A classification of the tasks of human thermoregulation is proposed, which allows combining various scientific studies into one system, which takes into account environmental factors, biological feedback in the body and different properties of the constituent parts of the human thermoregulation system. The proposed multifactorial model of the human thermoregulation system is based on combining the classification of tasks represented by a group of main factors (temperature, time and the characteristic size of the system under consideration), with the classification of tasks in the studied sciences. Applying an interdisciplinary approach to the study of human thermoregulation (thermogenesis), it is possible to model complex systems that allow predicting the state of the human thermoregulation system. A multifactor model, based on the systematization of knowledge, can be used as the basis for computer modeling of a human thermoregulation system. Classification of tasks for the study of the human thermoregulation system allows you to systematize scientific knowledge and identify unexplored aspects for future research. Research and modeling of the human thermoregulation system are the scientific basis for the creation of new measuring, diagnostic and therapeutic equipment, new treatment methods and, possibly, a standardized personalized calculation method in the form of a software and hardware complex with an online calculator via the Internet of the influence of external factors (weather) for predicting homeostasis (and the state of the thermoregulation system) of a person. The article discusses a number of the most significant scientific works for each area of research. Identified and systematized the most important problems for study in each of them from the point of view of heat and mass transfer and energy conversion at different levels of the description of biosystems in the human body.


We develop an activity model based on ice sublimation and gas diffusion inside cm-sized pebbles making-up a cometary nucleus. Our model explains cometary activity assuming no free parameters and fixing the nucleus surface temperature Ts, its gradient below the nucleus surface at thermal equilibrium, the pressure inside the porous pebbles, and the gas flux from them. We find that (i) the nucleus erosion rate and water vapour flux are independent of the nucleus refractory-to-ice ratio, which affects the dehydration rate only; (ii) water-driven dust ejection occurs in thermal quasi-equilibrium at Ts > 205 K; (iii) the smallest and largest ejected dust sizes depend on the nucleus surface temperature and its gradient at depths of few cm; and (iv) the water-driven nucleus erosion rate is independent of the water vapour flux. Regarding comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko, we find that (i) during the northern and southern polar summers, the nucleus active areas are ≈5 km2; (ii) >95 per cent of the southern pristine nucleus has a refractory-to-water-ice mass ratio >5; and (iii) the different temperature dependences of the dehydration and erosion rates explain the seasonal cycle: at perihelion, dm-sized chunks ejected by the sublimation of CO2 ices are rapidly enveloped by an insulating crust, preserving most water ice up to their fallout on the northern dust deposits; the inbound water-driven activity at low temperatures triggers a complete erosion of the fallout if its water-ice mass fraction is >0.1 per cent.


In this paper, we propose a self-localization and path-planning method for mobile robot navigation. An omnidirectional camera and infrared sensors are used to extract the landmarks information of the environment. Due to the large field of view of the omnidirectional camera, the mobile robot can capture the rich information of the environment. The landmark features are detected and extracted from the omnidirectional video camera, so the robot is able to navigate in the environment automatically to learn the localization information and avoid obstacles by using infrared sensors. The robot system can then use the localization information to plan a shortest path to visit some particular locations prespecified by the user.


The use of parental leave by fathers varies notably between countries. However, the underlying reasons for cross-country differences have not been explicitly studied. We use migration between Finland and Sweden as an instrument to decompose the roles of policy design and social norms in the differences in take-up rates between these two countries. First, we inferred the role of policy by looking at fathers from the same country of origin in various policy contexts. Second, we deduced the role of norms by examining fathers who migrated at different ages and fathers with spouses of different origins. We find that the large cross-country differences in fathers' use of parental leave between Finland and Sweden mainly stem from differences in policy design. Norms seem to play a smaller but still significant role.


Incorporation of precipitated silica rubber compounds is now a standard technology in energy efficient green tire manufacturing process. In the present work silica nanoparticles were generated by an in situ sol–gel technique in solution styrene butadiene rubber (SSBR) using tetraethylorthosilicate (TEOS) as silica precursor. A full control over the amount of silica and size of the silica particles is realized while maintaining a good distribution and dispersion level of the nanosilica particles. In the present case the amount of synthesized silica were varied from 10–50 phr (parts per hundred) and the particles size was found to remain in the range of 200–300 nm. The in situ silica based rubber composites offer better processing characteristics as compared with standard commercial precipitated silica at the same loading level. The reinforcing character of in situ silica was further enhanced by the use of a silane coupling agent, i.e. bis[3-(triethoxysilyl)propyl]tetrasulfide (TESPT). Various instrumental techniques, such as tensile test, dynamic mechanical analysis and strain sweep analysis, abrasion test, rebound test and Mooney viscometry reveal superior mechanical performance and good processability of the in situ silica composites. Scanning and transmission electron microscopy studies indicate that the particle size distribution remains in the same range irrespective of the concentration of the silica particles.


Health related social media mining is a valuable apparatus for the early recognition of the diverse antagonistic medicinal conditions. Mostly, the existing methods are based on machine learning with knowledge-based learning. This working note presents the Recurrent neural network (RNN) and Long short-term memory (LSTM) based embedding for automatic health text classification in the social media mining. For each task, two systems are built and that classify the tweet at the tweet level. RNN and LSTM are used for extracting features and non-linear activation function at the last layer facilitates to distinguish the tweets of different categories. The experiments are conducted on 2nd Social Media Mining for Health Applications Shared Task at AMIA 2017. The experiment results are considerable; however the proposed method is appropriate for the health text classification. This is primarily due to the reason that, it doesn't rely on any feature engineering mechanisms.


For early-stage upper urothelial carcinoma, total nephroureterectomy combined with bladder sleeve resection is the standard treatment. However, for patients with advanced disease, there is a lack of effective therapeutic strategies. In recent years, with an increased understanding of cancer immunobiology, systemic immunotherapies targeting immune checkpoint inhibition has been explored and clinically used in the area of urothelial carcinoma. The programmed cell death 1 receptor (PD-1) and its ligand (PD-L1) are important negative regulators of immune activity, preventing the destruction of normal tissues and autoimmunity. Nowadays, five immune checkpoint inhibitors blocking PD-1 (pembrolizumab, nivolumab) or PD-L1 (atezolizumab, durvalumab, and avelumab) have been approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration (US FDA) for the first- or second-line use in urothelial carcinoma, based on durable response and manageable safety profiles observed in relevant clinical trials. In this study, we present the case of a 64-year-old patient with renal pelvis carcinoma who went on to develop lung metastasis after postoperative chemotherapy. CT scan showed multiple scattered solid small nodule foci in both lungs (considered as metastasis). The patient received immunotherapy with PD-L1 monoclonal antibody (Durvalumab) alone, and achieved complete remission (CR) after 3 cycles of treatment. During the treatment, slight weakness was reported, and no nausea, fever and other adverse events were observed. This case shows that durvalumab could effectively and safely treat a case of renal pelvis carcinoma with lung metastases.


Resolving topography of the inner core boundary (ICB) and the structure and composition of the nearby region is key to improving our understanding of solidification of the Earth's inner core. Observations of travel times and amplitudes of short‐period seismic phases of PKiKP and PcP reflected, respectively, off the inner and outer boundary of the liquid core, provide essential constraints on the properties of this region. We revisit heterogeneities of ICB using a total of more than 1,300 new differential travel times and amplitude ratios of PKiKP and PcP measured at 3.2–35.2° and reflected off the core's boundaries under Northeastern Asia and South America. We observe a statistically significant systematic bias between the measurements collected in the two spots. We carefully examine its origin in terms of contributions by various Earth's shells and find that most of variance in PKiKP‐PcP differential travel times measured above the epicentral distance of 16.5° in Northeastern Asia can be accounted for by mantle corrections. We find slight disparity of about 1–3 km between the outer core thickness under Asia and America; the ICB density jump under Northeastern Asia is about 0.3 g/cm3, which is three times as small as under South America. The findings are interpretable either as evidence for inner core hemispherical asymmetry, whereby crystallization dominates in the West and melting in the East (not vice versa), or in terms of two disconnected mosaic patches with contrasting properties.


The poor record of aid operations after the withdrawal of donor support has led to an increasing interest in the topic of sustainability of aid. Making a contribution to this growing topic, the thesis examines the sustainability of the development work carried out by the Vi Agroforestry Programme (VIAFP) around Lake Victoria. By combining an interview study and a policy analysis, the research uses the practice of phasing out support and the experience during the latter (extensive) phase of the Programme as indicators for sustainability.The results show that (1) the coherent and flexible methodology of phasing out support, (2) the emergence of community-based and non-governmental organisations that take over VIAFP's work after the withdrawal of its staff, (3) the examples of organisational learning that improved the practice of the Programme, and (4) farmer groups overcoming the challenges during the extensive phase, are strong signs of sustainability.However, further attention and work from the Programme is required when it comes to its role after terminating support, the financial sustainability of emerging organisations, women's rights and the lack of carrying out any research after phasing out support to communities. Finally, the thesis highlights the practices within the Programme that increase its sustainability, as well as recommendations for further improvement.


This study investigated organisational commitment, job satisfaction and turnover intentions among records management personnel in Ondo State Civil Service, Akure, Nigeria. Simple random sampling technique was used to draw 240 subjects from a population size of 275 records management personnel. Three standardised research instruments were used for data gathering. Five hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance.
The results showed that: there was no significant difference between organisational commitment of the open and confidential registry staff; there was significant negative relationship between job satisfaction and turnover intentions; significant positive relationship existed between job satisfaction and organisational commitment; and there was significant interaction effect of job satisfaction and turnover intentions on organisational commitment of the subjects. It was recommended that attractive conditions of service may enhance job satisfaction and organisational commitment as well as reduce turnover intentions of the records management personnel in the Ondo State Civil Service, Akure.
 Ife Psychologia Vol.13(1) 2005: 24-38


Coronary angiography requires a complex informed consent process as a legal and ethical requirement before treatment. This process may allow percutaneous coronary intervention to be completed as a continuation of a coronary angiography. Patients routinely consent to both interventions, but over one-quarter will only receive the diagnostic angiogram. This study explored views and understandings of the informed consent process, and associations with demographic characteristics, among patients who consented to coronary angiography and same-setting percutaneous coronary intervention, but were found to be ineligible for the latter. A descriptive cross-sectional survey design was used to explore patients' views. A total of 62 participants (73% male, mean age 68.4 years) completed a 36-item survey the day after undergoing diagnostic coronary angiography. Female participants reported greater difficulty in recalling treatment information (P<0.03), found discussions about alternative treatments more confusing (P<0.02), and the disclosure of comprehensive risk information more of a deterrent to consent for treatment (P<0.02) compared to men. Higher levels of education were associated with greater preference for information and involvement in treatment decisions (P<0.002). Patients who give informed consent for diagnostic coronary angiography with or without a same-setting percutaneous coronary intervention need clear comprehensive information regarding alternative options. By recognising the patient's need for information, nurses can provide an individualised explanation and reinforcement of the information provided during informed consent.


Endothelin system members including endothelin-1, endothelin-2, endothelin-3, endothelin receptors, and endothelin converting enzyme are considered major regulating factors in cancer cell biology and cancer microenvironment. Endothelins are members of the matrix metalloproteinase superfamily of proteases, which are released from pre-proteins, bind to their receptors with differential affinity, and are degraded following cellular uptake. For their structural similarity, endothelin-2 and endothelin-3 can be regarded as natural competitors for the endothelin-1 receptors and as natural antagonists of endothelin-1. Endothelin-1 is regulated at several levels, primarily at the level of transcription. Remarkably, endothelin-1 is overexpressed in colorectal cancer, and elevated plasma levels were found in colorectal cancer patients. Endothelin receptor type A has an unequal distribution in the colon, as it is over-expressed in the proximal and distal segments of the colon. Compared with normal mucosal tissue, there is high expression of endothelin receptor type A and low expression of endothelin receptor type B in colorectal cancer at all Dukes stages. By binding to endothelin receptor type A, endothelin-1 leads to down-regulation of epithelial and increased expression of mesenchymal markers. Also, endothelin-1 acts as anti-apoptotic factor through multiple pathways like PI3K-dependent AKT activation or NF-κB signaling. Members of the endothelin system might be used as cancer biomarker and from a therapeutic point of view, targeting the endothelin axis is a promising aim. In effect, potential drugs may include endothelin converting enzyme inhibitors as well as selective and non-selective antagonists of endothelin receptor types A and B. Biomedical Reviews 2014; 25: 1-13.


Stiffened panels are being used as a lightweight structure in aerospace, marine engineering and retrofitting of building and bridge structure. In this paper, two efficient analytical computational tools, namely, Finite Element Analysis (FEA) and Artificial Neural Network (ANN) are used to analyze and compare the results of the laminated composite 750-hat-stiffened panels.Finite Element (FE) is an efficient and versatile method for the analysis of a complex problem. FE models have been used to generate data set of four different parameters. The four parameters are extensional stiffness ratio of skin in the longitudinal direction to the transverse direction, orthotropy ratio of the panel, the ratio of twisting stiffness to transverse flexural stiffness and smeared extensional stiffness ratio of stiffeners to that of the plate.For training of ANN, multilayer feedforward back-propagation has been used as a network function with two-hidden layers in the neural network. The good network architecture is achieved after several iterations to predict the buckling load of the stiffened panel. ANN prediction for unknown new data set is in good agreement with FEA results of different cases, which show that ANN tool can be used for the design of complex structural problems in civil engineering and optimization of the laminated composite stiffened panel.


Possible low plasma zinc in psoriasis and the similarity of psoriasis to zinc deficiency dermatosis in animals prompted this study. Using a double-blind, cross-over design we treated 19 psoriatic outpatients with 220 mg zinc sulfate or placebo three times daily for two months. No statistically significant improvement was detected in treated patients. Seven psoriatic inpatients had scale zinc higher than keratin zinc in five controls, whereas four patients had serum zinc lower than 12 controls. These four with low serum zinc also failed to improve on zinc therapy, although psoriatic scale zinc increased and serum zinc surpassed that of controls. These findings militate against gastrointestinal malabsorption or faulty cutaneous entry of therapeutic zinc in psoriasis. Although subcellular zinc metabolism might be abnormal in psoriasis, systemic zinc deficiency is probably not the basic error.


Objective:Heller myotomy has been shown to be an effective primary treatment of achalasia. However, many physicians treating patients with achalasia continue to offer endoscopic therapies before recommending operative myotomy. Herein we report outcomes in 209 patients undergoing Heller myotomy with the majority (74%) undergoing myotomy as secondary treatment of achalasia. Methods:Data on all patients undergoing operative management of achalasia are collected prospectively. Over a 9-year period (1994–2003), 209 patients underwent Heller myotomy for achalasia. Of these, 154 had undergone either Botox injection and/or pneumatic dilation preoperatively. Preoperative, operative, and long-term outcome data were analyzed. Statistical analysis was performed with multiple χ2 and Mann-Whitney U analyses, as well as ANOVA. Results:Among the 209 patients undergoing Heller myotomy for achalasia, 154 received endoscopic therapy before being referred for surgery (100 dilation only, 33 Botox only, 21 both). The groups were matched for preoperative demographics and symptom scores for dysphagia, regurgitation, and chest pain. Intraoperative complications were more common in the endoscopically treated group with GI perforations being the most common complication (9.7% versus 3.6%). Postoperative complications, primarily severe dysphagia, and pulmonary complications were more common after endoscopic treatment (10.4% versus 5.4%). Failure of myotomy as defined by persistent or recurrent severe symptoms, or need for additionally therapy including redo myotomy or esophagectomy was higher in the endoscopically treated group (19.5% versus 10.1%). Conclusion:Use of preoperative endoscopic therapy remains common and has resulted in more intraoperative complications, primarily perforation, more postoperative complications, and a higher rate of failure than when no preoperative therapy was used. Endoscopic therapy for achalasia should not be used unless patients are not candidates for surgery.


ATP diphosphohydrolase (apyrase) (EC 188.8.131.52) activity was measured in synaptosomes from cerebral cortex of Wistar rats of both sexes subjected to experimental phenylketonuria, i.e., chemical hyperphenylalaninemia induced by subcutaneous administration of 5.2 mumol phenylalanine/g body weight (twice a day) plus 0.9 mumol p-chlorophenylalanine/g body weight (once a day). ATP diphosphohydrolase specific activity (nmol Pi min-1 mg protein-1) of synaptosomes was significantly decreased compared to controls for both ATP (from 147.6 to 129.9) and ADP (from 70.2 to 63.1) hydrolysis one hour after single administration of the drugs to 35-day old rats. Chronic treatment was performed from the 6th to the 28th postpartum day. The enzyme specific activity of synaptosomes was measured one week after the last administration of the drugs and was significantly reduced compared to controls for both ATP (from 164.1 to 150.2) and ADP (from 76.3 to 62.1) hydrolysis. The in vitro effects of the drugs on the synaptosome enzyme specific activity were also investigated. Phenylalanine alone or associated with p-chlorophenylalanine significantly reduced enzyme specific activity for both ATP (from 150.2 to 136.0) and ADP (from 70.5 to 59.3) nucleotides as substrates. Since ADP diphosphohydrolase seems to play an important role in neurotransmission, these findings may be related to the neurological dysfunction characteristic of human phenylketonuria.


The modular polyketide synthase responsible for biosynthesis of the antibiotic mupirocin occupies 75 kb of Pseudomonas fluorescens NCIMB 10586, while a hybrid of PKS/NRPS is responsible for biosynthesis of the antibiotic thiomarinol located on a 97 kb plasmid pTML1 in Pseudoalteromonas spp SANK 73390. Biosynthesis of the acyl side chains in mupirocin and thiomarinol are thought to be either through esterification of the fully synthesised fatty acid (C\(_9\) or C\(_8\)) or through extension of the PK derived ester starter unit which is predicted to be carried out on MmpB and TmpB. mupU/O/V/C/F and macpE are proposed to be sufficient for the conversion of pseudomonic acid B to pseudomonic acid A. Mupirocin is regulated via quorum sensing, while regulation of thiomarinol was not identified.

Production of thiomarinol was determined to occur after 8 hours of growth, while acidic conditions and use of acetone with ethyl acetate improved the extraction. TmlU, the thiomarinol amide ligase, did not complement a mupU mutant in mupirocin, and was found to block the biosynthesis of 9-hydroxynonanoic acid, causing truncation of 9-HN. This suggests that MupU, prevents MmpB from being an iterative PKS. KS-B2/ACP-B2 was shown to be involved in the removal of C8-OH from thiomarinol. Genetically manipulated mupU increased the production of mupirocin to 3 to 4 fold without abolishing PA-B production. Fused mupU-macpE complemented the NCIMB10586ΔmupUΔmacpE double mutant. However, insertion of this fusion into MmpB blocked the biosynthesis of mupirocin, while insertion after MmpA did not changed the pathway. Attempts to mobilise pTML1 revealed that a hybrid plasmid of RK2-R6K γ-ori was integrated into pTML1 but recovery of this cointegrate has not yet been recovered in E. coli.


Nowadays a growing amount of information not only exists in digital form but was actually born-digital. Digital long-term preservation becomes continuously important and is tackled by several international and national projects like the US National Digital Information Infrastructure and Preservation Program or the EU FP7 SHAMAN Integrated Project. The very essence of long-term preservation is the preserved data, which in turn requires an appropriate security model, which is so far often neglected in the preservation community. To address this problem, we extend the security relevant parts of the Open Archival Information System (OAIS) standard, in which security aspects are underspecified, by a conceptual framework for hierarchical security policy development based on given use-cases for a long- term archival system. The corresponding policies are then distributed and implemented by applying an iterative procedure to turn them into rules before these are then finally enforced. In this paper we describe how to construct a corresponding context model and derive such policies using the iterative approach to assure the system and data security.


A damage or breakage of Critical Infrastructure or CI will have a huge effect on humanity and economy. Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition Systems (SCADA) play a big role on Critical Infrastructure since most of these infrastructures are controlled by control systems like SCADA. In this paper, we assess vulnerabilities of a SCADA system, its effect to the society and the ways to prevent such vulnerabilities. We also researched on the background of the SCADA system and its comparability to the common computer system is discussed.


In the 19th century, the United States were simply another empire among others. In 1945, at the end of the Second World War, the peak of their lightning ascent as world power became a reality. However, their expansion came up against another empire willing to extend too during the Cold war, the USSR. In 1991, when the USSR and the east block collapsed, the United States hegemony accelerated. Mexico, being a direct neighbor of the United States and partly its ally during the 20th century, suffered nonetheless the American interventions throughout the 19th and 20th centuries. The central question of this work is to understand why Mexico is so important to the United States by studying military, political, ideological and economic perspectives, notably with the implication of the supranational companies and the American financial institutions and their subsidiaries, the maquiladoras. This will bring us to think about the contrasts between the propaganda used by the defenders of liberalism and neoliberalism and the concrete results caused by it, from the independence of Mexico in 1821 to nowadays.


Autoimmune thyroid disease (AITD) is one of the most common organ‐specific autoimmune disorders. It mainly manifests as Hashimoto's thyroiditis (HT) and Graves' disease (GD). HT is characteristic of hypothyroidism resulting from the destruction of the thyroid while GD is characteristic of hyperthyroidism due to excessive production of thyroid hormone induced by thyrotropin receptor‐specific stimulatory autoantibodies. T lymphocytes and their secretory cytokines play indispensable roles in modulating immune responses, but their roles are often complex and full of interactions among distinct components of the immune system. Dysfunction of these T cells or aberrant expressions of these cytokines can cause the breakdown of immune tolerance and result in aberrant immune responses during the development of AITDs. This review summarizes recently identified T subsets and related cytokines and their roles in the pathogenesis of AITDs with the hope to provide a better understanding of the precise roles of notably identified T subsets in AITDs and facilitate the discovery of functional molecules or novel immune therapeutic targets for AITDs.


Background and aim: We investigated the clinical outcome of early initiated peritoneal dialysis (PD) use in our newborn patients who underwent arterial switch operation (ASO) for transposition of the great arteries (TGA) and had routine intraoperative PD catheter implantation. We determined the risk factors for PD, factors associated with prolonged PD, morbidity, and mortality. The aim of the present study was to describe our experience of using PD in this patient cohort. Materials and Methods: Eighty two patients who were diagnosed with TGA and TGA-ventricular septal defect (VSD) and who had undergone TGA correction operation in Başkent University, Istanbul Medical Research and Training Hospital between 2007 and 2012 were retrospectively investigated. All the patients were under 30 days old. PD catheters were routinely implanted intraoperatively at the end of the operation. PD was initiated in transient renal insufficiency. In the absence of oliguria and increased creatinine level, PD was established in the presence of one of the following: clinical signs of fluid overload, hyperkalemia (>5 mEq/L), persistent metabolic acidosis, lactate level above 8 mmol/L or low cardiac output syndrome. The patients were divided into two groups according to the need for postoperative PD (PD group and non-PD group). PD was initiated in 32 (39%) patients after the operation, whereas 50 (61%) patients did not need dialysis. The clinical outcomes and perioperative data of the two groups were compared. Results: The demographics in the two groups were similar. Cardiopulmonary bypass time was longer in the PD group [non-PD group, 175.24 ± 32.39 min; PD group, 196.22 ± 44.04 min (p < 0.05)]. Coronary anomaly was found to be higher in the PD group [non-PD group, n = 2 patients (4.0%); PD group, n = 7 patients (21.9%); p < 0.05]. There was more need for PD in TGA + VSD patients [simple TGA patients, n = 14; TGA + VSD patients, n = 18 (p < 0.05)]. PD rate was higher in patients whose sterna were left open at the end of the operation (p < 0.05). The ventilator time [non-PD group, 4.04 ± 1.51 days; PD group, 8.12 ± 5.21 days (p < 0.01)], intensive care unit stay time [non-PD group, 7.98 ± 5.80 days; PD group, 15.93 ± 18.31 days (p < 0.01)], and hospital stay time were significantly longer in the PD group [non-PD group, 14.98 ± 10.14 days; PD group, 22.84 ± 20.87 days (p < 0.01)]. Conclusion: We advocate routine implantation of PD catheters to patients with TGA-VSD, coronary artery anomaly, and open sternum in which we have determined high rate of postoperative PD need.


Background: COVID-19 is an emerging pathogen that has caused a global pandemic, with New York City as one of its epicenters Data are still forthcoming if pregnant women are more vulnerable to COVID-19, as they are with influenza Additionally, it is not known if infants born to COVID-19 positive women are at risk of being infected at birth Methods: In March 2020, our hospital instituted a policy of testing all pregnant women presenting for active labor and scheduled C-section or induction of labor, with a nasopharyngeal swab that was sent for RT-PCR qualitative SARSCoV- 2 assay (Roche Cobas® 6800) Upon birth, infants were also tested, unless the parent did not give consent We retrospectively reviewed the COVID-19 test results of all pregnant women and their infants, from March 23 through May 31, 2020 using our infection control surveillance system (VigiLanz®) We also reviewed the electronic medical record (EPIC®) for documentation of any symptoms consistent with COVID-19 infection either prior to hospitalization or during the hospital stay Results: A total of 415 women and 72 infants were tested for SARS-CoV-2 Of the 415 women tested, 41 (9 9%) were positive Of the 72 infants tested, 2 (2 8%) were positive and concordant with their birth parent Only 1 (2 4%) of the women who tested positive was symptomatic The remaining 40 (97 6%) women did not report any symptoms of COVID-19 during labor Neither of the two positive infants displayed any signs or symptoms of COVID-19 Of the 41 women who were positive, 5 did not consent to have their infant tested The one symptomatic woman who tested positive for COVID-19 had an infant who tested negative by PCR Conclusion: During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, we found 9 9% (41/415) of pregnant women presenting for labor tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 Among the 41 women who tested positive, only 1 (2 4%) had symptoms on presentation and only 2 newborn infants tested positive Our data suggests that pregnant women may not be at increased risk for complications from COVID-19 disease and are not likely to transmit the disease to their infants during labor


In this study we demonstrate that the different substrate recognition properties of bacterial and human AP endonucleases might be used to quantify and localize apurinic (AP) sites formed in DNA in vivo. By using a model oligonucleotide containing a single AP site modified with methoxyamine (MX), we show that endonuclease III and IV of E. coli are able to cleave the alkoxyamine-adducted site whereas a partially purified HeLa AP endonuclease and crude cell-free extracts from HeLa cells are inhibited by this modification. In addition MX-modified AP sites in a DNA template retain their ability to block DNA synthesis in vitro. Since MX can efficiently react with AP sites formed in mammalian cells in vivo we propose that the MX modified abasic sites thus formed can be quantitated and localized at the level of the individual gene by subsequent site specific cleavage by either E. coli endonuclease III or IV in vitro.


This paper enquires an approach of location aided handover for next generation system integration. For the future only the combination of heterogeneous networks can fulfill the expectations of customers in the sense of ubiquity and bandwidth. Therefore, sophisticated handover and interworking strategies are necessary, in our approach a new entity, called hybrid information system (HIS), gathers status information, like C/I values or free medium capacity, of all associated networks. Thus, a terminal willing to handover has no need to scan the other systems but can simply requests the information from the HIS. To be always connected to the best network regarding the user requirements and to maximize the overall performance it is important to find efficient handover algorithms. We introduce a simulative investigation of the efficiency of a HIS enabled system compared to a legacy solution with direct scanning of potential destination networks.


The purpose of the study was to examine the self-perception of ability by Chinese children with respect to gender and grade differences. A total of 1,679 boys and girls in three primary grade levels from Mainland China and Hong Kong were included, and an indigenously developed multidimensional self-concept scale (MMSI) was used. Results showed that in both the China and Hong Kong samples, boys were found to score a little lower than girls in three self-concept domains: academic, social and general. Primary One students were found to score higher than Primary Three and Five students in all four domains: academic, appearance, social and general. Results also indicated that children from China had higher scores than children from Hong Kong in appearance, social and general self-concept. Significant interaction effects of society by grade and gender by grade were found. The findings were discussed with respect to the developmental process of Chinese children.


Sulfate attack is one of the most important factors affecting concrete durability and has been extensively investigated,but not completely understood.This paper attempts to clarify some related problems.Firstly,what mechanism needs to be involved for the action to be described as sulfate attack? The discussion of the two forms of sulfate attack leads to a recommendation for distinct nomenclature.Secondly,recent tests,both long term and accelerated ones, need reworking.Most of the knowledge of sulfate attack has been developed from laboratory studies involving relatively simple chemical systems of pure materials,yet in actual practice the situation is more complicated Thirdly,the standards and guides for the classification of the severity of exposure of structures to sulfates lack calibration of the various classes of exposure.This paper describes the progress and consequences of sulfate attack and some preventive measures.It discusses the nature of the manifestation or the mechanisms of sulfate degradation.Factors affecting concrete durability are discussed including the exposure conditions from continuous immersion to cycles of wetting and drying.In light of the overall situation and near-future improvements,all the factors are examined accelerating the rate of deterioration caused by sulfate.The factors analyzed include different concentration of SO~(2-)_4,different temperatures,different experimental solution,different pH controlled procedure and dry-wet circulation.The differences between laboratory conditions and field exposure are pointed out.Reviewed in this paper are the current American standards for specifying cement-based materials to prevent deleterious reactions with external sulfates,and for predicting the performance of concrete exposed to external sulfate.The applicability and reliability of these standards are criticized and the deficiencies in them are pointed out.Finally,recommendations are presented for the development of improved standard test methods.


History of creation and schemes of Arzamas-16 explosive laboratory devices for dynamical compressibility measurements at pressures up to 2–2.5 TPa are described, in which a thin, metallic impactor of spherical geometry is accelerated by the explosion products in converging detonation waves. The iron shock adiabat obtained with these devices over the period from 1948 to the early 60s and used as a dynamical standard in megabar and terapascal compressibility studies of other substances, is presented. In deriving its parameters for up to 10 TPa, iron compressibility data from underground nuclear explosions of the 70s, and calculated results from the modified quantum-statistical model have been employed.


We discuss a fundamentally new approach for the measurement of electric (E) fields that will lead to the development of a broadband, direct SI-traceable, compact, se lfcalibrating E-field probe (sensor). This approach is based o n the interaction of radio frequency (RF) fields with alkali atoms excited to Rydberg states. The RF field causes an energy split ting of the Rydberg states via the Autler-Townes effect and we det ct the splitting via electromagnetically induced transparency (EIT). In effect, alkali atoms placed in a vapor cell act like an RFto-optical transducer, converting an RF E-field strength measurement to an optical frequency measurement. We demonstra te the broadband nature of this approach by showing that one small vapor cell can be used to measure E-field strengths over a wide range of frequencies: 1 GHz to 500 GHz. The technique is validated by comparing experimental data to both numerical simulations and far-field calculations for various frequencies. We also discuss various applications, including: a direct traceable measurement, the ability to measure both weak and strong fiel d strengths, compact form factors of the probe, and sub-wavelngth imaging and field mapping.


For the period between 1976 and 2017, this study investigates the relation from remittances and trade to economic growth. Study applied time series econometric techniques; unit root, cointegration and error correction mechanism to examine long-run and short-run association between dependent and independent variables. Outcome confirms a long-run relationship between remittance, trade and economic growth. However, no short-run causal relationship exists between remittances and economic growth, but trade showed significant influence even in the short run in GDP for the period of analysis. The paper also discusses about the effective utilization of remittances. It is hoped that the study would be helpful to government and policy makers for domestic policy formation in the area of utilization of remittances and management of migration from Nepal.


This paper presents a vehicle license plate recognition method using deep convolutional neural networks. The focus of this paper is placed on the recognition of segmented characters of vehicle license. The deep convolutional neural network is able to distinguish numbers (0 to 9), alphabets (A to Z) and background image from one another. We show that the neural networks trained on computer fonts and natural images can be used to recognize the characters and non-characters on the vehicle license plates. In our experiments, we compared several models of the deep learning model and measure the performance of each model. We find that deeper models of neural networks yield better recognition results. What also find that the deep convolutional neural network is much more robust at the task of character recognition compared to the deep multilayer perceptron. With approximately equal amount of weights and biases parameters, the deep convolutional neural network outperforms all other models on the same task. Our best model using deep convolutional network, can achieve 95.89% correct classification of real license plate characters when even though the network is only trained on computer fonts (from Chars74K dataset) and natural images (from CIFAR10 dataset). No data augmentation is performed during the training.


The purpose of this paper is to examine why Latvia was affected deeply by the financial crisis among EU and other countries. In order to shed light on the situation before and after the financial crisis in 2008, we should at first point out the background factors. The wide-scale demonstration against the economic policy of the last Government in January, 2009 is still fresh in our minds. As a result of the demonstration, Prime Minister Ivars Godmanis was forced to resign and in last March, a young politician, Valdis Dombrovskis from Jaunas Laiks came on stage as the Prime Minister. As the cause of steep economic rise, Minister of Finance Einars Repse explained the 18% sharp decrease of GDP in 2009 resulting from the end of the bubble economy in Latvia. According to the survey by the European Commission, conducted in autumn, 2009, 97% responded that it was very bad or rather bad on the economic situation. The survey also shows that 88% of respondents distrust the Government. The author analyzes the background factors from the following three. First, there are still all kinds of legacy from past Soviet times. It is true that wide-scale social transformations had occurred since 1991, but we have to take into consideration Latvia's historical background with Soviet times. Second, she had to make efforts to speed up to convert to a market economy and to develop it. It was because Latvia wanted to keep up with the current tendencies in Eastern Europe so as to enter EU membership. She was afraid of being left behind from the neighboring countries, like other Baltic countries or the Central European countries. Third, the Government gave priority to her external policy over her domestic policy after Latvia's re-independence from Soviet Union in 1991. As a result, she could not sufficiently respond to a variety of demands and expectations of the people. She had to fulfill criteria for entering EU at first and at the same time the Government did not have the leeway to focus on internal issues. In particular, we must never forget the influence on the domestic issues at the time of becoming a member of EU and NATO are involved. To be sure, Latvia tended to depart from the economic tie away from her dependence on Russia, although they still have to rely heavily on Russia for energy. On the other hand, she accepted foreign investments from Scandinavian and other countries in a positive manner. After Latvia became a member of EU in 2004, foreign investment increased rapidly more than ever, although Latvia needed to develop the ability to achieve sustained economic growth on her own. Parex Bank's rapid growth during the 1990s' and the nationalization of Parex Bank in November 2008 after its bankruptcy shows us heavy Russian influence on Latvian economy. We have to continue paying attention to the invisible economic tie of Latvia with its influential neighboring country, Russia.


Forgiveness has been regarded as a sign of power, yet empirical evidence is mixed. This research seeks to resolve this inconsistency by looking into how and from whom forgiveness is expressed. Integrating theories on forgiveness, communication, and gender role, we hypothesized and found, in two experiments, that a third party's perception of forgiver power is jointly influenced by forgiveness expression (explicit vs. implicit) and forgiver gender. Female forgivers were perceived as less powerful than their male counterparts when forgivers expressed implicit forgiveness, whereas this gender difference was not found when forgivers expressed explicit forgiveness. Perceived forgiver power, in turn, positively influenced third parties' cooperation with the forgiver in subsequent interaction. This research represents an initial step to understanding forgiveness from a communication perspective. It demonstrates the social implications of forgiveness on uninvolved third parties. Our findings also resonate with several others in showing that forgiveness does not always yield interpersonal benefits.


Anticoagulation effects were studied during a 4-hr hemodialysis in 6 patients using 3 different heparin regimens: I. Intravenous loading dose only; II. priming of the dialyzer and continuous infusion of heparin for 2 hr; III. intravenous loading dose and continuous infusion of heparin based on anticoagulation kinetics. In all regimens the difference of fibrinopeptide A (delta FPA) between the blood inlet and outlet of the dialyzers increased at the end of the dialyses, indicating increased fibrin formation. There was a good correlation between delta FPA and the fibrin deposition on the membranes measured with I-125-fibrinogen. delta FPA increased when heparin concentration in plasma was less than 0.5 IU/ml. The anticoagulation kinetic regimen offered no advantage over the single loading dose regimen with regard to the formation and deposition of fibrin in the dialyzers.


We explore the links between weather variables and residential electricity consumption using highresolution smart metering data. While weather factors have been used for grid-level electricity demand estimations, the impact of different weather conditions on individual households has not been fully addressed. The deployment of smart meters enables us to analyse weather effects in different periods of the day using hourly panel datasets, which would previously have been impossible. To conduct the analysis, fixed-effects models are employed on half-hourly electricity consumption data from 3827 Irish household meters. We demonstrate that temperature has robust and relatively flat effects on electricity demand across all periods, whereas rain and sunshine duration show greater potential to affect individual behaviour and daily routines. The models show that the most sensitive periods differ for each weather variable. We also test the responses to weather factors for weekends and workdays. Weather sensitivities vary with the day of the week, which might be caused by different household patterns over the course of the week. The methodology employed in this study could be instructive for improving understanding behavioural response in household energy consumption. By using only weather indicators, this approach can be quicker and simpler than traditional methods —such as surveys or questionnaires — in identifying the periods when households are more responsive. Reference Details CWPE 2141 Published 12 May 2021


Poststroke seizures and epilepsy have been described in numerous clinical and epidemiological studies over many years. In contrast, the pathophysiological events occurring in injured brain that establish poststroke epileptogenesis and epilepsy are not known. However, in the last several years, animal modeling has made significant inroads toward an improved understanding of the progressive biochemical, anatomical, and physiological changes associated with both early and late seizures following stroke. A review of animal studies of poststroke seizures and epilepsy is presented.


Hepatocellular carcinoma is a type of digestive tract cancer that has a high incidence and a poor prognosis. Pyroptosis, a newly discovered and proven method of pro-inflammatory programmed cell death, is linked to tumor development, patient prognosis, and response to therapy. In this study, the prognostic genes of liver cancer were obtained; their expressions were extracted from The Cancer Genome Atlas database; differential analysis, survival analysis, and clinical correlation analysis were performed; and a nomogram was constructed to predict the survival rate. Based on the expression of BAK1 gene, all samples were then divided into two groups: High expression and low expression. Enrichment analysis, immunological analysis, and drug susceptibility analysis of differential genes were subsequently performed in that order. BAK1 expression was found to be significantly higher in liver hepatocellular carcinoma (LIHC). High BAK1 expression levels were found to be linked to cancer development and poor prognosis. To assess the diagnostic value of BAK1 in LIHC, a receiver operating characteristic curve was drawn. In addition, there were significant differences in drug sensitivity between high and low BAK1 expression in 90 drugs. The BAK1 gene may be a good potential LIHC diagnostic marker, an oncogene in the occurrence and progression of liver cancer, a new prognostic biomarker, and a potential therapeutic target for liver cancer.


The study of time-varying (dynamic) networks (graphs) is of fundamental importance for computer network analytics. Several methods have been proposed to detect the effect of significant structural changes in a time series of graphs. The main contribution of this work is a detailed analysis of a dynamic community graph model. This model is formed by adding new vertices, and randomly attaching them to the existing nodes. It is a dynamic extension of the well-known stochastic blockmodel. The goal of the work is to detect the time at which the graph dynamics switches from a normal evolution -- where balanced communities grow at the same rate -- to an abnormal behavior -- where communities start merging. In order to circumvent the problem of decomposing each graph into communities, we use a metric to quantify changes in the graph topology as a function of time. The detection of anomalies becomes one of testing the hypothesis that the graph is undergoing a significant structural change. In addition the the theoretical analysis of the test statistic, we perform Monte Carlo simulations of our dynamic graph model to demonstrate that our test can detect changes in graph topology.


Recently, Learning Machines have achieved a measure of success in the representation of multiple views. Since the effectiveness of data mining methods is highly dependent on the ability to produce data representation, learning multi-visual representation has become a very promising topic with widespread use. It is an emerging data mining guide that looks at multidisciplinary learning to improve overall performance. Multiview reading is also known as data integration or data integration from multiple feature sets. In general, learning the representation of multiple views is able to learn the informative and cohesive representation that leads to the improvement in the performance of predictors. Therefore, learning multi-view representation has been widely used in many real-world applications including media retrieval, native language processing, video analysis, and a recommendation program. We propose two main stages of learning multidisciplinary representation: (i) alignment of multidisciplinary representation, which aims to capture relationships between different perspectives on content alignment; (ii) a combination of different visual representations, which seeks to combine different aspects learned from many different perspectives into a single integrated representation. Both of these strategies seek to use the relevant information contained in most views to represent the data as a whole. In this project we use the concept of canonical integration analysis to get more details. Encouraged by the success of in-depth reading, in-depth reading representation of multiple theories has attracted a lot of attention in media access due to its ability to read explicit visual representation.


These guidelines have been written in parallel with guidance on the cost effectiveness of smoking cessation interventions, produced by the Centre for Health Economics at the University of York. The cost effectiveness guidance underpins these clinical guidelines and provides the economic justification for them. It is published as the second part of this Thorax supplement. These smoking cessation clinical guidelines are also published in a shorter version as a journal article ( BMJ 1999; 318 : in press).

The clinical guidelines have been submitted to many professions for their official endorsement and support. This was not a passive process and their suggestions are reflected in this final version.

The guidelines were commissioned by the Health Education Authority (HEA), which is responsible for health education in England. They are written for the English health care system but may prove relevant and adaptable to other countries and health care systems.

Comments and questions about these guidelines can be addressed to Dr Ann McNeill at Health Education Authority, Trevelyan House, 30 Great Peter Street, London SW1P 2HW.

#### Professional endorsement

At the time of going to press the following organisations have endorsed these guidelines: Royal College of Physicians (London), Royal College of General Practitioners, British Medical Association, Royal College of Nursing, Royal College of Midwives, Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association, British Thoracic Society, British Lung Foundation, National Asthma Campaign, National Primary Care Facilitators Programme, National Heart Forum, British Dental Association, British Dental Hygienists Association, National Pharmaceutical Association, Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain, Action on Smoking and Health, ASH Scotland, Quit, Association for Public Health, Imperial Cancer Research Fund, Cancer Research Campaign.

#### Acknowledgements

This project has depended especially on the goodwill and hard work of the peer reviewers and we would like to thank them for their contribution in reviewing the draft guidelines. We also thank Jacqueline …


The present invention relates to the use of an agent comprising active ingredients, which are obtainable from plants of the genus dandelion (Leontodon or Taraxacum), for the treatment of hair, in particular for the revitalization of hair, stimulation of energy metabolism in hair follicles, activation of hair follicles, promoting or increasing hair growth, hair thickening, treatment of hair loss and hair conditioning.


OBJECTIVE
To describe the prevalence of hypertension and associated features in 13-year-old urban adolescents.

STUDY DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

PARTICIPANTS
We evaluated 2023 adolescents (1043 female and 980 male), born in 1990 and enrolled at public and private schools in Porto during the 2003/2004 school year.

METHODS
Data on behavioral, social and demographic characteristics and individual and family history of disease were collected using two standardized questionnaires (one completed at home and the other by the adolescents at school). After completion and return of the home questionnaires, our research team visited the schools and detailed physical examinations were carried out, including measurement of blood pressure, height and weight. Blood pressure was measured on a single occasion, and classified according to the American Academy of Pediatrics' recommendations: as hypertension if systolic (SBP) and/or diastolic blood pressure (DBP) were above the 95th percentile for gender, age and height; and as prehypertension if SBP and/or DBP levels were above the 90th percentile but both < the 95th percentile. Data were analyzed separately for males and females. Proportions were compared using the chi-square test, and quantitative variables were compared using the Kruskal-Wallis test.

RESULTS
The prevalence of hypertension was 22.0% and of prehypertension 13.3%. The prevalence of hypertension was higher in males (25.4% vs. 18.8%). For both genders blood pressure increased with body mass index. In females, the prevalence of hypertension was 14.7% for normal weight, 24.2% for overweight and 42.3% for obese (p < 0.001). In males, the prevalence was 20.4%, 35.5% and 41.3% respectively (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION
This sample of 13-year-old adolescents presented high blood pressure levels. We found 22.0% with hypertension and 13.3% with prehypertension, with males presenting higher values. We also found that body mass index was related to blood pressure.


Early in the life of the Genesis spar, cracking developed at the welded connections between the riser guide supports and the hull wall plate. The cracking was caused by the movements of the top-tensioned risers within the steel guide frames in the moon pool of the structure. The remedial action taken to minimize the riser movements and its effects on the hull involved the use of novel rubber bumpers, which were installed in lieu of the steel guides. The bumpers around the periphery of the moon pool were fastened to the hull wall via threaded studs that were friction welded to the hull wall plate underwater. This paper describes a testing program specifically designed to qualify the fatigue performance of the stud-plate friction welds. Results verify the use of the F2 S-N curve from British Standard 7608 with a single slope for the design of the friction-welded connections subjected to axial load. It was also found that the fatigue performance of friction welds is sensitive to the stud preload. One unique feature of the fatigue failure mode of the connection, when the load is transferred through the stud into the plate, is that cracking takes place along the semi-circular heat-affected zone (HAZ) of the bond-line between the stud and the plate, and not through the hull plate thickness. As a result, failure of a stud connection does not compromise the structural integrity of the spar hull.© 2005 ASME


An attempt has been made to synthesize nitrogenous clay minerals hydrothermally from silica-alumina gels in the presence of amino acids, namely glycine and lysine. The products have been characterized by X-ray powder diffraction, by analyses for C and N contents, and by their infrared spectra.Amino acid-montmorillonites have been prepared under hydrothermal conditions of 200–250°C and 1000 atm. Above 250°C the amino acids were degraded to ammonium ions, and ammonium-micas were obtained. Syntheses without the addition of amino acids to gels yielded kaolinite.The role of organic compounds in the formation of clay minerals seems to be of considerable geochemical significance.


Anal sphincter function is increasingly preserved following rectal excision for cancer and provides a better quality of life for patients than does a permanent colostomy. However, anastomotic complications may cause considerable morbidity and mortality. This retrospective study examined the incidence of anastomotic complications following two forms of reconstruction after resection for mid‐rectal cancer: colonic pouch–anal anastomosis (CPAA) and low colorectal anastomosis (LCRA).


With its significant contribution to cancer mortality globally, advanced colorectal cancer (CRC) requires new treatment strategies. However, despite recent good results for mismatch repair (MMR)-deficient CRC and other malignancies, such as melanoma, the vast majority of MMR-proficient CRCs are resistant to checkpoint inhibitor (CKI) therapy. MMR-proficient CRCs commonly develop from precursor adenomas with enhanced Wnt-signalling due to adenomatous polyposis coli (APC) mutations. In melanomas with enhanced Wnt signalling due to stabilized β-catenin, immune anergy and resistance to CKI therapy has been observed, which is dependent on micro-environmental myelomonocytic (MM) cell depletion in melanoma models. However, MM populations of colorectal adenomas or CRC have not been studied. To characterize resident intestinal MM cell populations during the early stages of tumorigenesis, the present study utilized the ApcMin/+ mouse as a model of MMR-proficient CRC, using enhanced green fluorescent protein (EGFP) expression in the mouse lysozyme (M-lys)lys-EGFP/+ mouse as a pan-myelomonocytic cell marker and a panel of murine macrophage surface markers. Total intestinal lamina propria mononuclear cell (LPMNC) numbers significantly decreased with age (2.32±1.39×107 [n=4] at 33 days of age vs. 1.06±0.24×107 [n=8] at 109 days of age) during intestinal adenoma development in ApcMin/+ mice (P=0.05; unpaired Student's t-test), but not in wild-type littermates (P=0.35). Decreased total LPMNC numbers were associated with atrophy of intestinal lymphoid follicles and the absence of MM/lymphoid cell aggregates in ApcMin/+ mouse intestine, but not spleen, compared with wild-type mice. Furthermore, during the early stage of intestinal adenoma development, there was a two-fold reduction of M-lys expressing cells (P=0.05) and four-fold reduction of ER-HR3 (macrophage sub-set) expressing cells (P=0.05; two tailed Mann-Whitney U test) in mice with reduced total intestinal LPMNCs (n=3). Further studies are necessary to determine the relevance of these findings to immune-surveillance of colorectal adenomas or MMR-proficient CRC CKI therapy resistance.


Tumor-associated epilepsy is an important contributor to morbidity in patients with brain tumors. Proposed pathophysiological mechanisms to explain these effects range from neuronal and glial dysfunction to deranged vascular homeostasis, to ionic and pH changes. Perilesional tissue alterations play a vital role in the generation of tumor-associated seizures. Clinical studies have determined that tumor-associated seizures are usually focal with secondary generalization and often resistant to antiepileptic drugs. Tumor histopathological characteristics and location are independent factors that impact seizure burden. Further understanding of the mechanisms of tumor-associated epilepsy may lead to new types of treatments targeted at perilesional tissue alterations.


The current study uses functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to examine whether regulating negative bias to stigmatized individuals has a unique neural activity profile from general emotion regulation. Participants were presented with images of stigmatized (e.g. homeless people) or non-stigmatized (e.g. a man holding a gun) social targets while undergoing fMRI and were asked either to maintain or regulate their emotional response. Their implicit bias toward these stigmatized group members was also measured. Analyses were conducted in both, an event-related fashion, considering the event to be the onset of regulation, and in a blocked-design fashion, considering the sustained activity throughout the 8-s regulatory period. In the event-related (onset) analyses, participants showed more activity throughout the prefrontal cortex when initiating a regulatory response to stigmatized as compared with non-stigmatized images. This neural activity was positively correlated with their implicit bias. Interestingly, in the block (sustained) analyses, general emotion regulation elicited a more widespread pattern of neural activity as compared with stigma regulation. This activity was largely posterior, suggesting that general emotion regulation may engage more visuo-spatial processing as compared with stigma regulation. These findings suggest that regulating negative affect toward stigmatized targets may occur relatively more quickly than regulating negative affect toward non-stigmatized targets.


The use of robotic assistance has become extremely important for many reasons. To be remarked is the fact that a robot may provide us with access to remote sites and therefore a detailed knowledge on certain environments. This information could be used to recreate and simulate specific scenarios on which astronauts may be afterwards trained, being this aspect of a vital importance in human exploration. Another example would be the spacecraft landing. It is a critical phase on which a tele-operated probe would give fundamental information for a future manned mission. Just remark at this time the success of the ESA probe "Huygens" landing on Titan. From the beginning of the entry on Titan until the batteries died only lasted for less than two hours, but the information gathered within this interval was proved to be of an incalculable value. Due to all this, the development of reliable immersive teleoperation user interfaces is claimed to be one of the previous and more important milestones for any future space human exploration mission. Space applications imply long distances, so time delays such that remote control may become unfeasible. Predictive motion displays (PMD) stand as one of the possible solutions to overcome this constraint. These displays show the movement of the simulated teleoperator without any time delay while the real teleoperator would simply follow the simulated one after the delay. A further step is represented by the "Telepresence", in which the operator would be actually immersed into the remote site. The telepresence is based on the provision of enough natural sensory information (images, voice, haptics...) so that the operator would feel as if located in the simulated scenario. This field represents a fascinating subject, whose applications have been proved to be vital for the future of human space exploration. Therefore, this thesis aims to build a teleoperated system that may be used to evaluate and quantify the effect of immersion and time delay on work performances. A set of teleoperation tests will be developed in order to identify those tasks that may be improved with the assistance of telepresence. The tests will also pursue to search the limits of the given schemes (direct teleoperation with time delay, with PMD and with telepresence) and will support both space and ground operations (capable of simulating different scenarios, e.g. teleoperation from a space station orbiting a planet, or from a stationary camp on Moon).


In a variety of animal tissues, the synthesis of nucleic acid constituents can take place from elementary precursors; among these, carbon dioxide and glycine have been demonstrated to be incorporated into purines of many higher animals as well as yeast (Buchanan, 1951). Relatively little direct evidence is available on the precursors of nucleic acid constituents in bacteria. Sutton et al. (1951) reported the incorporation of glycine into purines of Aerobacter aerogenes, and recently Bolton et al. (1952) have shown that carbon dioxide is a precursor of the nucleic acid purines and pyrimidines of Escherichia coli. The synthesis of nucleic acid constituents in Brucella abortus is of particular interest because many strains of the organism require added carbon dioxide for growth, and glycine appears to be a major product of CO2 fixation in such strains (AIarr and Wilson, 1951). However, neither glycine nor any compound or complex mixture yet tested will replace added CO2 for growth of B. abortus. Wte have investigated the fixation of C'402 into nucleic acid constituents by B. abortus to examine further the biochemical basis of the need for CO2 by members of this species.


The evaluation of the horizontal inefficiency of an anti-poverty design is often reduced to the determination of the type I errors, which occur where eligible individuals are not awarded benefits. Because under-coverage ratio does not consider the social cost resulting from unequal treatment of like individuals, it is irrelevant in assessing the severity and the depth of horizontal inefficiency. Also, when the cost of inequality approach is adopted to derive from a poverty measure, respecting the transfer axiom, a cost of inequality that is decomposable into two components, corresponding to vertical and horizontal inequality respectively, it is no longer possible to have different aversions toward these two forms of inequality. We follow then the cost of inequality approach after specifying a new class of poverty measures, which are parameterized by two coefficients allowing so different preferences toward these two equality principles. When these two coefficients are identical, the new poverty measures class reduces to the Foster, Greer and Thorbecke?s (1984) class, whose poverty measures imply the same aversion to vertical inequality and horizontal inequity. Further, for a given poverty line, the new class enables to characterize the set of poverty measures in which policymakers are indifferent between the post-reform poverty alleviation program and the status quo.


Carl Djerassi is one of the 'the fathers of the Pill' - he was awarded the National Medal of Science for the first synthesis of a steroid oral contraceptive - and has had a prolific additional career as a writer of fiction, plays, and dialogues about science. In these two plays, "ICSI" and "Taboos", he dramatizes the social transformations and contested viewpoints created by advances in reproductive science and technology.Two of the most startling developments in contemporary science have radically disrupted the historical connection between sex and reproduction: in vitro fertilization and intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) - an assisted reproductive technique that directly injects a single sperm into an egg. The word play "ICSI" - designed for classroom readings - presents, in the format of a contentious talk-show dialogue, the science of direct-injection fertilization and the ethical issues connected with it. A DVD included in the book provides video of the ICSI injection process as viewed through a microscope, to be used in performances of the "ICSI" one-act dialogue."Taboos", a full-length play, turns the screws on characters that reflect a polarized America. Two couples - lesbian partners and a conservative husband and wife struggling with infertility - must make choices in a drama that examines the disjunction of sexual reproduction and the physical act of sex. The North American premiere of "Taboos" will open at New York's Soho Playhouse on September 19, 2008.


The estrogen receptor protein loses its ability to bind to estrogens upon denaturation with sodium dodecyl sulfate and 2-mercaptoethanol. Binding activity is recovered at 60-80% efficiency upon removal of the denaturants, equilibration with 6 M guanidine hydrochloride, and dilution into buffer containing estrogen. Renatured receptor is similar to native receptor in affinity for 17 beta-estradiol and ability to bind DNA. Detection of receptor activity after sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis of uterine or pituitary cytosol or of uterine nuclear extracts reveals a single unique polypeptide species of 65,000 mol wt.


The GMR Driving Simulator was used to study the performance of four teen-aged, novice drivers, two of whom had cerebral palsy. The purpose of this pilot study was to determine the potential of the simulator to discriminate between the driving abilities of medically handicapped and non-handicapped individuals. The study concentrated on the psychomotor aspects of lane-keeping performance in the presence of road curvature and environmental disturbances. The study indicates that a dynamically realistic driving simulator could be a valuable screening device for indentifying potential performance difficulties in handicapped individuals prior to behind-the-wheel instruction.


Broiler chickens were inoculated orally with 10(6) Salmonella typhimurium on the day of hatch. Twenty-four to 72 hr after challenge, the chicks were inoculated orally with cecal microflora that had been repeatedly passed through lactose-fed broiler chicks. In vivo passage proved to be a convenient and practical method for preserving protective anaerobic flora. These organisms effectively reduced S. typhimurium concentrations in the cecal contents by 4-5 orders of magnitude, even when given 24 to 72 hr after Salmonella challenge inoculation.


This paper examines the effect of attending elite private high school on college placement using admissions data from the most selective high school in a large metropolitan area. To overcome omitted variable bias, we limit the sample to admitted applicants and control directly for the scores assigned by admissions based on in-depth analyses of the applicants and their families. In addition, we control for a wide set of covariates including student and family characteristics and entrance exam scores. Results indicate that attending selective private high school rather than other public and private high schools causes students to attend more selective universities. Effects are driven by gains for girls and students from lower-income neighborhoods.


The present research examines the measured morphometric values of monogenetic cinder cones in the Tolbachik volcanic field (Kluchevskaya volcanic group, Kamchatka). The cones were measured from digital elevation models derived from satellite data (ASTER and SRTM) and from digitized topographic maps. The GPS measurements of 85 locations were performed in the field to provide geodetic reference for DEM processing as well as to assess the accuracy of the DEM. A methodology for morphometric measurements on a DEM is proposed. The morphometric parameters derived from a DEM include the main characteristics that control the rate of degradational evolution of the cone: height, width and slope. The measured morphometric values were compared and accuracy assessment was carried out. Our study analyzes the morphometric values of four recent cinder cones formed during the last basaltic eruption in 1975-76, and of five older ones formed during the last 2000 years. We show that morphometric values obtained from a DEM are affected by the resolution change, and characteristics of the same cinder cone may vary in their values among DEMs of different resolutions. According to the results, the morphometry of the cinder cones can be well characterized by a DEM derived from remotely sensed data. The calculated morphometric parameters showed a correlation with the spatial resolution of the DEM and relative age of the cinder cones. All studied DEM (including coarse resolution SRTM) were found suitable for morphometric measurements under the constraint of spatial resolution.


Phytase  produced  from  an  edible  local  mushroom  P.ostreatus11L  was  purified  in  three  steps,  in  precipitation with ammonium Sulfate (saturation ratio70%), the specific activity of phytase increased from 0.38u/mg protein in crude  extract to 0.77  u/mg protein  with purification  of 2.03 fold  and  the enzyme yield was 92.05%, in  ion exchange chromatography(DEAE-cellulose) step, specific activity was 3.6 u/mg protein with purification of 9.47 fold with  a  yield  of  71.  82%.  In the last  step,  with gel filtration chromatography  using Sephadex  G75  which gave the highest specific activity reached 7.5 U/mg with the purification folds arrived to 19.74 and enzyme yield was 42.61%. The results showed that there is only one band appeared in SDS-PAGE technique indicating a high purity of phytase enzyme , the purified phytase behaved as a monomeric protein with a molecular mass of about 25.12 kDa . The phytase was active over a broad range of incubation temperature (20 - 50oC), maximal activity was 0.83 unit/ml when phytase incubated at 30oC while the enzyme has thermal stability over a  broad range of temperatures  (20-60oC)  for  one  h  since  more  than  50  %  of  the  relative  enzyme  activity  was  retained  after incubation. Phytase was active over a broad range of pH (4-8), maximal activity was 0.81unit/ml when phytase incubated  at  pH  6  followed  by  0.79  unit/ml  when  phytase  incubated  at  pH  5  without  significant  differences between them.  In  addition  ,  the  enzyme  was  full  stable  at  pH  5  and  6  for  1  h  of  incubation  at  37oC.  phytase activity didn't reach 70% at  the other  pH values. Hence it is  inferred that the phytase was active over a broad range of  pH 4-8. Among various metal ions, only MgSO4 has a syregenic effect with phytase activity in which activity increased as residual activity was 117.36% , while CuSO4 and ZnCl were the most inhibitory agents for P.ostreatus phytase.


High-resolution digital images make up very large data sets that are relatively slow to transmit and expensive to store. Data compression techniques are being developed to address this problem, but significant image deterioration can occur at high compression ratios. In this study, the authors evaluated a form of adaptive block cosine transform coding, a new compression technique that allows considerable compression of digital radiographs with minimal degradation of image quality. To determine the effect of data compression on diagnostic accuracy, observer tests were performed with 60 digitized chest radiographs (2,048 x 2,048 matrix, 1,024 shades of gray) containing subtle examples of pneumothorax, interstitial infiltrate, nodules, and bone lesions. Radiographs with no compression, with 25:1 compression, and with 50:1 compression ratios were presented in randomized order to 12 radiologists. The results suggest that, with this compression scheme, compression ratios as high as 25:1 may be acceptable for primary diagnosis in chest radiology.


Kielmeyera coriacea Mart. (Clusiaceae), popularly known as "pau-santo", is a typical Brazilian cerrado tree known due to its varied secondary metabolites.  This study aimed to determine the allelopathic potential of the hydroalcoholic extract of leaves of K. coriacea through bioassays of seed germination, seedling growth and mitotic index of Lactuca sativa L. (lettuce). In addition it was done the tetrazolium assay and a phytochemical screening. The extract concentrations caused alterations in germination parameters, in root growth and in the mitotic index. The phytochemical screening showed the presence of triterpenes, coumarins, steroids, flavonoids and condensed tannins, compounds known to confer allelopathic characteristics upon other species. These data indicate that K. coriacea presents an allelopathic potential because its leaf extracts interfere with germination and growth without any interference of pH and osmotic potential in the results.


The quitting a job of the expert worker and the lack of the technical transmission to the young worker with low birthrate, and the deterioration of the infrastructure institution which will increase rapidly in future will be the problem that must put up measures immediately in the construction business. CIM and i-Construction proposed by Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism enforce the improvement of the productivity of the construction site and the maintenance and check for the life cycle of the structure using three-dimensional model in order to solve such a problem, and they may be said that it is the big change of the construction production system. In this report, I survey three examples of the tool which I can utilize three-dimensional model for plan, measuring, construction, and maintenance based on a policy of CIM and i-Construction, explain an effective making method of the three-dimensional model suitable for a construction scale and contents and examine the effective utilization method and introduction effect in the construction production system.


For the first time connection between the pulsation and modulation properties of RR Lyrae stars has been detected. Based on the available data it is found that the possible range of the modulation frequencies, i.e, the possible maximum value of the modulation frequency depends on the pulsation frequency. Short period variables (P < 0.4 d) can have modulation period as short as some days, while longer period variables (P > 0.6 d) always exhibit modulation with Pmod > 20 d. We interpret this tendency with the equality of the modulation period with the surface rotation period, because similar distribution of the rotational periods is expected if an upper limit of the total angular momentum of stars leaving the RGB exists. The distribution of the projected rotational velocities of red and blue horizontal branch stars at different temperatures shows a similar behaviour as vrot derived for RR Lyrae stars from their modulation periods. This common behaviour gives reason to identify the modulation period with the rotational period of the modulated RR Lyrae stars. Stars: variables: RR Lyr – Stars: oscillations – Stars: horizontalbranch


Exponential use of ICT has brought colossal opportunities as well as challenges to the present society. In spite of increasing women's involvement in Information, Communication and Technology (ICT) , gender inequality has yet remained critical across the nations and globe. The uneven access and skills to technology has intensified the degree of digital divide specially for the women. Further the multifaced attribute of ICT and its relation with women is changing discourses among the feminist scholars. This is a conceptual paper which focuses on the deliberations of different feminists based on optimistic and pessimistic perspectives. Some studies show that the gender digital divide is getting intense while some have reported of alleviating gaps with more involvement of women. The concept of digital divide is beyond the access and includes various dimensions such as perception, usage, motivation, participation and skills. The paper deals with the tension between utopian and dystopian views on technology benefits. Through literature review this conceptual paper examines and discusses the diverse standpoints of feminist scholars from west and east which buzzes to redefine the relationship of gender with technology. It recommends that empowerment of women in technological domain is equally important as social, economic and political. Further women should be motivated from within to embrace ICT and get benefitted from its prospects. Resisting modern technology in the digital era would further widen the digital gap and thus make difficult to observe gender equality. More studies are required to explore the strategies for technological empowerment of women.


In this paper, the performance of signaling strategies with high peak-to-average power ratio is analyzed in both coherent and noncoherent fading channels. Two modulation schemes, namely on-off phase-shift keying (OOPSK) and on-off frequency-shift keying (OOFSK), are considered. The optimal detector structures are identified and analytical expressions for the error probabilities are obtained for arbitrary constellation sizes. Numerical techniques are employed to compute the error rates. It is concluded that increasing the peakedness of the signals results in reduced error rates for a given power level and hence equivalently improves the energy efficiency for fixed error probabilities.


Holoprosencephaly (HPE), the most common malformation of the human forebrain, may arise due to interacting genetic and environmental factors. To date, at least 12 contributory genes have been identified. Fibroblast growth factor 8 (Fgf8) belongs to the FGF family of genes expressed in several developmental signaling centers, including the anterior neural ridge, which is implicated in midline anomalies in mice. In humans, FGF8 mutations have been previously reported in facial clefting and in hypogonadotropic hypogonadism, but have not been reported in patients with HPE. We screened 360 probands with HPE for sequence variations in FGF8 using High Resolution DNA Melting (HRM) and sequenced all identified variations. Here we describe a total of 8 sequence variations in HPE patients, including a putative loss-of-function mutation in 3 members of a family with variable forms of classic HPE, and relate these findings to the phenotypes seen in other conditions.


In the course of researches on conditions of the upper respiratory tract generally termed "catarrh" or "colds" we were impressed by the frequent coincidence of transverse linear streaking of the nails or leukonychia. On studying the series of cases showing these coincident conditions we discovered that the infections of the upper respiratory tract were of much the same type. For the most part they were stubborn cases of rhinitis, nasopharyngitis and tonsillitis which were seldom free from nasal discharge, and in which the condition was seldom accompanied by febrile disturbances except during periods of acute exacerbation or complications. When the tonsils were present, they were generally hypertrophied, and the crypts were filled with grumous concretions. Many of these patients stated that they were seldom or never free from colds over periods of months or years. The majority of the cases occurred in the age groups between 5 and 40 years,


Despite technological improvements in commercial activity trackers, little attention has been given to their emotional, social, or fashion-related qualities, such as their visual aesthetics and their relationship to self-expression and social connection. As an alternative integrated approach incorporating HCI, fashion, and product design, our project made use of the characteristics of patina to improve activity trackers as fashionable wearables. We developed the Patina Engraving System, which engraves patina-like patterns on an activity tracker according to a user's activity logs. Using a piercing technique, the patina of activity logs has been made abstract, visually rich, gradually emerging, and historically accumulated. During the field trial, we found that the patina motivated the participants to increase exercises for engraving aesthetic patinas. A tracker with patina triggered spontaneous social interactions in face-to-face situations. The participants also cherished the trackers that held their own history. Based on the field trial, we discuss design implications for utilizing patina in designing future fashionable technologies.


Background: Study is to compare the effectiveness of Jack knife stretching and Proprioceptive Neuromuscular
Facilitation (PNF) stretching Technique in asymptomatic individuals with hamstring tightness.
Aims and Objectives : 1. To study the effect of jack-knife stretching on the individuals with asymptomatic
hamstring tightness in terms of Active knee extension test, finger to floor, passive SLR and LEFS
Questionnaire.2.To Study the effect of PNF stretching on individuals with asymptomatic hamstring tightness.
3.To compare the effect of Jack knife and PNF stretching in individuals with hamstring tightness.
Material and Method: Ethical approval was obtained. 56 healthy subjects were assigned into two groups.
PNF (hold relax) stretching technique was given to the Group A and Group B received Jack Knife stretching.
Active knee extension test, Finger to floor test, Passive single leg raise test and Lower extremity functional
scale these parameters were measured .
Results: Intra-group comparison for all the outcome measures in both the groups showed statistical
significance. Inter-group comparison for all the outcome measures for both the groups had differences but
showed statistical significance. Group B Jack knife stretching was more effective than group A PNF (hold
relax) stretching.
Conclusion: The present study results indicate that to increase hamstring flexibility both the treatment
techniques i.e PNF stretching and jack knife stretching are effective in asymptomatic individuals with
hamstring tightness. Thus, our study shows jack knife stretching gives immediate effect due to closed pack
position of stretching compared to open pack position of PNF group


ABSTRACT A live attenuated influenza A/Vietnam/1203/2004 (H5N1) vaccine virus (VN04 ca) has receptor binding specificity to α2,3-linked sialosides (α2,3SAL), and a single dose induces a minimal serum antibody response in mice and ferrets. In contrast, A/Hong Kong/213/2003 (H5N1) vaccine virus (HK03 ca) binds to both α2,6SAL and α2,3SAL and generates a stronger serum antibody response in animals. Among the 9 amino acids that differed between the two H5 HA1 proteins, several HK03-specific residues enabled the VN04 ca virus to bind to both α2,3SAL and α2,6SAL receptors, but only the removal of the 158N glycosylation, together with an S227N change, resulted in more-efficient viral replication in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets and an increased serum antibody response. However, the antibody response was HK03 strain specific and did not significantly cross-neutralize VN04 virus. A second approach was taken to adapt the H5N1 VN04 ca virus in MDCK cells to select HA variants with larger plaque morphology. Although a number of large-plaque-size HA variants with amino acid changes in the HA receptor binding region were identified, none of these mutations affected virus receptor binding preference and immunogenicity. In addition, the known receptor binding site changes, Q226L and G228S, were introduced into the HA protein of the VN04 ca virus. Only in conjunction with the removal of the 158N glycosylation did the virus replicate efficiently in the upper respiratory tract of ferrets and became more immunogenic, yet the response was also HK03 specific. Thus, the mask of the antigenic epitopes by 158N glycosylation at the HA globular head and its α2,3SAL binding preference of VN04 ca virus affect virus antigenicity and replication in the host, resulting in a lower antibody response.


Some of the issues in case retrieval and maintenance of case-bases are discussed. Conventionally, nearest neighbor algorithm is applied for retrieval of similar cases. Uniqueness of feature-values is not rewarded in such similarity matching functions. In order to refine the retrieval process, a metric based on successful case usage in the past is incorporated. This metric is shown to be useful in case-base maintenance. Applications in Homoeopathy remedy and personal tour selection are presented with comparative results.


This paper presents the realization of a linear polar transmitter supporting multistandard applications. The harmonic-tuned class-AB biased (class-AB/F) power amplifier (PA) with the novel envelope shaping method linearly amplifies the input signal with high efficiency. The hybrid switching supply modulator with programmable hysteretic comparator enables the multimode operation whatever the envelope signal characteristics such as the peak-to-average power ratio and the bandwidth are. The designed polar transmitter is fabricated with CMOS 0.13-mum technology and InGaP/GaAs 2-mum HBT process for the supply modulator and the PA, respectively. For the IEEE 802.16e m-WiMax signal, it shows a power-added efficiency (PAE), an average output power (Pout), and a gain of 34.3%, 23.9 dBm, and 27.9 dB, respectively. Without any predistortion techniques, it satisfies the overall spectrum emission mask specifications. The relative constellation error and the error vector magnitude for the m-WiMax signal are -30.5 dB and 2.98%, respectively. For a WCDMA signal, it presents a PAE, a Pout, and a gain of 46%, 29 dBm, and 27.8 dB, respectively. For the EDGE signal, it delivers a PAE of 45.3% at a Pout of 27.8 dBm with a gain of 29.4 dB. There is about a 7% improvement of the overall PAE for EDGE through the optimum multimode operation.


A diagnostic system of soft x-ray diode-array was set up for HT-7 superconducting tokamak. The system consists of two slot-aperture cameras and is capable of measuring the soft x-ray emission from the plasma on HT-7 device with a high resolution in space and a high response in time. Both cameras, located separately in a horizontal port and a vertical port each with thirty-seven detectors of Au-Si surface-barrier diode (SBD) can view the same toroidal cross-section of the plasma from different poloidal chords. In this paper, the structure, principle and performance of the diagnostic system are described and some experimental results observed are presented.


A highly crystalline conjugated donor (D)–acceptor (A) block copolymer (PBDT2T‐b‐N2200) that has good solubility in nonhalogenated solvents is successfully synthesized. PBDT2T‐b‐N2200 shows a broad complementary absorption behavior owing to a wide‐band gap donor (PBDT2T) present as a D‐block and a narrow‐band gap acceptor (N2200) present as an A‐block. Polymer solar cells (PSCs) with conjugated block copolymer (CBCP) are fabricated using a toluene solution and PSC created with an annealed film showing the highest power conversion efficiency of 6.43%, which is 2.4 times higher than that made with an annealed blend film of PBDT2T and N2200. Compared to the blend film, the PBDT2T‐b‐N2200 film exhibits a highly improved surface and internal morphology, as well as a faster photoluminescence decay lifetime, indicating a more efficient photoinduced electron transfer. In addition, the PBDT2T‐b‐N2200 film shows high crystallinity through an effective self‐assembly of each block during thermal annealing and a predominant face‐on chain orientation favorable to a vertical‐type PSC. Moreover, the CBCP‐based PSCs exhibit an excellent shelf‐life time of over 1020 h owing to their morphological stability. From these results, a D–A block copolymer system is one of the efficient strategies to improve miscibility and morphological stability in all polymer blend systems.


When XeCl excimer laser light was focused in high-pressure Ar gas up to 150 atm, a hot and dense plasma developed not only backward but also forward. The physical properties of the plasma produced by an ultraviolet laser in high-pressure gases have not been studied yet except for the mechanism involved in its development. Interferometric and spectroscopic measurements were carried out. Electron density was measured using a Mach-Zehnder interferometer. When laser intensity was 2×1011 W/cm2 at the focal spot, electron density was proportional to the pressure and a fully ionized state was almost achieved up to 150 atm. Dense plasma with electron density of the order of 1027 m-3 was obtained. Electron density was highest at the focal spot and the forward electron density was higher than the backward one. Electron temperature was estimated from continuous intensities. Electron temperature at the focal spot of the order of 105 K was obtained. The electron temperature distribution differed from the electron density distribution, in which the backward electron temperature was higher than the forward one.


A modification of the Tagarno 35-mm ciné-film projector has been devised primarily for the cardiac surgeon, to produce excellent pictures of opacified coronary arteries. A combined screen and photographic holder allows the surgeon to view an image 10.2 X 12.7 cm and to make positive prints of selected frames in a matter of seconds. No photographic experience is needed.


The Black Swan disseminated orebody occurs predominantly within the partially carbonated serpentinite core of a zoned serpentinite–talc-carbonate ultramafic cumulate body of komatiitic parentage. The Black Swan disseminated sulfides depart significantly from the characteristic pattern observed in otherwise similar deposits in Western Australia and Canada, which display magnetite-bearing pentlandite-rich sulfide aggregates ("blebs") in serpentinites, and S-rich millerite-bearing assemblages in talc carbonates. The Black Swan disseminated ores in contrast are dominated by millerite-pyrite–(polydymite) assemblages in both serpentinites and talc carbonates, with no evident relationship to the progression of carbonation. Sulfides show three types of intergrowth with gangue minerals, which can occur separately or all together: intergrowth with magnetite, at least some of which appear to be primary magmatic in origin; fine intergrowth with interlocking lath-textured antigorite; and intergrowth with carbonate minerals. Carbonate commonly replaces the core of sulfide blebs while retaining the primary magmatic outline. Carbonate replacement of sulfide roughly parallels the overall progression of carbonation of the whole rock, but no systematic relationship of the other intergrowth types to carbonate content is observed in the serpentinites. Serpentine mineralogy, determined by microbeam Raman spectroscopy, comprises lizardite, which occurs in pseudomorphic mesh textures after olivine, and antigorite, formed by variable degrees of overprinting of original lizardite mesh textures, ranging to a completely overprinting interlocking texture with no relic igneous texture. This progression is interpreted as the result of mild thermal metamorphism of original lizardite serpentinite. This progression is completely independent of carbonate content and is also apparently independent of extent of sulfide-antigorite intergrowth, which is interpreted as being early, and related to volume expansion during initial sea-floor serpentinization. Talc is almost completely absent from serpentinites, while carbonate content varies widely. Whole-rock Ni and S data are very strongly correlated in millerite-poor, pentlandite-rich samples and poorly correlated in samples where millerite is the dominant Ni-bearing sulfide. On this basis we conclude that the pentlandite assemblages are slightly modified survivors of the original magmatic event, while the millerite-pyrite assemblages formed during the earliest stages of serpentinization. Overprinting of the early serpentinization event by talc carbonate had essentially no effect on sulfide mineralogy, other than inducing intergrowth with carbonate. A number of distinctive features, such as magnetite-rich bleb cores, the association of sulfides with segregation vesicles and chromite "shells," the subspherical morphology of the blebs, and preferential replacement of bleb cores, are considered to be inherited from the magmatic phase and are attributed to an original high but variable oxygen and halogen content of the sulfide melt component. Exsolution of this component during solidification of the blebs in some cases produced sulfide-centered bubbles now preserved as segregation vesicles, while in other cases oxygen was retained within the bleb forming magnetite-sulfide intergrowths. Chromite shells formed as a result of exsolved oxygen interacting with komatiite magma. Volatile-rich blebs solidified in some cases with hollow or porous cores, which were subsequently exploited by carbonate replacement.