Neurotransmitter‐specific properties of glycinergic neurons in the human retina were studied using 11 pairs of eyes from donors ranging from 21/2 to 54 years in age. A mean endogenous level of 10.3 nmoles glycine per mg protein was measured by amino acid analysis in retinas isolated within 1 hour postmortem. When retinas were incubated with 3H‐glycine (2 μM) and processed for autoradiography, label was found associated with neurons whose somata reside within the inner nuclear layer. Some heavily labeled neurons located at the vitread border of the inner nuclear layer were identified as amacrine cells based on ultrastructural verification of the conventional synaptic contacts made by their processes in distal regions of the inner plexiform layer. In proximal regions of the inner plexiform layer, dendrites of glycine‐accumulating amacrine cells were postsynaptic to both ribbon and conventional synaptic contacts, suggesting input from bipolar and other, nonglycinergic amacrine cells. Their density (30 ± 11 S.D. cells/mm linear retinal expanse) tended to be greater toward the central fundus. A second population of lightly labeled, probable bipolar cells was present in the middle of the inner nuclear layer; the density of this second set of glycine‐accumulating cells approximated that of the heavily labeled population from the fovea, centrally, to the ora serrata, peripherally. Release of either accumulated or endogenous glycine was elicited by K+‐depolarization in a Ca2+‐dependent manner. Tissue fragments exposed for 6 minutes to normal medium, 40 mM K+‐substituted medium, or K+‐substituted medium with Co2+ release endogenous glycine into each bathing solution in average amounts of 0.6, 2.6, and 0.7 nmoles per mg protein, respectively. Together these data strongly implicate glycine as a neurotransmitter in the human retina.


Synopsis : A new steelmaking process composed of hot metal pretreatment, combined blowing converter and ladle refining has been developed at Kobe Works. This process has been successfully applied to mass production of high-grade steel since November 1983. Hot metal pretreatment is performed in the H furnace, which was an originally developed process using modified converter and has the ability of sequential desiliconization, dephosphorization and desulphurization within 15 minutes. In combined blowing converter, high speed and highly-accurate blowing is realized by the automatic blowing control system with sensors to detect slag condition. Ladle refining has the functions of arc heating, degassing and powder injection. The high application ratio of hot metal pretreatment and ladle refining led to establish a highly productive, accurate and efficient refining process. In this process consistently scheduled production from blast furnace to continuous caster is assured with its highly accurate controllability of each refining station. This paper described the improvements of combined blowing converter operation in this refining process. These improvements consist of the following items, (1) Decrease of flux consumption (2) Reduction of manganese ore and chromium ore (3) Refining control by the automatic blowing control system (4) Slag cut technique at tapping (5) Production of super-clean steel and realized combined blowing converter operation with high productivity, high quality and low cost.


Nanocrystalline titanium carbide embedded in an amorphous (hydrogenated) carbon matrix is a versatile nanocomposite material which, being deposited as thin film, combines the properties of hard titanium carbide nanocrystallites and relatively soft hydrogenized carbon matrix. Hybrid PVD-PECVD process of titanium sputtering in a mixture of argon and acetylene at optimized deposition conditions enables us to deposit superhard nc-TiC/a-C:H coating with hardness and Young's modulus over 40 GPa and 400 GPa, respectively with good adhesion on Ti coated HSS and WC and thickness higher than 5 µm. Further mprovement of the mechanical properties of these coatings was tested by adding third, non carbide formig, element by placing small number of nickel evaporation pellets on the racetrack of the magnetron target. Set of samples with different Ti/C ratio was prepared for different Ni doses. Influence of the Ni content on the properties of nc-TiC/a-C:H system was evaluated. XRD was used to determine crystalite size and latice parameter; depth sensing indenter to get hardness and Young modulus. XPS and EDX provided chemical composition of prepared samples. This research has been supported by the CZ.1.05/2.1.00/03.0086 and GACR P205/12/0407 projects.


In recent years there has been a significant increase in interest around career development in Educational Leadership. Through my own personal drive and leadership qualities, I began to question the idea of performance for successful leadership. Following observations of a particular leader I was even more intrigued about how one ought to perform as a leader and whether it is a conscious act dependent upon the message being delivered and the audience in which it is being enacted to. As I began to explore this concept further it became apparent that there was little research existing on how leaders perform and learn to perform. This study is set out to investigate the perception of headteachers' from the West Midlands who are in practice to demonstrate the concept of performance 'as' and performance 'is' leadership. Semi-structured interviews were used between July 2012 and January 2013 to secure their perceptions of their own relatable understanding of performance in leaderships, including their professional development to equip them with such enactment skills, and the emotional cost that this has on their professional identity. This study captures ways in which you need to perform as a leader to be successful in delivering your messages to your followers. However, during such acts of performance there is a need to stay true to ones self and honest to the performance, resulting in an emotional cost to ensure that a professional identity is maintained. Leaders learn most of their skills through experiences, which takes time and opportunities to fine tune. This raises the questions that in todays' current school led system do we have the experience to role model and develop such skills?

This piece of research is set out to inform the future research agenda for professional development of school leaders developing strategies and opportunities for leaders to grow.


Experiments of bending creep of ice single crystals were carried out in comparatively wide ranges of applied stress and temperature. Test specimens cut from large glacial single crystals were so prepared that the basal glide took place along the long axis of ice bar by the three point bending. The shape of creep curves obtained is characterized by a gradual increase in the slope followed by a constant slope. This shape is very similar to that of Ge, InSb etc., except that ice has no later decrease in the slope due to work hardening. Stress and temperature dependences of both the stationary creep rate \dotes and the incubation time ti are expressed by \dote_s=K_1τ^mexp (-Q/RT) \intertextand t_i^-1=K_2τ^mexp (-Q/RT) where m=1.58 and Q=15.8 Kcal/mole for both equations. Based on the similarity of creep curves and results of later experiments on plastic yielding, it is concluded that Johnston's theory of plastic deformation of crystals can be applied to the basal glide in ice single crystals.


Stress Granules formation is a pro-survival mechanism helping cells to cope with environmental challenges. Stress Granules have been studied for two decades in fundamental research, and are now being examined in the context of human pathogenesis. Here, we review studies highlighting stress granules' involvement in cancer development through translational pattern modification.


Introduction: Current guidelines describe 4 groups of PH-CHD: A Eisenmengers; B Large defect with left-right shunt; C Small defect; D Previously closed defect. There are sparse data comparing these groups.

Methods: Data for all 198 PH-CHD pts in the ASPIRE (Assessing the Spectrum of Patients Identified at a REferral centre) registry were reviewed.

Results: Although group B had milder haemodynamics and a lower proportion in functional class (FC) III or IV compared with groups C and D (Table) there was no significant difference in survival (Figure). In group A, Age, FC, DLCO and incremental shuttle walking distance (ISWD) predicted survival at univariate, and ISWD at multivariate analysis, while survival in the 23% with trisomy-21 was not different to those without trisomy-21.

Conclusions: Despite differing characteristics, survival of PH-CHD pts referred to specialist centres does not significantly differ between the 4 groups. Further details of medical and interventional therapies will be presented.

View this table:

![Figure][1] [1]: pending:yes


Large families of binary sequences with low correlation values and large linear span are critical for spread-spectrum communication systems. The author describes a method for constructing such families from families of homogeneous functions over finite fields, satisfying certain properties. He then uses this general method to construct specific families of sequences with optimal correlations and exponentially better linear span than No sequences (No. 1988). >


Seeing that the year has had it's chips I'll hand out the fan academy awards. There are ten jugs of assorted ale to be distributed and two special prizes of rusty jam tins (empty.) Wally Judd gets the first jug of ale for his organisation of the Third Australian Science Fiction Convention. This turned out to be the most successful fan gathering ever. We all are sorry to see that the effort killed Wally's interest in fandom but it is to be hoped he will see his way clear to join us again at some future date. What about it, Wally?


An adaptive multi-rate wideband (AMR-WB) code is a speech codec developed on the basis of an algebraic code-excited linear-prediction (ACELP) coding technique, and has a double advantage of low bit rates and high speech quality. This coding technique is widely used in modern mobile communication systems for a high speech quality in handheld devices. However, a major disadvantage is that a vector quantization (VQ) of immittance spectral frequency (ISF) coefficients occupies a significant computational load in the AMR-WB encoder. Hence, this paper presents a triangular inequality elimination (TIE) algorithm combined with a dynamic mechanism and an intersection mechanism, abbreviated as the DI-TIE algorithm, to remarkably improve the complexity of ISF coefficient quantization in the AMR-WB speech codec. Both mechanisms are designed in a way that recursively enhances the performance of the TIE algorithm. At the end of this work, this proposal is experimentally validated as a superior search algorithm relative to a conventional TIE, a multiple TIE (MTIE), and an equal-average equal-variance equal-norm nearest neighbor search (EEENNS) approach. With a full search algorithm as a benchmark for search load comparison, this work provides a search load reduction above 77%, a figure far beyond 36% in the TIE, 49% in the MTIE, and 68% in the EEENNS approach.


While measuring returns to scale in data envelopment analysis (DEA), the occurrence of multiple supporting hyperplanes has been perceived as a crucial issue. To deal effectively with this in weigh restrictions (WR) framework, we first precisely identify the two potential sources of its origin in the non-radial DEA setting. If the firm under evaluation P is WR-efficient, the non-full-dimensionality of its corresponding P-face — a face of minimum dimension that contains P — is the unique source of origin (problem Type I). Otherwise, the occurrence of multiple WR-projections or, correspondingly, multiple P-faces becomes the other additional source of origin (problem Type II). To the best of our knowledge, while problem Type I has been correctly addressed in the literature, the simultaneous occurrences of problems Types I and II have not effectively been coped with. Motivated by this, we first show that problem Type II can be circumvented by using a P-face containing all the P-faces. Based on this finding, we then devise a two-stage linear programming based procedure by extending a recently developed methodology by [Mehdiloozad, M., Mirdehghan, S. M., Sahoo, B. K., & Roshdi, I. (2015). On the identification of the global reference set in data envelopment analysis. European Journal of Operational Research, 245, 779-788]. Our proposed method inherits all the advantages of the recently developed method and is computationally efficient. The practical applicability of our proposed method is demonstrated through a real-world data set of 80 Iranian secondary schools.


A primary-side controlled universal-line flyback converter is widely used for its low-cost and low standby power advantages; however, conventional overpower protection schemes that feature primary-side control often experience inaccurate protection. In this paper, a novel scheme is presented, which achieves a very significant improvement in overpower accuracy while simultaneously meets a critical goal of adding no extra pin compared to conventional schemes when implemented in an IC. Experimental and simulation results verified the proposed strategy, and the scheme was implemented successfully in an IC.


The research is dedicated to examine factors that affect online shopping behavior of consumers upon buying furniture. These factors might be an important issue regarding e-commerce and marketing in the online furniture retail market. However, knowledge about online consumer behavior is still very limited because it is a fairly complex phenomenon in social life that can involve too many factors, especially in buying furniture online. One of the aims of this research is to uncover factors that have not been studied in previous studies, especially in the furniture industry. To acquire in-depth information, 10 informants were interviewed. Coding method was used to analyze the factors revealed in the transcript. The research identified that attitude (Financial Risk, Product Risk, Convenience Risk, Service and Infrastructure Variation), domain specific innovativeness, subjective norm (Family and Reference Group), and perceived behavior control (Playfulness and Informativeness) affect consumer purchase intention and thus affect their online shopping behavior in buying furniture online. The framework presented in the conclusion section will help further research on which factors influence the most.


This article examined a typology of female hunters, factors constraining participation, and negotiation strategies females used to overcome constraints. A survey of Oregon hunters was conducted in the summer of 2010 to understand hunting characteristics using the 2008 big game license database (n = 392). We created a typology of female hunters using a cluster analysis of Recreation Experience Preference items. Four clusters were identified: less-engaged, family oriented, nature-sport, and all around enthusiast. Analysis of variance revealed differences among female hunter segments. Differences existed among the four groups on both constraints and negotiation strategies. One of the notable groups was the family-oriented hunter. This type of hunter was the most likely to perceive constraints and the most likely to utilize negotiation strategies to increase their participation in hunting. Findings reveal nuanced differences between types of female hunters. These findings can assist managers with outreach strategies and facilitate future female hunting participation.


Extracellular miRNAs and other small RNAs are implicated in cellular communication and may be useful as disease biomarkers. We systematically compared small RNAs in 12 human biofluid types using RNA-seq. miRNAs and tRNA-derived RNAs (tDRs) accounted for the majority of mapped reads in all biofluids, but the ratio of miRNA to tDR reads varied from 72 in plasma to 0.004 in bile. miRNA levels were highly correlated across all biofluids but levels of some miRNAs differed markedly between biofluids. tDR populations differed extensively between biofluids. Y RNA fragments were seen in all biofluids and accounted for >10% of reads in blood plasma, serum, and CSF. Reads mapping exclusively to piRNAs were very rare except in seminal plasma. These results demonstrate extensive differences in small RNAs between human biofluids and provide a useful resource for investigating extracellular RNA biology and developing biomarkers.


This paper describes a method to enhance the load frequency control in a power system with distributed generations (DG). In this paper, a power storage system is used with photovoltaic generation and wind power generation. The microgrid system at Aichi Institute of Technology in Japan is used as a simulation model. For each simulation, which was carried out by using a power transmission simulator, the model of the microgrid included one DG and a storage system. The effectiveness of load frequency control using the storage system was examined. It was confirmed that the electric power quality improves when load frequency control is carried out with the storage system.


Aim: We aimed to evaluate effect of obesity on cognitive functions in 65 years and older patients.

Methods: This study was conducted in the Recep Tayyip Erdogan University Family Medicine outpatient clinic between November 2018 and January 2019. 65 years and older 83 voluntary patients were included in our study. All participants evaluated by a survey for their socio-demographic characteristics, Standardized Mini Mental Examination Test and Rey Auditory and Verbal Learning Test. Statistical comparison was made between patients' body mass indexes and their test scores.

Results: Mini Mental Test total score was statistically higher in men. Besides that, working patients had higher Mini Mental Test total score compared to retired patients and housewives. As participants' waist circumference and body mass index increase, their Mini Mental Test language scores were decreasing.

Conclusions: We found that as body mass index increases, Mini Mental Test language scores were significantly decreasing. In literature there are studies that suggesting obesity is related to decline in cognitive functions, but there are also studies that suggesting obesity has protective effect for cognitive decline. More comprehensive prospective studies are required for clearer results.

Keywords: geriatrics, obesity, cognitive dysfunction


In this paper, a Terrestrial Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (T-DMB) system for a multichannel audio service is proposed. The multichannel audio information on the T-DMB system proposed in this paper consists of a stereo audio signal coded by BSAC and additional multichannel side information coded by MPEG surround. These two types of information are conveyed through two elementary streams (ES), respectively. To control two elementary streams, two object descriptor (OD) streams are exploited, each of which transmits OD commands, including ObjectDescriptorUpdate and ES_DescriptorUpdate, related to a stereo audio signal and additional multichannel side information, respectively. With this method, the proposed system can convey multichannel side information while guaranteeing backward compatibility for the legacy T-DMB terminals, and moreover makes it possible to provide various advanced service scenarios with outstanding extensibility.


A passive and injectable (using hypodermic needle) biotelemetric sensor for measurements of tendon length changes has been developed. From these measurements tendon strain and Young's modulus of elasticity can be derived. The sensor(about 2.1 times 29mm) is a LC circuit fixed in tendon by metallic anchors (barbs), where the value of the resonance frequency is modulated by displacement of a mobile ferrite core. The sensor was injected into digital extensor tendon of pig,allowing the determination of its stress-strain curve and, consequently, of Young's modulus of elasticity of the tendon. Practical results, such as sensitivity of 18.199kHz/mm (correlation coefficient of 0.9891)for strains up to 5.17%, mechanical hysteresis of 6.5%, and Young's modulus of 0.9146 GPa for a pig tendon (post mortem),are presented and discussed


Measuring in-situ stresses in unconventional formations constitutes a cornerstone for reservoir-quality and completion-quality evaluation. Challenges of succeeding these tests are related to difficulties to break these formations and propagate the created fracture allowing fracture gradient estimation. Moreover, formation heterogeneities and properties anisotropy, often lead to model inaccuracies and expose drilling or fracking operations to "avoidable" failures. Hence earlier in unconventional reservoir exploration, successful in-situ stresses become a must have for geomechanical model and Fracturing design calibrations.
 While cross-discipline integration is key to building a representative and comprehensive MEMs, since the early 2000's, Wireline Formation Testers are used to collect localized in-situ stress measurements that constitute a valuable input to fine-tune MEMs. However, with limited knowledge and inadequate planning, these operations known as "Micro-Frac/Stress Testing" are often challenged with high failure rate, especially with legacy tools physical limits. A combination of a novel stochastic planning approach involving the multidomain integration of Petrophysics, Borehole-Images and Geomechanics, coupled with Cutting-Edge WFTs technologies significantly increases the success likelihood for Stress Testing providing thereby an unfailing calibration source for MEMs.
 This new approach allowed first to define the depths to test with higher rate of success to break the formations and then, to communicate to drillers and client supervisor the test duration and potential adjustment such as mud weight, to break the rock and propagate the created fractures in the formations.
 The above enables, from operational standpoint, successful risk-free stress test measurement, allowing the calibration of the Mechanical Earth Model and Frac Design in the hydrocarbons embedded Source Rocks across South Algerian Basins.
 Furthermore, stress mapping allowed the identification of a lateral variability of stress gradients within the same field, confirming the unreliability of single-stress-gradient based models and highlighting the importance of multi-well modeling of mechanical earth properties.
 By using a well calibrated MEMs leading to a keen understanding of stress state, chances of stimulation operations success were significantly increased.
 The benefit of utilizing this new method with advanced logging technologies among which the new generation of WFTs, combined with a multidomain data integration as well as a novel planning approach based on stochastic simulation enabled the achievement of a failure-free Stress Testing operations, yielding fine-tuning of MEMs in the challenging South Algerian Hot Shale. Through a keen knowledge of stress state, stimulation operations success was significantly increased.


Philosophy today is often regionalized unlike science and other disciplines. Thus we talk of Western, Eastern, American and African Philosophy. To speak or write philosophy within the ambit of the prefix "African" would elicit two major responses. First is the affirmative response which believes that indeed there exists some form of philosophy in Africa although distinct from Western philosophy in approach, procedure and methods but not in kind. The second is the denialist response which rejects vehemently the position of the former; in that they deny the existence of African philosophy independent of Western colouration. In other words, they do not believe that there exists any form of philosophy distinct from the Western idea of philosophy be it in approach or method. Within this frame certain problems arise such as the problem of interpretation or definition, the myth of unanimity and the problem of ethnophilosophy. The aim of this work thus is to understand the implications of the prefix "African" for philosophy in Africa. In this attempt, we uncover the subject of African Philosophy, its many possibilities, nature and interpretations. In understanding the implications of the prefix "African" for philosophy in Africa, the work avers that the affirmative response in modern times is an advocacy for what Chimakonam refers to as systematic African philosophy; and the denialist response to the subject is an outright rejection of the universal character of philosophy. For the laws of logic, the burden of axiology, the questions of metaphysics, the problems of sociopolitical philosophy and the concerns of epistemology all transcend geographical boundaries. Keywords : Affirmative, Denialist, Philosophy, African, African Philosophy, Ethnophilosophy, Systematic African Philosophy, Complementarity, Unanimity.


Despite the disturbed state of the world at present and the increase in the prevalence of heart disease, physicians and patients can look back over the last 40 years with much satisfaction; what is more important, we can look forward to the next 40 years with hope and confidence. The state of the world is not so bad as it is painted. Newspapers are filled with gloomy headlines, and it has become almost a fad to publicize the distressing events in current history and to foster fear and pessimism about the world of tomorrow. Even in medicine there is an overemphasis on the alarm reaction and the effect of the unhappy emotions on body, mind, and soul. Worse events than present ones were taking place a generation ago in many different parts of the world, but the press was less avid then. There was no radio, communications were slow, and


This study examined four types of foam replacement hospital mattresses after three and a half years of general use in orthopaedic trauma and spinal surgery wards. Ten were examined to ascertain the condition of the cover and the foam in order to add to the body of knowledge about the life span of these mattresses. Only one mattress was in good condition; five were condemned at the time of inspection and four were recommended for early review because they showed signs of deterioration. It is clear that more objective evidence regarding the life span of hospital mattresses is required to assist with purchase decision-making.


Satellite navigation is finding new applications in safety critical systems such as in aviation where it is proposed for approach and landing of aircraft. These new applications place strict requirements regarding position accuracy and system availability. In order to realize these requirements, it is essential to develop robust antenna designs. In this contribution, a multi-band antenna array suitable for safety-of-life satellite navigation is presented. The array consists of 7 elements which are arranged on a half sphere. The single elements are resonant at the Galileo E5a/b and E1 frequency bands. The geometry of the array allows it to achieve stable gain and axial ratio performance over the whole upper hemisphere.


An osteochondroma is an osseous protuberance with cartilaginous growth potential, usually arising in skeletal bone and relatively uncommon in the craniofacial bone. Osteochondroma of the craniofacial region usually occurs at the condyle or the tip of the coronoid process, and rarely arises in the mandibular body, symphysis, ramus, and similar areas. Excision of the lesion including the periosteum is curative, and recurrence or malignant change (usually to a chondrosarcoma) after treatment is rare. We present an atypical case of osteochondroma in the left mandibular inferior border with review of literature.


A75 Background Benign breast disease (BBD) is a risk factor for breast cancer and may have a heritable component. Little is known about genetic factors associated with BBD risk. Deficient DNA repair has been implicated in the etiology of breast cancer. Since DNA repair occurs early in the breast carcinogenesis pathway, it is logical that polymorphic forms of DNA repair genes may alter BBD risk. No prior studies have reported on the association between DNA repair variants and BBD. Methods We examined the association between a panel of DNA repair genotypes and BBD in a sub-cohort of women within CLUE II, a population based cohort study in Washington County, Maryland. The women were followed from 1989 to 2003 with biennial questionnaires from 1996 onwards eliciting information on many health outcomes, including physician diagnosis of BBD and breast biopsies. 3,212 women reporting no prior diagnosis of BBD at baseline were genotyped for non-synonymous SNPs in 8 DNA repair genes (ERCC2, ERCC4, ERCC5, RAD23B, XPC, XRCC1, XRCC2, and XRCC4) that had previously been implicated in cancer risk. BBD-free survival time was fitted to age-adjusted Cox proportional hazards model and analyzed by DNA repair genotype. Results Carriers of the variant alleles of XRCC1 codon 194 and ERCC4 codon 415 were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with BBD than non-carriers -- hazard ratios (HR) = 1.36, 95%CI 1.06-1.74 and 1.39, 95%CI 1.09-1.76, respectively. The association between the ERCC4 variant and BBD was even greater among women with a positive family history of breast cancer. In this subgroup, the variant ERCC4 allele was associated with a 2.7 fold increase in breast cancer risk (HR = 2.63, 95% CI 1.52-4.66, p interaction = 0.02). Conclusion Variant ERCC4 and XRCC1 genotypes are significantly associated with a diagnosis of BBD in this population, particularly in women with a family history of breast cancer. These same genes have also been implicated in the risk of breast cancer in other studies. Taken together, these studies support the notion that these two DNA repair genes may have a common role in the etiology of both BBD and breast cancer. Citation Information: Cancer Prev Res 2008;1(7 Suppl):A75.


[1] Deforestation is altering small catchment hydrobiogeochemistry in the Amazon. To evaluate land use change effects on water chemistry and other measures of water quality, five low-order streams were studied in the eastern Amazon from April 2003 to October 2005. It was hypothesized that 1) cation loads would increase downstream as the area of cleared forest increased, particularly during the wet season, 2) increasing forest to pasture conversion would increase total solute loads, and 3) nitrate concentrations, which are high under mature forest, would decline with conversion to pasture, but would increase with increasing row crop agriculture. The first hypothesis was generally not supported, as there was no consistent observed increase in conductivity or cation concentrations from upstream to downstream. However, elevated wet-season measures of conductivity, alkalinity, and turbidity indicated increased wet season surface runoff of these constituents, with seasonal changes largest in the watersheds that had experienced the most deforestation. The second hypothesis was supported when all data were pooled in a mixed-model analysis such that conductivity declined with increasing percent forest or increased with increasing percent pasture; however, similar correlations with cations were not significant. The third hypothesis was supported, with decreasing nitrate concentrations observed as forest cover declined and pasture cover increased from upstream to downstream positions, except where crops were grown near the stream, which was associated with increased stream nitrate. In addition, stream temperature, dissolved oxygen, and pH were negatively correlated with percent forest cover while sodium, chloride, and turbidity also increased with percent crop cover. Turbidity, temperature, pH, and dissolved oxygen appear to be the simplest and most indicative parameters for detecting effects of land-use change on water quality in this region.


Microwave and millimeter-wave reflectometry is one of the potential techniques for the diagnosis and detection of biological abnormalities, such as subcutaneous masses or cancerous tumors in human body. In this paper, a high-quality microwave sensor based on planar misrostrip resonator is designed, fabricated, and successfully tested with different kinds of biological samples. The proposed sensor has unique properties such as small size, simple fabrication, non-contact with a sample, excellent de-coupling from surroundings, and high microwave power is directly coupled into the tissue. Two experiments are performed for the detection of visible and hidden "lipoma" (fat masses), and minimum size of "lipoma" that is diagnosed by the sensor is obtained as well. In this regard, a two-dimensional image of hidden "lipomas" with amplitude contrast about 30 dB and frequency shifts contrast about 60 MHz at a λ/10 (at 13.5 GHz) stand-off distance is provided. Finally, a measurement scenario for the detection of skin cancer based on the artificial model using different layers of raw chicken with different water content is described. Results show that the proposed microscope is easy to fabricate and provide a low-cost solution for fast and accurate skin cancer detection.


Background and Purpose: There is a significant unmet need for new treatment strategies for malignant mesothelioma (MM). Despite relevant advances in many cancer treatment areas, including improvements in diagnosis, staging, and the clinical course of treated patients, MM remains a highly lethal disease. The purpose of this study is to develop a combination immunotherapy for MM, which involves a fusion protein to target and evoke a cellualr immune response to mesothelin (MSLN) and the blockade of CXCL12/CXCR4 pathway to mobilize cytotoxic effector cells into tumors. Experimental Procedures: The efficacy of the MSLN targeted immune activating fusion protein (scFv-MtbHsp70), FDA-approved small molecule CXCR4 antagonist AMD3100 (plerixafor), and the combination were evaluated in two syngeneic and orthotopic murine models of MM in immune competent C57BL/6 mice. Mice received 4 intraperitoneal (i.p.) treatments from 7 days post i.p. injection of luciferase-expressing 40L and AE17 cells. Tumor growth was monitored by in vivo imaging of luciferase activity with an IVIS Spectrum. Survival time was calculated as life span from the day of tumor inoculation. In immunological studies, mice were sacrificed 4 weeks after tumor cell inoculation. Immune cells from spleens and tumors were labeled with antibodies against CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25 and Foxp3 antibodies, and examined by flow cytometry. Splenocytes were stimulated with MSLN and assessed for intracellular IFN-γ production by flow cytometry. Results: In both murine mesothelioma models, the fusion protein scFv-MtbHsp70 alone delayed tumor growth and prolonged mouse survival, which was associated with increased tumor infiltration by CD3+CD8+ T cells. Treatment enhanced the cytotoxic function of tumor-specific CD3+CD8+ T cells by evoking dendritic cell activation as well as antigen presentation and cross presentation. AMD3100 alone reduced the proportion of CD4+CD25+Foxp3+ Treg cells in tumors and decreased PD-1 expression on CD3+CD8+ T cells. The combination of the fusion protein and AMD3100 further significantly slowed tumor growth and enhanced mouse survival while augmenting tumor-specific CD8+ T-cell immune responses and abrogating intratumoral immunosuppression. Conclusion: Our findings demonstrated for the first time the synergistic effect of combination of MSLN-targeted immune-activating fusion protein scFv-MtbHsp70 and AMD3100 in treatment of MM in mice. This is a new therapeutic strategy which may significantly prolong survival of patients with this disease. Citation Format: Huabiao Chen, Binghao Li, Yang Zeng, Patrick Reeves, Qiuyan Liu, Ann Sluder, Jeffrey Gelfand, Timothy Brauns, Mark Poznansky. Immunotherapy for malignant mesothelioma that combines a mesothelia-targeted immune-activating protein and CXCL12/CXCR4 blockade [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2017; 2017 Apr 1-5; Washington, DC. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1633. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2017-1633


The surgical treatment of incisional hernias is still an unsolved problem despite of a considerable number of conventional methods. Nearly all methods induce some tension on the fascial skeleton resulting in a high recurrence rate. The damaged fascial skeleton can be bridged and reinforced by laparoscopic technique. The implantation of alloplastic well-tolerated meshes fulfills the principles of hernia surgery: fascial stabilisation and integrity of the muscle wall.


Terrorism by means of weapons of mass destruction (WMD) has been studied for decades -- since the Cold War and fears of secret agents with suitcase-sized atomic bombs. Although WMD research has accelerated since September 11, 2001, much of this scholarship is hard to find, forcing nonspecialists to fall back on gut instinct and Beltway cliches. This book provides the first full-length, up-to-date, comprehensive review of what scientists and scholars know about WMD terrorism and America's options for confronting it. It also identifies multiple instances in which the conventional wisdom is incomplete or misleading. WMD Terrorism provides multidisciplinary perspectives on such topics as terrorist incentives for acquiring WMD; nuclear, radiological, biological, and chemical weapons technologies and genetically engineered weapons; sensor technologies; mathematical methods for analyzing terrorist threats and allocating defense resources; the role of domestic U.S. politics in shaping defense investments; port and airport defense; response and recovery technologies for WMD-contaminated sites; RD psychological treatment of WMD survivors; and international initiatives to limit WMD proliferation and fight terrorism. ContributorsGary Ackerman, Jeffrey M. Bale, Deborah Yarsike Ball, Eugene Bardach, Jason Christopher, C. Norman Coleman, Lois M. Davis, Thomas Edmunds, Peter Gordon, Blas Perez Henriquez, Dwight Jaffee, Robert Kirvel, Simon Labov, Stephen M. Maurer, James E. Moore II, Michael Nacht, Michael O'Hare, Qisheng Pan, Ji Young Park, Ellen Raber, Harry W. Richardson, Jeanne S. Ringel, Thomas Russell, George W. Rutherford, Christine Hartmann Siantar, Tom Slezak, Page O. Stoutland, Tammy Taylor, Michael Thompson, Richard Wheeler.


In the wake of recent legislation, court challenges, and demands for reform, campaign finance remains one of the most important and controversial aspects of the world's oldest democracy. Since 1960, Financing the Election volumes have presented reliable information on the costs and trends of campaign finance in the United States. In establishing the parameters of electoral campaigns and political spending --and interpreting the results -- Financing the 2004 Election provides a unique resource for readers and citizens interested in the current state of politics and money in America. Financing the 2004 Election incorporates many of the features that have made previous editions so important. It employs authoritative analysis of spending by interest groups, political parties, and individual candidates, including data that enables examination of long-term trends. The contributors, all eminent political analysts, also examine spending patterns in different types of elections, including Senate and House races. This timely new volume pays special attention to the effects of the Bipartisan Campaign Reform Act of 2002 (BCRA). It contrasts campaign finance in 2004 with the ways in which national campaigns were financed before BCRA. The authors also draws lessons from 2004 for future reforms at the state and federal levels.


We identified 22 polymorphisms in the adipocyte fatty-acid binding protein (FABP4) gene, a strong positional candidate gene for the FAT1 locus in porcine chromosome 4. The most informative polymorphism, an insertion/deletion in intron 1, together with a single nucleotide polymorphism in intron 3, was genotyped in a cross between Iberian and Landrace pigs. After performing QTL, single marker, and haplotype analyses, we showed that there were at least 2 quantitative trait genes in the FAT1 region and that the FABP4 polymorphism was tightly associated to fatness. A comparison of allelic frequencies in a panel of pig breeds suggested that the Del2634C polymorphism was under indirect selection. We also showed that FABP4 is tightly associated to fatness but not growth. Furthermore, a haplotype analysis suggests that there is genetic heterogeneity at the FAT1 locus within the Landrace breed.


The efficient design of bit serial multipliers is necessary in many applications areas as diverse as digital communications and the implementation of artificial neural networks. Because of these applications, bit serial architectures are a part of courses in computer arithmetic, very large scale integration (VLSI) architectures, and digital signal processing. Comprehensive descriptions for three bit serial algorithms for signed multiplication are presented. The primary difference among the three algorithms is in the recoding of the multipliers, Each bit serial multiplier is systematically derived from its equivalent parallel multiplier found in textbooks. Furthermore, complete CMOS layouts for the three multipliers are constructed, simulated, and compared.


We present results of optical-UV observations of the 200 Myr old rotation-powered radio pulsar J0108−1431 with the Hubble Space Telescope. We found a putative candidate for the far-UV (FUV) pulsar counterpart, with the flux density f ν = 9.0 ± 3.2 nJy at λ = 1528 Å. The pulsar was not detected, however, at longer wavelengths, with 3σ upper limits of 52, 37, and 87 nJy at λ = 4326, 3355, and 2366 Å, respectively. Assuming that the pulsar counterpart was indeed detected in FUV, and the previously reported marginal U and B detections with the Very Large Telescope were real, the optical-UV spectrum of the pulsar can be described by a power-law model with a nearly flat f ν spectrum. Similar to younger pulsars detected in the optical, the slope of the nonthermal spectrum steepens in the X-ray range. The pulsar's luminosity in the 1500–6000 Å wavelength range, L ∼ 1.2 × 1027(d/210 pc)2 erg s−1, corresponds to a high efficiency of conversion of pulsar rotation energy-loss rate to the optical-UV radiation, , depending on somewhat uncertain values of distance and spectral slope. The brightness temperature of the bulk neutron star surface does not exceed 59,000 K (3σ upper bound), as seen by a distant observer. If we assume that the FUV flux is dominated by a thermal component, then the surface temperature can be in the range of 27,000–55,000 K, Requiring a heating mechanism to operate in old neutron stars.


In this paper, we study the classes of rings in which every proper (regular) ideal can be factored as an invertible ideal times a nonempty product of proper radical ideals. More precisely, we investigate the stability of these properties under homomorphic image and their transfer to various contexts of constructions such as direct product, trivial ring extension and amalgamated duplication of a ring along an ideal. Our results generate examples that enrich the current literature with new and original families of rings satisfying these properties.


Dune and associated alluvial and playa deposits at Great Sand Dunes National Monument, Colorado, provide an excellent opportunity to study early diagenetic development of vertical and horizontal permeability barriers in recent eolian deposits (> 10 ka). Cements observed include calcite, aragonite, protodolomite(?), amorphous silica, iron hydroxide, smectite, trona, and halite. Cementation is controlled by the availability of water, with several hydrologic subenvironments producing different cements. Evaporative cementation in dunes adjacent to playas is commonly dominated by trona and halite, but calcite, aragonite, and amorphous silica also bind the sediment. These cements are generally most concentrated in fine laminations where capillary action has pulled water into dunes. Iron hydroxides, calcite, and amorphous silica precipitate at the interface between ground water and streams or lakes, where the pH gradient may exceed 5 pH units (pH 5.7-11.5). Subsequent movement of the ground-water table can result in cross-cutting cement zones. Early cementation in dunes prevents deflation and provides a mechanism for preservation of the reservoir unit. Intense cementation may permanently occlude porosity, or leaching may reestablish well-interconnected porosity. An understanding of the extent and composition of early cement zones can be used to improve hydrodynamic models for production and enhanced recovery. End_of_Article - Last_Page 276------------


The purpose of professional education programs is to prepare aspiring professionals for the challenges of practice within a particular profession. These programs typically seek to ensure the acquisition of necessary knowledge and skills, as well as providing opportunities for their application. While not denying the importance of knowledge and skills, this paper reconfigures professional education as a process of becoming. Learning to become a professional involves not only what we know and can do, but also who we are (becoming). It involves integration of knowing, acting, and being in the form of professional ways of being that unfold over time. When a professional education program focuses on the acquisition and application of knowledge and skills, it falls short of facilitating their integration into professional ways of being. In addition, through such a focus on epistemology (or theory of knowing), ontology (or theory of being) is overlooked. This paper explores what it means to develop professional ways of being where the focus is becoming, not simply knowing as an end in itself.


We have developed an optimized isolated lung perfusion system, which possesses several advantages. Firstly, studies of microvascular, respiratory, haematological and biochemical variables are combined in one model. Secondly, blood perfusion resulted in less oedema formation than buffer-perfused lungs, and high PO2 through ventilation with room air. Finally, data for the variables can be displayed, controlled and recorded in real time using a computerized system permitting subsequent processing (e.g. filtering without destroying original data). In this paper we discuss the basic behaviour of the model in terms of vascular resistance, vascular permeability, respiration and neutrophil sequestration. In addition, the effects of oleic acid, histamine and histamine receptor blockers were tested, and two methods of calculating vascular permeability are discussed. The way in which different anaesthetics affect the neutrophil content of lung tissue and blood was also investigated. In the model, oleic acid increased pulmonary vascular resistance and permeability, whereas histamine did not affect either permeability or the pre/postcapillary vascular resistance ratio. However, histamine receptor blockers increased this ratio, indicating that there was endogenous histamine release. The neutrophil content of the isolated lungs was increased, but this did not affect the variables measured. There was also accumulation of neutrophils in the lungs of blood donor animals, due to CO2 sedation. However, CO2 sedation proved to be superior to pentobarbital or ketamine anaesthesia in maintaining the levels of neutrophils circulating in the blood. In conclusion, this model seems to be sensitive and to yield reproducible results regarding the physiology or pathophysiology of the lung.


Ultrafast charge recombination in hematite (α-Fe2O3) severely limits its applications in solar energy conversion and utilization, for instance, in photoelectrochemical water splitting. We report the first time-domain ab initio study of charge relaxation dynamics in α-Fe2O3 with and without the oxygen vacancy (Ov) defect, using non-adiabatic molecular dynamics implemented within time-dependent density functional theory. The simulations show that the hole trapping is the rate-limiting step in the electron-hole recombination process for both neutral and ionized Ov systems. The electron trapping is fast, and the trapped electron are relatively long-lived. A similar asymmetry is found for the relaxation of free charge carriers: relaxation of photoholes in the valence band is slower than relaxation of photoelectrons in the conduction band. The slower dynamics of holes offers an advantage to water oxidation at α-Fe2O3 photoanodes. Notably, the neutral Ov defect accelerates significantly the charge recombination rate, by about a factor of 30 compared to the ideal lattice, due to the stronger electron-vibrational coupling at the defect. However, the recombination rate in the ionized Ov defect is decreased by a factor of 10 with respect to the neutral defect, likely due to expansion of the local iron shell around the Ov site. The Ov defect ionization in α-Fe2O3 photoanodes is important for increasing both electrical conductivity and charge carrier lifetimes. The simulations reproduce well the time scales for the hot carrier cooling, trapping and recombination available from transient spectroscopy experiments, and suggest two alternative mechanisms for the Ov-assisted electron-hole recombination. The study provides a detailed atomistic understanding of carrier dynamics in hematite, and rationalizes the experimentally reported activation of α-Fe2O3 photoanodes by incorporation of Ov defects.


We propose a novel view-based Web page retrieval system that enables a user to search Web pages using a visual query, namely the user's freehand sketch. We believe the proposed method will suit retrieval from a set of web pages such as a user's local browsing history. The system aims to help the user revisit a particular Web page without using query words. Using color signature features and Earth-Mover's distance, the system evaluates the similarity between web pages and the user's sketch drawn via the GUI of the system. In order to accelerate the interaction, the results of the similarity evaluations are shown immediately after the user draws each stroke of the sketch, with the results being interactively reordered. Experiments using our prototype system showed that users find their target pages after only a few strokes. Experimental results for inexperienced users showed that 71% of search tasks were completed within one minute, using the prototype system. The median time for the tasks was 40 seconds.


Bacitracin is a broad-spectrum cyclic peptide antibiotic, and mainly produced by Bacillus. Energy metabolism plays as a critical role in high-level production of target metabolites. In this study, Bacillus licheniformis DW2, an industrial strain for bacitracin production, was served as the original strain. First, our results confirmed that elimination of cytochrome bd oxidase branch via deleting gene cydB benefited bacitracin synthesis. Bacitracin titer and ATP content were increased by 10.97% and 22.96%, compared with those of original strain, respectively. Then, strengthening cytochrome aa3 oxidase branch via overexpressing gene qoxA was conducive to bacitracin production. Bacitracin titer and ATP content were increased by 18.97% and 34.00%, respectively. In addition, strengthening ADP synthesis supply is also proven as an effective strategy to promote intracellular ATP accumulation, overexpression of adenosine kinase DcK and adenylate kinase AdK could all improve bacitracin titers, among which, dck overexpression strain showed the better performance, and bacitracin titer was increased by 16.78%. Based on the above individual methods, a method of combining the deletion of gene cydB and overexpression of genes qoxA, dck were used to enhance ATP content of cells to 39.54 nmol/L, increased by 49.32% compared to original strain, and bacitracin titer produced by the final strain DW2-CQD (DW2ΔcydB::qoxA::dck) was 954.25 U/mL, increased by 21.66%. The bacitracin titer produced per cell was 2.11 U/CFU, increased by 11.05%. Collectively, this study demonstrates that improving ATP content was an efficient strategy to improve bacitracin production, and a promising strain B. licheniformis DW2-CQD was attained for industrial production of bacitracin.


&NA; The arterial partial pressure of carbon dioxide (Symbol) is an important parameter in critically ill, mechanically ventilated patients. To limit invasive procedures or for more continuous monitoring of Symbol, clinicians often rely on venous blood gases, capnography, or transcutaneous monitoring. Each of these has advantages and limitations. Central venous Pco2 allows accurate estimation of Symbol, differing from it by an amount described by the Fick principle. As long as cardiac output is relatively normal, central venous Pco2 exceeds the arterial value by approximately 4 mm Hg. In contrast, peripheral venous Pco2 is a poor predictor of Symbol, and we do not recommend using peripheral venous Pco2 in this manner. Capnography offers measurement of the end‐tidal Pco2 (Symbol), a value that is close to Symbol when the lung is healthy. It has the advantage of being noninvasive and continuously available. In mechanically ventilated patients with lung disease, however, Symbol often differs from Symbol, sometimes by a large degree, often seriously underestimating the arterial value. Dependence of Symbol on alveolar dead space and ventilator expiratory time limits its value to predict Symbol. When lung function or ventilator settings change, Symbol and Symbol can vary in different directions, producing further uncertainty. Transcutaneous Pco2 measurement has become practical and reliable. It is promising for judging steady state values for Symbol unless there is overt vasoconstriction of the skin. Moreover, it can be useful in conditions where capnography fails (high‐frequency ventilation) or where arterial blood gas analysis is burdensome (clinic or home management of mechanical ventilation). Symbol. No caption available. Symbol. No caption available.


Although thyroid cancer is not the first cause of bone metastases, this diagnosis must be always entertained because when it is found to be the cause of the metastasis, the survival is good. Bone metastases can take on different appearances and thyroid cancer discovered secondarily. We report two cases of mandibular metastases revealing a thyroid cancer and we stress on diagnosis and therapeutic difficulties.


In the reconstruction of a large phylogenetic tree, the most difficult part is usually the problem of how to explore the topology space to find the optimal topology. We have developed a "divide-and-conquer" heuristic algorithm in which an initial neighbor-joining (NJ) tree is divided into subtrees at internal branches having bootstrap values higher than a threshold. The topology search is then conducted by using the maximum-likelihood method to reevaluate all branches with a bootstrap value lower than the threshold while keeping the other branches intact. Extensive simulation showed that our simple method, the neighbor-joining maximum-likelihood (NJML) method, is highly efficient in improving NJ trees. Furthermore, the performance of the NJML method is nearly equal to or better than existing time-consuming heuristic maximum-likelihood methods. Our method is suitable for reconstructing relatively large molecular phylogenetic trees (number of taxa >/= 16).


STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Full-coverage all-ceramic restorations are widely used. The impact of various classifications of luting agent on marginal discrepancies is not well understood.

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the cervical fit of all ceramic crowns (IPS e.maxPress, Cergogold, and In Ceram) on bovine teeth with two luting agents before and after cementation.

MATERIALS AND METHODS
Ninety bovine incisors were embedded in resin. The coronal portions of the teeth were prepared to receive full-coverage crowns. Thirty crowns of 7.0 ± 0.5 mm height, 8.0 mm cervical diameter, and 4.2 mm incisal diameter were fabricated for each ceramic system. The crowns were seated on the teeth, and the marginal discrepancy was measured using a measuring microscope. Then, 15 crowns of each ceramic system were luted on the teeth with resin cement (Variolink II) or resin-modified glass ionomer cement (Rely X luting), and the marginal discrepancy was measured. The results were submitted to analysis of variance, t test and Tukey's test (p<0.05).

RESULTS
The three ceramic systems showed cervical fits after cementation statistically inferior to cervical fits before cementation for the two cements. The IPS e.maxPress showed values for cervical fit statistically superior to Cergogold before cementation. No statistically significant difference was found between IPS e.maxPress and In Ceram and In Ceram and Cergogold. After cementation, no statistically significant difference was found for the three ceramics systems when luted with resin or resin-modified glass ionomer luting agents.

CONCLUSIONS
Within the limitations of this study, it can be concluded that both cements studied increase the marginal discrepancy between the crown and the preparation for the three ceramic systems evaluated.


We report on experimental tests of microwave breast cancer detection using the radar-based imaging method and breast phantoms, i.e., structures whose size and shape are similar to reality, and whose electric properties are close to those known for the normal and tumoral tissues. Different antennas have been designed, fabricated and tested in operation in the experimental setup. Measurements were carried out in the frequency domain, with transient response synthetically obtained via numerical processing of data. We have found that alcohol is a useful coupling medium, and devised a practical arrangement to avoid contact between the breast and such a medium. We propose a new algorithm to reduce the sensitivity of the reconstruction algorithm to the assumption of the propagation velocity of the wave in the background and in the normal tissue. In our experiments, the contrast between the media simulating normal and tumoral tissues was between 1.65 and 2.45 in permittivity and 0.45 to 1.45 in conductivity. We were able to correctly detect tumor-simulating obstacles with 1 cm diameter, without false positives. We have found that the band below 1 GHz was of paramount importance for the correct imaging, while we did not observe significant advantages in including the band between 1 and 9 GHz.


Pullulanase is a starch-debranching enzyme produced by the gram-negative bacterium Klebsiella pneumoniae. In this organism, the enzyme is first exported to the outer membrane and is subsequently released into the growth medium. Evidence reported here indicates that pullulanase is a lipoprotein. It is apparently synthesized as a precursor with a 19-residue-long signal sequence and modified by the covalent attachment of palmitate to the cysteine residue which becomes the amino terminus after cleavage of the signal sequence. In this respect, pullulanase is similar to some penicillinases produced by gram-positive bacteria which are initially exported to the cell surface and subsequently released into the medium. However, pullulanase and the penicillinases differ in one important aspect, namely, that the extracellular pullulanase still carries the covalently attached fatty acyls, whereas extracellular penicillinases lack the modified amino-terminal cysteine together with a limited number of other residues from the amino terminus.


The synthesis of a series of bifunctional catalysts (1 wt% Pt/W-TUD-1 (Technische Universiteit Delft-1) and 1 wt% Pt/WO3/TUD-1) with different tungsten loadings (5–30 wt% WO3) is described. They were characterized using ICP-OES, INAA, N2 physisorption, XRD and TEM. Their catalytic performance (activity and selectivity) was evaluated in the two-step catalytic synthesis of menthol from citronellal using kinetic analysis. Introducing tungsten during the TUD-1 synthesis results in a high WO3 dispersion, essential for the acidity of the catalyst. High tungsten dispersion is also critical for the Pt hydrogenation activity. Therefore, high dispersion combined with optimal tungsten loading resulted in the highest catalytic activity. The best performing catalyst was 1 wt% Pt/W-TUD-1 (silicon to tungsten ratio of 30), with the highest yields of menthol (96%).


Przedstawiono wyniki badan litologicznych osadow siarczanowych miocenu na obszarze miedzy Chmielnikiem a Staszowem. Daly one podstawe dla wyroznienia dwudziestu odmian litologicznych skal gipsowych i towarzyszących im utworow pogipsowych. Tworzą one w obrebie kompleksu gipsowego sekwencje szesnastu (oznaczonych ad a do o), scharakteryzowanych dokladniej litotypow. LITHOLOGY OF THE MIOCENE SULFATE DEPOSITS IN THE STASZOW REGION Based on lithologic testing sixteen lithotypes (marked a to o in Fig. 2) have been distinguished in the sulfate deposits in the exploratory boreholes carried out by State Geologic Institute in the Staszow region (between Chmielnik and Staszow - Fig. 1). The lithotypes are represented by various lithologic types of gypsum rocks interbedded with clayay rocks and claysilty rocks. Gypsum rocks are characterised by a richness of structures and various chemical compositions (Tabs. 2. 3). Average mass fractions of CaSO 4 • 2H 2 O, CaCO 3 and HCl-insoluble parts in rocks tested have been determined on the base of chemical analyses as 83,87%, 3,58% and 6,47% respectively. Basic lithological types are represented by the following gypsum rocks: selenitic rocks. selenic-micritic rocks, micritic rocks and gypsum breccia, including a series of other lithologic types of gypsum rocks (Tab. I). A sequence of sulfate deposits in the Stasz6w region begins with glassy selenitic gypsum rocks (lithotype a, Fig. 2). They are covered. with a complex of micritic beds and selenitic gypsum rocks inter-bedded with stromatolite gypsum rocks (lithotypes: b-e; Tabl. I. Figs. 4, 5; Tabl. II, Figs. 6, 7). Above in the profile occur skeletal selenitic gypsum rocks (lithotype f) composed of selenites some centimeters in size interbedded and intergrown chaotically (Tabl. II, Fig. 8; Tabl. Ill, Fig. 9). Towards the top the rocks alternate gradually into sabre-like selenitic gypsum rocks (lithotypes g, i), consisting of highly elongated (of 20 cm or more), unidirectionally curved selenites (Tabl. III, Fig. 10; Tabl. IV, Fig. 13), inter-bedded with mictitic gypsum rocks laminated undulatedly (the tickest interbed makes up lithotype h; Tabl. Ill, Figs. 11, 12). Micritic gypsum rocks (lithotypes j and I; Tab!. IV, Figs. 14, 15) interbedded with clayay, silty-clayay rocks, gypsum breccia, or highly clayed gypsum rocks (lithotypes k. l; Tabl. IV, Fig. 16) occur higher in the profile. The upper part of the gypsum sequence in the Staszow region comprises micritic and sclenitic-micritic gypsum rocks with gypsum breccia beds (lithotypes m-o: Tabl. V, Figs 17-20; Tabl. VI, Fig. 21). Above the complex of gypsum rocks past gypsum formations - represented by porous limestones, breccia limestones, limestones coarse liminated with clay and marls (Tabl. VI, Figs 22-24) are found in several boreholes. Texture and structure of the primary gypsum rocks. are maintained. Lithotypes distinguished (from a to o) have their lithologic homologues in the profile of gypsum rocks in the Nida region (A. Wala. 1979).


Climate change is projected to significantly affect the concentrations and mobility of contaminants, such as metals and pathogens, in soil, groundwater and surface water. Climate- and land management-induced changes in soil organic carbon and dissolved organic carbon levels may promote the transport of toxic substances, such as copper and cadmium, and pathogenic microorganisms, ultimately affecting the exposure of humans and ecosystems to these contaminants. In this study, we adopted the Century model to simulate past (1900 - 2010), present, and future (2010 - 2100) SOC and DOC levels for a sandy and a loamy soil typical for Central and Western European conditions under three land use types (forest, grassland and arable land) and several future scenarios addressing climate change and land management change. The climate scenarios were based on the KNMI'06 G+ and W+ scenarios from the Royal Dutch Meteorological Institute. The simulated current SOC levels were compared to observed SOC values derived from various Dutch soil databases, taking into account the different soil depths the simulated and observed values refer to. The simulated SOC levels were generally in line with the observed values for the different kinds of soil and land use types. Climate change scenarios resulted in a decrease in both SOC and DOC for the grassland systems, whereas in the arable land (on sandy soil) and in the forest systems, SOC was found to increase and DOC to decrease. A sensitivity analysis of the individual effects of changes in temperature and precipitation showed that the effect of temperature predominates over the effect of precipitation. A reduction in the application rates of artificial fertilizers leads to a decrease in the SOC stocks and the leached carbon rates in the arable land systems, but has a negligible effect on SOC and DOC levels of the grassland systems. This study demonstrated the ability of the Century model to simulate climate change and agricultural management effects on SOC dynamics. The following step of this study will involve the translation of the soil organic matter pools as simulated with Century model, into pools of different metal binding capacity to be used for the metal partitioning and leaching modelling.


1,5 PG Resident 3rd yr ENT Dept GMC Haldwani Uttrakhand 2 Associate Professor ENT Dept GMC Haldwani Uttrakhand 3 Professor and Head of ENT Dept GMC Haldwani Uttrakhand 4 PG Resident, 3rd yr ENT Dept PGI Rhotak, Haryana *Corresponding Author Dr Bhawana Pant Abstract Background: Chronic Otitis Media (COM) is a commonly occurring disease worldwide. Timely management is required as this disease is capable of causing serious complications and can lead to long term pain and discharge from the ear. Traditionally, this disease is associated with conductive deafness however we organized a study to analyse the component of sensorineural deafness in patients presenting with COM. Methods: We conducted a study on 75 patients of 5-40 years of age with unilateral complaints of ear discharge and hearing loss. Group COM comprises of the ears with complaints of unilateral ear discharge while the Control Group consisted of the contralateral healthy ears of the same patient included in the study. After detailed history, examination and relevant investigation findings were documented. Results: It was inferred that COM is associated with sensorineural (SN) loss in small majority of patients. No significant co-relation was established between the duration of discharge and degree of SN loss (r = 0.183, p> 0.05). The average age was 25.3 years. There was no significant male or female preponderance. Significant higher bone conduction thresholds were found in the affected ear than in the normal ear for each frequency (500, 1000, 2000 and 4000Hz) (p < 0.05), which progressed with increasing frequency. The prevalence also increased with age of patient and duration of disease. Conclusions: A significant degree of SNHL in patients with COM was noted in this study. SNHL occurred in 14% of the patients with COM, and was correlated with older age and longer duration of ear disease. There was no correlation between the degree of SNHL and duration of disease. It can be further studied that whether an early surgery in COM has any effect on impending sensorineural hearing loss.


The competitiveness of the region is ability to be productive and maintain a high standard of living. In this paper, we have created Snowflake model of regional competitiveness considering not only economic and social factors, but also infrastructure, innovations, geo-natural variables, institutional factors, culture and tourism. This model can be applied in any country or group of countries. The model shows the competitiveness of the region in three ways: 1) quantitatively - by the index of regional competitiveness, 2) ranking the region compared to other regions and 3) it possesses visual characteristic - represents snowflake of competitiveness. As part of our analysis, we measured the regions of Serbia. The reason is that Serbia has the largest regional differences in Europe, which was an additional motive to test the model.


In this paper, we introduce the concept of α-orthogonal patterns to mine a representative set of graph patterns. Intuitively, two graph patterns are α-orthogonal if their similarity is bounded above by α. Each α-orthogonal pattern is also a representative for those patterns that are at least β similar to it. Given user defined α, β ∈ [0, 1], the goal is to mine an α-orthogonal, β-representative set that minimizes the set of unrepresented patterns.

We present ORIGAMI, an effective algorithm for mining the set of representative orthogonal patterns. ORIGAMI first uses a randomized algorithm to randomly traverse the pattern space, seeking previously unexplored regions, to return a set of maximal patterns. ORIGAMI then extracts an α-orthogonal, β-representative set from the mined maximal patterns. We show the effectiveness of our algorithm on a number of real and synthetic datasets. In particular, we show that our method is able to extract high-quality patterns even in cases where existing enumerative graph mining methods fail to do so. Copyright © 2008 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company Statistical Analy Data Mining 1: 000-000, 2008

The first two authors contributed equally for this research.


Tumor angiogenesis defines tumor growth as it is dependent on generation of new blood vessels. Over forty years ago, Folkman hypothesized that inhibiting tumor angiogenesis could inhibit the growth of solid tumors and thus could be exploited as a therapeutic strategy. Among the numerous factors have been implicated in the angiogenesis activation process, vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) is the best studied angiogenesis target in cancer, using many different approaches in a wide variety of human cancers. Bevacizumab is the first anti-VEGF monoclonal antibody and proof-of-concept angiogenesis inhibitor that has been approved by the United States FDA for several tumor types. Drugs inhibiting VEGF work through several mechanisms, including inhibition of tumor blood vessel growth, vascular renormalization, potentiating of other antitumor agents, and inhibiting tumor metastasis. Unlike colorectal, kidney, lung, and brain tumors, the use of bevacizumab in breast cancer has been, as it were, on a rollercoaster in the United States, from accelerated approval for early drug access by patients in February 2008, to modest efficacy that fell short of high expectations, and increasing concern for serious toxicity in July 2010, and on to FDA revocation of accelerated approval for metastatic breast cancer patients in November 2011. Through a concise review of the FDA process, we have summarized its lessons, the challenges in developing new cancer drugs, and perspectives on further development of bevacizumab and other angiogenesis inhibitors in treatment of breast cancer. Despite all the challenges, antiangiogenesis remains a promising strategy to conquer breast cancer.


Vetiver oil (Vetiveria zizanoides) is one of Indonesia main export commodities. Vetiver root is perennial plant and generally planted with vegetables as intercropping plant. Increasing the selling price of vetiver oil can be done by transferring the production of conventional vetiver oil (non-organic) to organic vetiver oil. Demonstration of land used was one hectare, which 2,000 m2 for planting vetiver root with potato (Solanum tuberosum) as inter-cropping plant and 8,000 m2 for vetiver root without intercropping, in Sukakarya-Samarang, Garut. The planting used goat and cow dung as manure, distillate water of vetiver oil and liquid bio-pesticide as pesticide. Variables studied included plant height, number of leaf and crotch. In the first quarter of the years, the number of leaf and crotch of vetiver root with intercropping was better than vetiver root without inter-cropping. However, there was not significant difference for plant height of vetiver root, both with and without intercropping. Products of organic potato as intercropping plant of vetiver root were less than those of non-organic potato, but the latter had a better texture and durability.


Why is the World green - what keeps herbivores, and herbivorous insects in particular, from consuming all of their food? When this question was first posed, the relative importance of top-down and bottom-up effects was hotly disputed. While modern ecologists may agree that impacts from several different directions will affect local insect densities, the bottom-up vs top-down jargon seems to be stuck in a unidimensional world. Here, we argue that the strength of almost every bottom-up and top-down force is likely to vary in space, and that in itself, spatial structure invokes new processes which defy classification in the traditional bottom-up top-down scheme. To understand the relative importance of different forces keeping herbivore numbers in check, we feel that we need a fresh synthesis between the novel paradigm of spatial ecology and the classical paradigms of top-down and bottom-up studies. This synthesis requires a consideration of forces beyond the standard framework of top-down vs bottom-up effects, and should be based on comparing the relative strength of such forces at several sites in a spatially explicit framework. Overall, we should switch our focus from whether the relative strength of top-down and bottom-up factors vary in space to why there is variation, how much variation there is, and at what spatial scale(s) it occurs.


BACKGROUND
Human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with treated cryptococcal meningitis who start combination antiretroviral therapy (cART) are at risk of further neurological deterioration, in part caused by paradoxical cryptococcosis-associated immune reconstitution inflammatory syndrome (C-IRIS). We hypothesized that C-IRIS is associated with alterations of chemokine receptor expression on T cells and chemokine concentrations in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) that enhance recruitment of T-helper 1 cells and/or myeloid cells to the central nervous system.

METHODS
In a prospective study of 128 human immunodeficiency virus-infected patients with cryptococcal meningitis who received antifungal therapy followed by cART, we examined the proportions of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells expressing CCR5 and/or CXCR3, in CSF and whole blood and the concentrations of CXCL10, CCL2, and CCL3 in stored CSF and plasma.

RESULTS
The proportion of CD4(+) and CD8(+) T cells expressing CXCR3(+)CCR5(+) and the concentrations of CXCL10, CCL2 and CCL3 were increased in CSF compared with blood at cART initiation (P < .0001). Patients with C-IRIS (n = 26), compared with those with no neurological deterioration (n = 63), had higher CSF ratios of CCL2/CXCL10 and CCL3/CXCL10 and higher proportions of CXCR3(+)CCR5(+)CD8(+)T cells in CSF compared with blood at cART initiation (P = .03, .0053, and .02, respectively).

CONCLUSION
CD8(+) T-cell and myeloid cell trafficking to the central nervous system may predispose patients to C-IRIS.


We treat random rank-$D$ tensor models as $D$-dimensional quantum field theories---tensor field theories (TFT)---and review some of their non-perturbative methods. We classify the correlation functions of complex tensor field theories by boundary graphs, sketch the obtention of the Ward-Takahashi identity and stress its relevance in the derivation of the tower of exact, analytic Schwinger-Dyson equations for all the correlation functions (with connected boundary) of TFTs with quartic pillow-like interactions.


Delirium is a common and often under-recognised neuropsychiatric disorder in paediatric critical care, secondary to a general medical condition. Paediatric delirium (PD) is associated with high morbidity and mortality and prolonged stay at the intensive care unit. This review introduces the reader to PD and focuses on diagnostic tools, prognosis and treatment. The literature about PD is sparse. In order to make recommendations about PD based on evidence more clinical studies are urgently needed.


Abstract In the context of continuing pressures from managerialist and neoliberal drivers of university reform in Australia, Macquarie University's recent undergraduate curriculum innovation, based on "People," "Planet," and "Participation," has resulted in the embedding and integration of experiential learning in its curriculum and institutional framework. Such an approach challenges academic and administrative staff, students, and partners in industry, the community and public sector settings, to engage and collaborate across significant boundaries. This article outlines the scope and nature of the curriculum reform, then considers the way geographers have both shaped and responded to the opportunities it created. In so doing, it proposes a number of challenges and recommendations for geographers who might seek to extend their longstanding commitment to field-based learning through similar reforms. In this regard, the discipline of geography and its tendency to engage with the "field" can offer much in fostering deeply transformative learning.


A comparative study in the relationship between mangrove seedling growth and heavy metal concentrations in sediment was conducted at Carey Island, Malaysia. Two contrasting stations were chosen; natural habitat and reforestation site. Avicennia alba and Rhizophora apiculata were chosen as the test species. At the reforestation site, R. apiculata showed higher increments of stem height (1.74cm mth-1) compared to A. alba (1.28 cm mth-1), although both species produced 1 leaf per month. On the other hand, A. alba showed better increment of height (2.17 cm mth-1) and produced 2 leaves per month in the natural habitat. R. apiculata has very slow growth, at only 0.65 cm mth-1 and produced 1 leaf per month. Pearson correlation deducted that A. alba showed positive correlation in growth with Mg at the reforestation site, and with sulfate and chloride in natural habitat. At the reforestation site, R. apiculata showed positive correlation with Ca and Cu but did not record any significant correlation with those elements in the natural habitat. (


: Intra-operative electron beam radiotherapy is a new treatment modality. The abdomen is the area of greatest potential applicability of IORT and therefore its effect on retroperitoneal structures was investigated in a canine model. The retroperitoneal structures tolerate 30 to 40 Gy well, with the exception of the radiation-sensitive ureter which showed fibrosis. Twenty to 25 Gy is within the safe dose limits for the clinical application of IORT.


We thank the following individuals, organizations, and firms that contributed to this year's research programs through financial support, product donations, or services.


A survey of duneland populations of the polymorphic snail Cepaea nemoralis, based on 170 samples from 53 localities on the British and Irish coasts, shows an overall distribution of morph frequencies consistent with the action of visual selection. Some geographical trends of variation can be discerned, but there is great variation, often over short distances within one group of dunes. A detailed investigation of this has been made at Point of Air, Flintshire. Here and at several other dune systems there is an association of the occurrence of dark browns with complex topography which suggests that they are favoured by very local climatic effects caused by the accumulation of cold air. If local temperature or other climatic factors is effective, the apparent agreement of duneland populations with what is expected as a result of visual selection may be misleading.


For almost thirty years, spinal anesthesia has been used with good results on many thousands of patients. The mortality figures are usually given as 1 in 1,000, but Cahen's are 6 in 800, Vianney's 2 in 300 and Condray's 1 in 400. Complications and sequelae are rare, the most common and earliest being syncope and hypotension. Later, and more rarely, the nervous system is involved, resulting in paralysis of an extra-ocular muscle as the most common phenomenon. However, other signs of involvement of the nervous system are tetanic contractures, anesthesia, hyperesthesia, anxiety neurosis and hallucinations. There may be headache, backache, vomiting, neuralgia or paresthesia, or blurring of vision and scintillating scotomas may be the forerunners of a muscle weakness. The latter may not be marked at first, but usually becomes more severe quickly and takes several months to clear up entirely. In some cases, paralysis of the muscle is


Considering recent advances in surgical techniques, sprayable antiadhesion barriers that are compatible with minimally invasive procedures are needed. However, the relatively low mechanical stiffness of the current thixotropic reversible sol-to-gel transition hydrogels has hindered their medical application. Herein, we show a thixotropic sprayable β-chitin nanofiber hydrogel that spontaneously lost the thixotropic property in response to the environments within the living body. Furthermore, interactions between hydrogels and the biological environment result in a significant increase in mechanical stiffness. Due to these advantageous properties, β-chitin nanofiber hydrogels administered by spray prevent postoperative abdominal adhesions and are thus promising sprayable antiadhesion barriers.


Guar gum in its native form exhibits a very good thtckening capacity and hence is used
as a thickener or agent for 'binding' water in food, cosmetics and toiletries, in
pharmaceuticals and in the mining, paper and textile industries (Glicksman 1976). This
communication reports the effect of introducing an anionic carboxymethyl group upon
the thickening capacity of guar gum and the related secondary functional properties of
stabilising foams and suspensions. Compared with native guar gum, carboxymethyl
guar gum with a degree of substitution of 0.68 exhibited a higher viscosity and an
enhanced ability to stabilise foams and suspensions. Both native and carboxymethyl
guar gum induced a non-Newtonian pseudoplastic behaviour to casein (100 g litre- ')
suspension. At the same time only carboxymethyl gum gum containing suspensions
above I g fitre-' exhibited measurable yield value.


Abstract #6030 mTOR (mammalian target of rapamycin) signaling is a central regulator of cell growth and proliferation. Rapamycin and its analogues have been shown to inhibit breast cancer cell growth in preclinical models, and are actively being pursued in clinical trials. We performed a high-throughput microarray polysome analysis to identify novel genes whose expression was regulated by rapamycin at the level of transcription or translation. In three breast cancer cell lines representing different breast cancer subtypes, we found a significant decline in polysome-associated mRNA for stearoyl-CoA desaturase 1 (SCD1), the rate-limiting enzyme in monounsaturated fatty acid synthesis. Insulin and insulin-like growth factor, both activators of mTOR, increase SCD1 expression. Rapamycin and PI3K inhibitors decrease SCD1 protein, as does mTOR siRNA. Quantitative RT-PCR of total, polysomal and monosomal RNA, northern analysis and stability studies demonstrate that rapamycin regulates SCD1 at the level of transcription. Furthermore, rapamycin inhibits the SCD1 promoter activation by mevinolin, an inhibitor of cholesterol biosynthesis. We demonstrate that mTOR regulates SCD1 expression. This establishes a novel link between cell signaling and cancer cell fat metabolism. In doing so, we also present SCD1 as a potential marker of response to treatment by mTOR inhibitors. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2009;69(2 Suppl):Abstract nr 6030.


Background: Exacerbations of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) accounts for approximately 1 in 8 emergency admissions at considerable healthcare cost (£982million in UK). 9Early supported discharge9 and 9Hospital at Home9 schemes aim to reduce readmission rates and improve service costs through support at home, education on self-management and equipment loans. Adult Respiratory Care & Rehabilitation (ARCaRe) is a multidisciplinary team which aims to improve health outcomes of people with chronic respiratory disease in Tower Hamlets. One pathway offered is Admission Avoidance, of which assessing patients in A&E for the suitability of domiciliary management is an important role. Aim: To review the time of A&E presentation of respiratory patients over four months to assess the need for longer working hours of the ARCaRe team, currently 8:30–18:00. Method: The time of registration at The Royal London Hospital A&E, of patients reviewed by ARCaRe, over a four month period was collected from the electronic database. Results: The frequency of respiratory admissions over this period appears to increase from 8am reaching a peak between 4:00 and 6:00pm. Conclusion: Consideration should be given to extending the cover of the ARCaRe team to allow for the significant number of admissions from 18:00 to 20:00 to promptly assess suitability for domiciliary management and avoid admission.


The author examined the cytographs of gastritis, polyps and ulcers according to the materials of the prophylactic examination of a dispensary group, comprising 265 patients at high risk for gastric cancer. The differential features of the cytographs were examined in the cases in which the complex gastrogical investigation showed the concidence in the results of gastrofiberscopy, gastrobiopsy and cytological tests. The differential cytologic diagnosis of polyps and gastric ulcer is found to be possible in the presence of papillary structures in the first case, and in the second--a great variety of stromal infiltrate cell structure with the obligatory presence of lymphocytes, plasmatic cells, histiocytic elements, eosinophilous and neutrophilous leucoctyes. The differential cytological diagnosis between different histological forms of gastritis needs further studies.


There have been tremendous advances in the treatment of chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL) over the past decade, with the goal of therapy no longer being just to palliate symptoms but now to achieve complete remission, eradicate minimal residual disease, and improve survival. During this period, there have also been major advances in identification of molecular factors associated with increased risk of progression. The clinical utility of these factors is being explored to determine whether we can identify groups of patients who should be treated earlier in their disease course and whether we can tailor therapy for groups of patients with specific molecular markers of disease. First-line chemoimmunotherapy approaches now offer prolonged survival, and there is a need to identify patients who are suitable candidates for allogeneic stem-cell transplantation that uses reduced-intensity conditioning regimens. The vast majority of CLL patients are either too old or do not have sufficiently high-risk disease to warrant these approaches, and effective therapies that can be tolerated by the more frail elderly patients with this disease are urgently needed. Numerous novel agents are being developed, and their role in the first-line treatment of frail patients or those who relapse after previous treatment is being explored in clinical trials.


The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of the management control system (MCS) on intellectual capital through the implementation of Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) as an intervening variable. A theoretical model is developed that considers two concepts of MCS (the belief system and the boundary system) and the roles they play in enhancing intellectual capital. Data collected via survey from  57 managers of 36 companies in Indonesia that have implemented ERP system. This research used the partial least square to describe relationships between variables. Results suggest that belief system and boundary system has a positive influence towards intellectual capital through the implementation of ERP as an intervening variable on the companies that implement the ERP system in Indonesia. When the users experience that ERP is useful and easy to use, the users will use it well. Finding offer the implication for managers to start paying attention to the factors which can help to improve the users' work performance. As the users' performance improved the company's intellectual capital will also be improved.
Keywords: communication value; economic knowledge; individual context; management belief system; management boundary system


Aim : To develop a method for automatic contour extraction from a 2D image. Material and Method :The method is divided in two basic parts where the user initially chooses the starting point and thethreshold. Finally the method is applied to computed tomography of bone images. Results : Aninteresting method is developed which can lead to a successful boundary extraction of 2D images.Specifically data extracted from a computed tomography images can be used for 3D bone reconstruction. Conclusions : We believe that such an algorithm or part of it can be applied on severalother applications for shape feature extraction in medical image analysis and generally at computergraphics.


The concept of a Square Kilometre Array was developed to ensure that progress in Radio Astronomy in the early 21st Century continued at the same impressive pace as was achieved during the first 50 years. The SKA telescope is designed to pave that road to greater and greater sensitivity. So what technical challenges does the project face and what key innovations will drive the success of the SKA? What will the next Radio Astronomy mega-science project look like? In this article the author discusses the likely avenues of progress in the coming decades and comments on the status of radio astronomy in 2049 the author's 70th (and presumably her retirement) year.


Ecologically distinct species may respond to landscape changes in different ways. In addition to basic ecological data, the extent of the geographic range has been successfully used as an indicator of species sensitivity to anthropogenic landscapes, with widespread species usually found to be less sensitive compared to range‐restricted species. In this study, we investigate connectivity patterns of two closely related but ecologically distinct newt species – the range‐restricted, Lissotriton montandoni and the widespread, L. vulgaris – using genomic data, a highly replicated setting (six geographic regions per species), and tools from landscape genetics. Our results show the importance of forest for connectivity in both species, but at the same time suggest differential use of forested habitat, with L. montandoni and L. vulgaris showing the highest connectivity at forest‐core and forest‐edges, respectively. Anthropogenic landscapes (i.e., higher crop‐ or urban‐cover) increased resistance in both species, but the effect was one to three orders of magnitude stronger in L. montandoni than in L. vulgaris. This result is consistent with a view of L. vulgaris as an ecological generalist. Even so, currently, the negative impact of anthropogenic landscapes is mainly seen in connectivity among L. vulgaris populations, which show significantly stronger isolation and lower effective sizes relative to L. montandoni. Overall, this study emphasizes how habitat destruction is compromising genetic connectivity not only in endemic, range‐restricted species of conservation concern but also in widespread generalist species, despite their comparatively lower sensitivity to anthropogenic landscape changes.


Anaesthesia was induced with Althesin (4 ml injected over 2 minutes), pentazocine 30 mg and pancuronium 6 mg, and maintained with nitrous oxide and oxygen (50%) and an Althesin infusion (25 ml in 250 ml of 5 % glucose). The infusion could be controlled at one of two rates of flow: these were 95 dropslminute, (5.4 ,ul/kg/minute) and 40 dropslminute (2.2 ,ul/kg/minute). Automatic measurements of systolic pressure every 2 minutes controlled the switching from one rate to the other by feedback action, at a limit of 120 mmHg (the postinduction pressure was 125 mmHg). The pressure increased slowly and 55 minutes after induction the fast rate was altered to 120 dropslminute (6.6 pl/kg/minute) but there was no decrease in pressure until the end of the operation, which lasted 84 minutes. The pulse remained regular but the rate decreased slowly. No pancuronium increment proved necessary; reversal with neostigmine 2.5 mg and atropine 1 mg was carried out before the Althesin drip was stopped, and the patient had to be ventilated for 20 minutes before spontaneous respiration returned. There was no residual neuromuscular block. The dose of post-operative narcotic analgesic had to be reduced to about a third of normal. The recovery and the post-operative course were uneventful. Althesin has central muscle relaxing properties of its own and probably contributed to the satisfactory relaxation obtained in this patient, since neuromuscular blocking drugs cannot overcome the percussion myotonia caused by surgical stimulation. Reversal of the pancuronium block was not accompanied by bradycardia or profuse salivation. P. SUPPAN Mousquines 20, Lausanne, Switzerland


This paper presents results of a combined experimental/computational investigation into the effects of vane-blade spacing on the unsteady aerodynamics of a transonic turbine stage. Time-resolved data were taken in a shock-tunnel facility in which the flow was generated with a short-duration source of heated and pressurized air. This data is compared with the results obtained from four unsteady Navier-Stokes solvers. The time-resolved flow for three axial spacings is examined. For each vane-blade spacing, the inlet conditions were nearly identical and the vane exit flow was transonic. Surface-mounted high-response pressure transducers at midspan were used to obtain the pressure measurements. The computed two-dimensional unsteady airfoil surface pressure predictions are compared with the Kulite pressure transducer measurements. The unsteady and axial spacing effects on loading and performance are examined, In general the numerical solutions compared very favorably with each other and with the experimental data. The overall predicted stage losses and efficiencies did not vary much with vane/blade axial spacing. The computations indicated that any increases in the blade relative total pressure loss were offset by a decrease in vane loss as the axial spacing was decreased. The decrease in predicted vane total pressure loss with decreased axial spacing was primarily due to a reduction in the wake mixing losses. The increase in predicted blade relative total pressure loss with a decrease in axial spacing was found to be mainly due to increased vane wake/blade interaction.


With rise in the use of internet in various fields like banking, military and government sector, the security and privacy of the data has been the main concern. Today, most of the data handling and electronic transactions are done on the internet. When the information is transferred from the sender to the receiver over the internet, it may be eavesdropped by an intruder and thus is a continuous threat to the secrecy or confidentiality of the data. The popular technique that protects the confidentiality of the data is cryptography which converts the plain text into unreadable form and then receiver applies reverse mechanism to decrypt the unreadable form of data to readable form. This mechanism is called as encryption-decryption process. Thus to secure the data over the internet, it is important to find out which algorithm performs better than the other algorithms. In this paper, the different symmetric encryption algorithms like DES, 3DES, AES have been analyzed with respect to different parameters and data types (like text files, image) on i7 processor.


Recent findings from behavioral finance indicate that cognitive support is critical to investors as their psychological biases strongly influence their investment decisions. This paper proposes a conceptual model of investor misjudgment based on the three-stage human information processing model. The importance of such a model is that it classifies investment-related biases as being long-term or short-tern and consequently, provides a way to implement debiasing mechanisms in DSS. The paper then suggests an architecture for building such a cognitive investment DSS using recent computational technologies for human attitudes modeling. This research work fills a gap in the current IS literature related to behavioral finance and offers a novel approach for integrating findings from that domain into a cognitive investment DSS .


Electro-Fenton is a promising advanced oxidation process for water treatment consisting a series redox reactions. Here, we design and examine an electrochemical filter for sequential electro-Fenton reactions to optimize the treatment process. The carbon nanotube (CNT) membrane stack (thickness ∼ 200 μm) used here consisted of 1) a CNT network cathode for O2 reduction to H2O2, 2) a CNT-COOFe(2+) cathode to chemical reduction H2O2 to (•)OH and HO(-) and to regenerate Fe(2+) in situ, 3) a porous PVDF or PTFE insulating separator, and 4) a CNT filter anode for remaining intermediate oxidation intermediates. The sequential electro-Fenton was compared to individual electrochemical and Fenton process using oxalate, a persistent organic, as a target molecule. Synergism is observed during the sequential electro-Fenton process. For example, when [DO]in = 38 ± 1 mg L(-1), J = 1.6 mL min(-1), neutral pH, and Ecell = 2.89 V, the sequential electro-Fenton oxidation rate was 206.8 ± 6.3 mgC m(-2) h(-1), which is 4-fold greater than the sum of the individual electrochemistry (16.4 ± 3.2 mgC m(-2) h(-1)) and Fenton (33.3 ± 1.3 mgC m(-2) h(-1)) reaction fluxes, and the energy consumption was 45.8 kWh kgTOC(-1). The sequential electro-Fenton was also challenged with the refractory trifluoroacetic acid (TFA) and trichloroacetic acid (TCA), and they can be transferred at a removal rate of 11.3 ± 1.2 and 21.8 ± 1.9 mmol m(-2) h(-1), respectively, with different transformation mechanisms.