The concept of information technology (IT) governance has become a trend in public
organizations sector in most countries. However, the implementation of IT governance in Indonesia continues to face problems and challenges, including weak understanding and assessment processes activities based on IT implementation. In addition, empirical studies related to IT governance within public organizations in Indonesia are limited. The main objective of this study is to develop an IT
governance model in public organizations in Gorontalo, Indonesia. This study adapted the Control Objective for Information and Related Technology (COBIT) model which conformed to the principles of management of IT resources that form the basis of IT governance in Indonesia by studying the contribution factors of
implementation IT governance in public organizations. This study used quantitative
and qualitative methods which involved questionnaires, interviews, observations and
documents. Quantitative data was collected via questionnaires that were distributed to 367 and the return rate was 90.6 percent. This data was analyzed using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) to validate the research model and test the proposed research hypotheses. Semi-structured interviews were used to obtain the management's views about IT governance activities and their implementation.
Observations and documents analysis were used to observe how the activities and find data, information and resources for implementation of IT governance. The results show that the proposed model conforms to COBIT. The study also proves that COBIT together with the goal of and the principles of IT resource management that form the basis of IT governance in Indonesia has managed to enrich the model in
describing understanding and implementation of IT governance. The results of this study contribute to knowledge to best practice of IT governance. This study can be used as a guide the best practice IT governance in Indonesia in the future


Field experiments were conducted from 1989 to 1992 in Balcarce, Tandil, and San Cayetano, all in Buenos Aires province (Argentina), to evaluate clethodim, fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, fluazifop-P, haloxyfop, propaquizafop, and quizalofop-P-ethyl for bermudagrass control in sunflower, soybean, and potato. The highest levels of bermudagrass control 60 days after treatment (DAT) were generally obtained with fenoxaprop-P-ethyl, haloxyfop, propaquizafop, and quizalofop-P-ethyl. Late season bermudagrass control, based on biomass of stolons and rhizomes, suggested that the most consistent treatments in potato and sunflower were haloxyfop at 180 g ai/ha and quizalofop-P-ethyl at 54 g ai/ha. In soybean, clethodim at 336 g ai/ha, haloxyfop at 180 g/ha, propaquizafop at 100 g ai/ha, and quizalofop-P-ethyl at 54 g/ha provided the greatest reductions in bermudagrass biomass. All of the postemergence (POST) graminicide treatments increased crop yields when compared to a nontreated check. However, little or no difference in yield was obtained when herbicide rate was increased.


Abstract Pineal hormone melatonin (1 and 5 mg/kg) and diclofenac (8 mg/kg) significantly limited hematologic indices of inflammation and immunologic reactivity in rats with experimental adjuvant arthritis. The effect of melatonin was more pronounced than that of diclofenac.


Economic activity is more globally integrated than ever before, but so is the scope of corporate misconduct. As more and more people across the world are affected by such malfeasance, the differences in legal redress have become increasingly visible. This transparency has resulted in a growing convergence towards an American model of robust private enforcement of the law, including the class-action lawsuit. This handbook brings together scholars from nearly two dozen countries to describe and assess the class-action procedure (or its equivalent) in their respective countries and, where possible, to offer empirical data on these systems. At the same time, the work presents a variety of multidisciplinary perspectives on class actions, from economics to philosophy, making this handbook an essential resource to academics, lawyers, and policymakers alike.


Southampton Island in northern Hudson Bay has previously been considered to contain two Ordovician oil shale beds. These are within carbonate strata referred to as the Bad Cache Rapids and younger Churchill River Groups. The older shale, informally called "Boas River shale" was thought to occur between the groups. The younger, here informally named "Sixteen Mile Brook shale," is higher in the uppermost Churchill River Group at the Ordovician-Silurian boundary. Strong faunal evidence indicates that the Boas River is stratigraphically higher than previously thought and is probably coeval with the Sixteen Mile Brook shale. Thus, there appears to be only one shale bed although there is a possibility of a younger one within the Silurian. The Sixteen Mile Brook shale is about 5 ft (15 m) thick and extensive, having been traced at least 130 mi (208 km) and possibly up to 220 mi (352 km). Yields of nearly 45 gal (1.07 bbl) of oil per ton have been recorded. Total reserves of oil may approach or exceed 8 trillion gallons (30 billion cu m; 190 billion bbl).


The same harmonic components of forward and backward rotating magnetic fields are created in the single – phase induction salient – pole motor. The magnitudes of higher order harmonics of these fields may be of the same order as a fundamental. These rotating fields of higher harmonics induce in the rotor electromotive forces the frequency of which increase while the rotor slip decrease. The frequency dependences upon slip of electromotive forces induced from 1, 3, 5–th forward and backward rotating magnetic fields harmonics in the rotor are presented. The values of the rotor resistance change coefficients from 1, 3, 5 forward and backward rotating field harmonics at slip range from 0 till 1 are calculated when the rotor slot depth values are the following: h = 1,2 ⋅10−2 m; h = 1,0 ⋅10−2 m; h = 0,8⋅10−2 m; h = 0,6 ⋅10−2 m. The graphs representing equipotential lines ( k const R = 1,03 = , k X = 0,97 = const ) at slip and rotor slot depth plane are given. The critical rotor slot depth is determined when the skin – effect may be evaluated for the induction salient – pole motors operating at low slip. Ill. 8, bibl. 6 (in Lithuanian; summaries in Lithuanian, English, Russian).


First principles electronic structure studies on the ground state geometries, stability, and the electronic structure of AlnNam and AlnMgm (m ≤ 3, n + m ≤ 15) clusters have been carried out to examine the nature of bonding between Na or Mg and Al. Identifying whether the bonding is ionic or metallic in bulk materials is typically straightforward; however, in small clusters where quantum confinement is important, the nature of bonding may become unclear. We have performed a critical analysis of the bonding in these bimetallic clusters using charge analysis, electrical dipole moments, hybridization of the atomic orbitals, the Laplacian of the charge density at the bond critical points, and the change in the bonding energy between neutral and anionic forms of the cluster. For NanAlm clusters, we find that the Na binding is primarily ionic, while the bonding in AlnMgm is primarily metallic. We find that the Mulliken population of the 3p orbital of Na and Mg can provide a rapid assessment of the nature of bonding. We also find that the Hirshfeld charge and dipole moments are effective indicators, when placed in context. We found that the Laplacian of the charge density at the bond critical points can be misleading in identifying whether the bonding is ionic or metallic in small clusters.


In order to determine the effect of Moringa oleifera (moringa) forage meal intake cv. supergenius on digestive indicators in colostomized broilers, a total of 24 male broilers (hybrid EB34) of 47 d of age and 1.95 kg of live weight as average were used, and allocated in individual cages for metabolism. A completely randomized design with three treatments and eight repetitions was used. The treatments consisted of control diet (soybean-maize) and inclusion of 10 % and 20 % of moringa forage meal. It was demonstrated that the birds with 10 and 20% of moringa forage meal increased the dry matter (P <0.001) and nitrogen (P <0.05) intake with respect to the control diet. When determining the apparent digestibility of nutrients,
there was decrease of dry matter, N and cell wall components (NDF, ADF and cellulose) with the intake of 20% of the fibrous source. The 10% inclusion did not differ from the control diet. When evaluating the gastrointestinal tract morphometric, the intake of moringa forage meal increased gizzard weight regarding the control diet (P <0.0001) and the caeca reached the maximum lengths with a 20% inclusion. It was shown that the intake of 10 % of moringa forage meal did not affect the nutrients digestibility and caused higher digestive activity, when causing
morphological modifications. This indicates beneficial results for the digestive physiology of broilers.
Key words: birds, colostomy, nutrients digestibility, fibrous source, morphometric indicators


In a private practice an increasing number of young women or girls are being observed with sudden onset of acute stomach pains of unknown origin. Clinically the pancreas is sensitive to pressure and there is an alpha-amylase elevation in the urine often accompanied by moderate leukocytosis. A slight elevation of the transaminase count is usual in such cases. There are no indications of alchohol abuse or pancreatic disorders in the anamnese and x-rays reveal an adequately functionning gall bladder without stones. Without exception all the women have been on oral contraceptives. With spasmolytics and a diet low in fats the symptoms disappear often without discontinuation of the contraceptive. More data are needed on this problem and prospective research should determine which additional factors must be present for the activation of such pancreatic disorders.(Authors modified)


Abstract Rural Development Policy is a priority for the E.U., as half of the Union's population lives in rural areas. This policy is focused on society's durable development, under all its aspects: economic, social, cultural, and so on. The challenges which rural areas of member states face must be addressed, while at the same time applying European norms and standards for rural development. After Romania became a part of the E.U., rural areas here were supported through several national rural development programs, so as to create a durable and sustainable rural economy. Major changes are required to achieve this kind of development, such as replacing old agricultural structures, modernizing the village, while at the same time maintaining cultural and local identity. Rural areas in Romania are often affected by natural disasters. During the last 17 years, national rural development programs implied contracts worth billions of Euros. For instance, through the 2020 NRDP, a budget of 9.5 billion Euros was allocated, 8.1 billion Euros coming from E.U. funding and 1.34 billion Euros as national cofinancing. At the moment, Romania's absorption degree for the 2020 NRDP is of 20% and is expected to surpass 50% by 2020. Another regional program includes the concept of Spatial Development - Romania - 2025. Spatial planning supports the avoidance of rural dispersion. The betterment of infrastructure is supported, such as access roads, expanding base utilities, consolidated works to prevent flooding or landslides, and so on.


Eigen-decomposition of the kernel allows fast computation of time-frequency distributions. This paper proposes a scheme which exploits further approximation by adapting dynamically the accuracy of spectrograms to the eigenvalue magnitudes. The approach employs the wavelet transform followed by block-recursive Fourier transform and a compensation network. It provides a set of parameters for the users to trade accuracy against computational complexity so that the implementation can be tailored to a specific application.


The aim of this work was the development a method for objective assessment of therapy effectiveness for patients with depression based on measurements of reaction time and other parameters of involuntary response to audiovisual stimuli in the process of combined psychodiagnostic and psychophysiological investidation.
97 patients with depression (main group) were examined, at an average age of 40.94 ± 1.25 years (among them 51 persons diagnosed with "depressive episode" (F32 by ICD-10) and 46 persons with "recurrent depressive disorder" (F33 by ICD-10), as well as 64 almost healthy individuals (control group), at age 41.21 ± 1.21 years. Clinical-psychopathological, psychometric (computer versions of: Zung's scales, HADS, Spielberger tests in Khanina modification, AUDIT and SCL-90R), and psychophysiological methods were used, the latter method involved the use of software and hardware complex "Reocom-stress" (manufacturer: " XAI-MEDICA", Kharkiv, Ukraine) in the "Attitude to the topic" mode with registration of psychophysiological response to groups of questions (thematic groups) from the above-mentioned psychometric methods. The described procedure was used twice during the study: with an interval of 17-19 days.
It was shown that the response time and other parameters of involuntary response to audiovisual stimuli are valuable sources of information for quality control of the therapy effectiveness for patients with depression. And three channels of information (scale scores, and response time to questions in psychodiagnostic investigation and attitude to the topics (the questions of the mentioned scales), and assessed by the results of psychophysiological research) are relatively independent of each other and carry additional information about the mental status of the respondents. We found out that the channel of mental chronometry is the most sensitive to residual depressive symptoms. It has been proven that the best choice for objective assessment of therapy effectiveness for patients with depression is a computer version of the Zung's scale with registration of the response time to each questions of this scale. This approach has the highest diagnostic properties (sensitivity — 86.60%, specificity — 96.88% and accuracy — 90.68%), which, together with the simplicity of implementation, makes it quite suitable for practical use.


Visual object recognition is a useful skill for robots to possess. However, present approaches to the problem do not scale to large numbers of objects (few manage more than 10) and require too much computation for real-time tasks on a robot. This paper presents a hybrid decision tree/support vector machine approach to recognition which is fast, with recognition times under one second. A new test dataset is also presented, consisting of over 100,000 images of Lego bricks, acquired by repeatedly dropping the bricks. The proposed method achieves 96% accuracy on the set of 89 different types of Lego bricks, demonstrating its applicability for large-scale real-time visual object recognition.


The purpose of this talk was to ask why so many new security protocols are being designed, and whether that is really the right thing to do. Would it not be better for assurance to standardize one well-analyzed protocol, or a protocol family, which would then be used in all applications? The design methods and tools are already sufficient to guarantee that no major attack against the standard would be discovered. The talk was mostly a survey of the reasons why new protocols are introduced. It turns out that many changes in the environment and requirements inevitably mean changes in the security protocols. New network and application architectures change the number of principals and the trust relations and connections between them. The protocols must perform optimally in a widening range of environments from the globally broadband Internet to low-end wireless links and mobile devices. No single security solution seems to cover all the requirements and security mechanisms have penetrated all layers of the protocol stack. Moreover, when the main goals of protocol design have been achieved, both attackers and protocol designers focus on other qualities like denial-ofservice resistance, anonymity, usability and robustness of implementation. It looks like instead of a single standard protocol, an evolving set of protocol design patterns or composable building blocks would be needed. They could potentially improve the quality of protocols, in particular when designed under strict time constraints by engineers who are not always security experts. Title: A flaw in a denial-of-service resistant protocol Abstract: The possibility of formally specifying and analyzing DoS attacks and resistance was contemplated after Cathy Meadows's talk on DoS. Since there is a shortage of concrete examples, I presented a real but difficult-to-detect flaw in an early version of a DoSresistant protocol. In the protocol, the client must solve a cryptographic puzzle before the server commits its memory and processing power to the authentication. In order to exhaust the server's resources, an attacker would need to solve large numbers of such puzzles, which would be too expensive. The problem is that while the protocol protects the server against The possibility of formally specifying and analyzing DoS attacks and resistance was contemplated after Cathy Meadows's talk on DoS. Since there is a shortage of concrete examples, I presented a real but difficult-to-detect flaw in an early version of a DoSresistant protocol. In the protocol, the client must solve a cryptographic puzzle before the server commits its memory and processing power to the authentication. In order to exhaust the server's resources, an attacker would need to solve large numbers of such puzzles, which would be too expensive. The problem is that while the protocol protects the server against


4 This Bijvoet difference, however, is still small and highly accurate data collection is essential. One of the experimental difficulties using longer wavelength is the increased absorption. Therefore we have developed a crystal mounting technique to eliminate absorption by the frozen cryo-buffer around protein crystal (Kitago et al., 2005), and the practical applicability of this mounting method was examined using several novel proteins at CrKα radiation of 2.29 Å (Watanabe, 2006). In order to utilize this mounting method at the synchrotron beamlines, we made this mounting tool compatible to the standard Hampton CrystalCap. With a special magnet base for this cap, it becomes possible to mount and remount frozen crystals as the standard CrystalCap. We have tested its applicability by sending several frozen crystals to the beamline BL13B1 at NSRRC, Taiwan. This mounting method is also very useful at synchrotron beamlines to mount tiny crystals that are difficult to center because of the lens-shaped frozen buffer in the cryoloop. In this development, we also use a loop made of a polyimide film microfabricated by photolithography. [1] Kitago, Y., Watanabe, N. and Tanaka, I. (2005), Acta Cryst., D61(8), 1013-1021. [2] Watanabe, N. (2006), Acta Cryst., D62(8), 891-896.


Wireless sensor networks receive lots of attention due to its promising techniques and wide-ranging applications in recent years. The kind of network occasionally becomes disconnected due to initial uneven deployments or unpredictable failures or run out of battery of sensor nodes. However, sensor nodes with mobility then can be used in an addition deployment to reconnect the disconnected sensor networks. Theoretically, the augmenting geometric graph problem is defined here to model this kind of connectivity issues. The work proposes two novel algorithms: the graph-oriented algorithm and the divide-and-conquer algorithm to connect disconnected networks by using as less as possible mobile nodes. The first algorithm highly exploits traditional graph and geometry techniques including Fermat point, convex hull, nearest neighbor, minimum cost spanning tree, and graph contraction. Adopting a quite different approach, the second algorithm resolves the problem by dividing the deployed area and merging sub-solutions recursively. With respect to complexity issue, the graph-oriented algorithm takes 0(n3) time; on the other hand, the divide-and-conquer algorithm requires 0(n log n) time, where n is the size of vertex set of the given graph G=(V, E). These proposed two algorithms have low time complexity and can be implemented in a centralized sensor network.


OBJECTIVE
To determine whether kinematic changes induced by heel pressure in horses differ from those induced by toe pressure.

ANIMALS
10 adult Quarter Horses.

PROCEDURE
A shoe that applied pressure on the cuneus ungulae (frog) or on the toe was used. Kinematic analyses were performed before and after 2 levels of frog pressure and after 1 level of toe pressure. Values for stride displacement and time and joint angles were determined from horses trotting on a treadmill.

RESULTS
The first level of frog pressure caused decreases in metacarpophalangeal (fetlock) joint extension during stance and increases in head vertical movement and asymmetry. The second level of frog pressure caused these changes but also caused decreases in stride duration and carpal joint extension during stance as well as increases in relative stance duration. Toe pressure caused changes in these same variables but also caused maximum extension of the fetlock joint to occur before midstance, maximum hoof height to be closer to midswing, and forelimb protraction to increase.

CONCLUSION AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE
Decreased fetlock joint extension during stance and increased head vertical movement and asymmetry are sensitive indicators of forelimb lameness. Decreased stride duration, increased relative stance duration, and decreased carpal joint extension during stance are general but insensitive indicators of forelimb lameness. Increased forelimb protraction, hoof flight pattern with maximum hoof height near midswing, and maximum fetlock joint extension in cranial stance may be specific indicators of lameness in the toe region. Observation of forelimb movement may enable clinicians to differentiate lameness of the heel from lameness of the toe.


OBJECTIVE
To analyze insulin resistance (IR) and determine the need for a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) for the identification of IR and impaired glucose tolerance (IGT) in lean nondiabetic women with polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

METHODS
This was a cross-sectional analysis of treatment-naive women with PCOS who enrolled in a university-based clinical trial. Nondiabetic women with PCOS based on the Eunice Kennedy Shriven National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) definition, aged 18-43 years and weighing ≤113 kg, were evaluated. Glucose and insulin levels were assessed at times 0, 30, 60, 90, and 120 minutes after a 75-g glucose load. Lean was defined as body mass index (BMI) <25 kg/m(2). Multiple linear regression was performed.

RESULTS
A cohort of 78 women was studied. The prevalence of IR was 0% among lean women vs. 21% among nonlean subjects based on fasting insulin I(0) and 40%-68% based on two different homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) cutoff points (p < 0.005). All women with IR had a BMI ≥ 28. Controlling for age and race, BMI explained over 57% of the variation in insulin fasting (I(o)), glucose fasting/Io (G(o)/I(o)), the qualitative insulin sensitivity check index (QUICKI), and HOMA and was a highly significant predictor of these outcomes (p < 0.0001). Only 1 of 31 (3%) of the lean PCOS women had IGT based on a 2-hour OGTT, and no lean subjects had IGT based on their fasting blood glucose.

CONCLUSIONS
Diabetes mellitus, IGT, and IR are far less common in young lean women with PCOS compared with obese women with PCOS. These data imply that it is unnecessary to routinely perform either IR testing or 2-hour OGTT in lean women with PCOS; however, greater subject accumulation is needed to determine if OGTT is necessary in lean women with PCOS. BMI is highly predictive of both insulin and glucose levels in women with PCOS.


Recent studies indicate that vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs) generate CO from the degradation of heme by the enzyme heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1). Because platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) modulates various responses of VSMCs, we examined whether this peptide regulates the expression of HO-1 and the production of CO by rat aortic SMCs. Treatment of SMCs with PDGF resulted in a time- and concentration-dependent increase in the levels of HO-1 mRNA and protein. Both actinomycin D and cycloheximide blocked PDGF-stimulated HO-1 mRNA and protein. In addition, PDGF stimulated the production of reactive oxygen species by SMCs. Both the PDGF-mediated generation of reactive oxygen species and the induction of HO-1 protein was inhibited by the antioxidant N-acetyl-L-cysteine. Incubation of platelets with PDGF-treated SMCs resulted in a significant increase in platelet cGMP concentration that was reversed by treatment of SMCs with the HO-1 inhibitor tin protoporphyrin-IX or by addition of the CO scavenger hemoglobin to platelets. In contrast, the nitric oxide inhibitor methyl-L-arginine did not block the stimulatory effect of PDGF-treated SMCs on platelet cGMP. Finally, incubation of SMCs with the releasate from collagen-activated platelets induced HO-1 protein expression that was blocked by a neutralizing antibody to PDGF. These results demonstrate that either administered exogenously or released by platelets, PDGF stimulates HO-1 gene expression and CO synthesis in vascular smooth muscle. The ability of PDGF to induce HO-1-catalyzed CO release by VSMCs may represent a novel mechanism by which this growth factor regulates vascular cell and platelet function.


The methodology and current results of identifying factors of
corporate competitiveness in the Czech Republic are discussed.
The task is to investigate what is the mutual dependency
between the corporate competitiveness (characterized here by
the corporate financial performance (hereinafter called 'CFP)
and selected characteristics describing these companies. Such
characteristics can be regarded as the factors of
competitiveness. The task of determining these factors has to
be solved in multidimensional space. Therefore, the feature
selection methodology from statistical pattern recognition,
selecting a group of the most informative characteristics
appears to be a suitable and promising approach. As opposed to
our recent paper based on the classification approach, an
alternative approach based on non-linear statistical regression
is presented here. The paper presents a brief introduction to
both the approaches and the results achieved when using them.


The preceeding article has examined some of the motivations behind the high premiums offered shareholders of target firms in acquisitions and mergers. In essence, the acquirers appear to be looking for gains largely through enhanced efficiency of operations or by the replacement of inefficient management.


Many efforts in reviving the Semarang old city, one of them is holding evening performances. The visitor's comforts are one indicator of the successful arrangement of the old city area, both thermal, visual, and even acoustic comforts. Open space provides a social interaction space. The configuration of the wall in the ancient buildings facades was very appealing to draw people attention.  The questions of this study are: How far the role of Sri Gunting park in the old city of Semarang as one of the tourist destinations?  How far the role of illumination of the night (especially in the garden) in appealing people to visit?  The innovative technology of interdisciplinary lighting arrangement should be designed in taking into account the kind of landscape and morphological characteristics of this ancient area.  The methods carried out to answer the above questions are made through questionnaires to respondents (park visitors during the day and night), field observations and measurements of thermal performance and lighting characteristics of the Park. While the discussion is based on an interdisciplinary approach, namely the study of architecture, landscape and lighting layout/lighting/ discipline elekto.  The result of the study showed that the existence of Sri Gunting Park is not only presenting the form of green open space element in an ancient building area, but its existence can provide the quality of micro-climate change which makes the sensation level of the visitors' sense of comfort significantly. The role of this region-scale park is potentially adopted on an urban scale. The cultural background of the tourists visiting the old city influenced their perceptions of the buildings and open spaces in the old city presented by successful artificial lighting arrangements. There are two ways to revive the old city of Semarang: Firstly, the success of 'bringing in' the visitors because they feel the thermal and visual comfort sensation. Secondly, the exploitation of artificial lighting at night, either in the park, other open spaces/roads and ancient buildings.


To examine the mechanism by which prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) inhibits the development of apoferritin (HAF)-induced immune complex glomerulonephritis (ICGN), weekly determinations of glomerular histologic conditions, blood urea nitrogen (BUN), total immunoglobulin levels, anti-HAF antibody, peripheral blood and splenic T cell subsets, and splenic suppressor cell activity were compared between mice receiving HAF and mice additionally treated with PGE2. PGE2 therapy prevented the development of glomerular hypercellularity and the increase in BUN concentration. Administration of PGE2 reduced anti-HAF IgG levels, but total IgM and IgG1, IgG2a, and IgG2b levels were unchanged. Mice receiving HAF alone demonstrated serial reductions in phenotypically identified peripheral blood pan-T cells and suppressor-cytotoxic T cells. PGE2-treated mice maintained normal levels of peripheral blood T cell subsets. Significant reductions in splenic total T cells and suppressor-cytotoxic cells occurred in mice receiving HAF as compared with normal mice. This reduction was offset by an increase in splenic B cells. PGE2 therapy prevented the decrease in splenic T cells at week 1, but not at week 4. Nonspecific suppressor cell activity, as measured by the ability of spleen cells from experimental mice to suppress a mixed lymphocyte reaction (MLR) or to suppress MLR-induced polyclonal IgG synthesis, was not different between the two groups. We conclude that prevention of HAF-ICGN by PGE2 is associated with a reduction in nephritogenic antibody production without an alteration in total immunoglobulin synthesis or the generation of nonspecific suppressor T cells. Changes in the percent of peripheral blood and splenic T cells and B cells may represent an effect of PGE2 on antigen-stimulated B cell proliferation.


Few studies have considered psychosocial characteristics when investigating the associations between sleep duration and blood pressure (BP). In this study, we took propensity score matching (PSM) to adjust for psychosocial characteristics when comparing BP between individuals with short sleep duration and those with normal sleep duration. A total of 429 participants were included. 72 participants with sleep duration ≤6 h and 65 participants with sleep duration >6 h were matched after PSM. We compared office BP, 24-hour BP, and prevalence of hypertension in the populations before and after PSM, respectively. In the unmatched population, participants with sleep duration ≤6 h were observed with higher office diastolic BP (DBP) and 24-h systolic BP (SBP)/DBP (all P < 0.05). In the matched populations, the differences between the two groups (sleep duration ≤6 h vs. sleep duration >6 h) in office DBP (88.4 ± 10.9 vs. 82.5 ± 11.1 mm Hg; P=0.002), 24-h SBP (134.7 ± 12.0 vs. 129.3 ± 11.6 mm Hg; P=0.009), and 24-h DBP (83.4 ± 9.9 vs. 78.1 ± 10.1 mm Hg; P=0.002) become more significant. Participants with sleep duration ≤6 h only show higher prevalence of hypertension based on 24-h BP data, while analysis after PSM further revealed that these with sleep duration ≤6 h presented about 20% higher prevalence of elevated BP up to office diagnosed hypertension threshold. Therefore, psychosocial characteristics accompanied with short sleep duration should be fully valued in individuals at risks for elevated BP. This trial is registered with NCT03866226.


We formulate a deterministic epidemic model to study the effects of medication on the transmission dynamics of Corona Virus Disease (COVID-19). We are especially interested in how the availability of medication could change the necessary quarantine measures for effective control of the disease. We model the transmission by extending the SEIR model to include asymptomatic, quarantined, isolated and medicated population compartments. We calculate the basic reproduction number R_0 and show that for R_0<1 the disease dies out and for R_0>1 the disease is endemic. Using sensitivity analysis we establish that R_0 is most sensitive to the rates of quarantine and medication. We also study how the effectiveness and the rate of medication along with the quarantine rate affect R_0. We devise optimal quarantine, medication and isolation strategies, noting that availability of medication reduces the duration and severity of the lock-down needed for effective disease control. Our study also reinforces the idea that with the availability of medication, while the severity of the lock downs can be eased over time some social distancing protocols need to be observed, at least till a vaccine is found. We also analyze the COVID-109 outbreak data for four different countries, in two of these, India and Pakistan the curve is still rising, and in he other two, Italy and Spain, the epidemic curve is now falling due to effective quarantine measures. We provide estimates of R_0 and the proportion of asymptomatic individuals in the population for these countries.


: The suboptimal distribution of healthcare facilities in the Philippines causes issues of inequity in access and sufficiency. Even within Metro Manila, this concentric distribution is evident, wherein most of the facilities are located within the central business districts. Within Tacloban City, the same concentric pattern can be observed, with six of the seven total healthcare facilities located within the south and situated close to the urban core. This study had focused on the spatial distribution of the different healthcare facilities to identify the most vulnerable communities. By utilizing GIS and the Modified Huff Three-Step Floating Catchment Area (MH3SFCA) model, the spatial accessibility of each community had been quantified. Site Suitability maps were then generated using different criteria, considering spatial accessibility index (SPAI), designated institutional land, and designated non-producing agricultural land as suitable areas for future healthcare facility development. These criteria were considered by the local government policies on land which may be used for the development of healthcare facilities. The results of the study had determined that the city experiences issues in spatial accessibility, specifically in terms of medical access and sufficiency. Through the addition of a northern test facility, as determined through the site suitability map, it had shown significant improvement in the overall probability of interaction, supply-demand ratio, and SPAI of each community. The implementation of GIS-MCDA and the MH3SFCA model has shown significant potential for creating a framework for healthcare development that is sustainable and efficient in terms of medical provision and accessibility.


In a global meta study, which contained 157 biological soil crust (BSC) samples from all climatic regions worldwide, climatic and soil texture threshold values favoring BSC development were derived. Response variable was the "relative crust biomass", which was computed per literature source as the ratio between each individual crust biomass value of the given study to the study maximum value reported. Four crust types were distinguished: cyanobacterial, lichen, green algal and moss crusts. To quantify threshold conditions at which crust biomass responded to differences in texture and climate, we (I) determined correlations between bioclimatic variables, (II) calculated generalized linear models to determine the effect of typical climatic variables with soil clay content and with study site as a random effect. (III) Thresholds of climatic and texture effects were identified using a regression tree. Three mean annual temperature classes for texture dependent BSC growth limitation were identified: (1) <9°C with a threshold value of 25% silt and clay (limited growth on coarser soils), (2) 9–19°C, where texture did have no influence on relative crust biomass, and (3) >19°C at soils with <4 or >17% silt and clay. Non of the precipitation related bioclimatic variables did influence the relative crust biomass significantly. Because biocrust development is limited under certain climatic and soil texture conditions, it is suggested to consider soil texture in biogeochemical modeling of cryptogamic ground covers.


Helicopter parents are highly involved parents who hover over and around their child, applying developmentally inappropriate levels of control and tangible assistance. Previous research with different-sex parent families indicates that helicopter parenting is particularly problematic in emerging adulthood as it may indirectly affect the offspring's mental health through their use of emotional avoidant coping. Knowledge is lacking, however, on the antecedents and consequences of helicopter parenting in lesbian-parent families. The present longitudinal, questionnaire-based study investigated the effect of homophobic stigmatization in adolescence on mental health via helicopter parenting and emotional avoidant coping among 76 (37 females and 39 males) National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study 25-year-old offspring of lesbian parents. All participants were cisgender, born in the USA, and conceived through donor sperm, with the majority being White, heterosexual, highly educated, and no longer living with their parents. Parents who reported that their offspring experienced homophobic stigmatization in adolescence were likely to enact higher helicopter parenting in emerging adulthood. Then, higher scores on helicopter parenting were associated with offspring's greater use of emotional avoidant coping, which in turn negatively affected the mental health of emerging adult offspring. Discussed in light of Bowen's family differentiation theory, the results suggest that clinicians should examine helicopter parenting in the context of lesbian parents' developmental history and potential tendency to project their own concerns about safety onto their child in order to reduce the distress of experienced homophobic stigmatization. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved).


Surface water is the most important resource and environmental factor in maintaining human survival and ecosystem stability; therefore, timely accurate information on dynamic surface water is urgently needed. However, the existing water datasets fall short of the current needs of the various organizations and disciplines due to the limitations of optical sensors in dynamic water mapping. The advancement of the cloud-based Google Earth Engine (GEE) platform and free-sharing Sentinel-1 imagery makes it possible to map the dynamics of a surface water body with high spatial-temporal resolution on a large scale. This study first establishes a water extraction method oriented towards Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) data based on the statistics of a large number of samples of land-cover types. An unprecedented high spatial-temporal water body dataset in China (HSWDC) with monthly temporal and 10-m spatial resolution using the Sentinel-1 data from 2016 to 2018 is developed in this study. The HSWDC is validated by 14,070 random samples across China. A high classification accuracy (overall accuracy = 0.93, kappa coefficient = 0.86) is achieved. The HSWDC is highly consistent with the Global Surface Water Explorer dataset and water levels from satellite altimetry. In addition to the good performance of detecting frozen water and small water bodies, the HSWDC can also classify various water cover/uses, which are obtained from its high spatial-temporal resolution. The HSWDC dataset can provide more detailed information on surface water bodies in China and has good application potential for developing high-resolution wetland maps.


Employee capital plans in practice. The program's profi tability — its main advantages and disadvantagesThe aim of the article was to present the basic assumptions of the Pracownicze Plany Kapitałowe program and to draw attention to the issue of its success and profi tability for future pensioners. This program advertised as a pro social one by the ruling party in fact may not be one. The article tried to fi nd the answer to the question of what are the intentions of the government and what the main purpose of the program is. Is it aimed at fi nancial security for future pensioners or at feeding the declining fi nancial market? So far, attention was drawn to the main advantages and disadvantages of this program, analyzed from the point of view of "who will benefi t the most from it."


Objective: This study aimed to assess the current community's perception status of dengue fever in the (Yuhana Abad) slum area of Lahore.
Method: A quantitative cross-sectional study was conducted in Yuhana Abad, a suburb of Lahore, Pakistan. It is the largest majority Christian area in the city with about 200,000 inhabitants. To determine the perception of people a structured questionnaire was used to collect data and 384 households selected through the convenience sampling technique were interviewed.
Result: Male participation in the study was 67% and female 33%, among both gender participants. The literate percentage was 74% and the illiterate 26%. 76% of people knew about dengue fever transmission, 80% knew the consequences of the disease, 64% knew the signs and symptoms, and 90% knew the most frequent mosquito bite time and prevention of the epidemic of dengue fever were good.
Conclusion: We have found a prevalence of sufficient knowledge in our sample population based on knowledge of dengue. However, isolated knowledge on signs and symptoms, mode of transmission, and prevention are adequate, with preventive measures mainly focused on protection from mosquito bites by using mosquito mat/coil/liquid vaporizers.


Code summarization generates brief natural language descriptions of source code pieces, which can assist developers in understanding code and reduce documentation workload. Recent neural models on code summarization are trained and evaluated on large-scale multi-project datasets consisting of independent code-summary pairs. Despite the technical advances, their effectiveness on a specific project is rarely explored. In practical scenarios, however, developers are more concerned with generating high-quality summaries for their working projects. And these projects may not maintain sufficient documentation, hence having few historical code-summary pairs. To this end, we investigate low-resource project-specific code summarization, a novel task more consistent with the developers' requirements. To better characterize project-specific knowledge with limited training samples, we propose a meta transfer learning method by incorporating a lightweight fine-tuning mechanism into a meta-learning framework. Experimental results on nine real-world projects verify the superiority of our method over alternative ones and reveal how the project-specific knowledge is learned.


Nine commercial DNA extraction kits were evaluated for the isolation of DNA from 10‐fold serial dilutions of Bacillus anthracis spores using quantitative real‐time PCR (qPCR). The three kits determined by qPCR to yield the most sensitive and consistent detection (Epicenter MasterPure Gram Positive; MoBio PowerFood; ABI PrepSeq) were subsequently tested for their ability to isolate DNA from trace amounts of B. anthracis spores (approx. 6·5 × 101 and 1·3 × 102 CFU in 25 ml or 50 g of food sample) spiked into complex food samples including apple juice, ham, whole milk and bagged salad and recovered with immunomagnetic separation (IMS).


The aim of this study was to analyze the shear bond strength between commercially pure titanium, with and without laser welding, after airbone-particle abrasion (Al(2)O(3)) and 2 indirect composites. Sixty-four specimens were cast and divided into 2 groups with and without laser welding. Each group was divided in 4 subgroups, related to Al(2)O(3) grain size: A - 250 microm; B - 180 microm; C- 110 microm; and D - 50 microm. Composite rings were formed around the rods and light polymerized using UniXS unit. Specimens were invested and their shear bond strength at failure was measured with a universal testing machine at a crosshead speed of 2.0 mm/min. Statistical analysis was carried out with ANOVA and Tukey's test (alpha=0.05). The highest bond strength means were recorded in 250 microm group without laser welding. The lowest shear bond strength means were recorded in 50 microm group with laser welding. Statistically significant differences (p<0.05) were found between all groups. In conclusion, airborne particle abrasion yielded significantly lower bond strength as the Al(2)O(3) particle size decreased. Shear bond strength decreased in the laser welded specimens.


Transient receptor potential channels (TRPCs) of the canonical TRP subfamily are nonselective cation channels that play an essential role in calcium homeostasis, particularly store-operated calcium entry, which is critical to maintaining proper function of synaptic vesicle release and intracellular signaling pathways. Accordingly, TRPC channels have been implicated in a variety of human diseases including cardiovascular disorders such as cardiac hypertrophy, neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's disease, and neurologic disorders such as spinocerebellar ataxia. Therefore, TRPC channels represent a potential pharmacologic target in human diseases. However, the molecular mechanisms of gating in these channels are still unclear. The difficulty in obtaining large quantities of stable, homogeneous, and purified protein has been a limiting factor in structure determination studies, particularly for mammalian membrane proteins such as the TRPC ion channels. Here, we present a protocol for the large-scale expression of mammalian ion channel membrane proteins using a modified baculovirus gene transfer system and the purification of these proteins by affinity and size-exclusion chromatography. We further present a protocol to collect single-particle cryo-electron microscopy images from purified protein and to use these images to determine the protein structure. Structure determination is a powerful method for understanding the mechanisms of gating and function in ion channels.


The stage-specific spatial distribution and mortality of Balanus glandula and Chtha- malus spp. larvae were assessed with a series of daily vertical plankton tows collected from inner- shelf waters in La Jolla, Southern California, in March 2003. Sampling stations were located within 1.1 km of the shoreline, at depths of 10 to 45 m. For both groups, we observed a spatial segregation of naupliar stages and cyprids, although this pattern was statistically significant for Chthamalus spp. only. Early nauplii (NII and NIII) were more abundant at the inshore stations, whereas later stages (NIV to NVI) occurred in greater numbers offshore. Cyprids were consistently more abundant at the inshore station. Such striking differences in the horizontal distributions of late nauplii and cyprids suggest limited dispersal of barnacle larvae in nearshore waters. Particle trajectories computed from current velocities measured in the area indicated that changes in vertical distribution may indeed affect dispersal, and, in some cases, enhance the retention of larvae in shallow, inner-shelf waters. Vertical life tables were used to estimate naupliar mortality rates from pooled daily stage distribu- tions. Average estimates (±SE) for the instantaneous rate of larval mortality in B. glandula (0.33 ± 0.05 larvae d -1 ) and Chthamalus spp. (0.23 ± 0.03 larvae d -1 ) were substantially higher than previ- ously assumed for these species. We discuss the implications of limited dispersal and high mortality rates for the exchange of larvae among disjunct populations of intertidal barnacles and other coastal benthic invertebrates.


This volume is the first book-length treatment of how the 9/11 attacks and the American political scene afterward have affected higher education in this country. It covers topics such as: universities' roles in training counter-terrorism experts, particularly anthropologists working in Iraq and Afghanistan; bio-terrorism research on campuses; inflammatory critiques by the likes of Ward Churchill; the conspiracy theories advocated by some academics regarding 9/11; lawsuits against universities by terror victims trying to get settlements from countries like Iran by seizing archaeological artifacts in American universities; accused Islamists teaching at American colleges, like Sami al-Arian at USF.


The "Psi-La Boussole" project constitutes a model of coordination of services characterized by two currents: case management and coordination of Individualized Service Plan (ISP). Its objectives consists in improving autonomy, social integration and quality of life of persons with severe mental disorders, as well as reducing the burden of families and favor a partnership between different resources. From Spring 1992 to January 1996, in Quebec City, 28 people with mental disorder participated in the project. After presenting their profiles, a synthesis of the analysis of 8 history cases allows to put in light the particularities of the model and its functioning.


Asynchronous Transfer Mode is the high-edge technology employed in an increasing number of WAN production links. The performance analysis of ATM architecture is a very crucial factor in designing networks. Very often, simulation i s the only feasible method because of the nature of the problem and because analytical techniques become too difficult to handle. However simulation can be costly to develop and run. The mathematical analysis approach is preferable but in most cases not applicable. This paper presents an analytical simulation method that can be used for the evaluation of ATM architectures that are based on buffered banyan networks. This method comprises the probabilistic analysis and the simulation technique with the help of a mathematical software package MathConnex (of MathSoft Corporation). The analysis enables us to observe the behavior of different parts of an ATM architecture under various traffic conditions. Key-Words: simulation, multistage networks, performance analysis


Human noroviruses (HuNoVs) are the major cause worldwide for non-bacterial acute gastroenteritis. In this study, we applied a novel viral receptor mediated in situ capture RT-qPCR (ISC-RT-qPCR) to detect HuNoVs in oysters and compared with the traditional RT-qPCR method. Ten HuNoVs RT-PCR positive and 5 negative clinical samples from gastroenteritis patients were used to compare specificity and sensitivity of ISC-RT-qPCR against that of the RT-qPCR assay. ISC-RT-qPCR had at a one-log and a two-log increase in sensitivity over that of the RT-qPCR assay for genotype I (GI) and GII, respectively. Distributions of HuNoVs in oyster tissues were investigated in artificially inoculated oysters. GI HuNoVs could be detected in all tissues in inoculated oysters by both ISC-RT-qPCR and RT-qPCR. GII HuNoVs could only be detected in gills and digestive glands by both methods. The number of viral genomic copies (vgc) measured by ISC-RT-qPCR was comparable with RT-qPCR in the detection of GI and GII HuNoVs in inoculated oysters. Thirty-six oyster samples from local market were assayed for HuNoVs by both assays. More HuNoVs could be detected by ISC-RT-qPCR in retail oysters. The detection rates of GI HuNoVs in gills, digestive glands, and residual tissues were 33.3, 25.0, and 19.4% by ISC-RT-qPCR; and 5.6, 11.1, and 11.1% by RT-qPCR, respectively. The detection rates of GII HuNoVs in gills were 2.8% by ISC-RT-qPCR; no GII HuNoV was detected in these oysters by RT-qPCR. Overall, all results demonstrated that ISC-RT-qPCR is a promising method for detecting HuNoVs in oyster samples.


Do citizens welcome the involvement of independent experts in politics? Theoretical and empirical work so far provides conflicting answers to this question. On the one hand citizens may demand expert involvement in political decision-making processes in order to ensure efficient and effective governance solutions. On the other hand, citizens can be distrustful of experts and reject the unaccountable and non-transparent nature of expert-based governance. This study investigates citizen preferences for the involvement of experts in different stages of political processes and across hard and easy political issues. Results show that, in the absence of explicit output information, respondents prefer independent experts over national elected representatives in the policy design and implementation stages across political issues. For the crucial stage of decision-making, respondents show no differences in their evaluation of processes that delegate decisions to experts or to elected representatives, with the exception of environmental policy, where expert decision-making is preferred. These findings are relevant for ongoing discussions on how to incorporate a role for independent experts in political decision-making in a way that citizens find legitimate, and on how to address increased citizen dissatisfaction with the representative democratic functions performed by political parties, governments and politicians.


The aims of this study were to compare the differences and determine the relationships between the scores obtained from Minnesota job-satisfaction and quality-of-life scales applied to males' ages 18 to 40 who participate in recreational activities and those who do not. The samples of the study consisted of 282 volunteers (148 of whom participate in sports and 134 of whom do not) employed in public institutions and organisations in the City of Vezirkopru in Turkey's Samsun province. The data obtained from the scales and their subscales for the two groups were analysed through the Mann-Whitney U test and Kendall's tau-b, according to the results from a Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for the normality assumption (P<0.05). The results showed that the perceived general life quality and job satisfaction for the individuals participating in sports were higher than those who do not participate (P<0.05). When the associations between life-quality and job-satisfaction total scores of all participants were examined, positive significant associations were found between life-quality total scores and job-satisfaction total scores and sub-scores (intrinsic and extrinsic satisfaction) (P<0.001). In conclusion, it can be said that participation in recreational activities, which are defined for these purposes as organised voluntary physical activities, has a direct influence on individuals' lifestyles and increases their quality of life and job satisfaction significantly.


In order to determine the cyclic strength or resistance to liquefaction of tailings materials, six tailings sampled from different tailings dam sites in Chile and Japan plus one artificially ground quartz powder were tested in the laboratory using the cyclic triaxial shear test apparatus. Coarse grained materials and fine grained materials were sampled separately from laminated profiles of deposits at each tailings dam site and the tests were conducted each on these two kinds of materials. The cyclic triaxial test results showed that for the coarse grained tailings called sand, the cyclic strength was a little lower than that for the normally encountered clean sands having almost identical grain size characteristics. For the fine grained tailings called slime, the cyclic strength was shown to depend largely on the consistency characteristics. The fine grained tailings which are identified as being nonplastic showed much smaller cyclic strength than the tailings having a plasticity index on the order of 15 to 20.


Synchrotron radiation real-time imaging technology was performed to in situ study the Cu-Ni cross-interaction in Cu/Sn/Ni solder joints under temperature gradient during soldering. The direction of temperature gradient significantly influenced the Cu-Ni cross-interaction. When Ni was the hot end, both Cu and Ni atoms could diffuse to the opposite interfaces, resulting in the occurrence of the Cu-Ni cross-interaction at both interfaces. The consumption of the Cu cold end was abnormally large, whereas that of the Ni hot end was limited. When Cu was the hot end, only Cu atoms could diffuse to the opposite interface, resulting in the occurrence of the Cu-Ni cross-interaction only at the cold end. The Cu hot end was seriously consumed, whereas the Ni cold end was still intact. The interfacial intermetallic compounds were always thicker at the cold end than at the hot end, especially at the Ni/Sn cold end. Cu imposed more damaging effect than Ni under temperature gradient. Based on the atomic fluxes, a model was proposed to discuss the effect of temperature gradient on the Cu-Ni cross-interaction and the interfacial reactions in the Cu/Sn/Ni solder joints.


Jerry Simpson, Medicine Lodge, Kansas, was elected to the United States House of Representatives in 1890, 1892, and 1896; he was defeated in races in 1894 and 1898. Allegedly his first election resulted from his exposure of a naked foot during a campaign speech in which he claimed to be too poor to buy socks. This report traces the life history of Jerry Simpson, emphasizing particularly his relationships with his constituents. The 1890 election campaign is dealt with in sane detail, the apocryphal sockless story being relegated to a footnote. The writer believes abnormal economic conditions caused the election of Jerry Simpson as a protest; returning prosperity resulted in his defeat. A new economic issue caused his comeback in 1896: new prosperity and an outbreak of nationalism retired him in 1898. His career illustrates that a democracy can discover and develop leaders who truly represent the majority of their people and discard them when they have served their purpose.


We describe a unique spontaneous mouse model of autoimmunity, which occurs on a non-autoimmune–prone SWR genetic background. In this model, SWR mice carry an IghV partial transgene (pTg) encoding only the heavy chain variable domain of an antibody directed against chromatin. Autoimmune disease in pTg mice was manifested by some of the features of systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), including the presence of serum anti-nuclear antibodies, splenomegaly, skin lesions and a moderate degree of kidney pathology, in various combinations among individuals. Autoimmunity was observed in three independent transgenic lines, but not in three control lines carrying a nearly identical pTg, in which a VHCDR3 codon for Arg was replaced by one for Ser to ablate chromatin reactivity. Various features of disease were often but not always accompanied by anti-chromatin antibodies. Unexpectedly, the anti-chromatin antibodies detected in seropositive animals were not encoded by the pTg. These observations strongly implicate a role for the transgene product in disease initiation but not necessarily for end-state pathology, and they raise the possibility that autoreactive B cells may play a previously unappreciated role in initiating the development of systemic autoimmunity.


Objective: To develop a new spatial epidemiological research framework, which would overcome the problems of multicollinearity among the independent variables and the difficulty for outcome to give an explicit explanation for disease transmission mechanism in the current spatial epidemiological methods.Methods: Comparison of schistosomiasis transmission process with disaster process; Imitation with and import of disaster risk assessment methodology into spatial epidemiological research. Results: A universal spatial epidemiological research framework was presented for the natural focal disease infection risk prediction. This new approach was expected to be extended to the risk assessment of environmental pollution-incurred public health problems. The GIS-based spatialization methods of the factors concerned in the framework were suggested as well. Conclusion: The new established spatial epidemiological framework presented has strong universality and shows many advantages in the field of public health.


This paper describes BlockPKI, a blockchain-based public-key infrastructure that enables an automated, resilient, and transparent issuance of digital certificates. Our goal is to address several shortcomings of the current TLS infrastructure and its proposed extensions. In particular, we aim at reducing the power of individual certification authorities and make their actions publicly visible and accountable, without introducing yet another trusted third party. To demonstrate the benefits and practicality of our system, we present evaluation results and describe our prototype implementation.


The relative contributions of adaptation and drift to morphological
diversification of the crania of echolocating mammals was investigated
using two horseshoe bat species, Rhinolophus simulator and R. cf.
simulator as test cases. We used 3D geometric morphometrics to compare
the shapes of skulls of the two lineages collected at various localities
in southern Africa. Shape variation was predominantly attributed to
selective forces; the between population variance (B) was not
proportional to the within population variance (W). Modularity was
evident in the crania of R. simulator but absent in the crania of R. cf.
simulator and the mandibles of both species. The skulls of the two
lineages thus appeared to be under different selection pressures,
despite the overlap in their distributions. Selection acted mainly on
the nasal dome region of R. cf. simulator whereas selection acted more
on the cranium and mandibles than on the nasal domes of R. simulator.
Probably the relatively higher echolocation frequencies used by R. cf.
simulator, the shape of the nasal dome, which acts as a frequency
dependent acoustic horn, is more crucial than in R. simulator, allowing
maximization of the intensity of the emitted calls and resulting in
comparable detection distances. In contrast, selection pressure is
probably more pronounced on the mandibles and cranium of R. simulator to
compensate for the loss in bite force because of its elongated rostrum.
The predominance of selection probably reflects the stringent
association between environment and the optimal functioning of
phenotypic characters associated with echolocation and feeding in bats.


Thione S-methylide, parent species of the thiocarbonyl ylide family, is a 1,3-dipolar species on the [C2SH4] potential energy surface, not so much studied as its isomers, thiirane, vinyl thiol, and thioacetaldehyde. The conrotatory ring-closure reaction toward thiirane was studied in the 90s, but no complete analysis of the potential energy surface is available. In this paper, we report a computational study of the reaction scheme linking all species. We employed several computational methods (density functional theory, CCSD(T) composite schemes, and CASSCF/CASPT2 multireference procedures) to find the best description of thione S-methylide, its isomers, and transition states. The barrier from thiirane to thione S-methylide amounts to 52.2 kcal mol–1 (against 17.6 kcal mol–1 for the direct one), explaining why thiocarbonyl ylides cannot be prepared from thiiranes. Conversion of thiirane to vinyl thiol implies a large barrier, supporting why the reaction has been observed only at high temperatures. Fragmentations of thiirane to S(3P) or S(1D) and ethylene as well as decomposition to hydrogen sulfide plus acetylene were also explored. Triplet and singlet open-shell species were identified as intermediates in the fragmentations, with energies lower than the transition state between thiirane and vinyl thiol, explaining the preference of the latter at low temperatures.


PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to describe and analyze how physicians and nurses strategically employ the managerial logic.Design/methodology/approachA qualitative case study incorporating interviews and observations.FindingsNeither physicians nor nurses were prone to strategically employing the managerial logic. However, when doing so nurses were able to acknowledge the legitimacy of managerial impact on practice, whereas the physicians were not. Consequently, physicians might find other, more subtle, ways to strategically employ the managerial logic.Originality/valueThis paper argues for and makes explicit the applicability of qualitative methods in order to delineate actors' strategic use of available and accessible institutional logics, the conditions for such usage, as well as the multiplicity of actors' interactions that needs to be taken into account when conducting qualitative data analysis of such occurrences. By the merits of the qualitative research approach utilized in this study, novel insights concerning the strategic use of the managerial logic in the everyday work of physicians and nurses were obtainable. These insights emphasize the necessity of acknowledging situational, organizational and institutional context, incorporating inter-professional power discrepancies and relationsvis-à-vismanagers.


There is a high demand for agrohydrologic models to use gridded near-surface air temperature data as the model input for estimating regional and global water budgets and cycles. The Global LandData Assimilation System (GLDAS) developed by combining simulation models with observations provides a long-term griddedmeteorological dataset at the global scale. However, theGLDAS air temperature products have not been comprehensively evaluated, although the accuracy of the products was assessed in limited areas. In this study, the daily 0.258 resolution GLDAS air temperature data are compared with two reference datasets: 1) 1-kmresolution gridded Daymet data (2002 and 2010) for the conterminous United States and 2) global meteorological observations (2000–11) archived from the Global Historical Climatology Network (GHCN). The comparison of the GLDAS datasets with the GHCN datasets, including 13 511 weather stations, indicates a fairly high accuracy of the GLDAS data for daily temperature. The quality of the GLDAS air temperature data, however, is not always consistent in different regions of the world; for example, some areas inAfrica and South America show relatively low accuracy. Spatial and temporal analyses reveal a high agreement between GLDAS and Daymet daily air temperature datasets, although spatial details in high mountainous areas are not sufficiently estimated by the GLDAS data. The evaluation of the GLDAS data demonstrates that the air temperature estimates are generally accurate, but caution should be taken when the data are used in mountainous areas or places with sparse weather stations.


Abstract A GC-MS/MS method with low solvent consumption and easy operation was developed to simultaneously determine ten new-generation pesticides, namely fenobucarb, acetochlor, pretilachlor, fipronil, trifloxystrobin, fluazifop-p-butyl, isoprothiolane, tebuconazole, cypermethrin and difenoconazole in leafy vegetables. Influences from ultrasonic sample extraction and the clean-up steps to reduce matrix effects were investigated. Under suitable conditions, good linearity (deviation of back calculated concentration from true concentration lower than 20%) was achieved for all studied pesticides; the method detection limits (MDLs) ranged from 1.4 to 3.6 ng g−1 wet weight. For mustard green and green onion the method yielded good recoveries at two spiking levels (201 and 100 ng g−1) ranging from 80% to 111% (n = 5). The repeatability, expressed as relative standard deviation (RSD), was lower than 11% (n = 5). The method was successfully used to quantify pesticide residues in 207 vegetable samples (green onions, mustard greens, and lettuce) collected in Thua Thien Hue and Quang Binh Provinces, Central Vietnam. The insecticide cypermethrin was found at critical levels in 98% of the vegetable samples. Green onions had high pesticide residues with a significant number of samples containing pesticides at concentrations exceeding the maximum residue levels (MRLs).


In tissue culture of hepatocytes, insulin (0.1-1 munits/ml for 4 h) reversed completely the effects of starvation of rats to decrease the activity of pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) complex and to increase the activities of PDH kinase and PDH kinase activator protein. It had no effect in hepatocytes from fed rats. Significant effects of insulin were detected with 0.01 munit/ml after 4 h, and in 1-2 h with 1 munit/ml.


The popularity of spinal anesthesia has undergone various accessions and regressions since its discovery by Corning in 1888. In the hands of such master surgeons as Matas, who was the first in this country to perform an operation employing it, spinal anesthesia proved satisfactory; but for others less experienced and resourceful, it gave unsatisfactory results. During the second decade of the present century interest in the production of anesthesia by regional injections seems largely to have died out, and the advent of the World War put a temporary embargo on such physiologic experimentation as might have provided better and safer means of administering it. A full decade after the war ended, however, Pitkin brought forward his "controllable" spinal anesthesia, a method which was almost immediately to revolutionize the previous conceptions of the hazards and inconveniences of this particular form of surgical analgesia. Briefly, the drawbacks had always been (1) a


OBJECTIVE
To determine the prevalence of dental implants among the Air Force basic military trainees and to radiographically identify the type of dental implant systems.

METHODS
All digital panoramic radiographic images acquired from Oct 1, 2006 through July 31, 2007 of newly recruited Air Force trainees were evaluated for evidence of dental implants. The following data were collected: total number of implants per radiograph, gender and age of subjects, implant location, type of implant retention method, and restorative implant status. The implants identified were categorized as Nobel Biocare/3i type or non-Nobel Biocare/3i type.

RESULTS
A total of 47 radiographs were identified with 63 dental implants being detected out of 26,293 panoramic radiographs surveyed. Of the 63 identified dental implants, 34 were Nobel Biocare/3i type and 29 were non-Nobel Biocare/3i type.

CONCLUSIONS
The prevalence of dental implants among Air Force basic military trainees was 0.24% with 54% of the implants being identified as Nobel Biocare/3i type.


Coronary artery spasm is a known complication of coronary interventions, for which intracoronary nitroglycerin (ICN) is the treatment of choice. Some forms of intense spasm are resistant to ICN. Calcium channel antagonists are also known to be effective for coronary artery spasm, including nitroglycerin-resistant spasm. Here we describe a protocol for the clinical use of intracoronary diltiazem (ICD). By this protocol, ICD can be safely given without disturbing the clinical status of patients. ICD (2.5 mg) given slowly over 1 minute produced no vasodilitation of normal vessel segments but did produce significant dilatation of stenotic segments above and beyond the effects of nitrates. Mean minimum lumen diameter increased 18%, from 0.89 +/- 0.06 mm to 1.06 +/- 0.07 mm (mean +/- SEM, P < 0.001). ICD produced clinically insignificant changes in systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, heart rate, and PR, QRS, and QT intervals. This protocol has been employed to safely use ICD to relieve both nitroglycerin-resistant epicardial artery spasm and nitroglycerin-resistant distal microvascular spasm (the no-reflow phenomenon).


Six different Staphylococcus aureus plasmids have been examined for compatibility relationships and their intracellular DNA pools have been measured singly and in various combinations. All six were mutually compatible, but contrary to expectation, their intracellular DNA pools were not additive; instead, there appeared to be a maximum level of extrachromosomal DNA that could be supported by the cell, and the plasmids studied approached this level individually as well as in varous combinations. One exception was encountered: a plasmid encoding kanamycin/neomycin resistance was present in a small but constant number of copies regardless of the presence of other plasmids.


A self-mixing interferometry with mutual independent orthogonal polarized light is introduced. Its most important feature is that two mutual independent orthogonal lights are used as measuring and reference light. Frequency shifting and polarization multiplexing technologies are used in the proposed optical system. Phase variation of the two orthogonal polarized beams is simultaneously measured through heterodyne demodulation with a lock-in amplifier. The phase difference of the orthogonal polarized light accurately reflects the target displacement. The target in this system is a non-cooperative object which is different from a traditional Michelson interferometer. The primary experimental results show that this kind of self-mixing interferometry is very feasible. Under typical room conditions, the system's short-term resolution is better than 2 nm.


The effects of pre-ozonation and humic acid concentration on the formation, breakup and reformation of flocs generated using aluminium sulphate and polyaluminium chloride was investigated using conventional jar test procedure and by continuous optical monitoring. Using a range of different humic acid and ozone concentrations, it was found that increasing either concentration was detrimental to floc formation, leading to reduced turbidity removal. Once ruptured, only limited regrowth of flocs occurred, indicating irreversible floc breakage. The findings showed that the use of pre-ozonation did not provide beneficial results to improve turbidity removal. Nevertheless, improved dissolved organic carbon removal was achievable.


One hundred ten cases of the transient neurological phenomenon, cervical cord neurapraxia (CCN), are presented. The authors established a classification system for CCN, developed a new computerized measurement technique for magnetic resonance (MR) imaging, investigated the relationship of the cervical cord to the canal, and analyzed clinical, x-ray, and MR data. One hundred nine males and one female were included in the study; the average age of the participants was 21 years (range 13-33 years). All episodes occurred during sports participation; 87% occurred while the patient was playing football. Follow-up review lasting an average of 3.3 years was available for 105 patients (95%). Narrowing of the sagittal diameter of the cervical canal in the adult spine was confirmed to be a causative factor. Cervical cord neurapraxia was not associated with permanent neurological injury and no permanent morbidity occurred in patients who returned to contact activities. Of the patients returning to contact activities, 35 (56%) experienced a recurrent episode. The risk of recurrence was increased with smaller spinal canal/vertebral body ratio (p < 0.05), smaller disc-level canal diameter (p < 0.05), and less space available for the cord (p < 0.05). There was no correlation between either the classification of the CCN episode or the disease noted on MR imaging and x-ray films and the risk of recurrence. The authors conclude that: 1) CCN is a transient neurological phenomenon and individuals with uncomplicated CCN may be permitted to return to their previous activity without an increased risk of permanent neurological injury; 2) congenital or degenerative narrowing of the sagittal diameter of the cervical canal is a causative factor; 3) the overall recurrence rate after return to play is 56%; and 4) the risk of recurrence is strongly and inversely correlated with sagittal canal diameter and it is useful in the prediction of future episodes of CCN (p < 0.001). These data will enable the physician to counsel individuals regarding a predicted risk of recurrence based on canal measurements.


To meet the challenge of improving health care quality in urban, medically underserved areas of the US that have a predominance of chronic diseases such as diabetes, we have developed a new information system called CEDRIC for managing chronic diseases. CEDRIC was developed in collaboration with clinicians at an urban safety net clinic, using a community-participatory partnered research approach, with a view to addressing the particular needs of urban clinics with a high physician turnover and large uninsured/underinsured patient population. The pilot implementation focuses on diabetes management. In this paper, we describe the system's architecture and features.


This paper describes POLYA, a model of diagram use in support of geometry theorem-proving. POLYA collects features from the diagram via a shifting focus of attention. It uses those features to index search scripts---routines to look for significant patterns in the diagram---and proof scripts--routines for translating objects in the diagram into statements in the proof. This paper presents a partial vocabulary of visual focus and action, suggests some scripts for recognizing useful patterns, and describes a mechanism for script selection.


The aim of this research was to evaluate the nutritional characteristics and possible toxic effects of microalgae Spirulina LEB-18, developed in south of Brazil. The biomass was evaluated for 40 days through nutritional responses, obtained by the development of Wistar rats and also by biochemical and hematological study of the blood of these animals. Four isoproteic diets were prepared (12% protein): (1) Control diet, 12% (w/w) of casein; (2) Diet S1, 8.8% (w/w) of Spirulina; (3) Diet S2, 17.6% (w/w) of Spirulina; (4) Diet S3, 26.4% (w/w) of Spirulina, distributed to the animals according to their treatment (n = 6). As to nutritional parameters the S1 treatment was more efficient. The groups did not differ in regard to biochemical determinations in blood, with the exception of S2, which showed creatinine levels lower than all others. In hematologic profile, the S3 treatment showed hematocrit and hemoglobin levels greater than the control diet. These results revealed no toxicity by the use of microalgae and it suggests the use of Spirulina as a potential source of single-cell protein.

 Key words: Cyanobacteria, growing rats, nutritional evaluation, Spirulina.


Mammals can supress their nociceptive responses to prioritise other important responses via endogenous modulation from the brain. It is well established that insects display nociception, but not whether the insect brain can modulate nociceptive processing. To address this question, we investigated whether bumblebees' (Bombus terrestris) attraction to higher sucrose solution concentrations reduces their avoidance of noxious heat. Bees were given the choice between either unheated or noxiously-heated (55°C) feeders with different sucrose concentrations. The feeders were associated with colour stimuli to act as conditioned cues. Bees fed more from higher sucrose concentration heated feeders than lower sucrose concentration unheated feeders. Further, bees' "testing out" of feeders (landing but not feeding) reduced as the experiment progressed, demonstrating that conditioned colour cues informed the bees' behaviour. Therefore, bees trade off competing conditioned motivational stimuli to modulate nocifensive behaviour, suggesting a form of pain perception.


The objective of this research is to prove whether or not Concept Sentence Technique can improve the students' ability in writing recount. This research applied pre-experimental research design by using one-group pre-test post-test design. The population of this research is the tenth grade students of SMAN 4 Palu, and the sample is X MIA 3 consisting of 34 students selected by using purposive sampling technique. Then, the researcher uses writing test as the instrument to collect the data. The test is divided into two parts: pretest and posttest. The pre-test is used to measure the students' ability in writing a paragraph of recount text before treatment, and post-test was used to measure the students' ability after the treatment. The data is analyzed statistically in order to know the significant difference of the students' achievement in pre-test and post-test. The result of data analysis shows that the mean score increased significantly from 41.76 in pretest to 71.47 in posttest. By applying 0.05 level of significance and the degree of freedom (df); 33 (df = 34–1=33), the researcher found that the value of t-counted is higher than the value of t-table (11.78> 1.693) It means that the hypothesis is accepted. It suggests that the use of Concept Sentence Technique is effective to improve the ability of the tenth grade students at SMAN 4 Palu in writing recount text.


In this paper, a voice-coil actuator for OIS integrated in mobile phone camera is developed. The actuator with compliant mechanism is free from friction, so open loop control becomes possible and the performance of optical image stabilization can be improved. The compliant mechanism that consist 4 wires is designed for the OIS actuator and the electromagnetic part is also design and improved by using design of experiments. After all, the final design is fabricated and verified experimentally. The experiment result shows that the developed actuator has sufficient performance and good linearity for open loop control.


In this work we present a V-band interferometric millimeter-wave continuous-wave (CW) radar operating at 42.875 GHz for vehicle speed-over-ground estimation. The system points normal to the road-surface providing a constant target range and radar cross-section (RCS), and thus a deterministic signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) compared to outward-looking systems. Interferometric processing is performed by correlating the received signal responses from a pair of antennas separated by a baseline of 8⋋. The system is designed with three independent phase-quadrature receive channels to allow for a pair of orthogonal baselines. On-vehicle measurements were performed for a single baseline parallel to the direction of travel and velocity was estimated directly from the received radar spectrum. The estimator consists of a fully-connected feedforward neural network (NN) with smoothing which achieved a root-mean-squared error (RMSE) of 0.204m/s on a 2-minute data capture.


The Blonquist Rockshelter, Summit County Utah (NE ¼, Sec. 23, T2N, R6E), is a west-facing bedrock alcove formed in the Eocene Wasatch Formation. The shelter is located on the northern flank of the Uinta Mountains, approximately 80 km northeast of Salt Lake City, at an elevation of 1,884 m (6,180 ft). The interior of the shelter is stratified and contains both exogenous (eolian, fine-grained particles and large particles deposited by water) and endogenous (eboulis, and organic layers) sediments. The organic layers appear to be concentrations of organic debris by packrats and raptors. These organic-rich layers have radiocarbon dates of 11.14 ka, 9.67 ka, 7.99 ka, 6.06 ka, and 5.91 ka. All sediments are very fossiliferous and contain a wide variety of snails, amphibians, small reptiles, birds, and mammals. Fossil collection was accomplished through common collecting techniques, such as 1) exposed surface picking, 2) on site screening, and 3) bulk matrix sampling. In this investigation only the avifauna was addressed. Twenty-eight species of birds are known and all are extant, except for the exterminated Ectopistes migratorius (Passenger pigeon). Twenty-three species represented in the sediments occur in northeastern Utah today; five are extralimital (Aegloius funereus, Tympanuchus cupido, T. pallidicinctus, Meleagris gallopavo, and Dendragapus canadaensis). The first three of the extralimital species are new records for Utah. The presence of the Boreal Owl (A. funereus) in a layer dated between 9.67 ka and 7.99 ka suggests the eboulis was deposited during a cool/cold climate at a time immediately following the recession of local mountain glaciers.


When a synchronous generator connected to the power grid experiences a fault, it is required to stay on line, ride through the fault, and be able to carry full rated field current when the fault is cleared. The peak current during these events could be 2 times higher than the normal operating current. This may cause an HTS rotor coil to go into normal state and generate Joule heating. If the fault event is short enough and the heat dumped can be carried away by the cooling system, the coil may recover to the superconducting state at the end of the fault. Otherwise, the coil may thermally run away, or dasiaquenchpsila. To investigate the quench behavior of the HTS rotor coil of the 100 MVA generator at GE Global Research Center, a 1.5 MVA prototype coil was developed and tested to quench under different conditions. The experiment design, set up, tests and test results are presented in this paper.


Cytological examinations and evaluation of the proliferative response of lymph node lymphocytes to T- and B-cell mitogens in vivo were carried out to identify the immunomodulating effect of cyclophosphamide (CP) versus the scheme of treatment. Using the system of adoptive transfer of splenic lymphocytes from experimental animals to intact syngeneic recipients, it was found that the scheme-dependent differentiated effects of CP on the antigen-specific tumor-associated and nonspecific suppressive activity of spleen cells provides an important pathway of CP action on the organism. A relationship between CP immunomodulating effects and lymphocyte antitumor activity was demonstrated in experiments using diffusion chambers.


Humanitarian intervention is an attempt to prevent or stop the gross human rights violations with particular strengths (diplomatic and military) in a State, either with or without the consent of the State (countries with internal conflict). The problems in this journal are: first, how the arrangement of international law on humanitarian intervention. Secondly, the role of the UN in humanitarian intervention in armed conflicts. The method used is a normative legal research methods with the main source of data collection procedures is a legal substance that contains of normative law. The results showed that the rules of international law on humanitarian intervention by the United Nations stipulated in the UN Charter and general principles of international law. Humanitarian intervention legally justified by following provisions in applicable international law, namely Articles 39-51 of UN Charter. While the role of the UN in humanitarian intervention in armed conflicts carried out by the Security Council as the organ of the United Nations in maintaining peace with the decision issued in the form of a resolution for areas experiencing conflict. Therefore, it takes an international treaty that regulates clearly about humanitarian intervention, so that in practice, remain consistent with the objectives and executive organs of humanitarian intervention. Keywords: Humanitarian Intervention, Security Council of UN, Armed Conflict .


Response strategies to environmental changes by Saccos in Nyeri County and in Kenya as a whole have become a phenomenal issue for the survival of the Saccos. This study has therefore been designed to establish the environmental changes occurring in this sector and consequent response strategies being adopted by the Saccos. The Savings and Credit Cooperative Societies in the Nyeri County, like other organizations, do not exist in a vacuum. Their operating environment keeps changing continuously. These Saccos have to respond to the changes in the environment accordingly in order to guarantee their continuous existence. This survey was meant to establish the response strategies to environmental changes adopted by the Saccos in the Nyeri County. The population of interest in this study was all the 53 active Saccos in Nyeri County at the end of the year 2009. The sample in this study consisted of 30 Saccos. This size was chosen because it was expected to be representative of the population since the sector is largely homogeneous. The stratified sampling method was used since the population is further divided into strata based on the types of Saccos which differ depending on the type of members and the Sacco's activities. Responses were sought from Managers or executive committee members who have been in the firms for at least three years since these are the ones who are involved in the crafting and implementation of response strategies in their respective organizations. The data collected was analyzed by use of percentages, means and standard deviation and presented in the form of tables and charts. The major challenges that have greatly affected the growth of this sector include; employment laws, political instability, high interest rates, low economic growth rates, high population growth rate, poor age distribution, strong emphasis on safety, increase in automation and high rate of technological change. Despite these challenges, most of the Saccos in Nyeri County have remained in operation for over ten years with some of them having over 30 years of operation.


The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between marketing strategies and brand position with particular emphasis on Bralirwa's Turbo King Brand. The research design was quantitative and qualitative. The specific objectives was: To identify the types of marketing strategies used by Bralirwa Ltd on Turbo King target market during the period of study, to assess how marketing strategies used by Bralirwa Ltd influence Turbo King Brand positioning, to identify challenges faced by Bralirwa Ltd during the implementation of marketing strategies on Turbo King. `The significance of this study to the researcher and to Bralirwa Ltd was to look at its problems, to give basic knowledge about marketing strategies, to serve as a reference material for similar studies in future. Marketing strategy includes all basic and long term activities in field of marketing deal with the analysis of the strategic initial situation of the company and the formulation, evaluation and selection of market oriented strategies. The total population was estimated at 9150 customers with the sample of 431 obtained using the Sloven formula and purposive technique. The secondary data was obtained by using documentation where textbooks, annual reports, and internet sources were consulted. The literature review for this research consisted on theoretical literature review and empirical literature review about the marketing strategies and brand position. The data collected by structured questionnaires and interview guide were analyzed qualitatively. Quantitatively, the researcher summarized data using descriptive statistics like tables, frequencies, percentages and figures which enabled the researcher to describe meaningfully the distribution of scores and measurements. Using these techniques, the presentation, analysis and interpretation of findings made it easy. The study showed that marketing strategies, its approaches bear a legitimate contribution to company's performance. However, these must be expressed as a core of the business. The findings from the research showed that pillars of marketing strategies (Target market, market segmentation, marketing mix and diversification) in Bralirwa are recommended because they contribute significantly to the performance.


We present a robust method for vehicle categorization in aerial images. This approach relies on a multiple-classifier system that merges the answers of classifiers applied at various camera angle incidences. The single classifiers are built by matching 3D-templates to the vehicle silhouettes with a local projection model that is compatible with the assumption of the little knowledge that we have of the viewing-condition parameters. We assess the validity of our approach on a challenging dataset of images captured in real-world conditions.


Cytochromes P450SP(alpha) (CYP152B1) and P450BS(beta) (CYP152A1), which are isolated from Sphingomonas paucimobilis and Bacillus subtilis, respectively, belong to the P450 superfamily, but catalyze hydroxylation reactions, in which an oxygen atom from H2O2 is efficiently introduced into fatty acids (e.g., myristic acid). P450SP(alpha) produces the alpha-hydroxylated (alpha-OH) products at 100%, while P450BS(beta) produces alpha- and beta-hydroxylated (beta-OH) products at 33 and 67%, respectively. Using deuterium-substituted fatty acids ([2,2-d2]-myristic acid and d27-myristic acid) as a substrate, the peroxygenase reactions of the two bacterial P450s were investigated. In the P450SP(alpha) reaction, we observed an intermolecular noncompetitive kinetic isotope effect on Vmax (DV = 4.1) when [2,2-d2]-myristic acid was used, suggesting that an isotopically sensitive step involving the alpha-hydrogen of the fatty acid is present in the catalytic cycle. On the other hand, D(V/K) was masked, in sharp contrast to the features of usual monooxygenases P450. The characteristic kinetic features can be interpreted in terms of the faster product formation than the substrate dissociation. A similar kinetic isotope effect was observed [DV = 4.9, D(V/K) approximately 1] for the P450BS(beta) reaction, when d27-myristic acid was used as a substrate, indicating that the reaction mechanism is the same for both peroxygenases. The resonance Raman spectral data of P450BS(beta) in the ferric and ferrous-CO forms in the presence and absence of myristic acid demonstrated that the catalytic pocket of the enzyme is polar, so that the location of the carboxylate of the substrate close to the sixth ligand of the heme could be allowed. On the basis of these results on the kinetic isotope effects and spectroscopy, we discuss the possible mechanisms of the alpha- and beta-hydroxylation of fatty acids catalyzed by peroxygenases P450SP(alpha) and P450BS(beta).


Oil prices rose to a peak of US$145 per barrel in July and are currently trading at close to US$100. Despite the recent moderation, the current (US dollar) price is around 30 per cent higher than a year ago, and more than 250 per cent above the level five years ago. While the appreciation of the Australian dollar over recent years has helped to lessen somewhat the effect on Australian businesses and consumers, Australian dollar oil prices – in real terms – are nonetheless now around their highest levels on record. This article discusses the forces behind the sharp increase in oil prices in recent years and the impact of higher oil prices on the Australian economy.


Using the window of opportunity - Co-operation between police and social services in cases of domestic violence in families with children.This article describes and discusses the cooperation between police and social services when working in accordance with the so-called Icelandic model. The aim of this article is to explore what cooperation within the Icelandic model during the "window of opportunity" means for police officers and social workers discretion and their possibility to perform their work in acute cases of domestic violence in families with children. Empirical data consists of interviews with police officers and social workers. Theories of new institutionalism and street level bureaucrats are used in the analysis.Results show that the Icelandic model has led to increased cooperation between police and social workers at the crime scene. The police and social workers state that they can focus to a greater extent on carrying out what they regard as their own tasks in acute cases of domestic violence when they work according to the model. At the same time, the model has entailed increased control of their work, which has reduced the degree of discretion and possibility for professional assessments and priorities. The perception that there is a "window of opportunity" is shared by the police and the social services and they believe that coordinated efforts in the acute phase are important.


Light microscopic observations employing intravital methylene blue staining and impregnation by the zinc iodide‐osmium tetroxide technique are presented for intraepidermal nerve fibre endings of the intervibrissal fur in the mystacial pad of the rat snout. Both procedures revealed anatomical details of the intraepidermal nerve fibre plexus in epidermal hillocks often located very close to the mouths of hairs. These nerve fibres appeared to resemble those described in previous immunohistochemical studies as cluster or bush endings. The methylene blue preparations demonstrated the existence of an intensely stained enlargement at the site of the branching point of the nerve fibres which seemed to be functionally related to the development of such nerve fibre plexuses. Due to their close association with hairs, these nerve fibre plexuses are most likely to be mechanoreceptive. Additionally, solitary varicose nerve fibres were found loosely distributed within the epidermis. The visualisation of 2 different morphological types of nerve fibre endings extends the validity of the concept of punctate sensibility into the epidermis. Methylene blue staining appeared to be somewhat superior to the zinc iodide‐osmium tetroxide technique. Due to their selectivity for intraepidermal nerve fibres, the methods applied here supplement immunohistochemical procedures in a helpful manner.


.  Most discussions of democratic theory assume that parties should offer clear choices to voters but also show themselves sensitive to public concerns. Under certain circumstances, however, party convergence on these may preclude electoral choice, thus creating conflict between two democratic 'goods'. We examine possible tradeoffs between choice and responsiveness, and see which actually occur in 16 postwar democracies. Party policy positions turn out to be more strongly related to party ideology than popular concerns, thus privileging differentiation and choice over sensitivity and responsiveness. Implications for democratic theory and practice are considered.