PurposeThe purpose of this study is to examine the moderating influence of the external environment on the relationship between entrepreneurial competencies, entrepreneurial orientation, entrepreneurial network, government business support and SMEs performance. The objectives of the study are achieved using the resource-based view and dynamic capability theory.Design/methodology/approachThe survey method of research was used by personally administering questionnaires to the respondents. Multistage sampling techniques are used in selecting 470 SMEs owners/managers that participated in the survey. SPSS 24 and PLS-SEM 3.0 were used in the analysis of the data.FindingsIn the Nigerian context, the findings indicated that EC, EO and GBS directly influence the SMEs performance. Surprisingly, SMEs performance is not influenced by EN. Similarly, EE significantly moderated the relationship between EC, GBS and SMEs performance. On the contrary, EE does not have any moderating influence on the relationship between EO, EN and SMEs performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe study is limited to northeastern Nigeria. The study is limited to the EC, EO, EN GBS EE and SMEs performance and the use of cross-sectional data. The findings imply that SMEs owners/managers need a high level of entrepreneurial competencies and government business support to achieve a better performance especially in an external environment that is characterised by dynamism, diversity, complexity and hostility. Hence, providing support for both RBV and DCT.Practical implicationsThus, the study offers additional empirical evidence from Nigeria and also expands knowledge and understanding in this field. The findings offer owners/managers, government agencies, financial institutions and other stakeholders of SMEs strategies EC, EO, GBS and EE to achieve a better SMEs performance.Originality/valueThe conceptual framework of the study is unique, and the study was conducted in northeastern Nigeria which is grossly underrepresented in the literature. It also provided understanding on the moderating influence of EE on the framework.


Teenagers and young adults often combine alcohol, tobacco, cannabis or other drugs use and related hazardous behaviours. This article presents a brief motivational intervention (BMI) targeting multiple substance use and related behaviours. The values and projects that can enter into conflict with the substance use are discussed in order to introduce a change perspective. Talking and thinking freely about change in a non-judgmental, empathic and collaborative manner can lead to an effective behaviour change. This time-limited BMI is appropriate and promising in a primary care.


This work presents the results of removal Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn from mixed soil with natural organic absorbent as gumat and cow manure by electrokinetic processes. By electrokinetic experiment it has been observed that the total contents of Pb, Cd, Cu, Zn in the experimentals soils samples were increased depending on electrodes and organic matter mix.The molecularabsorption spectrums of hydroxyl, carbonil, carboxyl and phenolic groups arising, shifting and disappear in contaminated soil, soil: gumat, soil: manure mixed samples by treated EK processes.


This study is performed to test the effect of bussiness risk, firm size, growth, institutional ownership, and DER toward return on equity (ROE). The objective to analyze the effect of the company financial ratios performance (bussiness risk, firm size, growth, institutional ownership, and DER) toward ROE in manufacturing industry over period 2010-2012.
Sampling technique used here is pusposive sampling. The data was taken Indonesian Capital Market Directory (ICMD). It is gained sample amount of 15 data. The analysis technique used here is multiple regression with the least square difference and hypothesis test using t-statistic to examine partial regression coefficient and f-statistic to examine the mean of mutual effect with level of significance 5%. In addition, classical assumption is also performed including normality test, multicolinearity test, and heteroscedasticity test.
 The result shows bussiness risk, growth, and DER to have influence toward ROE at level of significance less than 5%, and institutional ownership have influence toward DER at level of significance less than 5%.


Effective arthropod pest management in commercial floral crops requires that pests be detected in a timely manner through systematic scouting and that appropriate control measures be applied as conditions warrant. Control measures may include economical combinations of cultural controls, physical controls, biological controls, and chemical controls. This revised 9-page guide is a summary of chemical control measures that are presently available to commercial flower producers in Florida and includes beneficial nematode and microbial insecticides that also are components of biological control. Written by James F. Price and Curtis Nagle, and published by the UF Department of Entomology and Nematology, November 2012.


BACKGROUND
Increasing numbers of children are referred to Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services because of disruptive behaviour. Recent reviews on the origins of conduct problems indicate that the most severe and persistent forms are found predominantly among males with a range of neurodevelopmental vulnerabilities, which are likely to have biological substrates. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that many children who are identified with conduct disorder actually have a primary deficit in pragmatic language skills, of a quality and degree that is similar to children on the autistic spectrum. We hypothesised that pragmatic difficulties may underlie the antisocial behaviour in a proportion of children who are labelled as conduct disordered.

METHODS
Using the Children's Communication Checklist (Bishop, 1998), we surveyed 142 children who had been referred for clinical investigation, with a predominant diagnosis of either an autistic spectrum condition (n = 87) or conduct disorder (n = 55), and 60 typically developing comparison children. Among children with conduct disorders, males predominated 9:1.

RESULTS
On the basis of parent and teacher ratings, two-thirds of those with conduct disorders had pragmatic language impairments and other behavioural features similar in nature and degree to those of children with autism, independent of IQ. In a further study, we surveyed 54 children who had been excluded from elementary schools in a socio-economically disadvantaged inner-London borough and found over two-thirds to have comparable deficits.

CONCLUSIONS
These findings have both theoretical and practical implications. First, they indicate the presence of communicative problems in a sub-group of children in whom conduct rather than language had been the major concern. Second, they indicate that severe deficits in pragmatic abilities and autistic-like behaviours can coexist with psychiatric conditions other than autism, especially in boys. Third, they imply that the management of many disruptive children could profitably be addressed to ameliorating their social and communicative skill deficits.


A series of bio-based additives derived from citric acid as a renewable chemical source were synthesised. The chemical composition and purity of 1–4 were confirmed by the combination of NMR, FTIR and MS. The thermal behaviour, stability and degradation pattern of the compounds 1–4 were investigated by TGA and DSC methods. PVC based formulations with compounds 1–4 were prepared through a simple mixing method. The formulations were treated at different temperatures (130–210 °C) to investigate the potential of these materials in industrial curing settings. L*a*b* data were used to monitor and to assess a colour change in the coated paper samples; this showed a correlation with degradation data of the pure compounds 1–4. SEM analysis of the final paper samples indicated that the compounds 1–4 show gas formation within the cellular structure; however compounds 3 and 4 result in a glossy smooth surface. This study showed that the compounds 3 and 4 exhibit promising properties in PVC formulations for application in industrial settings.


The purpose of this study is to classify defects of the residential building by analyzing the defect specified by prequalification of residential building reconstruction and to suggest the solution of the problem which can be arisen during each stage of plan, construction and maintenance. By sorting the main defects which is specified by pre-qualification of residential building reconstruction for three years from August 2006 to August 2009 into 4 catagories and analyzing the cause of the defects, we draw the way of maintenance to prevent the defects and make pleasant residential environment. The reason for the frequent defects from residential building is mainly deterioration. It occured on the finishing more than on the structure, which means that residents can find defects easier on the finishing than the structure and clear the demand for repair. The result of analyzing of pre-qualification of residential building reconstruction is that the defects mostly caused small, masonry constructed and lower apartment. The apartment which is not into legal right for maintenance naturally have more defects than the others. In conclusion, it is necessary to establish a law of obligation duty of the maintenance of small apartment.


IN thinking about the subject of this paper, I was impelled to reframe the title that we might think together in the first rather than in the third person. "Our Responsibility as Nurses to our Profession" makes us partners in whatever we may enjoy of success or whatever we may have to face in the light of failure. You and I are "the nurses" to which we are wont to refer, and it is we who must share the joys, shoulder the burdens, and assume the responsibilities which are thrust upon ourselves and our professional colleagues. We no longer are a little band of sisters following Saint Vincent de Paul, but a great army of professional women scattered throughout the world, still holding sacredly to the ideals of service which motivated the works of mercy and love of the earliest of our leaders. We are members of one vast sisterhood united by tangible bonds of human service woven in and out of every phase of life; a great body of professional women now bound together by the broad ultimate objectives of our nursing associations. When we are assembled at one of our biennial conventions, we are conscious of a oneness of spirit; we are at home with each other for the reason that we are a family and feel a sisterly relationship. Our experiences, though different in many respects, have been similar, and we understand the language of life in joy, in sorrow, and even in death. As nurses we live with human beings in life's varied experiences and share with them the trials and vicissitudes of life, with their resulting disciplines. Nursing is intrinsically interpreted through the story of the Good Samaritan and through the teachings of Him who charged His disciples to minister unto all those who called upon them for help. In this age of confusion, in the midst of scattered and irresponsible thinking, we seem not to remember that the profession of nursing is different from that of many other vocations, and that its problems, which are never static, cannot be solved by similar arbitrary and mechanical means. Consequently, nurses cannot endeavor to meet these problems according to a definite standardized pattern. Our responsibilities change as life changes with us. As we grow older we are prone to act in given situations in accord with familiar patterns of behavior, forgetting that to meet life's changes we must learn a series of new responses in place of those which have lost their value and often even their usefulness. It is never safe to assume that what has been must always continue to be. The youth of today is born into a world different from that of many of us who are attempting to mold their professional lives and dictate the pattern they are to follow. After groping and deep heart-searching we have found it wise to discard, one after another, certain of our cherished traditions because they cannot be accepted by our colleagues of


Complex behaviors are often driven by an internal model, which integrates sensory information over time and facilitates long-term planning to reach subjective goals. A fundamental challenge in neuroscience is, How can we use behavior and neural activity to understand this internal model and its dynamic latent variables? Here we interpret behavioral data by assuming an agent behaves rationally—that is, it takes actions that optimize its subjective reward according to its understanding of the task and its relevant causal variables. We apply a method, inverse rational control (IRC), to learn an agent's internal model and reward function by maximizing the likelihood of its measured sensory observations and actions. This thereby extracts rational and interpretable thoughts of the agent from its behavior. We also provide a framework for interpreting encoding, recoding, and decoding of neural data in light of this rational model for behavior. When applied to behavioral and neural data from simulated agents performing suboptimally on a naturalistic foraging task, this method successfully recovers their internal model and reward function, as well as the Markovian computational dynamics within the neural manifold that represent the task. This work lays a foundation for discovering how the brain represents and computes with dynamic latent variables.


OBJECTIVE
To investigate the expression and clinicopathological significance of transcription factor Twist in hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), paraneoplastic and cirrhotic tissues.

METHOD
Immunohistochemistry was used to detect the expression of the Twist protein in 26 cases of HCC and paraneoplastic tissue and 10 cases of cirrhotic tissue. Meanwhile, the Twist mRNA and its protein were detected in 10 HCC tissues and 10 paraneoplastic tissues by RT-PCR and Western blot. And the expression differences and clinicopathological significances of the expression of Twist gene and its protein were analyzed.

RESULTS
The positive rates of the Twist protein in HCC, paraneoplastic and cirrhotic tissues were 84.6%, 19.2 % and 20.0 %, respectively. The positive rate of Twist in HCC was higher than that in paraneoplastic or cirrhosis tissues (P < 0.05). Compared with in paraneoplastic tissues, the mRNA and protein expression of Twist were up-regulated in HCC by 2.52 and 2.13 times, respectively.

CONCLUSION
Twist has an inappropriate expression in hepatocellular carcinoma and it may play an important role in the tumorigenesis and progression of HCC.


We present a case of inverted Meckel's diverticulum causing small bowel intussusception in an adult patient. We discuss the importance of assessing the source of intussusception in adult patients, the most appropriate management and potential complications of Meckel's diverticulum.


Background : Paediatric obesity and sleep disordered breathing may be associated with cognitive problems and cardiovascular abnormalities and both may share the same common inflammatory and metabolic pathogenesis. Aim: to evaluate and compare cardiovascular activity and cognitive functions of obese children with or without clinical obstructive sleep apnea syndrome (apnea hypopnea index >5 n/h of sleep). Methods: obese children underwent polysomnography in a standard laboratory setting, a neurocognitive assessment and a 24-hour ambulatory blood pressure monitoring. Results: We studied ten children (mean age 9.2±3.2 years, 6 males), with a mean body mass index (BMI) of 27.67 kg/m 2 , a mean BMI percentile of 124.2±20.7. They had a mean apnea-hypopnea index of 9.6±13.6 n/h, an overnight oxygen saturation of 96.9±0.9 %. Mean values of blood pressure did not show relevant differences between diurnal and nocturnal measurements: diurnal systolic and diastolic pressure were 114.8±22.2 and 68.5±10.3 mmHg, while nocturnal systolic and diastolic pressure were 110.7 ±10.9 and 66.1 ±14.3 mmHg. Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-revised revealed a mean total intelligent quotient score of 91.3±15.21, a mean verbal intelligent quotient (VIQ) score of 95.7±12.4, and a mean performance intelligence quotient scores of 90.3±20. Compared to those without clinical sleep apnea, children with AHI>5 n/h had a lower VIQ (89.3±9.3 vs 102.0±13.4). Conclusions: Preliminary data showed that obese children had a peculiar blood pressure profile since they did not show the physiologic nocturnal deep. Obese children with obstructive sleep apnea display a specific verbal cognitive dysfunctions.


Resident macrophages (Mφs) are distributed throughout the Background: body and are important for maintaining tissue homeostasis and for defence against infections. Tissue Mφs are highly adapted to their microenvironment and thought to mediate tissue-specific functions involving metabolism and immune defence that are not fully elucidated. We have used high resolution quantitative proteomics to gain Methods: insights into the functions of two types of resident tissue Mφs: peritoneal cavity Mφs and splenic red pulp Mφs.  The cellular expression levels of many proteins were validated by flow cytometry and were consistently in agreement with the proteomics data. Peritoneal and splenic red pulp macrophages displayed major Results: differences in cell surface phenotype reflecting their adaptation to different tissue microenvironments and tissue-specific functions. Peritoneal Mφs were shown to be enriched in a number of key enzymes and metabolic pathways normally associated with the liver, such as metabolism of fructose, detoxification, nitrogen homeostasis and the urea cycle. Supporting these observations, we show that peritoneal Mφs are able to utilise glutamine and glutamate which are rich in peritoneum for urea generation.  In comparison, splenic red pulp Mφs were enriched in proteins important for adaptive immunity such as antigen presenting MHC molecules, in addition to proteins required for erythrocyte homeostasis and iron turnover. We also show that these tissue Mφs may utilise carbon and nitrogen substrates for different metabolic fates to support distinct tissue-specific roles. This study provides new insights into the functions of tissue Conclusions: Mφs in immunity and homeostasis.  The comprehensive proteomics data sets are a valuable resource for biologists and immunologists.


The objective of this study was to compare the technical performance of laminectomy and percutaneous spinal cord stimulation leads with similar contact spacing by computer modeling. Monopolar and tripolar (guarded cathode) stimulation with both lead types in a low‐thoracic spine model was simulated using UT‐SCS software. Dorsal column and dorsal root fiber thresholds were calculated as well as the area of recruited fibers in the dorsal columns, the rostrocaudal span of recruited dorsal root fibers and the energy consumption at discomfort threshold. Tripolar stimulation is superior to monopolar stimulation in the recruitment of the dorsal columns, a percutaneous lead recruits a ∼12% larger dorsal column area than a laminectomy lead does. This difference is reduced when the contact spacing of the lead models is the same. A percutaneous lead with significant wire impedance (140 Ohms) consumes ∼115–240% more energy, whereas the same lead with negligible wire impedance consumes ∼40–85% more energy. A deterioration of all performance parameters is predicted when a percutaneous lead is placed more dorsally in the epidural tissue. When positioned next to the dura mater, a percutaneous lead has a similar performance (fiber recruitment in the dorsal columns and the dorsal roots) as a laminectomy lead with similar contact spacing, but substantially higher energy consumption. The superior clinical performance of the laminectomy lead is most probably due to the difference in volume and insertion technique of the two lead types.


The utilization of vertically aligned smooth gold nanorod arrays with and without nanoporous tip architectures as superhydrophobic surfaces is described. Nanoporous architecture was produced on the tips of nanorods by selectively dissolving less noble components from the alloy nanorods. The resulting nanoscopic dual-size roughness features enhanced the surface dewettability after surface modification with low-surface-energy materials such as long-chain normal alkanethiols and fluorinated organic compounds. The surface cleaning properties were also tested with a rolling water droplet.


The state Kerala in India is famous for its plant resource both culturally and medicinally. There is a cluster of ten sacred medicinal plants commonly known as Dashapushpam. These herbs are of great importance in the cold rainy season. Each plant of this group possesses many medicinal values. There are many formulations using these herbs. Ancient people knew the value of using these herbs in a cluster, so they included them in their diet to improve immunity in the monsoon season. There are many Ayurvedic texts which mention the uses of these sacred herbs. Formulations that use all the members of Dashapushpam are rare. The Dasapushpagritham is one such formulation taken from the text vishavaidhya jyostnika. The present work intends to evaluate the anti-bacterial property of Dashapushpam when used in an Ayurvedic formulation known as Dasapushpa Ghritham. The bacterial strains used as the test micro-organisms for the study was Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Bacillus cereus. The method of the anti-bacterial evaluation was done through agar-gel diffusion technique. The samples including the plant extracts possessed a varying level of anti-bacterial activity against these two bacteria, and their values obtained were compared with standard antibiotic amoxicillin. Based on these results, it was concluded that the anti-bacterial property of the Ayurvedic drug Dasapushpa Ghritham has significant value when compared to the drug base and other individual plant extracts. Hence the present study proves the significant usage of the Dashapushpam plants in various therapeutics used as an anti-microbial agent.


BY DR. RAGHUVEER VALLABHANENI Aortoiliac occlusive disease is the blockage of the aorta, the main blood vessel in your body, or the iliac arteries. The iliac arteries are the branches that your aorta divides into around the level of the belly button to provide blood to your legs and the organs in your pelvis. This blockage is typically caused by a buildup of plaque within the walls of your blood vessels. The aorta and iliac arteries are the second most common blood vessels to be affected by peripheral arterial disease (PAD) after the blood vessels in the thigh. PAD occurs in 12-20% of people over the age of 65. Find a vascular specialist near you


The data presented show that elderly men have significantly lower plasma ascorbic acid concentrations than elderly women at similar intakes of ascorbic acid. We hypothesize that this difference is due to lower renal tubular reabsorption of ascorbic acid in elderly men. The finding that more than half of the healthy elderly men had plasma ascorbic acid levels less than 0.3 mg/dl with daily intakes of ascorbic acid in the range of 40 to 50 mg raises concern about the rationale of lowering the RDA for vitamin C from the current value of 60 mg to 40 mg for men and 30 mg for women. This recommendation is inconsistent with efforts to improve the health status of elderly Americans by assuring adequate intakes of all essential nutrients. Our data do not allow us to determine an optimal intake of ascorbic acid for the elderly. The possibility of increased health benefits associated with intakes that exceed the current RDA of 60 mg needs to be examined. We believe, however, that a prudent approach to both of these questions would be to recommend that elderly receive a daily ascorbic acid intake that would allow plasma concentration to be maintained at or near 1.0 mg/dl. The daily level of intake required to maintain this level would be approximately 125 mg and 75 mg in healthy elderly men and women respectively. These intakes would assure adequate body reserves of ascorbic acid.


The effects of xylazine given to cats before anesthetization was induced with pentobarbital were determined. Cardiac hemodynamic variables and regional blood flow rates in the heart and other organs were measured, using radiolabeled microspheres. Two groups, each of 10 cats, were included in the study: one group (group 1) was anesthetized with pentobarbital given intraperitoneally and subsequently given xylazine; the other group (group 2) was first given 1 mg of xylazine/kg, IM, and then anesthetized with pentobarbital given IV. Anesthesia was maintained in both groups with nitrous oxide. The preanesthetic administration of xylazine decreased the amount of pentobarbital used for surgical anesthesia by approximately 50%. It also resulted in decreased heart rate, cardiac contractility, and cardiac output and increased left ventricular end-diastolic pressure, compared with those values in cats given pentobarbital (group 1). After the latter cats (anesthetized with pentobarbital) were given xylazine, heart rate, cardiac contractility, and cardiac output decreased and left ventricular end-diastolic pressure increased to values similar to those found in group 2 (given xylazine before anesthetization). Myocardial tissue blood flow rates in the left and right ventricles were lower in the cats of group 2. In group 1 cats, myocardial blood flow rates decreased when xylazine was subsequently added. Blood flow rates in the kidneys and gastrointestinal tract were generally decreased by xylazine. Xylazine profoundly changed cardiac hemodynamic function and perfusion in the heart, as well as several other organ systems, because of marked cardiodepression.


Background and objectives IgG4-related disease (IgG4-RD) is a multi-system fibro-inflammatory disorder originally described in association with autoimmune pancreatitis (AIP), usually but not always in the context of elevated serum IgG4 levels. Thoracic manifestations of IgG4-RD include mediastinal lymphadenopathy, lung nodules or masses, interstitial lung disease, bronchiectasis and pleural disease. The authors' regional IgG4-RD service is one of the largest UK-based units treating patients with this condition. Specialist clinics and multidisciplinary team meetings operate alongside an active research programme. We aimed to describe the frequency with which thoracic abnormalities – either as a symptomatic presenting feature of IgG4-RD or an incidental asymptomatic finding on imaging – were present in a prospectively recruited patient cohort. Method and results Patients referred to the authors' IgG4-RD service from 2005 onwards and confirmed as having a diagnosis of IgG4-RD were included. Diagnoses were made using established clinical criteria (HISORt for AIP and Japanese International Consensus Diagnostic Criteria for systemic disease); tissue specimens were assessed using the Boston histopathological consensus criteria where available. Patients were followed prospectively; clinicopathological data relating to presentation and clinical progress were stored in a secure database with the consent of participants. In patients without symptomatic thoracic manifestations of IgG4-RD, routine clinical imaging (CXR and CT) was reviewed where available for evidence of incidental asymptomatic disease. 61 IgG4-RD patients with thoracic imaging available were included; mean age at diagnosis was 60.3 years (SD 14.6). 43 (70.5%) patients were male. The majority of patients (85.2%) presented with features of intra-abdominal disease. 6 patients (9.8%) had evidence of symptomatic thoracic disease on the basis of clinical presentation, radiology and/or histology. A further 15 (24.6%) patients had abnormal imaging suggestive of asymptomatic thoracic IgG4-RD. Conclusion A significant proportion of IgG4-RD patients have evidence of symptomatic and asymptomatic thoracic manifestations of this multi-system disease. Respiratory physicians should consider IgG4-RD in their differential diagnosis for a range of pulmonary presentations, particularly where there is co-existing extra-thoracic organ involvement. Making a diagnosis of IgG4-RD impacts on access to established therapeutic options including corticosteroids and rituximab to which the disease is responsive in the inflammatory phase.


Polar codes, recently accepted for adoption in 5G standard due to their excellent performance at a very low complexity compared to other competitive schemes in the literature, are deemed to be a strong candidate for the Internet of Things (IoT) applications as well due to meeting their requirements. However, since polar codes construction is naturally channel-dependent, there has recently been an increasing interest in addressing the challenge of making polar codes work in realistic fading environments as they do in a binary symmetric channel (BSC). Recent studies on polar codes for fading channels have mainly focused on constructing new specific polar codes suitable to particular fading channels. This results in a non-universal code structure, leading to continuous changes in the code structure based on the channel, which is not desirable in practice. To address this problem, we develop and propose a novel transceiver architecture which enables using the polar coding design of a binary input additive white Gaussian noise (BI-AWGN) channel for multi-path fading channels without causing any changes in the structure of the encoder and decoder sides. This is made possible by eliminating the channel fading effect so that a net AWGN channel can be seen at the input of a simple successive cancellation decoder (SCD). The novelty of the proposed solution lies in using a channel-based orthonormal transformation with optimal power allocation at the transmitter and another transformation at the receiver to make the net, effective channel seen by the SCD very similar to an AWGN channel. The obtained results show that the proposed design makes the bit error rate (BER) performance of polar codes over a frequency selective fading channel the same as that over an AWGN channel. As a plus, great advantage, the proposed design is found to be capable of providing confidentiality against eavesdropping receivers (i.e., unintended users) at the physical layer. Particularly, J. M. Hamamreh is with the department of Electrical-Electronics Engineering, Antalya International (Bilim) University, Antalya, Turkey (email: email@example.com, email@example.com).


The reactions of hydroxymethyl radical ˙CH2OH with glutathione tripeptide GSH and with methylthiol CH3SH in water are modeled by using the effective fragment potential (EFP) based quantum mechanical–molecular mechanical (QM/MM) methods. In the case of glutathione, the reactive part of the cysteine residue of the tripeptide and the hydroxymethyl moiety are included to the quantum part. The remaining part of GSH assigned to the MM subsystem is represented by flexible chains of small effective fragments. The energy profiles for the condensed phase reactions have been constructed by using the transition state structure of the gas-phase reference reaction of hydroxymethyl radical ˙CH2OH with methylthiol CH3SH. Optimization of geometry parameters of the systems, including coordinates of environmental particles, leads to the structures at the top of the barrier, as well as for reagent interaction complexes and product interaction complexes. The energy difference between the top of the barrier and the reagent interaction complex is considered as a measure of activation energy, which allows us to treat all systems at the uniform level. According to simulation results, the activation barrier for the aqueous reaction of hydroxymethyl radical with methylthiol should be slightly higher, and for the aqueous reaction of hydroxymethyl radical with glutathione in the lowest energy conformation should be slightly lower than that of the reference gas-phase reaction. A conclusion about higher activation barrier for aqueous reaction ˙CH2OH+CH3SH in comparison to the gas-phase process, obtained here within the supermolecular approach, is consistent with the literature results of solvation models. It is shown that conformations of peptide chain of glutathione may modify the gas-phase reaction energy profile of the reacting species to a larger extent than the influence of water molecules. The role of the peptide chain seems to be to provide either beneficial or unfavorable arrangement of the reagents in the interaction complex.


In contrast to herbaceous plants, fruit trees such as apple [Malus x domestica (Borkh.)] flower and set fruit only after an extended juvenile phase that lasts several years. In the course of studying juvenility in apple, we have cloned the MdTFL gene homologous to Arabidopsis TERMINAL FLOWER1 (TFL1) gene, which suppresses floral meristem identity genes, LEAFY (LFY) and APETALA1 (AP1). The expression of MdTFL (Malus x domestica TFL1) mRNA was strong in sepals and mature leaves, and highest in early July, about two weeks before flower induction, in apical buds in apple. Transgenic apples expressing anthense MdTFL gene flowered at about eight to 15 months after grafting onto rootstocks. On the other hand, non-transformed control plants have not flowered in five years. The flower organs of the transgenic apples were normal and fertile. These results demonstrate that the suppression of the expression of MdTFL gene reduces the juvenile phase and can induce precocious flowers in apple.


The modulation of tumor necrosis factor alpha-mediated cytotoxicity by gangliosides was analyzed. When cells of the TNF alpha-sensitive fibrosarcoma cell line L929 were incubated for 16 h with recombinant TNF alpha (156 or 312 pg/ml), they were lysed to 65.2% or 78.0%, respectively. The presence of a bovine brain ganglioside mixture (BBG, Cronassial) inhibited the TNF alpha-mediated lysis in a dose-dependent manner (IC50 approximately 1 mg/ml). Maximum inhibition was achieved with 2 mg/ml BBG (82.6% inhibition for 156 pg/ml TNF alpha and 88.5% inhibition for 312 pg/ml TNF alpha). In situ nick translation revealed that BBG (2 mg/ml) significantly reduces the number of cells with TNF alpha-induced DNA-strand breaks from 71.2% to 6.6% (P < 0.0001), indicating a protection against TNF alpha-mediated apoptosis. We conclude that BBG prevents the cytotoxic action of TNF alpha on tumor cells. The inhibitory effect may be due to an interference of gangliosides with intracellular signal transduction pathways, resulting in an inhibition of the activation of DNA-cleaving endonucleases.


XAGE-1 is a member of the cancer/testis antigen family and it was first identified by searching for the PAGE/ GAGE-related genes. Four transcript variants XAGE-1a, -1b, -1c and XAGE-1d have been discovered and have a broad expression in cancer. As a prominent transcript, XAGE-1b is encoded by 81 amino acids with a molecular weight of 9 kDa. We determined the cellular localization of all four splice variants by confocal microscopy analysis. Among these, XAGE-1a, -1b and -1c showed distinct speckled nuclear localization, while XAGE-1d was distributed evenly both in the cytoplasm and nucleus. By deletion mutagenesis and site directed mutagenesis, we identified the bipartite nuclear localization signal and found that it contributes to the nuclear localization of XAGE-1 variants; but the nuclear localization signal (NLS) only cannot form the characterized distribution of XAGE-1b; amino acids 25-42 also play a role in the formation of nuclear speckles. XAGE-1b, the main transcript of XAGE-1, may act as a partner protein or a member of a protein complex, which plays a role in tumor development and progression.


Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of premium subsidies provided by the Brazilian government through the Rural Insurance Premium Subvention Program (PSR) on the quantity demanded for crop insurance by grains producers of southern Brazil.

Design/methodology/approach
A fixed effects model was applied to an unbalanced panel data of municipalities of southern Brazil considering the years between 2006 and 2015. Three measures of crop insurance demand were considered: level of total premiums, level of total premiums per hectare and level of total liability per hectare.

Findings
Results were in line with previous literature, suggesting the existence of a positive, although inelastic, effect of the subsidy level on the demand for crop insurance. However, unitary elasticity estimates were found for all grains when considered total premiums per hectare as crop insurance demand measure.

Originality/value
The investigation focuses on a crop insurance program conducted in a tropical developing country – a completely different background than previously analyzed in literature. In addition, Brazilian government considers the PSR as one of its most important agricultural programs and this paper is pioneer in empirically explain the huge public investments made to the PSR through the estimation of the effects of premium subsidies on the quantity demanded for crop insurance in Brazil.


Neodymium-doped potassium gadolinium tungstate [KGd(W0,),:Nd3+ or Nd:KGW] is known as a new laser medium with a broad and strong absorption band at X = 810 nm and therefore efficient for laser diode (LD) pumping.'.' Recently we have reported the possibility of using high doped short NdKGW crystals in microchip infrared laser under low level LD pumping.2 Slope efficiency of 23% for direct (without focusing system) LD pumping 8% Nd:KGW 1-mm-length crystal was reached. We present here low power NdKGW CW microchip laser with KTP nonlinear crystal for intracavity doubling. The configuration of the microchip laser was the following: 0 3 X 1 mm Nd:KGW crystal polished on both flat and parallel sides and HRlAR coated at X = 1067 nm, 0.9 X 2 X 2 mm KTP crystal with AR/AR coatings at X = 1067 and 80% at X = 533.5 nm, and output HR mirror at 1065 nm. Nonlinear KTP crystal was mounted directly on the output mirror keeping parallel the mirror plane and output crystal facet with -100-Fm space between them. A special microchip laser holder permitted precise rotation KTP crystal together with output mirror relative to Nd: KGW crystal. The total cavity length was about 2.2 mm. Short 8% NdKGW crystal absorbing 98.5% of pump radiation was used in our experiments. Multimode laser diode with output power about 320 mW mounted on the thermoelectric cooler (TEC) served as a pump source. The range of LD wavelength tuning provided by TEC was 806-812 nm. Optical pump system consisted of triplet collimator with NA = 0.5, two 4.5' cylindrical lenses for compensation of LD astigmatism, and spherical lens ( f = 10 mm) for pump beam focusing to a circular spot with the diameter of approximately 60 pm. As can be seen from input-output characteristic (Fig. 1), maximum slope efficiency of -2% for 270 mW incident pump power was achieved. Low efficiency of green output comes mainly from low pump power level. Temperature tuning of LD pump wavelength in the range of 809.5-81 1.5 resulted in output


Alaa Y. Moustafa Berthellina citrina is a pleurobranchid opisthobranch characterized by its skin acid-secretion that contains sulphate and chloride ions with traces of organic matter. To identify defensive potential and bioactivity, we tested this secretion for the first time against Artemia salina, different strains of microorganisms, human RBCs and human cancer cell lines. It showed lethality to A. salina with LC50 values 83.86 and 25.84 μg/ml after 6 and 24 hours, respectively and it caused 100% mortality after 48 and 72 hours. It exhibited antibacterial activity against seven human-pathogenic bacteria, with larger inhibition zone on Streptococcus pyogenes and Staphylococcus aureus and showed strong inhibition activity against seven fungal species, particularly towards Paecilomyces variotii, Aspergillus flavo-furcatis, Fusarium oxysporum and Penicillium oxalicum. It caused significant haemolysis for human RBCs in a range from 38.5 to 77.6 %. Moreover, it showed cytotoxicity against prostate carcinoma cells (PC-3), colorectal carcinoma (HCT 116) and lung carcinoma (A549) with IC50 values 6.582, 9.843 and 9.352 μg/ml, respectively. Using HPLC, taurine is the major components of the free amino acids of the secretion with percentage of 52.32%. Thus, the secretion is shown to be highly toxic, bioactive and is interpreted as a chemical defence system against natural predators, but also against fouling. In addition, it might be a new source for bioactive substances that could be used in biomedical research and drugs. Copy Right, IJAR, 2014,. All rights reserved.


In this paper, we describe a numerical model to simulate the evolution in time of the hydrodynamics of water storage tanks, with particular emphasis on the time evolution of chlorine concentration. The mathematical model contains several ingredients particularly designed for this problem, namely, a boundary condition to model falling jets on free surfaces, an arbitrary Lagrangian–Eulerian formulation to account for the motion of the free surface because of demand and supply of water, and a coupling of the hydrodynamics with a convection–diffusion–reaction equation modeling the time evolution of chlorine. From the numerical point of view, the equations resulting from the mathematical model are approximated using a finite element formulation, with linear continuous interpolations on tetrahedra for all the unknowns. To make it possible, and also to be able to deal with convection‐dominated flows, a stabilized formulation is used. In order to capture the sharp gradients present in the chlorine concentration, particularly near the injection zone, a discontinuity capturing technique is employed. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


OBJECTIVE
Although the influence of obesity on ventilatory function has long been recognized, the nature of the relationship and the mechanisms are not yet clear. The purpose of this report was to examine the effects of overall obesity and fat distribution on ventilatory function.

METHODS
Multiple measurements over > 30 years from 507 subjects with lifelong tobacco consumption of < or = 1 pack-year were analyzed separately in five age decades from 30 to 79 years. FVC, FEV1, ratio of FEV1 to FVC, and maximal midexpiratory flow rate (MMEF) were each adjusted for age and stature. Relative adiposity (or obesity) was assessed using the body mass index (BMI). Subscapular skinfold thickness, abdominal girth, and the ratio of abdominal girth to hip breadth (AG/HB) were used as measures of body fat distribution. Multiple linear regression was used to explore the effects of overall adiposity and body fat distribution on ventilatory function.

RESULTS
BMI was positively associated with the ratio of FEV1 to FVC at all ages (p < 0.01), and negatively with FVC and MMEF between 40 and 69 years (p < 0.01). After adjustment for BMI, subscapular skinfold thickness was negatively associated with both FVC and FEV1 (p < or = 0.02) among men aged 30 to 59 years, whereas AG/HB was negatively associated with FVC and FEV1 in men aged 50 to 59 years only (p < or = 0.0004).

CONCLUSIONS
Body fat distribution has independent effects on ventilatory function after adjustment for overall obesity in men. The finding that age modifies this association has implications for future research.


Face recognition is constructed based on facial feature extraction and classification, the facial feature extraction is taken in the face region according to different parts of the characteristic, it is prone to confuse the issue, this paper proposes a face recognition algorithm based on neural network. In order to reduce the interference of background noise. Reduce the post feature point location and recognition of the complexity of the binarization image denoising method for face image denoising, image noise reduction of output for feature extraction, extract the face value of the peak and valley of two-dimensional features, can get the edge face regions around the border, BP neural network classifier method is used for information facial features batch read, differences and classify facial features are constructed to achieve accurate face recognition. The simulation results show that the calculation face recognition method can accurately extract facial features, the accuracy of face recognition is better, the anti-interference ability is stronger, and the operation speed is higher, it can effectively obtain fast and efficient face recognition.


The Dirichlet process mixture (DPM) is a ubiquitous, flexible Bayesian nonparametric model. However, full probabilistic inference in this model is analytically intractable, so that computationally intensive techniques such as Gibb's sampling are required. As a result, DPM-based methods, which have considerable potential, are restricted to applications in which computational resources and time for inference is plentiful. For example, they would not be practical for digital signal processing on embedded hardware, where computational resources are at a serious premium. Here we develop simplified yet statistically rigorous approximate maximum a-posteriori (MAP) inference algorithms for DPMs, which we call MAPDP. This algorithm is as simple as K-means clustering, performs in experiments as well as Gibb's sampling, while requiring only a fraction of the computational effort. Unlike related small variance asymptotics, our algorithm is non-degenerate and so inherits the "rich get richer" property of the Dirichlet process. It also retains a non-degenerate, closed-form likelihood which enables standard tools such as cross-validation to be used. This is a well-posed approximation to the MAP solution of the probabilistic DPM model.


We propose a method to estimate intraday volatility by integrating the instantaneous return variance per unit time obtained from the autoregressive conditional duration (ACD) model. A semiparametric method is used to estimate the conditional expected duration equation, which is assumed to follow the augmented ACD (AACD) model. We compare the daily volatilities estimated using the AACD model against several versions of the realized volatility methods, including the bipower variation realized volatility with subsampling, the realized kernel estimate and the durationbased realized volatility. The AACD volatility estimates correlate highly with and performs very well against the realized volatility estimates. A clear advantage of the semiparametric AACD method is that it can be used to estimate intraday volatilities over intervals such as an hour. JEL Codes: C410, G120


The (100) and (110) surface relaxations are calculated for SrTiO 3 and BaTiO 3 perovskite thin films by means of a semi-empirical shell model (SM) for different surface terminations. Our SM results for the (100) surface structure are in good agreement with our present ab initio Hartree-Fock calculations with electron correlation corrections, previous ab initio pseudopotential calculationsand LEED experiments. The surface energy for the Ba-, Sr-, TiO- terminated (110) surfaces is found much larger than that for the (100) one. In contrast, the surface energy for the asymmetric O-termination, where outermost O atoms are strongly on-plane displaced, is the lowest for all (110) terminations and thus the most stable.


OBJECTIVE
Mechanical endovascular thrombectomy (EVT) is an increasingly relied-on treatment for clot retrieval in the context of ischemic strokes, which otherwise are associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Despite several known risks associated with this procedure, there is a high degree of technical heterogeneity across both centers and operators. The most common procedural complications occur at the point of transfemoral access (the common femoral artery), and include access-site hematomas, dissections, and pseudoaneurysms. Other interventional fields have previously popularized the use of ultrasound to enhance the anatomical localization of structures relevant to vascular access and thereby reducing access-site complications. In this study, the authors aimed to describe the ultrasound-guided EVT technique performed at a large, quaternary neurovascular referral center, and to characterize the effects of ultrasound guidance on access-site complications.

METHODS
A retrospective chart review of all patients treated with EVT at a single center between January 2013 and August 2020 was performed. Patients in this cohort were treated using a universal, unique, ultrasound-guided, single-wall puncture technique, which bears several theoretical advantages over the standard technique of arterial puncture via palpation.

RESULTS
There were 479 patients treated with EVT within the study period. Twenty patients in the cohort were identified as having experienced some form of access-site complication. Eight (1.67%) of these patients experienced minor access-site complications, all of which were groin hematomas and none of which were clinically significant, as defined by requiring surgical or interventional management or transfusion. The remaining 12 patients experienced arterial dissection (n = 5), arterial pseudoaneurysm (n = 4), retroperitoneal hematoma (n = 2), or arterial occlusion (n = 1), with only 1.04% (5/479) requiring surgical or interventional management or transfusion.

CONCLUSIONS
The authors found an overall reduction in total access-site complications as well as minor access-site complications in the study cohort compared with previously published randomized controlled trials and observational studies in the recent literature. The findings suggested that there may be a role for routine use of ultrasound-guided puncture techniques in EVT to decrease rates of complications.


This article examines Canada's relative success in restoring 'economic inclusion' and 'inclusive growth' between the political and economic disruptions of the 1990s and the mid-2010s. Noting competing views of the concept of 'inclusion', it explores four major factors which contributed to reducing domestic tensions during this period. These include the intentional accommodation of diverse regional interests through increased decentralization of Canadian federalism, the use of international trade policies to facilitate largely complementary regional economic policies, the restoration of fiscal sustainability in federal economic policies and to varying degrees across provinces, and the cultivation of cross-partisan consensus on immigration policies to avoid the social polarization experienced in other industrial countries. It concludes by noting areas of political vulnerability with the potential to disrupt this consensus.


Regulatory impact analyses (RIAs) weigh the benefits of regulations against the burdens they impose and are invaluable tools for informing decision makers. We offer 10 tips for nonspecialist policymakers and interested stakeholders who will be reading RIAs as consumers. 1. Core problem: Determine whether the RIA identifies the core problem (compelling public need) the regulation is intended to address. 2. Alternatives: Look for an objective, policy-neutral evaluation of the relative merits of reasonable alternatives. 3. Baseline: Check whether the RIA presents a reasonable "counterfactual" against which benefits and costs are measured. 4. Increments: Evaluate whether totals and averages obscure relevant distinctions and trade-offs. 5. Uncertainty: Recognize that all estimates involve uncertainty, and ask what effect key assumptions, data, and models have on those estimates. 6. Transparency: Look for transparency and objectivity of analytical inputs. 7. Benefits: Examine how projected benefits relate to stated objectives. 8. Costs: Understand what costs are included. 9. Distribution: Consider how benefits and costs are distributed. 10. Symmetrical treatment: Ensure that benefits and costs are presented symmetrically.


This research aims to analyze the influence of environmental management and firm performance on firm value, which is moderated by good corporate governance, which is proxied by board size and independent commissioners. The research design is quantitative research with the title "The Influence of Environmental Management and Firm Performance on Firm Value Moderated by Good Corporate Governance". The data source is secondary data collected from the IDX (Indonesian Stock Exchange) website to access financial report data of mining sector manufacturing companies, for the period 2017 - 2022. The population of this research is mining sector companies listed on the IDX for the 2017-2022 period. The sampling technique used in this research was purposive sampling. The results show that there is no direct influence from ISO certification on ROA (Return on Assets). There is a significant positive effect of firm value from the environmental management and firm performance variable, moderated by board size. However, the presence of independent commissioners does not moderate the effect of ISO and ROA on firm value. This means that the existence of directors can moderate the implementation of ISO 14001 on company value.


The modeling of diagnostic process using the activity, actions and operations as activities within the framework of Leontiev's theory, demands its critical understanding. Authors expose the actions conception as an activity expression of the conscious level that when they are manageable are called abilities and of the operations as activity expressions at subconscious level whose domain are habits. The actions and operations relation it is not of ownership but of association. Some examples of actions and operations in diagnostic process are showed.


Mechanical stress-enhanced plasma process-induced damage (PPID) in 0.13-mum pMOSFET was investigated. The PPID, which was initially charged neutral, became positively charged during hydrogen annealing, thus, changing the PMOS threshold voltage (Vth). Different device structures were designed to evaluate the mechanical stress effects on PPID. The features of these positive charges, including the PPID induced Vth shift, and its channel length dependence were also investigated


It is universally assumed that the peregrine praetor from the outset had jurisdiction (a) in lawsuits between peregrines, and (b) in lawsuits between a peregrine and a citizen. This view is indeed supported by Pomponius, provided we regard him as saying that the second praetor was called peregrine 'because his jurisdiction was mostly between peregrines', i.e. mostly in case (a). On this rendering the author would imply that the praetor in question always had jurisdiction in case (b) as well. However, for one thing, the words 'quod plerumque inter peregrinos ius dicebat' conceivably mean:'because his main business was jurisdiction between peregrines '—sc, though he was often used by the Senate for entirely different purposes.


For melanoma, in-transit metastases (ITMs) are a harbinger of systemic disease in over 70% of patients and thus warrant a systemic approach to management. In this study, previously untreated patients with ITMs (n=15) received a systemic regimen of 'CVD' in 21 day cycles (median, three cycles) as follows: dacarbazine 800 mg/m2 intravenously (i.v.) on day 1, vinblastine 1.6 mg/m2 i.v. on days 1-5, and cisplatin (CDDP) 100 mg/m2 by 24 h intra-arterial (i.a.) infusion in 1l of heparinized saline via the iliac or subclavian artery on day 3. There were three clinical complete responses (CRs) in patients with a modest burden of ITMs (< 3 cm in size) and seven partial responses (PRs), yielding a 67% response rate (95% confidence interval, 38-88%). One of the clinical CRs had microscopic residual disease at surgery (a pathological PR). The times to progression (TTP) for the CRs were 5, 21 and 38+ months; the median TTP for the PRs was 4.5 months (range, 2-10 months). Overall median survival was 31 months. Systemic toxicities were similar to those induced by i.v. CVD. However, patients noted more pronounced paraesthesia in the infused extremity. Also, two patients experienced severe CDDP-induced burns, one patient developed brachial plexopathy, and one patient had a haemorrhage in an occult brain metastasis. The high clinical activity of this regimen will have to be confirmed in more patients before a first-pass i.a. advantage can be claimed. Furthermore, the dose, schedule and technique of i.a. CDDP delivery must be further refined before it can be routinely incorporated in regimens as an alternative to isolated regional hyperthermic perfusion, which is technically more difficult and is not readily available in community-based hospitals.


As indicated early by Charles Darwin, languages behave and change very much like living species. They display high diversity, differentiate in space and time, emerge and disappear. A large body of literature has explored the role of information exchanges and communicative constraints in groups of agents under selective scenarios. These models have been very helpful in providing a rationale on how complex forms of communication emerge under evolutionary pressures. However, other patterns of large-scale organization can be described using mathematical methods ignoring communicative traits. These approaches consider shorter time scales and have been developed by exploiting both theoretical ecology and statistical physics methods. The models are reviewed here and include extinction, invasion, origination, spatial organization, coexistence and diversity as key concepts and are very simple in their defining rules. Such simplicity is used in order to catch the most fundamental laws of organization and those universal ingredients responsible for qualitative traits. The similarities between observed and predicted patterns indicate that an ecological theory of language is emerging, supporting (on a quantitative basis) its ecological nature, although key differences are also present. Here, we critically review some recent advances and outline their implications and limitations as well as highlight problems for future research.


At some stage most readers of this journal will have attended a health-related conference, be it sponsored by a professional body, or has a theme that is clinical emergency care, resuscitation and life support, trauma, prehospital care, paediatrics, education and so forth. Although senior doctors will have attended many, if not dozens of such conferences, it is rare that we get the chance to attend one that resides in the realm of another specialty and that is not directly connected to ours.

The Radiological Society of North America (RSNA) hosts the world's largest medical conference and it is held annually in Chicago. Occupying three large buildings in an enormous convention centre it attracts 60 000 delegates and 900 …


The purposes of this study were to extract choice attributes of bakery cafe customers and to conduct important- performance analysis (IPA) of choice attributes perceived by bakery cafe customers. The questionnaire was developed through literature review and focus group interview, and modified after pilot test. The questionnaires for main survey were distributed to 320 males and females aged 20 and over in Seoul. A total of 275 questionnaires were used for analysis (85.9%) and the statistical analyses were conducted using SPSS Win (12.0) for descriptive analyses, exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and correlation analyses. The main results were as follows. `Products`, `convenience to use`, `services and price`, `interior environments` `brand` and `location` dimensions were extracted as choice attributes dimensions of bakery cafe customers and customers of bakery cafe regarded `sanitation and cleanness`, `kindness of employees`, `quality of products`, `comfortable and pleasant facilities` and `taste of bakery products` as more important than other attributes. In addition, the results of IPA showed that marketing managers of bakery cafes should focused on the dimension of `services and price` in the reason that this dimension was low at performance although customers regarded it very important. Overall, researchers and managers of bakery cafes should understand unique choice attributes of bakery cafe customers, and make efforts to establish marketing strategies that meet bakery cafe customers` needs.


In this work, we survey skepticism regarding AI risk and show parallels with other types of scientific skepticism. We start by classifying different types of AI Risk skepticism and analyze their root causes. We conclude by suggesting some intervention approaches, which may be successful in reducing AI risk skepticism, at least amongst artificial intelligence researchers.


The field of logistics is confronted with an increasing complexity. This mainly results from the immense amount of goods which are part of logistics systems and processes. To address that the description of logistics systems and processes is to be conducted from an object oriented point of view by including object characteristics and their relations among each other. Therefore, in context of mesoscopic modeling and simulation, this paper presents a procedure which supports the conceptual modeling phase of the mesoscopic simulation approach in grouping and aggregation of logistics objects, i.e. goods and products, in an effective and credible way. This is considered as a method of simplification and will contribute to better model credibility and simulation efficiency as well as reducing model complexity.


Trisomy 1 embryos in mice are smaller in all dimensions, showing a developmental retardation as compared with euploid mice. Very rarely the trisomic embryos develop a typical hypotelorism with holoprosencephalon and missing olfactory nerves. Corneal distances, angles between the optic nerves and further microscopic examination showed no intermediate forms between the trisomy 1 embryos and the rare trisomy 1 embryo with hypotelorism. There seems to be a threshold, beyond which the major developmental derangement occurred. This is an experimental model showing parallels to the occasional varying phenotypes in human trisomies.


Precision agriculture is a farming management concept based on observing and responding to intra-field variations. One of the most important soil properties in farming is soil moisture content and it is necessary to develop new technique for measuring this property in a precision farming system. This study investigates the measurement of moisture content in soil using an on-site, easy to use and real-time acoustic wave system. The system consists of the propagation of acoustic waves such as sweep frequency sound wave (10-300 Hz) and multiple tone sound waves (120 Hz) through the soil. Some properties of these acoustic waves enable estimation of soil water content such as peak amplitude (A), total power (TP), total harmonic distortion (THD) and signal to noise ratio (SNR). The results showed that the best model for estimating the soil moisture content was the model that expressed relationship between A and soil moisture content with R 2 = 0.999 (using sweep frequency) and relationship between TP and soil moisture content with R 2 = 0.999 (using multiple tone). It is argued that the change in the sound characteristics related to the soil moisture content can be used for a continuous monitoring and control of irrigation of crops. Keywords: a coustic waves, s oil moisture content, s ound properties


Tests of the Space Shuttle Orbiter nose-gear tire have been completed at NASA Langley's Aircraft Landing Dynamics Facility. The purpose of these tests was to determine the cornering and wear characteristics of the Space Shuttle Orbiter nose-gear tire under realistic operating conditions. The tire was tested on a simulated Kennedy Space Center runway surface at speeds from 100 to 180 kts. The results of these tests defined the cornering characteristics which included side forces and associated side force friction coefficient over a range of yaw angles from 0 deg to 12 deg. Wear characteristics were defined by tire tread and cord wear over a yaw angle range of 0 deg to 4 deg under dry and wet runway conditions. Wear characteristics were also defined for a 15 kt crosswind landing with two blown right main-gear tires and nose-gear steering engaged.


This study examines the interpersonal communication approach to HIV/AIDS prevention within Faith-Based Organizations (FBOs) in Jamaica. Applying concepts from the social influence and social learning theories, the study examines communication strategies, challenges and concerns that religious leaders face in their communication efforts. Data gathered qualitatively through focus groups and in-depth interviews indicate that FBOs are social and cultural entities with potential to influence knowledge, attitude and behaviour for HIV/AIDS prevention. However, issues related to content, context, culture, the prevailing AIDS-related stigma alongside religious leaders' personal characteristics hamper their communication initiatives. Capacity building of leaders as HIV/AIDS communicators and behaviour change facilitators and a collaborative effort between FBOs and health organizations would enhance their HIV/AIDS response.


Function optimization is a problem that has existed since modern engineering began. With multiple variables, brute-forcing or simple regression models become unfeasible. This paper proposes a shrinking population control method for a dynamic population particle swarm optimizer. The proposed control mechanism creates an exclusion zone, where particles are periodically purged from the simulation. The selection of particles purged relies on their particle best i.e. the position where it found its personal best fitness. Particles with their particle best outside of the exclusion zone with a predetermined radius from the current global best are removed from the simulation. The purging is done periodically in stages of equal iteration counts, and the radius is shrunk by a factor after every stage. By testing 5 benchmark mathematical functions, the results show that the proposed population control mechanism achieves better final optima than only a basic particle swarm optimizer and a simple shrinking dynamic population particle swarm optimizer where the worst performing particle is removed every so often.


Uterine leiomyosarcomas are rare malignant tumors originating from the smooth muscle lining of the uterus, the myometrium. They account for 1-2% of all uterine malignancies with an estimated incidence of 0.3-0.4/100,000 women per year. The symptoms, signs, and histopathological features of uterine leiomyosarcomas widely overlap with those of uterine leiomyomas, their benign counterparts, which can cause diagnostic challenges in daily pathological practice. Because leiomyosarcomas are clinically aggressive tumors with poor 5-year survival and a high recurrence rate, early diagnosis is important for prolonged survival. Currently, the diagnosis of these tumors is often incidental and postoperative. Most leiomyosarcomas are aneuploid with complex numerical and structural chromosomal aberrations and show substantial cytogenetic heterogeneity. Although a few cancer genes have been implicated in uterine leiomyosarcomas, such as TP53, RB1, and CDKN2A, these genes represent, however, common cancer genes not specific for smooth muscle malignancies. The aim of this study is to examine somatic variation in the coding regions of uterine leiomyosarcomas by exome sequencing to identify potential new molecular biomarkers. Altogether 18 formalin-fixed paraffin-embedded tumor samples entered whole-exome sequencing. After the filtering of exome sequencing data, a list of genes which were mutated in at least two tumors was created. The list included over 50 genes TP53 being the most frequently mutated gene. The most prominent candidate variants are validated with Sanger sequencing and the validations are ongoing. Also a series of 35 additional tumors is available on tissue microarray for possible immunohistochemical validations. Identification of novel molecular genetic characteristics in uterine leiomyosarcomas is clinically relevant to further improve the diagnosis and prognosis of the patients. New knowledge on the mechanisms underlying the progression to malignancy is also essential for developing new treatments. Citation Format: Netta Makinen, Tuomas Heikkinen, Mervi Aavikko, Ralf Butzow, Pia Vahteristo. Exomic landscape of uterine leiomyosarcomas. [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 68. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-68


Using the standard real business cycle model with lump-sum taxes, we analyze the impact of fiscal policy when agents form expectations using adaptive learning rather than rational expectations (RE). The output multipliers for government purchases are significantly higher under learning, and fall within empirical bounds reported in the literature, which is in sharp contrast to the implausibly low values under RE. Positive effects of fiscal policy are demonstrated during times of economic stress like the recent Great Recession. Finally, it is shown how learning can lead to consumption and investment dynamics empirically documented during some episodes of "fiscal consolidations."


A system which is capable of generating symbolic state equations for dynamic systems is described. The underlying object-oriented knowledge representation structure is based on the bond graph modeling methodology which abstracts a complex system into a network of simple relations that describe the behavior of the system. Constraint propagation techniques provide a method for determining the causal relationships that must exist between system variables in a state-determined system, thereby identifying a set of state variables for the system. The relation network and the state variables are manipulated by MACSYMA to define the state equations for the physical system dynamics. The availability of state equations in symbolic form allows the engineer to assess the influence of component parameters on the overall function of the physical system without having to resort to simulation iterations. This representation establishes the foundation for a model-based reasoning system currently under development.<<ETX>>


In vitro activity of ceftriaxone was studied on 245 cephalothin-resistant strains of enterobacteria representing 7 different phenotypes of resistance to cephalosporins and on 130 Gram negative oxidative bacilli. Ceftriaxone was compared to cefotaxime, cefmenoxime, moxalactam and ceftazidime. With modal MICs of 0.015 to 0.25 mg/l, ceftriaxone is active on all phenotypes of enterobacteria not simultaneously resistant to cefamandole and cefoxitin. Among the bacteria with this last phenotype, only K. pneumoniae, C. Freundii and E. cloacae are occasionally found to have intermediate susceptibility or even resistance; ceftriaxone is more active than cefotaxime, cefmenoxime and ceftazidime with inhibition of 95.1% of strains at 4 mg/l. Moxalactam is superior to ceftriaxone against enterobacteria that are intermediate or resistant to both cefamandole and cefoxitin. Activity of ceftazidime is strongest against oxidative bacilli and weakest against enterobacteria regardless of phenotype.


The present study was an attempt to analyze the problem of suicide in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). Suicide is increasing among populations aged 18-21, which in Israel is the age when most young people are called up for a 3-year period of compulsory military service. The service may have a catalytic effect on suicide. but on the other hand may serve as a control mechanism reducing suicide. The study used data for the period 1974-1985, and examined suicide in combat and noncombat units by duration of service and by preservice psychiatric, medical, and motivational data. The suicide groups were also compared with a matched sample of nonsuicide groups along the relevant variables. The findings seem to be consistent with some established theoretical perspectives of situational stress, social support, and status incompatibility, and seem to bear practical implications for the reduction of suicide.


This paper describes a new class of flight control actuators using post-buckled precompressed (PBP) piezoelectric elements. These actuators are designed to produce significantly higher deflection and force levels than conventional piezoelectric actuator elements. Classical laminate plate theory (CLPT) models are shown to work very well in capturing the behavior of the free, unloaded elements. A new high transverse deflection model which employs nonlinear structural relations is shown to successfully predict the performance of the PBP actuators as they are exposed to higher and higher levels of axial force, which induces post-buckling deflections. A proof-of-concept empennage assembly and actuator were fabricated using the principles of PBP actuation. A single grid-fin flight control effector was driven by a 3.5′′ (88.9 mm) long piezoceramic bimorph PBP actuator. By using the PBP configuration, deflections were controllably magnified 4.5-fold with excellent correlation between theory and experiment. Quasi-static bench testing showed deflection levels in excess of ± 6° at rates exceeding 15 Hz. The new solid state PBP actuator was shown to reduce the part count with respect to conventional servoactuators by an order of magnitude. Power consumption dropped from 24 W to 100 mW, weight was cut from 108 to 14 g, slop went from 1.6° to 0.02° and current draw went from 5 A to 1.4 mA. The result was that the XQ-138 subscale UAV family experienced nearly a 4% reduction in operating empty weight via the switch from conventional to PBP actuators, while in every other measure gross performance was significantly enhanced.


We show that neurotransmitter release at Caenorhabditis elegans neuromuscular junctions is facilitated by a presynaptic pathway composed of a Gqalpha (EGL-30), EGL-8 phospholipase Cbeta (PLCbeta), and the diacylglycerol- (DAG-) binding protein UNC-13. Activation of this pathway increased release of acetylcholine at neuromuscular junctions, whereas inactivation decreased release. Phorbol esters stimulated acetylcholine release, and this effect was blocked by a mutation that eliminates phorbol ester binding to UNC-13. Expression of a constitutively membrane-bound form of UNC-13 restored acetylcholine release to mutants lacking the egl-8 PLCbeta. Activation of this pathway with muscarinic agonists caused UNC-13 to accumulate in punctate structures in the ventral nerve cord. These results suggest that presynaptic DAG facilitates synaptic transmission and that part of this effect is mediated by UNC-13.


The aim of the paper is to explore the learning mode of small business owners, from a theoretical stance, and based on empirical evidence. We distinguish between the required learning mode, the actual learning mode and the supported learning mode. Data were collected using the focus group method in a very heterogeneous sample of Belgian small business owners. The results indicate several gaps between the required, actual and supported learning modes, of which many are due to unawareness of learning needs and lack of reflective learning among small business owners. The data also indicate among others that solutions to fill learning gaps proposed in the literature are not applicable to all owners, e.g. not all owners are able to learn through networks.


To investigate hemisphere function of experts, Go experts and novices were given two Salthouse-type visuospatial tasks. In Experiment 1, stimuli of 4 digits in 6 cells were projected to the left (LVF) or right visual field (RVF). There was no prominent group difference in identification of digits and locations. In Experiment 2, stimuli of 4 digits in 16 cells were projected to the LVF or RVF. Go experts showed more accurate performance than novices. Both groups showed the same laterality, an RVF advantage, in the number identification. However, in the location identification, Go experts showed no visual field difference, whereas novices showed an RVF advantage. Based on these findings, the relationship between task demand and hemisphere function of experts is discussed.


3rd Edition. By H. M. CARLETON with the collaboration of London: Oxford University Press, 1957. Pp. 343. Figs. 19. Lordship's) judgment, there was not to be found in the case stated evidence of automatism of a character which would be fit to leave to a jury. The justices were required to presume that the defendant was not suffering from any disease of the mind, since he did not challenge the legal presumption of sanity. Unless there was evidence which showed that his irrationality was due to some cause other than disease of the mind, the justices were not entitled simply to acquit. For the purpose of the criminal law there were two categories of mental irresponsibility ---one where the disorder was due to disease and the other where it was not. The distinction was not arbitrary. If disease was not the cause, if there was some temporary loss of consciousness arising accidentally, it was reasonable to hope that it would not be repeated and that it was safe to let an acquitted man go free. But, if disease was present the same thing might happen again, and, therefore, since 1800 the law had provided that persons acquitted on that ground should be subject to restraint, and while it seemed right that in such a case some conditions should be imposed, the only restraint known to the law was indefinite detention in what used to be called a criminal lunatic asylum. So it would be very surprising to find that defence raised in answer to charges under the Road Traffic Acts. Whatever the theory of the law might be, mental disease was in practice not available as an excuse for the commission of any of the lesser crimes. Pearson, ]., in a concurring judgment, agreed that the appeal should be allowed.


Coordinated motion control in swarm robotics aims to ensure the coherence of members in space, i.e., the robots in a swarm perform coordinated movements to maintain spatial structures. This problem can be modeled as a tracking control problem, in which individuals in the swarm follow a target position with the consideration of specific relative distance or orientations. To keep the communication cost low, the PID controller can be utilized to achieve the leader-follower tracking control task without the information of leader velocities. However, the controller's parameters need to be optimized to adapt to situations changing, such as the different swarm population, the changing of the target to be followed, and the anti-collision demands, etc. In this letter, we apply a modified Brain Storm Optimization (BSO) algorithm to an incremental PID tracking controller to get the relatively optimal parameters adaptively for leader-follower formation control for swarm robotics. Simulation results show that the proposed method could reach the optimal parameters during robot movements. The flexibility and scalability are also validated, which ensures that the proposed method can adapt to different situations and be a good candidate for coordinated motion control for swarm robotics in more realistic scenarios.


We developed a current commutated hybrid direct current circuit breaker (DCCB) for high-voltage direct current transmission systems. The transmission losses of the developed DCCB are considerably low because a normal current path includes only mechanical switches. Fast mechanical switches and a commutation circuit can achieve a fast current interruption. We also developed a test method for DCCBs, which permits the use of existing facilities such as AC generators. We tested a scaled-down 10-kV hybrid DCCB with the developed test method. The test results proved the operation principle of the hybrid DCCB and the efficiency of the test method.


Patients with facial prostheses suffer from yeast, Candida albicans, infections. This study aimed to determine the biocompatibility and antifungal properties of silicone facial prostheses coated with silver nanoparticles (Ag NPs) in vitro. Medical grade silicone discs were coated with 5 and 50 mg L-1 dispersions of either Ag NPs or AgNO3 . Coatings were fully characterized using scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive X-ray spectroscopy. The biocompatibility was examined using human dermal fibroblasts (Hs68), whereas antifungal efficacy was tested against C. albicans (NCPF-3179). The fibroblast viability was assessed by measuring lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) activity, protein content and tissue electrolytes. There were no effects on the LDH activity of fibroblast cell homogenates, and leak of LDH activity into external media remained low (0.1-0.2 IU mL-1 ). Sublethal effects of Ag NP coatings on membrane permeability/ion balance was not observed, as measured by stable homogenate Na+ and K+ concentrations. Some Ag (13 mg L-1 ) was detected from the AgNO3 coatings in the media, but total Ag remained below detection limit (<1.2 µg L-1 ) for the Ag NP coatings; indicating the latter were stable. When fibroblasts grown on silver coatings were challenged with C. albicans, the Ag NP coating was effective at preventing fungal growth as measured by ethanol production by the yeast, and without damaging the fibroblasts. Ethanol production decreased from 43.2 ± 25.02 in controls to 3.6 µmol mL-1 in all the silver treatments. Data shows that silicone prosthetic materials coated with Ag NPs are biocompatible with fibroblast cells in vitro and show antifungal properties. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part B: Appl Biomater, 106B: 1038-1051, 2018.


The development of efficient and reliable ignition systems for lean fuel-air
 mixtures is of great interest for applications associated with the use of
 combustion in transportation, electricity production, and other heavy
 industries. In this study, we report the use of repetitive nanosecond pulsed
 surface discharges for the ignition of lean methane (CH4)-air
 mixtures at pressures above 1 bar. Powered by ten 10-ns voltage pulses at 10
 kHz, a commercially available non-resistive spark plug was used to generate
 surface discharges, which were able to ignite CH4-air mixtures at 1.5
 bar and with equivalence ratios (ϕ) ranging from 1.0 to 0.5. At the leanest
 conditions, e.g., ϕ ≤ 0.6, nitric oxide (NO) and nitrogen dioxide
 (NO2) emission were reduced to <10% of their values at ϕ =
 1.0, demonstrating the advantage of lean burn in emission reduction. Consistent
 ignition was obtained under extremely lean conditions (e.g., ϕ = 0.5) with a
 minimum of five pulses and a minimum Coulomb transfer of 82 μC. Additionally,
 the surface plug durability was tested for 114 hours or over 12 million pulse
 trains by operating the surface plug in 3.5 bar of dry air at 30 pulse trains
 per second. This study shows that the use of repetitive nanosecond pulses with
 surface discharge-based plugs holds promise for a durable ignition solution.


Producers as well as retailers can experience significant losses as a result of out of stock situations. The extent of these sufferers depends on specific end user responses, which have been originated to vary with product, store, customer, and situational factors. This paper suggests a conceptual framework that incorporates the chief determinants of consumer responses to out of stock situations. The theoretical relationships offer explanations for the noticeable variations in stock-out results observed in prior studies. Furthermore, the framework can be empirically executed, allowing dealers and producers to conclude how much each issue contributes to out of stock losses. We gather survey data to provide confirmation on the significance of the framework and also the way and value of the effect of diverse consumer behaviors.


To monitor the quantity, direction, and duration of blue light signals, higher plants rely on a sophisticated photosensory system consisting of three blue-light receptors —cryptochrome 1, cryptochrome 2 and phototropin —and various signal transduction factors. This review focuses on advances in our understanding of the functions and signal transduction of blue-light receptors and downstream components in plants on the basis of molecular biological analysis of blue-light-respon- sive mutants.


Wireless sensor network is one of the important areas where a lot of work is being done. The work is not limited to fire detection and propagation of fire, air pollution, water or gas leakage detection but many more. If WSN is used in conjunction with Internet of Things (IOT), the shared information will be more useful. Internet of things is nothing but a combination of sensor and software with the embedded electronics. The data collected in a local area can be sent at any distance where it can be seen and further controlling action may be initiated if required. The WSN based air monitoring system collects the data from the area where the sensors are deployed and the data can be displayed on the computer screen. The computer data can be sent to any terminal which is connected to Internet. Hence by using IOT, the long distance transmission of the data can be done. The monitoring is limited to area but the information can be forwarded to any control station. Hence by using IOT, the air pollution level of the campus even cities can be monitored and necessary advisory can be issued if required.


A fraction of core-collapse supernovae of type Ib/c are associated with gamma-ray bursts, which are thought to produce highly relativistic jets. Recently, it has been hypothesized that a larger fraction of core-collapse supernovae produce slower jets, which may contribute to the disruption and ejection of the supernova envelope, and explain the unusually energetic hypernovae. We explore the TeV neutrino signatures expected from such slower jets, and calculate the expected detection rates with upcoming Gigaton Cherenkov experiments. We conclude that individual jetted supernovae may be detectable from nearby galaxies.


Background Although the disease progression of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is very rapid with median survival typically around 3 to 6 months, there are rare cases of patients remaining on therapy for longer periods of time. Early estimation of survival prognosis would allow for rational decisions on complex therapy interventions, including radical surgery and robust systemic therapy regimens. Understandably, there is a great interest in finding prognostic markers that can be used for patient stratification. KRAS, often mutated in PDAC, has been a frequent subject of studies in molecular pancreatic cancer research. It was reported early on that KRAS mutation detected in pancreatic mass itself does not show any prognostic value (1). In this work we have investigated role of various KRAS mutation types on the prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients. Similar to other types of solid tumors it is expected that different KRAS mutations will result in slightly different clinical outcome (2,3) Methods A total of 118 pacients with PDAC clinically confirmed by EUS-FNAC were included in the study. DNA was extracted from FNAB slides following a standard cytology evaluation to ensure adequacy (viability, quantity) and to mark tumor cell fraction. Kaplan-Meier survival curves were calculated for individual KRAS mutation types. Results summary KRAS mutation was detected in 90% of specimes (106/ 118). All mutations were localized at exon 2, codon 12 with Gly12Asp (GGT>GAT) as the most frequent at 45% (48/106), followed by other types including Gly12Val (GGT>GTT) at 31% (33/106), Gly12Arg (GGT>CGT)at 17% (18/106), Gly12Cys (GGT/TGT) at 5% (5/106) and Gly12Ser (GGT/AGT) at 1% (1/106). Overall survival for patients with the Gly12Asp mutation was only 107 days, compared to 198 days for the Gly12Val, 286 days for Gly12Arg and 206 days for Gly12Cys (P = 0.01, long-rank test). Survival of patients with the Gly12Asp was less than a half when compared to all of the other mutation types combined (107 days vs. 218 days, P = 0.002, long-rank test). Conclusions The overall survival of PDAC patients correlates with the type of KRAS mutation present in the tumor. The most frequent Gly12Asp (GGT>GAT) mutation confers the worst prognosis resulting in a reduction of survival typically by 3 - 6 months. KRAS testing from EUS-FNAC slides presents a useful tool for stratification of PDAC patients. Supported by IGA MZ grant no. NT13638. Literature: 1) Salek C et al. Anticancer Res. 2009, 29, 1803-1810 2) Garassino MC, Ann Oncol, 2011, 22, 235-237 3) Fiala O et al., Cancer Genet., 2013, 206, 26-31. Citation Format: Marek Minarik, Tereza Halkova, Barbora Belsanova, Bohus Bunganic, Miroslav Zavoral, Lucie Benesova. Detection of specific KRAS mutation type, Gly12Asp (GGT>GAT), in EUS-guided fine needle aspiration cytology (EUS-FNAC) identifies pancreatic cancer patients with poor prognosis. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 107th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2016 Apr 16-20; New Orleans, LA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2016;76(14 Suppl):Abstract nr 4943.


This thesis focuses on Hannah Baker's suicide in Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why. The objectives of the study are to find out the proof Hannah Baker's suicide in the novel, the causes of Hannah Baker's suicide, and the effects of Hannah Baker's suicide to their parents and friends as seen in Jay Asher's Thirteen Reasons Why. Thesis writer also applies qualitative approach and the theory used is suicide theory. The finding shows that Hannah Baker commits suicide. She uses pills as the means of her suicide. The causes of Hannah Baker's suicide is caused by three factors as she stated. Those are hurt, anguish, soreness and aching. The effects of Hannah Baker's suicide to her parents and friends are that Hannah makes her parents in a dysfunctional states. They are mourning for her and abandon everything and move back to the old city. Hannah's suicide also causes blaming issues for her friends. It shows that her friends blame each other and Hannah, in addition, one of her friends has self-blame issues. Also, it makes them being perceived more negative by other characters.Key words: Suicide


Cholecystokinin and gastrin receptors (CCK1R and CCK2R) are G protein-coupled receptors that have been the subject of intensive research in the last 10 years with corresponding advances in the understanding of their functioning and physiology. In this review, we first describe general properties of the receptors, such as the different signaling pathways used to exert short- and long-term effects and the structural data that explain their binding properties, activation, and regulation. We then focus on peripheral cholecystokinin receptors by describing their tissue distribution and physiological actions. Finally, pathophysiological peripheral actions of cholecystokinin receptors and their relevance in clinical disorders are reviewed.


Journalism deserves a depth evaluative treatment, so that it can show the current
shortcomings of the information, which influenced by sectors of power, do not show
contextualized realities; but generates manipulation in the audiences by showing
biased realities. Hence the relevance of this analysis, presented as a way to measure
the quality in journalism.
The article aims to analyze quality standards in the treatment of journalistic
information on the Bill of Inheritance and capital gains, according to two daily
ecuadorian newspapers, El Comercio and El Telegrafo.
The main objective of the research is to inquire and compare the two print newspapers
with their digital versions, the investigative genre of the news, quality standards of the
publications regarding to the proposed topic and in this way show whether it exists
impartiality and objectivity in their reporting.


Tolerance has long been regarded as essential to liberal democratic life as well as to educational theory and practice. In educational policy and research, the school is seen as an important sphere where interpersonal tolerance can be studied and learned, and within schools, teachers and students are frequently asked to embody and practice tolerance. Whereas the need and value of tolerance may be evident in everyday life, the concept of tolerance is regarded as puzzling or even counterintuitive within the fields of philosophy and philosophy of education. Despite its overall harmonious connotation, tolerance seems to require two contradictory yet interdependent responses: in order to be tolerant (open-minded, accepting, welcoming) toward the tolerable, we also need to be intolerant (narrow-minded, resisting, hostile) toward the intolerable. In the philosophical debate, much work has been done to discuss the reasons and justifications for extending tolerance, while less attention has been paid to what determines the way in which an encounter becomes an issue of tolerance in the first place. In relation to the latter, three enduring questions can be identified. Is tolerance to be understood as a symmetrical or a hierarchal relation between the one who tolerates and the one being tolerated (the dilemma of welcoming)? What are the limits of tolerance and how are they to be drawn and justified (the dilemma of drawing boundaries)? And how much "unwanted otherness" can one suffer and bear before tolerance passes into intolerance or converts into pure acceptance (the dilemma of enduring)? In responding to the dilemmas of tolerance, different competing but coexisting discourses or conceptions on tolerance have developed historically over time. Within philosophy of education, two main conceptions can be traced, each of them implying a different way of responding to the dilemmas of interpersonal tolerance: tolerance as permission and tolerance as mutual respect. Besides these more traditional conceptions, a third conception of tolerance as an embodied and lived practice is identified. Taken together, the different coexisting conceptions of tolerance can be seen as an invitation to an ongoing conversation about the meaning and value of promoting tolerance in education, between and within different schools of philosophy of education.


The rapid development of a variety of molecular contrast agents makes the multimodality bioimaging highly attractive towards higher resolution, more sensitive, informative diagnosis. The key lies in the development of facile material synthesis that allows the integration of multiple contrast agents, ideally in a way that each of the components should be logically assembled to maximize their performances. Here, we report the one-pot programmable growth of multifunctional heterogeneous nanocrystal with tunable size, shape, composition, and properties. We demonstrated a facile one-pot hot-injection method to enable the highly selectively controlled growth of different sodium lanthanide fluoride nanomaterials in either longitudinal or transversal directions with atomic scale precision. This technique allows the upconversion luminescence signal, MRI signal and x-ray signal logically integrated and optimized within one single versatile nanoplatform for multimode bioimaging. These findings suggest that the facile strategy developed here have the promising to get the desired heterogeneous nanocrystals as an all-in-one contrast agent for integrated and self-correlative multimodal bioimaging.


Economic production of gas from the Devonian shales of the Appalachian basin is dependent on the presence of natural or induced fracturing. Investigation of natural fractures in five cored wells of varying productivity, located in areas of regional fracturing and not crestally located on folds, indicates that fracture frequency alone is not the sole control of well productivity. A one-to-one relation between natural fractures seen in the core and gas shows indicated by temperature and sibilation logs is not present. This is attributed to degrees of permeability enhancement by different fracture types and the presence of favorable shale lithotypes for recharging the fracture system. No system of abundant microfractures was documented after petrographic study of nearly 400 hale samples by radiography, thin section, and SEM. Thus, only macroscopic fractures are of importance. Horizontal to subvertical slickensided fractures, even with frequencies of 2 to 3 per ft, are not associated with gas shows in organic-rich, laminated shales. Examination of their surfaces by SEM at 30,000 × shows complete obliteration of grain-to-grain boundaries and a uniform, glassy surface of low permeability. Stimulation by hydraulic fracturing of a well dominated by slickensided fractures resulted in production equal to that of a well (same formation thickness and porosity) that possessed only one fracture (slickensided). Presence of slickensided fractures does not greatly influence open flow or final flow after fracturing of a shale reservoir. High-angle vertical fractures, associated with higher gas productivity, retain some openness and permeability in the subsurface due to mineralization and slight movement between fracture surfaces characterized by coarse twist hackles. Mineral-filled fractures, commonly 1 to 2 mm in width, were seen in thin section to be tightly mineralized by dolomite with little intercrystalline porosity. SEM observation reveals that many seemingly unmineralized fracture surfaces have minor mineralization. Tightly and partially mineralized vertical fractures in nonproductive portions of the shale sequence were associated with organic-poor, nonlaminated shales which have less potential for recharging the meager fracture porosity present. The most productive well, final open flow of 1,007 MCFGD, possessed high-angle vertical fractures in its pay zone of organic-rich, laminated shale. These fractures have coarse twist hackles which show evidence of later vertical movement. Slight offsetting along these hackles opened widths up to 28 mm. This well is not located near photolineaments. Vertical fractures with no mineralization or indication of offsetting along hackles are interpreted as being closed at depth and do not contribute to shale productivity. End_of_Article - Last_Page 1590------------