The thermosensitizing effect of step-down heating was studied using Chinese hamster ovary (CHO) cells. Exponentially growing cells were given priming heat treatments at 43 degrees C for 45 or 90 min, immediately followed by a second exposure to a temperature ranging from 37.5 to 39 degrees C. The measured rates of cell killing, 1/D0, increased exponentially with temperature; the slopes correspond to Arrhenius activation energies of Ea = 1200 +/- 150 kJ mol-1 and Ea = 1275 +/- 125 kJ mol-1 for cells preheated at 43 degrees C for 45 or 90 min, respectively. For the temperature range 39-43 degrees C an activation energy of Ea = 561 +/- 24 kJ mol-1 was obtained for step-down heated cells (43 degrees C, 45 min followed by T = 39-43 degrees C). These results indicate that there is a 'second inflection point' at 39 degrees C on the Arrhenius curve for step-down heating of CHO cells. Data evaluation using a mathematical model published previously (H. Jung, Radiation Research, 106, 56-72, 1986) showed that the rate constant c for the conversion of nonlethal lesions into lethal events increased with an activation energy of Ea = 1520 +/- 140 kJ mol-1 in the temperature range from 37.5-39 degrees C. For 39-45 degrees C the activation energy for c was Ea = 360 +/- 26 kJ mol-1, indicating that the temperature dependence of c shows a break at 39 degrees C similar to that observed on the 1/D0 Arrhenius plot.


We consider four key challenges related to estimating per‐individual rates of hybridization in wild birds: (1) what is the meaning of the term "hybrid"?, (2) the importance of distinguishing between shared DNA sequences and on‐going hybridization between populations, (3) the perils of focusing exclusively on known hybrid zones, and (4) the implications of very low rates of per individual hybridization. Because our focus is on using phenotype to recognize hybrids, we define a hybrid as an individual with a phenotype that is intermediate between two parental species. We emphasize the value of quantifying the rate of between‐species mating that is ongoing in current populations and distinguish this endeavor from estimates of gene flow between populations based on genomic analysis, which can reflect both current and ancient hybridization. We restate the importance of quantifying per individual rates of hybridization among all birds without prejudging which birds are presumed to engage in hybridization. And finally, we emphasize that evidence for strong prezygotic sorting is not necessarily evidence that mate choice is a driver of speciation.


In underdeveloped countries, where abortion is still illegal and not easily accessible, the number of unsafe abortions is soaring, as are the associated complications. However, in developed countries, where termination of pregnancy is legal and freely accessible, unsafe methods are uncommonly seen and reported. We report one such case of self induced abortion with instrumentation that presented to an accident and emergency department in the United Kingdom.


An iterative receiver with a list sphere detector (LSD) and a parallel interference canceller (PIC) for MIMO-BICM systems is considered. The convergence behavior of the iterative detection and decoding schemes are analyzed via variance transfer (VTR) functions. For slow fading channels, we propose a detection switching (DSW) approach for the iterative receiver which employs an LSD with a reduced list size for the first few iterations and a PIC for the subsequent iterations, while the switching criterion is based on the cross entropy of the decoding information. By applying the DSW, we show that the near-capacity performance can be approached with a significantly reduced complexity


Coastal ecosystems are undergoing unprecedented rates of environmental change. Many of these changes are anthropogenically-driven and linked to long-term, climate-related phenomena. This thesis focusses on ecological change in soft sediment intertidal habitats. One of the largest harbours in Europe, Poole Harbour, is used as a case study. It contains a variety of important habitats including intertidal mudflat and non-tidal saline lagoon. The two main themes of the thesis are 1) assessing the physical and ecological factors that determine benthic invertebrate abundance, distribution and community structure, which is examined at the scale of the whole harbour, and at the scale of individual habitats: an intertidal mudflat and a saline lagoon; and 2) predicting the response of an overwintering shorebird population, the pied avocet (Recurvirostra avosetta), to future environmental changes, such as sea-level rise and habitat loss. This is achieved by development of an individual-based model (IBM) and consideration of the species' unique foraging behaviour. This study contributes to the understanding of the factors structuring soft sediment benthic communities, including the use of data from fine-scale hydrodynamic models. It offers a unique comparison of the spatial and temporal variables driving community structure of a saline lagoon and an intertidal mudflat. It also provides insight into the foraging ecology of the pied avocet at a level of detail that has not previously been considered, including a comparison of foraging behaviour in a tidal and non-tidal habitat, the importance of social foraging, and the novel application of an IBM to this species.


The slug flow regime is an unsteady nature which cause problems in the transportation of the fluid through a pipeline. Thus, slugging is very undesirable in the pipeline, and it is commonly happened in circular pipe since circular pipe is widely used in transporting two-phase flow of fluid compared to other geometrical shape. Concurrently, the used of other geometrical shape especially rectangular duct is very uncommon in petroleum industrial application make the investigation on slug flow in rectangular duct is necessary. The objective of this study is to investigate water-gas slug flow in rectangular conduit by comparing numerical result with circular pipe having the same cross-sectional area. The transition of fluid flow pattern in the pipe is due to significant change in liquid or gas velocities. Thus, Volume of Fluid (VOF) method in ANSYS FLUENT 16.1 software was used to capture the transient distribution of gas and liquid interface throughout the pipe. The simulation of the model is simulated using the same parameters as recent numerical data in horizontal circular pipe. This is to make sure the result of the simulation can be compared meticulously with circular pipe having the same cross-sectional area. Finally, analyses on substantial region of slug flow regime for water-gas two-phase flow in two different geometrical shape were carried out.


Space vector PWM principle of neutral point clamped (Neutral Point Clamped, referred NPC) three-level inverter is introduced in this paper to propose three-level NPC inverter vector control method of a new switching vector graph. Based on the new switch vector diagram, it requires only a simple arithmetic to determine vector in which the role of the reference voltage range and output voltage space vector corresponding to the duration of action of the switching device solves the traditional method's shortcomings. The simulation is taken based on MATLAB. The results verify the correctness and validity of the method.


The broad field of planning is subdivided into four main aspects - basic principles, basic considerations, planning procedures and the methods or tools of planning. Many of the difficulties of forest planning are due to imprecise or incompatible objectives and to inappropriate criteria of success. It is a basic principle that there should be one main objective with the subordinate objectives expressed as constraints. The most important considerations are that plans should be initiated at the right level of management and that they should be completely flexible. The logical planning procedure is to analyse the current expenditure in order to find where economies are most likely to be effective and then to investigate more closely whether the level and the nature of the investment is in accordance with the management objectives. There is a tendency to use simple drillbook planning guides at the lower levels of management and more sophisticated operational research techniques at the higher management levels.


Military institutions are traditionally focused on the implementation of the classical, narrow form of educational development of professional knowledge and skills of cadets. In modern conditions, a transition is taking place to a broad system of professional development that determines the formation of a wide range of professional potential of future officers, the development of not only narrow professional knowledge and skills, but also potential abilities for active creativity, motivation for systematic collection, processing and use of new informational data. To study the factors of inhibition of the educational process in the modern military institute, the results of the sociological research "Social and Labor Development in the Assessments of Cadets of the Saratov Military Institute" are analyzed. This analysis shows that military vocational training is characterized by informational isolation, rigid administrative organizational educational culture. The latter leads to a discrepancy between the formally stated and necessary, as well as the actually emerging creative potential of cadets (graduates) of Russia's military institutions. The military institute lacks free access to Internet resources, a significant part of the information flow of the external social environment. Administrative technologies of interaction between the teacher and the students prevail, there are no favorable conditions for creative self-realization, complex development of creative projects, self-development of the intellectual potential of cadets, the practice of including cadets in the system of tactical management and self-management, organizing their own leisure time is limited. In this regard, changes are necessary in two directions: 1) providing organizational and informational conditions and opportunities for the creative implementation of students, as well as stimulating creative educational, scientific, and self-governing leisure activities of cadets; 2) the formation of organizational structures that purposefully support and organize innovative, managerial and selfgoverning activities of cadets. It is necessary to form innovative values of the educational process, the creative interaction of students with teachers. It is important to focus the educational and scientific-educational process on the processing and formation of new knowledge, on the activation of the innovative potential of cadets, that is, on the development of abilities to implement innovations that ensure a qualitative increase in the effectiveness of the military-professional activity of actors.


In the present study it was proposed to find out the optimal welding conditions for the fabrication of alloy steel ASTM A335 Gr. P-91 by the help of Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW). The Shielded Metal Arc Welding (SMAW) process is used to make the entire joint and the root layer is completed by Gas Tungsten Arc Welding (GTAW) process. The pre-heat and inter-pass temperatures were maintained at 200oC and 250oC correspondingly in this present work. After welding, the joint was tested for soundness with Radiography testing and after passing the inspection, the Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) was given to the welded joints at 760°C for 3 hrs and 760°C for 6 hrs respectively. The effect of Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) at different holding time was investigated on the Heat Affected Zone (HAZ) of P-91 alloy steel. The Microstructural studies and Radiography and Chapy V-notch impact testing were carried out to investigate the microstructural and mechanical properties of P-91 alloy steel. From the results, it has been observed that as the Post Weld Heat Treatment (PWHT) duration time increases, there is a continual improvement in the impact toughness of the P-91 steel welds.


Diagnosis, treatment planning, and prediction of a final implant-supported prosthetic outcome require precise noninvasive presurgical information. By combining the use of a clinically verified barium-coated template and interactive computed tomography (SIM/Plant, Columbia Scientific, Inc., Columbia, Maryland), the implant team can determine and address the relevant issues affecting treatment outcomes. Those issues include: implant-prosthesis incompatibility, recognition of anatomic limitations and anomalies, the need for presurgical bone augmentation, implant diameter and distribution, abutment type and angle, bone density, soft tissue augmentation requirements, accurate fee determination, and medicolegal protection. The data collection methodology and format for the Mecall and Rosenfeld prosthesis prediction analysis are discussed as part of case presentation.


To make an animal model of portal high blood flow, a retrograde portacaval shunt (PCS) was designed. A regular side-to-side PCS with large stoma was performed first, followed by the ligation of the vena cava just proximal to the anastomosis. Thus the whole amount of blood of the lower half body turned its flow into the portal system. Portal hypervolemic model was made in 11 dogs, The portal hemodynamics was studied by duplex before operation and 10 days, 20 days and 4 months after operation. In the 10th day the 20th day and the 4th month after operation, laparotomy was done again for observing FPP, portal collateral circulation, and liver biopsy. The portal high flow state was maintained constantly and FPP elevated in different degrees. The portal collateral circulation and the pathological change of the liver was not remarkable. The function of the liver was not damaged. The portal high flow state was proved not to cause real clinical portal hypertension, while the elevation of portal resistance was the important initiating factor for formation of portal hypertension.


Insulin resistance participates in the glycaemic control disruption in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), by reducing muscle glucose influx and increasing liver glucose efflux. GLUT4 (Slc2a4 gene) and GLUT2 (Slc2a2 gene) proteins play a fundamental role in the muscle and liver glucose fluxes, respectively. Resveratrol is a polyphenol suggested to have an insulin sensitizer effect; however, this effect, and related mechanisms, have not been clearly demonstrated in T2DM. We hypothesized that resveratrol can improve glycaemic control by restoring GLUT4 and GLUT2 expression in muscle and liver. Mice were rendered obese T2DM in adult life by neonatal injection of monosodium glutamate. Then, T2DM mice were treated with resveratrol for 60 days or not. Glycaemic homeostasis, GLUT4, GLUT2, and SIRT1 (sirtuin 1) proteins (Western blotting); Slc2a4, Slc2a2, and Pck1 (key gluconeogenic enzyme codifier) mRNAs (RT-qPCR); and hepatic glucose efflux were analysed. T2DM mice revealed: high plasma concentration of glucose, fructosamine, and insulin; insulin resistance (insulin tolerance test); decreased Slc2a4/GLUT4 content in gastrocnemius and increased Slc2a2/GLUT2 content in liver; and increased Pck1 mRNA and gluconeogenic activity (pyruvate tolerance test) in liver. All alterations were restored by resveratrol treatment. Additionally, in both muscle and liver, resveratrol increased SIRT1 nuclear content, which must participate in gene expression regulations. In sum, the results indisputably reveals that resveratrol improves glycaemic control in T2DM, and that involves an increase in muscle Slc2a4/GLUT4 and a decrease in liver Slc2a2/GLUT2 expression. This study contributes to our understanding how resveratrol might be prescribed for T2DM according to the principles of evidence-based medicine.


: The vaccine potential of a mutant herpes simplex virus (HSV) type 1, with a deletion in the glycoprotein H (gH) gene, was evaluated. The virus requires a gH-expressing cell line for multi-cycle growth but can complete a single cycle of infection in noncomplementing cells. Such viruses, termed DISC (disabled infectious single cycle) viruses, should be safe, yet still able to stimulate humoral and cell-mediated responses against a broad range of virus antigens in vaccinated hosts. Prophylactic vaccination of guinea pigs with DISC HSV-1, by ear scarification or direct infection of the vaginal mucosa, afforded a high degree of protection against HSV-2-induced primary genital disease and reduced significantly the frequency of subsequent disease recurrence. There was also a trend toward reduced recurrence following therapeutic vaccination of animals already infected with HSV-2. DISC HSV vaccination, therefore, offers an effective route for control of HSV disease.


The recent advances in medical imaging and in computer technologies have improved the prediction capabilities of biomechanical models. In order to replicate physiological, pathological or surgically corrected portions of the cardiovascular system, several engineering methodologies and their combinations can be adopted. Specifically, in this thesis, 3D reconstructions of patient-specific implanted devices and cardiovascular anatomies have been realised using both volumetric and biplanar visualisation methods, such as CT, MR, 4D-MR Flow and fluoroscopy. Finite Element techniques have been used to computationally deploy cardiovascular endoprosthesis, such as stents and percutaneous pulmonary valve devices, under patient-specific boundary conditions. To analyse pressure and velocity fields occurring in patient-specific vessel anatomies under patient-specific conditions, Lumped Parameter Networks and Computational Fluid Dynamics simulations have been employed. The above mentioned engineering tools have been here applied to address three clinical topics: 1 - Percutaneous pulmonary valve implantation (PPVI) Nowadays, more than 5,000 patients with pulmonary valve dysfunctions have been treated successfully with a percutaneous device, consisting in a bovine jugular venous valve sewn inside a balloon expandable stent. However, 25% of the treated patients experienced stent fracture. Using a novel methodological patient-specific approach that combines 3D reconstructions of the implanted stent from patients' biplane fluoroscopy images and FE analyses, I carried out a risk stratification for stent fracture prediction. 2 - Transposition of the Great Arteries (TGA) Patients born with the congenital heart defect TGA need a surgical correction, which however, is associated with long term complications: the enlargement of the aortic root, and the development of a unilateral pulmonary stenosis. These may originate a complex hemodynamics that I tried to investigate by using patient-specific LPN and CFD models. 3 - Aortic Coarctation (CoA) Finally, combinations of FE and CFD-LPN models have been used to plan treatment in a patient with CoA and aberrant right subclavian.


BACKGROUND
Swallowing disorders are frequently reported esophageal symptoms and represent a common cause for referrals to gastroenterology consultations. Esophageal high-resolution manometry (HRM) is considered the gold standard modality for the evaluation of esophageal peristalsis and esophageal sphincter. The standard protocol of HRM includes water swallows only, that may not assess appropriately esophageal function and symptoms. Hence, we investigated the diagnostic yield of combining solid food swallows (SFS) to standard HRM.

METHODS
We conducted a retrospective study at the Gastroenterology unit of EMMS Nazareth Hospital, Israel. Patients who underwent manometry mainly due to dysphagia or reflux symptoms between November 2019 and November 2020 were enrolled. All patients underwent routine HRM and completed ten 5 ml water swallows and 5 bread swallows. Analysis and reports were done by an expert gastroenterologist, based on the Chicago Classification version 3.

RESULTS
Overall, 99 patients (45.5% men, mean age 52.1±16 years) who underwent HRM were included. The addition of solid swallows to the test changed manometry results in 43 patients (43.4%) (P<0.005). Furthermore, SFS improved the contractility in 26/42 cases of ineffective and/or absent motility (61%) (P< 0.005). Finally, SFS aggravated symptoms in 44 patients (44.6% more aggravation than in liquid only) (P<0.005).

CONCLUSIONS
Combining SFS to HRM can improve the diagnostic yield of the study. Adding solid swallows is of special value in cases of ineffective esophageal motility but induces a high rate of symptoms aggravation.


Purpose This study investigated the effects of peripheral neuropathy symptoms, self-care ability, and disturbances to daily life on quality of life (QoL) among gynecological cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy. Methods The participants included 144 patients with gynecological cancer undergoing anticancer chemotherapy at a tertiary hospital in Seoul, South Korea, from December 1, 2021 to January 28, 2022. Convenience sampling was used to recruit patients who had received 4 or more cycles of chemotherapy using a paclitaxel-platinum regimen, and a self-reported questionnaire was used to collect data. Descriptive statistics, the t-test, analysis of variance, Scheffé test, Pearson correlation coefficients, and multiple regression analysis were performed. Results Most of the participants had ovarian cancer (70.1%) or endometrial cancer (14.6%), and the most common number of treatment cycles was 6 to 10 (29.2%). The mean QoL (60.83±19.89) was greater than the midpoint. The regression model analyzing the patients' QoL was statistically significant (F=15.38, p<.001) with an explanatory power of 56.7%. Self-care ability (β=.39, p<.001), disturbances to daily life (β=–.38, p<.001), the duration of peripheral neuropathy symptoms (β=2.14, p=.036), and regular exercise (β=–2.12, p=.04) were found to significantly affect QoL. Conclusion Efforts to improve the self-care ability of gynecological cancer patients who have experienced peripheral neuropathy after receiving chemotherapy and mitigate disturbances to their daily life can improve their QoL. Healthcare professionals should identify peripheral neuropathy symptoms and examine the effects of the symptoms on patients' daily lives. Improving the self-care ability of patients and alleviating their limitations in daily life may improve QoL.


Introduction

Proliferative verrucous leukoplakia is an uncommon but distinctive, precursor lesion of squamous cell carcinoma. Characteristic histological features are lacking and the diagnosis is based on the combination of clinical and histological findings showing progression of the lesion. The aetiology is unknown but the rates of malignancy and recurrence are high. It is a leukoplakic plaque located in a single site, which becomes multifocal, exophytic, verrucous and with erythematous areas over the clinical course of the lesion. The most commonly affected areas are the mucosas of the alveolar ridge and palate. Cases with locations in the tongue, lips and floor of the mouth have also been reported.

Case report

We here describe the clinical case of a 77-year-old woman who presented with a history of 5-year duration of a painless and extensive mass involving the palate, the alveolar ridge of the first quadrant and the base of the maxillary labial vestibule, of a whitish-yellowish colour, with erythematous areas and verrucous exophytic aspect. The lesion was diagnosed as compatible with verrucous leukoplakia with severe dysplasia and foci of squamous cell carcinoma on histological examination.

Discussion

Based on a clear correlation between clinical features and histological findings, the lesion was diagnosed as a proliferative verrucous leukoplakia. There is no consensus on the diagnostic criteria, as these lesions vary clinically and histologically during the clinical course, ranging from hyperkeratosis without epithelial dysplasia to squamous cell carcinoma. For this reason, many proliferative verrucous leukoplakia are not diagnosed correctly and most of them may evolve into malignancy.


This wide-ranging collection of works about gender in American history from colonial times onwards raises interesting issues about the future direction of gender history. These include the extent to which gender history and women's history overlap, the necessity or desirability of narrative synthesis, and the problem of finding source materials for those traditionally excluded from historical interpretations. Although the scholarship displayed here is impressive, only a few authors have the confidence to tackle these issues head on, and it is a shame that so many works adopt the same, rather safe, formulaic format both within and between individual chapters. The majority of these books use a chronological The Historical Journal, 52, 1 (2009), pp. 253–264 f 2009 Cambridge University Press doi:10.1017/S0018246X08007395 Printed in the United Kingdom


Cyclosporin A (CsA) is the most common immunosuppressive agent used for recipients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation (SCT). CsA require therapeutic drug monitoring (TDM) for both its effectiveness and toxicity, but the schedule of administration and optimal blood levels vary among institutions. To establish better assessment of CsA effect on individual immune responsiveness, we analyzed the proportion of IFN-γ+ or IL-2+ cells among CD4+ lymphocytes using 3-color flow cytometric analysis before and after CsA administration. CsA is administered as 3-hour infusion or oral medication twice daily in equally divided doses. 83 peripheral blood samples from 8 allogeneic BMT recipients are analyzed. Cells were cultured in the presence of phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate, ionomycin, and brefeldin A at 37°C for 4hrs and then stained for surface markers and intracytoplasmic IFN-γ and IL-2. Blood CsA levels were simultaneously measured. We found that the proportion of IFN-γ+CD4+ or IL-2+CD4+ lymphocytes were inversely proportional to blood CsA levels (Figure 1). To achieve profound inhibition of IL-2 production, high concentration of CsA is required (e.g. 600–800 ng/ml for less that 5 % IL-2+CD4+ cells). In vitro experiments were also conducted using lymphocytes from healthy donors with or without activation with CD3 and CD28 to show how the sensitivity to CsA is different in between activated and resting T cells. We found that higher CsA concentration is required for inhibiting IL-2 production from CD4+ lymphocytes activated with CD3 and CD28 than from resting CD4+ lymphocytes (Figure 2). In this regard, our 3 hour intravenous CsA infusion can be superior to continuous intravenous infusion in inhibiting activated T cells. Further analyses are required, but the simultaneous assessment of cytokine production among CD4+ T cells and blood CsA levels may be a useful index to estimate the degree of immunosuppression afforded by CsA and may enable us individualized therapeutic drug monitoring of this agent. Since more and more patients are undergoing cord blood transplantation (CBT) or reduced-intensity stem cell transplantation (RIST), this assessment may also be useful for the establishment of immunosuppressive therapy for those patients.


With the rapid development of communication technology, embedded technology, sensor technology, and the constantly emerging of micro-sensor nodes performing perception, computation, communications. Design of sink node is reliable in monitoring environmental elements. A communicated architecture of Wireless Sensor Network is presented in this paper, and hardware design of sink node for transmission data is also discussed.


The analysis of influence of preparations phytoecdysteroides in complex treatment sick of a psoriasis on their psychological characteristics is presented. Thus there is a considerable improvement of a psycho-emotional condition of patients that proves to be true normalization of indicators of a psychodiagnostic complex «Status PSY».


We have isolated a gene that encodes a half‐ABC‐transporter, designated Pfr1, from the dimorphic human pathogenic fungus Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, which has high identity with members of the ABC‐superfamily involved in multidrug resistance. The pfr1 gene is predicted to encode a 827 amino acid protein that, in common with mammalian Mdr1, has a TM‐NBD topology. The transcription of the pfr1 gene is induced by the triazole drug fluconazole but not by amphotericin B, suggesting a role in transport‐mediated azole resistance. However, Pfr1 has greatest identity to the mitochondrial ABC transporters Mdl1 and Mdl2 from Saccharomyces cerevisiae and mammalian ABC‐me, with identities of 47.2%, 40.6% and 39.5%, respectively, over the length of these proteins. Furthermore, the N‐terminus of Pfr1 is rich in positively charged residues, a feature of mitochondrial targeting sequences. Considering these features, it seems likely that Pfr1 is a mitochondrial protein. Previous studies have revealed that the acquisition of azole resistance in S. cerevisiae is linked to mitochondrial loss and, conversely, that mitochondrial dysfunction can lead to the upregulation of PDR transporters mediated by the transcription factor Pdr3. Our studies suggest that a mitochondrial ABC transporter is induced as part of the cellular response to drug treatment. The promoter region of pfr1 contains a PDRE‐like consensus sequence to which Pdr3 binds, which may be the element responsible for the upregulation of Pfr1 in response to fluconazole. The nucleotide binding domain of Pfr1 was expressed and purified from Escherichia coli and shown to retain ATPase activity, consistent with Pfr1 functioning as a homodimeric transport ATPase. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


There are many algorithms for solving complex problems in supervised manner. However, unsupervised tasks are more common in real scenarios. Inspired by the idea of granular computing and the characteristics of human cognitive process, this paper proposes a complex tasks decomposition mechanism based on Density Peaks Clustering (DPC) to address complex tasks with an unsupervised process, which simulates the multi-granular observation and analysis of human being. Firstly, the DPC algorithm is modified to nullify its essential defects such as the difficulty of locating correct clustering centers and classifying them accurately. Then, the improved DPC algorithm is used to construct the initial decomposition solving space with multi-granularity theory. We also define subtask centers set and the granulation rules to guide the multi-granularity decomposing procedure. These rules are further used to decompose the solving space from coarse granules to the optimal fine granules with a convergent and automated process. Furthermore, comprehensive experiments are presented to verify the applicability and veracity of our proposed method in community-detection tasks with several benchmark complex social networks. The results show that our method outperforms other four state-of-the-art approaches.


Background Standard drug development conducts phase I dose finding and phase II dose expansion sequentially and separately. Information between the two phases is rarely shared. Administratively, such a sequential process is time-consuming and burdensome. Purpose We propose seamless dose escalation/expansion with adaptive randomization scheme (SEARS), a seamless design that combines phase I dose escalation based on toxicity with phase II dose expansion and dose comparison based on efficacy. SEARS allows extension from phase I to phase II under one design with no gap in between and employs a dynamic and parallel procedure involving simultaneous dose escalation, dose graduation, and adaptive randomization. Methods SEARS integrates three components into a seamless scheme. Specifically, in phase I, SEARS applies the modified toxicity probability interval (mTPI) method to monitor dose escalation based on toxicity outcome. Doses that show promising efficacy and safety are immediately graduated from phase I and placed to a phase II stage in which patients are adaptively randomized based on efficacy outcome. Phase I dose escalation, dose graduation, and phase II adaptive randomization proceed simultaneously throughout the entire trial. Results Examples are given comparing SEARS with two other designs, in which superior performance of SEARS is demonstrated. An important and promising finding is that SEARS reduces sample sizes without losing power. R program and demo slides of SEARS can be obtained at http://health.bsd.uchicago.edu/yji/soft.html Limitation We assume that the binary efficacy and toxicity response can be measured in the same time frame. This is often achievable with surrogate efficacy markers in practice.


Objectives: Gas6, the protein product of the growth arrest-specific gene 6 (gas6), a member of the vitamin K-dependent protein family, was identified as a ligand for the Axl/Sky family of receptor tyrosine kinases. The aim is to study for the presence of Gas6 and its receptor Axl and Sky related to specific growth in the ovarian cancers, and to evaluate their plausible growth potential and mechanism. Methods: In ovarian cancers of 90 cases, the histoscores and mRNA levels of Gas6, Axl and Sky were determined by immunohistochemistry and competitive reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction-Southern blot analysis using the recombinant RNA, respectively. Results: The histoscores and mRNA levels of Gas6 and Axl in ovarian cancers were significantly higher than in normal ovaries, regardless of histopathological type or clinical stage of ovarian cancers. Conclusions: Gas6/Axl pathway could play a role in the complex events taking place during the early changes of ovarian cancer progression.


A technique for highly reliable digital design in FPGAs is presented. Two FPGAs are used for duplex system design, but better dependability parameters are obtained by combination of totally self checking blocks based on parity predictor. Each FPGA can be reconfigured when a SEU fault is detected. Combinational circuit benchmarks have been considered in all our experiments and computations. All our experimental results are obtained by XILINX FPGA implementation by EDA tools. The dependability model and dependability calculations are presented


Gas-liquid transition is generally a complex process, which involves nucleation of droplets and their growth by evaporation-condensation or collision-coalescence processes. Here, we focus on a microscopic system in which there is only one liquid droplet at most. In this case, we can develop an equilibrium theory for the formation of the droplet in the gas phase using the classical nucleation theory. We use the van der Waals fluid model with surface tension and calculate the size fluctuation of the droplet for various confinement conditions, NVT (in which the volume V of the system is fixed), NPT (in which the pressure P of the system is fixed), and NBT (in which the system is confined in a nano-bubble immersed in a host liquid, where both V and P can fluctuate). We show that in the NBT system, the size flexibility along with space confinement induces a wealth of properties that are not found in NVT and NPT. It exhibits richer phase behaviors: a stable droplet appears and coexists with the pure gas phase and/or pure liquid phase. When compared to the NVT system, the NBT system shows not only the oscillatory fluctuation between the two stable states but also a large fluctuation in the total volume and the pressure.


Field impressed AMS fabric, although it has been recognized for a very long time, has been the subject of very few publications in the paleomagnetic literature. This effect has been mainly described in samples with magnetite as a main magnetic carrier. This fabric is usually of low magnitude and observed mainly in nearly isotropic rock after application of static AF demagnetization or after acquisition of an isothermal remanent magnetization (IRM). Forty four paleomagnetic sites have been sampled in a >2 km thick sequence of Cretaceous volcano-clastic rocks from the western Central Pamir mountain (Tadjikistan). These rocks present a medium grade level of metamorphism characterized by fine grained recrystallisation of biotite. The magnetic properties are very homogeneous across the sequence. Bulk magnetic susceptibilities vary between 150-250 μ SI. The AMS magnetic fabrics correspond to triaxial tensors with a well defined foliation plane and a steeply dipping magnetic lineation. The degree of anisotropy varies between 1.03 and 1.2. This fabric was likely acquired during the deformation associated with the emplacement of Middle Miocene gneiss domes. SEM/EDS data indicate that the main iron oxide mineral is hematite with up to 15% of ilmenite in solid solutions. This is in agreement with unblocking temperatures of SIRM around 630 °C, lower than the one of pure hematite. One of the most surprising magnetic characteristics of these rocks is the effect of strong-field remanent magnetizations upon the AMS. During the acquisition of an Isothermal Remanent Magnetization (IRM), the initial AMS is progressively obliterated by a new AMS fabric. The field-impressed AMS is characterized by a decrease of the magnetic susceptibility along the direction of the IRM and an increase in magnetic susceptibility in the orthogonal plane. The field-impressed AMS is thus mainly oblate with a degree of anisotropy usually between 1.2 and 1.4. As far as we know, such a strong effect has never been reported. In sandstone with detrital hematite as the main carrier, the degree of the induced AMS fabric is less than 1.02 suggesting that the ilmenite content in the metamorphic hematite is the main cause of the large observed field induced fabric in these rocks.


The paper considers some innovative approaches for the study of the basic sections of the course and during the development of iron carbon alloys particularly. Methods of intensification of using interactive methods of training and knowledge control are suggested.


We show here that soluble CD137 (sCD137), the alternately spliced gene product of Tnfsfr9, effectively treats acute type 1 diabetes (T1D) in nonobese diabetic (NOD) mice. sCD137 significantly delayed development of end-stage disease, preserved insulin+ islet beta cells, and prevented progression to end-stage T1D in some mice. We demonstrate that sCD137 induces CD4+ T cell anergy, suppressing antigen-specific T cell proliferation and IL-2/IFN-γ secretion. Exogenous IL-2 reversed the sCD137 anergy effect. sCD137 greatly reduces inflammatory cytokine production by CD8 effector memory T cells, critical mediators of beta cell damage. We demonstrate that human T1D patients have decreased serum sCD137 compared to age-matched controls (as do NOD mice compared to NOD congenic mice expressing a protective Tnfsfr9 allele), that human sCD137 is secreted by regulatory T cells (Tregs; as in mice), and that human sCD137 induces T cell suppression in human T cells. These findings provide a rationale for further investigation of sCD137 as a treatment for T1D and other T cell–mediated autoimmune diseases.


By increasing load demands and extending power networks to response customers need the complexity and integration of power systems have been boosted which increases the short circuit current level of the system that may be a threaten for network's reliability. Over these years, some approaches have been proposed to deal with this issue, reconfiguration of networks, increasing circuit breakers (CBs) capacity, and implementation of fault current limiter (FCL) is as proper examples. Reconfiguration and increasing CBs rating have applied exorbitant costs to the system and in some cases, it may be infeasible. Hence, FCLs can play a pivotal role in the mitigation of fault current level, but the effectiveness of FCLs is depended to the numbers and impedance of FCLs. In this paper, a novel and multi-objective approach are presented to optimize three objective functions including decreasing short circuit level, increasing the systems reliability level, and minimizing costs of FCL installations. Adaptive penalty factor and Pareto based Multi objective Evolutionary Algorithm Based on Decomposition (MOEA/D) is used to optimize the aforementioned objectives. Numerical and graphical results of optimization studies in MATLAB software on IEEE RTS 24-Bus system are confirmed the proposed approach efficiency.


Discharge analysis technique for dielectric liquid was presented by using the Finite Element Analysis (FEA) under a lightning impulse incorporating two-phase flow phenomena which described gas and liquid phases in discharge space. Until now, the response of step voltage has been extensively explored, but that of lightning impulse voltage was rarely viewed in the literature. We, therefore, developed an analyzing technique for dielectric liquid in a tip-sphere electrode stressed by a high electric field. To capture the bubble phase, the Heaviside function was introduced mathematically and the material functions for the ionization, dissociation, recombination, and attachment were defined in liquid and bubble, respectively. By using this numerical setup, the molecular dissociation and ionization mechanisms were tested under low and high electric fields resulted from the lightning impulse voltage of 1.2/50 μs. To verify our numerical results, the velocity of electric field wave was measured and compared to the previous experimental results which can be viewed in many papers. Those results had good agreement with each other.


Five species of Holocene planktonic Foraminiferida (Globigerinella siphonifera, Globigerinoides sacculifer, Globorotalia menardii, Globorotalia tumida, and Neogloboquadrina dutertrei) from cores in the Indian Ocean were selected for study of intraspecific latitudinal variations in test porosity and pore density. Each species exhibits a change in test porosity with latitude, with greater test porosities characteristic of the location nearer the equator. Pore density results are inconclusive. It was assumed originally that test porosity might be dependent on pore density, but indications are that porosity is controlled by pore diameter and is essentially independent of pore density. We suggest that test porosity may be a buoyancy adaptation of planktonic Foraminiferida, wit greater test porosities characteristic of less dense surface water. The density of the surface water in turn is related directly to surface water temperature; test porosity, therefore, might prove to be a useful tool in paleotemperature determinations, a tool which would not require knowledge of the distribution of extant species. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1392------------


Fungal endocarditis is an uncommon but important problem after cardiac surgery. Two cases of fungal endocarditis after homograft valve replacement are reported. In both patients prolonged periods of antifungal chemotherapy with apparently satisfactory clinical responses ultimately failed to eradicate the infection. Both patients remain free of infection two years after excision of the infected valves and further chemotherapy. The value of serial estimations of fungal antibody titres in diagnosis and treatment is demonstrated and the necessity for early operation is emphasised.


Christianity is a monotheistic religion along with Judaism and Islam, yet it alone professes that there is one God and three divine persons. The Trinity is integral to the distinctive Christian belief in God. The basic question is whether Christianity, in affirming the Trinity, is still a legitimate member of the trinity of monotheistic religions. Moreover, the affirmation of the Trinity raises epistemological, metaphysical, and theological issues that are central to the interpretation of Schleiermacher's views on the Trinity. Schleiermacher has been severely criticized for his doctrine of the Trinity, perhaps more than for any other element of his theology. A recent review simply claims: "for Schleiermacher, the Trinity did not fit into the modern conscious concept of experience as the immediate self-consciousness of the believer." Such a judgment reflects a common opinion. The interpretative issues, moreover, are aggravated by the conflicting shifts in Trinitarian theology within the twentieth century. The Neo-Orthodox critique of Schleiermacher emphasized the oneness of God while it argued for the Trinity on the basis of God's self-revelation. Karl Barth, for example, claimed that "the church with its doctrine of the Trinity was defending the recognition of God's unity, and therefore monotheism against the anti- Trinitarians." Today, however, Barth's emphasis on monotheism is criticized. In contrast, Jurgen Moltmann contends that the doctrine of the Trinity served as a critique of a political monotheism, for the belief in a plurality of divine persons undermined the imperial political theology of the monarchy of the one emperor.


Hydrogen peroxide in low concentrations have effect on DNA structural characteristics both in solution at 38 degrees C and in vivo, in mice organs.


Fluorescence confocal laser-scanning microscopy (LSM) is one of the most popular tools for life science research. This popularity is expected to grow thanks to single-photon array detectors tailored for LSM. These detectors offer unique single-photon spatiotemporal information, opening new perspectives for gentle and quantitative super-resolution imaging. However, a flawless recording of this information poses significant challenges for the microscope data-acquisition system. Here, we present a data-acquisition module based on the digital frequency domain principle, able to record photons' essential spatial and temporal features. We use this module to extend the capabilities of established imaging techniques based on single-photon avalanche diode (SPAD) array detectors, such as fluorescence lifetime image scanning microscopy. Furthermore, we use the module to introduce a robust multi-species approach encoding the fluorophore's excitation spectra in the time domain. Lastly, we combine time-resolved stimulated emission depletion microscopy with image scanning microscopy, boosting spatial resolution. Our results demonstrate how a conventional fluorescence laser scanning microscope can transform into a simple, information-rich, super-resolved imaging system with the simple addition of a SPAD array detector with a tailored data acquisition system. We expected a blooming of advanced single-photon imaging techniques which effectively harness all the sample information encoded in each photon.


In this paper we consider an important problem for the airline industry. The widely studied crew pairing problem is typically formulated as a set partitioning problem and solved using the branchand-price methodology. Here we develop a new integer programming framework, based on the concept of subsequence generation, for solving the set partitioning formulation. In subsequence generation one restricts the number of permitted subsequent flights, that a crew member can turn to after completing any particular flight. By restricting the number of subsequences, the number of pairings in the problem decreases. The aim is then to dynamically add attractive subsequences to the problem, thereby increasing the number of possible pairings and improving the solution quality. Encouraging results are obtained on 19 real-life instances supplied by Air New Zealand and show that the described methodology is a viable alternative to column generation.


Extratemporal lobe epilepsies (ETLE) are characterized by the epileptogenic foci outside the temporal lobe. They have a wide spectrum of semiological presentation depending upon the site of origin. They can arise from frontal, parietal, occipital lobes and from hypothalamic hamartoma. We discuss in this review the semiology of different types of ETLE encountered in the epilepsy monitoring unit.


This paper discusses the possibility of incorporating differential reflectivity (ZDR) measurement in Doppler radars having fast scan capability, without compromising the accuracy of the spectral moment estimates. The presently established technique of ZDR measurement using alternate sampling of horizontally and vertically polarized signals (H and V) has long acquisition time and reduced maximum unambiguous velocity. It is shown that ZDR acquisition time can be reduced significantly by simultaneously sampling H and V signals and range averaging, which does not compromise spectral moments estimation capability and volume update time. An analysis of variance of ZDR suggests that accurate estimation of ZDR at scan rates of 18° s−1 is possible only if correlation between simultaneously received horizontally and vertically polarized echoes is better than 0.995. A theoretical investigation of all the factors that contribute to the decorrelation established that this indeed is the case for rain media. A scheme for ZDR measurement is suggested which uses +45° and −45° polarized transmissions alternately and simultaneous reception of H and V signals to compensate for bias error due to propagation. Further, a method for nearly eliminating the bias error due to receiver mismatch is suggested.


Increasing evidence underlines the substantial pathophysiological impact of platelets on the development of ischemia/reperfusion injury (I/R) in flaps. Methods for studying dynamic platelet mechanisms in flaps in vivo are not available. The aim of this study was to develop a model enabling quantitative analysis of platelet kinetics and platelet-endothelium cell interaction within the microcirculation of muscle flaps in vivo. Balb/c mice (n = 16) were anesthetized, and an epigastric muscle flap was prepared. Autologous platelets were separated from blood donor animals (n = 16) and labeled ex vivo by means of rhodamine-6-G. After I/R (90 minutes' clamping, 10 minutes' reperfusion), the platelets were administered intra-arterially (i.a.). Microhemodynamics and kinetics of platelets were investigated by intravital fluorescence microscopy. I/R of muscle flaps induced disturbances in microcirculation. The number of rolling platelets, as well as platelets adhering to the inner vessel wall of venules, was increased in the ischemia group. Using intravital fluorescence microscopy, platelet kinetics were analyzed directly in flap microcirculation in vivo for the first time. Since platelet/endothelial cell interaction is a key event in the pathophysiology after microsurgical procedures, this model will help to understand basic molecular mechanisms of platelet behavior during I/R.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the effects of Thai traditional massage (TTM) on pressure pain threshold (PPT) and headache intensity in patients with chronic tension-type and migraine headaches.

DESIGN
Randomized controlled trial of TTM compared with the sham ultrasound (nine sessions each) during a 3-week period.

PARTICIPANTS
Seventy-two participants who had had a headache diagnosis for at least 3 months before the experiment was recruited.

RESULTS
After the treatment and at 3 and 9 weeks of follow-up, the TTM group showed a significant increase in PPT (p<0.01) compared with the sham ultrasound group. PPT values at baseline, after 3 weeks of treatment, and at 3- and 9-week follow-up for the TTM group were 2.71 ± 1.22, 3.57 ± 1.41, 3.72 ± 1.46, and 3.42 ± 1.46 pounds/cm(2), respectively; values in the sham ultrasound group were 2.85 ± 1.20, 2.62 ± 1.07, 2.58 ± 1.05 and 2.63 ± 0.94 pounds/cm(2). In both groups, headache intensity decreased significantly (p<0.05) at every end point of the outcome measures, and there were no differences between the groups (p>0.05).

CONCLUSIONS
TTM could increase PPT and reduce headache intensity, suggesting that this is a possible alternative treatment for chronic headaches.


This article examines the claim that there is a crisis in ethnological representation. It argues that no such crisis exists because the truth of the most fundamental ethnological representation-Sameness-is questioned by no one. It suggests that this claim must be understood as an attempt to uphold Sameness in the face of representations of difference that contradict it. The article further argues that it is impossible to demonstrate Sameness and that every attempt to do so results in the production of difference and Otherness, It concludes by suggesting why anthropologists must nonetheless persist in this self-defeating endeavor.


With 6 figures and 2 tables

Abstract
The mid-oleic-acid soybean mutant M23 has been frequently used to develop lines with elevated oleic acid content. M23, which was produced by X-ray irradiation, was previously shown to contain a large deletion including GmFAD2-1a, one of the genes encoding microsomal omega-6 fatty acid desaturase (GmFAD2). However, it was not possible then to develop a codominant marker for the selection of the M23 mutation because the extent of the deletion was unknown. Here, we report that PCR analysis of M23 using published soybean genome sequences as a reference revealed a 164 014-bp deletion including GmFAD2-1a and nineteen other predicted genes. We generated a codominant PCR-based marker that can distinguish wild-type/M23 heterozygotes from both homozygous classes. We genotyped F2 plants segregating for the M23 mutation and confirmed the association of genotype and phenotype. This information will be useful in developing new commercial cultivars of high-oleic-acid soybean. We discuss the possible functions of the genes in the deleted region of M23 in relation to reduced seed yield, which occurs frequently in soybean lines containing the M23 mutation.


Orthodontists face difficulty when it comes to treating Class III malocclusion. It is best to treat it at the growing stage with dentofacial orthopedics. Maxillary protraction using the Alternate Rapid Maxillary Expansion and Contraction (Alt-RAME) technique is an effective approach for treating skeletal Class III malocclusion at an early age. A 9-year-old female patient came to the Department of Orthodontics with a complaint of backwardly placed upper teeth and un-aesthetic dental as well as facial appearance. Intraoral examination revealed an anterior cross-bite of 1 mm. Molar relation was class III on the right side and super Class I on the left side. Slight crowding in lower arch and spacing in maxillary arch due to unerupted teeth was seen. The patient was diagnosed with Class III skeletal pattern associated with maxillary retrusion, average growth pattern, Class III molar relation on right side, super Class I molar relation on left side and a protrusive lower lip. The early treatment of such cases is essential, so that maxillary retrusion can be corrected with the help of orthopedic intervention. It was decided that the correction of skeletal Class III malocclusion will be done using Alt-RAMEC protocol along with facemask. Use of Alt-RAMEC protocol for correction of Class III malocclusion due to maxillary retrusion can help in early correction of Class III skeletal pattern and helps improving overall profile of the patient. This case report shows the result of using a hyrax bonded maxillary expander with Alt-RAMEC protocol along with a facemask to treat a Class III malocclusion associated with maxillary hypoplasia. A 9-year-old patient with skeletal class III malocclusion and anterior crossbite was treated using this protocol.


UNLABELLED
Aspirin induced asthma (AIA) is a syndrome characterised by intolerance to acetylsalycilic acid (ASA), nasal polyps and bronchial asthma, being the metabolic shift of arachidonic acid toward the lipoxygenase pathway and hyper-production of cysteinyl-leukotrienes (cys-LTs) the current pathogenetic hypothesis. The research for both sensitive indicators and safe diagnostic tests is still attracting. Aim of the study was to compare the levels of urinary LTE4 in baseline and after Nasal Provocation Test (NPT) with L-ASA from subjects affected by aspirinin-Intolerance and characterized by only a nasal response to ASA to those from subjects with both a nasal and a bronchial response to the same challenge.

METHODS
After their written consent, 74 subjects with mill to moderate AIA (16 male, mean age 45.3 years +/- 12.3 sd, mean basal FEV1 = 78.1% pred. +/- 6.2.4sd, FEV1 reversibility = 14.3% bsln +/- 2.1 ds after salbutamol 200 mcg) performed a NPT with L-ASA (total maximal dose 25 mg). Spirometry (FEV1), acoustic rinometry (nasal volume--VOL; nasal Resistance--Req; AR; TM Hood Lab., USA), and urinary LTE4 (Cayman Chemical, MI, USA, via Triturus System, Grifols, Spain) were checked in all subjects in basal conditions and 90' after NPT.

STATISTICS
t test between means +/- sd, assuming p < 0.05, and linear regression between all variables considered.

RESULTS
In 69 ASA-intolerant-asthmatics, mean FEV1 did not change significantly following NPT (78.7% pred. +/- 5.1 sd in baseline; 78.5% pred. +/- 4.1 sd after NPT, p = ns) even though in the presence of a significant decrease of VOL. (12.6 cm3 +/- 4.1 sd in baseline; 6.2 cm3 +/- 4.6 sd after NPT, p = 0.003); of a substantial increase in Req (0.9 cm H2O/l/min +/- 0.1 ds in baseline; 2.4 cmH2O/l/min +/- 0.2 after NPT, p = 0.04), and of urinary LTE4 excretion (333.0 pg/mg +/- 161.7 in bsln; 558.0 pg/mg +/- 171.690' after NPT with L-SA, p = 0.02). In only 5 subjects, the nasal response occurred concomitantly to a significant bronco-constriction after the NPT: mean FEV, changed from 77.9% pred. +/- 3.9 in bsln to 46.6% pred. +/- 4.3 after NPT (p < 0.001); mean VOL from 13.9 cm3 +/- 4.7 sd to 5.6 cm3 +/- 2.8 sd (p < 0.001); mean Req from 1.1 cmH2O/l/min +/- 0.2 in bsln to 2.5 cmH2O/l/min +/- 0.4 after NPT (p = 0.02) in these subjects. In ASA-intolerant bronchial responders, the severity of respiratory reactions proved related to the extent of urinary LTE4 response, which on the other hand, proved significantly higher than that observed in ASA-intolerant subjects with only nasal response and in ASA-tolerant subjects (LTE4 from 333.0 pg/mg +/- 161.7 in baseline up to 558.0 pg/mg +/- 171.6 90 min. following the NPT with L-ASA the nasal-responders, p = 0.04, but from 412.0 pg/mg +/- 102.8 in baseline up to 978.0 pg/mg +/- 108.7 after NPT in bronchial responders, p < 0.001 from baseline).

CONCLUSIONS
Nasal challenge with ASA affects significantly both nasal VOL and Req, and LTE4 excretion in all ASA-intolerant subjects. During the nasal challenge, severity of respiratory reactions proves associated with the highest basal LTE4 synthesis. This feature reflects a spectrum of respiratory tract reactions where cysteinil-LTs can play a specific diagnostic role.


A primary responsibility of any mental health professional working within the field of corrections is to coordinate an effective suicide prevention program. The present article discusses various aspects of successfully accomplishing this objective. It reviews some of the major warning signs that should be examined by mental health providers evaluating inmates referred as suspected of significant suicidal risk. A method of organizing the suicide assessment and categorizing referrals as inappropriate, malingering, or at true risk is discussed, along with methods of distinguishing among the three types. Some of the primary differences in inmate suicide attempts, as opposed to suicidal gestures, are reviewed as well as other special considerations mental health professionals should consider in formulating recommendations following suicide risk assessments. Finally, various outcome recommendations that can be used as a result of the assessments are presented.


Continuous composition spread (CCS) methods allow fast and economic exploration of composition dependent properties of multielement compounds. Here, a CCS method was applied for room temperature pulsed laser deposition (PLD) of amorphous zinc-tin-oxide to gain detailed insight into the influence of the zinc-to-tin cation ratio on optical and electrical properties of this ternary compound. Our CCS approach for a large-area offset PLD process utilizes a segmented target and thus makes target exchange or movable masks in the PLD chamber obsolete. Cation concentrations of 0.08-0.82 Zn/(Zn + Sn) were achieved across single 50 × 50 mm(2) glass substrates. The electrical conductivity increases for increasing tin content, and the absorption edge shifts to lower energies. The free carrier concentration can be tuned from 10(20) to 10(16) cm(-3) by variation of the cation ratio from 0.1 to 0.5 Zn/(Zn + Sn).


The sequence of the pig has now been published. Associated with genomic tools such as high density genotyping, (re)sequencing, comparative genetic, it offers new opportunity to understand the genetic basis of complex traits. The challenge is now to get adequate phenotypes. For minipigs, focus is made on traits relevant for medicine, in order to use minipigs as a biomedical model. Because of the number of research fields, specific lines had to be developed and within the last decades, several minipig lines were made available. For example, to specifically study development and regression of cutaneous melanoma, the MeLiM line was built up to largely express this particular trait. It was then possible to study the genetic determinism of this trait and acquire knowledge relevant for human disease, and in a lesser extent also relevant for pig production. Currently, one of our aims is to develop a minipig line adequate for studies on human nutrition related diseases, such as obesity or atherosclerosis. This approach first requires the characterization of minipigs to understand the genetic determinism of their behavior but also some physiological parameters related to human nutrition.


This study investigated the effect of specimen shape (cylindrical and cubical) on the compressive strength and elastic modulus of steel fiber reinforced concrete after exposure to the temperatures of 150, 300, 450, and 600 °C. Results show that the compressive strength and elastic modulus of the composite significantly reduce with the increase in temperature, independent of the specimen shape. Additionally, a significant difference in the compressive strength and elastic modulus conversion factors for cube-cylinder was verified with the increase in temperature. This study contributes to the limited amount of studies regarding the effect of elevated temperatures on steel fiber reinforced concretes and shows that the elevated temperatures may have a significant effect in the conversion factors for cube-cylinder.


The genus Corallococcus was separated from the genus Myxococcus mainly on the basis of differences in morphology and consistency of swarms and fruiting bodies of the respective members. Phylogenetic, chemotaxonomic and physiological evidence is presented here that underpins the separate status of these phylogenetically neighbouring genera. Emended descriptions of the two genera are presented. The data also suggest that the species Corallococcus macrosporus belongs to the genus Myxococcus. To the best of our knowledge, the type strains of the species Myxococcus macrosporus and Myxococcus stipitatus are not available from any established culture collection or any other source. A Request for an Opinion is made regarding the proposal that strain Cc m8 (=DSM 14697=CIP 109128) be formally recognized as the neotype strain for the species Myxococcus macrosporus, replacing the designated type strain Windsor M271T, and that strain Mx s8 (=DSM 14675=JCM 12634) be formally recognized as the neotype strain for the species Myxococcus stipitatus, replacing the designated type strain Windsor M78T.


BACKGROUND
People with intellectual disabilities (ID) are prescribed antipsychotic medications for different reasons; sometimes this is for a mental illness such as psychotic or affective symptoms, however antipsychotics are also used to improve behaviours that challenge, which are common in people with intellectual disabilities (ID) or autism or both. Antipsychotic medications can have many unwanted side effects and these should be monitored for. Guidelines also indicate that reductions in medication should be considered at psychiatry reviews and alternative interventions should be trialled.

METHODOLOGY
Using national recommendations on antipsychotic prescribing and monitoring and also on reducing antipsychotics in people with intellectual disabilities (ID), audit standards were determined.

RESULTS
The Bedford caseload included 192 service users; of these 2 were new referrals and had yet to be seen so were not included. 70 of the remaining 190 were not on an antipsychotic medication. 120 patients were on an antipsychotic medication. Medical records of 60 of these were audited against the identified standards. The records over the previous year were observed to see either how an antipsychotic was started or an existing antipsychotic was monitored compared to the standards.


Factors related to late hypothyroidism following the use of /sup 131/I for treatment of hyperthyroidism are discussed with regard to age of patient, size of dose, previous surgery, immune status, and others. Possible reasons for the post-therapeutic hypothyroidism are discussed with regard to effects of radiation on the reproductive capacity of thyroid cells, effects of radiation on blood vessels, and dose distribution of radioiodine. The following therapeutic strategies are discussed: reduction of initial dose; multiple small doses; high dose radioiodine followed by replacement therapy; the use of external beam irradiation; and the use of /sup 125/I. (HLW)


The objective of this trial was to study the effects of recombinant bovine somatotropin on milk yield and composition, blood metabolites and hormonal profile in lactating goats. Twenty-four Toggenburg goats were assigned to one of two treatments as follows: T1 (n=12) received injection of 250 mg of r-bST, every 14 days (four injections), and T2 (n=12) received injections of saline solution (control). No significant differences on milk yield and composition (fat, protein, and dry extract) were observed comparing r-bST-treated goats with non-treated animals. However, milk lactose content was higher (P<0.05) on goats that received r-bST (4.47 ± 0.2) than on those treated with saline solution (4.34 ± 0.2 %) while somatic cells count was lower on T1 (681.1 ± 689.9) than on T2 [(1,001.84 ± 610.9 (x103 cells/mL)]. Injection r-bST increased the concentration of non-esterified fatty acid compared to the saline-treated animals (309.67 ± 169.62 vs. 247.34 ± 126.38 mEq/L) but the opposite was observed for urea concentration (86.84 ± 33.81 vs. 121.16 ± 42.57 mg/dL). The r-bST treatment reduced the total cholesterol and HDL levels (82.46 ± 19.25 vs. 89.29 ± 23.66 and 155.95 ± 19.67 x 177.67 ± 32.79 mg/dL for T1 and T2, respectively) in lactating goats. Concentrations of albumin, glucose, total proteins, β-hidroxybutirate and thyroxin as well as body weight and body condition score all remained unchanged comparing both treatments. It can be concluded that r-bST increased milk lactose content, reduced somatic cells count, and changed the profile of blood metabolites of Toggenburg goats.


OBJECTIVES
Since metastasized cancer patients receive many treatments and services, it is important to ascertain whether home hospice (HH) care makes a meaningful contribution to end-of-life quality for terminal patients. This study examines whether people who had died from metastasized cancer-both recipients of HH care and nonrecipients-were cared for according to palliative indicators and whether HH care made a difference.

STUDY DESIGN
Three to 6 months after the deaths of 193 metastatic cancer patients, members of their families were interviewed face-to-face. Information on their loved ones' utilization of healthcare services in the last 2 months of life was retrieved from computerized administrative files.

RESULTS
The patients' average age was 69.5 years (SD=13.9), 56% were men, and 21% received HH care. More patients with HH care than without received opiate medication (92% vs 68%, respectively; P<.01), appropriate treatment for anxiety (57% vs 30%, respectively; P<.01), had advance directives, and received explanations about their rights. Only 5% of HH patients were treated with curative care in the last 2 month of life, compared with 40% of those without HH (P<.01). Of those who received curative care, more of them died at home (56% vs 26%, respectively; P<.01), and more died at the place of their choice (60% vs 30%, respectively; P<.01). No differences were found regarding healthcare service utilization.

CONCLUSIONS
The findings demonstrate the valuable contributions of HH and palliative care. Clinicians should consider referring cancer patients to palliative care services and establishing working relationships with HH and palliative care providers.


Multimedia Interactive Informative Systems (MIIS) are software applications resulting from the convergence of multiples technologies such as audiovisual, computing and communication. They aim to transmit information to a large, diverse and dispersed public. As with other mass media, the fulfillment of MIIS goals depends largely on the quality of communication between the system and end users. Therefore, those systems should be developed in order to ensure that this quality requirement is satisfied. If MIIS are constructed according to usual software engineering practices, the analysis discipline of the development process includes requirements identification and specification; however, these techniques are focused on functional requirements, and they do not give much importance to non-functional requirements. In this paper, we propose a development process based on the production of videogames which has two different phases: preproduction and production. The first phase, corresponding to requirements identification, derives into the concept of system. In order to translate this concept into a specification, we propose the use of new communicational attributes and a MIIS metamodel. The establishment of MIIS non-functional specification is the result of analyzing class diagrams through quality attributes. In order to evaluate if the specifications are responding to communicational attributes, a functional prototype is built and evaluated with end users. The proposed methodology is applied to a real case study.


A mathematical model has been developed to describe the velocity, temperature and solid fraction in an electromagneti-cally stirred Al-5•/•Cu alloy in which 15 •/• B4C particles were initia:Iy suspended. In the model, we allowed for the rheology of the meltsolid slurry and the release of latent heat either at the melt-solid interface, in the bulk or at an intermediate stage between those extremes. The calculations have shown that the evolution of the temperature and solid fraction profiles were not significantly affected, either by the stirring rate or by the choice of the location of release of latent heat.


Vision transformers have recently attained state-of-the-art results in visual recognition tasks. Their success is largely attributed to the self-attention component, which models the global dependencies among the image patches (tokens) and aggregates them into higher-level features. However, self-attention brings significant training difficulties to ViTs. Many recent works thus develop various new self-attention components to alleviate this issue. In this article, instead of developing complicated self-attention mechanism, we aim to explore simple approaches to fully release the potential of the vanilla self-attention. We first study the token selection behavior of self-attention and find that it suffers from a low diversity due to attention over-smoothing, which severely limits its effectiveness in learning discriminative token features. We then develop simple approaches to enhance selectivity and diversity for self-attention in token selection. The resulted token selector module can server as a drop-in module for various ViT backbones and consistently boost their performance. Significantly, they enable ViTs to achieve 84.6% top-1 classification accuracy on ImageNet with only 25M parameters. When scaled up to 81M parameters, the result can be further improved to 86.1%. In addition, we also present comprehensive experiments to demonstrate the token selector can be applied to a variety of transformer-based models to boost their performance for image classification, semantic segmentation and NLP tasks. Code is available at https://github.com/zhoudaquan/dvit_repo.


Signalized intersections are one of the most common sources of inconvenience for cyclists. The aim of this paper is to develop an approach that helps cyclists to meet their cycling preferences (regarding, e.g., the energy they use and their preference to avoid unnecessary stopping) while crossing intersections. Uncertainty in traffic light timing is considered explicitly in the approach, which makes it applicable for intersections with traffic-responsive signals. The suggested approach provides cyclists with optimal and personalized speed advice. The advice is communicated to the cyclists through a roadside sign located upstream of the intersection. It is assumed that the roadside sign can measure the speed of the approaching bike and can also communicate with the traffic light to ascertain the traffic light's state and give advice accordingly. To consider the behavior of cyclists when they disregard the advice as they get close to the intersection, the problem is separated in two parts and formulated as a Markov reward process combined with a Markov decision process and stochastic dynamic programming is used to solve the corresponding optimization problem. The approach is generic in relation to the underlying process model and the objective function. The results of an illustrative case study show how much improvement, in relation to the cyclist's average number of stops, and average energy consumption, could be achieved by use of the suggested approach in a simulated intersection. We also investigate how the location of the sign may affect the performance of the approach.


Long-wavelength, small-amplitude disturbances on the surface of a fluid layer subject to a normal electric field are considered. In our model, a dielectric medium lies above a layer of perfectly conducting fluid, and the electric field is produced by parallel plate electrodes. The Reynolds number of the fluid flow is taken to be large, with viscous effects restricted to a thin boundary layer on the lower plate. The effects of surface tension and electric field enter the governing equation through an inverse Bond number and an electrical Weber number, respectively. The thickness of the lower fluid layer is assumed to be much smaller than the disturbance wavelength, and a unified analysis is presented allowing for the full range of scalings for the thickness of the upper dielectric medium. A variety of different forms of modified Korteweg-de Vries equation are derived, involving Hilbert transforms, convolution terms, higher order spatial derivatives, and fractional derivatives. Critical values are identified for the inverse Bond number and electrical Weber number at which the qualitative nature of the disturbances changes.Long-wavelength, small-amplitude disturbances on the surface of a fluid layer subject to a normal electric field are considered. In our model, a dielectric medium lies above a layer of perfectly conducting fluid, and the electric field is produced by parallel plate electrodes. The Reynolds number of the fluid flow is taken to be large, with viscous effects restricted to a thin boundary layer on the lower plate. The effects of surface tension and electric field enter the governing equation through an inverse Bond number and an electrical Weber number, respectively. The thickness of the lower fluid layer is assumed to be much smaller than the disturbance wavelength, and a unified analysis is presented allowing for the full range of scalings for the thickness of the upper dielectric medium. A variety of different forms of modified Korteweg-de Vries equation are derived, involving Hilbert transforms, convolution terms, higher order spatial derivatives, and fractional derivatives. Critical values are identifie...


Traditional building India have artistic element and principles which reflects the cultural elements and its values as well as art, craft and folk motifs. Haryana is a one of the state of India which have various types of edifices reflects a fine mixture of the Fine Art, crafts, wall-paintings of tempera, incised tempera, fresco techniques. These adornment were observed on the main entrance of the traditional buildings especially on Haveli (A big mason) in the Tone of Romance between art and architecture and culture of Haryana. The method of preparing the traditional paintingcolour, mediums, construction materials and their techniques have been unique and interestinglycultural features. The art work could have classification as well as styles.


The government's chlamydia testing programme in England has been inefficient, and the efforts of primary care trusts to run it have been duplicated unnecessarily, the public spending watchdog has found.

Edward Leigh, chairman of the House of Commons Public Accounts Committee, which carried out the analysis, criticised the Department of Health for leaving primary care trusts to organise the buying and commissioning of services and equipment needed to run the testing programme at a local level.

"This hands-off approach led to duplication of effort and inefficiency. And the DH [Department of Health] did not know how much the PCTs [primary care trusts] were …


Spiders belong to the order Araneae which is the largest order among the class Arachnida. Spiders are considered as indicators of overall species richness and the health of terrestrial communities. The village with different plantations harbors a good number of spiders. The survey was carried out from February 2018 to January 2019 by using active searching, beating, leaf sampling and net sweeping techniques. During the study, a total number of 51 species belonging to 42 genera of 16 families were documented. In the present study it was found that the family Araneidae was dominated by having 14 species followed by the family Salticidae having 12 species and the least were from Clubionidae, Corinnidae, Eresidae, Gnaphosidae, Hersiliidae, Linyphiidae, Sparassidae, Theridiidae and Uloboridae with a single species from each family. Keywords— Araneidae, Malavagoppa Village, Spiders Diversity.


Objective: To test the hypothesis that maternal oral hydration would increase the amniotic fluid (AF) index in pregnancies with normal AF. Methods: Forty women with a normal AF index (7.0-24.0 cm) were randomized to either the control or hydration group. Women in the hydration group drank 2 L of water and returned for the post-treatment AF index in 4-6 hours, whereas women in the control group drank only 100 mL of water during the same time period. The investigator performing the AF index was blinded to the subject's group. The pre- and post-treatment AF indexes and maternal urine specific gravities were compared between the groups. Results: The mean AF index in the hydration group increased significantly by 3.0 ± 2.4 cm (P ≤ .0001) whereas it declined significantly by 1.5 ± 2.7 cm in the control group (P ≤ .02). The maternal urine specific gravities also changed significantly in the expected direction, with those in the hydration group decreasing and those in the control group increasing (P ≤ .0001). There was a regression coefficient of —0.6 (P ≤ .0001) between the change in urine specific gravity and the change in AF index. The mean time between the pre- and post-treatment AF indexes was not different between the groups. Conclusions: Maternal oral hydration increased the AF index by approximately 16%, whereas fluid restriction decreased the AF index by 8% in women with normal AF. These findings support previous data that maternal hydration increased the AF index by 31% in women with decreased AF and suggest that maternal fluid volume or osmolality may have a role in maintaining the AF volume. (Obstet Gynecol 1993/81:49-52)


Short-term and long-term slip rates are contrasted for 18 well-studied faults in the Basin and Range and Rio Grande rift provinces, over periods ranging from 3000 to 4,000,000 yr. The intrinsic variability of the 62 interval slip rates on these normal faults is assessed by normalizing the long-term slip rate of each fault to 0.1 mm/yr. The cumulative density function of the grouped data predicts that, given a mean net slip rate of 0.12 mm/yr, extreme slip rates with 10% and 5% probability of exceedance are 0.51 and 0.92 mm/yr, respectively. These slip rates are considerably higher than those chosen by an expert panel for the Pajarito Fault, New Mexico, which has a long-term mean slip rate of ca. 0.12 mm/yr.


We investigate the radiative properties of plasmonic core-shell nanowire resonators and, using boundary element method calculations, demonstrate enhanced radiative decay rate by up to 3500 times in nanoscale compound semiconductor/metal cavities. Calculation of the local density of optical states enables identification of new types of modes in cavities with mode volumes on the order of 10(-4)(λ/n)(3). These modes dramatically enhance the radiative decay rate and significantly modify the polarization of far-field emission.


Student performance using computer-based training (CBT) may be related to the degree of interaction that occurs between students and the instructor, or between students and each other. This is significant in that the individualized nature of CBT (and perhaps Web-based training) is contrary to the social interaction needs of students. Using relevant pedagogical and social communication theories as a basis, this study employed empirical research methods on undergraduate participants to achieve the following objectives: to explore the use of computer mediated communication (CMC) as a surrogate for faceto-face interaction with CBT students, and to provide research-based recommendations for human resource development (HRD) managers charged with deployment of these and related technologies. The research results showed that undergraduate CBT participants who were sent personalized email once per week performed significantly better than participants who were sent no email.


The genus Alstonia R. Br. is revised for Australia. Six species are recognised, namely A. actinophylla (A. Cunn.) Schurnann, A. constricta F. Muell., A. linearis Benth., A. muelleriana Domin, A. scholaris (L.) R. Br. and A. spectabilis R. Br. Two subspecies are recognised for A. spectabilis, with A. ophioxyloides F. Muell. being reduced to subspecific status. A. muelleriana is lectotypified. Generic and specific descriptions, a key to species; notes on variation, distribution, habitat and conservation status are provided. Ethnobotanical use in Australia and adjacent Papuasia is briefly reviewed.


The aim of this work was to study the possibilities and limits of the vascular microanastomoses with VCS microclips. VCS Microclips are a new mechanical anastomotic device, allowing a single operator to perform anastomoses without microsutures. The two arcuate limbs of the titanium microclips do not penetrate the vascular intima. The microclip anastomosis technique is based on symmetric eversion of the vessel walls, facilitated by everting forceps. We studied the medium and small Autosuture VCS microclips on different vessels ranging from 0.3 to 2 millimeters in diameter: aorta, carotid artery, femoral artery and femoral vein. Thirty nine end-to-end or end-to-side anastomoses were performed on Wistar rats. These anastomoses were performed by a single operator without the use of sutures. Patency was studied by the "empty and refill" test immediately and at two months. Histologic analysis of the anastomosis was performed at two months (hematein-eosin and orcein stains on longitudinal sections). Four out of thirty nine anastomoses were occluded during the 15 minutes following clamp release. Failure was always due to a technical error and occurred during the first trials. The thirty five other anastomoses were patent immediately and at two months post-operatively, except for the by-pass which was not viable. These anastomoses were still patent 30 minutes post-operatively. Light microscopy analysis confirmed that the microclip extremities did not penetrate the lumen, although the internal media was usually very thin at the level of the microclip jaws, especially for the smallest vessels. For vessels larger than 1 mm in diameter, the microclip extremities were usually outside the internal elastic lamina. No anastomotic aneurysm was found. Vascular healing was comparable with microsutures at 2 months. Microvascular anastomoses performed with microclips have numerous advantages, compared to usual microsutures: they are two to three times quicker, they can be performed step by step without turning the clamp and they can be performed with the right or left hand. There is theoretically no thrombogenic risk. The drawbacks are the need for complementary training and the cost of microclips which is five to six times that of sutures. End-to-side anastomoses of small vessels are more difficult than end-to-end anastomoses. The recipient vessels must be larger than 1.5 mm in diameter, otherwise the anastomosis may become stenosed. Microclips are especially useful to save time, i.e. for multiple anastomoses and for anastomoses of vessels larger than 1 millimeter in diameter. Some modifications of the material could allow vascular or hollow organ anastomoses with endoscopic assistance.


ABSTRACT This essay examines the recent controversy surrounding 'Safe Schools', a federally-funded education program designed to reduce anti-lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and intersex (LGBTI) bullying in Australian schools. Although LGBTI students are known to experience homophobic, biphobic and transphobic verbal and physical abuse at school, opponents of Safe Schools have argued that the Program is both unnecessary and potentially harmful. In the essay, we argue that geographers have valuable contributions to make to this debate, particularly by revealing the ways in which sexuality and gender shape young people's experiences of school spaces.


In cooperation with the European Southern Observatory (ESO), the Institute of Lightweight Structures (LLB), Technische Universtitaet Muenchen, has developed the Structural Modeling Interface Toolbox (SMI), a Matlab based software package for creation of a dynamical model of a telescope structure. It is called Interface, since it uses the modal data of a finite element (FE) analysis and creates a dynamic model to be used within a time-dependent control loop simulation in the Matlab/Simulink environment. SMI is part of the Integrated Modeling Toolbox (IMT) developed in a joint effort by ESO, Astrium GmbH and LLB. Since SMI can read modal data in a general format, it is not depending on the FE-software. In addition to that, an interface to the FE-package ANSYS has been developed. It allows the variation of parameters and some settings for the FE-analysis directly within SMI. Both, force excitation like windloads and base excitation like micro seismic perturbations can be included. Several tools for model reduction are provided. Some of them are modal based, like effective modal masses, others are general model reduction procedures from control engineering like balanced truncation. For the evaluation of the reduced models, transfer functions of different models can be displayed in a Bode-plot. Time characteristics like step response or impulse response are also available. Moreover, for a typical excitation PSD the response PSD can be computed. This response can either be compared to the response of an exact model or to measured data and the rms-error can be calculated. The final result is a linear statespace model of the structure and a Simulink block, which can be included into a Simulink model.


At the end of the 19th century the German biologist Ernest Haekel was the first scientist to use the term ecology which was defined as the study of relationships of organisms or groups of organisms with the environment and indicated the interdependence of the living world including plants animals and humans. This concept also indicates a continuous process of adaptation of organisms to their external environment. The basic concepts of scientific ecology which developed at the end of the 19th century can be attributed to Darwin: the relationships between living beings and the notion of the process of adaptation to their environment. The term human ecology appeared in the early 1920s. Human ecology embodies fundamental ideas: biotype habitat community biocenosis ecosystem biomass interchange and equilibrium and circulation of energy. The accumulated knowledge about human ecology is broken down using the criteria of topography (ecology of humid forests deserts lakes etc.); followed by the appearance of species; and the variants of classical division: auto ecology (influence of external factors on living beings) and sinecology (the study of groups of associated organisms i.e. natural animal and vegetation communities). The species are considered on the basis of equality or sinecology (all of them have the same interests) while in human ecology a species is determined by its relation to a reference group--autoecology or anthropocentric ecology. In 1911 J. Thompson bridged the gap between biological knowledge and social sciences; in 1921 H. Barrows identified human ecology as a component of geography; in 1925 L. Bernard presented the classification of ecosystems; and in 1936 Ezra Park published his work Human Ecology followed in 1945 by the emergence of the Chicago school. Demography and human ecology are intimately connected because population is the result of natural and migratory movements therefore the two sciences require a methodology that integrates the dynamics of biocultural interactions.


ABSTRACT Do the Nordics warrant the label 'global good Samaritans' in human rights promotion? Is the Nordic welfare state a close to perfect realisation of human rights norms? Alternatively, do Nordic international and domestic human rights policies constitute a peculiar 'Nordic human rights paradox' where norms are supported internationally while not being implemented at home? In what is the first collection of articles on Nordic human rights history, we take issue with previous scholarship, finding it often to be unsubstantiated and lacking a basis in historical contexts and relevant source materials. This also includes the stream of historical studies in the past decade, where, until recently, the Nordic countries have represented something of a blind spot. However, the lack of prior interest in the region means there are several promising avenues for historical investigations of both the Nordic countries in human rights history and the role of human rights in the history of the region.


Governments have conferred ownership titles to many citizens throughout the world in an effort to turn things into property. Almost all elements of nature have become the target of property laws, from the classic preoccupation with land to more ephemeral material, such as air and genetic resources. When Things Become Property interrogates the mixed outcomes of conferring ownership by examining postsocialist land and forest reforms in Albania, Romania and Vietnam, and finds that property reforms are no longer, if they ever were, miracle tools available to governments for refashioning economies, politics or environments.


From 1938 to 1972, the range of California sea otters (Enhydra lutris nereis) expanded with the northern and southern fronts spreading at rates of approximately 1.4 km/yr and 3.1 km/yr, respectively. J. A. Lubina and S. A. Levin proposed the following three factors to explain the large disparity in spread rates: (1) regional differences in dispersal; (2) regional differences in population growth; and (3) advection due to the known presence of a southerly flowing offshore current. While Lubina and Levin used a reaction-diffusion framework to argue for large differences in dispersal, our approach uses a stage-structured integrodifference matrix model to show that relatively minor differences in survival provide a more parsimonious explanation for the disparity in spread rates; especially if the survival rates between the northern and southern groups differ in more than one life stage. The argument is made that many of the present estimates for otter survival rates span intervals wide enough to explain the different spread rates--even more so in the likely case that advection plays at least a minor role in otter movement.


Oblique collision between the Caribbean plate and the Bahama Banks has lead an eastward migration of the northern Caribbean plate boundary by successive southward jumps of major strike‐slip faults. The Septentrional‐Oriente Fault zone (SOFZ) defines the present‐day northern Caribbean plate boundary accommodating most of the eastward escape of the Caribbean plate. Here, we reevaluate the complex history of the SOFZ along the Windward Passage area between the easternmost region of Cuba and the northwest of Haiti. Based on seismic reflection and swath‐bathymetric data set we interpret the structure and tectonic pattern of the Windward Passage. The tectono‐sedimentary framework of this large strait shows contrasting patterns of deformation linked to a complex polyphase tectonic history of dominantly strike‐slip faulting. SOFZ segments offset the seismic units and yield key markers of displacement along the fault system. Our study provides structural and stratigraphic insights into the relative timing of deformation along the Windward Passage and presents new elements that constrain the southeastward jump of the north Caribbean plate boundary to its present‐day position. We propose dates for the identified seismic units based on the correlation of offshore deformation phases recorded in the Windward Passage sedimentary cover with major paleogeographic reorganization episodes described onland (Late Eocene, Late Oligocene, Middle Miocene and Late Pliocene). By restoring the offset of the seismic units, we demonstrate that at least ∼80 km of left‐lateral motion has occurred on the SOFZ, and that the SOFZ has been active since the Pliocene.


The short-term aggressive behavior of scleractinian corals from La Blanquilla Reef, Veracruz Reef System, Gulf of Mexico was determined. Unilateral aggression, bilateral aggression and indifference were observed through experimental interspecific encounters in situ, in aquarium conditions and through direct observation of natural encounters on the reef. Species were characterized as highly aggressive, moderately aggressive and not very aggressive establishing a hierarchy with two competitive rings representing similar aggressive abilities among some species. Most observations of aggression were of extracoelenteric digestion. Mussa angulosa was the most aggressive species and Oculina diffusa the least. Apparently there is a direct relationship among aggressiveness and relative coverage as three of the most abundant corals at depths of 4-9 m Montastraea cavernosa, Colpophyllia natans and Montastraea annularis, are all highly aggressive, have massive growth and have a high relative coverage. Siderastrea siderea is the only dominant species that was not ranked as highly aggressive; its high coverage is due to other reasons.


Prebreakdown electron emission between extended metal electrodes is experimentally studied with time resolution of 100 ns. Switching to higher emission levels is observed and could be provoked by mechanical shocks. This is found to be analogous to spontaneous switching effects. Elementary time constants of current jumps are 1-3 µs while the whole switching process lasts up to 40 ms, thus ruling out impact of macroparticles. The breakdown voltage is found to be correlated with the emission level. Therefore, switching on electron emission can explain breakdowns with delay times >1 ms. Still longer times are found at the deposition of metal vapour plasma originating from neighbouring arc gaps. In some cases, transient increases of the emission occur that last several seconds. Therefore, in vacuum interrupters late breakdowns after current zero can be caused by mechanical shocks without particle impact and also by deposition of residual vapour at the cathode.


The Time Projection Chamber (TPC) is an ideal candidate to track particles in a wide range of energies. Large volumes TPCs can be readout with a suitable number of channels offering a complete 3D reconstruction of the charged particle tracks and of their released energy allowing the identification of their mass. Moreover, He-based TPC's are very promising to study keV energy particles, opening the possibility for directional searches of Dark Matter (DM) and the study of Solar Neutrinos (SN). On the other hand, in order to reach a keV energy threshold, a large number of channels is required to obtain a high granularity, that could be expensive and hard to manage. A small prototype (named LEMOn) to test and validate an innovative read-out technique is described here. It based on the amplification of the ionization in Micro Pattern Gas Detector (MPGD) producing visible light collected by a sub-millimeter position resolution sCMOS (scientific CMOS) camera. This type of readout - in conjunction with a fast light detection - allows a 3D reconstruction of the tracks, a sensitivity to the track direction and a very promising particle identification capability useful to distinguish DM nuclear recoils from a gamma-induced background.