A set of physical and chemical processes occurring in a microwave stratospheric discharge of nanosecond duration is discussed in connection with the effect they may have locally on the ozone layer in the artificially ionized region (AIR) in the stratosphere. The AIR, to be created at altitudes of 18 – 20 km by the microwave breakdown of air with ground-produced powerful electromagnetic wave beams, is planned for use in the natural physical experiment aimed at active monitoring of the ozone layer (its internal state and a set of plasma-chemical and photochemical processes) by controllably generating a considerable amount of ozone in the stratosphere. Results of relevant theoretical studies are presented, as are those of a large series of laboratory experiments performed under conditions similar to those prevailing in the stratosphere. Discharge regimes securing the efficient growth of ozone concentration are identified and studied in detail. It is demonstrated that such a stratospheric ozonizer is about as efficient as the best ground-based ozonizers used at present. For typical stratospheric conditions (low pressures and temperatures T ~ 200 – 220 K), it is shown that the intense generation of ozone in a microwave breakdown effected by groups of short nanosecond pulses does not virtually increase the density of nitrogen oxides — gases that play a vital role in catalytic ozone-decomposing reactions. The possibility of effectively producing ozone in prebreakdown electric fields is established experimentally. It is demonstrated that due to its long lifetime, ozone produced locally at altitudes of 18 – 20 km may spread widely under the action of winds and turbulent diffusion, thus leading to an additional — artificial — ozonization of the stratosphere.


It is hard to overestimate the influence of the COVID‐19 pandemic on scientific research in the last two and a half years. Within a few weeks after the first cases of the disease were reported, the causative agent, now known as SARS‐CoV‐2, was identified, its genome was sequenced, individual proteins were expressed and purified, and structural work commenced. The originally described SARS‐CoV‐2 isolate (GenBank: MN908947.3) has a positive‐sense single‐stranded (ss) RNA genome consisting of 29,903 bases. The genome encodes 29 proteins falling into structural and nonstructural categories, expressed as polyproteins that have to be cleaved into the final products by two virally encoded cysteine proteases. This "In the Limelight" special issue of FEBS Open Bio includes three review articles, focused on different aspects of the structure and other properties of selected examples of SARS‐CoV‐2 proteins: (a) the properties of the Nsp14 and Nsp15 ribonucleases; (b) the current state of knowledge of the molecular mechanisms for the translation of both viral transcripts and cellular messenger RNAs, with a focus on the properties of the Nsp1 protein; and (c) the structural properties and evolution of the spike proteins in SARS‐CoV‐2 and other coronaviruses. These three reviews describe very different aspects of work that ultimately should lead to the development of more vaccines, antibodies, and small molecule drugs, necessary to combat this pandemic, as well as to counter future variants of this coronavirus.


For Poly-crystalline metals, Grain boundary design plays an important role to achieve desired mechanical properties in the final product form which may be a hot rolled or cold rolled coil. The fundamental mechanical properties are yield and tensile strengths, elongation and formability where grain refinement is particularly attractive mechanism for property design. Grain boundary strengthening provides benefits both in terms of fracture toughness and mechanical behavior at lower temperatures particularly in case of hot rolled high strength structural and line pipe steels. For cold rolled steels, grain boundary effects play a crucial role in critical automotive application steels such as Bake Hardening Index in Bake-hardening Steels. Additionally, deep drawability and formability characteristics are also strongly dependent upon grain size. Mechanical properties in steels are controlled majorly by two techniques - chemical composition and Steel processing parameters. Through first method of chemical composition control, during hot rolling, the control of austenite grain size is accomplished, alongside retardation of phase transformation to lower temperature. In second method, steel manufacturing process parameters i.e. hot rolling and coil cooling parameters, cold reduction, and subsequent heat treatment parameters such as annealing play an important role.


AIMS: To determine the prevalence of Epstein-Barr virus genome in primary cerebral lymphomas occurring in the absence of immune suppression. METHODS: Forty eight consecutive patients with lymphomas restricted to the central nervous system were identified, all of whom had had neurosurgical biopsies performed at the National Hospitals for Neurology and Neurosurgery, London. Only five patients had some form of underlying immune deficiency; 43 were apparently normal. The tumours were studied with immunohistochemical markers and by in situ hybridisation, using a biotinylated probe to the internal repeat region of Epstein-Barr virus. RESULTS: All the lymphomas were B cell in origin. Tumours from the five immunosuppressed patients all showed hybridisation, as did two of the "spontaneous" tumours. CONCLUSIONS: This is the largest series of cerebral lymphomas so far probed for Epstein-Barr virus genome: as more are examined, it is suggested that a small proportion of the tumours from immunocompetent patients will also contain the virus.


Anatomy was studied through e-learning as a social distancing measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19. This study explored anatomy educators' and learners' experiences with online learning in two Middle Eastern countries in terms of instruction, engagement and assessment. The study employed a cross-sectional, mixed-methods approach using a validated questionnaire to collect data from students in 14 medical schools in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates on their experience with online teaching, engagement strategies and assessment in anatomy courses. The Delphi technique was used to explore faculty challenges and recommended solutions. Six hundred and sixty six students completed the questionnaire. Less than half (41.74%) reported that their interaction with the instructor was easier and more comfortable than during face-to-face lectures. In addition, less than a quarter (21.32%) believed it was better to adopt online rather than face-to-face anatomy instruction. Faculty members described challenges and provided suggestions to enhance online teaching, including faculty and staff development, technical support, appropriate software to increase student engagement and curriculum development to suit the new normal. They also suggested improving assessment design and construction as well as adopting measures to eliminate cheating, train faculty and staff and properly select software. In conclusion, the student and faculty experiences with e-learning in anatomy were generally positive. Both faculty and staff identified many challenges with an emphasis on the loss of face-to-face teaching. Accordingly, faculty development, technical support, appropriate software to enhance student engagement and reformed curricula to suit online teaching are needed in online anatomy education.


SCOPE
Resveratrol (RSV) has been proposed to prevent tumor growth; nevertheless, these preventive effects are controversial since RSV pharmacokinetics studies show a low bioavailability. Recent clinical trials show that patients with colorectal cancer and receiving oral RSV have high levels of RSV conjugates in the colorectum, mainly RSV-3-O-sulfate (R3S), RSV-3-O-glucuronide, and RSV-4'-O-glucuronide. However, their potential biological activity has not yet been established. This study thus investigated in human colorectal cancer cell lines whether RSV main metabolites retain anticarcinogenic properties as their parental molecule.

METHODS AND RESULTS
Proliferation, apoptosis assays and cell cycle analysis were performed to study the effect of RSV, R3S, RSV-3-O-glucuronide, or RSV-4'-O-glucuronide alone or of a mixture of the three metabolites. R3S inhibits colon cancer cells proliferation and an accumulation of cells in S phase. Interestingly, the mixture induced a synergistic effect. This process was associated with an induction of DNA damages and apoptotic process, which allowed sensitization of colon cancer cells to the anticancer drugs.

CONCLUSION
Altogether, our data provide significant new insight into the molecular mechanism of RSV and support the notion that despite low bioavailability in vivo, RSV biological effects could be mediated by its metabolites.


Here is the perfect introduction to contemporary Japanese fiction. Featuring many stories appearing in English for the first time, this collection, with parallel translations, offers students at all levels the opportunity to enjoy a wide range of contemporary literature without having to constantly consult a dictionary. Richly diverse in themes and styles, the stories are by well-known writers - like Haruki Murakami and Banana Yoshimoto - as well as by emerging voices. Complete with notes, these selections make excellent reading in either language.


Abstract The possibility that the evolution of the ENSO phenomenon is determined by the reflection of extra-equatorial Rossby waves from the western boundary into the equatorial waveguide has been a subject of recent debate. Observations and some wind-driven models suggest an apparent continuity of off-equatorial signals and subsequent waveguide anomalies. On the other hand, coupled model results show that ENSO-like behavior can be simulated with no involvement of the extra-equatorial regions. Linear equatorial wave theory shows that significant reflection can only occur within about 8° of the equator, with a sharp fall-off in the reflectivity poleward of this latitude. Although the amplitude of the thermocline anomalies associated with observed ENSO-forced extra-equatorial Rossby waves can be large, it is the net zonal transport of these waves that is crucial to the reflectivity, and this net transport decreases rapidly as Rossby waves occur farther from the equator. The zonal geostrophic flows associate...


The task of community detection in a graph formalizes the intuitive task of grouping together subsets of vertices such that vertices within clusters are connected tighter than those in disparate clusters. This paper approaches community detection in graphs by constructing Markov random walks on the graphs. The mixing properties of the random walk are then used to identify communities. We use coupling from the past as an algorithmic primitive to translate the mixing properties of the walk into revealing the community structure of the graph. We analyze the performance of our algorithms on specific graph structures, including the stochastic block models (SBM) and LFR random graphs.


With the high popularizing rate of smart devices, mobile gaming is an emerging arena in game industry with the purpose of providing ubiquitous game services to mobile players. Different from the traditional player who play games on their personal computers with wired local area network or WiFi access, more and more mobile players nowadays prefer to play online games on their smart devices that communicate to cloud servers via wireless cellular networks. Therefore, in the mobile cloud gaming context, the monetary cost of downloading or updating map files in games via cellular networks is a new issue that may effect players' experience. On the other hand, an unpredictable latency may be introduced by the wireless links in the cellular network. In fact, a mobile player can preload the maps that he has high probability to go. Moreover, mobile players nearby can also form a device-to-device (D2D) communication network to share their cached maps. In this paper, we consider the problem that with the limited storage space available on each player's device, how to select the maps on either neighboring devices or cloud server to preload so that the utility of the player can be maximized. We first formula an optimization problem and then present our solution. Simulation results show that our proposed map sharing and preloading scheme can significantly increase the utility received by mobile players.


To cite: Mortimer AE. BMJ Case Rep Published online: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/bcr-2014205541 SUMMARY A 79-year-old woman presented to a private medical practice 2 years previously for an elective ultrasound screening scan. This imaging provided the evidence for a diagnosis of an abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) to be made. Despite having a number of recognised risk factors for an AAA, her general practitioner at the time did not follow the guidance set out by the private medical professional, that is, to refer the patient to a vascular specialist to be entered into a surveillance programme and surgically evaluated. The patient became symptomatic with her AAA, was admitted to hospital and found to have a tender, symptomatic, 6 cm leaking AAA. She consented for an emergency open AAA repair within a few hours of being admitted to hospital, despite the 50% perioperative mortality risk. The patient spent 4 days in intensive care where she recovered well. She was discharged after a 12 day hospital stay but unfortunately passed away shortly after her discharge from a previously undiagnosed gastric cancer.


Unsupervised domain adaptation (UDA) aims to bridge the gap between source and target domains in the absence of target domain labels using two main techniques: input-level alignment (such as generative modeling and stylization) and feature-level alignment (which matches the distribution of the feature maps, e.g. gradient reversal layers). Motivated from the success of generative modeling for image classification, stylization-based methods were recently proposed for regression tasks, such as pose estimation. However, use of input-level alignment via generative modeling and stylization incur additional overhead and computational complexity which limit their use in real-world DA tasks. To investigate the role of input-level alignment for DA, we ask the following question: Is generative modeling-based stylization necessary for visual domain adaptation in regression? Surprisingly, we find that input-alignment has little effect on regression tasks as compared to classification. Based on these insights, we develop a non-parametric feature-level domain alignment method -- Implicit Stylization (ImSty) -- which results in consistent improvements over SOTA regression task, without the need for computationally intensive stylization and generative modeling. Our work conducts a critical evaluation of the role of generative modeling and stylization, at a time when these are also gaining popularity for domain generalization.


In this paper, we described a new and simple method to produce degradable core cross-linking (CCL) micellar clusters that utilized CdS nanorods to assist thermal oxidation of the polythiol segment of a diblock copolymer, polystyrene-b-polythiol (PS-b-polythiol), at high concentration (2.3 wt%) in a common organic solvent (toluene). The CdS nanorods acted not only as catalysts, but also as templates. The diblock copolymer, PS-b-polythiol, was obtained by aminolysis of polystyrene-b-poly(2-(ethyl-xanthate)ethylmethacrylate) (PS-b-P1), a block copolymer synthesized via reversible addition–fragmentation chain transfer (RAFT) polymerization using a macroRAFT transfer agent, PS-CTA, and a methacrylate monomer that possessed a protected thiol group, in the presence of n-butylamine and tributyl phosphine. The CdS nanorods were synthesized conveniently by thermolysis of an alkyl xanthate, Cd-HDX. The TEM image clearly showed the formation of micellar clusters and the oxidation procedure was investigated by 1H-NMR and XPS. The formation of core cross-linking (CCL) micelles was confirmed to be reversible by reduction utilizing DTT as the reducing agent.


Stanisław Trzebiński (1861–1930), professor at Stefan Batory University in Vilnius, was one of the most distinguished representatives of the Polish School of Philosophy of Medicine before the Second World War. He undertook studies in neurology, philosophy of medicine, and literature.

The article explores Trzebiński's philosophical ideas, especially his call for rationality in medicine and the concept of absurdity in medicine as a precondition for the development of medical knowledge and practice. Today this method is an essential background in Evidence-Based Medicine and confirms cultural and scientific forms of cognition.


Background The knee is commonly affected in inflammatory as in mechanical joint conditions. It has been shown that the amount of synovitis correlates with pain and the risk of future structural damage. Ultrasound (US) is widely available and useful to study the synovial tissue. It allows the evaluation of the synovial membrane thickening and the degree of inflammation. However, current US scoring methods are global, assessing the effusion and synovitis as a whole. Moreover, the cut-off value for normal synovial thickening and the best site to study synovial changes and inflammation remains to be determined. Objectives The goal of this work was to assess by US the changes of the synovial tissues in different compartment of the anterior knee in patients with inflammatory and mechanical diseases. Methods This was a monocentric cross-sectional study. All patients seen in our unit for a pain associated with an effusion of the knee were included. They were diagnosed as inflammatory and non-inflammatory diseases according the clinical data and the results of the synovial fluid analysis. A comprehensive US study of 5 synovial recesses of the anterior knee has been carried out suprapatellar recess (midline, lateral, medial), parapatellar (lateral and medial) with assessment of joint effusion, synovial thickening and Doppler signal intensity. Results Sixty-one patients (68 knees) were included, mean age 60 years (range 17-93). Final diagnosis was inflammatory arthritis in 29 knees (42.6%), crystal induced arthritis in 21 (30.9%), OA in 12 (17.6%) and septic arthritis in 6 (8.8%). A significant effusion was detected in 98.5% of the patients, more frequently in the supra patellar recess (64 knees (94.1%)) than in the parapatellar medial or lateral recesses (45 knees (66.2%) and 46 knees (67.6%) respectively; p<0.001). The synovial thickness was absent in 10 knees (14.7%), mild (between 2 and 4 mm) in 28 knees (41, 2%), moderate (between 4 and 6 mm) in 16 knees (23.5%), and severe (over 6 mm) in 14 knees (20. 6%). The thickening was mostly diffuse (46 knees (79.3%)) and limited to one compartment in only 9 cases (13%). The thickness of the synovial tissue was homogenous although significantly thinner in the medial suprapatellar and parapatellar recesses when compared to the midline suprapatellar recess (3.4 versus 3.1 and 2.9 mm respectively; p=0,002; p=0,044). A positive Doppler signal was detected in at least in one recess in 25% (17) of the knees. It was found less frequently in the midline suprapatellar recess (4.5%) than is the other recesses (p<0.05). Finally, no difference has been found in the effusion, thickening or Doppler signal pattern between the different groups of diseases. Conclusions Our study shows that knee effusion was more frequently detected in the suprapatellar recess. Synovial thickening was usually mild and uniformly distributed. Synovial thickness was most of the time less than 4 mm, cut-off usually used to define a significant synovitis. This was even true in long standing inflammatory disease. Therefore, a cut-off of 2 mm could be more sensitive to define a significant synovial thickening. Finally, Doppler signal was more frequently detected in the superficial recesses than in the midline suprapatellar recess. Disclosure of Interest None declared


Rain Clouds over Wushan (Wushan Yunyu 巫山云雨, also known as In Expectation) was a key film in the Chinese avant-garde movement of the 1990s. This paper contends that the film's use of symbolism, naturalism, and super-realism to indicate the omnipotence of desire in contemporary China, which actually works through the seduction of the logic of commodity exchange at the historical moment of early market economy in post-socialist China. A postmodern film with a modernist and realist facade, Rain Clouds demonstrates that postmodern culture in China is premised upon a post-socialist political-economic regime and its sensory machine.


The mechanisms through which people perceive different types of smiles and judge their authenticity remain unclear. Here, 19 different types of smiles were created based on the Facial Action Coding System (FACS), using highly controlled, dynamic avatar faces. Participants observed short videos of smiles while their facial mimicry was measured with electromyography (EMG) over four facial muscles. Smile authenticity was judged after each trial. Avatar attractiveness was judged once in response to each avatar's neutral face. Results suggest that, in contrast to most earlier work using static pictures as stimuli, participants relied less on the Duchenne marker (the presence of crow's feet wrinkles around the eyes) in their judgments of authenticity. Furthermore, mimicry of smiles occurred in the Zygomaticus Major, Orbicularis Oculi, and Corrugator muscles. Consistent with theories of embodied cognition, activity in these muscles predicted authenticity judgments, suggesting that facial mimicry influences the perception of smiles. However, no significant mediation effect of facial mimicry was found. Avatar attractiveness did not predict authenticity judgments or mimicry patterns.


Moisture sorption of dried overripe barlin banana powder using the static gravimetric method. The materials were conditioned at 5, 10, and 25 oC with a water activity range of 0.16 to 0.86. Five mathematical models to describe the suitability of the phenomenon of adsorption experimental data using non-linear regression. The thermodynamic properties such as isosteric heat and Gibbs free energy are evaluated in this paper. The experimental results indicated that the equilibrium moisture content of dried overripe barlin banana powder increased with increasing water activity and decreasing temperature. The results of the model are based on the goodness of fit, and the Peleg model is the most suitable for describing the adsorption phenomenon with the type II sigmoidal shape. Monolayer moisture content and adsorption surface area using the GAB model are in the range of 6.18-7.81%d.b and 219.09-246.39 m2/g d.b, respectively, which increases with increasing temperature. Moreover, isosteric heat decreases with an increase in equilibrium moisture content and is opposite to the value of Gibbs free energy. In addition, the hygroscopicity of the dried overripe barlin banana powder increased with temperature and water activity.


Capital inflows have a strong presence that influences destination countries' development of institutions, which can in turn help resuscitate a stopped economy and re-attract capital that was lost during crises such as the recent public health crisis While the previous literature emphasizes the mechanism that foreign investors press or even threaten the local government for change, this paper explores empirically whether institutional improvement can be achieved through the channel that host countries voluntarily reform institutions in anticipation of potential investments predicted by the exogenous geographical and cultural characteristics of the recipient countries Given that countries with better institutional quality can accumulate larger FDI stocks, we still find that the need for more FDI, in contrast to FPI and debt, gives higher incentives to host countries to strategically improve their institutions before seeking capital overseas Moreover, the predicted FDI exerts more prominent impacts on institutions on constraining elite than those involved in launching a business, enforcing contracts, and protecting properties The results imply that a long-run plan for upgrading elite constraint institutions is crucial for a post-pandemic FDI reboot


The Xiphos is a new diffractometer that has been been designed and built to determine the solid-state structures of materials at ultra low temperatures. As one of very few single-crystal X-ray diffractometers capable of collecting diffraction data from crystals cooled to 2 K, the Xiphos has an enormous potential for improving our understanding of the relationship between the solid-state structure and the physical properties of many materials which show interesting and valuable behaviour at ultra low temperatures. However, there are some challenges to collecting good quality data due to the beryllium vacuum shrouds surrounding the crystal which are necessary components of the cryostat used for reaching these low temperatures.

A new program called Masquerade is described that helps to overcome these challenges by generating 'masks' describing the position of the beryllium scattering from the vacuum shrouds. These masks can be used during data integration to prohibit measuring the diffracted intensities of X-ray reflections which are contaminated by beryllium scattering. A new protocol for data collection is also presented to recover the reflection intensities that are missing as a result of the masks. Results are presented showing a marked improvement in the accuracy of the reflection intensities which can be obtained from diffraction patterns collected with the Xiphos when the data have been contaminated by beryllium scattering from the vacuum shrouds.

Several additional computer programs have been developed which enhance the data collection process by monitoring the sample temperature and offering the ability to monitor the status of the Xiphos and the progress of a diffraction experiment remotely. The development and use of these programs is described herein.

To show the Xiphos and Masquerade in action, structural studies at a range of temperatures between 2 K and 160 K are presented on charge-transfer complexes which exhibit superconductivity below 7 K, in addition to studies at ultra low temperatures of spin-crossover complexes, organic radicals and single molecular magnets. The relationship between the solid-state structure and interesting physical properties can be better understood by determining the structure at the same temperatures at which the properties are exhibited; a process that can now be undertaken routinely in a university laboratory with the Xiphos.


Abstract Aim The present cross-sectional study was done to evaluate the attitudes and knowledge of caregivers toward oral health and early childhood caries (ECC) in preschool children in the Jazan population. Materials and methods The present cross-sectional study was carried out on 105 study subjects, including parents of children, using a self-administered structured questionnaire. The demographic variables and information regarding the awareness and knowledge of caregivers were recorded. The data gathered were analyzed using statistical analysis using IBM Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 20.0 software. Result Among 105 children, 66.7% were male, showing male predominance regarding ECC. Among parents, 52.4% were with a bachelor's degree. Most parents lack awareness in regard to dental caries affecting their children. Parents lack knowledge regarding various preventive and treatment options available. Conclusion The study revealed that caregivers had very less knowledge and clinical practice concern with the oral well-being of preschool kids. The study's results reveal that promotion programs in relation to oral health are required to cover the gaps of knowledge among mothers of kids related to the care of oral health in their young kids. Clinical significance Different health-concerned behaviors are being affected by awareness and knowledge, and the health of the oral cavity is not an exemption. It has been postulated that diseases of the oral cavity are affected by social factors. Thus, this study was conducted to find the connection between the knowledge of parents regarding their oral health and the status of the health of their children's oral cavities. How to cite this article K Saheb SA, Najmuddin M, Nakhran AM, et al. Parents' Knowledge and Attitudes toward Preschool's Oral Health and Early Childhood Caries. Int J Clin Pediatr Dent 2023;16(2):371–375.


Substitution reactions that employ primary-carbamoyl-protected arylmethanethiols are described. The enantiodetermining step was found to occur in the post-deprotonation step as a dynamic thermodynamic resolution with a chiral bis(oxazoline) ligand. The configurationally labile lithium complexes were trapped with various electrophiles to yield different substitution products in good to excellent yields and enantiomeric excesses. The absolute configurations of the substitution products were determined, and the stereochemical pathway of the substitution reaction was elucidated for different classes of electrophiles. The temperature-dependent epimerization process was monitored by 1H and 6Li NMR spectroscopy.


Background : Child control or maternal who are allowing preschool children to self-regulate their own food intakewould affect dietary intake and weight status.Children (>3 years old) tend to eat more when served larger portions and do not regulate intake as well, especially if at higher risk of obesity.Objective : To investigation child control as a risk factors on the risk of obesity and identified the association child control with dietary intake and weight in preschool children in Yogyakarta City.
Method : A case control study of preschool children (aged 3 – 5) and their mother was recruited from June to October 2015. Anthropometric measurements included weight and height . Subject divided into normal weight (n=101) and overweight/obesity (n=101) group based on World Health Organization 2005 weight-for-height and were matched by gender and age, Comprehension Feeding Practices Questionnaire (CFPQ) to asses maternal feeding practices, semi quantitative food-frequency questionnaire over the past 3 months to asses children's dietary intake.Statistical analysis was performed with Mc Nemar test and Spearman.
Results : Child control variable wasnot significantly related to risk of obesity (OR = 1,18; 95%CI 0,64 – 2,19) and there is no association between child control with dietary intake and weight (p > 0,05) in preschool children.
Conclusions : Child control variable wasnot significantly related to risk of obesity and there is no association between child control with dietary intake and weight in preshool children.

Key Words : overweight, obesity, child control feeding practices, dietary intake, preschool  children


The authors describe the establishment and maintenance of a laboratory colony of Anopheles gambiae in Tanganyika, giving an account of the techniques adopted in order to overcome the problems encountered, as a guide to those who may be faced with similar difficulties. They also report on a series of observations on larvae, adults and the effect of temperature on mortality, fertilization, egg production and the gonotrophic cycle.The optimum constant temperature for adults and larvae was found to be 26.5 degrees C, at which the cycle of development from egg to pupa took about 9 days, with a total larval mortality of 5%. A complete life-cycle from egg to oviposition took 15 days. The pupal mortality was 1.5% and the average daily adult mortality was 1.5% for females and 1.8% for males. Peak fertilization was reached in 7 days. The average daily number of eggs produced per cage of 400 males and 400 females was 4000, with a total daily colony production of 130 000 eggs.


ABSTRACT Citrullination is one of the possible post-translational modifications of proteins. It is based on a conversion of L-arginine residue (L-Arg) to L-citrulline residue (L-Cit). The reaction is catalyzed by peptidylarginine deiminases (PAD). The change of L-Arg imino moiety results in a loss of a positive charge. This slight modification can contribute to significant changes in physicochemical properties of proteins, which may also cause a change of their functions. Citrullination is the modification observed in physiological processes such as epidermal keratinization, regulation of gene expression and the reorganization of myelin sheaths. The changes in the efficacy of citrullination may contribute to the pathogenesis of many different diseases including: psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, rheumatoid arthritis and cancer.


Analytical expressions for crack-tip higher order stress functions for a plane crack in a special functionally graded material (FGM), which has an variation of elastic modulus in 1 2 power form along the gradient direction, are obtained through an asymptotic analysis. The Poisson's ratio of the FGM is assumed to be constant in the analysis. The higher order fields in the asymptotic expansion display the influence of non-homogeneity on the structure of crack-tip fields obviously. Furthermore, it can be seen from expressions of higher order stress fields that at least three terms must be considered in the case of FGMs in order to explicitly account for non-homogeneity effects on the crack- tip stress fields. These results provide the basis for fracture analysis and engineering applications of this FGM.


Abstract Breastfeeding women may be prescribed a psychotropic medication to treat a preexisting illness such as bipolar disorder or schizophrenia, or to treat an illness that develops as a direct result of pregnancy and childbirth, such as depression. Mental health nurses are often not aware that many psychotropic medications are considered relatively safe for the infant as well as the breastfeeding woman. This paper provides the clinician with an overview of the major psychotropic medications for breastfeeding women and outlines their potential impact on the infant. Guidelines for the use of these medications are also provided for mental shealth nurses based on the available evidence.


In current high-speed digital signal-processing (DSP) architectures, the Residue Number System (RNS) has an important role to play. RNS implementations have a highly modular structure, and are not dependent upon large binary arithmetic elements. RNS implementations become more attractive when combined with the advantages offered by VLSI fabrication technology. In this paper, a novel design methodology has been developed for RNS structures, based on using look-up tables, which takes into consideration the unique features and requirements of RNS. The paper discusses the following three phases: 1) developing a look-up table layout model, which is used to derive relationships between the size of each modulus and both chip area and time; this model supports all types of moduli; 2) selecting the most efficient layout according to the design requirements; the procedure allows the designer to control the area, time, or the configuration of the memory module required for implementing a modulo look-up table; 3) proposing a set of multi-look-up table modules, to be used as building block units for implementing digital signal-processing architectures. The paper uses two examples to -illustrate the use of the modules in phase 3).


It was shown previously that human placental trophoblastic cells use principally lipoprotein cholesterol for progesterone biosynthesis and that the rate of de novo synthesis of cholesterol is low. In addition, it was demonstrated that cholesterol derived from maternal plasma low density lipoprotein (LDL) rather than high density lipoprotein (HDL), is the principal source of placental cholesterol. In the present investigation, membrane fractions derived from human placenta were used to identify and characterize specific binding sites for both HDL and LDL. Pretreatment of membrane fractions with heparin resulted in an increase in the specific binding capacity for [125I]iodo-LDL 1.5 times that in membrane fractions not pretreated with heparin. Heparin pretreatment did not affect significantly the specific binding capacity of placental membranes for [125I]iodo-HDL. The specific binding capacity for [125I]iodo-LDL was 107 ng LDL protein mg-1 membrane protein, with an approximate Kd of 77 microgram LDL protein ml-1 in membranes pretreated with heparin. The specific binding capacity for [125I]iodo-HDL was much greater, equal to 323 ng HDL protein mg-1 membrane protein, with an approximate Kd of 152 microgram HDL protein ml-1. Each [125I]iodolipoprotein was specifically displaced by the corresponding respective nonradiolabeled lipoprotein. Preincubation of membranes with trypsin and pronase caused reductions in the specific binding capacity for [125I]iodo-LDL of 88% and 100%, respectively. Incubation of membranes with heparin caused displacement of [125I]iodo-LDL. However none of these treatments affected [125I]iodo-LDL. However none of these treatments affected [125I]iodo-HDL binding capacity. Similar binding sites for "125I]iodo-LDL and [125I]iodo-HDL were demonstrated in cells prepared from human placenta by trypsin digestion and maintained in monolayer culture.


ABSTRACT Strain QM B1551 of Bacillus megaterium contains seven compatible plasmids: two small rolling circle plasmids and five theta-replicating plasmids with cross-hybridizing replicons. To expand our understanding of these plasmids, the replicon region (6.7 kb) from pBM300 was cloned, sequenced, and functionally characterized. Sequence analysis showed that the replication protein (RepM300) was highly homologous to two other plasmid Rep proteins of the same strain but to no other known proteins. Furthermore, the location of the replication origin was within the RepM300 coding region, and the origin contained three 12-base direct repeats. Deletion analysis of the replicon confirmed the role of the Rep protein and showed that open reading frame 2 (ORF2) was required for stability. However, the protein encoded by ORF2 is entirely different from the replicon stability proteins encoded by the other two replicons. The entire plasmid was isolated from the plasmid array by integrating a spectinomycin resistance gene and transforming a plasmidless strain, PV361. Complete sequencing showed that pBM300 was 26,300 bp long, had a G+C content of 35.2%, and contained 20 ORFs, two of which encoded proteins that had no similarity to other proteins in the database. The proteins encoded by the plasmid ORFs had similarity to proteins for mobilization and transfer, an integrase, a rifampin resistance protein, a cell wall hydrolase, glutathione synthase, and a biotin carboxylase. The similarities were to several gram-positive genera and a few gram-negative genera and archaea. oriT and ssoT-like regions were detected near two mob genes. These results suggest that pBM300 is a mobilizable hybrid plasmid that confers increased metabolic and germination ability on its host. Its replicon also helps define a new plasmid family.


The number of children with disabilities is increasing and their healthcare needs are one of the most ignored areas of Pakistan's health care system. These children face multiple challenges to receiving needed healthcare services that include attitudinal, physical, policy, and programmatic barriers. The commitment to leaving no one behind demands that children with disabilities (CWD) receive inclusive access to the healthcare system. Moreover, the specific healthcare needs of CWD are often overlooked due to lack of research, evidence, and policy measures. It is suggested that an inclusive healthcare system at primary level healthcare facilities should be implemented to improve health outcomes of CWD.


Inspired by biological systems, in which damage triggers an autonomous healing response, a polymer composite material that can heal itself when cracked has been developed. The material consists of an epoxy matrix composite, which utilizes embedded microcapsules to store a healing agent and an embedded catalyst. This paper investigates issues of fracture and fatigue consequential to the development and optimization of this new class of materials. When damage occurs, the propagating crack ruptures the microcapsules, which releases healing agent into the crack plane. Polymerization of the healing agent is triggered by contact with exposed catalyst, which bonds the crack faces closed. The efficiency of crack healing is defined as the ability of a healed sample to recover fracture toughness. Healing efficiencies of over 90% have been achieved. Embedded microcapsules significantly increase the fracture toughness and reduce the fatigue crack propagation rate of epoxy. Fracture mechanisms for neat epoxy and epoxy with embedded microcapsules are presented.


Recent γ-ray observations suggest that particle acceleration occurs at the outer region of the pulsar magnetosphere. The magnetic field lines in the outer acceleration region (OAR) are connected to the neutron star surface (NSS). If copious electron–positron pairs are produced near the NSS, such pairs flow into the OAR and screen the electric field there. To activate the OAR, the electromagnetic cascade due to the electric field near the NSS should be suppressed. However, since a return current is expected along the field lines through the OAR, the outflow extracted from the NSS alone cannot screen the electric field just above the NSS. In this paper, we analytically and numerically study the electric field screening at the NSS, taking into account the effects of the backflowing particles from the OAR. In certain limited cases, the electric field is screened without significant pair cascade if only ultra-relativistic particles ( ) flow back to the NSS. On the other hand, if electron–positron pairs with a significant number density and mildly relativistic temperature, expected to distribute in a wide region of the magnetosphere, flow back to the NSS, these particles adjust the current and charge densities so that the electric field can be screened without pair cascade. We obtain the condition needed for the number density of particles to screen the electric field at the NSS. We also find that in the ion-extracted case from the NSS, bunches of particles are ejected to the outer region quasi-periodically, which is a possible mechanism of observed radio emission.


Abstract Background Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) is one of the most common strokes, especially in developing countries. Recently, level of non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (non-HDL-C) has been implicated to be a better indicator for several lipid-related disorders. However, whether non-HDL-C can be used as an indicator for the risk of cognitive impairment in ICH patients remains to be elucidated. Methods In this study, we performed a retrospective study on patients with ICH treated at our institution to investigate the association between the level of non-HDL-C and various neuropsychological assessments, including mini-mental state examination (MMSE), Montreal cognitive assessment (MoCA), activity of daily living scale (ADL), neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) and Hamilton depression rating scale 21 (HAMD21). Results We found that all scores of the tested assessments were significantly altered in ICH patients with a high non-HDL-C level. In addition, we revealed that non-HDL-C was negatively correlated with MMSE and MoCA scores and was positively correlated with ADL, NPI and HAMD21 scores. Conclusions Our study suggests that non-HDL-C level can be used as a potential indicator for the risk of cognitive impairment in ICH patients.


This article introduces the concept of fuzzy logic and discusses its application in analytical processes. Terms such as fuzzy sets and membership functions, which can be used to describe the process states and conditions of a system, are defined. An example is given of how this reasoning technique could be applied to an actual device.


OBJECTIVE
To evaluate the rate of pneumococcal pneumonia (PP) among patients with community-acquired pneumonia (CAP) in Turkey and to investigate and compare features of PP and non-PP CAP patients.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
This multicenter, non-interventional, prospective, observational study included adult CAP patients (age ≥ 18 years). Diagnosis of PP was based on the presence of at least 1 positive laboratory test result for Streptococcus pneumoniae (blood culture or sputum culture or urinary antigen test [UAT]) in patients with radiographic findings of pneumonia.

RESULTS
Four hundred sixty-five patients were diagnosed with CAP, of whom 59 (12.7%) had PP. The most common comorbidity was chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (30.1%). The mean age, smoking history, presence of chronic neurological disease, and CURB-65 score were significantly higher in PP patients, when compared to non-PP patients. In PP patients, 84.8% were diagnosed based ony on the UAT. The overall rate of PP patients among CAP was calculated as 22.8% considering the UAT sensitivity ratio of 63% (95% confidence interval: 45-81). The rate of intensive care treatment was higher in PP patients (P = .007). While no PP patients were vaccinated for pneumococcus, 3.8% of the non-PP patients were vaccinated (P = .235). Antibiotic use in the preceding 48 hours was higher in the non-PP group than in the PP group (31.8% vs. 11.1%, P = .002). The CURB-65 score and the rate of patients requiring inpatient treatment according to this score were higher in the PP group.

CONCLUSION
The facts that PP patients were older and required intensive care treatment more frequently as compared to non-PP patients underline the burden of PP.


In this study, spore-forming bacteria isolated from saccharified rice were selected for producing acetic acid. From the screening of 15 strains, P8 strain was chosen as a candidate. The strain was identified as Paenibacillus azoreducens by 16S rRNA analysis (99.85% similarity with P. azoreducens CM1T). Acetic acid is the main component of vinegar but also an industrial commodity produced by chemical synthesis. Sustainable routes for obtaining acetic acid are of great interest for decreasing the environmental impact generated by chemical syntheses. Biological acetic acid production is effective for vinegar production by acetic acid bacteria, but it cannot economically compete with the chemical synthesis for producing it as a pure commodity. Considering the need to improve the yield of pure acetic acid produced by microbial conversions, in this study, P8 strain was chosen for designing processes in different fermentation conditions. Tests were conducted in single and semi-continuous systems, using rice wine as substrate. Acetic acid produced by P8 strain was compared with that of Acetobacter pasteurianus (UMCC 2951), a strain known for producing acetic acid from rice wine. Even though the fermentation performances of P. azoreducens P8 were slightly lower than those of acetic acid bacteria usually used for vinegar production, results highlight its suitability for producing acetic acid. The final acetic acid produced by P. azoreducens P8 was 73 g/L, in a single stage fermentation, without losses. In nine cycles of semi-continuous regime the average of acetification rate was 0.814 (g/L/days). Two main attributes of P. azoreducens P8 are of relevance for producing acetic acid, namely the ability to grow at temperature higher (+ 37°C), than mesophilic acetic acid bacteria, and the absence of cytoplasmic assimilation of acetic acid. These features allow to design multiple strains cultures, in which P. azoreducens can acts as a helper strain. Based on our results, the new isolate P. azoreducens P8 can be propagated in fermenting broths for boosting acetic acid production, under the selected conditions, and used in combination with acetic acid bacteria to produce biological acetic acid, as a non-food grade commodity.


Involvement in relationally aggressive conduct is an important contributor to maladaptive functioning in both childhood and adulthood. Decreased emotional awareness and impairments of self-control are risk factors for relational aggressiveness, while emotional awareness can also be treated as an important prerequisite for proper self-control. The aim of the study was to examine the associations between dimensions of emotional awareness (attention to emotions and emotional clarity), self-control, and relational aggressiveness. Self-control was also examined as a mediating variable between emotional awareness and relational aggressiveness. Self-report measures of trait meta-mood, alexithymia, self-control, and relational aggressiveness were completed by 214 adolescents (129 females), aged 15–23. The confirmatory factor analysis confirmed two factors of emotional awareness: (1) inattention to emotions (reflecting low attention to emotions and externally oriented thinking) and (2) a lack of emotional clarity (reflecting difficulties in identifying emotion, difficulties in describing emotion, and low clarity of emotion). Self-control and mood repair ability inversely correlated with proactive and reactive relational aggressiveness, whereas the clarity component of the meta-mood trait only inversely predicted reactive relational aggressiveness. Structural equation modeling (SEM) showed that direct relationships between inattention to emotions and relational aggressiveness, as well as between lack of emotional clarity and relational aggressiveness were non-significant. Nevertheless, a lack of emotional clarity was indirectly and significantly associated with relational aggressiveness through decreased self-control.


In the paper, the homoclinic (hateroclinic) breather limit method (HBLM) is applied to seek rogue wave solution of the Benjamin Ono equation. We find that the rational breather wave solution is just a rogue wave solution. This result shows that rogue wave can come from the extreme behavior of the breather solitary wave for (1+1)-dimensional nonlinear wave fields.


Background: The pandemic of corona virus disease [COVID]-19 had its great impacts on global health due to the increasing both morbidity and mortality. In addition, being quarantined is linked with high stress levels, insomnia, irritability and trauma-related disorders particularly in vulnerable populations. Therefore, there is a need to assess accurately and timely the magnitude of psychological health outcomes in those having exposure to COVID-19 pandemic. The Aim: The current work aimed to assess the perceived stress level among a group of Egyptian women and to explore the potential contributing factors for that during the COVID-19 lockdown. Methods: A cross-sectional survey targeted educated women from different Egyptian governorates, and of different socioeconomic standards. The total sample was 286 women who were recruited by non-probability snowball sampling and through a semi-structured, online questionnaire comprising socio-demographic data, the validated Arabic version of Cohen Perceived Stress Scale 10 [PSS]. Possible contributing factors of the perceived stress due to COVID-19 were also inquired. Results: total females who responded to the questionnaire were 286 with mean age of 46.5± 11.0 years. During the quarantine period, the total score of the perceived stress scale was 17.1±5.37, and both high and moderate levels of stress were recorded among 73.4% of the studied sample. Stress level was significantly influenced by disruptions of social communication with friends and families, "getting basic needs for health and safety are unmet then ", conflicts between mother and her children represented as a load", being younger women [below 50 years], and "feel stressed due to inability for social gatherings". Conclusion: COVID -19 pandemic has its obvious psychological impact on females, and many factors were contributing to such situation, which put the spotlight on the importance of taking these impacts into consideration when designing policies to slow the spread of the pandemic.


Gwynn wishes Bennett safe travels on Crete and asks for well wishes from him on her forty-seventh birthday, November 19, 1967. She asks if Bennett will accept her works on Linear A and the Enkomi tablet. She regrets her work on the Phaistos disk, calling it a "nightmare", and speculates on the nature of knowledge as an untilled field. She writes of the Linear A tablet's interest to her, especially the votive tablets which contain female deities. She tells Bennett of a letter she found when she was Assistant Librarian at the Irish College of Surgeons, hidden in a book, asking a lady for the pleasure of an evening stroll. She concludes the letter with various thoughts on literature, deities, history, and the Enkomi tablet.


There are many health benefits associated with consumption of apples and fermented apple juice, such as apple cider and apple wine. As a result of several health claims associated with the consumption of apple wine, this study was conducted with a view of producing apple wine using S. cerevisiae isolated from indigenous Nigerian alcoholic beverages. The aim is to develop indigenous technology for the production of apple wine and, by extension, tropical fruit wines. During the fermentation of apple juice into wine, changes in pH, titratable acidity (TA), brix/acid ratio (B/A), ascorbic acid (AA), total soluble solids (TSS), reducing sugars (RS), total sugars (TS), alcohol content (AC) and yeast count (YC) were determined using standard methods. The apple wine produced was rated by taste panelists using a 9-point hedonic scale. The following result ranges were obtained: pH (3.49–4.02), TA (18.0–43.2mg/ml), B/A (0.221–0889), AA (4.90–74.51mg/ml), TSS (9.0–18.0 mg/g), RS (0.260–0.347 mg/ml), TS (0.023–0.07mg/ml), AC (0.0–10.2%) and YC (7.40–11.99 log10cfu/ml). The sensory evaluation scores are appearance (7.14–7.71), flavor (6.71–8.00), mouth feel (7.00–8.00), taste (7.00–8.00) and overall acceptability (7.04–7.89). The apple wine that was fermented with Saccharomyces cerevisiae PAW02 (sample A) received the highest scores for flavor (7.8), mouth feel (8.00), taste (8.00) and overall acceptability (7.82). This sample also had the highest alcohol content of 10.2%. Therefore, this yeast strain (S. cerevisiae PAW02) could be explored for industrial production of alcoholic beverages from apples (apple wine).


OBJECTIVE
To study narcotic drug abuse, particularly opiate addiction, and other risk factors in patients with acute cholecystitis.

METHODS
In this prospective cross sectional study, variables such as age, gender, weight, narcotics drug abuse, hormone taking, number of pregnancies, and coexistent disease(s) were recorded in pre-designed forms for 100 consecutive patients who underwent operation for acute cholecystitis between October 2001 and June 2005 in Imam Reza Hospital, Birjand, Iran. Relevant statistical tests were applied, using SPSS version 13.0.

RESULTS
From the studied patients (62 females, 38 males) with a mean+/-SD of 60.8+/-15.9 years, 66 were underweight, 23 were overweight, and only 11 patients had normal weight. Most of the patients (76) had calculous cholecystitis, of which 50 (65.8%) were female, and 26 (34.2%), were male. Seven females (11%), and 14 males (37%) revealed jaundice (p<0.002). Most (72%) had a history of narcotics abuse, of which 69 (95.8%) abused opiates constantly, and 3 (4.2%) abused recreationally. A significant (p<0.01) relationship was found between acute cholecystitis and opiate addiction. Opiate addiction was more common in patients from rural areas than urban (p<0.03). Seventeen female patients (27.4%) had a history of taking oral contraceptives. The patients were mostly from low socio-economic populations, and rural areas.

CONCLUSION
The study revealed that narcotic opiate addiction is a major risk factor for occurrence of acute cholecystitis in this area.


The crystal structures of a large number of silica polytypes (- and -quartz, - and -cristobalite, -tridymite, keatite, coesite and stishovite) have been studied using density functional theory, both in the local density approximation and including generalized-gradient corrections to the exchange-correlation functional. All crystal structures have been optimized by minimizing the total energy with respect to all lattice parameters and to the atomic coordinates within the unit cell (up to 40 structural parameters in the case of coesite). The transitions in quartz and cristobalite have been studied in detail, including different variants proposed for the structure of -cristobalite. The tetragonal (I2d) and simple cubic (P213) structures are found to be energetically almost degenerate near the equilibrium volume. On volume expansion both structures converge towards the idealized highly symmetric Fd3m structure. A similar continuous transition from a more compact orthorhombic (C2221) to a highly symmetric hexagonal (P63/mmc) variant is also proposed for -tridymite. For coesite two monoclinic variants (with C2/c and P21/c space-group symmetries, respectively) have been examined and found to be energetically degenerate to within 1 meV per SiO2 unit. It is shown that within the local density approximation (LDA) the equilibrium atomic volume of all polytypes is predicted with an accuracy better than one per cent. The LDA also leads to excellent structural predictions and to accurate values of the bulk modulus. Corrections in the framework of the generalized-gradient approximation (GGA) lead to substantially larger equilibrium volumes, although at fixed volume the LDA and GGA lead to identical crystal structures. The increased volume also leads to less accurate structural parameters. However, we find that gradient corrections are essential for achieving accurate structural energy differences between the tetrahedrally coordinated phases found at larger atomic volumes (all polytypes except stishovite) and the octahedrally coordinated high-pressure polymorphs (stishovite and post-stishovite phases).


Background: Patellar tendon advancement (PTA) is performed for the treatment of crouch gait in patients with cerebral palsy (CP). In this study, we aimed to determine the influence of PTA in the context of single-event multilevel surgery (SEMLS) on knee joint moment and muscle forces through musculoskeletal modeling; Methods: Gait data of children with CP and crouch gait were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were included if they had a SEMLS with a PTA (PTA group, n = 18) and a SEMLS without a PTA (NoPTA group, n = 18). A musculoskeletal model was used to calculate the pre- and postoperative knee joint moments and muscle forces; Results: Knee extensor moment increased in the PTA group postoperatively (p = 0.016), but there was no statistically significant change in the NoPTA group (p > 0.05). The quadriceps muscle forces increased for the PTA group (p = 0.034), while there was no difference in the NoPTA group (p > 0.05). The hamstring muscle forces increased in the PTA group (p = 0.039), while there was no difference in the NoPTA group (p > 0.05); Conclusions: PTA was found to be an effective surgery for the treatment of crouch gait. It contributes to improving knee extensor moment, decreasing knee flexor moment, and enhancing the quadriceps and hamstring muscle forces postoperatively.


A novel hindered amine ligand, mono-2,2,6,6-tetramethyl-4-piperidyl-succinate (MTPS), has been designed to chelate europium(III) ion with 1,10-phenanthroline (Phen) as a coligand to prepare polymer photostabilizer. The luminescent property of the stabilizer and its efficiency of protecting polymer matrix from photodegradation have also been investigated. Under UV excitation, the stabilizer has red light emission in both ethanol solution and polypropylene (PP) matrix. The PP sheets containing the stabilizer display significantly improved photostability, which may be attributed to MTPS which scavenges radical, as well as Phen which makes the complex dissipate the absorbed ultraviolet light in a harmless manner. These preliminary results demonstrate that the introduction of the stabilizer can endow polymer matrices not only excellent photoluminescent properties but also improved photostability. © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 130: 1399-1405, 2013


Caprine arthritis encephalitis (CAE) and bluetongue (BT) are viral diseases affecting goats and sheep, respectively, worldwide. Both diseases are characterized by being slow and progressive, causing a variety of clinical signs and determining economic and production losses. The objective of this study was to evaluate the seroprevalence of CAE and BT and its associated factors in dairy and beef goat herds in the state of Paraíba, Northeast Brazil. In total, 6.4% and 1.8% of the animals were positive for caprine arthritis encephalitis and bluetongue, respectively, by Agarose Gel Immunodiffusion assay (AGID). No significant statistical association was found between diseases and risk factors, herd size, age, gender, and type of management in most animals evaluated. The risk factors, production system and grazing of multispecies can influence the prevalence of viral infections in goats in the state of Paraíba.


Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is one of the most malignant cancers. Conventional therapies are limited due to the human liver being such a unique organ and easily showing side-effects. The unclear molecular mechanisms are tough challenges for scientists searching for new and effective anti-HCC targeting drugs. We identified that the nuclear receptor NR4A2 is a novel oncogene in HCC progression. In this study, we show that NR4A2 and the notch recceptor Notch1 were expressed highly in primary HCC tissues and immortal HCC cells by using qPCR, western blot and immuno-histochemistry assays. Both genes were observed to stimulate HCC cell proliferation, anti-apoptosis and cell cycle arrest by using cell proliferation assays and FACS assays. We also observed that the four notch receptor subtypes (Notch1-4) displayed different effects on HCC cell growth. The over-expression of Notch1 by transiently transfecting the intracellular domain of Notch1 (ICN1, Notch1 active form) increased the expression of NR4A2, with the knockdown of Notch1 decreasing NR4A2. This indicates that NR4A2 is one of the Notch-mediated downstream genes. Moreover, both NR4A2 and Notch1 suppressed the expression of tumor suppressors p21 and p63. These findings support that Notch1/NR4A2 co-regulate HCC cell functions by playing oncogenic roles and regulating the associated downstream signaling pathways. Novel Notch1/NR4A2-mediated oncogenic signaling may provide us a great opportunity for anti-HCC drug development.


Culture plays an important role in international communication because culture underlines how people learn to communicate. Communication rules act as a system of expected behavior patterns that organize interaction between people. Communication rules are both culturally and contextually bound. This study is an attempt to provide the teachers with some insights into what to teach and how to teach in order to enhance cultural understanding in their students. The class activities should be to integrate culture and language instruction. The cultural instruction can go with grammar instruction, listening and speaking practice, reading and writing instruction. When teachers use any activity for cultural instruction, it should not be a mere presentation of factual information. Instead, it should encourage the students to think about cultural attitudes, beliefs, and underlying values. In developing cultural insights, our goal should not merely to give learners a piece of information but to foster a positive attitude and an appreciation toward different peoples' way of life.


Fictitious play is a popular learning algorithm in which players that utilize the history of actions played by the players and the knowledge of their own payoff matrix can converge to the Nash equilibrium under certain conditions on the game. We consider the presence of an intelligent player that has access to the entire payoff matrix for the game. We show that by not conforming to fictitious play, such a player can achieve a better payoff than the one at the Nash Equilibrium. This result can be viewed both as a fragility of the fictitious play algorithm to a strategic intelligent player and an indication that players should not throw away additional information they may have, as suggested by classical fictitious play.


Image fusion is a significant topic in perspective processing. Image fusion is a process of mixing the appropriate data from some images into a single image where the resulting merged picture will be more useful and complete than any of the input images. Multi focus Image fusion is procedure of combining information of several imagery of a view and consequently has \everywhere in focus "image. Lifting technique allows faster implementation of wavelet transform. It requires half number of computations as compared to traditional convolution approach.


Cyclin A1 and cyclin B1 are overexpressed in various tumors but are present at low levels in normal tissues. Cyclin A1 is restricted to germ cells undergoing meiosis. In order to explore the possibility of using cyclin A1 and cyclin B1 as anticancer targets, we knocked them down in two lung cancer cell lines, H157 and H596, using siRNA. As with cyclin A1 siRNA in lung cancer cell lines, cyclin B1, Cdc2 and CDK2 were all significantly downregulated. The S phase fraction increased significantly, and they eventually underwent apoptosis by way of downregulated intrinsic apoptotic pathways and modulators with upregulated extrinsic apoptotic pathways. Our study suggests that cyclin A1 might be a promising anticancer target specific to lung cancer. (Cancer Sci 2006; 97: 1082–1092)


Blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) fMRI is a common technique for measuring brain activation that could be affected by low-level carbon monoxide (CO) exposure from, e.g. smoking. This study aimed to probe the vulnerability of BOLD fMRI to CO and determine whether it may constitute a significant neuroimaging confound. Low-level (6 ppm exhaled) CO effects on BOLD response were assessed in 12 healthy never-smokers on two separate experimental days (CO and air control). fMRI tasks were breath-holds (hypercapnia), visual stimulation and fingertapping. BOLD fMRI response was lower during breath holds, visual stimulation and fingertapping in the CO protocol compared to the air control protocol. Behavioural and physiological measures remained unchanged. We conclude that BOLD fMRI might be vulnerable to changes in baseline CO, and suggest exercising caution when imaging populations exposed to elevated CO levels. Further work is required to fully elucidate the impact on CO on fMRI and its underlying mechanisms.


Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are the proteases responsible for the destruction of cartilage in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients; especially the role of MMP-3 in RA has been highlighted from both pathophysiological studies and clinical studies. However, the role of serum MMP-3 in a large observational cohort of RA patients has not been well demonstrated. In a large observational cohort of RA patients in our Institute (IORRA, October 2000–October 2005, n = 3834–5049/phase), disease activity and functional status were routinely assessed biannually. In October 2001, serum MMP-3 was measured in 1265 patients in this cohort, and the data of these patients in the subsequent 4 years were analyzed. The functional status of disability was assessed by JHAQ, the verified Japanese version of HAQ. A cut-off point of 121.0 ng/ml (men) and 59.7 ng/ml (women) was used for MMP-3 positive/negative categorization. The baseline data of these 1265 patients include 81.5% women, mean age 57.9, mean duration 11.1 years, and 71.7% of patients were rheumatoid factor (RF)-positive. Serum MMP-3 levels at the baseline (195.1 + 227.9 ng/ml) were weakly correlated with C-reactive protein (CRP), but qualitative elevation of serum MMP-3 using cut-off points correlated significantly with corticosteroids use, DAS28, CRP, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, JHAQ, or other markers for the disease activity, but not with age or the disease duration. Thus, elevation of serum MMP-3 level represents the disease activity of RA patients regardless of age or the disease duration. In the longitudinal analysis, the slope of JHAQ progression in patients with MMP-3 positive and RF positive, MMP-3 positive and RF negative, MMP-3 negative and RF positive and MMP-3 negative and RF negative were 0.0179, 0.0162, 0.0156, and 0.0119, respectively, indicating that JHAQ increased most progressively in RA patients with MMP-3 positive and RF positive patients, although statistically apparent differences were not identified. In 502 female patients without talking corticosteroid, patients with MMP-3 positive and RF positive were statistically more progressive in the disability than patients with MMP-3 negative and RF negative. In conclusion, elevation of serum MMP-3 in RA patients is an indicator of inflammation, and together with RF, elevation of serum MMP-3 is a predictive marker for the progression in disability especially in female patients without corticosteroid.


The present study aimed to examine effects of motivational and social cognition constructs on children's leisure-time physical activity participation alongside constructs representing implicit processes using an extended trans-contextual model. The study adopted a correlational prospective design. Secondary-school students (N = 502) completed self-report measures of perceived autonomy support from physical education (PE) teachers, autonomous motivation in PE and leisure-time contexts, and social cognition constructs (attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral control), intentions, trait self-control, habits, and past behavior in a leisure-time physical activity context. Five weeks later, students (N = 298) self-reported their leisure-time physical activity participation. Bayesian path analyses supported two key premises of the model: perceived autonomy support was related to autonomous motivation in PE, and autonomous motivation in PE was related to autonomous motivation in leisure time. Indirect effects indicated that both forms of autonomous motivation were related to social cognition constructs and intentions. However, intention was not related to leisure-time physical activity participation, so model variables reflecting motivational processes did not account for substantive variance in physical activity participation. Self-control, attitudes, and past behavior were direct predictors of intentions and leisure-time physical activity participation. There were indirect effects of autonomous motivation in leisure time on intentions and physical activity participation mediated by self-control. Specifying informative priors for key model relations using Bayesian analysis yielded greater precision for some model effects. Findings raise some questions on the predictive validity of constructs from the original trans-contextual model in the current sample, but highlight the value of extending the model to incorporate additional constructs representing non-conscious processes.


A thin mantle of cover-loam over much of North-East Essex has been recognised as consisting largely of loess. The cover-loam represents the intermixing, to a varying degree, of a layer of loessial silt with a thin layer of underlying sand which is also of likely aeolian origin. The heavy mineral content of the coarse silt fraction of North-East Essex loess is generally similar to that of last glaciation age loesses elsewhere in Eastern England, Belgium and the Netherlands. This suggests the North-East Essex loess is part of a single loess sheet deposited over Eastern England and parts of Western Europe. Nevertheless, detailed examination of the heavy minerals content from all of these areas reveals slight areal variations especially in the proportion of hornblende. These differences show the coarse silt from North-East Essex loess to have closest affinities with that from Norfolk. A distant source for the loess within the present North Sea Basin is proposed on textural evidence. Loess accumulation in North-East Essex probably commenced in the few thousand years leading up to the maximum extent of Devensian ice (about 18,000 years B.P.) and may have continued to about 14,000 years B.P.


The paper summarizes the development and optimization of a flexible test facility for 3D tomographic PIV/PTV measurements of the flow field in the rotor gap of a Tesla friction turbine and performance evaluations. The main aim of the experiment will be the validation of CFD simulations. Another intention is to gain a deeper understanding of the flow phenomena in the gap. The extension of existing theoretical investigations lead to an improved knowledge of dimensioning such bladeless turbines with the goal of maximum power and efficiency. The mechanical design of the rotor, based on these equations, was optimized for a minimal deformation and low mechanical stress. Modal and harmonic response analyses due to imbalance forces have been performed to ensure low vibrations during operation. The design of the feed and guide vanes have been optimized for uniformity of the flow entering the Tesla disk's gap. The rotor outlet is optimized to achieve minimal pressure loss at the intended exit swirl angle. For the demonstration of the measurement technique preliminary tomographic PIV/PTV tests have been carried out. The measurement, safety monitoring and feedback-control software was developed for running on a National Instruments compact RIO real-time target.Copyright © 2014 by ASME


Abstract Background: No specific anti-virus drugs or vaccines have been available for the treatment of COVID-19. Integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine has been proposed as a therapeutic option with substantial applications in China. This protocol is proposed for a systematic review and meta-analysis that aims to evaluate the efficacy of integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine treatment on patients with COVID-19. Methods: Ten databases including PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, CIHAHL, Web of Science, Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), Chinese Scientific Journals Database (VIP), Wanfang database, China Biomedical Literature Database (CBM) and Chinese Biomedical Literature Service System (SinoMed) will be searched. All published randomized controlled trials, clinical controlled trials, case-control, and case series that meet the pre-specified eligibility criteria will be included. Primary outcome measures include mortality, clinical recovery rate, duration of fever, progression rate from mild or moderate to severe, improvement of symptoms, biomarkers of laboratory examination and changes in computed tomography. Secondary outcomes include dosage of hormonotherapy, incidence and severity of adverse events and quality of life. Study selection, data extraction and assessment of bias risk will be conducted by 2 reviewers independently. RevMan software (V.5.3.5) will be used to perform data synthesis. Subgroup and sensitivity analysis will be performed when necessary. The strength of evidence will be assessed by the GRADE system. Results: This study will provide a well-reported and high-quality synthesis on the efficacy of integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine treatment on patients with COVID-19. Conclusion: This systematic review protocol will be helpful for providing evidence of whether integrative traditional Chinese and western medicine treatment is an effective therapeutic approach for patients with COVID-19. Ethics and dissemination: Ethical approval is unnecessary as no individual patient or privacy data is collected. The results of this study will be disseminated in a peer-reviewed scientific journal and/or conference presentation. Systematic review registration: PROSPERO CRD42020167205.


BACKGROUND
The studies of association of disease activity and damage with health-related quality of life (HRQOL) in lupus have shown equivocal results and has not been studied in Thailand.

OBJECTIVE
To examine the HRQOL and to examine the association between HRQOL and SLE disease severity (disease activity and damage) in Thai SLE patients.

MATERIAL AND METHOD
The Short Form-36 (SF-36) was applied in 95 consecutive SLE patients. At the time of HRQOL assessment, all patients were evaluated for disease severity [disease activity as measured by Mexican Systemic Lupus Erythematosus Disease Activity Index (Mex-SLEDAI) and damage as measured by the Systemic Lupus International Collaborating Clinic/American College of Rheumatology (SLICC/ACR) damage index (SDI)]. The association between physical (PCS) and mental component summary (MCS) of the SF-36 and disease severity were examined by Pearson's correlation.

RESULTS
Ninety-five SLE patients (93 females and 2 males) were included (mean age 39.84 +/- 10.91). The mean disease duration was 115 +/- 83 months. The mean scores of MCS and PCS were 45.5 +/- 9.5 and 41.1 +/- 9.3, respectively. The higher SDI scores were correlated with lower PCS but not the MCS (PCS, r = -0.411, p < 0.001). There was no correlation between HRQOL (both MCS and PCS) and disease activity.

CONCLUSION
PCS of the SF-36 was inversely correlated with damage index in Thai SLE patients.


Modeling techniques to characterize interconnects and transmission structures in digital ICs and RF modules and IC packages are presented. Electromagnetic simulation and measurements are used to extract CAD compatible equivalent circuits for typical high speed digital and RF package components. Examples of coupled interconnects in multilayer boards and packages are included to demonstrate the techniques.


In this article, the problems of finite-time/fixed-time synchronization have been investigated for discontinuous neural networks in the unified framework. To achieve the finite-time/fixed-time synchronization, a novel unified integral sliding-mode manifold is introduced, and corresponding unified control strategies are provided; some criteria are established for selecting suitable parameters for solving the related issue, namely, the dynamics of neural network can reach the designed sliding-mode manifold in finite/fixed time, and stay on it thereafter. Moreover, the estimations of setting time are given out. The established unified framework can bring in various protocols by choosing the different parameters of controllers and sliding-mode manifold, which extend previous related results. Finally, some numerical examples are introduced to show the effectiveness and superiority of resulting conclusions.


A life-support service robot must avoid both static and dynamic obstacles for working in a real environment. Here, a static obstacle means an obstacle that does not move, and a dynamic obstacle is the one that moves. Assuming the robot is following a target person, we discuss how the robot avoids a crowd through which the target person passes and arrives at the target position. The purpose of this paper is to propose a crowd avoidance method that makes a robot to be able to avoid both static and dynamic obstacles. The method uses the surface points of the obstacles to form an avoidance region, and the robot moves along the edge of the region. We conducted experiments assuming various situations such that the robot was blocked, there was a wide gap in the crowd, or a person in the crowd yielded for the robot to pass through. As an experimental result, it was confirmed the robot could avoid the crowd even when the obstacles were aligned in an ?inverted wedge? shape.


Federated Learning (FL) framework brings privacy benefits to distributed learning systems by allowing multiple clients to participate in a learning task under the coordination of a central server without exchanging their private data. However, recent studies have revealed that private information can still be leaked through shared gradient information. To further protect user's privacy, several defense mechanisms have been proposed to prevent privacy leakage via gradient information degradation methods, such as using additive noise or gradient compression before sharing it with the server. In this work, we validate that the private training data can still be leaked under certain defense settings with a new type of leakage, i.e., Generative Gradient Leakage (GGL). Unlike existing methods that only rely on gradient information to reconstruct data, our method leverages the latent space of generative adversarial networks (GAN) learned from public image datasets as a prior to compensate for the informational loss during gradient degradation. To address the nonlinearity caused by the gradient operator and the GAN model, we explore various gradient-free optimization methods (e.g., evolution strategies and Bayesian optimization) and empirically show their superiority in reconstructing high-quality images from gradients compared to gradient-based optimizers. We hope the proposed method can serve as a tool for empirically measuring the amount of privacy leakage to facilitate the design of more robust defense mechanisms.


This paper deals with the computational modeling of the high cycle fatigue of the aluminum cylinder head (HDI diesel engine). Before being shrinked on, fixed onto the engine block and used, these components are submitted to a thermal treatment (quenching and ageing) to improve their mechanical properties. This gives rise to large residual stresses during quenching and therefore its modeling becomes necessary in order to obtain accurate numerical prediction. A series of tests was carried out at the PSA Peugeot Citroen production line from which the experimental cooling curves were determined. The experimental data were fitted with a simple analytical function H = f(Twall). Then, once the parameter identification was achieved, the remaining residual stresses followed from a simple mechanical analysis. It was found that the stresses in the local cracking failure area are tensile and therefore strongly unfavorable for the high-cycle fatigue endurance in the case of water quenching. In addition, the account of the residual stresses in the fatigue dimensioning, at the end of the thermal treatment, leads to predictions for the risk regions which are consistent with the experimental observations. © AFM, EDP Sciences 2005.


This paper examines the ways in which Michelle Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven (1987) uses postcolonial Gothic conventions to articulate a convergence of gender, race, sexuality, capitalism, colonialism, and environment. I argue that the novel diverges from colonial values in its production of conflicting identity politics, and that these can be best understood through decolonial queer ecologies. The paper begins by situating the work of Omise'eke Natasha Tinsley and Edouard Glissant to lay a foundation for the decolonial queer ecocritical analysis that follows. Both Tinsley and Glissant stress the importance of the land to Caribbean culture and people, but Tinsley further establishes a framework for queer Caribbean studies that can help one better understand my critique of Cliff's No Telephone to Heaven. From this framework, I show how both raced and classed queer and trans characters transgress colonial boundaries through the ways that they reappropriate spaces and bodies in Jamaica's ruinate. I further examine how the Afro-Carib people who assemble in the ruinate challenge imperialism by forming a coalition that embraces trans leadership. In order to renegotiate human agency in the ruins of empire, Cliff's novel utilizes coalition building as a form of decolonization to explore non-hierarchical relationships between queer/non-queer characters and their relationship with the land. No Telephone to Heaven repurposes the Gothic as a means for characters to discover new, more productive relationships with one other and their environment.


ABSTRACT This research aimed to examine the impact of using mobile-supported learning management systems (LMS) in teaching web design on the academic success of students and their opinion on the course; and it was conducted on 70 volunteer students (35 experimental, 35 control) enrolled at Giresun University, Technical Sciences Vocational School, Computer Technologies Department, Program of Computer Programming in Spring 2015–2016. After the eight weeks long implementation of Mobile Moodle, which is a mobile-supported LMS, as a supplement to traditional learning methods; t-test was used in order to determine whether the methodology mentioned had a significant impact on the academic success of web design teaching. As a result of the t-test implemented; it was seen that there was a significant level of difference in favor of the experimental group; between the academic success of students in the experimental group where mobile-supported LMS is used and the academic success of the students in the control group where traditional learning methodologies are used. Also, it has been determined that using Mobile LMS has increased the students' interest.


The mass spectrometric behaviour of six 2a,4-disubstituted 5-benzoyl-2-chloro-2a,3,4,5-tetrahydroazeto[1,2-a][1,5]benzodia zepin-1(2H)-ones has been studied with the aid of mass-analysed ion kinetic energy spectrometry and accurate mass measurements under electron impact ionization. All compounds show a tendency to eliminate a chlorine atom, a chlorine atom plus benzaldehyde, benzoyl radical, chloroketene or chlorine atom plus CO and H2O molecules to yield, respectively, [M-Cl]+ ions, 2a,4-disubstituted 2a,3-dihydroazeto[1,2-a][1,5]benzodiazepin-1(2H)-one ions, [M-PhCO]+ ions, 2,4-disubstituted 1-benzoyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,5-benzodiazepine ions, or 1,2,4-trisubstituted 1H-1,7-benzodiazonine ions, which could also be formed from [M-Cl]+ ions by loss of CO and H2O molecules simultaneously. The [M-Cl]+ ions could further lose benzoyl radical to form [M-Cl-PhCO]+ ions, or lose benzoyl amide and undergo a rearrangement to form 4,6-disubstituted 1-benzoazocine-2(1H)-one ions. The [M-PhCO]+ ions could eliminate NH to produce 2a,4-disubstituted 2,2a,3,4-tetrahydroazeto[1,2,-a]quinolin-1-one ions, which could further eliminate chloroketene, CO and/or HCl to produce some important ions, respectively. 2,4-Disubstituted 1-benzoyl-2,3-dihydro-1H-1,5-benzodiazepine ions could lose benzoyl radical to yield 2,4-disubstituted 2,3-dihydro-1H-1,5-benzodiazepine ions, which could further yield other small fragment ions by loss of propene/styrene or small fragments.


Unlike the first volume, this book does not focus specifically on traditional central bank concerns but addresses key concepts, theories and tools in the area of money, exchange and production which have proved indispensable to the development of economics. Each essay focuses on a prominent theory or tool, examines its essential elements, identifies its origins and traces its development across a succession of economists, problems, controversies and applications. In this way, the book shows how the history of economic thought can be illustrated through the development of tools and concepts rather than through schools of thought and prominent individuals. This outstanding collection will be inaluable to historians of economic thought as well as students and scholars of methodology, philosophy and monetary and financial economics.


This article examines the way in which administrative courts and the National Ombudsman in the Netherlands seek to control administrative action, and is aimed at developing a heuristic model that can also be useful in a wider context. Two styles of control will be introduced: "coercive" and "cooperative." An exploratory empirical study was conducted of two administrative agencies, investigating the implementation process of court and ombudsman decisions. This article argues that it is likely that the policy impact of the courts and the ombudsman is directly related to their style of control. More empirical research is needed to evaluate this hypothesis.


An increasing number of protein structures are found to encompass multiple folding nuclei, allowing their structures to be formed by several competing pathways. A typical example is the ribosomal protein S6, which comprises two folding nuclei (σ1 and σ2) defining two competing pathways in the folding energy landscape: σ1 → σ2 and σ2 → σ1. The balance between the two pathways, and thus the order of folding events, is easily controlled by circular permutation. In this study, we make use of this ability to manipulate the folding pathway to demonstrate that the dynamic motions of the S6 structure are independent of how the protein folds. The HD-exchange protection factors remain the same upon complete reversal of the folding order. The phenomenon arises because the HD-exchange motions and the high-energy excitations controlling the folding pathway occur at separated free-energy levels: the Boltzmann distribution of unproductive unfolding attempts samples all unfolding channels in parallel, even those that end up in excessively high barriers. Accordingly, the findings provide a simple rationale for how to interpret native-state dynamics without the need to invoke fluctuations off the normal unfolding reaction coordinate.


This work presents a software tool that was developed for market monitoring and performance evaluation as well as other applications in planning and market design. Called PROBE (Portfolio Ownership Bid Evaluation), it includes the network model and schedules/optimizes all type of bids and market products in a complex and congested market. The design is in compliance with FERC's standard market design. A great variety of outputs allows for market analysis, determination of potential market power, portfolio analysis, and sensitivity analysis.


The numerical simulation of a three-dimensional turbulent, reacting flow through the entire Langley parametric scramjet engine has been obtained using a piecewise elliptic approach. The last section in the combustor has been analyzed using a parabolized Navier-Stokes code. The facility nozzle flow was analyzed as a first step. The outflow conditions from the nozzle were chosen as the inflow conditions of the scramjet inlet. The nozzle and the inlet simulation were accomplished by solving the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations with a perfect gas assumption. The inlet solution downstream of the scramjet throat was used to provide inflow conditions for the combustor region. The first two regions of the combustor were analyzed using the MacCormack's explicit scheme. However, the source terms in the species equations were solved implicitly. The finite rate chemistry was modeled using the two-step reaction model of Rogers and Chinitz. A complete reaction model was used in the PNS code to solve the last combustor region. The numerical solutions provide an insight of the flow details in a complete hydrogen-fueled scramjet engine module.


Food choice and food consumer behaviour is multifactoral behaviour, influenced by a large number of factors. Consumer way of life and health are relevant factors to understanding consumption preferences. In the last few decades the number of so-called civilization diseases has dramatically increased. Research has proved that the main cause for these diseases is the change in way of life; including rising stress in a fastpaced world and a lack of attention to physical activity and good nutrition. Nutrition and bad dietary habits have the greatest influence on weight gain and obesity, which are serious public health problems because the increased risk of premature death and civilization diseases like heart diseases, high blood pressure and diabetes. The state of health in the European countries was examined, with special focus on Hungary, regarding public health indicators and nutrition habits. Data was collected from FAOSTAT and EUROSTAT database. The life expectancy in Hungary is one of the worst of the European countries and the rate of obesity exceeds the average in Europe. From research and observations, one difference is that people in Hungary eat less of some foods deemed healthful by nutritional scientists, such as vegetables, fruits and milk. Improving the state of health is a notable task in Hungary, and one important part of the solution is changing bad dietary habits.


Coronary artery ectasia is an uncommon finding during coronary angiography. There may be associated stenoses of the affected arteries. We report three cases, which illustrate that ectasia, in the absence of obstructive disease, can result in myocardial ischaemia and infarction.


The research features an analysis of the headlines of economic articles published in German periodicals after the global economic crisis. The paper gives a theoretical basis of the conceptual nature of headlines and characterizes the phenomenon as a textual linguacultural concept. The subject of the present research is verbal representations of the concept "economic headline" to be found in German economic media discourse. The paper focuses on the description of the process of headline cognition that the recipient performs by interpreting the foreknowledge inherent to a headline. The analysis revealed different cognitive strategies of text producers and the variation in the verbal content of headlines. All the headings of economic articles published in German periodicals actualize the concept of "economic heading". The frequent inclusion of headline complex elements into the process of text cognition is typical for modern economic headlines. Their multilevel structure allows keeping the maximum information content as it provides the recipient with the necessary foreknowledge concerning the subject area of the article. This method accelerates the headline cognition process and results from the fact that the recipient has no time to read the whole article. The established norms of headline construction in German journalism reflect the cognition of economic reality in German linguaculture.


A theory of spike formation around non-magnetic inclusions or voids is presented for biaxial type films in the manner reviewed by Craik and Tebble in 1965. The dependence of spike length on hole size and film thickness is determined. From the theory and observations, using Lorentz microscopy on single-crystal iron specimens, it is shown that a minimum hole size exists below which it is energetically unfavourable for spikes to nucleate. Around some holes below the minimum size a `web' type domain structure occurs and increases the effective hole size allowing spikes to nucleate on their extremities. From the results it appears that an increase in 90° wall energy γbar, above 90 from 1·0 ergs cm−2 at 400 Å thickness to 1·3 ergs cm−2 at 1557 Å gives good agreement with theory. This implies that certainly up to this thickness and probably for some considerable increase in thickness, the walls are of the Néel type and not the Bloch type as previously thought.


The interest in biobutanol fuel is driven by the need to expand the search for alternative fuels from sustainable source specially those that use abundant and low cost feedstock. Oil palm frond offer a promising sugar feed stock for fermentation as it is available throughout the year and regularly pruned during harvesting of fresh fruit bunches in oil palm plantation. The aim of this research is to study the characteristics of oil palm frond (OPF) juice extract and fiber as a feedstock for biobutanol production. In this studyliquid extracts are pressed from the respective OPF petioles and total reducing sugar content was analysed using DNS method and the result shows that the glucose concentration was 40.50g/L. Furthermore,content of sugar is highly affected by the age of oil palm tree which affected the content of sugar in the liquid extract of OPF.The high cellulose and low lignin content of 41.53% and 6.27% obtained from lignocellulose content analysis conducted using acid detergent filter (ADF), neutral detergent filter (NDF) and acid detergent lignin (ADL) methods as described by (Omar et al., 2011),indicates the suitability of Oil Palm Frond (OPF) as a promising feedstock for biobutanol production. Hence, conversion of oil palm plantation residues to green fuel can enhanced energy security and offers the potential for sustainable transport fuel in the future.


Abstract Although the legality of equity-based crowdfunding was determined from a judicial point of view in the "first crowdfunding financing case" in 2015, there is no formal law, regulation, or rule released to regulate the crowdfunding financing. From a micro-perspective, determining the nature and workings of equity-based crowdfunding are two preconditions for determining the legal framework for and supervision of equity-based crowdfunding. The "Open, Public, Small-sum" characteristics defined the nature of public offering to the equity-based crowdfunding; therefore, it should be distinguished from private equity financing as a different category of online equity financing. Based on the original purpose of "financing facility" and the nature of "grassroots finance," fundraisers shall enjoy exemptions on small sums, and the threshold of investors shall also be appropriately restricted, while the intermediary platform shall be the regulatory focus. From a macro point of view, the supervision of equity-based crowdfunding should seek a balance between "financial innovation" and "risk control." Equity-based crowdfunding should not simply be considered a financing method. Rather, its positive effects on mass entrepreneurship and innovation should be emphasized so as to make it a particularly important "booster" to promote economic and social development.