An investigation is made of the performance of algebraic multigrid (AMG) solvers for the discrete Stokes problem. The saddle‐point formulations are based on the direct enforcement of the fundamental conservation laws in discrete spaces and subsequently stabilised with the aid of a regular splitting of the diffusion operator. AMG solvers based on an independent coarsening of the fields (the unknown approach) and also on a common coarsening (the point approach) are investigated. Both mixed‐order and equal‐order interpolations are considered. The dependence of convergence on the 'degree of coarsening' is investigated by studying the 'convergence versus coarsening' characteristics and their variation with mesh resolution. They show a consistency in shape, which reveals two distinct performance zones, one convergent the other divergent. The transition from the convergent to the divergent zones is discontinuous and occurs at a critical coarsening factor that is largely mesh independent. It signals a breakdown in the stability of the smoothing at the coarser levels of coarse grid approximation. It is shown that the previously observed, mesh‐dependent, scaling of convergence factors, which had suggested inconsistencies in the coarse grid approximation, is not a reliable marker of inconsistency. It is an indirect consequence of the breakdown in the stability of smoothing. For stable smoothing, reduction factors are shown to be largely mesh independent. The ability of mixed‐order interpolation to permit stable smoothing and therefore to deliver mesh‐independent convergence is explained. Two expedient options are suggested for obtaining mesh‐independent convergence for those AMG codes that are based on an equal‐order interpolation. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Both a condition resembling acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) in humans and an unusual number of certain malignant neoplasms have occurred spontaneously in two primate colonies on opposite coasts of the United States. While the relationship between what some are calling simian AIDS and the human disease is unknown, it's possible that a primate model for human AIDS soon may be available. The outbreaks occurred in several macaque monkey species at both the New England Primate Research Center in Southborough, Mass, and the California Primate Research Center at the University of California, Davis. The primary species affected were cyclopis monkeys (Macaca cyclopis) at the New England center and rhesus monkeys (Macaca mulatta) at the California center. Most of the monkeys were being raised for future research purposes. The investigators discounted any effects of treatments on those currently being used in research protocols. "In recent years it became apparent that there were


Subjects in elementary school require the activeness of Civics learning in Civics subject matter, students are expected to think critically and take advantage of the past to understand the present and the future. So we need a learning method that can present learning materials to students in the classroom, either individually or classically so that lessons can be learned, can be absorbed, can be reached, and utilized well by students. The PQ4R method is one that can be used to assist students in understanding learning materials to achieve learning objectives. This study aims to determine the improvement of Civics learning outcomes for the youth oath material through the PQ4R learning method. Collecting data used by researchers using observation, interviews, tests and documentation. This research is a classroom action research using the Kemmis & Mc Taggart model. The subjects of this study were third grade students of SDN Slawu 02 Jember. Results Based on the research, it shows that the use of the PQ4R learning method can improve Civics learning outcomes which are marked by student learning mastery which increases significantly between the results at the beginning or pre-cycle and in cycle 1 and cycle 2.


Abstract Background: A high prevalence of adolescent dating violence (ADV) has been documented in recent years. However, the majority of ADV studies have been conducted in North America and moreover, ADV studies have primarily focused on high school or college populations. Objective: To investigate victimization and perpetration of ADV and related gender differences in a sample of Danish seventh-grade students. Method: In total, 2934 seventh-grade students (M = 3.5, SD = 0.5) filled out questionnaires at school. Results: The prevalence of victimization of emotional, physical and sexual ADV was 32.2%, 11.2% and 10.6%, and the prevalence of perpetration of emotional, physical and sexual ADV was 20.6%, 6% and 2.1%. One out of five students reported both victimization and perpetration of one of the three ADV types and 14.3% and 6% reported multiple forms of ADV victimization and perpetration respectively. Moreover, gender differences in the prevalence of ADV and the co-occurrence of ADV victimization and perpetration were identified. Conclusion: The present study highlights that a large proportion of Danish seventh-grade students are experiencing ADV, and that ADV preventive programs are relevant already in early adolescence. Based on the high proportion of students reporting co-occurrence of victimization and perpetration experiences, comprehensive preventive programs that focus on both victimization and perpetration experiences and the transmission of violence are recommended.


The EEG is a neurological diagnostic tool with high temporal resolution. However, when solving the EEG inverse problem, its localization accuracy is limited because of noise in measurements and available uncertainties of the conductivity value in the forward model evaluations. This paper proposes the reduced conductivity dependence (RCD) method for decreasing the localization error in EEG source analysis by limiting the propagation of the uncertain conductivity values to the solutions of the inverse problem. We redefine the traditional EEG cost function, and in contrast to previous approaches, we introduce a selection procedure of the EEG potentials. The selected potentials are, as low as possible, affected by the uncertainties of the conductivity when solving the inverse problem. We validate the methodology on the widely used three-shell spherical head model with a single electrical dipole and multiple dipoles as source model. The proposed RCD method enhances the source localization accuracy with a factor ranging between 2 and 4, dependent on the dipole location and the noise in measurements.


Fast data synchronization in wireless ad hoc networks is a challenging and critical problem. It is fundamental for efficient information fusion, control and decision in distributed systems. Previously, distributed data synchronization was mainly studied in the latency-tolerant distributed databases, or assuming the general model of wireless ad hoc networks. In this paper, we propose a pair of linear network coding (NC) and all-to-all broadcast based fast data synchronization algorithms for wireless ad hoc networks whose topology is under operator's control. We consider both data block selection and transmitting node selection for exploiting the benefits of NC. Instead of using the store-and-forward protocol as in the conventional uncoded approach, a compute-and-forward protocol is used in our scheme, which improves the transmission efficiency. The performance of the proposed algorithms is studied under different values of network size, network connection degree, and per-hop packet error rate. Simulation results demonstrate that our algorithms significantly reduce the times slots used for data synchronization compared with the baseline that does not use NC.


HERE are six graceful essays written at the end of a long life. Ferdinand Schevill was born the year after Confederation; he died as 1954 drew to its close. The obituary notices said he had been trained in the German seminar, at Freiburg, and that he had been one of the pioneers of rigorous graduate discipline in the United States. Possibly this explains the warmth with which he treats Ranke, and why he seeks once more to rescue him from the obloquy attaching to the all too famous phrase with which his mind and art became identified. Art, because the artistry of the historian is the essential theme running through everything Schevill has to say about Thucydides, St. Augustine, Machiavelli, Voltaire, Ranke, and Henry Adams. For him there is no doubt that history is literature, and he insists on Ranke's having experienced his greatest satisfaction i "the aesthetic ontemplation of the pictured events his research placed before his eyes." Perhaps on this score alone Schevill damns Machiavelli as historian (he has also a number of complimentary things to say about him) to the point where one might wonder why he chose to include him here at all. For Thucydides, by contrast, he shows great sympathy and even a defensiye attitude regarding sometimes less than exacting methods (by the supposed standards of the twentieth century). Voltaire, too, is praised for the primary contribution of restoring history to its rightful place as a branch of literature. And finally Henry Adams, while being rapped across the knuckles again for that outlandish mishmash of science and prophecy with which he fiendishly tormented lesser contemporaries, i placed among the immortal historians (indeed, just below Gibbon) for the finished artistry of his great works. Some scattered notes on historiography and two brief excerpts from his History of Florence and The Great Elector round out this statement of Schevill's views on written history. For that also is what this little book is about. History as literature, a combination f scholarship and philosophy, is the insistent theme. It is hardly novel--no more so than the tentative relativist position he suggests--but none the worse for being recalled in so pleasant


The delimiting membranes of isolated autophagosomes from rat liver had extremely few transmembrane proteins, as indicated by the paucity of intramembrane particles in freeze-fracture images (about 20 particles/microm2, whereas isolated lysosomes had about 2000 particles/microm2). The autophagosomes also appeared to lack peripheral surface membrane proteins, since attempts to surface-biotinylate intact autophagosomes only yielded biotinylation of proteins from contaminating damaged mitochondria. All the membrane layers of multilamellar autophagosomes were equally particle-poor; the same was true of the autophagosome-forming, sequestering membrane complexes (phagophores). Isolated amphisomes (vacuoles formed by fusion between autophagosomes and endosomes) had more intramembrane particles than the autophagosomes (about 90 particles/microm2), and freeze-fracture images of these organelles frequently showed particle-rich endosomes fusing with particle-poor or particle-free autophagosomes. The appearence of multiple particle clusters suggested that a single autophagic vacuole could undergo multiple fusions with endosomes. Only the outermost membrane of bi- or multilamellar autophagic vacuoles appeared to engage in such fusions.


Five new glycosides, which are classified into two bisdesmosidic pseudofurostanol glycosides (1, 2), two new ergostanol glycosides (3, 4), and a new phenolic glycoside (5), were isolated from the rhizomes of Tacca chantrieri. The structures of 1-5 were determined on the basis of extensive spectroscopic analysis, including that of two-dimensional (2D) NMR data, as well as hydrolytic cleavage followed by spectroscopic and chromatographic analyses.


Economic performance of countries is closely related to corporate governance systems of companies. For this reason, economic developments are affected by a positive or negative relationship according to the system's practices. The companies which have weak corporate governance principles can cause narrow operation in capital markets of countries. At the end of this situation, the country's economy is influenced adversely. If enterprises have a strong governance, the companies will provide more accurate investments with external and internal financial resources. Following this, it helps to achieve more efficient economic operation for both stakeholders and management staff. As a result of that, capital market operations occur in more comprehensive and more powerful manner and the country's economy is affected positively. In this context, article tells the importance of corporate governance in financial communication while mentioning the kinds of implementing in developing and developed countries and it investigates the increased effect on global competition.


Financial management, especially in the reception area of Revenue requires a Revenue Information System, so the performance of local governments in managing local revenue receipts, calculation and preparation of reports and evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency of local revenue can be well presented, accurate, timely and can be utilized directly by the user. The purpose of this study was to design and build Revenue Information System (SIPAD) with the evaluation system on Sangihe District Revenue Office. Revenue consists of Local Taxes, Levies, the Company's results and outcomes of management kekeyaan area demarcated area, and Other legitimate PAD. For the evaluation process, conducted evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency in order to measure the performance of the management of PAD. In the modeling system used Unified Modeling Language (UML) as a standard modeling language. The study design was Revenue Information System Internal Revenue Service that are useful in order to improve local government performance in managing the process of acceptance of the PAD, the PAD and be able to present a report evaluating the effectiveness and efficiency of the management of PAD. The calculations evaluate the effectiveness of the PAD District in 2011 for Sangihe 83.16 percent effective criteria for evaluating the results of an efficiency of 2.92 percent, with a highly efficient criteria. SIPAD may be an alternative in the management of PAD District Sangihe acceptance.
Keywords: Information Systems Revenue, Revenue, Evaluation of the effectiveness and efficiency


We investigate the recently introduced notion of smooth Renyi entropy for the case of ergodic information sources, thereby generalizing previous work which concentrated mainly on i.i.d. information sources. We will actually consider ergodic quantum information sources, of which ergodic classical information sources are a special case. We prove that the average smooth Renyi entropy rate will approach the entropy rate of a stationary, ergodic source, which is equal to the Shannon entropy rate for a classical source and the von Neumann entropy rate for a quantum source.


The objective of this work was to define the most suitable selective strategy for the simultaneous increment of yield components of green maize, by comparing three selection indexes weighted by economic weights and by the REML/BLUP method, in the assessment of predicted genetic gains for traits of interest. An experiment with 75 topcross hybrids from partially inbred S1 lines of green maize was carried out in Jatai, in the state of Goias, Brazil, using a randomized complete block design, with four replicates. The following yield traits were evaluated: straw ears and commercial ears, grain mass, ear length, ear diameter, and number of ear rows. The selection indexes of Smith and Hazel, Williams, and Mulamba & Mock were applied and weighted for four economic weights (1, CVg, CVg/CVe, and h²). Among the tested selection indexes, those of Williams and Mulamba & Mock are the best-fit ones for the selection of topcross hybrids of green maize, as they provide positive and more balanced selection gains for all evaluated traits. The REML/BLUP method shows better predicted genetic gains than those achieved by the three selection indexes, besides being efficient for the selection of topcross hybrids of green maize.


In this paper we prove some coincidence theorems for two hybrid pairs satisfying an implicit contractive condition in a metric space which is not necessarily compact and for (possibly) non continuous mappings. The class of implicit relations used here is different from the one considered in [9]. Our work provides generalizations of the main results of [2], [3] and [4]. Also our work may be considered as a natural continuation of the papers [2], [3], [4] and [9].


Foreword Peter Brown Introduction Laura Westra Part 1: The Role and History of Integrity (From Grave Problems to Possible Reversals) Introduction Laura Westra 1. Why the Global Ecological Integrity Group? The Rise, Decline and Rediscovery of a Radical Concept Jack Manno 2. Environmental Norms in the Courtroom: The Case of Ecological Integrity in Canada's National Parks Shaun Fluker 3. The Future of the Common Heritage of Mankind: Intersections with the Public Trust Doctrine Prue Taylor 4. The Exploitation of Genetic Resources in Areas Beyond National Jurisdiction Tullio Scovazzi 5. Ecological Integrity in European Law? Agnes Michelot Part 2: Ecological Integrity and Basic Rights: The Interface Introduction Agnes Michelot 6. Lessons Learned From the Climate Change Disinformation Campaign About Responsible Scientific Skepticism Don Brown 7. Granting Development consent by specific legislative act: Choice to circumvent public participation and judicial control? The European Perspective Vicky Karageorgou 8. The Principles of Integration and Interrelationships in International Law related to Sustainable Development: Sobering Lessons from EU Law Owen McIntyre 9. Thinking about the Future of Global Water Governance Joe Dellapenna 10. How the UN Agencies contribute to the needs of the world. Focus on Gender Yuliya Lyamzina Part 3: From Disintegrity to Ethical Concern: Cases and Issues Introduction Prue Taylor 11. Key actors of the red sludge disaster in Hungary Janos Toth 12. Dollars and Dreams: Legal Aspirations and Report Cards in the Murray Darling Basin of Australia Janice Gray Part 4: Integrity and the Economy Introduction Prue Taylor 13. How Regulation of Finance Got it Wrong and How it Still Does Giovanni Ferri 14. Enhancing Global Regulation: Exploring Alternative Financial Machinery Michelle Gallant 15. Moving Forward with Planetary Boundaries and Degrowth Geoff Garver 16. The virtuous circle of Degrowth and Ecological Debt: a new paradigm for Public International Law? Noemie Candiago 17. Tobacco Wars, Analogies and Standards of Review in International Investment Arbitration Valentina Vadi Part 5: Moving Forward: New Approaches & Concluding Thoughts Introduction Beyond Collapse: Claiming the Holistic Integrity of Planet Earth J. Ronald Engel 18. The Project of Earth Democracy Peter Burdon 19. Dreaming the Universe: Contending Stories of Our Place in the Cosmos Joan Gibb Engel 20. Occupy Wall Street: The History and Potential of a Movement to Make a New World Possible Sheila Collins 21. Confronting Ecological and Economic Collapse: Ecological Integrity for Law, Policy and Human Rights: The Legacy of Rio+20 Saving the Commons from the Market Klaus Bosselmann 22. Confronting Collapse: Human Cognition and the Challenge for Economics William Rees Index


Flag-transitivly automorphism groups of Steiner 5-designs were studied and the theorem was proved. Let D(X, B, I) be a non-trivial Steiner 5-design, G≤Aut(D) be flag-transitive, if G is almost a simple type, then Soc(G) is not Suzuki group Sz(q)


This paper presents the changes caused by macroabrasion of teeth on skeletal remains found in tomb No 4 in the west necropolis of the archeological site Kopila near Blato on the island of Korčula. The site archeologically dates back to the Late Iron Age, when the island was inhabited by the Illyrians. The aim of this study was to assess the dental age of the buried individuals at death and determine the type of their diet, which could give us a preliminary insight into the socio-economic standard of the inhabitants of the settlement. The analyzed sample is part of the collection of excavated skeletal remains kept in the Vela Luka Cultural Center on the island of Korčula. 284 permanent teeth, 19 fragments of the maxilla and 20 fragments of the mandible were found in the tomb, which were classified into 32 individuals and by sex. Teeth were analyzed by metric and non-metric methods of determining dental status in order to assess the dental age at the time of death and the diet of the inhabitants. The dental age of individuals was determined by the Lovejoy method and the degree of tooth wear by the Smith-Knight method. The analysis of the stable isotope 14C determined the exact time of death of the analyzed individuals. The tooth wear changes were very pronounced and present on 92.9% of teeth, equally on incisors and molars (p = 0.236). There is no significant gender difference (p > 0.05 for all teeth and jaw parts). There was no difference in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the mandible and maxilla (t = -0.266, p = 0.791), nor in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the maxilla right and left (t = -0.392, p = 0.702) or in the degree of tooth wear of the teeth of the mandible right and left (t = -0.889, p = 0.390). The average age of the analyzed population sample was 35.6 (±3.1) years. They were buried between 360-40 BC. Tooth wear changes observed on the analyzed teeth indicate a diet rich in hard, weakly cariogenic food with particles that were probably of inorganic origin, which caused an increased wear of tooth structures. The population was sedentary, agricultural type and the life expectancy was normal for the Late Iron Age. Besides, their socio-economic status was good. The age at the time of their death was between 30 and 40 years. Further studies should include more accurate and standardized methods for assessing the condition.


The authors report the observation of the 1S-2S two-photon transition in atomic hydrogen in an atomic beam, excited by light from a narrow-band continuous-wave laser. The excitation takes place in a collision-free environment and detection of the resonance is carried out by Stark-quenching the metastable atoms some distance from the interaction region. This approach removes the limitations of cell excitation employed in previous experiments with continuous-wave lasers, and should allow the full precision of modern tunable laser techniques to be applied to the 1S-2S transition. It also gives a new method for producing a collimated beam of metastable atoms which has particular applications to a variety of future experiments with cold hydrogen.


In recent years, a new market trading in cryptocurrencies and instruments based on them has been formed. The market of this paper The Internet, as a result of the gradual development of information technologies, has become an advanced communicative means resulting in totally new communication forms. At this stage of development, Internet technologies promote social growing-up of a person in communities. At this point in the history of the Internet, we face the problem of studying the social aspect of virtual reality. Participants in social and political processes have shown their interest in investigating the Internet phenomenon, including its role in different spheres of public life, since the moment of its formation. Such communicative means as video blogs are of key importance. The urgency of this issue is multifaceted. Thus, the article presents results of the content analysis of the target audience feedback referred to video blog advertising. The findings enable to optimize advertisers' use of such channel of promotion as video blogs.


Road region is an important information for guidance of autonomous vehicles or robots. The goal of this research is to develop robust monocular algorithm suitable for region based road detection. This paper deals with a problem, how to estimate probability density function (pdf) of road region appearing in sequential images. The key idea is to construct pdf from temporal sequence of observations throughout the image sequence, where pdf has color components and spatial coordinates as its variables. The problem of pdf estimation was formulated in terms of Bayesian filtering, and sequential Monte-Carlo method was adopted as a tool to solve the problem. The proposed method was evaluated on real image sequences, and effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated.


This article examines Allyson Mitchell's activist art projects at the Gladstone Hotel in the district of Queen Street West in Toronto, Ontario. Whereas current writ- ings focus on the lesbian feminist aesthetics underlying Mitchell's installations and performances, I provide a geopolitical analysis of her critical cultural practices. I suggest that her collaboration with creative communities at the Gladstone Hotel contributes to urban regeneration in the neighbourhood of Queen Street West. These city-renewal schemes result in the eviction of people living in poverty who cannot afford the rental increases in gentrified districts. In analyzing the socio- spatial processes surrounding Mitchell's art, I argue that she disrupts gender and sexual ideologies through transgressive feminist politics. While she coordinates cultural-activist projects in politicized urban space, she re-articulates practices of marginalization and disenfranchisement in ways that both enable and disenable geographies of power and resistance.


Abstract: Research on anuran parasites often focuses on the description and identification of parasites and demonstrating that parasitic infection can have deleterious effects on the health of amphibians. There is comparatively little research on how parasitism influences evolutionary dynamics such as sexual selection. Here, we explore anuran blood parasites with a focus on parasite-mediated sexual selection. The Hamilton–Zuk hypothesis posits that parasite–host coevolution drives sexual ornamentation of hosts, and that the degree of ornament expression honestly signals heritable parasite resistance. Although the Hamilton–Zuk hypothesis has received support in a number of animal taxa, it has received little attention in amphibians. Neotropical Yellow Toads (Incilius luetkenii) are sexually dichromatic toads with an unusual sexual ornament: males turn from cryptic brown to bright lemon yellow for a very short period during the brief breeding season. In this study, we identify blood parasites in male Neotropical Yellow Toads, and we investigate one component of the Hamilton–Zuk hypothesis by comparing skin color and body condition to blood parasite levels. We found four types of parasites. Apicomplexa and frog erythrocytic virus were the most common, infecting 73% and 46% of toads, respectively, whereas Nematoda and bacteria were found in 27% and 36% of toads, respectively. We found negative relationships between parasites and male color: males infected with fewer Apicomplexa and Nematoda had higher yellow saturation, and males with fewer Nematoda had longer-wavelength hue. In contrast, we found one positive relationship between parasites and male color: males infected with higher levels of frog erythrocytic virus had higher brightness. Our results suggest that parasites may influence sexual traits in this species, but that the relationship is complex. This research contributes to our understanding of amphibian host–parasite coevolution by demonstrating a relationship between parasites and host coloration.


The recent increases in the cost of fossil fuels as a result of the strong energy demand of the fast industrially growing Asian countries and the on-going evolution of agriculture in Western countries, are leading to a more specific focus linked to energy issues in the rural areas with a possibly different perspective in respect of the past years. As a matter of fact, synthesizing the actual situation with focus on the rural environment, I would like to underline the following:


Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the outcomes of the extension block fixation technique for a bony mallet finger. Materials and Methods: Thirty-five patients that received extension block fixation for bony mallet finger were enrolled in this study between July 2001 and October 2005. The fracture type was classified by the Wehbe and Schneider method. The average follow up period was 15 months, ranging between 12-52 months. The results were classified by the Crawford criteria. Results: There was 30 cases of type I, 5 cases of type II and no cases of type III, with 11 cases of subtype A, 22 cases of subtype B, and 2 cases of subtype C. The average time from injury to operation was 12 days, which included three cases of over 28 days. The K-wire was removed 30 days after the operation, and joint exercises were initiated immediately. There were 10 cases with excellent outcomes, 18 cases with good outcomes, 4 cases with fair outcomes, and 3 cases with poor outcomes. The poor outcome had complications such as subluxation of the DIP joint, lag between injury to operation time (more than 4 weeks), and more than 1 ㎜ displacement. Conclusion: The extension block technique for the treatment of bony mallet finger is relatively simple and results in satisfactory bone union.


periods were 16 weeks in 1 study, 12 weeks in 2 studies and 8 weeks in the remaining two studies. The WMD between PPI and placebo for laryngeal symptoms was -0.467 (95% CI = −3.40 to 2.47; test of heterogeneity, P = 0.76). The pooled estimate of WMD in laryngoscopic scores between PPI and placebo was 0.157 (95% CI = −0.101 to 0.414; test of heterogeneity, P = 0.98). I statistic gave a 0% insistency (95% CI = 0% to 64.1%). Publication bias calculated using Begg-Mazumdar bias indicator gave a Kendall's b tau value of 0 (P = 0.82) and Egger bias indicator gave a value of −0.12 (95% CI = −1.40 to 1.1, P = 0.81). Conclusion: Twice daily PPI therapy leads to an improvement in the mean scores of both laryngeal symptoms and laryngoscopic scores, but the differences are not significant when compared to placebo. There is a large placebo effect in patients with RL. Better risk stratification of RL patients including improved diagnostic tools are needed for this group of patients.


An enzyme extract from Micrococcus luteus excises 3-methyladenine and 3-methylguanine but not O6-methylguanine, 7-methylguanine, 1-methyladenine or 7-methyladenine from DNA reacted with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. The extract was used to detect lesions in the DNA of Chinese hamster cells treated in culture with N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. It was concluded that 3-methyladenine is excised from these cells with a half-life of about 2.3 h.


This article examines the controversial and divisive issues of freedom of religion and the rights of religious minorities. A major stumbling-block in attaining a consensus on the subject has been the attitude of certain states which purport to follow the Sharia. The article however contends that in reality it is possible for Islamic states to find a great measure of compatibility with practices advocated by Western states on issues concerning the rights of religious minorities and religious freedom. Through an investigation of state practices, the paper concludes that the causes of the existing inconsistencies are embedded not in the Islamic system of governance (which these states are claiming to follow) but in domestic politics and constitutional inadequacies.


The potential to obtain bioethanol from bamboo using three different pretreatment technologies (liquid hot water (LHW), dilute acid (DA) and soaking in aqueous ammonia (SAA)) is assessed via techno-economic and environmental analyses. The minimum ethanol selling price (MESP) is used to compare the economic potential of the pretreatment processes, and these are 0.554, 0.484 and 1.014 $ per litre for DA, LHW and SAA pretreatments, respectively. The bioethanol pump price under current and future policy scenarios in China is compared with petrol and reveals that bioethanol produced via DA and LHW pretreatments could be economically competitive even without government support. From an environmental perspective, a life cycle assessment approach is used to evaluate bamboo-derived bioethanol for full environmental impact categories, and this is compared with petrol on a 'well-to-wheel' basis. It was found that all three bioethanol pathways would be environmentally better than petrol with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions reduced by 45–93%. A comparison of bamboo-based bioethanol with other cellulosic feedstocks not only suggests that bamboo could be a viable and competitive feedstock for bioethanol production, but also demonstrates that amongst the pretreatment technologies tested, LHW has the most potential for achieving favourable economic and environmental outcomes.


The coalescence process of polymer latex particles has been investigated by following simultaneously weight losses and dielectric constants variations during water evaporation in a latex deposited as a film in a resonant cavity at microwave frequency (5 GHz) and under controlled humidity and temperature. Different styrene (S) n-butyl acrylate (BuA) emulsion copolymer latexes were examined so as to differentiate the behaviors of film forming or non-film-forming latexes. In the latter ones, both flocculation and maximum packing points were clearly evidenced, whereas only the first point was shown in the former ones. The effect of other colloidal variables (particle size distribution, surface charge density, particle diameter, ionic strength) have also been studied. It is found that the influence of the last three parameters is reflective of the latex stability and can be well detected by dielectric measurement. Such a method appears to be quite reliable for studying the film-forming process of latexes having different colloidal characteristics.


The fuzzy analytic hierarchy process (FAHP), which decomposes the complicated objects into simple hierarchical decision-making processes, with the fuzzy pairwise judgment matrix is constructed by the fuzzy logic relation of the factors in each layer. The total fuzzy weights are obtained based on the weight of each layer, which provide the quantitative analysis basis for the decision-making. The volume power of diesel engine is affected by many factors, and the relation of the structures to volume power in diesel engine is not easily constituted by the function. So the FAHP method is applied to study the relation between the main structures of diesel engine and volume power, and the fuzzy evaluation values are obtained, which can provide the criterions to choose structural parameters and optimize the diesel engine to improve volume power.


An SU-8-based arrayed-waveguide gratings (AWG) device with multimode interference couplers (MMI) is designed and fabricated. The demonstrated MMI-AWG device has 4 channels and the channel spacing is 500GHz. The total insertion loss is about 22 dB, which mainly comes from the coupling loss (16dB) between the input/output waveguide and the fibers. The channel crosstalk between adjacent channels is about –12 dB which is close to the simulation result.


Twin and family studies suggest there is a significant genetic component to primary biliary cirrhosis (PBC). However, the inability to replicate reported associations has been a recurring problem, with the only consistently reported genetic association that between PBC and HLA‐DRB1*0801. However, recently even this has been questioned, and a number of novel associations have also been reported. We reinvestigated HLA class II DRB1, DQA1, and DQB1 alleles and haplotypes in a total of 492 well‐characterized PBC patients, 412 from the United Kingdom and an additional 80 patients from northern Italy. There was a clear and significant association with HLA‐DRB1*0801 in both groups of patients compared to population‐specific healthy controls (12% versus 4% in the UK patients, P = .00087, OR = 3.05; and 18% versus 6% in the Italian patients, P = .021, OR = 3.15). There were also significant protective associations with DRB1*11 in the Italian patients (28% versus 47%, P = .0071, OR = 0.42), but not in the UK patients (8% versus 8%) and a protective association with DRB1*13 in both series (14% versus 20%, P = .042, OR = 0.65 in the UK patients; and 10% versus 31%, P = .00092, OR = 0.25 in the Italian patients). In conclusion, a complex relationship exists between HLA and PBC, and some genetic associations may be population specific. (HEPATOLOGY 2006;44:667–674.)


Background Biological DMARDs targeting TNF-α, IL-17, and IL-12/23 (p40) are available. The high efficacy of these drugs has been proven in numerous clinical trials. However, there are some cases in which a change from one bDMARDs to another one is necessary because of the refractory nature of the disease, and there is no established method to select the optimal bDMARDs according to the individual case, despite the fact that various drugs are available. Objectives We sought to investigate the selection of specific biological DMARDs based on characteristic lymphocyte phenotypes for treating PsA. Methods we performed this study to evaluate the efficacy of biologics therapy in 64 patients with PsA after 6 months of therapy, and to compare the results of peripheral lymphocyte phenotyping using 8-colour flow cytometry, with specific focus on helper T cell subsets, between 26 patients with PsA and healthy donors. In addition, the therapeutic response of 26 patients in whom the optimal bDMARDs was strategically chosen based on the results of peripheral lymphocyte analysis was evaluated at 6 months of treatment intervention in comparison with 38 patients in whom the standard biological product was used based on the 2011 and 2015 EULAR recommendations. Thus, the possibility of the optimisation of drug selection for bDMARDs therapy based on peripheral blood lymphocyte phenotyping was investigated. Results The 26 patients with PsA in the strategic treatment group were classified into the following 4 types based on the peripheral blood analysis: a CXCR3+CCR6-CD38+HLA-DR+ activated Th1 cell-predominant type, CXCR3-CCR6+ CD38+HLA-DR+ activated Th17 cell-predominant type, Th1/Th17-high type, and Th1/Th17-low type. Accordingly, ustekinumab was administered to the activated Th1 cell-predominant patients, secukinumab to the activated Th17 cell-predominant patients, secukinumab or TNF inhibitor to the Th1/Th17-high patients, and TNF inhibitor to the Th1/Th17-low patients. At 6 months of strategic treatment, there was a significant decrease in SDAI (from 16.2 to 3.52), DAS28 (ESR) (from 4.13 to 2.27), and PASI (from 8.36 to 2.40). There were no statistically significant differences in background factors at baseline between these 2 groups. Moreover, the proportion of patients with the combined use of MTX was significantly lower in the strategic bDMARDs treatment group. There were significant decreases in TJC, SJC, PGA, CRP, ESR, DAS28 (ESR), SDAI, and PASI in both groups at 6 months of therapy. There were no significant differences in the amounts of these decreases between the two groups. However, at 6 months of therapy, the rate of low disease activity achievement according to SDAI, DAS28 (ESR), and ACR20 response rate was significantly higher in the strategic bDMARDs treatment group. Conclusions Strategic treatment in which different bDMARDs were selected according to phenotypic differences in helper T cells showed significantly higher efficacy than standard bDMARD therapy. The results of this study provide an important guide to the implementation of more effective therapeutic intervention. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Taking seriously the complexity and heterogeneity of property law, this article claims that a proper conception of property must account for both governance and inclusion. Neglecting governance obscures the significance of the internal life of property, which is often structured by sophisticated mechanisms aiming to facilitate various forms of interpersonal relationships in ways that no contractual arrangement can. Ignoring inclusion improperly marginalizes non-owners' rights to entry in categories of cases where inclusion is an indispensable feature of the property institution under examination.  Looking inside property in these two senses requires abandoning the conception of property as an exclusive right and substituting for it a pluralist conception. Property should be understood as an umbrella for a limited and standardized set of institutions, which serve as important default frameworks of interpersonal interaction regarding various types of resources. At its best, the plurality of property configurations – the different contents of owners' rights in these different property institutions – enables property law to vindicate differing balances among the different values that property can serve, according to the type of social relationship and the nature of the resource at stake. The pluralist conception of property, therefore, not only fits property law better; it is also the only understanding of property suitably attending to and facilitating the individuality enhancing role of multiplicity, which is indispensable for meaningful autonomy.


The contribution brings an analytical assessment of thermal expansion for ceramic parts on boron nitride base prepared by a new pressure-sintering method registered by Superior Graphite Company, USA known as Electroconsolidation®. The prepared samples were compared with common hot pressed ceramics. Together with usual starting BN powder two additionally modified powders were prepared: a special type purified by deoxidative chlorination and a mixture with B 4 C in order to prove the changes in BN sinterability. Further noteworthy properties of these products are discussed. Thermal expansion of electroconsolidated samples has an average value of 4.56 x 10 -6 K -1 and its course is linear up to 1470 K. Above this temperature the course is influenced by oxygen traces and/or B 4 C addition. Measurement of flexural strength using the four-point bending method showed a 30 % increase for electroconsolidated samples compared to values of samples prepared by conventional hot pressing in graphite dies. Young modulus values were higher as well, but they are strongly dependent on structural anisotropy. The compressive strength measurement indicated the priority of electroconsolidation too.


The official Italian legislation describes the milk fat analysis of triglycerides by assuming the result mathematically elaborated as characterizing parameter. This paper proposes an alternative HPLC method of qualitative and quantitative analysis, easier, faster and more suitable than the official Italian method. For this purpose, samples of raw and pasteurised milk and cheeses obtained from the same milk were analysed. According our method, the fat is dissolved at room temperature in the eluente used for HPLC. A gradient elution with evaporative light-scattering detector (ELSD) yields good results in short time. The proposed method performs qualitative and quantitative analysis. Diand tri- glycerine esters, cholesterol and cholesteryl derivates were determined. Limit of detection (LOD = 4 ppm) and limit of quantification (LOQ = 8 ppm) were also obtained. Chromatograms obtained for cheese qualitatively coincide with those of milk of provenience. Riassunto


Background and importance The COVID-19 pandemic has required reorganisation of our pharmacy service procedures to guarantee adequate pharmaceutical care and protect the safety of caregivers and patients. Aim and objectives To describe the actions taken by the pharmacy service and their likely repercussions for the future. Material and methods A retrospective analysis was conducted of the actions carried out during the 10 week period, 12 March 2020 to 21 May 2020, the period that corresponds to the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic and its aftermath. We analysed hospital data and documentation generated in the pharmacy during the pandemic and the subsequent de-escalation and re-escalation periods. Results During the first wave of the pandemic, the hospital treated 1088 COVID-19 patients. At the peak of the pandemic, there were 501 patients hospitalised with 57 in intensive care units. The principal actions carried out were: Modification of the make–up of staff in charge of pharmacy activities with 24 hour reinforcement and work from home. Establishment of new internal and external communication channels with the administration, healthcare professionals and patient associations to continually communicate changes. Management of medications for COVID–19 and critically ill patients, establishment of stock strategies and shortages management. Increasing storage space and re–dimensioning the kardex system. Configuration of new hospital units and hospitals (including hotel hospitalisation), redesigning healthcare circuits, hospital discharges and return–to–stock procedures (quarantine). Preparation of new standardised intravenous mixtures and medication kits. Participation in protocols for COVID treatment, and incorporation of new protocols and alerts into the computerised physician order entry system. Design and implementation of a new virtual consultation system and home delivery of medications. During the first wave of 10 weeks, there were 3450 virtual consultations and home deliveries of medications, involving 74.8% of all outpatients. This value later went down and has remained at 60%. Management of clinical trials for COVID–19 treatment options. Conclusion and relevance In retrospect, the COVID-19 pandemic presented serious challenges to our pharmacy service in terms of assuring pharmaceutical care for both COVID and non-COVID patients. Some changes have become permanent and represent innovations in pharmacy services. References and/or acknowledgements Conflict of interest No conflict of interest


The need to extend communications beyond organizational boundaries has led to the creation of the extranet (otherwise referred to as Business-to Business or B2B webs).


The paper focuses on the strict relation between the continuous changes of the diversified tax regimes of the various types of cooperatives and the political composition of the governments succeeding each other in Italy from the after war period to the present. It emerged that the different types of cooperatives prevailing in the leftwing League of Cooperatives or in the Confederation of Italian Cooperatives (CCI) of catholic orientation or in both organization had a different possibility of exerting successful rent seeking with the various Governments with different political orientation. Consumption cooperatives operating in the mass retail which obtained generous tax treatments by Governments leaning to the left, lost most of them by centre right Governments. The cooperatives of agriculture and food processing, those of small fishing and those of production and labor, important both in the League and in CCI, were able to obtain from different Governments special privileges in the postwar period and kept most of them also under the centre right Governments of the last period. Social cooperatives object of a special legislation in 1992 under a Government of Giulio Andreotti, a leader close to the catholic organizations, kept their preferential tax regime with all the subsequent governments. They are important both in CCI and in the League and have a peculiar electoral power because of their capillary activities.


Fruit and vegetable consumption is accepted as the cornerstone of healthy eating practices. In turn, healthy eating is linked to the prevention of a number of chronic diseases. Healthy eating practices should begin in early childhood and continue throughout life. This study aimed to determine fruit and vegetable consumption in children aged 6-12 years in three local government areas in rural Australia, and examines the factors which influence consumption, such as access, cost and parental education and behaviours. Parents of school children in grades one and three from 41 schools completed a survey regarding fruit and vegetable consumption, and associated factors, for their child. Five hundred and forty four surveys were completed and returned. The results showed that while fruit consumption was within the recommended guidelines for 97% of children, only 12% ate the recommended serves of vegetables for this age group. The results did not vary between the age and gender of children nor parental income or education. Parental sources of knowledge for healthy eating was reported as predominantly family and friends as well as newspapers, internet and magazines. Examining fruit and vegetable consumption separately highlighted the need for a focused intervention on increasing vegetable consumption in the three local government areas. The sources of parental knowledge provided important information for health promotion activities


Recently, Gao et al. [Opt. Commun. 283 (2010) 192] pointed out that Wang et al.'s multiparty controlled quantum secure direct communication (CQSDC) protocol [Opt. Commun. 266 (2006) 732] has the information leakage problem and proposed an improved protocol. However, in the improved protocol, due to the introduction of an additional random sampling to avoid the weakness, the qubit efficiency is decreased. By introducing the base changing technique to the random sampling in Wang et al.'s protocol, this study overcomes the information leakage problem and provides a better qubit efficiency.


ABSTRACT Background: The recent influx of Newly Arrived Migrant Students (NAMS) in Western-European societies poses important educational questions about how best to support migrant students within the education system. Purpose: We sought to study how elements that are associated with cultural capital – namely a sense of entitlement and strategic knowledge – have relevance to NAMS' educational trajectories. In studying the process of how cultural capital relates to educational careers, this study argues for a general shift from a resource-focused approach towards a strategy-focused approach to cultural capital. Sample: We collected data from 33 NAMS from six secondary schools in a city in Flanders (the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium). A maximum difference approach was used: this allowed comparison of NAMS who followed the most academic track (general track) and the least academic track (vocational track) in secondary education in Flanders. Design and methods: We undertook 33 in-depth biographical interviews during which the NAMS reconstructed their educational trajectories. Data were analysed qualitatively. We used structural approach analysis to identify each narrative's core structure. These structured fragments were then thematically coded. Results: Within the categories 'a sense of entitlement' and 'strategic knowledge of the education system', the analysis detected differences in strategies of action between pupils in the general track and in the vocational track. Conclusion: The findings offer insights that could support the development of better strategies to guide and support NAMS in education. As NAMS' integration in the educational system appears to be a stretched and slow process of orientation, studying their trajectory has the potential to deepen our understanding of known mechanisms of the reproduction of inequalities in education.


The study identified the Local Economic Development enabling environment to support small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. It employed participant observation research method in the national, regional, prefectural, city, and town governments, academic and research institutions, SMEs, chamber of commerce, business associations, and communities' levels in Aichi Prefecture. The study revealed that Japanese government provides business support for SMEs as the force behind an economy with thriving SMEs industry. The support to hard infrastructure was identified as LED enabling environment fostering connectedness, innovation and value creation for SMEs' attraction, growth, and global expansion. This is common among the selected local governments towards building up local competitiveness, addressing job and wealth creation, and promoting liveability through hard infrastructure development. The LED in Japan can be applied as a model for developing countries, especially in the ASEAN Region, in addressing poverty reduction and wealth creation.


We investigate the time-resolved two-photon photoemission (time-resolved 2PPE, TR2PPE) spectrum of the image state on Cu(111) by nonequilibrium perturbation theory. We show that, in the 2PPE process, the scattering of photoexcited quasiparticles (electrons and holes) due to Coulomb interactions between electrons causes excitation of secondary quasiparticles in the vicinity of the Fermi level as well as electron transitions to the image state. We demonstrate quantitatively on the basis of numerical results how the effect of relaxation of secondary quasiparticles is manifested in the TR2PPE spectrum.


Abnormal cytologic findings in gynecologic smears were more common among patients using oral contraceptives than among control patients. Cytologic examination should be routinely performed before oral contraceptives are prescribed. The exfoliation of endometrial cells was essentially the same between control and oral contraceptive patients. No evidence of excessive stimulation of epithelial element in endometrium accompanied the continued use of hormonal contraceptives. In general, the cytohormonal effect associated with oral contraceptives showed a depressed superficial cell count in the vaginal smears. Teenagers using oral contraceptives constituted 2 to 3% of the surveyed group. Long-term effects of antiovulatory drugs in young females are yet to be observed.


A specific approach is needed based on a comprehensive study of both tourist resources and habitats / natural findings of fossils for develop a successful tourist product targeting customers who have interests in paleontology. The aim of the study is to evaluate the possibilities of modeling paleontological destinations in the country using leaf imprints and fossils. Fossils have their unique origins. They are formed at a certain point in geological development and in a specific geographic location. In this respect, by their genesis and common character, they are non-renewable resources of high scientific, educational, commercial and amateur value, which can be considered as a tourist resource. Two different paleontological outcrops have been studied: the Lovech Urgonian Group in Northern Bulgaria and the Smolyan Palaeogene Basin in the Western Rhodopes. Destination Lovech Urgonian Group: sampling rocks with finds of Orbitolina, Foraminifera, Algae, coral, Gastropoda, Bivalvia associated with coral reefs in the sedimentary rocks of the Lovech Urgonian Group are situated in the region of Veliko Tarnovo and Lovech. They are connected to a Urgonian paleo Sea, whose age is Low Cretaceous. Destination Smolyan Paleogene basin: different leaf imprints are found in the sedimentary rocks, representatives of the families Platanacea, Fagacaea, Lauraceae, Pinaceae, Podocarpaceae and others with different ecological characteristics. The paleo-floristic diversity shows a dynamic climatic situation through the Paleogene period in this region. The tourists accessibility to the natural revelations of paleo-reefs in North Bulgaria and of the palaeoflora outcrops in the Smolyan region is assessed. An assessment of the tourist infrastructure, the existence of geological landscapes, panoramic views and paleontological museum expositions has been made. The specialized paleontological museums in the country are limited in number. And the offering of paleontological tourist destinations is the opportunity for tourists with interests in the natural history and the live evolution to find a suitable form for satisfying their special interests.


Changes in healthcare today have called for leadership styles that place a heavy demand on organizations. Shifts in markets and reimbursement strategies call for new leaders with vision that can guide healthcare organizations to change. In a postmodern era, organizations see the transformational leader as a valuable asset in changing times. This article addresses the foundations of the transformational leader metanarrative and, through a postmodern discourse, deconstructs the concept. The article presents a review of postmodern thought in relation to the metanarrative of leadership and applications to nursing administration.


Abstract Objectives To evaluate the intra- and inter-observer measurement variability of an existing osteoarthritis (OA) stifle scoring system. Methods Paired caudocranial and mediolateral canine stifle radiographs were selected randomly. A total of 15 assessment points were evaluated independently andgradedtwice (integer numericscale:1–4) at an interval of 2 weeks by three observers with different levels of experience. The grades for each of the 15 factors were summed to obtain the OA score for each patient. Results The 15 independent assessment points measured by the three observers showed high reproducibility and low intra-observer variability. Inter-observer variability was also low (mean: 1.09 4.99, 95% CI [confidence interval]: –0.35 to 2.55). The most discordant ratings among the three observers involved sesamoid bones of gastrocnemius muscle (assessment point 11 of 15) and popliteal surface of femur (assessment point 10 of 15). Clinical Significance A validated and feasible OA scoring method is prerequisite for reliable radiographic assessment of OA progression. The low overall inter- and intra-observer variabilities among the 15 independent measures of the OA scoring system presented herein support its feasibility for application in clinical practice as an objective tool for radiographic scoring of stifle OA.


The main objective of this paper is to study the variation of some water quality variables along Rosetta Branch, to study the impact of drains discharging their wastes directly on the water quality of the branch and to define the optimum scenario requires overcoming the serious problem of the pollution in the branch. Water samples were collected from the branch as well as from the outfall of the drains during January 2011, August 2011, January 2016, August 2016, and March 2017 and analyzed for physicochemical parameters according the standard procedures. The Results indicated that, there is a degradation in water quality along the area located downstream ElRahawy drain. This was reflected by low dissolved oxygen concentration that reaches to 0.07 mg/l. As well as, the BOD value was also recorded high values of 110 mg/l. These values were found 18 times higher than the allowable limits of law 48/year 1982 and its ministerial decree. It is worth to mention that, the area along Rosetta Branch comply with the permissible limits of the value of NH3 recommended by law 48 year 1982, except the area located downstream El-Rahawy and Sabal drains. Different scenarios are applied using Duflow model. The study concluded that, the water quality along Rosetta Branch has been significantly impacted with the drains especially El-Rahawy and Sabal, which consider the worst drains. The best scenario is the treatment of El-Rahawy drain with biological biofilm activated with aerator that improves the water quality along Rosetta Branch based on applying Duflow model.


To enhance the static stability for unilateral open electricity market, this paper establishes a static stability model for it, which including system regulating capacity of grid company and demand-side simultaneous response as feedback, and contract trade as 'storage'. Based on this model, it presents a compounding model including the grid company with regulating capacity as the system centrum, contract trade as the main form for electricity trade, and real-time pricing consumer group as another critical pole in the power market. This model will be compatible with the current industrial structure, be able to resolve the dispute around power tariff for the current situation in China via market mechanism, and be able to transit toward bilateral open market smoothly


Proceedings: AACR 104th Annual Meeting 2013; Apr 6-10, 2013; Washington, DC

The number of effective drugs available for the treatment of soft tissue and bone sarcomas is limited to a small group of antineoplastic agents. Previously, we have identified synergistic anti-tumor activities when the HDAC inhibitor Vorinostat was used in combination with FDA approved chemotherapies. With newer and more selective HDAC inhibitors entering clinical trials we examined the effectiveness of SNDX-275, an inhibitor of HDAC I, II & III when combined with Akt inhibitors and other FDA approved drugs. CT-Blue cell viability experiments were performed to first obtain IC50s for 72 hour treatments. IC50s for SNDX-275 ranged from 0.84 to 11.4 μM ([Table][1]). SNDX-275 alone and in combination with the drugs listed in the Table showed synergistic cooperativity in viability experiments. Using Chou and Talalay's Combination Index (CI) analyses (ED levels of 0.7, 0.9 & 0.95), a synergistic or strongly synergistic reduction in cell viability (CI <0.7) was observed in most combinations tried in the majority of cell lines. Synergy was observed over a wide dose range and remained synergistic when as little as 0.5 μM of SNDX-275 was used in the combination. Ongoing experiments are underway to identify the effects of SNDX-275 combinations on apoptosis and the effect of drug sequencing on growth inihibition. The results of this study indicate that a drug combination including SNDX-275 may be an effective treatment regimen for sarcoma patients. Funded by the Pediatric Cancer Foundation.

Table. IC50s and Chou and Talalay Combination Index (CI) Synergy Analysis. Inhibitory concentration of SNDX-275 required for 50% reduction in viable cells after 72 hour treatment (IC50). CI values represent the level of synergy resulting from concurrent SNDX-275 plus indicated combination treatment. +/- symbols indicate calculated CI synergy level.

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Citation Format: Christopher L. Cubitt, Jillaina Menth, Jana Dawson, John M. Goldberg, Damon Reed, Daniel M. Sullivan. SNDX-275 synergistically inhibits the growth of sarcoma cells when combined with AKT inhibitors, platinum drugs and Topo II poisons. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2072. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2072

 [1]: #T1


Endangered species conservation requires the understanding of factors affecting animal condition and performance. However, commonly investigated resource-use metrics such as habitat selection may not accurately predict biological outcomes because some components of habitats are more important to animals than others. We examined individual level resource− outcome relationships and the relationship between 2 biological outcome metrics — body condition and fate — in Ozark hellbenders Cryptobranchus alleganiensis bishopi, which were recently included on the US Endangered Species List by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service. Our regression models included proportional use of a stream substrate, average distance to cover, distance moved, and water temperature as predictors of daily change in body condition or fate of captive-reared, radio-marked released hellbender populations in 2 sections of the North Fork of the White River in Missouri in 2008−2009. Distance moved between observations helped predict change in body condition, but no variable predicted fate well. We infer that resource use of selected substrate features did not predict biological outcomes in the short term. Our results indicate that energetic metrics such as distance moved can predict biological outcomes better than use of substrate features. Body condition did not correlate with fate and may be a poor indicator of an animal's ability to survive and reproduce. These investigations improve our understanding of influences on biological outcomes in hellbenders, which may improve efficacy of management and conservation of this species through efforts to increase abundance of important resources to improve hellbender condition and performance.


OBJECTIVE
The purpose of this study was to develop an experimental rhinosinusitis model by using bacteria-added absorbable material for temporary ostial obstruction.

METHOD
Absorbable gelatin sponge was inserted between the endoturbinals and the ostium of the sinus. In the first group, the effects of surgical procedure and Gelfoam on ostial mucosa were examined macroscopically. In the second group Gelfoam was moistened with Staphylococcus aureus (ATCC 25923). The sinuses of rabbits were examined by coronal com puted tomography before each surgical procedure and sacrifice. The animals were sacrificed at the first, second, fourth eighth, and tenth weeks. Histologic and microbiologic examinations were performed.

RESULTS
In the first group, fibrotic bands and adhesions were observed between the ostium of the maxillary sinus and the endoturbinals in the first and second week. In the second group, a thick purulent discharge that invariably filled the sinuses of the inoculated side was seen after the first week of induction, and opacity, which was determined radiologically, did not disappear until the end of the study.

CONCLUSION
In this study, an experimental rhinosinusitis model was accomplished. It is currently believed that obstruction of the ostium with mucosal edema, polyps, or tumour leads to maxillary sinusitis. In this model, the pathogenesis of human sinusitis was imitated by temporary occlusion of the ostium with bacteria-added Gelfoam. This model can be used in further studies to explore the role of the ostium in the pathogenesis of sinusitis.


OBJECTIVE
To assess whether end-tidal carbon dioxide partial pressure (PETCO2) can predict the fluid responsiveness in septic shock patients.

METHODS
Septic shock patients under mechanical ventilation without spontaneous breathing and with the need of a fluid challenge test were included in this study.Heart rate, central venous pressure, pulse pressure, PETCO2, and CI before and after the fluid challenge test were conducted in all the patients.

RESULTS
Of the 48 septic shock patients included, 34 had preload responsiveness, 14 had no responsiveness. ΔCI and ΔPETCO2 after the fluid challenge test in "volume responders" were (0.85 ± 0.47) L×min(-1)×m(-2) and (3.5 ± 2.5) mmHg respectively, which were higher than those in "no volume responders"(P < 0.05). The fluid-induced changes in PETCO2 and CI were correlated (r = 0.072, P < 0.05). The AUCROC of fluid challenge-induced ΔPETCO2 as the predictor for volume responsiveness was 0.943, and its sensitivity was 87.9% and specificity was 93.4% with a critical value of 5%. The AUCROC of ΔPP as the predictor for volume responsiveness was 0.801, and its sensitivity was 68.1% and specificity was 73.2% with a critical value of 10%.

CONCLUSION
The changes of PETCO2 induced by a fluid challenge test can predict fluid responsiveness with reliability, and have a better sensitivity and specificity than the changes of PP.


Abstract : The purpose of this thesis is to stimulate a discussion toward developing an all-encompassing Inter-agency Information Operations organization. The authors define an environment and identify theories that point toward the necessity of integrating Information Operations (10) throughout the U.S. Government (USG). The authors explore the feasibility of establishing and empowering an inter-agency organization that will monitor, evaluate and enforce all aspects of IO. Early forms of IO and their deployment are depicted in the historical backdrop of World War II. Concepts of renown futurists identify the importance of the information Age and the essential process to maximize its' full potential. A correlation between the current national security strategy and the IO environment strongly suggests the need for innovation. An overview of the current IO environment and USG organizations reveals a technological move toward inter-agency IO. Both the art and science sides of IO are incorporated into a new organization. OrgCon 7.0 is used to analyze the proposed IO organizational structure, which provides specific recommendations and defines misfits that must be addressed. The authors conclude that further work is required in modeling the organization via alternate software and a more in depth look is required in the area of National Security IO. The authors provide the essential goundwork for further research.


The management of wildfire is a dynamic, complex, and fundamentally uncertain enterprise. Fire managers face uncertainties regarding fire weather and subsequent influence on fire behavior, the effects of fire on socioeconomic and ecological resources, and the efficacy of alternative suppression actions on fire outcomes. In these types of difficult decision environments, even well-trained and experienced individuals can become susceptible to cognitive limitations and decision biases, as indicated by several recent analyses of fire manager decision making. This extended abstract focuses on fire management decision making under uncertainty, in relation to current decision support provided by the Wildland Fire Decision Support System (WFDSS), offering several recommendations to improve decision content and process.


Atmospheric carbonaceous aerosol is traditionally divided into organic carbon (OC) and elemental carbon (EC). Their respective carbon amounts are usually analyzed by means of an OC/EC analyzer and their fossil and non-fossil origins can be determined by radiocarbon analysis, which has proven to be a powerful tool for carbonaceous aerosol source apportionment. Thus far, separation of OC and EC has been performed off-line by manual and time-consuming techniques. We present an on-line system that couples a commercial OC/EC analyzer with the gas ion source of the accelerator mass spectrometer (AMS) MICADAS and its CO2 feeding system. The performance achieved with reference materials and blanks are discussed to demonstrate the potential of this coupling for source apportionment of atmospheric carbonaceous particulate matter.


This paper presents laser gain calculations for different material systems, like the metastable dilute nitride system GaInNAs/GaAs. These calculations show good agreement with experiment. On the other hand, nonequilibrium effects in different regimes as well as dependence of scattering times on structural parameters such as material composition and well width are also discussed.


Aortic dissection confers high mortality and morbidity rates despite advances in treatment, impacts quality of life, and contributes immense burden to the healthcare system globally. Efforts to prevent aortic dissection through screening and management of modifiable risk factors and early detection of aneurysms should incorporate genomic information, as it is integral to stratifying risk. However, effective integration of genomic-guided risk assessment into clinical practice will require addressing implementation barriers that currently permeate our healthcare systems. The Aortic Dissection Collaborative was established to define aortic dissection research priorities through patient engagement. Using a collaborative patient-centered feedback model, our Genomic Medicine Working Group identified related research priorities that could be investigated by pragmatic interventional studies aimed at aortic dissection prevention, utilization of genomic information to improve patient outcomes, and access to genomic medicine services. Further research is also needed to identify the genomic, lifestyle, and environmental risk factors that contribute to aortic dissection so these data can be incorporated into future comparative effectiveness studies to prevent aortic dissection.


Rat dams differ naturally in the level of maternal care they provide to their offspring within the same litter. We explored possible mechanisms of differential maternal care focused on genetic variation. We examined single nucleotide polymorphisms in the glucocorticoid receptor, FK506-binding protein, and serotonin transporter genes in two separate cohorts, and the relationship between differential maternal care received, genotype, and offspring phenotype. Allelic variation in all three genes was significantly associated with levels of maternal care received by offspring and behavioral and endocrine stress responses in adulthood. Differences in pup behavior were also associated with allelic variation in these genes. Together, these results indicate that the dam/pup interaction is dynamic and implicate the genotype of the offspring in influencing the level of maternal care received. They further suggest that some genotypes may have a dampening effect on the impact of maternal care on stress-related phenotypes in adulthood.


Constrained by traditional sampling theory, it is difficult to obtain high resolution image directly by signal acquisition system. The method that uses compressed sensing technology to measure the high resolution image and reconstruct with measurements breaks the bottleneck of Nyquist sampling theory, which is a new application for compressed sensing in image processing field. In CS, the reconstruction of super resolution image can be converted to how to construct measurement matrix and design reconstruction algorithm. For the reason that Gaussian measurement matrix requires a great number of high dimensional projection computations, we introduce sparse random projection into compressed sensing, proposing a measurement matrix which obeys sparse random projection distribution: sparse projection matrix. For the reason that the existing OMP algorithms require a lot of linear measurements to ensure accurate reconstruction, we propose an improved OMP algorithm. Experimental results show that, with sparse projection matrix and the improved OMP algorithm, high resolution image can be reconstructed accurately with little number of measurements.


The purpose of this study was to determine the temporal relationships, in the rat prostate following castration, the expressions of terminin, a cytoplasmic marker for senescence, and, statin, a nuclear marker for cell quiescence and senescence. The presence of these two proteins was determined at 0, 1, 2, 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours in the ventral lobe of the prostate following castration. Immunofluorescence techniques for double labelling were used and assessed with confocal microscopy. At 0 hour the mean % labelling index (LI) for terminin was 0% and 98% for statin. One hour following castration a complete reversal of expression of these two markers occurred indicating that the terminin marker is expressed at the start of programmed cell death or apoptosis. The mean % LI for terminin at 1, 2, 4, 8, 24 and 48 hours following castration were 54, 82, 63, 39, 44 and 41% respectively. The mean % labelling index of statin remained at zero during these time intervals. It is concluded that following castration, the prostatic ventral lobe exits from the quiescent phase to reenter cell cycle traverse. This is coupled by the loss of statin and the expression of the cytoplasmic marker terminin at the start of programmed cell death prior to the appearance of any histologic features of apoptosis.


Access network is that part of telecommunication system which connects multiple subscribers to the service provider. Currently deployed access networks mostly make use of copper cables like a twisted pair or a coaxial cable [1]. It seems, however, that they do not provide sufficient data rates to fulfil continuously increasing needs for broadband telecommunication services. One of the most promising approaches for providing high-speed, all-optical, symmetric transmission of digital signals are passive optical networks using the wavelength division multiplexing technique (WDM-PON) [2]. WDM-PON access systems can offer large capacity, high transmission rate and data security. On the other hand, they require low-cost, highly reliable devices of high overall performance. It seems that the photonic integration technology based on indium phosphide is a platform of choice to meet these requirements, as it enables fabrication of compact, reliable and energy efficient devices in a form of monolithic chips, comprising multiple active and passive components. InP-based photonic circuits can provide the functionality of light generation, propagation, modulation and detection for optical signals of wavelengths around 1550 nm.


Probability limit theory is one of the branches of probability and also is important basic theory of the science of probability and statistics. Limit theory mainly study independent random variables, but in many practical problems, samples are not independent, or the function of independent sample is not independent, or the verification of independent is more difficult. So the concept of dependent random variables in probability and statistics is mentioned. Exchangeable random variables are a major type of dependent random variable. In this paper we extend the Baum and Katz theorem in the condition of independent, and obtain the specific forms of expression of Baum and Katz theorem in the case of exchangeable random variables.


The on-line monitoring of partial discharge on generators is more and more widely used to estimate the insulation condition of generator stator windings. In this paper a new detector for on-line monitoring of partial discharges of generators was introduced. The measurement of partial discharges was carried out on some generator model bars in a laboratory using the new detector. Features of different types of PD were analyzed using the spectrums of Hq(/spl phi/), Hn(/spl phi/) and Hn(q). Some primary results from field test are reported for a detector installed on a turbine generator in a power plant located in Shanxi Province of China.


Few prospective data from the Asia Pacific region are available relating body mass index to the risk of diabetes. Our objective was to provide reliable age, sex and region specific estimates of the associations between body mass index and diabetes. Twenty-seven cohort studies from Asia, New Zealand and Australia, including 154,989 participants, contributed 1,244,793 person-years of follow-up. Outcome data included a combination of incidence of diabetes (based on blood glucose measurements) and fatal diabetes events. Hazard ratios were calculated from Cox models, stratified by sex and cohort, and adjusted for age at risk and smoking. During follow-up (mean = 8 years), 75 fatal diabetes events and 242 new cases of diabetes were documented. There were continuous positive associations between baseline body mass index and risk of diabetes with each 2 kg/m2 lower body mass index associated with a 27% (23-30%) lower risk of diabetes. The associations were stronger in younger age groups, and regional comparisons demonstrated slightly stronger associations in Asian than in Australasian cohorts (P = 0.04). This overview provides evidence of a strong continuous association between body mass index and diabetes in the Asia Pacific region. The results indicate considerable potential for reduction in incidence of diabetes with population-wide lowering of body mass index in this region.


Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) describes a growing family of approaches and methods to enable local people to share, enhance and analyze their knowledge of life and conditions, to plan and to act. PRA has sources in activist participatory research, agroecosystem analysis, applied anthropology, field research on farming systems, and rapid rural appraisal (RRA). In RRA information is more elicited and extracted by outsiders; in PRA it is more shared and owned by local people. Participatory methods include mapping and modeling, transect walks, matrix scoring, seasonal calendars, trend and change analysis, well-being and wealth ranking and grouping, and analytical diagramming. PRA applications include natural resources management, agriculture, poverty and social programs, and health and food security. Dominant behavior by outsiders may explain why it has taken until the 1990s for the analytical capabilities of local people to be better recognized and for PRA to emerge, grow and spread.


We demonstrate explicitly that the known solutions for expanding impulsive spherical gravitational waves that have been obtained by a `cut and paste' method may be considered to be impulsive limits of the Robinson-Trautman vacuum type-N solutions. We extend these results to all the generically distinct subclasses of these solutions in Minkowski, de Sitter and anti-de Sitter backgrounds. For these we express the solutions in terms of a continuous metric. Finally, we also extend the class of spherical shock gravitational waves to include a non-zero cosmological constant.


Background Neuromyelitis optica spectrum disorder (NMOSD) diagnostic criteria for inflammatory demyelinating central nervous system diseases included symptomatic narcolepsy; however, no relevant case‐control studies exist. We aimed to examine the relationship among cerebrospinal fluid orexin‐A (CSF‐OX) levels, cataplexy and diencephalic syndrome; determine risk factors for low-and-intermediate CSF‐OX levels (≤200 pg/mL) and quantify hypothalamic intensity using MRI. Methods This ancillary retrospective case‐control study included 50 patients with hypersomnia and 68 controls (among 3000 patients) from Akita University, the University of Tsukuba and community hospitals (200 facilities). Outcomes were CSF‐OX level and MRI hypothalamus‐to‐caudate‐nucleus‐intensity ratio. Risk factors were age, sex, hypersomnolence and MRI hypothalamus‐to‐caudate‐nucleus‐intensity ratio >130%. Logistic regression was performed for the association between the risk factors and CSF‐OX levels ≤200 pg/mL. Results The hypersomnia group (n=50) had significantly more cases of NMOSD (p<0.001), diencephalic syndrome (p=0.006), corticosteroid use (p=0.011), hypothalamic lesions (p<0.023) and early treatment (p<0.001). No cataplexy occurred. In the hypersomnia group, the median CSF-OX level was 160.5 (IQR 108.4–236.5) pg/mL and median MRI hypothalamus-to-caudate-nucleus-intensity ratio was 127.6% (IQR 115.3–149.1). Significant risk factors were hypersomnolence (adjusted OR (AOR) 6.95; 95% CI 2.64 to 18.29; p<0.001) and MRI hypothalamus‐to‐caudate‐nucleus‐intensity ratio >130% (AOR 6.33; 95% CI 1.18 to 34.09; p=0.032). The latter was less sensitive in predicting CSF-OX levels ≤200 pg/mL. Cases with MRI hypothalamus-to-caudate-nucleus-intensity ratio >130% had a higher rate of diencephalic syndrome (p<0.001, V=0.59). Conclusions Considering orexin as reflected by CSF‐OX levels and MRI hypothalamus‐to‐caudate‐nucleus‐intensity ratio may help diagnose hypersomnia with diencephalic syndrome.


Even a slight experience in the planning of the diet for the diabetic readily convinces one that careful thought and work along this line are needed, and that time and effort spent in an attempt to enlarge the meager diet list of such patients will be fully justified. With the necessary elimination of practically all fruits and many vegetables, because of their carbohydrate content, the diet of the diabetic becomes very much restricted and monotonous and undesirably reduced in bulk. The withdrawal of fruits and vegetables from the diet is keenly felt, and the diabetic craves the variety that is furnished by this type of food. The usual analysis of our ordinary food materials gives their percentage composition in terms of so-called protein, fat, carbohydrate, ash and water, and from such data lists of foods have been compiled for the use of the diabetic. A familiar arrangement is that in


. We present a novel deep learning-based framework: Embedded Feature Correlation Optimization with Specific Parameter Initialization (COSPI) for 2D/3D registration which is a most challenging problem due to the difficulty such as dimensional mismatch, heavy computation load and lack of golden evaluating standard. The framework we designed includes a parameter specification module to efficiently choose initialization pose parameter and a fine-registration network to align images. The proposed framework takes extracting multi-scale features into consideration using a novel composite connection encoder with special training techniques. The method is compared with both learning-based methods and optimization-based methods to further evaluate the performance. Our experiments demonstrate that the method in this paper has improved the registration performance, and thereby outperforms the existing methods in terms of accuracy and running time. We also show the potential of the proposed method as an initial pose estimator.


We establish uniform bounds on the low-order derivatives of Stein equation solutions for a broad class of multivariate, strongly log-concave target distributions. These "Stein factor" bounds deliver control over Wasserstein and related smooth function distances and are well-suited to analyzing the computable Stein discrepancy measures of Gorham and Mackey. Our arguments of proof are probabilistic and feature the synchronous coupling of multiple overdamped Langevin diffusions.


Contrary to the absence of Native American women in many reports and journals of early explorers and colonists, Native American women from the Coastal Algonquin and Wasco/Wishram communities played a central role in early trade with Euro-Americans through their traditional socioeconomic status as agricultural and subsistence gatherers and inter/intra-tribal tradeswomen. These native women harvested available natural resources for food, bark, and fiber with which they fed their communities and constructed baskets in standard units of measurement for trade reflecting that pre-contact trade networks and food value systems were well established and highly valued. Through an examination of scholarly research regarding the culture, history, and basket technology of the Coastal Algonquin and Wasco/Wishram this study reveals how the socioeconomic status of these native women was altered and disenfranchised. While Algonquin and W asco/Wishram tradeswomen provided the majority of the calorie intake for their communities, owned the homes, villages, and land base they made and worked, were politically influential and socially autonomous, they were cut out of the developing international trade and market economy, and marginalized by the growing Euro-American population. Basket making as a traditional cultural practice produced functional utilitarian tools, household items, and surplus packaging for trade; it also defined native culture and during the course of colonization enabled some native communities to continue important cultural practices and even establish federal recognition. The pre-contact egalitarian cultural practices, agricultural and subsistence work, and basket technology of women from the Coastal Algonquin and Wasco/Wishram native communities is described and discussed, followed by the impact of early trade and the developing new market economy. The introduction of new trade items influenced basket technology differently within each native community, yet the impact on native tradeswomen and their socioeconomic status is similar. Changes in basket technology and construction reveal the manner in which native women accommodated and resisted the cultural impact of the growing Euro-American population and new market economy. Changes and time frames are organized using major basket making periods of Classic Period, Transitional Period, and Hiatus Period in conjunction with pre-contact/early contact, colonial era, and early industrial era. Native communities across the continent experienced the phases of contact and colonization in successive waves making the use of numerical dates cumbersome when discussing the Algonquin who experienced contact and cultural disruption much earlier than the interior Wasco/Wishram. In this regard, basket making periods were also experienced in different sequences dependant on the degree of colonial influence and disruption to each native community. While Native American women were either left out of or stereotyped in early research, this examination utilizes a range of historical studies, along with more contemporary work focused on reconstructing the cultural context of native women lives to show how colonization impacted native women's socioeconomic status.


In order for "Fairness for All" to be more than a slogan, religious freedom and LGBT rights policymakers must create a shared space to find common ground. This Chapter sets out the preconditions for that shared space:

(1) understanding the common pain and vulnerability experienced by LGBT Americans and religious people and institutions, as well as shared language that expresses hope for reconciliation and workable solutions,

(2) finding common beliefs that motivate groups to work toward a shared goal,

(3) seizing moments where both sides realize the reward of collaboration and the risk of walking away from it,

(4) using skilled conveners—those rare statesmen with the capacity for bringing contentious parties together, and

(5) insisting on solutions that benefit both sides simultaneously, even if the achievements are incremental, in order to secure the ability for all Americans to live according to their deepest convictions and needs.

These preconditions were the basis for the brave gamble that unfolded in Utah's Fairness for All legislation and remain the preconditions for progress across the nation. Fairness for all, to be more than a slogan, must be a guiding principle for resolving the manifold conflicts between religious freedom and LGBT rights.


Spt5 Phosphorylation and the Rtf1 Plus3 Domain Promote Rtf1 Function through Distinct Mechanisms Rtf1 is an RNA polymerase II elongation factor required for cotranscriptional histone modification. Rtf1 functions downstream of Cdk9, the kinase component of positive transcription elongation factor b. This pathway involves Cdk9-dependent phosphorylation of Spt5, which creates a binding site for the Rtf1 Plus3 domain and is required for Rtf1 recruitment to chromatin. Chen et al. (e00150-20) demonstrate that the Plus3 domain also operates independently of phosphorylated Spt5 to promote Rtf1 function. This novel role involves a nucleic acid-binding Plus3 domain interface and a C-terminal region of Rtf1 previously shown to bind to the polymerase-associated factor complex.


This paper introduces a unified power engineering laboratory capable of various experiments for power systems, power electronics, and electromechanical energy conversion. It presents a flexible hardware setup, data acquisition (DAQ), and virtual instrumentation (VI). Some features of virtual instrumentation are shown with real-time phasor diagrams, sequence component analysis, and spectral analysis of AC data. We describe the general design of a single laboratory setup, which can be used for power electronics and electromechanical energy conversion experiments independently. We also present an example of power system operations, which can be implemented by the interconnection of several laboratory stations.


Treatment with nontoxic monophosphoryl lipid A (MPL), which was derived from a polysaccharide-deficient, heptoseless Re mutant of Salmonella typhimurium, was found to inactivate suppressor T-cell activity, as evidenced by a decrease in the degree of low-dose immunological paralysis expressed and an increase in the magnitude of the antibody response to type III pneumococcal polysaccharide. The effects produced, which could not be attributed to the polyclonal activation of immune B cells by MPL, were dependent upon the dose of MPL used, as well as the time when MPL was given relative to low-dose priming or immunization with type III pneumococcal polysaccharide. Neither amplifier nor helper T-cell activity was decreased by treatment with the same, or larger, doses of MPL. The significance of these findings to the use of MPL as an immunological adjuvant or an immunomodulating agent is discussed.


A collaborative filtering recommender system predicts user preferences by discovering common features among users and items. We implement such inference using a Bayesian double feature allocation model, that is, a model for random pairs of subsets. We use an Indian buffet process (IBP) to link users and items to features. Here a feature is a subset of users and a matching subset of items. By training feature-specific rating effects, we predict ratings. We use MovieLens Data to demonstrate posterior inference in the model and prediction of user preferences for unseen items compared to items they have previously rated. Part of the implementation is a novel semi-consensus Monte Carlo method to accomodate large numbers of users and items, as is typical for related applications. The proposed approach implements parallel posterior sampling in multiple shards of users while sharing item-related global parameters across shards.


Approximately 3% of all head and neck neoplasms originate in the parotid gland and less than 1% are oncocytic. We present the rare case of a 44-year-old man with oncocytic carcinoma of the parotid gland with facial nerve invasion and discuss the characteristics of this rare entity.


Because 'globalization' is expressed in many ways and evokes complex responses, it demands various lines of analysis. Globalizing Education shows how this phenomenon is mediated and mitigated by a range of educational policies, pedagogies, and politics. It identifies the forms of educational governance associated with neoliberal globalism and their manifold effects on nation-state education systems, highlighting the colonizing minority-world imperatives and retraditionalizing ramifications. It also shows how the global cultural economy - the disjunctive flows of images, people, and ideas - both challenges and reinforces conventional educational trajectories. The global/national mesh-works created by drugs, technology, and unions are among the complicated connectivities explored. This book exposes the more pernicious effects on education of neo-liberal and corporate globalization and explores and identifies innovative and transformative educational policies, pedagogies, and politics.


Chromatographic techniques for determination of biologically active phenols and polyphenols are considered. Various methods for sample preparation and detection are compared. The advantages of high performance liquid chromatography with spectrophotometric detection for determination of antioxidants are demonstrated. Data on determination of biologically active phenols and polyphenols published in the period from 1995 to 2005 are analysed.


The spectrum of mercury was photographed in the 800-350 Å region on a 3-m normal incidence spectrograph using a triggered spark source. The 5d8-5d76p transition array is analysed. Eight out of 9 levels of the 5d8 configuration and out of 110 levels in the 5d76p configuration have been established. 188 lines of Hg V have been classified in the 400-592 Å region. Least-squares fitted (LSF) calculations have been carried out and the LSF-parameter values are compared with their Hartree-Fock (HF) values.


The complex of attractions of an area forms its tourist resource base and is often neglected or taken for granted in tourist studies. A new, original methodology assesses the tourist potential of such a resource base by taking in consideration the balance between tourist demand, expressed by visitors' preferences, and tourist supply, evaluated on the basis of criteria common to any tourist attraction. The method was originally applied to the southern region of Africa and, from the resulting map of local distribution of tourist values, a set of 20 main tourist regions was identified.


Background: Numerous studies have demonstrated that fibroblast growth factor-2 (FGF-2) signaling may play a pivotal role in the development of pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH). Excessive endothelial FGF-2 contributes to smooth muscle hyperplasia and disease progression. PD173074 is a potent FGF receptor 1 (FGFR-1) inhibitor that displays high activity and selectivity. The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of PD173074 on monocrotaline-induced PAH. We also evaluated whether FGFR-1 inhibition could attenuate bone morphogenetic protein type II receptor (BMPR-II) downregulation in the monocrotaline model. Methods: PAH model was established by a single intraperitoneal injection of monocrotaline. And then a daily intraperitoneal injection of PD173074 (20 mg/kg) was administered from day 14 to day 28. Hemodynamic parameters, right ventricular hypertrophy index and morphometry were evaluated at day 28. Western blot and immunohistochemical analyses were used to determine the expression of FGF-2 and bone morphogenetic protein signaling in the lung tissue. Results: The expression of FGF-2 and FGFR-1 was upregulated in lung tissue after monocrotaline injection and it was accompanied by hemodynamic changes and pulmonary vascular remodeling. PD173074 treatment ameliorated PAH and vascular remodeling. It decreased ERK1/2 activation and rescued total Akt expression, leading to a reduction in both proliferation and apoptosis in the lung. Besides, PD173074 rescued the expression of BMPR-II and p-Smad 1/5/8. Conclusion: These results suggest that PD173074 can alleviate monocrotaline-induced pulmonary arterial hypertension and it may be a useful option for PAH. Our data also suggest a role of FGF-2/bone morphogenetic protein signaling interaction in PAH.


A phenomenological analysis is made of the role of nucleon and quark correlations in the nuclear ground state on the quark momentum distribution in nuclei. The analysis is based on the recent observations in deep-inelastic lepton nuclear scattering of an anomalous nuclear effect. The discussion is framed in the QCD-improved quark parton model. The incoherent nucleon contribution is augmented by contributions representative of correlation effects which are described in a simple cluster model. Two distinct mechanisms are considered: one invoking two-nucleon and three-nucleon clusters with high intrinsic momenta and the other invoking six-quark correlated clusters. It is found that the second six-quark cluster mechanism provides a viable explanation of the anomaly, especially the depletion at large x. The enhancement observed at small x remains problematical in this cluster approach and an explanation of it is attempted in a parton-model approach of Regge behaviour for the sea-quark distribution in nuclei.