The maximum likelihood-ratio method is frequently used in COMPTEL analysis to determine the significance of a point source at a given location. In this paper we do not consider whether the likelihood-ratio at a particular location indicates a detection, but rather whether distributions of likelihood-ratios derived from many locations depart from that expected for source free data. We have constructed distributions of likelihood-ratios by reading values from standard COMPTEL maximum-likelihood ratio maps at positions corresponding to the locations of different categories of AGN. Distributions derived from the locations of Seyfert galaxies are indistinguishable, according to a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test, from those obtained from ''random'' locations, but differ slightly from those obtained from the locations of flat spectrum radio loud quasars, OVVs, and BL Lac objects. This difference is not due to known COMPTEL sources, since regions near these sources are excluded from the analysis. We suggest that it might arise from a number of sources with fluxes below the COMPTEL detection threshold.


The development of microstrip filters has been in great demand due to the rapid growth of wireless communication systems in this decade. Quasi-elliptic response filters are very popular in communication systems because of their high selectivity, which is introduced by a pair of transmission zeros. A number of ways of implementing the quasi-elliptic response filter on microstrip have been studied over the last two decades, i.e., the cascaded quadruplet filter, canonical filter, and extracted-pole filter. However, there is very little information in the literature giving the design details for microstrip extracted-pole filters. In this paper, design equations of the extracted-pole filter for microstrip are reviewed. A new class of microstrip filter is also presented here. This class of filter will have a quasi-elliptic function response and at the same time linear phase in the passband. The linear phase of the filter is introduced by an in-phase cross coupling, while the transmission zero is realized using an extracted-pole technique. Experimental results, together with a theoretical comparison between the group delay of this design, and the conventional quasi-elliptic six-pole filter are also presented.


Recurrent pregnancy loss (RPL) is defined as two or more consecutive pregnancy losses prior to 20 weeks of gestational age. Various factors, including immune dysfunction, endocrine disorders, coagulation abnormality, and genetic disorders influence RPL. In particular, plasminogen activator inhibitor-1 (PAI-1), tissue plasminogen activator (tPA), and renin (REN) have important roles in the thrombotic and thrombolytic systems, and abnormal expression of these genes have a reported negative correlation with pregnancy maintenance. Moreover, some polymorphisms of the three genes are related to expression levels and thrombotic disorder. Therefore, we investigated whether polymorphisms of PAI-1, tPA, and REN are linked to RPL. Genotyping of the six polymorphisms (PAI-1 rs11178, rs1050955, tPA rs4646972, rs2020918, REN rs1464816, and rs5707) was performed using polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-restriction fragment length polymorphism and associations of the polymorphisms with RPL were evaluated by statistical analysis. The polymorphism PAI-1 rs1050955 GA+AA was associated with decreased RPL risk (AOR, 0.528; 95% CI 0.356–0.781; p = 0.001) as was the REN 10795 rs5707 GG genotype (AOR, 0.487; 95% CI 0.301–0.787; p = 0.003). In contrast, the tPA rs4646972 II genotype correlated with increased RPL risk (AOR, 1.606; 95% CI, 1.047–2.463; p = 0.030). This study provides evidence that tPA Alu rs4646972 may contribute to the risk of idiopathic RPL, but PAI-1 12068 rs1050955 and REN 10795 rs5707 are associated with a decreased risk of RPL. Therefore, these alleles may be useful as biomarkers to evaluate the risk of RPL.


Aims: Colistin became the critical treatment option for multidrug-resistant Gram-negative bacteria (GNB); however, resistance to colistin is increasingly being reported among clinical isolates. New therapy strategies should be considered nowadays. The aim of this study was to investigate the in vitro activity of a novel β-lactam/β-lactamases inhibitor ceftazidime-avibactam (CZA) alone and in combination with amikacin against colistin-resistant Gram-negative pathogens. Results: Among all the colistin-resistant GNB strains, 30.4% (21/69) were resistant to CZA, which was similar to the resistance rate of 25.4% (35/138) in colistin-susceptible strains (p > 0.05), displaying a relatively lower resistance rate compared with other antimicrobial agents (except amikacin). A majority of CZA-resistant GNB isolates (33/56) produced NDM carbapenemase. The fractional inhibitory concentration index method revealed synergistic (47.6%, 10/21) or additive (52.4%, 11/21) effects of CZA in combination with amikacin against colistin- and CZA-resistant GNB isolates, wherein the synergistic activity was found against all tested Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates (four) and Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates (two). The time-killing curve assay verified the synergistic activity of CZA and amikacin in K. pneumoniae (FK2778) and P. aeruginosa (TL2294). The susceptible breakpoint index values showed that CZA in combination with amikacin reduced the MIC to less than the susceptibility breakpoint among 71.4% (15/21) of all tested strains. Conclusion: CZA may be a new alternative for colistin-resistant Gram-negative infections and pending clinical studies combining CZA with amikacin should be considered against these pathogens, particularly for K. pneumoniae and P. aeruginosa.


Over the years, Principal Component Analysis (PCA) has served as the baseline approach for dimensionality reduction in gene expression data analysis. Its primary objective is to identify a subset of disease-causing genes from a vast pool of thousands of genes. However, PCA possesses inherent limitations that hinder its interpretability, introduce class ambiguity, and fail to capture complex geometric structures in the data. Although these limitations have been partially addressed in the literature by incorporating various regularizers, such as graph Laplacian regularization, existing PCA based methods still face challenges related to multiscale analysis and capturing higher-order interactions in the data. To address these challenges, we propose a novel approach called Persistent Laplacian-enhanced Principal Component Analysis (PLPCA). PLPCA amalgamates the advantages of earlier regularized PCA methods with persistent spectral graph theory, specifically persistent Laplacians derived from algebraic topology. In contrast to graph Laplacians, persistent Laplacians enable multiscale analysis through filtration and can incorporate higher-order simplicial complexes to capture higher-order interactions in the data. We evaluate and validate the performance of PLPCA using ten benchmark microarray data sets that exhibit a wide range of dimensions and data imbalance ratios. Our extensive studies over these data sets demonstrate that PLPCA provides up to 12% improvement to the current state-of-the-art PCA models on five evaluation metrics for classification tasks after dimensionality reduction.


The use of a methodology for the evaluation, comparison and quality improvement of Health Web Sites is justified by its widespread adoption and visibility to Internet users. Due to the sensitiveness of their content and impact on users, health related sites should be evaluated. This paper proposes three different dimensions for the development of quality evaluation methodologies of Health Web Sites: contents, services and technical. We consider that these dimensions should be addressed transversally, providing a better overall evaluation.


Buying a house usually satisfies housing consumption demand and housing investment demand, simultaneously. In order to disentangle the above two types of demand, households, in this study, are separated into three subtenure groups i.e. renters, owners owning one house, and owners buying a second or more houses. Presumably, renting a house is for consumption only, while buying a second house is usually for investment purposes. Applying a two-period model and two data sets from DGBAS and from Land Bank of Taiwan, the estimated results are as follows: Firstly, the income elasticity of pure consumption demand for housing is very close to unity (1.0413). Secondly, the income elasticity for a pure investment demand is greater than one (1.2643). Finally, for a household owning only one house, the shares for consumption motive and for investment motive are 26% and 74%, respectively.


Electrospinning is a technology for producing nanofibers using high voltages. In this study, we investigated jet velocities and the corresponding electrospinning mechanisms using high-speed camera observation. Moving jets were observed at various exposure times for obtaining reliable velocity data. Significant differences were observed in the velocities according to the position between the tip and collector, as a function of applied voltages. However, the jet was found to consistently progress at 3-5 m/s near the collector. This suggests that the drawing effect of the electro- spun fiber, induced by bending instability, occurs in a limited region.


103 cases have been analyzed retrospectively to define the indication for local extirpation of small and deep-seated rectum carcinomas with curative purpose. While pedunculated carcinomatous adenomas can be removed by endoscopic loop extraction, the non-sessile polypous carcinomas have to be radically extirpated by excision from intestinal wall resection is a promising procedure. Here, the transanal access by means of a funnel-shaped, lateral fenestrated glass speculum as introduced by Dewey yields better results than the rectotomia posterior.


Sucrose (Suc)-phosphate synthase (SPS) catalyses one of the rate-limiting steps in the synthesis of Suc in plants. The Arabidopsis genome contains four annotated SPS genes which can be grouped into three different families (SPSA1, SPSA2, SPSB, and SPSC). However, the functional significance of this multiplicity of SPS genes is as yet only poorly understood. All four SPS isoforms show enzymatic activity when expressed in yeast although there is variation in sensitivity towards allosteric effectors. Promoter-reporter gene analyses and quantitative real-time reverse transcription-PCR studies indicate that no two SPS genes have the same expression pattern and that AtSPSA1 and AtSPSC represent the major isoforms expressed in leaves. An spsa1 knock-out mutant showed a 44% decrease in leaf SPS activity and a slight increase in leaf starch content at the end of the light period as well as at the end of the dark period. The spsc null mutant displayed reduced Suc contents towards the end of the photoperiod and a concomitant 25% reduction in SPS activity. In contrast, an spsa1/spsc double mutant was strongly impaired in growth and accumulated high levels of starch. This increase in starch was probably not due to an increased partitioning of carbon into starch, but was rather caused by an impaired starch mobilization during the night. Suc export from excised petioles harvested from spsa1/spsc double mutant plants was significantly reduced under illumination as well as during the dark period. It is concluded that loss of the two major SPS isoforms in leaves limits Suc synthesis without grossly changing carbon partitioning in favour of starch during the light period but limits starch degradation during the dark period.


A theoretical procedure is derived for the determination of the internal and external electromagnetic fields for a monochromatic beam incident upon a homogeneous particle of arbitrarily‐defined shape. The procedure is best suited for the analysis of near‐spherical particles (i.e., particles which deviate from a sphere by plus or minus a few tenths of a radii). Verification and demonstration calculations are presented. Also presented are calculations investigating the effect of a surface deformation on resonance excitation within an otherwise spherical particle.


Extracellular shed vesicles (ESVs) facilitate a unique mode of cell–cell communication wherein vesicle uptake can induce a change in the recipient cell's state. Despite the intensity of ESV research, currently reported data represent the bulk characterization of concentrated vesicle samples with little attention paid to heterogeneity. ESV populations likely represent diversity in mechanisms of formation, cargo and size. To better understand ESV subpopulations and the signaling cascades implicated in their formation, we characterize ESV size distributions to identify subpopulations in normal and cancerous epithelial cells. We have discovered that cancer cells exhibit bimodal ESV distributions, one small-diameter and another large-diameter population, suggesting that two mechanisms may govern ESV formation, an exosome population and a cancer-specific microvesicle population. Altered glutamine metabolism in cancer is thought to fuel cancer growth but may also support metastatic niche formation through microvesicle production. We describe the role of a glutaminase inhibitor, compound 968, in ESV production. We have discovered that inhibiting glutamine metabolism significantly impairs large-diameter microvesicle production in cancer cells.


Progress in the understanding of negative resistance led to the concept of a Gunn oscillator, but realization of the device awaited development in GaAs technology. Device technology then increased rapidly. Most noticeable development lay in cavity operation, Frequency control, and LSA mode operation. Finally, the applications of the devices are reviewed.


Normative accounts of decision-making predict that people attempt to balance the immediate reward associated with a correct response against the cost of deliberation. However, humans frequently deliberate longer than normative models say they should. We propose that people try to optimize not only their rate of material rewards, but also their rate of information gain. A computational model that combines this idea with a standard drift diffusion process reveals that an agent programmed to maximize a combination of reward and information rates acts like human decision makers, reproducing key patterns of behavior not predicted by existing models. Moreover, if we assume that skill level is sensitive to deliberation time, a novice agent who maximizes even a small amount of information rate will often earn more reward in the long run than one who only maximizes reward rate. Maximizing a combination of reward and information rate is a relatively simple and myopic strategy, but approximates optimal behavior over learning, making it a candidate heuristic for this difficult intertemporal choice problem.


This paper presents derivation of a priori error estimates and convergence rates of finite element processes for boundary value problems (BVPs) described by self adjoint, non-self adjoint, and nonlinear differential operators. A posteriori error estimates are discussed in context with local approximations in higher order scalar product spaces. A posteriori error computational framework (without the knowledge of theoretical solution) is presented for all BVPs regardless of the method of approximation employed in constructing the integral form. This enables computations of local errors as well as the global errors in the computed finite element solutions. The two most significant and essential aspects of the research presented in this paper that enable all of the features described above are: 1) ensuring variational consistency of the integral form(s) resulting from the methods of approximation for self adjoint, non-self adjoint, and nonlinear differential operators and 2) choosing local approximations for the elements of a discretization in a subspace of a higher order scalar product space that is minimally conforming, hence ensuring desired global differentiability of the approximations over the discretizations. It is shown that when the theoretical solution of a BVP is analytic, the a priori error estimate (in the asymptotic range, discussed in a later section of the paper) is independent of the method of approximation or the nature of the differential operator provided the resulting integral form is variationally consistent. Thus, the finite element processes utilizing integral forms based on different methods of approximation but resulting in VC integral forms result in the same a priori error estimate and convergence rate. It is shown that a variationally consistent (VC) integral form has best approximation property in some norm, conversely an integral form with best approximation property in some norm is variationally consistent. That is best approximation property of the integral form and the VC of the integral form is equivalent, one cannot exist without the other, hence can be used interchangeably. Dimensional model problems consisting of diffusion equation, convection-diffusion equation, and Burgers equation described by self adjoint, non-self adjoint, and nonlinear differential operators are considered to present extensive numerical studies using Galerkin method with weak form (GM/WF) and least squares process (LSP) to determine computed convergence rates of various How to cite this paper: Surana, K.S., Joy, A.D. and Reddy, J.N. (2016) Error Estimations, Error Computations, and Convergence Rates in FEM for BVPs. Applied Mathematics, 7, 1359-1407. http://dx.doi.org/10.4236/am.2016.712120


Whereas photography of insects at rest is used for a wide variety of purposes, including illustrating publications and aiding their identification, photography of insects in flight is more challenging and little practiced. This paper describes a system that uses a digital single-lens-reflex camera combined with commercial-level flashes (with electronic power settings to give very short exposures) and simple electronics in a rig that can be used to capture high quality images of night-flying insects. With such a rig, hundreds of images of free flying Trichoptera have been obtained. Preliminary observations of night-flying Athripsodes bergensis (Leptoceridae) indicate that this system could be used for studying the mechanics of flight, wing beat frequency, aerodynamics, flying speed, aerial activity, and behavioural ecology of night-flying insects in their natural environment. This paper briefly describes the technique as applied at a site on the banks of the Groot River in the southern Cape region of South Africa between October 2008 and April 2009 and presents a selection of the images obtained.


In the article I discuss the conceptual problem of other minds and different approaches to mental concepts. Firstly, I introduce the conceptual problem and argue that solutions proposed by theory-theory and direct perception approach are inadequate. I claim that mental concepts are neither theoretical terms nor observational terms. Then, I consider third option which states that mental concepts are dispositional terms, i.e. they concern particular patterns (stereotypes) of behavior. Finally, I argue that dispositional approach is to some extent coherent with phenomenological account and that phenomenological concept of embodiment can improve this position.


Sirovision is a high-resolution digital photogrammetry and structural mapping package from the Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO). It was originally developed for rock mass characterization in surface mines, but has the potential to be used on construction projects, fractured rock hydrogeology projects, and structural geology research projects. A beta version of an underground mapping module was recently released but is not covered in this review. I evaluated a trial version of Sirovision release 3 as part of a fractured rock aquifer characterization project during the summer of 2005 and subsequently purchased a full version for my consulting practice. Examples (including a free Sirovision image viewer), reprints, and downloadable manuals are available from the Sirovision web site (www.sirovision.com). A free trial version is available upon request.

Sirovision consists of two separate programs: Siro3D and Sirojoint. Siro3D uses pairs of digital photographs to generate models of outcrops or rock faces in which a photograph is draped over a three-dimensional mesh. There are several ways to specify the camera-outcrop geometry used to produce the mesh, the easiest of which is to survey the two camera positions and one control point visible in both photos. Centimeter accuracy is required, so the camera and control point locations should be surveyed using differential GPS or a total station. Additional matching points must be identified in each of the two images, but their locations do not have to be surveyed. Alternate methods are available for other situations. For example, camera azimuth and tilt can be used in lieu of a surveyed control point location.

Once the photogrammetric calculations are completed, the results can be viewed as a three-dimensional photographic …


Tropical peatlands play an important role in carbon storage and in water regulation on a landscape level. However, our understanding of their ecology and long-term hydrological dynamics remains limited. Transfer functions, constructed on the basis of biological indicators (proxies) with known ecological preferences, allow us to infer past environmental conditions and serve as a basis for prediction of future changes in peatlands. Here, we use testate amoebae to develop the first species- and functional trait-based transfer functions for the Southeast Asia. This provides a valuable tool for future reconstructions of past hydrological changes in tropical peatlands, their development, and climatic changes. Surface samples for testate amoeba analysis were taken in various biotopes along two transects across the Sungai Buluh peatland in Central Sumatra. The following environmental characteristics were measured: water table depth (WTD), light intensity, pH, total C and N concentrations. The analysis of the surface samples revealed 145 morphotypes of testate amoebae belonging to 25 genera. A significant fraction of the variance in testate amoeba morphotypes and functional trait composition was explained by WTD and pH. The wide WTD range (0–120 cm) seems more valuable for reconstruction than the extremely short pH gradient (2.5–3.8). Thus, transfer functions were developed only for WTD, based on weighted averaging model for morphotypes and multiple linear regression for functional traits. Both species- and trait-based model have a predictive ability for WTD reconstruction. For traits, the best performance of the model was reached by including five morphological traits: shell width, aperture shape, aperture invagination, shell shape and shell compression. We discuss the ecology of several taxa and highlight the traits, which reflect hydrological changes in this system. Though the hydrological preferences of some species are similar to those in high and middle latitude peatlands, we argue that latitudinal differences in morphospecies composition and variations in environmental relationships of species require the development of region-specific transfer functions. Moreover, our results indicate that ecological preferences of morphotypes within morphospecies also need to be considered and included in future studies.


A series of experiments were conducted in a wave basin (50 m long, 10 m wide and 5 m deep) generating two waves propagating at an angle by a directional wavemaker. When the two waves were selected from a resonant triplet, an initially non-existing wave grew as the waves propagated down the tank. The linear growth rate of the resonating wave agreed well with third-order resonance theory based on Zakharov's reduced gravity equation. Additional experiments with opposing and coflowing mean current with large temporal and spatial variations were conducted. As the flow rate increased, the linear growth was suppressed. As reproduced numerically with Zakharov's equation, the resonant interaction saturated at time scales inversely proportional to the magnitude of the forced random resonance detuning. It is conjectured that the resonance is detuned by the variation and not by the mean of the current field due to wavelength-dependent Doppler shift and to the refraction of wave rays. Further analysis of the spectral evolution revealed that while discrete peaks appear at high frequencies as a result of dynamical cascading, a continuously saturated spectrum develops in the background as the current speed increases. Additional experiments were conducted studying the evolution of the random directional wave on a dynamical time scale under the influence of current. Due to random resonance detuning by the current, the spectral tail tended to be suppressed.


In this paper, we present a new neoclassical transport calculation method for general toroidal plasmas including quasi-symmetric configurations based on the moment approach with the DKES (Drift Kinetic Equation Solver) mono-energetic transport coefficients. The Onsager symrnetric matrix, expressing parallel viscosity and the radial transports in terms of parallel flows and thermodynamic forces, is obtained from the numerical calculating results of the drift kinetic equation with the pitch angle scattering operator. And then, the radial transports and parallel flows are derived by combining this matrix, the friction-flow relation and the parallel momentum balance equations. To demonstrate the validity and the effectiveness of this method in which the momentum conservation is completely included and the treatment of multi-ion-species plasmas is easier, we present here how the intrinsic ambipolarity and the impurity accumulation in an axisymmetric limit, which are predicted by analytic theories, are obtained in this numerical calculation.


Majority of organizations endeavor to reduce operating costs and improve operational efficiencies. The concept of Mechanical Specific Energy (MSE) has long been implemented in the industry to improve drilling performance. The Drilling Real time Operations Center (RTOC) has taken the concept of MSE beyond its traditional approach by developing a Drilling Performance Measure combining data science and statistics to benchmark drilling efficiency.
 To extract maximum value from the available database, a workflow was developed to construct a Drilling Efficiency Benchmarking Tool. The different steps will be described for performing the data ingestion, cleansing, selection (offset well selection), methodology of computing the statistical model for MSE baseline per Formations and visualization of the output (charts and logs), to compare the actual MSE with baseline and thereby measuring the performance efficiency.
 The offset wells analysis results show that the workflow can construct an MSE baseline using high frequency data in a meaningful way, which is then set as a target envelope and projected through the real-time platform for monitoring and intervention purposes. This implementation of real-time MSE benchmarking helps identify the area of potential improvement, optimize drilling parameters to ultimately improve ROP and minimize lost time. As an analytical tool, it highlights achievable performance for each field and provide insights to consider new Best Practices.


A series of two-coordinate thiolate complexes [Cu(SAr*)L] was synthesized as possible reactants in forming analogues of the active site of Mo/Cu-containing carbon monoxide dehydrogenase. Complexes with L = PPh(3) (1), 2,6-lutidine (2), and the N-heterocyclic carbene Pr(i)(2)NHCMe(2) (3) have been prepared by the reaction of [CuCl(PPh(3))(3)] (1) or [CuBr(SMe(2))] (2, 3) with ligand L and the exceptionally sterically encumbered ligand Ar*S = 2,6-bis(2,4,6-triisopropylphenyl)benzenethiolate(1-). The reaction of [CuBr(SMe(2))] with the thiolate in the absence of added L afforded trinuclear [Cu(3)(SAr*)(2)Br] (7). The carbene complex (3) undergoes Cu-C bond insertion with sulfur to form the thiourea complex [Cu(SAr*)(Pr(i)(2)Me(2)ImS)] (4). The complexes [Cu(Ar*)L] with L = tetrahydrothiophene (5) and 2,6-lutidine (6) were obtained by reaction of Ar*Li(OEt(2)) with CuBr/L. These species did not undergo clean Cu-C bond insertion with sulfur transfer agents; the disulfide Ar*SSCH(2)Ph (9) was isolated from the reaction of 6 with (PhCH(2)S)(2)S. The structures of all complexes and 9 were determined. Whereas 5 and 6 are strictly two-coordinate with linear C-Cu-L angles, 1-4 are quasi-two-coordinate because of weak 3d-C(ppi) interactions with a phenyl group, leading to nonlinear structures (S-Cu-L = 135-164 degrees).


Abstract As a way of restricting the spread of COVID-19, methods of social distancing were instituted in most places that people gather, including workplaces. As such, human service agencies have implemented novel ways of delivering services to clients, with a common method being telehealth. For some practitioners this was unchartered waters and required rapid adaption to their everyday practice. I was interested to hear about their experiences and what useful learning came from it. I spoke, informally, with 13 people across four settings in a regional city in Victoria, asking them about the problems, positive changes and innovations that emerged. There were reports of challenges to overcome as well as benefits that may well become long-lasting. Practitioners adapted quickly and successfully to telehealth, with only minor problems that they managed to iron out quite quickly. They were mindful of people's differing levels of capacity and access to technology and learned to be gentle and kind to themselves and others as they adapted. Some people came to realise that they like to work from home because it improves their work-life balance. Others, however, are keen to return to the workplace; highlighting the importance for flexibility based on individual circumstances. There was a strong sense of improved communication between agencies as they were better able to connect via telehealth compared with former in-person practices.


One of the greatest challenges of recent studies on metaphor in discourse is to articulate, systematically, the discursive with the cognitive dimensions of figurative language. Within this perspective, the aim of this paper is to present and to discuss an analytical approach to the study of metaphor in argumentative texts which aims at observing how metaphoricity might emerge and be explored discursively, through underlying conceptual metaphors and textually dependent mappings. To this end, a unit of analysis is proposed: the metaphor niche.


Criminal activities that can broadly be called "witchcraft-related crimes" have become commonplace in South Africa. These crimes have been equated with crimes that are labelled as "Satanism-related" due to a perceived similarity between these crimes - a similarity that focuses on so-called occult beliefs. Central to understanding these types of crimes is the idea that the perpetrators commit them in a ritualistic context, which has led to these crimes also being referred to as "ritualistic crimes". This paper will attempt to draw a comparison between Satanism-related and witchcraft-related crimes in South Africa in order to establish whether they are, in fact, two sides of the same coin. This issue is crucial as it relates to law enforcement conceptualisations of these crimes. It is argued that witchcraft-related crime, as well as Satanism-related crime, is not clearly defined within law enforcement structures and this hampers their efforts in effectively investigating and curbing crimes of this nature, especially as it applies to witchcraft-related crime. In addition, it will also be argued that witchcraft-related crime cannot easily be grouped under Satanism-related crimes, despite perceived similarities with regard to the modus operandi of some kinds of witchcraft-related crimes. Given the complexity in defining crimes as "Satanism-related" or "witchcraft-related", this paper makes a case for an interdisciplinary approach to ritualistic crimes, specifically calling for greater co-operation between the anthropological and criminological approaches to crime.


Exchange economies are defined by a distribution on the space of characteristics where the commodity space is an ordered separable Banach space. We characterize the continuity of the equilibrium correspondence and a stability concept associated. We provide a positive answer to an open question about the continuity of the Walras correspondence in infinite dimensional spaces. Regarding the stability concept, differentiability assumptions are not required as it is usual in the literature on regularity. Moreover, since distributional economies do not specify a space of agents, our setting encompass several results in the literature on large economies.


In this work we formulate the standard form of the solutions of the Heisenberg chain with periodic boundary conditions and show that these solutions can be transformed into the well-known Bethe-Hulth´en solutions. The standard form is found by solving the secular problem, separated according to the irreducible representations of the translation group. The relevant parameters exp(ikj) of the Bethe-Hulth´en solutions are found from a set of linear equations with coefficients derived from the standard solutions. This correspondence between standard and Bethe-Hulth´en solutions realizes the completeness of the Bethe-Hulth´en method


The objective of this research to know the views members of the Arab community hold towards the political culture in its three dimensions. Members of the Arab community in Germany (ACG) were asked as well as about the sources of political information and about their views about the current events in the Arab world (Arab Spring). After reviewing relevant literature and concepts of political culture the researcher developed a questionnaire which was distributed to members of the ACG in several German cities of different sizes, both in West and East Germany. The study used package (SPSS) statistical analysis of the study and adoption of percentages and frequencies, averages and standard deviations to examine the study questions and used Independent Samples Test to examine the hypotheses of the study. The results of the study indicate that the political culture of the Arab community in Germany is close and homogeneous and that the similarity of the political and social environment outweighs the differences of the many Arabian countries of origin. The reason for this is attributed to the fact that Germany as the hosting country is governed by the principles of democracy and political and cultural pluralism, , and this in turn reflects positively on the political culture of the members of the Arab community which is integrated rather than fragmented. On a political level the study has shown that communication between the formal and informal German institutions with members of the Arab community needs to be improved and that members of the Arab community in Germany need to be encouraged to get involved and participate more in political life in Germany regarding both, general elections and affiliation to German political parties.


Nitrate contamination of surface waters and groundwater is one of the main problems associated with agricultural activities worldwide, and there is an urgent need to develop effective materials and processes to remove efficiently excess nitrate from aquatic environments. Bittern is a seawater resource that contains large amounts of Mg2+ and Ca2+, and its utilization has received much recent attention. In this study, an Fe-type layered double hydroxide (Fe-LDH) product was prepared from bittern with the addition of an inexpensive agent (FeCl3) for nitrate removal. The greatest nitrate removal was obtained for synthesis conditions of pH 8.5–9.5 at 50°C for 0.5 h. The equilibrium adsorption capacity of the product for nitrate was measured and fitted with the Langmuir and Freundlich isotherm models. The experimental data better fit the Langmuir model than the Freundlich model. The calculated maximum adsorption capacity for nitrate was 0.40 mmol g–1, which was greater than those of other reported nitrate adsorbents. The product removed nitrate ions from a highly saline solution. The order of interference of anion species for nitrate removal was CO32– > SO42– > Br– > NO2– > Cl– > F–. The pH of the solution and removal of nitrate increased with increasing solution temperature because of ion exchange between the Cl– in Fe-LDH and the NO3– in the solution. Nitrate ions were repeatedly adsorbed and desorbed. The prepared Fe-LDH is expected to be a new inorganic anion exchanger for the removal and recovery of nitrate ions from aquatic environments.


The purpose of the study was to (1) assess the prevalence of comorbidities and (2) compare demographics of surgically and non-surgically treated distal humerus fracture patients. Retrospective review of data from a national database was performed. The primary outcome was comorbidities; the secondary outcome was demographic trends between treatment groups. Distal humerus fractures are associated with cerebrovascular disease, dementia, diabetes mellitus, heart disease, hyperlipidemia, hypertension, hypothyroidism, kidney disease, liver disease, and lung disease. Those undergoing surgery are more likely to be obese, under the age of 40 years, female, Medicare recipients with fewer comorbidities, who reside in a rural setting, and who seek care at urban/teaching hospitals within the Southern United States. They are also more likely to have a shorter hospital stay, to be discharged to home, and to have improved survival. (Journal of Surgical Orthopaedic Advances 32(1):017-022, 2023).


New whole-rock Rb–Sr isotopic data from the Lac du Bonnet Quartz Monzonite pluton, combined with previously published analyses, yield an increased date for that pluton, the latest stage of major intrusion in this section of the Archean, English River Gneissic Belt. The age of the pluton and the associated metamorphism is revised from 2495 ± 180 m.y. to 2680 ± 91 m.y.


Dynamin, a 100 kDa GTPase, is essential for receptor mediated endocytosis and synaptic vesicle recycling; however its mechanism of action is unknown. The requirement for dynamin was first elucidated by the discovery that the shibire gene product in Drosophila melanogaster was homologous to mammalian dynamin-1 (1,2). The shibire flies exhibit a depletion of synaptic vesicles and an accumulation of collared clathrin-coated pits at the plasma membrane of their nerve termini (3). It was later demonstrated that endocytosis was inhibited by the overexpression of dominant negative mutants of dynamin (4,5), and that purified dynamin can self-associate to form spirals which resemble the collars of shibire and structures seen in synaptosomes treated with GTPγS (6,7). These observations led to the speculation that dynamin pinches the clathrin-coated bud from the plasma membrane. In support of this hypothesis, we show that purified recombinant dynamin can bind to a lipid bilayer in a regular and repeating pattern to form helical tubes which vesiculate upon the addition of GTP.


This letter describes experimental observations of excess noise due to coherent double Rayleigh scattering in the input fiber of a remotely interrogated fiber-optic interferometric sensor. This noise source is generally only observable when a high coherence length laser is used to interrogate the sensor and the fiber length connecting the sensor is in excess of /spl sim/10 km. We present a simplified model to explain how this noise source affects the sensor resolution and demonstrate a method based on laser source modulation to reduce this noise by /spl sim/20 dB in a fiber-optic Michelson interferometric sensor with a 25-km input fiber, at frequencies less than 10 kHz.


A new optical local area network that combines dense Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) techniques and coherent transmission benefits is presented. A new multichannel protocol is specified based on Ethernet, using WDM to carry multiple channels on a single fiber. The protocol is simulated to evaluate the performance under congestion conditions and to compare it with other protocols having the same total capacity. Some suggestions are made for congestion control in high-capacity networks and different channel-jumping strategies are proposed. A network architecture is proposed with tunable transmitters and multichannel receivers, and with a common local oscillator.


A novel load–displacement sensing instrument has been designed and fabricated to characterize the fracture properties of brittle thin films at low temperature (approximately −30 °C) and pressure (1.6e-4 Pa) environments. In this study, the instrument was used to investigate the effects of harsh environments on the fracture behaviors of organosilicate glass (OSG) and silicon carbonitride (SiCN) thin films under four-point bend loading. Experimental results showed that the fracture strengths of film stacks are the highest when the environment contains a very low water molecule concentration. This condition can be achieved by purging the testing chamber with pure nitrogen or reducing the chamber pressure to less than 1 Pa. In contrast, cracks propagated readily along OSG/SiCN interfaces when experiments were performed in deionized water. The effects of low temperature (approximately −30 °C) and pressure on thin film fracture were also studied, and the results demonstrated that there is no observed degradation of the OSG fracture properties. X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) technique was used to identify the chemical composition of the fracture surfaces.


The first stereoselective synthesis of 2α,3α-epoxy-9β-benzoyloxy-β-agarofuran ( 3 ) and 2,3-dehydro-4β,12-epoxy-9β-benzoyloxy-β-dihydroagarofuran ( 4 ) from (-)-carvone in 13 steps, respectively, has been described. In addition, the synthesis of 2,3-dehydro-4β,9β-dihydroxy-β-dihydroagarofuran ( 13 ) has also been reported. By the reduction of 4 to give 13 , the 4β,12-epoxy configuration of 4 was established.


An ergonomic study is conducted on postural analysis of the vendors selling edible items at various railway stations and in trains in Northern India. It has been observed that they attain a definite posture infinite number of times to perform a particular task for whole life. It depends upon the number of passengers whom they interact for selling edible products in the trains and at the railway stations. It has been observed that about 20-25 vendors are working at one railway station and +7000 railway stations in Indian railway network therefore at national level these are large in numbers. The RULA and REBA analysis are performed on the eight different vendors who were selling various types of eatable products at the railway stations and in the trains. The results of RULA analysis score is 100% score (7-high risk) was obtained for each vendor which indicates that there is a very high risk and further investigation is required on their working postures and implement change soon. On the other hand REBA analysis showed that 50% score (5- has medium risk, further investigate and change soon and remaining 50% score (8-9), pointed out that these postures have high risk, further investigate and implement change. The average of REBA score of all 8 vendors is 6.75 which showed that the working postures have high risk, further investigate and implement change soon. Further, QEC analysis also revealed that there is a high risk as per the assessment scores. Almost every vendor's shoulder score lies (31-40) which means high risk, also back score, wrist score and neck score showed high risk in QEC assessment scores. On the basis of results and succeeding discussions conclusions has been drawn


Rats were labeled with 3H-thymidine (3H-TdR) in utero and for 6 wk after birth in order to obtain 100% labeling of all bone marrow cells. Six weeks after the last 3H-TdR injection only cytokinetically resting cells were still labeled. At this time, the regenerative capacity of fractions obtained after centrifugation on a discontinuous albumin gradient was tested in 1200-R x-irradiated recipients, and the results were compared with the effect observed after transplantation of the same number of unfractionated bone marrow cells. One of the fractions obtained had a regeneratory capacity tenfold that of unfractionated cells. In contrast, when the response to a PHA stimulation test was evaluated, this fraction showed a decreased incorporation of 14C-TdR as compared to other fractions. In a second test system, fractions of bone marrow from 3H-TdR-labeled donors made hypoplastic by repeated injections of hydroxyurea were transfused into 1200-R x-irradiated recipients. Regenerative capacity was similar to that seen in the first experiment. The findings indicate a correlation between cytokinetically resting, small mononuclear cells and the regeneratory process in lethally x-irradiated recipients.


Using the first wave of the Korean Longitudinal Study of Ageing, this research examines the effect of elderly parent's financial structure on private income transfers from their adult children. The results show that low income elderly households are more likely to receive income transfers from their children. Generally, Korean elderly households were found to have very low liquidity in their asset structure, as the average household holds over 90% of their assets in real estate. However, it seems that the parents' potential income based on their real estate assets is unimportant in determining children's transfer decisions. Rather, the parents' labor income is found to be a key factor in children's income transfer decisions.


This article examines the "culture war" hypothesis by focusing on American citizens' choices among a set of core values. A geometric model is developed to represent differences in the ways that individuals rank-order seven important values: freedom, equality, economic security, social order, morality, individualism, and patriotism. The model is fitted to data on value choices from the 2006 Cooperative Congressional Election Study. The empirical results show that there is an enormous amount of heterogeneity among individual value choices; the model estimates contradict any notion that there is a consensus on fundamental principles within the mass public. Further, the differences break down along political lines, providing strong evidence that there is a culture war generating fundamental divisions within twenty-first century American society.


ABSTRACT Rickettsiae are obligate intracellular pathogens that induce their uptake into nonphagocytic cells; however, the events instigating this process are incompletely understood. Importantly, diverse Rickettsia species are predicted to utilize divergent mechanisms to colonize host cells, as nearly all adhesins and effectors involved in host cell entry are differentially encoded in diverse Rickettsia species. One particular effector, RalF, a Sec7 domain-containing protein that functions as a guanine nucleotide exchange factor of ADP-ribosylation factors (Arfs), is critical for Rickettsia typhi (typhus group rickettsiae) entry but pseudogenized or absent from spotted fever group rickettsiae. Secreted early during R. typhi infection, RalF localizes to the host plasma membrane and interacts with host ADP-ribosylation factor 6 (Arf6). Herein, we demonstrate that RalF activates Arf6, a process reliant on a conserved Glu within the RalF Sec7 domain. Furthermore, Arf6 is activated early during infection, with GTP-bound Arf6 localized to the R. typhi entry foci. The regulation of phosphatidylinositol 4-phosphate 5-kinase (PIP5K), which generates PI(4,5)P2, by activated Arf6 is instrumental for bacterial entry, corresponding to the requirement of PI(4,5)P2 for R. typhi entry. PI(3,4,5)P3 is then synthesized at the entry foci, followed by the accumulation of PI(3)P on the short-lived vacuole. Inhibition of phosphoinositide 3-kinases, responsible for the synthesis of PI(3,4,5)P3 and PI(3)P, negatively affects R. typhi infection. Collectively, these results identify RalF as the first bacterial effector to directly activate Arf6, a process that initiates alterations in phosphoinositol metabolism critical for a lineage-specific Rickettsia entry mechanism.


We study the property of matter in equilibrium with a static, spherically symmetric black hole in D-dimensional spacetime. It requires that this kind of matter has an equation of state ω = pr/ρ = −n/(n + 2k), k, n ϵ ℕ (where n > 1 corresponds to a mixture of vacuum matter and "hair" matter), which seems to be independent of D. However, when we associate this result with specific models, we find that these hairy black holes can live only in some special dimensional spacetime: (i) D = 2 + 2k/n while the black hole is surrounded by cosmic strings, which requires D is even or D ϵ ℕ, depending on the value of n, this is consistent with some important results in superstring theory, it might reveal the relation between cosmic string and superstring in another aspect; (ii) the black hole can be surrounded by linear dilaton field only in 4-dimensional spacetime. In both cases, D = 4 is special. We also present some examples of such hairy black holes in higher dimensions, including a toy model with negative energy density.


4747 The diversity of Raman spectroscopic signatures, the single molecule sensitivity of surface enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and the biocompatibility of metal nanoparticles make SERS an attractive platform for multiplexed biomolecular detection. We report the development of SERS probes for tagging specific biomolecules on living cells. Our design involves encapsulating gold nanoparticle-reporter molecule complexes with thiol-derivatized polyethylene glycol (PEG-SH) and PEG-SH linked antibodies. A surprising finding is that this design can incorporate both sulfur-containing and non sulfur-containing molecules as reporters, expanding the repertoire of sensitive SERS tags. Reporter molecule spectral properties and nanoparticle aggregation states are well-preserved under extremes of pH, salinity, and solvent changes, and in the presence of competing SERS reporters, proteins, and cells. To demonstrate the feasibility of SERS nanotechnology for practical molecular oncology applications, we used the SERS tags to measure expression of a cell surface cancer biomarker and discriminate breast carcinoma cells from non-carcinoma cells using both visible and near-infrared excitation. These results create new opportunities for ultrasensitive molecular detection and optical imaging in complex biological materials.


PURPOSE
Intralesional therapy is a less invasive method for the treatment of Peyronie's disease. The objective of this study was to evaluate safety and tolerability of intralesional injections of Iloprost (I2 Prostacyclin analogue) for its property to suppress in fibroblasts CTFG (Connective tissue growth factor) production, which acts in concert with TGF-ß to stimulate the fibrotic process.

METHODS
Nineteen patients with Peyronie's disease were preliminarily evaluated by considering the degree of penile curvature, plaque size and local and systemic symptoms. Each patient then received weekly intralesional injections of 200 ng of Iloprost in 1 ml of normal saline for 4-5 weeks. If tolerated, the single dose increased weekly to the maximum of 400 ng (2 mL).

RESULTS
The treatment has shown that all patients seem to well tolerate a 200 ng Iloprost dose; 7 of them reached a 300 ng dose and 6 tolerate a 400 ng dose without showing side effects. There was no placebo control group in this study. To evaluate the efficacy of the treatment, the absence of objective parameters (except for the auto-photograph of penis in erection) led us to develop a subjective questionnaire that was given to all patients to assess sexual function, pain reduction, ecc.

CONCLUSIONS
Due to the relatively small size of the sample, the efficacy evaluation has been restricted to check the questionnaire reliability. Iloprost is well tolerated to a dose of 400 ng in the local treatment of Peyronie's disease.


Ethylenediaminetetraacetate (EDTA)-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia, in vitro platelet clumping and consequent pseudothrombocytopenia in the presence of EDTA, was observed in a patient with thymoma-associated myasthenia gravis (MG). The patient, a 45-year-old man, presented with alopecia areata, and weakness and fatigue of right upper extremity and neck muscles. Diagnosis of MG was made on the basis of positive edrophonium test and antiacetylcholine receptor (AChR) antibody test. The platelet count was as low as 4.9 X 10(4)/mm3 in EDTA-anticoagulated blood and large agglutinates were seen in smears from EDTA blood. Platelet suspension immunofluorescence test showed IgG on the surface of platelet clumping. Corticosteroid therapy combined with thymectomy reduced the platelet clumping markedly in parallel with decrease of anti-AChR antibody titers. The present observation suggests that EDTA-dependent pseudothrombocytopenia in our patient was associated with some immunological abnormalities. Recognition of the pseudothrombocytopenia in MG patients is important to distinguish it from idiopathic thrombocytopenia purpura which is also found in MG and requires bone marrow tests and sometimes splenectomies.


In vivo measurement of blood pressure is critical in many settings, including patient care, medical research, and control of cardiovascular assist and replacement devices. This article describes a pressure sensor based on fiber optic, white light interferometry. An optical interference filter formed between the end face of an optical fiber and the sensing diaphragm selectively reflects a wavelength component. A low cost, thin film optical wedge interferometer placed at the output end detects the wavelength of the reflected signal, which represents a unique cavity length of the interference filter directly related to the diaphragm deflection and, therefore, pressure. Several key features of this sensing scheme include low drift, high accuracy, and insensitivity to light loss factors along the length of the optical fiber. This fiber optic pressure sensor promises significant advances as a medical monitoring tool, a research instrument, and a component of cardiovascular assist and replacement devices. A prototype pressure gauge has been built, and the feasibility of the optical approach verified. Experimental results of the prototype gauge for resolution, repeatability, and drift and a preliminary design for a high resolution, low drift, miniature fiber optic pressure probe are presented herein.


Chronic, refractory abdominal pain without a metabolic or structural gastroenterological etiology can be challenging for diagnosis and management. Even though it is rare, it has been reported that such a recurrent abdominal pain associated with radicular pattern can be derived from structural neurologic lesion like spinal cord tumor. We experienced an unusual case of chronic recurrent abdominal pain that lasted for two years without definite neurologic deficits in a patient, who has been harboring thoracic spinal cord tumor. During an extensive gastroenterological workup for the abdominal pain, the spinal cord tumor had been found and was resected through surgery. Since then, the inexplicable pain sustained over a long period of time eventually resolved. This case highlights the importance of taking into consideration the possibility of spinal cord tumor in differential diagnosis when a patient complains of chronic and recurrent abdominal pain without other medical abnormalities.


Objective There is evidence that hippocampal volume is abnormal in patients with major depressive disorder (MDD), but there have been no studies on volumetric changes in different subfields based on functional topography. This was investigated in the present study by comparing hippocampal neurofunctional subfield volumes between MDD patients and healthy control (HC) subjects. Methods Patients with MDD (n = 44) and HCs (n = 27) recruited at Shanghai Traditional Chinese Medicine Integrated Hospital underwent a T1-weighted anatomical MRI scan in the sagittal orientation, and the data were used to calculate hippocampal subfield volumes. Logistic regression was used to evaluate the association between the volumes and risk of MDD. A nomogram for predicting MDD risk based on volume changes in different subfields was developed, and its predictive power was evaluated by calculating the concordance (C)-index. Results Compared with HCs, MDD patients showed reduced volume in hippocampal neurofunctional subfields, specifically in left (L)1, right (R)1, and R2 (related to emotion) and L2, L3, and R4 (related to cognition and perception). The logistic regression analysis revealed that the risk of MDD was 4.59-, 5.8-, 8.33-, and 6.92-fold higher with atrophies of L1, L2, L3, and R4, respectively. A nomogram for predicting MDD risk was developed based on age; sex; and hippocampal L1, L2, L3, and R4 subfield volumes and showed good accuracy, with a C-index of 0.784. Conclusion Volumetric changes in the neurofunctional subfield of the hippocampus are potential imaging markers that can predict the occurrence of MDD.


Ontologies are metadata describing properties of a domain, instance data and relationships between properties, developed for many different purposes. But, they can be different names or properties even within the same domain. Ontology matching can be a solution to these differences. Ontology matching is a method for finding the same things in between existing ontologies by looking at semantic similarities. In this paper, we investigate whether current subgraph mining techniques can be used for ontology matching. In the literature, these subgraph mining techniques have not used for ontology matching, before. With this work, we are introducing subgraph-based approaches to ontology matching methods. For this purpose, we have tested two subgraph mining algorithm, GraMi and Gspan, and used human and adult mouse anatomy ontology. We have compared GraMi, and Gspan algorithms and found that Gspan is better than GraMi about matching results.


We have read with great interest the paper entitled " 3D inversion of gravity and magnetic data with depth resolution " by Fedi and Rapolla. We realize that many discussions we had with one of the authors had not resolved our differences and, therefore, we are writing this comment to document out concerns regarding the authors' conclusion that the upward-continued gravity or magnetic data contain extra information and provide depth resolution. As is well known in potential-field theory, the fields produced by the subsurface source at any two nonintersecting observational surfaces are linearly related to each other and one contains no more information than does the other. Furthermore, the field on the observational surface above the source can be reproduced by an infinite number of equivalent sources below that surface. As a consequence, gravity or magnetic data do not provide any information about the subsurface structure unless the source is assumed to have certain restrictive properties. No amount of upward continuation will create any new information and, consequently, the addition of upward-continued data will not resolve the depth distribution of the source. In practical applications, when the data are available in a small area and/or when the data are coursely sampled, then exact numerical continuation is not possible to perform. In such circumstances, independently-measured data at a different level will provide extra information that is not contained in the data at the original level. The maximum amount of additional information that any upper-level data can supply is that which is contained in the missing portion of the data map at the lower level. Fedi and Rapolla provide two examples which they claim support their hypothesis that data along the vertical direction are needed to obtain depth resolution and, furthermore, that upward-continued data serve this purpose. As is shown below, both results arise because of a priori restrictions upon the model space used to carry out the inversion. The first example (Figures 3 and 4 of their paper) compares the recovery of a buried susceptible block when only surface data are used, and when data at 10 different heights are used. When the surface data are inverted, the susceptibility maximum is at the surface, whereas when data at all 10 levels are inverted, the recovered susceptibility compares well with the true values. In both inversions the earth was modeled with a 7 × 7 × 7 set of prismatic cells. Each …


We look at changes in employment in Italy after the double-dip recession. We show that since the end of 2014 the responsiveness to GDP of total employment and its payroll components (permanent and fixed-term) has risen significantly; the increase has been broad-based across sectors and it would have been larger if demographic factors had been netted out. These developments are not common to France, Spain and Germany. Therefore, we turn to Italy-specific determinants related to the recent labour market reforms. Using cell-level data drawn from the Comunicazioni Obbligatorie of the Veneto region, we find that gross permanent hires and conversions of fixed-term positions have temporarily, but significantly, benefited from the 2015-2016 hiring subsidies across all types of firms and, more smoothly, from the new regulation of dismissals introduced by the 2015 Jobs Act for medium-large firms. This latter result is clear in 2017, in the absence of subsidies to permanent hiring. Fixed-term employment has increased, likely favoured by the 2014 Poletti Decree, more strongly so when permanent hiring subsidies were lifted or weakened and among smaller firms.


Background - Human resources are an important factor in an organization and must be of good quality, that is to have a competent spirit and also perform well. The existing commitment in employees towards the organization is an important instrument for improving employee performance. Organizational culture is a need to be developed in an organization with the aim to be able to overcome all problems that arise. Organizational culture can be said to be good when it can be proven by looking at employee turnover Aim - This study aims to determine the direct and indirect effects of organizational culture variables, organizational commitment and employee performance. Design / methodology / approach – This research belongs to exploratory field research to explain the relationship between organizational culture and employee performance. The number of respondents involved was 100 respondents, all of whom were employees at the One Stop Integrated Capital and Service Office in East Kalimantan. Research instruments using questionnaires, research analysis using path analysis. Finding – The results prove all paths in this path analysis are significant. Employees in the organization need an understanding of the culture in the organization so that performance increases while there is also an element of commitment that is a variable between the organizational culture and employee performance. Research Implication – In this study has the implication of providing direction for organizational behavior research by taking into account organizational factors and other individual factors that can improve employee performance in the organization. besides that, in subsequent studies can add the variable job satisfaction, motivation. Limitation – The limitation that can affect the results of this study is to use a questionnaire so that the possibility of researchers less anticipating respondents who just answered


This study, using a common theoretical framework, analyses the process of educational change in the Czech Republic since the political changes in 1989. It starts with a brief introduction to the country and its ed ucational system. Its main concern is focused on the phases and particular dimensions of the transformation process in school education at the primary and secondary level. Social and political incoherence, non-linearity, imbalances, atomization and diffussion as a consequence of tensions between continuity and discontinuity are identified as characteristic features of the process. In spite of positive shifts concerning educational policy, legislation, management, financing regulation, the curriculum, te acher professionalisation and support structure development, there are still barriers, e.g. lack of political consensus and the lack of a steering and monitoring mechanism in the educational sector. Real systemic reform reaching the intermediate and micro levels of the educational system has not been implemented yet.


Mutations in LRRK2 are the most common cause of dominantly inherited Parkinson's disease (PD). A proportion of LRRK2 PD exhibits Lewy pathology with accumulations of α-synuclein and ubiquitin in intracellular aggregates that are indistinguishable from idiopathic PD. LRRK2 is a multi-domain protein with both GTPase and kinase activities that has been shown to affect various cellular processes including protein homeostasis, however how PD mutations in LRRK2 may lead to accumulation of ubiquitinated protein aggregates remains unclear. A main cellular pathway to remove aggregated ubiquitinated proteins is aggrephagy: the histone deacetylase HDAC6 recognizes ubiquitinated misfolded proteins and recruits them to the molecular motor cytoplasmic dynein which transports them to the perinuclear region where they are trapped in aggresomes that are subsequently removed by macroautophagy. Here we identified HDAC6 as a novel LRRK2 substrate and show that LRRK2 regulates HDAC6-dependent aggresome formation. LRRK2 directly interacted with the HDAC6 deacetylase domains via its Roc domain and phosphorylated HDAC6 on serine-22. Serine-22 phosphorylation of HDAC6 enhanced its interaction with cytoplasmic dynein and stimulated recruitment of ubiquitinated proteins to aggresomes. Knockdown or knockout of LRRK2 impaired HDAC6-mediated aggresome formation. PD mutant LRRK2 G2019S showed reduced interaction with HDAC6 and did not support aggresome formation to the same extend as wild type LRRK2. This was recapitulated in LRRK2 G2019S patient-derived iAstrocytes that showed an aggresome formation defect. In conclusion our data reveal HDAC6 as a target of LRRK2 and suggest that deregulation of HDAC6-mediated aggresome formation and aggrephagy could contribute to the pathology of PD.


The distributed averaging problem is to devise a protocol which will enable the members of a group of n >; 1 agents to asymptotically determine in a decentralized manner, the average of the initial values of their scalar agreement variables. A typical averaging protocol can be modeled by a linear iterative equation whose update matrices are doubly stochastic. Building on the ideas proposed in [1] and [2], this paper discusses an alternative approach to distributed averaging which is modeled by two simultaneously iterated linear iterative equations whose update matrices are left stochastic rather than doubly stochastic. We call such models, double linear iterations. The aim of this paper is to propose and analyze two different asynchronous double linear iteration protocols. For each protocol, each agent independently updates its variables at times determined by its own clock. It is not assumed that the agents' clocks are synchronized or that the "event times" at which any one agent updates its variables are evenly spaced. Nor is it assumed that the communication between agents is bidirectional. By appealing to the concept of "analytic synchronization", it is shown that both the two protocols are guaranteed to solve the asynchronous distributed averaging problem under appropriate assumptions for both fixed and time-varying directed neighbor graphs.


Background: Ease of injection is important to patients. An autoinjector was developed to deliver exenatide, a glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist for type 2 diabetes mellitus. For autoinjection, 0.06-mm exenatide-containing microspheres are suspended in medium-chain triglycerides. Herein, we report design verification and usability testing of the autoinjector for exenatide once-weekly suspension (QWS) delivery. Methods: Exenatide QWS in a single-chamber cartridge is self-injected subcutaneously with three main steps: mix, unlock, and inject. Design verification testing used validated testing methodology. A summative validation study with simulated-use scenarios evaluated unassisted performance on critical tasks (ease of use and the injection process). Results: The autoinjector met specified design requirements for dose accuracy and torque/force. Of 104 participants enrolled (73 lay users, 16 health care professionals, and 15 pharmacists), 90 independently referred to instructions for use during testing. Users successfully achieved critical tasks on first attempt 87-100% of the time. Approximately 78% of participants successfully completed the full injection scenario, including 72% of lay users reporting visual or dexterity impairments. Initial use errors on critical tasks included not mixing well (n = 12), not removing needle cap (n = 8), and not holding needle to the skin for complete injection (n = 5). Untrained injection-naïve and trained injection-experienced lay users made the fewest errors (7% and 3%, respectively). Trained and untrained participants took 2:33 and 5:03 minutes, respectively, to complete a weekly injection. Conclusions: Users with a range of injection experience can rapidly learn to administer exenatide QWS autoinjector correctly, thus minimizing patient effort to manage their diabetes with injectable therapy.


Index profile grading and elimination of the central dip have yielded the lowest loss ever reported for modified chemical vapor deposition-made highly GeO/sub 2/-doped single-mode fibers (1.33 dB/km at 1550 nm for /spl Delta/=2.9%). Investigation of the angular distribution of scattering has shown that much of the optical loss in such fibers is due to anomalous scattering. This scattering arises in the region of the central dip in the refractive index profile and at the core-cladding interface.


Evaluation of anaphylaxis is a common reason for emergency department referral to an allergist. Establishing unified diagnostic criteria has been an evolving process with the most recent definition proposed by the Second Symposium on the Definition and Management of Anaphylaxis convened by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network. Proper identification of these patients in the emergency department allows for the opportunity to dispense potentially life-saving epinephrine autoinjectors, provide education, and allergist referral. Future epidemiological studies are likely to be impacted as the definition of anaphylaxis becomes more unified.


Rhizobium meliloti associates symbiotically with alfalfa by forming root nodules in which the bacteria reduce atmospheric N2 into products useful to both organisms. Nod factors are signal molecules, lipooligosaccharides, produced by the bacteria that trigger nodule formation in the plant host. Nod Rm-1 consists of a beta-1,4-N-acetyl glucosamine tetrasaccharide from which the N-acetyl group at the non reducing end is replaced by a fatty acid and the N-acetyl glucosamine at the reducing end is sulfated at position 6. By in vitro incubation of electroporated cells in the presence of [35S]PAPS or UDP-[14C]GlcNAc a labelled compound has been obtained with the properties of the in vivo produced Nod Rm-1 factor, as judged by HPLC, TLC and HPTLC techniques. The [14C]GlcNAc labelled compound has also hair root deformation activity on alfalfa plantlets indicating that a functional Nod Rm-1 factor has been synthesized in vitro.


Background: Priapism is a pathological condition of erectile tissue tumescence characterized by prolonged erection without any sexual stimulation and excitement. A classification commonly used to differentiate clinical presentation of priapism divides priapism into ischemic (low-flow) and nonischemic (high-flow) priapism. They have different pathological consequences and also differ in the overall management. The present study reviewed the modes of presentation and management and results of treatment of priapism in sickle cell patients. Patients and Methods: All consecutive sickle cell patients with priapism who were managed by surgical intervention at our unit between January 2000 and December 2011 were included in this study. The demographic characteristics, predisposing factors, and mode of treatment were reviewed. The outcomes of the treatment were analyzed using statistical software Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 16. Results: Thirty-three patients with priapism due sickle cell disease were seen over 12 years; two patients were lost to follow-up and were excluded. Their age range was 2-35 years with a mean of 22.5 years. The patients who had an El-Ghorab cavernospongiosus shunt (ECS) had better results than those who had a conventional perineal cavernospongiosus shunt (PCS). Eleven patients with recurrent previous episodes of priapism had reduced or absent erection. Erection was better in patients with shorter duration of priapism and not more than one previous episode. The mean duration of symptoms from the time of presentation to treatment was 3 days. Of the twenty-one patients who presented in ≤2 days, 18 had normal erections and 3 had reduced erections at 12 weeks. Of the 12 patients who presented in ≥3 days, 5 had normal erections, 2 had reduced erections, and 5 had no erection. Ten patients had treatment with sildenafil during the follow-up period with some improvement. One patient who had PCS developed perineal urethrocutaneous fistula. Conclusion: Early surgical intervention is recommended in patients with ischemic priapism; regardless of the delay in presentation, and immediate unilateral distal venous shunt should be considered the best way to preserve erection. More prospective randomized studies are required to confirm these assertions.


Medulla oblongata myelinolysis is an extremely rare manifestation of extrapontine myelinolysis (EPM). Herein, we report a case of a 34-year-old man with a history of gout who presented repeated vomiting and diarrhea after ingesting 15 colchicine pills. A hyponatremia diagnosis was given and after an intensive treatment, his serum sodium level increased from 118 to 129 mmol/L within 24 hours. Brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) revealed a lesion in the medulla oblongata that appeared as a hypointense area in T1-weighted images and a hyperintense area in T2-weighted images. A diagnosis of medulla oblongata myelinolysis and colchicine poisoning was then given, and methylprednisolone therapy was initiated. Seventeen days later, the patient achieved a good outcome with methylprednisolone therapy. However, his medulla oblongata lesion remained detectable with MRI. Medulla oblongata myelinolysis is an extremely rare manifestation of EPM, and unique for being colchicine-induced. This case shows that colchicine poisoning can lead to hyponatremia, which in turn can induce myelinolysis if not treated correctly. As exemplified by our patient's case, desirable treatment outcomes are possible in such cases, although these outcomes may not be associated with a visible reduction of the brain lesions in MRI scans.


The impact broadening of Na(nP1/2) (n=6-24), K(nP1/2) (n=8-24) and Rb(nP12/) (n=10-24) levels by noble-gas atoms, N2 molecules and alkali atoms in the ground state has been investigated. Broadening cross sections have been evaluated on the grounds of contributions coming from Rydberg-electron-perturber and ionic core-perturber scattering. Broadening cross sections for Cs(nD3/2)+Cs(6S) collisions for n=11-23 have also been calculated to compare with the experimental ones. Theoretically evaluated broadening cross sections for K(nP12/)+K(4S) and Cs(nD3/2)+Cs(6S) collisions appeared to be in good agreement with existing experimental data.


A flexible boundary electro-pneumatic true triaxial system has been developed for testing cohesive soil. The system is capable of applying principal stresses on each face of a cubical specimen using a Proportional-Integral-Differential (PID) based closed loop control algorithm. This device has the ability to measure both the internal and external pore pressures for a 102-mm cubical specimen and uses custom developed Butyl rubber membranes. Measurement of the internal pore pressure is accomplished using a needle piezometer. Appropriate software has been developed that can automatically perform saturation, isotropic or Ko consolidation, and shear testing under stress or strain control along various stress or strain paths. Using this system, results from isotropically consolidated triaxial compression and triaxial extension stress paths are presented for cubical kaolin specimens. Comparative tests using conventional cylindrical specimens using lubricated ends were also performed. Issues related to the interference of the flexible membranes, uniformity of strains and bifurcations, interpreted friction angles, and undrained shear strength are discussed.


In this paper, we propose a novel optimization algorithm called constrained line search (CLS) for discriminative training (DT) of Gaussian mixture continuous density hidden Markov model (CDHMM) in speech recognition. The CLS method is formulated under a general framework for optimizing any discriminative objective functions including maximum mutual information (MMI), minimum classification error (MCE), minimum phone error (MPE)/minimum word error (MWE), etc. In this method, discriminative training of HMM is first cast as a constrained optimization problem, where Kullback-Leibler divergence (KLD) between models is explicitly imposed as a constraint during optimization. Based upon the idea of line search, we show that a simple formula of HMM parameters can be found by constraining the KLD between HMM of two successive iterations in an quadratic form. The proposed CLS method can be applied to optimize all model parameters in Gaussian mixture CDHMMs, including means, covariances, and mixture weights. We have investigated the proposed CLS approach on several benchmark speech recognition databases, including TIDIGITS, Resource Management (RM), and Switchboard. Experimental results show that the new CLS optimization method consistently outperforms the conventional EBW method in both recognition performance and convergence behavior.


The quality of the air medium of residential and public buildings has been studied; contaminants discharged from polymeric materials and contained in domestic dust have been identified. Due to a great medico-hygienic significance of this problem it is necessary, that joint studies be carried out by experts in the field of hygiene, builders, sanitary engineers, physicists and chemists with the aim of the assessment of buildings from the point of view of sources of pollution in them depending on the construction and contingent of the population. Indoor air monitoring will make it possible to develop the scientific basis of indoor air quality control.


This study determines the level of acceptability of the respondents on the inclusion of sex education in basic education of public elementary schools of the Department of Education, Bayombong I, Division of Nueva Vizcaya. The data were analyzed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The analysis employed frequency counts and percentages. Pearson r and t-test, results showed that the teachers and parents had accepted and showed approval to the inclusion of sex education in Basic Education. Younger teachers tend to have higher level of acceptance to sex education than the older teachers in the service. The issue on inclusion of sex education in the basic education between parents across ages was acceptable. There was a perceived difference among the parent and teacher respondents as to the inclusion of sex education to Basic Education. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.7718/iamure.ije.v3i1.193


Background The development and implementation of widespread training for rules, techniques and methods of providing first aid to the widest possible range of people will significantly reduce the level of disability and mortality among victims of road traffic accidents (RTAs).Aim of study To study the organization of first aid for the victims in the Arkhangelsk region.Material and methods Part 1. The journals of registration of attendance at classes with a trained contingent in the educational-methodical department of the School of Disaster Medicine of the Territorial Center for Disaster Medicine of the Arkhangelsk Region for the period from 01.01.2012 to 12.31.2018 are analyzed. Part 2. We selected 906 medical records of patients (003/u) affected by an accident on the federal highway M-8 "Kholmogory" and treated in hospitals of Arkhangelsk region, admitted acutely in period from 01.01.2012 till 31.12.2018. The study was conducted according to the criteria of retrospective continuous documentary observation. As a criterion of statistical significance, the probability of a random error of less than 5% (p<0.05) was applied using the correction for multiple comparisons (Bonferroni correction).Conclusion 1. The educational activities of the TCDH of the Arkhangelsk Region over a seven-year period are characterized by a significant increase in the total number of trained cadets (p<0.001); 2-fold increase in the number of trained motor vehicle drivers (p<0.001) and employees of Ministry of Emergency Situations and Russian Interior Ministry (p<0.001). 2. The first aid to injured in an accident on the federal highway M-8 Kholmogory in the Arkhangelsk Region was provided in 65 cases (7.2%); in almost 90% of cases, first aid was recorded in the Arkhangelsk and Severodvinsk medical districts of the Arkhangelsk region (p<0.001).


This paper investigates the factors influencing online self-presentation strategies on dating platforms, and explore how Muslims users manage their online presentation on dating approach –associated with Muslim-oriented dating application and mainstream-oriented dating application in order to accomplish the goal of finding partner. Twenty-profiles from Tinder and MusMatch active online dating user was used for the study. Qualitative content analysis was used to explore the approaches of interactions associated with individual self-presentation. Four main themes were generated: Screen names, Terminal identities, Net Presence and Personal Profile. The findings reveal that both MusMatch and Tinder allow its users to choose their own screen names without any restrictions. The platforms showed how screen names can be used as a strategy to present certain impression. Users tend to post their personal interests in order to attract their potential partners on Tinder as well as MuzMatch. Users of MuzMatch used acronyms to identify themselves, whereas, users of Tinders are free to construct a socially desirable identity that may attract people's attention and publicity. The frequency with which MusMatch users appear to interact for relationship that leads to marriage is far more than any other form of relationship. Tinder users are free to post anything as their profile picture, whereas in MuzMatch it requires authentic profile pictures. MusMatch provision for establishing relationship requires that a chaperone should be allow to mediate interactions among the potential partners in order to preserve Muslims-oriented dating style


ABSTRACT Endothelial cells (ECs) maintain the structure and function of blood vessels and are readily exposed to exogenous and endogenous toxic substances in the circulatory system. Bone marrow-derived endothelial progenitor cells (EPCs) circulate in the blood and differentiate to EC, which are known to participate in angiogenesis and regeneration of injured vessels. Dysfunction in EPC contributes to cardiovascular complications in patients with diabetes, but the precise molecular mechanisms underlying diabetic EPC abnormalities are not completely understood. The aim of this study was to investigate the mechanisms underlying diabetic EPC dysfunction using methylglyoxal (MG), an endogenous toxic diabetic metabolite. Data demonstrated that MG decreased cell viability and protein expression of vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR)-2 associated with functional impairment of tube formation in EPC. The generation of advanced glycation end (AGE) products was increased in EPC following exposure to MG. Blockage of receptor for AGE (RAGE) by FPS-ZM1, a specific antagonist for RAGE, significantly reversed the decrease of VEGFR-2 protein expression and angiogenic dysfunction in MG-incubated EPC. Taken together, data demonstrated that MG induced angiogenic impairment in EPC via alterations in the AGE/RAGE-VEGFR-2 pathway which may be utilized in the development of potential therapeutic and preventive targets for diabetic vascular complications.


Ordering to overcome the shortcomings of the traditional food supply chain, we bring forward the concept of fractal food supply chain and analyze its characteristics, structure and functional model. Then basing on the fractal theory we propose the detailed design procedure of food supply chain and discuss the practical significance of fractal food supply chain further.


Existing permutation-invariant methods can be divided into two categories according to the aggregation scope, i.e. global aggregation and local one. Although the global aggregation methods, e. g., PointNet and Deep Sets, get involved in simpler structures, their performance is poorer than the local aggregation ones like PointNet++ and Point Transformer. It remains an open problem whether there exists a global aggregation method with a simple structure, competitive performance, and even much fewer parameters. In this paper, we propose a novel global aggregation permutation-invariant network based on dual MLP dot-product, called DuMLP-Pin, which is capable of being employed to extract features for set inputs, including unordered or unstructured pixel, attribute, and point cloud data sets. We strictly prove that any permutation-invariant function implemented by DuMLP-Pin can be decomposed into two or more permutation-equivariant ones in a dot-product way as the cardinality of the given input set is greater than a threshold. We also show that the DuMLP-Pin can be viewed as Deep Sets with strong constraints under certain conditions. The performance of DuMLP-Pin is evaluated on several different tasks with diverse data sets. The experimental results demonstrate that our DuMLP-Pin achieves the best results on the two classification problems for pixel sets and attribute sets. On both the point cloud classification and the part segmentation, the accuracy of DuMLP-Pin is very close to the so-far best-performing local aggregation method with only a 1-2% difference, while the number of required parameters is significantly reduced by more than 85% in classification and 69% in segmentation, respectively. The code is publicly available on https://github.com/JaronTHU/DuMLP-Pin.


BACKGROUND: Judo practice requires high effort from athletes, mainly focused on the upper limbs, involving the shoulder complex. OBJECTIVE: To compare the shoulder internal (IR) and external (ER) rotation peak torque and conventional ratio (ER: IR) between judo athletes from different experience levels (novice vs. advanced) and to verify the distribution of athletes according to the ER: IR ratio classification. METHODS: Thirty-nine male judo athletes were divided into two groups (advanced: 20.5 ± 2.8 years and novice: 22.1 ± 5.5 years). The athletes performed a shoulder isokinetic protocol to measure IR and ER strength and the ER: IR ratio in novice and advanced groups. Chi-square tests were used to investigate the distribution of athletes according to the different groups of ER: IR ratio classification, and t-tests were used to compare the IR and ER peak torque and the ER: IR ratio between novice and advanced groups, with the level of significance set at 5%. RESULTS: The main results showed higher values of IR peak torque (77.3 ± 15.7 N⋅m in advanced vs. 48.2 ± 8.4 N⋅m in novices; p= 0.013), and a lower ER: IR conventional ratio in advanced athletes compared to novices (0.63 ± 0.1 advanced vs. 0.73± 0.2 in novice; p= 0.01). When individual values were analyzed, advanced athletes presented higher imbalance (< 0.66 ER: IR ratio) than novices (p= 0.023). CONCLUSION: Advanced athletes presented higher shoulder IR peak torque, but higher imbalance in the ER: IR ratio than novices, probably because the long-term training induced an increase in IR strength without concomitant development in ER strength. Coaches and strength and conditioning trainers should monitor shoulder rotator strength in judo athletes to avoid muscle imbalances in this region, which is frequently employed in judo training routines.


Background. The 2009 H1N1 influenza virus was first identified in April 2009 and rapidly evolved into a pandemic. There are limited reports of 2009 H1N1 influenza in transplant recipients. We report on our experience with hospitalized transplant recipients with 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. Methods. Ongoing review of hospitalized 2009 H1N1 influenza cases identified six patients who had received transplants. Clinical characteristics and outcomes were abstracted from the medical record. Results. Between April 27 and November 30, 2009, 29 patients with influenza A virus were admitted to the Mayo Clinic Hospital. Six of the 29 patients were transplant recipients; 4 were confirmed to have 2009 H1N1 influenza virus. Most patients presented with an acute febrile respiratory illness. Duration of antiviral treatment was 5 to 7 days except for one patient who was treated for 11 days until withdrawal of care. Prolonged viral shedding was not noted, and the patients recovered promptly except for a patient with recalcitrant multiple myeloma who died because of the disease. Conclusion. 2009 H1N1 influenza disease in this cohort of hospitalized transplant recipients was relatively mild. The majority of the patients improved promptly, and prolonged viral shedding was not noted.


ABSTRACT Periodontitis, a disease responsible for tooth loss worldwide, is characterized by chronic inflammation of the periodontium, eventually leading to destruction of periodontal ligaments and supporting alveolar bone. Spirochetes, identified by dark-field microscopy as being the most predominant bacteria in advanced lesions, are thought to play a causative role. Various spirochetal morphotypes were observed, but most of these morphotypes are as yet uncultivable. To assess the role of these organisms we designed oligonucleotide probes for the identification of both cultivable and so far uncultivable spirochetes in periodontitis patients. Subgingival plaque specimens taken from diseased sites (n = 200) and healthy control sites (n = 44) from 53 patients with rapidly progressive periodontitis (RPP) were submitted to direct in situ hybridization or dot blot hybridization after prior amplification with eubacterial primers. Spirochetes were found in all patients, but their distributions varied considerably. Parallel use of oligonucleotide probes specific for cultivable or so far uncultivable treponemes suggested the presence of novel yet unknown organisms at a high frequency. These uncultivable treponemes were visualized by fluorescence in situ hybridization, and their morphologies, sizes, and numbers could be estimated. All RPP patients included in this study harbored oral treponemes that represent either novel species, e.g.,Treponema maltophilum, or uncultivable phylotypes. Therefore, it is necessary to include these organisms in etiologic considerations and to strengthen efforts to cultivate these as yet uncultivable treponemes.


This paper describes exploratory research on Business students' satisfaction with their academic experiences. Herein, we report on the development of the Business Student Satisfaction Inventory (BSSI). Using data from 545 business students, we explore underlying factors of student satisfaction and validate the BSSI. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses yielded 17 items reflecting four factors: Quality of Business Education Outcomes, Quality of School Climate, Quality of Advising, and Quality of Computer Resources. Validation tests and implications for usage of the BSSI are discussed. This paper has relevance to ABSEL experiential educators since quality delivery of learning services and student satisfaction remain core matters of significance in experiential learning.


Unexpectedly lower yield outcomes (downside risks) challenge farmers' use of external inputs that can enhance crop productivity. Using household-level panel data collected from Ethiopia, we estimated the effects of crop diversification through maize-legume intercropping/rotation on maize yield distribution and downside risk. Results from endogenous switching regression models and quintile moment approaches show that plots with maize-legume intercropping/rotation have the highest average maize yield. Such crop diversification reduces the downside risk in maize yield more when applied to plots receiving external inputs. The results imply that, in addition to the technical support around external input use in smallholder maize production, Ethiopia's agricultural extension may also need to give due emphasis to both spatial and temporal crop diversification practices. This could enhance crop productivity further and reduce the potential downside risks typically hampering smallholders' external input use in maize production.


President Jacob Zuma signed the Broad-Based Black Economic Empowerment (BBBEE) Amendment Act (No 46 of 2013) into law in January 2014, while the new Phase 1 and Phase 2 B-BBEE Codes of Good Practice were gazetted in October 2013 and October 2014 respectively.


The inhibitory effects of the water and methanol extracts of Jakwangdo and Honghyangmi on the rat microsome lipid peroxidation and growth of four human cancer cells such as HepG2 (liver cancer), SNU-1 (stomach cancer), MCF-7 (breast cancer) and SNU-C4 (colon cancer) were examined. The methanol extracts of red colored rices showed the antioxidant activity and growth inhibitory effects of cancer cells. However, water extracts did not show the activities. Inhibitory activities of methanol extracts of Jakwangdo and Honghyangmi against lipid peroxidation of rat microsome was 80% and 68%, respectively, at the concentration of 1 ㎎/assay. Jakwangdo methanol extracts showed the highest growth inhibitory activity in MCF-7 cells among the cancer cells tested. The methanol extracts of red colored rices were further fractionated with hexane, chloroform, ethyl acetate and butanol. Both chloroform and hexane fractions showed strong growth inhibitory activity in HepG2 and MCF-7 cells.


Vaccinia virus relies on a series of proteolytic cleavage events involving two viral proteins, I7 and G1, to complete its life cycle. Furthermore, G1 itself is cleaved during vaccinia virus infection. However, convincing evidence is lacking to show whether G1 participates in autoproteolysis or is a substrate of another protease. We employed both biochemical and cell-based approaches to investigate G1 cleavage. G1, when expressed in bacteria, rabbit reticulocyte lysates or HeLa cells, was not processed. Moreover, G1 was cleaved in infected cells, but only in the presence of virus late gene expression; cleavage was strongly inhibited by proteasome inhibitors. Thus, these results imply a more complex G1 cleavage reaction than previously envisaged. The Poxviridae comprise a family of complex cytoplasmic replicating DNA viruses, which includes a number of important human and animal pathogens such as variola virus and vaccinia virus [19]. Poxviruses have a complex life cycle including distinct morphogenetic stages in which a spherical, immature particle is transformed into a brickshaped, infectious virion. An essential step for this maturation is a series of proteolytic cleavage events involving the viral proteins I7 viral core cysteine proteinase and metalloendopeptidase G1 [11]. In the past decade, attention has focused on these two proteins as interesting targets for development of anti-poxvirus drugs [7, 9, 18]. I7 has been shown to be inhibited by classical cysteine protease inhibitors (such as iodoacetic acid and N-ethyl maleimide) as well as an active-site inhibitor (termed TTP6171) that is specific for I7 and unrelated to any canonical protease inhibitors [1, 4, 6–10, 12, 18]. In contrast, biochemical knowledge about G1 is still limited. Mutational analysis has shown that G1 is required for conversion of immature virions into infectious mature particles. As G1 mutants arrest replication subsequent to core protein cleavage, the role of G1 in the conversion of the immature virus remains obscure [3, 6, 15]. However, G1, a 68-kDa protein of 591 amino acids, has been predicted by bioinformatics to be a metalloproteinase [16]. This conclusion is based on the presence of a conserved zinc-binding motif, HXXEH [5]; this sequence is a direct inversion of the established HEXXH motif found in many matrix metalloendopeptidases (MMPs). The HXXEH motif is 100% conserved among members of the family Poxviridae, implying that it is vital for the enzymés active site. Interestingly, in all poxvirus family members, both X residues are always leucine. Additionally, G1 contains a region 65 residues downstream of the HXXEH sequence consisting of ELENEXXXXXE. This sequence is also very highly conserved among poxviruses and is proposed to be involved in the coordination of a zinc ion [16]. In the infected cell, G1 exists initially as a 68-kDa entity, which can be cleaved into N-terminal (46 kDa) and C-terminal (22 kDa) products [3, 16]. However, the significance of this cleavage remains unclear. It is also unclear whether G1 participates in autoproteolysis or is a substrate of another & F. G. G. Leite email@example.com 1 Max F. Perutz Laboratories, Medical University of Vienna, Dr. Bohr-Gasse 9/3, 1030 Vienna, Austria 2 CeMM Research Center for Molecular Medicine of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Lazarettgasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria 3 Present Address: Cellular Signalling and Cytoskeletal Function, The Francis Crick Institute, 1 Midland Road, London NW1 1AT, UK 123 Arch Virol (2017) 162:2803–2808 DOI 10.1007/s00705-017-3409-y