The Upper Cretaceous Woodbine Formation contains diagenetic components in the form of cements and clays which can cause problems in drilling, completing, and stimulating a well. These diagenetic components are present in pore systems of the rocks deposited within various Woodbine depositional systems ranging from fluvial to deep marine. Fluvial environments were present in the northeast area of the East Texas basin, and changed to deltaic-marine systems to the south and southwest. Deeper marine sediments are represented by a thickening clastic wedge deposited over the Edwards reef trend as channels, interchannels, and submarine fans. It is necessary to identify mineral types, crystal morphologies, and modes of occurrence of the diagenetic components within pore systems of rocks formed in these various depositional settings so that proper drilling, completing, stimulating, and/or acidizing programs can be conducted. Calcite, dolomite, ankerite, and quartz are important cements which reduce porosity and affect reservoir quality of the Woodbine Formation. Carbonate minerals occur as isolated patches or extensive cement within the intergranular network. Quartz cement is commonly observed in the form of euhedral overgrowths. The storage capacity of the reservoir and productivity of a well can be hindered where these cements reduce and isolate primary and secondary pores. During completion, stimulation, and possibly acidization, calcite may cause further problems through reaction with hydrofluoric acid and precipitation of formation-damaging calcium fluoride. Iron hydroxide precipitates may also form when iron-rich calcite, dolomite, and ankerite are contacted by HCl, HF, and HCl/HF acids. These preci itated gels can block pores and reduce production. Important clay components found within the pore network of the Woodbine Formation are kaolinite and chlorite. Kaolinite commonly displays a pseudohexagonal "book" and platelet morphology. It is relatively stable with respect to acids; therefore, acidization should have minimal effect on the kaolinite. A problem of migration of fine particles can arise when these "books" and platelets are loosened from framework grain surfaces. Turbulence within pore networks, caused by fluid movement during stimulation and production, especially near the wellbore or a fracture face, can cause the kaolinite fines to move and block pore throats. This could result in formation damage. Chlorite occurs as well to moderately crystalline platelets which reduce porosity by lining and filling pore areas. If th chlorite, is iron-rich and contacted by HCl, HF, and HCl/HF acids, a problem of iron hydroxide precipitation can occur. Other clays within the Woodbine Formation include illite and smectite. Authigenic illite is found as incipient growths on chlorite platelets. The smectite has a honeycomb morphology and occurs as a grain coating. These components can cause problems if present in significant amounts within Woodbine reservoirs. If relatively fresh water is allowed to contact the formation, illite can "mush" and the smectite can swell, both damaging the formation. Drilling, completing, stimulating, and acidizing programs can End_Page 562------------------------------ be designed to minimize problems caused by diagenetic components. Well production can even be increased when proper procedures are designed using information on potential formation damaging diagenetic minerals that are present within pore systems of Woodbine reservoir rocks. End_of_Article - Last_Page 563------------


Rhaphium curvitarsus Negrobov, Maslova et Selivanova, sp. n. is described from Sakhalin. The new species is similar to Rh. firsovi Stackelberg et Negrobov, 1976, but differs from the latter in morphology of apical segments of fore tarsi, in color of fore femora, and in morphology of hypopygium. A key to species and subspecies of Rhaphium estimated or known from Sakhalin and Kuril Islands is also provided.


A questionnaire survey of 291 primary schools investigated teachers' contribution to the identification, management and referral of children with mental health problems. The survey aimed to clarify their familiarity with mental health issues and liaison experience with Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services (CAMHS). The teachers expressed great interest in children's mental health, which they judged had significantly impacted on their teaching. They had received little in the way of training in this area but were almost unanimously keen to learn more. Experience of CAMHS was variable, but many expressed uncertainty about pathways of referral and wanted better communication regarding pupils under their care. CAMHS and education departments could usefully plan together to meet schoolteachers training needs and establish appropriate referral pathways. The role of the primary child mental health worker appears to be often underdeveloped.


A gene, presumably involved in spermatogenesis, was identified and characterized by using cDNA microarray. Hybridization intensity was 2.13 fold higher in adult testis than that in fetal testis. The full length of this gene was 4288 bp and it encoded a 578 amino acid protein. Conserved structure and amino acid sequence analysis revealed that the protein contained 1 Thif-domain, 2 UBACT-domains, and a functional active site cysteine lay upstream of UBACT domain, all of them also existed in ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 and E1 like proteins. So we named this gene as a novel ubiquitin-activating enzyme E1 like gene (nUBE1L). Expression profile showed that nUBE1L was predominantly expressed in testis. Comparison of the expression of nUBE1L in different developmental stages of testis indicated that it was highly expressed in adult testis. In conclusion, nUBE1L is a novel human E1 like gene highly expressed in adult testis, which plays key role in ubiquitin system, and accordingly influences spermatogenesis and male fertility.


HVOF sprayed tungsten carbide (WC) thermal spray coatings are finding increasing acceptance for replacement of electroplated chromium on aircraft landing gear parts. In order to replace chrome plating by an HVOF WC coating, the latter should exhibit wear and fatigue characteristics at least as good as those of chrome plating. Sliding wear performance and fatigue life of tungsten carbide coated parts depend on morphology and phase composition of the coating which in turn depend on spray parameters such as powder characteristics, powder feed rate, gas flow rates, and spray distance. A Design of Experiments (DOE) approach for a Jet Kote™ HVOF spray system was used to identify optimal spray parameters for WC-Co and WC-Co-Cr coatings based on best sliding wear and best fatigue characteristics. Best sliding wear was defined as minimum block loss in the standard ASTM-G77 wear test in which a rotating WC coated ring is tested against a stationary Al-Ni-Bz block. Best fatigue characteristics were defined as compressive residual stresses in the coating in the range 250 to 450 MPa. Spray parameters found to strongly affect wear were powder feed rate, oxygen flow rate, powder size, and a powder type-powder size interaction. Spray parameters strongly affecting residual stresses include powder type, hydrogen flow rate, and powder feed rate. Some spray parameters were found to be orthogonal with respect to wear behavior and residual stress. This means some parameters can be adjusted to maximize one performance criterion (wear or residual stress) without adversely affecting the other.


In total, there were four patients (4.2%) who had insomnia during treatment with BIC/FTC/TAF. Also reported were: 3 (3.2%) patients with headache, 1 (1.1%) patient with osteoarticular pain, 1 (1.1%) patient with increased menstrual bleeding and 1 (1.1%) patient with gastrointestinal pain. None of these AE was a reason for treatment interruption. Conclusion and relevance BIC/FTC/TAF was safe (mild AE with a low incidence rate) and effective (high percentages of undetectable VL and good results for CD4 lymphocytes).


In this paper, we present a new methodology for the design of fault-tolerant logical topologies in wavelength-routed optical networks supporting Internet protocol (IP) datagram flows. Our design approach generalizes the "design protection" concepts, and relies on the dynamic capabilities of IP to reroute datagrams when faults occur, thus achieving protection and restoration, and leading to high-performance cost-effective fault-tolerant logical topologies. In this paper, for the first time we consider resilience properties during the logical topology optimization process, thus extending the optimization of the network resilience also to the space of logical topologies. Numerical results clearly show that our approach outperforms previous ones, being able to obtain very effective survivable logical topologies with limited computational complexity.


In paired experiments, participants are grouped into pairs with similar characteristics, and one observation from each pair is randomly assigned to treatment. Because of both the pairing and the randomization, the treatment and control groups should be well balanced; however, there may still be small chance imbalances. It may be possible to improve the precision of the treatment effect estimate by adjusting for these imbalances. Building on related work for completely randomized experiments, we propose the P-LOOP (paired leave-one-out potential outcomes) estimator for paired experiments. We leave out each pair and then impute its potential outcomes using any prediction algorithm. The imputation method is flexible; for example, we could use lasso or random forests. While similar methods exist for completely randomized experiments, covariate adjustment methods in paired experiments are relatively understudied. A unique trade-off exists for paired experiments, where it can be unclear whether to factor in pair assignments when making adjustments. We address this issue in the P-LOOP estimator by automatically deciding whether to account for the pairing when imputing the potential outcomes. By addressing this trade-off, the method has the potential to improve precision over existing methods.


A Method ofTreating Renal Colic The pain of renal colic, one of the most severe known to man, is often due to impaction of a stone in the ureter. Continuous extradural analgesia has been used successfully by Simpson (1961) in the relief of post-operative pain and by Lloyd et al. (1965) in the management of painful chest injuries. Extradural block is effective in relieving the pain of renal colic and has advantages over conventional analgesics and other nerve-blocking procedures. It also encourages the spontaneous passage of the ureteric stone. The extradural space was identified between the 1st and 2nd lumbar vertebre by the loss of resistance technique, using a Huber tipped Tuohy needle. A polyvinyl catheter was introduced through the needle into the extradural space and advanced cephalad for a distance of 2 cm; the needle was then withdrawn over the catheter and the end of the catheter connected to an Oxford chuck as described by Simpson & Salt (1961). The chuck was used for replacement or 'top up' injections of analgesic. The analgesic was 155% lignocaine in a dose of 2-4 ml, which lasted one and a half to two and a half hours. When the pain returned the patients were given 100 mg of pethidine, 15 mg of morphine or a 'top up' dose of local analgesic. Neither dural puncture nor infection occurred; with the small amount of analgesic used there was little or no drop of blood pressure. All patients experienced complete relief of pain within 10-15 minutes of extradural injection. There was no clouding of consciousness, all were walking within 20 minutes of injection; the catheter allowed repeated injections to be given without distress. Of 11 cases, 6 passed their stones spontaneously within three days, 3 required surgical intervention and 2 went home without pain but with radiographic evidence of stone. The natural course of the condition is irregular: stones may be passed spontaneously within an hour or may lie quiescent for months; some may pass far enough to be removed by cystoscopy and some may need open operation. Factors such as size and shape of the calculus and the existence of anatomical constrictions along the ureter play a large part in the eventual fate of the stone. Lapides (1948) suggested that the contractions of the renal pelvis and ureter are independent of autonomic nervous control. These findings would not support the argument that autonomic blockade aids the passage of a calculus but they may not be applicable in pathological states of the ureter. In Helstrom's (1949) series of 275 cases without nerve blocking, 23% passed their stones spontaneously within three days. In this present series 55% passed stones spontaneously after extradural injection within the same period. We feel that these results are encouraging and worthy of further study.


We aim to estimate food portion size, a property that is strongly related to the presence of food object in 3D space, from single monocular images under real life setting. Specifically, we are interested in end-to-end estimation of food portion size, which has great potential in the field of personal health management. Unlike image segmentation or object recognition where annotation can be obtained through large scale crowd sourcing, it is much more challenging to collect datasets for portion size estimation since human cannot accurately estimate the size of an object in an arbitrary 2D image without expert knowledge. To address such challenge, we introduce a real life food image dataset collected from a nutrition study where the groundtruth food energy (calorie) is provided by registered dietitians, and will be made available to the research community. We propose a deep regression process for portion size estimation by combining features estimated from both RGB and learned energy distribution domains. Our estimates of food energy achieved state-of-the-art with a MAPE of 11.47%, significantly outperforms non-expert human estimates by 27.56%.


Background: Women in particular suffer from psychological stress when diagnosed with infertility. Psychosocial interventions are known to not only prevent and lessen various mental problems, but also to play a positive role in physical health and pregnancy rates. The aim of this study is to determine the unique impact of spiritual psychotherapy on concerns about infertility and their perceived psychological stresses. Materials and Methods: This study was a randomized clinical trial. The study population included nearly 800 infertile couples who attended the Maternity and Gynecology Clinic of Jahrom University of Medical Sciences, Jahrom, Iran. We enrolled65 people who were randomly divided into two groups, experimental (n=33)and control (n=32). The experimental group received spiritual group psychotherapy counseling for 12 sessions, 2 hours per week for a 3 months period. The control group did not receive any intervention, but due to ethical considerations, we gave a presentation (one session) about infertility treatment for this group after the research process was completed. We used two questionnaires to obtain data, the Penn State Worry Questionnaire (PSWQ) and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Data analysis was done by descriptive and analytic statistics using SPSS 16 software. Results: Psychological intervention in the treatment group significantly decreased the PSWQ (p=0.004). There were significant differences in the mean score of the PSWQ in both groups as determined by analysis of covariance (ANCOVA; p=0.009). Psychological intervention in the treatment group decreased the level of perceived stress, when compared with the control group. According to ANCOVA there were significant differences between the mean PSS scores of both groups (p=0.01). Conclusion: Logotherapy is related to stress reduction and can decrease psychiatric symptoms of worry and perceived stress. This approach tends to improve an infertile person's ability to deal with their problem of finding the meaning of life. Thus it can be concluded that logotherapy along with other treatment methods, is a useful approach for infertile couples (Registration Number:IRCT201108247407N2).


The endothelial injury produced by meglumine iodamide was studied in the rat aorta. A mixture of blood and contrast medium was more toxic to the endothelium than the pure contrast agent. This difference disappeared after premedication with antihistamine, which did not affect the injury produced by the pure contrast agent. Meglumine iodamide appears to cause a release of histamine from blood but not from the aortic endothelium nor from surrounding tissues in amounts demonstrable by this method. Leucocytes are a source of histamine after intravascular contrast medium administration.


Background Despite many initiatives made by the National Department of Health through the Minister of Health, the provision of quality health care services remains a serious challenge in South Africa, especially in public rural clinics. Aim The study aims to determine the perceptions of professional nurses on the factors affecting the provision of quality health care services at selected public primary health care clinics in rural areas of the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province. Setting The study was conducted at selected public primary health care clinics in rural areas of the Capricorn District, Limpopo Province. Methods This study utilised a quantitative method, descriptive and a cross-sectional study conducted for three months at the selected public primary health care clinics. A structured self-administered questionnaire was used to collect data from 155 professional nurses who met the selection criteria. Data were analysed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences programme version 26.0. Results The results of 155 professional nurses were only 116 (74%) and reported that the use of modern technology such as electronic blood pressure, sonar machines and pulse reading computers improves the quality of health care services. Also 129 (84%), 124 (77%) and 118 (76%) reported that they were overwhelmed by the workload, the staff attitude and cleanliness of the clinic, respectively, which all affect the quality of health care services rendered. Moreover, only about 29 (19%) were satisfied with the salary they earned. Conclusion Despite the effort and interventions put in place by the Department of Health with regard to the Ideal Clinic Realisation and Maintenance in response to the current deficiencies in the quality of primary health care services and to lay a strong foundation for the implementation of National Health Insurance. The quality of health care services is still hindered by several factors such as an overwhelming workload, the attitude of the staff and cleanliness in the work environment, poor infrastructure and the professional nurses perceive the environment as lacking equipment.


The audio Beamforming (BF) technique utilizes microphone arrays to extract acoustic sources recorded in a noisy environment. In this article, we propose a new approach for rapid development of multicore BF systems. Research on literature reveals that the majority of such experimental and commercial audio systems are based on desktop PCs, due to their high-level programming support and potential of rapid system development. However, these approaches introduce performance bottlenecks, excessive power consumption, and increased overall cost. Systems based on DSPs require very low power, but their performance is still limited. Custom hardware solutions alleviate the aforementioned drawbacks, however, designers primarily focus on performance optimization without providing a high-level interface for system control and test. In order to address the aforementioned problems, we propose a custom platform-independent architecture for reconfigurable audio BF systems. To evaluate our proposal, we implement our architecture as a heterogeneous multicore reconfigurable processor and map it onto FPGAs. Our approach combines the software flexibility of General-Purpose Processors (GPPs) with the computational power of multicore platforms. In order to evaluate our system we compare it against a BF software application implemented to a low-power Atom 330, a middle-ranged Core2 Duo, and a high-end Core i3. Experimental results suggest that our proposed solution can extract up to 16 audio sources in real time under a 16-microphone setup. In contrast, under the same setup, the Atom 330 cannot extract any audio sources in real time, while the Core2 Duo and the Core i3 can process in real time only up to 4 and 6 sources respectively. Furthermore, a Virtex4-based BF system consumes more than an order less energy compared to the aforementioned GPP-based approaches.


Crystalization of statement "Al-Qur'an will be protected all the time" has been totally convinced and created by any form. One of them is the tradition of Al-Qur'an writing and printing. Circumstancially, this phenomenon indicated the development of living Qur'an. This paper will discuss about the development of Mushaf Al-Qur'an of Indonesia, from the tradition of hand writing until digital era. Beside it, this paper will also analyze the phenomenon of Mushaf of Al-Qur'an in Indonesia, in the concept of living Qur'an, by reception of hermeneutic, aesthetic and cultural.
This paper concludes; the development of writing and printing Al-Qur'an, includes hand writing and digitalization era, is the tradition has been always preserved by Indonesian people. As a kind of living Qur'an, the Mushaf of Indonesia is a evidence of the achievement of cultural transformation and a good civilization.


The inhibition of hepatitis B virus (HBV) capsid assembly is a novel strategy for the development of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) therapeutics. On the basis of the preclinical properties and clinical results of GLS4, we carried out further investigation to seek a better candidate compound with appropriate anti-HBV potency, reduced hERG activity, decreased CYP enzyme induction, and improved pharmacokinetic (PK) properties. To this end, we have successfully found that morpholine carboxyl analogues with comparable anti-HBV activities to that of GLS4 showed decreased hERG activities, but they displayed strong CYP3A4 induction in a concentration-dependent manner, except for morpholine propionic acid analogues. After several rounds of modification, compound 58 (HEC72702), which had an (R)-morpholine-2-propionic acid at the C6 position of its dihydropyrimidine core ring, was found to display no induction of the CYP1A2, CYP3A4, or CYP2B6 enzyme at the high concentration of 10 μM. In particular, it demonstrated a good systemic exposure and high oral bioavailability and achieved a viral-load reduction greater than 2 log in a hydrodynamic-injected (HDI) HBV mouse model and has now been selected for further development.


This paper presents our strategy to tackle the EACL WANLP-2021 Shared Task 2: Sarcasm and Sentiment Detection. One of the subtasks aims at developing a system that identifies whether a given Arabic tweet is sarcastic in nature or not, while the other aims to identify the sentiment of the Arabic tweet. We approach the task in two steps. The first step involves pre processing the provided dataset by performing insertions, deletions and segmentation operations on various parts of the text. The second step involves experimenting with multiple variants of two transformer based models, AraELECTRA and AraBERT. Our final approach was ranked seventh and fourth in the Sarcasm and Sentiment Detection subtasks respectively.


Some effects of antigenic dissimilarity of mother and conceptus on placental and foetal growth, and on gestation period were investigated. Mothers were immunized against or rendered tolerant to the foreign antigens of the hybrid foetus. Placentae and foetuses were weighed from the 12th day of pregnancy up to immediately before term. Some of the litters were allowed to come to term and recordings were made of the birth weights and the length of the gestation period. The results indicate that immunological factors have a significant effect on the size of the placenta and on the growth rate of the foetus. Probably because of this the period of gestation was altered. It was concluded that a unique balance is struck between the transfer area of the placenta and the mass of foetal tissue, to the detriment of the foetus if the placenta is unduly small, but to its advantage if a larger placenta is formed.


Synthetic cathinones have gained popularity among young drug users and are widely used in the clandestine market. While the cathinone-induced behavioral profile has been extensively investigated, information on their neuroplastic effects is still rather fragmentary. Accordingly, we have exposed male mice to a single injection of MDPV and α-PVP and sacrificed the animals at different time points (i.e., 30 min, 2 h, and 24 h) to have a rapid readout of the effect of these psychostimulants on neuroplasticity in the frontal lobe and hippocampus, two reward-related brain regions. We found that a single, low dose of MDPV or α-PVP is sufficient to alter the expression of neuroplastic markers in the adult mouse brain. In particular, we found increased expression of the transcription factor Npas4, increased ratio between the vesicular GABA transporter and the vesicular glutamate transporter together with changes in the expression of the neurotrophin Bdnf, confirming the widespread impact of these cathinones on brain plasticity. To sum up, exposure to low dose of cathinones can impair cortical and hippocampal homeostasis, suggesting that abuse of these cathinones at much higher doses, as it occurs in humans, could have an even more profound impact on neuroplasticity.


Aim To compare a range of clinical outcome variables (intraocular pressure, glaucoma medications, visual acuity, and complications) between two Ahmed glaucoma valve (AGV) models (S2 and FP7). Methods This was a prospective and randomized clinical trial. Fifty-six patients with refractory glaucoma were randomly assigned to be implanted with either a polypropylene (S2) or silicone (FP7) Ahmed glaucoma valve. The primary outcome measure was a surgical success, defined as an IOP ≤ 16 mm Hg (without medication), and guarded success, defined as a controlled IOP ≤ 16 mmHg (with medication). Failure was defined as when the IOP lay outside of the successful range on two consecutive visits (>16 mmHg, despite medication). Results Mean follow-up period was 398.42 ± 12.34 days (range, 380–420 days) for the S2 group and 401.75 ± 9.78 days (range, 385–420 days) for the FP7 group; these values were not significantly different (P = 0.27). After 12 months of follow-up, the baseline IOP (45.42 mmHg) fell significantly to 16.14 mmHg in the S2 group (p < 0.000); there was also a significant reduction in IOP in the FP7 group (from 44.17 mmHg to 15.18 mmHg in FP7 group, p < 0.000). At the last follow-up examination, the mean IOP in the S2 group was 16.14 ± 3.18 mmHg, while that of the FP7 group was 15.18 ± 2.75 mmHg; there was no significant difference between the two groups with this respect (p = 0.23). The mean number of medications used by patients in the S2 and FP7 groups was 2.92 ± 1.27 and 2.75 ± 1.43, respectively; there was no significant difference between the two groups with this respect (p = 0.32). There was no significant difference between the FP7 and S2 groups with regard to their relative success rate (17.89% [5/28] versus 10.7% [3/28], respectively; p = 0.38). Conclusion Our data show that the S2 and FP7 models of AGV were both effective in lowering IOP and reducing the need for glaucoma medications. Although these two AGV models had similar dimensions, they were constructed from different materials. However, there were no significant clinical differences between the S2 and FP7 AGV groups after 12 months of follow-up. Furthermore, our data indicate that bleb encapsulation was the primary factor responsible for failure rate and the need for glaucoma medication in both the S2 and FP7 groups. Our analysis further indicates that the S2 and FP7 Ahmed valves are associated with a high risk of failure when considered as a first-line therapy for cases experiencing trabeculectomy. Clinical Trial Registration NCT04214847.


Bisphenol-A (BPA) is considered an endocrine disruptor with estrogenic activity. It is described as an environment-polluting industrial chemical whose adverse effects on the male reproductive system depend on the period of exposure (i.e., fetal, prepubertal, or adult life). We exposed male mice to BPA during the fetal-perinatal period (from 10 days post coitum to 31 days post partum) and investigated the impact of this early-life exposure on gamete health in adulthood animals at 78 days of age. Both in control and BPA-exposed mice, viability and motility of spermatozoa, as well as sperm motility acquisition and chromatin condensation of spermatozoa, have been evaluated. Results reveal harmful effect of BPA on viability and motility of sperm cells as well as on chromatin condensation status during epididymal maturation of spermatozoa. In particular, BPA exposure interferes with biochemical mechanism useful to stabilize sperm chromatin condensation, as it interferes with oxidation of thiol groups associated to chromatin.


Detection of spores of Bacillus anthracis, the causative agent of anthrax in human and animals in environment is cumbersome due to the presence of spores of other closely related Bacillus species. The Extractable Antigen 1 (EA1), an extracellular protein is considered as a biomarker for detection of B. anthracis spores. In the present work, we have cloned and expressed the recombinant EA1 protein in soluble form in Escherichia coli. Optimisation of culture conditions and cultivation media was carried out to achieve enhanced soluble expression of recombinant EA1 protein. Further, the batch fermentation process was also developed using optimised conditions for scale up production of recombinant EA1 protein. The final yield of protein purified employing affinity chromatography was 42.64 mg/l of culture during batch fermentation process. The polyclonal antibodies were raised against recombinant EA in rabbit and mice and used to develop an ELISA for detection of B. anthracis spores. The specificity of the developed assay was ascertained with spores of other Bacillus species. The results corroborated that the EA1 could be a suitable biomarker for detection of B. anthracis spores.


This paper maps the percentage of household expenditure devoted to energy by UK households over the past 25 years. Mapping household energy expenditure shares over the long-run provides a solid evidence base for discussing the distributional aspects of the UK's retail energy market. By looking over the long-run recent high expenditure shares are placed in context with low energy expenditure shares in the late 1990s and early 2000s appearing more exceptional. The large variations in energy expenditure shares across households, and through time, highlight the varying political saliency of energy and the dramatically more pressing budget choices facing low income households after energy price rises. While increased affordability pressures over the past 10 years support the political expediency of recent commitments to re-regulate energy prices, it is striking that many affordability support policies were first introduced when energy was at its most affordable. Casual empiricism suggests government ideology and the election cycle may be as important as energy expenditure shares in determining affordability support policies.


The five type of Japanese reduplication - i.e. verb, adjective, noun, adverb and sound-symbolic words - have all gone through the similar diachronic pathway, morphologically, syntactically and semantically, despite their different lexical origins; however, their productivity varies from one type to another. Giving a diachronic frequency survey, this study has reached two conclusions. Subjective meanings implicitly or explicitly symbolized in the reduplicative expressions are highly correlated with the diachronic productivity of Japanese reduplication: only sound-symbolic reduplication shows a steady increase. Lexicalization pattern is also in close relation to the increase of sound-symbolic reduplication. The lack of specific meanings of Japanese verbs typologically enables the emergence of manner expressions through the iconic process of reduplication: the specific manner meanings can be mostly related to sound-symbolic reduplication.


Summary This paper reports the first data on historical population structure in white Australians. Vital records and census data from two Tasmanian registration districts, Oatlands and Bothwell, were examined using surname analysis to investigate population structure in the nineteenth century. Both were colonising populations and therefore initially had massive immigration and a very high sex ratio. Inbreeding, as measured by marital isonymy, was relatively high in Oatlands, especially in the context of its short history. Although genetic continuity, measured by surname constancy, was relatively low, a small but distinct core was detectable. Bothwell, the smaller community, exhibited very little inbreeding and, concomitantly, low surname constancy. The coefficient of relationship by isonymy between Oatlands and Bothwell was extremely low. These findings are discussed in the context of the known socio-political history of this region of Tasmania.


The South American Altiplano is a high altitude plateau located between 15°S and 22°S and lying between two mountain chains of the Central Andes. Within the plateau are two large features of surface discontinuity that influence local circulations. Lake Titicaca, at the north end of the Altiplano is has an area of 8,300 square km making it the 2 largest lake in South America. The Salar de Uyuni is the largest dry salt lake in the world with a surface area of 9000 square km. These features and their influences on local circulation can possibly change weather and climate of their surrounding areas. The aim of this study is to use pilot balloon soundings and rain gauge measurements to describe the influence of these features on their surroundings, and the impact on precipitation. Large-scale results showed a relationship between upper-level easterly flow and wet days on the Altiplano, in addition to the opposite; westerly flow and dry days on the altiplano. On the local scale we observed a tendency for increased precipitation with proximity to the lake. The difference in flow on wet and dry days also modified the diurnal breeze circulation of the lake. Analysis of morning and afternoon near-surface winds at the lake and salar indicate morning confluence and afternoon difluence, which may be linked to increased morning convection over the lake indicated by satellite imagery. Comparison of the Salar and Lake indicated a stronger breeze signal at the Salar, possibly a result of the resistance of the salt surface to heating, and reduction of daytime surface heating surrounding Lake Titicaca due to increased vegetation.


Emotional stimuli are processed very ef fi ciently, in fl uencing physiological and behavioral responses as well as attention, perceptual processes and sensory-motor integration. In a previous work, we introduced a new paradigm, the Affective Spatial Compatibility task (AffSCt), to study whether the affective valence of the stimulus in fl uences spatial compatibility effects. By using fi gures of soccer players of Favorite and Rival Teams as positive and negative valence stimuli, we found a normal Spatial Compatibility effect for the Favorite team and a reversed one for the Rival team. Here, we analyzed the time course of inhibitory and facilitatory effects of emotional valence by the Vincentization method. We found that for Favorite team, the facilitatory effect for


The agricultural sector is a significant contributor to the economies of Guinea, Mali and Niger. In terms of share of GDP, agriculture represents 16 percent, 38 percent, and 40 percent respectively. It is also a primary source of employment for most of the population (68 percent, 57 percent, and 75 percent respectively). Unfortunately, such critical sector is characterized by low yields due to low input use and quality. The International Fertilizer Development Center (IFDC)estimated the average cereal yields to be 1.6 metric tons per hectare in 2014 in Mali, which is above the sub-Saharan average (1 metric ton/ha) but well below potential yields. With a majority of their land area lying in semi-arid and arid zones of the Sahel and the Sahara desert, increasingly frequent crises arising from the Sahel region's high vulnerability to climate change--characterized by recurrent extreme weather events such as floods and droughts—low productivity has adverse effects on farmers' incomes and undermines household food security. Hence the main articlein the present volume is devoted to the innovative effort of introducing e-vouchers schemes, supported by digital means, in Guinea, Mali and Niger. The e-voucher program is built around three key components: a digital platform for SMS messages, a reliable database of electronically-registered farmers in selected regions, and a directory of agro-dealers. In so doing, fertilizers (or seeds) distribution becomes transparent, ensures high quality and as it unfolds, fosters private sector participation. Based on pilot practices in the sub-region, four major lessons are learned. First, targeting is a key determinant of scope and success. In general, targeting depends on the main objective of the program: either poverty reduction, which would aim at farmers located at the lowest deciles of the income distribution, or agricultural productivity, which would also aim at those located a few deciles above. A clear decision in this regard should be taken upfront. Second, in rural populations with high levels of illiteracy, digital technologies should be adapted to their needs, with voice messaging working better than SMS messages. Third, effectiveness of these programs relies on the efficiency of public procurement. In many cases, delays in timely providing agricultural input result from bottlenecks at the procurement stage. As AFCW3 governments become strongly involved in upscaling these approaches, it is my hope that this report will provide further insights to help them in their successful implementation.


We describe a theoretical approach for finding spontaneously symmetry-broken electronic phases due to strong electronic interactions when using recently developed slave-particle (slave-boson) approaches based on occupation numbers. We describe why, to date, spontaneous symmetry breaking has proven difficult to achieve in such approaches. We then provide a total-energy based approach for introducing auxiliary symmetry breaking fields into the solution of the slave-particle problem that leads to lowered total energies for symmetry broken phases. We point out that not all slave-particle approaches yield to energy lowering: the slave-particle model being used must explicitly describe the degrees of freedom that break symmetry. Finally, our total energy approach permits us to greatly simplify the formalism used to achieve a self-consistent solution between spinon and slave modes while increasing numerical stability and greatly speeding up the calculations.


This paper includes a method for estimating the parameter of a synchronous generator and exciter using the modified particle swarm optimization. A solid round rotor synchronous generator and exciter have been modeled with the saturation function. They are regarded as state of being cooperative to a infinite bus. The behavior characteristic of all particles assigned to a parameter needs to be reflected in the PSO algorithm to fine out more close result to the optimal solution. The results of the simulation to estimate the parameters of the synchronous generator and exciter in the modified PSO algorithm are described


Designing a 3D game scene is a tedious task that often requires a substantial amount of work. Typically, this task involves synthesis, coloring, and placement of 3D models within the game scene. To lessen this workload, we can apply machine learning to automate some aspects of the game scene development. Earlier research has already tackled automated generation of the game scene background with machine learning. However, model auto-coloring remains an underexplored problem. The automatic coloring of a 3D model is a challenging task, especially when dealing with the digital representation of a colorful, multipart object. In such a case, we have to ``understand'' the object's composition and coloring scheme of each part. Existing single-stage methods have their own caveats such as the need for segmentation of the object or generating individual parts that have to be assembled together to yield the final model. We address these limitations by proposing a two-stage training approach to synthesize auto-colored 3D models. In the first stage, we obtain a 3D point cloud representing a 3D object, whilst in the second stage, we assign colors to points within such cloud. Next, by leveraging the so-called triangulation trick, we generate a 3D mesh in which the surfaces are colored based on interpolation of colored points representing vertices of a given mesh triangle. This approach allows us to generate a smooth coloring scheme. Experimental evaluation shows that our two-stage approach gives better results in terms of shape reconstruction and coloring when compared to traditional single-stage techniques.


With the recent advancements in Machine Learning based Natural Language Processing (NLP), language dependency has always been a limiting factor for a majority of NLP applications. Typically, models are trained for the English language due to the availability of very large labeled and unlabeled datasets, which also allow to fine tune models for that language. Contradiction Detection is one such problem that has found many practical applications in NLP and up to this point has only been studied in the context of English language. The scope of this paper is to examine a set of baseline methods for the Contradiction Detection task on German text. For this purpose, the well-known Stanford Natural Language Inference (SNLI) data set (110,000 sentence pairs) is machine-translated from English to German. We train and evaluate four classifiers on both the original and the translated data, using state-of-the-art textual data representations. Our main contribution is the first large-scale assessment for this problem in German, and a validation of machine translation as a data generation method. We also present a novel approach to learn sentence embeddings by exploiting the hidden states of an encoder-decoder Sequence-To-Sequence RNN trained for autoencoding or translation.


Many practicing physical therapists participate in the most crucial phase of a student's education by serving as Clinical Instructors. The purposes of this study were to identify the clinical teaching behaviors perceived as most effective and most hindering by students and CIs and to compare the response rates of students in bachelor's and master's degree programs. A published 58-item questionnaire was completed by 172 participants from eight physical therapy education programs. The results were analyzed by multivariate analysis of variance. The perceived most helpful teaching behaviors pertained to providing information through feedback. The perceived most hindering behaviors were intimidating questioning and correcting student errors in the presence of patients. The different student and CI ratings for the item "leaves student alone until asked to supervise" has important ethical and educational implications. Master's and bachelor's degree students' ratings differed significantly on four teaching behaviors. Different instructional methods might be necessary for educating these students.


Cryptand-like porphyrinoid assembled with three 2,6-dipyrrylpyridine chains binds alcohol at each molecular crevice in the C3h symmetric conformation through three hydrogen bondings. This receptor binds dichloroacetic acid at each crevice in the D3 symmetric conformation, where strong positive allosteric effect was observed on the basis of the Hill plot with a Hill coefficient (n = 2.7 ± 0.2), and the association constant (log K = 13.6 ± 1.8). Ligand binding at the first crevice enhances polarization of the π-conjugated chain to make pyrrole more acidic at the second crevice and pyridine more basic at the third crevice.


The retinoids (vitamin A and its derivatives) play a critical role in vision, growth, reproduction, cell differentiation and embryonic development. Using the IMpRH panel, porcine cellular retinol binding protein genes 5 and 7 (RBP5 and RBP7) were assigned to porcine chromosomes 5 and 6, respectively. The complete coding sequences (CDS) of the RBP5 and RBP7 genes were amplified using the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method, and the deduced amino acid sequences of both genes were compared to human corresponding proteins. The mRNA distributions of the two genes in adult Wuzhishan pig tissues (lung, skeletal muscle, spleen, heart, stomach, large intestine, lymph node, small intestine, liver, brain, kidney and fat) were examined. A total of nine single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified in two genes. Three of these SNPs were analyzed using the polymerase chain reaction-restriction-fragment length polymorphism (PCR-RFLP) method in Laiwu, Wuzhishan, Guizhou, Bama, Tongcheng, Yorkshire and Landrace pig breeds. Association analysis of genotypes of these SNP loci with economic traits was done in our experimental populations. Significant associations of different genotypes of RBPS-A/G 63 , RBPS-A/G 517 and RPBS-T/C intron1-90 loci with traits including maximum carcass length (LM), minimum carcass length (LN), marbling score (MS), back fat thickness at shoulder (SBF), meat color score (MCS) and hematocrit (HCT) were detected. These SNPs may be useful as genetic markers in genetic improvement for porcine production.


An ecological theory of remembering is formulated which is based on the patterns of meaningfulness in the social and spatial environment. The specific ecological relationship to the environment is affinitive, and also opens access to the resources of the past. In the present study, conditions for this access (in particular with older people) were investigated. It is assumed that older people, especially, when they lose someone with whom they had a fixed relationship seek counselling and that abrupt changes in the spatial environment, such as moving to a home, are rejected by older people. These hypotheses were checked on the basis of material (N = 120) gathered in a counselling service for the aged and they were essentially confirmed. To make matters clear, "typical" and thus every-day experiences of maintenance and loss of competence are cited from the material. Finally, practical conclusions are drawn with regard to work with the aged.


Objectives The objective of this study was to examine whether maternal exposure to asthmogens during pregnancy is associated with the development of asthma in 7-year-old Danish children, taking atopic status and sex into consideration. Design The study is a prospective follow-up of a birth cohort. Setting and participants A total of 41 724 women and their children from The Danish National Birth Cohort were categorised according to maternal occupational exposure. Exposure information was obtained by combining job title in pregnancy and 18 months after pregnancy with a commonly used asthma Job Exposure Matrix. Primary and secondary outcome measures Primary outcome was parent-reported asthma among their 7-year-old children in an internet-based questionnaire. Secondary outcome was asthma among the same children with or without atopic dermatitis and among boys and girls, respectively. Results Prenatal exposure to low molecular weight (LMW) agents was borderline associated with asthma in children with OR 1.17 (0.95 to 1.44) for children with atopic dermatitis and 1.10 (0.98 to 1.22) for children without. Maternal postnatal exposure was associated with asthma (OR 1.15 (1.04 to 1.28). After mutual adjustment,postnatal exposure (OR 1.13 (0.99 to 1.29) and the combined effects of prenatal and postnatal exposure (OR 1.34 (1.19 to 1.51)) seem to increase the risk of asthma in children. No significant associations were observed for other prenatal or postnatal exposures. The gender of the child did not modify the aforementioned associations. Conclusions Maternal occupational exposures during pregnancy do not seem to be a substantial risk factor for the development of asthma in 7-year-old children. Maternal prenatal and postnatal exposures to LMW agents may predispose the propensity of the children to develop asthma. Future studies should prioritise the characterisation of the timing of exposure in relation to the birth.


Service-Oriented Architecture (SOA) is gaining momentum as an architectural model for heterogeneous e-Government systems. With SOA, e-Government is perceived as a collection of Web services. A real-life event (e.g. a newborn) triggers a sequence of a number of services. This sequence is usually part of a process. A process has input requirements and produces a final output (e.g. a printed birth certificate). For a government there is a myriad of processes. Not all services are electronic though. This depends on the maturity of the e-Government endeavour. For all processes, the sequence of services must be fed somehow into the system. This enables the system to discern what services to invoke and what input requirements are needed for each process. Electronic services can be invoked instantly. Traditional ones are flagged to be carried out manually. Processes take the form of if-then scenarios. This paper proposes the use of a rulebased approach to implement processes. As we shall see, this approach eases the maintainability of the plethora of eGovernment processes. It does not incur recoding of applications should there be a change to one or more processes. A process sequence is not uniform for the same type of event. Two citizens/customers having the same real-life event can go through different sequences of a process to get the same output. Our rule-based approach can inherently automatically inform the citizen what input requirement is missing and why. It can also inform the citizen why a process sequence is particularly so for his/her case. This raises transparency to a great extent. Our approach is intuitive and natural. It makes it easier for public servants themselves lacking traditional programming skills to update the rules. To validate our approach we have built a prototypical implementation to prove workability.


Integrating a power amplifier with the rest of a transceiver poses unique challenges particularly at 5.8GHz, where parasitic couplings are inevitable. This paper proposed a system and circuit techniques that are necessary in order to realize a RFIC transceiver with an integrated power amplifier. These techniques were utilized to make a 5.8GHz GFSK transceiver with an integrated and highly efficient power amplifier in 0.18mum SiGe BiCMOS technology. The complete transceiver exhibit an output power of 21 dBm with no stability problem and power added efficiency better than 30%


The need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at global levels drives the implementation of sustainable solutions. The Oil and Gas (O&G) industry is responsible for considerable emission of greenhouse gases and has been pressured to apply sustainable solutions in its process. Among the options to reduce emissions in this sector, Water Injection Systems (WIS) are suitable candidates due to their high energy demand and high pollutants emissions. WIS is essential for any oil exploitation field since it is responsible for increasing the well's pressure, resulting in a greater Oil Recovery Rate (ORR). Nonetheless, the traditional methods to power these systems include gas turbines and diesel generators, leading to not just environmental problems, but also operation problems related to weight and space restrictions, especially in offshore installations. In this context, an optimization problem is formulated aiming to analyze the operation of a WIS when powered by an offshore wind turbine and a Battery Energy Storage System (BESS). The optimization aims to maximize the water injection and a sensitivity is carried out to verify the influence of the BESS size and motor pump efficiency in the battery dispatch, volume of injected water, number of times that the pump stops, BESS cycles, and energy curtailed. The results have shown that the BESS size has little influence on the volume of water injected, being more effective in reducing the number of pump stops and the number of equivalents cycles of charge and discharge cycles. Moreover, larger BESS provides a smoother operation at a rate lower than 1C. This sensitivity analysis shed light in the expectation of the system related cost reduction and useful life extension of the BESS and WIS.


Alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr in as-cast, as-extruded, cast-T6 (peak aged) and extruded-T5 (peak aged) state was tensile creep tested at 200, 250 and 300 °C and stress 50, 80 and 120 MPa. Comparison of minimal creep rate shows that alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr in cast-T6 conditions is characterized by an excellent creep resistance, which is higher than that of commercially available Mg-alloys. Creep resistance of as-cast, as-extruded and extruded-T5 alloy Mg-10Gd-3Y-0,4Zr is lower. Cavity nucleation is heavily affected by the amount of secondary phases on the grain boundaries and also by the initial grain size of the microstructure. After extrusion and in the extruded-T5 conditions creep cavitation was not observed, whereas in the as-cast and cast-T6 conditions creep cavitation occurred on the high fraction of grain boundaries.


Research is focused in the Gedangsari district of Gunung Kidul Regency, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. it lies between the latitudes of E7° 48°50 "S to E7° 51'30" and longitudes from N 110° 37'0" to N 110°39'44". Geological mapping and sedimentary analysis have been done to the rock units in the study area by collecting measurements of the outcrops exposed. Lithology and sedimentary structures are the main aspects to differentiate and establish the nature of depositional environment. The Nglanggeran Formation is characterized by lava, basaltic and andesitic breccia to sandstone that accumulated during volcanism periods. The overall succession of Nglanggeran Formation suggests that the depositional environment was in shallow marine environment.

Key Word: Sedimentary analysis, depositional environment, Gedangsari, Gunung Kidul, Nglanggeran Formation.


The ectopic spleen characterizes for absence of its suspensory ligaments and a long pedicle that are predisposed to complicate it for a torsion with commitment of the venous drainage at first and arterial at a later time himself, producing increase of its volume and infarct. This anomalous situation, it can be had to a congenital malformation of the development of its suspensory elements and fall toward the inferior abdomen or else to an inferior growth of the mesodermic yolk of that this organ originates itself. The suitable treatment is the laparoscopic splenopexy, but when it exists infarction, it is no possible avoid the splenectomy.


ObjectiveWe evaluated cellular origin, numbers, and procoagulant activity of phosphatidylserine-positive microparticles (MPs) among subgroups in acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Materials and methodsParameters were measured on admission, days 1 (within 24 h of admission), 2, 3, and 7. All ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients presented more than 3 h from symptom onset and received fibrinolysis treatment; controls included unstable angina and non-STEMI patients as well as healthy controls. Phosphatidylserine-positive MPs were detected by flow cytometry, whereas procoagulant activity was assessed by coagulation time, purified coagulation complex assays, and fibrin formation. MP-induced fibrins were visualized by confocal microscopy. ResultsOn admission, the total MP count was ∼2.5-fold higher in the ACS groups compared with the healthy controls (P<0.05), primarily originating from platelets and endothelial cells, and there were no significant differences among ACS subgroups. Specifically, leukocyte-derived and erythrocyte-derived MPs were higher in the STEMI group compared with unstable angina and non-STEMI groups (both P<0.05). Further, MPs from the ACS groups reduced coagulation time by 27.5% and induced intrinsic and extrinsic FXase, prothrombinase, and fibrin formation by 2.8-, 2.3-, 2.5-, and 1.7-fold, respectively (P<0.05 for all), whereas blocking phosphatidylserine with lactadherin inhibited ∼70% of procoagulant activity. MP number and concomitant coagulation decreased significantly by day 2 and continued to decrease gradually during the recovery period. ConclusionThis study shows that MP characteristics from circulating blood may be used as prognostic indicators to reflect the origin cell of activation and thrombophilic states found in ACS subgroups.


First published in 1908 this book has now reached its eleventh edition. The book has been revised and the work of Bohler and Veau has been incorporated in it. A number of illustrations have been added. It is difficult in a small book of this nature to give a balanced view ef surgery. The book should be used as intended by the author as supplementary to one of the larger text books of surgery. Then it fulfils an extremely useful purpose in that it enables the reader to obtain a bird's-eye view of the whole subject in an extremely short period of time. The chapter at the end on surface markings deserves special commendation. The terminology is oldfashioned, however, and we hope to see this revised in the next edition, which we feel sure will appear in the not too distant future.


In this paper the normalized innovations squared of a Kalman filter is used to detect a bias level in prediction errors due to target accelerations. The probability density function of the normalized innovation squared is obtained for a steady state Kalmal filter, and it is used to calculate the detection probability of the bias level. A typical example is given to compute the detection probability.


The existing flexible cable dynamics model, established using the absolute nodal coordinate formulation (ANCF), suffers from the issue of strain coupling. It also does not consider the nonlinear mechanical properties inside the flexible cable and consequently provides an inaccurate description of the strain and the constitutive properties. In this study, the axial strain of the flexible cable was redescribed by constructing an equivalent rod element in order to decouple the axial strain and bending strain. Subsequently, a strain-decoupled ANCF cable element was derived. Then, by analyzing the geometry of the stranded flexible cable as well as the relative sliding and friction between the wires in the cable, the axial stiffness and bending stiffness calculation formulae were obtained and the decoupled-stranded model was established. This study, therefore, achieved an improvement upon the traditional model in describing the strain and constitutive properties. The simulation results show that the decoupled model eliminates the strain coupling effect compared with the traditional model and has the advantages of fast convergence and high accuracy. The stiffness characteristics analysis shows that the bending stiffness of the cable changes during the bending process due to the relative motion and friction between the wires. Finally, the comparative analysis shows that the accuracy of the decoupled-stranded model is very close to that of the detailed model and performs much better than the other ANCF models, and the complexity of the decoupled-stranded model is far lower than that of the detailed model.


This paper reviews the theory of thermogalvanic cells with metal or halogen electrodes and a single fused salt, and analyses the results of experimental studies of thermogalvanic cells (including those obtained in the author's laboratory). Some examples of the application of thermopotentials in studies of the physical chemistry of fused salts are discussed. 47 references.


In software engineering field, developing software tools is challenging and important. In software project humans are important. Human resources are mainly needed. In software project, planning is important. Since software project is much related to human resource, the human resource allocation is the important problem. A software project planning tool must consider the project planning as well as human resource allocation problem. An Event Based Scheduler (EBS) and an Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) algorithm is used to develop a flexible and effective model for software project planning. The proposed system represents a plan by task list and employee allocation matrix. In the EBS, the beginning time of the project, the time when resources are released from finished tasks, and the time when employees join or leave the project are regarded as events. The basic idea of the EBS is to adjust the allocation of employees at events and keep the allocation unchanged at nonevents. For planning and employee allocation ACO is used. Thus in this paper, with the help of ACO and EBS, the proposed method enables the modeling of resource conflict and task preemption and preserves the flexibility in human resource allocation.


There is a high need for secure authentication protocols conforming with the EPC Class-1 Generation 2 (Gen2 in short) standard. The security analyses of the new born authentication protocols provide some guidelines and lessons that should be considered in the design of new proposals. In this paper, we scrutinize the security of a Gen2 based RFID authentication protocol which has been recently proposed by Yi et al. [8]. Our security analysis highlights important security pitfalls in this proposal. More precisely, we show a simple approach to desynchronize the tag and the reader. Moreover, we present tag impersonation and reader impersonation attacks. Finally, we show how the use of random numbers does not prevent traceability attack. The success probability of all the proposed attacks is 1 and their complexity is minimal since at most one eavesdropped session of the protocol is required.


This ECMI Commentary by Piero Cinquegrana considers the phenomenon of the six-fold increase in oil prices over the last seven years and asks whether this massive increase is justified by fundamentals or is the result of a speculative frenzy in commodities driven by bear markets in bonds and stocks. Piero concludes that the sheer complexity of the oil market does not vouchsafe a simple explanation for the surge in oil prices. In the long-term, reduced spare capacity, increased demand and burgeoning extraction costs suggest that oil prices are bound to remain both high and volatile. In the short-term, however, it is a combination of speculation, changing expectations and general uncertainty that has led to the surge in oil prices.


A novel crosslinked hydrogel was prepared from sodium carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) and hydroxyethyl cellulose (HEC) using ammonium persulfate as an initiator and methylenebisacrylamide as a crosslinker for drug delivery. The chemical structure of the copolymer was characterized by Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy and X-ray diffraction, and the morphology was observed under scanning electron microscopy. The swelling behavior of the hydrogels confirmed the pH- and ionic strength-sensitivity. The reversibility of the hydrogels and the on-off switching behavior were also investigated, providing the potential for drug delivery. The release of bovine serum albumin (BSA) from drug-loaded hydrogels was studied at different pH conditions to simulate gastrointestinal conditions. The amount of BSA released from the hydrogels at pH 1.2 was relatively low (17.8%), while 85.2% was released at pH 7.4. According to the results, the CMC/HEC hydrogel has the potential for use in the controlled release of oral medication.


This paper investigates the nutraceutical (phenolic content and antioxidant activity) and nutritional potential (protein and starch digestibility) of supplementation of durum wheat semolina with 5–20% fish powder (Pseudophycis bachus). In general, all enriched pasta with fish powder showed a significant decrease (p < 0.05) in reducing sugar released during an in vitro digestion, and reductions in standardized area under the curve (AUC) values, compared to control pasta. The potentially bioaccessible fraction of pasta enriched with 20% fish powder (FP) was characterized as having a 177–191% increase in phenolic content and a 145–556% higher antiradical activity. Elevation of these parameters in fortified pasta was accompanied by interaction of wheat starch, protein, and fish powder protein. Supplementation of fish powder also influenced protein digestibility (a reduction from 84.60% for control pasta to 80.80% for pasta with 20% fish powder). Fortification improved the nutraceutical and nutritional potential of the studied pasta with the effects depending on factors including protein-starch-phenolic interactions.


In a recent article [Physics Letters A 372 (2008) 417], Wang et al. proposed a method, which is called the (G'/G)-expansion method, to look for travelling wave solutions of nonlinear evolution equations. The travelling wave solutions involving parameters of the KdV equation, the mKdV equation, the variant Boussinesq equations, and the Hirota–Satsuma equations are obtained by using this method. They think the (G'/G)-expansion method is a new method and more travelling wave solutions of many nonlinear evolution equations can be obtained. In this paper, we will show that the (G'/G)-expansion method is equivalent to the extended tanh function method.


Face morphing attacks have become increasingly complex, and existing methods exhibit certain limitations in capturing fine-grained texture and detail changes. To overcome these limitation, in this study, a detection method based on high-frequency features and progressive enhancement learning was proposed. Specifically, in this method, first, high-frequency information are extracted from the three color channels of the image to accurately capture the details and texture changes. Next, a progressive enhancement learning framework was designed to fuse high-frequency information with RGB information. This framework includes self-enhancement and interactive-enhancement modules that progressively enhance features to capture subtle morphing traces. Experiments conducted on the standard database and compared with nine classical technologies revealed that the proposed approach achieved excellent performance.


On the basis of identifying macroscopic tax burden rate, income tax rate and type of dual tax exemption as the three major indices, this paper brings forward a new approach of fuzzy cluster analysis for tax planning for location of foreign direct investment. As one of the fuzzy decision approaches, the fuzzy cluster analysis makes use of fuzzy equivalent relation to classify the objects into different categories according to some definite criterion. When it is applied in the tax planning for location of foreign direct investment, the following steps should be followed: Firstly, the fuzzy compatibility matrix is set up by max-min method. Secondly, the fuzzy equivalent matrix satisfying the transitivity condition is deduced by composition computations. Finally, the fuzzy equivalent relation is utilized to cluster the locations of foreign direct investment so that the optimal tax planning choice could be made.


Organizations within challenger movements often exhibit differences in what they do, with whom they interact, and how they understand or present themselves. This article attempts to understand what underlies such heterogeneity in challenger movements. Adopting a mixed method approach, we explore the heterogeneous nature of the work undertaken by institutional challengers in the US environmental movement. Drawing on the tools of social network analysis, we develop a method to identify a set of distinct social positions. Next, drawing upon qualitative data on identity and work from websites and interviews with senior managers in environmental non-governmental organizations, we identify configurations of social position, identity, and work that result in a distinct set of challenger roles. Our analysis reveals how identity and social position can both enable and constrain individual organizations within a challenger movement in terms of their ability to undertake different types of institutional work. We also identify a form of work thus far not explicitly identified in prior studies of institutional work–indirect work, which we theorize may be an important potential moderator to the effectiveness of direct forms of institutional work.


Since traditional radar signals are "unintelligent," regarding the amount of information they convey on the bandwidth they occupy, a joint radar and wireless communication system would constitute a unique platform for future intelligent transportation networks effecting the essential tasks of environmental sensing and the allocation of ad-hoc communication links, in terms of both spectrum efficiency and cost-effectiveness. In this paper, approaches to the design of intelligent waveforms, that are suitable for simultaneously performing both data transmission and radar sensing, are proposed. The approach is based on classical phase-coded waveforms utilized in wireless communications. In particular, requirements that allow for employing such signals for radar measurements with high dynamic range are investigated. Also, a variety of possible radar processing algorithms are discussed. Moreover, the applicability of multiple antenna techniques for direction-of-arrival estimation is considered. In addition to theoretical considerations, the paper presents system simulations and measurement results of complete "RadCom" systems, demonstrating the practical feasibility of integrated communications and radar applications.


THE FUNCTIONS ber x and bei x and their derivatives are frequently used in electrical-engineering problems connected with heavy conductors and with wires at radio frequencies. For instance, the current distribution and the resistance loss in a round conductor, or in a coreless induction furnace, are often computed by means of these functions.


Betz, Ju., Naumova, N., Burmistrovа, O., Burmistrov, E., Rodionova, I. & Naumova, O. (2020). The use of multigrain raw materials in the formulation of pasta from wheat baking flour. Bulg. J. Agric. Sci., 26 (6), 1315–1322 Apart from conventional pasta recipes, producers offer products obtained using unconventional plant raw materials. The production of pasta using available multi-grain raw materials is of scientific interest. The purpose of the research was to determine the practical applicability of whole-grain multi-grain flour in the formulation of pasta from high-grade baking wheat flour. The objects of the research were: high-grade baking wheat flour, barley-rye-oat flour, model samples of dough and finished pasta for first courses (control and test samples with the substitution of 10% (experiment 1), 20% (experiment 2) and 30% (experiment 3) of wheat flour with a similar amount of whole-grain barley-rye-oat flour). We established a good compatibility of the studied raw material by the organoleptic indicators. We highlighted the superiority of the multi-grain flour by the content of lipids (by 4 times), dietary fiber (by 2.5 times), zinc (by 2.8 times), iron and magnesium (by 2.4-2.5 times), manganese and copper (by 1.6-1.7 times), phosphorus (by 64.6%) against the background of the low gluten content. According to the results of testing the organoleptic and physical and chemical parameters of the pasta dough, tasting assessment of the quality and cooking properties of the pasta, experiment 3 was chosen as the best experimental version. The substitution of 30% of wheat flour in pasta recipes for first courses with whole-grain multi-grain flour increases the content of lipids (by 2.7 times), dietary fiber (by 44.6%), micronutrients: copper (by 1.7 times), zinc (by 48%), iron (by 40%), manganese (by 21%), macronutrients: magnesium (by 47%) and phosphorus (by 10%) in the finished product due to the formation of a very good quality and acceptable cooking properties.


Highly mesoporous carbons (MCs) were prepared by the carbonization of biomass sources, including glucose, cellulose, and lignin, with eutectic salt (KCl/ZnCl2, denoted as PZ) as the porogen agent and catalyst. The influences of the mass ratio of carbon sources to PZ, the heating program, and the calcination temperature on the textural structures of the carbons were investigated. It was demonstrated that the MC derived from glucose with a mass ratio of glucose to PZ of 1:6 exhibited a specific surface area (SSA) of 1297 m2 g−1 and a pore volume of 2.727 cm3 g−1 dominated with a mesopore volume proportion of 92.2% and that the MCs from cellulose and lignin also showed relatively high mesoporous proportions in the range of 63.2–87.5% and SSAs higher than 1000 m2 g−1. Furthermore, based on the TGA, FT-IR and N2 sorption analyses, the generation of a high proportion of mesopores in MCs was also studied.


OFDMA and SC-FDMA were chosen as strong candidates for uplink transmission in 3GPP-LTE. OFDMA is a full-fledged multicarrier modulation scheme but has the disadvantage of high P APR. SC-FDMA achieves low P APR by spreading the constellation points over entire bandwidth but lacks efficient spectral utilization and prone to Inter Carrier Interference (ICI) at cell edge. Grouped Frequency Division Multiple Access (GFDMA) is a modified version of SC-FDMA that combines SC-FDMA with IMD-FDE to provide multi-user detection capability. Unlike SC-FDMA, GFDMA suffers from Carrier Frequency Offset (CFO) that arises due to Multiple Access Interference (MAl). To select a transmission scheme that offers more resistance to adverse channel conditions and provide better performance, impact of CFO in GFDMA and SC-FDMA systems will be evaluated by channel estimation techniques under Rayleigh and Gaussian fading channels. Keywords-GFDMA, SC-FDMA, CFO, Rayleigh and Gaussian fading channels


BACKGROUND
Since deferiprone can be an effective chelating agent for the treatment of aluminum (Al) overload, in the present study we investigated whether this chelator could protect against Al-induced maternal and developmental toxicity in mice.

METHODS
A single oral dose of Al nitrate nonahydrate (1,327 mg/kg) was given on gestation day 12, the most sensitive time for Al-induced maternal and developmental toxic effects in mice. At 2, 24, 48, and 72 hr thereafter, deferiprone was given by gavage at 0 and 24 mg/kg. Cesarean sections were performed on day 18 of gestation and fetuses were examined for malformations and variations.

RESULTS
Aluminum-induced maternal toxicity was evidenced by significant reductions in body weight gain, corrected body weight change, and food consumption. Developmental toxicity was evidenced by a significant decrease in fetal weight per litter and an increase in the total number of fetuses and litters showing bone retardation. No beneficial effects of deferiprone on these adverse effects could be observed. By contrast, a more pronounced decrease in maternal weight gain and corrected body weight change, as well as a higher number of litters with fetuses showing skeletal variations was noted in the group exposed to Al nitrate and treated with deferiprone at 24 mg/kg.

CONCLUSIONS
According to the current results, deferiprone would not be effective to prevent Al-induced maternal and embryo/fetal toxicity in mice.


Multi-channel interference elimination technology for Small-Satellites-Borne Distributed Synthetic Aperture Radar (SSBD-SAR) system is discussed in this paper. On the basis of analyzing the spacial difference of jamming signals and the SAR echo signals, we apply the multi-channel interference elimination technology to the SSBD-SAR system. The simulation results testify that this technique can effectively eliminate the jamming signals from the fixed jammer in the SAR observation scenario.


Providing a usable domestic brain-computer interface (BCI) for persons with disabilities requires that the development team ensure ease of interaction for all the potential users. To do this for individuals with complex needs often requires that an approach is tailored to a specific user. However, in developing a domestic BCI it is necessary to consider the provision of an application which hides the complexity of the underlying science from the user whilst delivering acceptable levels of interaction for many. This is not an unusual circumstance in the realm of assistive technology. We present a cohesive test suite which allows the development team to assess what constitutes an acceptable level of accuracy in a four-way command interface using steady-state visually evoked potentials (SSVEP). It also facilitates a uniform assessment of the level of accuracy achieved by a specific user operating a BCI and provides a means of contrasting and selecting performance parameters in order to enhance user performance.


SUMMARY Observations and theoretical considerations have cast doubt on the suggestion that volcanic tremor source processes may be modelled by a linear oscillator that is set into resonance by a sustained disturbance. Volcanic tremor signals that accompanied the 1996 Vatnajokull subglacial eruption, central Iceland, have been analysed using methods from the discipline of non-linear dynamics in order to investigate the possibility that they originated from a non- linear source. The volcano-seismic phenomena associated with the eruption were recorded by a permanent network equipped with broad-band seismometers (HOTSPOT) using a sampling rate of 20 samples s −1 . The eruption was preceded by increased seismic activity for a period of 2 days, which also included a large earthquake with a moment magnitude of 5.6. The tremor during the first 2 days of the eruption has a high signal-to-noise ratio at the nearest station to the eruption site and starts as a continuous signal, later evolving to low-amplitude background tremor interrupted by high-amplitude, cigar-shaped bursts having an average duration of 250 s. The phase space, which describes the evolution of the behaviour of a non-linear system, was reconstructed from the original tremor seismograms using the delay embedding theorem suggested by Takens. The delay time used for the reconstruction was selected after examining the autocorrelation function, which showed a first zero crossing at a timelag of 4 samples and the average mutual information that showed no minimum, indicating that the tremor process may have been undersampled. Based also on phase space portraits for different delay times, a delay time of one sample interval (0.05 s) was used. The sufficient embedding dimension for phase space reconstruction was selected by applying the false nearest-neighbours method, which revealed complete unfolding of the tremor attractor at dimensions 7-8, implying upper bounds of its fractal dimension in the range 3.5-4.0. The phase space prediction errors of different segments of the tremor time-series were compared in order to check whether the attractor dynamics change substantially with time. It was found that for continuous tremor there was almost no dynamic variation, in contrast to the background tremor and the superposed bursts that gave a maximum prediction error when the former was used to predict the latter. This difference in dynamics also had an effect on their spectra: the amplitude spectrum of a burst or continuous tremor has a much sharper decay at high frequencies than that of the background tremor. A possible physical mechanism that may explain these observed characteristics involves turbulent slug flow of magma in a narrow cylindrical conduit, generating the different dynamic regimes as the Reynolds number varies.


This chapter is a critical review of conventional and not so conventional Student-Centered Learning (SCL) pedagogies. Additionally, in the African context, educational institutions have been caught up in a theoretical approach to teaching and learning, characterized by a desire to pass examinations. Consequently, this approach leads to surface learning as opposed to deep learning. Hence, teaching and learning outcomes lack quality and definitely fails to meet and promote skills required by the fast changing modern and postmodern global world. To address this need, this chapter examines the following: Overview of SCL pedagogies; Conventional and not so Conventional SCL pedagogies; Implications for SCL pedagogies to learners, instructors, curriculum, and assessment. Finally, this chapter examines the misconceptions and advantages of adopting SCL in the light of learners and instructors.


This paper considers the problem of providing advice to an autonomous agent when neither the behavioural policy nor the goals of that agent are known to the advisor. We present an approach based on building a model of "common sense" behaviour in the domain, from an aggregation of different users performing various tasks, modelled as MDPs, in the same domain. From this model, we estimate the normalcy of the trajectory given by a new agent in the domain, and provide behavioural advice based on an approximation of the trade-off in utility between potential benefits to the exploring agent and the costs incurred in giving this advice. This model is evaluated on a maze world domain by providing advice to different types of agents, and we show that this leads to a considerable and unanimous improvement in the completion rate of their tasks.


Background: New 'non-calcaemic' analogues of 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (1,25(OH)2D3) are entering the clinical arena and some of them have been shown to have differential effects in bone. This may have a bearing on the evolution of bone lesions in uraemic patients receiving vitamin D therapies. A potential mechanism for differential effects of analogues lies in their target cell inactivation. Methods: Using a human osteoblastic cell line, MG-63, three analogues, 22-oxacalcitriol (OCT), 19-nor-1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D2 (paricalcitol) and 1α,25-dihydroxydihydrotachysterol2 (1,25(OH)2DHT2), were compared with 1,25(OH)2D3 for (1) their affinity for the vitamin D receptor (VDR) by competitive displacement of tritiated 1,25(OH)2D3 from calf thymus VDR; (2) effects on 24-hydroxylase mRNA expression using comparative RT-PCR, and (3) rates of metabolism, using high performance liquid chromatography, over a 24-hour time course. Results: Relative VDR-binding affinities (IC50) were 1,25(OH)2D3 (100%), OCT (25%), paricalcitol (14%) and 1,25(OH)2DHT2 (0.3%). A ≧3-fold increase in 24-hydroxylase mRNA expression was observed for all compounds at 2 h peaking at 7- to 8-fold above control levels by 12 h, with no significant difference between the analogues and 1,25(OH)2D3. Differences in their rates of metabolism were observed [calculated t½ values = OCT (1.2 h) > paricalcitol (2.3 h) > 1,25(OH)2D3 (2.6 h) > 1,25(OH)2DHT2 (3.4 h)], with OCT having a significantly shorter half-life. Conclusion: In MG-63 cells these analogues up-regulate 24-hydroxylase mRNA expression with similar potency, in each case accelerating ligand inactivation, despite significant differences in VDR affinity. VDR affinity did not correspond to either 24-hydroxylase mRNA expression or the rates of ligand disappearance, suggesting cellular metabolism is one of several factors that determine the analogue specificity of these agents in bone.


Murray Rothbard claims that it is "evident that our theory of proportional punishment—that people may be punished by losing their rights to the extent that they have invaded the rights of others—is frankly a retributive theory of punishment, a 'tooth (or two teeth) for a tooth' theory." The present paper argues that it is not. The role that Rothbard assigns for victims in determining punishment justifies classifying his theory of punishment as corrective rather than retributive, for vesting victims with rights over punishment defeats the retributive justice requirement that criminals are punished solely because they deserve it and in accordance with their respective deserts. Instead of giving offenders what they objectively deserve, the Rothbardian theory of punishment allows victims to seek compensation in various forms, including revenge.


Gibbs ensemble Monte Carlo simulations were run with an efficient mixed-basis electronic structure method to explore the phase equilibria of water from first principles using Kohn–Sham density functional theory. The Perdew–Burke–Ernzerhof exchange/correlation density functional gives a higher critical temperature (700 K) and boiling point (480 K) than experiment, although good agreement is found for the saturated liquid densities. A systematic increase in the size of the basis set for the Becke–Lee–Yang–Parr exchange/correlation density functional from a double-ζ to quadruple-ζ split valence leads to further deviations from experiment on the saturated liquid and vapor densities, while the intermediate basis set gives the best results for the heat of vaporization at T = 423 K. Analysis of the liquid structure for all simulations shows changes that can partially be explained by the different densities at a given temperature, and both density functionals show a similar temperature dependence of the liquid structure.


There are large variations in the responses of species to the environmental changes of recent decades, heightening interest in whether their traits may explain inter-specific differences in range expansions and contractions. Using a long-term distributional dataset, we calculated range changes of grasshoppers and crickets in Britain between the 1980s and the 2000s and assessed whether their traits (resource use, life history, dispersal ability, geographic location) explain relative performance of different species. Our analysis showed large changes in the distributions of some species, and we found a positive relationship between three traits and range change: ranges tended to increase for habitat generalists, species that oviposit in the vegetation above ground, and for those with a southerly distribution. These findings accord well with the nature of environmental changes over this period (climatic warming; reductions in the diversity and increases in the height of vegetation). However, the trait effects applied mainly to just two species, Conocephalus discolor and Metrioptera roeselii, which had shown the greatest range increases. Once they were omitted from the analysis, trait effects were no longer statistically significant. Previous studies on these two species emphasised wing-length dimorphism as the key to their success, resulting in a high phenotypic plasticity of dispersal and evolutionary-ecological feedback at their expanding range margins. This, combined with our results, suggests that an unusual combination of traits have enabled these two species to undertake extremely rapid responses to recent environmental changes. The fact that our results are dominated by two species only became apparent through cautious testing of the results' robustness, not through standard statistical checks. We conclude that trait-based analyses may contribute to the assessment of species responses to environmental change and provide insights into underlying mechanisms, but results need to be interpreted with caution and may have limited predictive power.


For over a thousand years, various substances have been applied to the skin to treat pain. Some of these substances have active ingredients that we still use today. However, some have been discontinued due to their harmful effect, while others have been long forgotten. Recent concerns regarding the cardiovascular and renal risk from nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and issues with opioids, have resulted in increasing demand and attention to non-systemic topical alternatives. There is increasing evidence of the efficacy and safety of topical agents in pain control. Topical analgesics are great alternatives for pain management and are an essential part of multimodal analgesia. This review aims to describe essential aspects of topical drugs that physicians should consider in their practice as part of multimodal analgesia. This review describes the mechanism of popular topical analgesics and also introduces the most recently released and experimental topical medications.


Study Design. A prospective single-arm trial. Objective. To investigate whether dynamic isolated resistance training of global lumbar extensor muscles leads to changes in lumbar multifidus (LM) morphology in terms of cross-sectional muscle, and, if so, whether these changes are associated with observed changes in self-experienced functional status of chronic nonspecific low back pain (CNSLBP). Summary of Background Data. LM morphology is associated with the recurrence of CNSLBP. Methods. Sixteen male patients underwent a dynamic isolated resistance-training program for the lower back muscles of approximately 10 sessions in 12 weeks. In the next 12 weeks, frequency of training was tailored to the patients' need. Participants underwent lumbar magnetic resonance imaging at baseline (T0), after 12 weeks (T12), and after 24 weeks (T24). Functional cross-sectional area was obtained by analyzing the magnetic resonance images. Functional status was assessed using the patient-specific functional scale, Roland-Morris disability questionnaire, and global perceived effect scale. Results. Roland-Morris disability questionnaire and patient-specific functional scale scores showed significant and clinically relevant improvements between baseline and T12, with 44% and 39%, respectively. Between T12 and T24, these scores did not change significantly. Seven participants (44%) reported clinically relevant improvements in global perceived effect at T12. At T24, 1 more participant reported a relevant global perceived effect improvement, whereas 2 participants (13%) reported worsening of their condition. The magnetic resonance imaging analysis showed minor nonsignificant changes in functional cross-sectional area. Conclusion. Our study shows that 10 weeks of dynamic isolated training of the lumbar extensors, once a week, leads to clinically relevant improvements in functional status of men with CNSLBP, without accompanying improvements in functional cross-sectional area of LM. These findings suggest that improvement in LM morphology is not a critical success factor in restoring functional status of patients with CNSLBP, at least in the short term (6 mo).


Introduction Different sports influence the balancing ability variously. The aim of this study to examine the effect of kayaking on dynamical balancing ability after sudden changes in direction. Methods The investigation included 5 race-kayakists and 5 leisure-time sportsmen. Dynamical balancing ability have analyzed by the ultrasound-based sudden perturbation test (provocation test). A rigid platform have moved from its central position and fixed by a fastening unit. The rigid platform connected to a rigid frame by 4 or 8 steel springs of identical strength. The platform swings back into its original, resting position, stimulating sudden disturbances after releasing the fastening unit. The participant must balance and re-equilibrate as the plate moves. The motions of the rigid plate were recorded by an ultrasound-based system. From this motion the Lehr's damping ratio can be calculated and it characterizes the balancing ability of the investigated person. Results For the kayakist group, the average values of the Lehr's damping ratio determined were significantly bigger while standing on one limb and on both limbs compared to the parameters for the control group. Discussion A high level of complex coordination is required to regain equilibrium after a sudden change in direction. Sports activities can develop this ability. This investigation demonstrate that not only the traditional methods (a sudden stoppage from running, sudden setting in motion, jumping or changing in direction) but motion in a continuously moving media (in aqueous media) can also develop the balancing ability. During kayaking the media always changes; moreover, it often surges so persistent balancing is essential. The results draw attention to the fact that dynamic balancing ability can be developed by other than traditional methods. DOI:  10.17489/biohun/2013/1/30


Geomatics plays an increasing role in the management of cultural heritage and archaeological sites. Although the use of total station measurements or digital imagery are well known techniques for the generation of 2D archaeological maps, the combined use of both techniques are more and more applied for 3D reconstructions in heritage management applications. Especially the recent introduction of 'Structure from Motion', whether or not supported by a geometric reference framework, plays an important role in this development. In the presented research, the virtual reconstruction of a Maya Temple in Calakmul (Mexico) is discussed. The current site is a part of a twenty-five square kilometre prehispanic Mayan metropolis and the site was the cultural and political centre of the ancient central Peten region. The scientific importance of this site is recognized by UNESCO in 2002, when the area became World Heritage. In order to support the management and preservation of the objects and structures on the site, the use of high quality maps and 3D models is indispensable. Therefore, a four week field campaign was organised in 2010, as part of the Calakmul 4D GIS -project (in collaboration with INAH, UNESCO and with the support of the Belgian Federal Science Policy Office). During this campaign, the main acropolis was measured by total station to generate a 3D framework of the shape of the temple. Besides, a large number of images were taken, in order to generate photorealistic 3D models using Structure from Motion. This research involves the acquisition and processing of these topographic and imagery data, as well as an analysis of the geometric quality of the models. Furthermore, a discussion will be presented on the amelioration of the geometric quality and on the improvement of the acquisition process of the data. Especially the latter is very important for a profound knowledge of correct image acquisition for 3D modelling.


Aneuploidy tests are important in evaluating genetic hazards especially when chemical exposures are suspected to affect the fidelity of chromosome segregation in oocytes and embryos. In the current study, a newly established method, mouse preantral follicle culture, was employed to grow oocytes in vitro within follicles. The sensitivity of in vitro grown follicle enclosed oocytes was compared with oocytes maturing in vivo in the ovary. In both the cases, oocytes were exposed to the cytostatic chemical, nocodazole, from the time of hormonally stimulated resumption of meiosis. The in vivo study revealed a significant decrease in the number of ovulated mouse oocytes and an increase in meiosis I-arrested and hyperploid metaphase II oocytes at a single i.p. dose of 70 mg/kg body weight of nocodazole. A significant increase was also observed in the number of meiosis I-arrested and hyperploid mouse oocytes from preantral follicle culture, when they were cultured in the presence of >or=30 nM nocodazole during the final stages of maturation. This concentration is slightly lower than that previously shown to induce nondisjunction in denuded mouse oocytes or in cultured human lymphocytes. The higher sensitivity of the in vitro matured oocytes from preantral follicle culture than that of denuded oocytes may be related to a synergistic adverse influence of nocodazole on the oocyte, on somatic cell integrity and on cell-cell communication, which possibly also affects ovulation in vivo. When expressed in molarity relative to the mouse weight, the effective dose of the acute exposure in vivo is 3-4 orders of magnitude higher than the lowest effective concentration employed continuously in vitro. Reduced bioavailability of nocodazole to the target cells due to its poor water solubility may contribute to this difference. Preantral follicle culture can be helpful in analysing mechanisms in chemically induced aneuploidy in mammalian oogenesis, and in predicting the consequences of chemical exposures in vivo.


BACKGROUND
There is concern that pesticide residues on the external surfaces of sprayers could have an adverse impact on the environment if they are washed off, yet there is a need to remove these residues for health reasons. The aim of this study was to quantify pesticide residues contained in washings from cleaning discrete parts of a sprayer and to assess their likely environmental impact.

RESULTS
The boom/rear of the sprayer and the spray tank accounted for 80% of the total pesticide load in the washings. Predicted environmental pesticide concentrations from sprayer washings were lower than predictions from the FOCUS surface water model for pesticides used under normal agricultural conditions, although for tebuconazole this difference was smaller than for the other compounds investigated. The field area over which the residues may need to be uniformly deposited to avoid overdosing during infield cleaning was typically less than 0.5 m(2), with a maximum value of 4 m(2).

CONCLUSIONS
It is unlikely that infield cleaning will lead to overdosing. External residues are not insignificant, so any adverse impact on the environment must be mitigated. Appropriate measures include cleaning in the field away from surface waters and other sensitive areas, and cleaning machines over bunded areas or similar.