ABSTRACT Infiltration of liquid droplets into dry porous media often occurs in industrial and natural settings, which has been widely modeled as liquid slug flow in capillaries. This work focuses on gravity-driven slug motion in vertically oriented capillary tubes. To model the propagation and evolution of the slug, a mathematical model was set on the basis of Newton's second law and the law of conservation of mass. The model includes terms like slug's inertia, deposited film, dynamic contact angle, slug's advancing and receding menisci hysteresis, and it particularly highlights the direct effect of the trailing film on the change of slug mass. In order to verify this model, experiments on water slug with different lengths of initial slugs were conducted in two Pyrex glass capillaries that are partially wettable. It was found that both the length and the velocity of the slug vary during the slug motion in every case. Then the experimental results were simulated with the established model by carefully presetting two fitting parameters, αa and αh, that are related to the dynamic contact angle at the advancing meniscus and the thickness of the trailing film, respectively. The good agreement between the experimental and theoretical results demonstrates that the present model is capable of describing the unsteady-state dynamics of slugs fall in porous media.


INTRODUCTIONThe activity of β-glucuronidase (GUS) can be accurately determined in intact plant tissue using 4-methylumbelliferyl β-D-glucuronide (4-MUG) as a substrate. Upon hydrolysis by GUS, the fluorochrome 4-methyl umbelliferone (4-MU) is produced. This method is based on the permeability of both 4-MUG and 4-MU through plant tissue. It consists of incubation of the tissue with the reagent and quantification of the fluorescence emitted by 4-MU in the solution. GUS activity in each sample can be normalized per unit tissue weight, per unit protein (if it is determined in the tissue after the incubation with 4-MUG), or per sample. The latter is particularly useful if GUS is expressed only in a subset of cells within the tissue assayed. The advantage of this method is that since many samples can be assayed with relatively little effort, it is particularly appropriate for large-scale screens. The following protocol has been adapted for the use of 96-well microtiter plates (200-μl wells).


This paper uses the results of ordinary least squares, bivariate vector autoregressive, and error correction models to estimate the hedge ratios for cotton production across different countries and to determine whether New York Cotton Exchange futures prices can serve as a hedging tool for cotton producers. Models comparison shows that the error correction model fits the data better. The results of the error correction model show that the spot prices and the NYCE futures prices are co-integrated in United States, Australia, and China, but not in Africa Franc Zone countries. In addition, for countries with higher market power, such as US and China, and countries without market distortions, such as Australia, the New York Cotton Exchange futures prices can serve as a hedging tool for cotton producers. In contrast, for less developed countries, such as Africa Franc Zone countries, and Pakistan, the NYCE futures prices cannot serve as hedging tool against the risks faced by cotton farmers.


Introduction: There has been a curiosity about the spheroid geometry for PET scanners developments since several years ago, therefore in this study, we are aiming to evaluate the performance of this geometry and compare its performance with cylindrical geometry using Monte Carlo simulation. Methods: We simulated a spheroid geometry with a radius of 199 mm, patient bore with of radius of 175 mm, which is compatible with brain size. In second design, cylindrical geometry was simulated with transaxial FOV and ring radius of 175 mm as well. Photon detection efficiency (PDE), NEMA line source sensitivity, spatial resolution and Derenzo phantom image quality were analyzed. Results: We obtained PDE about 21.7% versus 23.8% in 250-750 keV and 19.5% versus 21.3% in 410-613 keV for point source in center of FOV for spheroid and cylindrical PET respectively. The results of NEMA sensitivity measurements indicate 3.29 kcps/MBq versus 3.64 kcps/MBq for spheroid and cylindrical designs. The spatial resolution (FWHM) calculations using MLEM reconstruction algorithm show around 1.6 mm for transvers and axial resolution for point source placed in center of FOV for both scanners. Also we found for spheroid and cylindrical designs 4.8 and 2.7 mm versus 4 and 3.6 mm as transvers and axial mean resolution for off-center point sources. Conclusion: Performance evaluation study indicates that the spheroid geometry delivers better axial resolution whereas cylindrical design can still provide higher sensitivity and transvers spatial resolution than the spheroid geometry PET with same scanner bore size.


Transplantation of brain tissue from normal donors into the central nervous system of animals with specific central neurochemical deficiencies has been used to remedy such defects. The present studies demonstrate that the hypogonadism present in the adult male hypogonadal (hpg) mouse that is secondary to hypothalamic gonadotropin releasing hormone (GnRH) deficiency can be corrected by grafts into the anterior third ventricle of fetal preoptic area (p.o.a.) tissue. The p.o.a. is a primary site of localization of GnRH neurones in rodents. As compared with untreated hpg males, or with hpg males that had received control cortical tissue implants, the hpg animals with p.o.a. grafts showed measurable levels of GnRH within the hypothalamus. Immunocytochemical studies revealed GnRH within the transplants. Increased pituitary and plasma LH and FSH, and testicular growth with full spermatogenesis, were also evident in the hpg males that had received p.o.a. implants.


Cornelian cherry (Cornus mas L.) is indigenous to central and southeastern Europe and is an ecologically and economically important shrub or small tree. The aim of this study was to develop molecular tools for assessing genetic diversity and provide unique molecular identification of C. mas samples from central Europe and United States. A microsatellite-enriched library was used to develop nine polymorphic microsatellite loci. The loci amplified perfect and imperfect repeats with 2 to 11 alleles detected per locus. Observed heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 0.71 and expected heterozygosity ranged from 0.00 to 0.82. Additionally, cross species transfer to Cornus eydeana was observed. The multilocus allelic data was used to cluster 37 C. mas samples and 1 C. eydeana sample based on the allele sharing distance matrix. The similarity coefficient ranged from 0.05 to 0.73 among all genotypes. All C. mas individuals clustered into two main clades, with the single C. eydeana sample used to root the dendrogram. All samples in group I belong to the botanical form Macrocarpa and originated from Austria, Poland, or Ukraine, whereas group II included samples that originated from Poland, Romania, and the United States. Five loci (CM007, CM010, CM031, CM037, and CM043) were used to develop a molecular identification key that successfully delineated all samples. The loci described in this study will facilitate further investigations of genetic diversity, gene flow, and genetic structure among populations of C. mas.


Abstract.  We discuss two parameterizations of models for marginal independencies for discrete distributions which are representable by bi‐directed graph models, under the global Markov property. Such models are useful data analytic tools especially if used in combination with other graphical models. The first parameterization, in the saturated case, is also known as thenation multivariate logistic transformation, the second is a variant that allows, in some (but not all) cases, variation‐independent parameters. An algorithm for maximum likelihood fitting is proposed, based on an extension of the Aitchison and Silvey method.


Marine water quality model is complicated because of its multi-parameter and multi-response characteristic. In this paper, a new method based on data-driven model (DDM) is developed to retrieve the value of model parameters for model calibration. All training data are calculated by numerical water quality model from results of multi-parameter matching design cases. The basic idea is to find out the relationship between model parameters and the pollution concentration values of interior stations. Filed data is imported into the relationship for inversing optimal parameter. Case tests are carried out in Bohai Sea, China. Chemical oxygen demand (COD), and its sensitive parameters are considered for validating the present method. Case studies show that the present method can make a more satisfactory estimation for a practical problem.


Wire-in-tube structures have previously been prepared using an electrospinning method by means of tuning hydrolysis/alcoholysis of a precursor solution. Nickel-zinc ferrite (Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4) nanowire-in-nanotubes have been prepared as a demonstration. The detailed nanoscale characterization, formation process and magnetic properties of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanowire-in-nanotubes has been studied comprehensively. The average diameters of the outer tubes and inner wires of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanowire-in-nanotubes are around 120 nm and 42 nm, respectively. Each fully calcined individual nanowire-in-nanotube, either the outer-tube or the inner-wire, is composed of Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 monocrystallites stacked along the longitudinal direction with random orientation. The process of calcining electrospun polymer composite nanofibres can be viewed as a morphologically template nucleation and precursor diffusion process. This allows the nitrates precursor to diffuse toward the surface of the nanofibres while the oxides (decomposed from hydroxides and nitrates) products diffuse to the core region of the nanofibres; the amorphous nanofibres transforming thereby into crystalline nanowire-in-nanotubes. In addition, the magnetic properties of the Ni0.5Zn0.5Fe2O4 nanowire-in-nanotubes were also examined. It is believed that this nanowire-in-nanotube (sometimes called core-shell) structure, with its uniform size and well-controlled orientation of the long nanowire-in-nanotubes, is particularly attractive for use in the field of nano-fluidic devices and nano-energy harvesting devices.


Partners in Solutions is an exciting new program in which AAPM partners with our vendors to present practical "hands-on" information about the equipment and software systems that we use in our clinics. The imaging topic this year is CT scanner dose optimization capabilities. Note that the sessions are being held in a special purpose room built on the Exhibit Hall Floor, to encourage further interaction with the vendors. Siemens' Commitment to the Right Dose in Computed Tomography Presentation Time: 11:15 - 11:45 AM Providing sustainable clinical results at highest patient safety: This is the challenge in medical imaging. Especially for Computed Tomography this means applying not simply the lowest, but the right dose for sound diagnostic imaging. Consequently, Siemens is committed to deliver the right dose in CT. In order to reduce radiation to the right dose, the first step is to provide the right dose technology. Through decades of research and development in CT imaging, Siemens CT has constantly introduced new ideas leading to a comprehensive portfolio of unique CARE technologies to deliver the right dose. For example automated kV adjustment based on patient size and the clinical question with CARE kV and three generations of iterative reconstruction. Based on the right dose technology, the next step is to actually scan at the right dose. For this, it is key to know the right dose targets for every examination. Siemens continuously involves CT experts to push developments further and outline how users can best adapt their procedures to the right dose. For users to know whether they met the right dose targets, it is therefore important to understand and monitor the actual absolute dose values. All scanners are delivered with defined default protocols which automatically use the available right dose technologies. Finally, to deliver the right dose not just in singular cases, but ideally to patients everywhere, organizations need then to manage dose across their institutions. Here Siemens offers the right dose management tools for administrations to analyze and document dose, to train their clinical staff and to continuously optimize the application of the right dose in clinical routine. Siemens CT is not only adhering to the ALARA principle, but is inspired by it. With CARE Right Siemens show their commitment to the right dose in CT. Toshiba Aquilion CT Dose Management Tools Presentation Time: 11:45 - 12:15 PM A practical review of Toshiba's CT dose management technologies from the physicist's perspective. This presentation will include an overview of Toshiba's CT dose reduction technologies and dose safeguards. Content will include answers to frequently asked questions relating to dose management, dose tracking, CTDI measurement, ACR accreditation, ACR QC, and protocol review on Toshiba CT systems. Specific topics will include the following: • Toshiba's mechanism of tube current modulation; • Exposure record format and interpretation of the values; • Dose reporting and dose safeguard tools; • Use of AIDR 3D iterative reconstruction; • The configuration of task specific image quality target and its integration with AIDR 3D; • Tips for scanning the ACR phantom with wide beam geometry; • Measuring CTDI for wide beam geometry; • Discussion of daily QC procedures and specifications; • Tips for annual QC evaluation; • Protocol management tools.


Ashley Smith, who is typically presented in the media as mentally ill, was nineteen years old when she died from self-strangulation in an Ontario women's prison on October 19 th , 2007. In this paper, I explore how Ashley Smith's actions and death were portrayed in four mainstream Canadian newspapers ( Globe and Mail , Telegraph-Journal , Toronto Star and National Post ). My aims in this paper are to critically analyze depictions of mental illness presented by these news articles and connect these portrayals to labeling theories. Two variables—the timing of the news coverage and newspaper political affiliation—emerged as being influential in how newspapers depicted Ashley Smith as mentally ill, through their use of generic and/or negative terminology and vulnerability stereotypes. I also discuss 'alternative' stories of Ashley Smith and examine their potential to challenge typical conceptualizations of mental illness, gender and carceral environments.


Mycotic conjunctivitis is a clinical entity which is associated with soft contact lens wear. This paper reviews the laboratory research data about the cause, symptoms and therapy.


PURPOSE OF REVIEW
The heterogeneity in clinical presentation and outcome in neurodevelopmental disorders such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) autism spectrum disorder (ASD) necessitates the identification and validation of biomarkers that can guide diagnosis, predict developmental outcomes, and monitor treatment response. Electrophysiology holds both practical and theoretical advantages as a clinical biomarker in neurodevelopmental disorders, and considerable effort has been invested in the search for electroencephalography (EEG) biomarkers in ADHD and ASD.

RECENT FINDINGS
Here, we discuss the major themes in the evaluation of biomarkers and then review studies that have applied EEG to better inform diagnosis, focusing on the controversy surrounding the theta:beta ratio in ADHD; prediction of risk, highlighting recent studies of infants at high risk for ASD; and treatment monitoring, presenting new efforts in the redefinition of outcome measures in clinical trials of ASD treatment.

SUMMARY
We conclude that insights gained from EEG studies will contribute significantly to a more mechanistic understanding of these disorders and to the development of biomarkers that can assist with diagnosis, prognosis, and intervention. There is a need, however, to utilize approaches that accommodate, rather than ignore, diagnostic heterogeneity and individual differences.


Image processing domain requires high calculation capacities and storage facilities especially when we manipulating huge images like ultrasonic and satellite ones. In fact, manipulating such images should be done without losing any kind of information. For this purpose, those images are generally used and manipulated without compression because actual compression algorithms do not offer the possibility of giving a good lossless compression ratio to override their slowliness. Lately, a new compression Standard, namely JPEG2000, was introduced. This standard offers, in addition to many interesting characteristics, the possibility of lossless image compression, under the same core and with extremely competitive compression ratio. In this paper we will describe the gridification and implementation of the JEPG2000 standard on the EUMEDGRID infrastructure. This gridified version of the Jasper implementation of the JPEG2000 standard follows three steps: each Worker Node extracts, remotely from the Storage Element (SE) based on Grid File Access Library routines (GFAL), a portion of the considered image, compresses it and saves the result back into the SE. A merge task is performed after the gathering of all image portions. We will demonstrate that, this gridified algorithm, not only, compresses gigabyte images successfully but also efficiently and in a highly competitive processing time.


Hypoplasia of the human heart is the most severe form of congenital heart disease (CHD) and usually lethal during early infancy. It is a leading cause of neonatal loss, especially in infants diagnosed with hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS), a condition where the left side of the heart including the aorta, aortic valve, left ventricle (LV) and mitral valve are underdeveloped. The molecular causes of HLHS are unclear, but the basic helix-loop-helix (bHLH) transcription factor heart and neural crest derivatives expressed 1 (Hand1), may be a candidate culprit for this condition. The absence of Hand1 in mice resulted in the failure of rightward looping of the heart tube, a severely hypoplastic LV and outflow tract abnormalities. Nonetheless, no HAND1 mutations associated with human CHD have been reported so far. We sequenced the human HAND1 gene in heart tissues derived from 31 unrelated patients diagnosed with hypoplastic hearts. We detected in 24 of 31 hypoplastic ventricles, a common frameshift mutation (A126fs) in the bHLH domain, which is necessary for DNA binding and combinatorial interactions. The resulting mutant protein, unlike wild-type (wt) HAND1, was unable to modulate transcription of reporter constructs containing specific DNA-binding sites. Thus, in hypoplastic human hearts HAND1 function is impaired.


The objective of the present study was to investigate the behavior of CaCO3 crystal formation at the very beginning stage of fouling. This article describes an experimental method which employs a light microscope system to visualize crystal growth behavior during the fouling process inside a transparent rectangular channel. Crystal visualization data are presented to examine the crystal growth behavior of calcium carbonate crystallizing from hard-water fouling. The present study provides crystal growth data as a function of time, which includes crystal creation, crystal growth, the number of crystals, and removal process. Both the rate and location of crystal growth were found to be dictated by small seed crystals formed in the early stage of fouling. The removal rate was found to be almost negligible compared to the deposition rate.


Bolivia and Ecuador have proved resistant to the adoption of competition laws. Despite several drafts having been discussed in the last few years, to date no competition rules have been enacted in these countries.
Notwithstanding, both are members of the Andean Community (CAN) which in 2005 adopted new rules aimed at fighting anticompetitive practices at supranational level. These new rules mirror Articles 81 and 82 of the EC Treaty and provide Andean institutions with investigation and sanction powers; however, no merger review is provided. The CAN competition rules foresee the possibility that Ecuador and Bolivia use them in their domestic settings as if they were national rules until national competition laws are adopted (i.e. they can download them into their national legal system).
Although this provision is well-intended and it may help overcome the impasse in the processes leading to the adoption of national competition laws in both countries, this article will argue that it may have undesirable effects. Not only may it undermine the competition rules contained in the Regional Trade Agreement, but may also worsen the prospect of domestic competition rules being adopted. Besides, the transfer of Andean rules to the national system requires considerable effort to adapt them to a national institutional background, and even in that case some conflicts and interferences may arise afterwards. Notwithstanding all these difficulties and problems, downloading CAN competition rules may be a good alternative in preparing the Bolivian and Ecuadorian legal systems for the adoption of their own domestic competition rules.


Expansion of irrigation agriculture has for long been seen as a means to break the cycle of poverty in the Ethiopian country.  The present study is an attempt to investigates the socio-economic impact of small scale irrigation on small holder farmers and potential links between irrigation and food security in East Wollega zone.  Purposive sampling method has been used to select five weak and five strong irrigation schemes while random sampling method was used to select 200 households comprising beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries of the scheme from the selected area.  A pre-tested structured interview schedule was used to collect relevant primary data during 2013/14 production year and  secondary data were sourced from the official reports.   Apart from conventional analyses, logit model has been used to analyze the socio-economic impact of the beneficiaries and non-beneficiaries. The finding revealed that small scale irrigation scheme had positive impact on the Education level, use of improvised, per capital aggregate income, improved standards of living, marketing and distribution, access to credit, nonfarm income, membership in WUAS, extension contact and average livestock. However, shortage of seed supply, market problem, water management problem, financial and disease resulted in a negative impact. Keywords: Irrigation scheme, smallholders, socio-economic, logit.


Field and laboratory measurements of attenuation in metals, non-metals, and rocks over a wide range of frequencies indicate that the specific attenuation factor, 1/Q, is substantially independent of frequency in homogeneous material, whereas it varies as the first power of frequency in liquids. This suggests that the mechanism End_Page 346------------------------------ for attenuation in solids is substantially different from that in liquids; a non-linear mechanism for attenuation has been proposed. An inversion method can be used to compute the intrinsic Q in shear of the earth's mantle from available data on attenuation of the surface waves and free oscillations. The restrictions and assumptions in the calculation are: (1) Q must be positive; (2) Q is assumed to be independent of frequency; and (3) the mechanism of energy dissipation is through a complex modulus. The results show that, in shear, the upper mantle has a much higher attenuation than the lower mantle. Q for the upper mantle, from the surface to a depth of 650 km., is estimated at 110; for the lower mantle, below 650 km., it is much higher than this, but the exact value cannot be estimated with precision. There are indications of fine variations of Q in the upper mantle, but present accuracy of the data and the assumptions used do not permit the literal use of these indications. Partial melting in a low velocity layer at shallow depth is considered and a small amount of partial melting is not inconsistent with the above result and the data. End_of_Article - Last_Page 347------------


Service learning offers a pedagogy by which adult students are guided toward understanding their potential for leadership in civic life and community development, strengthening the impact that universities have in communities. In this study, qualitative data is analyzed to determine how adult students perceive their service-learning experiences and what the university could do to involve them more in the future. Respondents provide some evidence that they value opportunities to give back to communities where they have a connection; appreciate hands-on learning that is integrated with classroom learning; benefit from placement experiences that build upon prior knowledge and skills; and prefer greater choice in the selection of their service-learning placement. As the number of adult students entering higher education continues to rise and their retention remains a challenge, understanding how these students are engaged by service learning becomes an important area of exploration for post-secondary institutions.


In the grocery store there are constantly occasions when choices are to be made. Sometimes it is hard to make the best choices. Therefore, consumers sometimes need tools to facilitate choosing the best groceries for their welfare. A mobile self-scanner can be such a tool. This article will study if a mobile self-scanner changes consumer behavior. To see if it works as self-control device, consumers with high and low self-control awareness will be investigated to see if they behave differently from each other. Data from an experiment at a Swedish supermarket will be analyzed together with a survey on impulsive items. Regression analysis will estimate if there are any significant differences in consumer behavior when using a self-scanner compared to when not using one, and also if there are any differences between consumers with high and low self-control when they use self-scanners. The results were that mobile self-scanners decrease spending for consumers with low self-control but consumers with high self-control did not change their behavior. This effect on consumers with low self-control can presumably be because a self-scanner is used as a self-control device. Consequently, mobile self-scanners are good for consumer welfare since it helps consumers make better choices.


A large part of the population and the economic activities of South America are located in eastern regions of the continent, where extreme climate events are a recurrent phenomenon. This study identifies and characterizes the dry and wet climate periods at domain-scale occurring over the eastern South America (ESA) during 1980–2018 through the multi-scalar Standardized Precipitation–Evapotranspiration Index (SPEI). For this study, the spatial extent of ESA was defined according to a Lagrangian approach for moisture analysis. It consists of the major continental sink of the moisture transported from the South Atlantic Ocean throughout the year, comprising the Amazonia, central Brazil, and the southeastern continental areas. The SPEI for 1, 3, 6, and 12 months of accumulation was calculated using monthly precipitation and potential evapotranspiration time series averaged on ESA. The analysis of the climate periods followed two different approaches: classification of the monthly SPEI values as mild, moderate, severe, and extreme; the computation of the events and their respective parameters (duration, severity, intensity, and peak). The results indicate that wet periods prevailed in the 1990s and 2000s, while dry conditions predominated in the 2010s, when the longest and more severe dry events have been identified at the four scales.


Background The proper methods of storage of medicines are of great importance for the maintenance of their stability and therefore their efficacy and safety. Some factors that may affect the drug are: moisture, light, heat, air, time, bacteria and fungal growth. Purpose The aim of the study is to research household storage habits of oral drugs dispensed by the outpatient hospital pharmacy service. Material and methods Prospective, observational study. All attendees to the outpatient pharmacy service during a period of 1 month were invited to voluntarily participate in the study. An anonymous survey was conducted including 17 items regarding sociodemographic data, knowledge about package insert conservation information content, conservation of original packaging and leaflet, place of home storage, presence of children at home, review of expiry dates and place where expired medication is discarded. Analysis of the influence of socio-demographic factors on wrong storage practices was performed by Chi-square test. Results One hundred and eighty-five patients were included. Mean age (±SD) was 56 (±14.7) years. 49.7% patients did not have any studies and 50.3% had secondary or university studies. Sixty-two per cent of patients remembered to have been informed by the pharmacist about storage conditions and 53.1% knew that this information was included in the leaflet. Regarding the place of storage, 36.5% used the bedroom followed by the kitchen (33.7%), living room (36.5%) and bathroom (5.5%). Most of the patients admitted to retaining the original container (70.6%) or leaflet (68.8%). Drugs were generally stored in a closed place (79.8%), nevertheless 47% of patients admitted that it was accessible (26.5% lived with children). Some patients stored medicines inappropriately under cool conditions (9.2%) or near to a heat source (6.5%). Thirty-five per cent kept medicines that were no longer needed and 22% did not check the expiration date. 24.5% of patients threw out their medicines in the rubbish. A relationship between level of education and this behaviour was observed. The wrong practice was more frequent among patients with a high level of studies (p<0.01). Conclusion A significant proportion of patients presented an information gap regarding drug storage conditions. Several wrong storage practices were identified. There is room for improvement regarding these issues and the pharmacist's role in patient education could be important. No conflict of interest


composition of Material and Methods: 18 lymph node samples of initially diag- nosed cHL patients were scored for HLA-I and -II expression. Multiplex immunofluorescence staining for CD30, CD8, CD68, and LAG3 Digital We analyzed cells the of one marker, independent of co-expressions. Results: The content of CD68+ cells, CD8+, and LAG3+ T-cells var- ied in the proximity of HRSC (nTME) dependent of HLA expression of HRSC. HLA-I+ cases showed higher levels of CD68+, CD8+ and LAG3+ cells compared to HLA-I- cases. However, FoxP3+ cell content in nTME was independent of HLA-I expression. We found only slight differences in cellular composition of cell in cHL of HLA expression, differs in its composition depending on HLA expression of HRSC. We of CD68+, CD8+ and LAG3+ cells is stronger related to HLA-I than HLA-II expression on HRSC. Together with bulk gene expression data we suggest HLA-I expression of HRSC to be a key determinant of TME composition. analysis of CD20 staining was performed using TissueStudio 64 (Definiens) to quantify the B-cell content. Immunohistochemistry for ß-2-Microglobulin (HLA-I) and HLA-DP (HLA-II) was scored by visual inspection on HRSC. Results: Major clinical variables such as sex, age, B-symptoms, GHSG risk factors and histological subtypes did not differ significantly between the project cohort (N=198) and HD14 trial popu- lation (N=1889). HLA-I and -II were HRSC in 49.1% pos- itivity for both HLA-I and -II, double-negative. PFS multivariate B-cell risk PFS HLA early-stage unfavorable HL B-cell content. HL, B-cell content diag- nostic unfavorable Background: The human genome contains a large number of repeti- tive elements including endogenous retroviruses and long interspersed nuclear elements (LINE). Repetitive elements have been shown to be activated and influence gene expression in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL). Some repetitive elements contain open reading frames that encode a reverse transcriptase. We analyzed RT activity and expression of reverse transcriptase sequences in HL cells. Methods: RNA seq analysis was used for the identification of expressed putative reverse transcriptases in HL cells. Reverse transcriptase activ- ity in HL cells was assessed using phage MS2 RNA as template for reverse transcription and amplification by quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Sensitivity of HL cells for the non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitor efavirenz was analyzed by flow cytometry. LINE-1 reverse transcriptase sequences were amplified from HL cell line L-428 by reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, cloned into vector pGEM-T Easy and sequenced by Sanger sequencing. Results: HL cells showed high reverse transcriptase activity in comparison to normal blood cells. In addition, efavirenz killed HL cells in a dose dependent manner. RNA seq analysis suggested that HL cells express sequences corresponding to LINE-1 reverse transcriptase. By RT-PCR using LINE-1 reverse transcriptase spe- cific primers, several transcripts containing open reading frames with predicted coding capacity for reverse transcriptase molecules were identified. Conclusions: HL cells express LINE-1 reverse transcriptase sequences that might be responsible for the observed reverse transcriptase activity of these cells. LINE-1 reverse transcriptase might be interesting targets for future therapeutic developments. Our work is supported by Mitteldeutsche Kinderkrebsforschung. Background: Tumor microenvironment (TME) can influence antitumor immunity and survival in Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) as previously pub-lished. However, most of this data has sparse clinical applicability. Flow cytometry (FC) has limited utility in HL diagnosis but its potential to assess TME has not been fully explored yet. Aims: To determine the prognostic impact on survival of the percentage (%) of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TIL) and CD4/CD8 ratio in lymph nodes (LN) measured by FC. Methods: We selected patients (pts) with HL, available LN FC data at diagnosis and i-PET scan, treated at our center from 2012–2020. FC was performed with 8-color panels according to Euroflow protocols. TIL % and CD4/CD8 ratio in LN by FC were compared to normal values reported (Battaglia, Immunology 2003) and stratified as low, normal and high. Response was assessed per Lugano recommendations. Progression free survival (PFS) was estimated with Kaplan-Meier, multivariate analy- sis with Cox regression, and variables were compared with log-rank test. Results: 46 pts were included. Median age: 34 years. 24/27 with early stage had unfavorable risk and 11/19 with advanced disease had IPS≥3. 95% received ABVD. Complete response rate was 91.3%. 2 pts died. Median PFS: not reached (NR), 75th percentile 43 months (m), and median follow up: 49 m. i-PET negative (neg) pts had significantly better PFS (median


ABSTRACT Many health professional students have insufficient general knowledge about individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities. Students lack the expertise required to work with this population and their families. Interprofessional practice education (IPE) programs, designed for working with individuals with specialized needs and their families, are needed to improve overall care provided. An IPE program related to neurodevelopmental disabilities for health professional students was implemented focusing on applied learning and community engagement to develop competencies for students related to neurodevelopmental disabilities at a state university in the U.S. The purpose of this research was to describe the development and implementation of an IPE program and to examine the effectiveness of the IPE program aimed at developing identified competencies and increase awareness related to care of individuals with ND for health professional students. The findings suggest the IPE program enhanced health professional students' perceived competencies to identify and provide culturally sensitive and family-centered care for individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families. This experience also provided an opportunity for personal/professional growth and increased awareness of the unique needs of these individuals with neurodevelopmental disabilities and their families.


We examined how expected or unexpected costs affect restaurant customers' attitudes toward the dissemination of negative word-of-mouth (WOM) when service failure occurs. A 2 (customer punishment: expected and unexpected) × 3 (relationship type: encounter, pseudo, and intimate) mixed factorial experimental design was adopted to examine the dissemination of negative WOM. The results indicated that service failure exerted significant and nonsignificant primary effects on expected punishment and relationship type, respectively. A significant interaction was observed between expected punishment and both encounter and intimate relationship types, but not between expected punishment and the pseudo relationship type. In sum, expected punishment and relationship type influenced negative WOM.


Our research group AGITATSIA unites researchers connected with post-Soviet history (from Belarus/Germany, Russia, USA/Estonia and France), and with interest in collectivity and multidisciplinary approach. Our areas of study include philosophy, cultural studies, art criticism, linguistics, artistic performative activity, sociology; we are united by an interest in the most radical line in contemporary Russian art, which is actionism and political performance.
We believe that the theme of performativity of death brings together two important lines of an involved, independent art—death and performance—which constitute the "burning and smouldering" problems of the contemporary cultural process in Russia. The COVID-19 pandemic became a pretext for artists and activists to resurrect the problem of death and methods of working with it. Now after the beginning of full-scale Russian military invasion throughout the whole territory of Ukraine it became clear that artists anticipated reality in many ways. The question of death in Russia is haunted by a question of justice—both philosophically and in relation to the perceived failures of the system of law. The necro-performances of the collective Party of the Dead from Saint-Petersburg manifest the importance of performance as a ritual of mourning in days of pandemic and war.


Human voyage to the world of ultra sense is a matter of discourses which was widely discussed between nations and the various schools of philosophy, language and many people including leaders of religions and thoughts branches confessed doing such voyages and left some literary reports of their mystical and dreamy travel. The oldest and newest of these reports are shown in this paper and them between the voyages that traditional people have reported and the letter of ascension of M.R.SH.KK as ample of a modern man which is available we make some comparisons in different dimensions , dealing with unconscious and interfering of super human in forming their phrases .
This survey shows that most of these voyages could have certain occurrences, and could explain them in scientific view and particularly based on Yung's ideas. In evaluating a part of phrases of these voyages it has been shown that the similarities and common points of these ascensions is related to the beliefs, mortification and deliberations that cause these voyages in one side and in the other side is related to the influence of the most formers and the letter voyages; also by comparing the two traditional and modern groups of passengers of the invisible world.
Through submitting and explaining their documentary reports, the ideology role of these two groups is described in creating the elements of these phrases and mean while the commitment and mission of human is described based on considering the traditional definition of human as a speaking animal and the definition of moderns as a searching animal in human general ascension , and at the end it is reminded that the modern human is trying to encourage and prepare the collective conscience of human to clear and improve the society through conscious movement and describing manners of painful souls in world of spirits and using the fear strategy. The reason of fear less critic of poets in the last part of the letter of ascension of modern human is because of this lack of attention to the mission and commitment of poems as the main base to the society's cultural facilities.

key words : Letters of ascension, world of ultra sense, modern human, invisible world, inspiration, dreamy internal travel, unconscious.


A survey of male Ph.D. recipients in chemistry and psychology at Liberal Arts Colleges—Selectivity I was conducted. The publication rate of departmental colleagues was found to be positively associated with the current publication productivity of the focal individual faculty member conditional upon the level of prior publication productivity. Departmental colleagues tend to influence the research activity of faculty members whose prior level of research is low, but have little effect on individuals who have a high level of prior publication activity.


Chromium ore deposits range in age from 3.5-billion year-old chromite in the Selukwe greenstone belt (Zimbabwe) to the ophiolite-hosted Miocene deposits of New Caledonia. They provide indications of the evolving earth9s tectonic processes in oceanic and continental crust and mantle.Podiform orebodies are hosted in peridotites, mostly now regarded as the remains of obducted ophiolite complexes. They imply ocean spreading at their sites of original crystallization, and plate convergence where subsequently reemplaced by thrusting. Known ophiolites with chromite deposits date at 800 Ma or younger. Chromite deposits in Archean greenstones resemble the ophiolite ores in respect to their peridotite host rocks, shapes, and intense deformation but are recognizably cumulate ores. They are hosted in large ultramafic-mafic sill-like complexes in simatic volcanic sequences, suggesting that the Early Archean ocean crust may have been more ultramafic in composition than at present.Stratiform chromite deposits of the Bushveld type are hosted in layered mafic complexes within the stable continental shields. Those of economic grade date between about 2900 and 2000 Ma, formed at about the time when continental growth rates peaked. Maximum Cr/Fe ratios diminish with decreasing age, suggesting that the younger layered complexes crystallized from more chrome-depleted magma. This might be an effect of secularly decreasing radiogenic heat production so that continental thermal gradients gradually became too low to retain high levels of chromium in the magma as it ascended.Some 450 published chrome spinel analyses were compared from five different tectonic settings. The settings distinguished are (1) ophiolite, lower crustal cumulates, (2) podiform chromite in tectonized mantle harzburgite, (3) Bushveld-type layered complexes in continental shields, (4) chromitite in serpentinized peridotite-metapyroxenite sills in Archean greenstone belts, and (5) Archean anorthositic layered complexes in high-grade gneissic terranes.Conclusions are that chromite deposits seem to categorize four main periods of earth history:1. The Early Archean ( approximately 3500-2900 Ma) greenstone-hosted deposits suggest thrusting and obduction processes in an oceanic lithosphere characterized by high thermal gradients and possibly high Mg oceanic crust composition. Layered anorthositic complexes hosted in deeply eroded gneiss terranes are analogues of the Bushveld-type deposits but were emplaced into unstable crust.2. Extensive regions of the continental shields became stable from about 2900 Ma onward, allowing large Bushveld-type stratiform deposits to form. Some were emplaced in regions of crustal extension with thermal gradients higher than at present.3. The period between 2000 and 800 Ma marks an apparent Proterozoic gap during which Cr/Fe ratios are low in the layered igneous complexes, and ophiolites are rare. Orogenic belts with tectonic features similar to those of Mesozoic and Tertiary age suggest plate tectonic processes, but oceanic crust might have been thicker and difficult to obduct at this time.4. After 800 Ma, ophiolite-hosted podiform chromite deposits predominate, indicating plate tectonic systems similar to those of present times.


Billions of birds undertake long-distance migration and the complexity of schedules has only recently become clear. Such movements occur as a response to seasonality but the ultimate drivers of these changing distributions remain difficult to study directly. Modeling seasonal distributions based fundamentally on climate and vegetation without parameterizing with empirical data, we focus on the potential role of ambient temperature and available resources in shaping the migratory program. We simulate the complete annual cycle over the Afro-Palearctic region in a round-trip migration model allowing full variation in the extent and timing of movement, and multiple stopovers. The resultant simulated tracks and associated environmental metrics are interrogated: we evaluate the thermal and resource consequences of staying in Europe versus crossing the Sahara, and secondly identify the movement patterns optimizing exposure to green vegetation and local surpluses. There is a distinct thermal gain from crossing the Sahara and the pattern emerging of optimal seasonal vegetation resembles contemporary migration routes regarding Sahara crossing, loop structure and itinerancy. Thus, our first-principle simulations suggest that variations in migration patterns among species are caused by a complex trade-off between risks and rewards of staying versus moving, including innate physiological constraints and the resultant gain of the high-risk Sahara crossing.


King's conceptual system provides a comprehensive view of three dynamic interacting systems-personal, interpersonal, and social. Her theory of goal attainment has been used as the basis for practice, education, research, and administration, examples of which are presented here.


Many online courses require participation in asynchronous online discussions. While various studies aimed at measuring the efficacy of these discussions indicate that participation enhances learning, course design consultants commonly warn instructors to avoid schemes that could foster excessive student participation. Excessive participation should be of concern, for example, if students are likely to be distracted from more important coursework. The authors examine the relationship between student participation in asynchronous online discussions and final exam scores via regression and non-parametric analyses. Participation was determined to be a statistically significant predictor of final exam scores and course completion rates. No indication was found that participation, even at the most robust levels encountered (posting >19,000 words per semester), interferes with learning.


Mesenchymal stem or stromal cells (MSC) have proven immunomodulatory properties toward B cell activation and induce regulatory B cells (Breg), through a dual mechanism of action that relies both on cell contact and secreted factors. One of them are MSC-derived extracellular vesicles (EVs), membrane nanovesicles that mediate cell communication and typically reflect the phenotype of the cell of origin. MSC-EVs could resemble MSC functions, and are being contemplated as an improved alternative to the MSC-based immunomodulatory therapy. In the present work, we focused on the factors secreted by MSC and aimed to elucidate the putative role of MSC-EVs in the immunomodulation of B cells. EVs and soluble protein-enriched fractions (PF) were isolated from MSC-conditioned medium (CM) using size-exclusion chromatography (SEC) and their capacity to modulate B cell activation, induction of Breg and B cell proliferation was compared to that of the whole MSCs. Co-culture with MSC or unfractionated CM induced naïve and CD24hiCD38hi, IL-10 producing (Breg) phenotypes on B cells while not affecting proliferation. MSC-PF had a comparable effect to MSCs, inducing a naïve phenotype, and even though they did not induce the shift toward a CD24hiCD38hi population, MSC-PF fostered IL-10 production by B cells. Conversely, MSC-EVs failed to promote naïve B cells and to reduce memory B cells. MSC-EVs induced CD24hiCD38hi B cells to a similar extent of that of MSC, but not bona fide Bregs since they did not produce IL-10. Our results show that B cell modulation by MSC is partially mediated by soluble factors other than EVs.


How would considering the aesthetics of text layout, particularly line spacing with the Golden Ratio (GR) parameter, influence the ease of reading and retention? To answer this question we introduced a novel method by employing a wearable eye tracker instead of a table-mounted eye tracker. Because of their lower price, portability, and growing market, as well as convenience to setup, such head-mounted devices are suitable use for ubiquitous reading behavior analysis. For mapping gaze information from captured video scenes to the original document, we adopted the Locally Likely Arrangement Hashing (LLAH) method for robust document retrieval. In our experimental system, participants read digital documents from the screen with and without the aesthetic GR parameter. Then, gaze data captured by the eye tracker's embedded camera is mapped to the corresponding original document. Finally, our gaze analysis system extracts the intended information for statistical evaluation. Regarding to the results, significant differences in reading performance were found in the documents with and without the GR aesthetic parameter for line spacing.


Abstract Milk yield and quality was assessed in cows raised on low-input farms (traditional feeding), i.e. two breeds covered by genetic resources conservation (RP and BG) and the SM breed. The reference group was PHF HO cows from an intensive milk production system (PMR feeding). A total of 1,212 milk samples were collected from three periods of lactation: I (up to 120 days), II (121–200) and II (over 200). The milk was analysed for content of fat, protein, casein, lactose, dry matter, non-fat dry matter and the protein-to-fat ratio, coagulation time, heat stability and the percentage of fat globules in different size ranges. Fatty acid profile and cholesterol content were determined in a representative number of 180 milk samples. Daily yield in the native breeds in the third phase of lactation was 9.6 and 8.7 kg, which was slightly over 55% of their yield in phase I, compared to 66% in the SM and 73.4% in the reference group (PHF HO). The increase in fat and protein (including casein) in the milk during lactation was much higher in the native breeds, so its energy value in phase II of lactation was 11% higher in the BG cows and 9% higher in RP, but only 4% higher in the SM with regard to phase I of lactation. The milk fat from the Polish Red cows had the highest proportion of PUFA in each phase of lactation, including CLA, and the highest PUFA/SFA ratio. Over the course of lactation the percentage of large fat globules in the milk decreased, particularly in the native breeds (P≤0.01), while in the SM the differences were much smaller and statistically insignificant. Lactation persistency in both native breeds raised in a low-input system was worse than in the SM, but the increase in basic components during lactation was markedly higher, while that of cholesterol was lower.


Background. Nowadays a large part of Russian provincials are forced to leave home on regular basis to earn a living for their families by working in other regions. Despite the scale of this phenomenon, it is ignored both by the politicians and by the scientific community. We believe it is important to provide a general description of such labor migrants and outline their specific regional features. The goal of the study is to describe the regional differences of the contemporary regular forced internal labor migration (hereinafter labor migration) and to identify the reasons underlying the diversity in the social and economic characteristics of such migrating workers (hereinafter labor migrants). Materials and methods. The Kostroma (traditional northern center of nonagricultural seasonal labor migration) and Saratov (southern region) regions were selected for comparison. They strongly differ in what concerns the types of labor migration and labor behavior characteristics. The results are obtained by observing the labor migrants at places where they permanently reside, and on the basis of 93 detailed interviews. Results. The author evaluated the scale of labor migration in both regions; studied the labor activity specific for the labor migrants of the Kostroma and Saratov region; considered the reasons for regional differences in social and economic and motivational characteristics; identified two social types of labor migrants. Conclusions. The description of labor migration and migrants' behavior allows identifying the existence of social types of the northern and the southern labor migrants. They differ by a variety of features, including behavior, motivation, cultural and economic aspects.


A series of satellite sea surface temperature (SST) intercomparison workshops were conducted under NASA sponsorship at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Three different satellite data sets were compared with each other, with routinely collected ship data, and with climatology for the months of November 1979, December 1981, March 1982, and July 1982. The three satellite data sets were (1) AVHRR—SST estimates produced operationally by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration from the advanced very high resolution radiometer aboard the NOAA polar-orbiting weather satellites; (2) HIRS/MSU—SST estimates produced by a research group at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center from the 20-channel high resolution infrared sounder and the 4-channel microwave sounding unit, also aboard the same NOAA satellites; and (3) SMMR—SST estimates produced by another group at Goddard from the scanning multifrequency microwave radiometer on the NASA research satellite Nimbus 7. The satellite and ship data were differenced against an accepted climatology to produce anomalies, which in turn were spatially and temporally averaged into 2° latitude-longitude, 1-month bins. Monthly statistics on the satellite and ship bin average SST yielded rms differences ranging from 0.58° to 1.37°C and mean differences ranging from −0.48° to 0.72°C, varying substantially from month to month and sensor to sensor. The SMMR generally had the largest rms differences and time-dependent biases, while the AVHRR and HIRS/MSU had smaller more comparable values. The monthly bins were further smoothed spatially to correspond to 600-km averages to further suppress the noise of individual observations, particularly for the ship data. When this was done the monthly ship data standard deviations about climatology varied between 0.35° and 0.63°C. Taking these values as true SST signal standard deviation levels, and the satellite-ship rms differences as noise levels, results in signal-to-noise variance ratios of about 0.25 for SMMR and 1.0 for AVHRR and HIRS/MSU. Maps of SST anomaly reveal a complex pattern of partial agreement and disagreement between ship and satellite data. Maps of satellite minus ship and satellite minus satellite SST differences were often dominated by coherent large-scale patterns of obvious geophysical origin related to distributions of surface wind speed, atmospheric water vapor, cloudiness, and stratospheric aerosols. Unfortunately, the spatial scales of these patterns are often quite similar to those associated with actual SST anomalies. Caution must therefore be exercised when dealing with the satellite data so that errors are not misinterpreted as true SST anomalies.


OBJECTIVE
To provide health care professionals with guidelines on the use of blood pressure self-measurement.

METHODS
Recommendations were devised after consideration of expert reviews and guidelines, personal files, international standards documents, personal communication with investigators and the results of a MEDLINE search (1966-94) using the term 'blood pressure determination'.

BENEFITS, HARMS, COSTS
Self-measurement of blood pressure can be used to detect white coat hypertension, monitor changes in blood pressure closely, more rapidly achieve desired blood pressure goals, increase adherence to antihypertensive therapy and improve patient self-reliance. However, self-measured blood pressure readings may be misleading because there is insufficient normative, prognostic and outcome data and because some patients may not take accurate measurements. The use of self-measurement of blood pressure has a relatively small direct cost and may result in an overall reduction in treatment costs.

RECOMMENDATIONS
Self-measured blood pressure readings can be a valuable supplement to clinic (or office) blood pressure readings. However, self-measurement is appropriate neither for patients who are physically or mentally incapable of accurate assessment and interpretation of readings nor for those who do not want to participate. Patients who self-monitor blood pressure require careful training in blood pressure measurement and instruction on the recording and interpretation of blood pressure readings. Advice to patients using monitoring equipment must take into account the needs and abilities of the patient. Although only a few electronic devices for the self-measurement of blood pressure have met recommended performance standards, their use may be more appropriate for some patients and the training requirements fewer than if manual devices are used.

VALIDATION
The guidelines of several expert groups were examined in the preparation of these recommendations. The recommendations were presented at the World Conference on Hypertension Control in 1995 and were reviewed by the parent societies of the Canadian Coalition for High Blood Pressure Prevention and Control.


Purpose. The purpose of this study was to identify the factors affecting quality of sleep and sleep disturbance among inpatient. Methods. A descriptive correlational study was conducted Participants were 200 inpatient in a hospital located in B city. A structured questionnaire was used for data collection. Collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, Pearson's correlation, and stepwise multiple regression. Result. Hospitalized patient's score of sleeping quality was 38.26 on an overall scale of 60, indicating it to be higher than 'Medium (30 points). Almost hospitalized patient in this study suffer from sleep disturbances. As results of univariate analyses, Educational level, Departments, Why hospitalized, Insomnia / depression, Chronic Disease, Scale of pain, physical symptoms, environmental factors, emotional factors, and sleep promoting behavior, disturbed sleep among hospitalized. However, the result of stepwise multiple regression analysis identified that physical symptoms, environmental factors, emotional factors, sleep promoting behavior, and Why hospitalized disturbed sleep and were significant score of sleeping quality for hospitalized and these sleep disturbance factors accounted 46.8% of variance of sleeping quality among hospitalized. Conclusion. These findings suggest that hospitalized patients with poor sleep quality should have their health carefully screened for physical symptoms, environmental factors, emotional factors, sleep promoting behavior, and why hospitalized. In addition, we recommend the development of a nursing program for improving sleep quality.


The study aims to produce an insight into how young children perceive environmental sustainability and poses the research question: What perceptions of environmental sustainability do primary school students, in their final years of primary education, hold and express? Existing research (Phipps, 1991; Spork, 1992; Walker, 1995; Walker, 1997) indicates that the most significant work in environmental education in NSW is being done at the primary school level. However, evidence relating to the research question is limited. Therefore, it is important to gather and analyse data about these perceptions of primary school students if we are to develop and implement sustainability education curricula that best support the needs of students, is relevant to primary school teaching and learning, and provides insight into appropriate strategies for the professional development of teachers. The study involves students in their final years of primary school education and explores their perceptions of environmental sustainability. It provides insight into how their perceptions are informed and how they may be best nurtured. The data are gathered from primary school students in Years 4, 5 and 6 and their teachers in one NSW primary school. Qualitative methods are used to collect data. These include students responding to three differing types of stimulus material using an x open-ended questionnaire, focus group discussions, and individual interviews. The data are gathered using methodology that is influenced by Grounded Theory and analysed with reference to the existing literature. The conclusions report that the students in the study most frequently express notions of sustainability that are underpinned by homocentric views of sustainability; proximate cause and effect scenarios; and, proposed actions based on sharing natural resources fairly while maintaining the environmental balance and behaving responsibly. Finally, an emerging framework of primary school students' notions of environmental sustainability is presented and discussed along with the implications for sustainability curricula.


Recently, we showed that optimization problems, both in infinite as well as in finite dimensions, for continuous variables and soft excluded volume constraints, can display entire isostatic phases where local minima of the cost function are marginally stable configurations endowed with non-linear excitations [, ]. In this work we describe an athermal adiabatic algorithm to explore with continuity the corresponding rough high-dimensional landscape. We concentrate on a prototype problem of this kind, the spherical perceptron optimization problem with linear cost function (hinge loss). This algorithm allows to 'surf' between isostatic marginally stable configurations and to investigate some properties of such landscape. In particular we focus on the statistics of avalanches occurring when local minima are destabilized. We show that when perturbing such minima, the system undergoes plastic rearrangements whose size is power law distributed and we characterize the corresponding critical exponent. Finally we investigate the critical properties of the unjamming transition, showing that the linear interaction potential gives rise to logarithmic behavior in the scaling of energy and pressure as a function of the distance from the unjamming point. For some quantities, the logarithmic corrections can be gauged out. This is the case of the number of soft constraints that are violated as a function of the distance from jamming which follows a non-trivial power law behavior.


This paper explores the economic and cultural contribution of the arts and its effect on economic growth and evolution. The crucial connection is supplied by an innovation systems perspective on the creative industries. In this view, the creative industries contribute not just to value-added and jobs, but more importantly, to the evolutionary process by which economic systems grow. This paper thus offers a new view of the economics of the arts and creative industries re-conceptualised as part of the innovation system of an evolving economic order. Analytic and policy implications are then outlined in terms of an evolutionary approach to the economics of the arts.


Summary A double-blind, placebo-controlled randomized study with BAY U3405, a specific thromboxane A2 (TX A2) receptor blocker, was performed in patients suffering from severe stade II limb arteriopathy. BAY U3405 or placebo was administered in 16 patients at 20 mg four times a day (from day 1 to day 3). Hemostatic studies were done before therapy, and on day 2 and day 3 under therapy. On day 3, BAY U3405 was shown to induce a highly statistically significant decrease of the velocity and the intensity of the aggregations mediated by arachidonic acid (56 ± 37% for the velocity, 58 ± 26% for the intensity) or by U46619 endoperoxide analogue (36 ± 35% for the velocity, 37 ± 27% for the intensity). Similar results were already observed on day 2. By contrast, such a decrease was not noticed with ADP mediated platelet aggregation. Furthermore, plasma levels of betathrombo-globulin and platelet factor 4 remained unchanged. Peripheral hemodynamic parameters were also studied. The peripheral blood flow was measured using a Doppler ultrasound; the pain free walking distance and the total walking ability distance were determined under standardized conditions on a treadmill. These last two parameters show a trend to improvement which nevertheless was not statistically significant. All together these results encourage further in vivo studies using BAY U3405 or related compounds on a long-term administration.


It is of great importance to be able to diagnose early inflammatory changes that can lead to COPD in airways of young cigarette smokers. Aim : The aim of this study was to analyze the cell spectrum of induced sputum in young cigarette smokers, with emphasis on T-regulatory cells. Method : 20 healthy non-allergic smokers (Mean Age - 22±0.84; regular usage - 2.60±1.18 pack-years), and 20 non-smokers gave informed consent to participate in the study. Lung function measurements, sputum induction (IS) and sputum cell analyses were preformed. Results : Demographic data for both study groups did not differ significantly. Both non-smokers and smokers had normal lung function indices. Induced sputum of smokers contained higher (p = 0.021) absolute amount of neutrophils [29.70 (20.96 – 42.09), cellsx10 4 /mL], compared with non-smokers [16.51 (11.65 – 23.39) cellsx10 4 / mL]. FOXP3-positive T reg cells in sputum of young smokers showed a trend towards statistically significant increase [11.10 (7.75 – 15.88) cellsx10 4 / mL], compared with non-smokers [6.79 (4.75 – 9.72) cellsx10 4 / mL, p = 0.057]. Regression analysis showed significant dependency of FOXP3-positive T reg cells (r 2 = 0.103; p = 0.044), neutrophils (r 2 = 0.179; p = 0.007) and macrophages of induced sputum (r 2 = 0.118; p = 0.030) from the number of smoked pack–years. Conclusion : This study demonstrates that young smokers have early inflammatory changes in their airways, which not only initiate non-specific mechanisms recruiting neutrophils, but also involve specific immune mechanisms with recruitment of T reg lymphocytes. The lymphocyte response is probably adaptive.


The purpose of this research was to find out the types of grammatical errors frequently made by students in delivering the impromptu speech. The aim of learning a language is to be able to communicate in a right way. There is no a silent language knowledge, a language must be produced in words to achieve its goals in learning second or foreign language comprehending. Trough speaking, we can see how is a speaker skill in mastering a lang uage. A good speaker is who able to produce language which arranged as its rule. In speaking, appropriate sentence structure and context are very helping in order to gain listener"s comprehending. In collecting the data, the researcher used documentation of video of impromptu speech. A method to analyze the error is called error analysis. The indicators are: (a) Morphology error (b) Syntax error. From these indicators, the researcher find out students" grammatical error in delivering the impromptu speech. In this research, the researcher found 127 errors in morphology. Those were 34 (14,5%) errors in noun, 77 (33%) errors in verb, 4 (2%) errors in adjective, 2 (1%) errors in adverb, 10 (4%) errors in preposition. In syntax was found 107 errors. Those were 26 (11%) errors in phrase, 33 (14%) errors in clause, 21 (9%) errors in sentence, and 27(11,5%) errors in intersentence. From the result, the researcher concluded that the most frequent grammatical error found in verb.


Simple ionic liquids have long been held to be designer solvents, based upon the ability to independently vary their cations and anions. The formation of mixtures of ionic liquids increases this synthetic flexibility. We review the available literature of these ionic liquid mixtures to identify how their properties change and the possibility for their application.


Undernutrition is a serious problem in hospitals. Therefore the Council of Europe in 1999 decided to establish an ad hoc group consisting of national experts to look further into the problem. Since then the group has studied the current practices in Europe regarding hospital foodservice and has issued guidelines to improve the nutritional care and foodservice practices.

The result of the study points at a number of major problems related to the different staff groups, the patients and the management. Among the staff groups involved in foodservice and nutritional care there seems to be a lack of clearly defined responsibilities, and a lack of educational possibilities, as well as a lack of cooperation between those groups. Foodservice and nutritional care does not pay sufficient attention to the rights of the patients and their needs for information, and, finally, hospital management seems unaware of the key role of both foodservice and nutritional care.

Different staff groups must combine efforts in order to make foodservice become successful nutrition. Among these groups, the foodservice staff is a key player, though ward staff, physicians, dietitians, nurses and hospital orderlies also are relevant. It is the responsibility of the hospital management to make these groups work together, however, without the support of skilled experts and professionals in the hospital environment very little will be done. This paper takes a closer look at foodservice and nutritional care from the foodservice operator's point of view, as well as the of the recommendations from the ad hoc group and the implications for foodservice operators


Background: Hysteroscopy is the gold standard procedure for uterine cavity exploration. However, hysteroscopy is only recommended by the WHO when clinical or complementary exams (ultrasound, HSG) suggest intrauterine abnormality or after in vitro fertilization failure. Nevertheless, many specialists feel that hysteroscopy is a more accurate tool. The aim of this prospective study is to assess the value of diagnostic hysteroscopy in a primary workup of infertility by describing hysteroscopy findings in a population of 324 infertile patients during 18 months (December 2010 - May 2012).
Methods: We analysed prospectively 324 infertile patients in gynaecology OT setting. Diagnostic video-assisted hysteroscopy was performed using a flexible hysteroscope. Hysteroscopy was performed with a standard sequence, inspecting the endocervical canal, uterine cavity, endometrium, and tubal ostia and findings recorded.
Results: Hysteroscopy was normal in 65.12% of patients. Cervico-isthmic abnormalities were present in 6.48% of patients with cervical stenosis being the major abnormality. Uterine cavity was normal in 86% of patients. Observed abnormalities were septate uterus in 10 cases, intrauterine synechiae in 16 cases, sub mucus myoma in 2 cases, deformed cavity in 10 cases and endometrial polyp in 2 cases. Ostial fibrosis was observed in 29 patients. Endometrial abnormalities (fibrosis, inflammation) were observed in 30 patients. Seven patients turned out to be of genital tuberculosis with endometrial biopsy. No significance was found regarding the total number of intrauterine pathologies when comparing the groups of primary versus secondary infertility.
Conclusions: Rates of abnormal findings in infertile patient who underwent diagnostic hysteroscopy was 34.88% in our study. Our data are an additional argument to suggest hysteroscopy as part of investigation in infertile woman. Routine diagnostic hysteroscopy should be part of an infertility workup in primary and secondary infertility.


ALG-2 was originally discovered as a pro-apoptotic protein in a genetic screen. Due to its ability to bind calcium with high affinity it was postulated to provide a link between the known effect of calcium in programmed cell death and the molecular death execution machinery. This review article discusses the current knowledge on the structure and potential function of this protein. Several putative binding partners of ALG-2 have been identified hinting to functions of ALG-2 in apoptosis and possibly also in proliferation, endocytosis and transcriptional regulation during development. Gene deletion of the well conserved ALG-2 locus in several genetic model organisms has so far not provided insights into functions and signaling pathways with ALG-2 involvement. Special focus is given to controversial data on expression and localization of ALG-2, which is mainly caused by the use of ALG-2 antibodies with different specificities.


Objective. Brain-computer interfaces that activate exoskeletons based on decoded movement-related activity have been shown to be useful for stroke rehabilitation. With the advances in the development of exoskeletons it is possible to replicate a number of different functional movements that are relevant to rehabilitate after stroke. In this study, the aim is to detect and classify six different movement tasks of the lower extremities that are used in the activities of daily living. Approach. Thirteen healthy subjects performed six movement tasks (1) Stand-to-sit, (2) Sit-to-stand, (3) Walking, (4) Step up, (5) Side step, and (6) Back step. Each movement task was performed 50 times while continuous EEG was recorded. The continuous EEG was divided into epochs containing the movement intention associated with the movements, and idle activity was obtained from recordings during rest. Temporal, spectral and template matching features were extracted from the EEG channels covering the motor cortex and classified using Random Forest in two ways: (1) movement intention vs. idle activity (estimate of movement intention detection), and (2) classification of movement types. Main results. The classification accuracies associated with movement intention detection were in the range of 80%–90%, while 54 ± 3% of all movement types were classified correctly. The stand-to-sit and sit-to-stand tasks were easiest to classify, while step up often was classified as walking. Significance. The results indicate that it is possible to detect and classify functional movements of the lower extremities from single-trial EEG. This may be implemented in a brain-computer interface that can control an exoskeleton and be used for neurorehabilitation.


The huge success of the Internet allows for the transmission, wide distribution, and access of electronic data in an effortless manner. Content providers are faced with the challenge of how to protect their electronic data. This problem has generated a flurry of research activity in the area of digital watermarking of electronic content for copyright protection. The challenge here is to introduce a digital watermark that does not alter the perceived quality of the electronic content, while being extremely robust to attack. For instance, in the case of image data, editing the picture or illegal tampering should not destroy or transform the watermark into another valid signature. Equally important, the watermark should not alter the perceived visual quality of the image. From a signal processing perspective, the two basic requirements for an effective watermarking scheme, robustness and transparency, conflict with each other. We propose two watermarking techniques for digital images that are based on utilizing visual models which have been developed in the context of image compression. Specifically, we propose watermarking schemes where visual models are used to determine image dependent upper bounds on watermark insertion. This allows us to provide the maximum strength transparent watermark which, in turn, is extremely robust to common image processing and editing such as JPEG compression, rescaling, and cropping. We propose perceptually based watermarking schemes in two frameworks: the block-based discrete cosine transform and multiresolution wavelet framework and discuss the merits of each one. Our schemes are shown to provide very good results both in terms of image transparency and robustness.


An agricultural waste (walnut shell) was undertaken to remove Cu(II) from aqueous solutions in batch and continuous fluidized bed processes. Walnut shell was found to be effective in batch reaching 75.55% at 20 and 200 rpm, when pH of the solution adjusted to 7. The equilibrium was achieved after 6 h of contacting time. The maximum uptake was 11.94mg/g. The isotherm models indicated that the highest determination coefficient belongs to Langmuir model. Cu (II) uptake process in kinetic rate model followed the pseudo-second-order with determination coefficient of 0.9972. More than 95% of the Cu(II) were adsorbed on the walnut shells within 6 h at optimum agitation speed of 800 rpm. The main functional groups responsible for biosorption of Cu(II) onto walnut shell were hydroxyl, carbonyl,carboxylate, carboxylic acids, alcohols groups, and aromatic compounds. In continuous system, fluidized bed column at 20 , and pH 7 was carried out to study the effects of various parameters like (flow rate,bed depth, and initial concentration). The time of breakthrough was 97 min when the initial concentration (Co= 20mg/l), bed depth (L=10cm), and flowrate (Q=10l/h)


The terms basic, superordinate, subordinate, and global are often used to describe the categories formed by infants. However, although infants' categories appear externally to match those formed by adults, it is not clear that they are grounded in an organized hierarchical system that embodies relations within and between domains; that is, a taxonomy. To assess whether it is appropriate to consider infants' categories as taxonomies, 3 criteria are examined: (a) similarity to adults' choice of category members, (b) hierarchical understanding, and (c) agreement with adults' bases for classification. It is argued that infants' categories do not meet these criteria and that it may be erroneous to apply the same labels to categories formed in the first 2 years as those in later life. To do so may be to hold an illusion of taxonomies about infants' categories.


The Notch proteins play key roles in cell fate determination during development. Germline pathogenic variants in NOTCH1 predispose to a spectrum of cardiovascular malformations including Adams‐Oliver syndrome and a wide variety of isolated complex and simple congenital heart defects. The intracellular C‐terminus of the single‐pass transmembrane receptor encoded by NOTCH1 contains a transcriptional activating domain (TAD) required for target gene activation and a PEST domain (a sequence rich in proline, glutamic acid, serine, and threonine), regulating protein stability and turnover. We present a patient with a novel variant encoding a truncated NOTCH1 protein without the TAD and PEST domain (NM_017617.4: c.[6626_6629del];[=], p.(Tyr2209CysfsTer38)) and extensive cardiovascular abnormalities consistent with a NOTCH1‐mediated mechanism. This variant fails to promote transcription of target genes as assessed by luciferase reporter assay. Given the roles of the TAD and PEST domains in NOTCH1 function and regulation, we hypothesize that loss of both the TAD and the PEST domain results in a stable, loss‐of‐function protein that acts as an antimorph through competition with wild‐type NOTCH1.


Goal: to outline the structure of the research discussion on innovation industrial networks; to determine the state of the discussion regarding the participation of various actors in innovation networks at various stages of the innovation process; to identify fundamental works on this topic and to form the agenda for future research. Methodology: the study was conducted using two bibliometric approaches: keyword analysis and co-citation analysis using the Scopus database; also manual coding of 116 documents was used in order to identify "hot topics" and emerging topics (little-studied). Findings: five key areas of research were proposed, dividing the broad topic into narrower and more specific areas; the core of the most authoritative research in the field was proposed, demonstrating the implicit fusion of two disciplines: industrial marketing and innovation management. Originality and contribution of the author: The article presents the first bibliometric analysis of the existing literature in the studied area with a focus on the structural units of the network (actors) at various stages of the innovation process. The study makes a significant contribution to clarifying the interdisciplinary nature of the study of relationships between actors for innovation. The existing and emerging (little-studied) trends in research are highlighted.


Background: Implantable cardioverter defibrillator arrhythmia discrimination algorithms often are unable to discriminate ventricular from supraventricular arrhythmias. We sought to evaluate whether the response to antitachycardia pacing (ATP) in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator could further discriminate ventricular from supraventricular arrhythmias in patients receiving ATP. Methods and Results: All episodes of ventricular or supraventricular tachycardia where ATP was delivered in patients enrolled in RAFT (Cardiac-Resynchronization Therapy for Mild-to-Moderate Heart Failure Trial) were included. RAFT randomized 1798 patients with New York Heart Association class II/III heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction ⩽30%, and QRS duration of ≥120 ms to a implantable cardioverter defibrillator±cardiac resynchronization therapy. The tachycardia cycle lengths (TCLs) before and after the delivery of ATP and the postpacing intervals were assessed. Overall, 10 916 ATP attempts were reviewed for 8150 tachycardia episodes in 924 patients. After excluding tachycardias where ATP terminated the episode or where the specific mechanism of the tachycardia was uncertain, we analyzed 3676 ATP attempts delivered for 2046 tachycardia episodes in 541 patients. A shorter difference between postpacing interval and TCL (PPI−TCL) was more likely to be associated with ventricular tachycardia than with supraventricular tachyarrhythmia (138.1±104.2 versus 277.4±126.9 ms; p<0.001). Analysis of the receiver operator curve for the PPI−TCL revealed an area under the curve of 0.803 (p<0.001; 95% confidence interval, 0.784–0.822). The majority of tachycardias with a PPI−TCL >360 ms were supraventricular with a PPI−TCL value of ⩽360 ms having a sensitivity of 97.4% and specificity of 28.3% for ventricular tachycardia. Conclusions: The ATP response, specifically the PPI−TCL, can further discriminate ventricular from supraventricular arrhythmias in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators when the currently available discriminators fail. Clinical Trial Registration: URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00251251.


Nanostructures are considered as chemical systems of high potential owing to their unusual properties at the interface of those of molecular species and bulk metals. Consequently, they are promising candidates for application in different domains such as catalysis, magnetism, medicine, opto-electronics or sensors. The control of the characteristics of nanostructures is a fundamental prerequisite if one envisages exploring their physical or chemical properties since they vary dramatically with size, shape and surface state. Thus, the development of efficient methods leading to reproducible nanostructures is presently one of the main objectives in the nanochemistry community. Although organometallic chemistry has been early involved, it arises only marginally in the field. Nevertheless, the concepts and techniques of organometallic chemistry appear to be well-adapted for the growth of well-controlled nanostructures. This will be discussed through recent advances in the synthesis of metal and metal oxide nanoparticles in terms of size dispersion, chemical composition, surface state, shape or organization, pointing out the role of ligands. Moreover their characterization at a molecular level and the development of their chemical/physical properties towards applications will be described. This review reflects more than 20 years of efforts of our team to achieve these goals.


Oceanic and continental lithosphere distribution within the eastern Mediterranean is not well understood. A gravity inversion, incorporating a lithosphere thermal gravity anomaly correction, has been used to map Moho depth, crustal thickness and lithosphere thinning for the eastern Mediterranean, from which the distribution of oceanic and continental lithosphere, the structure of the ocean–continent transition (OCT) and the location of the continent–ocean boundary (COB) can be determined. The gravity inversion results show thin crust and high continental lithosphere thinning under the Ionian Sea and the Herodotus Basin, consistent with these basins being underlain by oceanic crust. Moho depths from gravity inversion are in agreement with seismic refraction estimates in these basins. Highly thinned continental crust is predicted under the offshore Sirte and Levant basins. The sharp decrease in crustal thickness predicted by gravity inversion off the Libyan and Egyptian coast gives an indication of COB location. Crustal thickness and continental lithosphere thinning determined from gravity inversion have also been used to explore the relationship between the Cretaceous West and Central African Rift System (WCARS: Benue Trough, Chad, Central African Shear Zone (CASZ) and Sudan basins) and the eastern Mediterranean basins; continuity between the Cretaceous WCARS and the eastern Mediterranean basins is not apparent in the gravity inversion results.


The purpose of this study was to examine vegetable & fruit (V/F) intakes, beliefs and self-efficacy regarding V/F consumption, nutrition knowledge and eating behavior of elementary students. A survey was conducted to the 4th graders (n=234) at two elementary schools in Guri, Kyunggi-do. About one-fourth of subjects were overweight or obese. Subjects had 4.2 servings of V/F a day, consuming 340.2 g of V/F. Girls consumed significantly more amounts of vegetables than boys (p<0.05). Girls were more favorable regarding V/F consumption (p<0.01), and believed more strongly on advantages of having V/F such as "good for skin", constipation prevention (p<0.001) and cancer prevention (p<0.05). Boys felt more strongly in disadvantages or barriers of eating V/F, including mother`s cooking time constraints (p<0.01), lack of past experience of eating V/F, and family members` disliking of V/F (p<0.05). Girls felt more confident in eating V/F (p<0.05) than boys; they also felt more confident in specific items of "eating fruits/salads instead of cookies/chips for snack" and "eating fruit juice/vegetable juice instead of soda" (p<0.01). Subjects showed low level of nutrition knowledge, especially in items such as balanced meals, recommended servings of V/F and vitamin deficiency. Compared to boys, girls had more desirable eating behavior such as eating adequate amount of meals (p<0.001), having a variety of foods, eating fruits daily, and having fatty foods less frequently (p<0.05). Intakes of Ca and K were quite below the recommended level, while the intakes of protein, Na and vitamin A intake were much above the Dietary Reference Intakes (DRI) for 9-11 old children. Nutrient intakes expressed as %DRI was higher in girls for vitamin A (p<0.01), energy and riboflavin (p<0.05). High V/F consumption group (≥ 5 servings of V/F a day) compared to the counterparts showed higher self-efficacy and had better eating behaviors. Nutrition education for children should focus on increasing consumption of V/F, by helping them to increase selfefficacy for eating V/F and to recognize the benefits and reduce the barriers of eating V/F, especially in boys. It is also needed to provide nutrition information for balanced meals or increasing V/F consumption, and help the children to adopt desirable eating behavior. (Korean J Community Nutrition 15(3): 329~341, 2010)


Background: Patients with chronic pancreatic carcinoma and cancer of the pancreas often experience severe pain. Sympathatictomy and celiac ganglia blockage or distraction has been applied with varying degree of efficacy in the relief of pain. This variability of efficacy may be due to anatomical variation in the location of the celiac ganglia and thoracic splachnic nerves.
Aim: This study aims to describe the location and the variability of thoracic splanchnic nerves in selected Ethiopian cadavers.
Methods: It is an observation based descriptive study on 10 selected Ethiopian cadavers. Both adult and fetal cadavers were dissected after embalming in formalin. This study was from January-June 2011. Purposive sampling technique was used. The thoracic splanchnic nerves were exposed in the left and the right side of the cadavers. The anatomy and the relationships between the thoracic sympathetic ganglia, sympathetic chains, and thoracic splanchnic nerves were inspected on both sides of the posterior thoracic wall.
Result: The three splanchnic nerves were present in all cadavers. The greater splanchnic nerves were formed by nerve branches from the T4–T11 thoracic sympathetic ganglia and the most common type was formed by T7-T10 (35%), followed by T6-T10 (20%). The T11 forms ganglionic array of lesser splanchnic nerves in 45% of cases. The least splanchnic nerves were formed by T12 in 70% of the cadavers.
Conclusion: Significant variations in the formation of the thoracic splanchnic nerves and the communication between them were observed. The pattern of the formation and structure of the TSNs was not only varying from person to person but also between the right and left side.


Background and Purpose— Right-to-left shunt (RLS) due to patent foramen ovale is a well-established risk factor for cryptogenic stroke and is highly prevalent in cases of migraine, cluster headache, and obstructive apnea. It can be diagnosed by gaseous-contrast transcranial Doppler, yet in a small percentage of cases it cannot be done owing to an insufficient temporal window. The aim of the study was to compare transtemporal with transoccipital approaches for gaseous-contrast transcranial Doppler for RLS diagnosis. Methods— We evaluated 183 subjects with a standard protocol for RLS diagnosis by simultaneously monitoring the right middle cerebral and vertebrobasilar circulations. Results— Vertebrobasilar recording reached high specificity (100%) and good sensitivity (83.72%) for the diagnosis of RLS after the Valsalva maneuver. For only medium and large shunts, both sensitivity and specificity reached 100%. Time to bubble appearance after injection was higher in the vertebrobasilar circulation (4.36±1.7 vs 6.77±2.5 seconds; P<0.001). There was a positive correlation between the number of bubbles in the right middle cerebral and vertebrobasilar circulation (&kgr;=0.97). Conclusions— Transcranial Doppler with vertebrobasilar monitoring is highly sensitive and specific in detecting RLS, particularly when medium or large. It can be proposed for subjects with an insufficient temporal bone window.


Tyrosine Kinase receptors (RTKs) are known to play a role in the regulation of number of important cellular
activities. Growth factor signaling involves RTKs and mediates the proliferation of cells in various systems, making
these receptors attractive targets for checking tumorous growth. The fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors are
one such group of target receptors. Indolinone inhibitors such as SU5402, which bind irreversibly to these
receptors, are being widely used to block FGF signaling and thereby curb uncontrolled proliferation. In the current
study, we have used the regenerating fin of teleost fish Poecilialatipinna and studied the effect of SU5402 on this
non-cancerous model of extensive cell proliferation. Our results indicate an adverse effect of SU5402 on
regenerative outgrowth of fins and thereby reaffirm the anti-proliferative effect of this FGF receptor inhibitor.
Morphometric, immunohistochemical, biochemical and histological observations all explicitly show a slowdown in
the process of re-growth of amputated fins due to SU5402 treatment. The study also reveals a crucial role of FGF
signaling in successful fin regeneration.


The flow of seed carried by studded feed roller mechanism is affected by constructional and operational variables and by the levels of vibration produced by soil roughness, large aggregates, small stones, and motion of tractor. The effect of four different vibration levels on flow evenness of wheat and barley was determined for three studded feed roller designs and two seed rates. Coefficient of variation in seed flow evenness was determined in a laboratory experiment. Seed rates were 130 kg ha-1, 180 kg ha-1 and 150 kg ha-1, 200 kg ha-1 for wheat and barley, respectively. The simulated ground speed was 6.5 km h-1 in all experiments. While the levels of vibration had no effect on the flow evenness of wheat, the flow evenness of barley was significantly affected by vibration. Increasing seed rate significantly improved seed flow evenness.


For Yves R. Simon, philosophy has an affinity to science, not in the sense that philosophy is a mere metascience, a commentary on the sciences, but rather because it shares the same aim as science: the search for explanation. The philosophy Simon espouses is philosophical realism which, following Jacques Maritain, he prefers to call critical realism. Against the prejudice that only some version of philosophical idealism, be it critical or absolute, is capable of understanding positive science. Simon, in Foresight and Knowledge, develops a philosophy of science form a realistic perspective. Philosophy of science or the critique of science, as it was known in France, is according to Simon, metahphysics in the exercise of its critical function. Simon selects as the central focus of the treatise the problem of determinism, causality, and chance. Simon shows that the concept determinismmust be understood in different conceptual systems, such as a philosophy of nature and physics; in the latter, determinism is conceived as a possibility of certain and exact prediction.


In data networks, the most used protocol is the IP protocol and it is essentially the Web that has allowed the development of Internet and IP protocol. IP protocol provides flexibility, but today there is no tested mechanisms enabling to give a real quality of service (QoS). QoS is necessary for new applications such as voice over IP (VoIP) to enable transmission of voice through packet network. New architectures are developed to offer QoS for future telecommunications networks.


The construction of proteins and peptides with desired properties, including resistance to high temperatures, as well as optimization of their amino acid composition, is an important and complex task, which attracts much attention in various branches of the basic sciences, and also in biomedicine and biotechnology. This raises the question: what method is more relevant for the at the pilot stage of research in order to estimate the influence of the planned amino acid substitutions on the thermostability of the resultant protein construct? In this brief review we have classified existing basic practical and theoretical approaches used in studies and predicting the thermal stability of native and recombinant polypeptides. Particular attention has been paid to the predictive potential of statistical methods for studying the thermodynamic parameters of the primary protein structure and prospects of their use.


The present invention relates to novel fusarisetin compounds separated from Fusarium sp. FN080326 and having an anticancer activity, and to the use thereof. In detail, novel fusarisetin compounds separated and purified from Fusarium sp. FN080326, which is in turn separated from a soil sample, have an inhibitory activity on the proliferation and transfer of cancer cells such as breast-cancer cells, liver-cancer cells or myeloid-leukemic cells. Therefore, the compounds can be effectively used for anticancer compositions containing the compounds as active ingredients.


Teachers play an important role in the provision of quality education. The variety of classroom practices they use in interacting with learners play a critical role in the understanding of mathematical concepts and overall performance in Mathematics. Following the work done by Hattie (2009, 2012) in relation to classroom practices this study investigated the association between learner achievement and selected teacher classroom practices. The Mathematics teacher questionnaire, administered as part of the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2011, comprised questions pertaining to the classroom practices of Teacher Clarity, Classroom Discussion, Feedback, Formative Assessment, Problem Solving and Metacognitive Strategies, and Collaboration. The results showed a positive association between teachers' high endorsement of the selected classroom practices and learner performance. The study also investigated how collaboration between Mathematics teachers affected learner performance. The analysis shows that teachers observing each other's lessons affected the learners' performance positively, although most teachers were not keen on collaboration with their peers. This study showed that various teacher classroom practices affect learner performance in Mathematics significantly and that these practices should be identified and mechanisms put in place to support teachers in terms of these practices. Keywords: hierarchical linear modeling; Mathematics performance; teacher classroom practice; TIMSS