We have examined the levels of constitutively active NF-κB subunits p65, p50 and p52 in the hippocampus of aged (24 months) vs young (3 months) F344 rats. Although we found no significant age-dependent difference in baseline nuclear levels of any subunit, we did note a differential response to treatment with the antioxidant PBN. While PBN significantly reduced nuclear levels of all three subunits in aged rats, only p50 was significantly reduced in the nuclei of young animals. This shows that the impetus for constitutive NF-κB activity is different in young and aged animals and may reflect a state of chronic oxidative stress in the latter. In addition this suggests a dysregulation of NF-κB and may contribute to the inability of the aged CNS to cope with insults such as trauma and ischemia/reperfusion.


Multiligamentous knee injuries (MLKIs) are devastating injuries. The energy and severity of these injuries encompass a wide range from low-energy single-joint mechanisms to high-energy polytrauma settings. Currently, there is no consensus on surgical treatment approach, surgical timing, or the return to preinjury activity levels after injury. There does appear to be a difference in the rate of return to activity and level of activity based on whether the injury was sustained during sport, in a trauma setting, or while on active military duty. The purpose of this descriptive review was to summarize current concepts related to (1) the acute management of MLKIs; (2) the effect of concomitant neurovascular, meniscal, and chondral injury on MLKI outcomes; (3) the effect of surgical versus nonsurgical treatment of MLKI on outcomes; and (4) rates and predictors of return to sport, work, and active military service after an MLKI.


The growth and miserotoxin content of Columbia milkvetch (Astragalus miser Dougl. var. serotinus (Gray) Barneby) were examined following grazing of early growth by cows at a grassland site in southern British Columbia. Grazing behavior and forage consumption of cows were observed. Growth of Columbia milkvetch was determined by measuring the freeze-dried weight of each plant and miserotoxin levels were determined by a rapid screening method. Cows had a tendency to either avoid Columbia milkvetch or to consume it incidentally with other forage so long as there was adequate grass available. As grass became scarce the use of Columbia milkvetch increased. After being grazed, the rate of growth and the toxicity of Columbia milkvetch were substantially reduced. In comparison to ungrazed plants, the aboveground biomass of grazed plants was reduced by more than 50% and the average miserotoxin content per plant was reduced by more than 75% during a 6-week period of regrowth. While early grazing may reduce the potential hazard of Columbia milkvetch to livestock, the plant is not a preferred species and may not be consumed by cattle until other forage becomes scarce. Heavy grazing intensity may, in turn, result in low vigor of bunchgrasses and a deterioration of range condition which may result in more weeds in the plant community. Clearly these aspects of management require further study.


A major objective of microbial ecology is to identify how the composition of gut microbial taxa shapes host phenotypes. However, most studies focus solely on community-level patterns and pairwise interactions and ignore the potentially significant effects of higher-order interactions involving three or more component taxa. Studies on higher-order interactions among microbial taxa are scarce for many reasons, including experimental intractability, daunting diversity and complexity of many microbial systems, and the potential confounding role of the environment. Moreover, we still lack the empirical and statistical tools to isolate and understand the role of higher-order interactions on the host. Here, we apply a mathematical approach to quantifying the effects of higher-order interactions among taxa on host infection risk. To do so, we adapt the Hadamard-Walsh method recently used in evolutionary genetics to quantify the nonlinear effects of mutations on fitness. We apply our approach to an in silico dataset built to resemble a population of insect hosts with gut-associated microbial communities at risk of infection from an intestinal parasite. Critically, we examine these interactions across a breadth of environmental contexts, using nutrient content of the insect diet as a model for context. We find that the effect of higher-order interactions is considerable and can change appreciably across environmental contexts. Strikingly, the relative eminence of different orders (pairwise vs. third order, fourth order, and fifth order) changes as a function of environmental context. Furthermore, we show–in our theoretical microcosm–that higher-order interactions can stabilize community structure thereby reducing host susceptibility to parasite invasion. Our approach illustrates how incorporating the effects of higher-order interactions among gut microbiota across environments can be essential for understanding their effects on host phenotypes. We conclude that higher-order interactions among taxa can profoundly shape important organismal phenotypes, and they deserve greater attention in host-associated microbiome studies.


ABSTRACT This paper illuminates how urban food producers contribute to the construction of food sovereignty in less-expected urban settings in the Global South. In South Africa, jobless de-agrarianisation, apartheid legacy, and rapid food price inflation are shaping the realities of marginalised urban inhabitants. Urban food movements have been critically observing these developments and have begun to raise their voices against social inequality. In this way, they offer a fertile ground to put food sovereignty into practice. While food sovereignty has become a globalised vision, it has been adapted in specific contexts to address issues ranging from the struggle against corporate power to self-determination in the agri-food system. Drawing on research conducted on an urban agriculture movement in George, Western Cape, this contribution provides a sketch of the way people propose alternative visions about the organisation of food and land grounded in everyday life.


The petrogenesis of Himalayan leucogranites remains crucial for understanding the thermal and tectonic evolution of the Himalayan orogen. To understand whether they are largely pristine melts of crustal anatexis or have experienced a high degree of fractional crystallization (FC), we present Fe isotopic data of 30 representative Himalayan leucogranites and 9 local metasedimentary rocks. Excepting three garnet leucogranites with low δ56Fe (−0.04‰–0.06‰) that are likely affected by garnet accumulation, tourmaline, and two‐mica leucogranites have largely homogeneous δ56Fe from 0.13‰ to 0.24‰ irrespective of their highly variable SiO2, MgO, and FeOt contents. Combined with observed mineral assemblages and available fractionation factors, this does not support a high degree of FC (with or without assimilation) in their petrogenesis. The elevated δ56Fe relative to the supposed source rocks, represented by metasedimentary rocks and/or metabasite with a δ56Fe value of 0.10‰, by ∼0.07‰, may reflect Fe isotope fractionation during crustal anatexis. This study indicates most leucogranites can provide robust constraints on the conditions of crustal anatexis and thus the thermal and tectonic evolution of the Himalayan orogen.


A systematic theoretical study has been carried out on the effect of sequential addition of water molecules to neutral and mono positively charged acetic acid molecules by applying first principle based electronic structure theory. Geometry, dipole moment, and polarizability of hydrated clusters of neutral and mono positively charged acetic acid of the type CH3COOH·nH2O (n = 1-8) and [CH3COOH·nH2O]+ (n = 1, 2) are calculated at the ωB97X-D/aug-cc-pVDZ level of theory. Free energies of formation of the hydrated acid clusters, at different temperatures and pressures are determined. Solvent stabilization energy and interaction energy are also calculated at the CCSD(T)/6-311++G(d,p) level of theory. It is observed that in the case of neutral acetic acid, proton transfer from the acid molecule to solvent water molecules does not occur even with eight water molecules and the acid molecule remains in the undissociated form. High-energy equilibrium structures showing dissociation of acetic acid are obtained in case of hexahydrated and larger hydrated clusters only. However, dissociation of mono positively charged acetic acid occurs with just two water molecules. Interestingly, it is noted that in the case of dissociation, calculated bond dipole moments of the dissociating bonds of acetic acid in microhydated clusters shows a characteristic feature. IR spectra of CH3COOH·nH2O (n = 1-8) and [CH3COOH·nH2O]+ (n = 1-3) clusters are simulated and compared with the available experimental data.


This study aims to give an overview of major social struggles in Latin America developed in recent years, particularly in relation to land disputes, resulting in the emergence of two distinct historical and rural movements: the Movement of Landless Rural Workers - MST in Brazil and FARC - Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. It's intended to establish to what extent these movements emerged within the context of excluded social groups, who sought in the field and through the peasant struggle, various forms of claims of rights in various social situations, resulting in diverse ways and different degrees of the use of force and violence in the countryside. Thus, we discuss to what extent the agrarian social conflict resulted in a reaction by the powers that, within a class reality, during the period of democratization of Latin American nations, from the perspective of constitutional regimes seated in a democratic state, an anomalous state police, rather than the exercise of fundamental rights such as freedom of assembly and association. Furthermore, a process of increasing criminalization of the MST in Brazil, as occurs in clashes between the government and the FARC in Colombia, contributed to a process of militarization of the repressive apparatus of the state, which doesn't contribute to the maintenance of peace and the promotion of social inclusion in Latin America.


There is little to celebrate as the twentieth anniversary of the "new Iraq" approaches. This essay seeks to shed light on the nature of the governing system that has emerged over the past two decades, and the fissures that have appeared in Iraqi politics at the time of writing. Iraq today is a vastly different place from when it last dominated Western headlines. Taking stock of the profound transformations of the intervening years is crucial to understanding where Iraq is today and where it might be headed.


BACKGROUND
Severe acute kidney injury (AKI) that requires dialytic support, a relatively uncommon complication in severely burned adults, is associated with a substantially increased mortality rate. It is not known whether milder forms of AKI have prognostic importance in burns.

METHODS
We performed an observational cohort analysis of consecutive patients with major burns admitted to the burn care unit of a tertiary-care center from 1998 to 2003. Our main outcome measures were AKI stratified by the Risk of renal dysfunction, Injury to the kidney, Failure of kidney function, Loss of kidney function, and End-stage kidney disease (RIFLE) classification and mortality.

RESULTS
AKI occurred in 81 of 304 patients (26.6%) with burns on 10% or greater total-body surface area. Risk factors for AKI on multivariate analysis were inhalational injury, catheter infection, and sepsis. Patients with AKI stratified by using the RIFLE classification had greater mortality, greater requirement of artificial ventilation, and longer durations of intensive care unit and hospital stays. Mortality was not significantly different among those with the "Risk" and "Injury" strata of RIFLE AKI compared with those without AKI, but mortality increased significantly with the "Failure" (60%) strata. In multivariate analysis, age, greater total-body surface area, inhalational injury, and the RIFLE classification of Failure were each independent predictors of death.

CONCLUSION
In conclusion, the mortality of patients with burns with severe AKI remains high and unchanged in the modern era of critical care medicine. The RIFLE classification added prognostic information regarding morbidity in patients with milder forms of AKI.


Abstract:This essay uncovers an overlooked link between literary sentimentalism and formalist theory by reflecting on the unusual contours of Laurence Sterne's Russian reception. Sterne experienced two distinct moments of canonicity in Russia, both coinciding with seminal moments in literary history—first, during the sentimental movement at the turn of the nineteenth century, when his works inspired an influential body of prose fiction, and second, during the formalist movement in the early twentieth century, when Viktor Shklovskly famously enshrined Tristram Shandy as "the most typical novel in world literature." While previous studies of Sterne's European reception have studied these movements in isolation or as contingent episodes in a longer arc, I argue that they cannot be fully understood without each other. The desire for sensibility lies at the very center of the formalist project, and the process of defamiliarization drives sentimentalism many years before its full articulation as an aesthetic philosophy. This essay thus joins a body of criticism interested in excavating the longer genealogies of sentimentalism and formalism by arguing that these particular genealogies are in fact historically and ideologically intertwined.


Archean geodynamics and craton formation are topics of much debate for decades. Here we present evidence from field, petrography, geochronology, elements and Nd-Hf isotopes for origin of micro-blocks in different geodynamic environments and their assembly by horizontal tectonics in Paleoarchean. The cratonal core in the western Dharwar craton (southern India) formed through assembly of three genetically unrelated micro-blocks: a microcontinent with oceanic plateau remnants, oceanic arc, and a section of oceanic lithosphere. Isotopic age data of these blocks and surrounding basement gneisses indicate that most of the later is coeval to or younger than the blocks. The assembly three micro-blocks marked by intrusion of hot trondhjemite magmas which drive partial convective crustal overturn, resulting in dome-and-keel structures visible in the Archean cratons. Our study reveals horizontal motion of unrelated tectonic units during Paleoarchean, but mantle plumes driven vertical accretion contributed to major crustal growth allowing geodynamic linkage between Paleoarchean cratons.


A series of radioiodinated spiperone (2'-ISP) derivatives bearing amide N-alkyl substituents (N-methyl-2'-ISP, N-ethyl-2'-ISP, and N-propyl-2'-ISP) were synthesized and evaluated as potential singlet photon emission computed tomographic radiopharmaceuticals for visualizing dopaminergic receptors. The lipophilicity of these ligands (i.e., the partition coefficient for octanol-phosphate buffer) increased as the chain length increased. Investigation of blood-brain barrier permeability in rats showed a parabolic relationship between the brain uptake index and the partition coefficient. In vitro competitive binding studies showed that the relative affinity for the dopamine D2 receptor was in the order of N-propyl-2'-ISP greater than 2'-ISP greater than N-methyl-2'-ISP approximately N-ethyl-2'-ISP. In vivo biodistribution studies showed that the initial brain uptake correlated fairly well with the brain uptake index and that the kinetics of the radioactivity specifically bound to the striatum were strongly influenced by the dopamine receptor binding affinity of the compounds. Thus, the in vivo behavior of these N-alkylated 2'-ISP derivatives involved a complex interplay between receptor affinity, lipophilicity, and blood-brain barrier permeability.


A biostratigraphical scheme for Jurassic deposits of the Shtokman Structure of the Barents Sea is constructed based on foraminiferal assemblages recovered from core samples and ditch cutting samples from five exploration wells. This study concentrates on biostratigraphical analyses and palaeoenvironmental interpretations from studies of foraminifera from the Middle-Upper Jurassic deposits, a siliciclastic succession attaining a thickness of 960m. Seven foraminiferal zones ranging in age from Aalenian to Volgian are recognised in the Jurassic sequence. For this study, Jurassic foraminifera from the Ludlovskaya structure and from two wells in the Nordkapp Basin were used for comparison. Foraminiferal assemblages are correlated between the Shtokman area wells and Jurassic assemblages from Siberia, the Pechora basin, Spitsbergen, and the Nordkapp Basin. INTRODUCTION A biostratigraphical scheme of benthic foraminifera for the Jurassic deposits of the Shtokman Structure (Fig. 1) is here described based on core samples and ditch cutting samples from five exploration wells (Fig. 2). The present report concentrates on biostratigraphical and palaeoecological analyses with emphasis on interpretations from studies of foraminiferal assemblages from Middle to Upper Jurassic deposits that consisting predominantly of dark grey sandstones, siltstones, clays and black bituminous clays (on the top) with thickness up to 960 m. Foraminiferal distribution in the southern part of the Barents Sea is based mainly on ditch cutting material from wells in the Kurentsovskaya, Murmanskaya, Arkticheskaya and SeveroKildinskaya areas. A preliminary biostratigraphic scheme from this area has been published by Bassov et al. (1984). A zonal subdivision of the Jurassic succession based on foraminifera from the Shtokman and Ludlovskaya structures was published by Yakovleva (1994a, 1994b) and Kozlova et al. (1994). The macrofossil content, mainly ammonites and bivalves, from Callovian, Kimmeridgian and Berriasian strata were studied by N.I. Shulgina (VNII Okeangeologia). The Aalenian to Upper Volgian (=Lower Berriasian) assemblages contain predominantly agglutinated foraminifera. An exception is the Callovian assemblage characterised by diverse mixure of calcareous and agglutinated species. Unfortunately, there is no information about the Oxfordian foraminifera, except in the Nordkapp Basin. Seven foraminiferal zones have been determined within the Jurassic sequence of the Barents Sea. For this study, Jurassic foraminifera from the Ludlovskaya structure and from two wells in the Nordkapp Basin were used for comparison (Fig. 1). For the first time, the Jurassic foraminiferal assemblages are correlated between wells in the Shtokman area and with Jurassic assemblages the Pechora Basin of northern Russia. These assemblages show close taxonomic affinity to coeval assemblages from the Nordkapp Basin, Siberia, Spitsbergen, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, as well as with the Pechora Basin. By this correlation, we aim to provide a more precise chronostratigraphical control for the Jurassic intervals recovered from the Shtockman wells in the Barents Sea. PREVIOUS STUDIES Taxonomy The Middle Jurassic boreal foraminiferal assemblages are known to extend in a broad arch from the Viking Graben northwards to Spitsbergen, eastwards through the Barents Sea and Pechora Basin regions to northern Siberia; and westwards to the Sverdrup Basin and Arctic Canada. The foraminiferal taxonomy adopted for this study is based to a large extent on studies of the Pechora Basin (Yakovleva, 344 S.P. Yakovleva-O'Neill, M.A. Kaminski & F.M. Gradstein 1984), western Siberia (Dain et al., 1972, Bulynnikova et al., 1990), and Central Spitsbergen (Nagy et al. 1990; Nagy & Basov, 1998). We also made a comparison with the taxonomy developed by Morris & Coleman (1989) for the northern Viking Graben. Several species reported by Morris & Coleman (1989) appear to be synonymous with species previously described by Russian workers (see below). Other important studies of Boreal Middle and Late Jurassic foraminifera include the work of Brooke & Braun (1981) on the microfaunas from British Columbia, Wall (1960) on the Jurassic of Saskatchewan, and Hedinger (1993) on the Oxfordian–Volgian of Arctic Canada. The "Practical Manual" (Azbel & Grigalis, 1991) provides a compilation of the taxonomy of index taxa used by Russian workers, and briefly descibes the palaeobathymetry and palaeoecology of the assemblages in the Arctic shelf seas of northern Russia and Siberia. Biostratigraphical Framework Biostratigraphical zonations have been established in several regions, including the Pechora Basin (Yakovleva, 1994), Central Spitsbergen (Nagy et al., 1990; Nagy & Basov, 1998), the southern Barents Sea and Franz Josef Land (Basov et al., 1989) and Western Siberia (Dain et al. 1972; Azbel & Grigalis, 1991). An informal zonation based on stratigraphically significant assemblages was proposed by Morris & Coleman (1989) and Morris & Dyer (1990) for the Magnus and Don fields of the northern Viking Graben. Our interpretations of the chronostratigraphic significance of foraminiferal assemblages from the Barents Sea wells is based upon comparisions with the Pechora Basin. Jurassic sediments are widely exposed in the Timan–Pechora region (Pechora River Basin), and are represented by sandstones and grey silty claystones up to 300 m in thickness. The sucFigure 1. Location of studied wells and sections in the Barents Sea region. Jurassic Benthic Foraminiferal Biostratigraphy & Palaeoecology at the Shtokman Structure, Barents Sea 345 cession is richly fossiliferous, with ammonites, bivalves, belemnites, ostracods, foraminifera, and calcareous nannofossils. In the area of Timan and the west Ural Mountains, these deposits are exposed, while in the central part of the basin they are only known from exploration wells. A detailed study of the ammonites and foraminifera from outcrops enabled the calibration of the foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the Bajocian to Volgian succession (Yakovleva, 1980; 1982; 1994) with the ammonite zonation established by Mesezhnikov (1984, 1989). The Bajocian to Volgian foraminiferal assemblages are unusually rich and well-preserved, and contain over 800 species of agglutinated and calcareous benthic taxa. Agglutinated foraminifera are predominant in Bajocian to Lower Callovian assemblages, and consist mainly of ammodiscids, lituolids, Haplophragmoides, Recurvoides, and ataxophragmiids. In middle to upper Callovian strata the calcareous benthic component becomes more abundant and sometimes dominate the assemblage, though agglutinated species are still diverse. Vaginulinids, nodosariids, and polymorphinids are typically common in middleupper Callovian assemblages. The upper Callovian to Volgian assemblages additionally contain aragonitic epistominids and ceratobuliminids. The fauna has a distinctly Boreal aspect and is comparable to assemblages known from Siberia, the Canadian Arctic Archipelago, and to Boreal-Atlantic assemblages from the Russian Platform. MATERIAL This study of Jurassic foraminifera is based on the analysis of 174 core samples and a few ditch cutting samples from five wells drilled by the Russian petroleum company AMNGR (in Murmansk) on the Shtokman structure during the period 1990-1994. The lithology and position of the samples are shown in figures 3–7. RESULTS Biostratigraphy The Lower to Upper Jurassic succession on the Shtokman Structure consists of sandstone, siltstones, clays, and bituminous clay with a total thickness of 960 m. The lower part of the Jurassic, which probably represents Lower Jurassic sediments, was sampled for foraminifera, but the samples were barren. Overall, about 35% of samples are barren or with a few poorly preserved foraminifera. Agglutinated foraminifera are the major microfossil component in Aalenian-Lower Berriasian sediments in the Barents Sea. Calcareous species are more common in Callovian deposits. These are also found in a few restricted horizons in Bathonian and Volgian strata. All samples collected below the Aalenian Riyadhella syndascoensis Zone are barren or with 1-3 strongly deformed foraminifera (Fig. 3). Seven foraminiferal zones are defined in the studied area. Six of these are found in Middle Jurassic siltstone deposits, and one zone is recognised in Upper Jurassic dark clays, and one zone is recognised in the Lower Berriasian (= Upper Volgian) bituminous clay (Sey & Kalacheva, 1999). The Aalenian to Lower Callovian foraminiferal assemblages are generally comprised exclusively of agglutinated species. Toward the upper Callovian, the calcareous group is highly diverse, but the number of agglutinated specimens is much higher than that of the calcareous specimens. Kimmeridgian? foraminifera are poorly preserved and include a few species, both agglutinated and calcareous. Lower Berriasian assemblages with numerous agglutinated foraminifera were found in the bituminous clay. The assemblages are described below: Figure 2. Aalenian to Berriasian foraminiferal assemblages in five wells on the Shtokman Structure, Barents Sea. Depth of characteristic assemblages given in metres. 346 S.P. Yakovleva-O'Neill, M.A. Kaminski & F.M. Gradstein The Riyadhella syndascoensis Zone. The lowest samples with foraminifera were taken from dark gray siltstones and claystones that are slightly calcareous in Well 2 (interval 2188-2170 m) and in gray claystones in Well 4 (int. 2095-2118 m) (Figs. 4, 6), where the Riyadhella sindascoensis Zone is recognised. The zone is defined by the range of R. syndascoensis (Scharovskaya). The total number of species is more than 25, and these are grouped into 8 genera. The determined assemblage includes numerous agglutinated forms such as Ammodiscus ex gr. pseudoinfimus Gerke & Sossipatrova, Ammodiscus ex gr. septentrionalis Scharovskaya, Ammobaculites lapidosus Gerke & Scharovskaya, Recurvoides spp., Kutsevella sp. Differen


BACKGROUND
Despite evidence showing that nearly two thirds of the Canadian population prefer to die at home, the majority die in hospital. Honoring a patient's wish for their preferred location of death is an essential component in end-of-life care. Therefore, for those patients admitted to acute care whose choice is to transfer to a palliative care unit for end-of-life care, it is imperative that this occurs in a safe and timely manner. The General Internal Medicine ward at this local tertiary care academic center, did not have a standardized process for transferring patients at the end-of-life to the local palliative care unit. With bed calls made between Monday to Saturday at 8am, weekday and weekend transfer times ranged between 1 to 6 hours. The aim of this project was to establish a standardized, safe and efficient patient transfer from acute care to the palliative care unit for a daily standard arrival time.

METHODS
A multidisciplinary quality improvement team was formed to analyze the transfer process. Several Plan Do Study Act cycles were tested, targeting all steps of the transfer process and turnaround time. An outcome measure aiming for a turnaround time of two hours was set as the target.

RESULTS
A total of fourteen patient transfers were included. Average transfer time during the weekday was reduced from a baseline average of 180.2 to 128.3 mins. This change was found to be statistically significant and sustained (P<0.003). The average transfer time on weekends remained stable at 234 mins. The outcome target of a 10:00 am arrival time to the palliative care unit was achieved 42% of the time.

CONCLUSIONS
This project remains on-going and early data is encouraging as it met the targeted transfer time 42% of the time. Fidelity in the process measures helped to meet the targeted turnaround time of two hours for a safe and efficient transfer to the palliative care unit and ensured patients got to their preferred location for end of life care. The goal is to expand this project to other general internal medicine wards across the organization.


This study examines an approach to model and analyze the transforming health-information system of systems. The process and architecture for the Cambodian malaria-surveillance system were modeled using the Engineering Systems Multiple-Domain Matrix modeling framework. By using the attributes of the process, architecture, and risk associated with the environment within the model, relative weights of the constituent systems were scored at each interval of time. The simulated confidence intervals of the absolute difference in the scores indicated that this approach captured the transformation of the system under investigation. This approach provides the first step in analyzing the transitional conditions of constituent systems as well as the entire health-information system, whereby informed decision-making for optimizing continuous system management is facilitated.


Solid-state nuclear magnetic resonance (ssNMR) has proved to be a useful tool in the analysis of structural and dynamic properties of proteins. However, the inherent low sensitivity of NMR hinders further advancements of the field. This thesis focuses on improving the sensitivity of ssNMR, be this through an improvement in signal to noise or an effective improvement in sensitivity by enhancing the information content. The mixed rotational and rotary resonance (MIRROR) sequence1 was employed to facilitate protein backbone assignment under moderate spinning speeds. Through the band selective nature of MIRROR, bidirectional transfer of magnetisation from the CCO site to the adjacent Cα and to the Cα of the next amino acid is possible. When applied to a 3D-NCOCA experiment this may be used to double the information content, providing correlations from CCO(i-1) to both Cα(i-1) and Cα(i). The MIRROR recoupling of CCO to Cα, is inherently low-power, allowing MIRROR to be utilised in a low-power experiment. Through this, greater enhancements in sensitivity per unit time can be realised. The longitudinal relaxation time (T1) limits the sensitivity per unit time at both room and cryogenic temperatures. To develop the use of relaxation agents for cryogenic NMR experiments, the room temperature relaxation properties and dynamics of the model protein, GB3, were explored. Site-specific relaxation measurements were used to understand the relaxation of residues in the protein and gain understanding into how this relates to the dynamics of the protein. In addition, low-temperature NMR measurements were used to investigate the effect temperature has on relaxation. The ongoing development of polarisation enhancement methods and machinery have made great progress in recent years particularly on the application towards biomolecules. However, arguably the most promising polarisation enhancement technique, dynamic nuclear polarisation (DNP) suffers from a variety of problems. Namely, line broadening effects as a result of the low-temperatures required and through doping with paramagnetic agents. Furthermore, the current method of sample preparation for DNP via the use of doping with exogenous radicals is not viable for all samples. Endogenous radicals for the DNP of large biomolecules may offer several advantages to their exogenous counterparts, including but not limited to, a greater understanding of quenching effects and polarisation transfer. This thesis explores the possibility of creating pseudo-biradicals bound covalently to a protein surface to elicit enhancements through the cross effect DNP mechanism. In summary, we have developed a range of methods that enhance the information content and sensitivity, which will provide new approaches for researchers investigating proteins using ssNMR.


Inverted-type polymer light-emitting diodes with Au nanoparticles modified ITO cathode has exhibited improved brightness from 5900 to 15,000 cd m(-2) (1.5-fold enhancement) and enhanced luminous efficiency from 4.4 to 10.5 cd A(-1) (1.4-fold enhancement), when greenish emissive polymer-P-PPV was applied as active layer. Both the experimental and theoretical results show that it is mainly attributed to effective overlapping between local surface plasmon resonance induced by Au nanopartices and excitons quenching region at ZnO/P-PPV interface, which makes originally electrode-quenched excitons emissive and increases excitons efficiency.


Compiler optimizations have been the target of research for many years. Java has received a lot of this attention due to its object-oriented nature and its many advanced features that lead to inefficient generated code. Many optimization frameworks, such as Soot, exist with the goal of optimizing Java through an intermediate representation. In this paper, we present X-JOAF which is an experimental framework similar to Soot, but deals with an untyped three-address code Intermediate Representation. This paper presents the core infrastructure of X-JOAF, and details of the transformations involved as well as the results from this experiment.


Bruce Cartwright CA has assumed the role of Chief Executive of ICAS, one of the world's leading global professional bodies for Chartered Accountants.


The reasonableness principle has come to the fore in human rights law with the entry into force of a much anticipated Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. While the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, monitoring implementation of the treaty, has maintained a similar principle in documents such as its statements, this is the first time that the reasonableness principle has been formally enumerated in human rights treaty law. The manner in which pharmaceutical corporations exploit patents in the context of the human right entitlement to access medicine is an interesting area to examine using this principle. The application of patents to medicine is controversial and rightly challenged for creating a system of innovation that prioritises profits over people. This unconscionable system is one for which activists, scholars and commentators are correctly calling for a human rights based open system of innovation that ensures access to medicine for all in need. This article, however, explores strategies that could be used in the meantime. These strategies speak to some causes of this problem related to decisions to use intellectual property in certain contexts. For example, the seizure of generic medicine en route from India to Brazil whilst in transit in Rotterdam, the use of multiple patents through strategies known as 'evergreening', patent 'thicketing' or 'clustering' to thwart the entry of generic medicine, or restrictions on voluntary licenses such as geographic restrictions that prevent supply of medicine to certain territories. At the same time, it is worthwhile noting that the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property contains provisions which could work with the reasonableness principle. Thus, this article argues, in addition to other principles advanced in the human rights community in this area, it is also possible to apply a reasonableness principle to the use of intellectual property in the area of medicine. It does so by using seizure of in-transit generic medicine as a case study with which to extrapolate the potential application of the reasonableness principle. This paper sets out an introduction, explains the practice of intercepting or seizing generic medicine in-transit, discusses the reasonableness principle and explores the reasonableness principle as a mechanism to hold pharmaceutical corporations to account in order to promote, rather than hinder access to medicine.


A fault ride through, power management and control strategy for grid integrated photovoltaic (PV) system with supercapacitor energy storage system (SCESS) is presented in this paper. During normal operation the SCESS will be used to minimize the short term fluctuation as it has high power density and during fault at the grid side it will be used to store the generated power from the PV array for later use and for fault ride through. To capture the maximum available solar power, Incremental Conductance (IC) method is used for maximum power point tracking (MPPT). An independent P-Q control is implemented to transfer the generated power to the grid using a Voltage source inverter (VSI). The SCESS is connected to the system using a bi-directional buck boost converter. The system model has been developed that consists of PV module, buck converter for MPPT, buck-boost converter to connect the SCESS to the DC link. Three independent controllers are implemented for each power electronics block. The effectiveness of the proposed controller is examined on Real Time Digital Simulator (RTDS) and the results verify the superiority of the proposed approach.


PURPOSE
To determine the feasibility of using synchrotron radiation (SR) in diagnostic mammography.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Monochromatic SR of x-ray beams of selected energies of 14-20 keV were used to obtain mammograms of surgically removed breast specimens that contained tumor nodules. For comparison, conventional mammograms of the same specimens were also obtained.

RESULTS
The mammograms obtained with SR had higher contrast and better resolution than did traditional mammograms and demonstrated excellent detail in all cases studied. The mean glandular doses at 17 and 18 keV were 1.56 and 0.83 mGy, respectively, which is compatible with the mean value of 1.41 mGy delivered with the conventional grid apparatus.

CONCLUSION
SR mammography appears to be a promising diagnostic imaging technique.


Patent foramen ovale (PFO) is associated with high prevalence of stroke and systemic embolisation. A 53-year-old man had mitral valve thrombus and PFO diagnosed by echocardiography, in addition to carotid artery stenosis and embolic events including transient ischemia attack, retinal artery occlusion and left kidney infarct. Surgical removal of the mitral valve thrombus and concomitant coronary artery bypass were performed under cardiopulmonary bypass. We believe this is the sole reported case of mitral valve thrombus associated with a PFO. Due to their embolic potential, concomitant PFOs should be closed during heart operations, and independent ones deserve interventional management in high-risk patients.


The control of the center of mass of a robot is a relevant problem in case of biped walking machines. Besides, studying the motion and the stabilization of the center of mass of a human is an important research topic in the area of biomechanics. Finally, the two areas are involved when we want to synthesize certain classes of realistic motions in computer animation. In this paper, we address some of the modelling and control problems which arise when considering the CoM of an articulated chain. In a first part, we show that the position of the CoM of a general tree-structure kinematic chain can always be represented by the end-point position of an equivalent serial open kinematic chain, the geometric parameters of which depend on the mass properties of the original structure. We then use this result in a second part, in which we describe a way of specifying tasks involving the motion of the CoM. We also propose in the paper a general approach of the associated control problem and of its implementation and give an example of application to computer animation.


Alzheimer's disease (AD) is an incurable disease, and the causative risk factors, especially the modifiable ones, are still poorly understood which impedes the effective prevention and remedy strategies. We proposed a network-based quantitative framework to reveal the complex relationship of various biasing genetic factors for the AD. We analyzed gene expression microarray data from the AD, ageing, severe alcohol consumption, type II diabetes, high body fat, high dietary fat, obesity, dietary red meat, sedentary lifestyle, smoking, and control datasets. We have developed genetic associations and diseasome network of various factors with the AD based on the neighborhood-based benchmarking and multilayer network topology approaches. The study identified 484 differentially expressed genes of the AD. Among them, 27 genes were highly expressed in both for the AD and smoking whereas the number of genes is 21 for the AD and type II diabetes, and 12 for the AD and sedentary lifestyle. However, AD shared less than ten significant biomarkers with other factors. Notably, 3 significant genes, HLA-DRB4, IGH and IGHA2 are commonly up-regulated among the AD, type II diabetes and alcohol consumption; 2 significant genes IGHD and IGHG1 are commonly up-regulated among the AD, type II diabetes, alcohol consumption and sedentary lifestyle. Protein-protein interaction network identified 10 hub genes: CREBBP, PRKCB, ITGB1, GAD1, GNB5, PPP3CA, CABP1, SMARCA4, SNAP25 and GRIA1. Ontological and pathway analyses have identified significant gene ontology and molecular pathways that enhance our understanding of the fundamental molecular procedure of AD progression. Therapeutic targets of the AD could be developed using these identified target genes, ontologies and pathways. Online Mendelian Inheritance in Man (OMIM) and dbGaP databases were used for gold benchmark gene-disease associations to validate the significance of these identified target genes in AD progression. Our formulated methodologies demonstrate a network-based approach to understand the disease mechanism and the causative reason for the AD, and the identification of therapeutic targets for the AD.


For discrimination between threonine and 18 other naturally occurring non-cognate amino acids by the class II aminoacyl-tRNA synthetase specific for threonine, discrimination factors (D) have been determined from Kca and Km values. The lowest values were found for Cys, Met, Val (D = 70-280), indicating that threonine is only 70-280-times more often esterified to tRNA(Thr)-C-C-A than are these non-cognate compounds at the same amino acid concentrations. The highest D values have been observed for Gly, Pro, Gln, Leu, Phe, and Lys (D = 1000-2000), for the other non-cognate amino acids D values are in the medium range 300-1000. Generally, threonyl-tRNA synthetase is less specific than the class I enzymes specific for Ile, Val, Tyr, Arg, but more specific than the only investigated class II enzyme specific for Lys. In aminoacylation of tRNA(Thr)-C-C-A(2'NH2) discrimination factors D1 are in the range 2-170. From D1 values and AMP-formation stoichiometry, pre-transfer proof-reading factors II1, were determined; post-transfer proof-reading factors II2 were determined from D values and AMP-formation stoichiometry in acylation of tRNA(Thr)-C-C-A. II1 values are in the range 1.8-33, II2 values in the range 1.4-22, thus threonyl-tRNA synthetase shows the highest post-transfer proof-reading activity of six investigated synthetases (specific for Ile, Val, Tyr, Arg, Lys). Initial discrimination factors caused by differences in Gibbs free energies of binding between threonine and non-cognate amino acids have been calculated from discrimination and proof-reading factors. Assuming a two-step binding process, two factors (I1 and I2) have been determined which can be related to hydrophobic interaction forces depending on accessible surface areas of the amino acids. The threonine side chain must be bound by hydrophobic forces and two hydrogen bonds. In contrast to proof-reading factors obtained with the synthetases specific for Ile, Val, Tyr, Arg, and Lys, proof-reading factors II1 and II2 obtained with threonyl-tRNA synthetase are also related to hydrophobic interaction of the amino acid side chains and the enzyme. Threonyl-tRNA synthetase examines side chain structures of amino acids in the four postulated recognition steps, for each step the enzyme uses special distinct structures or conformations of the binding cleft.


This simulation work provides the investigation of the performance active vibration method in suppressing human hand tremor. The Active Force Control (AFC) and classic Proportional-Derivative (PD) controller is proposed to control linear electromagnet actuator and applied at a 4-DOFs biodynamic model of human hand to investigate the performance of the controller. From the findings, the combination of AFC and classic PD controller shows excellent performance in reducing tremor error. The two degree of freedoms controller gives a significant improvement in tremor cancellation compared to merely using PD controller. The simulation work could be used as initial stage to study and develop anti tremor device. Key-Words: Active Force Control, Active Tremor Control


Objectives Grape-seed procyanidins (GSPs) can inhibit cell proliferation and invasiveness in various human cancers. However, the effect of GSP on pancreatic carcinoma cells has not been investigated. Methods Pancreatic carcinoma cell lines MIA PaCa-2 and BxPC-3 treated with GSP were assessed for viability by trypan blue exclusion, for cell cycle distribution by flow cytometry, for increased apoptosis by annexin V labeling, for their adhesion and invasion potential by evaluating their ability to penetrate through a matrix gel–coated Boyden chamber, and for changes in the levels of proteins involved in cellular events by immunoblotting. Results Grape-seed procyanidin inhibited MIA PaCa-2 and BxPC-3 proliferation in a dose-dependent manner and induced G1-phase arrest of the cell cycle in BxPC-3 or mitochondria-mediated apoptosis in MIA PaCa-2. Grape-seed procyanidin also inhibited the adhesion and invasion potential of both cell lines in a dose-dependent manner, which are associated with the suppression of metalloproteases matrix metalloproteinase 9 or 2 (MMP-9 or -2) expression. Conclusions Grape-seed procyanidin inhibited the proliferation of pancreatic carcinoma cells by cell cycle blockage or apoptotic induction. The invasiveness was also suppressed by GSP through down-regulation of MMP-2 or MMP-9 in pancreatic carcinoma cells. Grape-seed procyanidin is a potential chemotherapeutic or preventive agent for pancreatic carcinoma.


Regulation of gene expression involves dynamic changes in chromatin organization, where in many cases open chromatin structure correlates with gene activation. Several methods enable monitoring changes in chromatin accessibility, including ATAC-seq, FAIRE-seq, MNase-seq and DNAse-seq methods, which involve Next-generation-sequencing (NGS). Focusing on the adult Drosophila differentiated gut enterocytes (ECs) we used a sequencing-free method that enables visualizing and semi-quantifying large-scale changes in chromatin structure using in vitro methylation assay with the bacterial CpG Methyltransferase, M. Sssl, that determine chromatin accessibility. In brief, as CpG methylation is minimal in differentiated somatic Drosophila cells, we used the bacterial M. SssI enzyme to methylate CpG dinucleotides in situ depending on their chromatin accessibility. The methylated dinucleotides are detected using 5mCytosine monoclonal antibody and nuclei are visualized microscopically. Thus, the 5mC method enables to monitor large-scale chromatin changes in heterogenic cellular tissue focusing on the cell type of interest and without the need for cell purification or NGS.


The research was carried out to detect plant protection products on plant leaves using excited luminescence. The tests were carried out for the leaves of two random plant species and four typical plant protection products. The study of excitation and emission spectra (EX-EM) was carried out on the Edinburgh Instruments FS900 luminescence spectrometer equipped with an attachment for measurements from the surface. The collected EX-EM characteristics of clean leaves were compared with the EX-EM characteristics of leaves coated with plant protection products and the EX-EM characteristics of the agents themselves. The obtained results allowed for the assessment of the suitability of the excited luminescence method for the plant protection spraying measuring, including the detection or identification of inappropriate use of plant protection products by a farmer.


Mango kernel oil is one of the byproduct from the mango fruit and mostly used in cosmetic and soap industry. Hydraulic pressing is one of the ways to extract the oil from mango kernel. The hydraulic pressing is more useful for small scale processors due to relatively lower initial and operating cost. Moreover, it gives uncontaminated oil and pure cake residue as compared to screw press or solvent extraction method. The present research work was undertaken to study the different process parameters responsible in obtaining better quality mango kernels oil efficiently as well as better quality cake through hydraulic pressing. Hydraulic pressing of mango kernel was done using Universal Testing Machine and specially designed test cell. Mango kernels of kesar variety were used for the study. Before final experiments could be taken up, numbers of preliminary trials were conducted to standardize process of hydraulic pressing in context to the levels of pressing load and sample size of mango kernels. Based on preliminary trials and some earlier studies, efforts were made to study the effects of steaming of mango kernels on oil yield, oil recovery and quality of oil.


Improving the efficiency of hydrolytic acidification is critical for methane production from agricultural waste. This study is the first to apply domesticated paddy soil microbes to (DPSM) enhance the hydrolytic acidification of rice straw (RS) and pig manure (PM) to obtain acidizing fluid for anaerobic digestion (AD). At a substrate concentration of 20%, the inoculation of an RS-PM mixture (1:3) with 35% DPSM degraded the volatile solids by 48.1% and yielded 6.8 g/L of volatile fatty acids and 4.7 g/L of acetic acid after seven days of hydrolytic acidification. After 10 days of subsequent AD, the cumulative methane production of the acidizing fluid was 304.96 mL/g COD, similar (P > 0.05) to the control (318.27 mL/g COD). However, the methane production time decreased by 43.4% (from 30 to 17 days), thereby improving the AD efficiency. Inoculation with DPSM is therefore an effective pre-treatment for agricultural waste for methane production.


ABSTRACT Ribosomal RNA (rRNA) processing and maturation are fundamentally important for ribosome biogenesis, but the mechanisms in archaea, the third form of life, remains largely elusive. This study aimed to investigate the rRNA maturation process in Methanococcus maripaludis, a representative archaeon lacking known 3′-5′ exonucleases. Through cleavage site identification and enzymatic assays, the splicing endonuclease EndA was determined to process the bulge-helix-bulge (BHB) motifs in 16S and 23S rRNA precursors. After splicing, the circular processing intermediates were formed and this was confirmed by quantitative RT-PCR and Northern blot. Ribonuclease assay revealed a specific cleavage at a 10-nt A/U-rich motif at the mature 5′ end of pre-16S rRNA, which linearized circular pre-16S rRNA intermediate. Further 3′-RACE and ribonuclease assays determined that the endonuclease Nob1 cleaved the 3′ extension of pre-16S rRNA, and so generated the mature 3′ end. Circularized RT-PCR (cRT-PCR) and 5′-RACE identified two cleavage sites near helix 1 at the 5′ end of 23S rRNA, indicating that an RNA structure-based endonucleolytic processing linearized the circular pre-23S rRNA intermediate. In the maturation of pre-5S rRNA, multiple endonucleolytic processing sites were determined at the 10-nt A/U-rich motif in the leader and trailer sequence. This study demonstrates that endonucleolytic processing, particularly at the 10-nt A/U-rich motifs play an essential role in the pre-rRNA maturation of M. maripaludis, indicating diverse pathways of rRNA maturation in archaeal species.


In the last years, increasing interest has been focused on an innovative concept of Molten Salt Reactor (MSR) characterized by a fast neutron spectrum that combines the favorable characteristics of MSRs adopting molten salt fluorides both as fuel and coolant with those ones of fast neutron reactors. As a matter of fact, the Molten Salt Fast Reactor (MSFR) has been recognized as a long term alternative to solid-fuelled fast neutron systems and has been identified as reference Gen-IV configuration. Although considerable studies have been carried out for the analysis of the graphite-moderated MSR dynamics, the adoption of a fast spectrum configuration without graphite in the core is expected to notably modify the dynamic behavior of the system, thus requiring further investigation.In this paper, a preliminary analysis of the MSFR dynamics is performed allowing for the evaluation of the impact of some safety parameters (e.g., feedback coefficients and delayed neutron fraction) on the system behavior for different fuel cycle strategies. For this purpose, a simplified non-linear one-dimensional model of the primary circuit has been developed and the dynamic response of the system has been investigated with reference to different significant transient initiators, namely: unprotected transient overpower, unprotected loss of flow, and unprotected loss of heat sink.These analyses are thought to give a basic understanding of the MSFR dynamics, as well as significant indications in terms of the system safety parameters.Copyright © 2012 by ASME


No previous study in emerging economies has investigated the impact of technological dependence on business performance during the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, no detailed analysis has been conducted to study the link between the utilisation of tax incentives and business performance during these unprecedented times. Based on nationwide survey data comprising 12,361 Indonesian businesses, this study examines the association between technological dependence, tax incentives, and business performance. This paper reveals strong empirical evidence indicating information technology and tax incentives have facilitated Indonesian businesses to be more resilient during the pandemic. While demonstrating the role of tax incentives in supporting business resiliency, the finding implies that the Indonesian government needs to accelerate the expansion of digital infrastructure across the nation and encourage nontechnology-based businesses to reap the benefit of adopting information technology. These results can be used to compare with those from other emerging economies or developed countries.


Chitinases are the glycosyl hydrolase for catalyzing the degradation of chitin and play an indispensable role in bacterial pathogenesis, fungal cell wall remodeling, and insect molting. Thus, chitinases are attractive targets for therapeutic drugs and pesticides. Here, we present a strategy of developing a novel chemotype of chitinase inhibitors by the construction of planar heterocycles that can stack with conserved aromatic residues. The rational design, guided by crystallographic analysis and docking results, leads to a series of dipyridopyrimidine-3-carboxamide derivatives as chitinase inhibitors. Among them, compound 6t showed the most potent activity against bacterial chitinase SmChiB and insect chitinase OfChi-h, with a Ki value of 0.14 and 0.0056 μM, respectively. The strong stacking interaction of compound 6p with Trp99 and Trp220 found in the SmChiB-6p co-crystal structure verifies the feasibility of our design. Our results provide novel insights into developing potent chitinase inhibitors for pathogen and pest control.


Antimicrobial agents have been used in meat production for decades and its consumption is considered an key driver for the emergence and dissemination of antimicrobial resistance (AMR). However, large-scale studies on AMR changes in animal isolates since the introduction of antimicrobial usage remain scarce. We applied whole genome sequencing analysis to 982 animal-derived Escherichia coli collected in China from 1970s to 2019 and found increasing trends for the presence of numerous antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), including those conferring resistance to critically important agents for veterinary (florfenicol and norfloxacin) and human medicine (colistin, cephalosporins, and meropenem). Extensive diversity and increasing complexity of ARGs and their associated mobile genetic elements (MGEs) such as plasmids were also observed. The plasmids, IncC, IncHI2, IncK, IncI, IncX and IncF played a key role as highly effective vehicles for disseminating ARGs. Correlation analysis also revealed an association between antimicrobial production and emergence of ARGs at a spatial and temporal level. Prohibiting or strictly curtailing antimicrobial use in animals will potentially negate the current trends of AMR as the bacterial genome is highly changeable and using different drugs of the same class, or even unrelated classes, may co-select for MGEs carrying a plethora of co-existing ARGs. Therefore, limiting or ceasing antimicrobial use in animals to control AMR requires careful consideration.


In this letter, a new design of cylindrical electromagnetic bandgap (CEBG) structures is proposed in order to reduce the power supply used to control active elements in EBG-based reconfigurable antennas. The proposed configuration uses structures of discontinuous wires with defects consisting of continuous wires. To examine its performances, numerical simulations were carried out using a finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) code, for the structure without active elements. The obtained results show that the new configuration allows to obtain a directive beam in the pass-band of the all continuous-wires structure. This work has potential application for designing an antenna with a directive pattern able to turn over 360deg range


Technological progress and discovery and mastery of increasingly sophisticated structural materials have been inexorably tied together since the dawn of history. In the present era — the so-called Space Age —-, the prevailing trend is to design and create new materials, or improved existing ones, by meticulously altering and controlling structural features that span across all types of length scales: the ultimate aim is to achieve macroscopic proper- ties (yield strength, ductility, toughness, fatigue limit . . . ) tailored to given practical applications. Research efforts in this aspect range in complexity from the creation of structures at the scale of single atoms and molecules — the realm of nanotechnology —, to the more mundane, to the average civil and mechanical engineers, development of structural materials by changing the composition, distribution, size and topology of their constituents at the microscopic/mesoscopic level (composite materials and porous metals, for instance).


The Portuguese colonization of Brazil had many congenital flaws, such as the predominance of private over public interest; the fact that Brazil was the main destination for criminal exiles during the Portuguese empire; the widespread corruption of civil servants and politicians; and a relationship of patronage between citizens and rulers. All the above characterize an oligarchic political system, formed by an alliance between private economic rulers and leading State agents, whereas the people remained always aside from the important decisions.


This paper presents a novel approach to functional principal component analysis (FPCA) in Bayes spaces in the setting where densities are the object of analysis, but only few individual samples from each density are observed. We use the observed data directly to account for all sources of uncertainty, instead of relying on prior estimation of the underlying densities in a two-step approach, which can be inaccurate if small or heterogeneous numbers of samples per density are available. To account for the constrained nature of densities, we base our approach on Bayes spaces, which extend the Aitchison geometry for compositional data to density functions. For modeling, we exploit the isometric isomorphism between the Bayes space and the $\mathbb{L}^2$ subspace $\mathbb{L}_0^2$ with integration-to-zero constraint through the centered log-ratio transformation. As only discrete draws from each density are observed, we treat the underlying functional densities as latent variables within a maximum likelihood framework and employ a Monte Carlo Expectation Maximization (MCEM) algorithm for model estimation. Resulting estimates are useful for exploratory analyses of density data, for dimension reduction in subsequent analyses, as well as for improved preprocessing of sparsely sampled density data compared to existing methods. The proposed method is applied to analyze the distribution of maximum daily temperatures in Berlin during the summer months for the last 70 years, as well as the distribution of rental prices in the districts of Munich.


We report on the results of coherent X-ray diffraction imaging (CXDI) and ptychography measurements of two individual core-shell-shell GaAs/(In,Ga)As/GaAs nanowires (NWs) grown by molecular beam epitaxy (MBE) on patterned Si(111) substrate. CXDI at the axial GaAs 111 Bragg reflection was applied at different positions along the NW axis in order to characterize the NWs in terms of structural homogeneity along the radial directions. At each positon 3D reciprocal space maps have been recoded and inverted using phase retrieval algorithms. The CXDI were complemented by 2D ptychography measurements at GaAs 111 Bragg reflection probing the same NWs with respect to their structural homogeneity. Both methods provide structural homogeneity for NW1 and NW2 except at the bottom part of the NWs. In case of NW2 CXDI and ptychography show changes in the structure of the top part of the NW indicated by 60° rotation of the indicated three-fold rotational symmetry in the observed diffraction patterns and changes in the strain field reconstructed from ptychography.


The electron density function of rho (r) in a crystal determines its diffraction pattern, that is, both the magnitudes and phases of its X-ray diffraction maxima, and conversely. If, however, as is always the case, only magnitudes are available from the diffraction experiment, then the density function rho (r) cannot be recovered. If one invokes prior structural knowledge, usually that the crystal is composed of discrete atoms of known atomic numbers, then the observed magnitudes are, in general, sufficient to determine the positions of the atoms, that is, the crystal structure. The intensities of a sufficient number of X-ray diffraction maxima determine the structure of a crystal. The available intensities usually exceed the number of parameters needed to describe the structure. From these intensities a set of members mod EH mod can be derived, one corresponding to each intensity. However, the elucidation of the crystal structure also requires a knowledge of the complex numbers EH= mod EH mod exp(i phi H), the normalized structure factors, of which only the magnitudes mod EH mod can be determined from experiment. Thus, a 'phase' phi H, unobtainable from the diffraction experiment, must be assigned to each mod EH mod , and the problem of determining the phases when only the magnitudes mod EH mod are known is called 'the phase problem'. Owing to the known atomicity of crystal structures and the redundancy of observed magnitudes mod EH mod , the phase problem is solvable in principle.


In a world where information is critical to decision making, the search for information has been made easier by the ease of access to online platforms such as articles, reviews, statistics, videos, images and even social media. A growing trend and concern is green behaviour which has emerged from concerns about the sustainability and condition of the environment. A study of the content of available online information related to how consumers can be greener would be beneficial to marketers and businesses in the process of developing their strategies to address the needs of the green consumer. The objectives of this study were to determine the extent and content of the environmental information available online which is targeted at consumers and to identify who is providing the environmental information. The content of each website listed from the search engines was evaluated against criteria from a structured research questionnaire. The study was conducted in the form of a content analysis of three major search engines which were Google, Yahoo and Bing. The study found that recycling, reducing, green products and energy efficiency were the most prevelant solutions on the environmental information sites. Profit-orientated companies and educational institutions are the major providers of environmental information available online as they collectively contributed about 70% of the information available online. Businesses should align their products in such a way that they offer solutions to environmental challenges. This should further be translated and be visible in their product labels and websites. Green marketers should consider uploading environmental information which appeals to a child audience.


In magnetic confinement nuclear fusion devices such as JET, the last few years have witnessed a significant increase in the use of digital imagery, not only for the surveying and control of experiments, but also for the physical interpretation of results. More than 25 cameras are routinely used for imaging on JET in the infrared (IR) and visible spectral regions. These cameras can produce up to tens of Gbytes per shot and their information content can be very different, depending on the experimental conditions. However, the relevant information about the underlying physical processes is generally of much reduced dimensionality compared to the recorded data. The extraction of this information, which allows full exploitation of these diagnostics, is a challenging task. The image analysis consists, in most cases, of inverse problems which are typically ill-posed mathematically. The typology of objects to be analysed is very wide, and usually the images are affected by noise, low levels of contrast, low grey-level in-depth resolution, reshaping of moving objects, etc. Moreover, the plasma events have time constants of ms or tens of ms, which imposes tough conditions for real-time applications. On JET, in the last few years new tools and methods have been developed for physical information retrieval. The methodology of optical flow has allowed, under certain assumptions, the derivation of information about the dynamics of video objects associated with different physical phenomena, such as instabilities, pellets and filaments. The approach has been extended in order to approximate the optical flow within the MPEG compressed domain, allowing the manipulation of the large JET video databases and, in specific cases, even real-time data processing. The fast visible camera may provide new information that is potentially useful for disruption prediction. A set of methods, based on the extraction of structural information from the visual scene, have been developed for the automatic detection of MARFE (multifaceted asymmetric radiation from the edge) occurrences, which precede disruptions in density limit discharges. An original spot detection method has been developed for large surveys of videos in JET, and for the assessment of the long term trends in their evolution. The analysis of JET IR videos, recorded during JET operation with the ITER-like wall, allows the retrieval of data and hence correlation of the evolution of spots properties with macroscopic events, in particular series of intentional disruptions.


The current practice of neonatal medicine has been carved with recent findings based on studies and prospective or follow-up studies of potentially very severe patients who, at birth, are more likely to not survive than grow and develop normally. Thanks to a better understanding of the pathophysiology of specific diseases of the immature newborn and technical and scientific improvements in the care and treatment of these patients. Especially the introduction of antenatal corticosteroids, parenteral nutrition, synchronized mode of ventilations which are patient triggered and non-invasive ventilation, like CPAP (Continous Positive Airway Pressure) for newborns. The better resuscitation care, the knowledge about the golden hour approach and the exogenous surfactant was a dramatic reduction in mortality of these patients over the past 3 decades. Having reached a low neonatal mortality, the focus of Perinatology now also addressing the quality of life in the medium and long-term patients discharged from the Maternity Hospital.


The paper attempts to explore how the female body is often controlled by the power politics, which is discussed with reference to the Miss Nepal beauty pageant. The pageant being organized since 1994 has drawn not only ideological and ethical debate, but it has also generated street demonstrations including violent confrontations since then. Though women's wings of various politico-cultural organizations tried to stop it by organizing various protest movements, multiple forms of regional and community-based beauty pageants are proliferating in Nepal. This study primarily tries to observe the forms of body politics that exist in Miss Nepal beauty contests from the perspective of indigenous aesthetics. Secondly, it analyzes how the female body is tied with the power politics in the name of beauty pageants from the Gramscian notion of 'hegemony' and Ngugi wa Thiongo's 'decolonizing the mind'. Finally, as indigenous aesthetics is an extensive domain, this paper recommends some ways to deal with the Miss Nepal beauty pageant issues, especially with reference to the indigenous Newa: women aesthetics.


This article is the solution of practical research of the polynomial splines of two variable based on the B-splines that, on average, are related to the interpolar. These splines allow us to get simple calculating schemes which are convenient for the practical application for non-binary subdivisions.


The United Kingdom is recognised worldwide as a leader in genomics. The use of genomic technologies in the National Health Service (NHS) is expected to deliver faster and more accurate diagnoses, supporting personalized treatments to improve patient outcomes. The ambition of embedding genomic medicine in the diagnostic pathway requires involvement of the front-line clinical workforce, known as 'mainstreaming'. Nurses and midwives are the largest professionally qualified workforce in the National Health Service thus, it is anticipated that they will play key roles in mainstreaming. This study investigated the level of competence/confidence of practicing nurses and midwives to support mainstreaming and their perception of the importance of genomics in delivery of patient care. A literature review of genetics/genomics competency frameworks, semi structured interviews of lead nurses and stakeholders were conducted to identify relevant competencies needed for mainstreaming. These were then used to survey four cohorts of nurses (n = 153) across England in four consecutive years (2019–22). The confidence level of these professionals in all aspects of genomics was 2.07 ± 0.47 measured on a 5-point Likert scale (1"Low confidence"; 5 "High confidence"). Intriguingly, these professionals all appreciated the importance of genomics for their patient care (4.01 ± 0.06). Whilst the importance scores increased, the confidence scores declined at the time when major genomic transformation took place in the NHS (e.g.: launch of the Genomic Medicine Service, the National Genomic Test Directory). To bridge this gap, relevant genomic education can play key roles. However, nurses and midwives were found to be grossly underrepresented in formal genomic education courses offered by Health Education England Genomics Education Programme since 2014. This may result from the lack of direct applicability of the currently offered courses for their practice and role. Thematic analysis revealed that nurses and midwives wish to support their patients by providing more information on their condition, inheritance, and treatment options in combination with the use of relevant genetic counselling skills. This study identified easy to follow competencies for embedding genomics into routine clinical care. We propose a training programme that addresses the gap that nurses and midwives currently have, to enable them to harness genomic opportunities for patients and services.


A 36 V capable programmable gain instrumentation amplifier (PGA) is presented with sub-20 muV offset, sub-0.2 muV/degC offset drift and a common-mode rejection (CMRR) that exceeds 120 dB at all gain settings without any trimming. It is the first 36 V capable precision PGA implemented in a high-voltage CMOS process, which, in addition, incorporates several additional functions, such as the detection of input and output fault conditions, provisions for improving system-level settling time and an input switch network. All op-amps used in the PGA employ chopper stabilization with a notch filter that removes chopping glitches, leading to low offset and drift and no 1/f noise. The PGA has a total of 22 gain steps (binary steps between 1/8 to 128, each with an optional multiplying factor of 1 or 1.375) with better than 0.1% gain accuracy, < 0.001% nonlinearity and sub-2 ppm/C gain drift. The input switch network, in addition to acting as a 2-channel multiplexer, also enables various system-level diagnostic features. The PGA is implemented in a 0.35 mum CMOS process with a 36 V extension, has a 3.6 times 2.4 mm chip area and consumes a total quiescent current of 3 mA.


Vascular calcification predicts atherosclerotic plaque rupture and cardiovascular events. Retrospective studies of women taking bisphosphonates (BiP), a proposed therapy for vascular calcification, paradoxically increased risk in patients with prior acute events but decreased risk in other patients. We recently demonstrated that calcifying extracellular vesicles (EV) released by cells within the plaque aggregate and nucleate calcific mineral. We hypothesize that BiP block EV aggregation and modify existing mineral growth, potentially altering microcalcification morphology and the resultant risk of plaque rupture. 3D collagen hydrogels incubated with calcifying EV modeled fibrous cap calcification, serving as a platform to image mineral nucleation and test potential therapies for vascular calcification. This study visualized EV aggregation and formation of stress-inducing microcalcifications at single-EV resolution, via scanning electron microscopy. Finite element analysis (FEA) of a representative microcalcification formed in the 3D platform predicted a consequential 350% increase in fibrous cap tensile stress (Figure, red color). Energy-dispersive x-ray spectroscopy (EDS) confirmed that EV aggregates contained calcium and phosphorous. BiP (ibandronate) treatment added on day 0 decreased the size (21.5 μm 2 vs. 14.2 μm 2 ) and EDS-detected calcium (4.32% by weight (wt%) vs. 2.36 wt%) and phosphorous (4.26 wt% vs. 1.94 wt%) comprising EV aggregates measured on day 8. However, an increase in mineral was measured when BiP was added at later time points (Graph). BiP treatment altered microcalcification morphology in a time-dependent manner. These findings support our hypothesis that BiP alter EV-driven calcification, which may help explain confounding clinical data. The study confirmed that our 3D hydrogel is a viable platform to study EV-mediated mineral nucleation and evaluate potential therapies for cardiovascular calcification.


The purpose of this paper has been to develop the theoretical treatment of the triboexcitation mechanisms due to the electric field effect and the pressure effect and to show how to analyze the triboluminescent spectra to determine the external factors that affect or induce the triboluminescence.


Noradrenaline (NA), dopamine (DA), and adrenaline (A) concentrations were determined by means of a specific and sensitive radioenzymatic method in plasma, CSF, and urine of schizophrenic patients and in a group of age- and sex-matched controls without history of mental disorder. NA levels were found to be significantly increased both in plasma and CSF of schizophrenics, particularly in paranoids. The increase in plasma NA concentration can probably be ascribed to the higher unspecific arousal level of these patients, whereas the increase of CSF NA levels probably reflects a rise of central noradrenergic activity. The physiopathological significance of this overactivity, however, is questionable.


The credit card market has witnessed tremendous growth resulting from a paradigm shift in technology. The genuine usage of credit cards as a form of convenience has diverged to overspending, irresponsibility, revolving liability and bankruptcy. This implies that possession of credit cards has brought about a change in users' repayment behavior. Thus, this study aims to determine academicians' credit card repayment pattern in a private tertiary institution in Malaysia. The dependent variable is the repayment pattern and the independent variables that serve as the attributes include personal attitude and spending pattern, while, gender and parenthood serve as the moderating variables. Findings revealed that personal attitude and spending pattern were important attributes in determining the repayment pattern among the academicians. Gender and parenthood were found to play a moderating role in the repayment pattern. Findings from this study is expected to facilitate the government and credit card companies to work towards nurturing a financially healthier and informed society, and also to  each out positively to the younger generations through the influence of the academicians.


Daytime Running Lights (DRL) on motorcycles have been shown to counteract the inherently lower sensory conspicuity of these vehicles and to significantly improve their safety. The advantage of the use of DRL exclusively by motorcycles is presently becoming lost by the increasing use of DRLs on cars. The present experiment aimed at evaluating the effects of car DRLs on motorcycle perception in a situation that specifically brought attentional conspicuity to bear. Photographs representing complex urban traffic scenes were displayed to 24 participants who were asked to detect vulnerable road users (motorcyclists, bicyclists, pedestrians) appearing at different locations and distances. Car DRLs noticeably hampered motorcycle perception compared to conditions where car lights were not on, especially when the motorcycle was at a greater distance from the observer and when it was located in the central part of the visual scene. Car DRLs were also detrimental to the perception of bicyclists and pedestrians. These findings suggest that more attention should be paid to motorcyclists and other vulnerable road users when introducing car DRLs. Several means of improving motorcycle conspicuity in car DRL environments are discussed.


ABSTRACT Since Lithuania's independence in 1991, sixteen banks in the country have gone bankrupt. From 2011 to 2013 two banks-the fifth and sixth largest banks in the country- went bankrupt and three credit unions collapsed. One more credit union collapsed in 2014. One of the questions not yet posed in the context of this crisis of financial institutions in Lithuania is the question: "Where were the lawyers?" This article focuses on a comparative analysis of the regulation and practice of the legal profession in considering whether and how outside and inside bank and corporate lawyers can be effective gatekeepers, foreseeing, preventing, and mitigating such collapses. This comparative research concludes with propositions for changing legal profession regulations as well as lawyers' and corporate officers' education.


The ability to access several datasets concurrently on heterogeneous storage devices is becoming increasingly important for data-intensive applications, including database, data mining, and data visualization systems. The basic problem faced by applications is that while datasets can reside on a variety of storage systems such as secondary, tertiary, and network storage, the CPU can only operate on memory-resident data. Practical solutions are required to allow applications to move datasets from heterogeneous storage devices into memory and back to the devices while maximizing data transfer efficiency and minimizing the amount of time the CPU waits for I/O.
A key factor in achieving high data transfer efficiency is to exploit I/O concurrency. The continually increasing performance gap between CPUs and storage devices has made it imperative for the computer system to perform data transfers on several storage devices concurrently. Operating systems have traditionally attempted to increase I/O concurrency and reduce the amount of time the CPU waits for I/O by overlapping the CPU processing of one application with the I/Os of another (inter-application I/O concurrency). An alternative is to overlap the CPU processing of a single application with its own data transfers (intra-application I/O concurrency). Current trends in computing technology are making the latter approach increasingly important. The transition of processing from the mainframe to the desktop, changes in processor and storage device technologies, and the emergence of the World Wide Web are all contributing to the shift in the nature of I/O concurrency.
The goal of the research presented in this thesis is to explore data buffering mechanisms and policies which allow applications to exploit I/O concurrency on heterogeneous storage devices. The central theme of the research is application-driven I/O concurrency. The first part of this thesis focuses on the performance characteristics of storage devices and I/O interfaces. Next, we describe a buffer management system which allows applications to access data on heterogeneous devices efficiently, concurrently, and uniformly. In the third part of the thesis, we examine three applications which use the buffer manager: the DEVise data visualization system, a file sorting application, and a relational join.


Background: Stillbirth is common with 1 in 200 babies born dead. The stillbirth rate has remained generally constant since 2000.  In addition to physical effects, stillbirth often has profound emotional, psychiatric and social effects on parents and family. Objective: To study the maternal and fetal risk factors related to stillbirth. Study Design: It was a retrospective audit of stillbirths. Settings: Department of obstetrics and gynecology unit-III, Jinnah hospital Lahore. Duration: Two years from January 2014 to December 2015. Methodology: A total of 322 patients who had stillbirths > 28 weeks of gestation were included in the study. Information regarding patient's demographic data, antepartum and intrapartum events was recorded on specially designed proforma. Results: Mean maternal age was 27.1+ 5.3 years. Un- Booked cases constituted 73.2 % (n=236) while 26.7% (n=86) were booked. Mean gestational age was 33.6 + 3.6 weeks while mean birth weight was 2.26 + 1.1 kg. Frequency of male stillborn was higher i.e., 51.53% (n=168) than females i.e., 48.4% (n=158). Fetal hydrops was there in 1.24% (n=4) cases while 2.1% (n=7) had gross congenital anomalies. Breech presentation was there in 3.72% (n=12) and 2.48% (n=8) had neglected transverse lie. No cause could be identified in 22.3% (n=72) of cases. Preterm delivery occurred in 66.77% (n=215) while 21.4% (n= 69) had Pre-prom. Hypertension could be identified in 24.5% (n=79) of cases while 16.4% (n=53) had placental abruption. Low birth weight was noted in 54.3% (n=175) while inadvertent use of oxytocic drugs was there in 23.6% (n=76) cases. Conclusion: Most of the stillbirths are avoidable and can be prevented by comprehensive and accessible health care to all women before and during the pregnancy and labor.


The present study investigated the influence of maternal bodyweight on adaptation after birth in near-term lambs delivered by caesarean section. One twin lamb from a heavy (>60 kg) or light ewe (<55 kg) was randomly taken and immediately placed into a warm (30 degrees C) ambient temperature and its twin then delivered into a cool (15 degrees C) ambient temperature. Continuous recordings of colonic temperature were then made followed by measurements of thermoregulation and brown adipose tissue function up to 6 h of life. Following caesarean section delivery colonic temperature rapidly declined over the first 30 min of life, a response that was greater in lambs at 15 degrees C. Irrespective of ambient temperature all lambs born to heavy ewes commenced shivering within 15 min of birth and were able to restore body temperature. These adaptations were only observed in warm-delivered lambs born to light ewes, as cool-delivered lambs failed to shiver, became hypothermic and 4 out of 6 lambs exhibited respiratory failure. Umbilical vein plasma thyroid hormone concentrations were lower in lambs born to light compared with heavy ewes. Plasma T3 concentrations remained lower in warm-delivered lambs born to light ewes until 2 h after birth when heat production and colonic temperature were not significantly different from warm delivered lambs born to heavy ewes. Lambs born to light ewes possessed less brown adipose tissue than those born to heavy ewes. In conclusion, maternal bodyweight has a critical influence on survival following caesarean section birth that is dependent on the ambient temperature into which a lamb is delivered.


There is a close correlation between long-term potentiation (LTP) in the synapses of lateral amygdala (LA) and fear conditioning in animals. We predict that reversal of LTP (depotentiation) in this area of the brain may ameliorate conditioned fear. Activation of group II metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR II) with DCG-IV induces depotentiation in the LA. The induction of depotentiation is independent of NMDA receptors, L-type Ca++ channels, and calcineurin activity, but requires presynaptic activity and extracellular Ca++. (2S,2'R,3'R)-2-(2',3'-dicarboxycyclopropyl)glycine (DCG-IV) depotentiation is accompanied by a decrease in the frequency but not the amplitude of miniature excitatory post-synaptic currents (mEPSCs) and could be mimicked by endogenously released glutamate. DCG-IV inhibited the release of glutamate evoked by 4-AP but not that evoked by ionomycin, suggesting that the effect of DCG-IV is not mediated by an action downstream of Ca++ entry. Intra-amygdala infusion of mGluR II agonist blocks the consolidation of fear memory measured with fear-potentiated startle. Taken together, the present results characterize the properties of DCG-IV depotentiation and reveal a close parallel between depotentiation in the amygdala slice and the reduction of conditioned fear in animals.


Weakly supervised grounded image captioning (WSGIC) aims to generate the caption and ground (localize) predicted object words in the input image without using bounding box supervision. Recent two-stage solutions mostly apply a bottom-up pipeline: (1) first apply an off-the-shelf object detector to encode the input image into multiple region features; (2) and then leverage a soft-attention mechanism for captioning and grounding. However, object detectors are mainly designed to extract object semantics (i.e., the object category). Besides, they break down the structural images into pieces of individual proposals. As a result, the subsequent grounded captioner is often overfitted to find the correct object words, while overlooking the relation between objects (e.g., what is the person doing?), and selecting incompatible proposal regions for grounding. To address these difficulties, we propose a one-stage weakly supervised grounded captioner that directly takes the RGB image as input to perform captioning and grounding at the top-down image level. In addition, we explicitly inject a relation module into our one-stage framework to encourage the relation understanding through multi-label classification. The relation semantics aid the prediction of relation words in the caption. We observe that the relation words not only assist the grounded captioner in generating a more accurate caption but also improve the grounding performance. We validate the effectiveness of our proposed method on two challenging datasets (Flick30k Entities captioning and MSCOCO captioning). The experimental results demonstrate that our method achieves state-of-the-art grounding performance.


To the Editor: Acquired perforating dermatosis (APD) is an uncommon cutaneous perforating disorder. It is characterised by the presence of hyperkeratotic papules and nodules and histologically, by transepidermal elimination of various substances, such as keratin, collagen and elastic ibres. It was irst described by Mehregan in 1967. There are two types: hereditary and acquired, the latter is generally associated with diabetes mellitus (DM) and chronic renal failure (CRF).1


A reduced chi‐squared test has been used to evaluate factors that affect the spatial resolving power of large array biomagnetic sensors for the brain. Realistic array geometries are used and a classical description of spatial resolving power is applied to determine when two separate sources may be resolved. Array parameters such as sensor spacing, coil diameter, and gradiometer type are varied to determine their effect on spatial resolving power. The consequences of the number of sensors is considered and a comparison of existing systems is made. The effects of the vector nature of magnetic sources on spatial resolving power is also considered. It is shown that spatial resolving power is not strongly dependent upon individual sensor diameter, but that sensor spacing is important. It is also found that the instrumental spatial resolving power as a function of depth degrades much more quickly when planar gradiometers are used, as compared to axial gradiometers.


Aim of the study Liver regeneration is one of the essential fields of regenerative medicine as a branch of tissue engineering and molecular biology that draws global researchers' attention. This study aims to conduct a systematic review and meta-analysis on the high-throughput gene expression microarray dataset of liver regeneration on the NCBI-GEO database to identify the significant genes and signaling pathways and confirm the genes from literature studies on associated diseases. Material and methods We thoroughly searched the NCBI-GEO database to retrieve and screen the GEO microarray datasets' contents. Due to the inclusion of different species in eligible GEO datasets in the meta-analysis, the list of significant genes for the random-effects model were identified. Moreover, we carried out detailed gene analyses for three main gene ontology components and the KEGG signaling pathway. Furthermore, we investigated the possibility of genes' association with liver cancer through the Kaplan-Meier plot. Results The random-effects model from six eligible GEO datasets identified 71 genes with eight down-regulated and 63 up-regulated genes. The target genes are involved in various cellular functions such as cell proliferation, cell death, and cell cycle control. Finally, we noted that 58 out of 71 genes are associated with different types of diseases related explicitly to other liver and inflammation diseases. Conclusions The current study assessed various GEO datasets at the early stages of liver regeneration with promising results. The present systematic review and meta-analysis results are beneficial for future novel drug design and discovery specifically for patients in the liver transplantation process.


Abstract The first unique genus of ringtail possums from the Riversleigh World Heritage Area in Australia is diagnosed and described. Gawinga aranaea is the type and only species of the new genus and is known from nine isolated lower molars. It has been recovered from three Riversleigh deposits: two are of early to mid-Miocene age, while the age of the other has yet to be determined. The new possum is larger than Oligo-Miocene species of Paljara, Pildra, and Marlu, but smaller than most extant taxa. It is characterised by a distinctive lower molar cusp morphology of parallel ridges extending primarily from the cristid obliqua, filling the occlusal basins. Additional autapomorphies include: extended, shelflike protostylid cristids and a bisected posthypocristid on m1, and posterior molars that have a metaconid ridge posterobuccal to the metaconid and an anteriorly positioned protoconid relative to the metaconid. It also possesses an enlarged protostylid on m1, a feature otherwise known only in extant genera. The precise phylogenetic position of Gawinga within the pseudocheirid radiation has yet to be determined, but it is tentatively identified here to be a highly derived pseudocheirid, apomorphic with respect to Paljara and Pildra species, and with no known descendants.


There has been considerable growth in research on correctional staff. This literature has shown that correctional staff affects the workplace and the correctional workplace affects staff. While many areas of working in institutional corrections have been explored, there are many other areas that still need to be investigated. This study examined the relationship between organizational citizenship behaviors and job satisfaction, turnover intent, life satisfaction, and job burnout. Organizational citizenship behaviors are efforts by employees above and beyond what is expected. Using survey data from 160 correctional staff from a Midwestern prison, organizational citizenship behaviors had a significant positive relationship with job satisfaction and life satisfaction, and a significant negative relationship with turnover intent and the three areas of job burnout of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and perceived ineffectiveness at work.


Abstract Organic sea surface films are often indicators of surface and subsurface processes that influence their formation and their spatial and temporal distribution. The films modify the physics of the sea surface and influence remotely sensed optical and microwave imagery. Natural sea surface films have been detected, charted, and characterized by measurements of the short-gravity spectra of wind waves during three experimental periods, one in the Sicilian Channel, and two in the Gulf of Maine. Wind wave spectra with and without organic films were measured in situ with a microwave probe. These spectra were analyzed to characterize the elasticity moduli of the wave modulating films using a recently developed theory. Theory and experiment are in good agreement. It has been demonstrated that the microwave probe can detect the presence of sea surface films and their visco-elastic properties by the measurement of their wave-modulating effects. The data collected by this system can possibly be further interp...


A further observation of interest is that an increase in the plasma of material metachromatically reacting with azure A is associated with alimentary lipaemia. This may or may not be heparin (we have not yet identified it), but it is bound to lipo-protein and usually cannot be detected in native plasma (cf. heparin, according lo Jaques5) but only in plasma after ether-extraction in the cold (below -250 C.). The relationship of this metachromatic material to heparin and/or heparin-activated " clearing factor" is a matter for further study. The appearance of this material in the plasma makes me wonder if there is not perhaps a link between this observation and that of Shoulders and Meng.6 These workers found that intraperitoneal injection of lipid emulsions caused disruption of the peritoneal mast cells. The active factor was possibly a phosphatide. It is tempting to speculate whether the effect of alimentary lipaemia on the mast cells of the blood vessel walls may not be similar, with a release of metachromatically reacting substances into the plasma. It may depend on the composition of the chylomicrons and lipoproteins composing the lipaemia, especially in respect of phosphatides, whether such material is released. An analogy may perhaps be seen to the non-specific serum inhibitor of hyaluronidase of Glick,' which is apparently a heparinlipoprotein complex, believed to be derived from the mast cell. Indeed, certain similarities of behaviour raise the question whether these inhibitors may not be identical. It is my belief that the "non-specific" lipoprotein inhibitors of enzymes (especially proteases) play vital roles in many physiological processes ranging from the fertilization of the egg to the control of protein synthesis in the cell. I think these observations and speculations may have a bearing on the pathogenesis of coronary thrombosis and the role of dietary fats therein and are put forward to stimulate discussion and to attempt to suggest directions other than the old, very well-worn paths along which research on this subject is largely being pursued.-I am, etc., Johannesburg, S. Africa. H. B. W. GREIG.


Objectives Since 2009 new regulations of periodic examination have been established to help improve the health quality of workers and the surveillance for their health hazard which can affect their general health problem. As a result, the examination varies from one industry to another.The aim of this study:To survey the general health problems of the transportation/logistics workers. Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted during 2010 among workers. Data was collected through periodic examination, blood test and chest X-ray. Results A total of 3180 people participated in the study (2450 males, 730 females). Results showed that the top 3 health problems were hypercholesterolemia, abnormal body mass index and hypertension. The report of hypercholesterolemia were 2127 (67%), 1047 (49.2% of this group) had high LDL. There were 1203 (56.5%) who had low HDL. The second problem was abnormal BMI. There were 1429 (44.9%) who were overweight, 420 (13.3%) with obesity BMI. Based on a 12-year cohort study of diabetes that has been conducted among Thai population, it could be predicted that this company will contribute to having about 335 new cases of DM in the next 10 years. For hypertension, there were 1235 (38.8%) who were diagnosed with this. The screening chest x-ray was done in this study and there were 423 (13.3%) with abnormal results, for example, fibrosis, lung infiltration in upper lobes. Conclusions This study shows that prevalence of general health problems of Thai workers does not differ from those among normal population. Education for prevention of chronic diseases and health hazardous must be provided.