Background and Aims The C4 perennial grass miscanthus has been found to be less sensitive to cold than most other C4 species, but still emerges later in spring than C3 species. Genotypic differences in miscanthus were investigated to identify genotypes with a high cold tolerance at low temperatures and quick recovery upon rising temperatures to enable them to exploit the early growing season in maritime cold climates. Suitable methods for field screening of cold tolerance in miscanthus were also identified. Methods Fourteen genotypes of M. sacchariflorus, M. sinensis, M. tinctorius and M. × giganteus were selected and grown under warm (24 °C) and cold (14 °C) conditions in a controlled environment. Dark-adapted chlorophyll fluorescence, specific leaf area (SLA) and net photosynthetic rate at a photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of 1000 μmol m–2 s–1 (A1000) were measured. Photosynthetic light and CO2 response curves were obtained from 11 of the genotypes, and shoot growth rate was measured under field conditions. Key Results A positive linear relationship was found between SLA and light-saturated photosynthesis (Asat) across genotypes, and also between shoot growth rate under cool field conditions and A1000 at 14 °C in a climate chamber. When lowering the temperature from 24 to 14 °C, one M. sacchariflorus exhibited significantly higher Asat and maximum photosynthetic rate in the CO2 response curve (Vmax) than other genotypes at 14 °C, except M. × giganteus 'Hornum'. Several genotypes returned to their pre-chilling A1000 values when the temperature was increased to 24 °C after 24 d growth at 14 °C. Conclusions One M. sacchariflorus genotype had similar or higher photosynthetic capacity than M. × giganteus, and may be used for cultivation together with M. × giganteus or for breeding new interspecies hybrids with improved traits for temperate climates. Two easily measured variables, SLA and shoot growth rate, may be useful for genotype screening of productivity and cold tolerance.


This thesis summarises novel approaches and methods in the wavelet domain
employed and published in the literature by the author for the correction and
processing of time-series data from recorded seismic events, obtained from strong
motion accelerographs. Historically, the research developed to first de-convolve the
instrument response from legacy analogue strong-motion instruments, of which there
are a large number. This was to make available better estimates of the acceleration
ground motion before the more problematic part of the research that of obtaining
ground velocities and displacements. The characteristics of legacy analogue strongmotion
instruments are unfortunately in most cases not available, making it difficult
to de-couple the instrument response. Essentially this is a system identification
problem presented and summarised therein with solutions that are transparent to this
lack of instrument data. This was followed by the more fundamental and problematic
part of the research that of recovering the velocity and displacement from the
recorded data. In all cases the instruments are tri-axial, i.e. translation only. This is a
limiting factor and leads to distortions manifest by dc shifts in the recorded data as a
consequence of the instrument pitching, rolling and yawing during seismic events.
These distortions are embedded in the translation acceleration time–series, their
contributions having been recorded by the same tri-axial sensors. In the literature this
is termed 'baseline error' and it effectively prevents meaningful integration to
velocity and displacement. Sophisticated methods do exist, which recover estimates of
velocity and displacement, but these require a good measure of expertise and do not
recover all the possible information from the recorded data. A novel, automated
wavelet transform method developed by the author and published in the earthquake
engineering literature is presented. This surmounts the problem of obtaining the
velocity and displacement and in addition recovers both a low-frequency pulse called
the 'fling', the displacement 'fling-step' and the form of the baseline error, both
inferred in the literature, but hitherto never recovered. Once the acceleration fling
pulse is recovered meaningful integration becomes a reality. However, the necessity
of developing novel algorithms in order to recover important information emphasises
the weakness of modern digital instruments in that they are all tri- rather than sextaxial
instruments.


Corresponding author Gerald J. Kost, MD, PhD, MS, FACB Point-of-Care Testing Center for Teaching and Research (POCT•CTR) School of Medicine, University of California 3455 Tupper Hall, Davis, CA 95616 Running title Enabling Community and Global Resilience


We propose the unimodular-mimetic F (R) gravity theory, to resolve cosmological constant problem and dark matter problem in a unified geometric manner. We demonstrate that such a theory naturally admits accelerating universe evolution. Furthermore, we construct unimodular-mimetic F (R) inflationary cosmological scenarios compatible with the Planck and BICEP2/Keck-Array observational data. We also address the graceful exit issue, which is guaranteed by the existence of unstable de Sitter vacua.


The service industry perpetuates the notion that the customer is always right. The hospitality industry markets to guests based on service quality. The hotel industry has historically perpetuated gender, racial and ethnic stereotyping by placing women in gendered jobs with little power, such as hotel desk agents or cleaning personnel. Guest agents, the focus of this study, encounter a range of guest behaviors that may be negative such as yelling or throwing items. How do front-desk agents relate to guests when guests misbehave? This research examined this perplexing dilemma from the women desk agent's perspective.


The structure factor of expanded caesium along its liquid-vapour coexistence curve has been modelled using the RMC method. It is shown that as the density decreases a considerable amount of clustering takes place, which can be associated with a strong tendency to maintain metallic bonding. Some finite atomic clusters are present close to the critical point as well as 'weak links' within infinite clusters, suggesting that the metal-non-metal transition can be thought of as a bond percolation transition. The resistivity of the bond network is calculated from the structure in two ways-by applying Kirchhoff's laws (delocalized electrons) and by using a random-walk (hopping conduction) approach-with remarkable success.


The Huancabamba Deflection in the Andes of northern Peru and southern Ecuador is a pivotal area for Neotropical biogeography, where exceptional biodiversity coincides with high rates of endemism. These characteristics are well illustrated within the montane butterfly genus Manerebia Staudinger (Nymphalidae, Satyrinae). Here, six new, apparently endemic species, and two new subspecies, are described from this region: M. inducta Pyrcz Willmott n. sp., M. ronda Pyrcz Boyer, n. sp., M. ronda amplia Pyrcz Boyer, n. ssp., M. punku Pyrcz Farfn n. sp., M. huamanii Cerdea Pyrcz n. sp., M. placida Pyrcz Willmott n. sp., M. granatus Willmott, Radford Pyrcz n. sp. and M. prattorum udima Pyrcz Boyer, n. ssp. A total of 22 species of Manerebia is reported from the study region, as much as half the total number of species in this genus distributed throughout the tropical Andes. The alpha-taxonomy of Manerebia is particularly demanding, as colour patterns have apparently converged among different species making identification virtually impossible in some cases without comparison of their genitalia, which prove taxonomically and phylogenetically highly valuable. On the other hand, several species differ markedly in wing colour patterns and occur at different elevations but have identical genitalia. Furthermore, our data show that DNA barcoding is only partly viable as an alpha-taxonomic tool, as some markedly different species of Manerebia, in terms of external morphology and ecological preferences, are genetically not separable using only COI markers. On the other hand, several species barely differing morphologically are identified based on barcode. Barcodes of 26 species, including 18 from the northern Andes, are studied here, showing strong differences within some taxa previously considered conspecific based on morphological characters, suggesting that their taxonomic status needs to be re-evaluated. In particular, M. trimaculata and the widely distributed polytypic M. inderena may be highly variable species or complexes of several species. A total of 16 species are found north of the Chamaya valley in southern Ecuador and extreme northern Peru, compared to 14 species south of it in northern Peru. The faunal (Jaccard) similarity coefficient of the two adjacent regions is low (0.3), reflecting the role of the Huancabamba Deflection as a biogeographical barrier.


A myiasis produced by blowfly larvae (Calliphoridae: Cochliomyia hominivorax ) in a captive wild ocelot ( Leopardus pardalis ) is presented. This captive feline lives in the "Zoologico Las Delicias", at Maracay, Aragua State, Venezuela. The myiasis was post-traumatical in a wound in the feline's front left member. Due to the feline's particular sensitivity to the toxicity of most pour-on insecticides, and the fact that sedation is necessary for its handling; the larvae were extracted and a single dose of doramectin (200 μg/Kg of live weigth) was administered. Myiasis remission was observed, without damage to the feline health. This is the first case of treatment of a myiasis produced by Cochliomyia hominivorax in a Leopardus pardalis , using the endectocide Doramectin in Venezuela


Some nurses get jittery talking about death with older people and will avoid it if they can. This was one conclusion from the first major study of advance care planning in care homes, which focused on whether older people were allowed to express their wishes concerning end-of-life treatment.


Abstract Background: Aflatoxins are important and frequent teratogens, mutagens and carcinogens of maize, and the germ of the maize seed has linoleic acid, which can control aflatoxins. An aflatoxin analysis of maize flours with and without germ can show the role of the germ in the plant control of these toxins. Methods: The samples were cooked with the traditional nixtamalization process with varying calcium hydroxide content (from 0 to 2.1 w/w of corn) and steeping times of 0 and 9 h. The aflatoxin purification was performed with immunoaffinity columns, and the quantification was performed using HPLC. Results: It was found that the presence of the germ and the concentrations of 1.4 and 2.1% w/w of Ca(OH)2 had significant effects (p ≤ 0.05) on the decrease in the AFB1 and AFG1 content. Conclusion: The linoleic acid of the germ inhibited AFB1 and AFG1. However, the aflatoxin content of the experimental samples was higher than 12 μg kg-1, which is the tolerance limit permitted by NOM-247-SSA1-2008.


There are numerous books and papers on tuberculosis available in print as well as online. However, to sift through this huge volume of data and research papers is time consuming and difficult for a busy clinician or even a postgraduate trainee doctor. This book is an answer to their needs. With a long stint in research and teaching of tuberculosis and respiratory diseases, The author has been a witness to the advancement of knowledge in the field of tuberculosis, and in particular, the evolution of treatment regimens and newer diagnostics.


In this paper, we present a stable method for simulating passive distributed networks connected to linear and nonlinear devices using the time marching (TM) method. The method is based on the use of the Z -transform for analyzing and obtaining the TM equations, and the application of cepstrum for preventing the apparition of unstable poles in the Z-domain counterparts of the TM equations. The efficiency of the proposed method is demonstrated by comparing its results with simulations obtained using the following: 1) a full-wave FDTD approach, and 2) CST Cable Studio.


The author refined the yeast polysaccharide from the dry yeast by means of Hiokas's method, and experimented on the variation of its antigen activity in the refining process, the relation between its concentration in the blood and that in the urine, and its placental permeability, employing a guinea pig given the refined yeast polysaccharide by the abdominal cavity injection or the intravenous one.The anti-yeast rabit serum, (the antigen titer by Uhlenhuth's Method being 1 : 2,500,000), was used for proving the yeast polysaccharide in the blood, the urine and the amniotic fluid, and Uhienhuth's Method was employed for the measuring. The author could clarify the following points: 1) In case of refining the polysaccharide from the yeast, the degree of the antigen activity in the last process is 100 times as much as that of the extract by the physiological saline. 2) The yeast polysaccharide given to a guinea pig by the injection is rapidly excreted into the urine. 3) The yeast polysaccharide in the blood has shown the highest concentration for 4 hours since the injection, and thereafter it begins to decrease rapidly, to be found no more in the blood on the 6th day. 4) The yeast polysaccharide in the urine has shown the highest concentration since the injection, and thereafter it decreases a little less rapidly than that in the blood, to be found no more in the urine on 6th or the 7th day. 5) There is the proportional relation between concentration of the yeast polysaccharide in the blood and that in the urine. 6) In case of giving the yeast polysaccharide to a pregnant guinea pig by the injection, the concentration of the yeast polysaccharide in the embryo's serum, which is trans mitted from its mother, is 1/10-1/20 of that of the mother. 7) The yeast polysaccharide is never transmitted into the amniotic fluid. 8) The length of pregnancy has no relation to the degree of the yeast polysaccharide transmission to embryos.


Abstract Much of the new dust in the local ISM is produced in the last phases of stellar evolution of low- and intermediate-mass stars on the Asymptotic Giant Branch (AGB). Despite its importance, our knowledge of how dust properties depend on metallicity is limited. Studies of planetary nebulae in irregular galaxies in the Local Group (mostly focused on the LMC and SMC) have revealed a diverse spectral zoo and shown that low metallicity favours carbon-rich dust production by AGB stars. However, at ~1/3 and ~1/5 times the solar metallicity respectively, they provide two snapshots of dust composition at low metallicity, emphasising the need to investigate a region with a range of metallicity values. With its abundance gradient, the Milky Way fits this criterion and provides a good opportunity to observe the dust composition over a large metallicity range. In particular the Galactic anti-center, which is largely unexplored beyond galactocentric distances of 10 kpc, allows us to study the AGB dust a priori assumed to be metal-poor as well as exploring the extent of the Galactic abundance gradient. We analyse a Spitzer spectroscopic sample of 23 planetary nebulae towards the anti-center in order to understand how the metallicity gradient extends beyond 10 kpc from the Galactic center and to observe the dust composition in this region of our Galaxy. We find that the abundance gradients of Ne, S and Ar continue to distances of around 20 kpc (albeit with a large scatter) and the dust emission shows a carbon-rich chemistry similar to that in the Magellanic Clouds.


Purpose. The article is devoted to the analysis of the Alexander Column symbolism in the Taras Shevchenko Park in Odessa. Methodology. Field study and bibliographic research, synthesis and analysis, historical method, and method of analogies are used in that work. Results. Achievements and a number of reforms carried out by Emperor Alexander II and his role in the history of the Russian Empire are analyzed. The historical facts, contributing to the creation of the Alexander Park and the Alexander Column, dedicated to the memory of the emperor, on the 10th anniversary of his tragic death, are investigated. The architectural and artistic decoration of the monument has been analyzed in detail and it symbolic meaning has been deciphered. The functional purpose of this object is to preserve the memory and high social status of the personality of Alexander II in history, his place in the royal dynasty. These are personal symbols, such as a medallion with the profile of the sovereign and commemorative inscriptions on marble plaques. These are different types of status symbols: secular (crown, sword, scepter), indicating a high imperial status and continuity of power, and religious (Vladimir Monomakh's hat) – a symbol of God's anointing to power. The symbols of the apotheosis, the transition to the kingdom of heaven, are double-headed eagles with wreaths. The coat of arms of Odessa, surrounded by laurel and oak branches, is a symbol of memory and gratitude of the inhabitants of Odessa. The Alexander Column depicts elements of royal power from different historical periods, with an indication of the continuity and divinity of the imperial power. Scientific novelty. For the first time a study of the symbolism of the Alexander Column in Odessa was carried out in a detailed level. All symbols are correlated in time and reflect the philosophy of the era and the continuity of generations and royal power in the history of the state. Practical significance. The Alexander Column is located today on the main visual axis, the main alley of the Taras Shevchenko Park. Being on a hill, it also acts as a pronounced dominant, attracting the attention of visitors to the park. In addition to the aesthetic and compositional significance, it bears historical and memorial value


In his breakthrough paper, Raz showed that any parity learning algorithm requires either quadratic memory or an exponential number of samples [FOCS'16, JACM'19]. A line of work that followed extended this result to a large class of learning problems. Until recently, all these results considered learning in the streaming model, where each sample is drawn independently, and the learner is allowed a single pass over the stream of samples. Garg, Raz, and Tal [CCC'19] considered a stronger model, allowing multiple passes over the stream. In the $2$-pass model, they showed that learning parities of size $n$ requires either a memory of size $n^{1.5}$ or at least $2^{\sqrt{n}}$ samples. (Their result also generalizes to other learning problems.) In this work, for any constant $q$, we prove tight memory-sample lower bounds for any parity learning algorithm that makes $q$ passes over the stream of samples. We show that such a learner requires either $\Omega(n^{2})$ memory size or at least $2^{\Omega(n)}$ samples. Beyond establishing a tight lower bound, this is the first non-trivial lower bound for $q$-pass learning for any $q\ge 3$. Similar to prior work, our results extend to any learning problem with many nearly-orthogonal concepts. We complement the lower bound with an upper bound, showing that parity learning with $q$ passes can be done efficiently with $O(n^2/\log q)$ memory.


This paper reports the study of language of classification on accounting texts using the Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) framework. It focuses on how language of classification is realized structurally on a such text. The studies conducted by Wignell, Martin and Eggins (1993) focusing on physical geography texts and Khorina, Suyatna and Indira (2017) concerning with electronics engineering texts, identified that classification was realized either by intensive or possessive relational process clauses working on attribute mode. In relation to the prior studies, the data were collected from two accounting textbooks used as references by the students of Accounting Department at PoliteknikNegeri Bandung (Polban). Both of the types of relational process clauses were found in the texts consisting of 14 clauses classified as intensive and 17 belonging to possessive ones. Both types of the clauses contain attributive relational process. The attributive relational process occuring in intensive relational process clauses is realized solely by verb be. However, the relational process which appears in possessive relational process is realized by several verbs which are break, classify, consist, divide, and include. The implication of this study is not only for modelling English grammar of Accounting texts, but also for translation study.Key words: SFL, classification, intensive relational process clause, possessive relational process clause


The sparse crown along both riversides of the Tarim River plays an important role in firming the sand and restraining the desertification. It is very difficult to obtain the spectrum information from the remotely sensed data because of the low percentage of coverage of the sparse vegetation, which affects the classification accuracy of the identification of ground objects and the extraction of vegetation biophysics. It is a key obstruction in developing the quantification of the RS technology. Taking the sparse vegetation at the Tarim River Basin as the research object, this paper predicts the surface bidirectional reflectance of the discontinuous plant canopies in the extremely and based on the observed ground spectrum. Two different approaches are presented for the tree and the shrub. The first is to simulate the spectrum of the tree with the Geometric Optical-Radiative Transfer model based on ground observation. In the second approach,the spectral responses of sparse shrub and bare soil have been simulated using the linear Geometric Optical (GO) model. Comparing the simulated bidirectional reflectance with actual remote sensing data (EO-I), the spectral differences of these data are analyzed.


Diffuse gamma-ray emission from the decay of radioactive 26Al is a messenger from the nucleosynthesis activity in our current-day galaxy. Because this material is attributed to ejections from massive stars and their supernovae, the gamma-ray signal includes information about nucleosynthesis in massive star interiors as it varies with evolutionary stages, and about their feedback on the surrounding interstellar medium. Our method of population synthesis of massive-star groups has been refined as a diagnostic tool for this purpose. It allows to build a bottom-up prediction of the diffuse gamma-ray sky when known massive star group distributions and theoretical models of stellar evolution and core-collapse supernova explosions are employed. We find general consistency of an origin in such massive-star groups, in particular we also find support for the clumpy distribution of such source regions across the Galaxy, and characteristics of large cavities around these. A discrepancy in the integrated 26Al gamma-ray flux is interpreted as an indication for excess 26Al emission from nearby, distributed in cavities that extend over major regions of the sky.


"metaplasiadue either to infection, prolongedor of short duration but acute, or to chronic irritation from stone". Leucoplakiaand renal calculi are the two conditions most commonly associated with squamouscarcinomaof the renal pelvis. Winsbury'Vhite, writing in the samejournal in 1932 on Ieucoplakia of the urinary tract, stated that the most acceptable theory of the retiology of leucoplakia was that it was a deficiency disease, He referred to the work of Wolbach and Howe and of


From the arrival of Hispanicized Africans during the Age of Discovery to today's renewal of racial identities, the history of Africans in Latin America has been complex, their contributions numerous. It is precisely this complexity that the essays in Slavery and Beyond analyze, exploring geographical, regional, and other factors. The editor has selected ten topics through which to study the African dimension of Latin America, including the colonial era, religion, music, and intermarriage. Each topic is explained by the editor and then discussed in articles drawn from academic journals, monographs, and papers.


An arbovirus surveillance military exercise was conducted to assess the risk of Ross River virus (RRV) and Barmah Forest virus (BFV) in the Australian Defence Force (ADF) Wide Bay training area (WBTA), northeastern Australia, in April 2018. Of the 5,540 female mosquitoes collected, 3,702 were screened for RRV and BFV by quantitative reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction in a field laboratory. One pool of Verrallina funerea was positive for RRV and 8 pools (7 pools of Aedes vigilax and 1 pool of Culex annulirostris) were positive for BFV. Phylogenetic analysis of the complete nucleotide sequence of the E2 protein subgrouped both RRV and BFV with viruses previously isolated from human infections, indicating the potential risk of RRV and BFV infection to ADF personnel while training in WBTA. This is the 1st time that both RRV and BFV have been detected in a military training area.


We study the general features of the dynamics of the phantom field in the cosmological context. In the case of inverse coshyperbolic potential, we demonstrate that the phantom field can successfully drive the observed current accelerated expansion of the universe with the equation of state parameter wφ < −1. The de-Sitter universe turns out to be the late time attractor of the model. The main features of the dynamics are independent of the initial conditions and the parameters of the model. The model fits the supernova data very well, allowing for −2.4 < wφ < −1 at 95 % confidence level.


SUMMARY Background: Current asthma guidelines recommend that patients are educated to adjust their medication according to their asthma severity using physician-guided self-management plans. However, many patients take a fixed dose of their controller medication and adjust their reliever medication according to asthma symptoms. Objectives: This study examined whether asthma control improved if patients adjusted the maintenance dose of budesonide/formoterol (Symbicort Turbuhaler* 160/4.5 |ig) according to asthma severity compared with traditional fixed dosing (FD) regimens. * Symbicort and Turbuhaler are registered trademarks owned by the AstraZeneca group, t Seretide and Diskus are trademarks of GlaxoSmithKline. Methods: Symptomatic patients with asthma (n = 658, mean symptom score 1.5, mean inhaled corticosteroids 735|ig/day, mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second [FEV1] 84% predicted) were randomised after 2 weeks' run-in to either: budesonide/formoterol adjustable maintenance dosing (AMD), budesonide/formoterol FD or salmeterol/fluticasone (Seretide Diskust 50/250 |ig) FD. In a 4-week double-blind period, both budesonide/formoterol AMD and FD groups received two inhalations twice daily (bid) and salmeterol/fluticasone FD patients received one inhalation bid. In the following 6-month open extension, both FD groups continued with the same treatment. Patients in the AMD group with well-controlled asthma stepped down to one inhalation bid; others continued with two inhalations bid. All AMD patients could increase to four inhalations bid for 7-14 days if symptoms worsened. All patients used terbutaline or salbutamol for symptom relief throughout. The primary variable was the odds of achieving a well-controlled asthma week (WCAW). Results: The odds ratio for achieving a WCAW did not differ between the FD regimens; however, during the open period, budesonide/formoterol AMD increased the odds of achieving a WCAW vs. budesonide/formoterol FD (odds ratio 1.335; 95% CI: 1.001,1.783; p = 0.049) despite a 15% reduction in average study drug use. Budesonide/formoterol AMD patients had a lower exacerbation rate over the study: 40% lower vs. salmeterol/fluticasone FD (p = 0.018); 32% lower vs. budesonide/formoterol FD (NS). During the double-blind period, there were no clinically relevant differences between the budesonide/formoterol FD and salmeterol/fluticasone FD groups. Budesonide/formoterol AMD patients used less reliever medication in the open extension: 0.58 vs. 0.92 occasions/day for budesonide/formoterol FD (p = 0.001) and 0.80 occasions/day for salmeterol/fluticasone FD (p = 0.011). Conclusions: Adjustable maintenance dosing with budesonide/formoterol provides more effective asthma control by reducing exacerbations and reliever medication usage compared with fixed-dose salmeterol/fluticasone.


Two small scale acoustic phased arrays with 4 elements have been designed and assembled in the laboratory. Experiments have been carried out with them. It is found that both directivity and radiation lobe width of the phased array can be regulated by changing the time delay between the input signals on neighboring elements. Results measured are in good agreement with those calculated. By using the phased array as an acoustic transmitter and hydrophone as a receiver, small scale acoustic well-logging simulations have been carried out both on an aluminum modei well and on a concrete one. Experimental results show that, by increasing the time delay of the input signals on neighboring elements, the steered radiation angle of the phased array becomes larger and larger, and generation conditions of the refracted compressional wave and the refracted shear wave are reached successively, and the refracted compressional wave, the refracted shear wave and the Stoneley wave are strengthened, respec-tively. Therefore, by choosing element spacing of a phased array and acoustic wave frequency appropriately, the main radiation lobe of the phased array can be widened to cover the first critical angle of all kinds of formations, which makes it possible to apply phased array acoustic well-logging in any formation continuously without regulating directivity of the phased array.


Consumers consider themselves being able to change their consumption behavior and by that make a difference. This makes it easier for organizations in the usage of sustainability in their marketing strategy in order to attract customers and keep the already existing ones. As one of the world's largest furniture retailing company, IKEA has a well established sustainability policy. They believe that they have a responsibility to control the impact of their business and the role that they play in society. The aim with this research is to contribute to IKEA's awareness of the Chinese students' level of knowledge when discussing sustainability in China. This thesis studied the Chinese students' knowledge and attitude towards IKEA's sustainability work. The purpose is to establish an understanding of the students' viewpoint when discussing environmental friendly purchases. It was also within the scope of interest to investigate whether IKEA manage to reach the selected group of respondents. The study was conducted with a quantitative method. Data was collected through a distribution of self-completion questionnaire with 120 respondents. The analysis of this study showed that 57,3% of the respondents have never heard of IKEA before, which leads to next analysis where they believe that IKEA should put more effort in marketing their sustainability work.


Abstract Background Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) is a common and potentially fatal opportunistic infection in immunocompromised non-HIV individuals. There are problems with clinical and diagnostic protocols for PCP that lack sensitivity and specificity. We designed a retrospective study to compared several methods that were used in diagnostics of PCP. Patients and methods One hundred and eight immunocompromised individuals with typical clinical picture for PCP and suspicious radiological findings were included in the study. Serum samples were taken to measure the values of (1→3)-β-D-glucan (Fungitell, Associates of Cape Cod, USA). Lower respiratory tract samples were obtained to perform direct immunofluorescence (DIF, MERIFLUOR® Pneumocystis, Meridian, USA) stain and real-time PCR (qPCR). Results Fifty-four (50%) of the 108 patients in our study had (1→3)-β-D-glucan > 500 pg/ml. Patients that had (1→3)-β-D-glucan concentrations < 400 pg/ml in serum, had mean threshold cycles (Ct) 35.43 ± 3.32 versus those that had (1→3)-β-D-glucan concentrations >400 pg/mL and mean Ct of 28.97 ± 5.27 (P < 0.001). If we detected P. jirovecii with DIF and qPCR than PCP was proven. If the concentration of (1→3)-β-D-glucan was higher than 400 pg/ml and Ct of qPCR was below 28.97 ± 5.27 than we have been able be certain that P. jirovecii caused pneumonia (odds ratio [OR] 2.31, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.62–3.27, P < 0.001). Conclusions Measurement of (1→3)-β-D-glucan or qPCR alone could not be used to diagnose PCP. Diagnostic cut-off value for (1→3)-β-D-glucan > 400pg/ml and qPCR below 30 Ct, allow us to conclude that patient has PCP. If the values of (1→3)-β-D-glucan are < 400 pg/ml and qPCR is above 35 Ct than colonization with P. jirovecii is more possible than PCP.


The classical literature on DC motor design tends to focus on commutating inductance rather than total armature inductance, and does not provide a complete procedure for all the inductance calculations that are needed in permanent-magnet motors. The armature inductance is important, partly because of its effect on the electrical time constant, and partly because of its effect on the current waveform and torque when the motor is supplied from a phase-controlled converter or chopper. The inductance formulas needed in PM motors differ appreciably from those used with wound-field machines. The paper presents a comprehensive but concise account of the theory and computation of both the armature inductance and the commutating inductance in a form suitable for rapid computer calculation. In the armature inductance, new formulas for the airgap component are introduced and its importance is underlined by the fact that it accounts for about half the total inductance in several of the motors tested. This is an unexpected result, since the airgap component appears to have been overlooked in previous literature. Results are verified by experiment and finite-element analysis, and the paper describes the theoretical basis for the necessary connections to achieve the correct inductance by measurement.


The present study was connected in Nile Valley (Beni Suef Governorate). Data was collected from the seven districts within Governorate (from December 2013 to June 2015). The main objects were to study the impact of different patterns of roof house on physiological and productive performance for buffaloes and cows under environmental condition in Nile Valley.  Also, to study the relationship between bedding under animal and gases emissions of house to mat modifications to reduced impact of climatic change. Addition to the best system of animal housing  under this environmental conditions. Meteorological data including air temperature (AT °C), relative humidity (RH %), during the experimental period to calculate temperature humidity index (THI). The productive performance: recording total milk yield (TMY/kg) and lactation period (LP/ day). Physiological performance: recording respiration rate (RR r/min). Recording emission gas (N2O/L) from bedded under animal and (CO2/L) was estimated from N2O. The semi open System was the lower value of heat dissipation (HD/°C) under environmental in Nile valley. The best roof was mat and maize stoke respectively for two species. Cottonwood good bedded compared with rice straw to reduce emission gas. Dirt land only was good without any bedded from values of RR r/min, heat dissipation from house (HDH/°C) and gas emissions (GE/L) for two species. Values of total milk yield were high for two species under mat and maize stoke roof, and the higher value was for buffalo compared with cow. The data was recorded highly significant effect (P ≤ 0.001) for the interactions between type of roof and type of bedded on all items under this study., and the best system of animal house under the environmental conditions  in Nile valley was semi open system , the roof from meat and the dirty land without bedded .


One of the most important problems in Blind Source Separation of convolutive mixtures is the filtering ambiguity. One way to address this is to modify the separation algorithm to enforce some constraint. In this paper, according to our previous studies recently introduced in [4], we propose to combine the Minimum Distortion Principle and the Mutual Information criterion in order to reduce the ambiguity filtering. It consists to choose an optimal separator among an infinite number of valid separators that can extract the source signals in a certain sens according to the Minimal Distortion Principle. Our simulations and experimental results confirm that these issues have substantial impact on the performance of the proposed BSS algorithm.


Bleeding from a caecal mass is a common clinical scenario encountered in surgical practice. Tumours, diverticulitis, inflammation and vascular malformations are the most common causes of this bleeding. We present a case of a submucosal bleeding caecal mass, which turned out to be an appendiceal faecolith protruding into the caecum. Although we found one reported case of this previously, it was not encountered in the emergency setting.


ABSTRACT: Endometritis is causing great economic losses every year not only because of medication but also because of prolonged and increased calving period. The studies on prevalence / incidence are scarce which otherwise are essentially required to develop different control and treatment strategies. The objectives of this study was to determine incidence / prevalence of endometritis with regards to milking status and Month / Season wise in crossbred cows. The study was conducted on the crossbred cows belonging to four dairy farms located at Lahore and surrounding areas. Young stock cows fit for breeding (2-4 years old), adult milking cows and adult non milking (dry) cows were three understudy groups. Four hundred animals of each group were examined every month for a period of one year. Endometritis cases were identified through clinical signs (Less pregnancy rate / infertility, loss of appetite, depression, dehydration, vaginal discharge and dullness), Vaginal/uterine swab, colour and odour of vaginal discharge and measurement of cervical diameter. Overall Endometritis incidence was found highest (1.72 %) in Milking cows followed by Dry Cows (1.00 %) and lowest in Young Stock Cows (0.94 %). The highest incidence was observed during summer season in all three classes of cows whereas the lowest was during winter with the exception of in Milk group where the lowest incidence was observed during spring season. The study may provide useful information to evolve effective control measures and treatment of endometritis in crossbred cows.


Studies were performed on eviscerated dogs maintained with a constant cardiac inflow with and without injections of lethal amounts of E. coli endotoxin. Continuous recordings of mean arterial blood pressure and total venous return permitted determination of changes in total peripheral resistance and extent of vascular pooling. A significant fall in mean arterial blood pressure occurs within 30 minutes after endotoxin in the eviscerated dog with constant cardiac inflow. There is therefore a decrease in total peripheral resistance. There is also a small but significant increase in vascular pooling exceeding that seen without endotoxin but much reduced from that observed in noneviscerated animals given endotoxin. It is concluded that a decrease in vascular tone occurs after endotoxin and that it probably plays a significant role in the later phase of endotoxin shock in the dog.


Introduction The SARS-CoV-2 pandemic is a major challenge for patients, healthcare professionals, and populations worldwide. While initial reporting focused mainly on lung involvement, the ongoing pandemic showed that multiple organs can be involved, and prognosis is largely influenced by multi-organ involvement. Our aim was to obtain nationwide retrospective population-based data on hospitalizations with COVID-19 and AKI. Materials & Methods We performed a query of G-DRG data for the year 2020 via the Institute for the hospital remuneration system (Institut fuer das Entgeltsystem im Krankenhaus GmbH, InEK) data portal and therefore included hospitalizations with a secondary diagnosis of RT-PCR proven COVID-19 infection, aged over 15 years. We included hospitalizations with acute kidney injury (AKI) stages 1 to 3. Age-specific and age-standardized hospitalization and in-hospital mortality rates (ASR) per 100.000 person years were calculated, with the German population of 2011 as the standard. Results In 2020, there were 16.776.845 hospitalizations in German hospitals. We detected 154.170 hospitalizations with RT-PCR proven COVID-19 diagnosis. The age-standardized hospitalization rate for COVID-19 in Germany was 232,8 per 100.000 person years (95% CI 213,6-233,9). The highest proportion of hospitalizations associated with COVID-19 were in the age group over 80 years. AKI was diagnosed in 16.773 (10,9%) of the hospitalizations with COVID-19. The relative risk of AKI for males was 1,49 (95%CI 1,44-1,53) compared to females. 43 Renal replacement therapy (RRT) was performed in 3.443 hospitalizations, 20,5% of the hospitalizations with AKI. For all hospitalizations with COVID-19, the in-hospital mortality amounted to 19,7% (n= 30.300). The relative risk for in-hospital mortality was 3,87 (95%CI 3,80-3,94) when AKI occurred. The age-standardized hospitalization rates for COVID-19 took a bimodal course during the observation period. The first peak occurred in April (ASR 23,95 per 100.000 person years (95%CI 23,58-24,33)), hospitalizations peaked again in November 2020 (72,82 per 100.000 person years (95%CI 72,17-73,48)). The standardized rate ratios (SRR) for AKI and AKI-related mortality with the overall ASR for COVID-19 hospitalizations in the denominator, actually decreased throughout the observation period and remained lower in autumn than they were in spring. In contrast to all COVID-19 hospitalizations, the SRR for overall mortality in COVID-19 hospitalizations diverged from hospitalizations with AKI in autumn 2020. Discussion Our study for the first time provides nationwide data on COVID-19 related hospitalizations and acute kidney injury in Germany in 2020. AKI was a frequent complication and associated with high mortality. We observed a less pronounced increase in the ASR for AKI-related mortality during autumn 2020. The proportion of AKI-related mortality in comparison to the overall mortality decreased throughout the course of the pandemic.


This paper analyzes the circumstances in which the Kingdom of Pontus developed his policy of expansion along the Black Sea coasts from the time of Pharnakes I. The complicated situation lived by Rome at the end of the second century B.C. would facilitate the action of Mithridates VI Eupator.


We investigate self-shielding of intergalactic hydrogen against ionizing radiation in radiative transfer simulations of cosmic reionization carefully calibrated with Lyman alpha forest data. While self-shielded regions manifest as Lyman-limit systems in the post-reionization Universe, here we focus on their evolution during reionization (redshifts z=6-10). At these redshifts, the spatial distribution of hydrogen-ionizing radiation is highly inhomogeneous, and some regions of the Universe are still neutral. After masking the neutral regions and ionizing sources in the simulation, we find that the hydrogen photoionization rate depends on the local hydrogen density in a manner very similar to that in the post-reionization Universe. The characteristic physical hydrogen density above which self-shielding becomes important at these redshifts is about $\mathrm{n_H \sim 3 \times 10^{-3} cm^{-3}}$, or $\sim$ 20 times the mean hydrogen density, reflecting the fact that during reionization photoionization rates are typically low enough that the filaments in the cosmic web are often self-shielded. The value of the typical self-shielding density decreases by a factor of 3 between redshifts z=3 and 10, and follows the evolution of the average photoionization rate in ionized regions in a simple fashion. We provide a simple parameterization of the photoionization rate as a function of density in self-shielded regions during the epoch of reionization.


We examine the longitudinal impact of service mix on cost efficiency in U.S. acute care general hospitals. We propose two different dimensions of service mix, with the first dimension capturing internal emphasis on specific service lines (i.e., specialization) and the second dimension reflecting the deviation of a hospital from the average level of specialization for hospitals in the same service area (i.e., differentiation). We hypothesize that as the level of a hospital's specialization increases, hospital cost efficiency should improve at a decreasing rate. We also hypothesize that differentiation helps improve cost efficiency in competitive markets. Lastly, we examine whether acute care general hospitals can use service mix as an operational lever to improve cost efficiency when specialty hospitals are present in the same local markets. We find strong empirical support for the hypothesized relationships.


This article argues that the African American working class can be conceptualized as a subproletariat: a subsection of the working class generally restricted to unstable, unskilled, low-wage, non-union, and "dirty" labor. The restructuring of capital during various periods in the U.S. history always strategically positioned the vast majority of Black people in subproletarian labor. Under the current crisis in the political economy of Black labor, uneven development and economic dislocation have deepened the lack of stable, skilled, living wage jobs in poor Black regions of the USA. This article expands on the earlier work of Joe Trotter and Harold "Hal" Baron to build a framework to understand this phenomenon. This paper proposes that Black labor and the Black working class provide the most succinct starting points to understanding the complexities of contemporary forms of anti-Black racial oppression.


The grain complex of Saemangeum is created for promoting the foundation of agriculture combined the global competitiveness. However, the masterplan is being also revised with changing of local conditions and social needs. Thus, the dynamic masterplan is needed to consider the change of time for Saemangeum project. The present study was made to set up the dynamic masterplan of Saemangeum grain complex for handling the change such as project progress, local environment, and project conditions flexibly. In this study, the dynamic masterplan for the progressive development of water supply, farmland composition, and introduction facilities is presented to the 6-2 zone in three stages. We believed that the water supply would be possible through the pumping and desalination facilities with the development stages. The farmland composition proceeded for each complex with reclamation, soil preparation, and soft soil processing. And it is planned to carry out crop cultivation from the complex where the construction is completed first. The introduction facilities were analyzed focusing on the silos and forage loading facilities, and the optimal location of them was selected using road and accessibility. The concept of dynamic masterplan may provide the direction for the planning and progress of reclamation project.


A detailed study of the anisotropy in the magnetoresistance of PdFe alloys containing between 0.35 and 2.2 at.% Fe at 1.5 and 4.2 K is presented. Using these data, the composition dependence of the spontaneous resistive anisotropy at Fe concentrations above that necessary to establish a ferromagnetic ground state is established and compared with that reported recently in PdNi. The 'exponent' governing this concentration dependence appears to be different for systems in which the impurities either carry or lack an orbital moment.


P.W. Geoff Tanner writes: In this paper, Bluck has failed to provide a balanced and accurate assessment of the progress that has been made over many years to find a robust, modern geological interpretation of the Highland Border. This is no trivial matter, for the rocks exposed in this narrow strip of ground retain many of the clues to understanding the causes, and subsequent development, of the Caledonian c . 470 Ma Grampian Event, and the role played by the Highland Boundary Fault in continental-scale plate-tectonic reconstructions (Strachan & Dewey 2003; Tanner 2008).

The Highland Boundary Fault is considered by Bluck to define the contact between the Southern Highland Group (Dalradian) and the 'Highland Border Complex'. However, at outcrop this boundary is variously seen as a fault (North Esk), a lithological transition (Keltie Water), or the sole of an ophiolite (Innellan), and there is no evidence of a major, through-going fault between Arran and Stonehaven, as conventionally depicted (Tanner 2008). Conflicting interpretations of Highland Border geology have generated two diametrically opposed models, essentially summarized below, variations notwithstanding, as A & B.

In model A (Curry et al . 1984; Bluck 1985), the rocks between uncontested Southern Highland Group (Dalradian) to the NW and the unconformable Old Red Sandstone to the south, were assigned to the 'Highland Border Complex' (HBC). The latter was once 'considerably separated' from the Dalradian block, and acquired a northerly dip and younging direction before the two were amalgamated, following the Grampian Event, by movement on the Highland Boundary Fault.

In model B (Tanner & Sutherland 2007), the HBC was divided into two parts: the Trossachs Group (now the youngest part of the Dalradian Supergroup), and an overlying, allochthonous unit, the Highland Border Ophiolite (HBO).

The main differences between the two models are: all of the …


PURPOSE: Evaluation of the diagnostic usefulness of the T1-effect of Resovist (SPIO) for dynamic MRI of the liver. METHOD: In-vitro measurements of a dilution series with T1-weighted FLASH and SE sequences and investigation of 25 patients with known focal liver lesions with a T2-weighted TSE sequence and a dynamic T1-FLASH sequence. RESULTS: T1-weighted MRI with Resovist in vitro showed a positive enhancement at low concentrations and a negative enhancement at higher concentrations. In-vivo T1-weighted dynamic MRI liver parenchyma demonstrated a positive enhancement 30 s post contrast, followed by a continuous slope of signal intensity and a negative enhancement (> or = 60 s). Spleen, portal venous vessels and haemangiomas showed an early increase in signal intensity followed by a decreasing positive enhancement, but without negative enhancement. During the perfusion phase metastases showed a small but not significant increase in signal intensity. In 80% a positive ring enhancement could be observed around metastases. CONCLUSION: Resovist exhibits a diagnostically useful T1-effect. An evaluation of the perfusion of focal liver lesions during the distribution phase is possible with dynamic T1-weighted MRI. This approach may further improve characterisation of focal liver lesions.


The impedance spectra of BaTiO3 nanoceramics doped with Eu were measured. The samples originated from nanopowder which differed in grain size. The impedance spectra showed strong dependence on the measurement temperature. An electric equivalent circuit was elaborated and fitted to the measured spectra. Its analysis allowed to identify both conduction mechanisms and dielectric properties. The conductance analysis pointed to the diffusion as the main conductivity process which was independent on the grain size. The analysis of the dielectric properties suggested a coexistence of two phases: amorphous and crystalline. Contribution of the amorphous phase to the total electric permittivity was greater than the crystalline phase contribution at measurement frequencies below 1 MHz. Dielectric properties of the crystalline phase could be determined by the high frequency measurements or equivalent circuit modelling. The ferroelectric-paraelectric transition was observed in the crystalline phase. Contribution of the crystalline phase to the total permittivity increased with the grain size.


The child (0-6) sex ratio (F/M) declined sharply, particularly during the last decade in almost all the major states in India. This paper traces the antecedents that have caused this phenomenon of "missing females" and tries to understand the factors behind the increased manifestation of gender bias. The analysis of two rounds of NFHS, conducted during the last decade in the country, suggests that loss of female children may be attributed to sex selective abortion and a resultant more masculine sex ratio at birth, since other factors such as sex differential in mortality and the undercount of females are found to have a minimal effect. This phenomenon is typical of societies with a strong son preference, experiencing fertility transition, wherein the conflicting desires of limiting family size and simultaneously to have at least one son, put pressure on couples to resort to sex selective abortion for the fulfillment of both desires. The recent spread of clinics offering sex determination tests and abortion services in India, has facilitated the increased use of these techniques.


The present work is a review on the quality characteristics of groundwater in Nigeria. The aim was to collate, synthesize and analyse hydrochemical data from available literature in order to evaluate the physical and chemical character, quality and determine the sources of ions. The review process covered four major groundwater sedimentary basins viz Benin, Benue, Niger Delta, Sokoto and the Crystalline Basement Complexes. The issue of saline groundwater in parts of Benue and Niger Delta Basins were given attention. In general, data show that on the average, TDS for the groundwater from the different basins was < 250 mg/l compared to the saline groundwater with average TDS as high as 15700 mg/l. The high salinity was attributed to dissolution of salts and seawater intrusion. Nitrate concentration on the average is high especially, for Sokoto Basin indicating anthropogenic pollution. Descriptive and multivariate statistics together with cross plots indicate that the major geologic controls on the groundwater chemistry are chloride dissolution, weathering (silicate and carbonate) and ion exchange. With respect to agricultural and irrigation purposes, the groundwater are excellent besides the water from the saline groundwater from Benue Basin and the coastal aquifers. Keywords : Groundwater, chemistry, quality, Nigeria.


Increasing security needs require compact and portable detection tools for the rapid and reliable identification of explosives used in improvised explosive devices (IEDs). We report of an easy-to-use optical sensor for both vapour-phase and solution-phase identification of explosive mixtures that uses a cross-reactive fluorimetric sensor array comprising chemically responsive fluorimetric indicators composed of aromatic aldehydes and polyethyleneimine. Ammonium nitrate-nitromethane (ANNM) was analyzed by paper microzone arrays and nanofiber sensor mats. Progress toward wearable sensors based on electrospun nanofiber mats is outlined.


The 2019 Mw 7.5 New Ireland earthquake occurred at an equatorial area where the dense vegetation prevents remote sensing techniques such as Cor X-band interferometric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) from acquiring coherent phase measurements. Therefore, in this paper, multiple remote sensing techniques including the L-band interferometric SAR, the range and azimuth offset tracking of SAR intensities, and the offset tracking of optical images were employed to map its co-seismic deformation field and to determine the slip distribution. The surface rupture was clearly and consistently captured by all offset observations, with the ground fault trace striking at an angel of 315◦ and extending over 10 km. An iterative weighting strategy based on the residual root mean square of inversions using individual datasets was developed to determine the relative weight of each dataset, allowing for the joint inversion of the fault geometry, the refinement of the dip angle, and the determination of the best fitting slip distribution. The resultant model indicates a nearly left-lateral strike-slip motion on the Weitin fault that ruptured to the surface with a maximum slip of 6.10 m, occurring at a depth of ~10 km, and a geodetic moment release of 1.03 × 1020 Nm, corresponding to a magnitude of Mw 7.31. The distribution of aftershocks shows about 70% of aftershocks were located in the area with increased Coulomb failure stress and few aftershocks in the subduction zone to the south of the Weitin fault were triggered by this event.


Transactional Memory (TM) is a mechanism to control access to shared resources in memory. Though originally implemented in hardware, software implementations of TM are now available as library extensions in major programming language. Lately, variants of software transactional memory (STM) with real-time support have been presented. As real-time STM begins to be increasingly used in commercial embedded systems, a good understanding of their temporal properties for ascertaining real-time guarantees is required. Unlike the classical models of preemptive or non-preemptive execution, in STM higher priority tasks can induce an abort cost in addition to the interference cost on preempted lower priority tasks. Due to the abort cost, several existing approaches developed for the classical model cannot be used to ascertain real-time guarantees in STM. In this paper, we convert the abort costs induced by higher priority tasks into new phantom tasks and transform the transactional execution model of STM into a pessimistic preemptive model. An existing iterative method to compute response time is then applied to determine schedulability. This approach is utilized to derive a polynomial time sufficient schedulability test for both the lazy and eager conflict detection polices of STM. Experiment results to validate the sufficient test and analyze its coverage are presented.


After a short excursion from the discovery of Brownian motion to the Richardson "law of four thirds" in turbulent diffusion, the article introduces the Levy flight superdiffusion as a self-similar Levy process. The condition of self-similarity converts the infinitely divisible characteristic function of the Levy process into a stable characteristic function of the Levy motion. The Levy motion generalizes the Brownian motion on the base of the α-stable distributions theory and fractional order derivatives. Further development on this idea lies on the generalization of the Langevin equation with a non-Gaussian white noise source and the use of functional approach. This leads to the Kolmogorov's equation for arbitrary Markovian processes. As a particular case we obtain the fractional Fokker–Planck equation for Levy flights. Some results concerning stationary probability distributions of Levy motion in symmetric smooth monostable potentials, and a general expression to calculate the nonlinear relaxation time in barrier crossing problems are derived. Finally, we discuss the results on the same characteristics and barrier crossing problems with Levy flights, recently obtained by different approaches.


The aim of this paper is to examine how Finnish learners of Swedish at CEFR levels B1, B2 and C1 use connectors in written narratives. The use of connectors in learner texts is compared with connector use in texts written by native speakers of Swedish. The theoretical framework of the study is systemic functional linguistics (Halliday & Matthiessen 2014). The study investigates what lexicogrammatical resources learners at different CEFR levels use in order to realize logic-semantic relations and conjunction inside and between clauses and clause complexes.The results show that there are no big differences in how learners at different levels of proficiency use connectors. The more advanced learners at level C1 use less frequent connectors like dessutom (furthermore) and med andra ord (in other words). Compared to the native speakers of Swedish, there are some differences: learners use almost exclusively the connector nar (when) when they realize temporal enhancement whereas native speakers also use the connectors sa (so) and da (then). In case of causal enhancement native speakers use the connectors for and for att (for) when L2 writers use the connector eftersom (because). The results correspond to the descriptors in the CEFR. In future research, the use of connectors could also be studied during the writing process and not only in products. Furthermore, it would be advisable to examine the use of connectors in different text types.


In this article we study a random walk on a particularly simple graph. This walk is determined by a probabilistic process associated with the Fibonacci sequence. Exact formulas are derived for the expected proportions of time spent on each arc of the graph for a walk of length n, giving rise to sequences that do not appear in Sloane's On-Line Encyclopedia of Integer Sequences. We also obtain asymptotic relations for these expected proportions.


The Ryggfonn project is a Full scale experiment carried out to investigate the impact of avalanches on structures and the effects of a retaining dam in the avalanche path. The vertical drop of the avalanche path is 910 m and the volume of the avalanches is 20 - 100 000 m3. The experimental set-up consists of: a 15 m high retaining dam in the runout zone, instrumented with strain gauges on a 6.5 m steel mast and a load cell on a 1.0 m mast, plus a 4.5 m high concrete structure instrumented with three 0.72 m2 load cells, and three transmission line conductors strung across the avalanche path. The recorded analogue signals are digitized using Pulse-Code-Modulation (PCM) and recorded on a magnetic tape recorder. Up to May 1984, speed data from five avalanches have been analysed, and impact pressures have been recorded from three of them. The maximum speeds vary between 38 m/s and 60 m/s. The maximum recorded impact pressure was 541 kPa, and averaged 220 kPa over a 15 second interval. A maximum pressure of 83 kPa was measured on a load cell buried under snow at the base of the concrete structure.


The analgesic and antiinflammatory activities of tapak liman extract were investigated. Tapak liman extract was evaluated for antiinflammatory effect by carrageen-induced rat paw edema. The analgesic activity was tested by hot plate method in albino mice. The tapak liman extract in doses of 100; 200 and 400 mg/kg showed and % inhibition of paw edema respectively at the end of three hours. In the hot plate model, tapak liman extract at 100, 200 and 400 mg/kg not significantly inhibited the pain threshold after 15, 30, 60 and 120 min of administration. These results suggest that tapak liman has antiinflammatory but not analgesic properties may be attributed to inhibition of prostaglandin release.


Recently I had whooping cough. This has now been confirmed by the results of a blood test. I was in little doubt about the diagnosis from the beginning. However, my experience suggests that, despite considerable literature on the prevalence of whooping cough in adults, the diagnosis is still not one that doctors readily think of when they are faced with an adult rather than an infant or child.

I can well understand why the general practitioners I saw in the first couple of weeks did not diagnose whooping cough at once. I am aware that the duration of the symptoms, as well as the nature of the symptoms themselves, is important, and there were more obvious diagnoses that sprang to mind. However, when I experienced the first two or three terrifying paroxysmal coughing sessions, I knew it was a cough unlike anything I had had previously and said so. It also reminded me of my daughter's whooping cough when she was a toddler, many years ago. I was also very struck by the information on the website of Dr Doug Jenkinson (www.whoopingcough.net), which gave descriptions that matched my symptoms exactly. As a result, I spoke to the general practitioner who had first seen me and asked if he thought it could possibly be whooping cough. I also asked another general practitioner whom I saw a week or so later. In both cases their answer was similar: it was unlikely to be whooping cough as it is rare in adults.

On a visit to a chest clinic soon after this, I again raised the possibility of whooping cough. Once more this was thought to be highly unlikely. It was only on my return visit, when I felt just about well enough to be …


In this work, carbon dots (CDs), obtained through microwave assisted synthesis from butane tetra carboxylic acid (BTCA), was introduced into chitosan film via simple solvent casting approach. The CDs had an average diameter of 40 to 60 nm as determined by Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) analysis. They possessed a zeta potential of −20.2 mV. The X-ray photon spectroscopy (XPS) confirmed presence of carboxylate groups on the surface of carbon dots. The XRD of both the plain sample Ch/CD (0) and carbon dots loaded sample Ch/CD(2) showed two crystalline sharp peaks at 14.6 and 18.1 degree, along with presence of amorphous region also. The moisture absorption data was well fitted on GAB isotherm and the profiles obtained were sigmoidal. The water vapor permeation rates for the sample Ch/CD(0) and Ch/CD(2) were found to be 1758 and 956 g/m2 /day respectively. The film samples Ch/CD(0) and Ch/CD(20 expanded 2.8 and 103 times when immersed in 4% gelatin solution for 4 h. The % hemolysis for the samples Ch/CD(0) and Ch/CD(2) was 2.12 and 1.11 respectively, thus indicating biocompatible nature of the films. In the ex-vivo mucoadhesion study, the maximum detachment force (Fmax) was 88.22 and 46.28 mN for the samples Ch/CD(0) and Ch/CD(2) respectively. Finally, both of the samples, namely Ch/CD (0) and Ch/CD(2) scored "0", suggesting their non-cell cytotoxic nature.


A current trend for online social networks is to turn mobile. Mobile social networks directly reflect our real social life, and therefore are an important source to analyze and understand the underlying dynamics of human behaviors (activities). In this paper, we study the problem of activity prediction in mobile social networks. We present a series of observations in two real mobile social networks and then propose a method, ACTPred, based on a dynamic factor-graph model for modeling and predicting users' activities. An approximate algorithm based on mean fields is presented to efficiently learn the proposed method. We deploy a real system to collect users' mobility behaviors and validate the proposed method on two collected mobile datasets. Experimental results show that the proposed ACTPred model can achieve better performance than baseline methods.


The copA gene of Escherichia coli encodes a copper transporter and its promoter is normally regulated by Cu(I) ions and CueR, a MerR-like transcriptional activator. We show that CueR can also be activated by gold salts and that Cys112 and Cys120 are involved in recognition of gold, silver, and copper salts. Gold activation is unaffected by copper chelating agents but is affected by general metal chelators. This is the first example of specific regulation of transcription by gold, and we briefly speculate that the biological effects of gold antiarthritic drugs may be through their effects on copper management in eukaryotic systems.


Cynomolgus monkeys (Macaca fascicularis) were examined daily for menstrual cycle associated changes. Plasma estrogens and progestins were measured by competitive protein binding analyses while cervical mucus specimens were assessed for quantity, appearance, ferning and spinnbarkeit. Cyclic bleeding was monitored by daily vaginal swab or by observation of waste pans for blood. Vaginal swabbing was the superior procedure establishing menstrual cycle length at 31.5 ± 1.3 days with a range of 20-46 days. Visual examination of waste troughs produced cycles ranging from 20 to 133 days with an average of 42 ± 8.5 days. Between days 6-10, plasma estrogens averaged 183 ± 52 pg/mi. On days 11-12, significant increases ranging from 680 to 850 pg/mi were recorded in ovulatory cycles. During days 13-16 and 18-20, estrogen levels were not statistically different from early proliferative phase determinations. On day 17, a marked depression of estrogen levels occurred; possibly related to the development of a functional corpus luteum. Plasma progestin rose steadily from days 13-18 in ovulatory cycles but never exceeded 5 ng/ml in anovulatory animals. Spinnbarkeit was the most reliable cervical mucus parameter for detection of approaching ovulation even though individual variation was marked. Diminished spinnbarkeit was noted in anovulatory animals. Ovulation could be anticipated if plasma estrogen increased markedly on days 11-13. Laparotomy confirmed that total progestin was meaningful in determining if ovulation had occurred. Cervical mucus monitoring used in conjunction with progestin data could also detect the occurrence of ovulation.


In January 2008, institutions across the G-10 countries responsible for regulating banks within their jurisdictions implemented the new Basel Capital Accord, now commonly known as Basel II. This new standard for bank regulation replaces the first Basel Accord adopted in 1988 and introduces several innovations designed to improve the effectiveness of bank regulation and to reduce the likelihood of large bank collapses and the associated possibility of financial instability. Such a new policy framework has important implications for welfare and interest rate policy. A framework that successfully reduces the occurrence of financial crises is also likely to reduce the number of damaging episodes of economic downturn (such as that recently observed in the United States as a result of the subprime crisis) and the frequency with which monetary policy needs to be called upon to repair the damage of such downturns. Because interest rates affect the distribution of income, these changes also have potential political economy implications.


[1] We present a set of new current meter measurements collected to monitor the Malvinas Current (MC) near its merger with the Brazil Current at 40–41°S from December 2001 to February 2003 below a Jason-1 altimeter track. These measurements are compared to former measurements obtained 8 years earlier at the same location; they also provide new information on the core of the MC on the continental slope above the 1000-m isobath where a mooring had been previously lost. There, most of the velocity variation is along-isobath (80% of the variance) and shows a significant annual cycle. The two data sets provide coherent means and statistical parameters on the vertical structure of the flow. A 14-year-long time series of MC volume transport is derived using satellite altimetry. The good correlation between the altimetry-derived transport and the transport estimated from the current meter data persists in time (over 0.7 for each measurement period). A spectacular shift in the spectral composition of transport variations was observed: from 1992 until the end of 1997 transport variations occurred at rather short periods (50–90 days and to some degree around 180 days) whereas, after year 2000, longer periods including a seasonal cycle predominated. Altimetry-derived anomalies of surface geostrophic velocities along the core of the MC show a similar shift in spectral composition suggesting a remote-forcing origin.


This paper develops an approach based on Gram–Charlier-like expansions for modeling financial series to take in due account features such as leptokurtosis. A Gram–Charlier-like expansion adjusts the moments of interest of a given distribution via its own orthogonal polynomials. This approach, formerly adopted for univariate series, is here extended to a multivariate context by means of spherical densities. Previous works proposed the Gram–Charlier of the multivariate Gaussian, obtained by using Hermite polynomials. This work shows how polynomial expansions of an entire class of spherical laws can be worked out with the aim of obtaining a wide set of leptokurtic multivariate distributions. A Gram–Charlier-like expansion is a distribution characterized by an additional parameter with respect to the parent spherical law. This parameter, which measures the increase in kurtosis due to the polynomial expansion, can be estimated so as to make the resulting distribution capable of describing the empirical kurtosis found in the data. An application of the Gram–Charlier-like expansions to a set of financial assets proves their effectiveness in modeling multivariate financial series and assessing risk measures, such as the value at risk and the expected shortfall.


Abstract: The myelin‐deficient (mld) mouse is an autosomal recessive mutant characterized by hypomyelination of the CNS due to reduced expression of the myelin basic protein (MBP) gene. In the mld mutant, the MBP gene is duplicated in tandem. One gene is intact, but a large portion is inverted upstream of the other copy, and its transcription yields the antisense RNA. This antisense RNA was shown to be localized in the nucleus and to form an RNA:RNA duplex with sense RNA. These findings suggested that inhibition of transport from the nucleus or selective degradation of the duplex is responsible for the reduced expression of the MBP gene in the mld mutant. The mechanism of gene rearrangement at the MBP locus was also characterized. Cosmid clones encompassing whole MBP gene loci from control and mld genomic DNA libraries were isolated. The recombination points indicated that the duplication and inversion observed in mld occurred due to nonhomologous recombination.


Fungal endocarditis (FE) is an uncommon disease, an while accounting for only 1.3-6% of all cases of infectious endocarditis, it carries a high mortality risk. Usually occurring in intravenous-drug abusers and prosthetic valve recipients, native-valve endocarditis is rarely reported. Fungal endocarditis in commonly complicated by systemic embolization, and the difficulty in isolating the fungi with routine blood cultures complicates the diagnostic process. In these culture-negative cases of endocarditis, etiologic diagnosis is made with histolopathologic examination of the cardiac valve, embolic materials, and systemic ulcers.The fungal endocarditis is considered an absolute indication for valve replacement.Although Candida albicans represents the main etiology of fungal endocarditis, Candida parapsilosis is the most common non-albicans species. The incidence of endocarditis produced by the so-called "opportunists" is progressively increasing in frequency and gradually transforming the clinical picture habitually associated with this disease. We describe a first case of Candida pulcherrima endocarditis involving the aortic valves, with the patient not survived.


To develop shock melting diagnostics, we are studying laser melted semiconductors using nonlinear optical probes. We find a rapid response in THG from Si and GaAs, with both linearly and circularly polarized incident radiation.


The effects of strain rate and temperature on the mechanical behavior of a magnesium alloy (ZC71) and its corresponding composite reinforced with SiC particles are investigated. The experimental procedures of testing at high strain rate and different temperatures are described. The tensile stress-strain responses of both the base and the reinforced materials were found to depend on the applied strain rate (0.003 ≤ έ ≤ 700 s−1), the test temperature (−150 ≤ T ≤ 200°C) and the presence of reinforcement. Comparative results are presented in terms of the main mechanical parameters, and quantitative conclusions are obtained of the influence of temperature and strain rate, using quasistatic and dynamic tests, on the mechanical behavior of these materials.


Abstract:  Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis (PCI) with associated eosinophilic inflammation was documented in the gastric tissues of four black and white ruffed lemurs (Varecia variegata variegata). Pneumatosis cystoides intestinalis is an uncommon disease described in humans and characterized by multilocular gas-filled cystic spaces located within the wall of the gastrointestinal tract. These cystic spaces can occur in any location along the gastrointestinal tract as well as within the associated connective and lymphatic tissues. The exact cause of this disease is unknown. The four black and white ruffed lemurs described in this case series were captive born and had been housed in zoological institutions at two separate locations. Three of the four cases were female lemurs, and two of the affected lemurs were directly related. The individual disease presentations spanned a 5-yr time period. Two lemurs presented dead with no premonitory signs, whereas the other two lemurs presented with clinical signs of gastrointestinal disease and nonspecific signs of weakness. Gastric pneumatosis, diagnosed either grossly or histopathologically in each of these four lemurs, is described as a subset of PCI in which cystic spaces are localized to the stomach wall. Significant eosinophilic inflammatory infiltrate was identified on histopathology of gastric tissues and found to be associated with the cystic lesions in each lemur. No classic etiology, such as a fungal infection or a parasitic infection, was identified as the cause of the eosinophilic gastritis. This case series demonstrates that gastric pneumatosis with associated eosinophilic gastritis may be a significant gastrointestinal disease in black and white ruffed lemurs.


In 2009 The Australian Government announced the development of a $40 billion National Broadband Network (NBN) with some of the first roll-out towns in Tasmania. The question of what the NBN rollout would mean for Education in the state led to the "NBN in Education" project, including interviews with experts in the field and a culminating forum. It became clear that the NBN in education is not a simple matter of connecting fibre to schools; rather it is a complex environment with many different perspectives and assumptions about learning, the value of learning technologies and the future of schools. This paper reports the research approach associated with the project that helped a group of e-learning, professional learning and ICT leaders to engage with the issues. The frameworks developed to help this process may be valuable for others involved in engaging stakeholders in conversations about the implications of the NBN.


Endometriosis is defined as the presence of endometrial like stroma and glands outside the uterine cavity (Giudice and Kao, 2004). Laparoscopy has been recognized as the gold standard for endometriosis diagnosis and has been used for the surgical treatment of endometriosis. Diagnosis of endometriosis is currently made following laparoscopic inspection of the pelvis, preferably with histological biopsy confirmation (Mettler et al., 2003), although the correlation of biopsy with visual inspection depends on the experience of the endoscopist, inter-observer variability, the technique of excision and the care and experience of the pathologist (Poncelet and Ducarme, 2007). In one recent study, only 67% of lesions identified at laparoscopy as possible endometriosis proved to have the histological features of endometriosis (Stratton et al., 2003). Moreover, visual inspection of the pelvis also has its own limitations, particularly for the diagnosis of atypical and non-peritoneal endometriosis. Endometriotic lesions can vary in colour, mostly non-black, red, white or like burned powder. In clinical observation the age of a lesion can be estimated from the colour of these lesions. It appears that clear papules are limited to a younger age group (17-31 years), than the red (16-43 years) and black (20-52 years) lesions (Redwine, 1987). Many studies have clearly shown that there is a substantial delay in endometriosis diagnosis which inevitably has negative effect on quality of life of endometriosis patients (Matsuzaki et al., 2006, Hadfield et al., 1996, Zrubek et al., 1999, Ballard et al., 2006, Stratton, 2006). Ballard et al. demonstrate that the definitive diagnosis of endometriosis is frequently delayed for many years (2006). In a series of patients from southeastern England the mean delay from onset of symptoms to definitive diagnosis was 102 months (9.5 years). Delays usually occurred at every stage in the diagnostic process. An average patient waited for 18 months before been seen by a family doctor. The general practitioner subsequently waited 3 years before referring the patient for a specialized opinion by a gynaecologist, and it takes a further 9 months before the diagnosis is made. This delay is even longer in cases with deep infiltrating endometriosis and advanced endometriosis stage IV (Matsuzaki et al., 2006). The review by Wykes, C. B showed that there are very few good quality studies in the literature regarding the role of laparoscopy in the diagnosis of endometriosis (Wykes et al., 2004). A negative laparoscopy for endometriosis is helpful and women can be adequately reassured without the need for further testing, while a positive laparoscopy is less informative without histological confirmation. A false positive laparoscopy can hugely affect the woman's quality of life, perception of her own health, fertility and even sexual life.


Two-dimensional carbides/nitrides, typically called MXenes, are an emerging member of the ever-growing family of two-dimensional materials. The prediction of a ferromagnetic groundstate in chromium-containing MXenes has triggered growing interest in their chemical exfoliation from Cr-based MAX phases. However, the exfoliation poses serious difficulties using standard etching agents such as hydrofluoric acid (HF). Here, we investigate the exfoliability of Cr2GaC particles by chemical etching with aqueous HF both experimentally and theoretically. Structural and microstructural analyses show that the Cr2GaC particles decompose into chromium carbide and oxide without the formation of a Cr-based MXene. A thermodynamic analysis based on ab initio electronic structure calculations reveals that the exfoliation of Cr-based MXene from Cr2GaC by HF-etching is inhibited by more favorable competing reactions. This result confirms the experimental finding and suggests that HF is an unsuitable etching agent for a successful exfoliation of Cr2GaC.


Abstract. The importance of chaotic advection relative to turbulent diffusion is
investigated in an idealized model of a 3-D swirling and overturning ocean
eddy. Various measures of stirring and mixing are examined in order to
determine when and where chaotic advection is relevant. Turbulent diffusion
is alternatively represented by (1) an explicit, observation-based,
scale-dependent diffusivity, (2) stochastic noise, added to a deterministic
velocity field, or (3) explicit and implicit diffusion in a spectral numerical
model of the Navier–Stokes equations. Lagrangian chaos in our model occurs only
within distinct regions of the eddy, including a large chaotic "sea" that
fills much of the volume near the perimeter and central axis of the eddy and
much smaller "resonant" bands. The size and distribution of these regions
depend on factors such as the degree of axial asymmetry of the eddy and the
Ekman number. The relative importance of chaotic advection and turbulent
diffusion within the chaotic regions is quantified using three measures: the
Lagrangian Batchelor scale, the rate of dispersal of closely spaced fluid
parcels, and the Nakamura effective diffusivity. The role of chaotic
advection in the stirring of a passive tracer is generally found to be most
important within the larger chaotic seas, at intermediate times, with
small diffusivities, and for eddies with strong asymmetry. In contrast, in
thin chaotic regions, turbulent diffusion at oceanographically relevant rates
is at least as important as chaotic advection. Future work should address
anisotropic and spatially varying representations of turbulent diffusion for
more realistic models.


We present new Hubble Space Telescope (HST) imaging photometry for the site of the Type IIn supernova (SN) 2009ip taken almost a decade after explosion. The optical source has continued to fade steadily since the SN-like event in 2012. In the F606W filter, which was also used to detect its luminous blue variable (LBV) progenitor 13 yr before the SN, the source at the position of SN 2009ip is now 1.2 mag fainter than that quiescent progenitor. It is 6–7 mag fainter than the pre-SN outbursts in 2009–2011. This definitively rules out a prediction that the source would return to its previous state after surviving the 2012 event. Instead, the late-time fading matches expectations for a terminal explosion. The source fades at a similar rate in all visual-wavelength filters without significant colour changes, therefore also ruling out the hypothesis of a luminous dust-obscured survivor or transition to a hotter post-LBV survivor. The late-time continuum with steady colour and strong Hα emission detected in a narrow F657N filter are, however, entirely expected for ongoing shock interaction with circumstellar material in a decade-old core-collapse SN. Interestingly, the ultraviolet flux has stayed nearly constant since 2015, supporting previous conjectures that the F275W light traces main-sequence OB stars in an underlying young star cluster. We expect that the visual-wavelength continuum will eventually level off, tracing this cluster light. Without any additional outbursts, it seems prudent to consider the 2012 event as a terminal SN explosion, and we discuss plausible scenarios.


Under homeostatic conditions, an equilibrium state between amounts of free radicals formed and their scavenging is observed. Free radicals are destructive only when present in excess. Pathological changes within cells and tissues can result from a persistent excess of free radicals. Living organisms are increasingly exposed to oxidative stress, resulting in oxidative DNA modifications. One such modification is 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG). It is considered a biomarker of oxidative stress and oxidative DNA damage. It has been found both in physiological fluids and in cells. This paper presents methods found in the literature for determining 8-OHdG expression in various kinds of biological material - blood, urine or liver homogenates. Methods for determining the biomarker expression have been grouped into direct and indirect methods, and the various levels of 8-hydroxy-2'-deoxyguanosine that can be determined by the different techniques are presented. The basic pros and cons of the various techniques are also discussed.


The clinical features and management of genuine hereditary hydronephrosis (GHH) in 4 members of the same family are presented. Genealogical studies provide evidence of a dominant autosomal inheritance with complete penetrance. All affected members of the family had inherited the same HLA haplotype through the male line. This finding, added to those from previous association studies with histocompatibility typing (in 3 families), lends support to the localization of the GHH gene/s in the 6p human chromosome. Based on our findings from the present familial study and on a review of the literature, we suggest that all first-degree relatives of children or adults with genuine hydronephrosis should be screened by ultrasound. Such a prospective screening, including fetal echography, will lead to earlier diagnosis and treatment of asymptomatic cases and, moreover, will identify GHH cases for possible genetic counseling with regard to the empiric recurrence risk.


In the fall of 2013, during her senior year at Gwendolyn Brooks College Preparatory Academy in South Side Chicago, Janaya Greene wrote the screenplay for the short film, Veracity, in her film study class. With the support of their teacher, Mr. Eugene Hazzard, Janaya and her classmates participated in Scenarios USA's curriculum and national writing competition (www.scenariosusa.org). Middle and high school students in Chicago, New York, and Cleveland wrote stories and screenplays in response to the question, What's the Real Deal About Power and Place? Along with winning submissions from New York and Cleveland, a national selection committee chose Veracity to be transformed into a short film. Veracity explores what it means to come out in high school from the point of view of two African American female characters. In this interview, screen writer Greene talks with art education professor Karyn Sandlos about how media stereotypes shaped her experiences growing up, and how a film about same sex desire and friendship between two young Black women is provoking critical conversations amongst audiences of middle and high school students.


Automatic speech recognition of a tonal and syllabic language such as Chinese Mandarin poses new challenges but also offers new op-portunities. We present approaches and experimental results con- cerning the choice of base units for acoustic modeling, pitch estimation and how to integrate pitch estimates into the modeling framework. The experimental evaluations are carried out both on rather clean headset data and on noisy and reverberant distant talk- ing speech data. Results show that tonal base units offer a word error rate reduction of more than 30% compared to toneless base units. This holds for both phoneme models and initial-final models. The integration of pitch as an additional feature stream yields another remarkable improvement of more than 20% over the best tonal baseline system. In a two-stream modeling approach, the pitch stream distributions can be strongly tied such that the overall model size increases only very moderately.


Background: Administration of landiolol hydrochloride was found to be associated with reduced incidence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after esophagectomy for esophageal cancer in our previous randomized controlled trial (RCT). In addition, reduced incidence of AF was associated with reduction of other complications. Meanwhile, the effects of postoperative AF and other complications on long-term survival following esophagectomy are not well understood. Materials and Methods: Between March 2014 and January 2016, 100 patients with esophageal cancer were registered in an RCT trial and randomly allocated to receive either administration of landiolol or a placebo. We analyzed data from this RCT to better understand the effect of postoperative AF and severe associated complications on overall survival (OS) after esophagectomy for cancer. We also examined whether prophylactic administration of landiolol hydrochloride directly affects prolonged survival in patients with esophageal cancer. Results: The five-year rates of OS in the patients with and without AF were 60%, and 68.6%, respectively, there was no significant difference (P = 0.328). Five-year rates of OS of the patients with and without severe complications were 64.6%, and 67.5%, respectively (P = 0.995). The five-year rates of OS in the placebo and landiolol groups were 65.8% and 68%, respectively (P = 0.809). In multivariate analysis, high stage (stage III/IV) alone was an independent prognostic factor for esophageal cancer patients following esophagectomy. Conclusions: New-onset AF and the other severe complications were not associated with poorer long-term survival following esophagectomy. In addition, administration of landiolol hydrochloride after esophagectomy did not contribute to prolonging the OS.


Abstract The authors investigate the processes underlying Billie Holiday's oft-remarked "speech-like" singing. They identify sliding, or "kinetic," pitch as a definitive characteristic of speech intonation, and discuss the relationship between kinetic pitch and the communication of emotion in spoken English. They also adduce a connection between certain spoken consonants and the pitches of the vowels which follow them. They analyze five Holiday recordings in terms of kinetic pitch and consonant/vowel "pull-down": three versions of "Yesterdays" (J. Kern), one version of "All of Me" (G. Marks and S. Simons) and one recitation of the lyrics of "Yesterdays." The authors' pitch transcriptions of all five performances, including the recitation, demonstrate a high incidence of kinetic pitch and of consonant/vowel pull-down. Parallels between the one recited and three sung versions of "Yesterdays" are heightened when kinetic pitches are specified and included in the analysis.


A field study after the Perugia earthquake of 29 April 1984 provided more than 300 well-recorded events concentrated within two parallel clusters separated by 2 km and trending along the Apenninic direction. The length of the aftershock area is 14 km, focal depths being shallower than 8 km. Relocation of the main event places the epicenter at the southern end of the aftershock zone, suggesting a rupture propagation from SE to NW. Most focal mechanisms are consistent with normal faulting. The spatial distribution of seismicity suggests that the Gubbio normal fault was activated during the main shock. This earthquake, together with the Norcia 1979 and the Abruzzi 1984 shocks, is typical of the extension in the high Apennines generated by the flexure of the mountain chain in response to regional compression. The Parma 1983 event, a thrust, belongs to the compres- sion zone at the eastern flank of the chain. These results are consistent with the EW continental collision along the Apennines.


In this paper we extend our previous study of the electronic structure of and bonding mechanism in transition-metal (TM) di-aluminides to ternary systems. We have studied the character of the bonding in Al4MnCo and related TM di-aluminides in the C11b (MoSi2) and C54 (TiSi2) crystal structures. A peculiar feature of the electronic structure of these TM di-aluminides is the existence of a semiconducting gap at the Fermi level. In our previous work we predicted a gap in Al2TM compounds where the TM atoms have eight valence electrons. Here we demonstrate that the semiconducting gap does not disappear if the TM sites are occupied by two different TMs, provided that the electron-per-atom ratio is conserved. Such a replacement substantially increases the class of possibly semiconducting TM di-aluminides. Substitution for 3d TMs of 4d or 5d TMs enhances the width of the gap. From the analysis of the charge density distribution and the crystal orbital overlap population, we conclude that the bonding between atoms has dominantly covalent character. This is confirmed not only by the enhanced charge density halfway between atoms, but also by the clear bonding–antibonding splitting of the electronic states. If the gaps between split states that correspond to all bonding configurations in the crystal have a common overlap at the Fermi level, the intermetallic compound becomes a semiconductor. However, the results of the total-energy calculations suggest that the existence of a band gap does not necessarily imply a stable structure. Strong covalent bonds can exist also in Al–TM structures where no band gap is observed.


Abscisic acid (ABA) is required for seed maturation in maize (Zea mays L.) and other plants. Gibberellins (GAs) are also present in developing maize embryos, and mutual antagonism of GAs and ABA appears to govern the choice between precocious germination or quiescence and maturation. Exogenous ABA can also induce quiescence and maturation in immature maize embryos in culture. To examine the role of GAs versus ABA in regulating maize embryo maturation, the effects of modulating GA levels were compared with those of ABA in embryos cultured at successive stages of development. The effects of GA synthesis inhibition or exogenous GA application differed markedly in embryos at different stages of development, indicating changes in both endogenous GA levels and in the capacity for GA synthesis as embryogenesis and maturation progress. In immature embryos, the inhibition of GA synthesis mimicked the effects of exogenous ABA, as shown by the suppression of germination, the acquisition of anthocyanin pigments, and the accumulation of a variety of maturation-phase mRNAs. We suggest that GA antagonizes ABA signaling in developing maize embryos, and that the changing hormone balance provides temporal control over the maturation phase.


The objective of the study was to present a method to quantify the behavioural response of animals to their micro-environment by using a camera system and a digitiser board. An algorithm was developed for analysing images and calculating activity, occupied zone and boundary of the animals. The developed method was tested on 3 different applications and animals. In the first application, the behavioural responses of broiler chickens to their thermal environment was measured. In the second application behavioural responses of pigs to their thermal environment were measured. In the third application, the response of water fleas to a chromium pollution was measured using the developed technique. Based on the experimental results, it can be concluded that the developed image analysis technique can be employed to quantify the behavioural responses of the tested animals to their micro-environment, in an easy and accurate way.