Abstract 814 The goal of this study was to find small molecules that stimulate erythropoiesis at an earlier stage than erythropoietin (Epo). We therefore studied the mechanisms by which glucocorticoids (GCs) promote erythroblast formation during stress erythropoiesis (SE). Since the target cell of GCs in SE was not known we first established a FACS-based method to purify burst-forming unit erythroid (BFU-E) and colony-forming unit of erythroid lineage (CFU-E) cells from mouse fetal liver. BFU-E and CFU-E cells were resolved by differences in CD71 or CD24a expression (BFU-E = CD71/CD24a10% low; CFU-E = CD71/CD24a20% high) from a population of cells positive for Kit, and negative for the cell surface markers Ter119, B220, Mac-1, CD3, Gr-1, Sca-1, FcGR, CD41 and CD34. Purified "BFU-E" cells formed 94% BFU-E colonies and "CFU-E" cells formed 95% CFU-E colonies at cloning efficiencies of 55–70%. Using pure CFU-E and BFU-E progenitors we demonstrated that while 100nM Dexamethasone (Dex) does not increase proliferation or self-renewal of CFU-E cells, Dex stimulates the earlier BFU-E progenitors to undergo limited self-renewal, which increases formation of CFU-E cells and erythroblasts >20-fold. After identifying BFU-E progenitors as the target cells of GCs during SE, we next determined how DEX changes miRNA and mRNA expression in BFU-Es by next generation sequencing. No miRNAs changed the level of expression more than 50%. Of the 10,000 most expressed mRNAs 83 were up-regulated and 112 mRNAs down-regulated more than 2-fold in response to Dex. Since previous studies show that dimerization (trans activation) of the GC receptor is necessary for GCs to induce erythroblast production, the most important GC target genes are likely up- rather than down-regulated. We hypothesized that other molecules that are able to enhance the expression of the 83 up-regulated genes could enhance or replace the stimulatory effect of Dex. We therefore computationally analyzed the promoter regions of the up-regulated genes using motif enrichment analysis. We found that Dex induces expression of genes in BFU-E cells that contain promoter regions highly enriched for hypoxia-induced factor 1 alpha (HIF1a) binding sites (p-value = 1e–27). Analysis of six published gene expression datasets, where the effect of GCs on gene expression had been determined in cell types other than BFU-E cells, showed very low or no enrichment of HIF1a targets among genes up-regulated by Dex. We confirmed the suggested overlapping effects of HIF1a and GCs on gene expression in BFU-E cells by comparing the effect of Dex with that of pharmacological HIF1a activation by the prolyl hydroxylase inhibitor (PHI) Dimethyloxalylglycine (DMOG). As determined by next generation mRNA sequencing, DMOG increased expression of 98 genes more than 50%, of which 28 were among 109 genes up-regulated >50% by Dex (p-value for overlap = 1e–26). Importantly the overlap in effects on gene expression also resulted in overlapping biological effects. Similar to Dex, DMOG had little effect on CFU-E cells (Figure A). In contrast DMOG synergized with Dexamethasone to promote BFU-E self-renewal and prevent BFU-E cell exhaustion, enhancing the production of CFU-E cells 170-fold and maximum erythroblast production 300-fold (Figure B). DMOG thus enhanced the stimulatory effect of 100nM Dex on erythroblast production 7-fold. In similar experiments where BFU-E cells were cultured in GCs levels corresponding to physiological cortisol levels (1 nM Dex), DMOG enhanced erythroblast production 10-fold. We further showed that DMOG and Dex also synergistically enhance proliferation of adult mouse and human erythroid progenitors. Our results support a physiological model of SE where increased systemic levels of free cortisol, in combination with local anoxia, induce BFU-E self-renewal and increase erythroblast production. This suggests that the therapeutic potential for PHIs in treatment for anemia goes beyond replacing recombinant Epo. Here we show that in addition to enhancing Epo production from the kidneys, PHIs have an intrinsic stimulatory effect on BFU-E progenitors, leading to increased production of Epo-responsive CFU-E cells. Thus PHIs provide a new window for treating Epo-resistant anemia. The synergistic effect of GCs and PHIs further suggests that PHIs may enhance or replace the effect of Prednisone in the treatment of Diamond-Blackfan Anemia and other bone marrow failure syndromes. Disclosures: No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Summary The lipolytic effect of glucagon was measured in vitro with adipose tissue of "young" (4-8 wk) and "old" (over 1 yr) geese. The response of the young geese tissue was about twice that observed with tissue of old geese, for glucagon concentrations of 0.05, 0.5, and 5.0 μg/ml. Our estimates indicate that the number of adipose cells per g of adipose tissue of young geese was three times that of the old geese tissue. This suggests that the greater lipolytic response to glucagon, observed in young geese adipose tissue, may possibly be due to its greater cellularity, rather than to a greater lipolytic response of the individual adipocyte. The lipolytic effect of glucagon in vivo, for each of the doses between 1.0 and 20.0 μg/kg, was significantly greater in the old than in the young geese. The slope of the linear equation relating log10 of glucagon dose and elevation of plasma FFA 5 min after injection, was significantly greater for the old than for the young geese. In the goose, therefore, the influence of age on the adipokinetic effect of glucagon appears to be mediated by factors operating in the whole animal, more than by changes in the adipose cell itself. A slower removal rate of circulating FFA by the old geese, could be one of these factors.


Two survey studies suggested that depressed people react to their acute distress by engaging in self-serving biases and striving to develop positive self-views. Study 1 revealed that whereas most of the specific self-views of depressed persons were relatively negative, their best (most favorable) self-views were just as favorable as the best self-views of nondepressed persons. Moreover, depressed participants reported that they were highly confident of their best self-views and considered these beliefs extremely important. Analyses equating depressed and nondepressed persons for global self-esteem provided even stronger evidence of self-serving biases among the depressed. Specifically, such analyses revealed that depressed persons' best self-views were even more positive than the best self-views of the nondepressed. A 2nd study replicated these effects and provided tentative evidence that downward comparison processes play a role in the development of depressed persons' positive self-views. The theoretical and therapeutic implications of these findings are discussed.


Rural development policy of the European Union provides funding for a wide range of measures that Member States use for supporting the sustainable development of rural areas with the aid of rural development programs (RDP) at national level according to their needs. In this respect, Romania has drafted in accordance with Community legislation in effect the National Rural Development Programme 2007-2013 to improve the balance between economic development and sustainable use of natural resources. In addition to this, it was created the legal basis of agri-environmental measures, measures which encouraged particularly the farmers to protect, to maintain and to improve the environmental quality by promoting a sustainable management of farmland and of forest surfaces. But, at the national level, the results of analysis indicate a low degree of implementing these measures due to very small number of projects completed


In this paper, we present a model order reduction approach for nonlinear circuit equations with a small number of nonlinear elements. This approach is based on the decoupling of linear and nonlinear subcircuits and reducing the linear part using balancing‐related model reduction techniques. The efficiency and applicability of the proposed model reduction approach is demonstrated on numerical examples. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Jakarta Old Town is one of historical tourism attraction destination which located in Kota, Jakarta. Currently, the DKI government is taking seriously the revitalization in the area. As the increase of tourists' visit in the area impacts the number of street vendors in the area, DKI government as the one that responsible of cleanliness and safety, starts to take action by issuing regulation to restructure and control the street vendors, socially and economically, and guaranty public interests. The aim of the study was to describe, analyze the policy and its implementation and obstacles in restructuring the street vendor in the area. The method used for this study was descriptive-qualitative. The study showed that the implementation of street vendors restructuring policy was implemented successfully and involved many stakeholders.


Landscape fragmentation alters biotic and abiotic characteristics of landscapes, variously affecting the size and demographic structure of species' populations. Fragmentation is predicted to negatively impact habitat specialists because of perturbations to their habitat, whereas generalists should be less sensitive to fragmentation. Differences in life history among the lizards in this community should partly explain some of the variation in generalist species' responses to fragmentation. During five seasons (2009–2013), we captured eight species of lizards on 27 independent trapping grids located in unfragmented (N = 18) and fragmented (N = 9) grids in the Mescalero-Monahans Sandhills ecosystem in southeastern New Mexico. Using a two-way ANOVA, we tested for effects of fragmentation and year on capture rates for each species. To test for effects of fragmentation on demographic structure, we used contingency tables with expected frequencies computed from the demographic structure on unfragmented grids. Capture rates of the endemic habitat specialist Sceloporus arenicolus (dunes sagebrush lizard) decreased to zero in fragmented sites. The demographic structure of S. arenicolus and Holbrookia maculata (common lesser earless lizard) was severely disrupted at fragmented sites, with proportions of juveniles, adult males, or adult females being over- or underrepresented during sample months. Variable responses of five generalist species could be attributed to life history patterns, habitat affinity, and breeding phenology. This is the first empirical study we are aware of that describes and quantifies the demographic effects of fragmentation on populations of multiple lizard species in a replicated study. Our findings lend important insights into how habitat specialization and differences in life history influence the susceptibility of species to the impacts of fragmentation.


Isoxazole derivatives are aromatic five-membered ring heterocyclic compounds with one oxygen atom and one nitrogen atom at adjacent positions. These compounds have a broad spectrum of applications in medicinal chemistry, such as antimicrobial, anticancer, antitumor, antitubercular, analgesic, anti-inflammatory, antidepressant, and anticonvulsant activities and some of them are well-known drugs for the treatment of various diseases in the market. The use of this class of compounds in agriculture as herbicides, insecticides have been widely reported. In organic materials, these compounds have been applied as semiconductors, single-walled nanotubes, liquid crystals, chiral ligands, scaffolds for peptidomimetics, dyes, and high-temperature lubricants. Isoxazole derivatives also play an important role in organic synthesis because they can be converted into several important synthetic units such as β-hydroxy ketones, γ-amino alcohols, α,β-unsaturated oximes, β-hydroxy nitriles, α-hydroxy-β-diketones, and β-dicarbonyl compounds. Due to such a wide range of applicability, the synthesis of isoxazole derivatives has attracted intensive research from chemists. This review will focus on considerable studies on the synthesis of isoxazoles which date back from 2012.


Dendritic cells (DCs) play a central role in determining the induction of T cell responses. IL-27 production by DCs favors induction of IL-10–producing regulatory T cells, whereas osteopontin (OPN) promotes pathogenic IL-17 T cell responses. The regulatory mechanisms in DCs that control these two cells types are not understood well. Here, we show that IFN-γ induces IL-27 while inhibiting OPN expression in DCs both in vitro and in vivo and that engagement of IFN-γR expressed by DCs leads to suppression of IL-17 production while inducing IL-10 from T cells. DCs modified by IFN-γ acquire IL-27–dependent regulatory function, promote IL-10–mediated T cell tolerance, and suppress autoimmune inflammation. Thus, our results identify a previously unknown pathway by which IFN-γ limits IL-17–mediated autoimmune inflammation through differential regulation of OPN and IL-27 expression in DCs.


A 5.5-year-old Siamese presented for evaluation of a three-day history of anorexia and lethargy. Upon physical examination, the cat was depressed, dehydrated, pyrexic, had injected conjunctiva and sclera, pale mucous membranes, and a grade II/VI systolic heart murmur. Thoracic radiographs revealed moderate to severe, diffuse, bronchointerstitial pulmonary changes with enlarged and tortuous pulmonary vessels. With continued hospitalization, the cat became dyspneic and died. The postmortem cytopathological examination of the liver, spleen, and lung impressions revealed reticuloendothelial cell infection with Cytauxzoon felis.


Following results were obtained from intravenous single administration of cefotaxime 2 g by measuring its levels in uterine arterial blood, elbow venous blood, ovary, oviduct, several sites in uterine tissue, and in the fluid excreted in the dead space formed by radical hysterectomy. (1) Uterine artery and elbow vein blood levels revealed marked increase immediately after administration followed by gradual reduction at slow rate. (2) Peak levels in female internal genital organ tissue were achieved 12 approximately 19 minutes after cefotaxime administration, and ranged between 5 to 8 mcg/g independently from measurement site. In cervix uteri, portio vaginalis high concentration of 4.9 approximately 5.7 mcg/g was achieved within ten minutes after drug administration. (3) In the fluid excreted in the dead space formed by radical hysterectomy cefotaxime levels were maintained around 15 mcg/ml level throughout 5 approximately 6 hours following its administration, and gradually decreased at slow rate later.


Genentech will work with New York City-based Lodo Therapeutics to mine bacterial genomes for novel natural products. Deal specifics were not disclosed, but Lodo could get up to $969 million as projects progress. Lodo, which was one of C&EN's 10 Start-ups to Watch in 2016, is based on methods developed by its cofounder, Rockefeller University chemist Sean Brady. His group searches bacterial genomes for gene clusters that encode for unique molecules with specific properties.


The egg can be considered as a primary "capsule of life", in which all ingredients are included in precise amounts necessary to sustain the development of an embryo and give rise to birth of a healthy chick. Thus, the chicken eggshell (CE) contains ions and compounds that are necessary to generate new life, serving as a building material of the new organism. Therefore, it is not surprising that CE of the fertilized egg changes its composition during the process of incubation, which in chicken lasts 21 days. Embryonic development in birds is associated with elution and subsequent absorption of some elements from the shell. The changes in elemental composition of the chicken eggshell during the incubation period were studied using the inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometry (ICP-OES). The samples of eggshells were collected on the 1st, 14th, 18th and 21st day of incubation. The statistical analysis (ANOVA) revealed significant differences between the concentrations of five studied elements. The levels of barium, phosphorus and strontium were found to increase whereas those of calcium and magnesium to decrease during the incubation period. The levels of the other studied elements: boron, iron and zinc remained unchanged during that process. The changes in elemental concentrations that occur during the incubation process can be associated with the request of the growing embryo for certain elements and the solubilities of alkaline earth carbonates.


Continuous wave (CW) and pulsed Doppler ultrasound studies with spectral analysis were used to detect the left coronary arterial blood flow in patients who were undergoing routine echocardiography. The pulmonary artery is a stable ultrasonic landmark from which detection of the blood flow can be effected. The left coronary artery can be distinguished by its blood flow toward the cardiac apex and by specific, functional flow features. Flow patterns vary among the left main, circumflex, and anterior descending arteries; patterns also vary with respiration cycles. In the present study, coronary arterial blood flow was detected in 58 of 70 patients (83%). Findings were validated by selectively injecting an agitated saline contrast medium into the left coronary artery and, in another study, by comparing human Doppler phasic flow waveforms with electromagnetic flowmeter recordings obtained in dogs.


The primary purpose of this research is to empirically test a new asset pricing model, the Relative Asset Pricing Model (RAPM), and to confirm whether hedge portfolios on two new risk factors highlighted in that model, and embedded in all portfolios, have negative and significant risk premia. In a number of specifications, this first test of RAPM appears to validate the importance of these two ubiquitous risk factors: (i) a liability proxy or Strategic Asset Allocation (SAA); and (ii) an index of traditional rebalancing back to the SAA (REBAL). A secondary goal of the research is to then examine what RAPM and the inclusion of these two risk factors mean for other commonly used factors (like Value Premium, Capitalization Premium, and Momentum Premium) that are increasingly being added to portfolios in a new trend called "factor-based investing". In many regressions, adding these two new factors either individually or together causes traditional factors like Capitalization and – in fewer cases – Momentum to lose their significance. Valuation continues to be significant even in tests where the SAA is heavily biased to include Value indices. These findings have interesting implications for improving portfolio performance especially in a low-yielding environment. Investors would do well to consider an intelligent approach to managing portfolio drift. With respect to factor-based investing, two results stand out: (i) Valuation seems to be a very robust strategy; and (ii) early movers probably benefit before these strategies get incorporated into the industry-wide SAA and then lose significance – a seemingly obvious result but validated in the context of a robust asset pricing model, thereby also serving as a first test of (a special case of) the Adaptive Markets Hypothesis.


A 30-week preterm infant ventilated for respiratory distress syndrome developed severe right-sided pulmonary interstitial emphysema, pneumomediastinum, and subcutaneous emphysema involving the neck. Selective bronchial obstruction and high-frequency oscillatory ventilation showed dramatic improvement in the clinical and radiographic condition of the infant.


Reliability-centered maintenance (RCM) is a well-established method for preventive maintenance planning. This paper focuses on the optimization of a maintenance plan for an HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) system located on high-speed trains. The first steps of the RCM procedure help in identifying the most critical items of the system in terms of safety and availability by means of a failure modes and effects analysis. Then, RMC proposes the optimal maintenance tasks for each item making up the system. However, the decision-making diagram that leads to the maintenance choice is extremely generic, with a consequent high subjectivity in the task selection. This paper proposes a new fuzzy-based decision-making diagram to minimize the subjectivity of the task choice and preserve the cost-efficiency of the procedure. It uses a case from the railway industry to illustrate the suggested approach, but the procedure could be easily applied to different industrial and technological fields. The results of the proposed fuzzy approach highlight the importance of an accurate diagnostics (with an overall 86% of the task as diagnostic-based maintenance) and condition monitoring strategy (covering 54% of the tasks) to optimize the maintenance plan and to minimize the system availability. The findings show that the framework strongly mitigates the issues related to the classical RCM procedure, notably the high subjectivity of experts. It lays the groundwork for a general fuzzy-based reliability-centered maintenance method.


Coughing was detected by measuring body-surface acceleration. Twenty-seven patients with a chief complaint of coughing were studied. The sensor used is an apparatus for sound communication in aircraft, in which cranial vibrations that occur as the pilot speaks are converted into acceleration waves. An acceleration sensor was fixed to the body of each subject. The acceleration of the chest wall was recorded as a voltage change. Subjects rested in bed to exclude acceleration due to body movement. Acceleration waves of large amplitude were recognized during coughing. Conversation or laughter only caused very weak acceleration waves. Sound has often been used as an indicator of coughing, because coughing was thought to be one kind of human vocalization. However, distinguishing speaking from coughing was difficult, and complicated analysis was necessary. We regarded coughing as a movement causing acceleration of the body surface, and measured it without using sound. We plan to collect data on acceleration of the body surface in 3 dimensions simultaneously. After a continuous long-term recorder of coughing is developed the effects of antitussive drugs can be assessed.


Worldwide interoperability for microwave access (WiMAX) is a wireless standard that introduces orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and other key features to enable mobile broadband services at a vehicular speed of up to 350 km/h. WiMAX complements wireless local area networks (WLANs) and competes with other third generation (3G) and forth generation(4G) wireless standards such as 3GPP-LTE Advanced on coverage and data rate. More specifically, WiMAX supports a much larger coverage area than WLAN, does not require line of sight for a connection, and is significantly less costly compared to the current 3G and 4G cellular standards. Although the WiMAX standard supports both fixed and mobile broadband data services, the latter (mobile WiMAX-IEEE 802.16m) have a much larger market. Therefore, this article will briefly compare both the Fixed and Mobile WiMAX standard, the technologies deployed for the air interface and the network, and its potential for successful deployment in the next generation of broadband wireless networks.


The university environment entails carrying out a great diversity of productive activities. All of them are carried out without detriment to the academic obligation, which implicitly involves occupational pressure on the students who decide to venture into any of the activities foreseen in the student work since all of them require the availability of time, dedication, tenacity, perseverance, and both physical and mental resistance due to the effort that is necessary to carry them out for their execution.

Sport is part of the great diversity of activities that university students can carry out. Its practice involves observing the various situations that can affect sports performance, even though it does not correctly refer to obtaining prizes or medals, since if only these arguments are considered to evaluate the implicit process in sports practice, subjective observation of dominance in case of being winners, even of failure if it occurs, since to a large extent the difference between winning or losing is not only due to having greater/less athletic physical capacity, since to enormous size the athletes who compete both individually and as a group and who are capable of making use of their full potential, are those who have managed to adapt to the prevailing conditions during their processes, that is, they have managed to control as much as possible their variables involved in sports performance.

Team cohesion is one of those variables, which for its consolidation requires harmonizing a large number of internal and external factors, the barometric conditions in which training sessions and competitions occur, and practice schedules that can be combined with school schedules. That hinders the joint and effective performance of both activities since it is essential to mention that athletes are obliged to maintain their level of efficiency in both contexts, hence the performance of both tasks could at any given time be a factor that generates anxiety with Sufficient potential to alter the state of mind that promotes a modification of the emotional state powerful enough to change the perception of the athlete, causing cognitive distortions complex enough for the athlete to make accurate assessments of the origin of such tensions.

Hence the importance of knowing the factors that alter the team cohesion of the athletes studied is manifested in the psychological disposition with which they face sports and social demands and the coping skills they have developed throughout their experience.


Paul Ricoeur and Joseph Ratzinger both challenge the pretended omnicompetence of the historical critical method in the field of biblical interpretation. Moreover, their respective counterproposals for coordinating historical analysis and hermeneutical synthesis exhibit structural similarities: each draws attention to a twofold "distance" intervening between the text and the "world behind the text," on the one hand, and between the text and the "world before the text," on the other. The two authors, however, are not fully agreed on the nature of this distance. Ricoeur, patterning this distance after the philosophical models of Husserl and Heidegger, tends to push the historical and cognitive dimensions of the biblical to text to the margins. Ratzinger, though appreciative of Ricoeur's work, argues from theological premises in favor of preserving a more robust—though not exclusive—role for both. These nuanced differences eventually terminate in appreciably different descriptions of the well-disposed interpreter, with Ricoeur emphasizing a kind of sympathy-in-distance with the interpretive community and Ratzinger recommending an immediate sympathy with the doctrinal faith of the church. Diverse ecclesiological presuppositions obviously come into play. I favor Ratzinger's approach for its ability to affirm a dynamism and elasticity of biblical meaning without altogether sacrificing the historical and cognitive controls on biblical interpretation.


In a duct-flute such as the recorder, steady-state oscillations are controlled by two parameters, the blowing pressure and the frequency of the acoustic resonator. As in most feedback oscillators, the oscillation amplitude is determined by gain-saturation of the amplifier, and thus it cannot be controlled independently of blowing pressure and frequency unless the feedback loop is opened. In this work, the loop is opened by replacing the recorder body with a waveguide reflectometer: a section of transmission line with microphones, a signal source, and an absorbing termination. When the mean flow from the air-jet into the transmission line is not blocked, the air-jet amplifier is unstable to edge-tone oscillations through a feedback path that does not involve the acoustic resonator. When it is blocked, the air-jet is deflected somewhat outward and the system becomes stable. It is then possible to measure the reflection coefficient of the air-jet amplifier versus blowing pressure and acoustic frequency under linear response conditions, avoiding the complication of gain-saturation. The results provide a revealing test of flute drive models under the simplest conditions and with few unknown parameters. The strengths and weaknesses of flute drive models are discussed.


Spirituality, being a virtuous approach against dark materialistic world has an ability to transcend any phase of life. As a matter of fact during old age the fear of death generally overpowers elderly. They overcome this anxiety successfully by moving and focusing towards spirituality, which is considered a path leading to piousness and inner peace. Experience of spirituality helps them to think beyond this materialistic world, where old age is not considered as an end to life, but a preparation for the welcome of a new life. Thus with these ideas in mind, the present study was an attempt to explore the relation between spirituality and death anxiety among geriatrics. A purposive sample of 200 elderly both male and female with the age range of 60-80 years was drawn from Rohtak city, Haryana. The descriptive statistics indicated the high level of spirituality and average level of death anxiety among elderly. Further, correlational analysis showed that there existed a negative correlation between spirituality and death anxiety which indicates the healing power of spirituality among elderly.


In recent years, consumers' demand for high-performance IT equipment has grown rapidly. Thus, the Multiple-Processor System on a Chip (MPSoC) and the distributed memory system are widely researched for improvement in the performance of the embedded system. The Message Passing Interface (MPI) specification is the software platform for using the distributed memory system on MPSoC. In addition, MPI_Bcast function is one of the most frequently used functions. Thus, we proposed a novel MPI broadcasting algorithm and hardware architecture for performance improvement. Since the proposed algorithm checks the status of processing nodes and reschedules the order of transmission, processing time can be reduced. In simulation, the proposed algorithm reduced the processing time a maximum of 286605ns (general sequential tree algorithm: 2851160ns, proposed sequential algorithm: 2294355ns) and improved the performance up to 71.3% with an 8-processing-node system.


Soil is not only an important foundation for agricultural production, but also is the safeguard of human survival. Soil quality is close-ly related with food safety and argo-ecological environment. Soil fertility is the support of modern agricultural development. Multiple disci-plines and specialties are involved in researches of soil cultivating process. Nowadays, the understanding of soil fertility has changed from a-gricultural production to environmental security and resource exploitation, even larger scales to ecological health and global soil change. In this review, the characteristics and inherent link between soil and agriculture were comprehensive expounded from the aspects of long-term fertilization trials, soil cultivation techniques, and modern agriculture development. The challenge and prospect faced in soil science research field were also analyzed. Finally, several suggestions and countermeasures were proposed to the researches of soil science in future.


The directed polymerization of a branched actin network against a functionalized surface drives cell protrusions and organelle propulsion in living cells. Solid microspheres or giant unilamellar vesicles, functionalized with neural Wiskott–Aldrich syndrome protein (N-WASP), initiate the formation of a branched actin array using actin-related protein 2/3 (Arp2/3) complex, when placed in a motility assay reconstituted with pure proteins. These systems are useful biomimetic models of actin-based propulsion that allow to address how the interplay between the physical properties of the functionalized surface and the dynamics of the actin cytoskeleton determines motile behavior. Both solid beads and deformable vesicles display either continuous or saltatory propulsive motions, which are analyzed comparatively; we show that the deformability of liposomes and the mobility of N-WASP at the lipid surface affect the dynamic and structural parameters of the actin meshwork. Our results indicate that beads and vesicles use different mechanisms to translate insertional polymerization of actin at their surface into directed movement: stress relaxation within the actin gel prevents the accumulation of filaments at the front of moving beads, while segregation of nucleators reduces actin polymerization at the front of moving vesicles.


Networks-on-chip (NoC) for future multi- and many-core processor platforms face an increasing diversity of traffic requirements, ranging from streaming traffic with real-time requirements to bursty best-effort. The best-effort traffic usually results from applications running on general-purpose processors with caches and is very sensitive to latency. Hence, the NoC must provide guaranteed services to some traffic streams, while maintaining low latency and high throughput of best-effort traffic. In this paper, we propose a run-time configurable NoC that enables bandwidth guarantees with minimum impact on latency for best-effort traffic. This is achieved by prioritization and distributed traffic shaping of best-effort traffic. The analysis and evaluation of our quality-of-service scheme show that it can provide tight bandwidth guarantees for streaming traffic. At the same time, the average latencies of best-effort traffic improved by up to 47% compared to a standard prioritization scheme.


Chevron (operator), Teikoku Oil, and Unocal hold the offshore Zaire concession, West Africa. Recently, Unocal performed an anisotropic 3-D prestack depth migration in an attempt to optimally image tilted fault blocks in the presalt section. Depth migration was required because large-displacement faults juxtaposed a high-velocity massive carbonate and a low-velocity marl. Large compressional-wave anisotropy caused by thin layering was inferred for most of the depth section. Evidence on the nature and magnitude of the anisotropy came from comparing stacking velocities with well velocities, analyzing a multioffset vertical seismic profile (VSP), thin-layer modeling in the massive carbonate using well log data, and rock physics laboratory velocity measurements on core from the marl. The subsurface was characterized as being locally transversely isotropic and the Thomsen parameters were used to describe the anisotropy. This required that five parameters be specified at each subsurface location to represent the compressional-wave 3-D velocity field. The observed anisotropy deviated far from the elliptical condition, and modeling indicated that isotropic migration would exhibit misfocusing and mispositioning of events, and its quality would be dip-dependent. The anisotropic migration was performed using Kirchhoff summation for which the traveltimes were determined using a finite-difference scheme. Interpreted horizons in the migrated depth section accurately tied well depths.


Abstract The Wnt signaling pathway extensively participates in diverse processes such as embryonic development, maintenance of homeostasis and tumor pathogenesis. Dickkopf-1 (DKK1), a Wnt inhibitor, plays a vital role for over the past decades regarding its role in the regulation of several types of cancers. However, studies have shown that DKK1 is expressed differently in cancer and plays a role as a cancer-promoting factor or a tumor suppressor, which is worthy of further exploration. We herein study whether DKK1 is highly expressed in all cancers and plays a crucial role in promoting cancer. Furthermore, we discussed as to which stages of cancer development it plays in. Finally, the present detection methods were introduced and indicated the clinical application of DKK1 in tumor development.


The view of Eastern Europe as a locus of complex family organisation and familistic societal values has reached the status of general dogma in Western social sciences and demography. By offering an overview of almost entirely unknown scholarly achievements of Eastern Europeanists, this essay represents an attempt to persuade scholars to accept less stereotypical images of families from outside 'Western Europe'. Well into the late 1990s, Eastern European literature on family forms remained screened off from the main current of European thought. Thus, not surprisingly, tracing the lineage of work from east of the ostensible Hajnal Line reveals the sharp differences between the findings of Eastern European researchers and the dominant assumptions of Western science. These marginalised discourses need to be integrated into mainstream research and discussion, so that scholars can better understand marriage, family, household and community patterns in Europe and elsewhere. The diversity of family forms and the rhythms of their development in historical Eastern Europe revealed in this literature also provide us with an excellent opportunity to free ourselves from a simplistic view of the continent's familial history, and particularly from the one implied by the notion of a 'dividing line'.


Issues faced by children with lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, or queer (LGBTQ) parents, also called queerspawn, are discussed. Common issues include children defending their parents, children's determination of when it is safe to share openly about their family, the process of the parents coming out to their children, and parents feeling pressure to conform to their notion of "perfect." Treatment recommendations for working with queer families in psychotherapy are suggested.


The vast majority of infectious agents enter the body via mucosal sites yet there are very few licensed mucosal vaccines able to generate protective immunity at the sites of pathogen entry. A major obstacle in developing mucosal vaccine is delivering biologically active vaccine antigens (Ag) to mucosa-associated lymphoid tissues to prime protective immune responses. To address these issues we have developed a drug delivery technology platform to deliver intact antigens to the respiratory and gastrointestinal tract using outer membrane vesicles (OMV) naturally produced by Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron (Bt), a non-pathogenic human commensal gut bacterium. We have developed the capability of engineering Bt to express antigens of interest in their OMVs which we have shown are stable for long periods of time across a wide temperatures range. They also have inherent adjuvanticity as shown by the ability of native OMVs to elicit the formation of organised lymphoid follicles comprising dendritic cells and T and B cells in both the upper and lower respiratory tract after intranasal administration. The intransal administration of Bt OMVs expressing the pre-fusion headless hemagglutinin mini-stem protein of influenza type A virus (IAV) subtype, H5N1, induced high titre antigen-specific antibodies in the respiratory mucosa (IgA) and serum (IgG) that conferred heterotypic protection to infection by a H1N1 IAV. Collectively, our data demonstrates the feasibility of using Bt OMVs in mucosal vaccine formulations for respiratory infections.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate and analyze the occupational hazards of ultraviolet radiation, protective measures and related factors for typical symptoms among workers in electric welding, and to provide basic information for revision of the occupational standards of UV.

METHODS
Questionnaires and physical examinations were used in this investigation. A total of 828 workers from four vehicle manufacturers in Beijing and Guangdong Province were selected. Corresponding analyses were conducted with SPSS 16.0 statistic software.

RESULTS
The top three injuries of faces and hands were burning tingling (48.7% & 41.3%), itch of skin (39% & 34.9%) and pigmentation (31.9% & 24.5%).The major injuries of eyes were ophthalmodynia (61.5%) , photophobia and tearing (61.4%), and blurred vision (50.2%). The incidences of facial and hands burning tingling, hands flushing, hands macula and papula were significantly different between the welders and auxiliary workers (P<0.05). The differences of facial and hands burning tingling, flushing, facial disesthesia and anaesthesia, symptoms and signs of eyes were significant in different working years groups (P<0.05). The top three usages of protective measures were welding masks (87.2%), gloves (84.3%) and glasses (65.9%). Except for UV cut cream, the usages of other protective equipments in the auxiliary workers were significantly lower than those in the welders (P<0.05). The logistic regression analysis showed that prolonged exposure to arc welding, using argon arc welding and CO(2) gas shielded arc welding, not wearing welding masks, and not using UV cut cream was significantly associated with the increased risk of face burning tingling, and the ORs were 3.894 (6 h to 8 h), 2.665 (4 h to 6 h), 2.052, 1.765, 1.759, 1.833, respectively; working years might be a protective factor, and the OR was 0.440, respectively.

CONCLUSION
The study suggested that the UV radiation produced during welding operations not only caused harm to welders, but also to the auxiliary workers. Protection should be strengthened,for example, wearing welding masks, glasses, etc. Meanwhile automatic welding machines should be adopted by the factories to reduce the exposure time for workers.


Abstract Businesses and their environments are complex adaptive systems, and are therefore too complex to be 'managed' by a single leader. Thus, the traditional view of a leader as a decision-maker, instructing and controlling the organisation is inappropriate in complex/turbulent environments. A qualitative, case method, using depth interviews, investigated leadership activities in four companies, in a country with a turbulent environment, to identify if self-organising leadership is more effective in turbulent environments than traditional bureaucratic management. The findings showed that self-organising leadership appears superior in turbulent environments. These findings and their implications are discussed, and recommendations for further research are made.


Abstract : United States (US) military presence during contingency operations can have a large impact on the host nation and other regional actors. Recent experience has shown that even on-base actions can have profoundly negative consequences for the success of US missions. One key to successful missions is to win and preserve the trust and confidence of the affected population. A thorough understanding of a host nation s customs, laws, and practices enables the commander to execute the mission with fewer obstacles, both locally and regionally. This Technical Note discusses the issue of how to approach setting up and operating contingency bases within different sociocultural contexts. The authors consider the range of impacts that a contingency base life cycle may have upon the nearby community economically, culturally, and socially. Detailed criteria are presented for consideration in the acquisition, construction, and operation of contingency bases, and the outline of a research program is proposed to address both documented and prospective negative sociocultural impacts.


This article focuses on the most meaningful phases of elaboration of anti-Slavic discourse within the national Greek community from the nineteenth century until the fall of the Greek military junta of 1967-1974. In the first section, the article examines the relations between Greeks and South Slavs in the first half of the nineteenth century. The second and third sections of the article highlight in detail the role played by the outbreak of the Crimean War in 1853, the establishment of an independent Bulgarian Church in 1870 and the radicalization of the Macedonian Question at the end of the nineteenth century in the elaboration of the Greek anti-Slavic discourse. Finally, the fourth and final section deals with the perception of the Slavic threat during the Greek Civil War of the 1940s and its progressive dismissal from the Greek public arena in the second half of the 1970s.


Retinitis pigmentosa (RP) is a leading cause of inherited blindness characterized by progressive loss of retinal photoreceptor cells. The present study aimed to identify the causative gene mutations in two Chinese families with autosomal recessive retinitis pigmentosa (arRP). Two Chinese consanguineous arRP families (RP‑2284 and RP‑2360) were recruited in this study, involving totally three affected and 25 unaffected members. All the affected members underwent a complete ophthalmic examination, including fundus photography, multifocal electroretinography (ERG) and full field ERG. Exome sequencing was performed on the three RP patients in the two families, followed by direct Sanger sequencing in all the family members and in 1,260 unrelated controls for validation of the mutations identified. Two homozygous missense mutations in the crumbs homolog 1 (CRB1) gene, which is known to cause severe retinal dystrophies, were found to be related to the phenotype of the two arRP families. The homozygous missense mutation c.1997 T>A in CRB1 was detected in two patients in the RP‑2284 family. The proband in the RP‑2360 family was the only RP patient and was found to carry the novel homozygous missense mutation c.2426 A>C in CRB1. The two mutations were heterozygous or absent in the other healthy family members, and they were absent in the 1,260 controls. The amino acid changes in the CRB1 protein affected by the two mutations were predicted to be damaging by Polyohen‑2. Our study reported two CRB1 mutations causing arRP in two Chinese families, which expands the CRB1 mutation spectrum of RP in the Chinese population and emphasizes the causative role of CRB1 in RP.


To comply with patients' needs as well as ASCO and WHO recommendations, our institution aims to integrate palliative care (PC) early in the course of breast cancer (BC) therapy. The evaluation of relevant pilot project data revealed that these recommendations were too vague to trigger PC integration. Therefore, a standard operating procedure (SOP) was developed by our interdisciplinary working group to provide disease-specific information to overcome the ambiguity of the WHO recommendations and guide PC integration. Literally, the SOP states that 'Specialized PC is recommended regularly for all BC patients without curative treatment options, specifically for patients with i) metastasized and inoperable, or ii) locally advanced and inoperable, or iii) relapsing BC, who are receiving intravenous chemotherapy'. This SOP for the first time presents disease-specific guidelines for PC integration into comprehensive BC therapy by defining 'green flags' for early integration of PC and delineating PC from senology assignments. Although disease-specific SOPs have also been developed by this working group for other malignancies, the decision when to first integrate PC into BC therapy differs substantially because of the different clinical characteristics of the disease.


Botanicals are used in many countries for medicinal and general health-promoting purposes. Numerous natural occurrences of mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits have been reported. Aflatoxins or ochratoxin A (OTA) have been found in botanicals such as ginseng, ginger, liquorice, turmeric, and kava-kava in the USA, Spain, Argentina, India, and some other countries, while fumonisins have been found in medicinal wild plants in South Africa and in herbal tea and medicinal plants in Turkey. Zearalenone was identified in ginseng root. Dried fruits can be contaminated with aflatoxins, OTA, kojic acid, and, occasionally, with patulin or zearalenone. One main area of concern is aflatoxins in dried figs; bright greenish yellow fluorescence under ultraviolet light is associated with aflatoxin contamination. OTA in dried vine fruits (raisins, sultanas, and currants) is another concern. There are also reports of aflatoxins in raisins and OTA in dried figs, apricots, dried plums (prunes), dates, and quince. Maximum permitted levels in the European Union include 4 µg kg−1 for total aflatoxins in dried fruit intended for direct consumption and 10 µg kg−1 for OTA in dried vine fruit. This review discusses the occurrence of mycotoxins in botanicals and dried fruits and analytical issues such as sampling, sample preparation, and methods for analysis. Fungal contamination of these products, the influence of sorting, storage, and processing, and prevention are also considered.


Today, the challenges facing all organizations and institutions, and governments are the effectiveness and productivity discussion. The new block trade incidence of accelerated in global economic competition is required inevitable necessity of comprehensive development in all dimensions (Asterki 2011). One of the ways to achieve this goal is employees' empowerment. Empowerment is new method to increase productivity through the employees' commitment increase toward the organization. Thus it can be said empowerment is a different way for individuals working together and its main objective is management structure change from a traditional and hierarchical form to the participation structure (Seyd Amry, Muharram Zadeh & Mohamad Gholizad, 2009). Conservation, preservation and advancement of any society depends on the efficiency and Tanning& education quality of that community and any country needs to motivated and empowered employees as one of the pillars of training In order to enhance youths and prepare them for future (Heydari Nezhad, Azmsha &Baharami, 2012). Today, with the growing and becoming more complex jobs, it has also been added on the importance of employees training has also been added. Toffler knows training as most important activity and way to face with large changes in future life for accepting change, effective training and sophisticated helps people be able to achieve the sufficient ability and grow in their jobs and work more efficiently. It is evident that as much as employees enjoy of the knowledge and training in their work, their learning process is better and to provide a more useful thoughts and ideas for improving work processes (Al-Hussein, 2000). Today training and improvement of human resources is considered as one of the main strategies of organizations for positive Compatibility with changing circumstances. Organizational life largely depends on the various knowledge and skills of the employees whatever these areas be more on time and better the organization compatibility to the changing environment becomes greater (Khanian Sam 2005). If we would like to give a definition of in-service training must be said, that its main essence in all organizations and institutions is the increase of employees' efficiency, creation adaptation to environment and as a result, an increase in services, In-Service training is nothing but the efforts to promote knowledge,awarance and technical skills&job and proficiency and establish favorable behavior in employees of enterprise or organization and make them ready for doing duties and job optimally (Chaichi,2002).


The progress in the development of the new international Gerda (GErmanium Detector Array) experiment is presented. Main purpose of the experiment is to search for the neutrinoless double beta decay of Ge. The experimental set up is under construction in the underground laboratory of LNGS. Gerda will operate with bare germanium semiconductor detectors (enriched in Ge) situated in liquid argon. In the Phase I the existing enriched detectors from the previous Heidelberg-Moscow and IGEX experiments are employed, in the Phase II the new segmented detectors made from recently produced enriched material will be added. Novel concepts for background suppression including detector segmentation and anti-coincidence with LAr scintillation are developed.


This work was supported in part by a Graduate Assistance
in Areas of National Need (GAANN) Fellowship from the US
Department of Education (Grant No. P200A150003) and by
the NSF under Grant No. 1402708.


In 1956, when La Leche League was founded, if a new mother chose to breastfeed rather than bottlefeed her child, she could by no means expect universal support for her decision. Though physicians of the era admitted that breastfeeding was the best method of infant feeding, they warned of the difficulties that nursing mothers faced, and many held that successful breastfeeding required a knowledge of science and medicine that most new mothers could not claim. Started by seven Catholic women who simply wished to help their friends learn to breastfeed, La Leche League grew into an organization with several million members worldwide, known here and abroad for its pathbreaking promotion of the breastfeeding of infants. Offering a fascinating look inside an organization whose full history has been essentially untold, Jule Ward explores the genesis, theological underpinnings, and development of La Leche League. She demonstrates that, despite distancing itself from any overt expression of its religious roots, the organization remains a quasi-religious articulation of Catholic social thought blended with scientific ideology and feminism. In short, says Ward, the story of La Leche League provides an excellent example of how religion in practice permeates everyday life. |A theologian examines the development of La Leche League, showing how it has incorporated Catholic social thought, scientific ideology, and feminism in support of breastfeeding infants worldwide.


BACKGROUND
We investigated the effectiveness of implanted macrobeads containing porcine islets as long-term therapy for type I diabetes mellitus in Biobreeding/Worcester (BB/Wor) rats, an animal model of spontaneous type I human diabetes. End points included acute control of glucose, weight gain, survival time, and the renal changes associated with diabetes.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Eighteen chronic spontaneously diabetic BB/Wor rats were each implanted with 56-150 porcine islet macrobeads secreting 1.3-5.2 U of insulin/24 hr in culture medium at 37 degrees C. Their clinical courses and selective histological observations were compared with those of animals maintained on Linplant insulin-release implants (6 rats) or protamine zinc insulin alone (10 rats).

RESULTS
The rats that underwent porcine islet macrobead implantation (PIMI) survived for a mean of 171 days (range, 79-288) after implantation without exogenous insulin, immunosuppressive treatment, or lactated Ringer's therapy. All appeared healthy and maintained their body weights (mean 356+/-21 g) throughout this period, even though their nonfasting blood glucose levels fluctuated significantly, with the mean for the group being 245+/-102 mg/dl (range, 157-320 mg/dl). There was mild glucosuria in some animals. In comparison, the 10 BB/Wor rats maintained on exogenous protamine zinc insulin had a mean survival time of 53 days (range, 10-217), a "last entry" mean body weight of 283+/-23 g, and a mean nonfasting glucose level of 340+/-90 mg/dl. The six Linplant implant animals had a mean survival time of 164 days (range, 1-264 days), a "last entry" mean body weight of 374+/-21 g, and a mean nonfasting glucose level of 189+/-91 mg/dl (range, 135-219). Episodes of ketonuria, abrupt loss of body weight, dehydration, and symptomatic hypoglycemia were more common in both these groups than in the PIMI animals. Glucose tolerance tests comparing diabetic animals treated with porcine islet macrobead implants, exogenous insulin-treated diabetic BB/Wor rats, and normal nondiabetic Wistar-Furth rats showed that the responses of those with the macrobead implants were similar to those of the normal rats, while the exogenous insulin-treated diabetic BB/Wor rats had the expected abnormal responses. Light microscopic examination of the PIMI and Linplant animals' kidney sections appeared normal, whereas those of the exogenous insulin-injected BB rats showed moderate focal tubular atrophy and an increased mesangial matrix. Macrobeads retrieved from the peritoneal cavity at necropsy were found to secrete insulin, C-peptide, and glucagon, indicating that they were still functional after 199 or more days in the peritoneal cavity.

CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that macrobeads containing porcine islets implanted intraperitoneally in natural insulin-dependent diabetic BB/Wor rats are capable of normalizing glucose control, permitting a normal life span, and preventing the renal changes normally associated with diabetes. Therefore, further short- and long-term studies of porcine islet macrobead implantation in chemically induced and naturally occurring diabetes in rodents, as well as larger animals including dogs, monkeys and possibly humans, are merited.


In the case of acute cholecystitis and chronic cholecystitis of lang standing, the inflammatory changes in Calot's triangle make the risk of damaging the bile duct during laparoscopic cholecystectomy particularly high. In view of the difficult anatomical situation in Calot's triangle, such patho-anatomical conditions when encountered during open surgery best dealt with by anterograde (prograde) dissection of the gallbladder beginning from the fundus and proceeding towards the neck of the gallbladder. Since this approach is considered to be safer and less risky, it should also be adopted during laparoscopic surgery. The advantage is to be seen in the initial dissection far removed from the bile ducts. Despite pronounced inflammatory changes and initial preservation of the cystic artery, the use of modern technologies permit a virtually bloodless procedure. Nevertheless, the difficult anatomical situation makes a high level of readiness to conver mandatory. Should there be any doubt, the open surgical approach is the safer modality.


The purpose of this study was to analyzed holistic the professional knowledge of sport instructors. To achieve this purpose, qualitative case study was conducted for 114(12: in-depth interview, 102: open questionnaire) Sport Instructors who was working at sport center located in seoul. Data collected through in-depth interviews, participant observation, document materials and open questionnaire were analyzed using Spradley`s (1980) cultural analysis method. The professional knowledge of sport instructors was divided into pedagogical content knowledge, job knowledge and self knowledge. The pedagogical content knowledge were content knowledge and teaching knowledge. The job knowledge were administrative knowledge and management knowledge. The self knowledge were one`s principles and behavior knowledge. The one`s principles were occupation awareness and attitude knowledge. The behavior knowledge were human relations and self management knowledge. Professional knowledge are necessary for sport instructors to conduct various role and making practical knowledge through experience. Three professional knowledge are not separated knowledge but related knowledge.


Pseudo-haptics employ visual information rather than active haptic devices to generate haptic sensations by exploiting a cross-modal effect in the brain between visual and haptic sensations. To date, little research has focused on pseudo-haptics in the projection mapping research field. This paper investigates the effect of stereoscopic projection mapping on haptic shape perception. We developed a perspective projection mapping technique that visually deforms a physical surface and translates a finger touching the surface. Psychophysical experiments were conducted to investigate the relationship between the degree of deformation and the haptically perceived shape relative to the height and curvature radius. The results indicate that the proposed stereoscopic projection mapping technique can manipulate haptic shape sensation, i.e., perceived deformation increases as the projected deformation increases. In addition, we found that the perceived shape was in between the physical and projected shapes, and converged to both the upper and lower limits. Further analysis revealed that the pseudo-haptic sensation of the curvature radius was stronger than that of the height.


Photoresponsive lamina and flexible graphene oxide/polymer nanocomposite films were fabricated using a simple solution casting method. Fast, stable, and reversible photomechanical behavior of the nanocomposite films upon irradiation with visible light was observed based on the photothermal effect of graphene oxide and the shape memory effect of the polymer matrix. According to the principle of equilibrium apparatus, light-powered tumbler movement was achieved in these films by imitating the structure of a wobbly man. Although photodriven contraction, expansion, bending, twisting, oscillation, and cilia movement have been realized in photomechanical materials, novel forms of complicated motion are still a bottleneck problem limiting their practical applications. This work would have a significant impact on photomechanical materials in device applications for advanced functions.


Vegetation plays a vital role for sustainable rehabilitation of degraded lands such as badlands with active gully erosion. However, the establishment of plant species on badlands remains a long‐lasting challenge in most regions, including the subhumid tropics. To address this challenge, 18 multipurpose plant species (six trees, three shrubs, and nine grasses), which were preselected from the regional species pool in Southwest Ethiopia, were planted in a badland and monitored from July 2011 to June 2014. The experiment had a split‐plot design with farmyard manure (FYM) application as main plot and plant species as subplot factors repeated in three blocks. The study revealed that grasses were the most successful to survive and rehabilitate the gully within the monitoring period compared with trees and shrubs. The survival rate of the four most successful grass species, Chrysopogon zizanioides, Pennisetum macrourum, Pennisetum polystachion, and Pennisetum purpureum ranged from 61% to 90% with FYM application and from 20% to 85% without FYM, while most of the well‐known indigenous and exotic trees and shrubs failed to survive. For the grass P. purpureum, shoot height, shoot, and root biomass were enhanced by 300%, 342%, and 578%, respectively, due to FYM application, with a remarkably higher response to FYM compared with all the other studied species. The overall results demonstrate that badlands can be effectively restored by using early successional species such as locally adapted and selected grasses before the plantation of trees and shrubs.


Utilizing quasi-static AC magnetic fields as the channel, Magneto-Inductive Systems Limited (MISL) has developed a group of unique communication, signaling and navigation systems. We refer to this technology as magneto-inductive (MI). The physical properties of magnetic fields enable these systems to operate through any natural medium or medium boundary. Working with the U.S. Navy's Coastal Systems Station, MISL has conducted several tests and evaluations of MI system components operating in Very Shallow Water, Surf Zone and Beach Zone environments.


Diclofenac (DCLF) is a widely used non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug that is associated with idiosyncratic, drug-induced liver injury (IDILI) in humans. The mechanisms of DCLF-induced liver injury are unknown; however, patients with certain inflammatory diseases have an increased risk of developing IDILI, which raises the possibility that immune mediators play a role in the pathogenesis. DCLF synergizes with the cytokines tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF) and interferon-gamma (IFN) to cause hepatocellular apoptosis in vitro by a mechanism that involves activation of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress response pathway and of the mitogen-activated protein kinases, c-Jun N-terminal kinase (JNK), and extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK). DCLF also causes an increase in intracellular calcium (Ca(++)) in hepatocytes, but the role of this in the cytotoxic synergy between DCLF and cytokines is unknown. We tested the hypothesis that Ca(++) contributes to DCLF/cytokine-induced cytotoxic synergy. Treatment of HepG2 cells with DCLF led to an increase in intracellular Ca(++) at 6 and 12 h, and this response was augmented in the presence of TNF and IFN at 12 h. The intracellular Ca(++) chelator BAPTA/AM reduced cytotoxicity and caspase-3 activation caused by DCLF/cytokine cotreatment. BAPTA/AM also significantly reduced DCLF-induced activation of the ER stress sensor, protein kinase RNA-like ER kinase (PERK), as well as activation of JNK and ERK. Treatment of cells with an inositol trisphosphate receptor antagonist almost completely eliminated DCLF/cytokine-induced cytotoxicity and decreased DCLF-induced activation of PERK, JNK, and ERK. These findings indicate that Ca(++) contributes to DCLF/cytokine-induced cytotoxic synergy by promoting activation of the ER stress-response pathway and JNK and ERK.


OBJECTIVE
To histologically assess the hard and soft tissue changes after insertion of cleaned and activated titanium implants using plasma of argon.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Eight dogs were included in this study. The mandibular premolars and first molars were extracted. For each hemi-mandible, four implants, 7 mm long and 3.3 mm of diameter, with a ZirTi surface were used. The surface of two implants was randomly treated with argon plasma (test), while the other two implants were left untreated (control). After 1 month, the same procedure was performed in the contralateral hemi-mandible. The amount of old bone, new bone, overall value of old bone plus new bone, and soft tissue was histologically evaluated.

RESULTS
After 1 month of healing, high percentages of new bone in close contact with the implant surface were found at both the treated (60.1% ± 15.6%; 95% CI 56.5%-78.0%) and untreated (57.2% ± 13.1%; 95% CI 49.3%-67.5%) implants. Low percentages of old bone were found at this stage of healing, at both the treated (4.4% ± 3.0%; 95% CI 1.2%-5.4%) and untreated (3.4% ± 3.1%; 95% CI 0.6%-4.9%) implants. Not statistically significant differences were found between groups (p > .05). After 2 months of healing, treated implants presented a significantly higher (p = .012) new bone formation (72.5% ± 12.4%; 95% CI 69.6%-86.8%) compared to untreated sites (64.7% ± 17.3%; 95% CI 59.4%-83.3%). Controversially, no difference (p = .270) in terms of old bone was present between treated (3.1% ± 1.7%, 95% CI 1.8%-4.2%) and untreated implants (3.8% ± 1.9%, 95% CI 3.2%-5.8%). Significant differences (p = .018) in terms of total mineralized bone were found between treated (75.6% ± 13.0%, 95% CI 73.3%-91.3%) and untreated implants (68.4% ± 16.8%; 95% CI 64.2%-87.6%).

CONCLUSIONS
Implants treated using plasma of argon was demonstrated to reach a higher bone-to-implant contact when compared to untreated implants.


Sediment samples from the Hoke's Landing area of St. Catherines Island, Georgia, were analyzed for their pollen and spore contents, and were further analyzed for their clay mineralogy and time of deposition. Samples were retrieved from a core collected in July, 2013, and were recovered from a site lying near an early-twentieth-century oyster boiler on the eastern side of the island, the Hoke's Landing oyster boiler. The continuous core was more than 4.5 m long, representing one of the longest continuous cores collected on the island. Palynological and radiocarbon analyses provide significant information concerning the Late Pleistocene and Holocene evolution of the island; one of the most ancient finite radiocarbon ages (31,990 ± 230 years BP) came from the Hoke's Landing site. Clay analyses indicate the presence of montmorillonite, kaolinite and illite, indicating sediment contributions from marine and terrestrial environments. Palynological data show that the freshwater fern Woodwardia grew in abundance at the site nearly 32,000 years ago. Investigation of other strata from the island, and comparison with data derived from other locations on the Georgia coastal plain, were undertaken. Emphasis was placed on the timing and topographic extent of the Pleistocene sea level lowstand along the eastern seaboard of North America. The effects of the eastward migration of the Georgia coastal zone during the lowstand are preserved in sediments at Hoke's Landing, and provide a convincing new source of information concerning the nature of Pleistocene lowstand terrestrial communities in that region.


Radiologically visible lesions in the feet of patients with long-standing diabetes mellitus are common and varied. They include osteoporosis, osteosclerosis, osteolysis, juxta-articular defects of the cortical bone, ischemic bone necrosis, new bone formation, spontaneous fracture and subluxation, and neuropathic arthropathy. These manifestations result from diabetic angiopathy and neuropathy and usually are complicated by infection. In this review the author describes these protean radiologic features in light of their pathogenesis and discusses the diagnostic problems encountered.


This paper presents a quantitative framework for assessment of voltage stability in smart power networks. First, new stability indices similar to gain and phase margins in linear time invariant control systems are introduced. These indices can be computed online in conjunction with load-flow calculations. Then, a novel risk assessment framework incorporating the new stability indices is developed to methodologically quantify the voltage stability risks a power system faces at any given operating condition. In contrast to existing local stability indices and qualitative risk approaches, the indices and framework introduced provide analytical and quantitative evaluation of voltage stability and associated risks. The results are illustrated with a numerical example.


Tactical communications networks are multi-hop wireless networks in which switches and endpoints are mobile nodes. In a tactical environment, fast algorithms for performance analysis are desirable for optimizing the network in a timely fashion. Also, preemptive priorities are commonly used to achieve low blocking probabilities for high priority calls when the loss of equipment in the battlefield is not trivial. Analytical algorithms are presented for computing the end-to-end blocking probability in a tactical communications network where a preemption service discipline is employed and traffic is divided into multiple classes to provide multiple grades of service. Each class of traffic has its distinct characteristics, such as average call arrival rate, average call holding time and service priority. Experiments show that the preemption does provide significantly better performance for higher priority traffic. The algorithms presented may also be useful in the optimization of other rapidly deployable networks, where mobility, communication efficiency and computational complexity for adapting the network to unpredictable environments are of significant concern.


On the basis of recent observations of a modulation of Fitts's law for manual pointing movements in structured visual arrays (J. J. Adam, R. Mol, J. Pratt, & M. H. Fischer, 2006; J. Pratt, J. J. Adam, & M. H. Fischer, 2007), the authors examined whether a similar modulation occurs for saccadic eye movements. Healthy participants (N = 19) made horizontal saccades to targets that appeared randomly in 1 of 4 positions, either on an empty background or within 1 of 4 placeholder boxes. Whereas in previous studies, placeholders caused a decrease in movement time (MT) without the normal decrease in movement accuracy predicted by Fitts's law, placeholders in the present experiment increased saccadic accuracy (decreased endpoint variability) without an increase in MT. The present results extend the findings of J. J. Adam et al. of a modulation of Fitts's law from the temporal domain to the spatial domain and from manual movements to eye movements.


Quantum interference phenomena have been studied in superconducting Al loops with dimensions smaller than the temperature dependent coherence length ξ(T). Besides the classical Little-Parks (LP) effect, anomalous resistance oscillations have been observed whose amplitude shows an unusual magnetic field and current dependence at low flux quanta. The magnetic field (H) - critical temperature (Tc) phase boundary has been measured for different transport currents jt. A clear field enhancement of Tc is observed at low current densities. The amplitude of the field enhancement of Tc is strongly influenced by the transport current through the loop. Higher jt values induce a transition from the Tc(H) boundary with LP oscillations to a new regime without oscillations. This transition is governed by the interplay between the characteristic superconducting length scale ξ(T), the loop circumference 2πr and the de Broglie wavelength λD ∝ (1/jt), tuned by the transport current.


Background: In the current era, innovation has become the basis for the success of all industries. In reality, fast innovation facilitated by rapidly changing technological discoveries is critical to global economic progress. Aim: The primary goal of this article is to examine the effect of knowledge exchange and development of supervisory support, trust, training, information technology, and industrial cluster resources on innovation capabilities in the dairy sector of Pakistan. Setting: From a total of 520 small and medium enterprise (SMEs) dairy farms, 227 owners and managers were carefully chosen to participate in the survey. Method: The current study's research framework was based on the resources and diffusion of innovation perspective theories. The data were gathered from dairy farm owners and managers in Punjab, Pakistan. SmartPLS-SEM was used to examine the multivariate connection among the variables. Results: The current research finds that training and development, supervisory assistance, and industrial cluster resources strongly influence knowledge sharing. Furthermore, trust has a favourable influence on innovative capabilities. However, the mediation effect of knowledge sharing (KS) did not support information technology (IT) training and development (T&D) and innovative capabilities (IC). Conclusion: According to findings in the study, T&D as a form of learning connect employees through the sharing of new ideas, allowing the business to improve and the concept to be modified. This study found that supervisory assistance significantly impacts innovative capabilities and knowledge sharing. © 2023. The Authors. Licensee: AOSIS.


Abstract Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) markers were used to determine whether populations of the global rarity Scirpus longii (Long's bulrush) are vulnerable to loss by introgression of genetic material from the weedy S. cyperinus (woolgrass). Shoots from 104 Scirpus plants were obtained from 10 sites in the watershed of the lower Medway River in Nova Scotia, Canada. A putative site of introgression (a seasonally flooded bog) was divided into five subsites: one large stand of vegetative plants and four patches of annually flowering plants clustered at one end of the site. Thirty-five dominant DNA markers were found among individuals from all sites and eight species-specific markers were identified for each of the two species. Nineteen different combinations of species-specific markers were present in the 39 individuals from the site of introgression, and, as expected for introgression, there was strong correlation (r  =  −0.80, p < 0.0001) between the numbers of the two types of markers. The vegetative and flowering subsites had distinctive hybrid indices: 0.76 and 0.27 of S. longii genome, respectively. The former indicates that S. cyperinus contributed about one-quarter of the genetic material of the plants from the subsite that accounts for more than 99% of the Scirpus at the site of introgression. Hybrid indices also show evidence of introgression in two of the 12 plants obtained at one of the presumed S. longii sites. Our results indicate that gene flow has occurred between S. cyperinus and S. longii at two S. longii populations, hybrid plants are capable of sexual reproduction, and Long's bulrush in Nova Scotia is vulnerable to loss by introgression. Conservation at the landscape level is needed to suppress anthropogenic disturbances that might allow S. cyperinus to threaten the genetic integrity of S. longii.


In the conclusions to his detailed and extensive review Professor Franco Fabbro draws the reader's attention to three 'weak points' of my research on 'Jesus the Nazarene': (1) the 'anthropological-religious' perception of Jesus, (2) the view that Jesus was 'illiterate' and (3) the lack of comparison 'between Jesus (along with his activity) and the most important religious traditions besides Judaism and Islam'—in particular, Hinduism and Buddhism. Besides addressing these three, I would also like to reply to other criticisms raised by Fabbro in his review. Towards the end of my contribution I will discuss the issue of the biblical culture of Jesus and clarify my methodological approach to research on the historical Jesus.


Telomeres progressively shorten with age in somatic cells in culture and in vivo because DNA replication results the loss of sequence at the 5' ends of double-stranded DNA. Whereas normal somatic cells do not express the enzyme, telomerase, which adds repeated telomere sequences to chromosome ends, telomerase activity is detected in immortalized and tumor cells in vitro and in tumor tissues. This represents an important difference between normal cells and cancer cells, indicating that the telomerase activity and/or expression profiles of telomerase components are useful markers for cancer biology and detection.


Canadian and U.S. farms vary widely in size and other characteristics, ranging from very small retirement and residential farms to firms with sales in the millions. Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and the United States Department of Agriculture's (USDA's) Economic Research Service (ERS) have each developed a farm typology to classify farms into more homogeneous groups. These typologies provide useful insights into farm structure in each country. It is difficult, however, to use the typologies to compare farm structure in Canada and the United States, because the definitions within the two typologies differ. To make direct comparisons of farm structure in the two countries the Canadian typology was applied to the farms in both nations.


During the international GEA-II expedition to Sor Rondane (East Antarctica), large aggregates of
crystalline gypsum were found within blue-ice moraines on the south side of the Sor Rondane
Mountains at an elevation of ca. 2000 m and ca. 250 km inland of the present coastline. Gypsum
aggregates reach one meter in diameter with individual crystal length up to 20 cm. Apparently, the
gypsum grows in-situ and as a result of sublimation of the blue ice on the gravel of the moraine.
Individual cobbles and sand are incorporated into the gypsum aggregates. The gypsum does not
show signs of transport. In thin section, the gypsum shows an irregular growth zoning and in part
bent cleavage planes. Abundant primary fluid inclusions are present parallel to the growth zoning
as well as parallel to cleavage plains. This type of gypsum formation is enigmatic and has never
been described before. It might indicate an important and thus far unknown process,
characterising a special way of interaction between the lithosphere and the cryosphere.
Preliminary Sr-isotope data indicate relatively high values and suggest crustal affinities. A
preliminary set of sulfate sulfur (δ34SSO4) and oxygen (δ18OSO4) isotope data reveals values ranging
from +7.0 and +29.6 ‰ (δ34SSO4) and between -16.7 and +0.3 ‰ (δ18OSO4). Samples display a
positive correlation between δ34S and δ18O. Thus, Sulfur isotope values are highly variable and
offer different conclusions with respect to potential sulfate sources. None of the gypsum samples
displays a sulfur isotopic composition reflecting a pure seawater sulfate (i.e. sea spray) origin. Two
samples yielded δ34SSO4 values of +7.0 and +9.0 ‰, most others are distinctly more positive than
modern seawater sulfate (i.e., above +21.0 ‰), with a maximum value of +29.6 ‰. In general, the
sulfur isotope values more positive than modern seawater sulfate suggest bacterial sulfate
reduction. The low δ34SSO4 values are comparable to values measured previously for continental
sulfate and are similar to a single pyrite sample from a black schist sample, ca. 150 km to the W,
Steingarden area (this study). The oxygen isotopic composition for the blue ice gypsum samples is
also characterized by rather variable including strongly negative δ18OSO4 values. Negative sulfate
oxygen isotope values possibly reflect an 18O depleted continental source such as Antarctic glacial
waters that could have fostered the oxidative weathering of sulfide sulfur. The observed variability
could reflect different stages of bacterial sulfate reduction.


Intensity-modulated radiation therapy (IMRT) quality assurance (QA) is often performed using a 2D device and compares measured and computed fluence maps to determine if a field passes or fails certain dose and position criteria. The effects of a measured deviation to the 3D patient spatial dosimetry and dose volume histogram (DVH) are largely unknown because they cannot be analyzed using commercial 2D array IMRT QA systems. We report an in-house treatment planning system (TPS) PLanUNC based 3D IMRT QA analysis approach that has been used in our institution for the past ten years when 2D fluence map IMRT QA failed. In this approach the measured 2D fluence maps are imported back to PLanUNC and used to re-compute 3D patient dosimetry including DVHs. The 2D fluence map IMRT QA criteria is that the measured dose for 95% of the detectors is within 5% of the planned dose, and that the distance-to-agreement be within 4mm (5%/4mm). 22 IMRT plans that had at least one field fail initial QA using MapCHECK 2 are examined using our 3D QA approach. The DVH analysis shows that 19/22 plans that failed initial QA were within 2% of the planned target and critical structure DVHs. 3/22 IMRT plans were found to have DVH difference greater than 2%. The 3D analysis of 2D IMRT QA result shows that when a fluence map QA fails for a single field, often it is clinically insignificant in terms of patient 3D dosimetry


Error is ubiquitous in Sarrasine. A narrator seeks to seduce an aristocratic lady by telling her a gruesome tale: she sends him packing. An aristocratic lady seeks to uncover the truth about Paris and its secrets: she recoils in disgust and horror. A sculptor seeks the love of a wondrous singer: all he in fact loves is an illusion contrived by (other) men. Balzac's entire short story Ð which is a spectacular fictional creation Ð is constructed out of these illusions and halftruths: as a result, readings are misreadings, hermeneutics is misled and misleading and erring judgments become a poetics of misunderstanding which has, for Balzac, not only a narratalogical but perhaps even an existential status. What provides the key to this musical narrative is, however, painting, just as it is money which underpins the fate of artists. And between rebuttals and confusions what we see emerge is all the terrifying ambiguity of male desire. (In French) (EB)


This paper discusses Finland's Future Migration Strategy 2020 through my personal reflections as a highly-skilled migrant in Helsinki and my social encounters with other highly-skilled migrants. The paper focuses on three aspects regarding the migration strategy: a) Finland is a safe and open country, b) everyone can find a role to play, c) diversity if part of everyday life. These principles are put into dialogue with concepts such as "creative social policy", "superdiversity" and "multiculturalism" in order to call attention to current and possible future challenges for Finland regarding migration and integration policies as well as creating cities of inclusion. The paper argues that migrants are a great "brain gain" for Finland, however in order to tap into the full potential of these individuals, a paradigm change is crucial at a societal and policy level. In summary, the paper suggests, such paradigm change can take place when the following steps can be put into action: a) more in-depth research is undertaken to understand migrant lives, b) researchers collaborate with local authorities and NGOs, c) policymakers consider making longterm strategies, d) migrants are involved in the actual policy decision-making processes, e) civil society is more informed about other ethnic/national/religious communities, pluralism and urban inequalities.


Hydra, is a real-time system for detecting and tracking multiple people when they appear in a group. We describe the computational models employed by Hydra to track multiple people before, during and after occlusion. Hydra combines a silhouette-based shape model, a motion model, and correlation-based matching methods to classify whether or not a foreground region contains multiple people, and to segment the region into its constituent people and track them. Experimental results demonstrate robustness and real-time performance of the algorithm.


This paper presents the fabrication of inchworm motor for high precision actuator system of large displacement and high force. The inchworm motor consist of a extending actuator that provides displacement of tool guide, and two clamping actuators which provide the holding force. PZT element have low tensile strength and shear. So often fail under tensile and shear stress. To prevent failure, the pre-load housing was designed and fabricated to the optimal design condition according to the variation of the hinge stiffness by FEM(Finite Element Method) analysis. This is open-loop control and input voltage signals are three square wave of 50~60 percent duty cycles at each of the PZT elements. Also the dynamic characteristics of the system was verified by experiment results of the inchworm motor.


[reaction: see text] Solvolyses of methyl and ethyl chloroglyoxylates proceed about 10(6) times faster than the identical solvolyses of the corresponding chloroformates. The correlation parameters obtained from application of the extended Grunwald-Winstein equation are consistent with an addition-elimination (association-dissociation) mechanism over the full range of solvents, with the addition step being rate determining.


Abstract Initiation of anti-epileptic drugs is increasingly relevant to daily neurosurgical practice. Intracranial pathologies ranging from brain tumours to subarachnoid haemorrhage and traumatic brain injury are commonly associated with the subsequent development of seizures. The scope and range of anti-epileptic drugs available has increased dramatically in recent years and understanding the evidence base behind this class of drugs in addition to their interaction/side effect profiles is essential. In this review we aim to generate a practical guide for neurosurgeons regarding the use of different anti-epileptic medications in common neurosurgical conditions, including considerations for their use in pregnancy.


Purpose: To use daily cone‐beam computed tomography(CBCT) for assessment of image‐guidedstereotactic radiotherapy (IGSR) of early‐stage non‐small cell lungcancer(NSCLC).Method and Materials: Patients were CT simulated in a body‐frame with or without an abdominal compression device. PET‐CT scans, if available, were fused with the simulation CT for target delineation. Daily pre‐treatment CBCTs were acquired with the Elekta XVI system, and the lungtumors were manually aligned with the simulation CTimages at the treatment machine. The shifts required to align lungtumors were recorded. Later, the CBCTs were imported into our treatment planning system and the treatment isocenter was registered with the planning CT isocenter, accounting for the daily pretreatment table shifts. GTVs and PTVs for every treatment session were redefined on the daily CBCTimage sets. Individual and cumulative DVHs for the daily treatments were calculated and compared to the original planning DVHs. Results: Using CBCT‐guidance, daily setup errors ranging from 1 to 3 cm had been corrected, that would have altered the mean dose to GTV by >30%. We found that even with daily CBCT‐guided table shifts to correct setup error, the dose to GTV could vary by 20% due to daily changes in shape of the lungtumor, when no margin was added from GTV to PTV. This daily dose variability was reduced to < 3% if PTV included a 5 mm margin around GTV. Conclusion: The interfractional setup errors caused the greatest amount of potential geographic miss of GTV, which was almost entirely eliminated by daily CBCT guidance. The underdosing of GTV due to deformation of the lungtumor could be overcome by expanding GTV by 5mm in all directions to define the PTV.


Background: The optimal duration of anticoagulation therapy for isolated distal deep vein thrombosis (DVT) in patients with cancer is clinically relevant, but the evidence is lacking. The prolonged anticoagulation therapy could have a potential benefit for prevention of thrombotic events, however, it could also increase the risk of bleeding. Methods: In a multicenter, open-label, adjudicator-blinded, randomized clinical trial at 60 institutions in Japan, we randomly assigned cancer patients with isolated distal DVT, in a 1-to-1 ratio, to receive either a 12-month or 3-month edoxaban treatment. The primary endpoint was a composite of a symptomatic recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) or VTE-related death at 12 months. The major secondary endpoint was major bleeding at 12 months, according to the criteria of the International Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis. The primary hypothesis was that a 12-month edoxaban treatment was superior to a 3-month edoxaban treatment with respect to the primary endpoint. Results: From April 2019 through June 2022, 604 patients were randomized, and after excluding 3 patients who withdrew consent, 601 patients were included in the intention-to-treat population: 296 patients in the 12-month edoxaban group and 305 patients in the 3-month edoxaban group. The mean age was 70.8 years, 28% of the patients were men, and 20% of the patients had symptoms of DVT at baseline. The primary endpoint of a symptomatic recurrent VTE event or VTE-related death occurred in 3 of the 296 patients (1.0%) in the 12-month edoxaban group and in 22 of the 305 (7.2%) in the 3-month edoxaban group (odds ratio, 0.13; 95% CI, 0.03 to 0.44). The major secondary endpoint of major bleeding occurred in 28 of the 296 patients (9.5%) in the 12-month edoxaban group and in 22 of the 305 (7.2%) in the 3-month edoxaban group (odds ratio, 1.34; 95% CI, 0.75 to 2.41). The prespecified subgroups did not affect the estimates on the primary endpoint. Conclusions: In cancer patients with isolated distal DVT, 12 months was superior to 3 months for an edoxaban treatment with respect to the composite outcome of a symptomatic recurrent VTE or VTE-related death.


Seeds are a very important input for crops, and the use of low quality seeds and/or inadequate management affects the germination and hampers seedling emergence, which reduces the plant stand. There is a critical need for the development of rapid methods, which are both reliable and easy to perform, for evaluating the physiological potential of seeds. This would streamline the decision-making process regarding the management of lots and allow for the identification of seed lots of inadequate quality in the seed processing unit, which could then be discarded, and would consequently result in reduced costs associated with unnecessary processing. However, it is important that these methods are low cost and quick to perform. The aim of this study was to evaluate the correlation of respiratory activity of wheat seed, through Pettenkofer test, with tests that evaluate seeds physiological quality. We selected a seed lot of high physiological quality, then subjected the seeds to adverse temperature and relative humidity conditions to obtain different vigor levels. The adverse conditions used were 42oC and 100% relative humidity, for periods of 6, 36, 66 and 96 hours. This process obtained seeds of five vigor levels which were subjected to the following tests: germination, field emergence, electrical conductivity, shoot and root length, total dry mass and respiratory activity. The results showed a negative correlation between respiratory activity and germination, emergence, shoot and root length and dry weight, whereas germination and emergence were strongly correlated with respiratory activity, r = -0.86 and r = -0.81, respectively. There was a significant positive correlation between conductivity and respiratory activity. Therefore, the respiratory activity test using the Pettenkofer method was correlated with other vigor tests, and allowed the classification of wheat seeds into lots of different levels of quality.


Abstract : Reproductive success of northern pike was evaluated for artificial and natural wetlands adjacent to Conesus Lake, New York. Fishes were collected for 3 consecutive years during the spawning/rearing season (April - June). Larval and juvenile northern pike were collected in natural wetlands, artificial wetlands, and in Conesus Inlet. Mean abundance and mean length of pike were compared between these habitats. Northern pike spawn in natural and artificial wetlands adjacent to Conesus Lake and Conesus Inlet. Mean abundance and mean length of larval northern pike were greater in artificial wetlands than in natural wetlands. Emigration from the wetlands into Conesus Inlet begins at sizes as small as 14 mm and is usually complete at a length of 30 mm. Northern pike were collected in Conesus Inlet as early as 6 April at sizes of 14 mm and as late as 2 June at sizes of 80 mm, indicating that Conesus Inlet is an important transitional habitat between spawning wetlands and Conesus Lake. Artificial spawning wetlands for northern pike should be designed and managed to promote growth of grasses and sedges and inhibit growth of woody vegetation. They should flood in early spring and dry in late summer or early fall, but water levels should not fluctuate greatly during the spawning and rearing season. Larval and juvenile northern pike should have access to deepwater habitats from hatching until the wetlands dry.


Abstract:Parents often play complex and highly variable roles in the lives of grown-up lesbian, gay and bisexual (LGB) people. Some act as support sources, helping their offspring buffer societal discrimination. Others are unaccepting of—or ambivalent about—their children's sexual orientation, becoming further stressors. In practice, little research has examined whether parents treat adult LGB children differently than heterosexual children. This study tests this premise in relation to parental financial transfers using two waves of panel data from an Australian national sample (Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia Survey, n = 18,448 observations) and random-effect panel regression models. We find that parents send money more often to LGB than heterosexual children, a pattern that persists over the adult life course. This association could not be explained by adult children's socio-economic disadvantage, fertility intentions, parent-child contact, or parent-child distance. These findings suggest that, all else being equal, parental financial investments contribute to narrowing the social disadvantage experienced by Australian LGB people.


Bionanocomposites are a novel class of nanosized materials. They contain the constituent of biological origin and particles with at least one dimension in the range of 1–100 nm. There are similarities with nanocomposites but also fundamental differences in the methods of preparation, properties, functionalities, biodegradability, biocompatibility, and applications. The article includes two parts. Bionanocomposite definition and classification along with nanoparticles, biomaterials, and methods of their preparation are initially reviewed. Then, novel approaches developed by our team are presented. The first approach concerns the preparation of bionanocomposites from chitosan and nanoparticles. It is based on the regulated charging of polysaccharide by the gradual shift of solution pH. When charges appear, the biomacromolecules come into the electrostatic interactions with negatively charged nanoparticles that cause the jellification of solutions. It is also applied to form films. They have a nacre-like structure from stacked planar nanoparticles separated by aligned biomacromolecules. The second approach deals with the biomimicking mineralization of biopolymers by using a novel silica precursor. Its advantage over the current sol-gel processing is in the compatibility and regulation of processes and structure of generated silica. Another example of the mineralization is presented by titania. Syntheses are performed in anhydrous ethylene glycol. Processes and structure of bionanocomposites are regulated by water that is added in an amount to only hydrate functional groups in the carbohydrate macromolecule.


This textbook for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students of Evolutionary Game Theory covers recent developments in the field, with an emphasis on economic contexts and applications. It begind with the basic ideas as they originated within the field of theoretical biology and then proceeds to the formulation of a theoretical framework that is suitable for the study of social and economic phenomena from an evolutionary perspective. Core topics include the Evolutionary Stable Strategy (EES) and Replicator Dynamics (RD), deterministic dynamic models, and stochastic perturbations. A set of short appendices presents some of the technical material referred to in the main text. Evolutionary theory is widely viewed as one of the most promising appraoches to understanding bounded rationality, learning, and change in complex social environments. New avenues of research are suggested by Vega-Redondo, and plentiful examples illustrate the theory's potential applications. The recent boom experienced by this discipline makes the book's systematic presentation of its essential contributions vital reading for any newcomer to the field.