There is a lack of an established framework or taxonomy in the academic literature to systematically analyze school counseling policies. This study was conducted to fill in this gap. Specifically, the researchers propose an initial taxonomy developed based on review of relevant school counseling policy documents and research. The proposed taxonomy has 21 policy levers grouped under seven policy foci covering school counselors' initial competence, continuing competence, effective school counseling practices, planning and evaluation of school counseling, distinct school counselor roles, hiring of school counselors, and the continual improvement of school counseling system. The Taxonomy is still in a developmental stage with a focus on improving its comprehensiveness through studies that identify additional policy levers from different countries. The authors also invite other academics and practitioners to conduct case studies using the taxonomy that will provide important knowledge to further improve the taxonomy.


Systems of photonic crystal cavities coupled to quantum dots are a promising architecture for quantum networking and quantum simulators. The ability to independently tune the frequencies of laterally separated quantum dots is a crucial component of such a scheme. Here, we demonstrate independent tuning of laterally separated quantum dots in photonic crystal cavities coupled by in-plane waveguides by implanting lines of protons which serve to electrically isolate different sections of a diode structure.


A 65‐year‐old man with arterial hypertension received oral treatment with Ketanserin, a new drug, during a period of five months. He developed marked QT interval prolongation and have several Stokes‐Adams attacks. A Holter recording obtained during one of these episodes showed torsade de pointes ventricular tachycardia. The arrhythmias occurred during maximum QT interval prolongation, The correlation between Ketanserin and QT interval prolongation was evaluated by using several Holter studies during administration and withdrawal of the drug. The effect of Ketanserin on the QTc interval was analyzed retrospectively in six patients who had been taking the drug orally. Following a period of four to eight months, the QTc interval was prolonged by the drug (5 to 31%, mean 17%) in five patients. We conclude that torsade de pointes is a potential hazard of long‐term treatment with Ketanserin.


Physical – Spatial Analysis of Yasuj City for the Purpose of Urban Environment Sustainability Original Article, S1 Shamaei A, Hossienpour SS J. Civil Eng. Urban. 4(S): 01-06. 2014 ABSTRACT: The present study seeks to identify and study the physical-spatial structure condition of Yasuj city and the effective factors on the emergence and evolution of the spatial structure of this city for obtaining a sustainable urban environment. The method used in this paper is descriptive – analytical method and the Shannon entropy, Holdern and interquartile distribution models have been used as well. The obtained results indicate that the city population during the last 40 year has increased about 22 times and also the area of the city in this period have become approximately 30 times. This process has caused the farming land to be turned into residential land and have caused some environmental problems. Based on the Shannon entropy model during 1996 – 2006 the city growth pattern is an ugly urban growth. Based on Holdern model 90.8% of the physical growth of the city during 1976 – 2006 is related to population growth and 9.2% of it is related to horizontal and spiral growth of the city. Based on interquartile distribution model around 48% of the population are living in more than 38% of the area of the city which indicates to the Uneven spatial distribution of the city. Considering the result of the research it is determined that the physical – spatial development of Yasuj city is not proportional with urban sustainability and that we recommend continuous expansion sector model, reduction in the size of the divided lots as well as consistent growth of other land uses with residential land use. In addition, sustainable city through participatory decision-making in designing cities will reduce the consumption of energy, creates a sustainable economy as well as a healthier environment, more comprehensive justice and a better quality life and can make possible sustainable urban development at a local level.


In this work, the vibration characteristics of a piezoelectric ceramic disk with different dimensional ratio are studied by simulation method. Computational finite element modeling combined with the computational programs has allowed for the prediction of the effect, the change of diameter-to-thickness ratio on the resonant characteristics, the vibration modes as well as comparing the physic properties of piezoceramics. Three types of piezoelectric materials were chosen, piezoelectric materials (PZT) and Pb-free piezoelectric materials Ba(Zr0.2Ti0.8)O3-50(Ba0.7Ca0.3)TiO3(BZT-50BCT), BaTiO3 for research.


This paper examines different gaze-based cue visualization techniques in a Virtual Reality (VR) exploration game. It is argued that gaze could be a valuable design tool for providing cues to players. However, little is known about how these elements could be visually presented and integrated to inform players and fit into the game world. An exploratory study was carried out to investigate four different design approaches (subtle, overlaid-virtual, integrated, emphasized) and their effects on aspects such as clarity, usefulness, and curiosity. In general, the visualizations led to different player impressions on all scales. While players perceived the subtle and emphasized variants as more aesthetically appealing, integrated and virtual-overlaid solutions received more positive ratings regarding tool-related aspects such as ease of extraction and accurateness. We anticipate future work could employ gaze-based cues in various application contexts based on their utility as eye input in VR games continues developing.


Introduction: Short term abstinence of the reimbursed smoking cessation program running in our centre since 2007 ranged between 38.3% and 50.7% Aim: To make the first evaluation of the long term effectiveness of the program. To assess compliance to long term follow-up visits in successful and unsuccessful participants. Material and Method: Long term (12-18 months) telephone follow-up of 125 patients receiving either Bupropion, Varenicline or Nicotine patch and 4-6 counseling sessions for 3 months was done. Patients were asked about actual smoking status, abstinence duration, and willingness to be delivered relapse prevention counseling. Retrospective review of medical records was conducted to analyse compliance to treatment and to follow-up. Results: Among 56 (44.8%) successfull quiters, 71.4% answered to the follow-up telephone. Short term abstinence rate was 45.9% for Bupropion, 43% for Varenicline and 47.3% for Nicotine patch. Long term follow-up showed abstinence in 13.5% (Bupropion), 15.2% (Varenicline) and 15.7% (Nicotine patch). 53.9% of respondents agreed to receive relapse prevention counseling. High program compliance was reported even in heavily addicted participants, both in the treatment phase (51.2%) and in long term follow-up (66.6%). Conclusions: High abstinence rates and program compliance were demonstrated in long term follow-up of the reimbursed smoking cessation program.


Objectives: Current clinical treatment regimes for inflammatory diseases have different drawbacks including side effects of the drugs and the high cost of long term treatment. In the last few decades different promising herbal medicines have been explored for their anti-inflammatory and antirheumatic effects, but conclusive evidences are not available in the case of crude Aloe vera gel for its anti-inflammatory effects. The objective of the study was to document the protective and curative roles of orally administered and peritoneally injected crude wild Aloe vera gel in carrageenaninduced inflammation in a rat model. Methods: Inflammation was induced by injecting 1% carrageenan in the left hind paw of Wistar albino rat. Crude, unprocessed Aloe vera gel was peritoneally injected and orally fed to experimental and control rat groups to investigate its effect on paw joint edema by measuring the paw circumference with vernier caliper. MTT [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] cell viability assay was performed to investigate the cytotoxic effect of the gel. Results: Paw edema was brought to near normal levels in the experimental groups after the treatment with crude Aloe vera gel. Orally fed gel showed no cytotoxicity on macrophages and spleenocytes. Protective property of crude Aloe gel was also evident in both the experiments.


Background: MSCs may offer therapeutic potential for asthma due to their immunomodulatory properties and host tolerability. MSCs may however be involved in airway remodeling. Solid preclinical development is therefore indispensable prior to clinical trial attempts. We aimed at establishing a technique for MSC genetic engineering and in vivo tracking in experimental asthma.

Methods: A gene transfer retroviral vector to induce permanent green fluorescent protein (GFP) expression on MSCs was generated. MSC cultures were produced from abdominal adipose tissue of adult mice, as per established procedures (MesenCult Kit, StemCell Technologies). GFP expression was assessed by flow cytometry and fluorescent microscopy. The MSC phenotype was verified by cell surface marker analysis, and by differentiation in adipogenic and osteogenic commercial media followed by oil-red and alizarin-red staining.

Results: Passage-4 cells targeted with a single retroviral hit at a multiplicity of infection of 1 preserved 99.4% cell viability and yielded 82.6% transduced cells highly expressing GFP. The cells showed a Sca-1+CD44+CD14-CD45-CD11b- MSC phenotype, and differentiated into adipocyte and osteocyte lineages in conditioned media.

Conclusions: Adipose tissue derived MSCs can be efficiently transduced with retroviral vectors for permanent gene expression. This provides a tool for in vivo MSC tracking to remodeling airways, and for exploring pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutic avenues through MSC genetic modifications.

Funded by the Fondo de Investigaciόn Sanitaria of Spain & European Regional Development Fund, a GlaxoSmithKline Collaborative Research Trial and SEPAR.


A calcifying epithelial odontogenic tumor of Pindborg was examined with the electron microscope. The tumor cells demonstrated fine structural features commonly seen in epidermal cells, i.e., intercellular bridges with desmosomes, intracytoplasmic tonofilaments, and well-developed hemidesmosomes. A thin linear condensation was observed within the lamina lucida of hemidesmosomes which probably represents a normal component of these attachments. A copious extracelIular matrix was seen which was cornposed largely of fine fibrik, approximately 50 A in width, aggregated to form a structure resembling a basal lamina. The possibility that this fibrillar extracellular matrix represents amyloid was discussed. Calcospherites were present within the matrix, occasionally in association with fragmented tumor cell cytoplasm. They appeared to lack collagen and were composed primarily of electron dense needles resembling hydroxyapatite.


There is no unique idea regarding the form of the (Intentional) content part of visual experience in the specification. The philosophers' approaches diverge as to whether the content of visual experience is equivalent to a sentence expressing proposi- tion or not. Some of them (mainly philosophers from the phenomenological tradition) consider that one must use a proposition for the specification of the content only when the subject, while having a visual experience, exercise a concept or judge. For the other cases, which can be called simple seeing, a noun phrase is preferable. I argue that, holding that the specification of Intentional content of the visual experience should be in the form of a proposition, John Searle gives up the first-person Intentionality and therefore bypasses the first-person important distinction between simple seeing and judgmental seeing. The specification of the content only in the form of the proposition does not al- low making such a distinction on the level of description. Then I argue that the feature of the causal self-referentiality of the visual experience belongs to its psychological mode but not, as Searle holds, to the Intentional content of the visual experience.


Random testing is a basic software testing technique that can be used to assess the software reliability as well as to detect software failures. Adaptive random testing has been proposed to enhance the failure-detection capability of random testing. Previous studies have shown that adaptive random testing can use fewer test cases than random testing to detect the first software failure. In this paper, we evaluate and compare the performance of adaptive random testing and random testing from another perspective, that of code coverage. As shown in various investigations, a higher code coverage not only brings a higher failure-detection capability, but also improves the effectiveness of software reliability estimation. We conduct a series of experiments based on two categories of code coverage criteria: structure-based coverage, and fault-based coverage. Adaptive random testing can achieve higher code coverage than random testing with the same number of test cases. Our experimental results imply that, in addition to having a better failure-detection capability than random testing, adaptive random testing also delivers a higher effectiveness in assessing software reliability, and a higher confidence in the reliability of the software under test even when no failure is detected.


The article examines the role and nature of the impact of the urbanization process and, in particular, the development of megacities in sustainable development of territories in the context of the aims set out by «Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development» adopted by the member States of the UN on 25 September 2015.We highlighted both positive and negative aspects of the impact of large urban agglomerations on the achievement of prosperity in their regions and in the global community as a whole. The interregional comparison of the subjects of the Russian Federation with million-plus cities as regional centers was carried out in order to identify common features and patterns of territorial development.


A micelle-enhanced ultrafiltration system, which can potentially be used for large scale separations, has been used to investigate the resolution of amino acid enantiomers. For this purpose amino acid derivatives were synthesized, which in combination with copper(II) ions were used as chiral selectors. In the presence of non-ionic surfactants these selectors show for several amino acids high operational enantioselectivities of up to 14.5 for phenylglycine using cholesteryl l-glutamate as a selector. The performance of the system is determined by two factors: the hydrophobicity of the racemic amino acid and the stability of the diastereomeric complex formed.The interactions that are responsible for the chiral recognition have additionally been investigated using isothermal titration calorimetry. From this study it follows that the complexation reaction of amino acid to the chiral selector is an entropically driven process and the chiral recognition is more pronounced with increasing size of the substituent of the (racemic) amino acid. Information about the geometry of the diastereomeric complexes formed was obtained from quantum mechanical B3LYP calculations. From a basis set study, performed on the model complex bis(glycinato)Cu II ·2 H 2 O, it follows that the basis set C, H, N, O = 6-311+G(d,p) and Cu = LanL2DZ offers the best ratio between accuracy and computation time. This basis set was used to investigate the complexes bis(glycinato)Cu II · n H 2 O ( n = 1 - 4). From this study it was concluded that the optimized geometries strongly depend on the number of hydrogen bonds formed, and independent of the number of coordinating water molecules the trans isomer is more stable than the corresponding cis isomer.


Abstract Suicide is the second leading cause of death among youth in the United States. Data from the 2015 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of 9th–12th grade students in New Hampshire (N = 14,837) were utilized. Adjusted odds ratios (aORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were estimated using logistic regression models to evaluate associations between suicidal ideation, adverse childhood experiences (ACEs), and other risk factors including using opioids/drugs without a prescription and food insecurity. We also examined whether potentially protective behaviors may attenuate the relationship between ACEs and suicidal ideation. The prevalence of suicidal ideation was 15.4% (girls 20.15; boys 10.67). In unadjusted models, the crude odds ratio reflecting the relationship between suicidal ideation and higher ACE scores was 1.85 (95% CI 1.76–1.94). In adjusted models, suicidal ideation remained positively associated with higher ACE scores (aOR 1.61, 95% CI 1.52–1.70). Risk and protective behavioral factors identified in relation to suicidal ideation and ACEs are discussed within the context of community–academic partnerships and policy.


Metabolic syndrome (MetS) is a major risk factor to cardiovascular diseases. In this study, we investigate the prevalence and associated risky behaviour of MetS in resource-poor urban communities in Accra, Ghana. We analysed data on 111 persons with hypertension, screened and recruited for a therapeutic lifestyle intervention program in August 2015. MetS was measured using the International Diabetes Federation (IDF) and the World Health Organization definitions. The prevalence of MetS was 58.4% and 16.8% by the IDF and WHO definitions respectively. More women (61.8%) compared to men (31.8%) had MetS (p = 0.011). Approximately 31% of the hypertensive patients were engaged in moderate-intensity physical activity; 9.0% were current smokers, 42.0% consumed excess alcohol over the past month prior to the interview and 41.0% discontinued taking their antihypertensive medications without consulting with a doctor. About 42.0% and 37.0% of respondents always consumed fruits and vegetables respectively at least two times a day. The binary logistic regression showed that compared to women, men had lower odds of consuming two or more servings of vegetable in a day (OR: 0.2; 95% CI; 0.1, 0.8). Increase in age was associated with higher odds of consuming fruits at least twice a day (1.0; 1.0, 1.1) but with lower odds of engaging in moderate intensity physical activity (0.9; 0.8, 1.0). Being married was associated with higher odds of engaging in moderate physical activity (2.8; 1.0, 8.2). Therapeutic methods essential for the management of patients with hypertension and MetS should include non-pharmacological remedies targeting the promotion of medication adherence, Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) and physical activities; these are vital to changing unhealthy lifestyle which worsens the underlying pathology.


This research was conducted to analyze students' grammatical error uttered by 20 El. Tourism Trainee students. To data collection done through observation, aided by audio recording and it was completed by the note-taking technique during the research. The data were analyzed descriptively and qualitatively using classroom research. The data collected by recording the students' conversation was done teaching and learning activity in the classroom. The results of the analysis were found that students ignore the rule of an interrogative in asking a question. Most of the students tended to obtain dubious in expressing the statement and question during the conversation. The conclusion the students' ignorances because of their knowledge of the grammatical structure they are learning and practising during their activity of doing their tasks.


This chapter provides the information related to the researches enhanced using uncertainty models in life sciences and biomedical Informatics. The main emphasis of this chapter is to present the general ideas for the time line of different uncertainty models to handle uncertain information and their applications in the various fields of biology. There are many mathematical models to handle vague data and uncertain information such as theory of probability, fuzzy set theory, rough set theory, soft set theory. Literatures from the life sciences and bioinformatics have been reviewed and provided the different experimental & theoretical results to understand the applications of uncertain models in the field of bioinformatics.


Babies with cystic fibrosis diagnosed by neonatal screening often display no overt signs of respiratory disease. The role of traditional routine daily chest physiotherapy in this particular group of babies is unclear and has generated considerable international debate. There is currently no evidence addressing this issue and present circumstances preclude a rigorous trial in the UK. This study aimed to provide expert consensus regarding the physiotherapy management of asymptomatic infants with CF.


Abortions in the Republic of Moldova is a national problem and causes an irreparable harm to the reproductive health of population. However, illegal abortions are one of the causes of death for pregnant women. Our work is based on studying the social factors, which determine the illegal abortions among young minors. The studies show that a growing number of young minors remaina ccidentally pregnant, which leads them to resort to the easiest solution for such an unfavorable situation: criminal abortion.The most important problem of the sexual behavior of adolescents presents the unwanted pregnancy, being an important and complex problem that associates with multiple consequences on the health and wellbeing of the population, particularly on adolescent girls. Currently, there is a tendency to see the phenomenon of childbirth in a teenager period mainly from the perspective of a problematic or risky sexual behavior, or the sexual behavior presentsitself a result of the exposure of women to multiple risk factors during childhood and adolescence. However, teen pregnancy is not only the result of sexual risk-taking, but is also strongly influenced by the social and economic environment, the educational potential of the family, the awareness about the modern contraceptive methods etc. The work proposed for research examines both the demographic dimension of the phenomenon of teenage pregnancy and social factors that favor the production of illegal abortions among young minors.


Following the idea of heterogeneous firms we examine responses to trade liberalization at the firm level in the presence of capital market imperfections. In our model, entrepreneurs differ in their wealth endowment, causing them to rely differently on external funds. With an imperfect capital market, we show that poor entrepreneurs run smaller firms, are less likely to invest in R&D, and more likely to exit the market. Decreasing trade costs resulting from tariff reductions exacerbate these characteristics. Using firm-level panel data on seven Latin American countries for 2006 and 2010, we find support for our theoretical predictions. While recent studies show a positive effect
of trade liberalization on firms' productivity-enhancing activities, we provide novel evidence showing that financial constraints can impair this market size effect on R&D. Furthermore our results suggest that imperfect capital markets can prevent welfare gains from trade liberalization to materialize.


This paper presents a simple scheme for implementing the speed control of d.c. motor using digital PID algorithm. Intel 8085 microprocessor based hardware is developed for the implementation of the controller. The system broadly involves interfacing hardware and the software for PID algorithm. A continuous PID controller is governed by an equation which describes the dynamic time varying behavior of the input or the error signal. This is digitized using numerical approximations and is programmed in the microcomputer. This system is a closed loop control system with feedback signal generated by a digital magnetic pickup, which gives a pulse output which is TTL compatible. A digital to analog converter interfaces the power control to the microcomputer. The PID algorithm along with the hardware achieves the speed control of the d.c. motor. The hardware and software are validated in real time by considering different speed settings.


Five hundred and thirteen fleas, of eight different species, were collected from a sample of 252 foxes killed in suburban London. 25–8% of foxes carried fleas, with a mean of 204 fleas per fox. Levels of infestation of male and female hosts did not differ significantly. Possible sources of the fleas infesting foxes are discussed with respect to their seasonal occurrence and fox prey composition. No evidence was found to support the suggestion that foxes obtain the majority of their fleas from prey items, although occasional heavy infestations of some flea species were probably derived from recent meals. Although Pulex irritans, Paraceras m. melis and Ctenocephalides canis, which contributed 35 % of the flea epifauna, could be considered parasitic on the fox, it seems probable that foxes pick up the majority of their fleas from the habitat through which they move. Thus, two particularly heavily infested categories of foxes were found: (1) juveniles during July-September, their fleas probably being accumulated during exploratory and play activities, and (2) all animals during the period October-December.


A Gram-reaction-positive, non-motile, non-spore-forming, catalase-negative, facultatively anaerobic, rod-shaped, β-glucosidase-producing lactic acid bacterium, designated strain THK-V8(T), was isolated from the Korean fermented food, Kimchi, and its taxonomic position was investigated by using a polyphasic approach. Strain THK-V8(T) was able to grow at 4-40 °C (optimum, 30 °C) and pH 4.0-7.0 (optimum, pH 6.0). Strain THK-V8(T) had the ability to transform ginsenoside Rb₁ to Rd. On the basis of 16S rRNA gene sequence similarity data, strain THK-V8(T) was shown to belong to the genus Lactobacillus. Strain THK-V8(T) was related to Lactobacillus koreensis DCY50(T) (98.8% sequence similarity), Lactobacillus parabrevis LMG 11984(T) (97.7%), Lactobacillus senmaizukei L13(T) (97.5%), Lactobacillus hammesii TMW1.1236(T) (97.3%) and Lactobacillus brevis ATCC 14687(T) (97.2%). Subsequently, sequence analysis of the RNA polymerase alpha subunit gene (rpoA) confirmed that strain THK-V8(T) showed a maximum rpoA gene sequence similarity value of 93% with Lactobacillus brevis LMG 6906(T). The G+C content of the genomic DNA was 47.8 mol%. The DNA-DNA hybridization values between strain THK-V8(T) and Lactobacillus parabrevis DCY50(T) and Lactobacillus parabrevis LMG 11984(T) were 46.1 ± 4.9% and 10.6 ± 2.9%, respectively. The major fatty acids were summed feature 7 (comprised of C(19:0) cyclo ω10c/19ω6), C(14:0), C(16:0) and C(18:1)ω9c. The cell wall peptidoglycan was of the A4α L-Lys-D-Asp type. The phenotypic and molecular properties indicated that strain THK-V8(T) represents a novel species within the genus Lactobacillus, for which the name Lactobacillus yonginensis sp. nov. is proposed. The type strain is THK-V8(T) ( =KACC 16236(T) =JCM 18023(T)).


Key pecking of 4 pigeons was studied under a two-component multiple schedule in which food deliveries were arranged according to a fixed and a variable interfood interval. The percentage of response-dependent food in each component was varied, first in ascending (0, 10, 30, 70 and 100%) and then in descending orders, in successive conditions. The change in response rates was positively related to the percentage of response-dependent food in each schedule component. Across conditions, positively accelerated and linear patterns of responding occurred consistently in the fixed and variable components, respectively. These results suggest that the response-food dependency determines response rates in periodic and aperiodic schedules, and that the temporal distribution of food determines response patterns independently of the response-food dependency. Running rates, but not postfood pauses, also were positively related to the percentage of dependent food in each condition, in both fixed and variable components. Thus, the relation between overall response rate and the percentage of dependent food was mediated by responding that occurred after postfood pausing. The findings together extend previous studies wherein the dependency was either always present or absent, and increase the generality of the effects of variations in the response-food dependency from aperiodic to periodic schedules.


A study was conducted to elucidate functional or chemical parameters that may be useful for in vivo toxicologic and pharmacokinetic analysis of PCNU. The growth-inhibitory and DNA-related parameters of this agent and its serum breakdown products in murine leukemia L1210 cells were carried out in direct comparison with BCNU. In human and dog sera, the T1/2 of intact PCNU (5-12 min) was similar to BCNU (5-16 min). However, much larger T1/2 values for PCNU (140 min) and BCNU (110 min) were determined for drug incubated in dog brain homogenates. Uptake of 14C-labeled PCNU in L1210 cells was rapid, and tenfold higher than in CCRF-CEM, a human leukemia cell line naturally resistant to BCNU and PCNU. BCNU was shown to induce DNA strand damage in L1210 and to inhibit radioactive thymidine incorporation into DNA and cross-link proteins with DNA in L1210. PCNU, by comparison, only weakly inhibited thymidine incorporation and did not induce DNA strand breakage or produce DNA-protein cross-links in L1210 at reasonable concentrations. The compounds are further differentiated in fetal calf serum by the breakdown products derived from initial concentrations of intact drug that are equipotent; those of BCNU inhibit L1210 growth whereas those of PCNU do not. PCNU, which is rapidly broken down into inactive metabolites, may have a selective therapeutic advantage if infused directly to the target site.


In the contemporary debate concerning European integration and the "problem" of Third World immigration no less than in developments in anthropology in the past decade, the boundedness of cultures and cultural difference have gained new prominence. Anthropology needs not only to explore how globalization affects the discipline's classical subjects but also to pay more attention to the new ways in which cultural differences and cleavages are conceptualized at its source. In effect, the political right in Europe has in the past decade developed a political rhetoric of exclusion in which Third World immigrants, who proceed in part from its ex-colonies, are construed as posing a threat to the national unity of the "host" countries because they are culturally different. This rhetoric of exclusion has generally been identified as a new form of racism. I argue, instead, that, rather than asserting different endowments of human races, it postulates a propensity in human nature to reject strangers. This assumption underlies a radical opposition between nationals and immigrants as foreigners informed by a reified notion of bounded and distinct, localized national-cultural identity and heritage that is employed to rationalize the call for restrictive immigration policies. Following a systematic comparison of the contrasting conceptual structures of the two doctrines, I conclude that the contemporary cultural fundamentalism of the political right is, with respect to traditional racism, both old and new. It is old in that it draws for its argumentative force on the unresolved contradiction in the modern conception of the nation-state between an organicist and a voluntarist idea of belonging. It is new in that, because racism has become discredited politically, it attributes the alleged incompatibility between different cultures to an incapacity of different cultures to communicate that is inherent in human nature.


Population genomic studies are beginning to provide a more comprehensive view of dynamic genome-scale processes in evolution. Patterns of genomic architecture, such as genomic islands of increased divergence, may be important for adaptive population differentiation and speciation. We used next-generation sequencing data to examine the patterns of local and long-distance linkage disequilibrium (LD) across oceanic and freshwater populations of threespine stickleback, a useful model for studies of evolution and speciation. We looked for associations between LD and signatures of divergent selection, and assessed the role of recombination rate variation in generating LD patterns. As predicted under the traditional biogeographic model of unidirectional gene flow from ancestral oceanic to derived freshwater stickleback populations, we found extensive local and long-distance LD in fresh water. Surprisingly, oceanic populations showed similar patterns of elevated LD, notably between large genomic regions previously implicated in adaptation to fresh water. These results support an alternative biogeographic model for the stickleback radiation, one of a metapopulation with appreciable bi-directional gene flow combined with strong divergent selection between oceanic and freshwater populations. As predicted by theory, these processes can maintain LD within and among genomic islands of divergence. These findings suggest that the genomic architecture in oceanic stickleback populations may provide a mechanism for the rapid re-assembly and evolution of multi-locus genotypes in newly colonized freshwater habitats, and may help explain genetic mapping of parallel phenotypic variation to similar loci across independent freshwater populations.


In the Chinese writing system, there are no interword spaces to mark word boundaries. To understand how Chinese readers conquer this challenge, we constructed an integrated model of word processing and eye-movement control during Chinese reading (CRM). The model contains a word-processing module and an eye-movement control module. The word-processing module perceives new information within the perceptual span around a fixation. The model uses the interactive activation framework (McClelland & Rumelhart, 1981) to simulate word processing, but some new assumptions were made to address the word segmentation problem in Chinese reading. All the words supported by characters in the perceptual span are activated and they compete for a winner. When one word wins the competition, it is identified and it is simultaneously segmented from text. The eye-movement control module makes the decision regarding when and where to move the eyes using the activation information of word units and character units provided by the word-processing module. The model estimates how many characters can be processed during a fixation, and then makes a saccade to somewhere beyond this point. The model successfully simulated important findings on the relation between word processing and eye-movement control, how Chinese readers choose saccade targets, how Chinese readers segment words with ambiguous boundaries, and how Chinese readers process information with parafoveal vision during Chinese sentence reading. The current model thus provides insights on how Chinese readers address some important challenges, such as word segmentation and saccade-target selection. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).


The following conditions must be observed if the actual pressure in the alimentary tract is measured and recorded with the aid of an open probe: 1. The probe must have a laterally placed opening, rather than a terminal one; 2. The opening must be as large as or larger than the internal diameter of the probe; 3. The internal diameter of the probe must be at least 1.2 mm or larger; 4. The pressure should not be measured with a nonperfusion technique if exact measurements of the intraluminal pressure are to obtained. One always has to use a perfusion, and the measured pressure depends on the speed of perfusion; 5. In order to be certain that the measured pressure corresponds to the actual pressure, one must ascertain whether the pressure will not change although the speed of perfusion is increased.


In an effort to promote the social and cognitive competence of youth, school psychologists must be prepared to address a multitude of contextual factors and life events that impact children's performance and adjustment in school and subsequent developmental trajectories. The domain of crisis preparedness and intervention has received increased attention during the past decade (as evidenced by a growing school crisis intervention literature) and is currently a training standard for school psychologists in some parts of the world. Crisis situations may emerge following natural disasters such as floods, fires, tornadoes or earthquakes and also from human generated situations such as bombings and school shootings. Each of these events is likely to affect the children and families in schools and communities by presenting them with problems that will be challenging to cope with. There are a variety of crisis preparedness and intervention models and strategies available to address crisis situations. Without a shared foundation for crisis intervention, responding to crisis situations may be further complicated, especially in situations where international colleagues are collaborating. Therefore, a shared foundation that includes both preparedness and intervention while emphasizing both developmental and school considerations will be invaluable in our efforts to facilitate collaboration among diverse colleagues across multiple contexts. The purpose of this article is to incorporate several models and frameworks in order to provide a shared foundation for school psychologists and other educational and mental health professionals regarding crisis preparedness and intervention. To establish a shared foundation for international crisis collaboration, it is also necessary to review the original works discussed in this brief overview and participate in relevant workshops.


In the new decade, green investment decisions are attracting more interest in design supply chains due to the hidden economic benefits and environmental legislative barriers. In this paper, a supply chain network design problem with both economic and environmental concerns is presented. Therefore, a multiobjective optimization model that captures the trade-off between the total logistics cost and CO2 emissions is proposed. With regard to the complexity of logistic networks, a new multiobjective swarm intelligence algorithm known as a multiobjective Gravitational search algorithm (MOGSA) has been implemented for solving the proposed mathematical model. To evaluate the effectiveness of the model, a comprehensive set of numerical experiments is explained. The results obtained show that the proposed model can be applied as an effective tool in strategic planning for optimizing cost and CO2 emissions in an environmentally friendly automotive supply chain.


The Purification mechanism of high purity aluminum was studied through the variation of stirring speed and coolant flow rate in the stirring method. In the stirring method the degree of purification was changed as the following factors;the variation of diffusion boundary layer thickness the variation of growth rate and the solute concentration of the residual melt. The concentration of Fe and Si was decreased as the stirring speed and the radial distance increased. In a high stirring speed of 2000rpm with unidirectional stirring mode, the uniformity of solutes was obtained. On the other hand, the purification of Si was done by the combinations of stirring method, fractional melting and acid leaching. In the case of Si purification, the centrifugal force developed in the melt acted as the significant purification factor. It was possible to obtain the purified 3N grade Si crystal after the complete elimination of residual aluminum by fractional melting and acid leaching.


The concept of an innovation platform is increasingly used in interventions inspired by agricultural innovation systems thinking, as a way of bringing stakeholders from a sector together to enable transformative change. An essential role on such innovation platforms is thought to be that of the 'innovation champion', but this role has so far not been unravelled. In this paper, by applying insights from management science to analyse three innovation platforms in West Africa from the Convergence of Sciences – Strengthening Innovation Systems programme (CoS–SIS), different types of innovation champions are mapped. The authors conclude that making a distinction among different types of innovation champions can be useful in identifying members for innovation platforms, but that the specifics of agricultural innovation appear not to be adequately captured by roles attributed to existing categories of innovation champions. Further research is needed to ascertain whether other categories exist, and how different innovation champions interact over time on agricultural innovation platforms.


some extent mechanically by pressure, the exhibitor having recently observed a precisely similar condition of the skin resulting from the presence of a flat mass of paraffin situated in the hypoderm, which had been injected into a lady's cheek for the removal of wrinkles. Unfortunately the exhibitor had not been able to obtain a biopsy in the case, so as to decide the more likely hypothesis that it might be a tuberculous condition, and of the nature of diffuse scrofulous gummata, which became absorbed without breaking down. A case of a somewhat similar type was recently described bv Wende 1 under the heading of " Nodular Tuberculosis of the Hypoderm."


The binding energy spectra and the momentum distributions of the outer valence orbitals of W(CO)6 have been studied by using electron momentum spectroscopy as well as non-relativistic, scalar relativistic and spin-orbital relativistic DFT-B3LYP calculations. The experimental momentum profiles of the outer valence orbitals obtained with the impact energies of 1200 eV and 2400 eV were compared with various theoretical calculation results. The relativistic calculations could provide better descriptions for the experimental momentum distributions than the non-relativistic ones. Moreover, a new ordering of orbitals 10t1u, 3t2g, and 7eg, i.e., 10t1u < 3t2g < 7eg < 10a1g, is established in this work.


In this paper, we discuss the two-mirror pushbroom telescope for TROPOMI. Using freeform optics, it has unprecedented resolution. The complete cycle of freeform optical design, analysis, manufacturing, metrology and functional test on a breadboard setup is described, focusing on the specific complexities concerning freeforms. The TROPOMI flight telescope will be manufactured in summer 2012.


Logistics sector plays an important role in the economics of every country. The logistics sector in India is expected to grow to USD 215 billion by 2020, employing more than 22 million people. A separate logistics division has been put in place in the Ministry of Commerce & Industry. The growth in Indian trade and commerce is also anticipated to be equally positive. The logistics sector in India has shown a significant development over the years and has also encouraged the technology enabled start up s which has provided a big opportunity of providing seamless movements of goods across the country. In this sector there are multiple factors which drive it towards its growth and boom. As a result, in movement of freight, freight forwarders and price plays an important role. Price volatility is the most significant issue for logistics market and for the clients using the logistics services. The challenge is to study and identify the various factors influencing the spot and forward freight rates. The questionnaire was developed to carry out the research and data was collected from the freight forwarders in Delhi. Factor analysis method is used in order to identify the key factors. Nine factors were identified as mode of transport, Distance, speed and time, Fuel price and Capacity, technological Advancements, Government Policies, Environmental Issues and Market Structure. To further analyse the data descriptive analysis was done. It was found that these nine factors have a significant impact on spot and forward freight rate which can be considered and implemented in order to maintain, enhance and achieve competitive advantage in domestic and international business.


ABSTRACT This paper aims to introduce the concept of symbolic correlation integral SC that is extensively used in many scientific fields. The new correlation integral SC avoids the noisy parameter 𝜀 of the classical correlation integral, defined by Grassberger and Procaccia (1983) and extensively used for constructing correlation-integral-based statistics, as in the BDS test. Once the free parameter 𝜀 disappears, it is possible to construct a nonparametric powerful test for independence that can also be used as a diagnostic tool for model selection. The symbolic correlation integral is also extended to deal with multivariate models, and a test for causality is proposed as an example of the theoretical power of the new concept. With extensive Monte Carlo simulations, the paper shows the good size and power performance of symbolic correlation-integral-based tests.


We consider broadcast encryption schemes wherein a center needs to broadcast a secret message to a privileged set of receivers. We prescribe a probability distribution P on the privileged set. In this setting, the transmission overhead can be viewed as a random variable over P and we define its expected value as the average transmission overhead (or ATO). Given P, the Shannon's entropy function H(.) provides a lower bound on the average number of bits required to identify every privileged set. This implies a natural lower bound for the ATO in terms of H(P). For session key distribution, we consider the subset cover framework and bound the ATO in terms of the size of the cover. We further specialize our bound to accommodate storage constraints at receivers. We consider two families of distributions for P that occur naturally in broadcast networks. 1. Each receiver independently joins the privileged set with probability p. 2. The privileged set is selected uniformly from a collection of subsets of receivers. We evaluate the ATO of some practical schemes such as the subset difference method, the LSD scheme and the Partition-and-Power scheme under these distributions. Our investigations lead us to conclude that each scheme is inherently tailored to perform optimally for specific distributions.


Even with antibiotics, severe pneumonia can lead to sepsis and death. Researchers in Germany have now identi�ed a promising new therapy that may improve outcomes. Reporting in the journal Anesthesiology, the scientists indicate that targeting C5a, a component of the body's complement system, may be a novel adjunctive therapy for severe pneumonia. One reason why patients don't fare well with Streptococcus pneumoniae is that their highly activated immune system can damage tissue as it tries to clear the pathogen from the body. An important part of the body's �rst-line immune defense is the complement system, plasma proteins that patrol the body and coordinate with immune cells to kill invading bacteria. For example, when complement protein C5 is cleaved into C5a and C5b, C5b goes on to poke holes in bacteria. The smaller C5a is pro-in�ammatory, attracting and activating neutrophils and making blood vessel walls more permeable to immune cells. Too much neutrophil activation can lead to tissue injury; and excessive vessel wall permeability may lead to lung injury. The team hypothesized that C5a concentrations would be increased in pneumonia and that neutralizing C5a might protect against lung injury and pulmonary sepsis. To �nd out, the team �rst tested the blood concentration of C5a in a group of nearly 400 patients with community-acquired pneumonia. Compared with healthy volunteers, these patients had 1.4 times more C5a in their blood. Accordingly, the group found elevated C5a in mice infected with Streptococcus pneumoniae. Next, the group tested the effects of complement C5a neutralization using an L-con�gured RNA aptamer called NOX-D19. The aptamer speci�cally binds to C5a, neutralizing its biological functions like an antibody. Due to its chirality, NOX-D19 is resistant to nucleases and thus highly biostable. In mice infected with Streptococcus, aptamer treatment reduced pulmonary permeability and disease severity. C5a neutralization also protected mice from injury of other organs, namely the liver, a complication frequently observed when the pneumonia develops into sepsis. The authors applied a second lung injury model combining pneumonia with mechanical ventilation, a signi�cant contributor to lung injury in patients with respiratory failure. In this model, NOX-D19 treatment also reduced the "leakiness" of pulmonary blood vessels, the main mechanism of Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome. Thus, protecting the barrier function of lung tissue is a reasonable add-on therapy for severe pneumonia. Exactly how C5a neutralization by NOX-D19 serves a protective function remains elusive. But these experiments suggest that neutralizing C5a could be an effective way to limit acute respiratory failure and sepsis-related liver injury in pneumonia. Further studies are warranted to decipher the exact mode of action as well as the potential to reduce mortality in severe pneumonia by L-RNA aptamer-mediated C5a neutralization.


OBJECTIVE
To establish a model of ulcerative colitis in mice.

METHODS
The mice were given 5% dextran sulfate sodium (DSS) solution freely for 7 consecutive days after which distilled water was given in stead for another 10 d, to complete one cycle of whole treatment plan that consisted of 4 such cycles. The symptoms were observed daily. At the end of the first and the fourth cycle respectively, the mice were killed for examining the whole colon under anatomic microscopy and serial tissue sections were prepared for histological observation.

RESULTS
The symptoms observed in the mice including hematochezia diarrhea and loss of the body weight were similar to those of ulcerative colitis patients. Histological examination revealed infiltration of neutrocytophilia and lymphocythemia, with loss of integrity of the colon mucosa in the gland.

CONCLUSION
This mouse model of ulcerative colitis can be easily induced and readily applied in various studies of ulcerative colitis.


Skutch (1949) hypothesized that nest predators visually assess parental activities to locate a prey nest, whereas parents modify fitness-related traits to reduce the probability of nest predation. We examined how cavity condition and parental activity interact with avian nest predators to shape the nest success of two coexisting parid species, marsh tits (Poecile palustris) and oriental tits (Parus minor), breeding in nest-boxes during the incubation period. Nest-boxes were manipulated to create a prolonged risk of nest predation (entrance diameter 2.6 cm control vs. 5.5 cm treatment) soon after clutch completion. To measure changes in parental behavior, we also simultaneously simulated a pulsed risk of nest predation, using sound playbacks of a coexisting control bird and an avian nest predator. We found that the parent tits merely responded the pulsed risk, presumably due to an environment with high avian nest predator encounters, compared to the prolonged risk. Instead, both species spent more time on vigilance at the nest, only under prolonged risk conditions. The activity of corvids near the nest-box was higher in the marsh tit than that in oriental tits. This activity was also higher in the treatment nest box than that in the control nest-box. Nest predation during the incubation period was higher in marsh tits than in oriental tits, presumably due to higher and more plastic vigilance in oriental tits, compared to marsh tits. Our results highlight that the differences in cavity condition and parental activities at the nests of two coexisting non-excavators may contribute to differential nest predation by attracting avian nest predators.

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This paper studies a very short-law of Anastasius I on the funerals made free of charge by major church of Constantinople: CI 1, 2, 18; the purpose is to determine the ratio legis (of sound administration and political-constitutional) and, together, the date of the document (perhaps the 515).


Neuropsychological findings used to motivate the "two visual systems" hypothesis have been taken to endanger a pair of widely accepted claims about spatial representation in visual experience. The first is the claim that visual experience represents 3-D space around the perceiver using an egocentric frame of reference. The second is the claim that there is a constitutive link between the spatial contents of visual experience and the perceiver's bodily actions. In this paper, I carefully assess three main sources of evidence for the two visual systems hypothesis and argue that the best interpretation of the evidence is in fact consistent with both claims. I conclude with some brief remarks on the relation between visual consciousness and rational agency.


We address optimal model estimation for model-based vector quantization for both the constrained resolution (CR) and constrained entropy (CE) cases. To this purpose we derive under high-rate (HR) theory assumptions the rate-distortion (RD) relations for these two quantization scenarios assuming a Gaussian model. Based on the RD relations we show that the maximum likelihood (ML) criterion leads to optimal performance for CE quantization, but not for CR quantization. We introduce a new model estimation criterion for CR quantization that is optimal (under HR theory assumptions) in terms of the RD relation. Our experiments confirm that the proposed criterion for model identification outperforms the ML criterion for a range of conditions.


Understanding the importance of oral microbiota in human health and disease also leads to an expansion of the knowledge on functional, metabolic, and molecular alterations directly contributing to oral and systemic pathologies. To date, a compelling number of studies have documented the crucial role of some oral cavity-occurring microbes in the initiation and progression of cancers. Although this effect was noted primarily for Fusobacterium spp., the potential impact of other oral microbes is also worthy of investigation. In this study, we aimed to assess the effect of Enterococcus faecalis, Actinomyces odontolyticus, and Propionibacterium acnes on the proliferation capability and mechanical features of gingival cells and cell lines derived from lung, breast, and ovarian cancers. For this purpose, we incubated selected cell lines with heat-inactivated bacteria and supernatants collected from biofilms, cultured in both anaerobic and aerobic conditions, in the presence of surgically removed teeth and human saliva. The effect of oral bacteria on cell population growth is variable, with the highest growth-promoting abilities observed for E. faecalis in relation to human primary gingival fibroblasts (HGF) and lung cancer A549 cells, and P. acnes in relation to breast cancer MCF-7 and ovarian cancer SKOV-3 cells. Notably, this effect seems to depend on a delicate balance between the pro-stimulatory and toxic effects of bacterial-derived products. Regardless of the diverse effect of bacterial products on cellular proliferation capability, we observed significant alterations in stiffness of gingival and lung cancer cells stimulated with E. faecalis bacteria and corresponding biofilm supernatants, suggesting a novel molecular mechanism involved in the pathogenesis of diseases in oral cavities and tooth tissues. Accordingly, it is proposed that analysis of cancerogenic features of oral cavity bacteria should be multivariable and should include investigation of potential alterations in cell mechanical properties. These findings corroborate the important role of oral hygiene and root canal treatment to assure the healthy stage of oral microbiota.


Current Heterogeneous Network Embedding (HNE) models can be roughly divided into two types, i.e., relation-aware and metapath-aware models. However, they either fail to represent the non-pairwise relations in heterogeneous graph, or only capable of capturing local information around target node. In this paper, we propose a metapath based multilevel graph attention networks (MMAN) to jointly learn node embeddings on two substructures, i.e., metapath based graphs and hypergraphs extracted from original heterogeneous graph. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets for node classification and node clustering demonstrate the superiority of MMAN over the state-of-the-art works.


Bisphosphates of glycols, ethyleneglycol and 1,2-propanediol, were synthesized. These structural analogues of 2,3-diphosphoglyceric acid were shown to reduce significantly the oxygen affinity of stripped hemoglobin.


By screening Caenorhabditis elegans cDNA libraries, overlapping cDNA clones encoding DNA topoisomerase I were obtained. An open reading frame of 751 amino acids was found in 3.2-kb cDNA sequence. The open reading frame has 54% and 50% identities to the amino acid sequences of human and Drosophila melanogaster DNA topoisomerases I, respectively. Northern blot analysis showed the presence of an mRNA of 3.4 kb which suggests that the cDNA sequences is close to full length. The 72-kDa C-terminal polypeptide expressed in Escherichia coli cells showed catalytic DNA topoisomerase I activity. The DNA topoisomerase I gene was mapped to position 18 of chromosome I by screening polytene YAC plasmid DNAs.


Consumption of kiwifruit has long been claimed anecdotally to assist in gastric digestion. This has generally been assumed to be due to the presence of the proteolytic enzyme actinidin; however, there is little published evidence supporting this assumption. This paper reports the findings of an in vitro study that examined the effect of kiwifruit proteases (actinidin) on the digestion of a range of common food proteins under simulated gastric conditions. An extract from green kiwifruit containing actinidin was prepared. Several protein sources derived from soy, meat, milk, and cereals were incubated in the presence or absence of the kiwifruit extract using an in vitro digestion system consisting of incubation with pepsin at pH 1.9, simulating gastric digestion in humans. The digests were subjected to gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE). For some protein sources, simulated digestion in the presence of kiwifruit extract resulted in a substantially greater loss of intact protein and different peptide patterns from those seen after digestion with pepsin alone. As an example, the addition of actinidin extract enhanced the digestion of alpha-, beta-, and kappa-caseins in sodium caseinate by 37, 33, and 48%, respectively. Under simulated gastric conditions, kiwifruit extract containing actinidin enhanced the digestion of some, but not all, food proteins over and above that found with pepsin alone.


OBJECTIVE
To critically review, analyze, and synthesize the literature on parenting stress among caregivers of children with asthma, cancer, cystic fibrosis, diabetes, epilepsy, juvenile rheumatoid arthritis, and/or sickle cell disease. Method PsychInfo, MEDLINE, and Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature were searched according to inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis of 13 studies and qualitative analysis of 96 studies was conducted. Results Caregivers of children with chronic illness reported significantly greater general parenting stress than caregivers of healthy children (d = .40; p = ≤.0001). Qualitative analysis revealed that greater general parenting stress was associated with greater parental responsibility for treatment management and was unrelated to illness duration and severity across illness populations. Greater parenting stress was associated with poorer psychological adjustment in caregivers and children with chronic illness. Conclusion Parenting stress is an important target for future intervention. General and illness-specific measures of parenting stress should be used in future studies.


We follow the diffusive motion of colloidal particles of diameter $d$ in soap films of varying thickness $h$ with fluorescence microscopy. Diffusion constants are obtained both from one- and two-particle microrheological measurements of particle motion in these films. These diffusion constants are related to the surface viscosity of the interfaces comprising the soap films, by means of the Trapeznikov approximation [A. A. Trapeznikov, \emph{PICSA} (1957)] and Saffman's equation for diffusion in a 2D fluid. Unphysical values of the surface viscosity are found for thick soap films ($h/d > 7$), indicating a transition from 2D to 3D behavior.


Nowadays, the use of the wind energy has known an important increase because it is clean and cheap. However, many technical issues could occur due to the integration of wind power plants into power grids. As a result, many countries have published grid code requirements that new installed wind turbines have to satisfy in order to facilitate its intergration to electrical networks. Among those requirements, the wind farms must be able to participate to ancillary services for instance voltage regulation and reactive power control. Nevertheless, in case of small wind farms having not the necessary reactive power capability to contribute to reactive power support, Flexible AC Transmission Systems (FACTS) devices could also be used to participate to reactive power support. In this paper, an optimization method based on particle swarm optimization (PSO) technique is presented. This method allows getting the optimal location and reactive power injection of both wind power plants (WPP) and synchronous var compensators (SVC) with the objective to improve the voltage profile and to minimize the active power losses. The IEEE 14 bus system and a 20 MW wind farm based doubly fed induction generator (DFIG) are used to validate the proposed algorithm. The simulation results are analysed and compared.


A series of organometallic pentavalent uranium complexes of the general formula (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(Y) (Y = monoanionic, non-halide ligand) have been prepared using a variety of routes. Utilizing the direct oxidation of (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(THF) (2) with the appropriate copper(I) salt yielded the triflate (Y = OTf (OSO(2)CF(3)), 11), thiolate (Y = SPh, 12), and acetylide (Y = C[triple bond]CPh, 13) complexes, while a salt metathesis route between the U(V)-imido (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(I) (10) and various alkali salts gave the diphenylamide (Y = NPh(2), 14), aryloxide (Y = OPh, 15), alkyl (Y = Me, 16), and aryl (Y = Ph, 17) complexes. Paired with 13, the isolation of 16 and 17 shows that U(V) can support the full range of carbon anions (sp, sp(2), and sp(3)), and these are, to the best of our knowledge, the first examples of pentavalent uranium complexes with anionic carbon moieties other than carbocyclic (C(5)R(5), C(7)H(7), C(8)H(8)) ligands. Finally, both protonolysis and insertion pathways afforded the U(V)-imido ketimide complex (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(N=CPh(2)) (18). The complexes have been isolated in good yield and characterized using various combinations of (1)H NMR spectroscopy, elemental analysis, mass spectrometry, single crystal X-ray diffraction, cyclic voltammetry, UV-visible-NIR absorption spectroscopy, and magnetic susceptibility measurements. All (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-Ar)(X) (X = F, Cl, Br, I) and (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-Ar)(Y) complexes exhibit U(VI)/U(V) and U(V)/U(IV) redox couples by voltammetry. The potential separation between these couples remains essentially constant at approximately 1.50 V, but both processes shift in tandem in potential by approximately 700 mV across the series of X/Y ligands. No significant differences between mu(eff) values or temperature dependencies in the magnetic susceptibility were observed for these complexes regardless of the identity of the ancillary X/Y ligand. However, an excellent linear correlation was observed between the chemical shift values of C(5)Me(5) ligand protons in the (1)H NMR spectra and the oxidation potentials of (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(X/Y), suggesting that there is a common origin, overall sigma-/pi-donation from the ancillary X/Y ligand to the metal, contributing to both observables. Combined, these data confer the following trend in increasing sigma/pi-donating ability of the X/Y ligand to the U(V) metal center: OTf < I < Br < Cl < SPh < C[triple bond]CPh < F < [OPh approximately Me approximately Ph] << NPh(2) < N=CPh(2). These (C(5)Me(5))(2)U(=N-2,6-(i)Pr(2)-C(6)H(3))(X/Y) complexes also show distinct hallmarks of a covalent bonding interaction between the metal and the imide ligand that is modulated to varying degrees by the interaction between the X/Y ancillary ligand and the U(V) metal center. These signatures of covalency include stabilization of multiple metal oxidations states [U(VI), U(V), and U(IV)] and enhanced intensities in the intraconfiguration (f-f) transitions. Of particular note in this regard is the more than 20-fold enhancement in the f-f intensities observed for Y = C[triple bond]CPh and N=CPh(2), which is a clear reflection of the covalent metal-ligand bonding interactions sustained by the acetylide and ketimide ligands in these pentavalent systems.


Self-esteem is a positive or negative orientation toward oneself. There are two essential components of healthy self-esteem; the sense of personal worth and a sense of personal competence or efficacy. These two components of self-esteem develop over a period of time with multiple experiences. People who are motivated will have high esteem, and having it indicates positive self-regard, not egotism. Negative self-esteem is related to many personal and social concerns, such as school failure, depression, social anxiety, violence, substance abuse, and chronic welfare dependency. In general, the more positive your self-esteem, the more successful you will be at dealing with life. It is important for all parents and teachers to understand how their children's self-esteem is created and developed as well as how it can be maintained. The development of self-esteem plays an important role in helping individuals to make adjustment about their self-worth and competence. The primary contributor to self-esteem changes according to the stages they are in. True self-worth is developed over a lifetime and most of us will experience many highs and lows as we journey through life. A parent's role is to help children feel loved and to teach them the skills they need to feel capable when faced with life's many challenges. Whatever the ability of the child is, the parents or the teachers must know ways to communicate and thereby build the self-esteem in the child. To steer the thoughts of their children in the right path, parents have to train them to respect individuals and not be influenced by peers' pressure or the masses. Competence builds the ego, success begets success, being loved is to give love and you command the respect of others if you have the self-esteem!


A novel slip detection algorithm is proposed using the innovation term of the Unscented Kalman Filter (UKF). An intentional modeling error was introduced in the dynamic model of a block resting on a slope, including tilt angle and angular velocity. The model was formulated with an assumption of no translations in x- and y- directions. This model was implemented in the UKF based on gyro and accelerometer measurements. When the block slid, the UKF innovation increased considerably due to unmodeled dynamics (i.e., translation). The smoothed innovation was used to detect slip of the block, instead of using the metrics of estimation/measurement of the translational acceleration. As proof of concept, drag-sled stick-slip experiments were conducted under dry and wet surface conditions for level and inclined surfaces. Results indicate versatility of the proposed algorithm for slip detection using boosted innovation. Because accurate metrics of estimation/measurements were not required, parameter tuning was simple, and inexpensive MEMS-based sensors provided satisfactory data quality for slip detection without further error correction.


Salicylic acid (SA) has an important function in the formation of induced systemic resistance. The aim of this study was to determine effects of exogenous application of 0.5 mM SA on the stress response in duckweed (Lemna minor L.) exposed to the reactive dyestuff Everzol Red LFB (ER LFB). Phytotoxic responses induced by exposure to both ER LFB (75 ppm, 150 ppm and 300 ppm) and 0.5 mM SA+ ER LFB (75 ppm, 150 ppm and 300 ppm) applications were comparatively examined at 1st, 4th, and 7th days. The lowest chlorophyll a (Chl-a), chlorophyll b (Chl-b), and total chlorophyll (total Chl) contents were found in the 300 ppm ER LFB groups. The carotenoid (Car) content was decreased compared to control groups. The highest total glutathione (GSH), glutathione S-transferase (GST) and peroxidase (POD) activities were found after 0.5 mM SA + 300 ppm ER LFB groups at 7th day. Glutathione reductase (GR) activity was reduced at 7th day. The level of lipid peroxidation, measured as malondialdehyde (MDA) content was increased generally both ER LFB and SA+ER LFB groups compared to control groups. Results suggest that SA plays a positive role in L. minor against ER LFB.


The medical profession has been concerned about the decline in the incidence and duration of breastfeeding in the rural and urban areas of Malaysia. There have been a few concerted efforts to reverse this trend but there has been very little change in most hospital practices in Malaysia to actively support breastfeeding. Studies have shown that minor modification in the functions and regimen of hospitals requiring little or no additional expense have resulted in an increase in the incidence and/or duration of breastfeeding. In order to encourage parents to breastfeed and ensure successful lactation hospital practices must plan their activities with breastfeeding in mind. Hospitals should adopt minimal bottle feeding policy and practical health education concerning biological breastfeeding. All staff who deal with mothers and children should encourage motivate and support mothers to breastfeed. Promotion of unwanted commercial infant foods such as distrbution of samples brochures and calendars and display of posters should be avoided. During antenatal clinic sessions necessary information regarding breastfeeding maternal nutrition and labor should be given for both husband and wife. In the postnatal wards unnecessary separation of mother and newborn should be avoided. "Rooming-in" is the best arrangement. Mothers should be encouraged to breastfeed frequently.


Studies in the United States and Europe revealed that a comprehensive geriatric assessment is useful in the management and treatment of elderly disabled patients. In Japan, there are few reports of the development of such assessment. We examined the reliability of a scale designed to assess the performance of activities of daily living (ADL), a revised version of Hasegawa's Dementia Scale) HDSR, and a depression scale (GDS-15), using results from 140 patients over 65 years old who were admitted to our hospital from the end of January to early February 1994. The reliabilities of the ADL and HDSR scales were acceptable, but the kappa value of the GDS-15 was very low. The ADL score was low in patients with cerebrovascular diseases, dementia, and bone and joint problems, but the HDSR score was not low in the latter group. These results suggest that each disease has a characteristic pattern of impairments and disabilities. Although psychological assessment is essential and requires validation, a prospective study of outcomes in the evaluated elderly patients might also be fruitful.


The concepts of allostatic load and overload, i. e., a dramatic increase in the allostatic load that predisposes to disease, have been extensively described in the literature. Here, we show that rats engaging in active offensive response (AOR) behavioral strategies to chronic predator scent stress (PSS) display less anxiety behavior and lower plasma cortisol levels vs. rats engaging in passive defensive response (PDR) behavioral strategies to chronic PSS. In the same chronic PSS paradigm, AOR rats also have higher lactate and lower glutamate levels in amygdala but not in control-region hippocampus vs. PDR rats. The implications of these findings for regulation of allostatic and stress responses, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are discussed.


The invariance of natural objects under perceptual changes is possibly encoded in the brain by symmetries in the graph of synaptic connections. The graph can be established via unsupervised learning in a biologically plausible process across different perceptual modalities. This hypothetical encoding scheme is supported by the correlation structure of naturalistic audio and image data and it predicts a neural connectivity architecture which is consistent with many empirical observations about primary sensory cortex.


Early onset Ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) is usually less severe, associated with a better prognosis, and is more likely caused by antibioticsensitive bacteria. Late-onset VAP, is usually caused by multidrug resistant (MDR) pathogens and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Therefore, the local microbial flora causing VAP needs to be studied and appropriate therapy based on the early endotracheal (ET) aspirate culture report can help managing this group of patients. The present study was carried out in the department of Microbiology, JSS Hospital, Mysore from January 2017 to December 2017. Bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistance pattern of isolates from ET aspirates of patients on mechanical ventilation in Intensive care units were source of data. A total number of 1432 samples were received in the lab for ET aspirate culture. Among these 1432 samples, 1055 showed growth ranging from 10 2to 106 colony forming units/ml (CFU/ml), 124 had no growth at all and 253 had no significant growth (<102 CFU/ml) Out of 1055 isolates,1023 were Gram negative bacteria and 32 were Gram positive cocci . Acinetobacter, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella were the major pathogens in our study. Majority of them being MDR, maximum sensitivity was observed for Tigecycline and colistin in these isolates. Knowledge of causative microbial flora of VAP along with information on the susceptibility patterns will help in selection of the appropriate antibiotic for therapeutic use for better outcome.


The United States has been engaged in periodic discussions with China since 2008 toward the conclusion of a bilateral investment treaty (BIT), with both governments and business interests recognizing the mutual benefits of a detailed series of rules to facilitate and protect investment in each other's territory. However, the United States faces unprecedented challenges in completing these negotiations. A BIT with China holds potentially far greater potential benefits and complexities for the United States than any BIT or FTA investment chapter since the conclusion of NAFTA's Chapter 11, and like NAFTA will inevitably result in claims lodged against the United States. For a successful negotiation the United States must convince China to be far more forthcoming in protecting foreign investors than in the past. While China in recent years has agreed in BITs to investor-state arbitration, it has balked at extensive national treatment requirements, limitations on performance requirements and various efforts to rein in privileges for state-owned enterprises, let alone including labor rights and environmental protection. Even if the U.S. negotiators are successful with the text, they will have to convince U.S. stakeholders, the Congress and civil society that facilitating Chinese investment in the United States is in the national interest. Apart from the BIT itself, issues unrelated to investment such as Chinese (and now U.S.) hacking of the others' computer systems; frequent "unfair trade" actions; China's open conflicts with U.S. allies over islands in the South and East China Seas; reciprocal accusations of currency manipulation; and discomfort in the United States of being eclipsed in a few decades as the world's dominant economy, all further complicate the negotiating climate. This article briefly discusses the history of BIT and FTA investment chapter experience in the United States and the evolution of the U.S. approach post-NAFTA; China's experience with BITs, including the recent and instructive "Foreign Investment Protection Agreement" with Canada; the key substantive challenges to reaching agreement with China; and the government/congressional and civil society challenges to bringing such an agreement into force.


We present a new method for density estimation based on Mercer kernels. The density estimate can be understood as the density induced on a data manifold by a mixture of Gaussians fit in a feature space. As is usual, the feature space and data manifold are defined with any suitable positive-definite kernel function. We modify the standard EM algorithm for mixtures of Gaussians to infer the parameters of the density. One benefit of the approach is it's conceptual simplicity, and uniform applicability over many different types of data. Preliminary results are presented for a number of simple problems.


Ultrawideband (UWB) impulse radio is an emerging technology suitable for high-rate tactical wireless communications. One of the crucial challenges for a connecting station remains the initial code acquisition, in a hostile propagation environment (e.g., urban combat). In this paper, we address the coarse acquisition of pseudonoise (PN) codes and propose algorithms for speeding up the acquisition process and/or reducing the complexity of the acquisition algorithm itself. Also, in the case of energy detection, we show that the front-end sampling rate may be reduced. An in-depth analysis, supported by simulations in the presence of multipath is presented, and the results discussed.


Background : The aim of the study was to examine the associations of physical activity, sport participation, and body composition on the risk of symptoms of mental health problems in a large population-based sample of Norwegian adolescents. Methods : Analyses were based on 4-year longitudinal data from the Young-HUNT studies in Norway among 2000 adolescents aged 13-19 years. We calculated relative risks of anxiety/depression symptoms, as well as of feeling downhearted and dissatisfied with life, in relation to various measures of physical activity, sports participation, anthropometric measures, and body image. Results : Overall, physical activity was inversely associated with the risk for anxiety/depression in boys (Ptrend, 0.02), but not in girls (P-trend, 0.34). Girls who considered themselves "very fat/chubby" had a higher risk than those who considered themselves as "about the same as others" (RR, 1.4; 95% CI, 1.0-1.7), whereas in boys, the risk was highest for those who considered themselves as "thin/very thin" (RR, 1.7; 95% CI, 1.1-2.7). Analysis of the risk of feeling downhearted or dissatisfied with life showed an inverse association for physical activity, both in girls and boys, and there was also a U-shaped association with body image. Conclusion : Physical activity was inversely related to risk of anxiety/depression in boys, but not in girls, and inversely related to the risk of feeling downhearted and dissatisfied with life in both genders. Body image was strongly associated with symptoms of anxiety/depression and measures of well-being, whereas body size showed no clear associations. These results suggest that self-perception of appearance are more important for mental health in adolescents than the actual body composition, and that being physically active may be beneficial, especially among boys.


Malignant melanoma is a malignant neoplasia drives from melanocytes. Malignant melanoma, the most causing death, is seen in the third place at skin cancer. Malignant melanoma shows intrinsic resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and variability in the course of the disease which are distinct features separating from other solid tumors. These features prevent the development and standardization of non-surgical treatment models of malignant melanoma. Although there is a large number of chemotherapeutic agents used in the treatment of metastatic malignant melanoma, it hasn\'t been demonstrated the survival advantage of adjuvant treatment with chemotherapeutic agents. Because of the different clinical course of malignant melanoma, the disease is thought to be closely associated with immune system. Therefore, immunomodulatory therapy models were developed. Mistletoe stimulates the immune system by increasing the number and activity of dendritic cells, thus it has been shown to effect on tumor growth and metastasis of malignant melanoma patient. Outlined in this review are the recent developments in the understanding the role of mistletoe as a complementary therapy for malignant melanoma. J Clin Exp Invest 2014; 5 (1): 145-152


Five patients who developed characteristic myoclonic twitching, drowsiness and convulsions due to intravenous penicillin and cloxacillin are described. Three had poor renal function. Twenty-three reported cases of penicillin encephalopathy are reviewed and the aetiology of the syndrome is discussed.


Abstract. Water extraction from remote sensing images can be applied in water resources monitoring, as well as an essential preprocessing for water quality parameter retrieval. China's new generation Gaofen-5 satellite carries a hyperspectral imager named AHSI, which is suitable for water quality monitoring. In this paper, to determine the spectral index most suitable for AHSI data's water extraction, we selected a large lake and a reservoir in China as the study areas, and used corresponding AHSI data for water extraction experiment. In the experiment, NDWI, MNDWI and AWEI were all tested on the AHSI reflectance data, and major water bodies were delineated by implementing the histogram bimodal method on the water index images. Based on analyses with water index images and water extraction results, NDWI is shown to be the optimal index for water extraction of AHSI data among these three widely-used indexes, as it can accurately extract water bodies and also eliminate pixels of water plants or shadows between land and water. In addition, MNDWI can be used on AHSI data since it is most robust in terms of providing a bimodal histogram. AWEI is, however, not suggested to be used for water extraction of the AHSI data.


Natural hydrogen enrichment gives rise to modifications in the macromolecular structure of vitrinite affecting the properties and behaviour of coals. In order to understand these modifications at molecular level it is necessary to study the degradation of the macromolecular network into representative fragments. A preliminary study involving a direct solid state characterization of the coal combined with an analysis of the degradation products obtained by means of flash-pyrolysis has provided very useful information [1]. However, the results obtained through Py-GC/MS only concern the volatile components. NMR studies were also applied to a structural analysis of the volatile components of the soluble fraction obtained from a set of perhydrous coals with different characteristics [2]. By means of Gray-King pyrolysis oil can be obtained for the analysis of both the volatile and the non-volatile components. This analysis was carried out through the qualitative and quantitative NMR study (1H, 13C and 2D proton detected 1H, 13C correlation experiments) of the same set of perhydrous coals as those mentioned above in order to obtain accurate oil/vitrinite relations. A number of reasons support the use of Gray-King pyrolysis as a thermal approach for this purpose. During the pyrolysis of this type of coals high tar yields are obtained (10-31 %). In addition, it has been previously shown [3] that fragmentation processes prevail over condensation reactions. In this work evidence showing that tars can be representative of the parent vitrinite are presented. The strong resemblance between the FTIR spectra of the oils and those of the raw materials justifies an NMR study. Moreover, the volatile fraction of the oils is made up of the same compounds as those identified by Py-GC/MS and close relationships between NMR and Py-GC/MS are presented. An exhaustive compositional study of the low-temperature tars is also important from the technological point of view because perhydrous coals are oil-prone materials which generate oils of a mainly phenolic nature. Phenolic compounds have a peculiar set of chemical properties as a result of which they play a significant role in coal conversion. They also have important environmental implications owing to their carcinogenic and mutagenic activity. References [1] Iglesias, M.J., del Rio, J.C., Laggoun-Defarge, F., Cuesta, M.J. and Suarez-Ruiz, I. J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol. 62, 1-34 (2002) and references cited therein. [2] Iglesias, M.J., del Rio, J.C., Laggoun-Defarge, F., Cuesta, M.J. and Suarez-Ruiz, I. J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol. 68-69, 387-407 (2003). [3] Arenillas, A., Rubiera, F., Pis, J.J., Cuesta, M.J., Iglesias, M.J., Jimenez, A. and Suarez-Ruiz, I. J. Anal. Appl. Pyrol. 68-69, 371-385 (2003).


The creation of architecture is based on the relationship the designer has with media. Making media requires both a technical proficiency and a capacity to understand how the medium itselJinforms the architect and the creative work. I will explore through this thesis how the creation of media is not only a metaphor for the process of architecture, but the act of architecture itself. In addition to the making of media, this work will analyze editing media as a provocative interface of design. Finally, this work will focus on digital media specifically digital video and the opportunities it may have to inform architecture and the education of architects. Based on the assumption that architecture itself is in fact media, the building itself, is merely a by-product of the process undergone through the manipulation of media. Given this perspective, the product can become different based on the media used in its creation. Architectural media can be created in many formats and for the sake of focus this work will concentrate on video, the manipulation of video, and the conceptual link between video editing and the making of architecture. Of the various forms of media that exist in contemporary culture, video and the manipulation of video stand out as an untapped resource for architecture. Architecture has an opportunity to benefit from moving images how these images inform spatial perception, how the series of images may represent time and how relationships between spaces and ideas can be articulated through this medium. While the visual benefits of video may seem obvious, the way video is constructed offers another way to access an understanding of idea generation.


Micro-architectured lattices offer unique combinations of stiffness, strength and toughness at low density that makes them ideal for lightweighting applications. This thesis quantifies, compare and contrast various aspects of the mechanical performance of micro-architectured lattices with special emphasis on the role of microstructure upon their effective macroscopic properties. The differences in mechanical performance between lattices with a stochastic and various regular-periodic micro-architectures (Square, Hexagonal, Triangular and Kagome micro-structure), with each exhibiting either a stretch or bending-dominated deformation at the cell-scale, are systematically quantified. First, the elastic and yield properties of infinite-sized lattices are obtained by finiteelement modelling of representative unit-cells, applying the appropriate boundary conditions, where there is an excellent agreement with analytical predictions from existing literature. By relaxing the 'infinite-size' assumption, the effects of finite specimen size on the effective macroscopic stiffness and strength are quantified for uniaxial and shear loadings. The predicted size effects were found to be a direct consequence of the strong and weak boundary layers that emanate from the specimen boundaries. The influence of these edge effects on the macroscopic stiffness and strength are quantified for the Square, Triangular and Kagome lattices, and the results compared to existing ones for the Diamond, Hexagonal and stochastic Voronoi lattices in the literature. Second, in addition to the monotonic loading studied above, the cyclic stress-life response is also investigated for the regular lattices. A non-linear continuous fatigue damage model for high cycle fatigue is implemented which allows the simulation of strain accumulation in lattices until failure. The proposed model is able to predict with reasonable accuracy the S-N curves for Diamond lattices to shear fatigue where experimental data is available in the literature. The numerical model is then used to elucidate the shear and uniaxial fatigue response of other periodic lattice micro-architectures. Fatigue damage is found to originate in locations that are also affected by the boundary layers. A major difference in the response between bending- and stretching-dominated lattices is revealed; the bending-dominated micro-architectures accumulate damage within a larger lattice area (volume) and in a more progressive manner compared to their stretch-dominated counterparts. Last, the fracture toughness of stochastic Voronoi lattices is studied using an idealised LEFM (Linear Elastic Fracture Mechanics) approach and the results compared to those of periodic lattices. The role of relative density, micro-structure regularity and loading mode are also explored. It will be shown that the toughness predicted by numerical simulations of the CT (compact tension) and SENB-3PB (single-edge notched in threepoint bending) test specimens reveal a specimen-size dependency and a disparity with the corresponding predictions by the idealised LEFM approach: the origins of these are also clarified.


The microcontact printing(μCP) technology available for patterning protein, DNA hybridization, immunoassay and cellular cocultures onto solid surface are reviewed. This review describes some of the techniques currently employed for creating two-dimensional biomolecular microarray, and the research results regarding their effectiveness. In addition, the applications of the impact of μCP technology in the field of biosciences are also presented.


Effort expenditure not only prospectively discounts the reward associated with it but also retrospectively adds the subjective value of reward, which is known as the effort paradox. This study aimed to resolve the effort paradox during reward evaluation through the critical lens of neural dynamics and its potential moderators. In total, 40 participants completed an effort-reward task wherein they exerted varying physical efforts to obtain an opportunity to win monetary rewards by active or passive decision-making. We found that after-effects of physical effort expenditure during reward evaluation unfolded as an effort paradox over time, manifesting itself as an effort discounting effect during the reward positivity (RewP) period but as an effort enhancement effect during the late positive potential (LPP) interval. Then, we found a dynamic balance between the discounting effect and the enhancement effect such that the more effort discounted the RewP at the early stage, the more effort increased the LPP at the late stage. Moreover, we observed that the effort-reward relationship was modulated by perceived control such that it increased the reward sensitivity effect and decreased the effort discounting effect. Together, our findings provide new insights into the neural mechanisms underlying the after-effects of physical effort exertion during reward evaluation.


Introduction Previously we proposed construction of a miniaturized metabolic monitor that could be taken aboard the space station to monitor the physiological response of the body in a microgravity environment. The prototype consisted of an on airway non-dispersive infrared (NDIR) CO2 sensor and a luminescencequenching O2 sensor to measure gas concentrations, and differential pressure ports to measure gas flows. Our motivations, prototype design considerations, and initial experiments were presented in a previous paper. 1 This paper aims to further examine the efficacy of the prototype device through 1) characterization of the flow profile by using a discharge coefficient, and 2) validation of the oxygen sensor at the high volumetric flows.


Between 1 Jan 1977 and 31 Dec 1979 459 patients were admitted as cases of hepatitis and with suspicion of hepatitis. Opposite to this number stood 613 patients with diseases of the biliary ducts. Only by the large-scale use of invasive-diagnostic methods we could perform and adequate diagnostics, the results of which are demonstrated in this paper. Clinic and results of serological examinations, the value of which is without doubt, are at the present date not yet suited to substitute the liver blind puncture and the laparoscopy in the same value. Recently decisive progress was achieved in the field of diagnosis by the introduction of sensitive radiotests and enzyme immune tests for the proof of virus hepatitides. By means of these new investigation methods prerequisites have been created to reduce the still high dark number in cases of anicteric hepatitis and subclinical cases of hepatitis.


International Journal of Exercise Science 10(8): 1174-1183, 2017. Bilateral transfer is a well-known phenomenon whereby training one limb results in improvement in the untrained homologous limb. However, despite evidence across a range of motor skill paradigms, the influence of motor skill complexity on the magnitude of bilateral transfer has not yet been fully explored. The aim of this preliminary study was to compare bilateral transfer effects between three dexterity tasks with the hypothesis that the complexity of the task, the volume of time training, and the amount of improvement in the trained hand would positively influence bilateral transfer. Using a randomized cross-over design, 14 young healthy participants (mean age of 22.6 ± 6.6 years; eight female) completed three finger dexterity tasks (O'Connor dexterity, Purdue pegboard, and Mirror Purdue pegboard tasks) with one week rest between each task. Each task required training with the participant's dominant hand with pre and post testing in both the dominant and non-dominant hands. The Mirrored Purdue pegboard task showed the greatest rate of improvement in the dominant hand. Similarly, the greatest bilateral transfer effect was found in the Mirrored Purdue task. Interestingly, the amount of time training was not a factor associated with bilateral transfer. In conclusion, this study has demonstrated that the value of task complexity, but not the volume of practice, correlated with the magnitude of bilateral transfer to the non-dominant hand.


The aim of the study is to find out the water quality of the sai river- a holy river of Uttarpradesh. River Sai is an important river of Uttar-Pradesh, originate from a pond in village Bijgwan near Pihani in district Hardoi and travel about 600 km to form district boundary between Lucknow and Unnao. After passing through Hardoi, Raebareli and Jaunpur district it finally join the Gomati River at Rajepur in Jaunpur district. The sai is worshiped as holy river in UP. total six water samples from each districts were collected and 18 physicochemical parameters were analyzed and used for the calculation for the water quality index of the samples and categories water in the rating of 0- 100 and result shows that the water quality at districts, Hardoi is good and the district Unnao and Lucknow are in excellent rating and the other three districts Raebareli ,Pratapgarh and Jaunpur was in moderate polluted categories the maximum water quality index is 71.056 and minimum at districts Lucknow 43.34.


Malaria, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and human African trypanosomiasis continue to cause considerable suffering and death in developing countries. Current treatment options for these parasitic protozoal diseases generally have severe side effects, may be ineffective or unavailable, and resistance is emerging. There is a constant need to discover new chemotherapeutic agents for these parasitic infections, and natural products continue to serve as a potential source. This review presents molecular docking studies of potential phytochemicals that target key protein targets in Leishmania spp., Trypanosoma spp., and Plasmodium spp.


Methods for in‐depth genome‐wide characterization of transcriptomes and quantification of transcript levels using various microarray and next‐generation sequencing technologies have emerged as valuable tools for understanding cellular physiology and human disease biology and have begun to be utilized in various clinical diagnostic applications. Current methods, however, typically require RNA to be converted to complementary DNA prior to measurements. This step has been shown to introduce many biases and artifacts. In order to best characterize the 'true' transcriptome, the single‐molecule direct RNA sequencing (DRS) technology was developed. This review focuses on the underlying principles behind the DRS, sample preparation steps, and the current and novel avenues of research and applications DRS offers. WIREs RNA 2011 2 565–570 DOI: 10.1002/wrna.84