Abstraet--Saponite, hectorite, and laponite have been pillared with cationic A1 clusters, and special attention has been given to the solution chemistry orAl. Pillared saponite is obtained after exchange with refluxed A1 solutions; while for hectorite, Al solutions treated with ammonium acetate give a pillared product with 1.8-1.9 nm spacing and thermal stability up to 873 K. In both types of solutions, the Keggin ion Al cluster is a minority species or totally absent. The typical 1.8-1.9 nm spacing is only obtained after washing. The quality of the pillared material can be judged from its thermal stability, its surface area, and the width of the d001 line before and after pillaring. The width should not exceed 0.3 nm before calcination and 0.5 nm after calcination. The latter criterion reflects the importance of the crystallinity of the parent clay for successful pillaring. Pillaring in concentrated conditions occurs by a combination of ion exchange and precipitation of AI and gives materials that exhibit poor thermal stability. Key Words--Aluminium, Hectorite, Laponite, Pillaring, Saponite.


The androgen receptor (AR) is a member of the steroid receptor superfamily that binds to the androgen response element to regulate target gene transcription. AR may need to interact with some selected coregulators for maximal or proper androgen function. Here we report the isolation of a new AR coregulator with a calculated molecular mass of 267 kDa named the androgen receptor-associated protein 267-alpha (ARA267-alpha). ARA267-alpha contains 2427 amino acids, including one Su(var)3-9, Enhancer-of-zeste, and Trithorax (SET) domain, two LXXLL motifs, three nuclear translocation signal (NLS) sequences, and four plant homeodomain (PHD) finger domains. Northern blot analyses reveal that ARA267-alpha is expressed predominantly in the lymph node as 13- and 10-kilobase transcripts. HepG2 is the only cell line tested that does not express ARA267-alpha. Yeast two-hybrid and glutathione S-transferase pull-down assays show that both the N and C terminus of ARA267-alpha interact with the AR DNA- and ligand-binding domains. Unlike other coregulators, such as CBP, which enhance the interaction between the N and C terminus of AR, we found that ARA267-alpha had little influence on the interaction between the N and C terminus of AR. Luciferase and chloramphenicol acetyltransferase assays show that ARA267-alpha can enhance AR transactivation in a dihydrotestosterone-dependent manner in PC-3 and H1299 cells. ARA267-alpha can also enhance AR transactivation with other coregulators, such as ARA24 or PCAF, a histone acetylase, in an additive manner. Together, our data demonstrate that ARA267-alpha is a new AR coregulator containing the SET domain with an exceptionally large molecular mass that can enhance AR transactivation in prostate cancer cells.


Cockroach antennae have been extensively used for studying the multifunctional sensory appendage that generates the olfactory, gustatory, tactile, thermal, and humidity senses. Of the variety of senses, the tactile sense is thought to play a key role for perceiving physical objects. Because most cockroach species are nocturnal, the tactile sense of the antenna would be essential to determine the position, shape, and texture of surrounding objects in the dark. Mechanoreceptors on the surface of the antenna are primarily responsible for the generation of tactile sense. In addition, the motor function of antenna also contributes to the active tactile sense (Staudacher et al. 2005; Comer and Baba 2011). The antennal movement is accompanied by the activation of proprioceptors at the antennal joints.


© British Ornithologists' Club 2010 This is an open access article, available to all readers online. The attached file is the published version of the article.


The U.S. airline industry has experienced consolidation in the last decade. At the same time, global environmental concerns have continued to grow. This paper examines the impact of three recent airline mergers on the environment by comparing per-departure NOX emission and the total NOX emission from merging firms at a given airport versus those emitted by non-merging firms at the same airport, by focusing on emissions from airplane flight landing/take-off cycles. The regression results suggest that mergers overall have no impact on either per-departure NOX emissions or total NOX emissions, while some individual mergers resulted in decreased emissions. However, this study finds that mergers have a negative impact on NOX emissions in the medium term when flight destinations are hub airports and a positive impact on NOX emissions in the medium term when flight destinations are non-hub airports.


Solid-liquid interfacial energies of chromium and nickel are estimated from a Gibbs-Thomson relation. Molecular dynamics simulation shows that there is a critical temperature dividing shrinking or growing of a freestanding spherical crystal in the undercooled melt and the critical temperature is negatively correlated with inverse of crystal radius, which is regarded as the Gibbs-Thomson effect. The solid-liquid interfacial energies are then estimated from the proportional coefficient, to be 0.304 Jm for chromium and 0.256 Jm for nickel, respectively.


During recent years, new doubts about the effectiveness of international aid have emerged. One of the arguments employed to justify this sceptical view is that aid can hinder tax effort in developing countries. Nevertheless, empirical research on the aidtax nexus is inconclusive and it shows some shortcomings in the tax database employed and in the variables considered in the estimation. The main goal of this article is to overcome these shortcomings. The main results are twofold: i) income distribution is a crucial determinant of tax revenues; and ii) once income distribution is taken into account, aid shows no significant impact on tax revenue; not even when we control for institutional quality. JEL Classification: 010, 023, 043


We studied the differentiation-inducing effect of beta-methasone on human glioma cell line U251 cultured in vitro, and the underlying mechanism. U251 cells were divided into two groups: control group cells, cultured in Dulbecco's Modified Eagle's medium containing 10% fetal bovine serum; and medication group cells, treated with 15 μM betamethasone. Morphological cell changes were observed by inverted microscope, cell cycle changes were ascertained by flow cytometry, and vimentin expression was checked by immunocytochemistry. The expression levels of extracellular signal-regulated protein ki-nase (ERK), phosphorylated ERK (pERK), and glial fibrillary acidic protein (GFAP) were assessed by western blot. Compared with the control group, U251 cell processes increased significantly, but declined 96 h after betamethasone took effect. After 48 h, the percentage of S-phase cells decreased significantly (28.77 to 20.42%; P = 0.014); the percent-age of strongly positive vimentin cells decreased significantly (91 to 51%; P = 0.0092); and the ratio of expression of GFAP protein to the internal control β-actin increased significantly (0.24 to 0.53; P = 0.1). The level of ERK protein did not change significantly 48 and 96 h after the action of betamethasone, and the pERK/ERK ratios were 0.37 and 0.23, respectively, which were significantly reduced compared with the control group (P = 0.028 and 0.006). Betamethasone has a significant effect on the induction and differentiation of U251 cells, and its mechanism may be related to the inhibition of the abnormal activation of the ERK signal pathway.


The overall aim of this project was to develop the technique of chromosomal in situ suppression (CISS) hybridization using whole chromosome specific libraries (chromosome painting) and to apply it to the investigation of diagnostic problems in clinical cytogenetics. Initially to gain experience with non-isotopic in situ hybridization, repetitive target probes DYS59 (GMY10) and DYS58 (GMGY7) were used. This provided experience in labelling of probe with biotin, hybridization and detection conditions (alkaline phosphatase detection) and analysis of results. The technique was reliable and sensitive and was applied to map the gene for angiotensinogen to 1q42. In the later part of this initial work, a fluorescence detection technique using fluoresceinated avidin and goat biotinylated anti-avidin was applied to confirm an isochromosomes Yp and Yq using DYS59 (GMGY10) and DYS58 (GMGY7) probes. The study then progressed into the development of the chromosome painting technique. Difficulties were encountered in preparing the working library probe from the chromosome 21 specific library and a major part of the work involved solving these problems. The libraries were found to be less concentrated than indicated by the supplier. Consequently, the amplification and purification following established protocols failed to produce a concentrated DNA library in the phage. However, a good yield of the DNA library was achieved by using trypticase in the culture media and high purity agarose as the top agar during the amplification. Labelling of the library by nick-translation and random priming did not achieve decoration of the whole chromosome 21 but direct labelling of Biotin-ll-dUTP by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification was found to be efficient and overcame the problem of non-homogenous painting of the target chromosome. This direct labelling approach had difficulties in the cleaning and concentration of the PCR product. These were overcome by cleaning with Sephadex G-50 column chromatography and freeze drying of eluate. Once homogeneous painting had been achieved the probe was applied for chromosome painting. Many problems and parameters for the optimum working conditions were identified in this part of study. These are either independent or/and related to various conditions involved during all stages of the technique. The maximum final concentration of the DNA mixture per slide was 10ug/10ul and increasing the ratio of the probe and/or the unlabelled DNA did not improve either the quality of suppression or the hybridization signal. Addition of human cot 1-DNA in 1 to 4 ratio with total human DNA gave better suppression. Denaturation of labelled probe and competitor DNA mixture was optimum at 75C for 8 minutes and for optimum preannealling, the mixture was prehybridized for a minimum of 60 minutes at 37C. Slides were only treated with RNase when necessary and not with Proteinase K as the latter tended to wash the cells off the slide. Denaturation of the slides was carried out at 70-75C in 70% formamide/2XSSC for a maximum of 8 minutes. At temperature of 80C the chromosome morphology was found to be distorted. Hybridization when carried out at 37C for 15 to 20 hours showed good hybridization with chromosome morphology undisturbed. Hybridization at 42-45C showed crystallization and heavy background deposits. Posthybridization washing in three changes of 50% formamide/2XSSC at 45C was found to be optimal in producing a clean background. In between detection washing using 0.1M sodium phosphate buffer with 0.1% Nonidet P-40 carried out at room temperature is sufficient to remove excess stain as compared to other washing buffers such as 2XSSC or 4XSSC containing Triton-X or Tween 20. Detection was carried out at room temperature for 15-20 minutes and any slide dried during this stage produced high autofluorescence of fluoresceinated avidin which was difficult to remove by washing. A single amplification cycle was sufficient to enhance the decoration of chromosome 21. Prebanding of slides prior to hybridization did not affect the target chromosomes, however, incomplete destaining did hinder probe penetration and interfere with counterstaining. It was found that refixing of slides (either new or old slides) in methanol:acetic acid (3:1) before denaturation tended to improve the hybridization result as well as reducing background signal. In general, the technical difficulties were related to either probe preparation, poor hybridization, non-homogeneous painting or high background but with modifications of the parameters as detailed above the method was shown to be reliable and reproducible. Chromosomes obtained from phytohaemagglutinin (PHA) stimulated blood cultures were used during the initial phase. Subsequently, painting was successfully performed on cytogenetically normal metaphase and prometaphase samples of cultured amniocytes, lymphoblastoid cell lines, chorionic villus samples (CVS) and bone marrow preparations. The results showed that all normal chromosome 21s in all types of preparation except direct chorionic villus sample (CVS) were intensely painted and distinctly recognisable. However, results with interphase nuclei were not encouraging. The signals produced were not consistent enough to produce as reliable results. Twelve cases with cytogenetic abnormalities involving the chromosome 21 were investigated using chromosome painting. These results proved that chromosome painting can be used for rapid identification of individual chromosomes and is complementary and confirmatory to conventional karyotyping and as such is predicted to have a future routine diagnostic role in clinical cytogenetics in additions to its research applications.


Abstract. On 16 July 2008, two pairs of consecutive bursts of Pi2 pulsations were recorded simultaneously across the THEMIS ground-based observatory system. Wavelet transformation reveals that for each high-latitude pair, the dominant frequency of the first burst is higher than that of the second. But at low latitudes, the dominant frequency does not change. It is suggested that both pairs result from fast magnetospheric cavity waves with the second burst also containing shear Alfven waves. INTERMAGNET magnetograms at auroral latitudes showed magnetic variations affected by two recurrent electrojets for each pair. The ground-based magnetometers and those at geostationary orbit sensed magnetic perturbations consistent with the formation of the substorm current wedge. Four consecutive enhancements of energetic electron and ion fluxes detected by the THEMIS probes in the dayside magnetosphere appeared in the later afternoon and then in the early afternoon. The horizontal magnetic variation vectors had vortex patterns similar to those induced by the upward and downward field-aligned currents during substorm times. The hodogram at mid- L stations had a polarization pattern similar to the one induced by the substorm current wedge for each Pi2 burst. The mapping of ground Pi2 onset timing to the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) observations shows that they appear under two cycles of north-to-south and then north variation. CLUSTER 4 in the south lobe observed wave-like magnetic fluctuations, probably driven by near-Earth reconnection, similar to those on the ground. These two observations are consistent with the link of double-onset substorms to magnetotail reconnection externally triggered by IMF variations.


The harsh climate of the Arctic may have negative effect on respiratory system and induce polar dyspnea in its inhabitants. The aim of this study was to assess the prevalence of polar dyspnea in the population of the Gydan Peninsula, which is located on Far North of Russia.

We examined 405 healthy inhabitants (144 men) of the Gydan Peninsula aged 18-60 yrs (mean age 43.2 yr), including 117 nenets from tundra population. Hyperventilation syndrome was diagnosed by using Nijmegen questionnaire (1984). Family history was analyzed by study of three generation pedigree. Pulmonary function was measured by dry spirometry (SpiroUSB ML 2525 CareFusion, UK).

Syndrome of polar dyspnea was diagnosed in 29.4% inhabitans. It was more common in women (35.4% vs 18.7% in men, χ2-11.6; p<0.001), immigrants (33.6% vs 20.8% in aborigines, χ2-4.6; p=0.03) and residents with positive family history (60.0% vs 36.5% in residents with negative history, p=0.01). FEV1 was normal in all groups.

We conclude that polar dyspnea is a functional disorder affecting some inhabitants of Far North. Its mechanism is not clear and may reflect a dysfunction of central nervous system in cold climate.


The cytotoxic compound moronic acid (1) and the new tetracyclic triterpene 3,4-seco-olean-18-ene-3,28-dioic acid (2), were isolated from the aerial parts of the medicinal plant Phoradendron reichenbachianum (mistletoe, Loranthaceae) through a bioassay-guided fractionation. In addition, squalene, glycerol trilinoleate, morolic acid, betulonaldehyde, betulinaldehyde, alpha-germanicol, lupeol, beta-sitosterol and beta-sitosteril glucopyranoside, were identified in this plant species. The structures were elucidated on the basis of chemical and spectroscopic evidence.


During his first presidential inauguration, Barack Obama got the oath of office wrong, so after some intense debates, he eventually had to retake it. At the 2014 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in Sochi, one of the five Olympic rings did not light up as planned, which created a fertile ground for mockery and ridicule of the organizers. Similarly, the nature and timing of Saddam Hussein's execution were at the core of ultimate disagreements among those several interest groups involved in it. These are all examples of public, collective rituals gone wrong on a grand scale, yet there are numerous examples of different errors of varying magnitudes. According to Kathryn T. McClymond, such ritual disruptions are not exceptions, but in fact a norm in all human societies. Since every known society engages in ritual behavior, this global prevalence of rituals has stimulated a broad academic interest, with researchers exploring its various aspects. However, despite their frequent occurrence, barely any research specifically targeted ritual mistakes, which is the motif of Ritual Gone Wrong: What We Learn from Ritual Disruption.


Three postlingually deafened adults who received cochlear implants read passages before and after their prostheses were activated while their lung volumes were measured with an inductive plethysmograph that transduced the cross-sectional areas of the speaker's chest and abdomen. Lung volumes at the initiation and termination of the speakers' expiratory limbs, their average air flow, and the volume of air they expended per syllable were derived from tracings of calibrated lung volume displayed by computer. The activation of the speakers' cochlear prostheses was followed in every case by a significant change in average airflow, which rose for two subjects with initially low flow rates and fell for one subject who had a much higher average preimplant flow rate. These changes in average flow rate were accompanied by corresponding changes in volume of air expended per syllable, statistically reliable in two of the three cases. There were no significant changes in the levels at which speakers initiated their expiratory limbs, but one speaker, after his prosthesis was activated, reliably increased the level of air in his lungs at the end of expiratory limbs to an average value that no longer required him to draw on expiratory reserve volume.


The General Infirmary at Leeds: Vol II-The Second Hundred Years, (1869-1965), by S. T. ANNING, Edinburgh and London, E. & S. Livingstone, 1966, pp. xii, 188, illus., 42s. This volume appears, as was hoped, in good time for the Infirmary's bicentenary in 1967. During the period covered, the institution has been on its present site, though the latter has naturally been much enlarged, and the buildings considerably elaborated, since the opening of the 'New' Infirmary in 1869. The last chapter deals in outline with the bold plans envisaged for the future, when a site enlarged to 43 acres will provide a magnificent hospital medical school campus contiguous with that of the university. Even so, so rapidly do the demands for more doctors appear to outstrip even the most far-sighted plans, that it seems likely that increasing use will have to be made of St. James's Hospital, a former municipal institution which, owing to wisdom and foresight in the inter-war period, is already sharing to a considerable extent in the teaching work of the Leeds Medical School. As in the previous volume, the story of the Infirmary is not presented entirely chronologically, but rather as a series of semi-independent essays dealing with the nursing services, buildings, the rise of the specialties, relations between the Infirmary and the Medical School, and so on. And somehow one seems to get in this way a more real picture of the growth of an institution than would be obtained by a more stereotyped presentation. The difficulty in the airing of the water-closets that was previously noted had been succeeded (in 1890) by complaint of their chilliness, one patient being said to have developed rheumatic fever as a result. And a problem that must be unusual in the hospital world had to be faced when in 1941 'the Moynihan Memorial had again been disfigured by lipstick.' The advice of Sir William Reid Dick himself had to be obtained, apparently with ultimate success, though it was later deemed wise to protect the Memorial by plate-glass. It is notable that the Chantrey bust of William Hey (the first), which also stands in the Entrance Hall of the Infirmary, has attracted no such scandalous attacks. (On a recent visit to Leeds, the reviewer noted that the bust appears now to be housed in the Consultants' cloakroom.) As was promised, a biographical Appendix is now provided covering the whole period of the hospital's existence and including not only consulting medical staff (unless still living) but also certain laymen who have done outstanding work for the institution. Especially on the surgical side, this sounds like a master-roll of some of the most famous names in English medicine over the last two centuries. This book is a labour of love whose scholarship is beyond question-so much so that the mis-spelling on page 54 gives a shock out of proportion to the triviality of the error. J. G. McCRIE


Plasma sprayed alumina-titania (Al2O3-TiO2) coatings have many industrial applications. They provide a dense and hard surface coating which are resistant to abrasion, corrosion, cavitation, oxidation and erosion and are therefore regularly used for wear resistance, electrical insulation, thermal barrier applications etc. This work reports the implementation of Artificial Neural Networks (ANN) for analysis and prediction of wear behavior of plasma sprayed alumina titania composite coatings. Alumina pre-mixed with titania powder is deposited on mild steel substances by atmospheric plasma spraying at various operating power level and the coatings are subjected to solid particle erosion. ANNs are excellent tools for complex processes that have many variables and complex interactions. The analysis is made taking into account training and test procedure to predict the dependence of erosion wear behavior on angle of impact and velocity of erodent. This technique helps in saving time and resources for experimental trials.


The report gives detailed instructions on preparation of input data for automatic computation of a discharge measurement by the slope-area method. The program follows standardized methods of computing cross section properties and uses multisection discharge equations. The printout comprises hydraulic properties of each section and computed discharges for each component subreach and for the entire reach. One example demonstrates the technique.


Julius B. Fleming, Jr.'s Black Patience: Performance, Civil Rights, and the Unfinished Project of Emancipation examines the central years of the Civil Rights Movement and argues that Black theatre and performance were at the forefront of Black political activism that refused to wait any longer for Black freedom.


Relative effects of Beef Quality Assurance (BQA)-related defects in market beef and dairy cows and bulls on selling price at auction was evaluated during 2008. The presence and severity of 23 BQA-related traits were determined during sales in Idaho, California, and Utah. Overall, 18,949 unique lots consisting of 23,479 animals were assessed during 125 dairy sales and 79 beef sales. Mean sale price ± SD (per 45.5 kg) for market beef cows, beef bulls, dairy cows, and dairy bulls was $45.15 ± 9.42, $56.30 ± 9.21, $42.23 ± 12.26, and $55.10 ± 9.07, respectively. When combined, all recorded traits explained 36% of the variation in selling price in beef cows, 35% in beef bulls, 61% in dairy cows, and 56% in dairy bulls. Premiums and discounts were determined in comparison with a "par" or "base" animal. Compared with a base BCS 5 beef cow (on a 9-point beef scale), BCS 1 to 4 cows were discounted (P < 0.0001), whereas premiums (P < 0.05) were estimated for BCS 6 to 8. Compared with a base BCS 3.0 dairy cow (on a 5-point dairy scale), more body condition resulted in a premium (P ≤ 0.001), whereas a less-than-desirable BCS of 2.0 or 2.5 was discounted (P < 0.0001). Emaciated or near-emaciated cows (beef BCS 1 or 2; dairy BCS 1.0 or 1.5) were discounted (P < 0.0001). Compared with base cows weighing 545 to 635 kg, lighter BW beef cows were discounted (P < 0.0001), whereas heavier beef cows received (P < 0.05) a premium. Compared with a base dairy cow weighing 636 to 727 kg, lighter BW cows were discounted (P < 0.0001), whereas heavier cows (727 to 909 kg) received a premium (P < 0.01). Beef and dairy cows with any evidence of lameness were discounted (P < 0.0001). Presence of ocular neoplasia in the precancerous stage discounted (P = 0.05) beef cows and discounted (P < 0.01) dairy cows, whereas at the cancerous stage, it discounted (P < 0.0001) all cows. Hide color influenced (P < 0.0001) selling price in beef cattle but had no effect (P = 0.17) in dairy cows. Animals that were visibly sick were discounted (P < 0.0001). Results suggest that improving BCS and BW, which producers can do at the farm or ranch level, positively affects sale price. Furthermore, animals that are visibly sick or have a defect associated with a possible antibiotic risk will be discounted. Ultimately, animals with minor quality defects should be sold in a timely manner before the defect advances and the discount increases.


Detailed measurements of the field- and temperature-dependent ac susceptibility of amorphous for x = 0.30-0.41, a composition regime that has been characterized as strongly frustrated by previous neutron depolarization and electron microscopy studies, are presented. Whereas the x = 0.41 specimen appears to exhibit a single paramagnetic-spin-glass transition on cooling, this detailed analysis indicates that samples with x = 0.30 and x = 0.32 display two transitions. In both latter specimens, near the upper transition exhibits a line of maxima which decrease in amplitude but increase in temperature as the field is increased; the locus of these maxima delineates a crossover line consistent with the presence of critical fluctuations accompanying a (continuous) paramagnetic-ferromagnetic transition. At lower temperature the non-linear response of these same two samples exhibits a distinct (but not divergent) anomaly, in contrast to the behaviour reported for specimens with lower values for x. Indeed, for the first time, we report the observation (for the x = 0.32 sample) of a more pronounced anomaly in this non-linear behaviour near the lower-temperature transition than that observed at the upper transition. On the basis of these new data, a modified phase diagram for the amorphous FeMn system is constructed.


Thesis Summary
The title of the thesis is Autonomy and Pregnancy. Its main aim is to evaluate the extent to which pregnant women's rights to reproductive autonomy are protected or restricted under the law and its application. The laws regulating abortion and applying to the refusal of and consent to medical treatment were selected for analysis. The thesis focusses on the laws of those jurisdictions whose legal heritage is predominantly English and/or Western European.
The thesis identifies the meaning(s) of autonomy and then outlines a theoretical framework, informed by Drucilla Cornell's work, which is adopted here because it gives an insight into the practical aspects of the exercise of autonomy and pregnancy. It also considers the concept of legal personhood focussing on both the common law's adherence to the born alive rule and the advent of foetal protection laws.


The article considers the innovative methods of estimation and analysis of the current economic security situation in Ukrain e . The nature of current problems of economic security of State is also disclosed and proposals are presented for overcoming the crisis phenomena of the modern develeping economy of the country. This article reflects the institutional features of the economic security ensuring of the State in the face of instability and the emergence of new threats associated with the cyclical nature of the economy. The ways of overcoming the crisis conditions of various branches of production for the sustainable development and economic growth of the state in the condition of integration of the country in the world economic markets and  organizations are analyzed. The purpose of the article is to reveal the urgent issues of Ukraine's economic security and provide the solution of the crisis of the modern state economy. It is important to note that the state's economic security also serves as a criterion for the effectiveness (efficiency) of the state's economic policy. Allocation of national economic interest as one of the most important in the structure of national interests of the country is the basis for the effective sustainable development of economic system. National economic security is understood as the protection of the economy from internal and external adverse factors that interfere with normal functioning of the internal reproduction process, undermine the standard of living of the population and thereby cause increased social tension in society, as well as the threat to the state itself. Among the top priority issues of the economic security is monitoring and assessment of the level of threats to priority national interests, and therefore their interdependence: the calculation of total potential, the disclosure of laws in the system of "priorities of national interests - threats" .


This study is concerned whith the ultrasonic imagery of elastic materials like cylinders or tubes by a diffraction tomography technic. Green's representaton is used to obtain an integral representation of the scattered field, and a discrete formulation of the inverse problem is obtained using a moment method. An iterative non-linear algorithm minimizing the discrepancy between the measured and computed scattered fields is used to reconstruct the sound speed profile in the target area. The minimization process is performed using a conjugated-gradient method. An experimental study with elastic targets immersed in water was performed. Cylindrical targets of various cross-sections have been selected. Inversions of both numerical and experimental data are presented and compared.


An Unmmaned Surface Vehicle is a marine vehicle which has a complicated nonlinear model and partially uncertain parameters in its model. Therefore, an USV needs an advance control technique to solve this complicated problem.  Nonlinear control is the most suitable technique to control this model. Nonlinear control is less sensitive to parameter uncertainty and disturbance perturbation which is beneficial for Unmanned Surface Vehicle which has highly disturbance parameter perturbation also. In the previous work, a disturbance model has never been considered in the control process due to highly perturbation in the model. Therefore, this work take account of the disturbance factors of Unmanned Surface Vehicle model.


Scale insects (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) of avocado, Persea americana Mill. (Lauraceae) were collected in the State of Valle del Cauca, Colombia. The study was conducted for one year, during October 2008–October 2009. As a result of this study, 34 scale insect species in seven families (Coccidae, Diaspididae, Kerriidae, Margarodidae, Monophlebidae, Pseudococcidae and Putoidae) were collected. Together with previous records, the number of scale insects collected on avocado in Colombia increased to 44 species and to 137 species worldwide. Species commonly collected on avocado in Colombia include Hemiberlesia cyanophylli (Signoret), Pseudoparlatoria parlatorioides (Comstock) (Diaspididae), Ceroplastes rubens Maskell, Coccus hesperidum L., Protopulvinaria pyriformis (Cockerell), Pulvinaria psidii Maskell, Saissetia neglecta De Lotto (Coccidae) and Ferrisia williamsi Kaydan and Gullan (Pseudococcidae). Twenty-two scale insect species are new records on avocado for Colombia of which nine species are new records worldwide, namely, Lindingaspis rossi (Maskell), Pseudischnaspis bowreyi (Cockerell) (Diaspididae), Pulvinaria psidii Maskell, Saissetia neglecta De Lotto (Coccidae), Ferrisia kondoi Kaydan and Gullan, Pseudococcus jackbeardsleyi Gimpel and Miller, Ps. landoi (Balachowsky) (Pseudococcidae), Eurhizococcus colombianus Jakubski (Margarodidae) and Austrotachardiella colombiana Kondo and Gullan (Kerriidae).


One way to express your opinion publicly is through a letter to the editor in your local newspaper. Editors may not publish every letter, but they do pay attention to these letters, especially well-written ones. In turn, elected officials are also influenced by letters that newspapers have chosen for publication. This guide offers suggestions to prepare an effective letter to the editor that expresses your opinion on an issue. The letter will start with the editor's name and address and the reason why you are writing the letter. Next, tell why your issue or problem is important and praise or criticize what someone else had done or said on the topic. Tell why a particular action or comment is good or bad and then state your opinion about what should be done. Before signing the letter, make a general recommendation about what should be done, by whom, and when. Published by the Research and Training Center on Independent Living, University of Kansas, 4089 Dole, Lawrence, Kansas, (785) 864-4095. A Guide to Writing Letters to the Editor: Expressing Your Opinion to the Public Effectively Tom Seekins and Stephen B. Fawcett One way to express your opinion publicly is through a letter to the editor in your local newspaper. While every letter may not be published, editors pay attention to wellwritten letters. This is especially true when there are many letters written on the same topic. In turn, elected officials are also influenced by letters newspapers have chosen for publication. This guide will help you prepare an effective letter to the editor that expresses your opinion on an issue. It includes two letters about a controversial issue and specific guidelines on how to prepare a successful letter yourself. After you read the guide, prepare a letter yourself. Let a friend read it for clarity. Be sure to sign the letter and list your address; Newspapers will not publish anonymous letters. Your letter can be positive, negative, or informative in tone. It can also be emotional or objective. But it should be simple and short, rarely more than 300 words. And, of course, it should reflect your true opinions. Here is an example of a letter supporting a proposed program. Dear Editor: The big jump in the cost of heating a house has me concerned. I just got my utility bill in the mail, and I was shocked. Even though the weather has been mild, this bill was as high as any I have seen. I'm worried that some of my friends won't be able to pay their bills when it gets really cold. If I'm not lucky, I may not be able to pay my bill. I want to praise our elected officials for having the courage to try to do something about this problem when other cities and the state government won't, because they're afraid of politics. The life-line utility program is a good idea whose time has come. It's getting cold now. We can't afford to wait for every legal opinion in the state. I believe the city should act before it's too late. Sincerely, Tom Seekins 1400 New York Anytown, USA 04521 Here is an example of a letter opposing the same program. Dear Editor: The City Commission is considering increasing everyone's gas utility bills to create a subsidy program for the poor. I am able to pay my own way on a small, fixed income. I haven't used my furnace yet this winter, preferring to wear three woolen sweaters. I am saving so that I can pay the proposed 38 percent increase in gas bills when it REALLY gets cold. I called City Hall to protest and was told, ever so gently, that I was one of those who would be helped by the subsidy. Absolutely not! No self-respecting oldster would accept a dole extorted from other struggling citizens. The churches have prime responsibility in this area. Churches are close to the source and are in a position to locate those actually suffering in the cold. I am outraged by the proposal to the City Commission. Mrs. A.B. Tony 543 South Ave. Letter Preparation Guide This guide is designed to help you write a letter to the editor on some issue that concerns you. Read the general activities and examples, and then complete the form. Use the blank spaces to write what you want to say in your letter, 1. Open the letter. Get editor's name and address from editorial page. You might address your letter: 2. Tell why you are writing the letter. State the problem or issue that concerns you. . Example: "The big jump in the cost of heating a house has me concerned. I just got my monthly bill in the mail, and I was shocked. Even though the weather has been mild, this bill was as big as any I've seen." You might say: 3. Tell why this is important. Tell how the problem or issue affects you or others, or tell what will happen if something isn't done. Example: "I'm worried that some of my friends won't be able to pay their bills when the weather gets really cold. If I'm not lucky, I may not be able to pay my bill." You might say: 4. Praise or criticize what someone has said or done about the issue. Make a positive or critical statement about a public action related to the issue. Example: "I want to praise our elected officials for having the courage to try to do something about this problem." You might say: 5. Tell why this is good or bad. Explain your view about why the particular action or comment is good or bad. Example: "Other cities and the state government won't face the problem because they're afraid of the politics." You might say: 6. State your opinion about what should be done. Explain what you think would work. Example: "This life-line utility program is a good idea whose time has come." You might say: 7. Make a general recommendation. Say what should be done, by whom, and when. Example: "I believe our elected officials should do something." You might say: 8. Sign the letter. Sign your full name and write your address. 9. Address the envelope and mail the letter. You can find the address of your local newspaper on the editorial page or by calling your local public library. The newspaper address is:


In agricultural production, fertilization has become mandatory for improving the soil and increasing the yield of the product. Especially in the production of horticultural crops, the need for precise and detailed fertilization management complicates the production. Intensive long-term use of conventional fertilizers causes serious environmental problems such as groundwater pollution, deterioration of soil quality and air pollution. This has led to the search for particularly effective and environmentally friendly fertilizers. Recently, nano-fertilizers are considered as a promising fertilization alternative. Nano-fertilizers benefit nutrition management due to their strong potential to increase nutrient utilization efficiency. The present study aimed to determine the effect of silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) on some growth parameters of radish grown under deficit irrigation conditions. For this purpose, in this study, four different irrigation water levels (I0; 100% full irrigation, I1; 20% deficit irrigation, I2; 40% deficit irrigation and I3; 60% deficit irrigation) and four different nanosilver doses (Ag0: 0 ppm, control; Ag1: 20 ppm; Ag2: 40 ppm and Ag3: 80 ppm) were applied. The study was carried out in a total of 48 pots in three replications according to the randomized plots experimental design under greenhouse conditions. The findings showed that root length, root diameter, root fresh weight and root dry weight significantly (p<0.01) decreased in deficit irrigation. While root parameters were significantly increased in Ag nanoparticle applications, the number of leaves were not varied statistically. The highest root height (33.21 mm) was determined in full irrigation application with Ag3 (80 ppm). As a result, it can be stated that radish plant growth in silver nanoparticles can be significantly improved under deficit irrigation conditions compared to control application non-silver nanoparticles.


The main focus in this study is the unique individual reception of the Expressionism in some of Eugene O'Neill's plays from the 1920s: "The Emperor Jones" (1920) and "The Hairy Ape" (1922). A strong source of influence is August Strindberg and his experiments at the Chamber Theater in Stockholm. This can be traced by pointing out common thematic and stylistic features in Strindberg's trilogy "The Road to Damascus" and O'Neill's "The Emperor Jones".
Another major source of influence is the German Expressionist movement from the first quarter of the 20th century, especially some of the leading playwrights like Georg Kaiser and Ernst Toller. Yet another source of influence are the German Expressionistic films of R. Wiene, F. Lang and Murnau, which followed most of the principles of the avant-garde trend.


Influence of oxinitriding and boriding on the mechanical properties (ultimate strength to destruction at uniaxial tension, plasticity, tendency to delayed destruction, fatigue resistance at bending with rotation, fatigue life at lowcycle pure bending) of titanium alloys is studied.


Dual-energy imaging is a clinically well-established technique that offers several advantages over conventional X-ray imaging. By performing measurements with two distinct X-ray spectra, differences in energy-dependent attenuation are exploited to obtain material-specific information. This information is used in various imaging applications to improve clinical diagnosis. In recent years, grating-based X-ray dark-field imaging has received increasing attention in the imaging community. The X-ray dark-field signal originates from ultra small-angle scattering within an object and thus provides information about the microstructure far below the spatial resolution of the imaging system. This property has led to a number of promising future imaging applications that are currently being investigated. However, different microstructures can hardly be distinguished with current X-ray dark-field imaging techniques, since the detected dark-field signal only represents the total amount of ultra small-angle scattering. To overcome these limitations, we present a novel concept called dual-energy X-ray dark-field material decomposition, which transfers the basic material decomposition approach from attenuation-based dual-energy imaging to the dark-field imaging modality. We develop a physical model and algorithms for dual-energy dark-field material decomposition and evaluate the proposed concept in experimental measurements. Our results suggest that by sampling the energy-dependent dark-field signal with two different X-ray spectra, a decomposition into two different microstructured materials is possible. Similar to dual-energy imaging, the additional microstructure-specific information could be useful for clinical diagnosis.


Field emission is one of the key issues in superconducting RF. When present, it limits operating gradient directly or via induced heat load at 2K. In order to minimize particulate contamination of and thus field emission in the CEBAF SRF cavities during assembly, a ceramic RF window was placed very close to the accelerating cavity proper. As an unintended consequence of this, it has been possible to monitor and model field emission in the CEBAF cavities since in-tunnel operation began. The ceramic is charged by field emission to a stable voltage and then discharges. This phenomenon had to be studied statistically to minimize the number of interruptions to accelerator operation for nuclear physics. We report here the results of our twenty year study of this and related phenomena.


Nowadays, Exploring and extracting knowledge from data is one of the fundamental problems in science. while many data mining models concentrate on automation and efficiency, interactive data mining models focus on adaptive and effective communications between human users and computer systems. User views, preferences, strategies play the most important roles in human-machine inter activities, guide the selection of target knowledge representations, operations, and measurements. However, it is not a right approach that the patterns are discovered only with data mining algorithms. Because this might be extra for discovered patterns but might not be useful for persons. Besides this, The knowledge which is useful for someone might not be useful for another one. Due to these reasons, a user oriented interactive approach needs to be applied to data mining process. User oriented interactive data mining models adapt between the users and computer systems, from efficient communication structures and provide the possibility of discovering the most suitable data mining algorithm for users. Thus, Data mining is extracted from being a hard and boring process for users and it provides users with a chance of discovering the most suitable knowledge for themselves. In this study, states reviewing the studies related to user oriented interactive data mining. The results which are obtained from the studies assessment of systems which are improved and suggestion are presented in these studies. It comes into prominence that data mining which is used for discovering the essence information needs to have an interactive structure and multi-visualization techniques.


In the last decade, automotive systems changed from traditional mechanical or mechatronical systems towards software intensive systems, because more and more functionality has been implemented by software. Currently, this trend is still ongoing. Due to this increased use of software, more and more data accumulates and thus, has to be handled. Since it was no subject up to now to manage this data with software separatly, we think that it is indispensable to establish a data management system in automotive systems. In this paper we point out the necessity of data management, supported by exemplary scenarios, in order to overcome disadvantages of current solutions. Further, we discuss main aspects of data management in automotive systems and how it could be realized with respect to the very special restrictions and requirements within such a system.


The aims of this study were to provide (A) an extensive description of the continuous recording of the loading regime on the prosthetic leg of transfemoral amputees fitted with an osseointegrated fixation during daily activities and (B) a conceptual framework of analysis based on intrinsic characteristics of the load measured. The load regime applied on the fixation was directly measured and recorded during five hours of daily living using a commercial transducer connected to a data logger. This study showed that the recording can be split into four activities including directional locomotion, confined ambulation, stationary loading and inactivity representing 51 %, 25 %, 14 % and 10 % of total impulse, respectively. Furthermore, this study demonstrated that in the case presented only 50 % of the load regime during periods of activities could have been estimated using conventional techniques. This technique has the potential to be largely used by clinicians and engineers in the framework of an evidence-based practice.


This chapter examines some of the substantial suggestions for antiessentialist practices that have emerged from the problematic prejudice against women's rights. Exploring the idea of identity, as it is lived and resignified by Latin American women, offers us a set of significant ideas that provide different ways of signifying language and reality. The chapter attends critically to these ideas, confronting their historical and political contexts through decolonial thought, subalternity, and globalization. It denies an essentialist view of "identity," appealing to the collective resignification that women have achieved individually and among each other through self-expression, revealing the democratic value of ambiguity rather than that of univocity, of mestizaje over purity, and self-identifications over essentialist hegemonic definitions.


The art of the last fifty years has significantly surrounded the presence of the body, the relationship between human and interactive technologies. Today in interactive art, there are not only representations that speak of the body but actions and behaviours that involve the body. In holography, the image appears and disappears from the observer's vision field; because the holographic image is light, we can see multidimensional spaces, shapes and colours existing on the same time, presence and absence of the image on the holographic plate. And the image can be flowing in front of the plate that sometimes people try touching it with his hands. That means, to the viewer will be interactive events, with no beginning or end that can be perceived in any direction, forward or backward, depending on the relative position and the time the viewer spends in front of the hologram. To explore that feature we are proposing an installation with four holograms, and several sources of different kind of sounds connected with each hologram. When viewers will move in front of each hologram they will activate different sources of sound. The search is not only about the images in the holograms, but also the looking for different types of sounds that this demand will require. The digital holograms were produced using the HoloCam Portable Light System with the 35 mm camera Canon 700D to capture image information, it was then edited on computer using the Motion 5 and Final Cut Pro X programs.


Derivation of height information from stereo images is a trivial problem in the field of photogrammetry, remote sensing and computer vision. The algorithms for generation of height information from the stereo imagery in the form of Digital Elevation Model (DEM) primarily involve computationally complex image matching procedures. In this paper, we propose a Graphic Processing Units (GPU) based method that significantly improves the computational performance of the hierarchical image matching technique used for DEM generation. We have compared our results against single and multithreaded CPU based implementations. Experiments performed on Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera stereo image datasets using the Nvidia Tesla M2070 GPU show that the new method can perform as fast as 138 times compared to single threaded implementation and 5 times compared to a multithreaded implementation running on a multi CPU system.


This research aims to determine the relationship between self-efficacy perceptions and job satisfaction of teachers working in high schools. The universe of the research is composed of the teachers working in high schools in Malatya Battalgazi and Yeşilyurt districts in the fall semester of the academic year 2019-2020. Simple random sampling method has been used for sample selection. In our study, the "Teacher Self-Efficacy Scale" and the short form of the adapted "Minnesota Job Satisfaction Scale" have been used. According to the new results we obtained in our research; teachers' job satisfaction is at a moderate level; self-efficacy perceptions are quite sufficient. There is a moderately significant positive correlation between self-efficacy levels perceived by teachers, self-efficacy levels of student participation, classroom management self-efficacy levels, teaching strategies self-efficacy levels, general job satisfaction levels, internal satisfaction levels and external satisfaction levels.

Keywords: Self-efficacy, Teacher Self-Efficacy, Job Satisfaction, High School Teachers;


We report insights into our observations of the wide variability in quality of palladium catalyst from different suppliers, finding the fundamental differences can be rationalized through a combination of XRD, XPS, and TEM analysis, offering the possibility to predict a catalysts performance prior to the use of valuable synthetic material and save time consuming efforts to identify high quality palladium on carbon catalysts. The synthetic glycan accessed in this study will allow further steps towards the development of semisynthetic vaccines against cryptococcal infections.


The percent removal and uptake of Pb2+ by algal-consortium (CP1) developed from wastewater of biological oxidation pond (Wazirabad, New Delhi, India) was studied under batch conditions with live biomass compared with continuous system using dried biomass immobilized on silica under laboratory conditions. In batch study, algal consortium (CP1) consisting of a mixed culture of Chlorella > Chlamydomonas > Lyngbya sp. was found to remove 17% of Pb2+ after 15 days of incubation from culture media containing 10 mg/L Pb2+, which decreased by increasing metal concentration from 20-50 mg/L. This reduction in removal efficiency was co-related with direct toxic effect of Pb2+ on live consortium as indicated by drastic inhibition in growth. A maximum lead uptake capacity (q(max)) of 33.31 mg/g showed good accumulation potential of live consortium. Bioresin derived from the biomass of dried algal consortium immobilized on silica gel and packed in column exhibited 92.5% removal of Pb2+ with inlet Pb2+ concentration of 33.90 mg/L was brought down to minimum 0.375 mg/L of Pb2+ in outlet stream. The plot of outlet concentration to volume exhibited the typical 'S' shape curve with Pb2+ uptake capacity of 15.95 mg/g. Efficient recovery of 86.16% of Pb2+ was achieved by elution with dilute HCl which indicated multiple usability of immobilized biomass.


Regarding the seismicity of the Zagros and the Red Sea regions, the present study has investigated and analyzed the seismicity with M ≥ 5 of these regions with obtaining seismicity coefficients, geometrical characteristics including depth, earthquake dispersion and focal mechanism of earthquakes, and their relation to each other. The estimated b-value for these two zones is approximately the same, being equal to ∼1.2. However, the total number of earthquakes in the Zagros is much higher (approximately 5.5 times), when the ratio of small to large earthquakes is about the same amount. In this study, focal depth of more earthquakes occurred and located in the Zagros and Red Sea respectively in depth of 15–20 km and 10–15 km from the earth surface, indicating that the Zagros Crust is thicker than the Red Sea.


Developing fetal calvariae in which calcification of woven bone has been initiated, have been decalcified with formic acid, buffered with citrate at pH5 to remove all traces of calcium and phosphate from the tissue. The decalcified bone was then incubated in medium containing sodium-beta-glycerophosphate, an artificial substrate for alkaline phosphatase. The Hugon and Borgers-modified Gomori reaction revealed the sites of A-Pase activity as electron dense deposits of lead phosphate. 23,24 One site of A-pase localization was in Golgi vesicles. Another site, at the cell membrane, indicated that A-Pase was apparently secreted from the osteoblasts into the calcifying matrix. A strong reaction in the matrix vesicles and at the periphery of bone nodules (vesicles) indicated that A-Pase was localized ultrastructurally in the precise zones of calcification during initial intramembraneous ossification.


Films formed by gold nanoparticle–polyoctylthiophene
blends exhibit interesting structure-related properties.
Microscopy studies reveal large-scale fluorescent structures
spanning 1–2 microns in length, which are
modulated by the metal nanoparticle distribution. Fluorescence
spectroscopy measurements of the films with
different concentrations of the polymer relative to the
nanoparticles show interesting changes in the polymer
emission bands.


We examine mechanisms of retail pricing for gasoline in Saint Petersburg in 2002-2013. Paper presents a theoretical and empirical analysis of gas station quality and location influence on retail prices. Empirics is based on a unique database of retail gasoline prices for particular gas station. Our main results are that gas station location (such as the number of competitors in the set radius, the distance to the next competitor, location on the way out of the city or vice versa, population density) has extremely weak impact in prices but price time-variance is mainly associated with response for oil price change specific for gas station brand. Cross sectional price variance is mainly explained by the brand identity as well as by the shadow price for the services additionally provided at the stations. As far as the brand identity is concerned, the price difference may reflect the cost difference as well as may be a signal of distinguishing product quality. Then, the price differentiation in response to the fact that the stations provide additional paid or free services is preserved even when the brand identity is taken into account. On the other hand, there is no evidence that the firms try do discriminate the consumers in case several stations of the same brand are located near each other. Additional econometric result of the paper is a numerical evaluated sensitivity of retail gasoline price to oil prices changes on the level of individual station brands.


Host cell proteins (HCPs) are a heterogeneous mixture of impurities that should be minimized in bulk preparations of biotechnologically produced medicines. Immunoassays are commonly used to detect and measure HCPs in therapeutic products, and a successful assay is directly dependent on the quality of the polyclonal antibodies (pAbs) used. These pAbs are enriched from antisera of animals immunized with a broad mixture of HCPs, but there is limited information regarding the best strategy for purification of these critical reagents. The use of protein A or protein G affinity chromatography results in purified pAbs that are not entirely HCP‐specific, while the use of HCP affinity chromatography results in a more specific pAb population but may be harder to recover fully. In theory, both approaches have advantages and disadvantages for generating optimal reagents. In this study, we compared reagents from these two purification procedures using the same starting material, as well as those from a step‐wise combination of the two by evaluating purity, concentration, reagent coverage by Western blotting, and performance in an enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). This study demonstrates that pAbs purified by each of the methods are very similar in terms of sensitivity, the ability to recognize a broad range of HCPs, and overall performance in an ELISA measuring a range of HCPs in upstream process and final drug substance (DS) samples.


The sensitivity of an energy-compensated Geiger-Muller counter to neutrons with approximate energies of 0.6, 5 and 15 MeV, relative to its sensitivity to gamma rays (kU-value), has been determined at different centres in Europe. The time-of-flight, angular difference, associated-particle coincidence and lead filtration techniques have been compared, using the same Geiger-Muller counter. For 15 MeV neutrons, a consistent kU-value of 1.9% was obtained. For the lower neutron energies, lower kU values were observed with reasonable agreement.


The practice of citizen journalism in an era of freedom and ease of access of information makes citizens as active users of digital media technology. Various mainstream media in Indonesia (pasangmata.detik.com and kompasiana.com) provide websites and citizen journalistic applications to make space for audiences to talk, share information and stories. This study aims to found out how the meaning of sharing information from application media users as a citizen journalistic media. The paradigm of research uses interpretive with the phenomenology method. The data collection technique uses focus group discussion which focuses on the experiences of various actors as research subjects who were directly involved as contributors to information in citizen journalistic media. The results of the study indicate that citizens are interested in sharing information. It usually gives an understanding of something. The information they send was useful for the public interest, such as information about the latest traffic conditions. Besides that, being a contributor helps others in their own way. They gather facts from what they saw themselves, according to the process of producing their own knowledge. Moreover, the interesting thing of being a contributor is being able to give a digital footprint for old age. They were proud to be witnesses of events that dissolve in the event itself. The implication of learning about journalism is that events reported from the perspective of citizens are a form of authentic journalism. Citizen involvement in the editorial space through a smartphone application creates an open and democratic society. Keywords—Citizen Journalism, Sharing Information, Pasangmata; Kompasiana.


Introduction Chronic cough and GERD are very common and prevalent diseases. It is known that GERD is one of the three most common causes of chronic cough. During the last years, new methods have been introduced to study the temporal and causal association between reflux and cough. pH-impedance monitoring has been proposed as the most sensitive method for detection of acid and non acid reflux whereas either manometric or acoustic methods have been used for objective detection of cough. During these studies, a sequence of association of "reflux-cough" has been used to establish a positive diagnosis. The sequence cough-reflux has also been described but controversy still exist about its prevalence and clinical relevance. One potential factor for such controversy could be due to different methodology for cough detection. The aim of this study was to assess the contribution of cough to pathologic GER in patients with chronic cough and increased esophageal acid exposure. Methods Simultaneous 24h ambulatory reflux and cough monitoring was performed in 17 patients with suspected reflux-related chronic cough. Reflux episodes were detected by pH-impedance monitoring and coughs by a) manometric detection and b) acoustic detection (independent listening of complete 24hs sound recordings). Manometric cough detection was performed with a two-channel pressure catheter with sensors in the oesophagus and stomach. Cough was manually declared when simultaneous abdomino-thoracic pressure bursts occurred of at least 2 peaks within 3 seconds. Acoustic detection was performed using 3 sound surface sensors. Cough events were identified and inserted into the reflux tracing. We measured total esophageal acid exposure and bolus exposure (by impedance). We calculated the time of acid exposure and bolus exposure after manometrically and acoustic detected cough events. Results 6/17 patients had pathological esophageal acid exposure. In these patients the total number of reflux events/24hs was 38 (29–70). From that total number, 7.4% (0–25) reflux episodes occurred within 2 minutes after a cough episodes. Total acid exposure was 9.7% ± 4.7. From the acid exposure, 3.5% (0- 8)% occurred after cough detected by manometry or audio. The median total bolus exposure was 2.1 ± 0.6%. From total bolus exposure, 6.3% (0–20) occurred after manometric cough detection and 6.8% (0–50) after acoustic detected cough. Only 1/6 patients had a significant increase in acid and bolus exposure after cough. Conclusion In patients with chronic cough and pathological acid GER, cough was followed by reflux in a minority of cases regardless of the method for cough detection. In only 1/6 patients the sequence cough-reflux could be considered as causal of pathological GER. Disclosure of Interest None Declared


The mechanisms of tropospheric microwave propagation for a linear segmented profile of the refractive index are summarized. There is an attempt to generalize the profile of this type and investigate different radio wave propagation conditions from the standpoint of the coherence theory of microwave tropospheric diffraction. In particular, there is discussion concerned with the whispering gallery modes in the troposphere. It seems unlikely these will be excited. Thus, the reflections from the atmospheric layers and the trapped modes under superrefraction conditions account mainly for the long distance tropospheric propagation from this standpoint.


Background Use of an infraclavicular block is appropriate for surgery of the upper limb. However, it does not consistently block the entire brachial plexus. The aim of this study was to investigate whether increasing the dose of ropivacaine could enhance the success rate, onset time, and efficacy of the sensory and motor block during the use of a vertical infraclavicular block using neurostimulation in upper limb surgery. Methods Two hundreds and ten patients were prospectively randomized into three groups: Group 1 (30 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine; n = 70), Group 2 (40 ml of 0.5% ropivacaine; n = 70), and Group 3 (40 ml of 0.75% ropivacaine; n = 70). Patients in each group received a vertical infraclavicular block using neurostimulation and obtained a distal motor response of the ulnar or median nerve. Recorded outcome measures included block success rate, onset time, sensory and motor blocks, and adverse events. Results No differences were found in the block success rate among the three groups (92.8%, 97.1%, and 94.2% for Groups 1, 2, and, 3, respectively; P = 0.346). There were no significant differences in onset time (P = 0.225) among groups, nor was there enhancement in the sensory block, but the motor block was enhanced. Local anesthetic toxicity was observed in five female patients from group 3 (P = 0.006). Conclusions Although the efficacy of the motor block was significantly improved, success rate, onset time, and efficacy of sensory block were not enhanced significantly among groups despite differences in volume and volume/concentration of the local anesthetic.


Antibiotic resistant urinary tract infections are increasing in frequency with Extended Spectrum beta Lactamase (ESBL) producing organisms on the rise. Routine antibiotic susceptibility testing may fail to detect these strains, leading to treatment failures. This study aims at the detection and analysis of ESBL producing Gram negative bacteria in hospitalized patients with UTI.Mid-stream clean catch urine samples from 600 patients with symptoms of hospital acquired UTI were subjected to culture and antimicrobial susceptibility testing by standard methods. ESBL production was confirmed by standard CLSI guidelines. E.coli (47.1%) was the predominant pathogen. Sixty ESBL producers were found and all were sensitive only to Imipenem. Beta-lactam with beta-lactamase inhibitor combination was also found to be effective. Co-resistance to two or more other classes of drugs along with the third generation cephalosporin resistance indicates multi-drug resistance in these strains.ESBL producing Gram negative bacilli are a serious challenge because of their changing trend, multi-drug resistance and their frequent isolation in hospital acquired UTI. For the therapeutic benefit in resistant cases, additional confirmatory tests for screening ESBL will be of great use.


A compact ring with an internal target for the production of Li or B as neutrino or antineutrino emitters has been proposed in [1], to enhance the flux of radioactive isotopes for a beta-beam facility. The circulating beam is expected to survive for thousands of turns and, according to this scheme, the ionization cooling provided by the target itself and a suitable RF system will be enough to keep the beam transverse and longitudinal emittances under control. The ionization cooling potential for a preliminary ring design is here investigated by means of tracking simulations and analytical considerations, keeping in mind that a correct modeling of the beam-target interactions is fundamental for these studies. Technological issues for such a ring and possible show-stoppers are also briefly discussed.


Wave 1 and 2 of a panel study on an initial sample of 5312 inhabitants of the Netherlands, age group 15-45, with oversamples of the Moroccan and Turkish minorities. Data for Wave 1 have been collected in a mixed mode of face-to-face interviews and self-completion questionnaires. Data for Wave 2 have been collected in a mixed mode of face-to-face interviews and websurvey questionnaires. The variables include family background indicators, socio-demographic and socio-economic background variables, social inequality, social cohesion and integration, a large set of values, norms and attitudes, and leisure time items.


Background: Classically, principal roles of the vascular endothelium have been considered to be support of oxygenation, nutrient delivery, waste product removal, and cellular trafficking. But the endothelium may also release paracrine signals to neighboring cells. Targeting such interactions could lower the threshold for sensitivity to conventional therapies, if pro-survival signals are blocked. We hypothesize that a subset of tumor cells are protected by endothelial-derived NF-kappa B (NF-KB)-mediated trophic signals that enhance tumor growth. Due to the confounding effects of circulating signals, it has been difficult to address these hypotheses using animal models. In contrast, in vitro models are limited by the requirement of primary endothelial cells (PECs) for serum and/or growth factors (GFs), complicating efforts to identify novel secreted factors. We employed a strategy to maintain PECs without serum by expressing the non-transforming adenoviral E4ORF1 gene. Under these conditions, E4ORF1-expressing (E4) PECs retain features of native tumor endothelium, including responsiveness to endothelial GFs and the ability to form functional vessels in vivo. Using solid tumor cell lines, including testicular germ cell tumor (GCT) and prostate cancer (PC) lines, we tested the ability of E4 PECs to support solid tumor progression. Methods: Constitutive expression of E4ORF1 in primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was achieved using lentivirus. Co-culture assays in serum-free media were used to test the effect of E4 PECs on cancer cell survival, proliferation and clonagenicity. Xenografts were performed by delivering cancer cells subcutaneously in the presence or absence of E4 PECs. Results: We first identified minimal media in which significant cancer cell proliferation was not observed in the absence of feeders. Under these conditions, we observed massive expansion of cell numbers for certain lines (e.g., 27×1) in the presence of E4 PECs (62.6+/-3.1 fold [mean+/-s.d.] for 27×1) vs. feeder-free control (2.2+/-0.1 fold) over 4 days. Changes in expression of stem cell-related genes in tumor cells during exposure to E4 PECs were examined to determine the frequency of stem-like cells in the culture. Results of co-inoculation studies using tumor cells in NOD-SCID mice will be discussed. Interventions to address the role of endothelial inside-out NF-KB signaling are on-going. Conclusions: Under stressful microenvironmental conditions, some but not all solid tumor cell lines require endothelial-derived growth and survival signals. Targeting these signals may lead to alternate strategies for eliminating residual tumor present after optimal therapy. Citation Format: {Authors}. {Abstract title} [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 101st Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2010 Apr 17-21; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2010;70(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 1298.


The response mechanism of a simple device for the rapid detection of ketamine with 'in the field' capabilities is investigated. The mechanism is a membranous ketamine ionic selective electrode (ISE) with partly carboxylated PVC as matrix and ortho-nitrophenyloctyl ether (o-NPOE) as plasticizer. The experimental results reveal that the inclusion of the plasticizer in the membrane significantly increased the response. A mechanism is proposed where the infiltration of a target species into the membrane is capable of producing a superior response. This response process is non-selective for species with similar molecular structure and size. This new research addresses some omissions and misapprehension in the literature where the mechanism was reported as an ion-exchange-induced response. In this research the ion-exchange-induced response was measurable after the elimination of the infiltration-induced response extending to lower concentration ranges and thus providing the potential for better sensitivity and selectivity.


Medicinal plants have been presented as a valuable source of preservation of human health. In special, Stryphnodendron barbatiman has been employed due to its antimicrobial activity. This plant is rich in tannins and has been used in popular medicine for the treatment of gastrointestinal disorder, treatment of lesions, and also as anti-inflammatory microbicide. Citrobacter freundii is a member of the family Enterobacteriaceae and is one of the major causes of opportunistic infections. This microorganism is a bacterium (bacillus) aerobic gram-negative with a length in the range of 1 to 5 mm. C. freundii is commonly found in water, soil, food and occasionally in the gastrointestinal tract of animals and humans. In this paper, we have demonstrated the antibacterial activity of S. barbatiman by observing cellular death by using inhibition halo approach. Atomic force microscopy and FT-IR spectroscopy results suggested that interaction between the main active components of S. barbatiman with cellular wall of C. freundii gives rise to cellular wall damage, and then leads this microorganism to death.


Background Calcific tendinopathy is a frequent cause of shoulder pain. Needling and lavage of the calcification is considered as the first line treatment after failure of NSAID or physiotherapy. X-ray remains the best imaging modality to diagnose and follow-up calcification changes after treatment. Ultrasound (US) has also shown its interest in the diagnosis of calcific tendinopathy and to guide the needling. It allows an evaluation of the calcification aspect and size. However, the value of US to follow-up calcification changes after needling is currently unknown. Objectives The goal of our study was to evaluate the value of US in the follow-up of patients after needling and lavage of shoulder calcifications. Methods Patients undergoing a needling and lavage of a shoulder calcific deposit were followed prospectively. Calcification size was measured on X-Ray and their aspect classified according to the French Arthroscopy Association (type A (sharp contours and a homogeneous structure); type B (sharp contours and a nonhomogeneous structure). Measurements were performed at the same time with US and calcifications were classified according to their echogenicity (arc-shaped; fragmented with or without shadowing, nodular). Changes in the X-ray and US at 3 months were studied. Results Thirty patients were included, 20 female (66%), mean age 50 years (±11). On X-ray, calcifications were type A in 11 patients (36%) and type B in 19 patients (64%). Calcific deposits were mostly in the supraspinatus tendon (96%). Mean length, width and height of the calcific deposit were 15 mm (±6), 12 mm (±5.7) and 5.2 mm (±1.9) respectively. On US, calcification were arc shaped in 12 cases (40%), fragmented with shadowing in 15 (50%), without shadowing in one case and nodular in 2 cases (6.7%). Type A calcification on X-Ray were mainly arc shaped on US (80%) whereas type B on X-ray were fragmented or nodular on US in 79% of the cases. Bursitis was associated in 12 patients (40%). A significant correlation was found between the size of the calcification recorded on US and X-Ray (length (r=0.78), width (r=0.65) and height (r=0.59); p<0.01). A 3 months, 12 calcifications (40%) had completely disappeared on X-Ray, 3 (10%) were reduced between 50 and 90%, 9 (30%) reduced by less than 50% and (20%) had not changed. In contrast, only two patients had a complete disappearance of their calcific deposit on US. Calcifications became most of the time fragmented with (9; 30%) or without (12; 40%) acoustic shadowing. Calcific deposit remained arc shaped in only 2 patients. Bursitis was still present in 12 patients at 3 month. Conclusions US seems a good imaging modality to follow-up patients with calcific tendonitis. Indeed, we found a good correlation between the sizes of the calcification assessed by US and X-ray as well as their radiological and US pattern. Three months after needling and lavage of the calcification, US was able to depict changes in morphology of the calcific deposit and could still detect calcifications even in patients with a complete disappearance of the calcification on X-Ray. In view of the lack of radiation for the physician and the patients, US could be of value in the follow-up of patients after treatment of a calcific tendinopathy. Disclosure of Interest None declared


In this demo we show a new bi-elastic fabric-based display for rendering softness. It consists of a thin layer of bi-elastic fabric placed on the top of a hollow cylinder and tied to an external circular crown which can run outside over the cylinder. The crown can be moved upward and downward by means of a DC motor. The crown is connected to the female screw by means of four supports which slide along suitable loops. When the motor pulls down the crown, the fabric is stretched and its apparent stiffness increases. Conversely, when the motor pushes up the crown the fabric is relaxed and it feels softer. Subjects can touch the fabric and feel different levels of softness according to the stretching induced by the motor. Being the fabric deformable in a controlled way under the fingerpad, this new device is able to provide cues for a more reliable and realistic perception. During this demo the device will be controlled to provide subjects with different artificial degrees of softness.


This paper compares the amount of income protection eleven OECD countries provided over the Great Recession. Using household-level data, I calculate the recession's impact on earned income across the income distribution among the non-elderly populations, and investigate the degree to which additional government transfers compensated for these income losses. While the recession's impact on earned income varied significantly both across and within countries, in most countries additional government transfers offset steep income declines, and reversed increases in income inequality. Overall I fail to find that the size or distributional features of nations' responses were correlated with welfare regime type nor prior amount spent on social policies. Taking the recession's impact into account, both large and small welfare regimes had different mixes of policies; however I find similarity in the extent to which they cushioned citizens from declines in market income. A failure to find evidence that responses were shaped by welfare regime type, but rather by the recession's impact, lends support to arguments that the conditions of an economic crisis constrain the usual conduct of politics.


The EAC countries in a bid to boost economic growth (RGDP) and reduce poverty in the region, implemented several financial sector reforms, however, empirical findings have indicated that financial development (FSD) can have a positive, negative or no effect on economic growth. This study investigated this relationship for four EAC countries including Uganda, Kenya, Burundi and Rwanda using individual country Gregory-Hansen-Quandt-Andrews-Muwanga (GHQAM) cointegration procedure based on OLS/ FMOLS estimations. The findings indicate that in the long-run: i). a cointegration relationship exists between financial development and economic growth but it has not been stable for the periods covered; and ii). the elasticity of economic growth to financial development was zero before and after the break for Uganda and Burundi but ranged between 0.000 - 0.3208 and between 0.2178 - 0.3063 for Kenya and Rwanda, respectively, implying an inelastic relationship for all four countries. In the short-run, RGDP did not adjust to changes in FSD in Burundi while 46.36%, 46.3% and 40.67% to 67.47% of the adjustment of the former to changes in the later occurred in the short-run in Rwanda, Uganda and Kenya, respectively. These results signal the need to review and enhance the transmission mechanisms through which financial development affects economic growth and put in place a favourable environment to ensure positive and elastic effects on economic growth.


Recombinant adeno-associated virus (AAV) is a promising delivery vehicle for in vivo gene therapy and has been widely used in >200 clinical trials globally. There are already several approved gene therapy products, e.g., Luxturna and Zolgensma, highlighting the remarkable potential of AAV delivery. In the past, AAV has been seen as a relatively non-immunogenic vector associated with low risk of toxicity. However, an increasing number of recent studies indicate that immune responses against AAV and transgene products could be the bottleneck of AAV gene therapy. In clinical studies, pre-existing antibodies against AAV capsids exclude many patients from receiving the treatment as there is high prevalence of antibodies among humans. Moreover, immune response could lead to loss of efficacy over time and severe toxicity, manifested as liver enzyme elevations, kidney injury, and thrombocytopenia, resulting in deaths of non-human primates and patients. Therefore, extensive efforts have been attempted to address these issues, including capsid engineering, plasmapheresis, IgG proteases, CpG depletion, empty capsid decoy, exosome encapsulation, capsid variant switch, induction of regulatory T cells, and immunosuppressants. This review will discuss these methods in detail and highlight important milestones along the way.


NADH dehydrogenase (complex I) couples the oxidation of NADH for the reduction of ubiquinone with the generation of a proton gradient that can be used for the synthesis of ATP. We have found a missense mutation in the MT-ND5 subunit of NADH dehydrogenase in the Tibet chicken breed. In the present study, the mitochondrial respiratory control ratio (RCR) and NADH dehydrogenase activity in Tibet chicken embryonic brain with different genotypes were measured. Significant differences between animals carrying mitochondria with the EF493865.1:m.1627A vs. EF493865.1:m.1627C alleles were observed for RCR and enzyme activity.


Efficient embedded computing requires extended compiler awareness of the underlying hardware platform: execution time and energy consumption estimates should guide optimization. Conventional compilers employ rough (energy-unaware) estimates for fast decision making. Real-time compilers quickly determine bounds for WCET, but ignore energy. Embedded compilers accurately estimate average time/energy but require time-consuming profiling. We propose a novel estimation method based on energy-aware Abstract Interpretation from cache configuration and target technology. Our estimates exhibit derivatives that are as accurate as those obtained by profiling, but are computed at least 1000 times faster, being suitable for driving embedded code optimizations through iterative improvement.


Audio-visual and other multimedia services are seen as an important source of traffic for current telecommunications networks, including ATM networks. There has been an emerging interest in using ATM for wireless transmission. Because ATM is primarily designed for an essentially error-free environment, in the wireless context the sources of errors and their consequences must be thoroughly understood. While this concern is valid in any network, it takes on a new, more central role in the wireless environment, where error bursts are expected to be a very significant source of degradation. In the transmission process of a VBR video signal over a wireless ATM network, cells are inevitably exposed to errors and losses due to the various physical impairments that occur on the wireless channel. These phenomena affect the quality of the signal and without adequate measures to control the propagation of the impairments the quality of service may fall below acceptable levels. In this paper, we show results on the effect of transmission errors, which can cause cell loss with probabilities as high as 1%, on the quality of the decoded video at the receiver, and demonstrate how error resilience techniques can be used to improve the quality of service. Most important among the findings is that the error resilient techniques provided within the MPEG-2 standard are not sufficient to provide acceptable quality, but that this quality can be significantly increased by the inclusion of a small number of simple additional techniques.


The offshore fixed platforms are confronted with greater wind and wave forces as their installation site moves toward the deep sea, so it is definitely necessary to reduce the low frequency vibration of structures for the safety and comfort of crews.The dynamic dampers are generally used to reduce vibration of structures. Especially, the tuned liquid column damper (TLCD) has been applied to reduce the low frequency vibration of onshore tall buildings.In this paper, the design procedure of TLCD is proposed to control the low frequency vibration of fixed platforms through the simulation and experiment with a small-scale model. The vibration control target is the surge motion of fixed platforms and the major design variables of TLCD are mass and damping ratios.The optimized design variables of TLCD are determined from the calculation of the amplification factor. In the experiment, the effects of mass and damping ratios are considered by changing the breadth of column, the opening ratio and number of the orifices. The results of experiment are found to well agree with the simulation. The 83% of structure vibration level can be reduced by applying the optimized TLCD.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


The turnover trends in the logistics industry are surprisingly high, regardless of the rapid growth of the industry. Turnover contributes to an impactful loss for the industry to tolerate the new recruitment costs, time consumption, performance disruption, and moral decline among employees due to the workload transfer. Previous literature presented various factors affecting turnover intention, and it could be concluded that factors within an organisation and individual play an essential role in turnover actions. Hence, this research focuses on perceived organisational support and emotional intelligence as factors to turnover intention among logistics drivers in Selangor. Eighty respondents from POS Logistics Berhad in Selangor participated in self-administered survey questions of Survey Perceived Organizational Support, Wong and Law Emotional Intelligence Scale, and Turnover Intention Scale. Results revealed that most of the respondents have a moderate level of POS (84%) and a high level of EI (91%). In comparison, slightly half have a low level of TOI (56%). Research also found that POS and EI have no significant relationship with turnover intention, which is contrary to previous literature. Similarly, three criteria of EI; self-emotion appraisal, uses of emotions, and others-emotions appraisal also have no significant relationship with turnover intention. Only regulations of emotions (r=0.024, p=0.031) has significant relationship with turnover intention. Since the current study location was restricted for a few branches of Pos Logistics in Selangor, it limits the result of the study due to misrepresent the whole community fairly. Future researchers are encouraged to extend or increase the sampling size to other companies and regions to make better generalisations.


I begin by contrasting Aristotle's 'world-centred' general epistemology, and his 'mind-centred' (more exactly, 'agathos-centredi?½) moral epistemology. I argue that Aristotle takes this approach, not because he doubts the objectivity of ethics, nor because he is an 'ethical particularist' (whatever one of those is), but because of the reflexive nature of ethics as a study. I further argue that, by taking the notion that 'the good man is the measure of all things' as central to Aristotle's ethics, we can see how to unify coherently the rather embarrassingly diverse ethical resources that Aristotle offers us.


The 5G LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) intended to provide increased peak data rates
for the mobile users with the use of Carrier Aggregation (CA) technology. Due to need of uninterrupted
bi-directional communication between the eNodeB and User Equipment (UE) in LTEA,
Joint Scheduling Algorithm is considered as central research topic.

 A modified joint Uplink/ Downlink (UL/DL) Scheduling algorithm to meet on demands
service request from the UEs is proposed in this paper.

CA is used for calculate the weight factors for the bandwidth allocation among the mobile
users based on the QoS Class Identifier (QCI). However due the huge amount of data flow in
the indoor coverage yield introduction of the small cell called femtocells. Femtocells are randomly
deployed in macro cell area in order to improve indoor coverage as well capacity enhancement.

Mixed types of traffic are considered ranging from real time to non real time flows and
quality of service is evaluated in term of throughput, packet loss ratio, fairness index and spectral
efficiency. The proposed modified joint user scheduling algorithm results better in delay among
the end users due the reduction in the traffic load of the macro cell base station.

 Simulation results shows that, the proposed methodology suits best for the small
scale network architecture with increased spectral efficiency and throughput among the UEs.


A new zinc(II) porphyrin conjugate with an appended pyrene subunit has been synthesized and shown to exhibit significant and analytical usefulness for fluorescence sensing toward imidazole derivatives. The molecular recognition was based on the bridging interaction of the imidazole ring of analyte with the zinc(II) center of the porphyrin, while the transduction signal for the recognition process was the pyrene excimer fluorescence. The sensor was constructed and applied for fluorescence assay of histidine in aqueous solution by immobilizing the sensing material in a plasticized PVC membrane. When the membrane was bathed in an alkaline solution void of histidine, zinc(II) porphyrin was present in the monomer form, and pyrene emitted monomer fluorescence at 378 and 397 nm. With the presence of histidine in the sample solution, histidine was extracted into the membrane phase and bridged with the Zn(II) center of the porphyrin, causing the monomer porphyrin to be converted to its dimeric species. Since the formation of porphyrin dimer was accompanied by the enhancement of pyrene excimer emission at 454 nm, the chemical recognition process could be directly translated into a fluorescent signal. With the optode membrane M1 described, histidine in sample solution from 6.76 x 10(-7) to 5.01 x 10(-3) M can be determined. The limit of detection was 1.34 x 10(-7) M. The optical selectivity coefficient obtained for histidine over biologically relevant amino acids and anions met the selectivity requirements for the determination of histidine in biological samples. Serum histidine values obtained by the optode membrane fell in the normal range of the content reported in the literature and were in good agreement with those obtained by HPLC.


In this paper, we propose a similarity-aware fusion network (SAFNet) to adaptively fuse 2D images and 3D point clouds for 3D semantic segmentation. Existing fusion-based methods achieve superior performances by integrating information from multiple modalities. However, they heavily rely on the projection-based correspondence between 2D pixels and 3D points and can only perform the information fusion in a fixed manner, so that their performances cannot be easily migrated to a more realistic scenario where the collected data often lack strict pair-wise features for prediction. To address this, we employ a late fusion strategy where we first learn the geometric and contextual similarities between the input and back-projected (from 2D pixels) point clouds and utilize them to guide the fusion of two modalities to further exploit complementary information. Specifically, we employ a geometric similarity module (GSM) to directly compare the spatial coordinate distributions of pair-wise 3D neighborhoods, and a contextual similarity module (CSM) to aggregate and compare spatial contextual information of corresponding central points. The two proposed modules can effectively measure how much image features can help predictions, enabling the network to adaptively adjust the contributions of two modalities to the final prediction of each point. Experimental results on ScanNetV2 [1] benchmark demonstrate that SAFNet outperforms existing state-of-the-art fusion-based approaches across various data integrity.


Microbial iron sulphide is well known as an adsorbent for the treatment of metallic ion polluted wastewater. Under certain culture conditions a highly magnetic iron sulphide can be produced which would enable a low cost biomagnetic separation process to be developed. This paper illustrates that by raising the ferrous content of a ferrous - ferric sulphate rich medium the magnetic susceptibility of the iron sulphide produced is increased.


This chapter addresses the understudied question of how to create AI that plays strategy games, through building and comparing AI for general strategy game playing. The chapter enumerates a series of common characteristics of such a game. Many strategy games can be played in multiplayer mode, where human players compete with each other for domination. There has been extensive research done on AI for traditional board games. The chapter addresses the problem of general strategy game playing. The Strategy Game Description Language (SGDL) is a model-based approach to develop strategy games. The chapter presents 11 agents that are created based on several different techniques. The MinMax, Monte Carlo tree search (MCTS), potential field (PF), and neuroevolution of augmenting topologies (NEAT) agents were determined to be adequate in various models and map combinations and thus are capable of general game play.


Background: Motor disturbances in vitamin B6-deficient animals were described. Some clinical experiments showed that vitamin B6 may ameliorate different drug-induced movement disorders, including tardive dyskinesia (TD). The aim of this study was to compare plasma pyridoxal-5-phosphate (PLP) levels in schizophrenic patients with and without TD. Method: This study was conducted in the Be'er Sheva Mental Health Center from February 2006 to August 2006. Eighty-nine schizophrenic inpatients (40 have TD, 22 men and 18 women, 20-66 yrs old [mean, 48 yrs] and 49 schizophrenic inpatients, 30 men and 19 women, 21-66 yrs old (mean, 49 yrs), without any symptoms of motor disturbances [the control group]) were enrolled in the study. Measurement of PLP is performed by high-performance liquid chromatography separation in all patients. Results: There was a significant difference in plasma PLP levels between patients with TD and those without TD. The discrepancy between the groups was almost entirely attributable to the PLP levels of male patients: 12.4 ± 11.4 vs 29.0 ± 12.9 nM in men (P < 0.001), and 19.7 ± 14.8 vs 22.0 ± 13.6 nM in women (P > 0.5). Conclusions: Our results suggest that schizophrenic and schizoaffective male patients with TD have lower PLP plasma levels than non-TD patients.


To tackle the problems and challenges posed by the rapid urbanization processes and to purse urban development in sustainable manners, the Chinese government has taken vigorous efforts in developing eco-cities across the nation. After reviewing the studies on concepts, frameworks and indicator systems of eco-city, we have observed a large amount of literature on the selection of indicators under a singular framework in China rather than having a quantity comparison from a broader scope. To obtain a quantitative sense of how well China's eco-cities are doing compared to the best practices in the international arena, we have selected two cases from Japan and Germany. By examining their indicator quantities under the national eco-city framework of China, we have identified the gap between economic related indicator values, suggesting lower averaged economic values and energy efficiencies of Chinese eco-cities. Targets concerning the waste sector are also lower in China than in the other two cases. The environmental indicator values show lower quality than in the other two cases as well, and the social indicators manifest a specific methodological approach for measurements in China. Discussions and suggestions are made based on the outcomes of comparisons, hopefully to provide reference for the future development of eco-cities in China.


Glycine is an amino acid neurotransmitter found in the spinal cord and is closely associated with interneurons that modulate afferent activity. We have previously shown that low segmental glycine concentrations or blockade of normal glycinergic activity lowers the threshold for pain thresholds. In addition, intrathecal glycine infusion increases the pain threshold in animal models of neuropathic pain. However, the role of the glycine receptor in neuropathic pain is not clear and is the basis for the current study. Using a unilateral sciatic nerve constriction injury model of neuropathic pain, the strychnine sensitive glycine receptor population was studied using immunohistochemical techniques. Glycine receptors are reduced in number in the dorsal horn bilaterally in injured animals. Glycine and related compounds are potentially valuable agents for treating chronic pain conditions in humans. A better understanding of glycine-receptor interactions should prove valuable as these compounds are studied in greater depth.