Pregnancy and calving are elements indispensable for dairy production, but the daily milk yield of cows decline as pregnancy progresses, especially during the late stages. Therefore, the effect of stage of pregnancy on daily milk yield must be clarified to accurately estimate the breeding values and lifetime productivity of cows. To improve the genetic evaluation model for daily milk yield and determine the effect of the timing of pregnancy on productivity, we used a test-day model to assess the effects of stage of pregnancy on variance component estimates, daily milk yields and 305-day milk yield during the first three lactations of Holstein cows. Data were 10 646 333 test-day records for the first lactation; 8 222 661 records for the second; and 5 513 039 records for the third. The data were analyzed within each lactation by using three single-trait random regression animal models: one model that did not account for the stage of pregnancy effect and two models that did. The effect of stage of pregnancy on test-day milk yield was included in the model by applying a regression on days pregnant or fitting a separate lactation curve for each days open (days from calving to pregnancy) class (eight levels). Stage of pregnancy did not affect the heritability estimates of daily milk yield, although the additive genetic and permanent environmental variances in late lactation were decreased by accounting for the stage of pregnancy effect. The effects of days pregnant on daily milk yield during late lactation were larger in the second and third lactations than in the first lactation. The rates of reduction of the 305-day milk yield of cows that conceived fewer than 90 days after the second or third calving were significantly (P<0.05) greater than that after the first calving. Therefore, we conclude that differences between the negative effects of early pregnancy in the first, compared with later, lactations should be included when determining the optimal number of days open to maximize lifetime productivity in dairy cows.


The control and mediation of the cell cycle is influenced by cell signals. Different types of cell signaling molecules: Proteins (growth factors), peptide hormones, amino acids, steroids, retenoids, fatty acid derivatives, and small gases can all act as signaling molecules. G- protein coupled receptors(GPCR) are heptahelical, serpentine receptors and are multi functional receptors having lot more clinical implications. Many reports have been clarified the basic mechanism of GPCR signal transduction, numerous laboratories have published on the clinical implication/application of GPCR. To name a few, dysfunction of GPCR signal pathway plays a role in cancer, autoimmunity, and diabetes. In this report, we will review the role of GPCR in cell signaling and impact of GPCR in clinical medicine,


Abstract : Using the techniques of modulation spectroscopy, a systematic investigation and characterization of Gallium Arsenide, Indium Phosphide, and quaternary alloys of InGaAsP have been completed. The effective tool for the topographic examination of implanted materials is the electrolyte electroreflectance (EER) method. The spatial distribution of carrier concentration, the effects of etching, implantation and anneal procedures on the transition energies have been studied. Besides providing the needed 'feedback' information for the materials growth technology program at NRL, the modulation EER technique is shown to be a very unique and sensitive method for the optical characterization of the III-V semiconductors and their alloys. (Author)


Learning in multi-agent scenarios is a fruitful research direction, but current approaches still show scalability problems in multiple games with general reward settings and different opponent types. The Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning in Malm\"O (MARL\"O) competition is a new challenge that proposes research in this domain using multiple 3D games. The goal of this contest is to foster research in general agents that can learn across different games and opponent types, proposing a challenge as a milestone in the direction of Artificial General Intelligence.


Abstract. The maximum glacier extent during the "Little Ice Age" (mid 18th century AD) in Jotunheimen, southern Norway, was mapped using remote sensing techniques. Interpretation of existing glaciochronological studies, analysis of geomorphological maps, and own GPS-field measurements were applied for validation of the mapping. The length of glacier centrelines and other inventory data were determined using a Geographical Information System (GIS) and a Digital Elevation Model. "Little Ice Age" maximum extent for a total of 233 glaciers comprising an overall glacier area of about 290 km2 was mapped. Mean length of the centreline was calculated to 1.6 km. Until AD 2003, the area and length shrank by 35% and 34%, respectively, compared with the maximum "Little Ice Age" extent.


Platelet function tests were performed in three patients with thrombocytosis in myeloproliferative disorders before and after a swift reduction of platelet count by thrombopheresis. The decrease of platelet count obtained after the procedure was reversed in six days. In two patients with platelet aggregation defects, the normalization of aggregation abnormalities was observed after pheresis, followed by a progressive decrease of platelet response until the pre-pheresis values on 6th day. In the third patient with normal platelet aggregation, a progressive increase of platelet aggregation response was noted on the days following thrombopheresis with ischaemic symptoms of a foot toe. In all three patients, the changes of platelet aggregation were accompanied by a related increase of megathrombocytes. In the two patients with platelet aggregation abnormalities, plasma and platelet beta-thromboglobulin levels were related to changes in platelet count and aggregation.


in the left eye. Three years ago the butt of his fowling-piece hit him on his left eye. There was an iridodialysis at 4.30 o'clock meridian (Fig. 7), vision 20/25. After operation dialysis was corrected (Fig. 8), vision 20/20, and no dazzling. (5) M. K., a young man, aged 20 years, complained of dazzling and poor vision in the right eye. Twelve years ago a piece of stone had struck his right eye. There were two iridodialyses, separated from one another by a narrow bridge, onfe at 5.30 and the other at 6.30' o'clock meridian (Fig. 9). There were traumatic lens opacities, vision 20/100. Three operations were performed. Now no dialysis (Fig. 10), and no dazzling. Visual acuity same as before.


SUMMARY The adequacy of the Agricultural Research Council (1980) recommendations for phosphorus for pregnancy and lactation has been investigated in ewes given a plentiful supply of dietary calcium. The efficiency of absorption of P remained high and fairly constant throughout the whole experimental period and the rate of P absorption varied in direct relation to the P intake. The endogenous faecal loss of P also varied with P intake and at all stages of pregnancy and lactation was higher than the value assumed by the Agricultural Research Council (1980) in their calculations of P requirements. Bone mineral stores of Ca and P were lost in the normal way during late pregnancy and early lactation but were not replaced, as normal, in mid- to late lactation. At the end of the lactation, ewes were still in deficit of 125 g P and 100 g Ca. It is argued that the Agricultural Research Council (1980) recommendations for P, particularly in mid- to late lactation, are too low and it is recommended that future calculations of requirements for pregnancy and lactation allow for the inevitable loss and subsequent replacement of skeletal mineral stores and also for the increased endogenous faecal losses of P that appear inevitable at the high P intakes needed to meet the increased demands.


Creativity interventions have been shown to positively influence psychological and emotional health indicators. Nurses can play an important role in the development and implementation of interventions designed to counter the longer-term emotional and psychological consequences of trauma. The purpose of this study was to explore how participation in a nurse-facilitated weekly craft group may influence anxiety, depression, self-esteem, and self-confidence among women who have emotional and physical experienced trauma. A pre/post visual analog scale was used during a 7-week intervention to measure changes in anxiety, depression, stress, self-esteem and self-confidence among a convenience sample of adult female trauma survivors (n = 33). A paired sample t test was used to evaluate the intervention with significance set at p = 0.05. Participant observation and field notes were used for qualitative data generation. Significant reductions were noted in anxiety, depression, and stress along with significant increases in self-esteem and self-confidence. Cohen's d statistic indicated a large effect size for anxiety (0.72) and stress (0.69). Moderate effect size was determined for self-confidence (0.36), depression (0.41), and self-esteem (0.52). Emergent qualitative themes included: creative expression improved confidence to sooth the self, safe spaces fostered creativity, a sense of accomplishment was stimulated through creative activities, and creative expression groups provided opportunities for positive affirmation. Offered as a complementary intervention, nurse-facilitated creative expression groups can support continued healing long after traditional support services have been exhausted. It is important for nurses to pursue a greater understanding of the art of nursing and the important contribution of creativity when used as a nursing intervention with trauma survivors.


THERE is no doubt that the universe is totally controlled by the Great Creator (God or Allah). Allah created everything in this universe, from humans (Man) to animals, plants, soils, air, water, etc., where everything was made or created from water. Concerning the creation of humans, Allah created or made all things in an excellent phase and the first step of human creation was fashioned from clay. These steps include the creation of Man from spurting water, a drop of semen, the sperm fashioned into an embryo, this embryo fashioned into a shapeless lump of flesh, then from the lump of flesh, fashioned bones, then clothed the bones with flesh and then created the consanguinity and affinity. So, a very strong link between soil and human health has been reported and the great roles of soils in plant and human nutrition have also have been established. On the other hand, the effect of pollution of soils and their security on human health should be considered. Therefore, this review is an attempt to emphasize the great roles of soils in human creation and health as well as the security of soils under pollution conditions.


Today's bridge design work in many cases demands a trustworthy dynamic analysis instead of using the traditional dynamic amplification factors. In this thesis a reliable 3D Bernoulli-Euler beam finite element model of the New Arsta Railway Bridge was prepared for thorough dynamic analysis using in situ bridge monitoring for correlation. The bridge is of the concrete box girder type with a heavily reinforced and prestressed bridge deck. The monitoring system was designed for long term monitoring with strain transducers embedded in the concrete and accelerometers mounted inside the edge beams and at the lower edge of the track slab. The global finite element model used the exact bridge geometry but was simplified regarding prestressing cables and the two railway tracks. The prestressing cables and the tracks were consequently not included and an equivalent pure concrete model was identified. A static macadam train load was eccentrically placed on one of the bridge's two tracks. By using Vlasov's torsional theory and thereby including constrained warping a realistic modulus of elasticity for the concrete without prestressing cables and stiffness contribution from the railway tracks was found. This was allowed by comparing measured strain from strain transducers with the linear elastic finite element model's axial stresses. Mainly three monitoring bridge sections were used, each of which was modelled with plane strain finite elements subjected to sectional forces/moments from a static macadam train load and a separately calculated torsional curvature. From the identified modulus of elasticity the global finite element model was updated for Poisson's ratio and material density (mass) to correspond with natural frequencies from the performed signal analysis of accelerometer signals. The influence of warping on the natural frequencies of the global finite element model was assumed small and the bridge's torsional behaviour was modelled to follow Saint-Venant's torsional theory. A first preliminary estimation of modal damping ratios was included. The results indicated that natural frequencies were in accordance between modelling and signal analysis results, especially concerning high energy modes. Estimated damping ratios for the first vibration modes far exceeded the lower limit value specified in bridge design codes and railway bridge dynamic analysis recommendations.


Nowadays, European countries like Germany, Spain and Denmark already have a significant share of wind generation in their electricity generation mix. In parallel, the large-scale integration of wind power is also taking place at a rapid pace in other European countries. Due to the variable nature of the wind resource, this large-scale integration of wind power causes several difficulties in the operation and management of a power system. Forecasts of wind conditions and related power generation from a few hours to a few days ahead are paramount for various management tasks related to the integration of wind generation in power systems (e.g. Quantification of reserves, economic dispatch of wind generation within a broader generation portfolio, or the design of optimal trading strategies). Measuring errors of deterministic forecast is done operationally through measuring the mean distance between observations and prediction. However, in some cases, the operator is more interested in other type of error measurement related to the timing of the forecast. Indeed, large variation of wind power production in a small amount of time, often called ramp, are difficult to handle operationally and these difficulties are increased by the fact that forecast power may well predict the corresponding ramp of power in amplitude but not in time. This type of error is called phase error. In our work, we propose a procedure to forecast the distribution of these phase errors using ensemble wind forecast. To this aim we first transform wind ensemble into calibrated wind power ensembles. This is done for each given wind power production site. These wind power ensembles are calibrated for each look ahead time but are not calibrated temporally. Indeed, for a given future temporal interval, the probability that a ramp is observed is not forecast in a reliable way by the proportion of ensemble member that forecast a ramp in it. We propose a procedure to forecast these probabilities in a reliable way using wind power ensembles, this can be considered as a temporal calibration procedure for wind power ensembles or as a procedure to forecast ramp timing and the uncertainty on this timing. Our study is based on wind power production data in Ireland, Denmark and France for a large number of wind farms and a period ranging from 2 to 3 years depending on the site. The corresponding period is separated into a learning set (for calibration and wind power forecast) and a testing set. We used 3 different wind ensemble forecasts as input: poor man ensembles, classical ECMWF wind ensembles and a version of ECMWF ensembles optimized for wind forecast in the framework of the EU FP7 project SafeWind. Each of the corresponding wind power ensemble forecast is evaluated through a standard evaluation protocol. In addition, an evaluation of the reliability and sharpness of the forecast ramp timing and the associated forecast distribution is performed. At equal reliability, the sharpness evaluation permits to compare the different used wind ensemble with respect to their ability to inform about timing uncertainty. This work is perfomed in the framework of EU FP7 project SafeWind


The single tryptophan residue Trp-104 of chicken cystatin was modified with a 2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl group. The change of the absorption spectrum of this group on binding of the modified cystatin to papain indicated a decreased environmental polarity of the probe. The modified inhibitor had about a 10(5)-fold lower affinity for papain than had intact cystatin, this being due to a higher dissociation rate constant. These results show that Trp-104 of cystatin is located in or near the proteinase-binding site of the inhibitor, in agreement with a model proposed from computer docking Experiments.


This study is concerned primarily with evaluating six processing tomato varieties grown in Santa Isabel by the Land Authority of Puerto Rico: Zenith (Hyb.), Hybrid 337, Ventura (o.p.), Peto-98 (o.p.) and two Nema varieties (Nema-1, Nema-2). For each variety, the fruits were comminuted, pulped and concentrated. The tomato concentrate obtained was used for sauce preparation. The six varieties were all found to be suitable for industrial elaboration of tomato sauce. Each of the sauces formulated had the required characteristics of a good commercial tomato sauce.


Climate change is rapidly becoming known as a tangible issue that must be addressed to avoid major environmental consequences in the future. Recent change in public opinion has been caused by the physical signs of climate change-melting glaciers, rising sea levels, more severe storm and drought events, and hotter average global temperatures annually. Transportation is a major contributor of carbon dioxide (CO2) and other greenhouse gas emissions from human activity, accounting for approximately 14 percent of total anthropogenic emissions globally. Fortunately, transportation technologies and strategies are emerging that can help to meet the climate challenge. These include automotive and fuel technologies, Implementation of Bus Rapid Transit - BRT, and mobility management strategies that can reduce the demand for private vehicles. It can be concluded from this study that the introduction of a BRT system in Dar es Salaam has numerous evident gains in terms of improving the current public transport supply. Nevertheless, some shortcomings have been identified that limit the contribution of the system in its endeavor towards creating a sustainable urban mobility system in the city. These shortcomings are the inequitable distribution of services across population groups; the need to limit the growth in the number of cars; the lack of involvement of the current public transport operators in the planning process and the heedless handling of their fates. Targeting enriching the planning of the proposed system.


The cognitive disorders observed in non-demented Parkinsonian patients are frequent but subtle. They mostly result from difficulties to control attentional resources. These deficits particularly disturb the strategies involved in planning as well as in encoding and retrieval processing of memory, whereas consolidation of the mnemonic traces and instrumental functions are relatively spared. These deficits can be related to the striatal dopamine depletion (in particular in the caudate nuclei) which seems sufficient to account for the cognitive disorders that appear early in the course of the disease. In particular, the caudate dopamine depletion induces a cascade of dysfunction within the basal ganglia, downstream of the striatum, which ultimately affects the prefrontal functions. It is likely that, in the course of the disease, lesions of other ascending systems of neurotransmission (cholinergic, serotoninergic and noradrenergic pathways) contribute to worsen the cognitive disorders and also to modify their clinical pattern. The impact of direct cortical lesions can also be discussed but it seems that these lesions mostly contribute to the cognitive deficits in the late stages of Parkinson's disease.


BACKGROUND
The involvement of oxidative stress in the pathophysiological process of alcohol-induced liver injury has been studied for decades. However, the role of microRNAs (miRNAs) targeting to oxidative stress genes in the pathogenesis of alcohol-induced liver injury has not yet been determined. The aim of this study was to identify the targeting of miR-214 to both glutathione reductase (GSR) and cytochrome P450 oxidoreductase (POR) genes and elucidate their impact on alcohol-induced oxidative stress in liver cells.

METHODS
The miR-214 expression vector and reporter vectors of GSR and POR 3'-UTR were constructed. Human hepatoma cell (Bel7402), human embryonic kidney 293 cell (HEK293), and rat normal hepatocyte (BRL) were transfected and stimulated with ethanol (EtOH). Wistar rats were fed with EtOH for 4 weeks. The GSR and POR protein levels were detected by Western blot, and their activities were measured using the spectrophotometric method. The miR-214 expression was detected by real-time PCR. The index of oxidative stress including the total antioxidant capacity (T-AOC) and malondialdehyde (MDA) level was detected by commercial kits.

RESULTS
miR-214 bound specifically to the GSR and POR 3'-UTR and repressed the expressions and activities of both GSR and POR. EtOH up-regulated the miR-214 expression, down-regulated the GSR and POR protein levels and activities, and induced the oxidative stress in human and rat liver cells. EtOH-fed Wistar rats further confirmed that alcohol up-regulates the miR-214 expression in liver and repressed both GSR and POR in vivo.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings demonstrated a new mechanism by which the alcohol repressed the GSR and POR expression via up-regulation of miR-214 and in turn induced oxidative stress in liver cells.


Naematelia aurantialba is a rare edible fungus with both nutritional and medicinal values and especially rich in bioactive polysaccharides. However, due to the lack of genomic information, researches on the mining of active compounds, artificial breeding and cultivation, genetics, and molecular biology are limited. To facilitate the medicinal and food applications of N. aurantialba, we sequenced and analyzed the whole genome of N. aurantialba for the first time. The 21-Mb genome contained 15 contigs, and a total of 5860 protein-coding genes were predicted. The genome sequence shows that 296 genes are related to polysaccharide synthesis, including 15 genes related to nucleoside-activated sugar synthesis and 11 genes related to glucan synthesis. The genome also contains genes and gene clusters for the synthesis of other active substances, including terpenoids, unsaturated fatty acids, and bioactive proteins. In addition, it was also found that N. aurantialba was more closely related to Naematelia encephala than to Tremella fuciformis. In short, this study provides a reference for molecular cognition of N. aurantialba and related researches.


Hyperglycemia in both type 1 and 2 diabetes is toxic to pancreatic beta cells and exacerbates the decline in functional beta cell mass in both diseases. Thus, identifying the molecular mechanism for how this glucotoxicity negatively impacts beta cells is essential for identifying new therapeutic targets to treat both forms of diabetes. We identified that EGF receptor feedback inhibitor Mig6 is induced in islets cultured in glucotoxic conditions and that Mig6 promotes apoptosis in beta cells. To define how the adaptor protein Mig6 promotes apoptosis, we sought to identify its interacting partners. Following immunoprecipitation of flag-tagged Mig6 in Ins1-derived 832/13 cells cultured in normal and toxic conditions, mass spectrometric analysis revealed protein phosphatase 2A (PP2A). PP2A controls many cellular functions ranging from metabolism, cell cycle, DNA replication, growth and apoptosis, and PP2A can be exploited by tumor cells to promote cell survival. Thus, we hypothesized Mig6 interacts with PP2A to regulate beta cell apoptosis. We cultured 832/13 cells and mouse islets in low (5 mM) or high glucose (HG, 20 mM) for up to 48h and validated that glucotoxicity increased methylation and decreased phosphorylation of PP2A (indicating activation). HG also increased expression of Mig6, CHOP (ER stress), γH2AX (DNA damage response), and cleaved caspase 3 (CC3; apoptosis). Compared to controls, siRNA-mediated suppression of Mig6 in 832/13 cells increased methylated PP2A and decreased γH2AX and CC3, suggesting Mig6 antagonizes beta cell survival. We generated mice lacking Mig6 in beta cells (Mig6βKO) by crossing Mig6-floxed mice (Mig6fl/fl) with RIP-Cre mice. Beta cell mass and glucose homeostasis were similar between Mig6βKO and control Mig6fl/fl littermates. Islets from Mig6βKO mice had increased methylated PP2A during HG compared to controls. We speculate the Mig6-PP2A interaction limits PP2A activation; hence, disrupting Mig6-PP2A or inhibiting Mig6 could promote compensatory beta cell survival by activating PP2A. Disclosure A. Rezaeizadeh: None. B.M. Bauer: None. P.T. Fueger: None.


Data-driven approaches to tactile sensing aim to overcome the complexity of accurately modeling contact with soft materials. However, their widespread adoption is impaired by concerns about data efficiency and the capability to generalize when applied to various tasks. This paper focuses on both these aspects with regard to a vision-based tactile sensor, which aims to reconstruct the distribution of the three- dimensional contact forces applied on its soft surface. Accurate models for the soft materials and the camera projection, derived via state-of-the-art techniques in the respective domains, are employed to generate a dataset in simulation. A strategy is proposed to train a tailored deep neural network entirely from the simulation data. The resulting learning architecture is directly transferable across multiple tactile sensors without further training and yields accurate predictions on real data, while showing promising generalization capabilities to unseen contact conditions.


AbstractThe government is obliged to provide good public services for its people, but the low performance of the apparatus and the still complicated bureaucracy causes public services to be not optimal and it is not uncommon to receive complaints from the public. It happened in the city government of Pekanbaru as well. To effectively serve the public, it is necessary to cultivate the right mindset and attitude. This study's goal is to shed light on how organizational culture can be leveraged to boost the efficiency of Pekanbaru's government institutions. This study takes a descriptive, qualitative approach to presenting its findings. According to the findings, the performance issues of Civil Servants will be implemented and fulfilled if the organization maintains its organizational culture. Maintaining a positive climate is one way in which organizational culture can boost performance, so a high level of performance can be expected when the culture is strong. Conversely, a low level of performance can be expected when the culture is weak.Keywords: Organizational Culture, State Civil Apparatus, Public Service.


As children learn they use their speech to express words and their hands to gesture. This study investigates the interplay between real-time gestures and speech as children construct cognitive understanding during a hands-on science task. 12 children (M = 6, F = 6) from Kindergarten (n = 5) and first grade (n = 7) participated in this study. Each verbal utterance and gesture during the task were coded, on a complexity scale derived from dynamic skill theory. To explore the interplay between speech and gestures, we applied a cross recurrence quantification analysis (CRQA) to the two coupled time series of the skill levels of verbalizations and gestures. The analysis focused on (1) the temporal relation between gestures and speech, (2) the relative strength and direction of the interaction between gestures and speech, (3) the relative strength and direction between gestures and speech for different levels of understanding, and (4) relations between CRQA measures and other child characteristics. The results show that older and younger children differ in the (temporal) asymmetry in the gestures–speech interaction. For younger children, the balance leans more toward gestures leading speech in time, while the balance leans more toward speech leading gestures for older children. Secondly, at the group level, speech attracts gestures in a more dynamically stable fashion than vice versa, and this asymmetry in gestures and speech extends to lower and higher understanding levels. Yet, for older children, the mutual coupling between gestures and speech is more dynamically stable regarding the higher understanding levels. Gestures and speech are more synchronized in time as children are older. A higher score on schools' language tests is related to speech attracting gestures more rigidly and more asymmetry between gestures and speech, only for the less difficult understanding levels. A higher score on math or past science tasks is related to less asymmetry between gestures and speech. The picture that emerges from our analyses suggests that the relation between gestures, speech and cognition is more complex than previously thought. We suggest that temporal differences and asymmetry in influence between gestures and speech arise from simultaneous coordination of synergies.


A superhydrophobic property was demonstrated on a cylindrical poly crystalline silicon nanoshell array due to its geometrical properties, even without a hydrophobic coating. The proposed structure showed superior water-repellency compared to a conventional pillar structure with an identical structural dimension. This superhydrophobic property is attributed to an air pillar that exists in the nanoshell. Through the calculation of capillary pressure, the stability of the air pillar was confirmed. Furthermore, a droplet impinging test was conducted on the fabricated cylindrical nanoshell array to verify the robust Cassie state of the proposed structure under a dynamic condition.


Cellular homeostasis of zinc, an essential element for living organisms, is tightly regulated by a family of zinc transporters. The zinc transporter 7, ZnT7, is highly expressed on the membrane of the Golgi complex of intestinal epithelial cells and goblet cells. It has previously been shown that Znt7 knockout leads to zinc deficiency and decreased weight gain in C57BL/6 mice on a defined diet. However, effects within the colon are unknown. Given the expression profile of Znt7, we set out to analyze the changes in mucin density and gut microbial composition in the mouse large intestine induced by Znt7 knockout. We fed a semi-purified diet containing 30 mg Zn/kg to Znt7-/- mice with their heterozygous and wild type littermates and found a sex specific effect on colonic mucin density, goblet cell number, and microbiome composition. In male mice Znt7 knockout led to increased goblet cell number and mucin density but had little effect on gut microbiome composition. However, in female mice Znt7 knockout was associated with decreased goblet cell number and mucin density, with increased proportions of the microbial taxa, Allobaculum, relative to wild type. The gut microbial composition was correlated with mucin density in both sexes. These findings suggest that a sex-specific relationship exists between zinc homeostasis, mucin production and the microbial community composition within the colon.


Introduction: Multiple Myeloma (MM) is an incurable cancer with a pre-malignant clonal phase of disease called monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). Most patients with MGUS do not develop MM and the biology underlying this potential transformation is unclear. Investigations to prevent the development of MM from MGUS is limited by infrequent MGUS progression. MGUS cells have historically proven difficult to grow in vitro because of slow rates of proliferation and difficulty in sustaining cell cultures. An in vitro model of MGUS that circumvents these challenges by recreating a supportive bone marrow microenvironment will allow further investigation into the pathogenesis of disease progression. Herein, we examine a novel stroma-based in vitro model of MGUS and MM using bone marrow stromal cells to support and maintain a bi-directional relationship within the clonal plasma cell population. Aim: To grow MGUS derived plasma cells by recreating a supportive bone marrow microenvironment using a 3-dimensional in vitro model. Methods: We collected a CD38+ cell fraction and a bone marrow stromal fraction from patients with plasma cell dyscrasias using a Miltenyl Biotec column Separator. We seeded stromal cells from a female, kappa expressing MGUS patient or a healthy donor onto a polyglycolic acid/ poly L-lactic acid 90/10 (PLGA) copolymer scaffold. Then, a CD38+ cell fraction from a male patient with lambda secreting PCL or MM cell line U266 or MM1.s (both male, lambda expressing cell lines) were added to create 3D co-culture conditions. For comparison, a 2 dimensional co-culture condition was created by growing MM patient cells or cell lines over a bone marrow stromal cell layer without scaffold.. After one week, samples were formalin fixed and sectioned for immunohistochemistry (IHC) and stained with CD138, kappa, lambda, and ki-67. Fluorescent in situ hybridization (FISH) was used to label X and Y chromosomes. Results: IHC demonstrated proliferation of CD138+ cells evident by Ki-67 expression in in 3-D co-culture systems. There was no growth of the patient derived CD38+ cells in 2-D co-culture and the proliferation of of cell lines was diminished in 2-D versus 3-D. When seeded on healthy donor stroma in 3-D, the CD38+ cells from all sources were lambda restricted. When seeded on the MGUS stroma, the MM1.s cells were lambda restricted while PCL cells showed both kappa and lambda expression with a dominance of kappa expression, and U266 cells showed kappa restriction. FISH demonstrated a female chromosomal pattern with X,Y in the plasma cells from the 3D co-cultures in the case of U266 or PCL cell 3-D co-culture with MGUS stroma. Conclusion: This is the first demonstration of in vitro growth of plasma cells from a patient with MGUS. We speculate the aggressive plasma cells from the U266 cell line and the PCL sample induced the growth of a CD38- cell fraction and caused differentiation to plasma cells. Citation Format: Brea C. Lipe, Omar Aljitawi, Tara Lin, Joseph Fontes. Growth of monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS) in a 3-dimensional co-culture in vitro model. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4026. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4026


'Dillinger: The Untold Story" is a remarkable contemporary account of John Dillinger's career as a bank robber and his run-ins with the FBI. Written in the 1930s by G. Russell Girardin but never published, the book is based on information supplied by Dillinger's lawyer, Louis Piquett. Here at last is the inside scoop on a number of old questions: How did Dillinger engineer his famous "wooden gun" jailbreak? What were Dillinger's ties to his betrayer Anna Sage? Was there any truth to the charges that some of Dillinger's bank robberies were prearranged with the banks? Packed with illustrations and new information, this is a feast for crime buffs. G. Russell Girardin was trying to start up an advertising agency in 1933, when a chance encounter with Dillinger's lawyer led to the writing of a series of newspaper articles and a never-published book. Girardin went on to have a successful career as the head of an advertising agency. He died in 1990, just four months after he met William J. Helmer and gave him the long-forgotten manuscript on Dillinger. William J. Helmer is a contributing editor at Playboy. The author of countless magazine articles and book reviews, Helmer's previous books include "The Gun That Made the Twenties Roar" and "Playboy's Illustrated History of Crime'.


Objectives: To determine and analyse clinically significant changes in hepatic lobe morphology.

Materials and Methods: An observational study was conducted over 42 adult human livers which were
acquired during routine dissections conducted for the first MBBS students over a period of two years (2017-
2019) at Dr. PSIMS & RF. Macroscopic thorough examination of the liver specimens was done through
borders, surfaces and changes the in parenchymatous tissue was duly documented and photographed.
Results: The common finding was prevalence of accessory fissures(50%) followed by pons hepatis (19%)
which was identified as bridging the fissure for ligamentum teres(9.5%) and encapsulating the inferior vena
cava in 9.5% of liver specimens. Accessory lobes account for a total of 16.6%,with incidence of Riedel's
lobe being 7.1%. Tongue like process of left lobe were encountered in 9.5% specimens. Unique finding in
the present study was of a liver specimen which had multiple variations on visceral, anterior and superior
surfaces.
Conclusions: Present study comprised of multiple variations in hepatic lobe morphology, which are of great
clinical significance and are interest for radiologists and gastroenterologist. Studies on liver morphology
would expand the knowledge for surgical inventions and help in preventing diagnostic errors in imaging
techniques.

Keywords: Liver, Accessory fissures, Lobes, Pons hepatis, Riedel's lobe.


A study of this group of Cretaceous Gastropoda, commenced some twelve months since, brought to light unexpectedly so many forms new to our Cretaceous series, some of the genera to which they are referred having, indeed, never before been found fossil, that I have deemed the result of sufficient importance to form the subject of a paper which I now lay before this Society. Conical or patelloid shells make their appearance amongst the earliest known Mollusca; and from them seem to have been differentiated the convoluted forms represented by Bellerophon: in the earliest times these two typical forms can hardly be separated one from the other, being linked together by spirally twisted capuliform shells. So impressed does Pictet seem to have been with this that he, in his great work the 'Terrains Crétacés de Ste. Croix,' includes Bellerophina in the Fissurellidæ. The families, species of which are here noticed, have been unusually persistent in form, having come down, in some cases, almost unchanged, even specifically, to the present day. The aspect of the group is therefore more recent in appearance than that of any other group of Gastropods from rocks of the same age. Although a considerable advance is here made in our knowledge of these families, from these particular rocks, yet the number of species described from single specimens tells us unmistakably how much more remains to be learned, and the inference is forced upon us that we must still possess, though undiscovered, a far greater variety of representatives


The study was designed to explore the relationship between strategic management methodologyand sustainable development in local government administration in Delta state. Two research questions were posed and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Population of thestudy comprised seventy five Heads/Directors of Personnel Management, Elected Chairmen and Treasurers in the local government councils in Delta state, Nigeria. The study was on a descriptive survey design. Data were collected for the study through the administration of validated questionnaire on the respondents.The test-retest method was used to establish the reliability of the instrument and the overall correlation coefficient of 0.91were obtained. The mean statistics were used to answer the research questions while z-test statistics andanalysis of variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses. The findings of the study revealed that administrators considered the influence of SWOT analysis and PEST analysis as strategic management methodologies on the effectiveness of sustainable development in local government administration highly influential. Based on the findings, it was recommended among others that these methodologies be properly harnessed and utilized to ensure sustainable development in local government administration.


Even if living against the water is challenging, living with the rising water level is doable. The global average sea level is rising as a result of global warming. The land surface is being occupied by rising water levels. Several places of the globe are in danger of disappearing from the map, vanishing under water, due to rising sea levels. Society will have to adjust and possibly live in floating dwellings one day. Some countries are further along in their adaptation to the effects of global warming, particularly the rising sea level, than others, depending on their geographical location. In locations where the land is mostly covered by water, the sole option to survive the rising waters is floating house. A 96.6m. sq. long floating house with dimensions of 11.5mx8.4m is considered. This paper aims to construct a floating house and use Ansys software to analyse the structure.


The inhibitory effects of Cu2+ on the hydrolysis of cholesteryl [4-14C]oleate droplets in rat peritoneal macrophages were studied. Macrophages rapidly incorporated cholesteryl [4-14C]oleate droplets and hydrolyzed at a linear rate over 9 h. When macrophages were preincubated in the medium containing Cu2+, the hydrolysis of cholesteryl oleate within macrophages was markedly inhibited by Cu2+ and eventually led to the accumulation of cholesteryl oleate in macrophages. The inhibitory effect on the hydrolysis of cholesteryl oleate was dependent on the concentration of Cu2+. Also, the activity of acid cholesteryl ester hydrolase (acid CEH) in lysosomal fractions isolated from rat peritoneal macrophages with Cu2+ showed a marked decrease. This decrease also occurred in a dose dependent manner. These results suggest that Cu2+ inhibits the hydrolysis of cholesteryl ester in macrophages, and that the accumulation of cholesteryl ester in macrophages of the early atheroscleotic lesion is responsible for the decrease of lysosomal acid CEH activity.


Glycosyltransferases in the Golgi apparatus synthesize cell wall polysaccharides and elaborate the complex glycans of glycoproteins. To investigate the targeting of this type of enzyme to plant Golgi compartments, we generated transgenic Arabidopsis plants expressing α-2,6-sialyltransferase, a glycosyltransferase of the mammalian trans-Golgi cisternae and the trans-Golgi network. Biochemical analysis as well as immunolight and immunoelectron microscopy of these plants indicate that the protein is targeted specifically to the Golgi apparatus. Moreover, the protein is predominantly localized to the cisternae and membranes of the trans side of the organelle. When supplied with the appropriate substrates, the enzyme has significant α-2,6-sialyltransferase activity. These results indicate a conservation of glycosyltransferase targeting mechanisms between plant and mammalian cells and also demonstrate that glycosyltransferases can be subcompartmentalized to specific cisternae of the plant Golgi apparatus.


We consider structures of actions which are partially ordered for time, which may occur in parallel, and which have lasting effects on the state of the world. Such action structures are of interest for problem—solving with multiple actors, and for understanding narrative texts where several things are going on at the same time. They are also of interest for other branches of computer science besides A.I.

Actions in the action structure are characterized in terms of preconditions, postconditions, and prevail conditions, where the prevail condition is a requirement on what must hold for the duration of the action. All three conditions are partial states of the world, and therefore elements of a lattice. We develop the formalism, give an example, and specify formally the criterion for admissible action' structures, where postconditions of earlier actions serve as prevail— or preconditions of later actions in a coherent way, and there are no conflicting attempts to change ("update") a feature in the world.


The essays in Kate Chopin in the Twenty-First Century update Chopin scholarship, creating pathways, both broad and narrow, for study in a new century. Given Chopin's atypical literary career and her frequent writing about unconventional themes for her time-such as divorce, infidelity, and suicide-she may have approved such approaches as the essays here suggest. This collection of essays offers readers newer ways of thinking about Chopin's works. They break away from the familiar trends of the feminist considerations of her work, ranging from her short stories, to her lesser-known novel, At Fault, to her best-known work, The Awakening. Part one introduces interdisciplinary themes for reading "culture" in Chopin, including urban living and theatre as a lens for viewing New Orleans's social and class stratifications; the importance of music-a central interest of Chopin's-in her texts; and the cultural relevance of Vogue magazine, where eighteen of Chopin's stories were first published. Part two identifies important and overlapping concerns of religion, race, class, and gender within the contexts of selected short works. And part three offers fresh readings of The Awakening, using the lens of race, as well as the lens of class to reconsider protagonist Edna Pontellier's transformation and her dependency upon the "rights" of privilege within a specific cultural context. Together, all of the essays in the collection, by both established and newer scholars, help to usher Chopin's work into the twenty-first century.


This paper attempts to explain what efforts have been made by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) to deal with the conflicts that occurred in Transnistria. OSCE is an intergovernmental cooperation organization in the field of defense and security. Transnistria is a region in Moldova. The history of this conflict occurred at a time of weakening influence until the collapse of the power of the Soviet Union. Which after Moldova's independence there was a group that declared independence from Moldova and made the name of a new country with the name Pridnestrovian Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic or Transnistria. One of the triggers for this conflict is linguistic and cultural differences, where most Moldovan people are close to Romania while Transnistria is close to Slavic. This conflict caused many casualties, as well as ethnic and national sentiments from various groups. For this reason, OSCE, as the organization's defense and security organization, helps this conflict by carrying out several functions such as the Information function, regulatory function, and operational function.
Keywords — OSCE, Conflict, Moldova, Transnistria


Neutralizing antibodies (NAbs) hold great promise for clinical interventions against SARS-CoV- 2 variants of concern (VOCs). Understanding NAb epitope-dependent antiviral mechanisms is crucial for developing vaccines and therapeutics against VOCs. Here we characterized two potent NAbs, EH3 and EH8, isolated from an unvaccinated pediatric patient with exceptional plasma neutralization activity. EH3 and EH8 cross-neutralize the early VOCs and mediate strong Fc-dependent effector activity in vitro. Structural analyses of EH3 and EH8 in complex with the receptor-binding domain (RBD) revealed the molecular determinants of the epitope-driven protection and VOC-evasion. While EH3 represents the prevalent IGHV3-53 NAb whose epitope substantially overlaps with the ACE2 binding site, EH8 recognizes a narrow epitope exposed in both RBD-up and RBD-down conformations. When tested in vivo, a single-dose prophylactic administration of EH3 fully protected stringent K18-hACE2 mice from lethal challenge with Delta VOC. Our study demonstrates that protective NAbs responses converge in pediatric and adult SARS-CoV-2 patients.


Abstract To understand the clinical characteristics of omicron in COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic after the current shift of dynamic zeroing policy, we consecutively collected the patients' data who visited in COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic of a Grade-A tertiary hospital in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, from January 3 to January 10, 2023, analyzed related data and then compared the pneumonia between elderly and non-elderly groups. The results showed that 95.68% of the patients in COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic had symptoms, 70.10% had a dry cough, 12.36% had abnormal complete blood count or C-reactive protein, 19.35% had electrolyte disorder, and 2% had abnormal troponin or creatine kinase-MB. 40.45% of patients had abnormal lung CT findings, among them 86.49% of elderly patients had abnormal lung CT findings, and the utilization rate of glucocorticoids in COVID-19 Rehabilitation Clinic was only 5.98%, although people are all susceptible to getting the COVID-19 infection, the elderly are more prone to getting pneumonia, and the glucocorticoids utilization rate is relatively insufficient. It is needed to be stressed that Chinese medical staff should pay more attention to the elderly patients who are vulnerable to getting pneumonia during this period.


In studies concerned with determining the stability of solutions of some systems of linear differential equations, it often is helpful to be able to transform the given system into another whose stability properties are known or are more easily obtainable. It is of interest, therefore, to consider transformations usable for this purpose, and to develop criteria to indicate when one system has the same stability properties as another. In Theorem 1 we give conditions sufficient to identify a Lyapunov transformation if certain properties are possessed by the coefficient matrix in the linear differential equation satisfied by the transformation, and in Theorem 2 we present an extension of Erugin's theorem [1, p. 122]. However, we need a few definitions and some preliminary work first. DEFINITION. A nonsingular matrix Q = Q(t) is said to be a Lyapunov transformation if it is continuously differentiable for all t ?0 and if Q, Q-1, Q', and (Q-1)' are each bounded. We designate the class of all such by the symbol L(0, oo). (Primes indicate differentiation.) DEFINITION. A matrix X(t) is said to be reducible to a matrix Y(t) if both are defined for all t >0 and if there exists a Lyapunov transformation such that X-Q Y for all t ? 0. When this holds, clearly Y is reducible to X also. DEFINITION. Matrices A (t) and B(t) are said to be L-equivalent to each other if both are defined for t ? 0 and if there exists a Lyapunov transformation Q Q(t) such that B = Q-A Q Q-'Q' in which case it is easy to see that we also have A = P-'BP -P-'P' where P=Q-1. In defining the class L(0, oo), we follow Gantmacher [1] and Lyapunov [2] rather than Nemytskii and Stepanov [3]. Although L(0, oo) is a restricted class of transformations it is a very useful one, for Lyapunov (loc. cit.) showed that matrices in this class preserve the stability properties of the Zero solution of a linear system of differential equations. More precisely, if X' =A(t)X and Y'=B(t) Y and if X = Q Y for some Q in L(0, oo ) then the Zero solution for Y is asymptotically stable, stable, or unstable according as the Zero solution for X is. Gantmacher [1, p. 117] points out that for fixed n,


Kenya has the third largest population of people living with HIV in sub-Saharan Africa and the highest national HIV prevalence of any country outside of Southern Africa. In 2012, there were approximately 1.2 million people living with HIV. 1 There is a mixed and geographically heterogeneous HIV epidemic with an estimated adult HIV prevalence of 5.6% percent. 2 National estimates and modelling indicate that 51% of new adult infections occur in eight of the 47 counties in Kenya. Within counties, there are important variations in HIV burden, with the epidemic concentrated among certain populations 3 . In order to reduce the spread of the disease, the Government of Kenya has over the years committed numerous resources towards achieving "an HIV free society in Kenya". This fight is spearheaded by the National AIDS Control Council (NACC) and National AIDS and STI Control Programme (NASCOP) in collaboration with multiple local and international partners.


ABSTRACT In 1707 Scotland's parliament ceased to exist. Yet it has since been the subject of two monumental acts of record scholarship; the Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland (1814-1875) in the nineteenth century and the Records of the Parliaments of Scotland (2007) in the twenty-first. Using the first of these as a touchstone, this article examines the ways in which the records of the pre-1707 parliament are presented, positioned and interpreted in the second. Unlike the nineteenth-century edition, which was produced in an era when adherence to the 1707 Act of Union with England went all but unquestioned, the twenty-first-century version was created during a period of constitutional devolution amidst a national debate over the question of independence from the United Kingdom. Approaching this new edition of parliamentary records as a cultural product, shaped and informed by the context in which it was created, therefore enables us to learn much about how the relationship between history and national identity in Scotland has changed since its predecessor was published. From there, the article questions the assumption that present-day understandings of Scottish identity are primarily civic and forward-looking, and argues that they are in fact partly based on claims which, whether secessionist or devolutionist, are fundamentally historical.


Although the future is normally uncertain, to a leader the future must be certain and very clear. For organizations to survive for 100 years and more, leaders need to understand the essence and application of vision to enhance organizational development.There is a difference between vision and visionary vision. Vision is static while visionary vision is dynamic. The purpose of this study was to investigate whether leaders apply visionary concepts and enhance organizational development at their place of work. The population of the study was purposive and entailed the University of Arusha leaders in various capacities from the past and present within the church sphere. The questionnaire was employed to collect data, and data were analyzed with SPSS. The main results of the research on descriptive analysis indicated core value, core purpose, vivid description, Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) were significant. Using data triangulation method which incorporated open ended questions and interview, were analyzed using the technique of content analysis which included open coding and axial coding as delineated by Strauss and Corbin and on the interview part. Collecting and thinking about interesting things by Seidel was incorporated and analyzed. The results revealed that there is a misalignment of core ideology and envisioned future and uncertainty to apply visionary concepts. Keywords : Vision, visionary, core ideology, envisioned future, core value, core purpose, BHAG, vivid description.


In this review we discuss the recent progress in the simulation of soft active matter systems and in particular the hydrodynamics of microswimmers using the method of multiparticle collision dynamics, which solves the hydrodynamic flows around active objects on a coarse-grained level. We first present a brief overview of the basic simulation method and the coupling between microswimmers and fluid. We then review the current achievements in simulating flexible and rigid microswimmers using multiparticle collision dynamics, and briefly conclude and discuss possible future directions.


A core of hard, sandy till is present beneath the clayey till of the Wabash and Fort Wayne Moraines in Allen County, Indiana. The buried surface of this till is relatively easy to determine through the use of surface exposures, engineering boring logs, and water well records. Knowledge of the configuration of this surface is significant to ground-water and engineering studies. The last ice to invade the area, that of the Erie Lobe, overrode this surface, which is a subdued image of the present surface. The present-day Wabash and Fort Wayne Moraines may be more probably inherited moraines than classical recessional moraines. These ridges and similar ridges in surrounding states and Canada may have formed the margins of an ancestral glacial Lake Maumee, through which the last ice advanced and from which the ice derived its high content of clay.


Discordant bedding is being reported with increasing frequency from rocks of almost any grade of metamorphism. It is, usually without much discrimination, cited as evidence of sedimentary origin or even as an indication of the sequence of deposition. In the present paper examples are given of discordant structures simulating both deltaic and torrential cross lamination but on closer inspection obviously due to differential stretching and variable orientation of cleavage in a thinly laminated quartzphyllite which has been isoclinally folded and subsequently flattened in the bedding plane. Microfabric analysis of micaceous cleavage planes can be a valuable aid in the distinction between discordant structures of sedimentary and deformational nature, and the more so the higher their degree of recristallisation and neomineralisation provided that these processes are strictly nimetic. Workers in the metamorphic field are cautioned to be on the alert for similar features of pseudo discordant bedding which is undoubtedly common in flattened and sheared rocks of variable competence such as the phyllonites and granulites, many of which have been derived from igneous rocks with a primary planar structure. No reliable recognition of top- and bottomsets can be made where discordant bedding has been affected by deformation along existing planes of weakness such as the lamination surfaces.


Introduction Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an immune-mediated, neurological disease that results in physiological deconditioning with increasing disability. High-intensity interval training (HIIT) exercise has induced significant improvements in physiological conditioning in healthy and clinical populations and might be appropriate for persons with MS who have mobility disability. The feasibility and acute effects of HIIT using recumbent stepping in persons with MS who have mobility disability are relatively unknown. Methods The physiological effects of single sessions of HIIT and continuous (CON), steady-state aerobic exercise using recumbent stepping were compared in 20 persons with MS with mobility disability (i.e., Expanded Disability Status Scale of 4.0–6.5). The HIIT bout included 10 cycles of 1-min intervals at the work rate associated with 90% peak aerobic capacity (V˙O2peak) followed by 1-min recovery intervals at 15 W, totaling 20 min in length. The CON bout consisted of 20 min at the work rate associated with 50% to 60% V˙O2peak. Physiological (i.e., power output, oxygen consumption, carbon dioxide expiration, respiratory exchange ratio, ventilation, HR, and core temperature) and perceptual (i.e., ratings of perceived exertion) measures were collected across the acute sessions. Results There were statistically significant condition–time interactions for all physiological measures and ratings of perceived exertion expressing differential patterns of change over time for HIIT versus CON (P < 0.05). The main effect of condition was significant for all physiological outcomes, except core temperature, with the HIIT condition inducing significantly higher values than CON (P < 0.05). Conclusions High-intensity interval training exercise taxes the cardiorespiratory system significantly more than CON, yet without deleterious effects on core temperature in persons with MS. This has important implications for informing an evidence-based exercise prescription that is appropriate for improving physiological conditioning in persons with MS who have mobility disabilities.


PURPOSE
Chronic dryness of the ocular surface evokes sensitization of corneal cold-sensitive neurons through an increase of sodium currents and a decrease of potassium currents, leading to the unpleasant dryness and pain sensations typical of dry eye disease. Here, we explored the effects of amitriptyline, a voltage-gated Na+ channel blocker used for the treatment of depression and chronic pain, on nerve terminal impulse (NTI) activity of cold-sensitive nerve terminals recorded in intact and tear-deficient guinea pig corneas.

METHODS
Main lachrymal gland was surgically removed in anesthetized guinea pigs to induce chronic tear deficiency. Four to 6 weeks afterward, animals were sacrificed and both corneas placed in a perfusion chamber superfused at 34°C. Thermal stimuli were induced by changing the solution temperature from 34°C to 20°C (cooling ramp) and from 34°C to 50°C (heating ramp). Spontaneous and stimulus-evoked NTIs of cold-sensitive nerve terminals were recorded before, during, and after perfusion with solutions containing amitriptyline at different concentrations (3-30 μM).

RESULTS
Perfusion with amitriptyline inhibited irreversibly and in a concentration-dependent manner the spontaneous NTI activity of cold thermoreceptors of intact corneas. This effect was less evident in tear-deficient corneas. In addition, amitriptyline (10 μM) attenuated the maximal response to cooling ramps without changing cold threshold in intact but not in tear-deficient corneas. Only cold thermoreceptors with low cooling threshold values were sensitive to amitriptyline.

CONCLUSION
Amitriptyline effectively reduces the activity of cold thermoreceptors, although its efficacy is different in intact and tear-deficient corneas, which might be due to the changes induced by ocular dryness in the expression of the various voltage-gated Na+ channels responsible of the action potential generation and propagation.


Introduction: The tobacco epidemic is surging in developing countries. While the determinants of tobacco use are well known, it is less certain whether they are similar in developed and developing countries. This has important ramifications for the implementation of interventions locally. This qualitative study explored the determinants and importance of context on tobacco use in Pakistan. Methods: Focus group discussions were conducted in two districts with doctors, nurses and patients from local tuberculosis clinics. Results: Peer influence, social acceptability, affordability and visibility of tobacco, public understanding and personal perception of risks influence tobacco use. Individual factors, such as personal curiosity, adversity and stress, also affected tobacco uptake and use. Patients were willing to pay for effective cessation treatment provided the costs were comparable to their expenditure on tobacco. Discussion: Factors such as peer and social influences are similar to those reported elsewhere. However, local variations exist in the degree of sociocultural acceptability, visibility of tobacco use, public understanding of risks and individual situational factors that influence tobacco use. Patients are prepared to pay for treatment, but there are gender differences in what can be afforded. For tobacco cessation interventions to be effective, local adaptations are essential to ensure cultural and contextual appropriateness.


This paper builds on a position paper presented previously that outlined the concept of designerly well-being and, through reviewing critiques of Design and Technology (D&T) curriculum activities, proposed approaches that would support the concept. This paper describes a pilot study that explored designerly well-being in a situation where learners undertook design challenges in contexts that they saw as having socio-cultural relevance to their own lives. The pilot study explored how teachers structured a D&T 'enrichment day' based around the design contexts that 14 year olds express interests in. The interests were identified through a survey based on one used to identify topics of social and cultural relevance for learning in mathematics (the ROSME project). Having identified the interest areas, the teachers planned and enacted the enrichment activity with a cohort of 46 learners. Based on learner evaluation questionnaires and a teacher evaluation interview, the study illustrates how positively the learners responded to taking on 'big design' challenges in future-facing scenarios. The study also indicates challenges faced by teachers in planning and managing such activities and the transformative impact the day had on the teachers' views of approaches to D&T project work.


As a result of a fruitful collaboration initiated in 1994 between Factory Mutual Research and INERIS, round robin tests have been carried out in three Fire Propagation Apparatuses (FPAs), previously known as FMRC flammability apparatuses in the USA or 'Tewarson' calorimeters in Europe. The apparatuses (two operated by Factory Mutual Research and Approvals in Norwood in USA and the more recent one by INERIS in Verneuil-en-Halatte in France) are all meeting the requirements of recently issued American Standards ASTM E 2058 and NFPA 287. This poster briefly describes the development of the FPA, followed by the description of the round-robin testing programme carried out so far that includes ignition, combustion and propagation tests for seven commercially-important plastics. The materials have been characterised carefully from the thermo-chemistry point of view. Round robin results for the global flammability parameters such as CHF, TRP and FPl, as defined in the standards, are very encouraging, both in terms of repeatability of measurements in each laboratory and reproducibility of data from one lab to the other.


The deformation twinning behavior of Fe18Mn0.6C and Fe18Mn0.6C-2.5Al twinning-induced plasticity steels was compared by in-situ electron backscattering diffraction. Al suppressed deformation-induced twinning. A constitutive model considering the effect of Al on the twin formation kinetics was used to show that the work hardening and the ultimate tensile strength were lowered by the suppression of deformation twinning despite the pronounced solution hardening contribution of Al.


Bachground: The optimal use of postoperative intravenous (IV) fluid after cardiac surgery remains unclear. The overall effect of post-operative fluid balance on the mortality and morbidity of these patients is yet to be determined. Αim: The aim of this study was to determine the effect of post-operative fluid balance, administered by nurses, on the outcomes of cardiac surgery patients during their hospitalization in the ICU. Methods: This retrospective study included patient's that were admitted to the ICU between July 2013 and February 2014 during their postopreparative recovery period following cardiac surgery. Data included demographic information, comorbidities, preoperative status, preoperative medication, type of surgery, pre- and postoperative laboratory results medical conditions, fluid balance in the ICU, length of mechanical ventilation, duration of stay in the ICU, and overall survival while in the ICU as well as on the 7th and 30th postoperative day. Chi squared test, t-test and Mann-Whitney tests were used for comparisons while p


Ever since the first mobile telephone call was made by a Motorola researcher in 1973, mobile technology has been growing rapidly to facilitate diverse ubiquitous services. Although cell based radio technology has proved beneficial for reliable long distance transmission, it is faced with challenges when deployed in an indoor environment. With the introduction of white LED - based communication entities at the start of the 21st century, radio and other technologies have become more interdependent, with the possibility for further expansion. Bearing in mind the sophistication offered, with the rapid developments witnessed in mobile telecommunications, this thesis presents an innovative alternative for cell phone connectivity in RF restricted or poor signal connectivity region.

To address the research objective of offering uninterrupted signal connectivity in an indoor environment, the term Radio on Visible Light (RoVL) was introduced in this research. Furthermore, five major attributes influencing mobile signal transmission through visible light channels were identified and addressed. The bandwidth constraint offered by a white LED was tackled with an intelligent technique of frequency translation and mapping. In addition, an electronic predistorter was designed and implemented to address the nonlinearity in an LED. For efficient data manipulation, subcarrier continuous phase technique of modulation was introduced and hardware implemented for visible light communication, with a discussion on the LED number and arrangement for efficient illumination and data transmission.

Despite the presence of significant research contributions in visible light technology, the study here is specifically focussed on integrating the GSM network with that of the optical wireless systems. The existing visible light entities provide service users with a one way broadband data transmission hub, unlike the dual channel support rendered by the RoVL device as presented in this research. The techniques proposed, backed up with interesting research observations and experimental results, clearly demonstrate the capability of supporting mobile communication through optical wireless channels. The methods proposed and techniques discussed shall lay foundation in supplementing the radio based mobile technology with optical wireless entities, opening new avenues for further research & development in this direction.


The purpose of this study is to find out about how to improve the quality of Islamic education through optimizing personnel management, and to find out what are the supporting and inhibiting factors for the implementation of personnel management in SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Plus Bandung City. The research that was carried out was included in qualitative descriptive research. The data collection method uses the method of observation, interviews, and documentation. Meanwhile, improving the quality of education is a systematic effort in school management to achieve progress from one stage to a higher level to produce added value according to applicable norms/standards. Management of improving the quality of Islamic education in schools is a quality improvement method that is based on school education itself, applies a set of techniques, is based on the availability of quantitative and qualitative data, and empowers all school components to continuously increase the capacity and capacity of school organizations to meet the needs of participants. students and society. By optimizing personnel management, it can continue to improve the quality of Islamic education. This is what the SMA Muhammadiyah 3 Plus Bandung City has done. Keywords:  Personnel Management, Quality of Education, Islam


This paper presents analysis of five airspace tube structures; three of which were previously defined and two new designs that were generated for this research. Five metrics to characterize the performance of these tubes are described. The metrics address the spatio-temporal utilization, frequency and angles at which aircraft cross tubes, along with separation of aircraft with and without tubes. All of the designs were incorporated in a common simulation platform for evaluation. The results indicate that current designs of tubes have low utilization and improvements are needed for additional benefits. Other structural parameters for consideration in future designs are presented along with visualization of a simple three-dimensional tube network.


Software routers based on personal computer (PC) architectures are becoming an important alternative to proprietary and expensive network devices. However, software routers suffer from many limitations of the PC architecture, including, among others, limited bus and central processing unit (CPU) bandwidth, high memory access latency, limited scalability in terms of number of network interface cards, and lack of resilience mechanisms. Multistage PC-based architectures can be an interesting alternative since they permit us to i) increase the performance of single- software routers, ii) scale router size, iii) distribute packet-manipulation and control functionality, iv) recover from single-component failures, and v) incrementally upgrade router performance. We propose a specific multistage architecture, exploiting PC-based routers as switching elements, to build a high-speed, large-size, scalable, and reliable software router. A small-scale prototype of the multistage router is currently up and running in our labs, and performance evaluation is under way.


In large harbours and long channels where congested traffic and critical weather are present, VTS (vessel traffic service) systems are needed for traffic management and control. The requirements for these systems become more and more demanding because of the continuous increase of traffic and adverse meteorological conditions; reliable systems which can help the operators to avoid accidents which can jeopardise the security of people and goods have to be used to increase safety and efficiency. These systems employ mainly radar sensors, suitably placed in order to have a complete coverage of the area to be controlled, because a 24-hours operation in all weather conditions must be assured. In this paper a new methodology to process digitised radar images to extract object features (size, heading, etc.) is presented. Considering that ships arriving to, or departing from, harbours are big objects moving in narrow channels or waterways, information such as length and bow position are fundamental to control the ship movements, to evaluate the distance between two vessels, or between the vessel and fixed objects such as buoys or wharves. Results of extensive measurement campaign carried out in Naples, Leghorn and Genoa harbours are reported.


According to W3C accessibility standards, most Web applications are neither accessible nor usable for people with disabilities. Developers often solve this problem by building separate accessible applications, but these applications are seldom usable and typically offer less functionality than the original. Another common solution is to maintain a single application, but create an accessible view by applying on-the-fly transformations to each requested page-a solution that rarely suits all audiences. A third solution is described here: let users improve Web accessibility in their client browsers through interface refactorings, which offer many customized, accessible views of a single application.


Surface plasmons (SPs) in ultraviolet (UV) have attracted a great deal of attention because of their emerging applications in energy resources, environmental protection, and biotechnology. In this article, the dielectric loaded surface plasmon polariton (DLSPP) properties of the Al–Al nanostructure are investigated theoretically. Sharp SP responses can be obtained in deep UV by setting an insulator grating on the aluminum film. It is found that the height of the grating element, the lattice parameter, and the filling factor can all modulate the DLSPPs of the AlO–Al nanostructure. We further find that this structure is sensitive to the embedding medium and can serve as a refractive index sensor in the UV region. The corresponding sensitivity increases with the decrease of the filling factor. The Al–Al nanostructure may be useful for medical diagnostics and biotechnology in deep UV.


With global uncertainties on the rise, it has become particularly important for the EU and China to find ways to deepen their bilateral economic cooperation. The EU and China, as the world's second and third largest economies, share a responsibility in upholding the rules-based, global free trade system and other forms of multilateral cooperation, especially on combating climate change. Starting from this premise, this report sets out the main conclusions of a research project between European and Chinese think-tanks, which addresses the prospects for the EU–China economic relationship through to 2025. As the report lays out, the two sides have the opportunity to deepen their cooperation in areas such as trade and investment; infrastructure; energy, the environment and the Paris climate change agreement; science, technology, innovation and industrial cooperation; financial services; people-to-people exchanges; and global governance. In this way, the EU and China can help ensure that global development is stable, strong, balanced and sustainable. The report also discusses the numerous obstacles that stand in between further collaboration.


The 'Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam' project, started in 2011 on Blue Nile (Abay) trans-boundary River with tense political confrontation with Egypt, has received sizeable national and international media coverage in a manner of introducing customers and depicting vital and selected details about the project Nevertheless, it remains understudied, if not neglected, issue in media research. This article examines The Reporter, private owned national circulation newspaper, salient frames pertain to the dam project and how these frames reflect Ethiopian government dominant perspectives on Nile politics. To this end, a longitudinal qualitative content analysis of articles in thereporterethiopia.com dated between 09th March 2013 and 15th March 2014 was conducted. The findings reveal that six dominant frames emerged inductively from the data that rendered certain aspects of the dam construction more salient than others. These are 'Development'; 'National Image'; 'Right'; 'Victimhood'; 'Mutual benefit'; and 'War' frames. Ecological and environment issues and nearby communities' livelihood and resettlement concerns caused by the project have been marginalized. Risks of flood and landslide received extremely diminutive media coverage. The article argues that The Reporter newspaper, mostly using official sources, engaged in cautious and selective framing weighting certain aspect of the GERD more salient while excluding others so as to promote a particular interpretation to the project that is consistent with its editorial agenda in corollary with Ethiopian government interest and perspective on Nile politics.


Human resources which nowadays mentioned as human capital is one of the most important capitals of each organization that its quality can have effective role in growth and development of organization and based on its complexities. Methodology: Different discussions emerges in behavioral dimensions that one of them in recent years is the topic of organizational citizenship behavior. Citizenship behavior is a profitable and valuable type of behavior that people show voluntarily. Results: Hence study and investigation of such behavior of people in organization that named the organizational citizenship behavior causes the improvement of personnel and organization productivity. Conclusion: The purpose of doing this study is the survey of relationship between the organizational citizenship behavior and productivity of human resources among Shahid Rejaee port personnel of Bandar Abbas.


Each year, the Editorial Board of NAMES reviews the articles that have been published in the journal to select winners for its prestigious Best Article of the Year Award. In 2021, the deliberation process was delayed due to COVID. However, throughout the Winter and Spring of 2023, the members of the Editorial Board carefully reviewed all of the articles that appeared in the four issues of NAMES released in 2021. Publications were assessed for scientific innovation, academic writing style, research methodology, and overall potential to make a significant and lasting contribution to the field of onomastics research. After the votes were tallied, four publications clearly emerged as winners.


OBJECTIVE
to characterize children hospitalized due to violence in a pediatric ICU in 2011; to relate violence and the mechanisms of trauma with death; to know the contextualization of violence, from the records in the medical records.

METHOD
retrospective cohort, performed in a first aid hospital, Porto Alegre city, in the records of 22 children hospitalized in the ICU due to violence. Quantitative analysis was performed by absolute and relative frequency rates, chi-square and relative risk.

RESULTS
54.5% were boys, 81.8% were white and 50% were up to three years old. Physical violence 50% and neglect 36.4%, family of children (77.3%), highlighting the mother (35.3%). Mechanisms of aggression: fall (22.7%), burns (18.2%). Burns were at high risk for death. Discharge to go home after ICU admission (59.1%).

CONCLUSION
It is considered that the characterization of the cases of violence reflects the complexity of the theme, mainly, in face of the life histories that surround each case of children hospitalized by this aggravation.


BACKGROUND: Binge eating disorder (BED) is a complex and multifaceted eating disorder, and the literature indicates that BED patients show greater difficulty in identifying and making sense of emotional states, and that they have limited access to emotion regulation strategies. Findings show many links between mindfulness and emotional regulation, however there has been no previous research on mindfulness traits in BED patients. METHOD: One hundred fifty BED patients (N=150: women=98, men=52; age 49.3±4.1) were matched for gender, age, marital status and educational level with 150 non-bingeing obese and 150 normal-weight subjects. All were assessed with the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ), Binge Eating Scale (BES), Objective bulimic episodes (EDE-OBEs) and Body Uneasiness Test (BUT). For all the participants past or current meditation experience was an exclusion criteria. RESULTS: Findings showed that Mindfulness-global, Non reactivity to experience, Acting with awareness, Describing with words and Observation of experience scores were significantly lower in BED than control groups (p<0.05). However, on the mindfulness measures, the obese control group did not differ from the normal weight control group. Moreover, correlations showed that mindfulness was more widely negatively correlated with the BED's OBEs, BES and BUT-GSI scores. Meanwhile, binge eating behaviours, frequency and severity (OBEs and BES) were more negatively correlated with action (Nonreactivity- to-experience and Acting-with-awareness scores). Body Uneasiness was more negatively correlated with mental processes (Describing-with-words and Observation-ofexperience) and mindfulness features. CONCLUSION: Implications on understanding of the mechanisms underlying the development and maintenance of problematic eating in BED were considered. Moreover, clinical considerations on treatment targets of mindfulnessbased eating awareness training were discussed.


The links between theory and construction management (CM), and for that matter construction economics (CE), are not strong (see de Valence 2011). This may be one of the reasons why they have not gained complete acceptance as academic disciplines and are not seen as distinct branches of economics and management respectively. Another reason may be that products and production (the focus of management and economic theories respectively) are not the same as projects and project management in general, and construction projects and CM in particular.


This retrospective trial was performed to determine risk factors, incidence and severity of ifosfamide-induced encephalopathy in correlation with patient and treatment characteristics. Patients receiving ifosfamide were included consecutively with no restrictions concerning disease, prior chemotherapy or disease stage. Incidence and severity of encephalopathy were graduated according to common toxicity criteria. Between July 2001 and July 2002, 60 patients (32 male, 28 female, median age 47.5 years) were included; 26.6% of the patients (n=16) developed neurological symptoms [grade 1: 6.7% (n=4); grade 2: 3.3% (n=2); grade 3: 11.7% (n=7); grade 4: 5% (n=3)]. Encephalopathy occurred for the first time in 87.5% (n=14) in chemotherapy courses 1 and 2. In 56.25% (n=9) of these 16 patients only one episode was observed. There was no significant difference concerning age (38 versus 50 years, p=0.08) and dosage (median 2.9 versus 2.8 g, p=0.74) between patients with and without encephalopathy. No risk factors could be identified by this study, suggesting an individual predisposition in each patient. On the other hand, ifosfamide can be administered in older patients without increased risk of neurotoxicity.


Long waves in shallow water in a non-rotating system are not dispersive but in a rotating system they are. This paper investigates the generation and propagation of these dispersive waves in an infinite sea. The mode of generation is by air-pressure gradients or wind stresses applied to the surface. Bottom friction is neglected. The surface elevation due to a stationary force of constant amplitude suddenly applied and maintained at t = 0 over one-half of an infinite sea is shown to approach, through a series of oscillations approximating more or less to an inertia period, a steady-state amplitude decreasing with distance from the generating area, The longitudinal and transverse velocities are also given. The time elapsed from the initial disturbance at a point to the first maximum of elevation decreases with the distance of the point from the edge of the generating area. A generating area whose edge moves forward with the maximum group velocity of the waves is shown to lead to an elevation of ever-increasing height. The effect of a barrier placed at right angles to the direction of propagation is also briefly considered.


Abstract: The environment and resultant discomfort has severe impact on overall working efficiency of human and machine while using farm tools and machinery in hills. The Ladakh region of Jammu and Kashmir State of India is predominantly hilly. Anthropometric data of agricultural workers is very essential for the safe and efficient design of farm machinery. In the present studies, an anthropometric survey was carried out for agricultural workers of Ladakh region, wherein 90 male and female agricultural workers were selected and 79 body dimensions were precisely measured and recorded from each subject, thereafter analysed statistically. For making the data comprehensive and more useful, a set of 23 body dimensions, which are having direct implications on agricultural tool/implement design were selected, and compared with data of different regions of India and also with those of Egyptian, Japanese, British, Thailand, Mexican and Chinese workers. There were significant differences in stature and other body dimensions among the populations. From these data, it appears that values of body dimensions of Ladakh workers were lesser than those of five other regions of India and six other countries as mentioned above. In stature, Ladakhi men were shorter by 5.08 cm as compared to North-eastern Indian male workers. Similarly, Ladakhi women were shorter by 12.65 cm as compared to British women. The Ratio of sitting height to stature (RSH) of Indian women (present study) was found lower (0.46) as compared to those of Egyptian (0.52), Japanese (0.53), British (0.53), Thailand (0.53) and Chinese (0.54). The obtained results indicate that Indian women are short legged. These results suggest that it is essential to generate the necessary anthropometric data of different regions of the country through extensive surveys for designing region specific farm machineries to properly exploit the working potential of farm workers. Application of this data on tool design is illustrated through some examples. Keywords: anthropometric survey, body dimensions, agricultural workers, tool design


We study the nodal count of the so-called bi-dendral graphs and show that it exhibits an anomaly: the nodal surplus is never equal to 0 or $\beta$, the first Betti number of the graph. According to the nodal-magnetic theorem, this means that bands of the magnetic spectrum (dispersion relation) of such graphs do not have maxima or minima at the "usual" symmetry points of the fundamental domain of the reciprocal space of magnetic parameters.
In search of the missing extrema we prove a necessary condition for a smooth critical point to happen inside the reciprocal fundamental domain. Using this condition, we identify the extrema as the singularities in the dispersion relation of the maximal abelian cover of the graph (the honeycomb graph being an important example).
In particular, our results show that the anomalous nodal count is an indication of the presence of the conical points in the dispersion relation of the maximal universal cover. Also, we discover that the conical points are present in the dispersion relation of graphs with much less symmetry than was required in previous investigations.


Ericsson magnetic refrigeration has been studied in the temperature range from 20K to 77K. We have designed and built an Ericsson magnetic refrigerator which has a lot of difference from Carnot magnetic refrigerators. In this temperature range, it is necessary to use ferromagnetic material as the magnetic refrigerant, because it has the internal magnetic field which arranges the spin system. Moreover, above 20K since the lattice entropy grows almost comparable to or larger than the magnetic entropy, we must apply Ericsson cycle for the thermal cycle. In our apparatus, lead was used as regenerator material, and gaseous helium was used to transfer heat between the two solids, magnetic substance and regenerator material. Our device operated on Ericsson cycle with fixed magnetic substance and moving regenerator, and magnetization and demagnetization of the magnetic substance were obtained by charging and discharging the magnet. In this paper, the primary experimental results are described. The magnetic working substance was DyAl2.2 sintered compound which had the Curie temperature of 49.8K, and two kinds of regenerator were tested. At the cycle of 300s and a field of 5T, the magnetic substance changed in temperature between 48.3 and 59.1K and regenerator produced a temperature of 50.3 and 58.7K at the cold and hot end, respectively. The temperature change of the magnetic substance was about 1.7 times as large as the maximum adiabatic temperature change with the magnetic field of 0 and 5T. Some losses were discussed in our paper. The Brayton like cycle and very slow cycle period obtained in our experiment were caused by insufficient heat transfer between the regenerator and the magnetic substance. In addition to this problem, thermal conduction in the regenerator material which caused heat leak to low temperature end of the regenerator was thought to limit the temperature span produced in the regenerator.


When new-graduate nurses enter practice, they are expected to provide clear, effective handoff reports during care transitions. However, few nursing programs offer systematic instruction or opportunities to practice this important form of communication. This article describes a teaching intervention designed to prepare students with handoff skills they will need in practice. Data gathered to evaluate its effectiveness indicated that skill repetition improved student performance and perceived self-efficacy of handoff reporting. Lessons learned and recommendations for incorporating this instruction into nursing curricula are discussed.


A new species of Philautus is described from the vicinity of Vishakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh in south-eastern India. The new species is compared with congeners from peninsular India and Sri Lanka. Since the members of the genus are restricted to wet evergreen forests of the region, remnant patches of wet forests within a now largely degraded and arid Eastern Ghats are apparently refugia, supporting species that are tolerant of mesic conditions. K e y w o r d s : taxonomy, amphibians, Philautus, new species, Eastern Ghats, India.


Dunaliella salina (Chlorophyceae), Phormidium versicolor (Cyanophyceae), and Cylindrotheca closterium (Bacillariophyceae) were isolated from three ponds in the solar saltern of Sfax (Tunisia). Growth, pigment contents, and photosynthetic and antioxidant enzyme activities were measured under controlled conditions of three light levels (300, 500, and 1000 µmol photons m−2 s−1) and three NaCl concentrations (40, 80, and 140 g L−1). The highest salinity reduced the growth of D. salina and P. versicolor NCC466 and strongly inhibited that of C. closterium. According to ΦPSII values, the photosynthetic apparatus of P. versicolor was stimulated by increasing salinity, whereas that of D. salina and C. closterium was decreased by irradiance rise. The production of carotenoids in D. salina and P. versicolor was stimulated when salinity and irradiance increased, whereas it decreased in the diatom. Catalase (CAT), Superoxide dismutase (SOD), and Ascorbate peroxidase (APX) activities were only detected when the three species were cultivated under E1000. The antioxidant activity of carotenoids could compensate for the low antioxidant enzyme activity measured in D. salina. Salinity and irradiation levels interact with the physiology of three species that have mechanisms of more or less effective stress resistance, hence different resistance to environmental stresses according to the species. Under these stress-controlled conditions, P. versicolor and C. closterium strains could provide promising sources of extremolyte for several purposes.


Abstract. Spatial, temporal, environmental and urban planning variables are some factors effected crime occurrence as a social undesirable phenomenon. In this paper, the effect of urban planning variables (including land use diversity and police station area) and temporal parameters (including daily and weekly time windows) on crime incidence were investigated by doing some spatial-temporal analysis. To tackle this, at first, in order to determine crime clusters, DBSCAN algorithm is utilized. Then by using the Ordinary Least Square (OLS) and Geographically Weighted Regression (GWR) the global effect of urban planning variables on crime spatial clusters are modelled and compared. Finally, the OLS method is used to investigate the effects of temporal variables on crime spatial clusters. The results demonstrate that there is a negative correlation between crime clusters and the police station coverage, and a positive relationship between crime clusters and land-use diversity. Furthermore, increasing the number of police stations in districts with high land-use diversity can result in reducing the crime rate. Also, the result of our temporal analysis shows that the high crime rate was happened at noon and on weekdays. Therefore, increasing the number of police officers at noon and on weekdays in the districts with high land-use diversity is recommended.


The relationship between accounting and fiscal rules has long been controversial. Financial statements conform to accounting principles and methods regardless of tax rules. This independence generates important permanent and temporary differences between accounting and taxable income. The paper analyses the behaviour of listed Spanish firms in this accounting‐taxation relationship 1996‐1998, the extent of introduction of the inter‐period income tax allocation method, and the number and types of permanent and temporary differences reported. Most firms adopt the income tax allocation method, and report the differences, although they do not always specify which transactions provoked them. Among the long list of operations that generate differences, the most frequent are income tax expense, welfare schemes, provision for pensions, monetary correction, accelerated depreciation, or exemption for reinvestment. Although the number and kind of differences vary through time, the variation is not statistically significant. This is the first study analysing such differences for a European Union state.


We report the optical properties of GaSbBi layers grown on GaSb (100) substrates with different bismuth contents of 5.8 and 8.0% Bi. Fourier-transform photoluminescence spectra were determined to identify the band gaps of the studied materials. Further temperature- and power-dependent photoluminescence measurements indicated the presence of localized states connected to bismuth clustering. Finally, time-resolved photoluminescence measurements based on single-photon counting allowed the determination of characteristic photoluminescence decay time constants. Because of the increasing bismuth content and clustering effects, an increase in the time constant was observed.