Anti-discrimination legislations and employment rights for People with Disabilities (PwDs) have moved to the central of policy in developed countries.  The emerging importance of the role and future of PwDs in society is necessitated by a paradigm shift from a 'charity' to a 'human rights' approach.  According to the 'human rights' approach, the universal (human) rights to a better quality of life should not be the sole exclusivity of able-bodied citizens only; but a privilege extended to PwDs too.  In Malaysia, the 'human rights' approach is slowly permeating into the country's politico-institutional mechanisms reflected in national agendas such as the Vision 2020 blueprint that advocates a sustainable, caring and socially-inclusive Malaysian society.  In this regard, the adoption of the 'human rights' approach is timely and considered as a key prerequisite and milestone to enable and qualify Malaysia to be a developed nation by 2020.  To this end, several policies for PwDs have since been formulated.  However, this paper argues that these policies have failed to deliver in terms of establishing an equitable, socially-inclusive and discrimination-free working environment for Malaysian PwDs.  More significantly, this paper provides valuable empirical evidences that highlight the inadequacies of these policies to address and overcome issues of discrimination that are on-going and continue to persist in Malaysian workplaces.  This paper contends that Malaysia's aspiration to be a caring and socially-inclusive society by 2020 is being challenged and at stake, if, issues of workplace discrimination against Malaysian PwDs are not resolved in a timely manner.


Collateralized Debt Obligations (CDOs) are sophisticated financial products that offer a range of investments, known as tranches, at varying risk levels backed by a collateral pool typically consisting of corporate debt (bonds, loans, default swaps, etc.). The analysis of the risk-return properties of CDO tranches is complicated by the highly nonlinear and time dependent relationship between the cash flows to the tranche and the underlying collateral performance. This paper describes a multiple time step simulation approach that tracks cash flows over the life of a CDO deal to determine the risk characteristics of CDO tranches.


OBJECTIVE
To observe the effect of transplantation of allogeneic adipose-derived stem cells (ADSCs) on serum biochemical indicators and sporting ability in highly endurance-trained rats from a fasciological perspective.

METHODS
The ADSCs were cultured in vitro. Forty male Wistar rats were randomized into 4 equal groups, namely the blank control group, overtraining (model) group, transplantation without training group and overtraining plus transplantation group. The rats in the two overtraining groups were subjected to exhaustive swimming for 1 week, and in the two transplantation groups, cultured allogeneic ADSCs (2×10(6)/ml) were injected via the tail vein. The exhaustion time in swimming and the serum levels of BUN, LDH, BLa, and Hb of the rats were recorded after the treatments.

RESULTS
The rats in the model group showed significantly increased serum BUN, LDH and BLa levels and decreased Hb level with a extended exhaustion time as compared with those in the blank control group (P<0.01). The BUN, LDH and BLa was significantly lower, Hb level higher and the exhaustion time significantly longer in the overtraining plus transplantation group than those in the model group (P<0.01).

CONCLUSIONS
ADSCs can effectively prolong the exhaustion time of rats during exhaustive swimming and enhance their sporting ability.


The objective of the study was to examine the coverage of the sealing program on first permanent molars (FPMs) and second permanent molars (SPMs) and first and second premolars (FSPMs), as well as to monitor the fate of the sealed teeth over time. All patients born in 1977 who had had regular check-ups in the Varkaus Health Center, Finland (n = 166) were included in the 1996 study. Data on the annual state of each tooth had been collected retrospectively since 1983. The coverage for the sealant program was 95%, 92%, and 6% of the FPMs, SPMs, and FSPMs, respectively. Out of the FPMs sealed at age 6 years, 28% were subjected to resealing, 13% developed occlusal, and 15% proximal caries during a 13-year follow-up period. From the SPMs sealed at age 11 years, 24% were subjected to resealing, 4% developed occlusal caries, and less than 2% proximal caries during the 9-year follow-up. None of the sealed FSPMs and only 1% of the non-sealed ones developed occlusal caries during the 9-year period. The mean DMF in the study population (n = 160) at age 12 years was 0.8 (n = 124), compared to a nation-wide mean value of 1.2. A large percentage of the FPMs and SPMs were sealed and then resealed during the study period. Although the study design lacked a control group for comparison, the lower caries rates of this study compared to the results of other studies with only a single application of sealants suggest a major role for resealing.


Abstract : The Mexican military, using its existing capabilities, has been able to successfully deploy in support of international HA/DR missions over the last four decades. While the recipients of this assistance have praised Mexico's contributions to these international efforts, there is room for improvement in how Mexico integrates its forces into international humanitarian responses. This monograph presents an analysis of the Mexican policies, objectives, and strategies in humanitarian assistance. It contrasts Mexico's performance in the humanitarian assistance mission in Haiti following the January 2010 earthquake and suggests three areas in which Mexico could make substantive efforts to improve its humanitarian assistance system. First, Mexico's government should develop policies and doctrine that align Mexico's humanitarian assistance efforts with established international protocols. Second, the federal government should establish an organization with the means to integrate the planning, preparation, and execution of government agencies, the military, and participating non-governmental organizations. Finally, Mexico should pursue the implementation of a training strategy to integrate the preparation of government agencies and military forces to participate in international humanitarian responses and should collect lessons learned from responding elements to further improve training and execution.


Summary: The field of descriptive combinatorics investigates to what extent classical combinatorial results and techniques can be made topologically or measure-theoretically well behaved. This paper examines a class of coloring problems induced by actions of countable groups on Polish spaces, with the requirement that the desired coloring be Baire measurable. We show that the set of all such coloring problems that admit a Baire measurable solution for a particular free action α is complete analytic (apart from the trivial situation when the orbit equivalence relation induced by α is smooth on a comeager set); this result confirms the 'hardness' of finding a topologically well-behaved coloring. When α is the shift action, we characterize the class of problems for which α has a Baire measurable coloring in purely combinatorial terms; it turns out that closely related concepts have already been studied in graph theory with no relation to descriptive set theory. We remark that our framework permits a wholly dynamical interpretation (with colorings corresponding to equivariant maps to a given subshift), so this article can also be viewed as a contribution to generic dynamics.


Objective: To analyse and compare the phospholipid and fatty acid composition of total lipids and the occurrence of lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation directly in erythrocytes or platelets from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and asthma patients. Patients: Fifteen consecutive outpatients with COPD (all smokers) and asthma (non-smokers) recruited during a moderate-to-severe (COPD) or moderate (asthma) exacerbation. Fifteen subjects with smoking habits similar to those of COPD patients were studied as a control group. Methods: Phospholipid and total fatty acid compositions were analysed by two-dimensional thin layer chromatography or gas chromatography–mass spectrometry, respectively. The lipid fluorescence of lipid extracts was measured by spectrofluorimetry. Protein carbonyl contents and profiles were measured by immunoblot detection. Results: No differences were found either in erythrocyte or platelet cholesterol or phospholipid levels. Only a decrease in the content of phosphatidylserine + phosphatidylinositol (P < 0.003) was detected in platelets from the asthma patients. In erythrocytes, the fatty acid profile changed in both lung pathologies, especially as regards polyunsaturated fatty acids (decreases in arachidonic and 22:4 fatty acid contents). Other observed changes were: COPD, an increase in palmitic fatty acid; asthma, an increase in oleic and decreases in eicosapentaenoic and 22:6 + 24:1 fatty acids. In platelets, the fatty acid profiles revealed many differences between both lung pathologies: COPD, a decrease in 18:1 and increases in 20:5 and 22:5 + 24:0; asthma, a decrease in 20:4 and increase in 22:6 + 24:1. In COPD vs. asthma patients, fatty acid changes were mainly detected in platelets, especially in 18-carbon species, with decreases in stearic and 18:1 fatty acids in the COPD patients. Protein oxidation levels were increased in both lung pathologies in both erythrocytes and platelets. Conclusions: COPD and asthma are associated with common or specific changes in the lipid composition of erythrocytes and/or platelets. The data point to lipid peroxidation and protein oxidation phenomena in both types of blood cell, although platelets would be more susceptible to stress.


In the framework of the currently ongoing effort to find the best transmission solution for Gigabit Ethernet over Step-Index Polymer Optical Fiber (SI-POF), we give a novel contribution through the comparison of three possible modulation formats: Pulse Amplitude Modulation (PAM)-2, PAM-4 and duobinary, all coupled with electronic equalization at the receiver. We show that on a 50 meters SI-POF link using Resonant Cavity Light Emitting Diode (RC-LED), duobinary gives the best performance, followed by PAM-2 and then by PAM-4. All evaluations were performed by off-line processing experiments.


Polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) is widely used to manufacture removable orthodontic appliances. However, since the porous structure, cold-curing acrylic resins are susceptible to bacterial adhesion and colonization. The aim of this study was to investigate the antibacterial and mechanical properties of a cold-curing PMMA resin containing ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles supported on the 4A zeolite. ZnO and TiO2 nanoparticles supported on the 4A zeolite were synthesized. Nanoparticles were added in three compositions as ZnO/4A, TiO2/4A, and ZnO/TiO2/4A at 2wt% and 4wt% concentrations to cold-curing acrylic resin powder (SR Triplex® Cold Ivoclar Vivadent AG, FL-9494 Schaan/Liechtenstein). X-ray diffraction (XRD), Field Emission Scanning Electron Microscopy (FE-SEM), energy dispersive X-ray (EDX), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and dynamic light scattering (DLS) were performed to investigate the nanocomposite characteristics. A direct test method was used to assess the antibacterial properties against Streptococcus mutans, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and Escherichia coli. The surface roughness of acrylic samples was measured with a profilometer. Flexural strength was evaluated by a three-point bending test, and one-way ANOVA and Tukey's post hoc tests were used for statistical evaluation of the data. A p value of less than 0.05 was considered statistically significant. XRD confirmed the accurate crystalline structure of synthesized nanoparticles; FE-SEM images showed nanoparticle dispersion within polymerized acryl. The addition of 2 and 4 wt% of ZnO/4A, TiO2/4A, and ZnO/TiO2/4A caused colony reduction in all types of tested microorganisms more than 99% and 100%, respectively. The mean flexural strengths of acrylic specimens containing 2wt% and 4wt% of synthesized nanoparticles were significantly lower than those of the resin without nanoparticles. Fabricated samples showed favorable antibacterial properties but decreased flexural strength.


The study is conducting to isolate and toxinotype the suspected cases of Clostridium perfringens infections of broiler farms in Sulaimania province. A total of 108 samples were collected from intestinal contents, mucosal scraping, and hemorrhagic lymphoid nodules from suspected cases of necrotic enteritis in broilers. The result of isolated and identified bacteria were revealed that 63 (58%) out of 108 samples were positive for C. perfringens. The results revealed that the isolates were only positive for alpha and beta2 toxin genes. Phylogenetic and DNA sequence analysis of cpa and cpb2 gene showed that cpa genes were highly identical to isolates from broiler in Iran, poultry stool and broiler in Brazil, and blue calves in Belgium. While cpb2 gene is closely related to the isolates of broiler in Iran, India and isolates of goat in Pakistan. The results indicated that the causative agent of necrotic enteritis in broiler farms in the region was mainly due to C. perfringens type A infection


CWI's research has a theme-oriented structure and is grouped into four clusters. Listed below are the names of the clusters and in parentheses their acronyms. ABSTRACT We introduce PGSOS, an operator specification format for (reactive) probabilistic transition systems which bears similarity to the known GSOS format for labelled (nondeterministic) transition systems. Like the standard one, the format is well behaved in the sense that on all models bisimilarity is a congruence and the up-to-context proof principle is valid. Moreover, guarded recursive equations involving the specified operators have unique solutions up to bisimilarity. These results generalize well-behavedness results given in the literature for specific operators that turn out to be definable by our format. PGSOS arose from the following procedure: Turi and Plotkin proposed to model specifications in the (standard) GSOS format as natural transformations of a type they call abstract GSOS. This formulation allows for simple proofs of several well-behavedness properties, such as bisimilarity being a congruence on all models of such a specification. First, we give a full proof of Turi and Plotkin's claim about the correspondence of abstract GSOS and standard GSOS for labelled transition systems. Next, we instantiate their categorical framework to yield a specification format for probabilistic transition systems. The main contribution of the present paper is the derivation of the PGSOS format as a rule-style representation of the natural transformations obtained this way. We benefit from the fact that some parts of our argument for the nondeterministic case can be reused. The well-behavedness results for abstract GSOS immediately carry over to the new concrete format. 1. Introduction In theoretical computer science one often deals with systems that carry an algebraic as well as a behavioural structure. For example this is the case when an operational semantics is assigned to the terms of a programming language. As another example – which is dual in some sense – one may want


The standard model of adrenocortical zonation holds that the three main zones, glomerulosa, fasciculata, and reticularis each have a distinct function, producing mineralocorticoids (in fact just aldosterone), glucocorticoids, and androgens respectively. Moreover, each zone has its specific mechanism of regulation, though ACTH has actions throughout. Finally, the cells of the cortex originate from a stem cell population in the outer cortex or capsule, and migrate centripetally, changing their phenotype as they progress through the zones. Recent progress in understanding the development of the gland and the distribution of steroidogenic enzymes, trophic hormone receptors, and other factors suggests that this model needs refinement. Firstly, proliferation can take place throughout the gland, and although the stem cells are certainly located in the periphery, zonal replenishment can take place within zones. Perhaps more importantly, neither the distribution of enzymes nor receptors suggest that the individual zones are necessarily autonomous in their production of steroid. This is particularly true of the glomerulosa, which does not seem to have the full suite of enzymes required for aldosterone biosynthesis. Nor, in the rat anyway, does it express MC2R to account for the response of aldosterone to ACTH. It is known that in development, recruitment of stem cells is stimulated by signals from within the glomerulosa. Furthermore, throughout the cortex local regulatory factors, including cytokines, catecholamines and the tissue renin-angiotensin system, modify and refine the effects of the systemic trophic factors. In these and other ways it more and more appears that the functions of the gland should be viewed as an integrated whole, greater than the sum of its component parts.


Measuring real-time end-to-end network path performance metrics is important for several distributed applications such as media streaming systems (e.g., for switching to paths with higher bandwidth and lower jitter) and content distribution systems (e.g., for selecting servers with lower latency). However, it is challenging to perform such end-to-end pairwise measurements in large distributed systems while achieving high accuracy and avoid interfering with existing traffic. On the end hosts, the measurements can overload the machine by causing interference among themselves and other processes. On the network, the measurement packets from different hosts can interfere among themselves and with other flows on bottleneck links. In this paper, we propose a system to monitor end-host and network resources and adapt the number of measurements according to the observed load. Our scheme avoids interference by measuring only a small subset of network paths and reconstructing the entire network path properties from the partial, indirect measurements. Our simulation experiments and real testbed experiments on PlanetLab show that our path selection algorithm working with resource constraints does not adversely affect the accuracy of inference and our system can effectively adapt to the changing resource usage at the end hosts.


Prothrombin time (PT) and activated partial thromboplastin time (APTT) are important investigations used for evaluation of coagulation system and monitoring of anticoagulant therapy. This study was conducted at Faculty of Medical laboratories Science, Elneelain University, Khartoum, Sudan. It is aimed to study the effect of freezing storage (at -20c) of citrated plasma on PT and APTT. Blood samples were collected from 50 healthy volunteer, and platelet poor plasma was separated. PT and APTT were performed immediately after plasma separation using part of the plasma; the rest of the plasma stored at - 20?C in 3 different plastic containers and PT and APTT were performed after 1, 2, and 3 weeks on these samples. The results revealed that PT and APTT results for the samples stored for 1, 2, and 3 weeks were significantly different (P.value> 0.05) from the result of fresh plasma and from each others. PT and APTT were raised with increased storage duration. In conclusion, freezing storage at -20?C affect PT and APTT, so it is preferably that PT and APTT performed immediately after sample collection.


In this study, a biodegradable thermo-sensitive hydrogel from poly(trimethylene carbonate)15-F127-poly(trimethylene carbonate)15 (PTMC15-F127-PTMC15) was designed and evaluated as an injectable implant during ocular glaucoma filtration surgery in vivo and in vitro. Mitomycin C (MMC) was loaded into this hydrogel for controlled released to prolong the efficacy and to reduce the long-term toxicity. The properties of the hydrogel were confirmed using 1H NMR and gel permeation chromatography (GPC). Compared to the Pluronic F127 hydrogel, the PTMC15-F127-PTMC15 hydrogel showed a good solution-gel transition temperature at 37°C, a lower work concentration of 5% w/v and a longer mass loss time of more than 2 weeks. The in vitro study showed that the drug could be released from PTMC15-F127-PTMC15 (5% w/v) hydrogel for up to 16 days with only 57% of drug released in the first day. Moreover, the cell toxicity, which was tested via LDH and ANNEXIN V/PI, decreased within 72 h in human tenon's fibroblast cells (HTFs). The in vivo behavior in a rabbit glaucoma filtration surgery model indicated that this hydrogel loaded with 0.1 mg/ml MMC led to a better functional bleb with a prolonged mean bleb survival time (25.5±2.9 days). The scar tissue formation, new collagen deposition and myofibroblast generation appeared to be reduced upon histological and immunohistochemistry examinations, with no obvious side effects and inflammatory reactions. The in vitro and in vivo results demonstrated that this novel hydrogel is a safe and effective drug delivery candidate in ocular glaucoma surgery.


Introduction: People with special health care needs (SHCN) have a higher risk of contracting certain oral diseases, such as dental cavities and gingivitis, and a limited use of dental care services can significantly affect these risks. Objective: To assess the use of dental care services and related factors in students with SHCN. Materials and methods: This cross-sectional study included subjects from a rehabilitation and education center. The guardians were asked aboutwhether the students already made a dental appointment and about the last time they had visited their dentist. The students were examinedfor dental cavities. Fisher's exact test for the association between the outcome and independent variables was employed. Results: The study sample comprised 51 guardians. Forty-seven students had already visited their dentist at least once, and 68% underwent a dental exam within the past year. A recent use of dental service (1 year or less) was more prevalent among female subjects, which did not present a history of dental cavities and about whose caregiversalready had received oral health information. Conclusion: Most of the participants already had visited their dentist and regularly usedental services. Caregivers should be encouraged to make regular dentist appointments for SHCN subjects, especially for those who already have oral problems, are male, and whose families have never received oral health information.


Dieulafoy's lesion is a life-threatening and rare vascular malformation of the submucosal vessel that protrudes to the mucosa of the gastrointestinal tract. The vessel is abnormally dilated, and if it ruptures, it can cause severe acute gastrointestinal bleeding. We report an upper GI bleeding case due to Dieulafoy's lesion in the gastric fundus of the stomach in a 76-year-old female. The patient presented with hematemesis and melena associated with anemia. An esophagogastroduodenoscopy (OGD) was performed which showed profuse pulsatile bleeding at the gastric fundus. Following that, gastrotomy confirmed the diagnosis of Dieulafoy's lesion. Endoscopy is the main diagnostic and therapeutic tool for Dieulafoy's lesion. Endoscopic treatment includes injective, ablative and mechanical therapies. The majority of cases are treated endoscopically, while in some cases, surgical intervention is deemed to be necessary as it is currently the only definitive treatment of Dieulafoy's lesion.


The capability of acoustic Doppler velocimeters to resolve flow turbulence is analyzed. Acoustic Doppler velocimeter performance curves (APCs) are introduced to define optimal flow and sampling conditions for measuring turbulence. To generate the APCs, a conceptual model is developed which simulates different flow conditions as well as the instrument operation. Different scenarios are simulated using the conceptual model to generate synthetic time series of water velocity and the corresponding sampled signals. Main turbulence statistics of the synthetically generated, sampled, and nonsampled time series are plotted in dimensionless form (APCs). The relative importance of the Doppler noise on the total measured energy is also evaluated for different noise energy levels and flow conditions. The proposed methodology can be used for the design of experimental measurements, as well as for the interpretation of both field and laboratory observations using acoustic Doppler velocimeters.


The present investigation reports an easy access to a library of novel spiro-oxindole-pyrrolizine or pyrrolo[1,2-c]thiazole fused coumarin hybrid heterocycles through a one-pot sequential four-component reactions of 2,2-dimethyl-1,3-dioxane-4,6-dione, salicylaldehydes, isatins, and cyclic α-amino acids under ultrasound irradiation.


: Concerns have been raised about the impact Australia's national standardised testing, the National Assessment Program – Literacy and Numeracy (NAPLAN), has upon the well-being of students, parents, and teachers. To date, research evidence is unclear as to the level and extent of emotional distress experienced by stakeholders during testing. Despite an unclear evidence base, the prevailing view is that NAPLAN has a general negative impact upon stakeholder well-being. In a pilot study that surveyed all stakeholder groups across 11 independent schools in Western Australia, we found evidence of a minimal impact from the testing. We also found evidence for a small positive association between student and parent distress during testing, and a moderate positive association between parent and teacher distress during testing and their estimations regarding how NAPLAN impacts other people. Our results are not consistent with the prevailing view that NAPLAN has a broad negative impact on well-being, and highlights the need for further research to inform debates about the usefulness and impact of NAPLAN testing.


Bacterial colonisation of wounds may delay wound healing. Modern silver-containing dressings are antimicrobial, yet cellular toxicity is a serious side-effect. We provide data for a newly formulated silver-containing oint ment dressing, Atrauman Ag, for antimicrobial activity and cytotoxicity. Atrauman Ag effectively killed a panel of commensal skin as well as pathogenic bacterial strains while cytotoxicity for HaCaT keratinocytes was only around 10%. With these favourable in vitro tests, Atrauman Ag was analysed in 86 patients with traumatic and non-healing wounds of different aetiologies. The wound state was evaluated for 3 subsequent dressing changes. The slough score was reduced from 59.2 to 35.8%, granulation tissue increased from 27 to 40% and epithelialisation went up from 12.1 to 24%. We conclude that Atrauman Ag has a superior profile of antimicrobial activity over cellular toxicity and the low silver ion release rate may prevent interference with wound-healing mechanisms.


TWO RNA WORLD HYPOTHESES Because they are organic molecules, ribonucleic acids can be understood using the language of organic chemistry. Those who accept the premise in the title of this book, however, regard RNA as very special organic molecules. Today on earth, given appropriate collections of catalysts from modern life, RNA can direct its own replication, where the replicates are imperfectly made, and where the imperfections are themselves replicatable. Such a combination of properties allows an organic system to support Darwinian evolution, the only process known to naturally generate functional behavior in chemistry. Only one other class of molecules, DNA, is known to be similarly special. In modern life on earth, DNA and RNA collaborate with a third encoded class of biomolecules, proteins, to support Darwinian evolution. This collaboration, in turn, generates the enormous range of life that today occupies nearly every habitable niche on the planet. Those interested in the origin of Darwinian evolution have for four decades speculated that RNA might have supported Darwinian evolution without other encoded molecules (Rich 1962), either DNA or proteins. The "RNA World" title has come to be associated with this speculation (Gilbert 1986). The notion of an RNA World relates to two classes of hypotheses. One class holds that an earlier form of life on earth used RNA as the only genetically encoded component of biological catalysis. Evidence for this is found within the details of the biochemistry of contemporary life on earth and appears to be reasonably well supported (Crick 1968;Visser...


Simply detecting Epstein–Barr virus deoxyribonucleic acid (EBV-DNA) is insufficient to diagnose EBV-associated diseases. The current literature around EBV-DNA detection from cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-positive non-lymphoma patients was systematically reviewed and a meta-analysis reporting the estimated pooled prevalence in this population when PCR methods are employed, targeting different sequence segments within the EBV genome, was conducted. Using a combination of three key concepts—Epstein–Barr virus detection, central nervous system disease, and human cerebrospinal fluid—and their MeSH terms, the PubMed database was searched. A total of 273 papers reporting the detection of EBV in CNS were screened, of which 13 met the inclusion criteria. The meta-analysis revealed a pooled prevalence of EBV-DNA in CSF of 20% (CI: 12–31%). The highest pooled prevalence was from studies conducted on the African population at 39% (CI: 27–51%). The investigation of the presence of EBV-DNA in the CSF was also very varied, with several gene targets used. While most patients from the articles included in this review and meta-analysis were symptomatic of CNS disorders, the pathogenicity of EBV in non-lymphoma HIV patients when detected in CSF has still not been determined. The presence of EBV-DNA in the CNS remains a concern, and further research is warranted to understand its significance in causing CNS disorders.


The latest developments on micromorph tandem cells in small area laboratory and large area industrial PE-CVD systems are reviewed. We report on a 13.3% initial efficiency micromorph tandem cell deposited in our small area system. The development of an in-situ silicon oxide based intermediate reflector layer (SOIR) was essential in order to achieve such high efficiencies. We describe its detailed material structure and discuss optical management aspects for different cell configurations. In our large area industrial RD reactor the highest efficiency so far obtained is a 11.0% initial efficiency micromorph tandem cell. We discuss in detail the role of pressure and silane depletion on the cell parameters of single junction microcrystalline cells and present efficiency trends decreasing from 8.2% to 7.0% with deposition rates increasing from 0.3 nm/s to 1.2 nm/s.


A large proportion of U.S. agricultural trade flows to Pacific areas. Agricultural policy adjustments create conflict among Pacific traders of dairy products. Dairy policies of four major actors in . Pacific dairy trade are reviewed and their implications for U.S. entry into the international dairy market are presented.


Investigation of the human behavior is in the focus of attention of researchers since many decades. This problem is actual and important also present day. Main purpose of the author is to summarize theoretical backgrounds dealing with mathematical modeling of the human pilot behavior. Second interesting topic being investigated is to give some approximated models of the human pilot applying Pade approximation method. Importance of this paper is in derivation and application of higher order Pade approximants to model human pilot behavior. This new approach allows to model pilot behavior more precisely than before with applying the common first order approximants. The lower and higher order approximants will be analyzed both in time and in frequency domain. A new MATLAB embedded m-file is created by the author to analyze pilot mathematical models.


Human neutrophils express two types of Fey receptors, the transmemhrane FcyRIIa and the glycan-phosphatidylinositol-anchored FcyRIIIh, that show synergism in provoking a cellular response. To analyse further the requirements for this synergism to occur we used the monoclonal antibody 3G8, directed against FcyRIII. This antibody is able to induce neutrophil activation, as measured by an increase in the intracellular free Ca*+ concentration and homotypic neutrophil aggregation, but only when the Fc part of the antibody is able to interact with FcyRIIa. We observed that binding of the Fab parts of 3G8 mAb to two FcyRIIIb molecules and binding of the Fc part to one FcyRIIa molecule is required, because a bispecific antibody, 2B1, in which only one 3G8 Fab is present, did not induce neutrophil activation. Moreover, engagement of one FcyRIIa molecule and two FcyRIIIb molecules on the same cell is instrumental to achieve activation of the mAb 3G8. The activation of neutrophils by the 3G8 antibody represents a further example of synergistic activation of neutrophils via Fey receptors. c': 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd


K. O. Friedrichs devised a technique for the qualitative analysis of the spectra of second order differential operators. It is shown that a modification of this technique can be used to obtain quantitative information regarding the distribution of eigenvalues of such operators. These calculations are easy to carry out and explicit examples demonstrate remarkable agreement with precise calculations.


In cattle, nearly all heifers born co-twin to a male are freemartins, XX/XY chimeras that exhibit a characteristic masculinized phenotype. However, in sheep, while litters containing males and females are common, freemartins are relatively rare. The primary aim of this study was to determine the frequency and features of XX/XY chimerism in female Rideau Arcott sheep. Also, breeding records were used to investigate the effect of litter size and sex ratios, as well as the genetic basis of the condition. Finally, the migration and transcriptional competence of cells of the opposite sex in the XX/XY female and male chimeras was explored. Genomic DNA (gDNA) from peripheral blood cells of ewes was screened by PCR for the male-specific SRY gene. Of 230 lambs screened, 10 were identified as chimeras. Litter size and sex ratio showed no statistically significant effect on the frequency of chimerism. PCR and FISH analysis confirmed the presence of opposite sex cells in female and male chimeras, and in the case of ewes, their migration to tissues other than blood. Transcriptional activity of SRY and AMH was detected in gonads of ewes, whereas XIST expression was detected in white blood cells of chimeric rams. It was concluded that the frequency of sex chromosome chimerism in Rideau Arcott sheep is estimated at 4.35%, with no significant effect of litter size and sex ratio. Moreover, as it was shown that opposite sex cells can migrate to tissues other than blood and be transcriptionally active in chimeric sheep, we speculate on the role they can play in these animals.


Chaotic mixing in three different types of curved-rectangular channels flow has been studied experimentally and numerically. Two walls of the channel (inner and top walls) rotate around the center of curvature and a pressure gradient are imposed in the direction toward the exit of the channel. This flow is a kind of Taylor-Dean flow. There are two parameters dominating the flow, the Dean number De (∝ the pressure gradient or the Reynolds number) and the Taylor number Tr (∝ the angular velocity of the wall rotation). In this paper, we analyze the physical mechanism of chaotic mixing in the Taylor-Dean flow by comparing experimental results and numerical ones. We produced three micromixer models of the curved channel, several centimeters long, with rectangular cross-section of a few millimeters side. The secondary flow is measured using laser induced fluorescence (LIF) method to examine secondary flow characteristics. Also we performed three-dimensional numerical simulations with the open source CFD solver, OpenFOAM, for the same configuration as the experimental system to study the mechanism of chaotic mixing. It is found that good mixing performance is obtained in the case of De ≤ 0.1 Tr, and it becomes more remarkable when the aspect ratio tends to large. And it is found that the mixing efficiency changes according to the aspect ratio and inflow condition.


In aging humans, night levels of melatonin (MEL) decline progressively. Also thyroid and gonadal functions decline during aging while gonadotropins (luteotropic hormone (LH) and follicle stimulating hormone (FSH)) steadily increase. A desynchronization of pineal circadian cyclicity as expressed by the progressive decrease of the MEL night peak may be permissively linked to the onset and progression of menopause. We studied the effects of exogenous, evening administration of MEL on the level of hormones which are known to be involved in the genesis and progression of menopause. Perimenopausal and menopausal women from 42 to 62 years of age with no pathology or medication were selected. MEL was measured in saliva to divide them into low, medium and high-MEL patients. Half of them took 3 mg MEL and half of them Placebo at bedtime (10±12 p.m.) in a fully randomized and double-blind fashion. Three and six months later blood was taken for determination of pituitary (LH, FSH), ovarian, and thyroid hormones I(T3 and T4). All women taking MEL with low basal level of MEL and/or Placebo for three and six months showed a signi®cant increase in levels of thyroid hormones. Before initiation of the study, a negative correlation was found in all women between LH, FSH and basal MEL levels. Within six months of treatment, MEL produced a signi®cant diminution of LH in the younger women (43 to 49 year-old), while no effect was seen in the older women (50±62 years old). A decrement of FSH was observed in MEL-treated women with low basal MEL levels. In addition, most MEL-treated women reported a general improvement of mood and a signi®cant mitigation of depression. MEL decline during aging may thus signal the derangement of pineal and pituitary-controlled ovarian cyclicity and the progressive quenching of G. Bellipanni et al. / Experimental Gerontology 36 (2001) 297±310 297 Experimental Gerontology 36 (2001) 297±310 www.elsevier.nl/locate/expgero 0531-5565/01/$ see front matter q 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved. PII: S0531-5565(00)00217-5 * Corresponding author. Tel.: 141-91-648-2440; fax: 141-91-648-3070. E-mail address: email@example.com (W. Pierpaoli). 1 Deceased on 15 October 1999. fertility in women. These ®ndings seem to show a recovery of pituitary and thyroid functions in MEL-treated women, towards a more juvenile pattern of regulation. q 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.


What is left of this initial project once Kotarbiński's textbook became obsolete – as Kotarbiński himself claims, perhaps too modestly, in the preface of its second edition, in 1959 – and also given the strong criticism of reism, particularly by Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz [1966]? My answer is that the philosophical project of reism then became a methodological framework for intellectual work in general, and in particular for humanistic studies, or what we today call the Human and Social Sciences.


We use an assemblage theory framework to evaluate anthropomorphism experiences from self-extension and self-expansion processes when consumers and smart devices interact. Results show that overall, anthropomorphism is greater when the consumer has less compared to more control. Additionally, device complexity moderates whether anthropomorphism occurs through a self-extension or self-expansion process.


Experiments are described in which a hardened steel wedge was indented vertically into the horizontal surface of an aluminium alloy specimen with subsequent horizontal movement of the specimen in a direction normal to the edge of the wedge with the vertical force held constant. Forces were recorded during a test and observations made of the plastic deformation of the specimen at the end of a test. Experimental results for a range of wedge angles and different lubricants are compared with results predicted from a slipline field analysis of asperity deformation in which the frictional force is considered to be the force needed to push waves of plastically deformed material ahead of wedge shaped asperities on the harder surface. Although the slipline field results are for an assumed non-hardening material, allowance is made in the calculations for the strain hardening of the actual test material by using average values of flow stress obtained from a stress-strain curve for the material.


The body of literature on the relationship between risk aversion and wealth is extensive. However, little attention has been given to examining how future realizations of wealth might affect (current) risk decisions. Using paired lottery choice experiments and exposing subjects experimentally to imagined future wealth frames, I find that individuals are more risk-seeking if they are asked to imagine that they will be wealthy in the future. Yet I find that individuals are not significantly more risk-averse if they are asked to imagine that they will be poor in the future. I discuss theoretical and policy implications of these findings, including why savings rates are so low in the United States.


A cryptographically generated address (CGA) is an IPv6 address
generated by applying a hash function over the public key of a node
and some additional parameters. CGA ownership can be asserted only by
the node claiming the address, but is readily verifiable using the
public-key of that node by any other entity. Such address
authorization is also plausible using symmetric keys, where a node
generating the self-identifying address shares a key with the verifier
or its agent. This document specifies symmetric-key based address
(SBA) generation. The infrastructure support comes with several
advantages including proxy-mode operation; the symmetric key usage
results in efficient operation; and finally the use of keyed hashing
provides security advantages over CGAs.


This paper is an attempt to understand the intersected nature of the appropriation of the spaces, events and acts of oppressed castes (and gender) in the 'Progressive' Sindhi short stories and in everyday politics. I specifically discuss the three popular short stories that are projected as having exceptional emancipatory potential for the Dalits and women. Mounting the Ambedkarian critique of the Progressive writers' political agenda premised on Sindhi nationalism, I interrogate the short-story writer's caste location and the content of short stories having empirical consequences for Dalit (women) in everyday life. I contend that even these seemingly pro-Dalit and pro-woman fictional narratives and their empirical interpretations, do not pass the test of Ambedkarian epistemology as they do not show any commitment to the annihilation of caste/casteism and gender disparities, and rather suggest objectification of Dalit bodies instead of emancipation through Dalit agency.


We have identified elements in the 5' region of the murine tissue inhibitor of metalloproteinase (TIMP) gene which control the response to serum, phorbol esters and transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) in cell culture. These elements lie between -858 and -601 relative to the translation initiation start site in the gene and are distinct from those that control expression in response to virus induction. The temporal and spatial expression of the TIMP gene was also analysed during mouse embryogenesis using in situ hybridization. A transgenic mouse line was constructed which expressed a TIMP/lac Z fusion gene. Using in situ beta-galactosidase assays we were able to compare the expression of the transgene with the endogenous gene. Thus we concluded that most of the sequences controlling in vivo expression of TIMP were present in the transgene and could be localised to the 5' region of the gene.


ABSTRACT This article reviews the contribution of Hart and Holmström, the 2016 Nobel Laureates in economics. Holmström's work on the principal-agent problem answered questions as to what should (and should not) be included in an incentive contract. His work helped explain the simple structure of incentive contracts we typically observe in the real world. The models he developed have been used to address questions of CEO compensation, organizational design and optimal regulation. A key element of Hart's research focused on the question of what are the optimal boundaries of a firm (and indeed, what a firm actually is). In doing so he developed the incomplete-contracts framework, which has subsequently been used to explain many economic phenomena whenever renegotiation is important, including authority and decision-making structures in firms, why financial contracts look the way they do, and various questions in international trade and public policy.


Thin (Ba/sub 0.5/Sr/sub 0.5/)TiO/sub 3/ (BST) films were sputtered on Pt/TiN/Ti/Si multilayer substrates at very low temperature (150/spl deg/C). A novel process, using wavelength 248-nm KrF excimer laser annealing (ELA), has been undertaken to implement barium strontium titanate (BST) films at a low process temperature of 300/spl deg/C. The crystallinity and dielectric constant are greatly improved after ELA treatment. In this work, the variation of texture was investigated. Besides, the escaped oxygen atoms from BST films were detected in-situ using a residual gas analyzer (RGA) during ELA process. Thus, the degradation of upper surface is strongly influenced by the laser energy fluence for an ELA-BST film.


This paper describes a high efficiency rectifier circuit for passive UHF radio frequency identification (RFID) applications. The simulation and measurement show efficiency of 30.7% and 15% at low input power level respectively. The rectifier was fabricated in a standard 0.18um CMOS process and its core circuit occupied 0.169×O.137 mm2 silicon area.


The responsibility of the Coordinating Committee in the management of wildlife, including caribou, in northern Quebec is self-evident. Since its establishment in 1975 the committee has attempted to fulfil this responsibility. Initially the committee was hampered in its efforts largely due to a different interpretation of this responsibility among the parties. However, a three stage process for reviewing and discussing management initiatives has evolved over the years which has been shown to be effective. Through trial and error over the years, the committee has come to fulfil its intended role - that of "coordinating" wildlife management in northern Quebec in conjunction with the responsible governments.


With South Africa's ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), various obligations relating to the protection of children and their rights have been incurred. These obligations included the establishment of laws, procedures, and institutions to address the issue of children in conflict with the law. After more than a decade of drafting, deliberating, advocating and lobbying the Child Justice Act 75 of 2008 (the Act) was finally signed into law by the then President of South Africa, Kgalema Motlanthe and published in the Government Gazette during May 2009. The implementation date was set for 1 April 2010.


The problem of proximate time-optimal control of third-order systems is considered. Two proximate time-optimal servomechanisms, PTO53 and PTO53 tau , are proposed for type-3 and type-2 third-order plants, respectively. Theorems stating sufficient conditions on each system's control design parameters to ensure global stability are given, and it is shown that the control parameters can be adjusted to accommodate, more or less, disturbances and unmodeled dynamics in the system. The approach used to develop the controllers is that of constructing a 'slab' in three-dimensional state space that describe the 'switching' structure of the control. The technique relies on three-dimensional phase-space analysis, which is rarely applied to systems of order three or higher. Simulation and experimental results demonstrate the performance of the algorithms developed. >


A distributed robot control system is proposed based on a temporal self-organizing neural network, called a competitive temporal Hebbian (CTH) network. The CTH network can learn and recall complex trajectories using two sets of synaptic weights, namely competitive feedforward weights that encode the individual states of the trajectory and Hebbian lateral weights that encode the temporal order of the trajectory states. Ambiguities that occur during trajectory reproduction are resolved using temporal context information. Also, the CTH network saves memory space by maintaining only a single copy of each repeated/shared state of a complex trajectory. A distributed processing scheme is proposed to evaluate the CTH network in the point-to-point real-time trajectory control of a Puma 560 robot. The performance of the control system is discussed and compared with other neural network approaches.


Muscle glycogen concentration decreases continuously during prolonged severe exercise. The rate of depletion increases with increasing exercise intensity. During heavy exercise at 65-75% of VO2 max, time till exhaustion correlates with the pre-exercise muscle glycogen concentration and exhaustion coincides with empty glycogen stores. A substantial number of type I fibres are depleted within 60 min of mild exercise (43% of VO2 max). These results suggest that glycogen depletion may contribute to muscle fatigue even during light exercise. When glycogen depletion becomes present in an increasing number of type I fibres, glycogen breakdown occur in an increasing number of type II fibres, indicating that these fibres take over more of the force development. It is well documented that a high carbohydrate diet is a prerequisite for a rapid post-exercise muscle glycogen resynthesis. Recent studies indicate that there is an increasing rate of glycogen resynthesis with increasing oral glucose intake up to a certain level. A further increase in glucose intake gives no further increase in the rate of resynthesis. However, glucose infusion is reported to induce a 2-3 times higher rate of resynthesis. This higher rate of resynthesis may be caused by the higher blood glucose concentration which can occur during glucose infusion. Preliminary results indicate that muscle glycogen is resynthesized at equal rates when the blood glucose concentration is kept at the same level, irrespective of whether the glucose is administered orally or by infusion. Muscle glycogen resynthesis seems to be slower during fructose ingestion than glucose ingestion.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


In the last 60 years, Australia has transformed from a country 95 per cent white and 90 per cent British, to country where half the population was born overseas or has at least one parent born overseas, from over 260 countries. This dramatic change in racial and ethnic composition was accompanied by an equally dramatic reversal in community attitudes to immigration and racial and cultural diversity – from 90 per cent opposed in the early 1970s, to 90 per cent in favor in 2009. This paper offers a new explanation for this remarkably quick and harmonious transformation - that it was due to the direct participation of migrant and ethnic groups in shaping Australia's multicultural policy framework, and their ability to function as a policy community, issue network and cohesive interest group. It is based upon a two-year study of Australia's oldest federation of migrant, refugee and multicultural groups, the Ethnic Communities' Council of Victoria. This was the first study of the united ethnic movement in Australia and thus provides a new perspective on Australia's multicultural history and politics. Primary sources included previously unexplored government, organizational and personal archives, and interviews with key leaders within and beyond the united ethnic movement. Data was qualitatively analyzed, drawing upon network and interest group theory, within a participatory-policy framework.


Efficiency of autovenous aorto-iliac reconstruction in patients at high risk of infectious complications is discussed in the article. Main steps of design of proposed method are described. The study is performed in mixed fashion. Groups of high risk of infectious complications are determined by retrospective analysis of case histories. Experimental model of subcultural bacteremia was performed in 30 experimental animals – dogs. New method of autovenous aorto-iliac reconstruction in high risk patients was designed on a basis the data obtained. 10 patients underwent surgery of proposed fashion. Economic efficiency of the method is calculated in the article.


Recently, the habits and seasonal cycles of Australorbis glabratus and Tropicorbis centimetralis, intermediate hosts of Schistosoma mansoni, were studied intensively in the field in Brazil (Olivier and Barbosa, 1955a, b). In the course of these studies, the observations of Barbosa and Dobbin (1952) concerning the ability of A. glabratus to live out of water were confirmed and extended, and similar observations were made on T. centimetralis. In conjunction with these field studies, the snails were also studied in the laboratory where the environmental conditions were more constant and under a measure of control and where individual snails could be observed for long periods of time. Some of the experiments were designed to determine how long the two vector species could live out of water in the laboratory and whether there are strain differences within the species with respect to their ability to do this. In one group of such experiments, the snails were maintained without water in unglazed clay jars for long periods of time. The results of these experiments will be described here.


Betaxolol is a new, highly cardioselective, once-a-day beta blocker with a long half-life (mean 16 hours). The antianginal efficacy of 2 doses of betaxolol (20 and 40 mg) given once daily was evaluated and compared with propranolol (40 or 80 mg) 4 times daily. Ninety-two patients completed the 10-week double-blind trial. The resting and exercise heart rate, blood pressure and double product were similar for all treatment arms of the study during placebo treatment. Significant decreases in these measures occurred during active drug treatment when compared with placebo. No significant intergroup differences were noted at rest. Maximal exercise heart rate and double product were significantly lower during treatment with betaxolol 40 mg daily than in the propranolol 40 mg 4 times/day treatment group (p less than 0.05). All patients had chest pain and greater than or equal to 1 mm of ST-segment depression during the baseline placebo exercise test. After 10 weeks of active treatment, 55% of the patients were free of chest pain during maximal exercise (difference not significant between treatments). In the betaxolol 40 mg/day group, fewer (6 of 19; 32%) of the patients developed ST-segment depression with exercise (p less than 0.05) compared with propranolol 80 mg 4 times daily (21 of 26; 81%). Betaxolol appears to be a useful once-a-day cardioselective beta blocker for the therapy of angina pectoris.


The traditional approach to describe web services using ontology is a departure from the perspective of web service provider which can not ensure high precision and recall ratios, that is the consistency of the service designing intent and the service using intent, the conformance of the excepted using environment and the actual using environment, and the possibility of being detected by potential users. In this paper, a social label automatic tagging based method on situation semantics in web service discovery is proposed, which takes into account both semantic web technology and user situation semantics.


Abstract. In females of Diploptera punctata the corpora allata undergo a gradual increase in volume during most of the second nymphal stadium. In the first half of the stadium, steady growth of the glands results from a progressive increase in the size of constituent cells. Late in the stadium, cell size declines but the volume of the glands continues to rise due to an increase in cell number. Changes in cell size during the stadium displayed a distinct pattern in relation to Juvenile Hormone (JH) synthesis. Both cell size and activity increased during the first two‐thirds of the stadium, peaked early in the last third of the stadium, and decreased before the moult. The rise in cell numbers late in the stadium corresponded to a wave of cellular mitosis and occurred after a steep decline in the rate of JH biosynthesis. Exposure of late second instars to fenoxycarb. a JH analogue, depressed mitosis significantly, suggesting autocrine regulation of cell proliferation in the corpora allata. Possible mechanisms modulating sequential cycles of growth and atrophy of cells and cell proliferation in these glands are discussed in relation to temporal patterns of JH and ecdysteroid titres in nymphs.


The omnipresence of deep learning architectures such as deep convolutional neural networks (CNN)s is fueled by the synergistic combination of ever-increasing labeled datasets and specialized hardware. Despite the indisputable success, the reliance on huge amounts of labeled data and specialized hardware can be a limiting factor when approaching new applications. To help alleviating these limitations, we propose an efficient learning strategy for layer-wise unsupervised training of deep CNNs on conventional hardware in acceptable time. Our proposed strategy consists of randomly convexifying the reconstruction contractive auto-encoding (RCAE) learning objective and solving the resulting large-scale convex minimization problem in the frequency domain via coordinate descent (CD). The main advantages of our proposed learning strategy are: (1) single tunable optimization parameter; (2) fast and guaranteed convergence; (3) possibilities for full parallelization. Numerical experiments show that our proposed learning strategy scales (in the worst case) linearly with image size, number of filters and filter size.


PurposeSocial engineering is a prominent aspect of online crime. Various interventions have been developed to reduce the success of this type of attacks. This paper aims to investigate if interventions can help to decrease the vulnerability to social engineering attacks. If they help, the authors investigate which forms of interventions and specific elements constitute success.Design/methodology/approachThe authors selected studies which had an experimental design and rigorously tested at least one intervention that aimed to reduce the vulnerability to social engineering. The studies were primarily identified from querying the Scopus database. The authors identified 19 studies which lead to the identification of 37 effect sizes, based on a total sample of N = 23,146 subjects. The available training, intervention materials and effect sizes were analysed. The authors collected information on the context of the intervention, the characteristics of the intervention and the characteristics of the research methodology. All analyses were performed using random-effects models, and heterogeneity was quantified.FindingsThe authors find substantial differences in effect size for the different interventions. Some interventions are highly effective; others have no effect at all. Highly intensive interventions are more effective than those that are low on intensity. Furthermore, interventions with a narrow focus are more effective than those with a broad focus.Practical implicationsThe results of this study show differences in effect for different elements of interventions. This allows practitioners to review their awareness campaigns and tailor them to increase their success.Originality/valueThe authors believe that this is the first study that compares the impact of social engineering interventions systematically.


This paper investigates the effects of alendronate on reproductive endocrine hormones, immune cytokines and bone metabolism in postmenopausal osteoporosis patients.From January 2018 to March 2019, 180 female osteoporotic patients aged 55 to 70 years who were admitted to our hospital from January 2016 to March 2017 were randomized into calcium and sodium alendronate groups using a random number table method. Each group of patients measured endocrine hormones (including follicle-stimulating hormone, estradiol, luteinizing hormone, testosterone), immune cytokines (including IL-6, TNF-a), and bone metabolism before and 24 weeks after treatment. Serum levels of indicators (calcitonin, parathyroid hormone, osteocalcin), etc. There was no significant difference in endocrine hormones, immune cytokines, and bone metabolic indexes before treatment (P>0.05);Alendronate group: After treatment, the levels of FSH, estradiol, osteocalcin, parathyroid hormone, and calcitonin in the reproductive endocrine hormones were significantly higher than before treatment (P<0.05). After treatment, IL-6, There was no significant change in TNF-a levels;In the calcium group, the levels of follicle stimulating hormone, estradiol, osteocalcin, parathyroid hormone, and calcitonin in the reproductive endocrine hormones decreased after treatment, but the levels were decreased. IL-6 and TNF-a levels after treatment rise.Alendronate can effectively increase the level of reproductive endocrine hormones and bone metabolic hormones in patients with postmenopausal osteoporosis, and at the same time it has a certain inhibitory effect on the increase of immune cytokines in patients with osteoporosis.


Studies of people learning to use contemporary word-processing equipment suggest that effective learning is often "active," proceeding by self-initiated problem solving. The instructional manuals that accompany current word-processing systems often penalize and impede active learning. A set of instructional materials was constructed for a commercial word processor, specifically designed to support and encourage an active learning orientation. These "guided exploration" (GE) materials are modular, task oriented, procedurally incomplete, and address error recognition and recovery. Learners using the GE materials spent substantially less time yet still performed better on a transfer of learning posttest than learners using commercially developed self-study materials. Qualitative analysis of aspects of the learning protocols of participants suggested that active learning mechanisms may underlie this advantage.


Wrist arthroscopy could be a treatment option for dorsal ganglion cysts. To achieve a thorough dorsal capsulectomy for the removal of midcarpal ganglion cysts, it is commonly necessary to combine both the radiocarpal and midcarpal portals. We present a modified method using radiocarpal portals only for arthroscopically excising dorsal midcarpal ganglion cysts. No extra midcarpal portals are necessary, and the method potentially generates satisfactory results.


Preface 1. Temperature thresholds for protein adaptation: when does temperature start to 'hurt'? G. N. Somero, and G. E. Hofmann 2. Membrane constraints to physiological function at different temperatures: does cholesterol stabilize membranes at elevated temperatures? J. C. Robertson, and J. R. Hazel 3. The effect of temperature on protein metabolism in fish: the possible consequences for wild Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar L.) stocks in Europe as a result of global warming I. D. McCarthy, and D. F. Houlihan 4. Thermal stress and muscle function in fish I. A. Johnston, and D. Ball 5. Factors which may limit swimming performance at different temperatures E. W. Taylor, S. Egginton, S. E. Taylor and P. J. Butler 6. Effects of temperature on cardiovascular performance A. P. Farrell 7. Temperature effects on the reproductive performance of fish G. Van Der Kraak, and N. W. Pankhurst 8. The effects of temperature on embryonic and larval development P. J. Rombough 9. Temperature and growth: modulation of growth rate via temperature change M. Jobling 10. Effects of climate change on cod (Gadus morhua) stocks K. Brander 11. Temperature effects on osmoregulatory physiology of juvenile anadromous fish S. D. McCormick, J. M. Shrimpton, and J. D. Zydlewski 12. Effects of temperature on xenobiotic metabolism C. J. Kennedy, and P. J. Walsh 13. Interactive effects of temperature and pollutant stress S. D. Reid, D. G. McDonald, and C. M. Wood 14. Behavioural compensation for long-term thermal change L. I. Crawshaw, and C. S. O'Connor 15. Thermal niche of fishes and global warming J. J. Magnuson, and B. T. DeStasio Index.


(a) The term "watches" embraces timepieces (including timepieces having special features, such as chronographs, calendar watches and watches designed for use in skin diving) of a kind for wearing or carrying on the person whether or not the movement contained therein conforms to the definition of "watch movements" in note 3, above. Timepieces incorporating a stand, however simple, are not classifiable as watches.


Two-qubit interactions are at the heart of quantum information processing. For single-spin qubits in semiconductor quantum dots, the exchange gate has always been considered the natural two-qubit gate. The recent integration of a magnetic field or g-factor gradients in coupled quantum dot systems allows for a one-step, robust realization of the controlled-phase (C-phase) gate instead. We analyze the C-phase gate durations and fidelities that can be obtained under realistic conditions, including the effects of charge and nuclear field fluctuations, and find gate error probabilities of below 10-4, possibly allowing fault-tolerant quantum computation.


In this paper we outline the limitations of the traditional relational database metadata model and compare them against the requirements of the framework for business applications. We describe the database dictionary component of a software framework for development of business applications. Its feasibility is proved in practice by development of several software applications and their successful implementations in production environments.


Supplemental Digital Content is Available in the Text. Abstract: 2018 AHA guidelines provide criteria to identify patients at very high risk (VHR) for adverse vascular events and recommend an low density lipoprotein-C (LDL-C) level <1.8 mmol/L. Data regarding the 10-year risk for adverse vascular events in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) patients at VHR and the need for nonstatin therapies in the VHR cohort are limited. We queried a national cohort of CABG patients to answer these questions. The projected reduction of LDL-C from stepwise escalation of lipid-lowering therapy (LLT) was simulated; Monte Carlo methods were used to account for patient-level heterogeneity in treatment effects. Data on preoperative statin therapy and LDL-C levels were obtained. In the first scenario, all eligible patients not at target LDL-C received high-intensity statins, followed by ezetimibe and then alirocumab; alternatively, bempedoic acid was also used. The 10-year risk for an adverse vascular event was estimated using a validated risk score. Potential risk reduction was estimated after simulating maximal LLT. Before CABG, 8948 of 27,443 patients (median LDL-C 85 mg/dL) were at VHR. In the whole cohort, 31% were receiving high-intensity statins. With stepwise LLT escalation, the proportion of patients at target were 60%, 78%, 86%, and 97% after high-intensity statins, ezetimibe, bempedoic acid, and alirocumab, respectively. The projected 10-year risk to suffer a vascular event reduced by 4.6%. A large proportion of CABG patients who are at VHR for vascular events fail to meet 2018 AHA LDL-C targets. A stepwise approach, particularly with the use of bempedoic acid, can significantly reduce the need for more expensive proprotein convertase subtilisin kexin 9 inhibitors.


In development and design stage of electromagnetic actuator, two methods for magnetic field analysis are mainly used for the optimal design. One is a method based on magnetic equivalent circuit. But it is unsuitable for the accurate calculation because of leakage flux and nonlinearity in the magnetic circuit. On the other hand, nonlinear magnetic field analysis using Finite Element Method (FEM) has been widely used as a powerful and useful means in recent years. Since it requires a large sized computer for the calculation, it is mainly used for the large sized devices and hardly used for the small ones.In this paper, we use FEM to study the optimal design for the electromagnetic actuator, from the view of the generation of electromagnetic force. A plunger type solenoid which is widely used in practical use is analyzed to realize more compact shape and suitable characteristics of force. Consequently, it can be made clear how the shape of main air-gap, the saturation in yoke, and the lapping length between movable core and yoke affect the characteristics of the force. Further, it is demonstrated that each parameters can be used to get the optimal design.


The Enhanced Interior Gateway Routing Protocol (EIGRP) is an advanced distancevector routing protocol, with optimizations to minimize both the routing instability incurred after topology changes, as well as the use of bandwidth and processing power in the router. We show here an executable specification using the rewriting logic based language Maude, that allows us to connect several Maude instances, each one running the protocol and on top of which concrete applications can be executed. We also simulate the protocol by using Real-Time Maude, that allows us to formally analyze it in several ways.


An application of symbolic computation in robotics education is described. A software package is presented which combines generality, user interaction, and user-friendliness with the systematic usage of symbolic computation and artificial intelligence techniques. The software utilizes MACSYMA, a LISP-based symbolic algebra language, to automatically generate closed-form expressions representing forward and inverse kinematics solutions, the Jacobian transformation matrices, robot pose error-compensation models equations, and Lagrange dynamics formulation for N degree-of-freedom, open chain robotic manipulators. The goal of such a package is to aid faculty and students in the robotics course by removing burdensome tasks of mathematical manipulations. The software package has been successfully tested for its accuracy using commercially available robots. >


Abstract Extracts of mulberry have been shown to reduce post-prandial glucose (PPG) and insulin (PPI) responses, but reliability of these effects and required doses and specifications are unclear. We previously found that 1·5 g of a specified mulberry fruit extract (MFE) significantly reduced PPG and PPI responses to 50 g carbohydrate as rice porridge, with no indications of intolerance. The trials reported here aimed to replicate that work and assess the efficacy of lower MFE doses, using boiled rice as the carbohydrate source. Two separate randomised controlled intervention studies were carried out with healthy Indian males and females aged 20–50 years (n 84 per trial), with PPG area under the curve over 2 h as the primary outcome. Trial 1 used doses of 0, 0·37, 0·75, 1·12 and 1·5 g MFE in boiled rice and 0 or 1·5 g MFE in rice porridge. Trial 2 used doses of 0, 0·04, 0·12, 0·37 g MFE in boiled rice. In trial 1, relative to control, all MFE doses significantly decreased PPG (–27·2 to −22·9 %; all P ≤ 0·02) and PPI (–34·6 to −14·0 %, all P < 0·01). Breath hydrogen was significantly increased only at 1·5 g MFE (in rice porridge), and self-reported gastrointestinal symptoms were uniformly low. In trial 2, only 0·37 g MFE significantly affected PPG (–20·4 %, P = 0·002) and PPI (–17·0 %, P < 0·001). Together, these trials show that MFE in doses as low as 0·37 g can reliably reduce PPG and PPI responses to a carbohydrate-rich meal, with no apparent adverse effects.


Reliable measurement systems are the basis for investigating the temporal and spatial atmospheric distribution of the most significant greenhouse gases and for understanding their budgets, trends and connection to global climate change. Within the framework of the IAGOS project (In-service Aircraft for a Global Observing System) an analyser for the autonomous measurement of the greenhouse gases (GHGs) CO2 and CH4 , as well as CO and water vapour was designed, tested and qualified for deployment aboard passenger aircrafts. It is based on a commercial cavity ring-down spectroscopy (CRDS) instrument which has been modified to meet the specific requirements regarding physical dimensions, automatic and long-term operation and safety issues on board commercial airliners. This work presents results from test flights and laboratory tests that document the performance of the CO2, CH4, CO and water vapour measurements.


The article analyses the Ajos case and seeks to explain what led the Danish Supreme Court to refuse to comply with the judgment of the ECJ. The reasoning of the ECJ and the Danish Supreme Court are examined from the points of view of, respectively, the EU legal order and Danish law. It is argued that the judgments of the ECJ and of the Danish Supreme Court are both legally sound and understandable when read from each courts' legal perspective. However, regrettably, both courts failed in carrying out a judicial dialogue in the spirit of good faith. Instead, the preliminary reference procedure was used in a way that gradually built up tensions and ended in a clear clash. The article finally examines the significance of the lacunae that the case has left between Danish law and EU law


This paper presents a method to analyze discussions from social network by using deep learning. We have prepared a new dataset by collecting discussions from a social network and annotating remarks of the discussion. The annotation consists of two types of labels for each message: intention type and direction of intention. Using this dataset and pre-trained word embeddings we have evaluated two neural network structures. On the basis of evaluation, we chose a model to automatically predict intention types and direction of intention of an arbitrary message from any social network.


In this article, design and analysis study of thermoelectric generation reactor and its applications are described, Thermoelectric (TE) Heating and Cooling technology has many advantages in power generation and industrial purposes.This paper introduces a new cooling system approach that extracts heat from outer surface space to get it to a lower temperature than the air surrounding it. This system uses the "Thermoelectric Generator module (TEG)" which works on thermoelectric cooling, with the goal of cooling by using thermoelectric effect. Effect which states that when DC voltage is applied across two junctions of significantly different electrical conductors; heat is absorbed from one junction and heat is discharged at another junction which causes a temperature difference. A difference in temperature applied at the atomic scale allows the carriers of charge in the substance to migrate from the hot side to the cold side. This process requires electrical and thermal conductivity for the metals to supply the water using heat exchangers that reduces power consumption. In order to improve theperformance of the TE cooling systems, the hot side of the TE should be directly connectedto efficient heat exchangers for dissipation of the excessive heat.


An important criterion for any artificial intelligence program is its capability to communicate with the external world. One common form of communication is by the use of a natural language, specifically English. When provided a sentence, it is important for the program to understand the intention of the given sentence, which is a significant first step for a program to perform logical reasoning. In this paper, we discuss two components of the grammar that affects the understanding of a sentence: role and control. These two components represent the knowledge that teaches how to use the language to express a thought. We describe in detail what needs to be learned for each of these components for three major grammar terms: noun phrase, declarative sentence, and forms-of-be verb. We then show how to use them to create a declarative thought corresponding to a given declarative sentence that uses a forms-of-be verb. Finally, we show what needs to be learned by the program so that the declarative thought can be understood precisely based on the exact subject and predicate in the given sentence. Object-Oriented paradigm is used to analyze the problem and design the solution to attack the problem.


In this study, we reported that fatty acid hydroperoxides and hydrogen peroxide are capable of epoxidizing 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal, a lipid peroxidation product, to the mutagenic epoxide. The evidence of its formation is provided (i) by trapping with [8-3H]deoxyadenosine for the formation of 7-(1',2'-dihydroxyheptyl)-1,N6-ethenodeoxyadenosine as a pair of diastereomers, (ii) by derivatization with (2,4-dinitrophenyl)hydrazine in acidic methanol, and (iii) by comparing its 1H-nuclear magnetic resonance and mass spectra to those of the authentic standard. After incubating 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal with 9- or 13-linoleic acid hydroperoxide at 37 degrees C for 24 h, the epoxide was produced in 13.4% or 12.5% yield, and with hydrogen peroxide, the yield was 21.5%. In the presence of fatty acid (linoleic acid, gamma-linolenic acid, or arachidonic acid) and lipoxygenase, the epoxide of 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal was formed in 15.3%, 7.2%, or 6.2% yield, respectively. The xanthine/xanthine oxidase/superoxide dismutase system generated the epoxide in 1.2% yield. These yields are estimated on the basis of a standard curve obtained from reactions of deoxyadenosine and epoxide. These results show that 4-hydroxy-2-nonenal is epoxidized by biological oxidants, suggesting a plausible endogenous pathway for the in vivo formation of etheno adducts.


Peptidoglycan (PGN) is an essential structure found in the bacterial cell wall. During the bacterial life cycle, PGN continuously undergoes biosynthesis and degradation to ensure bacterial growth and division. The resulting PGN fragments (muropeptides and peptides), which are generated by the bacterial autolytic system, are usually transported into the cytoplasm to be recycled. On the other hand, PGN fragments can act as messenger molecules involved in the bacterial cell wall stress response as in the case of β-lactamase induction in the presence of β-lactam antibiotic or in triggering mammalian innate immune response. During their cellular life, bacteria modulate their PGN degradation by their autolytic system or their recognition by the mammalian innate immune system by chemically modifying their PGN. Among these modifications, the amidation of the ε-carboxyl group of meso-diaminopimelic acid present in the PGN peptide chain is frequently observed. Currently, the detection and quantitation of PGN-derived peptides is still challenging because of the difficulty in separating these highly hydrophilic molecules by RP-HPLC as these compounds are eluted closely after the column void volume or coeluted in many cases. Here, we report the use of capillary zone electrophoresis coupled via an electrospray-based CE-MS interface to high-resolution mass spectrometry for the quantitation of three PGN peptides of interest and their amidated derivatives in bacterial cytoplasmic extracts. The absolute quantitation of the tripeptide based on the [13C,15N] isotopically labeled standard was also performed in crude cytoplasmic extracts of bacteria grown in the presence or absence of a β-lactam antibiotic (cephalosporin C). Despite the high complexity of the samples, the repeatability of the CZE-MS quantitation results was excellent, with relative standard deviations close to 1%. The global reproducibility of the method including biological handling was better than 20%.


The reaction between a Criegee intermediate and the hydroperoxyl radical (HO2) is believed to play a role in the formation of new particles in the troposphere. Although the reaction has been previously studied in the gas phase, there are several knowledge gaps that still need to be filled. We simulated the reaction of anti-CH3CHOO with HO2 and HO2-H2O radical complexes in the gas phase at 0 K, which exhibited a low-barrier profile for water-containing systems and a barrierless profile for water-free systems. Moreover, the reaction was found to follow a proton-transfer mechanism, which challenges previous assumptions that the gas-phase reaction involves a hydrogen atom transfer. The HO2 radical was found to mediate the Criegee hydration reaction in the gas phase. Metadynamics simulations further confirmed that the expected radical adduct formation between anti-CH3CHOO and the HO2 radical, as well as the HO2- and H2O-mediated reactions in the gas phase, followed a concerted mechanism. By combining constrained ab initio molecular dynamics simulations with thermodynamic integration, we quantitively evaluated the free-energy barriers at high temperatures. The barriers obtained for all three Criegee-HO2 reaction systems were found to be temperature-dependent. We also compared the free-energy barriers of water-free and water-containing systems; the results revealed that water could hinder the reaction between the Criegee and HO2 radical. These results suggest that HO2 radicals may be involved in the formation of tropospheric radical adducts, and water molecules may also play important roles in the reactions of Criegee intermediates.


Since the isolation of the human cone opsin genes 10 years ago, the advance of molecular biology techniques has played a significant role in increasing our knowledge on the genetics of visual pigment genes from a wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate species.

However, only two non-primate mammalian blue cone pigment (BCP) genes have been characterised to date, and the amino acid residues which are responsible for maintaining the short wavelength sensitivity of this particular class of pigment (the S group) have yet to be determined. Which cis-acting elements confer photoreceptor or cone-specific gene expression. The identification of cone and rod-specific cis-acting elements will not only increase our understanding of photoreceptor-specific gene expression but also contribute to gene therapy applications which target inherited retinal disorders.

The BCP gene from the domestic pig (Sus scrofa) was sequenced and characterised, and analysis of the deduced amino acid sequence showed that this opsin is a new member of the S group of visual pigments. Comparison of the S group of opsins with other vertebrate visual pigments resulted in the identification of amino acids which are specific to this family of opsins. Amino acids at 16 positions were identified as putative spectral tuning sites which may contribute to maintaining the short λmax observed in the S group of opsins. 1194 bp, 949 bp, 573 bp and 570 bp of the 5' flanking regions from the BCP genes of human, porcine, talapoin monkey and capuchin monkey were sequenced, respectively. A comparison of 5' flanking BCP gene sequences, between species, revealed several evolutionary conserved motifs, one of which is the photoreceptor conserved element (PCE1). The cells of a retinoblastoma cell line, Weri-Rb1, were shown to express cone- specific transcripts by RT-PCR. It was determined that nuclear proteins isolated from the Weri-Rb1 cells could be used for electrophoretic band shift assay (EBSA) experiments on fragments of the 5' flanking region of the human BCP gene. Competitive EBSA, using short double-stranded oligonucleotides designed to sequences within the human BCP gene 5' flanking region, showed that the specific regions within the BCP proximal promoter to which proteins were binding could be identified. The yeast, Pichia pastoris was tested as an alternative to mammalian cells for the in vitro expression of opsins. The human BCP gene was found to be associated with two Alu repeats, one is situated within intron 3, and the other is between 1194 and 916 bp upstream, of the gene.


In recent years, advances in the rf gun technology have made it possible to produce small beam emittances suitable for short period microuridulators which take advantage of the low emittance beam to reduce the wavelength of free-electron lasers (FELs). At the Advanced Photon Source, we are studying the design of a compact 50-MeV superconducting mmwave linac-based FE:L for the production of short wavelengths (-300 nm) to carry out FEL demonstration experiments. The electron source considered for the linac is a 30-GHz, 3 1/2-cell n-mode photocathode rf gun. For cold model rf measurements a 15-GHz prototype structure was fabricated. Here we report on the design, numerical modeling and the initial cold-model rf measurement results on the 15-GHz prototype structure.


This research work represents the study of the effect of using different gas pressures of argon on the tensile behavior of tungsten inert gas (TIG) welded stainless steel sheets type (304). Different ranges of gas pressures (13-15 Kgf/cm)and welding currents (80-100 Apm) were used to determine their influenceon the tensile mechanical properties (0.2% yield stress, ultimate tensile stress and elongation) of butt welded joints.Design of experiment (DOE) 'version 10' was used to establish the design matrix of experiments. Response surface methodology (RSM) technique was employed to obtain mathematical models for the three properties, which were analyzed by the analysis of variance (ANOVA) to verify statistically the adequacy of the resulted models. The resultant quadratic models with a confidence level of 95% revealed thatthe increase in both gas pressure and currentindividually results in a higher increase in the yield stress and elongation,and both were proportionated inversely,while their combined effect gave the lowest values.The gas pressure had a greater impact on the ultimate tensile stress than current. After numerical optimization, the maximum values of the mechanical properties were obtained with a maximum desirability value at the optimum values of gas pressure and current. Finally, confirmation tests were conducted at the optimum values of gas pressure and current to verify the validation of the maximum values of properties, and the error wasfound less than (4%) between the experimental and predicted results.


Our paper is about generalization from examples. We want to study the methods to turn an example into a class (a concept). We distinguished between three levels in generalization. First, simple generalization, which is the "classical way" to turn an example into a class. Second, abstraction, which is an upper level of generalization: we will generalize more than necessary, keeping common features if we consider several individuals; it may allow future re-use. Third, a meta level exists: it is induction of metaclasses. A metaclass may be considered as a class of classes; it contains the behaviours of classes. These three levels of generalization seem to be essential to a modern Object-Oriented Design, which would take into account abstraction, re-use, behaviours and metaclasses.


Growth, mortality, stock and yield parameters of Nemipterus mesoprion (Bleeker), based on the data collected from 1989-'94 is reported here. The VBGF parameters in length for this species were estimated as follows. L 00 = 274 mm, K = 0.7628 (annual) and t 0 = -0.0011764 years. This species grows to 147, 216 and 252 mm at the end of I-III years of its life. The average total, natural and fishing mortalities were calculated as 2.55, 1.57 and 0.98 respectively. The average exploitation ratios and rates were calculated as 0.384 and 0.354 respectively. The total stock, biomass and MSY were estimated as 3991.5, 1413 and 887 t respectively. The yield per recruit study shows that it can be raised by increasing the age at first capture and fishing efforts.


Problem 94-9*, by R. W. Cox (Medical College of Wisconsin). Define the NxN symmetric nonnegative definite Toeplitz matrixA () by aij exp[-(ij)2] for e > 0. When e 0, the resulting matrix A(0) is rank and has only one nonzero eigenvalue. Call the eigenvalues k/,(), with k > X2 > > XN. Thus X(0) N and Xk (0) 0 for k > 1. For k 1, 2 N, and for positive e, show that the eigenvalues ofA() are asymptotically given by


In Manor, S.; Chambouleyron, J. (Eds.). Performance measurement in farmer-managed irrigation systems. Proceedings of an International Workshop of the Farmer-Managed Irrigation Systems Network, Mendoza, Argentina, 12-15 November 1991. Colombo, Sri Lanka: International Irrigation Management Institute (IIMI).


BACKGROUND
Inhibition of Toll-like receptors (TLRs) signaling has been established as a new method for the development of anti-inflammatory drugs instead of NSAIDs (non-steroid anti-inflammatory drugs). Since the immunomodulatory role of G2013 (α-L-Guluronic acid) was reported in some recent experiments, we decided to assess the effects of G2013 on the protein expression of TLR2 and TLR4, their downstream signaling cascade, and the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines in human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs).

METHODS
After blood sampling from 16 healthy donors, PBMCs were isolated and treated with/without lipopolysaccharide (LPS), lipopolyteichoic acid (LTA), and G2013. Flow cytometry was done for detecting the protein expression of TLR2 and TLR4. MyD88, IκB, Tollip, and NF-κB mRNA expression were assessed by realtime PCR. ELISA was performed for assessing the concentration of IL-1β and IL-6.

RESULTS
G2013 at a concentration of 25 µg/mL (high dose) significantly downregulated NF-κB, IκB and MyD88 mRNA expression and suppressed the secretion of IL-1β by PBMCs. The findings indicate that G2013 may exert its regulatory effect under normal condition via Tollip in a dose dependence pathway. Our results demonstrated that G2013 had no profound impact on the protein expression of TLR2 and TLR4.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, our findings point to the immunomodulatory effect of G2013 on the TLR2 and TLR4 signaling cascade and cytokine production by PBMCs. These findings could lead to an establishment of new safe anti-inflammatory drugs in the future.


Abstract The zinc oxide (ZnO) nanostructures were synthesized using hydrothermal reaction technique at 180 °C with varying reaction time viz., 2, 4, 8 and 12 h and characterized with different spectroscopic/microscopic techniques. XRD indicate the formation of hexagonal phase of ZnO in all the prepared samples. The FESEM confirms the formation of hexagonal-shaped plate-like ZnO nanostructures having size in the range of 50 to 100 nm with the thickness of 10–15 nm, at 2 h reaction time. Further increase in the reaction time leads to increase in thickness of hexagonal ZnO plates resulting in formation of three-dimensional (3D) distorted spherical structures with facets. The photocatalytic activities were investigated by following degradation methylene blue (MB) dye. The ZnO prepared at 8 h of reaction time shows highest MB degradation rate, the apparent rate constant is 3.3 × 10^–2 ± 0.1 × 10^–2 min^−1, almost five times more than 4 h reaction time. Graphic abstract Photocatalytic dye degradation mechanism for two- & three-dimensional Zinc Oxide nanostructures on FESEM enlarge image of 8 h reaction time. Recycle study of MB degradation up to 5 recycles is shown (photographs of MB dye at time t_0 and t_120)


The drift-tearing mode stability is studied numerically using the (reduced) two fluid equations. With a set of experimental data as input, the mode is found to be driven unstable by the electron temperature gradient when the classical perpendicular electron heat conductivity is taken into account. In the nonlinear phase two saturation regimes are found, a small magnetic island regime existing for an intermediate electron diamagnetic drift frequency and a large island regime for a sufficiently high bootstrap current fraction.


Free radical scavenging activities of various carbazole compounds, carazostatin, carbazomycin B and their chemically modified derivatives were studied in vitro and ex vivo. Among these compounds, carazostatin, which was isolated as a free radical scavenger from the culture of Streptomyces chromofuscus, showed the most potent inhibitory activity against lipid peroxidation of rat brain homogenate in vitro. Carbazomycin B, a known antimicrobial antibiotic, also exhibited strong activity in this system. Although O-modified derivatives of carazostatin and carbazomycin B retained considerable activity, N,O-dimethyl derivatives did not suppress the peroxidation. On the other hand, the results from the ex vivo evaluation of these carbazoles in the lipid peroxidation system of mouse blood plasma showed that the original compounds as well as their O-modified derivatives had a strong inhibitory activity upon oral administration to mice. These findings suggest that these natural carbazoles and their effective derivatives can protect tissues from the peroxidative damage due to generation of free radicals.


A procedure is described for the purification of mixed populations of the three different morphological forms of Chlamydia psittaci (6BC) from infected yolk sac membranes. Elementary bodies and small intermediate bodies are not perceptibly damaged during purification which involves homogenization of the host cells, differential centrifugation, sedimentation through 20% sucrose, and treatment with trypsin. The observation that elementary bodies undergo plasmolysis in 20% sucrose is interpreted as indicating that the cytoplasmic membrane of these particles is intact at that stage in the purification. Reticulate bodies and large intermediate bodies are damaged, to a degree, by the homogenization step. This damage takes the form of discontinuities of the outer envelope membrane, and results in the loss of the regular coccobacillary shape of these particles and in an increase in their size. Treatment with a combination of RNase and DNase was found to cause profound damage to all three morphological forms of the chlamydiae.


INTRODUCTION
Often in research studies, it is important to assess right and/or left dominance of the hand or foot. Contrary to hand dominance, minimal attention has been given to the concept of leg or foot dominance. In the simplest terms, leg dominance has been determined by which hand is dominant. If one is right-handed, then one must be right leg dominant. If one is left-handed, then one must be left leg dominant. In other instances, leg dominance has been determined by a one-or two-foot item skills test such as kicking a ball or stepping up on a chair. (Harris, 1958; Kovak and Horkvic, 1970; Peters and Durding, 1979; and Porac and Cohen, 1981). It was not until the Chapman et al. (1987) test was designed that a more comprehensive assessment was possible. They developed a test of 13 items which included both manipulative and weight bearing activities. Alrernative tests of leg dominance have been based on the strength of the two legs and how it is related to handedness. Singh (1970) studied the strength of the legs in a pushing activity and found that the right legs of right-handed subjects were no different than their left legs, but found that left-handed subjects had stronger left legs than right legs. On the other hand, Carnahan et al. (1986) and Rosenrot (1980) reported leftfoot superiority in strength of force production in right handers. It also has been implied by some that because the left leg in right-handed people is longer and heavier, it must be stronger (Chibber and Singh, 1970). This has not, however, been fully substantiated.
Friberg and Kvist (1988) studied handedness and leg length inequality in athletic jumping performances. They found no relationship between takeoff leg and handedness, but a significant relationship between leg length inequality and takeoff leg. The longer leg generally was the preferred leg. Therefore this study was undertaken to:
1) compare the contralateral strength of the quadricep and hamstring muscles in right and left leg dominant subjects; and
2) compare manipulative and weight bearing activities in right and left leg dominant subjects.


A study of 2,709 fatalities among road users, arising from a total of 59,164 accidents resulting in injury or death, between 1983-1992 in Singapore, showed that 1,134 and 904 deaths involved drivers of motor vehicles and motorcyclists (excluding pillion riders) respectively. In 13 cases of the former and 2 of the latter, death was deemed to have occurred naturally as a consequence of ischaemic heart disease. Two taxi drivers and both motorcyclists had apparently either collapsed "at the wheel" or whilst mounted on their motorcycles without their vehicles having been involved in actual accidents. In the remaining 11 cases, the vehicles had collided with other vehicles, fixed roadside structures or had veered off the road. However, none of these resulted in injury or death to passengers, occupants or other vehicles or to passing pedestrians. Thus, the prevalence of fatal ischaemic heart disease, as a natural cause of death, among motorists during this time was 0.7% (SD +/- 0.5), corresponding to 0.25 per 1000 (SD +/- 0.18) accidents resulting in injury or death; with less than 0.5% (SD +/- 0.4), corresponding to 0.19 per 1,000 accidents (SD +/- 0.17) resulting in injury or death, being associated with actual collisions. Although significant and dramatic metabolic derangements may occur during driving, thereby predisposing motorists to ischaemic heart disease, or aggravating pre-existing disease, these results and those of earlier studies would appear to suggest that serious road accidents are rarely caused by, or contributed to, coronary atherosclerosis and its attendant complications.