PURPOSE
Topical minoxidil (MNX) 2%-5% and oral finasteride (F) 1 mg/day are the only two pharmacological treatments authorized for androgenetic alopecia (AGA). Recently, a 2.2 mg/mL topical formulation of F was developed to minimize the systemic adverse effects associated with the oral formula. MNX and F act through different mechanisms; therefore, their association could improve clinical efficacy. To evaluate the efficacy of the association of 5% MNX and 0.25% topical F compared to their use in monotherapy, a 6-month, prospective, randomized, assessor-blinded trial was conducted.

PATIENTS AND METHODS
Forty-two males, mean age 24 ± 3 years, with AGA (I-VII of Norwood-Hamilton Grading Scale), treatment naive or free from any therapy for at least 6 months, were enrolled and randomly assigned to three arm treatment groups (2:1:1): group A (n = 19, the subjects applied 5% MNX in the morning and F spray in the evening), group B (n = 12, the subjects applied F spray in the evening), and group C (n = 11, the subjects applied 5% MNX twice daily). The efficacy of treatments was evaluated at baseline and after 3 and 6 months using a global photography score (GPAS; from -3 to +3) and trichoscopy evaluation and assessed by an investigator unaware of treatment allocation. At baseline and after treatments, the serum levels of follicle-stimulating hormone (FSH), luteinizing hormone (LH), dehydroepiandrosterone sulfate (DHEA-S), and testosterone were also evaluated.

RESULTS
All treatments resulted in an increase in hair density compared to baseline. However, this improvement was significant only for group A (MNX + F), both at three (+56 density/cm2 , p < 0.05) and six (+81 density/cm2 , p < 0.001) months. The mean change from baseline in hair density was higher for group A compared to other groups and statistically different compared to group B (F) (p < 0.01), both after 3 and 6 months. Group A showed a global photographic assessment score (GPAS) significantly higher compared to group B (p < 0.001) and group C (p < 0.05) both at 3 and 6 months (2.0 ± 0.7 vs. 0.6 ± 0.8 and 1.3 ± 0.6; respectively). A significantly greater percentage of subjects in Group A achieved a GPAS score of ≥2 in comparison with Groups B and C both after 3 and 6 months (79% vs. 8% and 41%, respectively). No significant differences were observed in mean hair diameter and hormonal levels between the three groups. Good tolerability was observed in all treated groups.

CONCLUSION
The association of 5% MNX lotion and 0.25% F in spray formulation in patients with AGA showed a significantly higher clinical and instrumental efficacy compared to the monotherapies, with comparable tolerability and safety profile.


Sanglifehrin A (SFA) is a novel immunosuppressant isolated from Streptomyces sp. that binds strongly to the human immunophilin cyclophilin A (CypA). SFA exerts its immunosuppressive activity through a mode of action different from that of all other known immunophilin-binding substances, namely cyclosporine A (CsA), FK506, and rapamycin. We have determined the crystal structure of human CypA in complex with SFA at 1.6 Å resolution. The high resolution of the structure revealed the absolute configuration at all 17 chiral centers of SFA as well as the details of the CypA/SFA interactions. In particular, it was shown that the 22-membered macrocycle of SFA is deeply embedded in the same binding site as CsA and forms six direct hydrogen bonds with CypA. The effector domain of SFA, on the other hand, has a chemical and three-dimensional structure very different from CsA, already strongly suggesting different immunosuppressive mechanisms. Furthermore, two CypA·SFA complexes form a dimer in the crystal as well as in solution as shown by light scattering and size exclusion chromatography experiments. This observation raises the possibility that the dimer of CypA·SFA complexes is the molecular species mediating the immunosuppressive effect.


The article is devoted to the history of the collections acquisition of the Sverdlovsk Regional Universal Scientific Library named after V. G. Belinsky (SOUNB) in 1940 as a part of the study devoted to the history of the library collections formation. The efficiency of any library depends on the quality and quantity of the book collections, so the selection of documents is the main function of librarians throughout the entire period of the library existence. The author aims at tracing how approaches to the creation of collections have been changing for the space of work of the Library named after V. G. Belinsky. The purpose of the study is to present the history of the library through the collections acquisition. The task was to find documentary and statistical materials about the activities of librarians working with collections. The history of the acquisition is unstudied yet, therefore, official government documents, publications in the local periodical press and documents from the archive of SOUNB served as sources for research. For the first time, data revealed in the library archive are introduced into scientific circulation, and an attempt is made to recreate the history of the most important component of library activities – the acquisition of the largest library in the Middle Urals. Special attention is paid to the topic of obtaining the mandatory copy, opening the department for blind readers, creating an exchange stock, also the problems of current acquisition, preservation of book collections and lack of the necessary space for their placement are considered. To study the topic, the method of historical alignment of the chronological sequence of events has been applied.


Abstract Spatially distributed modal voltages and sensing signal generations of a distributed piezoelectric sensor layer bonded on spherical shells of revolution are investigated in this study. The generic sensing signal equation is derived based on the direct piezoelectric effect, the Gauss theory, the open-circuit assumption, the Maxwell equation and also the generic double-curvature thin shell theory. Owing to difficulties in analytical solution procedures, assumed mode shape functions based on the bending approximation theory are used in the modal signal expressions and analyses. Spatially distributed micro-electromechanical characteristics resulting from various meridional and circumferential membrane/bending strain components of infinitesimal sensor neurons are evaluated and major signal sources are identified. Analytical results suggest that the spatially distributed modal voltages clearly illustrate the distinct modal behaviour, similar to mode shapes. The major signal source of a free-edge hemispherical shell is the circumferential bending component. Accordingly, circumferential layout of distributed sensor strips would provide effective monitoring and diagnosis of free hemispheric shells.


Purpose of review Ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease are the two predominant types of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), affecting over 1.4 million individuals in the United States. IBD results from complex interactions between pathogenic components, including genetic and epigenetic factors, the immune response, and the microbiome, through an unknown sequence of events. The purpose of this review is to describe a systems biology approach to IBD as a novel and exciting methodology aiming at developing novel IBD therapeutics based on the integration of molecular and cellular 'omics' data. Recent findings Recent evidence suggested the presence of genetic, epigenetic, transcriptomic, proteomic, and metabolomic alterations in IBD patients. Furthermore, several studies have shown that different cell types including fibroblasts, epithelial, immune, and endothelial cells together with the intestinal microbiota are involved in IBD pathogenesis. Novel computational methodologies have been developed aiming to integrate high-throughput molecular data. Summary A systems biology approach could potentially identify the central regulators (hubs) in the IBD interactome and improve our understanding of the molecular mechanisms involved in IBD pathogenesis. The future IBD therapeutics should be developed on the basis of targeting the central hubs in the IBD network.


Abstract We sampled streams in the Upper Clear Creek Watershed in northwestern California in fall 2004 and fall 2005 to document assemblages of aquatic vertebrates and to provide resource managers with information on the importance of these assemblages in terms of regional biodiversity. We used single-pass backpack electrofishing to sample 15 sites in fall 2004 and the same 15 sites plus 4 new sites in fall 2005. We captured 10 fish taxa and 2 species of larval amphibians. Seven of the fish taxa were native species. Of the exotic species, only brook trout (Salvelinus fontinalis) occurred at more than 1 site. Ordinations by nonmetric multidimensional scaling indicated a gradient from sites with rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), Pacific giant salamander (Dicamptodon tenebrosus), and tailed frog (Ascaphus truei) to sites dominated by riffle sculpin (Cottus gulosus), California roach (Hesperoleucas symmetricus), and Sacramento sucker (Catostomus occidentalis). The gradient in species composition was associated with changes in elevation, gradient, discharge, and substrate. The Upper Clear Creek Watershed represents a unique area of overlap between the North Coast California amphibian fauna and the Central Valley fish fauna with a notable paucity of exotic fishes and amphibians. Preservation of the integrity of native aquatic assemblages is an important goal for aquatic resource management in the region; our results provide a critcial baseline to gauge future management actions.


Relationship between bone fragility fracture (BFF) and abdominal aortic calcification (AAC) has been discussed in recent decade.Now we investigated the relationship between the two and a new factor of BFF: serum creatinine-to cystatin C ratio (Cr/CysC).A total of nine-hundred and thirty one osteoporotic patients were recruited. Diagnosis of osteoporosis was indexed by the criteria of Japanese Primary Osteoporosis Diagnostic Criteria. Patient's lumbar spine X-ray pictures were taken and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) of lumbar spine and hip joint were tested at the same time, and all of them were followed us for more than one year up to nine years with at least an administration of vitamin D. Anti-osteoporotic drugs were administrated for 660 patients.Vertebral compression fracture (VF) and AAC were evaluated with lateral view of X-ray picture. VF was classified in accordance with Semi-quantified method (SQ), and AAC was classified as follows: Grade0; No calcification, Grade1; Partial calcification not continued over one vertebral height, Grade2; Calcification continuous over one vertebral height. BFF history of the patients except of VF was harvested from the medical record and with interview. Patients' background at first measurement were measured and Cr/CysC was calculated as well. Prevalence of BFF at the baseline for each grade with SQ was compared according to the grade of AAC. Background factors including bone mineral densities (BMD) of the lumbar spine and hip joint measured using DXA were compared for each AAC grade.Occurrence of BFF was picked up during following up (BFF_F/U) of the patients. Prevalence of BFF_F/U for each ACC grade was statistically compared, and relationship between BFF_F/U and factors at the baseline was statistically evaluated.A total of 219 of Grade0, 428 of Grade1, and 278 of Grade2 were recruited. Prevalence of BFF at baseline for each VF group was 182, 16, 9, and 12 for Grade0, 138, 98, 122, and 70 for Grade1, and 53, 45, 82, and 144 for Grade2, with Grade-0, Grade-1, Grade-2, and Grade-3 by SQ, respectively (p<0.01). Factors that demonstrated significant correlation with occurrence of BFF were sex, age, BMD of the lumbar spine and the hip joint, and Cr/CysC with univariate mode binary logistic regression anaysis. However, Cr/CysC did not demonstrate significant correlation using multivariate model.Occurrence of BFF_F/U for each AAC group was 26, 90, and 82 for Grade0, Grade1, and Grade2, respectively (p<0.01). The only factor that demonstrated significantly correlated with occurrence of BFF_F/U was Cr/CysC in the Grade1 and the Grade2 of the AAC classification.ACC grade significantly correlates with occurrence of BFF. Cr/CysC also significantly correlates with occurrence of BFF after follow up under presence of AAC.None declared.


WELD OVERLAYS, more specifically chromium carbide weld overlays, have been widely used as thick coatings to protect critical plant components from abrasion wear. These thick coatings have been also considered in applications involving severe erosion, their thickness being synonymous with long life protection. Recently, boride-based arc-sprayed coatings have been developed especially for erosion control. They have demonstrated their superiority in erosion resistance over various coatings including chromium carbide submerged arc overlays. This work was undertaken to produce dense boride-based coatings comparable in thickness with carbide-based overlays. A GMAW (Gas Metal Arc Welding) welding procedure was developed for depositing boride-based overlays from cored wires. A comparative evaluation of the hardness, erosive and abrasive wear resistance of these boride-based overlays with regards to chromium and tungsten carbide overlays was carried out. Abrasion and erosion wear testing demonstrated that boride-based overlays showed higher abrasion and erosion resistance than chromium and tungsten carbide-based overlays. Overlays with higher wear resistance can be obtained if appropriate welding procedure is used to decrease weld bead dilution and therefore increase coating hardness. Results also showed that boride-based coatings deposited by arc spraying posses higher erosion resistance than those produced by the welding process.


In this article, we discuss a case study that deals with the care chain phenomenon and focuses on the question of how Poland and the Ukraine as sending countries and Poland as a receiving country are affected and deal with female migrant domestic workers. We look at the ways in which these women organize care replacement for their families left behind and at those families' care strategies. As public discourse in both countries is reacting to the feminization of migration in a form that specifically questions the social citizenship obligations of these women, we also look at the media portrayal of the situation of nonmigrating children. Finally, we explore how different aspects of citizenship matter in transnational care work migration movements.


To the Editor. —Dr Raskin's1recent contribution is possibly the first article to critically survey the literature relating to blood glucose (BG) overshoot. Hopefully it will open the eyes of the medical community to a myth that has served for years as one of the excuses for accepting as "physiologic" the roller coaster BG levels prevalent in insulin-dependent diabetes mellitus (IDDM). When I first became diabetic in the mid-1940s, we were taught not to overeat for attacks of hypoglycemia, and, above all, to consume the most rapidly acting carbohydrate we could find. In those days, unfortunately, pure glucose was not readily available to patients and we had to make do with packets of the slower-acting disaccharide—sucrose (table sugar). Then in the 1950s, Somogyi's crude studies began to influence the medical community and, in time, the Somogyi effect gained widespread usage as one of the several excuses for the "impossibility"


ABSTRACT 'One film for 2 years' (PM2) has been proposed as a practice to control the residual film pollution; however, its effects on grain-yield, water-use-efficiency and cost-benefit balance in dryland spring maize production have still not been systematically explored. In this study, we compared the performance of PM2 with the annual film replacement treatment (PM1) and no mulch treatment (CK) on the Loess Plateau in 2015–2016. Our results indicated the following: (1) PM2 was effective at improving the topsoil moisture (0–20 cm) at sowing time and at seedling stage, but there was no significant influence on soil water storage, seasonal average soil moisture or evapotranspiration; (2) PM2 induced significantly higher cumulative soil temperatures compared to CK, and there was no significant difference between PM2 and PM1; (3) no significant differences were identified in grain-yield and water-use-efficiency between PM1 and PM2, and compared to CK, they improved by 16.3% and 15.5%, respectively; (4) because of lower cost of plastic film, tillage, film laying and remove in PM2, economic profits improved by 21% and 70% compared to PM1 and CK. This research suggested that PM2 was effective at alleviating the spring drought and was beneficial in reducing poverty traps in dryland.


Comprehensive and unambiguous identification of small molecules in complex samples will revolutionize our understanding of the role of metabolites in biological systems. Existing and emerging technologies have enabled measurement of chemical properties of molecules in complex mixtures and, in concert, are sensitive enough to resolve even stereoisomers. Despite these experimental advances, small molecule identification is inhibited by (i) chemical reference libraries (e.g., mass spectra, collision cross section, and other measurable property libraries) representing <1% of known molecules, limiting the number of possible identifications, and (ii) the lack of a method to generate candidate matches directly from experimental features (i.e., without a library). To this end, we developed a variational autoencoder (VAE) to learn a continuous numerical, or latent, representation of molecular structure to expand reference libraries for small molecule identification. We extended the VAE to include a chemical property decoder, trained as a multitask network, in order to shape the latent representation such that it assembles according to desired chemical properties. The approach is unique in its application to metabolomics and small molecule identification, with its focus on properties that can be obtained from experimental measurements (m/z, CCS) paired with its training paradigm, which involved a cascade of transfer learning iterations. First, molecular representation is learned from a large dataset of structures with m/z labels. Next, in silico property values are used to continue training, as experimental property data is limited. Finally, the network is further refined by being trained with the experimental data. This allows the network to learn as much as possible at each stage, enabling success with progressively smaller datasets without overfitting. Once trained, the network can be used to predict chemical properties directly from structure, as well as generate candidate structures with desired chemical properties. Our approach is orders of magnitude faster than first-principles simulation for CCS property prediction. Additionally, the ability to generate novel molecules along manifolds, defined by chemical property analogues, positions DarkChem as highly useful in a number of application areas, including metabolomics and small molecule identification, drug discovery and design, chemical forensics, and beyond.


Summary:Most people think that origami has little practical utility, but it has many applications, and this paper highlights particularly its usefulness in making face shields for the containment of COVID-19. The article presents an origami-based, do-it-yourself face shield that the end-user can make for personal use rather than commercial production.


ABSTRACT This article describes legal and human rights issues in three cases of transnational online offending involving extradition requests by the United States (US). These cases were selected as all suspects claimed the negative impacts of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) were sufficient to deny extradition on human rights grounds. We demonstrate how recent developments in UK and Irish extradition law raise human rights and prosecutorial challenges specific to online offending that are not met by established protections under domestic and internationally sanctioned approaches to extradition or human rights law. In these cases, although the allegedly unlawful conduct occurred exclusively online and concurrent jurisdiction enables prosecution at both the source and location of harm, we demonstrate why national courts hearing extradition challenges are extremely reluctant to shift the trial forum. We conclude by discussing the implications of the new geographies of online offending for future criminological research and transnational criminal justice.


We analyze the implications of the discovery of the UPSILON (9.5), assumed to be a heavy-quark-antiquark bound state, for gauge theories of weak interactions and especially for neutrino reactions. Taking into account all present experimental constraints, we study the consequences of particular multiplet assignments of the new heavy quark in models based on the group SU(2) x U(1) and higher gauge groups, in particular SU(3) x U(1). In neutrino and antineutrino reactions in which this new quark is produced, its semileptonic decays will provide a key signal for its discovery. We specialize to the SU(3) x U(1) model and give a careful analysis of multimuon events arising from the production of this heavy quark and the concomitant heavy lepton.


Although comprehensive strategies in the treatment of colorectal cancer have been developed for a number of years, the five-year survival rate of metastatic colon cancer remains less than 10%. Oxaliplatin, a commonly used chemotherapeutic agent for metastatic colon cancer, improves the response rate of patients and prolongs patients' progression-free survival. However, the generation of resistance limits the clinical application of oxaliplatin, and the mechanisms of this remain unclear. The present study mainly investigated the effect of the gap junction (GJ) composed of connexin43 (Cx43) on oxaliplatin cytotoxicity in colon cancer cells. Three different methods with distinct mechanisms were used to change the function of Cx43 GJs, including cell culture at different densities, pretreatment with a specific inhibitor or enhancer, and special gene knockdown, to observe the cytotoxicity of oxaliplatin and the level of reactive oxygen species (ROS) mediated by Cx43 GJs. The results revealed that the cytotoxicity of oxaliplatin and the level of ROS were decreased with the downregulation of Cx43 GJ function, but exacerbated with the upregulation of Cx43 GJ function. Moreover, ROS scavenging with N-acetyl-L-cysteine and apocynin decreased the cytotoxicity of oxaliplatin. We concluded that the loss of GJ composed of Cx43 contributed to the resistance of oxaliplatin in colon cancer cells, and the mechanism was associated with intracellular ROS alternation.


This paper proposes a wireless deadbeat power control scheme employing low density parity check coding for variable speed wind power generation (the wind industry is the huge driver behind the push for super-grids and cross-border infrastructure) to improve system robustness and reliability. The wind energy systems uses a doubly-fed induction generator and a deadbeat control. The performance improvements of the proposed system are investigated in different propagation conditions by using simulations results.


In the above article [1, Sec. V-B], an experimental condition is missed. The detailed experimental conditions are described as: Here, the experiments are carried out at the f = 25 Hz (the speed of the rotor is 1500 r/m), because synchronous vibration is very serious as the converter operates in this frequency.Meanwhile, in order to facilitate the comparison between with and without vibration control method, an excitation signal with 1V and 25 Hz is added in the control loop.


Metformin is used as a first-line therapy for type 2 diabetes, with reports of its usefulness for the prevention and control of several types of cancers. This study investigated the effects of metformin on hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). The human HCC cell lines HepG2 and PLC/PRF/5 were cultured and treated with metformin or 5-aminoimidazole-4-carboxamide ribonucleoside (AICAR), an activator of adenosine monophosphate (AMP)-activated protein kinase. Changes in cell viability and cell cycle distribution were evaluated by MTT and flow cytometry, respectively. Apoptosis was assessed by fluorescent-dye staining. An HCC model was established in 6- to 8-week-old BALB/c-nu mice by subcutaneous injection of PLC/PRF/5 cells. After 1 week, mice were treated intragastrically with metformin or vehicle. Tumor xenograft tissues were examined using immunohistochemistry for evaluation of the the expression of cyclin D1, p21CIP and p27KIP. HCC cells and tissues from the in vitro and in vivo experiments, respectively, were subjected to protein extraction and western blotting. We found that metformin treatment reduced HCC cell viability in a dose-dependent manner similar to AICAR treatment. In addition, metformin treatment induced HCC cell cycle arrest at G1/G0 phase and apoptosis. Intragastric treatment of the mouse PLC/PRF/5 cell xenograft model with metformin showed that metformin not only blocked tumor progression, but also reduced tumor morbidity. Treatment with metformin upregulated the expression of p21CIP and p27KIP, but downregulated cyclin D1 levels, both in vitro and in vivo. Metformin treatment also upregulated the expression of phosphorylated AMPK protein in xenograft tissues. These findings indicate that metformin warrants further evaluation as a novel therapeutic and preventive strategy against HCC.


This study investigated marketing communication and the performance of SMEs. Quantitative research methodology was used in this study. SMEs located in Polokwane Local Municipality in Limpopo Province, South Africa were considered for this study. The study used convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods because; there was no defined population frame of SMEs in the research area. One hundred and sixty SMEs participated in the study. The researcher used structured self-administered questionnaire to collect data. The questionnaire was developed by the researcher after a thorough review of literature on marketing communication strategies and SMEs. Pearson Chi-Square and descriptive statistics were used to analyse data. The Cronbach's alpha test was used to measure reliability of the questionnaire items. This study revealed that the use of traditional marketing and the use of guerrilla marketing communication strategies increase the sales and profit of SMEs. However, it does not necessarily contribute to the employment of additional employees. The combination of the two marketing communication strategies yields better results for SMEs in terms of performance as compared to when used individually. Recommendations proposed included marketing subsidies from the government which have a potential to reduce unemployment because SMEs will now be able to employ marketing personnel using the financial resources from the government


Background: There is growing interest in understanding how to effectively bridge the gap between the production of knowledge and it's embedding in health decision-making. Health research s upports health systems in the delivery of better, fairer and more equitable health care to people. It does so by identifying challenges and providing best solutions in emerging and embedding theses research findings into policies in order to improved approaches to public health. So, the research findings are extremely important to inform policy and decision-making in health to tackle threats and diseases, to address priorities and focus on the most important health issues. Ultimately, the concept of evidence-based practice or policy-based evidence aims to improve health system performance and attain sustainable development. However, policy-makers, particularly in Palestine may not recognize the contribution which research can make. There is a huge gap between the scope of research and the scope of policy-making. The stereotype of the researcher in ivory tower still prevails. In fact, health officials and policy-makers may be doing research without knowing it, and researches that conducted by universities are not adopt and not invest of it. This study aims to understand and assess the research findings embbeddedness into decisions and policies in Palestine from policymakers and academicians perspective. Design and methodology: The study design was a qualitative approach by using indepth interviews for gathering and elaborating data about the phenomenon. The study participants included seven in-depth interviews; three of them with graduate faculty' members at the universities, two policy makers from Ministry of Health (MOH), one expert from NonGovernmental Organizations (NGOs) and International NGOs (INGOs), and the last one parliamentary from Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC) who engage in this field. Findings: through the thematic analysis, the study main findings revealed that the degree of embeddedness is remarkably faint across the MOH in particular and moderately respectable in the academic, NGO, and INGOs institution, the overall impression about evidence-based practice in the health sector is very weak due to many obstacles that were identified. Most importantly, there is a significant weakness in research culture in the health institutions as well as mal-practice and poor experience, and no clear national health research priorities, strategy. There are various obstacles hindering evidence embeddedness into policies which are: systems issues such centralization and lack of incentives and capacity building programs as staff and fund insufficiency, poor information infrastructure and logistical and technological capacities also absence of knowledge transfer "dissemination". Moreover, communication, networking, and coordination across institutions and researchers and policy makers were fragile. Also, the majority stated that the evidence-based practice is not appropriately use and mostly personally-driven and actually not institutionalized, since the European Scientific Journal May 2014 /SPECIAL/ edition ISSN: 1857 – 7881 (Print) e ISSN 18577431 369 researchers' role is mainly minor as well as the relationships among institutions is not wellestablished. Recommendations: the researcher emphasizes on the necessity of taking the research evidences into consideration. Urge MOH, Universities, NGOs, INGOs, and institutes, and to its members to build effective relationship to play a complementarily role and work as a team to find solutions to research-relevant policy obstacles and to enforce the research utilization and institutionalization by active communication and coordination. Also, allocate sufficient financing and logistics and qualified human resources through capacity building, presence of supportive culture and system such leadership, incentives, find research units. Also, more concern in applied research quality and credibility to use appropriately. The necessity for embracing agreed research-policy and priorities integration strategy to support the research system primarily and to empower the Palestinian health care system based on national health goals and needs to attain sustainable health development.


e l s T e c h S a t h y Animation of a simplified stepper motor (unipolar) Frame 1: The top electromagnet (1) is turned on, attracting the nearest teeth of the gear-shaped iron rotor. With the teeth aligned to electromagnet 1, they will be slightly offset from electromagnet . Frame 2: The top electromagnet (1) is turned off, and the right electromagnet (2) is energized, pulling the teeth into alignment with it. This results in a rotation of 3.6° in this example. Frame 3: The bottom electromagnet (3) is energized; another 3.6° rotation occurs. Frame 4: The left electromagnet (4) is energized, rotating again by 3.6°. When the top electromagnet (1) is again enabled, the rotor will have rotated by one tooth position; since there are 25 teeth, it will take 100 steps to make a full rotation in this example. Stepper motor


Purine nucleosides such as inosine and guanosine are important intermediates in the manufacture of IMP and GMP, respectively. The sodium salts of IMP and GMP together with sodium glutamate are known as taste enhancers, which are manufactured and used as food additives world-wide. The studies on the microbial production of purine nucleosides have been done almost exclusively in mutants of Bacitlus subtilis'J") and Cot:ynebacterium ammoniagenes,5'6) However, there have been hardly any reports of the overproduction of these substances by Escherichia coli to date, although the biosynthetic pathway for purine nucleotides and the enzymes involved in their biosynthesis in E. coti have been studied in detail.') Therefore, in a previous report, we derived inosine-producing mutants from E. coli W3110 (wild


Three‐phase polyamide 11 (PA 11)/lead zirconate titanate (PZT)/carbon nanotubes (CNT) composites are elaborated by extrusion. The influence of inorganic particles on the electrical properties of conductive composites and the influence of conductive particles on the ferroelectric properties of organic/inorganic composites are both studied. Inorganic particles do not modify the establishment of the electrical percolation path of CNTs either regarding the percolation threshold value or the conductivity reached above this insulator–conductive transition. The dielectric permittivity of two‐phase PA 11/PZT composites is improved with the addition of only 0.2% in volume of CNTs. This three‐phase composite could be proposed for actuation, energy harvesting and damping performances enhancement.


Synthetic biology is a rapidly developing field that pursues the application of engineering principles and development approaches to biological engineering. Synthetic biology is poised to change the way biology is practiced, and has important practical applications: for example, building genetically engineered organisms to produce biofuels, medicines, and other chemicals. Traditionally, synthetic biology has focused on manipulating a few genes (e.g., in a single pathway or genetic circuit), but its combination with systems biology holds the promise of creating new cellular architectures and constructing complex biological systems from the ground up. Enabling this merge of synthetic and systems biology will require greater predictive capability for modeling the behavior of cellular systems, and more comprehensive data sets for building and calibrating these models. The so-called "-omics" data sets can now be generated via high throughput techniques in the form of genomic, proteomic, transcriptomic, and metabolomic information on the engineered biological system. Of particular interest with respect to the engineering of microbes capable of producing biofuels and other chemicals economically and at scale are metabolomic datasets, and their insights into intracellular metabolic fluxes. Metabolic fluxes provide a rapid and easy to understand picture of how carbon and energy flow throughout the cell. Here, we present a detailed guide to performing metabolic flux analysis and modeling using the open source JBEI Quantitative Metabolic Modeling (jQMM) library. This library allows the user to transform metabolomics data in the form of isotope labeling data from a C labeling experiment into a determination of cellular fluxes that can be used to develop genetic engineering strategies for metabolic engineering. The jQMM library presents a complete toolbox for performing a range of different tasks of interest in metabolic engineering. Various different types of flux analysis and modeling can be performed such as flux balance analysis, C metabolic flux analysis, and two-scale C metabolic flux analysis (2S-C MFA). 2S-C MFA is a novel method that determines genome-scale fluxes without the need of every single carbon transition in the metabolic network. In addition to several other capabilities, the jQMM library can make model based predictions for how various genetic engineering strategies can be incorporated toward bioengineering goals: it can predict the effects of reaction knockouts on metabolism using both the MoMA and ROOM methodologies. In this chapter, we will illustrate the use of the jQMM library through a stepby-step demonstration of flux determination and knockout prediction in a complex eukaryotic model organism: Saccharomyces cerevisiae (S. cerevisiae). Included with this chapter is a digital Jupyter Notebook file that provides a computable appendix showing a self-contained example of jQMM usage, which can be changed to fit the user's specific needs. As an open source software project, users can modify and extend the Edward E.K. Baidoo (ed.), Microbial Metabolomics: Methods and Protocols, Methods in Molecular Biology, vol. 1859, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4939-8757-3_19, © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Electronic supplementary material:The online version of this chapter (https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-49398757-3_19) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.


Introduction The clubroot disease caused by Plasmodiophora brassicae (P. brassicae) poses a serious threat to the economic value of cruciferous crops, which is a serious problem to be solved worldwide. Some resistance genes to clubroot disease in Brassica rapa L. ssp pekinensis cause by P. brassicae have been located on different chromosomes. Among them, Rcr1 and Rcr2 were mapped to the common candidate gene Bra019410, but its resistance mechanism is not clear yet. Methods In this experiment, the differences of BrRPP1 between the resistant and susceptible material of Chinese cabbage were analyzed by gene cloning and qRT-PCR. The gene function was verified by Arabidopsis homologous mutants. The expression site of BrRPP1 gene in cells was analyzed by subcellular localization. Finally, the candidate interaction protein of BrRPP1 was screened by yeast two-hybrid library. Results The results showed that the cDNA sequence, upstream promoter sequence and expression level of BrRPP1 were quite different between the resistant and susceptible material. The resistance investigation found that the Arabidopsis mutant rpp1 was more susceptible to clubroot disease than the wild type, which suggested that the deletion of rpp1 reduces resistance of plant to clubroot disease. Subcellular location analysis confirmed that BrRPP1 was located in the nucleus. The interaction proteins of BrRPP1 screened from cDNA Yeast Library by yeast two-hybrid are mainly related to photosynthesis, cell wall modification, jasmonic acid signal transduction and programmed cell death. Discussion BrRPP1 gene contains TIR-NBS-LRR domain and belongs to R gene. The cDNA and promoter sequence of BrRPP1 in resistant varieties was different from that in susceptible varieties led to the significant difference of the gene expression of BrRPP1 between the resistant varieties and the susceptible varieties. The high expression of BrRPP1 gene in resistant varieties enhanced the resistance of Chinese cabbage to P. brassicae, and the interaction proteins of BrRPP1 are mainly related to photosynthesis, cell wall modification, jasmonic acid signal transduction and programmed cell death. These results provide important clues for understanding the mechanism of BrRPP1 in the resistance of B. rapa to P. brassicae.


Abstract : Russia consistently exploits ethnic divides in its foreign policy strategy, specifically against states in its near abroad. Georgia and Ukraine have been on the receiving end of this strategy for most of their post-Soviet history. As a result, the sovereignty of both has been systematically and repeatedly violated by Russia. A comparative study of Georgia and Ukraine, two countries that share a unique historical relationship with Russia but are now ideologically moving outside its orbit, permits a more nuanced view into two distinctive aspects of Russia s exploitation of ethnic divisions: Georgia as an ancient and unique nation located in the crossroads of three continents, and Ukraine as a fellow Slavic country with a shared Russian history fighting to create its own identity. Russia s efforts to exploit ethnic divides fall into six categories: exporting propaganda, manipulating identity, arming insurgents, supplying fighters, exploiting presence, and freezing conflicts. Though Russia has successfully weakened Georgia and Ukraine through these six strategic methods, Russia has struggled to achieve its long-term goals of limiting Western influence, creating a Russian hegemony, and restoring Russia to great-power status. In pursuing these goals, Russia not only irreparably damaged ethnic relationships in Georgia and Ukraine, but also severely tarnished its international reputation.


This study aimed to identify the effects of olive leaf extract (OLE) on IFNγ, TNFα, TGFβ and nitric oxide (NO) resulted from macrophages infected with Leishmania major (L. major) amastigotes in the culture medium. High‐performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) was used to analyse the level of Oleuropein in plant extract. To evaluate the immunomodulatory effects of OLE, the isolated BALB/c mice peritoneal macrophages were infected with L. major promastigotes and treated with 6.25, 12.5 and 25 μg/mL concentrations of OLE. To assess the cytokines, supernatants of cell cultures were harvested after 12, 24 and 48 hours. Cytokine production was evaluated by ELISA. Nitrite accumulation in the culture medium was assessed using the Griess reaction. The level of Oleuropein in the extract was 18.45% by HPLC. According to results, the production of IFNγ and TNFα was significantly increased when the infected and/or not infected macrophages with L. major promastigotes were affected by different concentrations of OLE. Conversely, the production of TGFβ was significantly decreased under the same conditions. Furthermore, the colorimetric determination of NO accumulation in the culture medium indicated that OLE has no effect on NO production. The study corroborates the immunomodulatory effects of OLE on L. major‐infected macrophages.


We present a computational approach to haptic design embedded in everyday tangible interaction with digital fabrication. To generate haptic feedback, the use of permanent magnets as the mechanism potentially contributes to simpleness and robustness; however, it is difficult to manually design how magnets should be embedded in the objects. Our approach enables the inverse design of magnetic force feedback; that is, we computationally solve an inverse problem to obtain an optimal arrangement of permanent magnets that renders the user-specified haptic sensation. To solve the inverse problem in a practical manner, we also present techniques on magnetic simulation and optimization. We demonstrate applications to explore the design possibility of augmenting digital fabrication for everyday use.


Cervical cancer is the second most common female cancer worldwide and is expected to result in 11,270 new cases and 4,070 deaths this year in the United States. Advances in the early detection of malignant lesions continue to lower cervical cancer mortality; however, cervical cancer remains a challenge for prevention and the management of pre‐invasive disease. A long latency precedes the development of many invasive cervical cancers, and provides an extended window for cancer risk reducing interventions. Natural food products and bioactive food components have attracted significant interest as nutraceutical‐based cancer prevention strategies. MicroRNAs (miRs) play important roles in diverse biological processes, including development, cell differentiation, proliferation and apoptosis. It has been shown that microRNAs are deregulated in many cancers, and consequently represent new targets for cancer treatments. Previously, we demonstrated that a lyophilized black raspberry (LBR, Rubus occidentalis) extract inhibited the proliferation of human cervical cancer cells [HeLa (HPV16−/HPV18+, adenocarcinoma), SiHa (HPV16+/HPV18−, squamous cell carcinoma) and C‐33A (HPV16−/HPV18−, squamous cell carcinoma)] in a dose‐ and time‐dependent manner. To investigate the role of microRNAs in the growth inhibitory activity of LBR extract on cervical cancer cells, we performed global microRNA profiling (667 unique miRs) using the TaqMan MicroRNA Array v2.0 on HeLa, SiHa and C‐33A cells. Cervical cells were treated with 200µg/mL LBR extract or 0.02% DMSO (delivery vehicle control) for 1 day and 3 days, respectively. HeLa, SiHa, and C‐33A cells demonstrated approximately 300 microRNA changes following 1 day or 3 days of LBR extract exposure. Once controlled for delivery vehicle effects, all cells demonstrated significant (2^‐ Ct Method, 2‐fold cutoff, p Ingenuity Pathway Analysis predicted that at least 27 unique LBR extractmodulated microRNAs were involved in carcinogenesis. Interestingly, despite histopathologic and genetic background differences, five microRNAs demonstrated the same expression profile in all cervical cells following LBR extract exposure: miR‐26a‐2*, miR‐923 (up‐regulated) and miR‐19a*, miR‐885‐5p, miR‐937 (down‐regulated). In addition, potential oncomiRs miR‐184 and miR‐145 were down‐regulated by LBR extract uniquely in SiHa cells. Suppression of oncomiR‐184 and oncomiR‐145 was validated by real time RT‐PCR (2.4‐fold and 2.1‐fold decrease, respectively). In conclusion, LBR inhibits growth and modulates microRNA expression in human cervical cancer cells in conserved (all cell types) and unique profiles. Further studies will identify the mechanistic role of these microRNAs in LBR‐mediated growth suppression and cervical carcinogenesis. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2010;3(1 Suppl):A77.


Output from the Climate Model Intercomparison Project Phase 3 (CMIP3) global climate models are statistically downscaled across Wisconsin, using a method that restores the observed mean, variance, and extremes of daily temperature and precipitation. The downscaled climate data for the late 20th century, mid‐21st century, and late 21st‐century is used to drive the National Weather Service operational snow model, SNOW‐17, to produce high‐resolution (0.1° × 0.1°) projections of daily snowfall, snow depth, and snow cover for Wisconsin. These snow projections will guide wildlife scientists in climate change impact studies and the development of adaptation strategies for the state, in addition to being of value to hydrologists, agricultural scientists, and other experts. SNOW‐17 simulations suggest a dramatic shortening of the Wisconsin snow season, with the greatest snowfall and snow depth reductions in spring, particularly over northern Wisconsin. Snowfall is substantially reduced in response to projected warming and only slightly offset by a projected increase in cold‐season precipitation. Percent reductions in snow depth are likely to be even more impressive than in snowfall, given not only a reduced frequency that falling precipitation will be in frozen form but also an enhanced snowmelt due to rising temperatures. Copyright © 2010 Royal Meteorological Society


The extractive of wood chips of papermaking consumes many bleaching agents and adhesives, which have serious influences on the wood-based paper quality and increase more difficulties on the treatment of both wastewater and black-liquid for wood industry and paper mill. Therefore, wastewater from chip pretreatment increasingly becomes a difficult and urgent issue. In order to better recover and utilize the pretreatment wastewater of Eucalyptus tereticornis wood chips and hence decrease its pollution to water environment, the chemical components of cold water extractive of E. tereticornis wood chips was analyzed by GC/MS after enriched and dissolved in benzene-methanol. Relative content of each component was determined by area normalization, and 30 compounds representing 99.38 % of the cold water extractive were identified. The analytical result showed that the main components of cold water extractive of E. tereticornis wood chips by GC/MS analysis were cycloprop[e] and cyclopropa[a] series components, eucalyptol, naphthalene series components, ethanol series components, phenol series components, heptadecane series components, and other bioactive constituents. The results of function analyses suggested that most chemical components of cold water extractive of E. tereticornis wood chips can be developed into top value-added materials of biomedicine, cosmetic, food, solvent and bioactive chemical industry.


We study the problem of training machine learning models incrementally with batches of samples annotated with noisy oracles. We select each batch of samples that are important and also diverse via clustering and importance sampling. More importantly, we incorporate model uncertainty into the sampling probability to compensate for poor estimation of the importance scores when the training data is too small to build a meaningful model. Experiments on benchmark image classification datasets (MNIST, SVHN, CIFAR10, and EMNIST) show improvement over existing active learning strategies. We introduce an extra denoising layer to deep networks to make active learning robust to label noises and show significant improvements.


As the demand for more innovative products to help improve the lives of others increases, the product design industry continues to require more effective design methodologies. Conventional wisdom and research suggests that Computer-Aided Design (CAD) is a tool for detailed design, and is not appropriate for the conceptual phase of the design process. However, given new advances in cloud-computing and real-time synchronous collaboration, the ability to quickly digitally prototype unique concepts in CAD has never been easier. Given that new engineering graduates are part of the "digital native" generation, anecdotal evidence suggests these designers have a natural inclination and ability for this digital prototyping. Our study seeks to formally test whether a dichotomy exists between younger designers who are entering the workforce, and older designers who are veterans in product development, regarding the best-practices in CAD usage for conceptual design "Conceptual CAD". The paper begins with a critical review of the existing body of literature which advises the designer against Conceptual CAD. Next, we present the findings of a survey of professional product designers (spanning a variety of networks including LinkedIn and local product design think-tanks). We focus the analysis of the survey on differences in Conceptual CAD design practice by a variety of factors (e.g. years of experience with a given CAD tool, industry of practice, amount of time spent performing team vs. individual design actions, etc.), with the goal of identifying if correlation exists between designer age and inclination to use Conceptual CAD. Our study reveals important implications for engineering educators. Newly graduated engineers have advanced comfort and abilities with digital tools, and a corresponding proclivity to perform Conceptual CAD. These preferences benefit from the features of modern CAD tools, including fast collaboration and sharing. Though current introductory CAD courses are sufficient at teaching students how to use CAD, there is a recommendation for more cohesion and CAD usage in advanced design courses. Allowing more usage of CAD in more comprehensive design driven courses, can allow students to more accurately simulate the product development process in industry, and thus reduce the education to industry application gap.


Abstract
Introduction: Adherence to a swallowing exercise protocol and a common compliance barrier, oral pain, was evaluated and described.

Methods: A four-week dysphagia exercise program was completed by 12 individuals with a history of base of tongue cancer who were experiencing latent dysphagia. Adherence to a dysphagia exercise program was quantified. Focused outcome measures on oral pain related to dysphagia exercises and exercise related sense of effort were also included.

Results: Moderate to strong adherence was reported by 75% of participants. Overall, 78.9% of exercise sessions were completed. Individuals reported little to no pain associated with dysphagia exercises throughout protocol participation.

Conclusions: Routine reminders and establishment of a tracking method supported adherence with a dysphagia exercise protocol. Oral pain and sense of effort associated with completing oral and dysphagia exercises were not demonstrated to be barriers to participation in a dysphagia exercise program in people who are several years post radiation therapy completion.

Keywords: dysphagia, oropharyngeal cancer, latent dysphagia, swallowing exercises


Blocked clauses provide the basis for powerful reasoning techniques used in SAT, QBF, and DQBF solving. Their definition, which relies on a simple syntactic criterion, guarantees that they are both redundant and easy to find. In this paper, we lift the notion of blocked clauses to first-order logic. We introduce two types of blocked clauses, one for first-order logic with equality and the other for first-order logic without equality, and prove their redundancy. In addition, we give a polynomial algorithm for checking whether a clause is blocked. Based on our new notions of blocking, we implemented a novel first-order preprocessing tool. Our experiments showed that many first-order problems in the TPTP library contain a large number of blocked clauses. Moreover, we observed that their elimination can improve the performance of modern theorem provers, especially on satisfiable problem instances.


We all stand on the precipice of a chasm that stretches from today to the future a chasm where the walls surrounding what is perceived as reality begin to blur with the synthetic worlds we create. This is a truly exciting age we are at a threshold point where technology has almost caught up with developers' seemingly insatiable need for more image-generation power. Nevertheless, whole new sets of problems loom on the horizon. How do we harness this expressive power? How do we deliver interactive impact over the web? How do we make 3D graphics (as a technology) so intuitive that anyone can use it? Through the Web3D RoundUP we've been asking these questions in public for five years, together with the many colleagues who describe their work in this special issue. The Web3D RoundUP is a high-speed shootout that showcases the latest and very greatest interactive 3D content available over the web. Top 3D tools and content developers demonstrate their jury-selected Web3D technology and applications in a fastpaced, exciting format. Diplomatically speaking, we describe this as an "interactive event for interactive content." Realistically speaking, it's a gut-wrenching monster... Have you ever tried doing a cool demo in less than three minutes, with the seconds ticking down on the big screen, in front of 1,700+ world-class graphics experts, all armed with happy/sad sound effects and ping-pong ball blasters? Twice a ),ear, at 51GGRAPH and at the Web3D/VKML Symposia, the Web3D RoundUP presents the best the Web3D world has to offer in a cool and entertaining way. The challenge for jurors is to choose two dozen diverse, eye-popping selections from nine-dozen submissions.The challenge for presenters is to first finish chat killer demo, and then engage the audience in a fun way so that everyone can interactively participate and become part of the event itself. The challenge for the audience is to hold on without blinking during this wild ride, to shake and rattle various "interactive feedback devices" for live comment, and then vote to pick the best entries in each category. The future of our on-line 3D-graphics community lies partially within the infrastructure that the hardware manufacturers are building for us. It still boggles the mind to think that we can now buy cheap little black boxes that surpass the performance of a $100,000 supercomputer from only a few years ago. Can 3D software and content catch up? As an industry, and as individuals, are we ready to harness the power? Everyone has been waiting I0 years for this moment--the moment where the Internet and real-time 3D begin to intersect. Now they are slamming together with tremendous force. These impacts are sparking entirely new breeds of application, content and experience, quite unlike anything the world has ever seen. The next challenge is to make everything easy, so that 3D can be shared with anyone, anywhere, over the web. The Web3D RoundUP evolved from the early days of the Virtual Reality Education Foundation (affectionately known as VeRGe) which was created by Timothy Childs, Linda Jacobson and Peter Rothman. Another precursor was the first SIGGRAPH "Demo SIG" meetings organized by Don Brutzman where the VRML community kick-started web-based 3D graphics. It was through those early VeRGe and Demo SIG events that we got our first tastes of technically successful chaos, producing and presenting bleeding-edge demo sessions which morphed into today's Web3D RoundUP. Each year, we continue to grow, adapt, tumble and evolve as presenters push the limits. One of the hot spices that gave the Web3D RoundUP its original kick was the oft-occurr ing computer crash. There seemed to be a direct correlation between a crashing computer and how bleeding-edge the demo was. Now Web3D technology is starting to stabilize (and fewer virtual fire extinguishers are needed). Even so, we're still seeking the bleeding edge. Where is it? A big chunk lies in the gaming community, where programmers have moved past platform stability and are already attempting to harness new levels of power in hardware. It is important that dialogue occurs in many different forms between these two worlds. There are huge lessons that game designers can learn from the computer graphics world and vice versa--especially in understanding practical human-factors issues in immersive environments. The diversity in this issue shows that there is no single "killer application" Many areas are proving equally substantial: entertainment and gaming, education, ecommerce, scientific visualization and others. Everyone in the SIGGRAPH community has always "known" intuitively that 3D graphics can add value to almost anything. Now we can see major impacts become prevalent as 3D begins influencing almost every field of endeavor on a daily basis. Our goal for these Web3D RoundUP experiments and experiences is to continue helping 51GGKAPH push the leading edge of this wave. The Web3D RoundUP became what it is today thanks to great help from all the volunteers at the Web3D VRML and SIGGKAPH conferences, as well as the solid advice and support by many SIGGRAPH chairs, staff, committee members and student volunteers. We're especially grateful to Clark Dodsworth, Brian Blau, Walt Bransford, Warren Waggenspack, Jackie White, Tarik Thami, Celia Pearce, Jeff Jortner, Aliza Corson, Mike Capps and Jean Tam. We are most fortunate to receive sage guidance from the world's greatest audio-visual wizards at (where else?) AVVV Audio Visual, particularly John Kennedy, Gary Clark and Ed Goodman. Finally, we thank the hardworking technical trapeze artists and content creators, who put in countless hours getting ready for just a few minutes of unforgettably intense glory on stage.


Abs t rac t . To estimate the quantile density function (the derivative of the quantile function) by kernel means, there are two alternative approaches. One is the derivative of the kernel quantile estimator, the other is essentially the reciprocal of the kernel density estimator. We give ways in which the former method has certain advantages over the latter. Various closely related smoothing issues are also discussed.


Rice is the staple food of Malaysians and mainly planted for domestic consumption. Diseases are estimated to cause annual yield and quality losses of 8 to 10 percent.
 Production costs are also increased by the use of chemicals and cultural methods of disease control. Bakanae disease is one of the important diseases of rice. Major rice growing areas in Malaysia affected with Bakanae disease showed a significant decrease on yield and quality. Biological control of plant pathogens by antagonistic microorganisms is a potential non-chemical means in managing soil borne plant diseases. Beneficial bacteria and fungi applied as seed treatments provide unique opportunities for protection against soil-borne fungal pathogens and they are potential alternative to fungicides. The objectives of this study are, therefore, to isolate,characterize and identify the antagonistic microorganisms in rice and to evaluate their potential as bio-inoculants against Bakanae disease in rice. From the total of 315 microorganisms isolated from 25 different samples of rhizosphere soil and rice roots,71% were bacteria, 27% fungi and 2% actinomycetes. The isolated microbial organisms were subsequently tested for their antagonistic activity in vitro against Fusarium proliferatum. In dual culture testing, 12 bacterial isolates exhibited significantly high antagonistic activity in the range of 53 to 84%. The highest
 antagonistic activities were based on their percentage inhibition in radial growth of F.proliferatum (84%), which was exhibited by isolate B7. Secondary screening was carried out for detection of microbial compounds, siderophore production, chitinase activity, indole-acetic acid production and phosphate solubilizing activity for the potential isolates. Isolate B7 was able to produce siderophore, chitinase, and IAA,and had P solubilizing activity. B7 was identified by the Biolog® identification
 system as Bacillus cereus. Subsequently, molecular characterization also confirmed B7 as Bacillus cereus. Based on their colonization and establishment in rice seedlings, B.cereus (B7) were selected for further in vivo screening for its efficacy in controlling Bakanae disease on rice in the glasshouse. Seed treatment with B. cereus on rice seedlings pre-inoculated with F. proliferatum suppressed the Bakanae incidence compared to the control. Inoculation of seedlings with B. cereus reduced Bakanae incidence by 51%. Based on this disease reduction from this research, B. cereus showed potential to be used as bio-inoculant for controlling Bakanae disease on rice.


Manpower planning in a sense, according to Barthlomew [1], is concerned with matching the supply of people with the jobs available. Recruitment is required to compensate the wastage of manpower; wastage refers to the loss of manpower in the organization. Recruitment cannot be made frequently since it involves cost. The threshold level is the maximum amount of wastage that can be permitted in the organization beyond which the organization reaches a point of breakdown. It is similar to the concept of shock model and cumulative damage discussed by Esary et al. [2]. In this paper we made an attempt to determine the expected time to recruitment, assuming that the threshold as exponentiated exponential distribution which introduced by Gupta and Kundu [3].


The river water maintains a heat exchange with the atmosphere and with the bottom; this process can reach its equilibrium along a stretch of the river with similar geologic and climatic characteristics. Its behavior can be modified by artificial effects, such as the use of the river water for the cooling of thermal power stations or by the presence of reservoirs. In the case of regions with Mediterranean climate, where the studied reservoirs are located, the effects of changes in the natural thermal regime caused by them produce a trend towards a constant seasonal thermal condition, an increase in daily uniformity, an increase in winter temperatures, and a decrease in summer temperatures. Water temperature is an important factor in the river's ecology, because it greatly conditions the life of fluvial communities. Downstream from power stations or dams, the water temperature evolves in such a way that tends to achieve equilibrium with the environment.


This article proposes to describe and compare the contributions of various techniques of evaluation of the accessibility of E-services carried out starting from (i) methods of inspection (on the basis of traditional ergonomic criteria and accessibility) and (ii) of tests of use. It show that these are the latter which show the best rate of identification of the problems of uses for the poeple with disabilities


The insulation characteristics of different types of single- and three-conductor cable, determined largely by dielectric energy loss measurements, are discussed in detail. Particular attention is given to paper insulated cable, both new cable and cable that has been in service being considered. Varnished cambric and different grades of rubber insulation, as well as cable compounds are also dealt with briefly.


Ultrathin free-standing carbon films with thicknesses of ∼8–14 nm were prepared by peeling from glass after pyrolization of the polyfurfuryl alcohol precursor at 700 °C. The carbon films were characterized by using optical profilometry, confocal Raman spectroscopy, transmission electron microscopy, UV-vis spectroscopy, and a two-point probe I - V station measurement. The results confirmed the formation of ultrathin free-standing carbon films with a polyaromatic domain structure. Those films had up to a 90% transmittance with respect to air and had an ohmic behavior. In this work, we also suggest that the most likely peeling mechanism of carbon films results from glass corrosion.


This paper presents a simple yet effective method for transforming Boolean functions that do not satisfy the strict avalanche criterion (SAC) into ones that satisfy the criterion. Such a method has a wide range of applications in designing cryptographically strong functions, including substitution boxes (S-boxes) employed by common key block encryption algorithms.


A nonparametric approach to analyzing trends in binary responses is widely applied in many fields of research. To test whether there is an increasing or decreasing trend can use the proportion data based on the Cochran-Armitage statistical test. The Cochran-Armitage test is a sensitive test on the score, the score here is 1 represents the 'success' event and 0 represents the 'fail' event. If the determination of the number of scores behind the position should not change the results of conclusions but in practice obtained different conclusions. To solve the problem, a correction of the Cochran-Armitage statistic called the Cochran-Armitage contingency correction test was performed. Cochran-Armitage continuity correction test will be applied to data of child mortality rate in Palembang City and South Sumatera in 2007-2015, which aims to determine whether there is an increase or decrease based on data of proportion on AKA. The result of the analysis shows that the test statistic value of Cochran-Armitage on AKA SUMSEL stimulus is -1,27414 it shows that from 2007-2015 the proportion of child mortality rate has the same trend, with indication of continuity correction equal to 2,84340 means from 2007 -2015 the proportion of child mortality rate in Palembang City has a tendency of declining trend. Meanwhile, the time series data stimulus obtained by the value of test statistic at Cochran-Armitage of 11,96437 it shows that from 2007-2015 the proportion of child mortality has a tendency of declining trend, with indigo correction continuity of 4 means from 2007-2015 The proportion of child mortality in each year there is no trend.


ABSTRACT:This introduction provides a brief overview of the period known as the "long nineteenth century," which played host to and helped to shape numerous new religious movements. Highlighting the impact and occasional convergence of various political, social, and religious movements and events in both the United States and globally, this essay seeks to show that the examination of new religious movements in the nineteenth century offers a means of applying scholarship in new religious movements to religions that may be defined as "old," while simultaneously opening new ways of understanding new religions more broadly. In the process, this overview provides background for the articles included in this special issue of Nova Religio, which explore subjects including religious utopianism; gender, politics, and Pentecostalism; Mormonism and foreign missions; and the relationships of new religious movements to visual art.


The aim of the present study was to explore the relationship between depression and quality of life among individuals with type II diabetes. On the basis of literature review it was hypothesized that a) depression will predict quality of life among patients with diabetes b) there will be negative relationship between depression and quality of life among patients with diabetes. A purposive sample of 96 people with diabetes type II diagnosed by physicians was selected from different hospitals and different organizations of Karachi, Pakistan. Their age range was between 25 to 75 years (mean age = 41.2, SD = 12.3) and they belonged to three major socioeconomic status i.e. low, middle and high. To measure the depression Salma Siddiqui Depression Scale was used and quality of life was assessed through WHO Quality of life BREF-Urdu Version. Descriptive statistics and linear regression were applied for the analysis of data. Findings revealed that there was moderately significant negative relationship between Depression and Quality of Life (p<.000) and depression contributes 40% variance in quality of life among patients. The findings have clinical implications for general physicians and clinical psychologists as well as for the general population.


The migration of Africans within West Africa is far from being a recent phenomenon. People moved within and across the ethnic lines before the colonial era, but in recent times the number of African emigrants has risen significantly, especially in the 21st Century. African diasporas within the African continent, especially in the sub-region of West Africa are often overlooked actors in the area of development and integration. Therefore, this study examined the roles of diasporas in Ghana and Nigeria in the areas of development and sub-regional integration in West Africa and how they are enhanced or diminished by the ECOWAS treaty, as a formal institution of development and integration in West Africa. Also, the contributions of African diasporas outside of West-African countries is an issue that has not been well articulated in the foreign policies of Nigeria and Ghana for the purpose of actualising the integration agenda of the ECOWAS. This study adopted a mixed research design, a combination of qualitative and quantitative methods. Up to 357 Nigerians living in Ghana and 211 Ghanaians living in Nigeria participated in the study. The ratio of males to females among Nigerian diasporas was 8 to 1 while the Ghanaian diasporas had a ratio of about 7 to 1. The mean ages of Nigerian diasporas was 24.6 years and Ghanaian diasporas was 45.6 years. Three research questions were raised and answered. The findings revealed that both Nigerian and Ghanaian diasporas contributed to the social, economic, political and cultural development of Ghana and Nigeria respectively. The present state of diaspora linkages between Nigeria and Ghana was found to be supportive of the sub-regional integration agenda of ECOWAS. The findings of hypotheses revealed that Nigerian and Ghanaian diasporas are contributing to the development of their countries of origin and destination. The formal institutional arrangements such as ECOWAS Protocol was found to be operational and aiding the developmental activities of Ghanaian and Nigerian diasporas. The linkages between Ghanaian and Nigerian diasporas and their countries of destination and origin were found to enhance Nigeria and Ghana bilateral relations. It was concluded that the ECOWAS community leaders aimed at a borderless West Africa when they signed the ECOWAS treaty, but the officials entrusted with implementing the policy seem to be self-centered and not community-oriented. This study recommends among others that in order to facilitate diaspora engagement in the development process of Nigeria and Ghana, the Nigerian and Ghanaian governments should strengthen their links with the existing diaspora networks and organisations, such as religious organisations and communities, associations, and venues of engagement created and maintained by the Nigerian and Ghanaian diasporas.


In this paper, we conduct research on the import and export of iron ore and harmful element detection method based on microwave digestion inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry approach. Our country gradually increased demand for iron ore, iron ore trade, in order to ensure that the quality of the iron ore and taste which must be tested for total iron content. At the same time it also increased the demand for iron ore, although China's iron ore production has been greatly improved. Our proposed approach optimizes the traditional detection method which will be meaningful.


$0Introduction: After the discovery of camel antibodies that devoid of light chains, these antibodies were considered a useful tool for the diagnosis and treatment of many diseases. The main advantage of the variable domain of camel antibody (VHH), followed by small size and low immunogenicity in humans, and the ability to detect antigens that are inaccessible to others antibodies. In this study, A bivalent and bispecific VHH-VHH antibody libraries Against tumor antigens of SKBR3 was constructed. Several studies have shown that both forms of bivalent antibody affinity and specificity for binding to the antigen much higher capacity than single antibodies are.$0$0Method:The Heavy chain variable region VHHhing and VHH genes were amplified from cDNA by the Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR). Hinge of camel IgG2 and IgG3 were used as linkers to connect two VHH together. We connect these fragments by a method based on cloning. pComb3x Vector and VHH-HING insert were digested with Xho1 and Sac1 and then ligated. VHH was transformed into this vector by Xho1 and Spe1. In order to check the diversity of the libraries, RFLP was performed on several samples.$0$0Results: The vector contains bivalent and bispecific antibody transformed into electrocompetent DH5α Escherichia coli yielding a library with 105 total transformants. The difference in cutting pattern fragments in RFLP, reflects the diversity of the constructed library.$0$0Conclusions: The easy generation steps and the biophysical properties of these bispecific and bivalent constructs based on camel single-domain antibody fragments makes them particularly attractive for use in therapeutic or diagnostic programs.$0$0$0$0 camel antibody, bivalent and bispecific antibody, tumor marker. Presentation: Poster


Rheumatoid arthritis frequently involves the shoulder. In the advanced stages of the disease the preferred treatment has been either arthroplasty or arthrodesis. The functional results of five shoulder arthrodeses have been compared with five hemiarthroplasties. The period of postoperative immobilization was shorter for hemiarthroplasty; both procedures relieved pain, but personal hygiene was easier to manage after hemiarthroplasty. Shoulder arthrodesis with a fixed internal rotation greater than 40 degrees makes it impossible to reach the face and the optimal position would seem to be 20-30 degrees of abduction. 20-30 degrees flexion and 20-30 degrees internal rotation.


SV40 large T‐antigen‐induced transformation has been reported to block differentiation, but the mechanism(s) of this effect has not been established. The results presented here show that stable transfection of the SV40 T‐antigen gene, via the pSV3neo plasmid, has at least three distinct effects on 3T3T adipocyte differentiation. Cells first show a decreased ability to undergo predifferentiation growth arrest, which is a prerequisite for in vitro 3T3T adipocyte differentiation. However, if predifferentiation growth arrest is accomplished by use of stringent differentiation‐inducing culture conditions, adipocyte differentiation can occur with high frequency. The pSV3neo‐transfected cell clones also show other modifications of the adipocyte differentiation process, including changes in nonterminal (reversible) and terminal (irreversible) steps of adipocyte differentiation. When compared to nontransfected 3T3T cells, the cell clones containing pSV3neo require markedly reduced growth factor concentrations to restimulate proliferation of nonterminally differentiated adipocytes and the terminal step of differentiation is also blocked. These results suggest that integration of the T‐antigen gene, through pSV3neo transfection, has multiple effects on the cellular mechanisms of differentiation. It does not block the differentiation process per se; rather it appears to make cells highly sensitive to proliferation signals, thereby making differentiation more difficult.


The aim of this study was to evaluate the contribution of ionotropic glutamate receptors to kindled seizure-evoked somatostatin release in the hippocampus, using a microdialysis approach. Basal and amygdala stimulation-evoked somatostatin-like immunoreactivity (-LI) release was significantly greater in kindled compared to naive rats. In naive rats, neither hippocampal perfusion with the selective AMPA/kainate receptor antagonist GYKI 52466 nor with the selective NMDA receptor antagonist MK-801 affected behavior, EEG, or somatostatin-LI release. In kindled rats, GYKI 52466 was still devoid of any effect, while MK-801 significantly decreased stimulus-evoked (but not basal) somatostatin-LI efflux. MK-801 produced identical effects when injected i.p. This study provides the first direct evidence that kindled seizure-evoked somatostatin release in the hippocampus is partly NMDA receptor dependent.


Remarkably little is known about the higher-order folding motifs of the chromatin fiber inside the cell nucleus. Folding depends among others on local gene density and transcriptional activity and plays an important role in gene regulation. Strikingly, at fiber lengths above 5 to 10 Mb the measured mean square distance between any two points on the chromatin fiber is independent of polymer length. We propose a polymer model that can explain this leveling-off by means of random looping. We derive an analytical expression for the mean square displacement between two arbitrary beads. Here the average is taken over the thermal ensemble with a fixed but random loop configuration, while quenched averaging over the ensemble of different loop configurations--which turns out to be equivalent to averaging over an ensemble of random matrices--is performed numerically. A detailed investigation of this model shows that loops on all scales are necessary to fit experimental data.


Wisconsin is generally viewed as a high tax state. Depending on how one measures tax burdens, Wisconsin's rankings range from either the top five, or right in the middle of the national average. While these rankings have always been a source of discussion in Wisconsin, the state's current budget deficit, and the proposed solutions, has renewed the public debate about Wisconsin's fiscal policies with a vengeance. Accusations of duplication of services, higher costs inherent to the small scale of operation and a general tendency to be "big spenders" have created a firestorm of controversy. Further, a range of business support organizations has renewed yet again the call for tax reductions in the name of economic growth. In this applied research study we again ask the fundamental question "are Wisconsin local taxes too high" but we address the research question from a slightly different direction. Rather than looking at local property values and corresponding tax generating abilities, we measure the influence of local spending and taxation decisions on local economic growth. If local spending and taxation levels are indeed too high, we should see a dampening affect on local economic growth rates.


In several domains of applied geophysics, surface and guided waves are considered a source of information that can be exploited by a variety of well-established geophysical solutions for characterizing the near surface, which in a marine environment includes the seabed. In contrast, in exploration seismic surveys, these waves have traditionally been regarded as coherent noise that should be quickly filtered out. With proper analysis and inversion they can be used to characterize the near surface with a surprisingly high resolution, and can provide valuable information for tasks such as velocity and geological modelling. Here, we discuss a workflow for the analysis and joint inversion of surface and guided waves in ocean-bottom cable and shallow streamer seismic data and we list cases where the retrieved shallow velocity models can enhance conventional processing in shallow marine environments.


A ?freak wave? is a wave that appears seemingly random and that is significantly larger
than the surrounding waves. It is a phenomenon that occurs on many oceans around the
world. These waves, that are known to have damaged and sunk some very large ships, will
appear very sudden and disappear just a short time after.
Tales of freak waves were once dismissed as seafaring myths. But nowadays the height
of the sea is continually monitored at many places such as oil rigs. One of these offshore
platforms, the Draupner platform in the Norwegian section of the North Sea, has recorded
a freak wave at 15:24 on 1st January 1995 [7]. (see figure 1)
We assume these freak waves originate from several smaller waves with different wavelengths
that travel with different velocities. These smaller waves may at some point combine
to one very big wave and almost immediately dissolve into smaller waves again.
In this report I?ll try to find a description for the maximum wave height for all times,
hoping to understand some of the phenomena of the ocean a bit better.


Rat ovarian granulosa cells were isolated from immature female rats after stimulation with pregnant mare's serum gonadotropin and then maintained in culture. Proteoglycans were labeled using [35S]sulfate, D-[3h]glucosamine, or L-[3H]serine as precursors. 35S-labeled proteoglycans in the medium increased linearly up to 72 h after a 6- to 8-h lag period, and those in a 4 M guanidine HCl extract of the cell layer increased for about 16 h and then reached a plateau and stayed fairly constant up to 72 h. Two distinct sizes of proteoglycans were observed in the medium. The smaller (Kav = 0.60 on Sepharose CL-2B) had lower buoyant densities in dissociative gradients (rho less than 1.4 g/ml). The larger (Kav = 0.26 on Sepharose CL-2B) had high buoyant densities (recovered mainly in the bottom (D1) fraction of the dissociative gradient). More than 90% of the D1 proteoglycans contained dermatan sulfate chains (average Mr = 38,000) which yielded 84% 4-sulfated and 15% disulfated disaccharides after digestion with chondroitinase ABC. About 8% of the 35S-label in D1 was present as a heparan sulfate proteoglycan. When [3H]-glucosamine was used as a precursor, 28% of the 3H activity in the D1 proteoglycans was located in three major oligosaccharide components, two of which were similar or identical with those observed previously in D1 proteoglycans isolated from porcine follicular fluid. These results plus similar susceptibility of the labeled proteoglycans to proteolytic enzymes, especially plasmin, suggest that the granulosa cells synthesize the predominant follicular fluid proteoglycans.


Separation of suspended droplets in a fluid flow has been a great concern for scientists and technologists. In the current study, the effect of the surface roughness on flow field and the performance of a gas-oil cyclone is studied numerically. The droplets and the turbulent airflow inside the cyclone are considered to be the discrete and continuous phases respectively. The Reynolds stress model (RSM) is employed to simulate the complex, yet strongly anisotropic, flow inside the cyclone while the Eulerian-Lagrangian approach is selected to track droplet motion. The results are compared to experimental studies; according to the results, the tangential and axial velocities, pressure drop, and Euler number decrease when the surface roughness increases. Moreover, the cyclone efficiency drops when the vortex length decreases as a result of a rise in surface roughness. The differences between the numerical and experimental results become significant at higher flow rates. By calculating the impact energy of droplets and imposing the film-wall condition on the walls, splash does not occur.


Cucumber green mottle mosaic virus (CGMMV) is an economically important pathogen and causes significant reduction of both yield and quality of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Currently, there were no satisfied strategies for controlling the disease. A better understanding of microRNA (miRNA) expression related to the regulation of plant-virus interactions and virus resistance would be of great assistance when developing control strategies for CGMMV. However, accurate expression analysis is highly dependent on robust and reliable reference gene used as an internal control for normalization of miRNA expression. Most commonly used reference genes involved in CGMMV-infected cucumber are not universally expressed depending on tissue types and stages of plant development. It is therefore crucial to identify suitable reference genes in investigating the role of miRNA expression. In this study, seven reference genes, including Actin, Tubulin, EF-1α, 18S rRNA, Ubiquitin, GAPDH and Cyclophilin, were evaluated for the most accurate results in analyses using reverse transcription-quantitative polymerase chain reaction (RT-qPCR). Gene expression was assayed on cucumber leaves, stems and roots that were collected at different days post inoculation with CGMMV. The expression data were analyzed using algorithms including delta-Ct, geNorm, NormFinder, and BestKeeper as well as the comparative tool RefFinder. The reference genes were subsequently validated using miR159. The results showed that EF-1α and GAPDH were the most reliable reference genes for normalizing miRNA expression in leaf, root and stem samples, while Ubiquitin and EF-1α were the most suitable combination overall.


Chenery Syrquin states that Per Capita Income is one of the important variables influencing the transformation of economic structure of a country. The increasing of Per Capita Income will affect the pattern of consumption in a society through the existance of Engel Law. It says that the industrial goods and services have bigger elasticity values of income (elastic), while other food and agricultural goods have minus-one elasticity values of income (inelastic).
The operation of Engel Law also affects to the transformation of economic structure in Buleleng Regency of Bali Province. However, the transformation of economic structure in the regency is imbalance; furthermore, its pattern is different with the pattern of Chenery-Syrquin. It is said as imbalance since the role of primary sector contribution towards PDRB has been exchanged by the tertier one. As opposed to this, the primary sector still becomes the main provider of job vacancies for the society of Buleleng Regency in compare with the other two sectors. In addition to this, the transformation pattern of Chenery-Syrquin structure is Primary-Secondary-Tertiery, while the pattern of transformation in Buleleng Regency is Primary-Tertiery. It does not involve the secondary sector.

Keywords: per capita income alteration, transformations of economic structure