Trichuris vulpis and Toxocara canis are worldwide parasitic nematodes affecting dogs and mammals of the Canine family. Due to the special structure of the shells, the eggs of these geohelminths can maintain their viability in soil, sand, water and the environment for a long time. The study involved young (6–12 months old) and adult (1.5–8.0 years old) dogs affected by co-infection of T. vulpis + T. canis; the control group consisted of dewormed healthy animals of the same age. Parasitological examination of dogs' faeces was performed using a "Counting Chamber for Ovoscopic Researches"; morphological parameters, indicators of nutrient metabolism, mineral metabolism and activity of enzymatic systems were determined in blood and serum. According to the results of parasitological research on the dogs, it was found that young animals are more prone to toxocarosis, and adults – trichurosis. The co-infection of nematodes T. vulpis + T. canis in dogs develops several changes in haematological parameters: a significant decrease in erythrocytes, haemoglobin, MCV, MCH, and haematocrit, leukocytosis with basophils and eosinophilia in young infected animals; and eosinophilia and basophilia (15.9 times) in adults, compared with healthy dogs of the same age. Among the changes in serum biochemical parameters, young infected dogs showed a decrease in the concentration of total protein and albumin content, an increase in the content of "acute phase" proteins (α-1, α-2 and β-globulins), an increase in cholesterol and total bilirubin; in adult infected dogs, a decrease in albumin content, an increase in the content of α-1, α-2, and β-globulins, an increase in the concentration of cholesterol and total bilirubin, a decrease in the concentration of urea in comparison with healthy animals were determined. Also, among the indicators of mineral metabolism, a decrease in the concentration of calcium and magnesium in the serum was found in young infected dogs. Among the changes in the enzyme metabolism in the serum of infected dogs, there was an increase in the activity of all studied enzymes in animals of both research groups: ALT, AST, α-amylase, GGT and ALP. Thus, co-infection with nematodes T. vulpis + T. canis has a complex pathogenic effect on the body of dogs of all ages, which manifested itself in multiple changes in haematological parameters. In the future, the authors' team plan to develop comprehensive measures to combat nematode infections in different living conditions of dogs, taking into account the results of the current research.


Fourier transform infrared horizontal attentuated total reflectance (FT-IR-H-ATR) spectroscopy was employed to determine the diffusion coefficients of sodium p-aminosalicylate (PAS) in sheep nasal mucosae and dialysis membranes. The system configuration, which comprises a closed system with an aqueous layer and a membrane layer, represents diffusion from a solution of limited volume. Data analysis involved fitting a truncated (seven term) Fourier series to the total mass transport into the membrane as a function of time. Comparison of diffusion coefficients of PAS in dialysis membranes obtained by this technique to those obtained by a standard steady-state permeation method showed excellent agreement. Apparent diffusion coefficients were approximately 4.33 (+/- 0.38) x 10(-7) and approximately 9.62 (+/- 5.30) x 10(-7) cm2/s for dialysis membranes and sheep nasal mucosae, respectively. These values are substantially smaller than the diffusion coefficient of PAS in aqueous solution, indicating that the rate-limiting step was diffusion in the membrane. The effect of purified gastric mucin solution (concentration up to approximately 6% w/v) on the apparent diffusion coefficient of PAS in the membranes was also investigated. The results showed no statistically significant change in the apparent diffusion coefficient in the presence of mucin for either sheep nasal mucosae or dialysis membranes. Although it was reported that mucin in solution retards the diffusion of PAS as compared to buffer alone, the mass transport within the membrane was the rate-limiting step for this hydrophilic compound.


The purpose of the paper is to investigate combinatorial properties of the hypernet network. The hypernet network owns two structural advantages: expansibility and equal degree. In addition, it was shown to be efficient in both communication and computation. Since the number of nodes contained in the hypernet network increases very rapidly with expansion level, we emphasize the hypernet network of two levels (denoted by HN(d, 2)) with a practical view. Recently, combinatorial properties such as container (i.e., node-disjoint paths), wide diameter, and fault diameter have received much attention due to their increasing importance and applications in networks. The following results are obtained for HN(d, 2): (1) best containers with width d-1, (2) containers with (maximum) width d, (3) the (d-1)-wide diameter, (4) the d-wide diameter, (5) the (d-2)-fault diameter, and (6) the (d-1)-fault diameter. More specifically, between every two nodes of HN(d, 2), d (or d-1) packets can be transmitted simultaneously with at most D+2 (or D+1) parallel steps, where D=2d+1 is the diameter of HN(d, 2). Besides, the diameter of HN(d, 2) will increase by at most two (or one), if there are at most d-1 (or d-2) node faults. Our results reveal that HN(d, 2) is not only efficient in parallel transmission, but robust in fault tolerance.


Bacillus species are usually found in a number of food products, in which they
cooperate with other microorganisms during fermentation and releases valuable
compounds including enzymes and antimicrobial substances. Antibacterial substances
produced by food-grade Bacillus spp. can find potential biopreservatives in food
systems. In this study, Bacillus spp. were selectively isolated from various food
sources based on their antibacterial activity against Micrococcus luteus ATCC 9341.
Among 78 such isolates, 25 potent isolates were selected for further studies, and were
characterized and differentiated by phenological and molecular approaches. From
these 25 isolates, seven isolates were taken which showed considerable diversity in
their characteristic features and were identified as B. subtilis Ec1, B. thuringiensis
Ik15, B. licheniformis Me1, B. cereus Ik11, Bacillus flexus Hk1, B. megaterium Pk12
and B. amyloliquefaciens Bk1. These cultures have been deposited in Microbial
Culture Collection, National Centre for Cell Science, India. Most of the isolates
displayed wide range of inhibitory activity against both Gram-positive and Gramnegative
food-borne pathogenic bacteria. The antibacterial substances produced by
these isolates were partially characterised. The culture, B. licheniformis Me1 produces
an antibacterial substance which is proteinaceous in nature, stable over a wide
temperature and pH, and exhibits wide range of inhibitory spectrum. Based on these
results, B. licheniformis Me1 was selected for further studies.
The antibacterial peptide (ABP) produced by B. licheniformis Me1 was
purified from culture supernatant using ammonium sulphate, butanol extraction and
HPLC. A single active peak was obtained after RP-HPLC which showed an m/z value
of 279.28, determined by mass-spectroscopy. The tricine SDS-PAGE analysis of the
purified ABP revealed that it is low molecular weight (MW) peptide of 3 to 3.4 kDa.
The effect of ABP on food-borne pathogens, such as Listeria monocytogenes Scott A,
Staphylococcus aureus FRI 722, Salmonella typhimurium MTCC 1251 and B. cereus
F 4433 revealed that it has bactericidal effect. The scanning electron microscopy
images of ABP-treated cells revealed complete disruption of the cells. In addition, the
mode of action studies using FTIR, release of UV absorbing materials, cell reporter
assays showed that the target of action of the ABP was on the cell wall of the
pathogens. An economical production media (consisting of corn steep liquor (a byproduct
for corn milling), yeast extract and NaCl) was developed for maximum
production of ABP. The optimum conditions for higher yield of ABP (51200 AU/ml)
in this formulated media was found to be temperature 37°C, pH 8, agitation speed 150
cycles/min and an incubation time of 24 h. The technological properties and the mode
of action of the ABP indicate that it may belong to the cationic- membrane-acting
lantibiotic group.
In order to verify the suitability of B. licheniformis Me1 for food application
the safety of the culture was evaluated in vitro and in vivo. The isolate was nonhaemolytic
and non-phospholytic. The in vivo toxicological safety analysis as
determined using suitable animal models revealed that the culture is safe, non toxic,
non-irritant, and non-mutagenic and can be used for food industry application. The
ABP produced by this culture was analysed for the biopreservative effectiveness. Two
different methodologies were tested, direct application and food packaging film
application. The ABP was found to be efficient in controlling the growth of L.
monocytogenes Scott A in milk and other dairy products, such as cheese and paneer.
Furthermore, the ABP was used to develop active packaging films (LDPE and
cellulose) and their efficacy in controlling growth of pathogens in packaged food was
also evaluated. Both the active (LDPE and cellulose) films with ABP showed
inhibitory activity against common food-borne pathogens tested. The absorption and
release of ABP to and from the cellulose film was found to be better as compared to
LDPE film, since the binding of ABP in the former case was evaluated to be more
stable. The dairy products, such as cheese and paneer samples inoculated with L.
monocytogenes Scott A, and packed with ABP activated cellulose and LDPE films
showed a reduction in the viable count of the indicator organism. In addition, a
comparative evaluation of the in vitro probiotic properties of the Bacillus cultures was
carried out and the culture B. licheniformis Me1 exhibited potential probiotic
properties, such as acid and bile tolerance, bile salt hydrolase activity, hydrophobicity,
antioxidant activity, etc. With this work, a novel food-grade isolate, B. licheniformis
Me1 was obtained which can find potential application in food industry as a probiotic
or as biopreservative.


We investigate the effect of accent on comprehension of English for speakers of English as a second language in southern India. Subjects were exposed to real and TTS voices with US and several Indian accents, and were tested for intelligibility and comprehension. Performance trends indicate a measurable advantage for familiar accents, and are broken down by various demographic factors.


A multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) version of the dirty paper channel is studied, where the channel input and the dirt experience the same fading process, and the fading channel state is known at the receiver. This represents settings where signal and interference sources are co-located, such as in the broadcast channel. First, a variant of Costa's dirty paper coding is presented, whose achievable rates are within a constant gap to capacity for all signal and dirt powers. In addition, a lattice coding and decoding scheme is proposed, whose decision regions are independent of the channel realizations. Under Rayleigh fading, the gap to capacity of the lattice coding scheme vanishes with the number of receive antennas, even at finite Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR). Thus, although the capacity of the fading dirty paper channel remains unknown, this paper shows it is not far from its dirt-free counterpart. The insights from the dirty paper channel directly lead to transmission strategies for the two-user MIMO broadcast channel, where the transmitter emits a superposition of desired and undesired (dirt) signals with respect to each receiver. The performance of the lattice coding scheme is analyzed under different fading dynamics for the two users, showing that high-dimensional lattices achieve rates close to capacity.


We study a magnetogranular chain composed of stainless-steel beads which are placed inside an appropriately designed periodic magnetic field. The latter provides attractive forces between the particles, leading to a stable structure, free of mechanical boundaries. Using a scanning laser-based probe at the individual-particle level, we observe experimentally the propagation of longitudinal as well as transverse-rotational waves. In addition, we obtain the dispersion band diagram. In the linear regime, these observations are well supported by a mass-spring model that takes into account both a normal and a shear mechanical coupling between the beads, considering translational and rotational degrees of freedom. In the weakly nonlinear regime, we present experimental results including beating in the amplitude of the second harmonic for the longitudinal waves and propagation under oblique driving excitation. A theoretical model that takes into account the Hertzian contact mechanics, dissipation, and the finite size of the system captures well the results for second-harmonic generation with longitudinal waves. This magnetosensitive system offers great freedom to design complex waveguide geometries where the interplay between geometry, wave polarization, and nonlinearity may pave the way toward the development of advanced signal-processing elastic devices.


Choroidal osteoma is rare clinical entity of unknown etiology, characterized by formation of mature cancellous bone within the choroid. It typically affects young females, with no racial predilection. Vision loss occurs mainly due to photoreceptor degeneration secondary to decalcification and/or development of choroidal neovascularization especially if located at the sub foveal area. Our case is 9 y old male child identified incidentally with multiple yellowish white well demarcated lesions in the left eye suggestive of choroidal osteoma associated with nearby areas of RPE (retinal pigment epithelium) atrophy and depigmentation. SD-OCT (spectral domain optical coherence tomography) demonstrated high reflectivity from the choroid and atrophy of the overlying retinal layers. USG B-scan demonstrated multiple highly reflective calcified lesions within the choroid suggestive of choroidal osteoma.


This case-control study was conducted in Lima, Peru, from June 1997 through January 1998 to assess whether plasma concentrations of carotenoids (alpha-carotene, beta-carotene, lycopene, lutein, zeaxanthin, beta-cryptoxanthin), retinol, and tocopherols (alpha-tocopherol and gamma-tocopherol) are decreased in women with preeclampsia. A total of 125 pregnant women with preeclampsia and 179 normotensive pregnant women were included. Plasma concentrations of antioxidants were determined using high performance liquid chromatography. After adjusting for maternal demographic, behavioral, and reproductive characteristics and total plasma lipid concentrations, the authors found a linear increase in risk of preeclampsia with increasing concentrations of alpha-tocopherol (odds ratio of the highest quartile = 3.13; 95% confidence interval: 1.06, 9.23, with the lowest quartile as the reference group; p value of the test of linear trend = 0.040). The risk of preeclampsia decreased across increasing quartiles of concentrations for retinol (odds ratio of the highest quartile = 0.32; 95% confidence interval: 0.15, 0.69, with the lowest quartile as the reference group; p value of the test of linear trend = 0.001). Some of these results are inconsistent with the prevailing hypothesis that preeclampsia is an antioxidant-deficient state. Preliminary findings confirm an earlier observation of increased plasma concentrations of alpha-tocopherol among women with preeclampsia as compared with normotensive pregnant women.


In the third and fi nal part, " Methodologies for Re-viewing Performance, " the essays model different approaches for investigating civic spectacles. David M. Bergeron shifts the scale of analysis. Rather than looking at a speci fi c occasion or type of event, Bergeron traces out over years the various roles played in civic displays by a single person. J. Caitlin Finlayson examines the translation and circulation of ephemeral architecture in print while Katherine Butler reconstructs soundscapes through texts to access something of the lived experience of festivals. Finally, Janelle Jenstad and Mark Kaethler present a digital geospatial tool that enables users to visualize London ' s pageants within their dynamic urban contexts. Together these contributions push the study of early modern festivals to consider a fuller range of objects, actors, spaces


Dialogical Self Theory, co-regulation, and foundational movement analysis are used to present a description of the development of the dialogical self during the first five months of life using observations of two mother-infant dyads. Susan and her mother illustrate normative emergence of the dialogical self. Susan's I-positions emerge through positive interactions with her mother, for example, through body positioning and dialogue in a flexible yield-push pattern. Peter, another infant we observed, and his mother show how the development of the dialogical self may be disrupted or delayed as rigid boundaries are formed between the mother and infant. Peter's tendency to withdraw, coupled with his mother's persistence at diminishing his positions, results in both avoidant and ambiguous monological positions in relation to his mother.


According to a recent verdict of the German Federal High Court, physicians are obliged to keep records. In civil lawsuits, however, there is no obligation to hand over medical records, although the patient or his representative may be entitled to examine them.


A simple sol–gel condensation of tin(IV) tert-butoxide led to the formation of meso/macroporous membranes. SEM observation clearly shows the cylindrical macropore array, of which mean pore diameter is controllable between 200 and 800 nm. The existence of slit-shaped mesopores (12 nm) was confirmed by a N2 adsorption–desorption experiment.


The Chronicler, as an early interpreter of Samuel and Kings, alerts us to the diverse understandings of (or emphases in) cult centralization that are represented in these texts and in the Pentateuch. Recent studies demonstrate the Chronicler's apparent desire to bring his source narratives into compliance with both Deuteronomic and Levitical understandings of Law. In light of this observation, reading backward from the Chronicler's opinion on centralization may help us evaluate the model of centralization represented in the final form of Samuel and Kings. Such a reading will demonstrate that Samuel is in fact a "Deuteronomistic" book, exhibiting the precise view of cult centralization that one would expect from a book that advances the Deuteronomistic narrative in the way that it does—that is, the "discovery" of "the place which YHWH will choose to set his name to dwell there."


OBJECTIVE
To study the water-soluble chemical constituents of Taraxacum mongolicum.

METHODS
The chemical constituents were isolated and purified by means of several chromatographic techniques and their structures were elucidated by spectroscopic methods.

RESULTS
Nine compounds were isolated and identified as trans-p-coumaryl alcohol(1), trans-p-coumaryl aldehyde(2),p- hydroxybenzoate (3) , p-hydroxyphenyl-propionic acid (4) , 4-hydroxy-2, 6-dimethoxyphenol-1 -O-β-D-glucopyranoside (5) , protocate- chuic aldehyde(6) ,rutin(7) ,quercetin(8) ,kaempferal-3-O-α-L-rhamnopyranosyl-( 1-6) -β-D-glucopyranoside(9).

CONCLUSION
Com pounds 1-6 are isolated from this plant for the first time.


The data race problem is common in the interrupt-driven program, and it is difficult to find as a result of complicated interrupt interleaving. Static analysis is a mainstream technology to detect those problems, however, the synchronization mechanism of interrupt is hard to be processed by the existing method, which brings many false alarms. Eliminating false alarms in static analysis is the main challenge for precisely data race detection. In this paper, we present a framework of static analysis combined with program verification, which performs static analysis to find all potential races, and then verifies every race to eliminate false alarms. The experiment results on related race benchmarks show that our implementation finds all race bugs in the phase of static analysis, and eliminates all false alarms through program verification.


In this research, a virtual world of an Austrian town centre was created to teach German to first year students at the University of Calgary. While interacting with characters in the City of Salzburg, students were able to take control of their own learning, and at the same time they were exposed to cultural and linguistic realia that are often not present in other types of language games. In playing the game, students reported an improvement in their listening skills, and they also noted that the experience was beneficial for vocabulary learning, pronunciation, general fluency, and improving reading skills. Surveys and direct observation of student game play offer insights into attitudes towards personal use of games, the value of educational games for teaching language and impact of different testing environments on the success of playing a game. Examining the recorded paths taken through this world by students during the game, space syntax research offers some interesting perspective insights into strategies game players employ when looking for the correct path through an urban space. In fact, isovist and axial maps may be helpful in predicting the first line of action taken by game players as they navigate through a virtual world with no verbal clues.


Combined modality therapy is of great importance in the management of small cell lung cancer. Randomized studies of the design chemotherapy with or without thoracic irradiation are required to demonstrate the impact of radiotherapy on rates of survival, local control and adverse effects. The method of meta-analysis allows one to analyse in a single study a set of different clinical trials of the same design. The first purpose of this paper is to briefly present the method, and the results of a meta-analysis on the role of thoracic irradiation combined with chemotherapy in the treatment of this disease. Thoracic irradiation added to chemotherapy results in a major decrease in local relapse (from 65% to 40% at 2 years), a modest increase in overall survival (from 16 to 22% at 2 years), and a small increase in lethal toxicity (from 1 to 2%). The second purpose is to discuss timing of thoracic irradiation with respect to the administration of chemotherapy using the results of a recently published trial. This Canadian study is based on the hypothesis that chemo resistant cells may develop as a result of spontaneous mutations during therapy. Limited disease patients all received the same chemotherapy (alternating 3-week cycles of CAV [cyclophosphamide, doxorubicin, vincristine] over EP [etoposide, cisplatinum] for a total of six cycles), after having been randomized to receive thoracic irradiation given either early (at 3 weeks following the beginning of treatment) or late (at 15 weeks). Of the 308 patients for analysis 155 were randomized to the "early radiotherapy" arm, and 157 to the "late radiotherapy". Prognostic factors were equally distributed between the two arms. The radiotherapy regiment consisted of a dose of 40 Gy in 15 fractions to a target volume including the primary tumor and mediastinum, and prophylactic brain irradiation (25 Gy in ten fractions in 2 weeks) to patients without progression of disease. The overall survival rate was better in the "early radiotherapy" arm, with a median survival of 21 months and on overall survival rate of 20% at 5 years, compared to a median of 16 months and a 5 years survival of 11% in the "late radiotherapy" arm. The survival curves are significantly different by the log rank (P = 0.008) and Wilcoxon (P = 0.005) tests, in favour of "early radiotherapy". After allowing for prognostic factors (sex, ECOG performance status) by the Cox model, the "early" arm retains a statistically significant advantage (P = 0.006).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


Thermophilic strain Bacillus species AA contains several site-specific endonucleases and three of them have been identified. BspAAI recognizes the sequence 5'-C downward arrow TCGAG-3' and cleaves it after the first "C" forming 4-nucleotide 5'-ends and is an isoschizomer of XhoI. BspAAII recognizes the sequence 5'-T downward arrow CTAGA-3' and cleaves it after the first "T" forming 4-nucleotide 5'-ends and is an isoschizomer of XbaI. BspAAIII recognizes the sequence 5'-GGATCC-3' and is an isomer of BamHI. The optimal temperature and pH values are 42-48 degreesC and 7.0-8.0, respectively.


This article discusses the implementation of the decentralization particularly in the field of cultural and heritage preservation. Through the elaboration of the case of cultural and heritage preservation in the province of West Sumatra, Riau and Riau Islands, this article argues that the core problem is related to the political will and the availability of personnel. This paper suggests that in order to ensure the preservation of cultural heritage, some organizational reform are needs to be taken followed by reform of the apparatus as a whole, both within the central and local government.


The introduction to this ERS Special Issue sets out the broad frame through which the six articles can be coherently viewed. It does so by suggesting that, more recently, different governments' attempts to manage the tensions surrounding asylum, labour needs and multicultural citizenship have increasingly involved a 'redrawing' or 'refixing' of immigration and multicultural political and policy approaches. This 'redrawing' process places a traditional stress on policing national borders and excavates older discourses of assimilationism through an emphasis on cultural integration, social cohesion and a notion of a core national identity. This process is apparent in wider European and Australian contexts and can be particularly seen in the current British government's legislative interventions on asylum and migrant labour. The introduction sets out the specificity of the British context and outlines how each of the subsequent articles speaks to the labile political and policy landscapes of migration and belonging.


Topical research efforts on attention to pain often take a critical look at the modulatory role of top-down factors. For instance, it has been shown that the fearful expectation of pain at a location of the body directs attention towards that body part. In addition, motivated attempts to control this pain were found to modulate this prioritization effect. Such studies have often used a temporal order judgment task, requiring participants to judge the order in which two stimuli are presented by indicating which one they perceived first. As this constitutes a forced-choice response format, such studies may be subject to response bias. The aim of the current study was to address this concern. We used a ternary synchrony judgment paradigm, in which participants judged the order in which two somatosensory stimuli occurred. Critically, participants now also had the option to give a 'simultaneous' response when they did not perceive a difference. This way we eliminated the need for guessing, and thus reduced the risk of response bias. One location was threatened with the possibility of pain in half of the trials, as predicted by an auditory cue. Additionally, half of the participants (pain control group) were encouraged to avoid pain stimuli by executing a quick button press. The other half (comparison group) performed a similar action, albeit unrelated to the occurrence of pain. Our data did not support threat-induced spatial prioritization, nor did we find evidence that pain control attempts influenced attention in any way.


Background. Food insecurity, affecting approximately 10% of the U.S. population, with up to 40% or higher in some communities, is associated with higher rates of chronic conditions and inversely associated with diet quality. Nutrition interventions implemented at food pantries are an effective strategy to increase healthy food choices and improve health outcomes for people experiencing food and nutrition insecurity. Supporting Wellness at Pantries (SWAP), a stoplight nutrition ranking system, can facilitate healthy food procurement and distribution at pantries. Purpose. Guided by the RE-AIM Framework, this study assesses the implementation and outcomes of SWAP as nutritional guidance and institutional policy intervention, to increase procurement and distribution of healthy foods in pantries. Method. Mixed-methods evaluation included observations, process forms, and in-depth interviews. Food inventory assessments were conducted at baseline and 2-year follow-up. Results. Two large pantries in New Haven, Connecticut, collectively reaching more than 12,200 individuals yearly, implemented SWAP in 2019. Implementation was consistent prepandemic at both pantries. Due to COVID-mandated distribution changes, pantries adapted SWAP implementation during the pandemic while still maintaining the "spirit of SWAP." One pantry increased the percentage of Green foods offered. Challenges to healthy food distribution are considered. Discussion. This study has implications for policy, systems, and environmental changes. It shows the potential for SWAP adoption at pantries, which can serve as a guide for continued healthy food procurement and advocacy. Maintaining the "spirit of SWAP" shows promising results for food pantries looking to implement nutrition interventions when standard practice may not be possible.


Background: The role of diets high in fish and prostate cancer (PCa) risk is unclear. Whereas studies from Japan and Sweden have reported positive associations, others have reported protective effects. These inconsistencies might be explained by lack of consideration of the type of fish (dark vs. white) and by racial/ethnic differences in study populations. Few studies have included African-American men, who have the highest incidence of PCa. Methods: We used data from the California Collaborative Case-Control Study of Prostate Cancer, a multi-ethnic population-based study of 1949 cases (1195 advanced and 754 localized PCa cases) and 1135 controls, which included 25%African Americans. We considered intake of white fish (flounder, halibut, snapper, bass, cod, sole), dark fish (salmon, mackerel, cat fish, trout, herring, sardines, etc.), fried fish and tuna fish. We used conditional logistic regression analysis to estimate odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), adjusting for age, PCa family history, body mass index, caloric intake, vitamin D and total fat. Results: Consumption of white fish (highest vs. lowest quartile) was associated with increased PCa risk (OR = 1.7; 95% CI = 1.2–2.5). OR estimates did not differ by stage (localized vs advanced) or race (African Americans vs Caucasians or Hispanics). Dark fish consumption was not associated with risk. Consumption of fried fish (highest vs. lowest quartile) was associated with increased risk only among whites and Hispanics (OR = 2.4; 95% CI = 1.2–4.9) but not African Americans. Among whites and Hispanics, this effect was stronger for localized PCa (OR 3.2; 95% CI = 1.4–7.4), than advanced PCa (OR = 2.0; 95% CI = 0.9–4.3). When taking into account cooking methods, we found that the positive association between high intake of white fish and PCa risk was restricted to subjects who usually cooked fish using high temperature methods, such as pan-frying, oven broiling, or grilling, but not baking or other methods. Moreover, the effect of high intake of white fish was stronger among subjects who cooked the fish well done to very well done (highest vs lowest quartile OR = 3.1; 95% CI = 1.6–6.2) than among those who cooked fish just until done (OR = 1.2; 95% CI = 0.8–2.0). Conclusions: Diets high in white fish seem to increase risk of all PCa among white, African-American, and Hispanic men, particularly when the fish is cooked using high-temperature methods and/or to very well doneness level. Diets high in fried fish seem to increase risk of localized PCa among white and Hispanic men, but not among African American men. Carcinogens that accumulate when cooking white fish at high temperatures might explain our findings. Differences in fish types used for fried fish dishes might explain the disparity we observed between white or Hispanic men versus African American men.


Burleson and Goldsmith's (1998) comforting model suggests an appraisal-based mechanism through which comforting messages can bring about a positive change in emotional states. This study is a first empirical test of three causal linkages implied by the appraisal-based comforting model. Participants (N = 258) talked about an upsetting event with a confederate trained to display low, moderate, or high levels of person centeredness and nonverbal immediacy. After the conversation, participants completed several scales. Latent composite structural equation modeling was used to examine the model, which showed that person-centered and immediate emotional support exerted a direct effect on emotional improvement. Above and beyond this direct effect, personcentered comfort also encouraged people to verbalize their thoughts and emotions. These verbalizations facilitated cognitive appraisals, which in turn exerted a strong direct effect on emotional improvement. Mediation analyses further suggested that verbalizations of positive emotion words in conjunction with reappraisals partially mediated the influence of person-centered comfort on emotional improvement.


While the ubiquity of Web 2.0 technologies disrupts conventional notions of schooling and literacy, its impact on learning is idiosyncratic at best. Taking the form of a dialogue based on the 15-week collaboration of two colleagues implementing an innovative 1st-year university writing course, this paper documents some of the successes and challenges they faced as they sought to create a space for those technologies in their classrooms. Keywords: Web 2.0; schooling and literacy; learning; higher education; new technologies


BACKGROUND
The origin and formed family characteristics are related to physician's professional career. The purpose of this study was to know and compare by sex the characteristics of the origin family and formed family of women and men family physician in Andalusia.

METHODS
Cross sectional and multicenter study.

SETTING
Urban primary health care centres from Andalusian province capitals.

PARTICIPANTS
Physician of primary health care centres.

INCLUSION CRITERIA
at least one year using computerized medical history with the same quota patients. Multistage random sample, 88 primary health care centres and 500 physicians, 50% of both sexes (alpha=5%, power=90%, precision=15%). Postal auto administrated questionnaire.

VARIABLES
sex, age, tutor of resident in family medicine, last father's activity, last mother's activity, number of brothers or sisters, family situation, last couple's activity (if any), to have or not children.

RESULTS
73.6 % responses. In no responses there weren't differences of sex neither tutor of resident in family medicine. Mean age: women physicians 49.5 +/- 4.3 and men physician 51.3 +/- 4.9 (p= or < 0.005). Postgraduate formation in family medicine: 42.2% of women and 33.3% of men (p=0.016). Live alone: 6.1% of women physician and 2.7% men physician (p=0.005). Live alone with children 9.9% of women and 2.2% of men (p=0.005). 16.5% of women and 10.2% of men don t have children (p=0.077). 21.1% of men physician s couples work only at home vs. 0.1% of women physician s couples (p= or < 0.005). 46% of women physician s couples is also physician vs. 22% of men physician s couples (p= or < 0.005). No significant differences registered in parent s activities neither in the number of brother or sisters.

CONCLUSION
There are no significant differences in physician s origin family. However important differences in the characteristics of formed family are observed in both sexes.


TRENDS OF ASR(WORLD) The annual ASR(World) for incidence and mortality of colorectal cancer (CRC) during the study period (1998-2002) showed different patterns among the racial/ethnic groups studied (Fig. 1). Men in PR showed a significantly increase in the incidence and mortality rates (APCincidence 1⁄4 3.3%, APCmortality 1⁄4 4.5%), in contrast, a decrease was observed among USH, NHW and NHB men. Among women in PR, only the mortality has been reduced (APCmortality 1⁄4 1.4%); however, the incidence in women increased (APCincidence1⁄4 1.0%). The USH population showed the highest reduction in the incidence trends of CRC amongmen (APCincidence1⁄4 5.4%) and women (APCincidence1⁄4 3.8%).Meanwhile, the NHW population showed the highest reduction in the mortality trends of CRC among men (APCmortality1⁄4 2.7%) and women (APCmortality1⁄4 2.3%). Published online September 1, 2009 in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com)


This paper presents the application of the constructive adpositional grammars (CxAdGrams) to phraseological units, through the special case study of Esperanto. Constructive linguistics is an approach to human language analysis that considers constructions, themselves being paradigms of language-in-use, as the first units. Unlike other constructional approaches, constructive linguists apply formalisms in understanding linguistic phenomena. The adpositional paradigm is the most developed formalism in constructive linguistics, which is understandable by humans and machine-readable at the same time. The term 'constructive' should also be understood in formal terms, as the adpositional paradigm is based on constructive mathematics, and in particular on topos-theory. From a theoretical perspective, CxAdGrams describe human languages in terms of constructions, described adpositional trees (in short, adtrees). This paper aims to explain why such an interpretation of constructions in terms of adtrees can be useful for a deeper understanding of phraseology. Esperanto is the case study chosen so to give an empirical base to CxAdGrams. In particular, we illustrate the problematisation of its phraseology as well as the advantages of Esperanto in setting up workable prototypes in a short time.


This paper presents the conversion methodology of a spark ignition (SI) engine to operate on liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) as an alternative fuel. Minor modifications were carried out to enable the conversion and the system was controlled by a dedicated LPG electronic control unit (ECU) through input signal from the original engine ECU. Existing system remains unchanged and the selection mode of the fuel was easily switched by a selection button.


Methylenetetrahydrofolate Reductase C677T Polymorphism and Risk of Colorectal Cancer in the Macedonian Population Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) regulates the flow of folate groups between DNA synthesis and DNA methylation. A common C677T substitution (Ala222Val) in exon 4 of the MTHFR gene has been linked with the risk of colorectal cancer (CRC). To assess this risk in the Macedonian population, we conducted a case-control study of 413 randomly selected CRC patients and 185 controls without a clinical diagnosis of CRC. We found a statistically significant inverse association between the MTHFR T allele (35.35% for the patients and 41.35% for the controls) and the CRC risk [odds ratio (OR) 0.776; 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 0.603-0.997; p = 0.047). The prevalence of the MTHFR T allele is lower in patients with advanced CRC (Duke' s stage C and D) and with microsatellite instable tumors (MSI+), indicating the inverse association with the CRC aggressiveness and MSI status. This effect seems to be independent of gender, age of onset and localization. We concluded that the MTHFR 677T allele is more likely to have a protective effect on CRC development and progression in the Macedonian population.


The article concerns the latent infections of cells of immune system caused by herpesviruses and retroviruses. Molecular basis of latency maintained by Epstein-Barr virus in B lymphocytes as well as by human immunodeficiency virus in TCD4 lymphocytes is described. The switch between latency and replication of the viruses and immune surveillance is discussed.


Indoor noise comes from the emission of outdoor noise and indoor sources of noise. The adverse effects of indoor noise on human health include noise-induced hearing loss, interference with communication, sleep disturbance, cardiovascular effects, annoyance responses, performance reduction and so on. To reduce indoor noise and protect the public health, actions such as monitoring, assessment, developing criteria and noise control techniques, should be taken.


Dental diseases based on neurological disorders arises as people gets older. It may also cause tooth decay and losing of tooth. People with poor oral health can also experience this kind of diseases. So we are developing a tool where we can predict the diseases and can take the necessary steps in the early stage. It is important for one to keep their dental a perfect one. Once they loss it their confidence automatically gets decreased. Hence by developing this people can get rid of the problems and can also avoid dental based neurological problems. Since the development of technology is in rapid speed it is necessary to upgrade our current technologies with some advanced features. In this project we will be collecting the images of the dental and feed it as the input. From that the feature values will be collected and classify them into the diseases. It uses Convolutional Neural Network (CNN) algorithm where the diseases can be classified using this algorithm. The development of this project can help people to find the diseases just by scanning their dental part. It makes the prediction to be a simple process so that the dentist itself can use this and find the disorders. From this project we can conclude that it is simple that a neurological disorder that is caused by dental can be predicted easily and hence preventing them.


PURPOSE
In the first of a three-part series, a novel nursing terminology is introduced and proposed for inclusion in the North American Nursing Diagnosis Association (NANDA) International Classification--Critical incident nursing diagnosis (CIND)--defined as the recognition of an acute life-threatening event that occurs as a result of disease, surgery, treatment, or medication.

DATA SOURCES
The literature, research studies, and meta-analyses from a variety of disciplines, and personal clinical experience serve as the data sources for this article.

DATA SYNTHESIS
The current nursing diagnoses in the NANDA International Classification are inaccurate or inadequate for describing nursing care during life-threatening situations. The lack of standardized nursing terminology creates a barrier that may impede critical communication and patient care during life-threatening situations.

CONCLUSIONS
Coining and defining a novel nursing terminology, CIND, for patient care during life-threatening situations are important and fill the gap in the current standardized nursing terminology. IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING PRACTICE. Refining the NANDA International Classification will permit nursing researchers, among others, to conduct studies on nursing diagnoses in conjunction with the proposed novel nursing terminology: CIND. Parts 2 and 3 of this series will propose additional nursing terminology: critical incident nursing intervention and critical incident control, respectively.


To extend the practical application of poly(propylene carbonate) (PPC), the chemical methods were used to improve its mechanical properties. In this connection, random copolymer poly(propylene-cyclohexyl carbonate) (PPCHC) and di-block copoly- mers poly(propylene carbonate-cyclohexyl carbonate) (PPC-PCHC) were synthesized. Dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA), nano- indentation and nanoscratch test were applied to evaluate their mechanical properties. The storage's modulus, Young's modulus (E) and hardness (H) obtained from DMA and nanoindentation tests showed that the introduction of the third monomer cyclohexene oxide (CHO) can greatly improve the mechanical properties of PPC, and that the block copolymer PPC-PCHC hand better mechani- cal properties than the random copolymer PPCHC. The annealing treated PPC-PCHCs exhibited deteriorated mechanical properties as compared with untreated PPC-PCHC. From the results of scratch tests, the plastic deformation of PPC-PCHC was smaller than those of PPC and PPCHC. Meanwhile, the plastic deformations of the heat-treated PPC-PCHCs were smaller than the untreated PPC-PCHC because of the possible rearrangement of the molecular chains of PPC-PCHC. The scratch hardness (Hs) of the block copolymer PPC-PCHC is larger than random polymer PPCHC and PPC, but lower than the values of heat-treated samples indicating that the surfaces' hardness of block polymers increase after heat treatment. These different measurement methodologies provide a more precise assessment and understanding for the synthesized block polymers. V C 2012 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 128: 1979-1986, 2013


Electrons in strong magnetic fields are of interest in connection with (a) compact galactic objects and (b) conduction band behaviour in metals. The interest in case (a) is in bound electrons in atoms, and in case (b) in itinerant or delocalized electrons in metals. Besides the specific interests in these areas, some discussion is included of the way the vector potential A can be bypassed in treating the effects of the magnetic field.


More than a decade after the start of the transition process, unemployment rates remain in the double digits in a number of Central and Eastern European countries. That unemployment rates have failed to decline, even in countries experiencing good growth, is puzzling. In this paper the authors examine three interrelated questions: How has the transition from central planning to market economies affected labor market performance? How have labor market institutions and policies influenced developments? Why have regional differences in unemployment persisted? The authors take an eclectic methodological approach: construction of a new data set and a simple analytical model; econometric estimation; and case studies. They find that faster-performing countries have better unemployment records; that labor market policies have some, but not dominant, influence over labor market outcomes; that policies not typically viewed as labor market policies can nevertheless significantly affect labor markets; and that market processes cannot be relied on to eliminate regional differences in unemployment.


Although it is often assumed that the natural language expressions 'some' and 'or' are interpreted according to their first-order logic counterparts, in certain contexts, they receive a narrower interpretation: 'some' is strengthened to 'some, but not all', and 'or' to 'A or B, but not both'. This process is typically explained as an instance of scalar inference. To test this scalar implicature hypothesis, we collect experimental evidence for the effects and interactions of three factors that should affect the robustness of the scalar inferences of 'some' and 'or': the relevance of the stronger alternative, the speaker's competence about the alternative, and the prior probability that the alternative is true. We find that the interpretation of both triggers was affected by speaker competence, but only 'some' was also affected by prior probability, while relevance did not affect either trigger. Ultimately, our results suggest that the interdependence of the three factors is more complex than just the sum of their effects.


Polyphenolic compounds possess high degree of physiological and pharmacological benefits. They have the ability to scavenge free radicals and microorganisms, hence they possess antioxidant and antimicrobial activities. Other activities shown by polyphenolic compounds are anti-inflammatory, anticancer, antimalaria, immune-stimulating, antiallergic and vasolidatory. Analysis of the bioactive components from the stem exudates of Brachystegia eurycoma Harms resulted in the isolation of bis-6,6-methylenebis (4-tert-butyl-2-methylphenol). The structure was elucidated using IR, NMR and MS spectroscopic data.


Constrained Delaunay Triangular Irregular Network (CD-TIN) is a basic data structure widely used in GIS, 3D reconstruction, computer geometry and geosciences. Traditional researches on Delaunay Triangular Irregular Networks (D-TIN) paid more attention to the insertion algorithms for points and edges, while little to the deletion algorithms for points and edges. The present algorithms for D-TIN are far insufficient for the dynamic updating of CD-TIN, which demands for not only the insertion for points and edges, but also the deletion for points and constrained edges. Based on the improvements to the present insertion and deletion algorithms for D-TIN, an algorithm for point deletion in CD-TIN, namely Integral Ear Elimination (IEE), which improved from the EE algorithm for D-TIN, is presented. Some examples are demonstrated that the presented algorithms in this paper for the updating of CD-TIN are efficient.


The goal of visual analytics (VA) systems is to solve complex problems by integrating automated data analysis methods, such as machine learning (ML) algorithms, with interactive visualizations. We propose a conceptual framework that models human interactions with ML components in the VA process, and makes the crucial interplay between automated algorithms and interactive visualizations more concrete. The framework is illustrated through several examples. We derive three open research challenges at the intersection of ML and visualization research that will lead to more effective data analysis.


Human osteoclast formation from mononuclear phagocyte precursors involves interactions between tumor necrosis factor (TNF) ligand superfamily members and their receptors. Many of the proinflammatory cytokines and growth factors implicated in inflammatory processes have also been demonstrated to impact osteoclast differentiation and function. Recent evidence indicates that the TNF-related apoptosis-inducing ligand (TRAIL) of the TNF ligand superfamily, which was initially thought to induce apoptosis in many transformed cell lines, can serve as an effector molecule in activated T cells. We show in this work that TRAIL can induce osteoclast formation from human monocytes and murine RAW264.7 macrophages. We demonstrated that both cell models differentiate into osteoclast-like cells in the presence of TRAIL in a dose-dependent manner, as evaluated in terms of tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP)-positive multinucleated cells and bone resorption activity. The TRAIL-induced osteoclast differentiation is independent of caspase activation and apoptosis induction activity. However, TRAIL-induced osteoclastogenesis is dependent on activation of NF-£eB, ERK, and p38 MAP kinase. The TRAIL-induced osteoclastogenesis was significantly inhibited by treatment with TRAF-6 siRNA and TRAF-6 decoy peptide, indicating this pathway is TRAF-6 dependent. Thus, our data demonstrate that TRAIL induces osteoclast differentiation via direct engagement with the TRAIL death receptor through a signaling pathway distinct from apoptosis. Our results indicate that in addition to triggering apoptosis, TRAIL induces osteoclast differentiation. It provides a novel role for TRAIL in regulating osteoclast differentiation and in osteoimmunology.


The purpose of this investigation was to study the effects of Salsola arbusculiformis on soil physico-chemical characteristics in rangelands of in Garmeh Located in northeast of Iran. After surveying the regions, the three sites (karnakh, Aspakho, Robat) with Salsola arbusculiformis were selected. Vegetation cover and soil parameters were sampled by a random systematic method, in each region. Five transects each 100 meter length were selected and then 50 plots by the average of 1m ×2m were randomly chosen and vegetation cover parameters such as percentage canopy cover, production, density and percentage litter were measured in the key area of each site. Soil samples were taken from two depths (0-30, 30-60 cm) under plant and in control areas. The measured characteristics of soil included texture, electrical conductivity (EC), acidity (pH), nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P), potassium (K), Sodium (Na), Organic matter(OM), CaCO 3 and CaSO 4 .Data were analyzed using SPSS software under windows. One-way ANOVA and T-test were used to compare the data related to planted and control treatments. Results showed that Salsola arbusculiformis significantly increased the amount of K, pH, EC, N, Na (P<0.01), and O.M (P<0.05). In these sites measured characteristics of soil in planted areas were more than the control ones.


First episode schizophrenia (FES) patients tend to be more responsive to treatment. An adequate response has been associated with a favourable long-term course in FES patients. Yet, despite the generally very favourable response profile around one quarter of the patients shows persisting symptoms of psychosis. To improve the outcome and course of psychosis great effort has emerged in identifying biological and clinical variables associated with non-response in order to identify non-responders as early as possible and adopt specific treatment strategies improving illness outcome. Different antipsychotic treatment regimens have been evaluated in terms of their efficacy in reducing symptoms of FES with psychological interventions gaining increasing importance in the treatment concept of patients suffering from their first illness episode. Therefore, aim of this review is to summarize current evidence on the response patterns, the most important predictors of response/non-response as well as on effective treatment interventions in FES patients.


Twenty-six cases of candidemia associated with a well-defined urinary tract source were retrospectively identified and reviewed. Urinary tract abnormalities were present in 23 of 26 patients (88%), 19 (73%) of whom had urinary tract obstruction. Nineteen patients had undergone urinary tract procedures before the onset of candidemia. Episodes of candidemia were brief and low-grade in intensity (median duration, 1 day; median colony count, 1.5 cfu/10 mL of blood). Only eight patients (31%) received > or = 500 mg of amphotericin B. There were five in-hospital deaths (19%); two of these deaths were attributed to candidiasis. No late complications of candidemia were documented for the surviving patients. Patients with urologic pathology and candiduria who undergo surgery or manipulation of the urinary tract are at significant risk for candidemia, and further studies should examine the issue of administration of prophylaxis to this group.


Purpose of review Cardiovascular diseases (CVDs) are typically caused by multifactorial events including mutations in a large number of genes. Epigenetic-derived modifications in the cells are normal but can be amended by aging, lifestyle, and exposure to toxic substances. Major epigenetic modifications are DNA methylation, histone modification, chromatin remodeling as well as the noncoding RNAs. These pivotal players are involved in the epigenetic-induced modifications observed during CVDs. Nevertheless, despite impressive efforts capitalized in epigenetic research in the last 50 years, clinical applications are still not satisfactory. Recent findings Briefly, we present some of the recent steps forward in the epigenetic studies of CVDs. There is an increased appreciation for the contribution of epigenetic alterations in the development of CVDs. Now, we have novel epigenetic biomarkers and therapeutic trials with the use of statins, metformin, and some compounds affecting epigenetic pathways including a BET inhibitor apabetalone. The new knowledge of epigenetic regulation is also discussed in the light of precision medicine of CVDs. Summary Epigenetic studies of CVDs have the promise to yield both mechanistic insights as well as adjunct treatments (repurposed drugs and apabetalone). The overall concept of precision medicine is not widely recognized in routine medical practice and the so-called reductionist approach remains the most used way to treat CVD patients.


Cancer is increasingly becoming a rising cause of mortality worldwide. Microbiota, both within the gut and tumors, has emerged as a significant player influencing tumor growth and responses to therapies. The tumor niche provides a privileged microenvironment for microbial colonization. Recent evidence links microbiota and pancreatic tumorigenesis. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), is an aggressive cancer surrounded by a highly immuno-suppressive tumor microenvironment (TME) which limits efficacy of most available therapies. We have previously reported that rare long-term survival in pancreatic cancer is associated with an intratumoral microbial signature which correlates with enhanced TME immunoactivation, suggestive of microbial mediated immune cell recruitment. A gut-to-tumor microbial crosstalk was also found in a human-to-mouse Fecal Microbiota Transplant (FMT) tumor model. While we have identified the vital role of microbiota in affecting tumor immunity, there is still a gap of knowledge about local microbial interactions within TME. Deeper understanding of the microbial mediated events that are triggered and follow PDAC development, which act to induce and support tumor growth, would provide us with potential novel targets that could be blocked to reverse PDAC immunosuppression and tumor growth. To interrogate the features of the pancreatic tumor microbial niche, we performed spatial co-detection of microbial and host targets to identify the cellular compartment which interacts with microbes inside the TME in clinical samples. We developed novel qualitative and quantitative imaging methodologies for evaluating crosstalk between the host and microbes. We also evaluated the effect of microbial burden on transcriptomic changes in host cells through multiple spatial sequencing approaches. Overall, we dissect the functional role of microbes in orchestrating TME organization and their effect on tumor signaling.
 Citation Format: Vidhi Chandra, Hajar Rajaei, Seyda Baydogan, Javier Gomez, Sammy Ferri-Borgogno, Anirban Maitra, Erick Riquelme, Ismet Sahin, Jared Burks, Michael Kim, Florencia McAllister. Interrogating host-intratumoral microbial interactions in pancreatic cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2023; Part 1 (Regular and Invited Abstracts); 2023 Apr 14-19; Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2023;83(7_Suppl):Abstract nr 5918.


A primary data survey was conducted to evaluate the market potential of lignosulfonate as a raw material for plasticizers in the concrete industries of Austria and southern Germany (Bavaria). The results showed significant differences between the countries. Since 2002 lignosulfonate-based products have been massively displaced from Austrian markets. This development was found to be a consequence of new mandatory standards for the construction industry, technical advantages of new polycarboxylate-based products, and the market power of their producers. It was determined that especially smaller concrete companies, which use only one plasticizer or superplasticizer product, have been much harder hit by these changes than bigger companies. Larger companies in Austria and southern Germany (with an annual plasticizer consumption of more than 250 t) tend to use both product types (lignosulfonate-based and polycarboxylate-based) to improve their cost efficiency. In total, the consumption of lignosulfonate-based products within a stagnating or declining market shows a downward trend. Because of the polycarboxylate-based products' higher efficiency, a price ratio in relation to the lignosulfonate-based products of 2.5 to 1 is required to ensure the competitiveness of the latter products. Plasticizer price changes of about 14 percent have been found to be a sensible range to enable the concrete industry to take a possible product change into account.


In this paper, a novel method for aerodynamic model identification of a micro air vehicle is proposed. The principal contribution is a technique of wind estimation that provides information about the existing wind during flight when no air-data sensors are available. The estimation technique employs multi-objective optimization algorithms that use identification errors to propose the wind-speed components that best fit the dynamic behavior observed. Once the wind speed is estimated, the flight experimentation data are corrected and used to perform an identification of the aircraft model parameters. A multi-objective optimization algorithm is also used, but with the objective of estimating the aerodynamic stability and control derivatives. Employing data from different flights offers the possibility of obtaining sets of models that form the Pareto fronts. Deciding which model best adjusts to the experiments performed (compromise model) will be the ultimate task of the control engineer.


The overall mechanics of fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges along compressive plate boundaries is considered to be analogous to that of a wedge of soil or snow in front of a moving bulldozer. The material within the wedge deforms until a critical taper is attained, after which it slides stably, continuing to grow at constant taper as additional material is encountered at the toe. The critical taper is the shape for which the wedge is on the verge of failure under horizontal compression everywhere, including the basal decollement. A wedge of less than critical taper will not slide when pushed but will deform internally, steepening its surface slope until the critical taper is attained. Common silicate sediments and rocks in the upper 10-15 km of the crust have pressure-dependent brittle compressive strengths which can be approximately represented by the empirical Coulomb failure criterion, modified to account for the weakening effects of pore fluid pressure. A simple analytical theory that predicts the critical tapers of subaerial and submarine Coulomb wedges is developed and tested quantitatively in three ways: First, laboratory model experiments with dry sand match the theory. Second, the known surface slope, basal dip, and pore fluid pressures in the active fold-and-thrust belt of western Taiwan are used to determine the effective coefficient of internal friction within the wedge,/x = 1.03, consistent with Byerlee's empirical law of sliding friction,/at, = 0.85, on the base. This excess of internal strength over basal friction suggests that although the Taiwan wedge is highly deformed by imbricate thrusting, it is not so pervasively fractured that frictional sliding is always possible on surfaces of optimum orientation. Instead, the overall internal strength apparently is controlled by frictional sliding along suboptimally oriented planes and by the need to fracture some parts of the observed geometrically complex structure for continued deformation. Third, using the above values of/at, and/x, we predict Hubbert-Rubey fluid pressure ratios X = Xt, for a number of other active subaerial and submarine accretionary wedges based on their observed tapers, finding values everywhere in excess of hydrostatic. These predicted overpressures are reasonable in light of petroleum drilling experience in general and agree with nearby fragmentary well data in specific wedges where they are available. The pressure-dependent Coulomb wedge theory developed here is expected to break down if the decollement exhibits pressure-independent plastic behavior because of either temperature or rock type. The effects of this breakdown are observed in the abrupt decrease in taper where wedge thicknesses exceed about 15 km, which is the predicted depth of the brittle-plastic transition in quartz-rich rocks for typical geothermal gradients. We conclude that fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges have the mechanics of bulldozer wedges in compression and that normal laboratory fracture and frictional strengths are appropriate to mountain-building processes in the upper crust, above the brittle-plastic transition.


The development of computational sciences has influenced every single branch of mathematics. The use of computers has led to solutions of central problems—such as the 4-colour problem [3, 4]. However, perhaps even more importantly, it shifted mathematicians' attention, inspiring them with many challenges. The most famous one, which is in fact one of the Millennium Problems, is P vs. NP. Informally one asks the following: If a solution of a given algorithmic problem can be verified in polynomial time, must the problem be solvable in polynomial time? In other words; could it be that verifying and finding solutions are always of comparable difficulty? While all students of mathematics and computer science heard about P vs. NP, there are many other great challenges in complexity theory. One of them is to determine the complexity of matrix multiplication. The problem is given two n×n matrices, how does one efficiently compute the product? We all know one solution—the classical algorithm which performs n − n additions and n multiplications. But is this the optimal way? Half a century ago Strassen set out to prove that the standard algorithm was optimal. He failed to do this and provided a most surprising answer: there exist faster algorithms! Classically, to prove that a given problem has complexity O(f(n)), one provides an algorithm which solves the problem and proves that it performs at most C ·f(n) steps, for some constant C. What else could one do? Could one prove that the algorithm we found is (close to) optimal? In Geometry and Complexity Theory, Landsberg shows how to answer such questions using algebraic geometry (i.e. the


Thanks to everyone who sent text, Facebook Messages, or emails to wish me a Happy Father's Day. Thanks for helping to make the day great.


Objective: To identify common features of cases with novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) so as to better understand what factors promote secondary transmission including superspreading events. Methods: A total of 110 cases were examined among eleven clusters and sporadic cases, and investigated who acquired infection from whom. The clusters included four in Tokyo and one each in Aichi, Fukuoka, Hokkaido, Ishikawa, Kanagawa and Wakayama prefectures. The number of secondary cases generated by each primary case was calculated using contact tracing data. Results: Of the 110 cases examined, 27 (24.6%) were primary cases who generated secondary cases. The odds that a primary case transmitted COVID-19 in a closed environment was 18.7 times greater compared to an open-air environment (95% confidence interval [CI]: 6.0, 57.9). Conclusions: It is plausible that closed environments contribute to secondary transmission of COVID-19 and promote superspreading events. Our findings are also consistent with the declining incidence of COVID-19 cases in China, as gathering in closed environments was prohibited in the wake of the rapid spread of the disease.


To investigate the improvement in peripheral circulation in autonomic disorders, we monitored skin temperature in the tails of rats by thermography before and after the oral administration of boiled water extract of Toki-shigyakuka-gosyuyu-syokyo-to (TSGS-to). Oral administration of this extract elevated the temperature, calculated as the calories of radiant heat in the rat tail 5-10 min after uptake. The temperature elevation remained stable for more than 20 min. Calories were significantly reduced 60 min after uptake and almost returned to initial values 90 min later. Some of the constituent herbs, especially Angelicae radix, Cinnamomi cortex, Evodiae fructus, and Zingiberis rhizoma, appeared to be active in relieving hypothermia.


The Israeli occupation has had a considerable negative impact on the lives of Palestinians, such that achieving an effective, equitable, quality education for all children is far from being realised. Palestinian children are not only adversely affected by the occupation, but also by an educational system that fails fully and systematically to accord them their rights. Using rights-based participatory methods informed by human rights protocols, we explored the experiences of children with disabilities' inclusion in schools. Our findings show that there is continuing failure to understand or implement the provisions of the uncrc or uncrpd, and that these children are systematically excluded or marginalised from education. We suggest that children's rights to educational inclusion can be achieved by means of a whole system, whole educational and whole person approach, along with a consideration of a rights-based policy framework.


Both selenium and calorie restriction are anticarcinogenic in many tumor models, but the mechanisms of action are unknown. This study compared the effects of elevated selenium (Se) intake and calorie restriction on colonic cellular growth. Female weanling rats were divided into four groups: control, 40% calorie restricted, and 4 or 6 mg Se/l H2O as selenate. Control rats and rats given Se consumed the control diet ad libitum. Rats in the 40% calorie-restricted group were pair fed 40% less than the total intake of control rats with a diet designed to provide equal nutrients except calories from carbohydrate. After three weeks, rats were injected with [3H]thymidine (1 muCi/g body wt) and killed one hour later. Se at 4 and 6 mg/l H2O and 40% calorie restriction significantly decreased food intake, weight gain, colon weight, and total colon DNA compared with controls. Total number of cells per crypt was not affected by any treatment, whereas total DNA synthesis was significantly decreased, suggesting that the total number of colonic crypts are reduced by calorie restriction and Se treatment. The rate of cell division was decreased only in rats given 6 mg Se/l H2O. These results indicate that elevated Se intake and caloric restriction decrease colonic mucosal growth by decreasing growth in general, but only very high intakes of Se affect colonic cell turnover.


We study the obtainment of a time-dependent cosmological constant at D = 2 in a model based on the Jackiw-Teitelboim cosmology. We show that the cosmological term goes to zero asymptotically and can induce a nonsingular behavior at the origin.


THIS IS STUDY SEEKS TO ANALYZE THE INTERNATIONAL TRADE REGULATORY FRAMEWORK REGARDING EXCHANGE RATE MEASURES THAT BEAR AN IMPACT ON TRADE . T HE PRESENT ARTICLE WILL EXPLORE HOW THE EXCHANGE RATE ISSUE RELATES TO THE WTO AND AFFECTS ITS INSTRUMENTS AND PRINCIPLES AND , IN THE FOLLOWING , WILL LOOK FOR PROVISIONS UNDER THE WTO AGREEMENTS THAT COULD ADDRESS THE EXCHANGE RATE ISSUE AND REBALANCE THE IMPACTS CAUSED BY MISALIGNED CURRENCIES ON TRADE .


The attenuation characteristics of MagnaDense high-density concrete are measured using the x-ray beams from two Varian linear accelerators at nominal 6, 10, and 15 megavolt energies. The tenth value layers for the primary beam are evaluated under broad- and narrow-beam conditions. The attenuation of secondary radiation is also investigated. Measured data are compared with existing data used in radiotherapy bunker design, derived from the scaling of published tenth value layers for ordinary concrete according to physical density. Instantaneous dose rates around an existing bunker with MagnaDense concrete walls and a conventional concrete roof are predicted using the various different data and compared to actual dose-rate measurements. Primary beam tenth value layer values derived from the broad-beam measurements are found to represent the attenuation properties of the MagnaDense more accurately than those produced by density-based scaling or from narrow-beam measurements.


Federal Housing Finance Agency. House Price Index: House Price Index - All Transactions | State: New York | Seasonally Adjusted: Non-Seasonally Adj, 1975/1 - 2017/2. Data-Planet™ Statistical Datasets by Conquest Systems, Inc. Dataset-ID: 057-001-001

Dataset: Presents an index (1st quarter 1980=100) of US single-family home prices, by state. All transactions include new purchases and refinancing of conforming, conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Only mortgage transactions on single-family properties are included. Conforming refers to a mortgage that both meets the underwriting guidelines of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and that does not exceed the conforming loan limit.
The House Price Index (HPI) is a broad measure of the movement of single-family house prices. The HPI is published by the Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) using data provided by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. The Office of Federal Housing Enterprise Oversight (OFHEO), one of FHFA's predecessor agencies, began publishing the HPI in the fourth quarter of 1995. The HPI is based on transactions involving conforming, conventional mortgages purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac. Only mortgage transactions on single-family properties are included. Conforming refers to a mortgage that both meets the underwriting guidelines of Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac and that does not exceed the conforming loan limit. Conventional mortgages are those that are neither insured nor guaranteed by the FHA, VA, or other federal government entities. Mortgages on properties financed by government-insured loans, such as FHA or VA mortgages, are excluded from the HPI, as are properties with mortgages whose principal amount exceeds the conforming loan limit. Mortgage transactions on condominiums, cooperatives, multi-unit properties, and planned unit developments are also excluded. The HPI is a weighted, repeat-sales index, meaning that it measures average price changes in repeat sales or refinancings on the same properties. This information is obtained by reviewing repeat mortgage transactions on single-family properties whose mortgages have been purchased or securitized by Fannie Mae or Freddie Mac since January 1975.
http://www.fhfa.gov/DataTools/Downloads/Pages/House-Price-Index-Datasets.aspx

Category: Housing and Construction, Prices, Consumption, and Cost of Living

Subject: Single-Family Housing, Housing Market, Home Prices, Price Indexes

Source: Federal Housing Finance Agency
The Federal Housing Finance Agency (FHFA) was created on July 30, 2008 by the Housing and Economic Recovery Act of 2008. The agency's primary function is to regulate of the U.S. secondary mortgage market, including oversight of Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the 12 Federal Home Loan Banks.
http://www.fhfa.gov/


This study aimed to combine different teaching technologies, learning formats and technical innovations into a single educational system, with the aim of identifying the characteristics of each digital educational environment, as well as determining the role that the teacher plays in each of these environments. Correct distribution of functionality between teachers and digital learning support is critical. Improving the quality of digital education through better data analysis and forecasting, developing and launching advanced educational products using artificial intelligence, improving predictive tools for understanding the connection of digital transformation in various departments and ensuring their interaction. Digitalization management is possible with unified databases, learning efficiency criteria, in other words, an integrated approach that would determine the goals, structures and content of the educational process. The education system with the use of new technological tools and unlimited information resources must learn how to effectively implement them in the educational process.


Presented article deals with a theoretical analysis of dynamics of both net international investment position to GDP ratio and net costs of negative investment position in terms of its main determinants. It also analyzes a special case of a link between negative net investment position and positive net revenues. Next it is discussed how far is this case possible in transitive countries. The article points out important differences between a position of large advanced and small transitive economies in case of costs of net investment position. With respect to this main factors as country's position of FDI lender/debtor, country's currency position of investment/invoicing currency, exogeneity of foreign assets and liabilities interest yields and last but not least role of FX reserves accumulation by central bank and position of foreign currency denominated loans on foreign liabilities side are discussed


The scope of this thesis is to propose a journey through probabilistic performance based assessment and retrofit design based on nonlinear dynamic analysis tools. The thesis aims to address the performance-based assessment paradigm by developing seismic fragilities and earthquake loss estimation. The "Performance-based earthquake engineering" (PBEE) for design, assessment and retrofit of building structures seeks to enhance seismic risk decision-making through assessment and design methods that have a strong scientific basis and support the stakeholders in making informed decisions. The PBEE is based on a consistent probabilistic methodological framework in which the various sources of uncertainty in seismic performance assessment of structures can be represented. The methodology can be used directly for performance assessment, or can be implemented for establishing efficient performance criteria for performance-based design. In particular, the PBEE aims to maximize the utility for a building by minimizing the expected total cost due to seismic risk, including the costs of construction and the incurred losses due to future earthquakes.
The PBEE advocates substituting the traditional single-tier design against collapse and its prescriptive rules, with a transparent multi-tier seismic design, meeting more than one discrete "performance objective" by satisfying the corresponding "performance level" (referred to as the "limit state" in the European code) expressed in terms of the physical condition of the building as a consequence of an earthquake whose intensity would be exceeded by a mean annual rate quantified as the "seismic hazard level". In other words, PBEE distinguishes itself from the prescriptive requirements of the traditional building codes by envisioning explicit verification of satisfying various performance objectives. Last but not least, the PBEE is fundamental to seismic assessment of existing buildings, seen as an indispensable step in the seismic retrofit design process.
The principal elements of the PBEE procedure can be summarized as description, definition, and quantification of earthquake intensity measures, engineering demand parameters, damage measures, and decision variables. The process encompasses the following steps: (1) calculation of ground motion hazard by representing the uncertainty in ground motion with a probabilistic model for a parameter (or vector of parameters) related to ground motion and known as the intensity measure (IM); (2) estimation of the uncertainty in structural response expressed as a group of engineering demand parameters EDP (e.g., force and deformation-related engineering parameters) conditioned on each IM level; (3) estimation of the uncertainty in damage measure DM (i.e., physical states of damage, that describes the condition of the structure and its components) conditioned on the EDP and IM; (4) estimation of the uncertainty in the decision variable DV expressing the decision-related consequences (e.g., financial losses, fatalities, business interruption, etc.) given DM, EDP and IM. One interesting and useful characteristic of the PBEE procedure is that any of the above-mentioned intermediate steps can be collapsed. For example, the damage measure DM can be conditioned directly on intensity measure IM by collapsing the intermediate step related to the engineering demand parameter EDP. It is important to note that the performance levels should ideally be described in terms of the decision variable(s) DV. However, many modern codes and guidelines express the various discrete performance levels in terms of the incurred damage (i.e., DM).
An important focus in this thesis is dedicated to the estimation of the conditional probability of exceeding a damage measure DM expressed as the critical demand to capacity ratio throughout the structure and a given ground motion time-history and relating it directly to IM (by collapsing the intermediate EDP step). The conditional probability of exceeding a given level of DM given IM can be expressed as the structural fragility for a given performance level. In fact, the assessment of analytic structural fragility for existing buildings is one of the fundamental steps in the modern performance-based engineering. In general, methods for assessing the structural fragility for a given performance level or limit state range from the simplest methods based on the response of an equivalent single-degree-of-freedom (SDOF) model to complex nonlinear dynamic analysis procedures performed for a structural model subjected to a set of ground-motion records.
In the past fifteen years, many research efforts have been dedicated to an in-depth study of the implementation, the nuances and the potential complications of non-linear dynamic analysis procedures. These efforts have led to different methodologies such as Incremental Dynamic Analysis (IDA), Multiple-Stripe Analysis (MSA) with conditional mean spectrum, and Cloud Analysis. This work focuses on the non-linear dynamic analysis procedure known as the Cloud Analysis. This analysis is based on fitting a linear regression model in the logarithmic scale to the pairs of structural response parameter (e.g., maximum inter-story drift) and IM (e.g., first-mode spectral acceleration) for a suite of as-recorded ground motions. This method is well-known both for the simplicity of its underlying formulation and for the relatively small number of structural analyses required. However, the Cloud Analysis is also notorious for being based on a few simplifying assumptions (fixed standard error of regression, mean response varying linearly as a function of IM in the logarithmic scale, and structural response given IM being modeled as a Lognormal distribution), and for being sensitive to the selected suite of records.
A functional variation to the original Cloud Analysis is presented in order to take into account the cases leading to structural collapse. Moreover, to reduce record-selection-dependence of the results, a Bayesian version of the Cloud Analysis considering the "collapse-cases" is presented in which the uncertainty in the structural fragility model parameters is considered. This leads to a Robust Fragility estimate and a desired confidence interval defined around it. The entire method is based on the adoption of a normalized demand to capacity ratio as the damage measure/decision performance variable. Herein, as said, a normalized demand to capacity ratio coined as "critical demand to capacity ratio" and denoted as DCR, takes the structure closest to the onset of a prescribed limit state LS, is adopted. The adoption of DCRLS as performance variable is also central to a new nonlinear dynamic analysis procedure referred to as "Cloud to IDA" that exploits the Cloud Analysis to perform IDA in a more efficient manner.
Evaluation of structural behaviour under seismic actions for an existing building encompasses the consideration of numerous sources of uncertainty associated with the seismic action and the structural modelling. In the past decades, significant research efforts have been carried out and substantial progress has been made towards the consideration of various sources of uncertainty into structural performance assessment and design frameworks. Several alternative methods have been proposed that combine reliability methods such as the first order second moment (FOSM and MVFOSM) methods, response surface methods, simulation-based methods (e.g., Monte Carlo, Latin Hypercube Sampling) with non-linear dynamic procedures such as IDA based on recorded ground motions in order to take into account sources of uncertainties other than record-to-records variability.
This thesis aims to quantify the impact of structural modeling uncertainties on the seismic performance assessment for an existing case-study building. Herein, the proposed version of the Cloud Analysis, considering the collapse cases, is implemented to consider the record-to-record variability, the structural modeling uncertainties and also the uncertainties in the parameters of the adopted fragility model, through a Bayesian procedure. The presented procedure can lead to reliable results with a considerably lower computational effort in comparison to the methods available in literature.
Finally, the PBEE methodology is implemented for the case-study building in order to choose the most appropriate seismic retrofit design that maximizes the utility (by minimizing the expected costs) and satisfies the safety-checking for three different performance levels. To this end, the non-ductile older RC frame of the case-study is retrofit designed based on different strategies aimed to improve the seismic performance of the frame. The case-study moment resisting frame is modeled using structural elements with fiber sections in order to take into account the flexural-axial interactions. Furthermore, the flexural-axial-shear interactions and the fixed end rotations due to bar slip in the columns are considered by adding zero-length springs to column ends. The performance-based safety-checking procedure is based on the Demand and Capacity Factored Design (DCFD) format. Amongst the viable retrofit designs that satisfy the risk-related safety-checking DCFD criteria, the one that corresponds to the minimum expected loss over the life cycle of the building is identified.


In June 2015, the Labour Code was amended1. Among the amended provisions were those regulating the aspects of fixed-term contracts of employment. Justifying the need for changes in this regard, the legislator indicated in the justification to the draft amendment2 that as a rule, employees should be hired on the basis of permanent employment contracts, as it has been indicated by judicial practice of the Supreme Court3, as well as the Framework Agreement on fixed-term work, concluded by the Union of Industrial and Employers' Confederations of Europe (UNICE), the European Centre of Employers and Enterprises providing Public Services (CEEP) and the European Trade Union Confederation (ETUC), implemented


We study vacuum birefringence and x-ray photon scattering in the head-on collision of x-ray free electron and high-intensity laser pulses. Resorting to analytical approximations for the numbers of attainable signal photons, we analyze the behavior of the phenomenon under the variation of various experimental key-parameters and provide new analytical scalings. Our optimized approximations allow for quantitatively accurate results on the one-percent level. We in particular demonstrate that an appropriate choice of the x-ray focus and pulse duration can significantly improve the signal for given laser parameters, using the experimental parameters to be available at the Helmholtz International Beamline for Extreme Fields at the European XFEL as example. Our results are essential for the identification of the optimal choice of parameters in a discovery experiment of vacuum birefringence at the high-intensity frontier.


ABSTRACT In this paper, we consider an inverse problem for the simultaneous diffusion process of elastic and electromagnetic waves in an isotropic heterogeneous elastic body which is identified with an open bounded domain. From the mathematical point of view, the system under consideration can be viewed as the coupling between the hyperbolic system of elastic waves and a parabolic system for the magnetic field. We study an inverse problem of determining the external source terms by observations data in a neighborhood of the boundary and we prove the Hölder stability. For the proof, we show a Carleman estimate for the displacement and the magnetic field of the magnetoelastic system.


A multichannel optical receiver with an In/sub 0.53/Ga/sub 0.47/As p-i-n photodetector array and a monolithic transimpedance amplifier array fabricated in AlGaAs/GaAs HBT (heterojunction bipolar transistor) technology were demonstrated. Both flip-chip rear-illuminated and wire-bonded front-illuminated detector configurations were implemented. The transimpedance was 65 dB Omega , and the 3-dB bandwidth was measured to be 2.3 GHz. By using series feedback, the transimpedance gain of each cell was matched to within 0.5 dB, and the entire array operated from a single 5-V supply. A low interchannel crosstalk of less than -40 dB was measured up to a data rate of 2 Gb/s.<<ETX>>


Abstract This paper provides a description of the use in Spanish of the discourse particle respecto as a topicalizer. Although it has undergone complete grammaticalization from Latin in Spanish it appears in many forms. The distribution of the different forms involved is analysed using synchronic data from the CREA corpus and other lexicographical evidence.


Recent advancements of network architecture such as 5G networks, promise cloud services with strict network constrains a bright future. Cloud gaming as an interactive service has strict end-to-end delay constraints. Therefore, many studies investigated the impact of network parameters such as delay or packet loss on gaming QoE. However, they mostly compared games or genres with each other and neglected the fact even two levels of the same game may have different sensitivity toward delay. In order to understand the game characteristics that cause this difference in delay sensitivity, a bottom-up approach by means of modifiable open source games can be of high value. In this paper we present a game designed to tackle this issue. The game allows to artificially change characteristics of the game, such as the pace and size of objects, and also simulate influences like delay, packet loss or a reduced frame rate. This allows the usage of the game also for crowdsourcing studies, where it is not possible to control the different network conditions of the participants, and to investigate the impact of spatial and temporal accuracy in respect to the sensitivity towards impairments.


The marketing mix and its 4Ps have remained the marketing paradigm for decades. In the article it is argued that the foundation for this paradigm is weak and that it has had negative effects on marketing research and practice. Contemporary research into services marketing and industrial marketing demonstrates that a new approach to marketing is required. This new approach is based on building and management of relationships. A paradigm shift in marketing is under way. The thoughts and actions of marketing academics and practitioners should not be constrained by a paradigm from the 1950s and 1960s.


Large language models (LLMs) have been successfully applied to software engineering tasks, including program repair. However, their application in search-based techniques such as Genetic Improvement (GI) is still largely unexplored. In this paper, we evaluate the use of LLMs as mutation operators for GI to improve the search process. We expand the Gin Java GI toolkit to call OpenAI's API to generate edits for the JCodec tool. We randomly sample the space of edits using 5 different edit types. We find that the number of patches passing unit tests is up to 75% higher with LLM-based edits than with standard Insert edits. Further, we observe that the patches found with LLMs are generally less diverse compared to standard edits. We ran GI with local search to find runtime improvements. Although many improving patches are found by LLM-enhanced GI, the best improving patch was found by standard GI.


Limited objective data are available on voice characteristics of patients following near-total laryngectomy. Acoustic characteristics of near-total voice were quantified and compared to laryngeal voice production. High quality audio recordings were obtained from 11 subjects who had undergone near-total laryngectomy and 11 age-matched laryngeal speakers. Subjects performed vocal tasks which provided frequency, intensity and duration measures. These data were computer analyzed and indicated that substantial inter and intrasubject variability existed in the acoustic measures for near-total laryngectomy patients. These patients demonstrated a general restriction in fundamental frequency, reduced intensity and a limitation in duration of phonation when compared to laryngeal speakers.


The banana production in the north of Minas Gerais state is based on the "Prata-Anã" cultivar, holding 90% of the 10,000 hectares cultivated with the species. Such cultivar is vulnerable to Yellow and Black Sigatoka, as well as to the Panama disease. A strategy to overcome these phytosanitary problems is the development of resistant cultivars, which need field testing. This study aimed to determine the yield and the nutritional diagnosis for N and K of banana tree cultivars FHIA 1, FHIA 2, FHIA 3, Pacovan Ken, Thap Maeo, Tropical, Caipira, ST406, PV4285, and PV4253, resistant to Yellow Sigatoka. Also, Prata anã, a disease-sensitive cultivar, was used as a control treatment. According to the results, the FHIA 3 produced bunches with more mass, standing out among cultivars of the tetraploid genomic group. However, complimentary assessment is necessary to be suggested as a cultivar in the commercial crops, mainly the acceptability of its fruits by consumers. FHIA 2 has also produced bunches with meaningful mass, being an alternative to bananas of the Cavendish subgroup due to the similar taste. Thap Maeo, among the triploid cultivars, reached a high yield, being an alternative to the cultivation of the apple banana tree, as it is resistant to Yellow and Black Sigatoka and the Panama disease in addition to producing fruits of adequate taste. The N and K contents were in the sufficiency range, revealing that in such environmental conditions, plants were sufficiently nourished.


We describe a method for generating an informative wide-view image using images captured by a moving camera. The generated image allows for events in the scene observed by the camera to be understood easily. Our method does not use 3D shape information explicitly. Instead, it employs the trajectory of feature points across multiple images and generates a composite image by taking into account the distribution of the trajectories of the feature points.


Adolescents in a drug and alcohol treatment facility had behavioral deficits in having essential items ready for organized group adventure activities. Checklists (i.e., textual response prompts) were introduced. The data from five participants showed increases in the percentage of required items ready. Generalization was demonstrated across checklists for different activities, across staff and peer leaders, and a different day of the week. Performance was also maintained when the checklist was removed. It was concluded that the use of checklists can be a reliable and efficient strategy to improve performance in adolescents with a substance abuse history. Copyright © 2010 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The split feasibility problem has many applications in various fields of science and technology (for example solving systems of linear equalities and/or inequalities). The class of methods, generally called projection methods, has witnessed great progress in recent years and the algorithms have been applied with success in different areas. The paper reviews algorithmic structures and specific algorithms for the split feasibility problem.


Resveratrol was extracted from wild blueberry (Vaccinium uliginosum L) and purified. Ethanol was selected as the optimal extraction reagent. Ratio of materials to the reagent, extraction time and temperature had significant effects on the extraction percentage. Optimization extraction conditions were obtained by 2 order regression orthogonal experiment, the conditions were as follows, extraction temperature 35°C, ratio of materials to ethonal 1:15, extraction time 2h, extraction for only once, extraction rate was about 88%.


Cylindrical grinding is a metal removing process which is used extensively in the finishing operation. Surface finish is an important output parameter in the manufacturing processes with respect to quality. The various process parameters of a cylindrical grinding machine include depth of cut, material hardness, work piece speed, grinding wheel grain size, and grinding wheel speed. The input process parameters considered are material hardness, work piece speed and depth of cut. The main objective is to predict the surface roughness and achieve optimal operating process parameters. In this study, the Taguchi method that is a powerful tool to design optimization for quality is used to find the optimum surface roughness in grinding operations. Investigate the surface-roughness characteristics of mild steel alloys using grinding wheels. Through this study, not only can the optimum surface roughness for grinding operations be obtained, but the main grinding parameters affecting the performance of grinding operations can also be found. Experimental results are provided to confirm the effectiveness of this approach.