A new, general criterion is given for ensuring that a closed saddle function has a nonempty compact set of saddlepoints. Under this criterion it is shown also that every minimaximizing sequence clusters around some saddlepoint. A comparable theorem is given for semicontinuous quasi-saddle functions. The new criterion is applied to constrained saddlepoint problems and to the Fenchel-Rockafellar duality model for constrained convex minimization. Finally, the relationship to existing saddlepoint results is explored in detail.


Safe water is essential for life. Consumption of arsenic and manganese contaminated water poses a range of health effects to humans. Physico-chemical and bacteriological characteristics of groundwater at five administrative upazillas in Kushtia District, Bangladesh, have been studied to evaluate the potability of water for drinking purpose from 32 randomly selected tube wells (TWs). APHA (2012) standard analytical methods were applied for analyses of the physico-chemical and bacteriological parameters of the water samples. Arsenic, iron, and manganese content were analyzed by atomic absorption spectroscopy (AAS). The investigated parameters of water samples were found as pH 6.81-8.12, electrical conductivity (EC) 520-1,995 μs/cm, total dissolved solids (TDS) 357.8-1,372.6 mg/L, chloride 10-615 mg/L, total hardness 285-810 mg/L, arsenic (As) 0.001-0.098 mg/L, iron (Fe) 0.04-1.45 mg/L, manganese (Mn) 0.01-6.32 mg/L. About 56.25% of TWs were highly contaminated with fecal coliform (FC) and 68.75% were found to be contaminated with total coliform (TC). Results were compared with World Health Organization (WHO) and Bangladesh Drinking Standards (BDS). The concentrations of water quality parameters are much higher as compared to WHO and BDS standards. This may cause acute public health risks and make water unsuitable for direct human consumption without treatment.


Research on concurrent sexual partnerships is hindered by lack of accurate partnership data. Using unique life-history calendar data from a population-based sample of youths aged 18–24 in urban Kenya, we estimated the prevalence and correlates of concurrency. In the sixth month before the survey, 3.5 per cent of females and 4.0 per cent of males were engaged in concurrent sexual partnerships. In the previous 9.5 years, males experienced more concurrent partnerships than females and they were of shorter duration. Using survival analysis, we find that the characteristics of initial partnerships affect entry into a second (concurrent) relationship. For females, geographic separation from a partner increases the risk of concurrency, while concurrency is positively associated with the duration of the initial relationship for males. For both sexes, the perception of partner infidelity increases the risk, suggesting that concurrency expands individuals' sexual networks and bridges additional networks involving partners' other sexual partners.


The purpose of this study was to discover perceptions, experiences, and patterns of health care behavior among Arab Americans in an urban Midwestern area of the United States and then to discover perceptions and experiences of health care providers related to culturally competent care. The goal of the study was to generate findings that would provide the basis for implementing system-wide changes to include culturally competent care. A qualitative focus group methodology was used to discover the care patterns and perceptions of Arab Americans and the local health care providers. The nurse researchers conducted 10 focus groups. Six themes were identified, including the unique caring behaviors of Arab families, the complexity of the health care system to Arab Americans, communication gaps, the diversity of perceptions of cultural competency, obstacles to accessibility of care, and workforce diversity issues.


Twenty patients (M:F 15:5) with electrophysiological evidence of predominant axonal lesion and fulfilling clinical criteria for Guillain Barré Syndrome were observed during a period of 6 years (1985–1990). Their mean age was 27.5 years (range 5–55). Seven patients had antecedent febrile illness. Peak motor deficit was reached at a mean period of 6.5 days (range 2–21 days). All the patients had distal muscle weakness out of proportion to proximal muscle weakness. Facial paresis (13 patients), bulbar palsy (2), respiratory failure (1), sensory deficits (7) and dysautonomia (1) were other salient features. CSF analysis revealed albuminocytological dissociation in 12 patients. One patient died and in the remaining patients the recovery was delayed and incomplete. Presence of predominant distal muscle wasting and weakness, low amplitude CMAP or inexcitable nerves, absence of conduction block or significant temporal dispersion, normal or only slightly reduced conduction velocity and evidence of poor recovery suggest that the primary pathology in these patients may be axonal degeneration. These cases may represent a distinct entity and need to be differentiated from the more commonly observed acute idiopathic demyelinating neuropathy.


In pregnant rats significant interstitial fluid pressure changes could be detected by means of capsules chronically implanted into the subcutaneous tissue. The capsular pressure increased significantly from a control value of -4.3 +/- 0.5 mmHg to -0.7 +/- 0.5 mmHg during the first period of pregnancy. Immediately before parturition the capsular pressure returned to the control level. During lactation the pressure rose as high as + 0.5 +/- 0.9 mmHg. After lactation the pressure returned again to the control value. By determining the extracellular fluid and plasma volume, as well as protein concentration in plasma and capsular fluid, the hydrostatic and colloid osmotic forces operating in the extracellular space could be analysed. It has been concluded that the observed capsular pressure changes during pregnancy are not solely of volumetric or colloid osmotic origin.


To perform inverse manufacturing, the social aspect, how the people accept the idea is one important factor, especially for those who regard the inverse manufacturing system as a new concept. However high the technology develops, without the social agreement or acceptance of the new method, it is very difficult to apply the new system into society. Since there is hardly any report scientifically analyzing the agreement formation process, the author studied the agreement formation records in Japan, including the social conflict process. The analysis of the cases could show some common pattern to obtain an agreement. Therefore the model for the case leading towards the solution is presented. However the motives for the conflict were based on social selfishness or individual differences in the recognition of the risks. Through the survey work, the author also introduces the common factors leading toward agreement.


Paleontological fieldwork is often a time-consuming process and resource intensive. With unexplored and remote areas, the satellite images, geology, and topography of an area are analyzed to help survey for a site. A drone-based orthomosaic map is suggested as an additional tool for virtual paleontology fossil prospecting. The use of an orthomosaic map was compared to the use of a typical satellite map when looking for fossil sites to prospect. Factors were chosen for their impact when prospecting for a fossil site and availability of data. Eye movement data were captured for a convenience sample of paleontologists from a local university. Each band within the satellite map measures 7741 × 7821 with a ground resolution of 30 m/pix, and the ground resolution of the orthomosaic map is 2.86 cm/pix with a resolution of 52,634 × 32,383. Experts displayed a gaze behavior suggestive of high analysis levels as well as being able to identify and analyze features rapidly—this is illustrated through the presence of both longer and shorter fixations. However, experts appeared to look at both maps in more detail than novices. The orthomosaic map was very successful at both attracting and keeping the attention of the map reader on certain features. It was concluded that an orthomosaic-based drone map used in conjunction with a satellite map is a useful tool for high spatial density virtual prospecting for novices and experts.


We developed a strategy to harness alkyl amines as alkylating agents via C-N bond activation. This Suzuki-Miyaura cross coupling of alkylpyridinium salts, readily formed from primary amines, is the first example of a metal-catalyzed cross coupling via C-N bond activation of an amine with an unactivated alkyl group. This reaction enjoys broad scope and functional group tolerance. Primary and secondary alkyl groups can be installed. Preliminary studies suggest a NiI/NiIII catalytic cycle.


We provide examples of finitely generated infinite covolume subgroups of $PSL(2,R)^r$ with a "big" limit set, e.g. that contains an open subset of the geometric boundary. They are given by the so called semi-arithmetic Fuchsian groups admitting modular embeddings.


We report a case of severe generalised muscle weakness in a 66-year-old man who underwent revision of left knee arthroplasty. On postoperative day 1, he developed non-focal muscle weakness and shortness of breath which progressed over a 6-hour period. Serum phosphorus level was severely low at 0.5 mg/dL, along with mild degree of hypokalaemia, hypocalcaemia and hypomagnesaemia. His symptoms completely resolved after emergent phosphorus replacement. The authors believe this case is of educational interest to physicians as generalised muscle weakness is an uncommon presentation of severe hypophosphataemia. In a postoperative setting, hypophosphataemia is often multifactorial, thought to result from combination of perioperative catecholamine surge, administration of saline, diuretics, glucose and antacids, poor oral intake and respiratory alkalosis secondary to pain. We report this case to raise awareness among physicians on severe phosphate imbalance as the primary aetiology for acute generalised muscle weakness and respiratory failure, especially after a surgery.


Local ensemble transform Kalman filter (LETKF) data assimilation, three-dimensional variational data assimilation (3DVAR), and four-dimensional variational data assimilation (4DVAR) schemes are implemented in a quasigeostrophic channel model. Their advantages and disadvantages are compared to assess their use in practical applications. LETKF and 4DVAR, which take into account the flow-dependent errors, outperform 3DVAR under a perfect model scenario. Given the same observations, LETKF produces more accurate analyses than 4DVAR with a 12-h window by effectively correcting the fast-growing errors with the flow-dependent background error covariance. Even though 4DVAR performance benefits substantially from using a longer assimilation window, LETKF is also able to achieve a satisfactory accuracy compared to the 24-h 4DVAR analyses. It is shown that the advantage of the LETKF over 3DVAR is a result of both the ensemble averaging and the information about the ''errors of the day'' provided by the ensemble. The analysis corrections at the end of the 12-h assimilation window are similar for LETKF and the 12-h window 4DVAR, and they both resemble bred vectors. At the beginning of the assimilation window, LETKF analysis corrections obtained using a no-cost smoother also resemble the corresponding bred vectors, whereas the 4DVAR corrections are significantly different with much larger horizontal scales.


In this study we investigate the effects of exposure to increased ambient ammonia-N concentrations as a cause of decreased scope for growth and mortality of R.decussatus during the summer months in Ria Formosa, southern Portugal. The physiological measurements were performed at 20 oC and average total ammonia-N concentrations (TA-N) were 9, 48, 85, 134 and 260 µmol l -1 (corresponding to 0.2, 1.1, 2.0, 3.2 and 6.2 µmol l -1 NH 3 ). No mortality was observed. Our results show that during short term exposure to TA-N concentrations >48 µmol l -1 (1.1 µmol NH 3 ), R.decussautus survives at the expense of energy reserves. No energy is available for growth and reproduction. Though it is uncertain how intermittent exposures during tidal cycles will affect the long-term survival of R.decussatus in the Ria Formosa, high ammonia concentrations together with unfavourable physical and chemical summer gradients in the sediment can clearly contribute to the high mortality that has been registered in recent years (Ferreira et al. 1989). The sensitivity of the physiological energetics approach and the need to assess tolerance of infaunal bivalves addressing endpoints that can provide insight into the condition for growth and reproduction of the population is stressed.


A permanent reservoir monitoring system has been installed for Shell at the end of 2010, on a medium heavy-oil onshore field situated in the north-east of The Netherlands, in the context of re-development of oil production by Gravity Assisted Steam Flood. The first challenge was to continuously monitor, with seismic reflection, the lateral and vertical expansion of the steam chest injected in the reservoir during production over more than a year. As the 4D seismic attributes obtained from monitoring fit the measurements made at observation, production and injector wells, the 2D monitoring system was extended to 3D in April 2012. The second challenge was quantify seismic amplitude variations in terms of petro-acoustic parameters. For that purpose 4D inversion was performed on continuous 2D and 3D seismic monitoring data in order to quantify the lateral and vertical expansion of the steam chest on a daily basis. The 4D inversion results not only point out that the inversion enables to quantify the 4D effects in terms of P-impedance variations, but also greatly improves the vertical location of these events. Moreover, the percentage of maximum impedance variations and the thickness where these variations are observed, are in good agreement with the petro-elastic model.


This essay considers the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) at a time at which humans are dramatically changing the planet, prompting scientists to suggest that we are living in a new geological epoch: "the Anthropocene." The Anthropocene, even if an essentially contested concept, prompts reconsideration of our interhuman socioeconomic relations and our understanding of the human-nature interface, both of which come with significant challenges. This essay suggests that the UDHR offers the space for engaging with these challenges, if we adopt an Anthropocene-relevant reading of its provisions. This essay also argues that such a reading of the UDHR, on its own, is unlikely to lead to the adoption of an Anthropocene-relevant reading of other international instruments, international economic instruments in particular. It points to enhanced regime interaction as a way to address this issue.


The objective of this study was to determine the effect of various milk control methods on prediction accuracy of lactation milk yield for Awassi sheep. Different control methods (Sweden, Vogel, Holland I, Holland II, Trapeze I, Trapeze II and State Production Farm methods) and control periods (14 th , 21 st , 28 th , 42 nd and 56 th day) used to determine lactation milk yield were compared. The data of the research was created within the scope of the "National Project of Small Ruminant Animal Breeding in the Hands of the People" in 2018 and a total of 3173 sheep records belonging to 31 enterprises were used. The actual lactation yield in the study was determined as 255.57  0.85 kg and the lactation length as 170.62  0.19 day. Correlation coefficients between the actual lactation yield and lactation yield calculated according to different control methods were found to be high and significant for all control periods and control methods (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.001). It gave the similar results to the actual lactation yield in the Vogel method calculated according to different control methods in a period of 28 th days, in the Trapeze I method in a period of 28 th and 42 nd days, in the Trapeze II method in all periods (P>0.05). In the other control periods, all methods differed significantly from the actual lactation yield (P<0.05, P<0.01, P<0.001). As a result, it has been concluded that results close to the actual lactation yield will be obtained by using one of the Vogel or Trapeze I-II methods calculated by using the milk yields on the control day of Awassi sheep raised under Şanlıurfa conditions.


Recommender systems use ratings from users on items such as movies and music for the purpose of predicting the user preferences on items that have not been rated. Predictions are normally done by using the ratings of other users of the system, by learning the user preference as a function of the features of the items or by a combination of both these methods. In this paper, we pose the problem as one of collaboratively learning of preference functions by multiple users of the recommender system. We study several mixture models for this task. We show, via theoretical analyses and experiments on a movie rating database, how the models can be designed to overcome common problems in recommender systems including the new user problem, the recurring startup problem, the sparse rating problem and the scaling problem.


In this paper, we address the problem of multimodal signal processing and present a manifold learning method to extract the common source of variability from multiple measurements. This method is based on alternating-diffusion and is particularly adapted to time series. We show that the common source of variability is extracted from multiple sensors as if it were the only source of variability, extracted by a standard manifold learning method from a single sensor, without the influence of the sensor-specific variables. In addition, we present application to sleep stage assessment. We demonstrate that, indeed, through alternating-diffusion, the sleep information hidden inside multimodal respiratory signals can be better captured compared to single-modal methods.


Abstract: To understand changes in habitat selection in response to timber harvesting, we used radio-telemetry data from 82 adult wood frogs (Lithobates sylvaticus, formerly Rana sylvatica) and logistic regression modelling to assess habitat selection in response to an unharvested control and 3 forest management techniques: clearcutting (with removal of all merchantable timber > 10 cm diameter), clearcutting with coarse woody debris (CWD) retention, and partial harvesting with retention of ∼50% canopy cover. At the home range scale, frogs selected the partially harvested treatment in spring 2005 and avoided the CWD-retained treatment in fall 2006. Frogs spent 5 ± 2 d (mean ± SE) longer in forested treatments than in both clearcut treatments, but certain individuals were able to specialize on the clearcut treatments. At the weekly activity centre scale, the best-supported models indicated that frogs were more likely to occupy locations with more complex ground structure, especially coarse woody debris, warmer temperatures, moister substrates, and greater canopy cover than random. Resource use among frogs overlapped substantially at both the weekly activity centre and daily microhabitat scales. Frogs selected daily microhabitats with more complex ground structure, greater canopy cover, and moister substrates than random. Selection at coarser scales may be mechanistically linked to finer scale resource selection by the physiological processes of thermoand hydro-regulation. Our results support recommendations for minimizing the impact of logging by retaining coarse woody debris in clearcuts and partial harvesting with retention of ∼50% canopy cover.


This book deals with the values, lifestyle and code of law of four Jewish sectarian groups in the Hellenistic and Roman (Second Temple) period, in the land of Israel. It reviews the groups according to their proximity to power, highlighting the fact that political involvement has a decisive impact on the life and development of these social groups. The groups under review, the Pharisees, Sadducees, Essenes and Qumran, receive a new historical description, from the viewpoint of their proximity to power. The issue of what determines the course of a social group, whether normative or sectarian, is discussed, and the traditional terminology is re-examined. Original terminology is established. The first part of the book deals with the question of terminology, the available sources and the presentation of the different groups.


A high level of citizen involvement in civic life is presumed crucial to the well-being of democracy, but the actual discourse of citizen involvement has rarely been analyzed. This article analyzes citizen participation in the school board meetings of one US community that was in the midst of conflict. After providing background on education governance practices and the community that was studied, citizen participation is examined. Citizen commentaries at school board meetings are shown to be a distinct speech genre and the genre is described. Then, we characterize the discourse practices used to express negative sentiment. Feeling-limned description, avowal of feelings, rhetorical questions, reported speech, use of god and devil terms, and using meeting rules as weapons were the main negative sentiment strategies. In the conclusion we suggest when low levels of citizen involvement should be acceptable, and why `reasonable hostility' is a desirable form of citizen expression.


Supercurrents carry charge but not spin in the vast majority of superconductors. This is because the charge carriers are Cooper pairs which are formed of electrons with antiparallel spins (singlet pairs). It is now established that if singlet pairs propagate through a superconductor interface with an inhomogeneous ferromagnet, triplet pair correlations form so the supercurrents can acquire a net spin component. Although the spins at sputter-deposited Fe/Cr interfaces can be frustrated due to surface roughness and interdiffusion, an antiferromagnetic spin density wave (SDW) state can still form in Cr close to the interface. Here, we show evidence for triplet pair correlations in Josephson junctions with Cr/Fe and Cr/Fe/Cr barriers. Although the exact mechanism of pair conversion is unknown, we propose a simple model in which a SDW state in Cr and frustrated spins at the Cr/Fe interfaces serve as spin-mixers for generating triplet supercurrents and so provide a potential means to generating large superconducting spin current densities.


Networks are important representations in computer science to communicate structural aspects of a given system of interacting components. The evolution of a network has several topological properties that can provide us information on the network itself. In this paper, we present a methodology to compare the the topological characteristics of the evolution of a network, encoded into a (persistence) diagram that tracks the lifetimes of those features. This will enable us to classify the evolution of networks based on the distance between the diagrams that represent such network evolution. In that, we also consider complex vectors that bring a complementary perspective to the distance-based classification that is closer to the computational methods, aims to enhance the computational efficiency of those comparisons, and that is by itself a source of open research questions.


The present study was carried out to examine the effect of activin A on cell-cycle progression induced by insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I) in Balb/c 3T3 cells. When activin A was added together with IGF-I to competent cells primed with epidermal growth factor (primed competent cells), both [3H]thymidine incorporation and nuclear labelling induced by IGF-I were inhibited. The inhibition was concentration-dependent and the maximum inhibition was obtained with 1 nmol activin A/1. To ascertain the time in which activin A exerted its inhibitory action, we divided 12 h, the time required for primed competent cells to progress towards the S phase, into four periods and activin A was added during each of the four periods. It was effective when added during either the second (3 to 6 h) or the third period (6 to 9 h) but it did not affect cell-cycle progression when added during the first (0 to 3 h) or the last period (9 to 12 h). We then examined whether activin A affected intracellular events elicited by IGF-I. It did not affect either autophosphorylation of the IGF-I receptor or calcium entry induced by IGF-I. Likewise, it did not cause any change in the radioactivity of 1,2-diacylglycerol (DAG) in cells prelabelled with [3H]myristate while the increase in the mass of DAG induced by IGF-I was markedly reduced by activin A. The dose-response relationship for the activin A-mediated reduction of DAG mass correlated well with th at for the activin A-mediated reduction of DNA synthesis.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)


Wrist and hand traumas represent most traumatic lesions. Any delay in treatment involves complications compromising the functional prognosis. We report typical examples illustrating the incremental diagnosis value of hybrid SPECT/CT compared with planar scintigraphy with semiquantitative analysis in the diagnosis of radiographic occult fractures of the wrist. Hybrid imaging diagnoses much more of scaphoid lesions because bone disruptions cannot always be shown on CT, as well as carpal-associated lesions and differentiates chronic arthritis or ligament lesions. This noninvasive approach could lead to improved therapeutic strategies with a beneficial impact on prognosis.


Spontaneous electrical and mechanical activity were measured in strips of circular myometrium, stretched to in vivo length, obtained from ewes during pregnancy and parturition. The resting tension was high (280 mN/mm2) early in pregnancy and decreased gradually during the course of gestation to reach low levels (20 mN/mm2) during labour. Strips showed continuous electrical and mechanical activity up to around day 50 of pregnancy. The variability in the amplitude of the action potentials, the occurrence of many small fluctuations in membrane potential and the short space constant (0.9 mm) could be explained by impaired conduction in these tissues. During the second half of pregnancy, muscle strips showed regular bursts of spike activity and contractions with a frequency of about 4/min. The space constant (lambda) increased gradually to around 2 mm at term. The membrane time constant (tau m) remained constant at approximately 130 ms throughout gestation. Tissues from ewes in labour were not spontaneously active but action potentials could be evoked by depolarizing current pulses. The space constant increased to 4.6 +/‐ 0.4 mm and tau m increased to 510 +/‐ 50 ms at this time. Verapamil (10(‐6) M) rapidly abolished electrically evoked activity in strips obtained from ewes in labour. Verapamil abolished spontaneous activity in strips from animals up to day 145 of pregnancy, though a higher concentration (2 X 10(‐5) M) was required. However, action potentials could be evoked by depolarizing current pulses and these were accompanied by contractions that were 50‐80% of those observed in control solution. Cobalt (2mM) had an effect on spontaneous and electrically induced activity that was similar to that of verapamil. The threshold for the initiation of an action potential was increased in all tissues in the presence of the blockers. Verapamil decreased lambda by about 50% in the later stages of pregnancy and during labour. During labour alone verapamil reduced tau m by about 50%. These results show that the onset of labour in the ewe is associated with rapid and dramatic changes in both the passive and active properties of the circular muscle of the uterus.


The saturation density of nuclear matter $\rho_0$ is a fundamental nuclear physics property that is difficult to predict from fundamental principles. The saturation density is closely related to the interior density of a heavy nucleus, such as $^{208}$Pb. We use parity violating electron scattering to determine the average interior weak charge and baryon densities in $^{208}$Pb. This requires not only measuring the weak radius $R_{\rm wk}$ but also determining the surface thickness of the weak charge density $a$. We obtain $\rho_0=0.150\pm0.010$ fm$^{-3}$, where the 7\% error has contributions form the PREX error on the weak radius, an assumed 10\% uncertainty in the surface thickness $a$, and from the extrapolation to infinite nuclear matter. These errors can be improved with the upcoming PREX II results and with a new parity violating electron scattering experiment, at a somewhat higher momentum transfer, to determine $a$.


Cannabis seeds not pretreated for prevention of germination are on sale through the Internet in recent years. These seeds are illegal and show a high probability of germination. The number of arrestees, who had cultivated illegal Cannabis seeds, has increased year after year.   Recently, we had an opportunity to examine Cannabis seeds. We carried out experiments for the proof of the germination abilities by usual and embryo-exposure techniques. The embryo-exposure technique is a speedy and effective method for germination of Cannabis seeds, especially for the weakened seeds.   In this study, we have reported and recorded the course of germination, how to determine the germination and the growth process of Cannabis.


In 1995, the project Observatorio was launched by the Institute of Research in Urban and Regional Planning of the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro (IPPUR) in cooperation with the Federal Agency for Social and Educational Servicing (FASE). This project intends to provide municipal administrations in the state of Rio de Janeiro with an understanding of new urban policy models and new urban management. Its central objectives are research, education, training, and mediation/communication in the realm of urban policy. Observatorio emerged from the National Movement of Urban Reform and its overall aim is reduction in social inequities, the improvement of quality of life for all citizens, the mobilization of social capital, and the evolution of democratization, citizenship, and participatory processes in civil society.


Content Based Medical Image Retrieval (CBMIR) is considered as a common technique to retrieve relevant images by comparing the features contained in the query image with the features contained in the image located in the database. Currently, the study related to CBMIR on breast cancer image however remains challenging due to inadequate research in such area. Previous study has a low performance and misinformation emphasizing the feature extraction process. Therefore, this study aims to utilize the CNN based Autoencoder method to minimize misinformation in the feature extraction process and to improve the performance result. The dataset used in this study is the BreakHis dataset. Overall, the results of image retrieval in breast cancer applying the CNN based Autoencoder method achieved higher performance compared to the method used in the previous study with an average precision of 0.9237 in the mainclass dataset category and 0.6825 in the subclass dataset category.


Field surveys were conducted to asses the incidence of Tomato ringspot virus (ToRSV , genus Nepovirus, Family Comoviridae) infection in stone fruit trees in Jordan during 2000-2002. A total of 2546 samples, collected from commercial orchards, a mother block, nurseries and a varietal collection were tested for ToRSV infection by DAS-ELISA. Results showed that 16% of the tested samples were infected with the virus. The disease incidence percentages in apricot, almond, peach, nectarine, plum and cherry trees were 10, 14, 15, 19, 22 and 28% of the tested trees, respectively. The level of viral infection was highest in the commercial orchards (20%) and lowest in samples obtained from nurseries (5%).


The apartheid regime in South Africa was notorious for its gratuitous display of authority in the form of brutality and human rights excesses. Those who partook in the struggle against apartheid did so in an attempt to realise fundamental human rights and a conclusion to all forms of discrimination. The end of apartheid in South Africa in early 1994, therefore, heralded a new era and, indeed, a new political and economic dispensation in which the human rights (political and economic freedoms) of all people would become paramount. The victory of the anti-apartheid forces at the end of race-based politics was characterised by joyance, hope, and expectation for many, including foreign nationals from mostly contiguous countries. Sadly, however, South Africa is today known for being a highly iniquitous country with high poverty and unemployment levels. Tolmay (2019), for instance, reported that unemployment in South Africa had stood at 29% in the first quarter thus affecting mostly young people. This treatise has as its prime motif the interrogation of the efficacy of the concept of Ubuntu in the face of widespread xenophobic violence against African migrants and their businesses in South Africa.
Keywords: South Africa, migration, xenophobia, ubuntu, social work


The effect of cell size on the tensile behavior of high-relative-density microcellular polycarbonate foams is investigated. Microcellular PC foams were produced in a way that allowed the average cell size to be varied, while the foam density was held constant. The polycarbonate-CO2 system offers an order of magnitude variation in the average cell size at a given density, allowing the tensile properties of microcellular polycarbonate to be investigated as a function of cell size. It was found that the tensile modulus, tensile strength, elongation to break, and toughness are not significantly affected when the average cell size is varied from 2.8 to 37.1 μm, and the nominal relative density is held constant at 0.5. This result is significant for solid-state processing of microcellular polycarbonate foams of the type produced here, for it shows that regardless of the processing conditions and regardless of the average cell size, if two foams have the same density then they will also have the same tensile properties. POLYM. ENG. SCI., 2010. © 2010 Society of Plastics Engineers


A procedure is presented for generating an autoregressive moving average (ARMA) spectral model of a stationary time series based upon a finite set of time series' observations. The ARMA model's autoregressive coefficients are estimated by minimizing a quadratic function of a set of basic error terms. In examples treated to date, this method has demonstrated an exceptional ability in resolving closely spaced narrow band signals in a low signal-to-noise environment where other procedures such as the maximum entropy method often fail. Its effectiveness on other classes of time series also shows promise and a more general evaluation is presently being conducted. With this in mind, the new ARMA procedure promises to be an important spectral estimation tool.


Talking about mothers, there are several types of mothers that are seen by biological and social aspects. The types are biological, surrogate, and adoptive mother. The concept of mothers becomes an issue that is conveyed in the Mama movie. The movie tells a story about two women who play a role as a mother. Both women are not the children"s biological mother, but they love the children very much like their own children. Mama movie is important to be analyzed because it emphasizes the concept of mother diachronically. In the movie there are two woman characters who can be compared and contrasted. They show the central and marginal concept. This research has addressed the nature of ideal mother figures. This research is purposed to describe the contrasts of woman characters: Annabel and Edith in Mama. This research is a qualitative research, and it uses a case study as the strategy of inquiry. A close reading strategy and audio-visual technique are applied to collect the data. The analysis uses an objective approach and uses the binary opposition theory by Claude LevisStrauss. Furthermore, the writer applies the film theory to analyze the pictures in the movie. The type of this research is library research. The result of this research is that binary oppositions that are found show relation about the ideal mother. Seen from children"s side and this modern era, the ideal mother figure is Annabel. Besides, the flawed mother figure is Edith. On the other hand, Annabel represents the culture, but Edith represents the nature. Both culture and nature in the movie are balance.


Importance In the U.S. presidential election of 2016, substantial shift in voting patterns occurred relative to previous elections. Although this shift has been associated with both education and race, the extent to which this shift was related to public health status is unclear. Objective To determine the extent to which county community health was associated with changes in voting between the presidential elections of 2016 and 2012. Design Ecological study with principal component analysis (PCA) using principal axis method to extract the components, then generalized linear regression. Setting General community. Participants All counties in the United States. Exposures Physically unhealthy days, mentally unhealthy days, percent food insecure, teen birth rate, primary care physician visit rate, age-adjusted mortality rate, violent crime rate, average health care costs, percent diabetic, and percent overweight or obese. Main outcome The percentage of Donald Trump votes in 2016 minus percentage of Mitt Romney votes in 2012 ("net voting shift"). Results Complete public health data was available for 3,009 counties which were included in the analysis. The mean net voting shift was 5.4% (+/- 5.8%). Of these 3,009 counties, 2,641 (87.8%) had positive net voting shift (shifted towards Trump) and 368 counties (12.2%) had negative net voting shift (shifted away from Trump). The first principal component ("unhealthy score") accounted for 68% of the total variance in the data. The unhealthy score included all health variables except primary care physician rate, violent crime rate, and health care costs. The mean unhealthy score for counties was 0.39 (SD 0.16). Higher normalized unhealthy score was associated with positive net voting shift (22.1% shift per unit unhealthy, p < 0.0001). This association was stronger in states that switched Electoral College votes from 2012 to 2016 than in other states (5.9% per unit unhealthy, p <0.0001). Conclusions and relevance Substantial association exists between a shift toward voting for Donald Trump in 2016 relative to Mitt Romney in 2012 and measures of poor public health. Although these results do not demonstrate causality, these results suggest a possible role for health status in political choices.


This paper takes the permanent magnet servo motor-driven hydraulic system as the research object. The hydraulic system power source uses servo motor instead of the original asynchronous motor, becoming a new energy-saving, fast response, and easy to realize closed-loop control hydraulic power systems. Aiming at variability of the load for the hydraulic system, immune algorithm is introduced to incremental PID controller and derive control law. Using fuzzy strategy approximating antibodies inhibit adjustment function to enhance the stability and robustness of the system, and designing fuzzy immune PID controller, parameters of controller are self-optimized by particle swarm (PSO) algorithm. This controller is applied to a hydraulic system, and achieved the precise control of the system flow in a variety of typical conditions. Simulation results show that: the controller can immune modulate automatically according to the dynamic changes of load of the hydraulic system, with fast tracking, small overshoot, and strong robustness advantages.


Rare Earth metals are materials that are essential for the development of modern industry, infrastructure and manufacturing of products used in the every-day life. They are necessary ingredients for designing and developing high-technology products, for the creation of new environment-friendly vehicles and renewable energy. Recycling is one of the main ways to secure rare metals needed for new productions. Due to underestimation of the need to own resources development and a number of technological, political, environmental and social reasons, the recycling of rare metals is not developed. Globally there is not available enough developed and accepted technology for the extraction of rare metals from waste materials. This publication is a critical review of methods for recycling of Rare Earth metals, with special attention given to the recovery from magnetic media, old batteries and catalysts.


Metastatic spread is the major cause of cancer-associated mortality and induced in primary tumor cells by the acquisition of mesenchymal features. Emerging evidence suggests that metastasis-initiating cancer cells undergoing epithelial-mesenchymal transition (EMT) possess stem cell-like traits. In this study, we demonstrate that oncogenic DNp73, an inhibitor of p53 tumor suppressor family members, has a fundamental role in driving both, transition into a mesenchymal state and providing cancer cells with stem cell-like properties through constitutive activation of IGF1R signaling. In patient melanoma tissues, DNp73 expression correlates with increased Breslow depth and is enriched in skin cancer metastases. Knockdown of endogenous DNp73 in highly metastatic cell lines abolishes the aggressive phenotype, whereas tumor xenografts overexpressing DNp73 possess significantly greater capacity to invade the surrounding tissue and form metastatic lesions. Transition from an epithelial to a motile mesenchymal phenotype is accompanied by a drastic reorganization of the cytoskeleton and modulation of cell-cell adhesion molecules. Importantly, regulation of EMT by DNp73 is induced through activation of IGF1R-AKT signaling followed by an increase of Slug and loss of E-cadherin. Additionally, we identified a novel interplay between DNp73 and IGF1R in the development of cancer stemness. Tumor spheres derived from metastatic melanoma cells with endogenously high DNp73 display a strong capacity for self-renewal and tumor growth after subcutaneous injection in mice compared to DNp73-depleted cancer stem cells. Our results clearly demonstrate that DNp73-driven stemness involves IGF1R activation. Selective inhibition of IGF1R blocks DNp73-mediated upregulation of Nanog, Oct4 and CD133, which is accompanied by a decrease in spheroid formation and tumor invasiveness. Taken together, our findings show for the first time that DNp73 is crucial to endow cancer cells with mesenchymal properties and the ability to self-renew, which is responsible for malignant progression and tumor dissemination. Moreover, we establish IGF1R as driving force for a DNp73-induced aggressive cancer phenotype, highlighting the DNp73-IGF1R cascade as promising therapeutic target to selectively prevent metastasis initiation. Citation Format: Claudia Meier, Marc Steder, Philip Hardtstock, Vijay Alla, Brigitte M. Putzer. IGF1R signaling connects DNp73-mediated EMT with the acquisition of cancer stem cell properties. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 106th Annual Meeting of the American Association for Cancer Research; 2015 Apr 18-22; Philadelphia, PA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2015;75(15 Suppl):Abstract nr 4099. doi:10.1158/1538-7445.AM2015-4099


Numerical and physical experiments on bichromatic wave trains were conducted in deep water. The evolution of wave trains and corresponding spectra were investigated in this paper. The results indicate that the evolution of bichromatic wave trains strongly depends on the wave steepness and frequency difference between the imposed wave components. The evolutions of wave trains including breaking and non-breaking types were analyzed for different combination of wave steepness and frequency difference. Specifically, for non-breaking cases, the wave trains evolve modulation and demodulation periodically in the experimental data. This phenomenon can be better predicted by the nonlinear Schrödinger (NLS) equation. However, for the free surface displacement, the multi-layer Boussinesq model gives better phase agreement with experimental data. For breaking case, the amplitude of lower sideband frequency is selectively amplified through the breaking process, which can be qualitatively simulated in the NLS model by adding an additional proper damping function. The experimental data also show weak evolution of induced bound long wave during the breaking process


Prolonged exposures to misonidazole (MISO) in vitro under hypoxic conditions result in radiosensitization which is characterized by a decrease in the size of the radiation survival curve shoulder for cells irradiated under hypoxic or aerobic conditions after drug removal. Although intracellular glutathione (GSH) was depleted during hypoxic exposures to MISO, this could not account for the dose-additive radiosensitization (decrease in shoulder size) since GSH depletion by diethylmaleate had no effect on the sensitivity of cells irradiated in air. The alkaline elution assay was used to measure DNA strand breaks and their repair after exposure to MISO, graded doses of X rays, and the combination of MISO pretreatment with X rays. The elution rate of DNA from irradiated cells increased linearly with X-ray dose, with and without MISO pretreatment. However, the DNA elution rates measured after MISO pretreatment were greater by a constant amount at all X-ray doses greater than 1 Gy. In terms of both cell survival and DNA elution rate, MISO-pretreated cells behaved as though they had received an extra 1.5 Gy. Although the initial damage after X rays was greater in MISO-pretreated cells, there was no effect of MISO pretreatment on the rate of repair of radiation-induced DNA strand breaks. The agreement between the differences in survival levels and DNA elution rates for irradiated control and MISO-pretreated cells and absence of an effect on DNA repair rates suggest that the pretreatment sensitization is due to an additive interaction of damage at the DNA level.


In this demonstration paper we describe a prototype of an LTE system deployment that opportunistically exploits the spectral white spaces in the upper UHF TV bands, intelligently guided in its spectum access by a radio environment map (REM). The architecture is modular in the sense that interfaces are generic and minimal. In the proposed demo we will illustrate how information of primary transmitters and other secondary transmitters as well as estimates of the radio field strength over frequency, time and space can be made available and exploited by a secondary TDD-LTE base station to make judicious decisions on its spectral occupation.


We study the large-coalition asymptotics of finger- printing and group testing, and derive explicit decoders that provably achieve capacity for many of the considered models. We do this both for simple decoders (fast but suboptimal) and for joint decoders (slow but optimal), and both for informed and uninformed settings. For fingerprinting, we show that if the pirate strategy is known, the Neyman-Pearson-based log-likelihood decoders prov- ably achieve capacity, regardless of the strategy. The decoder built against the interleaving attack is further shown to be a universal decoder, able to deal with arbitrary attacks and achieving the uninformed capacity. This universal decoder is shown to be closely related to the Lagrange-optimized decoder of Oosterwijk et al. and the empirical mutual information decoder of Moulin. Joint decoders are also proposed, and we conjecture that these also achieve the corresponding joint capacities. For group testing, the simple decoder for the classical model is shown to be more efficient than the one of Chan et al. and it provably achieves the simple group testing capacity. For generalizations of this model such as noisy group testing, the resulting simple decoders also achieve the corresponding simple capacities.


Direct shear test is an important test in geotechnical engineering to obtain the basic parameters of the rock mass. In order to study the three dimensional characteristic of structure plane during the direct shear test, the numerical simulation software FLAC3D is used to build the calculation model for the structure plane under the compound stress of normal direction and shear direction. The deformation and mechanical response of the structure plane are analyzed, which show that, (1) Relationship between shear strength and normal stress meets in the Mohr-Coulomb linear way, which is the same as the laboratory test and theoretical analysis; (2) the distribution of stress on the structure plane increases from the side of loading to the other side; and with the increase of normal stress, while the distribution of maximum shear stress does not vary greatly. The analysis results can give some guidance for the real practice; (3) the result from the numerical modeling method is close to that from the laboratory test, which confirms the validity of the numerical method. Keywords-3-Dimensional Modelling; structure plane; direct shear test; numerical simulation; rock mass


Domestic studies on ethnic American literature has mainly focused on its "difference as resistance." In the process of criticizing imperialism and its dominant power, the identity of ethnic literature can be ironically reduced to the unique possibility, that is, "resistance." Despite their intention, this kind of approach naturally tends to exclude the ethnic literature as "their own literature" rather than including it into the American Literature in general. Keeping this in mind, this study attempts to relocate the position of ethnic American literature in the tradition of American literature, focusing on the similarity between the trait of magical realism in Maxine Hong Kingston`s Woman Warrior, China men and Toni Morrison`s Beloved and the romance tradition of the American literature in the 19th century. The ethnic writers cannot be completely free from the demand of their community to represent their own ethnic history and culture in their writing. Their novels frequently have been understood as ethnographies, a realistic record of their own community rather than as fictions. However, the mixture of fantasy and realism in the narrative modes of the ethnic writers such as Kingston and Morrison can be interpreted as a means to free from ethnography and at the same time to deliver their ethnic culture in their own creative way. The narrative technique such as "montage" in these novels can be another important means to find new identity of ethnic literature. The above three novels appear to share with the view of life of magical realism in the Latin America. Their understanding of life is that reality is based on the real and fantasy as well. This view of life can also date back to Nathaniel Hawthorne`s romance novels in the 19th century. The literature and culture of the U.S.A. in the 19th century was still under colonial situation. The aspects of mysterious fantasy in reality depicted in "Young Good Man Brown" or in The House of Seven Gables can be interpreted as an attempt to find an identity of American literature.


C57BL/6J mice were intoxicated by injection of 2.5 mg/kg body wt of methylmercuric chloride (MMC) daily for 3, 7, and 14 days, and the relative concentrations of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide and the specific activity of superoxide dismutase (SOD) were determined in various cellular fractions of the brain. High brain levels of Hg were associated with significantly increased amounts of superoxide and hydrogen peroxide by Days 3, 7, and 14 and with markedly reduced SOD activity by Days 7 and 14. Such a rise in the levels of reactive oxygen species indicates the induction of oxidative stress within brain tissue. This suggests that suppression of antioxidant activity, including that of SOD and glutathione, together with disturbances in the mitochondrial electron transport chain, may contribute to the induction of oxidative stress in the mouse brain following MMC poisoning.


The Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL), in collaboration with Eaton Corporation, has performed computational research and development to design an innovative, direct-contact heat exchanger (DCHE) that is optimized for a low-temperature organic Rankine cycle.
 A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model of DCHE was developed in STAR-CCM+ which was later calibrated and validated against the experimental data from literature. The validated CFD model was used to develop an industry-relevant liquid-liquid direct-contact heat exchanger system with water and pentane working fluids. This work heavily relied on high-performance computing (HPC) resources to investigate multiple designs and to identify a baseline design.
 The innovative design consists of two chambers connected by a converging-diverging nozzle. Phase change for pentane, from liquid to vapor, occurs in the first chamber, whereas the second chamber serves as a separator. Outlets in the second chamber are staggered to prevent entrainment of the liquid water by the gaseous pentane. CFD results confirm that the design behaves as expected and the addition of baffles enhances mixing and heat transfer for higher flow rates while preventing entrainment of gaseous pentane by the liquid water.


We are interested in developing a mathematical model of this problem with the ultimate aim of investigating analytically the relationship between the temperature of the electromagnetic induction tool (EMIT) and the production rate of the oil.

The purpose of this paper is to carefully analyse each of the physical processes in the full system of partial differential equations describing the problem and by making some basic assumptions, derive a simple set of equations that captures the main features of the system solved with an expensive CFD program.

We find considerable qualitative agreement between numerical results of the simplified model and those of the CFD program, which is quite remarkable considering their relative complexities.


Dual-channel Radiometers for Earth and Atmosphere Monitoring (DREAM) is the Korean first spaceborne radiometer which is the main payload of Science and Technology SATellite-2 (STSAT-2). The satellite will be launched by Korea Space Launch Vehicle-1 (KSLV-1) at NARO Space Center in Korea in 2007. DREAM is a two-frequency, total power microwave radiometer with linear polarization. It measures the brightness temperature of the Earth at 23.8 and 37 GHz. In this paper, the characteristics and the preliminary design of DREAM are described.


This paper presents measures for collaborative design in a social context. A number of challenges and implications are identified, and changes done to increase the innovativeness in the outcome are discussed and exemplified. The context is an innovation contest in which students, inhabitants, people in common and so on, freely signs up for participation. The competition's theme comes from a client, e.g. a company, organization or municipality. Besides a research approach originating from 2002, fourteen innovation competitions during 2014-2015 are the specific basis for the empirical data.


Recursive algorithms to identify both subsystems of a continuous-time Wiener system are presented. The system is driven and disturbed by Gaussian white random signals. The impulse response of the linear dynamic subsystem is recovered with a correlation method. It is shown that the inverse of the non-linear characteristic of the other subsystem is a regression function. Then, to recover the inverse, two estimates are presented. The algorithms converge to the unknown impulse response, and the inverse of the characteristic, respectively. Convergence rates are presented. Moreover, results of simulation examples are given.


In this paper, we present a new approach to MCM routing to minimize the number of vias and wire length. A 3D routing substrate is partitioned into a number of layers. Chip blocks are placed on the top layer, and routing layers are used pair-wise for interconnections. The set of projected pins of the blocks on a routing layer plays the role of obstacles; the space (river) between two consecutive rows/columns of blocks is used for routing. The proposed algorithm consists of a preprocessing stage that determines a routing order among the nets. For each net, a rectilinear Steiner tree with a minimum number of bends is constructed, and the nets are ordered on the basis of a metric called average path length. Next, routing is done in the nonoverlap model, using a heuristic guided by the above ordering. Finally, via minimization is achieved by slightly re-routing the nets in the overlap model. Experimental evidence on standard benchmarks reveals that our solution produces significantly fewer number of vias, and compares favourably with respect to wire length against the best known existing results.


Antibody-drug conjugates (ADCs) are increasingly employed in different oncology settings with more than forty products in clinical evaluation at present, and two approved drugs, ado-trastuzumab emtansine and brentuximab vedotin, respectively targeting Her2 and CD30 positive tumors. Although many different antibody targets have been so far considered for this approach, only a handful of toxins have been exploited, and more than 50% of ADCs result to be conjugated to two well known tubulin binding agents, auristatin and maitansine. New toxins with a different cellular mechanism of action, possibly acting also on quiescent or slowly proliferating cells, are thus strongly needed. Duocarmycins, classical DNA minor groove alkylating agents, were studied in clinical trials as chemotherapy drugs in the nineties, but were abandoned few years later due to the poor therapeutic index of the free drugs. In this context we approached a new proprietary class of thienoindole duocarmycins derivatives as novel promising toxins for ADC generation. Here we describe the identification and related proof of concept studies for this novel chemical series, characterized by both potent antitumor activity and physicochemical properties highly compatible with deployment as antibody payloads. Extensive in vitro profiling within the thienoindole series led to the selection of a potent cytotoxic compound suitable for conjugation to humanized monoclonal antibodies upon introduction of a linker moiety (NMS-P945). Efficacy and mechanism of action studies were carried out for NMS-P945-ADCs prepared with trastuzumab showing target-directed and target-enhanced ("bystander") cytotoxicity in Her2 positive vs. negative cancer cell lines. In vitro and in vivo activity of NMS-P945-ADC is strictly correlated to the target presence, the internalization and the lysosomal digestion of the ADC inside the tumor cells. In addition we generated and validated selective antidrug antibodies and using this tool we followed the fate of the toxin upon release from the ADC clearly showing chromatin localization, as expected for duocarmycin based molecules. In animal efficacy studies against a Her2-positive human breast cancer model, trastuzumab-NMS-P945 ADC administration yielded complete tumor regression in treated mice, with no effects on body weight gain, while unarmed trastuzumab and armed control antibody showed little and no effect, respectively. These results support further development of NMS-P945 as a new interesting payload for conjugation with targeted antibodies. Citation Format: Fabio Gasparri, Michele Caruso, Italo Beria, Nicoletta Colombo, Paolo Orsini, Rita Perego, Simona Rizzi, Ulisse Cucchi, Sonia Troiani, Federico Riccardi Sirtori, Clara Albanese, Aurelio Marsiglio, Ivan Fraietta, Francesco Sola, Marina Ciomei, Sabrina Cribioli, Carlo Visco, Eduard Rudolf Felder, Antonella Isacchi, Enrico Pesenti, Arturo Galvani, Daniele Donati, Barbara Valsasina. NMS-P945, a highly active payload for antibody drug conjugates generation. [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the AACR-NCI-EORTC International Conference: Molecular Targets and Cancer Therapeutics; 2015 Nov 5-9; Boston, MA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Mol Cancer Ther 2015;14(12 Suppl 2):Abstract nr A149.


Loading of water with multifarious pollutants has dwindled the availability of quality fresh water and put questions on reliability and efficacy of conventional water treatment technologies. Also the quest for developing robust and cost-effective methods with minimum impact on environment had driven the focus of researchers and technologists on new technological developments. Nanotechnology – better referred as Aqua-nanotechnology in this regard provides scientists a new dimension to deal this big problem with small particles having application in 1) water treatment, 2) remediation, and 3) pollution prevention. This chapter will focus on fabrication and use of advance nanomaterials categorized as nanoadsorbents and nanoatalysts for these three main areas. A range of materials exploited in this regard are single and mixed metal oxides and their composites with polymer, clay, carbon based materials etc. while keeping focus on technological developments taken place over the period in regard with treating water and waste water. Rabia Nazir Pakistan Council of Scientific and Industrial Research Laboratories Complex, Pakistan Advanced Nanomaterials for Water Engineering and Treatment


E. G., farmer, aged 47, was sent to me January 7, 1886, by Dr. Chas. Enfield, of Scranton, Iowa. He was supposed to be suffering from a fibrous tumor of the larynx. The patient stated that about two years previously he had begun to experience some difficulty in swallowing, which had been gradually increasing until deglutition had become almost impossible, in consequence of which he had emaciated, having lost about fifty pounds, and had become very weak. Recently there had been much difficulty in sleeping on account of choking spells. A few months before 1 saw him a physician, whose name I did not learn, had removed a portion of the tumor, which, upon microscopie examination, he had pronounced fibrous in character. The patient had experienced considerable relief after, the operation, but the tumor had continued to grow and for some months another physician had made ineffectual attempts to reduce


Graphite carbon nitride (g-C3N4) supported PtNi alloy nanoparticles (NPs) were fabricated via a facile and simple impregnation and chemical reduction method and explored their catalytic performance towards hydrogen evolution from ammonia borane (AB). Interestingly, the resultant Pt0.5Ni0.5/g-C3N4 catalyst affords superior performance, including 100% conversion, 100% H2 selectivity, yielding the extraordinary initial total turnover frequency (TOF) of 250.8 molH2 min-1 (molPt)-1 for hydrogen evolution from AB at 10 °C, a relatively low activation energy of 38.09 kJ mol−1, and a remarkable reusability (at least 10 times), which surpass most of the noble metal heterogeneous catalysts. This notably improved activity is attributed to the charge interaction between PtNi NPs and g-C3N4 support. Especially, the nitrogen-containing functional groups on g-C3N4, serving as the anchoring sites for PtNi NPs, may be beneficial for becoming a uniform distribution and decreasing the particle size for the NPs. Our work not only provides a cost-effective route for constructing high-performance catalysts towards the hydrogen evolution of AB but also prompts the utilization of g-C3N4 in energy fields.


Background: Parental sex education of children is an often overlooked issue in pediatrics, especially in our society where talking about issues concerning sex is regarded as a taboo. Objectives: The objective of this study is to determine the impact of sex education on child sexual abuse among adolescents attending secondary schools in south east Nigeria. Methods: This is a cross-sectional study that was carried out among children in three secondary schools in Enugu and Ebonyi states of Nigeria. Five hundred and six adolescents who met inclusion criteria were consecutively recruited into our prospective study between June and October, 2014. Results: Eighty (80%) of respondents were educated by parents on sex abuse. Of those educated majority was by mother (46.2%) and both parents (45.2%). Most (72.1%) were not informed that family members or family friends can abuse children and 73.8% were not told to inform adults if it happens to them. A lower proportion (37.9%) of those educated by parents at home was abused. Those educated by parents were 1.23 times less likely to be abused than those not educated. There was significant difference in sex abuse between males and females (p=0.014) while there were no significant difference for age (p=0.157) and social class (p=0.233). Conclusion: Children educated by parents on sexual abuse were less likely to be sexually abused than those not educated. There is no link between socioeconomic class and child sexual abuse among adolescents. Keywords: Parental Sex Education, Adolescents, Nigeria


Shot peening is a commonly used technique for improving the fatigue life of machine components by inducing compressive residual stresses in the surface layers. This process involves plastically deforming the surface layers by impacting with spherical particles at high speeds. The induced residual compressive stresses resist crack propagation and thus increase the fatigue life. The intensity of shot peening, measured using the Almen test, is an essential quantity for ensuring shot peening effectiveness and repeatability. It depends on various process parameters such as the shot speed, shot size, shot material, impact direction, and flow rate. In this study, a novel computational model is developed to simulate the Almen intensity tests on a Type-C strip accurately. The model uses a coupled technique based on the discrete element method (DEM) and the conventional finite element method (FEM). The predicted Almen intensity values agree with analytically calculated values. Results from the parametric studies conducted to analyze the influence of various parameters on the Almen intensity indicate that many different combinations of these parameters can obtain a given Almen intensity although the residual stress fields may vary.


Orchidaceae show enormous floral diversity. However, anatomical studies of nectary tissues relative to nectar composition and pollinators are scarce. This work aims to present a detailed anatomical study of the labellar nectary of Elleanthus brasiliensis, analyse the chemical composition of its nectar and relate these findings to pollination biology. Basally, the labellum bears a pair of fleshy, whitish, ovoid calli on its adaxial surface. Nectariferous callus tissue consists of a papillate epidermis and enlarged subepidermal parenchyma cells with thin walls, large nuclei and dense cytoplasm which stained positively for hydrophilic substances, interpreted as pre-nectar. The paired calli lack vascular tissues, but at the point of callus insertion, the diameters of vascular bundles supplying the lip are larger. Nectar is secreted as droplets on the adaxial callus surface. It is produced in small quantities, c. 4 μL per flower. Callus cell contents tested negative for polysaccharides, lipids and phenolic compounds. The nectar is sucrose-dominant, as in other hummingbird-pollinated species. It is suggested that other ornithophilous species of Sobralieae have anatomically similar nectaries. © 2013 The Linnean Society of London, Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society, 2013, 171, 764–772.


Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a major pulse crop in the Indian subcontinent and other world regions and is characterized by narrow adaptation relative to other cool season food legumes. Comparative ecophysiology employing closely related wild species is a powerful tool to broaden the understanding of the genetic and physiological basis of crop adaptation. However, meager data are available on the ecological preferences of annual wild Cicer species. Moreover, the geographic range, its size, shape, and boundaries as well as its internal structure have never been studied for any of the wild Cicer taxa, thereby limiting our understanding of Cicer biology. Accordingly, this work focused on Israeli C. judaicum Boiss. a wild annual relative of chickpea. We defined the range of the species across the Mediterranean zone of Israel, characterized the ecogeographical profile of its habitats and studied two populated sites at the macro- and microsite levels in terms of plant density, frequency, and niche physical characteristics. Throughout the survey area the species is mostly confined to stony and rocky niches where competition with more aggressive annuals is small. This habitat preference dictates a patchy distribution pattern at all levels, from local niche to the region and beyond.


Abstract Associations between low birth weight and prenatal anxiety and later psychopathology may arise from programming effects likely to be adaptive under some, but not other, environmental exposures and modified by sex differences. If physiological reactivity, which also confers vulnerability or resilience in an environment-dependent manner, is associated with birth weight and prenatal anxiety, it will be a candidate to mediate the links with psychopathology. From a general population sample of 1,233 first-time mothers recruited at 20 weeks gestation, a sample of 316 stratified by adversity was assessed at 32 weeks and when their infants were aged 29 weeks (N = 271). Prenatal anxiety was assessed by self-report, birth weight from medical records, and vagal reactivity from respiratory sinus arrhythmia during four nonstressful and one stressful (still-face) procedure. Lower birth weight for gestational age predicted higher vagal reactivity only in girls (interaction term, p = .016), and prenatal maternal anxiety predicted lower vagal reactivity only in boys (interaction term, p = .014). These findings are consistent with sex differences in fetal programming, whereby prenatal risks are associated with increased stress reactivity in females but decreased reactivity in males, with distinctive advantages and penalties for each sex.


We investigate a two-person random proposer bargaining game with a deadline. A bounded time interval is divided into bargaining periods of equal length and we study the limit of the subgame perfect equilibrium outcomes as the number of bargaining periods goes to infinity while the deadline is kept fixed. This limit is close to the discrete Raiffa solution when the time horizon is very short. If the deadline goes to infinity the limit outcome converges to the time preference Nash solution. Regarding this limit as a bargaining solution under deadline, we provide an axiomatic characterization.


This LibGuide was created to accompany the Visions & Voices event: Velocity and Vulnerability: Baseball Pitchers and the Limits of Human Performance, March 31 at Dedeaux Field at USC at 6:00 pm


Mineral filler, fine-grained mineral particles naturally present in or manufactured and added to aggregates play a significant role on the performance of asphalt mastic and asphalt mixtures. A clear understanding of effects of filler on the properties of asphalt paving mixtures is critical to ensure a good asphalt mixture design and its field performance. In this study, the basic properties of mineral filler, mainly including physical and chemical properties, were first reviewed and followed by the effects on mastic and mixture performances. This review finds that particle size distribution and specific surface area are the two most important physical characteristics for fillers in terms of its impact on mastic performances. Fillers, including diatomite, hydrated lime and cement, can improve the high temperature and durability performances of mastic and mixture. However, fillers, like glass powder, steel slag and bentonite, have a detrimental effect on the low-temperature performances. It can be concluded that it is important to carefully select the mineral filler type and proportion in order to improve the asphalt mixture performances.


Wafer maps can exhibit specific failure patterns that provide crucial details for assisting engineers in identifying the cause of wafer pattern failures. Conventional approaches of wafer map failure pattern recognition (WMFPR) and wafer map similarity ranking (WMSR) generally involve applying raw wafer map data (i.e., without performing feature extraction). However, because increasingly more sensor data are analyzed during semiconductor fabrication, currently used approaches can be inadequate in processing large-scale data sets. Therefore, a set of novel rotation- and scale-invariant features is proposed for obtaining a reduced representation of wafer maps. Such features are crucial when employing WMFPR and WMSR to analyze large-scale data sets. To validate the performance of the proposed system, the world's largest publicly accessible data set of wafer maps was built, comprising 811 457 real-world wafer maps. The experimental results show that the proposed features and overall system can process large-scale data sets effectively and efficiently, thereby meeting the requirements of current semiconductor fabrication.


Abstract Since the discovery of ophiolite sequences, the Bou-Azzer inlier has been considered a key area for understanding the evolution of the northern margin of the West African craton during the Pan-African orogeny. For about 20 years, it had been commonly accepted that the Bou-Azzer inlier represents an accretionary mélange accreted onto the West African craton under blueschist metamorphic conditions, similar to the Franciscan Complex and the Sanbagawa facies series. This would imply that a low geothermal gradient was prevalent during the subduction of the Pan-African oceanic plate, and that the ocean was subducted with a high convergence rate. A reinvestigation of the metamorphic conditions by a thermodynamic approach shows that the ophiolite sequence of Bou-Azzer underwent HT greenschist metamorphic conditions instead of blueschist metamorphic conditions. We propose that the ophiolites of Bou-Azzer are not similar to the Sanbagawa facies series or to the Franciscan Complex, but bear similarities to the Albanian or Cyprus ophiolites, which represent dismembered ophiolite sequences overprinted by greenschist conditions.


This paper focuses on the design of communication strategies between vehicle to roadside unit (RSU). For reducing the contention probability and increasing the probability of uploading high-priority data to the RSU, the IEEE 802.11 PCF MAC protocol is used within the signal coverage rage of RSU. Based on the PCF MAC, a priority-based bandwidth request scheme is applied to increase the probability of the vehicle with high-priority data sends the bandwidth request packet to RSU. According to the bandwidth requesting, a scheduling algorithm with linear programming scheme is developed in RSU to maximize the bandwidth utilization and to maximize the success uploading ratio of high-priority data. The simulation results reveal that the proposed scheme has a good performance in term of bandwidth utilization and success data uploading ratio.


Results are used from traditional fisheries management to explore two potential response indicators: (i) the extent to which scientific advice is incorporated in decision-making, and (ii) the compliance of industry and the relevant authorities to these decisions. Based on the most comprehensive set of data on the management process of 125 stocks for which ICES provided advice over the period 1987–2006, we explored these response indicators and found that for just 8% of the stocks, the official total allowable catch (TAC) equalled the scientific advice, and that in recent years the official TAC overshot scientific advice by >50%. Compliance levels appear to be reflected in the percentage of stocks for which landings exceeded the official TAC, decreasing from ~8 to 2%. However, because the TAC appears not to be limiting, compliance may not be the most appropriate indicator. Without transparent decision-making that takes scientific advice into account, or the compliance of industry as reflected by the type of response indicators explored, the effectiveness of new developments in fisheries management, such as the application of an ecosystem approach, will be compromised, as has been the case with conventional fisheries management measures.


In this contribution, I will discuss two Turkish translations made by the famous Ottoman court official, Wojciech Bobowski, alias Albertus Bobovius (d. ca. 1677 CE). One is his translation of the Anglican Catechism (1654), the other his version of the Ianua linguarum by Johannes Amos Comenius (Komenský, 1592–1670), the Czech philosopher, pedagogue and theologian (1658). Both texts have only survived as manuscripts and neither has been studied in any depth before. I will present the texts, as well as their historical backgrounds, and shed some new light on the life of the translator as well.


1. The unitary conductance of nicotinic acetylcholine (ACh) receptor channels in rat sympathetic neurones has been studied. Conductance estimates varied from 26‐48 pS with a mean of 36.8 pS in 1 mM‐Ca2+. The main conductance level varied from patch to patch and the presence (or absence) of additional conductance levels also varied. 2. The channels showed large open channel noise and experiments with 300 mM‐NaCl in the patch pipette substantially increased the open channel noise. The appearance of detectable step‐like transitions within this noise strongly suggested the existence of closely spaced discrete levels. 3. Removal of divalent cations from the external solution increased the unitary channel conductance. Altering the main permeant ion in divalent‐free solutions gave the following conductance sequence: K+ (93 pS) greater than Cs+ (61 pS) greater than Na+ (51 pS) greater than Li+(23 pS). 4. Replacement of Na+ by Cs+ in the external solution considerably reduced the current evoked by ACh in whole‐cell recordings and the channel‐opening frequency in outside‐out patches. 5. The kinetic properties of channels activated by ACh and 1,1‐dimethyl‐4‐phenylpiperazinium iodide (DMPP) were also studied. At low concentrations of ACh and DMPP the gap distributions were complex and best fitted by the sum of four exponential components. Individual activations (bursts) were interrupted by the two shortest closed periods the briefer of which had time constants of 36 microseconds for ACh and 67 microseconds for DMPP. 6. The distribution of burst lengths had two components for each agonist, each component making up about 50% of the total area under the distribution. For ACh, the time constant of the longer component (12.2 ms) was similar to the decay time constant of excitatory postsynaptic potentials (EPSCs) at similar temperature and potential. For DMPP the time constant of the longer component was 17.6 ms. 7. The relative number of brief gaps per long burst was much larger for ACh than for DMPP. Therefore the corrected mean open time for ACh (0.86 ms) was much shorter than that for DMPP (2.3 ms). 8. In terms of receptor mechanism, the values of the channel opening equilibrium constant (beta/alpha) estimated from these numbers (ACh, 23; DMPP, 25) suggest that both agonists are efficaceous. 9. DMPP is a potent blocker of the channel with an equilibrium dissociation constant (KB) of around 50 microM and blockage gaps of around 1 ms duration. ACh also blocks the channel but with a higher KB of around 470 microM.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)


The extravascular milieu around laser-induced experimental subretinal neovascularization (SRN) was studied during the evolution of the neovascular membrane from its early leaky stage to its late involuted stage. When the first signs of visible leakage appeared on angiography, newly formed vessels were spread in the subretinal space around the break in Bruch's membrane, fluid was accumulating in the subretinal space, and retinal pigment epithelial (RPE) cells were proliferating in a papillary pattern around the newly formed vessels; the RPE proliferation began with the undamaged cells at the edges of the laser injury. With further maturation, the RPE continued to envelope the subretinal vessels. This RPE proliferation was associated with the disappearance of fluid between the enveloped vessels and the sensory retina, and the gradual cessation of fluorescein leakage during angiography. At the end of the involution process, when the neovascular membrane no longer demonstrated any leakage, the subretinal vessels were found to be tightly enveloped by RPE cells, and no fluid separated them from the sensory retina. The authors' results suggest that involution of the neovascular membrane with maturation, as demonstrated by the cessation of visible fluorescein leakage, is the result of RPE proliferation that tightly envelopes the newly formed vessels and probably resorbs the previously accumulated subretinal fluid, as well as preventing its further accumulation in the subretinal space.


Accessing products instead of owning them is becoming increasingly popular. In case of both types of consumption modes being available, consumers face the choice between traditional ownership and access. A better understanding of consumption mode choice is not only an important step towards a theoretical basis, but also highly relevant for businesses and policy makers. This paper describes (a) the development of a formative measurement tool of consumers' perceptions and the resulting attitude towards access and ownership and (b) the results of its application to four different product categories and to consumers with and without access consumption experience. Based on literature review and qualitative interviews, a second-order formative model is conceptualized and validated in a mixed-methods approach. It is found that functional and monetary perceptions are generally most important, followed by experiential and symbolic perceptions. On a more granular level, access offerings in different categories are perceived differently, highlighting the importance of multi-category studies. Managers, policy makers and science benefit from the provided measurement tool, the description of various applications and the implications of its utilization in this study.


The microbasin of the Jaguari river belongs to the hydrographic basin of the River Uruguay and has its estuary in the raised edge of the river Ibicui. This work had the objectif identify the existing ictyofaun of the microbasin of the river Jaguari in Jaguari-RS. For the accomplishment of the research identifications of units captured in the four months of the year had been carried through, being that nets of wait of each one of following meshes (measured in cm between adjacent points): 1.0; 1.5; 2.0; 2.5; 3.0; 4.0; 5.0; 6.0; and 7.0. The wait nets had remained in the water for 24 hours, being revised to each six hours, always in same periods (06:00 AM; 12:00 AM; 06:00 PM and 12:00 PM hours). The collected fish, after to be identified, had been numbered and then after, fixed in formaldehyde conserved 4.0% and later in alcohol 70.0%. A total of 572 individuals in the four stations of the year were identified, distributed in 14 families and 26 species. In the spring the biggest capture occurred, with 156 individuals, distributed in 15 species; in the period of summer the biggest richness occurred, with a capture of 146 individuals distributed in 19 species; in the autumn and winter a capture of 135 individuals for both occurred the stations, with a richness of 16 and 12 species, respectively. The species most abundant, with 291 units, was Apareiodon affinis, being that Hemiancistrus fuliginosos (75), Hypostomus commersoni (50) and Steindachnerina brevipina (41) also had high representation.


Purpose: Meningiomas are the most frequently diagnosed neoplasms. Ocular symptoms vary depending on size and localisation of the tumor, which is capable of compressing critical anatomic structures. Patients and Methods: A 44-year-old immunocompetent male was admitted to our hospital for further investigation of his bilateral optic disc swelling. A complete ophthalmological examination was performed including visual field assessment (VF), visual evoked potentials (VEP), fluorescein angiography (FLA) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). The patient had experienced only minor visual disturbances. Serological testing was performed. Results: Serological testing showed positive IgM and IgGtiters for cytomegalovirus (CMV) and subsequent imaging (MRI) revealed a frontal falxcerebri meningioma. Conclusions: We present a case of falx meningioma with overlapping serologically active CMV in an otherwise healthy and immunocompetent individual. Detailed differential diagnostic workup in immunocompetent individuals presenting with clinically unremarkable bilateral disc swelling is recommended.


A comparative study of CO electrooxidation on different catalysts using in situ FTIR spectroscopy is presented. As electrode materials, polycrystalline Pt and Ru and a PtRu (50:50) alloy are used. The latter is one of the well-known active alloys for CO oxidation. The potential dependence of the band frequencies for the CO stretch indicates the formation of relatively compact islands at pure Pt and Ru, and a loose adlayer structure at the alloy. This loose structure has a positive effect on the rate of oxidative desorption. CO submonolayer coverages are obtained by integrating the absorption bands for CO2 produced upon oxidation of adsorbed CO. The band intensities measured at Pt, Ru, and PtRu indicate an influence of the substrate on the absorption coefficient of the CO stretch. It is shown that for a correct description of the catalyst properties toward CO electrooxidation, it must be distinguished between bulk and adsorbed CO. In contrast to the statement of most of the recent papers that a PtRu alloy ...


This work explores the possibility of using the electrically charged "spherical porous particle" (SPP) to model the electrophoretic mobility of proteins in the low charge regime. In this regard, the electrophoretic mobility expression of the charged SPP (Hermans–Fujita model) is used and applied here to BSA and staphylococcal nuclease for different protocol pH values. The SPP is presented within the general framework of the "spherical soft particle" as described in the literature. The physicochemical conditions required to model proteins as SPP from their experimentally determined electrophoretic mobilities are established. It is shown that particle permeability and porosity and chain packing and friction fractal dimensions are relevant structural properties of proteins when hydrodynamic interaction between amino acid residues is present. The charge regulation phenomenon of BSA and staphylococcal nuclease with pIs ≈ 5.71 and 9.63, respectively, is described through the SPP within a wide range of bulk pH values. These case studies illustrate when the average regulating ⟨ pH ⟩ of the protein domain is lower and higher than the protocol pH. Further research for using the general spherical soft particle is also proposed on the basis of results and main conclusions.


Billiary tract intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (BT-IPMN) is a rare mucin-secreting neoplasm developed along bile duct. Imaging studies play an important role in diagnosis as symptoms are inespecific. Endoscopy is diagnostic as well as therapeutic test, especially with peroral cholangioscopy development. Surgery is currently the treatment of choice. BT-IPMN is recognized as a precursor of invasive carcinoma, so taking into account this new entity in the differential diagnosis of bile duct neoplasms is necessary.


This research addresses the role of the level of conceptualization of categorical rules in the development of categorical flexibility in children. Experiment 1 and 2 compared categorical flexibility on three versions of a match-to-sample task differing in terms of a priori estimated levels of abstraction of the matching rules. Children aged between 3 and 8 were presented twice with a series of 4 picture sets (a target and 3 candidates for matching). Explicit instructions about the rule to be used before and after switching were given on each trial. It was found that age and conceptual difficulty of the rules both influence the extent of flexibility observed. Experiment 3 directly examined children's conceptualization of the matching rules at hand and revealed a developmental hierarchy similar to the one obtained in the flexibility


Background: Open pyeloplasty has been the gold standard for surgical treatment ofureteropelvic junction (UPJ) obstruction, enjoying a long-term success rate exceeding90%. Unfortunately, this procedure requires a muscle incision that entails some degreeof morbidity. We have, therefore, investigated the feasibility of laparoscopic pyeloplastyfor UPJ obstruction and report here the outcomes of our early cases. The median followupwas 21 months (range, 12–30 months).
Objectives; The aim of our study was to explore the safety, feasibility and usefulness oflaparoscopic pyeloplasty and to assess the short- term outcome of patients treated withthis surgical approach.
Materials and methods: This study was performed on 13 patients presenting withsymptomatic hydronephrosis, secondary to UPJ obstruction at the Department of Urology,Shahid Sheik Abu Naser Specialized Hospital, Khulna from January 2015 to June 2017.Patients having previous abdominal surgery and sepsis were excluded from this study.Laparoscopic dismembered Anderson–Hynes pyeloplasty was performed in all cases.All procedures were carried out transperitoneally.Results: All procedures were laparoscopically completed with no open conversion. Meanoperative time was 272.8 min (range, 175–480 min) and blood loss was minimum. Meanhospital stay was 4.5 days (range,4-11 days). Anomalous vessels were identified in 5patients. Post-operative complications were noted in two patients (15.4%): one instanceof prolonged urine leakage and one anastomotic re-stricture. Twelve of 13 ureters (92.3%)demonstrated a patent UPJ on excretory urography and split renal function and GFRwere significantly improved (p<0.05) after surgery.
Conclusions: Although the procedure requires advanced laparoscopic skills, it can besafely and successfully completed as frequently as the conventional open procedure.Laparoscopic pyeloplasty seems to be a valuable alternative to open pyeloplasty forUPJ obstruction.
Bangladesh Journal of Urology, Vol. 22, No. 1, January 2019 p.69-74


Nine bacterial strains isolated from different insect hosts were identified by using Sherlock Microbial Identification (MIS) system. Cell suspensions of the bacteria were tested for their larvicidal activity against the larvae of Culex pipiens L. (Diptera: Culicidae) under laboratory conditions. Fatty acid methyl esters (FAMEs) profiles and profiles of nutrient substrate utilization by the most effective strains were determined. Nitrogen fixation, antibiotic resistance and salt tolerance of these strains were also investigated. Separately, they were tested for toxicity in non-target aquatic organisms, including common water fleas, Daphnia magna and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus L.). Tested strains were identified as Bacillus thuringiensis (6 strains), Bacillus sphaericus (2 strains) and Brevibacillus brevis (1 strain). The identification was also confirmed by BIOLOG system. A mortality of 100% of Culex larvae was observed after 24 and/or 48 hrs, following treatment with the cell suspension of Brevibacillus brevis FD1, B. sphaericus FD48 and B. sphaericus FD49 strains. Major fatty acids of B. sphaericus FD48 and FD49 strains were C15:0 iso, C15:0 anteiso and C16:1 w7c alcohol. Major fatty acids of the B. brevis FD1 strain was C15:0 anteiso, C15:0 iso and C17:0 anteiso. B. sphaericus FD48 and FD49 strains had similar substrate utilization patterns. Methyl pyruvate was the only substrate utilized by FD1, FD48 and FD49 strains. The strains grew in N-free Döbereiner culture medium, toleranced to salt and were resistant to amikacin, kanamycin, penicillin, tobramycin, ofloxacin and sulphamethoxazole. B. brevis FD1, B. sphaericus FD48 and FD49 whole culture gave an LC50 of approximately 10 3 cells/ mL for susceptible C. pipiens larvae, whereas a concentrated 10 cells/ml culture had not affected any in common water fleas and Nile tilapia survival. No mortality was observed throughout the 3-week experiment. In conclusion, B. brevis FD1, B. sphaericus FD48 and FD49 strains can be developed and recommended for biocontrol of mosquitoes.


A technique is described for the isolation of structurally intact and partially active chloroplasts from photoheterotrophically grown Euglena gracilis. The separation of intact chloroplasts from stripped chloroplast membranes and other subcellular particles was achieved by sedimentation in continuous, isosmotic density gradients of Ludox AM, a silica sol.The final preparations contained an average of 93% intact chloroplasts and corresponded to approximately 10% of the the chlorophyll of the original cell suspension and 20 to 30% of the chlorophyll layered on the gradients.The chloroplasts obtained were intact by the criteria of ultrastructure, their content of ribulose diphosphate carboxylase, and their activity in a modified Hill reaction assay (U. Heber and K. A. Santarius. 1970. Z. Naturforsch. 25b: 718-727). In addition, the isolated chloroplasts were capable of incorporating amino acids into protein in the light.


New services and high bandwidth demanding applications will dramatically change the operator's requirements with respect to future network architectures and topologies. The advent of bandwidth-intensive video applications will stimulate the design of high throughput and flexible network architectures. In this network evolution All-optical Label Swapping (AOLS) can play a key role. AOLS is a key functional type of optical burst/packet switching that intends to solve the potential mismatch between fibre capacity and routing burst forwarding capacity. This paper discusses how the original AOLS-node can be adapted to be more scalable. The new node designs are based on wavelength striping and the use of one control wavelength which transports only the labels. Then, for the remaining data wavelengths (transport of payloads), AOLS-blocks with limited intelligence can be installed.


Hydrographic data, tritium data, and potential vorticity calculations suggest that although North Pacific Intermediate Water is formed in the northwest, the Alaskan Gyre might be an additional ventilation site. The proposed ventilation is quantified by a vertical column tritium inventory, which indicates an excess of 0.08 kg of tritium in the Alaskan Gyre. An evaluation of the energy stored in the water column and of wind and buoyancy forcing shows that during winter conditions enough energy can be pumped into the system to force 26.80 σθ to outcrop in the Alaskan Gyre. Model results suggest that relatively limited outcrops in time and space (tens of days and several hundred kilometers in diameter) can account for the excess tritium.


Translational oscillator with rotational actuator (TORA) system, whose translational and
rotational movements occur in horizontal planes, is a benchmark of underactuated mechanical
systems for studying of control techniques. Currently, the research work of the benchmark
mainly focuses on stabilizing control of equilibrium points of the dynamical system. The
problem of steering TORA to arbitrary points in its state space is rarely studied. In this
paper, the movements of the TORA system are extended to inclined planes and dynamics of
the inclined TORA system is presented firstly. Following that, a trajectory tracking control
method based on virtual constraints is proposed to steer the oscillations of the inclined TORA
system. A virtual constraints based method is presented to generate periodic trajectories which
pass through desired point; and a Lyapunov based control design is proposed to track the
generated trajectories. Finally, the performance and feasibility of the proposed control design
methodology are illustrated and analyzed according to numerical simulations.


This study investigated safety practices of construction companies in Rivers state. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used. The population of the study consisted 2276 workers from 10 construction companies in Rivers state. A sample of 455 construction workers was drawn using clustered sampling technique. Two research questions were answered and two null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument for data collection was a structured and validated questionnaire. An instrument reliability index of 0.78 was obtained through PPMC technique. The data generated from the instrument were analyzed using descriptive statistics to answer the research questions and inferential statistics to test the null hypothesis. The results of the study showed that safety practices among construction companies in Rivers state is above average based on location and size of construction companies. Based on the findings, it was concluded that there is still enough room for improvement in safety practices of the construction industry in Rivers state. It was therefore recommended that efforts should be intensified by contracting construction firms in devising improved strategy to determine and forestall hazard inherent in a given project before embarking on it.

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Early research work confirms that the use of the new European currency, the euro, could create an effect of money illusion: expressed in euros, perceived prices seem lower and price elasticity diminished. But it also concludes on the complexity of the relationship between prices, currency unit and behavior as the money illusion effect can either increase or decrease demand for specific brands. Tests the assumption that the size of the money illusion could vary by country and is positively related to the level of the conversion rate. Applies the Gabor and Granger method to the price of an item of domestic equipment in two countries, one with a big conversion rate (Spain), and one with a small conversion rate (Germany). Observes a money illusion effect with an increase in intention to buy when the prices are expressed in euros in Germany but, as this effect is not observed in Spain, concludes that a positive relationship between money illusion and conversion rate cannot be accepted and proposes alternative hypotheses, such as the difficulty of the conversion.