Traditional law enforcement methods have proven inadequate against the current levels of cybercrime we are experiencing. This is due to the ease of automating attacks, and also that even a single jurisdiction prepared to ignore or unable to prosecute cybercriminals mean that they are usually beyond the reach of local law enforcement. This has led to different analogies to attempt to describe the phenomenon, and one of these is that of public health. In the past, this was used to describe the propagation methods of computer \viruses", which exhibited similar characteristics to biological viruses. Whilst other malware also had a similar propagation pattern, these no longer apply given the popularity of drive-by downloads, where Web pages attack users who visit them. A consequence of this new method of propagation is that \infected" machines do not have any contagion, so one infected machine on a network does not mean that an other machine on the network will become infected as well. This thesis proposes a novel interpretation of the public health analogy, which focuses on the notions of efficacy and rights, so that these guidelines can continue to be used. This is considered in the context of the major stakeholders who could intervene in the drive-by download process, where it is concluded that hosting providers are best placed to intervene to make a difference. It is proposed that they should proactively search for vulnerable websites they host, and warn the operator, implementing blocking procedures if the operator does not respond. An agent based model is then used to assess the efficacy of such an intervention.


Male and female Han Wistar rats were exposed for 6 h/day, 5 days/week for 13 or 104 weeks (whole body) to a magnetite photocopying toner. The toner contained 45% to 50% magnetite, with 45% to 50% styrene acrylic resin and less than 5% external additives, including hydrophobic amorphous silica and proprietary surface functional modifiers. Exposure levels were 1, 5, and 25 mg/m3 for the 13-week study and 1, 4, and 16 mg/m3 for the 104-week study. Lung toner burdens averaged 36, 288, and 604 μg per lung after 104 weeks' exposure at 1, 4, and 16 mg/m3. The lung burdens were lower than have been reported in a similar study with a carbon-based toner. There were no significant effects on weight gain or food consumption in either study, or on clinical pathology parameters examined in the 13-week study. After 104 weeks' exposure at 16 mg/m3, macroscopic examination revealed dark discoloration of the lungs and associated lymph nodes. Lung weights were significantly elevated by 21% and 14% for male and female rats, respectively. Microscopic findings indicative of a mild inflammatory response were similar in both studies, and included the presence of black-pigmented macrophages in the lungs and tracheobronchial and mediastinal lymph nodes; increased incidences of perivascular/peribronchiolar inflammatory cell infiltration; inflammation of the alveolar ducts (characterized by aggregations of black-pigmented alveolar macrophages and interstitial lymphocytic infiltration); increased cellularity of the bronchiole-associated lymphoid tissue; and a few instances of alveolar ciliated metaplasia. The 104-week study showed no increase in the incidence of pulmonary tumors.


The article analyzes the relationship of global climate change and global financial sector. The main risks and opportunities of the financial sector caused by global climate change are covered. The basic financial products and services that formed due to the transfer of the global society to sustainable development are described.


Research project FLOREON+ deals with disaster management support. Philosophy of the project is based on its modularity which enables integration on seemingly unrelated problem domains. The research is primary focused on modeling and simulation of flood risk, traffic, and water and air pollution. Domain areas can be extended in the future. This paper is aimed at description of visualization module which represents top layer of system architecture. Emphasis is placed on 3D visualization and its data structure.


Burkholderia pseudomallei is a known great mimicker responsible for melioidosis. Ocular involvement in melioidosis is unusual, with eyelid and orbital infection as the commonest presentation. We describe a 41-year-old, healthy woman who complained of reduced vision in her left eye. On examination, vision in the left eye was 6/9. There was evidence of occlusive retinal vasculitis on fundoscopy examination. Fundus fluorescein angiogram showed extensive capillary fallout. Diagnosis was established by a rise in the serum antibody titre for the bacterium and further supported by clinical improvement of vision after completion of treatment antibiotics. Sectoral panretinal photocoagulation at the capillary fallout area successfully arrested the sequelae of retinal ischaemia. Occlusive retinal vasculitis is a rare presentation of melioidosis. Early prompt diagnosis in an immunocompetent individual helps prevent visual-related morbidity. The ability of this bacteria to cause recurrent infection in an endemic area should not be underestimated.


In "What's this India Business?" Paul Davies reveals the secrets you need to take full advantage of the competitive edge that India can give your company. A major global services revolution is happening, and India is at the forefront. As India becomes the fourth largest economy in the world, it is progressing from being an international IT power house to the world's back office provider for the twenty first century. "What's This India Business?" shows you how to take advantage of the edge India can give your company, and shows how to transform your business responsibly and effectively. Everyone is familiar with call centres located in Bangalore or Delhi, but human resources, internal accounting and legal processes are following. India, ahead of all other countries, will be the main service industry centre for the West. "What's This India Business?" contains proven strategies to enable your company to work effectively and confidently with Indian businesses. It allows you to establish competitive advantage, surge ahead of market trends, build effective and sustainable new business models and unleash the flexibility, quality, and availability of Indian business people to the lasting benefit of your business and the international economy.


Sludge characteristics associated with filterability as well as the removal of a natural estrogen 17beta-estradiol (E2) and a synthetic estrogen 17alpha-ethyinylestradiol (EE2) were investigated in submerged membrane bioreactors (MBR) with and without the addition of powdered activated carbon (PAC) under the same experimental conditions. Positive impacts of PAC dosing on membrane fouling and the removal of E2 and EE2 were demonstrated over a six months stable operational period. Experimental results showed that PAC dosing resulted in lower concentrations of soluble extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) and colloidal total organic carbon (TOC) in the PAC-MBR sludge. The average soluble EPS and colloidal TOC concentrations in the PAC-MBR sludge was 60.1% and 61.8% lower than the control MBR sludge, respectively. Regardless of PAC dosing, concentrations of colloidal TOC were strongly related to concentrations of soluble EPS and soluble carbohydrates in the sludge. In addition, the mean flocs size of the sludge with PAC dosing was shifted from 49.4 microm to 60.3 microm. PAC dosing in the MBR increased the removal rates of E2 and EE2 by 3.4% and 15.8%, respectively.


As the effects of climate change continue to intensify, non-native species are becoming more prevalent in estuarine ecosystems. This has implications for the taxonomic and functional diversity of fish communities. Historically, biodiversity has been a synonym of taxonomic diversity, however this approach often fails to provide accurate insights on ecosystem functioning and resilience. To better understand how climate change is impacting fishes and their traits' composition, a long-term dataset from Minho Estuary (NW Iberian Peninsula) fish assemblage was analyzed. The results suggest that climate change and extreme weather events altered the prevailing trait modalities of fishes, which led to the overall decrease in functional diversity of the fish assemblage over the course of a decade. This decrease is associated to the loss of some trait modalities that are exclusively found in native species. On the other hand, the invasive species added novel traits associated with the conditions of high temperatures and low precipitation regime currently observed in the studied area. Our results highlight that the shift in the presence and dominance of some traits is directly influenced by climatic changes. Also, despite the addition of novel modalities by the invasive species, the fish assemblage is now less functional and taxonomically diverse than previously


This paper considers a Bayesian approach to linear system identification. One motivation is the advantage of the minimum mean square error of the associated conditional mean estimate. A further motivation is the error quantifications afforded by the posterior density which are not reliant on asymptotic in data length derivations. To compute these posterior quantities, this paper derives and illustrates a Gibbs sampling approach, which is a randomized algorithm in the family of Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. We provide details on a numerically robust implementation of the Gibbs sampler. In a numerical example, the proposed method is illustrated to give good convergence properties without requiring any user tuning.


To understand the biology of sex steroids in human ovarian corpus luteum, the expression of intracellular sex hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) and corticosteroid-binding globulin (CBG) mRNAs as a manifestation of intracellular SHBG and CBG expression was determined. The expression of SHBG and CBG mRNAs was detected in all samples analyzed. Luteal SHBG mRNA level showed no significant change during the endometrial secretory phase of the menstrual cycle. On the other hand, luteal CBG mRNA level was significantly higher (p < 0.05) at the mid-secretory phase than that at the early and late secretory phases of the endometrium. These findings suggest that human ovarian corpus luteum synthesizes SHBG and CBG intracellularly, CBG being plausibly involved in the functional life span of corpus luteum.


Toxocariasis is a worldwide zoonosis caused by larvae of ascarid nematodes of dogs or cats, Toxocara canis or T. cati. Diagnosis of human toxocariasis currently relies on serology that uses T. canis excretory-secretory antigen to detect specific IgG antibodies by ELISA. We investigated the serodiagnostic efficacy of ELISA using crude antigen of T. canis larvae (TCLA). Serum specimens of 64 clinically confirmed toxocariasis, 115 healthy controls, and 119 other tissue-invading helminthiases were screened by ELISA using TCLA. The ELISA using TCLA showed 92.2% (59/64 patient samples) sensitivity and 86.6% (103/119) specificity. Its positive diagnostic predictivity was 78.7% and negative predictivity was 97.8%. No serum of healthy controls reacted but that of anisakiasis (45.5%), gnathostomiasis (19.2%), clonorchiasis (15.8%), sparganosis (11.1%), and cysticercosis (6.3%) cross-reacted. Immunoblot analysis on TCLA recognized antigenic proteins of 28- and 30-kDa bands in their dominant protein quantity and strong blotting reactivity. The present results indicate that the ELISA using our TCLA antigen is acceptable by the sensitivity and specificity for serodiagnosis of human toxocariasis. ELISA with TCLA is recommended to make differential diagnosis for patients with any sign of organ infiltration and eosinophilia.


Parliamentary approval can be of crucial importance to ensure the democratic legitimacy of military operations as it can establish public consent to the executives use of force. But involving parliament in decisions to deploy military forces may have negative repercussions on the efficiency of operations, e.g. by slowing down decision-making. As the military activity of democracies has been on the rise since the end of the Cold War, democracies around the world have been increasingly pressed to deal with this trade-off between legitimacy and efficiency in sending troops abroad. This paper surveys the deployment provisions of 49 contemporary democracies to establish whether and how parliaments are actually involved in deployment decisions. It demonstrates that the rules for parliamentary participation mark a continuum that ranges from complete exclusion to a comprehensive veto position of parliament over all potential deployments. In between these two extremes, democracies have found a wide variety of solutions to cope with the legitimacy-efficiency problem. Despite the growing prevalence of military deployments, there is no discernible trend towards parliamentarisation, however. Rather the trend towards internationalisation of security policies contributed to a weakening of parliamentary powers in some countries.


The focus of the current work is integrating the theory of bounded rationality with decision-making regarding eating behaviour. Bounded rationality outlines how individuals make decisions while constrained to time, cognitive capability, and their environment. It proposes the use of heuristics, or simple mental tools, which show to be both fast and frugal. Bounded rationality's focus in on the interaction between cognition and the environment- that is, the selection of heuristics used will depend on both the environmental context and cognitive capacity. Bounded rationality's emphasis on the environmental context as a major influence in the decision-making process complements present theories in food decision-making. Variance of cognitive capability in the selection of heuristics in food decision-making is less studied, and will be explored. Bounded rationality will be described, related to existing models, and reviewed through empirical evidence. This work has possible implications for designing heuristic-based weight management programs centered around food decision-making, which cater to both the environment and cognitive capabilities of the target group.


Brain lateralization refers to hemispheric dominance for different tasks. Lateralization of the brain and body has been consistently reported in the literature. An extreme right-hand preference has been reported among most people throughout the world. However, gesture control involves coordination among the eye, hand, and foot, and the lateralization pattern of all three is expected to influence such gestures. This study examines the effect of lateral bias in gesture-based video games. The experiment involved 23 students playing a gesture- based game on an Xbox console to determine the interplay of hand-foot lateralization in gesture-based games. The findings are discussed in light of game design and lateral bias in gesture-based games.


INTRODUCTION
The present systematic review investigates the biological and chemical mechanisms that affect the health and structure of tendons following the use of fluoroquinolones (FQs).

SOURCES OF DATA
A total of 12 articles were included, organized, and reported following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines.

AREAS OF AGREEMENT
Five mechanisms were identified: arrest of proliferation through a decreased activity of cyclin B, CDK-1, CHK-1, and increased PK-1; decrease tenocytes migration through decreased phosphorylation of FAK; decrease type I collagen metabolism through increased MMP-2; chelate effect on ions that influence epigenetics and several enzymes; fluoroquinolones-induced ROS (radical oxygen species) production in mitochondria.

AREAS OF CONTROVERSY
There is no definite structure-damage relationship. The dose-effect relationship is unclear.

GROWING POINTS
Knowing and defining the damage exerted by FQs plays a role in clinical practice, replacing FQs with other antibacterial drugs or using antioxidants to attenuate their pathological effects.

AREAS TIMELY FOR DEVELOPING RESEARCH
Clinical and basic sciences studies for each FQs are necessary.


In this contribution, we investigate different types of Josephson junction arrays that are embedded in coplanar microwave transmission lines, acting as traveling-wave parametric amplifiers. For the realization of traveling-wave parametric amplifiers, different Josephson junction array geometries have been proposed in the literature. Here, we investigate the amplifier's Josephson nonlinearity along with the gain performance, following a general method to derive the nonlinear wave-mixing coefficients from the current-phase relation of different junction array topologies. These nonlinear coefficients are then incorporated into a corresponding Hamiltonian, which is used in order to solve the Heisenberg equations of motion of the photon number operator, determining the gain of the amplifier.


Our objective was to determine how much PaO2 levels increase after normobaric oxygen (NBO) therapy and whether NBO therapy exerts therapeutic effects regardless of the PaO2 level. We suggest the optimal PaO2 level to use during NBO therapy for the acute treatment of carbon monoxide (CO) poisoning. This retrospective study included 311 patients who received oxygen administration after CO poisoning and had a measurable PaO2 level upon arrival. Baseline characteristics, clinical courses and long‐term neurological outcome were collected and compared. The PaO2 level upon arrival was 192 (161‐225) mm Hg, and 272 (87.5%) of the patients presented with hyperoxia. The incidence of poor long‐term neurological outcome was 11.3% at a median follow‐up period of 35 months. PaO2 levels upon arrival were higher in patients with good long‐term neurological outcome than in those with poor outcome. The incidence of poor long‐term neurological outcome was significantly dependent on the PaO2 level when patients were stratified at 100‐mm Hg increments. A multivariate regression analysis showed that PaO2 levels, when considered a continuous, interval or ordinal variable, were associated with long‐term neurological outcome in separate models. According to the three models, a PaO2 level of 200‐300 mm Hg has the lowest risk of poor long‐term neurological outcome. The results of the analysis of the predicted probability of poor long‐term outcome according to the PaO2 level exhibited a U‐shaped curve. Further large‐scale studies are needed to confirm the association between 200‐300 mm Hg of PaO2 and long‐term neurological outcome and evaluate the impact of PaO2 levels above 300 mm Hg on acute CO poisoning outcome.


We investigate the secular increase in the corporate cash holding over the period 1980-2006. We show that along with firm characteristic–related variables, monetary policy and banking structure have a significant bearing on corporate cash holdings, as they determine the opportunity cost of holding cash as well as access to cash. Specifically, we establish that the need to hold cash was complemented by the ability to hold cash during the given period due to low opportunity cost. We also investigate the role of cash as collateral for financially constrained firms. Our findings allow us to provide insight into the cross-sectional variation.


The global competition among states to attract and retain highly skilled and ever more mobile labor has become a subject of increasing scholarship and policy analysis. However, little attention has been paid to private organizations such as multinational corporations (MNCs) that send their "best and brightest" employees on long-term overseas assignments. These sending organizations are active players in the process of highly skilled migration—players that have invested valuable resources in the pursuit of sending their employees where they want, when they want. This article explores the evolving justification structures that explain why MNCs send their key employees on expatriate assignments. Over time, these corporations developed successive strategies for managing the expansion of their business operations beyond the borders of their home countries, each strategy providing different concepts of what an expatriated manager should be and do. The current "global corporation" model acknowledges the necessity of expatriate assignments. Highly skilled migration is viewed as an integral element in the development of the type of cosmopolitan worker now believed necessary to build a culturally sensitive organization—migration that corporate leaders regard as an existential imperative in today's hyper-competitive global marketplace.


Ionic liquids (ILs) have a wide variety of applications in energy storage and material production. ILs are composed of only cations and anions, without any molecular solvents, and are generally known as "designer liquids (solvents)" because their physicochemical properties can be tuned by the combination of ionic species. In recent several decades, research and development activities of rechargeable batteries have garnered considerable attention because certain groups of ILs exhibit high electrochemical stability and moderate ionic conductivity, rendering them suitable for application in high‐voltage batteries. ILs with amide anions are representative electrolytes and are extensively researched by many research groups, including our group. This paper focuses on amide‐based ILs as electrolytes for alkali‐metal‐ion rechargeable batteries, introducing their history, characteristics, and existing challenges to be addressed.


This article describes the development of one expert system to determinate possible causes of surfaces defects related to friction on steel process and to establish ways of action to correct the disturbance. The outputs of the system were validated by comparison between historical records and expert opinion for same facts. The soundness of the results allows its application for decision making by advising when one deviation is detected, producing sound and timely diagnostics which report economical benefits for the whole business becoming independent the diagnostic from the expert presence.


The triple burden of malnutrition is growing in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). Increasing access to affordable ultra-processed foods in the food environment is contributing to this problem. While existing explanations for this triple burden of malnutrition have examined demand-side factors of food choices, the supply-side policies relating to the food environment drivers, ideas and actors' interests have been neglected. Using a case study of Ghana, this analysis combines the Advocacy Coalition Framework with the narrative policy analysis to unpack the supply-side food environment policies and actors driving the triple burden of malnutrition. Applying a mixed methods analysis of the transcripts, the narratives reveal public, private and civil society organization (CSO) coalitions with different ideas and interests in the food environment. In the private sector coalition, food companies engage in aggressive advertising and are driven by profit motives – leading to the supply of more ultra-processed foods. The public sector is failing to regulate the market because of inadequate policies, limited institutional capacities and coordination, enforcement challenges, inadequate resources, and self-interest. Social activism by CSOs, for example, pressuring food companies to deliver healthy foods and holding the government accountable, is also lacking. The result is a triple sector (public, private and CSO) failure in the urban food environment with consequences on the availability of ultra-processed foods. This has long-lasting implications for the reduction of the triple burden of malnutrition and the achievement of zero hunger. To accelerate nutrition-sensitive food environments that deliver healthier food options, we argue that it is critical to entertain the ideas and interests of stakeholders and implement food environment policies that cover private and public sector initiatives, as well as increase consumer awareness.


This review aims at outlining the current state of electrospinning for the encapsulation of probiotics. A brief introduction of electrospinning regarding the principles, setups and affecting parameters is given. The materials and methods (hybrid, coreshell, and post immobilization) of electrospinning for the encapsulation of probiotics are summarized. The effects of electrospinning process, probiotic species, and additives on the viability of probiotics after electrospinning and under environmental stress are discussed. Potential applications of probiotic encapsulated by nanofibers including controlled delivery system, active packaging, and tissue engineering are introduced. In addition, the limitations of current studies and challenges for future research are addressed. This review provides better understanding of the current research status of electrospun nanofibers for encapsulation of probiotics.


We present a deep, fully convolutional neural network that learns to route a circuit layout net with appropriate choice of metal tracks and wire class combinations. Inputs to the network are the encoded layouts containing spatial location of pins to be routed. After 15 fully convolutional stages followed by a score comparator, the network outputs 8 layout layers (corresponding to 4 route layers, 3 via layers and an identity-mapped pin layer) which are then decoded to obtain the routed layouts. We formulate this as a binary segmentation problem on a per-pixel per-layer basis, where the network is trained to correctly classify pixels in each layout layer to be 'on' or 'off'. To demonstrate learnability of layout design rules, we train the network on a dataset of 50,000 train and 10,000 validation samples that we generate based on certain pre-defined layout constraints. Precision, recall and $F_1$ score metrics are used to track the training progress. Our network achieves $F_1\approx97\%$ on the train set and $F_1\approx92\%$ on the validation set. We use PyTorch for implementing our model. Code is made publicly available at this https URL .


Results of research of methane content in bottom sediments and water layer in the areas contiguous to tectonic faults and in the areas with no tectonic faults in the north part of the Amur Bay of the Sea of Japan are presented. The maximum values of methane concentrations (till the bubble drift) were found in bottom sediments in the vicinity of Muravyevskiy tectonic fault. This provides estimation of Muravyevskiy fault contribution to methane content as the most important. The role of another tectonic fault, which is stretched in direction of the Amur Bay center line, to the methane concentration in sediments and water layer is negligible.


BACKGROUND. We hypothesized that in premature infants, retinal vascular growth retardation between birth and postmenstrual age of ∼30 to 32 weeks that initiates retinopathy of prematurity is paralleled by brain growth retardation. METHODS. In a prospective longitudinal study, we measured postnatal head growth, retinopathy of prematurity stage, protein and energy intake, severity of illness and serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels in 58 preterm infants (mean gestational age at birth: 27.6 weeks) from birth until postmenstrual age of ∼40 weeks. RESULTS. Premature infant head growth decelerates dramatically after birth until postmenstrual age of ∼30 weeks. Head growth retardation coincides with retinal vascular growth suppression. Accelerated growth follows between post menstrual ages of ∼30 to 32 weeks and ∼40 weeks. The degree of head growth retardation up to postmenstrual age of 31 weeks corresponds to the degree of retinopathy of prematurity and to the degree of suppression of serum levels of insulin-like growth factor-1. At postmenstrual age of 31 weeks, if a child's head circumference SD is below −2.5, then the probability of also developing at least stage 3 retinopathy of prematurity increases fivefold compared with head circumference above −2.5 SD (32% vs 6%) suggesting parallel processes in brain and retina. Serum insulin-like growth factor-1 levels correlate positively with head circumference SD score and with the degree of retinopathy of prematurity. CONCLUSIONS. The correlation between head and retinal growth is consistent with insulin growth factor-1 being one of the postnatal growth factors involved in this multifactorial process and also suggests that factors that contribute to retinopathy of prematurity during this critical period may also affect neurological dysfunction. Additional studies are required to establish this connection.


The condition of complete photon conversion is analysed. It is shown that complete conversion of the pump at finite pump excitation is impossible in forward-travelling-wave signal amplification, but possible in backward-travelling-wave signal amplification.


People exposure to ambient polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) in Tianjin area was estimated based on field data of media concentrations and other data from the literature. A multi-pathway human exposure model by USEPA was employed to calculate the populations' Chronic Daily Intake (CDI) of PAHs. The results showed that the CDI of child, adolescent and adult were 2.92, 2.33 and 1.90 mg/(kg×d), respectively. The population's lifelong CDI in terms of weighted age was 2.06 mg/(kg×d). Diet exposure was the most important route, accounting for around 94% of the total dose, followed by respiration and skin routes which respectively contributed 5% and 1%. Lifelong CDI of six carcinogenic PAHs (PAH6) was 0.15mg/(kg×d) and the groups of child, youth and adult were 0.22, 0.16 and 0.14 mg/(kg×d), respectively. The results of Monte Carlo simulation demonstrated that exposure approximately followed normal logarithmic distribution after logarithmic transformation. The geometric mean values of exposure to adult, youth and child were 2.09, 2.61 and 2.63 mg/(kg×d).


STUDY OBJECTIVES
Hypoadiponectinemia is associated with cardiovascular morbidity and diabetes mellitus. We hypothesize that adiponectin may be downregulated in sleep apnea through various mechanisms, contributing to cardiometabolic risks. This study investigated the relationship between serum adiponectin and sleep disordered breathing and its potential determinants.

DESIGN
Cross-sectional study.

SUBJECTS AND SETTING
Adult men without prevailing medical comorbidity from the sleep clinic in a teaching hospital.

MEASUREMENTS & RESULTS
One hundred thirty-four men underwent polysomnography, with mean age of 43.9 (9.8) years, and median apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) of 17.1 (5.7, 46.6). Overnight urine samples for catecholamines and blood samples for analyses of insulin, glucose and adiponectin levels from fasting subjects were taken. Insulin resistance was estimated by homeostasis model assessment (HOMA-IR). Magnetic resonance imaging was performed to quantify the amount of abdominal visceral fat. Serum adiponectin level, adjusted for age, body mass index, and visceral fat volume, was significantly lower in subjects with severe obstructive sleep apnea (AHI > or =30) compared with those with an AHI of less than 30: 4.0 (3.1, 5.4) versus 5.4 (3.6, 7.9) microg/mL, P = 0.039. After we adjusted for adiposity, adiponectin levels remained negatively correlated with AHI (P = 0.037), arousal index (P = 0.022), HOMA-IR/fasting insulin (P < 0.001), and urinary norepinephrine and normetanephrine (P < 0.008). In a multiple stepwise regression model, the independent determinants of adiponectin after adjustment for adiposity were HOMA-IR (P < 0.001) and urinary norepinephrine and normetanephrine (P = 0.037).

CONCLUSIONS
Adiponectin was suppressed in subjects with severe obstructive sleep apnea, independent of obesity. Adiponectin levels were determined by insulin resistance and sympathetic activation, factors that may be totally or partially attributed to sleep disordered breathing.


Direct numerical simulations (DNS) and optimal control theory are used in a predictive control setting to determine controls that effectively reduce the turbulent kinetic energy and drag of a turbulent flow in a plane channel at Reτ = 100 and Reτ = 180. Wall transpiration (unsteady blowing/suction) with zero net mass flux is used as the control. The algorithm used for the control optimization is based solely on the control objective and the nonlinear partial differential equation governing the flow, with no ad hoc assumptions other than the finite prediction horizon, T, over which the control is optimized. Flow relaminarization, accompanied by a drag reduction of over 50%, is obtained in some of the control cases with the predictive control approach in direct numerical simulations of subcritical turbulent channel flows. Such performance far exceeds what has been obtained to date in similar flows (using this type of actuation) via adaptive strategies such as neural networks, intuition-based strategies such as opposition control, and the so-called 'suboptimal' strategies, which involve optimizations over a vanishingly small prediction horizon T+ → 0. To achieve flow relaminarization in the predictive control approach, it is shown that it is necessary to optimize the controls over a sufficiently long prediction horizon T+ [gsim ] 25. Implications of this result are discussed. The predictive control algorithm requires full flow field information and is computationally expensive, involving iterative direct numerical simulations. It is, therefore, impossible to implement this algorithm directly in a practical setting. However, these calculations allow us to quantify the best possible system performance given a certain class of flow actuation and to qualify how optimized controls correlate with the near-wall coherent structures believed to dominate the process of turbulence production in wall-bounded flows. Further, various approaches have been proposed to distil practical feedback schemes from the predictive control approach without the suboptimal approximation, which is shown in the present work to restrict severely the effectiveness of the resulting control algorithm. The present work thus represents a further step towards the determination of optimally effective yet implementable control strategies for the mitigation or enhancement of the consequential effects of turbulence.


Blue sapphire gemstone has been mined on the Mambilla plateau and traded in different parts of the world including Thailand and Sri Lanka over the years. However, the new Mambilla blue sapphire discovered recently has generated a lot of excitement in the global community because of its high quality. This discovery has led to a general rush by the people in the area mostly youths into artisanal mining of the blue gemstone. This study examines the process of artisanal mining of blue sapphire and the socio-economic impact of the mining on the environment. Data were generated through interviews with key stakeholders. Ethnographic observation of the mining site was conducted during the fieldwork. Information was also collected from relevant secondary sources including reports, books and journal articles. The Information obtained from the individual interviews and focus group discussions was content-analyzed and subjected to descriptive analysis. The finding of the study shows that the artisanal mining of the blue sapphire has created employment opportunity to the teaming jobless youths in the area. This has attracted many people from within and outside the country to the area. Although the mining of the sapphire has created wealth to the people, the negative impacts of the mining is also a major concern as large tract of forest cover and scarce agricultural land in the area are loss in the process of sapphire hunt. This study therefore recommend for the need to put in place framework that integrates the artisanal miners fully into the productive sector of the national economy and advocacy campaign to enlighten artisanal miners on the direct link between their operations and environmental degradation and the need for adoption of sustainable method of mining. Keywords: Artisanal, Blue sapphire, Impact, Mambilla and Socio-economic


The distribution and abundance of Dungeness crabs in the Glacier Bay area were observed with a submersible in five bays with and three bays without sea otters. A matrix design was used with three levels of sea otter occupation and three depth categories. Goals of this study were to determine: 1) the depth distribution of crabs; 2) if depth was a refuge from sea otter predation; and, 3) the habitat of ovigerous female aggregations. Scuba was used to calibrate submersible counts and collect substrate samples; crab pots were used to confirm submersible sightings. Abiotic and biotic variables were analyzed to interpret distribution data and aggregation sites. A regional, long-term crab survey dataset was also examined. Sea otters may have decreased crab abundance in shallow waters. Two aggregations of ovigerous Dungeness crabs were observed in shallow water with sand substrate. However, only 1% of the 33 km of transects were classified as sand, suggesting that sand may be a limiting resource. No conclusions could be made about the independent effects of sea otter presence or depth due to strong interaction. Submersible observations, crab pot surveys, and marine topography together however, point towards a shift in crab depth distribution with sea


ABSTRACT The transduction of mechanical stimuli into electrical responses is essential for audition, kinesthesis, proprioception, and autonomic sensation of pressure and volume. The primary event in transduction is the opening of an ion channel whose linkage to the cytoskeleton provides high sensitivity. When linked to adapting mechanical structures, this scheme can account for the presently known properties of various mechanical transducers.


The attempts of globalization in developing countries could be observed in a wide range of areas. Objectively speaking, globalization can be of advantage to developed and developing countries provided that the compaines and commodities of those countries can get access to and compete with those of others in international market place as equal partners with fairness in international trade. Globalization is not just liberalization of trade, opening up borders by lowering or removing tariffs and non-tariffs barriers, but it goes beyond and tries ideally to generate a business in production, investment, financing, marketing and distribution as well as in organization, management and supervision by a universal code of conduct. On the other hand, with the expansion of satellite communication, computer net-works, and reducing the transportation costs, the process of globalization is becoming easier, and with the aid of e-banking, Electronic Commerce has replaced the traditional trade system. Moreover, globalization refers to the widespread distribution of networking mechanisms and the accessibility of them to all parties, no matter where they live. It is a difficult stage that requires conscious decision making and can only be developed step-by-step[1]. This paper attempts to review the impact of Globalization and E-Business in the new Millennium, especially in the steel industry. To put it another way, it reviews cost savings that can be achieved through E-Commerce in a global market. Certain recommendations are also made for designing startegies to increase the profit rate as well as the share of E-Business in the market in the long run.


Fire is a common and disastrous phenomenon in subway transportation systems because of closed environment and large passenger flow. Traditional methods detect and forecast fire incidents by fusing the data collected by wireless sensor networks and compare the fusion result with a threshold. However, this approach has a significant shortcoming. Fusion of data decreases the amount of useful information since the distribution of data is not considered. In this paper, a novel mechanism based on wireless sensor networks is proposed and we can use the mechanism to detect fire in subway transportation systems. The core algorithm in this mechanism is an alternative of data fusion in wireless sensor networks. The mechanism uses the quantity information acquired from the data and also considers the distribution information of the data in order to predict the occurrence of fire incidents. The simulation results show that fire incidents can be detected fast and efficiently.


This groundbreaking volume is the first to define the emergent field of transatlantic literary studies. It brings together a wide range of material to explore the theoretical and literary possibilities of the transatlantic world as an arena for textual and intellectual exchange. In their introduction, the editors suggest ways in which the transatlantic paradigm offers renewed potential for literary study that for too long has been tied to the ideological and political requirements of the nation-state. The Reader provides accessible, annotated examples of theoretical frameworks that provoke further scholarly inquiry and important works of literary criticism that demonstrate different possibilities of comparative analysis. This important compilation represents and promotes the conceptualization of American culture within the broader context of transatlantic activity.


Given series of reforms in the banking sub sector in Nigeria, with the 2004 recapitalization policy in focus, the paper examine whether the was any significant differences in both bank deposit and new office growth and its correlation with changes in some macroeconomic indicators namely: per capita GDP, Unemployment rate, interest rate, loan to small business enterprise and population 5-year before and 5-year after bank recapitalization in 2005. Data on the selected variables were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and National Bureau of Statistic (NBS) Annual abstract of statistics. Percentage changes and trend analysis was employed in analyzing the data obtained. The result reveals that, all the variables – change in per capita GDP, loans to small enterprise, population and unfortunately unemployment and interest rate appear to be highly correlated with the high average percentage change in bank branch and deposit during 5-year post bank consolidation policy. A sharp fall in bank branch and deposit trends in 2008 was also accompanied by greatest falls in per capita GDP and loans to small enterprise, and highest rise in unemployment. In general, bank recapitalization policy led to stronger economic performance in Nigeria with 2008 financial crisis as a breaker of progress and gains of bank recapitalization policy. Key word: Economic performance, Bank Branch, deposits, Recapitalization, Nigeria


The values of the constants in the expression for h and sigma , employed in the full and simple Philibert absorption correction procedures, have been optimized by making use of extensive experimental microanalysis data on binary systems. New values are proposed which differ substantially from previously accepted constants and which, for most systems, improve the accuracy of these absorption corrections. However, both Philibert models are still inadequate when applied to soft X-ray measurements. Based upon the present findings, some comments are made with reference to methods of averaging h for multicomponent systems and also to atomic number corrections.


Journal of Production and Industrial Engineering (JPIE) is an open access, peer reviewed online quarterly publishing journal dedicated to the publication of high quality research contributions for the production and industrial engineering community. This journal publishes original research papers, review articles and case studies. All contributions to the journal are rigorously reviewed and are accepted on the basis of quality and originality of the work. After peer reviewing process, all the accepted manuscripts are published in the nearest issue of the journal. Manuscripts will follow the style of the journal subject to both review and editing. The mode of language is English. All the papers in the journal will also be available freely online in full-text content and permanent worldwide web link.


Abstract High-temperature heat pipes are being evaluated for use in energy conversion applications such as fuel cells, gas turbine re-combustors, Stirling cycle heat sources; and with the resurgence of space nuclear power both as reactor heat removal elements and as radiator elements. Long operating life and reliable performance are critical requirements for these applications. Accordingly, long-term materials compatibility is being evaluated through the use of high-temperature life test heat pipes. Thermacore, Inc., has carried out a sodium heat pipe 10-year life test to establish long-term operating reliability. Sodium heat pipes have demonstrated favorable materials compatibility and heat transport characteristics at high operating temperatures in air over long time periods. A representative one-tenth segment Stirling Space Power Converter heat pipe with an Inconel 718 envelope and a stainless steel screen wick has operated for over 87,000 hr (10 years) at nearly 700 C. These life test results have demonstrated the potential for high-temperature heat pipes to serve as reliable energy conversion system components for power applications that require long operating lifetime with high reliability. Detailed design specifications, operating history, and post-test analysis of the heat pipe and sodium working fluid are described. Lessons learned and future life test plans are also discussed.


BACKGROUND
Both the classification of personality disorder in intellectual disability (ID) and its identification in practice are deemed to be difficult. A simpler approach to classification and its relationship to challenging behaviours were tested in an adult Jamaican population with ID.

METHOD
The study was carried out in Kingston, Jamaica, as part of a programme of field trials to determine the utility of the proposed revision of personality disorders in the 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11), in a population of adults with ID living with their families or in supported care homes. Thirty-eight people with borderline (n = 5), mild (n = 16), moderate (n = 14) and severe (n = 3) ID were assessed at face-to-face interview and with relatives or staff using the provisional criteria for severity of personality disorder and its associated domain traits, and challenging behaviour was assessed using the Problem Behaviour Check List (PBCL) (a 5-point, 7-item scale).

RESULTS
Using the severity scale 18 patients (47%) had no personality disorder, 7 (18%) had personality difficulty, 9 (24%) had mild personality disorder, and 4 (11%) had moderate personality disorder. None of the sample had severe personality disorder in which there is high risk of harm to self or others. Of the four major trait domains, provisionally named anankastic, detached, emotional and dissocial, three were evenly distributed in those with personality disturbance with the antagonistic (antisocial) trait less commonly shown (6 only). Scores on the PBCL were higher in those with increasing severity of personality disorder (P = 0.03) and those in the antagonistic personality trait domain had the highest PCL scores.

CONCLUSIONS
Despite previous difficulties in assessing personality disorder in intellectual difficulties the ICD-11 classification was easy to administer in practice in this population, and the higher problem behaviour scores in those with greater severity of personality disturbance support its construct validity.


Anodic bonding is quite popular in making microsensors since it can bond sodium-rich glass to silicon or virtually any metals with good adhesion strength in lower temperature. It is well known that this process will introduce thermal strain due to different coefficients of thermal expansion between silicon (or other metal) and glass. Yet its effects have not been well studied. After anodic bonding, either adhesive or solder joint is usually used to attach the bonded sensors to plastics or other materials. The packaging strategy will definitely influence the performance of sensors too. The effects and interactions in the process of anodic bonding and die attachment will be studied in this paper. Models based on finite element method are proposed to describe the relationship among them. The simulation results match experimental results quite well. Based on this model, the major influential factors are also studied systematically.


Purpose: To test in vivo, in a rabbit VX2 liver cancer model, a nanocomposite made with Fe3O4 core and TiO2 shell as a possible radiosensitization agent. Methods: This study was approved by the institutional ACUC. Rabbits were implanted in liver with pairs of VX2 tumors distantly enough to allow irradiation of only one of the two tumors. The tumors were allowed to grow until clearly detectable by magnetic resonance imaging, followed by Computed Tomography (CT) simulation to identify and contour the tumors. Each rabbit was anesthetized, and immobilized in supine position. Isocenter was placed during the CT simulation and the rabbit was tattooed. After the CT, each rabbit was injected with nanoparticles and put under observation until recovery. The core-shell nanoparticles were surface covered with glucose (glut-NPs) and delivered intravenously to 6 rabbits. A radiation oncologist contoured the target volumes. The gross target volume included a hepatic tumor in one lobe; 1 - 3 mm expansion was done to create the clinical target volume and another 1-2 mm expansion to create the planning target volume (PTV). The control hepatic tumor was contoured and the treatment plan objective was to deliver more than 95% of the prescribed dose to the PTV while sparing the control tumor. A certified radiation physicist created the treatment plan. Dose Volume Histograms were created and the radiation oncologist approved the plan. Irradiation usually utilized 2 - 3 beams, delivering 2 Gy as a single fraction using Linear Accelerator. All 6 rabbits treated with nanoparticles the day before (14-18h previously) and 3 radiation-only (not glut-NPs treated) animals were irradiated so that only one of the tumors received radiation. The animals were terminated 3 days after irradiation and the tumors were harvested. Several view-fields with at 3-10 x 103 cells were automatically scored using the NanoZoomer and percentage of Ki67 positive cells, as a marker of proliferation was determined in each tumor. TUNEL assay was done as well. Results: In each rabbit the larger tumor of the pair was irradiated. In no-NP treated animals that led to the fact that irradiated tumors at 3 days after irradiation generally still had greater number of proliferating cells than the non-irradiated tumor sections. Conversely, in glut-NPs treated rabbits, irradiation led to a decrease of Ki-67 positive cells compared to the paired non-irradiated glut-NPs treated tumors. Three-day time-point was better suited for evaluation of tumor proliferation changes. TUNEL analysis showed higher apoptotic cell numbers in glut-NPs treated tumors (p=0.049). Combination of radiation with glut-NP treatment showed only a mild trend for increased apoptosis compared to non-irradiated glut-NPs treated tumors, this trend was not statistically significant (p=0.53). Conclusion: These data suggest that the glut-NPs show a considerable promise for radiosensitization. Note: This abstract was not presented at the meeting. Citation Format: Tamer Refaat, Derek West, kathleen R. Harris, Vamsi Parini, William Liu, Beau Wanzer, Lydia Finney, Andrew C. Larson, Jonathan Bautista, Vythialinga Sathiaseelan, Bharat Mittal, Tatjana Paunesku, Gayle Woloschak. Development of Fe3O4@TiO2 core-shell nanocomposites as radiosensitizers. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2014 Apr 5-9; San Diego, CA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2014;74(19 Suppl):Abstract nr 4913. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2014-4913


Whilst the volume of literature concerning rubella virus has increased markedly during recent years, few authors have compared the properties of strains of varied origin and history. In the main, interest has centred on the biological characteristics of the attenuated strains of rubella and the modification of such properties during loss of virulence for man. A study of the plaque morphology in GL-RK[1]3 cells, of some 36 strains from pre and post-natally acquired infection was undertaken. The strains included laboratory adapted, highly passaged and freshly isolated material with little or no history of culture in vitro. It was found that in the main, low pass strains showed a typical small plaque form but two freshly isolated strains with large plaque type were also encountered. The laboratory passaged strains showed a range in plaque morphology from small to large which did not appear to be dependant on the tissue selected for propagation of the virus. A brief study of the influence of tissue culture passage on the plaque morphology of selected strains yielded evidence of two systems of change; the first being a gradual transition from a small to large plaque, whilst the second appeared to be closer to a selection process, the new plaque type emerging and becoming predominant. Six representative strains of rubella were selected for further study. Growth of virus and production of haemagglutinating antigen in several cell culture systems was compared and the results suggested that the previous passage history of a strain could influence its potential for growth in cell culture. The thermal stability of these strains was also investigated and the two isolates from congenitally infected infants were shown to differ in their pattern of inactivation. All of the strains were shown to be immunogenic in rabbits, and the antisera thus produced were used in cross haemagglutination inhibition and neutralization studies. Apparent anomalies were encountered with the antisera produced in response to the Cendehill strain. It was not possible to demonstrate haemagglutination inhibiting antibodies against some of the strains in spite of the fact that these were present to high titres against other strains of rubella. Examination of the kinetics of homologous and heterologous neutralization showed some difference between the strains and the existence of two particularly antibody sensitive strains.


In this letter, we present a possible extension of the theory of sampling signals with finite rate of innovation (FRI) to the case of multichannel acquisition systems. The essential issue of a multichannel system is that each channel introduces different unknown delays and gains that need to be estimated for the calibration of the channels. We pose both the synchronization stage and the signal reconstruction stage as a parametric estimation problem and demonstrate that a simultaneous exact synchronization of the channels and reconstruction of the FRI signal is possible. We also consider the case of noisy measurements and evaluate the Cramér-Rao bounds (CRB) of the proposed system. Numerical results as well as the CRB show clearly that multichannel systems are more resilient to noise than the single-channel ones.


An enantioselective Pd-catalyzed vicinal diamination of unactivated alkenes using N-fluorobenzenesulfonimide as both an oxidant and a source of nitrogen is reported. The use of Ph-pybox and Ph-quinox ligands afforded differentially protected vicinal diamines in good yields with high enantioselectivities. Mechanistic experiments revealed that the high enantioselectivity arises from selective formation of only one of four possible diastereomeric aminopalladation products of the chiral Pd complex. The aminopalladation complex was characterized by X-ray crystallography.


A new perspective on cognitive radio is presented, where the pre-existent legacy service is either uncoded or coded and a pair of cognitive transceivers need be appropriately deployed to coexist with the legacy service. The basic idea underlying the new perspective is to exploit the fact that, typically, the legacy channel is not fully loaded by the legacy service, thus leaving a non-negligible margin to accommodate the cognitive transmission. The exploitation of such a load margin is optimized by shaping the spectrum of the transmitted cognitive signal. It is shown that non-trivial coexistence of legacy and cognitive systems is possible even without sharing the legacy message with the cognitive transmitter. Surprisingly, the optimized cognitive transmitter is no longer limited by its interference power at the legacy receiver, and can always transmit at its full available device power. Analytical development and numerical illustration are presented, in particular focusing on the logarithmic growth rate, i.e., the prelog coefficient, of cognitive transmission in the high-power regime.


Radiological and scintigraphic findings in 82 patients (58 male, 24 female) were compared. The patients were hospitalised in 1981-86 with sarcoidosis (43 cases), silicosis (26), asbestosis (9) extrinsic allergic alveolitis (3), lung disease caused by hard metals (1). Gallium scintigraphy was positive in 61 patients (74.39%). More precisely, the response was positive in 57 cases in both analogic and quantitative terms and in 4 only quantitatively. The radiological (radiography and stratigraphy) finding was significant in 42 of the 61 gallium-positive cases and negative in the remaining 19. In the 21 gallium-negative cases (25.61%) the radiological finding was significant in 9, negative in 12. The study confirms the real value of gallium scintigraphy in the diagnosis and follow-up of interstitial lung disease in line with views presented in the recent literature.


Anatomical properties is necessary for wood species identification. This paper observes anatomical properties of six wood species originated from Papua. Wood species studied include: ketapang (Terminalia complanata K. Schum.); pala hutan (Gymnacranthera paniculata (A.DC.) Warb.); bipa (Pterygota horsfieldii (R.Br.) Kosterm).; kelumpang (Sterculia shillinglawii F. Muell.); manggis/kandis (Pentaphalangium parviflorum); and lancat/lebani (Mastixiodendron pachyclados (K. Schum) Melch.). Anatomical properties were observed according to IAWA (International Association of Wood Anatomists) checklist. The anatomical main properties observed in ketapang wood were vestured pits, prismatic crystals in non-chambered axial parenchyma cells, and druses. Pala hutan main anatomical properties were the presence of tannin tubes and oil cells which were associated with axial parenchyma. Prismatic crystals in axial parenchyma cells, and rays of two distinct sizes were two main anatomical characteristics of bipa and kelumpang wood. Prismatic crystals in chambered axial parenchyma cells was one of characteristics of manggis wood. Vestured pits and scanty paratracheal parenchyma were two main characteristics of lancat wood. For identification pur poses, bipa wood could be distinguished by banded parenchyma; polygonal alternate pits; and prismatic crystals in non- chambered axial parenchyma cells.


Objective To investigate the effect of puerarin injection in treating unstable angina pectoris patients.Methods One hundred and twenty-two cases of unstable angina pectoris patients were randomly divided into two groups,all of them were given the standard therapy and the group of puerarin were given the puerarin injection based on the standard treatment,then observed frequency of angina pectoris and the number of cases of disease progression to myocardial infarction.Results Treatment with puerarin significantly reduced the frequency of angina pectoris,there was significantly different between the two groups(χ2 =4.22,P0.05).There was no statistically significant between the two groups of progression to myocardial infarction(χ2 =1.03,P0.05).Conclusion Puerarin through the expansion of coronary artery can increase coronary blood flow,improve microcirculation,inhibition of platelet aggregation,and therefore reduce angina frequency and improve patient symptoms.


Fetal hepatocytes were cultured alone or in association with primitive biliary cells (RLEC) in the presence or absence of dexamethasone. Cell-cell contacts were established 3 h or five days after hepatocyte seeding and their effects on hepatocyte growth and functional activities were evaluated in the presence or absence of dexamethasone. Establishment of cellular interactions with RLEC in coculture decreased hepatocyte growth, while it stimulated production of alpha-fetoprotein, albumin and transferrin. Addition of dexamethasone to coculture inhibited alpha-fetoprotein secretion and maintained the synthesis rate of albumin and transferrin together with an additional inhibition of DNA synthesis. The levels of mRNAs corresponding to the three proteins were also measured. We observed that the levels of alpha-fetoprotein, albumin and transferrin secretion in cocultures maintained in the presence or absence of dexamethasone were well correlated with the relative amounts of their corresponding mRNAs. Consequently, it may be assumed that the primitive mechanism involved in the increased functional activity of fetal hepatocytes in coculture is of pretranslational origin. Furthermore, the present data provide evidence that heterotypic interactions and dexamethasone act as distinct modulators of growth and maturation of fetal rat hepatocytes.


Background Exercise can play an important role in reducing symptom severity and improving functional impairment in patients with posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, the precise mechanisms underpinning the effect of exercise in PTSD management are not fully understood. This living systematic review aims to synthesize and triangulate the evidence from non-human and human studies to gain insight into the biopsychosocial mechanisms through which exercise reduces symptom severity and functional impairment. Methods Independent searches will be conducted in electronic databases to identify eligible studies. Two reviewers will independently conduct the study selection, data extraction, and risk of bias assessment. We will extract outcome data and variables that can act as effect modifiers or as mediators of the effect of exercise. For the non-human studies, outcome data will include the non-human equivalents of PTSD symptom clusters. For human studies, the primary outcome will be PTSD symptom severity. The secondary outcomes will be avoidance symptom severity, reexperiencing symptom severity, hyperarousal symptom severity, negative cognitions and mood severity, functional impairment, loss of PTSD diagnosis, and dropout rates. To explain the biopsychosocial mechanisms through which exercise affects the outcome of interest, we will extract effects that relate to the impact of exercise on potential mediating variables and the effect of the later outcomes. Comparison of within-study direct and indirect effects obtained from mediation analysis, when reported, will provide insight into the importance of the examined mediator. If appropriate, we will synthesize study results using meta-analyses. We will examine potential effect modifiers of the total exercise effect to understand better the impact of exercise on PTSD symptoms and function impairment (when possible). The evidence about the potential mediators of the association between exercise and PTSD-related outcomes will be considered in a consensus meeting when sufficient evidence is available. Protocol registration PROSPERO-ID: 453615


The old methods adopted in the past by were very slow, undependable and sizable quantity of crops are damaged in fields because bacterial attacks and lack of adequate information. automating agriculture processes may likely be the solution to feed the nation in the future. Though there is still debate on its application to agriculture. The importance of food security in any society cannot be over emphasized, therefore balancing the inputs and outputs on a farm is fundamental to its success and profitability. With the increase in population index food production need to meet population growth, creating a wide gap between demand and supply of food. Data Mining is emerging research field in crop yield analysis. In the past farmers make use past yield to predict what they may likely have when farming in the current season The yield prediction is a major issue that remains to be solved based on available data. Data mining are the better choice for this purpose. Three (3) Different Data Mining techniques will be used for predicting crop yields during rainy and dry season. This research proposes and implements a system to predict crop yield from previous data. This can be done by using association rule mining on agriculture data. This research focuses on creation of a prediction model which may be used to future prediction of crop yield. It also shows that South East has the best in terms of accuracy for rainy season farming with model performance evaluation 138.9 using Decision Tree Classifier.


In this article, we discuss how to solve information-gathering problems expressed as rho-POMDPs, an extension of Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) whose reward rho depends on the belief state. Point-based approaches used for solving POMDPs have been extended to solving rho-POMDPs as belief MDPs when its reward rho is convex in B or when it is Lipschitz-continuous. In the present paper, we build on the POMCP algorithm to propose a Monte Carlo Tree Search for rho-POMDPs, aiming for an efficient on-line planner which can be used for any rho function. Adaptations are required due to the belief-dependent rewards to (i) propagate more than one state at a time, and (ii) prevent biases in value estimates. An asymptotic convergence proof to epsilon-optimal values is given when rho is continuous. Experiments are conducted to analyze the algorithms at hand and show that they outperform myopic approaches.


This study aimed to demonstrate interchangeability between 2 lornoxicam tablet formulations under fasting conditions among Mediterranean Arabs by using a newly validated high‐pressure liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry method. A single‐oral solid dosage form (8 mg/tablet), randomized, open‐label, 2‐way crossover study was conducted on 30 healthy male volunteers. Blood samples were collected prior to dosing and over a 24‐hour period, and the washout period was 9 days. Statistical comparison of the main pharmacokinetic parameters showed no significant difference between generic and branded products. The point estimates (ratios of geometric mean %) were 90.91, 96.34, and 94.86 for Cmax, AUC0–last, and AUC0–∞, respectively. The 90% confidence intervals were within the predefined limits of 80.00%–125.00%, as specified by the international guidelines. This study showed that both formulations met the regulatory criteria for bioequivalence.


Groups of immature mice were injected sc with radiocarbon-labelled alpha-aminoisobutyric acid (AIB) after being given a single sc injection of hFSH or of 0.9% saline. As an index of the transport of AIB, the specific activity of isotope was measured in homogenates of testis and of liver. FSH treatment caused statistically significant increases in the specific activity of isotope in the testes and in the ratio of testicular to liver specific activity. The effect was greatest in 9-day-old mice injected with FSH 16 h before removal of the testes. Uptake of labelled AIB was not stimulated after administration of hCG or testosterone. Doses of cycloheximide sufficient to reduce the rate of protein synthesis by over 99% did not impair testicular uptake of labelled AIB or the influence of FSH on AIB uptake. These results suggest that FSH stimulates amino acid transport into cells of the immature testis and that this action is independent of the stimulatory effect of FSH on testicular protein synthesis.


This study aimed to develop and determine the advisability of chemical worksheets based on a scientific approach to improve students' critical thinking skills. The research method uses five design research steps simplified from Borg's and Gall's research and development. The subject of this research are science education program students at one university in Indonesia. Validation subject matter feasibility on the worksheets is 4.34 (best criteria), while the feasibility is 4.17 (best standards). A random assessment from several students is obtaining an average score of 98.67% (positive response). The research results conclude that a worksheet is advisable for students. Expert opinion conveys that using a scientific approach to the problems presented in the worksheet reveals stimulates, encourages, and improves critical thinking skills.


Despite their theoretical appeal and grounding in tractable convex optimization techniques, kernel methods are often not the first choice for large-scale speech applications due to their significant memory requirements and computational expense. In recent years, randomized approximate feature maps have emerged as an elegant mechanism to scale-up kernel methods. Still, in practice, a large number of random features is required to obtain acceptable accuracy in predictive tasks. In this paper, we develop two algorithmic schemes to address this computational bottleneck in the context of kernel ridge regression. The first scheme is a specialized distributed block coordinate descent procedure that avoids the explicit materialization of the feature space data matrix, while the second scheme gains efficiency by combining multiple weak random feature models in an ensemble learning framework. We demonstrate that these schemes enable kernel methods to match the performance of state of the art Deep Neural Networks on TIMIT for speech recognition and classification tasks. In particular, we obtain the best classification error rates reported on TIMIT using kernel methods.


Visual storytelling aims at generating a story from an image stream. Most existing methods tend to represent images directly with the extracted high-level features, which is not intuitive and difficult to interpret. We argue that translating each image into a graph-based semantic representation, i.e., scene graph, which explicitly encodes the objects and relationships detected within image, would benefit representing and describing images. To this end, we propose a novel graph-based architecture for visual storytelling by modeling the two-level relationships on scene graphs. In particular, on the within-image level, we employ a Graph Convolution Network (GCN) to enrich local fine-grained region representations of objects on scene graphs. To further model the interaction among images, on the cross-images level, a Temporal Convolution Network (TCN) is utilized to refine the region representations along the temporal dimension. Then the relation-aware representations are fed into the Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU) with attention mechanism for story generation. Experiments are conducted on the public visual storytelling dataset. Automatic and human evaluation results indicate that our method achieves state-of-the-art.


This study focuses on determining the effects of demographic, socioeconomic and migration network factors on illegal migration from North Africa to Southern Europe using logistic regression model. The results indicated that migrants who thought it is easier to find a job in destination countries, had job before migration, had high level of financial situation before migration and had high level of education were more likely to migrate legally. However, migrants who had children before migration and migrated with others were more likely to migrate illegally. These findings can be useful for migration legislations in both sending and receiving countries.


Neuronal tracing methods are essential tools to understand the fundamental architecture of neural circuits and their connection to the overall functional behavior of the brain. Viral vectors used to map these transsynaptic connections are capable of cell-type-specific and directional-specific labeling of the neuronal connections. Herein, we describe a novel approach to guide the transsynaptic spreading of the Rabies Virus (RV) retrograde tracer using light. We built a Baculovirus (BV) as a helper virus to deliver all the functional components necessary and sufficient for a nontoxic RV to spread from neuron to neuron, with a light-actuated gene switch to control the RV polymerase, the L gene. This design should allow for precisely controlled polysynaptic viral tracing with minimal viral toxicity. To use this system in a highly scalable and automated manner, we built optoelectronics for controlling this system in vitro with a large field of view using an off-the-shelf CMOS sensor, OLED display panel, and microcontrollers. We describe the assembly of these genetic circuits using the uLoop DNA assembly method and a library of genetic parts designed for the uLoop system. Combining these tools provides a framework for increasing the capabilities of nontoxic tracing through multiple synapses and increasing the throughput of neural tracing using viruses.


Background: We have described an animal model of systemic sclerosis (SSc) induced by type V collagen (COLV) that resembles the human disease. The aim of this study was to investigate the early disease in the lung of this model with special emphasis on collagen deposition and mRNA collagen synthesis.

Methods: Female rabbits from New Zealand lineage were immunized with COLV plus Freund's adjuvant (FA). Animals immunized only with FA were used as controls. The animals were sacrificed at day-7, day-75 and day-210; and the lungs submitted to immunofluorescence, real-time qPCR and biochemical examination.

Results: The immunolabeling for the COL I, III and V by immunofluorescence showed an intense expression of COLV in the bronchovascular interstitium near the inflammatory infiltrate of COLV-rabbits at day-210. Additionally, morphologic analysis demonstrated that the progressive remodeling of the extracellular matrix observed in this group of animals was characterized by thickened COLV deposition with distorted fibrils. In accordance with these observations, the real-time qPCR revealed markedly up-regulation of COLV mRNA of the COLV-group at day-210 comparing with controls (p<0.001). The content of hydroxyproline was compared for COLV-group and controls at day-7, day-75 and day-210, suggesting that the day-210 group represents an early disease without established fibrosis.

Conclusions: We found an early up-regulation of COLV mRNA in the lung tissue of this experimental model emphasizing the role of this protein in the pathogenesis of SSc. In addition, our results reinforce the importance of this model, emerging promising to study the early stages of pulmonary fibrosis in this severe disease.


ABSTRACT In this article, we examine scholarly analyses of justice and develop a framework that can help assess the claims from the parties in the Russian state-led doping scandal, including, but not limited to, Russian athletes, non-Russian athletes, the World Anti-Doping Agency, and sport governing bodies. The two key components of this justice framework are pluralism and relationality/contextuality. We argue that a justice framework built upon these elements better captures the nature of justice. We conclude that no party in the Russian state-led doping case has exclusive access to justice. Rather, all the parties have legitimate calls for justice against one another. Thus, the administration of justice will fail to serve justice, in its different meanings, for all parties.


Naturalness of sound quality is essential for singing-voice synthesis. Since 95% of singing is voiced sound (Cook, 1990), the focus of this paper is to improve the naturalness of the vowel tone quality via glottal excitation modeling. We propose to use the LF-model (Fant et al., 1985) for the glottal wave shape in conjunction with pitch-synchronous, amplitude-modulated Gaussian noise, which adds an aspiration component to the glottal excitation. The associated analysis and synthesis procedures are also provided in this paper. By analyzing baritone recordings, we have found simple rules to change voice qualities from "laryngealized" (or "pressed"), to normal, to "breathy" phonation.


In this paper, new real-time methods for the lateral vehicle velocity and roll angle estimation are presented. Lateral tire forces, obtained from a multi-sensing hub (MSHub) unit, are used to estimate lateral vehicle velocity and a roll angle. In order to estimate lateral vehicle velocity, the recursive least square (RLS) algorithm is utilized based on a linear vehicle model and sensor measurements. In the roll angle estimation, the Kalman filter is designed for real-time estimation. The proposed estimation methods, RLS-based estimator and the Kalman filter, were verified by field tests on an experimental electric vehicle. Test results show that the proposed estimation methods provide better estimation performances and these methods are robust to road conditions.


Phosphonic acids encompass a common yet chemically diverse class of natural products that often possess potent biological activities. Here we report that, despite the significant structural differences among many of these compounds, their biosynthetic routes contain an unexpected common intermediate, 2-hydroxyethyl-phosphonate, which is synthesized from phosphonoacetaldehyde by a distinct family of metal-dependent alcohol dehydrogenases (ADHs). Although the sequence identity of the ADH family members is relatively low (34–37%), in vitro biochemical characterization of the homologs involved in biosynthesis of the antibiotics fosfomycin, phosphinothricin tripeptide, and dehydrophos (formerly A53868) unequivocally confirms their enzymatic activities. These unique ADHs have exquisite substrate specificity, unusual metal requirements, and an unprecedented monomeric quaternary structure. Further, sequence analysis shows that these ADHs form a monophyletic group along with additional family members encoded by putative phosphonate biosynthetic gene clusters. Thus, the reduction of phosphonoacetaldehyde to hydroxyethyl-phosphonate may represent a common step in the biosynthesis of many phosphonate natural products, a finding that lends insight into the evolution of phosphonate biosynthetic pathways and the chemical structures of new C–P containing secondary metabolites.


This article examines authorship as a socially embedded process by challenging Western notions of the autonomous creative genius. It considers social interactions between various agents in the field of literary production which in turn recovers the collective nature of modern authorship. Far from leav ing it unexamined, it further contextualises authorial collectiv ity and its role in the emerging model of authorship.


The growing world population will lead to an increased demand for food in the future. Feeding the population is considered to be the main function of agriculture. Previous literature has concluded that the share of young farmers in Sweden is too low, this is referred to as the Young farmer problem. This can partly be explained by the barriers hindering the next generation farmers from investing in farm businesses. To increase the production in the agriculture sector, young farmers need to invest in farm businesses since they are considered to be more productive and efficient than older farmers. Despite the need of young farmers, there is no previous research regarding why young farmers invest in farm businesses. We argue it is important to increase the understanding of why young farmers invest in farm businesses to emphasize the values of being a farmer and attract more young farmers to the agriculture sector.

This study aims to identify the underlying end-values of young Swedish farmers when deciding to invest in farm businesses to increase the understanding of why young farmers in Sweden invest in farm businesses. To identify the end-values, the Means-end chain (MEC) theory is used together with laddering interviews. This approach is used to identify the young farmers' cognitive structures regarding farm business investments among the 30 interviewed young Swedish farmers. The cognitive structures consist of attributes, consequences, and values. Further, the Personal value theory is used as a complement to the MEC theory to categorize the identified end-values into value-types and thereby achieve a more comprehensive analysis of the young farmers underlying values concerning farm business investments.

The results of this study indicate that the studied young farmers invest in farm businesses due to seven underlying end-values; Well-being, Satisfaction, Freedom, Safety, Pride, Selffulfillment, and Confirmation. The young farmers decide to invest in farm businesses mainly since they want to be self-employed, have an interest in farm business, and think the work is enjoyable. They see an opportunity to make money, control their own time, and develop as a person. Well-being is the most common end-value and are mainly linked to Thrive, Close to nature, and Energizing. The most common ladder is Self-employment leading to Empowerment and then to Freedom as the end-value. Freedom is mentioned by the young farmers in the context of being able to "control my own time" and "make my own decisions". This ladder can thereby be seen as the main reason why young farmers decide to invest in farm businesses, but it is of course not the sole reason.

Young farmers' behavior may be misrepresented if assuming all young farmers' decisions are solely based on profit maximization since the young farmers' decisions are affected by several different value-types. Based on the Personal value theory, Hedonism is the most common valuetype among the studied young farmers. We can thereby conclude that the young farmers' underlying values, when deciding to invest in a farm business, derives from the need of pleasure related to the satisfaction of enjoying life and achieve certain goals.

The results from this study can be used to improve existing decision-making models and contribute to a deeper understanding of young farmers' cognitive structures and behavior. Further, the results can also be useful to policymakers as a basis when developing new policies concerning young farmers. Thereby, this study can contribute to reducing the barriers connected to farm business investments among young farmers. Finally, the results can be used to communicate a brighter picture of the Swedish agricultural sector. The interviewed young farmers have a strong belief in the future. By marketing the results of this study, young entrepreneurial individuals may be attracted to the agriculture sector, resulting in a reduced impact of the Young farmer problem.


In our previous qualitative paper, it was shown that when a vertical ice surface melts into a stable salinity gradient, the melt water spreads out into the interior in a series of nearly horizontal layers. The experiments reported here are aimed at quantifying this effect, which could be of some importance in the application to melting icebergs. Experiments have also been carried out with heated and cooled vertical walls at larger Rayleigh numbers R than those of previous experiments. The main result is that for most of our experiments there is no significant difference between these three cases when properly scaled. The layer thickness over a wide range of R is described to within the experimental accuracy by \[ h=0.65 [\rho(T_w,S_{\infty}) - \rho(T_{\infty},S_{\infty})]\left/\frac{d\rho}{dz}\right., \] where the term in brackets is the horizontal buoyancy difference evaluated at the mean salinity and dp/dz is the vertical density gradient due to salinity. In the case of ice melting into warm water the effective wall temperature Tw is approximately 0°C, whereas in colder water the freezing point depression must be taken explicitly into account. A detailed examination of the vertically flowing inner melt water layer in both homogeneous and salinity stratified cases has been made. This layer and the melt water which is mixed outwards from it into the turbulent horizontal layers have little effect on the outer flow. At high R and large external salinity, however, mixing can reduce the effective salinity at the inner edge of the horizontal layers, and thus the layer scale. A puzzling feature is the relatively weak dependence of layer scale on local salinity, though the vigour of convection and the rate of melting are greater where the salinity is high. The direct application of our results to oceanographic situations predicts layer scales under typical summer conditions of order tens of metres in the Antarctic and of order metres in the Arctic. More measurements will be needed, especially close to icebergs, before the application of these ideas to polar regions can be properly evaluated.


We have investigated the effects of chemical constituents in Roundup on the steroidogenic pathway of Lymnaea palustris.  Roundup, a commonly used herbicide that is found in run offs to streams, lakes, and ponds, contains the chemicals POEA (surfactant), Diquat Dibromide (DD), and Glyphosate.  It has been established that chemical constituents in Roundup such as DD and Glyphosate alter reproduction in aquatic animals.  We tested the effects of Roundup's active ingredients (DD and Glyphosate) on Lymnaea palustris, the common pond snail.  Specifically, we monitored fecundity and tested whether chronic treatment of snails in DD and Glyphosate would alter estradiol and testosterone concentration levels, thus providing a possible explanation for the altered fecundity.  The snails (n=12 for each group) were placed in 350 mg/L Glyphosate or 14 mg/L DD for 3 weeks.  Testosterone levels were lower in DD groups (p<0.05).  A trend of lower testosterone was also observed in Glyphosate groups (p>0.05).  Estradiol levels were moderately higher in Glyphosate and lower in DD, but these differences were not significant and hormone levels fluctuated over the course of the study.  The fecundity of the DD snails significantly decreased, while fecundity in Glyphosate snails kept pace with controls.  We further analyzed steroidogenic pathway components by conducting Western blot analysis on abundance of aromatase, which converts testosterone into estradiol.  Aromatase levels are typically reduced in DD treated snails but comparable to or higher than controls in Glyphosate treated snails, although levels are highly variable.


Abstract The aluminosilicate garnet binaries almandine-pyrope and almandine-spessartine were studied by powder X-ray and 57Fe Mössbauer methods. Refinements of the unit-cell constants along the almandine-pyrope join show that the volumes of mixing are ideal. Those of the almandine-spessartine join show very small positive deviations from ideality, which can be fitted with a symmetric model having an interaction parameter of Wv = 0.24 (±0.05) cm3/mol. Mössbauer spectra recorded at 298 and 77 K show the presence of small amounts| of [6]Fe3+. which in the case of almandine-pyrope garnets is also measurable from microprobe analyses. The amount of Fe3+ is generally less than 3.5% of the total Fe for the almandine-pyrope garnets and 1-2% for almandine-spessartine garnets. The molar volumes of mixing of the aluminosilicate garnet binaries are interpreted using a crystal-chemical model involving rigid tetrahedral rotation. The degree of tetrahedral rotation is not linear with increasing size of the divalent X-site cation for the four common aluminosilicate garnet end-members or along the solid solution binary pyrope-grossular. The vibrational entropies of mixing should be positively correlated with the volumes of mixing in the case of garnet, but the masses of the X-site cations must also be considered. The phonon density of states at low energies should show the vibrations of the weakly bonded divalent cations and rigid-unit modes related to tetrahedral rotation. Positive excess vibrational entropies of mixing along a binary could result from increased amplitudes and lower frequencies of vibration of the smaller of the two X-site cations substituting within larger and more distorted dodecahedral sites, as compared to the X site in the smaller volume end-member.


We present the results of calculations of the cosmic AGN background spectrum from 3 keV (4 × 10-4 μm) to 1000 μm. These computations make use of the measured X-ray luminosity function and its evolution, as well as fits from synthesis models of the cosmic X-ray background (CXB), to predict the AGN contribution to the cosmic infrared background (CIRB) for different models of the location and distribution of the absorbing material. By comparing our results to observational constraints, we conclude that the current deep Spitzer surveys can account for the entire AGN contribution to the CIRB at 24 μm, but these AGNs are almost all Compton-thin. In fact, the calculations show that Compton-thick AGNs are a small fraction of the CIRB for λ < 100 μm. For this reason, the most efficient method of identifying the Compton-thick AGN population is through hard X-ray imaging at energies ≳40 keV. Selection of AGNs based on their rest-frame near-IR colors will miss low-luminosity type 2 AGNs, due to contamination from the host galaxy. Finally, the AGNs that dominate the CXB must have star formation rates <100 M☉ yr-1, consistent with them having properties similar to the sources that dominate the CIRB at z ~ 1. Including the estimated reradiated emission from star formation, AGNs and their host galaxies may contribute ~30% of the CIRB at 70 μm, dropping to ~10% at 24 μm and ~1% at 1-10 μm.


Serial follow-ups of processed and recorded semi-quantitative data (bone biopsies, nerve conduction velocity, glucose A-V, etc.) have been carried out in 152 chronic uraemic patients of which 39 underwent kidney transplantation. The comparative studies have been performed in order to evaluate the magnitude of survival/rehabilitation ratio due to dialysis and transplantation. After a minimum of five years, the overall survival rate is better on dialysis. The most important determining factors seem to be: type of donor in transplantation and the nature of renal lesions and residual Ccr in dialysis. 'True' or 'effective' rehabilitation has been documented only after transplantation. Dialysis does not reverse systemic uraemic changes and the rehabilitation in survivors may be 'apparent'. Dialysis may prevent systemic uraemia, provided that starting time of treatment is gauged earlier (residual Ccr greater than 10).


This paper analyzes equivalence properties of linear distributed‐parameter systems characterized by Sturm‐Liouville‐type differential equations. The approach taken here may be regarded as an application of the method of independent‐variable transformation to those fundamental equations. In accord with the meaning of equivalence used for lumped‐parameter systems, distributed‐parameter systems are considered here as equivalent when they possess the same terminal behavior. The principal result is an equivalence theorem which establishes a general method of equivalent transformation of Sturm‐Liouville systems. The fact that we can generate any number of equivalent parameter distributions from a given one is not only of theoretical interest but also of practical importance, because it offers a flexibility in the design of distributed‐parameter structures. The derivation of the transformation function which plays a central role in the equivalent transformation is briefly described. Discussion is also given to t...


An open, extendible multi-dictionary system is introduced in the paper. It supports the translator in accessing adequate entries of various biand monolingual dictionaries and translation examples from parallel corpora. Simultaneously an unlimited number of dictionaries can be held open, thus by a single interrogation step, all the dictionaries (translations, explanations, synonyms, etc.) can be surveyed. The implemented system (called MoBiDic) knows morphological roles of the dictionaries' languages. Thus, never the actual (inflected) words, but always their lemmas that is, the right dictionary entries are looked up. MoBiDic has an open, multimedial architecture, thus it is suitable for handling not only textual, but speaking or picture dictionaries, as well. The same system is also able to find words and expressions in corpora, dynamically providing the translators with examples from their earlier translations or other translators' works. MoBiDic has been designed for translator workgroups, where the translators' own glossaries (built also with the help of the system) may also be disseminated among the members of the group, with different access rights, if needed. The system has a TCP/IP-based client-server implementation for various platforms and available with a gradually increasing number of dictionaries for numer-


Production of the second-generation biofuels based on the biomass that is not primarily intended for food production is discussed. Production economy, problems associated with logistics of raw material as well as technological aspects are presented. In a long-term perspective the second-generation biofuels are more suitable sources of energy than those of the first generation. Production of bioethanol and biobutanol from lignocellulose or diesel fuel by hydrogenation/hydrocracking of vegetable oils are envisaged in the Czech Republic after 2015.


A topological space $X$ is called submaximal if every dense subset of $X$ is open. In this paper, we show that if $\beta X$, the Stone-\v{C}ech compactification of $X$, is a submaximal space, then $X$ is a compact space and hence $\beta X=X$. We also prove that if $\upsilon X$, the Hewitt realcompactification of $X$, is submaximal and first countable and $X$ is without isolated point, then $X$ is realcompact and hence $\upsilon X=X$. We observe that every submaximal Hausdorff space is pseudo-finite. It turns out that if $\upsilon X$ is a submaximal space, then $X$ is a pseudo-finite $\mu$-compact space. An example is given which shows that $X$ may be submaximal but $\upsilon X$ may not be submaximal. Given a topological space $(X,{\mathcal T})$, the collection of all locally closed subsets of $X$ forms a base for a topology on $X$ which is denotes by ${\mathcal T_l}$. We study some topological properties between $(X,{\mathcal T})$ and $(X,{\mathcal T_l})$, such as we show that a) $(X,{\mathcal T_l})$ is discrete if and only if $(X,{\mathcal T})$ is a $T_D$-space; b) $(X,{\mathcal T})$ is a locally indiscrete space if and only if ${\mathcal T}={\mathcal T_l}$; c) $(X,{\mathcal T})$ is indiscrete space if and only if $(X,{\mathcal T_l})$ is connected. We see that, in locally indiscrete spaces, the concepts of $T_0$, $T_D$, $T_\frac{1}{2}$, $T_1$, submaximal and discrete coincide. Finally, we prove that every clopen subspace of an lc-compact space is lc-compact.


Carbon‐based nanomaterials have been developed for photothermal cancer therapy, but it is still a great challenge to fabricate their multifunctional counterparts with facile methods, good biocompatibility and dispersity, and high efficiency for cancer theranostics. In this work, an alternative multifunctional nanoplatform is developed based on carbon–silica nanocapsules with gold nanoparticle in the cavity (Au@CSN) for cancer theranostics. The encapsulated chemodrug doxorubicin can be released from the Au@CSN with mesoporous and hollow structure in a near‐infrared light and pH stimuli‐responsive manner, facilitating spatiotemporal therapy to decrease off‐target toxicity. The nanocapsules with efficient photothermal conversion and excellent biocompatibility achieve a synergistic effect of photothermal and chemotherapy. Furthermore, the nanocapsules can act as a multimodal imaging agent of computed tomography and photoacoustic tomography imaging for guiding the therapy. This new design platform can provide a promising strategy for precise cancer theranostics.


Modern databases can be successfully used to develop computer-based identification systems. In a first case study, fish larvae were identified with an average of three easily obtained characters. In a second case study, 17 fish diseases out of 20 were diagnosed directly, using an average of six gross signs of a disease. A comparison of computer-based identification systems reveals that (i) expert systems can be viewed as a very comfortable modern version of traditional identification keys, (ii) numerical methods open the way to automatic identification but depend on expensive hardand software, and (iii) modern databases represent powerful, yet easy to use identification systems.


Abstract The authors adapted a lab-in-the-field experiment emulating the dynamic extraction of a fishery to create a Web-based classroom experiment. The game includes a multi-player version analogous to an open-access problem and a single-player version analogous to the social planner problem. This game is helpful in introductory microeconomics courses to teach about dominant strategies and the consequences of resource rivalry. In elective courses, the game helps teach bio-economics concepts, including logistic growth functions and optimal extraction paths. Instructions for game deployment and creating the sessions are provided. Conducting the game takes about 20 minutes, and because the game is Web-based, students can access it from their laptops, tablets, or smartphones.


Vitamin D deficiency is highly prevalent in India and worldwide. Mushrooms are important nutritional foods, and in this context shiitake (Lentinula edodes), button (Agaricus bisporus) and oyster (Pleurotus ostreatus) mushrooms are known for their bioactive properties. The application of ultraviolet (UV) irradiation for the production of substantial amounts of vitamin D2 is well established. Levels of serum 25-hydroxy vitamin D (25-OHD), parathyroid hormone (PTH), calcium, phosphorus and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) were significantly (p < 0.05) improved in vitamin-D-deficient rats after feeding with UVB irradiated mushrooms for 4 weeks. Further, microscopic observations indicate an improvement in the osteoid area and the reduction in trabecular separation of the femur bone. In addition, the level of expression of the vitamin D receptor (VDR) gene and genes metabolizing vitamin D were explored. It was observed that in mushroom-fed and vitamin-D-supplemented groups, there was upregulation of CYP2R1 and VDR, while there was downregulation of CYP27B1 in the liver. Further, CYP2R1 was downregulated, while CYP27B1 and VDR were upregulated in kidney tissue.