Arylnaphthalene lignan lactones belong to a class of natural lignans, and more than 60 analogs have been isolated. Their pharmacological activities as well as unique structural features have attracted considerable attention from medicinal and synthetic chemists. Since the first synthesis in 1895, many synthetic methodologies with ionic or pericyclic reaction mechanisms have been reported. Transition metal catalysts sometimes provide exceptional synthetic versatility for the syntheses of natural compounds. Recently, transition metal-mediated methodologies were investigated for the construction of basic scaffolds of arylnaphthalene lignan lactones. Five kinds of transition metal catalysts containing gold, manganese, nickel, palladium, and silver have been explored. Most of the metal catalysts successfully created arylnaphthalene lactones by intermolecular or intramolecular annulative cyclization. In this review, all reports of transition metal-mediated annulative construction of arylnaphthalene lignan lactones were compiled, and synthetic approaches, mechanistic aspects, and successful applications were discussed.


The aim of the research is to study the lateral organization of the brain of modern students, which we position as the Generation Y+ and determine their level of knowledge of modern computer technologies. The authors examined the following research questions: whether the Generation Y+ is different from previous generations in terms of neuropsychology; as far as Generation Y+ has developed skills in using the capabilities of the digital environment. To study the profile of the lateral organization of the brain, we used the method of E. D. Khomskaya to determine the leading arm and the leading eye (motor and sensory systems). This technique allows a person to be attributed to one of the 16 profiles of the lateral organization of the brain. We assumed that the new "digital generation" would have a more pronounced hemispheric lateral organization of the brain than in people who participated in the studies of the 1960s–1980s. The object of the study were first-year undergraduate students of two leading economic universities in Moscow and Prague, studying in different fields (psychology, information technologies, management). The study demonstrates the emerging generational changes in the lateral profile and computer skills of the younger generation, which for these reasons can be attributed to the Generation Y+. The main conclusion can be considered that the computer literacy of the younger generation is a confirmed fact, but the final transition to "digital reality" has not yet taken place, and the possible qualitative changes of the next generation require scientific confirmation based on comprehensive studies.


This paper presents linear parameter-varying (LPV) controller design for the urea-based selective catalytic reduction (SCR) system in diesel engines to reduce nitrogen oxides (NOX) and ammonia (NH3) emissions. Although such LPV SCR controller design has been previously developed, this paper extends it in various ways. The extension includes the usage of NH3 slip sensor for feedback LPV control, the adoption of NOX and NH3 measurements downstream of the catalyst as gain-scheduling parameters, the simultaneous design of feedforward and feedback LPV controllers, and a robustness analysis of the LPV controllers. Quasi-LPV SCR models derived from an existing control-oriented nonlinear parameter-varying model are utilized in the LPV controller design. The LPV controller performance is demonstrated based on an SCR simulation utilizing experimentally obtained engine-out NOX, and exhaust gas temperatures and flow rates. It is shown that the LPV controller provides satisfactory emission performance, as well as robustness against sensor noise and model parameter uncertainty.


Samples were taken from November 1983 to October 1989 in sites along the main body of the Itaipu reservoir and its area of influence to evaluate the impacts of this reservoir on ichthyofauna and to provide information about the colonization process in the dammed area. The ichthyofaunistic similarity between the sites was analysed during the studied period. Spatial and temporal variations of the ichthyofaunistic diversity were also done, using Shannon-Winer Index of Diversity, eveness and species richness, comparing the results with those obtained before the damming. After Itaipu Reservoir formation, it was observed significative alteration in specific abundance and ichthyofauna structure of the Parana River, with an increase in species number in ali tributaries of the reservoir, and a high replacement in species. Diversity and species richness were higher in the dammed stretch of the Parana river and in its tributaries of the left side after the Itaipu reservoir formation. Among the sampled sites, the highest values of the diversity index were registered in Parana River upstream and downstream the reservoir, Iguatemi river and Arroio Guacu. Based on information of similarity in species composition and abundance in the sampled area, five site groups could be identified.


The editors of the prestigious journal Science cannot be accused of indifference toward the public's perception of scientific theories. In the December 23, 2005, issue they named Darwinian evolutionary theory as the breakthrough of the year. Of course, the original breakthrough occurred a century and a half ago, but since Darwin's time scientists have made great strides in furthering the Darwinian project by refining our understanding of how evolution works, and last year, in particular, advances were made on many fronts. While genuine scientific progress was made within evolutionary studies, the resurrection of "creation science" as "intelligent design" and the renewed attempt by the Christian right to inflict such repackaged religious nonsense on our nation's school children in the guise of science played no small part in directing the editors' selection.This article can also be found at the Monthly Review website, where most recent articles are published in full.Click here to purchase a PDF version of this article at the Monthly Review website.


Abstract The course and pathogenesis of Graves' disease and Graves' ophthalmopathy are interdependent, influencing each other's therapeutic choices. Multiple factors including geographic location, access to medical services, patient and physician preferences influence the management of these conditions. Graves' disease is classically managed with one of three treatment options – antithyroid drugs, radioactive iodine, and thyroidectomy. In recent years, there has been a shift towards antithyroid drugs, including long term therapy with these agents, given the advantage of avoiding hypothyroidism and the apparent safety of this approach. In addition, new therapies are (slowly) emerging, focusing on immunomodulation. Technological advances are opening doors to non-pharmaceutical interventions that aim to deal with both structural thyroid abnormalities as well as biochemical abnormalities of hyperthyroidism. Graves' ophthalmopathy management is guided by its activity and severity status, with treatment options including smoking cessation, control of hyperthyroidism, local eye measures, glucocorticoids, selenium, orbital radiotherapy, and surgery. In addition to these established treatment choices, new immunotherapy-based approaches are being tested. Some of them (tocilizumab and teprotumumab) are very promising but further evaluation is needed before we can establish their role in clinical care. Agents identified as beneficial in Graves' disease management will likely be tested in Graves' ophthalmopathy as well. In the coming years, our main clinical responsibility will be to find the proper balance between the benefits and potential risks of these incoming therapies, and to identify the subgroups of patients where this ratio is most likely to favor a safe and successful therapeutic outcome.


Complex networks are ubiquitous in today's world, being the infrastructure of modern society. From power grids to transportation highways, network topologies can be found everywhere. As a result, their failure has major consequences on our daily lives, even more so if these problems cascade throughout the network. Therefore, improving the robustness of such networks becomes an essential task, making them able to better cope with occurring failures. Robustness is defined as the ability of a network to continue performing well when it is subject to attacks and random failures. By representing networks as simple, connected, undirected, weighted graphs, we are able to quantify robustness with the use of some well known topological graph measures. These measures are based on distance, connectivity or centrality. Furthermore spectral measures are also considered. In addition to surveying these graph measures through experimental evaluation, we also use the distance-based measures in the network robustness improvement process. This process aims at adding a limited number of edges to optimally improve the measures. Although the problem itself is NP-hard, our proposed approximation algorithms can still ensure a good solution. Finally, to demonstrate its applicability, a versatile software tool has been realized which is able to assist in analyzing and improving the robustness of any given network.


This is the report of clinical signs and lesions of a cerebellar disorder in an adult four year old Limousin cow grazing perennial ryegrass (Lolium perenne). The most striking histopathological lesion was a marked paucity of Purkinje cells throughout the cerebellum.


This project assesses the possibility of putting an organic Rankine cycle on board an aircraft for waste heat recovery using bleed air coming from the engine's compressor as a heat source. Into this task the main subject taken into account was the weight of the system, since this will mean a trade-off between the power generated and the extra weight that is necessary to add.
In recent years, little research on waste heat recovery on aircraft has been done. The main source of heat for these systems comes from the engine and not from the bleed air as in this project but in all cases penalties like changes in engine design, excessive weight from the heat exchangers and a loss in thrust were faced. On the other side, some of these penalties were surpassed by the amount of power that the organic Rankine cycles provided.
To develop this project a model was designed on MATLAB varying the mass flow of the organic fluid to find out for the best arrangement that gives the most power output with the less weight. The model was performed under cruise conditions from an Airbus A320, a single aisle aircraft. The ORC was assessed in two locations; before the entrance of the precooler, a system that cools down the air before going into the pneumatic system, and before the air conditioning (AC) packs. The results show that heat recovery is possible only when the ORC is placed before the precooler but certain conditions need to be met so the energy balances result in positive outcomes. Current techniques were used to estimate the weight of the heat exchangers but improvements of these or availability of new materials in the future will increase the amount of energy that could be saved. The implementation of an ORC using the bleed system gives an option to recover wasted energy from aircraft since the conditions available are suitable for the system.


Intensive or inadequate management of tourism and related development may affect the nature, integrity and the dominant features of an area. Local communities hosting tourism often are the weaker link which interacts with guests and service providers within the tourism value chain. Therefore, tourism development should embrace the paradigm of sustainability by improving the living conditions of host communities, ensuring efficient use of the resources available, and valorizing and preserving local heritage and traditions from any damages or loss. This paper examines the extent to which tourism development may affect social, economic, and environmental conditions of communities of the Sud Department of Haiti particularly Les Cayes. To meet the objective of this paper, we surveyed of 453 residents and examined their views on the influence of tourism development in the region. By using conducting this survey, we gathered insights on what is considered significant for the respondents, and also an assessed the influence of number of residents, place of residence, and coastal vs. Inland on residents' perceptions.


Purpose

The purpose of this study is to determine the factors that underpin consumer switching intention in the smartphone industry. Most of the literature on brand switching uses conventional models that lack the ability to explain this behavior for high-technology products. Such products have unique characteristics that make the switching process more challenging from the consumer perspective.

Design/methodology/approach

The proposed model is built based on the related theories that consider the distinctive aspects of high-technology products. Furthermore, two variables "relative advantage of product features" and "company innovativeness" are introduced for the first time to evaluate consumer attitude to switch a high-technology product. The smartphone industry was selected to test the proposed model, where an online survey was sent to Apple and Samsung users.

Findings

The results confirm the expectation that perceived product usefulness, perceived ease of use and relative advantage of product features are the major factors driving the intention of users to switch, whereas subjective norms have limited impact. The financial cost of switching is the main barrier to consumers' decision to switch to a new technology. The pleasure consumers feel toward their brand and the other brand is positively associated with their attitude toward switching.

Research limitations/implications

This research contributes to the literature on brand switching by introducing a comprehensive model that explains consumer switching behavior of high-technology products. Research findings would allow managers to draft better marketing strategies to improve consumer brand awareness.

Originality/value

The majority of literature on brand switching uses simple models to explain consumer behavior. This study is the first attempt to build a comprehensive model that considers the characteristics of high-technology products and how they shape consumer behavior during the decision-making process.


The gas response characteristic toward C2H5OH has been demonstrated in terms of copper-vacancy concentration, hole density, and microstructural factors for undoped/Li(I)-doped CuO thin films prepared by sol-gel method. For the films, both concentrations of intrinsic copper vacancies and electronic holes decrease with increasing calcination temperature from 400 to 500 to 600 oC. Li(I) doping into CuO leads to the reduction of copper-vacancy concentration and the enhancement of hole density. The increase of calcination temperature or Li(I) doping concentration in the film increases both optical band gap energy and Cu2p binding energy, which are characterized by UV-vis-NIR and X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy, respectively. The overall hole density of the film is determined by the offset effect of intrinsic and extrinsic hole densities, which depend on the calcination temperature and the Li(I) doping amount, respectively. The apparent resistance of the film is determined by the concentration of the structural defects such as copper vacancies, Li(I) dopants, and grain boundaries, as well as by the hole density. As a result, it is found that the gas response value of the film sensor is directly proportional to the apparent sensor resistance.


Traditionally considered a specifically urban writer, F.M. Dostoevsky has actually devoted many pages of his works ( Poor Folk, The Village of Stepanchikovo , Demons , The Raw Youth [ Adolescent ], Diary of a Writer ) to the representation of a noble estate and to the understanding of its role in Russian history and culture. In his creative writing, the autobiographical experience of the writer, who spent his childhood at the Darovoye family estate near the town of Zaraisk in the province of Ryazan, has also been reflected. This paper explores the role of "estate culture" in the writings of Dostoevsky and other writers (A.S. Pushkin, L. Tolstoy, I. Bunin, A. Chekhov and I. Kireyevsky) and their representation of the nobility (dvorianstvo).


This thesis aims to contribute to the understanding of the structure, composition, properties, functions and dynamics of economic systems. The research output results from joining advances in the scientific disciplines of systems theory, complex networks, Input-Output analysis and economic activity classification systems. The relevance of this research primarily lies in the insight and overview that arose from bridging these disciplines. The central theme in this research is the complex network of economic sectors in which the transactions between sectors determine the dynamic structure of an economic network. A sector network is an abstract aggregate of sectors. When observed in more detail, the network structure of an economic system becomes visible between sub-sectors and their constituent parts (revealing organisations and individuals at most detailed level). In this thesis, this hierarchy is also referred to as a holarchy. Sectors can be analysed from various perspectives such as activities (functions), products (services and/or goods), organisations (enterprises), occupations (crafts of individuals) and production means (tools). For instance, financing is an activity, a loan is a product, a bank is an organisation and a banker is an occupation. Sector names such as finance sector or banking sector are commonly used which illustrates the difficulties in establishing a set of non-ambiguous sector names and definitions. In daily practice the above mentioned perspectives tend to be mixed up and (overlapping) thematic aggregates are defined as sectors (e.g. creative sector, technology sector), complicating the production of statistical compilations. This mixed perspective approach ignores classification principles such as completeness, summability, exclusiveness and categorising from one perspective, based on the criterion of homogeneity. The perspective of activities or functions emphasised in this thesis, is also expressed in the design of a novel sector model and sector network model. The functional analysis of sector related activities (sourced from the UN economic activity classification system (ISIC) and a set of standards and models specific to the telecom related sector) shows that only 3% of the inventoried functions of a sector was found unique on average. This finding is in line with propositions from system theory. Prominently included in this thesis are the representation of economic systems as complex networks and the accompanying analysis of German and Dutch Input-Output data. This analysis of the monetary flows in the German and Dutch economic networks shows a full-mesh structure at sector level, thus each sector can directly share produced (unique) value with every other sector. Supported by findings from literature review, a contemporary sector network appears to consist of twenty complementary economic sectors. When descending the hierarchy below the sector level, the link density decreases, thus not all sub-sectors are directly connected. Observations from the analysis of the Input-Output data (1987-2007) show an increasing network clustering coefficient and a decreasing value of the interaction ratio of the sector network over time. Furthermore organisation fragmentation is observed from Dutch statistics about the composition of enterprises (2001-2012). Possibly these indicators directly relate to the increasing scale of outsour-cing activities and the governmental policy of privatisation and the dismantling of monopolies in order to stimulate competition. This observation and interpretation show that network analysis generates interesting questions and hypotheses, which could enrich economic science. The above mentioned economic phenomena and the recent economic crises, raise the question if the sector network can be safely exposed to market forces. This thesis pleads for a more intensive orchestration of the sector network as a whole and the functioning of our vital sectors in particular.


During the past two decades, the world has seen several known and novel zoonotic viruses and deadly bacterial diseases, such as West Nile Virus (1999 to 2002), Anthrax (2001), H1N1(2009), Ebola (2014), Zika Virus (2016), SARS-CoV (2002), MERS-CoV (2012) and SARS-CoV-2 in 2019. The current ongoing COVID-19 pandemic is completely unpredicted and it has hugely changed our health care systems, global economy and social lifestyles. SARS-CoV-2 is still under genetic evolution and getting mutated to escape our immune system and showing resistance against available therapies. In this current research work, we have examined all publicly available scientific literature to date to understand the genetic evaluation of coronavirus species and their transmission possibilities to humans. We have also explored recently reported mutations of concerns in viral spike glycoprotein. We then discussed various SARS-CoV-2 preclinical and clinical research breakthroughs and highlighted our limitations and readiness to combat this deadly disease. Based on our recent study, we have emphasized developing a global viral, fungi and microbes platform. It can help us to predict mutations on their genomic, structural and pathophysiological profile to better address early on future threats by such infectious agents.


The aim of this study was to investigate physical activity (PA) policies in Brazil through current actions/programs to promote PA for children and adolescents. All 23 official websites of federal government agencies in Brazil [eighteen ministries, two secretariats (linked to ministries) and three ministry equivalent agencies] were visited. All programs/actions were analyzed according to indicators of the Global Matrix project from the Active Healthy Kids Global Alliance (AHKGA) and the Health Enhancing PA Policy Audit Tool, version 2, recommended by the World Health Organization. Furthermore, we used the analysis of "Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats" (SWOT) for the policies. Seventeen programs/actions included the promotion of PA for children and adolescents in Brazil, however, none of them had this as their main objective, and none were planned as a public policy action aimed at the promotion of PA. The overall score of the assessment instrument was 37 (out of a total of 100), which classifies Brazil as having a D+ grade according to AHKGA criteria. Brazil needs to define PA as a state policy so that the actions identified in this study can have positive effects on children and adolescents.


A new method to measure bone mineral mass and density in human vertebrae was developed and clinically implemented. Using single-energy CT in the lumbar spine, it is possible to measure trabecular and cortical bone mineral mass regardless of the amount of soft tissue "background" present. Although the method is sensitive to the fat that resides in the marrow space of the vertebral body, an estimate of fat content can be incorporated into the calculations. We present and demonstrate the conceptual model upon which the method rests, and show that the results derived from its clinical use are highly correlated with those obtained from the conventional method of determining bone mineral concentration.


Atmospheric rivers (ARs) constitute an important mechanism for water vapor transport, but research on their characteristics and impacts has relied on a diverse assortment of detection methodologies, complicating comparisons. The AR Tracking Method Intercomparison Project (ARTMIP) provides a platform for comparing such methodologies, but analysis of ARTMIP catalogues has heretofore focused primarily on specific regions. Here we investigate ARs as detected by an ensemble of algorithms with global coverage. We find that the frequency of occurrence of the majority‐consensus ARs produces a robust distribution, featuring five hot spots over the extratropical oceans, against which we compare individual algorithm results. We further explore the underlying similarities and differences via two case studies of AR evolution. The dominant source of disagreement between detection methodologies globally consists of detections (or lack thereof) of weak features, and the algorithms otherwise tend to agree remarkably well on the footprints of ARs.


With the advent of changes in lifestyle of people all around the world,
cancer cases have been showing an exponential rise. Researchers from varied fields have been trying
to solve this tricky issue.

 We undertook a systematic search of bibliographic databases of peer-reviewed research
literature to evaluate the holistic blend of modern and traditional approaches, especially the
Ayurvedic perspective of treatment of cancer along with the effect of our diet and lifestyle on the
management (both prevention and cure) of cancer.

 On the basis of extensive literature survey, it was found that Ayurveda as one of the ancient
medicinal systems had been very well documented for utilizing its best practices for the
treatment of various diseases including cancer, by utilization of several herbal plants and dietary
interventions as therapeutics. Active components present in various herbs, which interfere with
certain molecular targets to inhibit carcinogenesis are also summarized. Further, beneficial effects
of yoga and exercise on psychological distress, cancer-related fatigue and global side-effects as
well as their mechanism of action are also discussed. In addition, we recapitulate an upcoming
field of Ayurgenomics to understand the possible correlation of Prakriti with genetics as well as
epigenetics.

 Both genetic as well as environmental factors have shown their linkage with cancer.
Substantial advancements in the field of targeted therapies have opened new horizons for the cancer
patients. To fight with this grave situation, a combination of ancient and modern medicinal
systems seems to be the need of the hour.


It is important to use bench test results in the design process of anti-rolling tanks. Traditional bench tester is usually designed to perform only roll motions about a fixed axis and relatively small so that the viscous effects may not be neglected. Novel bench tester which could adjust the motion center to realize the coupled motion of sway and roll has been devised and manufactured therefore, large scaled bench tester could be utilized for designing the passive anti-rolling tanks. The time history of the reference signal from the rotation sensor of the bench tester have been recorded and processed to determine the phase angle to derive the Response Amplitude Operator(RAO) of the stabilized ship. The breadth of ART tank model should be large up to 2 m to diminish viscous scale effect and the vertical position of the tank can be varied with the ship's center of motion. The periods and the amplitude of roll motion can be varied from 1.5 sec to 5 sec and up to ±20°, respectively. The components of the tester was expressed in three dimensional digital mockup (DMU) and assembled together in the CAD space. The final configuration of the bench tester has been determined by confirming the smooth operation of the moving parts without interference through the animation in CAD space. New analytic logic are introduced for the determination of hydrodynamic moment and phase difference due to fluid motion in ART and verified through the test. The developed bench tester is believed to be effective and accurate for the verification of stabilization effect of ART taking into the consideration of the sway effect in the design stage.


The orchid mycorrhizal association is a symbiotic interaction in which both plants and fungi are mutually beneficial. Mycorrhizal association increases plant access to soil nutrients and is especially important for orchid seed germination. Most orchid mycorrhizal fungi belong to the group Rhizoctonia, including Rhizoctonia solani, a well-known plant pathogen that affects major crop production worldwide but has also been reported to be an orchid mycorrhiza. However, no systematic study has been done to investigate the type of interaction that develops when pathogenic R. solani interact with an orchid; whether a pathogen can alter its association to become mycorrhizal. Thus, this study was conducted to determine the type of interaction between Phalaenopsis hybrid and R. solani and its effect on the growth and chlorophyll content of Phalaenopsis hybrid. Sterile ex vitro Phalaenopsis plantlets were inoculated with 4 discs (0.5 cm diameter) of R. solani, isolated from diseased rice tissues, and incubated for 9 days. The inoculated root segments were used to observe the fungal hyphae in the root cell. The growth parameters (plant height, leaves length and width, the number of leaves, fresh and dry weights) and chlorophyll content were determined at 0, 3, 6, 7, 8, and 9 days of inoculation. It was observed that no peloton was present in the root cells of all inoculated plants. Severe reduction of growth and chlorophyll content were obtained in inoculated plants compared to control especially after 7 days of inoculation. These results suggested that R. solani developed a pathogenic infection to Phalaenopsis hybrid as no peloton structure was present in the root cells. R. solani infection also reduces the Phalaenopsis hybrids growth as well as declined its chlorophyll content.


The aim of the study was the agroclimatic zoning of robusta coffee ( Coffea canephora Pierre ex Froehner) in the state of Parana, and to verify changes caused by temperature rise related to global warming, as predictions for the next 100 years reported by the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). An alternative to keep coffee production in the state of Parana will be the introduction of robusta coffee, original from Africa, adapted to areas with annual mean temperatures between 22 and 26oC. We used the historical weather database from IAPAR (Agronomic Institute of Parana) and considered as apt for cropping the areas within the following conditions: risk of annual frost lower than 25% of probability, annual mean temperature between 22 and 26 °C, and annual water deficiency below 150 mm. The spatial analyzes were based on the Shuttle Radar Topography Mission (SRTM) and crossed into the environment of a Geographic Information System (GIS), generating maps of the agroclimatic zoning of Coffea canephora for the current climate and scenarios of climate change with the addition of 1.8 and 4 °C in the mean temperature. The zoning for the current weather indicated that parts of northwestern and western regions of Parana are suitable for cultivation. Under climate change scenarios, considering the rainfall regime unchanged, the area suitable for cultivation expands, justifying studies on this species in the state of Parana.


I construct a theoretical framework in which firms offer wage-tenure contracts to direct the search by risk-averse workers. All workers can search, on or off the job. I characterize an equilibrium and prove its existence. The equilibrium generates a non-degenerate, continuous distribution of employed workers over the values of contracts, despite that all matches are identical and workers observe all offers. A striking property is that the equilibrium is block recursive; that is, individuals' optimal decisions and optimal contracts are independent of the distribution of workers. This property makes the equilibrium analysis tractable. Consistent with stylized facts, the equilibrium predicts that (i) wages increase with tenure, (ii) job-to-job transitions decrease with tenure and wages, and (iii) wage mobility is limited in the sense that the lower the worker's wage, the lower the future wage a worker will move to in the next job transition. Moreover, block recursivity implies that changes in the unemployment benefit and the minimum wage have no effect on an employed worker's job-to-job transitions and contracts.


The maximization of the power output of an array of wave energy converters (WECs) and its impact on the surrounding area are two fundamental, strictly interconnected, aspects that must be considered in the design of a wave farm. The effect of those two elements combined, usually considered separately, is evaluated, in this study, for a small farm of floating devices. The numerical simulations are performed using a coupled model between the BEM solver Capytaine (near-field solution) and the wave propagation model MILDwave (far-field solution). The farm is located off the coast of Pantelleria Island and is composed of three PeWECs, WECs designed for the Mediterranean Sea. The power output and the perturbed wave field around the PeWEC farm are compared to the single device, for different distances among the WECs. Moreover, a Power Take-Off (PTO) is implemented for assessing the difference in the far-field effects between a controlled and an uncontrolled case. Results show that the wake produced by the PeWEC farm is more prominent and more complex with respect to the single device. The inclusion of the PTO contributes to further attenuate the wave field in the lee of the PeWEC farm.


Metastatic melanoma offers an ongoing clinical challenge. According to the American Cancer Society, the 5-year survival rate in 2012 for stage IV melanoma is only about 15% even with therapies. To improve outcomes, it is important to investigate new pathways involved in the regulation of metastasis as possible targets for prevention or treatment, such as autophagy. Autophagy (self-eating pathway) destroys a cell9s damaged proteins and organelles through lysosomal degradation and has been shown to play roles in a wide variety of normal physiological processes including energy metabolism, nutrient or stress responses, growth regulation, and aging. The role of dysregulated autophagy in melanoma has not been well characterized. Preliminary research found cutaneous malignant melanoma cells display high levels of autophagy suggesting that this cellular process may provide an active metabolic state for invasive and metastatic melanoma. Chloroquine (CLQ), a classic antimalarial agent, is a potent inhibitor of autophagy and has been used safely in human patients for decades. This study is designed to dissect the role of autophagy in melanoma using melanoma cell lines (e.g. SK-Mel 19, 103, and 147), and primary melanocytes as controls to determine whether these cell types respond to CLQ as measured by cell viability . Similar to pancreatic and prostate cancer cell lines, our preliminary results indicate that metastatic melanoma cells require autophagy for growth and show high sensitivity to CLQ at doses as low as 20uM which resulted in greater than 60% decreases in cell viability. These findings suggest that metastatic melanoma cell lines rely on lysosomal degradation to a greater extent than what has been reported for other cell types. In addition, both N-ras mutation and androgen deprivation mitigate the effects of CLQ on melanoma cells. Ongoing experiments will confirm the expression of autophagy related genes, as well as imaging to determine the rate of autophagy in these cell lines. Finally, we will introduce stripped hormonal factors including vitamin D and estrogen, to evaluate whether this addition will progressively restore the original chloroquine sensitive phenotype. Findings from this work have the potential to be immediately translatable to patients as CLQ is already approved for therapeutic use in other human diseases. Citation Format: Kirsten A. White, Salina M. Torres, Natalia J. Gurule, Marianne Berwick, Chien-An A. Hu. Inhibition of autophagy in melanoma: using cell lines to model chloroquine sensitivity. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 104th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2013 Apr 6-10; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2013;73(8 Suppl):Abstract nr 2041. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2013-2041


Abstract Understanding the determinants of population size and performance for desert bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis mexicana) is critical to develop effective recovery and management strategies. In arid environments, plant communities and consequently herbivore populations are strongly dependent upon precipitation, which is highly variable seasonally and annually. We conducted a retrospective exploratory analysis of desert bighorn sheep population dynamics on San Andres National Wildlife Refuge (SANWR), New Mexico, 1941–1976, by modeling sheep population size as a function of previous population sizes and precipitation. Population size and trend of desert bighorn were best and well described (R2 = 0.89) by a model that included only total annual precipitation as a covariate. Models incorporating density-dependence, delayed density-dependence, and combinations of density and precipitation were less informative than the model containing precipitation alone (ΔAICc=8.5–22.5). Lamb:female ratios were positively related to precipitation (current year: F1,34=7.09, P=0.012; previous year: F1,33=3.37, P=0.075) but were unrelated to population size (current year: F1,34=0.04, P=0.843; previous year: F1,33=0.14, P=0.715). Instantaneous population rate of increase (r) was related to population size (F1,33=5.55; P=0.025). Precipitation limited populations of desert bighorn sheep on SANWR primarily in a density-independent manner by affecting production or survival of lambs, likely through influences on forage quantity and quality. Habitat evaluations and recovery plans for desert bighorn sheep need to consider fundamental influences on desert bighorn populations such as precipitation and food, rather than focus solely on proximate issues such as security cover, predation, and disease. Moreover, the concept of carrying capacity for desert bighorn sheep may need re-evaluation in respect to highly variable (CV = 35.6%) localized precipitation patterns. On SANWR carrying capacity for desert bighorn sheep was zero when total annual precipitation was <28.2 cm.


This study investigated the connection between wisdom as a body of expert knowledge about the meaning and conduct of life and indicators of affective, motivational, and interpersonal functioning. Structural equation analyses showed that individuals higher on wisdom-related knowledge reported (a) higher affective involvement combined with lower negative and pleas-ant feelings, (b) a value orientation that focused conjointly on other-enhancing values and personal growth combined with a lesser tendency toward values revolving around a pleasurable life, and (c) a preference for cooperative conflict management strategies combined with a lower tendency to adopt submissive, avoidant, or dominant strategies. These findings corroborate the theoretical notion that wisdom involves affective modulation and complexity rather than the predominant seeking of pleasure and also a joint motivational commitment to developing the potential of oneself and that of others.


Background: To evaluate the effect of TENS on the pregnancy rate in women undergoing assisted reproduction techniques (ART) and embryo transfer.
Objective :This study was designed by comparing a group of patients receiving TENS shortly before embryo transfer with placebo control group.
Materials and methods: A prospective, randomized single blinded placebo-controlled study was designed. After obtaining the informed consent from those who had good quality embryos, 233 patients who were undergoing ART, were signed in to the following two groups (117 in experimental- 116 in placebo control groups). Conventional TENS (100Hz, 50μsec biphasic asymmetrical pulse) was applied by two channel over the groin and the mid part of anterior iliac spine to symphysis of pubis. 20 minutes in supine position before embryo transfer. In the control group, embryos were transferred without any supportive therapy. Sperm parameters (count, viability, motility, normal morphology) and embryo quality were measured based on WHO criteria. Clinical pregnancy was defined by the presence of a fetal sac during an ultrasound examination 6 weeks after embryo transfer. X² and MANOVA were used for variables differences and Eta2 for correlation.
Results: Clinical pregnancies were documented in 36 of 117 patients (30.8%) in the TENS group, whereas pregnancy rate in the placebo control group was 19.8% (23 out of 116). pregnancy rate was highly significant in TENS group (p 0.05).
Conclusion: TENS seems to be a useful non invasive and easy applicable tool for improving pregnancy rates in ART protocol and embryo transfer.


A computer simulation study of the lattice dynamics and vacancy migration of BCC Fe and in BCC Zr is presented. The results obtained are in good agreement with experiments. Special attention is paid to the temperature behaviour of the Tl 1/2 (110) phonon mode. This mode in Zr is shown to be related to the beta -to- alpha phase transformation as well as to the curvature of the Arrhenius plot. A phonon-enhanced mechanism with a temperature-dependent vacancy migration enthalpy is proposed as an explanation of 'anomalous' self-diffusion in BCC metals.


Combinational anti-cancer immune therapies that target multiple tumor-mediated suppressive mechanisms or enhance effector immunity are emerging as promising strategies for cancer treatment. Recently, we demonstrated that the combination of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm-LLO)-based immunotherapy (ADXS11-001) and anti-PD-1 antibody results in improved anti-tumor therapeutic and immune efficacy. Interestingly, regardless of the presence of an antigen or treatment with anti-PD-1 antibody, treatment with the Lm-LLO alone significantly inhibited the suppressive arm of the immune system, including regulatory T cells and myeloid-derived suppressor cells. We therefore hypothesized that combination of ADXS11-001 with agonistic antibodies against co-stimulatory molecules will lead to further improvement of immune and therapeutic efficacy as a result of the combined down-regulation of the suppressive arm and the enhancement of the effector arm. Here we demonstrate that combining Lm-LLO-based immunotherapy with anti-OX40 or anti-GITR antibodies lead to significant inhibition of tumor growth and prolonged survival of animals. The complete regression of established TC-1 tumors occurs in 40% and 60% of animals treated with ADXS11-001 in combination with anti-OX40 and anti-GITR antibodies, respectively. We show that this therapeutic potency enhancement is due to a significant increase in antigen-specific immune responses along with ADXS11-001-mediated inhibition of suppressor cells. Thus, we believe that simultaneous stimulation of T cells while inhibiting the suppressor cells, specifically using Lm-LLO-based immunotherapy combination with agonistic anti-co-stimulatory molecule antibody is a feasible and translatable approach that can lead to overall enhancement of the efficacy of an anti-tumor immunotherapy. Citation Format: Mikayel Mkrtichyan, Rajeev Shrimali, Shamim Ahmad, Rasha Abu Eid, Zuzana Berrong, Anu Wallecha, Robert Petit, Samir N. Khleif. Agonistic antibodies to costimulatory molecules, OX40 and GITR, significantly enhance the antitumor efficacy of Listeria monocytogenes (Lm-LLO)-based immunotherapy. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr LB-229. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-LB-229


Abstract In recent years, measurement or collection of heterogeneous sets of data such as those containing scalars, waveform signals, images, and even structured point clouds, has become more common. Statistical models based on such heterogeneous sets of data that represent the behavior of an underlying system can be used in the monitoring, control, and optimization of the system. Unfortunately, available methods mainly focus on the scalars and profiles and do not provide a general framework for integrating different sources of data to construct a model. This article addresses the problem of estimating a process output, measured by a scalar, curve, image, or structured point cloud by a set of heterogeneous process variables such as scalar process setting, profile sensor readings, and images. We introduce a general multiple tensor-on-tensor regression approach in which each set of input data (predictor) and output measurements are represented by tensors. We formulate a linear regression model between the input and output tensors and estimate the parameters by minimizing a least square loss function. To avoid overfitting and reduce the number of parameters to be estimated, we decompose the model parameters using several basis matrices that span the input and output spaces, and provide efficient optimization algorithms for learning the basis and coefficients. Through several simulation and case studies, we evaluate the performance of the proposed method. The results reveal the advantage of the proposed method over some benchmarks in the literature in terms of the mean square prediction error. Supplementary materials for this article are available online.


Several workers have proposed during the past 12 years that the Florida Mountains, about 15 mi (24 km) southeast of Deming, New Mexico, were involved in regional Cordilleran overthrusting. Consequently much oil and gas exploration is now based on the premise that the south Florida Mountains fault is a thrust fault that marks the northeastern edge of the "overthrust belt of southwestern New Mexico." The overthrust model requires large-scale horizontal movements, versus dominantly vertical movements of the block uplift model. Stratigraphic separations in the southern Florida Mountains indicate a minimum of 4,000 ft (1,219 m) vertical displacement. There is no evidence for more than about 1,000 ft (304 m) of horizontal displacement on the south Florida Mountains fault, and perhaps 2,000 ft (610 m) of horizontal displacement on some of the small thrust faults in the 1-mi-wide area along the northeast side of the south Florida Mountains fault. The south Florida Mountains fault steepens at depth whereas overthrusting requires that the fault flatten at depth. Overthrusting generally involves thick, 25,000 to 50,000 ft (7,620 to 15,240 m) geosynclinal sequences. In contrast, basement-co ed uplifts involve crystalline basement rocks and typically, a thin sedimentary sequence. Precambrian plutonic rocks are against, and locally over, about 4,000 ft (1,219 m) of Paleozoic carbonate rocks along the south Florida Mountains fault. Regional surveys indicate that the Florida Mountains area has been relative high since Pennsylvanian time. Foreland block uplift areas typically have shown a long history of structurally positive tendencies evidenced by thinning of units and the presence of unconformities over positive areas. Thrust faults formed during overthrusting due to extensive horizontal compression should, if curved, be concave upward. Faults produced by vertical basement uplift should be concave downward. The south Florida Mountains reverse fault is steeper at depth and con ave downward. The imbricate thrust faults to the northeast are either concave downward or nearly horizontal. Regional overthrusting should produce telescoping of facies and stratigraphic anomalies yet to be observed or reported in publications on southwest New Mexico geology. Our current study demonstrates that Laramide deformation in the Florida Mountains is probably not a continuation of the Cordilleran overthrust belt. Evidence suggests that the deformation resembles the basement-cored block uplifts of the Rocky Mountain foreland. End_of_Article - Last_Page 432------------


A disturbance cancellation extension by means of Youla parametrization to a stabilizing nominal controller is investigated. In the case of a known disturbance model, disturbance frequencies or period time, it may be implemented directly as an add-on device to the existing control system. The nominal control system may be designed without consideration of the deterministic disturbances. This way it may suffice with a PID controller. It may also be a more complex one e.g., designed to obtain certain robustness properties. For known relation between the disturbance frequencies (one or more periodic signals) but unknown fundamental frequency, a frequency shaped disturbance model estimation scheme is utilized. This makes it possible to e.g., adapt the disturbance model to minimize the error directly with respect to the output. For periodic disturbances the scheme implements a self-tuning discrete time repetitive controller. To illustrate the feasibility of the approach taken it is used for rejecting a periodic disturbance acting on a nonminimum-phase plant.


Fundamental regeneration rate data of cellular ceramic particulate traps are presented. The data were obtained from systematic bench experiments using scaled traps and simulated engine conditions. The study was conducted over a wide range of parameters, covering scaled regeneration flow rates from subidle engine flow to full flow at rated engine conditions, trap inlet temperatures from 500 to 650/sup 0/C, oxygen concentrations from 5 to 21%, and particulate accumulation levels in the trap from a pressure drop ratio (relative to the clean unit) of 2 to 60. The effect of each parameter on the maximum trap temperature and regeneration time is independently studied and described. Favorable regeneration conditions in terms of minimizing the energy requirements for regeneration and avoiding trap destruction are identified. Finally, it is illustrated that regeneration maps of this type can be applied to develop a control logic for an automatic regeneration system.


Objectives:It is well-known that climate changes during a typhoon season make asthma control worse. Several hypotheses such as pollen rapture, changes in temperature and atmospheric pressure could be considered. The aim of the study is to evaluate associations between typhoon, allergic sensitization, and asthma control. Methods:Sixty one asthmatic subjects were interviewed whether they were aware of any symptom changes during a typhoon season in Japan (between September and October). Subjects were divided into 2 groups according to the presence or absence of symptom changes. Then, clinical characteristics, sensitization to allergens, asthma control test (ACT), fractional exhaled nitric oxide (FeNO) levels, WBC, Eosinophils, lung functions were compared between groups. Patients were excluded if they had hazy memories or other respiratory comorbidity other than asthma, and if their treatments were changed during the season. Results:Three subjects were excluded because of the exclusion criteria. Seventeen of 58 patients (29%) realised their symptom changes (worsen group). Total IgE levels, cedar-specific IgE levels and the proportion of short course treatment with oral corticosteroids for exacerbation in the past one year were significantly higher in worsen group compared to subjects without symptom changes (p=0.03). Conclusions:Pollen sensitisation could be related to one of the factors in worsening asthma symptoms during the typhoon season.


Much of the world is currently experiencing shoreline
retreat due to global sea level rising at the rate of 3–4 mm yr -1.
This rate will likely increase and result in a net rise to roughly
1 m above present sea-level by the year 2100 (e.g., Rahmstorf,
2007; Solomon et al., 2007), with significant consequences
for coastal populations, infrastructures, and ecosystems.
Preparing for this future scenario calls for careful study of
past changes in sea level and a solid understanding of
processes that govern the shoreline response to these
changes. One of the best ways to assemble this knowledge is
to examine the geologic records of previous global sea-level
changes. Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (IODP)
Expedition 313 set out to do this by recovering a record of
global and local sea-level change in sediments deposited
along the coast of eastern North America during the Icehouse
world of the past 35 m.y. What we learn from this record—the
factors driving sea-level changes, and the impact of this
change on nearshore environments—will help us understand
what lies ahead in a warming world.


This paper presents an approach to the verification of reactive multiagent system (RMAS) applications. Many of those applications require high levels of confidence about their safety of execution. In those cases, model-checking appears as an adequate verification tool. However, the complexity of RMAS models generally forbids the direct application of model-checking, due to the combinatory explosion problem. Avoiding this kind of inconvenience is frequently possible by applying methods such as abstraction or composition. This work presents a compositional method adapted to the verification of RMAS models belonging to a wide class of applications. The method is adapted to the verificationas of safety properties. In this paper, the approach is put to practice by considering a vehicle platoon application with linear configuration. The crucial safety property being verified is the absence of collisions between platoon vehicles. A formal specification model is written with the SAL (Symbolic Analysis Laboratory) transition system language and compositional verification is performed with the SAL toolbox, by applying SAL model checkers.


In south Asia, most indigenous carp species rely mostly on natural food and therefore these species are commonly cultured in semi-intensive polyculture system. Generally, a combination of 5-8 species is stocked and most of the cases farmers are very disappointed due to slow growth rate of fish. However, they do not understand the real cause and complain about the complexity of managing many species in a culture system. Therefore, nowadays farmers have a tendency to use fewer species. Experimental manipulation of stocking densities suggest greater yields and comparatively better water quality occur when 1.5 rohu (Labeo rohita) are cultured with 0.5 common carp (Cyprinus carpio) per m2. To increase further fish production using limited resource and by exploiting excess natural food, addition of tilapia (Oreochromis nilotica) in low density (0.2 m-2) was suggested. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to know the effects of tilapia addition on pond environment and its effects on phytoplankton and fish growth in rohu-common carp polyculture system. Artificially fed and non-fed ponds were also compared. The 4.5-months experiment was carried out at the Bangladesh Agricultural University. Four treatments, randomly assigned and in triplicate, were compared: 1.5 rohu plus 0.5 common carp m-2 without (treatment 0T) and with artificial feed (0T-F), and 1.5 rohu plus 0.5 common carp plus 0.2 tilapia m-2 without (T) and with artificial feed (T-F). The results showed that NO3-N, total ammonia-nitrogen (TAN), total nitrogen (TN), PO4-P and total phosphorous (TP) concentrations were greater (P<0.05) in tilapia ponds than the ponds without tilapia. The opposite results were observed in case of Chlorophyll-a (Chl-a) and TSS due to tilapias high grazing pressure on phytoplankton. Artificial feeding lowered DO, total alkalinity and transparency of water, whereas the opposite results were observed in case of NO3-N, TAN, TN, PO4-P, TP, TSS and Chl-a concentrations. Tilapia decreased the effects of artificial feed on Chl-a (Fig. 1) and TSS concentrations. Tilapia had no significant effect on any yield parameter of rohu and common carp. All yield parameters of rohu, common carp and tilapia were better (P<0.01) in fed than non-fed ponds. Combined effects of tilapia addition and artificial feed resulted highest total net fish yield in treatment T-F (P<0.05) (Fig. 2). Therefore, a combination of 1.5 rohu plus 0.5 common carp plus 0.2 tilapia m-2 with artificial feed may be used for polyculture farmers in south Asian region.


Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems constitute a powerful tool for early diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), but limitations on interpretability and performance exist. In this work, a fully automatic CAD system based on supervised learning methods is proposed to be applied on segmented brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) from Alzheimer's disease neuroimaging initiative (ADNI) participants for automatic classification. The proposed CAD system possesses two relevant characteristics: optimal performance and visual support for decision making. The CAD is built in two stages: a first feature extraction based on independent component analysis (ICA) on class mean images and, secondly, a support vector machine (SVM) training and classification. The obtained features for classification offer a full graphical representation of the images, giving an understandable logic in the CAD output, that can increase confidence in the CAD support. The proposed method yields classification results up to 89% of accuracy (with 92% of sensitivity and 86% of specificity) for normal controls (NC) and AD patients, 79% of accuracy (with 82% of sensitivity and 76% of specificity) for NC and mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 85% of accuracy (with 85% of sensitivity and 86% of specificity) for MCI and AD patients.


This is a study an apology strategies used by 5 males and 5 females Indosat customer servers Surabaya. The purpose was to find the apology strategies and the differences of apology strategies used by them while responding to customer complaint. Furthermore, the writer also describes the reason behind such usage. The writer used descriptive qualitative approach in doing her research. The data are taken from the real conversation between customer servers and customers. The writer classified the conversation based on gender differences and analyzed them using apology strategies theory suggested by Anna Trosborg. The result of the analysis showed that female customer servers tend to use Strategy 4-(Acknowledgement of Responsibility) towards adult age customers, and Strategy 5-(Expressing Apology) towards middle aged customers. While male customer servers tend to use Strategy 3-(Explanation or Account) toward both age bracket group. Strategy 4-(Acknowledgment of Responsibility), Strategy 5-(Expressing Apology) had the highest frequency used by female customer servers for both different age bracket groups. Those strategies indicated that female customer servers tend to be more cooperative in explaining the problem than the male ones. While, male customer servers prefer to use Strategy 3-(Explanation or Account) to give further explanation towards customers. Therefore the writer concluded that apology strategy was a significant strategy used in the customer service as a remedial interchange to serve customers.


Falls are a significant cause of fatal and nonfatal injuries in older persons. Risk factors include previous falls, several disease states, and certain drugs such as tricyclic antidepressants and antihypertensives. We conducted a MEDLINE search from January 1966–March 1999 to identify studies and review articles on the association of neuroleptics, benzodiazepines, and antidepressants with fall risk in older people. The focus was on the risk associated with serotonin reuptake inhibitors, biologic plausibility, and limitations of these studies. It was thought that the agents did not increase the risk of falls, although recent evidence suggests that this is not the case.


The presence or absence of motorized boats, partnerships and multispecies catches characterize the fisheries of Sao Francisco River, Minas Gerais, Brazil. Fishing activity based on 109 interviews, carried out in the wet (high water: February and March) and dry (low water: July and August) seasons, with professional fishermen are described. Aiming to identify the fishery income components, a covariance model was proposed, with the income as the response variable, related to the factors: fishing ground; use of motorized or paddle boat; seasonality; presence of fishing assistant; and the following covariates: capture in weight in the week prior to the interview; fisherman experience in yrs; and distance (km) travelled for fishing. The results indicated that the main contributions to income were the absence of an engine (because of high price of the fuel), the absence of a partner (because of low capture) and the amount of fish caught by the fishermen.


Sometimes suicide is committed suddenly and other times suicide is planned long time ago. This study aims to know about the background of the time effect for psychic life how the idea of suicide is growing up. Is suicide unpredictable or is there another factor like latency coming up for being acted out? Incarceration and prison environment has a very high risk for suicide in France. This study confronted observations of psychiatrists and psychologists having prisoners as patients. Their observations are compared too with psychiatrists and psychologists having a double professional experience in town and in prison. Interpretations of statistics about suicide risk complete information. This interpretation is helped by the phenomenological notion of the threshold effect (Zutt, Kuhlenkampf) coming from early experimental psychology (Th. Fechner). All results agree about the importance of being in contact with the prisoner from the very beginning of his incarceration. The incarcerated person has to get started when entering in prison by verbalizing about himself. Later he may have lost all motivation and may be tired by all interpersonal effort. The risk of hetero and auto-aggression will be high.


We present a novel approach to producing facial expression animations for new models. Instead of creating new facial animations from scratch for each new model created, we take advantage of existing animation data in the form of vertex motion vectors. Our method allows animations created by any tools or methods to be easily retargeted to new models. We call this process expression cloning and it provides a new alternative for creating facial animations for character models. Expression cloning makes it meaningful to compile a high-quality facial animation library since this data can be reused for new models. Our method transfers vertex motion vectors from a source face model to a target model having different geometric proportions and mesh structure (vertex number and connectivity). With the aid of an automated heuristic correspondence search, expression cloning typically requires a user to select fewer than ten points in the model. Cloned expression animations preserve the relative motions, dynamics, and character of the original facial animations.


The electrophysiological effect of dimeditiapramine (Ro 11‐1781), a Ca2+ antagonist, was evaluated in 20 patients with coronary heart disease. Electrophysiological measurements, including sinus cycle length, sinoatrial conduction time, intra‐atrial conduction time, atrial, atrioventricular, nodal and ventricular refractory periods and intraventricular conduction time were recorded before and after the intravenous administration of Ro 11‐1781. At a dose which is effective against cardiac arrhythmias, Ro 11‐1781 produced no statistically significant changes in the sinoatrial and intraventricular conduction time. Similarly, neither the sinoatrial nor the ventricular refractory period was affected. Ro 11‐1781, however, increased the atrioventricular conduction time and decreased the systolic blood pressure to a statistically significant extent. The tolerance was very good.


Multi-vector retrieval models improve over single-vector dual encoders on many information retrieval tasks. In this paper, we cast the multi-vector retrieval problem as sparse alignment between query and document tokens. We propose AligneR, a novel multi-vector retrieval model that learns sparsified pairwise alignments between query and document tokens (e.g. `dog' vs. `puppy') and per-token unary saliences reflecting their relative importance for retrieval. We show that controlling the sparsity of pairwise token alignments often brings significant performance gains. While most factoid questions focusing on a specific part of a document require a smaller number of alignments, others requiring a broader understanding of a document favor a larger number of alignments. Unary saliences, on the other hand, decide whether a token ever needs to be aligned with others for retrieval (e.g. `kind' from `kind of currency is used in new zealand}'). With sparsified unary saliences, we are able to prune a large number of query and document token vectors and improve the efficiency of multi-vector retrieval. We learn the sparse unary saliences with entropy-regularized linear programming, which outperforms other methods to achieve sparsity. In a zero-shot setting, AligneR scores 51.1 points nDCG@10, achieving a new retriever-only state-of-the-art on 13 tasks in the BEIR benchmark. In addition, adapting pairwise alignments with a few examples (<= 8) further improves the performance up to 15.7 points nDCG@10 for argument retrieval tasks. The unary saliences of AligneR helps us to keep only 20% of the document token representations with minimal performance loss. We further show that our model often produces interpretable alignments and significantly improves its performance when initialized from larger language models.


The onset of milk production lets mammals experience an enormous energy and nutrient demand. To meet these requirements, high-yielding dairy cows mobilize body fat resulting in an augmented hepatic oxidative metabolism, which has been suggested to signal for depressing hunger after calving. To examine how the extent of fat mobilization influences hepatic oxidative metabolism and thus potentially feed intake, blood and liver samples of 19 Holstein cows were taken throughout the periparturient period. Retrospectively grouped according to high (H) and low (L) liver fat content, H cows showed higher fatty acid but lower amino acid plasma concentrations and lower feed intake than L cows. The hepatic phospho-AMPK/total AMP ratio was not different between groups but decreased after parturition. A 2-DE coupled MALDI-TOF-TOF analysis and qRT-PCR studies revealed H cows having lower expressions of major enzymes involved in mitochondrial β-oxidation, urea cycling, and the pentose phosphate pathway but higher expressions of enzymes participating in peroxisomal and endoplasmic fatty acid degradation, pyruvate and TCA cycling, amino acid catabolism, oxidative phosphorylation, and oxidative stress defense. These data indicate that increasing lipolysis leads to augmenting nutrient catabolism for anaplerosis and mitochondrial respiration, providing a molecular link between hepatic oxidative processes and feed intake.


Over the last decades, cardiovascular diseases (CVD) effect is increasing very fast. This review article discuss the association between low level of 25-hydroxy vitamin and cardiovascular diseases. This review also tells us the direct effect of vitamin D on heart or on cardiovascular system may also be involved. Apart from regulating blood pressure, vitamin D also regulate endothelial and smooth muscle cell muscles, most studies support 25 (OH) vitamin D having protective effects on cardiovascular system. However this association of vitamin D and cardiovascular diseases is based on observation & ecological studies and thus is a matter of controversy. Adequate clinical data are not available to confirm these association. Unopposed activation of RAAS & generation of angiotensin promote arterial stiffing & endothelial dysfunction that proceed & contribute to the development of hypertension & also predictors of CVD risk.


Teaching and appreciating literature entail the reader to have knowledge in literary criticism. It is a skill that helps reader to understand deeper meaning of literary pieces for aesthetic appreciation. Hence, this study intends to decipher critically the underlying meaning of Hemingway's choice literary works using the literary criticism approaches such as semiotics and symbolism vis-a-vis formalistic approach. Hemingway's novel "The Old Man and the Sea" and the short story "Hills like White Elephants" are the foci of this study. Specifically, this paper aims to find answers to the following queries: (1) How is semiotics exemplified in Hemingway's choice literary works?; (2) How is symbolism exemplified in Hemingway's choice literary works?; (3) What is the interpretative impact of semiotics and symbolism in Hemingway's choice literary works in terms of affective value, ideational value, and the total effect?; and (4) From the analysis made, what lesson guides would be developed? The research findings reveal that semiotics and symbolism play vital role in veneering the latent meaning of Hemingway's literary works. For instance the novel The Old Man and the Sea is such a simple story of an old Cuban fisherman. Its plot is so simple and common that few readers are attracted by it. We see fishermen around us and we know their way of life. It seems that nothing new and intriguing about them. Likewise, with the short story entitled Hills Like White Elephants is as simple as the other story. However, the researcher finds that these simple stories become very intriguing and interesting upon utilizing semiotics and symbolism as literary criticism approaches. Furthermore, another shades of beautiful meanings surface after scrutinizing the affective and ideational values as well as the total effect of the literary piece to the readers. It is therefore recommended that semiotics and symbolism shall be used in teaching literature to college students' vis-a-vis other literary criticism approaches to widen students' horizon in terms of literary criticism and appreciation. Finally, the researcher provides two lesson guides in teaching semiotics and symbolism. These lesson guides would hopefully help literature professors simplify the teaching of semiotics and symbolism.


Literary critics and scholars still need to fully address the central role of Ruben Dario in the different tones and modes taken by Modernism both in Spain and in Latin America. This article addresses some of the areas for further study.


Engineer-to-order (ETO) products have some unique characteristics on their production process and supply chain models. These characteristics require that their design process should not only export product structure and production procedure information, but also consider other objectives, e.g., feasibility of production planning, cost, quality, service, etc. Different roles, including customers, suppliers, and related departments in ETO enterprises, should be integrated closely for frequent collaborations by exchanging mass of data during design process. To address this issue, in this paper we introduce a Web service based infrastructure for ETO product collaborative design, in which related product design systems, e.g., CAD, CAPP and PDM, and related business information systems, e.g., ERP, are all partially encapsulated as basic Web services, and according to several primitive service interoperability patterns, these services are collaborated together to realize data and process integration with the aid of enterprise service bus (ESB), consequently forms an integrated design ecosystem, to improve design efficiency for ETO products


Cancer is a family of diseases and breast cancer is a single disease. Breast tissues are made up of milk production glands, which called lobules and the ducts, which connect the lobules to the nipple. The remaining part of the breast is composed of with lymphatic, connective and fatty tissues. Breast cancer is the most prevalent type of cancer in the world. Throughout worldwide breast cancer poses a major health risk for women. Every year, one million women are diagnosed with breast cancer (1). Breast cancer is the most common cancer among female and it is estimated that over 1.38 million women according to the 2008 GLOBOCAN of WHO (2). Everyone is affected by cancer the old and young, the poor and rich, children and women. It is creating sever financial and social problems on families in Pakistan. Pakistan is a developing country and most of the population is living in rural areas. In rural areas of Pakistan, no formal health infrastructure is available for rural population. Illiteracy is also a major cause of breast cancer among women because women have no awareness about personal hygienic conditions. Most of the Pakistani women have no proper access to the medical facilities due to gender-based discrimination. More than half of the population is based upon women. Sexually transmitted diseases and breast cancer has become very common disease among women in Pakistan. In rural areas of Pakistan, socio-economic conditions are responsible for the poor health of the women. At some stage of life, 1 in 9 Pakistani women has become the patient of breast cancer (3). In Asia, Pakistan has the highest rate of breast cancer. Young women also present at advanced stage of breast cancer, which has negative effect on prognosis. In rural areas, rural women are developing a great number of breast cancers every year because it is an inherited disease, which is transmitted from mother to daughter. Pakistani rural as well as urban women are facing cervical, ovarian and uterine cancers (4).Screening centers are not available in Pakistan to diagnose various type of cancer and every year a great number of women are dying due to breast cancer and Hepatitis-C. Mammogram is a screening program, which is very helpful and effective in the detection of the disease. Most of the population cannot afford this screening program because it is very expensive. The simplest technique is Breast self-examination (BSE) to check one-self monthly. Trained medical practitioners and nurses at health centers teach the women, how to use Breast self-examination technique once a month. Majority of the Pakistani women are living in poor conditions and cannot afford expensive screening tests. Therefore, they can use easily this technique by themselves and detection breast cancer at early stage. In the above table, Pakistan's ranking is showed according to the type of cancer in the world.


Introduction . The mechanisms of haemoglobin (Hb) subtype switch remain largely unknown even though it has a therapeutic potential (Bauer et al., 2012). In fact, reactivation of fetal haemoglobin (HbF) production in adult erythrocytes (F-cells) is protective in many Hb disorders. Pregnancy may represent the only physiological condition where HbF production increases transiently (Ibrahim et al, 2009; Yamada et al., 2012). Moreover, flow cytometry (FC), by intracellular staining using anti-HbF antibodies, has improved the evaluation of maternal F-cells (Corcoran et al., 2014; Chen et al., 2000). In this study, the objectives are: 1) to document HbF expression prospectively peri- and post-partum and confirm its maternal origin; 2) to assess potential causes of HbF modulation throughout pregnancy (i.e. β-hCG, EPO) and; 3) to identify gene differences between HbF-positive and HbF-negative pregnant women. Methods . In this observational, single institution, prospective study, 879 pregnant women were screened. A total of 345 participants were included in the study: the first consecutive 176 women with negative total HbF expression ( Results . At the time of analysis, 93 HbF-positive and 147 HbF-negative women had completed follow-up. Results revealed that, among all pregnant women screened, 22.07% (n = 194) had positive HbF expression. Of this percentage, 90.72% (n = 176) filled the inclusion criteria. Of all women with positive HbF expression during 1 or more of the first 3 visits, 72.04% showed a post-partum decrease of HbF below 1%. Furthermore, FC analyses in HbF-positive women confirmed the maternal origin of HbF in all cases and revealed an average of 13.28% (sd = 5.38%) F-cells when total HbF was ≥ 1%. Only modest correlations could be found so far between HbF levels and β-hCG (ρ = 0.25) or EPO (ρ = 0.07). Comparative DNA analyses of HbF-positive and HbF-negative women are currently underway and will be presented at the meeting. Conclusions. To our knowledge, this represents the largest prospective study evaluating HbF expression throughout pregnancy, as well as the first to evaluate post-partum HbF dynamics and the genetic background of HbF-negative and HbF-positive pregnant women. Preliminary data shows that: 1) a significant percentage of pregnant women have a transient elevation of HbF which cannot be explained by fetomaternal hemorrhage nor hereditary persistence of HbF; 2) the proportion of F-cells in women remains constant peri- and post-partum when HbF ≥ 1%; 3) a large proportion of maternal erythrocytes express HbF at low levels and; 4) HbF modulation during pregnancy is only modestly correlated to β-hCG and EPO. These data may lead to the study of a new paradigm of Hb subtype switch as well as HbF-induction therapeutics for the benefit of Hb disorders. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


BACKGROUND/AIM
Australia's National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is designed to influence home, social and economic participation for Scheme participants. Given the major disability reform underway, this pilot study aimed to: (i) examine community integration outcomes of people with spinal cord injury (SCI); (ii) compare findings with multiple matched controls and (iii) consider findings within the context of Australia's NDIS.

METHODS
Setting: Victoria, Australia.

DESIGN
Matched analysis (people with and without SCI).

INSTRUMENTATION
Community Integration Questionnaire (CIQ).

PARTICIPANTS
n = 40 adults with SCI (M age = 52.8 years; 61% male; 77% traumatic SCI).

ANALYSES
Matched analyses from each SCI subject aged <70 years (n = 31) with four CIQ normative data subjects (from n = 1927) was undertaken, with key demographic variables matched (age range, gender, living location and living situation). Risk of low CIQ score as a function of SCI was also examined using conditional Poisson regression.

RESULTS
With key demographic variables held constant, small to medium effect sizes were found in favour of the normative sample, with statistically significant differences in home (ρ = 0.003) and productivity integration (ρ = 0.02). Relative risk of low home integration was significant in the SCI cohort (conditional RR (95% CI) = 3.1 (1.5-6.3), ρ = 0.001). Relative risk of low CIQ total, social integration and productivity scores did not reach significance.

CONCLUSION
This cohort of SCI participants was less integrated into home and productive occupations than matched norms, holding implications for planning and allocation of supports to influence outcomes within an NDIS. Further research is necessary to understand community integration outcomes in larger matched samples.


This study was carried out at Bany El-Hareth site north of Sana'aYemen to evaluated the ability of Brassica juncea (L.), which has already been recognized as a plant suitable for metal phytoremediation to extract Lead (Pb), Cadmium (Cd), Nickel (Ni), Zinc (Zn), and Copper (Cu) from waste water contaminated soil and investigated the effect of plant parts and contaminated soil on heavy metals accumulation in plant. Indian mustard plant ( B. juncea ) was grown in wastewater contaminated soil. This study showed that Brassica juncea (L.) was able to grow in heavy metals contaminated soils and also able to accumulate extraordinarily high concentrations of some metals such as Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn and Cu in its tissues. The results indicated that contaminated soil content of Pb, Cd, Ni, Zn and Cu decreased 45, 56, 73, 53 and 79 % respectively after plant harvest. Plant parts and contaminated soil affected heavy metals accumulation in plant, the highest accumulation 54.0, 24.8 and 42.3 ppm of Pb, Cd and Ni respectively were in plant roots, whereas, the highest accumulation of Zn was 250.6 ppm in shoots and 35.6 ppm of Cu in fruits.


Introduction: Acute COPD exacerbations (AECOPD) represent an important cause of morbidity and mortality. Early and effective interventions may improve their outcome and patients' health status.

Objective: This study evaluated the effect of erdosteine, an anti-oxidant mucolytic agent, on airflow limitation and symptom recovery at AECOPD

Methods: 15 COPD patients hospitalized for an acute exacerbation randomly received erdosteine 900 mg daily (E) or placebo (P) for 10 days in combination with standard steroid, antibiotic and bronchodilator treatment. Pulmonary function test including spirometry (FVC, FEV1, FEF25–75) and breathlessness, cough, and sputum scale (BCSS) were measured at hospital admission, and at 10 and 30 days post-exacerbation.

Results:

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The improvement of lung function parameters and symptom scores from baseline was significantly greater in patients receiving erdosteine. Symptom score recovery significantly correlated to improvement of airway obstruction at time 10 and 30 in the erdosteine group.

Conclusions: Treatment with erdosteine plus standard therapy in AECOPD proved to be effective in improving both clinical symptoms, and large and small airway impairment. Mucolytic agents with relevant antioxidant activity may allow a more rapid and complete recovery of exacerbated patients by reducing the burst of airway inflammation.


Development of new machine and small-sized equipment have the advantage on both diagnosis and management of various diseases. In terms of bronchial asthma, the understanding of pathophysiology has been changed from a disease with acute episodes of bronchoconstriction to a disorder with chronic airway inflammation. To verify bronchial responsiveness induced by chronic inflammation, a direct-writing respiratory impedance method(Astograph) is more useful compared with a conventional standard method with measuring FEV1.0. Peak expiratory flow(PEF), an index of pulmonary function test with effort, can be measured with peak flow meter which is small and handy. Repeated measurements of PEF have been recommended by the International Consensus Report on diagnosis and treatment of asthma. The PEF monitoring is effective not only on the understanding of individual pathophysiology but also on the long-term management of patients with asthma. It is needed to develop noninvasive simple technique to evaluate airway inflammation although many investigators have examined hypertonic saline-induced sputum or bronchial mucosal biopsy. Repeated measurements of exhaled nitric oxide may become to a safe and valid method to access inflammatory change in the airway.


Conduct disorder (CD) is a matter of societal concern because of the significant burden for the patient, family and immediate environment and the strong associations with school failure, disrupted peer and family relationships, excessive risk-taking and addic- tive behaviors. The economic costs of aggressive and antisocial behavior in children and adolescents are huge. The mechanisms that lead individuals to adopt such behaviors have been defined and approached from various perspectives. Our purpose was to assess the emotional distress, irrational beliefs, emotion regulation strategies and callousness, uncaring, unemotional traits in a sample of adolescents diagnosed with conduct disorder and to investigate the relationship between them. The adolescents with conduct disorder had a low level of emotional distress and negative dysfunctional emotions. Girls reported a higher level of emotional distress than boys and significantly lower positive emotions. We found significant correlations between the emotional distress reported by the adolescents and their irrational cognitions. The suppression and reassessment strategies did not register values above those of the general population. No significant relation was found between emotional distress and the emotional regulation strategies reappraisal and suppression. The use of suppression related significantly with callousness, uncaring, and unemotional traits. The reappraisal coping strategy related significantly only with uncaring trait, the relation being negative. Research findings from different areas correlated with pathology may improve current therapies (i.e., including emotion regulation training in individualized intervention protocol) or help to develop new ones.


Certain dynamical systems (e.g., synchronized chaotic oscillators) exhibit a phenomenon called bubbling, whereby small perturbations induce intermittent bursting. In this Letter we show that, as a parameter is varied through a critical value, the transition to bubbling can be {open_quote}{open_quote}hard{close_quote}{close_quote} (the bursts appear abruptly with large amplitude) or {open_quote}{open_quote}soft{close_quote}{close_quote} (the maximum burst amplitude increases continuously from zero), and that the presence or absence of symmetry in the unperturbed system has a fundamental effect on these transitions. These results are confirmed by numerical and physical experiments. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society.}


In today's world, where the need for construction projects is increasing from time to time, especially in developing countries such as Ethiopia, sustainability issues and principles were not exercised by construction professionals during the material selection process. At the initial stage, the designer considers materials he/she is familiar with. However, their assumption may not work because the structure that is going to be developed may be different from the previous one. Thus, the designer shall consider sustainability issues during the design period. This article will guide construction stakeholders in the selection of sustainable building materials, specifically masonry materials in the Ethiopian construction industry. The research was carried out in the Addis Ababa Lideta subcity, to identify sustainable building materials for masonry work. The selection process is not depending on a single factor rather it depends on multifactors. The identification was carried out through exploring factors affecting the selection of sustainable building materials for masonry work. The weights of identified factors were determined by pairwise comparison among the factors under consideration. The research is of the empirical type which uses mathematical formula, matrix concept, and analytical hierarchy process (AHP) as a model. In this method, pairwise comparisons were made among the criteria and subcriteria so that the weights of the criteria or subcriteria/or alternative on the bases of the indicated criteria were computed. Then, prioritization was made on the bases of the weight of the criteria. Finally, an alternative with a high score shall be selected. The article identifies the major factor affecting the selection of sustainable building materials for masonry work as social benefit, performance capability, sustainability of the material to reduce environmental impact, waste minimization, resource efficiency, and life cycle cost of the material. Under each criterion, there are number of subcriteria contributed to them. On the basis of the above criteria, 4 alternatives (stone, brick, CEB, and cement block) were proposed from which compressed Earth block (CEB) was selected.


The article presents the results of analyzes of predicting the effectiveness of measures aimed at improving the reliability of modern cars. Tools to assess the effect of the introduction of measures to improve the design of a car are shown.


Background

Retroperitoneal sarcoma (RPS) is a rare disease often requiring multi-visceral and wide margin resections. Midline incision seems to be the access of choice. Up to now there is no evidence for the best surgical access. This study aimed to analyze the oncological outcome according to the incision used for the resection.
Methods

All patients treated for RPS between 2007 and 2018 at the Department of Visceral Surgery and Medicine of the University Hospital Bern and receiving a RPS resection in curative intent were included. Patient- and treatment specific factors as well as local recurrence-free survival was analyzed in correlation with the type of surgical access used.
Results

Thirty-five patients were treated for RPS at our center. The majority received their primary RPS resection at a tertiary medical center (n = 23) the rest of the resection were performed in an external non-tertiary institution (n = 12). Median tumor size was 24 cm. Resections were performed via a midline laparotomy (MI = 31) or flank incision (FI = 4). All FI were performed at a non-tertiary center and received no multi-visceral resection. In ML the macroscopically complete resection (R0/1) rate was 83.9% and 25% in FI (p = 0.021). The local recurrence rate after R0/1 resection was 100% in FI and 61.5% in ML (p = 1.00). Early recurrence or local disease progression was present in 50% of FI compared to 0% in ML (p = 0.01). The median recurrence-free survival after R0/1 resection was lower in FI (p < 0.001) and in patients operated in a non-tertiary center (p = 0.27).
Conclusions

FI with limited exposure of the retroperitoneum and no access to the visceral organs as well as resection at a non-tertiary center are associated worse outcome in RPS surgery.


Clear cell variants of transitional cell carcinomas (TCC) of the bladder are extremely rare tumors. Only 6 cases have been reported until now. We report of a 67 year old man who presented with fast growing tumor disease. While initial diagnosis showed localized bladder tumor, final histopathology revealed pT4, G3, L1 urothelial carcinoma with clear cell differentiation. No more than 14 weeks after initial diagnosis the patient died from multi-organ failure after unsuccessful salvage laparotomy which showed massive tumor burden within the pelvis and peritoneal carcinosis. This case demonstrated an extremely fast tumor growth. Therefore, patients with clear cell urothelial carcinoma should be treated vigorously and without time delay. We present a case of clear cell variant of TCC which exhibited an extremely aggressive behavior. To our knowledge this is the fifth report of this rare disease.


Context: Discharge against medical advice or leave against medical advice (DAMA or LAMA) is a global phenomenon. The magnitude of LAMA phenomenon has a wide geographical variation. LAMA reasons are an area of concern for all involved in health-care delivery system. Aims and Objectives: The study aimed to evaluate cases of LAMA retrospectively in a tertiary teaching care institute (1) to find the magnitude of LAMA cases (2) to evaluate demographic and patient characteristics of these cases. Subjects and Methods: We screened hospital record of a referral institute over 1 year after approval from IEC and ICMR, New Delhi. Patient demographics and disease characteristics were noted and statistically analyzed after compilation. Results: A total of 47,583 patients were admitted in the year 2015 through emergency and outpatient department. One thousand five hundred and fifty-six (3.3%) patients got DAMA. The mean age of patient excluding infants was 46.64 ± 20.55 years. There were 62.9% of males. Average hospital stay of these cases was 4.09 ± 4.39 days. Most of the patients (70%) belonged to medical specialties and had longer stay as compared to surgical specialties. Most of LAMA patients were suffering from infections, trauma, and malignancies. Most of the patients had LAMA from ward (62%) followed by Intensive Care Unit (ICU) (28.8%) and emergency (9.2%). In 592 (38%) of LAMA patients, the reason for leaving was not clear. The common cited reasons for LAMA were financial (27.6%) and poor prognosis (20.5%). Conclusions: About 3.3% of patients left hospital against medical advice in our retrospective analysis. Most of these cases did so from ward followed by ICU. Financial reasons and expected poor outcome played a significant role.


Searches for young gas giant planets at wide separations have so far focused on techniques appropriate for compact (Jupiter sized) planets. Here we point out that protoplanets born through Gravitational Instability (GI) may remain in an initial pre-collapse phase for as long as the first $ 10^5-10^7$ years after formation. These objects are hundreds of times larger than Jupiter and their atmospheres are too cold ($T\sim$ tens of K) to emit in the NIR or H$\alpha$ via accretion shocks. However, it is possible that their dust emission can be detected with ALMA, even around Class I and II protoplanetary discs. In this paper we produce synthetic observations of these protoplanets. We find that making a detection in a disc at 140 parsecs would require a few hundred minutes of ALMA band 6 observation time. Protoplanets with masses of 3-5 $M_J$ have the highest chance of being detected; less massive objects require unreasonably long observation times (1000 minutes) while more massive ones collapse into giant planets before $10^5$ years. We propose that high resolution surveys of young ($10^5-10^6$ years), massive and face on discs offer the best chance for observing protoplanets. Such a detection would help to place constraints on the protoplanet mass spectrum, explain the turnover in the occurrence frequency of gas giants with system metallicity and constrain the prevalence of GI as a planet formation mechanism. Consistent lack of detection would be evidence against GI as a common planet formation mechanism.


In this article, we propose a wideband fully metallic impedance-matching horn lens antenna based on glide symmetry realized in the gap waveguide technology. A multiple iterative method is adopted, which overcomes the limitation of large phase deviations at the interface of traditional lens antennas, thus increases the directivity as a result. Moreover, the glide-symmetric configurations of inner metallic pins within the gap waveguide are employed to construct the artificial dielectric lens, with the advantage of the ultralow dispersion, which is especially helpful to broaden the working bandwidth and improve the lens performance. The antenna is fed by a stepped double-ridged gap waveguide which can easily excite the antenna working in a wideband. To reduce the undesired reflections at the antenna aperture, the antenna is ended with a tapered structure as an impedance transition. A prototype of the horn lens antenna is manufactured and measured, showing a broad operation bandwidth from 12 to 18.5 GHz with S11 less than −10 dB. The antenna can be further extended to the millimeter band due to the low losses of the gap waveguide at high frequencies and the iterative method can also be applied to other types of lens antenna designs.


Abstract Bubon macedonicum L. is a chasmophytic species of south-eastern Europe. In Italy, it has been detected only in Rocca Monforte (Campobasso, central Italy). This rare species is included in the IUCN Red Lists of Critically Endangered Italian Flora, and there are no studies relating to B. macedonicum biology. The seed germination dynamics of this species was studied with the aim of building up an appropriate germination protocol to be used in ex situ conservation. On the basis of an ISTA protocol, about 3,000 seeds were collected from Rocca Monforte in August 2013. Fifty seeds were measured. The considered parameters were seed length, width, thickness, seed surface, volume, density, surface/mass ratio and eccentricity index. The morphometric parameters examined showed morphological dormancy, where a short warm period is necessary for embryo growth and seed germination. The results showed high germination percentages under the different conditions of temperature, pH, GA3 and photoperiod. Only at 5 °C was there no germination. Finally, the seeds maintain high germination percentages from the seed storage process after 130 and 390 days. This factor can be considered of great importance for the conservation of B. macedonicum over the medium and long term.


The article explores the origins of the Ukrainian language ethical lexicon in biblical written monuments of the early modern period. It traces the rendition of the vices and virtues catalog in the Epistle to the Galatians (Gal. 5:19–23) in the Krekhiv Apostle, a manuscript of the 2nd half of the 16th century, in comparison with the Church Slavonic Ostroh Bible of 1581, as well as lexicographical works of the 17th century, in particular Pamva Berynda's "Lexicon", and Ukrainian translations of the Bible of the 19th and 20th centuries. The Epistle to the Galatians contains one of the most extensive New Testament catalogs of ethical values/anti-values. The vices and virtues in Gal. 5:19–23 form axiological oppositions, which indicate the values of verbal, emotional, behavioral, and social interaction between members of society. The Krekhiv Apostle uses Old Ukrainian and Church Slavonic words to nominate virtues and vices in the Epistle to the Galatians. More than half of the words in the ethical catalog of Gal. 5:19–23 in the Krekhiv Apostle differ from the usage of the Ostroh Bible. Most of these words are indicated as belonging to the "prosta mova" in lexicographical works of the 17th century, in particular in Pamva Berynda's "Lexicon". Two thematic subgroups of ethical vocabulary denoting vices in Gal. 5:19–21, namely vices of the corporal and emotional-volitional spheres, show a high level of variability in usage of the Old Ukrainian words instead of Church Slavonicisms in written monuments of the early modern period. Ukrainian biblical translations of the 19th and 20th centuries – in particular those of Panteleimon Kulish, Ivan Levytskyi and Ivan Pului (1905), Ivan Ohiienko (1962), and Ivan Khomenko (1963) – inherited some of the words of the sixteenth- and seventeenth-century "prosta mova" to denote religious and ethical values/anti-values in Gal. 5:19–23, e. g., within the thematic groups of "debauchery", "apostasy", and "anger/discord". The biblical written monuments of the early modern era laid the foundation for the traditions of Ukrainian Bible translation and paved the way for the formation of the Ukrainian linguistic usage in the field of religious communication.