The recent developments in mobile positioning technologies and the increasing demands of ubiquitous computing have significantly contributed to sophisticated positioning applications and services. Position information represents a core element in the human-centred activities, assisting in visualising complex environments effectively and providing a representational coordinate for localisation, tracking, and navigation purposes. The emergence of smartphones has accelerated the development of cutting-edge positioning-based systems since they are contained to have more processing, memory, and battery power. Similarly, mobile devices are now equipped with new sensory capabilities, wireless communications, and localisation technologies. This has quadrupled towards new advances on positioning techniques, enhancing the existing ones and brought more value to positioning-based systems. Research studies in positioning techniques have progressed in different directions, and no work has categorised and assessed the various advancements in this area. Accuracy and precision are the two challenging aspects that are crucial to the proper functioning of a positioning system. In practice, there is not a single positioning technique that could be appropriate for different situations. Most of the survey papers have focussed on carrying out their review on conventional positioning techniques. The common positioning technique uses simple technologies and is applied to a single type of environment. Hybrid techniques are the next generation of positioning technique that is supporting the real and com plex environment. This paper presents a comprehensive review on the mobile positioning techniques and systems. A total of 21 positioning systems published between the years 2012 and 2018 in the top 5 most popular indexed databases are reviewed. The positioning techniques are identified and streamlined through a methodical process, and the selected ones are reviewed using derived parameters. This paper provides a significant review of the current state of the mobile positioning techniques and outlines the research issues that require more investigation.


Early in the pandemic, in March of 2020, an outbreak of COVID-19 occurred aboard the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt (CVN-71), during deployment in the Western Pacific. Out of the crew of 4,779 personnel, 1,331 service members were suspected or confirmed to be infected with SARS-CoV-2. The demographic, epidemiologic, and laboratory findings of service members from subsequent investigations have characterized the outbreak as widespread transmission of virus with relatively mild symptoms and asymptomatic infection among mostly young healthy adults. At the time, there was no available vaccination against COVID-19 and there was very limited knowledge regarding SARS-CoV-2 mutation, dispersal, and transmission patterns among service members in a shipboard environment. Since that time, other shipboard outbreaks from which data can be extracted have occurred, but these later shipboard outbreaks have occurred largely in settings where the majority of the crew were vaccinated, thereby limiting spread of the virus, shortening duration of the outbreaks, and minimizing evolution of the virus within those close quarters settings. On the other hand, since the outbreak on the CVN-71 occurred prior to widespread vaccination, it continued over the course of roughly two months, infecting more than 25% of the crew. In order to better understand genetic variability and potential transmission dynamics of COVID-19 in a shipboard environment of immunologically naïve, healthy individuals, we performed whole-genome sequencing and virus culture from eighteen COVID-19-positive swabs collected over the course of one week. Using the unique variants identified in those genomes, we detected seven discrete groups of individuals within the population aboard CVN-71 infected with viruses of distinct genomic signature. This is in stark contrast to a recent outbreak aboard another U.S. Navy ship with >98% vaccinated crew after a port visit in Reykjavik, Iceland, where the outbreak lasted only approximately 2 weeks and the virus was clonal. Taken together, these results demonstrate the utility of sequencing from complex clinical samples for molecular epidemiology and they also suggest that a high rate of vaccination among a population in close communities may greatly reduce spread, thereby restricting evolution of the virus.


Doing things in the ocean that have economic value generally results in some modification of the natural environment. When we develop or manage marine resources, either within the ocean itself or on the ocean bottom, but especially along the coastal margins, then we are influencing the physical and biological state of the ocean in some manner that will have not only certain shortrange effects, but also good or bad long-range effects. As we look to the future, we can see that our scale of development of marine resources is going to increase tremendously and so, therefore, must our concern with the resulting modifications. The exploitation of offshore oil and offshore sulphur has increased by leaps and bounds; thanks to modern techniques of electronic location and catching, fishing activities are now able to wipe out a complete fishery in a short time unless controlled. The blue whale has essentially disappeared; although we are not aware yet of any ecological consequences following from this disappearance, we can observe the population dynamics and the substitution of fisheries when we overfish, for example, the California sardine or the Atlantic menhaden. The construction of shipping canals has led to biological and ecological modification, e.g., the invasion of the Great Lakes by the lamprey or the invasion of the Mediterranean through the Suez Canal by species from the Red Sea. Pollution of the marine environment, again in the coastal zone, has been increasing at a rapid rate through continuous discharge as well as through accidents.


This is paper discusses the underlying research and challenges of a large-scale physical artwork entitled Scales of Life -- a collaboration between artist Elaine Shemilt from Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, University of Dundee, Mike Ferguson, Regius Professor of Life Sciences, also at the University of Dundee, with Jo White of BMJ architects. The artwork forms the facade of the new Discovery Centre for translational Research and aims to communicate key areas of Life Sciences research carried out within the building. It utilises printmaking techniques combined with digital visualisation and engineering in metal, and depicts each of the four physical scales -- Molecular, Organellar, Cellular and Tissue, that provide the basic understanding of biology and inform the treatment of many diseases.


Although particle corner breakage has been proved to be the primary mode of particle breakage for coral sand, current studies of pile penetration have continued to present the particle fracture breakage mode, causing the mechanism of pile behaviours in coral sand to remain unclear. This study investigates the particle corner-breakage effect on pile penetration in coral sand at both the macro- and microscales via indoor pile penetration model testing and three-dimensional discrete element method (DEM) simulations. According to the study findings, DEM simulations revealed that particle corner breakage has a more obvious soil contraction effect than fracture breakage. Thus, this study is the first to explain the particular turn of the pile skin friction in coral sand by the dual effects of breakable corners. Next, relationships between the particle breakage mode and the controversial breakage zone around pile tips have been accomplished. Moreover, the decrease in effective contacts and the change in soil skeleton have been proved to be essential factors behind the narrower penetration-affected width in breakable corner grains. The study suggests that neglecting the particle corner-breakage effect can lead to a hidden danger affecting engineering safety in angular granular soil.


Rivers are dynamic geologic agents on earth and act as the main pathways for transport of continental materials to the ocean. Estimation and forecasting of suspended sediment yield (SSY) are essential towards understanding the mass balance between the ocean and land. The volume of SSY transported in a river provides important information about its morphodynamics, the hydrology of its drainage basin, and the erosion and sediment delivery processes operating within that basin. Estimation and forecasting of SSY is always a key factor during the evaluation of reservoir project, protection of fish and wildlife habitats, understanding of flood capacity, hydroelectric equipment longevity, planning and management of any river system. The SSY depends on number of variables and their inter-relationships which are highly nonlinear and complex in nature. Direct measurement of SSY is difficult and needs sufficient time and money. Additionally, it is difficult to estimation and forecasting of the SSY by using traditional mathematical models because they are incapable to handle the complex non-linearity and non-stationarity process. Thus, the aim of this study is to develop hybrid simple genetic algorithm based artificial neural network (GA-ANN) and genetic algorithm based multi objective optimization with artificial neural network (GA-MOO-ANN) models to estimate and forecast the SSY at eleven locations in the Mahanadi river basin, which is one of the largest rivers in India. All parameters associated with the models are optimized simultaneously using simple genetic algorithm and multi-objective genetic algorithm for estimation and forecasting of the SSY. Temporal information of monthly rainfall, temperature, water discharge, and suspended sediment yield during 1990-2010 along with rock type, relief and catchment area are used at all eleven gauging stations in Mahanadi river for the development of models. It is observed that water discharge and SSY show wide fluctuations whereas temperature and rainfall do not show much variation among different gauge stations in the basin. The performances of GA-MOO-ANN and GA-ANN models were compared to traditional artificial neural network (ANN), multiple linear regression (MLR), auto regressive (AR), multi variate auto regressive (MAR) and sediment rating curve (SRC) method for evaluating the estimation and forecasting capability of models on testing data set. The results suggested that the hybrid GA-MOO-ANN and GA-ANN models exhibited satisfactory performance and provided better results than the traditional ANN, MLR, AR and MAR models. The models are unable to estimate and forecast the SSY at gauge stations having very small catchment areas whereas performing satisfactory on locations having moderate to large catchment area. The models provide the best result at Tikarapara, the gauge station location in the extreme downstream, having the largest catchment area. If measurements of suspended sediment are not available in any river then the modelling approach can be potentially used for the estimation and forecasting of SSY at gauge or ungagged locations.


OBJECTIVE
We expressed a nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster in the well-characterized surrogate Streptomyces coelicolor M1146.

METHODS
By using PCR-targeting method, we replaced the promoters of sanG and sanF in pNIK, which contains nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster, with the hrdB promoter to generate pNIKm. We transferred pNIK and pNIKm into S. coelicolor M1146 by intergeneric conjugation and obtained M1146-NIK and M1146-NIKm, respectively. We then evaluated expression of the gene cluster in the heterologous host by RT-PCR. Furthermore, we also compared the antifugal activity and nikkomycin production of M1146-NIK and M1146-NIKm by bioassay against Alternaria longipes and HPLC analysis.

RESULTS
M1146-NIK and M1146-NIKm exhibited antifungal activity, and they can produce a trace amount of nikkomycin X, nikkomycin Z and pseudo-Z. There was a substantial accumulation of uridine in M1146-NIK, whereas substantial accumulations of uridine, ribofuranosyl-4-formyl-4-imidazolone and pyridylhomothreonine were observed in M1146-NIKm.

CONCLUSION
We successfully expressed the nikkomycin biosynthetic gene cluster in the heterologous host and identified nikkomycins and some of its key biosynthetic intermediates. This study will provide the basis for enzymatic reaction of the condensation between the two nikkomycin moieties and for the generation of hybrid antibiotics by combinatorial biosynthesis.


Myron Mathisson (1897–1940) was a Polish Jew known for his work on the equations of motion of bodies in general relativity and for developing a new method to analyze the properties of fundamental solutions of linear hyperbolic differential equations. In particular, he derived the equations for a spinning body moving in a gravitational field and proved, in a special case, the Hadamard conjecture on the class of equations that satisfy the Huygens principle. His work still exerts influence on current research. Drawing on various archival and secondary sources, in particular his correspondence with Einstein, we outline Mathisson's biography and scientific career.


This research used the dam model from the prototype of the Bakalan Dam in the Kecamatan WagirKabupaten Malang with the 1 : 30 scale as the case of the study. In this model research, in the damdownstream was formed as the moveable bed with the mixing of sand (50%) and the gravel (50% sieve 10mm), with the three discharge variation Q = 6 liter/sec, 9 liter/sec and 12 liter/sec.The aim of this research is finding out the minimum scouring depth occurrence in the downstreamof the dam with the subweir installment. The height variation of the sub weir was Zo = 0; Z1 = 1,66cm; Z2 = 3,33 cm; and Z3 = 5 cm, and the variation of length sub weir installment range in the downstreamof the dam was L1 = 60 cm; L2 = 75 cm; L3 = 90 cm.The result of this research was shown that the minimum downstream dam scouring was occurredfor discharge variation range Q1 = 6 litter/sec until Q2 = 9 litter/sec with the variation of the length subweir installment was 60 cm until 75 cm from the toe of the dam that used the 5 cm of the sub weir height.While for the discharge in the range of Q2 = 9 litter/sec to Q3 = 12 litter/sec with the all of the length ofinstallment and the height of sub weir variation have not gave the significance influence for the depth ofscouring. Its shown that that trend of the scouring depth was followed the trend of the discharge without thesub weir installment (Zo). It is mean hat for the high discharge, installation of the sub weir was having notinfluence to decrease the scouring depth of the downstream dam.


Water is a scarce resource in this millennium, especially clean water. Reverse osmosis (RO) technology is widely applied to achieve this goal. But, reverse osmosis waste water (ROWW) cannot be further utilized, due to the presence of a high concentration of salts, heavy metals, and pollutants of feed water. The solution to this problem may lie in employing plants for this very purpose that is phytoremediation. Phytoremediation converts this waste water into usable water with the help of plants. This is an eco-friendly technique that decontaminates the waste water in a very economical way. This mini-review thus, emphasizes on quality improvement of RO waste water through plant-based techniques with a special focus on recent studies carried out in this area. Keywords: Phytodegradation, Phytoextraction, Phytoremediation, Phytovolatilization, Reverse osmosis (RO), Reverse osmosis waste water (ROWW), Rhizodegradation.


Prostate cancer remains the commonest cancer diagnosed in males and a leading cause of cancer-related death. Men with metastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer (mCRPC) who have progressed on chemotherapy and androgen receptor pathway inhibitors (ARPI) have limited treatment options, significant morbidity, and poor outcomes. Prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA)-directed radionuclide therapy (RNT) is emerging as an efficacious and well-tolerated therapy; however, disease progression is universal. Several ongoing RNT trials focus on combination strategies to improve efficacy and durability of treatment response, including combinations with ARPIs, chemotherapy, immunotherapy, and targeted therapies. Further, efforts are underway to expand the role of PSMA-directed RNT to earlier stages of disease including hormone-sensitive and localized prostate cancer. In this review, we discuss the rationale and ongoing RNT combination therapeutic trials in prostate cancer and summarize the efficacy and toxicity associated with RNT.


In this paper, we present a new approach to deal with the noise inherent in the microarray image processing procedure. The method is based on the following procedure: We apply 1) Bidimentional Discrete Wavelet Transform (DWT-2D) to the Noisy Microarray, 2) scaling and rounding to the coefficients of the highest subbands (to obtain integer and positive coefficients), 3) bit-slicing to the new highest subbands (to obtain bit-planes), 4) then we apply the Systholic Boolean Orthonormalizer Network (SBON) to the input bit-plane set and we obtain two orthonormal otput bit-plane sets (in a Boolean sense), we project a set on the other one, by means of an AND operation, and then, 5) we apply re-assembling, and, 6) rescaling. Finally, 7) we apply Inverse DWT-2D and reconstruct a microarray from the modified wavelet coefficients. Denoising results compare favorably to the most of methods in use at the moment.


Exercise enhances bone growth and increases peak bone mass. The aim of this study was to determine whether or not 4 weeks of deconditioning after 8 weeks of exercise in growing rats would result in a decrease in bone gain or reverse the benefits of exercise. Fifty 4‐week‐old female Sprague‐Dawley rats were randomized by a stratified weight method into 5 groups with 10 rats in each group: 8 weeks exercise (8EX), 8 weeks sedentary control (8S), 12 weeks exercise (12EX), 8 weeks exercise followed by 4 weeks sedentary (8EX4S), and 12 weeks sedentary control (12S). The exercise consisted of running on a treadmill with a 5° slope at 24 m/minute for 1 h/day and 5 days/week. After each period of exercise, cancellous and cortical bone histomorphometry were performed on double fluorescent labeled 5‐μm‐thick sections of the proximal tibia and 40‐μm‐thick sections of the tibial shaft, respectively. Eight and 12 weeks of exercise resulted in a significant increase in the body weight and gastrocnemius muscle weight by two‐way analysis of variance (ANOVA). The femoral wet weight (mg; mean ± SD; 8EX, 781 ± 45.1 vs. 8S, 713 ± 40.5; p < 0.05; 12EX, 892 ± 41.6 vs. 12S, 807 ± 19.8; p < 0.05) was significantly higher in the exercise group than that in the respective control groups. The femoral wet weight and bone volume (BV) of the 8EX4S group (818 ± 46.2 mg and 531 ± 31.2 μl, respectively) were significantly lower than those of the 12EX group (p < 0.05) and did not differ significantly from those of the 12S groups. The cancellous BV was significantly higher in the 8EX and 12EX groups than that in the respective sedentary groups (p < 0.05). The cortical bone area of the tibial shaft was also significantly higher in the 12EX than that in the 12S group (p < 0.05). The increase in the cancellous BV or cortical bone area was caused by an increase in the mineral apposition rate (MAR), without a significant effect in the labeled perimeter. The bone formation rate (BFR; μm3/μm2 per day) in the cancellous bone (12EX, 27.9 ± 7.74 vs. 12S, 15.4 ± 4.56; p < 0.05) or periosteal surface (12EX, 127.6 ± 27.7 vs. 12S, 79.5 ± 18.6; p < 0.05) was significantly higher in the exercised groups than that in the respective control group (p < 0.05). Again, deconditioning resulted in a decrease in the cancellous BFR, BV, periosteal BFR, and cortical bone area to levels not significantly different from the 12S group. In conclusion, our findings showed that exercised growing rats, when deconditioned, lost the benefits gained through exercise and their bone parameters were reduced to levels not different from the sedentary control. Thus, continued exercise is required to maintain high bone mass.


To improve the performance of meat freshness identification systems, we present a new identification method based on quantum-behaved particle swarm optimization (QPSO) and the support vector machine (SVM). Fresh pork, beef, mutton, and shrimp samples were stored in a hypobaric chamber for several days, and the conventional indices of meat freshness, including total volatile basic nitrogen content, aerobic plate count, pH value, and sensory scores, were determined to achieve the identification of sample freshness. However, the experiments showed that it was difficult to obtain an ideal freshness assessment by any single physicochemical or sensory property. Therefore, SVM was introduced to use these data to build a freshness model. Furthermore, QPSO was proposed to seek the optimal parameter combination of SVM. The experimental results indicated that the hybrid SVM model with QPSO could be used to predict meat freshness with 100 % classification accuracy.


Abstract At the end of the eighteenth century, a large-scale map of the Austrian Netherlands and the Prince-Bishopric of Liège was manufactured, covering more or less the current territory of Belgium. The work for this Carte de Cabinet was carried out by artillerists under the guidance of count Joseph de Ferraris, who was commissioned for the task by the Habsburg government. At the time that the map was designed, no modern legend was included. This paper tries to fill that gap by presenting a legend that was constructed more systematically than any of its predecessors. It is based on the structure of the legend of the Topographic Map of Belgium and the CORINE land cover map, making it an easy-to-use tool for modern researchers. The problems encountered during the development of the legend are described, and the link between the Carte de Cabinet and eighteenth-century French cartography as well as with cartographic manuals is also discussed.


Copper oxide nanoparticles (CuONP) are among the most widely used engineered nanoparticles and thus likely to permate the environment predominantly in sediments. The present study was designed to examine the adverse effects of CuONP in freshwater snail Lymnea luteola L. (L. luteola) exposed for 5 days. Induction of oxidative stress in digestive gland was evidenced by a decrease in reduced glutathione (GSH) levels, and activities of glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and glutathione-S-transferase (GST) whereas lipid peroxidation levels were increased at CuONP 7 or 21 µg/L. Superoxide dismutase activity was numerically higher at lower concentration of CuONP at 1 day but significantly decreased at 5 days. Catalase activity was reduced at 2 days but elevated at lower concentration of CuONP at 5 days. DNA impairment was noted in L. luteola based upon comet assay findings and expressed in terms of % tail DNA and olive tail moment. Results indicate that interaction of CuONP with snail produces toxicity, which is mediated by oxidative stress.


Abstract We investigate the complete mitogenome of a pheromone-trapped morpho-species of Chloridea subflexa from Brazil (initially identified by the Sanger sequencing of partial mtCOI gene) as 15 323 bp (KT598688) via next generation sequencing platform. The mitogenome has an A/T rich base composition (A: 40.4%; T: 40.3%; C: 11.5%; G: 7.8%), and included 13 protein-coding genes (PCGs), 22 tRNAs, 2 ribosomal RNAs and a putative replication region (ca. 323 bp). All PCGs start with a methionine (M) amino acid except the COI gene which has an arginine (R). The trnL2 and trn-Lys genes were partially embedded within the COII gene, while the trn-His gene was completely embedded within the ND4 gene. All PCGs ends with the "TAA" stop codon except ND3 which has a "TAG" stop codon.


I present an account of mass atrocity prevention based on just war theory precepts. This account entails comparisons among policy options and requires selecting the politically feasible option that has the greatest chance of avoiding atrocities. Adopting such an account of atrocity prevention highlights problems in influential mass atrocity prevention policy reports in that they fail to seriously consider nonviolent civil resistance as a mass atrocity prevention tool. Given that sometimes actors may be unwilling to live under the status quo, and agitate for reform by violent or nonviolent means, nonviolence is generally the preferable policy option. This is because under realistic scenarios, the empirical evidence generally indicates that nonviolent means are more likely to achieve positive outcomes across a range of indicators than violent ones. I illustrate my argument by applying it to strategies for democratisation, and rebut objections. Yet, nonviolent civil resistance is risky, and so revolutionary leaders and their supporters should weigh carefully the chances of success and the trade-offs of nonviolent resistance.


The impact of privatization on the operational performance of privatized firms is a subject that has been of great interest in recent finance literature. Most of the existing works on this area use conventional variables and compute financial ratios of profitability, productivity, investment, debt and employment in analysing data for financial management. This paper however attempts to determine the effects of privatization on the stock performance of privatized firms, and adopts a comparative approach between stock exchange performance of the privatized firms and the private firms' benchmarks, using data from the period of 1986 to 2005. It is observed from such an approach that the privatized firms have a remarkably higher performance compared to the private firms.


BACKGROUND
Endothelin-1 is a strong vasoconstrictor, high doses of which can cause prolonged vasoconstriction.

MAIN PURPOSE
The aim of our study was to investigate as to whether the endothelin-induced vasoconstriction causes irreversible morphological changes in the myocardium in experimental animals and to verify the applicability of this experimental model in the study of the impact of endothelin.

METHODS
Fourteen anaesthetized dogs were administered with 400 pmol of endothelin. The substance was applied into the left anterior descending coronary artery. The serum activities of AST, CK and LD enzymes, and changes in electric activity of the myocardium were monitored. The heart of one of the dogs was analyzed morphologically.

RESULTS
Following the application of endothelin, vasoconstriction supervened, lasting from 25 to 27 minutes. Five dogs developed fibrillation of ventricles and died. The dogs which survived yielded changes in the activities of the investigated enzymes and changes in electric activity which were typical of focal impairment of the myocardium in sense of necrosis. Morphologically the changes represented disseminated fibrosis or minor scars in the myocardium.

CONCLUSIONS
Application of endothelin into the coronary artery can cause irreversible structural changes in the myocardium. (Fig. 1, Ref. 18.).


This study focused on amnion-derived mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), which have immune- and inflammation-regulating properties, 1) a large number of stem cells, 2) high proliferative potential, and 3) are non-invasive to harvest. Based on the general research reported in many immune- and inflammation-related disease models, research on their commercial and therapeutic application was conducted. We have successfully manufactured a clinical trial product of amnion MSCs for the first time worldwide (clinical trial product name: AM01) and conducted physician-led clinical trials for acute graft versus host disease and Crohn's disease. Furthermore, CTEX Corporation, the first certified venture from Hyogo College of Medicine, was launched to further accelerate the clinical trial progression to obtain the manufacturing and marketing approval for amnion MSC AM01 to be used as a regenerative medical product at early stage.


In the spring of 2008, US sugar beet growers started planting genetically modified (GM) herbicide tolerant (HT) varieties at a commercial scale and were one step ahead of Europe, the world's largest producer. In this article we will present a practical graphical rule of thumb for technology providers to assess the value and benefit-sharing of HT technologies. To illustrate this method, we will apply it on Czech and Hungarian beet growing conditions. It is widely known that effective weed control is crucial for economic beet production. Therefore, we graphically analyze heterogeneity of weed pressure and develop a framework for predicting adoption and profitability of HT sugar beet. Our analyses suggest that farmers could substantially gain from GM sugar beet. The total value of this technology is estimated at ∈252-262/ha, of which two thirds accrue to farmers and one third to the seed industry (seed company and technology provider). Our framework predicts high adoption potentials of 60-80%, which underline the importance of the technology for the European sugar sector. Our framework provides a practical tool for breeders, technology providers and seed companies to evaluate new sugar beet varieties incorporating HT traits and licensing contracts between the seed and biotechnology industry.


Using GMS-5 infrared, visible and vapor multi-channel remote sensing data of high space-time resolution as well as general meteorological data, this paper has formulated the satellite remote sensing image models for monitoring summer rainstorm of Shandong. The methods for using meteorological satellite data to detect rainstorm disaster are studied.


In this paper a synthesis technique for the synchronization of hyperchaotic circuits with application to secure communications is developed. It is well known that information-bearing signals can be considered as causes of perturbations, when a secure communication system based on a masking technique is implemented. Starting from this consideration, in this paper a feedback control scheme is developed to guarantee synchronization between transmitter and receiver. The control scheme involves as many state variables in the feedback as the number of information signals to be transmitted. After deriving the nonlinear dynamics of the synchronization error system, the feedback matrix is determined by finding a suitable Lyapunov function and by imposing the conditions which assure the global asymptotic stability of the origin of the error system. The method is illustrated by considering hyperchaotic circuits constituted by coupled Chua's oscillators, for which analytic expressions of the feedback gains are derived.


An experiment was conducted to study the effect of weed competition and to identify the most critical stage of weed competition in banana. The treatments consisted of different weeding schedules as well as an unweeded control. It was found that early vegetative phase of growth of banana especially up to 3ni/6h month after transplanting and bunch development stage are the critical stages of banana at which yield is affected. Cost benefit ratio indicated that frequent weeding, withholding weeding during the first three MAP as well as during 6 to 9 MAP is less economical compared to other treatments.


As system integration becomes a reality the need for efficient, core based, simulators is pressing. Different levels of simulation accuracy/fidelity are necessary during system design. Naturally, a system is defined as a set of communicating finite state machines. In this work, we present a cycle precise simulator that is able to efficiently handle combinational loops existing between the FSMs. We devise a strategy that ensures that the blocks that do not belong to a combinational loop will be evaluated only once per cycle, and that the order of the components within a loop tends to minimize the number of iterations required to achieve stability. We express the problem in a graph theoretic manner, and propose a set of steps to obtain a valid schedule.


MgB2 tape samples with simultaneous additions of acetone and La2O3 were prepared by an in-situ processed powder-in-tube method. Compared to the pure and single doped tapes, both transport Jc and fluxing pinning are greatly improved by acetone and La2O3 codoping. Acetone supplies carbon into the MgB2 crystal lattice and increases the upper critical field, while the La2O3 reacts with B to form LaB6 nanoparticles as effective flux pining centers. The improvement of the superconducting properties in codoped tapes can be attributed to the combined effects of improvement in Hc2 and flux pinning.


In this work we use Floquet theory to theoretically study the influence of circularly polarized light on disordered two-dimensional models exhibiting topological transitions. We find circularly polarized light can induce a topological transition in extended Kane-Mele models that include additional hopping terms and on-site disorder. The topological transitions are understood from the Floquet-Bloch band structure of the clean system at high symmetry points in the first Brillouin zone. The light modifies the equilibrium band structure of the clean system in such a way that the smallest gap in the Brillouin zone can be shifted from the $M$ points to the $K(K')$ points, the $\Gamma$ point, or even other lower symmetry points. The movement of the minimal gap point through the Brillouin zone as a function of laser parameters is explained in the high frequency regime through the Magnus expansion. In the disordered model, we compute the Bott index to reveal topological phases and transitions. The disorder can induce transitions from topologically non-trivial states to trivial states or vice versa, both examples of Floquet topological Anderson transitions. As a result of the movement of the minimal gap point through the Brillouin zone as a function of laser parameters, the nature of the topological phases and transitions is laser-parameter dependent--a contrasting behavior to the Kane-Mele model.


Extracellular matrix and growth factors are the crucial factors that regulate healing and regenerating processes in human periodontal ligament cells. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of type I collagen and insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) on osteopontin (OPN) expression. The data showed that OPN expression was significantly decreased when cells were cultured on collagen-coated plates. Addition of IGF-I obviously induced OPN expression only in a collagen-coated condition, suggesting an attenuating effect of IGF-I on the decrease of OPN expression. Cells treated with a combination of inhibitory antibody to beta1 integrin and IGF-I showed the same level of OPN expression as those treated with either inhibitory antibody to beta1 integrin or IGF-I alone. These results indicate that IGF-I counteracts with the inhibitory signal from type I collagen through beta1 integrin receptor.


We construct a dynamic model of a multi-asset over-the-counter (OTC) market that operates via search and bargaining and empirically test its implications using data from the US corporate bond market. The key novelty in our model is that investors can hold and manage portfolios of OTC-traded assets. We characterize the stationary equilibrium in closed form which includes investors' valuations, terms of trade, and the characteristic function of the distribution of investors' asset positions. Tractability of the model allows us to derive natural proxies for important measures of market liquidity such as trade volume, price dispersion, and price impact. Among other within-market and cross-market comparative statics, we find that the alleviation of search frictions in one market may lead to opposite observations regarding liquidity in other markets depending on which liquidity measure is used. For example, a reduction of search frictions in one market decreases trade volume in other markets implying lower liquidity. At the same time, it decreases price dispersion and price impact implying higher liquidity. We test empirically these key liquidity equations, which uncover the determinants of endogenous liquidity differentials across OTC assets. Overall, our empirical results indicate significant support for the search-and-bargaining framework. Finally, we argue that, among the liquidity measures we analyze, price impact can serve as a good measure of welfare loss caused by OTC frictions, while other measures overstate or understate this deadweight loss.


† There are several benefits for developing a distributed decision support system for national health care. Decision makers especially in the health sector of the nation will make timely, informative and accurate decisions as both detailed and aggregated data from different health centres or facilities in the nation will be at their disposal together with various tools for analysis of data. The paper describes the architecture and prototype of distributed decision support system for national health care.


STUDY OBJECT
To describe the epidemiology, microbiology, and outcome of nosocomial pneumonia with secondary bloodstream infection.

DESIGN
Prospective cohort study.

SETTING
Tertiary care Canadian teaching hospital.

PATIENTS
Inpatients.

MEASUREMENT
All inpatient blood cultures were concurrently monitored over an 89 month period. Following chart review, patients experiencing nosocomial bloodstream infection due to pneumonia were identified. A standardized definition of pneumonia was used.

RESULTS
One hundred forty-nine episodes occurred in 145 patients, 0.66/1,000 hospital admissions, 8.4% of all nosocomial bloodstream infections. No change in rate occurred in the study period. Fifty-four percent of episodes developed in one of seven ICUs. Staphylococcus aureus was the most frequently identified etiologic organism (27%). The ICU and non-ICU cases did not differ in etiology. No organism became more prevalent during the study period. Twenty percent of patients died within 1 week of first positive culture; episodes associated with Pseudomonas species had a much higher mortality rate (45%) than other infections (14%) (p = 0.002). The ICU and non-ICU infections had a similar mortality rate.

CONCLUSION
Pneumonia is an important cause of nosocomial bloodstream infection, but it is not increasing in frequency or changing in etiology in our institution. The ICUs are a major contributor to this problem but have the same case short-term mortality rate and microbial etiology as non-ICU cases. Cases associated with Pseudomonas have a much higher mortality rate.


San1 ubiquitin ligase is involved in nuclear protein quality control via its interaction with intrinsically disordered proteins for ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation. Since several transcription/chromatin regulatory factors contain intrinsically disordered domains and can be inhibitory to transcription when in excess, San1 might be involved in transcription regulation. ABSTRACT San1 ubiquitin ligase is involved in nuclear protein quality control via its interaction with intrinsically disordered proteins for ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation. Since several transcription/chromatin regulatory factors contain intrinsically disordered domains and can be inhibitory to transcription when in excess, San1 might be involved in transcription regulation. To address this, we analyzed the role of San1 in the genome-wide association of TATA box binding protein (TBP; which nucleates preinitiation complex [PIC] formation for transcription initiation) and RNA polymerase II (Pol II). Our results reveal the roles of San1 in regulating TBP recruitment to the promoters and Pol II association with the coding sequences and, hence, PIC formation and coordination of elongating Pol II, respectively. Consistently, transcription is altered in the absence of San1. Such transcriptional alteration is associated with impaired ubiquitylation and proteasomal degradation of Spt16 and gene association of Paf1 but not the incorporation of centromeric histone, Cse4, into the active genes in the Δsan1 strain. Collectively, our results demonstrate distinct functions of a nuclear protein quality control factor in regulating the genome-wide PIC formation and elongating Pol II (and hence transcription), thus unraveling new gene regulatory mechanisms.


Article describes projects currently carried out in Europe, which were aimed at evaluating the implementation effects of Pan-European eCall system that is based on GSM technology. For this purpose there were performed pilot implementations and socioeconomic evaluation of system components in terms of profits and costs. Research projects, which were carried out in: Germany, France, Finland, Sweden, Netherlands, Austria, Czech Republic and Hungary demonstrated the possibility of reducing the number of casualties and severe injuries as a results of traffic accidents by shortening the time needed by emergency services on the road for rescue actions. Paper presents a summary describing European research projects results and it underlines most important benefits of eCall implementation and important. It also includes important eCall facts and events. Article shows that development of new rescue solutions has an impact on decreasing negative effect of road collisions. In summary article describes major requirements that are needed to introduce eCall system in all EU membership countries, requirements include emergency number network, devices in vehicles and architecture.


It is proved that the quality of audit services has two aspects: firstly, the quality of the audit, in which the quality assurance object is an independent audit of the financial statements and the accounting system; secondly, the quality of audit activity in which the object of quality assurance is the work of the subject of audit activity in general. The Model of the internal quality control system of the audit activity as a system of two components: internal structure; external environment "exit", "entrance"; feedback and external environment. Some deficiencies were identified when creating and implementing quality control systems for audit services at the micro level.


187 Journal of Neuroanaesthesiology and Critical Care | Vol. 3 • Issue 2 • May-Aug 2016 | Case Summary: A 11-month-old, 10 kg female baby presented with deformity of head. She had no other positive findings in the history or physical examination. Investigations were within normal limits. Suturectomy was done under general anaesthesia with controlled ventilation with intravenous induction and maintenance was done with oxygen, N2O, sevoflurane and muscle relaxants. Peripheral venous access included two 22-gauge cannulae in left upper and lower limbs. Central venous access was secured with 5 Fr central venous catheter (CVC) in the right internal jugular vein. Intraarterial blood pressure was monitored using left femoral artery catheter. Intraoperatively, there was a sudden fall in end-tidal carbon dioxide (EtCO2), SpO2 levels decreased and sudden hypotension developed raising the suspicion of VAE. Immediately, the surgeon was asked to stop the surgery and the surgical field was flooded with saline. Sevoflurane and N2O were cut down, and baby was ventilated with 100% oxygen. Around 30 ml of frothy blood was aspirated from the CVC. Later, EtCO2 slowly increased and SpO2 also improved. Surgery was continued. Blood loss was replaced. Baby was ventilated for 24 h post-operative and extubated successfully in the Intensive Care Unit on second post-operative day. Conclusion: VAE is a dreaded complication which might arise intraoperatively in surgeries where the surgical field has many open venous channels. Careful and vigilant monitoring is very essential.


With the development of high throughput sequencing technology, it becomes possible to directly analyze mutation distribution in a genome-wide fashion, dissociating mutation rate measurements from the traditional underlying assumptions. Here, we sequenced several genomes of Escherichia coli from colonies obtained after chemical mutagenesis and observed a strikingly nonrandom distribution of the induced mutations. These include long stretches of exclusively G to A or C to T transitions along the genome and orders of magnitude intra- and intergenomic differences in mutation density. Whereas most of these observations can be explained by the known features of enzymatic processes, the others could reflect stochasticity in the molecular processes at the single-cell level. Our results demonstrate how analysis of the molecular records left in the genomes of the descendants of an individual mutagenized cell allows for genome-scale observations of fixation and segregation of mutations, as well as recombination events, in the single genome of their progenitor.


Sympathetic activation, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and immunosuppressive treatment are risk factors for vascular damage in children with glomerulopathies.
Aim: To perform pulse wave analysis in children with glomerulopathies.
Material and Methods: We studied 33 children (22♂, 11♀) aged 13.3 ± 3.9 years with glomerulopathies: Henoch-Schonlein nephropathy 9 patients, IgA nephropathy 7 patients, membranoproliferative glomerulonephritis 4 patients, mesangioproliferative glomerulonephritis 3 patients, minimal change disease 3 patients, focal segmental glomerulosclerosis (FSGS) 3 patients, and other nephropathies 4 patients. We evaluated age at the disease onset, development of hypertension, body mass index (BMI) Z-score, selected biochemical variables, glomerular filtration rate (ac. to Schwartz formula), and pulse wave parameters determined using a SphygmoCor device (AtCor Medical, Australia): aortic systolic pressure (AoSP), diastolic pressure (AoDP) and pulse pressure (AoPP), augmentation pressure (AP), augmentation index (AIx), augmentation index corrected for heart rate of 75 beats per minute (AIx-75HR) [%], and an index of myocardial oxygen supply and demand, subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR) [%]. The control group included 20 healthy children matched for age and gender.
Results: Children with glomerulopathies showed trends for higher mean AP (P=0.08) and AIx (P=0.07), and a significantly higher mean AIx-75HR (P<0.05). Patients with hypertension (n=13) showed higher mean AoDP (P<0.05) and AIx-75HR (P<0.05) compared to normotensives (n=20). Six (18.2%) overhydrated patients had significantly (P<0.05) higher diastolic peripheral and aoritc diastolic blood pressure, as well as aortic systolic blood pressure than 27 (81.8%) normovolemic children. In 33 children, AoSP and AoDP correlated positively with proteinuria (r=0.44, P<0.05; and r=0.57, P<0.05, respectively); AoDP showed negative correlations with albumin (r=-0.42, P<0.05), total protein (r=- 0.36, P<0.05), calcium level (r=-0.47, P<0.05). AoPP correlated positively with BMI Z-score (r=0.43, P<0.05), and SEVR negatively with total cholesterol level (r=-0.43, P<0.05).
Conclusions: i. Patients with glomerulopathies show increased arterial stiffness compared to their healthy peers. ii. In children with glomerulonephritis, hypertension is a risk factor for increased aortic stiffness, and hypercholesterolemia may be a risk factor for future myocardial ischemia. iii. Overhydration in children with glomerulonephritis can increase peripheral and central blood pressure without influencing arterial stiffness.


The kinetics and products of the cool flame combustion of ethanol between about 280 and 330°C have been studied using a static system. The oxidation exhibited a long induction period, during which very little reaction occurred, followed by a period during which the rate, as measured by temperature and pressure increase and by consumption of reactants, accelerated exponentially. The passage of a cool flame was marked by a sharp increase in rate. During the acceleration period before a flame, the main products were hydrogen peroxide, water, carbon oxides, acetaldehyde, formaldehyde and methanol, the concentrations of which increased continuously except for acetaldehyde which rose to a constant value or even a maximum. Added acetaldehyde did not completely remove the induction period and did not reduce the acceleration period unless the amount added was greater than that normally present just before a cool flame passed. Coating the vessel with potassium chloride markedly inhibited cool flame formation. The temperature rise in a mixture up to the passage of a cool flame (∆Tc. f.) was found to be constant at a constant ambient temperature (T0) on varying the mixture composition and total pressure and on addition of inert gases, but probably increased slightly with increasing T0. When only slow oxidation occurred the maximum temperature rise was less than ΔTc. f.. In contrast, the amount of alcohol consumed up to the cool flame was much less for a 1:2 than for a 1:1 ethanol/oxygen mixture at constant T0 and varied with total pressure and on addition of inert gases. Addition of He, CO2 and H2O increased the cool flame pressure limit at constant T0, whereas Ar and Xe reduced it. The results indicate that branching was probably due to the decomposition of an acetyldehyde-hydrogen peroxide compound and that thermal factors, particularly the thermal conductivity of the mixture, were of predominant importance in determining whether a cool flame occurred. The variation in the consumption of ethanol up to the cool flame with conditions has been explained qualitatively by considering the oxidation simply as a self-heating reaction. The sudden increase in rate when a cool flame occurred may have been due to spontaneous ignition of a peroxidic intermediate.


In numerous industrial systems, acoustic resonances are synonymous with loud noise and dramatic structural vibrations. They take their origin from trapped weak pressure waves, but can sometimes develop into complex instabilities. With specific emphasis on turbomachines applications, two computational methods have been developed for the prediction of acoustic resonances in core volumes. The first method, called the averaged response function, consists of combined timedomain and frequency-domain approaches. A Favre-averaged RANS solver is used to model the response of a system to a controlled chirp excitation. The response is then analysed using well-known modal analysis tools in order to extract the system's acoustic characteristics. The second method, called the Arnoldi method, focuses on the stability of the CFD solver. The system is transformed, using a linear Euler solver, into a classic matrix stability problem. The eigenpairs of the matrix, corresponding to the acoustic modeshapes of the system, are then extracted thanks to the iterative Arnoldi method. The two methods are validated and compared on a wide range of cases such as enclosures, open geometries and flow applications. Such a thorough study first provides the reader with a deeper insight into acoustic phenomena by considering classic acoustic examples such as the end correction concept, the Doppler effect and the "lock-in" phenomenon. This study also inves8 Prediction of Acoustic Resonances in Core Volumes tigates the limitations and qualities of the implemented methods which are seen to behave very well when compared to theory and experiments. They give accurate results in predicting the three components of the acoustic resonance: the frequency, the damping and the modeshape. As a result, the methods implemented are considered to be mature and can be used to study either the complete acoustic map of the system across a wide range of frequencies or specific acoustic instabilities in a narrow frequency range.


Latin America has 23 countries ranging from Mexico, Central America, South America and the Caribbean, of these 19 countries are considered by the WHO as countries with high and very high risk, one of the similarities of our countries is poor access to services health and medicine, resulting from poor government investment in health as the amount used in this sector occupies only the best 3% of the national budget and gross domestic product.Thus we know that the prevalence of hypertension varies widely from country to country and from city to city, presenting in Guatemala a prevalence of 40%, while in other countries in the area ranges between 25 and 35%, most complicated problem is that within the same country as the population this prevalence can vary greatly and have a different impact between populationsTherefore we know that the impact of cardiovascular disease within the range of non-communicable diseases occupies at least 30% and of these about 70% occupied countries of low and moderate income.In Latin American countries the rates of detection, diagnosis and control of hypertensive disease are not uy encouraging and have a common denominator, the educated, so it is not the same be diagnosed in the rural area or urban area, and of course this impacts the way it understands the disease.In the best Detection reached 60% of the population (31-69%), Treatment 31% (14-48%) and most frightening is that control rates on average were 12% (7 - 18%), and although we have no reliable statistics on the vast majority of countries, we could say that control rate should be less than 10% in most cases.In recognition of the need to meet the challenge of improving the prevention and control of hypertension in the Americas and worldwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO), in collaboration with other stakeholders, have launched the Standardized Hypertension Treatment and Prevention (SHTP) Project. The SHTP Project's goal is to improve CVD prevention and management, using hypertension as the entry point, by developing and implementing an approach for standardizing the management of hypertension and strengthening health systems at the primary care level. The SHTP Project design aims to be feasible and flexible for worldwide applicability and can be adapted to improve control of other NCDs. Rationale for Strengthening Healthcare DeliveryAbout the Systems for Hypertension Control, Strengthening of health systems can help address challenges to hypertension control by addressing a number of barriers to effective and sustained hypertension like a Patient barriers, Provider Barriers and Health System Barries to medication availabilities and affordabilitiesTo effectively reduce the burden of hypertension within a care delivery system, it is essential to develop and implement a multipronged strategy based on strong political will. This strategy should create an environment where hypertension control is a priority and specific stakeholders, as well as leaders and champions, are identified with clearly defined roles and responsibilities. Involved parties should include patients, clinicians, pharmacists, and social service workers, as well as others to comprise a multidisciplinary team. Concrete targets and goals and an accountability mechanism should be established at all levels with a plan to conduct monitoring and evaluation. Financial resources, including funding sources and procurement mechanisms, should be considered and mobilized. Furthermore, a formative assessment should be conducted prior to implementation to inform the needs for the program's success.We are currently working on developing 20 x 20 LASH, 25 x 25 WHF and many others in order to achieve a reduction of the impact of cardiovascular disease and its risk factors, hypertension continues to grow and the prevalence is ever-increasing, Latin America occupies the highest prevalence rates and the worst controls, and if we do nothing about it, stop being silent murderer a chronicle of a death foretold.


The first museums emerged in Europe, in the context of colonial empires and hegemonic thinking, based on contemporary evolutionist theories, becoming an instrument in the service of the dominant power. The end of colonialism caused a rupture in the model of evolutionist museums, bringing to debate new ways of interpreting, displaying and communicating collections from non-European cultures. This paper aims to analyse the phenomenon of the decolonisation of the museum, starting from a diachronic analysis of issues related to the restitution of objects to the origin cultural groups and the reformulation of museological discourses, namely through projects of co-curatorship. This investigation is qualitative, descriptive and conceptual, based on bibliographic research and critical analysis of the gathered data, whose results are structured into four points: colonialist discourse of the first museums; post-colonialist debates; decolonisation and restitution of objects to the origin cultural groups; agents and factors of the decolonisation of museums in contemporary times. As a research hypothesis, it is suggested that the decolonisation of the museum is an ongoing process that develops by recovering the original meaning of objects and by representing the origin communities, assuring the inclusion of their narratives and their active and equal participation in the museum's practices.


We present an improved clustering based, unsu-pervised anomalous trajectory detection algorithm for crowded scenes. The proposed work is based on four major steps, namely, extraction of trajectories from crowded scene video, extraction of several features from these trajectories, independent mean-shift clustering and anomaly detection. First, the trajectories of all moving objects in a crowd are extracted using a multi feature video object tracker. These trajectories are then transformed into a set of feature spaces. Mean shift clustering is applied on these feature matrices to obtain distinct clusters, while a Shannon Entropy based anomaly detector identifies corresponding anomalies. In the final step, a voting mechanism identifies the trajectories that exhibit anomalous characteristics. The algorithm is tested on crowd scene videos from datasets. The videos represent various possible crowd scenes with different motion patterns and the method performs well to detect the expected anomalous trajectories from the scene.


Global change is affecting terrestrial carbon (C) balances. The effect of climate on ecosystem C balance has been largely explored, but the roles of other concurrently changing factors, such as diversity and nutrient availability, remain elusive. We used eddy‐covariance C‐flux measurements from 62 ecosystems from which we compiled information on climate, ecosystem type, stand age, species abundance and foliar concentrations of N and P of the main species, to assess their importance in the ecosystem C balance. Climate and productivity were the main determinants of ecosystem C balance and its stability. In P‐rich sites, increasing N was related to increased gross primary production and respiration and vice versa, but reduced net C uptake. Our analyses did not provide evidence for a strong relation between ecosystem diversity and their productivity and stability. Nonetheless, these results suggest that nutrient imbalances and, potentially, diversity loss may alter future global C balance.


By using data collected through a survey containing newly enrolled student in Management Engineering at the University of Brussels, we show that even if all students do not come with the same chance of success at university, their working/studying behavior may lessen the burden of the past. Unlike the majority of the literature focusing on deterministic vision of success, we propose a more balanced view of the determining factors of academic success where success is explained both by what the student controls and what he does not control. We indeed take into account by means of a multivariate analysis the background of the student(personal characteristics, schooling and human capital of the family) as well as variables that are related to the study methods and habits of the student such as class attendance, the regularity of study and the study capacity during the exam period. Our results show that the work/studying pays off: the two most relevant factors explaining success are the work/study regularity as well as the number of hours the student studies/works during the exam period. In addition and in contrast with the common belief, both class attendance and guidance courses do not seem to be important to succeed but are the keys in successfully completing the year with a grade.


This study aims to determine the shear strength and flexural strength of red brick masonry, determine the effective thickness of calcium hydroxide mortar with a mixture ratio of 1Kp:2Ps, and determine the failure pattern of red brick masonry due to the load received during the direct shear strength test and flexural strength test. The research was conducted by experimental method. The tests carried out were the direct shear and flexural strength tests. Variation of successive mortar thickness of 10mm, 15mm, and 20mm. The test object is 18 (eighteen), the thickness variation consists of 3 test objects. Data analysis used descriptive quantitative by finding the average value of the shear strength and flexural strength. Based on the test results, the average compressive strength and splitting tensile strength of the mortar were 0.613 MPa, 0.0414 MPa. The average shear strength with a 10mm; 15mm; and 20mm is 0.025 MPa; 0.020 MPa; and 0.016 MPa, respectively. The flexural strength of mortar thickness with 10mm, 15mm, and 20mm are 0.034 MPa; 0.045 MPa; and 0.041 MPa, , respectively. In the masonry shear test, the effective thickness of the mortar was found at 10mm with a maximum shear strength of 0.025 MPa, while in the flexural test, the effective thickness of the mortar was found at a thickness of 15mm with 0.045 MPa. The pattern of failure in red masonry's shear strength and flexural strength tests is the mortar failure.


abstract:Scholarly interest in the technosphere is exploding. Most analyses define the technosphere as massive, modern, and autonomous. This article constructively critiques these claims, focusing on scale, time, and power. First, it suggests that the technosphere exists at multiple scales that intersect in myriad ways. Second, it shows that the technosphere has a three-million-year history, meaning that Homo sapiens and the technosphere coevolved. This coevolution implies that the technosphere is a profoundly social entity. Third, its history is about how human groups (usually white, male ones) have used technology to build a physical world that works to their advantage and is thus also an issue of power. As histories of pollution, climate change, and many other things show, the technosphere does not exist outside a powerless, undifferentiated humanity. Social and technological formations are thoroughly interwoven. Clark and Szerszynski have urged scholars to "socialize the Anthropocene." This article urges scholars to "socialize" the technosphere, to interrogate and explore its social dimensions.


Abstract Anagallis arvensis L. commonly known as 'Scarlet Pimpernel' has been used in folklore as natural remedy for treating common ailments. The present research is aimed to explore the phytochemical composition and enzyme inhibition potential of methanol and dichloromethane (DCM) extracts of A. arvensis aerial and root parts. The phytochemical composition was established via HPLC-PDA polyphenolic quantification and UHPLC-MS analysis, while the inhibition potential against amylase and tyrosinase enzymes were assessed using standard in vitro protocols. The HPLC-PDA polyphenolic quantification revealed the presence of important compounds including catechin, gallic acid, chlorogenic acid, and ferulic acid, whereas 34 different secondary metabolites were tentatively identified by UHPLC-MS of both the DCM extracts. All the extracts showed moderate tyrosinase and a weak amylase inhibition activity. The aerial-DCM extract showed comparatively higher tyrosinase and amylase enzyme inhibition potential, which may be due to the presence of secondary metabolites as tentatively identified by its UHPLC-MS profiling. Graphical Abstract


Part I of this article focuses on the history of parol evidence in contract interpretation, describing both Williston's and Corbin's definition and application of the parol evidence rule. With the adoption of the UCC and the Second Restatement, we suggest that Corbin's position-that expansion of admissibility of parol evidence will more accurately reflect the drafters' manifest intentions and minimize the judge's personal biases-has been accepted by experts and legislators alike. In Part II, we summarize the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation, focusing on the rise of the New Textualism and its critique of the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation. Our analysis reveals that interpretation based on a judge's view of a text's "ordinary meaning" combined with the use of interpretive canons does not seriously constrain judicial discretion. Part III compares and contrasts the use of parol evidence in contract interpretation with the use of legislative history in statutory interpretation. We identify differences that actually strengthen the argument for extrinsic aids as a means of limiting the effects of judicial bias in statutory interpretation, and differences that do not affect the strong analogy between contract and statutory interpretation; we then conclude with a response to formalist objections to the use of legislative history.


A novel technique for Earth-observation microwave interferometric radiometry using satellite formation flight is presented. The concept allows large apertures of unprecedented sizes to be synthesised by means of antennas mounted on several free-flying platforms performing interferometry. The size of the synthesised aperture is determined by the furthest distance between the free-flying satellites. The concept is applicable to wide range of microwave frequencies, meaning that the large aperture may be applied to achieve unprecedented spatial resolution, to extend Earth observation radiometry to unprecedented long wavelengths, or to enable radiometry in the geostationary orbit. Two such concepts are presented, and as an example they are applied to geostationary radiometry at 10 GHz. The first concept employs a rotating Y-shaped interferometric radiometer in formation with a constellation of nine free-flying microsatellites. The effective diameter of the synthesised aperture is 14.4m, which produces a spatial resolution of 79.5 km at 10 GHz from the geostationary orbit. The total mass of the constellation can be within 2 tonnes, which may be deployed on a single launch vehicle. The second concept is a constellation of six formation-flying radiometers, which produce apertures of 28.8m, and produces a spatial resolution of 39.8 km at 10 GHz. While this configuration is capable of producing larger effective apertures, the total mass can exceed 5 tonnes, and may require multiple launches and rendezvous at the operational orbit. Both of these concepts can be scaled up for larger apertures, and are bound primarily by the number of satellites deployable in the constellation. The free-flying nature of the concept means they are susceptible to interferometric performance degradation by array deformation. The effect of deviation on the radiometric resolution is explored and found, concluding that deviation as small as 0.1lambda can lead to performance degradation of up to 20 K. Annual Delta V required to maintain such constellations are also found at up to 2.23 m/s annually.


Present study investigates on the impact of resources and characteristics of the tenure choice for divorced women in Korea. The authors utilize the micro data from the Korea Census (2% sample) provided by the National Statistical Office. The authors apply the bivariate probit model to eliminate selection bias that could incur due to sample selectivity, from a chain of marital disruption and tenure choices. This study starts with a descriptive explanation of homeownership after divorce from 1985 to 2005. It concluded that divorce results in a substantial attrition of homeownership. The authors found that out for many women, divorce initiates a process of downward mobility on the housing ladder. The probability to own housing is much lower for divorced women than for women who are not divorced. The present study concludes by suggesting some policy implications for divorced women who have limited access to housing stability. The authors also suggest some future studies that can compensate the empirical limitations of the present study.


There is a great deal of concern regarding the hazard potential of human exposure to toxic substances and carcinogens as well as infectious agents in the environment. For monitoring purposes fish are well established with regard to aquatic pollution. However, for the human environment, mammalian species might be considered more relevant. As the various types of rats are one of the most common animals sharing human habitants they are natural candidates. In the present study, numbers of such wild rats were trapped in the metropolis of Bangkok and country regions of Thailand for comparison of lesions in the liver and lung which might provide indicators of carcinogens or other hazardous agents in the environment. Glutathione S transferase P form positive foci could be detected in livers, comparable to the laboratory rat case, but without any significant link to site of capture. In contrast, fatty liver and inflammation/cirrhosis were significantly more frequent in animals from the metropolis. Parasite infection also tended to be more prevalent, along with leptospirosis. Inflammatory change was similarly found in the lungs but without any variation between the city and countryside groups. These results suggest that wild rats could be employed as monitors of environmental agents of toxicological significance.


This paper addresses issues related to bilingual creativity in Chinese English and their implications for world Englishes in the Chinese context. The language examined in this paper is drawn from Ha Jin's novella, In the Pond, in which the author's use of English is 'nativized' to the Chinese context in order to recast the cultural meanings of the language. Rooted in social realism, cultural authenticity, and historical accuracy, Ha Jin describes the lives of ordinary people against the larger political backdrop of China. His skilful use of English successfully transcreates his native Chinese experience to form an indigenized narrative style. In this paper, I employ a theoretical framework derived from Kachru (1982, 1986, etc.) to show how Ha Jin's work expresses a distinct Chinese cultural identity. Ha Jin's use of creative innovations in English reflect the texture of Chinese ideological, political and socio–cultural representations. The linguistic exponents of such creativity range from the use of address terms, curse words, to metaphors, proverbs, political expressions, and other aspects of the contemporary Chinese lexicon. Despite a central concern with universal themes in his fiction, Ha Jin simultaneously conveys a distinct sense of 'Chineseness' through the use of nativized discourse patterns, rhetorical strategies, speech acts, and a range of other linguistic devices.


A fundamental problem in financial trading is the correct and timely identification of turning points in stock value series. This detection enables to perform profitable investment decisions, such as buying-at-low and selling-at-high. This paper evaluates the ability of sequential smoothing methods to detect turning points in financial time series. The novel idea is to select smoothing and alarm coefficients on the gain performance of the trading strategy. Application to real data shows that recursive smoothers outperform two-sided filters at the out-of-sample level. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The F420 hydrogenase of Methanobacterium formicicum was associated with membranes isolated by sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation of cell extract. The methyl viologen hydrogenase was present in the soluble fractions. Column chromatography with phenyl-Sepharose CL-4B revealed that the F420 hydrogenase was strongly hydrophobic, suggesting that it associates with isolated membranes through hydrophobic interactions.


Abstract In this study, an innovative risk management model for the design process of power tunnels projects is presented. Experts who have experience in mega dam projects and working in owner administration or consultant companies were interviewed, and their responses were analyzed and ranked. Impacts of the identified risks on cost and time of the project are separately determined. These separations are of the novelty of this current study. This leads to identify disagreements between the two parties, remove bias from the study, and also render a better perspective for impact types of the risks. Based on the opinions of consultant-experienced experts, the risk "delays due to making new decisions by owners" and the risk "poor documentation" were identified as the most critical risks affecting time and cost of the projects, respectively. On the other hand, owner-experienced experts found the risk "change of design due to inaccessibility of proper turbine sets" as the most important risk. The results showed that the most critical risks can be mitigated and/or avoided through resolving the bureaucracy to receive permission to purchase appropriate turbine sets and equipment for power plants and establishing systematic documentation units in both owner and consultant administrations.


AIM
Polyps of the colon and rectum are considered to be premalignant lesions in the development of colorectal cancer. However, knowledge of how normal epithelial cells gain invasive properties is limited. Laminin 5 gamma 2 chain expression was investigated to determine the role of laminin 5 as a marker of potential invasiveness in colorectal polyps.

MATERIAL/METHODS
Sixty seven polyps of different types (15 hyperplastic polyps, 12 serrated adenomas, 16 tubular adenomas, and 24 adenomas with a villous component) were assessed for gamma 2 chain expression of laminin 5 by immunohistochemistry on archival, paraffin wax embedded sections.

RESULTS
Ten polyps stained positive and the number of polyps expressing the laminin 5 gamma 2 chain increased significantly as the phenotype of the adenomas became more atypical: none of the 15 hyperplastic polyps, two of the 16 tubular adenomas (12.5%), and six of the 24 adenomas with a villous component (25%) were positive. Two of 12 (17%) serrated adenomas, regarded as a distinct form of colorectal neoplasia, showed gamma 2 chain expression. Furthermore, laminin 5 gamma 2 chain expression correlated with lesion size. Polyps smaller than 10 mm expressed the gamma 2 chain less frequently than did those equal to or larger than 10 mm.

CONCLUSION
Laminin 5 gamma 2 chain expression was found to increase progressively towards a more atypical phenotype of adenoma. The results suggest that, in the future, laminin 5 gamma 2 chain expression may be used as an indicator of incipient malignant transformation of a benign colorectal adenoma.


In this work, we fabricate a highly effective catalyst for carbon monoxide oxidation based on gold-loaded mesoporous maghemite nanoflakes which exhibit nearly 100% CO conversion and a very high specific activity of 8.41 molCO gAu-1 h-1 at room temperature. Such excellent catalytic activity is promoted by the synergistic cooperation of their high surface area, large pore volume, and mesoporous structure.


ABSTRACT Sustainability has been a popular heuristic concept used to describe the necessity for achieving a point of balance between social, economic, and environmental needs for the purpose of securing the survival of humankind and the planet. With the objective of meeting the interests of something or someone, the definition of the term has been subject to interpretation, generating confusion, and increasing the vagueness already embedded in the terminology. Revisiting sustainability definitions and departing from the roots of the issue, the theory of dimensional balance of needs proposes a framework for sustainability to attain full theoretical status. This article will explore and develop a theory for sustainability to achieve a three-dimensional balanced status in which the sustainability environment system (SES) is integrated by the dimensional environment subsystem (DESS) and the stakeholder environment subsystem (SESS). The DESS includes three dimensions representing the social, economic, and environmental needs and the three dimensional salience of needs (i.e. human well-being, economic development, and environmental protection). By balancing one or more dimensional salience of needs, the DESS enters into different balanced states, which are presented as propositions, and the balance of the three dimensional salience of needs represents a balanced sustainability state that has been able to integrate and balance internal and external factors – the three-dimensional integrated and balanced state that stakeholders are interested in sustaining as it signifies the needs have been met.


ABSTRACT SecA is an essential ATP-driven motor protein that binds to presecretory or membrane proteins and the translocon and promotes the translocation or membrane integration of these proteins. secA is subject to a protein secretion-specific form of regulation, whereby its translation is elevated during secretion-limiting conditions. A novel mechanism that promotes this regulation involves translational pausing within the gene upstream of secA, secM. The secM translational pause prevents formation of an RNA helix that normally blocks secA translational initiation. The duration of this pause is controlled by the rate of secretion of nascent SecM, which in turn depends on its signal peptide and a functional translocon. We characterized the atypical secM signal peptide and found that mutations within the amino-terminal region specifically affect the secM translational pause and secA regulation, while mutations in the hydrophobic core region affect SecM secretion as well as translational pausing and secA regulation. In addition, mutational analysis of the 3′ end of secM allowed us to identify a conserved region that is required to promote the translational pause that appears to be operative at the peptide level. Together, our results provide direct support for the secM translational pause model of secA regulation, and they pinpoint key sequences within secM that promote this important regulatory system.


The helical structure of DNA imposes constraints on the rate of diffusionlimited protein binding. Here we solve the reaction–diffusion equations for DNA-like geometries and extend with simulations when necessary. We find that the helical structure can make binding to the DNA more than twice as fast compared to a case where DNA would be reactive only along one side. We also find that this rate advantage remains when the contributions from steric constraints and rotational diffusion of the DNA-binding protein are included. Furthermore, we find that the association rate is insensitive to changes in the steric constraints on the DNA in the helix geometry, while it is much more dependent on the steric constraints on the DNA-binding protein. We conclude that the helical structure of DNA facilitates the nonspecific binding of transcription factors and structural DNA-binding proteins in general. S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/JPA/49/364002/ mmedia


In this paper, the diffraction theory originally developed for N bottom‐mounted vertical circular cylinders is reviewed and generalized to be applicable to deep‐draft truncated vertical cylinders, such as the columns of a tension‐leg platform (TLP). More importantly, the complementary radiation problem for N vertical circular cylinders is solved. Radiation potentials as well as added mass and wave damping for six‐degree‐of‐freedom motions are obtained in closed forms. To demonstrate the usefulness of the present method, it is applied to the computation of wave loads and hydrodynamic coefficients for four columns of the ISSC TLP and a row of 19 bottom‐mounted vertical cylinders. The present method quickly produces reasonably accurate solutions and precludes the laborious convergence test and grid generation, and hence should be a valuable tool for the preliminary design of deep‐draft multicolumn structures, especially when the number of the columns is large.


The kinetics of sorption of Hg(II) from aqueous solution onto the dead biomass of the aquaphyte Potamogeton natans was studied. Chemical and instrumental analyses including atomic absorption, electron microscopy and X-ray energy dispersion analyses were used to elucidate sorption mechanisms. It was found that, although sorption of Hg(II) took place over the entire biomass surface, there were spots on the surface where apparent multilayer sorption of Hg(II) occurred. Kinetic studies and the construction of various adsorption isotherms confirmed multilayer sorption at least on parts of the biomass. The maximum uptake of Hg(II) by P. natans biomass is about 180mg/g biomass. The minimum concentration of Hg(II) in solution that can be achieved appears to be limited to about 4-5mg/l. An attempt was made to determine whether or not the Hg(II) sorbed onto the biomass could be removed by elution with an acid or a base. © 2002 SDU. All rights reserved.


This paper proposes a new processor array structure for the Smith-Waterman with affine gap penalty algorithm to align protein sequences. This architecture is extracted by applying a nonlinear mapping methodology to the Smith-Waterman with affine gap penalty algorithm after expressing it as Regular Iterative Algorithm (RIA). This methodology uses a data scheduling and node projection techniques to explore the processor array structures of the algorithm. The proposed structure is one of the explored structures and has the advantage that it can be modified to enable hardware reuse rather than replicating processing elements of the processor array on a cluster of FPGAs. The proposed hardware structure and the previously reported conventional one are described at the Register Transfer Level (RTL) using VHDL language and implemented using the FPGA technology. The implementation results show that the proposed design has significant higher normalized speed-up (up to 124%) over the conventional design for query sequence lengths less than 512 residues. According to the UniProtKB/Swiss-Prot protein knowledgebase (release 2014 07) statistics, the largest number of sequences (about 80%) have sequence length less than 512 residues that makes the proposed design outperforms the conventional design in terms of speed and area in this sequence lengths range. Key–Words: High performance computing, Parallel processing, Processor arrays, Bio-Computing, Protein sequence alignment, Reconfigurable Computing


A new nonholonomic transmission mechanism is proposed based on the nonholonomic the-
ory and nonlinear control principle, and combined with conditions of the nonholonomic motion plan-
ning and control, that is researched to compose method of the motion transfer chain from this transmis-
sion mechanism, on which a new nonholonomic manipulator is designed. This nonholonomic manipu-
lator is a controllable multi-joint manipulator that actuated only by two-servo electromotor Its motion
expresses the characteristic of nonholonomy constraint and nonlinear, and that also satisfies the
chained form convertibility. And then, using the nonlinear control principle of chained system, motion
characteristic of the nonholonomic manipulator is applied. From simulation verification and analysis,
the usefulness of the theoretical design and control strategies is shown, and that is important in design
and research of handiness robot and multi-finger robot hand.


This study aims to analyze the evaluation of learning management programs in the field of Islamic education, so that the quality of learning in adiwiyata schools is truly in accordance with the wishes of the community at large. This research uses a qualitative approach with case study. The research site is at Sekolah Menengah Umum Negeri 8 Samarinda dan Sekolah Menengah Umum Negeri 1 Tenggarong, East Kalimantan. The results showed that The results showed that Islamic education learning management is done through planning, implementation, evaluation by integrating the principles of adiwiyata schools in learning, by implementing the principal's policy strategy through continuous planning, implementation, mentoring and evaluation. The achievement of the evaluation results of the management of Islamic religious education learning in the context of integrated learning is very significant, with a value of 7.75 (good), development of learning tools 7.59 (good), monolithic learning 7.19 (good), and through extracurricular activities 6, 90 (good). The impact of management learning in Islamic education is; (a) the establishment of cooperation between schools and related parties in environmental management, (b) creative and innovative teaching staff, and (c) familiar with the attitude of environmental love and the use of used materials.


This study investigates the bioactivity of tannin from amaranth (Amaranthus caudatus L.) extracts. The antioxidant activities of the extracts from amaranth leaves, flowers, and seeds were evaluated. Tannin from leaves of amaranth has been evaluated for superoxide scavenging activity by using DPPH and ABTS(+) analysis, reducing power, protective effect against H2O2-induced oxidative damage in L-132 and BNL-CL2 cells, and inhibition of superoxide radical effects on HL-60 cells. At a concentration of 100 μg/ml, tannin showed protective effects and restored cell survival to 69.2% and 41.8% for L-132 and BNL-CL2 cells, respectively. Furthermore, at the same concentration, tannin inhibited 41% of the activity of the superoxide radical on HL-60 cells and 43.4% of the increase in nitric oxide levels in RAW 264.7 cells. The expression levels of the antioxidant-associated protein SOD-1 were significantly increased in a concentration-dependent manner in RAW 264.7 cells treated with tannin from amaranth leaves. These results suggest that tannin from the leaves of Amaranthus caudatus L. is a promising source of antioxidant component that can be used as a food preservative or nutraceutical.


A basic requirement for an autonomous mobile robot is its capability to elaborate the sensor measures to localize itself with respect to a coordinate system. To this purpose, the data provided by odometric and sonar sensors are here fused together by means of an extended Kalman filter. The performance of the filter is improved by an online adjustment of the input and measurement noise covariances obtained by a suitably defined estimation algorithm.


EDTA-containing buffer solubilizes thymus leukemia antigens (TLa) from crude thymocyte membrane fractions. The TL antigens consist mainly of molecules of a size similar to immunoglobulin G when gel chromatography analyses were performed under physiological conditions. A single component of TLa was apparent on sucrose density gradient ultracentrifugation of solubilized thymocyte membrane macromolecules as monitored by indirect immunoprecipitation. The sedimentation constant for the TL antigens (5.8 S) was considerably less than that for immunoglobulin G. The gel chromatography and ultracentrifugation data suggest an apparent molecular weight for TLa of about 120000. TLa isolated by indirect immunoprecipitation is composed of two types of polypeptide chains. The smaller subunit was identified as beta2-microglobulin. The larger polypeptide chain carried the alloantigenic determinants and displayed a molecular weight of about 50000 after reduction and alkylation. TLa subjected to molecular weight determination under denaturing conditions was composed of two components. The smaller component was beta2-microglobulin which evidently is linked to the larger polypeptide chain by noncovalent interactions only. The larger component had a size greater than reduced and alkylated immunoglobulin G heavy chains. Upon reduction and alkylation of the latter component its size was reduced and it appeared to have a molecular weight of about 50000. Consequently, TLa is composed of two disulfide linked heavy polypeptide chains and two beta2-microglobulin molecules. TLa solubilized by papain digestion comprises two polypeptide chains, one of which is beta2-microglobulin. The larger 37000-dalton subunit is a fragment of the heavy polypeptide chain. This was demonstrated by digesting solubilized 120000-dalton TLa with papain. The proteolytic fragments obtained were indistinguishable from those directly released from the cell surface by proteolysis. The papain-derived TLa fragment exhibited most if not all the alloantigenic determinants.


This is a rather curious book. The 'elements' described here are, roughly speaking, the Chomsky hierarchy of grammars and some of their associated automata, with some brief forays into computational and statistical linguistics. This description takes up about 150 pages, and the not inconsiderable remainder of the book consists of articles by the authors previously published elsewhere, sometimes in earlier versions. The discussion of the various types of formal grammars is always accurate, and often very interesting, but it is not a presentation which could be recommended to someone with no previous experience in the field, for several reasons. First, the vast majority of the illustrative examples are in Russian, not surprisingly: although glosses are given, it slows down the reader with no Russian considerably. Secondly, the organization of the book is somewhat less than optimal for pedagogical purposes. For example, an illustrative grammar is given early on to demonstrate the sort of thing that the rest of the book will be about. This grammar contains over 80 rules, which formally are a mixture of context-free and context-sensitive rules, and context-free rule schemata. It covers a large chunk of Russian morphology in paralysing detail, and is one of the most complicated and difficult-to-read grammars I have seen for a long time. You would need to be a very dedicated beginner indeed to penetrate beyond this point, and you might well be getting sceptical about one of the claims in this part of the book: that the virtue of formalization is in helping the linguist to come up with revealing and interesting descriptions of natural languages. Thirdly, though less importantly, whereas the book claims that no special mathematical expertise is necessary, it concedes that it would be an advantage, and there are in fact odd passages which presuppose quite a lot. On the whole, though, this is not a problem, and useful references and footnotes are given, as well as an engaging system of marginal roadsigns to tell you when a particularly tricky bend is coming up, or when you have just passed an important landmark. The Chomsky hierarchy is discussed and illustrated clearly, and the application of these different types of grammar to the syntactic phenomena found in natural language is discussed in some detail. I didn't find anything to complain about on the formal side, though the occasional factual or theoretical claim is questionable: e.g. they repeat (69) Yngve's claim that the depth of left recursion in English is limited grammatically (but possessive determiners are not so limited, on most analyses), and they try to perpetuate the hoary old myth (76) that the notion of grammatical transformation is a semantic one, somewhat surprisingly in view of their own later treatment of a purely syntactic notion of transformation. This treatment is found in one of the supplementary chapters, where they attempt to provide a serious formalization of transformations seen as mappings between trees. The system they arrive at allows for the specification of arbitrary tree-to-tree mappings using standard notions from graph theory. This chapter is much tougher going than the main body of the book. The question (of historical interest only?) of determining which of the types of mapping made available by their general definition are those needed to arrive at theoretically adequate descriptions of natural languages is, reasonably enough, left open. In summary, then, the book falls between two stools; there are many interesting things in it, but not enough of them are new for it to count as research, and the presentation of the old things is not sufficiently well structured for it to be used as a textbook.


Bacillus subtilis DB9011 is a strain with useful functions for agriculture. To establish a method for the discrimination of this strain from others, monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) were prepared. Although two established MAbs (MAb9B6 and MAb14D2) cross-react with some other Bacillus strains in ELISA, only B. subtilis DB9011 vegetative cells are recognized by both MAbs. MAb14D2 recognizes flagellin, a 34-kDa unit protein of flagella. The two MAbs established will provide powerful tools with which detailed analysis of this bacterial strain can be obtained under environmental conditions.


Book description: This volume publishes fifty-four Ptolemaic papyri from the Fayum and Middle Egypt, with English translations and extensive commentaries. The texts, dating from c. 250–150 BC and written in either Greek or Egyptian demotic, record lists of adults, ordered by village, occupation and social group, and by household, together with the taxes paid on their persons, their livestock and trades. Some are more than twenty columns long. All texts have been studied on the originals by an international team of scholars. Many are published here for the first time; the others have been extensively revised with numerous new joins between fragments. Lists of tax-payers and their payments provide a wealth of information on population and family structure, administrative practice, social and professional groups and naming practices. Providing the documentary basis for the historical studies of Volume II, P.Count is essential for any serious evaluation of that account. • The texts (in both Greek and Egyptian demotic), together with the historical studies, provide a broad picture of Hellenistic society • These volumes illuminate many aspects of the relations (and differences) between immigrant Greeks and the existing majority Egyptian population • The rich demographic material from third-century BC Egypt allows family reconstruction and the analysis of ethnic differences


Aim of the study The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of a new curved paediatric segment transfer distraction osteogenesis technique in the reconstruction of symphyseal mandibular defect. Patient and methods A new segment transfer distractor has been made from stainless steel. The main railway track is made as a hollow tube taking the shape of the mandible, guided by a face impression of the patient in plaster. This railway track was fixed to the remaining mandibular stump by means of a custom-made miniplate. The transfer segment was fixed to the device by means of another miniplate. Traction mechanism is the method for transforming force to get the segment part to move. After a 5-day latent period, the bone was distracted and activation at a rate of 2 mm/day was carried out, followed by a consolidation period. A custom-made electrical stimulator device was fabricated with microtransistors and resistors, in a circuit with 9 V battery, to produce a direct current of 10 &mgr;A continuously. Patients were asked to wear the device continuously for a minimum of 12 h. The distraction wound was evaluated during early activation, late activation, early consolidation, late consolidation and 12 months postoperatively. Ultrasound examination was performed. Occlusal images were taken at the first, fourth, eighth and 12th week after traction to check the accurate curved shape of the regenerate. Bone density of the distraction zone on the digital panoramic radiographs were analysed using Gray scale analyser Results This study showed that a curved mandibular symphyseal defect could be reconstructed by transport distraction. The shape of the distracted mandibular bone was almost symmetrical to the other nondistracted half. Gross examination of the distracted bone at the time of device removal revealed new bone formation, which could not be differentiated from the adjacent native bone. Conclusion Reconstruction of mandibular symphyseal defects in children is extremely challenging because of the anatomy of their mandibles. There have been few, if any, clinical reports on the use of an internal distractor to cure mandibular symphyseal defects in children. Compared with the currently used external distractor, an internally fixed distractor may be more comfortable for patients, and thus we designed an internal distractor that could be used in these paediatric defects.