Concerns of a Continent. Edited by James W. Hoffman. New York: Friendship Press, 1958. 166 pages. Cloth, $2.95; paper, $1.50. The editor and capable writers of the several chapters of this little book have skilfully shown what Protestant Christian churches are doing in North American neighboring areas of Alaska (now a state), Canada, Mexico, Hawaii, and the Caribbean. The appraisal of the problems in the societies and cultures of these areas is objective but at the same time, friendly and warm. Although the book does not call attention to significant efforts of all Protestants (and the Baptist efforts are not elaborated upon), it is well worth reading. It serves the useful purpose of calling attention to near-at-hand and vitally strategic areas about whose problems and Christian activities most of us are all too ignorant. Maurice J. Anderson


In this paper, with a different approach, we first show that for a Banach space $X$ there is a fully order reversing mapping $T$ from ${\rm conv}(X)$ (the cone of all extended real-valued lower semicontinuous proper convex functions defined on $X$) to itself if and only if $X$ is reflexive and linearly isomorphic to its dual $X^*$ (hence, resolve an open question). We then show the the Artstein-Avidan-Milman representation theorem holds: For every fully order reversing mapping $T:{\rm conv}(X)\rightarrow {\rm conv}(X)$ there exists a linear isomorphism $U:X\rightarrow X^*$, $x_0^*, \;\varphi_0\in X^*$, $\alpha>0$ and $r_0\in\mathbb R$ so that \begin{equation}\nonumber (Tf)(x)=\alpha(\mathcal Ff)(Ux+x^*_0)+\langle\varphi_0,x\rangle+r_0,\;\;\forall x\in X, \end{equation} where $\mathcal F: {\rm conv}(X)\rightarrow {\rm conv}(X^*)$ is the Fenchel transform. We also show several representation theorems of fully order preserving mappings defined on certain cones of convex functions. For example, for every fully order preserving mapping $S:{\rm semn}(X)\rightarrow {\rm semn}(X)$ there is a linear isomorphism $U:X\rightarrow X$ so that \begin{equation}\nonumber (Sf)(x)=f(Ux),\;\;\forall f\in{\rm semn}(X),\;x\in X, \end{equation} where ${\rm semn}(X)$ is the cone of all lower semicontinuous seminorms on $X$.


This paper describes optimum shear coefficients distribution for
seismic design of nonlinear high-rise buildings subjected to
earthquake excitations. The ground accelerograms recorded in past
strong earthquakes are adopted for nonlinear seismic response
analysis. In this paper, the optimum shear coefficients distribution
is defined as seismic force coefficients that maximum response
ductility factor for every story yields uniformly. An empirical
formula in regard to optimum shear force coefficients distribution
was derived from an ensemble of eight earthquake excitations.


Summary: Sporobolomyces roseus and Saccharomyces cerevisiae accumulated zinc from zinc-containing medium. Uptake was biphasic and consisted of an initial, rapid, metabolism-independent binding of zinc to cell surfaces which was followed by slower, metabolism-dependent intracellular uptake of zinc. Spor. roseus could bind approximately eight times more zinc, per unit surface area, than could S. cerevisiae. Metabolism-dependent zinc uptake followed Michaelis-Menten kinetics with K
m values of 0.09 and 5.00 mM-Zn2+ for Spor. roseus and S. cerevisiae, respectively; corresponding V
max values were 0.51 and 9.09 nmol Zn2+ (mg dry wt)−1 min−1. Zinc uptake by viable cells was not accompanied by potassium release in either yeast, but zinc levels which affected viability in S. cerevisiae caused this yeast to release K+. No efflux of K+ was observed for Spor. roseus despite its greater sensitivity to zinc.


Abstract Research on marriage has been pretty much done, including research on early marriage, particularly in Madura. Research on early marriage in Madura is exciting to do because this kind of marriage backed by a keen understanding of Islam, that if a child who is consider baligh (grown up) means they can be married. Madurese people believe in matchmaking as well as the existence of a belief, called sangkal (if the women reject the proposal from the male then the woman will be an old maid or ta' paju lake'). This study aims to describe the happiness of Madurese women who married early in achieving, using a qualitative method with phenomenological approach. Research participants are Madurese women who are married under the age of 18, live in Madura, and are willing to be involved in research. Data collection used semi-structured interviews. The results of this study indicated that women from Madura can achieve happiness in their early marriage. This finding is different from other studies that found the occurrence of problems in the early marriage.


The removal of a portion of the occipital bone has become a well established and frequently used surgical method of approach in operations on certain of the cranial nerves. The posterior cranial fossa is opened on the side indicated, and the roots of the nerves may be identified as they pass from the brain toward their exit through the dura mater and the cranial foramina. The sensory root of the trigeminal nerve may thus be exposed and sectioned for the relief of tic douloureux. For a similar intense glossopharyngeal neuralgia, the ninth cranial nerve may be reached and cut. By the same route the vestibular portion of the acoustic nerve has been divided to provide relief from the intolerable vertigo of Meniere's disease. In all of these procedures surgeons have encountered certain hazards and complications which have added considerably to the difficulty of performing the operation successfully. One of the


The SiCf/SiC composite manufactured by chemical vapour infiltration (CVI) is a kind of porous material. Liquid molten salt in a Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) may enter into the porous composites and affect their performance. Through the study of the internal pores in the material, the permeability behaviour of the material can be investigated, which is of great significance to the analysis of the properties of the material itself. However, there is less investigation on effects of molten salt infiltration on the internal pore structure of SiCf/SiC composites. In this paper, a molten salt infiltration experiment of 2D woven SiCf/SiC composites was implemented at 650 °C, 3 atm. SEM, CT and XRD were used to characterize it. The results indicated that the microstructure could be affected by partial molten salt infiltration and temperature change. The distribution of porosity of the composite showed an obvious transformation. The lattice spacing of SiC showed an increased tendancy of stress relaxation.


Even though the relationship between occupational stress and entheseal changes has been extensively examined in modern skeletal series, less attention has been given in examining degenerative and plastic osseous change along the spine in relation to different professions. This paper attempts this investigation and is the first that explores the level of physical activity in female housekeepers of The Athens Collection. A sample of 65 adult skeletons up to 50 years old and 1653 vertebrae are examined for Degenerative Joint Diseases (including Schmorl's nodes) and spinal facet remodeling. The above sample is divided in three occupational groups: male laborers, male non-laborers and female housekeepers, based on biomechanical and socio-cultural criteria. Males in the labor group present the highest percentage in Schmorl's nodes (13.1%) and osteophytes, whilst housekeepers exhibit the highest rate in spinal facet remodeling (45.8%). As expected, male laborers actually do present a more intense physical activity than those of the non-labor one, while this study confirmed that housekeepers do comprise a physically stressed occupational group. Spinal facet remodeling and Schmorl's nodes seem to be the least affected indicators by the factor of age, and thus are cautiously proposed as markers of physical activity in modern reference collections. Our study supports the significance of examining the current markers and especially spinal facet remodeling, in a modern skeletal collection with documented occupations and hopes to encourage more researchers to further explore the potential merit of exploring occupational stress through spinal plastic and degenerative change in identified skeletal collections.


Radio frequency interference (RFI) poses a severe problem for conventional
GNSS receivers. Even low powered RFI can block the reception of satellite signals and prevent a position determination. Antenna array systems have been proven suitable to counteract RFI by incorporating spatial processing techniques. The large size of uniform rectangular arrays (URA) with half-wave
antenna spacing impedes an installation in cars intended for the consumer mass market, where a hidden installation is a strict requirement by industry and customers.
This paper introduces a new approach, where a conventional URA is split into
distributed linear subarrays with the aim to reduce their footprint but to maintain the possibility of spatial processing. The achievable gain in robustness against RFI is evaluated. Drawbacks in terms of manifold ambiguities and their consequences for spatial processing techniques are also discussed. Furthermore, the accuracy of positioning results derived from a field test is put into context with a single antenna receiver.


Population aging is a problem common to many countries: an increasing proportion of retired people, a decreasing proportion of working age, and resultant downward pressure on national product per capita. We explore longer-run aspects of immigration as a policy instrument in this context. We consider, by simulation, the importance of immigrant age distribution, proportion of child immigrants, productivity growth as an offset to aging, possible higher fertility, increased life expectancy, and greater labour force participation among older people. Our laboratory for exploration is a mythical country Alpha with a simple economy and realistic characteristics of an aging population.


AbstractThis article focuses on the relationship between the labor movement and the state in Spain. Its main object of analysis is unionized Spanish workers' indifference or hostility to state intervention in labor relations during the period when the first set of social reforms was discussed and implemented (1880–1923). The article shows that unionized workers' and reformist politicians' contradictory attitudes toward social reforms derived from their irreconcilable perspectives about the nature of labor conflicts and the role of the state. These attitudes were in turn based on different notions of "society" (contractual and organic) that prefigured the actions workers and reformists took to deal with labor conflicts. In analyzing this issue, the article builds from the main results of recent studies on the rise of "the social" and examines a heterogeneous array of primary sources (including union manifestos, official inquiries, and intellectual and political debates about social laws).


With the continuous progress of the society and the rapid development of the industry, the talent training mode of early education has become an important commodity of education reform. Under the background of the integration of industry and education, the training direction of early education professionals needs to be adjusted and planned. The practice of industry-education integration requires the deep combination of early education specialty with early education institutions and the technical standards of the equivalent industry, so as to build a high-quality platform for the growth of early education professionals. This paper focuses on the current situation of the integration of industry and education, and then makes an in-depth analysis on several reform strategies, so as to lay a solid foundation for the training of early education talents.


ABSTRACT To evaluate a potential pharmacokinetic interaction of coadministration of fluconazole, and indinavir, a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) protease inhibitor, 13 patients were enrolled in a multiple-dose, three-period, placebo-controlled, crossover study. Patients were randomly assigned to receive indinavir at 1,000 mg every 8 h for 713 days (with fluconazole placebo), fluconazole at 400 mg once daily for 8 days (with indinavir placebo), and indinavir with fluconazole in combination. The pharmacokinetics of both drugs were measured on day 8 of each treatment period. The peak concentration in plasma (Cmax) and the time to reach Cmax were obtained by inspection, and the area under curve (AUC) was calculated for indinavir and fluconazole for each treatment period in which the respective drugs were administered. There was a marginally (P = 0.08) statistically significant decrease in the AUC from 0 to 8 h (AUC0–8) for indinavir when it was administered with fluconazole. However, the magnitudes of the decreases inCmax and the concentration at 8 h postdosing (C8) were not as great as the decrease in AUC0–8. Although the 90% confidence interval for the geometric mean ratio was within the hypothesized limits, the clinical significance is not clear. Indinavir coadministration with fluconazole had no statistically (P > 0.5) or clinically significant effect on the Cmax andC8 of indinavir. Fluconazole coadministration with indinavir had no statistically or clinically significant effect on the pharmacokinetics of fluconazole. One patient was discontinued because of mild to moderate abdominal pain and diarrhea while on indinavir and fluconazole in combination. No serious adverse experience according to the results of laboratory tests was noted. Total bilirubin levels in serum were mildly increased in most patients treated with indinavir. This was not clinically significant and was not affected by the coadministration of fluconazole. Although the values of the pharmacokinetic parameters for indinavir decrease in the presence of fluconazole, indinavir and fluconazole can be administered concomitantly to HIV-infected patients without adjustment of the dose of either drug, and both drugs are generally well tolerated.


The article presents the findings of using underwater vertical extension in a complex treatment of patients with lumbosacral pain syndromes. The rheovasography method has been applied. Underwater vertical extension method in a complex treatment of patients with lumbosacral pain syndromes was found to be effective according to clinical data and positive dynamics of rheovasography's indices.


A novel series of iodo-chrysin derivatives with resorcinol as raw materials were synthesized according to Baker-Venkataraman reaction and their inhibitory activities in vitro against thyroid cancer cell lines (SW-579 and TT) were evaluated by the standard methyl thiazole tetrazolium (MTT) method. Biological test results showed that these derivatives possessed stronger anti-thyroid cancer activities than 5-FU. Compound 21 showed the strongest activity against SW-579 cell lines with IC50 value of 3.4μM and compound 10 showed the strongest activity against TT cell lines with IC50 value of 6.2μM, it was better than 5-FU (59.3μΜ, 18.4μM respectively).


"Never so much as today does the world require the elements of sanity given by education, science and culture to guarantee peace", affirms the Mexican Engineer Marco Polo Bernal Yarahuan in this essay, which searches to build a solid scientific-theoretical foundation in the educated person, and at the same time, a practical and applied mentality. Such a school, linked to life and to its community, facilitates the formation of conscientious men and women dedicated to constructing their own fate.


Representation of ignorance about large numbers | agent a does not know agent b's key | is not feasible in standard Kripke semantics. The paper introduces register models that allow for compact representation of such ignorance. This is used to design a sound and complete language for number guessing games. The probabilities generated by our semantics allow for and motivate Monte Carlo model checking for register models. We show that the approach can be extended to a real life setting, namely the analysis of cryptographic security protocols. We look at a well known security protocol for secret key distribution over an insecure network, and point out how this can be analyzed with our modied version of Kripke semantics.


An algorithm for motion planning for multiple mobile tethered robots in a common planar environment is presented. The tethers of the robots are flexible cables that can be pushed and bent by other robots during their motion. Given the start and target positions of all robots and their cables, the objective is to design a sequential motion strategy for the robots that will not entangle the robot tethers. An algorithm is described that achieves this objective while generating an ordering of the robots that produces reasonably short paths. The algorithm's complexity is O(n/sup 4/), where n is the number of robots.<<ETX>>


As a rule, left ventricular relaxation is impaired in patients with coronary artery disease and congestive heart failure. In addition, the passive elastic properties in early and late diastole change when the ventricle dilates. Diastolic properties of the left ventricle were studied in 11 patients with congestive heart failure class II-IV (NYHA) before and 3 months after 10-20 mg enalapril was added to their regimen of salt restriction, a diuretic and occasionally digitalis. Haemodynamic studies were performed using radionuclide angiography and simultaneous pressure-volume measurements. Systemic vascular resistance decreased from 1479 to 1182 dynes.s.-1 cm-5 (P < 0.05) and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure from 19.2 to 15.9 mmHg (P < 0.05). Left ventricular end-diastolic volume index decreased from 130 +/- 22 to 81 +/- 22 ml (P < 0.01). Indices of early diastolic relaxation, such as peak filling rate (1.43 +/- 0.46 to 1.49 +/- 0.84 EDV/s), time to peak filling rate (460 +/- 70 to 490 +/- 70 ms), peak negative dP/dt (-903 +/- 190 to -891 +/- 190 mmHg/s) and tau, the time constant of isovolumic pressure decay (58.7 +/- 14.4 to 48.4 +/- 15.2 ms) did not change significantly. In nine patients pressure-volume loops shifted to the left in all patients but one due to reduction in end-systolic and end-diastolic volume. The steepness of the diastolic part of the pressure-volume relationship increased, indicating an increase in chamber stiffness. The stiffness constant increased about 25% towards a more normal value. The alteration in stiffness seemed to be mainly due to the change of the geometry of the ventricle and not to a major change in the visco-elastic properties of the ventricular wall. In conclusion, regression of remodelling induced by enalapril does not change diastolic function parameters in patients with chronic congestive heart failure beyond the changes caused by regression of ventricular dilation.


Global climate change and growing urbanization pose a threat to both natural and urban ecosystems. In these, one of the most impacted elements is water, which is responsible for a large variety of ecosystem services and benefits to society. Mathematical models can be used to simulate the implementation of Nature-Based Solutions (NBSs), thus helping to quantify these issues in a practical and efficient manner. This paper presents a rapid review of literature in which the effects of NBS on water quality were assessed with the help of modelling methods. It was found that only 14 papers deal with the topic in regard to NBSs. Most of these papers were published in European countries, using Nitrogen and/or Phosphorus as the studied water quality indicators and focusing predominantly on wetlands. The literature suggests that NBS can positively impact surface water quality, even under future climate conditions, while being a justified investment from an economic standpoint. It is suggested that more information is required in order to expand the evidence base on the effectiveness of NBS for water quality improvement as well as to develop better and more standardized methods to model NBS impacts on water quality.


Effective-mass theory is used to calculate electric-field-induced changes in optical refraction and absorption (the Franz-Keldysh effect) in five direct-gap III-V semiconductors: InP, GaAs, GaSb, InAs, and InSb, covering the 0.88 to 10 μm wavelength range. The magnitude of the effect is determined by fitting experimental absorption data. Results are given for photon energies from the band gap to 100 meV below the gap for applied electric fields from 3 \times 10^{3} to 3 \times 10^{5} V/cm. Values of \Delta n and \Delta k as large as 10-3to 10-2are found. The results are applicable to integrated-optic devices including switches and modulators.


Nepal is a country with varying topography and steep fast flowing rivers, high head hydropower projects are preferred in the region. Currently, numerous hydropower tunnels are being constructed and many more have been proposed. The varying geology along with weak rock mass has created several stability problems like squeezing and support failures. Through a case study in the Lesser Himalayan Region, this paper focuses on the assessment and analysis of tunnel sections in squeezing ground through analytical and numerical modelling. The most commonly adopted Rock Mass Classification approach for estimation of tunnel support seems inadequate to address the problem associated with tunneling in the Himalayas. Therefore, the knowledge of rock mass strength and deformation behavior is required for the optimal design of tunnel support in such geological conditions. Finite element analysis is carried out for face stability of tunnel in very poor rock mass by improving the rock mass to predict the real behavior of squeezing ground. The results of the analysis show that along with the use of empirical and analytical approach, numerical analysis should be used from the preliminary stages of design and care should be taken while modelling very poor rock mass where the stability of rock ahead of tunnel face is essential.


Strength exercise is a strategy applied in sports and physical training processes. It may induce skeletal muscle hypertrophy. The hypertrophy is dependent on the eccentric muscle actions and on the inflammatory response. Here, we evaluate the physiological, immunological, and inflammatory responses induced by a session of strength training with a focus on predominance of the eccentric muscle actions. Twenty volunteers were separated into two groups: the untrained group (UTG) and the trained group (TG). Both groups hold 4 sets of leg press, knee extensor, and leg curl at 65% of personal one-repetition maximum (1RM), 90 s of recovery, and 2″conc/3″eccen of duration of execution in each repetition. Blood samples were collected immediately before and after, 2 hours after, and 24 h after the end of the exercise session. The single session of strength training elevated the heart rate (HR), rating of perceived exertion (RPE), visual analog scale (VAS), and lactate blood level in UTG and TG. Creatine kinase (CK) levels were higher at 2 and 24 h after the end of the exercise in UTG and, in TG, only at 24 h. The number of white blood cells (WBC) and neutrophils increased in UTG and TG, post and 2 h after exercise. Lymphocytes increased postexercise but reduced 2 h after exercise in both groups, while the number of monocytes increased only immediately after the exercise session in UTG and TG. The strength training session elevated the levels of apelin and fatty acid-binding proteins-3 (FABP3) in both groups and brain-derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF) in TG. The single exercise session was capable of inducing elevated HR, RPE, lactate level, and CK levels. This protocol changed the count/total number of circulating immune cells in both groups (UTG and TG) and also increased the level of plasmatic apelin, BDNF, and FLTS1 only in TG and FABP3 myokines in both groups.


We analyze a unique dataset that separately reports research and development expenditures for a large panel of public and private firms. Definitions of "research" and "development" in this dataset, respectively, correspond to definitions of knowledge "exploration" and "exploitation" in the innovation theory literature. We can thus test theories of how equity ownership status relates to innovation strategy. We find that public firms have greater research intensity than private firms, inconsistent with theories asserting private ownership is more conducive to exploration. We also find public firms invest more intensely in innovation of all sorts. These results suggest relaxed financing constraints enjoyed by public firms, as well as their diversified shareholder bases, make them more conducive to investing in all types of innovation. Reconciling several seemingly conflicting results in prior research, we find private-equity-owned firms, though not less innovative overall than other private firms, skew their innovation strategies toward development and away from research.


A novel method is described for the simultaneous suppression of polarization and phase bias induced signal fading in fiber-optic interferometers based on differentially frequency shifted orthogonal polarization components. An experimental demonstration proved the operating principle with a high sensitivity of 28 /spl mu/rad//spl radic/(Hz).


This statement, made by Curajod some years ago during the introduction to a course of lectures at the Louvre, is definitely provocative, for, however true it may be and however much we can learn from a study of ornamental forms and systems of decoration with regard to trade and intercourse, it has in general proved extremely difficult to correlate the movements of designs with those of definite groups of people, still more with those of definite races. We can, for instance, assert quite definitely that the neolithic pottery of China is closely related to that of the black-earth region of south Russia, but we find it by no means easy to associate the invention or transportation of this pottery with any particular group of peoples, and we cannot even say for certain that the fact that we find it in two so far separated regions can be regarded as proof of any very considerable racial migration. Such a migration does, indeed, seem the most satisfactory way in which to explain the relationship, but it can also quite satisfactorily be accounted for by the conquest of one region by a small minority from the other, or of both by a small minority from some common centre, who imposed the imported style on the new possession.


Sabah is faced with a problem of small groups of orang-utans isolated from their parent populations in fragments of secondary forest, mainly on oil-palm plantations. The Wildlife Department has recently captured 84 such animals in three locations and translocated most of them to Tabin Wildlife Reserve, which already has a low-density population of orang-utans. The majority of animals were captured by drug immobilization, using a 5:1 ketamine/xylazine mixture at a mean dosage of 8.47 mg/kg body weight (range 3.76–22.64 mg/kg). This proved an effective and safe method. Others, mainly immatures, were captured manually. Few injuries or other problems were encountered. The cost of the rescue operations was $US175 per animal. A satisfactory way of monitoring the released orangutans is under development.


A serological study was carried out in Tiaret province in western Algeria on 1032 cows distributed in 95 flocks to estimate the prevalence of Brucella infection and to compare the sensitivity and specificity of a range of agglutination tests. Screening tests showed 31.5% of herds positive using the buffered plate antigen test and 26.3% using the rose Bengal test compared with 15.7% with the complement fixation test. Using the complement fixation test as the gold standard for confirmatory tests, the Rivanol test was found to be more sensitive but less specific than tube agglutination in detecting brucellosis infection. Three isolates were identified from 105 blood samples from humans with brucellosis and 50 samples of milk and tissues from infected cows and they were all Brucella melitensis biovar 3.


The state of Goias has a big importance to Biome Cerrado, with 97 % of his territory on this Biome. The proportion of the occupancy and conversion of biome in Goias indicate the necessity of an environment policy that behold actions of conservation of the biodiversity and the sustainable of development of the community and the tourism is the strategic themes for this policy. The objective of this paper is to characterize the municipality with environment tourism in relation to social, economic and institutional variable. The method of this paper consisted on survey socioeconomic and environment data, forthwith the treatment and analyses of this data on the GIS. The analyze of this data possibility to identify of the municipality that has better infrastructure of the environment, social and economic for the tourism.


A method is presented for generating highly squeezed states of a cavity field via the atom-cavity field interaction of the Raman type. In the scheme a sequence of three-level A-type atoms interacts with a cavity field, displaced by a classical source, in a Rarman manner. Then the atomic states are measured. By this way the cavity field may collapse onto a superposition of several coherent states, which exhibits strong squeezing. The scheme can also be used to prepare superpositions of many two-mode coherent states for two cavity fields. The coherent states in each mode are on a straight line. This is the first way for preparing multi-component entangled coherent states of this type in cavity QED.


The ion temperature in the plasma in a fusion reactor must be sufficiently high that the fusion reaction (probably between D and T) will need to be high to ensure that the reaction rate is as high as is required. The plasma will be heated by the energetic alpha particle created in the fusion reaction, but it is widely accepted that additional (externally supplied) heating will also be required to ensure a sustained "burn" and, perhaps, to control the reaction rate. A reactor based on the tokamak confinement system requires a toroidal current to flow in the plasma. Most of that current will be created by the "bootstrap" effect, but an external method of driving current in the poloidal centre of the plasma is needed as the bootstrap current will be low, or zero in that region. Neutral beam injection is an efficient heating mechanism and it has the current drive efficiency required in a reactor. In this chapter the R&D required for an NBI system for a reactor, is considered against the background of the ITER NBI system design as the ITER beam energy and operating environment are reactor relevant. In addition the elements requiring most development are identified.


Background and Objectives: In Nepal, person aged 60 years and above is considered elderly. The population of Nepal is approximately 30 million, and people aged 60 years and above makes about one tenth of the total population. This study aims to report the main complaints and prevalence of otorhinolaryngological diseases in patients aged 60 years and above, who visited outpatient otolaryngology department of Manmohan Memorial College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal during study period.
Material and Methods: It is a prospective descriptive cross-sectional study done in Manmohan Memorial College and Teaching Hospital, Kathmandu, Nepal for the duration of a year. All patients aged 60 years and above attending to Ear, Nose and throat (ENT) Outpatient Department were included in the study. The information including demographic data, ENT Complaints and physical examination were noted. Analysis of data was done and report was prepared.
Results: Total of six hundred and ninety three patients were enrolled over the period of one year for the study. Number of Male and female patients in the study were almost equal. The otological problems had the highest prevalence constituting 51.7% of the study population. More than Twenty eight (28.3 %) percent had oral and oropharyngeal pathologies. Nasal complaints constituted 10.8% of the study population and 9.2% had pathologies related to neck and others.
Conclusion: Hearing loss is the most common diagnosis among all the otological pathologies and epistaxis the most common nasal problem. Head and Neck malignancy is also increasing among the geriatric population.


One of the most important steps in managerial process is the risk analysis. While various methods for conducting the risk analysis exist, in certain conditions only subjective qualitative approach can be used. The typical reason is the lack of input quantitative data. Methods of fuzzy logic can provide a convenient way to conduct risk analyses. The article describes an application of fuzzy logic and fuzzy approach into risk analyses and into risk management process. All needed requirements for using this approach are described. The main advantage of using fuzzy approach is limitation of subjectivity in risk assessment. That can provide basis for regular repeating of risk analyses thus, efficient control system can be created instead of formal occasional risk analyses. Article also describes recommended modification of threat identification process to maximize mutual effect when applied together with this kind of risk analyses.


Marjolin's ulcer is an uncommon condition in which malignant transformation occurs in a chronic inflammatory focus. It was originally described in association with a thermal injury, however, its occurrence with protean chronic inflammatory foci has been described. We report the occurrence of and aggressive squamous carcinoma 3 decades after a high voltage electric mark injury to the scalp. This is the first such case described in the literature. The case supportively highlights the role of chronic inflammation and sepsis in epidermal scar cancer development, and it underlines the importance of appropriate wound management initially and expeditious treatment of sepsis and resistant skin ulceration because the malignant behavior of these tumors is aggressive and unpredictable.


In Fortran parallelizing compilers for multiprocessor systems, a loop parallelizing scheme has been used. However, there still exist loops to which the Do-all and Do-across techniques cannot be effectively applied because of loop carried dependence and conditional branches to the outside of the loops. Also, the compiler do not exploit the parallelism of the subroutines, loops and basic blocks and the near-fine-grain parallelism inside the basic blocks in the outside of loops or in sequential loops. Therefore, it is important to use coarse-grain parallelism and near-fine-grain parallelism in addition to loop parallelization. Taking into consideration the above facts, the authors propose a multigrain parallel processing scheme which combines coarse-grain parallel processing or macro-data flow processing, loop concurrency, and a near-fine-grain parallel processing hierarchy. To minimize the data transfer overhead and the total processing time, the proposed compilation scheme uses a static scheduling algorithm called CP/DT/MISF (critical path/data transfer/most immediate successors first). Also, to minimize the synchronization overhead, the compilation scheme eliminates all synchronization codes by using machine-clock level precise code scheduling for a target multiprocessor system OSCAR. This scheme has been implemented on OSCAR and a performance evaluation on OSCAR shows the proposed near-fine-grain parallel processing without synchronization reduces the processing time of test programs by 30% to 40% compared with conventional near-fine-grain parallel processing with synchronization codes.


As conventional non-renewable energy is becoming increasingly scarce, the development of renewable energies, such as solar energy, has become a major priority in today's world. In this study, it has developed an approach to simulate solar radiation on rooftops of Paschimanchal Campus and estimate the solar photovoltaic (PV) potential using Photogrammetry and GIS techniques. The object-based method was used to extract and classify buildings using very high-resolution data: orthophoto, the UAV-derived Digital Surface Model, and Digital Terrain Model raster layers. For more accurate estimation of solar panel installations, the evaluation of solar radiation is essential and the amount of solar radiation that was converted into solar PV potential depends upon the technical characteristics of the panel (technology used: monocrystalline or polycrystalline). Subsequently, the evaluated cost of solar panel installation was compared to the cost of grid-based electricity of the study area. The result obtained shows that 18 rooftops of the buildings are the most suitable place for solar panel installation and their usable area is 4303.67m². 32 For polycrystalline and monocrystalline technologies, the annual PV power generation in the study area is 868 MWh/ yr and 1274 MWh/yr respectively. It was found that 1428.42m² of the suitable area was enough to fulfill the yearly demand of Paschimanchal Campus. For polycrystalline technologies, around 876 panels costing NRS.1,57,68,000 are required. The cost analysis of 10 years concludes solar energy will be cheaper than grid-based electricity by NRS.1,04,10,785.


The management of transportation operations of all types, including tracking and managing every aspect of vehicle maintenance, fuel costing, routing and mapping, warehousing, communications, EDI implementations, traveler and cargo handling, carrier select


Today, the number of female students that enrol in degrees related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) areas is quite low. So, numerous initiatives have arisen to promote these degrees and encourage female students in these areas. In this context, the EuLES Network (u-Learning Environments in Higher Education), an interdisciplinary network created in 2010 at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) to foster research, interaction, cooperation and transfer of knowledge and technologies related to learning and open education, has developed two projects oriented to High School Students: "WikinformáticA! en Aragon" and "Women in STEM by EuLES". WikinformáticA! en Aragón is a competition for student groups in which they develop a wiki on prominent women in the history of Information and Communication Technology (ICT). The objective is the visibility of women involved in technology. The purpose of the Women in STEM project is to offer testimonies of women in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics to encourage scientific vocations, especially in young people and girls. The project consists of conducting video interviews of women who work or study in these disciplines. All the videos, along with a short biography, are posted on the web.


There has been no systematic survey of land tenure in Zanzibar since 1958. This article is premised on field research carried out during 1992-93, and 1995, and seeks to achieve two ends. First, information is presented concerning a prevalent form of tenure : the shamba lands. Second, this information is employed to discern transformations in tenure that have occured since 1958. This longitudinal analysis indicates that there has been an individualization of land tenure on shamba lands. Above all, the village kin groups within whom land was traditionally vested are presently missing from the picture of Zanzibari shamba land


This study evaluated housing satisfaction of Iranian immigrants homeowners in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, with twenty eight variables grouped into two components –dwelling features and dwelling services. Findings from the study indicate that the residents are satisfied with housing. Socio economic characteristics of the residents such as length of time have been in Malaysia, number of bed rooms, price of residential unit, and total earned income earner are correlated with housing satisfaction, whereas age, size of household, and number of children, are not correlated with housing satisfaction. A Multiple Linear Regression (MLR) model has been estimated for the study and the model provides 57% explanations to determine housing satisfaction. The high beta coefficients of the model propose that housing satisfaction of Iranian immigrant's homeowners can be enhanced through improving the dwelling features and dwelling services. Similarly, the future dwelling should as well consider their space, design and other constructions in order to improve quality of life of the Iranian immigrant's homeowners in the Malaysia. The main goal of this study to examine the key factors whose developments can improve housing satisfaction level of the inhabitants.


Plastic (araldite) needles were implanted in the cerebral cortex in order to evaluate changes produced by an indwelling and relatively inert foreign body. The implants were removed together with surrounding cortex after 4-723 days and the implant-CNS boundary analyzed by light and electron microscopy. Three border conditions were observed at the surface of the implant and were related to the degree of implantation trauma. Type I is characterized by little or no gliosis and synapses within 1-5mu of the implant; type II contains a pronounced zone of reactive astrocytes; and type III is typified by a zone of connective tissue near the implant surface. The type I border predominates, but all three conditions may exist around a single implant. The fact that the implant-CNS boundary is stable following an initial period of readjustment suggests that intracortical implants fabricated from inert materials would be well tolerated and could be used as part of neuro-prosthetic device. Multinucleated giant cells were observed at the boundary of some implants. Their cytology, intercellular relations, and similarity to foreign body giant cells are discussed.


Schizosaccharomyces pombe cells switch mating type by replacing genetic information at the expressed mat1 locus with sequences copied from mat2-P or mat3-M silent donor loci. The choice of donor locus is dictated by cell type, such that mat2 is the preferred donor in M cells and mat3 is the preferred donor in P cells. Donor choice involves a recombination-promoting complex (RPC) containing Swi2 and Swi5. In P cells, the RPC localizes to a specific DNA element located adjacent to mat3, but in M cells it spreads across the silent mating-type region, including mat2-P. This differential distribution of the RPC regulates nonrandom choice of donors. However, cell-type–specific differences in RPC localization are not understood. Here we show that the mat1-M–encoded factor Mc, which shares structural and functional similarities with the male sex-determining factor SRY, is highly enriched at the swi2 and swi5 loci and promotes elevated levels of RPC components. Loss of Mc reduces Swi2 and Swi5 to levels comparable to those in P cells and disrupts RPC spreading across the mat2/3 region. Mc also localizes to loci expressed preferentially in M cells and to retrotransposon LTRs. We demonstrate that Mc localization at LTRs and at swi2 requires Abp1, a homolog of transposon-derived CENP-B protein and that loss of Abp1 impairs Swi2 protein expression and the donor choice mechanism. These results suggest that Mc modulates levels of recombination factors, which is important for mating-type donor selection and for the biased gene conversion observed during meiosis, where M cells serve as preferential donors of genetic information.


Most platelet agonists work through G protein coupled receptors (GPCRs), activating pathways that involve members of the Gq, Gi, and G12 families of heterotrimeric G proteins. Gq is critical for most functional responses during platelet activation. A defect in Gq expression in patients leads to impaired platelet secretion and aggregation, which is associated with bleeding diathesis. We have previously shown that the Regulators of G protein Signaling (RGS) proteins function as negative regulators for platelet activation by limiting G protein-dependent signaling, but much remains to be learned about the mechanisms by which G proteins can be regulated during platelet activation.
 Here we took advantage of an RGS-insensitive Gq(G188S) mutant mouse line to decipher the regulatory complex of Gq-dependent signaling in platelets. The G188S mutation disrupts RGS18 and Gq interaction in a way similar to what we have observed in an analogous Gi2(G184S) mutation. However, in contrast to increased platelet activation in Gi2(G184S) expressing platelets, G188S expressing platelets have decreased activation in response to thrombin, TxA2 and ADP, but not to collagen. The hemostatic thrombi formed in G188S mice are significantly reduced with constant embolization as compared with WT controls. Underlying these changes is a decrease in Gq-dependent signaling events, whereas shape change, which is G13-mediated, is unaffected. Our data further reveal that PLCβ3 and GRK2 complex with activated Gq, but not to Gi2. The G188S mutation in Gq not only prevents the binding of RGS proteins to Gq but also impairs the Gq/PLCβ3 interaction, though it does not affect the GRK2 binding to Gq. Instead, there an increase of GRK2 binding to Gq. Finally, the structural analysis shows that PLCβ3 shares a large overlapping binding area with RGS18 to Gq. Computational alanine scanning to predict binding interfaces indicates that the G188S mutation resides in a region important for the binding of both PLC and RGS. The PLC binding interface also overlaps with that of GRK2, which suggests that when PLC is in complex with Gq, it precludes the binding of both RGS proteins and GRK2. In the G188S mutant, however, PLC binding is reduced, which may reduce competition and allow more GRK2 to bind. The binding interfaces of RGS and GRK2 are not predicted to be overlapping, raising the possibility that the two proteins could bind simultaneously to activated WT Gq.
 Collectively, these observations 1) indicate that the feedback mechanism of Gq inactivation in platelets is different from that of Gi2, 2) reveal, for the first time, that a Gq/PLCβ/RGS/GRK2 signaling node is present in platelets and plays an important role in Gq-dependent signaling during platelet activation, and 3) show that the G188S mutation affect Gq-mediated signaling by disrupting Gq/PLCβ/RGS interaction.

 No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Organic Agricultural Products Selling website will provide a facility for farmers to sell their farm fresh organic products directly to the end users. Farmers can register and get authorized by admin to farmer's portal. Also, they can add their product details on portal and current price of that product will get fetched from central market of metropolitan city like Pune, Mumbai, Delhi. Customer will be able to contact directly to the Farmers and able to rate of products .In that the project website are totally useful for the farmer's and also customer. Increasing demand of farm products led farmers to use of chemical fertilizers/insecticides/pesticides and other chemical medicines to increase the production.


We introduce permissive nominal terms, and their unication. Nominal terms are one way to extend rst-order terms with binding. However, they lack some useful properties of rst- and higher-order terms: Terms must be reasoned about in a context of 'freshness assumptions'; it is not always possible to 'choose a fresh variable symbol' for a nominal term; and it is not always possible to ' -convert a bound variable symbol'. Permissive nominal terms closely resemble nominal terms, but they recover these useful 'always fresh' and 'always alpha-rename' properties, familiar from rst- and higherorder syntax. In the permissive world, freshness contexts are elided, and the notion of unier is based on substitution alone, rather than on nominal terms' notion of substitution plus freshness conditions. We prove that expressivity is not lost moving to the permissive case. We provide a translation from nominal terms into permissive nominal terms and we prove that a nominal unication problem is solvable if and only if its translation into permissive nominal terms is. Finally, we investigate the precise relation between nominal unication and Miller's higher-order pattern unication. We translate nominal terms into the -calculus and show that the translation may also be applied to unication problems; the result is pattern unication. This cements an existing intuition that higher-order patterns are what is needed to unify encodings of nominal terms. This builds on a translation by Levy and Villaret, and renes it; both translations are parameterised by sets of atoms, but we identify a smaller parameter set and prove that it is as small as possible. We also translate solutions of nominal unication problems to solutions of higher-order pattern unication problems. We exhibit a general class of higher-order pattern solutions and show that every pattern solution in that class is the translation of a nominal unication solution up to a permutative renaming.


Because of the micro/nano manipulation's complexity, the accurate feedback information of the micro interactive force acting on micro devices is quite important and necessary for micro/nano manipulation, especially the 2-D micro interactive force feedback information. At present, there are no reliable and accurate 2-D micro force sensors applied in micro/nano manipulation. To solve the above problem, a novel 2-D micro force sensor that can reliably measure force in the range of sub-micro-Newton (μN) is designed and developed in this paper. Based on the model of 1-D micro force sensor designed by us, the model of this 2-D sensor is set up. To verify the model of the 2-D sensor, micromanipulation experiments are designed and realized. Experiment results show the sub-micro-Newton resolution, and verify the validity of the 2-D sensor's model. The developed 2-D micro force sensor will contribute to promote the complexity of micro/nano
manipulation, and will facilitate to realize automating the micro/nano manipulation.


This paper is concerned with the problems of positive real analysis and control synthesis for discrete-time systems. New linear matrix inequality (LMI) characterizations of positive realness are derived, which enable one to check the positive realness by using parameter-dependent Lyapunov function. The relationship between the proposed characterizations and the existing ones are clarified, which shows that our new results are of less conservatism for characterizing the positive realness of discrete-time systems with polytopic uncertainty. In addition, sufficient conditions for static output feedback positive real controller design are given in terms of solutions to a set of linear matrix inequalities. Numerical examples are included for illustration.


A widespread practice to implement a flexible array is to consider the storage area into two parts: the used area, which is already available for read/write operations, and the supply area, which is used in case of enlargement of the array. The main purpose of the supply area is to avoid as much as possible the reallocation of the whole storage area in case of enlargement. As the supply area is not used by the application, the main idea of the paper is to convey the information to the garbage collector, making it possible to avoid completely the marking of the supply area. We also present a simple method to analyze the types of objects, which are stored in an array as well as the possible presence of NULL values within the array. This allows us to better specialize the work of the garbage collector when marking the used area, and also, by transitivity, to improve overall results for type analysis of all expressions of the source code. After introducing several abstract data types, which represent the main arrays concerned by our technique (i.e., zero or variable indexing, circular arrays and hash maps), we measure its impact during the bootstrap of two compilers whose libraries are equipped with these abstract data types. We then measure, on various software products we have not written, the frequency of certain habits of manipulation of arrays, to assess the validity of our approach. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Coal burst continues to be one of the most catastrophic safety hazards faced by future mining as the stress environment will be more complicated with the increase of mining depth. Many chief coal mining countries including Poland, Czech Republic, the U.S., China, and Australia have experienced fatal accidents caused by coal burst and conducted comprehensive research on the driving forces and solving technologies related to coal burst. In this chapter, the research outcomes of the mechanism, risk evaluation, risk monitoring, and prevention of coal burst are reviewed, which is helpful for mining researchers and engineers to understand and control the safety hazards caused by coal burst, and, hence, to achieve sustainable and safe mining.


Proceedings: AACR Annual Meeting 2014; April 5-9, 2014; San Diego, CA

Reprogramming of energy metabolism is now considered a hallmark of cancer. Deciphering molecular mechanisms underlying this process is therefore necessary to understand malignant transformation and cancer progression, but also to develop novel therapeutic tools. In the present study, our aim was to discover potential molecular links between two major pathways involved in energy metabolism in breast cancer cells: the energy sensor AMPK (AMP-activated protein kinase) in relationship with the estrogen-related receptors (ERRα and ERRγ) and their coactivators PGC-1α and PGC-1β (peroxisome-proliferator activated receptor γ coactivator-1). Using microarray analysis and qRT-PCR validation, we showed that activation of AMPK significantly altered the expression of the ERRs and the PGCs as well as their metabolic target genes. Moreover, pathway analysis revealed that a significant subset of genes regulated by AMPK pharmacological activation for 1 and 4 days were associated with the ERR/PGC transcriptional programs. Using metabolomics tools, we demonstrated that the energetic remodeling following AMPK pharmacological activation depends in part on ERR/PGC in breast cancer cells. Indeed, the induction in glucose and glutamine uptake and usage by activated AMPK was decreased by half following impairment of the ERR/PGC axis. Moreover, total, uncoupled and coupled respirations were also significantly decreased by ≈50% following ERR/PGC siRNA-mediated knock down. In order to understand the role of the ERRs in the transcriptional regulation of downstream targets of AMPK, we performed chromatin immunoprecipitation followed by massively parallel DNA sequencing (ChIP-seq). Our results indicate that AMPK activation induces ERRs binding at the genomic scale, with the presence of 12,043 and 8,559 novel binding sites for ERRα and ERRγ, respectively. Basal, ERRs' binding to energy metabolism genes was already strong and did not change significantly after treatment. However, AMPK pharmacological activation induced ERRs binding to novel pathways such as numerous genes of the folate metabolism pathway. The biological consequence of the modulation of these pathways by the AMPK/ERR/PGC axis is presently under investigation. In conclusion, using transcriptomics, metabolomics and functional genomics, we revealed the interconnection of the AMPK with the ERR/PGC axis and the importance of this pathway in breast cancer cell metabolic states.

Citation Format: Etienne Audet-Walsh, David Papadopoli, Julie St-Pierre, Vincent Giguere. Regulation of breast cancer cell metabolism by the AMPK/ERR/PGC pathway. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 2436. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-2436


Troponin I (TnI) was reacted with a photosensitive heterobifunctional reagent, methyl 4-azidobenzimidate (ABI), and then troponin was reconstituted with the ABI-modified TnI. Flash irradiation of the reconstituted troponin resulted in the formation of cross-links between TnI and other components of troponin, troponin C (TnC) and troponin T (TnT), suggesting that TnI is in contact with TnC and TnT when troponin is free in solution. No effect of calcium on the cross-linking could be detected. When the reconstituted troponin was complexed with F-actin-tropomyosin, flash irradiation of the reconstituted then filament yielded the cross-linked products of TnC-TnI, TnI-TnT, and TnI-actin in the presence ans absence of calcium, indicating that TnI is in contact with TnC, TnT, and actin in the thin filament complex irrespective of calcium concentration. No cross-linking could be detected between TnI and tropomyosin. Calcium was found to affect the cross-linking of TnC-TnI and TnI-actin; when TnC was saturated with calcium, the extent of the TnC-TnI cross-linking increased, while that of the TnI-actin cross-linking decreased. Calcium did not affect the TnI-TnT cross-linking.


High-resolution sigma-delta ADCs are gaining significant interest in ultra-low-power medical applications, where accurate measurement of low-frequency and weak electrophysiological signals is required. Operational transconductance amplifiers (OTA) are the key analog component and the most power-hungry part of the sigma-delta (LA) modulators. This paper presents a study of OTAs for ultra-low-power operation, including design and a comparative analysis of four OTA architectures implemented in 65nm CMOS Technology. The requirements for OTA gain and GBW are driven in terms of SA ADC specifications. The OTAs' impact on modulator SNR has been investigated by simulation. The results show that a two-stage OTA with load compensation yields highest SNR and lowest power dissipation amongst the four OTAs in this study.


This paper deals with assessment of high temperature load controlled fatigue and creep properties of as received and 31,325 engine operating hours service exposed first row gas turbine blade in a power plant. High temperature fatigue and accelerated creep properties were evaluated from various regions, namely root portion (bottom portion), middle region or the airfoil region and the top region of the blade. The root portion showed superior fatigue and creep properties compared to the aerofoil region of the blade where the temperature distribution is maximum and the top or tip region which is considerably narrow and brittle. The microstructural assessment of as received service exposed gas turbine blade of first row of gas turbine have been interpreted, which is required for developing process & technology for rejuvenation of turbine blades. The mechanical properties of each region were correlated with its corresponding microstructural characteristics. The blade is made of nickel base superalloy Udimet-520. Significant coarsening of γ' precipitates in hot zones, e.g., root and mid sections, as compared to the base microstructure of below platform region was observed. The coarsening occurred in the aerofoil region and was maximum in the top region of the blade. The original thin and nearly continuous distribution of grain boundary carbide precipitates became discontinuous with little increase in size in the root section whereas it changed to thick continuous precipitation enveloped by γ' phase in mid section. Grain boundary cavitations are not observed. Therefore, Hipping is not essential for rejuvenation. In addition, the usual distribution of intragranular MC carbide precipitates in below platform section is nearly dissolved in mid section while smaller size is observed in bottom or root section. But the blocky MC precipitates at grain boundaries or close to grain boundaries are degenerated into needle shaped sigma phase in the mid and top sections. Formation of intragranular Cr-rich sigma phase is also observed in root, airfoil and top sections but their frequency of occurrence is more in mid&top sections than the root section. The appearance of sigma phase also signals for the rejuvenation. All the grain boundaries in mid section and top section show enveloping of M23C6 grain boundary precipitates with γ' phase, because of following transformation at grain boundaries: MC + γ ⇒ M23C6 + γ′(γ′ envelopes the M23C6). The remnant coating at root section is 100–120 mm. In mid section it is about 10 μm with base metal attack down to 20 μm. In addition, the width of TCP phase formation zone in subsurface region of base metal is about 200 m in mid section while it is about 100 μm in root section.


One of the main functions of a prism is to produce an image orientation function without spectral dispersion. The present study extends the work previously reported in [JOSAA 33(7), 2016, pp. 1257 –1266] to analyze the sufficient conditions for a prism to produce two particular image orientation functions (Φ2 and Φ5) without spectral dispersion. It is shown that there exist two sufficient conditions under which spectral dispersion can be avoided: (1) the rays enter and exit the prism perpendicularly, or (2) the prism comprises two halves which are mirror images of one another. The present findings provide a useful basis for the design of prisms without spectral dispersion.


Abstract A morbidly obese male patient was referred to our department for joint-venture excision surgery of a massive genital lymphedema that had increased 10-fold in volume over a 3-year period. The patient underwent two-stage excision and reconstruction surgery including orchiectomy and was discharged with no major complications and reported improved outcome and urogenital function after surgery at 6-month follow-up. Genital lymphedema is a rare and surgically challenging disease that is related to obesity and causes functional and psychosocial impairment. The planning, performance and postoperative care of surgery on bariatric patients requires tailored surgical treatment and the involvement of several different medical professions and specialties. Surgical debulking can bring about satisfactory outcomes and profound improvements in quality of life.


Holliday junctions (HJs) are key DNA intermediates in homologous recombination. They link homologous DNA strands and have to be faithfully removed for proper DNA segregation and genome integrity. Here, we present the crystal structure of human HJ resolvase GEN1 complexed with DNA at 3.0 Å resolution. The GEN1 core is similar to other Rad2/XPG nucleases. However, unlike other members of the superfamily, GEN1 contains a chromodomain as an additional DNA interaction site. Chromodomains are known for their chromatin-targeting function in chromatin remodelers and histone(de)acetylases but they have not previously been found in nucleases. The GEN1 chromodomain directly contacts DNA and its truncation severely hampers GEN1's catalytic activity. Structure-guided mutations in vitro and in vivo in yeast validated our mechanistic findings. Our study provides the missing structure in the Rad2/XPG family and insights how a well-conserved nuclease core acquires versatility in recognizing diverse substrates for DNA repair and maintenance. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7554/eLife.12256.001


Spin-1/2 magnets with kagomé geometry, being for years a generic object of theoretical investigations, have few real material realizations. Recently, a DFT-based microscopic model for two such materials, kapellasite Cu3Zn(OH)6Cl2 and haydeeite Cu3Mg(OH)6Cl2, was presented [Janson O, Richter J and Rosner H arxiv:0806.1592]. Here, we focus on the intrinsic properties of real spin-1/2 kagomé materials having influence on the magnetic ground state and the low-temperature excitations. We find that the values of exchange integrals are strongly dependent on O—H distance inside the hydroxyl groups, present in most spin-1/2 kagomé compounds up to date. Besides the original kagomé model, considering only the nearest neighbour exchange, we emphasize the crucial role of the exchange along the diagonals of the kagomé lattice.


The role of liposome entrapment in modulating the cytotoxicity of a lipophilic cisplatin derivative was assessed. cis-Bis-neodecanoato-trans-R,R-1,2-diaminocyclohexaneplatinum++ +(II) (NDDP) was tested in suspension (free NDDP) or entrapped in multilamellar vesicles composed of dimyristoylphosphatidyl choline and dimyristoylphosphatidyl glycerol (L-NDDP). Against LoVo colon carcinoma cells sensitive to cisplatin, L-NDDP was two times more cytotoxic in vitro than free NDDP and cisplatin (Do 7 microM for L-NDDP, 15 microM for free NDDP, and 16 microM for cisplatin). Against LoVo cells resistant to a concentration of 3 micrograms/ml of cisplatin, L-NDDP was three times more cytotoxic than free NDDP and cisplatin (Do 14 microM for L-NDDP, 45 microM for free NDDP, and 48 microM for cisplatin). In in vivo studies, free NDDP was less potent and less active than L-NDDP against i.p. L-1210 leukemia (free NDDP, optimum %T/C 148 at a dose of 75 mg/kg; L-NDDP, optimum %T/C 185 at a dose of 25 mg/kg) and i.p. L1210/PDD leukemia (free NDDP, optimum %T/C 128 at a dose of 50 mg/kg on Days 1, 5, and 9; L-NDDP, optimum %T/C 200 at a dose of 12.5 mg/kg on Days 1, 5, and 9). Free NDDP administered i.v. was inactive against liver metastases of M5076 reticulosarcoma (%T/C 102) while L-NDDP showed significant activity (%T/C 140). The single dose i.v. LD50 in mice of free NDDP and L-NDDP were similar (79.4 mg/kg for free NDDP and 64.5 mg/kg for L-NDDP). These studies show that NDDP is a liposome-dependent drug since it can only be satisfactorily formulated in the liposomal form and since the liposomal carrier plays a crucial role in determining its antitumor activity.


Proceedings: AACR 101st Annual Meeting 2010‐‐ Apr 17‐21, 2010; Washington, DC

Osteosarcoma (OS) is the most common malignant bone cancer which is characterized by local invasion and distant metastasis. With the use of multi-agent chemotherapy, there have been improvements in the overall survival. However, drug resistance still remains a problem resulting in poor outcome. Currently, targeted agents are being evaluated as a novel method for various cancers, but the efficacy of the agents in OS is not well known.

We examined the protein expression of c-Met, Akt, mTOR and their phosphorylated status in seven OS cell lines (MG-63, HOS, KHOS/NP, SK-ES-1, U-2OS, Saos-2, and G-292) using western blot. In addition, we evaluated the protein expression of PTEN, a negative regulator of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling pathway. To determine the efficacy of the targeted agents in OS, PHA-665752 (c-Met inhibitor) and Akti2-1/2 (Akt inhibitor) were evaluated in OS cell lines using the standard MTT (3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide) assay. The drug concentration at which 50% of cells survived (IC50, μM) was calculated using Calcusyn software. Results were expressed as percent cell survival, which is calculated using the following formula: % survival = [(mean absorbance of test wells - standard absorbance) / (mean absorbance of control wells - standard absorbance)] × 100.

Seven OS cell lines had various expression levels of c-Met and p-Met with similar patterns. High levels of the Akt were observed in all the cell lines, but the levels of p-Akt varied. All the cell lines similarly expressed moderate levels of p-mTOR and PTEN. We observed that two cell lines, HOS and KHOS/NP, which both had high expression of c-Met and p-Met were sensitive to PHA-665752, less than 1.0 uM of IC50s. The IC50s of the other five cell lines were higher than 1.0 uM, suggesting resistant to PHA-665752. Especially, Saos-2 c resistant to PHA-665752 (IC50 > 5uM) while showing high c-met and p-met expression with the highest p-Akt expression. The high expression of p-Akt seemed to be an alternative survival factor in the presence of PHA-665752. As we expected, there was a negative correlation between p-Akt and PTEN. Although p-Akt expression in OS cell lines differed, five of seven cell lines were evenly sensitive to Akti2-1/2, probably due to high expression of Akt in all cell lines.

In this study, we presented that osteosarcoma cell lines had various activated status and the targeted agents were effective when the c-Met and Akt were expressed. These targeted agents could be applicable in osteosarcoma by blocking the survival signaling pathway with single or combination treatment.

This work was supported by the Brain Korea 21 Project for Medical Science, Yonsei University

Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2541.


This study explores the nature of the communication between former premarital cohabitating couples. Eight research participants (n=8) were interviewed to explore how and why they do or do not continue to communicate with their former partner since the relational termination. Four categories emerged from the qualitative analysis. First, couples "slid" into cohabitation for convenience-based purposes rather than deliberately decided. Second, they experienced a breakdown in or lack of communication before and/or during the disengagement. Third, the relational termination was a gradual process, and forth, the participants offered reasons for why they do or do not remain in communication with their ex-partner. An unexpected theme that emerged was the existence or possibility of a new partner negatively impacting friendship quality between the former partners. The movie The Break-Up (2006) portrayed the difficulties a cohabitating couple faces when they break-up and must decide how to proceed, a scenario which according to Seltzer (2004) and Sassler (2007) has become more and more common in the past few decades. Seltzer asserted that, "Cohabitation before first marriage is now the behavioral norm" (p. 922). The National Survey of Family Growth (2006-2008) found that nearly half of all Americans (48.8% of men and 50.0% of women) had lived with a romantic partner at some point in their lives. Jayson (2010) reported that according to the US Census, the number of opposite-sex couples living together rose from 6.7 million in 2009 to 7.5 million in 2010, a 13% increase. Existing studies on post-dissolution communication have explored several aspects of this phenomenon, but they had different purposes and looked at other factors than the present study. They did not differentiate between premarital cohabitating couples, non-cohabitating dating couples, and spouses. For this reason, along with the rising number of couples who cohabitate outside of marriage, this study focuses on whether and how a former premarital cohabitating couple continues to communicate with one another after relational termination. Using in-depth interviews with eight heterosexual research participants, the researcher used Glaser and Strauss's (1967) constant comparative method to examine what factors influence whether or not former cohabitating couples remain in communication once the romantic relationship has ended. This study explores the connection, if any, between the nature of post-dissolutional communication and the reason for cohabitating, the reason for the relational termination, and/or the exit strategy


Improving the in vivo pharmacokinetics (PK) of positron emission tomography (PET) radiotracers is of critical importance to tumor diagnosis and therapy. In the case of peptide-based radiotracers, the modification and addition of a linker or spacer functional group often offer faster in vivo pharmacokinetic behavior. In this study, the authors introduced two new PEGlyated dimeric c(RGD-ACH-K) conjugates, in which an aminocyclohexane carboxylic acid (ACH) is inserted into the ring chain of the cyclic RGD peptides, with a common bifunctional chelator (DOTA or NOTA) used for labeling with radiometals (including 68Ga and 64Cu). The addition of polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dimerization of c(RGD-ACH-K) affected the PK of the renal system and the tumor-targeting ability, relative to unmodified molecule. As a result, both 64Cu-DOTA-E[c(RGD-ACH-K)]2 (complex 1) and 64Cu-NOTA-E[c(RGD-ACH-K)]2 (complex 2) exhibited specific tumor-targeting properties relative to tumor-blocking control group, most likely resulting from improved in vivo tumor imaging. The in vivo tumor-to-blood ratio of the 64Cu(NOTA) complex shows better PET imaging than that of the 64Cu(DOTA) complex, which should lead to improved dosimetry and increased suitability for noninvasive monitoring of tumor growth or tumor-targeted radionuclide therapy.


The purpose of this paper is to explore the mediation impacts of core, relational and tangible service-quality features on the relationship between customer–frontline employee rapport and customer dependency in an emerging market context. The study examines the moderating effects of relationship age and frequency of customers' physical visits.,Partial least squares-based structural equation modelling was used to analyse data from a survey of 290 financial services customers in Dhaka, Bangladesh using the convenience sampling technique.,Results show that relational service-quality features had the largest mediation impact on the rapport–dependency relationship, followed by core and tangible service-quality features. Relationship age was not found to be a significant moderator for any relationship. However, the moderation effect of the frequency of customers' physical visits to the service premises was significant, but only for the link between relational service-quality features and customer dependency and not for the other two types of service-quality features.,Data collected from several other emerging markets would provide more rigorous findings: this is recommended as an avenue for further research.,Practitioners can manipulate specific relational or tangible service-quality features to increase customer dependency on their firms, thus ensuring longer-term customer retention.,This study is the first one to examine the relative significance of the impacts of relational features vs tangible features of services on customer dependency in the emerging market context, with rapport serving as an antecedent.


Abstract. This paper describes a framework for development of an indicator for human re-sources capacity management in a military organization responsible for nautical chart production. Graphic chart for the results of the model COPPE-COSENZA (Cosenza et al. 2015) is used to properly present the personnel capacity within a high people turnover environment. The specific skills for the nautical charts production allied to the turnover rate require continuous and adequate personnel in-corporation and a capacity building through education and on-the-job training. The adopted approach for the study establishes quantitative values to fulfill quality requirements, and also presents graphically a profile for the human resources on a specific job to facilitate diagnosis and corrective actions.


Purpose The oral effects of diabetes in dentate patients have been studied extensively, but little clinical data has been collected with regards to edentulous patients who have diabetes. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there are differences between diabetic and nondiabetic patients in initial patient tolerance and tissue response to complete dentures.

Materials and Methods Complete dentures were constructed for 62 diabetic and 56 nondiabetic patients. Treatment followed accepted prosthodontic principles recommended for diabetic patients. Twenty-four hour and 1 week post-placement appointments consisted of a patient questionnaire, intraoral examinations and indicated adjustments. The variables studied were the differences between responses to the questionnaire and the frequency of type, location, and size of clinically visible areas of mucosal irritation reported on standardized tissue evaluation forms.

Results Analysis of the responses to the questionnaire indicated diabetic patients reported xerostomia more often than nondiabetics. There were no statistically significant differences in initial tissue response to new complete dentures between the diabetic and nondiabetic patients. A statistically significant difference in tissue response was reported within the diabetic group, significantly fewer diabetic patients exhibited oral irritations at the second examination than at the first examination.

Conclusions The results of the present study indicate that when prosthodontic principles recommended for diabetic complete denture patients are followed, there are no clinically significant differences between diabetic and nondiabetic patients in initial patient tolerance and tissue response to complete dentures.


Currently, there is a gap between the psychological concept of metacognition and the neuroscientific construct of executive function (EF). The following research proposal attempts to bridge this gap with an argument that component parts of "cold EF" like working memory and cognitive flexibility closely overlap with the component parts of metacognition that include planning and regulation. Additionally, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) and the superior longitudinal fasciculus (SLF) are strongly associated with working memory and cognitive flexibility. The proposed research strategy in this article then offers a way to potentially evaluate metacognition through means beyond psychological measures. If the parallels between the concepts of metacognition and EF can be established, it would mean that metacognition could be evaluated using EF components. This has implications for both the research on metacognition and EF but also, potentially, for the evaluation of programs designed to enhance metacognitive skill.


In the graph signal processing (GSP) literature, it has been shown that signal-dependent graph Laplacian regularizer (GLR) can efficiently promote piecewise constant (PWC) signal reconstruction for various image restoration tasks. However, for planar image patches, like total variation (TV), GLR may suffer from the well-known "staircase" effect. To remedy this problem, we generalize GLR to gradient graph Laplacian regularizer (GGLR) that provably promotes piecewise planar (PWP) signal reconstruction for the image interpolation problem—a 2D grid with random missing pixels that requires completion. Specifically, we first construct two higher-order gradient graphs to connect local horizontal and vertical gradients. Each local gradient is estimated using structure tensor, which is robust using known pixels in a small neighborhood, mitigating the problem of larger noise variance when computing gradient of gradients. Moreover, unlike total generalized variation (TGV), GGLR retains the quadratic form of GLR, leading to an unconstrained quadratic programming (QP) problem per iteration that can be solved quickly using conjugate gradient (CG). We derive the means-square-error minimizing weight parameter for GGLR, trading off bias and variance of the signal estimate. Experiments show that GGLR outperformed competing schemes in interpolation quality for severely damaged images at a reduced complexity.


Schools leavers festivals (SLFs) are common across Australia. The SLF is an organised event where young people go to celebrate the end of their schooling. Past research has shown that school leavers often drink alcohol as a form of celebration during this time. This paper presents the findings from a study undertaken to explore the way in which young people prepared to minimise and/or be free from alcohol-related harm at the Adelaide SLF, in South Australia. Data was generated through the retrospective accounts of 38 young people during seven separate focus groups. Our study demonstrated that young people did not access health information to minimise alcohol-related harm. However, the data gained showed that young people plan what type of alcohol they intend to drink and who they are going to drink alcohol with to celebrate the SLF. This study highlights the great length that participants went to planning and budgeting for their purchase of alcohol. For participants in this study peers were people that they could trust. As well as valuing peers, on-site volunteers, mainly made up of other young people, were also valued in supporting their health care needs at the SLF.


Starting from the vantage point that explaining success at creating a venture should be the unique contribution—or at least one unique contribution—of entrepreneurship research, we argue that this success construct has not yet been adequately defined an operationalized. We thus offer suggestions for more precise conceptualization and measurement of this central construct. Rather than regarding various success proxies used in prior research as poor operationalizations of success we argue that they represent other important aspects of the venture creation process: engagement, persistence and progress. We hold that in order to attain a better understanding of venture creation these constructs also need to be theoretically defined. Further, their respective drivers need to be theorized and tested separately. We suggest theoretical definitions of each. We then develop and test hypotheses concerning how human capital, venture idea novelty and business planning has different impact on the different assessments of the process represented by engagement, persistence, progress and success. The results largely confirm the stated hypotheses, suggesting that the conceptual and empirical approach we are suggesting is a path towards improved understanding of the central entrepreneurship phenomenon of new venture creation.


We study pathwise invariances of centred random fields that can be controlled through the covariance. A result involving composition operators is obtained in second-order settings, and we show that various path properties including additivity boil down to invariances of the covariance kernel. These results are extended to a broader class of operators in the Gaussian case, via the Loeve isometry. Several covariance-driven pathwise invariances are illustrated, including fields with symmetric paths, centred paths, harmonic paths, or sparse paths. The proposed approach delivers a number of promising results and perspectives in Gaussian process regression.


A major concern in grain storage and management facilities is the effective control of insects and pests that reside in stored grain. Currently, the best studied method of subduing these insects is fumigating the grain bins with phosphine. However, many grain storage insects have developed a resistance to phosphine due to its misuse over the years, partially due to bin leakage, leading to minimum pest control in grain and increased product damage. The first step in managing the issue of fumigant leakage is by identifying environmental conditions that may impact the bins' total air loss, and ultimately, fumigant loss. One way to quantify the leakage potential of a structure is to perform pressure tests. Data collected from these tests statistically quantify the significance of atmospheric conditions on bin leakage, as well as quantify leakage area in the bin. These tests were performed on a 500 bushel grain bin filled with canola seed, sealed with plastic sheeting and Gorilla duct tape. A PVC pipe "arm" and shop vacuum (Shop-Vac® 5-gallon 6-Peak HP) contraption was designed for pressure application. Constant pressure testing methods were performed to collect data for calculations of leakage area. Tests were repeated in varying environmental conditions. Data analysis included performing single sample ttests to determine significance of environmental conditions, as well as using previously established relationships to quantify predicted leakage area in each scenario. It was concluded that atmospheric conditions significantly affect gas leakage from structures (p < 0.001), so pressure test conditions should match fumigation conditions for an accurate initial fumigant dosage. Constant pressure tests accurately predict equivalent leakage area of bin, with areas demonstrating a variance of 3.4 x 10-5. Future tests to improve fumigating processes could include relationships between phosphine concentration and the leakiness of the bin, as well as automated constant pressure testing devices.


Considering the objectives of "One Health" and the Sustainable development Goals "Good health and well-being" for the development of effective strategies to apply against bacterial resistance, food safety dangers, and zoonosis risks, this project explored the isolation and identification of Lactobacillus strains from the intestinal tract of recently weaned mice; as well as the assessment of antibacterial activity against clinical and zoonotic pathogens. For molecular identification, 16S rRNA gene-specific primers were used and, via BLAST-NCBI, 16 Ligilactobacillus murinus, one Ligilactobacillus animalis, and one Streptococcus salivarius strains were identified and registered in GenBank after the confirmation of their identity percentage and the phylogenetic analysis of the 16 Ligilactobacillus murinus strains and their association with Ligilactobacillus animalis. The 18 isolated strains showed antibacterial activity during agar diffusion tests against Listeria monocytogenes ATCC 15313, enteropathogenic Escherichia coli O103, and Campylobacter jejuni ATCC 49943. Electrophoretic and zymographic techniques confirmed the presence of bacteriolytic bands with a relative molecular mass of 107 kDa and another of 24 kDa in Ligilactobacillus murinus strains. UPLC-MS analysis allowed the identification of a 107 kDa lytic protein as an N-acetylmuramoyl-L-amidase involved in cytolysis and considered a bacteriolytic enzyme with antimicrobial activity. The 24 kDa band displayed similarity with a portion of protein with aminopeptidase function. It is expected that these findings will impact the search for new strains and their metabolites with antibacterial activity as an alternative strategy to inhibit pathogens associated with major health risks that help your solution.


Karyotype analysis and behaviour of B-chromosomes at meiosis in Centaurea kandavanensis are reported. The number of B-chromosomes was 0 to 3 in both somatic and gametic cells. The somatic karyotype consisted of eight metacentric pairs, two submetacentric pairs and 0-3B-submetacentric chromosomes. Analysis of chromosome behaviour at meiosis showed that the increase of number of B-chromosomes increased the mean chiasma frequency of A-chromosomes in pollen mother cells.


— An experimental Tuned Mass Damper (TMD) is proposed in order to damp vibrations induced by external excitations. This TMD is based on the Eddy Currents damping effect and is designed in such a way as to allow a manually adjustment of its own stiffness and inherent damping. The TMD's modal parameters estimation is therefore carried out by applying the Continuous Wavelet Transform to the signals obtained experimentally. The influence of the manual adjustment of the TMD's components on its dynamical properties is then studied.


Abstract Aims To investigate the factors that contribute to subjective quality of life (QOL) in adolescents with cerebral palsy (CP). Methods We evaluated the subjective QOL in 51 adolescents with CP through interviews using the Japanese version of KIDSCREEN-27 (J-KIDSCREEN-27) and compared the scores with those of 60 typically developing adolescents. Correlations of subjective QOL with age, sex, the levels of functions (gross motor, manipulation, and communication), intelligence, the level of activity of daily living (ADL), and the type of educational support were examined. Thereafter, we investigated the predictors of the subjective QOL by multiple regression analysis. Results The total QOL scores and individual J-KIDSCREEN-27 domains were not significantly different from those of typically developing adolescents. Sex, manipulation and communication functions, and intelligence had no relationship with subjective QOL. Gross motor function and ADL level negatively correlated with satisfaction with the school environment. Multiple regression analysis revealed that higher age predicts lower psychological well-being, lower gross motor function predicts higher satisfaction with the school environment, and attending schools or classes for special needs predicts higher physical well-being. Conclusions Seeking adequate support for mildly affected adolescents attending regular classes will be the key to further improving subjective QOL in adolescents with CP.


Conductance noise was measured in tunnel junctions with alumina barriers grown by plasma oxidation or thermal oxidation in atmospheres containing different amounts of water. Noise measurements were made in the frequency range 7 Hz-70 kHz, under biases -1 V to +1 V, and at temperatures 1 K to 4.2 K. In junctions with barriers grown under dry conditions, shot noise dominated at all frequencies. In junctions with barriers grown in the presence of water, noise power at low frequencies was four orders of magnitude larger than shot noise; it had an approximately 1/f frequency variation and a strong bias dependence, but was temperature independent below 4.2 K. The authors show that the results arc not quantitatively consistent with models involving modulation of the tunnelling barrier. They develop a new model, based on switching of resonant channels, that is able to explain the levels of noise observed.


A packet scheduler in a quality-of-service (QoS) network should be sophisticated enough to support stringent QoS constraints at high loads, but it must also have a simple implementation so that packets can be processed at the speed of the transmission link. The earliest-deadline-first (EDF) scheduler is the optimal scheduler for bounded-delay services in the sense that it provides the tightest delay guarantees of any scheduler, but an implementation of EDF requires the sorting of packets, a complex operation that is not practical for high-speed networks. In this study we present the design, implementation and analysis of the novel rotating-priority-queues/sup +/ (RPQ/sup +/) scheduler that is near-optimal in the sense that it can approximate EDF with arbitrary precision. The RPQ/sup +/ scheduler uses a set of prioritized FIFO queues whose priorities are rearranged (rotated) periodically to increase the priority of waiting packets. We derive admission control tests for RPQ/sup +/ and show that it has the following desirable properties: its implementation requires operations independent of the number of queued packets, it can provide worst-case delay guarantees, and its efficiency is "between" that of EDF and static-priority (SP) schedulers. We use numerical examples, including examples based on MPEG video, to show that in realistic scenarios RPQ/sup +/ can closely approximate EDF even for infrequent queue rotations.


Ruth Ozeki structures the narrative of All Over Creation around the cultivation of a transgenic food crop, which provokes a debate exploiting a number of widespread representations of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). The article focuses on the anti-GMO rhetoric, which offers a utopian discourse of agriculture clearly embedded within the pastoral convention, with genetic modification techniques represented as an intrusive "machine in the garden" and the mythological figure of the farmer exploited to fit the scope of the American context of the story. Exposing the conventions and mythologies behind the environmentalist narrative against the genetic engineering of plants, Ozeki's text demonstrates how the contrasting anti-GMO utopianism and pro-GMO techno-utopianism are both deeply rooted in the Western tradition, with its cultural and linguistic tendencies to objectify nature and conceptualize it as a female. Examining the value of genetically modified crops to different social groups, Ozeki's narrative accurately represents the complexities surrounding the contemporary practice of agriculture and opens up a discursive space for reformulating the rarely explored human–plant relationship, suggesting that neither kind of utopianism can serve as a conceptual framework for assessing the potential dangers and benefits of the introduction of GMOs into ecosystems and human bodies.


There is an increasing need for effective testing of software for complex safety-critical applications. This paper proposes a supporting method of testing for Java programs by using Unified Modeling Language (UML) in order to improve the reliability of them. The correspondences of source codes in Java and elements of a class diagram, a sequence diagram, and a statechart diagram have been extracted. By using the extracted correspondences as test items in testing, it becomes possible to test effectively the specification of software, the structure of Java programs, the flows of processing of a system, and the flow of transition between states. Moreover, in order to confirm the validity of the proposed method, a prototype tool to support testing for Java programs is implemented. The inputs of this prototype are three diagrams, and the outputs are test items generated from the extracted correspondences. As an example, a source code of blackjack game in Java has been tested by using the test items outputted from the prototype. It has been possible to test 67.2% of the number of lines in the whole source code.


Intersecting discourses situated in historiography, museum studies, education, trauma theory and photography, this article explores the possibilities and ethics of making sense of representations of the Holocaust in the Imperial War Museum London. The argument challenges assumptions about learning, witnessing and memorialising in Holocaust museums and explores ethical implications of the deployment of visual evidence of the Holocaust for educational purposes. Rather than providing answers to these challenges, the article seeks to initiate further interrogation of learning strategies in Holocaust exhibitions through the engagement of different academic disciplines in an interdisciplinary context.


Space-time block coded (STBC) in-phase/quadrature-phase (IQ)-interleaved trellis coded modulation (TCM) and turbo TCM (TTCM) schemes are proposed, which are capable of quadrupling the achievable density order of the conventional symbol-interleaved TCM and TTCM schemes, when two transmit antennas are employed. The increased diversity order of the proposed schemes provides significant additional coding gains when communicating over non-dispersive Rayleigh fading channels, which is achieved without compromising the coding gain attainable over Gaussian channels. Bit-interleaved coded modulation (BICM) as well as iteratively decoded BICM (BICM-ID) is also incorporated into the proposed system and their performance is compared to that of TCM and TTCM.


Objectives : The purpose of this study was to assess the relationship between job strains and absenteeism from work. Methods : The study design was cross-sectional, and the study subjects consisted of 1,166 workers who were employed in the small-sized industries. A self administered questionnaire was used to measure the general characteristics, job characteristics(job demand, job control), and social support(coworker support, supervisor support) at work. The Job Content Questionnaire(JCQ) was used to assess job demand(2 items) and decision lattitude(10 items). Social support at work (10 items) was measured using JCQ. Sick absence was collected using self-report and were rechecked by the attendance record of their company. Odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals for the association between job strain and sick absence were estimated. The modifying effect of social support was evaluated by stratification. Logistic regression was used to estimate the relationship between job strain and sick absence. Results : In the bivariate analysis, the variables related to sick absence were age, marital status, occupation, job demand. Four distinctly different kinds of level of job strain were generated by the combination of job demand and job control: low strain group, high strain group, active group, and passive group. The crude odds ratio of high job strain was 1.78(95% CI: 1.26-2.53), and those of active group and passive group were 1.33(95% CI: 1.07-1.66) and 1.13 (95% CI: 0.88-1.47), respectively. The odds ratio of high job strain after adjusting for age and occupation were still significant The odds ratio of high job strain in low social support was 5.96(95% CI: 2.45-14.51), but that in high social support was 0.73(95% CI: 0.26-2.01). Conclusions : Job strain was associated with increased risk of absenteeism from work, and social support at work modified the association between job strain and sick absence.


Reducing the availability and toxicity of metal pollutants before they enter plant body is one of the main mechanisms of plant resistance to metals. Root system is the first entrance of metal pollutants from soil into plant. It can excrete organic acids, amino acids, sugars, growth substances etc. into rhizosphere. Root excretion affects the metal absorption by plant through changing the physical and chemical characters(such as pH, Eh) of rhizosphere. The metal pollutants are detained outside the roots by chelation, complexation and disposition with root exudates. The quantity and activity of metals in rhizosphere are changed by root exudates through changing the composition, activity and excretion of microbes there. After reviewing the research advances on root excretion and plant resistance to metals, the authors pointed out the existing problems and the major topics and significance of further research.