The performance of two thoracic samplers, the GK2.69 cyclone and the CATHIA-T sampler, and the GK3.51 cyclone was investigated in the field against the standard cowled sampler (current NIOSH 7400 method) to determine the effect of thoracic sampling. The CATHIA-T sampler and the GK2.69 cyclone were operated at 7 and 1.6 l min(-1), respectively. The GK3.51 sampler is related to the GK2.69 cyclone, but designed to give a thoracic cut at a flow rate of 3.2 l min(-1). A total of 136 area samples were obtained from a tremolitic talc processing mill and 148 area samples were obtained within a quarry in which metamorphosed volcanic rocks were being crushed for construction stone. Sample slides were prepared using the dimethyl formamide/Euparal technique and relocatable cover slips. NIOSH 7400 'A' counting rules were used to examine fibers. Additionally, counters were asked to record the number of fibers where a fiber meets the 'A' rules and is wider than 3-mum physical diameter in order to estimate the proportion of extra-thoracic fibers. A few slides from each sampler type were randomly selected and fiber widths for those fibers satisfying the counting rules were measured to determine median width ratios of each thoracic sampler to the cowled sampler. Overall, the combined results of this study and the previous study by the same authors (Lee et al., 2008) showed lower fiber concentrations for the CATHIA-T sampler and higher concentrations for the GK2.69 cyclone and the GK3.51 cyclone compared to the standard cowled sampler. The proportion of extra-thoracic fibers (>3-mum physical diameter) on the filters collected with each type of thoracic samplers was comparable to the proportion of such fibers collected with the cowled sampler. The most consistent result over this study and our previous study is that both cyclones gave higher fiber concentrations than the CATHIA-T sampler. However, the estimated width ratios of each cyclone type to the cowled sampler were similar to or equal to 1 indicating no separation of fiber bundles due to cyclone effects. An inverse relationship between the fiber concentration ratios of each thoracic sampler type to the cowled sampler and the relative sample loading rate compared to the cowled sampler was observed. The difference in fiber concentration ratios might be a function of sample loading rather than an effect of thoracic size selection. Therefore, it is not recommended that any of these samplers be used to replace the cowled sampler in measurements intended for comparison with limit values arising from risk assessments developed from cowled sampler measurements without considering this possible effect.


The elevation of intracellular cAMP synergistically enhances the neuregulin‐dependent proliferation of cultured Schwann cells (SCs); however, the mechanism by which this occurs has not been completely defined. To better understand this mechanism, we investigated the effect of cAMP on the activation of the extracellular signal‐regulated kinase (ERK) and phosphoinositide 3‐kinase (PI3‐K)‐Akt (PKB) pathways by heregulin, a member of the neuregulin family. Using primary cultures of adult SCs, we demonstrated that the adenylyl cyclase activator, forskolin, enhanced heregulin‐dependent SC proliferation by reducing the time required for S‐phase entry. When cAMP levels were increased, using either forskolin or a cell permeable analogue of cAMP, the heregulin‐induced phosphorylation of ERK was converted from transient to sustained and the heregulin‐induced phosphorylation of Akt was synergistically increased. Consistent with these observations, studies in which inhibitors of MEK, the upstream stimulating ERK kinase, and PI3‐K were administered at different times following the onset of stimulation indicated that sustained high levels of both MEK/ERK and PI3‐K/Akt activity before S‐phase initiation were essential for S‐phase entry. Overall, these novel results indicate that in neuregulin‐stimulated SCs the activation of cAMP‐mediated pathways accelerates G1‐S progression by prolonging ERK activation and concurrently enhancing Akt activation. © 2006 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.


Optimization procedures of performance analysis for ORC(Organic Rankine Cycle) system are established to the characteristics of low temperature heat sources such as open-type and closed-type. Effective heat recovery and heat extraction related to maximum power of the cycle as well as heat quality and thermal efficiency must be considered in the case of the open-type low temperature heat source. On the other hand, in the case of the closed-type low temperature heat source, only thermal efficiency is important due to constant heat input. In this study, thermal efficiency and exergy efficiency representing a level of close to Carnot cycle are studied, as useful index for the optimization of the ORC system. To validate the results of cycle analysis, those are compared with appropriate experimental data of ORC system as a thermal efficiency point of view.


When Artificial Intelligence is considered in the context of creative activities, it is normally in the role of the creator (e.g. deep learning algorithms applied to poetry or painting). In this paper we instead propose casting the machine in the role of a reader (a ReaderBot), to help authors see how their work was likely to be experienced by an audience. This seems especially useful with interactive narratives, where multiple paths can produce many thousands of variations on that experience. We present an exploratory experiment based on the StoryPlaces locative narrative system, showing how a Simple Heuristic ReaderBot can simulate readings of a located hypertext. We then provide Narrative Analytics of those readings in the form of structural, experiential/dramatic, and locative feedback. We also present three Machine Learning ReaderBots (Linear Regression, Logistic Regression, and a Feed Forward Neural Network), trained on real reading logs, and using distance, prior visits, altitude, proximity to POIs, and text similarity as an input vector to predict next node decisions with precision substantially better than random, and comparable to the Heuristic Reader. We argue that ReaderBots can create an instant audience of thousands that could give authors valuable insights into the potential experiences of their readers.


When their Slash Goggles algorithm is functioning, Cylons can perceive the homoerotic sexual subtext all around them. Cylons are cybernetic organisms from the television program "Battlestar Galactica" and the "Slash Goggles" algorithm is a creative codework by Julie Levin Russo written in Zach Blas' fictional anti-language transCoder. These are code artworks commenting on popular culture and seeking to disrupt what Blas calls the heteronormativity of computer source code. In order to seek out the heteronormativity of source code, I don these lenses for examining another piece of sexually charged code, the AnnaKournikova worm.


The calcination reaction of limestone is always companied by sintering of the calcined product. In addition, accelerated sintering rates and a reduced specific surface area are observed in the presence of steam and carbon dioxide. To simulate the change of surface area and the porosity of limestone samples in a simultaneous calcination and sintering process, a combined model based on both a sintering model and a calcination model is established. The calcination model, which predicts calcination conversion as a function of time, is based on the initial properties of the sorbent. The sintering model is according to the German and Munir model in which the main transport mechanism is supposed to be lattice diffusion. In a flow reactor, the surface area value and calcination rate of limestone in the presence of steam and CO2 are also described by the combined model with modified parameters.


Conformational properties of two potentially beta-turn forming peptides were determined using a strategy which combines MD simulations, IR and VCD spectroscopy and quantum chemical calculations. This strategy could be a useful alternative for solution conformational analysis of short flexible peptides and could help to identify VCD features which are as yet unknown.


We calculate infrared spectral energy distributions (SEDs) from simulations of major galaxy mergers, and study the effect of active galactic nucleus (AGN) and starburst-driven feedback on the evolution of the SED as a function of time. We use a self-consistent three-dimensional radiative equilibrium code to calculate the emergent SEDs and to make images. To facilitate a simple description of our findings, we describe our results in reference to an approximate analytic solution for the far-IR SED. We focus mainly on the luminous infrared galaxy (LIRG) and ultraluminous infrared galaxy (ULIRG) phases of evolution. We contrast the SEDs of simulations performed with AGN feedback to simulations performed with starburst-driven wind feedback. We find that the feedback processes critically determine the evolution of the SED. Changing the source of illumination (whether stellar or AGN) has virtually no impact on the reprocessed far-infrared SED. We find that AGN feedback is particularly effective at dispersing gas and rapidly injecting energy into the ISM. The observational signature of such powerful feedback is a warm SED. In general, simulations performed with starburst-driven winds have colder spectra and reprocess more of their emission into the infrared, resulting in higher infrared to bolometric luminosities compared to (otherwise equivalent) simulations performed with AGN feedback. We depict our results in IRAS, as well as in Spitzer's MIPS bands, and in Herschel's PACS bands.


The Working Paper Series is intended for rapid dissemination of research results, work-in-progress, and innovative teaching methods, at the pre-publication stage. Comments are welcomed and should be addressed to the individual author(s). It should be noted that papers in this series are often provisional and comments and/or citations should take account of this. Hertfordshire Business School Working Papers are freely downloadable from https://uhra.herts.ac.uk/dspace/handle/2299/5549 and also from the British Library: www.mbsportal.bl.uk


In this paper, we describe a lead transformation tool, NEAT (Novel and Electronically equivalent Aromatic Template), which can help identify novel aromatic rings that are estimated to have similar electrostatic potentials, dipoles, and hydrogen bonding capabilities to a query template; hence, they may offer similar bioactivity profiles. In this work, we built a comprehensive heteroaryl database, and precalculated high-level quantum mechanical (QM) properties, including electrostatic potential charges, hydrogen bonding ability, dipole moments, chemical reactivity, and othe properties. NEAT bioisosteric similarities are based on the electrostatic potential surface calculated by Brood, using the precalculated QM ESP charges and other QM properties. Compared with existing commercial lead transformation software, (1) NEAT is the only one that covers the comprehensive heteroaryl chemical space, and (2) NEAT offers a better characterization of novel aryl cores by using high-evel QM properties that are relevant to molecular interactions. NEAT provides unique value to medicinal chemists quickly exploring the largely uncharted aromatic chemical space, and one successful example of its application is discussed herein.


A technique of white-light color encoding of misfocused speckle interferometric fringe patterns is presented. The encoding is performed in the spatial frequency plane with color filters. This technique allows the viewing of a multiset of encoded speckle interferograms simultaneously. Thus, it may provide new informational interferometric aspects of the object under stress or vibration. The effect on the speckle fringe pattern due to the spatial filtering is briefly discussed, and experimental demonstrations of color encoded fringe patterns are presented. Due to the simplicity and versatility of the processing technique, we feel that the technique may develop into a practical tool for strain, stress, and vibrational measurement.


The recent rapid increase in cesarean childbirth is a source of growing public health concern. We suggest that one method of ameliorating the rise would be to disseminate hospital-specific cesarean section rates. To make such rates comparable between hospitals, it is necessary to adjust for variations in maternal and newborn factors associated with cesarean section. We therefore applied an indirect standardization technique to three years of California vital records data. The results show sizable variations in cesarean section rates among individual hospitals and by hospital type, both before and after standardization. For such a method to be effective, complete and accurate information from birth certificates is an obvious prerequisite.


72 1024x768 Since the end of the Second World War the world economy has, apart from brief interludes of price stability, been in the grip of continuous inflation. No country seems to have managed to escape this world inflation entirely, although a few have made the very greatest efforts to do so. The present article considers why these efforts were in vain and if there really is no defence against " imported " world inflation. The author analyses the four types of policy for avoiding inflation - restrictive monetary and fiscal policy, export of capital, periodic changes in exchange parities and flexible exchange rates. The analysis suggests that the first two are least recommendable in the face of chronic balance of payments surpluses because they do not eradicate the surplus itself and can be sustained for only a relatively short period of time. The latter two do eliminate the external surplus, however, in the face of continuous world inflation, periodic revaluation does so only temporarily while flexible rates represent a permanent solution. The author concludes that world inflation can be checked only if there is an international monetary order which keeps reserves so scarce that no country feels able to allow inflation to proceed. Normal 0 14


BACKGROUND
Osteoporosis (OP) is a common, multifactorial disorder. Here, we investigated the association between polymorphisms in pri-miR-34b/c (rs4938723) and TP53 (Arg72Pro) and the prevalence of OP.

METHODS
A total of 681 individuals were assessed in a case-control study, including 310 patients with OP and 371 controls. Variants in pri-miR-34b/c and TP53 were identified using a polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphism method.

RESULTS
The presence of the CC and CT/CC pri-miR-34b/c genotypes were associated with a significantly reduced risk of OP compared with the TT genotype (CC vs. TT: odds ratio [OR] = 0.32, 95% confidence intervals [CI] = 0.17-0.59; p < 0.001; CT/CC vs. TT: OR = 0.69, 95% CI = 0.51-0.93; p = 0.016). The CC genotype was also associated with a significantly reduced OP risk compared with the TT/CT genotypes (OR = 0.35, 95% CI = 0.19-0.64; p < 0.001). Furthermore, compared with the carriers of the Arg72Pro GG genotype, carriers of the CC genotype had a 2.21-fold increased OP risk (95% CI = 1.45-3.37; p < 0.001) and CG/CC genotypes carriers had a 1.96-fold increased OP risk (95% CI = 1.39-2.76; p < 0.001).

CONCLUSIONS
The present findings indicate that pri-miR-34b/c rs4938723 and TP53 Arg72Pro polymorphisms may contribute to the risk of OP.


Due to the subsynchronous interaction between the grid-side converter (GSC) of wind farms and the rectifier (REC) of voltage source converter-based high-voltage direct current (VSC-HVDC) transmission system, subsynchronous oscillations (SSOs) may occur in direct-drive wind farms with VSC-HVDC systems. Considering the nonlinearities and uncertainties of the system, a nonlinear SSO mitigation strategy is proposed in this article based on the feedback linearization theory and sliding mode control (SMC). The feedback linearization theory is used to eliminate the nonlinearities, and the SMC is adopted to improve the robustness against uncertainties and disturbances. The proposed feedback linearization SMC (FLSMC) takes the advantages of feedback linearization control (FLC) and SMC. The FLC transforms the nonlinear forms of the GSC and REC into the linear forms through the coordinate transformation and feedback. Considering that the FLC is sensitive to parameter uncertainties and external disturbances, the SMC is combined with the FLC to improve the system robustness. An eigenvalue analysis and time-domain simulations are carried out, which demonstrates that the FLC outperforms over the traditional proportional–integral control for the SSO mitigation and decoupling. Meanwhile, the FLSMC shows better robustness against parameter uncertainties and external disturbances over the FLC and traditional damping control.


Atom-transfer chemistry represents an important class of reactions catalyzed by metalloenzymes. As a functional mimic of non-heme iron enzymes that deliver oxygen atoms to olefins, we have designed monoiron complexes supported by new N-donor chelates. These ligands take advantage of heme-like conformational rigidity of the π-conjugated molecular backbone, and synthetic flexibility of tethering non-heme donor groups for additional steric and electronic control. Iron complexes generated in situ can be used to carry out catalytic epoxidation of a wide range of olefin substrates by using mCPBA as a terminal oxidant. The fate of initial iron-peracid adduct and the involvement of iron-oxo species in this process were investigated further by mechanistic probes and isotope exchange studies. Our findings suggest that anilidopyridyl-derived [N,N]-bidentate motif could serve as a versatile structural platform to build non-heme ligands for catalytic oxidation chemistry.


Recently, the analysis of remote sensing images has attracted a lot of attention. In the domain of scene classification, deep learning methods, especially convolutional networks (CNNs), currently achieve the best results. Although the classification performance has reached a high level, there are still some factors limiting the improvement of classification accuracy. Based on obeservation of remote sensing scene images, we fing that some scenes are quite similar though they belong to different classes. To improve the classification performance between different scenes with similar characteristics, we propose a significant Feature Sparsity Layer that can be esaily embedded into various convolutional network architectures. The proposed layer can inhibit the confusing features meanwhile stress the discriminative features, and it is used to sparse the multi-layer feature map, which is extracted by the convolutional layers. The proposed method achieves the state-of-the-art results on three datasets UC Merced Land Use, Aerial Image Data and OPTIMAL-31, and competitive result on dataset WHU-RS19.


Aconitine has been used as a folk remedy for centuries to treat pain and as an inotropic agent. However, because its therapeutic range is very narrow, it often causes many side effects when not controlled carefully. These include nausea, vomiting, paresthesia, cardiac arrhythmia and hypotension. Most of the aconitine intoxication cases have been attributed to accidental overdose of aconitine-containing medicines. In this case, a 53-year-old woman attempted suicide by intentionally overdosing herself with an aconitine decoction. She suffered paresthesia in both arms and showed junctional rhythm on an electrocardiogram at admission. Here we report that early gastric lavage and other symptomatic therapies were helpful for treating aconitine intoxication. Similar to intoxication with other drugs, these supportive measures can prevent the patient`s hospitalization.


In this study, the distribution and concentration of β1, β2, and α2adrenergic receptors were examined in the frontal cortex, hypothalamus, and cerebellum of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and age-matched control human brains by receptor autoradiography. The purpose of this study was to detect changes in adrenergic receptor concentrations in key areas of the brain known to affect behavior. For these studies, [125I]iodopindolol ([125I]IPIN) was used to visualize total β adrenergic sites (with ICI-89,406 and ICI-118,551 as subtype-selective antagonists to visualize β2 and β1receptors, respectively). [3H]UK-14,304 was used to localize the α2 sites. Essentially no significant difference in adrenergic receptor concentration was found between total AD cases taken together and control patients. It was found, however, that there were important distinctions within the AD group when cases were subdivided according to the presence or absence of aggression, agitation, and disruptive behavior. Aggressive AD patients had markedly increased (by ∼70%) concentrations of α2 receptors in the cerebellar cortex compared with nonaggressive patients with similar levels of cognitive deficit. The levels of cerebellar α2receptors in aggressive AD patients were slightly above the healthy elderly controls, suggesting that these receptors are preserved and perhaps increased in this subgroup of AD. β1 And β2 adrenergic receptors of the cerebellar cortex showed smaller but significant (∼25%) increases in concentration in aggressive AD subjects versus both nonaggressive AD patients and controls. No significant differences were found in adrenergic receptor concentrations within the frontal cortex or hypothalamus. These results point out the importance of distinguishing behavioral subgroups of AD when looking for specific neurochemical changes. These autoradiographic results may reflect the importance of the cerebellum in behavioral control.


How to obtain discriminative features has proved to be a core problem for image retrieval. Many recent works use convolutional neural networks to extract features. However, clutter and occlusion will interfere with the distinguishability of features when using convolutional neural network (CNN) for feature extraction. To address this problem, we intend to obtain high-response activations in the feature map based on the attention mechanism. We propose two attention modules, a spatial attention module and a channel attention module. For the spatial attention module, we first capture the global information and model the relation between channels as a region evaluator, which evaluates and assigns new weights to local features. For the channel attention module, we use a vector with trainable parameters to weight the importance of each feature map. The two attention modules are cascaded to adjust the weight distribution for the feature map, which makes the extracted features more discriminative. Furthermore, we present a scale and mask scheme to scale the major components and filter out the meaningless local features. This scheme can reduce the disadvantages of the various scales of the major components in images by applying multiple scale filters, and filter out the redundant features with the MAX-Mask. Exhaustive experiments demonstrate that the two attention modules are complementary to improve performance, and our network with the three modules outperforms the state-of-the-art methods on four well-known image retrieval datasets.


There is a need to provide a portable and cost-effective galvanic isolation between ground support equipment and flight hardware such that any unforeseen voltage differential between ground and power supplies is eliminated. An interface board was designed for use between the ground support equipment and the flight hardware that electrically isolates all input and output signals and faithfully reproduces them on each side of the interface. It utilizes highly integrated multi-channel isolating devices to minimize size and reduce assembly time. This single-board solution provides appropriate connector hardware and breakout of required flight signals to individual connectors as needed for various ground support equipment. The board utilizes multi-channel integrated circuits that contain transformer coupling, thereby allowing input and output signals to be isolated from one another while still providing high-fidelity reproduction of the signal up to 90 MHz. The board also takes in a single-voltage power supply input from the ground support equipment and in turn provides a transformer-derived isolated voltage supply to power the portion of the circuitry that is electrically connected to the flight hardware. Prior designs used expensive opto-isolated couplers that were required for each signal to isolate and were time-consuming to assemble. In addition, these earlier designs were bulky and required a 2U rack-mount enclosure. The new design is smaller than a piece of 8.5 ~11-in. (.22 ~28-mm) paper and can be easily hand-carried where needed. The flight hardware in question is based on a lineage of existing software-defined radios (SDRs) that utilize a common interface connector with many similar input-output signals present. There are currently four to five variations of this SDR, and more upcoming versions are planned based on the more recent design.


To evaluate irradiation effects on choroidal melanomas, histopathologic findings of 18 eyes whose primary treatment was enucleation were compared to 15 eyes enucleated after proton beam irradiation. Irradiated tumors showed more likely necrosis (p = 0.01) had balloon cells (p = 0.01), and inflammatory infiltrate (p = 0.05). In the irradiated group, the prevalence of tumor blood vessel damage was higher (p = 0.0002) and mitotic figures were fewer (p = 0.01). These findings suggest that proton beam irradiation damages tumor cells and alters the tumor's capacity for cellular reproduction. It damages blood vessels leading to tumor necrosis. It induces an inflammatory response of unknown effects. Radiosensitivity of choroidal melanomas cannot be assessed using conventional histologic methods. However, tumor necrosis, mitotic activity and rate of balloon cells can help to establish tumoral sensitivity to irradiation.


A new approach to estimate the age of ballpoint ink-written texts has been offered. It is based on using the microspectrophotometric determination of the ratios of comparatively unstable and stable dyes in the surface layer of the questioned ink and in the whole ink film by comparing reflectance values measured in natural (specular reflection) and polarized (diffuse reflection) light, respectively. The older the ink, the less the mentioned dyes' ratio in the surface layer of the ink. Limitations of the technique and of the equipment's accessories used are discussed. Suggestions for further work are proposed.


under review is a reprint of the same issue for the Indian readership. Dankwart A. Rustow, Professor of international social forces at the Columbia University conceived this study and invited a group of scholars drawn from history, psychology, economics, and political science to contribute papers on the theme of leadership, using analytical skills of their respective disciplines. In all these studies, "leadership as a process of innovation and leadership as the recurrent interplay between private personality and public performance have remained the main focus. The leaders chosen for analysis represent various fields and different countries. To quote Rustow, "they illustrate the scope of statesmanship and of intellectual poineering in the modern world-from Isaac Newton to Charles Merriam, from James Mill to William James, from Bismarck, Lenin, and Gandhi to NKrumah and de Gaulle. The intellectual forces these men set in motion range from the theory of gravitation in physics to the behaviouial method in social studies, from utilitarianism and pragmatism to communism and post-colonial nationalis~n.~~ The studies reported in this book show a concern for theory and an appropriate methodology for the study of leadership as a process. The role of history, the influence of childhood experience, and the pressures of the immediate social milieu are all important but their relative significance needs definition. In most of these studies, a revisit is pdid to Weber's concept of Charisma. Of particular interest are the essays by Robert C. Tucker and David E. Apter. Tucker has devoted his full paper on the theory of Charismatic leadership. Tucker believes that "this concept meets a vital theoretical need", but he also reckons "with the arguments about the concept's unclarity and the difficulty of applying it in practice". Taking Weber's "principal pertinent thoughts as a point of departure", Tucker has attempted an independent reformulation of the concept. According to him, it is not necessary for a charismatic leader to achieve power. "We m y lay it down as a general rule that when a leader-personality is genuinely charismatic, his charisma will begin to mainfest itself before he becomes politically powerful" David Apter also disagrees with the formulations both of Weber, and of his contemporary interpreter, Edward Shils: He feels that charisma ''is likely to arise where there exists an attenuated normative situation which, although it may not challenge preexisting norms directly, allows new combinations . This /he demonstrates with the help of NKrumah's case study. Erik H. Erikson's search of Gandhi confronts the reader with psycho-historical evidence-a style of analysis that is refreshing, and which is likely to be controversial (for example, relating salt to semen, and therefore making it a symbol of manhood, to explain the why of Salt March). Hirschman's piece on Underdevelopment, Obstacles to the perception of Change, and leadership makes very interesting and important observation on change but leadership has received only a marginal treatment. To the student of the sociology of knowledge, the paper by Barry D. Karl on "The power of the intellect and the politics of ideas" will be of considerable interest. The collection of essays embodied in this book break a new ground. Let us hope that this will initiate a dialogue among social scientists of different professions.


The architecture of a newly developed highly parallel pipeline DSP that achieves over 300 MOPS/LSI programming capability is presented. This programmable single-chip DSP is designed for application to a variety of different single-board moving image codecs, which require a DSP with roughly 10 times the power of conventional single pipeline unit architecture DSPs. Assuming 0.8- mu m CMOS technology, a single-chip DSP architecture integrating four sets of pipeline processing units was extensively studied. The DSP configuration and noble techniques enabling efficient operation of plural pipeline processing units are described. Evaluation of the performance of the DSP is also presented.<<ETX>>


Neoliberalism, applied to the Mexican economy since 1983, involved changes in the productive structure of the agriculture and cattle sector such as more trade openness and changes to Article 27 of the Constitution, in order to promote farm productivity and improve living conditions of the rural population. The aim of this study was to analyze the reform to Article 27 of the Constitution and its impact on the organization and the rights of property rights of the ejidal land, and in the production structure of the agriculture and cattle sector. The holder of the ejidal land is released from legal and social restrictions that prevented land transactions. The share of Agriculture and Cattle Gross Domestic Product (ACGDP) in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) change from 12.18% in 1970 to 4.39% in 2012, the ACGDP decreased -2.9% annual average in the period 1993-2000, and -7.2% in 2009.


We recently reported that Ti(3+)-doped low-silica calcium aluminosilicate glass presents long luminescence lifetime (170 micros) and broad emission band (190 nm) shifted toward the visible region when compared with those from Ti(3+):sapphire single crystal and Ti(3+)-doped glasses [Phys. Rev. Lett.100, 027402 (2008)]. Here we demonstrate that this glass also shows high values of both gain cross section (approximately 4.7 x 10(-19) cm(2)) and luminescence quantum efficiency (approximately 70%). By comparing these values with those for Ti(3+):sapphire crystal, we can conclude that the studied Ti(3+)-doped glass is a promising system for tunable solid-state lasers.


In the title compound, C21H16N2O2, the 3-nitrophenyl and two phenyl rings are twisted from the mean plane of the enimino fragment by 44.4 (1), 37.2 (1) and 74.1 (1)°, respectively. The crystal packing exhibits no classical intermolecular contacts.


The road to policy-engaged research in Northern Ireland has not been smooth. In January 2017 the devolved government at the Stormont Assembly collapsed and devolution was not restored until January 2020. Political turmoil resurfaced in February 2022, with the collapse of the Executive. Trying to engage with and influence policy during these periods has been difficult, but necessary to achieve research impact and demonstrate the utility of data access for research purposes, thus supporting the acquisition of further datasets. This required a paradigm shift in the way research programmes were conceived of and delivered; i.e. away from largely curiosity-based research for academic interest and benefit and towards one that necessitated a more direct engagement and involvement of the government departments and data owners who would benefit from better evidence generated by administrative data research, and incorporate this evidence into their policymaking and service provision.
Aligning the academic and policy agenda increased the likelihood of successful data acquisition, the prerequisite for research success and subsequent research impact. It also creates a more stable environment for data research to flourish, even in challenging political circumstances.
This presentation will detail the approach developed by researchers and engagement professionals in Northern Ireland during political and governmental collapse to embed and enhance the potential impact that data research can have on policy by supporting the design and development of research that answers the questions most relevant to policymakers whilst also maintaining academic independence and integrity. It will offer suggestions for engaging and involving political representatives and policymakers, and for creating a resilient, robust and sustainable approach to policy impact that can withstand shifting political sands, based on recognised best practice of embedded engagement built to develop and maintain trust.


The electrical material quality of multicrystalline (mc) silicon for photovoltaic applications suffers from crystal defects as well as from impurities that originate from the feedstock, the quartz crucible, and its coating. In this study, we investigate the influence of impurities from the crucible on efficiency losses in mc silicon solar cells, focusing on the limitation due to iron. The applicability of p-type mc silicon, crystallized in G1 sized crucibles of industrial material quality and very pure electrically fused silica, for a high-efficiency solar cell process is examined by measuring lifetime and interstitial iron concentration in the wafers after different processing steps and by estimating the cell efficiency potential from injection-dependent bulk lifetime measurements. Interstitial iron concentrations extracted from 2-D simulations of iron precipitation at crystal defects and gettering during processing agree well with Fei measurements at different process stages and explain the observations. Efficiency losses are quantified to losses due to segregated impurities diffused into the silicon melt, losses due to decorated crystal defects and losses due to solid-state diffusion into the crystal. By using a high-purity crucible, losses are reduced significantly and an efficiency gain of 0.5% absolute is estimated to be attainable on wafers with edge region.


Rats increased food intake 6 h after peripheral and intracerebroventricular injections of 2-deoxy-D-glucose (2-DG) when plasma glucose concentrations had returned to normal from elevated levels. Rats with adrenal demedullation did not become hyperglycemic after injection of 2-DG and increased food intake more than normal animals after peripheral, but not ventricular, injections of 2-DG. Peripheral injections of 2-DG inhibited gastric emptying in normal, but not adrenal demedullated, rats. Intravenous infusions of epinephrine into normal rats, which mimicked some of the physiological effects of peripheral 2-DG injection, did not increase food intake. The results indicate that a prior disruption of cerebral metabolism is sufficient to elicit feeding in the absence of an adrenomedullary response and that increased gastric fill may restrain the increase in food intake produced by a previous cerebral emergency.


Photosensitive great tits (Parus major) and willow tits (P. montanus) were exposed to long days (20L:4D) under three different temperature conditions (4+, +10, and +20 degrees C) in early winter. The two species showed significant differences in their LH and testicular reaction patterns to low temperatures. Testes showed pronounced growth cycles under all temperature regimes. For the willow tit, testes in birds kept at +20 degrees C reached maximum size about 2 weeks earlier than testes in birds living under the two lower temperature regimes, whereas in the great tit testes reached maximum size at about the same time in all three groups. Low temperatures delayed the onset of testicular regression in both species. Plasma levels of LH did change with time in both species. However, the patterns of the induced LH-cycles in the three great tit groups differed significantly from each other, whereas this was not the case for the willow tits. The LH cycle was especially pronounced in great tits kept at +20 degrees C. The initial LH peak in great tits kept at +4 and +10 degrees C was about 50% lower than in great tits kept at +20 degrees C. These results are discussed in relation to species differences in winter ecology and establishment of breeding territories.


Research and development on optical networks generally and on Passive Optical Networks (PON) particularly have matured considerably. The exponential increase in the demand for bandwidth has exposed many challenges in the "last mile" that remains the bottleneck in broadband access networks. Currently, Ethernet PON has emerged as the most inexpensive panacea, providing more bandwidth than Cable Modems and Digital Subscriber Lines. Nevertheless, providing fair and efficient Quality of Service (QoS) has always been a major issue due to the un-deterministic nature of Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA) technology and the limited 1 Gbps channel speed that EPON relies on; unlike backbone networks that uses the Wavelength Division Multiplexing (WDM) technology. This book instruments these challenges and issues and offers effective solutions. More specifically, it presents an upgrade from a TDM-PON to a Hybrid TDM/WDM-PON and proposes and validates the first framework that enables for per-stream QoS protection in EPON using a new fair QoS scheduler. The book addresses professionals in optical and access networks. It is also directed towards researchers who would like to get a novel fragrance of EPONs.


The archaeology of Sulawesi is important for developing an understanding of human dispersal and occupation of central Island Southeast Asia. Through over a century of archaeological work, multiple human populations in the southwestern region of Sulawesi have been identified, the most well-documented being that of the Mid- to Late Holocene 'Toalean' technological period. Archaeological models for this period describe a population with a strong cultural identity, subdivided into groups living on the coastal plains around Maros as well as dispersed upland forest dwellers, hunting endemic wildlife with bow-and-arrow technology. It has been proposed that the Toaleans were capable of vast water-crossings, with possible cultural exchange with northern Australia, Java, and Japan. This Toalean paradigm is built almost exclusively on existing interpretations of distinctive Toalean stone and bone artefact technologies, constructed on out-dated 19th and 20th century theory. Moreover, current definitions of Toalean artefact types are inconsistently applied and unsystematic, and the manufacturing sequence has historically been poorly understood. To address these problems in existing artefact models and typologies, we present a clarified typology of the Toalean artefacts of South Sulawesi, and describe the technical aspects of artefact production. This typology provides a tool for standardising research and will facilitate more meaningful assessments of material culture repertoires and more reliable assessment of spatial and temporal changes for the region.


This paper describes a technique for distributing quarterly time series across monthly values. The method generalizes an approach described by Fernandez (1981). The paper also presents results of a test of the accuracy of these two approaches and two standard procedures suggested by Chow and Lin (1971).


Pilots and flight attendants flying scheduled services between Vancouver and Tokyo and between Toronto and Rome were tested on a tracking task before and after flights in each direction. Flights were included in schedules involving both 24-h and 7-d layovers at the overseas station. During these periods, they recorded their sleep patterns. The data showed that, following flight, subjects made an immediate attempt to adapt their behaviour to local time and the changes in their performance scores could be interpreted on that basis. It was concluded that behavioural circadian rhythms adapt rapidly to a new time zone.


The findings of this descriptive study on the cultural aspects of the pretend play of upper middle class children in North Tehran are based on an-hour long interview with mothers of 38 young (n = 17) and old (n = 21) preschool children (half were girls). Influences of children's daily activities, cultural and family values and Tehran city-life conditions on children's pretend play were investigated. Children's daily life influenced time available for play; mothers believed that play time had decreased due to increased participation at enrichment classes, more time spent watching TV, frequently going out along with mother, and reduced number of siblings and children in general. Children mostly played pretend indoors due to pollution and hazardous traffic. Despite dislike of clutter, mothers allowed children to play anywhere in the house as long as safe and comfortable. Children had a wide range of toys, which lend to all themes of play; mostly toys were related to Everyday Activities; girls played as frequently with Family Care and boys with Fantasy toys. Mothers appreciated toys for increasing creativity and imagination, and child's happiness and learning. Majority of children's play partners were relatives and grownups. Their non-relative play partners were children's of mother's friends, and a few played with neighbors. Most mothers wished the child had more young play partners, however, would not invite a play partner if unsure of homogeneity of family values. Children's themes of play were mostly related to everyday activities. Girls, in addition, frequently played Family Care and boys Fantasy Themes and Danger in Environment. Themes did not vary by age, however, younger children more frequently engaged in thematic play. Mothers disliked themes of violence. Mothers' perceived social functions of play were mostly related to bonding with relatives, having a fulfilling and enjoyable time, and learning appropriate social values and behaviors. They also valued increasing creativity and imagination. They believed that pretend play is essential for children's development and its deprivation will have negative developmental consequences.


Breast cancer is a heterogeneously complex disease. A number of molecular subtypes with distinct biological features lead to different treatment responses and clinical outcomes. Traditionally, breast cancer is classified into subtypes based on gene expression profiles; these subtypes include luminal A, luminal B, basal like, HER2-enriched, and normal-like breast cancer. This molecular taxonomy, however, could only be appraised through transcriptome analyses. Our study applies deep convolutional neural networks and transfer learning from three pre-trained models, namely ResNet50, InceptionV3 and VGG16, for classifying molecular subtypes of breast cancer using TCGA-BRCA dataset. We used 20 whole slide pathological images for each breast cancer subtype. The results showed that our scale training reached about 78% of accuracy for validation. This outcomes suggested that classification of molecular subtypes of breast cancer by pathological images are feasible and could provide reliable results


Unveiling the underlying governing equations of nonlinear dynamic systems remains a significant challenge, especially when encountering noisy observations and no prior knowledge available. This study proposes R-DISCOVER, a framework designed to robustly uncover open-form partial differential equations (PDEs) from limited and noisy data. The framework operates through two alternating update processes: discovering and embedding. The discovering phase employs symbolic representation and a reinforcement learning (RL)-guided hybrid PDE generator to efficiently produce diverse open-form PDEs with tree structures. A neural network-based predictive model fits the system response and serves as the reward evaluator for the generated PDEs. PDEs with superior fits are utilized to iteratively optimize the generator via the RL method and the best-performing PDE is selected by a parameter-free stability metric. The embedding phase integrates the initially identified PDE from the discovering process as a physical constraint into the predictive model for robust training. The traversal of PDE trees automates the construction of the computational graph and the embedding process without human intervention. Numerical experiments demonstrate our framework's capability to uncover governing equations from nonlinear dynamic systems with limited and highly noisy data and outperform other physics-informed neural network-based discovery methods. This work opens new potential for exploring real-world systems with limited understanding.


In her article "Overt and Covert Shandyism of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol" Margarit Ordukhanyan examines Vladimir Nabokov's 1942 novel, an unusual biography of the nineteenth-century Russian author. Ordukhanyan discusses parallels between Nabokov's biography of Gogol and Laurence Sterne's Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy. She highlights the direct allusions and textual references Nabokov makes to Sterne's novel and argues that Nabokov uses Tristram Shandy as the model for creating and interpreting his biography of Gogol by fictionalizing Gogol and portraying him as a Shandean character. Further, Ordukhanyan discusses how Nabokov uses Sterne's novel to undermine the genre of literary biography. Margarit Ordukhanyan, "Overt and Covert Shandyism of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol" page 2 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.4 (2015): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol17/iss4/7> Margarit ORDUKHANYAN Overt and Covert Shandyism of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol In a 1969 interview with Allene Talmey of Vogue, Vladimir Nabokov dismissed his own Nikolai Gogol, a critical biography of the nineteenth-century Russian writer as an "innocent, and rather superficial, little sketch" (Strong 156). In the commentary accompanying an edition of Aleksander Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, he referred to it equally ungenerously as a "rather frivolous little book" (314), thus signaling that the book, written a decade before Nabokov's transformation from an obscure Russian transplant into a bestselling US-American author, should not merit serious consideration. Others have been considerably more enthusiastic in their assessments of Nabokov's book. When the biography first came out, Edmund Wilson, Nabokov's one-time friend, wrote an encouraging, if cursory, review of it for The New Yorker; he described the book as "first-rate" and insisted that "Nabokov's Gogol must be henceforth read by anybody who has any serious interest in finding out about Russian culture" (216). It should be noted, however, that Wilson was less positive about the book in his private correspondence with Nabokov and suggested that the latter had "gone out of [his] way to be rather silly and perverse about the subject" (Nabokov qtd. in Karlinsky 156). In his introduction to Gogol in the Twentieth Century Robert Maguire contends that despite its shortcomings, Nabokov's book "has probably done more than any other work of criticism in this country to spark an interest in Gogol among readers who know no Russian" (54). Donald Fanger, in his 1995 entry on the subject in the Garland Companion to Vladimir Nabokov, describes the book as "brilliant and one-sided" (421), echoing a sentiment expressed earlier by Victor Erlich, who labeled the biography a "provocative yet wantonly lopsided essay" (5). And Neil Stewart, in his "Notes on Noses" goes as far as to credit Nabokov's book with having shaped much of the post-1940s Western critical discourse on Gogol (149). There is no doubt that Nabokov's eventual reputation of a literary megastar contributed to a rise of critical interest in Nikolai Gogol in the English-speaking world, where Gogol was virtually unknown at the time when Nabokov's biography was published in 1942. As Fanger points out, Nabokov's analysis of Gogol's work was preceded by a meager handful of English-language studies (see Fanger, "Nabokov" 422-23). However, my concern here is not with Gogol's critical heritage, but Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol itself, a book so enigmatic and elusive that the sparse voices professing its brilliance have offered little in terms of critical assessment. Even as scholarly interest in Nabokov's work has continued to grow unabated, his Nikolai Gogol has remained on the margins of the discussion. The biography stands perched at the pivotal moment in Nabokov's literary evolution: Nabokov emigrated from wartorn Europe to the U.S. in 1940 to reinvent himself as an English-language writer, leaving behind a formidable Russian-language literary legacy. He arrived in the U.S. a virtual unknown, scrambling to support his family and to find work while at the same time forging a unique voice in his newly adopted literary tongue. It was under these circumstances that Nikolai Gogol was commissioned in 1942 as part of a New Direction series, in order to "introduce a strange and poorly understood writer to the English-speaking public" (Fanger, "Nabokov" 422). Nabokov completed the book a year later amid his then still unsuccessful attempts to gain a foothold in the US-American world of letters. Chronologically, the biography is bookended by Nabokov's first and second English-language novels, Real Life of Sebastian Knight (1941) and Bend Sinister (1947). Thematically, too, it follows Real Life of Sebastian Knight, a novel about discovering the "real life" of a dead author when nothing remains of him save for his books, letters, and other people's impressions. Unlike Gogol, Sebastian Knight may be a fictional author, but the impulse to exert complete authorial control over a dead writer's life resonates through both books. The purpose of my study is not to discuss the peculiarities of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol, but to identify echoes of Laurence Sterne's Tristram Shandy in it. In creating a narrative that defies the expectations of the genre it purports to represent, Nabokov relied on Sterne's unorthodox, digressive, and self-referential novel to both frame his own narrative and to package Gogol for English-language readership. It is precisely his choice of a text as atypical for the novelistic conventions of the eighteenth century as Tristram Shandy that allows Nabokov to both fictionalize Gogol and to create what is essentially an anti-biography. Before turning to the investigation of the dialogic relationship between Tristram Shandy and Nikolai Gogol, however, it seems pertinent to discuss what exactly makes Nabokov's book so unusual and so far departed from the conventional literary biography. For one, the biography contains a visible speaker, an opinionated stand-in for Nabokov. With a tone of superiority, the narrator delivers such pronouncements as: "frankly speaking I am sick of reading biographies in which mothers are subtly deduced from the writing of their sons" (13) or "I have a lasting grudge against those who like their fiction to be educational or uplifting, or national, or as healthy as maple syrup and olive oil" (42). The narrator criticizes the existing translations of Gogol, arriving at a somewhat unexpected conclusion that "None but an Irishman should ever try tackling Gogol" (38); in the process, he reveals the centrality of the narrator's ego and lays bare the process of the book's creation: " I find pleasure in following the outlines of these strange shadows lying across those distant lives" (25). Nabokov also expels from his narrative those books by Gogol he deems inferior including Вечера на хуторе близ Диканьки (Evenings on a Farm near Dikanka), whose publication made the twenty-fouryear-old Gogol a literary celebrity. He asserts his authorial presence by interrupting the story of the reception of Ревизор (The Government Inspector) to linger on the beauty of the word "stratagem" and to indulge in a bit of self-promotion: "I shall have occasion to speak in quite a different book of a lunatic who constantly felt that all the parts of the landscape and movements of inanimate objects were a complex code of allusion to his own being, so that the whole universe seems to him to be conversing about him by means of signs" (59). Needless to say, Nabokov is referring to his own (at this point still Margarit Ordukhanyan, "Overt and Covert Shandyism of Nabokov's Nikolai Gogol" page 3 of 8 CLCWeb: Comparative Literature and Culture 17.4 (2015): <http://docs.lib.purdue.edu/clcweb/vol17/iss4/7> unfinished) "Signs and Symbols," as he draws a parallel between Gogol and a character who is but a figment of Nabokov's own imagination, thus undermining Gogol's real-life status. The narrator also asserts his presence through a number of digressions, such as Nabokov's famous discussion of the untranslatable poshlost', or poshlust in Nabokov's transliteration. Another unusual aspect of Nikolai Gogol rests on the marginalization of "plot" and "storyline" both in Gogol's life and in discussions of his works. The book begins with Gogol's death, suspended in narrative time so that Nabokov can render his deathbed agony, and concludes with Gogol's birth (150). What happens between the two is shrugged off as irrelevant: "His boyhood? Uninteresting" (8). In fact, Nabokov acknowledges that he has taken all the facts of Gogol's life, including Gogol's correspondence, from "Veressaiev's [sic] delightful biography of Gogol" (155; he is referring to Vikentii Veresaev). The meager information about Gogol's life receives no further amplification in the appended chronology "meant for the indolent reader who wants to take in Gogol's life and labors at a glance" (154). Far from yielding factual data, the chronology disintegrates into an exercise in self-referentiality capped with the last entry: "March 4th 1852. Died (page 1)" (162). This marginalization of Gogol's life story is consistent with Nabokov's assertion that Gogol's "real life [was] the life of his books, and in them he was an actor of genius" (26). When talking about Gogol's works, Nabokov displays a similar determination to underscore the relative inconsequentiality of their plots. After declaring that "The plot of The Government Inspector is as unimportant as the plots of all Gogol books" (39), the narrator directs the reader to a footnote, which in turn refers one to "page 153 of 'Commentaries' for a summary of the plot" (39) and where the reader finds the plot summary provided not by the narrator, but by the biography's fictional publisher. Nabokov performs a similarly complex spatial dislocation of plot during his analysis of Gogol's Мёртвые ду́ши (Dead Souls). Once again, a footnote directs the reader first


Nanofluidics presents growing and exciting opportunities for conducting fundamental studies for processes and systems that govern molecular-scale operations in science and engineering. In addition, nanofluidics provides a rapidly growing platform for developing new systems and technologies for an ever-growing list of applications. This review presents a summary of the transport phenomena in nanofluidics with a focus on several systems and applications important to problems of public health and welfare. Special emphasis is afforded to the role of the electric double layer and the molecular-scale interactions that occur within confined nanoscale systems.


Research is needed to develop evidence-based behavioral interventions for preventing and treating obesity that are specific to the schizophrenia population. This study is the precursor to such intervention research where we examined the utility of the social cognitions outlined within the Health Action Process Approach (HAPA) model for predicting moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) intentions and behavior among individuals with schizophrenia or schizoaffective disorder. A prospective cohort design [baseline (T1), week 2 (T2), and week 4 (T3)] was used to examine the HAPA constructs and MVPA across a sample of 101 adults (Mage = 41.5 ± 11.7 years; MBMI = 31.2 ± 7.8 kg/m2; 59% male). Two hierarchical regression analyses were conducted controlling for age, gender, BMI, and previous self-reported MVPA. In the first regression, intentions at T1 were regressed onto the T1 motivational HAPA constructs (risk perception, affective attitudes, task self-efficacy) and social support; MVPA status (meeting vs. not meeting the MVPA guidelines) assessed via accelerometry at T3 was regressed onto T1 social support and intentions followed by T2 action and coping planning, and maintenance self-efficacy in the second analysis. Overall, the motivational and social support variables accounted for 28% of the variance in intentions, with affective attitudes (β = 0.33, p < 0.01) and task self-efficacy (β = 0.25, p < 0.05) exhibiting significant, positive relationships. For MVPA status, the model as a whole explained 39% of the variance, with the volitional HAPA constructs explaining a non-significant 3% of this total variance. These findings suggest a need for interventions targeting self-efficacy and affective attitudes within this clinical population.


Purpose Contraceptive counseling and adherence in young women with breast cancer (BC) is a relevant issue because chemotherapy and hormonal treatment resulting in amenorrhea do not preclude unintended pregnancies. Currently, there is limited evidence from high-income countries; however, there are no studies regarding use of contraceptives in patients with BC in Mexico. This study aimed to determine the rate of contraceptive use in young Mexican women with BC during cancer treatment, characterize their contraceptive preferences, and assess contraceptive counseling by Mexican physicians. Patients and Methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted regarding contraceptive use and counseling among women age 40 years or younger at BC diagnosis who had completed chemotherapy in the previous 5 years or who were currently receiving long-term treatment with hormonal therapy and/or trastuzumab at a large tertiary health care facility in Mexico. Results Of a total of 104 eligible women with median age at diagnosis of 34 years, 51.1% reported using a contraceptive during chemotherapy and 45.7% reported using a contraceptive during other types of cancer treatment (hormonal therapy and trastuzumab). Of the 51 patients (49%) who were sexually active during chemotherapy, 76.5% used contraception, but only 29.4% used an effective contraceptive method. When asked about contraceptive counseling, only 16.7% recalled being advised by their health care provider. Sexually active women who received contraceptive counseling used contraceptives more often than women who were not counseled (83.3% v 22.2%). Conclusion A minority of young women with BC in Mexico use effective contraception methods during cancer treatment and receive contraceptive counseling. Informing all premenopausal patients with BC about effective use of contraception methods during treatment should be an essential aspect of the supportive care of young women.


This article explores whether contemporary society can be characterized as demonstrating a new form of the Marxist notion of imperialism and as informational/ media imperialism. In an attempt to answer this question, I employ Vladimir Lenin's analysis of imperialism. Paying particular attention to the relevance of media and information, I test Lenin's theories against macroeconomic statistical analysis of existing data. My analysis is structured according to Lenin's five characteristics of imperialism: (1) the role of economic concentration; (2) the dominance of finance capital; (3) the importance of capital export; (4) the spatial stratification of the world as result of corporate dominance; and (5) the political dimension of the spatial stratification of the world. The results demonstrate that Lenin's theories should be reloaded for contemporary media and communication studies.


Raynaud's phenomenon (RP) and digital ulcers (DU) are the main clinical features of vasculopathy that occurs in several systemic rheumatic diseases. Intravenous iloprost is recommended for the treatment of severe RP and DU in patients with systemic sclerosis and portable devices for iloprost infusion have been recently designed, allowing outpatient treatment. This new alternative for drug administration not only avoids absenteeism, with the patient having the opportunity to continue his own family and work life, but also reduces the costs associated with hospitalization. We describe our protocol and report our experience with 12 patients, for a total of 25 infusions, who have received domiciliary iloprost through elastomeric pump. Patients could easily manage the device and the treatment outcomes were promising, with all patients having DU healing, without any special safety concerns.


Background

In estrogen receptor (ER)-positive breast cancer, young age is associated with poor prognosis. Several reports have suggested hormonal mechanism as the possible reason. Conversely, very young patients respond better to chemotherapy, and adjuvant chemotherapy is less effective in ER-positive tumors than in ER-negative tumors. The authors tried to evaluate the chemoinsensitivity of very young patients with ER-positive breast cancer excluding the effect of endocrine treatment to the extent possible.
Methods

We collected individual patient data from 1992 to 2013 from the Korean Breast Cancer Society (KBCS), and 1,049 ER-positive patients aged < 50 years who had been treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy were included for analysis. We compared the pathologic complete response (pCR) rate between patients aged < 35 years and those aged 35–49 years.
Results

One hundred forty seven patients (14.0%) aged < 35 years and 901 patients (86.0%) aged 35–49 years were studied. Although most chracteristics of tumors were comparable in both groups, tumors with high Ki-67 expression were found in 49.4% of patients aged < 35 years and in 32.7% of patients aged 35–49 years (P = 0.007). Breast conservation rates were not significantly different between the two groups (44.2% vs. 46.8%, P = 0.30). pCR rates of both breasts and axilla were not significantly different between the two groups (P = 0.87).
Conclusions

Chemotherapy response based on pCR rates was not better in young patients (< 35 years) with ER-positive breast cancer than in older premenopausal patients with ER-positive breast cancer; however, the proportion of tumors with high Ki-67 proliferative index was greater in the former.
Trial registration:
 retrospectively registered


Carrier is an important media linking source rocks and reservoirs. In the past two decades, it is the hot topic for the hydrocarbon geology researchers. Migration pathways in carrier are main space for the hydrocarbon migration. The identification of these pathways has great meaning for the hydrocarbon exploration. In this paper, we define a pathway as a macroscopical area in any shape that relatively apparent hydrocarbon migration exists in the carrier according to some research methods. The sandstone carrier of the Neogene Shawan formation and the unconformity carrier of the Cretaceous being located in the Chepaizi uplift of the Junggar Basin (NW China) are selected as research objects. We used quantitative grain fluorescence analysis (QGF) and effective migration thickness analysis (EMT) to quantitatively study these two kinds of pathways. Migration characteristics of the hydrocarbons are analyzed in single wells and in plane. Analysis results show that evaluation and prediction results from two methods are very similar. This verifies the feasibility of those methods for pathways analysis. Based on the calibration of commercial oil flow well, distribution of migration pathways in plane is obtained, which narrow down the exploration areas. Through practical application, the application process and the considerations of the two methods are discussed and compared. For sandstone carrier, the thickness can be obtained from well logging reports and well logging diagrams. Precondition that the samples collected are located in the carrier interval in QGF analysis is needed. For unconformity carrier, identification of the unconformity surfaces is an important basic work. Increasing the sampling density can reduce the analytical errors caused by the inhomogeneous distribution of oil. EMT method is simple; however, the precondition for application is that the oil in the carrier is not too light and is well preserved in geology history.


Slowly but certain development of media technology will have impact on journalism practice. Although, journalism principle is still maintained, in practice, online journalism attendance reduces more or less the given conventional journalism techniques. The attendance of new media will rise new public. Many ways have been performed to maintain and also to attract new public as many as possible. Media institution start to compete in making its media online version. Online media is not only monopolizing media institution; government agencies also start to use this kind of media to satisfy public needs of information. As is done by local government of Malang Regency, besides it uses radio and magazine, it also uses online media to satisfy public needs of information. Each media institution certainly has redaction policy that individualizing it to another. Background of this research is the role played by online media in presenting information about Government of Malang regency on daily-basis. To become a media interested by public, online media still needs an improvement in its utilization, so that it completely becomes the main choice of public in accessing information, especially in governance field. On the background above, this research is meant to know how redaction policy of online media of Malang Regency government is. This research uses descriptive type, because it is digging information/knowledge about redaction policy of government online media. Research method is descriptive qualitative, that is an effort to dig and to collect information about redaction policy of online media of Malang Regency government. It uses interview, observation, and documentation as its data collecting technique. Sampling technique uses purposive sampling. And, data analysis technique processed in induction-interpretation-conceptualization. Data validation technique uses method triangulation and source triangulation. Research result of redaction policy on online media of Malang Regency Government includes policy of coverage object determination, pervasion scope determination, news reporter determination, and deadline determination. Redaction policy on online media of Malang Regency Government has different policy with other of media. Although, online media is fell within new media, but the policy applied by Malang Regency Government tends to use conventional media policy. The working way of this media in accumulating news differs from other media. This media does not have clear coverage object and scope, because it does not have any planning in accumulating and covering news. Deadline of this media is right after news covering process taken place. In fact, it is very hard, however, to be applied, because of many constrains and situation dealt by staffs of Covering, Press and Press Cooperation Sub-Divisions of Setda Malang Regency. The role of media institution owner on media content and its policy, where media owner is the one, who has authority to manage redaction activity, has full authority to master text and newsroom. Media content and online media policy of Malang Regency Government wholly depends on power holding authority. Keyword : Kebijakan Redaksi; Newsroom Study Link terkait : http://skripsi.umm.ac.id/files/disk1/311/jiptummpp-gdl-s1-2009-ratihmusti-15531-PENDAHUL-N.pdf


In this paper we study systems of the form $b\leq Mx\leq d$, $l\leq x\leq u$, where $M$ is obtained from a totally unimodular matrix with two nonzero elements per row by multiplying by 2 some of its columns, and where $b,d,l,u$ are integral vectors. We give an explicit description of a totally dual integral system that describes the integer hull of the polyhedron $P$ defined by the above inequalities. Since the inequalities of such a totally dual integral system are Chvatal inequalities for $P$, our result implies that the matrix $M$ has cut-rank 1. We also derive a strongly polynomial time algorithm to find an integral optimal solution for the dual of the problem of minimizing a linear function with integer coefficients over the aforementioned totally dual integral system.


Overbidding, bidding more than risk-neutral Bayesian Nash Equilibrium, is a widely observed phenomenon in virtually all experimental auctions. The scholars within the auction literature propose the risk-averse preference model to explain overbidding structurally. However, the risk-averse preference model predicts underbidding in such important classes of auctions as all-pay auctions. To solve this discrepancy, we construct a structural model of bidding behavior in sealed-bid auctions, one in which bidders may regret their decisions. Our model nests both risk-averse and regret-averse attitudes and aims to explain overbidding in a wider class of auctions. We first derive equilibrium first-order conditions, which are used for estimation and calibration analyses, and show monotonic increasing properties of equilibrium bidding functions. Second, we carry out structural estimation and calibration analyses based on experimental data from Kagel and Levin (1993) and Noussair and Silver (2006). With these structurally estimated parameters, we test the significance of bidders' risk-averse and regret-averse attitudes. The estimation results show that bidders exhibit weak risk-averse (close to risk-neutral) and strong regret-averse attitudes. Furthermore, regret-averse attitudes are significant when bidders anticipate losing. Calibration results demonstrate that our risk& regret-averse model can explain overbidding across all of the above IPV auctions. Third, we simulate our model with the estimated parameters and obtain revenue rankings numerically. This allows us to confirm the revenue supremacy in all-pay auctions reported in experimental auction literature. We discuss extensions to asymmetric and Common-Value (CV) auctions in our online Appendix.


We study the control of a Brownian motion (BM) with a negative drift, so as to minimize a long-run average cost objective. We show the optimality of a class of reflection controls that prevent the BM from dropping below some negative level r, by cancelling out from time to time part of the negative drift; and this optimality is established for any holding cost function h(x) that is increasing in x ? 0 and decreasing in x ? 0. Furthermore, we show the optimal reflection level can be derived as the fixed point that equates the long-run average cost to the holding cost. We also show the asymptotic optimality of this reflection control when it is applied to production-inventory systems driven by discrete counting processes.


We analytically calculate the intrinsic longitudinal and transverse optical conductivities of electronic systems which govern by a modified-Dirac fermion model Hamiltonian for materials beyond graphene such as monolayer MoS$_2$ and ultrathin film of the topological insulator. We analyze the effect of a topological term in the Hamiltonian on the optical conductivity and transmittance. We show that the optical response enhances in the non-trivial phase of the ultrathin film of the topological insulator and the optical Hall conductivity changes sign at transition from trivial to non-trivial phases which has significant consequences on a circular polarization and optical absorption of the system.


Aims: The objective of the present study was to investigate the phytochemical constituents and antibacterial activity of ginger extracts against some pathogenic bacteria responsible for Urinary tract infection.
Study Design:  A total of 35 samples were collected from patients with UTIs and wound infections.
Place and Duration of Study: The study was conducted at 2 hospitals in Baghdad from1/7/2017 to 1/9/2017
Methodology: The urine sample was collected using a sterile container, while a swap from the infected wound was also taken. The classical methods for diagnosis pathogenic bacteria in urine and wound are based on culture on different microbiological media including. Blood agar, nutrient agar, then incubated at 37°C for 24 hrs. The diagnostic procedures consisted of direct microscopy observation, Gram staining, Biochemical tests, Catalase and coagulase tests.
Results: Results show that 30.55%, 38.8%, 19.46% and 11.11% isolates gave typical morphological characteristics and biochemical test for Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Klebsiella pneumonae and Staphylococcus aureus respectively. Antibiotic susceptibility test reveals that Escherichia coli isolates were 100% sensitive to gentamicin, tetracycline, streptomycine. Pseudomonas aeruginosa isolates reveal that 100% of them were sensitive to gentamicin, Imipenem, ampicillin and streptomycine. Staphylococcus aureus isolates reveal that 100% of them were sensitive to Gentamycine, tetracycline and streptomycine. Klebsiella pneumonae isolates reveal that 100% of them were sensitive to nitrofurantoin and Imipenem.  Ginger roots extract at high concentration (250,500 mg/ml) have strong antibacterial activity against pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Escherichia coli and Klebsiella pneumonae).
Conclusion: This study has shown that ginger extracts possess medicinal properties, antibacterial activity and that the inhibition of bacterial growth was dose dependent. The results of the present study show that ginger extracts are more effective against all tested bacterial strains. The results of present study have provided the justification for therapeutic potential of ginger and also used as dietary supplement for food preservation.


CADTH recommends that Jemperli should not be reimbursed by public drug plans for monotherapy for the treatment of adult patients with mismatch repair deficient (dMMR) or microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) recurrent or advanced endometrial cancer (EC) that has progressed on or following prior treatment with a platinum-containing regimen.
While evidence from a clinical trial demonstrated that some patients had disease that responded during treatment with Jemperli, without a control group there is uncertainty in how much the observed responses were due to Jemperli treatment rather than chance.
There was too much uncertainty in the reviewed evidence to determine how Jemperli compares to other treatments used in Canada.
It is unclear whether Jemperli meets the following needs identified by patients: improved tumour response, delayed disease progression, improved quality of life, and fewer side effects.


The pathogenesis of aortocoronary vein-graft occlusion appears to be similar to the development of atherosclerosis, except that it is more accelerated, especially during the first postoperative year. Initiation of platelet-inhibitor therapy before operation is important especially in patients at high risk of bypass graft occlusion because platelet deposition starts during operation and initiates the process of occlusion. The largest and only placebo-controlled trial to start therapy before operation showed that dipyridamole (Persantine) plus aspirin markedly reduced occlusion (compared with placebo) in both high- and low-risk subgroups both early and at a median of 1 year after operation. Arterial balloon angioplasty often causes severe arterial wall injury, which is a potent stimulus for immediate platelet-thrombus deposition and is probably the main contributing factor in the process of restenosis. Animal studies suggest the potential value of antithrombotic therapy starting the day before the angioplasty procedure, but results from placebo-controlled trials in humans are needed before optimal therapy can be established.


Background The National Health Service National Patient Survey Programme systematically gathers patients' experiences about the care they have recently received. Prioritising quality improvement activities in the accident and emergency (A&E) department requires that survey outcomes are meaningful and reliable. We aimed to determine which method of obtaining summary scores for the A&E department questionnaire optimally combined good interpretability with robust psychometric characteristics. Methods A&E department questionnaire data from 151 hospital trusts were analysed, covering 49 646 patients. Three methods of grouping and summarising items of the questionnaire were compared: principal components analysis (PCA); Department of Health dimensions; sections according to the patient's journey through the A&E department. The patient-level reliability of summary scores was determined by Cronbach's α coefficients (threshold: α>0.70), construct validity by Pearson's correlation coefficients, and the discriminative capacity by intra-class correlation coefficients (ICCs) and reliability of A&E-level mean scores. Results The PCA provided the best score reliability on six clear and interpretable composites: waiting time; doctors and nurses; your care and treatment; hygiene; information before discharge; overall. The discriminative power of the concepts was comparable for the three methods, with ICCs between 0.010 and 0.061. A&E sample sizes were adequate to obtain good to excellent reliability of A&E-level mean scores. Conclusions The A&E department questionnaire is a valid and reliable questionnaire to assess patients' experiences with the A&E. The discriminative power of six summary scores offers a reliable comparison of healthcare performance between A&Es to increase patient centredness and quality of care.


ABSTRACT: Our overarching purpose is to propose and test a theory of social resilience to exogenous shocks. The theory posits that high-quality corporate social responsibility (CSR) disclosure promotes the perception of organizational legitimacy, creating social resilience to exogenous shocks (external events outside management control). Using a path model and data from 100 experienced, nonprofessional investors, we examine whether the quality of a corporation's voluntary CSR disclosure increases its perceived organizational legitimacy and if increases in perceived legitimacy help insulate that organization from negative investor reactions following an exogenous shock. The results provide strong support for the model and show that when CSR disclosures are higher quality, investors perceive organizational legitimacy to be higher, inferring that organizations should emphasize quantifiable, consistent, and comparable reporting. Further, the results indicate that higher levels of perceived organizational legi...


Purpose: To evaluate the microbial etiology and associated risk factors among patients with blebitis following trabeculectomy. Materials and Methods: A retrospective analysis of all culture-proven blebitis was performed in patients who underwent trabeculectomy between January 2004 and December 2008. A standardized form was filled out for each patient, documenting sociodemographic features and information pertaining to risk factors. Swabbing of the infected bleb surface was performed for all suspected cases and further subjected to microbiological analysis. Results: A total of 23 patients with culture-proven blebitis were treated during the study period, with a mean age of 59.2 years (59.2 ± SD: 12.8; range, 30-81 years). Duration of onset was early (≤36 months) in six (26%) cases and late (> 36 months) in 17 (74%) cases with a range between 15 and 144 months (mean, 82.91 months; SD: 41.89). All 23 blebs were located superiorly and of which, 21 (91%) were microcystic avascular, 1 (4%) diffuse avascular, and 1 (4%) vascular flattened. The predominant risk factor identified was bleb leak (35%; 8 of 23) followed by thin bleb (22%; 5 of 23) and blepharitis (17%; 4 of 23). Bleb leaks (100%) were recorded only in patients with late onset (≥ 9 years) of infection (P< 0.001), while the incidence of ocular surface disease (100%) occurred early (≤3 years) (P< 0.001). Use of topical steroids was associated frequently with cases of thin blebs (80%; 4 of 5) (P< 0.001), while topical antibiotics showed bleb leaks (88%; 7 of 8) (P< 0.001). Coagulase-positive staphylococci were frequently recovered from blebitis with thin blebs (71%; 5 of 7) (P = 0.001), Coagulase-negative staphylococci (CoNS) with bleb leak (100%; 8 of 8) (P< 0.001), Corynebacterium with blepharitis (100%; 3 of 3) (P = 0.001), and Streptococci with releasable sutures (75%; 3 of 4) (P = 0.001). Conclusion Bleb leak is the principal risk factor responsible for late-onset blebitis, while early-onset blebitis could be ascribed to ocular surface diseases. Streptococci were mainly responsible for early onset of infection, while the late onset was due to CoNS.


Prolinamides are well-known organocatalysts for the HSiCl3 reduction of imines; however, custom design of catalysts is based on trial-and-error experiments. In this work, we have used a combination of computational calculations and experimental work, including kinetic analyses, to properly understand this process and to design optimized catalysts for the benchmark (E)-N-(1-phenylethylidene)aniline. The best results have been obtained with the amide derived from 4-methoxyaniline and the N-pivaloyl protected proline, for which the catalyzed process is almost 600 times faster than the uncatalyzed one. Mechanistic studies reveal that the formation of the component supramolecular complex catalyst-HSiCl3-substrate, involving hydrogen bonding breaking and costly conformational changes in the prolinamide, is an important step in the overall process.


A 31 year old male developed unilateral neck pain associated with increased kyphotic posture 24 hours after having general anaesthesia for ankle surgery. The pain and postural adaptation resolved, but a painless shoulder dysfunction developed. Following assessment a provisional diagnosis of long thoracic nerve palsy was made, and a 'wait and see' approach to management was taken. The dysfunction gradually resolved over a 12 month period without further investigation or intervention. The case study is discussed in light of possible neurophysiological mechanisms involved and of published literature on the management of long thoracic nerve palsy.


This paper describes a model based fault detection algorithm for an Advanced ESC System which consists of Hydraulic Control Unit (HCU) with built-in wheel pressure sensors. Advanced ESC System can be used for various value-added functions such as Stop & Go Function and Regenerative Brake Function. Therefore, HCU must have a reliable fault detection. Due to the huge amount of sensor signals, existing specific sensor based fault detection of HCU cannot guarantee the safety of vehicle. However, proposed algorithm dose not require the sensors. When model based fault detection algorithm detects severe failures of the HCU, it warns the driver in advance to prevent accidents due to the failures. For this purpose, a mathematical model is developed and validated in comparison to actual data. Simulation results and data acquired from an actual system are compared with each other to obtain the information needed for the fault detection process.


Although cytoreductive surgery is the most influential factor in treatment for ovarian cancer, chemotherapy is needed for almost all patients diagnosed with this disease. The mainstay of chemotherapy is platinum. Different platinum compounds are used for different histologies, and different combinations are used for different histologies also. We will present the data so that each reader can understand the knowledge behind chemotherapy decisions.


Abstract Bot flies (Diptera: Muscidae: Philornis spp.) are a group of flies comprising mostly species with a Neotropical distribution. Their larvae parasitize several species of birds, living subcutaneously on altricial chicks. We investigated the effect of parasitism by bot flies (P. seguyi) on the reproductive success of Chalk-browed Mockingbirds (Mimus saturninus) in temperate grasslands near the southern limit of bot fly distributions. We analyzed seasonal variation of bot fly prevalence during three consecutive years and how the timing and intensity of bot fly infestation affected growth and survival of Chalk-browed Mockingbird nestlings. Bot fly prevalence was 58.3%, 30.7%, and 45.5% each year, and in all years, it increased with time of breeding. Most of the infested nests fledged no chicks. In these nests, chicks had a lower tarsus growth rate than in noninfested nests and died 3–4 days after parasitism. The average time from hatching of the first chick until infestation was 4.4 days. The age of the chicks at the time of infestation was associated positively with nesting success and negatively with intensity of parasitism. Bot fly parasitism also reduced the survival of Shiny Cowbird (Molothrus bonariensis) chicks present in Chalk-browed Mockingbird nests, but the presence of Shiny Cowbird chicks did not affect timing of infestation or fledging success of Chalk-browed Mockingbird chicks. Our results show that an intermediate prevalence of bot fly parasitism produces an important decrease in the reproductive success of Chalk-browed Mockingbirds and suggest that bot flies may play an important role as selective agents in the evolution of host life-history strategies. La Infestación Temprana con Larvas de Philornis seguyi Disminuye la Supervivencia de los Pichones y el Éxito de Nidificación de Mimus saturninus


Influential work on oppositional culture explains involuntary minorities' disadvantage as the result of a culture that discourages academic effort by branding it as acting white, which leads students to resist schooling. Much of this work depicts involuntary minority cultures as internally uniform. This article challenges the oppositional-culture explanation in three important ways: (1) by demonstrating that through the religious tenets and practices of the Nation of Islam (NOI), young female members develop a black achievement ideology, resulting in the adoption of the kind of studious orientation to school that is usually demonstrated by voluntary immigrant groups; (2) by demonstrating the ways in which black people differentially make sense of and enact what it means to be black that challenge previous binary or dichotomized accounts of black oppositional social identity; and (3) by illustrating how resistance for NOI young women is transformative, as well as reproductive, of existing patterns of social, racial, and gender relations. The evidence, from a two-year ethnographic study of female high school students who were in the NOI suggests a systematic reexamination of the oppositional theory and its main suppositions


Background Gastroesophageal junction (GEJ) was one of the most common malignant tumors. However, the value of clinicopathological features in predicting the prognosis of postoperative patients with GEJ cancer and without distant metastasis was still unclear. Methods The 3425 GEJ patients diagnosed and underwent surgical resection without distant metastasis in the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results (SEER) database from 2010 to 2015 were enrolled,and they were randomly divided into training and validation cohorts with 7:3 ratio. Univariate and multivariate Cox regression analysis were used to determine the predictive factors that constituted the nomogram. The predictive accuracy and discriminability of Nomogram were determined by the area under the curve (AUC), C index, and calibration curve, and the influence of various factors on prognosis was explored. Results 2,400 patients were designed as training cohort and 1025 patients were designed as validation cohort. The percentages of the distribution of demographic and clinicopathological characteristics in the training and validation cohorts tended to be the same. In the training cohort, multivariate Cox regression analysis revealed that the age, tumor grade, T stage and N stage were independent prognostic risk factors for patients with GEJ cancer without distant metastasis. The C index of nomogram model was 0.667. The AUC of the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) analysis for 3- and 5-year overall survival (OS) were 0.704 and 0.71, respectively. The calibration curve of 3- and 5-year OS after operation showed that there was the best consistency between nomogram prediction and actual observation. In the validation cohort, the C index of nomogram model, the AUC of 3- and 5-year OS, and the calibration curve were similar to the training cohort. Conclusions Nomogram could evaluate the prognosis of patients with GEJ cancer who underwent surgical resection without distant metastasis.


Software defined radios, which provide a programmable solution for implementing the physical layer processing of multiple communication standards, are widely recognized as one of the most important new technologies for wireless communication systems. Emerging communication standards, however, require tremendous processing capabilities to perform high-bandwidth physical-layer processing in real time. In this paper, we present instruction set extensions for several important communication algorithms including convolutional encoding, Viterbi decoding, turbo decoding, and Reed-Solomon encoding and decoding. The performance benefits of these extensions are evaluated using a supercomputer class vectorizing compiler and the Sandblaster low-power multithreaded processor for software defined radio. The proposed instruction set extensions provide significant performance improvements, while maintaining a high degree of programmability.


Postoperative management of chest tubes following lobectomy remains controversial and might eventually lead to increased health care cost and unnecessary interventions (1). Combining clinical expertise with the best available evidence from systematic reviews and/or meta-analysis have shown to decrease variability in clinical practice leading to improved health care outcomes (2). Unfortunately, few cardiothoracic surgery practices are evidence-based (3). The Society for Translational Medicine and The Chinese Society for Thoracic and Cardiovascular Surgery thought to investigate this by performing a systematic review of the literature on the postoperative management of chest tube in patients undergoing lobectomy based on current published data using American College of Physicians Task Force grading system (4,5).


General Summary The records of the Tango earthquake, for which the co-ordinates of the epicenter and the origin time are well defined and whose focus is shallow, furnish data which define the P -curve with considerable precision to an epicentral distance of about 8°. From that point to 50° the curve is fixed in position by very few points. The values given by Byerly for the Montana earthquake have influenced the author in placing the curve as reported for this range. Such a placing is demanded also, to some extent, by the earlier and the later parts of the curve. As so placed, it lies considerably below the Mohorovicic-Macelwane P -curve for much of the range, the maximum difference being about nine seconds. It is certain that the latter curve gives P—O intervals much too great near the center of this range, but it would be desirable to make a detailed study of some other earthquake whose epicentral position, origin time, and depth of focus could be well defined and for which the last named would be shallow, the earthquake being so situated that well-equipped stations would register the disturbance for distances within this range. From 50° to 60° the control is better, but there are still too few points to fix its position as definitely as could be desired. From 60° to 100° there are many control points of considerable strength. This section of the P -curve seems fixed in position within narrow limits. Data for distances beyond 101° are lacking. Footnotes to the tabulations for both the P -curve and the S -curve are given in some detail as showing the relative strength of controlling points. In the case of the S -curve, there seems to be no well-defined departure from the curve published in mimeographed form by Macelwane in 1926. The footnotes explain outstanding departures from this curve. It may be said that the Tango earthquake data support the previously published S -curve to within the limits of accuracy of the observations.


The performance and characteristics of 18 carcasses of feedlot-finished Zebu cattle were evaluated over 93 days in confinement or semi-confinement systems. In the semi-confinement system, two strategies of pasture deferral were adopted, 40 days (40DD) and 80 days (80DD). The feed of animals in confinement was composed of 24% of grass silage Urochloa spp. and 76% concentrate, on dry matter, freely supplied twice daily. Grazing animals received 4 kg of animal concentrate per day. The final fasting weight of the animals in confinement (534.92 kg) was higher than that of animals semi-confined in 40DD (475.33 kg) and 80DD (460.67 kg) pastures, because of the higher daily weight gain (1.37 vs. 0.82 and 0.64 kg, respectively). Feedlot-finished animals had a greater carcass gain (0.91 kg animal-1 day-1), resulting in a higher carcass weight (296.47 kg), higher thickness of external fat (5.42 mm), weight and percentage of side cut (17.88 kg and 12.20%), and weight and percentage of fat in the carcass (74.50 kg and 25.22%). However, no difference was observed for the metric and developmental characteristics of the carcass, which allowed good quality carcasses to be obtained, independent of the strategies evaluated. Feedlot-finished Zebu cattle provide heavier and bulky carcasses, leading to higher revenue per marketed carcass.


Lowering the operating temperature is a universal R&D challenge for the development of low-temperature (<600 °C) solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) that meet the demands of commercialization. Regarding the traditional electrolyte materials of SOFCs, bulk diffusion is the main ionic conduction mechanism, which is primarily affected by the bulk density and operating temperatures. In this study, we report a new mechanism for the Ce0.9Gd0.1O2-δ (GDC) electrolyte based on a nanocrystalline structure with surface or grain boundary conduction, exhibiting an extremely high ionic conductivity of 0.37 S·cm-1 at 550 °C. The fuel cell with the nanocrystalline structure GDC electrolyte (0.5 mm in thickness) can deliver a remarkable peak power density of 591.8 mW·cm-2 at 550 °C, which is approximately 3.5 times higher than that for the cell with the GDC electrolyte densified at 1550 °C. An amorphous layer enriched by oxygen vacancies was found at the surface of the nano-GDC particles in the fuel cell test atmosphere, which was attributed to the ion conduction channel of the grain boundary diffusion. The ionic conduction at the interfaces between the particles was discovered to be the dominant conduction mechanism of the nanocrystalline structure GDC electrolyte. Oxygen ions and protons were determined to be the charge carriers in this interfacial conduction phenomenon, and the conduction of oxygen ions was dominant.


In 2009 Grzegorz Czajkowski from Google's system infrastructure team has published an article which didn't get much attention in the SEO community at the time. It was titled "Large-scale graph computing at Google" and gave an excellent insight into the future of Google's search. This article highlights some of the little known facts which lead to transformation of Google's algorithm in the last two years.


Metabolism of n-dioctyl ether by Acinetobacter species HO1-N resulted in formation of 8-n-octoxy-1-octanoic acid and 2-n-octoxy-1-acetic acid. The 16-carbon ether acid was incorporated into the cellular lipids, whereas the 10-carbon ether acid accumulated in the growth medium. Qualitative and quantitative characteristics of the cellular phospholipids were similar to hexadecane-grown cells. The growth of Acinetobacter on dioctyl ether occurred at the expense of six-carbon atoms of dioctyl ether.


Carbohydrate-based enantiospecific syntheses of (R)-proline 1 and (S)-proline 2 from the previously reported D-erythro-hexonate ester 9 are described. Azide-substitution reactions on appropriately activated intermediates derived from ester 9, followed by reductive cyclization (H2/Pd–C), gave the substituted pyrrolidines 14 and 22, which were converted into their corresponding N-Cbz derivatives 16 and 24 in conventional manner. Mild acidic hydrolysis of these, followed by oxidation (sodium metaperiodate), gave the protected prolinals 3 and 4, which on further oxidation (sodium chlorite), followed by catalytic hydrogenolysis, gave the prolines 1 and 2. The N-Cbz-prolinol derivatives 5 and 6 are also reported.