The mandible is the largest and strongest part of the craniofacial bone of the face. The mandible is the movable part of the facial bone. The mandible has two main structures, the body of the mandible and the ramus of the mandible. These two bone structures meet and form an angle called the gonial angle. The gonial angle will change with age because the mandible will undergo bone remodeling so that it can cause changes in the shape of the mandible. Changes that occur in the gonial angle can be evaluated by means of a panoramic radiograph. The growth and development of the gonial angle which is part of the mandibular bone can be influenced by several factors, namely genetics, race, sex, nutritional factors, hormones, masticatory muscle activity, lifestyle, use of drugs, and the environment. One of the genetic disorders in the process of growth and development of the mandible is Down Syndrome. Down Syndrome is characterized by a small upper jaw, a wide face, wide eye spacing, and a flat nose. The purpose of this study was to determine the size of the gonial angle of boys and girls suffering from Down Syndrome. This research is a cross sectional study with the research subjects are children with Down Syndrome aged 10-16 years. Panoramic X-rays were taken on all subjects and then the gonial angle was assessed. The results showed that the size of the gonial angle will decrease with increasing age. Girls with Down syndrome have a larger gonial angle than boys with Down syndrome.


Team coordination is vital to the success of team missions. On the battlefield and in other hazardous environments, mission outcomes are often very unpredictable because of unforeseen circumstances and complications encountered that adversely affect team coordination. In addition, the battlefield is constantly evolving as new technology, such as context-aware systems and unmanned drones, becomes available to assist teams in coordinating team efforts. As a result, we must re-evaluate the dynamics of teams that operate in high-stress, hazardous environments in order to learn how to use technology to enhance team coordination within this new context. In dangerous environments where multi-tasking is critical for the safety and success of the team operation, it is important to know what forms of interaction are most conducive to team tasks.
We have explored interaction methods, including various types of user input and data feedback mediums that can assist teams in performing unified tasks on the battlefield. We've conducted an ethnographic analysis of Soldiers and researched technologies such as sketch recognition, physiological data classification, augmented reality, and haptics to come up with a set of core principles to be used when designing technological tools for these teams. This dissertation provides support for these principles and addresses outstanding problems of team connectivity, mobility, cognitive load, team awareness, and hands-free interaction in mobile military applications. This research has resulted in the development of a multimodal solution that enhances team coordination by allowing users to synchronize their tasks while keeping an overall awareness of team status and their environment. The set of solutions we've developed utilizes optimal interaction techniques implemented and evaluated in related projects; the ultimate goal of this research is to learn how to use technology to provide total situational awareness and team connectivity on the battlefield. This information can be used to aid the research and development of technological solutions for teams that operate in hazardous environments as more advanced resources become available.


The two wastewater treatment plants of the western part of Berlin must be extended for which only little space is left. Therefore new space-saving secondary clarifiers, the Berliner-Becken, have been developed. The efficiency is comparable to the Dortmund tanks but they only take up about 55% of the space.


The Financial sector improves to introduce by the Indian Government during the early 1990s and the key parameters like globalisation and post -liberalisation of the world economy, Indian banking has begun to change itself. It is experiencing scenario to change known as 'consolidation' of Indian banking. In this paper interpret the financial performance of banking sector pre and post -merger their activities consolidated by the stronger financial institutions. This paper analysis the Impact of M& A'son productivity and profitability of consolidation in the Indian Banking sector. The current paper examined the performance, strengthens and weakness of the sample two banks i.e.one public and one private sector banks based on the financial ratios from the perspective of pre and post – merger grounds. The collection of data covers financial performance of selected banks from 2004-05 to 2014-15. The statistical tools are arithmetic mean, standard deviation, t-test and p-value etc. to use gauge the various financial ratios before and after merger analysis. Ratios of studies are used to compare pre and post -merger financial performance evaluation of consolidation banks , test analysis and multiple comparisons which realisation the efficiency of the sample banks. Positioned on the analysis of ICICI Bank concluded that Net Profit Margin, Operating Profit Margin, Return on Capital Employed, Return on Net Worth, Interest Coverage, Deposit per Employee and Credit Deposit Ratio there is significant difference but non-significant difference with respect to Gross Profit Margin, Dept-Equity Ratio, Current Ratio, Quick Ratio, Earnings per Share and Business per Branch. Positioned on the analysis of State Bank of India concluded that there is non-significant difference in respect to Gross Profit margin, Operating Margin, Return on Capital Employed, Dept-Equity, Interest Coverage and Current Ratio but there is significant difference with respect to Net Profit Margin, Return on Net Worth, Quick Ratio, Credit Deposit Ratio, Earnings per Share, Deposit per Employee, Credit per Employee, and Business per Branch. The study concluded that the banks have been positive effects when distinguished between pre – mergers and post- merger period.


A common prediction of clonal deletion/inactivation hypotheses is that cells with high avidity for tolerogen are preferentially eliminated, with low avidity cells being most likely to escape the tolerance induction mechanism. Thus it would be expected that the tolerogen-specific cells in tolerant mice would have a different repertoire than those in normal mice. To find evidence in favor of this prediction, neonatal B10.A mice were rendered tolerant to B10 by the injection of 15 X 10(6) (B10.A X B10)F1 spleen and bone marrow cells, and tolerance was assessed by the acceptance of B10 skin grafts for greater than 50 days. Mice rendered tolerant in this manner contain severely reduced (to less than 10% of normal) but detectable numbers of tolerogen-specific cytotoxic cell precursors that can be activated in the presence, but not absence, of exogenous interleukin 2. Spleen cells from the tolerant animals were compared with those of normal B10.A mice with respect to the expression of differentiation markers on the surface of B10-specific cytotoxic cells and their precursors, and the relative strength of the anti-B10 response toward Kb and Db as a measure of the repertoire of the cytotoxic cell populations. The T cell nature of the tolerogen-specific cytotoxic cells in both normal and tolerant mice was confirmed by their susceptibility to lysis by anti-Thy-1 or Lyt-2 antibody and complement. More importantly, cold target inhibition experiments showed that cytotoxic T cells from tolerant mice were inhibited to a greater degree by B10.A(2R) (KkDb) cold targets than B10.A(5R) (KbDd), suggesting that the response was preferentially directed at the D end of H-2, in direct contrast to normal B10.A spleen cells, which show a preferential response against Kb. Measurement of the frequency of anti-Kb and anti-Db cytotoxic T cell precursors in the spleens of normal and tolerant mice confirmed the differential specificities seen in the cold target experiments. The data suggest that neonatal tolerance induction results in repertoire modification of the anti-tolerogen response rather than a uniform decrease in anti-tolerogen reactivity. Possible mechanisms to explain the alteration in the repertoire of tolerant mice are discussed.


Objective: This open- label clinical trial evaluated the dosing, safety, and effectiveness of rapid vs. slow titration of ziprasidone in pediatric bipolar disorder over a period of 6 weeks.
Methods: Study participants (aged 10-17 years) were diagnosed with bipolar disorder using standardized diagnostic instruments. Additionally, standardized rating scales were used to assess changes in mood, adverse effects, and overall functioning. Twenty-eight participants were randomly assigned to either the rapid- or slow-dose titration of ziprasidone. Linear mixed model analyses of repeated measures—adjusting for the age and respective baseline clinical score— were used to evaluate the main effects and the 2-way interaction effect (incorporating titration group and time). Cox
Proportional Hazards Regression, adjusting for age, compared the time-to-treatment response for the rapid- vs. the slow-dose titration of ziprasidone. Treatment response was defined as ≥ 50% reduction from baseline on the Young Mania Rating Scale total scores for at least two sustained periods.
Results: Irrespective of titration group assignment, mean YMRS total scores decreased significantly across the 6 weeks of treatment for the combined groups (p=.008). The median time to response was 2 weeks for the rapid titration group and 3 weeks for the slow group, but the two survival curves of treatment response did not differ significantly between the two titration groups (p=0.92). Overall, ziprasidone was tolerated well by the study participants in both groups (slow and rapid titration).
Conclusions: No significant difference emerged between the rapid- and slow-titration groups over the 6 weeks of ziprasidone treatment on severity of manic symptoms or time-to-response. There was a reduction in manic symptoms in both the rapid and slow titration groups over the 6 week period. A much larger sample is required to test for meaningful differences between the two titration groups, in regards to improving clinical symptoms and minimizing
adverse effects from ziprasidone.


Records of atmospheric lead (Pb) deposition found in peat bogs, lake sediments, and polar ice are remarkably consistent. Each of these archives provides unequivocal evidence of significant anthropogenic Pb deposition extending back at least to Greek and Roman times. The "Roman Pb peak" has now been clearly identified in peat cores from northwestern Spain, Holland, Germany and Switzerland, and as far north as southern Sweden.


Athletic training is known to induce neuroplastic alterations in specific somatosensory circuits, which are reflected by changes in somatosensory evoked potentials and event-related potentials. The aim of this study was to clarify whether specific athletic training also affects somatosensory Nogo potentials related to the inhibition of movements. The Nogo potentials were recorded at nine cortical electrode positions (Fz, Cz, Pz, F3, F4, C3, C4, P3 and P4) in 12 baseball players (baseball group) and in 12 athletes in sports, such as track and field events and swimming, that do not require response inhibition, such as batting for training or performance (sports group). The Nogo potentials and Go/Nogo reaction times (Go/Nogo RTs) were measured under a somatosensory Go/Nogo paradigm in which subjects were instructed to rapidly push a button in response to stimulus presentation. The Nogo potentials were obtained by subtracting the Go trial from the Nogo trial. The peak Nogo-N2 was significantly shorter in the baseball group than that in the sports group. In addition, the amplitude of Nogo-N2 in the frontal area was significantly larger in the baseball group than that in the sports group. There was a significant positive correlation between the latency of Nogo-N2 and Go/Nogo RT. Moreover, there were significant correlations between the Go/Nogo RT and both the amplitude of Nogo-N2 and Nogo-P3 (i.e., amplitude of the Nogo-potentials increases with shorter RT). Specific athletic training regimens may induce neuroplastic alterations in sensorimotor inhibitory processes.


Professional discourse has established in the last few decades. As a control, many applied etymologists and discourse experts have managed it in an insightful way. The main striking work on professional discourse is The Construction of Professional Discourse (Gunnarson et al., 1997). This quantitative study's objective was to identify the professional discourse and define the types of discourse. For this data was collected from Three Pakistani TV news channels named ARY Digital, Express News and Geo News. The data consisted upon the one week recording of TV news channels. Audio recording transform into text format and one corpus-based file was developed. Further corpus analysis tool AntConc version 3.5.9 was used to get the data's frequencies and concordance. On the base of extracted concordance and frequencies descriptive analysis was done and then subjectively analyzed to get the professional discourse from media channels. The study's findings presented that media is a vast profession and has its own particular vocabulary that identifies their profession. Media discourse has specific domains and topics for discussion. This study's findings will help the learners of sociolinguistics and discourse analysis in their case studies.


ABSTRACT Laboratory experiments have definitively shown that exopolymer-producing bacteria have the potential to modify the flow of fluids in oil reservoirs to enhance oil production. Once injected into the reservoir, they will be subjected to a wide range of pH values and to starvation resulting from nutrient depletion. For successful field implementation it is necessary to have a fundamental understanding of these effects on the viability of bacteria. This paper addresses the effects of pH and trace minerals on cell viability of Leuconostoc mesenteroides during carbon source depletion. Two different carbon sources were used to grow cells before transferring the cells to starvation conditions: sucrose and a combination of glucose and fructose. These substrates were chosen because L. mesenteroides produces a significant amount of water-insoluble exopolymers (dextran) under sucrose-fed conditions, which may enhance cell survival under harsh conditions. The effects of dextran on the cell viability were tested at different pH values with and without trace minerals. The rate of cell death followed an exponential-decay law for different values of the solution pH. The optimal solution pH for survival was pH 5, whereas cells died rapidly at pH 3 and below and at pH 13 and above. The sucrose-fed cells showed a greater viability than cells fed glucose and fructose for all pH ranges tested. The results indicated that water-insoluble exopolymers help cells survive for longer periods of time under starvation conditions. The effects of trace minerals on cell culturability were tested at two pH values, 4.5 and 7. For both cases, cells showed a greater culturability (smaller decay rate constant) in the presence of trace minerals than without trace minerals. It was also found that the effects of trace minerals on cell culturability were greater for glucose-fructose-fed cells than for sucrose-fed cells. The Michaelis pH function theory was used for comparing the relationships between the cell decay rate and pH.


Abstract Metastases to the hand and wrist are rare, constituting less than 0.01% of all metastases. Neoplasms which most commonly (although very rarely) lead to distant metastases to the hand include lung, breast and renal cancers. Bones of the phalanges are usually involved, followed by the metacarpus and wrist. We report a case of a neglected, metastatic tumor to the distal phalanx of the index finger which appeared in an 80-year-old female patient approx. 7 years after a left side nephrectomy due to renal cancer. The tumor grew slowly for 2 years, attaining a size of 2 x 1.5 cm. Besides neoplastic disease, the patient suffered from several, serious concomitant diseases. Treatment involved amputation of half of the index finger with the tumor. The healing of the finger was uneventful, but the patient died 4 weeks after surgery, probably due to cardiological disease.


The establishment of Soviet artists' unions in remote parts of the country has not been fully studied, but it is of interest for understanding the processes of formation of national fine art. One of the most important documents for the Soviet cultural space of the 1930s was the resolution of April 23, 1932, of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks "On the restructuring of literary and artistic organizations". Its impact is of a prolonged nature: artistic associations, originally created in the form of regulated unions, still exist, already having the status of entities exempt from direct government control. The main object of this research is the organization that united the masters of fine arts of a vast territory — the East Siberian Regional Union of Soviet Artists. The source base of the research is archival documents that make it possible to reconstruct the process of uniting provincial artists into a single regular organization and to assess the decisions of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks from the point of view of the development of the cultural space of the East Siberian Territory. Despite the regulatory actions common to the creation of such institutions, the process of organizing the association of Soviet artists in the peripheral parts of the country had a number of features that formed the final assessment of the outcome of the above-mentioned resolution. The article demonstrates that the geographic remoteness from the capital, the separation from the cultural centers, the harsh climatic conditions, the small population on a large territory, and technical communication difficulties had predetermined the specificity of the processes of Siberian social design, and the need for certain decisive actions and support from the authorities to create a viable association of fine art masters.


In the present study, yttria-partially-stabilized zirconia (YSZ)/Al2O3 coatings, which are used for jet engines, gas turbines and diesel engines were coated with thermal barrier coatings (TBCs) to provide high thermal resistance, reduce the metal surface temperatures, and increase component durability. The effect of alumina addition from 0 to 80 wt% on the properties of plasma sprayed YSZ coatings was investigated. The coatings were produced using a METCO 3MB plasma spray gun on stainless steel and graphite substrates. Scanning electron microscopy (SEM) was used to analyze the microstructures of the coated samples. The microhardness was investigated depending on the alumina contents. Vickers hardness on cross section of coatings was observed to increase with the increase in alumina mixing ratio. The presence of alumina phase commonly improves the mechanical properties of YSZ.


This position paper discusses the need for considering keyword search over relational databases in the light of broader systems, where keyword search is just one of the components and which are aimed at better supporting users in their search tasks. These more complex systems call for appropriate evaluation methodologies which go beyond what is typically done today, i.e. measuring performances of components mostly in isolation or not related to the actual user needs, and, instead, able to consider the system as a whole, its constituent components, and their inter-relations with the ultimate goal of supporting actual user search tasks.


The scientific, social, and economic advantages that accrue from Open Science (OS) practices—ways of doing research that emphasize reproducibility, transparency, and accessibility at all stages of the research cycle—are now widely recognized in nations around the world and by international bodies such as the United Nations and the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. However, program wide or coordinated instruction of undergraduate students in OS practices remains uncommon. At the University of British Columbia in Canada, we have started to develop a comprehensive undergraduate OS program that can be adapted to and woven into diverse subject curricula. We report on the context and planning of the pilot module of the program, "Open Science 101", its implementation in first-year Biology in Fall 2019, and qualitative results of an attitudinal survey of students following their course.


Presented in this Research to Practice Work in Progress paper is a model for utilizing on-campus facilities to cost-effectively incorporate impactful, experiential learning into the engineering curriculum. Within the engineering curriculum, courses designed for hands-on engineering practice traditionally utilize benchtop educational units; whereas, real-world experiences are proven to promote more impactful active participation; developing the notoriously difficult to teach traits desired by industry such as critical thinking, troubleshooting ability, and foundational soft skills. Unfortunately, the purchase, setup, and maintenance of large, pilot-scale units within a teaching laboratory is often not feasible due to increased financial requirements.This article specifically highlights the development and implementation of a partnership with Tulane University's Power Plant as part of the junior-level Unit Operations Laboratory in the Chemical Engineering curriculum. The Power Plant experiments presented here are relevant to a wide range of engineering disciplines, and the general proof of concept is broadly applicable. Equipment available at the University's Power Plant includes a large-scale co-generation unit, chillers, water purification system, and cooling towers; with associated experiments demonstrating practical applications of heat and momentum transfer, engineering economics, process control, unit operation optimization, and collection and analysis of data from the field and control room floor. This was also the first opportunity for many students to interact with plant operators and engineers—exposing them to practical skills, fostering teamwork, managerial skills, and communication.Student self-assessment of ABET student outcomes showed an increased level of attainment after implementation of the Power Plant experience. These results support the need to provide students with real-world laboratory modules to increase attainment of knowledge and enhance the overall engineering education experience. The partnership demonstrated here achieves this without the burden of additional expenditure: providing students with a unique opportunity to step outside of the lab and work with full-scale industrial equipment on-campus. Moving forward it would be of interest to transition the entire UO Lab experience over to multiple real-world facilities.


Vitis vinifera L. is highly susceptible to the biotrophic pathogen Plasmopara viticola. To control the downy mildew disease, several phytochemicals are applied every season. Recent European Union requirements to reduce the use of chemicals in viticulture have made it crucial to use alternative and more sustainable approaches to control this disease. Our previous studies pinpoint the role of fatty acids and lipid signalling in the establishment of an incompatible interaction between grapevine and P. viticola. To further understand the mechanisms behind lipid involvement in an effective defence response we have analysed the expression of several genes related to lipid metabolism in three grapevine genotypes: Chardonnay (susceptible); Regent (tolerant), harbouring an Rpv3-1 resistance loci; and Sauvignac (resistant) that harbours a pyramid of Rpv12 and Rpv3-1 resistance loci. A highly aggressive P. viticola isolate was used (NW-10/16). Moreover, we have characterised the grapevine phospholipases C and D gene families and monitored fatty acid modulation during infection. Our results indicate that both susceptible and resistant grapevine hosts did not present wide fatty acid or gene expression modulation. The modulation of genes associated with lipid signalling and fatty acids seems to be specific to Regent, which raises the hypothesis of being specifically linked to the Rpv3 loci. In Sauvignac, the Rpv12 may be dominant concerning the defence response, and, thus, this genotype may present the activation of other pathways rather than lipid signalling.


Magnetic spherules were collected and investigated from Pleistocene terrestrial sediment overlying Paleozoic granitic rocks in Southern Hungary. Some of them have characteristic feature suggested extraterrestrial origin: Nibearing crust, Ni-rich core and especially the platinum group nuggets with unique chemical composition. Their formation can be a meteorit ablation process. Introduction Spherules of presumed extraterrestrial origin were first discovered in snow samples by Nordenskjöld, Swedish geologist [1] and in deep-sea sediments during the Challenger Expedition [2] more than century ago. Since than cosmic spherules have been found in different places so as in ice layers, deep-sea sediments, sedimentary rocks or around meteorite craters [3-6]. The results of spherule research in Hungary are summarized Detre et al. [7]. In recent work spherules from Plestocene sediment (South Hungary) were studied by stratigraphical position. Here we are reporting about some of the spherules having particular property with its metal core or nuggets suggested their cosmic origin. Geologycal setting and methods About 50 m thick Pleistocene sediment with paleosoilloess layers was systematically sampled. After tratement with hydrogenperoxide and fractionation by grain size the magnetic spherules were concentrated using magnetic collection in two fractions (1.00-0.06mm and <0.06mm). 182 samples were collected and 59 ones contained magnetic spherules. The morphological and chemical analysis were made by an AMRAY 1830I/T6 scanning electronmicroscope equipped with MORAN energy dispersive X-ray spectrometer using 20 keV acceleration potential, 1-2 nA beam current and standardless analysis file of the instrument. Results The diameter of investigated spherules is between 40μm and 500μm, their shaps are regularly or near sphere, rearly drop. After chemical composition there are different types: Fe, Fe(Mn), Fe(Ni) and glassy (silicate) spherules (Fig.1). The first three types have smooth or rough surface depending on the size and shap of the covering crystals. The Mn-content is generally between 0.3-1.0 wt%, while the Ni-content varies between 0.9-6.3 wt% on the surface of above mentioned type of spherules. The glassy spherules can be characterized by surface more or less covered with Fe-bearing crystals (magnetite), sometimes they present bubbles due to gas evolution and rapid cooling. Some cases the cosmic origin can be assumed after EM+EDX investigations. Ni-content may refer to cosmic origin of spherule. We identified this type in five cases (Fe(Ni)-spherule group, Fig. 1/c).


This article aims to analyse the trauma faced by the main character Amabelle Desir in Edwidge Danticat's novel The Farming of Bones. It also takes into account the trauma faced by other characters in the novel. It explores their psychological trauma and its causes. The trauma is caused by the disappearance of her parents as well as her lover Sebastian. The shock of this loss overwhelms her and causes a deep wound on her heart. Her trauma is what exemplifies the suffering of many Haitians that has come as a result of ethnic cleansing practised by the despot Trujillo. Set in the 1930s Dominican Republic, the novel highlights the pain and torture experienced by the Haitians working-class people in the cane plantations of the Republic and the torture and mass killings carried out by the despot. How Amabelle is traumatized and how she tries to give an expression to that trauma is the main focus of this research paper. The paper analyses the issue in the light of theoretical insights taken from Cathy Caruth and Dominick La Capra.


Measuring the exact placement of probes (e.g., electrodes, optodes) on a participant's head is a notoriously difficult step in acquiring neuroimaging data from methods which rely on scalp recordings (e.g., EEG and fNIRS) and particularly difficult for any clinical or developmental population. Existing methods of head measurements require the participant to remain still for a lengthy period of time, are laborious, and require extensive training. We propose an innovative video-based method for estimating the probes' positions relative to the participant's head, which is fast, motion-resilient, and automatic. These advantages allow, for the first time, the use of spatial co-registration methods in a normalized manner on developmental and clinical populations, where lengthy, motion-sensitive measurement methods routinely fail. We show that our method is both reliable and valid compared to existing state-of-the-art methods by estimating probe positions in a single measurement, and by tracking their translation across sessions. Finally, we show that our automatic method is able to estimate the position of probes on an infant head without lengthy offline procedures, a task which is considered unachievable until now.


Developments during 1987 are reviewed. A variety of products based on laser optical-disk technology have been offered to consumers. New formats for video cassette recorders and camcorders make possible home television pictures with quality comparable to that from laser videodisks. Proposals for high-definition and improved-definition television broadcast systems, now under evaluation, also promise better pictures in the home. An expert opinion is given by Almon H. Clegg, executive vice president and chief operating officer of Denon America Inc., who predicts that two developments-digital video interactive (DVI) and Super VHS (S-VHS)-are likely to affect the market most during 1988.<<ETX>>


Infants with constitutional trisomy 21 are at increased risk of developing transient and acute megakaryoblastic leukemia (AMKL). Mutations in GATA1 have been identified in trisomy 21 patients with AMKL, and this lesion is thought to be an initial event by virtue of its presence during transient leukemia. Transient leukemia is also observed in phenotypically normal infants albeit much less commonly so. Almost all these infants are mosaic for trisomy 21, and the clinical course of transient leukemia recapitulates that observed in constitutional trisomy 21. We report a phenotypically normal infant with tetrasomy 21 transient leukemia, GATA1 mutation within exon 2, and trisomy 21 mosaicism restricted to the hematopoietic tissue. Two years after diagnosis, low levels of trisomy 21 persisted in the peripheral blood, which resolved 2.5 years after diagnosis. The GATA1 mutation was not detected at last follow‐up. The literature review identified 32 phenotypically normal infants with transient leukemia. Ninety‐one percent (29 of 32) were observed and three received chemotherapy at diagnosis of transient leukemia. Nineteen percent (6 of 32) developed acute leukemia, and four continued in remission (two died). Transient leukemia in trisomy 21 mosaicism recapitulates the condition observed in constitutional trisomy 21 at the biological and clinical levels. Infants should be followed for the development of acute leukemia. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Abstract The Kepler satellite provides a unique opportunity to study the detailed optical photometric variability of late-type stars with unprecedentedly long (several year) continuous monitoring and sensitivity to very small-scale variations. We are studying a sample of over two hundred cool (mid-A - late-K spectral type) stars using Kepler long-cadence (30 minute sampling) observations. These stars show a remarkable range of photometric variability, but in this paper we concentrate on rotational modulation due to starspots and flaring. Modulation at the 0.1% level is readily discernable. We highlight the rapid timescales of starspot evolution seen on solar-like stars with rotational periods between 2 and 7 days.


The thymus is critical in establishing and maintaining the appropriate microenvironment for promoting the development and selection of T cells. The function and structure of the thymus gland has been extensively studied, particularly as the thymus serves an important physiological role in the lymphatic system. Numerous studies have investigated the morphological features of thymic involution. Recently, research attention has increasingly been focused on thymic proteins as targets for drug intervention. Omics approaches have yielded novel insights into the thymus and possible drug targets. The present review addresses the signaling and transcriptional functions of the thymus, including the molecular mechanisms underlying the regulatory functions of T cells and their role in the immune system. In addition, the levels of cytokines secreted in the thymus have a significant effect on thymic functions, including thymocyte migration and development, thymic atrophy and thymic recovery. Furthermore, the regulation and molecular mechanisms of stress-mediated thymic atrophy and involution were investigated, with particular emphasis on thymic function as a potential target for drug development and discovery using proteomics.


Several microactuator technologies have been investigated for positioning individual elements in large-scale microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). Electrostatic, magnetostatic, piezoelectric and thermal expansion represent the most common modes of microactuator operation. This research focuses on the design and comparative performance evaluation of asymmetrical electrothermal actuators. The motivation is to present a unified description of the behavior of the electrothermal actuator so that it can be adapted to a variety of microsensor and microactuator applications. This research compares the tip deflection performance of the asymmetrical single- and double-hot arm electrothermal actuator designs. Deflection measurements of both actuator designs as a function of arm length and applied electrical power are presented. As a practical application of the electrothermal actuator, the recent realization of a MEMS microengine is described, and evidence of its bi-directional motion is presented. The electrothermal actuator and microengine designs were accomplished with the MEMSProreg CAD software program, and they were fabricated using the MEMSCAP Integrated Microsystems Multi-User Microelectromechanical Systems (MEMS) Processreg (MUMPs) foundry.


To better understand the allelopathic effect of sorghum(Sorghum vulgare L.), the inhibitory activities of water extracts of the stem, leaf and root, and of residues of the stem to major crops and weeds associated with them were evaluated. The allelopathic activity of sorghum plants was species specific, and depended on source and concentration. Germination, and shoot and root length of all test species were inhibited by the different concentrations of the stem extract. Among the crop species, radish showed the most inhibition, followed by wheat and rice. Maize was the least sensitive species. Of the weed species, Ipomoea triloba was most inhibited, followed by Echinochloa colona and Rottboellia cochinchinensis. The water extracts of leaves, stems, and roots significantly inhibited germination and seedling growth in E. colona and radish. The stem extract gave the greatest inhibitory effect on E. colona while all three extracts produced similar response in radish. In the greenhouse trial, sorghum stem residue placed on the soil surface as mulch significantly inhibited seedling growth in E. colona and radish, but not that in rice.


Some phenomena of behavioral contrast in multiple schedules are reviewed, and three accounts of contrast are considered. Rate changes within a constant schedule component (transient contrasts) are distinguished from rate changes across successive schedule cycles (sustained contrasts). Pigeons were exposed to a three-component multiple schedule, in which a stimulus correlated with a constant variable interval schedule of reinforcement was preceded by a stimulus correlated with more frequent variable interval reinforcement, or by an extinction stimulus. If the preceding stimulus was correlated with more frequent reinforcement, the response rate in the constant component was low and increased with time. If the preceding stimulus was correlated with extinction, the rate in the constant component was high and decreased with time. Similar transient contrasts were observed in a two-component multiple schedule with different variable interval schedules in the two components. The transient contrast effects in the three-component schedule were shown to depend on differential reinforcement frequency rather than differential response rate in the preceding component. Such transient contrasts were not sufficient to account for sustained contrast effects observed in these experiments. The relation of these findings to the concepts of excitation and inhibition is discussed.


Evidence Aid, an initiative established by members of The Cochrane Collaboration in the aftermath of the Indian Ocean Tsunami in December 2004, celebrates its first 10 years later this year. Whilst the principles of the Evidence Aid initiative are firmly rooted in evidence‐based medicine and public health practice, the initiative itself was born of a humanitarian imperative, compassion and the expressed moral duty to help. The evidence‐base for Evidence Aid, (that is, for knowledge translation interventions focused on dissemination of evidence), was not, and is not, well‐established This article, which is based on a presentation at the Evidence Aid Symposium on 20 September 2014, at Hyderabad, India presents a unifying conceptual framework for use when researching the impact of Evidence Aid as a knowledge translation intervention. It highlights how each of the core activities can be mapped to this framework and identifies key outcomes of interest for evaluation.


This study presents a combination of multi-criteria decision-making (MCDM) methodologies with geographic information systems (GIS) to carry out a prioritization of obsolete military coastal batteries with the aim of transforming them into touristic, scientific, and cultural places of interest. The study area is located in the Municipality of Cartagena, in Southeast Spain. Such a prioritization requires taking into account transport criteria (distance to roads or train stations), infrastructure criteria (distance to electrical grids or distance to water tanks), touristic or scientific criteria (distance to towns, beaches, archaeological sites, assets of cultural interest, etc.), and orography criteria (area, altitude, and slope of each battery). Therefore, this decision problem involves a set of alternatives (coastal military batteries) to be prioritized based on a group of criteria that should be considered. To tackle this, GIS software is used to provide the attribute table of alternatives and criteria (decision matrix), and the proposed decision problem is solved through a combination of MCDM methodologies based on the Technique for Order of Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS) and Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) techniques. The AHP approach is applied to determine the weights of the criteria whilst the TOPSIS method provides a ranking of alternatives in order to obtain a prioritization.


Paternally expressed gene 10 (PEG10) has been associated with neuroendocrine muscle-invasive bladder cancer (MIBC), a subtype of the disease with the poorest survival. In this work, we further characterized the expression pattern of PEG10 in The Cancer Genome Atlas database of 412 patients with MIBC, and found that, compared with other subtypes, PEG10 mRNA level was enhanced in neuroendocrine-like MIBC and highly correlated with other neuroendocrine markers. PEG10 protein level also associated with neuroendocrine markers in a tissue microarray of 82 cases. In bladder cancer cell lines, PEG10 expression was induced in drug-resistant compared with parental cells, and knocking down of PEG10 resensitized cells to chemotherapy. Loss of PEG10 increased protein levels of cell-cycle regulators p21 and p27 and delayed G1–S-phase transition, while overexpression of PEG10 enhanced cancer cell proliferation. PEG10 silencing also lowered levels of SLUG and SNAIL, leading to reduced invasion and migration. In an orthotopic bladder cancer model, systemic treatment with PEG10 antisense oligonucleotide delayed progression of T24 xenografts. In summary, elevated expression of PEG10 in MIBC may contribute to the disease progression by promoting survival, proliferation, and metastasis. Targeting PEG10 is a novel potential therapeutic approach for a subset of bladder cancers.


The mobile technology advancement has been growth rapidly. Every persons use mobile phone to support their daily activities. This condition make banks have to change their traditional methods of customer service to adoption of information technology. Customers today require more personalized services at any time and any place. Mobile banking is one of advanced information technologies that can employ to achieve a high level of customer services and emerging technology that permits conduct of banking transaction through mobile phone. For bank's customers, this application will support their banking transaction if they think it has a usefulness and easy to use. The important one is customer trust to mobile banking application. This research purposes to test the effect of perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust to use of mobile banking. A survey was conducted to customers of Bank Mandiri Boyolali, esspecially mobile banking application user. Collected data analized with multiple regression analysis. The results of this research show that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and trust tend to have effect on use of mobile banking.


Macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF) is a proinflammatory cytokine produced by many cells and tissues including pancreatic beta-cells, liver, skeletal muscle, and adipocytes. This study investigates the potential role of MIF in carbohydrate homeostasis in a physiological setting outside of severe inflammation, utilizing Mif knockout (MIF-/-) mice. Compared with wild-type (WT) mice, MIF-/- mice had a lower body weight, from birth until 4 months of age, but subsequently gained weight faster, resulting in a higher body weight at 12 months of age. The lower weight in young mice was related to a higher energy expenditure, and the higher weight in older mice was related to an increased food intake and a higher fat mass. Fasting blood insulin level was higher in MIF-/- mice compared with WT mice at any age. After i.p. glucose injection, the elevation of blood insulin level was higher in MIF-/- mice compared with WT mice, at 2 months of age, but was lower in 12-month-old MIF-/- mice. As a result, the glucose clearance during intraperitoneal glucose tolerance tests was higher in MIF-/- mice compared with WT mice until 4 months of age, and was lower in 12-month-old MIF-/- mice. Insulin resistance was estimated (euglycemic-hyperinsulinemic clamp tests), and the phosphorylation activity of AKT was similar in MIF-/- mice and WT mice. In conclusion, this mouse model provides evidence for the role of MIF in the control of glucose homeostasis.


Three experiments (total N = 1,058) were conducted to investigate the relationship between memory accuracy and subjective confidence using thematic lists constructed on the basis of spontaneous accessibility, that is, the frequency with which items are spontaneously generated as category members. After memorizing lists of words and performing a distractor task, participants completed tests of recognition memory and rated confidence in their memory for 4 item types: studied items (second highest spontaneous accessibility) and 3 types of nonstudied items, including strong lures (highest spontaneous accessibility), weak lures (third highest spontaneous accessibility), and semantically unrelated items. In Experiments 1 and 2, the items were presented as lists, whereas in Experiment 3, they were embedded in short vignettes. In Experiments 1 and 3, amount of material to be encoded (1 vs. 10 or 8 lists of 15 items), and in Experiment 2, modality of stimulus presentation at encoding and at test (visual–visual, auditory–auditory, and auditory–visual) were varied between participants. Across all experiments, the confidence–accuracy relationship remained consistently positive for studied items. However, increasing the amount of information to be memorized, using inconsistent stimulus modalities across encoding and retrieval, and embedding the items in vignettes resulted in (a) zero or negative confidence–accuracy relationships for weak lures and (b) highly negative confidence–accuracy relationships for strong lures. These results demonstrate that subjective confidence judgments are made on the basis of inferential processes in the course of which spontaneous accessibility is mistaken for memory strength.


Abstract It is generally accepted that newspaper firms are passing through hard times. Readers and advertisers—their 2 main income sources—seem to be turning to other media, thus negatively affecting newspaper financial performance. To respond to these challenges, newspapers are changing the way they organize their activities. This study looks at a sample of newspapers to investigate extent to which 2 of these organizational changes (i.e., integration and outsourcing) are affecting performance. The study shows that the higher the degree of integration within the firm, the more positive the performance. Outsourcing is found to have a negative impact. These effects are over and above those of the perceived environment.


Go Mannich! A highly efficient and enantioselective method for the direct asymmetric reaction of dibenzyl malonate with N-tert-butoxycarbonyl aldimines in the presence of Yb(OTf)3 and iPr-pybox complexes is described (see scheme; pybox = pyridine bisoxazoline).


In large part from concerns about radiation exposure from computed tomography (CT), iterative reconstruction (IR) has emerged as a popular technique for dose reduction. Although IR clearly reduces image noise and improves resolution, its ability to maintain or improve low-contrast detectability over (possibly post-processed) filtered backprojection (FBP) reconstructions is unclear. In this work, we have scanned a low contrast phantom encased in an acrylic oval using two vendors' scanners at 120 kVp at three dose levels for axial and helical acquisitions with and without automatic exposure control. Using the local noise power spectra of the FBP and IR images to guide the filter design, we developed a two-dimensional angularly-dependent Gaussian filter in the frequency domain that can be optimized to minimize the root-mean-square error between the image-domain filtered FBP and IR reconstructions. The filter is extended to three-dimensions by applying a through-slice Gaussian filter in the image domain. Using this three-dimensional, non-isotropic filtering approach on data with non-uniform statistics from both scanners, we were able to process the FBP reconstructions to closely match the low-contrast performance of IR images reconstructed from the same raw data. From this, we conclude that most or all of the benefits of noise reduction and low-contrast performance of advanced reconstruction can be achieved with adaptive linear filtering of FBP reconstructions in the image domain.


This paper studies the role of sparse regularisation in a properly chosen basis for variational data assimilation (VDA) problems. Specifically, it focuses on data assimilation of noisy and down-sampled observations while the state variable of interest exhibits sparsity in the real or transform domains. We show that in the presence of sparsity, the -norm regularisation produces more accurate and stable solutions than the classic VDA methods. We recast the VDA problem under the -norm regularisation into a constrained quadratic programming problem and propose an efficient gradient-based approach, suitable for large-dimensional systems. The proof of concept is examined via assimilation experiments in the wavelet and spectral domain using the linear advection–diffusion equation.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the municipal solid waste (MSW) composition of Peshawar city and its affective utilization for energy purpose in the cement industry. A total 14 days consecutive testing of MSW samples was conducted for winter and summer periods for the purpose of evaluation of the waste composition followed by calculating its heating values. Compliance level of MSW at source was determined which was based upon the questionnaire distribution followed by the financial analysis and feasibility evaluation of the project. The results revealed that the average waste composition of the samples consists of organic waste contents (20.72%), combustible items (37.86%), readily saleable items (20.95%) and other miscellaneous waste items (20.46%). Moreover, the samples were then tested for the evaluation of calorific value and it was found that the heating value of MSW is recorded up to 35513 KJ/Kg whereas; the value for coal is around 38000 KJ/Kg. These findings revealed that the replacement of coal by MSW may be more efficient and might be effectively utilized in the production of cement as the energy production of MSW and coal is nearly same. In addition, the utilization of MSW as a replacement of coal has a great potential of enhancing the service life of the landfills. Besides, NPV analysis of this study revealed that the project is worthwhile to be implemented as it shows high returns regarding financial aspects.


In previous work, we have formalized the notions of "planarization length" and "planarization response function" as key parameters that characterize a given CMP consumable set and process. Once extracted through experiments using carefully designed characterization mask sets, these parameters can be used to predict polish performance in CMP for arbitrary product layouts. The methodology has proven effective at predicting oxide interlevel dielectric planarization results. In this work, we discuss extensions of layout pattern dependent CMP modeling. These improvements include integrated up and down area polish modeling; this is needed to account for both density dependent effects, and step height limits or step height perturbations on the density model. Second, we discuss applications of the model to process optimization, process control (e.g. feedback compensation of equipment drifts), and shallow trench isolation (STI) polish. Third, we propose a framework for the modeling of pattern dependent effects in copper CMP. The framework includes "removal rate diagrams" which concisely capture dishing height and step height dependencies in dual material polish processes.


ABSTRACT Ocular infection with herpes simplex virus (HSV) results in a blinding immunoinflammatory stromal keratitis (SK) lesion. Early preclinical events include polymorphonuclear neutrophil (PMN) infiltration and neovascularization in the corneal stroma. We demonstrate here that HSV infection of the cornea results in the upregulation of the cycloxygenase 2 (COX-2) enzyme. Early after infection, COX-2 was produced from uninfected stromal fibroblasts as an indirect effect of virus infection. Subsequently, COX-2 may also be produced from other inflammatory cells that infiltrate the cornea. The induction of COX-2 is a critical event, since inhibition of COX-2 with a selective inhibitor was shown to reduce corneal angiogenesis and SK severity. The administration of a COX-2 inhibitor resulted in compromised PMN infiltration into the cornea, as well as diminished corneal vascular endothelial growth factor levels, likely accounting for the reduced angiogenic response. COX-2 stimulation by HSV infection represents a critical early event accessible for therapy and the control of SK severity.


In this paper, a DCT-domain foveated JND model is proposed. The proposal finds the foveation blocks in a frame picture by object movement information and contrast information, and uses block's retina eccentricity and view distance to calculate the foveation modulation factor of every block, which is for scaling spatio-temporal JND. Moreover, the foveated JND is utilized in hybrid video coding framework to reduce bit rate. Experimental results show that the proposed model can save bit rate as much as 9.54%, compared to the same coding scheme with the conventional DCT JND, without degradation of visual quality.


Apple (Malus × domestica) is one of the most important fruit crops in terms of worldwide production. Due to its self-incompatibility system and the long juvenile period, breeding of new apple cultivars combining traits desired by growers (e.g. yield, pest and disease resistance) and consumers (e.g. fruit size, color, and flavor) is a long and complex process. Genomics-assisted breeding strategies can facilitate the selection of germplasm leading to new cultivars. While the most complete apple genome assemblies available to date are from anther-derived homozygous lines, de novo assembly of apple genomes encompassing the natural heterozygosity remains challenging. Using long- and short-read sequencing technologies in combination with optical mapping, we de novo assembled a diploid and heterozygous genome of the apple cultivar 'Gala Galaxy'. This approach resulted in 154 hybrid scaffolds (N50 = 34.3 Mb) spanning 999.9 Mb and in 414.7 Mb of unscaffolded sequences. Anchoring 31 scaffolds with a genetic map was sufficient to represent an entire haploid genome of 17 pseudomolecules (719.4 Mb). The remaining sequences were assembled in a second set of 17 pseudomolecules, which spanned 601 Mb, leaving 80.6 Mb of unplaced sequences. A total of 41,264 genes were annotated using 74,900 transcripts derived from RNA sequencing of pooled leaf tissue samples. This study provides a high-quality diploid reference genome sequence encompassing the natural heterozygosity of the widely popular cultivar 'Gala Galaxy'. The DNA sequence resources and the assembly described here will serve as a solid foundation for fundamental and applied apple breeding research.


An approach to chip floorplanning utilising hierarchical and functional information derived using LSI logic design is described. The proposed approach adopts a methodological design process similar to that of expert designers. A new clustering method that can be divided into three phases, namely clustering, cluster classification and placement, is employed in this process. The prototype system is implemented based on AI techniques.


Monoclonal antibody against c-myc protein was used in the avidin-biotin-peroxidase complex procedure to examine frozen sections of psoriatic and normal skin and psoriatic synovium for the presence of c-myc protein. A significantly greater percentage (88%) of epithelial cells from psoriatic skin lesions stained for c-myc than uninvolved skin (62%) from both psoriatics and normals (p less than 0.001). The intensity of the stain appeared weaker in normal skin specimens. Greater than 95% of psoriatic hyperplastic synovial lining cells stained strongly for c-myc. In all cases, the c-myc staining was confined to the nuclei with no evidence of cytoplasmic staining.


This paper explores the factors influencing the acceptance of halal virtual inspection. Halal inspection is one of the main critical processes in Halal Certification system. However, due to the problems that occur in Halal Certification system, halal virtual inspection is proposed to overcome the problems. The technology acceptance model (TAM) was adapted as a baseline theory. Survey questionnaires were distributed to 86 respondents who are identified as halal industry players such as producers and consumers of food and beverages sector. The findings of this study reveal that perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, amount of information, perceived security and trust are the main factors influencing halal virtual inspection acceptance. These factors could be used as a guideline to the halal service providers in order to achieve effective implementation, efficient and trusted halal virtual inspection.


In this paper, we study by a functional method the vacuum instability of a charged scalar field, when it is quantized in the background of the Reissner-Nordstr\"om black hole; we also show that the first stage of the evaporation process of the black hole can be driven by a Schwinger-like effect.


Setting events are typically seen as antecedent contextual variables that influence behaviour. They are thought to act independently of Skinner's three‐term contingency, which consists of a discriminative stimulus, response, and reinforcing consequence. There has been increasing interest in setting events in education from both a theoretical and applied perspective. This paper examines a range of conceptualisations of setting events and appraises the extent to which they can be viewed as a discrete class of phenomena. Variation in the terminology used to describe setting events and lack of clarity in consideration of explanatory mechanisms tends to hinder analysis. Nevertheless, a number of plausible explanations exist to account for setting events associated with both conditioned and unconditioned reinforcers. While the conceptual underpinnings of setting events remain unclear in part, they do serve the function of drawing our attention to a wide range of antecedent variables that may influence behaviour. Resolution of issues related to consistency of terminology and clarification of our conceptual understanding of setting events may provide further guidance in their practical application to behaviour.


Some volatile binary metal-organic frameworks of titanium (IV), [Ti(OOCR) 4 ] (where R = C 13 H 27, C 15 H 31, C 17 H 35 or C 21 H 43 ) were synthesized by the reaction of titanium tetrachloride and sodium salts of the straight chain fatty acids (prepared in situ) in 1:4 molar ratio. The isolated solid products were showing poor crystallinity and were characterized by their elemental analyses, molecular weight determinations, conductance, spectral (infrared, 1 H NMR, 13 C NMR, FAB mass and powder XRD) and TEM studies. Their monomeric nature was confirmed by molecular weight determinations and FAB mass spectra. Eight coordination number of titanium (IV) have been assigned in the isolated compounds. TEM indicated the particles are spherical in shape having ~200 nm diameter.


OBJECTIVE
to describe the safety profile of the heterologous serum produced by the Butantan Institute (BI) of São Paulo-SP, Brazil.

METHODS
a descriptive study of adverse events (AEs) post-exposure to serum produced by the BI, encoded in the medical terminology of the Medical Dictionary for Regulatory Activities (MedDRA), and spontaneously reported to BI from 2012 to 2015.

RESULTS
52 individuals reported AEs, mainly related to Bothrops antivenom (n=11), diphtheria antitoxin (n=9) and unspecified snakebite serum (n=9); a mean of 3.2 AEs per individual was observed; among the total of 173 AEs, 63.0% were expected considering that they were described in the package insert; most of them were classified as skin and subcutaneous tissue disorders (30.6%); there were six deaths temporally related to the use of serum, but this association was discarded.

CONCLUSION
in the studied period, the serum produced by the BI had no changes in their safety profiles, considering that the AEs were expected, according to the information previously described in the package insert.


Technosols are modified soils affected by human activities. This study investigated genesis, classification and physicochemical properties of four pedons of Technosols developed on refused oil refinery materials and compared them with two unpolluted pedons. Mineralogical studies showed smectite as a dominant clay mineral with other clay minerals. These clay minerals adsorb oil compounds in their interlayer spaces and reduce their mobility and decomposition. Different micromorphological features resulting from oil compounds in soils, including depletion zones, types of coatings (quasi and hypocoating) and features due to horizontal and vertical movement of oil compound in soil showed dynamics of oil compounds and their effects on soil forming process. The refused petroleum compounds decrease pH and increase organic carbon, amorphous form of Iron in soils. Taking into account the presence of high amounts of gypsum and carbonate in polluted soil, the studied soils were classified as Typic Calcigypsids in Soil Taxonomy but in WRB system, due to the presence of impermeable geomembrane within 100 cm of soil surface, they were classified as Linic Technosols, showing the more precision of WRB system in their classification.


Solubility Characteris tics Cimetidine is soluble in alcohol, slightly soluble in water, very slightly soluble in chloroform and insoluble in ether. Each tablet, for oral administration, contains 300 mg, 400 mg, or 800 mg cimetidine, USP. In addition, each tablet contains the following inactive ingredients: corn starch, magnesium stearate, microcrystalline cellulose, povidone, sodium lauryl sulfate and sodium starch glycolate. The coating for the tablets contains: carnauba wax, hypromellose, polyethylene glycol, polysorbate 80, talc, titanium dioxide, and triethyl citrate. The coating for the 300 mg and 400 mg tablets also contains D&C Yellow No. 10 Aluminum Lake, FD&C Blue No. 1 Aluminum Lake, and FD&C Yellow No. 6 Aluminum Lake.


Members of the mammalian family Felidae (extant and extinct cats) are grossly phenotypically similar, but display a 300-fold range in body size, from less than 1 kg to more than 300 kg. In addition to differences in body mass, felid species show dietary and locomotory specializations that correlate to skull and limb osteological measurements, such as shape or cross-sectional area. However, ecological correlates to the axial skeleton are yet untested. Here, we build on previous studies of the biomechanical and morphological evolution of the felid appendicular skeleton by conducting a quantitative analysis of morphology and allometry in the presacral vertebral column across extant cats. Our results demonstrate that vertebral columns of arboreal, scansorial and terrestrial felids significantly differ in morphology, specifically in the lumbar region, while no distinction based on dietary specialization was found. Body size significantly influences vertebral morphology, with clear regionalization of allometry along the vertebral column, suggesting that anterior (cervicals and thoracics) and posterior (lumbar) vertebrae may be independently subjected to distinct selection pressures.


Virtual joint is adopted in the discontinuous deformation analysis (DDA), which can provide path for block failure and fracture development. Therefore, the failure process of jointed rock mass is a progress of initiation, extending and connecting of joints inside rock mass; and attenuation of virtual joint mechanical parameters represents the strength attenuation in the process of rock failure. The attenuation law of virtual joint mechanical parameters is studied by introducing the definition of virtual joint connectivity rate; and the attenuation formula of virtual joint mechanical parameters is established. According to the phenomenon of mechanical parameters attenuation in rock failure, the strength criterion (Jennings criterion and the maximum tensile strength criterion) for intermittent jointed rock masses are studied. Programming the attenuation law of virtual joint mechanical parameters and improved strength formula of intermittent joint into DDA to simulate the fracturing process of intermittent joint. At last, the method is validated by comparing the computation results with shear test results.


SCHROTH, ERIN Self-Monitoring and advertising: Evaluations of imageversus quality-oriented advertisements for public/private and public luxury/necessity products. Department of Psychology, June 2011. ADVISOR: Kenneth DeBono High self-monitors tend to prefer image-oriented advertisements, whereas low self-monitors favor quality-oriented advertisements. Past research has found that image congruence had a stronger affect on product evaluations of high self-monitors relative to low self-monitors for public products, while this effect did not emerge for private products. Study 1 extended these findings by examining the effect of self-monitoring and public/private products on evaluations of imageversus quality-oriented advertisements. The participants were shown two sunglasses (public product) advertisements and two toilet paper (private product) advertisements; for each product, one advertisement was image-oriented and was quality-focused. The participants completed two questionnaires—one for each product type—and the self-monitoring scale. Study 2 employed a similar method but extended the self-monitoring propensity to different public products: Ice cream (luxury product) and a winter coat (necessity product). Past findings suggest that high self-monitors are influenced more when considering luxury, rather than necessity, products. Although not significant, analyses of Study 1 showed that high self-monitors preferred the image-oriented sunglasses advertisement, while low selfmonitors preferred the quality-focused sunglasses advertisement. Both high and low selfmonitors preferred the quality-oriented toilet paper advertisement. Although also not significant, the results of Study 2 illustrated that high self-monitors preferred the imagefocused advertisement for both the luxury and necessity advertisements more than low SELF-MONITORING AND ADVERTISING iii self-monitors. The results of both studies confirm that high self-monitors prefer imageoriented advertisements for public products more than low self-monitors. Possible limitations and future research directions are discussed.


In many developing countries, the inadequate supply of drinking and irrigation water is a severe problem. In rural areas with no access to grid power, national water authorities and private farmers have to rely on hand pumps and diesel-driven pumps, many of which are out of service due to technical defects or a lack of fuel. As a rule, hand-operated pumps are the least-cost option for low consumption rates and low pumping heads. If hand pumps cannot satisfy the demand, dieseldriven pumps are commonly used for drinking and irrigation water supply. These pumps stand in competition with photovoltaic water pumps (PVP), which present themselves as a reliable and environmentally-sound alternative means of water delivery.


This article presents results obtained from applying various tools from FSL (FMRIB Software Library) to data from the repetition priming experiment used for the HBM'05 Functional Image Analysis Contest. We present analyses from the model‐based General Linear Model (GLM) tool (FEAT) and from the model‐free independent component analysis tool (MELODIC). We also discuss the application of tools for the correction of image distortions prior to the statistical analysis and the utility of recent advances in functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI) time series modeling and inference such as the use of optimal constrained HRF basis function modeling and mixture modeling inference. The combination of hemodynamic response function (HRF) and mixture modeling, in particular, revealed that both sentence content and speaker voice priming effects occurred bilaterally along the length of the superior temporal sulcus (STS). These results suggest that both are processed in a single underlying system without any significant asymmetries for content vs. voice processing. Hum Brain Mapp, 2006. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Purpose:Image‐guided daily localization is becoming standard of care in radiation therapy. The purpose of this work is to validate the accuracy of bony landmarks based image‐registration of the Acculoc software, Isoloc's (v7.0). This provides daily patient localization ability on linear accelerators which don't have on‐board kV‐imager for 2D‐2D matching or cone‐beam CT.Methods and materials: The image‐registration accuracy can be compromised by the image quality. In order to test the bony anatomy based image‐registration accuracy, a blind study was conducted with two individuals; first person to off‐set the anthropomorphic phantom and the second person for alignments. Anthropomorphic phantoms representing head‐and‐neck, thorax and pelvis were used in this study. All three phantoms were CT‐scanned and treatment plans were generated using Pinnacle (v8.0). Orthogonal {anterior‐posterior (AP) and right‐lateral (RLAT)} setup beams were added for each isocenter and digitally reconstructed radiographs (DRRs) were generated for each beam. At the treatment machine, both AP and RLAT portal images were obtained using Portal‐Vision software. Portal images and their respective DRRs were imported into the Isoloc software for the alignments. Several blind translational off‐sets followed by the image‐registration were made for each site. Furthermore, in order to simulate obese patients, the pelvic phantom was wrapped with around 10 cm bolus and checked the accuracy of the software to align the phantom based on bony landmarks. Results: The image quality was acceptable for all three sites and we were able to align the head and neck phantom with ±2 mm accuracy in each direction. Accuracy for aligning thorax and pelvis phantoms were within ±3 mm. Conclusion: 2D image‐registration based on bony landmarks using Isoloc 7.0 software has been validated and the image‐registration accuracy was found to be within ±3 mm.


This chapter considers how the magazine's satire resisted, disrupted or traversed boundaries and, rather than interpreting the magazine as the uncomplicated propaganda tool of the Soviet state, suggests how Krokodil may better be understood as a Menippean satire, according to Bakhtin's definition, and a "politcarnival" development in a long Russo-European satirical tradition. This new explanation of Krokodil's satire highlights the journal's heterogeneity and heteroglossia (multivoicedness), and explains Krokodil as a site of ongoing, intertextual, subtle, serio-comic critical counter-commentaries on Soviet orthodoxies and political policy.

Interpreting Krokodil as a Menippean satire provides a theoretical basis for the observation that the magazine comprised diverse intertextual satirical critiques, and it thus clarifies the dialogic relationships between different schemata, and shows that (for example through the magazine's red crocodile avatar, who may be interpreted as a trickster) the magazine's satire of domestic subjects may be subtler and more implicit than its criticisms of non-socialist ideologies.


The study showed that the insect-resistance of transgenic hybrid poplar 741 was closely related with temperature. The total mortality and accumulative mortality of Gypsy moth (Lmantriadispar L.) larvae increased with increasing temperature, and the sensitivity of larvae to the clones of transgenic hybrid poplar 741 and temperature decreased gradually with the increasing instars. Temperature had a promotion to the development of larvae fed on CK. When the temperature was high, the development of larvae quickened, the development period shortened, and the weight increasing rate and the frass increasing quantity quickened, but the development rate of larvae fed on transgenic hybrid poplar 741 was not obvious with varied temperature. The regressive equation of temperature and Clostera anachoreta (Fabricius) mortality during 1998-2000 year indicated that high resistant and medium resistant clones' temperature-insect mortality curve presented an obvious regressive relation.


Root mean square (RMS) of acceleration signal is one of the important parameters to monitor the wind turbine gearbox condition. Impulse noise appears with large energy and short time when gearbox suffers sudden change of wind speed and load. RMS error from data calculation influences the accuracy of condition judgment, so it is significant to filter impact noise which is non-periodic and random, which is regarded as small probability event in the whole gearbox operation time. The original vibration signal was processed by statistical method to draw histogram, mean and variance is obtained by the normal distribution. Normal data of signal, occupying an absolute proportion, was in the middle of the histogram. Impulse noise with high amplitude occupies a small proportion both sides of the histogram. At last, impact noise was eliminated from a field wind turbine vibration data by the criterion of μ ± 3σ, illustrating the effect of the proposed method.


A 74-year-old male patient with prostate cancer under remission was admitted with left inguinoscrotal swelling. He underwent scrotal ultrasound demonstrating a giant in-guinoscrotal hernia. Contrast-enhanced computerized tomography of the abdomen and pelvis demonstrated a left pelvic kidney associated with severe hydroureteronephrosis secondary to a ureteral inguinoscrotal hernia. Upon exploration with left inguinal incision, a paraperitoneal ureteral in-guinoscrotal hernia and a hypertrophic left spermatic cord were observed. The elongated and tortuous left ureter, being pulled down to the scrotum by the hernia, was released from the herniating tissues fullfilling left hemiscrotum. The ureter was tapered followed by ureteroureterostomy. The accompanying left spermatic cord was excessively elongated and curled, necessitating cordectomy. The hernia was repaired with prolene mesh after removal of herniating peritoneal tissue. This is a rare case of a paraperitoneal ureteral inguinoscrotal hernia of the left pelvic kidney.


A mutagenicity study was carried out on 4,4′-methylene dianiline(MDA) an epoxy resin hardener and chlorinated MDA using an Ames Salmonella/microsome assay. As reaction products of MDA with chlorine in the water six spots were observed by thin layer chromatograph(TLC) and high performance liquid chromatography(HPLC) analysis revealed eighteen peaks on the HPLC chromatogram. MDA exhibited mutagenic activity for strain TA100 in the presence of S9 mix. In the mutagenicity test of chlorinated MDA corresponding to 7.8∼250 μg/plate, at 250 μg/plate the specimen showed mutagenic activity for strain TA98 without S9 mix, but more diluted specimens had no mutagenicity. At 31 and 250 μg/plate, the specimen showed weak mutagenic activity for the strain TA98 in the presence of S9 mix. The strain TA100 without S9 mix was killed on the culture plate with 250 μg/plate. However strong mutagenicity such as net revertant colonies 1270 per plate was obtained with the diluted specimen of 7.8 μg/plate. At 31 μg/plate, the specimen showed mutagenic activity for the strain TA100 with S9 mix. The mutagenicity test of five fractionated specimens from the TLC analysis, spot No. 1 and No. 2 showed no mutagenicity for strain TA98 and TA100 with and without S9 mix. The specimen of Spot No. 3 exhibited weak mutagenic activity for strain TA98 without S9 mix, the specimen of spot No. 4 at 125 μg/plate showed mutagenicity for strain TA98 and TA100 with and without S9 mix, and diluted samples showed high mutagenic activity for strain TA100 with and without S9 mix. Several newly identified mutagenic substances were found to be produced by the chlorination of MDA. GC/MS analysis of chlorinated MDA revealed eleven compounds on the chromatogram. Benzaldehyde, benzoquinones and chloroanilines were identified. However, the structural formula of the highly mutagenic substances could not be determined by GC/MS.


Loss‐of‐function and certain missense mutations in the Wnt coreceptor low‐density lipoprotein receptor‐related protein 5 (LRP5) significantly decrease or increase bone mass, respectively. These human skeletal phenotypes have been recapitulated in mice harboring Lrp5 knockout and knock‐in mutations. We hypothesized that measuring mRNA expression in diaphyseal bone from mice with Lrp5 wild‐type (Lrp5+/+), knockout (Lrp5–/–), and high bone mass (HBM)‐causing (Lrp5p.A214V/+) knock‐in alleles could identify genes and pathways that regulate or are regulated by LRP5 activity. We performed RNA‐seq on pairs of tibial diaphyseal bones from four 16‐week‐old mice with each of the aforementioned genotypes. We then evaluated different methods for controlling for contaminating nonskeletal tissue (ie, blood, bone marrow, and skeletal muscle) in our data. These methods included predigestion of diaphyseal bone with collagenase and separate transcriptional profiling of blood, skeletal muscle, and bone marrow. We found that collagenase digestion reduced contamination, but also altered gene expression in the remaining cells. In contrast, in silico filtering of the diaphyseal bone RNA‐seq data for highly expressed blood, skeletal muscle, and bone marrow transcripts significantly increased the correlation between RNA‐seq data from an animal's right and left tibias and from animals with the same Lrp5 genotype. We conclude that reliable and reproducible RNA‐seq data can be obtained from mouse diaphyseal bone and that lack of LRP5 has a more pronounced effect on gene expression than the HBM‐causing LRP5 missense mutation. We identified 84 differentially expressed protein‐coding transcripts between LRP5 "sufficient" (ie, Lrp5+/+ and Lrp5p.A214V/+) and "insufficient" (Lrp5–/–) diaphyseal bone, and far fewer differentially expressed genes between Lrp5p.A214V/+ and Lrp5+/+ diaphyseal bone. © 2013 American Society for Bone and Mineral Research.


THE topical application of antibiotics is useful in the treatment of superficial ocular infections, and systemic administration is often effective in overcoming cellulitis of the soft tissues which surround the eye; but it is only by subconjunctival injection that a high concentration of antibiotic can be obtained within the eye. Subconjunctival injection is essential if an attempt is to be made to overcome an intra-ocular infection. Antibiotics which can be administered subconjunctivally are therefore of particular interest to ophthalmologists. To be suitable for subconjunctival injection, an antibiotic must be readily soluble in water and the solution must not be unduly irritating to the tissues. Only penicillin (Sorsby and Ungar, 1948), streptomycin (Sorsby, Ungar, and Bailey, 1952), and polymyxin (Ainslie and Smith, 1952) have hitherto fulfilled these conditions and all have certain limitations. Penicillin is only slightly irritant when injected, but its range of activity does not cover the Gramnegative bacilli. Many strains of staphylococci are also resistant. Polymyxin is highly effective against Gram-negative bacilli but has no effect upon the coccal organisms. Polymyxin is a moderate tissue irritant and while subconjunctival injection is perfectly safe the injections are very painful. Streptomycin is only slightly irritant and its range of activity covers both Gram-positive cocci and Gram-negative bacilli, but resistant strains of both types of organism develop with ease. Aureomycin, terramycin, chloramphenicol, and erythromycin are of no therapeutic value given subconjunctivally since their water solubility is very low and sufficient concentrations cannot be given. Achromycin is more soluble in water but the solution is irritating when injected. The appearance, therefore, of soframycin, a new antibiotic with high water solubility and a wide range of activity, seemed to be of considerable interest.


Convolutional Neural Network based approaches for monocular 3D human pose estimation usually require a large amount of training images with 3D pose annotations. While it is feasible to provide 2D joint annotations for large corpora of in-the-wild images with humans, providing accurate 3D annotations to such in-the-wild corpora is hardly feasible in practice. Most existing 3D labelled data sets are either synthetically created or feature in-studio images. 3D pose estimation algorithms trained on such data often have limited ability to generalize to real world scene diversity. We therefore propose a new deep learning based method for monocular 3D human pose estimation that shows high accuracy and generalizes better to in-the-wild scenes. It has a network architecture that comprises a new disentangled hidden space encoding of explicit 2D and 3D features, and uses supervision by a new learned projection model from predicted 3D pose. Our algorithm can be jointly trained on image data with 3D labels and image data with only 2D labels. It achieves state-of-the-art accuracy on challenging in-the-wild data.


We have measured the magnetothermal e..ect of κ-(BEDT-TTF)2Cu(NCS)2in a wide field range, and clearly observed the temperature spikes due to the flux jumps and the quasi-periodic temperature oscillations before the flux jumps in the two dimensional (2D) vortex lattice phase. The temperature dependence of the magnetothermal e..ect suggests that the melting transition from the 2D vortex lattice to the vortex liquid phase in low temperature is driven by quantum fluctuations rather than thermal one.


The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between authenticity and symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as health-related quality of life (HR-QoL) and life satisfaction in the context of the theoretically related constructs of adult romantic attachment, reflective functioning and insight in a convenience sample of Swedish adults. One hundred and ninety-one participants were recruited from various sources through a convenience sampling method. The participants completed an online survey which included standardized measures of all off the constructs measured above as well as demographic- and psychiatric history questions. T-test, correlational analysis and hierarchical multiple regressions were used to analyse the data. The results suggested that authenticity is significantly correlated with symptoms of anxiety and depression as well as HR-QoL and life satisfaction and that individuals who report being diagnosed with a mental health disorder also tend to report substantially lower levels of authenticity (d=0.92). Other noteworthy findings are that symptoms of anxiety and depression accounted for a vast majority of the variance in HR-QoL and life satisfaction and that adult romantic attachment was a significant predictor for all the outcome variables. These results add to a small body of evidence and further research is needed. (Less)


This paper proposes a multiresolution model of auditory excitation scalogram and applies it to the problem of audio signal transform and coding techniques. The model uses wavelet packet (WP) transform for time-frequency decomposition of the input signal. The WP tree structure selection is based on an optimality criterion formulated to minimize entropy based cost functions. From applications' point of view, multiresolution model of the auditory excitation scalogram based on adaptive to the signal WP is used to achieve low bit rate coding of digital audio signals with minimum perceived loss of quality in reconstructed signal.


The medical profession is not a trade, it is by its nature a free profession (Federal Doctors' Ordinance). The medical practice as an institution and the medical profession are, however, subject to current social conditions, currently particularly shaped by the rules of health economics and digitization. Salomon Neumann, who, along with Rudolf Virchow, is considered the founder of social medicine in Germany, published the vision of liberating academically trained doctors from the trade regulations applicable to craftsmen and other professions in 1847. On the basis of law and reason that applies to public action, he conceived the establishment of an association, a new professional representation of the previously isolated doctors in freedom, solidarity and self-administration. The failure of the bourgeois revolution in 1849 with subsequent social restoration delayed innovative developments. The professionalization of the medical profession begins with the formation of a unified medical status in 1852, the formation of medical associations in the 1860s, the establishment of the German Association of Physicians in 1872 as an umbrella organization and the establishment of state medical associations in 1948 as public corporations.


1. Levy, J.B., Jones, H.W. & Gordon, A.C. Selenium deficiency, reversible cardiomyopathy and short term intravenous feeding. Postgrad Med J 1994, 70: 235-236. 2. Silvis, S.E. & Paragas, P.D., Jr. Paresthesias, weakness, seizures and hypophosphatemia in patients receiving hyperalimentation. Gastroenterology 1972, 62: 513-520. 3. O'Connor, L.R., Wheeler, W.S. & Bethune, J.E. Effect of hypophosphatemia on myocardial performance in man. N Engl J Med 1977, 297: 901-903. 4. Editorial. Treatment of severe hypophosphataemia. Lancet 1981, ii: 734. 5. Knochel, J.P. The pathophysiology and clinical characteristics of severe hypophosphatemia. Arch Intern Med 1977, 137: 203-220.


Stream stream generation apparatus of the present invention, including a command for managing a buffer which holds a decoded picture is added to the encoded picture to be used as a reference picture out of the coded picture as reference pictures, a coded picture a stream generating apparatus for generating a case where coded picture is added to the command, determining means for determining whether or not skipped at the time of special reproduction, is determined to be a coded picture to be skipped , decoding order is later than the determined coded picture to be skipped, and adding means for adding retransmission information of the command and the same content to not skipped at the time of trick play coded picture, a coded picture, said commands When, and a generation means for generating a stream including said retransmission information. .The 10


Abstract Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a disease characterized by the collapse of the upper airway during sleep. It is debated whether increasing age is associated with an increased severity based on the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) in OSA patients. To better characterize the distribution of age and AHI in OSA patients, a large, retrospective analysis of diagnostic sleep test results in West Texas was performed. This study analyzed 3993 adult patients (aged ≥18 years) who had either a full or a split night sleep study performed at Alpha Sleep Labs between July 1, 2009, and September 1, 2020. The distribution of age approximates a normal distribution with a mean age of 52.6 and standard deviation of 14.4 years. Compared to the US population, the study population is overrepresented by those 40 to 60 years of age and underrepresented by those 20 to 40 and ≥60 years. The degree of underrepresentation was greater for young patients than the elderly. The number of subjects vs. AHI approximated an exponential decay. Although prevalence probably contributes to the observed distributions of age and AHI, we cannot conclude that our data represent either the prevalence of OSA or AHI. The population of people undergoing diagnostic sleep testing is not representative of the total population. Interdependencies are observed between age and AHI, but the basis for these interdependencies is unclear. Future studies will need to examine these effects in greater detail.


This paper presents novel methods to model different emission limits in product planning problem. Along with the increasing environmental pollution and increasing environmental charges and taxes, modeling emission limits become critical for manufactures. This paper divides emission limits into three categories: periodical emission limits, overall emission limits and tradable emission limits. Correspondingly, three different mathematical models are presented to integrate emission limits in product planning. Furthermore, Watson Implosion Technology (WIT) toolkit is introduced to optimize the problem, while emission limits are modeled as capacity, material and purchasable material respectively. The tradable model is also extended to consider developing a replaceable product with lower emission, while it tells manufactures when a new green product should be researched. Experiments demonstrate quantitative influences of different kind of emission limits, and the results indicate that our method can help to make the strategic decision and maximize profits with emissions compliance.


Abstract Structure of the mouthparts and foregut of Panulirus ornatus phyllosomata (stages I-VI hatchery reared, IX-X wild caught) were examined using scanning electron microscopy and histology to gain an understanding of ingestive and digestive processing mechanisms, to identify potential shifts in diet during development, and to suggest appropriate physical characteristics for the development of a suitable formulated diet for commercial aquaculture of this species such as size, texture, and buoyancy. Mouthpart and foregut structure indicates that P. ornatus phyllosomata are capable of ingesting zooplankton of any hardness during this life history stage and are only limited by their ability to capture and manipulate prey as the mandibular molars are well developed to masticate prey further. Mouthpart morphology changes little during development, however, the disposition of the mouthparts and size of the mouth aperture increases with each successive stage of development, suggesting a greater capacity to manipulate and ingest larger prey. The foregut of all developmental stages consists of a single chamber, with well-developed grooves, channels and setae, but lacks a gastric mill. Presence of well-developed main brushes, lateral setae, and development of a functional filter press at stage IV suggests an increased ability to triturate and filter prey internally, reducing both the time spent externally manipulating prey with the mouthparts and the vulnerability to predation in the open ocean. The results presented here suggest that formulated diets larger than > 428 μm, with a firm/hard consistency that allow the dactyli of the second and third maxillipeds to penetrate the diet without causing fouling of the setae would be suitable.


Nowadays, high resolution satellite imageries can be used in various fields. The imageries are expected to measure precise coordinates. Then accurate geometric model is required to calculate image coordinates (u, v) from ground coordinates (x, y, z). Generally, RPC model is applied as the accurate geometric model. However, the RPC model has a systematic error with several pixels. To correct the RPC model, information of GCP (Ground Control Points) should be used. GCP are consisted with precise ground coordinates and corresponded image coordinates. An accuracy of ground coordinates is required less than 1/5 of ground sampling distance of satellite imagery.GCP database in Shikoku Japan has been established by authors. Over 550 points were finished to survey within 4cm accuracy by GPS VRS observation. However, point based GCP doesn't have enough accuracy for high resolution satellite imageries. Because, image coordinates are selected by visual interpretation. Poly-lines or polygon type GCP should be prepared to select accurate image coordinates by image processing.In this study, Poly-line type GCP were suggested. Target satellite imageries are ALOS PRISM which are panchromatic imageries with 2.5m ground sampling distance. In the test area, 5 intersections and 4 curves of road were surveyed, and Poly-line type GCP were prepared. Corresponding coordinates of Poly-line type GCP in PRISM imageries can be computed by image matching process. Least squares matching method was applied in this study. Then, precise image coordinates can be obtained.Poly-line type GCP were validated using bias corrected RPC model. The root mean square error showed 0.5 pixel. On the other hand, point based GCP were also validated. In the case of point based GCP, corresponding coordinates were selected by visual interpretation. The root mean square error showed around 1.0 pixel. The results showed poly-line type GCP were effective for precise image registration.


The high-altitude environment is a challenge for human settlement. Low oxygen concentrations, extreme cold, and a harsh arid climate are doubtlessly challenges for the colonization of the Tibetan plateau. I am delighted to comment on the article of Pan et al. (2018) on mutations in endothelial PAS domain-containing protein 1 (EPAS1) in congenital heart disease in Tibetans. In humans, the EPAS1 gene is responsible for coding EPAS1 protein, an alias of which is HIF2α, an acronym for hypoxia-inducible factor 2 alpha. EPAS1 is a type of hypoxia-inducible factors, which are collected as a group of transcription factors involved in body response to oxygen level. EPAS1 gene is active under hypoxic conditions and plays an essential role in the development of the heart and in the management of the catecholamine balance, mutations of which have been identified in neuroendocrine tumors. In this article, Pan et al. investigated Tibetan patients with and without non-syndromic congenital heart disease. They identified two novel EPAS1 gene mutations, of which N203H mutation significantly affected the transcription activity of the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) promoter, particularly in situations of hypoxia. VEGF is a downstream target of HIF-2 (other than HIF-1), and the expression levels of either HIF-1α or HIF-2α correlate positively to VEGF expression. Pan et al.'s data may be of incitement to further evaluate protein–protein interaction and using experimental animal models. Moreover, it may also be a stimulus for setting up genetic epidemiologic studies for other populations living at high altitudes.


The planning of renewable energy infrastructure has proven highly controversial across many countries. We critically examine the lessons that can be learned from research investigating the causes of controversy over wind turbines. The review focuses on a specific, but often highly controversial, component of planning practice: environmental and social appraisal. The review advances understandings of the reasons for contestation over the social impacts of wind turbines; the basis and legitimacy of plurality and contestation; and, the biases that tend to underpin understandings of the role and functioning of participation in appraisal. A typology of actors' attitudes to wind energy is employed to elucidate the implications of our review for appraisal practices. We conclude that a broader understanding of the societal purposes of public participation needs to be integrated into appraisal theory and practice, including an acceptance of the legitimacy of antagonism and dissent and its value in fostering social learning.


Effect of 20%, 40% and 60% sulphuric acid concentrations on the pretreatment of Detarium microcarpum and seedling growth was studied using standard techniques. Seeds were collected and tested by floating. Results showed that seeds treated with 40% H2SO4 for 10 and 30 mins planted in river sand; 60% H2SO4 for 30 mins planted in top soil and those planted in untreated seeds had the highest (4) germination. Germination percentage of was highest (80%) with 40% H2SO4 treated seeds for 10 and 30 mins planted in river sand; control (river sand, river sand + top soil); 20% H2SO4 for 10 mins planted in top soil and 60% H2SO4 for 30 mins planted in river sand. Emergence index and emergence rate index of seeds followed same trend as germination percentage of seeds. The highest mean (16 cm) height of seedlings was recorded from river sand without H2SO4 seed treatment (control).Mean values of collar diameter, leaf area and number of leaves also follow same trend ofseedling height. There were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in seedling height, collar diameter, leaf area and number of leaves among seeds grown in different media and control. Seeds treated with 40% H2SO4 and plated in river sand had the highest number of germinations and river sand was the best media of growth.


ABSTRACT We developed a passive sampler for time-integrated collection and radiocarbon (14C) analysis of soil respiration, a major flux in the global C cycle. It consists of a permanent access well that controls the CO2 uptake rate and an exchangeable molecular sieve CO2 trap. We tested how access well dimensions and environmental conditions affect collected CO2, and optimized cleaning procedures to minimize 14CO2 memory. We also deployed two generations of the sampler in Arctic tundra for up to two years, collecting CO2 over periods of 3 days–2 months, while monitoring soil temperature, volumetric water content, and CO2 concentration. The sampler collects CO2 at a rate proportional to the length of a silicone tubing inlet (7–26 µg CO2-C day-1·m Si-1). With constant sampler dimensions in the field, CO2 recovery is best explained by soil temperature. We retrieved 0.1–5.3 mg C from the 1st and 0.6–13 mg C from the 2nd generation samplers, equivalent to uptake rates of 2–215 (n=17) and 10–247 µg CO2-C day-1 (n=20), respectively. The method blank is 8 ± 6 µg C (mean ± sd, n=8), with a radiocarbon content (fraction modern) ranging from 0.5875–0.6013 (n=2). The sampler enables more continuous investigations of soil C emission sources and is suitable for Arctic environments.


Insertion and deletion (indel) sequencing errors in DNA coding regions disrupt DNA-to-protein translation frames, and hence make most frame-sensitive coding recognition approaches fail. This paper extends the authors' previous work on indel detection and "correction" algorithms, and presents a more effective algorithm for localizing indels that appear in DNA coding regions and "correcting" the located indels by inserting or deleting DNA bases. The algorithm localizes indels by discovering changes of the preferred translation frames within presumed coding regions, and then "corrects" them to restore a consistent translation frame within each coding region. An iterative strategy is exploited to repeatedly localize and "correct" indels until no more indels can be found. Test results have shown that this improved algorithm can detect and "correct" more indels while not worsening the rate of introduction of false indels when compared to the authors' previous work.