The main purpose of this study was to compare incidental and deliberate vocabulary learning strategy on acquisition of vocabulary among Iranian EFL elementary learners. 75 students were chosen randomly among 150 elementary female students in second grade high school who was studying English language in computer course in second grade of high school. Then PET Test was administered to 75students and 50 homogenous learners were selected and divided into two groups of experimental 1 and experimental 2 each with 25 learners. Experimental1 group with 25 students in the incidental learning context, using textual-pictorial glosses for teaching vocabulary and the experimental2 group with 25 students in the deliberate learning context, using digital flashcards with picture and meaning for teaching vocabulary. At end, the posttest of vocabulary was administered and desired calculations were run. The results of the independent t-test (t (48) = 4.75, p = .000, r = .566 representing a large effect size) indicated that there was a significant difference between the two groups" mean scores on the posttest of vocabulary. The deliberate vocabulary learning strategy group significantly outperformed the incidental group on the posttest of vocabulary.


AIM
To examine the gene expression profile of gastric cancer (GC) by combination of laser capture microdissection (LCM) and microarray and to correlate the profiling with histological subtypes.

METHODS
Using LCM, pure cancer cells were procured from 45 cancerous tissues. After procurement of about 5000 cells, total RNA was extracted and the quality of RNA was determined before further amplification and hybridization. One microgram of amplified RNA was converted to cDNA and hybridized to cDNA microarray.

RESULTS
Among 45 cases, only 21 were qualified for their RNAs. A total of 62 arrays were performed. These included 42 arrays for cancer (21 cases with dye-swab duplication) and 20 arrays for non-tumorous cells (10 cases with dye-swab duplication) with universal reference. Analyzed data showed 504 genes were differentially expressed and could distinguish cancerous and non-cancerous groups with more than 99% accuracy. Of the 504 genes, trefoil factors 1, 2, and 3 were in the list and their expression patterns were consistent with previous reports. Immunohistochemical staining of trefoil factor 1 was also consistent with the array data. Analyses of the tumor group with these 504 genes showed that there were 3 subgroups of GC that did not correspond to any current classification system, including Lauren's classification.

CONCLUSION
By using LCM, linear amplification of RNA, and cDNA microarray, we have identified a panel of genes that have the power to discriminate between GC and non-cancer groups. The new molecular classification and the identified novel genes in gastric carcinogenesis deserve further investigations to elucidate their clinicopathological significance.


We fabricated perpendicular media with decoupled magnetic grains that consist of a low magnetocrystalline anisotropy layer with various thicknesses directly grown on top of a high anisotropy layer. Nonuniform magnetization rotation was confirmed by measuring coercivity and remanent coercivity in these media. The reduction of remanent coercivity with increasing the low anisotropy layer thickness, measured at low temperature, is consistent with micromagnetic calculations. These results suggest domain wall assisted switching in composite media


The structure of frontal thunderstorm in winter time is different from that of in summer time over the Korean peninsula, due to dry tongue and upward motion. The dry tongue, that is propagation of dry zone from upper level to lower level, was formed after front passage and the upward motion is intensified by the strengthened low level jet. Since this mechanism makes the structure more unstable, thunderstorm occurs at relatively low cloud top height. This study suggests a forecast guidance of winter time frontal thunderstorm that thunderstorms develop when one of the following conditions are satisfied: 1) total totals (TT) >40, 2) K index >-10, 3) mixing ratio 3.5 g/kg.


Researchers have linked parental incarceration to a host of short-term, negative consequences for children and adolescents. However, it is unclear whether offspring experience some of these consequences, particularly depressive symptoms, as adults, especially racial/ethnic minorities who disproportionately experience parental incarceration. The present study uses data from Add Health to investigate whether parental incarceration during childhood or adolescence predicts depressive symptoms between ages 24 and 34 and whether race/ethnicity moderates this relationship. Results indicate that parental incarceration is associated with long-term consequences for some offspring, but not others. Specifically, respondents whose parent was first incarcerated before birth or age 1 appear to be at risk for adult depressive symptoms. Furthermore, the moderation analysis reveals similarities in the effects of parental incarceration across racial/ethnic groups. Findings from this study suggest that parental incarceration might be associated with long-term mental health consequences only for certain subgroups.


Purpose
This study aims to investigate Malaysian stock market efficiency from the view of Sharīʿah-compliant and conventional stocks based on the effectiveness of technical trading strategies.

Design/methodology/approach
This study uses unconventional trading strategies that mix buy recommendations of Bursa Malaysia analysts with sell signals generated from 10 selected technical trading strategies (simple moving average, moving average envelopes, Bollinger Bands, momentum, commodity channel index, relative strength index, stochastic, Williams percentage range, moving average convergence divergence oscillator and shooting star) that are detected using ChartNexus. The period from 1 January 2013 until 31 December 2015 produces a total sample consisting of 1,265 buy recommendations of 125 Sharīʿah-compliant stocks and 400 buy recommendations of conventional stocks. The study period is extended until 31 March 2016 to provide an ample time for detecting the sell signal especially for buy recommendations that are released towards the end of 2015.

Findings
The resulting Jensen's alpha show 8 out of 10 strategies are effective in generating abnormal returns in Sharīʿah-compliant samples while only 3 out of 10 strategies are effective in conventional samples. Prominent effectiveness of technical trading strategies in Sharīʿah-compliant stocks implies clear inefficiency in that stock market segment as opposed to those of the conventional stocks.

Originality/value
The results based on unconventional trading strategies provide new insights of Malaysian stock market efficiency especially in Sharīʿah-compliant and conventional stocks. The paper provides more robust findings on market efficiency as firms' equity level data were focussed together with analysts' buy recommendations from Bursa Malaysia.


In its dual function as both documentation/representation of actual "social events" and the creation/presentation of an "aesthetic event," documentary film, at an early stage, started posing questions that have become central to the emergent field of visual culture. Rather than merely raising questions about meaning and being in the organization of the social field, documentary film foregrounds the (inherent) ambivalence in any form of visual culture, i.e., its function as at once the inscription of some form of external (social, cultural) reality, and its immanent reality as an aesthetic event. Focusing on the function of the face in the work of the prolific Dutch documentary filmmaker & photographer, Johan van der Keuken, this essay, drawing on Jacques Rancière's notion of the "distribution of the sensible," and Gilles Deleuze's concept of the cinematic face in and as close-up, explores this ambivalence at the heart of the documentary image, and argues that an approach of van der Keuken's work from an explicitly aesthetic, rather than a hermeneutic or semantic perspective is necessary to grasp the operation of his film Face Value (1991) as, first and foremost, affective in nature, and hence, an aesthetic, rather than a semiotic event. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________


The goals of this study were to investigate differences in neurocognitive performance between groups of patients with unipolar major depressive disorder (MDD) or bipolar I disorder (BD-I) in a euthymic state, and to analyze associations among cognitive performance, sociodemographic and clinical variables, and global functioning. The study evaluated 25 outpatients with MDD and 25 outpatients with BD-I. Controls consisted of a sample of 29 healthy adult volunteers. All of the subjects were administered a battery of neuropsychological tests (Babcock Story Recall Test, Wisconsin Card Sorting Test, Trail Making Test Part B, Stroop Color and Word Test, Symbol- Number Association Test, and Digit Span). Patients demonstrated reduced performance on tasks involving executive functions (Trail Making Test Part B and Wisconsin Card Sorting Test) and attention (Digit Span and Symbol-Number Association Test) compared with healthy controls. Performance on neurocognitive tasks did not differentiate patients with MDD from those with BD-I. Improved performance on tasks that assessed executive functions by patients with BDI and MDD, considered as a single group, was associated with better global functioning, even when controlling for several sociodemographic and clinical confounders. Patients with MDD and BD-I showed a similar profile of information-processing deficits and similar global functioning. Global functioning was also moderately associated with performance on executive function tasks. (Journal of Psychiatric Practice 2013; 19:275–287)


CONTEXT
Bariatric surgery results in sustained weight loss; reduced incidence of diabetes, cardiovascular events, and cancer; and improved survival. The long-term effect on health care use is unknown.

OBJECTIVE
To assess health care use over 20 years by obese patients treated conventionally or with bariatric surgery.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS
The Swedish Obese Subjects study is an ongoing, prospective, nonrandomized, controlled intervention study conducted in the Swedish health care system that included 2010 adults who underwent bariatric surgery and 2037 contemporaneously matched controls recruited between 1987 and 2001. Inclusion criteria were age 37 years to 60 years and body mass index of 34 or higher in men and 38 or higher in women. Exclusion criteria were identical in both groups.

INTERVENTIONS
Of the surgery patients, 13% underwent gastric bypass, 19% gastric banding, and 68% vertical-banded gastroplasty. Controls received conventional obesity treatment.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
Annual hospital days (follow-up years 1 to 20; data capture 1987-2009; median follow-up 15 years) and nonprimary care outpatient visits (years 2-20; data capture 2001-2009; median follow-up 9 years) were retrieved from the National Patient Register, and drug costs from the Prescribed Drug Register (years 7-20; data capture 2005-2011; median follow-up 6 years). Registry linkage was complete for more than 99% of patients (4044 of 4047). Mean differences were adjusted for baseline age, sex, smoking, diabetes status, body mass index, inclusion period, and (for the inpatient care analysis) hospital days the year before the index date.

RESULTS
In the 20 years following their bariatric procedure, surgery patients used a total of 54 mean cumulative hospital days compared with 40 used by those in the control group (adjusted difference, 15; 95% CI, 2-27; P = .03). During the years 2 through 6, surgery patients had an accumulated annual mean of 1.7 hospital days vs 1.2 days among control patients (adjusted difference, 0.5; 95% CI, 0.2 to 0.7; P < .001). From year 7 to 20, both groups had a mean annual 1.8 hospital days (adjusted difference, 0.0; 95% CI, -0.3 to 0.3; P = .95). Surgery patients had a mean annual 1.3 nonprimary care outpatient visits during the years 2 through 6 vs 1.1 among the controls (adjusted difference, 0.3; 95% CI, 0.1 to 0.4; P = .003), but from year 7, the 2 groups did not differ (1.8 vs 1.9 mean annual visits; adjusted difference, -0.2; 95% CI, -0.4 to 0.1; P = .12). From year 7 to 20, the surgery group incurred a mean annual drug cost of US $930; the control patients, $1123 (adjusted difference, -$228; 95% CI, -$335 to -$121; P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS
Compared with controls, surgically treated patients used more inpatient and nonprimary outpatient care during the first 6-year period after undergoing bariatric surgery but not thereafter. Drug costs from years 7 through 20 were lower for surgery patients than for control patients.

TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01479452.


In the summer of 1986, 150-MHz transmissions from six U.S. Navy Navigation Satellite System satellites were received at Kokubunji, Japan, to investigate daytime scintillations due to mid-latitude sporadic E layers. From analysis of 145 satellite passes accompanied by Es scintillations, it is found that the diurnal variation of the scintillation occurrence ratio has two maxima, one before noon (1100 JST) and the other around evening (1800 JST), consistent with the diurnal variation of the occurrence probability of ƒoEs exceeding 8 MHz. Some of the Es layers are not accompanied by scintillations, suggesting that they are insusceptible to the plasma instability giving rise to the irregularities. Horizontal, nearly north-south scale lengths of the scintillation regions range from 20 to 600 km with a predominant peak around 50 km and have a distribution approximated by a form of L−0.8 (L, scale length) for L ≥ 40 km. These scale lengths may represent the extents of wind shear regions producing sporadic E layers. An important finding is that of the north-south asymmetry of scintillation occurrences. A tilted irregularity layer model is hypothesized to account for this asymmetry.


4997 Expression of cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor (CDKI) proteins mediates cell cycle arrest in various physiological programs including senescence, which is defined as permanent cell cycle arrest associated with characteristic changes in cell morphology (enlarged and granular cells expressing senescence-asociated β-galactosidase activity). Senescent fibroblasts may contribute to the development of cancers by secreting factors that suppress apoptosis and support proliferation and angiogenesis. The genes for such factors and their corresponding paracrine activities can be induced in HT1080 fibrosarcoma cells by the expression of a CDKI, p21 (Chang et al., PNAS 97, 4291-4296, 2000). p21 is known to activate NFκB-dependent transcription, and promoter induction for several p21-responsive genes is mediated by NFκB (Poole et al., Cell Cycle 3, 931-940, 2004). We used Affymetrix Human Genome U133 Plus 2.0 microarrays to compare the effects of p21 and NFκB inducer TNFα on gene expression in HT1080 cells. We found by immunostaining of HT1080 cells that both TNFα and p21 induce the translocation of NFκB p65/RelA from cytoplasm to the nucleus. Interestingly, a prominent subset of TNFα-activated genes was not induced by p21, and only a minority of p21-induced genes were upregulated by TNFα. We also compared the effects of p21 on gene expression in HT1080 cells and in WI-38 normal human lung fibroblasts. HT1080 and WI-38 cells induced overlapping but non-identical sets of genes in response to p21. Paradoxically, a greater fraction of genes that were induced by TNFα in HT1080 cells was activated by p21 in WI-38 fibroblasts than in HT1080 cells. We also compared the effects of p21 with those of two other CDKIs, p16 and p27, in HT1080 cells. The overall effects of all three CDKIs on gene expression were very similar. However, several TNFα-inducible genes, including cytokines, were inhibited by p21 and p16 in HT1080 cells but induced by p27 in HT1080 and by p21 in WI-38 cells. Remarkably, p21- or p16-expressing HT1080 cells develop the senescent phenotype, whereas p27-expressing HT1080 and p21-expressing WI-38 cells undergo growth arrest but do not display the senescent morphology. We speculate that differential expression of NFκB-inducible cytokines could be causally related to the development of the senescent phenotype in CDKI-expressing cells.


The promise of telecommunication networks to deliver more demanding and complex applications requires them to become more flexible and efficient. To achieve better performance, telecommunication networks adopt technologies such as NFV (Network Function Virtualization). However, this evolution also brings more potential risks to the telecommunication network. Reliability and resilience are becoming critical for service delivery in the networks. To answer to service requirements of high level availability and reliability, a model with a global view of infrastructure, virtual network elements, and network layer structure is required. Toward this end, this paper presents a Petri Net method to model 5G and beyond telecommunication networks. We introduce an extended Petri Net to model physical infrastructure, virtual infrastructure, network services, their behaviors, and dependencies. We present a simulation result on network availability estimation. This result shows the potential of the Petri Net-based model to be applied to a complex telecommunication system resilience assessment.


In high-end desktop videoconferencing systems, several windows compete for screen space, particularly when users also share an application. Ideally, the layout of these windows should satisfy both (a) layout guidelines for establishing a rich communication channel and (b) user preferences for window layouts. This paper presents an exploration of user preferences and their interplay with previously established window layout guidelines. Based on results from two user studies, we have created five recommendations for user-preferred window layouts in high-end desktop videoconferencing systems. Both designers and end-users can use these recommendations to setup "ideal" layouts, that is, layouts that satisfy both user preferences and existing layout guidelines. For instance, we have developed an application that utilizes the recommendations to guide users towards ideal layouts during a videoconference.


Background and Aim: Coronavirus disease-19 (COVID-19) is a pandemic disease spreading throughout the world. Lockdown declared by the Indian government to control the spread of this disease leads to change an entire lifestyle of the population. Individual's lives are greater affected due to lockdown which leads to a reduction in their physical activity (PA). It might increase the chance of infection by reducing immunity. How much PA is reduced during this lockdown period among middle adolescence is not known. This study attempts to find out PA level and energy expenditure (EE) among middle adolescence during the lockdown. Materials and Methods: One hundred and twenty-three volunteered students participated in an open e-survey. The survey was carried out by the International PA questionnaire-short form through social networking sites during the COVID-19 lockdown period through the Google Forms link. PA and EE have been measured. Results: Among identified 147 potential survey participants, 123 responded. Total PA during COVID–19 lockdown period was 6262.21 metabolic equivalent task-min/week. While EE during COVID–19 lockdown period was 6009.28 cal/week. Conclusions: A significant reduction in self-report PA and EE levels was observed among middle adolescent students during the COVID–19 lockdown period.


The need to predict, diagnose and treat peri-implant diseases has never been greater. We present a systematic review of the literature on the changes in the expression of biomarkers in peri-implant crevicular fluid (PICF) before and after treatment of peri-implantitis. Bacterial composition, clinical and radiographic parameters, and systemic biomarkers before and after treatment are reported as secondary outcomes. A total of 17 studies were included. Treatment groups were non-surgical treatment or surgical treatment, either alone or with adjunctive therapy. Our findings show that non-surgical treatment alone does not influence biomarker levels or clinical outcomes. Both adjunctive photodynamic therapy and local minocycline application resulted in a reduction of interleukin (IL)-1β and IL-10 twelve months after treatment. Non-surgical treatments with adjunctive use of lasers or antimicrobials were more effective at improving the clinical outcomes in the short-term only. Access flap debridement led to matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)-8 and tumour necrosis factor-α reduction twelve months post-surgery. Surgical debridement with adjunctive antimicrobials achieved a decrease in MMP-8 at three months. Adjunctive use of Emdogain™ (EMD) was associated with a reduction in 40 PICF proteins compared to access flap surgery alone. Surgical interventions were more effective at reducing probing pocket depth and bleeding on probing both in the short- and long-term. Surgical treatment in combination with EMD was found to be more effective in resolving inflammation up to twelve months.


This paper addresses the use of scaVolding in learning contexts that incorporate technologically based novel problems. We suggest that in computer contexts extended conceptualisations of scaVolding are needed in order to gain greater insights into teaching and learning processes. Our work has revealed that traditional forms of scaVolding, based on the "expert's" view of how the problem should be solved, need to be modiWed in order to accommodate the child's perspective and that three diVerent types of scaVolding which we refer to as cognitive, technical and aVective can be conceptualized. This paper discusses the ways in which the performance of pairs of children is enhanced in such scaVolding contexts, to include more examples of metastrategic processes and strategies for problem-solving, than when the pairs are left to spontaneously solve the problems. This study provides additional support that cognitive, aVective and technical scaVolding are beneWcial for learning and that children are able to support each others learning via sharing strategies and articulating the reasons behind them to each other. © 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.


PURPOSE
To describe and compare Canadian physical therapists' perspectives on the importance of characteristics required for leadership in the workplace and in society and to explore the implications for the profession.

METHODS
This quantitative, cross-sectional study used a web-based survey of members of the Canadian Physiotherapy Association (CPA) with a registered email address (n=6156). The perceived importance of leadership characteristics at the workplace level versus the societal level was examined using a Mann-Whitney U test, with the significance set at α=0.05.

RESULTS
A total of 1,511 respondents completed the questionnaire for a 24.5% response rate; they rated communication, professionalism, and credibility as the most important characteristics. For each of the 15 leadership characteristics, significantly fewer physical therapists chose the rating "extremely important" at the societal level than did so at the workplace level (p<0.001 for all characteristics).

CONCLUSIONS
Physical therapists consistently rate leadership characteristics as more important in the workplace than at the societal level. Future research should aim to guide understanding about the reasons for this difference in perceived importance of leadership characteristics across different contexts.


The device structure and performance of 1.3-/spl mu/m narrow beam superluminescent diodes (NB-SLD's), which consist of a spot-size converter and a new type rear absorbing region, are reported. A butt-jointed selectively grown spot-size converter (SSC) is employed to realize the narrow beam characteristics. The rear absorbing region is designed as a taper structure with a part of the region is inclined from the active-stripe axes. In order to investigate the effects of both SSC length and active-region length on device performance, two types of NB-SLDs, whose SSC and active-region lengths differ, are fabricated. An electrode to sweep out photoexcited carriers in the absorption region is formed on one device. By comparing the characteristics of these devices, we clarify that a 500-/spl mu/m-active-region device is suitable for high-output power operation, and a 400-/spl mu/m-active-region device is suitable for realizing short coherent length. The light-output power is 13.9 mW at 200-mA-injection current for the former device, and the full-width at half-maximum (FWHM) of the spectrum is 62.6 nm (calculated coherence length is 26.5 /spl mu/m) for the latter device. Very small spectral modulation index (0.015 at 5 mW-output power) is attained by grounding the absorption-region electrode. For the SSC length, a 300-/spl mu/m SSC device shows very narrow far-field patterns (FFPs) and very good fiber-coupling characteristics. The FWHM of horizontal and vertical FFPs are 8.9 and 10.6/spl deg/, respectively. Because of this narrow beam divergence, the coupling efficiency of -1.9 dB to a flat-end 4-/spl mu/m spot-size fiber is obtained without lenses. The alignment tolerance of this device to the fiber for both horizontal and vertical direction is more than 3 /spl mu/m at a loss of when -1 dB from the optimum coupling.


Abstract Correspondence studies are nowadays viewed as the most compelling avenue to test for hiring discrimination. However, these studies suffer from one fundamental methodological problem, as formulated by Heckman and Siegelman (The Urban Institute audit studies: Their methods and findings. In M. Fix, and R. Struyk (Eds.), Clear and convincing evidence: Measurement of discrimination in America, 1993), namely the bias in their results in case of group differences in the variance of unobserved determinants of hiring outcomes. In this study, the authors empirically investigate this bias in the context of gender discrimination. The authors do not find significant evidence for the feared bias.


Singing voice separation (SVS) is a task that separates singing voice audio from its mixture with instrumental audio. Previous SVS studies have mainly employed the spectrogram masking method which requires a large dimensionality in predicting the binary masks. In addition, they focused on extracting a vocal stem that retains the wet sound with the reverberation effect. This result may hinder the reusability of the isolated singing voice. This paper addresses the issues by predicting mel-spectrogram of dry singing voices from the mixed audio as neural vocoder features and synthesizing the singing voice waveforms from the neural vocoder. We experimented with two separation methods. One is predicting binary masks in the mel-spectrogram domain and the other is directly predicting the mel-spectrogram. Furthermore, we add a singing voice detector to identify the singing voice segments over time more explicitly. We measured the model performance in terms of audio, dereverberation, separation, and overall quality. The results show that our proposed model outperforms state-of-the-art singing voice separation models in both objective and subjective evaluation except the audio quality.


Heterozygous mutants of Amaranthus edulis deficient in PEP carboxylase (PEPC) have been used to study the control of photosynthetic carbon assimilation. A reduction in PEPC activity led to a decrease in the initial slope of the relationship between the CO2 assimilation rate and the intercellular CO2 concentration and to a decrease in photosynthesis at high light intensities, consistent with a decrease in the capacity of the C4 cycle in high light. PEPC exerted appreciable control on photosynthetic flux in the wild-type, with a relatively high flux control coefficient of 0.35 in saturating light and ambient CO2. The flux control coefficient was decreased in low light or increased in low CO2 or in plants containing lower PEPC activity. However, the rate of CO2 assimilation decreased down to about 55% PEPC, followed by an up-turn in the light-saturated photosynthetic rate as PEPC was further reduced, suggesting the existence of a mechanism that compensates for the loss of PEPC activity. The amounts of photosynthetic metabolites, including glycine and serine, also showed a biphasic response to decreasing PEPC. There was a linear relationship between the activity of PEPC and the activation state of the enzyme. A possible mechanism of compensation involving photorespiratory intermediates is discussed.


The isolation of saponin from various solvent extract of the plant, Dodonaea viscose were studied. Dodonaea viscosa is a shrub belonging to the family Sapindaceae, and is commonly called as hop bush. Saponins are heterosides of plant origin and the type of molecules has an interesting pesticide potential. The saponin was isolated from the leaves, which is further purified with the help of solvent separation method and that shows the positive result for preliminary tests such as foam test, Lieberman's test. The isolated extract was purified by analytical method (Edeoga, et al.). The IR studies of saponin shows the peaks at-3069 (Aromatic –CH stretching), 2924 (-CH3), 1636 (C=C Stretching), 1076 (C-O-C stretching of glycoside linkage of Oligosaccharide to sapogenin) which indicated the presence of functional group. The HPLC studies of saponin shows the peak at 205nm which get matched with the std. saponin and on the basis of that data reveals both qualitative and quantitative analysis of saponin. The amount of saponin present in Dodonaea viscose was found to be 173.25µg/mg.


Cadmium belongs to the group of potentially toxic metals that have high health and environmental significance. Due to its adverse effects on the environment, this study develops an effective electrochemical sensor for detecting a polyaniline-multiwalled carbon nanotube-3-aminopropyltriethoxysilane (PANI-MWCNT-APTES) substrate cast on the GCE. The as-prepared PANI-MWCNT-APTES was prepared by a wet chemical method, and its formation was investigated using several techniques. As a result, the prepared material exhibited a limit of detection of 0.015 µM for cadmium ions (Cd2+) in the linear dynamic range of 0.05 µM to 50 µM. Furthermore, the PANI-MWCNT-APTES-modified GCE current response was stable, repeatable, reproducible, and short. In addition, PANI-MWCNT-APTES/GCE was harnessed for the first time for cadmium detection in real water samples, and the result was satisfactory. Therefore, the recorded results suggest that the newly designed PANI-MWCNT-APTES is a promising material for detecting Cd in the near future for human health and environmental protection.


The article deals with the sociological analysis of the social status of Russian higher school teachers in terms of gender-based assessment. The author analyzes the sociological study data showing gender aspects of socio-professional status of teachers in Russia. It based in terms of methodology on the P. Bourdieu's resource approach, defined the social status of higher school's teachers depending on the possession of different types of capital: economic, political, cultural. The data of the sociological research, conducted in Russian universities, shows gender peculiarities of the Russian teacher's socio-professional status in conditions of higher education system's transformation.


The article describes the culinary imp lic ation of offerings and d hanyang in 5 (five) villages in Jepara in the form of traditional ceremonies of Jembul Tulakan, Hari Jadi Kota Jepara, Sedekah Laut, Perang Obor, and Pesta Baratan. Only three out of five ceremonies were present ing culinary offerings as a representation of the dhanyang presence. The objective of this study is to reveal the existence of culinary offerings and d hanyang both by their food types and the intended dh anyang. This study was using a qualitative method which includes the collection of primary and secondary sources through literature study, observation, participants, structured interviews, indepth interviews, and Focus Group Discussion. The approaches which were used are anthropological and hermeneutical approaches. The study reveals a symbolic meaning from the presence of various culinaries presented to dhanyang and wishes expressed implicitly or explicitly in the ceremony. The wishes include the requests of safety, kindness, protection, etc. Recently, these wishes have shifted which caused by better knowledge, belief, and social experience of the performers towards their religion. Public belief in the power of d hanyang still exists even though it is not dominant.


INTRODUCTION
Some studies have shown the influence of Qigong on gene expression in different cells, but there is little data associated with the influence of this kind of therapy on genes expression in pheripheral monocellucar blood cells.

OBJECTIVE
The aim of this study was to evaluate changes in the expression of genes associated with cellular stress response in peripheral mononuclear blood cells (PMBC) in healthy women.

MATERIAL AND METHODS
The experiment took place at the Japanese Martial Arts Centre "DOJO" in Stara Wieś, Poland, conducted over the course of a 4-day qigong training session. To evaluate the genes effect of this training, blood samples were taken before and after the training period. This experiment involved 20 healthy women (aged 56.2±9.01, body height 164.8±6.5 and mass 65.5±8.2). To determine the expression of HSF-1, HSPA1A, NF-kB, IL10 and CCL2 mRNA, 3 ml of venous blood was collected. The blood samples were placed in tubes allowing for separation (BD Vacutainer CPT TM) before and after the 4 days of qigong training. Isolated PMBC were used to determine gene expression using real-time qRT-PCR (quantitative reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction).

RESULTS
Significant decreases in NF-kB and CCL2 mRNA and increases in IL10, HSF1 and HSPA1A m-RNA were detected after 4 days of qigong training. The obtained findings suggest that qigong caused a reduction in the inflammatory and intensified anti-inflammatory gene expression, as well as a higher expression of HSF-1 and HSPA1A.

CONCLUSIONS
The adaptive response to qigong training was similar to the adaptive response to physical activity and was detected through gene expression in PMBC. Furthermore, this kind of training is especially indicated for women because of their higher susceptibility to psychosocial stress when compared to men.


The problem of robust H∞ control design for a class of discrete-time linear systems with stochastic delays and parameter uncertainties is studied. Firstly, a new modeling method is presented. By utilizing a stochastic variable which satisfies Bernoulli random binary distribution, the probability distributions of time delays are translated into parameter matrices of the transferred model. Based on the established model, an appropriate Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional is developed to investigate the problem of robust mean-square stability and H∞ control design. The effectiveness and applicability of the proposed method are demonstrated by two numerical examples.


Objective (1) To describe characteristics associated with tracheostomy placement and (2) to describe associated in-hospital morbidity in extremely premature infants. Study Design Pooled retrospective analysis of charts. Setting Academic children's hospitals. Subjects and Methods The patient records of premature infants (23-28 weeks gestational age) who underwent tracheostomy between January 1, 2012, and December 31, 2017, were reviewed from 4 academic children's hospitals. Demographics, procedural morbidity, feeding, respiratory, and neurodevelopmental outcomes at the time of transfer from the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) were obtained. The contribution of baseline characteristics to mortality, neurodevelopmental, and feeding outcomes was also assessed. Results: The charts of 119 infants were included. The mean gestational age was 25.5 (95% confidence interval, 25.2-25.7) weeks. The mean birth weight was 712 (671-752) g. Approximately 50% was African American. The principal comorbidity was chronic lung disease (92.4%). Overall, 60.5% of the infants had at least 1 complication. At the time of transfer, most remained mechanically ventilated (94%) and dependent on a feeding tube (90%). Necrotizing enterocolitis increased the risk of feeding impairment (P = .002) and death (P = .03). Conclusions Tracheostomy in the extremely premature neonate is primarily performed for chronic lung disease. Complications occur frequently, with skin breakdown being the most common. Placement of a tracheostomy does not seem to mitigate the systemic morbidity associated with extreme prematurity.


BACKGROUND
Cancer is a leading cause of mortality in the world and metastasis is to blame. A number of naphthoquinones (NQs) have shown ability to reduce cancer stemness and metastatic potential. Furano-naphthoquinones (FNQs), which is a class of NQ characterized by the incorporation of an additional furan ring, have demonstrated improved anti-cancer potency as compared to the other classes of NQs.

OBJECTIVE
In this study, the natural origins, synthetic routes and derivatives of migrastatic NQs were reviewed. The anti-invasive and anti-metastatic mechanisms of NQs and the more powerful FNQs in targeting cancer were also discussed.

METHODS
The articles related to the anti-invasive mechanisms of NQs were comprehensively reviewed. The plant origins, synthetic routes and antitumor effects of more than 360 FNQs were also covered and presented according to their chemical structures.

RESULTS
Anti-cancer NQs inhibit cancer invasion by acting on epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT), cancer stem cells (CSCs) and signal transducer and activator of transcription 3 (STAT3) signaling. BBI608, a natural FNQ, has entered phases I and II clinical trials. It has been regarded as a potential candidate for new-generation lead compound acting directly on CSCs to overcome the problem of chemotherapy resistance. Apart from the plant-derived FNQs, there are a number of synthetic FNQs that were found to intervene in cancer invasion and metastasis.

CONCLUSION
The anti-invasive mechanisms of NQs have been thoroughly studied. FNQs generally show higher anti-cancer activity than that of NQs. The mechanisms of action of FNQs are worth further investigation.


Habitat loss and increases in habitat isolation are causing animal population reductions and extirpations in forested areas of the world. This problem extends to protected areas, which, while often well-conserved, can be too small and isolated to maintain species that exist at low densities and require large contiguous areas of habitat (e.g. some large mammals). Costa Rica has been at the forefront of tropical forest conservation and a large proportion of the country's land area is currently under some form of protection. One such area is the northwest portion of Costa Rica, which is an extremely biodiverse region with several noteworthy national and privately-owned protected areas. However, each protected area is an isolated island in a sea of deforestation. Within Costa Rica's existing framework of biological corridors, we propose four sub-corridors as targets for restoration and full protection. These sub-corridors would link five major protected areas in northwest Costa Rica, with all of them linking to larger protected areas in the central portion of the country, while impacting a small number of people who reside within the corridors. After natural or active reforestation of the corridors, the result would be a contiguous protected area of 348,000 ha. The proposed sub-corridors would represent a 3.7% increase in protected area size in the region and only 0.2% of Costa Rica's total land area. Using the jaguar (Panthera onca) as a model umbrella species, we estimated that each current isolated protected area could support between 8–104 individuals. Assuming lack of dispersal between protected areas (distance between each ranges from 8.1 to 24.9 km), these population sizes are unlikely to be viable in the long term. However, the combined protected areas, connected by biological sub-corridors, could support about 250 jaguars, a population size with a higher probability of surviving. Our study shows that focusing conservation efforts on a relatively small area of Costa Rica could create a large protected area derived from numerous small isolated preserves.


This paper focuses on the privacy risks of disclosing the community structure in an online social network. By exploiting the community affiliations of user accounts, an attacker may infer sensitive user attributes. This raises the problem of community structure deception (CSD), which asks for ways to minimally modify the network so that a given community structure maximally hides itself from community detection algorithms. We investigate CSD through an information-theoretic lens. To this end, we propose a community-based structural entropy to express the amount of information revealed by a community structure. This notion allows us to devise residual entropy minimization (REM) as an efficient procedure to solve CSD. Experimental results over 9 real-world networks and 6 community detection algorithms show that REM is very effective in obfuscating the community structure as compared to other benchmark methods.


We measured the charge collection efficiency and energy resolution at 60 keV and 122 keV for single-element Cd/sub 0.8/Zn/sub 0.2/Te semiconductor detectors 2/spl times/10/spl times/10/sup 3/ mm irradiated transverse to the electric field, in view of their possible use for digital radiography. Charge collection efficiency, energy resolution and charge collection time have been measured as a function of the bias voltage. The detector's imaging performance was evaluated, using a scanning procedure, by measurements (at 60 keV) of the line spread function and edge response function of the imaging system; metallic test objects and bone tissue were imaged. Image contrast values as low as C=10% were obtained for a minimum 5:1 S.N.R.


Mechanisms of centralized planning during the soviet period enabled to maintain balance of interests among hydrocarbon-rich Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan Turkmenistan on one hand and having enormous reserves of water Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan on the other. After the collapse of the united state the latter group found out themselves under disadvantage: they have to buy oil and natural gas at world prices. At the same time downstream countries have continued to use their water resources at no cost. This standing cannot go on forever. Since the middle of the 1990s expert circles of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have been urging to recognize water resources as full-fledged goods. The idea is also met support in governmental circles. At the turn of the century Kyrgyz authorities even adopted notorious laws to regulate the introduction of paid water consumption at interstate level. Today expert circles of various Central Asian republics take polar views on the development of regional hydroeconomic sector. Midstream and downstream countries of Amu Darya and Syr Darya (Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan) insist on retaining of the status quo in regional water distribution. At the same time the upstream countries persist in revision of old soviet system of water distribution. In addition, in spite of categorical protest of Uzbekistan, they are going to construct a number of large hydrotechnic buildings in the rivers. Among this antagonisms they often forget or just disregard the fact that the hydroeconomic sector is a comprehensive whole and therefore should develop within one integrated process on the basis of interstate cooperation of the regional republics.


The purpose of this study is to analyze and explain the effect of Hedonic motivation on social media product browsing and its impact on purchase intentions at Sarjanawiyata Tamansiswa University students in Yogyakarta. The sample used in this study is customers who buy and use social media. Accidental sampling is used as a sampling technique. Researchers used a questionnaire to collect primary data with a total of 213 respondents. In this research researchers used regression analysis to determine the effect of hedonic motivation on the search for social media products and their impact on purchase intentions. The results show that hedonic motivation has a positive effect on social media product browsing. Hedonic motivation and social media product browsing were found to partially influence purchase intention. Furthermore, social media product browsing mediates the effect of hedonic motivation on purchase intention.Keywords: Hedonic motivation, social media product browsing, purchase intention


The present invention is directed, in part, to improved nanocomposite compositions and processes for preparing same. Specifically, in one embodiment, there is provided a process for preparing an aqueous nanocomposite dispersion, wherein the process comprises: polymerizing via suspension polymerization a suspension comprising at least one ethylenically unsaturated monomer and a hydrophobically modified clay to form the nanocomposite dispersion after polymerization, wherein the hydrophobically modified clay is dispersed in the monomer. Other embodiments include processes for preparing aqueous nanocomposite particles, colloids, and dispersions using hydrophobically modified clays in aqueous systems and compositions comprising same.


Abstract Staab, A., Zukowski, D., Walenta, S., Scholz, M. and Mueller-Klieser, W. Response of Chinese Hamster V79 Multicellular Spheroids Exposed to High-Energy Carbon Ions. Radiat. Res. 161, 219–227 (2004). Chinese hamster V79-379A spheroids 200 ± 30 μm (± SD) in diameter were irradiated in agitated medium in different oxygen atmospheres with (1) 227 MeV/nucleon 12C+6 ions (plateau region) to model tissue in the entrance channel during therapy, (2) carbon ions in the extended Bragg peak modeling tissue in the target volume, or (3) X rays as a reference modality. Cell survival curves were similar for modes (1) and (3), indicating the absence of a contact effect and the presence of a pronounced oxygen effect with oxygen enhancement ratios (OERs) of 2.8 and 2.9, respectively. In contrast, the oxygen effect was substantially smaller in mode (2) with an OER of 1.4. Under normal or restricted oxygen supply conditions (external pO2 = 145 or 0 mmHg), the relative biological effectiveness (RBE) was 2.1 or 4.3, respectively, for Bragg-peak irradiation. This modality induced apoptosis and a dose-dependent accumulation of cells in G2/M phase even at pO2 = 0 mmHg. The volume ratios of treated to untreated spheroids exhibited cyclic variations after heavy-particle treatment that were not directly attributable to cell cycle synchronization. In summary, the results suggest that carbon ions in the extended Bragg peak are more effective than conventional X rays, particularly under hypoxic conditions.


Aims: This is a brief guide on toxoplasmosis in pregnancy and on congenital toxoplasmosis to public health students and professionals. Its aims are to present key points of the transmission and diagnosis of Toxoplasma gondii infection, and to summarize the evidences about management of pregnant women and infants with suspected or proven toxoplasmosis. Source of data: Studies were identified from PubMed (1990-2009), and through contact with experts in the field, including our Congenital Toxoplasmosis Research Group. Summary of findings: Review of studies shows that preventive measures reduce the risk of congenital Toxoplasma gondii infection and improve the perinatal outcomes and the prognosis of children. Being usually asymptomatic, or having inespecific clinical manifestations, acute primary toxoplasmic infection almost always goes unnoticed. Therefore, its detection is based on routine serology. Serological screening for toxoplasmosis during pregnancy should start at the first prenatal visit, to detect cases of acute infection (and to start treatment as soon as possible) and cases of seronegative pregnant women (who must be monitored throughout pregnancy and receive education about primary prevention measures). Conclusions: This review highlights the importance of prevention and diagnosis of toxoplasmosis during pregnancy, as well as of monitoring neonates born to mothers with serological tests compatible with acute infection, even in the absence of signs and symptoms of toxoplasmosis.


The mechanism of the effect of potassium ions (K+) on aldosterone production in guinea pig adrenal cortex was examined. At high K+ concentrations (approximately 8 mM) in the incubation media, aldosterone output and content was elevated, and there was a significant increase in the phosphorylation of intracellular proteins and of protein kinase C activity. Cyclic AMP levels showed a less significant increase. EGTA and lanthanum ions (La3+), and also chlorpromazine with regard to protein phosphorylation, appeared to remove the effect of raised K+ concentrations on steroidogenesis and protein phosphorylation. At low K+ concentrations, addition of EGTA led to a significant accumulation of cyclic AMP. Evidence that steroidogenesis is regulated by a cyclic-AMP-dependent mechanism at low K+ levels is presented, and we also report the first direct evidence of activation of aldosterone synthesis by protein kinase C at high K+ concentration.


Abstract In this paper, we use index number theory to decompose changes in total interest rate due to changes in the interest rate component and the weight component. We discuss the optimal calculation of a binary index using axiomatic index number theory. Based on this theory we compare alternative indexes and as a result, we choose the Marshall-Edgeworth index because most axioms are satisfied by this index. Comparing the results of binary periods decomposition, we conclude that the differences are not significant when we apply different indices. For multiple period comparison, we suggest using the chain index because it allows accounting for the weights evolution during the whole period. In addition, we derive a formula that could be useful for explaining the differences between chain and direct indexes when we produce multiple period comparison.


A novel system-level simulation environment is presented for the evaluation of step-index polymer optical fibre transmission systems. Key element is a new fibre model, which incorporates the three major attributes describing light propagation in SI-POF: the mode-dependent attenuation, the modal dispersion and the mode coupling process. Inter-symbol interference (ISI) due to modal dispersion can be mitigated in the receiver by means of electronic dispersion compensation. In this work, we present the performance of an analog equaliser scheme based on a (sub-)optimal a-posteriori-probability (APP) technique, which increases the achievable fibre length for error-free transmission at 1 Gbit/s from 11 to 53m. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art is unparalleled in its comprehensive approach to the study of art in the United States and it takes a fresh look at what American art is, how it is defined, and who influenced and produced it. The Encyclopedia contains reviewed, revised, and updated entries from Grove Art Online as well as hundreds of new entries. It covers American painting, architecture, sculpture, and photography from the Pre-Columbian sources to the colonial period to the twenty-first century devoting coverage to many previously underrepresented areas of inquiry, including African American artists, Asian American artists, and Native American art, both historical and contemporary. In addition to American artists such as John Singer Sargent, Robert Rauschenberg, Maya Lin, and Kiki Smith, attention is also paid to individuals who have had a significant impact on American art and art history through their activity in the United States, including Marcel Duchamp, Erwin Panofsky, Renzo Piano, and Max Beckmann. The Grove Encyclopedia of American Art offers a new foundation for scholarship for decades to come and will be of particular interest to students, researchers, and collectors specializing in American art as well as students and researchers in art history, American history, and cultural anthropology.


The motion of a single charged particle inside a coaxial plasma accelerator with static electric and magnetic fields E and B is considered. It is shown that the radial motion is periodic in time. The axial velocity U, averaged over one period depends on the polarity of electrodes and is also a function of the ratio q/m, where q is the charge and m is the mass of a particle. The conditions are stated for which these theoretical considerations can be applied to experimental devices. A comparison with the experimental results is presented showing relatively good agreement between theory and experiment. In particular it was possible to explain the dependence of the speed of the current sheet on the polarity of the central electrode.


Heterogeneous integration of different technologies is increasingly required in microsystems integration. This entails the need of both technology development and new design methodologies. This work realized a high-performance Ku-band SiP Doppler radar demonstrator based on the combination of technologies and design methodologies.


The article focuses on presenting the importance of the recent changes in the European cinema industry. For the last twenty years we have been witnessing the changes in the process of creating films and in their meaning content. The shift from the classical national cinema (traditional films representing the country in the international arena, with their specific plots, genres, persons, names and means) to lots of films created by descendants from different ethnics and cultures, with their unexpected ideas and solutions their films are based on and that astonish us, as well as the methods used in their implementation. The ideology dominating in the film industry has been changing; this has been confirmed by factors associated with popularity of the new films, their being noticed, marked and appreciated on the top level of the film community, receiving positive reviews, being awarded the prizes in the main European film festivals. It has become imperative to carry out a philosophical analysis of the changes that occurred in the European cinematography. The purpose of article is the philosophical reflection on the issues of the influence of the policy and ideology of multiculturalism on the development of contemporary European cinema. The authors proposed a classification of multicultural processes specific for contemporary European cinematography. Complex analysis makes it possible to more deeply understand how a new discourse has been changing the cinematic space. The polyphony of ideas presented contributes to more adequate cinematic vision of an object and considering it as a global phenomenon. The materials of the article can be used for practical purposes, namely, as auxiliary material in developing general and special university courses on social philosophy, philosophy of culture, culture studies, media studies, and theory of cinema.


One of the major objectives of laboratory informatics is to develop database systems for test results. Such a database should be designed with the distinct objective of determining the normal range. To understand the normal range, however, more information on possible risk factors must be directly analyzed in population studies. In our population-based study, we found that carotid arteriosclerosis is independently correlated with LDL cholesterol level, HDL cholesterol level, body mass index, systolic blood pressure, and HbA1C (the Niigata Study). Through this study, we will be able to obtain normal ranges for some important laboratory tests.


The magnitude and temporal trends of seabird bycatch in coastal set net fisheries in the eastern part of the German Baltic Sea were studied, based on (i) a survey of 4% of the total fishery in the period 2006–2009, and (ii) results from bycatch monitoring in a part of this region covering a period of 20 years. Bird carcasses were collected and information on fishing effort obtained from fishermen using interviews and on-board observations on selected trips.
Bycatch of seabirds occurred with all types of fishing gear and metiers studied, with highest bycatch rates in coastal lagoons. The minimum estimate of total bycatch in nets set by 440 commercial fishermen was found to be 17 551 (range 14 905–20 533) birds annually between November and May. Bycatch in set nets and on longlines in summer was much lower.
Bycatch rates were found to depend either directly on bird abundance as shown for the long-tailed duck (Clangula hyemalis) or on predictors of abundance such as water depth and location. Bycatch in the Pomeranian Bay has decreased over 20 years due to the severe decline of seaducks, particularly of long-tailed ducks, which were most frequently bycaught. The estimated individual bycatch risk has also decreased in long-tailed ducks but the current monthly losses of 0.81% may still indicate a potential threat for this species.
Bycatch monitoring based on carcass collections and interviews proved to be feasible over a 20-year period although the results contain some underreporting. Based on the results specific measures are recommended to reduce bycatch risk in the German coastal fisheries using targeted effort reductions and replacement of set nets with alternative gear.

Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.


Abstract : Measurements of meltwater pH from annual layers of South Pole firn and ice samples ranging in age from 40 to 2000 years B.P. show that precipitation at this remote site has a higher natural acidity than that expected from atmospheric equilibrium with CO2. The average pH of deaerated (CO2-free) samples was 5.64 + or - 0.08, while air-equilibrated samples averaged 5.37 + or - 0.008, a pH that is about a factor of two more acidic than the expected background pH of 5.65. The observed 'excess' acidity can be accounted for by natural SO4(2)- and NO(3)- levels in the samples probably originating from non-anthropogenic H2SO4 and HNO3. Because of the presence of these naturally occurring acids in South Pole precipitation, a pH of 5.4 is considered a more representative baseline reference pH for acid precipitation studies.


We study the transient behavior in coupled dissipative dynamical systems based on the linear analysis around the steady state. We find that the transient time is minimized at a specific set of system parameters and show that at this parameter set, two eigenvalues and two eigenvectors of the Jacobian matrix coalesce at the same time; this degenerate point is called the exceptional point. For the case of coupled limit-cycle oscillators, we investigate the transient behavior into the amplitude death state, and clarify that the exceptional point is associated with a critical point of frequency locking, as well as the transition of the envelope oscillation.


This study aims to investigate the important academic factors; teaching method, study habits of students and attendance of students that affect students' academic performance. The study used a survey method and analytical research design. A stratified sampling method was used to select 150 respondents from 1,525 total number of undergraduate students from four high student enrolment community colleges of Bhaktapur district. Regression analysis was used to identify the impact of independent variables on student's academic performance. Mann-Whitney test was used to identify the differences between perceived student's performance across gender, age and faculty.  To test for differences between perceived student's performance across study year and guardian occupation, Kruskal-Wallis test was conducted. The result shows that the teaching method and attendance of students have a significant positive impact on perceived student's performance but student's habit has no significant impact on perceived student's performance.  However, it has been proved that gender, age, faculty, study year and guardian occupation do not have any differences in perceived student's performance.


Abstract 3031 Poster Board II-1007 Immunotherapy is a promising therapy for lymphoproliferative malignancies including multiple myeloma (MM). While many phase I and II clinical trials has been conducted using dendritic cells (DC) pulsed with cancer-specific antigen as immunotherapy, none of these studies have shown a significant clinical impact on treatment of patients with cancer, including in MM. The failure of DC-based vaccine in MM has been associated with impaired DC function due to the immunosuppressive environment caused by the cancer cells. This effect may be in part mediated through hyper-activation of STAT3. Using MM as a model, we investigated the effect of MM-derived factors on the function of DC and evaluated the effect on STAT3 hyper-activation in the latter. We generated DC from monocytes of normal donors using IL-4 and GM-CSF for 48 hours, following maturation using IL-1β, TNF-αa, PGE 2 for another 24 hours. MM-derived factors (MM-DF) were obtained by co-culture of the human MM cell line U266 cells with in-vitro generated osteoclasts for 48 hours, and the supernatant was filtered. The filtered supernatant containing MM-DF was used in a ratio of 1:1 with fresh RPMI-1640 in the generation of DC in-vitro. The phenotype of immature and maturated DC was evaluated by flow-cytometry for surface staining of CD40, CD80, CD83, CD86, ILT3, and MHC-II. Lysates of DC were prepared for Western blot to evaluate for phospo (p)-STAT3 and ILT3 expression. The ability of generated DC (in the presence or absence of MM-DF) to stimulate T cells was assessed using 3 H-thymidine incorporation. MM-DF did not affect the generation of DC as assessed by CD86 and MHC-II expression, but significantly impaired the maturation of DC with failure of up-regulation of CD40 (64% ±19.3% of control; P=0.075), CD80 (41% ±20.5% of control; P=0.019), and CD83 (35% ±18.0% of control; P=0.0077) in 3 independent experiments. In addition, the surface expression of ILT3 on the generated DC was significantly increased in DC generated in presence of MM-DF (155% increase in mean fluorescence intensity compare to control), furthermore, western blot of DC lysates showed 2.5 fold-increase in the expression of ILT3 in DC generated in presence of MM-DF compare to control. The failure of maturation of DC with higher expression of ILT3 indicates the generation of tolerogenic DC (Transpl Immunol 2003;11:245). The expression of phoso-STAT3αa (pY705αa or the active form of pSTAT3) was also significantly increased in DC generated in the presence of MM-DF compare to control (1.6-2.3 fold-increase), furthermore, higher expression of phoso-STAT3β (negative form of pSTAT3) was found in DC generated in the absence of MM-DF (Figure 1). Finally the function of generated DC in the presence of MM-DF was impaired compare to control (40-60% decrease in ability to stimulate allogeneic T cell) as assessed by 3 H-Thymidine incorporaton Assay. Our results demonstrate a significant effect of MM-DF on the maturation of DC rendering them tolerogenic, and this is associated with hyper-activation of STAT3. RNA silencing experiments to knock down STAT3 and pharmacological inhibition experiments are in progress to assess the ability to abrogate the effect of MM-DC on DC maturation and improve function. This provides a potential therapeutic target in immunotherapy trials. Disclosures No relevant conflicts of interest to declare.


Located along rivers, at the edges of lakes, on mountain boulders, in rock shelters, on rock ledges where the continent meets the ocean, and tucked into parks and public places, American Indian rock art offers tantilizing glimpses of the signs and symbols of a Native American culture. Picture Rocks documents all known permanent petroglyph and pictograph sites from the Canadian provinces of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, the six New England states, New York, and New Jersey. Some sites are subject to disputes over their origins--Indian or Portuguese? Some are ancient, and others, such as the work of the Mi'kmaq, were executed in the past 200 years. Many of these sites are little known; others, like those at Bellows Falls, Vermont, are sources of great local pride and appear on city walking tours. Interspersing his own interpretations with comments from scholars and Native American storytellers, Edward J. Lenik provides a definitive look at an extraordinary art form. Two hundred illustrations include historic sketches by early Euro-American colonists, nineteenth-century photographs, and recent photographs and drawings of the current conditions of many sites.


The mechanism of the famous phase compression is discussed, and it is used to control the chaos in the Hindmarsh-Rose (H-R) model. It is numerically confirmed that the phase compression scheme can be understood as one kind of intermittent feedback scheme, which requires appropriate thresholds and feedback coefficient, and the intermittent feedback can be realized with the Heaviside function. In the case of control chaos, the output variable (usually the voltage or the membrane potential of the neuron) is sampled and compared with the external standard signal of the electric electrode. The error between the sampled variable and the external standard signal of the electrode is input into the system only when the sampled variable surpasses the selected thresholds. The numerical simulation results confirm that the chaotic H-R system can be controlled to reach arbitrary n-periodical (n = 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6,…) orbit or stable state even when just one variable is feed backed into the system intermittently. The chaotic Chua circuit is also investigated to check its model independence and effectiveness of the schemes and the equivalence of the two schemes are confirmed again.


When fresh concrete is exposed to low temperature, the concrete may suffer frost damage due to freezing at early ages and strength development may be delayed. One of the solution methods for resolve these problems is to reduce freezing temperature of concrete by the use of chemical admixture called Accelerators for freezing resistance. In this study, we investigate the effect on strength development of cement mortar using accelerators for freezing resistance with the variance curing condition. As the result of this study, the mortar using accelerators for freezing resistance show that continuously strength development in curing condition of -5℃. And compressive strength under the variance temperature condition was higher than constant temperature condition in same maturity.


Pegylated interferon (PEG-IFN) alpha combined with ribavirin is the current standard treatment for hepatitis C, but around 50% of patients do not respond for reasons that are not fully understood. To explore the regulation of IFN-inducible protein kinase (PKR), we have measured PKR mRNA levels in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and in liver biopsies from patients with chronic hepatitis C. PBMCs were also analysed after in vitro incubation with IFN and during antiviral therapy. Non-responders to PEG-IFN plus ribavirin had pre-treatment PKR mRNA levels in PBMCs (0.1 ±0.0074) and in liver (0.102 ±0.051) that were significantly higher than those of responders (PBMCs: 0.023 ±0.014, P=0.0005; liver: 0.034 ±0.020; P=0.0002). On the other hand, PKR mRNA levels in PBMCs were similar in non-responders and in responders after in vitro exposure to IFN (0.434 ±0.301 vs 0.403 ±0.222; P=NS) and during therapy (0.31 ±0.10 vs 0.30 ±0.12; P=NS). These results indicate that in hepatitis C, non–responsiveness to IFN-alpha is associated with pre-treatment up-regulation of the PKR gene, evidence that the infecting hepatitis C virus is able to stimulate endogenous IFN production, being resistant to its antiviral effect. On the other hand, the PKR gene response to exogenous IFN was similar in responders and non-responders, at least in PBMCs, suggesting that variations in its activation are not major determinants of the outcome of antiviral treatment.


The SCF MO LCAO method in the valence approach with neglect of diatomic differential overlap (NDDO) is used to study the effect of atomic hydrogen on the silicon lattice relaxation in the nearest vicinity of a vacancy. It is shown that hydrogen atoms are localized mainly as second-nearest neighbours of the vacancies on the Si - Si bond, which results in a significant extension of the vacancy region. The potential barrier height and its dependence on the vacancy charge state were calculated for Frenkel pair annihilation with a hydrogenated vacancy in the cases of hydrogen localization inside and outside the vacancy. The results substantiate a model of enhanced annihilation of Frenkel pairs in hydrogenated crystalline Si.


We analysed the determinants of voter participation (turnout), impairment of voter participation (spoiled or rejected ballots), and the outcomes (share of the total valid votes cast garnered by the victorious political party) in national presidential elections during the Fourth Republican era in Ghana. This analysis was undertaken based on meso-level statistical models, using district-level data of voters compiled from constituency-level data maintained by the Electoral Commission of Ghana, and district-level socio-economic characteristics derived from the 2010 and 2000 National Population Censuses conducted by the Ghana Statistical Service. In essence, we used data from two presidential elections in Ghana in 2000 and 2012 which could be directly aligned to data from the 2000 and 2010 national population censuses for district-level analysis using the concept of an average "district" voter. Our analysis indicated that the voter turnout was determined by a number of factors, the most important one being the population aged 15 over; the turnout decreases with increasing population. The impairment of voter participation, based on the proportion of the total votes cast attributed to spoiled ballots, was linked to the literacy rate with the spoiled ballots proportion declining with increasing literacy rate. The share of the total valid votes cast, obtained by the victorious party in a district, was influenced to a large degree by the proportion of the total number of citizens in a district belonging to the two biggest social/ethnic groups in Ghana, Asantes and Ewes, who predominantly voted in a countervailing manner for the parties that their political class elites dominate, the New Patriotic Party and National Democratic Congress, respectively.


The equine herpesvirus type 8 (EHV-8) can cause significant economic losses in the global horses and donkey industry. The disease has been associated with abortion and respiratory symptoms. However, it is rare for a study to be reported about donkeys with neurological diseases induced by EHV-8 infection. In the present study, one 2-year-old male donkey, from a large-scale donkey farm in China, died with a severe neurological disorder. The causative agent, donkey/Shandong/10/2021 (GenBank accession: OL856098), was identified and isolated from the brain tissue of the dead donkey. Meanwhile, BALB/c mice were used as an animal model to evaluate the pathogenicity of the EHV-8 isolate. Our data showed that EHV-8 was positive in brains by PCR and immunohistochemistry, which induced typical viral encephalitis lesions in both donkey and mice consistent with clinical signs. For the first time, we reported that EHV-8 had been isolated from donkeys with a neurological illness in China, which is helpful to reveal the pathogenicity of EHV-8 in the donkey.


All neurologists have to make a differential diagnosis of consciousness loss by EEG. The judgment of epilepsy is especially important. Experts of neurology were also required to determine the level and etiology of the acute or chronic weakness or numbness by EMG with nerve conduction study. Hands on seminar and e-learning would be useful to acquire these tools.


This paper addresses the problem of deformable surface tracking from monocular images. Specifically, we propose a graph-based approach that effectively explores the structure information of the surface to enhance tracking performance. Our approach solves simultaneously for feature correspondence, outlier rejection and shape reconstruction by optimizing a single objective function, which is defined by means of pairwise projection errors between graph structures instead of unary projection errors between matched points. Furthermore, an efficient matching algorithm is developed based on soft matching relaxation. For evaluation, our approach is extensively compared to state-of-the-art algorithms on a standard dataset of occluded surfaces, as well as a newly compiled dataset of different surfaces with rich, weak or repetitive texture. Experimental results reveal that our approach achieves robust tracking results for surfaces with different types of texture, and outperforms other algorithms in both accuracy and efficiency.


A prospective study of 72 operations in which one or more suction drains were inserted, showed that cultures of the drains did not have any predictive value for the development of signs of infection. Protracted suction drainage could, however, increase the risk of postoperative infection.


An antenna structure is presented for the front end of the 60Ghz transmitter. The solution takes into account the presence of the silicon chip that comprises the silicon-based transceiver and the interconnections between the transceiver, the antenna and the printed Circuit Board (PCB) for assembling and mounting operations. A 4.7-GHz bandwidth (@VSWR=2) is expected with a maximum gain of 6.7dBi @ 60GHz. This gain value is achieved by efficiently coupling a non resonating structure with a Dielectric Resonator (DR), The integration configuration includes flip-chip and interconnection structures.


Inflation distorts prices, erodes savings, discourages investment, stimulates capital flight, inhibits growth, and makes economic planning a nightmare. During the past decade, several advanced economies have taken a new approach to the age-old problem of controlling inflation through monetary policy known as "inflation targeting." This pamphlet explains the requirements of putting the new policy in place, the experience of the countries that have tried it, and whether it has applicability to developing countries.


New L/sub 2/ objective functions for the design of quadrature-mirror-filter (QMF) banks are proposed. They are based on the derivative information of the reconstruction error. Simple and explicit matrix-form expressions for the proposed objective functions are derived. An efficient design method is proposed by incorporating a separability technique into the derived optimality conditions on prototype filters. The proposed method only needs to solve linear equations iteratively without nonlinear optimization. Design examples demonstrate that good low-delay QMF banks and linear-phase QMF banks can be obtained after a few iterations. Compared to the conventional approach, the new approach leads to QMF banks with larger stopband attenuation and smaller reconstruction errors.


The rate of dissolution of a relatively insoluble material deposited in the lower respiratory tract (LRT) is an important parameter in determining its relative retention in the LRT and its translocation to other tissues. Dissolution conditions may affect the rate of dissolution of a relatively insoluble material. The effects of some of these factors on the in vitro rates of dissolution of some radioactive aerosol particles were studied. Included among these factors were particle size, solvent composition, solvent flow rate, temperature of the dissolution system, and method of measurement. Experimental conditions for the measurement of the in vitro rates of dissolution of relatively insoluble aerosol particles for comparison with in vitro dissolution rates in the LRT are discussed. (auth)


Over the last two decades, a focus on challenging and transforming dominant forms of masculinity and engaging boys and men towards gender equality and healthy masculinities has permeated South African social and health sciences and the humanities. This focus on men and boys has also been evident in intervention and activist work. However, the turn to boys, men and masculinities has not gone without resistance, contestation and contradictions. A range of localised and global realities has frustrated much of the enthusiasm for rapid, sweeping and concrete changes regarding gender justice and the making of progressive masculinities. Among the discursive and material forces that oppose work that engages boys and men are those to do with income-related issues, race and racism, cultural traditions and gender itself. Because of this, it is contended that engagement with boys and men needs to consider not only gender but also economic inequality, poverty and unemployment, divisions created by race, and struggles around tradition. This paper discusses these forces that undermine and counteract work with boys and men and how we might work through resistance in engaging with men and boys.


The author considers the basic building blocks of diplomatics as they might pertain to a more nuanced analysis of visual images. She argues that diplomatics offers archivists an orientation by which to consider the photographic process through its refined notions of what constitutes authority, authenticity, purpose, and extrinsic and intrinsic elements. By creating and applying a typology for institutionally based photographic media according to these notions, archivists could better appraise, preserve, and represent these images.


The precision of the classification rule is decided by the construction of the classification algorithm. In this paper, after the introducing of the concepts and the attribute-reduction algorithms of the basic rough set, a data-mining algorithm based on the rough impend approximation measurement is demonstrated. At first, the finding theory of the classification rule is introduced. After that, according to the importance-measurement of the conditional attributes in the decision table, one kind of new attributes reduction method in the field of data mining, which is based on the improved rough impend approximation measurement, is explained. Lastly, the method is applied in the telecommunication network quality evaluation, and the rationality and feasibility of algorithm are examined in this example.


This special issue of Sociological Methods & Research contributes to recent trends in studies that exploit the availability of multiple measures in sample surveys in order to detect the level and patterning to measurement errors. Articles in this volume focus on topics in one of (or some combination of) the three areas: (1) those that develop and test theoretical hypotheses regarding the behavior of measurement errors under specific conditions of measurement, (2) those that focus on the methodological problems encountered in the design of data collection permitting the estimation of measurement models, and (3) those that focus on the evaluation of existing models for detecting and quantifying the nature of measurement errors. The designs included in these investigations include those that incorporate follow-up probes, record-check studies, multitrait-multimethod designs, longitudinal designs, and latent class models for assessing measurement errors for categorical variables.


As device dimensions shrink into the nanometer range, power and performance constraints prohibit the longevity of traditional MOS devices in circuit design. FinFETs, a quasi-planar double-gated device, has emerged as a replacement. While flnFETs provide promising electrostatic characteristics, they have the potential to suffer from significant self heating. We study in this paper self heating in multi-fin devices. We first develop thermal models for an individual fin with flared channel extensions and for multi-fin devices. We analyze several fin geometric parameters (fin width, and (gate) length) and investigate how fin spacing, fin height, gate oxide thickness and gate height affect the maximum fin temperatures in rectangular and flared channel extensions. Our data derived from numerical simulation validates our findings. We develop a novel metric, metric for electro-thermal sensitivity (METS), for measuring device thermal robustness. We use the metric to investigate electro-thermal device sensitivities. The metric, while applied to finFETs in this paper, is general and can be applied to any type of device for which coupled electrical and thermal models exist. Our work is the first to address thermal issues within multi-fin devices and to develop a widely-applicable electro-thermal metric.


Vaxjo is a medium-sized town situated in the centre of the county Smaland in Sweden with a good infrastructure and logistics and with a university that encourages cooperation with private and public companies. It is in this town that our case study of Smaland Airport will take place. The aim of this study is to examine in which way the program of Library and Information Science at the Linnaeus University in Vaxjo offers knowledge that can be relevant for the staff at the airport in Vaxjo - Smaland Airport. Using Wilsons model as our theoretical framework we examine how these two align with each other and by using a matrix that we ourselves elaborated in our analysis, we provide a clear picture of how the comparability two places comparability is represented. The result shows that there are compatible aspects to the Smaland Aiports needs and what the program of Library and Information Science has to offer. We conclude that areas such as knowledge management, document management and good reception are similar.


Several methods for electron number density (Ne) determination in a SF6 arc plasma are successively described: two-wave laser interferometry, Stark broadening of neutral sulphur lines, an original method derived from Stark broadening of a sulphur triplet, the recombination continuum and the derivation of Ne from temperature measurement. The results are in good agreement; they show the existence of departures from LTE due to a demixing effect.


The generation of optical afterglow and comprehension of the structure–function mechanism in glasses have not been well studied to date owing to the uncertainty of internal structure and defects, let alone being able to tailor the afterglow. Herein, we fabricate a new type of Mn2+-doped calcium aluminium germanate photonic glasses that demonstrate red to near-infrared persistent luminescence from 560 to 820 nm. Provoked by the understanding of amorphous structure continuity, facile network topology was utilized as a tuning strategy, resulting in modulation of the persistent luminescence time from 30 min to longer than 24 h. The density of correlative electronic defects increases with their depth gradually deepening from 0.69, 0.78, and 0.83 eV to 0.80, 0.85, and 0.90 eV. Multiple measurements reveal that the internal structure evolves towards regular crosslinking, promoting the incorporation and stabilization of Mn2+ along with the change of defects, all of which are conducive to afterglow. The possible attribution of defects stems not only from the structural intrinsic state, but also from defects caused by the photo-oxidation of Mn2+. Coupled with their association to afterglow, the mechanism of persistence regulation is expounded in detail, and its potential applications in displays and in vivo imaging are demonstrated. This work suggests accessible references to the rational design of persistent materials with flexible persistence or even other advantageous functions.


An interpretation of spacelike singularities in string theory uses target-space duality to relate the collapsing Schwarzschild geometry near the singularity to an inflationary cosmology in dual variables. An appealing picture thus results whereby gravitational collapse seeds the formation of a new universe.


This thesis explores the ways in which suspension of disbelief works in digital games. Primarily concerned with how players relate imaginatively to the often major dissonance between gameplay and narrative in digital games, this thesis questions how the literate players of games reconcile these complex texts imaginatively. Proposing that Samuel Taylor Coleridge's concept of suspension of disbelief is a complicated process often cited rhetorically rather than given its theoretical due, this thesis aims to rehabilitate the term and turn it into a useful, sharpened tool for games studies. Digital games themselves are also seen to be an intense new realm of possibilities for the suspension of disbelief, and textual analysis of games which approach the fourth wall or the suspension of disbelief on their own terms helps to make this clear.

Beginning by defining the differences of games compared to other media, the thesis goes on to define suspension of disbelief in both its historical and modern contexts and see how it fits with games, isolating three key problems with uniting the concept with the medium. The three chapters which follow looked in more depth at the problems of the skilled reader, fundamental activity and dissonance through investigations into games' textual construction, the mindsets they engender in players and their reformulation of the fourth wall. The final section looks at the conclusions working together to achieve the dual aims of proposing a new model for game reading which centres around a willed disavowal of presence on the part of the gamer combined with the gamer's taking up of a role offered by the game-text, and rehabilitating both the term and the concept of suspension of disbelief.


Pulmonary hemodynamics and net transcapillary fluid flux (NTFF) were measured in conscious toads before and following bilateral denervation of the recurrent laryngeal nerves (rLN), which contain afferents from baroreceptors located in the pulmocutaneous arteries. Denervation caused an acute doubling of the arterial-venous pressure gradient across the lung and a threefold increase in pulmonary blood flow. Calculated pulmonary vascular resistance fell and remained below control values through the period of experimentation. NTFF increased by an order of magnitude (0.74-7.77 ml X kg-1 X min-1), as filtration increased in response to the hemodynamic changes caused by rLN denervation. There was a better correlation between NTFF and pulmonary blood flow than between NTFF and pulmonary driving pressure. Our results support the view that tonic neural input from pulmocutaneous baroreceptors protects the anuran lung from edema by restraining pulmonary driving pressure and blood flow and perhaps by reflexly maintaining vascular tone in the extrinsic pulmonary artery, therefore tending to increase the pre-to-postpulmonary capillary resistance ratio and biasing the Starling relationship in the pulmonary capillaries against filtration.


In southwest Alabama, lignite having economic potential occurs in the Oak Hill Member of the Naheola Formation. This middle Paleocene lignite generally consists of a single bed of 1-14 ft (0.5-4 m) in thickness and is the most extensive lignite in the southwest Alabama region. The Oak Hill lignite deposit accumulated in lower delta plain coastal marshes in interchannel areas behind a barrier system. The source area for the deltaic sediments was probably to the west and/or northwest of Choctaw County, Alabama. The lignite occurs in a clay-dominated sequence. Oak Hill interdistributary bay ripple-laminated clays are interbedded with ripple-laminated, crevasse splay sands generally less than 15 ft (5 m) thick. The glauconitic sands of the overlying Coal Bluff Marl Member of the Naheola Formation represent times of marine encroachment into the interchannel basin area. Lignite haing subeconomic value at present occurs in the upper part of the Tuscahoma Sand. This upper Paleocene lignite is irregular in its outcrop pattern and apparently is not represented over extensive areas. It is locally persistent with one or more beds less than 3 ft (1 m) thick. The Tuscahoma may contain up to 6 lignite seams that may exceed a total thickness of 5more » ft (1.5 m). These lignite beds were deposited in lower delta-plain coastal marshes adjacent to high constructive deltaic bar finger sands. Tuscahoma marsh clays are interbedded with ripple-laminated and cross-bedded bar finger sands. The Tuscahoma Sand is overlain by the Bashi Marl Member of the Hatchetigbee Formation. The Bashi contains a diverse lower Eocene marine fossil assemblage.« less


Fine needle aspiration is the mainstay in the diagnosis of Lymphadenopathies. In present study the purulent
aspirates from lymph nodes were evaluated for etiological agents to know the distribution pattern of various
disease agents.
Materials and Methods: This study was a prospective one covering 100 cases taken from patients
attending MBS and NMCH Hospitals under Govt. medical college, Kota. Our study spanned from January
to December, 2017.
Results and Conclusion: Out of a total of 100 cases incidence of different types of lymphadenopathies
were, Tubercular, 55%, Acute suppurative, 27%, Granulomatous Inflammatory, 12% and Metastatic
Carcinoma, 6%. Cases of lymphadenopathy showed a wide age range from 1 to 73 years. Male to female
ratio was 1:1.04. AFB positivity was seen in 61.8% cases of Tubercular lymphnoditis. Among the 55
cases of tubercular lymphnoditis, 46 (83.6%) cases showed Auramine Rhodamine positivity while only
34 (61.8%) corresponding cases were positive by Ziehl Neelsen stain, demonstrating higher sensitivity of
Auramine Rhodamine stain.
In present study, commonest cause of Metastasis in lymph nodes was Squamous Cell Carcinoma (33.3%).
Other diagnosis were Metastatic Adenocarcinoma, Duct carcinoma breast, Mucoepidermoid carcinoma and
poorly differentiated carcinoma. On gram's staining out of 27 cases of Acute suppurative lymphnoditis, 3
showed positivity for gram positive cocci. Out of 3 cases, 1 case showed gram positive cocci in clusters
and 2 cases showed gram positive diplococci. Diplococci were more common in younger population.
FNAC is a safe, convenient, rapid and inexpensive first approach procedure, without any complications
in evaluation of cases of lymphadenopathy and can be practiced even in peripheral hospitals where
histopathological techniques are not available.

Keywords: Lymphadenopathy, FNAC, ZN stain, Granulomas.


The deployment of widely used Transformer architecture is challenging because of heavy computation load and memory overhead during inference, especially when the target device is limited in computational resources such as mobile or edge devices. Quantization is an effective technique to address such challenges. Our analysis shows that for a given number of quantization bits, each block of Transformer contributes to translation quality and inference computations in different manners. Moreover, even inside an embedding block, each word presents vastly different contributions. Correspondingly, we propose a mixed precision quantization strategy to represent Transformer weights by an extremely low number of bits (e.g., under 3 bits). For example, for each word in an embedding block, we assign different quantization bits based on statistical property. Our quantized Transformer model achieves 11.8× smaller model size than the baseline model, with less than -0.5 BLEU. We achieve 8.3× reduction in run-time memory footprints and 3.5× speed up (Galaxy N10+) such that our proposed compression strategy enables efficient implementation for on-device NMT.


Four experiments compared the re-solution performance of prior solvers with that of prior nonsolvers given the correct solutions. Experiments 1 and 2 challenged Weisberg and Alba's (1981) contention that solving a problem and being shown the solution yield equivalent problem knowledge. In both experiments, students who initially solved problems showed near-perfect recall of the solutions after a 1-week delay, far superior to recall by students who had been shown the correct answers. In Experiment 3, solves showed poor solution retention when the connection between the problem and the solution was not meaningful. Experiment 4 showed that with meaningful problems, solvers and those merely provided with solutions have qualitatively different problem representations. The findings can be explained in terms of differential understanding of problems and their solutions.


This article discusses, from a socio-constructivist perspective, some notes for the theoretical revision of the progress on the use of technology in higher education. The emphasis resides in creating a communication and elaborations of the academic topics, reformulating the classes and turning them into an agora or forum where it is possible to work remotely. During the master classes, university teachers talk about certain topics for about 90, 180 or even 240 minutes. Question from students have place at end of the lecture, rarely during the same. Any possibility of knowledge exchange among teacher-student is limited to that moment. Any professor possesses a much great knowledge and the possibilities of articulation among concepts that exceed the presentation of any topic. The duration of the classes and its format restricts the display of the academics themes. We suggest a dynamic transformation of the practical and theorical classes in order to generate an inversion of those spaces. The proposal is to present transmedia contents articulated with the use of networks, that way the possibilities of ownership and production of knowledge are greatly increased.


With the ever-increasing demand for easy portability and mobility of devices supporting diverse mobile multimedia applications, the need for the adaptation of broadband infrastructure to the wireless scenario has arisen. Mobile multimedia networks like the wireless ATM are faced with challenges relating to user mobility management and channel access. The issue of handovers is addressed. We propose, simulate and present the relative performance appraisal of a handover strategy employing network-initiated bandwidth renegotiation and redistribution. The handover protocol is shown to perform better than static and dynamic handover schemes in terms of handoff connection drop probability.


issue of Enterprise & Society. The papers published here were first presented at the Hagley Museum and Library's conference on "Beauty and Business" in March 1999. The papers for inclusion in Enterprise & Society were reviewed and selected by a panel including Kathy, myself, and Phil Scranton. Both the journal and the individual authors benefited from Kathy's and Phil's careful and extensive commentary, as well as that of Sally Clarke, who guided the papers through the editorial process. All of this work considerably eased the tasks of the editorial office in preparing the manuscripts for publication. These five papers represent an attempt to extend the boundaries of business history. As Kathy Peiss points out in her introductory essay, "beauty" and "business" seem to be disparate terms, yet strong relationships, not yet extensively explored, actually exist. Peiss sees beauty in business, and vice versa, and argues that new scholarship will show that a close and meaningful relationship does exist. The four papers that follow each treat a specific aspect of the topic. Carole Turbin explores men's fashion, represented by the collar and shirt, Editor's Introduction


The conclusion that the greatest difference of the Linguistic Characteristics in The Peony Pavilion and Romeo and Julie is the whole poetic nature of the former and the part poetic nature of the latter is drawn by the comparative study.The difference is caused mainly by the Chinese and Western foundation genres and the difference of the dramatists' writing mentality,especially by the former.So the difference makes us understand further the essential reasons of the linguistic characteristics of Chinese and Western dramas,so as to understand the different traditions of drama and the different culture in China and the West.


Effects of acetylcholine (ACh) on the L-type calcium current were examined in isolated atrioventricular nodal cells that exhibited spontaneous contractions. ACh (0.1 to 10 microM) inhibited basal calcium current dose-dependently. This inhibition was eliminated by dialysis with 8Br cAMP or cAMP-dependent kinase inhibitory peptide. Both extracellular N-ethylmaleimide 50 microM and intracellular GDPssS 0.2 mM abolished the ACh effect. Dialysis with cGMP or NG-monomethyl-L-arginine did not significantly affect ACh inhibition of basal calcium current. Similarly, cGMP-dependent protein kinase inhibitor KT5823 (1 microM) and the type II phosphodiesterase inhibitor erythro-9-(2-hydroxy-3-nonyl) adenine (30 microM) did not attenuate the ACh effect. Therefore, ACh inhibits the basal calcium current in the atrioventricular node mainly by suppressing cAMP synthesis through the inhibitory GTP-binding protein.


Abscisic acid (ABA) was isolated from sour cherry (Prunus cerasus L. cv. Montmorency) fruit and identified by thin-layer and gas-liquid chromatography and combined gas chromatography-mass spectrometry. Inhibitor levels in the seed paralleled those in the pericarp and were, in general, directly related to growth rate of the fruit, higher levels being found during the initial rapid growth (Stage I) than during the retarded growth phase (Stage II). The level of the inhibitor increased in Stage III, then decreased in the final stages of maturity. The possible role of endogenous ABA in cherry fruit development is discussed.