Monthly Review was founded in 1949 at just about the time that Paul Baran was resigning from a semi-governmental job at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York to join the faculty of Stanford University. In his new situation he had more freedom, more time, and more energy to devote to outside matters. Being a Marxist whose political views were basically the same as ours, he was naturally interested in MR and as time went on became more and more closely associated with us in all its various aspects. In the early years when McCarthyism was at its height, he wrote under the pen name "Historicus," His first signed article, "On Soviet Themes," appeared in 1956; thereafter he wrote only under his own name. When, under circumstances described below (pages 45-46), the publisher who had originally contracted to publish The Political Economy of Growth reneged, Baran immediately offered it to MR Press which brought it out in 1957 and subsequently negotiated foreign editions in nine different languages. MR Press also published two pamphlets by Baran: Marxism and Psycho- analysis (1960), and Reflections on the Cuban Revolution (1961); and the Press will publish Monopoly Capital, the book which he was writing jointly with Paul M. Sweezy at the time of his death.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Different types of glass and glass ceramic, including Supremax®, Pyrex® and N-BK7 optical glass, were impacted in a normal ballistic arrangement with 7.62 mm armor piercing (AP) projectiles and with solid steel cylinders at 830 m/s. The plates were integrated into a target box, which allowed for an almost complete recovery and analysis of the glass fragments. Different types of high-speed cameras were used in order to visualize the different phases of fragment formation and ejection. The glass and glass ceramic fragments were extracted from the target box and separated into size classes by a chain of sieves. The mesh sizes used were 2 mm, 1 mm, 0.5 mm, 200 μm, 100 μm, 63 μm and 25 μm. The total mass of each size fraction was determined. The single crack velocities and damage propagation velocities were determined from the high-speed photographs for all materials


The Dry is one of Australia's fiction publishing success stories of 2016. 1 Its author, Jane Harper, set her debut crime novel in an imaginary town five hours' drive from Melbourne. The book's key premise is familiar in Australian fiction: a protagonist who has 'escaped' the clutches of a country community yet is haunted by its secrets. Harper's central character, Aaron Falk, left the town of Kiewarra under a cloud, and on his return two decades later he is entangled in the apparent murder-suicide of a farmer facing bankruptcy. Throughout The Dry , small-town life is presented as complex, difficult and, during a time of drought when Kiewarra's 'huge river' is 'nothing more than a dusty scar . . . a cracked patchwork of rocks and crabgrass', almost unliveable. 2 Yet even in good times, Falk reflects that country life has a 'crushing vastness . . . enough to drown in'. 3 There are 'too many people who know too much about each other', and contrary to the conventional view of the generosity of country folk, 'there's not always a lot of help at hand'. 4 Ambivalence regarding country community aside, The Dry 's plot conforms to established tropes representing the oppositional relationship between the Australian city and its non-metropolitan hinterland, as well as the specific place of the country town in Australian national identity and cultural production.


A theory-based exergame was developed for tweens to promote their self-efficacy towards physical activity and increase their physical activity levels. We used protocols from both health science and gamification research in piloting the exergame. First, we assessed the usability and feasibility of the exergame and conducted a preliminary exploration of its effectiveness. After technical improvements were made based on our findings, we reiterated the pilot study and analysed the gamification elements of the exergame by using Octalysis analysis. The overall findings suggest that a theory-based exergame can positively influence the self-efficacy of tweens towards physical activity. The exergame showcased theoretical strength, achieved using diverse gamification elements but its overall game design and usability can be further improved. The study concludes that health-related components of the purpose of intervention must be incorporated in parallel with the engaging design of the game, taking into utmost consideration the theories, evidence as well as the needs and perceptions of its target users. This study provides valuable insights on future development and evaluation of gamified health interventions.


Summary It was predicted that the Orang Asli (Malaysian aborigines) would score as a "high barrier" culture on the body-image barrier index, and that villages located with greater proximity to outside influence would produce individuals with lowered barrier indices. Ss were 30 female and 30 male Orang Asli to whom a standardized group administration of the Rorschach test was presented and scored for barrier responses. Hypothesis one was tested by comparing Orang Asli scores with those obtained from other cultures reported in the literature. Hypothesis two was tested by comparing groups of Ss living at roadside and the jungle fringe with each other and with deep jungle dwellers. Both hypotheses were supported. These results were interpreted as consistent with the theory that indulgent child-rearing practices contribute to heightened perception of personal boundedness and that exposure to conflicting value systems results in diminished barrier perception. Sex differences suggested in the present data are at...


A local proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) plus Galerkin projection method was recently developed to accelerate time dependent numerical solvers of PDEs. This method is based on the combined use of a numerical code (NC) and a Galerkin system (GS) in a sequence of interspersed time intervals, INC and IGS, respectively. POD is performed on some sets of snapshots calculated by the numerical solver in the INC intervals. The governing equations are Galerkin projected onto the most energetic POD modes and the resulting GS is time integrated in the next IGS interval. The major computational effort is associated with the snapshots calculation in the first INC interval, where the POD manifold needs to be completely constructed (it is only updated in subsequent INC intervals, which can thus be quite small). As the POD manifold depends only weakly on the particular values of the parameters of the problem, a suitable library can be constructed adapting the snapshots calculated in other runs to drastically reduce the size of the first INC interval and thus the involved computational cost. The strategy is successfully tested in (i) the one-dimensional complex Ginzburg-Landau equation, including the case in which it exhibits transient chaos, and (ii) the two-dimensional unsteady lid-driven cavity problem.


IntroductionTurkey's European Union (EU) membership bid has been seen as an important anchor on its way to becoming a more liberal democracy. Even to start the negotiations to become a member required democratization reforms, amendments to existing regulations and legislation. The membership of Republic of Cyprus to the Union, the negative attitude towards Turkey's membership displayed by some Member States, i.e. France, the destructive impact of the economic crisis on the EU, the lack of will to use conditionality on Turkey, and, last but not least, Turkey's waning interest to become a member of the EU resulted in slowing down these democratization steps.This paper is inspired by Pevehouse's terminology on international organizations' role in assisting democratization efforts by supplying causal mechanisms. In this case, the EU is the main democracy promoter; through its instruments it is the supplier, while the demanding actor is Turkey. However, it has been observed that on the demand side Turkish government policies and the speeches of the President clearly did not prioritize EU membership. This disengagement reflected on Turkey's democratic reform movements and some of the literature even started to define the regime in Turkey as competitive authoritarianism. (Esen and Gumuscu 2016) (Ozbudun 2015). In 2016, one of the main discussion topics in TurkeyEU relations has been the EU-Turkey Statement on 18 March 2016, a.k.a the EU-Turkey Refugee Deal. An optimistic perspective defends this deal, since it initiated talks between Turkey and the EU; the pessimistic perspective argues that the deal would not take TurkeyEU relations further and would not have a positive impact on Turkey's reforms. The process of negotiations and the deal itself had been criticized internationally (Şenyuva and Ustun 2015), since it disregarded the EU's own principles and it has been a tool for the EU in implementing its short-term policies, lacking any long-term perspective on strengthening ties with Turkey. Thus, neither the negotiations nor the deal highlighted the conditionality principle in EU-Turkey relations. While the supply side lacked serious interest in democracy promotion, one can still observe the will of the opposition parties at the Turkish Grand National Assembly (TGNA) to work with the EU since it is [still] referred to as the anchor for Turkey's democratization and an exemplary model to promote democracy internationally. This paper, noting the differences between the government's position and the opposition's views, separates the demand side into two. The paper analyses the TGNA minutes between 2011 and 2016. In the 2011 general election, Adalet ve Kalkinma Partisi (AKP) won 49.83% of the total votes and got 341 of the seats (out of a total of 550) while Cumhuriyet Halk Partisi (CHP) won 25.98% of the votes and 112 of the seats and Milliyetci Hareket Partisi (MHP) got 13.01 % of the votes and 71 seats in the parliament (Gumruk Oylari Dahil Turkiye Geneli Secim Sonuclari 2011). There were more than 30 independent parliamentarians who won seats in this election. This was AKP's biggest electoral win since 2002. In that year, AKP's share of votes was 34.28% and in the 2007 elections its share was up to 46.58%. The 2011 election gave almost half of the popular support to AKP and 2010 was the last year that the Turkish parliament accepted extensive reform packages in line with the EU membership goal. Thus, the beginning of 2011 to the end of August of 2016, just after the failed coup attempt, is taken as the time frame in analysing opposition parties' speeches in relation with the EU and democratic practices.The first part of the paper summarizes the literature on the international organizations' role as a democracy promoter. The second part demonstrates the positive impact of the EU on Turkey starting from the Helsinki Summit in 1999, where Turkey's position was elevated to candidacy. Since the relations between Turkey and the EU are not considered to be exemplary, the golden years of Europeanization and democratization in this perspective seem to be forgotten. …


The Judicial system in Yūsufzai state of Swat (1917-1969), being one of the prominent justice system, in the whole subcontinent; evolved in short interval of time owing to its cheap and speedy justice dispensation. In this study, the judicial system of former state of Swat, with primary focus on procedural law, had been examined critically from perspective of Islamic law; meaning thereby whether that law was in compliance with Sharī'ah. While carrying out this probe, the content analysis technique of qualitative research had adopted In the course of investigation, it was revealed that Yūsufzai court had incredible similarities with the Maḥkamah-e-Qaḍā (Islamic Judicial System) in many facets. It was found, too, that Jirga used to rule in the Swat state, due to the absence of formal justice system. The formal courts, simple and brief, were established in the early 30's (thirties'); however, towards the end of second decade the formal courts were deep rooted, settling cumbersome issues with its complex hierarchal and prevailed set-up.  Study reveals, with solid evidences, that the appointment of Qāḍī by the ruler himself or with consultation from 'Ullamās and hiring of Vakīl by the parties, were, primarily, Sharī'ah based. On the same way, suit institution, summoning defendant by plaintiff himself or Policeman, Shahādah on the alleger of fact, swearing on defendant and oral or written pronouncement of judgement and etc.  Were entirely Sharī'ah based.


Newer concepts regarding the management of diabetes favor a diet that is more liberal in carbohydrate content and more personalized for the patient. Ideally, the end result will be improved glycemic control and fewer complications. Allowing more flexibility in the diet is a way of fostering better patient compliance. Alcohol, for example, which is frequently disallowed, can safely be included in the diet of many diabetic patients who desire a drink with meals, provided that certain guidelines are followed. Dietary substitutions can be made with relative ease. Although there are contraindications to its use by certain people, alcohol in moderation does not appear to compromise carbohydrate homeostasis in most individuals and, if early studies are confirmed, could possibly have some beneficial side-effects. More open discussion of alcohol use with patients is needed to give them the know-how to alter their diets and to inform them of the necessary precautions.


ABSTRACT What causes turnover on the Billboard charts? The neutral model of cultural evolution, which assumes that taste is transmitted via an unbiased copying process, provides precise predictions regarding expected popularity distributions and turnover within a popularity-ranked list. Recent advances in this line make it possible to characterize the likelihood of music taste transmission mechanisms by investigating departures of observed turnover rates from neutral model predictions. Here, I bias the neutral model to investigate four alternative conceptions of individual music taste transmission (song quality, individual status, social network, and anticonformist) and use agent-based simulations to examine the impact on turnover. I then compare modeled with empirical turnover data from the Billboard Hot 100 over the period from 1958 to 2021 and find that observed turnover patterns are reproduced only in an anticonformist model simulating the systematic rejection of the most popular songs. This finding was unexpected and challenges the notion of a generalized "preference for the popular." Overall, this study contributes to ongoing debates regarding the mechanisms involved in the transmission of taste and the mechanics of fashion change.


Medicinal plants are native legacies with universal and global significance that are considered as one of the most valuable assets of each country. To gain knowledge of these plants is one of the most important indicators of development in any countries. Study of medicinal plants in any region is very important for different potentials of these plants such as pharmacologic and industrial aspects. Regarding recent interest in and lack of information on medicinal plants, their therapeutic properties, and the approaches to their preparation and extraction, native information and traditional knowledge could contribute significantly to initiating scientific investigations on these plants. Therefore, it is necessary to take significant measures to use and promote systematic methods of utilization of these valuable resources by knowing these plants and obtaining necessary information about their habitats, ecological characteristics, and therapeutic uses. In this article, the latest scientific information on Allium hirtifolium, a medicinal, industrial and edible plant, is presented.


OBJECTIVE
To study the chemical constituents isolated from the roots of Delphinium grandiflorum L. var. leiocarpum W. T. Wang.

METHODS
The constituents were isolated and purified by various chromatographic methods and their structures were identified by spectral analysis.

RESULTS
Five known diterpenoid alkaloids lycoctonine (I), methyllycaconitine (II), delsemine A (III), delavaine A (IV) , delajadine (V) and the other two beta-sitosterol (VI), plamitic acid (VII) were isolated from the roots of Delphinium grandiflorum.

CONCLUSION
All these compounds are isolated from this plant for the first time.


The ability of microbial cell membrane to bind organic dye is an age long protocol that preludes the identification and characterization of bacteria cells and its components. We employed formation of keratoconjunctivitis, pigmentations and Congo red binding assay to assess the virulence of eight enteric pathogenic bacteria. Staphylococcus aureus and Salmonella typhimurium, at 3.0×108 CFU mLG1, was sufficient to cause keratoconjunctivitis in the eyes of Albino rat (Sereny test), while observing traces in Streptococcus faecalis, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus subtilis. Pigmentation (PCr+) occurred in Staphylococcus aureus, Streptococcus faecalis and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Highest protein secretion was found in Escherichia coli. Hydrophobicity of the microbial cell membrane increased in the order of chemical pre-treatments (0.9% w/v physiological saline, 50 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.8, 50 mM Tris HCl, pH 7.8+50 mM EDTA). Thus, Tris-EDTA adjunct increased hydrophobicity of the membrane to bind more Congo red than other treatments. Virulence strains of Gram-positive bacteria may likely cause a more severe keratoconjunctivitis. Pigmentations favoured Gram-positive than negative probably because of the membrane differentiation. The effect of multiple subculturing on the Congo red binding ability of these bacteria remained inconclusive as less than half of the tested bacteria complied with our hypothesis though, all were expectedly affected, when pre-treated. The virulence of bacteria is pre-determined by the inherent plasmid factors but their expression is a function of the bacteria cells to bind organic dye. Therefore, physico-chemical treatments that promote hydrophobicity of the bacteria cell membrane are likely to reduce their virulence.


This paper examines the extent of financial integration in European equity markets before, during and after the adoption of the single currency on 1 January 1999. Two groups of European economies are examined. The first set comprises the Member States of the European Union (EU) that participated in the euro (the Euro-11) [Austria, Belgium, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Portugal and Spain]. The second set consists of the remaining Members of the Euro-15 [Denmark, Greece, Sweden and the United Kingdom] along with Norway and Switzerland. Multivariate cointegration procedures, Granger-causality tests and generalised variance decomposition analyses based on error-correction and vector autoregressive models are conducted to examine long and short-run relationships among these markets. The results indicate that there is a stationary long-run relationship and significant short-run causal linkages between the equity markets of both the euro and non-euro currency areas. However, while the large equity markets remain the most influential, the lower causal relationships that exist between these and at least some middle (Belgium, Spain and Netherlands) and small (Ireland, Luxembourg, Finland and Norway) equity markets suggests that opportunities for international portfolio diversification in European equity markets may still exist.


The neutrophil constitutes the first line of defence against invading organisms and its primary function is to recognize, phagocytose and kill intruding microorganisms. In this thesis, the membrane traffic in neutrophils and neutrophil-like cells was studied. Non-opsonised S. pyogenes bacteria was shown to induce a rapid and localised pinosome formation in neutrophils. The pinocytosis was not an inherent feature of phagocytosis and could furthermore be shown to be calcium-dependent. Whereas S. pyogenes bacteria lacking M-proteins induced a pinocytic response, the wild-type M1 strain AP1 was able to modulate membrane traffic and inhibit pinosome formation. Furthermore, the wild-type strain was also shown to selectively inhibit the fusion of azurophilic granules with phagosomes. To further investigate the importance of other granule types in the killing of S. pyogenes, the HL-60 cell line lacking specific and tertiary granules but possessing azurophilic granules was used. The cell line was shown to be a useful model system when investigating the mechanisms of intracellular survival of S. pyogenes bacteria. Azurophilic granules was furthermore shown to have a major role in killing S. pyogenes in HL-60 cells, whereas oxidative burst only has a limited role.

Membrane traffic in neutrophils is important, not only in the course of bacterial infections and phagocytosis, but also in other diseases. Proteinase 3 ? known to have an important role in the pathogenesis of Wegener's granulomatosis ? and CD177 ? involved in polycythemia vera ? were studied with regards to membrane expression and traffic. Both markers were shown to be co-expressed on the same subset of neutrophils. The proteins were increased in parallel and displayed a dynamic plasma membrane expression with rapid internalization and re-expression.


We study material gain of a novel type of quantum heterostructures of mixed (0D/2D) dimensionality referred to as quantum well-dots (QWDs). To evaluate the material gain in a broad range of injection currents (30–1200 A cm−2 per-layer) we studied edge-emitting lasers with various numbers of InGaAs/GaAs QWD layers in the active region and different waveguide designs. The dependence of the material gain on the current is well fitted by an empirical exponential equation similar to the one used for quantum dots (QDs) in the whole range of injection current densities. The estimated QWD transparency current-density-per-layer of 31 A cm−2 ranks between the values reported for quantum wells and QDs. The maximal QWD material gain as high as 1.1⋅104 cm−1 has been measured. The results obtained confirm specific gain properties of InGaAs QWDs making them promising active media for lasers, superluminescence diodes and optical amplifiers.


edition of Dodds. It contains, in addition to the text, a short account of Proclus' life and works and a fairly brief introduction to the Elements themselves. The translation is accompanied by footnotes, which, however, are comparatively limited in scope, being mainly concerned with cross-references and references to other works of Proclus and his predecessors. They are insufficiently detailed to provide much help to the philosophical reader who is not already well versed in Neoplatonism. Such readers will be obliged to refer to the edition of Dodds. As far as Proclus can be made easy to read, Trouillard's version has made him so. It will be useful to those readers (more numerous in France than elsewhere) who can support their reading of the text by listening to experts discoursing on the individual propositions. In Proposition 180 Trouillard rejects the reading of Dodds for the unintelligible text of Creuzer.


Identifying urban patterns in the cities in the Brazilian Amazon can help to understand the impact of human actions on the environment, to protect local cultures, and secure the cultural heritage of the region. The objective of this study is to produce a classification of intra-urban patterns in Amazonian cities. Concretely, we produce a set of Urban and Socio-Environmental Patterns (USEPs) in the cities of Santarém and Cametá in Pará, Brazilian Amazon. The contributions of this study are as follows: (1) we use a reproducible research framework based on remote sensing data and machine learning techniques; (2) we integrate spatial data from various sources into a cellular grid, separating the variables into environmental, urban morphological, and socioeconomic dimensions; (3) we generate variables specific to the Amazonian context; and (4) we validate these variables by means of a field visit to Cametá and comparison with patterns described in other works. Machine learning-based clustering is useful to identify seven urban patterns in Santarém and eight urban patterns in Cametá. The urban patterns are semantically explainable and are consistent with the existing scientific literature. The paper provides reproducible and open research that uses only open software and publicly available data sources, making the data product and code available for modification and further contributions to spatial data science analysis.


Estimates are found for the remainder at the term of smallest modulus in the asymptotic expansions of integrals of a general type. When there is approximately a constant shift of phase between consecutive terms the remainder is easily estimated; in particular, in the case where the terms alternate in sign. The case where all term s have the same sign corresponds to a singularity on the positive real axis, and the same asymptotic expansion corresponds to different functions according as the integral is a principal value (in a somewhat extended sense) or on a loop. The two definitions may differ by a considerable multiple of the smallest term.


Although guided-inquiry methods for teaching introductory physics have been individually shown to be more effective at improving conceptual understanding than traditional lecture-style instruction, researchers in physics education have not studied differences among reform-based curricula in much detail. Several researchers have developed University of Washington--style tutorial materials, but the different curricula have not been compared against each other. Our study examines three tutorials designed to improve student understanding of Newton's third law: the University of Washington's Tutorials in Introductory Physics (TIP), the University of Maryland's Activity-Based Tutorials (ABT), and the Open Source Tutorials (OST) also developed at the University of Maryland. Each tutorial was designed with different goals and agendas, and each employs different methods to help students understand the physics. We analyzed pretest and post-test data, including course examinations and data from the Force and Motion Conceptual Evaluation (FMCE). Using both FMCE and course data, we find that students using the OST version of the tutorial perform better than students using either of the other two.


Many map-reduce frameworks as well as NoSQL systems rely on collection programming as their interface of choice due to its rich semantics along with an easily parallelizable set of primitives. Unfortunately, the potential of collection programming is not entirely fulfilled by current systems as they lack efficient incremental view maintenance (IVM) techniques for queries producing large nested results. This comes as a consequence of the fact that the nesting of collections does not enjoy the same algebraic properties underscoring the optimization potential of typical collection processing constructs. We propose the first solution for the efficient incrementalization of collection programming in terms of its core constructs as captured by the positive nested relational calculus (NRC+) on bags (with integer multiplicities). We take an approach based on delta query derivation, whose goal is to generate delta queries which, given a small change in the input, can update the materialized view more efficiently than via recomputation. More precisely, we model the cost of NRC+ operators and classify queries as efficiently incrementalizable if their delta has a strictly lower cost than full re-evaluation. Then, we identify IncNRC+, a large fragment of NRC+ that is efficiently incrementalizable and we provide a semantics-preserving translation that takes any NRC+ query to a collection of IncNRC+ queries. Furthermore, we prove that incrementalmaintenance for NRC+ is within the complexity class NC0 and we showcase how Recursive IVM, a technique that has provided significant speedups over traditional IVM in the case of flat queries, can also be applied to IncNRC+ . Existing systems are also limited wrt. the size of inner collections that they can effectively handle before running into severe performance bottlenecks. In particular, in the face of nested collections with skewed cardinalities developers typically have to undergo a painful process of manual query re-writes in order to ensure that the largest inner collections in their workloads are not impacted by these limitations. To address these issues we developed SLeNDer, a compilation framework that given a nested query generates a set of semantically equivalent (partially) shredded queries that can be efficiently evaluated and incrementalized using state of the art techniques for handling skew and applying delta changes, respectively. The derived queries expose nested collections to the same opportunities for distributing their processing and incrementally updating their contents as those enjoyed by top-level collections, leading on our benchmark to up to 16.8x and 21.9x speedups in terms of offline and online processing, respectively. In order to enable efficient IVM for the increasingly common case of collection programming with functional values as in Links, we also discuss the efficient incrementalization of simplytyped lambda calculi, under the constraint that their primitives are themselves efficiently incrementalizable.


The goal of this research was to determine whether system usability is requisite for system safety. To this end, the usability and safety of two multifunction in-vehicle interfaces were assessed to verify the hypothesis that the system scoring highest on usability testing would also score highest on safety testing. Two multifunctional systems were subjected to (a) heuristic evaluations to assess usability and (b) occlusion tests to assess safety. There were more heuristic violations, indicative of more usability problems, in System B relative to System A. Similarly, with regard to safety, results of occlusion testing showed that greater demands on time and visual resources were required to perform tasks when System B was used versus System A. Thus, the usability problems identified through heuristic evaluations represent possible precursors to the safety problems identified by occlusion tests. Given the latter and the fact that heuristic evaluations can be applied quickly and easily whereas occlusion testing can be costly and time-consuming, the results of the current research suggest that developers would benefit from correcting the usability limitations of a system before its safety performance is evaluated.


A genetic algorithm (GA)-based fuzzy-interference control system with an accelerate/brake (A/B) module is developed for a mobile robot in unknown environments with moving obstacles. The A/B module of the proposed system is to enable the mobile robot to make human-like decisions as it moves toward a target. Under the control of the proposed fuzzy inference model, the robot can perform well in avoiding both static and moving obstacles, like human beings, along a reasonable short path. In addition, a GA module is employed to tune the membership functions, which improves the performance of the fuzzy-inference system. The GA is an effective auto-tuning technique in optimizing systems without suffering from local minima. The effectiveness of the proposed approach is demonstrated by simulation studies.


This study examined the characteristics of a blacktip reef shark Carcharhinus melanopterus population in turbid coastal habitats through a multi-year fishery-independent sampling and tag-recapture programme. Results revealed a highly structured population comprised almost entirely of juveniles and adult females with individuals between 850 and 1050 mm total length effectively absent. Mature males were also rarely encountered with adult sex ratio highly biased towards females (female:male = 7:1). Mating scars were observed on adult females between December and April, and parturition was observed from December to March. Regression analysis showed that catch rates were significantly higher during the summer wet season between November and May. Recapture data suggested a highly resident population with a recapture rate of 21% and a mean recapture distance of 0·8 km. In addition, 33% of recaptured animals were captured multiple times, indicating long-term residency. Most recaptures were, however, of adults with few juveniles recaptured. Widespread sampling at the study site and in adjacent areas suggested that the population was highly localized to a specific bay. The bimodal and sex-segregated population structure observed here differs from previous reports for this species, and in combination with reproductive observations, suggests population structuring to facilitate reproductive and recruitment success. These data also highlight the potential ecosystem functions performed by coastal habitats in sustaining C. melanopterus populations.


The folding, structure and biological function of many proteins are inherently dynamic properties of the protein molecule. Often, the respective molecular processes are preserved upon protein crystallization, leading, in X-ray diffraction experiments, to a blurring of the electron density map and reducing the resolution of the derived structure. Nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) is known to be an alternative method to study molecular structure and dynamics. We designed and built a probe for phosphorus solid state NMR that allows for the first time to study static properties as well as dynamic processes in single-crystals of a protein by NMR spectroscopy. The sensitivity achieved is sufficient to detect the NMR signal from individual phosphorus sites in a 0.3 mm 3 size singlecrystal of GTPase Ras bound to the nucleotide GppNHp, that is, the signal from approximately 10 15 phosphorus nuclei. The NMR spectra obtained are discussed in terms of the conformational variability of the active center of the Ras ‐ nucleotide complex. We conclude that, in the crystal, the protein complex exists in three different conformations. Magic angle spinning (MAS) NMR spectra of a powder sample of Ras ‐ GppNHp show a splitting of one of the phosphate resonances and thus confirm this conclusion. The MAS spectra provide, furthermore, evidence of a slow, temperature-dependent dynamic exchange process in the Ras protein crystal. q 2002 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved


The folding of a series of β-hairpin structured polypeptides, which share high sequence similarity but differ significantly in structure resistance to temperature decrease, was investigated in the present study using integrated-tempering-sampling molecular dynamics simulations on microsecond time scale. MrH3a is a single mutant (I16A) and MrH4a is a double mutant (Y3L∕I16A) of the wild-type polypeptide MrH1. MrH3b and MrH4b have an additional mutation in the turn region (INGK → I(D)PGK) of MrH3a and MrH4a, respectively. It was observed in the present study that the cold denaturation tendency follows the order of MrH1 > MrH4a > MrH3a, while the folded structures of MrH3b and MrH4b have the enhanced stability and are not subject to cold denaturation. These observations are in good agreement with experimental results of Maynard et al. and Dyer et al. Comparative analysis of simulation results for the 5 polypeptides revealed potential mechanism of β-hairpin cold denaturation. The main determinant of cold denaturation tendency is likely the stability decrease of backbone hydrogen bonds at low temperatures, which in turn is affected by the packing manner of the hydrophobic core cluster of β-hairpin structures.


This technical report provides supplementary information for the optimization problems defined for Stable Estimator of Dynamical Systems (SEDS). Reading of this report is not necessary for researchers who only want to use SEDS learning algorithm. The report is aimed at helping those persons who want to develop SEDS, or to write their own optimization program. All the formulations reported here are developed for SEDS models; however, they can also be used for general Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) formulations. In the case of the latter, they should be slightly modified to consider the general form of GMM. Hopefully, the report should be clear enough to help readers in that.


Introduction Acrylamide is a vinyl monomer frequently used in the polymer industry. It has the potential to adversely affect male reproductive capacity. Coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) is a strong antioxidant. Objectives The objectives of this study were to examine the histological changes in the testis after the administration of acrylamide and the possible protective role of CoQ10. Materials and methods Thirty weaned male albino rats aged 21 days were classified into three groups of10 rats each: group I was the control group; group II (acrylamide-treated rats) received oral acrylamide at 15 mg/kg body weight/day; and group III (protected group) received both acrylamide (at the same previous dose) and an intraperitoneal injection of CoQ10 at 10 mg/kg body weight/day. After 8 weeks, blood samples were taken to measure the serum testosterone level. The testes from each animal were dissected out and processed for light microscope examination using H&E stains and immunohistochemical stains for the detection of proliferating cell nuclear antigen and inducible nitric oxide synthase. Morphometric and statistical analyses were carried out. Results After the administration of acrylamide, variable degrees of tubular affection were observed. Some tubules were shrunken with disorganized germinal epithelium. Spermatogonia contained darkly stained nuclei. Cellular vacuolations as well as sloughed spermatogenic cells into the lumen were observed. The interstitium was widened with interstitial hyperplasia, eosinophilic material, and congestedcapillaries. Immunohistochemically, acrylamide treatment induced a markedreduction in the number of proliferating cell nuclear antigen immunoreactive spermatogonia and spermatocytes and an increase in the number of inducible nitric oxide synthase immunoreactive spermatids and spermatocytes. The concomitant administration of CoQ10 with acrylamide induced an observable protectionagainst these changes. Conclusion CoQ10 played a protective role against acrylamide-induced testicular damage.


Fraternal twins, offspring of consanguineous parents, developed pancytopenia, the boy at 7, the girl at 12 years of age. A third patient became anemic at 3 years. All three are free of associated malformations. In blood cultures the incidence of chromatid breaks, exchanges, and chromosome-type aberrations was elevated to 24%, 18%, and 28%, respectively. In addition, in a low number of mitotic cells unusual observations, pointing to profound disturbances of chromosome structure, were made. It is suggested that these patients have a genetic defect impairing the normal process of mitotic chromosome condensation and decondensation.


The potential adverse effects resulting from absorption of irrigation fluids during endoscopic procedures are well documented. Glycine, which is commonly used as an irrigation solution, has an inhibitory effect both on the central nervous system and on the retinal cells. We report the case of a woman who developed transient blindness following hysteroscopic myomectomy in which glycine was used as the irrigation solution.


Histone 3 lysine 4 trimethylation (H3K4me3) is associated with promoters of actively expressed genes, with genes important for cell identity frequently having exceptionally broad H3K4me3-enriched domains at their TSS. While H3K4 methylation is implicated in contributing to transcription, maintaining transcriptional stability, facilitating enhancer-promoter interactions, and preventing irreversible silencing, some studies suggest it has little functional impact. Therefore, the function of H3K4 methylation is not resolved. Insufficient insulin release by β-cells is the primary etiology in type 2 diabetes (T2D) and is associated with the loss of expression of genes essential to normal β-cell function. We find that H3K4me3 is reduced in islets from mouse models of diabetes and from human donors with T2D. Using a genetic mouse model to impair H3K4 methyltransferase activity of TrxG complexes, we find that reduction of H3K4 methylation significantly reduces insulin production and glucose-responsiveness and increases transcriptional entropy, indicative of a loss of β-cell maturity. Genes that are downregulated by reduction to H3K4 methylation are concordantly downregulated in T2D. Loss of H3K4 methylation causes global dilution of epigenetic complexity but does not generally reduce gene expression – instead, genes related to β-cell function and/or in particular chromatin environments are specifically affected. While neither H3K4me3 nor H3K4me1 are strictly required for the expression of many genes, the expression of genes with critical roles in β-cell function becomes destabilized, with increased variance and decreased overall expression. Our data further suggests that, in absence of H3K4me3, promoter-associated H3K4me1 is sufficient to maintain expression. Together, these data implicate H3K4 methylation dysregulation as destabilizing β-cell gene expression and contributing to β-cell dysfunction in T2D.


The combination of the high workload associated with keeping top executive branch positions filled and political dysfunction has led to longer and more frequent periods of vacancies in the U.S. executive branch. While scholars commonly claim that such vacancies are harmful for performance, this claim has been difficult to evaluate because of theoretical disagreement, conceptual confusion, and measurement challenges. In this paper we evaluate the relationship between vacancies and performance, describing primary mechanisms by which vacancies (as opposed to turnover) influence performance. We conduct a cross-sectional study using new data on appointee vacancies during the Trump Administration and original performance data from a 2020 survey of federal executives. The Survey on the Future of Government Service includes questions designed to measure comparative self-reported agency performance and questions targeting the mechanisms hypothesized to link vacancies and performance. The paper includes efforts to define and validate the measure of performance, assess the directionality of the relationship between vacancies and performance, control for potential confounders that may explain both vacancies and performance, and evaluate the mechanisms by which vacancies negatively affect performance. The results from OLS models suggest that persistent vacancies are correlated with lower performance. In particular, agencies with persistent vacancies (e.g., 3-4 years) have performance ratings of about one standard deviation lower than those agencies with consistent confirmed leadership. The most likely mechanisms leading to these results are the effect of vacancies on leader time horizons, agency morale, and investment by key stakeholders. We conclude with implications for appointment politics and administrative politicization


The kidney plays an important role in calcium homeostasis. In this review we discuss new concepts in tubular calcium transport, related proteins and the clinical implications of these new findings. Most calcium reabsorption occurs in the proximal tubules via the passive paracellular pathway, but calcium reabsorption also occurs in the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop (50% via the transcellular pathway). Finally, at the level of the distal convoluted tubule and connecting tubule calcium is reabsorbed via the active transcellular route. The Calcium-sensing receptor, localised along the thick ascending limb of Henle's loop, regulates the urinary calcium excretion in response to changes in extracellular calcium concentration. The Epithelial Calcium Channel 1 is a highly Ca2+-sensitive channel that is predominantly present in the connecting tubule. The Calbindin D(28k) is a cytoplasmatic protein expressed in the distal tubule, it is involved both in transcellular calcium diffusion and in the control of intracellular calcium concentration. Heterozygous mutations in the gene for the calcium sensing receptor, which result in a loss of function by the receptor, are associated with familial hypocalciuric hypercalcaemia. Mutations involving a gain of function have been associated with hypocalcaemia with normal serum parathyroid hormone concentration. Bartter's syndrome, caused by a dysfunction of thick ascending limb cells, is associated with calcium wasting. On the contrary, Gitelman's syndrome, caused by a dysfunction of the distal tubule, is characterised by hypocalciuria and hypomagnesemia.


In this research is made an automatic home safety system that is able to protect the house from the danger of criminal acts such as theft and robbery. This automatic home security system is able to provide notification to the home owner via SMS gateway and able to control the gate open the gate of the house automatically and give a warning sound of buzzer alarm. The system-making methodology is to use the Arduino as the main control device of the system. The camera is used for video capture capable of recording images automatically, while the automatic gate closes if the sensor detects the person entering the house, and at the same time the buzzer alarm will rang. To activate the system required commands that must be sent via mobile phone and received by SMS gateway. The results of this study in the form of a prototype system that is able to send notifications automatically to the homeowner accompanied by video footage containing the image information of the perpetrators of crime in the house.


We describe five new species of Elaphomyces from Bartlett Experimental Forest, New Hampshire, USA (E. americanus, E. bartlettii, E. macrosporus, E. oreoides, and E. remickii) and revise the description of a sixth previously published species (E. verruculosus). Of the five new species, E. bartlettii and E. remickii are only known from New Hampshire whereas E. americanus, E. macrosporus, and E. oreoides are widely distributed in eastern North America. Elaphomyces verruculosus is the most widespread and abundant Elaphomyces species in eastern North America with a distribution extending from eastern Canada south to northeastern Mexico. All six Elaphomyces species are putatively associated with Tsuga canadensis, a tree species in regional decline. For five of the six Elaphomyces species, we report partially consumed ascomata or rodent fecal samples containing spores, indicating that small mammals play a key role in dispersing these Elaphomyces species and that the Elaphomyces are an important part of the small mammals' diet.


.: The problem of research is still relatively low usage of augmented reality mobile applications in e-commerce, despite it's advantages and opportunities to increase competitiveness. The aim of the research is to find out and explore the benefits of augmented reality in e-commerce. The paper discusses the definition of augmented reality, it's advantages and looks through most succesfull mobile applications in e-commerce containing augmented reality. The author includes a case study from a very popular app "Makeup Genius" and examines the basis for its success. The most popular augmented reality apps allow customers to virtually try on products saving time by not having to go to a physical store. Several sources point out that the main advantage of augmented reality is greater consumer interaction with the application, which as a result creates a pleasant experience for the customer.


Economic values of clinical mastitis, claw disease, and feed efficiency traits along with 16 additional production and functional traits were estimated for the dairy population of the Slovak Pinzgau breed using a bioeconomic approach. In the cow-calf population (suckler cow population) of the same breed, the economic values of feed efficiency traits along with 15 further production and functional traits were calculated. The marginal economic values of clinical mastitis and claw disease incidence in the dairy system were -€ 70.65 and -€ 26.73 per case per cow and year, respectively. The marginal economic values for residual feed intake were -€ 55.15 and -€ 54.64/kg of dry matter per day for cows and breeding heifers in the dairy system and -€ 20.45, -€ 11.30, and -€ 6.04/kg of dry matter per day for cows, breeding heifers, and fattened animals in the cow-calf system, respectively, all expressed per cow and year. The sums of the relative economic values for the 2 new health traits in the dairy system and for residual feed intake across all cattle categories in both systems were 1.4 and 8%, respectively. Within the dairy production system, the highest relative economic values were for milk yield (20%), daily gain of calves (20%), productive lifetime (10%), and cow conception rate (8%). In the cow-calf system, the most important traits were weight gain of calves from 120 to 210 d and from birth to 120 d (19 and 14%, respectively), productive lifetime (17%), and cow conception rate (13%). Based on the calculation of economic values for traits in the dual-purpose Pinzgau breed, milk production and growth traits remain highly important in the breeding goal, but their relative importance should be adapted to new production and economic conditions. The economic importance of functional traits (especially of cow productive lifetime and fertility) was sufficiently high to make the inclusion of these traits into the breeding goal necessary. An increased interest of consumers in animal welfare and quality of dairy farm products should probably lead to the incorporation of health traits (clinical mastitis incidence and somatic cells score) into the breeding goal. However, keeping carcass traits in the breeding goal of the Slovak Pinzgau breed does not seem to be relevant to the long-term market situation.


During a one-year period, 82 consecutive patients seeking medical attention for facial palsy primarily of unknown etiology were examined for underlying Ixodes ricinus-borne borreliosis. Evidence of the infection was found in 16 (20%) of the patients, most of whom had cerebrospinal fluid findings indicating meningeal involvement. Among 9 children included in the study, borreliosis was found in 6 cases. Bilateral facial palsy occurred in 3 of the borrelia-infected patients, as compared with none of the patients without borreliosis. It is suggested that, in areas where the tick vector is present, borreliosis should be regularly sought in patients with facial palsy of otherwise unknown etiology. As regards the serological diagnosis, it is emphasized that normal borrelia antibody titres in serum and cerebrospinal fluid at the time of the first consultation do not exclude the infection. A careful serological follow-up of patients with facial palsy is therefore recommended in order not to miss an underlying borreliosis which, if allowed to go untreated, implies a risk of other organ involvement and a protracted course.


A combination of rough topography, steep slopes, active tectonic and seismic process and intense impact of monsoon rain has made the fragile environment of Nepal vulnerable to a variety of natural hazards. Most frequent hazards are floods, landslides, epidemics, fires, earthquake and other hydro-meteorological disasters, causing heavy loss of human lives as well as economic loss including housing and infrastructures (MDRIP, 2009). Hence, hazard assessments are the need of the hour. They help district and regional decision makers, policy makers and development agencies prepare disaster risk reduction plans. The chosen study area was Banepa and Panauti municipality. Separate hazard assessments have been performed for four hazards, namely, earthquake, flood, landslide and industrial hazards. Earthquake hazard zone maps have been made following the Probabilistic Seismic Hazard Assessment (PSHA) approach for 500 year return period to produce seismic intensity distribution maps in the form of Modified Mercalli Intensity (MMI) maps using Trifunac and Brady formula. Flood inundation maps have been made using HEC-RAS and HEC-GeoRAS extension for ArcGIS for return periods of 2, 10 and 500 of Chandeswori and Punyamata rivers. Landslide hazard susceptibility map has been made using the Stability Index Mapping (SINMAP) extension for ArcGIS that uses an infinite-slope equation accurate for debris flows. Industrial hazard maps that depict the vicinity that falls within various ranges of danger in the event of different industrial hazards like fire, Vapor Cloud Explosion (VCE) and Boiling Liquid Expanding Vapor Explosion (BLEVE) have been prepared as well. Finally, a composite multi hazard map has been prepared by combining all the four hazards. Nepalese Journal on Geoinformatics -13, 2014, Page: 25-31


To evaluate the variations and potential clinical use of serial maternal alpha‐fetoprotein (AFP) and human chorionic gonadotropin (hCG) in pregnancies at risk of pregnancy‐induced hypertension (PIH) and/or intrauterine growth retardation (IUGR), we investigated the relationship between placental sonographic findings, uterine artery Doppler measurements, and maternal serum AFP, hCG, and uric acid levels between 20 and 34 weeks of pregnancy. Maternal serum samples were collected from 41 singleton pregnancies with bilateral uterine notches and/or an increased uterine artery pulsatility index at 20–24 weeks. Maternal serum AFP, intact hCG and free α and β subunits, and uric acid circulating levels were measured in all cases at 20–24 weeks and 25–28 weeks. Placental sonographic investigations comprised measurements of thickness and morphology. Twenty pregnancies had a normal outcome and 21 had an adverse outcome, including eight complicated by severe PIH with fetal IUGR, eight by isolated IUGR, three by mild PIH with normal fetal growth, and two by placental abruption. At the time of the first scan, the placental thickness and maternal serum levels of AFP, hCG, and uric acid were significantly increased in pregnancies with adverse outcomes, compared with those with a normal outcome. In subsequent maternal serum examinations, the incidence of elevated hormonal levels fell for AFP, intact hCG, and β‐hCG, whereas it increased for the uric acid level. No difference was found at any stage for the α‐hCG level. Seven out of 11 pregnancies complicated by PIH presented with elevated MSAFP and MShCG and a large heterogeneous placenta at the first visit, whereas no pregnancy with a normal outcome presented with similar features. This study has shown a significant association between abnormal development of the utero‐placental circulation, elevated MSAFP and MShCG at mid‐gestation, and subsequent adverse pregnancy outcome. Serial measurements of MSAFP and MShCG do not provide extra information for the follow‐up of these pregnancies.


The prestige and values of higher education are traditionally high in Russia and overseas countries. For several generations, there has been a youth orientation towards higher education. Higher education and diplomas are perceived by a person primarily as a means of social mobility. Profession sets a certain "social background" for people's life. At the same time, however, over the past few decades the assessment of the prestige associated with certain professions and specialties has dramatically changed and the labor market has changed, too. The the desire for higher education among young people continues to grow in Russia. Today's students, future specialists, face new challenges of the labor market: firstly, availability of desired and demanded professions acquisition on the labor market; secondly, disappearance of old and the emergence of new professions; thirdly, digitalization of the labor market; fourthly, the formation of specialist competencies that are in demand both on the local and global labor markets. The major research objectives were to study the issues of students' profession choice and their opinion on the demanded / non-demanded professions on modern labor market. The research methodology combines both quantitative and qualitative approaches. The primary data was collected using questionnaires and indepth-interviews. 250 freshmen of the Ural Federal University and 250 freshmen of Saint-Petersburg State University were questioned on the basis of quota sampling. In depth-interviews (15) were organized for the educators engaged in the system of higher education. The study has revealed the issue of inequality in access to higher education as well as of inequality in access to getting prestigious and demanded professions on labor market.The majority of the respondents look for occupation suited to abilities and to their own interests. For young people the main thing is that the profession should not only make profit, but also a career progress and give new professional knowledge. The research has fixed that the majority of the students believe that they have made the right choice of specialty and they are well aware of how their future professional activity will be. About 30.0% of young people do not often choose those professions that they would like to be trained at the university, but those that are possible due to their "accessibility". The students' professional choice does not correspond to their ideas about their future profession and their psychological characteristics.
Keywords: Higher education, students, freshmen, Russia, labor market, future profession choice, digitalization


A modification of the SINA/Beckman recording electric hygrometer is described which permits this instrument to be calibrated and used with greater ease. This increase in convenience is attained without sacrificing either accuracy or precision.


Teachers of advertising will find this book helpful as a supplementary or reference text for use in the general course in advertising, as one of several basic texts in a course in advertising practice, or for general use in one of the more specialized courses where laboratory problems involving advertising techniques are used. Those engaged in advertising practice will find this book useful as a reference manual as well as a source of advertising ideas. Buyers of advertising will be repaid for a painstaking reading of the book. The practical discussion of planning printed matter should be of immediate interest to them. Professor Stanley's writing style is simple and direct. He has the ability to present technical subjects in an understandable manner. This is demonstrated in the author's description of a process and statements of how a thing is done. The book contains a number of well-chosen illustrations which add to the clarity of the subject matter. The format is well adapted to a work of this type. Much of the subject matter is covered in general texts on advertising. Hence, this book suffers the limitation of being incomplete as a text and overlapping in content with general texts. On the other hand, Professor Stanley gives a more thorough and up-to-date presentation than is found in most advertising textbooks. This is especially true of the chapters entitled "Learning to Recognize Type" and "Putting Type to Work." As a summary appraisal, we are indebted to Professor Stanley for bringing together in unified fashion the advertising production techniques.


Objective To study the effect of different concentration of tumor necrosis factor-α(TNF-α) on the expression of monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1) and the corresponding signal transduction pathway in human dental follicle cells.Methods The 5th passage of human dental follicle cells were co-incubated with 0(control group),5,10,25,50 and 100 ng/ml TNF-α,respectively,for 6 hours.The contents of MCP-1 in the supernatant were measured by using sandwich ELISA,and the expression of MCP-1 mRNA was determined by reverses transcription polymerase chain reaction(RT-PCR).Furthermore,to determine the corresponding signal transduction pathway,the 5th passage of human dental follicle cells were incubated with 25 μmol/L SB203580 to inhibit p38 mitogen-activated protein kinase(p38MARK),with 50 μmol/L PD98059 to inhibit extracellular signal-regulated kinases(ERK),and with 15 μmol/L SP600125 to inhibit c-Jun N-terminal kinases(JNK) for 30min,then incubated with TNF-α(10ng/ml) for 6h.MCP-1 mRNA was detected by RT-PCR.Results The results of ELISA revealed that 10-100 ng/ml of TNF-α enhanced MCP-1 secretion(P < 0.05) compared to that in human dental follicle cells without TNF-α treatment.Cells treated with 10-50 ng/ml of TNF-α showed a significant increase of MCP-1 mRNA expression(P < 0.05),and the action was inhibited by SP600125,which was the special inhibitor of c-Jun N-terminal kinase(JNK).Conclusion TNF-α may enhance MCP-1 gene expression and secretion in human dental follicle cells,and the activation of JNK signal transduction pathway is required in this process.


Poschmann & Nel (2020) recently described the genus and species Permomertovia simpliciradius from the early Permian of Germany and placed it in the order Paoliida and family Paoliidae sensu Prokop et al. (2014) because it shares the diagnostic characters and synapomorphies of this order and family. But they neglected to compare Permomertovia with the taxa placed in the small family Permulidae, and especially with its type genus and species Permula lebachensis (Schlechtendal, 1913; also from the early Permian of Germany (Steinbach near Lebach-Saar). We herein compare the two forewings, and also take this occasion to discuss the affinities of the Permulidae and of some other related Palaeozoic families of Polyneoptera.


Imaging in awake, behaving animals is an emerging field that offers the advantage of being able to study physiological processes and structures in a more natural state than what is possible in tissue slices or even in anesthetized animals. To date, most imaging in awake animals has used optical fiber bundles or electrical cables to transfer signals to traditional imaging-system components. However, the fibers or cables tether the animal and greatly limit the kind and duration of animal behavior that can be studied using imaging methods. We present an integrated imaging microscope (IIM) that incorporates all aspects of an imaging system - illumination, optics and photodetection - into a small footprint device, occupying under 4 cm3 and weighing 5.4 g, that can be attached to the skull for imaging the brain in mobile rats. Power supply and image storage sufficient for ∼7 hour operation at 15 frames/s was implemented on a backpack weighing 11.5 g. We implemented several optical techniques including reflectance, spectroscopy, speckle and fluorescence with the IIM, imaged vessels down to 15–20 µm in diameter and obtained, to the best of our knowledge, the worlds first cortical images from an untethered, freely-moving rat.


We report the observation of ferromagnetic resonance (FMR) and the determination of the magnetocrystalline anisotropy in (100)-oriented single-crystalline thin film samples of Ga 1 − x Mn x P with x = 0 . 042. The contributions to the magnetic anisotropy were determined by measuring the angular- and the temperature-dependencies of the FMR resonance fields and by superconducting quantum interference device magnetometry. The largest contribution to the anisotropy is a uniaxial component perpendicular to the film plane; however, a negative contribution from cubic anisotropy is also found. Additional in-plane uniaxial components are observed at low temperatures, which lift the degeneracy between the in-plane [011] and [01¯1] directions as well as between the in-plane [010] and [001] directions. Near T = 5 K, the easy magnetization axis is close to the in-plane [01¯1] direction. All anisotropy parameters decrease with increasing temperature and disappear above the Curie temperature T C . A consistent picture of the magnetic anisotropy of ferromagnetic Ga 1 − x Mn x P emerges from the FMR and magnetometry data. The latter can be successfully modeled when both coherent magnetization rotation and magnetic domain nucleation are considered.


Objective: To understand the efficacy of cladribine (CLAD) treatment in MS through analysis of lymphocyte subsets collected, but not reported, in the pivotal phase III trials of cladribine and alemtuzumab induction therapies. Methods: The regulatory submissions of the CLAD Tablets Treating Multiple Sclerosis Orally (CLARITY) (NCT00213135) cladribine and Comparison of Alemtuzumab and Rebif Efficacy in Multiple Sclerosis, study one (CARE-MS I) (NCT00530348) alemtuzumab trials were obtained from the European Medicine Agency through Freedom of Information requests. Data were extracted and statistically analyzed. Results: Either dose of cladribine (3.5 mg/kg; 5.25 mg/kg) tested in CLARITY reduced the annualized relapse rate to 0.16–0.18 over 96 weeks, and both doses were similarly effective in reducing the risk of MRI lesions and disability. Surprisingly, however, T-cell depletion was rather modest. Cladribine 3.5 mg/kg depleted CD4+ cells by 40%–45% and CD8+ cells by 15%–30%, whereas alemtuzumab suppressed CD4+ cells by 70%–95% and CD8+ cells by 47%–55%. However, either dose of cladribine induced 70%–90% CD19+ B-cell depletion, similar to alemtuzumab (90%). CD19+ cells slowly repopulated to 15%–25% of baseline before cladribine redosing. However, alemtuzumab induced hyperrepopulation of CD19+ B cells 6–12 months after infusion, which probably forms the substrate for B-cell autoimmunities associated with alemtuzumab. Conclusions: Cladribine induced only modest depletion of T cells, which may not be consistent with a marked influence on MS, based on previous CD4+ T-cell depletion studies. The therapeutic drug-response relationship with cladribine is more consistent with lasting B-cell depletion and, coupled with the success seen with monoclonal CD20+ depletion, suggests that B-cell suppression could be the major direct mechanism of action.


Friend leukemia virus (FLV) 1 (1) is a C-type murine retrovirus that induces rapid effects on erythropoiesis in susceptible mice (1-5). Like other acute leukemia viruses, FLV is a complex of two viruses, a replication-defective component(s) Friend spleen focus-forming virus (SFFV) (5) and a replication-competent virus, F-MuLV (4-7). Recent studies (8, 9) using molecularly cloned SFFV DNA have indicated that erythroleukemia can be induced by F-MuLV and a single SFFV genome. The erythroleukemia induced by FLV can be divided into at least two stages: an early stage of rapid splenomegaly at 1-3 wk post-infection (1-5, 9) and a more "malignant" stage of 3 wk or over, during which tumorigenic erythroleukemic cell lines can be detected in the infected spleens (10-15). Other hematological changes can also be recognized during the early phase of the disease. For example, the rapid splenomegaly is accompanied by extensive proliferation and differentiation of immature erythroid cells and the appearance of large numbers of cells capable of forming erythroid colonies (CFU-E) in vitro (16-18, 4). In addition to these hematological aberrations, a rapid change in the hematocrits of these mice can also be detected early in the disease (1, 2, 4). The direction of these changes, however, can be different in response to two distinct strains of FLV (1, 2, 4). After infection of the original Friend isolate of FLV (1) (FV-A), the mice rapidly developed anemia at 2-3 wk after infection. However, a distinct strain of FLV (FLV-P) was subsequently isolated by Mirand (2) that is capable of inducing a rapid and severe polycythemia instead of the anemia. These contrasting changes in the hematocrits of the infected mice were found to be a function of the defective components SFFVA and SFFVp, which are associated with FV-A and FV-P complexes, respectively (4, 5). In addition to a difference in hematocrits of the infected mice,


A vascularized bone graft from the head and neck of the index metacarpal bone was used for the treatment of stage IIIA Kienböck's disease in a 20-year-old woman. Three months after surgery pain had disappeared and wrist range of motion improved. Postoperative radiographs and magnetic resonance imaging revealed revascularization and fracture healing of the lunate bone. This technique has not been used in the treatment of Kienböck's disease; it may be useful in selected cases.


Mobile network performance measurement is important for understanding mobile user experience, problem diagnosis, and service comparison. A number of crowdsourcing measurement apps (e.g., MobiPerf [4, 6] and Netalyzr [5, 7]) have been embarked for the last few years. Unlike existing apps that use active measurement methods, we employ a novel passive-active approach to continuously monitor per-app network performance on unrooted smartphones without injecting additional network trac. By leveraging the VpnService API on Android, MopEye, our measurement app, intercepts all network trac and then relays them to their destinations using socket APIs. Therefore, not only MopEye can measure the round-trip time accurately, it can do so without injecting additional trac. As a result, the bandwidth cost (and monetary cost of data usage) for conducting such a measurement is eliminated, and the measurement can be conducted free of user intervention. Our evaluation shows that MopEye's RTT measurement is very close to result of tcpdump and is more accurate than MobiPerf. We have used MopEye to conduct a one-week measurement revealing multiple interesting ndings on dierent apps' performance.


Background High quality tests for detection of STIs are available but they are neither affordable nor available to patients in resource-limited settings. For patients presenting with STI symptoms, WHO recommends the use of syndromic management in settings where laboratory services are not available. As most STI patients tend to have few or no symptoms, tests to screen for STIs is important for guiding treatment and prevention of onward transmission. However, in resource-limited settings, patients often have to travel long distances to reach a clinic with STI services, and many fail to return for test results and treatment after the initial visit. Methods In recent years, increased investment in the development of novel diagnostic technologies has resulted in advances that have made it possible to provide STI-testing at all healthcare settings. The development of multiplex tests to support screening and STI syndromic management in resource-limited settings is an urgent priority. Results Exciting new technologies may soon transform how STIs can be diagnosed in resource-poor settings in the next few years. Among them are duplex antigen/antibody tests that can be used for STI syndromes and rapid lateral flow tests that can be used with oral fluid instead of blood for syphilis and HIV. Nucleic acid amplified tests that are designed as integrated platforms providing sample- in- answer-out convenience and random access will soon be available for the detection of genital chlamydial and gonococcal infections. Simple isothermal nucleic acid amplification technologies are available for detection of bacterial and viral STIs in 15–60 min, using simple equipment that can be run on solar energy or batteries. A mathematical model developed by Aledort et al (2006) estimated that a test for syphilis that requires no laboratory infrastructure could save more than 201 000 adjusted lives and avert 215 000 stillbirths. A similar test could save approximately 4 million DALYs, avert more than 16.5 million incident gonorrhoea and chlamydial infections and prevent more than 212 000 HIV infections. Conclusions Recent investments in the development of point-of-care diagnostics for infectious diseases have produced novel technologies that can support STI screening and syndromic management in resource-limited settings. Quality assurance and implementation research are needed to ensure optimal uptake and full impact of these novel technologies in resource-limited settings.


In 2016 Sydney was the epicentre of several outbreaks of legionellosis that spanned three geographical regions, the CBD, Kogarah and Burwood [1]. The CBD was affected twice, once during March 2016 (named the CBD March period) and then from 28 of April to the 11 of May 2016 (named the CBD May period). For the CBD March period, five towers were found to be Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 (Lp1) positive and despite the cleaning of these towers, legionellosis returned in late April (CBD May period). The aplication of whole genome sequencing (WGS) on Lp1 isolates obtained in the CBD March period revealed that several patients were infected with the same strain of Lp1. Further, the L. pneumophila sequence based typing scheme (SBT) labelled the dominant Lp1 strain as ST211 [2]. When cases of Legionellosis were detected in the CBD May period that were also ST211, WGS was used on isolates from newly sampled towers and the environmental source of the Lp1 was found.


ABSTRACT In countries with no clear policy regarding gifted students, teachers are vital. Norway is such a case. Teachers might have stereotypical views and need knowledge about gifted students to facilitate them appropriately. This article aims to give descriptive insights into teachers' views and perceptions of students with extraordinary learning potential (gifted) in Norway. To examine this, we used a survey of primary and secondary school teachers (N = 339), exploring teachers' self-evaluated need for knowledge, how teachers evaluate different characteristics, and the teachers' open-ended descriptions. We also report descriptive statistics from the survey. The results indicate that the Norwegian teachers wanted more knowledge about gifted students; they reported positive characteristics like performing well and being hardworking and intelligent but also being bored and, to some degree, displaying disruptive behavior. Here, 74% of the teachers reported they had experiences with teaching gifted students. One implication is including giftedness as a topic in teacher education. Our study points to important areas for further research – for example, more in-depth research with Norwegian teachers on their view and characterization of gifted students.


Abstract Background Native to the Indo-Pacific region, the lionfish (Pterois volitans and P. miles) has been classified as an alien invasive species which has rapidly invaded the North-western Atlantic and the Caribbean. The primary concerns regarding lionfish pertain to their broad diet, general habitat use and their potential threat on fisheries resources, native fish communities and human health. Away from natural predators, lionfish populations can easily become established and pose a serious threat to local fish species and ecosystem functioning. The first confirmed sighting of the red lionfish (Pterois volitans) in Barbados was in November 2011. Throughout 2012, fishermen and recreational divers were encouraged to report sightings of lionfish via an established hotline. Where possible, sightings were confirmed by way of the fish being captured and handed over to the Barbados Fisheries Division or the East Coast Conservation Organisation (ECCO) Inc. (an environmental NGO) for confirmation. In addition to confirmation, biological data (such as length, weight, sex and maturity) were also collected. Genetic research conducted on confirmed specimens collected between 2011-2013 identified the presence of only one species, P. volitans. Since the first confirmed sighting of the red lionfish in Barbados, it is believed that population numbers have steadily increased. One of the methods utilised in Barbados to control this alien invasive lionfish species is that of an annual derby. On 5 and 6 December 2015 and 13 November 2016, teams of divers (both free divers and SCUBA divers) took to the local waters to hunt for and kill lionfish. Caught lionfish were landed at scoring stations to be counted and allowed for the collection of basic biological data (such as length, weight, sex and maturity). In addition to biological data, teams (observers) also provided information on dive sites (locations) and associated geographic information (i.e. GPS coordinates), where available. New information These two datasets, initial sightings (2012) and derby data (2015 and 2016), present the first collected data for the red lionfish (P. volitans) in Barbados. The two datasets are occurrence datasets which document the identification of >1500 lionfish removed from the waters of Barbados between 2011 and 2016.


The fear of crime has become a major problem in contemporary society. The National Institute of Justice selected the Police Foundation to conduct rigorous evaluations of several different law enforcement programs designed to address that problem in Newark and Houston. This article describes how the programs in Newark were developed, implemented, and evaluated and summarizes the results of those evaluations. The findings indicate that programs designed to carry out the original mandate of urban policing—to remain in close and frequent contact with citizens—were most effective. In response to these results, the Newark Police Department has adopted and expanded those program components found to be successful.


The outcome of lupus nephritis was studied in 12 children. Their age at onset was 5-13 years (mean 9.8 +/- 2.1 years), less than that reported in recent years of children with lupus nephritis. All patients had clinical symptoms and signs and/or laboratory findings of renal involvement. Renal biopsy, performed in all patients, showed: minimal change in 3 patients, mesangial glomerulonephritis in 5, focal proliferative glomerulonephritis in 3 and membranous glomerulonephritis in one patient. There was no correlation between age at onset and histological categories, while clinical data were well correlated with the degree of histological involvement. 11 patients were followed for 5.16 +/- 3.2 years (range 1-13 years); 7 patients are in complete remission, 3 patients have only microscopic hematuria and/or mild proteinuria, one patient died because of infection complicating pulmonary involvement. Our report confirms a more favorable evolution of lupus nephritis in children than in adults. In particular none of our patients whose disease started before the age of 10 years had poor outcome, in contrast to previous report describing a higher mortality and morbidity in younger children. The more favorable prognosis of our patients could depend not only on the absence of the more severe form of lupus nephritis that is diffuse proliferative glomerulonephritis, but also on the earlier diagnosis and subsequent therapy.


Buruli ulcer (BU) is a disease caused by mycobacterium ulcerans (MU). The large number of cases and the complications currently associated with the disease as well as its long-term socio-economic impact could have a substantial effect on the rural economy. Knowledge gaps about the exact mode of transmission and factors that pre-dispose to infection motivated this study. This study employed geographical information systems (GIS) and geostatistics to establish relationship between BU and postulated risk factors in Amansie West District of Ghana. Semivariograms were computed to determine the strength and spatial dependency of the pattern of disease as well as summarize the variation. The risk of developing the disease was estimated by kriging. Ordinary kriging was chosen in the variogram modeling. The BU data sets exhibited a highly positively skewed histogram with possible outlying. The length of spatial autocorrelation (practical range) was much longer than sampling interval (lag size).The kriged map showed that there are large patches of BU disease in the southern part of the study area with few isolated cases in the other parts.. The research revealed that the disease is prevalent in the southern portion of the district which is drained by rivers Oda and Offin. The southern portion is also characterized by intense mining and agricultural activity. The paper concludes that intense human interaction with aquatic environment may be responsible for the high prevalence of BU in the District.


Direct investment is expected to be a source of financing for the current account deficit in Indonesia's Balance of Payments. One of the contributors to the current account deficit is the oil and gas trade balance. Therefore, this study will focus on direct investment in the upstream oil and gas sector. This study will examine the impact of implementing regulations related to restrictions on costs that can be claimed to the government and economic factors that include prices and costs per unit of oil and gas on the upstream oil and gas investment. The study was conducted using micro data from 33 oil and gas companies in Indonesia, with a data period 2005-2018. The analysis model used is panel data regression. Empirical results show that the implementation of regulation as well as price per unit (lag-2) have a significant and positive correlation to the upstream oil and gas investment. While operational cost per unit (lag-2) have a significant effect with a negative correlation after the implementation of the regulation.


This investigation explored the relationship between married individuals' self-reports of their expectations, interaction, spousal bonding, and marital quality. From two universities, two hundred and thirty-seven currently enrolled and married students volunteered to provide the information on these factors via a semistructured self-administered questionnaire. The typical respondent was a female between 31 and 35 years old who had been married 8 years to her first spouse, had one child at home; and was a senior in college. Of the ten independent variables examined three variables contributed the most to individuals' self-reported evaluation of their marital quality. These were the time spent each week with their spouse, satisfaction with the quality of time spent with their spouse, and when the greatest level of bonding experiences occurred. Five significant findings emerged from the study. First, respondents' greater satisfaction with the quality of time spent with their spouse was consistently the strongest predictor of higher marital quality. Second, respondents who bonded more with their spouse after marriage or equally before and after marriage reported higher marital quality than those who bonded more before marriage. Third, the amount of time spouses spent together influenced respondents' reported marital quality. Fourth, spousal bonding has a very strong influence on individuals' self-reported marital quality. The influence of spousal bonding upon marital quality has been neglected by marriage and family researchers. Finally, joint activities such as talking, eating and cooking at home, sex, activities shared with children, and church related activities were identified by respondents as consistently promoting both a higher quality level for the time spent with their spouse and with their spousal bonding. Future research on marital quality should use larger and more representative samples, involve personal interviews, use longitudinal data collection, and perform time series or path analysis.


To the Editor. —I read with interest the editorial by Weisfeldt and Guerci 1 regarding the use of sodium bicarbonate in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). I agree with their general assertion that sodium bicarbonate plays no major role in routine CPR. However, I do feel that in the case of the chronic dialysis patient who presents either in the field or to the emergency department with a life-threatening arrhythmia, that bicarbonate should almost invariably be one of the first drugs used. As the authors mention, sodium bicarbonate is used for potential hyperkalemia. Commonly, we see patients who have had a long weekend of 3 days or so, who are volume overloaded, hyperkalemic, and acidotic who either arrest at home, on the way to the hospital, or shortly after presenting to the emergency department or the dialysis unit. In my experience, mere CPR is invariably not as successful as first giving the


The thermal conductivity of the color-flavor locked phase of dense quark matter is calculated. The dominant contribution to the conductivity comes from photons and Nambu-Goldstone bosons associated with breaking of baryon number which are trapped in the quark core. Because of their very large mean free path the conductivity is also very large. The cooling of the quark core arises mostly from the heat flux across the surface of direct contact with the nuclear matter. As the thermal conductivity of the neighboring layer is also high, the whole interior of the star should be nearly isothermal. Our results imply that the cooling time of compact stars with color-flavor locked quark cores is similar to that of ordinary neutron stars.


Reaction between deposited Ca layers and the Si(111) substrate has been studied by metastable-induced electron spectroscopy (MIES) and low-energy electron diffraction (LEED). When a Ca-deposited (about 1ML) Si(111) surface was annealed at temperatures in the range 470-570 K, the MIES spectrum showed a peak, named Ps, at a binding energy of about 7 eV which is assigned to be an isolated Si3s state. By referring electronic structure calculations for the bulk Ca-silicides, we confirmed that a solid-phase reaction at the Ca/Si interface to induce Ca2Si-like phases takes place at rather low annealing temperatures around 570 K. When Ca-covered (about 0.6 ML) Si(111) surfaces were annealed at temperatures in the range 770-870 K, the LEED showed 2× 1, 5× 1 and quasi-3× 2 reconstructions, depending on the temperature. We obtained MIES spectra from these surfaces involving spectral features which reflect local atomic structures of those Ca+Si surface phases. Correlations between the local atomic structure and the electronic structure probed by the MIES are discussed. [DOI: 10.1380/ejssnt.2007.89]


A collaborative teaching project developed within two sport management programmes – one in Australia and one in the UK – provides the focus of this study. An online blog was used throughout the study to provide a means of communication between the two lead academics, and the project effectively used an action research method within a reflective practice context. The blog allowed for asynchronous collaboration, and charted the journey from a practical dumping ground of frustration to a supportive and reflective forum of evaluation. Reflection in-action highlighted a level of description of immediate practicalities and challenges faced in relation to the design and execution of the project, resulting in a platform for 'real time' problem solving. Reflection on-action highlighted that the viability of the teaching project relied upon the strength of the collaborative working relationship between the academics. This multi-layered reflective approach to analysing the blog identified insightful action points for future research and embedded opportunities for professional and personal development.


The fact that conventional energy sources are exhaustive and limited are increasingly encouraging research in the field of alternative and renewable energy sources. The electricity generated by solar photovoltaic modules and panels occupies an ever greater percentage in total electricity production, so it is clear that photovoltaic systems are increasingly integrating with the existing electricity network into one system or functioning as autonomous systems. The aim of the research is to create a model based on the principles of the fuzzy logic and artificial neural networks that will perform the task of predicting the maximum energy of photovoltaic modules as accurately as possible. The prediction should facilitate work in planning production and consumption, system management, economic analysis. The most important methods used in the research are modeling and simulation. Input and output variables are selected and in the ANFIS (Adaptive Neuro Fuzzy Inference System) model a set of their values is presented. Based on them it comes to the function of dependency. The prediction rating of the created model was performed on a separate data set for testing and a model with the lowest average test error value was selected. The performance of the model was compared with the mathematical model through sensitivity analysis, which led to the conclusion that the ANFIS model gives more accurate results.


Vitamin K2 (VK2,
menaquinone) is a drug for osteoporosis.
VK2 acts as a cofactor for γ-glutamyl carboxylase, which catalyzes the
carboxylation of specific glutamic acid residues (γ-carboxylation)
of substrate proteins. Here we demonstrate that VK2 also regulate
osteoblastgenic marker gene expression. Using VK2-immobilzed nanobeads new target proteins
were purified and
identified from osteoblastic cell line. They are prohibitin 1 and 2 (PHB1 &
2), respectively. To confirm the PHBs function on VK2-dependent transcription, PHB1 & 2 were knock-down
and osteocalcin gene 2 transcriptions were analyzed, indicating that PHBs
regulate VK2-dependent transcription. Taken together PHBs are VK2 target
proteins for osteoblastgenic transcription.


This research offers a new approach to architectural design by suggesting that artificial light could be included in the architect's conceptual toolbox. An exploration of the lighting techniques currently used in interior design shows a direct connection between artificial light and architectural design. This is followed by an investigation of innovative lighting applications that are based on new materials. These materials either emit light themselves or can be connected to light in different ways to radiate light. For this thesis the word lighterials has been coined to distinguish them from opaque, non-light-related materials. After lighterials have been accepted as an architectural group of forms, the architectural space is analysed in terms of its most important elements with reference to artificial lighting and interior architecture. Within this scope a new element, poetics, is introduced, bringing the two design fields even closer together. The question is asked: How can lighterials influence architectural design, including the poetics of a space? The question is tackled by three different studies, a pilot study, a case study and interviews, which employed architecture students, lighting design students and professional architects respectively. The first study provides information about future trends around lighterials and the second about how lighting designers could use lighterials. In the third and main study, using the methodologies of think-aloud protocol, structured interviews and questionnaires, the architects indicate through their use of lighterials in design how lighterials could influence architectural space and its poetics. From analysis of these studies it is apparent that these new lighting applications have the potential to completely change or to enhance an architect's design. Further, the incorporation of lighterials in design can dramatically change the user's experience of a space. In its examination of new characteristics of light as architectural form this research offers a unique contribution to the field.


This paper introduces a navigation system based on combined global positioning system (GPS) and laser-scanner measurements for outdoor ground vehicles. Using carrier-phase differential GPS, centimeter-level positioning is achievable when cycle ambiguities are resolved. However, GPS signals are easily attenuated or blocked, so their use is generally restricted to open-sky areas. In response, in this work we augment GPS with two-dimensional laser-scanner measurements. The latter is available when GPS is not and further enables obstacle detection. The two sensors are integrated in the range domain for optimal navigation performance. Nonlinear laser observations and time-correlated code and carrier-phase GPS signals are processed in a unified and compact measurement-differencing extended Kalman filter. The resulting algorithm performs real-time carrier-phase cycle ambiguity estimation and provides absolute vehicle positioning throughout GPS outages, without a priori knowledge of the surrounding landmark locations. Covariance analysis, Monte Carlo simulations, and experimental testing in the streets of Chicago demonstrate that the performance of the range-domain integrated system far exceeds that of a simpler position-domain implementation, in that it not only achieves meter-level precision over extended GPS-obstructed areas, but also improves the robustness of laser-based simultaneous localization and mapping.


Distributed intelligent systems like self-organizing wireless sensor and actuator networks are supposed to work mostly autonomous even under changing environmental conditions. This requires robust and efficient self-learning capabilities implementable on embedded systems with limited memory and computational power. We present a new solution called spiral recurrent neural networks with an online learning based on an extended Kalman filter and gradients as in real-time recurrent learning. We illustrate its performance using artificial and real-life time series and compare it to other approaches. Finally we describe a few potential applications.


In order to further reduce absorbable organic halide (AOX) formation in the bleaching effluent, NH2SO3H and DMSO were added during the elemental chlorine-free (ECF) bleaching (D0EpD1) of bagasse kraft pulp. In the D0 stage, AOX formation decreased by 10% with 0.1% NH2SO3H, and a reduction of 11.2% with 1.0% DMSO, respectively. Ultraviolet (UV) spectra, Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), and gas chromatography-mass spectroscopy (GC-MS) were adopted in characterizing changes of lignin degradation and the main functional groups of bleached pulp. The UV spectrum showed that the quantity of polyphenols decreased after adding the additives. The FTIR spectrum showed that both the content of phenolic-type lignin and the degradation degree of lilac-type lignin decreased after adding NH2SO3H. If was found that DMSO was beneficial in retaining C-O-C and C=O structures in cellulose and hemicellulose, while NH2SO3H decreased the content of β-glycosidic bonds and C-O-C structures in cellulose and hemicellulose. The composition of lignin degradation products in the bleaching effluent was analyzed by GC-MS. The contents of chlorobenzene and chlorophenol decreased notably when additives were added. Compared with DMSO, NH2SO3H exhibited poor inhibition on the formation of some phenols.


Subendocardial viability ratio (SEVR) is a reliable index of myocardial supply‐workload balance. This study sought to investigate whether overweight/obese children and adolescents have altered SEVR and to identify which are the associated factors. This cross‐sectional study involved 789 individuals. Central haemodynamic was measured by radial applanation tonometry. Diastolic time was shorter (496 ± 122 vs 537 ± 140 ms, P = .014) and diastolic pressure‐time index was lower (2681 ± 412 vs 2814 ± 423 mm Hg seconds, P = .024) in overweight/obese compared with eutrophic girls. SEVR was lower in girls than in boys (1.34 ± 0.39 vs 1.48 ± 0.41, P = .018) but only among overweight/obese. SEVR may be affected by small variations in the temporal determinants of cardiac cycle.


Cichlid fishes (Cichlidae) are well suited for testing theories of the evolution of vertebrate parental care. These freshwater teleost fish provide parental care for their offspring, display many different forms of care and have interspecific variation in which sex stays with the young. Here, we assemble the first family–wide composite phylogeny based on morphological and molecular studies, and trace two sets of character evolution: form of care (substrate guarding and mouthbrooding), and sex of care–giver (biparental, female–only, and male–only). Mouthbrooding has evolved from ancestral substrate guarding with 10 to 14 transitions and 0 to 3 reversals. The data support hypothesized transitions in the sex of care–giver, with uniparental female care having arisen from biparental care 21 to 30 times with 0 to 10 reversals. There is also evidence that male–only care evolved once from biparental care. These transitions in parental care characters are the most numerous reported for any family of vertebrates and, to our knowledge, provide the first quantitative support for models of parental care evolution in fish.


Equity investors face many challenges, such as understanding markets, evaluating economic trends, and forecasting market moves, and in many countries, an additional challenge is understanding government efforts to influence markets and stock prices. No market is totally without some government attempts to affect prices or intervene in markets. This commentary provides a comparison of the U.S. and Chinese markets to examine the impact of efforts to boost stock prices.


Testing is still the only way to verify complex systems. As different technologies for testing small components of a system are established, e.g. unit tests, no common methodologies or approaches exists for testing the whole systems. Reasons for this purpose is the diverseness of the systems to be tested. But during development, especially the testing of whole systems, composed of distributed and communicating subsystems, is very important to find errors or weaknesses in the designs. Since the complexity of such systems causes an immense amount of testcases, an automated process is preferable. In this paper a general framework for automated system testing is introduced. It can be used for functional blackbox testing of any kind of systems which provide services that can be consumed by any kind of clients. Main issue is the automatical generation of an amount of service requests based on an abstract test-scenario. Since these requests has to be executed by the clients, a test-infrastructure is part of the framework and allows to communicate remotely with a dynamical number of distributed clients. Information about success of all requests are collected, analysed and can be used to influence the test-scenario. So it is possible, to provoke situations which indicates problems. The usage of this new framework allows to generate tests, which can help developers to find errors or weaknesses in the designed system. Furthermore it can be used to maintain or benchmark a system.