With its simple principles to achieve parallelism and fault tolerance, the Map-reduce framework has captured wide attention, from traditional high performance computing to marketing organizations. The most popular open source implementation of this framework is Hadoop. Today, the Hadoop stack comprises of various software components including the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS), the distributed storage layer amongst others such as GPFS and WASB. The traditional high performance computing has always been at the forefront of developing and deploying cutting edge technology and solutions such as Lustre, a Parallel IO file systems, to meet its ever growing need. To support new and upcoming use cases, there is a focus on tighter integration of Hadoop with existing HPC stacks. In this paper, we share our work on one such integration by analyzing an FSI workload built using map reduce framework and evaluating the performance and reliability of the application on an integrated stack with Hadoop and Lustre through Hadoop extensions such as Hadoop Adapter for Lustre (HAL) and HPC Adapter for MapReduce (HAM) developed by Intel, while comparing the performance against the Hadoop Distributed File System (HDFS). We also carried out perform ability analysis of both the systems, where HDFS ensures reliability using replication factor and Lustre does not replicate any data but ensures reliability by having multiple OSSs connecting to multiple OSTs. The environment used for this evaluation is a 16 nodes HDDP cluster hosted in the Intel Big Data Lab in Swindon (UK). The cluster was divided into two clusters. One 8 node cluster was set up with CDH 5.0.2 and HDFS and another 8 node was set up with CDH 5.0.2 connected to Lustre through Intel HAL. We use Intel Enteprise Edition for Lustre 2.0 for the experiment based on Lustre 2.5. The Lustre setup includes 1 Meta Data Server (MDS) with 1 Meta Data Target (MDT) and 1 Management Target (MGT) and 4 Object Storage Servers (OSSs) with 16 Object Storage Targets (OSTs). Both the systems were evaluated on performance metric 'average query response time' for FSI workload. The data is generated based on FSI application schema while MR jobs are written for few functionalities/queries of the FSI application which are used for the evaluation exercise. Apart from single query execution, both the systems were evaluated for concurrent workload as well. Tests were run for application data volumes varying from 100 GB to 7 TB. From our experiments, with appropriate tuning of Lustre file system, we observe that MR applications on Lustre platform perform at least twice better than that on HDFS. We conducted perform ability analysis of both the systems using Markov Reward Model. We propose linear extrapolation for estimating average query execution time for states exhibiting failure for some nodes and calculated the perform ability with reward for working states as the average query execution time. We assume that the time to failure, detect failure, and repair of both compute nodes as well data nodes are exponentially distributed, and took reasonable parameter values for the same. From our analysis, Expected query execution time for MR applications on Lustre file platform is at least half that of the applications on HDFS platform.


This paper is a reflection on the ritual incorporation of ayahuasca, an Amazonian psychoactive ritual substance, by members of a Guarani Indian village on the Atlantic coast of the state of Santa Catarina, Brazil. Their shamanic leaders have adapted the use of this beverage into their ritual practices and recognize it as part of their culture and tradition. This process of appropriation is a result of the formation of a network that involves various actors, among them the Guarani Indians, members of Sacred Fire of Itzachilatlan, followers of the Brazilian ayahuasca religion Santo Daime, and a health team employed to provide primary attention to Indian communities. Based on this case study, we demonstrate that shamanisms today emerge out of specific political and historic contexts. If the concept of shamanism is useful as an analytical paradigm, it must be thought of as a dialogical category constructed through interaction between actors with diverse origins, discourses, and interests.


Mutation breeding is one of the innovative methods in plant breeding. Hugo de Vries introduced the term mutation in the late 19th century. Since the induction of artificial transmutation of gene by X-rays on Drosophila by Muller in 1927, the field of mutation breeding has gained improvement. Cowpea is an important food legume of the tropics and subtropics.Improvement of cowpea by conventional breeding techniques is time taking and involves constraints such as small flower, difficult crossing, poor seed setting and less number of seeds per pod. Mutation breeding in recent times as an effective tool for crop improvement and an efficient means supplementing existing germplasm for cultivar improvement in breeding programs. Cowpea has immense scope for genetic improvement for various qualitative and quantitative characters besides widening the genetic base through induced mutagenesis. This book will be definitely helpful for researchers, teachers as well as postgraduate students in standardizing the studies on mutation breeding in cowpea. This book deals with the study of induced genetic variability through gamma rays and EMS in two distinct varieties.


Increased serum gastrin concentrations in patients with colorectal cancer suggested the tumorigenic trophic effect of gastrin. Detailed and global molecular mechanisms explaining trophic effect of gastrin had not been revealed. In the current study, intestinal polyposis of APC(Min/⁺) mice was compared between phosphate buffered saline (PBS) injected and gastrin (10 μg/kg, thrice per week) injected group. Total number of intestinal polyposis was counted and immunohistochemical staining with F4/80 and CD3 was done. MTT assay, cell cycle analysis, and Western blot for cyclin D1, CDK4, and β-catenin were performed in Raw 264.7 and HCT116 cells before and after gastrin administration. Experiments were repeated with YM022 or transfection with si-cholecystokinin-B receptor (CCK-B-R). Intraperitoneal gastrin significantly increased intestinal polyposis in APC(Min/⁺) mice (P<0.005), in which significant increases in macrophage were noted on F4/80 immunohistochemical staining (Plt;0.05) as well as Ki-67 staining (Plt;0.05) after gastrin. On comparative cytokine array, gastrin increased interleukin-1β (IL-1β), interleukin 3Rβ (IL-3Rβ), stromal cell-derived factor-1α (SDF-1α), thymus and activation-regulated chemokine (TARC), and thymus-derived chemotactic agent 3 (TCA-3) in macrophage cells, which was further confirmed with real time polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) analysis (P<0.05). In addition to increased inflammatory cytokines, gastrin increased macrophage proliferation accompanied with increased cyclin D1 and CDK4. Targeted for HCT116 cells, gastrin significantly increased proliferation as well as increases in synthetic phase of cell cycle. YM022 as gastrin antagonist significantly abolished the trophic actions of gastrin (P<0.05). HCT116 cells transfected with siCCK-B-R, gastrin did not increase either cell cycle or β-catenin in spite of gastrin administration. Conclusively, gastrin promoted intestinal polyposis through either direct gastrin receptor-mediated proliferative signaling or fostering tumor microenvironment such as macrophage activation.


The selective conversion of alcohols to aldehydes under ambient conditions using semiconductor-based photocatalysts has attracted more and more attention in organic synthesis. In this work, bismuth vanadate (BiVO4) crystals with spatially separated dual-cocatalysts on different facets were introduced as photocatalysts for aerobic oxidation under visible light. It was found that the photocatalytic conversion of benzylalcohols to benzaldehydes was remarkably enhanced when Pt and MnOx are selectively deposited on the {010} and {110} facets of the BiVO4 crystal, acting as reduction and oxidation cocatalysts, respectively. The superior performance could be attributed to the spatial separation of the reduction and oxidation reactions so that the recombination and reverse reactions are greatly inhibited. We also found that adding a small amount of H2O in the system to increase the solubility of the photocatalysts at the interface of water and oil can remarkably boost the reaction rate of aerobic oxidation. Our work shows a useful strategy for the rational design and construction of highly efficient photocatalyst systems for the synthesis of organic compounds via photocatalytic processes.


Cicero's Verrine Orations offer a glimpse into the complex political posturings surrounding the reception of Greek art by Roman audiences. Cicero downplays his own (legitimate) collecting habits, and accuses Gaius Verres, the corrupt governor of Sicily from 73–71 bce, of abusing his political office by looting the island's art treasures. One example that particularly disturbs Cicero is the theft of a statue of Sappho, commissioned by the Syracusans from the early Hellenistic sculptor Silanion for their town hall. This theft is shown to be part of a pattern in Verres' behavior, as he repeatedly removes public images of women and female divinities from their civic or cultic sites of honor, and transfers them to his private dwelling. The language of sexual exploitation pervades Cicero's narratives as he argues that Verres perverts the statues by using them for private delectation. Because Verres leaves behind the inscribed base of the Sappho statue, she may no longer be identifiable as the archaic lyric poet once she has been carried off to Rome. Verres' inappropriate passion for Greek artwork, according to his accuser, destroys the statue's identity as a famous female poet from archaic Greece, and reduces it to a nameless female body, a victim of imperialism and greed.


We present results of the theoretical study and numerical calculation of the dynamics of molecular liquids based on the combination of the memory equation formalism and the reference interaction site model (RISM). Memory equations for the site-site intermediate scattering functions are studied in the mode-coupling approximation for the first-order memory kernels, while equilibrium properties such as site-site static structure factors are deduced from RISM. The results include the temperature-density (pressure) dependence of translational diffusion coefficients D and orientational relaxation times tau for acetonitrile in water, methanol in water, and methanol in acetonitrile--all in the limit of infinite dilution. Calculations are performed over the range of temperatures and densities employing the extended simple point charge model for water and optimized site-site potentials for acetonitrile and methanol. The theory is able to reproduce qualitatively all main features of temperature and density dependences of D and tau observed in real and computer experiments. In particular, anomalous behavior, i.e, the increase in mobility with density, is observed for D and tau of methanol in water, while acetonitrile in water and methanol in acetonitrile do not show deviations from the ordinary behavior. The variety exhibited by the different solute-solvent systems in the density dependence of the mobility is interpreted in terms of the two competing origins of friction, which interplay with each other as density increases: the collisional and dielectric frictions which, respectively, increase and decrease with increasing density.


Although statelessness within the modern state system has many facets, there has not been any attempt to work out a formal typology. When conceptualising statelessness in singular terms, theorists miss something important: they fail to capture the full moral scope of statelessness. This article addresses this shortcoming. It is divided into four parts. First, I will show how statelessness is categorised under the UN's framework. Second, I will turn to legal and social theory to argue that statelessness can be best understood through the two concepts of responsibility and recognition. Third, I will identify three different subtypes of statelessness. They derive from the source of nationality deprivation and include voluntary statelessness, structural statelessness and denigrative statelessness. Finally, I will offer some concluding remarks.


Seed priming (controlled hydration followed by drying) is used to alleviate high temperature inhibition of germination and improve seedling emergence of lettuce (Lactuca sativa L.) and other species. However, seed priming can also reduce the longevity of seeds during dry storage. Alternative drying methods (i.e., slow drying or moisture content re- duction (MCR) before drying) can extend seed longevity compared to conventional rapid drying procedures after priming. Three postpriming drying treatments were tested on 'Conquistador' and 'Genecorp Green' lettuce seeds: rapid drying, slow drying and MCR (10% fresh weight loss, then held at 100% relative humidity (RH) for 6 hours, followed by rapid drying). The effects of the postpriming treatments on seed quality and longevity were compared based upon standard germination tests, germination rates, thermogradient table tests, controlled deterioration (CD) tests, and headspace volatiles analysis. The latter may be correlated with seed longevity as release of volatiles (e.g., acetaldehyde, ethanol) is associated with lipid peroxidation. While neither slow drying nor MCR before drying restored lettuce seed longevity to that of the control (not primed) seeds, the MCR method generally gave better results in both cultivars compared to rapid drying. Among the CD test conditions used, 50 °C and 75% RH gave the most consistent results for estimating potential longevity. Headspace volatile emissions from both control and primed lettuce seeds were very low and were not well correlated with seed longevity. Alternative postpriming drying regimes can extend seed longevity while retaining the beneficial effects of priming.


We investigated the dose- and time-dependent effect of insulin infusion on peripheral and portal plasma leptin concentrations in normal rats. Three groups were studied: group I: euglycemic (6 mmol/l) insulin (6 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) clamps for 0, 2, 4, 12, and 24 h; group II: euglycemic insulin (18 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) clamp for 2 h; and group III: euglycemic insulin (3 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) clamp for 7 days. In group III, food intake was quantified during days 1-7. After an overnight fast, peripheral and portal plasma leptin levels were identical (1.5 ± 0.2 and 1.6 ± 0.2 ng/ml). Insulin infusion (6 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) for 2 h had no effect on plasma leptin levels (1.5 ± 0.2 ng/ml). After 4 h (2.0 ± 0.2 ng/ml), 12 h (2.2 ± 0.4 ng/ml), and 24 h (2.7 ± 0.6 ng/ml; all P< 0.05) of insulin infusion, a progressive time-related increase in plasma leptin concentration was observed; portal vein leptin levels rose in parallel and were similar to peripheral levels. When insulin (18 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) was infused for 2 h, plasma leptin levels increased to 3.0 ± 0.3 ng/ml ( P < 0.01). Seven days of constant insulin infusion (3 mU ⋅ kg-1 ⋅ min-1) resulted in a progressive increase in fasting plasma leptin and a parallel decrease in food intake. A mean increase in plasma leptin concentration of 1 ng/ml during the 7-day insulin infusion period was associated with a mean decrease in food intake of 2.5 g/day (multivariate ANOVA, P < 0.05). We conclude that the insulin-induced rise in peripheral and portal vein leptin levels is similar and both dose and time dependent. The inverse relationship between plasma leptin concentration and food intake during prolonged hyperinsulinemia, but not during short-term hyperinsulinemia, supports the role of leptin in long-term food consumption.


The genus Bethylus Latreille, 1802, is recorded from China for the first time. A new species of this genus, Bethylus sinensis Xu, He et Terayama, sp. nov., is described from Liaoning Province. This species resembles Bethylus fuscicornis (Jurine, 1807) but distinguished from the latter by the narrower head, the absence of unsculptured longitudinal belt of the propodeal disc, and 4-toothed mandibles.


This thesis represents the outcomes of a scientific researching pro
cess whose subject of study
is
�
Discrimination for sexual orientation in the perspective of human rights: a panorama
of the legislation, jurisprudence and affir
mative actions in Brazil
�
. The reason for
choosing this topic and developing this thesis comes up from the existence of numerous
debates discussing this very matter within the sphere of international organizations plus the
deep rift existing between the cr
eation and application of explicit norms aimed at avoiding
violations of human rights due to sexual orientation discrimination and the proper effective
measures meant to eradicate and condemn this type of discrimination, both in the international
legislati
on and in the internal legislation frame of the states, especially in Brazil. In this sense,
in the following work piece we approach the aspect of the recognition of LGBT rights as
fundamental and universal rights, through the analysis of the evolution of
non
-
discrimination
principle for sexual orientation within the regulation and jurisprudence of the international
organizations. Likewise, we include a brief mention to the legislation relating sexual
orientation, in order to enshrine this kind of discrimin
ation within the legislative framework
of the different states worldwide; we analyze the role of the Non
-
Governmental Organizations
(NGO�s) and other international documents regarding non
-
discrimination for sexual
orientation; we examine the constitutional
protection of the homosexuals rights in the light of
the principles of freedom, human dignity, equality and non
-
discrimination for sexual
orientation in the Brazilian legislation and, finally, we research into the upsurge of the
affirmative actions in fav
or of homosexuals in the reality of the situation in Brazil and the
compatibility of these actions with the constitution, besides the social mobilizations which
have contributed to the conquest of rights and governmental actions undertaken to fight
agains
t discrimination for sexual orientation. The carrying out of the thesis is based upon the
aims established on the first place, and follows, focusing on the problem as a way that leads
towards the consequences, a deductive method in its development. The acc
omplishment of the
formal and systematic process of this method in this thesis takes the descriptive procedure as a
starting point, where the information has been observed, registered, analyzed, classified and
interpreted itself. In terms of juridical rese
arch, and taking into account the peculiar
characteristics of the law system, a bibliographical investigation predominated along the
work, provided that we resorted to philosophical, historical, sociocultural and doctrinaire
knowledge about several related
and interdependent disciplines for establishing its theoretical
-
methodological foundation. Therefore, we are here referring ourselves to an interdisciplinary
study. On the other hand, an evolutionary and historical method was also adopted in order to
tr
ace the bases to understand the social and legal transformations that have occurred for the
creation of affirmative actions. Our work was also based on the hypothetical
-
deductive
method for confirming the hypothesis on the compatibility between the constit
utional
principle of equality and the affirmative policies created to fight against discrimination in the
Brazilian law system.


In this paper we aim to study and compare the countries of the former EU-15 in terms of the difference in labour market conditions between mothers and non-mothers and we look at how public policies can be designed in order to minimise the employment penalties associated with the presence of young children and thus promote parenthood by working women. As women choose to take part in paid employment, fertility rates will depend on their possibilities to combine employment and motherhood. As a result, the motherhood-induced employment penalties discussed in this paper as well as the role of public policies should be given priority attention by politicians and policy-makers. Firstly, in this paper we start out from a multinomial logit model to analyse motherhood-induced employment gaps in the EU-15. Then, various decomposition techniques (the method of recycled prediction and the Oaxaca (1973) and Blinder (1973) technique adapted to the non-linear case) are applied to the computed gross FTE employment gaps between mothers and non-mothers to isolate the net employment effect associated with the presence of children from that of differences in characteristics between mothers and non-mothers. Special attention is also given to the specific role of education to contain the negative labour market consequences that derive from the presence of young children. It seems that differences in characteristics such as age, education and non labour personal income do not influence a lot the difference in employment status. Secondly, we use an OLS regression to confront motherhood-induced employment penalties with selfconstructed country-specific indicators of child policies, used as explanatory variables, in order to test the impact and effectiveness of policies of different design and generosity on these employment gaps that separate mothers of young children from non-mothers and mothers with grown up children. We round off our analysis by presenting a new typology and country-specific overview of the adjustment mechanisms applied by career-pursuing mothers on the labour market as well as of the supportiveness of different child policies. In the conclusion, we carefully review the main results of this research, advance a number of policy recommendations and suggest interesting avenues for future research.


Introduction: Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the leading causes of death and disease worldwide. Tobacco smoking has been linked as a risk factor for TB. This study was aimed to affirm the strength of association between smoking and pulmonary TB. Materials and Methods: Pulmonary TB patients aged between 18 and 65 years were enrolled and followed-up until treatment completion. Two consecutive sputum smears were examined from each patient for the presence of acid-fast bacilli (AFB) using Ziehl–Neelsen technique. Radiological severity of disease was assessed using guidelines of National TB Association of USA. Sputum smears for AFB were graded for positivity as per WHO Revised National TB Control Programme criteria. Response was determined in terms of sputum conversion at the end of intensive phase and final treatment outcomes. Results: Sputum smear grading of 3+ increased from 12.5% to 68.18% and 66.66% as smoking index increased from <100 to 100–299 and >300 (P < 0.05). In nonsmokers, 79.2% patients had minimal disease while only 4.2% had advanced disease as compared to smokers where 52.4% had moderate disease, 26.2% advanced disease, and 21.4% minimal disease (P < 0.01). Smokers had significantly lower treatment success rate (69%) as against nonsmokers and former smokers (93.8% and 90.9%, respectively, P = 0.001) owing to a higher default rate among smokers (28.5%) than nonsmokers (6.3%) and former smokers (9.1%). Conclusion: Smokers during initial presentation, as well as at end of the treatment demonstrate more radiological findings, cavitary disease, and worse sputum AFB smear grading. Smokers also have a poorer treatment success rate largely due to high percentage of default rate thus suggesting noncompliance as a main confounder to treatment success. Focus needs to be made to reduce defaulters which are more common among smokers.


Abstract Resultant winds, mean pressures, and mean pressure gradients are presented for each hour of the day for July and August at stations of northwest Washington. The end point of the resultant wind vector in some cases turns clockwise, in some cases counterclockwise. Circular, elliptical, and more complicated hodographs are found. The results are discussed in connection with recent sea-breeze theory. In some locations the pressure-gradient force changes in direction during the day, apparently as a result of topographical constraint, and in a manner which is consistent with the sense of rotation of the end point of the resultant wind vector and the shape of the hodograph. Spatial differences of resultant wind components suggest that the diurnal variation of stratus amount is related in part to vertical motion associated with the sea-breeze circulation. Hodographs for days selected for cloudiness show that the sea-breeze circulation in northwest Washington takes place on a huge scale. Applications of th...


Configurable architectures offer the unique opportunity of realizing hardware designs tailored to the specific data and computational patterns of a given application code. These devices have customizable compute fabric, interconnects, and memory subsystems that allow for large amounts of data and computational parallelism. This high degree of concurrency subsequently translates to better performance. The flexibility and configurability of these architectures, however, create a prohibitively large design space when mapping computations expressed in high-level programming languages to these devices. To successfully investigate the best mapping there is a need for high level program analyses and abstractions as well as automated tools.
This dissertation describes a high level approach to one of these mapping problems, namely the allocation and management of storage. We develop and evaluate automatic mapping algorithms that can quickly and effectively explore alternative mapping strategies. Our objective is to minimize the overall execution time while considering the capacity and bandwidth constraints of the storage structures.
Our approach combines compiler analyses with behavioral synthesis information in order to map the arrays of a loop based computation to an architecture with a set of internal memories. In particular for each computation we consider the access and reuse patterns of the data arrays, structure of the critical paths, scheduling information of the synthesis tool, as well as the storage and bandwidth constraints of the target architecture. We utilize various mapping techniques, namely data distribution, data replication, and scalar replacement. We further consider three levels of storage: off-chip memory, on-chip memory banks, and on-chip registers. We illustrate the effects of applying our analyses and mapping algorithm to a set of image/signal processing kernel codes using a Xilinx Virtex™ FPGA.
The novelty of our approach lies in creating a single framework that combines various high-level compiler analyses and data transformations with lower-level scheduling information in order to map the data. Our experimental results show that our approach is very effective in finding high-quality data mappings to the storage structures of an FPGA in an automated fashion.
Considering the current tendency towards increasing the variety and capacity of controllable storage structures, and given the continuing gap between computation and data access latencies, effective data management becomes an essential factor in achieving high performance in future architectures.


ABSTRACT Nakanishi, T.; Ohyama, T.; Hagiwara, H., and Sakuma, K., 2021. Impact of extreme typhoon events on the fluvial discharge of particulate radiocesium in Fukushima prefecture. In: Lee, J.L.; Suh, K.-S.; Lee, B.; Shin, S., and Lee, J. (eds.), Crisis and Integrated Management for Coastal and Marine Safety. Journal of Coastal Research, Special Issue No. 114, pp. 310–314. Coconut Creek (Florida), ISSN 0749-0208. Two huge typhoons that occurred in October 2019, Hagibis and Bualoi, caused considerable flood damage in Fukushima Prefecture. There is concern about the radiocesium discharge to the coastal area related to such flood events from the river systems near the Fukushima nuclear power plant. In this study, we quantitatively evaluated the sediment and 137Cs discharges from the Ukedo River catchment based on the field observations conducted over 6 years. In 2019, approximately 90% of the annual sediment and 137Cs discharges occurred during the typhoon events (Hagibis and Bualoi). This sediment discharge was almost twice that related to the largest ever flood event since the Fukushima nuclear accident, which was caused by the typhoon Etau in September 2015. However, the 137Cs discharge related to the Hagibis and Bualoi events was two-thirds of the Etau event; the particulate 137Cs concentration in river water decreased during the observation period, showing an effective half-life of 2.2–3.9 years. Moreover, the 137Cs discharge during the two typhoon events in 2019 accounted for only 0.1% of the 137Cs deposition in the catchment, and the impact of radiocesium on the coastal area was extremely limited.


41 patients (pts) underwent repeat coronary angiography 6-8 months after successful PTCA. The overall restenosis rate was 48.7% (20 of 41 pts). Restenosis occurred in 8 of 24 (33%) pts with non-complicated lesion morphology (NLM) and in 12 of 17 (70.5%) pts with complicated lesion (CLM) morphology (p = 0.02). When clinical manifestation of ischemic heart disease was taken into consideration restenosis was found in 14 of 22 (63.6%) pts with unstable angina in that 5 of 10 (50%) had NLM and 9 of 12 (75%) had CLM. In pts with stable angina restenosis was present in 6 of 19 (31.6%) pts in that 3 of 14 (21.9%) had NLM and 3 of 5 (60%) had CLM. The p value for restenosis in pts with stable and unstable angina was p = 0.04. Thus obtained data suggest that complicated lesion morphology is associated with a higher risk of restenosis than non-complicated lesion morphology. It also seems that coronary stenosis morphology determines the development of restenosis regardless of the clinical manifestation of ischemic heart disease.


The introduction of improved maize ( Zea mays L.) varieties has met with only partial success, as measured by rates of adoption. As such, efforts have been made by International Institute of Tropical Agriculture (IITA) to accelerate the process of maize seed adoption in Africa, through learning sites including the Kano-Katsina-Maradi (KKM PLS) in West Africa. The objective of this study was to ascertain the degree of success and factors affecting the adoption of improved maize seed varieties in the KKM PLS. The study used data from a midline survey sample of 1,800 households in 180 villages in the study area. Tobit regression model was used to identify the degree and characteristics important for adoption of improved maize seed varieties. Results indicated that affordability, knowledge on use and suitable packaging of technology were important adoption determinants. Other factors were gender, total farm size and extension agent visits. Households with older and more educated heads were also significantly more likely to adopt technologies. Keywords: IITA, learning sites, Zea mays


"A bivalve fauna from the Pillahuinco Group in Sauce Grande Basin (Buenos Aires
province. Argentina), first discovered and described by Harrington, is here revised and illustrated. A reassessrnent
of the taxonomy, provincial affinities and age of the fauna reinforces its Gondwanic character.
This feature denotes its probable correlation with Early Permian faunas of Brazil, Australia and South
Africa. Eight species of Bivalvia are described and ilIustrated. Two of them: Heteropeeten sp. and Myonia
sp. are described for the first time for the Bonete Formation. Other six species are revised: Leptodesrna
(Lcioincria) bonaerensis (Harrington), Leptodesma (Leiopteria) dutoiti (Harrington), Atomodesma (Aphanaia) orbiru::;
11I17(Harrington). Pronuitilus acinaajormis Harrington, Stuichburia argeniinensis Harrington, Allorisma
illfleetovclltris Harrington. The association also contains brachiopods, gastropods and plant remains.
Comparisons with genera registered from Brazil, Australia, New Zealand and United States are established.
The recorded bivalve assemblage fram the Bonete Formation suggests a possible faunal connection
with similar assernblages from the Rio do Sul and Rio Bonito Formations in the Parana Basin (Brazil).
This possible paleobiogeographic relationship between the two basins, would be favored by similar environment
conditions. The record of Eurijdesma, Deltopecien and Atomodesna in the Bonete Formation indicates
a Late Asselian-Artinskian age for the bivalve fauna. The occurrence of the brachiopod Tioertonia in
this formation, the faunal affinities with Australian and Brazilian faunas, and the paleofloristic assemblage,
are additional evidences which support this age."


The study is intended to know the performance of two different earthworm species in different substrate mixtures in order to know the type of substrate mixture required for better treatment of municipal solid waste. The percentage of soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium are considerably higher in the vermi-compost prepared using Perionyx excavatus than that of vermi-compost prepared by Eisenia foetida. In all the vermi-composts prepared using municipal solid waste (S1), municipal waste and soil (S2), municipal waste and cow dung (S3), municipal waste, cow dung and soil (S4) the soil nutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium increased and OC, C/N ratios and C/P ratio decreased significantly with the passage of time (from 0 to 15, 30, 45, and 60 days) during conversion of substrate to vermi-compost. Of all the substrates used the substrate having a mixture of organic waste, cow dung and soil in the proportion of 2:1:1 ratio proved to be best for the earth worm Eisenia foetida whereas two substrates, mixture of organic waste, cow dung and soil in the proportion of 2:1:1 ratio and other mixture having organic waste and soil in the ratio of 3:1, showed better performance in the case of Perionyx excavatus.


Brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are proving to be viable clinical interventions for sufferers of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, amputations, and spinal cord injuries. To improve the viability of BCIs, it will help to have a thorough understanding of how the brain controls them. Neural activity during usage of certain BCIs behaves in a surprising and seemingly counterintuitive manner – the preferred directions (PDs) of neurons cluster together. We trained monkeys to reach to targets in a center-out task either using their arm or a BCI. We found that neurons' PDs cluster similarly during training of the BCI decoder and usage of the BCI, but remain relatively unclustered when the monkeys use their arms. Modulation depths increase upon usage of the BCI, and narrowness of tuning tends to either increase or decrease rather than staying the same. In addition, the cluster direction can be predicted from per-target performance. A model where two neurons' PDs approach one another reveals how much modulation depths have to increase to maintain controllability. This thesis concludes with considerations of why this clustering might occur, and whether or not it benefits BCI control.


Background: The clamping and declamping of the aorta during elective abdominal aneurysmectomy lead to severe disturbances in blood circulation in different organs and in the brain especially.
The aim of this pilot study is an assessment of the negative influence of clamping and declamping on the aorta on the brain function during elective surgery of infra-aortic aneurysms. Material and methods: An investigation was performed on a 16 patient group with infrarenal aortic aneurysm who were treated electively. We estimated changes in blood concentration of S-100 protein received from the jugular
vein in several samples after the clamping and declamping of the aorta. Results: In 8 cases we observed progressive growth of S-100 concentration after clamping of aorta in following samples. In all of them it was statistically
significant. In the next 3 cases we observed a violent growth in S-100 concentration in the first minute after clamping and progressive decreasing of its concentration
in the following samples. Only in one patient we observed normalization of S-100 concentration after a 10 minute period, to the level observed before clamping of the aorta which was very interesting. In 5 cases statistically significant changes in the S-100 concentration were not observed. In next three cases investigations
were extended for ten minutes after the declamping of the aorta. In these cases was an increase in the concentration of S-100 in the following samples observed - in respective to the first blood sample examination results. In two cases from
this group the following augmentation of S-100 was observed. Only one patient had constant concentration of S-100 during all time of observation. Conclusions: 1. Changes in S-100 protein concentration are high related to blood pressure and indirectly point to the intensification of brain injury during infra-renal aneurysm repair. 2. Both the growth of blood pressure at the time of clamping and the sequence which falls after declamping result in
an unfavorable effect onto the central nervous system. So at the time of these maneuvers blood pressure changes should be minimalised. 3. There is no possibility to measure clinical signs and total brain injury at the time of clamping and declamping of aorta on the basis of changes in S-100 protein blood concentration.


We derive and introduce anisotropic effective pair potentials to coarse-grain solutions of semiflexible ring polymers of various lengths. The system has been recently investigated by means of full monomer-resolved computer simulations, revealing a host of unusual features and structure formation, which, however, cannot be captured by a rotationally averaged effective pair potential between the rings' centers of mass [BernabeiM.; Soft Matter2013, 9, 1287]. Our new coarse-graining strategy is to picture each ring as a soft, penetrable disk. We demonstrate that for the short- and intermediate-length rings the new model is quite capable of capturing the physics in a quantitative fashion, whereas for the largest rings, which resemble flexible ones, it fails at high densities. Our work opens the way for the physical justification of general, anisotropic penetrable interaction potentials.


A computer-controlled adaptive radio-frequency hyperthermia system for improved therapeutic tumour heating is experimentally investigated. Adaptive array feedback techniques are used to modify the electric-field and temperature distribution in hyperthermia experiments with homogeneous and heterogeneous phantom targets. A commercial hyperthermia phased-array antenna system at the SUNY Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York, has been modified to implement adaptive nulling and adaptive focusing algorithms. The hyperthermia system is the BSD Medical Corporation Model BSD-2000 with Sigma-60 annular phased-array antenna applicator. The transmit phased array system is made adaptive by software modifications which invoke a gradient-search feedback algorithm. The gradient-search algorithm implements the method of steepest descent for adaptive nulling (power minimization) and the method of steepest ascent for adaptive focusing (power maximization). The feedback signals are provided by electric-field short-dipole probe antennas. With an adaptive hyperthermia array using real-time measured data, it may be possible to maximize the applied electric field at a tumour position in a complex scattering target body and simultaneously minimize or reduce the electric field at target positions where undesired high-temperature regions (hot spots) occur. The measured phantom-target data indicate that adaptive nulling can reduce the electric field at one or more target positions while simultaneously focusing the electric field at a deep-seated position within the target.


This article offers an account of the Security Council's use of sanctions to prospectively regulate situational and systemic threats to international peace and security. It distinguishes between resolutions and specific measures within those resolutions, and assesses the Council's regulatory strategies with regards to internal armed conflicts, the management of natural resources, and peace agreements. Drawing on insights from national (domestic) regulatory experiments, the article argues that the concept of temporality is a central feature of UN sanctions in civil conflict regimes. Using case studies on the Central African Republic and Liberia, the article explores the Council's use of public and private regulatory strategies, the invocation of formal and informal norms, the choice of targeting state and non-state actors, and the integration of responsive regulation into contemporary sanctions practice. The article concludes by arguing that the UN Security Council has played an under-examined role in norm diffusion, and is a significant regulator of conflict and post-conflict situations.


This volume with its 11chapters comprises nearly 300 pages, covers some of the background biochemistry and chemistry of luminescence as welIas the applications found in haematology, microbiology, and the clinical chemistry laboratory, and is written by specialists in the field. This is the first volume to deal exclusively and in some detail with the clinical applications of analytical bioluminescence and chemiluminescence although the recently published proceedings of the meeting in Florence (July 1981) (eds M Serio & M Serio, published by Raven, 1982) is also essentially clinical but contains 31 much shorter conference contributions of material of a research nature. Generally speaking, the chapters are well endowed with references and tables setting out the various assays, their applications, sensitivities, ranges, etc. In addition there is an extensive index of subject material as well as an author index for cited references. The chapter subjects include the molecular aspects of chemiluminescence and its applications, analytical applications of firefly luciferase (ATP) and the bacterial luciferase system (NADH and NADPH) and coelenterate photoprotein (calcium ions) as welI as luminescence immunoassays (which are becoming increasingly popular and used), immobilised reagents, rapid microbiology (for example, screening for bacteriuria), and applications in haematology. There is also a rather large and detailed chapter on current commercially available instrumentation, which includes photographs of many of these instruments. The chapter would be of value for those seeking background information before choosing an instrument. The recent burst of activity in the use of chemiluminescence as a tool to monitor phagocytosis and allied events is given rather short treatment and, with today's hindsight, perhaps could have warranted a separate chapter. The other topic which could have been given more detailed treatment concerns the need for standards, standard reference methods, and a suitable and easy-to-use single photon light source to calibrate instruments and to allow comparisons to be made between methods and laboratories. This will be a valuable source of information for the clinical laboratory worker for a number of years to come.


Background : Brazil has a substantial population living with HIV (PLWH) who are still unaware of their serostatus and has recently added HIV self-test (HIVST) into its public health system for key populations such as men who have sex with men (MSM). This study estimates HIVST acceptability among Brazilian MSM and its associated factors among those who had never been tested or had a previous HIV negative result. Methods : Respondent-driven sampling (RDS) was used for behavioral and biological surveillance to recruit 4,176 MSM in 12 Brazilian cities in 2016. Descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted. Overall proportions were weighted with Gile's estimator in RDS Analyst software and 95% confidence intervals were calculated. The analyses of HIVST acceptability were stratified by prior HIV testing (never or one or more times). Results : We included 3,605 MSM who did not previously know they were PLWH. The acceptability of HIVST was 49.1%, lower among those had never tested compared to those who had a previous HIV negative test. In the subgroup of MSM who had never had an HIV test, those who reported discrimination and who had a medical appointment in the last 12 months reported higher HIVST acceptability. Among MSM who had a previous HIV negative test, only those reporting condomless receptive anal sex had greater HIVST acceptability. In addition, we observed that high levels of knowledge of HIV/AIDS, taking part in LGBT nongovernmental organizations, and complete secondary or incomplete higher school were associated with greater acceptability in both groups. Conclusions : The findings highlight that it is necessary to improve information about HIVST among the most vulnerable MSM in Brazil. Given the acceptability of self-testing and its current promotion in Brazil, we can also point to the need for policies that build on this and enhance timely access to health services and prevention information.


Attribute reduction is one of the key issues for data preprocess in data mining. Many heuristic attribute reduction algorithms based on discernibility matrix have been proposed for inconsistent decision tables. However, these methods are usually computationally time-consuming. To address this issue, the derived consistent decision tables are defined for different definitions of relative reducts. The computations for different reducts of the original inconsistent decision tables are converted into the computations for their corresponding reducts of the derived consistent datasets. The relative discernibility object pair and the more optimal relative discernibility degree from view of the boundary region are designed to accelerate the attribute reduction process. An efficient attribute reduction framework using relative discernibility degree is proposed for large datasets. Experimental results show that our attribute reduction algorithms are effective and feasible for large inconsistent datasets.


We present a Bayesian method for inferring the potential energy experienced by a particle subject to Brownian dynamics. Assuming polynomial potentials, the best polynomial order can be determined by analytical computation of a series of Bayes factors. The coefficients can be estimated from marginal posterior distributions. The method is applicable not only for the motion of an actual Brownian particle but to many kinds of single degree-of-freedom trajectories with Gaussian noise and short, nonzero correlation times.


Due to the lack of anthropometric information in northwest Mexico, we did an anthropometric study that represents the population physical characteristics and that is reliable for the design or redesign of workstations. The study was divided in two phases. The first one was the anthropometric study of 2900 automotive industry workers in northwest of Mexico. The study includes 40 body dimensions of 2345 males and 555 females personalized to be used in future researches. Second phase includes compared anthropometric characteristics of population reported in four Mexican studies and a Colombian study against the current study. Benefits of this project are: a reliable database of anthropometric characteristic of automotive industry population for workstations design or redesign that match with the users, increase product quality and reduce economic, medical and union complains.


Background Referrals to the Coventry Community Palliative Care Team have increased over the last year, with a perceived increase in complexity. This has led to a waiting list and an increase in time to first contact for non-urgent referrals. The team instituted a quality improvement project to see if the responsiveness of the service could be improved, within the constraints of existing resources. Methods PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) methodology was used. A baseline review of all CNS referrals in December 2017 was conducted. A telephone triage tool and CNS triage rota were developed, along with a telephone triage caseload. A telephone call was made to the patient by an experienced CNS to allow a more robust and consistent assessment of the appropriateness and urgency of the referral. CNS referrals were analysed again in March 2018. Results The new triage process improved efficiency. The existing process took up to nine days, with up to five documented contacts mainly from district nurses. In March 2018 84% triage was performed with one contact; 26% patient, 36% relative, 10% nursing home staff, 21% other professionals. Only 47% patients triaged needed a face-to-face assessment, all of which were home visits. Non-urgent referrals previously waited up to 20 days to be seen. In March 2018 all referrals were seen within 10 days, with one exception seen at 15 days. All urgent referrals were seen within two days in both December 2017 and March 2018. The triage contact allowed the most appropriate multidisciplinary team member to see the patient. Discussion A review in working practices has ensured patients are seen by the right professional in a timely manner, improving patient care. The new triage process has improved consistency and provides a more useful assessment of appropriateness and urgency, allowing care to be prioritised.


Objective: Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS) is one of the most common endocrinopathies of the reproductive age in women. PCOS is an endocrine-metabolic disorder characterized by insulin resistance. Aim of the study was to evaluate the efficacy of natural substances such as inositol and glucomannan, and their combination in reducing glucose levels and improving insulin sensitivity in PCOS patients.
Methods: 100 PCOS insulin-resistant women were enrolled for the administration of myo-inositol 1,75 g, D-chiroinositol 0,25 g, and glucomannan 4 g a day for 90 days.
Plasma levels of glucose and insulin, BMI, menstrual cycles, Ferriman Gallwey score, and acne were evaluated before and after treatment.
Results: There was a significative reduction of glucose, insulin, acne and Ferriman Gallwey score.
Conclusion: Present results show that the association-inositol glucomannan may represent a good therapeutic strategy in the treatment of PCOS women with insulin resistance.


We report a case of intracranial adenoid cystic carcinoma in the middle cranial fossa. A 40-year-old woman had noticed a tumor in the left external auditory canal 8 years previously. It was totally resected at that time. Histologically, the tumor was diagnosed as an adenoid cystic carcinoma. Recently the patient presented with loss of consciousness, suffering from mild recent-memory disturbance. Neurological examination revealed no other abnormalities. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) demonstrated an enhanced solid mass with a multicystic component in the left temporal lobe. She underwent subtotal removal of the tumor. It was well-demarcated, and was confirmed to be adhesive to the dura matter of the middle cranial fossa. Histology of the tumor was the same as it was 8 years ago. She was discharged from our hospital without neurological deficits. Two months after surgery, gamma knife radiosurgery was performed against the residual tumor.


We conducted a systematic review of teledentistry applications. We searched the MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase and Cochrane Library databases for relevant articles published from 1992 to 2012. The reference lists of all retrieved articles were hand-searched. Studies were included after assessing the eligibility of the full-text article. A total of 878 studies were identified, of which 59 fulfilled the inclusion criteria of the review. The articles covered several dental specialties, mostly oral surgery, oral medicine and oral pathology. The most common type of teledentistry application was education (n = 21), followed by diagnosis (n = 1 6), consultation (n = 3) and treatment (n = 2). Teledentistry studies were reported in a total of 15 countries. The largest number of studies were conducted in the US (n = 22) and there were no studies from developing countries. Most of the reports referred to pilot projects and short-term outcomes, and most of the studies were descriptive. The review indicates that although teledentistry is an area of expansion, there are still some barriers to its increased use.


In this paper, the proposed LC resonator-based bandpass filter embedded in a two-layer substrate is presented to achieve both miniaturization and transmission-zero creation for 3.5 GHz WiMAX applications. There are two extra transmission zeros generated near the passband for a 2nd order design without introducing either a cross-coupling mechanism between adjacent resonators or a source-load coupling configuration in the input and output ports. The proposed LC resonator-based bandpass filter is compact in size and can achieve excellent insertion and return loss characteristics in the passband. A novel approach for tunable transmission zeros is also proposed. This approach is to groove a slot of rectangular C shape on the ground plane without additional components or devices.


Cone-beam (CB) collimators lead to higher sensitivity and resolution in SPECT brain images than parallel beam (PB) collimators. Point sources can be placed in the focal points of the CB collimators in order to obtain additional transmission CT projection data. In the design of a dual-head system with opposing detectors (Opposing Heads System, OHS), it is not possible to position the point sources in the focal points without truncating the patient's head in the projections, even when large crystals are used. Space for the point sources can be created by positioning the cameras at a right angle (Right Angle System, RAS), but such CB systems require collimators with long focal distances or strong offsets for the focal points. It is therefore important to study the effects of focal point positions on the emission image quality. To this end, the following cases were compared in a simulation study: half cone-beams (HCB) in OHS and RAS and quarter cone-beam (QCB) collimators in RAS, each CB with different focal distances (ED). Projections of a disc phantom and a brain phantom acquired with circular orbits were simulated. The size of the crystals was 51/spl times/38 cm. Images were reconstructed iteratively with an Ordered Subset Expectation Maximization algorithm. The disc phantom experiment showed slice-to-slice crosstalk in the CB reconstructions which decreases with increasing focal distance. The CB reconstructions of the brain phantom did not show these artifacts. This study indicates that (i) An OHS with large crystals and HCB collimators provides superior emission image quality compared to RAS with HCB collimators and RAS with QCB collimators. (ii) Dual head systems with large crystals have potential for very high resolution brain imaging.


The global exploring feature of the surrogate model makes it a useful intermedia for design optimization. The accuracy of the surrogate model is closely related with the efficiency of optima-search. The cokriging approach described in present studies can significantly improve the surrogate model accuracy and cut down the turnaround time spent on the modeling process. Compared to the universal Kriging method, the cokriging method interpolates not only the sampling data, but also on their associated derivatives. However, the derivatives, especially high order ones, are too computationally costly to be easily affordable, forming a bottleneck for the application of derivative enhanced methods. Based on the sensitivity analysis of Navier–Stokes equations, current study introduces a low-cost method to compute the high-order derivatives, making high order derivatives enhanced cokriging modeling practically achievable. For a methodological illustration, second-order derivatives of regression model and correlation models are proposed. A second-order derivative enhanced cokriging model-based optimization tool was developed and tested on the optimal design of an automotive engine cooling fan. This approach improves the modern optimal design efficiency and proposes a novel direction for the large scale optimization problems.


This papers presents a qualitative study aiming to investigate how new Portuguese curriculum proposals from primary school (the intentional curriculum) are translated in the teaching of science of four prospective teachers (the operational curriculum). The research adopted a case study methodology in order to describe main features of the pedagogical profile of classroom practices of those teachers. Three different profiles were identified. Some interpretative aspects are outlined and important implications for pre-service education are put forward.


This study was conducted to investigate drone rearing activity and semen production of Apis mellifera ligustica and Apis mellifera syriaca. Tendency of worker bees of both subspecies towards egg laying under semiarid conditions were also monitored in the experiments. Differences were not observed in drone brood production between both honeybee subspecies throughout the investigation. Worker bees of both subspecies needed a significantly shorter time to start egg laying during February and March in comparison with the time those workers needed for laying eggs during the remaining months of the study. Syrian bee workers started egg laying earlier than Italian bee workers. Drones from laying workers were much smaller and produced less sperms with more abnormalities than normal drones. Drones produced from queens in May were heavier and produced more sperms with less abnormalities than those produced during the other months. The drone brood rearing of both subspecies tended to follow the same general cycle in 2005 and 2006. The study suggests that virgin queens have a better chance to receive adequate viable sperm amounts from drones in April and May in semiarid Mediterranean conditions.


In the spring of 2003, a multi-national coalition led by the United States invaded Iraq, beginning a conflict that has lasted for over five years. The principal asserted reasons for the invasion were to disarm Iraq of alleged weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free Iraqis from Saddam's dictatorial reign. A major component of the coalition's multi-faceted offensive was to restore some semblance of order after removing Hussein from power. To this end, officials at the State Department and Department of Defense recommended that a team of experienced American judicial professionals conduct an assessment of Iraq's judicial infrastructure once hostilities ceased. As the final major military skirmishes came to an end, the Department of Justice selected a team of thirteen American judges, prosecutors, public defenders and a court administrator to travel to Iraq to make an initial assessment of the Iraqo judicial system of the next two months. The team arrived in Baghdad in mid-April after taking the same route that coalition forces took just weeks earlier: a trans-Atlantic flight to Kuwait followed by a 450-mile trek through the Iraqi desert. This article describes the work of the assessment team during May and June 2003, as initial steps were taken to bring a meaningful Rule of Law to Iraq.


Implementation of road projects southern cross wawar - congot purworejo central java at week 27 is delayed. From 53.41% is only realized 12.82%. Fast track method, the program crashes, and what if is used to accelerate the implementation of delayed project. The purpose of this study is to determine the acceleration of implementation, to evaluate the effectiveness acceleration and to evaluate the implementation of road projects based on the control of time and cost. Time control and costs control shows sv 0.24 and cv value of 1.06, and it explains that the project is delayed, but the cost is less from the plan. Fast track method can accelerate 78 days, crash program method can accelerate 31 days, and what if method can accelerate to 7 days from prior to the acceleration, which is 110 days late. All three methods cannot speed up the project based on the plan. Fast track method is the method most quickly approaching the initial plan. Then combination of acceleration between fast track and a crash program produce total duration as scheduled. The conclusion is the combination of methods can restore the schedule according to the plan.


Abstract We examine the causal effect of stakeholder orientation on firms' cost of debt. Our test exploits the staggered state-level adoption of constituency statutes, which allows directors to consider stakeholders' interests when making business decisions. We find a significant drop in loan spreads for firms incorporated in states that adopted such statutes relative to firms incorporated elsewhere. We further show that constituency statutes reduce the cost of debt through the channels of mitigating conflicts of interest between residual and fixed claimants and between holders of liquid claims and holders of illiquid claims, limiting legal liability and lowering takeover threats.


Every health worker strikes hard for every child's death, most notably when it is due to a disease that is readily preventable with a safe and effective vaccine. The tragedy is hard to accept when health practitioners see the consequences of children missing out on vaccination first-hand. This research was intended to bridge the literature gap on the knowledge, and the reasons mothers comply with polio vaccination. The study was intended to assess the level of literacy on polio vaccination of mothers in selected barangays in Bago City when they are taken as a whole and grouped according to age, educational attainment, distance to health facility, number of children, family income, and barangay location administered. A descriptive-comparative research design using a very highly reliable and valid researcher made questionnaire was administered to respondents. The level of literacy of mothers on polio vaccination in selected barangays of Bago City when grouped according to age, educational attainment, the distance of health facility, number of children, family income, and barangay location was very high.  The major reasons for compliance of mothers with polio vaccination can be attributed to health workers who can give follow up through home visits and any health professional who can give the polio vaccine.  Due to reported vaccine scare and the current pandemic the study will benefit rural health administrators, community health nurses, and future researchers. Findings could provide rural health administrators with insights to conduct a re-assessment of the implementation of vaccination programs initiated by the Department of Health


This study develops a dynamic bus arrival time prediction model using the data collected by the automatic vehicle location and automatic passenger counter systems. It is based on the Kalman filter algorithm with a two-dimensional state variable in which the prediction error in the most recent observation is used to optimize the arrival time estimate for each downstream stop. The impact of schedule recovery is considered as a control factor in the model to reflect the driver's schedule recovery behavior. The algorithm performs well when tested with a set of automatic vehicle location–automatic passenger counter data collected from a real-world bus route. The algorithm does not require intensive computation or an excessive data preprocessing effort. It is a promising approach for real-time bus arrival time prediction in practice.


This article describes the prototype of the read-out subsystem which will be subject to the BESIII data acquisition system. According to the purpose of the BESIII, the event rate will be about 4000 Hz and the data rate up to 50 Mbytes/sec after Level 1 trigger. The read-out subsystem consists of some read-out crates and a read-out computer whose function is to initialize the hardware, to collect the event data from the front-end electronics after Level 1 trigger, to transfer data fragments to the computer in online form through two levels of computer pre-processing and high-speed network transmission. In this model, the crate level read-out implementation is based on the commercial single board computer MVME5100 running the VxWorks operating system. The article outlines the structure of the crate level testing platform of hardware and software. It puts emphasis on the framework of the read-out test model, data process flow and test method at crate level. Especially, it enumerates the key technologies in the process of design and analyses the test results. In addition, results which summarize the performance of the single board computer from the data transferring aspects will be presented.


This study sought to analyze the structure of the young adult version of the Quality of Life Scale--QOLS--proposed by Soares in a sample of elderly women, considering more robust psychometric properties. To achieve this Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) and Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) were conducted using AMOS GRAFICS (version 18.0). The sample was comprised of 143 women aged 67.45 ± 3.87 years, from the Elderly Center at a private University in Brasilia, Federal District. Two models were assessed, namely one-factor and two-factor models. The results suggest that the best items to the Quality of Life Scale were found in the two-factor model (psychological and behavioral) presenting, specifically, the following items of quality adjustment: χ²/gl ratio = 1.05, GFI = 0.89, AGFI = 0.85, CFI = 0.99, RMSEA (90%IC) = 0.02, CAIC = 632.85 e ECVI = 2.56. It was concluded that the scale presents psychometric properties able to ensure internal structure and consistency in a sample of elderly women.


The conventional criteria for a classical dissociation in single-case studies require that a patient be impaired on one task and within normal limits on another. J. R. Crawford and P. H. Garthwaite (2005) proposed an additional criterion, namely, that the patient's (standardized) difference on the two tasks should differ from the distribution of differences in controls. Monte Carlo simulation was used to evaluate these criteria. When Type I errors were defined as falsely concluding that a control case exhibited a dissociation, error rates were high for the conventional criteria but low for Crawford and Garthwaite's criteria. When Type I error rates were defined as falsely concluding that a patient with equivalent deficits on the two tasks exhibited a dissociation, error rates were very high for the conventional criteria but acceptable for the latter criteria. These latter criteria were robust in the face of nonnormal control data. The power to detect classical dissociations was studied.


Simulations by nonadiabatic (NA) molecular dynamics demonstrate that mixing tin with lead in CH3NH3PbI3 can passivate the midgap state created by an interstitial iodine (Ii) via the imposed compressive strain and upshifted valence band maximum, reduce NA coupling by decreasing electron-hole wave functions overlap, and shortens pure-dephasing time by introducing high-frequency phonon modes. Thus, the charge carrier lifetime extends to 3.6 ns due to the significantly reduced nonradiative electron-hole recombination, which is an order of magnitude longer than the Ii-containing CH3NH3PbI3, over 2.5 times longer than the pristine CH3NH3PbI3 (1.4 ns), and even 1.7 times longer than the tin-lead mixed perovskite without the Ii defects (2.1 ns). Tin-lead alloying simultaneously increases the Ii defect formation energy to 0.402 eV from 0.179 eV in CH3NH3PbI3, which effectively enhances defect tolerance by reducing the defect concentration. The study reveals the factors controlling the enhanced performance of tin-lead mixed perovskite solar cells.


This book consists of a series of new, peer-reviewed papers in stochastic processes, analysis, filtering and control, with particular emphasis on mathematical finance, actuarial science and engineering. Paper contributors include colleagues, collaborators and former students of Robert Elliott, many of whom are world-leading experts and have made fundamental and significant contributions to these areas. This book provides new important insights and results by eminent researchers in the considered areas, which will be of interest to researchers and practitioners. The topics considered will be diverse in applications, and will provide contemporary approaches to the problems considered. The areas considered are rapidly evolving. This volume will contribute to their development, and present the current state-of-the-art stochastic processes, analysis, filtering and control. Contributing authors include: H Albrecher, T Bielecki, F Dufour, M Jeanblanc, I Karatzas, H-H Kuo, A Melnikov, E Platen, G Yin, Q Zhang, C Chiarella, W Fleming, D Madan, R Mamon, J Yan and V Krishnamurthy.


Molecular imaging includes all imaging methods applied in the identification, characterization and assessment "in vivo" of biological processes which occur at the cellular and molecular level. Molecular imaging parallels the remarkable advances achieved in the medical field, culminated in the sequencing of human DNA, the genome project. The understanding of the genetic basis of diseases and of human biology in general, together with the development of new drugs, led to a growing need for novel, sensitive and safe imaging technology to be rapidly translated from animal models into patients. The present evaluation of presence/absence of disease is based on anatomic and morphologic changes, the result of underlying molecular alterations. Direct "in vivo" visualization of these alterations allows early diagnosis before the onset of typical pathologic manifestations. Similarly, short-term effects of therapy can be directly visualized. In a near future, "evidence-based" medicine will become "presymptomatic" medicine. Histopathology will be replaced by "molecular pathology" with genomic implications in disease classification. In the near future the conventional morphologic methods should be supported and then replaced by the new functional and molecular methods with additional information proved useful for the diagnostic approach. In this article, the potentialities and applications of Nuclear Medicine, Magnetic Resonance Imaging, Optical Imaging and Contrast-enhanced Ultrasound are reviewed.


The authors provide an overview of current clinical neuroimaging techniques for acute ischemic stroke. The pathophysiology of ischemic stroke is briefly reviewed, especially as it pertains to cerebral blood flow. There are three important goals that must be met in the imaging of an acute ischemic stroke: (1) to quantitate the extent of infarction already present; (2) to quantitate the amount of salvageable brain remaining; and (3) to identify the presence of arterial stenosis or occlusion that is both responsible for the stroke and potentially amenable to treatment. Methods of quantifying the degree of infarction, by magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography, are compared. Techniques for measuring cerebral blood flow, to quantify tissue at risk, are detailed and compared. The quantification of cerebral blood flow is discussed in detail. Methods of visualizing the cerebral circulation are illustrated.


Backgroud: Family planning is an effort to increase awareness and participation in realizing a happy and prosperous small family. The efforts by the National Population and Family Planning Agency to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio in Indonesia are by increasing family planning participation and use the Long-Term Contraception Method through fertility regulation in family planning policies implemented to assist married couple on decision making, the shared decision-making is one of model that can be used by health care providers for helping patients make a health decision.
Purpose: Known the influence of shared decision-making model on decision making of long- term contraception method at the BPM and RB in Palembang City in 2020.
Methods: The study uses a pre experimental design with a static group comparison design. The samples were took by accidental sampling technique, which 80 respondents were divided into 40 respondent in the control group and 40 other respondents in the experiment group.
Results: Based on univariat results in the control group it was found that the majority of mothers (72,5%) chose to continue using current contraception and in experiment group there were 12 mothers (30%) who chose and had used long-term contraception. The results of statistic analysis using the Chi-Square test with a significance level of 5% obtained the results of Pearson Chi-Square p = 0,002 which means the shared decision-making model has influence on decision making of long-term contraception method at the BPM and RB in Palembang City.
Conclusion: There is a significant the influence of shared decision-making model on decision making of long-term contraception method at the BPM and RB in Palembang City in 2020


As fuel prices continue to rise automotive manufacturers continue to push their suppliers to provide technology that improves the potential fuel efficiency of their applications. In addition there is an increasing trend towards smaller , lighter and more compact vehicles to mitigate the automotive carbon footprint. These movements necessitated the development of a new compact, low mass, variable displacement compressor to match the requirements for these smaller and more efficient vehicles. The new Delphi MVC, or Miniature Variable Compressor, meets these requirements by integrating the high efficiency of our latest swashplate variable compressor design into a compact and lightweight package. This design can be offered in a range of displacements from 80 to 100cc and can be offered as either internally or externally controlled to support the customer's needs.


The initial steps in carrying out a feasibility analysis for a Web project, based on information obtained interactively from a prospective client, are modelled as a rule-based expert system that draws on empirical formulas to provide a quantitative valuation of the clients replies. The model is centred in the pre-design phase, concerned in particular with ascertaining whether coherent aims, message, audience and services have been identified for the Web project. The model is constructed empirically by means of a knowledge acquisition process. The various data collected from the user are described, as well as the way in which these data are translated into quantitative values that subsequently play a role in the final diagnosis for the Web project. The system has been evaluated in two ways: system users were asked to provide feedback, and the experts who took part in the knowledge acquisition phase were asked to review system performance.


Waste rubber cannot be reprocessed by melting because of its three-dimensionally crosslinked molecular structure. Mechanical size reduction is the most common method for recycling and reusing waste rubber. The modified solid-state shear extrusion (SSSE) process developed at the Illinois Institute of Technology was used for mechanical size reduction of rubber in a continuous process. In this work, an extended screw was used in conjunction with the original design of the SSSE apparatus to achieve greater rubber pulverization with a higher throughput rate and lower power consumption. The operating conditions of the modified SSSE apparatus were optimized to produce finer rubber particles that could be further used in a wide variety of applications. Controlling the residence time of rubber particles inside the pulverization section was crucial for producing a fine powder without agglomeration. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Appl Polym Sci, 2011


Sedative and antiemetic effect of hydroxyzine as a premedicant were studied and results were compared with a placebo and Talwin. Two hundred and fourty patients were evaluated. These patients were divided into 6 groups. There were fourty patients in each group. Group 1: Hydroxyzine 50mg. Group 2: Hydroxyzine 100mg. Group 3: Placebo. Group 4: Talwin 20mg. Group 5: Hydroxyzine 5pmg plus Talwie 20mg. Group 6: Hydroxyzine 100mg plus Talwin 20mg. The results were as follows;
1) Satisfactory sedation was ovtained in 75% with group I, in 92.5% with group 2, in 30% with group 3, in 40% with group 4, in 82. 5% With group 5, and in 97. 5% with group 6. Better results were obtained with hydroxyzine plus Talwin group than hydroxyzine anly. 2) The incidence of postoperative nausea and vomiting in recovery room, 7. 5% wlth group 7. 5 % with group 3, 20% with group 4, 5%. with group 5. There was no case of nausea and vomiting in group 2 and group 6. We obtained a significant difference in antiemetic effect between Talwin only and the Talwin plus hydroxyzine group. 3) There was no adverse change on vital signs in all cases.


In this work, niobium pentoxide (Nb2O5) nanoparticles of varying sizes and morphology were synthesized using the controlled precipitation method. Ammonium niobate oxylate hydrate (NH4)H2[NbO(C2O4)3] · 3 H2O was used as a niobium precursor and distilled water or acetic acid was used as solvent. The obtained solids were characterized using Fourier transform infrared and Raman spectroscopies, X-ray diffraction and transmission electron microscopy. The as-synthesized solid precipitate was amorphous, but after heat treatment between 500 °C and 600 °C, the T-Nb2O5 phase was obtained. The size of the primary particles of the niobium pentoxide was nanometric (<100 nm), with agglomerate size of >500 nm, when water was used as a solvent for synthesis. Considering the nature of the process, a possible reaction mechanism of the precursor with the water and NH4OH was proposed, which explains the formation of the solid within an aqueous solution. Considering one potential use of Nb2O5 synthesized in this work, the photo-degradation action of the particles on the organic molecule methylene blue was tested. The sample synthesized in acetic acid at pH ∼9.0 and heat treated at 600 °C showed the highest photo-degradation capacity, with a degradation of ∼60% of the dye for 60 minutes.


A total of 240 alkaliphilic bacterias were isolated from samples collected from alkaline soda lakes of Ethiopia were screened for the production of alkaline proteases. Of these, 30%(80)were protease positive. Out of the 80 protease positive isolates, 20 (25%) grew well and produce appreciable level of enzyme activity when grown in solid state culture. One isolate designated as Bacillus sp.C45 was selected based on enzyme property for further study. The protease produced by Bacillus sp. C45 was characterized to determine its potential industrial application. The enzyme was active in the pH range of 6.5-11.5, with optimum activity at pH 8-9; and stable at alkaline pH. The optimum temperature for activity was 40°C and 50°C in absence and presence of 5mM of Ca+2, respectively. The enzyme also displayed appreciable dehairing activity suggesting potential application for dehairing and detergent at moderate temperatures. By using wheat bran as substrate maximum protease production was achieved at inoculum size of 20% (v/w), bran to moistening agent ratio of 1:2 when incubated at 30°C for 144 hr showing a good potential to produce low cost alkaline protease by using inexpensive substrate.


The purposes of the study were to analyze nutritional status, psychosocial stimulation, and factors affecting the cognitive development of preschool-age children. This study was conducted in the Village of Babakan, Sub-District of Dramaga, Bogor Regency, West Java. This cross-sectionally designed study was conducted with mothers who had preschool children aged 3-5 years as respondents. Fifty-eight children were included. The distribution of mother's educational level was quite diverse, and the largest percentage (44.8%) had senior high school education. Approximately 78% of the family income per capita was classified into the non-poor category and 22.4% into the poor category. The average mother's nutritional knowledge score was 76.7 ± 2.5 (moderate category). Most of the preschool children (84.4%) had psychosocial stimulation scores in the moderate category (30-45). The nutritional status of children showed that 15.5% were underweight, 5.2% were wasted, 3.4% were severely wasted, and 19% of the children were in the short and very short categories (stunted). The stepwise regression results showed that psychosocial stimulation (P < 0.001), participation in early childhood education (P = 0.002) and nutritional status based on the height index for age (P = 0.028) had a positive and significant effect on cognitive development of the preschool children (adjusted R2, 0.434; P = 0.028).


Generating and detection coherent high-frequency heat-carrying phonons has been a great topic of interest in recent years. While there have been successful attempts in generating and observing coherent phonons, rigorous techniques to characterize and detect these phonon coherence in a crystalline material have been lagging compared to what has been achieved for photons. One main challenge is a lack of detailed understanding of how detection signals for phonons can be related to coherence. The quantum theory of photoelectric detection has greatly advanced the ability to characterize photon coherence in the last century and a similar theory for phonon detection is necessary. Here, we re-examine the optical sideband fluorescence technique that has been used detect high frequency phonons in materials with optically active defects. We apply the quantum theory of photodetection to the sideband technique and propose signatures in sideband photon-counting statistics and second-order correlation measurement of sideband signals that indicates the degree of phonon coherence. Our theory can be implemented in recently performed experiments to bridge the gap of determining phonon coherence to be on par with that of photons.


Modeling species interactions in diverse communities traditionally requires a prohibitively large number of species-interaction coefficients, especially when considering environmental dependence of parameters. We implemented Bayesian variable selection via sparsity-inducing priors on non-linear species abundance models to determine which species-interactions should be retained and which can be represented as an average heterospecific interaction term, reducing the number of model parameters. We evaluated model performance using simulated communities, computing out-of-sample predictive accuracy and parameter recovery across different input sample sizes. We applied our method to a diverse empirical community, allowing us to disentangle the direct role of environmental gradients on species' intrinsic growth rates from indirect effects via competitive interactions. We also identified a few neighboring species from the diverse community that had non-generic interactions with our focal species. This sparse modeling approach facilitates exploration of species-interactions in diverse communities while maintaining a manageable number of parameters.


– The purpose of this paper is to report exploratory research into UK music festival attendees awareness of, and attitude towards, brands that sponsor music festivals. Sponsorship is an important revenue stream for music festivals, and, conversely brands perceive music festivals to be an effective channel through which to reach young target audiences. Further, there have been concerns expressed about the impact of alcohol sponsorship on drinking and health, but very little research has been conducted in this area., – A questionnaire was used as the primary method of data collection in order to investigate brand recall, brand awareness, brand use, brand attitude and any concerns about the potentially negative impacts of sponsorship, and specifically alcohol sponsorship., – There is evidence to suggest that brand sponsorship of music festivals has an impact on brand recall, awareness and attitude to the brand, but little evidence of impact on brand use. On the other hand, there are variations between brands and festivals. The values associated with sponsoring brands are largely positive. Some respondents indicated concerns about the consequences of sponsorship, particularly in relation to alcohol sponsorship., – This exploratory study has started a long overdue investigation into music festival attendees views on sponsorship. There is considerable scope for a larger scale study to investigate the impact of sponsorship over a larger number of brands and festivals, and to learn more about the sponsorship arrangements that have the most impact.


Postprandial (PP) lipaemia is a significant contributor to the development of dyslipidaemia and cardiovascular disease (CVD). It is also evident that PP lipaemia is prevalent during conditions of obesity and insulin resistance (IR) and may contribute to increased progression of CVD. Our group has assessed the potential of the obese JCR:LA-cp rat as a model of PP lipaemia in order to explore CM (chylomicron) metabolism during the onset and development of IR in the metabolic syndrome. Studies confirm that both fasting plasma and PP apoB48 (apolipoprotein B48) area under the curve are significantly elevated in the obese JCR:LA-cp phenotype as compared with lean controls. Mechanistic studies have also shown that the concentration of lymphatic CM apoB48 and CM size are significantly increased in this model. Furthermore, PP dyslipidaemia in the obese rat can be improved acutely with supplementation of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids. Using a different approach, we have subsequently hypothesized that the vascular remodelling that accompanies IR may explain accelerated entrapment of apoB48-containing particles. Small leucine-rich proteoglycans (including biglycan and decorin) have been observed to co-localize with apoB in human tissue. However, the potential impact of IR on vascular remodelling, particularly in the presence of obesity, remains unclear. Preliminary observations from the JCR:LA-cp model indicate that biglycan protein core content increases with age and is exacerbated by IR, suggestive of pro-atherogenic remodelling. The focus of this review is to contribute to the perspective of PP lipaemia in CVD risk associated with the metabolic syndrome through the use of animal models.


OBJECTIVE
To understand the present condition of iodine excess areas and edible salt at household levels in Ohio of Yellow River,which will provide the evidence to control it.

METHODS
A cross section in one time was adopted for the epidemiological survey based on the east, west, south, north and central in all of townships from 8 counties. 2 samples of drinking water from each village were tested their water iodine content as well as the data regarding to their recourses and the depth of wells. 5 samples of edible salt were collected from each village for quantitative analysis.

RESULTS
We investigated 451 villages in 92 townships of 8 counties. 800 samples of drinking water were tested which values of iodine content were (110.93 +/- 152.26) microg/L in main, 55.83 microg/L (0.84 - 997.82 microg/L) in medium. 102.39 thousand population are at risk for iodine excess and living in 24 townships of 7 counties where iodine concentration is over 150 microg/L in drinking water, with (327.72 +/- 192.19) microg/L in mean value or 253.87 microg/L (150.78 - 997.82 microg/L) in medium. The rate of iodized salt is 97.2%. All the iodine excess areas are located in alluvial plain of Yellow River. The etiology of high iodine in shallow well water may be supposed to be iodine aggregation formed by Yellow River in terms of thousands of flood in thousands of years. But iodine excess in deep well water may be related to rotten, deposit marine living beings rich in iodine millions upon millions years ago.

CONCLUSION
There were distinctive features of iodine excess in drinking water from both shallow well and deep well, 24 iodine excess areas in Ohio of Yellow River. It has suggested that iodized salt intervention should be stopped in the areas and starting the health education project, survey of iodized salt in the region.


Pressure of parasites that are short-lived and rapid-evolving compared to the hosts they attack could be an evolutionary factor sufficiently general to account for sex wherever it exists. To be such a factor, parasites must show virulences specific to differing genotypes. Models are set up on this basis (one-locus diploid-selection and two-locus haploid-selection) in which the rapid demographic reactivity of parasite strains to abundance of susceptible hosts becomes represented in a single frequency-dependent fitness function which applies to every host genotype. It is shown that with frequency dependence sufficiently intense such models generate cycles, and that in certain states of cycling sexual species easily obtain higher long-term geometric mean fitness than any competing monotypic asexual species or mixture of such. In the successful cycle of the two-locus model, it is seen that both population size and gene frequencies may be steady while only oscillating linkage disequilibrium reflects the intense selection by parasites. High levels of recombination work best. Fecundity in the models can be low and no incidence of competition of siblings or other relatives is required.


Abstract The annual emergence of 11 chironomid species from more or less shallow ponds in the area of Hazen Camp (81°49′ N., 71°18′ W.) is considered. Features of emergence are very similar in all these arctic species, although different species emerge at slightly different times in the same habitat.In the deeper habitats, emergence from a deep site is slightly later than that from a shallower one in the same pond. There are very marked differences in times of emergence from pond to pond: emergence of 50% of the annual total for a given species may be reached in different ponds up to 3 weeks apart. These differences from habitat to habitat mean that adults are present over the general Hazen area throughout the arctic summer.The time at which emergence begins in a given pond (or given site within a deeper pond) is primarily dictated by the temperature required for pre-emergence development, but also by other features of individual ponds. Pond temperatures near 4° or 5 °C are most important in this respect. The time of first emergence differs between years in the same pond according to year-to-year temperature differences.Emergence of a given species is basically highly synchronized within a pond, but the emergence period may be prolonged by lowered temperatures acting as a threshold for adult emergence at about 7 °C. The emergence pattern is less regular in shallow ponds in which the temperature fluctuates greatly, and it is more regular with lower peaks in deeper ponds.Males of a number of species generally emerge slightly before the females.Emergence of given species within given ponds is synchronized because only larvae which are ready to pupate without further feeding in spring emerge in any year. There must therefore be control of a 'diapause' type.Aquatic insect species are characterized as 'absolute spring species' if all potential émergents overwinter as mature larvae (i.e. larvae in which no further growth is necessary before emergence) and also 'diapause' is present at this stage. To this category all of these high arctic species belong. They are apparently derived from 'absolute spring species' farther south, the life-cycles of which are pre-adapted to the shortness of the arctic season. Despite the potential for highly synchronized emergence which such species possess, this potential is not fully realized in the arctic because the irregular fluctuations of temperature there operate near values which may directly inhibit development and emergence.


Expression of Clara Cell Secretory Protein in the Lungs of Rats Exposed to Crystalline Silica In Vivo: Yasuo Morimoto, et al. Department of Occupational Pneumology, Institute of Industrial and Ecological Sciences, University of Occupational and Environmental Health—It has been theorized that Clara cell secretion protein (CCSP) plays a critical role in regulating the acute inflammatory response in the lung. We hypothesized that CCSP is also related to lung injury induced by occupational dust. The present study was conducted to investigate the time course of the expression of CCSP in lungs exposed to crystalline silica in vivo. Male Wistar rats were administered 1 mg or 2 mg of silica suspended in saline by a single intratracheal instillation and were sacrificed at 3 d, 1 wk, 1 month, 3 months and 6 months of recovery time. The expression of CCSP was observed by RT‐PCR and western blot analysis. Exposure to 2 mg of silica decreased in levels of CCSP mRNA at 3 d, 1 wk, 1 month and 6 months following intratracheal instillation. The protein level of CCSP in silica‐exposed rats was decreased at 3 d, 7 d and 1 month after a single instillation of 2 mg. The decreases in CCSP at the acute phase in this experiment suggest that CCSP may regulate the acute injury of the lung exposed to silica.


Evaluation of operational capacity in science and technology information playing an important role in promoting innovation in scientific and technological information activities in Vietnam in order to meet the right of access to scientific and public information technology of organizations and individuals. Based on the application of theoretical system, the study proposes a policy to assess the operational capacity of science and technology information organizations with 02 basic measures: building a capacity assessment framework and evaluation methods. Therefore, the study recommends the promulgation and implementation of this policy.


Diagnosis of primary HIV infection may be disrupted by many factors, one of which are drugs such as exogenous steroids. We report a rare case of a 37-year-old male patient, undergoing testosterone treatment in the course of Klinefelter syndrome. He presented with the general symptoms of fever, weakness and diarrhea lasting for 2 weeks. He also had incorrect results of laboratory studies. The fourth generation ELISA HIV test indicated negative outcomes. The HIV real time polymerase chain reaction test was performed and showed very high plasma viral load, over 107 copies/ml. We discuss the connection between androgen replacement therapy used in Klinefelter syndrome and the diagnosis of PHI. This case report illustrates the importance of obtaining a detailed medical history, especially of chronic diseases and medications, and applying appropriate diagnostic tests.


Between January 1982 and April 1993, 8 patients suffering from a typical clinical picture of chronic intestinal ischemia, have been observed. All these patients were symptomatic and 7 cases presented stenosing or occlusive lesions of at least 2 of the 3 splanchnic trunks. 5 of these 7 patients underwent a corrective surgical procedure. 2 patients underwent percutaneous transluminal angioplasty. One patient affected by stenosis of the coeliac trunk due to external compression caused by the median arcuate ligament of the diaphragm was not operated because the symptomatology was atypical and the other 2 splanchnic trunks were perfectly patent. Three patients died following the therapeutic procedure: a woman in whom an aorto-mesenteric bypass graft was inserted, underwent, 4 months after, an intestinal infarction due to thrombosis of the graft; another woman, whose coeliac trunk and superior mesenteric artery were thrombosed and whose inferior mesenteric artery was reimplanted on the common iliac artery, died for acute hepatic failure, after 12 months of total parenteral nourishment; a third patient, successfully submitted to PTA of the superior mesenteric artery, died after 4 months due to the occurrence of acute renal insufficiency.


FtsZ dimer was studied to gain insights into FtsZ protofilament formation. In a previous simulation study of the M.janaschii dimer it was found that the monomer-monomer contacts in the GDP bound dimer is lower which results in the high curvature of the GDP bound protofilaments. In this study, we have simulated the E.coli FtsZ dimer. The initial structure was obtained from our previous study in which we had simulated the E.coli FtsZ monomer with its C-terminal IDR (Intrinsically Disordered region) built by homology modelling. The M.janaschii FtsZ dimer subunit contacts were used in the initial configuration. Simulations of the dimer were performed with GTP, GDP and ATP. We observed that the C-terminal domain rotates considerably during dimerization. We also observed the different dynamics of the GTP, GDP and ATP bound dimers due to which assembly into straight protofilaments is favoured only in the presence of GTP.


Recently, high brilliance and highly focused synchrotron beam lines, X-ray data collection at low temperature and technical advances in crystallographic analysis have significantly improved the resolution of X-ray crystallography. Crystallization in microgravity environment is one of the potential techniques for improving quality of protein crystals. In this study Takaamylase, a member of alpha-amylase family derived from Aspergillus oryzae, was used as a model protein for high resolution X-ray crystal structure analysis. Space-grown crystals were obtained in the JAXA-GCF (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency Granada Crystallization Facility) project [1]. Data collections was performed using synchrotron radiation from SPring-8 beamline BL44XU, equipped with a DIP6040 image plate detector (MAC Science / Bruker-AXS) at 90K under nitrogen vapour stream. Two data sets were collected for highand low-resolution data to obtain wide dynamic range diffraction data. The diffraction data were observed up to 0.94Å resolution. The data were integrated, scaled and merged using the DENZO and SCALEPACK programs. The crystals belong to space group P212121, with the following cell dimensions: a=50.4Å, b=67.4Å, c=130.5Å. The overall Rmerge based on intensities for all data was 7.7% with its completeness of 97.6%. The starting model for the refinement was the coordinate set 6TAA from the Protein Data Bank [2]. Refinement was carried out by SHELX-93. The last stage of refinement against data to 1.0Å converged to an R factor of 13.1% and a free R of 16.1%. The final model of taka-amylase consists of 4210 non-hydrogen atoms, 3148 hydrogen atoms and 671 water molecules. 13 side chains were modelled in two conformations. B factors were 11.7, 13.7 and 23.6Å for main-chain, side-chain and water molecules. This high-resolution structure was providing us more reliable geometric and conformational properties of the protein.