observable. I show that although gravitational microlensing by such fluctuations become important at scales much larger than the Planck length, the possibility of direct observation remains remote, although there is a small chance that cumulative effects over cosmological distances might be detectable. The effect is sensitive to the size of the Planck scale, however, and could offer a new test of TeV-scale gravity.


It has been 93 years since Banting and Best extracted insulin in Scottish physiologist J.J.R. Macleod's laboratory and, with the help of their fellow Canadian chemist James B. Collip, used it to successfully treat a cachectic boy, Leonard Thompson, who suffered from life-threatening diabetes. Since that time, insulin therapy has become the mainstay of treatment for patients with type 1 diabetes and a cornerstone therapy for many individuals with type 2 diabetes.

Over the years, many changes in insulin therapy have occurred, including new formulations, new delivery systems, and additional therapeutic tactics. We are on the brink of a new and exciting era with increasingly reliable and easy-to-use continuous glucose monitoring as part of a closed-loop delivery system. This new "artificial pancreas" system, with its carefully modulated insulin (which remains the key component), may soon be ready for clinical use. In addition, an impressive array of new oral and injectable agents for type 2 diabetes has been developed over the past 20 years. Many thought that these could replace injected insulin in a therapeutic regimen, or at least delay its use. Yet, the reality is that insulin will always be needed for type 1 diabetes until a cure is found and progressive insulin deficiency is a fundamental defect of type 2 diabetes.

Furthermore, supplementation of endogenous insulin continues to be necessary for large numbers of individuals with type 2 diabetes. Meanwhile, the other classes of therapeutic agents are vying for a strategic position alongside insulin in clinical regimens for type 2 diabetes, and there is an unmet need for adjuvant therapies to mitigate the treatment challenges in type 1 diabetes as well.

To dramatize the continuing role of insulin in the management of diabetes, we propose an analogy from the world of clothing and fashion: Insulin is and will remain …


The inflammatory process is triggered for tissue repair following an attack of pathogens, chemicals or cell damages. Although beneficial, chronic inflammation may be the cause of certain diseases. Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) and corticosteroids have many side effects. Plants with anti-inflammatory properties may lead to the discovery of new anti-inflammatory agents with fewer side effects and cost. In this study, in vitro antiinflammatory effect of glycosidic and aglyconic crude extracts of Cassia sieberiana and Khaya grandifoliola was evaluated using membrane stabilization of erythrocytes and inhibition of proteins's denaturation tests. For this purpose, Acetylsalicylic acid has been used as a reference like NSAID. The results obtained showed an antiinflammatory effect more pronounced of aglycones that respective glycosides. This suggests that the deglycosilation can enhance the anti-inflammatory activity.


Personalized treatment is one of the basic principles of modern medicine. When administering a treatment, one should consider individual patient characteristics, comorbidities and, what is most important, the prevailing symptoms, as well as the clinical phenotype of a disease. This is directly related to chronic musculoskeletal pain (MSP), which occurs with underlying most prevalent joint and vertebral disorders. At present, MSP is considered to be an independent clinical syndrome.Predominant mechanisms of MSP pathophysiology allow for determination of its special phenotypes: "inflammatory", "mechanical", related to enthesopathy and central sensitization. Treatment strategies for MSP phenotypes should obviously be differentiated and based on a tailored and pathophysiologically sound of medical agents and non-medical measures with different mechanisms of pharmacological effects. Effective treatment of the "inflammatory" phenotype requires the use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, topical glucocorticoids, disease modifying anti-inflammatory agents. The "mechanical" phenotype necessitates the correction of biomechanical abnormalities, the use of hyaluronic acid containing agents, whereas the "enthesopathic" phenotype is treated with local therapy. Treatment of the phenotype with central sensitization is performed with agents effective for neuropathic pain (anticonvulsants, anti-depressants).


In recent years, several surgical or assistant robots have made a successful debut to surgical theatre. Due to their large size, and high price, there is a growing need for the miniaturization of these surgical robots. In this paper, a design methodology for a compact surgical robot is presented. Considering workspace and force requirements, a simulation and experiments are conducted to determine the design parameters. The compact surgical robot CURES of 5-DOF spherical mechanism is developed from the analysis and its properties are presented.


Experiments were conducted to determine the effect of bentonite and nonnutritive dietary polymers on toxicity and metabolism of T-2 toxin in rats. Male weanling rats were fed diets containing 5% bentonite, anion exchange resin, cation exchange resin or vermiculite-hydrobiotite. Each diet was fed with and without 3 micrograms T-2 toxin/g of feed for 2 wk. Bentonite and anion exchange resin were the treatments most successful at overcoming growth depression and feed refusal caused by T-2 toxin. Subsequent experiments tested bentonite and anion exchange resin at 0, 2.5, 5.0, 7.5 and 10% of the diet. Bentonite fed at 10% was the most effective treatment at overcoming feed refusal and growth depression. Rats were fed 0, 5, 7.5 or 10% bentonite for 2 wk and then dosed with [3H] T-2 toxin. Urine and feces were collected for 21 h after dosing and tissues were excised for determination of residual 3H. Feeding bentonite had little effect on the fraction of the dose excreted in the urine. Significant increases in fecal excretion of 3H were shown, when the feeding of 5, 7.5 or 10% bentonite was compared with the casein-based, semi-purified control diet. Dietary bentonite had no effect on residual 3H in liver or kidney, but all concentrations of bentonite tested reduced residual 3H in muscle. More 3H was found in the digesta in the small intestine and in the wall of the intestinal tissue when rats fed 5% bentonite were compared with the controls. Intestinal transit time for rats fed bentonite diets was reduced compared with that of the controls as indicated by chromic oxide marker studies.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Given that private prisons are now on the correctional scene, there is an important theoretical and practical issue governments must consider when introducing the private sector into custodial corrections. This paper will explore the source of the power to punish, the boundaries between the allocation and administration of punishment and the appropriate regulatory and accountability arrangements to achieve a satisfactory separation of those functions, particularly in light of research undertaken in Queensland. It will be argued that the theory of social contract provides the most useful way to justify a distinction between the allocation and administration of punishment. Significant writings from Australia, the UK and continental Europe will be evaluated. Hence, it provides a more sophisticated understanding of the historical development of this distinction and groundwork for a jurisdictional approach. It maintains that an Australian understanding can only be based on an analysis of its nature and scope in other Anglo-Saxon jurisdictions.


Message-passing models of distributed computing vary along numerous dimensions: degree of synchrony, kind of faults, number of faults... Unfortunately, the sheer number of models and their subtle distinctions hinder our ability to design a general theory of message-passing models. One way out of this conundrum restricts communication to proceed by round. A great variety of message-passing models can then be captured in the Heard-Of model, through predicates on the messages sent in a round and received during or before this round. Then, the issue is to find the most accurate Heard-Of predicate to capture a given model. This is straightforward in synchronous models, because waiting for the upper bound on communication delay ensures that all available messages are received, while not waiting forever. On the other hand, asynchrony allows unbounded message delays. Is there nonetheless a meaningful characterization of asynchronous models by a Heard-Of predicate? We formalize this characterization by introducing Delivered collections: the collections of all messages delivered at each round, whether late or not. Predicates on Delivered collections capture message-passing models. The question is to determine which Heard-Of predicates can be generated by a given Delivered predicate. We answer this by formalizing strategies for when to change round. Thanks to a partial order on these strategies, we also find the "best" strategy for multiple models, where "best" intuitively means it waits for as many messages as possible while not waiting forever. Finally, a strategy for changing round that never blocks a process forever implements a Heard-Of predicate. This allows us to translate the order on strategies into an order on Heard-Of predicates. The characterizing predicate for a model is then the greatest element for that order, if it exists. 2012 ACM Subject Classification Theory of computation → Distributed computing models


There was a day when the part-time dean could steer his medical school. His responsibility involved the four years of undergraduate medical education. Once a year, he could adequately represent his medical school on the national scene at the annual meeting of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC), which was founded in 1876. Today the dean finds himself at the helm of an academic medical center comprising a complex of undergraduate medical education programs; graduate PhD programs in the basic sciences; graduate medical education with interns, residents, and fellows equal in number to the number of medical students; continuing education for physicians in the region; a multimillion dollar research program (which in many instances is multidisciplinary and multidepartmental); one or more teaching hospitals which hover on the brink of financial insolvency; a fast-changing and expanding interest of federal and state government in health affairs; expanding needs of society in


This article begins with a general introduction to galaxy formation and evolution and ends with a discussion of the long-term spectroscopic study: The Role of Close Companions in the Formation of Brightest Cluster Galaxies and Intracluster Light. To illustrate the power, goals and aims of this larger project, preliminary data for one of the galaxy clusters in our sample is presented, Abell 407, which appears to be caught in the act of forming its Brightest Cluster Galaxy (BCG).


Summary The need for a vaccine(s) against cutaneous leishmaniasis and the populations at risk for whom such vaccines should be developed are briefly discussed. The current human vaccine studies are reviewed, as are some experimental mouse studies with emphasis on Leishmania major infection relevant to vaccine development. Based on the information available from the mouse model and those data which are being sought in human studies, the benign nature of the cutaneous disease, the ease with which L. major can be manipulated to yield the required material, and the ongoing practice of leishmanization which allows rapid evaluation of candidate vaccine(s), it is suggested that a vaccine, at least against L. major, is imminent in the not too distant future.