Abstract Terpenoids are a large family of natural products with diversified structures and functions that are widely used in the food, pharmaceutical, cosmetic, and agricultural fields. However, the traditional methods of terpenoids production such as plant extraction and chemical synthesis are inefficient due to the complex processes, high energy consumption, and low yields. With progress in metabolic engineering and synthetic biology, microbial cell factories provide an interesting alternative for the sustainable production of terpenoids. The non-conventional yeast, Yarrowia lipolytica, is a promising host for terpenoid biosynthesis due to its inherent mevalonate pathway, high fluxes of acetyl-CoA and NADPH, and the naturally hydrophobic microenvironment. In this review, we highlight progress in the engineering of Y. lipolytica as terpenoid biomanufacturing factories, describing the different terpenoid biosynthetic pathways and summarizing various metabolic engineering strategies, including progress in genetic manipulation, dynamic regulation, organelle engineering, and terpene synthase variants.


Abstract The present study aimed to assess the association between the severity of chronic periodontitis and the risk of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers by investigating whether severe chronic periodontitis (CP), rather than mild CP, correlates with an increased risk of total or individual GI cancers. Adults (≥18 years) with mild and severe CP were identified from a random sample of 2 million insured patients in the National Health Insurance Research Database (2001–2010). After propensity score matching, 25,485 individuals, each with mild or severe CP, were included for comparison. The primary endpoint was the incidence of total or individual GI cancers, including cancers of the esophagus, stomach, small intestine, colon/rectum, and pancreas. Cox proportional hazard models with the robust aggregated sandwich estimator were used to calculate hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) after adjusting for known risk factors. GI cancers occurred in 275 individuals with mild CP and 324 individuals with severe CP. After adjusting for known risk factors, severe CP was not associated with an increased risk of total GI cancer relative to mild CP (HR: 0.99, 95% CI: 0.84–1.16) or individual GI cancers, including esophageal (HR: 1.15, 95% CI: 0.62–2.15), gastric (HR: 1.01, 95% CI: 0.68–1.49), small intestinal (HR: 0.70, 95% CI: 0.22–2.22), colorectal (HR: 0.95, 95% CI: 0.78–1.16), and pancreatic cancers (HR: 0.90, 95% CI: 0.47–1.75). Severe CP was not associated with an increased risk of total or individual GI cancers when compared with mild CP.


In the present review the principal strategies to chemically modify the surface of synthetic polymeric materials with small molecules for targeted cell adhesion are collated and critically discussed. The focus is purposely oriented on the chemistry involved in these modifications and neither the physical characterizations nor the activity evaluations resulting from these modifications are addressed in depth, although most reviewed examples demonstrate cell adhesion. Particularly, the introduction of a chemical anchor onto the polymeric substrate, the spacing via a linker between the polymer surface and the cell-binding motif, as well as the linkage generated on this cell-binding motif are discussed. Particular cases where variable substrate geometries or spatial patterning are achieved are additionally highlighted.


Energy recovery linacs (ERLs) have the potential to be superb coherent hard x-ray sources. ERLs are described with reference to a 5 GeV ERL design being studied at Cornell University. The properties of this ERL, and the x-ray beams that may be produced, are described and spectral curves are calculated and compared to other existing and future x-ray sources. It is shown that ERL and x-ray free electron laser (X-FEL) sources are complementary in terms of the experiments they may optimally serve. ERLs will be especially advantageous in a variety of coherent and nanobeam experiments where the sample must be repetitively probed and in cases where the samples are unique and the requisite scattering information cannot be obtained with a single X-FEL pulse. ERL strengths are elaborated relating to the very high coherent flux, inherently round beams, flexibility and quasi-continuous time structure of the sources. Examples are given where these x-ray characteristics will facilitate advancement of important 'big challenge' areas of science. New Journal of Physics 12 (2010) 035011 1367-2630/10/035011+27$30.00 © IOP Publishing Ltd and Deutsche Physikalische Gesellschaft


To the Editor. —Multiple reports have appeared in the literature during the past three years suggesting a direct relationship between cimetidine and mental confusion in selected individuals.1,2In a number of these reports, allusion has been made to the presence of concomitant factors that might have contributed to the observed alterations in mental status.3-6To illustrate the potential danger in causality assessment, we wish to report the following case. Report of a Case. —A 74-year-old man was hospitalized with upper gastrointestinal tract hemorrhages on two separate occasions within a nine-month period. During his first hospitalization, he was treated with cimetidine, and acute changes in mental status developed that were thought to be directly related to the drug. These changes included confusion, agitation, and auditory and visual hallucinations. The cimetidine administration was discontinued, and the patient's mental status returned to normal. During his second admission, he was not treated


Attention is given to software service quality measurement in the telecommunications switching environment. Environment dynamics and the composition of customer satisfaction are explained. Measurements are made at gaps in the software delivery process, and management is responsible for the success of the measurement process. It is concluded that software service quality measurement can be a strategic tool that can help increase a supplier's competitiveness. >


An integrative taxonomic analysis combining mitochondrial COI sequences, morphology, colour pattern, and two species delimitation approaches revealed existence of five lineages within the Natal mountain catfish, Amphilius natalensis, in southern Africa. These lineages are separated by substantial genetic divergences (1.6 - 9.46%), and they can be consistently distinguished from one another based on a combination of morphology and colour pattern differences. Additionally, the lineages are allopatrically distributed and confined to isolated river systems draining discrete mountain ranges, which makes gene flow among them unlikely. One of these lineages is A. natalensis s.s. which is confined to the uMngeni and Tukela river systems in KwaZulu Natal (KZN) Province in South Africa. The other four lineages represent new species to science which are described as Amphilius zuluorum sp. nov., endemic to the uMkhomazi River system in KZN; Amphilius engelbrechti sp. nov. endemic to the Inkomati River system in Mpumalanga Province in South Africa; Amphilius marshalli sp. nov. endemic to the Pungwe and Lower Zambezi river systems in Zimbabwe and Mozambique; and Amphilius leopardus sp. nov. endemic to the Ruo River in Malawi. The results showed that A. laticaudatus Skelton 1984, which is endemic to the Buzi River system in Zimbabwe and Mozambique belongs to the A. natalensis s.l. complex. A redescription of A. laticaudatus is presented and an updated identification key for the mountain catfishes of southern Africa is provided. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.


Tucupi, a product highly consumed by population living in the north of Brazil, is obtained by fermenting and cooking manipueira, which is produced from dry cassava flour. For producing the tucupi, cassava roots with high contents of hydrogen cyanide (HCN) are used, and it is hazardous product when it is consumed. This study analyzed the total and free cyanide contents during the whole processing steps of manipueira until getting the final production of tucupi. In addition, pH, total acidity and soluble solids contents were determined during the all processing steps of tucupi production. The newly extracted manipueira showed 227.8 mg HCN/L of total cyanide and 46.6 mg HCN/L of free cyanide. After being treated by fermentation, manipueira showed a decrease in HCN contents, and the values of 37.1 mg HCN/L of total cyanide and 8.9 mg HCN/L of free cyanide were found in the final product tucupi. The values of pH (3.6), total acidity (12.3 meq NaOH/100mL) and soluble solids (8.1 oBrix) were found. In this study, the tucupi did not show high contents of total and free cyanide by employing fermentation and cooking processes of manipueira.


We have performed two-photon fluorescence detection in a new scheme in which femtosecond laser pulses were delivered thorugh an optical fiber for nonlinear excitation and the emitted fluorescence was collected through the same fiber. Single-mode fibers were determined to give higher detection efficiency than multimode fibers, consistent with theoretical considerations. The utility of fiber-optic sensing based on two-photon fluorescence detection was proved by an experiment that measured the uptake of a targeted drug delivery agent into cultured cancer cells.


ANOTHER STEP has been taken toward vaccinating more preschool children. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ, is granting $9 million to develop systems for keeping track of the 1.2 million preschool children who are unimmunized or inadequately immunized against nine pediatric diseases. "This is an important concept that has become an issue for us in the past year, " says Roger Bernier, PhD, assistant director for science in the Immunization Division, Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, Ga. A registry would make it possible to track all the children in the United States and assess overall immunization coverage levels, and would include a recall and reminder system to bring back children (who have had an initial series of shots) for subsequent doses, according to Bernier. The American Academy of Pediatrics, Elk Grove Village, Ill, also has lent its support to a registry for immunization records of preschool children in the private


In mild to moderate iron deficiency anemia (IDA) where the hemoglobin concentration is above 7 g/dL, the RBC life span is normal. 1 The production of RBCs is normal in number, or, in line with the anemia, is somewhat less than normal: production is limited by the availability of iron. In a normal adult, the amount of iron required each day for new RBCs is about 20 mg, all of it recycled from internal sources, most of it from degraded hemoglobin. When the RBC mass in iron deficiency is half the normal size, the recycled iron is about 10 mg/day, almost all going into new hemoglobin. The size of the erythropoietic organ is appropriate to the metabolic state; it is not a seething, hypercellular organ—as in pernicous anemia—held in check by nutritional deficiency. It is important to appreciate the diminished condition of the marrow to understand the basis of appropriate


J. 2021. A new species of the "condylarth" Hyopsodus from the middle Eocene of the Erlian Basin, Inner Mongolia, China, and its biostratigraphic implications. Acta Palaeontologica Polonica 66 (4): 767–777. The "condylarth" genus Hyopsodus is diverse and abundantly represented in Eocene mammalian faunas of North America. In contrast, fossil specimens of Hyopsodus are rather sparse in Eurasia. Only four species of Hyopsodus are known from Asia and two from Europe, as compared to the 18 species of Hyopsodus described from North America. Here, we report a new species of Hyopsodus , Hyopsodus arshantensis sp. nov., from the middle part of the Arshanto Formation in the Erlian Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. The holotype and only specimen of the new species, a right mandible with m1–m2, exhibits a unique combination of characters on m1–m2 not present in other species of Hyopsodus , including a moderately lophodont crown, a long trigonid without a paraconid, an obliquely aligned protolophid, an angle between the cristid obliqua and the posthypocristid slightly greater than 90°, a midline position of the hypoconulid, and a relatively large entoconid. The m1–m2 morphology of H. arshantensis is intermediate between specimens of Hyopsodus from the Wasatchian and Uintan North American Land Mammal Ages (NALMA), and is comparable to that of Hyopsodus from the Bridgerian NALMA. Moreover, its relatively large size is near the size range present among the late Bridgerian species of Hyopsodus . Based on those similarities, in combination with a few fossil mammals from overlying layers, the middle part of the Arshanto Formation could be correlated in part to the late Bridgerian, and the upper part of the Arshanto Formation may bracket the time interval equivalent to the Bridgerian/Uintan boundary. That proposed correlation and somewhat different faunas recognized within the Arshanto Formation suggest that it may be necessary to subdivide the Arshantan Asian Land Mammal Age (ALMA) and/or redefine the Arshantan/Irdinmanhan ALMA boundary in future comprehensive studies.


Investigations into the Bioequivalence of Two Nifedipine Controlled-release Formulations after Single Application and in Steady State. The bioequivalence of nifedipine (CAS 21829-25-4) in controlled-release formulation (Corinfar retard dragees) was tested versus a reference preparation in 22 subjects in a cross-over design after the first dose and in steady state. Compared to the reference, the preparations tested were found to have a relative bioavailability of 0.86 and 0.95, respectively. The bioavailability parameters of the preparations tested did not differ from each other. In particular, the fluctuation indices were noted to be highly similar. In view of the marked prolonged-action effect, a twice-per-day application is possible for the majority of the patients.


The effect of presentation type on organization in visuospatial working memory (VSWM) was examined. Stimuli were presented sequentially or simultaneously at study, and participants made same/different judgements at test. The test array varied in four different spatial configuration conditions: one featuring no changes from study, one in which two items switched, one in which the same array repeated but in a different location, and one in which a completely novel test stimulus appeared. Results indicated the use of a global configuration for both simultaneous and sequential presentations and showed increased impairment of item-level knowledge with sequential presentations. Overall, these results support the use of a global configuration organization as a fundamental aspect of VSWM processing.


Implicit information embedded in semantic Web graphs, such as topography, clusters, and disconnected subgraphs is difficult to extract from text files. Visualizations of the graphs can reveal some of these features, but existing systems for visualizing metadata focus on aspects other than understanding the greater structure. We present a tool for generating visualizations of ontologies and metadata by using a modified spring embedder to achieve an automatic layout. Through a case study using a mid-sized ontology, we show that interesting information about the data relationships can be extracted through our visualization of the physical graph structure.


Auxiliary liver transplantation has been performed in the baboon using allografts (n = 8) and concordant xenografts from donor African green monkeys (n = 8). The native portal vein was ligated in all cases and the native common bile duct was ligated in 5 cases. The immunosuppressive therapy used was identical in both the allografts and xenografts and consisted of triple drug therapy (cyclosporine, cyclophosphamide, and methylprednisolone), all at dosages consistent with clinical use. During the determination of the surgical technique to be applied, there were 5 early failures (3 allografts, 2 xenografts), and 2 deaths at 10 and 20 days from multiorgan failure and sepsis, respectively (xenografts). The remaining 9 baboons (5 allografts, 4 xenografts) were electively euthanized at 16-62 days (allografts) and 35-120 days (xenografts). Hyperacute rejection or antibody-mediated rejection was not seen in the grafted livers. Episodes of acute cellular rejection occurred in the majority of animals within the first 30 days and recurred in the longer-term survivors, but could be controlled by bolus therapy with intravenous methylprednisolone. Satisfactory donor liver function was confirmed using a number of tests, including scintigraphy in 3 cases. We conclude that auxiliary liver transplantation using a closely related donor species is feasible in baboons and might be extended to humans with terminal liver failure. A baboon-to-man auxiliary liver graft may serve as a "bridge" until either a human cadaver donor liver became available or native liver function recovers in patients with fulminant hepatic failure.


Frequency analysis of seismic magnetic tape records from a 500-ton high-explosive source shows a pronounced variation of amplitude with frequency for two different azimuths from the source. This amplitude variation is attributed, at least in part, to diffraction effects produced by the geologic structure in the vicinity of the source. The possibility of generating both SV and SH waves from P waves within this structure seems very probable.


In this paper we examine the importance of local spillovers such as network externalities and learning from others in the diffusion of home computers using data on 110,000 U.S. households in 1997. Controlling for many individual characteristics, we find that people are more likely to buy their first home computer in areas where a high fraction of households already own computers or when a large share of their friends and family own computers. Further results suggest that these patterns are unlikely to be explained by city-specific unobserved traits. Looked at in more detail, the spillovers appear to come from experienced and intensive computer users. They are not associated with the use of any particular type of software but do seem to be highly tied to the use of e-mail and the Internet, consistent with computers being part of a local information and communications network.


A method is described for measuring the specular optical reflectance R( phi ) of the interface between a fluid and a glass prism, the incident and reflected light being in the glass, and the angle of incidence phi being varied about the critical angle. Transparent, absorbing and some turbid fluids give R( phi ) dose to theoretical predictions, and experimental reflectance data are analysed to give the real (n') and imaginary (n") refractive indices of the fluid. Other turbid fluids gave R( phi ) data that differed strongly from theoretical expectation. This is attributed to heterogeneity of the fluid on the optical wavelength scale, and problems of refractometry for such fluids are discussed.


The principles, characteristics and application of GC/AED in environmental analysis are summarized in this paper. The organochlorine, organophosphorus, organonitrogen and organosulfur pesticides in the surface water at 1μg/L level were analyzed. 25 elements including carbon, sulfur, phosphorus, chlorine and nitrogen may be determined by using AED. Usually several different conventional selective detectors such as electron capture detector (ECD), nitrogen phosphorus detector (NPD), flame photometric detector (FPD) or Hall electrolytic eonduetivity detector are required to detect the heteroatoms in the pesticides mentioned above.


Many countries, from the US to Australia, are now interested in implementing stand-by power energy label for household appliances, in stages, until the 1-W (watt) target is achieved. TV sets consuming 1-W power are widely available in the developed nations. In a developing country like Malaysia, however, the penetration of 1-W stand-by power TV is very low and unless a mandatory label programme is introduced, the degree of penetration is not likely to rise. This paper attempts to calculate the emission pollutants reduction and the energy savings by implementing the 1-W stand-by power label for TV sets in Malaysia. It is estimated that this effort will enable CO2 (carbon dioxide) emissions reduction of 1477.7 kT (kilo tonnes), NOx (oxides of nitrogen) reduction of 4673.0 tonnes, and CO (carbon monoxide) reduction of 763.7 tonnes in the country during the energy label period of 20 years. Additionally, Malaysia will benefit from energy savings of approximately, 2794.9 GWh (gigawatt hours).


This article presents the results of seismic shear wave velocity (V S ) measurements using the CSWS/SAWS ( Continuous Surface Wave System/Spectral Analysis of Surface Waves ) and SDMT ( seismic flat dilatometer ) methods, as well as BET ( Bender Elements Test ), on an experimental test site (and samples taken from it). The test site, a geologically relatively uniform alluvial sand formation area, was carefully chosen and checked for uniformity by means of drillings and soundings. The research aimed to determine how results from indirect, non-invasive surface geophysical tests (SASW and CSWS) correspond with those from SDMT penetration tests as well as the BET laboratory seismic method, and how some methodological aspects can influence them. Different wave sources and frequency were examined as the main factors for interpretation. The influence of other examined factors is also discussed.


This is an analysis of voting trends in urban India since 1952. Urban and rural constituencies are compared on the basis of politicization radicalization and polarization. With regional variations Indias urban constituencies are more politicized than the rural areas. Political participation in urban areas is linked to turnout patterns in the surrounding countryside. Electoral trends from 1952-1972 show rural and urban areas converging with respect to political participation levels. Radicalism in urban areas is also linked to patterns in the neighboring rural areas but higher. Polarization i.e. closeness of electoral results is higher in urban areas. With respect to both polarization and radicalization voting trends for the 1952-1972 period show urban areas becoming more distinctive and less like their neighboring rural areas. Graphs and tables present the data from this political analysis.


The current and magnetic and electric field distributions and the energy loss are calculated for a twisted wire made up of an in situ superconductor placed in a variable transverse magnetic field. The composite is assumed to be electrically isotropic in the direction transverse to the filaments. The conditions are found under which the twist affects significantly the loss in the in situ wire. In calculations both the superconducting and resistive components of the transverse current are taken into account. The results obtained are valid in a wide range of external magnetic field rates of change.


Due to the inevitable drawbacks of the implantable electrical pacemaker, the biological pacemaker was believed to be an alternative therapy for heart failure. Previous experimental studies have shown that biological pacemaker could be produced by genetically manipulating non-pacemaking cardiac cells by suppressing the inward rectifier potassium current (IK1) and expressing the hyperpolarization- activated current (If). However, the role of If in such bio-engineered pacemaker is not clear. In this study, we simulated the action potential of biological pacemaker cells by manipulating If-IK1 parameters (i.e., inhibiting IK1 as well as incorporating If) to analyze possible mechanisms by which different If densities control pacemaking action potentials. Our simulation results showed different pacing mechanism between the bioengineered pacemaking cells with and without If. In addition, it was shown that a greater If density might result in a slower pacing frequency, and excessive of it might produce an early-afterdepolarizations-like action potential due to a sudden release of calcium from sarcoplasmic reticulum into the cytoplasm. This study indicated that when IK1 was significantly suppressed, incorporating If may not enhance the pacing ability of biological pacemaker, but lead to abnormal dynamics of intracellular ionic concentration, increasing risks of dysrhythmia in the heart.


Don't miss "Ultimate Grand Rounds: Challenges in Cataract Surgery and Corneal Disease" (Sunday, Oct. 24, 10:40 a.m. to 12:10 p.m.), which is an exciting new session on cataract surgery and corneal disease. It will feature debates on case studies covering topics such as capsular tension rings, vitreous loss, multifocal IOLs, pterygium, herpes, dry eye, management of Fuchs' dystrophy, and cataract.


Abstract. One characteristic of biogeochemical models is uncertainty about their
formulation. Data assimilation should take this uncertainty into
account. A common approach is to use an ensemble of models. We must
assign probabilities not only to the parameters of the models but also to the
models themselves. The
method of hierarchical modelling allows us to calculate these
probabilities. This paper describes the approach, develops the algebra
for the most common case and then applies it to the Atmospheric Tracer Transport Model Intercomparison Project (TransCom). We see that the discrimination among models is
unrealistically strong, due to optimistic assumptions inherent in the
underlying inversion. The weighted ensemble means and variances from the
hierarchical approach are quite similar to the conventional values
because the best model in the ensemble is also quite close to the
ensemble mean. The approach can also be used for cross-validation in
which some data are held back to test estimates obtained with the rest. We
demonstrate this with a test of the TransCom inversions holding back
the airborne data. We see a slight decrease in the tropical sink and a
notably different preferred order of models.


REFERENCES 1. Swinburn BA, Sacks G, Lo SK, et al. Estimating the changes in ''energy flux'' that characterise the rise in obesity prevalence. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;89:1723–8. 2. Kleiber M. Body size and metabolic rate. Physiol Rev 1947;27:511–41. 3. Swinburn B, Sacks G, Ravussin E. Reply to KD Hall and CC Chow. Am J Clin Nutr 2010;91:3:817. 4. Hall KD, Guo J, Dore M, Chow CC. The progressive increase of food waste in America and its environmental impact. PLoS One 2009;4: e7940.doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0007940. 5. Hall KD, Jordan PN. Modeling weight loss maintenance to help prevent body weight gain. Am J Clin Nutr 2008;88:1495–503. 6. Swinburn BA, Jolley D, Kremer PJ, Salbe AD, Ravussin E. Estimating the effects of energy of energy imbalance on changes in body weight in children. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;83:859–63. 7. Swinburn B, Sacks G, Ravussin E. Increased food energy supply is more than sufficient to explain the US epidemic of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr 2009;90:1453–6. 8. Rosenbaum M, Ravussin E, Mathews DE, et al. A comparative study of different means of assessing long-term energy expenditure in humans. Am J Physiol 1996;270:R496–504. 9. Trabulsi J, Troiano RP, Subar AF, et al. Precision of the doubly labeled water method in a large-scale application: evaluation of a streamlineddosing protocol in the Observing Protein and Energy Nutrition (OPEN) study. Eur J Clin Nutr 2003;57:1370–7. 10. Schoeller DA, Hnilicka JM. Reliability of the doubly labeled water method for the measurement of total daily energy expenditure in freeliving subjects. J Nutr 1996;126:348S–54S.


Phase inversion technique has been utilized to prepare Poly (vinylidene fluoride-co-hexafluoropropylene) PVDF-
co-HFP, hollow fiber membranes. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP) with 9 wt. %. added as a pore former additives to the
polymer dope solution. Characteristics of the PVDF-co-HFP hollow fiber membrane with / without PVP particles have
been studied. It was found that the membrane prepared without PVP additives has a low porosity and a high contact angle. Existence the PVP additives of 9 wt. % causing the increase of the membrane porosity by 28 %.Whilst increase PVP content resulting in decrease of membrane hydrophobicity. MD experiment was done using a direct contact membrane distillation (DCMD) configuration as crucial test to investigate performance of product PVDF-co-HFP hollow fiber membrane. Increase the amount of PVP to 9 wt. % in dope solution, this in turn leads to an increased the permeate flux from of 4.5 to 15.8 Kg/m2.h at 70 oC The effect of operating conditions such as feed temperature, concentration of feed solution and permeate flow pattern on the performance flux of the hollow fiber membranes were studied.


While the majority of patients with brachial plexus birth palsy (BPBP) demonstrate spontaneous recovery, some will have persistent neurological deficits and functional limitations. Microsurgical repair and/or reconstruction of the brachial plexus are often recommended for these patients; however, the optimal timing of microsurgery is unknown. Furthermore, the long-term outcomes of microsurgery, as compared with natural history and secondary reconstructive surgery, are unknown. The purpose of this article is to present the rationale for the multicenter prospective study of the treatment of BPBP. The current study protocol is provided.


The study aimed to examine the relationship between wellbeing, burden, distress and third-wave factors, including self-compassion and psychological flexibility, in caregivers of people with psychosis. The study secondly aimed to trial a new brief group intervention, combining Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) and Compassion-focused Therapy (CFT) for this population.
Twenty-nine participants were assessed at baseline on primary measures of wellbeing, distress, psychological flexibility and self-compassion. Secondary factors including burden and mindfulness were also collected. Correlation analyses were used. Fourteen participants completed the group in intervention and follow-up measures, and pre-post investigations were employed.
Lower levels of psychological flexibility and self-compassion were related to lower levels of wellbeing and higher levels of burden and distress. There was a potential mediating effect of psychological flexibility on the relationship between self-compassion and wellbeing. The group intervention was acceptable to caregivers, and there were significant positive changes in self-compassion, distress, burden and mindfulness.
The study adds to the existing data regarding wellbeing and burden in caregivers of people with psychosis. This study provides new insights into the factors of self-compassion and psychological flexibility within this population. The ACT with Compassion intervention is a promising, brief intervention which would benefit from further application and evaluation.


Plan for tax-collection aims at tax payers realizing their benefit after paying tax,but it necessaryly contains risks.The paper suggests should uphold risk awareness,study carefully all factors which can result in risk,take effective measures so as to protect and lessen risks while planning for tax collection.


In this paper we study the effect of using information about (partial) symmetries for the minimization of reduced ordered binary decision diagrams (ROBDD's). The influence of symmetries for the integration in dynamic variable ordering is studied for both completely and incompletely specified Boolean functions. The problems above are studied from a theoretical and practical point of view. Statistical results and benchmark results are reported to underline the efficiency of the approach. They prove that our techniques lead to improvements of the ROBDD sizes by up to 70%.


In this paper, it is shown how a single-layer capacitive feeding mechanism, consisting of a small rectangular probe-fed patch, which is capacitively coupled to the radiating element, can be used to obtain wideband operation for probe-fed microstrip antennas on thick substrates. The main advantages of this feeding mechanism are that all the elements reside on a single layer and that it is very easy to fine-tune the input impedance. Calculated as well as measured results for rectangular, circular and annular-ring geometries are included.


Few-shot segmentation (FSS) methods perform image segmentation for a particular object class in a target (query) image, using a small set of (support) image-mask pairs. Recent deep neural network based FSS methods leverage high-dimensional feature similarity between the foreground features of the support images and the query image features. In this work, we demonstrate gaps in the utilization of this similarity information in existing methods, and present a framework - SimPropNet, to bridge those gaps. We propose to jointly predict the support and query masks to force the support features to share characteristics with the query features. We also propose to utilize similarities in the background regions of the query and support images using a novel foreground-background attentive fusion mechanism. Our method achieves state-of-the-art results for one-shot and five-shot segmentation on the PASCAL-5i dataset. The paper includes detailed analysis and ablation studies for the proposed improvements and quantitative comparisons with contemporary methods.


Online social networks have been used for a variety of rich activities in recent years, such as investigating potential employees and seeking recommendations of high quality services and service providers. In such activities, trust is one of the most critical factors for the decision-making of users. In the literature, the state-of-the-art trust prediction approaches focus on either dispositional trust tendency and propagated trust of the pair-wise trust relationships along a path or the similarity of trust rating values. However, there are other influential factors that should be taken into account, such as the similarity of the trust rating distributions. In addition, tendency, propagated trust and similarity are of different types, as either personal properties or interpersonal properties. But the difference has been neglected in existing models. Therefore, in trust prediction, it is necessary to take all the above factors into consideration in modeling, and process them separately and differently. In this paper we propose a new trust prediction model based on trust decomposition and matrix factorization, considering all the above influential factors and differentiating both personal and interpersonal properties. In this model, we first decompose trust into trust tendency and tendency-reduced trust. Then, based on tendency-reduced trust ratings, matrix factorization with a regularization term is leveraged to predict the tendency-reduced values of missing trust ratings, incorporating both propagated trust and the similarity of users' rating habits. In the end, the missing trust ratings are composed with predicted tendency-reduced values and trust tendency values. Experiments conducted on a real-world dataset illustrate significant improvement delivered by our approach in trust prediction accuracy over the state-of-the-art approaches.


While the late President Kennedy held public office, an aura of mystery prevailed regarding his endocrine status. During his campaign for, and brief tenure of, the presidency, rumors circulated that he suffered from chronic adrenocortical insufficiency (Addison's disease). Credence was given to these rumors by failure of his attending physicians to deny the allegations. Since his death, speculation continues partially related to failure of federal officials to release pertinent data. 1,2 This is in marked contrast to the intimate details of President Eisenhower's several illnesses which were given wide dissemination in various news media. The moral and ethical issues were carefully considered by Lt Gen L. D. Heaton and his associates 3 when they concluded the world had a right to know of the medical details of President Eisenhower's operation for regional enteritis. President Eisenhower agreed with this. This writer also agrees that the public is entitled to knowledge of


The physiologic relationship between the thyroid and parathyroid glands remains poorly understood. A high incidence of coexistent thyroid disease and primary hyperparathyroidism has been well documented. Elevation of serum 1,25-dihydroxyvitamin D3 (vitamin D) has been detected in some patients with primary hyperparathyroidism. A report of specific binding sites and uptake of vitamin D by the thyrotrophs of the anterior pituitary indicates that vitamin D may modulate production or secretion of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH). To test this concept, we investigated the influence of elevated serum levels of vitamin D on basal and stimulated TSH. Vitamin D was administered by subcutaneously implanted sustained-release pellets at four dosages. Thyrotropin releasing hormone (TRH) stimulation tests were performed at time zero, 72 hours, 1 week, 2 weeks, and 5 weeks. Animals administered vitamin D became significantly hypercalcemic and demonstrated elevations of vitamin D, which peaked at 72 hours and remained elevated for 2 weeks after pellet implantation. TRH-stimulated TSH levels were significantly elevated at 72 hours and at 1 week and returned to normal after 5 weeks. Parathyroid hormone levels were suppressed at 72 hours and at 1 week and displayed significant elevation at 2 weeks. These results provide in vivo evidence for an interaction and a possible regulatory role of 1,25 on pituitary TSH secretion and parathyroid function.


This article, written by JPT Technology Editor Judy Feder, contains highlights of paper SPE 193342, "Development and Testing of Low-Friction-Coated Centralizers for Ultra-ERD Completions," by Lei Wang, Jeffrey R. Bailey, SPE, Srinivasan Rajagopalan, Adnan Ozekcin, and Matthew Prim, ExxonMobil, prepared for the 2018 Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition and Conference, 12–15 November, Abu Dhabi. The paper has not been peer reviewed.
 Friction can pose major limitations on well length in ultraextended-reach-drilling (ultra-ERD) well completions. Centralizers coated with diamond-like carbon (DLC) coatings have been developed to provide operational advantages for these ultra-ERD applications. While drilling, pipe can be rotated to release friction, but in completion operations this may not be possible. Although pipe can be air-filled to provide buoyancy, there are many examples of screens and perforated pipe that cannot be floated. The complete paper documents the development, laboratory- and field testing, and lessons learned from a project to evaluate coated centralizers.
 Project Summary
 The project began with evaluation of currently available centralizers made of a hard material to support the thin, low-friction-coating layer. This led to selection of an inexpensive cast-iron centralizer that required machining and polishing before coating. Next, the project team selected the coating chemistry, layer hierarchy and functionality, and interlayer properties, applying knowledge from an artificial-lift application. Multiple coating compositions had previously been evaluated for friction and wear characteristics in block-on-ring laboratory tests.•
 Prototypes of the new centralizer with selected coatings were tested against commercially available centralizers in a laboratory environment to assess the friction-reduction potential of the coated centralizers. Tests were performed to measure the coefficient of friction (COF) of the coated centralizers against other types of uncoated tools made of cast iron, zinc alloy, pressed spring steel, and polymer under wet conditions in simulated cased and openhole conditions. The DLC-coated centralizers yielded the lowest COF overall when compared with existing tools.
 Following the promising laboratory results, the first field test was conducted in an onshore, unconventional horizontal well with high doglegs, for which the data showed very low friction over a 1,900-ft openhole interval. A second field trial was conducted in an offshore ERD well in a liner-running application. In this test, a stable low friction factor of 0.10 was observed over a 13,000-ft deviated section at 75°, measurably lower than the offset friction factor (FF) of 0.15. Both tests demonstrated intervals of very low friction; however, both experienced drag that might be the result of cuttings. To address this problem, a redesign based on a slicker centralizer profile has been prototyped. This new centralizer also requires less polishing and offers an inherently hard substrate that is beneficial to coating durability.
 Introduction
 An idea to use the low-friction properties of diamond-like surfaces in up-stream applications took root more than 10 years ago. Through various cycles of planning, testing, development, and field trials, the evaluation of multilayered thin-film coatings progressed from concept development to laboratory testing and, ultimately, field trials. One application to sucker rod couplings has progressed to early commercialization. This application primarily benefits from the wear resistance of the DLC coating and uses "counterface friendliness" by which the coating protects the counterface surface from wear.


ABSTRACT After the conferences in Bretton Woods (1944) and San Francisco (1945), and especially with the implementation of widespread technical assistance policies of the Point Four Program (1949), teams of experts composed primarily of architects, but also economists, sociologists and anthropologists, began to gravitate around supranational organizations such as the United Nations, the World Bank and the Ford and Rockefeller Foundations. A key centre of their interest was the new independent world that emerged from colonial rule and stepped onto the global stage in search of legitimacy and technical emancipation. The modernization of the so-called Third World, a flagship of international policy in the early 1960s, opened the door to a holistic and intrinsically global approach. Building on this foundation, this monographic issue of Planning Perspectives aims to investigate the role supranational organizations played in the architecture discourse and the rise of 'global experts' especially, but not exclusively, in the aftermath of the Second World War. Researchers draw on case studies such as development plans and housing schemes, but also events related to dissemination or training in order to frame the profile of the 'global expert', the role of supernational institutions and the legacy of their actions in the contemporary world.


The structures, especially bridges, are strategic elements of a network of road, railway or inland waterway infrastructures. They are constantly exposed to aggressive environments, to the aging of their equipments and their constituent materials, to the degradation of their structural elements and to changes in operating conditions. These latter are characterized by an increase of the traffic, by heavier loads and by more abnormal loads. These factors amplify the effect of potential errors in design or construction, or the consequences of accidental damages such as vehicle impacts. The preservation of a long lasting patrimony of structures requires a management policy that includes not only actions of maintenance, repair, strengthening and rehabilitation, but also actions for limiting and even stopping the operation of structures, for installing a safety monitoring, or for immediate safeguarding. These actions are only relevant when appropriate procedures and methods exist to assess the residual load carrying capacity, the serviceability and durability of the structure. Structural Health Monitoring is one of the important tools available to the manager of a patrimony in order to evaluate the structural performance of the bridges, or alternatively to have an objective and relevant vision of their condition. Referring to the S3 project initiated by Ifsttar in 2007, Structural Health Monitoring can be divided into three themes: the monitoring by itself or operational monitoring which includes instrumentation, measurement and management of information; the diagnosis which consists of processing data collected during the monitoring phase (performance indicators, discrimination tests, alert thresholds,...); the structural identification whose objective is to provide predictive information on the structure behavior (resistance, life duration,...) which is integrated into the management system. Although the structural health monitoring is not yet common practice, it is already applied for exceptional structures (Normandy Bridge, Millau Viaduct) or for strategic structures (dams, nuclear power plants...) and it is developing for large structures. Weak maintenance budgets, often minimized to excess..., do not facilitate the deployment of this approach, but a significant growth in the market for structural health monitoring has still been felt in recent years. However, recent advances in SHM concepts and technologies pave the ground to large-scale deployments by just providing increasingly affordable monitoring capabilities and services. Actually, multiscale monitoring, low(er) cost fiber optics, nanosensing construction materials or nanoelectronics as well as embedded computing for damage detection and SHM at large will change the perspective to effective deployment. Moreover, new markets for SHM technologies with higher pay-off expectations and more convincing RoI are emerging as potential key-drivers. From the theoretical point of view, potential large-scale deployments also raise new questions and opportunities at the frontier of state, data, and parameters. The talk will report on a combined view of SHM trends and opportunities for transportation and other infrastructure networks.


Our idea of the house starts very early in life. A house is where we grow up, and holds many memories of family times together and meals shared. It's where, as children, we watch and learn the arts of cooking and gardening, and the preciousness of books and music. In Janne and Harley's experience, the success of the house comes from the owner. If the house is tailored to meet the needs of its occupants, it is one that shouts wellbeing, easy comfort and happiness. It is the one place you can make uniquely your own. 'The Making of a House' takes you on a journey through a typical house, from first impressions at the front door, and then through each room for ideas on how to simulate effects and put together a theme. The result is comfortable rooms that are well lived in. As designers Janne and Harley are aware that no two families share the same requirements, so the book offers a range of possible options for decoration and design. Though different, the philosophy of each is the same: your ideas and personality must shine through. Forget the rules, and think about how you want to use the rooms: is it for work, sanctuary, family or a combination? The Making of a House shows you fully resolved interior spaces and then deconstructs them, room by room, to reveal the building blocks that were brought together to make the rooms work. The components you see in a typical room - the paint colour, chairs, tables and accessories - are identified, and a directory and buying guide will help you locate the items.


Based on some assumptions that defined clinic and following Jacques Lacan's recommendations, this study aimed to situate the field of intervention of professionals who work with language. For that, we point out the dualist conceptions stumbling blocks, removing the risk of marking the intervention of these professionals as a palliative measure for effects that would occur in the somatic sphere. Finding out what does not work with the term "hole", whose connection with speech would constitute Psychoanalysis, we use a clinical fragment in order to show, not its (impossible) elimination, but how it can be used to guide research.


The present invention provides formulations and methods for the stabilization of antibodies. In one embodiment, the invention provides the stable solution formulation of an IgG1 antibody that specifically binds to insulin-like growth factor-I receptor. In another embodiment, the invention provides methods of stabilization of IgG1 antibody that specifically binds to insulin-like growth factor-I receptor comprising lyophilizing an aqueous formulation of the antibody. The formulations can be lyophilized to stabilize the antibodies during processing and storage, and then the formulations can be reconstituted for pharmaceutical administration.


Mental illnesses contribute to substantial morbidity in the population. Education for prevention and control of mental illnesses is mandatory. Psychoeducation is the specialized education that comprises of educational endeavors directed toward the patients and their families with an aim to help prevent relapse of mental illnesses and restoration of health for mentally ill patients. Several studies have proven the value of psychoeducation in prevention and control of mental illnesses ranging from depression to schizophrenia. Psychoeducation helps the mentally ill by improving treatment adherence. Psychoeducation is a subset of health education. Psychoeducation imparted by medical professionals due to insufficient training, insufficient resources and insufficient time is at best modest. Therefore, health educators who have specialized training in health education are very well suited for psychoeducation. However, the amount of training currently being offered in many health education programs nationwide at the undergraduate and the graduate level is not sufficient to qualify the educator for dealing with mental illnesses. More course work in mental illnesses and their prevention needs to be in place. Also prospective studies need to be designed for testing the efficacy of health educators in psychoeducation. Finally incorporation of behavioral theories to psychoeducation by the profession of health education will make it more effective.


Human papillomavirus (HPV) is a common sexually transmitted infection in the United States associated with nearly 26,000 cases of cancer annually. With the recent addition of Gardasil 9, three vaccines are now licensed by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and recommended by the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) for HPV prevention. While providers are the preferred source in educating individuals on HPV and HPV vaccination, low uptake percentages indicate that providers are missing valuable opportunities to educate and strongly recommend HPV vaccination. It is critical to examine perceived barriers and attitudes among providers related to HPV and HPV vaccination to identify factors that influence vaccination coverage. This paper aims to expand provider knowledge and awareness of factors that may facilitate an increase in HPV vaccination coverage and subsequent cancer prevention.


The author examines two ideological components of socio-ethical or moralist policy concerned with the control of fertility regulation. In particular, he examines how leaders of society in the past attempted to control sexual behavior in that society, particularly among the poor. The implications of such attempts for the development and acceptance of fertility control are considered


Abstract: In this modern world where contemporary educators are now dwelling in an ever-changing domain of corporate trends, innovations, transformation and improvements, it is, therefore, substantial to identify whether the programs offered by our academic institution can adapt to these moving developments. This objective can be achieved by following and tracing the arrays of our graduates. This study delved at tracing the graduates of Bachelor of Science in Criminology of Nueva Ecija University of Science and Technology for Academic Year 2015–2016. In order to provide adequate and reliable information for the evaluation of the study, the descriptive method of research was used by the researcher to facilitate the gathering of information on the traceability of the abovementioned graduates. Results have shown that the majority of the graduates were male which means that the program is a male-dominated program. Furthermore, it was found out that at the present time, the majority of the graduates were employed under permanent status. It is also good to note that majority of the respondents were able to serve the country under their purpose due to the fact that majority of the criminology graduates were connected to different law enforcement agencies like the Philippine National Police, Bureau of Fire Protection and Bureau of Jail Management and Penology. It was also discovered that the majority of the respondents were able to get hired within six months after graduation. It can be concluded that the skills they have acquired from the college are relevant to their present job since these agencies found the need to hire them. It is recommended that the college should continue to make interventions in order to upkeep the performance of their graduates not just in the board exam but also in getting a better opportunity after passing the board exam and that is through improvement of the curriculum to make it more relevant for the better future of the graduates in order to achieve full employment of their products. The Alumni and Placement Services of the university should also intercede and help the graduates of the university in general and the College of Criminology in specific to give assistance to the graduates in terms of proper job placement and employment to minimize underemployment of its graduates.


The one-electron oxidation of DNA leads to formation of a nucleo-base radical cation that can migrate to a distant site where it is trapped by H2O or O2 to form a "damaged" guanine that is revealed as strand cleavage when the irradiated sample is treated with piperidine. We prepared a series of alkyl-substituted spermine derivatives and assessed their effect on the oxidative reactions of DNA induced by photoexcitation of a covalently linked anthraquinone derivative. The spermine compounds are polycations and bind nonselectively to DNA. When the spermine derivative is substituted with C8 alkyl chains, it shows lipid-like properties. The reaction of the radical cation at guanine is affected by this lipid-like spermine. The distance dependence of the migration process becomes weaker, and the efficiency of strand cleavage is reduced. These results are attributed to the formation of a hydrophobic layer on the DNA that restricts access of H2O to the nucleo-base radical cation.


'Embedded phenomena' is a learning technology framework in which simulated scientific phenomena are mapped onto the physical space of classrooms. Students monitor and control the local state of the simulation through distributed media positioned around the room, gathering and aggregating evidence to solve problems or answer questions related to those phenomena. Embedded phenomena are persistent, running continuously over weeks and months, creating information channels that are temporally and physically interleaved with, but asynchronous with respect to, the regular flow of instruction. In this paper, we describe the motivations for the framework, describe classroom experiences with three embedded phenomena in the domains of seismology, insect ecology, and astronomy, and situate embedded phenomena within the context of human-computer interaction research in co-located group interfaces and learning technologies.


The area of supramolecular self-assembly has received significant interest in recent years and a key area in the advancement of this field is the development of supramolecular tectons which are selective and directional in their intermolecular interactions. The four DNA nucleobases; adenine, thymine, guanine and cytosine all interact via complementary, selective and directional hydrogen bonds and have been used extensively in the design of supramolecular systems. These hydrogen bonding interactions and the effect of any substituents are studied further in both the solid and solution phases using an array of functionalised DNA nucleobases. Porphyrins substituted in the meso position by select nucleobases are synthesised and progress has been made towards the synthesis of porphyrins bearing multiple different nucleobases. This process involves either a modified Lindsey porphyrin synthesis route or a series of stoichiometric functionalisations via selective cross-coupling reactions. Finally, the self-assembly of these DNA-functionalised porphyrins is studied. Single-component supramolecular porous networks of Zn-tetra-thymineporphyrin and tetra-adenineporphyrinporphyrin are imaged and hydrogen bonding interactions are found between the molecules and modelled appropriately. These thymine and adenine-functionalised porphyrins are mixed in a 1:1 ratio and a chess-board hyrogen bonding network was formed, based on the complementary A-T hydrogen bonding interaction. This result provides promise that selective supramolecular systems can be studied with guanine and cytosine-functionalised porphryins.


ABSTRACT Lavaca Bay field, located in Calhoun County, Texas, covers approximately 7 mi2 and contains 35 wells that produce from the downdip Greta Carancahua Barrier/Strandplain System of the lower to upper Frio Formation. Since 1964, 19 gas reservoirs have been discovered that have total annual and cumulative productions of 5 and 65 Bcf, respectively; each reservoir is produced by 1 to 3 wells. This paper discusses the detailed stratigraphic-structural interpretation of the Frio section in Lavaca Bay field, specifically emphasizing the three-dimensional architecture of the reservoirs, as well as the flow character within each reservoir. Using the lithofacies interpretation and correlation of 125 well logs of Lavaca Bay and surrounding fields, the Frio Formation (6500 ft thick on average) was divided into nine principal depositional sequences, which were subdivided into component sandstone/shale units. In general, the vertical well log profiles of the depositional sequences show a progradational-aggradational character; the component sandstone/shale units are predominantly transgressive in the lower Frio (sequences I through III) and regressive in the middle-upper Frio (sequences IV through V and VI through IX). The boundary between sequences III and IV provides a well-defined well log signature and is inferred to represent a major sea-level fluctuation. Thickness variation within each unit in sequences I through IV reflects the influence of major growth faulting; however, units of sequences V through IX are only offset by postdepositional displacements of such faulting. Each sandstone/shale unit was characterized by well log and production parameters, including depth to top; total thickness; net-sand thickness (h); relative deflections of spontaneous potential (SP), gamma-ray (GR), and resistivity (R) curves; and initial flow potential. The parameters that were normalized for each well, and some numerical relationships between them, were mapped and compared. Correlative and distinctive trends of thickness, net-sand, and production isolines provided guides for defining individual reservoirs and their structural and fluid boundaries; isoline trends of netsand, SP and GR, and R maps defined internal facies and stratigraphic boundaries of the reservoirs. Extrapolation of these distinctive map trends, supported by the three-dimensional geometry of the sandstone/shale units and their reservoirs, defined prospective intervals and areas for additional hydrocarbon production on each unit. For each unit and its contained reservoirs, the maps of SP and GR relative deflections were considered to represent qualitative values of lithofacies permeability, and therefore (SP)(h) to represent their qualitative values of flow capacity and (SP)(h)(R) to represent their qualitative values of hydrocarbon flow potential; these maps will guide the infilling well program in individual reservoirs. This procedure for characterizing the flow quality of reservoirs from well log parameters is a powerful and practical technique that is validated when core permeability correlates with SP or GR deflection, or both, or (SP)(h) correlates with (K)(h) obtained from transient pressure analysis or with initial production potential. In such cases the qualitative value of well log parameters can be transformed into quantitative values. End_of_Record - Last_Page 561-------


Background There is evidence that release of endogenous nucleic acids may trigger autoimmune reactions crucially involved in the induction of systemic autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus or rheumatoid arthritis (RA). In recent years, endosomal toll-like receptors (TLRs – TLR3, TLR7, TLR8 and TLR9) have been implicated in autoimmune processes due to their ability to recognise these nucleic acids. Objective To study the role of TLR7 and TLR9 in the pathogenesis of erosive arthritis by antagonising them in the pristane-induced arthritis (PIA) model in DA rats. Methods Different immunoregulatory sequences (IRS) known to inhibit TLR7 and/or TLR9 activity were investigated in cultured rat splenocytes. Using the PIA model, these IRS were also tested for their efficiency in inhibiting arthritis development compared to placebo animals. The IRS' were applied twice a week subcutaneously at the base of the tail. Weight changes were measured during the experiment and arthritis was assessed using an established scoring system. Expression of TLRs was analysed in paws, lymph nodes and spleen by Western blotting, reverse transcription-PCR and immunohistochemistry. Results IRS specific for TLR7, TLR9 or TLR7/9 inhibited in a dose-dependent manner production of pro-inflammatory cytokines in rat splenocytes preactivated by TLR specific stimulators. However, neither the TLR7 specific inhibitor nor the inhibitor targeting TLR7 and TLR9 showed an effect on incidence and severity of PIA. Remarkably however, antagonising TLR9 alone led to delayed disease onset and reduced arthritis severity, which was accompanied by diminished TLR9 protein expression levels in paws and lymph nodes compared to the phosphate-buffered saline treated control animals. Conclusion The authors' first in vitro and in vivo results indicate a potential involvement of TLR9 in the initiation of inflammatory arthritis pointing to a possible new therapeutic option in the treatment of RA.


ABSTRACT The study examines the causal nexus between energy use, environmental pollution, GDP per capita, and urbanization in order to forecast Nigeria's energy use by 2030. Employing a time-series data spanning from 1971 to 2012, a linear regression analysis is used to examine the causal relationship among the study variables and subsequently forecasted Nigeria's energy use with the ARIMA and ETS models. Evidence from the study shows that a 1% increase in energy use increases carbon dioxide emissions by 3%, while a 1% increase in economic growth increases carbon dioxide emissions by 0.18%. Evidence from both the ARIMA and ETS models shows an increase of energy use from 795 kg per oil equivalent per capita in 2012 to 915 kg per oil equivalent per capita in 2030.


Many economic models of the family are based on a generic "person 1 - person 2" household or "parent - child" family, rather than their anatomically correct counterparts: sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, and grandfathers and grandmothers. These economic models can offer powerful insights into family behavior, but also can leave certain patterns unexplained and neglect potentially important crosscurrents. "Bio-founded" approaches explicitly consider sex differences in reproductive capabilities and constraints, and can illuminate differences in the goals and interests of men versus women regarding preferences for a mate, decisions to marry or to terminate a marriage, how much to invest in a relationship, how much to invest in children, and how much to value the quality relative to the quantity of children Melding biological insights with family economics can cast new light on existing knowledge and open up novel paths for research. This paper generates biologically based hypotheses about family behavior by using Hamilton's rule, which holds that the costs and benefits of altruistic acts are weighted by the closeness of the genetic relationship, and by noting various fundamentals of human reproductive biology (for instance, a father might be uncertain of his genetic relationship to offspring, but a mother almost never is). This strategy generates a unified approach for modeling diverse aspects of family behavior. My discussion of biological fundamentals will include applications, empirical illustrations, and suggestions for how to merge these basics with current economic thinking.


An incident that occurred in the early 1700's in Japan quickly became an immensely popular tale amongst the public. The feudal lord Asano Naganori attacked another, Kira Yoshinaka, within the shogun's palace where drawing weapons was forbidden. Asano failed to kill Kira and received the punishment of death by seppuku so his retainers took it upon themselves to avenge their master and launched an attack on Kira's household and slew him, for which they also received the punishment of an honourable death by seppuku. These retainers are venerated as great heroes who exemplify samurai loyalty and honour despite the fact that their actions went against the law and the shogun's orders. This event is known as the Ako Incident, or chuushingura, and is still discussed today and new fictional adaptations made despite over 300 years having passed since the event took place. The matter of the ronin's punishment was hotly debated due to the Japanese feudal period belief that a samurai's loyalty to his lord was everything and so many argued that the ronin had performed something others did not believe existed: the moral crime. This thesis discusses the popularisation and heroification of the 47 ronin's illegal actions by examining the historical facts and the ronin's standing as samurai warriors in feudal Japan and whether they could have gone about their vendetta in a legal manner. It also looks at the many fictional adaptations made of the incident, the public's reception of said adaptations and what it means when the public so glorifies the actions of criminals. Lastly it looks at the opinions of the scholars of the time and their arguments for and against the ronin's actions and subsequent punishment, as well as the punishment's part in the appeal of the ronin's story.


The dynamics of pulse amplification in a medium containing two atomic components (one absorbing, one amplifying) is investigated in the regime in which the pulse interacts coherently with both components. It is shown that a pulse in this two-component medium may be amplified, absorbed, or broken up into a series of pulses, depending on the density of the absorbing species and the initial area of the pulse. Threshold values are determined for the impurity density and the area of the incident pulse. The possibility of pulse shortening during amplification is demonstrated.


There should be a balance between artificial environment and natural environment. As forests, fields, gardens and urban lands are being replaced with bituminous, concrete and unnatural surfaces, necessity of recovering green and blue spaces and natural areas is becoming more and more critical. Green roof is a tool in strategy of making more pervious areas and beating more impervious areas. Green roof is lately becoming part of urban storm water management. Considering this fact, new construction solutions help green roofs become blue roofs. Typical green roof is becoming an increasingly popular solution of impervious roof top of the building. New construction solutions with temporary water reservoirs help the original green roof become retention blue roof. Storm water management should enable the natural processes to infiltrate, evapo-transpire or capture and use storm water on or near the site, potentially generating other environmental benefits. The water cycle should be managed to close the loop, although this is not always possible. Rainwater needs to be harvested and recycled. Surface water needs to be retained within the site and returned to the land for the recharging of groundwater by means of filtration beds, pervious roadways and built surfaces, retention ponds and bio-swales. Water used in the built environment needs to be recovered and reused wherever possible. The aim of this article is to lay out technical specifications of different green roofs in terms of water retention, discharge coefficient and water storage. In this article, different roofs with vegetation on the top of the roofs are described. Diverse roof layers creating diverse roof constructions have different features. Capability of different roofs for catching rainwater, reducing pollutants, compared to typical water runoff, entering watershed and keeping liters out of the city sewer system are one of the main goals of this article. Novelty in co-operation of landscape and dwelling is bringing nature to the city, making green and blue fashionable, making green-blue roof fifth living facade of the building, designing healthy and vegetated towns. Very old method of improving sustainability is introducing green and blue key elements in the environmental strategy.


Software Process Improvement (SPI) is necessity to any Software House Organization (SHO). Process improvement requires embedding the knowledge into SHO's practice and structure especially in promoting and facilitating knowledge of best practice in SPI for the benefits of members of community of practice (CoP). Hence, in this paper, knowledge management (KM) and knowledge facilitation are investigated in order to find practical means to reach process improvement regarding with software development environment. In particular this study, it is also concerned with the process of Knowledge Management System (KMS) in supporting the knowledge facilitation of SPI for SHO. In order to understand the support process, we have studied how KM processes are practiced within SHO which includes communication, learning, sharing and documentation process. The findings explain on how the KMS has been practiced and influence the SPI in SHO. This result indicates that KM processes in SHO are being undertaken in a very informal manner, which has caused SHO to be more informal in their KM processes specifically and SPI generally.


For linear combinations of quantum product averages in an arbitrary bipartite state, we derive new quantum Bell-form and CHSH-form inequalities with the right-hand sides expressed in terms of a bipartite state. This allows us to specify in a general setting bipartite state properties sufficient for the validity of a classical CHSH-form inequality and the perfect correlation form of the original Bell inequality for any bounded quantum observables. We also introduce a new general condition on a bipartite state and quantum observables sufficient for the validity of the original Bell inequality, in its perfect correlation or anticorrelation forms. Under this general sufficient condition, a bipartite quantum state does not necessarily exhibit perfect correlations or anticorrelations.


Argyrins represent a family of cyclic octapeptides exhibiting promising immunomodulatory activity via inhibiting mitochondrial protein synthesis, which leads to reduced IL‐17 production by the T‐helper 17 cells. Argyrins are formed by a non‐ribosomal peptide synthetase (NRPS), originating from the myxobacterial producer strains Archangium gephyra Ar8082 and Cystobacter sp. SBCb004. In this work, a previously established heterologous production platform was employed to provide evidence of direct D‐configured amino acid incorporation by the argyrin assembly line. An adenylation domain of the argyrin NRPS was characterized and shown to have a high preference for D‐configured amino acids. Eight novel argyrin derivatives were generated via biosynthetic engineering of the heterologous production system. The system was also optimized to enable formation of methylated argyrin C and D derivatives with improved immunosuppressive activity compared with their unmethylated counterparts. Furthermore, the optimization of cultivation conditions allowed exclusive production of one major derivative at a time, drastically improving the purification process. Importantly, engineering of transcription and translation initiation resulted in a substantially improved production titre reaching 350–400 mg l−1. The optimized system presented herein thus provides a versatile platform for production of this promising class of immunosuppressants at a scale that should provide sufficient supply for upcoming pre‐clinical development.


Even as we advance the frontiers of physics knowledge, our understanding of how this knowledge evolves remains at the descriptive levels of Popper and Kuhn. Using the American Physical Society (APS) publications data sets, we ask in this paper how new knowledge is built upon old knowledge. We do so by constructing year-to-year bibliographic coupling networks, and identify in them validated communities that represent different research fields. We then visualize their evolutionary relationships in the form of alluvial diagrams, and show how they remain intact through APS journal splits. Quantitatively, we see that most fields undergo weak Popperian mixing, and it is rare for a field to remain isolated/undergo strong mixing. The sizes of fields obey a simple linear growth with recombination. We can also reliably predict the merging between two fields, but not for the considerably more complex splitting. Finally, we report a case study of two fields that underwent repeated merging and splitting around 1995, and how these Kuhnian events are correlated with breakthroughs on Bose-Einstein condensation (BEC), quantum teleportation, and slow light. This impact showed up quantitatively in the citations of the BEC field as a larger proportion of references from during and shortly after these events.


Every species of animal has some type of mating ritual that is vital to a species success. Most rituals involve males competing; leading to either the strongest or the most attractive male passing on their genes. However does the male have a preference when it comes to his mate? What makes some females worth fighting for more than others? These are the questions in which scientist pondered while observing streams obtaining guppy populations in the Trinidad, Galapagos area (French, 2014). To answer these questions, we decided to conduct an experiment in which we compared different physical changes of female guppies, and the male's response to these guppy models when introduced to them. Based on this experiment our group hypothesized that the model guppy with the brightest coloration will attract more male attention than that of the control grey guppy. In the experiment a single male guppy, within a series of five trials, was exposed to two different female model guppies. We found that the female guppies with color attracted much more attention from the males than the grey control female. However there were often times where the male guppy showed no specific interest to either female guppy model.  Understanding guppy mating preferences is important due to the fact that in some cases the genetic pool can be lowered due to natural selection.


Fish-cage dysfunctionalities in aquaculture installations can trigger significant negative consequences in the operational costs. Fish escapes due to problems in the infrastructure or increased death rates as a result of the existing environmental conditions are just a few of the most common reasons. Therefore, frequent periodic inspection of fish-cage nets is required, which can become a very expensive task. Small sized, low-cost autonomous devices can offer a lower cost alternative solution, providing also more frequent inspection and efficient timely alarming capabilities. In this paper, the design and operational characteristics of a small-sized Autonomous Underwater Vehicle (AUV) architecture are presented, yielding to a powerful tool for regular periodic fish-cage net inspection in terms of net holes and fouling. The proposed AUV system consists of different sensing components and utilizes advanced optical recognition techniques to automatically navigate within the aquaculture installation and detect fish-cage nets dysfunctionalities. Preliminary results extracted under the testing procedure in real conditions indicate that the proposed framework can prove a cost-effective, flexible and operative solution to provide appropriate corrective measures in order to eliminate fish escapes and minimise related maintenance and repair costs in fish infrastructure.


High-performance, single-wall carbon nanotube field-effect transistors (SWCNT-FETs) are fabricated using directed assembly and mass-produced carbon nanotubes (CNTs). These FETs exhibit operating characteristics comparable to state-of-the-art devices, and the process provides a route to large-scale functional CNT circuit assembly that circumvents problems inherent in processes relying on chemical vapor deposition. Furthermore, the integration of hydrophobic self-assembled monolayers in the device structure eliminates the primary source of gating hysteresis in SWCNT-FETs; this leads to hysteresis-free FET operation while exposing unmodified nanotube surfaces to ambient air.


The effect of pressure on the Mössbauer resonance spectra of Fe(III) with thiocyanate (M-SCN) and isothiocyanate (M-NCS) ligands has been studied. Fe(NCS)(3).6H(2)O, which has the isothiocyanate structure, reduces with increasing pressure, reversibly, and with a pressure dependence for the conversion very similar to that shown by a wide variety of ionic ferric compounds. K(3)Fe(SCN)(6) has the thiocyanate structure. At low pressures, it exhibits a significantly larger reduction than the Fe(NCS)(3). With increasing pressure the thiocyanate complexes isomerize, each complex apparently exhibiting about the same degree of conversion at a given pressure. At 150 kb the isomerization is essentially complete. The reduction of the Fe(III) to Fe(II) is reversible but the isomerization is not, and the sample, when powdered and reloaded in the high-pressure cell, exhibits the isomer shift, quadrupole splitting, and Fe(III) to Fe(II) conversion characteristic of an isothiocyanate. Heating the thiocyanate to 110 degrees C at 5 kb yields a mixture of thiocyanate and isothiocyanate that converts with pressure completely to the isothiocyanate.


How do crises affect Central clearing Counterparties (CCPs)? We focus on CCPs that clear and guarantee a large and safe segment of the repo market during the Eurozone sovereign debt crisis. We start by developing a simple framework to infer CCP stress, which can be measured through the sensitivity of repo rates to sovereign CDS spreads. Such sensitivity jointly captures three effects: (1) the effectiveness of the haircut policy, (2) CCP member default risk (conditional on sovereign default) and (3) CCP default risk (conditional on both sovereign and CCP member default). The data show that, during the sovereign debt crisis of 2011, repo rates strongly respond to movements in sovereign risk, in particular for GIIPS countries, indicating significant CCP stress. Our model suggests that repo investors behaved as if the conditional probability of CCP default was very large.


In agricultural harvesting processes, the infield logistics of transporting the crop from the harvesters' tanks to a street transporter at the field border with an unloading vehicle is challenging. The harvesters have to be unloaded while driving and in time to prevent the loss of expensive process time. The path planning for the unloading vehicle has to consider the unharvested area as a dynamic obstacle and cope with additional constraints like the harvester's kinematics, dynamics and its unloading direction. We present an approach for infield path planning for autonomous unloading vehicles that tackles these problems.


In this paper, we propose an automatic supervised classification of objects lying on the sea floor or buried in sediment layers. This pattern recognition provides a way to distinguish natural and manufactured objects and then should be helpful to detect mine, pipe-line, or wreckage. Proposed methods combine different techniques: pattern information extraction, relevant parameter search, and supervised classifier. Parameters are automatically selected using a principal component analysis to reduce misclassification rate and to simplify classifier structure. Performances of different parameters (two-dimensional and three-dimensional) are compared and discussed from testing on synthetic and real data bases.


The herd performance of 375 northern Australian beef producers during the 1991 and 1992 to 1995 and 1996 financial years was surveyed in 1996 and 1997. Estimates were made of annual liveweight gain from production systems based on native and improved pastures together with hormonal growth promotant use and supplementation practices. The most commonly used pasture communities for growing and finishing cattle were black speargrass and brigalow communities in Central Coastal Queensland and the Central Highlands; black speargrass in Northern Queensland; Mitchell grass and gidgee in Central Western and North-west Queensland; Mitchell grass in the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia regions and brigalow-softwood scrub in the Maranoa South West. There was considerable variation and overlap in the production ranges of the various pasture communities. The estimates and ranges of annual liveweight gains were comparable with measurements from scientific and commercial studies for 3 major pasture communities (black speargrass, brigalow and Mitchell grass). On this basis, the annual liveweight gain data are considered to represent sound estimates of performance from the pasture communities and husbandry systems in use in northern Australia. Mean annual gains for pasture communities in the more northern regions tended to be 90% of the supplements offered. The percentage of producers supplementing various classes of cattle varied widely (0-77%). Steers were often the least supplemented class and weaners were the most common. The highest percentage of producers (>68%) supplementing weaners was found in North-west and Northern Queensland, the Northern Territory and northern Western Australia. Significant correlations explaining 3-23% of the variance were found between annual liveweight gain and latitude and/or longitude for native black speargrass and Mitchell grass pasture communities and improved brigalow pastures. Generally, annual liveweight gain increased with increasing latitude and longitude. The results are discussed in relation to herd management practices and sources of variation in the northern Australian production environment.


BACKGROUND
Host genetic factors may a play role in susceptibility to infection. Vitamin-D is an immunomodulator that may play a role in HIV infection. Vitamin-D action is mediated by the vitamin-D receptor. We establish prevalence of ApaI, BsmI, FokI and TaqI polymorphisms (VDRPs) amongst a black southern African HIV+ve population and investigate polymorphic differences between HIV+ve and -ve people.

METHODS
Seventy-nine sex and age-group matched HIV+ve patients of African origin initiating antiretroviral therapy (ART) and 79 HIV-ve participants, also of African origin, were recruited from a public sector HIV testing and treatment clinic and investigated for the 4 polymorphisms. The genotype frequencies were compared, odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals of the association of HIV status and each genotype were calculated. Both dominant, co-dominant, recessive and allele models were tested.

RESULTS
We found no evidence of difference in distribution and association between HIV infection and the genotypes of the BsmI, FokI and TaqI VDR polymorphisms. The genotype distributions were consistent with Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium for these genotypes. The ApaI genotype showed differences in distribution by HIV status in the dominant and co-dominant models. However this finding is cautiously stated as the ApaI genotype violated the Hardy-Weinberg equilibrium and frequency of the minor variant was unexpectedly low in this population.

CONCLUSION
We do not show convincing differences in distribution of the VDR genotypes among HIV+ve and HIV-ve black southern African persons. Future studies need to be replicated in larger study populations as understanding polymorphic differences and similarities may offer insights into the different susceptibility and progression of HIV in southern African populations.


– This study aims to know the participation of communities in the cleanliness of West Bitung Kelity One, The Maesa District of Bitung City. This study uses a qualitative descriptive approach with techniques of observation data collections, interviews, and documents. Studies have shown that the problem with the popular custom of disposing of trash in canals that a current flow of water has led to a buildup of garbage on the coast, resulting in a gross indifference to the garbage not produced by them, and thus, it could be said that the initiatives and responsibilities of the people around the coast are less likely to produce than they do, and thus, it could be said that the attitudes and responsibilities of the people around the coast toward cleanliness are less likely to contribute to low societal participation. As well as a lack of community involvement in the meeting to discuss cleanliness, people are less responsive to environmental cleanliness themselves. As a matter of consideration, then it is advisable: 1) government promote a ban on littering trash on aqueducts, for all society 2) communities should be directly involved in socializing about cleanliness.


D. Cheng asks for clarification on several points of the original paper by D. Gan et al. (see ibid., vol.15, no.2, p.535-40, 2000). B.J. Cory et al. ask the authors for their comments on several questions they raise. D. Gan replies to the comments and questions.


Selenium (Se) is a micronutrient essential for human and animal health. Due to the unbalanced distribution of Se resources in the world, Se deficiency is regarded as a major human health problem. Insufficient ingestion of Se in human caused a series of disease including Keshan disease and Kashin-Beck's disease. While some parts of the world was Se poisoning due to the Se ores on geological stratification or Se pollution. The using Se-enriched and/or hyperaccumulated green plants to treat these problems has acquired more and more attention worldwide from last decade. This paper describes current advances in the efforts of searching Se enriched plant genetic resources, clarifying the Se metabolism and accumulation mechanism in plants, and cloning key genes responsible for Se accumulation or hyper-accumulation and their transformation in plants.


This journey into the world of coparticipant inquiry was not taken alone. I would like to thank those who helped me. I would first like to thank my wife and colleague, Barbara Suter, for her love and encouragement, and her invaluable help throughout. I deeply appreciate her clinical acumen, wise counsel, and always kind critiques. For her unselfish gift of time for me to write, I am grateful beyond words. I especially want to thank her and my daughter Kate for reminding me that writing about life is not the same as living it. I would also like to thank my friend and colleague Stanley Renshon, whose warm encouragement, thought-provoking questions, and incisive critiques of early drafts helped me to sharpen my thinking and to clarify my ideas. I also wish to thank Anthony Bass, Elizabeth Goren, and Bernadette Hogan, whose own work embodies the best of coparticipant inquiry, for their insightful commentary and critique, unstinting encouragement, and for their friendship. I wish also to thank all those students and supervisees who have taught me at least as much as I taught them. My appreciation, too, to those who were my teachers, especially Janet Jeppson and the late Ellen Dolganos and Earl Witenberg. Special appreciation is due to my patients who have taught me much about life, and about the resilience of the human spirit. More than anyone else, Benjamin Wolstein, now gone, helped me see the coparticipant nature of the human psyche and its psychoanalysis. His personal integrity and decency, genuine humility, creative ways of listening, and belief in the benefits of long-term psychoanalytic self-exploration continue to inform my work and to encourage my trust in my unique individuality and that of others. Acknowledgments


In order to study the effect of menorrhagia induced by a stainless steel IUD on the incidence of anemia and iron deficiency hemoglobin level (Hb) red blood cell count (RBC) and serum ferritin radioimmunoassay were examined in 176 women. 163 sterile women were used as controls. No differences in Hb level or RBC count were observed in these 2 groups; however the serum ferritin level in IUD users was significantly lower than those in the control group (26.6 +or- 1.4 ng/mg vs. 36.3 +or- 2.2 ng/mg). This tendency was continued in those women wearing IUDs for 2 and even more than 5 years. It is suggested that to prevent iron deficiency in IUD users an iron supplement is necessary. (authors) (summary in ENG)


Silent myocardial ischaemia is found in 5% of a completely symptom-free population, in 30% of patients with a history of myocardial infarction and in 60 to 100% of patients with stable or unstable angina pectoris. Only one fifth to one quarter of episodes of myocardial ischaemia is associated with angina pectoris which means that 75% to 80% of episodes take a silent course. Episodes of myocardial ischaemia take place at lower heart rates than during exercise test and they are induced by common, everyday activities of the patient. So far it is not known why some episodes of myocardial ischaemia are silent while others are associated with angina pectoris. No differences were found in the duration or extent between silent or symptomatic myocardial ischaemia. Patients with frequent episodes of silent myocardial ischaemia have in general an elevated threshold of pain perception. A certain role is probably also played by the increased secretion of endogenous opioids--endorphins. The finding of myocardial ischaemia during ambulatory monitoring of ECG is of prognostic value regardless whether ischaemia is associated with angina pectoris. This applies in patients with unstable angina pectoris where ST depressions may be found during Holter monitoring of the ECG even when pain is controlled by treatment, and this finding is associated with more serious coronarographic findings and a poorer prognosis. The position is similar in patients with stable angina pectoris where episodes of depression of the ST segment during ambulatory ECG monitoring are associated with a poorer prognosis and this finding does not depend on the result of the electrocardiographic exercise test.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Finger millet is a traditional grain cereal in Africa and South Asia. The crop
has a wide range of adaptation, can withstand adverse soil and weather
conditions, and is grown at altitudes from sea level to about 2,400 m. The
grain yield potential is good, and the grain is highly nutritious, particularly rich
in methionine, iron and calcium. However, finger millet has been neglected
by mainstream research. One way to boost production and productivity
and enhance acceptability is to assemble diverse germplasm resources,
characterise them to identify traits of agronomic importance, and use them
to breed superior varieties. ICRISAT's genebank in Patancheru, India, holds
5,949 germplasm accessions from 23 countries. Of the six races of finger
millet, Vulgaris is the most predominant (61% of the total collections). The
accessions have been characterised for five qualitative and 14 quantitative
traits. The quantitative data show that the race Africana is more distinct
than other races, and had the highest means for 10 out of 14 traits measured.
To overcome the problems of managing a large collection and to enhance
the use of germplasm in crop improvement, ICRISAT has developed a core
collection containing 622 accessions (10% of the entire collection) based on
geographical origin and quantitative traits. The core collection was evaluated
in 2004 and a further mini-core collection (10% of the core or 1% of the entire
collection) was constituted, with 65 accessions. In addition, a composite set
of germplasm comprising 1,000 accessions has been developed under the
Generation Challenge Program. This set is being characterised; microsatellite
markers will be used to access the genes for beneficial traits.


More than 200 years ago, only a few percent of the world's population lived in cities. By the first decade of this millennium, the proportion had grown to more than half. In Sweden, almost half of the population lives in the three largest metropolitan areas of Stockholm, Gothenburg and Malmo, which generate an even higher share of national economic output. It is clear that geographically-concentrated processes play a key role in economic growth. How metropolitan regions develop in the future will likely affect other regions. Metropolitan cities have particularly favorable conditions for economic growth by virtue of agglomeration and urbanization economies. Metropolitan cities are also nodes in an urban hierarchy, enabling economic distribution mechanisms between different regions. For many, within and outside academia, there may be good reasons to know more about the processes that underlie major urban development and economic growth. In this anthology researchers from different disciplines write about metropolitan cities and growth. The articles focus on different areas that can be considered important for a growing economy. Together, they provide a picture of metropolitan regions, and their importance and challenges for sustainable economic development.


Abstract Many white southern women worked as volunteers or as paid employees during the American Civil War. After the war, they organized women's groups to commemorate the Confederacy. In 1894, the United Daughters of the Confederacy emerged as an umbrella organization for memorial groups and shaped public memory in the South by maintaining a positive image of Confederate veterans. Overlapping official and vernacular cultural interests encouraged erection of monuments to anonymous soldiers from 1865 through 1920. After 1945, state agencies dispersed Confederate commemoration across the official and vernacular landscapes by placing historical markers along southern highways. These artifacts emphasize male-dominated military activity but also identify women's roles in patriarchal southern society. Analysis of this landscape evidence in the context of official and vernacular landscapes and cultural expressions yields previously untapped data for understanding women's roles and perceptions of their activities within the Deep South. Although women's contributions are under-represented in the landscape, this imbalance may be redressed in state historical marker programs.


Abstract Adding antioxidants to semen extender has become one of the major strategies to reduce the damage caused by freezing to stallion sperm. Isoespintanol (Iso) is a natural antioxidant that is known as a good free radical scavenger. The aim of this research was to evaluate the effect of supplementation of freezing media with Iso on functional integrity of equine semen. Semen from five Colombian Creole horses was frozen with 0, 10, 20, 30, 40 and 50 µM Iso. Post-thawing motility and kinetics, structural membrane integrity (SMI), normal morphology (NM) and functional membrane integrity (FMI) of sperm were evaluated. Seminal quality (SQi) and seminal velocity (SVi) indexes were calculated. Through a flow cytometric analysis, mitochondrial membrane potential (ΔΨM), viability and DNA integrity of frozen-thawed semen were assessed. General linear models were adjusted, and means comparisons were performed using Tukey's test. The significance level was P<0.05. No differences for post-thaw sperm quality parameters were found, except for total motility, which showed a reduction by adding 40 µM Iso (P<0.05). However, the estimation of indexes, showed that supplementation with 20 or 30 µM Iso before semen freezing, can increase post-thaw SQi and SVi values of some horses. A higher proportion of high-∆ΨM sperm for 20 µM Iso was found. It is concluded that Iso can improve the quality and mitochondrial activity of frozen-thawed equine semen, however its effect can vary according to the horse and in high concentrations it could have detrimental effects.


Problem Statement: Forest structure assessment provides information on forest succession, dynamics, biodiversity and health which are important but only few information is available on rehabilitated forest. The objective of this study was to assess the forest structure of selected age stands at a rehabilitated forest situated in Universiti Putra Malaysia Bintulu Sarawak Campus, Sarawak, Malaysia. Approach: Four 20A—20) m plots were established in stands planted in
1991, 1999, 2008 and an adjacent natural regenerating secondary forest (±22years) and all stands were measured for Diameter Breast Height (DBH) and height and identified. Results: Forest structural analysis showed better performance in the structural characteristics mainly the mean basal area (61%), mean Dbh (56%) and mean height (60%) of the trees as compared to the adjacent natural regenerating secondary forest. Conclusion: It can be concluded that after 18 years, rehabilitated forest using accelerating natural regeneration technique showed better structural dimension. This can help to promote the reforestation and restoration activities on degraded forest. Overall, rehabilitated forest areas have yet recovered in terms of size and height.


The Program for Breakthrough Biomedical Research [3] PBBR Seeks to stimulate and support highly innovative basic science research at UCSF. The focus is on potentially high-impact basic science projects that are creative, risky, and transformative. They seek novel ideas that are more ambitious than those that receive funding from NIH and other traditional funding mechanisms. For more information, contact Courtney McFall [4], Program Manager, at 415.476.0498.