Detection of heavy metal ions has attracted great attention, and the colorimetric assay has remarkable advantages, such as convenient, efficient, free-equipment and always visible. Herein, we report a highly sensitive and selective colorimetric sensor for the determination of copper(II) ions based on the conformational change of Cu2+-binding peptides immobilized onto the surface of gold nanoparticles. In the presence of copper(II) ions, the peptides modified gold nanoparticles (p-AuNPs) will cooperatively bind together, resulting in aggregation and precipitation of the p-AuNPs, thus color change can be observed from wine red to colorless. Nevertheless, other cations like Mg2+, Ca2+, Zn2+, Fe3+, Pb2+, Mn2+, Ba2+, Ni2+, Co2+, K+ and Ag+ cannot have such an effect, so no obvious disturbance occurs in the same concentration to Cu2+. With this well-designed sensing platform, the detection range of copper(II) ions is found to be 10–150 μM, which falls into the maximum accepted level of 1.3 ppm (∼20 μM) as set by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Moreover, modification of AuNPs with differential binding peptides may provide new and simple platforms for the detection of other heavy metal ions, so the strategy proposed for the detection of Cu2+ in this work can be extended for more applications in the future.


An experiment aiming at finding evidence for γ-decay of the giant dipole resonance built on superdeformed nuclear states has been made using the EUROBALL γ-detector array coupled to the large BaF2 detectors of the HECTOR system. The reaction 110Pd(37Cl, 4n)143Eu at beam energies of 165 MeV and 170 MeV has been employed. A report of the analysis of a part of the data at Ebeam = 165 MeV is given here. Results based on more inclusive and on very exclusive high-energy γ-ray spectra are presented. In particular, the spectrum of high-energy γ-rays gated by low-energy transitions between states fed by the superdeformed states are found to show some excess of yield in the 9–11 MeV region with respect to the spectrum gated by transitions not fed by the superdeformed states. This is the γ-ray energy region where one expects to find the γ-decay of the giant dipole oscillation along the long axis of a superdeformed axially symmetric nucleus. The measured excess is found to be of the same order as that predicted by schematic statistical model calculations assuming that the excitation of the GDR built on excited states is restricted to a region of the phase space a few MeV above the yrast line at very high spins.


ABSTRACT Purpose Thalassemia poses clear systemic and oral health problems. Clinicians must be aware of various dental treatment needs in these patients. This study was undertaken to assess body mass index (BMI), dental age, salivary alkaline phosphatase levels, malocclusion, and treatment needs in children with β thalassemia major. Materials and methods A total of 100 children within the age group of 2–15 years (50 thalassemic and 50 healthy controls) were included. Dental age, oral health status, malocclusion, and intervention urgency index was recorded. Unstimulated whole saliva samples were collected to assess the salivary alkaline phosphatase levels. The recorded data were statistically analyzed. Results A significantly greater number of thalassemia children were found to be in the underweight category. A significantly high OHI-S scores and low gingival index scores were observed in thalassemia children. Salivary alkaline phosphatase levels were significantly low in thalassemia children compared to the control group. Intervention urgency index scores were significantly high in thalassemia group of children. Conclusion Thalassemia children had low BMI, gingival index scores, salivary alkaline phosphatase levels and higher prevalence of malocclusion, and high OHI-S index scores compared to the healthy control group. Intervention urgency index scores revealed greater dental treatment needs in children with thalassemia. How to cite this article Rani ST, Reddy ER, et al. Comparative Evaluation of BMI, Dental Age, Salivary Alkaline Phosphatase Levels, and Oral Health Status in Children with β Thalassemia Major. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2019;12(4):303–306.


We compared the incidence of capsular contracture in an implant (Bioplasty Misti Gold II) which has a textured surface and is filled with polyvinyl-pirrolidone (PVP)-hydrogel, with that in saline-filled implants with textured surfaces when the implants are placed subcutaneously during immediate reconstruction after subcutaneous mastectomy. In 41 patients, mean age 55 years (range 30-81), with breast cancer that was not suitable for breast conservation, 20 patients had 22 Misti Gold II prostheses inserted (two patients bilaterally) and 21 patients had saline-filled prostheses (one patient bilaterally). The development of capsular contracture was assessed using Baker's classification and applanation tonometry. Fourteen patients with Misti Gold II implants were classified one year postoperatively as Baker 2 and 3 compared with five with saline-filled implants (p = 0.01). On applanation tonometry 16 of the Misti Gold II group had an operative:postoperative ratio of < or = 0.75, compared with 50% in the saline-filled group (p = 0.096). In the 12 Misti Gold II prostheses that were removed because of capsular contracture between 13-40 months postoperatively, the volume in the prostheses had increased by 48%. The poor results obtained with the Misti Gold II prosthesis can be explained by the volume that they gained after implantation as a result of osmosis.


A series of polysaccharide-based transparent composite films containing lanthanopolyoxometalates (LnPOMs) have been prepared by using a water-soluble cationic chitosan derivative [HTCC = N-(2-hydroxypropyl)-3-trimethylammonium chitosan chloride] and pullulan (PUL). HTCC was more suitable than pure chitosan for this purpose due to its positive charge and solubility in water over a broad range of pH values. The LnPOMs [Ln(W5O18)2]9– (Ln = Eu and Tb) were incorporated into the polysaccharides. EuPOMs encapsulated in amorphous silica shells were also incorporated into the polysaccharides to test the effect on film processing of the loading of nanoparticles instead of LnPOM anions. The incorporation of LnPOMs or LnPOM/silica core/shell nanoparticles into either HTCC or PUL polysaccharides originated clear transparent films. These composite films are transparent in daylight and exhibit visible emission under UV excitation. Photoluminescence studies (emission and excitation spectra and emission decay curves) were performed on the newly prepared films.


One aim of recent ultrasonic tissue characterization is the quantitative imaging of tissue acoustic parameters. In order to obtain a straightforward image of physical constants the range-variant acoustic field characteristics, such as grating lobe, prefocused beam and diffraction effect due to the finite aperture on the array transducer have to be corrected. We propose 3-dimensional range-variant Gaussian shaped inverse filtering by digital signal processing of complex echoes as a means of correcting these characteristics in the near-field range of an ordinary array transducer .


In this paper we follow up two notes of Thomsen (1973, 1978) and present some results on the estimation effect of post-stratification when analyzing binary survey data subject to non-response. Using an alternative parameterisation and assuming that the non-response depends on the variable of interest which can not be fully observed, we show that the relative reduction in the bias can be estimated from the response group alone. In addition, the relative bias and variance reduction are both shown to be approximately equal, under certain conditions, to one minus the square of the correlation coefficient between the auxiliary and object variable among the respondents.


Confronting Crisis in the Carolingian Empire presents a welcome new translation of one of the ninth century's more enigmatic literary texts, the "Funeral Oration for Wala" (Epitaphium Arsenii) by Paschasius Radbertus. Until now, Anglophone Carolingianists have appreciatively consulted the venerable, if sometimes eccentric, translation by Allen Cabaniss, Charlemagne's Cousins (Syracuse, 1967). Mayke de Jong and Justin Lake offer scholars a new alternative to Cabaniss that manages to be at the same time more consistently legible and more stylistically representative of Paschasius's original Latinity.


Introduction: The idea behind this novel communication technology tool origin from older peoples' habit of watching TV and using a remote control. The product—'ippi'—is based on technological convergence of mobile phone services such as SMS, MMS or e-mail and the TV terminal. Old people are often affected of technology, but are rarely involved in the development or design of those products. Here, the aim is to examine old people's participation in the design process and whether their TV experience affects 'ippi' functionality and utility.Objectives: Does the experience of watching television affect the usage? How do different contexts affect usage? What influences the seniors' role as participants in the design process? Do they consider their well-being improved via 'ippi'?Methods: Continuous participation in workshops, thorough iterations in real life. 'Ippi' is tested in a nursing home where elderly get information about activities and choose their meals via the TV and in a senior centre where old people come together and continue to keep in touch from home.Preliminary results: Using participatory design, users are able to influence the solution so that ippi better suits their needs; meanwhile their ability to articulate demands is improved.Conclusions: Novel technology needs experienced users, regardless of age, to develop 'correct' functionality. A participatory design approach is suitable also for older users and results are reached effectively.


In this article, a two-level regression model is imposed on the ability parameters in an item response theory (IRT) model. The advantage of using latent rather than observed scores as dependent variables of a multilevel model is that it offers the possibility of separating the influence of item difficulty and ability level and modeling response variation and measurement error. Another advantage is that, contrary to observed scores, latent scores are test-independent, which offers the possibility of using results from different tests in one analysis where the parameters of the IRT model and the multilevel model can be concurrently estimated. The two-parameter normal ogive model is used for the IRT measurement model. It will be shown that the parameters of the two-parameter normal ogive model and the multilevel model can be estimated in a Bayesian framework using Gibbs sampling. Examples using simulated and real data are given.


Previously reported (S)-5′-C-aminopropyl-2′-arabinofluoro-thymidine (5ara-T) and newly synthesized (S)-5′-C-aminopropyl-2′-arabinofluoro-5-methyl-cytidine (5ara-MeC) analogs were incorporated into a series of antisense gapmers containing multiple phosphorothioate (PS) linkages and locked nucleic acids (LNAs) in their wing regions. The functional properties of the gapmers were further evaluated in vitro. Compared with the positive control, for the LNA-wing full PS gapmer without 5ara modification, it was revealed that each gapmer could have a high affinity and be thermally stable under biological conditions. Although the cleavage pattern was obviously changed; gapmers with 5ara modification could still efficiently activate E. coli RNase H1. In addition, incorporating one 5ara modification into the two phosphodiester linkages could reverse the destabilization in enzymatic hydrolysis caused by fewer PS linkages. In vitro cellular experiments were also performed, and the Lipofectamine® 2000 (LFA)+ group showed relatively higher antisense activity than the LFA-free group. KN5ara-10, which contains fewer PS linkages, showed similar or slightly better antisense activity than the corresponding full PS-modified KN5ara-3. Hence, KN5ara-10 may be the most promising candidate for KNTC2-targeted cancer therapy.


Summary The hemocytes are the cells responsible for the immunity in molluscs. Cytokines, growth factors, etc, present in the soluble fraction of the hemolymph modulate the immune response. The inflammatory cytokine interleukin-2 (IL-2) induces the synthesis of nitric oxide (NO), responsible for oxidizing processes. In hemocytes of mollusks, the presence of IL-2 induces the synthesis of the three subunits of the receptor of high affinity, and the subsequent activation of the signaling pathway where the cAMP-dependent protein kinase (PKA) plays the main role, with a secondary role of PKC. In the presence of IL-2, PKA activates NO synthesis through the constitutive enzyme mc-NOS. In winter, the action of PKC on a novel inducible form mw-NOS leads to an increase of the IL-2-induced NO synthesis. According to our studies, this set of metabolic reactions explains the seasonal variations in NO production by hemocytes of Mytilus galloprovincialis. However, after two years of studies, and coinciding with the Prestige oil spill in November 2002, this effect was cancelled for at least the two years following the catastrophe.


Congenic strain of BIO.LP-a male mice were experimentally infected with Leishmania donovani 3S strain from the spleen of a hamster donor. The weight ratio of spleen body, liver body and spleen liver calculated from the weight of six mice taken at weekly intervals for a period of 49 days showed that there is no hepatomegaly or splenomegaly during the first 14 days of infection when the parasite population increases. Maximum enlargement of liver and spleen was observed at day 35 postinfection, when the parasite population had declined to 11 per cent. Slight recovery was noted at day 49 with parasites reducing to 1 per cent. It is suggested that in endemic areas of human visceral leishmaniasis a search for amastigotes should be made from the biopsy of the liver or sternal puncture during the first phase of the disease when the patients suffer from a high fever with rigors. With the enlargement of liver and spleen due to proliferative response and infiltration of plasma cells, the parasite population disappears.


The decline in the physical stature of the American population for more than a generation beginning with the birth cohorts of the early 1830s was brought about by a diminution in nutritional intake in spite of robust growth in average incomes. This occurred at the onset of modern economic growth on account of rising inequality and an increase in food prices, which brought about dietary changes through the substitution away from edibles toward non-edibles. In a recent working paper, Bodenhorn, Guinnane, and Mroz question this consensus view, suggesting that a decline in heights in a military sample may not be representative of the population at large. They argue that increasing wages in the civilian labor market may well induce an increased proportion of shorter men to volunteer for military service thereby driving down the mean height of soldiers even if the height of the population remains unchanged. However, they neglected to examine whether labor market conditions did actually improve during the Civil War in such a way as to induce shorter men to enlist. Had they done so they would have found just the opposite: during the course of the war real compensation in the military increased by some 39% to 66% relative to civilian earnings. This should have led to an increase in military heights if the logic of their model were accurate, when in fact they declined. A thorough analysis of the Union Army height data, considering recruiting periods as short as 90 days during which labor market conditions could not have changed markedly indicates that there can be no doubt at all that the decline in the height of soldiers beginning with the birth cohorts of the early 1830s is representative of the trend in the physical stature of the male population at large. The implication is that there was a widespread diminution in nutritional status of the population in the antebellum period.


Introduction: Jakarta has recorded heightened air pollution for years, and particulate matter (PM10) is one of the pollutants that could bring health burden in population. This study described the distribution of PM10 as well as analysed the correlation with meteorological parameters during 2020–2021 in Jakarta Province. Methods: Air quality standard index daily data from January 1st 2020 to March 31st 2021 was retrieved from the official data portal (https://data.jakarta.go.id/). The Spearman Rank correlation was employed to understand the correlation between PM10 Index with meteorological factors. Autoregressive Integrative Moving Average (ARIMA) model was constructed and Akaike Information Criterion (AIC) selected the model. Cross-correlation analysis explored the association between PM10 with meteorological parameters at multiple time lags. Results and Discussion: PM10 Index started to increase in April 2020 and reached its peak in August 2020. PM10 was positively correlated with temperature (p-value <0.05, R2: 0.134), but it was negatively correlated with humidity and wind speed (p-value <0.05, R2: -0.392 and -0.129). The high cross-correlation coefficients were found between PM10 and temperature at lag 0, humidity at lag 1 and wind speed at lag 1 (rho: 0.42, -0.38 and -0.24). The time series model ARIMA with parameter (p,d,q) (1,1,1) describes the fluctuation of PM10 index data with AIC 3552.75. Conclusion: PM10 concentration in Jakarta is significantly correlated with meteorological factors. The implementation of social restriction in Jakarta need to be supported by pollution control in the neighbouring areas in order to be able to reduce PM10 pollution level.


History and Objectives: Due to importance of hemoglobin in the assessment of anemia, different reports on its values, concern on the spread of the low hemoglobin levels among children and in order to determine the blood level of hemoglobin among healthy newborns, the present study was carried out on patients referred to the Loghman hospital in 1996-1997. Materials and Methods: A descriptive study on 230 newborns with proper apgar and without meconium aspiration, hypoxia, edema and cardiac and liver insufficiencies and without large spleen, icterus and other congenital anomalies was conducted. With the parental consent, 2ml blood was taken from each child and blood hemoglobin was determined and personal features of each child is recorded and statistical analysis and confidence interval was assessed. Results: Hemoglobin levels were the same for boys and girls (16.3±1.8 g/dl). 6.4 of infants had hemoglobin levels lower than 13 g/dl and 80 had hemoglobin levels at 14-18 g/dl range and 14 for the infants had hemoglobin levels of 19 g/dl or higher. Conclusion: According to the present data there is no concern about anemia among newborns. Especially the study was carried out in region with low social and income status.


Resveratrol and its analogs, six other polyhydroxystilbenes, were synthesized and their antioxidative activities were evaluated in vitro by determination of the levels of malondialdehyde and hydrogen peroxide. Results clearly exhibited that resveratrol and its analogs had various potencies in inhibiting lipid peroxidation in rat brain, kidney, and liver homogenates and rat erythrocyte hemolysis. Several polyhydroxystilbenes were found to be more active than resveratrol in these models, and structure-activity relationship studies on polyhydroxystilbenes are described in this paper.


What kind of macroscopic structural and dynamical patterns can we observe in real-world hypergraphs? What can be underlying local dynamics on individuals, which ultimately lead to the observed patterns, beyond apparently random evolution? Graphs, which provide effective ways to represent pairwise interactions among entities, fail to represent group interactions (e.g., collaboration of three or more researchers, etc.). Regarded as a generalization of graphs, hypergraphs allowing for various sizes of edges prove fruitful in addressing this limitation. The increased complexity, however, makes it challenging to understand hypergraphs as thoroughly as graphs. In this work, we closely examine seven structural and dynamical properties of real hypergraphs from six domains. To this end, we define new measures, extend notions of common graph properties to hypergraphs, and assess the significance of observed patterns by comparison with a null model and statistical tests. We also propose HyperFF, a stochastic model for generating realistic hypergraphs. Its merits are three-fold: (a) Realistic: it successfully reproduces all seven patterns, in addition to five patterns established in previous studies, (b) Self-contained: unlike previously proposed models, it does not rely on oracles (i.e., unexplainable external information) at all, and it is parameterized by just two scalars, and (c) Emergent: it relies on simple and interpretable mechanisms on individual entities, which do not trivially enforce but surprisingly lead to macroscopic properties.


Whole cell patch-clamp studies were performed with tissue isolated from the cystic fibrosis (CF) transgenic Cftrm1cam mouse, to determine whether anion currents in choroid plexus epithelial cells require the expression of cystic fibrosis transmembrane conductance regulator (CFTR). Inclusion of 0.25 mM adenosine 3',5'-cyclic monophosphate (cAMP) and 375 nM protein kinase A (PKA) in the pipette solution caused a significant activation of a Cl(-)-selective, inward-rectifying conductance in cells from wild-type and CF mice. The small, outward currents observed in wild-type and CF animals, however, were not activated by cAMP-PKA. There were no significant differences in the size of currents between wild-type, heterozygote, and CF cells in the presence or absence of cAMP-PKA. A second whole cell conductance was activated when cells from wild-type mice were swollen. These volume-activated currents were Cl- selective and exhibited outward rectification. They were Ca2+ independent and ATP dependent and blocked by 4,4'-diisothiocyanostilbene-2,2'-disulfonic acid and 5-nitro-2-(3-phenylpropylamino)benzoic acid. The volume-activated channels were also activated in CF mutant cells, and there was no significant difference in the size of the volume-activated currents between wild-type, heterozygote, and CF cells. It is concluded that CFTR neither contributes to the whole cell conductance nor regulates the other anion conductances in choroid plexus epithelial cells.


Abstract. The Southern Hemisphere Westerly Winds are among the most important drivers of recently observed environmental changes in West Antarctica. However, the lack of long-term wind records in this region hinders our ability to assess the long-term context of these variations. Ice core proxy records yield valuable information about past environmental changes, although current proxies present limitations when aiming to reconstruct past winds. Here we present the first regional wind study based on the novel use of diatoms preserved in Antarctic ice cores. We assess the temporal variability in diatom abundance and its relation to regional environmental parameters spanning a 20-year period across three sites in the southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land, Antarctica. Correlation analyses reveal that the temporal variability of diatom abundance from high elevation ice core sites is driven by changes in wind strength over the core of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind belt. Validating the use of diatoms preserved in ice cores from the Southern Antarctic Peninsula and Ellsworth Land as a proxy for reconstructing past variations in wind strength over the Pacific sector of the Southern Hemisphere Westerly Wind belt.


Flower-like cobalt–molybdenum mixed-oxide microspheres (CoMo-FMs) with hierarchical architecture were successfully synthesized via a hydrothermal process and subsequent calcination step. The characterization results show that CoMo-FMs were assembled from ultrathin mesoporous nanosheets with thicknesses of around 4.0 nm, providing the composite with a large pore volume and a massive surface area. The synthesized CoMo-FMs were employed as catalysts for the aerobic oxidative desulfurization (AODS) of fuel, and the reaction results show that the optimal catalyst (CoMo-FM-2) demonstrated an outstanding catalytic performance. Over CoMo-FM-2, various thiophenic sulfides could be effective removed at 80–110 °C under an atmospheric pressure, and a complete conversion of sulfides could be achieved in at least six consecutive cycles without a detectable change in chemical compositions. Further, the catalytic mechanism was explored by conducting systemic radical trapping and transformation experiments, and the excellent catalytic performance for CoMo-FMs should be mainly due to the synergistic effect of Mo and Co elements.


Four ruminally fistulated primiparous lactating Holstein cows were assigned to a 4 × 4 Latin square design to determine the effects of the site of administration (rumen or abomasum) of flax oil and flax hulls on diet digestibility and milk fatty acid profile of dairy cows. The treatments were 1) oil and hulls administered in the rumen and abomasal infusion of water (RUM/RUM), 2) oil and hulls infused in the abomasum (ABO/ABO), 3) oil administered in the rumen and hulls infused in the abomasum (RUM/ABO), and 4) oil infused in the abomasum and hulls placed in the rumen (ABO/RUM). Cows on the ABO/ABO and RUM/RUM treatments had the highest and lowest amounts of basal dry matter eaten, respectively. Higher dry matter digestibility was obtained when flax oil bypassed the rumen (ABO/ABO and ABO/RUM) compared with when flax oil was administered directly in the rumen (RUM/ABO and RUM/RUM). Apparent digestibility of ether extract was higher when flax hulls were administered in the rumen (RUM/RUM and ABO/RUM) compared with when flax hulls were infused in the abomasum (ABO/ABO and RUM/ABO). The lowest digestibility of acid detergent fiber and neutral detergent fiber was obtained when both flax products were added in the rumen, which may be attributed to the high amount of oil present in the rumen (7.8% of total dry matter input). The lowest yield of 4% fat-corrected milk was obtained for cows on the RUM/RUM treatment, probably as a result of lower dry matter intake and digestibility of fiber. Milk concentrations of protein, fat, total solids, and lactose were similar among treatments. Administration of oil and hulls in the rumen resulted in the highest concentrations of intermediate products of biohydrogenation and total trans fatty acids in milk fat compared with the other treatments. All ratios of n-6 to n-3 fatty acids in milk fat were lower than the 4 to 1 ratio recommended to improve human health. These results suggest that the presence of both flax oil and flax hulls in the rumen decreases 4% fat-corrected milk yield and digestibility but provides a desirable fatty acid profile of milk to enhance consumers' health.


Introduction – The study of informatics is multidisciplinary in nature. The informatics course, HSC 310: Health Care Informatics (HSC 310), for undergraduate health sciences students at the Massachusetts College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences (MCPHS) is an example of a librarian-led, multidisciplinary team functioning within a totally online environment. Description – The development and design of the course HSC 310 is reviewed. Issues and challenges are discussed, as well as the benefits of interdisciplinary expertise in the learning environment. Outcomes – Because informatics is fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature, librarians, instructional designers, statisticians, nurses, pharmacists, and other professionals can learn from each other and strengthen the learning experience of students. The "matrix" of informatics explains how diverse types of information interact with, and impact on, each other. This knowledge is crucial to the understanding of information and its role in one's professional life. There was a journey taken in the design of the course, its evolution cumulating in its final online form. Our unique design was an informatics exercise in itself. Student feedback confirmed that, in addition to the course content, the online environment was a positive educational experience. Discussion – Librarian involvement in teaching informatics at MCPHS began with a National Library of Medicine (NLM) fellowship in informatics at Woods Hole, Massachusetts. This resulted in the library's first for-credit course offered totally in-class and included the participation of faculty from other disciplines. Successful collaboration with the College instructional designer was essential in moving this librarian-led course to a totally virtual environment. In addition, the teaming of librarians with other faculty resulted in two nursing-led, hybrid courses on our Boston and Manchester campuses. During the past two years, interdisciplinary teams have provided informatics instruction to the Boston campus within a totally online environment. This paper discusses one of those courses, HSC 310: Health Care Informatics. The topics discussed in the course and the virtual platform have both provided a valuable learning experience for faculty and students. Informatics is an area where varied disciplines can join to achieve common goals.


An ultraviolet-infrared (UV-IR) double-resonance method for recording conformation-specific excited-state infrared spectra is described. The method takes advantage of an increase in fluorescence signal in phenylalkanes produced by infrared excitation of the S1 origin levels of different conformational isomers. The shorter lifetimes of these IR-excited molecules, combined with their red-shifted emission, provides a way to discriminate the fluorescence due to the infrared-excited molecules from the S1 origin fluorescence, resulting in spectra with high signal-to-noise ratios. Spectra for a series of phenylalkanes and a capped phenylalanine derivative (Ac-Phe-NHMe) demonstrate the potential of the method. The excited-state spectrum in the alkyl CH stretch region of ethylbenzene is well-fit by an anharmonic model developed for the ground electronic state, which explicitly takes into account stretch-bend Fermi resonance.


In order to select the best tomato cultivar for Agrobacterium mediated gene transformation studies, In vitro regeneration frequency of hypocotyls, leaf disc and shoot tip of five tomato cultivars (Lycopersicon esculentum) was investigated on a regeneration medium supplemented with 1 mg/l zeatin and 0.1 mg/l indole-3-acetic acid. Significant differences in regeneration capacity between genotypes and explant types, expressed as frequency of regeneration, average number of callus, shoot primordial and regenerated shoot primordial were observed. Regeneration in 5 cultivars of tomato using 3 different explant types was achieved. The regeneration capacity was strongly influenced by the cultivar and explant type. The highest regeneration capacity was observed in cultivar Riograndea (80% by using shoot tip, 64.5% by using hypocotyl and 56% by using leaf disc) from all types of explant. Of the explant types shoot tip was found the best explant source for direct shoot formation (80% shoot primordial were regenerated) while hypocotyl was found the best explant source for shoot formation through callogenesis (64.5% shoot primordia were regenerated)


【Supersonic jet fighter aircraft have several different weapon loading configuration to support air-to-air combat and air-to-ground delivery of weapon modes. Especially, asymmetric loading configurations could result in decreased handling qualities for the pilot maneuvering of the aircraft. The design of the T-50 lateral-directional roll axis control laws change from beta-betadot feedback structure to simple roll rate feedback structure and gains such as F-16 in order to improve roll-off phenomena during pitch maneuver in asymmetric loading configuration. Consequently, it is found that the improved control law decreases the roll-off phenomenon in lateral axes during pitch maneuver, but initial roll response is very fast and wing pitching moment is increased. In this paper, we propose the lateral control law blending between beta-betadot and simple roll rate feedback system in order to decreases the roll-off phenomenon in lateral axes during pitch maneuver without degrading of roll performance.】


A new technique is presented to prove non-termination of term rewriting. The basic idea is to find a non-empty regular language of terms that is closed under rewriting and does not contain normal forms. It is automated by representing the language by a tree automaton with a fixed number of states, and expressing the mentioned requirements in a SAT formula. Satisfiability of this formula implies non-termination. Our approach succeeds for many examples where all earlier techniques fail, for instance for the S-rule from combinatory logic.


The purpose of this study was to identify the level of awareness, uses, and satisfaction on home automation systems by the digital home residents, to reveal the existing problems using home automation systems, and to clarify residents' positive or negative life changes after using home automation systems. Two apartment complexes, which were relatively well equipped with home automation systems compared to other recently built apartments, were selected to perform the survey by digital home residents who were housewives and have lived in current home more than 6 months. The researcher developed a survey questionnaire for each apartment complex and collected data from 501 residents from May to June, 2008. The results of the study found low awareness and low uses of remote control systems of electric appliances through a cellular phone or PC from outside. Also, the significant variables which showed group differences in level of uses and satisfation were age, annual income, duration of residence, and level of considering home automation system before decision to move in. The results of the study also revealed that frequent breakdown was the most critical problem using home automation systems. Generally, using home automation systems affected to residents' life changes positively. More findings and suggestions for development of more user-friendly digital home services were discussed.


Using only cosmic microwave background polarization data from the polarbear experiment, we measure B-mode polarization delensing on subdegree scales at more than 5σ significance. We achieve a 14% B-mode power variance reduction, the highest to date for internal delensing, and improve this result to 22% by applying for the first time an iterative maximum a posteriori delensing method. Our analysis demonstrates the capability of internal delensing as a means of improving constraints on inflationary models, paving the way for the optimal analysis of next-generation primordial B-mode experiments.


Pattern discovery in protein interaction networks can reveal crucial biological knowledge on the inner workings of cellular machinery. Although far from complete, extracting meaningful patterns from proteomic networks is a nontrivial task due to their size-complexity. This paper proposes a computational framework to efficiently discover topologically-similar patterns from large proteomic networks using Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). PSO is a robust and low-cost optimization technique that demonstrated to work effectively on the complex, mostly sparse proteomic networks. The resulting topologicallysimilar patterns of close proximity are utilized to systematically predict new high-confidence protein-protein interactions (PPIs). The proposed PSO-based PPI prediction method (3PI) managed to predict high-confidence PPIs, validated by more than one computational/experimental source, through a proposed PPI knowledge transfer process between topologically-similar interaction patterns of close proximity. In three case studies, over 50% of the predicted interactions for EFGR, ERBB2, ERBB3, GRB2 and UBC are overlapped with publically available interaction databases, ~80% of the predictions are found among the Top 1% results of another PPI prediction method and their genes are significantly co-expressed across different tissues. Moreover, the only single prediction example that did not overlap with any of our validation sources was recently experimentally supported by two PubMed publications.


We propose a statistical mechanics model for DNA melting in which base stacking and pairing are explicitly introduced as distinct degrees of freedom. Unlike previous approaches, this model describes thermal denaturation of DNA secondary structure in the whole experimentally accessible temperature range. Base pairing is described through a zipper model, base stacking through an Ising model. We present experimental data on the unstacking transition, obtained exploiting the observation that at moderately low pH this transition is moved down to experimentally accessible temperatures. These measurements confirm that the Ising model approach is indeed a good description of base stacking. On the other hand, comparison with the experiments points to the limitations of the simple zipper model description of base pairing.


Author(s): Li, Jinchao | Advisor(s): Vandenberghe, Lieven | Abstract: A Gaussian graphical model is a graph representation of conditional independence relations among Gaussian random variables. A fundamental problem in the estimation of Gaussian graphical models is the selection of the graph topology given relatively small amounts of data. This problem is often solved via L1-regularized maximum likelihood estimation, for which many large-scale convex optimization algorithms have been developed. In this thesis, we consider several extensions of Gaussian graphical models and develop fast algorithms based on convex optimization methods.As a first extension, we consider the restricted sparse inverse covariance selection problem where the set of zero entries of the inverse covariance matrix is partially known and an L1-norm penalization is applied to the remaining entries.The proximal Newton method is an attractive algorithm for this problem since the key computations in the algorithm, which include the evaluation of gradient and Hessian of the log-likelihood function, can be implemented efficiently with sparse chordal matrix techniques. We analyze the convergence of the inexact proximal Newton method for the penalized maximum likelihood problem. The convergence analysis applies to a wider class of problems with a self-concordant term in the objective. The numerical results indicate that the method can reach a high accuracy, even with inexact computation of the proximal Newton steps.As a second extension, we consider Gaussian graphical models for time series, with focus on the estimation of multiple time series graphical models with similar graph structures or identical graph structure but different edge coefficients. We formulate a joint estimation method for estimating multiple time series graphical models simultaneously, with a group penalty on the edge coefficients for different models. We apply the Douglas-Rachford algorithm to solve the estimation problem for the joint model, and provide model selection methods for choosing parameters. Both synthetic and real data (fMRI brain activity and international stock markets) examples are provided to demonstrate the advantage of the joint estimation method.The last extension is the generalization of Gaussian graphical models for time series to latent variables. We illustrate the effect of latent variables on the conditional independence structure, and describe a Gaussian graphical model for time series with latent variables. The Douglas-Rachford method is applied to this problem. Simulations with synthetic data demonstrate how the method recovers the graph topology.


This is a Beginner's Guide, with plenty of worked examples, step-by-step visual guides, and explanations. If you are a Moodle administrator, ICT technical personnel, designer or a teacher and wish to enhance your Moodle site to make it visually attractive, then this book is for you. You should be familiar with the basics of Moodle operation, and some familiarity with web design techniques, such as HTML and CSS, will be helpful.


The investigation of clay minerals and argillaceous rocks started in the territory of Czechoslovakia as early as the later part of the eighteenth century and has continued up to today. During this long period many interesting results have been obtained. In about 1949 modern laboratory techniques were introduced. Most of the work in this country deals with the mineralogy, petrology, and geology of argillaceous rocks, the chemical composition and physical properties of clay materials which are useful for the purposes of the ceramic, glass, chemical, construction-engineering and mining industries, etc. This paper is subdivided into the following parts: (a) Classical research period; (b) Modern research period; (c) Kaolins (primary); (d) Other argillaceous rocks of sedimentary origin; (e) Bentonites; (f) Laterites and bauxitic rocks; (g) Clay minerals in sedimentary iron ores; (h) Clay minerals in carbonaceous rocks; (i) Clay minerals of hydro-thermal origin; (j) Kinds of apparatus for DTA and gravimetric thermal analysis; (k) Imbibometric study using water and organic liquids; (1) Problems of classification and terminology.


Designers make information acquisition decisions, such as where to search and when to stop the search. Such decisions are typically made sequentially, such that at every search step designers gain information by learning about the design space. However, when designers begin acquiring information, their decisions are primarily based on their prior knowledge. Prior knowledge influences the initial set of assumptions that designers use to learn about the design space. These assumptions are collectively termed as inductive biases. Identifying such biases can help us better understand how designers use their prior knowledge to solve problems in the light of uncertainty. Thus, in this study, we identify inductive biases in humans in sequential information acquisition tasks. To do so, we analyze experimental data from a set of behavioral experiments conducted in the past [1–5]. All of these experiments were designed to study various factors that influence sequential information acquisition behaviors. Across these studies, we identify similar decision making behaviors in the participants in their very first decision to "choose x". We find that their choices of "x" are not uniformly distributed in the design space. Since such experiments are abstractions of real design scenarios, it implies that further contextualization of such experiments would only increase the influence of these biases. Thus, we highlight the need to study the influence of such biases to better understand designer behaviors. We conclude that in the context of Bayesian modeling of designers' behaviors, utilizing the identified inductive biases would enable us to better model designer's priors for design search contexts as compared to using non-informative priors.


4. Summary
Indicators and surrogate microorganisms may be used for evaluating safety of fresh or fresh-cut fruit and vegetable products by assessing or validating the effectiveness of microbial control measures. Although frequently used on an informal basis within a specific company, use of indicators is highly dependent upon microbiological criteria that are in place for the specific produce item or category. All the considerations that must be addressed in establishing microbiological criteria must also be in place if indicators are to be utilized in process verification. Sampling design, stringency, and statistical significance are critical to the evaluation of indicators or surrogates in the assurance of food safety. General ideal qualities of indicators and surrogates are valuable starting points when developing a safety program. The importance of selecting the significant target pathogen for the specific product, its source, handling practices, and distribution practices cannot be overemphasized. The same is true for selection of the indicator or surrogate to represent those pathogens. The extensive lists of considerations and procedures should be helpful when using indicators and surrogates with fresh and fresh-cut produce. The use and limitations of indicators and surrogates to determine or validate treatment effectiveness have been delineated. Challenges are identified for selection of an indicator or surrogate for the specific situation and conditions of an individual produce item, including growing, harvesting, processing, handling, storage, and packaging.


Abstract Immune-mediated inflammatory diseases (IMIDs) are a highly heterogeneous group of diseases that share a common etiology of immune dysregulation, such as rheumatoid arthritis, inflammatory bowel disease, and psoriasis, among others. It is estimated that the prevalence of IMIDs ranges between 5% and 7% in developed countries. As current management of IMIDs includes the use of immunomodulatory medications, the resulting weakened immune response can increase the risk of infection, including with SARS-CoV-2 (the causative agent of COVID-19) and reduce response to vaccination, placing these individuals at continued risk of severe outcomes from COVID-19. In this article, we summarize the current literature related to COVID-19 outcomes and the immunogenicity and reactogenicity of COVID-19 mRNA vaccination among patients with rheumatologically dominated IMIDs, as well as the effect of immunomodulatory therapies on these outcomes. We conclude by providing current COVID-19 vaccination recommendations for individuals with IMID.


This paper examines the estimation of parameters of a discretely sampled Markov process whose continuous-time sample paths are generated by a continuous Brownian term and a stochastic jump term, a realistic setting for many financial asset prices. In discretely sampled data, every change in the value of the variable is by nature a discrete jump, yet we wish to estimate jointly from these data the underlying continuous-time parameters driving the Brownian and jump terms. The paper focuses on the effect of the presence of jumps on the estimation of the volatility parameters, and the effect of the presence of the continuous Brownian part on the estimation of the jumps parameters, in the context of maximum-likelihood and method of moments estimators. These effects are studied as a function of the frequency at which the continuous-time process is sampled


Speech separation aims to separate multiple speech sources from a speech mixture. Although speech separation is well-solved on some existing English speech separation benchmarks, it is worthy of more investigation on the generalizability of speech separation models on the accents or languages unseen during training. This paper adopts meta-learning based methods to improve the transferability of speech separation models. With the meta-learning based methods, we discovered that only using speech data with one accent, the native English accent, as our training data, the models still can be adapted to new unseen accents on the Speech Accent Archive. We compared the results with a human-rated native-likeness of accents, showing that the transferability of MAML methods has less relation to the similarity of data between the training and testing phase compared to the typical transfer learning methods. Furthermore, we found that models can deal with different language data from the CommonVoice corpus during the testing phase. Most of all, the MAML methods outperform typical transfer learning methods when it comes to new accents, new speakers, new languages, and noisy environments.


Vitamin D is a well-known secosteroid hormone, which exerts multiple essential roles in bone physiology, cell growth and differentiation, the neuromuscular system, immunomodulatory functions and autoimmune diseases. Deficiency of vitamin D has been linked to many oral disorders including tooth decay, periodontitis, oral cancer, oral candidiasis, oral lichen planus and recurrent aphthous ulcers. Many studies have revealed a significant lower serum vitamin D level in recurrent aphthous ulcer patients compared with healthy volunteers. This proposes that vitamin D supplementation may reduce the severity of the lesion. To evaluate the efficacy of vitamin D3 replacement on recurrent aphthous ulcer severity is the objective of the study. This study involved 65 patients with idiopathic minor recurrent aphthous ulcer and vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency. These patients received vitamin D3 supplement over 1 y. Severity of the disease was delineated by the duration of episodes, the number of ulcers per attack and the frequency of recurrence. Severity parameters were compared before and after vitamin D3 intake. In addition, 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 concentrations were measured before and after administration of vitamin D3 by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay technique. We found a significant decrease in the frequency of attacks and the number of ulcers in each attack with p-value<0.05 following vitamin D replacement. Moreover, a highly significant lowering in the duration of episodes was detected with p-value<0.001. Gender specific analysis showed no statistically significance regarding severity parameters at any point of the study stages. Correlation studies revealed the only detectable correlation was between serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D3 level at baseline and the number of ulcers before and after vitamin D correction. Vitamin D3 supplementation has a safe and positive impact on improving the severity of recurrent aphthous ulcer with regards to the number of lesions, the frequency of recurrence and the duration of episodes, in patients who have vitamin D deficiency/insufficiency.


This article provides two robust and effective inverse design procedures based on fuzzy logic. The procedures benefits from the fuzzy logic non-analytical structure, which allows one to handle numerical map and data measurements, exploiting the designers' knowledge distributed in already existing systems. Based on such data, the fuzzy logic algorithm is able to promptly provide a first glance design which represents a good starting solution. The two proposed design algorithms differ in the optimisation process which improves the first glance design. The first one considers the optimisation as a false control problem, solved by an adaptive control strategy which, treating the design error as the control error, tries to annihilate it by acting on the design variables. The second algorithm is based on a multiagent structure that, starting from the first glance design, performs the subsequent optimisation step by mapping, through a fuzzy logic structure, the relationship between the variation of the design variables and the design error. The effectiveness of the proposed methods is verified performing the design of a nozzle in different flow regimes, using both 1- and 2D flow solvers to perform the analyses.


Abstract Liquid Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (LC-MS) analysis of methanol extract of Martynia annua seed revealed the presence of haploperozide and austricine. For safety, heavy metals content investigation of plant powder using the Inductively Coupled Plasma-Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) technique showed that the toxic metals (Pb: 2.07 mg/kg; Cd: 0.07 mg/kg; and As: 0.18 mg/kg) concentrations were found to be below the permissible limit. The extract demonstrated significant antibacterial activity against E. coli (MIC value 125 g/mL). Furthermore, it was effective in inhibiting both α-glucosidase and α-amylase enzymes with a high percentage and IC50 values were 42.28 ± 0.39 µg/mL and 34.11 ± 0.31 µg/mL, respectively. These findings were supported by a molecular docking study, some of the phytochemicals showed higher docking score values than references. However, Martynia annua seeds are safe to consume because they contain low levels of toxic heavy metals and possess antibacterial and anti-diabetic properties. Graphical Abstract


Analyzing how humans benefit from ecosystems and understanding how benefits relate to ecosystem governance structures are high priority objectives of socio-ecological research. Several frameworks describing the delivery of ecosystem services (ES) have been proposed, and recently, an increasing attention is being given to the social component (i.e. the beneficiaries) of ES. Stakeholders do not access ES equally and consequently do not benefit the same way from ecosystems. Similarly stakeholders and institutions (with different mandates and governance levels, from local and national) do not contribute equally to ecosystem management and governance. Power relationships have an important role in ES tradeoffs. While there is an important body of literature dealing with power relationships and the access to natural resources, the concept of ES remains poorly related to those questions of equity and environmental justice. However, identifying power relationships is crucial to highlight the mismatch between stakeholders that highly depend on ES but that are excluded from their management and to design sustainable environmental policies that reduce social inequalities. This study aims to investigate the relationships between ES and stakeholders (including individuals and local to national institutions) in a Peruvian watershed. Relevant stakeholders were identified during focus groups. Two-mode Social Network Analysis was conducted based on 65 semi-structured interviews. They informed us about stakeholders-ES interactions related to benefits received from ES (use and exclusion) and influence on ES (positive or negative effect on their level). Network structural properties were computed to analyze the nature and intensity of relationships. Results showed that stakeholders were clustered regarding the ES they interacted with. There was a mismatch between stakeholders depending on ES and stakeholders managing them. This study underline the importance of integrating such power asymmetries in environmental and socio-economic policies since stakeholders that strongly depend on ES are also likely to be deeply affected by global changes (climate change, economic transformation, increase of population, etc.). (Texte integral)


ABSTRACT In this exploratory study, we use Banks's typology on multicultural curriculum reform as 1 strategy for developing multicultural, culturally relevant science teachers. Banks's typology discusses 4 approaches for integrating multicultural content into the school and university curriculum. In order to support the development of multicultural science teachers and multicultural science curricula, we were interested in knowing how preservice teachers (PSTs) and in-service teachers (ISTs) understand these ideas. We gathered comments across 2 different contexts: a graduate-level elementary science methods course in the northeastern United States and a graduate-level secondary science induction course in the Midwestern United States. Both groups participated in an interactive multicultural education PowerPoint lesson focused on culturally relevant teaching and Banks's 4 approaches. The lesson was taught face to face in the 1st setting and via Skype in the 2nd setting by the same science teacher educator. Our primary data sources were responses to 3 prompts made by the PSTs and ISTs during the lesson. We analyzed all responses qualitatively using methods of constructivist grounded theory. Findings indicated that both PSTs and ISTs initially understood multicultural science education as connecting to students' experiences and critiquing dominant cultures but rarely associated it with social action, the highest level of Banks's typology. We discuss implications in terms of making explicit connections to multicultural approaches in science teacher education.


Arctic climate warming leads to drastic changes in sea ice dynamics, hence impacting primary productivity but also the benthic communities. Therefore, to assess the response of living benthic foraminifera to contrasting Arctic environments, surface sediments from nine stations were collected during the summer of 2014 and fall of 2015 in the Baffin Bay and Nares Strait. Living standing stock are systematically low in the eastern and western Baffin Bay and much higher in the North Water Polynya and the Kane Basin located at the entrance and in the center of Nares Strait, respectively. High living benthic foraminiferal densities in the NOW reflect higher TOC while the highest density in the Kane Basin coincides with lower TOC but higher C/N and higher δ13Corg. The contribution of agglutinated species is on average very high for the whole study area and dominated by the species Adercotryma glomeratum, Lagenammina arenulata, and Reophax scorpiurus. Calcareous species, dominated by Nonionellina labradorica and Melonis barleeanus, are more abundant in the North Water Polynya and the Kane Basin. The very high living standing stock observed in the Kane Basin might be related to the northern position of the ice arch that summer during 2014 and therefore a particularly scarce sea ice cover might have allowed massive phytoplankton production during that season. In this study, the distribution of living benthic foraminifera is discussed according to several environmental parameters such as water masses, phytoplankton productivity, and organic matter fluxes.


Sixteen patients with advanced rheumatoid arthritis who underwent total joint replacements of both hips and both knees were followed for an average of 22.8 months postoperatively. Their functional status before and after surgery was assessed by use of a special rating system for function. Fourteen of the 16 patients demonstrated higher total function scores at follow-up. Improvement was most marked in walking endurance, need for walking aids, and ability to climb stairs. Factors which were believed to predispose to less functional improvement included older age at initial surgery, longer duration of disease, more severe upper extremity involvement, and more frequent medical illnesses. There were 8 patients in whom combined hip and knee flexion in one or both lower extremities did not exceed 190 degrees after surgery. When this deficiency was combined with severe involvement of the upper extremities, difficulty with activities such as climbing stairs and arising from a chair was more common. Therefore, the goal of surgical treatment is to provide combined hip and knee flexion in excess of 190 degrees in these patients. Total joint arthroplasty has increased the likelihood of functional improvement in patients with severe rheumatoid arthritis involving the hips and knees, and encouraged the surgeon to operate earlier in the course of the disease as well as on patients with severely deformed joints.


Exposure to ultraviolet radiation causes alterations of cutaneous and systemic immunity. The aim of our study was to assess the influence of low doses of solar‐simulated radiation (SSR) on the phenotypes of blood dendritic cells (BDC). Healthy volunteers (94) were irradiated with a dose of 1.2 SED (standard erythema dose) of SSR for 2, 10 or 30 consecutive days. Blood samples were taken before the first exposure and 24 h after final exposure. The three main subsets of BDC were distinguished by flow cytometry: BDCA‐2+/CD123+/HLA‐DR+ (plasmacytoid, PDC) and two myeloid subtypes BDCA‐1+/CD11c+/HLA‐DR+ (MDC1) and BDCA‐3+/CD32–/HLA‐DR+ (MDC2). The percentage of total DC was elevated in all groups by the UV exposure and was significantly increased after 2 and 30 days of irradiation (P = 0.006 and P = 0.018, respectively). A particularly distinct increase was observed in the percentage of the MDC1 after 2 and 30 days (P = 0.022 and P < 0.0001, respectively). The MDC2 showed an increase after 10 days and a subsequent significant decrease after 30 days of irradiation (P = 0.031). A significant increase in PDC was found after 2 days of irradiation (P = 0.0006). Exposure to SSR induced an increase in the percentage of BDC in healthy human individuals, especially apparent in the MDC1 subtype.


The vast number of species, small size and high variation of morphology make the morphological identification and classification of gobies very difficult. In this study, the complete mitochondrial genome (mitogenome) of 26 species of gobies was analyzed, aiming at accumulating the molecular information on the identification, classification and molecular evolution of gobies. The results showed that the gene composition and arrangement of mitogenome of gobies are similar to most vertebrates. Due to various degrees of repetitive sequences in the control region, the mitogenome of 26 gobies exhibits a great variation in length. The A+T content of the mitogenome is greater than 50% and the lowest frequency is for G among the four bases. Thirty-seven coding gene sequences were used to calculate the average Kimura 2-parameter genetic distance of 26 species of gobies. Acanthogobius hasta and A. ommaturus, Glossogobius olivaceus and G circumspectus were synonyms, respectively. By comparing the control region sequences of 26 gobies, the terminal associated sequences, central conserved sequence block and conserved sequence block were identified, respectively. Thirty-six coding gene sequences of 26 gobies were used to construct the phylogenetic tree and the results were different from the traditional morphological classification. The five subfamilies of Gobiidae were obviously evolved: Amblyopinae, Oxudercinae and Sicydiinae were clustered into a group and then formed a sister group with Gobionellinae; the fishes of Gobiinae had distant relationship with the four subfamilies and formed a group alone. Molecular clock analysis estimated that gobies probably originated in the late Eocene to Oligocene time and further evolved into modern characteristic gobies in the Miocene.


The recycling of organic wastes has become very important and the development of technology for recycling organic wastes needs to sustain industrial development. In this study, techniques for producing carbonaceous materials from organic wastes are described and water adsorption is characterized. The organic wastes used are coffee grounds and oolong tea leaves carbonized at 673 to 1073 K. The iodine adsorption capacity of the carbonaceous materials increased with increased carbonization temperature. The amount of water adsorbed onto the carbonization materials produced from oolong tea leaves at 873 K for 2 h was the highest. The Freundlich constant 1/n and the differential heat of adsorption of the carbonaceous materials produced from oolong tea leaves were greater than that of the carbonaceous materials produced from coffee grounds. The ability to humidity control can be estimated by the difference between the amount of water adsorbed relative pressure 0.90 and that at relative pressure 0.55. The ability to humidity control was the greatest for the carbonaceous materials produced from the oolong tea leaves at 873 K for 2 h and did not depend upon the adsorption temperature. These results indicated that the carbonaceous materials produced from oolong tea leaves at 873 K for 2 h could have more humidity control.


The mechanisms by which corticosteroids (CCs) improve the outcome of AIDS patients with severe Pneumocystis carinii pneumonia (PCP) are unclear. We studied IL1 beta and TNF alpha release from alveolar macrophages (AMs) of patients receiving CCs for the treatment of PCP and also the effect of in vitro hydrocortisone on this release. Cytokine release from AMs of AIDS patients with pulmonary complications not receiving CCs (group 1) was compared with that from AM of those receiving CCs for PCP (group 2). The AMs of HIV-negative normal subjects (group 3) served as controls. All participants were nonsmokers or exsmokers. We found that lipopolysaccharide-stimulated AM from group 2 released significantly less interleukin-1 beta (IL1 beta) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF alpha) than AM from group 1 and was similar to that from group 3. There was a significant positive correlation between the amount of TNF alpha and IL1 beta released. The presence of HC in the culture medium reduced in vitro IL1 beta and TNF alpha release from stimulated AM of the three groups. Thus, stimulated AMs from AIDS patients who receive CCs for treatment of PCP release significantly less IL1 beta and TNF alpha than AM from patients not receiving CCs. These findings suggest a mechanism by which CCs improve the outcome of AIDS patients with PCP.


Performance status (PS) is a good prognostic factor in lung cancer and is used to assess chemotherapy appropriateness. Researchers studying chemotherapy use are often hindered by the unavailability of PS in automated data sources. To the authors' knowledge, no attempts have been made to estimate PS using claims‐based measures. The current study explored the ability to estimate PS using routinely available measures.


The myeloid-related proteins MRP-14 and MRP-8 and also p6, three calcium-binding proteins of the S100 family, translocate to the membrane during human neutrophil activation with stimuli known to require extracellular calcium for activity. When phorbol 12-myristate 13-acetate (PMA, an extracellular calcium-independent stimulus) is used, no translocation is observed. To characterize further the mechanisms involved in their translocation, phosphorylation of these proteins was studied. Three isoforms of MRP-14 were markedly phosphorylated in the membrane and in the cytosol upon activation with extracellular calcium-dependent stimuli, such as opsonized zymosan, the calcium ionophore A23187, N-formylmethionylleucylphenylalanine in the presence of cytochalasin B and arachidonic acid, or upon extracellular calcium-independent stimulation (PMA). In no case were p6 and a fourth, more basic isoform of MRP-14, phosphorylated. In PMA-activated cells, a phosphorylated acidic isoform of MRP-8 was detected in the cytosol only. However, phosphorylated MRP-8 represented only a small fraction of total MRP-8. Cgp 41251, an inhibitor of protein kinase C (PKC), completely inhibited the phosphorylation of MRP-8, and decreased cytosolic MRP-14 phosphorylation. To test whether phosphorylated MRP-8 could translocate, A23187, which induces translocation of the three S100 proteins, was added after PMA activation. This resulted in translocation of 18% +/- 5% of phosphorylated MRP-14 and 19% +/- 1% of only nonphosphorylated MRP-8. However, upon inhibition of PKC, translocation of MRP-14 and MRP-8 was increased up to 38% +/- 7% and 34% +/- 3% respectively. This suggests a putative role of phosphorylation and/or of PKC in the modulation of MRP-14 and MRP-8 translocation to the membrane.


This paper presents a fully decentralized control inspired by plasmodium of true slime mold and its validity using a soft-bodied amoeboid robot. The notable features of this paper are twofold: (1) the robot has truly soft and deformable body stemming from real-time tunable springs and a balloon, the former is utilized as an outer skin of the body and the latter serves as protoplasm; and (2) a fully decentralized control using coupled oscillators with completely local sensory feedback mechanism is realized by exploiting the long-distance physical interaction between the body parts induced by the law of conservation of protoplasmic mass. Experimental results show that this robot exhibits truly supple locomotion without relying on any hierarchical structure. The results obtained are expected to shed new light on design scheme for autonomous decentralized control system.


One hundred and six Australian cereal genotypes, including wheat, triticale, and rye, were screened for their ability to take up and utilise soluble phosphorus at different rates of P supply. Plants were screened in outdoor tanks irrigated at regular intervals with nutrient solution amended with 3 rates of P. Genotypes were ranked according to the following 3 criteria: shoot growth at deficient P supply, the relative shoot growth rate (dry weight at deficient P/dry weight at sufficient P), and phosphorus utilisation efficiency (amount of dry matter produced per unit of P accumulated in shoots corrected for seed P content). Considerable genotypic variation in growth and P utilisation efficiency was found in the cereal germplasm. Rye and triticale were generally more efficient in taking up and utilising P than wheat at low rates of P supply. Wheat genotypes Egret and Durati showed relatively high, and genotype Cadoux relatively low, P efficiency.


The biosynthetic pathway leading to the steroid nucleus in both yeast and mammalian tissues has been delineated recently by a number of investigators (Ciba Foundation Symposium, 1959). With the exception of the final steps, reactions from acetate to ergosterol in yeast appear to be identical with those involved in cholesterol synthesis in mammalian systems. Certain yeasts and molds are also capable of metabolizing steroids by reactions similar to those occurring in mammalian steroid hormone biosynthesis (Eppstein et al., 1956). The physiological significance of steroids in microorganisms is not yet understood, although some recent investigations have yielded important clues as to their possible physiological role. Lester and Hechter (1958a) found that deoxycorticosterone inhibits the growth of a number of gram-positive bacteria, yeast, and molds whereas gram-negative bacteria are generally insensitive to this steroid. Jefferson and Sisco (1959) reported a similar inhibitory effect of steroids on Aspergillus niger. Lester et al. (1958), in a more detailed study of the effects of deoxycorticosterone and other steroids on Neurospora crassa, found that deoxycorticosterone markedly inhibits the uptake of carbohydrates, amino acids, and rubidium by germinated conidia. The authors suggest that the steroid exerts its inhibitory effect on growth by interfering with certain permeability processes of the cell. Further studies on rubidium uptake (Lester and Hechter, 1958b) indicated that the steroid interferes with binding and concentration of rubidium within the cell rather than with actual entry into the cell. Most recently the same authors reported (Lester and Hechter, 1959) that inhibition of growth of Penicillium puberuleum brought about by deoxycorticosterone can be prevented by the addition of estradiol to


Aim: Alendronate (AL) is a nitrogen-containing bisphosphonate drug that exhibits limited oral bioavailability due to predominantly hydrophilic molecular properties. To enhance oral absorption of this important osteoporosis drug, a novel ion-pairing strategy using the cationic polymer polyethylenimine (PEI) was explored as an initial step of an alternate oral drug delivery strategy that attempts to prepare polymer-encapsulated ion pair nanoparticles. Methodology: Electrostatically stabilized AL/PEI association complexes were fabricated by combining AL and PEI solutions prepared in 0.05 M acetate buffer, pH 5.0, at different AL/PEI Short Research Article El-Hamid et al.; JSRR, 5(4): 344-351, 2015; Article no.JSRR.2015.101 345 charge ratios under stirring. The free fraction of AL after complexation with PEI was quantified spectrophotometrically at λ=300 nm using ferric chloride. Particle size distribution and zeta potential of ion pairs formed at different molar AL/PEI ratios were measured by dynamic laser light scattering. Results: The complexation efficiency of PEI was low until an AL/PEI charge ratio of1:1.7. Increasing PEI concentrations effectively decreased the free fraction of AL implying formation of stable ion pairs between the negatively charged AL and the positively charged polymer. The lowest fraction of free AL was 18.7% measured at an AL/PEI charge ratio of 1:33. The mean hydrodynamic diameter of nanoassemblies decreased with increasing AL/PEI charge ratio reaching a limiting value of 71±1.4 nm at AL/PEI=1:33. Corresponding zeta potential measured for these association complexes was +37±2.8 mV. Conclusion: AL/PEI charge ratio greater than 1:1.7 facilitates effective formation of electrostatically stabilized ion pairs that carry a significant positive surface charge indicative of substantial colloidal stability in aqueous solution. The small size of AL/PEI complexes fabricated at 1:33 favors these ion pairs for subsequent encapsulation into biocompatible polymers suitable for oral drug delivery.


Abstract— An attempt was made to detect a meteoritic component in both crater‐fill (fallback) impact breccias and fallout suevites (outside the crater rim) at the Bosumtwi impact structure in Ghana. Thus far, the only clear indication for an extraterrestrial component related to this structure has been the discovery of a meteoritic signature in Ivory Coast tektites, which formed during the Bosumtwi impact event. Earlier work at Bosumtwi indicated unusually high levels of elements that are commonly used for the identification of meteoritic contamination (i.e., siderophile elements, including the platinum group elements [PGE]) in both target rocks and impact breccias from surface exposures around the crater structure, which does not allow unambiguous verification of an extraterrestrial signature. The present work, involving PGE abundance determinations and Os isotope measurements on drill core samples from inside and outside the crater rim, arrives at the same conclusion. Despite the potential of the Os isotope system to detect even small amounts of extraterrestrial contribution, the wide range in PGE concentrations and Os isotope composition observed in the target rocks makes the interpretation of unradiogenic, high‐concentration samples as an impact signature ambiguous.


Performance in paid work has for many years been studied as an important form of individual and group behavior, with researchers and practitioners often aiming for its enhancement through job design, staff selection and development, or shaping managerial style and organizational culture. In parallel with this interest in performance, psychologists in employment settings have also worked to understand the sources and consequences of well-being, motivation and performance. These three variables are examined together in the assessing the employee well-being in small-sized construction organization in Ekiti State. Employee well-being is considered as an important tool for enhancing worker's performance and construction sector is not an exception. It has been empirically established that well-being has positive impact on construction worker's performance. Moreover, empirical studies have shown that performance in the sector has been decreasing globally. This study therefore aims at understand the demanding working environment of the construction industry and the factors which lead to employees being troubled. The researcher was of the opinion that an improved well-being of employees can significantly improve the organization productivity. Quantitative research design was employed with same questionnaire administered on the population covered. Random sampling techniques were used to select small-sized construction organization sampled from a selected population in Ekiti State, Nigeria. Purposive sampling was used to administer questionnaires to various employees. 75questionnaires were administered to employee collectively used to determine whether there is relationship between well-being and organization performance. Data analysis and results on the factors affecting small-sized construction organization employee well-being indicates that there is a statistically significant linear relationship between well-being and performance. The result also revealed that there is a positive and significant relationship between well-being and employee's performance which reinforces the reinforcement and expectancy theory of remuneration especially the concept of Thorndike's Law of Effect meaning a response followed by a reward is more likely to recur in the future. The study concluded that well-being has impact on employees and organization performance and recommend that the employers of labor both private and government must not take the well-being of their employees for granted because it will result in low productivity.


Novel dual-band and wide-stopband single-band balanced bandpass filters with high selectivity and common-mode suppression are presented in this paper. Stepped-impedance resonators (SIRs) are usually used for designing dual-band bandpass filters; however, they have a strong common-mode response when designing a balanced filter. To suppress the common-mode signal, a half-wavelength SIR loaded by a capacitor or a resistor has been introduced and theoretically analyzed. It is found that the capacitor can minimize the common-mode external quality factor, and the resistor can reduce the common-mode unloaded quality factor. With the use of this property, the common-mode response can be suppressed, whereas the differential-mode response is almost unaffected. This property can be easily verified by comparing the results of the balanced bandpass filters with and without loaded elements. To demonstrate the design idea, one balanced dual-band bandpass filter operating at 2.4 and 5 GHz and another balanced single-band bandpass filter with a wide stopband are designed. It was found that the common-mode suppression level of both filters can be greatly improved, and high selectivity is obtained by giving two differential-mode coupling paths.


We report a case of pulmonary oedema following airway obstruction in a patient who underwent biopsy of a tumour involving the anterior mediastinum and neck. The occurrence of airway obstruction in patients with anterior mediastinal masses, and the pathogenesis of pulmonary oedema occurring in association with airway obstruction, are discussed.


Background: Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is the most common chronic liver disease where liver biopsy remains the gold standard for diagnosis. Here we aimed to evaluate the role of circulating adiponectin, leptin, and insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF-1) levels as non-invasive NAFLD biomarkers and assess their correlation with the metabolome. Materials and Methods: Leptin, adiponectin, and IGF-1 serum levels were measured by ELISA in two independent cohorts of biopsy-proven obese NAFLD patients and healthy-liver controls (discovery: 38 NAFLD, 13 controls; validation: 194 NAFLD, 31 controls) and correlated with clinical data, histology, genetic parameters, and serum metabolomics. Results: In both cohorts, leptin increased in NAFLD vs. controls (discovery: AUROC 0.88; validation: AUROC 0.83; p < 0.0001). The leptin levels were similar between obese and non-obese healthy controls, suggesting that obesity is not a confounding factor. In the discovery cohort, adiponectin was lower in non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) vs. non-alcoholic fatty liver (AUROC 0.87; p < 0.0001). For the validation cohort, significance was attained for homozygous for PNPLA3 allele c.444C (AUROC 0.63; p < 0.05). Combining adiponectin with specific serum lipids improved the assay performance (AUROC 0.80; p < 0.0001). For the validation cohort, IGF-1 was lower with advanced fibrosis (AUROC 0.67, p < 0.05), but combination with international normalized ratio (INR) and ferritin increased the assay performance (AUROC 0.81; p < 0.01). Conclusion: Serum leptin discriminates NAFLD, and adiponectin combined with specific lipids stratifies NASH. IGF-1, INR, and ferritin distinguish advanced fibrosis.


Using the novel threshold photoelectron-photoion coincidence (TPEPICO) velocity imaging technique, the dissociative photoionization of N(2)O molecule via the C(2)Σ(+) ionic state has been investigated. Four fragment ions, NO(+), N(2)(+), O(+), and N(+), are observed, respectively, and the NO(+) and N(+) ions are always dominant in the whole excitation energy range of the C(2)Σ(+) ionic state. Subsequently, the TPEPICO three-dimensional time-sliced velocity images of NO(+) dissociated from the vibrational state-selected N(2)O(+)(C(2)Σ(+)) ions have been recorded. Thus the kinetic and internal energy distributions of the NO(+) fragments have been obtained directly as the bimodal distributions, suggesting that the NO(+) fragments are formed via both NO(+)(X(1)Σ(+)) + N((2)P) and NO(+)(X(1)Σ(+)) + N((2)D) dissociation channels. Almost the same vibrational population reversions are identified for both dissociation pathways. Interestingly, the obtained branching ratios of the two channels exhibit some dependence on the excited vibrational mode for N(2)O(+)(C(2)Σ(+)), in which the excited asymmetrical stretching potentially promotes dissociation possibility along the NO(+)(X(1)Σ(+)) + N((2)D) pathway. In addition, the measured anisotropic parameters of NO(+) are close to 0.5, indicating that the C(2)Σ(+) state of N(2)O(+) is fully predissociative, indeed, with a tendency of parallel dissociation, and therefore, the corresponding predissociation mechanisms for the N(2)O(+)(C(2)Σ(+)) ions are depicted.


Since the introduction of direction detection technology in the Bluetooth 5.1 standard that use array antennas and radio frequency (RF) switches, various location-based services have emerged. Bluetooth 5.1 direction finding technology can be categorized into two types: Angle of Arrival (AoA), which uses an array antenna for the receiver, and Angle of Departure (AoD), which uses an array antenna for the transmitter. Particularly, AoD has been attracting attention, on account of its easy implementation in indoor location-based services, using a Bluetooth 5.1 beacon transmitter and an existing smartphone. However, theoretical studies on the performance of AoD systems and studies on their actual implementation methods are insufficient. Therefore, in this study, we theoretically examine the characteristics of the Bluetooth 5.1 standard, to examine the limitations of its performance, and subsequently propose a method to effortlessly implement a Bluetooth 5.1 AoD system, using a commercial Software-Defined Radio (SDR), and a two-element switch array antenna fabricated by us. The results of this study are expected to be used for performance analysis and system design of various Bluetooth 5.1 AoD application services in the future.


A combination 95 GHz radar and 270/560 GHz spectrometer is being built as a space instrument prototype for probing plumes and jet phenomena in the solar system. Dubbed GAISR (Gas And Ice Spectrometer/Radar), the instrument's radar will make simultaneous range/Doppler measurements of 0.1–10 mm sized ice and dust particles out to a few km in range, while its tunable spectrometer will detect the abundance and velocities of gaseous water and other volatiles. Here we describe how the radar and spectrometer share a back-end architecture, and present some innovative elements of GAISR's frequency-modulated continuous-wave (FMCW) radar, including high-isolation and low-loss transmit/receive duplexing and a phase-noise-canceling RF architecture.


We present the optimization and performance evaluation of a software-based H.263 video encoder. The objective is to maximize the encoding rate without losing the picture quality on an ordinary single processor computer such as a PC or a workstation. This requires optimization at all design and implementation phases, including algorithmic enhancements, efficient implementations of all encoding modules, and taking advantage of certain architectural features of the machine. We design efficient algorithms for DCT and fast motion estimation, and exploit various techniques to speed up the processing, including a number of compiler optimizations and removal of redundant operations. For exploiting the architectural features of the machine, we make use of low-level machine primitives such as Sun UltraSPARC's visual instruction set and Intel's multimedia extension, which accelerate the computation in a single instruction stream multiple data stream fashion. Extensive benchmarking is carried out on three platforms: a 167-MHz Sun UltraSPARC-1 workstation, a 233-MHz Pentium II PC, and a 600-MHz Pentium III PC. We examine the effect of each type of optimization for every coding mode of H.263, highlighting the tradeoffs between quality and complexity. The results also allow us to make an interesting comparison between the workstation and the PCs. The encoder yields 45.68 frames per second (frames/s) on the Pentium III PC, 18.13 frames/s on the Pentium II PC, and 12.17 frames/s on the workstation for QCIF resolution video with high perceptual quality at reasonable bit rates, which are sufficient for most of the general switched telephone networks based video telephony applications. The paper concludes by suggesting optimum coding options.

http://ranger.uta.edu/~iahmad/journal-papers/[J38]Optimization of H.263 video encoding using a single processor computer performance tradeoffs and benchmarking.pdf


A number of methods for the computation of power spectra of signals from a laser Doppler anemometer (LDA) have been evaluated, using a hot-wire signal, numerically sampled at irregular intervals. The methods include straightforward FFT, signal reconstruction methods using polynomial or fractal interpolations or Shannon reconstruction, some direct methods of spectral estimation not involving interpolation and two methods relying on slotted autocorrelation function estimates.


The equilibrium properties of Ag chemisorbed on a (7 × 7) Si(111) surface in the 560-650 °C temperature range were obtained by measuring adsorption isotherms. To this purpose one measures, by using a quadrupole mass spectrometer, the silver flux leaving a Si(111) surface at fixed temperature in the presence of an incident atomic silver beam of equivalent pressure P. The isotherms so obtained present steps characterizing a first-order transition between a diluted phase and a condensed phase. This condensed phase corresponds to the Si(111)(√3 × √3) R30° Ag structure at T < Tc = 600 °C well known from LEED or RHEED. The coverage at completion of this phase is under equilibrium condition of one silver atom for one silicon atom of a non-reconstructed and perfect Si(111) surface. Thermodynamic parameters of the surface sites have been determined by fitting experimental isotherms by Frumkin-Fowler and Fowler-Guggenheim expressions. In the domain of temperature under study data analysis shows that the formation of the two-dimension phase is entropic-driven, since its sublimation enthalpy (61.4 kcal · mole-1) is smaller than that of bulk silver (66.1 kcal · mole-1) but its entropy is abnormally high. Data analysis suggests that the Ag/Si(111) 2D phase has a very weak and soft lateral binding. The vertical binding is typical of chemisorption.


Editor's Note The Role of Post–Acute Care in Variation in the Medicare Program Variation is frequently cited as evidence of unnecessary or wasteful health care, because we would expect a patient's medical condition, not geography or health care professional, to dictate who receives a particular procedure or service. Understanding how much variation is owing to regions vs providers within regions can help in devising strategies to reduce variation. A 2013 Institute of Medicine report5 found that differences in individual provider and hospital practices explained variation more than did regional patterns. Hussey, a member of that Institute of Medicine committee, and colleagues1 analyze in depth some of the Medicare data on variation in their article. They find that conditions that more frequently involved post–acute care explained much of the variation by region. Post–acute care refers to a wide range of services, which include skilled nursing facilities, inpatient rehabilitation facilities, home health aides, outpatient physical and occupational therapy, and long-term care facilities. For example, joint replacement of a lower extremity had more than 4 times as much regional variation as conditions that do not generally involve post–acute care, such as gastrointestinal bleeding. The association of post–acute care with the variation seen by Hussey et al is consistent with a 2011 report2 from the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission that found that use of post– acute care services explained the largest portion of Medicare variation at the metropolitan statistical-area level. Medicare spends more than $59 billion on post–acute care, which has more than doubled since 2001. Discharges to post– acute care facilities have increased nearly 50% during the past 15 years.3 Post–acute care is a major contributor to the costs of a hospitalization episode, because 42% of Medicare beneficiaries are discharged from hospitals to post–acute care.4 The Medicare Payment Advisory Commission's recommendations to Congress, which promote site-neutral payments for post–acute care, may help reduce variation and increase highvalue care for Medicare beneficiaries.


SUMMARY We showed recently that Drosophila ananassae, a closely related and sympatric species of the commonly studied fruitfly D. melanogaster, shows distinctly deviant patterns in circadian activity/rest rhythm from the latter under a variety of laboratory conditions. To examine whether such differences extend to more natural conditions where a variety of time cues and similar environmental pressures might force different species to adopt similar temporal patterns, we examined these two species under semi-natural conditions over a span of 1.5 years. Furthermore, we asked to what extent features of activity/rest rhythm of flies are conserved across species under changing environmental conditions encountered across seasons, and to do so, we studied two more drosophilid species. We found that while each species exhibits seasonality in activity patterns, this seasonality is marked by interesting inter-specific differences. Similar to laboratory studies, D. ananassae showed activity mostly during the day, while D. melanogaster and D. malerkotliana exhibited almost similar activity patterns across seasons, with predominantly two peaks of activity, one in the morning and another in the evening. Throughout the year, Zaprionus indianus displayed very low levels of activity compared with D. melanogaster, yet, compared with those seen in standard laboratory assays, this species exhibited more robust rhythms under semi-natural conditions. We hypothesise that different ecological factors may have influenced these species to adopt different temporal niches.


Study design. This is a blinded study of radiographs by observers with different levels of professional training. Objectives. To determine whether the level of professional training on nonmeasured and premeasured radiographs would affect reliability of Lenke's and King's classifications for adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Summary of Background Data. Both classification systems have been studied for their reliability, mainly by observers with a high level of experience in orthopedics and scoliosis surgery using premeasured radiographs. Methods. Examination of radiographs of 60 operative cases of adolescent idiopathic scoliosis was performed. On 5 occasions, 3 observers with a completely different degree of professional training measured and classified preoperative radiographs according to Lenke's or King's criteria. The results were determined by calculating the interobserver and intraobserver agreement and were quantified using two-rater and multirater kappa statistics. Results. The Lenke and King classifications demonstrated poor to fair interobserver and good intraobserver agreement on nonmeasured radiographs. Both classifications demonstrated good to excellent interobserver agreement on premeasured radiographs. Conclusions. The results confirm that both classifications have a good reliability. On nonmeasured radiographs, the degree of professional training and the measurement process seem to influence the outcome. On premeasured radiographs, the interobserver agreement does not seem to be influenced by the level of professional training.


for the analysis of this and possibly similar conversations. The first part of the book documents the theoretical framework and rationale for the definitions chosen for each of the parameters measured. The experimental procedure is then described with the author cautioning that because of the small number of participants (four Finns, four Americans), the study should be regarded as preliminary and "method-testing oriented" (p. II) in nature. Each person took part in five conversations (with each of his or her compatriots and with two members of the other group). All conversations were task-oriented: restoring scrambled cartoon frames to their correct order. Conversations were recorded and analyzed by computer. A brief description of the computer analysis precedes a detailed discussion of the results. Although preliminary (as the author stresses again), the results did indicate major differences between Finns and Americans with regard to the parameters measured. Although semantics and discourse are ruled out for the moment, the author feels that this study illustrates the potential for computer-assisted analysis of conversational vocal behavior. The four articles in this volume, two theoretical and two empirical, are unrelated except by virtue of having their basis in contrastive linguistics. The first and last of the articles deal respectively with the search for an ideal theoretical model in applied contrastive linguistics and the relationship of translation science and contrastive linguistics. Wekker and Aarts, authors of the first selection, make their point with a bnef description and discussion of the Nijmegan pedagogical contrastive grammar of English and Dutch. According to these authors, linguistic theories should inform pedagogy, but no one theory will suffice for comparing languages when the objective is primarily pedagogical. In the vein, Vehman-Lehto, the author of the last selection, attempts to explain how contrastive linguistics and translation science differ and yet may complement each other. Of most interest is the discussion of the traditional differences and the ways in which, because of the shift in linguistics, these differences are narrowing. As an example, the authors note the concept of equivalence, which in translation has meant both linguistic and extralinguistic context. The latter, largely ignored by linguists until recently, has surfaced within the study of pragmatics. Both empirical studies are concerned with the English/Finnish contrast. In the first, Hatakka describes various types of slips made by Finnish students writing in English which closely resemble those made by writers whose native language is English. The second, by Kalaja, is a reading study in which the goal was to investigate how Finnish college students comprehended a particular sociological concept after studying it first from an English textbook and then four weeks later from its Finnish translation. Although brief, these two studies represent areas not commonly addressed in second language acquisition and are, therefore, deserving of attention.