Hyperspectral images have a strong potential for landcover/landuse classification, since the spectra of the pixels can highlight subtle differences between materials and provide information beyond the visible spectrum. Yet, a limitation of most current approaches is the hypothesis of spatial independence between samples: images are spatially correlated and the classification map should exhibit spatial regularity. One way of integrating spatial smoothness is to augment the input spectral space with filtered versions of the bands. However, open questions remain, such as the selection of the bands to be filtered, or the filterbank to be used. In this paper, we consider the entirety of the possible spatial filters by using an incremental feature learning strategy that assesses whether a candidate feature would improve the model if added to the current input space. Our approach is based on a multiclass logistic classifier with group-lasso regularization. The optimization of this classifier yields an optimality condition, that can easily be used to assess the interest of a candidate feature without retraining the model, thus allowing drastic savings in computational time. We apply the proposed method to three challenging hyperspectral classification scenarios, including agricultural and urban data, and study both the ability of the incremental setting to learn features that always improve the model and the nature of the features selected.


Atherosclerotic plaque has been identified as one of the most important causes of sudden cardiac failure in patients with no history of heart disease . IntraVascular UltraSound (IVUS) represents a unique technique to study, determine and quant ify plaque composition and thus allows to develop automatic diagnostic and prediction techniques for coronary diagnosis and therapy. However, one of the main problems of image-based studies is i ts dependence on image brightness and data miss-registration due to the dynamic system compos ed by the catheter and the vessel. Hence, the high dependence of the automatic analysis on the g ain setting of IVUS console and its transmit power as well as vessel motion make impossible dire ct analysis, comparison and follow up of IVUS studies. To this purpose, a complete framework for data analysis should be considered focusing on:a) modeling the image acquisition and formation process, b) developing techniques for removing data acquisition artifacts due to the nature of ultrasound reflectance and motion of coronary vessels, c) developing sophisticated tools for extracting features f om radio-frequency and images, and) designing robust methods to discover and classify di fferent categories of tissue structures. In this chapter, we overview di fferent methodologies to approach the afore-mentioned problems and outline possible computer-assisted applicat ions in the clinical practice.


Abstract. The second generation of the EUMETSAT Polar System (EPS-SG) will include the
Ice Cloud Imager (ICI), the first operational sensor covering sub-millimetre
wavelengths. Three copies of ICI will be launched that together will give a
measurement time series exceeding 20 years. Due to the novelty of ICI, preparing
the data processing is especially important and challenging. This paper
focuses on activities related to the operational product planned, but also
presents basic technical characteristics of the instrument. A retrieval
algorithm based on Bayesian Monte Carlo integration has been developed. The
main retrieval quantities are ice water path (IWP), mean mass height (Zm)
and mean mass diameter (Dm). A novel part of the algorithm is that it fully
presents the inversion as a description of the posterior probability
distribution. This is preferred for ICI as its retrieval errors do not always
follow Gaussian statistics. A state-of-the-art retrieval database is used to
test the algorithm and to give an updated estimate of the retrieval
performance. The degrees of freedom in measured radiances, and consequently
the retrieval precision, vary with cloud situation. According to present
simulations, IWP, Zm and Dm can be determined with 90 % confidence at
best inside 50 %, 700 m and 50 µm, respectively. The
retrieval requires that the data from the 13 channels of ICI are
remapped to a common footprint. First estimates of the errors introduced by
this remapping are also presented.


There are many articles in the literature dealing with the first-order and the second-order differential subordination and superordination problems for analytic functions in the unit disk, but only a few articles are dealing with the above problems in the third-order case (see, e.g., Antonino and Miller (2011) and Ponnusamy et al. (1992)). The concept of the third-order differential subordination in the unit disk was introduced by Antonino and Miller in (2011). Let Ω be a set in the complex plane . Also let be analytic in the unit disk and suppose that . In this paper, we investigate the problem of determining properties of functions that satisfy the following third-order differential superordination: . As applications, we derive some third-order differential subordination and superordination results for meromorphically multivalent functions, which are defined by a family of convolution operators involving the Liu-Srivastava operator. The results are obtained by considering suitable classes of admissible functions.


Background The aim was to measure the criminal convictions received by people who leave special hospital and to test previously identified correlates of conviction. Method A cohort study design was used and the subjects were all 425 patients discharged from the special hospitals in 1982 and 1983. The outcome measure was a criminal conviction received within 10.5 years of discharge. Results Five and a half years after discharge 26% of ex-patients had been convicted of any offence, 9% of a violent offence, 5% of a sex offence and 10% of any serious offence. Ten and a half years after discharge 34% of patients had been convicted of any offence, 15% of a violent offence, 7.5% of a sex offence and 15% of any serious offence. When other variables are controlled for, gender and destination on discharge do not predict conviction. Age, a legal category of psychopathic disorder and prior criminal record do predict, but the effect is small. Conclusion The rate of conviction of patients leaving special hospital has fallen over the past 20 years; this is the case for crime in general and for serious crimes in particular. The change in rates of conviction over time for patients of different legal categories, previously thought to be different, is the same. The low predictive power of the variables examined here suggests that actuarial methods are of limited value in predicting offending in this group.


This work is devoted to the study of tape springs behaviour. We focus on the instabilities that lead to the creation of localised folds, due to the flattening of the cross-section. Depending on the kind of loading, the folds can move along the tape, split or disappear. Using an extended four parameters rod model with flexible cross-sections, we study several modes of instabilities (number and localisation of folds) for such structures submitted to an overall compression or bending.


23 patients with different forms of hyperlipidemias received procetofen (3 X 100 mg/day) over a period of fourteen days. The cholesterol concentration in blood showed a significant reduction from 322 +/- 30 mg/dl to 227 +/- 37 mg/dl, triglycerides dropped from 221 +/- 84 mg/dl to 129 +/- 34 mg/dl and uric acid diminished from 6,1 +/- 1,4 mg/dl to 4,6 +/- 0,8 mg/dl.


In this study, we explore for the first time the capabilities of nanoporous anodic alumina gradient-index filters (NAA-GIFs) functionalized with titanium dioxide (TiO2) photoactive layers to enhance photon-to-electron conversion rates and improve the efficiency of photocatalytic reactions by "slow photon" effect. A set of NAA-GIFs was fabricated by sinusoidal pulse anodization, in which a systematic modification of various anodization parameters (i.e., pore widening time, anodization period, and anodization time) enables the fine-tuning of the photonic stopband (PSB) of these nanoporous photonic crystals (PCs) across the spectral regions. The surface of NAA-GIFs was chemically modified with photoactive layers of TiO2 to create a composite photoactive material with precisely engineered optical properties. The photocatalytic performance of TiO2-functionalized NAA-GIFs was assessed by studying the photodegradation of three model organic dyes (i.e., methyl orange, Rhodamine B, and methylene blue) with well-defined absorption bands across different spectral regions under simulated irradiation conditions. Our study demonstrates that when the edges of characteristic PSB of TiO2-modified NAA-GIFs are completely or partially aligned with the absorption band of the organic dyes, the photodegradation rate is enhanced due to "slow photon" effect. A rational design of the photocatalyst material with respect to the organic dye is demonstrated to be optimal to speed up photocatalytic reactions by an efficient management of photons from high-irradiance spectral regions. This provides new opportunities to develop high-performing photocatalytic materials for efficient photocatalysis with broad applicability.


In both, bovine and human carbonic anhydrase II, a conserved glutamine residue occupies the position in the middle of the knot, which is formed by intercrossing of C-terminal end with N-terminal region. Previous studies have indicated that C-terminus is not the part of an active site, but truncation of 7 amino acid residue in this region can have marked effects on stability of the enzyme (data not published). To gain further insight into the role of specific amino acid residue in C-terminal region, site directed mutagenesis was used to introduce point mutation. Substitution of glutamine with cysteine was chosen because the cysteine residue is less hydrophilic as compared with glutamine and thus, may disrupt the hydrophilic environment in this region. Result indicates that Gln253 located within the C-terminus knot topology plays a significant role in normal function of the enzyme. Thus, C-terminal region might mediate cooperativity between the central active site of the enzyme through proper formation of knot. Key words: Human carbonic anhydrase II; knot topology; point mutation

J. bio-sci. 14: 1-9, 2006


We study a generalized Nevanlinna Pick interpolation problem on the half-plane for rational functions of prescribed degree, where peak points are imposed and interpolation conditions may lie on the real axis. This generalizes previous work by T. Giorgiou, C. Byrnes, A Lindquist and A. Megretski. The problem is motivated by the issue of broadband matching in electronics and microwave system design. We prove existence and uniqueness of a solution by differential-topological techniques. The approach is put to work numerically on a real example, using a continuation method.


Chapter 8 reviews the disease burden of traditional risk factors (hypertension, dyslipidemia, obesity, diabetes, diet, and smoking), as well as emerging risks (pollution, sleep apnea, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and psychosocial stress). In each instance, vascular injury is associated with inflammation and oxidative stress. The role of autonomic imbalance in this process is also considered. An understanding of the pathophysiology of the vascular injury may suggest new targets for drug therapy for cardiovascular disease prevention.


The increasing use of an internet improved internet technologies as well as web-based applications. Also, increasing effectiveness of the e-Learning has become one of the most practically and theoretically important issues in both educational engineering and information system fields. The online training environment enables learners to undertake customized training at any time and any place. Therefore the costs and benefits in implementation is of significance. There is a competence set consisting of ideas, knowledge, information, and skills for solving a decision problem. In order to effectively acquire the needed skills in the competence set to solve the problem, finding appropriate learning sequences of the needed skills for decision makers should be taken into account. This paper concerns with identification of varied cost elements in e-learning educational system and optimization by the means of mathematical programming. Then an effective method to estimate the learning cost between any two skills by using the grey relational analysis is proposed.


A compact laser diode based transmitter was designed and tested for laser radar and various laboratory applications. Single optical pulses with a peak power of up to 200 W, 23 - 65 ps pulse duration and a repetition rate of up to 50 kHz were measured. Transient mode spectral filtering suppressed afterpulsing modes by a factor of 104 - 105 with respect to the peak power. A control module was developed which provided a jitter value between electrical triggering and the optical pulses as low as 14 ps. Averaging of 103 events allows 1.5 ps stability between the triggering and the optical pulses to be achieved within a delay range from 5 to 250 ns.


We consider the problem of a robot learning to manipulate unknown objects while using them to perform a complex task that is composed of several sub-tasks. The robot receives 6D poses of the objects along with their semantic labels, and executes nonprehensile actions on them. The robot does not receive any feedback regarding the task until the end of an episode, where a binary reward indicates success or failure in performing the task. Moreover, certain attributes of objects cannot be always observed, so the robot needs to learn to remember pertinent past actions that it executed. We propose to solve this problem by simultaneously learning a low-level control policy and a highlevel finite-state task machine that keeps track of the progress made by the robot in solving the various sub-tasks and guides the low-level policy. Several experiments in simulation clearly show that the proposed approach is efficient at solving complex robotic tasks without any supervision.


In a seminal paper (Moser and Tardos, JACM'10), Moser and Tardos developed a simple and powerful algorithm to find solutions to combinatorial problems in the variable Lov{\'a}sz Local Lemma (LLL) setting. Kolipaka and Szegedy (STOC'11) proved that the Moser-Tardos algorithm is efficient up to the tight condition of the abstract Lov{\'a}sz Local Lemma, known as Shearer's bound. A fundamental problem around LLL is whether the efficient region of the Moser-Tardos algorithm can be further extended. In this paper, we give a positive answer to this problem. We show that the efficient region of the Moser-Tardos algorithm goes beyond the Shearer's bound of the underlying dependency graph, if the graph is not chordal. Otherwise, the dependency graph is chordal, and it has been shown that Shearer's bound exactly characterizes the efficient region for such graphs (Kolipaka and Szegedy, STOC'11; He, Li, Liu, Wang and Xia, FOCS'17). Moreover, we demonstrate that the efficient region can exceed Shearer's bound by a constant by explicitly calculating the gaps on several infinite lattices. The core of our proof is a new criterion on the efficiency of the Moser-Tardos algorithm which takes the intersection between dependent events into consideration. Our criterion is strictly better than Shearer's bound whenever the intersection exists between dependent events. Meanwhile, if any two dependent events are mutually exclusive, our criterion becomes the Shearer's bound, which is known to be tight in this situation for the Moser-Tardos algorithm (Kolipaka and Szegedy, STOC'11; Guo, Jerrum and Liu, JACM'19).


Semi‐structured interviews were undertaken with a random sample of 220 students from schools and youth training centres within a rural area of the south eastern region of Ireland. The results show that against the backdrop of rising drug use prevalence, the attitudes towards drug use of both adolescent users and abstainers have become more liberal and 'normalised'.


The Oxy-Fuel Ionization system (OFI) is a new thermal spray process which consists basically on a high velocity combustion process enhanced by a low energy plasma source. The system is characterized by its stability over a relatively large range of fuel/oxidant conditions, the possibility to use poor fuels like natural one (with low gas consumption) and the high deposition rates that can be achieved in comparison to conventional HVOF guns. The OFI gun has been designed following a modular concept, which in combination with the high flexibility of the system is expected to allow the deposition of coating materials with the most different physical and chemical natures. This work deals with the experimental analysis of the process using methane as fuel gas and its correlation with the deposition of WC-base materials. Two in-flight particle diagnostic systems were used: the Spray Watch diagnostic system (from OSEIR) and the Spray and Deposit Control (SDC) system (developed by the SPCTS laboratory of the University of Limoges). Results are presented for the most representative properties of the optimized coatings (micro hardness distributions on the coating cross section and crystallographic analysis).


This paper examines the gap between myth and reality in foreign language planning in the state of Trinidad and Tobago. It argues that in the absence of a coherent, well-articulated foreign language planning policy, the popular misconception that language learning is a marginal activity continues to hold sway. In support of this contention, it draws on a recent study conducted among first-year language undergraduates (Carter, 1998), where only 8.57 percent of the population surveyed expressed agreement with the statement that people in their country place a lot of importance on learning foreign languages. This paper suggests that the role of the Caribbean linguist and foreign language educator must be to separate myth from reality, and raise public awareness about the critical need for foreign language competence in the Caribbean citizen of the 21st century.


A transcript-based annotation of transposable elements allows for reduced bioinformatic complexity and direct hypothesis testing of previously challenging regions of the genome. Transcript-based annotations of genes facilitate both genome-wide analyses and detailed single-locus research. In contrast, transposable element (TE) annotations are rudimentary, consisting of information only on TE location and type. The repetitiveness and limited annotation of TEs prevent the ability to distinguish between potentially functional expressed elements and degraded copies. To improve genome-wide TE bioinformatics, we performed long-read sequencing of cDNAs from Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana) lines deficient in multiple layers of TE repression. These uniquely mapping transcripts were used to identify the set of TEs able to generate polyadenylated RNAs and create a new transcript-based annotation of TEs that we have layered upon the existing high-quality community standard annotation. We used this annotation to reduce the bioinformatic complexity associated with multimapping reads from short-read RNA sequencing experiments, and we show that this improvement is expanded in a TE-rich genome such as maize (Zea mays). Our TE annotation also enables the testing of specific standing hypotheses in the TE field. We demonstrate that inaccurate TE splicing does not trigger small RNA production, and the cell more strongly targets DNA methylation to TEs that have the potential to make mRNAs. This work provides a transcript-based TE annotation for Arabidopsis and maize, which serves as a blueprint to reduce the bioinformatic complexity associated with repetitive TEs in any organism.


Binary decision aids, such as alerts, are a simple and widely used form of automation. The formal analysis of a user's task performance with an aid sees the process as the combination of information from two detectors who both receive input about an event and evaluate it. The user's decisions are based on the output of the aid and on the information, the user obtains independently. We present a simple method for computing the maximal benefits a user can derive from a binary aid as a function of the user's and the aid's sensitivities. Combining the user and the aid often adds little to the performance the better detector could achieve alone. Also, if users assign non-optimal weights to the aid, performance may drop dramatically. Thus, the introduction of a valid aid can actually lower detection performance, compared to a more sensitive user working alone. Similarly, adding a user to a system with high sensitivity may lower its performance. System designers need to consider the potential adverse effects of introducing users or aids into systems.


With the widespread of social networks, the risk of information sharing has become inevitable. Sharing a user's particular information in social networks is an all-or-none decision. Users receiving friendship invitations from others may decide to accept this request and share their information or reject it in which case none of their information will be shared. Access control in social networks is a challenging topic. Social network users would want to determine the optimum level of details at which they share their personal information with other users based on the risk associated with the process. In this paper, we formulate the problem of data sharing in social networks using two different models: (i) a model based on \emph{diffusion kernels}, and (ii) a model based on access control. We show that it is hard to apply the former in practice and explore the latter. We prove that determining the optimal levels of information sharing is an NP-hard problem and propose an approximation algorithm that determines to what extent social network users share their own information. We propose a trust-based model to assess the risk of sharing sensitive information and use it in the proposed algorithm. Moreover, we prove that the algorithm could be solved in polynomial time. Our results rely heavily on adopting the super modularity property of the risk function, which allows us to employ techniques from convex optimization. To evaluate our model, we conduct a user study to collect demographic information of several social networks users and get their perceptions on risk and trust. In addition, through experimental studies on synthetic data, we compare our proposed algorithm with the optimal algorithm both in terms of risk and time. We show that the proposed algorithm is scalable and that the sacrifice in risk is outweighed by the gain in efficiency.


The set of equilibrium networks in the two-way flow model of network formation (Bala and Goyal, 2000) is very sensitive to the introduction of decay. Even if decay is small enough so that equilibrium networks are minimal, the set of equilibrium architectures becomes much richer, especially when the benefit functions are nonlinear. However, not much is known about these architectures. In this paper we remedy this gap in the literature. We characterize the equilibrium architectures. Moreover, we show results on the relative stability of different types of architectures. Three of the results are that (i) at most one players receives multiple links, (ii) the absolute diameter of equilibrium networks can be arbitrarily large, and (iii) large (small) diameter networks are relatively stable under concave (convex) benefit functions.


Bottom trawling and seabed littering are two serious threats to seabed integrity. We present an overview of the distribution of seabed litter and bottom trawling in Norwegian waters (the Norwegian Sea and the southern Barents Sea). Vessel Monitoring System (VMS) records and trawl marks (TM) on the seabed were used as indicators of pressure and impact of bottom trawling, respectively. Estimates of TM density and litter abundance were based on analyses of seabed videos from 1778 locations, surveyed during 23 cruises, part of the Norwegian seabed mapping programme MAREANO. . The abundance and composition of litter and the density of TM varied with depth, and type of sediments and marine landscapes. Lost or discarded fishing gear (especially lines and nets), and plastics (soft and hard plastic and rubber) were the dominant types of litter. The distribution of litter reflected the distribution of fishing intensity (density of VMS records) and density of TM at a regional scale, with highest abundance close to the coast and in areas with high fishing intensity, indicated from the VMS data. However, at a local scale patterns were less clear. An explanation to this could be that litter is transported with currents and accumulates in troughs, canyons, and local depressions, rather than reflecting the fisheries footprints directly. Also, deliberate dumping of discarded fishing gear is likely to occur away from good fishing grounds. Extreme abundance of litter, observed close to the coast is probably caused by such discarded fishing gear, but the contribution from aggregated populations on land is also indicated from the types of litter observed. The density of trawl marks is a good indicator of physical impact in soft sediments where the trawl gear leaves clear traces, whereas on harder substrates the impacts on organisms is probably greater than indicated by the hardly visible marks. The effects of litter on benthic communities is poorly known, but large litter items, such as lost fishing gear may add to the direct negative effects of bottom trawling.


pore, and to examine the main factors contributing to the formation of residential segregation. In Singapore, population statistics data necessary to grasp residential segregation patterns of the Chinese dialect groups are not available. Therefore, the distribution of Chinese temples, associ ations, and their members are considered important indexes reflecting residential segregation pat terns of the Chinese dialect groups. By making distribution maps of the temples, associations and their members for each period, the author identifies the changing residential segregation patterns. Residential segregation patterns of Chinese dialect groups in the south bank district differed from those of the north bank district. The Singapore River separated the two districts. The three major dialect groups, the Hokkiens, Teochews and Cantonese, segregated themselves in three different areas along the south bank. On the other hand, minor dialect groups such as the Hainanese, Foo chows, Henghuas, and so on, segregated themselves with the major dialect groups in mosaic fashion in the north bank district. Factors in the formation of the residential segregation of Chinese dialect groups are considered on the basis of an analysis of the residential segregation patterns involved. The chains of territorial relation involved in the process of Chinese immigration can be regarded as factors in promoting the residential segregation of Chinese dialect groups. Internal factors in the formation of the resi dential segregation can be found inside the Chinese dialect groups. They expected mutual help inside their society, and wanted to maintain their traditional culture including such aspects as language, religion and eating customs. As a result, they came to form their own urban villages. It was found that the Chinese dialect groups clearly had a tendency to specialize in and dominate certain trades. This promoted area concentration of a specific dialect group.


Evaluation of three subclasses of boron difluoride formazanate complexes bearing o-, m-, and p-anisole N-aryl substituents (Ar) as readily accessible alternatives to boron dipyrromethene (BODIPY) dyes for cell imaging applications is described. While the wavelengths of maximum absorption (λmax ) and emission (λem ) observed for each subclass of complexes, which differed by their carbon-bound substituents (R), were similar, the emission quantum yields for 7 a-c (R=cyano) were enhanced relative to 8 a-c (R=nitro) and 9 a-c (R=phenyl). Complexes 7 a-c and 8 a-c were also significantly easier to reduce electrochemically to their radical anion and dianion forms compared to 9 a-c. Within each subclass, the o-substituted derivatives were more difficult to reduce, had shorter λmax and λem , and lower emission quantum yields than the p-substituted analogues as a result of sterically driven twisting of the N-aryl substituents and a decrease in the degree of π-conjugation. The m-substituted complexes were the least difficult to reduce and possessed intermediate λmax , λem , and quantum yields. The complexes studied also exhibited large Stokes shifts (82-152 nm, 2143-5483 cm(-1) ). Finally, the utility of complex 7 c (Ar=p-anisole, R=cyano), which can be prepared for just a few dollars per gram, for fluorescence cell imaging was demonstrated. The use of 7 c and 4',6-diamino-2-phenylindole (DAPI) allowed for simultaneous imaging of the cytoplasm and nucleus of mouse fibroblast cells.


: Shigella sonnei plays an important aetiological role in bacillary dysentery. Advances in methodology for the study of intraspecies differentiation are proving to be valuable in the epidemiological analysis of infections caused by this agent.


In nuclear medicine, cancers that cannot be cured or can only be treated partially by traditional techniques like surgery or chemotherapy are killed by ionizing radiation as a form of therapeutic treatment. Actinium‐225 is an alpha‐emitting radionuclide that is highly encouraging as a therapeutic approach and more promising for targeted alpha therapy (TAT). Actinium‐225 is the best candidate for tumor cells treatment and has physical characteristics such as high (LET) linear energy transfer (150 keV per μm), half‐life (t1/2 = 9.92d), and short ranges (400–100 μm) which prevent the damage of normal healthy tissues. The introduction of various new radiopharmaceuticals and radioisotopes has significantly assisted the advancement of nuclear medicine. Ac‐225 radiopharmaceuticals continuously demonstrate their potential as targeted alpha therapeutics. 225Ac‐labeled radiopharmaceuticals have confirmed their importance in medical and clinical areas by introducing [225Ac]Ac‐PSMA‐617, [225Ac]Ac‐DOTATOC, [225Ac]Ac‐DOTA‐substance‐P, reported significantly improved response in patients with prostate cancer, neuroendocrine, and glioma, respectively. The development of these radiopharmaceuticals required a suitable buffer, incubation time, optimal pH, and reaction temperature. There is a growing need to standardize quality control (QC) testing techniques such as radiochemical purity (RCP). This review aims to summarize the development of the Ac‐225 labeled compounds and biomolecules. The current state of their reported resulting clinical applications is also summarized as well.


Abstract.
 The effects of landscape alteration on wildlife have drawn increasing attention from ecologists as landscapes have rapidly changed worldwide. Large-bodied birds are highly sensitive to habitat loss and fragmentation. We aimed to test two hypotheses concerning landscape-abundance relationships of male Wild Turkeys Meleagris gallopavo silvestris, the largest galliform in North America. The landscape fragmentation hypothesis posits that animal populations would decline linearly with habitat fragmentation, independent of the effects of habitat loss. The landscape composition hypothesis states habitat quantity, measured at spatial scales larger than the individual territory, would influence species abundance. Using the National Land Cover Database, we extracted the metrics of landscape fragmentation and composition at turkey annual dispersal (i.e., a buffer of 16-km radius) and annual home range (i.e., a buffer of 2.15-km radius) scales, respectively, for 28 wildlife management areas across Mississippi, USA. We used the mean annual number of harvested adult males per hunter day during annual spring hunting seasons (mid-March to mid-April) from 2001 to 2005 as a relative abundance index. Male Wild Turkey relative abundance increased with increasing fragmentation of hardwood forest (i.e., deciduous trees as the dominant form of vegetation) at both annual home range and dispersal scales, contrary to the prediction of the landscape fragmentation hypothesis. Male Wild Turkey abundance also increased with increasing landscape interspersion and juxtaposition index (i.e., an index of landscape spatial configuration) at the annual dispersal scale. We found nonlinear relationships between the proportion of hardwood forest and male turkey abundance, supporting the landscape composition hypothesis. Male turkey relative abundance peaked at 29% hardwood forest within the annual dispersal distance. Diverse landscapes are beneficial to Wild Turkeys at large spatial scales.


This report concerns a patient with systemic amyloidosis due to a plasmocytoma, in whom massive amyloid depositions in the small bowel caused severe diarrhoea and malabsorption. The excessive amyloid depositions in the lamina muscularis propria of the bowel finally resulted in therapy-resistant motility disturbance and adynamic subileus with fatal outcome.


In this paper, a new de-allocation scheme which the de-allocation channels can be used by both voice calls and packet calls is proposed. To research the possible neglect effect on voice calls for the de-allocated channels can be allocated to the new packets, a threshold of a new packet call can obtain a de-allocation channel or not is proposed and studied. The simulation results show that the new scheme can achieve excellent performance and it is really necessary to let the new packets use the de-allocated channels, when the threshold thetas=2/3 of our scheme in this paper, the blocking probability of voice calls and the mean packet transmission time have nearly no degradation, while the blocking probability of packet calls is decreased evidently and the mean channel utilization is improved significantly.


This mini-review highlights the very recent development of mussel-inspired hydrogels in biomedical and environmental fields. 3,4-Dihydroxyphenyl-L-alanine (DOPA) and its analogues can not only function as cross-linking mediators in constructing the hydrogel network, but also participate in various intermolecular and surface interactions. The developed mussel-inspired hydrogels have important applications in biomedical field as tissue adhesives, drug delivery carriers and coating materials, or in environmental field as pollutant adsorbents, according to the different physicochemical properties that are attributed to different DOPA chemistries.


Although New Zealand has had an active CGE modelling community since the 1980's, a multi-regional CGE model for the country has not been developed until now. This thesis presents a prototype multi-regional CGE model to demonstrate the feasibility of developing a comprehensive model that captures the benefits of modelling agent behaviour with a bottom-up approach. The prototype model is built upon bottom-up regional micro-foundations and New Zealand data is used to operationalise a particular implementation of the model. The thesis fills an important gap in the New Zealand CGE modelling literature as none of the models in current use have a structure involving bottom-up regional modelling. The method of implementation is also a key contribution, utilising a maximum-entropy approach to overcome data shortages. An illustrative simulation of a natural disaster that strikes the Wellington central business district demonstrates the strengths of the bottom-up multi-regional approach - that the model can capture differential effects across regions of shocks that occur at the regional level, and incorporate  flow-on and feedback effects between regions. Sensitivity testing of the substitution elasticity between domestic sources of products reinforces the importance of empirically-estimated parameters in CGE models. The basic model is extended in two ways. The first is to introduce modelling of distribution services as has been done in the ORANI and subsequently FEDERAL models. The key structural difference here is that products identified as distribution services are required to facilitate movement of other products from seller to buyer. Thus there are no opportunities to substitute away from these services if they become relatively more expensive. To implement the additional structure, sets of coefficients are specified to control technical possibilities in the usage of the distribution services. These include switches that can dictate, for example, that wholesale trade is only involved in the delivery of tangible products, that retail trade is only used by in-region purchasers, and that transport is required for moving physical products across regional borders or to exporters. That these assumptions can be integrated seamlessly into the database highlights the strength of the maximum-entropy approach used to generate the multi-regional input-output database. Simulations of an oil price shock show that the regional assumptions surrounding the distribution networks are material to the results. The second extension to the model is the addition of a module to control the degree of inter-regional labour mobility. Essentially the user is given the ability to specify the extent to which households respond to regional real wage di erences by moving to regions with relatively higher rates. Therefore, in short-run simulations labour can be made more mobile than capital, while in the long-run it can be less mobile than capital. The module also introduces additional structure to link populations, households, and labour market components. One important element of this new structure is a link back to the endogenous labour supply theory of the basic model. Publicly available demographic and labour market data are used to implement the mobility module. The importance of a mobility response to relative real wage changes is explored in an illustrative application looking at the impact of regionally-concentrated immigration  flows. The simulations suggest that population movements can work to dissipate the welfare effects of such migration inflows.


Although commonly detected in humans, microorganisms identified as Blastocystis have also been isolated from a wide range of animals, such as primates, pigs, cattle, birds, amphibians and, less frequently, rodents and insects. In the present paper, we describe the detection of Blastocystis sp. in bivalve mollusks of the genus Donax from the Peruvian northern coast. This finding extends the host range of this pathogen, opening the possibility of Blastocytis transmission to human beings by marine mollusks.


Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) images often suffer from low contrast and severe speckle noise. For such need, this work presents a new image enhancement and noise suppression method for OCT images. A new variational image decomposition (VID) model TV-Hilbert-Curvelet is proposed in order to decompose the OCT image into three part: structure, background and noise. And the gaussian mixture model (GMM) is used to generate one binary mask template from the background part, the multi scale Retinex (MSR) is used to enhance the structure part. Experimental results show that the proposed method can enhance the image structure and suppress speckle noise well, and three quality indexes are used to verify the experimental results of the proposed method.


Enterococcus faecalis is an etiological agent of endodontic infections. The present study was performed to investigate the gene profiles of E. faecalis induced by type I collagen stimulation. E. faecalis ATCC 19433 was cultivated with [collagen (+)] or without type I collagen [collagen (−)], and transcriptome analysis was performed using high-throughput sequencing technology. A total of 3.6 gb of information was obtained by sequence analysis and 77 differentially expressed genes (DEGs) between the two culture conditions were identified. Among the 77 DEGs, 35 genes were upregulated in collagen (+) E. faecalis, whereas 42 genes were downregulated. Gene Ontology (GO) enrichment analysis was performed and 11 GO terms, including metalloendopeptidase activity (GO:0004222) and two related GO terms (GO:0031012, GO:0044421), were significantly enriched in the set of upregulated genes. We focused on an upregulated DEG belonging to the matrixin metalloprotease gene family, and matrix metalloprotease (MMP) activities of the bacterial cell were examined. The generic MMP, MMP-8, and MMP-9 activities of collagen (+) E. faecalis were significantly higher than those of collagen (−) E. faecalis. These results suggested that contact with type I collagen may alter the gene expression profile of E. faecalis, and upregulation of metalloprotease genes may result in enhanced MMP activities in E. faecalis.


NEUROSURGICAL TECHNIQUES By Alfonso Asenjo. Revised and enlarged English Edition. (Pp. xvii + 339; 301 figs; illustrated. $19.75.) Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas. 1963. So many textbooks in these days are written in such a stilted style and with so much obscurity of language that it is a positive relief to read this book which is clear and simple. Professor Asenjo has developed neurosurgery on the west coast of South America and, in fact, his pupils have spread widely throughout the world. Only a few months ago when visiting Afghanistan I discovered two budding neurosurgeons about to set off to Santiago, Chile. This book sets out in a direct and personal way the practice of operative surgery at his Institute. The descriptions of operative tehniques relate strictly to his practice and no attempt is made in general to give alternative methods. This is all to the good and on the few occasions when reference is made to techniques not commonly used in his clinic these appear very dull beside the forthright descriptions of operations in common use there. In writing such a book it must be extremely difficult to separate operative technique from the indications for such technique and the clinical complications. In most cases he has not solved this difficulty and the scraps of clinical information scattered throughout the text are sometimes too short to be useful and seldom give one a clear idea of the indications for certain operations. There is considerable unevenness in emphasis; for example, several pages are devoted to various injections of peripheral trigeminal branches, a procedure largely abandoned in Europe, whilst the surgery of brain abscesses is dismissed in a few lines. In general, however, the field is well covered and a special point is made of the basic methods of neurosurgery, techniques for dealing with scalp, skull, meninges, and brain. It must be very largely a tribute to Harvey Cushing that the descriptions given here of most operative procedures accord so closely with those in general use throughout the world and I could find only very minor points of disagreement, for instance burr holes for ventriculography only 3 cm. above the inion are too low and likely to damage the visual pathways, and no mention is made of rib or iliac crest autografts for skull repair. There are certain glaring errors; few of us will have seen an aneurysm, 10 cm. diameter, which was accessible and easily dissected, and the advice when operating on aneurysms that should bleeding become uncontrollable operation should be deferred to a later date might leadto disaster. These errors are few, however, unlikely to mislead and will, no doubt, be corrected in later editions. The failures in this book are those subjects where no clear line of operative treatment can be laid down but must depend on appearances and investigations carried out at the time of operation. This applies particularly to surgery for epilepsy and to stereotactic surgery. In neither case are the descriptions clear enough or full enough to guide the novice. In stereotactic surgery he might have been wiser to give a really full and clear description of his own apparatus rather than a scrappy survey of several machines none of which would be very helpful in practice. Head trauma, operations for neuralgia, and on the spine are particularly well done and contain many of those practical tips, learnt by long experience and which so seldom appear in books on operative surgery. Despite minor criticisms this book is a splendid one and one that has been much needed in the past. Every embryo neurosurgeon should have a copy and all of us will learn something from it. The standard of English is so good that one hopes the translator will have a special mention on the title page in future editions.


The discovery of intelligence elsewhere would be of even greater import, as we h av always considered humans to be special, even the pinnacle of Creation. To learn that there are others out there – others whose cognitive abilities exceed our own – would be a discovery that would recalibrate how our species views itself. It would also have consequences that can be only vaguely gauged, in much the way that the discovery of the New World led to societal changes that were largely unpredictable at the time of its happening.


There may be no more conspicuous example of a conflict between society and technology thana wind energy landscape. The fastest growing renewable energy resource in the world, wind energy has evoked a cool public response. Through the use of interviews, the published literature, governing legislation, and personal experience, this article examines this conflict near Palm Springs, California. Its purpose is to summarize and explain the opposition that developed there from the earliest days, what has been done to mitigate it, and how the local experience is reflected in similar developments elsewhere. This particular conflict between society and technology has the potential, with proper guidance, controls, and sensitivity, to diminish with time.


This paper studies the steady-state security region (SSR) defined in the injection space and the visualization of its boundary for real bulk power systems based on decoupled power flow equations. The reactive power full SSR is derived from DC flow. The paper describes a model that is convenient to construct active power response SSR using an expanding algorithm. Three conceptions of critical branch, critical bus and active power response SSR are defined, for a specific network configuration and a given injection growth pattern, as well as two algorithms are developed. One of the algorithms is used to identify the critical branch and critical bus in a short period; the other is for computing the response SSR of the critical buses. Based on the algorithms, an approach is presented to display the steady state response security region of a real world power system in real time.


Higher collision energies at future colliders will eventually lead to the falsification of standard fixed-order perturbation theory and linear evolutions due to non-linear structure of QCD at small-x. New physics researches that is strictly based on accurate jet measurements will undoubtedly have this observation known as BFKL effect via angular jet decorrelations taking into account the Mueller-Navelet jets. As one of the frontier colliders, FCC-ep, has a great observation potential on parton densities through asymmetrical collisions. We aim to test the observability of azimuthal angular jet decorrelations with the recent event generators (HERWIG, PYTHIA) at the particle level for FCC-ep centre of mass energies 3.5 TeV in proton-electron collisions. Jets are reconstructed by the Anti-kT algorithm (R = 0.5), with p_{T} > 35 GeV and selected in the rapidity range of |y|<6. Relevant rapidity regions has been analyzed with the azimuthal-angle difference between Mueller-Navelet Jets ({\Delta}{\Phi}) in the rapidity seperation ({\Delta}y) and the distributions of cosn({\pi}-{\Delta}{\Phi}) are presented in comparison as the result.


The tissues samples of 828 chickens suspected to be infected by immunodepressive viruses from 42 shicken flocks were collected in Shandong, Henan,Hebei,Beijing,Jiangsu,Guangdong,Guangxi,Sichuan,Jilin,Liaoning and Taiwan,and the DNA was extracted for hybridization in Dot-blot with probes for Marek′s disease virus(MDV), Reticuloendotheliosis virus(REV) and Chicken anemia virus(CAV). The results indicated that the checkout ratios of the three viruses are 83.94%(MDV),61.0%(CAV)and 57.25%(REV);the ratios of triple infection,dual infection,single infection and negative are 44.69%,31.16%,15.34% and 8.82%; respectively;29 of 42 chicken flocks occur triple infection(69.05%),5 ones occur dual infection of MDV and CAV(11.90%)3 ones occur dual infection of MDV and REV(7.14%),and two ones not occur MDV、CAV and REV; all the 11 provinces exist MDV,CAV and REV. The results indicated that existing in wide range and co-infection of MDV,CAV and REV in chickens are the important causations for descent of poultry production performance , high incidence opport unistically pat hogenicdiseases and int umescentia provent ricularis in China.


AlGaN/GaN quantum well (QW) heterostructures grown by metalorganic chemical vapor deposition on sapphire and on free-standing GaN substrates have been studied by temperature dependent time-resolved photoluminescence. A dominant contribution of the exciton radiative lifetime is observed in homoepitaxial samples even at enhanced temperatures up to 100 K. The QW-related emission is found to be more sensitive to the near surface built-in electric field in the homoepitaxial samples, revealed as a red shift of the QW exciton energy with decreasing the cap layer thickness. Absence of such shift in the heteroepitaxial samples suggests, assuming a surface potential of 0.5 eV, an increased polarization field due to residual compressive stress.


In this tutorial paper a computer program which wins Shannon Switching Games is described. Since these games are played on graphs, the program is a good example of the implementation of graph algorithms.
The two players in a Shannon Switching Game, CONNECT and CUT, have nonsimilar goals. Either CONNECT, CUT, or the player moving first is guaranteed the existence of a winning strategy. The simple strategy explained in this paper is valid in all three cases. In fact, the major routines never need to know whether the computer is CONNECT or CUT.


The 8-dimensional 3-Lie algebra Γ11 over the prime field Z2 is realized by 2-cubic matrix, and the structures of it is studied. It is proved that Γ11 is a solvable but non-nilpotent 3-Lie algebra (Theorem 2.3). The inner derivation algebra ad(Γ11) is a 10-dimensional two-step nilpotent Lie algebra (Theorem 2.5), and the derivation algebra Der(Γ11) with dimension 13 is solvable but non-nilpotent (Theorem 2.6). And the concrete expression of all derivations are given.


Hemangiomas are frequent tumors that manifest in variable forms. Rapidly Involuting Congenital Hemangiomas (RICH) are a rare subtype, only recently described, which, in contrast to the typical infantile hemangioma, undergo accelerated involution, sometimes within days. Their different initial appearance and posterior evolution may cause confusion with other tumors of infancy or even with congenital malformations. We present a case of RICH in the upper lip that after rapid involution produced a morphologic sequel that resembled a microform cleft lip. The authors review the specific characteristics of this rare tumor and describe the technical detail of surgical correction in this patient.


The biosynthetic route for homocysteine, intermediate in methionine biosynthesis, is unknown in some methanogenic archaea because homologues of the canonical required genes cannot be identified. Here we demonstrate that Methanocaldococcus jannaschii can biosynthesize homocysteine from aspartate semialdehyde and hydrogen sulfide. Additionally, we confirm the genes involved in this new pathway in Methanosarcina acetivorans. A possible series of reactions in which a thioaldehyde is formed and then reduced to a thiol are proposed. This represents a novel route for the biosynthesis of homocysteine and exemplifies unique aspects of sulfur chemistry occurring in prebiotic environments and in early life forms.


Introduction Functional dyspepsia (FD) is a functional gastrointestinal disorder characterized by persistent upper dyspeptic symptoms without organic lesions. There is no standard therapy for FD. Yukgunja-tang (YGJT) is an herbal medicine used for treating upper gastrointestinal symptoms in Asia. Studies on the effect of YGJT on FD have been conducted. However, the results were inconsistent. In Hyungsang medicine, traditional Korean medicine, FD patients are classified into bladder body (BB) or gallbladder body (GB) subtypes by the shape and angle of their faces. Each subtype may have different characteristics, physiology, and pathology of the same disease. YGJT is more effective for patients with BB subtype. The three-dimensional facial shape diagnostic system (3-FSDS) was shown to be effective in diagnosing BB or GB subtypes. This study aimed to investigate the effect of YGJT on FD patients classified using the 3-FSDS. Materials and Methods The current study was a placebo-controlled, double-blinded, randomized, two-center trial. Eligible patients were diagnosed with either BB or GB FD subtype using the 3-FSDS. Ninety-six participants (48 BB and 48 GB subtypes) were randomly allocated to treatment or control groups in a 2:1 ratio. YGJT or placebo was administered for eight weeks. The primary outcome was assessed using the total dyspepsia symptom scale (TDS), while the secondary outcomes were assessed using the single dyspepsia symptom scale (SDS), proportion of responders, visual analog scale, Nepean dyspepsia index, functional dyspepsia-related quality of life, and spleen qi deficiency questionnaire. Results and Discussion The result of TDS showed the superior effect of YGJT on BB over GB subtype. The subgroup analysis of TDS and SDS scores showed the superior effect of YGJT over placebo. Other outcome variables did not show any significant differences between groups. Conclusion YGJT may be considered for FD patients diagnosed with BB subtype using 3-FSDS.


Pemphigus vulgaris is a chronic autoimmune mucocutaneous disease characterized by the formation of intraepithelial blisters. It results from an autoimmune process in which antibodies are produced against desmoglein 1 and desmoglein 3, normal components of the cell membrane of keratinocytes. The first manifestations of pemphigus vulgaris appear in the oral mucosa in the majority of patients, followed at a later date by cutaneous lesions. The diagnosis is based on clinical findings and laboratory analyses, and it is usually treated by the combined administration of corticosteroids and immunosuppressants. Detection of the oral lesions can result in an earlier diagnosis. We review the oral manifestations of pemphigus vulgaris as well as the differential diagnosis, treatment, and prognosis of oral lesions in this uncommon disease.


Crack attenuating mixtures, denoted as CAM, are some of the mixes commonly used in the State of Texas (USA) to mitigate reflective cracking in overlays, both in flexible-hot mix asphalt (HMA) and rigid concrete pavements. Typically designed at 98% lab density, with high quality aggregates, these fine-graded HMA mixes are rich in asphalt-binder (minimum 6.5%), predominantly using PG 76-22. In this study, three PG 76-22 asphalt-binders from three different sources (denoted as A, B, and C) were evaluated in the laboratory for their potential to meet the CAM Balanced Mix-Design (BMD) requirements when used in combination with limestone aggregates and 1% hydrated lime. Laboratory tests conducted included the Hamburg wheel tracking test (i.e., for rutting and moisture damage [stripping] evaluation), the Overlay test (i.e., for cracking evaluation), and the asphalt-binder rheology, namely the dynamic shear rheometer (DSR) and the bending beam rheometer (BBR). The corresponding results indicated that not all PG 76-22 asphalt-binders are manufactured equally and that material source has a profound influence on both the asphalt-binder rheological properties and the overall performance of the resulting HMA mix. In fact, one of the PG 76-22 asphalt-binder graded out as a PG 82-22 and could not meet the BMD performance requirements for a CAM mix-design. As part of the quality control/assurance protocols and to ensure that the right materials "as designed and specified" are utilized, the overall findings of study suggests that it is imperative that all asphalt-binders delivered to a given construction site must be sampled and tested for its rheological properties and graded accordingly. Provided high quality materials are used, the study also indicated that a CAM mix could satisfactorily be designed at a lower lab density than 98% (i.e., 96.5-97.5%); which translates into cost savings in terms of the asphalt-binder content.


Abstract The total species richness in the myriapod assemblages of the lowland Altais near Charyshskoe Village, Altai Province, southwestern Siberia, Russia is estimated to be at least 19 species from ten genera, eight families, five orders, and two classes. The following species are new to SW Siberia: Lithobius (Ezembius) ostiacorum Stuxberg, 1876, L. vagabundus Stuxberg, 1876, and L. (Monotarsobius) nordenskioeldii Stuxberg, 1876, while L. (E.) proximus Sseliwanoff, 1880 and L. (M.) insolens Dányi & Tuf, 2012 are recorded for the first time from the Altai Province of Russia. A species of Strigamia which is morphologically similar to Strigamia cf. transsilvanica (Verhoeff, 1928) has been found in the study area but its true specific identity is yet to be determined. The seasonal dynamics of myriapod assemblages in terms of the species diversity, density, sex-age structure, and vertical distribution along the soil profile have been studied with regard to the different slope exposures.


Introduction This study surveyed adult emergency department (ED) patients and the adult companions of pediatric patients to determine whether rates of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccination were comparable to that of the general population in the region. This study also sought to identify self-reported barriers to vaccination and possible areas for intervention. Methods A survey was administered to 607 adult ED patients or the adult companions of pediatric patients from three different regional hospitals to assess their COVID-19 vaccination status, COVID-19 vaccine barriers, and demographic information. Results Of the 2,267 adult patients/companions considered for enrollment, we approached 730 individuals about participating in the study. Of the individuals approached, 607 (41% male; mean age 47.0+17.4 years) consented to participate. A total of 403 (66.4%) participants had received at least one vaccine dose as compared to 70% of the adult population in the county where the three hospitals were located. Of those, 382 (94.8%) were fully vaccinated and among the individuals who were partially vaccinated the majority (17 of 21) had an appointment for their second dose. Of those approached, 204 (33.6%) were not vaccinated, with 66 (10.9% of the total population) expressing an interest in becoming vaccinated while the remaining 138 did not want to be vaccinated. Of those who wanted to be vaccinated 32% were waiting for more safety data, and of those who did not want to be vaccinated 26% were concerned about side effects and risks and 28% were waiting for more safety data. Conclusion Adult ED patients and adult companions of pediatric ED patients were vaccinated at a slightly lower rate than the general population in our county. A small but significant proportion of those who were unvaccinated expressed the desire to be vaccinated, indicating that the ED may be a suitable location to introduce a COVID-19 vaccination program.


High performance computing (HPC) applications have a high requirement on storage speed and capacity. Non-volatile memory is a promising technology to replace traditional storage devices to improve HPC performance. Earlier in 2017, Intel and Micron released first NVM product -- Intel Optane SSDs. Optane is much faster and more durable than the traditional storage device. It creates a bridge to narrow the performance gap between DRAM and storage. But is the existing HPC I/O stack still suitable for new NVM devices like Intel Optane? How does HPC I/O workload perform with Intel Optane?
In this paper, we analyze the performance of I/O intensive HPC applications with Optane as a block device and try to answer the above questions. We study the performance from three perspectives: (1) basic read and write bandwidth of Optane, (2) a performance comparison study between Optane and HDD, including checkpoint workload, MPI individual I/O vs. POSIX I/O, and MPI individual I/O vs. MPI collective I/O, and (3) the impact of Optane on the performance of a parallel file system, PVFS2.


Abstract The humite-group minerals along the brucite-olivine join may be important dense hydrous magnesium silicate (DHMS) phases in the subducting slab. Fluorine and titanium can be incorporated into their structures through the substitutions (OH)– = F– and Mg2+ + 2(OH)– = Ti4+ + 2O2–. These substitutions have significant effects on the hydrogen bonding behavior in the structures. Structure refinements and in situ high-temperature Raman and Fourier transform infrared (FTIR) measurements were conducted on natural humite and norbergite crystals. Both minerals crystallize in space group Pbnm, and their isobaric Grüneisen parameters for the lattice and SiO4 internal vibrations are compared with those of chondrodite, clinohumite, brucite, and forsterite. For the humite-group minerals, the OH-stretching modes above 3450 cm–1 are affected by local H-H repulsion, whereas the behavior of those below 3450 cm–1 can be explained by F– and Ti4+ substitutions, either of which may relieve the H-H repulsion effect. The Raman-active OH bands below 3450 cm–1 are affected by Ti4+ substitution, while the IR-active bands can be affected by either F– or Ti4+ substitutions. Based on an analysis of the high-T Raman and FTIR spectra, the OH vibrations above and below 3450 cm–1 behave differently as a function of temperature, and similar behavior has also been observed for other dense hydrous silicate phases in the hydrous peridotite system. Hence, the lengths of the oxygen-oxygen edges in MgO6 octahedra where protonation can occur become similar to each other at elevated temperatures. This may provide an atomistic explanation for the electrical conductivity properties of DHMS phases at high temperatures.


The motor abilities of elementary school students have often been the subject matter of research in physical culture. Furthermore, authors have dealt with the differences in motor abilities between male and female students of different age groups. The basic aim of this research was to determine the differences in motor abilities between male and female 6th grade elementary school students. The sample of respondents in this research was a group of 124 students from the 6th grade (66 boys of the average age of 12.91 and 58 girls, average age 12.86. Some 12 motor tests were applied for assessing the following motor abilities: precision, balance, speed, flexibility and strength. Based on the results of the canon discriminative analysis, the conclusion was reached that there are statistically significant differences between the tested groups in regards to motor abilities. The boys were more successful in tests for assessing strength, precision, and coordination of the entire body and the speed of alternative leg movements. Girls were more dominant in flexibility and the speed of alternative arm movements. Boys had better results on balance tests and the girls on others, so this can be seen as consistent results in regards to this ability. The obtained results mostly reflect the natural pace of developing motor abilities considering gender and point to a compatibility with the sensitive periods for displaying certain abilities in regards to the gender of the respondents.


A "chemical" model based on the theory of mixed valence systems is successful in explaining a number of properties of superconductors. The model is formulated in configuration space but is consistent with Bardeen–Cooper–Schrieffer theory, and connects directly to chemical properties that may be calculated by quantum chemical methods. Crystal structure is important, in particular the difference in equilibrium geometry between different oxidation states. According to the model, high pressure causes less difference between the oxidation states and hence a lower, or possibly disappearing, activation barrier and increased conductivity. This agrees with the experiments. Mixed valence systems with nonequivalent sites or with a large structural difference between the oxidation states are not superconducting or even conducting. © 2002 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J Quantum Chem, 2002


I Equations governing small deformation of 8 cylindrical Sandwich Shell are derived from the principle of Minimum Potential Energy. The facings are thin orthotropic shells with different physical properties and thicknesses, and a weak orthotropic core is considered. 'Ihe effect of an arbitrary temperature distribution is included. Two examples are presented: (1) uniform heating of a finite segment of a shell of infinite extent (elastic core) and (2) uniform heating of a shell of infinite extent (viscoelastic core) supporting a ring load.


A validated reversed-phase thin-layer chromatography (RP-TLC)—densitometry method was developed and optimized for the determination of trimetazidine dihydrochloride (TMZ) and its potential impurities listed in the British Pharmacopoeia, namely, piperazinecarboxaldehyde (Y-145), trimethoxybenzyl alcohol (Y-235), and trimethoxybenzaldehyde (Y-234). Chromatographic separation was performed on aluminum plates pre-coated with silica gel 60 RP-18F using a mixture of acetonitrile—methanol—0.1% aqueous ortho-phosphoric acid pH 6.2 (4.5:4.5:1, V/V) as the developing system. Different factors affecting resolution were studied and optimized. Successful resolution was observed with significant difference in the RF values of 0.21 ± 0.02, 0.35 ± 0.02, 0.5 ± 0.02, and 0.85± 0.02 for TMZ and its impurities, respectively. Densitometric measurement was done at 215 nm over the range of 0.05–10, 0.05–1.1, 0.05–1.2, and 0.04–1.0 µg per spot with lower limits of detection (LOD) and quantification (LOQ) of 20 and 50 ng per spot for TMZ, Y-145, and Y-235, respectively, and 15 and 40 ng per spot for Y-234 impurity. Good accuracy was obtained with mean percentage recoveries of 99.55 ± 1.06, 100.50 ± 1.16, 100.07 ± 1.24, and 99.41 ± 1.11 for TMZ and its impurities, respectively. The developed method was used to investigate the impurity profile of TMZ in drug substance and different products and it was validated as per the International Conference on Harmonisation (ICH) guidelines.


Integral‐force‐feedback (IFF) is a popular control law in active vibration damping of mechanical system when a force sensor is collocated with a force actuator. While it is simple, robust to resonance uncertainty and stable for any feedback gains, its efficiency is limited by system's parameters and in particular the stiffness ratio between the structure and the actuator. Therefore, the control authority decreases at high frequency resonances or when the actuator is weakly coupled to the structure. It has been shown that the use of double integrator with a real zero, named α‐controller, can improve the control authority of a target mode. However, this technique like IFF cannot be easily implemented in practice because of low frequency saturation issue induced by significantly amplifying the low frequency content during the integration process. This paper proposes a new control law, named resonant‐force‐feedback (RFF), based on a second order low pass filter to damp a target mode resonance. Through the mechanical analogy of the proposed system, RFF can be seen as an active realization of an inerter‐spring‐damper (ISD) system. In addition, the parameters of RFF are optimized based on two methods, that is, maximum damping criterion and H∞ optimization which consists in minimizing the settling time of the impulse response and the peak amplitude in the frequency domain, respectively. It is shown that RFF always provides a higher control authority of a target mode in comparison to IFF for a given stiffness ratio and in particular when the stiffness ratio is low. Despite the fact that the performance of the system, in terms of the closed‐loop damping ratio or the amplitude reduction, obtained by RFF is very close to that of α‐controller, RFF requires less control effort in comparison to α‐controller. The stability of the proposed system is also assessed in terms of the gain margin and the phase margin although the system is unconditionally stable. Moreover, the robustness of the designed RFF is compared to that of IFF under stiffness uncertainty. Although IFF can tolerate a higher level of uncertainty, the performance of RFF is superior to that of IFF for almost 50% of changes in the stiffness of the primary system.


Purpose: Anorectal manometry is a way of investigation for ano-rectal sphincters. In this paper we evaluated the usefulness of anorectal manometry in constipation patients and compared the anal spnincter function in control, constipation and encopresis patients Methods: We analysed the data of anorectal function studies in normal children (control, n=11), children with constipation (constipation group, n=20) and children with encopresis (encopresis group, n=16). Results: The specific manometric parameters in normal children were like as follows; external anal sphinter pressure 21.0±8.00 mmHg, internal anal sphicter pressure 30.0±14.57 mmHg, conscious rectal sensitivity threshold 11.4±4.52 mmHg. The above results were not different from that of previous studies except conscious rectal sensitivity threshold, which was slightly lower than that of others. Internal and external anal sphincter pressure were elevated significanlty in constipation and encopresis groups than in control, which results was the same in conscious rectal sensitivity threshold. But the values of rectoanal inhibitory threshold and percent relaxation of rectoanal inhibitory reflex were not different among control group, constipation group and encopresis group. External sphincter activity was increased during the act of bearing down for defecation in none of the child in control group, in 6 of 17 children in constipation group and 5 of 12 children in encopresis group. Conclusion: With the results of above we could say that complete history taking and physical examination are important in diagnosis of constipation, and we could say also that the anorectal manometry was a valuable tool to understand the physiology of normal defecation and the pathophysiology of constipation and encopresis. (J Korean Pediatr Gastroenterol Nutr 1999; 2: 30∼39) ꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏꠏ


Many writers who treat medicolegal problems create the impression that they intend to arm the physician or attorney with ammunition which will protect him in a strange and hostile land. The author of this volume regards the medicolegal field as a joint enterprise of the two professions, and his material is selected and presented in a manner which should persuade many readers to his viewpoint. This book has many unusual features. Most of the medical material is derived from original sources in medical treatises and periodicals. Hospital records, autopsy reports, and psychiatric reports as used in trials are included, as well as clinical notes. In addition to appellate court cases and law review articles, the conventional legal material used in a text, the book contains trial transcripts. These various materials are skillfully blended throughout the book. For example, the section which is devoted to the relation between trauma and disease


Thirty two chickpea genotypes were evaluated in RBD with two replications at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri, dist. Ahmednagar (M.S.) during Rabi, 2009 for Morpho-physiological characterization. T he observations on different plant characters such as morphological, physiological, dry matter acc umulation and partitioning, phenological and generative growth and sink capacity were recorded. Partitioning of total dry matter between the vegetative and reproductive plant parts played an important role in determining processes. Studies on leaf area revealed a good indicator for increasing photosynthet ic efficiency of plant. The photosynthetic rate, tra nspiration rate and stomatal conductance were highest at 50 per cent flowering and decreased after 15 days of 50 per cent flowering. The highest yield was recorded by the genotypes, Digvijay, Vijay, ICC-13219, ICC-15868, ICC-1579 and ICC-4593. The most important yield attributes were pod number per plant, grain number per pod and 100 seed weight. These appeared to be the most important characters to determine sink capac ity. These genotypes exhibited appropriate behaviour for dry matter production and it€s distribution in component parts of plant, rate of protosynthesis, transpiration, stomatal conductance and water use efficiency. Therefore, it can be concluded that the significant variation in yield could be seen in different genotypes due to their differential behaviour in respect of growth, development, phenology, dry matter production potential and translocation of photosynthates from source to sink. In high yielding genotypes the photosynthetic rate, number of pods per plant, seeds per pod, yield per plant, harvest index etc. were observed to be the major yield contributing characters.


Title 1. This Instrument may be cited as Statement of Principles concerning lumbar spondylosis No. 62 of 2014. (b) determines in their place this Statement of Principles. Kind of injury, disease or death 3. (a) This Statement of Principles is about lumbar spondylosis and death from lumbar spondylosis. (b) For the purposes of this Statement of Principles, "lumbar spondylosis" means a degenerative joint disorder affecting the lumbar vertebrae or intervertebral discs with: (i) clinical manifestations of local pain and stiffness, or symptoms and signs of lumbar cord, cauda equina or lumbosacral nerve root compression; and


We study the role of firm heterogeneity and imperfect competition for global production networks and the gains from trade. We develop a quantifiable trade model with (i) two-sided firm heterogeneity, (ii) matching frictions, and (iii) oligopolistic competition upstream. Combining highly disaggregated data on firms' production and trade transactions for China and France, we present empirical evidence in line with the model that cannot be rationalized without features (i)-(iii). Downstream French buyers import higher volumes and quantities at lower prices when upstream Chinese markets become more competitive. These effects are stronger for larger, more productive buyers and weaker when input suppliers are more heterogeneous. Counterfactual analyses indicate that lower barriers to entry upstream, lower matching costs, and lower trade costs amplify firm productivity, firm size dispersion and aggregate welfare downstream. These effects operate through a combination of improved matching of buyers and suppliers, gains from variety, and lower markups. Global production networks thus generate greater impacts and international spillovers from national industrial policy and trade liberalization.


We show the existence of invariant manifolds for planar, asymptotically autonomous differential equations, that have equilibrium solutions with zero Lyapunov spectrum. These invariant manifolds correspond to the stable and unstable manifold of a desingularized equation, that we obtain by using the blowup method. More precisely, the blow-up method is extended to the nonautonomous setting and transforms the original finite-dimensional ordinary differential equation into an infinite-dimensional delay equation with infinite delay, but hyperbolic structure. In the technical construction of the invariant manifolds for the delay equation, we have to carefully study the effect of the time reparametrization used for desingularization in the blown-up space to guarantee sufficient regularity. This allows us to employ a Lyapunov-Perron argument to obtain existence of an invariant manifold. We combine the last step with an implicit function argument to study differentiability of the manifold.


Future decision makers in natural resource fields will be required to make judgments on issues that lack clear solutions and with information complicated by ethical challenges. Therefore, natural resource, environmental, and agricultural professionals must possess the ability to think critically about the consequences of policy, economic systems, and individual human behaviors on the environment. To ensure that future professionals can examine competing claims, university students must develop critical thinking skills that allow them to examine ethical issues surrounding the environment. We review literature on critical thinking specifically in regard to necessary components to creating critical thinking opportunities in the classroom. We then discuss special considerations for teaching critical thinking in the context of natural resource and agriculture ethics education.


Cities in southwestern China experience urban drainage and overflow pollution after extreme rainfall events, which are major problems. In this study, a type of stepped spillway dropshaft suitable for drainage by deep tunnels in Chengdu was proposed and the hydraulic characteristics were investigated experimentally. The results showed that the nappe flow and strong turbulent deflected jet flow in the stepped spillway allowed the dropshaft to greatly dissipate energy. According to the distribution of the time-averaged pressure on the steps, the flow on the steps could be divided into a recirculating region, a wall-impinging region and a mixing region. The time-averaged pressure on the outside of the step was higher than that on the inside due to the centrifugal force effect of the water. The fluctuating pressure distribution of the step approximated the normal distribution. It was acceptable to calculate the minimum pressure with 3 times the root mean square (RMS). The vibration of the flow on the stepped spillway did not resonate with the step. When the outflow tunnel was under submerged outflow conditions, the aeration in the stepped spillway was exhausted through air holes and only a small amount of air entered the outflow tunnel, thereby avoiding an air explosion.


Yosry A. Okdah The present study was aimed to assess the effect of aqueous saffron extract (Crocus sativus L.) on sodium valporate (SVP) hepatotoxicity in albino rats. Treating rats with SVP induced many histological changes in the liver including cytoplasmic vacuolization of the hepatocytes, fatty degeneration and congestion of blood vessels. Biochemical results showed an increase in serum ALT and SAT. Moreover, SVP caused a reduction in total carbohydrates, total proteins and DNA in the hepatocytes. Animals treated with SVP and aqueous saffron extract revealed an improvement in the histological, histochemical and liver function enzymes,ALT and AST induced by SVP. These results indicated that saffron extract improved hepatotoxicity of SVP through inhibition of oxidative stress and enhancing the antioxidant defense system.


High entropy oxides are a class of materials distinguished by the use of configurational entropy to drive material synthesis. These materials are being examined for their exciting physiochemical properties and hold promise in numerous fields, such as chemical sensing, electronics, and catalysis. Patterning and integration of high entropy materials into devices and platforms can be difficult due to their thermal sensitivity and incompatibility with many conventional thermally-based processing techniques. In this work, we present a laser-based technique, laser-induced thermal voxels, that combines the synthesis and patterning of high entropy oxides into a single process step, thereby allowing patterning of high entropy materials directly onto substrates. As a proof-of-concept, we target the synthesis and patterning of a well-characterized rock salt-phase high entropy oxide, (Mg0.2Co0.2Ni0.2Cu0.2Zn0.2)O, as well as a spinel-phase high entropy oxide, (Mg0.2Ni0.2Co0.2Cu0.2Zn0.2)Cr2O4. We show through electron microscopy and X-ray analysis that the materials created are atomically homogenous and are primarily of the rock salt or spinel phase. These findings show the efficacy of laser induced thermal voxel processing for the synthesis and patterning of high entropy materials and enable new routes for integration of high entropy materials within microscale platform and devices.


Brown adipose tissue (BAT) is responsible for non-shivering thermogenesis and is an attractive therapeutic target for combating obesity and related diseases. Human BAT activity has been evaluated by 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography/computed tomography (18FDG-PET/CT) under acute cold exposure, but the method has some serious limitations, including radiation exposure. Infrared thermography (IRT) may be a simple and less-invasive alternative to evaluate BAT activity. In the present study, to establish an optimal condition for IRT, using a thermal imaging camera, skin temperature was measured in the supraclavicular region close to BAT depots (Tscv) and the control chest region (Tc) in 24 young healthy volunteers. Their BAT activity was assessed as the maximal standardized uptake value (SUVmax) by 18FDG-PET/CT. Under a warm condition at 24–27°C, no significant correlation was found between the IRT parameters (Tscv, Tc,, and the difference between Tscv and Tc,, Δtemp) and SUVmax, but 30–120 min after cold exposure at 19°C, Tscv and Δtemp were significantly correlated with SUVmax (r = 0.40–0.48 and r = 0.68–0.76). Δtemp after cold exposure was not affected by mean body temperature, body fatness, and skin blood flow. A lower correlation (r = 0.43) of Δtemp with SUVmax was also obtained when the participant's hands were immersed in water at 18°C for 5 min. Receiver operating characteristic analysis revealed that Δtemp after 30–60 min cold exposure can be used as an index for BAT evaluation with 74% sensitivity, 92% specificity, and 79% diagnostic accuracy. Thus, IRT may be useful as a simple and less-invasive method for evaluating BAT, particularly for large-scale screening and longitudinal repeat studies.


An unbalanced panel data of around fifty countries between 1985 and 2003 is used to estimate the vulnerability of public social expenditures (health and education) to other fiscal variables. The database allows comparisons between Latin America and the rest of developing countries. Public social expenditure is significantly lower in Latin America as share of GDP, although it has a higher share in primary expenditure. Public social expenditures in Latin America are more vulnerable to debt service, but are less sensible to changes in other types of public expenditure. As in other regions in the developing world, public social expenditure in Latin America shrinks when public debt stock increases. This effect is higher with multilateral debt obligations. In Latin America, debt defaults reduce the share of public social expenditures in total primary public expenditure.


Despite relatively high rates of low neutrophil count during standard-dose chemotherapy regimens for malignancies other than acute leukaemias, rates of FN, other complication rates and mortality rates are relatively low for most standard chemotherapies (Table 1). These rates do not justify the systematic use of haematopoietic growth factors (hGFs) such as granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (G-CSF) or its pegylated form (pegfilgrastim) in prophylaxis of chemotherapy-induced neutropenia unless the risk of FN exceeds 20%, or there are special circumstances as outlined below. Colony-stimulating growth factors should be avoided in patients who are not at high risk for FN or neutropenic complications. The use of hGFs for treatment of FN is also not recommended, except in settings with increased morbidity and mortality, including sepsis, tissue infection and prolonged neutropenia. These agents should be particularly avoided in patients with infections not related to neutropenia, such as communityor hospital-acquired pneumonia [I, A].


In this paper, the exceptional story of "Simit Sarayi", transformation from a national cafe into an brand name manufacturer and retailer, is discussed with respect to network modalities and strategic management processes. How a manufacturing firm has managed to achieve a high value added competitive advantage? Does being a partner of network (taking franchising licence) and getting the advantage of retailing network satisfies only the necessary conditions to be a global retailer or both necessary and sufficient conditions? This paper contains the interesting idea that marketing strategy choice of members of a franchise network may be related to their structural position in that network. It develops a potentially valuable metric of proximity to network resources and deploys the somewhat novel CRT technique to test some propositions. Within this research firm's achievement of a high value added competitive advantage is expressed with network modalities. The research design would benefit from clearer focus on the strategic options open to the individual franchiser.


This environmental assessment for the Turkey Istanbul Seismic Risk Mitigation and Emergency Preparedness Project sets forth the plan for mitigating potentially negative impacts. During construction, spray with water using pressurized water jets to control dust caused by earth removal activities, erect a dust protective barrier, and cover equipment and machinery. To reduce noise, ensure the use of noise control techniques on noisy equipment such as use of machines equipped with appropriate mufflers, also located appropriately. Prepare a plan for handling demolition debris in accordance with regulations by the Istanbul Metropolitan Municipality; prepare a plan for handling hazardous waste during retrofitting in consultation with the owner or management of public buildings. Execute mitigation measures activities for handling hazardous waste material, such as asbestos, and finally, in accordance with the Accident and Emergency Plan, hospitals will prepare a Radiation Safety Plan for the treatment of personel affected by radiation


WDM networks are increasingly gaining popularity as the backbone networks all over the world. In WDM network planning, electronic equipments like ADMs contribute heavily towards the capital expenditure of the network (Each ADM costs $50,000-$200,000). In WDM rings, determining minimum number of ADMs is NP-Hard. All the previous works have focused on Wavelength Assignment problem by keeping the routing fixed. In this paper, we suggest an integrated topology independent procedure called M3AWI (Minimum Average Minimum Weight Minimum Intersection). M3AWI is used to solve problems on four different types of routing namely, clockwise routing, Anti-clockwise routing, shortest-path routing, and hybrid routing. Our experimental results show that the combined Routing and Wavelength assignment (RWA) algorithms on an average save around 10% of the ADMs.We have also shown that the distribution of lightpaths is an important parameter to the service providers for selecting a routing policy.


Upon heating, the inner conductive pathway inside the conductive polymer composites (CPCs) changes, thus causing the change in electrical resistance. This thermo-electrical dependence of CPCs can be utilized to design CPCs-based temperature sensors. Herein, we systematically review the recent progress on CPCs-based temperature sensors, as well as their mechanisms and applications in different fields. Finally, the question and challenge of CPCs-based temperature sensors are also discussed.


The main purpose of this study is to develop a system and data model extracted from the TO-BE process model of rental apartments to promote information exchange based on knowledge obtained through maintenance status analysis. Currently, it is difficult to find examples suggesting a data model through a process analysis of maintenance in rental apartments. Thus, this study intends to suggest a process as well as a data model to promote the development of a maintenance system for rental apartments by using building management knowledge, utilization of standardized tools, and existing FM (Facility Management) techniques to break through limitations in actual application. Ultimately, this study aims to show examples of document-oriented analysis and information technology for middle managers in charge of the maintenance of rental apartments, as well as work analysts developing the maintenance system. In further research beyond this study, complex issues on the maintenance of rental apartments, legal restrictions on customary practices of maintenance activities, effects of the scales of maintenance practices, requirements to perform maintenance activities, evaluation on the status of maintenance, life cycle cost and risks will be investigated.


The functional independence measure (FIM) is used to determine the degree of disability that patients experience and the progress that they make through programs of medical rehabilitation. Rasch analysis is a statistical technique for constructing interval measures from ordinal data that was applied to derive FIM measures. The major factors that are taken into account to produce FIM measures are the relative difficulty in performance of FIM items and the ability of the persons tested. Our analyses showed the relative difficulties that patients experienced in performing items in the FIM. There were two dominant patterns of difficulty, one for motor FIM items and the other for cognitive FIM items. The patterns were consistent across impairment groups, although not identical. Of the motor items, eating and grooming were easiest whereas stair climbing, tub/shower transfers and locomotion were most difficult. Of the cognitive items, expression and comprehension were easiest and problem solving was the most difficult. The patterns of difficulty in performing FIM items are illustrated by analysis of the following impairment groups: for motor items, orthopedic conditions, stroke with left hemiparesis and spinal cord dysfunction; for cognitive items, orthopedic conditions, brain dysfunction, stroke with right hemiparesis and spinal cord dysfunction. By understanding patterns of difficulty in performing FIM items according to types of impairment and levels of function, clinicians may more precisely design treatment programs, use services and predict outcomes of medical rehabilitation.


The use of the headspace solid-phase microextraction (SPME) technique, combined with gas chromatography-ion-trap detection mass spectrometry (GC-ITDMS), for the determination of 34 taste- and odor-causing organic compounds in water is presented. The compounds studied include aliphatic hydrocarbons, aldehydes, ketones and alcohols. The factors affecting the headspace SPME process, such as fiber type, salt addition, stirring, headspace volume and sampling time, were examined. The polydimethylsiloxane- divinylbenzene-coated fiber was found to be effective for the extraction of the compounds studied. The precision of the method was evaluated with spiked bidistilled water and river water samples. The RSDs obtained were similar for both water samples and in the range 4.3–17.1%. Using the standard addition calibration method, the problem of matrix effects observed for river water samples can be reduced. The method showed good linearity over two orders of magnitude of concentration in river water. With 40 ml of water sample, the detection limits were lower than 1 ng l–1 for 2-methylisoborneol and geosmin, and 0.8–50 ng l–1 for the other compounds.


Arguments are made in favor of broadening the scope of the various approaches to splitting spacetime into a single common framework in which measured quantities, derivative operations, and adapted coordinate systems are clearly understood in terms of associated test observer families. This ``relativity of splitting formalisms" for fully nonlinear gravitational theory has been tagged with the name "gravitoelectromagnetism" because of the well known analogy between its linearization and electromagnetism, and it allows relationships between the various approaches to be better understood and makes it easier to extrapolate familiarity with one approach to the others. This is important since particular problems or particular features of those problems in gravitational theory are better suited to different approaches, and the present barriers between the proponents of each individual approach sometimes prevent the best match from occurring.


Abstract The residual liver function is a major clinical index in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) patients. As the liver plays a crucial role in lipid and lipoprotein metabolism, the significant impairment of the hepatic function occurring during chronic liver diseases, such as HCC, can influence plasma lipoprotein profiles. Although, lipoprotein(a) (Lp(a)) circulating concentrations are mostly determined by genetic factors, in the majority of reports they have shown a correlation with the hepatic status and a significant decrease in HCC and liver cirrhosis patients than among the controls. In such a way, Lp(a) may represent a new additional and useful marker for a more complete assessment and monitoring of the liver function in patients with HCC and liver cirrhosis. Further studies are needed in order to evaluate the clinical significance of Lp(a) in HCC.


The effects of daily intraperitoneally administered doses of 100 mg/kg bd. wt. vitamin C on levels of some endogenous antioxidants as well as hepatic and renal function were investigated in a group of rabbits infected with a strain of Trypanosoma congolense (strain number: BS2/TC/SP28/P4). Values of parameters estimated in this group during and after 5 weeks of infection were compared with those from a group of similarly infected, but vitamin-free rabbits as well as two groups of healthy rabbits, one group of which was similarly treated with vitamin C. T. congolense infection caused significant (P<0.01) decrease in packed cell volume (PCV), blood and organ glutathione, plasma and liver ascorbic acid as well as serum creatinine. Treatment of infected animals with vitamin C kept the parasitaemia significantly (P<0.01) lower than in the vitamin-free infected animals after the 3rd week of infection. The vitamin treatment also prevented, to a significant (P< 0.01) degree (and in some cases completely), the disease-induced decreases in blood and organ glutathione (GSH) as well as plasma ascorbic acid. The trypanosomal anaemia was partially, but significantly (P<0.01) ameliorated by vitamin treatment. Infection without vitamin therapy also caused significant (P<0.01) increase in the levels of serum total bilirubin and proteins as well as aspartate and alanine aminotransferases. Vitamin C completely, or to a significant (P<0.01) degree, prevented the disease-induced increases in all these parameters. It was concluded that vitamin C at the dose and route used prevented the disease-induced depletion of endogenous antioxidants, hepatic dysfunction and to a significant degree, anemia.


The effect of sodium butyrate (SB) supplementation in milk replacer (MR) or in starter mixture (SM) or in both MR and SM on performance, selected blood parameters, and rumen development in newborn calves was determined. Twenty-eight male calves with a mean age of 5 (±1) d were randomly allocated into 1 of 4 groups (7 animals per group) and fed (1) MR and SM, both without SB (MR(-) and SM(-), respectively); (2) MR(-) and SM supplemented with SB encapsulated within a triglyceride matrix (SM(+), 0.6% as fed; 30:70 butyrate-to-triglyceride matrix); (3) MR supplemented with crystalline SB (MR(+), 0.3% as fed) and SM(-); or (4) MR(+) and SM(+). The MR was offered in an amount equal to 10% of the initial body weight (BW) of each calf. The SM was blended with whole corn grain (50/50; wt/wt) and offered ad libitum as a starter diet (0.3% encapsulated-within-triglyceride matrix SB when SM(+) was fed) from the first day of the trial. Calves were slaughtered at d 21 of a trial (mean age 26±1 d). Addition of SB into MR (MR(+)) positively affected BW and average daily gain, tended to decrease the number of days with electrolyte therapies from d 0 to 7, and tended to positively affect fecal consistency from d 8 to 14 of the trial. Inclusion of SB into SM (SM(+)) increased starter diet intake from d 15 to 21, decreased the number of days with scours, and tended to decrease the number of days with electrolyte therapies in the whole trial period. Both MR(+) and SM(+) increased plasma glucose in the whole trial period and MR(+) increased total serum protein at d 14. The SM(+) increased plasma glucagon-like peptide-2 (GLP-2) concentration at d 7 of the trial when compared with the concentration at d 0. Both MR(+) and SM(+) increased reticulorumen weight and papillae length and width. Based on these results, it can be concluded that addition of SB in MR positively affected BW gain, health, and some metabolic intermediates of calves and it stimulated rumen development indirectly, whereas SB supplementation in SM stimulated rumen development directly. Addition of SB both in MR and SM could be recommended for rearing calves.