Abstract. River deltas are particularly important in the marine carbon cycle as they represent the transition between terrestrial and marine carbon: linked to major burial zones, they are reprocessing zones where large carbon fluxes can be mineralized. In order to estimate this mineralization, sediment oxygen uptake rates were measured in continental shelf sediments and river prodelta over different seasons near the outlet of the Rhone River in the Mediterranean Sea. On a selected set of 10 stations in the river prodelta and nearby continental shelf, in situ diffusive oxygen uptake (DOU) and laboratory total oxygen uptake (TOU) measurements were performed in early spring and summer 2007 and late spring and winter 2008. In and ex situ DOU did not show any significant differences except for shallowest organic rich stations. Sediment DOU rates show highest values concentrated close to the river mouth (approx. 20 mmol O2 m−2 d−1) and decrease offshore to values around 4.5 mmol O2 m−2 d−1 with lowest gradients in a south west direction linked to the preferential transport of the finest riverine material. Core incubation TOU showed the same spatial pattern with an averaged TOU/DOU ratio of 1.2±0.4. Temporal variations of sediment DOU over different sampling periods, spring summer and late fall, were limited and benthic mineralization rates presented a stable spatial pattern. A flood of the Rhone River occurred in June 2008 and delivered up to 30 cm of new soft muddy deposit. Immediately after this flood, sediment DOU rates close to the river mouth dropped from around 15–20 mmol O2 m−2 d−1 to values close to 10 mmol O2 m−2 d−1, in response to the deposition near the river outlet of low reactivity organic matter associated to fine material. Six months later, the oxygen distribution had relaxed back to its initial stage: the initial spatial distribution was found again underlining the active microbial degradation rates involved and the role of further deposits. These results highlight the immediate response of the sediment oxygen system to flood deposit and the rapid relaxation of this system towards its initial state (6 months or less) potentially linked to further deposits of reactive material.


【Protein tyrosine phosphatase 1B(PTP1B) is thought to be a negative regulator in insulin signal-transduction pathway. Insulin-resistance by the activation of PTP1B is a hallmark of both type 2 diabetes and obesity. Thus, the compounds inhibiting PTP1B can improve insulin resistance and can be effective in treating type 2 diabetes and obesity. The methanol extracts of 160 herbal medicines were screened for the inhibitory activity against PTP1B. Among the tested extracts, methanol extracts of Amsonia elliptica, Areca catechu, Benincasa hispida, Morus alba, Salvia miltiorrhiza, Siegesbeckia orientalis, and Trichosanthes kirilowii showed relatively strong inhibitory activity against PTP1B.】


Lemnaceous plants, namely Lemna minor and Landoltia punctata, have been used in various types of biological research. The effects of Murashige and Skoog (MS) and Hoagland media on vegetative growth rate of both species during in vitro and ex vitro cultivation were investigated. Under axenic conditions, frond proliferation of L. minor and Lan. punctata in Hoagland medium are 8 and 11.5% respectively faster than that in MS medium. Biomass production in Hoagland medium also increases 2.2-fold (L. minor) and 1.4- fold (Lan. punctata) compared to MS medium. The roots of both species in MS medium are distinctly shorter than those in Hoagland medium. In contrast, ex vitro regeneration of frond colonies in MS medium is 22.2% (for L. minor) and 17.1% (for Lan. punctata) faster than in Hoagland medium. Similarly, ex vitro biomass production of both species in MS increases 1.8-fold (for L. minor) and 1.3-fold (for Lan. punctata) compared to that in Hoagland medium. Root elongation of the frond colonies in MS and Hoagland media is comparable. The distinct effects of MS and Hoagland media on vegetative growth of both species and the pre-determination of ex vitro growth rates in each medium are demonstrated.


Preface TYPES OF NON-METALLIC MINERALS AND GENERAL DATA ON GEOCHEMICAL METHODS OF PROSPECTING General principles of geochemical migration Orientation studies The combination of biogeochemistry and biogeophysics in exploration and prospecting for hidden and buried ore bodies and deposits Geochemical prospecting of deposits in the moraine cover Primary geochemical haloes Application of geochemical methods depending on the scope and objectives of exploration Element associations Geochemical exploration of non-metallic deposits by superimposed haloes of halogens Mercury aureoles and exploration Concentrations of radioelements DEPOSITS OF THE FIRST GROUP Diamonds Beryl, topaz and tourmaline Emerald Corundum, sapphire, ruby and spinel Rhodonite Graphite Asbestos Mica--muscovite Mica--phlogopite Rock crystal Iceland spar Malachite Chrysoprase Turquoise Conclusions DEPOSITS OF THE SECOND GROUP Apatite Phosphorite Boron Barite Fluorite and cryolite Sulphur Salts Natural soda Gypsum and anhydrite Limestones and dolomites Conclusions DEPOSITS OF THE THIRD GROUP Magnesite Wollastonite Brucite Talc Jadeite Lazurite Feldspars and pegmatites Vermiculite Vein quartz and quartzites Sand and gravel Clays Perlite, pumice and volcanic glass Siliceous rocks Magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks Conclusions NEW TYPES OF NON-METALLIC DEPOSITS THE ROLE OF ANALYTICAL TECHNIQUES AND INSTRUMENTATION IN GEOCHEMICAL EXPLORATION Decomposition techniques New analytical techniques and laboratory Instrumental neutron activation in geoanalysis Atomic absorption spectrometry in geochemical exploration Inductively coupled plasma-atomic emission spectrometry in exploration geochemistry The technique for elemental analysis (ICP-MS) Inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry in geoanalysis X-ray fluorescence spectrometry The new generation of microanalysers Homogeneous sample for mineral analysis and automated field identification of alteration minerals The experience of the application of full and partial phase chemical analysis in geochemical research NEW PROGRESSIVE TECHNOLOGIES FOR MINERAL EXPLORATION Geological mapping using airborne geophysics -- new frontiers Geochemical surveys Imaging spectrometry and radar techniques Atmospheric geochemical measurement Gas surveying application in prospecting for non-metallic minerals Application of resistivity tomography to mineral exploration The method of the application of artificial sorbents Fluid inclusions and areals of fluid inclusions in geochemical prospecting Geoelectrochemical methods of prospecting Applications to mineral prospecting New geochemical exploration method for blind ore deposits Appendix References Subject index


Abstract A total of 51 doubled haploid (DH) derivatives of the flue-cured true-breeding tobacco variety Wislica were obtained via anther culture and colchicine-induced chromosome doubling. Of that number eight DH lines showed morphological aberrations and/or reduced vigour that made them unfit to be grown in the field. The remaining 43 DH lines were grown in 2001 under regular flue-cured tobacco management and evaluated for principal growth indicators, yield, curability and gross money returns from unit area. In 2002, the evaluation was scaled down to include 13 best performing DH lines of 2001. The DH lines showed a considerable variation for basic growth parameters. Usually, the DH lines had more leaves but were shorter than the parental genotype mostly due to shorter internodes. The majority of DH lines showed delayed flowering compared to the parental cultivar. Yields of cured leaves varied extensively, some of the DH lines yielding above and some below cv. Wislica. Curability measured as percentage of light (1st to 3rd) grades was generally lower in DH lines compared to that in cv. Wislica. However, because of the high leaf yield some of the DH lines were not inferior to the parental cultivar with respect to money returns from unit area.


EDITOR: Several authors have reported sudden increases of the bispectral index values during different procedures such as endoscopic shoulder surgery [1], deep hypothermic circulatory arrest [2] or after using an upper-body blanket for warming [3]. In addition, spurious bispectral index values can be observed when the electromyogram activity of the bispectral index monitor reaches a value of 50 [4]. In all these reports there is a general agreement that the bispectral index monitor shows an erroneous value, which must be interpreted carefully. In the present report we present four cases of patients who underwent general anaesthesia for lumbar arthrodesis, in which the depth of anaesthesia was assessed with the BIS A-2000TM bispectral index monitoring system (Aspect Medical Systems, Natick, MA, USA). In all patients, we observed a sudden increase in the bispectral index values coinciding with an intense surgical stimulation of the spinal roots.


The aim of the study was to investigate the influence of parent's income on the student's performance in primary schools in Tabora region. The specific objectives of the study were;(i) to examine the relationship between parent's education level and students' performance;(ii) to investigate the extent of fulfillments of basic study materials needed in class and during private time studies; (iii) to investigate parental influence on managing students' time and other necessary resources investing in education; and (iv) to analyze the influences of parent's income and students' performance. The study used cross-sectional survey design in data collection. The aim was to allow collection of data on different groups of respondents at one point at a time. Data were collected using an interview and questionnaires. Moreover, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) was employed during data collection. Cross tabulation and logistic regression models were used to analyze data on the factors that influence student's school performance. The study was purposely carried in only one primary school selected out of 72 primary schools in Tabora Municipality (due to its students' family income heterogeneity). The study involved 120 respondents (63 pupils; 19 teachers and 38 parents). Study findings revealed that the availability of teachinglearning materials to students and long distance from home to school affected student's performance in Tabora region. Other factors like student's attitude towards education; tuition and student's self time study affect student's performance in Tabora region. Thus, the study recommends on the availability of teaching-learning materials to students. Further more, the study recommends on introduction of various programmes that could improve student's attitude towards education. More over, many schools should be built to reduce distance from home to school a factor that tends to affect student's performance in Tabora. ii


In fifth-century Athens tragedy, satyr drama, and comedy, together with the largely choral dithyramb, achieved distinct generic forms and a level of artistic refinement and portability that ensured their continuing vitality and popularity throughout the Greco-Roman world to the end of antiquity and, in the case of tragedy and comedy, into our own world. While we admire the artistic qualities of Athenian drama, it is worthwhile also to ask in what ways its development and success can be related to the simultaneous development of democracy, particularly during the age of Pericles and the Athenian empire, for exploring the relationship between these principal artistic and political products of fifth-century Athens cannot but enhance our understanding of each. In Attica, drama at the polis level was attached to two annual, state organized Athenian festivals for Dionysus: the spring City or Greater Dionysia as early as ca. 501 and from ca. 440 the winter Lenaea as well; drama was also performed locally in the deme-organized Lesser or Rural Dionysia. But drama was hardly confined to democratic Athens: each of its dramatic forms (tragedy and satyr drama, comedy, and the dithyramb) is attested before the democracy as well as in other Greek locales. Although a reliable record of drama at the Dionysia begins only ca. 501, at least tragedy seems to have become significant under the (comparatively populist) tyranny of Peisistratus in the sixth century; whether and in what ways the organization of the dramatic festival(s) figured among Cleisthenes' reforms cannot now be determined.


Unlike lower valent iron (Fe), the potential role of lower valent manganese (Mn) in the reduction of hexavalent chromium (Cr(VI)) in soil is poorly documented. In this study, we report that citrate along with Mn(II) and clay minerals (montmorillonite and kaolinite) reduce Cr(VI) both in aqueous phase and in the presence of dissolved organic carbon (SDOC) extracted from a forest soil. The reduction was favorable at acidic pH (up to pH 5) and followed the pseudo-first-order kinetic model. The citrate (10 mM) + Mn(II) (182.02 μM) + clay minerals (3% w/v) system in SDOC accounted for complete reduction of Cr(VI) (192.32 μM) in about 72 h at pH 4.9. In this system, citrate was the reductant, Mn(II) was a catalyst, and the clay minerals acted as an accelerator for both the reductant and catalyst. The clay minerals also serve as a sink for Cr(III). This study reveals the underlying mechanism of the Mn(II)-induced reduction of Cr(VI) by organic ligand in the presence of clay minerals under certain environmental conditions.


China's current vehicle emissions caused by air pollution problems have become increasingly prominent. How to improve new energy vehicle market share, and effectively guide the consumer buying behavior become a problem, which the government and social have to be solved. In this paper, according to establish the stochastic evolutionary game model between the government and consumers in the car market, introducing of random factors analysis on the impact of evolutionary stability, will obtain the stable strategy of government and automotive consumers. And on the basis of it, we study the government support, cost of vehicles, the use of cost, the utility of automobile use for the ways of evolutionary stability, with case further illustrates the external disturbance factors on consumer purchase of new energy vehicles in evolutionary game process stability. Studies show that: the increasing government subsidy policy, the reducing life cycle costs of new energy vehicles and the improving effectiveness of new energy vehicles will lead the model's evolution to the orientation of consumer purchasing new energy vehicles.


Normal rats were subjected to unilateral adrenalectomy and were killed 3 hr later. The concentration and composition of the cholesteryl esters in adrenals removed at operation and after death were compared. The esterified cholesterol concentration was lower in the adrenals obtained 3 hr after surgery. Cholesteryl arachidonate decreased in concentration significantly more than any other ester, followed in order of magnitude by linoleate and oleate. The cholesteryl ester concentration of adrenals removed from sham-operated rats 3 hr after surgery was also greatly reduced. On the basis of comparison with other work on the hydrolysis of cholesteryl esters by adrenal homogenates, it is concluded that the apparent selectivity in depletion of cholesteryl esters is due to differences in their rates of hydrolysis.


A technique for nonlinear prediction of speech via local linear prediction (LLP) is presented and applied to LD-CELP at 16 kbps. With 18th-order backward adaptive LLP for voiced frames, the hybrid LD-CELP coder gives higher segmental signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to a reference version of the ITU-T G.728 LD-CELP algorithm, which has a 50th-order backward adaptive linear predictor. The computational complexity for LLP analysis is significantly less than that of a conventional one-step recursive LLP, and the LLP method gives better prediction gain and a remarkably "whiter" residual compared to backward adaptive linear predictor. With an appropriate state space neighborhood for local linear analysis, the short-delay predictor is also able to effectively model long-term correlations without requiring pitch estimation.


The use of location systems has become commonplace in our day. However, there are major limitations when it comes to localization indoors. This work proposes an architecture that allows location data integrity when the user moves from an external environment to an internal one. Using sensory hardware integrated to smartphones, the proposed system allows the exchange of information about the location of the participants of a network of contacts. For this purpose, a digital map, associated with Augmented Reality techniques, displays the position of these people, regardless the space they are in (external or internal). To compensate for the incremental errors inherent in the estimated navigation systems, a time series treatment algorithm, known as Dynamic Time Warping (DTW), is used. Thus, the suggested solution can be implemented without the need to install a supplementary infrastructure in the environment, especially when indoor navigation is required.


In the study, which performed experimentally, the behavior of time variation of the static pressure in pipe water flows has been investigated in terms of pipe diameter, flow rate and pipe roughness. In the experiments, five pipe types in different materials and in different roughness were used. In the steady and horizontal pipe water flows, which performed at low Reynolds numbers, the static pressure at different tap locations which is longitudinally placed have been measured. The water heights in the piezometer hoses, which is inserted on pressure taps, has been recorded with a camera for three minutes for each flow rates. A total of 21 snapshots were obtained from each camera recordings at equal time intervals and the pressures were determined from that snapshot images through water height readings. The sanpshots of any flow rate has shown that all pressures at the tap locations fluctuate together over the time in the same phase, frequency and amplitude. When RMS values, which shows the pressure fluctuation in mean intensity over the time, was examined, it was observed that the fluctuation amplitudes is independent of pipe roughness but has a relation with velocity of the pipe flow.


Laboratory fretting testing is an appropriate method to investigate the friction and wear behaviors of hard coating materials in vibrating contacts under specified conditions. Such testing can help to select the most suitable coating for a specific application. Furthermore, it can assist in optimizing the coating deposition process. A conceptual framework for modeling laboratory fretting testing is presented together with test equipment and experimental methods for on-line mechanical analysis and off-line material degradation analysis. The application of these concepts is demonstrated for two hard coating types, namely, physical vapor deposition (PVD) TiN and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) diamond coatings. The influence of the fretting conditions on the mechanical contact response as well as on the materials modification induced in the contact is analyzed. The effect of third bodies, tribochemical reactions, and residual stress on the friction and wear behavior of these hard coatings is discussed.


We evaluated potential associations between maximum standardized uptake value (SUVmax) on 18F-FDG PET before and after radiation therapy (RT) and survival outcomes for patients with locally advanced non–small cell lung cancer. Methods: Patients with stage III non–small cell lung cancer (n = 49) who had undergone 18F-FDG PET at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center both before and up to 3.5 mo after undergoing radiochemotherapy were studied; exclusion criteria were patients with a history of thoracic surgery, RT, or other cancer or those who had received a total radiation dose less than 60 Gy. We assessed associations between overall survival (OS) or disease-free survival (DFS) and post-RT SUVmax and the extent of decrease in SUVmax in the primary tumor (PT) and regional lymph nodes (LNs). SUVmax was assessed as a continuous variable by Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. Results: Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that having a high post-RT SUVmax (either PT or LNs) was associated with a higher risk of death (univariate analyses: hazard ratio [HR] for PT SUVmax, 1.27, P < 0.0001; HR for LN SUVmax, 1.32, P = 0.004) and disease recurrence (univariate analyses: HR for PT SUVmax, 1.16, P = 0.004; HR for LN SUVmax, 1.32, P = 0.001). Moreover, after definitive RT, the greater the decrease in SUVmax in the lesion that had the highest SUVmax at diagnosis, the longer the OS (HR, 0.06; P = 0.002), DFS (HR, 0.03; P = 0.001), local–regional control (HR, 0.04; P = 0.002), and distant metastasis-free survival (HR, 0.07; P = 0.028). Conclusion: The post-RT SUVmax in both the PT and the LNs was a predictor of survival—specifically, the higher the residual SUVmax after RT, the poorer the OS and DFS; and the greater the decrease in SUVmax in the lesion with the highest SUVmax at diagnosis, the longer the OS and DFS. This information should help to identify patients who are at high risk of recurrence and for whom additional treatments can be designed accordingly.


Summary: Kalign2 is one of the fastest and most accurate methods for multiple alignments. However, in contrast to other methods Kalign2 does not allow externally supplied position specific gap penalties. Here, we present a modification to Kalign2, KalignP, so that it accepts such penalties. Further, we show that KalignP using position specific gap penalties obtained from predicted secondary structures makes steady improvement over Kalign2 when tested on Balibase 3.0 as well as on a dataset derived from Pfam-A seed alignments. Availability and Implementation: KalignP is freely available at http://kalignp.cbr.su.se. The source code of KalignP is available under the GNU General Public License, Version 2 or later from the same website.


Geothermal is vital for sustainable energy systems development in Indonesia. The country is privileged with estimated geothermal reserves equivalent to 29 Gigawatt-electric. However, harvesting such massive potential is precarious since geothermal projects are capital intensive, complex, and sensitive to uncertainties and risks---thus, the projects become a less attractive investment. Moreover, due to deep uncertainties, difficult decisions often have to be made regarding geothermal projects (dis)continuation for financial reasons. Additional governance measures, such as sustainable financing, are required to ensure the viability of the projects in the long run. In order to address this concern, this study proposes a conceptual framework that can be used to develop a sustainable financing model for geothermal projects. Notably, the conceptual framework is developed for exploring alternative financing schemes that are robust and attractive when faced with uncertainties and risks during the projects. For this purpose, the study employs the exploratory system dynamics modeling and analysis (ESDMA) approach and introduces the exploratory financial modeling and analysis (EFMA) approach. ESDMA analyzes geothermal project complexity and explores robust policies under deep uncertainties, while EFMA analyzes the project's financial performance and explores robust-attractive financing schemes under deep uncertainties. Aligning the results from both approaches, a sustainable financing model for geothermal projects is formulated.


13C nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra of [3-13C]Ala-labeled bacteriorhodopsin (bR), bacterioopsin (bO), and regenerated bR with retinal or bO complex with retinal analogs were recorded in order to gain insights into how the conformation and dynamics of apoprotein (bO) vary with or without retinal or its analogs. First, we assigned the 13C NMR peak resonating at 16.3 ppm to Ala 53 of both bR and bO, which appears to contact the side chain of Lys 216 at the site of the Schiff base in the former, utilizing the 13C NMR peaks of A53V and A53G proteins in comparison with those of wild-type bR and bO. Characteristic spectral differences between the apoprotein and bR were observed upon removal of the retinal: the changes of the peak intensities at 16.4, 15.9, and 16.9 ppm are notable. We found that the loops (17.4 ppm) and transmembrane alpha II helical region (15.9 ppm) acquired motional freedom with a correlation time of 10(-5)s when the retinal was removed, as detected by proton spin-lattice relaxation times in the rotating frame. A 13C NMR spectrum very similar to that of native bR was recorded when bR was regenerated by addition of retinal to bO. On the other hand, the addition of the retinal analogs retinol or beta-ionone, which are bound in the retinal binding site but are incapable of forming a Schiff base to the apoprotein, caused distinct spectral changes different from those of bR, as manifested from the displacements of 13C chemical shifts. These spectral changes must be ascribed to significant conformational changes of apoprotein at various locations in the protein, including the site of Ala 53 induced by modified interaction between the apoprotein and chromophore.


ABSTRACT Two new species of the genus Petrolisthes, P. trilobatus and P. squamanus, are described and illustrated. Petrolisthes trilobatus, new species, resembles P. miyakei and P. asiaticus, but differs from them in the shape of the rostrum. Petrolisthes squamanus, new species, is distinguishable from all the members of the Indo-West Pacific Petrolisthes by the combination of the carapace covered with short plumose setae but lacking distinct transverse rugae and the chelipeds with a longitudinal row or ridge of flattened squamae on the dorsal surface of the carpus and palm.


Objective: Apis mellifera , in the order Hymenoptera, are social insects, also known as honey bees. Türkiye has many different honey bee ecotypes and subspecies. Examination of genetic diversity and evolutionary relationships of colonies in nine different locations in Türkiye was carried out using ISSR primers. Materials and Methods: Apis mellifera samples were collected from Çorum, Elazığ, Eskişehir, Kütahya, İzmir, Manisa, Antalya, Samsun, and Muğla. The Lifton method was used for DNA extraction from 180 honey bees. DNA samples were amplified using six ISSR primers. Results: From the amplification of 180 individuals with 6 ISSR primers, 283 polymorphic loci were identified. Genetic diversity data ( Na, Ne, h, I ) were obtained for nine populations from 283 loci. In all data on the calculated genetic diversity, the lowest values were found in the Samsun population, and the highest values were found in the Manisa population. The gene flow level calculated from the genetic differentiation value was found to be 0.22. Conclusion: Genetic diversity has a role in the adaptation of species to changing environmental conditions and it is one of the raw materials of evolution. Herein, we preferred ISSR markers to identify the genetic structure of honey bees. The genetic diversity of honey bees has been found to be lower compared to previous studies. This variability may be a result of the ecological, climatic conditions, and biogeographic differences of Anatolia. The studies to be carried out with more examples from more locations related to honey bees in Türkiye will contribute to the clear identification of the genetic structure of this organism. Additionally, using other marker systems will help to clarify the status of populations in Türkiye.


The volume of the peritoneal exudate induced in the rat by iota carrageenan is reduced by subcutaneous administration of indomethacin while the concentrations of three lysosomial enzymes in the exudate are slightly increased or not modified. Thus, the total enzymatic activities of the exudate are reduced by indomethacin. The leucocyte accumulation remains unchanged in the indomethacin treated rats. During the development of the peritoneal exudate, the circulating plasma displays a high degree of lysosomial enzymes activity which is suppressed by indomethacin at the dose of 4 mg/kg.


We describe 119 meniscal allograft transplantations performed concurrently with articular cartilage repair in 115 patients with severe articular cartilage damage. In all, 53 (46.1%) of the patients were over the age of 50 at the time of surgery. The mean follow-up was for 5.8 years (2 months to 12.3 years), with 25 procedures (20.1%) failing at a mean of 4.6 years (2 months to 10.4 years). Of these, 18 progressed to knee replacement at a mean of 5.1 years (1.3 to 10.4). The Kaplan-Meier estimated mean survival time for the whole series was 9.9 years (sd 0.4). Cox's proportional hazards model was used to assess the effect of covariates on survival, with age at the time of surgery (p = 0.026) and number of previous operations (p = 0.006) found to be significant. The survival of the transplant was not affected by gender, the severity of cartilage damage, axial alignment, the degree of narrowing of the joint space or medial versus lateral allograft transplantation. Patients experienced significant improvements at all periods of follow-up in subjective outcome measures of pain, activity and function (all p-values < 0.05), with the exception of the seven-year Tegner index score (p = 0.076).


In this paper, we describe a sketch-based interface to control a team of mobile robots. The sketch interface uses a PDA platform and incorporates editing commands and an HMM recognizer for classifying sketched symbols. In the paper, we describe the recognizer and report classification results on twelve sketched symbols. To control the robot team, a user sketches a configuration that represents a multi-robot formation, such as follow the leader or march side by side. A team of small mobile robots has been built to test the PDA interface. The robots achieve the formations through simple behaviors that use local color tracking. Each robot is fitted with brightly colored side panels to facilitate the formations. In the paper, we report observers' comments from the AAAI Conference and Robotics Competition.


In contrast to the biallelic expression of most genes, expression of imprinted genes is monoallelic and depends on the sex of the transmitting parents. In humans it has been implicated in some developmental failures, neurodevelopmental and neurobehavioral disorders (such as Prader-Willi/Angelman, Silver-Russel or Beckwith-Wiedemann syndromes). The aim of this review is to present the phenomenon of parental imprinting as well as its molecular mechanism in various mammals. Several maternal and paternal imprinted genes and gene clusters are described.


We propose a global optimization approach to solve ℓ0-norm penalized least-squares problems, using a dedicated branch-and-bound methodology. A specific tree search strategy is built, with branching rules inspired from greedy exploration techniques. We show that the subproblem involved at each node can be evaluated via ℓ1-norm-based optimization problems with box constraints, for which an active-set algorithm is built. Our method is able to solve exactly moderate-size, yet difficult, sparse approximation problems, without resorting to mixed-integer programming (MIP) optimization. In particular, it outperforms the generic MIP solver CPLEX.


We present a unique theoretical approach for the six-dimensional ab-initio treatment of the motion of two correlated electrons in molecular hydrogen exposed to an intense laser pulse. A comparison of the ionization behavior of molecular hydrogen oriented either parallel of perpendicular to a linear polarized laser pulse is performed. The presented results are obtained at a wavelength of 800 nm over a large intensity range. Both the total ionization yield and electron spectra are studied for different internuclear distances.


This paper describes validated First Derivative Spectrophotometric method for the simultaneous estimation of Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil in synthetic mixture. Quantitative determination of the drugs was performed at 239.4 nm and at 217 nm (N = 1; Δλ = 1) for Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil, respectively. Proposed method was evaluated for the different validation parameters. The specificity test showed that there was no interference from excipients commonly found in the commercial pharmaceutical formulations at the analytical wavelengths of Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil. Quantification was achieved over the concentration range of 4 – 32 μg/ ml for Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil disoproxil fumerate. The mean recovery was 100.48 ± 1.011 and 100.70 ± 1.090 % for Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil, respectively. This method is simple, precise, sensitive and applicable for the simultaneous determination of Azelnidipine and Olmesartan medoxomil


A series of structurally diverse and newly designed pyrimidinone substituted 4(3H)-Quinazolinone derivatives 6a–6j were synthesized in a simple and facile manner under both conventional and microwave heating conditions. Entitled compounds 6a–6j were synthesized using N-acylanthranilic acid derivatives 1a–1j and hydrazinylbenzenesulfonamide2 as a key starting materials, which under goes hierarchy of the reactions via different intermediate steps; quinazolinone derivatives 3a–3j and hydrazonoquinazolinone derivatives 5a–5j. All the synthesized compounds are in good amount of yield. The structure of entitle compounds have been evaluated on the basis of various spectroscopic techniques and analytical methods as well as, all the synthesized compounds were subjected to in vitro antibacterial activities. Some of the compounds displayed moderate to good in vitro antimicrobial activity by broth micro dilution method against pathogenic bacteria (S. aureus,B. subtilis, B. megaterium, E. coli, P. vulgaris, P. aeruginosa) species.


Background There are between-country disparities in healthcare systems in Asia and Pacific region. The aim of the study was to construct profiles of disparities in healthcare system affecting systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) in Asia and Pacific countries. Methods An online survey was conducted between March and October 2018 of rheumatologists specializing in SLE in the Asia and Pacific region. Responses were collected anonymously and analyzed, using descriptive statistics Results The survey was sent to 45 SLE rheumatologists and 20 (44.4%) provided a complete response. Responders were from 14 countries in the Asia-Pacific region. (Australia, Bangladesh, China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Japan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Myanmar, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand). The estimated prevalence of SLE was 51.1 per 1 00 000 (IQR 26.5 76.9) with 50% (IQR 36.7 60.0) having lupus nephritis. Most respondents (66.7%) reported that 80% to 100% of the general population had public health insurance. Fifty percent felt that their countrys health care system functions quite well on the whole, and there are only a few changes necessary to make it function even better. And another 50% felt that it functions quite well on the whole, and there are only a few changes necessary to make it function even better. Assessment using a validated disease activity measure for SLE was regularly performed by 66.7% of the respondents and they all used Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (SLEDAI) with 2 responders using both SLEDAI and British Isles Lupus Activity Group (BILAG). Eighty-eight percent responded that mycophenolate mofetil (MMF) was approved for treatment of SLE in their country with 72.2% responding that it was reimbursed. It was 83.3% and 94.4% for intravenous (IV) cyclophosphamide, 50.0% and 80.0% for tacrolimus, 72.2% and 5.6% for belimumab and 33.3% and 33.3% for rituximab, respectively. MMF was most commonly used in induction therapy for lupus nephritis (40.0%, IQR 25.0 65.0), followed by IV cyclophosphamide National Institute of Health (NIH) protocol (20.0%, IQR 4.0 40.0), IV cyclophosphamide Euro-Lupus Nephritis Trial protocol (15.0%, IQR 5.0 27.5), tacrolimus plus MMF (2.5%, IQR 0.0 8.8), tacrolimus (0.0%, IQR 0.0 5.0), and oral cyclophosphamide (0.0%, IQR 0.0 2.0). Conclusions There are disparities influencing the management of SLE in Asia and Pacific countries. Some of the recommended treatments for SLE are not approved and not reimbursed for management of SLE in some Asia and Pacific countries. Funding Source(s): None


Computer-aided drug design (CADD)
is an interdisciplinary subject, playing a pivotal role
during new drug research and development, especially the discovery and
optimization of lead compounds. Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM)
modernization is the only way of TCM development and also an effective approach
to the development of new drugs and the
discovery of potential drug targets (PDTs). Discovery and validation of PTDs
has become the "bottle-neck" restricted new drug research and development and
is urgently solved. Innovative drug research is of great significance and bright
prospects. This paper mainly discusses the "druggability" and specificity of
PTDs, the "druglikeness" of drug candidates, the methods and technologies of
the discovery and validation of PTDs and their application. It is very important
to achieve the invention and innovation strategy "from gene to drug". In virtue of modern high-new technology, especially
CADD, combined with TCM theory, research and develop TCM and initiate an
innovating way fitting our country progress. This paper mainly discusses CADD
and their application to drug research, especially TCM modernization.


In studies of congestive heart failure (CHF) treatment, it is essential to select animals with a similar degree of cardiac dysfunction. However, this is difficult to establish without hemodynamic evaluation in rat postinfarction-induced CHF. This study aimed to diagnose CHF in long-term follow-up postinfarction rats using only echocardiographic criteria through a J-tree cluster analysis and Fisher's linear discriminant function. Two sets of sham and infarcted rats were studied. The first was used to perform cluster analysis and the second to prospectively validate the results. Six months after inducing myocardial infarction (MI), rats were subjected to transthoracic echocardiography. Infarct size was measured by histological analysis. Six echocardiographic variables were used in the cluster analysis: left ventricular (LV) systolic dimension, LV diastolic dimension-to-body weight ratio, left atrial diameter-to-body weight ratio, LV posterior wall shortening velocity, E wave, and isovolumetric relaxation time. Cluster analysis joined the rats into one sham and two MI groups. One MI cluster had more severe anatomical and echocardiographic changes and was called MI with heart failure (MI/HF+, n = 24, infarct size: 42.7 ± 5.8%). The other had less severe changes and was called MI without heart failure (MI/HF-, n = 11, infarct size: 32.3 ± 9.9%; P < 0.001 vs. MI/HF+). Three rats with small infarct size (21.6 ± 2.2%) presenting mild cardiac alterations were misallocated in the sham group. Fisher's linear discriminant function was built using these groups and used to prospectively classify additional groups of sham-operated (n = 20) and infarcted rats (n = 57) using the same echocardiographic parameters. The discriminant function therefore detected CHF with 100% specificity and 80% sensitivity considering allocation in MI/HF+ and sham group, and 100% specificity and 58.8% sensitivity considering MI/HF+ and MI/HF- groups, taking into account pathological criteria of CHF diagnosis. Echocardiographic analysis can be used to accurately predict congestive heart failure in postinfarction rats.


Articular cartilage has an exceptionally poor capacity for healing, but Autologous Matrix Induced Chondrogenesis is a procedure with a substantial body of literature that demonstrates its performance in chondral and osteochondral repair. However, data concerning dynamic postural stability after cartilage repair procedures is lacking.

 Therefore, the present study was designed to assess postural stability following cartilage repair in the knee.

 20 adults had undergone Autologous Matrix Induced Chondrogenesis for the treatment of full-thickness cartilage defects, with minimum 36 months of follow-up. Clinical outcomes were evaluated by patient reported outcome measures while dynamic postural stability was assessed using the star excursion balance test. The untreated, contralateral limbs served as controls.

 At a mean follow-up of 43 months, patients reported a Visual Analog Score for pain of 1.6±2.2, a mean Lysholm score of 78.5±17.9 and a mean Knee Osteoarthritis Outcome Score of 143.3±16.1. The star excursion balance test showed no significant difference between limbs.

 With no difference in dynamic postural stability, our results indicate that this treatment provides a positive clinical outcome, with no deficits in postural stability when compared to the contralateral, untreated leg.


Abstract The influence of a medicinal plant extract, immobilised by ligands, on the activity of antioxidant enzymes and photosynthetic pigment concentration of wheat and maize was studied. The object of study was seed of drought-resistant firm durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) and maize (Zea mays L.). Seeds were subjected to general uniform γ-radiation from a 60Co source on a Rkhund installation at average dose power of MD = 0.306 Gy/sec. Before radiation seeds were treated in modified extract from medicinal plants. The treatment of seeds with 0.1 and 0.01% solution of modified extract from Hypericum, Dandelion, and Calendula caused significant reduction in processes initiated by radiation and in formation of free radicals. On the basis of the obtained results it was concluded that the used modified plant extract collection had a protective effect, reducing the amount of free radicals produced by γ-irradiation.


The deepest observations of the X-ray background approach the surface brightness of the truly diffuse component generated by Thomson scattering of cosmic X-ray photons. Available estimates of the electron density and the X-ray luminosity density of AGNs as a function of cosmological epoch are used to calculate the integral scattered X-ray background component. It is shown that the scattered component constitutes 1.0 − 1.7 % of the total background, depending on the AGN cosmic evolution. Albeit this is a minute fragment of the total flux, it becomes a perceptible fraction of the still unresolved part of the background and should be taken into account in the future rigorous assessments of the X-ray background structure. This diffuse component at energies < ≃ 1 keV sums up with the emission by WHIM to 3 − 4 %. Consequently, one should expect that integrated counts of discrete sources account for just 96 − 97 % for soft background and ∼ 99 % at higher energies.


The article presents some selected results from our multimethod study "Lesesozialisation im Erwachsenenalter: Strategien literarischen Lesens in ihrer Bedeutung für Alltagsbewältigung und Biographie" [Reading socialization of the adult: Strategies of literary reading and their meaning in terms of coping with daily life and in terms of a person's biography]. In the first, ethnographic part of this study, six volunteer readers (who had spontaneously purchased a recently published novel) observed their own reading practices. The subjects were interviewed before, during, and after reading the novel. On the basis of these interviews, a great number of strategies for dealing with a literary text emerged. Most of these strategies appeared to be polyfunctional; nevertheless, certain techniques proved to be better than others for attaining specific goals. Different readers in different situations thus preferred different reading strategies. In the second part of our study, we conducted interviews with a representative sample of 1,025 experienced German novel readers and asked about their reading habits in general—not limited to the specific novel of part one. It emerged that female and male readers as well as readers with different sociocultural backgrounds (in Pierre Bourdieu's sense) preferred different reading strategies.


The entropy conservation framework describes the task-organism-environment system as a system where entropy remains a conserved quantity that is redistributed for the purposes of motor adaptation. In this paper, potential applications for the entropy conservation framework in the areas of ergonomics and human factors are presented. First, a brief overview of the concept of entropy conservation and explore its links to the extant literature will be provided. Following which, this paper will introduce theoretically-based methods of changing the properties of the task, environment, and organism to improve worker performance and reduce the occurrence of overuse injuries. Finally, methods of adapting the workplace to the aging organism will be explored. Overall the paper will provide a view that any changes in task, organism, or environment will result in a change to the entire system.


INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES: Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease is an autosomal-dominant hereditary cancer syndrome occurring in approximately one in 36000 births. Although survival analysis of VHL patients has been described in some studies, the difference between positive family history and negative family history patients remain unclear. We aimed to assess survival differences of patients with VHL disease based on positive and negative family history. METHODS: Patients who diagnosed with VHL disease (n=588) from 216 VHL families were recruited in this retrospective study. We divided patients based on family history: positive family history (PFH) patients (n=507) and negative family history (NFH) patients (n=81). Age-related penetrance of the six major VHL lesions and survival analysis were calculated using Kaplan-Meier plot and Log-rank test. RESULTS: VHL patients with positive family history had lower risks of central nervous system hemangioblastoma (HR=0.55, p=0.0007), renal cell carcinoma (HR=0.28, p<0.0001), pancreatic lesions (HR=0.27, p<0.0001), pheochromocytoma (HR=0.38, p=0.0039), and epididymal or broad ligament cystadenoma (HR=0.23, p=0.0007) than those with negative family history (figure 1). Furthermore, the mean age of first presenting symptom in PFH group was 31.93 years (range 2-74 years), and NFH group was 28.46 years (range 10-54 years). The study also revealed that VHL disease showed high age-associated penetrance in Chinese, the cumulative penetrance by 65 years was about 96.8%. And the median survival for Chinese patients with VHL disease was 61 years (figure 2). CONCLUSIONS: This largest VHL survival analysis manifested that positive family history may be a protective factor of better survival in VHL patients, which is helpful to genetic counselling and clinical decision-making. Figure. No caption available. Figure. No caption available. Source of Funding: the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grant 81572506; 81872081)ï¼[Single Right-Pointing Angle Quotation Mark]Peking University Health Science Center 985 Action Plan (grant BMU2018WRLJ001)


According to relevant new regulations in China, a composite liner system involving geosynthetic materials must be installed at the bottom of an expanded landfill. The deformation and integrity of the composite liner under a variety of factors are important issue to be considered in the design of a landfill expansion. In this paper, we investigate the strain distribution in geosynthetic materials within the composite liner system of expanded landfills, including strains in geosynthetic materials resulting from overall settlement and lateral movement of landfills, localized subsidence in landfills, and differential settlement around gas venting wells. The allowable strains of geosynthetic materials are discussed based on the results of tensile tests, and the corresponding design criteria for composite liner systems are proposed. Meanwhile, practical measures allowing strain control in geosynthetic materials used in landfill engineering are proposed.


We study the R → 0 limit for heterotic strings of either kind (Spin(32)/Z2 or E8 × E8) compactified on a circle, in the presence of an arbitrary Wilson line. Though for generic Wilson line this limit leads to chaotic behaviour, there are two distinguished, countable subsets of Wilson lines, that are dense in the total space of Wilson lines: One subset leads to decompactification limits; a second subset converges onto periodic orbits. Many of the implications carry over to heterotic strings on a circle of small but finite radius. To complete the picture, we discuss global aspects of the moduli-space, compare it with the "fiducial" moduli-space for type I strings on a circle, give a derivation of the map between the moduli of the two heterotic string theories on a circle at an arbitrary point in the moduli space, and compute the smallest radius that can be probed.


The peculiarity of the Russian North gene pool has long become scientific fact, but has yet to receive informative explanation. Genetic drift cannot be the only contributing factor in the striking genetic differences between not only northern Russian populations and the southern ones, but among individual northern populations as well. Studying Russian North gene pools previously underrepresented in scientific literature may help understand this phenomenon. The work aimed to perform a subtotal study of the gene pool of the Arkhangelsk Oblast Pomors (Onega Coast, Summer Coast, the western fragment of the Winter Coast; n = 130) using a panel of 60 Y-chromosome SNP markers through multidimensional scaling and mapping of genetic distances. The frequencies of 14 identified haplogroups differ drastically in Pomor populations: haplogroups I1, R1a, and N3 each comprise a quarter of the total Pomor gene pool, I2-P37.2, and R1b each comprise about 8%, and the rest of the haplogroups are rare. The Onega Coast Pomors showed genetic similarity to a wide range of North-Eastern Europe Finnic-speaking populations, as well as to Russian populations with a strong pre-Slavic substratum. The Summer Coast Pomors are close to the Scandinavian gene pools, and the Winter Coast Pomors are similar only to specific Finn and Swede populations. None of the Pomor populations demonstrate genetic similarity with the Novgorod Oblast Russian populations, with which the origin of the Pomors is traditionally associated. The genetic distances between Pomor populations are so great, they are comparable to the general range of variability between the Eastern Slavic, Baltic, and Finno-Ugric peoples of the region. The reasons for such pronounced originality of Pomor populations presumably include, along with genetic drift, the gene pool of each population being underlied by a different pre-Slavic substrate, with later gene flows as an additional factor.


An alternative procedure to the one by Gloge and Marcuse [J. Opt. Soc. Am. 59, 1629 (1969)] for performing the transition from geometrical optics to wave optics in the paraxial approximation is presented. This is done by employing a recent "deformation" method used to give a quantumlike phase-space description of charged-particle-beam transport in the semiclassical approximation. By taking into account the uncertainty relation (diffraction limit) that holds between the transverse-beam-spot size and the rms of the light-ray slopes, the classical phase-space equation for light rays is deformed into a von Neumann-like equation that governs the phase-space description of the beam transport in the semiclassical approximation. Here, Planck's constant and the time are replaced by the inverse of the wave number, not lambda, and the propagation coordinate, respectively. In this framework, the corresponding Wigner-like picture is given and the quantumlike corrections for an arbitrary refractive index are considered. In particular, it is shown that the paraxial-radiation-beam transport can also be described in terms of a fluid motion equation, where the pressure term is replaced by a quantumlike potential in the semiclassical approximation that accounts for the diffraction of the beam. Finally, a comparison of this fluid model with Madelung's fluid model is made, and the classical-like picture given by the tomographic approach to radiation beams is advanced as a future perspective.


We identified and characterized two regions of the human c-myc protein that target proteins into the nucleus. Using mutant c-myc proteins and proteins that fuse portions of c-myc to chicken muscle pyruvate kinase, we found that residues 320 to 328 (PAAKRVKLD; peptide M1) induced complete nuclear localization, and their removal from c-myc resulted in mutant proteins that distributed in both the nucleus and cytoplasm but retained rat embryo cell cotransforming activity. Residues 364 to 374 (RQRRNELKRSP; peptide M2) induced only partial nuclear targeting, and their removal from c-myc resulted in mutant proteins that remained nuclear but were cotransformationally inactive. We conjugated synthetic peptides containing M1 or M2 to human serum albumin and microinjected the conjugate into the cytoplasm of Vero cells. The peptide containing M1 caused rapid and complete nuclear accumulation, whereas that containing M2 caused slower and only partial nuclear localization. Thus, M1 functions as the nuclear localization signal of c-myc, and M2 serves some other and essential function.


Power flow studies use computational tools for the planning and operation of electrical power systems purposes. The deterministic model is the most commonly used load flow approach. In this model, the input data and the results are crisp values. Therefore, to account for uncertainties, the most common approach used is the definition of scenarios, which are characterized by crisp values. This is an impractical way to solve the problem of the uncertainty in the data. A more practical way to lead with the uncertainties is the use of probabilistic power flows. On such approach, the uncertainties are modelled through the use of probability density functions (pdf). However, that approach may be inappropriate, namely when there is no available historical data in order to construct the pdf. On such cases, the fuzzy power flows (FPF) is an interesting alternative. In this paper, a methodology named Symmetric Fuzzy Power Flow is used. That methodology uses optimization models to solve power flow problems considering the uncertainty treated as fuzzy numbers. A comparison between the proposed methodology and the classic ones is also provided.


Forced degradation study of Rifaximin was conducted to determine the stability indicating potential of HPLC testing method for detection of Rifaximin in formulated tablets to br employed for quality control and stability testing. The questioned method applied with mobile phase methanol: water (70:30), 5µ, 250 x 4.6mm, C18 column, wavelength 293nm and flow rate of 1.0 ml/min. Forced degradation of study was performed under oxidative, acidic, basic, thermal and photolytic conditions. The applied method successfully determined the degradation products after acidic and basic degradation without interfering with Rifaximin detection. Therefore, the method was said to be stability indicating and can be applied for quality control and stability testing of Rifaxmin tablets during its shelf life.


OBJECTIVE
To establish a culture system for retinal ganglion cells (RGCs) in order to lay a foundation for the experimental research in vitro.

METHODS
The retinae of 16 postnatal 2 - 3 day Sprague-Dawley rats were dissected into cell suspension with trypsin digestion. The cell suspension was implanted in 24 well culture plates with a cover slide 1 cm(2) in size and covered with murine tail collagen preplaced in each well (4 x 10(5) cells/well) and cultured under 37 degree C in an incubator with 5% CO(2). The cells were identified by immunocytochemical method with anti-rat Thy -1.1 monoclonal antibody after culture for 1, 3, 5 days, respectively, and the number of RGCs and its axon-growth percentage were counted in each 10-field high power (HP, 200 x) view under light microscope.

RESULTS
The RGCs cultured in murine tail collagen tissue grew very well. Some cells possessed axons and some axons connected in networks. The RGC number and its axon-growth percentage were (401 +/- 9) cells/10 HP and (25.34 +/- 0.72)% in 1-day-culture, (351 +/- 6) cells/10 HP and (35.16 +/- 2.22)% in 3-day-culture, (109 +/- 8) cells/10 HP and (69.84 +/- 0.97)% in 5-day-culture, respectively.

CONCLUSION
RGCs can be cultured successfully and the murine tail collagen tissue is a good substratum for RGC survival in vitro.


Growth will accelerate for net oil exporters and weaken slightly for oil importers, strengthening the trends projected in African Economic Outlook 2006. For the oil importers, moreover, inflation is moving to double-digit levels. Budget deficits in oil-importing countries appear to have stabilised. The current account deficits of these same countries have increased from 2 % in 1998-2004, to about 4 % since 2005.
* This Policy Insights introduces the African Economic Outlook 2007.


This paper describes a General-Purpose Software cache (GPS cache) which can improve the performance of many applications including Web servers and databases. It can service several hundred thousand cache hits per second on a uniprocessor. When used to cache data for a Web server accelerator, the overhead due to the GPS cache was an insignificant factor in the overall performance of the system. The GPS cache can store objects in memory, on disk, or both. The cache uses a new algorithm for managing expiration times of cached objects which is more efficient than previous ones. The GPS cache uses Data Update Propagation (DUP) to invalidate complex objects which is crucial for caching and maintaining updated copies of dynamic Web pages. Transactions can be logged using different buffering mechanisms in order to provide a balance between efficiency and currency of transaction log files. The GPS cache provides API functions which allow applications to directly manipulate its contents.


Fully opened youngest leaves from sorghum [Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench] germ plasm accessions, exhibiting both resistance and susceptibility to the grain mold complex, were collected at 56, 63, and 70 days after emergence (DAE) of plants. They were extracted in methanol followed by acidified methanol and analyzed for flavan-4-ols. Methanol and acidified methanol extracts of leaves of mold-resistant accessions contained at least 3-fold higher concentrations of flavan-4-ols than susceptible accessions at 56, 63, and 70 DAE. The concentration of flavan-4-ols was monitored in the flag leaves of mold-resistant accessions that had no testa at 77, 84, 91, and 98 DAE, and it decreased sharply at or after 77 DAE. The estimation of concentration of flavan-4-ols in sorghum leaves, therefore offers scope for screening sorghum accessions for their grain mold resistance


An optical scheme for probabilistic teleporting entangled squeezed vacuum states (SVS) is proposed. In this scheme, the teleported state is a bipartite entangled SVS and the quantum channel is a tripartite entangled SVS. The process of the teleportation is achieved by using a 50/50 symmetric beamsplitter and photon detectors with the help of classical information.


Introduction: The risk for coronary artery disease (CAD) and mortality has increased in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Aspirin has anti-thrombotic effects and causes reduction in CAD occurrence in high-risk individuals. The objective of present project was evaluating the influence of low-dose aspirin on inhibition of platelet aggregation in patients with RA. Methods: Forty-eight subjects with RA diagnosed based on the American College of Rheumatology/European League Against Rheumatism (ACR/EULAR) 2010 criteria and age- and sex-matched healthy participants were studied. All subjects received 81 mg/day aspirin for 10 days. Level of the serum thromboxane B2 (sTxB2), a permanent metabolite of thromboxane A2 (TxA2), was measured before and after therapy using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. The impotency to decrease sTxB2 production to less than 10 ng/ml indicates suboptimal suppression of platelet aggregation via aspirin. Results: Low-dose aspirin decreased sTxB2 significantly compared with baseline in patients with RA [median interquartile range (IQR): 25.72 (11.78, 90.10) to 7.74 (5.80, 8.82), P 0.050). Pharmacologic influence of aspirin was suboptimal in 6.25% of cases in the presence of higher erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) and in 2.7% of controls. Low-dose aspirin decreased sTxB2 significantly only in patients with Framingham Risk Score (FRS) < 10%. Conclusion: Low-dose aspirin decreased sTxB2 level and suppressed platelet aggregation and therefore, was effective in primary prevention of cardiovascular (CV) events in patients with RA; however, additional studies are required to reach accurate conclusions.


The Nickel Directive aims at the prevention of sensitization and elicitation of nickel dermatitis. It limits nickel release from, and nickel content in, certain items. The Directive came into full force by July 2001. The aim of this study was to investigate the frequency on the market of items that release nickel and of nickel content in piercing posts, 2 years after coming into force of the Directive. Of special interest was to study changes compared to the situation in 1999, when a baseline study had been carried out. Nickel release from 786 items covered by the Nickel Directive was tested with the dimethylglyoxime (DMG) test, and nickel content in 18 piercing posts was analysed. Nickel release was shown from 8% of items intended for direct and prolonged contact with the skin, and 17% of the piercing posts contained too much nickel, a decrease compared to 1999. There has been significant adaptation to the requirements of the Nickel Directive. The DMG test is useful for screening for nickel release and for monitoring the market. Provided there is further adaptation to the requirements, the risk of sensitization and elicitation of nickel dermatitis will be significantly reduced.


Background— Published nomograms of pediatric echocardiographic measurements are limited by insufficient sample size to assess the effects of age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Variable methodologies have resulted in a wide range of Z scores for a single measurement. This multicenter study sought to determine Z scores for common measurements adjusted for body surface area (BSA) and stratified by age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Methods and Results— Data collected from healthy nonobese children ⩽18 years of age at 19 centers with a normal echocardiogram included age, sex, race, ethnicity, height, weight, echocardiographic images, and measurements performed at the Core Laboratory. Z score models involved indexed parameters (X/BSA&agr;) that were normally distributed without residual dependence on BSA. The models were tested for the effects of age, sex, race, and ethnicity. Raw measurements from models with and without these effects were compared, and <5% difference was considered clinically insignificant because interobserver variability for echocardiographic measurements are reported as ≥5% difference. Of the 3566 subjects, 90% had measurable images. Appropriate BSA transformations (BSA&agr;) were selected for each measurement. Multivariable regression revealed statistically significant effects by age, sex, race, and ethnicity for all outcomes, but all effects were clinically insignificant based on comparisons of models with and without the effects, resulting in Z scores independent of age, sex, race, and ethnicity for each measurement. Conclusions— Echocardiographic Z scores based on BSA were derived from a large, diverse, and healthy North American population. Age, sex, race, and ethnicity have small effects on the Z scores that are statistically significant but not clinically important.


Iterative learning control (ILC) improves the accuracy of a system that repeatedly tracks a reference trajectory. If certain convergence conditions are satisfied, the tracking error tends toward some ultimate error signal as the number of iterations grows. We show that for any causal LTI ILC, there exists a feedback control that, achieves an error arbitrarily close to the ultimate ILC error (in a single iteration). This feedback control requires no knowledge of the plant and can be constructed from the ILC parameters alone. This result is obtained even if the ILC algorithm itself includes feedback. Two cases are considered, corresponding to whether or not a certain transfer function matrix is singular. The nonsingular case is investigated for MIMO systems and it is proved that feedback control achieves the ultimate ILC error exactly. For the singular case, it is proved that feedback control can make the tracking error arbitrarily small in the SISO case. The results of this study suggest that ILC provides no benefit over conventional feedback control, even when no plant knowledge is available.


Ethics has existed in religion and philosophy for thousands of years and has been applied to business activities in the same way ethical values and norms have been applied to everyday life. This article summarizes the arguments and counterarguments within the scientific discussion on the study of business ethics as the form of applied ethics, which studies morals, ethical principles and problems in the business environment. The main goal of the study is to analyze business ethics from the point of view of integration of general morals and ethical norms to business, a combination of key signs of the right (good) or wrong behavior while doing business, determined on the basis of expected behavior approved by the society. The study of the role of business ethics in the corporate sector of the economy allowed to determine the most general principles of business ethics, namely awareness, caring, compliance, consideration, fairness, honesty, implementation, integrity, integration, loyalty, responsibility, and trustworthiness. The methodological basis of the research is analytical, statistical and comparative methods based on the use of Google Trends. In general, in Google Books, the use of the term business ethics shows an exponential trend. The findings show that the highest search frequency of business ethics is in the "all" category, after that in the "business and industry" category, then in the "science" category, finally in the "law and government" category. On average, the highest interest frequency was in 2004 in all examined categories. The author has proved that a third-degree polynomial downward trend can be fitted to each time series. The analysis of this concept on a geographical basis showed that the interest frequency of the principles of business ethics was most significant in South and Central East Africa, in South and Southeast Asia, over and above in the Caribbean.
Keywords: business ethics, principles of business ethics, Google Trends, Google Books Ngram Viewer, time series analysis.


The Scandinavian tradition of systems development has a long tradition of involving end users within a cooperative and egalitarian perspective. Initially, Marxist perpectives formed an important point of departure in understanding questions of empowerment and involvement of workers. Over the years, other theoretical approaches have informed the practice of cooperative design, but without a reassessment of how issues of power and empowerment are understood. What is empowerment? Who gives it, who gets it? What is power? I'll address these questions from a feminist perspective and from my own experience of cooperative


Black box test generation needs a model of the system under test to describe what is to be tested. Testing criteria and test objectives define how it is to be tested. We explain how to represent a system under test via UML models. We derive test objectives from the UML models and use the objectives and the models to generate test cases by mapping them into a problem description for an AI planner. The planner uses the problem description to generate a test suite that satisfies the UML-derived test objectives.


Vascular inflammation underlies most forms of cardiovascular disease, which remains a prevalent cause of death among the global population. Advances in the biology of neutrophils, as well as insights into their dynamics in tissues, have revealed that these cells are prominent drivers of vascular inflammation though derailed activation within blood vessels. The development of powerful imaging techniques, as well as identification of cells and molecules that regulate their activation within vessels, including platelets and catecholamines, has been instrumental to better understand the mechanisms through which neutrophils protect or damage the organism. Other advances in our understanding of how these leucocytes exert detrimental functions on neighbouring cells, including the formation of DNA‐based extracellular traps, constitute milestones in defining neutrophil‐driven inflammation. Here, we review emerging mechanisms that regulate intravascular activation and effector functions of neutrophils, and discuss specific pathologies in which these processes are relevant. We argue that identification of pathways and mechanisms specifically engaged within the vasculature may provide effective therapies to treat this prevalent group of pathologies.


We have reported here a specific human short stature population in Kedurang District, South Bengkulu. AH those are men, described as a mild dwarf (130-150 cm), detected after 5 to 10 years old, caused by the failure on lumbar backbone growth and development, and only found among the men. In this investigation, we examine the inheritance pattern of the dwarfism by using pedigree analysis, study the morphological comparison between the disorder and normal person, and finally we ascertain the variation among the disorder. We accomplished a survey on pedigree family to at least 3-4 generations related to the disorder. The data are then tested with Chi-square test, and transformed to tree families and pedigree analysis. To investigate morphological performance and their variation, we collected morphometric measurements to both disorder and normal group of sample; they are the height, the vertebral bones length, head measurement, the leg and arm length (upper and fore side), and their indexes. The data were analyzed descriptively. To find out the variation, the quantitative expression and penetrance, we evaluated the data according to normal distribution with Z test. The result showed all the dwarfisms in Kedurang are men, who inherited his gene from his carrier mother. As a result, the gene has tightly linked to X chromosome and supposedly belongs to Spondylo Epiphypeseal Dysplasia Tarda (SEDT). These were concluded from 32 related family of dwarfism. We found 19 dwarf persons, grouped into young, adult, and older persons. The their height were shorter than normal (136,5 cm), and the length of vertebrae was under normal value (51,5 cm). Their frontal extremity were shorter than the normal one, but they are in proportion with any part comprised them. Their feet were shorter, but the proportion of leg is longer than calf. The rest is as normally. Among the dwarf person, there are variations of the length. The phenotypic expressivity is varied in the vertebrae, leg, and calf; but the rest is relatively invariable. Their penetrance is strong, mostly in the height, length of vertebrae, and legs. Based on morphological data we concluded that the disorder in the Kedurang, South Bengkulu belongs to SEDT (Spondyloepiphyseal dysplasia tardd).


The TiB2-Al2O3 porous composites were obtained in situ by self-propagating high temperature synthesis (SHS) of TiO2-B2O3-Al System. The reaction was carried out in a SHS reactor under static argon gas at the pressure of 0.5 MPa. The standard Gibbs energy minimization method was used to calculate the equilibrium composition of the reacting species. The effects of increasing aluminum mole ratio to the precursor mixture of TiO2, B2O3 and Al were investigated. XRD and SEM analyses indicate complete reaction of precursors to yield TiB2-Al2O3 as product composite


Background: It would be rational to describe the pattern of the clinical characteristics of the survivors and the nonsurvivors during the critical intensive-infection era of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The explicit objective of the current scoping review was to delineate the predictive risk factors associated with case fatality rate (CFR). Methods: Six retrospective studies of subjects infected with COVID-19 published between December 1, 2020, and March 30, 2020, describing nonsurvivors in Wuhan/Hubei, China, were identified. Results: There were 1769 subjects with a mean age of 52 years, and 65.9% were male. The highest comorbidity reported was cardiovascular diseases at 22.2% (393/1769). The overall number of cases admitted to the intensive care unit was 228 (12.9%). The reported overall CFR was 7.7% (136/1769), with the highest at 28.2% (54/191), and the lowest at 1.4% (15/1099). The mean duration of onset until death for nonsurvivors was 15.3 days. Conclusion: We have found that older age, male gender, the longer duration from onset till death (days), development of acute respiratory distress syndrome/shock, preexisting diabetes, and preexisting cardiovascular diseases were the major risk factors associated with high CFR.


The depinning field of a domain wall in a permalloy nanostructure can be used to detect the presence of a magnetic particle. In this device the displacement of the domain wall in a sweeping magnetic field produces a variation of the voltage drop across a corner due to the anisotropic magnetoresistance effect and hence an electrical signal. In this paper we use micromagnetic simulations to calculate the output signal of a particularly shaped device in the presence of a single synthetic antiferromagnetic nanoparticle. The calculated magnetoresistive signal is in good agreement with corresponding experimental data


It is shown that the average magnitude - redshift diagram for a magnitude-limited sample of galaxies can be effectively used for mapping galaxy velocity field. This new approach is quantitatively introduced and applied to the CfA, ESO/LV and ZCAT samples of galaxies. Strong arguments are presented for infall velocities in the Virgo and Fornax superclusters and in the Great Wall structure.


The goal of interaction between human and computer is to find a way to treat it like human-human interaction. Gestures play an important role in human's daily life in order to transfer data and human emotions. The gestures are results of part of body movement in which hand movement is the most widely used one that is known as dynamic hand gesture. So it is very important to follow and recognize hand motion to provide multi-purpose use. In this paper, we propose a system that recognizes hand gestures from continuous hand motion for English numbers from 0 to 9 in real-time, based on Hidden Markov Models (HMMs). There are two kinds of gestures, key gestures and link gestures. The link gestures are used to separate the key gestures from other hand motion trajectories (gesture path) that are called spotting. This type of spotting is a heuristic-based method that identifies start and end points of the key gestures. Then gesture path between these two points are given to HMMs for classification. Experimental results show that the proposed system can successfully recognize the key gestures with recognition rate of 93.84%and work in complex situations very well.


Background and Purpose The purpose is to determine the impact of an academic neurohospitalist service on clinical outcomes. Methods We performed a retrospective, quasi-experimental study of patients discharged from the general neurology service before (August 2010–July 2014) and after implementation of a full-time neurohospitalist service (August 2016–July 2018) compared to a control group of stroke patients. Primary outcomes were length of stay and 30-day readmission. Using the difference-in-difference approach, the impact of introducing a neurohospitalist service compared to controls was assessed with adjustment of patients' characteristics. Secondary outcomes included mortality, in-hospital complications, and cost. Results There were 2706 neurology admissions (1648 general; 1058 stroke) over the study period. The neurohospitalist service was associated with a trend in reduced 30-day readmissions (ratio of ORs: .52 [.27, .98], P = .088), while length of stay was not incrementally changed in the difference-in-difference model (-.3 [-.7, .1], P = .18). However, descriptive results demonstrated a significant reduction in mean adjusted LOS of .7 days (4.5 to 3.8 days, P < .001) and a trend toward reduced readmissions (8.9% to 7.6%, P = .42) in the post-neurohospitalist cohort despite a significant increase in patient complexity, shift to higher acuity diagnoses, more emergent admissions, and near quadrupling of observation status patients. Mortality and in-hospital complications remained low, patient satisfaction was stable, and cost was not incrementally changed in the post-neurohospitalist cohort. Conclusions Implementation of a neurohospitalist service at an academic medical center is feasible and associated with a significant increase in patient complexity and acuity and a trend toward reduced readmissions.


The paper chiefly introduces the system construction and design principle of embedded intelligent monitoring and controlling system of DC power supply based on internetworking. The system is made up of main control module, assistant control module, battery monitor module and insulating resistant monitor module. It is used to monitor all necessary parameters and states of DC power supply such as bus voltages, voltages and inner resistant of battery, insulating resistant of bus and so on. And control power supply system working with the set parameters and in a high efficiency. The interface of internetworking is embedded in the monitoring and controlling system so it is a remote-controlled system. This system keeps the DC power supply system work in high stability, reliability and safety.


The Authors Reply We read with interest the response to our article in Internal Medicine, "Affection of the gastrointestinal smooth muscles in myotonic dystrophy is not usual," authored by Finsterer et al. As the title suggests, we agree that the diagnosis of secondary achalasia in myotonic dystrophy is transient, and on follow-up examinations, the diagnosis changes to aperistalsis. Furthermore, symptoms arising from damaged cricopharyngeal striated muscle appear more severe than those arising from the esophageal smooth muscle, which is the usual focus in the clinical setting. Our patient had myotonic dystrophy-1 with CTG expansions in dystrophia myotonica-protein kinase (DMPK). She had skeletal muscle myotonia when myotonic dystrophy was first diagnosed, and her cricopharyngeal symptoms appeared later than the other skeletal muscle symptoms. Early achalasia has no subjective symptoms; therefore, whether or not she had objective findings of achalasia at the onset of myotonic dystrophy is unclear. Other gastrointestinal involvement, including megacolon and chronic constipation, and cardiac diseases such as AV-block were not observed. In older reports of myotonic dystrophy, gastrointestinal involvement has been reported (1); further studies using advanced techniques, such as high-resolution manometry, are necessary to clarify the concomitant rate of gastrointestinal motility disorders. Gastrointestinal symptoms are common, and myotonic dystrophy may also cause gastrointestinal symptoms through neuropathy or endocrine system disturbances other than motility disturbance. Achalasia is a rare acquired esophageal motility disorder of an unknown etiology and may be associated with autoimmune mechanisms, viral infection, and genetic susceptibility (2, 3). In achalasia, the esophageal branch of the vagal nerve is damaged, and the Auerbach plexus in the esophagus is histologically degenerated. However, other gastrointestinal involvement is rare (4), and cardiac involvement in such cases tends to not be more than that of the general population. In contrast, myotonic dystrophy is an inherited disorder and the most common form of muscular dystrophy. Furthermore, myotonic dystrophy is associated with various complications that are different from those of achalasia. For cricopharyngeal and esophageal symptoms in myotonic dystrophy, interventions should be considered depending on the general condition and prognosis of the patients. In our patient, reflux esophagitis was not observed; therefore, minimally invasive treatment, such as balloon dilation and peroral endoscopic myotomy (5), might be considered in order to target the loss of relaxation of the lower esophageal sphincter due to secondary achalasia. However, cricopharyngeal achalasia, which is more common and severe in cases of myotonic dystrophy than secondary achalasia, cannot be treated by techniques that focus on the lower esophageal sphincter. Thus, the efficacy of such esophageal interventions for alleviating dysphagia and preventing aspiration is unclear and may be limited.


This study was undertaken to demonstrate whether lymphocytes derived from patients with Crohn's disease and their household contacts would demonstrate increased reactivity upon exposure to tissue homogenates prepared from the terminal ileum of patients with Crohn's disease. It was demonstrated that 4 of 18 patients, 9 of 30 household contacts, and 0 of 13 control subjects exhibited statistically greater lymphocyte thymidine incorporation in response to Crohn's tissue homogenates (contacts vs control, P = 0.025) [Fisher Exact Test (FET)]. However, homogenates prepared from the terminal ileum of control subjects without inflammatory bowel disease also induced lymphocyte reactivity in 1 patient, 5 contacts, and 1 control subject. Factors may be present in homogenates prepared from human terminal ileum which induce lymphocyte reactivity in some patients with Crohn's disease and household contacts.


Ammonium polyacrylate (NH4PAA) stabilized yttria-doped (3 mol%) tetragonal zirconia (Y-TZP) aqueous suspensions were prepared. Surface chemistry of the suspension was investigated by a variety of techniques. Isotherm adsorption of dispersants on ZrO2 particles demonstrated an optimum coverage of 0.25 mg/g at pH 10. The isoelectric point (IEP) of ZrO2 suspensions was shifted to low pH regions with the presence of NH4PAA. Scanning auger microscopy (SAM) and FTIR and UV spectrophotometry were employed to determine the surface properties of ZrO2 suspensions, which confirmed that the surface Zr-O bonds were affected by the adsorbed polymers. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) analysis indicated that the interactions between particles were evidently influenced by polymer dispersants. Copyright 1999 Academic Press.


Purpose Healthcare utilisation for sports-related concussions increased significantly following the enactment of concussion laws in all 50 states. This study examined the patient and visit characteristics of paediatric Emergency Department (ED) visits and associated healthcare costs for sports-related concussions before and after the concussion law enactment. Method We retrospectively analysed ED visits by children ages 5–18 between 2006 and 2015 in the Paediatric Health Information System database. ED visits corresponding state law effective date were coded as '0', with one unit of subtraction for each additional year before, and one unit of addition for each additional year after. Multinomial logistic regression models were used to assess the impact of the law on ED utilisation and associated healthcare costs. Results Of the 123,220 ED visits due to sport-related concussions identified, majority were males (n=83,208; 67.6%), children ages 10 to 14 years (n=49,863; 40.9%), and privately insured (n=62,376; 50.6%). Females, older age, and patients with Medicaid/Medicare each had significantly increased odds of ED visits in both the immediate post-law and post-law periods as compared to their counterparts. A significantly decreased proportion of imaging use was also observed post-law compared to pre-law (AOR: 0.49, 95% CI: 0.47, 0.50, p<0.0001). Total adjusted costs per hospital for sports-related concussions were increased from pre-law to post-law (p<0.0001), although imaging use and adjusted costs per ED visits decreased. Conclusion Concussion laws impacted paediatric concussion-related ED utilisation by patient and visit characteristics, with increased total adjusted costs. These results have important implications for policy interventions and their effects on healthcare systems. Contribution to Injury Prevention This study offers empirical data on the impact of state concussion laws on ED utilisation for paediatric sports-related concussions. Future policy interventions should target preventing concussion before it occurs to reduce healthcare burden.


The authors describe their numerical experiences in applying FEM (finite-element method) solution techniques to a 3-D (three-dimensional) eddy-current problem with a coil-driven multiply connected conductor, the benchmark problem No.7 of the International TEAM Workshops. Several formulations have been tried using a magnetic vector and electric scalar potential or an electric vector and a magnetic scalar in the conductor and a magnetic vector or scalar potential outside. The problem has been solved at two frequencies. The authors briefly describe the formulations used and compare the performance. Magnetic field and current density plots are also compared. The advantages and disadvantages of the various versions are pointed out. The use of a magnetic scalar potential H rather than a magnetic vector potential A outside the conductor and the hole substantially reduces the number of degrees of freedom and thus the computational effort. The versions using it in the conductor yield relatively ill-conditioned systems. Also, at the higher frequency, the conditioning deteriorates considerably. >


Background and purpose Ankle fractures are one of the most common fractures requiring operative treatment. They occur most commonly in postmenopausal women and younger men and recent studies suggest that the incidence of ankle fractures is increasing. In this registry study, we analyze inpatient data of operatively treated ankle fractures during a period of 33 years from our comprehensive nationwide register data. Patients and methods The data on operatively treated ankle fracture patients between January 1, 1987 and December 31, 2019 was collected from the Finnish National Hospital Discharge Register and analyzed. Results 118,929 ankle fractures were treated operatively. These included lateral malleolar fractures (33%), bi- or trimalleolar fractures (51%), medial malleolar fractures (7%), and other fractures (9%). Mean age was 53 (SD 17) years for women and 43 (16) for men. The average annual incidence rate was 69 per 100,000 person-years. Over the past 3 decades incidence has leveled off for women and has started to decline for men. However, the incidence is increasing in the elderly women group (over 70 years of age). In the over 50 age group, comorbidities have increased over the years, being more common in men than in women. The incidence of ankle fractures was higher during the winter months (November–March). Interpretation The number of operatively treated ankle fractures has leveled off during the last 33 years. However, nowadays we operate on more difficult fractures in elderly patients with comorbidities.


In spite of the fact that modeling and verification of the Multi-Agent Systems (MASs) have been since long under study, there are several related challenges that should still be addressed. In effect, several frameworks have been established for modeling and verifying the MASs with regard to communicative commitments. A bulky volume of research has been conducted for defining semantics of these systems. Though, formal verification of these systems is still unresolved research problem. Within this context, this paper presents the CTL com that reforms the CTLC, i.e., the temporal logic of the commitments, so as to enable reasoning about the commitments and fulfillment.  Moreover, the paper introduces a fully-automated method for verification of the logic by means of trimming down the problem of a model that checks the CTLcom to a problem of a model that checks the GCTL*, which is a generalized version of the CTL* with action formulae. By so doing, we take advantage of the CWB-NC automata-based model checker as a tool for verification. Lastly, this paper presents a case study drawn from the business field, that is, the NetBill protocol, illustrates its implementation, and discusses the associated experimental results in order to illustrate the efficiency and effectiveness of the suggested technique. Keywords: Multi-Agent Systems, Model Checking, Communicative commitment's, Reduction.


Physicians are aware of the benefits of calcium and vitamin D supplementation. However, additional nutritional components may also be important for bone health. There is a growing body of the scientific literature which recognizes that silicon plays an essential role in bone formation and maintenance. Silicon improves bone matrix quality and facilitates bone mineralization. Increased intake of bioavailable silicon has been associated with increased bone mineral density. Silicon supplementation in animals and humans has been shown to increase bone mineral density and improve bone strength. Dietary sources of bioavailable silicon include whole grains, cereals, beer, and some vegetables such as green beans. Silicon in the form of silica, or silicon dioxide (SiO2), is a common food additive but has limited intestinal absorption. More attention to this important mineral by the academic community may lead to improved nutrition, dietary supplements, and better understanding of the role of silicon in the management of postmenopausal osteoporosis.


The purpose of this study is to examine various factors effecting earnings management behavior in the European football industry from 2006 to 2012. Empirical studies have documented the association between football clubs' financial difficulties and player salaries, but none have empirically examined the association between player salaries and club's earnings management behavior. In response to the increased financial instability of football clubs in Europe, the passage of the UEFA Financial Fair Play regulation in 2009 was intended to increase financial discipline and responsibility amongst football clubs. However, the findings from this study document that clubs with higher payrolls and those actively attempting to be in compliance with the Financial Fair Play regulation engage in more opportunistic earnings management behavior, thereby reducing the reliability of the club's published financial statements. Additionally, this study examines the role corporate governance and audit quality plays in mitigating these aggressive earnings management behaviors, and finds, consistent with prior literature, stronger corporate governance and audit quality characteristics are negatively associated with forms of earnings management. Overall, the findings from this study reveal the possible adverse effects stemming from newly enacted financial regulations, and document the importance of sound fiscal policies to protect the interests of various shareholders and stakeholders.


THALIDOMIDE, a glutamic acid derivative (α[ N =Phthalimido] glutarimide), was first described in 1953 by the Swiss pharmaceutical firm Ciba. The company discontinued its research on the drug when no pharmacologic effects were apparent. Despite Ciba's decision, Chemie Grunenthal, a Federal Republic of (West) Germany pharmaceutical company, synthesized the drug in 1954 and undertook its development. This company first marketed thalidomide as an anticonvulsant for the treatment of epilepsy. The drug proved ineffective for this purpose, but it did cause sleep. Thereafter, it was marketed as a hypnotic, sedative, and tranquilizer. It had prompt action and provided a deep sleep with no hangover; moreover, large doses alone did not cause death, so it was an unlikely vehicle for suicide. Thalidomide soon became West Germany's most popular sleeping pill and was widely used in hospitals and mental institutions. By the end of the 1950s, 14 pharmaceutical companies were marketing thalidomide in


Data estimation in the uplink of a synchronous mobile radio system applying code-division multiple access (CDMA) is considered. In mobile radio systems applying CDMA, multipath propagation leads to intersymbol interference (ISI) and together with time variance, to cross interference between the signals of different users regardless of whether the user codes are chosen orthogonal or not. A linear unbiased data estimation algorithm is presented that eliminates both ISI and cross interference perfectly by jointly detecting the different user signals, leading to unbiased estimates of the transmitted data symbols. By theoretical analysis and simulation, the performance of the linear unbiased data estimation algorithm is examined under the assumption that the radio channel impulse responses are known at the receiver. The price to be paid for the interference elimination are SNR degradations, which are calculated for typical mobile radio situations in urban areas. The resulting average uncoded bit error probabilities lead to the conclusion that systems applying the linear unbiased data estimation algorithm are well suited for mobile radio applications. >


Purpose of research. The present paper conserns the problem of using reaction predictors in the control system of bipedal walking robots. The main advantage of using predictors is the ability to exclude unknown reaction forces from the dynamics equations and, consequently, from the robot control problem statements based on the model. An additional advantage of predictor setting of control tasks is also discussed in the paper, namely the possibility of its use to predict changes in contact interaction modes, such as slipping motion or foot lifting from the supporting surface.Methods. The following methods are used in the research: the method of dynamics of multi-mass systems is necessary for developing a mathematical model of the behavior of a walking robot and describing its contact interaction with the support surface, the method of neural networks is used to develop a predictor that allows one to forecast the values of reactions between the robot's foot and the surface.Results. The paper shows that there is a connection between the frequencies of the harmonic components of robot movements (the ratio p of these frequencies in the experiment and the training sample) and the quality of reactions predictor operation of the support surface. This indicates the importance of applying a representative spectrum of walking robot movement frequencies in forming a training sample, and the poor generalizability of the predictor in relation to movement frequency.Conclusion. The paper has considered the use of a reaction predictor to identify the possibility of changing the mode of contact interaction, based on the measurement of discrepancies between local linearizations for various discrete steps. The results obtained in this work will be used in the development of a motion control system for a bipedal walking robot, which allows the device to adapt to the parameters of the support surface on which the movement occurs.


Human-machine relationships will likely become increasingly critical to organizational success. Humans are social mammals, they love and need to communicate. they need social interactions and approval or peer-review to get them through daily lives happily. Therefore, human enjoy social medias. They give human means to express themselves and receive instantaneous reaction from friends. The emergence of virtuality technology will bring new possibilities for human interaction. Therefore, the combination of these technologies with social networks seem unavoidable. Virtual Reality (VR) are predictable to give an enormous impact on daily life. The immersive technologies could lead to loneliness and escapism. This paper will clarify some of the important issues about social interaction changes caused by VR. The paper discusses VR in the human computer interaction approach and the escapist. VR is considered a different media which is very exciting, but it does raise dilemma of how best should human be appealing mind when relaxing, enjoying, escaping, or consuming media? There is threat that human can over-indulge in escapism with media. This paper is introduced the good and bad side of escapism cause by VR technology.


Lymphocytes obtained from thymus, spleen and heart blood of 33-day-old guinea-pig foetuses and from lymph nodes of 48-day-old foetuses onwards were stimulated by phytohaemagglutinin (PHA). concanavalin A (Con A) and dextran sulphate (DxS). The results, based on the analysis of ninety-five foetuses, indicated that the mitogenic responses of the guinea-pig T cells matured first in the thymus and then in the spleen and lymph nodes, in that order. The PHA and Con A responses in the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes and the DxS response in the spleen improved with the increasing age of the foetus. A clear improvement of the mitogenic responses did not take place in the blood. Thus, at birth the guinea-pig is immunologically mature as regards the PHA and Con A responses in the thymus, spleen and lymph nodes and the DxS response in the spleen. Regarding the maturation of PHA and Con A responses by lymphocytes from the blood, further studies are needed, since at birth both of these responses are clearly below the adult level.