The value of diagnostic laparoscopy to improve tumor staging in patients with pancreatic and periampullary cancer is still a matter of controversial discussion, especially with regard to whether diagnostic laparoscopy can identify patients in whom a laparotomy can be avoided due to metastases. To answer this question, all patients who underwent operations for pancreatic cancer (n = 97) or periampullary cancer (n = 30) between 11/1993 and 12/1995 were evaluated. Only 10% of the patients with periampullary/pancreatic cancer and 13% with pancreatic cancer could avoid laparotomy through diagnostic laparoscopy. Due to these low numbers, a diagnostic laparotomy cannot be recommended in general in patients with pancreatic and/or periampullary cancer on economic grounds and because of the risk of trocar metastases.


Second harmonic generation (SHG) is used to characterize the interfaces of centrosymmetric materials typically used in microelectronic/optoelectronic devices. For such applications, the materials are actually multi-layer stacks, and in this case, the SHG can be difficult to interpret and model. This paper presents the theory of the second harmonic light generated from multilayer structures. The focus is on describing the nonlinear boundary conditions at the interfaces between two different materials, taking into account the distinct contributions of bulk and interface regions. Using these conditions, it is possible to calculate the second harmonic signal from any stack of materials. In this paper, we address stacks containing silicon (100) because it is a material with numerous applications. The nonlinear polarization expressions of the surface and bulk of Si(100), according to Sipe et al. [Phys. Rev. B 35, 1129 (1987)], were integrated into nonlinear boundary conditions in order to determine transmitted and reflected second harmonic waves. An analytical validation was performed on the simple case of an air–silicon interface. For multilayered stacks, the model was compared with experimental results obtained on samples corresponding to pragmatic substrates widely used in microelectronic and optoelectronic applications.


Experimental and theoretical determination of alignment transfer cross sections for Ne*(2p53p)2p42p5 and 2p52p4 transitions induced by collisions with ground-state He at 300 K are reported. The experimental technique is based on the Hanle effect. The theory uses accurate model potential results and close-coupling quantum calculations performed at various energies in order to compute velocity-averaged cross sections. Very good agreement between experiments and calculations is thus obtained.


It is proved that Montel power Kothe spaces of the first type [5,8] have the structure of basis subspaces of the finite or infinite type invariant under isomorphisms, which strengthens authors' previous results (joint with T. Terzioglu) [18,19]. The main tools are special compound linear topological invariants, which evaluate classical geometric characteristic (namely inverse Bernstein diameters) of certain invariant multi-parameter constructions built from given bases of neighborhoods or bounded sets.


We propose an analytical model for the study of two different routing strategies in an ATM network supporting multimedia traffic flow: the multimedia virtual circuit (MVC) and the independent virtual circuit (IVC). The first strategy consists of assigning a single virtual channel to all of the monomedia streams which make up the multimedia flows; the second strategy consists of multiplexing homogeneous monomedia streams belonging to different multimedia sources on the same virtual channel. With this aim, a multimedia source is modeled as an arrival process defined as the superposition of heterogeneous correlated arrival processes, each of which models one monomedia source. In order to take into account the intermedia relationships which exist in a multimedia stream, each monomedia source is modeled as an interrupted Bernoulli process in which the transition and the arrival probabilities are functions of the states of the other monomedia sources. A finite-buffer discrete-time approach is used in order to compare MVC and IVC performance when an aggregate of N heterogeneous multimedia sources loads the network. Performance is evaluated for each monomedia source in terms of loss probability and jitter probability density function. To assess the proposed paradigm, a case study is shown.


This study investigated the physical and mechanical properties of particleboards formed of bamboo (Bambusa tuldoides) and pine (Pinus taeda) and combinations between them. To this end, panels were made, defined by the use of each type of particle (pure or mixed), being set 0, 25, 50, 75 and 100% of proportion to the dry weight, total of 36 panels. The physical tests performed were the moisture content, mass density observed, absorption of water and swelling in thickness and the mechanics were static bending test, screw withdrawal test and internal bond. The results tested for simple correlation and regression analysis. In general, panels pure pine showed better results than just the panels formed by bamboo. The inclusion of bamboo decreases mainly the mechanical properties of panels. All panels were below the minimum standards for the physical and mechanical tests, only internal bond in panels of pine homogeneous had higher values than commercial standards.


The effect of free stream coherent structures in the asymptotic suction boundary layer on the initiation of Görtler vortices is considered from both the 'imperfect' bifurcation and receptivity viewpoints. Firstly a weakly nonlinear and a full numerical approach are used to describe Görtler vortices in the asymptotic suction boundary layer in the absence of forcing from the free stream. It is found that interactions between different spanwise harmonics occur and lead to multiple secondary bifurcations in the fully nonlinear regime. Furthermore it is shown that centrifugal instabilities of the asymptotic suction boundary layer behave quite differently than their counterparts in either fully developed flows such as Couette flow or growing boundary layers. A significant result is that the most dangerous disturbance is found to bifurcate subcritically from the unperturbed state. Within the weakly nonlinear regime the receptivity of Görtler vortices to the free stream exact coherent structures discovered by Deguchi & Hall (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 752, 2014, pp. 602–625; J. Fluid Mech., vol. 778, 2015, pp. 451–484) is considered. The presence of free stream structures results in a resonant excitation of Görtler vortices in the main boundary layer. This leads to imperfect bifurcations reminiscent of those found by Daniels (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 358, 1977, pp. 173–197) and Hall & Walton (Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 358, 1977, pp. 199–221; J. Fluid Mech., vol. 90, 1979, pp. 377–395) in the context of transition to finite amplitude Bénard convection in a bounded region. In order to understand the receptivity problem for the given flow the spatial initial value problem for this interaction is also considered when the free stream structure begins at a fixed position along the wall. Remarkably, it will be shown that free stream structures are incredibly efficient generators of Görtler vortices; indeed the induced vortices are found to be larger than the free stream structure which provokes them! The relationship between the imperfect bifurcation approach and receptivity theory is described.


Currently, finding ways to effectively control the spread of Omicron in regions with low vaccination rates is an urgent issue. In this study, we use a district-level model for predicting the COVID-19 symptom onset risk to explore and control the whole process of spread of Omicron in South Africa at a finer spatial scale. We found that in the early stage of the accelerated spread, Omicron spreads rapidly from the districts at the center of human mobility to other important districts of the human mobility network and its peripheral districts. In the subsequent diffusion–contraction stage, Omicron rapidly spreads to districts with low human mobility and then mainly contracts to districts with the highest human mobility. We found that increasing daily vaccination rates 10 times mainly reduced the symptom onset risk in remote areas with low human mobility. Implementing Alert Level 5 in the three districts at the epicenter, and Alert Level 1 in the remaining 49 districts, the spatial spread related to human mobility was effectively restricted, and the daily onset risk in districts with high human mobility also decreased by 20–80%.


A middle-scale epidemic of measles was occurred in Chiba Prefecture, from the beginning of the year in 2000 to September. The Chiba epidemiological surveillance of tuberculosis and infectious diseases committee conducted an investigation of the vaccination history of measles patients, to obtain the prevailing situation of measles and the efficacy of the vaccination. This report summarized results of the epidemiological investigation of measles vaccination history. A total of 1,665 cases were reported during the period. The ratio of the under 1-year-old (who usually do not receive measles vaccine) to all reported cases was 11.4%. The ratio of the vaccinees for the reported cases was 11.8% and this ratio increased in the 5 years old or over. In particular, the 9-year-old age group (26.2%), and 10-14-year-old age group (23.3%) showed a higher ratio than the other age groups. These results indicate that early vaccine inoculation to the under 1-year old group and improvement of the vaccination rate are necessary to prevent measles epidemic. The results also suggest revaccination to higher age groups might be effective.


It has been shown that many proteins, when converted into partially unfolded structures, interact strongly with a lipid bilayer. SecA protein of Escherichia coli is an unusual water-soluble protein which, in the native form, can readily penetrate the membrane and lipid bilayer. In order to see whether the native SecA exhibits partially unfolded characteristics, the stability and solvent accessibility of SecA were studied using various spectroscopic and hydrogen-exchange methods. The results are compared with the reported data for native and molten globule forms of alpha-lactalbumin (alpha-LA), as well as those for apocytochrome c. The exposure of hydrophobic residues of SecA, as monitored by 8-anilinonaphthalene-1-sulfonic acid (ANS) binding, and the extent of amide hydrogen exchange were comparable to those of native alpha-LA. On the other hand, equilibrium unfolding experiments showed that SecA is less stable than native alpha-LA. The results of tryptic digestion and the change of endogenous ATPase activity induced by guanidine hydrochloride were suggestive of the C-terminal half of SecA being more flexible than the rest of the protein. The overall conclusion is that the SecA as a whole has a somewhat open structure due to a relatively unstable C-domain which may facilitate its penetration into a lipid bilayer.


The camera is the main sensor of vison-based human activity recognition, and its high-precision calibration of distortion is an important prerequisite of the task. Current studies have shown that multi-parameter model methods achieve higher accuracy than traditional methods in the process of camera calibration. However, these methods need hundreds or even thousands of images to optimize the camera model, which limits their practical use. Here, we propose a novel point-to-point camera distortion calibration method that requires only dozens of images to get a dense distortion rectification map. We have designed an objective function based on deformation between the original images and the projection of reference images, which can eliminate the effect of distortion when optimizing camera parameters. Dense features between the original images and the projection of the reference images are calculated by digital image correlation (DIC). Experiments indicate that our method obtains a comparable result with the multi-parameter model method using a large number of pictures, and contributes a 28.5% improvement to the reprojection error over the polynomial distortion model.


Background Web users are increasingly encouraged to rate and review consumer services (eg, hotels, restaurants) and, more recently, this is also the case for physicians and medical services. The resemblance in the setup and design of commercial rating websites (CRWs) and Web-based physician rating websites (PRWs) raises the question of whether choice-making processes based on the two types of websites could also be similar. Objective This qualitative study sought to explore the extent to which consumer decision making based on Web-based reviews is the same for consumer services (ie, choice of a hotel) and health services (ie, choice of a pediatrician), while providing an in-depth understanding of potential differences or similarities. Methods Between June and August 2015, we carried out a total of 22 qualitative interviews with young parents residing in the German-speaking part of Switzerland. Participants were invited to complete 2 choice tasks, which involved (1) choosing a hotel based on the commercial Web-based rating website TripAdvisor and (2) selecting a pediatrician based on the PRW Jameda. To better understand consumers' thought processes, we instructed participants to "think aloud", namely to verbalize their thinking while sorting through information and reaching decisions. Using a semistructured interview guide, we subsequently posed open-ended questions to allow them to elaborate more on factors influencing their decision making, level of confidence in their final choice, and perceived differences and similarities in their search for a hotel and a physician. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed using an inductive thematic approach. Results Participants spent on average 9:57 minutes (standard deviation=9:22, minimum=3:46, maximum=22:25) searching for a hotel and 6:17 minutes (standard deviation=4:47, minimum=00:38, maximum=19:25) searching for a pediatrician. Although the choice of a pediatrician was perceived as more important than the choice of a hotel, participants found choosing a physician much easier than selecting an appropriate accommodation. Four main themes emerged from the analysis of our interview data that can explain the differences in search time and choice confidence: (1) trial and error, (2) trust, (3) competence assessment, and (4) affect and likeability. Conclusions Our results suggest that, despite congruent website designs, individuals only trust review information to choose a hotel, but refuse to fully rely on it for selecting a physician. The design and content of Web-based PRWs need to be adjusted to better address the differing information needs of health consumers.


As the number of people with dementia increases attention needs to be focused on establishing effective early intervention support options. This project involves the modification, delivery and evaluation of an innovative early intervention support model for people with early stage dementia and their caregivers. The project was developed in partnership with Griffith University and University of New South Wales and co-ordinated by Spiritus, a not for profit community service organisation. This presentation provides an overview of a person and family centred early intervention model, the stages of its development and implementation and the challenges and lesson learnt during these stages. This intervention as it engages the person with dementia and their caregiver during the period of early diagnosis whilst the person with dementia is still able to participate in discussion regarding their care. The intervention encourages the development of relationships that are based on mutual regard and respect which are advantageous for both participants and staff involved in a community service delivery. The challenges and lessons discussed include service structure, recruitment, maintain intervention consistency and sustainability.


PURPOSE
Human B19 parvovirus infection may cause severe erythroid hypoplasia in patients with an underlying hemolytic anemia. We report a case of severe parvovirus-induced anemia with initial marrow erythroid hyperplasia in a child with no underlying hematologic disorder.

CONCLUSIONS
The patient's rapid hemoglobin recovery after treatment with i.v. immunoglobulin further supports this form of therapy for children with parvovirus-induced anemia.


The purpose of this study was to investigate the glucose dependency of arginine vasopressin (AVP)-induced insulin, glucagon, and somatostatin release from the perfused rat pancreas. AVP (30 or 300 pmol/L) was tested in the presence of a glucose concentration of 0, 1.4, 5.5 (basal level), or 20 mmol/L. The rates of insulin release at 0 and 1.4 mmol/L glucose were approximately 70% to 80% and 60% to 70% less, respectively, than that at the baseline level. AVP (30 or 300 pmol/L) failed to change insulin release at 0 and 1.4 mmol/L glucose. At the basal glucose level, AVP (300 pmol/L) induced a biphasic insulin release, a peak followed by a sustained phase. In addition, the combination of glucose (20 mmol/L) and AVP (300 pmol/L) induced a higher insulin peak and sustained phase than 20 mmol/L glucose alone. The rates of glucagon release at 0 and 1.4 mmol/L glucose were about 3- and 2-fold more, respectively, than that at the baseline level. At 0 and 1.4 mmol/L glucose, both 30 and 300 pmol/L AVP caused a higher glucagon peak and sustained phase than 0 and 1.4 mmol/L glucose alone. At the basal glucose level, AVP (30 or 300 pmol/L) induced a biphasic glucagon release, a peak followed by a sustained phase. The rate of glucagon release at 20 mmol/L glucose was approximately 60% to 70% less than that at the baseline level. When AVP (300 pmol/L) was administered in 20 mmol/L glucose, it induced a transient glucagon peak, which was 2.4-fold of the baseline level. At all glucose concentrations tested, AVP (30 or 300 pmol/L) failed to change somatostatin release. These results suggested that (1) hypoglycemia directly increases glucagon and decreases insulin release; (2) AVP induces insulin and glucagon release by a direct action on beta and alpha cells, respectively; (3) AVP induces insulin and glucagon release in a glucose-dependent manner-the higher the glucose concentration, the greater the enhancement of AVP-induced insulin release, whereas the lower the glucose concentration, the higher the enhancement of AVP-induced glucagon release; and (4) alpha cells are more sensitive to AVP than beta cells in hormone release.


The war, with its attendant shortage of critical materials, has led to a considerable increase in the number of tapped lines. This paper deals with the method of protecting circuits of this kind under the three headings: 1. Pilot-wire protection, a-c and d-c schemes. 2. Carrier-current protection. 3. Othér protective schemes. Directional overcurrent or network. Distance type. Three-terminal lines are classified into three types with regard to other system connections between the terminals connected by the line in question. These are further classified as to power sources to aid in analyzing limiting conditions for relay applications. Typical operating characteristics of a-c pilot-wire equipment for three-terminal lines are shown. In general in dealing with pilot-wire, carrier, and other types of protection, those problems peculiar to application on three-terminal lines are analyzed and methods given for solving some of the more troublesome problems.


An improved version of a pneumatic-tube system built by Amsco, Inc. (Erie, Pa.) and its subsidiary ATC (San Rafael, Calif.) for blood-sample transportation incorporated two innovations: The sample carrier travels at a lower speed than in the previous conventional systems, and it is decelerated gradually on arrival. This tube system was pilot tested for efficiency by running blood-filled Vacutainer tubes through the 63.6-rn (210-feet) tube 10 times, a total running distance of 636 m. Serum lactate dehydrogenase and acid phosphatase activities, and potassium, all sensitive chemical indicators of erythrocyte membrane damage, were measured in blood specimens in partially or totally filled Vacutainer tubes and the results compared with those obtained from controls. No alterations were found in serum test results after 10 or 20 repetitive cycles in the totally filled tubes, but significant changes did occur in partially filled tubes after 20 cycles. If the limitations are observed, this system appears to be suitable for blood-specimen transportation.


The purposes of this study were to clarify the role of neutrophilic proteases in the pathogenesis of hepatic ischemia/reperfusion injury and to determine whether urinary trypsin inhibitor (UTI) pretreatment attenuated liver ischemia/reperfusion injury in rats. Livers from male Sprague-Dawley rats were subjected to 90 min of no-flow warm ischemia followed by 120 min of reper-fusion. Rats were divided into a UTI group and a control group. In the control group, 120-min reperfusion of the liver produced a significant increase in myeloperoxidase activity, a significant decrease in ATP and energy charge, and a marked increase in the serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and lactic dehydrogenase levels. In the UTI group, the myeloper-oxidase activity was significantly attenuated (i><0.01), ATP and energy charge were significantly improved (P<0.01 and P<0.05, respectively), and the elevation in serum aspartate aminotransferase, alanine aminotransferase, and lactic dehydrogenase was also markedly suppressed (P<0.05, P<0.01, and P<0.05, respectively) compared with the control group. Sections through the livers of control rats showed severe hepatocyte necrosis with neutrophil infiltration. In the UTI group, there was slight congestion and hepatocyte necrosis. The survival rate after 90-min liver ischemia was significantly improved compared with that in the control group (P<0.05). The results of this study suggest that pretreatment with UTI significantly attenuates liver reperfusion injury, perhaps by inhibiting neutrophil proteases.


ABSTRACT Many of the earth's species-rich floras are fire-prone and current research is showing a key role for fire in their evolution and diversification. However the mechanisms by which fire might direct evolution at the cellular level are unknown. Mutagenesis is the foundation on which speciation is based and our literature survey shows that burning biomass may be a major source of potent mutagens in the form of heat, combustion products and recycled metals and radionuclides. Even mild heat may cause dysfunctional cell division and induce diploid gametes and genome duplication that are considered one of the cornerstones of speciation among flowering plants. Plant cell walls that undergo pyrolysis yield particulates and gases with strong mutagenic properties, among which polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons, such as benzo[α]pyrene, are notable. Plants concentrate essential, nonmetabolic, and radioactive metal/metalloid ions from the soil and air; they are fractionated even further on combustion and may also have mutagenic effects on the chromosomes of stored seeds and regenerating plants. Morphological consequences may be profound, even mimicking traits present among other species in the lineage, and hold promise that fire-related mutagenesis may provide the missing mechanistic explanation for the close historical association between wildfire and speciation among seed plants.


Structure-property correlations, which direct the formation of specific active-acid sites, in nanoporous materials have been explored with the aim to further the notion of rational catalyst design. It is demonstrated that the influence of the specific zeotype framework extends beyond modulating Bronsted acidity, with the framework topology playing a fundamental role in reaction kinetics. The structural integrity and nature of the active site has been probed using a combined catalysis and multi-technique characterisation study, aimed at optimising the sustainable production of ?-Caprolactam, the precursor of the recyclable Nylon 6 polymer. The effect of bimetallic substitution, with an aim to generate novel acid sites, has been explored using Mg2+, Zn2+ and Si4+ dopants. Through a combined CO and lutidine probed FT-IR study, the nature of the acid site has been examined and correlated to the nature of the dopants present. The presence of multiple dopant atoms has had a significant effect on catalytic activity, modulating the presence of acid sites to allow new active species to be discovered, and prompting synergistic interactions in multi-step pathways. A combined X-ray absorption spectroscopy and ab initio DFT theoretical study was used to probe the nature of the active sites responsible for catalytic synergy in Co-Ti bimetallic nanoporous frameworks. Contrasting the bimetallic and analogous monometallic species has led to the discovery of a unique bimetallic Co-O-Ti bond. The properties of this bond have been explored and contrasted with the analogous monometallic species, with specific reference to their catalytic applicability for sustainable oxidation reactions. The catalytic synergy prompted by the bimetallic substitution in the CoTiAlPO-5 material has been investigated and contrasted to the monometallic system. Specific focus was placed on the in-situ production of hydroxylamine as part of the sustainable aerobic ammoximation of cyclohexanone. Periodic DFT calculations have revealed subtle mechanistic differences between the mono- and bimetallic systems which account for energetic differences in the rate determining step of the reaction pathway.


To analyze the impact of commonly used drugs on male fertility, we assessed the clinical characteristics of patients with impaired semen quality while they were taking medication for chronic diseases and after switching therapies. Of 1768 infertile males, 201 patients were taking medications and had impaired semen quality without any seminal tract obstruction, spermatogenic abnormalities or hypogonadotropic hypogonadism. Of these 201 men, a total of 165 had no history of testicular diseases nor abnormalities in any examinations. Amongst them, H1 receptor antagonists were the most common medication taken, followed by antiepileptics and antibiotics. They were divided into two groups: an intervention group (73 patients), who could stop or switch their medications, and a control group (92 patients), who could not. In the intervention group, semen quality improvement rate and conception rate (93% and 85%, respectively) were much higher than those of the control group (12% and 10%, respectively). After switching therapies, the time interval before conception was 7.3 months, which was significantly shorter in asthenozoospermia than oligozoospermia. Our results confirm the potential fertility hazards of commonly used drugs and their reversibility. Moreover, after switching medication, drug-induced asthenozoospermia was cured more rapidly than oligozoospermia, suggesting that further delineation of such differences may help to elucidate mechanisms of spermatogenesis and might facilitate the development of non-hormonal male contraceptive agents.


Dynamic Spectrum Access (DSA) network is envisioned as a promising candidate to significantly improve the spectrum utilization. Due to its specific features of the DSA, however, this network is more vulnerable to security attacks than the traditional wireless networks. And channel jamming is a one of main threats to DSA networks. So far, limited works have been done in mathematical and formal modeling of the channel jamming. In this paper, we present the at- tempts to analyze the channel jamming behaviors in DSA networks in order to find a relationship between the number of channels, secondary users and attackers. The research focuses on jamming performance analysis in various architectures, that is, a simple DSA network and a complex DSA network with varied situations. Comparisons between theoretical and simulation results in Matlab verify that the modeling and analysis are valid.


An atomic model of Sn to study the level population and radiative properties of near 10 times ionized states in laser produced plasmas is presented. The extreme ultra-violet (EUV) spectrum is investigated in conjunction with the effect of the detailed structure of resonance lines as well as satellite lines from multiply- and inner-shell excited states. The coefficients of radiative transfer are calculated with present model, which used in the radiation hydrodynamics simulation for the optimization of the EUV light source.


The artistic and litterary representation of war has ben the exclusive prerogative of men. In spite that the active role played by women during World War I was an essential one for the Italian society of that moment, the critics hasn't payed any special attention to the important work of Donna Paola, writer and journalist and a defender of women's emancipation. We will analyze "La funzione della donna in tempo di guerra" and "La donna della nuova Italia. "Documenti del contributo femminile alla guerra", texts that advocated for a direct participation of women in war.


This article focuses on issues relating to legal normativity, emphasizing the way these matters have been elaborated in the works of Kelsen and Hart and later commentators on their theories. First, in Section 2, the author offers a view regarding the nature of law and legal normativity focusing on Kelsen's work (at least one reasonable reading of it). The argument is that the Basic Norm is presupposed when a citizen chooses to read the actions of legal officials in a normative way. In this Kelsenian approach, all normative systems are structurally and logically similar, but each normative system is independent of every other system – thus, law is, in this sense, conceptually separate from morality. Second, in Section 3, the author turns to Hart's theory, analyzing the extent to which his approach views legal normativity as sui generis. This approach raises questions regarding what has become a consensus view in contemporary jurisprudence: that law makes moral claims. The author shows how a more deflationary (and less morally-flavored) understanding of the nature of law is tenable, and may, in fact, work better than current conventional (morality-focused) understandings.


Clinical nursing practice, beyond its application to care procedures, can be expressed in terms of ethical added value in the support of patients. In Reims university hospital, where a clinical ethics and care think-tank was created in June 2010, the ethical reflection approach is encouraged in order to reemphasise the global meaning of care as a source of wellbeing at work.


ABSTRAK Miarti. 2010. Influence of Financial Performance on Corporate Value With Good Corporate Governance (GCG) as Moderating Variables. Jurusan S1 Akuntasi Universitas Negeri Malang. Pembimbing (1) Dr. Bambang Sugeng, M.A., M.M. Ak, Pembimbing (2) Dra. Hj. Sutatmi, SE, M.pd., M.Si. Ak Key word : return on asset, good corporate governance, tobins'q, corporate value Corporation was an institute which has an aim to make a profit for increasing corporate value. Researches on the influence of financial performance which in this case is assessed by Return on Assets (ROA) on corporate value have been widely conducted, however results inconsistency occurred based on there are another influend factor therefore researchers predicted that there are other influencing factors. This condition drives researchers to use good corporate governance (GCG) as moderating variables wich predicted has an ability to increasing an also decreasing that influence. This research aims to know the influence of ROA (return on asset) on the corporation value and the influence of ROA (return on asset) on the corporation value with good corporate governance as the moderation. The population of this research is the corporation which in CGPI and have been listed in BEI during 2005-2007. This research uses purposive sampling technic which mean sampling was taken by (pertimbangan tertentu) and use to get the representative sample as the goal. Therefore, samples of this research are all of corporations which have been listed in BEI, CGPI rank, and publishing the financial report during 2005-2007. The hypothesis is tested using moderated regression analysis to find out the interactive influence the moderating variables. The corporate value measured using Tobin's Q, while GCG is measured by the criteria from FCGI. Result indicate that (1) ROA has an influence on corporate value, (2) the disclosure of GCG is unable to moderate the relation of ROA and corporate value. It is because GCG disclosure in Indonesian Corporation was untrusted enough for the investor. The investor believe that the aim of GCG disclosure just for fulfill the law obligation not because they have a responsibilities to do it in voluntary. Based on the conclusion of this research, it's important for next research to add the amount of sample and research period, so the research can be generelated. ROE, PBV, or leverage also can be used as the proxy of financial performence. GCG can be proxied by managerial ownership, the board of commissioners, independent commissioner, or audit committee.


Dipeptidyl peptidase IV is a multifunctional type II transmembrane serine protease glycoprotein. The high-resolution crystal structure of the homodimeric human apo dipeptidyl peptidase IV has been determined at 1.9 A resolution. In addition, the structure of the binary complex with 1-[([2-[(5-iodopyridin-2-yl)amino]-ethyl]amino)-acetyl]-2-cyano-(S)-pyrrolidine has been solved, revealing the nature of the covalent interaction with the active-site serine.


This study aimed to reduce levels of heavy metals contained in the body ofblood cockle (Anadara granosa) with acetic acid soaking method. The experimentaldesign used in this study is a randomized block design (RAK) with 4 levelstreatments, blood cockle without soaking, the addition of 5% acetic acid, 15% and25%. The highest reducing power contained in Pb with 25 % acetic acid soaking, theCu with 5 % acetic acid soaking, the metal Zn with 25 % acetic acid soaking and Cdmetal with 25 % acetic acid soaking. The highest organoleptic assessment containedin such a test is the 25 % acetic acid soaking (16.58), aroma aroma is in control(15.96) and the texture is in control (17.88) .Keyword : Power reduction, acetic acid , heavy metals , blood cockle


The success of the implementation of smart villages is based on the success of the village in carrying out digital transformation with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) as the driver. As a result, villages need an ICT development center which is better known as telecentre. Telecentres contribute to the social and economic development of villages with ICT as the key. In Indonesia, the establishment of telecentres is increasingly prevalent, but until now it was felt that it still did not show its success. The difficulties that arise are, constraints on information and financial management to pay for connectivity, equipment maintenance and telecentre staff salaries. The purpose of this study is to provide a telecentre development model in the form of a Village-Owned Enterprise based on hybrid organizational theory. This research approach was carried out qualitatively with a case study of Lamahu Village, Bone Bolango, Gorontalo. The process of collecting data through interviews, and the results of interviews were analyzed by interpretation into hybrid organizational theory. The results showed that the telecentre development needs to review 3 aspects, namely (1) the establishment of telecentres must have a mission as a social enterprise engaged in the implementation of ICT-based appropriate technology, (2) telecentres in the form of a legal entities Village Owned Enterprise so that they have the opportunity to obtain financial resources from  external (CSR) and internal (village funds) and finally (3) telecentre human resources must involve the village community from origin so that they can help the effectiveness of interaction and ensure the sustainability of ICT adoption.


Abstract: Zhejiang province is one of China's smallest provinces in terms of land area, but one of the most active economically. It was also the first to conserve agricultural heritage systems and achieve great results in this area. An analysis and evaluation of the status and problems of agricultural heritage systems in Zhejiang province can serve as a useful example for other places to develop agricultural heritage systems protection. Based on nearly a decade of practice in conserving agricultural heritage systems in Zhejiang province, this thesis analyzes the significance, status and problems, evaluates the potential in terms of traditional agricultural products, special cash trees and fruit trees, tea cultures, marine resource utilization, water-land resources use and eco-agricultural models, and gives targeted development advice. Studies have shown that heritage conservation nurtures traditional agriculture and promotes its sustainable development, fosters the passing on of farming culture and cultural prosperity in rural areas, helps to develop the value of agricultural heritage systems and increase farmers' income, has value in protecting the ecological environment of rural areas and promoting the construction of the countryside. Meanwhile, the development potential of agricultural heritage systems in Zhejiang province is great because of the excellent quality of traditional agricultural products, a variety of special cash trees and fruit trees, an extensive tea culture, unique utilization of maritime resources, rich experience in water-land resources utilization, and various forms of eco-agriculture. This research provides certain references to help Zhejiang province to protect and pass on its agricultural heritage systems, to promote agricultural sustainability and to expand agricultural functions.


The recent LIGO detection of gravitational waves (GW150914), likely originating from the merger of two ∼30M black holes suggests progenitor stars of low metallicity ([Z/Z ] 0.3), constraining when and where the progenitor of GW150914 may have formed. We combine estimates of galaxy properties (star-forming gas metallicity, star formation rate and merger rate) across cosmic time to predict the low redshift black hole – black hole merger rate as a function of present day host galaxy mass, Mgal, the formation redshift of the progenitor system zf and different progenitor metallicities Zp. For Zp 0.1Z , the signal is dominated by binaries in massive galaxies with zf 2 while below Zp 0.1Z most mergers come from binaries formed around zf 0.5 in dwarf galaxies. Additional gravitational wave detections from merging massive black holes will provide constraints on the mass–metallicity relation and massive star formation at high redshifts.


The application of diffusion theory and Monte Carlo lidar radiative transfer simulations presented in Part I of this series of study suggests that snow depth can be derived from the first-, second- and third-order moments of the lidar backscattering pathlength distribution. These methods are now applied to the satellite ICESat-2 lidar measurements over the Arctic sea ice and land surfaces of Northern Hemisphere. Over the Arctic sea ice, the ICESat-2 retrieved snow depths agree well with co-located IceBridge snow radar measured values with a root-mean-square (RMS) difference of 7.8 cm or 29.2% of the mean snow depth. The terrestrial snow depths derived from ICESat-2 show drastic spatial variation of the snowpack along ICESat-2 ground tracks over the Northern Hemisphere, which are consistent with the University of Arizona (UA) and Canadian Meteorological Centre (CMC) gridded daily snow products. The RMS difference in snow depths between ICESat-2 and UA gridded daily snow products is 14 cm, or 28% of the mean UA snow depth. To better understand these results, we also discuss the possible sources of errors in ICESat-2 derived snow depths, including surface roughness within the laser footprint, atmospheric forward scattering, solar background noise, and detector dark current. Simulation results indicate that the snow depth errors would be less than 5 cm if the standard deviation of pulse spreading due to surface roughness is within 50 cm. Our results demonstrate that the ICESat-2 lidar measurements can be used to reliably derive snow depth, which is a critical geophysical parameter for cryosphere studies including sea ice thickness estimation and also provides important constraints in the modeling of terrestrial hydrological processes.


Nowadays, multispectral images are acquired by many different satellites. These satellites produce a large amount of data by traveling around the world. Efficient compression of these images are important issues. In order to solve this problem, the most used method is compression of the images with JPEG2000 method. However, distortion occurs after JPEG2000 compression, especially at low bit-rates. This situation affects the performance of some applications such as change detection, classification, anomaly detection etc. In this paper, in order to overcome compression artifacts, a very deep süper-resolution approach is proposed as post-processing after JPEG2000 decompression. In the experiments, scenes of the Onera dataset that is shared in the website of IEEE GRSS DASE are used. Experimental results show that the proposed method not only increases the image quality but also improves the change detection performance.


There is a significant interest in the production of vibrationally excited H2 molecules because of their application to H- volume-plasma sources, plasma chemistry etc. We consider the vibrational kinetics in a hydrogen flow, which passes through a channel, the H2 molecules being previously excited in a hydrogen discharge. It is shown that an essential increase of the population of high H2 vibrational levels may be achieved in the hydrogen flow by means of a proper choice of channel wall material and by the appropriate organization of the flow. As a result, the significant enhancement of the effective rate constant of volume-plasma H- generation due to the dissociative attachment may be achieved. The effect depends only upon the mean H2 vibrational energy in the inlet of the channel.


The spontaneous activity of isolated human colon strips was studied to obtain homogeneous results with a reproducible model. The strips of macroscopically normal appearance were mounted in an organ bath containing Krebs solution at 32 degrees C or Tyrode solution at 37 degrees C. Mechanical activity was recorded by an isometric transducer. Spontaneous motility did not occur in all preparations. Moreover, when observed, it could not always be evaluated. The percentage of strips with spontaneous activity was lower with Tyrode solution than with Krebs solution (65 vs. 81%). KC1 did not induce a plateau contraction. Acetylcholine induced concentration-dependent contractions, with a significantly different pD2: 4.43 +/- 0.39 and 5.59 +/- 0.16 for Krebs and Tyrode, respectively. Isoprenaline abolished spontaneous motility in Krebs solution. Only 20% of specimens presented evaluable motility. Krebs solution may be the best conditions for studying the effects of drugs on spontaneous motility, while Tyrode solution can be used to investigate the effects of contractile agents.


Advancements in convolutional neural network (CNN) have resulted in remarkable success in various computing fields. However, the need to protect data against external security attacks has become increasingly important because inference process in CNNs exploit sensitive data. Secure Memory is a hardware-based protection technique that can protect the sensitive data of CNNs. However, naively applying secure memory to a CNN application causes significant performance and energy overhead. Furthermore, ensuring secure memory becomes more difficult in environments that require area efficiency and low-power execution, such as the Internet of Things (IoT). In this paper, we investigated memory access patterns for CNN workloads and analyzed their effects on secure memory performance. According to our observations, most CNN workloads intensively write to narrow memory regions, which can cause a considerable number of counter overflows. On average, 87.6% of total writes occur in 6.8% of the allocated memory space; in the extreme case, 93.9% of total writes occur in 1.4% of the allocated memory space. Based on our observations, we propose an efficient integrity-tree structure called Countermark-tree that is suitable for CNN workloads. The proposed technique reduces overall energy consumption by 48%, shows a performance improvement of 11.2% compared to VAULT-128, and requires a similar integrity-tree size to VAULT-64, a state-of-the-art technique.


Introduction Despite the common occurrence of streptokinase-induced hypotension among patients with acute myocardial infarction, the underlying pathophysiology remains obscure and poorly understood. Our study aimed to pool clinical evidence on the potential mechanism of streptokinase-induced hypotension through a systematic review of the literature. Material and methods We conducted literature search from Medline, Scopus and Web of Science on clinical studies related to streptokinase-induced hypotension. Results Our search yielded 972 citations. After removal of duplicates, 878 articles were screened for eligibility, of which 856 papers were excluded due to various reasons. Of the remaining 22 articles retrieved with full texts, eight relevant articles were selected for final analysis. Three themes emerged as the proposed mechanisms of streptokinase-induced hypotension, including (i) reduction in total peripheral resistance, (ii) complement activation, and (iii) dismissal of hypotheses involving other intermediaries. Conclusions Our findings suggest that the underlying mechanism of streptokinase-induced hypotension lies primarily in the reduction in total peripheral resistance.


Objective Preeclampsia, a pregnancy-specific syndrome characterized by hypertension and proteinuria, has a familial tendency and is an important cause of maternal and neonatal mortality. Abnormal endothelin-1 synthesis and/or release can explain abnormalities seen in preeclampsia. We prospectively evaluated whether endothelin-1 levels are increased in preeclampsia, to verify if placenta is the source, and any association between the maternal EDN1 G5665T single-nucleotide polymorphism and circulating endothelin-1 levels and preeclampsia manifestation. Methods A total of 120 with preeclampsia and 118 normotensive primigravid patients with singleton pregnancy were enrolled. Preeclampsia was defined as new onset of elevated blood pressure greater than 140/90 mmHg and at least 2+ proteinuria on two occasions at least 4 h apart after 20 weeks of gestation in previously normotensive pregnant women. Patients were excluded if they had hypertension before 20 weeks of gestation, diabetes, asthma, heart disease, kidney disease, hematological disorder, autoimmune disease, urinary tract infection, current or past history of smoking, twin pregnancy, molar pregnancy or eclampsia. Genotyping was done using a PCR-RFLP-based method. Placenta samples were collected from 20 preeclampsia and 24 normotensive pregnancies. Reverse transcriptase PCR was done for preproendothelin and β-actin mRNA. Placental endothelin-1 staining was assessed by immunohistochemistry in villous and extravillous trophoblasts and endothelium. Plasma endothelin-1 levels were measured using ELISA. Results The preeclampsia group showed higher circulating endothelin-1 levels (1.45 ± 0.55 vs. 0.91 ± 0.42 pg/ml; P < 0.0001), reduced frequency of GG genotype (34 vs. 49%; P = 0.025) and increased T allele frequency (0.43 vs. 0.28; P = 0.04). A significant association was noted between endothelin-1 levels and blood pressure in the entire cohort and in the group with preeclampsia (P < 0.001). Circulating endothelin-1 levels were higher in those bearing even one copy of the T variant (1.08 ± 0.48 vs. 1.31 ± 0.59 pg/ml; P = 0.004). Placental endothelin-1/β-actin mRNA ratio was significantly reduced (0.91 ± 0.77 vs. 3.20 ± 1.68; P < 0.001) and endothelin-1 staining was lower (P < 0.001) in placental endothelium in preeclampsia. Conclusion Maternal endothelin-1 is elevated and correlates with the severity of blood pressure elevation in preeclampsia. The endothelin-1 is likely released from the maternal endothelium. Presence of T allele at 5665 position in maternal EDN1 gene is associated with higher endothelin-1 levels. Placental endothelin-1 synthesis is reduced in preeclampsia. The combination of elevated maternal and reduced placental endothelin-1 may be an adaptive response to reduced uteroplacental flow in preeclampsia.


From December 1995 to April 1998, 20 consecutive adult patients suffering from chemosensitive relapse of Hodgkin's or non-Hodgkin lymphoma (11 Hodgkin, 9 non-Hodgkin Lymphoma) received autologous stem cell transplantation. The median follow up period is 15 months (range 6-28). The overall survival is 18/20 (90 %), the event free survival is 13/20 (65%). None of the patients died of transplant related cause.


The beaches of Lake Vanern in Sweden are in a stage of being overgrown by bushes, trees and reeds. Today many of the bays and channels are covered with reeds, and this is one of the main reasons for the loss of species around the beaches of Lake Vanern. Causes that may be affecting, for example, increased nitrogen deposition, increased amounts of ground deposited agricultural nitrogen, reduced maintenance in the form of grazing or mowing, and also the fact that the water levels are being regulated in the lake which reduces the natural fluctuations that may otherwise contribute to a more open beach environment. Many species are dependent of an open sunlit area for their survival and amongst them is the small antlion (Myrmeleon bore), who can serve as an indicator species for the biodiversity of an area. The purpose of this report is to provide a frame of what factors in nature that favors small antlion. This is to possibly provide a basis for further work on the restoration of the shores of Lake Vanern and surrounding land. The small antlion prefers dry, well sunlit sand slopes, where it can be found somewhat uphill from the shoreline. The inventory of larvae of small antlion on beaches were made using line transects with 2 meter intervals, from where the conical traps built by the antlions where counted. The environment variables that were measured in the survey in order to see a possible link with the presence of small antlion was tree density, cardinal on the beach, distance to another beach with the presence of small myrlejonslanda, grain size, the slope of the beach, proportion exposed sand on the beach, proportion of vegetation on the beach and the presence of pine in the beach area. The analysis shows that the most important explanatory factor for the occurrence of small antlions is proximity to another beach where there are small antlions. As explanations for variations in the density of small antlions, slope of the beach was number one followed by the proportion of bare sand on the beach.


Lattice vibrational dispersion curves for the ``intermolecular'' modes in the triclinic, one molecule per unit cell β phase of p‐C6D4Cl2 and p‐C6H4Cl2 have been obtained by inelastic neutron scattering. The deuterated sample was investigated at 295 and at 90°K and a linear extrapolation to 0°K was applied in order to correct for anharmonic effects. Calculations based on the atom‐atom model for van der Waals' interaction and on general potential parameters for the aromatic compounds agree reasonably well with the experimental observations. There is no substantial improvement in fit obtained either by consideration of electrostatic forces or by further anisotropy in the dispersion forces not described in the atom‐atom model. Anharmonic effects are shown to be large, but the dominant features in the temperature variation of frequencies are describable by a quasiharmonic model.


We obtain expressions for the mass and angular momenta of rotating black holes in anti-de Sitter backgrounds in four, five and higher dimensions. We verify explicitly that our expressions satisfy the first law of thermodynamics, thus allowing an unambiguous identification of the entropy of these black holes with of the area. We find that the associated thermodynamic potential equals the background-subtracted Euclidean action multiplied by the temperature. Our expressions differ from many given in the literature. We find that in more than four dimensions, only our expressions satisfy the first law of thermodynamics. Moreover, in all dimensions we show that our expression for the mass coincides with that given by the conformal conserved charge introduced by Ashtekar, Magnon and Das. We indicate the relevance of these results to the AdS/CFT correspondence.


Borrelia burgdorferi, the agent of Lyme disease, selectively expresses genes in the arthropod vector and mammalian host. Specific B. burgdorferi gene expression during human infection was examined in tissue specimens, using RNA-polymerase chain reaction, from 3 patients with Lyme disease. ospA was investigated because OspA is down-regulated by B. burgdorferi in ticks during engorgement and is a vaccine candidate in phase III clinical trials. p35 and p37 were also assessed because these genes are induced by spirochetes during murine Lyme borreliosis and play roles in protective immunity. p35 and p37 mRNA were detected in erythema migrans biopsy specimens from 2 patients and in the synovium of 1 patient with Lyme arthritis. ospA mRNA was not identified in any of these tissues. These data show that ospA is repressed while p35 and p37 are induced in human infection; these results are the first direct demonstration of differential B. burgdorferi gene expression during Lyme disease.


In this paper, we present an explicit formulation for reduced‐order models of the stabilized finite element approximation of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations. The basic idea is to build a reduced‐order model based on a proper orthogonal decomposition and a Galerkin projection and treat all the terms in an explicit way in the time integration scheme, including the pressure. This is possible because the reduced model snapshots do already fulfill the continuity equation. The pressure field is automatically recovered from the reduced‐order basis and solution coefficients. The main advantage of this explicit treatment of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations is that it allows for the easy use of hyper‐reduced order models, because only the right‐hand side vector needs to be recovered by means of a gappy data reconstruction procedure. A method for choosing the optimal set of sampling points at the discrete level in the gappy procedure is also presented. Numerical examples show the performance of the proposed strategy. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


In this paper we analyze the combined performance of noise-cancellation and diversity-combining in an ACO-OFDM system. Noise cancellation and diversity combining are two techniques which have each been shown to improve the performance of ACO-OFDM, each giving a maximum improvement of 3dB. As noise cancellation reduces the noise at the detection point, while diversity combining adds two different signal components, it might be expected that combining the two techniques could give further performance gains. In this paper we show analytically that no additional performance gain can be achieved by combining the techniques. Simulation results are presented which are consistent with the analysis. It is also observed that the noise cancellation is more computationally efficient than diversity combining.


My thesis examines imagery of the Jew in four Italian silent fils: Il mercante di Venezia (Gerolamo Lo Savio, 1910), L'Inferno (Francesco Bertolini, Adolfo Padovan, Giuseppe de Liuoro, 1922) Quo Vadis? (Enrico Guazzoni, 1913) and Cabiria (Giovanni Pastrone, 1914). The thesis deconstructs this filmic imagery and traces its history back to medieval and Renaissance representations of the Jew. This process reveals connections between traditional anti-Jewish ideologies and the moving images of early Italian cinema. In so doing, my thesis demonstrates that there is a powerful relationship between the socio-political and relifious discourses that were in circulation before the First World War in Italy and the presence of anti-Semitic stereotyping in these films. It also argues that the image of the Jew in all of these filmic case studies functiones as a representation of the radical dangerous Other that threatens the unity of the citizenry of the nationstate of the Kingdom of Italy and the cohesion of the Liberal Italian society at a key time of new nation building.


We pay tribute to Anne Carter's contributions to economic analysis. Mainstream economic models, including input-output studies, consider technology as given and do not question the co-existence of different national economic techniques. Carter, however, addresses this key question. Her book, Structural Change in the American Economy (1970), was well ahead of its time. The techniques Carter compared were differentiated by time, but the comparative analysis is equally applicable to a comparison of techniques that are differentiated by location, such as those of the EU-15 member states. We apply Carter's method for the determination of the optimal choice of technique to the problem of allocating production among different countries, so as to make use of their comparative advantages in producing commodities and in meeting environmental constraints. We also draw attention to Carter's recent work on ever deeper questions regarding variations in technology.


Cold spray is an effective technique to deposit pure metallic coatings on a variety of substrates. 1100 series aluminum-based coating has been deposited on similar aluminum substrate by cold spray technique using helium and a mixture of helium and nitrogen as powder carrying gases. The microstructural features of the coating were analyzed using optical micrography, Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM) and Microhardness depth profiles. The electrochemical behavior of the materials was studied using 0.5 N H2SO4 as electrolyte. Tafel extrapolation experiments were carried out in order to calculate the corrosion rate, corrosion potential and the Tafel slopes, whereas, potentiodynamic polarization experiments were performed to understand the passivation behavior of the material under the experimental conditions. The electrochemical studies validate the use of cold sprayed aluminum coating for corrosion protection applications. SEM characterization of the coatings was also performed after the electrochemical experiments.


Purpose: The incidence of early branches arising from the prebifurcation trunk of the middle cerebral artery is very high. However, no reports have addressed these early branches of middle cerebral arteries in the Korean population. The purpose of this study was to characterize these early branches in Koreans. Materials and Methods: A retrospective review was performed on transfemoral cerebral angiograms performed at Jeju National University Hospital between May 2005 and March 2010. A total of 78 hemispheric an-giogram sites met the study inclusion criteria. The digital subtraction anterior-posterior view was the basic im-age for the inspection, which was supplemented by a three-dimensional reconstructed image. Results: We identified 86 early branches of the middle cerebral artery in 58 (74.4%) out of 78 hemisphere an-giogram sites. The type of early branches in the 78 hemispheric angiograms included 20 angiograms that were classified as Group I (25.6%), 23 as Group II A (29.5%), 10 as Group II B (12.8%), 7 as Group II C (9.0%), 7 as Group III (9.0%), and 11 as Group IV (14.1%). Conclusion: The incidence of early branches arising from the prebifurcation trunk of the middle cerebral artery was found to be high in the Korean population and showed many morphological variations.


Analytic gradient expressions for the algebraic diagrammatic construction (ADC) scheme for the polarization propagator up to third order are derived using a Lagrangian approach. An implementation within the Q-CHEM electronic structure package for excited-state nuclear gradients of the ADC(2), ADC(2)-x, and ADC(3) models based on restricted and unrestricted Hartree-Fock references is presented. Details of the implementation and the applicability of the newly derived gradients for geometry optimizations and the quality of the resulting structures are discussed.


The total ionization produced by ions stopped in argon and tissue-equivalent (TE) gas has been measured in the energy range 25-500 keV. A large ionization chamber was used for this study. The chamber was alternately operated as a proportional counter and as a ionization chamber to measure particle rate and the total ionization produced by them, respectively. The average energy loss per ion pair (W value) was found to be dependent on both the energy and mass of the incident ions. For argon gas the accelerated ions were H+, He+, Ar+; the W value ranges from 23.72eV for 25 keV H+ to 63.12 eV for 50 keV Ar+; Irregularities in the W value were found for He+ in the region 70-130 keV. For TE gas the accelerated ions were H+, He+, C+, N+, O+; the W value ranges from 29.13 eV for 25 keV H+ to 51.45 eV for 50 keV O+. Comparisions with existing data show a good agreement in the absolute values for TE gas and in the relative variations in argon gas. Differences between absolute values in argon might be due to impurities in composition.


Gonadotropin-inhibitory hormone (GnIH) plays a critical role in regulating gonadotropin-releasing hormone, gonadotropin hormone, and steroidogenesis in teleosts. In the present study, we sought to determine whether 17β-estradiol (E2) acts directly on GnIH neurons to regulate reproduction in goldfish, a seasonal breeder, and we investigated the role of estrogen receptors (ERs) in mediating this process. We found that GnIH neurons coexpress three types of ERs. Ovariectomy and letrozole implantation into female goldfish at the vitellogenic stage elicited a substantial decrease in the expression of GnIH messenger RNA (mRNA), and E2 supplementation abolished this effect. In primary cultured hypothalamus cells, E2 increased GnIH mRNA levels; surprisingly, selective ERα and ERβ agonists showed opposite effects in regulating GnIH mRNA levels. Using genome walking, we isolated a 2329-bp section of the GnIH promoter sequence, and 7 half-estrogen response elements (EREs) were found in the promoter region. Luciferase assays and electrophoretic mobility shift assay results show that the half-ERE element at -2203 is the key site for competitive binding between ERα and ERβ. Ovariectomy and letrozole implantation into female goldfish in the maturating stage did not change the GnIH mRNA expression levels. Taken together, these findings suggest that E2 binds to multiple types of ERs, which competitively bind to the same half-ERE binding site of the GnIH promoter to achieve both positive and negative feedback in response to estrogen to regulate goldfish reproduction at different stages of ovarian development.


Aura (Jia et al., 2008; Vaughan et al., 2008) is a dependently typed higher-order programming language. It was designed to facilitate the automation of institutional access control policy. Following the Curry-Howard isomorphism, Aura types correspond to logical propositions and its expressions correspond to proofs. At runtime, Aura programs manipulate evidence to construct these authorization proofs (which, thanks to the dependent type system, may reference live data). Aura's typechecker is used to determine if proofs provided to support access to a restricted resource are properly formed in accordance to policy. In this way, a single reference monitor may be written that, when combined with application-specific rules, can be applied to many situations where securing a resource is required. This leads to a reduction in the size of the trusted computing base. We have extended Aura's interpreter and typechecker to support transportation of proofs across the network, including support for cryptography and auditing as was originally imagined. In the process of doing so we have developed a method for describing RPC services in the Aura language and a configurable reference monitor that may host arbitrary Aura policies using .NET remoting. We have added an API that allows other .NET languages to make use of Aura code (either local or remote); this is a natural complement to the foreign function interface that already allowed Aura policies to access .NET objects. To demonstrate the applicability of the Aura platform to real-world problems, we have built a small Web service using C] that uses our API to communicate securely with its backend. Furthermore, this service allows decisions about login to be delegated (again within the Aura framework) to other trusted services.


This paper proposes strategies to improve the IOTA tangle in terms of resilience to splitting attacks. Our contribution is two fold. First, we define the notion of confidence fairness for tips selection algorithms to guarantee the first approval for all honest tips. Then, we analyze IOTA-tangle from the point of view of confidence fairness and identify its drawbacks. Second, we propose a new selection mechanism, G-IOTA, that targets to protect tips left behind. G-IOTA therefore has a good confidence fairness. G-IOTA lets honest transactions increase their confidence efficiently. Furthermore, G-IOTA includes an incentive mechanism for users who respect the algorithm and punishes conflicting transactions. Additionally, G-IOTA provides a mutual supervision mechanism that reduces the benefits of speculative and lazy behaviours. To evaluate the performances of G-IOTA, we implemented G-IOTA and compared it with the original IOTA. In our simulations, G-IOTA presents more confirmed transactions and fewer left-behind transactions than the original IOTA.


Roads are indispensable for the socio-economic development of any region. Roads way projects face various issues such as Land, Environment, Technology and Bio diversity among others. Environment is the surroundings of our living thing. It consists of living things and non-living things. It also includes the Sun and weather of the place you live in, as we depend on our environment for all our needs as it provides us with food, water, air, materials to construct houses and all the useful things we use in our daily life. Humans have found many new ways to keep themselves comfortable, from a wide range of things like good houses to live in, good roads, cars and buses to travel and many more things for the increasing population. However in making our lives comfortable we have damaged our environment and biodiversity in many ways. We have affected forest to build cities and forms, and keep cutting down trees to make houses and roads, thereby destroying animal habitats. The study is quite a comprehensive with a variety of examples and cases, and focused primarily on some key environmental and bio-diversity factors associated with development of roadways, various laws and mitigation measures in order to safeguard the environment in the process of inevitable man made development.


A detailed computer simulation of AM broadcast reradiation from a power line is described and the computations compared with measurements. The power line is in the vicinity of the London, England two-frequency directional antenna array of the U.K. Independent Broadcasting Authority. A simplified equivalent computational model is derived for the individual power line towers, and the ground effect due to the tower footings is estimated. The computational model includes the overhead ground wire (skywire) but excludes the power carrying wires. Computations are described for the power line induced currents and for the antenna radiation patterns as modified by the power line currents. The comparison of the computed results with full-scale radiation pattern measurements shows sufficient quantitative agreement to support the utility of computational predictions for power-line re-radiation. The frequency sensitivity of the re-radiation is studied theoretically and found to have a noticeable effect for deviations of ±10 kHz.


This paper assesses the feasibility of using a spent fluid catalytic cracking catalyst (SFCC) as precursor for the production of geopolymers. The mechanical and structural characterization of alkaliactivated SFCC binders formulated with different overall (activator + solid precursor) SiO2/Al2O3 and Na2O/ SiO2 molar ratios are reported. Formation of an aluminosilicate 'geopolymer' gel is observed under all conditions of activation used, along with formation of zeolites. Increased SiO2/Al2O3 induces the formation of geopolymers with reduced mechanical strength, for all the Na2O/SiO2 ratios assessed, which is associated with excess silicate species supplied by the activator. This is least significant at increased alkalinity conditions (higher Na2O/SiO2 ratios), as larger extents of reaction of the spent catalyst are achieved. SiO2/Al2O3 and Na2O/SiO2 ratios of 2.4 and 0.25, respectively, promote the highest compressive strength (67 MPa). This study elucidates the great potential of using SFCC as precursor to produce sustainable ceramic-like materials via


Backpropagation (BP) is the most successful and widely used algorithm in deep learning. However, the computations required by BP are challenging to reconcile with known neurobiology. This difficulty has stimulated interest in more biologically plausible alternatives to BP. One such algorithm is the inference learning algorithm (IL). IL has close connections to neurobiological models of cortical function and has achieved equal performance to BP on supervised learning and auto-associative tasks. In contrast to BP, however, the mathematical foundations of IL are not well-understood. Here, we develop a novel theoretical framework for IL. Our main result is that IL closely approximates an optimization method known as implicit stochastic gradient descent (implicit SGD), which is distinct from the explicit SGD implemented by BP. Our results further show how the standard implementation of IL can be altered to better approximate implicit SGD. Our novel implementation considerably improves the stability of IL across learning rates, which is consistent with our theory, as a key property of implicit SGD is its stability. We provide extensive simulation results that further support our theoretical interpretations and also demonstrate IL achieves quicker convergence when trained with small mini-batches while matching the performance of BP for large mini-batches.


The description of the history of early Rome (VIII-IV centuries BC) in the works of ancient authors is usually perceived as a mythological legend, which shifts the focus of scientific discussion to assessing the degree of reliability of the events being told. As a result, the normative-value and legal significance of ancient legends sufficient attention of researchers. The oral and therefore naturally plastic nature of archaic law creates additional difficulties for its modern study, in contrast to numerous and well-studied legislative texts. The author proposes to refer to modern types of legal understanding and turn down strict positivism with the aim of expanding the boundaries of legal analysis, rethinking the legend (on the example of Lucius Junius Brutus), recognizing it as a source of Roman law, and reconstructing its criminal law content. For this purpose, using socio-psychological, historical-legal, formal-logical and other scientific methods, the author singles out that part of the story that was not lost, but was steadily reproduced from generation to generation. The surviving core of the legend remained in history because it carried socially significant information modeling of behavior (behavioral stereotypes) of the ancient Romans. The article shows that children`s execution by the first republican magistrate not only legitimized the right of paternal power (patria potestas), but also proclaimed the priority protection of the public interest (civitas) that became the cornerstone of the Roman legal order. The legend set a special imperative for citizens, shaped their worldview and sense of justice. From the criminal law standpoint, this precedent fixed the standard of both prohibited behavior and retribution for it, i.e., a measure of justice, broadcast the requirements of the inevitability and personal nature of responsibility, laid foundation for the requirement of legal equality of all citizens before the law. Ultimately, the legend set the vector for the development of Roman criminal law, which led to the formation of its principles, many of which are accepted and developed in modern legal systems.


In this article, alkali lignin separated from paper pulp waste was grafted into a novel copolymer LSAA (a copolymer of lignin, starch, acrylamide, and acrylic acid). Its practical application effect and environmental safety were studied. The results of field simulation experiment indicated that the application of LSAA significantly affected the output of the runoff and pollutants. The runoff quantity was decreased by 16.67%–47.00% and the loads of total suspended solids (TSS), chemical oxygen demand (COD), total nitrogen (TN), and total phosphorus (TP) were reduced by 17.78%–62.14%, 26.32%–59.91%, 15.25%–47.42%, and 22.18%–52.78%, respectively. The tests on its environmental safety showed that LSAA did no harm the soil. Compared with polyacrylamide (PAM), a dominant product in this field, LSAA exhibited similar effects and cheap cost. Thus, this study not only created a new product for controlling runoff water quality but also offered a beneficial application for industrial paper waste.


The impact of respiratory virus infections on the health of children and adults can be very significant. Yet, in contrast to most other childhood infections as well as other viral and bacterial diseases, prophylactic vaccines or effective antiviral treatments against viral respiratory infections are either still not available, or provide only limited protection. Given the widespread prevalence, a general lack of natural sterilizing immunity, and/or high morbidity and lethality rates of diseases caused by influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, coronaviruses, and rhinoviruses, this difficult situation is a genuine societal challenge. A thorough understanding of the virus-host interactions during these respiratory infections will most probably be pivotal to ultimately meet these challenges. This review attempts to provide a comparative overview of the knowledge about an important part of the interaction between respiratory viruses and their host: the arms race between host innate immunity and viral innate immune evasion. Many, if not all, viruses, including the respiratory viruses listed above, suppress innate immune responses to gain a window of opportunity for efficient virus replication and setting-up of the infection. The consequences for the host's immune response are that it is often incomplete, delayed or diminished, or displays overly strong induction (after the delay) that may cause tissue damage. The affected innate immune response also impacts subsequent adaptive responses, and therefore viral innate immune evasion often undermines fully protective immunity. In this review, innate immune responses relevant for respiratory viruses with an RNA genome will briefly be summarized, and viral innate immune evasion based on shielding viral RNA species away from cellular innate immune sensors will be discussed from different angles. Subsequently, viral enzymatic activities that suppress innate immune responses will be discussed, including activities causing host shut-off and manipulation of stress granule formation. Furthermore, viral protease-mediated immune evasion and viral manipulation of the ubiquitin system will be addressed. Finally, perspectives for use of the reviewed knowledge for the development of novel antiviral strategies will be sketched.


The utilization of polarimetric weather radars for optimizing cloud models is a next frontier of research. It is widely understood that inadequacies in microphysical parameterization schemes in numerical weather prediction (NWP) models is a primary cause of forecast uncertainties. Due to its ability to distinguish between hydrometeors with different microphysical habits and to identify "polarimetric fingerprints" of various microphysical processes, polarimetric radar emerges as a primary source of needed information. There are two approaches to leverage this information for NWP models: (1) radar microphysical and thermodynamic retrievals and (2) forward radar operators for converting the model outputs into the fields of polarimetric radar variables. In this paper, we will provide an overview of both. Polarimetric measurements can be combined with cloud models of varying complexity, including ones with bulk and spectral bin microphysics, as well as simplified Lagrangian models focused on a particular microphysical process. Combining polarimetric measurements with cloud modeling can reveal the impact of important microphysical agents such as aerosols or supercooled cloud water invisible to the radar on cloud and precipitation formation. Some pertinent results obtained from models with spectral bin microphysics, including the Hebrew University cloud model (HUCM) and 1D models of melting hail and snow coupled with the NSSL forward radar operator, are illustrated in the paper.


The regulatory gene (degT) from Bacillus stearothermophilus NCA1503 which enhanced production of extracellular alkaline protease (Apr) was cloned in Bacillus subtilis with pTB53 as a vector. When B. subtilis MT-2 (Npr- [deficiency of neutral protease] Apr+) was transformed with the recombinant plasmid, pDT145, the plasmid carrier produced about three times more alkaline protease than did the wild-type strain. In contrast, when B. subtilis DB104 (Npr- Apr-) was used as a host, the transformant with pDT145 could not exhibit any protease activity. After construction of the deletion plasmids, DNA sequencing was done. A large open reading frame was found, and nucleotide sequence analysis showed that the degT gene was composed of 1,116 bases (372 amino acid residues, molecular weight of 41,244). A Shine-Dalgarno sequence was found nine bases upstream from the open reading frame. A B. subtilis strain carrying degT showed the following pleiotropic phenomena: (i) enhancement of production of extracellular enzymes such as alkaline protease and levansucrase, (ii) repression of autolysin activity, (iii) decrease of transformation efficiency for B. subtilis (competent cell procedure), (iv) altered control of sporulation, (v) loss of flagella, and (vi) abnormal cell division. When B. stearothermophilus SIC1 was transformed with the recombinant plasmid carrying degT, the transformants exhibited abnormal cell division. These phenomena are similar to those of the phenotypes of degSU(Hy) (hyperproduction), degQ(Hy), and degR mutants of B. subtilis. However, the amino acid sequence of the degT product (DegT) is different from those of the reported gene products. Furthermore, DegT includes a hydrophobic core region in the N-terminal portion (amino acid numbers 50 to 160), a consensus sequence for a DNA binding region (amino acid numbers 160 to 179), and a region homologous to transcription activator proteins (amino acid numbers 351 to 366). We discuss the possibility that the membrane protein DegT functions as a sensor protein and transfers the signal of environmental stimuli to the regulatory region of target genes to activate or repress transcription of the genes.


The variations in parameters and uncertainties that can affect future waste management program costs are examined. Costs were estimated for both spent fuel and reprocessing waste disposal. Costs for repository site exploration and development, construction and operation of the first two repositories, and waste transportation of either spent fuel or reprocessing waste to the repository were included in the estimate of program costs. Costs for disposing of either spent fuel or reprocessing wastes in four generic geologic media (domed salt, bedded salt, tuff, and granite) were estimated considering uncertainties in package design waste preparation, mining cost, repository layout, repository startup date, and waste shipment distance. The range of these costs is then compared with estimated revenues from the proposed 1-mill/kWh fee to determine whether that fee would provide sufficient funds to meet waste management program needs. The estimated revenues and the range of program cost estimates in 1982 dollar resulting from these variations and uncertainties are shown graphically. The figure shows that the assumed 1-mill/kWh fee provides sufficient revenues to meet program costs for the range of conditions considered. Collection of a 1-mill/kWh fee at the time fuel is irradiated will result in the federal government precollecting for future waste management services. The relationship between funds accumulated to offset future waste management liabilities and the estimated cost of these liabilities will depend on the inflation rate and on the interest the federal government earns on the accumulated funds. If inflation continues, future fee adjustments will be required to assure that adequate funds are available to dispose of wastes when they are received.


Mapping images to a high-dimensional feature space, either by considering patches of images or other features, has lead to state-of-art results in signal processing tasks such as image denoising and imprinting, and in various machine learning and computer vision tasks on images. Understanding the geometry of the embedding of images into high-dimensional feature space is a challenging problem. Finding efficient representations and learning dictionaries for such embeddings is also problematic, often leading to expensive optimization algorithms. Many such algorithms scale poorly with the dimension of the feature space, for example with the size of patches of images if these are chosen as features. This is in contrast with the crucial needs of using a multi-scale approach in the analysis of images, as details at multiple scales are crucial in image understanding, as well as in many signal processing tasks. Here we exploit a recent dictionary learning algorithm based on Geometric Wavelets, and we extend it to perform multi-scale dictionary learning on image patches, with efficient algorithms for both the learning of the dictionary, and the computation of coefficients onto that dictionary. We also discuss how invariances in images may be introduced in the dictionary learning phase, by generalizing the construction of such dictionaries to non-Euclidean spaces.


In his Preface to Africa in Time Perspective , the classic work that was the inspiration for the present volume, Daniel McCall notes that he had visualized the volume "as a handbook which would provide the neophyte with an adequate guide to the use of all the techniques of research in the varied and confusing fields of historical research. Certainly, we need such a book." Almost forty years after the publication of McCall's book, which so admirably served this purpose, an update is just as certainly needed. But the archaeologist contributing to this project is faced with the same dilemma noted by McCall, namely, that archaeology already has "adequate handbooks which are in greater amplitude than could be squeezed into a book that has to cover so many other topics." McCall resolved this dilemma by writing with brevity on the subject of archaeology, restricting himself to a number of essential points, several of which have lost none of their relevance. Following McCall's example, I attempt here to present a number of issues that I believe to be central for anyone, but especially historians, hoping to better understand the enterprise of archaeology in Africa today. McCall's admirable brevity will not, alas, be repeated, partly because archaeology is today a much more contentious and diverse discipline than it was in the 1950s and early 1960s. At that time, African archaeology was the enterprise of a remarkably small and relatively homogenous group of active fieldworkers. Virtually all were European, a fact which united them, in terms of archaeological practice and interpretation, more than their different nationalities divided them. They shared a common understanding of history and "prehistory" as distinctly different domains, and agreed broadly that a major objective of archaeological research was the description of artifact assemblages and the construction of artifact typologies, which corresponded in some meaningful way to past cultural identity. By mapping assemblages through time, they sought to produce a sequence, or history, of cultures through time. Although culture histories are still constructed as the main goal of archaeology in parts of Africa today, the practice of archaeology is characterized by considerable diversity, comprising a variety of sometimes contradictory theoretical stances about the kind of histories archaeologists should try to write. No wonder historians get confused about how archaeologists reconstruct the past!


The spectrum of osmium was photographed in the 225–2100A region on a 3-m normal incidence spectrograph using a triggered spark light source and on a 10-m normal incidence spectrograph using a sliding spark source. The (5d5+5d46s)–(5d46p+5d36s6p) transition arrays of Os IV were investigated and 934 lines were classified between and The 705A and 1995A. The analysis has resulted in the determination of 61 levels in the (5d5+5d46s) even system and of 124 levels in the 5d46p configuration. Five levels of the 5d36s6p configuration were also identified. The energy levels and their eigenvector compositions have been described by means of the orthogonal operator technique. The 2-particle magnetic operators of the dp-type are compared with values obtained in other spectra. Accurate weighted transition probabilities (gA-values) calculated by means of orthogonal operators are also presented.


To solve the dilemma of current political education, taking the training of architectural professionals as an example, the current situation of ideological education for architecture majors is analyzed. Architecture aims at training excellent architectural talents, and it is one of the hottest subjects at present. However, the frequent occurrence of construction accidents and waste of engineering resources point out that the professional quality and moral quality of construction practitioners need to be improved. The characteristics of students and professional majoring in architecture are investigated to get rid of the above difficulties. The study shows that students are interested in the subject of engineering ethics, but the ideological and political course is relatively boring. Based on the above finding, it is concluded that it is a good way to solve the problem of ideological and political education by reforming and innovating the traditional teaching mode and adapting to the needs of contemporary students.


Chemical compositions and spectral characteristics of one type of dark green jades assumed from omphacite jadeite from Myanmar jadeite mining area were studied by X-ray powder diffraction(XRD), X-ray fluorescence spectra(XRF), Raman spectra(RM) and UV-Vis Spectroscopy, etc. Based on testing by XRD and XRF, it was shown that it belongs to iron-enriched plagioclase, including albite and anorthite. The compositions range is between Ab0.731 An0.264 Or0.004 and Ab0.693 An0.303 Or0.004. Raman spectra of samples, albite jade and anorthite were collected and analyzed. Additionally, the distributions of Si, Al in the crystal structure were also discussed. UV-Vis spectra showed that dark green hue of this mineral is associated with d--d electronic transition of Fe3+ and Cr3+.


In this work, we have obtained organic room temperature phosphorescence/RTP materials with long wavelengths (657-732 nm) and long lifetimes (102-324 ms) for the first time through the one-axis two-wing guest-host strategy. The one axis refers to that the guest molecule has sufficient conjugation to reduce the lowest triplet energy level and the two wings refer to that the host assists the guest in exciton transfer and inhibits the non-radiative transition of guest excitons. These materials exhibit good tissue penetration in bioimaging. Thanks to the characteristic of long lifetime and long wavelength emissive RTP materials, the tumor imaging in living mice with a signal to background ratio value as high as 43 is successfully realized. This work provides a practical solution for the construction of organic RTP materials with both long wavelengths and long lifetimes used in bioimaging.


O n 11 January 2010, the United Nations inaugurated the International Year of Biodiversity in Berlin. This initiative is timely, because the environmental movement suffers from an imbalance between its sense of urgency and its intensity of activity. Center stage is now occupied by concerns for the physical environment— in particular, climate change, pollution, and depletion of nonrenewable resources. However, if the living world is to be kept in anything approaching a sustainable condition that can adapt to changes, then politicians, government offi cials, scientists, and the public will need to give biodiversity the urgent attention that they are starting to give to the physical environment. About 1.9 million species ( 1) have been discovered and given scientific names ( 2), though the actual number may exceed 10 million ( 3). Bacteria and archeans could comprise tens of millions species—once taxonomic units are precisely defi ned. Knowledge about species and extinction rates remains very poor, and species disappear before we know they existed. We propose that, as scientists are better able to assess the conservation status of the species that compose an ecosystem, the more they will understand the health of that ecosystem. It is time to accelerate taxonomy and scientifi c natural history, two of the most vital but neglected disciplines of biology ( 4, 5). The Encyclopedia of Life (EOL), a powerful initiative ( 5), is now fully operational and working toward its goal of documenting every known species. Essential though the EOL is, it needs to be complemented by another project, the "Barometer of Life." This initiative would need to unite taxonomists, biogeographers, ecologists, conservationists, and amateur naturalists in a coordinated exploration of global biodiversity, with an emphasis on identifying which species are threatened. While the EOL will provide a Web page on every species, the barometer would compile conservation-related data on distributions, threats, and assessments of extinction risk on a subset of species broadly representative of biodiversity as a whole. The logical platform for this barometer is The Red List of Threatened Species ( 6) of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), which, for over 45 years, has published information on the status and trends of species. The IUCN Red List began by focusing on selected species, but it now covers entire taxonomic classes. It provided the fi rst global picture of vertebrate diversity—a measure of the magnitude, geography and type of threats among several taxonomic groups, and a baseline from which to measure changes in status of species ( 7, 8). The IUCN Red List includes assessments of all species of mammals, birds, amphibians, freshwater crabs, reef-building corals, cycads, and conifers ( 8). More than 250 national red lists for various taxonomic groups have been developed in >100 countries ( 9). However, the Red List is biased toward higher vertebrates. The vast majority of species—including most plants, invertebrates, and lower vertebrates, and almost all fungi— are still grossly underrepresented. A more finely tuned barometer is within reach by expanding the taxonomic base of the Red List to make it much more representative of the diversity of life. We anticipate that a representative barometer will need to monitor the status of 160,000 species (see table, above), roughly three times the almost 48,000 species currently on the Red List. The target number of species to be assessed is still provisional. Some groups (e.g., nematodes and sponges) are so poorly known that it would be hard to include them in the barometer at this time. A representative barometer would provide a solid basis for informing decisions globally, for example, on conservation planning, resource allocation, environmental impact assessments, monitoring biodiversity trends (through the IUCN Red List Index) ( 7, 8), and enabling countries to develop national-level biodiversity indicators ( 10). For the Red List to reach its full potential as the Barometer of Life, a substantial increase in the magnitude of the current effort will be required. About U.S.$4 million is spent annually to maintain and enhance the IUCN Red List ( 11), in addition to voluntary contributions of thousands of biologists worldwide. The total cost of achieving the broader taxonomic base is on the order of U.S.$60 million. The barometer would, from an economic perspective, be one of the best investments for the good of humanity.


In high-speed, deep sub-micron ULSI (Ultra Large Scale Integrated) circuit design, the performance of the whole chip is dominated by the interconnect circuits. Because the number of the interconnect components is prohibitively large, fast simulation of interconnect circuits has become crucial to check signal integrity and ensure circuit performance. BUS wires are typical interconnects widely used in ULSI chips. In this paper, a novel method is proposed for the equation formulation of BUS interconnect circuits. Band-symmetric matrices of the system equations are formulated by taking advantage of the parallel structure of the BUS interconnects. Compared to the conventional modified nodal equation formulation method, the proposed method can remarkably improve the simulation speed of the BUS interconnects. The proposed method can be easily applied to circuit simulation tools such as SPICE, PRIMA, PVL, etc., for the interconnect simulations.


Objective: In this paper, we explored the association between the clinical course of Fibromyalgia Syndrome (FMS) and patient's response to emotional stress in terms of depression.
Method: All participants (n=57 women with Fibromyalgia Sindrome (FMS); control group (203 healthy women) underwent the following tests: IPAT- CDQ-depression.
Results: Patients with FMS presented medium to high levels of depression (p<0.001) as expected.
Conclusion: Patients show medium to high of depression Further studies are necessary especially on depressive symptoms, quality of life, to better understand the difficulty of adaptation during the course of the disease.


Thyroid iodine turnover heterogeneity includes morphological (cellular and colloidal distribution space for iodide) and functional heterogeneity (hormone synthesis in the colloid). In 'normal' rats, both iodide actively trapped by the epithelial cell and that coming from deiodination of iodotyrosines present the same probability for thyroglobulin (Tg) iodination (Tg iodination flux: 4.0 +/- 0.3 micrograms I/day). A portion of the thyroid iodide is sequestered in the colloid lumen and is inoperative in the Tg iodination mechanisms. The masses of cell and colloid compartments are equivalent (0.018 +/- 0.002 micrograms I) while colloid iodide concentration is twice that of the cell (0.11 and 0.06, respectively). The turnover of about 3 micrograms I of colloid iodine (Tg) is follicle diameter-dependent (inter-follicular heterogeneity) and it is mainly characterized by 2 different half lives of 8 and 16 hours, respectively. Ninety percent of the thyroid iodine (hormone) secretion (1.10 +/- 0.11 micrograms I/day) is provided by this compartment rich in iodotyrosine residues (70%). The remaining 10% of iodine secretion is provided by a Tg pool (7 micrograms I) characterized by 2 compartments (intra-follicular heterogeneity) with slow and very slow turnovers. The longer the transit time of Tg molecules in the colloid, the higher their iodothyronine content.


The losses of a new axial flux permanent magnet generator (AFPMG) have been explored theoretically. The machine is designed and analyzed by a electromagnetic finite element method (FEM) simulation package. The suggested generator is three phase with two rotors and a stator between them. The rotors have 32 rare earth disc-type magnets at two sides and the stator has 24 coils. The losses are calculated from the FEM simulation package over the entire volume of the machine. It has been observed that the losses increase with the rotor speed. The core loss becomes higher than the copper loss for no-load operation. On the other hand, the copper loss becomes larger than core losses in the resistive load operation. The efficiency of the machine is found as 92.5% for its rated speed 1000 rpm.