War and peace perpetually alternate and peace is always seen as an endless project, even a dream, to be realised in brotherhood by everyone all over the earth. Present generations should ensure that both they and future generations learn to live together in peace with the highest aspiration of sparing future generations the scourge of war. The UN Charter is the most solemn pact of peace in history, which lays down on the necessary basic principles for an enduring peace. Recently, in the context of the joint effort in the recognition of the high importance of practicing tolerance, dialogue, cooperation and solidarity among all human beings, peoples and nations, the General Assembly has raised the voice of victims to strongly condemn war and to openly reiterate their inalienable right to enjoy peace such that all human rights are promoted and protected and development is fully realized.


Feature Selection is a preprocessing technique with great significance in data mining applications that aims at reducing computational complexity and increase predictive capability of a learning system. This paper presents a new hybrid feature selection algorithm based on Discrete Firefly optimization technique with dynamic alpha and gamma parameters and t-test filter technique to improve detectability of hidden message for Blind Image Steganalysis. The experiments are conducted on important dataset of feature vectors extracted from frequency domain, Discrete Cosine Transformation and Discrete Wavelet Transformation domain of cover and stego images. The results from popular JPEG steganography algorithms nsF5, Outguess, PQ and JP Hide and Seek show that proposed method is able to identify sensitive features and reduce the feature set by 67% in DCT domain and 37% in DWT domain. The experiment analysis shows that these algorithms are most sensitive to Markov features from DCT domain and variance statistical moment from DWT domain.


The infrastructure undertakings of a rail transport and underground are interested in application of composite and switch sleepers. It is connected with the fact that insignificant service life of wooden sleepers and their low resistance to defects increase expenses on repairs and the current maintenance of railway track, especially in difficult operational conditions (the increased humidity, hostile environment, high loadings from vehicle units), and composite under-rail supports have considerably bigger operational resource. Results of research of composite sleepers which material is the polymeric matrix from the processed high-density polyethylene as a main component with glass-filled polymer are given. It is shown that the physical and mechanical characteristics, influencing on operational reliability and operability of composite sleepers of the processed high-density polyethylene as a main component with glass-filled polymer, are above than wooden sleepers have. Spheres of rational application of composite sleepers are offered. For example, on sites where laying of ferroconcrete sleepers is inexpedient, first of all, on the soil blister sites and sites with the weak subballast basis, and also when spacing "bushes" with defective wooden sleepers. On the basis of positive results of tests pilot sites with composite sleepers are put in the Moscow and St. Petersburg underground systems, and also recommendations for their pilot laying on a network of the railroads of JSC RZhD are developed.


Limited information is available about transmural heterogeneity in cardiac electrophysiology in man. The present study was designed to evaluate heterogeneity of cardiac action potential (AP), transient outward K+ current ( I to1) and inwardly rectifying K+ current ( I K1) in human right ventricle. AP and membrane currents were recorded using whole cell current- and voltage-clamp techniques in myocytes isolated from subepicardial, midmyocardial, and subendocardial layers of the right ventricle of explanted failing human hearts. AP morphology differed among the regional cell types. AP duration (APD) at 0.5-2 Hz was longer in midmyocardial cells (M cells) than in subepicardial and subendocardial cells. At room temperature, observed I to1, on step to +60 mV, was significantly greater in subepicardial (6.9 ± 0.8 pA/pF) and M cells (6.0 ± 1.1 pA/pF) than in subendocardial cells (2.2 ± 0.7 pA/pF, P < 0.01). Slower recovery of I to1 was observed in subendocardial cells. The half-inactivation voltage of I to1 was more negative in subendocardial cells than in M and subepicardial cells. At 36°C, the density of I to1 increased, the time-dependent inactivation and reactivation accelerated, and the frequency-dependent reduction attenuated in all regional cell types. No significant difference was observed in I K1 density among the regional cell types. The results indicate that M cells in humans, as in canines, show the greatest APD and that a gradient of I to1 density is present in the transmural ventricular wall. Therefore, the human right ventricle shows significant transmural heterogeneity in AP morphology and I to1properties.


Recently, green marketing has gained a competitive advantage over other marketing strategies due to the superior role it plays in the society. This study investigated the role green marketing plays on sustaining the development of the Nation. A random sampling technique was adopted for the collection of data and of the two hundred questionnaires distributed, one hundred and seventy two responses were found useable which was analysed using the stepwise multiple regression estimates(SPSS analysis). The study revealed that Green Marketing plays a signicant role on customer's loyalty to the organisation as consumers are becoming more conscious of environmental issues and express their loyalty better to organisation that respects their right to a healthy environment. The coefcient of the multiple regression (R=0.942) showed that a very high positive relationship exist between Green marketing customer's satisfaction, customer loyalty and the organisations 2 protability. The adjusted R( R = 0 .887) which implies that Green marketing accounts for about 88.7% variation in the sustainable development of a nation. It was further revealed that green marketing plays a signicant role on sustaining the development of a Nation. It is therefore recommended that organisation must be conscious of her customer's environment in order to promote sustainable development in the Nation.


The construction of semi-formal process models is a difficult task due to the complexity of today's business processes. In this contribution, we devise an ontology-based assistant for semi-formal process modeling. The assistant is intended to support the modeler in creating high quality process models with less time and effort by reusing knowledge captured in a reference ontology. At first, we derive functionalities for such an assistant. We then show how the approach can be implemented and integrated into an existing modeling tool. Finally, we describe an experimental evaluation of the approach.


OBJECTIVE
To study the effects of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) on anti-inflammation and repair of human dental pulp cells (hDPCs).

METHODS
Primary hDPCs from the freshly extracted human third molars were cultured and passaged in vitro, and the following experiments were performed using the 4th-6th generations of hDPCs. HDPCs were cultured in Dulbecco's modified eagle medium (DMEM) containing 1 mg/L lipopolysaccharide (LPS) to obtain LPS irritated hDPCs (LPS-hDPCs), which served as the inflammatory positive group. LPS-hDPCs in the experimental group were cultured in DMEM containing different concentrations (1, 10, and 100 μmol/L) of NSAIDs (aspirin or meloxicam). HDPCs cultured in DMEM were used as the negative control group. The effects of NSAIDs on the proliferation of hDPCs were assessed on the 1st, 3rd, 5th, and 7th day by MTT assay. The effects of NSAIDs on the expression of inflammation related genes interleukin-6 (IL-6) and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α) of LPS-hDPCs were detected at the 6th hour by real-time PCR. The expression of differentiation related markers dentin matrix protein-1 (DMP-1) and dentin sialophosphoprotein (DSPP) were detected on the 7th day by real-time PCR. The effects of NSAIDs on the mineralization of LPS-hDPCs were assesd on the 14th day by alizarin red staining. Calcium mineralized nodules were semi-quantitatively determined by cetyl pyridine chloride.

RESULTS
MTT assay showed that 1-100 μmol/L aspirin or meloxicam significantly promoted the proliferation of hDPC in a concentration dependent manner (P<0.05). Real-time PCR showed that 1-100 μmol/L meloxicam or 100 μmol/L aspirin down-regulated significantly the mRNA expression of TNF-α and IL-6 of LPS-hDPCs (P<0.05), and 100 μmol/L meloxicam down-regulated IL-6 and TNF-α more significantly than 100 μmol/L aspirin of LPS-hDPCs (P<0.05). Real-time PCR showed that 100 μmol/L meloxicam up-regulated the mRNA expression of DMP-1 and DSPP of LPS-hDPCs significantly (P<0.05). Alizarin red staining showed the meloxicam at the concentration of 100 μmol/L significantly promoted the mineralization of LPS-hDPCs (P<0.05).

CONCLUSION
In this study, meloxicam promoted the proliferation of hDPCs, inhibited the inflammatory reaction and promoted differentiation and mineralization of hDPCs under LPS irritation. The present results suggest that meloxicam may play a role in anti-inflammation and repair of pulp inflammation.


The antiestrogenic action of 3-hydroxytamoxifen [trans-1-(4-beta-dimethylaminoethoxyphenyl)-1-(3-hydroxyphenyl)-2 -phenylbut-1-ene] was characterized in vitro and compared with that of tamoxifen [trans-1-(4-beta-dimethylaminoethoxyphenyl)-1,2-diphenylbut-1-ene]. The relative binding affinities of 3-hydroxytamoxifen to estrogen receptor were 3.3% in cytosol of MCF-7 cells and 1.5% in human mammary carcinoma cytosol compared to values of 0.2 and 0.3% for tamoxifen (the affinity of 17 beta-estradiol considered to be 100%). The concentration of 3-hydroxytamoxifen necessary to suppress the 17 beta-estradiol-induced growth stimulation of MCF-7 cells was about tenfold lower than that for tamoxifen. The induction of progesterone receptor in MCF-7 cells by 17 beta-estradiol was inhibited by 3-hydroxytamoxifen. In the absence of 17 beta-estradiol, 3-hydroxytamoxifen gave rise to a moderate increase in the progesterone receptor levels, which demonstrates the partially estrogenic character of hydroxytamoxifen.


In order to solve the problem of voltage flicker produced by electric arc furnace (EAF) operation, it is a prerequisite to analyze the characteristics of voltage time series acquired from AC EAF power supply grid and to conduct voltage prediction based on chaos theory. In this paper, the voltage time series is firstly reconstructed in phase space to determine optimal delay time and embedding dimension and the maximum Lyapunov exponent (MLE) is computed to testify the chaotic characteristics of voltage fluctuation, which indicate the chaotic approach is feasible for voltage prediction. Then, the voltage is respectively predicted by MLE method and adding-weight one-rank local method. The comparison of the prediction result shows that the two methods both lead to good prediction effect, but the latter one is better in precision. Therefore, the addingweight one-rank local method is more suitable to predict the fluctuant voltage of AC EAF power supply grid. Key-Words: EAF, voltage fluctuation, chaotic prediction, MLE, adding-weight


ABSTRACT:Economists and policymakers often associate external competitiveness with the real exchange rate. This paper seeks to study Bangladesh's external competitiveness by critically examining the determinants of the country's real equilibrium exchange rate. While a number of studies have been done on Bangladesh in this area, no consensus has emerged on the determinants of real exchange rate. Few studies explicitly incorporate net foreign assets when modeling exchange rate change of Bangladesh. This paper plans to bridge this gap by developing a simple model in line with Musa (1984), Faruqee (1995), and Égert (2004). In this model, the current account in the long-run is driven by adjustment in the net foreign assets (NFA) towards a targeted level. Given a country's long-run target for the stock of net foreign assets, the real equilibrium exchange rate then corresponds to a current account balance that is consistent with the income flows from this stock. The model is then tested by applying the autoregressive distributed lag (ARDL) bound testing approach by Pesaran et al. (2001) to the cointegration for the long-run and using the error correction model to examine the short-run dynamic relationship among real exchange rate, dual productivity differentials, net foreign assets, and real absorption. The empirical analysis is based on the annual data series from 1980 to 2014, collected electronically from the online databases of the IMF, the Penn World Table, and the World Bank. The empirical result show that, once shocked, real exchange rate convergence to equilibrium is quick with 64% of the adjustment occurring in the first year. The study finds that increased capital flow, greater real absorption, and faster productivity growth in the tradable sector relative to that of the non-tradable sector lead to real exchange rate appreciation. The estimated parameters are also stable. The paper then discusses policy implications and sheds some lights on the research limitations and future research considerations. For example, the paper recommends that Bangladesh should try to keep its currency relatively weak to protect domestic producers from foreign competition and strengthen their competitiveness to produce for and sell, particularly readymade garments, to world markets.


Background: Estimation of age is of utmost importance in identifying the deceased. Research considering splenic morphometric parameters to determine the deceased's age is very rare in Haryana. The present study is done to find the correlation between the spleen's morphometric parameters and the deceased's age. The objective of the present study is to determine the changes in morphometry of the spleen with the age of the deceased. Methods: The cross-sectional study was done in spleen specimens (56 males and 44 females) obtained from deceased adults aged 16-70 years belonging to North India from the Department of Forensic Medicine during autopsy from September 2021-June 2022. The data was analyzed using SPSS 20.0. Pearson's correlation test evaluated the association between splenic parameters and age. The correlation formula was derived to assess the significance of correlation. Results: Correlation with age was negative and significant with splenic weight and splenic dimensions in both males and females. Mean splenic weight, length, breadth, and thickness were 113.83± 7.86 g, 10.2±1.04 cm, 6.53 ± 0.4 cm, 1.46 ± 0.074 cm respectively. Mean spleen weight, length, width, and thickness were 137 ±10.98g, 11.06 ± 1.28 cm, 6.9 ± 0.4cm, 1.66 ± 0.018 cm in males. Mean spleen weight, length, width, and thickness were 90.66 ± 4.74g, 9.34 ±0.8cm, 6.16 ±0.4cm, and 1.26 ±0.13cm in females. Conclusions: Spleen weight and dimensions were higher in males than in females, and all the morphometric parameters increased up to the age of 45 and later decreased. The correlation of morphometric parameters of the spleen was negative and significant with age.


The introduction of Genetically-Engineered (GE) alfalfa requires a mechanism for producers to successfully grow and market alfalfa hay destined for GE-sensitive markets such as organic and export. A process of coexistence includes elements of respect for diverse agricultural systems, improved communication, scientific knowledge, and market clarity. A definition for 'Non-GE Alfalfa Forage' is proposed, along with suggested production protocols. These protocols include securing non GE-detect seed, steps to reduce the probability of gene flow in hay fields, equipment sanitation, hay lot identification, and hay testing for low-level presence. The largest risk for low-level presence in hay is likely to originate from unwanted GE presence in the planting seed. Secondary risks include accidental mixing of hays during harvest or storage, followed by gene flow between forage fields. The tolerance for low-level presence in non-GE hay must meet specific market sensitivities. Promoting absolute zero GE hay (e.g. 'GMO Free) is a practical and analytical impossibility, creates difficulties for farmers, and makes no sense for a non-toxic unwanted market factor. Regulatory-based tolerances, driven largely by countries that do not permit a GE trait may require non-GE determination to a limit of detection of approximately 0.1%. Market-based tolerance thresholds may differ greatly depending upon the sensitivity of markets. For market purposes, a definition of non-GE alfalfa as having a low-level presence of less than 0.9% of dry matter is suggested. Coexistence strategies for alfalfa forage require an understanding of the sources of low-level presence, market tolerances of diverse markets, and market assurance processes.


IMPORTANCE
The study demonstrates the utility of eustachian tube (ET) function (ETF) test results for accurately assigning ears to disease state.

OBJECTIVES
To determine if ETF tests can identify ears with physician-diagnosed ET dysfunction (ETD) in a mixed population at high sensitivity and specificity and to define the interrelatedness of ETF test parameters.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
Through use of the forced-response, inflation-deflation, Valsalva, and sniffing tests, ETF was evaluated in 15 control ears of adult subjects after unilateral myringotomy (group 1) and in 23 ears of 19 adult subjects with ventilation tubes inserted for ETD (group 2). Data were analyzed using logistic regression including each parameter independently and then a step-down discriminant analysis including all ETF test parameters to predict group assignment. Factor analysis operating over all parameters was used to explore relatedness.

EXPOSURES
ETF testing.

MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES
ETF parameters for the forced response, inflation-deflation, Valsalva, and sniffing tests measured in 15 control ears of adult subjects after unilateral myringotomy (group 1) and in 23 ears of 19 adult subjects with ventilation tubes inserted for ETD (group 2).

RESULTS
The discriminant analysis identified 4 ETF test parameters (Valsalva, ET opening pressure, dilatory efficiency, and percentage of positive pressure equilibrated) that together correctly assigned ears to group 2 at a sensitivity of 95% and a specificity of 83%. Individual parameters representing the efficiency of ET opening during swallowing showed moderately accurate assignments of ears to their respective groups. Three factors captured approximately 98% of the variance among parameters: the first had negative loadings of the ETF structural parameters; the second had positive loadings of the muscle-assisted ET opening parameters; and the third had negative loadings of the muscle-assisted ET opening parameters and positive loadings of the structural parameters.

CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE
These results show that ETF tests can correctly assign individual ears to physician-diagnosed ETD with high sensitivity and specificity and that ETF test parameters can be grouped into structural-functional categories.


We show that an often used relation between the radial particle flux and the divergence of the gyrotropic stress is an algebraic identity, unrelated to momentum conservation. Our calculation is completely general with regard to toroidal geometry and plasma collisionality. The result bears on the role of anisotropy in momentum relaxation and also clarifies certain methodological issues.


Mature cystic teratomas are usually benign, however malignant transformation occurs rarely. It is identified in only 0.17-2% of cases. Malignant cells can arise from cell of any type, but most common malignant transformation found to be squamous cell carcinoma (80% cases) followed by adenocarcinoma. While neural tissue is identified in nearly 80% cases of mature cystic teratomas, neuroectodermal tissue with malignant transformation is the most exceptional event. There is minimal data available on primary neuroectodermal tumours of ovary, majority are astrocytoma of different grades, only few cases were reported in the literature so far. Authors report a extremely rare and unique case of pilocytic astrocytoma arising from a mature cystic teratoma in a pregnant female. A 33-year-old pregnant female in her first trimester came for regular antenatal visit, Ultrasound (USG) abdomen and pelvis single live intrauterine gestation corresponding to 10 weeks and incidental complex right ovarian cyst likely to be mature cystic teratoma. Patient underwent right ovarian cystectomy five months after normal vaginal delivery and provisional diagnosis was given as complex right ovarian dermoid cyst. Final detailed histopathological examination revealed a tumour with glial tissue within the cyst, reported as pilocytic astrocytoma {World Health Organization (WHO) grade 1} arising in mature cystic teratoma. To the best of authors' knowledge this is the third case showing pilocytic astrocytoma component in ovarian teratoma and the first case of this entity occurring in a pregnant female. Authors present an unusual case where radiology gave preliminary diagnosis however, extensive histopathological examination, histochemistry and immunohistochemistry helped in definite diagnosis.


Objectives To report side effects seen in a clinical cohort of patients >65 years old with Rheumatoid Arthritis treated with Etanercept and to compare the SEs rate with patients ≤ 65 years old. Methods All patients with RA that started Etanercept from November 2005 to November 2006 and referring to our Rheumatology Unit until November 2011 were included in this study and prospectively followed to collect side effects related to therapy (Group A patients ≤ 65 years old, group B > 65 years old). All SEs observed during 5 years, primarily infective adverse event (IAE) and Serious adverse event (SAE), were collected. Data were analyzed with Mantel Cox survival analysis Results Eighty two patients were enrolled in this study from November 2005 to November 2006 and followed until November 2011: 31 (28 females, 3 males) aged ≤ 65 years (Group A), 52 (40 females, 11 males) aged > 65 years (Group B). In the patients > 65 years old the safety profile of Etanercept was similar than in patients ≤ 65 years old (p>0.05) and the survival curves between the groups were similar (p>0.05). Rates of infection were comparable across the groups (p>0.05). Urinary tract infections and upper respiratory tract infections (including nasopharyngitis) were the most frequently reported IAEs. Also rates of SAEs were comparable in the two groups (p>0.05) (Tab. 1) Mean survival time before that a first AE related to therapy with Etanercept was recorded was 29.6 months ±2.42 in the Group A, 31.3± 2.6 in the Group B. Median survival time was 31.7 months in the Group A and 34.4 in the Group B, (p>0.05). No significant correlation has been found between the survival time until the first adverse event and the age (p=0.63). Mean survival time before definitive therapy suspension with Etanercept due to SAEs was 46.2 months ±2.99 in the ≤ 65 years old group and 47.7± 4.1 in the elderly group (p>0.05). No significant correlation has been found between therapy duration when SAE occurred and the age used as a covariate in the Mantel Cox equation (p=0.728). Finally, a retention rate of 64.7 % at 5 years in the group <65 years old and 63.0 % in the ≥ 65 years old group was observed Conclusions In our experience, anti-TNFα agent Etanercept has been safe in elderly patients; the risk of SEs (primarily IAE and SAE) in these patients was no greater than in subjects aged ≤ 65 years. However, such inhibitors are associated with various and numerous SEs, elderly patients with RA should be carefully monitored. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


Introduction: In the child's first year of life, motor development is critical for the other areas of child development. Beliefs and parenting practices influence the parents' care and encouragement of their children, reflecting in their motor development; however, the Brazilian literature on this subject is scarce. Objective: to characterize the parental practices and beliefs associated with motor development in the first year of life; and to verify if practices and beliefs are interrelated. Methods: Two questionnaires were developed and applied, one about parenting practices and the other about parental beliefs on motor development in the first year life, to 27 caregivers of children between 12 and 24 months of age, who participated in an aquatic stimulation program. The agreement between practices and beliefs was verified by a graphical method, based on the  transformation of ordinal scores to an interval scale using Rasch analysis. Results: The participants had higher levels of education and economic status. They reported a variety of practices focused on the motor development of their children, such as family interaction through playing, toy offers, lap time and free movement space. Conclusion: Most of the practices were based on parental beliefs, for some activities, however, beliefs and practices diverged, demonstrating the complexity inherent to the formation of parental beliefs.


Background and Aim: Visceral adiposity per se was associated with risk of developing hypertension in future. There is escalating trend of visceral obesity in Indian adolescents. Nonetheless, the Asian Indian population is known to have an affinity for central fat deposition than peripheral fat. Meanwhile, the association of visceral adiposity and cardiovascular response to exercise in Indian adolescents of 18-19 years' age group has not been well described so far. Therefore, the present study was undertaken. Methods: A Cross-sectional study was conducted on 120 non-athletes' (60 males and 60 females) late Indian Adolescents of 18-19 years' age group. Visceral Fat (VF) and Other Body composition were measured by Bioelectrical Impedance technique using Omron HBF 302 body fat analyzer. The participants were customized into two groups based on their Visceral Fat Level (0-9: Normal VF group; > 9: High VF group). Exercise Testing was done by treadmill exercise test following standard Bruce protocol. Cardiovascular reactivity (Heart Rate, Systolic and Diastolic Blood Pressure) was checked at the end of each stage of Bruce Protocol. Results: Increased SBP and DBP responses to treadmill exercise tests at different stages were seen in high VF groups in both the genders. However, no abnormal reactivity was observed in high VF groups of both the genders. Conclusion: During treadmill exercise stress test, high blood pressure reactivity was seen in high visceral fat adolescents as compared to normal visceral fat adolescents, which was primarily due to their high resting blood pressure. Adolescents with normal visceral fat were competent to cross more number of Bruce stages than high visceral fat Indian adolescents. Visceral fat had a stronger influence on baseline cardiovascular parameters like systolic and diastolic blood pressure as well as blood pressure parameter during exercise than total body fat.


For Piketty there are two laws of capitalism and one fundamental inequality which, taken together, drive us towards a world of increasing inequality. For what is left of the twenty-first century he foresees a less meritocratic society with an enhanced role for inherited wealth. In this article I do not criticize the data on which his conclusions are based, but his reasoning. I show that his laws of capitalism are accounting identities valid by definition, regardless of the way society is organized and that his fundamental inequality compares incomparable variables. I argue that his concept of inherited wealth is poorly defined and susceptible to wide margins of interpretation. In my opinion, there is no need to be so pessimistic. To avoid misunderstanding, I do believe there are reasons to be concerned about increasing inequalities, but I do not think there is an iron mechanism ingrained in the capitalist system that drives us inevitably to an ever less equal world, as suggested by Piketty.


Background. Incident hemodialysis patients may experience rapid weight loss in the first few months of starting dialysis. However, trends in weight changes over time and their associations with survival have not yet been characterized in this population. Methods. In a large contemporary US cohort of 58 106 patients who initiated hemodialysis during 1 January 2007–31 December 2011 and survived the first year of dialysis, we observed trends in weight changes during the first year of treatment and then examined the association of post‐dialysis weight changes with all‐cause mortality. Results. Patients' post‐dialysis weights rapidly decreased and reached a nadir at the 5th month of dialysis with an average decline of 2% from baseline, whereas obese patients (body mass index ≥30 kg/m2) did not reach a nadir and lost ˜3.8% of their weight by the 12th month. Compared with the reference group (−2 to 2% changes in weight), the death hazard ratios (HRs) of patients with −6 to −2% and greater than or equal to −6% weight loss during the first 5 months were 1.08 (95% confidence interval, 1.02–1.14) and 1.14 (1.07–1.22), respectively. Moreover, the death HRs with 2–6% and ≥6% weight gain during the 5th to 12th months were 0.91 (0.85–0.97) and 0.92 (0.86–0.99), respectively. Conclusions. In patients who survive the first year of hemodialysis, a decline in post‐dialysis weight is observed and reaches a nadir at the 5th month. An incrementally larger weight loss during the first 12 months is associated with higher death risk, whereas weight gain is associated with greater survival during the 5th to 12th month but not in the first 5 months of dialysis therapy.


We investigate the magnetic properties of quasi one-dimensional quantum spin-S antiferromagnets. We use a combination of analytical and numerical techniques to study the presence of plateaux in the magnetization curve. The analytical technique consists in a path integral formulation in terms of coherent states. This technique can be extended to the presence of doping and has the advantage of a much better control for large spins than the usual bosonization technique. We discuss the appearance of doping-dependent plateaux in the magnetization curves for spin-S chains and ladders. The analytical results are complemented by a Density matrix Renormalization Group (DMRG) study for a trimerized spin-1/2 and anisotropic spin-3/2 doped chains.


ABSTRACT Background: Prevalence rates of electronic nicotine delivery systems (ENDS; i.e., e-cigarette/vape) use has grown exponentially in the past few years. College students present a particularly vulnerable group for ENDS use. The current study sought to expand the literature by examining the context in which college students use ENDS, co-occurring health risks beyond traditional tobacco use, and the role of ethnicity in ENDS use. Methods: Health-risk behavior survey data was collected from 452 undergraduates attending a large, public urban university during the 2015–2016 academic year. Ever ENDS users vs. non-ENDS users were compared across potential demographic, health-risk, and other health-related correlates. Results: Almost 40% of participants reported lifetime use of ENDS. No ethnic or sex differences were found. The primary source for obtaining ENDS was friends and ENDS were most often used with friends vs. alone or with others not considered friends. Participants engaging in risky alcohol use and cigarette smoking had a higher likelihood of endorsing ENDS use. Conclusions/Importance: The current study indicated that a large proportion of college students have tried ENDS irrespective of ethnicity or sex. An increasingly normative social context may inform the popularity of ENDS use across ethnicity and sex, but additional research using ethnically diverse samples is warranted. Risky alcohol use appears to be a significant correlate of ENDS use, even after accounting for the robust relationship between ENDS use and cigarette smoking. The robust relationship between alcohol and tobacco use likely extends to ENDS use.


Background: Langerhans cell histiocytosis (LCH) is a rare group of disorders of unknown etiology with a wide spectrum of clinical presentation. We sought to identify what, if any, has changed in the past 3 decades. This review outlines the current concepts in etiology and molecular biology, clinical manifestations, imaging features, treatment guidelines, and outcomes for skeletal LCH. Methods: A database of LCH cases diagnosed at a tertiary referral center during a 3-decade period was retrospectively reviewed to identify children with primary bone involvement. All patients' charts and available imaging examinations were reviewed, and the data collected included sex, age, number and location of the musculoskeletal lesions, presence of extraskeletal lesions and/or systemic disease, presence of clinical symptoms, treatment (medical and/or surgical), complications, and outcomes. Results: Seventy-nine children met the inclusion criteria. Forty-five (57%) of the 79 children had single-bone disease, with a mean age at presentation of 8.9 years, whereas 34 (43%) of the 79 children presented with multiple skeletal lesions (range, 2-7 lesions) at a mean age of 7.4 years. There were 165 skeletal lesions in the 79 patients (mean, 2 lesions per patient). The most common presenting symptom was pain at the lesion site (63 patients, 79%). On imaging, the lesion usually presented as a well-defined, radiolucent lesion located within the diaphysis or metaphysis. Among children with single-bone involvement, 11 underwent observation and symptomatic treatment, 17 had biopsy followed by observation and symptomatic treatment, and 17 had biopsy followed by excision. Eight children also received chemotherapy, and 2 had radiation (early in the series). Among children with multiple-bone disease, 10 underwent biopsy followed by symptomatic treatment, 24 underwent biopsy, followed by chemotherapy, and 3 also received radiation (early in the series). Conclusion: There is variability of presentation in musculoskeletal LCH. Biopsy is usually indicated for diagnostic confirmation. Although the natural history for most lesions is of gradual healing, curettage and grafting are sometimes indicated to accelerate the healing process. Internal fixation for stability is occasionally necessary. Chemotherapy is used for multisystemic disease, and radiotherapy is no longer used.


Purpose

Whether training contributes to stabilizing employment among rural migrant workers in cities remains unclear. Based on this gap in the research, the purpose of this paper is to examine how on-the-job training affects rural migrant workers' job mobility in China.

Design/methodology/approach

By using randomly sampled survey data on migrant workers in Liaoning province in 2014, the authors applied a logistic model and survival analysis to explore the effect of on-the-job training on migrant workers' job turnover and understand workers' job change behaviour after receiving on-the-job training.

Findings

The results showed that job training provided by employers can significantly reduce migrant workers' turnover by increasing specific human capital. By contrast, training provided by the government or migrant workers themselves focuses on increasing general human capital and thus fails to reduce job turnover. Moreover, further discussion revealed that, in the trained group, those people with a short tenure and low wage in the first job, people without any skills before migration, male migrant workers, and people that work in medium-sized and large cities have a higher probability of changing jobs. These findings suggest that to tackle the high rate of job mobility among rural migrant workers, firms should entice this labour to train by adjusting their internal training mechanisms, and local governments should subsidize firms that provide on-the-job training for rural migrant workers to help share the costs and risks of training. Moreover, for sake of reducing job changing among those trained workers, firms even should take actions to protect their labour rights of migrant workers and to ensure that they receive equal treatment to their urban counterparts.

Originality/value

This paper makes three contributions to the field of job mobility in China. First, it explores the mechanism between on-the-job training and rural migrant workers' job mobility. Second, it empirically analyses the effect of on-the-job training on migrant workers' job mobility as well as the different effects of general and specific training. Lastly, its results have important policy implications for the employment stability of rural migrant workers.


Cloud database services become very appealing solutions. They offer performance and storage capabilities that client platforms do not have. However, in order to protect the users' confidentiality and to ensure the integrity of their computations, solutions often use one of three approaches: a) Encrypting the data prior to uploading it with some symmetric encryption; b) Using a Trusted Execution Environments (TEE) such as OS containers, Virtual Machines or Intel's Software Guard Extension (SGX); c) using Homomorphic Encryption (HE) schemes. A newer approach, which we call the "combined model" uses a TEE to guarantee the integrity and correctness of the database code and data, while the data itself is encrypted with some HE scheme. In this paper, we explain the combined model and we show how to use it in the context of modern Multi Party Computations (MPC) schemes. In addition, we demonstrate how to construct a voting system that leverages its capabilities.


Title of Document: MULTIPLE HRG-1 PARALOGS REGULATE HEME HOMEOSTASIS IN C. ELEGANS. Haifa Ben Saidan, Master of Science, 2014 Directed By: Professor Iqbal Hamza, Department of Animal and Avian sciences Heme is an essential cofactor for various biological processes although the pathways for cellular heme transport remain poorly understood. We identified HRG-1 as the first bona fide eukaryotic heme importer/transporter using C. elegans. The current study seeks to determine how HRG-1 paralogs function in heme transport. We show that CeHRG-6 specifically enhances the heme-dependent growth of the hem1 yeast strain and is therefore a potential heme transporter. HRG-6::GFP is expressed in the intestine, spermathecal valve and uterus. However, worms expressing the HRG6::GFP transgene reveal a growth defect at low heme concentrations, which is fully rescued with either the addition of heme or RNAi depletion of hrg-6, or hrg-4. Surprisingly, CeHRG-6 expression is attenuated by RNAi depletion of hrg-4. Our results suggest that CeHRG-6 may function in concert with CeHRG-4 to ensure heme uptake in C. elegans, and is plausibly regulated by CeHRG-4 under low heme conditions. MULTIPLE HRG-1 PARALOGS REGULATE HEME HOMEOSTASIS IN C. ELEGANS


For many years exports from India, in common with most other countries supplying tobaccos, were commonly found to be infested with the tobacco or cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne, on arrival in the United Kingdom. In most cases this resulted in re-fumigation before the shipments were allowed inside the cigarette factories. This paper deals with the methods used to achieve a zero-infestation status in very large annual tobacco exports, thus saving significant annual re-fumigation costs to the exporter, explains a fully tested and auditable storage and transport system guaranteeing freedom from tobacco beetles, and shows that insect free infestable commodities can be sourced from a tropical region. The main subjects covered include warehouse structural improvements and quality, hygiene schedules, flying insect proofing, tobacco beetle detection and trapping, timing of activities and the development of operational standards as Practical Protocols, which formed the basis of a complete manual for the export division of the company. The result after three years of development was an auditable system actually delivering very large tonnages of containerised beetle-free semi-processed tobacco exports.


Human saliva, which is supersaturated with respect to basic calcium phosphate salts, is stabilized primarily by the presence of two classes of phosphoproteins, statherin and the acidic proline-rich proteins (PRP). These molecules act by inhibiting both primary (spontaneous) precipitation of calcium phosphates in saliva and secondary (surface induced) precipitation of these salts onto dental enamel. The complete amino-acid sequences of several human PRP and the N-terminal sequence of PRP from saliva of M. arctoides have been determined. Similarly, the complete sequence of statherin from human and M. fascicularis saliva is known. We now report the complete structure of statherin from the saliva of the stump-tailed monkey, M. arctoides. The structure was determined by gas-phase sequencing of intact statherin, elucidating positions 1-26, and sequencing an unpurified mixture of tryptic peptides which elucidated the remaining positions through the C-terminus (residue 42) of the molecule. This latter degradation produced an eight amino-acid overlap with that of intact statherin and was confirmed by C-terminal analysis and amino-acid composition of native statherin. The complete amino-acid sequence of M. arctoides statherin is: NH2-Asp-PSer-PSer-Glu-Glu5-Lys-Phe-Leu-Arg-Arg10 -Leu-Arg-Arg-Phe-Asp15-Glu- Gly-Arg-Tyr-Gly20-Pro-Tyr-Gln-Pro-Phe25-Val-Pro-Pro- Pro29Leu30-Tyr- Pro-Gln-Pro-Tyr35-Gln-Pro-Tyr-Gln-Pro40-Gln-Tyr-COOH This sequence differs from human statherin at positions 11, 12, 15, 16, 18, 25-27, 38-40 and from M. fascicularis statherin at positions 26 and 28.


Finite element formulations based generally on classical beam theories such as Euler-Bernoulli or Timoshenko. Sometimes, these two formulations could be problematic expressed in terms of restrictions of Euler-Bernoulli beam theory, in case of thicker beams due to nonconsideration of transverse shear; phenomenon that is known as shear locking characterized the Timoshenko beam theory, in case of thin beams; problem of slow of convergence in regards to the element of Timoshenko beam. In responding to this problematic, a new beam finite element model is developed to study the static bending of functionally graded beams. The originality of this model lies in the use of a deformation approach with the consideration of a central node positioned in the middle of the beam. The degrees of freedom of this node are subsequently eliminated by the method of static condensation. In addition, this model is suitable for all linear structures regardless of L/h ratio. Functionally graded material beams have a smooth variation of material properties due to continuous change in micro structural details. The mechanical properties of the beam are assumed to vary continuously in the thickness direction by a simple power-law distribution in terms of the volume fractions of the constituents. A simply supported beam subjected to uniform load for different lengthto-thickness ratio has been chosen in the analysis. Finite element solutions obtained with the new finite element model are presented, and the obtained results are evaluated with the existing solutions to verify the validity of the present model. © 2020 IAU, Arak Branch. All rights reserved.


This paper introduces the Water Resources Research special section on Uncertainty Assessment in Surface and Subsurface Hydrology. Over the past years, hydrological literature has seen a large increase in the number of papers dealing with uncertainty. In this article, we present an overview of the different sources of uncertainty and the different types of problems associated with uncertainty assessment. It is argued here that clarity about which part of the large field of uncertainty research is addressed by a given research activity would already help guide discussions within the hydrological community. We present an introduction to the differences between the more classical frequentist approach to uncertainty and Bayesian approaches and between probabilistic and nonprobabilistic approaches. Bayesian approaches allow for inclusion of more subjective expert knowledge and would be more appropriate where less "hard" data are available. Any underlying assumptions need to be made very clear to the end user. Finally, a brief classification of the articles of the special section is presented.


Triggered by jolts of memory, this account by Antonio Candido revisits the atmosphere of artistic renewal that took hold in São Paulo city in the second half of the 1930s and which extended throughout subsequent decades. Recalling important exhibitions held in the city, Candido evokes the main players of the time and the social life enjoyed by the city's artists and intellectuals. In this text, a personal glance back in time coincides with a watershed in the aesthetic taste of the day.


OBJECTIVES
To assess whether obesity has any association with objectively measured physical activity levels in dogs.

METHODS
Thirty-nine dogs wore Actigraph GT3X accelerometers (Actigraph) for 7 consecutive days. Each dog was classified as ideal weight, overweight or obese using the 5-point body condition scoring system. Total volume of physical activity and time spent in sedentary behaviour, light-moderate intensity physical activity and vigorous intensity physical activity were compared between body condition categories.

RESULTS
Valid accelerometry data were returned for 35 of 39 dogs recruited. Eighteen dogs were classed as ideal weight, 9 as overweight and the remaining 8 as obese. All dogs spent a significant proportion of the day sedentary and obese dogs spent significantly less time in vigorous intensity physical activity than ideal weight dogs (7 ±3 minute/day versus 21 ±15 minute/day, P=0·01).

CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE
Obesity is associated with lower vigorous intensity physical activity in dogs, as is also thought to occur in humans. These preliminary findings will help inform a future, larger study and may also improve our understanding of the associations between obesity and physical activity in dogs.


In any flux-density limited sample of blazars, the distribution of the timescale modulation factor $\Delta t'/\Delta t$, which quantifies the change in observed timescales compared to the rest-frame ones due to redshift and relativistic compression follows an exponential distribution with a mean depending on the flux limit of the sample. In this work we produce the mathematical formalism that allows us to use this information in order to uncover the underlining rest-frame probability density function of measurable timescales of blazar jets. We extensively test our proposed methodology using a simulated FSRQ population with a 1.5 Jy flux-density limit in the simple case (where all blazars share the same intrinsic timescale), in order to identify limits of applicability and potential biases due to observational systematics and sample selection. We find that for monitoring with time intervals between observations longer than $\sim$30\% of the intrinsic timescale under investigation the method loses its ability to produce robust results. For time intervals of $\sim$3\% of the intrinsic timescale the error of the method is as low as 1\% in recovering the intrinsic rest-frame timescale. We applied our method to rotations of the optical polarization angle of blazars observed by RoboPol. We found that the intrinsic timescales of the longest-duration rotation event in each blazar follows a narrow distribution, well-described by a normal distribution with mean 87 days and standard deviation 5 days. We discuss possible interpretations of this result.


This article investigates the effect of age of first exposure and the quantity and quality of input to which non-native acquirers (L2ers) are exposed in their acquisition of grammatical gender in Dutch. Data from 103 English-speaking children, preteens and adults were analysed for gender agreement on definite determiners. It was observed that although most learners regularly overgeneralized the common gender definite determiner de to neuter nouns, there also existed child and adult L2ers who consistently produced the target neuter determiner het with these nouns (contra Carroll, 1989; Hawkins and Franceschina, 2004; Franceschina, 2005). Participants in all three groups produced het equally frequently with non-derived nouns as with diminutives, one of the few reliable morphophonological cues for neuter gender (compare Carroll, 1999). The present findings are evaluated in light of previous research (Hulk and Cornips, 2006a) suggesting that the quality of input to which L2ers are exposed may significantly affect their ability to proceed beyond the aforementioned stage of overgeneralization. Evidence for frequency effects and the observation that targetlike performance correlated with length of exposure suggests that quantity of input is a significant factor in the acquisition of Dutch gender. This is to be expected if the acquisition of gender is for a large part word-learning (Carroll, 1989; Montrul and Potowski, 2007)


This article investigates the potentials of satellite imagery for the mapping of air quality parameters. Concentrations of black particulates, sulphur dioxide and other pollutants measured in the city of Nantes with ground stations were compared to coincident Landsat TM6 data (thermal infrared band data). The black particulates concentration and the apparent temperature from satellite data are highly correlated. Finally, it is demonstrated that the spatial distribution of the black particulates can be mapped from remotely-sensed data. Possible improvements in precision of the mapping are discussed.


Plantains are produced in the mountainous region of Puerto Rico and are grown in highly weathered soils of low fertility and high degradation potential. Alternatives to mitigate soil degradation include the application of chicken manure and the placement of deleafed sigatoka-infected leaves on top of the soil (deleafing). The objective of this study was to determine the effect of chicken manure and deleafing on soil properties and plantain productivity. The experiment was conducted in a Dagüey soil series at the Agricultural Experiment Substation in Corozal, Puerto Rico. The treatments were: 1) 25 ton/ha chicken manure; 2) deleafing; 3) chicken manure + deleafing; and 4) control. Chicken manure was applied before planting, and leaves from deleafing were placed on the soil only in deleafing treatments. The application of chicken manure significantly increased soil aggregate stability, soil available phosphorous and nitrates. Also, plant growth and plantain yield increased with manure applications, and the days to flowering and harvest were reduced. There were no effects neither on soil bulk density, hydraulic conductivity nor on organic matter content. No significant difference in runoff volume was observed, but sediment load in runoff decreased. The deleafed leaves decreased soil penetration resistance.


way for these institutions to "pursu[e] new audiences and [ . . . ] cultivat[e] new legacies for themselves" (224). Due to continuing racist fears over Black male masculinity, however, Black men faced tremendous obstacles in being cast in any role that would place them in proximity to a white female. And while Black women had greater access to roles, they faced stereotyped casting in exotic roles and/or having cosmetics applied that lightened or hid their skin tone—all done, as Thurman notes, "for the sake of making the audience more comfortable" (230). The final chapter turns to the situation of Black classical musicians in the German Democratic Republic. While the GDR publicly declared itself an agent of antiracism, Thurman shows that the GDR's staging of race and Blackness was "capable of performing racism and antiracism" (257) at the same time. A particularly important case in point here is the East German career of singer Aubrey Pankey, who after being granted asylum by the GDR had a highly productive career there across the post-war era. He was also, Thurman notes, one of the few musicians vocal about calling out the racism of white Germans. Thus when in 1959 the singer was invited to perform the non-singing part of a Black preacher in a concert of American music, Pankey refused and wrote a scathing letter that eventually reached the culture ministry. Connected criticisms—e.g. that he should not sing so many lieder and instead showcase spirituals—dogged Pankey's career in the GDR, but he did not stop. "Pankey's performance of German lieder," concludes Thurman, "illuminate[s] two different levels of thinking at work: the socialist antiracism that the state promoted, and the ongoing depictions of African American identity rooted in the pre-1945 era" (269). Thurman's work is undoubtedly more than the sum of its parts. It contests and lays bare modes and manners of thinking that were not only formative within the era of her study but continue to structure our world today. The antimonial relationship between Blackness and white Germanness remains. Studies of Black music and musicians in Germany, for example, have until now focused almost exclusively on the more comfortable perspective of African American popular music (ragtime, jazz, rock-n-roll, and hip hop). That said, there are times at which this reviewer felt the significance and critical potential of Black popular music in the German-speaking context to have been unduly downplayed. Regardless, Thurman's study of Black musicians is an indispensable and foundational achievement. For Singing Like Germans is as much about the overdue recognition of Black classical musicians in German music history as it is about understanding, first, that the idea of German music exists to a large degree by dint of its exclusion of others, and second, that Black musicians have always been a part of this music. By listening to its sounds as well as its silences, Thurman's work represents a monumental and necessary step towards rewriting the history of German music.


20 large irrigation systems (average system size is 171.000 ha) mainly in Asia are scrutinized for multiple uses, functions and purposes. Most of them have been investigated by FAO as part of its program on irrigation modernization . The concept of Service Oriented Management (SOM) is central in the latest developed approach, called MASSCOTE [Mapping Systems and Services for Canal Operation Techniques]. This SOM approach on irrigation systems paves the way to identifying multiple uses and function s of water services within the gross command area of these systems. Analysis shows that only two systems out of 20 can be classified strictly as single use, all the other systems, are dealing, with varying degree, with multiple water uses, multiple functions, and/or externalities within their command area and therefore can be qualified as medium or high Multiple Uses of Water Services (MUS) system. Not many irrigation systems are designed/developed for providing service for multiple water uses, or are integrating MUS in absolute terms, but not many systems rank high in service oriented management either. However many systems (7) are already following practices related to MUS, only 6 systems have low MUS integration. It is found that the higher the degree of MUS the higher the integration of SOM in the management. High SOM level goes always with high integration of any other use when practiced in the command area. For some low SOM systems integration of MUSF in the management is still made at a similar low level as the one practice for crop water services.


Dr. Andrea N. Ofori-Boadu is an Assistant Professor of Construction and Construction Management with the Department of Built Environment within the College of Science and Technology at North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University (NCA & T). Her research interests are in bio-derived cement replacement materials, delivery of sustainable built environments, and professional identity development in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) students.


This is the second of a three volume series revising the entire Australian fauna of Oecophorinae and includes three major groups of genera – the Chezala Walker, Philobota Meyrick and Eulechria Meyrick groups. This revision covers 84 genera, comprising 854 named, and approximately 800 unnamed species with descriptions of male and female genitalia, morphology and detailed information on distribution, biology and host plant associations.


This paper describes a comprehensive combination of feature extraction methods for vision-based pedestrian detection in Intelligent Transportation Systems. The basic components of pedestrians are first located in the image and then combined with a support-vector-machine-based classifier. This poses the problem of pedestrian detection in real cluttered road images. Candidate pedestrians are located using a subtractive clustering attention mechanism based on stereo vision. A components-based learning approach is proposed in order to better deal with pedestrian variability, illumination conditions, partial occlusions, and rotations. Extensive comparisons have been carried out using different feature extraction methods as a key to image understanding in real traffic conditions. A database containing thousands of pedestrian samples extracted from real traffic images has been created for learning purposes at either daytime or nighttime. The results achieved to date show interesting conclusions that suggest a combination of feature extraction methods as an essential clue for enhanced detection performance


Bremsstrahlung yield curves were obtained for the photodisintegration reactions 16O(γ,n)15O and 31P(γ,2p)29Al. In both of these curves discontinuities in slope, called breaks, occur which can be used as calibration points for energy. The 17.3 Mev break in the oxygen yield was used to calibrate the energy of the Oklahoma synchrotron. A sharp break suitable for energy calibration occurs in the yield for the phosphorus reaction at 27.6 ± 0.4 Mev.


Amphotericin B has been an essential drug in the fight against leishmaniasis and fungal pathogens for decades, and has more recently gained attention for the very limited microbial resistance displayed against it. However, its toxicity has restricted its use to only the most severe cases of disease, and attempts to reduce these ill effects via formulation have had only minor success. Genetic engineering has allowed the development of superior amphotericin analogues, notably 16-descarboxyl-16-methyl amphotericin B (MeAmB), which shows a ten-fold reduction in toxicity in addition to a slight improvement in therapeutic activity. However, MeAmB is difficult to extract from its bacterial source and purify. Presented here is an alternative method of MeAmB purification. A biomimetic polymer with a high affinity for MeAmB was designed via computational modelling and synthesised. Prepared as a separation column, the polymer was able to retain the target MeAmB whilst allowing the removal of cell debris from the bacterial extract. Starting with a simple bacterial extract, the relatively simple process allowed the purification of an MeAmB salt complex at approximately 70% MeAmB, and likely higher purification from further extraction. The mean MeAmB recovery between the pre-purification extract sample and the final product was 81%. This is the first successful demonstration of extraction or purification of any amphotericin molecule with any polymeric material. The biomimetic polymer was additionally reusable and simple to fabricate, giving this technique significant advantages over traditional methods of extraction and purification of valuable compounds.


Climate change and biodiversity are interconnected, where climate change is reshaping global biodiversity. Unsustainable human activities that increase accumulation of greenhouse gases and hinder the natural balance of atmospheric greenhouse gases aggravate the effects of climate change on biodiversity. Rising seas-levels could inundate coastal habitats and stem the flow of nutrients from the ocean to the terrestrial ecosystems. Altered climate regimes directly affect wildlife, their behavior, migration, foraging, growth and reproduction. Climate change could disturb the dynamic equilibrium of terrestrial ecosystems by affecting ecosystem productivity, biomass production, hydrological balance, and trophic interactions. Further, climate change intensifies natural disasters and shifts in natural disturbance regimes. Such processes impose physiological and environmental stress on terrestrial ecosystems which adversely affect the ecosystem resistance and resilience. Moreover, warming atmosphere causes thermal optima to shift towards high latitudes and high altitudes. Terrestrial biota readily responds to temperature, where both flora and fauna alter distributions toward more favorable climatic conditions. Some climatic parameters that drive life history events, such as photoperiod, are fixed, while others, such as the timing of spring weather, are changing because of greenhouse gasses. The resulting mismatch between fixed and variable drivers of phenology, such as in mating, breeding, migration, hibernation, and post-hibernation activities, will disadvantage some species and benefit others. This will result in new ecosystems. Warming temperature favors biological activities of wildlife pathogens, since high temperature increases breeding rate, survival, hatching success and transmission of wildlife parasites and disease-causing agents. Climate change dissociates species interactions, mutual associations and a multitude of ecosystem functions. Ultimately, climate change predisposes native terrestrial wildlife to extinction and alters the functions and structure of terrestrial ecosystems. Biodiversity provides ecosystem services including the regulation and mitigation of the adverse impacts of climate change. Therefore, biodiversity conservation and terrestrial ecosystem management is critical to address climate change. Robust climate-oriented models with the use of GIS and remote sensing technology are needed to make effective predictions about the spatial and temporal effects of climate change. Key words: Global warming; Biodiversity; phenological changes; Range shifting; Wildlife diseases DOI: 10.4038/tapro.v2i1.2705 TAPROBANICA , April, 2010. Vol. 02, No. 01: pp. 30-47


Results from the first three applications of the three-dimensional, transient, single-phase version of the thermal-hydraulics computer code, COMMIX, are presented. The applications include an LMFBR outlet plenum, a horizontal pipe, and a 19-pin LMFBR hexagonal fuel assembly. Each case is described and the results presented. All three applications use liquid sodium as the fluid. The plenum and pipe analyses are transient, while the fuel assembly involves a steady-state analysis.


French phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty's early work on the nature of perception laid the groundwork for a revision of Cartesian ontology that has tremendous implications for architectural experience. In Merleau-Ponty's concept of Flesh, there is no longer a human subject dispassionately manipulating a world of objects, but a reciprocal intertwining between perceiver and perceived that takes place through a continual perceptual unfolding of phenomena. Perceptual experience precedes reflection, and we generally live in an open-ended, unselfconscious state focused on motility and orientation to task. Reflection reconfigures perceptual experience, bringing it into the personal realm and overlaying it with conceptual order.

In perceptual unfolding, "the real" continually manifests at each moment, replacing "what has been and portend[ing] what will be." Thus, things" firm being or determinacy is not their original state, but the end toward which their unfolding tends [1]. In this dynamic unfolding, we as perceivers de-center and intertwine with the perceived world, not intellectually possessing the sensible, but rather "dispossess[ing] ourselves" as "the mind goes out to wan-der" among perceived things.

To Merleau-Ponty, space is dynamic and interactive. In any environmental encounter, we are subsumed in the full-body experiences of moving, hearing, smelling, and feeling. Vision itself is trans-formed by the changing perspectives experienced through motion. Architectures spatiality and tactility exist in excess of vision, and we can examine our visual involvement with nature and architecture only when considering them engulfed within kinaesthetic and synaesthetic experience.

The responsive, ever-changing lived body is in rhythmic motion with stairs, interacting with wider horizons of meaning, architectural enframement, and our grounded axial orientation in space. The aware-ness of a "body schema" operating "below self-referential intentionality" as a preconscious, sub-personal process is a cognitive perspective supporting the thoughts of Merleau-Ponty. He claims that we do not perceive a neutral orthogonal space but inhabit spaces of meaning.

Merleau-Ponty's notion of depth is a charged intertwining of perceiver and perceived, a thickening of space springing from relationship. As the three following essays illustrate, the experience and expression of depth in a phenomenological context is a key concept for the creation of a perceptually responsive architecture that immerses the body in spatial depth.


Background: Smoking is a remarkable risk factor for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), aggravating Crohn's disease (CD) while having beneficial effects on ulcerative colitis (UC). We studied the effects of active and passive smoking in Dutch IBD patients. Methods: A questionnaire focusing on cigarette smoke exposure was sent to 820 IBD patients. Returned questionnaires were incorporated into a retrospective chart review, containing details about disease behavior and received therapy. Results: In all, 675 IBD patients (380 [56%] CD and 295 [44%] UC) responded. At diagnosis there were 52% smokers in CD, 41% in the general population, and 28% in UC. The number of present smokers in CD is lower than in the general population (26% versus 35%). No detrimental effects of active smoking on CD were observed, but passive smokers needed immunosuppressants and infliximab more frequently than nonpassive smokers. Active smoking had beneficial effects on UC, indicated by reduced rates of colectomy, primary sclerosing cholangitis, and backwash‐ileitis in active smokers compared to never smokers, and higher daily cigarette dose correlated with less extensive colitis and a lower need for therapy. Furthermore, smoking cessation after diagnosis was detrimental for UC patients, indicated by increased needs for steroids and hospitalizations for patients that stopped smoking after compared to before the diagnosis. Conclusions: Active smoking is a risk factor for CD, but does not affect the outcome; passive smoking is detrimental for the outcome of CD patients. In UC, active smoking shows dose‐dependent beneficial effects. Our data suggest that passive smoking is a novel risk factor for CD. (Inflamm Bowel Dis 2009)


Task adaptation from a set of run-time feedback information has become increasingly crucial for corpus-based natural language applications owing to the variant run-time environment. An order-based adaptive learning algorithm is proposed in this paper for task adaptation to best-fit the run-time environment in the application of Chinese homophone disambiguation. It shows which objects to be adjusted and how to adjust their probabilities. The proposed technique is significantly simplified and robust. Experimental results demonstrate the effects of the learning algorithm from generic domain to specific domain. This technique can be easily extended to varied language models and corpus-based applications.


This paper investigates the task of training discriminatively a phrase based SMT system with millions of features using the structured perceptron and the Margin Infused Relax Algorithm (MIRA), two popular online learning algorithms. We also compare two different update strategies, one where we update towards an oracle translation candidate extracted from an N-best list vs a more aggressive approach in which we update towards an oracle extracted prior to training using a minloss decoder. We evaluate our different training algorithms on the Czech-English translation task. Our results show that while both learning algorithms achieve similar results, with the perceptron converging more rapidly, the aggressive update strategy performs significantly worse than the more conservative strategy corroborating Liang et al. (2006)'s findings.


The Caulobacter polar surface structures (flagella, pili, and the deoxyribonucleic acid phage φCbK receptors), which are expressed at proximal sites of swarmer cells in a coordinate manner (Shapiro, Annu. Rev. Microbiol., 30:377-407, 1976) could be blocked by a single mutation. The mutant C. crescentus CB13 ple-801 did not form these surface structures when grown at 35°C. Upon shift down to 25°C, the mutant cells initiated the formation of the surface structures. When mitomycin C was added to the mutant culture upon shift down from 35 to 25°C, φCbK receptor formation was inhibited to a minimal level. Rifampin and chloramphenicol completely inhibited φCbK receptor formation when added to the mutant culture upon shift down. Deoxyribonucleic acid as well as ribonucleic acid and protein synthesis seem to be required for the formation of φCbK receptors. Penicillin V also inhibited φCbK receptor formation, indicating the involvement of cell wall synthesis. When the mutant CB13 ple-801 cells were shifted down briefly from 35 to 25°C and then shifted up to 35°C, flagella and φCbK receptors were formed even at 35°C to different extents depending on how long the cells were incubated at 25°C. This formation of the surface structures at 35°C was inhibited by rifampin. From these results, it appears that translation, assembly, or localization processes for the formation of the surface structures are not temperature sensitive at 35°C in the pleiotropic mutant CB13 ple-801. The syntheses of deoxyribonucleic acid and the cell wall do not appear to be temperature sensitive either, since the mutant grows normally at 35°C. It is suggested that there exists a regulatory step that commits the cells to initiate the synthesis of requisite ribonucleic acid for the formation of the polar surface structures.


Introduction Endothelium-derived nitric oxide (NO) is a critical regulator of vascular homeostasis, repair and regeneration. We recently demonstrated that reducing insulin-like growth factor-1 receptor (IGF-1R) numbers in the endothelium, thereby decreasing the proportion of insulin resistant hybrid receptors, enhances NO bioavailability and increases endothelial cell (EC) insulin sensitivity (Abbas*, Imrie*, Viswambharan* et al. Diabetes 2011;60:2169–78). Methods To examine the effect of increasing IGF-1R in EC we generated transgenic mice overexpressing the human IGF-1R in EC (human IGF-1R endothelium overexpressing mice (hIGFREO)). Glucose and insulin sensitivity were measured by tolerance testing and plasma insulin and IGF-1 levels were analysed by ELISA. The response of aortic rings to increasing doses of phenylepherine (PE), with and without L-NMMA (a NO inhibitor), were measured ex vivo in an organ bath. NO release, eNOS activity and phosphorylation of eNOS (all in response to insulin) were measured by DAF fluorescence, the conversion of L-arginine to L-citrulline, and western blotting respectively. Endothelial regeneration was investigated by guide-wire injury of the femoral artery with quantification of Evans-blue dyed denuded area and migration assays were performed in response to VEGF by H&E staining. Results Increased endothelial IGF-1R numbers had no effect on glucose tolerance or insulin sensitivity in hIGFREO mice compared to wild-type (wt) littermates and fasting plasma glucose, insulin and IGF-1 levels were similar. Aortae from hIGFREO mice were hypercontractile to phenylephrine (PE) (Emax wt =0.62±0.045 vs hIGFREO =0.91±0.045, p=0.036) and had blunted constrictor responses to LNMMA (Emax wt =106.1±30.10 vs hIGFREO =47.7±9.87, p=0.048) indicating reduced basal NO bioavailability. In response to insulin EC from hIGFREO had: reduced NO release (wt =4500±1000 vs hIGFREO =1500±700, p<0.05); reduced eNOS activation (wt =170%±25 vs hIGFREO 58%±3, p<0.04); and decreased phosphorylation of eNOS (p=0.027). After endothelium denuding arterial injury hIGFREO mice demonstrated accelerated endothelium regeneration (recovered area: wt =40.27%±5.7 vs hIGFREO =57.25%±2.3, p=0.003) and enhanced endothelial cell migration under control conditions and in response to VEGF (p<0.001). Conclusions Manipulation of IGF1-receptor numbers may represent a novel strategy for altering insulin sensitivity and vascular NO production. This data demonstrates uncoupling of endothelial NO bioavailability and vascular repair.


The goal of this analysis was to characterize risk factors of patients who develop critical illness-related corticosteroid insufficiency (CIRCI) after acute burn injury. This is a retrospective, single-center case-control descriptive study performed at a regional burn unit at an academic medical center. Patients are adults with acute burn injury who developed CIRCI (cases) and sex-, age-, and burn size-matched controls. Cases were compared with controls based on clinical characteristics. Conditional logistic regression analysis was used to establish potential risk factors for cortisol insufficiency. CIRCI was diagnosed in 23 of 1183 patients during the period reviewed (1.9%); 159 controls were matched. CIRCI patients demonstrated significantly greater length of stay (35.1 vs 65.8 days, P ⩽ .001), ventilator days (20.5 vs 33.2 days, P ⩽ .001), and mortality (2.5% vs 17.4%, P ⩽ .001) than controls. Patients with higher Charlson Comorbidity Index scores were more likely to develop cortisol insufficiency (odds ratio 1.58, 95% confidence interval 1.20–2.08), as were patients with inhalation injury (odds ratio 6.46, 95% confidence interval 2.01–20.72). Antibiotics and sedative/hypnotics analyzed by class were not significant. Multivariate conditional logistic regression analysis including Charlson Comorbidity Index and inhalation injury showed significant association of both dependent variables with CIRCI (pseudo-R2 = .32, P ⩽ .001). Preexisting comorbidities and inhalation injury provide significant risks for development of CIRCI after acute burn injury. Acute burn patients who develop CIRCI have higher mortality, length of stay, and ventilator days than matched controls.


This paper describes two low-complexity tools used for the new ITU-T recommendation G.711.0, the lossless coding of G.711 (A-law/μ-law logarithmic PCM) speech data. One is an algorithm for quantizing the PARCOR/reflection coefficients and the other is an estimation method for the optimal prediction order. Both tools are based on a criterion that minimizes the entropy of the prediction residual signals and can be implemented in a fixed-point low-complexity algorithm. G.711.0 with the developed practical tools will be widely used everywhere because it can losslessly reduce the data rate of G.711, the prevailing speech-coding technology.


Background and Aims Platelets and liver sinusoidal endothelial cells (LSEC) are both known to independently regulate liver regeneration. Our aim was to investigate the role of interactions between platelets and LSEC in a model of liver regeneration. Methods Platelet and LSEC interactions were analyzed in vivo by intravital confocal microscopy in partially hepatectomized mice. Then, highly purified primary mouse LSEC were co-incubated with increasing concentrations of resting platelets, activated platelets, or platelet releasates, and secretion of growth factors was measured. The active fraction of platelet releasates was characterized and its effect on hepatocyte proliferation assessed. Finally, IL-6 serum concentrations were measured in mice with varying platelet counts after partial hepatectomy. Results Following partial hepatectomy, in vivo adhesion of platelets to LSEC was significantly increased, when compared to sham-operated mice. Co-incubation of increasing numbers of resting or activated platelets with LSEC resulted in significantly enhanced IL-6 secretion by LSEC. IL-6 release by LSEC was the highest after incubation with ADP-activated platelets. The effect of platelet releasates on LSEC was similar to that seen with intact, whole platelets. Further, the effect of platelets on LSEC was mediated by a platelet factor, whose action was synergistically enhanced by ADP. ADP-activated platelet releasates increased proliferation of hepatocytes co-cultured with LSEC. Decreased platelet counts resulted in decreased serum levels of IL-6 after partial hepatectomy in vivo. Conclusion We show that platelets modulate LSEC to constitutively secrete IL-6, a key player in liver regeneration. After partial hepatectomy, platelets adhere to LSEC and serum IL-6 levels depend on platelet concentration. Interactions between platelets and LSEC modulate IL-6 release by LSEC and increase hepatocyte proliferation. This effect is dependent on ADP.


This brief paper intends to highlight the contradictions in which liberal democracy struggles within the process of globalisation, influenced as it is by the new connecting technologies. In particular, the difficult relationship between liberalism and democracy is analysed in light of the latest communitarist theories and new trends that interpret them socially.


Sorbent-impregnated polyurethane foam (SIP) disk passive air samplers were deployed alongside polyurethane foam (PUF) disk samplers at 20 sites during the 2009 spring sampling period of the Global Atmospheric Passive Sampling (GAPS) Network. The SIP disk samplers consisted of PUF disks impregnated with finely ground XAD-4 resin. The addition of XAD-4 greatly improves the sorptive capacity of the PUF disk samplers for more volatile and polar chemicals, and allows for linear-phase sampling over several weeks for these compounds. The SIP and PUF disks were analyzed for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), neutral polyfluoroalkyl compounds (PFCs), and ionic PFCs. Correlations between sampler-derived air concentrations for PCBs in the PUF and SIP disks samplers were significant (p < 0.05). The SIP disks effectively captured 4-50% more of the low molecular weight PCBs than the PUF disks samplers, and the PUF disks also had limitations for time-weighted passive sampling of neutral PFCs in air. Theoretical uptake curves for PUF disks showed rapid equilibration occurring in just hours for 8:2 FTOH and in a few days for MeFOSE, while theoretical curves for SIP disks showed superior sampling profiles for the neutral PFCs. PFCs were measured on SIP disks at all sites with 8:2 FTOH being the dominant compound detected and urban centers (n = 3) having the highest total neutral PFC concentrations ranging from 51.7 to 248 pg/m(3). A positive correlation was found between the FTOHs and FOSAs/FOSEs (p < 0.001, Pearson correlation) indicating similar contamination sources. The SIP disk appears to be a promising passive air sampler for measuring both emerging and legacy POPs on a global scale. They can also be used as a complement to the PUF disk sampler for capturing broader classes of compounds, or as a replacement for PUF disks entirely, especially when longer than quarterly deployment periods are desired.


The Taita Hills of south-east Kenya contain three endemic and threatened birds and many other endemic taxa. The area is combined with the Eastern Arc Mountains of Tanzania-Malawi in the latest analysis of centres of endemism in birds. Based on our recent fieldwork and historical records, we analyse the distribution and biogeographical affmities of forest birds within the Taita Hills. We find that the Taita Hills avifauna has been influenced as strongly by the Kenyan Highlands as by the Eastern Arc, especially in the high altitude moist forests. However, since the area is sufficiently differentiated to hold three endemic bird taxa, we feel that it merits consideration as a centre of endemism in its own right. Such recognition will hopefully foster the conservation of the Taita Hills forests and their unique species, before this biodiversity is lost.


AbstractFatigue cracking is the main form of structural damage in flexible pavements. Under the action of repeated vehicular loading, deterioration of the asphalt concrete materials in pavements caused by the accumulation and growth of the micro and macro cracks gradually takes place. The results of a laboratory study evaluating the fatigue properties of hot-mix asphalt (HMA) mixtures using indirect tensile fatigue test (ITFT) were investigated in this paper. The HMA mixtures containing 0%, 35%, 70%, and 100% of recycling concrete aggregate (RCA) were plant prepared with one source of aggregate, limestone, and one type of binder, 60/70-penetration grade. In this paper, it is shown that the use of recycled concrete produced by crushing demolished concrete elements can increase the efficiency of asphalt mixes, reduce primary production costs and prevent much fullness of the recycled materials in the environment. It was found that replacing up to 100% of the virgin aggregate by RCA improved the fatigue prope...


Powder ramjets are a kind of vehicle propulsion system with high specific impulse and efficiency. They provide significant benefits in terms of extended propulsion and thrust adjustment. The pursuit of a highly reactive fuel appropriate for powder ramjets is likely to stimulate advancements in innovative propulsion systems, which are crucial for deep space exploration and long-term space missions. This work presents experimental studies on the thermal oxidation and laser ignition performance of aluminum–magnesium–lithium powders at atmospheric pressure. TG-DSC curves of powders in three heating rates were obtained. The ignition processes and ignition delay times were recorded by a CO2 laser ignition experiment system at a laser power of 10~60 W. The results show that at a lower heating rate of 10 K/min, the powder's thermal hysteresis is less, and the powder energy released in stage I is more concentrated. However, the degree of heat release concentration approached a similar level at heating rates of 30 K and 50 K. The ignition delay time decreased as the laser flux density increased. When the laser flux density exceeds 80 W/cm2, the effect of laser power on the ignition delay time decreases. At atmospheric pressure, the mathematical relationship between ignition delay time and laser flux density is given. Finally, the powder ignition processes at different laser powers are represented graphically.


When assessing a rock formation for its suitability as a potential host rock for the disposal of radioactive waste, knowledge about its pore water chemical composition is essential. When the HADES Underground Research Laboratory became operational in the early 1980s, it offered the possibility of extracting pore water from Boom Clay. At the time, however, there was almost no experience of sampling pore water from deep clay formations. The low hydraulic conductivity of clays makes it difficult to extract pore water and the sampling process itself can induce changes in the observed chemical characteristics due to oxidation and re-equilibration with the ambient air.
 In the past decades, significant progress has been made in the techniques and protocols to sample and monitor pore water. The use of nitrogen instead of compressed air to drill boreholes and installing piezometers limited the disturbances induced by oxidation of the clay. Furthermore, an advanced system was developed to simultaneously sample pore water and dissolved gasses and measure some key geochemical parameters such as pH, pCO2 and Eh at in situ conditions. This has resulted in a more reliable characterization of the Boom Clay pore water and a better understanding of perturbing processes such as oxidation.


(1) Background: The emergency linked to the spread of COVID-19 in Italy has led to inevitable consequences on the penitentiary system. The risks of this emergency in prisons is mainly related to the problem of persistent overcrowding that makes social distancing difficult and the isolation of any contagion hard to arrange. The Department of Protection for Adults and Minors of the ASL Salerno Criminal Area has taken steps in order to perform screening operations and minimize the risks for prisoners and operators. (2) Methods: We conducted a two-phase observational study. In the first phase, we offered and then executed serum COVID-19 screening to all the convicted inmates. For those who had a doubtful or positive result, a swab was executed in the shortest time possible. In the second phase, a pharyngeal swab was offered and executed to all the police officers, the penitentiary administrative staff and the medical personnel working in the prison. (3) Results: In the first phase, we executed 485 COVID-19 blood tests on prisoners, 3 (0.61%) of which were positive. The three positive inmates underwent nasopharyngeal swabbing, which ultimately were negative. After that, we executed 276 nasopharyngeal swabs on the prison personnel, penitentiary administrative staff and medical personnel—all were negative. (4) Conclusion: All tests (blood tests and swabs) that were carried out on the prisoners and on the staff were negative for COVID-19. We believe that all prisons in Italy and in the world should take action to ensure preventive and control measures in order to safeguard the health of the prison population and of all the people who work there.


Abstract The seismic coupling and the spatiotemporal distribution of seismicity on the presumed rupture surface of the 365 A.D. M w 8.3±0.2 Crete event at the shallow plate contact of the Hellenic subduction zone (HSZ) southwest of Crete is investigated. The maximum cumulative average seismic slip ( U seis ) on the rupture surface is estimated for different time periods using historic and instrumental seismicity catalogs and utilizing a formula that incorporates empirical relations linking rupture area and average slip of an event to its moment magnitude ( M w ). Events above the completeness magnitude of the catalog are incorporated by summation while events below are taken account of by integrating over the extrapolated frequency–magnitude distribution using a truncated Gutenberg–Richter relation. Estimates of U seis for the time intervals 0–1999, 1500–1999, and 1964–2006 using historic and instrumental catalogs suggest a considerable seismic slip deficit when compared with the total slip expected from the temporal extrapolation of geodetic measurements. This suggests a recent weakly coupled plate contact and a total slip predominantly accommodated aseismically despite the 365 A.D. event. High seismic activity up to magnitudes of about M w  6 is found accompanying the aseismic slip at the plate contact. Investigations of the seismicity distribution hint at a spatial variability of the seismic energy release in the western forearc of the HSZ. Activity in the proximity of the 365 A.D. epicenter is observed to be an order of magnitude larger than toward the northwest between Crete and Peloponnese. This spatiotemporal variability of the seismic energy release and seismic coupling suggests that subregions of the plate contact undergo alternating periods of locking followed by intermediate magnitude events and aseismic sliding. Thus, the behavior of significant portions of the plate contact southwest of Crete may be described as conditionally stable.


In the present investigation studies was carried out ontheIsolation, Identification and Enzyme activity of bioagent Pseudomonas fluorescens used for controlling Brown spot disease of Rice caused by Helminthosporium oryzae (Breda de Haan).This is a fungal pathogen causing major disease that causes enormous losses in grain yield (upto 90%) particularly when leaf spotting phase assumes epiphytotic proportions.


conveniently .given in an appendix but other information is scattered throughout the book, e.g. biochemical measurement appears in 'adult nutritional diagnosis' (Christiakis), details of commercially available products such as tube feeds appear in 'Home management of nutrition for patients receiving cancer therapy' (Ponder and Van Slyke), recommended dietary allowances in another chapter: and so on. Clinically some articles give only limited guidance on how to manage an individual patient although a few such as nutritional aspects of obesity (Bray) are very good. It is difficult to know how nutrition should be presented to doctors this book illustrates the difficulty. I suspect that the articles when read individually proved interesting as a textbook of clinical nutrition they are less successful. BRIAN A WHARTON Consultant Paediatrician. Sorrento & Birmingham. Maternity Hospitals


Typical cases of pollen allergen (hayfever, allergic asthma), together with isolated non-respiratory "equivalent" manifestations (urticaria, eye conditions, headache, etc.), are easy to detect on the basis of skin tests and the clinical history. Such manifestations may also occur in "false pollen allergy", related in most instances by atmospheric moulds (Dematiaceae), sometimes by house dust or dermatophytes (Candida Albicans, Trichophyton sp), by food or by a bacterial infection or allergy. A combination of pollen allergy and false pollen allergy is common. In cases of false pollen allergy the proportion of negative skin reactions would appear to worsen with the repeated use of prolonged action corticosteroid injections, given on a preventive basis. Similarly, these disorders, initially seasonal, change to more chronic manifestations throughout the year. Desensitization with aqueous extracts of allergens ensured the most complete protection against the causes of pollen allergy and false pollen allergy. Allergen extracts percipitated with alun (semi-retard extracts), more effective than tyrosine adsorbates (Pollinex) have the advantage of offering more rapid treatment without the risk of dangerous reactions. The best therapeutic results have obtained over the course of the last ten years, by the authors, combining on each occasion a semi-retard allergen with an aqueous allergen, thereby acquiring the benefit of the adjuvant effect of the first, in a course of ten to fifteen injections per year. Non specific therapy (antihistamines, cromoglycate, theophylline, etc.) retains all of its symptomatic indications. Oral corticosteroid therapy is better metabolized in the organism and has less of a disturbing effect on the circadian rhythm of cortisol, and is hence to be preferred to injections of delyaed action corticosteroid suspensions.


Retroperitoneoscopic procedures were already being performed in the late 1970s. The clinical breakthrough of retroperitoneoscopy, however, was initiated in 1992 by the balloon-dissecting technique of Gaur, together with the experience gained with transperitoneal laparoscopic procedures in the upper retroperitoneum. We have modified the balloon-dissecting technique into a hydraulic video-optically controlled balloon dissection of the retroperitoneal space, and this procedure was recently further simplified. From December 1992 to December 1995 we performed 100 retroperitoneoscopic procedures in 98 patients (aged 4-82 years). Twenty-two patients had undergone previous abdominal surgery, 16 patients had been operated on for kidney and ureter problems. We performed 28 simple procedures (6 renal biopsies, 17 renal cyst resections, 4 ureterocutaneostomies, 1 foreign body retrieval), 65 difficult operations (47 nephrectomies, 5 nephroureterectomies, 5 nephropexies, 4 ureterolithotomies, 2x ureterolysis). There were also 9 complicated cases (5 heminephrectomies, 2 tumor nephrectomies, 2 dismembered pyeloplasties). Operating time, complications and conversion rate to open surgery mainly depended on the difficulty of the procedure and the personal learning curve, resulting in 50-90 min, 0% and 3.8%, respectively, for an easy retroperitoneoscopy, 90-210 min, 12% and 9.2% respectively for a difficult operation, and 180-390 min, 22% and 11%, respectively, for a very difficult procedure. Excluding the 17 patients with complications or conversion (unclear anatomy, extremely difficult dissection), the mean postoperative need for analgesics was 0.7 vials, and the mean hospital stay was 4.7 days. We have now passed most of our learning curve, and retroperitoneoscopy has become a standardized procedure that is a part of the training program for the experienced urologist.


The second edition of the best-selling textbook US politics today has been rewritten to Incorporate coverage of events that have taken place since 1999, offering a new and updated introduction to contemporary US government and politics. It examines the 2000 presidential election and recent Supreme Court rulings as well as the ways in which the war on terror' has affected the character of the political process. There is also a new chapter that assesses the most important political issues facing the US today.


The cause of the inflection in the course of the carboxylase reaction and the changes in the functioning form of spinach ribulose bisphosphate carboxylase (RuBisCO) during the reaction were elucidated by relating the activity to the protein conformation of RuBisCO using a fluorescence probe, 2-p-toluidinylnaphthalene sulfonate. The activity of RuBisCO in the linear phase was 50 to 60% of that in the initial burst at 0.5 to 1.0 mM ribulose bisphosphate (RuBP) and 65 to 80% at 2 to 5 mM RuBP. The amount and the progress of the decrease in the activity during the reaction had a close relationship to a change in the protein conformation of RuBisCO. The enzyme, the substrate binding sites of which were masked beforehand with carboxyarabinitol bisphosphate, still showed a change of its protein conformation upon addition of RuBP, suggesting that RuBisCO has two (substrate and regulatory) RuBP-binding sites per RuBisCO promoter. RuBisCO required over 2 mM RuBP for binding on the regulatory sites. Both sites also bound 6-phosphogluconate. When both sites were masked with 6-phosphogluconate beforehand, the course of the subsequent carboxylase reaction was linear with time. From these results, I propose that the inflection in the course of the reaction of spinach RuBisCO is a hysteretic response of the enzyme to RuBP bound to both substrate and regulatory sites.


This study explored the validity of person judgements by targets and their acquaintances ('informants') in longitudinally predicting a broad range of psychologically meaningful life experiences. Judgements were gathered from four sources (targets, N = 189; and three types of informants, N = 1352), and their relative predictive validity was compared for three types of judgement: direct predictions of future life experiences (e.g. number of new friendships), broad (Big Five) domains (e.g. extraversion), and narrower personality nuances (e.g. sociable). Approximately 1 year later, the targets' actual life experiences were retrospectively assessed by the targets, and by informants nominated by the targets (TNI). Overall, we found evidence for predictive validity across predictor sources and types. Direct predictions by targets were by far the most valid, followed by TNI. Personality–based predictions by targets and TNI had substantial but lower validity. Domain–based predictions were less valid than nuance–based predictions. Overall, informants with lower 'liking' and 'knowing' towards targets made less valid predictions. Person–centred multilevel analyses showed both considerable validity of direct predictions (which increased with knowing) and positivity bias (which increased with liking). Taken together, given the relatively high methodological rigour of the study, these results provide an especially realistic picture of the rather moderate predictive power of person judgements regarding future life experiences and corroborate the common practice of obtaining such judgements from targets and their close acquaintances. © 2020 The Authors. European Journal of Personality published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of European Association of Personality Psychology


Internal Friction of hot-pressed, pressureless sintered and HIPped silicon nitride was investigated at elevated temperatures by the resonance method. The temperatures at which internal friction increased abruptly corresponded to the temperatures at which Young's modulus and flexural strength decreased. The temperature dependence of internal friction in hot pressed silicon nitride shows a maximum at 1080°C, which disappeared by oxidation at 1080° and 1160°C. The decrease in internal friction was considered to decrease the creep deformation. The internal friction of HIPped silicon nitride increased exponentially with increasing temperature. This increase was considered as the background increase of the internal friction in every silicon nitride.