We recently demonstrated that, in response to radiation, replication is down-regulated at the level of individual origins throughout S phase of the cell cycle. Since several in vitro studies demonstrate that CDKN1A (formerly known as p21) down-regulates replication by inhibiting PCNA, and since CDKN1A can retard progression of cells through S phase in vivo, the question arises whether CDKN1A is involved in the S-phase damage-sensing pathway. In the present study we analyzed the effect of ionizing radiation on CDKN1A+/+ and CDKN1A-/- cells derived from the HCT 116 cell line. Neither progression of cells through S phase nor survival after exposure to ionizing radiation is influenced by CDKN1A status in either synchronous or asynchronous cells. These results establish that CDKN1A is not necessary for the acute S-phase damage-sensing pathway that functions to prevent firing of replication origins during S phase.


BACKGROUND
Traditional foods are an important part of the culture, history, identity and heritage of a region or country and are key elements in dietary patterns. In most countries there is limited information on the nutritional composition of such foods and therefore there is a need to investigate, register and promote traditional foods. One of the aims within the 'Sustainable exploitation of bioactive components from the Black Sea Area traditional foods' (BaSeFood) project is to generate for the first time new data on the nutritional composition of traditional foods from six Black Sea Area countries to promote their sustainable development and exploitation.

RESULTS
Thirty-three traditional foods were analysed in an accredited laboratory to determine their nutritional composition, and the data were fully documented. The nutrient content varied widely because of the nature and variety of the analysed foods. The energy content ranged between 4 kcal per 100 g for kvass southern and 900 kcal per 100 g for mustard oil, with the exception of the analysed teas, which did not contribute to energy intake.

CONCLUSION
The use of a common methodology for the study of traditional foods will enable countries to further investigate these foods. Moreover, a new nutritional knowledge base of traditional foods from Black Sea Area countries will contribute to promote local biodiversity and sustainable diets by maintaining healthy dietary patterns within local cultures.


It has been proposed that worsening of heart failure with dihydropyridines, such as nicardipine, is related to the activation of the neuroendocrine system. To test this, we evaluated 20 patients with severe heart failure (mean age, 55 ± 13 years; New York Heart Association functional class III; left ventricular ejection fraction, 18% ± 8% on maintenance therapy with captopril, digoxin, and diuretics) who were randomized to nicardipine (60 or 90 mg/d) or placebo during a 4-month double-blind protocol. The following measurements were obtained at baseline, monthly, and at 4 months or last follow-up visit: rest and exercise radionuclide ventriculography, maximal treadmill time, 6-minute walking test distance, serum norepinephrine and aldosterone concentrations, and plasma renin activity. During the follow-up period, worsening of heart failure occurred in 6 patients in the nicardipine group and in 2 patients in the placebo group (p = 0.06). The maximal treadmill time for a 6-minute walking distance and exercise radionuclide ejection fraction at the last follow-up visit did not change in patients who did not deteriorate with heart failure in the placebo or nicardipine groups as compared with baseline values. In this study group of patients with severe heart failure receiving therapy with digoxin, captopril, and diuretics, nicardipine was associated with worsening heart failure without an apparent activation of the neurohormones. However, because of the small number of patients and a significant number of patients who deteriorated during the follow-up period, no definitive conclusions can be made.


It was considered that the rate of urbanization should be reduced by emphasizing the principles of qualified and healthy life in terms of population policies in the 1990-1994 period. On the one hand, it was envisaged between 1996 and 2000 to slow down the internal migration movement towards cities with a population of more than one million, on the other hand, urban aesthetics and art activities were also emphasized. In this period, the population growth rate did not occur at the same rate throughout the country, although it increased in the west and especially in the coastal areas, it decreased in the east increasing the contrasts in the population distribution. The increasing population growth in cities and towns resulted in 2/3 of the country's population living in urban settlements. The most significant development in terms of the urban population in Turkey was the events in Eastern and Southeastern Anatolia emerging in the last decade of the 20th century. Terrorist movements in these geographical areas had social and economic consequences as well as the detachment of the people of the region from the countryside, the uncontrolled growth of cities and towns with the migration caused unprecedented urbanism problems. When the measures were planned to be taken to reduce the high infant mortality rates that did not match the social and economic development level of Turkey between 1990-1994, increasing the quality of family planning and maternal and child health services and giving priority to those who could not benefit from these services as well as ensuring that these services are accessible and sustainable. On the other hand, it was reported that rapid population growth hindered economic development in the 1996-2000 period regressing sustainable development targets, shadowing individual welfare by reducing the share of national income, and increasing the basic needs such as education, health, infrastructure, and housing.


In this paper, novel n- and p-type tunnel field-effect transistors (T-FETs) based on heterostructure Si/intrinsic-SiGe channel layer are proposed, which exhibit very small subthreshold swings, as well as low threshold voltages. The design parameters for improvement of the characteristics of the devices are studied and optimized based on the theoretical principles and simulation results. The proposed devices are designed to have extremely low off currents on the order of 1 fA/mum and engineered to exhibit substantially higher on currents compared with previously reported T-FET devices. Subthreshold swings as low as 15 mV/dec and threshold voltages as low as 0.13 V are achieved in these devices. Moreover, the T-FETs are designed to exhibit input and output characteristics compatible with CMOS-type digital-circuit applications. Using the proposed n- and p-type devices, the implementation of an inverter circuit based on T-FETs is reported. The performance of the T-FET-based inverter is compared with the 65-nm low-power CMOS-based inverter, and a gain of ~104 is achieved in static power consumption for the T-FET-based inverter with smaller gate delay.


Floating gate charge storage devices are one of the largest families of organic transistor-type memory electronics. The quantity of charge carriers stored in a specific trapping site can be precisely controlled in floating gate memory, breaking through the limitations of device size and meeting the requirement for high density data storage. In this chapter, we briefly introduce common charge storage materials, mostly metallic nanoparticles, used as charge storage elements. Then floating gate materials with various fabrication processes and chemical structures are discussed. In addition, the operating mechanism and future flexible digital memory electronic devices using floating gate charge storage layers are presented.


This article approaches the acquisition of the nationality like integration indicator. The considerable increase of concessions of nationality in the last years has its base in a norm that privileges the Latin Americans, but also seems that this route like a strategy has been adopted that cushions the effects of the crisis; for example, the unemployment rate decreases for who is naturalized. The analysis of the naturalizations in Spain by means of annual and accumulated rates shows the differences in the access according to the nationality of origin, as well as the existence of clear divergences between Independent Communities. One of the most novel findings is the correlation between unemployment and the naturalizations: in those regions where the differential of the rate of unemployment between native foreigners and more is elevated are more naturalizations and, to inverse, where a particular advantage in the improvement of unemployment if the Spanish nationality is acquired, to the being does not seem to perceive itself the very similar rate between foreigners and Spaniards, there are less naturalizations.


Few reports have been published concerning the sources of the initial cases of poliomyelitis in a large and widespread epidemic, although many investigators have demonstrated the radial spread of the disease from established epidemic areas. Wickman1focused attention on a parish school as the possible common source of some of the early cases in the Swedish epidemic of 1905, but he offered no suggestion as to how the infection entered the school prior to the first clinical case. In 1911 Kling and Levaditi2reported that an immune carrier was probably responsible for the introduction of the disease into two small islands off the coast of Sweden. However, in view of present day knowledge, this circumstance is probably not significant since at that time the incubation period of poliomyelitis was erroneously thought to be from two to three days.3The 1916 epidemic in New York City and environs


A rapid and simple flow-injection method using a reaction column packed with barium Chromate powder is described for the determination of micro amounts of sulfate ion in surface- and sea-water samples. An aqueous solution containing 4.5 mM sodium acetate and 4% ethanol was used as a carrier solution at a flow rate of 0.8 ml/min. The absorbance of the Chromate ion (which corresponds to the sulfate ion concentration) in the carrier solution from the reaction column was measured using a photometric detector at 370 nm. Interference from some cations was eliminated by the use of a cation-exchange resin column installed in front of the reaction column; interference from some anions was reduced by using the carrier solution mentioned above. The concentration range from 0.5 to 5 ppm of the sulfate ion in practical water samples can be determined by the proposed method with good reproducibility.


Factors affecting ultraviolet (UV) radiation-induced degradation of patulin in a malic acid model system, apple cider and apple juice were studied. First-order rate constants (cm 2 /J) in the model system were not significantly (P > 0.05) affected by pH (3.0‐3.6), initial patulin concentration (0‐1000 mg/L), glucose (0‐10%), sucrose (0‐10%) and ascorbic acid (0‐100 mg/L). Tannic acid (0‐1 g/L) reduced patulin degradation while fructose (0‐10%) accelerated it. Although suspended particles yielding nephelometric turbidity units values between 0 and 100 did not affect patulin degradation, higher turbidity levels in unfiltered apple cider reduced degradation rates. Even in clarified apple juice, the UV dose required for 50% patulin reduction in apple juice (4.62 J/cm 2 ) was higher than that required for a 5-log reduction of Escherichia coli O157:H7. Therefore, achieving efficient UV reduction of patulin in apple juice products, without quality losses, may require particulate filtration, phenolic adsorption treatments, and addition of compounds that accelerate patulin degradation. PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS This study demonstrates that apple juice constituents affect patulin degradation during ultraviolet (UV) processing. High turbidity levels in apple cider suggest that this technology may be impractical for this product. UV irradiation can be used to decrease patulin levels in clarified apple juice, although the required dose levels remain higher than that required for 5-log reduction of human pathogens. Filtration, adsorption treatments that lower levels of UV scattering and absorbing suspended particles and polyphenols can result in substantially greater patulin degradation during UV processing. Because fructose had an accelerating effect on patulin reduction in the model system studied, addition of high-fructose sweeteners to apple beverages prior to UV processing may result in further patulin reductions.


A set of piezopolymer devices has been developed based on a composite laminate theory for piezoelectric polymer materials. By using different combinations of ply angles and electrode patterns, a piezopolymer/metal shim plate structure was built that exhibited both bending and torsion deformation under an applied electric field. A set of torsion‐beam sensor structures was also built that could distinguish between bending and torsion or between different vibration modes. These devices were based on a general theory of piezoelectric laminates. The experimental results agreed quite closely with the theoretical predictions. These integrated sensor–actuator devices may find application in the control of microactuators or may be used for modal control of larger continuous structures.


Abstract The Caenorhabditis elegans multiparental experimental evolution (CeMEE) panel is a collection of genome-sequenced, cryopreserved recombinant inbred lines useful for mapping the evolution and genetic basis of quantitative traits. We have expanded the resource with new lines and new populations, and here report the genotype and haplotype composition of CeMEE version 2, including a large set of putative de novo mutations, and updated additive and epistatic mapping simulations. Additive quantitative trait loci explaining 4% of trait variance are detected with >80% power, and the median detection interval approaches single-gene resolution on the highly recombinant chromosome arms. Although CeMEE populations are derived from a long-term evolution experiment, genetic structure is dominated by variation present in the ancestral population.


We experimentally and numerically investigate femtosecond pulse propagation in a microstructured optical fiber consisting of a silica core surrounded by air holes which are filled with a high index fluid. Such fibers have discrete transmission bands which exhibit strong dispersion arising from the scattering resonances of the high index cylinders. We focus on nonlinear propagation near the zero dispersion point of one of these transmission bands. As expected from theory, we observe propagation of a red-shifted soliton which radiates dispersive waves. Using frequency resolved optical gating, we measure the pulse evolution in the time and frequency domains as a function of both fiber length and input power. Experimental data are compared with numerical simulations.


UNLABELLED
ADAPT is an online database providing comprehensive mappings between Affymetrix probes and RefSeq and Ensembl transcripts. ADAPT was designed to help interpret microarray experiments by providing a means to explore the many-to-many relationships that exist between probes, probesets, transcripts and genes.

AVAILABILITY
ADAPT can be queried via the web at http://bioinformatics.picr.man.ac.uk/adapt


Skeletal differences exist between closely matched Black and White women, although it is unknown if similar differences also exist between Black and White men after controlling for age, body weight, and stature. The aim of this study was twofold: to test the hypothesis that Black men have greater bone mass, higher bone mineral density, and longer limbs compared to White men of similar age, weight, and height; and second, to establish if ethnic variation in skeletal characteristics has an impact on the models upon which three widely used methods for estimating total body fat are based. Twenty‐four healthy Black men were matched by age (±5 years), height (±3 cm), and weight (±2 kg) to 24 healthy White men. Skeletal characteristics and body composition were studied using anatomical and compartment estimates derived by anthropometry, 3H2O dilution, hydrodensitometry, whole‐body 40K counting, and dual photon systems. Black men had greater bone mineral mass (P = 0.007), higher bone density (P = 0.054), longer femurs (P = 0.002), longer anthropometric arm and thigh lengths (P = 0.001 and P = 0.002, respectively), lower spine to femur ratio (P = 0.004), and similar spine length (P = 0.271) compared to White men. Total body fat and fat‐free body mass (FFM) were estimated in the men using a four‐compartment model. Black and White men had similar total body fat, K (TBK), water (TBW), and FFM. Density of FFM and TBK/FFM were also similar between Black and White men, suggesting that current two‐compartment hydrodensitometry and TBK models for estimating fat may not require adjustments for ethnicity. The TBW/FFM ratio, which is the main assumed steady‐state relation for the two‐compartment TBW method of estimating fat, was modestly increased (P = 0.05) in Black men (x̄ ± SD, 0.744 ± 0.018) compared to White men (0.732 ± 0.021). These results confirm that Black and White men differ significantly in some skeletal characteristics and these differences have implications in the study of both osteoporosis and human body composition. © 1994 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Synaptic plasticity is thought to represent a mechanism for memory formation. Memory disturbances commonly follow electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) for depression. Accordingly, we examined the development and duration of the effects of electroconvulsive stimulation (ECS) on hippocampal synaptic plasticity in rats. Daily recording of field potentials during 10 spaced ECS revealed an increase in the dentate gyrus evoked response, reaching a maximum after the fifth seizure. In a second experiment, an identical ECS series substantially reduced the degree to which electrically induced synaptic changes (long-term potentiation--LTP) could be elicited under anaesthesia for up to 40 days. These findings suggest that ECS induces LTP-like long-lasting synaptic changes which may underlie the neuropsychological sequelae of ECT treatment in humans.


The most studied Molten Carbonate-Direct Carbon Fuel Cel (MC-LFC) or Molten Carbonate Direct Carbon Fuel Cell (MC-DCFC) prototypes are those which are fed by fossil fuel. Substituting these fossilized fuels in the MC-DCFC operation with lignin, which is a bio-based carbon, may make this system more efficient, clean, and sustainable. The manipulation module (Mixture) and the computational module (Equilib) of the Factsage package were used to simulate two systems that can represent the anodic compartment of a direct carbon fuel cell based on MC-DCFC. The first system includes lignin and a mixture of molten carbonate (Li2CO3-Na2CO3-Cs2CO3). The second system uses the same first electrolyte system but with the addition of CO2 gas. The results show the formation of mixed gases in the anodic compartment which are composed of H2, CO, CO2, CH4 and H2O. The relative concentration of each of the species of this mixed gas has an impact on the efficiency of the MC-DCFC. How the relative concentration of these gases in this electrolyte can impact the performance parameters of the MC-DCFC is systematically analysed. If the operating conditions of the fuel cell are optimized to get a gas composition of mainly of CO2 with low amounts of H2, CO, CH4, H2O in the anode compartment of the MC-DCFC, This will help to improve the conversion efficiency of lignin fuel in the MC-DCFC.


Email graphs have been used to illustrate general properties of social networks of communication and collaboration. However, increasingly, the majority of email traffic reflects opportunistic, rather than symbiotic social relations. Here we use e-mail data drawn from a large university to construct directed graphs of email exchange that quantify the differences between social and antisocial behaviors in networks of communication. We show that while structural characteristics typical of other social networks are shared to a large extent by the legitimate component they are not characteristic of antisocial traffic. Interestingly, opportunistic patterns of behavior do create nontrivial graphs with certain general characteristics that we identify. To complement the graph analysis, which suffers from incomplete knowledge of users external to the domain, we study temporal patterns of communication to show that the dynamical properties of email traffic can, in principle, distinguish different types of social relations.


Recent policy developments in England and Wales suggest a further increasing role for penal voluntary organisations (PVOs) in the market for criminal justice services. In response, a flurry of Criminological commentary has provided a marketised account of thpenal voluntary sector (PVS). This body of commentary has demonstrated that understandings of the sector remain limited, and that it has not yet been rigorously theorised (Corcoran, 2011; Mills et al., 2011). This gap in understanding is particularly problematic because PVOs may play an important role in the operation of punishment (Martin, 2013; Neuberger, 2009; Armstrong, 2002).In the thesis which follows, this gap in understanding is explored and the PVS is conceptualised. The tenets of actor-network theory are applied to analyse original qualitative data. This data was collected through semi-structured interviews with voluntary and statutory sector stakeholders, and document analysis of policy and PVO publications. The key analytical foci in this thesis are: PVO heterogeneity, small-scale PVOs, the agency of PVOs, and interactions between PVOs and the statutory agencies of criminal justice. Findings are then drawn together to consider the effects of PVO work with prisoners and probationers.This thesis makes an original contribution to knowledge by conceptualising the PVS and considering aspects of the sector that scholars have not yet fully explored. The thesis provides a new awareness of small-scale PVOs and considers the heterogeneity, agency and autonomy of PVOs. The analysis chapters illustrate the diverse relationships between PVOs and the statutory agencies of criminal justice. A preliminary exploration of the effects of PVO work is also provided. Whilst the potential control and net-widening functions of PVO work must not be overlooked, this analysis indicates that PVOs may enrich statutory service provision for prisoners and probationers. Relationships between PVO staff and prisoners/probationers may be distinctive and particularly valuable, and could support desistance from crime.


The latest generation flexible devices feature materials that are conductive, highly stretchable, and transparent to meet the requirements of a reliable performance. However, the existing conductors are mostly electronic conductors, which cannot satisfy these high-performance challenges. A robust hydrogel ionic conductor was rapidly fabricated with a facile one-pot approach by employing bioinspired agar with a physically cross-linked network, polyacrylamide (PAM) with a photoinitiated cross-linked network under appropriate UV intensity, and Li+ as conductive ions. The resulting Li+/agar/PAM ionic double-network hydrogels could be fabricated into various shapes through injection. The unique ionic hydrogel showed a remarkable stretchability with over 1600% extension, high tension/compression strength (0.22 MPa/3.5 MPa), and toughness (2.2 MJ/m3). Furthermore, it was demonstrated to possess dual sensory capabilities through the combination of both temperature and mechanical deformation. This hydrogel ionic conductor exhibited high stretching sensitivity with a gauge factor of 1.8 at strain 1100% and bending sensitivity in a broad angle range of 30-150°, respectively. Such highly optical transparency and elasticity endow the hydrogel-phosphor composites with promising luminescent properties. The multifunctional ionic hydrogel can be used as soft conductors for application in flexible devices such as ionic skin for wearable sensors and luminescence display.


Abundant image and sensory data collected over the last decades represents an invaluable source of information for cataloging and monitoring of the environment. Fusion of heterogeneous data sources is a challenging but promising tool to efficiently leverage such information. In this work we propose a pipeline for automatic detection and geolocation of recurring stationary objects deployed on fusion scenario of street level imagery and LiDAR point cloud data. The objects are geolocated coherently using a fusion procedure formalized as a Markov random field problem. This allows us to efficiently combine information from object segmentation, triangulation, monocular depth estimation and position matching with LiDAR data. The proposed fusion approach produces object mappings robust to scenes reporting multiple object instances. We introduce a new challenging dataset of over 200 traffic lights in Dublin city centre and demonstrate high performance of the proposed methodology and its capacity to perform multi -sensor data fusion.


Historical data from 26 638 20-to 40-year women were used to study the association between obesity and menstrual abnormalities including evidence of infertility. It was found that women with evidence of anovulatory cycles, ie, irregular cycles greater than 36 days, and hirsutism, were more than 30 lb (13.6 kg) heavier than women with no menstrual abnormalities after adjusting for height and age. The percentage of women with evidence of anovulatory cycles was 2.6 per cent for women less than 20 per cent overweight, 4.0 per cent for women 20-49 per cent overweight, 5.8 per cent for women 50-74 per cent overweight., and 8.4 per cent for women more than 74 per cent overweight Women with a single menstrual abnormality including cycles greater than 36 days, irregular cycles, virile hair growth with facial hair, or heavy flow were also significantly heavier than women with normal values for these factors. A longer duration of obesity was associated with facial hair. Another analysis found that teenage obesity was greater for never-pregnant married women than for previously pregnant married women and for women having ovarian surgery for polycystic ovaries than for women having ovarian surgery for other reasons. This also supports an association of obesity with anovulatory cycles. These findings showing evidence of abnormal ovulation, menstrual abnormalities and excess hair growth in obese women may be explained by the recent studies of others demonstrating an association between obesity and hormonal imbalances.


Iron catalysis is attractive for organic synthesis because iron is inexpensive, abundant, and non-toxic. To control the activity and stability of an iron center, a large number of iron pincer complexes have been synthesized. Many such complexes exhibit excellent catalytic activity in a number of important organic reactions such as hydrogenation, hydrosilylation, dehydrogenation, and carbon–carbon bond forming reactions. In this review, recent examples of representative iron pincer catalysts are presented.


Biotic stress is a major cause of heavy loss in grape productivity. In order to develop biotic stress-resistant grape varieties, the key defense genes along with its pathway have to be deciphered. In angiosperm plants, lipase-like protein phytoalexin deficient 4 (PAD4) is well known to be essential for systemic resistance against biotic stress. PAD4 functions together with its interacting partner protein enhanced disease susceptibility 1 (EDS1) to promote salicylic acid (SA)-dependent and SA-independent defense pathway. Existence and structure of key protein of systemic resistance EDS1 and PAD4 are not known in grapes. Before SA pathway studies are taken in grape, molecular evidence of EDS1: PAD4 complex is to be established. To establish this, EDS1 protein sequence was retrieved from NCBI and homologous PAD4 protein was generated using Arabidopsis thaliana as template and conserved domains were confirmed. In this study, computational methods were used to model EDS1 and PAD4 and simulated the interactions of EDS1 and PAD4. Since no structural details of the proteins were available, homology modeling was employed to construct three-dimensional structures. Further, molecular dynamic simulations were performed to study the dynamic behavior of the EDS1 and PAD4. The modeled proteins were validated and subjected to molecular docking analysis. Molecular evidence of stable complex of EDS1:PAD4 in grape supporting SA defense pathway in response to biotic stress is reported in this study. If SA defense pathway genes are explored, then markers of genes involved can play pivotal role in grape variety development especially against biotic stress leading to higher productivity.


The present study has been studied on a thermal and flow characteristic of the microchannel waterblock with flow distributions in each channels. Results of a numerical analysis using the CFX-11 are compared with results of an experiment. Numerical analysis and experiment are conducted under an input power of 150 W, inlet temperature of 20 ℃ and mass flow rates of 0.7~2.0 ㎏/min. Base temperature and pressure drop are investigated with standard deviations of mass flow rates in each channels of samples. The flow distribution and j/f factor of the sample 4 is increased by about 65.7% and 42.6%, compared to that of the reference model sample 3.


A search for single sneutrino production under the assumption that R-parity is violated via a single dominant LLĒ coupling is presented. This search considers the process eγ → ν̃` and is performed using the data collected by the ALEPH detector at centre-ofmass energies from 189 GeV up to 209 GeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 637.1 pb−1. The numbers of observed candidate events are in agreement with Standard Model expectations and 95% confidence level upper limits on five of the LLĒ couplings are given as a function of the assumed sneutrino mass. Submitted to European Physical Journal C ——————————————– ∗) See next pages for the list of authors


Abstract This paper provides an assessment of Greenland's tax system and contemplates changes that may be undertaken in the future to prepare for greater economic self-reliance and the country's participation in the wider world economy. On the outskirts of Europe, Greenland is an autonomous part of the Danish kingdom, though currently not a member of the EU. However, its cooperation with European countries and its dependency on international trade renders it necessary for the tax system in Greenland to be attuned to developments in the rest of the world. Drawing on a thorough international benchmarking analysis of Greenland's tax system, the paper's special focus will be on the corporate tax system and its interplay with personal taxation, as well as the system of import duties. In particular, we carry out computations of effective marginal and average corporate tax rates, as well as average effective tax burdens on consumption, labour income and capital income, and compare these to similar measures for EU countries. In addition, we outline how Greenland's economic policy in other areas interferes with tax policy. Especially fishery regulation, management of governmentowned companies, and housing policy have major implications for the tax system.


In general, the deep understanding of proton-induced reactions is a crucial step for the further development of nuclear reactions theory. However there has been an interesting focus in nuclear physics. Some applications require accurate nuclear reaction data of common cross sections and especially need the data of neutron and proton induced energy-angle correlated spectra of secondary particles, as well as double differential cross sections. Double-differential nucleon-production cross-sections of Fe, Cu and Zr targets, bombarded with protons are calculated based on the nuclear theoretical models. Monte Carlo calculations with the TALYS 1.6 nuclear reaction simulation code are performed. Theoretical calculated results are compared with existing experimental data in EXFOR library.


Thermoelectric efficiency has been limited to a non-practical range because of the electronic material properties that are not easily controlled. Therefore, limiting thermal transport has been the best approach to enhance efficiency, and efforts to reduce the thermal conductivity even further have been extensively reported. In this work, we investigate thermoelectric transport coefficients of uniformly straight and sinusoidally undulated nanowires and compare the resulting thermoelectric figure-of-merit. The improved efficiency should suggest another strategy to effectively control thermal transport in semiconductor nanostructures.


Sitaxsentan, a highly selective endothelin-A (ETA) receptor antagonist (6500-fold more selective for ETA receptors than endothelin-B (ETB) receptors), may benefit patients with pulmonary artery hypertension (PAH) by blocking the vasoconstrictor effects of ETA receptors while maintaining the vasodilator/clearance functions of ETB receptors. In its first randomised, placebo-controlled study, Sitaxsentan to Relieve Impaired Exercise-1 (STRIDE-1), sitaxsentan improved exercise capacity assessed by 6 min walk, New York Heart Association functional class, cardiac index and pulmonary vascular resistance in New York Heart Association class II, III and IV patients with idiopathic PAH, PAH related to connective tissue disease or PAH related to congenital heart disease. In STRIDE-1, doses of 100 and 300 mg/day p.o. were evaluated. Although both doses showed equivalent efficacy, the lower dose had a more tolerable safety profile. Additional studies are ongoing to assess the relative safety and efficacy of 50 and 100 mg/day doses, both in de novo patients and in patients previously treated with the ETA/ETB receptor antagonist bosentan. Long-term comparative studies are necessary to determine whether there is a clinically meaningful difference between selective ETA receptor antagonism and ETA/ETB receptor antagonism.


In Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs), trailing data sinks' mobility for data gathering has drawn popular in recent years. To achieve optimized network performance, or target at collecting a small portion of sensed data in the network recent researches will either focus on planning a mobile sink's moving trajectory in advance. In many application scenarios, however, a mobile sink cannot move freely in the deployed area. In this paper they propose energy consuming proactive data reporting protocols, SinkTrail for mobile sink-based data collection to avoid constant sink location update traffics when a sink's future locations cannot be scheduled in advance. SinkTrail differs their approach from previous ones: 1) allow sufficient flexibility in the movement of mobile sinks and also predict various terrestrial changes. 2) SinkTrail doesn't require GPS devices or predefined anchors (landmarks); it establishes a logical coordinate system for routing and forwarding data packets, making it suitable for various application scenarios. They systematically observed the impact of several design factors in the proposed algorithms. Finally conclude that both theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate that the proposed algorithms reduce control overheads and good performance in finding shorter


High intensity (ca. 150 foot-candles), cumulative fluorescent light exposure regimes of 40 or 60 minutes to pigmented Long Evans rats were sufficient to elicit glial fibrillary acidic protein immunoreactivity (GFAP-IR) in Müller cells, when the animals are sacrificed 7 days post-exposure. Exposure to only 20 minutes of cumulative light or sacrifice immediately after exposure was not sufficient to initiate GFAP-IR in Müller cells. A gradient of GFAP-IR was observed extending from an approximately circular focus superior to the optic disc to the peripheral retina, whether or not there was morphological damage to the photoreceptors observable at the light microscopic level. Photoreceptor lesions produced by laser photocoagulation elicited the same gradient of GFAP-IR, and showed that GFAP-IR was not a reflection of a central to peripheral gradient of light received by the retina. Excessive light exposure initiated a signal which induced GFAP expression in Müller cells. This signal appeared to require a dark period and may be a diffusible factor that moves through extracellular pathways.


Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) affects 0.5-1% of population all over the world. As the duration of treatment is more in RA, patient′s adherence to treatment is less. Controlling the number of patients lost to follow-up is essential for the successful completion of randomized clinical trials. Also, patient adherence is critical in clinical trial setting as it has impact on validity of clinical data and also it remains an issue of utmost importance to pharmaceutical manufacturers as well as scientific and regulatory community. The studies which show reasons for withdrawal from clinical trials are done for diseases like tuberculosis (TB). None of the study is available to find reasons for withdrawal from clinical trials in RA. Hence, this study is planned. Aims and Objectives: Find reasons and effect of age, sex, duration of therapy, and distance from home on withdrawal from clinical trial. Materials and Methods: This study is a retrospective observational data analysis. Primary outcome are to find reasons for withdrawal from trial. Results: Withdrawal from clinical trial in patients of RA is more in female. In this study, reasons for withdrawal from study are change in location, loss to follow-up, failure of therapy, concomitant illness, patient withdrew consent, and adverse effects is the common reason for withdrawal from clinical trial in both patient and investigator-related reason for withdrawal.


Division XII consists of Commissions that formerly were organized under the Executive Committee, that concern astronomers across a wide range of scientific sub-disciplines and provide interactions with scientists in a wider community, including governmental organizations, outside the IAU.


Introduction Nasopharyngeal carcinoma (NPC) is a unique epithelial malignancy with a high prevalence in Southeast Asia. To date, the genomic abnormalities leading to the pathogenesis of NPC remain unclear. Thus, we sought to characterize the mutational landscape in NPC tumors using next-generation sequencing approaches and to identify significantly mutated genes and pathways. Methods 124 NPC primary tumors were examined to define the mutational landscape with whole-exome sequencing (WES) and targeted re-sequencing. Mean target coverage of tumor and blood samples was 70X and 49X in WES, and 190X and 68X in targeted resequencing, respectively. Somatic SNPs and INDELs were called with MuTect and VarScan2, respectively. MutSigCV was applied to identify potential driver events in tumorigenesis. Verification rate for somatic mutations was 95%. The functional consequences of mutations in candidate genes were evaluated by the luciferase promoter, cell proliferation, and colony formation assays. Results The mutation rate of NPC is relatively low, with a median of 0.9 somatic mutations per megabase. Mutational signature analysis revealed two signatures in NPC, the ubiquitous signature in cancer characterized by C>T transitions predominantly occurring at NpCpG trinucleotides and the APOBEC-related signature characterized by C>G and C>T mutations at TpCpN trinucleotides, which is related to the innate immune APOBEC family of cytidine deaminases. MutSigCV analysis identified significantly mutated genes, NFKBIA, TP53, CYLD, KMT2D, DMXL1, KMT2C, GPR144, RYR2, BOD1L1, AKAP9, and CEP192, with q values less than 0.1. Pathway and gene ontology analysis identified several pathways/terms with enriched somatic mutations including cell cycle phase transition, chromatin modification, cell death, immune response, p53 pathway, viral carcinogenesis, and the canonical NF-κB signaling pathways. TP53 is the most frequently mutated gene (7.3%, 9/124). Almost all somatic mutations fall into the DNA binding domain of TP53, including well-known hotspot and gain-of-function mutations. Multiple loss-of-function (LOF) mutations were detected in NF-kB negative regulators, including NFKBIA (encodes IκBα protein), CYLD, and TNFAIP3. Mutations in NFKBIA were shown to alter the tumor suppressive function of IκBα. Conclusions In this study we detected an APOBEC-related signature in NPC. Several NF-kB negative regulators, including NFKBIA and CYLD, were mutated in a subset of NPC primary tumors, which may contribute to pathogenesis of NPC through NF-kB signaling pathway. These data provide an enhanced road map for understanding the molecular basis underlying NPC and also provide insight for exploring new therapies. Acknowledgement This work was supported by the Research Grants Council of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, People9s Republic of China Grant number AoE/M006/08 to MLL. Citation Format: Hong Zheng, Wei Dai, Arthur KL Cheung, Josephine MY Ko, Rebecca Kan, Bonnie WY Wong, Merrin ML Leong, Maria L. Lung. Whole-exome sequencing identifies NF-kappaB pathway regulators frequently mutated in nasopharyngeal carcinoma. [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 125.


The article is focused on research into the aesthetic-psychological relationship between building and place as an important but usually neglected dimension of sustainable architecture. A tool for research of contemporary and historical architecture is introduced – a combined contextuality method, which enables the examination of the relationship between architecture and natural features of the place. This kind of research, which includes visual and sensory experience, is still rarely included in scientific analysis. The method is based on the principles of the philosophy of phenomenology, from which the concept of the two-layeredness of an architectural or natural object originates. Edmund Husserl's phenomenological method for uncovering the essence of phenomena is the basis of the various methods constituting the forming approach. In the theories of different authors of the tradition of architectural phenomenology, architecture emerges as a mediator between place and humans. Although such a concept has long been established in the scientific environment, and one of its pioneers was Christian Norberg-Schulz, phenomenological methods are usually applied separately in the analysis of place and architecture. In order to uncover the contextuality of architecture, an interdisciplinary approach, integrating both of these fields, is necessary. In this article a combination of methods for the analysis of place and building is offered, and in order to enable the study of the relationship between the building and the natural elements of the place, a combined contextuality method is formed. It is based on a symmetrical phenomenological analysis of natural elements and an architectural object. The approach combines setting the place character model and the methods of archetypes, natural symbols and walking, all used in current scientific research. Through the juxtaposition of the extracted genius loci of the place formed by natural elements and the architectural object reduced to its essence, the combined contextuality method enables one to determine and to analyse the contextuality of the building in relation to natural elements of the place.


Quantum transport and localization are fundamental concepts in condensed matter physics. It is commonly believed that in one-dimensional systems, the existence of mobility edges is highly dependent on disorder. Recently, there has been a debate over the existence of an exact mobility edge in a modulated mosaic model without quenched disorder, the so-called mosaic Wannier-Stark lattice. Here, we experimentally implement such disorder-free mosaic photonic lattices using a silicon photonics platform. By creating a synthetic electric field, we could observe energy-dependent coexistence of both extended and localized states in a finite number of waveguides. The Wannier-Stark ladder emerges when the resulting potential is strong enough, and can be directly probed by exciting different spatial modes of the lattice. Our studies provide the experimental proof of coexisting sets of strongly localized and conducting (though weakly localized) states in finite-sized mosaic Wannier-Stark lattices, which hold the potential to encode high-dimensional quantum resources with compact and robust structures.


The range kernel of bilateral filter degrades image quality unintentionally in real environments because the pixel intensity varies randomly due to the noise that is generated in image sensors. Furthermore, the range kernel increases the complexity due to the comparisons with neighboring pixels and the multiplications with the corresponding weights. In this paper, we propose a noise-aware range kernel, which estimates noise using an intensity difference-based image noise model and dynamically adjusts weights according to the estimated noise, in order to alleviate the quality degradation of bilateral filters by noise. In addition, to significantly reduce the complexity, an approximation scheme is introduced, which converts the proposed noise-aware range kernel into a binary kernel while using the statistical hypothesis test method. Finally, blue a fully parallelized and pipelined very-large-scale integration (VLSI) architecture of a noise-aware bilateral filter (NABF) that is based on the proposed binary range kernel is presented, which was successfully implemented in field-programmable gate array (FPGA). The experimental results show that the proposed NABF is more robust to noise than the conventional bilateral filter under various noise conditions. Furthermore, the proposed VLSI design of the NABF achieves 10.5 and 95.7 times higher throughput and uses 63.6–97.5% less internal memory than state-of-the-art bilateral filter designs.


Orientation: Workplace bullying has deleterious effects on individual well-being and various organisational outcomes. Different coping styles may moderate the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. Research purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the moderating role of four coping styles – seeking help, assertiveness, avoidance and doing nothing – in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. Motivation for the study: There is a lack of South African research exploring the moderating role of different coping styles in the relationship between workplace bullying and individual and organisational outcomes. Research design, approach and method: The study used a cross-sectional design, quantitative approach and a convenience sampling method. One hundred white-collar respondents from a construction organisation in South Africa participated in this research. Moderated multiple regression (MMR) was used to analyse the data. Main findings: Results of the MMR indicated a direct negative impact of workplace bullying on psychological well-being, self-esteem, job satisfaction and intention to leave. Seeking help and assertiveness moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being. Avoidance and doing nothing also moderated the relationship between bullying and psychological well-being but in a counterintuitive manner, exacerbating the negative impact of bullying on psychological well-being. Similarly, avoidance exacerbated the negative impact of bullying on self-esteem. Direct effects were also found for the coping strategy of seeking help on psychological well-being and for avoidance on job satisfaction. However, while seeking help improved psychological well-being, avoidance had a negative impact on job satisfaction. Practical/managerial implications: Different coping strategies may have different effects. Some may be productive in terms of leading to improved outcomes, while others may not. These findings have particular relevance for human resource departments and practitioners. Contribution/value-add: The findings of this research contribute to the limited body of South African research investigating different types of coping in moderating the bullying–well-being relationship.


A 61 year old patient was found to have an aneurysm extending from the aortic root to the suprarenal region. He underwent first stage surgery with aortic root and arch replacement, prosthetic aortic valve replacement, and coronary artery bypass grafting. Four weeks later, he presented with breathlessness and signs of heart failure and pleural effusion. Computed tomography showed that the left atrium was compressed between the aortic aneurysm posteriorly and the left ventricle and sternum anteriorly. Obstruction of the superior vena cava, bronchus, oesophagus, and rarely right atrium by an aortic aneurysm has been described before but presentation with left atrial compression has not been reported.


The purpose of this paper is to report the results achieved with the biophysical stimulation in the conservative treatment of Legg-Calvé-Perthes (LCP) disease in dogs. Three female Portuguese Podengo puppies, from the same parents were presented for investigation of right hind limb lameness in different times. The clinical and radiographic exams of the hip revealed the LCP disease in different stages in all puppies. External coaptation was applied in one of them, while biophysical stimulation was applied in another one, both of them in early stage of disease. Surgical treatment was performed only in the advanced stage one. The present report signals the improvements of clinical findings and of radiographic signs of LCP disease treated with pulsed electromagnetic field (PEMF). It induces to consider this treatment in more dogs with LCP in early stage, investigating on PEMF effectiveness. Furthermore, it leads to suppose the LCP disease as a hereditary condition, not previously studied in this breed.


The subgenus Crematogaster (Oxygyne) shows an Old World distribution and comprises a group of ants with specialised queen morphology suggestive of temporary social parasitism. This study investigated species hypotheses for Oxygyne species in Madagascar by integrating morphology and mitochondrial and nuclear sequences in an iterative taxonomic approach. Phylogenetic analyses (mrbayes and raxml) of one mitochondrial gene (cytochrome oxidase I) and analysis of population genetic structure (structure) based on three nuclear markers (long wavelength rhodopsin, arginine kinase, carbomoyl phosphate synthase) yielded a contrast between complex morphological variation and genetic data in six previously described species and subspecies. Thus, the taxonomy of the Malagasy Oxygyne is revised and three species are recognised: Crematogaster ranavalonae Forel, C. agnetis Forel and C. marthae Forel. The previously described C. ranavalonae pepo Forel, C. ranavalonae paulinae Forel, C. emmae Forel, C. emmae laticeps Forel, C. inops Forel and C. descarpentriesi Santschi are synonymised under C. ranavalonae, a species that is morphologically highly variable and shows exceptional polymorphism in the queen caste. Species descriptions and identification keys based on worker and queen ants are provided. A taxonomic synopsis, updated species list and morphological diagnosis of the entire subgenus Oxygyne is presented, and the subgenus Nematocrema is hereby synonymised under Oxygyne. Phylogenetic estimations (mrbayes, raxml, *beast) explore relationships between Malagasy and four other African and Asian taxa within Oxygyne and are based on both mitochondrial DNA and nuclear DNA sequences. The monophyly of the subgenus Oxygyne is strongly supported and the Malagasy Oxygyne form a clade that is sister to a clade of both African and an Asian taxa. Social parasitism is discussed as the cause for complex morphological variation in queens of C. ranavalonae, and phylogenetic results lead to the hypothesis of a single origin of this highly specialised queen caste in Crematogaster in the Old World. These findings highlight the need for field studies to explore the temporary parasitic behaviour and host–parasite relationships in these enigmatic ants, and to increase phylogenetic sampling to further investigate the evolution of this intriguing trait.


The present thesis analyses the impact of mode of delivery of term breech in a large Danish material from 1982-1995. For the first time a thorough investigation of foetal, neonatal and maternal shortterm and long-term outcomes provides a comprehensive picture with rates and correlations from the same population. The descriptive design has advantages over a randomised controlled trial – a much larger material in a relevant population and a longer follow-up period. But it has also disadvantages – the risk of bias that might influence the outcome. The present results reflect the clinical reality in a population with 45% elective caesarean, 17% intended vaginal, 34% emergency caesarean and 21% successful vaginal deliveries. In such a population we found that intended vaginal delivery was associated with a 15-fold increased risk of low 5 min Apgar score or intrapartum/early neonatal death. Low Apgar score was not predictable before the second stage of labour, but a prolonged second stage was a significant risk factor. By means of qualitative audit, a panel of experts blinded to outcome found that nearly half of the deaths during delivery or in the early neonatal period might have been avoided by improved care. The actual rates of foetal complications per 1000 intended vaginal deliveries, however, are low: 1.2 deaths, 17 infants with low Apgar score (5 ́<7), of which 3 developed a handicap or a minor disability. Furthermore, a small but significant correlation was found between term breech and cerebral palsy and epilepsy. This correlation could be ascribed to a higher frequency of being small for gestational age among breech infants. Elective caesarean section was associated with a higher risk of infections and haemorrhage than successful vaginal delivery, but emergency caesarean delivery was more often complicated than elective caesarean delivery. Therefore, elective caesarean delivery was not associated with increased risk of maternal complications when compared with intended vaginal delivery and emergency caesarean delivery. During the study period, there were no maternal deaths associated with elective caesarean delivery of term breech. Long-term complications and adverse foetal or maternal outcome in subsequent pregnancies were not increased after elective caesarean section. Altogether 75% of women with a term breech caesarean had a subsequent vaginal delivery. When the caesarean was elective, however, the subsequent delivery was more often by caesarean than when the breech had been delivered by emergency caesarean section. When informed of the small but significant risk of perinatal morbidity, most women with breech at term will probably choose a caesarean delivery. This implies that vaginal breech delivery is becoming a very rare event in the labour ward. However, there will still be women who consider the rewarding experience of a natural birth more important than the minimal risk of perinatal morbidity, and there will be women who arrive late in labour, where a caesarean delivery is no longer an option. In order to provide those women the best obstetric care, we need to continue to educate midwives and obstetricians in conduction of labour and the manual skills associated with vaginal breech delivery.


Anti-coincidence counting is examined as an alternative to conventional coincidence methods for radioactive source strength measurement. Live-timing principles are combined with the use, for all channels, of a shared dead-time of the extending type. Accuracy, precision, decay and background effects are treated and results of comparisons with coincidence measurements given which show agreement consistent with statistical uncertainties of about 0.03%.


While elderly population in Indonesia continues to increase, research around elderly and health care for elderly is still limited. The purpose of this study was to identify priority of research area on Gerontic Nursing in Indonesia. This was a descriptive study, using Delphi study with 2 survey rounds. Round 1 involved 34 participants purposely selected among nurses who worked in the area of and had a research interest in Gerontic Nursing. Open ended online questionnaire about priority areas was sent to potential participants. Data was analyzed for its similarity, resulted in 36 research areas around Gerontic Nursing. Round 2 involved 204 nurses with the same criteria as in round 1, selected using convenience sampling technique. Close ended questionnaire using Semantic Differential Scale range from 1 to 9 was sent via online to potential participants. Data was descriptively analyzed for median, interquartile range (IQR), and range. Findings indicated 10 levels of research priority. Level 1 research priority with Median of 9, IQR 1, and range 5 were long term care for elderly, family knowledge on caring for elderly, personal hygiene in elderly, competency of Gerontic Nurse, and nutrition in elderly. Nurse academics and researchers are suggested to collaborate with nurse practitioners in various settings to conduct research on these priority areas.


The main objective of this study is to determine the effects of 125 mT and 250mT magnetic treatment on the germination and initial growth of triticale seeds. This objective has a practical application in agriculture science: early growth of triticale. An increase in the percentage and rate of germination of seeds and a stimulation of growth of seedlings as positive response to magnetic field treatment in rice, wheat, maize and barley seeds have been found in previous studies. Germination tests were carried out under laboratory conditions by exposing triticale seeds to magnetic field for different times. The effect was studied by exposure of seeds prior sowing. The mean germination time were reduced for all the magnetic treatments applied. Most significant differences were obtained for time of exposure of 1 and 24 hours and maximum reductions was 12%. Furthermore, seedlings from magnetically treated seeds grew taller than control. The longest mean total length was obtained from seedlings exposed to 125 and 250 mT for 24 hours. External magnetic fields are assumed to enhance seed vigor by influencing the biochemical processes by stimulating activity of proteins and enzymes. Numerous studies suggested that magnetic field increases ions uptake and consequently improves nutrition value.


Objective. To develop a hospital-based pharmacy internship program in a comprehensive cancer care center in Jordan and review its outcomes over a 10-year period. Methods. King Hussein Cancer Center developed a two-year internship program for pharmacy students in Jordanian universities. The program included training in operational and clinical settings during the academic year and school holidays. In addition, the students completed rotation-related assignments and met weekly with the program director. During the rotations and at the end of the program, interns were asked to assess their level of satisfaction with the program and to comment on its content and structure. Results. From a pilot phase with only three interns and a simple training structure, the two-year internship program has become more structured now training six interns annually. During the first 10 years of the program, 51 students from four universities in Jordan enrolled in the program, with six current interns, 34 graduates, and 11 withdrawals. Graduates reported improved academic performance and satisfaction with the program's structure and the skills obtained. Their main challenge was time management during the academic year. Conclusion. A hospital-based pharmacy internship program is feasible and sustainable. Participation in the program improves interns' academic performance and clinical and professional skills, despite the challenges of highly demanding conditions on both the hospital and the students.


The possible role of plant growth-promoting rhizobacteria (PGPR) to
alleviate salt stress during plant growth has been studied on paddy
rice ( Oryza sativa L.) 'GJ-17' under greenhouse conditions; the
study included growth parameters, mineral concentration, and
antioxidant enzyme level. Salinity reduced plant growth, but PGPR
inoculation reduced its harmful effect up to 1% salinity. Plants
inoculated with PGPR under saline conditions showed 16% higher
germination, 8% higher survival, 27% higher dry weight, and 31% higher
plant height. Similarly, PGPR inoculated plants showed increased
concentrations of N(26%), P (16%), K (31%), and reduced concentrations
of Na (71%) and Ca (36%) as compared to non-inoculated control plants
under saline conditions. Plants inoculated with PGPR under saline
conditions also showed significant variations in antioxidant levels and
growth physiology. Results suggested that inoculation with PGPR
Bacillus pumilus and Pseudomonas pseudoalcaligenes in salt-stressed
plants could help to alleviate salt stress in the paddy.


Cheilitis glandularis is a rare disorder characterized by swelling of the lip with hyperplasia of labial salivary glands, typically in the lower lip of adult males. A definitive cause and treatment for this disorder have not yet been established. Herein is reported a case of cheilitis glandularis affecting the upper lip with nodules, treated by surgical excision with good post-surgical results.


The probability discounting model has become a popular framework for investigating choice under risk in psychology. But it is not clear how the model relates to standard theories of choice under risk, such as expected utility theory and prospect theory. I critically review the theoretical development of the model and argue that it rests on an outdated conception of reinforcement learning. I also show that it is formally isomorphic to the dual theory of choice under risk, but that it is limited to simple prospects with a specific parametric probability weighting function. I discuss the methodological and statistical approaches typically used in studies of probability discounting and develop a structural statistical framework to test the efficacy of the model's implied probability weighting function in applied work. Using data from a widely-cited study, I show that the probability discounting model is needlessly restrictive since it does not allow for the simultaneous overweighting and underweighting of probabilities, which is a common pattern identified in the experimental literature on choice under risk.


Abstract Background The relationship between the apolipoprotein E (APOE)-ε4 allele, triglyceride (TG) level, and cholesterol level and an increased risk of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) has been well established, but their relationship with behavioral-variant frontotemporal dementia (bvFTD) is not well-known. Methodology The levels of TGs, total cholesterol (TC), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and high-density lipoprotein were measured in bvFTD and AD patients and in normal controls (NCs). DNA was extracted, and APOE was genotyped. Results The APOE-ε4 allele frequency was higher in the AD group than in the NC group, but no difference was found between the AD and the bvFTD groups. The bvFTD group had higher LDL than the AD group, and significant differences were also found for the cholesterol level in the dementia groups compared with the NC group. Elevated LDL level was positively correlated with appetite and eating score in the bvFTD group. Compared with the AD patients and NCs without the APOE-ε4 allele, those with the APOE-ε4 allele had higher TC, but its correlation with the bvFTD group was absent. Conclusions The bvFTD and the AD groups had higher cholesterol levels. The APOE-ε4 allele and eating behavior might modify lipid metabolism in dementia. TG and cholesterol analyses may offer a new opportunity for targeted treatments.


There are many valuable substances present in nature such as antioxidants. The conventional method for extracting the antioxidants employs organic solvents. Subcritical Water Extraction (SWE) is a sustainable method for extraction of high valuable compounds. This method uses subcritical water as a solvent instead of organic solvents but leaves the compounds in a water solution. Keeping the antioxidants in water can decrease their stability and to remove water from a solution is harder then to remove an organic solvent. It is not environmentally friendly to transport a large amount of solvent so the water has to be removed and in a way that avoids decomposition of the valuable compounds. The process developed in this project, WEPO, extracts the antioxidants with subcritical water and mixes the extract with SC-CO2 to form an emulsion that when led to atmospheric pressure forms an aerosol that can be dried quickly with hot N2 giving particles. The compound extracted in the project is quercetin, an antioxidant that can be extracted from onion. To evaluate the efficiency of the process the particles formed were analysed to determine the water content, size and morphology, antioxidant capacity and concentration of antioxidants. For comparison the same analysis were done on extracts dried with freeze-drying. Antioxidant capacity measured with a DPPH method showed about the same capacity for the particles produced by WEPO and the freeze-dried extract. SEM pictures taken of the extracts showed hollow spheres from the WEPO particles in the size range of 250 nm – 4 μm. For the freeze-dried extracts no particles were observed. The WEPO particles and the freeze-dried extracts were analysed with an HPLC-UV method and showed about the same concentrations of quercetin species. For particle formation of the extracts the WEPO process is superior to freeze-drying the extracts and matches it in antioxidant activity and concentration of quercetin and derivates.


Purpose Fluoroquinolone antibiotics are associated with rare, but severe adverse events. They are frequently used for the treatment of acute exacerbations of COPD (AECOPD). While their effectiveness in severe exacerbations requiring hospitalisation has been well documented, the potential benefit in the ambulatory setting is less clear, especially in uncomplicated patients with COPD. Patients and characteristics We carried out a retrospective cohort study using health care databases from six Canadian provinces in subjects visiting their physician for uncomplicated COPD. Subjects dispensed either a quinolone or other antibiotics were compared using inverse probability of treatment weights with high dimensional propensity scores on 30-day outcomes, including repeat visits, hospitalisation for AECOPD and subsequent antibiotic prescription. Results from each province were combined by random effects meta-analysis. Results We identified 286,866 AECOPD events among 203,642 unique individuals. The frequency of fluoroquinolone use, mostly levofloxacin and moxifloxacin, varied by province and ranged from 8% to 32% of AECOPD antibiotic prescriptions. The risk of a repeat ambulatory care visit was increased among patients who were dispensed a fluoroquinolone compared with other antibiotics (OR 1.32, 95% CI 1.27–1.36). The risk of a hospitalisation for AECOPD was also higher with fluoroquinolones (OR 1.52, 95% CI 1.33–1.74). There was no difference in subsequent antibiotic prescriptions (OR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94–1.07). Conclusion There is no apparent benefit in short-term outcomes with fluoroquinolones as compared to other antibiotics for the ambulatory treatment of AECOPD in uncomplicated patients. These findings support current recommendations that fluoroquinolones be reserved for AECOPD in patients with recurrent exacerbations, significant co-morbidity or requiring hospitalisation.


The authors discuss the organizational principles of the work of expert institution and its subdivisions with reference to technogenic catastrophes accompanied with mass human victims. The problems of interaction of the representatives from different structures and departments taking part in the work at the place of event are considered in terms of forensic medicine. The attention is concentrated on the problems of expert institution readiness to work under conditions of extreme situations depending on the medicotactical characteristics of defeat focus.


Rhizobial endophytes infect and colonize not only leguminous plants, but several non‐leguminous species as well. Using green fluorescent protein tagging technique, it has been shown that Rhizobia infect different varieties of rice species and migrate from plant roots to aerial tissues such as leaf sheaths and leaves. The interaction between them was found to promote the growth of rice. The growth promotion is the cumulative result of enhanced photosynthesis and stress resistance. In addition, indole‐3‐acetic acid also contributes to the promotion. Gel‐based comparative proteomic approaches were applied to analyze the protein profiles of three different tissues (root, leaf sheath and leaf) of Sinorhizobium meliloti 1021 inoculated rice in order to get an understanding about the molecular mechanism. Upon the inoculation of rhizobia, proteins involved in nine different functional categories were either up‐regulated or down‐regulated. Photosynthesis related proteins were up‐regulated only in leaf sheath and leaf, while the up‐regulated proteins in root were exclusively defense related. The results implied that there might have been an increase in the import and transport of proteins involved in light and dark reactions to the chloroplast as well as more efficient distribution of nutrients, hence enhanced photosynthesis. Although the initiation of defensive reactions mainly occurred in roots, some different defense mechanisms were also evoked in the aerial tissues.


In the multi-cloud tenancy environments, Web Service offers an standard approach for discovering and using capabilities in an environment that transcends ownership domains. This brings into concern the ownership and security related to Web Service governance. Our approach for this issue involves an ESB-integrated middleware for security criteria regulation on Clouds. It uses an attribute-based security policy model for the exhibition of assets consumers' security profiles and deducing service accessing decision. Assets represent computing power/functionality and information/data provided by entities. Experiments show the middleware to bring minor governance burdens on the hardware aspect, as well as better performance with colosum scaling property, dealing well with cumbersome policy files, which is probably the situation of complex composite service scenarios.


This paper proposes a throughput-aware routing algorithm for enhancing throughput and decreasing end-to-end delay in industrial cognitive radio sensor networks (ICRSNs). In ICRSNs, the throughput is downgraded by interference from primary networks; consequently, end to end delay is increased. The proposed routing algorithm is targeted at large-scale networks where data are forwarded through different clusters on their ways to the sink. By estimating the maximum throughput for each path, the data can be forwarded through the most optimal path. Simulation results show that our scheme can decrease end-to-end delay.


Aortic stenosis (AS) is a common heart valve disease that requires accurate and timely diagnosis for appropriate treatment. Most current automatic AS severity detection methods rely on black-box models with a low level of trustworthiness, which hinders clinical adoption. To address this issue, we propose ProtoASNet, a prototypical network that directly detects AS from B-mode echocardiography videos, while making interpretable predictions based on the similarity between the input and learned spatio-temporal prototypes. This approach provides supporting evidence that is clinically relevant, as the prototypes typically highlight markers such as calcification and restricted movement of aortic valve leaflets. Moreover, ProtoASNet utilizes abstention loss to estimate aleatoric uncertainty by defining a set of prototypes that capture ambiguity and insufficient information in the observed data. This provides a reliable system that can detect and explain when it may fail. We evaluate ProtoASNet on a private dataset and the publicly available TMED-2 dataset, where it outperforms existing state-of-the-art methods with an accuracy of 80.0% and 79.7%, respectively. Furthermore, ProtoASNet provides interpretability and an uncertainty measure for each prediction, which can improve transparency and facilitate the interactive usage of deep networks to aid clinical decision-making. Our source code is available at: https://github.com/hooman007/ProtoASNet.


Recent interest in the mechanization of operations in polynomial algebra has led to the production of programs such as ALPAK, FORMAC, Formula ALGOL (with associated translator), GRAD Assistant and PM. (See the survey in Comm. ACM, Vol. 9, No. 8, August 1966; and Brown, Hyde and Tague, 1962-3, Williams, 1962, and Collins, 1966a.) These programs provide for the handling of polynomials in one or several variables and for operations on them such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, differentiation, substitution for variables, and calculation of residues. The aim of these programs has usually been simply to provide assistance in the (laborious and error-prone) task of calculating with algebraic expressions. More ambitious aims are possible, however, since the economical mechanization of certain systematic approaches to algebra, such as that provided by Tarski's decision method (Tarski, 1948; Seidenberg, 1954; Collins, 19666), could open up an entirely new field to the computer.


The field of personalized medicine is currently broadening in scope in at least three crucial dimensions. First, while genetics/genomics individual variability is an important aspect of personalized medicine, it is clear that environmental, nutritional, lifestyle and social risk factors play a crucial role for suboptimal therapeutics or disease susceptibility. Second, personalized medicine can inform not only drug therapy but also preventative medicine such that public health interventions that mitigate or prevent disease risks are also customized at an individual and subpopulation level. Third, personalized medicine is now truly global in scope demanding scholarship and innovation analysis beyond the developed countries. In this paper, we critically bring together these three emerging and broader strands of personalized medicine by focusing on prevention of prostate cancer in the developing world. Although prostate cancer prevalence used to be lower in developing countries in the past, this situation is beginning to change rapidly as people living in the developing world transition to a lifestyle more similar to that found in affluent countries. This transition to decreased physical activity, burgeoning overweight/obesity levels, changing nutritional habits, and greater consumption of tobacco, leads to an increased prevalence of non-communicable diseases. There are indications that these changes may also lead to an increase in prostate cancer in low and middle income countries (LMICs). We outline the risk factors associated with prostate cancer, some of the changes that are taking place in LMICs, the reasons behind these changes and the need for personalized or rationally targeted preventative interventions against prostate cancer in LMICs and globally.


A comparison is made of the forces governing the transport of negatively charged particles electrostatically suspended in the plasma of a symmetric parallel-plate radiofrequency glow discharge with isothermal walls. The two forces driving the particles symmetrically from the plasma centreline to the sheath edges are the ion drag force and the plasma-induced thermophoresis due to the thermal gradient appearing in the gas heated by plasma power dissipation. A general expression of the ion drag force as a function of the ratio of the ion drift velocity and thermal velocity is obtained by a proper integration over the ion energy distribution using the analytical expression for the ion orbital momentum transfer cross section derived by Kilgore et al. (J. Appl. Phys. 73 7195 (1993)). The ion drag force is then compared with the plasma-induced thermophoresis on submicrometre-size particles in well-characterized experimental discharge conditions in Ar. It appears that ion drag is usually larger than thermophoresis on an isolated particle in a pristine discharge. However, thermophoresis always dominates over ion drag in dusty discharges where plasma-particle and particle-particle interactions result in a drastic reduction of the ion drift velocity through the plasma bulk.


Background Chemo-IO is generally known to have better effi-cacy than IO-only, despite a higher incidence of TRAEs. The incidence of treatment discontinuation related to TRAE is generally related to uncontrollable TRAE. However, differences in TRAE-related treatment discontinuation rates between the two treatments has not been well studied. In this study, we compared the discontinuation rates of the two treatments for first-line treatment of NSCLC and other cancer types. Methods We searched PubMed, Embase, and the Web of Sci-ence databases for eligible articles that include prospective phase III randomized controlled trial data of first-line treatments using IO-only or chemo-IO. IO-only was defined as a single immunotherapy drug or a combination of immunotherapy drugs, and chemo-IO was defined as a combination of immunotherapy and other chemotherapy drugs. The analysis was performed separately for NSCLC and other cancer types because most of the first-line trials with immunotherapy were published in NSCLC. We found 19 and 22 trials encompass-ing 6,114 and 7,492 patients in NSCLC and other cancer types, respectively. The data for discontinuation rate due to TRAEs and their 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were extracted. Results Although there was heterogeneity of specific drugs in both the IO-only and chemo-IO groups, overall, IO-only showed a significantly lower TRAE-related discontinuation rate than chemo-IO. For NSCLC,


Proposes a design of a biomorphic micro visual sensor equipped with a mechanical scanning system. The sensor is inspired by the structure of the fly's compound eye, which was found to possess a unique muscle and tendon actuation system for its scanning retina. The improvement in micro-opto-electro-mechanical systems encourages the design of reliable, efficient, and integrated smart visual sensors for robotic applications, in particular, for the autonomous visually guided navigation of mobile robots. The authors have verified the effect of retinal scanning for a robotic visual system through the construction of a large-scale prototype at the millimeter scale. The performance of a newly fabricated microelectromechanical system prototype whose size approaches the order of the insects' compound eyes is then evaluated in comparison with that of the large-scale prototype. The micro-sized visual sensor is composed of a scanning microlens array (120 /spl mu/m in lens diameter) and a photo-diode array. The actuation of the microlens array induces a rotation of the visual axes. According to the principle of retinal scanning, the micro-sensor is able to retrieve the local angular velocity with enhanced reliability.


This paper presents the influence of the choice of source admittances on the accuracy of noise parameters extraction, when using the noise parameter extraction method proposed by Vasilescu. The results obtained for three different microwave transistors are presented. The best and the worst distributions are put into evidence.


Critical thinking is a highly desirable goal of online higher education courses. This article presents qualitative data from a mixed-method study that explores how asynchronous discussions within online courses influence critical thinking among students. In this study, online discussions were related to higher levels of critical thinking, but qualitative data indicate that the way discussions are used and facilitated is vital for encouraging critical thinking. Online discussions typically have the purpose of creating a space and time for informal, open-ended thinking to occur. Critical thinking appears to be best encouraged among students when a more consistent emphasis is placed on the discussions, and when instructor facilitation is less frequent but more purposeful.


To examine the role of cognitive-affective appraisals and childhood abuse as predictors of crime-related posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms, 157 victims of violent crime were interviewed within 1 month post-crime and 6 months later. Measures within 1 month post-crime included previous physical and sexual abuse in childhood and responses to the current crime, including shame and anger with self and others. When all variables were considered together, shame and anger with others were the only independent predictors of PTSD symptoms at 1 month, and shame was the only independent predictor of PTSD symptoms at 6 months when 1-month symptoms were controlled. The results suggest that both shame and anger play an important role in the phenomenology of crime-related PTSD and that shame makes a contribution to the subsequent course of symptoms. The findings are also consistent with previous evidence for the role of shame as a mediator between childhood abuse and adult psychopathology.


This collection of documents concerns the Analytical Philosophy of Education (APE) and its history. APE was the dominant approach to philosophy of education during the 1960s and 1970s; it is no longer fashionable. The main paper included in this collection sketches the history of APE and attempts to show its relevance to the idea of "institutional democracy." APE is applied to an address by former Midwest Philosophy of Education Society President Arthur Brown's Presidential Address on "institutional democracy," which draws upon the work of famed management theorist Douglas McGregor. The use of the methods of APE on Brown's and McGregor's texts show that McGregor's use of the word "democracy" is much less clear than Brown's; McGregor's research may not support Brown's views. This paper includes 24 notes and is accompanied by an outline of McGregor's thought and career, a supplemental bibliography of three books and two selected articles by McGregor and a list of discussion questions for the Binghampton presentation. The remaining documents included are four bibliographies entitled respectively, "Founders of Analytical Philosophy of Education"; "History of Analytical Philosophy of Education"; "Students and Faculty in Foundations of Education at Temple University"; and "Critical Thinking and Philosophical Analysis." (DB) *********************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *********************************************************************** (NO B. OTHANEL SMITH, DOUGLAS McGREGOR, AND THE PHILOSOPHICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DISCOURSE OF INSTITUTIONAL DEMOCRACY IN EDUCATION: AN ESSAY WITH BIBLIOGRAPHIES


Natural orbital functional (NOF) theory in its PNOF3 and PNOF4 implementations is used to investigate the electronic structure and energetics of selected diradicals and diradicaloids: the trimethylenmethane (TMM) diradical and the imino-allyl (IMA) and oxyallyl (OXA) diradicaloids. These compounds are taken as paradigmatic cases of molecules with full and partial diradical character, and are considered as a case study to illustrate the potentiality of Piris NOF (PNOF) to yield the correct treatment of near-degeneracy effects in diradicals. The degree of diradical character is determined through the inspection of the corresponding natural orbital occupation numbers. In addition, the energetics of these compounds with respect to their cyclic isomers (methylenecyclopropane, MCP, iminocyclopropane, ICP, and cyclopropanone, OCP) is investigated. We have found that PNOF4 shows a promising description of these species, and yield the correct trends in occupation numbers as compared with wave-function methods such as CASSCF. Therefore, PNOF4 can give a correct description of near-degeneracy effects, and hence, is a promising method to treat diradicals and diradicaloids in chemistry, a delicate type of molecular systems to simulate by theoretical methods.


Active Queue Management (AQM) policies are mechanisms for congestion avoidance, which pro-actively drop packets in order to provide an early congestion notification to the sources. Random Early Detection (RED), the defacto standard and its different flavors have been proposed as simple solutions to the AQM problem. However, these approaches require manual tuning and fail to accurately capture variations in the input traffic, thereby resulting in unstable behavior. α_SNFAQM is a new AQM mechanism that uses a neurofuzzy prediction method (α_SNF) to capture traffic variation and accurately detect the future congestion. It distinguishes (i) severe congestion and (ii) light congestion. We compare the performance of α_SNFAQM with other AQM schemes like RED, PAQM and APACE in a bottleneck link. Simulation results have shown that α_SNFAQM outperforms other AQM schemes in stabilizing the instantaneous queue length, reducing packet loss ratio while keeping a high utilization of the link.


Abstract Let (M, ≤,…) denote a Boolean ordered o-minimal structure. We prove that a Boolean subalgebra of M determined by an algebraically closed subset contains no dense atoms. We show that Boolean algebras with finitely many atoms do not admit proper expansions with o-minimal theory. The proof involves decomposition of any definable set into finitely many pairwise disjoint cells, i.e., definable sets of an especially simple nature. This leads to the conclusion that Boolean ordered structures with o-minimal theories are essentially bidefinable with Boolean algebras with finitely many atoms, expanded by naming constants. We also discuss the problem of existence of proper o-minimal expansions of Boolean algebras.


Glandular odontogenic cyst (GOC), first described in 1988 by Gardner et. al, is a comparatively rare jawbone cyst of odontogenic origin, which shares some features with both botryroid odontogenic cysts and mucous-producing salivary gland tumors. Although GOC has a high rate of recurrence, cases of recurrence have not been reported in the Japanese literature.This paper describes a case of GOC arising in the mandible of a 58-year-old man. The cyst recurred 12 years after primary treatment. Diagnosis and treatment of the lesion are discussed.


The present paper depicts the tests and experimentations that have been carried out to show how GNSS and 5G can be used to improve positioning performance. In this frame, the design made during the 5G-Champion project has led to a solution combining both positioning systems in different environments to show in which cases one solution is better than the others and in which cases they can be complementary. The experimentations show the interest of GNSS in open-sky and rural areas where 5G base stations will not be close to the user and will not be able to provide accurate positioning data. On the other extreme, in canyons and urban environments where buildings and multipath abundant can mask many satellites, the inclusion of 5G positioning data from stations that tend to be close to the user can improve the performance. At the end of this paper, a table summarizes the performance improvements, namely the accuracy and availability. Moreover, PPP solutions have been computed in order to see the benefits of PPP and 5G solutions combined.


BACKGROUND
Repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) has been developed as a novel tool for improving depression by delivering magnetic stimulation to the brain. However, the apparent effects of rTMS on depression have been varied in different studies. The aims of this study were to determine whether left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex rTMS can alleviate medication-resistant depression in Chinese patients and to investigate what demographic variables or clinical features may predict better response.

METHOD
We designed a 2-week randomized, double-blind, sham-controlled study of add-on rTMS. A total of 30 medication-resistant patients with DSM-IV major depressive disorder or bipolar disorder, depressed episode completed 10 sessions of active or sham rTMS-10 patients at each of 2 frequencies, faster (20 Hz) or slower (5 Hz) at 100% motor threshold, and 10 patients at sham stimulation.

RESULTS
Patients at both stimulation frequencies demonstrated a superior reduction of depression severity compared to sham stimulation (active = 55.7% vs. sham = 16.3%). The response rate for active rTMS was 60%, in contrast to 10% for the sham treatment. No difference in clinical response was observed between 5 Hz and 20 Hz active rTMS. Clinical variables showed that younger age and less severe depression at entry may predict the clinical response to rTMS. Except for 1 patient in which rTMS appeared to induce mania, this procedure posed no safety problem.

CONCLUSIONS
To our knowledge, this is the first study to demonstrate the clinical efficacy and safety of rTMS in Chinese patients. Since not all the rTMS trials in previous reports had positive results, further larger trials are still warranted.


Laser Powder Bed Fusion (LPBF) technology was used to produce samples based on the Ti–6Al–4V alloy for biomedical applications. Solid-state phase transformations induced by thermal treatments were studied by neutron diffraction (ND), X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning transmission electron microscopy (STEM) and energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS). Although, ND analysis is rather uncommon in such studies, this technique allowed evidencing the presence of retained β in α' martensite of the as-produced (#AP) sample. The retained β was not detectable by XRD analysis, nor by STEM observations. Martensite contains a high number of defects, mainly dislocations, that anneal during the thermal treatment. Element diffusion and partitioning are the main mechanisms in the α ↔ β transformation that causes lattice expansion during heating and determines the final shape and size of phases. The retained β phase plays a key role in the α' → β transformation kinetics.


Studies in the developing retina provide insights into neural circuit assembly Much of a child's first year is spent asleep, punctuated by the occasional feeding, fit, or flatulence. The serenity is only skin deep, as a flurry of action goes on beneath. The brain is building itself at a frantic pace during this year, forming millions of synapses per second. Remarkably, speed does not incur a cost in precision—children reach their first birthday with specific, largely mature patterns of connectivity already formed, ready to become terrible at 2. How the brain manages this remarkable feat is not altogether clear.


System reliability prediction can be needed when detailed data concerning each component are unavailable. This prevents data from various sources from being integrated by considering each source as a sample from the same population. For the Weibull distribution, fuzzy arithmetic is used to synthesize a single fuzzy probability distribution for a component from several possible distributions by considering particular features that map to the Weibull parameters. The use of fuzzified probabilities in fault trees has been considered by others; once the fuzzy component failure probabilities have been calculated, a fuzzy system reliability distribution can be obtained which portrays the inexact nature of the data on which the result is based.


Forestry management requires rapid and nondestructive methods to detect the optimal clones or cultivars or species suitable for particular geographical location. We compared the leaf size, plant height, chlorophyll content and chlorophyll fluorescence of four Chinese fir (Cunninghainia lanceolata) clones to understand the differences between their ecophysiological characteristics and provide recommendations for cultivation. The results demonstrate that plant height of clone 13 was significantly higher (P < 0.05) than clone 3. Further, the content of chlorophyll a (Chl a), chlorophyll b (Chl b) and Chl a+ Chl b of clones 39 and 3 were significantly higher (P < 0.05) than the other clones, respectively. Compared to clones 39 and 3, clones 13 and 6 had higher Chl a/Chl b ratio. Furthermore, photochemical energy conversion (Yield) and electron transport rate (ETR) of clones 13 and 6 decreased slowly, and this corresponded well with lower non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) and its coefficient (qN) of clones 13 and 6 with increasing PAR. These results indicate that the clones 13 and 6 are suitable for high light environment but clones 39 and 3 are acclimatized to low light environment. In conclusion, this suggests that a deeper understanding of chlorophyll fluorescence, Chl b and Chl a/Chl b would improve our ability to select appropriate clones or cultivars or species for a particular location.


The Mongols were the superpower of their day, erupting out of Central Asia in 1206 to conquer an empire stretching from Poland to Korea. Their arrival in the Middle East upset the very tenuous balance between Christendom and Islam, sparking a long-simmering rivalry that has, as we all know, lasted to this day.An absorbing, detailed narrative on the clans, feuds, battles, and conquests of the Mongol era, covering every aspect of Mongol intrigue, logistics, and tactics.


Forested peatlands represent an important global carbon pool, storing 48.0 Pg of carbon within continental western Canada alone. Peatland hydrology regulates the carbon dynamics and future stability of this carbon store and provides a critical control on regional water dynamics. Drying associated with land‐use change and climate change has the potential to increase tree growth, modifying the density, size, and spatial arrangement of trees. This can reduce peatland evaporation and offset the associated increase in transpiration. To determine the magnitude of this negative ecohydrological feedback, we simulated spatial variations in radiation, turbulent energy fluxes, and temperatures in peatlands with real and idealized tree densities and distributions. For a random tree distribution, an increase in tree density from 0 to 4 trees per m2 reduced available energy at the peat surface, decreasing average evaporation by 25%. At higher tree densities, feather moss species covered a larger fraction of the ground because of lower light availability. In combination with the lower energy availability, this change in moss composition reduced evaporation by ~70%. The reduction in evaporation was greater (83%) when the effects of increased canopy cover on peatland aerodynamic properties were incorporated. Additionally, we found that evaporation was dependent on the spatial arrangement of trees, with evaporation being higher when trees were clustered. Overall, our model showed that the trade‐off between reduced evaporation and increased transpiration with increasing tree densities reduced landscape variation in evapotranspiration, with simulated evapotranspiration remaining approximately constant across a broad range of peatland ecosystems despite varying canopy densities.


This paper presents, describes, and discusses the quantity and quality of the water resources in the Faria catchment. Faria catchment (320 km), located in the northeastern part of the West Bank, Palestine is characterized as arid to semi-arid region. In the catchment, water resources are either surface runoff or groundwater. Surface runoff in the Faria catchment is considered high compared to other catchments in the West Bank. Most surface runoff generated in the catchment is usually lost in winter as there are no storage structures in the catchment to store that excess water. The groundwater aquifer system of the Faria catchment is usually utilized through springs and wells. Within the catchment, there are 13 fresh water springs and about 70 groundwater wells. Based on the available data, annual discharge from springs varies from about 4.1 to 37.8 MCM with an average amount of 14.3 MCM. While the total annual utilization of the groundwater wells, do not exceed 11.5 MCM. During wet years, when the spring's discharges are high, abstraction from wells reduces while pumping increases in dry years. Sampling and analyzing water quality for different water resources in the catchment revealed that most of these resources are polluted with different levels of potential environmental risks. The upper catchment springs, which are far away from the pollution source of untreated municipal wastewater, are polluted from cesspits. Detected Fecal coliform bacteria, in these springs, indicate cesspits are the potential source of pollution. In the middle areas, wells and springs water qualities were increasingly affected from untreated municipal wastewater. An increasing trend of chemical and biological pollution was found in groundwater wells and springs therein. Downstream of Shibli spring, the last spring in the middle part of the catchment, wadi flow (spring flow and the remaining untreated municipal wastewater) is diverted into a conveyance pipeline. Therefore, the risk of pollution of the downstream wells is eliminated.